Italian Adventure Anna and I organised our delicious breakie of yoghurt, muslie and slice banana ready to have on the bus as it was an early 7:30 start. We weren't the earliest so were left to be the back seat bandits with Dan from Adelaide and then Terry and Alan the only mature age couple joined us up the back. Anna and I cracked out tubs, started munching only to discover that our new guide, Ereni's first rule was "no eating on the bus". Whoops! Haha Big chats and we discovered the 'oldies' were really super cool to hang out with and not afraid of being overun by a busload of about 30 twenty somethings. At our first service stop Terry and Alan met Teagan who decided as they were the 'olds' then we should fully ... read more

San Sebastian We arrived in the beautiful San Seb, rumoured by many to be heaven on earth, in the rain and the cold. It was a little dis heartening when you arrive at your tropical beach destination and it it cold and miserable. But we walked to our hostel, checked in with my new friends and roomates, Rachael, and the hilarious couple from Newcastle Courtney and Nathan. Our friend Jo was in the room next door on her own. We unpacked and then got ready for pur Pinchos crawl that Haley our busabout guide organised for us. I was evennmore excited at the prospect of catching up with the beautiful Beckie, who I had last seen in Vienna. We had a beauiful greeting on the stairs of the hostel where she looked up and I looked ... read more

Day 4: Lagos to Tarifa to Morocco After a very early breakie we stopped at a service stop for 2nd breakie of bacon and eggs (I am realising now as I am writing this some time later why I put on so much weight in Spain). Another quick toilet stop usual called a 'pee and flee' where our other guide managed to flood the toilet in the girls bathroom and we had to use the mens. Eww. Turned it into a literal "flee". This was our longest day of bus riding and we finally stopped for a late lunch in Tarifa, which is on the bottom end of Spain. It is a cute but quiet town full of tourists that enjoy surfing/kite surfin and any sport involving good winds. We had an hour to explore the ... read more

Day 1: Madrid to Cordoba to Seville I was excited to meet our guide, Izzy, who I had previously met on the busabout loops in Lauterbrunen and I knew she was heaps of fun. At our first restaurant stop she explained how we were going to be able to order....you HAD to get your elbows on the bar, otherwise you wouldn't get served. She explained some basic Spanish and we were off on our own. I managed a crossaint and tea successfully but when I tried to order a donut, I mistakenly got an orange juice, which was incidently extremly delcious, but not what I had intended. Whoops, Spanish fail, one. Back on the bus for some more Spanish background info...Chuppa chupps in Spanish means "suckie, suckie". Salvador Dahli designed the wrapping on them (cool hey?!). ... read more

Valencia began with a great bus ride that was far too early in the morning. Not that it was any earlier than any of the other bus pick ups, but after 5 very full on party days in Barcelona, I really didn't need an 8am bus. Luckily at the first "pee and flee" stop I met Kelly, a fellow teacher from Melbourne who was also staying in Valencia and we also discovered we were touring the Greek Islands together for all of our 16 days! After so many months of single travel (except Spain and the Italian Adventure with Anna) it is so nice to travel with someone you already know, so I was pretty excited to have made a friend already. Having broken two pairs of shoes in Barcelona and knowing these things tend to ... read more