Barcelona part 2 I awoke the next morning/afternoon in time for lunch with Kyle at a local tapas place near my apartment. We decided to try octopus, which was a little disappointing as it was quite bland. Afterwards we checked out Gaudi's house, casa Batllo, the house of bones, that he designed for the Jujol family. We had audio guides that directed us around each room. Each audio snippet began with some cooky elevator music and then two condescending posh english speakers who described the "beautiful and elegant archways grow as the spectacular curves turn and twist like the wind which represents the glorious and magical linear pathways for the natural world's soul to take a winding journey through the green and blue waves of colour glisten with wonder and amazement through their journey of enlightenment". ... read more

Swiss, Lake Como, Monaco, Nice, Avignon Leaving Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland was an adventure in itself as the lack of sleep and extremely windy roads did not mix well and I was most seriously queesy for most of the first 2-3 hours. I moved myself to the front of the bus to avert being sick. Our next country was Italy! Only for a couple of hours, but we srove to Lake Como to drop off a few busabouters and pick up some more. We had only 20 mins in town to have a quick look at the shoreline and grab a sneaky first gelato before getting back on the bus to head to Nice. Before we arrived in Nice qe had to pass through Monaco, which is still its own country while there is still an heir to ... read more

Grunau, my home away from home and my restful holiday amongst the busy city adventures. It began with a scenic drive through the mountains and valleys which I tried desperately to stay awake (it had been a BIG last night in Vienna and I got very little sleep). Followed by a home cooked lunch of lasagne for lunch! Nevef again will I underestimate the importance and joy that home cooking brings! Our next guide and busdriver had days off so we headed uo the road to check out the archery. We made two teams and I was with Andy (an Aussie from Australia who worked at the hostel), Nathan the kiwi bus driver and Kieron, a fellow passenger. I managed to lose my arrow on the first official target and it ended up across the river ... read more

Cesky Krumlov This town appeared out of the trees as a picturesque storybook place complete with castles and tiny tall white houses with orange tilled roofs. I was already in love before I had walked over the quaint bridge we had to cross to get to our hostel. The hostel actually looked like it belonged to the castle complex, I was pretty excited about our new home for the next 2 nights. It was the last bus tour with Joel, my favourite guide so far and just before he left he told us that the hostel used to be a hospital for lepracy and was actually haunted. As I have already lived in a very old minor's cottage with my own resident ghost this didn't bother me, but some of the others were a little concerned. ... read more