Mapes and Cookie
Andrew Murray and Jess Cook Joined: March 27th 2008
Logged in: January 17th 2011
Logged in: January 17th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
Winter in Salzburg
Where do we start? We have had a huge 4 months and covered a lot of ground. Andrew and I have been very busy with Uni, dashing between Salzburg and Graz weekly and working very hard. Andrew had classes with Bob Brookmeyer for a month and performances with him around Graz and in Vienna. As well as all this we ended up having a quick round trip back to Australia for 5 days for Andrews best friends funeral, and just yesterday returned from a 10 day holiday with my parents travelling through Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and Austria. This blog is about all the fun times we had with Maripete (AKA Marianne and Peter Cook) over the last 10 days. Day 1, 2nd April. We left Graz at 5.30 am on a train bound for Salzburg. ... read more
Salzburg
Ive just been going through some photos we took at Christmas and thought they were too good not to put up. We spent Christmas eve on Skype drinking red wine and talking to our families. Unfortunately I left my passport in Salzburg and so we were unable to travel during the 3 weeks we had off so we made our own fun in Graz, doing snow angels in gravel covered by just 2cm of snow and catching up on months of unwatched videos. Fun times. ... read more
Dead in Hospital
It's end of semester break and Jess got a whole week off (I get the whole month) so we headed for Hungary. Like most holidays when Jess was allowed to finally rest she got sick with the flu, and the day before we left we were thinking of throwing in the towel because Jess couldnt stop coughing, couldn't sleep, and felt rubbish. A good way to make enemies in hostel dorms. We headed for the doctor at 11:30am the day before we were to leave, and turned out all doctors were closed by then - tough job - so we went to the local chemist, got jess some cough medicine and herbal rubbish and went home ready for an early night as our train left at 6am the next day. We were hopping in bed at ... read more
Always wanting to make a quick buck, I took part in a model casting for a big shopping complex here in Austria to be part of their Spring catalogue. Check out my photo complete with Beckam styled hair. I am photo number #170 scroll down this page (they are bunched in the days it took place. I am on 26.09) http://www.centerwest.at/aktuell/castingbilder.html then if your really bored click the link on the left hand side (Hier gehts zum Voting:) then a pop up window appears, then Hier geht's zum Voting! (again) click one of the photos on this page, then you can order the pictures by ranking down in the left hand bottom corner and spend ages scrolling to rank number 369 (or around there) and vote for me! everytime someone votes for me my ranking will ... read more
Icecream
Jess Cook just turned 24. Yay for Jess Cook! She got a Nintendo DS from her parents for the long, lonely trip between Salzburg and Graz. She already has 3 games!! what a nerd!! Sims 2, Fish Tycoon, and Elite Beat Agents (in German). Happy Birthday Jess Cook :) ... read more
Andrew with Pat-a-cake
We forgot to add the main photos to that last blog sorry. Check out Jess - in love!... read more
Getting ready...
2/8/08 This blog is a little over due. On the 2nd of August we went to the Tennis Masters in Graz. It was a championship held for retired tennis players. We think its held each year, and this year it was in Graz: featuring the one and only Pat Rafter. We were pretty pumped before we even the house (as you can see from the photos), it was also just a few days before Andrews birthday and we managed to get 2 for the price of 1 tickets. We picked up some face paint for 1 Euro and had Andrews Australian flag sent from Australia a few days earlier. It was a really great day, very hot. When we got there at about 12, we found out Pat wasn't playing until about 4pm, so we just ... read more
Ponti di Rialto Bridge -Main Canal Venice
Our latest adventure was awesome. We had the best time ever. We decided to get a pretty serious holiday in before uni starts in 3 weeks so decided to head for Italy. Jess planned for hours and hours to find the cheapest of everything, hostels, trains, buses, the works. Day 1We left for Venice via Villach (the bottom of Austria), a three hour train trip between each stop. When we hopped on the train from Villach bound for Venice the train was absolutely packed and a family of 7 were trying to kick out the 2 people we thought were sitting in our seats. All the seating was reserved, so we were happy when the ticket inspector started walking towards us as we thought she would soon clear up the seating mess as the train was ... read more
Colosseum, Rome
Day 6 Big day planned. Made the most of our 8 Euro per night stay in Peter Pan by eating up big at the free breakfast, then hit the road at 9.30am. We headed straight for the Colosseum and were super impressed. It is massive. Due to our mega tight budget we didn’t pay the 11 Euros each to get in, but got a good look from the outside, and the surrounding ruins. Hopefully we will go inside next time. The lines were really long and would have wasted too much time as well. Santa Maria Maggiore was our next stop. Fantastic church. We discovered the very strict rules associated with all churches in Italy and I was asked to cover up my legs before being allowed in. Other highlights of the day included the Pantheon, ... read more
Ferry to Sicily
Day 8 We left Rome for Villa San Giovanni (the toe of Italy’s boot) at 7.45am and arrived at 2pm. For this part of the journey I hadn’t planned every detail like I had for the rest of the trip - BIG MISTAKE! Maybe a map would have helped. So, we arrive at Villa San Giovanni and start to head for the ferry. I presumed that along the ramp to the ferry somewhere we would be able to purchase tickets. Wrong. We get to the gates and ask the ticket guy where we can buy tickets. After a few minutes of hand gestures and pointing he gives up and waves us onto the ferry with no ticket. Not wanting to waste such a great opportunity we stride onto the ferry without even knowing whether it’s the ... read more
