Sunday August 27th, 2006 Day 10 Rome, Italy to London, England I was up early again today as I had to leave the hostel at 7:00am to catch my shuttle to the airport at 7:15am from outside the Rome Termini where I had been dropped off a few days earlier. My flight was at 10:00am (Rome time) and I arrived at Stanstead Airport at 11:40 (London time). I collected my luggage and made my way to the Stanstead Express, the train that goes directly from the airport to Liverpool Street Station (if only we had one of these in Melbourne). I was staying with Kate again tonight as I couldn't be bothered heading out to Nick's again until the following day. I didn't do a lot that afternoon as the weather was pretty terrible (Welcome back ... read more

Saturday August 26th, 2006 Day 9 Rome, Italy Today I met another Australia girl, her name was Brenda and she was from Sydney. We got ready and decided to head out to do a tour of the Colosseum. The tour went for about 45minutes. Originally the Colosseum was capable of seating about 50,000 spectators, it was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. It was completed in 80AD and remained in use for nearly 500years. It is now in a severely ruined condition due to damage caused by earthquakes and stone robbers. It really was quite spectacular and you can only imagine how grand it would have been back in the days. After this we headed out to take some photos from the outside. We came across this guy dressed up as a gladiator who tries ... read more

Friday August 25th, 2006 Day 8 Rome, Italy we were up early this morning as Julia and I had decided we were going to the Campo de Fiori Market. We hard heard good things about this market but were very disappointed when we got there and found just five stalls. So, we moved on, found a bakery for some breakfast them decided to make our way out to the old ghetto area of Rome and the Synagogue. This area was very pretty, very old (as described). On the way back to the hostel we stumbled across the Pantheon again, we took another look inside and a few more photos. We left only to have it pour with rain and hail for about 15minutes solid. We took shelter in a post office until it was over. After ... read more

Thursday August 24th, 2006 Day 7 Rome, Italy Started off early today; got up at 6:45am as Julia, Troy, Grant, and myself decided to go out to Vatican City. We were going early to avoid the queues. This was a good idea for St Peters Basilica but not so for the Sistine Chapel. It was 8:30am by the time we got ready and got there and the line for the Sistine Chapel was already 3hours long to get in; this was not going to happen in 30°C heat! So we made our way back around the corner to St Peters and on entry we were x-rayed and we had to walk through a metal detector. After some photo taking and adventuring in the yard, we walked inside St Peters Basilica. St Peters Basilica ranks second among ... read more

Wednesday August 23rd, 2006 Day 6 Rome, Italy We started the day a bit late today; we were all feeling a bit sorry for ourselves after the pub crawl. The only thing that I could stomach was a roll that the Kiwi's had got that I put some of my vegemite on. Eventually I made my way with Grant (Troy stayed in bed) around some of the streets, checking out some of the street markets. Not very impressive but we did come across a little stall selling fake Louis Vuitton bags. Grant managed to bargain the guy down to only €6 for a purse for me. Bargain. We went back to the hostel to collect Troy for some sightseeing; here we also found another guy Caleb (from America) who came with us as well. First stop: ... read more

Tuesday August 22nd, 2006 Day 5 London, England to Rome, Italy Today I was up at 6:30am. I had to leave a bit of stuff behind at Nick’s place as I didn't want to be taking 15kgs of stuff to Rome and Paris. I had to catch the tube to Liverpool Street Station (yes, the one from Monopoly) and then another train that goes directly to Stanstead Airport. The trip to the airport was about 35minutes so I arrived at the airport at 9:45am.; over an hour before I could even check-in my luggage. Oh well, better early that late. After sitting listening to my iPod for an hour I checked-in my luggage and made my way to the gate to go through security. As there was a terrorist threat only a few weeks earlier they ... read more

Monday August 21st, 2006 Day 4 London, England I was up early today; got up at 7:30am had my shower, had my vegemite toast and left the house by 9:00am. I made my way on the DLR then on the Tube to meet Kate, then we we're meeting up with another of her friends at midday at Euston Station. On the way through, we did the expect; with that I mean: I my photo taken in the red phone box, the photo of the double decker bus and one of the well known tube/underground sign. We met up with Kate’s friend then had to wait in the station for about 10minutes as it absolutely bucketed down with rain. Welcome to London! haha When it finally stopped raining, we made our way out for some sightseeing. (On ... read more

Sunday August 20th, 2006 Day 3 London, England I didn't do much today, I just got out of bed to have some breakfast at McDonalds then made my way out to the docks to Nick's place where I would be sleeping for the next few nights. Nick was sharing a place with two other people, Baz and Mel. We had a lovely dinner then, still feeling a little jetlagged, I went to bed to prepare myself for a busy day of sightseeing tomorrow. ... read more

Saturday August 19th Day 1 & 2 Melbourne, Australia to London, England via Hong Kong, China My trip didn't start the best. My flight was delayed for over 2 hours as the plane we were supposed to be going on was redirected to Darwin because of mechanical problems so they had to fly a spare one down from Sydney for us. So, instead of leaving Melbourne Airport at 11:00pm on Friday, we left at 1:10am on the Saturday morning. We arrived at Hong Kong airport at 7:45am (Hong Kong time) and departed there at 9:00am. It was quite hot there and so very humid. The food on the plane was okay, thought I must admit, the first meal we were given didn't quite agree with me...not pretty! The in-flight entertainment was quite good, I didn't have ... read more