Following the vast quantities of beer consumed at Oktoberfest, it was time to let my liver recover, and actually spend 5 days of a week at work. Thankfully I couldn’t stick to it for too long, and 5 weeks after Oktoberfest, I was off for 9 days in Scotland for a sport weekend followed by a 6 day tour through the Isle of Skye and the Highlands. But first, in the 5 weeks before Scotland, I made sure I got plenty done around London as well. I made it up to Leeds for another couple of games (3-1 and 3-0 wins), [View Full Entry]

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So after 2 relaxing weeks in Italy, it was back to work, which I was looking forward to from the money side of things. And at the end of my first week back, it was my birthday. The big 2 - 5. But there was no time for a quarter life crisis (and why would I need one?!) as I had drinks on Friday night to celebrate, before crawling into bed around 5am, only to wake up at 8.30am for the first of two full days at a Hapkido Skills Seminar. Needless to say, at the end of Sunday, I was [View Full Entry]

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When I left Rome, it was perfect sunshine and a lovely day. Within 2 hours and arriving in Siena, it was pouring with rain and rather cold. Obviously the Pope is doing something right there. So this slightly dampened my view of Siena and I didn’t think there was much there to be impressed about, especially in comparison with other Italian cities. The one thing that did impress me was the Duomo here. The outside was no more impressive than the others, but the inside was absolutely amazing. The floor was covered with marble, and all had been carved into drawings [View Full Entry]

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Following on from Sorrento, we headed towards Naples and stopped off at the ruins of Pompeii for a day trip. We hooked ourselves onto an English speaking guide who took us around the best bits for a few hours. It is amazing what has been preserved, and like the guide mentioned, any city like this that wasn’t buried would have had the stone stripped from the place to build other things. So that makes Pompeii pretty unique. That and it has been buried under ash from a volcano, excavated and is now a huge tourist attraction. Anyway, the city is in [View Full Entry]

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Next stop - the Amalfi Coast. As you can see from the photos, the reason the Amalfi Coast is famous, is for its coastline. We started our journey with a bus ride from Salerno to Atrani, where we spent our first night. The bus is the best way to explore the coastline, as the roads really hug the cliffs, and in some cases overhang, giving you jaw dropping views over 50+ metre drops. It is quite hard to describe the little towns that dot the coast, but they are basically built into the cliffs and provide a perfect getaway from the [View Full Entry]

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Well since Iceland, I’ve had a busy couple of months. My trip to Italy has been and gone and I loved it, and over the coming blogs, by the photos you will be able to see why. I originally thought I would only need one for the whole Italy trip, but due to over 1,000 photos taken, that made that a little ambitious! But first things first; a week after Iceland, I moved into a new flat with (originally) two South African girls, Kim and Meg (sisters), one Aussie girl, Ally, and a French couple, Ben and Kat. But the French [View Full Entry]

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So it was onto my next adventure, Iceland. As the name suggests, I was expecting it to be pretty cold there, but I was pleasantly surprised when I turned up and it was actually warmer than London! My first day, it was about 23-25 degrees. Very nice! It didn't last though, and although it got cooler, there was no need for the thermals I took along. Anyway, I landed in Iceland, in a place called Keflavik and made the trek to the capital, Reykjavik. I must say I was a bit surprised by the city, and the country in general. I [View Full Entry]

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Well following my tour of the sporting grounds, there has been a lack of sport around. It’s like the country has gone into hibernation waiting for the next football season to start. Oh well, only a couple more weeks to go! This blog was also going to include my weekend trip to Belgium, but I loved Bruges so much that it deserves its own entry. Following my trip to Dover and Canterbury with Leah, we welcomed a friend of ours from New Zealand over. Cara had decided to visit and see what our lives were like over this side of the [View Full Entry]

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For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the name of this blog has a double meaning as it is also named after the recent movie namesake ‘In Bruges’ starring Colin Farrell. In the said movie he says about Bruges ‘If I'd grown up on a farm and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn't, so it doesn't.’ Despite this less than glowing recommendation, I loved the town and it sits firmly at number 1 of my favourite middle sized cities/towns, in between Rome as my favourite big city and Monemvasia as my favourite little town. Leaving early [View Full Entry]

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Well since the last update, I have been on the go non-stop. There haven’t been any overseas trips, and it feels like ages since my last one. I looked at my diary and it was May the 8th, so only 6 weeks! I don’t know how I am going to cope when I eventually make it back to New Zealand. But in the last 6 weeks, I have seen a lot more of the UK, met some really cool people, and had one very painful experience, but I will get to that in due course. After Menorca, the next event on [View Full Entry]

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