OMG! where to begin this time. Last week 5 hopeful travellers set off for some partying in Spain, excited by the idea of seeing Kings of Leon live in concert and aprehensive about camping for a whole week. We left London in the wee hours of the morning and I) think I was still half asleep when I landed head first into the train to Gatwick airport. YES thats right, Backpack on and smaller bag attached to my front I totally did not miss the gap between the train and the platform at London Bridge and took a heavy and painful [View Full Entry]

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Ahhhhhhhh what a week it has been! More life changing events happening and more chaos in my life. It has been a crazy time but all things happen in threes and my three happened in Pareeeeeeeee. After an early rise on saturday morning Jen and I made our way to St Pancras Station to catch the eurostar at 6.55 am. As soon as I got there disaster struck as I realised I had left my passport at home. GRRRRRRRRRR Jenny and Claire jumped on the train and I jumped in a taxi, raced home and raced back. The train had still [View Full Entry]

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Well....... I do not know where to begin! Portugal has been a great chance to throw all the rules out the window, leave the sites behind and drink, party and sit on the beach. I can't remember the last time I had a holiday like this but it was much needed. Kelly (an Aussie teacher I work with at Bannockburn Primary) and we planned to fly into Lisbon and see where life took us. The Algarves were seriously on our minds. So we headed to Lisbon and stayed in an awesome boutique hostel called the Lisbon Lounge. This hostel was much [View Full Entry]

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The search for all things Princess Mary Royal began in the early hours of the morning at Gatwick Airport. Very quickly I came to my first obstacle as the easy jet lines went the distance of the entire airport terminal. There were many frustrated flyers, including myself and I automatically began to think of back up plans in case I did not get on my flight. The only way the line kept on getting shorter was when the airline called a rush on each flight and passengers were escorted to a new line to try and get them checked in. My [View Full Entry]

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My birthday fell on the bank holiday weekend this year. It was kind of bad because most of my friends had gone away but 4 of us managed to organise a day trip to Oxford. It took a 1 hour train ride and we were in the land of the brainiacs. Although it's a small town it is filled with grand buildings, manicured gardens and cobble stone roads and you can't help but feel extra brain cells and motivation to finish my masters enter my body.......... for a split second. We spent the morning walking around the main parts of town [View Full Entry]

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SIENNA In our last week we decided to take a side tour to Sienna before we headed right into the wine country. After a long day of train delays we did not feel like hunting for accomodation so we got off the bus and walked straight into the hotel across the road and booked a room. OMG! what an expensive dive. But luckily there was so much to see in Sienna that we only headed back to the room to sleep late at night. In many ways Sienna is like many other italian towns. It has its Duoma and cofee shop [View Full Entry]

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You step off the train at the fifth village, Monterosso and the first thing you see is a stunning sea of clear blue water. This combined with the orange flowers that had just bloomed at the beginning of spring was the view from the trains take away food shop and made me think that I was in for a beautiful 5 days at Cinque Terre. Almost like a mirage I sat on the balcony in amazement. It was great to have the sun on my back. I could have sat there forever. Cinque Terra is a group of 5 villages Monterosso, [View Full Entry]

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Five days in Florence probably sounds like alot but it was fantastic. After leaving Rome I felt pumped to move on and see Florence for the second time. Last time I was here was for less than 24 hours and there was only time to shop, shop, shop but this time we had time for everything. Once again, Rick Steeves took us on an adventure when we visited the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. This has a beautiful fascade but lacks flair on the inside. We opted not to climb the stairs of this Dome as well and I must [View Full Entry]

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I am currently travelling through some more of Italy. The Last time I was in this country was to travel along the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. Previous to that I had been to Rome during an infamous Contiki tour so after such a brief visit I was determine to return and now, seven years later, here I am. The second time in Rome has definitely been worth it. I don't know if it's looking at the same thing with experienced eyes or I just have less money to spend in shops and as a result am finding all the free stuff [View Full Entry]

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A few weeks ago I ventured out of central London for a relaxing day by the beach. Now as an aussie, I have expectations of what a day at the beach would look like, sun, surf, sand and lots of people walking around in skimpy bikinis and shorts. While teaching over here, I have had many conversations with many students about their favourite summer past times and all of them love going to the fun fairs. Innocently, I had no idea what they spoke about or where I would find such a place. But on my visit to Brighton I soon [View Full Entry]

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