I arrived in New Zealand on the 12th in the late afternoon. Louise picked me up from the airport at Auckland and we checked in to a hostel she had booked. That night we wandered around the city centre and had a good Indian meal in Parnell. The next morning we went to some local markets, to the Auckland Domain park, and then to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The museum was good, Louise showed me lots of (stuffed) local wildlife and we saw Maori pieces and a culture show which was awesome - complete with Haka and fighting technique demonstrations. Unfortunately we had only just hit the war section when they were closing, which was a shame. We then bought food and cooked up some fajitas at the hostel. The next morning we drove to ... read more

We arrived at the very modern (thanks to the 2004 olympics) Athens international airport around lunchtime, and waited an hour fr the train to athens. We went out immediately to the centre of the tourist area (Monostaraki) looking for cheap food, and didn't find it. We kept looking, and eventually gave up and had expensive food. We had greek salad, potato salad and bread from a little cafe on Monostaraki. It was very good, and set off an unprecedented run of greek salads (we had one every night that we were in Greece). After our meal, we headed to the ruins of the ancient agora (town centre), then way up to the acropolis, which was very cool. I could just imagine Socrates kicking up the dust with his little brown sandals. That night we took the ... read more

We caught the 7:40am train from Venice to La Spezia on the morning of the 10th of July. We arrived at 12:40pm, had lunch and left our bags at the station. We then took the short train trip to Monterosso, which is the furthest of the five towns at Cinque Terre national park, separated by a series of scenic hikes. When we arrived at Monterosso, we went straight down to the beach, after I bought a new pair of sunnies (I had lost my old pair in Austria. We went swimming crammed between two private beaches (we didn't want to pay for an umbrella), and I've never seen so many umbrellas and sunburnt tourists in one place. We could have done without the crowds, but it was great to swim in the sea. After our swim, ... read more

I arrived in Vienna a little after 10am on Saturday morning, and met Louise where she was waiting for me on the lawn outside Westbahnhof station. It was great to see her again after over a month apart. We went to the hostel, left our bags and then walked down the shopping strip to the centre of town. On Louise's Lonely Planet guide's recommendation, we took the tram on a circle route around the centre. After seeing many rundown buildings and crappy neighbourhoods we concluded that either the author didn't go to Vienna, or this place is a bit crap. We got off near the museum sector and walked to a market which was really cool, lots of dried fruits and nuts and food stalls and it went on foreve. When we hit the antiques and ... read more

I arrived in Berlin at 10am on Wednesday. I went to the hostel, dropped my bags and walked straight to the Brandenburg gate. I had lunch and then went on a "free tour" (it's tip based) of Berlin. The tour lasted four and a half hours and I really enjoyed it. The guide was really good and he told us some German history and showed us around former communist East Berlin. I really like Berlin, it has some weird energy. It's so steeped in history. I instantly had the feeling that my four days here will not be nearly enough. We saw the gate, the holocaust memorial in the centre of town, the site of the bunker where Hitler committed suicide, a remaining section of the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie and the main sites in central ... read more