http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/laandal/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from laandal en-us Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:22:58 +0000 Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:22:58 +0000 It was almost two years to the day that we had first departed from Australia and it has been an epic two years 26 countries countless friends and memories made along the way and a growing thirst for travel. The purpose of our 3 week trip home was to continue with what has been a recurring theme this year a wedding Al's brother Dave and his nowwife Em were getting married by the harbour in Sy http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/blog-409825.html With our upcoming trip home later this month we have spent a long time discussing our future...and we're not talking about marriage and babies. What we mean is where should we live Where should we travel Should we move home save money and then go travelling again Should we stick it out and travel when we get the opportunities Should we 'growup' and stop these travelling shenanigans buy a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-421440.html Avid blog readers may recall that in a previous blog we met a couple on a boat in Belize and happened to be staying in the same hotel with them on the beach in Caye Caulker We met a really lovely AustralianSouth African couple who told us we should go cenote diving in Mexico.... After having spent the day snorkelling with them and an afternoon chatting we headed out to dinner with Alex as Bek http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Campania/Amalfi/blog-415794.html Leaving Spain was when reality really started to kick in our travels were really over and it was time to buckle down and find somewhere to live and some way of supporting ourselves in our new home. Before getting to grips with apartment hunting and job searching we did manage to have a little funOn our arrival at Heathrow we headed straight to the Witherspoons well it is an English icon of sort http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-428994.html The flat was clean the linen was all washed and ready for the onslaught of Lara's family. As Australians in London it is almost a requirement to have family and friends staying on a permanent basis and we have been letting down the stereotype for the last few months. So Al headed to Tesco and bought out their supply of inflatable mattresses thinking if nothing else the house would be safer shou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-415791.html We were exhausted we had had a huge week arrived back from Grenoble on Monday out to dinner every night but come Friday off we went again. We picked up our hire car from Victoria made a few wrong turns while we got the GPS up and running but eventually found our way to Church Stretton in Shropshire. We put our things in our amazingly quiet BB well compared to Brixton anyway and headed to L http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Shropshire/blog-407510.html The two of us don't really need much of an excuse for a weekend away so when Matt and Janelle our friends from Australia moved to Grenoble in the French Alps how could we resist We took a day off work and one of those horrible early morning flights and off we went for a long weekend. We flew into Lyon and took the bus to Grenoble where we were joined by JB another friend from uni who had trave http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Grenoble/blog-407496.html We've been trying to get out of London when we can so when the weather report said we were going to have a sunny weekend we thought we would take a daytrip out to Dover and walk along the White Cliffs. Most people don't actually take a trip to Dover they pass through the ferry terminal and get a glimpse of the white cliffs in passing. But we thought they would be worth a look as a beautiful sigh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Kent/Dover/blog-404190.html Booking cheap flights that leave ridiculously early in the morning can seem appealing but when you're alarm goes off at 2am and you then have to take a bus and train to the airport you start to wonder whether it could possibly be worth it and thankfully it was Our weekend on the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia definitely left us wanting more. We arrived in Split Croatia's second largest city at 10 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/blog-396219.html I want to be having lunch in the Wye Valley in Wales tomorrow were Al's last words before going to sleep the night before our planned road trip. Everything was organised our hire car booking was checked and all that we needed to do was go and pick it up stick the bags in the back and get going... in theory. The reality turned out to be extremely different. We arrived at the car company to pick http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/blog-389406.html Slovakians don't speak Spanish....Now this won't really surprise many of you and yet the number of times we started conversations with an Hola or threw a por favor on the end of a sentence surprised even us. After so many months of speaking Spanish it is still our first resort when faced with uncomprehending locals. Thankfully English tended to be widely spoken and we stuck to that after mumbling http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovakia/Bratislava-Region/Bratislava/blog-386092.html The sun was shining it was the warmest day in a long time what choice did we have but to go to the seaside And where else but Brighton Renowned for its pebble beach Pier and Pavillion as well as a vibrant pub scene and some fantastic places to eat its a perfect place to spend a lazy warm Sunday. Although Lara had been to Brighton a few weeks ago she didn't get to see anything as she was on http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/East-Sussex/Brighton/blog-382164.html Driving back to London from a weekend away in Cheltenham we received an unusual call from our flatmates who were just checking to see how we were. We thought this a little odd as they hadn't shown any particular concern regarding our whereabouts before and on getting into Central London we realised they were worried we had been stuck in the snow. We had heard that there was supposed to be a huge http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-372928.html The Canary Islands are a haven for middleaged northern European holiday makers on package holidays a place where they can warm their pasty bodies and eat food from their homeland. Does it sound like somewhere that we'd like to go No but the call for sunshine was too much for us and after ruling out our preferred destinations Morocco Egypt etc as too expensive off we headed to Gran Canaria http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Canary-Islands/Gran-Canaria/blog-354685.html Christmas in the UK is completely different to the beaches BBQs sunscreen and ice cream kind of Christmases that we have always known and loved. It is cold and miserable but does its best to get you in the Christmas spirit with the lights carols food and parties that you couldn't really avoid even if you wanted to. Christmas time over here is a lot more about Christmas than it is at home poss http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Isle-of-Wight/blog-354680.html Lara and her crazy need to have at least have one holiday on the horizon. This time she spun the globe around and her finger landed on Ireland Dublin. Convenient really it was just a quick Ryan Air flight away... at least on paper the trainbus tickets to get to Luton airport cost more than the flights themselves which had Al scratching his head with disbelief that a 'London' airport could tak http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Dublin/Dublin/blog-348269.html What a tour We really didn't think that after one year we would be returning to Australia with so many memories and so few things We also didn't think that we would be going back separately due to Al getting a job in London and me unable to change my leave at the last minute. Al set off immediately after returning from Rome which came as a surprise to his family when he turned up on their doo http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-348218.html So with some juggling of flights we managed to secure return flights to Rome for a long weekend away. It could have been our last trip of th roundtheworld tickets but the day before we went Al managed to secure a job and a quick trip back to Oz before he started. We decided to shrug off impending financial doom and the craziness of the next few weeks and went to spend Euro's instead of pounds http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-346360.html After a very average Iberian flight and still recovering from our hangovers from our huge night in Rio we finally arrived in Europe. We were definitely sad to say goodbye to South America and our carefree days but did our best to embrace our week in Spain and all the new adventures ahead Lara's Mum booked us into some nice hotels as her birthday present and we stayed right on the main drag in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/blog-309268.html Our last few weeks in South America were spent in Chile followed by 6 days in Rio de Janeiro. ChileWe flew into Santiago and spent a few days checking out the sights beneath a layer of smog as it is apparently the 3rd most polluted city anywhere in the world. However it was a great city and we enjoyed getting lost in the side streets trying the food and seeing even more lovely Spanish Colonial b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-299616.html