London (Ashley's holiday) Time in London was a whirlwind as usual. The highlight of the first night was tea at Fortnum & Mason's and a guided tour of Buckingham Palace where we saw Kate's wedding dress. It was stunning to say the least. But during our time in the big city, we also went to a jazz concert in the crypt of St Martin in the Field (now, that was a neat setting for a concert), the stage version of Legally Blonde (which was really, not surprisingly, corny) and The 39 Steps (which was a hilarious story of murder and intrigue set in the 1920s or 30s). I highly recommend it. We also went rowing on the Serpentine in Hyde Park and had breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien which is a delicious Belgian bakery/cafe. Ireland... read more

The month of August turned Edinburgh into a mad-house. Despite the, generally acknowledged, poorer than average weather this relatively small European city is certainly a pumping party town for a surprisingly large part of the year. I always thought that it was all the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that really kicked things off, but there are things happening year round: The International Film Festival (We saw a couple movies; Angel's Crest stuck out the most as a heart-wrentcher that really makes you think about perspectives) The Jazz Festival Art Festivals International Festival Book Festival Story Telling Fest Military Tattoo And the Fringe Festival We'll focus on the last two here since they were the main reason we decided to leave our luxurious highland home for the big city. The Tattoo Dan started to not... read more

Well, we've been in Inverness for a long time and figured we've posted about a lot of our trips out, but very little about the time we've actually spent in and around our temporary home. Here's a wee shout out to this town, and the wonderful people we've met while here (unfortunately not all of them, just some who left the biggest impressions). We arrived here September 4th, 2010 with no plans other than 'find work' and 'find somewhere to live'. We were exhausted after our 2 months of traveling and wound up lazing around most of the time. While slothing around the hostel we got to know the lads that worked there a little; there was managing Aussie Jeremy, Welsh Hywel (pronounced 'howl' from what we could tell), and another Aussie Lachie. There were also ... read more

Warning: This is our most ridiculously long entry ever. We arrived in Faro after dark but when we found a map Dan navigated us to our hostel with ease even though Ashley looked at the map and could only see a jumble of windey crazy streets. Our first experience talking with a local was delightful. The receptionist at the hostel was one of the friendliest, most helpful people we've encountered (family members not included) so far; it was hard to get out of the conversation so that we could get settled. Once we were settled in our room she directed us to a lovely family run restaurant not far from the hostel. Dinner was amazing. We had appetizers, 2 main dishes, a ‘jug’ (not a pitcher or a bottle) of wine, 2 espressos and dessert for ... read more

As one can imagine, Scotland was getting a little grey and cold in the winter months. So, in December we decided that our next trip had to be someplace warm. Gran Canaria, just off the coast of Morocco, was the winner with the cheapest flight. On January 10th we packed our bags and headed for Glasgow where our flight took off from. Our trip began with a problem though. Our flight was at 6am so we figured we'd stay up as late as possible, then head to the airport and sleep there until check-in. We ate dinner at the Aussie pub Walk About and then found live music at The Box just down the road (only about a half hour walk), where we chatted with some colourful uni students. Then we went to the bus station ... read more