AUSTRIA I absolutely love this country - I nearly stayed here for good . But I'm getting a tad lazy with the blogs so you're getting 2 versions - the cities and the Alps. Happy reading. First stop: SALZBURG Well, my fantasy for 'The Sound Of Music' was finally going to come true. My Eastern Trekker group made our way into Austria from Slovenia and were met by the stunning Austrian Alps and the castle in which Clint Eastwood filmed 'Where Eagle's Dare' movie. We rocked into Salzburg and went on a walking tour starting through the Mirror belle gardens as sung through by the great Julie Andrews and those pesky Von Trapp kids. While we didn't have time to do an official tour, we made our way to the some of the sights on foot ... read more

Slovenia. A small country I knew nothing about apart from it being boarded by Croatia, Austria and Italy and had some Alps going for it and a pretty river. But I soon found out that this place and it’s people are so beautiful. I soaked up as much as possible and can’t wait to come back. Our Eastern Trekker group made the boarder crossing from Croatia without having to bribe anyone as is known to happen (although part of the European Union for a while the boarders are still in dispute). First we stopped off in the capital Ljubljana for a quick poke around the pretty city, but being a Sunday not much was happening. So we made our way to the Alps area and Bled where we were to stay for a couple of nights ... read more

Copenhagen - Denmark! So, I last left you in Sweden, soaking up my Scandinavian experience and loving being considered a local. I didn’t originally plan on adding in a Danish journey however since I was all the way up there in lap land and predicting that I would love being Scando for a while, I thought I would add an extra cold climate country to explore before I hit the European summer. I caught the high speed X2000 train from Stockholm to Copenhagen which gave me just over four hours of viewing Swedish country side with all those lovely red houses that look like small barns and even a small rain storm and took me straight into the centre of the capital. As I got off the train I recognised 2 young Irish boys (Damian and ... read more

Scotland! Edinburgh! I love it! I'm not sure why though, it's even more Grey than London - but there is something about this place that sits well with me enough to want to move here (except the strong winds - you can piss those right off). Just over 4 hours train ride from London and I arrived in the centre of the Scottish capital - Edinburgh. Again, with all the historic buildings and history (but slightly less looked after than London). So far so good with the dodgy Bradley ankles verses centuries old cobbled streets (now I've cursed myself). The incredible Edinburgh Castle dominates the city - and it's pretty damn impressive! I didn't realise how volcanic this area was until walking around it and viewing it from the top of The Nelson monument (endless spiral ... read more

Hi Kids, Well, flying to the United Kingdom from the USA didn't plan out as expected due to the ridiculous volcano in Iceland. With no option but to be grounded in America, I decided to become a temporary resident with the Medina's of Fair Lawn, New Jersey and explore some of the East Coast of the USA. Staying in New Jersey, I went about life as I would if I lived in Oz. I shopped, I helped renovate a new bedroom and ensuite of the home I was staying in (including a few trips to Home Depot which is Bunnings Warehouse on steroids), and I even went to the gym a few times (and not just because my trainer Emma is reading this blog but because I wanted/needed to sweat off all the foods unique to ... read more