Gruß Gott!

Hello from Salzburg!
Man it's hard to type when the keys aren't in their usual places....add to that the fact that all the titles and links are in German, and it's just trouble!
Well, this may be my last entry until I get home, coz I don't know when I'll have internet access...but I promise once I do I will put up all the other pictures from my travels.
Since I last wrote I haven't done much. Boring, I know. I did meet up with Tammy Davidson for dinner though, which was very exciting for me. She seems to be enjoying life in Basingstoke, but was horrified when I told her that she had developed an English accent on top of her already muddled South African/Australian!
Today I arrived in Salzburg, where I will be for the next 2 days. It's been a really long day for me....I got up at 6.30am (yes, that's right, the night owl in me had to be stifled!) to go to Heathrow, then flew to Munich, and then spent the next 3.5 hours either on a train or a train platform to get here at 4.30pm! I must be mad.
I have to say though, it's a beautiful city, and I look forward to exploring it in the daylight tomorrow.
After Salzburg I'm off to Munich (hooray!) where I have a night to myself before joining my coach tour. Should be good...but I have this weird feeling that it's going to be me and 40 grandparents, which will make the trip to the Hofbrauhaus very interesting! The tour goes for 8 days, and goes round all the Christmas markets in Munich, Nuremburg, Strasbourg, Heidleberg, and a bunch of other smaller places that I can't remember.
Ah! Running out of credit so I must dash! I'll try my best to keep updating!

Now I'm just getting lazy...

I really should be taking advantage of the fact that at the moment I have free internet access, but I just can't be bothered to blog!

So, let me try and remember what I've done in the past week. There will be no photos this time, because I can't find the cable for the camera...(no, Kate, I haven't lost it, it's just hidden in my suitcase somewhere)

I went back and forth to London a few times, didn't get up to much though - you know those days where you intend to shop, but when you actually get to the stores you don't have the energy to look at anything? - well, I've had a few of those.
Thursday night was the lighting of the Oxford Street Christmas lights, and I met up with Alex Dalziell and her crew of Knox boys (they are inescapable I tell you!). We went to back to my funky Turkish restaurant, and because they had no tables free inside, they offered us free shots to keep us warm if we sat outside! Great plan, but it did end up tasting like a cross between cough syrup, Ribena and vodka. We spent the evening reminiscing about Roseville (and Knox) and figuring out friends that I had in common with the boys. The funny part was that they had no idea who Belly was, but they all know AP....I swear, his reputation in spreading worldwide!
On Saturday I went into Leicester Square and got a cheap ticket to see the Blue Man Group, which was amazing! If they come to Sydney I am going to drag a whole bunch of you there, because it was easily one of the best shows I've seen on this trip. I also saw the new Richard Curtis film 'Sixty Six', which was good, but quite different from his other films...a bit too depressing at parts, but worth a go.

Let me see, what next, oh yes, on Sunday I met up with Emily, a school friend from over here, and we wandered around Kings Cross for a while.
Yesterday I went up to Cambridge to have lunch with Rani, which was awesome. She seems to be loving it up there (well, who wouldn't) and has even picked up a very slight pommie accent. We had the world's largest pub lunches, in what turned out to be that DNA was discovered in (well, I'm not sure that 'discovered' is the right word, but you get the idea). According to my sources it was all taken down on the back of a cigarette packet......

Today I went back into London to actually buy Kate's Christmas present (how organised am I). It was the first real rainy day I've had since being here, which is quite impressive really.

I'm sure something else exciting happened, but I'll need to go through the photos to remember.

Hello, I'm back!

It's officially been a over a week since my last blog...I'm now in Knebworth (Robbie Williams fans should know where that is).
For those of you who aren't Robbie Wiiliams fans, it's about 30mins train ride out of London, and about the same from Cambridge. I'm staying with my godparents, using there place as a base from which I can visit everyone else!

So, since last time....hmm, not a lot happened. Well, plenty happened, but compared to the pace we were going in NYC it's been pretty slow!

OK, so last Wednesday we drove up to Glasgow, stopping to have lunch with my Dad's older brother on the way. We spent the next day wandering around Glasgow, not doing a lot...dropped in to see my Gran and her twin sister that evening to say Happy Birthday! Friday we went on a bit of a road trip, we drove over to see our old house and village (not much has changed in 15 years!), then we drove over to the other side of Glasgow to visit Aberfoyle, which is where my Dad lived when he was a teenager. We passed by Stirling on the way and saw the castle and the Wallace Monument....was a good day, if not very nostalgic!

Saturday was the party.....crazy times. So weird to see cousins that I haven't seen in up to 7 years! It was a great night though, amazing to see two 80 year olds party through till midnight (they seriously didn't stop once....we practically had to hold them down for photos!)

Sunday was time to see some of Dad's side, so we had a big roast lunch with some of his cousins and second cousins in Ardrossan, which is a little coastal town on the West of Scotland.

Monday - another 6.5 hour drive back to London, and then Kate and I went out for dinner with one of our friends while Mum and Dad went out with her dad and stepmum. It was seriously the biggest meal I've had this whole trip! We found this awesome little Turkish restaurant behind Selfridges and stuffed ourselves with lamb, bread and all the trimmings for like 90 minutes - then we got a cab to Leicester Square and proceeded to have massive crepes at the Haagen Daaz bar! Needless to say we had to unbutton our jeans when we got home!

Last night Mum, Dad and Kate flew home, so I decided to go to the movies rather than sit in the hotel all night (I know, sad isn't it?). I walked over to Piccadilly, found a cinema (not that it's hard) and decided that I'd give 'Marie Antoinette' a go. To start off with, the ticket cost £12.50. Yes that's right, that's about $32! Then, I thought I'd go buy some popcorn and a drink. These I thought were in comparison quite well priced, £6.30 for both. However, when said items were handed to me, I realised that they were probably better value than I'd though. The popcorn was average sized, only slightly bigger than a regular at Greater Union. But the drink was huge. There was easily 1.25, possibly even 1.5L of Coke in there. The cup was almost the same size as the popcorn!

For the record, I don't recommend the movie much....I don't know why I keep telling myself that I like Sofia Coppola's films! It dragged on a bit, but the overall idea wasn't bad.....and Jason Schwarzman was good. (Plus, any film featuring Steve Coogan is worth a look!)

Anyway, it's now Thursday (very early morning/late night!) and I have a million people still to see!
Oh and I know there aren't a lot of photos in this post, but I have added them all in my Flickr!