London

Wow – well people told me that I would love London… and I would have to say that I did – I had a brilliant time there. We were so busy the whole week – it was insane.

On Wednesday we went to the Monument of the great fire, It this massive thin column – which you can go up and see 360 degree views of  London. There were soooo many stairs (I think about 312 stairs) to climb up but the views were pretty good – they would have been much better before all the buildings around it were built.

We then walked to the Tower of London which is famous for holding the Royals crown jewels – the place isn’t a tower it’s a massive fort next to the river – back in the olden days it was also used as a prison, torture chambers and executions. But we went there for the crown jewels mainly. We got in there for free (woo London Pass) and saw the traitors entrance, which is where traitors were brought in by boat through this gate (from the Thames) and into he fort where they were then dragged to the prison. Guy Fawkes was brought here after his attempt of town hall and all the royal family and important people.

We then went to the crown jewels. They have a lot of boring golden plates and big steins and things which look so delicate and very old. We got to the good stuff – but we couldn’t take photos… they have travelators to go pass the crowns and septars so you couldn’t just stand in front of them which I thought was a good idea. The amount of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires that these puppies had was insane! They have two very impressive diamonds (Cullinan I & Koh-i-Noor) – the jewels in total are something like 23,500 – how shiny is that!! We then went and saw an exhibition on the armour worn by the kings hundreds of years ago. You could see how big and how small some were.

After wandering around there for a little bit we kept going and went to the tower bridge – where we could go up and see the history of the bridge and the stunning views. It was pretty cool – thankfully we got a lift ride up and didn’t have to climb any stairs. haha.

We then went and saw the HMS Belfast which has a sister in Sydney (which we saw when we went to Sydney). It was pretty cool but we didn’t stay to long here as the day was getting on. We then got some lunch in an Italian restaurant and kept going to the transport museum where we saw old trains, buses, coaches, the underground back in WW2. We also played some interactive games where you could drive a underground train – the museum was great.

We then went out to Chelsea to an Independent film cinema where we saw the film – Whatever Works- which was a brilliant film. The same guy directed Vicky Christina goes to Barcelona. We also got to see that for free and we finished the night off with free tokens in a timezone place.

That day we got 60 pounds worth of value each. So we made our moneys worth double.

On Thursday we went to St Paul’s Cathedral… It was nice for a church. The outside is impressive. We then went to  Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and did a tour around here – It was interesting to see the history behind the theatre and the techniques applied to creating effects back in the day. The theartre itself is a close spitting image to what it would have looked like back in the day (thatch roof and everything). I was a little disappointed in they didn’t have much on Shakespeare. (except from the gift shop).

After that we went bowling!! Cindy beat me.. but we didn’t play so great!

After that we went back to the city and walked around – we ended up buying tickets to the theatre that night – like and hour before the performance. We were going to see…. Priscilla Queen of the Desert. We grabbed some dinner and then walking past Leicester square we saw the Eclipse Premier (twilight movies)… we couldn’t see anything as too many people and baracades blocking us out so we just heard screams. We then went to the theatre.

We were up soooo very high – up in the balcony but we had a good view. The show was brilliant – so clever and funny – it was brilliant.  It was nearing midnight when we got back to the hostel.

Friday we went and saw the entrance to the leaky cauldron… and bought tickets to see Oliver that evening. We went back to the hostel to eat dinner and get ready. We also had balcony seats but I think there was many people attending that night because they closed the balcony so we were upgraded to the 2nd row in front of the stage. At first I was put off thinking I would be too close – but it was pretty good. The kids were great in the performance and the adults were brilliant. It was much different to Priscilla which I enjoyed more but the show was still good.

On Saturday – was Pride Day! We got to Trafalga square and went to the stalls where organisations were giving things for free so we got some pens, badges, stickers, posters, magazines, keyrings… so we got lots of free stuff.

Stonewall which is an charity for LGBT – but they had the best brand at pride. They had t-shirts that said – SOME PEOPLE ARE GAY – get over it and  Love your inner lesbian. haha so we wanted to buy the t-shirts but they weren’t selling any on the day (which we thought was a missed opportunity) – so you can buy them online (http://www.stonewall.org.uk/what_you_can_do/2590.asp and http://www.stonewall.org.uk/what_you_can_do/3696.asp)

Anyway the parade was awesome – so many companies and organisations were marching proudly (nothing like home)… We had politicians, the armed forces, police, fire, ambos, sporting clubs – I was asked to play hockey for a club lol. Businesses like British Airways… They weren’t letting normal riff raff like us in the march – but I didn’t like being told to go behind the barriers so I just pretended I was an official photographer and I got to stand on the VIP side of the barrier – muahahahaha… After a while Cindy snuck back over and we joined the parade – everyone was clapping us and we had a ball. We ended up catching up with Stonewall and hung out with their float.

This parade stopped traffic literally – Pride shut down Baker Street, Oxford Street, Regent Street to Trafalgar square.  It was brilliant… whereas back home we used to start of at town hall and block off a little portion of George street… we now start at Roma street and go back streets… Doesn’t show the same message does it.

Pride was brilliant we hung out at Trafalga square all afternoon watching the performance and people getting up on the big fountains in the middle and then watching them getting told off and then security getting into the water to drag them off… haha good times. When we left I saw that they were wearing waders (what fisherman wear)… and standing in the fountain making sure no one would be going in. I thought it was funny.

We then went to Westminster and walked over the bridge there and went back to the timezone like place and did some bowling and games – it was fun and when we got out it was near 11 and the eye was glistening in rainbow colours.  Pretty cool. We went back to the hotel.

On Sunday we got up bright and early as we were on a tour to go to the Stonehenge, Bath and Salisbury. Stonehenge was good, small and rocky. The amount of people there was crazy… you couldn’t go up to the rocks but I thought it was amazing that these rocks are still like that after however many years…. We then went to Salisbury where we saw the cathedral there and the original magna carta which is a legal document back in the day saying the rights of the kings people – and the responsibilities of the king. That was cool.

We got some lunch there and also walked around the town. It was good.

We then stopped at Bath – where we saw the Roman Baths. The brains behind the Romans were way ahead of the times – the genius to come up with the plans for them were so clever. The baths were great.

Bath is an Amazing town – I would go back there in a second – it’s so beautiful.

That night we got Chinese for dinner ( sooo good)… guy gave us free prawn crackers.

On Monday – we slept in and then packed our bags. We went to the train station and jumped on a train to go to East Midlands Parkway station (in the middle of nowhere) where our megabus was waiting for us to take us the rest of the way to York.

We got to our hotel and we’re right up the top and have a nice view if you peer out the window. We went to the pub for dinner where the owner was very nice and chatty… After dinner we went to the SPAR and got some drinks and snacks and went back to our room. The SPAR guy was also very friendly….

We then called some people and had a good time chatting to them.

Today is now Tuesday and all we have done so far is lie in bed.

Photos will be up this afternoon…. maybe.

Love us. xoxo

London Sunday-Tuesday

Well we’ve been busy busy beavers the last few days.

Sunday – we headed to Wandsworth to a pub there called the Ship. We beat Simon there so we got a drink and hung out in the sun. It was so hot… I skulled my beer… We met up with Simon when he arrived – He’s changed so much and London has been great to him, We had a great catch up and his pub had some new ciders that we tried (Cindy’s cider page has been updated). England lost 4-1… hahaha suckers. We got back and CSI sunday was on TV… So we died in the heat while watching tv.

On Monday we moved to the other side of London to Brixton where the other hostel is. Its much cooler here… we’re in an 8 bed dorm, and we’re sharing with 4 live in girls… who are very messy. After checking in and making our beds we headed back to the city and picked up our London Pass which I will talk about later. We then walked to the British Museum and checked that out. The only thing I really liked was the Rosetta Stone (How scientists were able to decode Hieroglyphics), that was awesome to see – I remember our Egypt guide being quite annoyed that Britain had it. We then walked to a nice little park and sat for a while, I fell asleep… lol It was nice and cool in the shade, after a while we headed back to Brixton and got stuff for dinner.

Okay so explaining our London Passes. We bought a 3 day London pass for 62 pounds each and we get free access to a whole bunch of attractions, you get up to 80 pounds a day.

So today (Tuesday), we got up early ( I know, it was hard) and it was raining quite hard but by the time we were ready the rain vanished and we went to the London Zoo and got free access to that and saw lots of cool animals and also saw where they filmed a scene of Harry Potter. My favourite animals were the sleeping Otters and the yellow frogs. We stayed there for a few hours before continuing back into the city and went to the Jewel tower (free access) – its an old tower (the old parliament/storage area) back in the 1800′s (I think). It was pretty cool, we then had an Ice lolly to cool down.

After our break, we went to the Churchill War Rooms (free access) which is like a basement underground where Winston Churchill ran the British War movement against Germany and Japan in WW2. It was very interesting to read and see what it was like 70 odd years ago. After the museum we headed to the river and jumped on a river cruise (free access) and went down the river Thames and saw the London Bridge, Tower of London and went all the way to Greenwich and saw the outside of National Maritime Museum. We just took the boat back once it got to the end.

We then got the metro back to hostel, had dinner and now bing bang boom – the blog is done! So our total spending for our London Pass is 50 pounds each so we’ve nearly made our money back and we still have 2 days left.

Tomorrows an even earlier morning… going to see the crown jewels…ooo

Until next time,

Love us.

P.s will put photos up now.

Our last few days in Brighton then arriving in London

Our last few days in Brighton were very relaxed. It was really nice weather while we were there and some days it was extremely hot. Everyday we were in Brighton we walked along the waterfront to the pier. One day when we were there we had a ride on an old electric train down to the marina. When we arrived at the marina we saw a main fishing spot, which you actually had to pay money to fish at. We then got an icecream and looked at the boats as we walked along the boardwalk.  The last day in Brighton we had fish and chips by the water and had some drinks in the afternoon.

On Thursday we made our way up to London. We checked into our hotel and had some lunch in a nearby pub. We then headed to the Roundhouse in London to pick up our tickets to see Tegan and Sara. We waited in line for an hour before we were let in. Unfortunately when we bought our tickets they only had standing ones available, but when we arrived we saw people in seats. Kath asked an Usher how to get a seat and they said it depended on what website you booked through. So we got some bottles of water and stood in the mosh pit. After about 1 hour it was getting to hot in there so we found a spot to stand in the back of the theatre to watch the concert. As usual Tegan and Sara were great. It was quite annoying as there were lots of men there and they were really tall so you could barely see.. but we just moved around a lot to see. After the concert we were exhausted so we headed back to the hotel. It was boiling hot and the room didn’t have air conditioning… So we slept with the window half open.

The next morning, after a long sleep in, we headed out into the city to get some new Waterproof shoes. Finally there were some in Kath’s size. We then headed to meet up with the Free Walking Tour. There were about 30 of us in the group. We saw saw Buckingham Palace, The Clock Tower (Big Ben), Trafalgar Square, and some parliament buildings. After the tour we were exhausted so we got a snack and then headed down Oxford St to find Primark to buy some socks. Oxford St is a really really long street! After an hour or so of walking we finally got there and got some new socks (to go with the new shoes, so they don’t stink), we then sat in a park for a while, as the metro stop we tried to go in was closed. When it was finally open we headed back to the hotel. By the time we got to the pub near our hotel it was quite late. So we had dinner then came back for a relaxing evening.

Today we went on a Harry Potter expedition, to find different filming locations. Our first stop was Kings Cross, which of course is the famous Platform 9 3/4. It took us ages to find it, as it is not actually between platform 9 and 10… It is in a little hidden part half way down platform 8. We both had pictures with the trolley going through the wall. Our next stop was Grimauld Place (Sirius Black’s house), we then made our way through some gardens and past the Royal Courts of Justice to Gringotts Bank (Australia House). Australia House is not open to the public, and its not open on the weekends so we couldn’t even peek inside… We then walked past some churches and made our way to Diagon Alley… After that we made our way along Regent St to Hamleys Toy Store.. I think it is the largest toy store in the UK. They have just released the new Harry Potter Wii game, so there were people dressed up as Hogwarts students and Lego Statues of some of the characters, it was really cool. The toy store is 5 floors high.. It also has Game in there (like EB games in Aus) and Build a Bear workshops. It is a really cool toy store.

We are now back in the hotel and are going to have an early night so we can get up early tomorrow. I hope it cools down here soon, it is absolutely boiling here… they make announcements in the Underground telling you to carry water at all times and if anyone passes out to give them some water… Haha we don’t get any announcements at home like that, mind you we have aircon on our public transport.

We are meeting up with one of Kath’s uni friends, Simon tomorrow. Then we change to a hostel on Monday.

Chat soon

Love Cindy and Kath

The last few days in Glasgow…

On Sunday it was a nice sunny day, so Kath and I decided to start our training for the Santa Dash (better late then never I say haha)… We walked the 5km loop near the house, it took us around 40mins.. not bad I say.

When we returned from our walk Ellen took us to the New Lanark World Heritage site. Which is an 18th Century Cotton Mill Village, based near the Clyde (the main river in Glasgow) Falls. Since it is Christmas time they had all Christmas activities and an Annie McLeod Christmas experience ride (which was like a ghost train ride, but not scary!), which showed a young girl working in the Cotton Mill and how people celebrate Christmas over the world. My favourite bit was when the Christmas fairy said “and some people even have really hot Christmas days” haha. The ride “capsule/seat” generally held 2 young children and 1 adult… but we all insisted on sitting in the one carriage, it was very cosy!!

After the ride we wandered around the village, went into the old school and through the mills and houses. Kids started work at 10 years old and worked for 10hours a day then went to school in the evening… Gee kids these days just have it so easy haha.

After we saw the village we went on a hike to the Clyde Falls. The path along the river was blocked off from all the rain that we had the days before, so we had to take a long walk up the hills.. I took lots of photos and spent most of the time running to catch up to Ellen and Kath, I was extremely exhausted! The falls were amazing, they were running really fast and gushing over the drop! That is apparently not even at its fullest, as some of the water is diverted at the top of the falls to be used elsewhere.

The hike back to the car was very tiring, especially the last hike up to the car…But we all made it back in one piece.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we pretty much did the same thing. We went for a walk on our loop and then headed to the shops to get various things. I have new shoe laces, new insoles and Kath got some soft drink. We also got a really cool torch (apparently we are going to need torches on our Egypt night hike).

We booked our flights on Monday night to Egypt.. So have a way of getting there.. We are going from Glasgow to London, London to Athens and from Athens to Cairo. After our tour we will head back to Athens and start our next big adventure!

Today is Reece’s Birthday (Happy Birthday Reece!!). So I have spoken to everyone on Skype and missed out, yet again on Birthday cake.. I think when we get home I will have to have a super cake for my birthday to make up for all the cake I have been missing out on .

We are really excited about our fun run on Sunday.

It is 1degree here today… The frost was really cool this morning, still some around the backyard and in the paddock.

At least we will not get hot on our run!!

I’ll put up some pics of the last few days..

We hope everyone is going well.

Love Cindy and Kath

London and Tegan and Sara

We headed out on Thursday morning to get the bus down to London, a short 10 hour bus trip. The bus trip seemed very quick, well the first 8 hours, the last 2 just dragged on. We didn’t get a stop the entire time. So sitting for 10 hours is a bit much.

When we finally arrived in London, we found an underground and got a ticket. It is quite confusing because there is an underground and an overground. So we found a ticket booth and bought a ticket and asked for directions to the platform. People say boarding a RyanAir plane is like being hearded like sheep… Well I would just like to say, walking through the underground is far worse. People everywhere and when a train arrives everyone just gets pushed in the door together. Luckily, I only had to wait one stop before getting a seat, Kath was in the middle of the carrige, we got separated on the way into the train.

We got off the underground, and found our way outside. For the first time ever, our hostel was directly in front of us, and the supermarket was in the train station.

We made our way into the hostel and hiked up to the 4th floor (which was actually 8 sets of stairs), we were glad we only had little bags for the weekend. We made our beds then headed out to get some dinner. We strolled down the street and the first place we looked at was a Weatherspoons, so we went in there for dinner. It was a very busy one (made because it was curry night). We both had a curry for dinner, it was great.

We then headed back to the hostel and met an Australian girl in our dorm. As more and more people turned up, we discovered that the majority of girls on the floor were all Aussies. Our room the first night had 2 Americans, 1 Italian and 5 Australians (including us). All of the girls were really nice. The room next door had another 2 Australians. We thought it was funny that we head to another country and all we meet are Aussies. We stayed up until 2am chatting.

The next morning we got up and went to do the Free Walking Tour. We mastered the underground that morning and got to the starting point and hour early, so we decided to go for a wander down the road to Buckingham Palace. The Queen was home on Friday!! We walked around there and then went back to the starting point. By the time the groups were split up and we were on our way it was 11.30. We first saw the Iron Dukes House and a monument. Then we walked really quickly down to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards Ceremony. We didnt see much because there were so many people around the gates. I have to say I was quite disappointed with Buckingham Palace (well the guards), I thought you would actually be able to walk up to them, and that there was more of them. There were 4 guards, they didn’t wear the funny hats (well the guards before the change don’t) and you can’t go near them. (So I just have to say, sorry Bryce we couldn’t try and make them move!!!).

We then saw the residence of Prince Charles, Camilla and William and Harry. (None of them were home ). We then saw the Queens second house, there were guards out the front of them, and you could approach them and have a picture with them. However, if you were annoying to them they had loaded rifles and were allowed by law to shoot you. So most people didnt get too close when having a photo.

We then wandered down the road, but it was pouring with rain and we didn’t have our waterproof pants on so we headed back to the hostel to dry our jeans for the concert in the evening.

We headed out to our concert at 5pm, the doors weren’t due to open until 7pm. The que was quite large. We lined up for an hour, before being told by security that we were in the wrong line. We ended up being one of the first people into our floor for seats, so we got the best seats. Kath had a spare seat next to her, and funnily enough an Aussie girl came and sat down next to her. Kath and her had a bit of a chat. The concert was really good. They had an awful support, he was meant to be a rapper but just spent the entire time yelling at you. Some people booed him. He had never performed infront of more then 8 people before. We still can’t work out why he was chosen as the support act. We had a great time at the concert. We didn’t buy any merchandise because we didn’t really like the shirts (they were really well priced). After the concert we headed back to the hostel and chatted to some of the girls again.

On Saturday morning, we headed to the Coach Station to come back up to Glasgow. The bus ride back was very very long!!. At one stage we were 25mins behind schedule. The driver we had was nice and gave us a 25 minute break, so we could get something for dinner. Nothing was open so we settled for chips. The rest of the drive back was pretty horrible because there were 5 men who had been drinking and were whistling and yelling and being annoying. So our diet on Saturday consisted of cornflakes and toast for brekky, Cheese Balls, apple and strawberries for lunch, and 2 packets of chips for dinner! Haha. When we arrived in Glasgow, Ellen and Tom met us at the Bus Station and took us home.

This morning we went for a walk with Ellen to a country park. We saw great views over Glasgow and then we went to a man-made Loch and walked around it.

We had a great time in London and are looking forward to going back next year.

Hope everyone is going well.

Love Cindy and Kath