We went out for dinner the first night in Milan to a pizza place that was recommended in our lets go book. We ordered a pepperoni pizza… when the pizza arrived it was actually a capsicum pizza! So we ate that then left, we got charged a fortune. Kath enjoyed the pizza! The next day we thought we would see the one sight Milan has to offer. We caught the metro to the Duomo, a giant church. We walked around the outside, it was very detailed. We then wandered the streets for a while then went back to the hostel and we had a new roommate, he was Mexican. We chatted to him most the arvo/night. We had a horrible salad for dinner. We shouldn’t try and be healthy, it never turns out nicely lol…
The guy had a cold and snored really loudly most the night, so we didn’t get a great deal of sleep. The next morning we hung around the hostel until check out time then went to the train station. We waited around and had some lunch/dinner in a near by family restaurant. When our train arrived we were the first to jump on, we put our bags in the rack and got ready to set off. They gave you a kids find a word on the back of a brochure, It was in Italian so we had no idea what words we were meant to find, so Kath created words then I found them. Then we played boggle with it. We are very creative!
After we left the station a ticket lady came and took our tickets and passports. We watched a movie and then I tried to get some sleep. The seats reclined so they were ok. Kath chatted to some American guys in front of us. They were really nice. They offered her some cake. At our first check point in France it was snowing. The police were in our carriage questioning some guy, after discussion over his passport he was escorted off the train, Phew it wasn’t me! The rest of the journey we both just rested and tried to get sleep.
Kath woke up pretty early and saw the sunrise, then she kindly woke me to see it as well. Nice sunrise over the coast of somewhere (in either France or Spain).
When we arrived in Barcelona we jumped off the train and headed to the Metro to go to the hostel. It was boiling! We had left 4-6degree coldness and arrived in 12degree heat! We found the hostel really easily as they gave you great directions. We checked in, but had to leave our bags in the storage room as we were early. We then headed back to the Metro to try and find the port. We found the port really easily and sat by the water and had some strawberries and juice in the beautiful sun. We saw some really huge fish in the water. People obviously come there all the time to feed the fish bread. After sitting there for a while we decided to go for a walk over the bridge to see what was on the other side. There was a shopping mall, an Imax and the Aquarium. We decided to go for a walk to find the ferry we are going to take to Mallorca. The ferry ticket place was closed, so we went to sit back near the fish feeding area. Apparently there are lots of people who come to get rid of their old bread there. There was one lady that had bags and bags of baguettes she was throwing in the water (whole). The fish were amazing they were really big, Kath wanted to sneak in a line (Look below for a video). We sat and watched them for ages then we decided to go back to the hostel and to the supermarket for dinner food. We were getting quite tired and hungry as we hadn’t really had breakfast or lunch. We cooked pasta for dinner. It was really good, we are so glad to have good facilities in this hostel. There is a big kitchen, big dining/common area, pool table, foosball table, punching bag, 2 exercise bikes, a cinema, and a terrace. We then went to bed and watched a movie.
We were woken up this morning by a rude girl who didn’t even sleep in her bed last night, she came in, turned the light on then left and didn’t turn the light off, so I got up and turned it off. We got up about an hour after that and got ready. We had our breakfast, it was packed in the dining area. Kath spoke to her parents on Skype then we headed out to do a free walking tour. When we arrived in the place we thought the walking tour was meant to start we couldn’t find anyone, so we just wandered around the street. We visited the Martime Museum and then kept walking around and came across a church, it was having massive renovations done to it. We kept walking and found a street parade that was going on. So we went to watch that. There were lots of Spanish dancers.. it was really entertaining. People in the parade were walking along drinking beer! We thought that was hilarious. Then one group came along and set firecrackers off in front of us, it was a bit scary. After the parade finished we walked along to the beach. There were lots of people doing beach sculpting. We walked along for a while, then turned back as the weather was starting to get bad and our feet were getting sore. We walked through some markets then headed back to the metro as it had started raining. The first train we caught was quite busy, 3 guys followed us off the train and through the metro. We were watching our bags and wallets. Then when we were on the escalator one of the guys stepped up onto the step Kath and I were on, so we stepped up a step then he stepped up onto that. As there were people in front of us we couldn’t move anymore. Kath had her hand on her wallet and I turned so my bag was against the escalator wall. Kath thought she felt one of the guys hand trying to get in her camera bag. When we reached the top of the escalator we walked away pretty quickly to the next train line. The guys followed us there as well, but we walked down the other end of the line, Kath checked she had everything. After we got off the next train we realised that the clip on her bag was undone. Nothing was taken, and the guy was pretty stupid to think that we would not realise if her bag was opened (it has a huge velcro strip which is hard to undo at the best of times). We are now back to the hostel and are making an itinerary for tomorrow. We are having pasta again tonight, so I am looking forward to that. Kath had a new beer called Saaz, I thought it tasted ok. I had a magners and now we are sharing a drink called a Damm Lemon (it is 6 parts beer, 4 parts lemon). Tastes pretty good.
Hope everyone is well.
Hope to hear from you all soon (comments are welcome, we are a little sheltered from Aussie life over here).
We have been very flat out lately… On Monday we headed into Glasgow City with Malcolm and he showed us around his uni (Glasgow University). While he was trying to sort out his classes we went into the Glasgow Museum and had a look around there. We then met up again with Malcolm and his friends and headed to a burger place called Ketchup. It was really nice.
On Tuesday we went out with Kath’s parents and her Grandpa to Loch Lomond, Loch Katrin and Dumbarton Castle. The castle had so many stairs (and wasnt really a castle – was more like a mountain with old bits of rock around which was “things”). Anyways we got a lot of exercise walking around there (snuck some lollies too)… It was only 12degrees, but after all the walking we did Kath and I were wandering around in Jeans and a t-shirts. We went to a nice restaurant for lunch and Kath tried to barter chips for Garlic Bread… I traded (because I am nice). After a long day in the car we went home and Ellen had made us a nice dinner.
On Wednesday we headed down to Carlisle (England). On the way we stopped at a wee little town called Moffat. We went to the sweet store (Kath’s mum got some Tablet and Coconut Chocolate thing). We found what appeared to be, the only bakery in the town. The food was not very nice. I had a Scotch Pie (it was very dry) and Kath had a Sausage Roll, which was pink on the inside. After our short stop we met up with Kath’s Cousin’s Wife, Emma and her baby Eve. We had lunch at a little Tea House. The food there was great. We then continued down the road to Vindolanda – which is the largest collection of Roman Buildings to be seen on Hadrians Wall and met up with Kath’s Aunt Maxine. After a meet and greet with her, we had a wander around the Vindolanda grounds and went into the museum. We then decided we had enough for the day so we headed to Emma and Johnathon’s house. On the way back to the house, we attempted to find Hadrians Wall. This was not an easy task, especially since every sign that was “To Hadrians Wall” was infact leading you the wrong way. Finally we found a road and it led us to the wall. After the brief look at the wall we went back to the house and got ready to go out for dinner. Kath and her dad were playing with the dogs (they have 2 Rhodesian Ridgebacks). We went to a nice Italian restaurant in Carlisle. The food there was fantastic – Kath and I shared a Mafioso Pizza and Cabonara and a bottle of wine! We all felt like we were going to explode. We went back home and little Eve went to bed, and the rest of us headed down to the pub! Paul the pub owner kept filling everyone up with beers. At about 11.30pm Kath and I called it quits and got a lift home with Emma’s parents.
The next morning everyone was very sleepy and hung over (not Kath and I though, we had an early night and less drinks), so we hung out with Eve until everyone else got up. Johnathon cooked us all bacon and eggs for brekky, which was really good. Then Kath, John, Johnathon, Eve and I took the dogs for a walk to pick up the car from the pub. When we got back we got ready to drive back to Glasgow. Maxine came back with us so she could see William. Kath and I crashed early on Thursday night, so tired from parting the night before. haha!
Well today is Friday and we had a nice long sleep in this morning, we got up at 8am then had breakky then headed back to bed and I slept in til 10.30am. We have been for a walk up to the Sainsbury’s (Supermarket) and got chicken kiev and chips for lunch. We have just booked our tickets and bus fares to London to see Tegan and Sara – I hope they are good seats (you only get to choose the area not the seat location). We are going to go into Glasgow City tomorrow and have a look around (they have Open Doors on in here – which is everything that is usually closed to the public or costs to get in is free) so we are going to try see a few good sights there.
The weather has been great and had been about 12degrees most days (we aren’t really feeling it like we would at home), especially in the warm house, haha!
Friday was a busy day… we went out for a nice lunch with my parents, Ross and Cindy. My Grandpa shouted it for us. My meal was really good, I got the burger and free pint. Cindy got the fish and chips… I don’t think her fish was that great.
After lunch, Cindy, mum and I went to the shops to pick up some things and to get Andy (my cousin) a birthday present. Then we walked all the way back to Ellen’s place – it would have been over 2km.
When we got home, we rushed over to the Cambuslang GoKarting place where Andy and Malcolm work, but Andy had organised a 1.5hour race… Cindy, Dad and I went and watched – I got some good photos. ‘
After that we went to Andy’s 18th Party… Met my cousin Lesley again (Andy’s Sister). We all had a few to drink but we left around 12ish, Ross drove us home and we chatted for a bit then went to bed.
Today, Ellen is putting together a massive lunch where a lot of the family is coming. Should be good.
Hi All,
We’re back in Glasgow, after a long day! This morning – I looked outside the window and…. it was BLUE SKY!! A beautiful day! We got our packs all done up and had breaky.
We went to the Edinburgh Zoo, which was really good! We caught the X48 bus there and we got a free trip because the printer wasn’t working! The zoo was good fun, we saw lots of different and new animals like flamingos, lots of different monkeys, some cool types of penguins, rhinos, Wolverines… We were meant to see Otters and Beavers which we were REALLY looking forward to seeing… we went twice to their area – and both times… could not see them. Quite upsetting! But overall, it was a great day!
At one stage we were looking in an enclosure and saw this really cute squirrel… and we were taking some photos of it.. then all of a sudden it runs and climbs the fence and runs away.. and Cindy and I were like.. ITS ESCAPING!! Hahaha turns out Squirrels are wild and they’re everywhere!
They didn’t sell any shot glasses so Cindy didn’t get a cool zoo shotty. So we tried to get back to Edinburgh we got on the bus 26…. and it drove and drove and drove….. we drove for an hour… all the way to Musselbrough… and we decided to get off and get on a bus back to Edinburgh… apparently we missed the city stop without even noticing!
We went and got Cindy another ankle brace from the cheap shop, then went and picked up our big backpacks and walked to Waverley Train Station to go back to Glasgow. We got the express like train to Glasgow, it was full of people going to the football game tonight (Scotland vs Holland for the world cup) many were in their kilts.
So we’ve just had dinner and having a bit of a lie down before going to my Grandpas place to see my mum and dad as they flew into Edinburgh about half and hour ago.
Tomorrow, we’re just going to have a rest day and catch up with laundry etc.
kathcatch
cbmiddl
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