DAY OUT IN LONDON

Since arriving here, I have been pretty flat out organizing things … so today decided to visit Pamela for lunch, and just do a bit of sight-seeing of the city …. Mind you, the photos of the tube are during off-peak … its absolutely mad during peak hours.

CAR PARKING

In London the council doesn’t muck around with illegal parking …. They simply call out a truck, which picks up the car, and that’s the end of it… only takes few minutes … and in our street (a dead end one) it happens quite a bit ….. must be the patrons of the pub.

BLISTERS

After a week of organizing accommodation, banking, work, etc, Pamela has some serious blisters, and thought she share them with you … notice how her ankles swelled up as well (and no, she hasn't got fankles!)

IKEA

Today we IKEAed ... (and I think the term needs to be added to the Oxford Dictionary).
Its amazing how different the whole Ikea thing is when you live in a studio ... and looking at the signs saying "I live in 45 square meters" ... and think ..... wow ... thats huge!!!!
Anyways, we spend 60 Pounds on things to complete our new home .... and dragged it home (back on 2 buses) in a blue Ikea bag .... It felt like the bus was full of new Londonites, with same blue IKEA bags, on their way to also complete their new abodes.

OUR NEW HOME

Today we move into our new place (after spending 4 nights on Jo and Christophe’s floor), and hopefully tomorrow (Sunday) we can relax …. Although I have a feeling we will be hitting the IKIA (the savior of all newly arrivals in London).

The place is totally refurbished, looks and feels great, and located right next to the Shepherd’s Bush tube station (which is on the central line, with easy access to the city)… and walking distance to Notting Hill.

LONDON (Day 1 – 4)

I have never come across as crazy a city as London … and its so different trying to establish a life here compared to just visiting in transit.
Still on the Aussie dollar, it feels like you are throwing 50 dollar bills into a fire, the burn rate is just out of control ….and finding accommodation sounds easier than it is, with places being let the day they hit the market … however, after pounding the pavement for 3 days, and seeing some pretty ordinary ‘rooms’, we found our new home.

GOODBYE DINNER

Last night in Poland we had dinner at Jurek’s, with my uncle and aunty (from Melbourne), who also happen to be in Poznan on holidays.

THE SHACK

On return to Poznan, Jurek was nice enough to offer his “Weekend Shack”, and I did not hesitate to accept....its only about 10km out of Poznan, surrounded by woods, and lakes, …. And with Pamela still feeling a bit run down, it was perfect for just relaxing …. And I washed the Nugget.

THE END OF THE ROAD

The Nugget covered almost 13,000km without any problems ….. reaching speeds of 150km/h (on the Autobahns), as well as coping with some pretty rough dirt goat tracks in Romania, Turkey, and lets not forget my favorite place (NOT) Albania.

BACK TO POZNAN

With 3 days to go, and weather pretty crap, we headed back to Poznan ….. getting ready for the big move to London…. We are both a little tired (as anyone would having traveled constantly for 2 months), and looking forward to relaxing in last few days, and life resuming back to normal …. Whatever that is in London!!

PANORAMA RACLAWICKA

One place we did visit, was a massive (120m long, 15m high) 360 degree panorama painting of the Battle of Raclawice, created in late 1800’s to commemorate a battle in which the Polish peasant army (led by General Tadeusz Kosciuszko) defeated Russian forces…. If the name is familiar, its because the highest mountain in Australia was actually named in his honor.
It was quite impressive, and even though you had to pay extra to take pictures (and we didn’t), Pamela couldn’t help herself, and snuck a few in.

WROCLAW

Arrived to a cold, windy and rainy Wroclaw (feels more like an Aussie winter than a European summer ... I guess its still summer over here??) …. Pamela has developed a cold, and is going through Sudafeds quicker than a Meth-kiddy.
We wandered around the city, but the weather has really put bit of a dampener on things …. And with Pamela being the chief photographer (me being Chief-Blogger) and not feeling well, she wasn’t in the mood for too many photos.

BACK IN POLAND

We stopped for a few days, in this little town called Polanica Zdroj (near the Czech border) … a good place to relax and unwind …. And it actually feels really good to be back in Poland …. and after traveling for past few weeks burning the Euros, it’s a shock to how cheap everything is here.
Today I spent all day at the internet café, sending out CVs for job vacancies, and scouting accommodation in London…. Tomorrow may do the same, or move on .. don’t know yet…. (we are not far from Poznan, and our flights to London are booked from there on Tuesday 12-Sep-06, so we are in no hurry….(To date we have traveled over 12,000km, and its good to do nothing for a change).

PRAGUE

As magnificent as Prague is (with an atmosphere that Vienna lacks), it has been spoiled by the excesses of tourism …. the locals in the Old City are quite abrupt (on brink of being rude), and it really feels like they don’t care that you are a visitor (tourist), cause there are plenty more coming tomorrow.
…. But still a nice city to wander about (and get lost amongst its winding streets.

CESKY KRUMLOV

Stopped for a day trip around this town, which looks like it has not changed in centuries.

AFTER THE HARVEST

The wheat fields have been harvested, and look quite bare, compared with a couple of months ago.

SUNDAY IN AUSTRIA

We planned to spend another day or so in Austria, but on the way to Prague, all the little towns seemed almost closed …. And trying to find a room for the night (a bed, or anything at all) was impossible …. (and the Motels that were attended advised us that they do not do vacancies on Sunday .. what the???)
So we kept on driving, and crossed the border into the Czech Republic… where accommodation was a lot cheaper, and easily accessible….. What I want to know is where do all the Austrians go on Sunday Afternoon?? … and where do they find accommodations??

BUTTERFLY HOUSE

We visited the Butterfly House (adjacent the Palace) … and just sat around watching them fly around.