The end of my Amazing Adventure

Hi All,

Well yes i probably should have written this sometime in the past 2 and a half weeks, on my arrival home. It would have been fresher then, but i haven't really thought of anything else other than my fabulous, wonderful, spectacular, awesome trip since i got on the Plane to fly home.

Well the start of my journey home was great - Peak hour on the Tube with my luggage and souvenirs bumping along behind me, but at least my Oyster (tube payment card) didn't make me put more money on it for the last leg of my trip.
I got to the Airport without a hassle, checked my way through to departures and waited paitently to board Qantas and sit in my HORROR seat of 'F' which is right in the middle of the plane not on the aisle and not on a window... Not happy :( Until the lovely Air hostess told me i was now on the Aisle... Happy :)
Turns out my "Aisle" was at the divide between last class (me) and preium Economy (them) so i had oodles of leg room. Flight was good, no problems flying or sleeping in the daylight. Did however watch "Taken" which i was warned not to watch. (it was about a couple of girls who go to Paris for a holiday and get abducted and all sorts of nasty things happen...) Seeing as i was flying away from Paris, i decided to watch that and it was good- won't stop me going back!

Our stop over was at Hong Kong and everyone had to leave the plane, but we were allowed to leave our gear on board. Funny thing was that we were there for such a short period of time, I got off and was immediately directed back thru customs and into the departures lounge for my next flight. I did however race thru the massive terminal (also the first Airport i have been to, that did not speak English first lol) to email my friend June as I still hadn't confirmed with her to pick me up from Melbourne. After doing so, i climbed back onto the Plane and headed for home, Well nearly!

After the long flight from Hong Kong, which was probably only long because you either want to be home or travelling, not the in between bit. We landed in Melbourne and all was cool, collected my Luggage, Declared my few articles of Wood i had brought home and then waited in Customs for all the really stupid people to be scolded and have their food and plants and animal products taken off them. Honestly - if these tourists are so dumb that they can't work out that their not allowed to bring food and stuff into Australia, how the hell do they fill out their Passport Application Forms? I was actually going to offer to volunteer at the Airport as the chief slapper! I would like to be able to SLAP stupid people, who try and bring that stuff in through customs. Then they should have their passports removed and be put on the first plane back to wherever they came from! Oh i'm so glad i don't have to put up with anything quite like that, otherwise i might have a criminal record by now...
Anyway, June had recieved my email and was waiting to pick me up in Melbourne. My wonderful welcoming party of 1! She took be home, fed me, let me run off at the mouth wbout my fabulous trip and then gave me a bed. After a few hours sleep, it was back to the Airport, where i met Sammy and Christie heading for Queensland. Was great to see them, even if Sammy was about as excited to see me, as i was to be waiting in the customs line!
A very short flight home to Mildura and i was met by another fantastic welcoming party of 1! Thank God for Mum's! Kerston and Family were coming, but the plane arrived early, so they missed out on my big entrance. No problems though, we all headed home and spent the next few hours going thru all my travel goodies and telling stories. The Twins loved their knives, but Toby had a cut before they'd even gone home... (I still think they are a good idea!)

So here i am 2 weeks later. I dived back into life when i arrived, but i still don't feel settled yet. I keep looking through my 3000+ photos and renaming them so i'll remember them in future, but i am continuously planning my next adventure.

It really has been the experience of a lifetime. A dream holiday that i will never, never, never forget and i only hope that someday i will have as much fun and enjoyment out of life, as i did when i was in Europe. Thanks for Reading! xoxo

London visit number 3!

Okay, so i now realise that i am not talking to myself and that you are keeping up with me, it's just that you actually have lives and they don't revolve around me! That is fair enough (laughing out loud!)

Well, i've been back a read a bit of what i have written and i apologise for my terrible spelling, it's unbelievable. i didn't understand half of what i was writing, so i thank you for persisting with it!

Okay, i need to finish my tour of Ireland, but i might leave that til later, so i'll start with the day after my birthday:

Rachael, Caitlin and i shopped around for a while in the morning, Edinburgh is just such a pretty place, you can walk aimlessly around the old town and alwasy find something to look at. As the weather was so nice as well - you didn't have to worry about keeping warm and dry, so very strange. I do have to say that it is the first time that i have ever had the opportunity to wear shorts and a t-shirt on my birthday, so that is another tick in the box!

My Contiki buddy Anna arrived in the afternoon and we picked her up from the train station and took her back up the 20'000 stairs it takes to get to our hostel. (As the royal mile was built on this massive rock shelf caused by a volcano a brazillian years ago, either side of it slopes down dramatically and you have to climb these lanes of stairs, called closes to get anywhere...)

The Hostel was great, everyone was very friendly and it was the first hostel i had been to, where the beds are actually named! Anna and i were in the opposites room, Anna had Drunk and Sober, i had Up and Down! Caitlin and Rachael were in the room next door, titled "Dwarves that failed the screen test..." So caitlin was in spanky and Rach was in Burpy. It may not seem funny to you, but if you knew the girls, you would think the beds had been picked out suitably!

Anyway, as i may hav ementioned, when Kim, Holly, Rach and i were in Dublin, we went shopping for some new outfits for my party. We were thinking maybe a fake hen's night, seeing as there are SO MANY of them over here, but once we had seen the never ending variety of Fluro clothing, it was a mission to find the most ridiculous outfits to dress the other girls who didn't get to come shopping - so well done Anna and Caitlin for stepping up to it and wearing the hideous clothes out than night!

So Friday night, we went out for tea, then back to the hostel, got glammed up and headed out on the town! What a night we had! Brilliant - i think because we looked so special, we attracted people who were interested in having a laugh, so we met a lot of local people and visited a few pubs and basically just really enjoyed everything!


Obviously the next day, was deemed a recovery day, so we slept in for a while before meeting up Travis, who had just finished his Haggis tour. Travis was on our Contiki tour as well, so it was great that we kept meeting up with each other. We then met up with Kim and Holly who were staying out of town to say Goodbye :(

Kim and Holly have hired a camper and are spending the next 40 days touring England, Scotland and Wales in it, so they headed off to the highlands that afternoon. I have to say, a lot of the reason i have had such a wonderful time over here, is because i met such wonderful people and together we have become the best of friends. I love them dearly and wish them well on their travels, i know we will catch up sometime soon and stay in touch always.

Rach, Caitlin, Anna, Travis and I went back to Frankenstiens for dinner again, then we said goodbye to Travis, who had to head back to London and after that, we hit the pub again and you can probably see where this is going...

After a not so late night, we headed back to the hostel and just sat around chatting, it seems that is the most fun sometimes!

The next morning, we headed to the t-shirt printing shop and had black t-shirts made up for us all. On the front they say: Edinburgh Spoonage Festival 2009 and on the back, it's Unden Schliben! Which is a phrase that will eventually make it into the oxford dictionary, thanks to the imagination of Rachael!

Anna had to leave Sunday lunch time, so after putting her on the train back to Stardust, Burmingham (lol) Rach and i packed our bags and after walking around some more, we waited for our bus to head back to London.

Rachael and I had ooked our bus tickets at the same web site, only a few hours apart, but when we arrived at the station, we were on 2 seperate buses, so that was disappointing. However, it was an overnight trip, so sleep was high on both our lists of things to do, so it didn't make a difference.

After an uneventful night on the bus, we were back in London. I headed back to Cherann's place with my bags, then had a shower and headed back to Picadilly Circus to - you guessed it, meet up with Rachael and Travis! We also got to catch up with Saffa Catherine! Cat was also on our Contiki tour, but she and her sister Annie, left in Athens - so it was lovely to see her again. WE shopped around for a while, doing some time wating activities then went our seperate ways. I walked down to Ahrrods and shopped, or should i say wandered around with eyes like saucers at all of the amazing stuff they have! WOW - (they also have Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, so i did stop and have myself a snack!

I then headed to Baden-Powell House, checked that out and took some photos! I headed home and Cherann cooked my a lovely dinner and we wanderd around the streets of West Hampstead, ah, what a lovely day!

The following day, i slept in and then met Rachael at the scence museum for a look around and we decided to go and see Avenue Q the following day. After some more wandering and checking out London, we parted and i headed off an the train to my new friends Pat and Ted, who took me under their wings, from the Melbourne airport on the way over. I have kept in touch with them all the time, so it was lovely to be invited out for a delicious home cooked meal. I also met their Son Richard and 2 pet tortise. I had the most lovely night and once again, it is great to have met these wonderful people, who i know i will see again! (Just for your information we had an English Roast of Chicken, Potatoes, Broccoli, Peas, Sweet potato, Carrots and gravy, followed by apple crumble and cream and custard, oh and fruit salad - so i had the most enjoyable night!)

This morning, i got up and headed off to the Museum of Natural History, met up with Rach and walked amongst the dinosaurs, and stuffed animals of every variety. Was really good to see actually, even if the koala's were a light smokey, white colour and the Tassie devil was light brown - they obviously fade over time!It was quite enjoyable!

Afterwards, Rach took me to the Walkabout, which is an chain of Aussie like pubs around the city, we had lunch, brought our tickets to Avenue Q and walked around trafalgar square where every canadian in London was celebrating Canada Day. Interesting....

This evening, in our shorts and tee's (it was 33 degrees again today) we headed off to the Theatre and enjyed a rather interesting production which involves adult puppets interacting with humans and participating in all sorts of extra-curicular activities. A great night really!

Well, here i now sit, it's 2 am and i'm still writing the blog - i have not written about the last half of Dublin or the First half of Edinburgh, but i will eventually get to it.

As for me, i'm going to sign off and get some well earned sleep!

Sheri xoxo