The ups and the downs...

SO MUCH has happened since I last wrote – I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to condense such a crazy period of my life into digestible (hopefully even entertaining?) ramblings.

In a nutshell, my life has been a major rollercoaster ride over the past few months, complete with major highs and devastating lows. The good news is I’m steadily climbing again. And hoping it levels out for a while.

Details are below to bring you up to speed.


Belfast girls weekend away
12th – 13th April
Kimmie asked at some point in March if I was keen on a weekend away in Belfast. I said no, not particularly. She said flights were £10 each way. We booked, and sure enough, eventually we went (with Christina, another friend of ours) for a girls weekend away.
Belfast is a genuinely interesting place. Not the prettiest of cities, or even the most happening - the Belfast Wheel (a super dodgy version of the London Eye, minus the Thames and the view) seemed to be a leading tourist attraction – but honestly really interesting. We did a Black Taxi Tour (the OTHER main touristy thing to do) with an awesome driver, who explained all of the conflict history to us whilst driving us around the Protestant vs. Catholic parts of town and showing us all the war murals. I had no idea that there was still a Berlin Wall-like structure dividing the city in two – granted, a gate is opened during the day to allow access but at night the two parts of the city are separated by 6m(ish) high walls for safety. AND apparently the cemetery has a wall built underground, separating the Protestants from the Catholics even in death. Full on stuff.
Our awesome taxi driver also told us where to go out for dinner / drinks, etc. and we ended up having a brilliant night out with the scantily-clad locals, feeling extremely over-dressed (literally).
Given the meagre at best results returned by both Google and Ask.com to the apparently unusual query of ‘Belfast + tourist attractions’, we had pre-booked a day trip in the Northern Irish countryside for the following day – to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (bring it on) and the slightly more interesting sounding Giant’s Causeway. The rope bridge was a rope bridge, but it was fortunately a rope bridge in a gorgeous Northern Irish coastal location with views across the water to Scotland. Worth the trip for a few pretty pics and some sunshine on our faces if nothing else.
The Giant’s Causeway was super cool – it’s an all natural geological wonder, explained in my un-geologically-educated terms as lots of perfectly hexagon-shaped rock formations by the beach. See pics. They’ll do a better job explaining than I will. Again, worth the trip for the sunshine, company, ice cream, and cool pics of perfectly hexagon-shaped rock formations by the beach (how many people can say they have those??).
Overall despite low expectations, we made our own fun and had a brilliant time. And I genuinely recommend a visit to Belfast for anyone interested in the historical side of things. Really interesting.


A few days later…
I broke up with Pete FYI (all good, totally the right thing).


A few hours later… - Operation Water Feature
I woke at 2am to the sound of dripping.
To keep a very entertaining and potentially very lengthy story brief - a few drops from my ceiling (NB I'm in the middle floor of the house and the bathroom is NOT directly above my room) turned into a steady stream of hot, dirty black water leaking through my ceiling. An hour and a half later - after we realised it wasn’t getting better and moved all my stuff out in about 5 minutes flat - the ceiling collapsed.
Turns out the central heating had died that evening, and had taken the hot water with it... apparently all the hot water went into some emergency reservoir tank thing, the (broken) pipes leading into which are in the ceiling above my room. 80 litres of hot water came through my ceiling, and eventually flooded through my floor into the living room below. Lots of fun. Karma??


For the next month…
I was homeless. Well, roomless. Sleeping on the couch, sleeping in Ben’s room (when he went to Oz for a week), sleeping in Andrew’s room (when he went away for the weekend), sleeping in Rich’s room (when he was at his girlfriends house), sleeping in Ella’s room (when no other room was available and I refused to sleep on the couch due to the newfound presence of a rat on the ground floor). Fun and games.


Cinque Terre long weekend away to meet Mike
3rd – 5th May
Mike had left Rotterdam to begin his European adventure.
I had nothing to do for the first long weekend in May.
I take full credit for suggesting a weekend away to the gorgeous Cinque Terre (five small cliff-top towns on the north-west coast of Italy near Genoa / Pisa).
We met up on the Saturday afternoon in the beautiful little town of Manarola. Upon arrival, Mike had already met up with Lee (his good friend) and Victoria & Noah (Lee’s lovely lady & gorgeous son, respectively) and taken them to the nearest bar, in true Mike style. I was greeted with a beer before I was allowed up to the hostel to drop off my bags.
That afternoon Mike and I walked from Manarola to Riomaggiore, the next and final town in the Cinque Terre (the idea is that you walk between each of the towns along the beautiful coastal paths during your stay – Manarola is fourth in the sequence). That stretch of the walk is meant to be one of the most scenic and it was truly amazing, especially as we walked back watching the sun set, having enjoyed a glass of the local Cinque Terre vino overlooking the sea. Very nice.
The following day Team Cinque Terre (Noah included) walked (or in Noah’s case, got carried) from Manarola to the next town in the opposite direction, Corniglia, where we enjoyed a lovely breakfast in a gorgeous café in the town square, working on our tans in the sunshine.
Adequately fed and watered, Mike, Lee and I left Victoria and the little one in Corniglia as the path ahead got steeper and more treacherous (not really). We pushed on for the next 45 minutes or so to Vernazza, which was my favourite of the 5 Terre. Absolutely gorgeous town, with a beautiful beach / port area that I needless to say took millions of photos of. Victoria & Noah trained it over to meet us for lunch - by the time they’d arrived we had already sampled (and thoroughly enjoyed) a glass of the local Cinque Terre white, and with them proceeded to sample (and thoroughly enjoy) a slice each of the world’s biggest & best Italian pizza. Followed by Crema Cinque Terre-flavoured gelato. When in Rome…
From there Victoria & Noah bade us farewell and returned to Manarola as us three hardcore hikers braved the elements (35ish degree heat, it’s a tough life!) to walk the final and most difficult, uphill stretch to Monterosso – the fifth and final town where another glass of Cinque Terre vino awaited our arrival.
The evening’s festivities included a big fat meal to overcompensate for the day’s strenuous exercise, and a bottle of Cinque Terre vino for the table (sensing a theme here?? That stuff is amazing!) to complete the evening.
The following day I (sadly) had to leave relatively early to catch my flight back to London. Words really don’t do this area justice so again, pics are up on facebook for anyone interested. Very highly recommended (and not just for the wine!).


A month and a day after my ceiling collapsed…
I got my (newly renovated) room back. Two days before my birthday.


The Festival of Jas (18th May and the following week)
Anyone who knows me well will have expected nothing less than a festival, and I delivered. I had an absolutely fantastic few days, with spirits heightened even further by the fact I had a home again.


Norwegian Fjords long weekend away
24th – 26th May
This was a bit of a random one. We’d been searching online for cheap flights for the long weekend, with San Sebastian or perhaps the south of Spain in mind… then someone (Nuals?) came across cheap flights to Stavanger and all of a sudden the Norwegian fjords were a go.
And what a go-er they were. That part of the world is absolutely stunning. Needless to say I’ve done a lot of travel since I’ve been here (as well as beforehand), and the Norwegian fjords go down as one of my favourite places of any I’ve ever visited. Seriously.
Team Norway (Nuals, Tilley, our friend Ange and I) flew into Stavanger late on the Friday night, although it felt as though it was about 4pm… we were a few weeks ahead of the midnight sun so it never really got dark. Quite cool! We called it a night upon arrival at our hotel – resting up in preparation for the big weekend ahead.
Saturday morning we made our way down to the lovely waterfront area, and got ourselves on the first ferry to Tau… the first stop en route to the hostel we’d booked in the middle of nowhere in Fjord-land. The ferry ride itself was spectacular, bettered only by the fresh prawns we’d bought from the fish man at Stavanger pier, which we proceeded to demolish en route… yum.
From Tau we had to get a bus for half an hour or so into the Norwegian countryside before reaching our destination – Preikestolhytta, our hostel. It was absolutely gorgeous. I’ve never been so excited by accommodation at any point in my life.
Preikestolhytta is located right on a gorgeous lake (with amazing views from each bedroom) and at the base of the hiking trail that leads to the world-famous Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) lookout which goes down as one of the best views and most amazing places I’ve ever seen in my life. The hostel itself used to be a hiker’s lodge so is literally in the middle of nowhere. Very cool.
After expending some much-needed energy jumping up and down with excitement, Nuals and I said our farewells to Tilley and Ange and took off up the hiking trail. Five minutes later, already exhausted, we considered coming back!
Nevertheless we trekked on, and when we reached the top every pant, curse and bead of sweat was worth it a million times over. The view was AMAZING. If a picture says a thousand words I’ll stop right here and advise you to check out the pics on facebook… that view is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, it literally took my breath away. Both Nuals and I were speechless for a good half hour while we tried to capture every angle of the view possible, should we ever forget what it looked like (highly unlikely). Absolutely stunning / awe-inspiring / truly beautiful.
We finally tore ourselves away to walk back to the hostel in time for dinner, and tried our hardest to dull down our description of the amazing past few hours to poor Ange in particular, who had been desperate to hike the trail with us however had damaged her foot royally the week before playing softball (incl. fractures and torn ligaments) and was hobbling around on crutches. We promised to take her on a ferry ride down the fjord the following day so she could still see it, albeit from a different angle.
True to our word, the following day we all caught a local ferry to the end of the Lysefjord (the fjord we’d seen from Preikestolen the day before) and back, appreciating the gorgeous scenery that (almost) matched what we’d seen from above.
Our third and final day was spent tearing ourselves away from Preikestolhytta (it took a while) and travelling back to explore Stavanger itself before our flight home that evening. It’s quite a cute little city / big town – the centre has gorgeous cobbled streets that we explored, enjoying the sunshine and checking out a few cute shops. A lovely day to end an amazing weekend, and we were all very sad to leave when the time came to get on the plane.
Not that we could have afforded to stay any longer really, we were all on the verge of declaring bankruptcy after only 3 days… it was worth it though. AMAZING again. Go there!!!


Monday, 2nd June
Life took a turn for the worse.
I got a phone call saying Ange (who I’d been in Norway with a week earlier) was in hospital in a coma. I was told to prepare for the worst. I spent the day & night in an intensive care ward praying to a God I’m not even sure exists.


Tuesday, 3rd June
Ange passed away.
I won’t go into details here (online privacy, etc. etc.) but I think I’ve filled most of you in on what happened… a pretty devastating turn of events and certainly something that changed my perspective on what’s important in life, that’s for sure.


For the next few weeks…
If my life’s been a rollercoaster recently, this was when I hit the bottom. Luckily I had amazing friends over here who were going through exactly the same emotions I was, so we helped each other through it.


Canterbury & Kent weekend away
14th – 15th June
In the hope that getting out of London would help (and because Kimmie had a friend in town), a group of us organised a weekend away in the English countryside. Very randomly. We were at a pub on a Tuesday night and decided to hire a people-mover to go explore Kent that coming weekend because apparently there were some tunnels (?) there worth seeing. As you do.
In the end there were 7 of us that went, and we had a ball. We spent Saturday sightseeing around Canterbury – one of Nuals’ friends lives there so played the part of tour-guide magnificently – and Sunday lunging (in joke) our way around Leeds Castle, which incidentally is nowhere near Leeds. For the record I have no idea what tunnels we were supposed to see, but we didn’t see any!
That, combined with numerous pub stop-overs, a visit to the rocky ‘beach’ at 3:30am on Sunday morning, and crooning to ‘Bleeding Love’ and ‘Hey There Delilah’ at all times in which our people-mover wheels were in motion, made for a very entertaining weekend away. Just what the doctor ordered.


Royal Ascot – 21st June
Another posh day at the races, drinking Pimm’s and stalking the Queen. I didn’t bet anything, clearly I didn’t win anything but I had a great time anyway – I think the entire population of Australians in London was there.
I won’t go into much detail other than to say it was great to have an excuse to dress up (I went all out with a proper fascinator the size of my head this year) and have a fun day out with all our friends. Always a good laugh.


Espinho (Portugal) beach weekend away
28th – 29th June
Kimmie and I had booked this a few weeks prior, when we just needed to get out of London for a few days and forget about everything. It worked!
Unfortunately Kimmie had torn a ligament in her ankle the week prior (!) and was on crutches the entire time (we hadn’t been able to change our flights), but that just ended up meaning more beach time which wasn’t a bad thing at all. Espinho is a tiny little Portuguese village just outside of Porto on the north coast. It’s literally a few quiet, dusty streets full of locals (hardly any tourists in sight) and a long sandy beach. That’s pretty much it. We loved it. Given the circumstances, once settled we barely moved from the sand, and after two days of relaxation had decent tans to show for our hard work. We enjoyed local coffee (amazing), local seafood and local wine... what more could we ask for?? It was a very stress-free weekend away.


Two days later… 1st July
The big move.
For various reasons I decided to move house and have a fresh start in London. After house-hunting for all of a week and a half (and for a 3 or 4 bedroom house of all things - didn’t think I’d be doing that until I had the standard husband, dog and 3.2 kids) I moved in with Christina (the friend of a friend who came to Belfast & Kent, etc.) in a gorgeous 3 bed house in Clapham Junction.
Randomly the house is literally a street away from Kimmie and about 5 mins from most of my London-based friends, and it’s awesome. We both absolutely love it. It feels so unbelievably homely (I guess as there was no-one already living here when we moved in, it’s entirely ours) and we love having people come round or crash so all of you need to get off your butts and come visit!!
The original plan was to find a guy to take the third room (we figured three girls might get a bit hormonal :) but in the process of helping me move, Nuals decided she loved the place and two days later she and Tilley moved in! So much fun, it’s been the most happening house for the past few months, literally like an ongoing episode of Friends.
Unfortunately Nuals & Tilley are now fast approaching their return to Sydney so Christina and I have been interviewing guys for the past week or two (a process very similar to what I imagine speed-dating to be like, highly entertaining!) and have found a really lovely guy to move in when they go. Incidentally his name is Pete and he’s English!! (no, not the same Pete but still random!)
Not looking forward to our happy family being disbanded when Nuals & Tilley leave, but it will be interesting to test out the new dynamic once Pete moves in in a couple of weeks. So it’s all happening on the house front as well.


And that’s pretty much it (!).

Since the move, life’s continued to be busy (as always) including various catch-ups with friends, our housewarming (amongst other parties), the O2 wireless festival in Hyde Park (jumping up and down to Powderfinger with the million other Aussies paying tribute in London’s liquid sunshine), the Kylie concert, etc., etc. but such is London life. ‘Busy’ is its middle name.

Given the above will take 3 weeks to read already I’ll leave it there for now, and update again in due course with the latest on my visa / working situation (my battle against the English authorities continues… still!!!) and upcoming travel plans… nothing like a bit of suspense!
Hope you’re all well, miss you all HEAPS so keep in touch and let me know what you’re all up to. Speak soon!

xxx

Jas

Travels home, and home again.

Hey peoples.

Well it's been the usual 6 or so weeks since I last wrote, so prepare yourselves for another epic update on the life of your favourite expat (or so I like to tell myself). There's actually not as much to update on this time around, so you might just get to the end. God forbid.

Let's start with my flight halfway round the world for a boy who had me in tears en route at Hong Kong airport.. (that could be the start of a bad TV soap right there)...
Turns out Mini Murray is as determined and stubborn a little bugger as his Aunty Jas. Despite Kat steering well clear of curry (as per my well-researched orders), the little one decided enough was enough, and made his entrance into the world at 5:40pm on 18th February – a day early and while yours truly was still airborne. I landed in Hong Kong airport to a text message from Max Christopher Murray (he's a quick learner, that boy) introducing himself as my new nephew and saying he couldn't wait to meet me. Needless to say I spent the next hour in tears and on the phone to anyone who would listen, texting half of you, and announcing Max' arrival on facebook. The wonders of modern communication.

My two weeks in Sydney flew by, as expected. I spent as much time as possible with mum & dad and obviously my sister, brother-in-law and gorgeous new nephew (who, incidentally, happens to be the most gorgeous boy in the world – what can I say, Krnjetin blood :).
I caught up with as many of you as I could one-on-one, hit the beach a couple of times to hide my newfound English pasty-ness, and obviously said hello and waved goodbye at my round 2

farewell drinks at Opera Bar.

Needless to say I had a brilliant time, although the concept of being home for a holiday proved a little harder to get my head around than one would expect. It took me over a week of being back home to comprehend that I would actually have to go back to London, and several weeks upon returning here (to my other 'home') to get back in the swing of things and stop missing everyone so much!

Fortunately my period of readjustment into London life was short-lived – after months of asking for more work, my ever-helpful employers decided to make up for my previous boredom and granted my request. Work began to consume my working weeks with early starts and 10pm-ish finishes (sans lunch break, naturally) from the day I got back.

I also had friends in town to bring me back to reality – I must say going out with them every night in various parts of London reminded me of how much I love this city. Even if all of you aren't here.

Dave (Sheridan) arrived a few weeks after my return, and stayed with me for about a week before heading up to his beloved Middlesborough. I think we were out every night but one (when we made the world's best pasta / stir fry concoction and polished off a bottle of wine while watching rubbish TV with the housemates), and I take pride in the fact his knowledge of Putney / Clapham pubs has grown exponentially.
We had a great time. So good, in fact, that he's moving down from the Boro sooner than expected (i.e. this week) to join in the London fun & games. Very exciting!

A few days after Davo left (and my body had forgiven me my recent negligence), Mike arrived. Very exciting again - I hadn't seen Mike (my old Sydney flatmate) since my first farewell almost a year ago, and there was lots to catch up on. Needless to say another busy week ensued, culminating in a spontaneous trip to the Cotswolds which failed miserably. The entertaining attempt did result in a day in Oxford (and some random nearby town, when Mike got us lost :) however, so a pretty good failure by all accounts.

That was about two weeks ago. Following Mike's departure, life regained some semblance of normality, although work continued to demand blood, sweat & tears and visa paperwork kept me up till all hours of the morning. London life at its best.
Fortunately that only lasted a week or so before BA whisked me off to Belgrade (Serbia) for a bit of family fun. I'd booked a few days off work before Easter to visit the city of my birth, that I hadn't been back to for over five years (and to catch up on sleep!).

I had a great time. Visiting Belgrade is always the same, really - lots of long chats over black Turkish coffee (for my grandparents, etc, the usual weak latte for me - I'm a Serbian disgrace :) and trips down memory lane to see the places my parents and I frequented before we moved to Sydney. Lots of food (anything I've said I liked at any point in my life will be waiting for me in quantities befitting an army) including desserts / cakes (six varieties awaited my arrival) and traditional Serbian alcohol (home-made cherry brandy... hello!).
It was great to spend rare, quality time with my family – mum's side in Belgrade and dad's side in Pozarevac about an hours drive away. I felt at home amongst people who shared my surname (or at the very least could pronounce it) and who complemented my ability to speak the language, despite my grammatical massacre of it. I wish I could go more often.

So there you go. That's the latest.

I'll leave it there, and will update in due course with the latest visa dramas (my war against the English authorities continues), and debriefs on my upcoming trips to Rotterdam (to visit Mike – if I can organise it in time), Belfast (cheap flights = a girls' weekend away), Cinque Terre in Italy (to again meet Mike, who will be in the area over a long weekend) and the Norwegian fjords (for the second long weekend in May). All subject to the UK authorities playing nice.

Hope all's well back at home #1.

Love you all, miss you all. Speak soon.

xx

A Christmas Odyssey

A big 2008 hello to you all!

Hope you had a brilliant festive break, and are coping as well as can be expected with the return to work and normality.

Here are some more miscellaneous ramblings for you on the London Life of Jas. Or rather, here is a thesis of miscellaneous ramblings, picking up from my Salzburg weekend away and filling you in on all my adventures since.

Salzburg (Christmas party & weekend away)
7th - 9th December
It was an early start as Fallon Air took off from Gatwick at an ungodly hour to land in Salzburg a few hours later amid mountains covered in snow. The English majority were quite amused at my immediate excitement, having not seen snow for about five years (since I was last over here) but none of the white stuff fell during our stay unfortunately.

It was freezing without that reward.
We stayed at an amazing resort right on a lake by the mountains (Lake Wolfgang?), and started the day off with lunch & mulled wine - fuel for the Winter Games to follow, where our sawing, reflex, ice-carving and cross-country skiing & shooting skills were put to the test. A highly entertaining afternoon, and I'll take this opportunity to gloat that Team Oz (myself and another Aussie girl) were coming second for ages in the sawing, beating a few of the guy teams... jaws actually dropped. It was brilliant!
That evening consisted of dinner in a Michelin star restaurant (needless to say, very nice) and a boat cruise on the lake, followed by a return to our hotel, underneath which was the 'Mystic Underworld', to get the party started. Despite the name, the underground caves were actually quite cool, and the party went off.

From memory I forced myself to bed at about 4am, knowing Pete wouldn't be too impressed if I was completely out of it for the weekend of sightseeing ahead. And only 3 hours later, it was time to get up again and bus it back to Salzburg airport to meet him and head into the city itself while everyone else flew home.
Salzburg is a really pretty city - not too big and not too much of a to-do city, where you have to tick the boxes in terms of sights you've seen. It's more a place to just wander around and get lost in, appreciating the sights along the way.
Needless to say Saturday involved lots of walking, stopping for regular apfel strudels and / or bratwurst & gluhwein along the way, to warm up (naturally, that was the official excuse).
Saturday night we went to Schloss Mirabell (an old palace in the centre of town) for the Mozart concert, to listen to an amazing solo pianist doing her thing. She truly was amazing, but after being very civilised & cultured for an hour and a half or so, we were quite ready to return to the town centre to hang with the cool kids and enjoy some more mulled wine.
Sunday brought with it the Sound of Music tour and Pete was just beside himself with excitement... :)
Not quite. But he did very well to last the day. The tour was actually better than we both thought it would be - as it turns out, not all of the movie was shot in the heart of Salzburg, so the bus took us out to a gorgeous little town called Mondsee (to see the church where Maria & Capt. von Trapp got married) as well as back out to Lake Wolfgang, so Pete also got to see the gorgeous snowy scenery where I'd been a few days before. Well worth it.

So yet another brilliant weekend away! Apparently this one was too much fun though - I flew home with a slightly sore throat on the Sunday night which subsequently worsened to become tonsilitis. I had the entire following week off work with a high fever, literally unable to stand without holding on to walls for support and unable to eat for about 5 days.. lots of fun!

A week after my well-timed recovery, it was time to pack my bags once again for the Eastern Europe tour I'd booked for the Christmas break. I had a week off work (that wasn't coming out of my annual leave) and I wasn't about to let it go to waste!

I'd booked the tour on my own - Pete wasn't able to come with me (and was keen to spend Christmas with his family), and most of my friends were either in Australia or in places too cold for me to ever contemplate going in the wintertime (Scandinavia / Russia, etc.). So I found a Top Deck tour that sounded good and off I went! It was brilliant... details below (as abridged as possible).

London --> Berlin
Sat, 22nd December
Arrived at the hostel in the early afternoon, and made my first friend (another Aussie girl travelling alone who was my designated room-share buddy). Went for a bit of a wander around to explore the area we were in, which was basically the shopping heart of Berlin. How convenient :)
Met the tour leader & group that night - there were about 16 or so of us in total. ALL living in London, mainly Aussies & Kiwis (as usual) and generally around the 25 - 30ish age group with a few exceptions. Went out for the first German bratwurst & sauerkraut meal of the trip with a few of the other girls, wandered through the nearby Christmas markets, enjoyed some mulled wine (also the first of many to come), and called it a night.

Berlin
Sun, 23rd December
Our only full day in Berlin. We trained it to the Brandenburg Gate to begin our walking tour, five minutes into which (while we were still AT the Brandenburg Gate) I had already lost all feeling in my toes, due to the cold. Brilliant.
The tour was really interesting, it was great to hear all about German / Nazi history and simultaneously see the places so integral to that time. We wandered (hobbled / jogged whilst wiggling toes, trying to regain some feeling) for a few hours past the Gate, several remaining bits of the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag (with it's crazy cool glass tower thing), the Jewish Holocaust memorial (very cool).. past what used to be Hitler's bunker (which is now a carpark), and Checkpoint Charlie - amongst a few other bits & pieces.
By the time we got to Charlie we were too cold to even look, let alone take photos. Our tour guide, already knowing us all too well took us to a beer hall for the traditional litre of beer & German pork knuckle.. SO GOOD.
Warmed up (by a brilliant combination of heating and beer) an hour or so later, we left the hall and returned to visit Charlie, and slowly made our way back towards the hostel via the Checkpoint Charlie museum, the Jewish Holocaust museum (underneath the memorial), a trip up the Reichstag crazy cool glass tower thing (for night-time views of Berlin) and past the now lit up Brandenburg Gate. Very pretty.

Berlin --> Warsaw
Mon, 24th December
A very early start as we needed to get the 6:30am train to Warsaw. It was a 6-ish hour journey through which we primarily slept, with the odd 'ooooooh!!!' of whoever was awake and appreciating the growing mass of snow as we entered Poland.
Arrived, hugely thankful for the mini-bus awaiting our arrival to take us on a bus tour around the city - the temperature was in the minuses (minus 2ish from memory, and snowing lightly) and we were far too freezing to walk. We did get off the bus for an hour or so to explore the old town - relatively small and largely damaged in WWII, but very cute. The tour guide took pity on the shaking Antipodeans in front of her though, and sped up the tour as much as possible, even pointing to a building as we walked past and saying she'd tell us about it on the bus so we didn't have to stand in the cold :)

That evening was interesting. Eastern Europeans celebrate Christmas Eve moreso than Christmas Day, and we'd been warned that nothing would be open that night (no bars, etc.), so to buy the odd bottle of wine and plan to hang out at our hotel for the evening. However, following our amazing pre-booked dinner at the hotel next door (which was the only place serving food that night, apparently, and fed us at 4pm so we'd be out by closing time at 6), we returned to our hotel to find that it didn't have a communal lounge area. Sixteen of us ended up squished into one of the tiny hotel rooms, crowded on and around the bed, for what turned out to be one of the biggest nights of the trip. Very random.

Warsaw --> Krakow
Tues, 25th December
Christmas day!
Another relatively early start following breakfast as we hopped on a train to Krakow. I spent most of the 2-ish hour journey on the phone to home & to Pete - minus Christmas trees and presents but in exactly the sort of white, snowy environment that makes that time of year so special.
Krakow is gorgeous. The old town is really beautiful, much bigger than Warsaw and with a town square that (I've subsequently learnt) is larger than any other in Europe. It's fair to say that Krakow, and most of the other places we saw throughout the tour, would be beautiful at any time of year, however they were just magical at Christmas.
Krakow was beautifully decorated, with Christmas markets (and the smell of mulled wine) filling the square, and Christmas trees on every corner. We did another walking tour with a brilliantly traditional-looking Polish man who clearly had no sympathy for the shaking Antipodeans in front of him (female guides are so much more motherly!) and led us around the old town for close to three (toe-numbing) hours.
The tour was brilliant, we walked through the square, passed many a gorgeous church and headed up to the top of Wawel Castle, with it's concentration of even more pretty churches & chapels from various eras, and views overlooking the city.
That evening we went out to a really nice nearby hotel (again, no restaurants were open) for a big group Christmas meal which was lovely, and following a few drinks, called it a night.

Zakopane (Polish mountains)
Wed, 26th December
We hopped on a mini-bus following breakfast, for the start of our daytrip excursion into the Polish mountains. Zakopane is a lovely Polish resort, where the expected ski runs compete with numerous other winter activities, as well as cute market stalls for those that simply want to wander round and enjoy the sunshine. We didn't have enough time to hit the slopes, but had all booked in for our 'one horse open sleigh' ride through the snow to celebrate Christmas in style.
The temperature was actually quite mild compared to Warsaw & Krakow, probably close to 0 or even +1, and after the usual photo frenzy that accompanies Antipodeans in the snow, we hopped on our sleighs and took off.
I feel compelled to say the ride was lovely - and the scenery truly was - but I felt sick for most of the trip due to (a) going backwards for an hour over numerous bumps, but more importantly (b) the ongoing sound effects (and accompanying odours) coming from the backside of our horse, which was unfortunately positioned quite close to my head. Needless to say I was quite glad when our ride was over!
Next was the second activity of the day - ice-skating on a frozen lake. So much fun (she says, conveniently forgetting the terror of stepping onto the ice - sans handrail - for the first time in about 10 years). Managed to keep my bum dry, thanks to my lovely fellow Top Decker friends who stepped up and offered their arms for the grabbing when required.
That night we bussed it back to Krakow and after changing out of our Michelin man / woman attire, we completed the evening with a lovely dinner at a Jewish restaurant in the Jewish quarter.

Auschwitz & Birkenau (--> Prague)
Thurs, 27th December
Another mini-bus daytrip with the group to visit the Auschwitz & Birkenau concentration camps just outside of Krakow. I can't really say the day was enjoyable, but it was certainly an eye-opening and amazing (in the educational sense) experience to be at a place with so much history. You get to see and truly appreciate how horrific life would have been there, especially given the sub-zero temperature. It snowed quite heavily during our tour and as expected we all froze, whilst wearing numerous layers of warm clothing. I don't even want to imagine what life would have been like in a pyjama-like uniform and wooden clogs with the living conditions (or lack thereof) that we saw.
Auschwitz was the original administration camp where those that were fit for work were based, with only (!) one gas chamber. It's relatively intact and the bulk of our tour was spent there as the buildings in which people lived are now part of the Auschwitz museum. We passed through them with our brilliant guide learning more about the atrocities, walking past deep, wall-sized glass cabinets filled with human hair, or glasses, clothes, shoes, suitcases... prosthetic limbs. It was unbelievably disturbing and one look at each of them was enough to make me leave the room quite quickly.
In contrast to Auschwitz, where the majority of people lived and worked (until they died of the cold, or poor hygiene), Birkenau was known as the Death Camp, housing the major gas chambers. It was largely destroyed with the Nazi's fleeing attempts to remove all evidence of their atrocities, so the tour here was brief.
Overall, it was definitely a worthwhile excursion and I'm really glad I've seen the camps for myself, but the day was sombre to say the least.
Upon our return that evening, we had a few hours left in Krakow before hopping on our overnight train to Prague.

Not quite five star accommodation, I must say - six of us squished into a compartment the size of two toilet cubicles (!), three-tiered bunks on each side with about a metre's space in between. Not the best night's sleep I've ever had, but another experience that's for sure!

Prague
Fri, 28th December
Arrived in Prague in the dark, early hours of the morning and made our way to the hotel for a quick shower and buffet breakfast. An hour later, feeling human again, we set off into town for the start of our walking tour in the balmy 0-ish degree weather.
We began the tour in Wenceslas Square in front of the National Museum, and wandered through gorgeous streets filled with souvenir shops selling Bohemian crystal, amber and garnet jewellery in every possible design, along with Russian dolls and the usual tacky t-shirts, finally reaching the gorgeous old town square. Again - what would normally have been a pretty town square anyway was just gorgeous, with a huge Christmas tree in the centre surrounded by Christmas market stalls selling more touristy gifts, as well as the usual mulled wine and local delicacies.
We wandered on through the Jewish Quarter, towards Charles' Bridge with its amazing views up to Hradcany Castle and its buzz of activity, and up to the castle itself for absolutely stunning views of the city.
They say Prague is the 'city of a hundred spires' and it truly did look that way from high above - oddly enough there were also sections of it that reminded me of Dubrovnik with its red-roof houses as well. It's just gorgeous.
A late lunch naturally consisted of the staple beer, sausages and potatoes (they don't really do greens in Eastern Europe, I found), and from there the rest of the day was ours to wander aimlessly and get lost in the gorgeous city streets, each as pretty as the next. We wandered back up to the castle a few hours later for even more amazing (if that's possible) views of Prague at night, and completed the evening with yet another big fat meal. When in Rome....

Cesky Krumlov
Sat, 29th December
Saturday was a free day for the Top Deck gang to wander around and explore Prague on their own, however since a few of us had late flights back to London (or were staying in Prague for NYE) following the tour, we organised a 'tour within a tour', and booked a day trip out to Cesky Krumlov.
Cesky is a little town about two and a half hours out of Prague by bus, and is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site - absolutely gorgeous, right out of a fairy tale. No major sights to see other than the castle, but a really picturesque city (with the added magic of a covering of snow) to appreciate.
After completing our walking tour in less than ten minutes (literally - the old town is tiny!), we sat down for a 3-course lunch we were pleased to learn was included within the tour price. To exemplify the apparent 'no greens' policy of the Czech Republic, we were offered a choice of four side dishes to accompany our mains - (a) mashed potato, (b) fried potato, (c) baked potato, and (d) potato salad. The Death By Potato challenge aside, the meal was amazing, with the best apple strudel of the trip for dessert. Nothing like a healthy strudel with cream & ice cream to compliment a carb overdose.
Following further wanderings around gorgeous Cesky (we're on a first name basis these days), we bussed it back to Prague to meet up with the rest of our fellow Top Deck buddies for The Final Supper. Yes. More food.
A quarter of a duck with sauerkraut and dumplings (oh, and hot strawberries in ice cream, for dessert) later, I felt truly ill but (disgustingly, looking back) satisfied I had ticked all the mandatories off my 'to-eat list' of Eastern Europe. Success! :)

Prague --> London
Sun, 30th December
The Top Deck tour officially ended after breakfast, so it was time to say goodbye to our new friends and vow to find each other on facebook (honestly, where would the world be without it??).
My flight wasn't until later that night, so I wandered back into town on my own for a final day of aimless wandering, a bit of shopping and the odd hot chocolate to warm up. I was even inspired to send a postcard back home (my 2nd in 10 months) which says something about my love of Prague. The last postcard I sent was from the first city I visited after leaving home (Seville), when travelling was still a novelty and not yet a fortnightly occurence :)
My evening flight home landed at Gatwick at roughly 11pm, in 6 degree weather. Balmy!! Bring on London, if I can handle the Eastern European cold (with my Urticaria 'condition'), London winter is a piece of cake!

So that was that.
Home again after an amazing, last minute 9-day trip away, having finally ticked the Eastern Europe box that had been on my to-see list for some time. I returned with over 300 photos, a thousand more memories and a few extra kilos... well worth it! :)

New Year's Eve was the following day, and after sleeping till 2pm (having arrived home from Gatwick at 1:30am), I geared up for the night ahead. A few of my housemates were actually throwing a party at our place, however Pete and I did our own thing and went into town to watch the fireworks.

I'm not planning on spending another NYE in London (too many places to travel, bring on New York next year!) so I wasn't keen to stay at home.
We had booked tickets to Tattershall's Castle, which is a boat-pub on the Thames, right across from the London Eye. Prime position, at a prime price! But well worth it. We had a few drinks on the top deck, ooooh-ed and ahhhh-ed over the amazing fireworks at midnight, and spent the rest of the night / morning downstairs in the club section of the boat, dancing in the new year! It was brilliant.

Since then, London life has been the usual - work, work, work, catch up with friends to hear about their Christmas / new year's adventures, party on the weekend, and hit the gym with a vengeance upon the return to work the following week. And repeat.

Fortunately for me, I've had another holiday to look forward to since coming back - Australia!!
I actually leave tonight (!) and arrive on the morning of Saturday, 19th Jan. I've sent out an invite for my farewell drinks (take 2) on facebook so will hopefully see some of you there, if I haven't had a chance to catch you beforehand.

Anyway - I'll leave it there (finally :)
Hope all's well & see you soon!

Until next time....

x