Good Morning Australia
This will be my last update on the net before I return home. And there is literally so much for me to catch up on. So I will present this in segments according to country. I’m sorry if I don’t express correctly how amazing these places really are, but there is so much I need to get through.

FRANCE, Paris:
Mel and I arrived in Paris via ferry, which gave us a chance to see the white cliffs of Dover. Which are actually quite interesting. It also meant being introduced to the BusAbout way of life. Which as we continued to find out on our trip is a extremely awesome and well setup system.
1^st night: Made friends with 2 Canadian guys (John 20, and Josh 19) at our hostel. So we went out with them and a few of their mates to see the Eiffel Tower at night. (The other French thing we did that night was eat cheese and bread for dinner, which of course tasted awesome)
2^nd Day: This was our big tourist day. We started by visiting the Louvre, then walking through the Tuileries Gardens and down to the Champs-Elysees all the way to the Arc of Triomphe. Went up the many stairs of the Arc to see a fabulous view of Paris during the day. After a quick trip to Maccas (in desperate need of food) we headed over to see the Place of the Bastille and then the inside and top of Notre Dame. We attempted to see Sainte-Chapelle but due to a earlier protest in the area and the increased number of police around it we were unable to go inside. So we went back to the Louvre while we could. That night we joined up with John and went up the Eiffel Tower to see the city of lights at its best.

3^rd Day: After a lot of confusion with trains Mel, John, Josh and I made it to the Palace of Versailles. On first sight it was simply…. “breath taking”. It is one of those places that just blows your mind and I am yet to work out how on earth the women during the French Revolution were able to storm that place and return King Louis to Paris. We spent most of that day in the gardens eating lunch and drinking champagne.

GERMANY,
Berlin:
1^st Night: The stretch of travelling between Amsterdam and Berlin meant we didn’t arrive till late afternoon. So my first aim was to get a good shower and wash my hair.
That night went out for dinner with Mel and a group of us all on BusAbout. After that Mel and I headed up the TV Tower and had a hot chocolate in the revolving café on the top floor.

2^nd Day: First thing we did was visit

3^rd Day: The list of things we saw for the day:
Checkpoint Charlie Museum in the morning,
The Jewish Museum,
Back to Checkpoint Charlie for photos of the actual checkpoint,
Topography of Terror (which actually displays a length of the Berlin Wall),
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (is a memorial made up of different size cement blocks to represent the confusion and unknown the jews felt),

2^nd Day: Went out hiking just outside of Dresden near the Czech border in the Saxon Switzerland area with Kasse, Kate (25) and Aaron (28). We went up a mountain and got to see a 360 degree view while the sun was setting. It was so beautiful and breath taking. One of the most impressive parts of my trip.

CZECH REPUBLIC, (What I have marked as my favourite country on this trip!)
Prague:

1^st night: Hanged out at the hostel bar with John, Dave and Mel playing cards and competing in the A-bomb Challenge at midnight.
2^nd Day: Went to Prague’s castle. This was a bit overwhelming since this is where EVERY tourist seems to go and there is a lot of tour groups. But lunch on the terrace over looking the Prague city was just awesome. It is such a beautiful place.
That night spent it in the hostel bar again with Aaron and some other backpackers not on BusAbout: Tyson, Matt, Rob (all 23) and Michael (28). Also a few new bus about people we met Dean(30), Greg (23) and Alex (25). Some of the guys competed in the A-Z Bomb Challenge.
3^rd Day: Had a easy day, went and did some laundry.
Went out that night with some of the guys to the largest night club in Europe. 5 Levels. Was a late night. (On our travels to the night club since the guys were hopeless at directing we managed to see and pass Charles Bridge and the Astronomical Clock.)
Cesky Krumlov:

1^st Day: Arrived late in the afternoon so we just had a walk around town. Completely gorgeous and magical and is located in Southern Bohemia.(The movie Hostel was filmed in this very town and while I was staying with a friend back in England we were able to compare my photos with clips from the movie. It was quite freaky seeing the exactly the same shots.) Went out for a drink and watched a guy play the didgeridoo (Yes who would of thought!) and ate a proper Czech meal (goulash!) was very nice.
2^nd Day: Went to the Castle and walked around it’s gardens. After that did a lot of shopping and simply just took it easy. That night we just hanged at the pub next to the hostel with Aaron, Kasse, Kate, Beth and Tarryn.

AUSTRIA,
Vienna:
1^st night: The first night started off pretty slow; though this may of just been a anti-climax after the Prague experience. It gave us a chance to hang out with Dave and John for a bit (since John was heading off to Malta the next day.) After that we continued to hang out with Aaron and Mark (23) and his girlfriend, Nadia (21).

2^nd Day: This technically meant to be our tourist day so we headed over to (…need to get the name of this church…) and had a look around inside. After that we ventured over to the Hofburg Palace where we explored a collection of museums that included Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum and Imperial Silver Collection. Since it was a pretty cold day we went in search of a café to have Viennese coffee but we ended up just having hot chocolate since we could not translate the menu.

3^rd Day: We started the day with going to the Sigmund Freud Museum, which had some good points to it and some not so good points. For such a interesting person they didn’t really do him much justice. After that since most things were closed on this day we decided just to do a bit of shopping so we looked around a lot of 2^nd hand shops and shops that specialised in 60s and 70s clothing. It was a lot of fun checking out the different and bizarre items.

Salzburg:

1^st Day: Since it is the home of The Sound of Music, Mel, Kate and I went on The Sound of Music Tour. This was a very…interesting experience but not for the right reasons. For one thing the guide had a really annoying voice and was using constant American humour. This may have been because the main crowd on this tour were American and they laughed at every single cheesy joke. The actual sights of this trip however were pretty amazing and it gave us a chance to see the lake district.
2^nd Day: Got up early in the morning so I could get a look around town before I went on the Ice Caves tour. Which meant I got a good view of the Hohensalzburg Fortress as well as seeing the abbey and the cemetery from the movie. Also went inside (…need to get the name of this church…) Which was simply amazing.
After that I went to the ice caves with Kate, Mark and Nadia. It was fantastic! It really was worth it by far. It was so cold in there that you can see ’the cold’ mist in photographs! I could go on and on about them but it would do them no justice. It is one of those things that you can only experience for yourself (but I do have a few good photos that can give you the idea.)

That night we started off by hanging out in the hostel bar listening to some aussie tunes! It is always good to here Cold Chisel in a foreign country. Then we headed over to a Monastery Beer Hall.

GERMANY,

Munich:

1^st Night: As it turned out I was really sick the night that I was in Munich and Mel and I only blamed to say in Munich for one night. So all that I saw of Munich was when we went out to get some Pizza for dinner. The rest of the night I spent it in the hostel room.

Stuttgart:

1^st Night: Took advantage of the very cheap internet next door to our hotel and pretty much just hanged out with Dave. Had dinner at the kebab place next door to our hotel. I was still feeling quite poorly.

2^nd Day: Despite still being quite sick I forced myself to go out and see some of Stuttgart. So Dave, Mel and I first headed over to the Porsche Museum. Which was okay; pretty cool to see some the awesome and very stylish cars. After that we went to the Mercedes Museum. This was a lot better, but it took us nearly an hour of lining up before we could get inside. But it was a good day spent in there and I found a very ‘pretty’ car of my dreams. After that we went out for Chinese for dinner with Dave and Dez (the bus about driver).

FRANCE, Paris:

1^st Night: Well the bus ride from Stuttgart to Paris took us literally the whole day and we didn’t arrive at our hostel till about 8ish. I cant actually remember much of that night since I was still recovering from being sick. But was the night we met Jess (25) the first American that we actually liked.

2^nd Day: I slept in since I was on my way to recovering and John the Canadian guy that we met last time we were in Paris arrived that morning. So Mel, John, Jess and I headed out with the intention of seeing the Catacombs. However again like we kept experiencing throughout Europe it was closed for the day. So we had one of the best baguettes in the world. Then we headed over to Sainte-Chapelle where they all saw why I was making a big deal about seeing it (since it is my favourite church in the world, followed by Sacre-Coeur.) After being tipped off earlier on in the trip we headed over to a Crepes shop near the Notre Dame and had crepes with nutella and banana on it. As weird as this sounds (and trust me we were very worried about eating it) it is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten! We spent the rest of the day looking at the shops along the river Seine.

3^rd Day: Mel, John and I headed over to the Palace of Versailles again so we could get a better look inside the palace. Sadly due to bad weather we were not able to get over to see Marie Antoinette’s chateau. We also saw the Sacre-Coeur when the sun setting and the Moulin Rouge at night. The night we celebrated my last day in Europe with cheese and meat and bread platter, some really nice Rose and a soup made by Mel and John. Was a nice way to finish off the trip.

The next day I caught the bus and ferry back to the UK; where it welcomed me with lovely rainy grey English weather. Winter had hit the UK!


Other Quick Things Once Back in the UK:
* Had my last 2 shifts at Rouges Wine Bar
* When in to London for the BusAbout party and stayed the night at Mark and Nadia’s small London apartment. Caught up with Mel.
* Had my final goodbye with Mel….wont see her till I am back in Aust.

*Spent a week up in hull with a mate and hanged out with his uni halls block, going out and having fun!

*Back near Birmingham now, and this is where I’m gonna stay with the exception of a visit back to Guildford to pick up all my things AND to London to vote for the state election.

Well that is my very long update! See you all back at home SOON!
Love you all heaps, Love you all always!!!!
Love Megs