|
Karina_Sally
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Karina
Country: Australia
Metro: Hobart
Birthday: 9/25/1985
Gender: Female
Interests: singing, piano, socialising, travelling, shopping, cooking, reading
Expertise: Supposed to be science
Occupation: Admin
Industry: Oil and gas
Message: message me
Member Since:
10/8/2005
|
|
| I was looking at the news on the Australian website, and noticed this particular advertisement at the top of the screen. 
I found it quite amusing! | | |
| I was walking down a street a while back when I found this store... I couldn't help but have a little giggle to myself when I saw it. 
Mum already started prettying hers up! 
If you haven't seen The Castle, this probably makes no sense to you at all. So I haven't blogged in AGES! I just haven't had the chance to sit down at a computer and write one. Just to fill you in on what's been happening since I finished travelling around Europe... I got a job through a temping agency, I'm working for a large Norwegian oil and gas company. The office is on Regent St, just a block from Picadilly Circus, which is relatively convenient for me because the train goes straight to work from where I'm currently living. I would like to live a bit closer to central London and I'm working on that at the moment, it's looking promising! So at work I am working in admin, it's not the most interesting/thrilling job in the world, but the people are really nice and good to work with. Since it's coming up to Christmas really quickly (and getting colder at the same pace) I have about 4 or 5 work christmas parties to go to - a few team lunches (we're part of a few teams  ), a team dinner and a staff ball (so I'm going to need a dress). On Thursday night after work, one of the guys from upstairs was leaving, so there were after work drinks at a local pub. I tagged along, even though I'd never met him before, he seemed like a real character! I left early to go to dinner with my friend Jas, for her birthday. As well as the work do's, there are a number of things going on at my church. I'm currently going to St Paul, Onslow Square, it's part of Holy Trinity, Brompton (HTB). It's a really relaxed service and has only been going since September, already they get around 300 people to it. If you're wondering why HTB may sound familiar, Nicky Gumbel (creator of the alpha course) is the Vicar of the church and one of the worship leaders is Tim Hughes. I've also joined a pastorate/cell group, which was really the only way to get to know people at church, so that's really nice too! If you want to check out loads of photos from my travels around europe, go to Sara's website, she's managed to get heaps up there. I'll get mine up when I have a chance to be at a computer for a substantial period of time! I put a couple of photos up, one of the colosseum and one of Lake Bled in Slovenia - such a beautiful place! 
| | |
| Today while helping my flatmate with some painting, I received a call from a recruitment agency asking if I could come into Oxford Circus for an interview this afternoon... this was at 12.30pm. Of course I agreed and hurried as quickly as possible to get back to our flat, change and then catch the tube into the city. I missed the train by probably seconds... so annoying! So I waited for about 10 minutes for the next one. I was reaching for my new book when this guy started randomly talking to me. I found out loads of information about him and out of politeness chatted back. Fortunately he wasn't on the train for the entire ride into the city, he got off a few stops later, but he asked for my phone number - which I definitely did not give him. But as a consellation I got his number if I ever decide that I actually do want to get in contact with a random stranger I met on the train. I'm not sure why I seem to attract unattrative, facial haired guys on trains!!! Hopefully I never bump into him again, or he won't recognise me if we do.
It just reminds me of the time I met another loser on the train in melbourne! I hope this is my only dose for london, maybe I should just lose some of my politeness??
| | |
| So the last week or so of our trip consisted of Naples, Lucerne (Liechtenstein) and Baden-Baden.
After the disgusting hostel in Rome, we headed for Naples where we stayed with Nat' friends, Rob and Joy. They were so good to us! We really appreciated it! I think staying in nice houses either side of Rome, made the Roman experience even more gross.
Naples is said to be the most dangerous city in Italy. Needless to say, I tied my bag even closer to me than usual. The first day we arrived we just chilled out, which was nice to have somewhere to do that! That night Rob was very excited to get out the wii and introduce Sara and I to it. It's actually a good work out, I think I was trying to hard at the boxing though. The next day was my birthday, it was so nice to be able to have it at someone's house, instead of a hostel! That day Sara and I walked around Naples - in the rain! - and then headed for the small village of Ercolano. In Ercolano is an archaeological site called Herculaneum. It once housed 4000 people in its day, until the massive eruption of Vesuvius around 2000 years ago. It's amazing how well preserved the place is. While I was there I received 3 consecutive phone calls from Tasmania, Melbourne and Virginia :) That night Rob and Joy took us out to a great Italian restaurant where I had really amazing gnocchi!
The following day we took the chance to really chill out, we watched a movie and just relaxed! We hadn't been able to do that in ages!
The next day was a terrible day of traveling! We left Naples at 7.45am and arrived in Lucerne around 6 hours late at 11.30pm. It was a painful trip. If you're ever relying on making a connection in Italy, add about an hour! All the trains were delayed, causing the next trip to be delayed. It was awful! Eventually we got there and enjoyed the serenity of Switzerland. Surrounded by mountains, on the edge of a lake. Indulging in chocolate. I'm definitely going to visit Switzerland again!
Our second day in Switzerland - the first was a bit of a write off cause we were so knackered! - we went onto the lake in a paddle boat, did a bit of shopping (Swiss franc = Aussie $) and just chilled out in Lucerne. On the Sunday, we made the decision to go to the tiny principality of Liechtenstein. It was awesome, although, being a sunday, the whole place seemed pretty dead. We saw a really cute old couple dressed in traditional garb! We decided to go up the hill to the castle - where the royals live. Near the castle we met some people coming down the hill. They looked at us as though we should know them and the lady gave us a very unusual wave... Sara and I looked at each other once we'd passed them and were like 'was that...??' We spent the rest of the afternoon debating whether we should /should've gone up to them and asked 'ah, excuse me? Are you royalty?' We went down to a lookout where they were and we sat there and wrote some post cards, meanwhile they walked back UP the hill! There are only like 3 residences up that hill.... curiouser and curiouser. When we walked back down into the "city" we had to look at the postcards and see if we recognised them... the post cards of the royal family all look really old, so we're not 100% sure, but there were definitely likenesses!
Next we headed for Baden-Baden in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). It's a tiny little town, in a valley. Our hostel was at the top of a really steep hill (try carrying a 16 or 17kg backpack up any hill! It's painful!) and then at the top we had to climb the 4 flights of stairs (not quite as bad as Rome) up to our room. Every time we reached the top we were so hot that a shower was necessary and we'd stick ourselves halfway out the window. Our first day in Baden-Baden we had to do laundry, there were no laundry facilities at the hostel so we had to carry all of our laundry into the small town and then up another hill. Basically we spent the whole morning doing laundry. That afternoon was when I got my hair cut, which was an interesting experience - as I've already described!
The next day we went with the aussie girls from our room to a place called Merkwald, it's part of Schwarzwald and you take the cable car up to the top of the mountain for views over Baden-Baden and the surrounding area. We had to leave our hostel at about 9 so we got the whole morning up there, in the fog! We decided that we would walk down the mountain which extended our time there. It was reunification day in Germany so in the morning the town was so quiet! Nothing was open. Fortunately in the afternoon more things opened. That afternoon we decided we'd try legendary black forest cake. The one we had had sooo much cream! It wasn't as good as I'd hoped :( It wasn't that bad though either.
The next day was the day we flew back to London. The people at the hostel had told us that we could get a bus to the airport which went quite regularly. When we got down to the bus stop, no bus came for ages until we discovered that no buses went to the airport until the afternoon  Sara ran across the road to get the pharmacy to call a taxi for us. It meant we could sort of relax a bit before our flight. When going through security, I had forgotten that I had my parent's pocket knife in my hand luggage... to my shock they let me keep it! I was sure I would lose it!
Sara and I ended up splitting up at Stansted Airport, it was quite emotional! She was going down to Devon with Dan and I was going into London. It was a bit strange being by myself, but I'm now used to it! Now is the task of getting settled in the busy city of London... I'm moving into a share flat on Monday, if anyone needs a bed in London, I'm sure I can put you up!
| | |
| I have been so slack with updating my blog lately! When I'm on the
internet I'm just very distracted at the moment. My Europe trip was
really amazing! It has made me want to see more, and probably some of
the lesser known places would be little gems!
A quick wrap of the trip is this... from Berlin we went to Prague,
Vienna, Salzburg, Ljubljana (a day trip to Bled), Koper, Rome, Naples,
Lucerne (a day trip to Vaduz, Liechtenstein), Baden-Baden and London!
Each place had something special/shocking/amazing/humourous to it. I
think my favourite of all the places was Lucerne in Switzerland. The
small city was set on a lake with the alps in the background. It was a
really easy going city and just had a really nice atmosphere to it.
Sara and I hired a paddle boat and went out onto the lake for 1/2 an
hour.
To be honest, I thought Prague was too touristy. It was quite obvious
that the tourist dollar is Pragues biggest
breadwinner.
Vienna was cool, we really just made up the day in Vienna, we met a guy
at the hostel who asked if he could hang out with us for the day. So we
had an extra to make the day different. The city itself is so ornate,
with sculptures everywhere! That night we had dinner with Milo (the guy
from the hostel), and 2 guys we'd met on the train from Berlin to
Prague - Dillan and Kunal. It turned out Dillan and Kunal were going
all the same places we were from Berlin to Salzburg and then we were
splitting up to our own destinations. It was really cool having someone
to hang out with in each city. Half the fun of travelling is from the
people that you meet along the way :)
Salzburg was beautiful, up until then we'd felt as though we were in
big cities all the time so it was really nice to see some hills (some
even had snow on top!). The highlight of our trip to Salzburg was when
we went to the worlds largest ice caves in Werfen. We actually just
tagged along with Dillan and Kunal for this, we didn't exactly know
what to do that day so we sheepishly invited ourselves along. I'm sure
they didn't mind! The ice caves were awesome, although 0'C inside! I
also burnt my hand on the davy lamps they'd given us! I still have a
vague scar. It was a bit of a hike up the mountain, but definitely
worth it to see the awesome naturally made ice sculptures!
I could've spent much longer in Salzburg, there's heaps to do there!
On the train to Ljubljana, I was sitting in a carriage with an old
German couple. At times we attempted small talk with each other, but to
no avail. It was a really funny trip! Although there English was very
limited and my Deutch was pretty much nil, I managed to find out they
were from Berlin and they were holidaying in Slovenia. It was also
hilarious when the lady went to the toilets and got lost on the way
back. She thought that the train had split in 2 and we were in the
wrong bit. She found the carriage that Sara was in (we'd had to split
up cause there was limited space, she'd recognised sara from when we'd
done that) she was so panicked! She frantically got Sara to follow her
and Sara confused, led her straight to our carriage. She was so
relieved! I was really confused to see her return from the toilets with
Sara in tow.
The first day in Ljubljana we made a day trip to the beautiful township
of Bled. If you ever get the chance, go there! It's a small tourist
town set on the side of a lake in the Julian Alps. In the middle of the
lake is a small island and there is a really cute church on it! It's so
picturesque, I don't know how many photos I took of it! We walked
around the lake, even in the rain.
The next day in Ljubljana we were going to look around the old town,
but it was bucketing with rain. There was no way we could site see in
the rain so we watched a movie. Now I'll just have to go back to
Ljubljana to have a look. It was quite sad actually cause there were
floods across Slovenia and 6 people died!
We went down to Koper (a town on the small coastline of Slovenia) and
stayed with a lovely family there. They lived in a village in the hills
with vineyards and olive groves all around. It was so cool being able
to go outside and pick your own grapes! We also went and saw a cute
little fishing town called Piran, from here you're supposed to be able
to see Venice.
The train trip to Rome was long, cramped and tedious and the day turned
from bad to worse with Sara hurting her ankle on the rough streets of
Rome. The hostel was a complete dump, walking up the 11 flights of
stairs to the flooded bathrooms with cold water didn't help at all, nor
did the constant noise of traffic on the street below. Although the
hostel was terrible, Rome was pretty amazing. Everywhere we looked
there was something so old it's unbelievable. Rome is almost the
opposite of Berlin. On the Sunday in Rome we went to Vatican City and
thought the pope was going to come out, however he turned out to be in
Argentina! There was still a massive turnout in St Peter's Square.
I should probably wrap this up! You must be bored by now, especially since there are no photos!
The German hairdresser relates to me getting my hair cut in
Baden-Baden. It was a scary experience when she was blow drying my
hair. I think I looked like a 1950s movie star, although no where near
as glamourous! My hair was just soooo boofy! I was embarressed to walk
out of the hair dressers. She didn't speak much English, but we could
converse on basic terms.
The bed bugs relate to now. At the moment I'm staying in a hostel in
London, before I move into a flat on Monday. I'm pretty sure there are
bed bugs or fleas in the beds. It's quite annoying! At first I thought
I was imagining things because an Australian girl at our hostel in
Baden-Baden had told a story of how she had an allergy to bed bugs and
their Berlin hostel was covered in them. Needless to say, she swelled
up like a tomato. After hearing this story, I thought I must've just
been thinking about that too much. With the bites all over me now,
though, I'm not so certain!
That's definitely enough for the moment! I'll fill you in on Naples, Lucern, Liechtenstein and Baden-Baden later!
| | |
|
