Slovakia......

Hi really quick update.

Sorry there are no photos but our computer isn't working with the wireless conection here. They are soooooooo funny so i will be posting those that are suitable in the near future.

bascially we have been in Hungary (Budapest) and Bratislava, (Slovakia) for the past few days. REeeeeealy good times.

We met up with a whole heap of australian's at the hostel in Budapest and have been having a really good time partying with them. So on the next leg it is just us and this random called adam, who has been studying in Manchester for a year. He's pretty cool, totallly hilarious, and so we are going on, again, to Vienna together today. We are supposed to be leaving shortly, but the boys are all still in bed. They went to bed at 4:30 am, after drinking the place dry i'm sure. Me, on the other hand, went to bed about 2:00.

Yesterday we went to the castle and had snowball fights. The photos are pretty cool so i will post them soon.

Adam then took us to a Ice Hockey game. Very funny because we didn't know what was going on. But the locals thought it was pretty funny how we were screaming in english at the teams.

anyway i'm taking up the only computer in the hostel so i had better go.

willpost photos, (as i'm sure not many of you actually rEAD the text) later.

sorry this is muddled but i think we spent all our money so there is none for coffee.

byeeeeee

Madrid last day...

well here are the photos from our last day in Madrid.... on real order just photos

Madrid day one..

We arrived at about 5:00pm and went out and about. not finding anywhere particularily cheap we returned to the hostel. In a flashof brilliance i walked into the best little mexican place ever. SOOooooo cheap compared to the rest of the places we saw. Also very very busy (a good sign) so we sat down and shared some nachos and had a corona.

The next day...

we went to the history museum. This is a piece of embroidery from one of the hangings.

Just another palace... going inside tomorrow as it was shut today..

We went to the flea market and we sooooo hungry after all the walking and just happened upon this little bar selling spanish food over the bar. By the time i got to the bar trying to shout to the guy what i wanted (one Paella and one potatas bravas,) he didn't understand very well, but i eventually got the food. rather yummy really

No where to eat in the bar as it was so crowded owing to the market day and how cheap the food was.

We are here for another day before we go to torledo and back here again for a flight to Budapest where we are staying for 4 days from the 15 - 18th november.

Crossing the Spanish desert...

well, our train was expensive but excellent. There was even enough leg room for chris!! that is saying something. The Train ride was really interesting as we had to go inland through Spain.

It didn't matter how dry and dusty it all was they farmed all of it.

Barcelona day 2

Well as you can see we had another glorious day in Barcelona. This the start of the castle/mountain hill thing where all the olympic buildings were built.

We didn't go in this building though.


Up about 5 escalators up the hill and we are nearly outside that building in the first photo. It was really deceptive how far up it was.


Chris wasn't feeling too good, and he couldn't manage the hill, so we made for the cable cars up the mountain. Ok misstranslation from Spainish methinks as this is the cable car. Looks more like gondolas to me.

The view was awesome (pictures later coming down the mountain)

The castle up the top was a military museum (didn't know that till we got there.)

A rather large helm

A funny little Spanish curator took this for us.

As you can see the view from the top was awesome!!!!

This was the view coming down the "cable car"

Chris by now was feeling reeeeeally bad so i took him to a chemist (thank god for people who speak english) and tucked him up in bed with some grapes, bread and water.

(don't worry he just feels sick and has a temperature which has now kind of gone with some strong paracetamol.)

I tried to get tomato soup but noone in the supermarket spoke English and try as i might i couldn't get accross the difference between ketchup, salsa, tomato juice and tomato soup. So he had to deal with pumpkin.

anyway we are off to Madrid at 9:00am tomorrow so i can't gaurentee when i will next have the internet. AJ Madrid HostelAddress: C/Mejia Lequerica, 21 ,Madrid 28004, Spain

byyyyyyeeeeeeeeee

Barcelona

As you can see we have arrived safe and sound in Barcelon, Spain. We got here late last night and went out for an awesome meal at the local spanish restaurant. We had: Potatoes, Wild boar sausage, FRESH mussels, calmari, the most beautiful stuffed olives that i have ever tasted in my life, BEER, and some wierd dish called wild thorne on the menu but tasted a bit like pork and chicken. (Still not sure what it was as our waiter spoke NO English.)

These photos are from our first day in Spain.


The Front of the Cathedral

Just a public records office!

We went to the local history museum and it was all hands on. I got to gring flour using stones, lift up wine jugs, and water the local crops using a water wheel type thing.

This is the view outside of the museum.

Random statue

We climbed to the top of the Cathedral tower and this was the view.

tower again...

Inside the cathedral

The Cathedral gardens!!!

Just another square. There are no roads in the central district of Barcelona and therefore no cars. All the roads are about 3-4 meters wide with tall buildings up the side. Every so often yo get a square like this. Fantastic!!
a rather wide street... as you can see only room for pedestrians


We managed to find a restaurant for lunch awfully posh, and we were concerned about the price, but in the end the waiter bought out the bill for 19EUROS!!!!

We had a starter dish of REAL Paella, with fresh whole mussels (in shells) and king prawns and other bits of seafood. Fantastic!!

then for mains i got fish of the day and nearly DIED when a WHOLE FISH/EEl came out with the tail stuffed into the head so if was round. Quite nice really.

Then Chocolate icecream for dessert.

we had beer as well

it was 19 EUROS!! apparantly thursday is a GOOD day to be in Barcelona because all the restaurants do a cheep lunch day where you get drinks and three courses for a set price.

anyway next stop.....


We then went to the local food market! even at 5:oopm this was a busy busy place. I nearly cried at the amazing foods. We had some icecream here!



I had a drink made out of this fruit! a bit wierd but nice..

Yes this is chocolates and nuts!!

No prizes for guessing what this stall sold.


I am now sitting in the hostel enjoying FREE WIFI connection and posting the photos. ENJOY AUSTRALIA!!!!!

Spike's Pirate themed Party, BBQ and Party

Mandy (spike's mum and Barbara and Steve's daughter) Chris

From Left: Andy, Tony, Steve and Spike Barbara, Chris, Mandy, Laura