1st stop Italy - TURIN 7 June

We landed at Turin, Italy last night (6/6/7) (Turin was where the 2006 Winter Olympics were held). Our plane was 40mins late, which added a lil stress as we were arriving late at night and had to be at hotel by midnight! Our flights only cost us £0.01 + £5 ea for luggage check so really we can't complain! =) Anyway we had troubles finding the bus and trains had finished for the night but luckily we came across another couple so we shared taxi to town and got to hotel at 11.55pm. Hotel is lovely, fancier than we imagined! Lovely to have shower (shower at Lee-Ann's is currently broken so have been having baths!) It was raining when we arrived last night and was still raining this morning... just our luck since all I had packed were summer clothes. we braved it anyway as we only plan to spend 1 day in Turin. It poured down for most of the morning but cleared up beautifully mid-afternoon...let's hope the weather stays this way for our trip.

Italy so far is quite beautiful, very different from any other country we've been. We found it quite hard to communicate though which has been frustrating and even though we have the Lonely Planet Phrase Book/Dictionary it surprisingly takes more balls than we thought to actually approach someone. Tourism staff seem to be annoyed that we don't speak Italian, which scares us and we then fumble what we had planned to say. In saying that though we came across a lovely cafe worker at lunchtime who was very friendly. And I tried out an Italian phrase (where to eat cheap) on one of the hoteliers, and he understood and showed us around the corner for dinner. so YAY that helped the confidence. We had pasta for dinner...at an Irish Pub! it wasn't the best...but I guess we should aim for an Italian cafe if we want to eat good italian food!

Driving is shocking here. Cars parked all over the place. People going through red lights, tooting at each other. There are pedestrian crossings everywhere but I don't think they use then the same as home. plus we need to remember to look both ways cos who knows where the traffic is coming from. Roads are quite narrow, the 'alley' our hotel is down seems like a cobbled walk way - yet it's a road.

Went to a cinema museum today, quite alot of cool stuff to see. and wandered the streets. found a small supermarket...they sell all booze in it!! only €10 for a bottle jager!

anyways will post again soon with exciting Italy adventures I hope. Tomorrow we're travelling somewhere else. At this stage to Genoa a beachside place...

Greetings from the Queen

We are here! Flights were swet as, had awesom seats by exit so plenty of leg room! Got fed every few hours it seemed. Go AIR NZ!!! :) LA stop over was sweet as as was UK customs...soo cruisey the lot of them! London is great, having an awesome time already. Weather has been perfect, hot & sunny, light until 9.30pm. Staying with Lee-Ann, so awesome to catch up with her and meet Spence. Brixton's not half as scarey as some people told us it would be! Lots of Jamaicans which is a bit of a novelty for us. love the accents! The Tube is fantastic, so easy. Already seen the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace (even got to see the Queen waving from car!!!), Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square etc etc...everything is so close together and easily accessible. We haven't hardly had to spend money yet either, plenty to see for free. um um what else to say! i've only got a couple of mins remaining on internet so will go. we're off to italy on Wednesday night so will fill u in from there. Take care

Last call for passengers...

Tuesday we spent the day doing last minute jobs. Once the packs were packed (and found to be UNDER the 20kg limit!) we felt like we were on top of things. We mished into town to change a couple of things at the bank...an hour later we were finally sussed! a quick stop into the supo for toiletries and marmite for Lee-Ann, a visit to Niki's Nana and then a visit to my Morrison grandparents was a nice way to spend the arvo. Time flew by of course and b4 we knew it we had to rush home to get ready for our farewell dinner out with friends at Zeytins. I had 3 courses!! their food is soo yum (& a bargain). We were once again really spoilt! (naughty ppl!) we luv our tees =) THANKS SO MUCH! Saying goodbye was hard and a few tears were had. Niki was convinced to go have a "few beers" with his mates... 12.30am he stumbled in! the alarm was set for 4.15am! Needless to say we didn't get much sleep. We got out the door by 5.15am (I was stressing as we were behind schedule) and arrived at the airport 2.5 hours before departure so had plenty of time. By then I was getting quite excited/scared...

So anyway (and you've probably already gathered this as right now we're supposed to be in the air yet I've just posted 3 blogs)... our flight was rescheduled for 10.50pm tonight!! STRESS STRESS... pain in the ass as we'd gotten up so early. After further investigation it was found out that we were actually going to be flying with Air NZ at 9.30pm via LA! So completely the opposite to our original flight plan to be flying wirh Royal Brunei Auckland-Brisbane-Borneo-Dubai-London! Even though we are leaving 12 hours later, we only arrive 4 hours later (now 11am) than original plan in Heathrow (Great for Lee-Ann she gets a sleep-in) + that way we won't have as long a day I guess. So all and all it has worked out alright. Right now we are at my sisters house hanging with my gorgeous nephew and catchin up on blogs! Probably have a wee nap this arvo and head back to the airport at 7.30 or so... we have already checked in our luggage and have been allocated a window seat YAY. It's a brand spanking new 777 aeroplane so that's exciting, hoping that means that we have personal tv screens etc. Pretty funny that we paid for a super cheap fare and now we're getting the service of a more expensive one! I found the marmite in my hand luggage before and was reminded by Hollie that you can't take "liquid" of more than 100ml cos of all the new security rules! So dammit Lee-Ann misses out on her marmite! I'm so ditzy there would've been plenty of room in my pack too.

Anyway that's it from us... next time we write we will be overseas! xo take care everyone

Farewell Eating

We had a good catch-up with girls from my previous work, James & Wells more commonly referred to as JAWS. We went out to Thai Village Cafe where we enjoyed a yummy dinner. Even though we are meant to be saving I can't say no to all these "farewell" lunches and dinners out! Thanks for a lovely night girls & for your friendship! I will keep in touch.

Wednesday I caught up with Em for lunch (Thx for shouting sweety!!) and Thursday I went to lunch with my team at work at the French Tart Cafe. Friday was our official last day of work...and i was very spoilt! Had an awesome morning tea shout (there was enough for lunch too) plus I got awesome pressies. A Lonely Plant "Europe on a Shoestring budget" guide and a basket of all kinds of goodies. Plus a special hula hoop creation from Desmond. Unless you work wih me you wouldn't get the joke but it is hilarious :) I will wear the stockings with pride!

Really Sad News

Our friend and flatmate of three years, Douglas Allen, took his own life on Tuesday 22 May. It's been a really hard week as we struggle to come to terms with it and our hearts go out to his family. Thanks for everyone's support. Even though we don't understand his decision we hope that he is now at peace. His funeral was held on Monday in Stratford and we're glad that we went to support his family. It was good to grieve and share memories of a kindhearted, sports-crazy awesome guy.