My favourite place...

Mordialloc pier....it might not be anything special to many but I love it. It is a special place....the place for sunsets, breathing in fresh air, looking out at the endless horizon and having deep conversations with my soul. I must admit that I missed it while I was away. I never found anywhere (in Europe or the States) where I could look out at the sea and feel as content. xoxoxoxo

Photo from a friend!

My freind Ivan, whom I met on my flight from Zagreb (Crotaia's capital) to Hamberg (Northern Germany) and who kindly showed me the best parts of Hannover (south of Hamberg, has just finished cycling around Croatia with his brother! He took this photo for me! I love it! =) It's fabulous!

Tahiti photos

Greetings and Welcome to Bora Bora!



Going into Papaette



Swimming...or floating with my cousin Kaylen! Look at the colour of that water!!! Paradise!

Australia

Today the air was warm, still and fresh.
Today, for the first time since I have been home, I opened the door to let the fresh air in.
Today I smelled summer.
It is coming. It might rain next week or in the near future but it is coming.
Today I smelled Australia.
I smelled the gum trees, the red dirt, the kangaroos, the cockatoos.


Several days ago I went to the Dentist. The waiting room is full of all kinds of posh magazines. I read an article on the current Chilean president, a single Mother of 3, a pediatrician, who was imprisioned, tortured and exiled (to Australia) after the military coup of 1973.

'Because I was a victim of hate...I've decided to dedicate my life to turning hate into understanding, tolerance and - why not say it?- love'
-Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile

'They can cut all the flowers, but they cant stop spring'
-Pablo Neruda, great Chilean poet.

Cara the Aussie Girl!

Cara the Skippy Chick!


My boxes finally arrived. One from Germany and 2 from France (sent on the first of April)...speedy hey? They contained all sorts of goodies- mainly books, postcards and souvenir ticket stubs & pamphlets for my 'non-existant but perfectly planned in my head' scrap book. You can see my Bescherelle in this photo...the French verb bible! I imported my own copy! YAY!

Good to be home! And yet....the travel bug continues to bite...where to next...after university and some decisions?

For those in Melbourne:

Hi Everyone! Salut, Ciao, Szia, Guten Tag, Hoi, Hola, Bok, Aloha, Sawatdee and Ei!


***************Cara is back in Melbourne!!!!!*********************************
I have returned from my world tour and its time to par-tay!!!!!



WHAT: Coming Home Party/House Warming (yes, I have moved too!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHEN: Saturday Aug 26th...let's say 8pm so people turn up sometime before midnight!

WHERE: My new house! 62 Keith Street Parkdale (Off Nepan Highway, Melways p87 F9)

WHY: To have FUN and catch up!

BYO: Alcohol, munchies also welcomed, photos of things that I missed and anything else entertaining really!

Crashing: You are welcome to stay the night since most people arent local....comfort isn't gaurenteed....new house has hardwood floors...lol...no something could be sorted out!

R.S.V.P. if you like....however that seems to be no ones strong point so SEE YOU ALL SOON!

Cara =)

Moorea and Melbourne!

Hi everyone! I am home! I have reurned to Melbourne once again!

Moorea was great. We stayed in nice hotel huts on the beach of the Black Pearl Resort. Very posh. I then made my way back to Papette on the island of Tahiti to fly out for Melbourne. Between very bad airplane food and long delays in Sydney as the planes were coming from Melbourne frozen (urg,cold!) I was glad to get home eventually. I am organising myslef for uni and cleaning my still disasterously dishevelled room! Coming home party....or Reutrn to reality party soon!
Cara =)

Island hopping in Tahiti!

Hey!
This is our last day in Bora Bora. The last couple of days have been slow, lazy and lovely. I went to the Hieva festivities which basically celebrates July (why not celebrate the whole month right?). Bora Bora is known throughout Tahiti to have the most beautiful Hieva celebrations. I saw dancing and singing. It was wonderful and similar to other Polynesian dances...the Hula in Hawaii and Haka in New Zealand....only this was local people performing for themsleves as much as everyone else. All other performances that I have seen have been just that, a performance, a show. I dont know how they can hula for 2 hours straight! Went to Club Med yesterday. Took a boat trip out and went snorkling...the water was incredibly clear and that perfect blue colour!

Tomorrow the gang is off to Moorea. I think everyone is excited for a change....Bora Bora seemed a bit small to contain everyone. Moorea should promise many things to do. We will be staying at a dreamy 5 star resort apparently...what more could you ask for in paradise?

En Tahiti!

Salut et Bonjour!

Je suis en Tahiti! I am in Tahiti! In my element speaking French again! I love it! It is wonderful! So what has happened so far?

Well I arrived in Tahit...made it and everything with my Mother and Patrick chasing the airport bus at 5am with my plane tickets....gosh, made it 'round the world fine but home is challenging it seems! I pulled another all nighter packing...can't seem to kick that habit! So, I flew first to Sydney and then onto Tahiti, the best known island in French Polynesia which has a total of 180 islands. I met my grandmother Nonie at the airport and went to stay at the Sheraton Hotel! Nice, nice, very nice after my extensive budgety trip in Europe and Thailand's 'charm'. It was nice to see everyone again- my Papa Chuck, Aunt Jill, Uncle Danny and cousins Jason and Kaylen. I took a shower and was feeling the heat abit since I had just come from Melbourne's winter and before that Thailand's heat and before that Europe's average temperatures! My body must be begging for stability! Had a quite night after that.

In the morning it was buffet breakfast (just in case you didnt feel completely spoilt in the hotel already) complete with mago and banana juice. We then walked into the city, Papaette. Where I went sightseeing....a bit different to Europe! I saw the main church which had stained glass windows with dipictions of Christ and Ialnd themes...very different to Europe. Did you know Christ has a conch shell!?! lol. Tahiti is a translators dream as most things are bilingual in French, English and Tahitian! So I spent ages in the Peral Museum reading everything 2 or 3 times!

The next day the family flew to another island...the island of Bora Bora. Beautful blue water and white sand that you see in the photos....that what you see in Bora Bora! We have rented 2 condos. The first is a house on stilts over the water...where I am currently couch surfing with Noni8e and Papa in the bedroom. The second is designated to the Colegroves and is across the road on the moutainside supplying nice views of the water. We have also rented a tiny green Fiat...the next size up from a smart car or golf buggy I tell you! We squeezing 7...yes, SEVEN people into this tyiny thing....I am stikll not sure why. I guess people can't seem to decide what we wantt o do each day and since the island is so so so incredibly small (32km of round circumnavigates the outside) it doesn't make sense to have 2 cars doing nothing. It is even more of an insentive as the pacific franc here is pegged to the Euro so everything is nice and pricey!

So yesterday we went swimming and snorkling right off our front deck. The water is clear and warm (although Thailand wins the warm water award thus far for Riley beach in the south). There is a ladder into the water and shower to rinse off. Its lovely and Cara feels posh as! We then tried out Auntie Jill's 'seven to a car theory' and circled the island in our green golf buggy. Nonie made scones in the evening...imported from Califonia...one of the falvours was California Apricot...how cute is that!

Today we were going to spend the day at Club Med doing activities and going out on boat trips but we post phoned utnil tomorrow as the wather looked questionable! We ventured to the Bora Bora hotel for another posh breakfast! And then the rain started! And it still continues as I am writing this...however I am prefectly happy sitting in pardise whether the weather it is wet or dry (a few days of rain and I might reconsider that statement). I am borrowing the Activities Room in the Bora Bora Hotel on this rainy day! Bye for now. Maybe photos soon thought probably not as it seems a bit too much to ask of Tahitian computers!

Love Cara xoxox

Cara was home....and now she is off again! To Tahiti!

Hey y'all!

The blog shall continue even though I am home.....because I am leaving again already! And I promise photos of home when I return! You are just going to think I jet set like this all the time!

I leave for TAHITI in 3 hours....that is, a 4:40 airport bus on Friday morning! I am off to Tahiti which is an island in French Polynesia for a family reunion planned by my grandparents (on my Mum's side). This 2 week holiday of fun and sun involves my Aunt Jill (my Mum's sister), Uncle Danny and 2 cousins Jason and Kaylen. Sadly my Mother and Patrick cannot come as they have to run the chocolate store which is really running them!

I picked up guides to Tahiti today....so organised and prepared! I blame the library system I tell you! I am also pulling an all nighter to pack and prepare....I am currently trying to shove lots of things into a tiny tiny suitcase (which I am oh so proud to be taking)and an even smaller back pack. Its working and I refuse to take a lot of luggage! Besides, I don’t need room for souvenirs as everyone says Tahiti is very very expensive....guess they have to ship everything to that tiny island in the middle of the Pacific!

On the HOME front...it does feel weird and the real world is scary! What have I been doing for the past week and a bit now that I am finally back in Melbourne, Australia? I spent the first couple of days being really lazy, sleeping a lot, trying to get used to the fact that the days go so quickly because it gets dark so early and UNPACKING!!!! For those of you who don't know my parents moved while I was gallivanting around the world and so all my worldly possessions were boxed and moved into a beautiful new house several streets away. And then those boxes were placed into a very nice new room....full of boxes! I think I had a difficult transition…going from carrying everything you own on your back for a year (or stashing it in a sparsely decorated apartment) to sorting through EVERYTING....clothes, stationary, craft, furniture, heirlooms and things that I've had since I was 10 years old. The question I repeatedly asked myself was "Do you want to keep this?' and myself just kept shrugging and looking at me blankly! I also passed a lot of time being shocked that I was actually home, calling a billion companies to announce that my address had changed (you hate the one company who wants it in writing) and generally at a lose end with myself! The last couple of days really improved however!

MONDAY saw me going into the city of Melbourne to visit my university and 'sort things out'. I also had the small goal of investigating my future! Ooohhhh, scary! I need to look into what 2007 holds for me! Right now I would rather not do Honours (a fourth year of study) in Science and am pondering a graduate certificate (6 mo.) or graduate diploma (12 mo.) in a artsy subject like Creative Writing or something new and exciting like that! I also looking into a Masters in 'Media and Communication, Science and Society' which allows graduates to work in varying positions usually associated with scientific journalism or promotion. It sounds quite interesting actually...more interesting then it sounds now. Monday evening I was invited to dinner with my old friend Dave and his parents. We had Thai food....which was yummy and seeing as Australia is so multicultural, it was very authentic! And I should know! I was eating real live (live with bacteria....no, honestly it was fine!) Thai food on the streets no less then 2 weeks ago! Dave and I watched a movie afterwards.... and old favourite of ours.

TUESDAY, I met Rhiannon to exchange some things from Thailand. Most importantly she gave me all our photos on DVD! YAY! In Thailand Rhiannon and I decided to share picture taking (or 'documenting' as I like to say) responsibilities. So took photos with her film camera and I was assigned to digital duty. After prisoner exchange, I took the train into the city again (something which I am sick of already!) and met my university friends Laura and Jennifer. We chatted for 3 hours solid before I trained it back in the other direction to meet my buddies Blue and Kristel for a dinner invitation with Blue's parents. Uncooked chicken brought back fond memories of our childhood holidays to Blue's country house...we lost Kristel at this stage due to sickness induced from raw chicken but Blue and I soldiered on to go and see Xmen 3 at the movies!

WEDNESDAY I doddeled away the day a bit at home and chatted with a future Lyonnais exchange student from Melbourne Uni telling her everything I could think of. I once again went to the city that evening for dinner with Lisa and Michelle....close university friends....in first semester of last year we completed identical subjects and had identical timetables to match. Michelle didn't know I was coming so it was a big surprise....I love surprises! We had dinner on Lygon Street (famous for a multitude of Italian restaurants) after which we tried to hunt down my ex-Lyonnais house mate Ben (a Melbournian). We finally found him and it was great to see him again! Something familiar...some element of my world tour now in Melbourne with me.

TODAY, THURSDAY I was sooo conscientious and again spent time organising things at university. I joined the university student union which is now voluntary due to changes made by the government. It was a good thing to do as students can take advantage of many services and the more people who join the more money the union has to spend on services. Also, to work for the union as I did before I left (in catering, gowning graduates, media etc...) I had to become a union member. I am officially the first student to join the voluntary student union. They took photos! Watch the international press! I got a show bag too! Then it was home for a chiropractic appointment (Cara loves her Chiropractor as he is the best in the world), a bit of shopping, packing, packing, packing (with a visit from Kristel in between)........ I almost feel reincorporated into society again...and now I am leaving!

Talk to form Tahiti!

Cara who thinks you're awesome! =)

Cara is home in Melbourne, Australia!

Hi everyone! I am home!

Home Coming..... :-)

We're shopping our hearts out in bangkok & Can't Wait to see you all!!!

PS "CARA MISSES EUROPE"
PPS RHIANNON POSTED THIS LAST ENTRY ABOUT OUR ADVENTURES IN THAILAND
PPPS KENNY POSTED THIS ENTRY ON BEHALF OF CARA.

Thailand explored

Hi Guys,

Sorry I haven’t written for a while, but it has been a kinda hectic and busy holiday. So where was I last, where have I been, and what have I been up to?

I think I was in Ayutthaya last. We spent an extra day in Ayutthaya, going round Wat’s (temples) getting a book stamped, so that when we got back to the tourist office we could get a special medalian for free-apparently they do this every year, and this year the medalian was to commemorate the King’s 60th Jubilee which occurred while we were here-they absolutely love their King. We then went out and had a look at some of the temples which are lit up at night-they look absolutely amazing, so different to the day time.

The next day we got up early to catch a train to Khorat, but the early train wasn’t running so we sat in the train station for a couple of hours until the next one. When we got to Khorat we caught a bus straight to Phimai, where we visited the most stunning Wat. It is an old Khmer Wat, and is the most extensively restored Wat in Thailand-and also the most beautiful we have seen. The carvings on it were just amazing-so intricate, and beautiful-even thought they were so old and weathered.

The next day we had a look around the National Museum in Phimai, had a look at another ruin, and then at the old City Wall gate, about all that is left of the City Wall. We then got a bus to an old Archeological Site. It took a bit of finding, as the directions we were given were once again not accurate-it seems the way in Thailand, you really need to triple check everything to make sure you get the right information. The Archeological Site was really interesting. There were 3 digs, and they had mainly uncovered bodies, from between 2500 years old to 500 years old, each era having a completely different style of burial. You could visit all 3 digs, but only the first one really had anything to see, and the other 2 just had a couple of small objects in them.

We then went back to Khorat where we booked into a Hotel which looked alright, but when I got into the shower, I discovered I was sharing it with at least 5 cockroaches, as well as numerous ones we also saw later in the room. We decided we couldn’t stay there and found a better one just down the road. The next day we saw a monument in the city (about all there is to see in Khorat), and the old City Wall, did some shopping, and then caught the train back to Bangkok. In Bangkok we had a quick look at the night bazaar, and then caught another train to Surat Thani, where we had to get a bus to get to Krabi.

We wanted to have a quick look at Surat Thani, but were told by everyone that there was nothing to see, and were basically hearded onto a bus, without having the chance to even see anything-we were not impressed. The bus then took us to a bus stop, and then had to wait for a mini bus. The mini bus was then jam packed with people, the luggage on the roof. When started to rain they attempted to put a tarp over the baggage, which didn’t work, so it all got wet, plus they didn’t know where they were going and got lost, so by the time we got to Krabi we were less than impressed.

I had met some Americans in Bangkok who lived in Krabi, so we gave them a ring and asked if they would like to go out for tea as it was my birthday-they were so happy to hear from us, and took us to a lovely restaurant in Ao Nang.

The nest day we decided not to stay in Krabi, as it wasn’t near the beach, and went to Ao Nang instead, it is quite resorty, and on the beach front with a couple of quite nice beaches.

From Ao Nang we went on a 4 island tour round the bay. We went to one island which was stunning. It was low tide, so you could walk from the island we landed on to another 2 islands, across the sandbars. The sand was so white, although the beaches weren’t all that wide, and they had a fair bit of rubbish on them. We then went around the corner to a place called chicken rock, named because it looks like a chickens head, and went snorkeling-it was so nice and warm, and great to see some coral, tropical fish and lots of sea urchins. I have never been swimming in tropical waters before. We then went to another island to have lunch, and walked up to the end of the beach to look as some monkeys, they are so cheeky. Finally we went to Raily beach where it was raining quite a bit, but went swimming anyway, and the water was so warm, it was about 32 degrees. When we got back to Ao Nang we went for another swim, but the water was not clear, and not as warm, so was not nearly as nice.

We decided to hire some bikes and head out to a National Park, which had quite a few waterfalls in it. As it happen in the rainy season, it poured while we were at the National Park, and we might as well have been in a shower, we were absolutely soaked, but the 2 waterfalls we visited were very nice, and worth the drowning we got for it.

We then decided to go to Phi Phi, so got a speed boat over and visited the Phi Phi Ley on the way. We went to a lovely lagoon, which had the most gorgeous coloured water in it, before heading to Phi Phi Doh where we were dropped off. There is not a whole lot to do on the island, mainly sit on the beach which we did the day we arrived. However it was raining the next day-not exactly beach weather, so we went up to the viewpoint, and looked out across the island, it was just stunning. It would have been nice to have nice weather, but as we didn’t have a lot of time anyway, we decided to head off to Phuket, as we couldn’t really enjoy the beach on Phi Phi. We met a guy on Phi Phi who had lost both his son and daughter-in-law in the Tsunami, when they were here in their honeymoon, and a family of 5 who had been on the beach when the Tsunami hit, and amazingly had all survived-how they managed that one is a miracle.

In Phuket we spend the day shopping and went up to the viewpoint which looked out across the town. It was quite nice, but not as nice as Phi Phi, there were a lot more houses, and not as much beach. We also went to a large Buddha statue on the way up the mountain, which was huge, one of the biggest we have seen.

That’s about all for now, we are now heading back to Bangkok to do some more shopping, and maybe a little sightseeing, before we fly out in only 3 days-its been too soon since we arrived here, we really didn’t have enough time to see nearly what we wanted to.

Thai photos!

It took ages to download these photos so I demand that you ENJOY! Here is Rhainnon and I today in Ayuthaya which is north of Bangkok. We visited Khmer temple ruins...it was fantastic. They are beutiful! It was scorching HOT all day...like everyday really! We like these photos becasue we don't look too moist and sticky....we dont have that many pictures of oursleves for that very reason! We look too shiny and I keep saying...'oh, there another one to print out in balck and white!' (can't see the shine and all). Lots of love to everyone. We are safe, happy and of course sweating our asses off!

Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pai....you're now updated!!

Hey Everyone,

Cara and Rhiannon (Cara’s friend from uni) are in Thailand!!!!!!!!!! We are having an awesome, hot, sweaty, non-touristy time. We are slowly increasing our Thai vocabulary. At the moment we cant read nor understand a thing and think the Thai alphabet is squiggly lines (Rhiannon), exotic (Cara) but we can say 5 things- hi and goodbye/sa-wat-ti-ka (same word- its like aloha, ciao, namaste, salut), toilet/hong-nam (very important and learned after getting tired of miming at 7/11’s), thankyou/ka-pu-ka, how much is this/tow-rye-ka (after which everyone replies in Thai so it is not soooo useful) and no/myow (we are still working on yes). Today we added ‘See ya/Pu-knee-pope-can….don’t look at the phonetic spelling all of you who know fluent Thai! Thai is a tonal language….something which we are currently ignoring and therefore probably saying all sorts of stuff!

So what have we done so far?
DAY 1-We met in Bangkok on June the 2nd after I fought the most amount of traffic I have ever seen to find Siam Square and Rhiannon. We met, found a very nasty and averagely priced for Bangkok (400Bhat= 13.30AUD=10Euros ) hotel room and wandered the streets taking it all in- the horrendous traffic, carbon monoxide, designer shops, street vendors selling cheap goods and scary food that would have the health authorities aghast (but was sooo good says Rhiannon).
DAY 2 was spent in Bangkok exploring the Palace and Reclining Buda (temple) followed by Thai massages and then we got up and left nasty Bangkok as soon as we could. We caught and overnight and allegedly air conditioned (ok, it got cold after a while) bus north to Chiang Mai. We had a 2am rest stop (what the?...everyone was sleeping and suddenly it was ‘wake up, off the bus’) where we bought strange packaged little round delicious(Rhiannon)/chalk like consistency (Cara) biscuits.
DAY 3 we hired bikes and rode thought the traffic mad streets exploring Chiang Mai which has more temples (or wats as they call them here) then you can poke a stick at (Rhiannon). In excess of 300, with 121 within the municipal limits (Lonely planet). All we had to do was wander or turn around and there was another beautiful and exquisitely decorated temple. Normally the exterior had dragons flanking the steps leading up to the door, coloured mirror mosaics, dogs in the yards and coloured tiled roofs. Monks in richly coloured robes are found inside outside and on the streets…everywhere. Rhiannon and I visited one very large, grand temple and ended up being asked to teach the mini-monks English which was really fun, so cute and just wow. I thought the head monk who asked us very clever for inviting us to teach- we ran through the alphabet many times, taught vowels and simple words. At the end he gave us his email address!
DAY 4 we hired the Thai version of a taxi (a sawngthaew…that pronunciation is lost on me) and visited a temple called Doi Suthep which is on a mountain and has dragons at the foot of the stairs that flank the entrance and their bodies continue up the entire 300 steps to the top. In our taxi we met Pin (Thai) who escorted us up, bought us the standard prayer pack consisting of 3 incense sticks, a long stemmed red rose and a long stemmed lotus flower. Pin showed us what to do with our prayer pack and how to shake a jar of sticks to and get an ancient Chinese Prophecy (Cara: number 16. Getting this number means you will be happy without trouble and suffering. Property, dignity and success will belong to you surely. Asking about illness, it’s already recovered from illness. As for lover he/she is very good and honest to you. Rhiannon: the 11th number tells that you are very lucky. It seems the full moon is without clouds. You benefit from your behaviour in the previous life. The lover, the cousins, and the debtor are very good to you. You will win the lawsuit.) We were all blessed in one of the temples by an old monk who dipped a bundle of sticks into water and flicked it at us while chanting. After which he gave us string bracelets which we tied on and are still wearing. I am quite fond of mine…we don’t know if we are supposed to wear them this long but are ignorance is bliss. We looked at a beautiful view over Chiang Mai. Pin then took us to the Warorot market in Chiang Mai and bought us lunch (omelet and rice). We walked the market and then got ready for our ‘cultural thing’ as Rhiannon just said. We attended a dinner and performance of Thai dancing which was very much like what I have done with my grandparents in Hawaii and New Zealand. We felt very cultured and dinner was yummy…we liked the fried banana the best.
DAY 5 we left Chiang Mai for Pai which is further north west. It is a very hippy town….full of all the Caucasians we have been glad not to see when eating at the street markets and biking around. It is perfect for those who would like to visit Thailand but not really see it and just chill out. People seem to come here with good intentions of staying bit and end up being here long term. Rhiannon and I had dinner with Patrick (USA), a random we met on our accommodation hunt, who speaks fluent Thai taught to him by the students he has taught English to in Bangkok every summer for the last 4 years. He ordered yummy things for us to eat and added chili, sugar and lime like Thais add to their meals (similar to westerners adding tomato sauce or mustard) and taught us lots of things about Thailand and its people. The Thai people are completely and utterly impressed with Patrick for speaking Thai….even more so then the French being impressed with me I think because no one speaks Thai. We were honored to be the first people he’d spoken English to for longer then 2 seconds in over a month! Go us!
DAY 6….TODAY we hired motorcycles…ok they are automatic and more like scooters I, with a wealth of experience from my single Croatia excursion (haughty voice), was ready for something bigger but had to think of Rhiannon…we both answered yes definetly when they asked us of we had experience ). We went and saw a waterfall, a village, a canyon, lots of beautiful countryside/jungle and saw and petted and fed ELEPHANTS! That’s right! We touched and cuddled and took millions of photos of them. We fed them mangoes and a reedy/sugar caney/grass thing. We have booked a 2 hour elephant ride for tomorrow which cost 450 Bhatt or 15AUD!!!! Lastly we visited a temple on the way home. We were invited into the temple by the monks, we sat down and all of a sudden were in the middle of what was probably evening prayer. The head monk gave us each a little stone tablet with Buddha on one side and a little mysterious critter on the other…..I love Buddhism!….I might become a Buddhist (an odd thing to say). I love scooters!....I keep singing ‘Ride Sally Ride’ and thinking things like ‘Open ‘er up’, ‘Pedal to the metal’, ‘I want to feel some air through my hair’ and “Varoom rooom rooom’ while flying along….Cara loves speed! I might be become a biker Buddhist. What’d ya think? P.S. We want to learn Thai.

En route to Thailand!

Hey! Am in the London Heathrow airport on my way to Thailand. My flight, BA 009 leaves for Thailand at 22:00! Rhiannon and I are meeting at Siam Square tomorrow...I have looked it up on maps and it seems easy to get to by public transport! Love you all and see you soon! Cara is sad to leave Europe!

Last stop before Thailand.....

Hello! Since the 24th of May I have been staying with my cousin Carola and her family in Bad Schönborn which is just south of Heidleberg. They are so nice and I am having a really nice and easy, stress free, relaxing time here! Watching movies, eating yummy home cooked food and here is what I have been up to in photos....these are all of my time Heidleberg. I went with Aniela (Carol's daughter) to Heidelberg for the day and met up with my frend Sam who is on exchange from Melb uni too! We were friends in Melbourne and thought we might meet up so it was pretty trippy to have it finally happen just a bit before I flew out!

The order is all mixed up:


Sam had a dinner party and I was invited!


Aniela and I eating ice cream at her favourite spot in Heidelberg! They have really good ice cream here!


Cara and the castle! Heidelberg Castle of course!


The Castle and fireworks....I think this is one of my favourite photos so far! The castel is so beautiful!


Sam, Cara and more ice cream! So YUMMY! Now how happy do we look about that!

To the future....to Thailand....

Today at 6:50pm I will take my flight from Frankfurt airport to London (1 hour 40mins) and then onto Thailand (another 8 and a half hours). I will arrive in Bangkok at 3pm the next day.

Yesterday I bought bug spray, sun screen and some food to take. It will be bottled water and eating only boiled food for the next 3 weeks. No salad, no ice cubes (even though the heat will be stifling) and no raw vegetables due to danger of Hepatitis.

I have reduced my bag to practically nothing and intend to fill it with silky fabrics, flowy pants and things along those lines. I am hoping to be able to take my almost empty bag onto the plane with me therefore avoiding checcking my bag entirely (no one can mess with your lugguage if it is on the plane with you and locked up).

Random facts about Germany!

-'Boh!' is an expression of 'Wow!'.
-There is a yellow light between the red and green...so everone can get ready I guess.
-When a child is born in Germany and you decide on a name it has to be a real name. The name must be on the registry offices's comprehensive list which covers all offical names in the world apparetnly and if it is not on the list then you can't use that name so i guess you wont be getting children called Apple or Jagged Blade or anything like that.
-You loose your licence for 4 weeks for running a red light (and getting caught for it)
-With Nicole in Munich I drove 150km/hour on the autobarn which means freeway.
-With Carola (aka: Schumacher) in Heildberg we drove 170km/hour.
-There are some words that have been incorperated into the German language which sound English...but are not! Like handy for mobile/cell phone so when German people talk to you in English they usually use these words....it's cute!
-Fashion: leather pants and Birkenstocks with socks are more common then you think. Birkenstocks aren't as hippish or cool as they are in the States and Australia.
-'Shower and Care Sport' advertises a bottle of shower gel....that combo doesnt make any sense!
-A store called 'Bad and Wellness'...Bad means bath but wellness is just well, not a word and the sad fact is I have hear it often and now I am starting to think it is a word!
-World cup fever sweeping Germany and evidence can be found everywhere. Flags are hanging in villages and towns. You acn buy merchandise practically everwhere. Berlin had massive souvenir shops which looked as if they had just been set up for the occasion. A little fabric store in a small town near Carola had football fabric and curtains. Supermarkets have backpacks and otherrandom things.
-For Nicole's secondary school it was a field trip to a concentration camp. One person fainted and Nicole said she felt sick afterwards and couldn't eat. Cara did not visit one whilst in germany.
-I am learning baby German. In the 20 baby German words that I have learnt, there are 2 sounds that I have great difficulity saying and there are no equivalents in English. My friend Ivan told me to pronounce a u like an e...you try it...everyone all together now...
-Cara thinks everything is soooo cheap in Germany as she has been spending way too much time in Italy's big cities (or isolated areas like on the top of a freezing mountain with a bunch of crazy athletes) and France! German's however, think everything is soooo expensive because when the Euro came into effect prices pretty much stayed the same (there was a rule that they could not for 6 months) and salaries halved.
-Bus stops are marked by a green a gold H in a circle. H is for haltestellen.
-Bavaria is a state (there are 13 states within Germany and 3 free states) of Germany.
-There are hot dog vendors which walk around with a grill starpped to their tummy and a giant umbrella above them...thus far I havent had thre heart to take a picture of them...I feel to soory for them as if I had to do that job I wouoldnt wnat ti documented!

Photos of Budapest that were never shown before!

Yes, gasp! It's exclusive Budapest photos! (no, not back in Budapest just sharing the love from afar!)


Cara on the Danube River (second longest river in Europe) with Budapest's Parliament in the background (third biggest parliament in the world they told me on the tour!) Oh...just overflowing with facts!


Cara post bathing (that bathing is said with a very posh accent and a hand gesture to accompany) at the Gellért Turkish Bath! This is the most famous in Budapest and you will see it in pictures everwhere! So much fun! I went into the women's bath and swam naked! Lovely feeling minus bathers! It had to be done...how often do you get to do that!?!


Cara and the Citadel. I can't help thinking is cute (and very cool) because it reminds me of a sand castle (awwww...it's so cute! pinches widdle castle's widde cheeks) but in fact it is a serious fortress built in the mid 1800's atop Castle Hill (also called Gellért Hill)....serious! Castle Hill is on the west side of the river which is the Buda side and from the hill you can look east and see all of Pest below you. Great view, especially in the evening sunset or at night as I saw it.


I met some American girls in the hostel bathroom (I swear I could meet anyone anywhere) who were on on exchange in Malta. Here we are having afternoon tea after high powered sight seeing around Budapest for the day. Cara, oops...I forget, Anne, Jamie!


So this was the best train trip ever...and it wasn't due to the alcohol! The journey from Budapest to Zagreb with complete train randoms (from L to R) Staffan (Sweeden), Heather and Nicole (USA) was so much fun I didn't want to get off the train! You will notice in the photo we are all holding someone else's passport! Staffan's was the best passport photo I had ever seen and definetly not a photo that would be deemed offical by Australian standards! So funny!

To Munich!

So tomorrow at 10am I will leave Berlin and my newly adopted German fraternity family for Munich! I am getting there by carpool as trains are expensive in Europe (100 Euros for this trip) and the buses are cheaper but also slower and not so flexible. There is a well known site here called ´Mitfahrgelegenheiten´ (a word I am not even going to try and pronounce) which links riders with cars....I can hear my mother panicing already buts its very common, they have offices in the main train stations and its really ok.....and way better then some of the other stuff I have done...hehehe....just kidding MUM (those are the stories I don´t write that you´ll all hear about later when I am home safe and sound and writing my first novel)! So I have arranged it for tomorrow.

Munich is the place of October fest and most Germans tell me that there is not much to see there if it is not October however the southern part of Germany is called Bavaria and there is a bit of a rivalry (and a different accent) between it and the rest of Germany so maybe that has something to do with it! I am staying with my friend Nicole whom I met in Spain. If you look at photos from Valencia I met her the second time I was there and she is playing the guitar in the photos. We were all posterboards for the perfect youth hostel bonding experience and it just gets better that I am goign to visit her now! She is stuying to be a music teacher in Munich! I called her yesterday and she was very happy to hear from me, it´s going to be really fun seeing her again!

´Eello ´Eello Amsterdam!

So I finally made it to Amsterdam.....if only for a day. I intended to stay over night there but ended up staying with the policeman instead. We went to the seaside on Saturday and then Sunday I went off to Amsterdam by train.

The train ride was much like other train rides with beautful scenry until I saw a windmill, got completely excited and then saw another!!! Giant beautifully sterotypical windmills....YAY....what more could you ask for! The girl across from saw how excited I saw so we started to chat. She was from Belgium lives in Amsterdam and her boyfriend sitting next to her is a DJ who sells hash in cafes to make money! The after that we pulled into the main station and I saw the most amount of bikes concentreated in one place on the planet I am sure. It was a multi level parking structure....FOR BIKES! Crazy wonderful Idea! I saw the main tourist attractions purely becasue they interested me the most. I saw the Van Gogh museum and finally got to meet ´The Bedroom` which I studied in Lyon. When I asked the women at the information desk where ´The Bedroom` was she gave me this blank look as if to say ´There are no bedrooms here only galleries of Art` then she giggled...oh different languages.

After that it was to the Anne Frank house which was pretty sobering. Anne Frank is the daughter of Otto Frank, a jewish business owner. Otto Frank put his business in the name of his second in command when the Nazi´s banned Jewish people from owing bussiness. When the Germans invaded The Netherlands he took his family into hiding in his office at work along with another Jewish couple. His loyal staff cared for them and brought them provisions. They converted the upper levels of the office into a small house and Anne kept a diary which has been published in just about every language. The famillies hid for 2 years until someone informed on them and they were taken to concentration camps. The only survivor was Otto, Annes´s father. He said at the house that he imagined that he and his wife would not survive but never thought that the children would not. What a wonderfully talented writer and so young. It is more then a shame that the world did not benefit from her writings for years and years to come. We lost.

So on that happy note....after Amsterdam that it was off to Berlin, Germany by air! I slept in the airport for my 6:50am flight because it wasnt really worth getting accmodation. By the time I wasted a whole bunch of time finding something (something which I am extremely tired of doing by now) and then I stayed out in Amsterdam until midnight seeing the place with new friends and then if I planned to get an early train to be at the airport I would leave at like 3am or 4am to make sure I didnt miss the 4am train....needeless to say 3 or 4 hourse sleep in a hostel for 20 plus Euros (they are expensive in Amsterdam on the weekends) was not worth it.

Belgian photos! Cara´s day in Brussels

Cara´s day in Brussels!


The night of arrival: My friend Mike (from Mauritius, met on the train) and I out for a drink meeting Belgians next to us! Everyone was oputside enjoying the nice weather on an intersection with lots of bars. It was very alive.


One day to see it all: I visited la musee de Beaux Arts/Fine Arts museum and saw La Mort de Marat/The death of Marat...which I studied in Histoire de l´Art Contemporain/Contemporary Art History in Lyon. It was a complete surprise. I had no idea it was there. Very cool!


The off to Brussels Park...once again everyone was out enjoying the weather, lounging on the grass. Behind me is Palais de la Nation, Brussels parliamant.


Cara with a really yummy Belgian waffle! YUM YUM YUM! I ate 2 yesterday just to make the most of it. They are so good you don´t need whipped cram, strawberries, chocolate or any of those things.

Belgian waffels and Belgian chocolate! and French again!

Hey! So after Hannover I visited Munster and spent a fantastic eveing with my friend Jens and his lawyer freinds...everyone was soo nice and hand picked by Jens for their english speaking abilities. Believe it or not it was the best conversation I´ve had in ages and it was with non native english speakers! I am so lucky!

After that I spent the next day in Cologne and then entered in Belgium to visit the capital Brussels. I spent all of today there and saw it all including alot of Art Nouveau architecture and an exhibition which made me wish I had more time here....always a good thing! I ate Belgian waffels and Belgian chocolate while here and let ,e tell you it was fablous, amazing and incredible to say the least!

Tomorroz off to Amsterdam for 2 days, just a quick visit, and then I fly to Berling early early Monday morning! Forgive all the mistakes in here as I am so tired and also they speak French in Belgium so I am back to the French keyboard however I am loving speaking French again. Tonight I am staying with a Belgian policeman and his son (believe me its a long story but I am not arrested) and I have practised my French all night. They are SO nice! Belgian people are very friendly.

Cara =)

Made in Munster!

Hi everyone! I travelled west in Germany today to Munster where my friend Jens lives. We were at the same uni in Lyon. The train trip here was beautiful! Everything is so green and German countryside is completely underated! There are fields and fields of yellow flowers which I think is mustard....it is so yellow it contrasts with the dirt around it making the dirt appear violet! The whole countryside was striped with yellow, green and brown. Spring really is here...in fact Jens says that this year the weather went straight from wintrer to summer!

Jens picked me up from the train this afternoon, we got ice cream and walked around the town. Visited the river, lake, church and old part of town. I saw his university and now we are off to what we are calling a BBQ party at his girlfriend Julia´s house! I am doing laundry here and just took a shower! How about that! P.S. I think I fogot my camera cable in Hannover so thats not so good for the photos on the blog idea! oooppps!!! Currently looking for a flight from Brussels to Amsterdam....or trains! =)

Hannover with Ivan!

The Church and old city building!


Hannover from above!


A statue commemorating 7 guys who believed in the contitution over their King...wonderful idea!


Cara and the Hannover Opera.


The Hannover Town Hall which I fell in love with and think is absolutely beautfiul!

Off to Munster!

Hello! So I have done Hannover and am off to Munster today to visit and stay with my freind Jens whom I was on exchnage with in Lyon. He was the diver and instigator of the St Etienne trip that I did when in France! That was an incredible trip...you may remember the photos with autumn leaves and a cascade (waterfall). It will be nice to see him. After that the plan goes continue west to Brussels, and then who knows. Amsterdam? Swisterland? Copenhagen? But the plan is to end up back in Munich and then go north to Heidelburg and Frankfurt where I fly out and where Sam (a friend on exchnage with Melb Uni) and Carola (my step dads cousin who came out for the wedding and is soo nice and excited to have me spend time with her family). YAY!

Croatia in a nutshell

Hi Everyone!


So I have left beautiful sunny Croatia and am now in Germany!

Croatia in a nutshell:

April 24th-Left Budapest (capital of Hungary) for Zagreb (capital of Croatia). My train ride was hands down the best EVER! As I got onto the train I started talking with 2 American girls, we went and found our own compartment together. Before the American girls I said some offhand remark to a Danish woman (Lis). I went back and spoke with her and she had invited me to come and stay with her. She lives on an island north of Germany and off the east coast of Denmark! YAY! The American girls were really wonderful to chat too and very interesting women. We were chatting away, went out to look at the view of the lake as we trained past and ended up invited a Swedish guy into our compartment after which time we took lots of silly photos, drank 2 shots of Absinth, complained about that and tied one of luggage tags onto each on of us somewhere…mine is on my hiking boot and will not take it off for at least a month!

April 25th-Spent the day in Zagreb touring around with a German girl. We went to the outdoor market, jumped on a tour of American high school students, saw one of the oldest and prettiest cemeteries in Europe and food shopped for our upcoming trip to the National Park which is only 2 hours by bus from Zagreb

April 26th- Cara and German girl separate as Cara needs to clense her camera of a multitude of photos. Agreeement is to meet at the bus station at 10am. German girl makes casual joke of ‘well I will just leave if you’re not there’. Photo burning takes longer then expected and Cara arrives at bus station at 10:30 therfore missing 2 possible German girl buses….hummm….where is she? Maybe she has gone to the park already? Waiting for me there? Cara decides to catch the 11am bus with or without German girl as she must already be in the park if she doesn’t make it to the bus station….all she had to do was get on one tram so she should have beat me there. Arrive at park. No German girls anywhere. There are multiple entrances and German girl could be anywhere….hurrm…ask park rangers…they are fresh out of German girls. Cara rents a big room with 3 beds and a bathroom, feels incredibly luxirous and then goes for a walk around the park! The park is a waterfalls national park, full of travertine waterfalls and incredibly beautiful! Cara meets Adam (Canadian backpacker) who is really nice. Cara and Adam have dinner and then go back to Cara’s palace sharing stories of traveling (Adam did a missionary trip to Albania and most notably slept in a tree atop his bag to avoid finding out if the wild looking dogs outside a Serbain train station were really wild) and taking long showers in the nice bathroom….separately.

April 27th- I’m up early and spend the day touring around the park with Satoshi (Japan) and Christine (Australia). Satoshi is almost retired and Chris is in her 40s so it is nice to hang with a different crowd. Chris heads back to Zagreb and I have dinner with Satoshi or rather he bought me dinner. He is very very nice and has traveled just about everywhere multiple times. Maybe I will visit him and his family in Japan someday.


April 28th- Head out early with the intention of getting a bus. Wait 2 hours with Satoshi and finally when we get a bus I remember that I have forgotten my passports cleverly hidden in my room! So its back to the little village for me. The woman who I stayed with completely cleaned the room and didn’t find it so I guess that’s good right. I am so good at hiding things I hid it from myself! So I had to wait around the park for the next bus at 5pm! I bought some lunch (yougurt and bread) and sat on the path and low and behild who did I meet. A backpacker I gave advice to on where to stay who was getting off the bus as I was getting on. We hiked around togtehr on some of the rim trails which I would have been sorry to miss and then I went and waited for the bus for 2 hours...when they say it comes at 5 its a rought guesstimate! Arriving in Split quite late I asked the guy at bus info if he knew anywhere to stay after looking for something in my Lonely planet and finding it said very little in general about the city of Split. He had a friend whos grandmother rented rooms and a free taxi to get me there. prefect. It was not that close to the town and my room with 3 beds was completley empty (a good thing if you look at it one way and alone therefore bad the other way) but at the hour I didnt care.

April 29th- Headed out taking all my stuff and went looking for a hostel and from this point on life in Croatia starts. I founf Al's hoste, run by a nice englishman and stayed there for 2 days. I met the people there who I travelled with to the Islands of Havar and Korcula. I ended my trip in a beautful city called Dubrovnik and took an overnight bus back to Zagreb where I flew to Germany with a budget airling called German wings!

Hamburg!

Cara on top of a tower in Hamberg!

Hamburg photos!

So I met Ivan comming off the plane. He is Crotian and studies in Hanover and we walked around Hamberg togther. He showed me some of the sights.

Korculan Photos! hahaha

Cara at church (in Korcula's old town)



This is a the town of Korcula from above. Nice photo if I dont say so myself!



Cara rented a Peugeot Vivacity scooter and crossed the entire island of Korcula to visit the town on the other side of the island! YAY! And I drove through a town called....CARA!!! (ok, in all honesty the accent on the top of the C renders a different pronunciation but I am still ecstatic!

off 2 another island...Korcula

the weather here iS sUNNY AND AMAZING. OFF 2 ANOTHER ISLND TO EXplore and then off 2 the main land flying to germNY AFTER THT. THIS COMPUTER IS NO GOD11111 AHHH....BYE 4 NOW1!1

Havar-ing a good time in Havar! haha

The island is beautiful and quite big too. Last night Pauline (French- met her in Budapest and found out we were going to be in Croatia at the same time), Marcus (USA met in Split hostel) and Bryan (Aussie- met in Split hostel) went out for dinner. Drank some wine which I am quite licking I must admit. We then went and partied a bit at the main square right on the water as there was a concert there for the first of May whihc is a holiday here. We hung out at one of the bars right on the water (the town is pretty small so there are not very many) and all tried to find out accmodation again in the dark!

Today, was my first day of nice weather since I left the capital Zagreb. It is nice not to be soggy and the colours here are spectacular. Just add sun! I spent today chilling out and it seems we have quite a big crew for dinner tonight. There is a group of people we met in a bar last night, guys who were in Split and came to Havar earlier and the group of us that travelled over here for dinner together. Should be fun. I will be here tonight too and then visit another island tomorrow. Alright, must go climb up to the castel up the top of the island. Thank you to Havar public library for letting me post this!

Cara who is safe and happy and will go to Germany at the end of the week....so everyone can stop worrying!

From Split a costal city to Havar island.

So today I am off on the 2pm ferry to Havar which is a popular island. It is pretty chill here and I have made lots of friends who are going to Havar today and know others who went yesterday! Will try to find more net soon! Love you all....I am very safe.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE CONCERNED:
I cant try to reassure the people who are concerned about Croatia. You dont know till you get here. I cant describe it....you have to come and see for yourself. It is normal here. VERY VERY normal. There are alot of tourists but not too many that they would be targetted. There are people of all ages that work and play and live normal lives. Croatia is probably safer then most places at the moment. Croatia and most easter European countries are off the map a little bit and there is no terrorism here. Why werent people concerned when I was in western countries which were being targetted? Discussion over...everyone stop worrying. If it wasnt a public holiday I would call and reassure everyone but its just not an option.

Split...oh I'd love to think of a whitty title....suggestions please!

Hi guys!

I just spent 2 nights in the Nationsl Park Plitvička jezera. It was amazingly beautiful! Tiers upon tiers of waterfalls! I have soooooo many pictures of waterfalls you will all be sick of them when I get back!

I am now in the city of Split on the coast and I like it here too! I have to go to dinner with some American guy, his brother, fiance and friend. The to live Irish music I think....wacky! I PROMISE photos soon!

Cara with a big grin!

Thank you all for your comments! I felt soooo warm and fuzzy inside! I will try to talk to you sometime soon Claire bear, great to hear flights are booked Rhiannon I am both happy and relieved and STOP WORRYING FAMILY!!!! Croatia is beautiful, modern and friendly! Rainy too at the moment but we hope that will pass by monday!

P.S. Suggestions for a title guys!

Croatia

Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am now in Croatia. Ibn the capital, Zagreb. It is beautiful spring weather here and otday I toured around with a German girl whom I met yesterday night when I arrived. Today we saw the parliament, the two famous chuches, a cultural museum and one of the most beautiful cemetaries in Europe. We also had a nice lesiurely lunch....felt a bit lazy for that one! National park tomorrow

Going going....where?

Hi all! I am leaving Budapest within the next 2 hours....I think I am off to Croacia or Solvenia...looking for a hostel now....also looking for a way to get to Malta as met American studying there. We hung out yesterday and today so I might go and have a look! Love you all and being very very carefully Mummy! Will call you tonight and tell you where I am so you can worry sick!

Looks like Im staying!

Ryan left for Brno in the Czech republic today (Sad!) so he flys out on our flight tomorrow (he goes home in several days from london) and Im staying here to explore Budapest and plan my next move!

Hi all from Budapest!

Hi there! Hungry is wonderful! Budapest sounds so forigen and far away but its not that at all...its great! I have so many stories and so much to tell but i just dont have the time....i am always rushing to my next location or trying to soak it all in or trying to find food or accmodation (that takes up alot of time).

Today I did a tour of Budapest and then went and found somewhere to stay tonight. Ryan and I bascially rented a room with a kitchen and lounge room for 9000HUF which is about 30 Euros...its huge, its modern and its EXCITING! We are a bit blown away! We then went to the Hungarian National Gallery (Magyar Nemzeti Galeria) and saw the permanent collection which is free. The museum was packed full of art and they had a really nice collection. It is on top of a hill that looks over all of the pest side od Budapest! Very nice!

Tomorrow Ryan flys back to London with Ryan Air and I have a flight booked. I am not sure if I am going to take it! Right now I am leaning strongly towards staying here and seeing a bit more of Hungury and Easter Europe which is severely under rated!

Dont know what I am going to do but will keep you posted! Right now I am looking for tours on the net for this area!

Im in Budapest!

Im in Budapest, Hungury! Its GREAT! Just got here this morning!

Cara had arrived in the Czech Republic

Hi guys. So I have arrived in the Czech Republic...cant find the exclimation mark on this thing otherwise there would be an abundance appearing as always. So I got to Stansted airport and couldnt find my travel buddy. I waited and waited and in the end flew alone. Amazing how things turn out. Dont know what happened but I got an email saying Ryan will be coming tomorrow and is spending tonight at the airport to ensure he doesnt miss his next flight....sounds like a bit of a story. I am going to find a hostel now. I was looking for the internet and asked 2 guys on the street and they let me into their office. So now I am sitting with the receptionist and a security huard typing away. On the way over I bonded with the woman next to me, as I am so famous for doing, and she escorted me into town, bought me my bus ticket, helped me exchnage money and gave me her number in case of emergency. So, so far outstanding reports of how freindly the Czechs are. hooray....its just not the same without my beloved exclimation marks1111

Cara had arrived in the Czech Republic

Hi guys. So I have arrived in the Czech Republic...cant find the exclimation mark on this thing otherwise there would be an abundance appearing as always. So I got to Stansted airport and couldnt find my travel buddy. I waited and waited and in the end flew alone. Amazing how things turn out. Dont know what happened but I got an email saying Ryan will be coming tomorrow and is spending tonight at the airport to ensure he doesnt miss his next flight....sounds like a bit of a story. I am going to find a hostel now. I was looking for the internet and asked 2 guys on the street and they let me into their office. So now I am sitting with the receptionist and a security huard typing away. On the way over I bonded with the woman next to me, as I am so famous for doing, and she escorted me into town, bought me my bus ticket, helped me exchnage money and gave me her number in case of emergency. So, so far outstanding reports of how freindly the Czechs are. hoory....its just not the same without my beloved exclimation marks1111

London!!!! for the second time!

So my Dad returned to California on April 10th and I am hanging around London with mates!

Friends in London:




Crazy Cara sporting a fablously yellow hat belonging to an of the Italian girl from Venice staying in my room in the London hostel.
Christina (USA-another hostel room mate), Cara and Emily (Cara's friend from high school whom Cara told 'Emily, you must come to Europe' and here she is!) at lunch in London's Chinatown with wonderfully presented Japanese (hrrmm...in CHINAtown) cusine. After lunch I trained it south to Chichester (in the county of Sussex) to visit my friends Emily and Lucy Budge (and stay with their family) to celebrate Emily's 21st birthday. I was a birthday surprise! Being a surprise is fun!. I met the sisters in my first ever hostel when I visted Honolulu, Hawaii at the start of my trip! Lucy pointed out to me the other day how crazy it is that they met me at the start of my trip and I am STILL travelling....and when you put it like that is seems amazingly wonderfully odd!

Tomorrow I will see my uncle (my Dad's sister Ava married an Australian) Michale's brother who lives very close. He is going to pick me up at 1pm and I am going to meet his family. How nice! Here here for random relatives!

I am here until the morning of April 15th (Saturday) when I will take the train back to London and then a bus to Stansted airport (one of London's discount airports) to rendez-vous with my friend Ryan. We will then fly to Prague, Czech Republic for a week!

It's been so nice being here. Sleeping in a comfy bed, washing clothes,havidng the ability to jog, being surrounded by cats (I miss my puddies!), eating fablous food....today the sisters, their mother and I all went to their country club and went for a dip (oh how posh!) in the pool, spa and steam room! So by the time I set off for Prague I should be organised, clean and ready to hit the road and be homeless once more and here after!

Cara and her Daddy at the Palace of Versailles

Here is my Dad and I at the Château de Versailles! Behind us is the Château! Big! Fablous! Beautiful!

Part 1-Barcelona and Valencia!

Part 2-PHOTOS of Spain! Spanish photos! Photos with Spaniards!

So we left Valenica and went to visit Madrid but just couldnt keep away from all the fun so back to Valencia we went for acouple more days before exisitng Spain from Barcelona where I went off to Rome!Now that was the summary here are the photos!


So here is me with a bunch of traditionally dressed Spanish gals! The dresses and detail are amazing! I saw pieces of these costumes in stores in Spain for sale and I thought they were a bit over the top but when you see the whole ensemble it is magically beautiful. Ryan and I were on our way out of Valencia to Madrid when we were lucky enough to stumble across almost everyone who participates in the Las Fallas parades. It was registration day! So we got pictures of everyone and with some before the festival started and they were probably harassed all the time. I even found a girl who spoke english and asked her every single question I could possibly think of! Each Fallas house is for a region of the city and has its own emblem/pins which they give to eachother...and I was given 2!!!!!!!!! Lucky me!


So I raved on and on about the Spanish countryside and here it is in an all impressive out the window bus shot! Now if that doesnt impress you I dont know what will....raise your hand if you want to come to Spain immediately!


So here is the hostel I stayed at in Valencia! This is like the perfect promotion shot for hostels everywhere. Random youths all participating and sharing travelling together, creating moments they will remeber for the rest of their lives, bonding....almost makes you sick but it was a lot of fun and definetly one of my favourite things about travelling! The girl with her back to the camera and playing the guitar is Nicole from Munich, Germany who is studying to be a music teacher and has music pouring out of her soul and mouth at most times of the day. I hope to visit her when I stop by Germany in May!


Cara and Nicole (Munich) perched on high watching the Mascletta which is a firework display everyday at 2pm during and even before the festival! The sounds of the firworks are so lound they shake you from the inside out!


Cara and Ryan sandwiched between 2 Argentinians! And the message of this photo folks is that the world is smaller then you think and heres why. I met the guy on the left and his cousin in Valencia. I then went to Madrid and met the guy on the right who told me he was from Argentina in an intro conversation. I commented that I had been meeting a lot of Argentinians lately in Spain like in Barcelona and Valencia and he replied that his brother was in Valencia....yep....I met his cousin and brother in my hostel in Valencia! Out of all the hostels what are the chances! We also ran into them on the streets of Valenica on the last night of Las Fallas while jammed in the busiest crowds of the festival which hosts about 4 million people! Crazy!

Back in France again!

Hey all! I am sorry I am not keeping you all as informed as I would like but I am running around crazy busy organising things with my Dad who arrived in Rome on the 22nd!

So to sum up so much info into acouple of sentences (which I hope to eloborate on later) I flew from Barcelona to Rome on the 22nd and met my Dad. After we spent acouple of days in Rome and Florence, saw the leaning tower of Pisa on the way to Turin. Spent time with my friend Sumita in Pinerolo so we could see Sestriere and now we are in Lyon! I have showed my Dad my old apartment and university and tomorrow off to Paris! Oh it was exciting and so good to see 3 old friends today. My friend Alisa cried when she saw me and I felt the same! I need to visit her in Canada and also need to visit so many friends all over the world now that it makes you never want to stop travelling just so you can see the ones you love being with!

Cara in Lyon and feeling at home again! Vive la France!