When the Cheshire emerges...

Only 25 minutes to choose clothes and accessories for five days' holiday. That's got to be a personal best.

And it was all done with the finesse of an 80s powerdresser after I came home (early) from a trivia night:

How I would have power dressed 30 years ago. All in the name of charity and some good trivia... #dubbo twitter.com/Katiinkaa/stat…
— Katina V (@Katiinkaa) February 22, 2013

Sorry for the delay everyone, my parents' visit meant I had to take a holiday break from my entries. Seeing as I worked for most of the period I had to take a break from something. But I'm back and re-energized for 2012!

My next overseas adventure is shortly directing me towards The Land of the Long White Cloud, and I've finally started researching. I'm becoming more and more excited as I try to decide what to cover over the fortnight I'm in New Zealand, and glad I'm spending four days in the Bay of Islands - it's going to be STUNNING! Plus I'll be with my tour buddies for that so it'll be even better - places like this look like they're best enjoyed with great company.

But as we all know New Zealand has some current rebuilding issues, physically and emotionally. This is thankfully only limited to one city, but Christchurch is a pretty unfortunate example. The news that they've had more aftershocks today is so sad to hear when they're trying so hard to rebuild from TWO earthquakes in a year. How does that happen? Why?

I hate my laptop at home for not being able to publish a post so I'm going to do a quickie here at the public institution that is my local library. Lots happening in my life if you were wondering at all. The countdown to Europe 2011 is definitely on the home stretch with only three weeks to go before I'm outies. It started to hit me a few days ago when I was completely stressed about getting Eurail passes before the agent I had in charge of that went to Europe himself for five weeks. Before that I'd waited three hours for him and not gotten anywhere on that particular day so I'm glad things did sort out on his last day. That (last) week, I worked 47 hours between my two jobs. Unprecedented and badly-timed, but I won't be sorry when the payslip comes through. It's kicked me into gear and today as the only entire day off I've had in a week or two at least has come as a huge relief. Except for the pain in my lower back. Damn exercise. Got my new camera in express post today, v.v.excited. Only bought it on Monday night so quite impressed. It's the exact same model as my old one, but I love it too much to let it go just yet and it's still a top camera features-wise (for a point-and-shoot anyway). And this time it's pink! Lol I'm such a girl... Transport for me is all organised, waiting on info to book one flight for the family and it's taking FOREVER. I just want it over and done with - Mercury turns retrograde today so I'm worried about miscommunications if I leave it too much longer. Aaaaaahhhhh. One final thought: I miss driving my car. Although the last words to blast from the radio speakers were 'ohhhh, Mona Lisa'. Seriously. From that new Panic! At The Disco song. That's got to be a good omen right? It's been playing on my mind and I just keep thinking how surreal it'll be standing in front of the masterpiece once more.

Don't mind me writing this when I'm back in cold Adelaide but I wanted to get it out because otherwise it's unfinished business!

Uh, with the Viennese theme park, as if I didn't say I had the biggest fairy floss you've ever seen in your life! It was seriously the length of my torso. Buried my face in it. The rest of Vienna was good even though Sunday meant things weren't open. Average cake/coffee at a cafe, the Film Museum wasn't open during the summer, and I had an interesting encounter with a man and his laptop. Bratislava was gorgeous for what we could see in about 90 minutes - although half of that was in a cafe drinking hot coffees (I had some banana-infused latte in a martini glass, quite amazing) because it was pissing down with rain. The poor market stalls in the main square... My camera decided to not turn on when it felt like it so a few photo ops missed on top of their castle. Got my Slovakian Maccas (bit of a Greek flavour with beef and tzaztiki in a herbed bun) and we moved on - after half the group returned 20 mins late with boxes of pizza in their hands. Ha, I thought we would run late when we took a wrong turn.

Budapest proved (to my Yiayia's truth) to be beautiful and really interesting (except for Topdeck's new choice of hotel, it was horrible). Visited the Terror Museum which gave a whole book's worth of info pages about the Hungarian Jews in WWII and the Communist era that followed, definitely worth seeing. Walking around was beautiful; their markets a little disappointing for lack of clothes though (although every second shop was traditional clothing but that wasn't what I was after. I discovered later Angela trying on a vest made for an awesome photo). Fell asleep after getting a drink with the girls in the afternoon. Outside. In broad daylight. Apparently they were scared because I wouldn't wake up. Must love the Hungarian sun. Oops. The food: A-MA-ZING. First night's dinner (under 3000 florints which is less than AUD$20) was the most massive souvlaki on a stick I've ever eaten in my life (it was like... oh, I can't describe it, just too good), second night grabbed a traditional Goulash soup which was incredible. Still sick so thought that might be good for the immune system. But so so good. And so cheap, unbelievable. Oh, and tried a cinnamon ice-cream (gelati-style). YUM.

Nightlife was really interesting. But the ride to Rio on night one was more so... maxi-cab driver refused to give us the right change because he rorted us way more than what our tour guide had agreed, pushing us all out as we try to argue, Amy (guide) rocks up and hops in the back seat to push the point, he drives off with doors still open, Amy hanging on for dear life to the back of the front passenger seat and Angela sitting in the front. 20 mins later, discover he drove them down the street, couldn't get the door open to push Amy out, continued yelling abuse in Hungarian but gave in. So I got my 100 florints back. Above and beyond the call of duty for Amy, who in her tipsy state said that should never happen again. Hilarious all the same. And trying to sleep when one of the guys comes into our room going 'sound check, sound check' to see if we could hear them shouting next door. We could.

Krakow was next, a smaller city than Poland's capital Warsaw - but stunning again. The main sq is huge, and the markets in the middle sell all kinds of lovely trinkets. Regret not buying a jewellry box, but bought an amber cross for my charm bracelet - amber's a huge export for them apparently, 80% of the stalls were selling it! Had a corridor party on the first night which was almost as cool as Party 211 in Rome and then made our way into town (I was one of the last to get in a taxi - and then the other girls' taxi who left before mine had taken them the wrong way and they had to be rescued by one of the boys). First pub was okay (I'd decided not to drink for fear of wrecking my throat too much before the big three - Prague, Berlin and Amsterdam) but a lot of us just wanted to dance. The second pub wasn’t that much better, very local though which was cool. But it stank of cigarettes way too much for me to handle so I preferred to get my Polish Maccas fix at approx 1:30am before heading home.

The day was good - licked the wall of a mine (all made of salt so had a nice taste to it), then nearly died in the lift up - the most rickety thing with 9 of us in there. Had a pretzel as Kat and I had discussed, then Some of the better pasta I had in Europe – in a shopping centre food court. Then ice-cream, then found the most awesome jewellry/souvenir shop hidden in a little alley. Bought stuff (it's all hand-painted, amazing)... but I was thinking of a pendant, Kat saw stuff on the way out. Two minutes later we were buying it all.

Had an early night to be prepared for the next morning – our visit to Auschwitz. Every person on the bus chose to take the tour which was fantastic. I was getting emotional before we went in as I read the information posted outside and I knew I wasn’t going to contain myself for the whole tour.

It was the most sobering experience of my life and I pretty much can’t think about it without getting tears in my eyes. As we were walked through the rooms and everything was put into context by the guide I was just stunned. Images that will forever stick in my head come from those rooms where photographs weren’t allowed. And for good reason. Shit… Ummm, I had to walk out of one of those prematurely and felt so holed up I couldn’t even bring myself to look at anything besides my tissue. And when we went through one of the few remaining gas chambers even the guide didn’t talk out of respect, merely gestured to the vents as we took the 15-second walk through. And then I see some idiot tourist taking a photo. No fucking respect at all. I felt like punching the bastard. Also saw the Birkenau part, and then as I thanked the tour guide personally afterwards started blubbering in front of her. She was so strong. Oh man, you’d have to have real guts to walk through that place every day and retain integrity and level emotion.

Night tour in Prague proved fun – beautiful city, good nightlife. Double Trouble music bar, then the 5-storey club everyone was so excited about. But for me where it had a little less expectation than for others it turned out more fun – a few were disappointed but I enjoyed it enough. Stayed fair late (so it must’ve been good); for the ride home hopped out of taxi #1 after he was going to charge way too much, and taxi #2 had to do. We may be tourists but we know a rip-off when we hear it! At least the alcohol’s cheap. Real cheeeeeap.

Prague was next, and again, a beautiful place. Their main clock is incredible and the bugle played every hour is worth a watch. Got lost in the backstreets trying to find Mozart's house (sure I walked past it), found the coolest vintage shop - but she didn't take EFTPOS and that ruined any chance for me that day. So badly wanted to do the Pub Crawl but so buggered from the day that we gave it a miss.

Next day was my Yiayia’s 70th birthday so made a call and got some interest from bus-mates with my broken sore-throated Greek. Stop in Dresden was on a Sunday so no chance to do much. Has such interesting history with its buildings though – half restored (literally, you can see the burnt black stones mixed in with the new ones) after WWII after its’ bombing was one of the war’s biggest controversies. Had a picnic with my pre-made lunch and found an Ayers Rock Café.

Then drove straight into Berlin for a drive tour and first up was the Berlin Wall. The East Side Gallery part, where artists have painted murals, including a famous one of two presidents kissing. I was in such awe just walking past it, feeling the suppression of these people as their city was split in two. Then I remembered I had a pen – light blue but all the same I did my best to write on there. Then everyone saw I had it and it wasn’t seen again until late that night. I could’ve spent half the day there, 10 minutes wasn’t nearly enough. It was even weirder walking past it across the road in darkness as we headed to a club further down. A club which only five of us got into out of at least 12-15 (others booted for being too ‘young’, not dressed up enough, not dressed right). I was surprised when I got in after being asked how old I was and showing him my passport, but once I got in I understood perfectly why (wearing my floral dress and small-heeled black peep-toes). The. Most. Indie-ish. Crowd. EVER. It was like The Garden of Unearthly Delights on steroids. Two dancefloors, a swing on a fairy light-lit tree, overlooking a river… absolutely nuts. Three of us and new friend Pete were spotted staring at a couple about to totally go for it on a ledge high up by some seats overlooking everything. They said we should have fun too. Uh, not right there thankyou! Definitely an experience to last a while in there – and then the satisfaction of the Maccas we passed being open at 3:30am when it looked closed was incredible.

Berlin day: guide took us around major Berlin sites, I stood on East and West Berlin at the same time, made the long trek to the Ampelmann store (amazing, I could’ve bought half the shop - and the one next to it actually). If you have no idea about Amplemann, Google him. Best traffic light man EV-ER. Also hunted for something pink for our upcoming ‘P & pink’ pub crawl – found rose-patterned leggings on sale at H&M. Not that I couldn’t have found something there, with no less than three stores on the one side of the strip. AAARGH! Awesome apple strudel in the café right by Checkpoint Charlie before getting ready. That was a highlight – Allie getting wrapped by Brodie in glad-wrap because she was going as Plastic. Once she was done the inevitable question came up: ‘how do I pee?’ Hilarious. I went as Pretty in Pink as one of my London buys has a Molly Ringwald style to it. Leggings made it look rather garish. And Lauren went as Penny. Got just about everything right, esp. the poses for photos. Excellent. Good night, all the pubs/clubs had something different about them, and I downed my first full bottle of beer ever, a Beck’s Gold. Aaaaand, we were encouraged to leave our bottles on the sidewalk because they pick them up to recycle. That felt so wrong. Best thing about locations were that last club was literally across the street from our (pretty awesome) hostel. That helped when it started to spit…

Berlin-Amsterdam was a long drive, but that didn’t mean I wanted to get out of the bus. Freeeezing as we went into the cheese and clogs factory, where the creepiest guy showed us how to carve the hole in a clog – he was seriously on some happy pills. And then his face is on the brochure and I almost tear up in laughter. No-one else managed to see this in there! Bought some smoked cheese on the basis I’d eat it before going home.

Wow, there’s so much I could say about Amsterdam, what an awesome place. After the first night that is. Went through the Red Light District and down Skinny Alley where all the expensive sex workers are – seeing them just stand behind their windows in suggestive lingerie one after the other was nuts. And then we went to a sex show. Thinking to myself ‘it’s just one of those things you have to do – when in Amsterdam…’ I walked out with two minds. The strippers were fine in their slight vulgarity, but live sex on stage (which I’d been warned about) was really discomforting. That's all I'll say about it.

The next day was more ‘normal’; did a bike tour around the city, which is built on canals – and to put the rumours straight I’m officially stating for the record I DID NOT CRASH INTO A CAR. After went to Anne Frank’s house where I gladly waited almost two hours to get in. Wow. After the emotion of Auschwitz a few days before, I didn’t expect as much here. Had tried reading it again but only got a ¼ through from the last week (bus time didn’t equal down time) so details were hazy for not having read it properly in so long. But as soon as I saw the pictures of film stars on the wallpaper it dawned on me I was standing where she’d slept, and written so much. Again, I tear up thinking about this. I was in tears for 99% of the rest of it. Seeing it and picturing it in my head was so unreal, but I forced myself just as I did with Auschwitz that it was real and that people were here. The window in the attic, the stove where the mothers would cook… unbelievable. Can’t believe some people don’t even know who she is. For goodness sake, brush up on your general knowledge – that makes me angry. Almost walked away with half the store but contained myself. It was so lovely to see the diary there in so many languages.

Found an orange feather boa for our last night out (being their national colour), discovered my first Episode store, and went in the Vincent Van Gogh museum which is pretty impressive. Canal cruise at dusk went mental (unlimited wine for an hour, you can imagine the line-up on the tiny boat), then first club went off. Second was a dud before heading home.

Last ride: slept for large part of it, which annoyed me because wanted to make the most of it. But the Backseat Bandits did encourage Amy to set a challenge, so before our stop in Bruges we’d named all the capital cities of our visited countries and figured out about half the flags for them. The stop was beautiful – I set off solo immediately to find Maccas as part of my Odyssey (seriously, I AM going to write a blog on that v.v.soon), but found a closed Tintin Shop – DEVO, another small goal shot, a great and cheap chocolatier and a castle that I reckon ¾ of the crew didn’t see. Busy place too, would’ve loved to spend more time there. In Bruges had played on the bus but didn’t watch it. Should have really, will make an effort. Dropped Jo off at the station after - sad because she was the first to go – it can’t be over! Then Paddy left us at the port and we really were going back to London. Everyone was pretty knackered on the ferry and so glad to get off we were the first bus packed and ready to go. Slept for a lot of that too.

Sad farewelling everyone; it was an absolutely amazing 24 days we had together and I miss every one of you still! But there’s still more of my trip to come… phew!

Ok, so haven't been able to write on here for some time, and writing this is slightly difficult because I'm working with a German keyboard in Austria.

So I'm in Vienna, halfway through my Topdeck tour, and it's been amazing so far. London was a great lead-up though too, so let me go through that...

Highlights were definitely the people we met: walking tour through London introduced Helen and I to sisters Eleina and Anita, and then roommates Teghan and Kelsey (also sisters). It's a very cool thing experiencing sights and sounds of a city with people you're just getting to know and I had a great time with everything - London Eye, Buckingham Palace, getting 'hung, drawn and quartered' like Guy Fawkes (I volunteered to provide a demonstration because I found our Irish tour guide funny), etc.

Helen and I had done a tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath (which was a horribly gloomy day with a stern tour guide and a bus full of older people and families - but the sights were nice), but even though that was a mammoth driving day that was nothing compared to my birthday.

Madame Tussaud's, Portobello Road (and the markets), Mamma Mia! on the West End and then managing to find a good r&b club from a guy offering entry tickets on the street meant that my 21st ended up being incredibly awesome. Great to have Helen to share that with.

Mingling with the tour got off to a slow start but really kicked off in our Swiss campsite's bar. Dancing on the seats was the norm, and the bar became the centre of which in-bus gossip began. Beforehand, Paris was beautiful and I was much more in awe of the Eiffel Tower than I thought I would be. Getting to climb it and seeing how far we walked all day (from the Louvre, where I fought to get a centre position at the Mona Lisa and succeeded, to Notre Dame back to the Tower - at least 1.5hrs walking) was awesome. Switzerland gave me the opportunity to push myself like never before... I decided to jump out of a helicopter from 12000 feet (4000 metres). And I was surprisingly calm about it. Even afterwards. No jitters. Just knowing the accomplishment of achieving such a scary thing. It was one of the most exciting things I've ever done in my life and something I'll never forget.

Nice in the French Riviera was relaxing at the beach (pebbles, again) because on Sundays Europe decides to close its doors. Also travelled to Monte Carlo in Monaco to visit their casino (as used in Bond films etc) - underwhelmed. Beautiful building but empty and definitely not within my gambling range!

Italy was 5 nights... Leaning Tower of Pisa shots were fun, tried unsuccessfully to lick it, Florence was pretty but didn't get to see enough (especially M'angelo's David), Rome was too busy - 90000 PEOPLE AT ST PETER'S SQUARE to see the Pope's address (as opposed to an avg 10000 - once-a-year convergence of 70000 from across Europe of altar kids helped there, some of who howled Hunn-ga-ri-aaaa at us in a Metro station quite forcefully), and not knowing where to go was annoying. Did love the Trevi Fountain though, tossed coins in and tried a La Dolce Vita shot. Oh, and ate a takeaway pizza through the streets, felt very Italian - not that they really do that but whatever...

We had some people leave us in Rome and others join us. New group are younger and have already injected life into the partying which is good. Although Angela and I didn't need them in Florence - the discoteca at the campsite went off for us - we killed the d.f. and shat all over the 15yo's who didn't know Eminem's Without Me. Only ones on d.f. by 2am. But the biggest came after getting to Venice - through Verona, which I was ußer excited about. Total awe washed over me as I visited Juliet's house and saw all the names graffitied on the wall. Stuck a note up and left my legacy, that's definitely been a highlight too. Only spent an hour there though, not enough...

So Venice got off to an absolute flier with a Toga Party at the campsite's bar. It got very messy very quickly with plenty of Silvio's Special's flowing: 4 shots and a Bacardi Breezer. Details were still emerging 2 days later - a Gappie (gap-year camper on another Topdeck tour there) was rumoured to be kicked off his tour for starting a fight with one of our boys and then subsequently everyone else, an in-bus hook-up that included an accidental punch in the face that the female does still not recall, and another female being caught eating a potplant (and nutella) cross-legged on her bed cuddling it are just a few stories. Let the good times roll...

These stories, embarrassments, get nominated for the cowbell, which has to be worn as a walk of shame until next midnight. Penny and Lauren have received the first joint awarding of this already for getting ready to leave Florence in a rush - an hour before schedule, in turn putting tour guide Amy into a fright. Hilarious.

Vienna today was alright, but again it's Sunday so nothing was open. Did go to Europe's biggest fun park last night and tested myself on rollercoasters... Awesome fun.

Think that's everything... Budapest through Bratislava tomorrow, getting really East now. Should get really interesting from here!

Don't have much time...

Ok so spent the last 6 days in Nemea, Greece, about an hour or so from Athens, past Corinthos on the Pelopponnese. My paternal grandpa is from a smaller village just outside Nemea called Dafni but most of my family don't live there now bcoz it's pretty small. Didn't see much of it (disappointing), but Nemea is great. About 29,000 live there, and very friendly and hospitable people. And they love their coffee. So I'm not a huge coffee drinker right? I had 3 frappes in 24 hrs and w jetlag it wasn't good. Yes, there was a bit of that and I didn't feel myself for days. Neither did my face :/ So to say the least I've stuck to OJ since.

Helen's learnt a bit of Greek which is great... My fam don't speak a lot so it's been a challenge but have understood more than expected so everyone wins! It was a learning curve for me too, and the places we've seen have been incredible. Didn't expect it to be that mountainous. But it's mountain after mountain after mountain... after mountain. Beautiful. Nafplio is amazing; Greece's first capital city... Went in Palamidi Castle where Kolokotroni led us to victory vs the Turks 200 years ago and was then jailed, and the night after it ate under it in the town centre. At 11pm on a Monday night and it was PACKED. The pizza here has tastier cheese and their pites (yiros') are AMAZING. Nothing's the same here!

Olympia was the big one for me and we went yesterday. I almost cried seeing the first stones, felt sooo privileged to be there. Missed the flogya (flame basin thing), bit annoyed because there weren't exactly any signs and the site's HUGE. Buuuut I did run on the ancient Stadio with ghosts of champions past. And there's video proof haha :)

Also watched the World Cup final... Well half of it, and then 3mins from the finish it cut out. Happy with Spain winning.

Now in Mykonos where the water's beautifully clear and it's extremely hot. Heard about back home... Ewwww. Funniest thing ever: love TV Rock's 'In The Air' after seeing 'Kings of Mykonos: Wog Boy 2' right? I've made it my Eurotrash song. And what loud poster do I see outside my hotel today? TV ROCK IN THE FLESH TOMORROW NIGHT! That's not coincidence, that's fate! I'll hear my song as it should be heard, yayyy!