Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Travel catch up and London.

It's been twelve months since I last updated my blog (oops!), so needless to say, this one is going to be a pretty long entry! Maybe go make yourself a cup of tea before you start reading...


This time last year I was soaking up the sunshine in Greece. I am certainly not doing that now, London is having the wettest summer ever. After six rather horrendous months, with a very difficult family, an almost mugging/stabbing and a mountain of the best feta cheese I've ever eaten, my Greek adventure finally ended in October. I flew home a few weeks earlier then I was meant to, so I could surprise my family and spend christmas at home. It was so very lovely to be home and to see everyone, I  even clocked up a few hours working in one of the local pre schools. Thank goodness I was able to do that, I think I was having baby withdrawals after not having my twins around for a few weeks. 


Oh wait, I'm getting ahead of my self. While I was in Greece I got to have a lovely long weekend in Barcelona. I adore Spain, I don't know why, but it has always been my number one country to visit. I even tried to learn Spanish, but I tried to learn it while living in Russia and now I speak this weird mix of spanish/english/russian and absolutely no one has a clue what I'm trying to say! 
I landed at the Barcelona airport, jumped on a shuttle bus, hopped off at the stop that seemed fairly central in the city and then wondered about doing a bit of exploring and tried to find a hotel. I ended up staying in this fantastic little boutique hotel in the penthouse apartment (got an amazing deal too). That evening I was sipping away on a delightful margarita and I met an amazing bunch of Dutch people that I ended up hanging out with all weekend. Oh the people you meet!
Barcelona is a gorgeous city. Unlike Athens, which is rather ugly, Barcelona has combined the old with the new and created a stunning and captivating city. The people are just lovely, great weather and you just really want to be there. You all know that I love getting lost (or geographically confused) in a new city, and whilst wondering around I got caught in a freak hail storm/flash flood. I had to get out of the hail and the only safe haven was a large church window which was built into the wall, so I was able to climb up onto the ledge. The storm lasted about 40 minutes and then stopped as fast as it had started and I had to find my way back to my hotel in knee deep water! All the shops in the little cobble stoned alley ways were busy bucketing water out of their shops and saving their merchandise. 
Such a fun weekend that I will never forget!


So, back on track now. On boxing day of 2011 I said yet another teary goodbye to mum and Madi, it never gets easier saying good bye, no matter how excited I am for my next adventure. 
Five friends and I then headed to Thailand for an amazing holiday and to bring in the new year. 


We spent our first three days enjoying all that Phuket has to offer (which is a lot). We landed on the night of the 27th were we where bombarded by offers of taxi rides to the main beach called Patong. It reminded me of a slightly tamer version of walking out of the Moscow airport and having loads of russian men shouting "Taxi?!" at me.
We headed outside in hopes of a good deal for our taxi ride and where hit with the heat and smell of this tropical island. We quickly grabbed a minivan and headed to our hotel.
The main streets surrounding Patong beach are incredible, there is so much life there. You couldn't get bored if you tried. There are a lot of locals who all speak English and they all try to sell you everything under the sun for "very good price, you like". Our bartering skills were certainly utilised while we were travelling throughout Thailand.
Our hotel thumped with the beat of the music in the night clubs surrounding us every night until 6am every morning. Other than that though our hotel was great. It was called PS hotel. I highly recommend it to anyone heading to Phuket. It was very clean, very central location and the restaurant down stairs was so good!
Our days were spent lounging around on beach chairs drinking Pina coladas out of coconuts. We were in heaven. A little too much sun for a couple of us though, we got a wee bit burnt. One of the days we did a boat tour and checked out some beautiful little islands, did some snorkelling and drank more cocktails.
During the evenings we would walk along through the markets and take in all the sights. Pretty much anything you could think of to buy was for sale (all fake, but still). The food stalls were a sight too! A huge whole fish on a stick that had been tossed on the BBQ, fruits that we had never seen before and 99baht mojitos in a bucket available everywhere (thats roughly $3). Phuket was a great starting place for our trip.
On the 31st we flew to Koh Sumui and celebrated New years eve on the island of Koh Phanang, which is a ferry ride away. Our beach party was fantastic, we were covered in fluoro paint, wearing matching shirts that we had made up in Phuket and we drank buckets of cocktails all night long. We did the countdown and danced the night away. It was so much fun! What better way to bring in 2012?



We stayed three nights in Koh Phangan, which was two nights too many! Terrible accommodation (although we didn't pay very much for it), so much rain (felt like a monsoon) that our hotel room started leaking. Which was peculiar since we were on the 4th floor of a hotel with six floors... go figure. It was all ok though, because our next few nights back on Koh Sumui were spent in four star luxury. We planned to chill out and soak up the sunshine. Unfortunately though, I think it was our second night there, a few of us (including me) came down with absolutely horrible food poisoning! We had been so careful not to eat dodgy looking street food and picked our thai restaurants well, and the one night we decide to have a night off from drinking and stay in for a movie night with western food (McDonalds) was the time we got sick. Needless to say, I will never eat another McChicken burger! I spent most of Koh Samui in bed or in the bathroom. On our last day on the island, I was determined to not miss out on riding an elephant in the jungle, so I did! There are a few photo's that show just how sick I was, it was a mammoth effort to not throw up on Niko the elephant! But I made it and it was amazing, well worth the whole trip! 


We flew to Bangkok, which is just an insane city. The sheer amount of people there and the intense heat is a lot to take in, but I loved every minute. We cruised about in tuk tuks, checked out the metro, went to the markets, did a river tour. We certainly made the most of Bangkok!
Our little group slowly broke up and went our separate ways, and I was bound for little old London town.


I've been in London for seven months now and I absolutely love it. I wasn't 100% keen on moving here, as I always thought it was just a place with rubbish weather (which is completely true) and it would be full of Aussies (Kinda true too), but I've been really happy here. I have an amazing family who have made me so welcome and go out of their way to look after me and make sure I'm happy. They are truly wonderful people. Plus my two little girls, Lola and Lulu (Amelie), I love them to bits and they are a huge reason why I love being here too. I've met amazing friends here and I'm just having loads of fun really! I am in a great routine with the kids during the week and most weekends (and some weeknights) I hang out in this fabulous little cocktail bar called Graffiti, which, if you are ever in London is an absolute must. Mainly because my name is on the wall! 
London life is agreeing with me anyway. 


There is one more little trip I did too.
A couple of months ago I found super cheap flights to Oslo so I cruised on over to Norway for the weekend which was lovely, insanely pricey though. I did the same thing as I did in Spain, just booked flights then found my way into town and stumbled upon a really lovely hotel right in the middle of the city. It's the best way to do it, unless you find a super cheap package deal online. Had a lovely time exploring the postcard picture perfect city. It was freezing, but sunny, so I didn't mind the cold. Everyone complains of how expensive Oslo is, but I didn't realise it was the rich people complaining its expensive too! It cost me about £30 for a cocktail, that wasn't even a proper cocktail! Crazy!


So now I'm just happily cruising along with life in London, counting down until september when I head to Peru for two weeks!
I imagine that will be my next blog update!


I hope all is well with everyone at home,
I miss everyone so much. I'm always feeling a bit home sick.... you should all come and visit me! 
Sending lots of hugs and kisses
All my love
xxxx