shots shots shots and schnee!

So here we are again. I would apologise as always for being later in my blog, but it is becoming such a habit now, that technically it could be seen as on time. Either way, I haven’t been procrastinating study, so I haven’t been writing the blog weekly. Actually I think at this point I have been writing it fornightly. Whatever, you will live.
Right now I am sitting on a train through the beautiful alps in Germany on my way to Stuttgart. I won’t get ahead of myself, and I will start the story at the beginning. I just wanted to let you know that I am somewhere amazing, and you aren’t. I am exceptionally kind like that. Oh, we just crossed a beautiful river and the green meadows flecked with yellow buttercups are enclosed between beautiful snowcapped Alps. Jealous? Am I rubbing salt into the wounds? You’re welcome!

So let me back track two weeks to when I left Thailand and arrived in Barcelona.

I arrived later at night to Sant Cugat (where I would be staying for the next week and a bit, that was situated just outside of the main Barcelona city. I was staying here with my penpal of about 5 years, Aitor, as this is where he studies. I got up the next morning, freezing cold (ahem, pretty sure someone told me Spain was supposed to be warm? Also pretty sure that that someone is a liar whose pants will shortly catch fire). It was so nice however to jump into an amazingly warm shower first thing in the morning. While Aitor headed off to class (haha sucker) I walked to the train station and headed into the middle of the city. I was still absolutely freezing thanks to coming from Thailand and only sporting shorts and tshirts, so my aim of the day was to go and buy some winter suitable clothes (even though its nearly summer here….come on guys, get onto that!) I wandered around the Plaza de Catalunya and managed to find somewhere to buy jeans, jumpers and warmer tops. Success!! And the rest of my day was spent buying a european sim card for my phone, as well as searching for a suitable adapter since mine was too ‘big boned’ to fit into the power socket. And back home I went to hang out and laugh at the fact that I wasn’t the one still studying 24 hours a day.

The next day I went into the city once more. I decided that since I was travelling alone, the best way to see the main sites and gain information, without getting myself lost, was to buy a two day ticket on the Barcelona Bus touristic, which is the city’s ‘hop on, hop off’ bus tours. I decided that today would be spent gathering information about each of the stops on each different route, and then the next day I would tackle the stops which I had decided would interest me. It was also a good idea since my camera battery decided to give me the middle finger as it died. So, I could hardly take photos of the stops and monuments. I drove all around the city listening tall the fascinating facts about the city and it’s peculiar architecture.

I have decided that this Gaudi dude is a serious weirdo. And by weirdo I mean exceptionally cool. Who else’s architecture looks like dragons scales or the waves of the sea, or a gingerbread house (you know, apart from the witch out of Hansel and Gretel). Still my favourite area to drive through was the Barri Gothic, the old Gothic styled buildings. I sat in the plaza watching people walk by as an older Spanish man sat beside me and struck up a conversation. I was a bit chuffed to try out my terrible Spanish, and we managed to have a conversation about where I was from, how long I was here for etc etc. Until he then brought out a photo of himself as a 25 year old from his wallet, and asked me if I had a boyfriend and kept touching my face telling me that I was pretty. So…needless to say I made up a boyfriend, an excuse and said goodbye. Why do I always get the old men hitting on me?? Come on!

The next day the plan was to do the same except this time I worked out which stops I wanted to see. In the morning I went and saw the Sagrada Familia. This was quite an impressive church. The stone carvings on the outside were incredible, but my favourite was the inside of the church. The stained glass windows let in the right amount of light that the church was awash in rainbow colours, and the ceiling had a very interesting design that I couldn’t even describe to you even if I tried my hardest.

The next stop was the Park Guell. Remember the gingerbread house I as telling you before? Yep, well this was it. And inside the park was splattered with mosaics of all colours, and ofcourse packed with tourists all adding to the colour of the park. I sat and ate my lunch here surrounded by the trees and flowers, in a quieter spot of course. There was a man playing the guitar nearby adding to the ambience. Afterwards I headed back on the bus towards the Poble Espana. This is an old Spanish village that is filled with cobblestones and character. I allowed myself to stroll around the small streets and peer into the windows of beautiful stores filled to the brim with handmade crafts. I walked into a store filled with handmade masks, and I spent quite a lot of my time in there. For those who know me, know that I love to collect beautiful masks. There is something comforting about being able to hide behind a mask and be someone else for a short amount of time, and behind that mask is the inhibitions and stresses of reality. It’s a time to escape into fantasy. Either way, they are usually exceptionally pretty. I toyed with the idea of buying a black lace mask however my money situation did not allow me to do so. Sigh. So instead I treated myself to a truffle at a small chocolate café hidden down an alleyway and a gelato later as I sat and watched people walk by, imagining what they were thinking, who they were, and where they were from.

I finished up my day by going to the Barri Gothic and getting lost in the streets that wrapped around the old buildings. It’s nice not having a particular plan and allowing yourself to just explore what is around you, and not stressing over time. It’s nice to just be somewhere. It’s nice to just explore. I ended up coming out into la Rambla, a street in the city filled with human statues and stalls and restaurants. There is also an abundance of pickpockets here, so I held tightly onto my belongings as I watched the human statues. Yes, I have an unnatural dislike and possibly fear of human statues, as long as I am not too close to them I appear to be ok. But honestly, how can anyone sit or stand so incredibly still for so long. It is unnatural, and then suddenly they pounce out of nowhere!! My next few days were a mix of aimless wandering and relaxing at home, catching up on emails and organizing placements and accommodation as I continue on my journey.

I decided one night to book into a hostel in the main city that takes its guests out dancing and to the bars. Done and Done. Actually the day I booked into the Sant Jordi hostel it was Sant Jordi’s day in Spain. Basically it is like Valentines day, the boys buy girls roses and the girls buy boys books. The streets were packed with people selling roses and books, I hadn’t seen the city so busy!! The hostel was situated near the Sagrada Familia, and I sat outside in the courtyard just enjoying relaxing. On the top floor of the building (people’s apartments) a guy sat with this guitar singing at the top of his lungs unaware that there was an Australian girl curled up in a beanbag listening to his music. I sat there as the sun went down, and ended up talking to a Canadian that had come out to use the skateboard ramp. Who knew that Barcelona was apparently huge for skate boarders. Well, I know now!

The funny thing about this hostel is that they had specifically hired someone to take the guests to party 6/7 days of the week. What a job! There weren’t many people from our hostel going out, however Sant Jordi has about 6 hostel locations in the city, so we joined up at a bar with a heap more people. I made friends with these Korean girls who were very excited about life and provided me with much amusement, as well as another Canadian guy who was being a bit creepily flirty. The bar we headed to was the Gato Negro (Black Cat) which has about 600 different kinds of shots. Some on fire, some with whipped cream, marshmallows, absinthe and a myriad of others. The Korean girls and I ordered several different shots each trying out a new one when we saw others enjoying them. We had the boyscout (toasting marshmallows in the flame then dunking it into the shot) finding nemo (finding a smarty in whipped cream on top of the shot, without using your hands), the black widow (basically black absinthe and some other lethal alcohol) as well as many more. Hey, at 2 euro a shot, they were so cheap!! We mingled with many people, and became friends with a guy from Amsterdam, as we headed to the dance club.

It was so much fun inside the club just dancing with everybody, I had a couple of dances with some locals who bought me a few drinks before I ran back to the Korean girls, and finally ended up dancing like a lunatic with my new Amsterdam friend. We decided that since no one knew us we could dance however we wanted to and not care.

Eventually the dance floor cleared that we thought it was time to go home… was it our dance moves? Who knows! We wandered back to the hostel before I realized that we were actually staying at different hostels and this wasn’t where I was staying! Thankfully another guy from my hostel was there (even if it was the creepy flirty Canadian guy) and I said goodbye to my new friend and sat out the front with Canadian guy and California guy who I had met earlier in the night. We all chatted for a while before walking back.Thankfully the metro had started up again (since was after 5am) so we could take transport back to the hostel, but I spent a good amount of time brushing off the Canadian guy from “arresting me for being Australian”. Yep, stop touching me and trying to flirt through role play. It ain’t gonna happen, give up!! Bleugh. Although honestly he was harmless and easy to distract by pointing elsewhere.

Anyway, we finally got back safe and sound and I crashed in bed. I spent most of the next day back at Aitor’s lounging in bed. It’s nice not to do anything. Finally it was time for me to say goodbye to Aitor and Barcelona as it was time for me to head off to Germany. Yay Germany. I hopped on a plane filled with German Soccer Hooligans and headed to Memmingen Airport, Germany.

We flew over the Alps covered in snow, and I couldn’t help thinking about cookies and cream icecream. The dark trees from above scattered in the snow just reminded me of cookies and cream icecream. Mara (one of the girls I met in Manila) picked me up from the airport and we caught up on our way back to her house in Oberstdorf. She lives at the foothills of the Alps, in a cute little German town. I absolutely loved it. Wherever you looked around you, you could see the snow towered over you on the majestic cookies and cream mountains. The houses were traditional German looking with the white paint and dark brown trimmings.

She took me to the Café that her parents own and she runs with was nestled in amongst the mountains and a stream. It was so beautiful as we sat there eating a German pretzel (woohoo!) and drinking a drink that reminded me of ginger ale. It actually wasn’t so cold here and I could get away with jeans and a tshirt sitting under the sun and admiring my surroundings. She then took me to show me the hotel her family owns. I didn’t realize that the hotel was so fancy! There was a gym and amazing spa/pool area and the rooms were huge and amazing. Pretty sure I want to live there now!!! We headed back to her house where I met her family (who are all so lovely by the way!) and we sat around watching the quality television that was Germany’s next top model. Just as quality as ANTM ;) eating of course, haagan dazs icecream (sorry, couldn’t help myself!!)

The next morning we headed out into town. We went to the hairdressers where Mara went and got herself a haircut by the most talkative lady I have ever met…well, maybe not the most, but she sure could chat away. Even though she knew I couldn’t really speak German she would still continuously ask me questions that left me with a blank expression. With Mara’s new hair we headed home to have a delicious lunch with her family that her Grandmother cooked. Om nom nom… Then to the schnee! For those of you with rusty German (as mine is) the Schnee is the snow. And I loooooooooooove snow!

We headed in the cable car up the mountain (of some German name that I currently can’t think of…Nebelhorn I think) Into the cookies and cream alps. It was amazing, and I felt like a child excitedly waiting to play in the snow, particularly wanting to face plant into the untouched snow. As we reached the top you could see the alps stretching out around us in all directions, and strangely enough it wasn’t cold. I ended up taking my jacket off and walking around in my tshirt, soaking up the sun. There was balcony with deck chairs where you could lie and enjoy the atmosphere and views while enjoying the sun bite into your skin. We spent quite a while doing this before we went for a walk through the snow where I could indulge in throwing a few snow balls at nothing in particular.

Then finally we headed back down to go to dinner at the family’s hotel. And can I say, it was so delicious!!! I had zucchini filled with a pesto polenta and parmesan type of sauce with a olive and tomato paste type thing. Either way, whatever it was it was seriously yummy. After dinner we headed for a walk into town where we stopped at a street party, celebrating 20 years since the opening of this café. We got a free champagne and enjoyed having a bit of a boogy in the streets to some traditional famous German songs while watching older couples dance in the street, and an English boy dance the beautiful dance of a drunk man while yelling out what he thought were the made up German words. From here we ended up at the local Irish pub (no matter where you go, you can always be sure that you will find an irish pub!) where we had deep and meaningful chats about the world and crashed into bed.

The next morning while Mara headed off to work, I wandered around the small town, looking for nothing in particular and managing to get myself lost even though it was a small village. It seemed quite like a maze to me. Eventually I found my way back to the hotel and headed over to the café with Mara’s dad to see Mara before I left. We realized the time and Mara and I had ten minutes to head back to her house, grab my bags and drive to the train station before my train left. So while shoveling down a pretzel, we zoomed home and grabbed my bag. Mara had to get back to work, so her sisters boyfriend drove me and my bags quickly to the train station. We ran and just made the train, and he asked if it was ok to buy my ticket on the train rather than at the counter. Thankfully it was ok, and I said my goodbyes to Oberstdorf. And thus, here we are. Meeting up with Hanna for a few days with her and her family  win!!!

Until next time my lovelies, Peace! B xoxox

becoming old with old friends in a foreign country

Greetings all you blog readers out there!
So it appears I have an entire Thai adventure to relay to you all, aside from of course my stint in the hospital with dengue (as Emmah said to me “trust you to keep getting the local tropical sicknesses”).

So Emmah met me at the YHA Bangkok Airport hostel (conveniently located right near the airport!). I ended up flying in, and sleeping the entire day, and when I heard a knock on the door I was stumped as to who it could be, because it couldn’t possibly be 9:30pm and therefore Emmah, because I couldn’t possibly have slept the entire day away. Turns out… I can, thanks to the nasty side effects of dengue still working its way through my body. Thankfully the other symptoms had left, that is the red rashed skin, the stabbing pains in my lungs and stomach, the nausea however, did stay in a small amount. Doh.
So after a bleary eyed reunion (think running down the beach all dressed in white for a slow motion embrace, and then imagine it nothing like that!) and stayed up late until I fell asleep once more. Who knew I could still possibly sleep all night too.

The next morning we jumped on a plane to Chiang Mai, still chatting away (months to catch up on!) and found ourselves an awesome little guest house just outside of the Chiang Mai old city. I recommend this place if you are ever in Chiang Mai, it’s called ‘The Castle’ and the lady who owns/runs it is SO nice, and it’s really cheap and breakfast is included. And by breakfast I mean waffles and eggs and coffee and juice and fruit. It’s all so delicious . She also gave us free tickets to the zoo that another guest had left. So lovely. Anyhoo, now that I am finished plugging the place, our first night we ventured into the old town, eager to find something for dinner (slowly, slowly getting my appetite back…slowly). We found this gorgeous little restaurant and sat outside to share a pizza (you’ll find we went a little pizza crazy in Thailand…odd, yes, but the stomach craves what the stomach craves!). We endeavoured to make our way to the big Sunday markets however it began to bucket down and we got caught hiding under an awning of a nearby shop. After waiting a while for the rain to subside, we figured the markets were probably cancelled, and still feeling quite sleepy we retreated back to the comfort of our delightful bed to read a book and sleep.

We woke the next morning ready to take on the adventures of the day. With no plan, we headed down to breakfast where, low and behold, I could get waffles!!! Turns out the way to eat an entire meal after dengue is to eat waffles. No joke, delicious . We spoke to Pearl (the lovely lady who runs the place) and she recommended some temples for us to do and also passed on some free zoo passes to us.
Being a bit skeptical about zoos in other countries (didn’t want to see any animals locked in tiny cages!) we decided to start at the zoo and make our way back for the day into the old city and explore temples. We jumped in a jeepney/taxi-hybrid and made our way to the zoo. Turns out, the zoo in Chiang Mai doesn’t put their animals in tiny enclosures. Yippee. So we made our way around looking at the monkeys (hehe monkeys) and the hippos. Turns out at this zoo you can actually buy a bowl of vegetables and feed the hippos. Hells yes I was going to feed a hippo. I also discovered that inside a hippos mouth is really quite disgusting, but it was fun to watch them open their mouths wide for the carrots and corn. So cool.
We continued walking around the zoo with the sun beating down on our backs and sweat beadings it’s way down our foreheads. Holy Crap Thailand is hot! So, being so hot, the only logical thing to do would be to get an icy pole, right? Well, we thought so. Munching on icy poles, we headed over to find the pandas. On the way we fed the giraffes (such big tongues man!) and watched these young kids feed a baby elephant that was just hanging out. I will name him Dumbo, as his ears were huge, and he just had that Dumbo thing going on.

We headed to the Panda’s, but first had to stop in the gift shop purely to indulge in their air conditioning briefly. We went into the Panda house, and were able to see one hanging out in an enclosure however I believe it was around Panda lunch time, so they were taking them back for a rest and a munch.
Next stop… the Koalas!!! I know, we have them in Australia, but I was super excited to see something from home as it had been a while. Nostalgia and all that. We got a bit lost on the way trudging through the heat (the zoo is really quite big and spread out..with A LOT of hills, bleugh). We made our way to the Koala’s. They were so cute chilling on their butts in the trees. Although my only issue with this exhibit was the children’s corner about Aboriginal Australian’s….why on earth is there a teepee and totem poles????? I think they have their native cultures mixed up a bit!
We headed over to 711; yes, there was one at the zoo; and replenished our sugar and water supplies and decided to head back into the main city, as the heat was killing us slowly, or atleast our energy supplies were low.

We began the walk around the old city, however the heat was making us irritable so we made the executive decision to head back to the air con for the afternoon, before heading to the night markets, and doing the temples the following day as nothing else was planned for that day. Back to the comfy bed and reading our books (ohhh such bliss).

That night we headed out to the night markets and to scope out some dinner. We find the markets, but first stop, FOOD. Thanks to my desperate need to pee, we went to a restaurant up near the toilets on the main road. We decided to just get some entrees to share for dinner as we weren’t feeling particularly like anything spicy for dinner; too hot for that. There was a pub/restaurant near the toilets that had pub type food so we decided to eat there and head to the market after. It was the right decision because as we sat down next to the window, I let out a gasp of excitement. Shining across the street was a café with a giant sign saying the best words in the world “Haagan Dazs”, a sign we wouldn’t have seen unless we were up on the second floor. So we ordered some food, with the plan to market shop after that, finishing with the delicious icecream that is Haagan Dazs.

The markets had a really nice atmosphere. Sure, most of the stalls were to cater to the tourists with Thai artwork and random knick knacks, but fairy lights twinkled above and everything was beautifully bright. There was this endearingly pushy lady that managed to get us buying something from her, laughing at her sales techniques.
But more importantly we went to Haagan Dazs; before heading back to our hotel. Australia really needs to start selling this stuff, it’s delicious!!!

The next day we woke up again to delicious breakfast (poached eggs this time, yum yum) and went to explore some of the Buddhist temples that the city had to offer.
Can I just say, beautiful!! These temples have so much delicate gold artwork that you can’t help but admire it greatly. We walked around the side of a temple to find great big old ruins of a stone temple. It was more than what we bargained for, it was amazing, and looked like something you would find more so in Cambodia rather than this area of Thailand. It was an old moat and sitting up in the window of the temple was a large gold Buddah, and the temple was surrounded by beautiful blossom trees and Buddhist monks hanging out. Behind that temple was another smaller silver mosaic temple that was beautiful to admire also. So many temples all hanging together in some kind of temple community; It’s a temple party!
We jumped on a tuk tuk and headed to our next temple destination. It was very similar to our first temple and we sat admiring it in the heat and watching about 100 monks all hanging out having their lunch together. We decided we needed to retreat once more into somewhere with a cooler temperature (the heat was maddening) and went to a fish foot spa that we had passed on our first night. There was a cat lying in an empty fish tank taking in the sun from the window as we sat with our feet being nibbled on by little fish. It wasn’t as ticklish as the first time we got it done in Singapore, but it still had its moments when I jumped in a surprised giggle.

After lunch and a bit more of a wander, we headed back to relax and read some more (hey, we like reading and yes, we are nanna’s!). That night we went to find this vegetarian restaurant that I had found some amazing reviews on. However the taxi’s kept taking us around everywhere and we kept getting lost that by the time we found it, it was closed. Doh. So clearly the only logical thing to do would be to grab a light dinner and finish it off with Haagan Dazs icecream. Yes, very logical. Logical and delicious.

The next morning we had to leave, which sucked because we had really enjoyed Chiang Mai and its mix of old and new culture as well as the relaxed atmosphere that we had had.
This time, we were headed for Koh Samui. The Koh Samui airport reminds me greatly of a resort. It blows my mind, a lot, big kaboom in the old noggin of mine, BOOM. Mind. Blown.

We were only staying for one night as we were going to catch a ferry the next day to Koh Panghan. We wandered around Koh Samui to find some insect repellent (seriously paranoid about Dengue now, not even kidding, in my window on the plane, there was a mosquito trapped. Pretty sure it was out to get me!) We decided to grab a cocktail and some nibbles, so to appease Emmah’s love for chips, we grabbed chips that had a thai curry sauce to dip into. Deliciously amazing, and of course as were our cocktails!

We went back to the hotel to watch a movie and relax, and emerged later in the evening to satiate our bellies. We found a beautiful restaurant where they made us thai curries and noodles and spring rolls and the best banana smoothies in the history of the world. (now I really want one as I type this, doh!).
The lady working there was so lovely and invited us to a party later that night. We declined as we knew we would have days to party on Koh Panghan, but left her a big tip just because she was so cool.

The next morning we booked a transfer and boat to Koh Panghan. We took a taxi to the resort, to discover that it was AMAZING. We had a bungalow right on the beach front, score!! We were informed that the half-moon party was that evening (all he internet sites said it was the following night, so good thing we arrived a day early) and chilled at the resort for the rest of the afternoon.

We went to the resort restaurant for dinner and they had the best pizza to share, so yum, and sat on the beach drinking pre-party cocktails. We got conned into playing a game with marbles by the son of the resort owners (who were from England) and just enjoying the ambience of the night. By 11pm, it was time to take the taxi to the half moon party. Now, the half moon party isn’t actually a beach party, as it’s in the middle of the Koh Panghan jungle decked out in neon lights and paints and people everywhere. We, already tipsy from cocktails headed over to the bar with the resort manager who came out to party with us. We got a giant bucket of red bull and vodka which we had to split into two buckets as it was so freaking strong!!! Having the contacts from the resort, we got to head up to the VIP area and look out on all those on the dance floor through the haze of alcohol vision. We went back to the bar to have a jager shot, and then stumbled around. Emmah and I got separated and so we headed to the VIP area to wait for each other before getting conned into by the resort manager to do another jager shot. Emmah ran off not feeling to well, while I tried to keep my cool, but ended up having a cheeky spew, purely of the jager shot that hadn’t quite made its way down. So, I can now no longer claim that I have never had a drunk spew. Because I have, feeling a bit proud right now :P
Emmah and I located each other and headed back to VIP to squeal excitedly with our neighbours at the resort who we just found out were newly weds expecting a baby. So there was a lot of drunk hugs between us all (except for the girl, since she was sober, being a baby mama and all).

We headed out towards the food to fill our bellies with hot chips, and I lost Emmah again and ended up randomly chatting (about random nonsense no doubt) to a Canadian guy who sat down next to me to joy his pizza. Emmah claimed that she wasn’t feeling well so she wanted to go to bed, so we said our goodbyes and headed home.

The next day was the Thai New Year, in which everyone attacks each other on the street with buckets of water and water pistols, however nursing hang overs; we didn’t emerge from our room until the end of the day when the sun was setting. Bit of a shame really… We were keen to kill our hang overs with delicious resort pizza, however the kitchen was to be closed (as were most restaurants on the island) for the next few days due to the Thai New Year. Doh. We got invited to another beach party, which we decided to check out. We walked along the beach to lights and music. I started up a conversation with an Irish guy who was staying at the resort, and about 2 minutes into the conversation I tripped over a rock and face planted into the sand. Yep, way to go B, way to keep your cool around an Irish boy! Hahaha, there were a few jokes made about the Australian falling for the Irish charm right away and we continued to the party and found the party had pizza and skittle vodka. Best Ever.

We hung out for a little while, having a boogy, but sadly the previous night inhibited us from staying out long at all. It was supposed to be the biggest event of the year, however I think people were already at home passed out thanks to drinking all day at the Thai new year festivities.

Emmah and I headed back along the beach and sat in beach bags on the beach enjoying watching the stars and contemplating travel, as we do too often when we are together.
The next morning we woke up and I was 23. Yep, Happy birthday to me! We decided to hire scooters and take a ride around the island. It was so much fun, I want a scooter!!! The feeling of freedom and wind rushing over your body as you zoom past the jungle and elephants just chilling in someone’s backyard. We had no issues until we turned a corner that was going up hill and there was a deep pot hole that took up that entire side of the road. There was no real way to avoid it, because it suddenly appeared around the corner and you couldn’t see if there was oncoming traffic. I clumsily managed, but heard a giant clunk behind me. A moment of panic that Emmah may have stacked her bike, I tried to stop mine quickly, and grazed my toe on the road which resulted in lots of toe bleeding. I turned around to see that Emmah hadn’t stacked her bike, but had gone through the pot hole. The problem now was that we had stopped on an hill and the bikes wouldn’t have enough juice to start on the hill, so we turned around to go back down, hoping to have more control that way. I was waiting at the bottom for Emmah and headed back up to find her unable to start her bike, and blocking the traffic. She managed it and we decided to head back the way we came to avoid all the hills and pot holes, and therefore avoid injuring ourselves (aside from my still bleeding toe).

We headed by the beach to relax and grab a cold drink (banana smoothy…yum!) and just enjoying the beautiful views. We also stopped in at a Germany bakery to nibble at some banana cake with Emmah singing happy birthday to me in German.
We scooted our way back to the resort in the afternoon and relaxed on the beach watching the most beautiful sunset. Pretty sure it was especially for my birthday, no questions. Thanks universe for that one  and we took the scooters into town that night for a delicious birthday dinner. With everything mostly closed we found a stall with Mexican food. After reading the sign and having a hankering for Mexican food, we saw that there was a restaurant about 1km away back the way we had come, so we headed back to find it.
And boy oh boy was it good food and margeritas (sticking to one at the start of the meal so we didn’t fall off our scooters on the way home. See, 23 and responsible haha). Even the ambience of the restaurant was chilled and nice, everything is great when there is fairy lights I think!
We nursed our exceptionally full stomachs and headed back to chill on the bean bags once more.
All in all, great birthday, I got some great presents (a kindle which I have been furiously reading on for the last 2 weeks, what a great invention! And a sky diving voucher; yep I will hurl myself out of a plane, hoopla) and had great fun with a great friend. Actually, scratch that, she is more like an acquaintance… haha, just kidding, you’re a bit of alright miss Emmah!
We had one more day at the resort and saw that the restaurant was back up and running, so we spent the day, eating, having cocktails and reading our books. What a great way to finish up the relaxing holiday.

We went back to Koh Samui the next day to fly to Bangkok as Emmah was to fly back to Melbourne that night, and I was to fly to Spain the next day. We hung out at my hostel for showers and went back to the airport to have dinner together before Emmah’s flight, our last bit of Thai food for the trip. Pretty sure Emmah had to fight back tears, but I was as cool as a cucumber and gave her friendly punch on the arm and left her to her tears. Ok, that was false, sure there was a hugs, but no tears. Only a month until we are hanging on a cruise ship together.
I headed back to the hostel to catch forty winks in prep to be up at 4am to head back to the airport. My sleep sucked though because I woke every hour out of a dream of having to give myself an injection in the morning. Sheer panic for the needle phobic girl. I did manage it however, but hated myself after, lol

My flight was pretty uneventful, but the flight attendant spilt apple juice in the lap of the guy next to me within the first hour of the 10 hour flight (she didn’t say thing either, just wandered off), so he didn’t order any more drinks for the remainder of the flight.

We flew into Helsinki, and I felt a child like sense of wonderment overcome me when I saw snow outside the window. The guy next to me probably felt like there was this weird chick invading his personal space as I edged closer to the window.
I jumped on my next flight to Spain and got a sudden chill as I hopped off the plane. I thought Spain was supposed to be warm? NOT AT ALL. So cold, especially when I have just come from living in the tropics, pretty sure I need to do some shopping for warm clothes, I have one thin cardigan, and that’s it. :S
So the Spanish adventure begins!

Sorry about the exceptionally long blog this time, but I have had more time to write it.
I’ll keep you posted 
Love B xox

exams, goodbyes, boats and maniac mosquito's

Wow, it really has been a long time since i last posted to you fine viewers of this blog. So much has happened, such as leaving countries, exams, blissful boat rides in tropical paradises, which also leads to dengue fever. son of a bitch.
So really, it's not neglect as such, it's merely just being uber busy. I know, i use that excuse alot, but is it really an excuse if it is the truth????

So i will try my hardest to keep this as brief as possible, because, let's face it, it's going to take me FOREVER to fill you in, much longer than it will take you to read it.

So firstly i had my final week of assignments and exams. I can quickly skim over that telling you that i am so glad that is over!!! I hate exams. So stressful, while trying to pack up our house and get everything organised. It was a nightmare. Hopefully we have passed though.

Our final presentation the night before we left Manila was a final kick in the pants. We presented and went to hand in the assignment and the teacher gave us feedback on what to change and redo...ummm lady, we LEAVE in the morning... when do you suggest we redo everything??? I felt super bad to leave the majority of the work with our partners on the project though, since we didn't have the capacity to do anything else at that point. Sorry Nikay!
It did seem to be one final kick up the crotchal regions from the university. pretty sure it hates us. alot. lots of hatred from UP to us.

That night we also had our final goodbyes with our new lovely Filipino uni friends. We all headed out to Shakey's near our house and ordered mass amounts of pizza and pasta. Such lovely people, I will really miss them all.

A few of us headed back to our place and Hannah and Haneka helped to pack up our house (or mostly Tania's room at that point) which was exceptionally nice of them. You know you have some good friends when they are folding your delicates ;) haha.

The next morning we were finishing off the last of our packing and organising and our Landlord came around to finalise everything. Something we had been wanting to avoid because she really isn't the brightest bulb on the tree and is convinced that the residence before us owe her a months rent...not sure what she wants us to do about it, they are long gone.

Anyway, there was alot to do and we got screwed around with some of the bill payments etc and that seemed to be manila kicking our asses one final time. grrrrrrr.
APPARENTLY NOT. as we were finally leaving, my bag strap broke and we were unable to easily get a taxi. I could try to explain it all to you, but it just wouldn't do justice to our final annoyance of leaving. And just when we thought we would be lifelong friends with Manila. NO DICE!!!

We got on the plane and headed to Palawan. You have no idea how excited I was about this. A tropical paradise, away from computers, with no plan but to spend the night on different islands, cruising like pirates with nothing but a song in our hearts and rum in our bellies. True Jack Sparrow style.

We arrived in Puerto Princessa and stayed at this amazing hostel called Banwa. It was pure artists hostel and i can say that it was the best hostel I have ever seen in my life. After lot's of backpacking, I believe this statement can be verified and taken as gospel.

We met some lovely girls from Denmark and a lovely boy from sweden (excuse me while i fan myself down, Damn those Manila goggles!)

Now onto the rest of the stories. tut tut, have no time for daliances!!

SO - we hopped on a bus the next day to head up to El Nido. The van was exceptionally squishy and they sped around corners at dangerous speeds. I had to close my eyes with the fear of breakfast coming up faster than anticipated. I woke up at one point to see a rain storm happening outside, and yet the van hadn't slowed in anyway and still weaved around corners dangerously.

That night we got into El Nido and stayed at the Spider Pension hostel. Can't say that this was in any way luxurious...i am not even sure the bathroom had been cleaned at all, but it was somewhere to rest our heads. We spent the night at a restaurant watching as rats ran across the floor and looking out into the beautifully starlit sky.

The next morning was when our tour started. We took a tricycle to the Tao office and tried to get ourselves paid and organised. Alex and I paid for a crate of red horse beer to share for the trip and we were ready to go.

Another Australian guy rocked up still drunk from the night before and we found him later passed out on the beach. Alex had to remind the crew to make sure he was brought on the boat as well and not left behind.

Basically we spent the next few days in absolute bliss, getting to know our amazing team of Kuya's, and each person on the boat. Seriously some wicked people, and ended up snorkelling pristine waters and staying in huts in beautiful tropical destinations. The chef on board made delicious fresh food for each meal, seafood and vegetarian and we stuffed ourselves silly.

The first night there was even massages on the beach as we relaxed under the stars. oh, and a monkey!! and you better believe that made friends with that monkey!!!!

The day the weather was less than desireable, but the rain didn't stop me from spending time sitting out on the bowsprit of the boat trying my hand at sea shanty's while balancing in the rain. There was several options if i fell... fall as be eaten by the propeller of the boat, or a shark, however that didn't seem likely, so we can clearly conclude that the only logical explanation if i fell would be that i would suddenly sprout a tail, and have some nice shells for bras and swim around for the rest of the life enamoured by shiny objects with my shellfish friends.

The second night our house was made with a of tarps and during the rain storm of the night we awoke to the bamboo snapping, water pouring in and Alex shouting TSUNAMI!!!! We appeared to have accumulated water in our roof over night and once it poured in on his side the rest bounced several inches above my head threatening to squash me. We shouted in high pitched voices how we needed a roof to our kuya's and they, like the seven dwarves set off to work. They came with buckets and emptied the water and tied the roof back up and went to bed. Wordlessly. It was amazing. I love our kuya's.

Only photos can really describe the trip really. I will attempt to put up.

The third night we were on an island with a random kareoke machine in a shed. as you do. So while I am being fed shots by the crew members we all got up belt out a tune and watch our Kuya's dance their hearts out. SO FUNNY!!!

After we got off the boat on the 5th day I was all ready to go have a Kuya party that night with everyone as a final goodbye, however my stomach had other plans and i found myself instead hugging the toilet bowl for the night, not sure why i was sick.

We left the Philippines the next day and I headed to Bangkok where i slept overnight at the airport. Yep, the white chick with limbs wrapped around a suitcase sleeping on the floor, that would be me.

I still wasn't feeling to well when i turned up in Phuket, but i spent the next two days with mum doing elephant rides, AVT rides, and white water rafting as well as checking out the islands. I still was feeling quite nauseas and exceptionally tired, and i wasn't sure why I was so sick. Mum and Dad did a swap over and after a day with Dad i was in bed with immense pains in my stomach that he took me to the hospital. After blood tests it was determined. I had dengue fever.

I spent the next 2 nights in hospital on an IV drip and trying to keep the contents of my stomach where it belonged and trying to work through the pain. Turns out i had every symptom of dengue fever, and now i have a severe paranoia of mosquito's. One comedian says in his show "When Noah was choosing animals for the ark, was he in a foul mood when he put mosquito's on board".... i think so!!

I have since said goodbye to dad (he painted my nails for me and played angry birds with me in the hospital :D) and have now caught up with Emmah in Bangkok to fly out to Chiang Mai.

Wow, i did that all quite speedy. Condensing it all down so that i can be up to date. yay me!

Anyhoo, I better be sociable.

Peace out Hombre's and whatever you do... STAY AWAY FROM DENGUE, ITS A BITCH!!!!

xoxoxox