Wisconsin

Things finished up rather nicely in New York.  We didnt see Sigur Ros, but we did see The Do at the Knitting Factory.  We saw Moonrise Kingdom at a cinema that served quesos to the table. And we ate at Fette Sau, THE barbeque place to eat, where you order meat by the pound and you devour it using your fingers. Hot sauce, barbeque sauce and potato salad all schmeared on your face.  Delish!  A lot of the photos I have for the past two weeks are of us filling our faces with all sorts of foods - some yum, some strange and some just part and parcel with the US of A.

After saying farwell to Jen and Jen, we flew to Wisconsin to stay with the Breaches.  It was a bad day for travelling - stuck in an airport after being (in)volutarily rerouted via Cleveland (blerg).  But after settling in, we've really relaxed and unwound here in Oconomowoc.  We've been treated to a week of summer vacation in the Midwest - lakes, snoozing, hiking, eating stuff, the State Fair, watching the Olympics and eating corn and burgers.  Highlights have been seeing fireflies and a chipmunk, and watching a meteor shower last night while roasting s'mores.  Josh and Leah have kept us more then entertained with endless games of Monopoly Deal and bike rides into town to drink lemonade and eat cinamon scrolls.

Here are some of the pictorial highlights, pictures speak a thousand words for me today.

We drove out to Devil's lake and hiked up to the top for great views.

Here is the 'Devil's Doorway'.  Some really interesting rock formations up top.

The crew ready to attack the Wisonsin State Fair.  First stop: MILK.

I really don't need to add a caption.  But I will say, it wasn't as tasty as advertised. 
Actually, it was just kinda gross.

Just some native wildlife hanging out.

The famous Wisconsin Cream Puff.  It's a big profiterole on steroids.  If you come to the state fair it's mandatory to get one.  I was completely grossed out by it, but everyone else shovelled them into their faces, dripping cream and pastry all on the floor.  Ick.

The cream puff was half the size of Leah's head.

Pig Racing! 

This is a picture of what we've mostly been doing - lying about.  Toby and I took a night off to celebrate his birthday at Fallor Park - overlooking the lake and downtown Oconomowoc. 

Last night we hosted an 'Aussie BBQ' for friends including pavlova, lamb chops and sausage rolls which was just delightful.  Tonight we're off on a boat around Lac La Belle, and tomorrow we leave!  Off to Minnesota.  It's gonna be fun!

Compensation

Yes, yes, I understand my posts have been slightly on the 'lame' side the past few times.  To be honest, there wasnt that much in the Uk to post of particular interest and then once we got to New York we have been too distracted by the glitz, glam and excitement of the city to sit down and write.  With only three weeks of trip to go, my posts are slowly winding down as I try and think less and less of home.  There is too much excitement to be had to be in front of a computer, and I have not been taking my phone along on trips to record photos, so I have deprived you.


Well, here is my compensation!  A nice photo blog of lots and lots of goodies and NEVER BEFORE SEEN NEW RELEASED IMAGES!


First, though, thoughts on Dublin and New York.


Our number one piece of advice we received was 'never go drink for drink with an Irishman' (thanks Joce) - however, we FAILED in following that advice and came to truly discover the ramifications of our actions with an exceedingly slow morning and vows never to drink again.  Other then that, Dublin was a great chance to unwind, sleep in a lot and mooch around a great city.  We got to do a few day trips, one to Howth to climb a grassy hill and look at the ocean, and one to Glendalough to see lakes and an old monastery.  Both were nice, however slightly windy and overcast.  Seeing the Book of Kells and the old library in Trinity College were highlights - worth the wait in line - amazing examples of old literature and book making techniques of the Middle Ages too.


New York has been everything it promises to be - we've got to enjoy the major tourist sights but also do some cool local Brooklynite things like Saturday morning food festivals and seeing indie movies in cinemas that serve Quesos and cocktails right to your seat.  I officially love New York.  I remember never particularly wanting to come here, something about how BIG the city is just never appealed to me, but now I see that the hum of energy and fun and interesting people just makes for great stuff going on all day, every day.  Tonight we are going to a Sigur Ros gig in Prospect Park and tomorrow we might go and see an improv show by the Upright Citizens Brigade (where Tina Fey and Amy Poehler began their careers) - I mean, COOL, right?


Ok, so for photos. I'm going to just scan the giant memory stick I have sitting here and upload anything that pops out and looks kinda fun - going BACK IN TIME about a month.  No particular theme, just lots of good ole fashioned fun and memories.

Toby embraces his Dutch heritage.

Glimpses of sun in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Great place to stand to get the best view of the city!

Going for a cool forest hike in the clouds up to the Old Man of Storr, the Isle of Skye.

What we could see after walking up for 1 hour. We were inside a cloud!

What you are SUPPOSED to see when you go to the Old Man of Storr
- taken the next day when the sun peeked out.

Driving through Glencoe, Scotland.

London gearing up for the Olympics - I'm sure you've seen this picture dozens of times on the TV !

The Houses of Parliament - what a great building!

Glendalough, Ireland.

Wassup!  I'm on the Brooklyn Bridge! And there is BLUE SKY!

Helllooooo New York!

Toby loving it at the Natural History Museum.  Elks!

GE Building, Rockefeller Centre - we went up the Top.

Couldn't resist a photo with the 30 Rock sign - taken by a very amused NYPD Cop.

Tobes gets in the spirit! Pizza in Brooklyn.

Well folks that's about all for now - it's a bit of a mishmash but what ya gonna do?  I'm gonna put on some short and a tee and go to MOMA.  Have a great day, I know I will!

Dublin, New York, Vegemite!

To my adoring fans, I've been a little out of action. But I will rectify that with lots of great photos in my next post. We have safely arrived in the great NYC after a week in Dublin.

Our first exciting thing for the day? We're eating Vegemite for the first time in 3 months! Aaah the small joys of life.

The OGB

It has been a while between posts. This has mostly been because many times I tried to write and thought that if I did I risked being labelled a Negative Nancy. Not wanting to drown you in pessimism and despair I left the blog alone for a time. But I can no longer contain my feelings.

The past few weeks we hired a car and drove around the UK. We did a grand, scenic loop of Scotland, went down through the Lakes district, down to Oxford, London and now we are in Bath. It has been an utterly whirlwind tour. We have broken our Number 1 Golden Rule, which was to take things slow, not try and see everything, and just stay in one or two places. We have stayed and been EVERYWHERE and it hasn't been very good for us. There has been mostly bad weather and busy roads. The UK is so ridiculously expensive and its summer so sad, rainy and cold that we have come to affectionately name this country The Old Grey Bitch. (sorry kiddies). She steals your money and literally sucks the tan right out of your body. The cheapest night in the crappiest hostel room in England cost us more then our 5 star resort in Vietnam with private pool and beach and giant buffet breakfast.

ANYWAY. There have been lovely rays of fun and beauty amongst the bleak drizzle nonetheless. The Isle of Skye was magnificent and so epic that afterwards our brains actually hurt from trying to process the scenery. The Lakes District had quiet, still and pretty beauty straight from poetry and your favourite classic English novel. And our whirlwind 7 hour tour of London included a Spanish wine and tapas festival, seeing every major monument on the map and squirrels. We visited the Glenlivet distillery, saw a Scottish Highland Games, and I got to do a tour of the Globe Theatre while they were rehearsing for Richard III so actually got to see and hear actors in full costume prancing the stage. (I was such a geek that I actually got a bit teary. Haha, so lame)

Also, if you can get Toby a little happy and cajole him to giving you his rendition of Scottish Highland Dancing you will not be disappointed. This gave us much amusement.

In all, it's been an adventure but a not very enjoyable one and pretty tiring too so we will not be sad to say farewell on Thursday when we head to Dublin. And we'll be much much less sad when we get to New York where summer is actually in full swing and we can have patio parties with the Jens. Bring back the heat (and my tan) please!

Here are some pictures of pretty things, as well as a picture of how I pretended to feel when I was in Oxford and how I ACTUALLY felt. Its not the most attractive photo but you might laugh.

Check-in

We are over halfway on our travels, and I thought I would ask a little favour. If you read the blog, please take a minute to leave me a comment to say Gday or send some well wishes. Perhaps you can tell me what you enjoy hearing about the most, or if you want to know more about some place or the other and I will happily oblige :)

Celebrities

Two days ago in Amsterdam we were just wandering up the street looking at a canal or something, and walked straight past one of our fav comedians, Donald Glover. Star of tv series Community, which we have been watching pretty much non stop on planes and trains. Being our fav character, we were slightly chuffed. Tobes a bit more so as he gets excited about celebrities whereas I just start acting all cool and casual and 'yeah, whatever they are just another ordinary person who doesn't want to be bothered, and I am EQUAL to them.' (the role of Britta being played by me.)

We headed off to summery Scotland- summery being 12 degrees, rain and fog. Spent last night eating pork and drinking stout and decided this morning to head up to Edinburgh castle. While on our way we encounter roadblocks and police redirecting us, turns out we have run into another parade, about our fifth for this trip. We stayed milling with the crowd and after 10 minutes we got to see celebrity no. 2 for the trip:

THE QUEEN!

Not to be beaten by Donald glover, the Queen clearly wanted to trump him by making an appearance on our trip.
So we saw the queen. From far away. Ok so I mostly saw bald heads and cameras flashing but I did see her in a big robe briefly and Kate in a yellow dress and a few other bigwigs but all the men were a bit blurry. They were there for some special medal presentation.

Catherine you will be happy to know I yelled out 'HARRY! Marry my friend Catherine!' but there was a lot of bagpipes and such so not sure he heard me. (ok I didn't REALLY yell it. Remember I act all cool and calm for celebs. Toby yelled it.)

It amazed me just how crazed some people got for a glimpse of the Queen. Middle aged women in particular were all bustling about a little bit hysterically. We got to wave Scottish flags and cheer and be all excited. It's funny how you can't plan for these things to happen they just do and it makes it all the more funnier.

Riding to Holland

We extended our stay in Bruges an extra night because it's too nice to leave. It's a relaxing little town with a population of about 20 000 so on a regular day there are more tourists than locals in the city. You don't really notice or care though because you are too busy thinking everything is pretty and sighing wistfully at things, as is everyone else.

There are lots of little parks, canals, quaint houses, a few windmills and a Belfry that plays a little melody for you every so often. the beer is delicious, like nothing else. We tried the beer that won the World Beer Competition, the only beer brewed in the very centre of Delft old town.

On our last day there we took our bikes along a tree lined canal past fields and cows to Damme which is a little town on the way to the Netherlands. The wind picked up a bit too much so we didn't quite make it across the border (we were about another 20min ride away) but the sun was out, the breeze in our hair and little waterbirds were building nests on the canals. It was so relaxing I didn't even notice how much my butt hurt from all the riding, I was having so much fun.

In Bruges

If I ever used the word 'pretty' to describe Brussels, I'm sorry, I misled you. Because really it was UGLY UGLY compared to the quaint delight that is Bruges. And to steal the word 'pretty' from Bruges for Brussels would be plain wrong.


We are at a great BnB with a cheery host who bought us a free bottle of wine, picked us up from the station, gave us unlimited tea, coffee, chocolate cookies and MnMs, and promises a huge breakfast tomorrow where we are allowed to pack the leftovers for a picnic lunch and take her free bikes for a cruise along the river! So homely and sweet.

Brussels

The Brussels free map or young Travellers has some tips for living like a local and this is their first description:

'Brussels is ugly and we love it.
And if we don't love it, we live with it. So don't be surprised that we built a terrible apartment block next to an Art Nouveau jewel, or a UFO in front of the Central Station'

Written by locals, this sums up Brussels pretty well in my opinion. Pretty things and ugly things kinda lumped together and the pretty things are really pretty and the ugly things are really ugly! Some of their other tips include:

-Be yourself especially if you're weird (acting cool may work in Paris but not here)

-Mix some languages.

And my favourite:

-STOP STEALING OUR BEER GLASSES.

We meant to do a Waffle making class
Or a beer tasting class but we got a bit lost. EVERYONE gets lost in Brussels.. The streets are all bendy... But in a sneaky way.. They just gradually bend you round and then you think you are south but you are west and generally just muddled. We hired bikes today and rode to some nice parks and now my legs want to fall off. The riding was supposed to give us a break from all the tiredness from walking but the constantly getting lost just meant for extra riding. Brussels has lots of hills.

On to Bruges tomorrow for some further beer tasting and prettiness.

Oh yes, and Paris finished up lovely -only one tip I have and that is: if you are a girl travelling with your significant male other, DONT accompany him to the military museum. Just go to the park and read Northanger Abbey and eat a baguette.

If you do go you will see HUNDREDS of swords, armour, guns, military equipment, crossbows, crossbow/gun combos, arrows, shields, knives, horses, more armour, knights, videos showing historical BATTLE TACTICS. Boys, you will love it.

Girls: you will find it interesting at first (especially if you have studied medieval/french history) but after the 50th room your legs will be tired and you'll have lost the will to live.

Ps. My only photo is of Toby's FIRST selection of macaroons ever! He'd never had them before so we bought some in Paris. They were yum.

I love Paris in the springtime

Today we went out to find some cheap dinner and when we came home our suburb had turned into a music festival. This was a full outdoor festival, every 30 metres there was another band playing - everything from Jazz to gospel choir to African drumming circle, folk and fiddle, classical, old Jewish solo singer, rock, punk, marching band, everything! Our little apartment is smack in the Place des Vosges which is the heart of Marais and a sort of town square meeting park so there were bands and people and bevvos everywhere! The whole suburb for streets ad streets had musicians playing on every corner. We had to sidestep a waltz to get to the door leading to our apartment. It was one of those times where you could not actually plan it better - today is actually the Fete de la Musique http://www.fetedelamusique.culture.fr/en/International/presentation/ - but we would never have known if it hadn't been right on our doorstep (literally).

The only thing that has stopped us from partying into the evening is we spent the whole day exploring Versailles and walked for about 6 hours (see photo of me being princessy in the grand trianon below; and our we're happy but exhausted faces) so i pushed through for another 6 or so but I really cannot go on.

So let's step back in time a little bit.. Yes we are in Paris! Here is the mandatory smiles-at-Tour-Eiffel photo to prove it. it's stunningly beautiful. Our apartment is tiny but in a great location surrounded by so much life and fun. Food is great but so expensive! So tonight we sought out the best cheapest food recommended: felafels in the Jewish district. They have been reviewed by the NY times and he certainly reviews them better than I could do. Read it here: http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/travel/31bite.html (they were seriously AMAZING!! Everything he says is true and more!)

On the walk home we got a nutella crepe (win!), and as you now know, music! My fav was the gay and lesbian choir doing an Abba medley. Dancing Queen. They were wearing rainbow sweaters. Classic.

And are you ready to hear the CRAZIEST thing that happened today (a very gay man in a cat suit purring at Toby wins second prize)..

Well in Versailles we were just strolling along toward the Petit Trianon getting a bit tired and thought we better stop for a coffee.. And who do we run into?!

OUR LANDLORD JOHN!!!

We knew he was on holiday in Europe but to find him in Versailles (which is huge), in Paris (which is huger) in Europe (which is the hugest) at the tiny coffee shop at the BACK CORNER OF THE PARK?! Weird and crazy. So we had a coffee with him. What a small big world we live in!

(ps. Sorry the photos go all out of order and the links don't really make links with this free blog app.. You'll have to continue to match the picture with the words. But to help, I think the one at the very bottom is the remains of a mostly eaten Nutella crepe.. Mmmm)