Goodnight, don't let the bedbugs bite!!

weeeell!! If only i had paid more heed to THAT advice! Yes Simone and I realised every traveller's worst (itchy) little nightmare this week after becoming infested with the hideous beasties at our last lodgings in Cesky Krumlov, small village outside of Prague. WHAT an ordeal, and expensive to boot!!!

Basically we awoke at 3am to the 15 other aussies who had just moved into Hostel Ryba where we were staying (we had already been there 3 nights and not realised we were under invasion!) screaming and generally causing quite the racous as they packed their bags and began to flee back to their van. Simone and i emerged groggy and tired from our room to see kiwis and aussies alike flying in all directions, bloodstained sheets thrown to the floor, bags geing being hastily packed and various boys with glass cups trapping the bastards with cries of "look at the size of this one!!" it didnt look good. We were in denial. i was still clinging to the hope that our room was the exception. this was very quickly dispelled by simone and kiwi boy emerging from our room with one of particuarly largeand exciting dimensions. "where did you get that??!!!" i shrieked, "you dont want to know.." simone replied looking glum. The beast's kiwi captor was less discreet, "Under you pillow- it's huge!!" he enthused. I didnt share his excitement. my skin began to crawl, suddenly i felt itchy all over. And so the mission began.. There was no way i was getting in any kind of horizontal state within ten kms of these premises so we dragged our bags out of the room and began the long wait till sunrise where we planned to trek to our busabout pickup point, (we were due to leave the next morning anyway) bus to Vienna (keeping our dark infected secret to ourselves) then begin the long and arduous task of twenty loads of washing, flyspraying (or BED BUG HIROSHIMA) as i liked to call it.

So yes, Simone and I have finally got to be "the dorm freaks" the weirdos that everyone hopes they dont get in THEIR bunk: with all our flyspray stinking possesions that werent machine washable in plastic bags, we hogged the washing machine and dryer for the bext four long hours and we were completely shattered after virtually no sleep.Happily I have made a reservation to move to the other hostel tomorrow night where we can slip back into anonymity :o). The three girls who saw me sneaking back in post BED BUG HIROSHIMAAAA) with packs in hand and my industrial sized can of RAID UNIVERSAL STRENGTH did NOT look impressed. oops bough to run out.. to be continued..!

Gutentag Berlin!

Another massive mural in the city of Berlin- the whole building was a real find- we went up inside and found an unmakred art house cinema, numerous artists in residence galleries and dinghy clubs!
Sorry couldnt resist one more photo of Texel island, Netherlands - sorry to jump countries!
Berlin is such an interesting city- there is always so much to see, not in the least the local "graffiti"- here is one such example! there was amazing murals throughout the city..
Look what I found near the flea market in Berlin- little miss Mojito! James your scooter is on holiday!

Ok sorry guys, computer crashing so that's all the photos for now- hopefully load some more soon.. xx Corrina

Busabout begins..

@ Berlin. This looked like a giant panadol- in the background is a mammoth governement building dubbed the washing machine..
Everything is "UBER" in Germany, including the architecture (as pictured above)- i thought this jumper and the accompanying jeans where just too funny to resist
Check point Charlie, Berlin. One of the more terrifying border crossings in its communist days..
Me at the Topography of Terrors, an art installation featured near some remaining Berlin wall.. it took over two hours to get through the audio tour and was very draining!
The gorgeous little island of Texel, off the coast of The Netherlands
latest Texel footware- if only there was more room in my backpack!!
Me bikeriding around Texel..
Greetings all!!

Sorry to vanish for so long, but the pace has definitely picked up since i last signed on!! Having almost a whole month to explore one country compared to one month to get around seven makes a big difference!! The photos are going to be all out of order so please excuse that, But basically backtracking to Greece.. i flew out of athens after a most enjoyable evening spent sleeping at the airport until my 8am flight. It was very excting to be back on the plane and heading off somewhere new! I arrived in Amsterdam sleep deprived but with a big irremovable grin on my face- It was such a relief to see some new languages and weather after so long- i actually had to change into my jeans! Anyhoo, so Amsterdam was lots of fun. Unfortunately I amaged to catch the flu I had in croatia AGAIN so i really wasnt feeling very upbeat but i soldiered on and still managed to have an amazing time. I met up with a girl Shannon on my first night and toured around with her, the hostel where i was staying was super crusty- walking through reception was the equivalent of smoking a joint it was so smoky in there and everyone had gross smokers coughs going the whole time, not to mention the SNORING in the girls dorms at night (i employed various spitball tactics to try and stop it, but that's another story! hehe!) Saw the redlight district, vincent van gogh museum, various "cafes" .. then i went for a bit of R&R at the adorable c island of Texel, jsut off the coast of the Netherlands. Here i checked myself into a luxurious hotel so i could have some much needed privacy, do some washing, spread my stuff everywhere and basically not have to worry about 20 other strangers bodily functions for a couple of days!! BLISS! the dutch people are soooo lovely, basically i hired a bike rode about the island, ate lots of good dutch food and chilled out! then back to amsterdam for the night before starting busabout loop the next day, first stop Berlin! I will quickly publish this entry should something go wrong and i loose it, then i will update you on Berlin.. stay tuned!
o

Greek Time

Sunset at Oia, Santorini- you can make out some of the crowds of tourists that infested this part of the island after 7pm.. we set up early and scored a terrace seat with a great view and plenty of cheap goon wine as we got in early (around 5pm) by 7.30 sunset time there wasnt a spare bit of footspace that wasnt crawling with tourists and their cameras, Oia is THE place to watch the sunset!
Simone and I just as the sun started to sink towards the famous Santorini sunset
Tarz and I, Oia
All the ladies in the house..
Santorini, Oia and one of those famous windmills..
View of Oia, Santorini..
Tarz and I sans Oia, Santorini
Another classic shot, Oia
We hired four wheel scooters to jet around Santorini for the day- great fun! except we ran out of petrol thanks to a nice greek rip off scheme and had a bit of stuffing around, but break downs aside- a great way to see the sights!
The boys at Party island Ios, we spent four nights here- best hotel EVER with pool, air con, nice rooms etc etc view of beach and close to the town
bit of a daggy shot of me where we had our morning coffee everyday in Fira, Santorini. this photo is reall all about the hat i bought in Mykonos- sure it may mean i cant eat later in the trip but it's just too sweet to resist! and practical sun protecting qualities of course, of course..
before a night out in Ios

At our hotel in Ios with everybody, we had a big BBQ dinner and all you could drink this night
Bar man, tour guide, hotel manager, Ios trash bag extraordinaire- Phil and I
awwww- it's our favourite time of day: wine O'clock!!!
excuse the bathers shots which are really very unkind after so much beach bumming and forgive me tara! hehe but a good shot of the view from our hotel
ahh yes, it's a tough life at hotel Katarina in Ios- Simone and I getting stuck into some hard labour, Greek Islands style
Hotel Katarina, Ios
our first night at much dodgier digs in Ios, we soon upgraded!!
Mykonos, Greek islands.. (supposedly the gay mecca- but we wouldnt know, we didnt leave our luxury accomodation for our two night stay as we couldnt afford to thanks to hefty hefty price tag of the Mykonos life)
riding in style around Mykonos, this hot rod has probably seen better days but def. lots of character!!
Us all a little sideways in Mykonos..

Mykonos