It has been ages, (once again) since I have blogged. Since the last time I blogged, Phil worked a LOT of overtime, I did a LOT of research on our destinations, had an exhibition in late Feb / March, I turned 27, then went on our big European journey. (Hongkong, Macau and Shenzhen included!)

Phil has pretty much documented the whole trip on his blog, so I'll just put down some things I remember, apart from that I learnt so much about people, culture and history.

The journey was fascinating, seen so many castles, palaces, famous artist's work, ancient monuments and objects. Been in the middle of a rain storm in Barcelona and where we were there wasn't very good drainage!!! (Barri Gotic).

Got sunburnt while picnicing by the river under the massive Roman aqueduct in South of France. Drank freshly squeezed lemonade and ate lemon peel dipped in sugar on a hike of the Cinque Terre in Italy. Ate the freshest seafood, and some bad food.

Vomited in Versailles, and ate horse meat in Venice. Lied on the pebbly beach in Nice and was in awe at how rich people can be in Monaco. Pondered what life was under communism in Prague and Berlin. Drank so SO much wine!

Felt warmth from a Roman store owner in the pasta/pizza takeaway shop who offered us a whole plate of flava beans and pecorino cheese and showed us how to eat it! (It was one of our cheapest meal the whole time and he gave us freebies still!) Ate incredible amounts of gelati in every flavour imaginable! Saw how much the french and italians LURVED their dogs! They take them everywhere, trains, buses, shops... Hated the stink of (dog) piss in paris metro stations.

Loved the giant beers in Munich and a very drunken but beautiful night stumbling around a square, sitting by a canal and practising my balance on a bridge in Venice. Watched Iron Man in Rome with 3 intervals!!!! Devoured massive pork knuckles and sampled banana, coffee, sour cherry, nettle beers in prague. Walked where the Berlin Wall was, touched Stonehenges blue stones, walked inside an ancient brothel in Pompeii... been charged an excessive amount of 15 minutes of internet at a cafe. Seen snakes for the first time in my life in Italy. And pondered at the Greek civilisation in Paestum...(getting there was a bit random.. buses breaking down, all too nice strangers "helping you out", bus drivers looking like models with Gucci glasses driving you to some random southern italian town...)

Good, interesting memories. Now that we are back home, there are a million photos to sort through, phil is doing a good job of that. We will be putting most of it on the net either in flickr or picasa albums... but at the moment, I have a few selected ones on Facebook.

So we are back to reality and back to trying to make some more money. We are planning to renovate the townhouse in the near future. Have been planning this for a long time but the trip took first priority before. Another trip to NZ is planned at the end of the month - off to celebrate Phil's grandpa's 90th Birthday! Will be great to go there again and see all of Phils rellies and mates. Also we will get to meet Olivia-phil's niece for the first time! Can't wait!