The Language Predicament

As we crossed the border into Germany about a week ago we realised we had not even glanced at the phrase book to learn any German. Thankfully Tim knew very basic words, but all I could do was count to 10 (thanks to my four sisters who I listened to practise their German while growing up)! Hmm, I don't think that skill was going to help me much. It was after 7pm as we drove through this tiny little village and we were hungry. We thought we were going to remain that way as we saw most shops closed, until we approached a sign that read ‘Schnitzel’. Sweet! We could understand that one! So in the middle of this tiny town that we didn’t even know the name of, we stopped into this restaurant. We sat in the car for about 5 minutes studying our phrasebook and realising just how difficult German is to pronounce. In that moment, we had a good laugh about how this dining experience was going to turn out.

Sure enough, as we walked in, we asked the bartender if he spoke English and we got a shake of the head accompanied by something spoken in German. We were a little bit flawed by some people sitting at a nearby table who began laughing out loud at what we had asked…or so we thought. We resorted to asking for a table using two fingers and pointing….success! Sitting down and looking at the menu, we became very aware that ordering just a schnitzel was not going to be that easy when there were at least 10 different types with very detailed descriptions, in German of course. We noticed that our phrasebook didn’t even list words like ‘chicken’, ‘beef’, ‘fish’ etc. which was slightly unhelpful. ‘Ok, maybe we could try asking the waiter which items on the menu were chicken’. As we were struggling in our communication with the waiter, we suddenly heard the words “Can I help you?” from a neighbouring table. Thank God! “Yes please!” A young guy (Henry) who just happened to speak very good English came to our rescue. With a menu a mile long and to refrain from having him interpret the whole thing, we had him point to whatever was chicken as well as the schnitzel he recommended and we ordered those. Although quite greasy, the meal turned out to be quite good.

I’m sure many of you are extremely familiar with the language predicament and have a few amusing stories of your own to share. Feel free to post them as a comment. At the restaurant, Henry told us a couple of stories from when he lived in Oz for 6 months….one where he went into a phone store and asked the girl behind the counter for a ‘handy’, which is what mobile phones are often called in Germany. He was quickly informed that asking any girl for a ‘handy’ is probably inappropriate. Hehe. This morning, Tim went to the shop and tried to ask for some pegs and had to resort to the action of pegging the clothes he was wearing to a clothes line. Ah well, at least we’ll be experts at charades when we get home!

In all seriousness though, it can be quite intimidating to try and communicate with someone when they don’t speak a word of English and you can’t string one sentence together in their language. We have just arrived in Poland and the language here is not latin based which means none of their words or pronunciations even come close to any form of English. The basic word of ‘thank you’ which is very much needed when you are travelling, is ‘dziekuje’. Go on, give it a go! At the very least it will make you laugh! We have felt utterly stupid having to use our body and hand actions to try and describe what we want, but I guess it’s all a part of the travel adventure and something we will get used to.

The reason we were in remote Germany….we decided to visit a good friend on the northern coast in a place called Cuxhaven. We met Martina almost a couple of years ago when she surfed our couch in Adelaide and being not so far away, we thought it would be good to pay her a visit. We stayed for 2 nights and had a great time catching up over a home cooked meal (which was extremely satisfying to say the least) and reminiscing over Martina’s photos from Oz. Although we didn’t see much of the town itself, we were so glad to be able to have some down time in a homely environment. Thanks Martina!

Amsterdam....where the forbidden is flaunted (Aug 5-8)

We arrived at our campsite early in the afternoon and saw that the queue at reception was coming out the door with people wanting to secure their spot for the night. As we approached the end of the line, we instantly hit a wall of marijuana smoke. We wandered around the campsite and wondered if we would actually get high, simply from the second hand smoking! The campground was packed, with hundreds of tents bunched together, some with less than a meter in between. Thankfully, we did manage to get a little more space than that, although only enough for our two small deck chairs and table. We were pretty impressed with the facilities, particularly the free wifi and very cool bar/café. We set up camp and made our way via tram into the city…

The sea of tents

We managed to pick up a very cheap, yet delicious dinner. We saw what seemed to be quite a popular Falafel place (Maoz) on the street corner and knowing Amsterdam was famous for the best falafel outside of Turkey, we ventured in. WOW!! We honestly didn’t know falafel could taste this good…and for the price of 5 Euros including as much salad as you like, even better!

We wandered around the city to just get a feel for the place and stumbled onto New Market which was a bustling square with bars and coffee shops lining the perimeter. We noticed one bar was serving a particular Belgian beer called La Chouffe which was recommended to us by Nathan and Barbara when we were in Brussels. We went in to discover what they were raving about and yes it did live up to our expectations, and then some! It was quite a sweet beer, but not too sweet….it suited our taste buds just right. A couple of glasses and a few amusing happy snaps later, we noticed an outdoor cinema screen which started showing what looked like a short film. Thinking this was quite a nice touch to the evening whilst enjoying a beer, we were a little bit shocked to see that the opening of the film was a lesbian sex scene! Hmmmm….obviously this was an extremely liberal place if these type of images were being shown in the middle of a major square in the centre of town!

Of course we did what every other curious tourist does when they are in Amsterdam…we had a stroll around the Red light District, where prostitutes parade themselves in shop windows awaiting their next customer. While the average person probably finds this touristic activity amusing, I wasn’t feeling so great about it. Without starting a moral debate, lets just say I wasn’t so keen on seeing these women on exhibit, half naked, like animals at a zoo. Despite prostitution being a legitimate profession in Amsterdam, what we saw seemed undignifying….especially when so many of the women looked really sad. On the contrary, I’m sure Tim wasn’t so opposed to seeing the exhibits before us! Haha!

One thing to do in Amsterdam on the top of our list was a visit to the Heineken Brewery. We initially thought the 15 Euro per person for a self guided tour was quite pricey, but our minds were very quickly changed as we saw how much effort, creativity and money was put into making the experience interactive and informative. The tour gave some history of the brewery, an opportunity to learn about how the beer is made as well as to participate in actually brewing some beer and tasting the product at different stages. The brewery even has a simulator called the ‘brew you ride’ which takes you through the ‘beer making’ journey as if you are the raw product. A little bit corny, but well done nonetheless. By the time you get to taste the beer at the end of the tour, it seemed like even if the beer tasted bad, we wouldn’t notice because the work of psychology and marketing had been done so well. For us, the beer uses slightly too much hops which makes it quite bitter, but we did enjoy it, simply because it was a part of the whole experience.

Brewer Tim

Our tasting

On our last full day in Amsterdam, it seemed the heavy rain was not going to let up….normally we would brave the weather, if it wasn’t so severe, but we were not in the mood for venturing out. Instead, we decided to hang out at the campsite café and catch up on some online ‘maintenance’. We ended up chatting to a German couple (Sandra & Hamoud) who were staying in a tent not far from us and having a few good laughs about Aussie and German stereotypes. Thankfully, the rain did ease into the evening, so we decided to head into town and met Sandra & Hamoud for drinks.

Amsterdam itself is a very beautiful city, especially because of the many canals that flow through it. Although we had planned to take a romantic ride along one of these canals, unfortunately the forces of nature made it not so appealing. Looks like we will have to wait until our Venice gondola ride.

Two of the many beautiful canals

Commuting via Bicycle in Amsterdam is cultural and we were impressed by the number of people of all ages riding them. It was pretty obvious that bikes have right of way over cars and even pedestrians, but we did see some sticky situations where these rules did not work so well. Especially with some confusion over which is the walking path and which is the bike path. Needless to say, I almost got cleaned up a few times! We were planning on hiring bikes at least for one day, simply because we were in Amsterdam and we wanted to experience what the locals do. After seeing how the locals ride however, we thought it would be safer to stay on the walking path! And…the cheaper option was surprisingly public transport.

So you may be wondering about the ‘coffee shops’……there were many more of them than we expected. Did we go into one? The answer to that is ‘YES’. Did we sample any of their offerings? That one will remain a mystery. Thankfully, it’s not assumed that when walking into a coffee shop, you automatically want to buy the main item on the menu. What was funny though, was the coffee shop cat who seemed to be completely stoned….or maybe just exhibiting normal cat behaviour and tired of all the tourists, who knows. We did meet a guy here who casually smoked a joint at the bar. We had a good chat and he recommended an Italian restaurant off the tourist trail which turned out to have the best Italian tapas we have ever eaten. When you see this photo, you’ll wish you got to try it too!

The 'stoned' cat

Mmmm, Italian tapas

In drawing to a close, our time in Amsterdam was a mixed experience. The city has a strange atmosphere, where some usually ‘forbidden’ activities are not only allowed, but seem to be flaunted. There’s a feeling of ‘darkness’ about the place, but a sense of beauty at the same time and probably a lot more treasure lying below the tourist drawcards. We would have liked to stay a little bit longer to discover more of these gems, but once again, time is of the essence and we must move on. We are settling into camping mode very nicely and thoroughly enjoying being out in the elements, even if they are not always ideal. It is a nice feeling to retreat to a campsite in a beautiful setting after being in the hustle and bustle of a city. Hopefully we can keep maintain this attitude with the potentially 80+ days of camping ahead of us.

Brussels....changing weather, changing mood (Aug 3-5)

Having just left the stunning, quaint village of Bruges, we weren’t that ecstatic to be arriving into another city, this time it was Brussels. We were however looking forward to meeting our couch surfing hosts – Nathan and Barbara. We felt so at home in their beautiful, traditionally Belgian apartment and we got along really well, exchanging stories about our travels and culture. They shared their plans for 12 months travel through Asia and South America starting in September and we were inspired again to get the most out of our own adventure. Thankfully, they gave us some tips as to what to see and do in Brussels because we had not done a whole lot of prior research ourselves for our visit here.

Nathan & Barbara

The first morning we rose early with Nathan & Barbara, which was a little shock to the system considering we had been living the slack life and getting up around 9am most days! The weather was pretty bad, bringing us no less than a drizzle all day which meant that wandering the streets wasn’t that much fun. Of course it is really all in the attitude and this is something I definitely need to work on. According to Tim, I am like a werewolf….except my ferocious side comes out when it rains and when the sun is shining I am a completely different person….a little more tolerable to say the least. Thankfully I am married to a very patient man, but when it’s gloomy outside, even I know how to push him to the limit! It was a good opportunity for me to take a good hard look at myself.

We meandered the city for a couple hours (with our umbrella) first seeing the Market Square and a few other attractions close by, including the ‘pissing boy’ and ‘pissing girl’ (urinating statues). According to the Lonely Planet, these are apparently the most popular attractions for visiting tourists which was a good laugh in itself.

Market Square

To get out of the rain, we visited the Palace, which as to be expected, was grand and very beautiful. One room was particularly impressive with the entire ceiling covered with 1.4 million Jewel Beetles! We did wonder though, if this poor insect species is now extinct due to the crazy King’s decoration obsession!

Of course we tried more beer and visited one bar that had over 2000 different types on offer. Hmmmm, if ever being indecisive was a problem, now was the time. We avoided the decision and went with the bartender’s pick instead, which turned out to be a good one the first time. The second one – ‘Forestinne’ had a picture of a fairy on the front and interestingly enough, the beer did remind us of fairies and gold dust…a very strange floral taste that we couldn’t work out if we liked or not. We could acknowledge the brew was creative, nonetheless.

We visited ‘Castillion’, the last local brewery that brews traditional ‘lambic’ beer which is made using naturally occurring yeast with no added sugar. The final product is a beer that’s sour and slightly bitter in taste. Although the beer itself was definitely an acquired taste, it was really interesting to tour the brewery and learn about how it’s made. It was also fascinating to learn that this particular type of beer is brewed for no less than 3 years in wooden barrels.

We tasted the best fries in Belgium at ‘Maison Antoine’ and can honestly say they were actually the best fries we have ever eaten. It is commonly known around here that classic ‘French Fries’ are better in Belgium than anywhere else in the world and knowing we were trying the best in Belgium was a good indication we were in for a treat. The Belgians cook their fries twice under very specific temperatures and allowing them to cool after the first cooking period. This apparently, is what makes the outside extra crispy, while the inside is still really soft and fluffy. And they came with an amazing selection of sauces! Delish!

THE fries

Wrapping up our visit to Brussels, we got an early night, knowing we would need to get up early with Barbara & Nathan who were planning to leave for a few days away in Switzerland. Although Brussels wasn’t overly exciting, spending time with these guys was what made our visit memorable. Another friend made in another part of the world. Before leaving Brussels, we paid a quick visit to the ‘Atomium’, a monument which mimics the structure of an actual atom and was built in 1958 for the Brussels World Fair (Expo ’58). We took some quick pics on our way to our next stop – Amsterdam.

The Atomium

Our European Road Trip Begins (Aug 1-3)

Here we are sitting in the common room of a little campsite in Bruges, Belgium listening to a fellow camper sing and play the piano…..and she’s brilliant! What a treat! Bruges is our first stop on our 3-month long journey around Europe. The last couple of weeks we have spent in the UK, house hopping and dossing with friends. We’ve searched out and packed our little Astra full of camping gear and now we’re on the road.

We caught the ferry across the English Channel on Sunday with our car, disembarking and following every other passenger out of the terminal. 5 minutes down the road we suddenly realised we hadn’t passed through any security and noone had viewed or stamped our passports at either end!! Will this be a time where following the crowd will get us into trouble?? Only time will tell, but right now no one knows how long we’ve been in Europe, so I guess we’re exempted from the 90 day rule under the Schengen Zone agreement! Sweet!! Unless of course we are deported on the grounds of bypassing security. Fingers crossed we don’t come unto close contact with any authorities!

On our way to Bruges, we stopped at the biggest Commonwealth War Cemetery in the world called Tyne Cot which has over 11,800 WWI soldiers buried there. It was a deeply moving and sobering experience as we reflected on the fact that most of those who died were around our age or younger and many who were Australian. We thought about the devastation, for Mothers, for Fathers, for siblings, for whole families and for their communities across different parts of the world where the Commonwealth is represented. We also reflected on the courageous spirit these soldiers would have possessed and in the face of their fear they laid down their lives. Some of the graves were for unidentifiable soldiers and their headstones read ‘Known Unto God’…..what a beautiful way of remembering and acknowledging even those whose names were unknown. Lest we forget.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

We’ve spent 2 nights here in stunning Bruges. It’s such a quaint, romantic little town full of old buildings, canals and cobblestone streets. In Europe, it is known as the ‘Venice of the North’ and we can definitely see why. We absolutely loved just strolling along the streets and alleyways admiring the unique and quirky surroundings. The town is even more stunning at night when the canals and streets glow with strategically placed lights. On the first night at dusk, we saw swans floating down one of the canals and it was such a surreal and romantic moment. Just beautiful! The centre of town is the Market Square where the streets open up to a huge cobblestone courtyard with traditional restaurants and beautiful buildings on the perimeter.

Market Square

One of the picturesque canals

And the FOOD!! OMG the FOOD!! So good! In one day, we ate Mussels & Fries (Belgium’s traditional dish), we tried Belgian chocolate, authentic waffles and Belgian beer. Firstly, the mussels surprised us….both Tim and I haven’t like mussels previously, but one of our aims on this trip is to challenge our taste buds so we gave them a go and went with our waitress’s recommendation. Our mussels were stewed in a creamy vegetable sauce, were so tasty and very more-ish. We visited a few chocolate shops which not only displayed a feast for the belly, but a feast for the eyes. Simply a work of art. The chocolate we tasted was a mixed bag as far as our liking goes….we could tell that it was extremely good quality, but a little on the sickly side for our taste. We did prefer the darker chocolate and specifically the truffles which were filled with fluffy, mousse-like chocolate. Mmmmm. The waffles were nothing like we’ve ever tasted before!! Crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. We decided to eat them as the Belgian’s would and have them sprinkled only with icing sugar rather than the whole hog of chocolate, strawberries etc. Well actually the truth was, we knew that after everything else we had eaten we would really want to throw up if we had more chocolate and all the trimmings. The beer we have tried is incredible to say the least and even I agree when I’m not a beer drinker. Lets say that if I can get my hands on more Belgian beer in Australia, I might just become one! Lol. The 2 or 3 that we tried were so smooth, with a mild sweetness on the finish. Not the beer that I know!

Mmmmm, Belgian beer!

Last night, our final night in Bruges, we had our very first ride together on a horse-drawn carriage through the cobblestone streets and alongside the canals. It was a romantic way to finish off our evening. Well, we did think that was a nice ending until we checked the bus times and realised we’d missed the last one for the day by over an hour. Ooops!! So the only means of transport was our feet (unless of course we wanted to pay a ridiculous amount for a taxi) so we gritted our teeth and started moving despite how exhausted we already were from walking all day. An hour later we arrived back at the campsite ready for a big night sleep….which ended up being interrupted by very noisy campers!! Honestly, who yells across a full campsite at 4 in the morning!! Grrrr! We have now accepted that these are the things that we may just need to suck up while camping in Europe in the peak season.

Our horse drawn carriage

Today was our first experience of packing up the camping gear while on the road. Prior to leaving from the UK we decided to test all the gear just to make sure we knew what we were doing and everything was functional. We discovered that we didn’t really know what we were doing because we forced our ‘pop up’ tent into the bag (with great difficulty) completely the wrong way almost destroying it before we even started. During this time we were both a little headstrong, to say the least and were reminded how camping does test our relationship.

Cooking brekkie

As we packed up the tent this morning, we found that the thing was falling apart already! So out came the sewing kit to do some quick repairs on some really dodgy stitching. Having learned how to pack the tent away correctly and being mindful of letting the stress of packing up go, we actually managed to fulfil the task seamlessly without chewing each other’s heads off! Maybe positive teamwork is not out of our reach after all and maybe we might get through this road trip with our marriage still in tact.

Today we are off to Brussels, Belgium’s capital to stay with some couch surfers who have kindly accepted our request.

French Kissing in Paris (July 13-17)

So now we’ve got your attention….just before leaving for our 7 weeks in the USA, some good friends – Pete & Alli asked us if we wanted to join them in Paris for Bastille Day on July 14 (French Independence Day). We hesitated initially, knowing that we would have just got back from the USA only a few days before, but we thought what the heck!! How good would it be to be reunited with friends who played a big part in the inspiration for us to leave Australia and do what we’re doing. We met Pete and Alli through couch surfing when we hosted them in Adelaide in 2008. They were only meant to stay for 2 nights, but ended up staying for 2 weeks because we had that instant connection and had so much fun hanging out together. So much so, that they returned for another 2 weeks stay a couple of months later. They had been travelling together for a solid 4 years and Pete for 8 years prior to that. With so many inspiring stories to tell and in hearing about our plans, they encouraged us to think about extending our 3 month whirlwind tour of the world to at least a year. At the time, we had considered it, but not given it much thought…..I was avoiding the idea simply because of my own fear, but Tim was keen. So we were left with some serious thinking and planning to do after our discussions with Pete & Alli. The rest is history!

So, back to Paris….we flew from London Luton airport and it was our first experience with Easy Jet as well as our first flight delay due to a maintenance issue. We hoped we would get out of our whole trip being unscathed by delays, but I guess that’s just wishful thinking! Thankfully, we weren’t meeting Pete & Alli until the next morning, so there wasn’t any need to be there in a hurry.

We arrived late to our little dingy hotel not far from the Eiffel Tower….we quickly discovered that you don’t get a whole lot for your money in Paris! But the place was clean and that’s what mattered. It was a bit of a joke that we couldn’t sit on the toilet properly without resting our legs on the Bo day…….GOOGLE lol! Our room also featured a hairdryer that looked like a vacuum cleaner and a chain hanging on the wall by the bedside that seemed to serve no purpose at all….or at least none of us could work out. The best we could come up with was we could use it to pull ourselves out of bed. Hehe.

We went out for a walk to get a bite to eat and stock up on bottled water ….whoever thought that finding bottled water would be such a challenging task!! No convenience stores open within a few kilometres! The ironic thing is that we ended up buying it from MacDonald’s! LOL! The price of 5 Euros for 2 x 500ml bottles was the not-so-funny part. Of course, after visiting Macca’s which we thought was our last option, we just happened to stumble across a convenience store 200m down the road and bought 1.5 litres for 1 Euro! Shit! Yes you can have a chuckle at our expense….all over buying water.

We were stoked to see Pete and Alli the next morning when they arrived. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that kind to us and decided to bring us rain for Bastille Day. Having only one day (or so we thought) with the 4 of us together we headed out and braved the rain which was only spitting at the time. We wandered the streets of Paris for a while, past the Eiffel Tower and the site where Princess Diana was killed. Then, almost suddenly, the heavens opened and bucketed down a whole lot of water!! And I mean A LOT!! We just happened to be in an area where there was no shelter within a few hundred metres and the only option we had was to stand huddled against a tree with our one small umbrella between all of us. Tim stood under the neighbouring tree with his waterproof jacket gazing across at us with a concerned look on his face. After 15 minutes of being pounded with torrential rain, none of us stayed dry and the streets were flooding. The rain was pouring so hard that our umbrella was acting like a gutter, guiding the water straight down our backs and backs of our legs. As we looked around, we could see people caught without waterproof gear and those who were giving up on their umbrellas as well. Some people were walking in shin deep water in their nice clothes they had dressed in ready to celebrate Bastille Day. We decided to go back to the hotel to get out of our wet clothes and hope for the weather to clear.

Thankfully the weather did get better in the early evening, so much so that no one would have ever known how bad it was during the day. In the evening, we navigated through the crowds to find a great spot right in front of the Eiffel Tower for the Bastille Day fireworks. They were amazing….the best fireworks we have ever seen and were noticeably much better than those we’d seen recently in New York for the US Independence Day. The creativity and colours were exceptional, including even love hearts in the display. This was the moment we engaged in a little French kissing! Hehe! Yes, it was romantic! What made it even better was the lights on the Eiffel Tower were out and from where we were, the tower was a silhouette in front of the fireworks. Stunning.

Bastille Day Fireworks

Us with Pete & Alli

The Eiffel Tower at Sunset

We had planned to spend the following day saying goodbye to Pete & Alli who were heading to Versailles and then having a good look around Paris, especially since the weather was being kind. Our plans were thwarted by Pete & Alli without too much objection from us and we accompanied them to Versailles for the day. Despite running out of time to visit the inside of the very famous Versailles Palace, we weren’t too disappointed about lazing on the lawn in the Palace gardens drinking wine and eating French cheeses for pretty much the whole afternoon. Yes it is a very, very hard life!

The Versailles Palace Gardens

The hard life

A very hilarious statue giving the finger in the Palace gardens

It was a sad occasion saying goodbye to Pete & Alli again, not knowing when the would be the next time we would see them and that at some point we would be returning to Oz. We did say that maybe they could meet up with us somewhere on our European road trip…they were keen! Sweet! Maybe we will see each other in Rome next time?

On our final day in Paris, we felt like we hadn’t really seen or done a lot of what you do when it’s your first time in the French capital, but we weren’t too phased because we had spent time with very good friends. We did however cram a lot into that last day and got ourselves into a right state of exhaustion.

The day didn’t start out too well….without sharing too much gory detail, basically Tim and I had probably one of the biggest arguments we’ve ever had, exacerbated by the fact that we were in a foreign country. Although we did resolve the issue and a strategy for similar situations in the future, we both felt distant for a couple of days. When you say things in the heat of the moment, no matter how many times you say sorry or find a resolution, you can’t take those words back and words can wound. Thankfully, we have a very solid friendship, but it really made us realise that we can’t take that fact for granted and we need to protect what we have. It’s not always easy when you’re with the same person every day while travelling and there will always be times when you’ve had enough of the other person but these moments are reminders to be patient and selfless.

Although the day was slightly tarnished we decided to push on and continue with what we’d planned to see. The places we visited that day were:

Notre Dame Cathedral - stunning and intricate piece of architecture

Notre Dame Cathedral

The Arc Du Triomphe where we witnessed some crazy drivers on the craziest roundabout in the world. The place where you have to give way to drivers coming onto the round about as you’re driving around it. We witnessed so many near-misses in a 5 minute period. Wish we thought of capturing this on video.

The Louvre, although we decided against going in simply because we knew we would likely to be bored and viewing the Mona Lisa alongside a crowd of others didn’t seem that appealing. Sorry if we’ve offended anyone! We did enjoy the outside of the building and sitting by the fountains.

Eiffel Tower – we avoided the long lines and got tickets just before close at midnight. Unfortunately this was not the most brilliant decision because we got to the ticket booth and were told the top level closes at 10pm. The second level still treated us with a beautiful view over Paris and we were not disappointed.

We decided to walk back to our hotel from the Eiffel Tower which turned out to be more of a trek than expected……about 1km down the road we realised we were going in the completely opposite direction to the hotel. For once, I was actually right when it came to directions….I had told Tim back at the Tower that we were going the wrong way and was quickly corrected “have you done a 180 in your head??” Hmmm, I guess I had! NOT! It was about an hour’s walk back to the hotel and we arrived at 2am. We had been walking/standing since 10am the morning before (with a couple of short breaks to eat) and could not believe how much we’d crammed in (keeping in mind that we haven’t included every detail in this post). We had a much-needed sleep in before heading to the airport the next day for our flight back to the UK.