Vienna- Our 1st Anniversary

Adrian took me to Vienna for our 1st anniversary together. It was a surprise, I literally didn't know until I was at the airport which makes packing extremely difficult. I was told a bikini wasn't a necessity so I gathered I was going somewhere pretty cold. Though I must admit I don't think anything could have prepared for the minus temperatures of Vienna town. I actually think it was below freezing, or at least felt that way.



After a very early start we spent our first day circumnavigating the city on the trams, trying to gain an appreciation of where all the main attractions lied. I was completely useless of course as I dont speak a single word of german and didnt have a clue where I was or what even the most basic of signs read. Luckily enough Adrian speaks pretty good Deutch (even though he'd have you believe he can on just 'get by'). The Austrians were pretty accomodating too and helped a lot by replying in German. After stopping for my favourite dessert 'Apple strudel' and what turned out to be adrians worst nightmare 'Nocci' - (apparently this has to the taste of opal fruity pasta - if thats posible to imagine) and he promptly caved in for the first time ever and couldnt finish his plate. Poor chap. That gave us a short time to defrost with a warm drink and reassess where we wanted to go. We found loads of people smoke quite freely in restaurants there which we found a bit off putting as I spent a large amount of time choking over smoke fumes and it was just generally unpleasant but I suppose strangely gave it the continental feeling.



The hotel was beautiful, hidden down a side street, a stones throw from the train and tram station - a perfect location.



Vienna was full of all number of undiscovered gems. I say undiscovered but mean 'not in the guide book', which made places like the cathedrals beautifully quiet and much more picturesque without all the public. Of course, we are both photograph mad so we spent loads of time snapping away.

We had a plan everyday to see certain sights but often ended up off the planed route and trundling into all sorts of places. The city itself is pretty busy and with the Christmas season coming in the lights decorating the streets were beautiful. As with most european cities, there are plenty of buskers and Vienna certainly has no shortage of break-dancers on its streets. Though its worth noting that a lot of them need quite a bit more practice.

Everyday held its own merits but for me our visit to Schonbrunn palace was one of the most memorable. Of course photography is not permitted but we couldn't resist taking a few sneaky shots (see below). The palace gardens were equally as impressive and had a good wander round.
On the night of our anniversary we chose a posh restaurant down by the Rathaus which had traditional Austrian cuisine, Adrian opted for the Vienna Schnitzel which I think it retrospect he might have been best to avoid. He didn't look impressed when a frankfurter and pot of horseradish arrived in front of him for 8 Euro!!! He gave me a beautiful necklace with two entwined hearts and a diamond which I have hardly taken off since. We went on to rush across the city to get to a performance of a Viennese orchestra and ballet. We took a chance when we booked it on the street from a vender who promised a good show. We had champagne (which we were later reliably informed was fizzy white wine) in the interval and had a great, but exhausting night.

As anyone who knows me will know, I seemingly have an obsession with visiting zoos in new cities 9strange I know). Vienna was no exception as we went to Tiergarten Schonbrunn. It has previously had some bad press, way back when, for not providing the animals in its care the best care or offering them enough space but its certainly changed this. It was good to see the endangered being well kept and having so much space to roam. Adrian befriended an anteater and I've since tried to adopt him one with the WWF but it doesn't seem like a very easy thing so we may have to just go back and visit. I also saw a panda in the flesh which was a first for me. Had a fantastic day and hope to get the chance to go back some time.

Our final night was finished in style as we visited a revolving restaurant at the top of a tower. We got there so late that we didnt think we'd be able to order but we were just in time and we got some fantastic views of the Danube river and the whole city by night. Well worth the effort of getting there.

Viennese Break Dancers

Vienna Pics

Schonbrunn Palace Ballroom

Viennese Orchestra

Rathaus

Votice Church

Darwin Exhibition

Stephansdom

Anniversary Night Dinner

Schonbrunn Zoo - Gorilla's

Schonbrunn Zoo - Panda's

Danube Tower Revolving Restaurant - Last Night of the holiday

Darwin Exhibition - Lizards

Vienna Schnitzel

General Update, its been a while!

Adrian is taking me away on a mystery holiday in just under two weeks time for our 1 year annivversary! I'm really excited and cant wait to find out where it is! I still have absolutely no idea what I am going to get Adrian as a gift. I considered paying for us to go away somewhere next year but I have no annual leave left so its looking pretty unfeasable at the moment.
Other than that I've had a busy week with attending a funeral and lots of Dr's appointments. This coming week shows no signs of getting any easier as I still have a chest infection and have appointments and work everyday this week. I'm feeling super drained but looking forward to this holiday, sounds like it might be just what I need.
The big Asian expedition is getting ever closer and with it I'm getting more nervous but more excited. I keep trying to save money but keep spending it.
Ive discovered a new hobbie that I'd ideally like to turn into a business venture, this is where all my money has been going (yes the money im supposed to be saving for Thailand!! - oops). Its cake decoration and I start college, along with mum in January. But in the meantime my collection of sculpting tools, ingrediants and books is growing seemingly by the day. Ive already had a few requests for birthday cakes so hopefully I'll develop the knack of it enough to make something of it in the future. Right now I'm just having some fun.

R.I.P. Rossy puppy

Ralphie's best bud Rossy was tragically killed last week so I wanted to post a picture in his memory. He was a beautiful King Charles Spaniel who Ralph played with everyday. xxx

Chessington Zoo!!

Do you like my tongue?

Orthez Pics

French Trip - Orthez June 2009

On 13th June 2009 we went on an early summer break to Orthez, southern France for a week away. The cottage/farmhouse we rented had been on my mums holiday wish list for 2 years so she was pretty excited to be able to finally go. My parents and Nick and Emily decided to drive the whole way. But long distance travel by road really isnt my bag so myself and Adrian went RyanAir styly, it clearly was the 'no frills' air line as advertised. The cabin staff were pretty atrocious and not the most helpful of people. Had in not been for their rock bottom prices I might even go as far as to say I wouldnt travel with them again but a flights a flight and it got us where we were going.

Our landing was well timed and coincided nicely with my parents arrival at Biarritz airport. We drove a further 60 miles or so before reaching the secluded cottage itself. It was pretty picturesque and we were greeted warmly by the owner who gave us french bread, cheese and wine as a welcome gift. I was more excited that she had a collie cross living on the property (called Perdy) so I gave him lots of cuddles.

Unfortunately the weather wasnt too kind to us that week. We had frequent showers which meant that we werent able to get much sunbathing in, but the boys werent too phased by it as they took full advantage of the lake at the bottom of the hill where they could fish for hours on end. I think they managed a grand total of 20 fish caught in 4 hours which we were all quite impressed by. They all went back though as we were all feeling a little buddhist in our believes and couldnt bring ourself to eat them.

We had a few excursions to small villages for a couple of days. But we kept forgetting that the french have a mid day break where they all take a siesta and have a few hours where they shut up their businesses. Unfortunately this kept coinciding with our poorly timed visits to shopping areas so we saw the quiet side of most of the sleepy but pretty villages.

We were lucky enough to have a couple of beautifully sunny days. One of which was spent at Lourdes. I didnt know what to expect from this trip as I think a trip to the Vatican is quite tough to top in terms of the wow factor. And as was my suspision it didnt quite top that. It was however beautifully located and certainly had a fantastic atmosphere. I learnt quite a lot about the catholic faith and saw a lot of very inspiring sites during the visit. I did have some trouble making my way up all those steps in the heat though, and at one point was wondering whether to ask Adrian for a piggy back.

Following our trip to Lourdes we visited the Grottes de Betheram, where we were guided into the caves by an english/spanish/german speaking french man who gave us lots of interesting facts. I found the temperature change really strange as outside it had been topping 40 degrees C whilst down in the caves it plummeted to a rather chilly 13 degrees. I enjoyed the first hour or so but once we'd decended 800m to the bottom of the caves, taken a boat trip, walked some more and looked and nothing but rock formations, my concentration did start to waver if I'm honest.

Most of our evening were spent bar-b-queing by the pool and drinking too much wine but we did eat out on two occasions. We didnt find this was cheap. And Adrian and I's first experience of eating out in Orthez was a little bit of a let down. The food was pretty awful. I ordered the soup to start but what can only be described as some kind of raw meat based broth appeared in front of me. I politely smiled of course and just are around the meat but it left a pretty nasty taste. Adrian order fois gras, and he didnt look like he'd be ordering it again in a hurry. And I wont even get into what the wine tasted like but lets just say I think I'll be sticking to water next time.
Our second meal our however was a success. This was on our final night when we all went out together. The restaurant recommended by the farmhouse owner was a bit of a palava to find but we eventually tracked it down after taking some shoddy directions from a number of locals. (saying that it may have just been our shoddy translation - this is more likely i suspect). The restaurant was beautiful. Somehow we all managed to order in french which was no mean feat for those of us who haven't had to use another language since highschool. Everything was perfect, and it was a fantastic way to end a holiday.

It was a nice break away from life in Surrey and really quite relaxing - minus the bugs that is. I dont do bugs, and more recently have found out that Adrian doesnt either so neither of us were enammered when we found a pretty big creepy crawly climbing the wall. Adrian donned all his protective gear (a sock to cover his hands and a book to catch the spider with. But once he opened the window to let it out something twice the size crawled in. I was not impressed and certainly put a substantial amount of effort into screaming my head off with fear.

ROMA ROMA ROMA 2009

NOW WHERE TO BEGIN. Between the dates 3rd - 5th of April I had quite possibly the most fun possible. So much to report on and I'm sure anything I write here won't do that city break justice but I shall try anyway.

Originally the forecast told us to expect torrential rain and cloud for the entire time we were there. This put a downer on things for a start because just like young Ralphie dog, I am a fair weather being.. I dont 'do' rain or wind or anything that gets me a bit ruffled. On arrival at the airport, at 7:30 am we were told our flight was cancelled, I lost my mobile phone and had a minor nervous break down over it all but calm was soon restored when I found my mobile phone exactly where I left it - the zip up compartment of my rucksack, and we were informed our flight hadn't actually been cancelled and that message was a mistake - PHEW. Onto phase two. So we queued in the departure lounge with the most annoying group of christian rock camp kids who kept lumbering around with their big trumbones and horns and wearing their weird t-shirts that made no sense but soon we were onboard and on our way to ROMA: milky BA tea in hand and a rotten old chedder cheese spread and ham roll in the other.
To try and cut down this extremely long story short I'll break some of it up into bullets so you can generally just get the gist :

*Arrived Rome airport and freaked out that I'd lost my family sized luggage - Needless to say I hadn't! They soon arrived
*Arrived Rome airport train station, ate rankest most dirty peice of pizza I've ever eaten, saw Adrian turn a shade of green eating his too but he managed to finish off my slice anyway.
*Climbed aboard, got wedged, lots of Italian people thought this was funny so continued to watch the automatic door thud against me time and time again for comedy value - Ouch- Myself and Adrian used brute force to free me!
*Arrived Rome Termini, dragged cases miles and miles but got to see some beautiful parts of the city by navigating our way by foot through the back streets.
*Arrived Hotel Gabrinus, greeted by a lovely most obliging chappy at the desk. Arrived in a room, most satisfactory but thought we'd try our luck at getting something a little larger... Adrian called reception, spoke to that lovely chappy again, he seemed sad we didnt like his room so we felt bad and left it as it was.


And this brings me to our first excursion out into the beautiful city of Rome. We once again approached the man who owned the hotel (yes that lovely chappy on the front desk who we'd only moments before offended by asking for a larger room) who again was most obliging and showed us on a his map which buses to catch and where the best places were to see by night.
We made our way to the Barberini which was a bit unusual. We took a million pictures of it, not entirely sure why but it was our first landmark and we felt we had too. There was a crazy man hanging about there (see pictures) who shouted at passes by, ran up to people and generally was a bit of a tourment to everyone. He wore orange glasses and a green feather hat and carried a big painting with him. I think he was doing this for handouts. Needless to say he was a bit intimidating so we didnt give him any cash, though it's worth mentioning that Adrian must have seen some hidden talent in the chap as he has since said 'He was my 3rd most favourite street entertainer of all' time . I personally felt the word 'entertainer' here was a little generous.

We went on to navigate our way through the bustling streets as dusk came and got some kind American tourists to take some piccies of the pair of us. This was shortly before we were bombarded by street sellers 'looky-looky' men as they are more commonly referred to, trying to flog roses to just about anyone! We went onto the Trevi fountain which was busy despite the time of the day and took in lots of the atmosphere. By 11 o clock we were shattered, but ambled our way to a local wine bar that the Lonely Planet guide recommended and sampled some of Italy's best wines while having a good old chin wag. By midnight I was wilting so we made our way back to Gabrinus, and as soon as I hit the pillow I was out like a light.

The following day our forward planning before we left for Rome turned out to be time well spent as we had an idea of what we wanted to see most of all and what to prioritise. I couldn't wait to show Adrian the Vatican. It truly is my favourite place on earth. As ridiculous as it sounds, you can enter that church and feel instantly calmed and at peace. I've never experienced that in any other place so its pretty special to me. We grabbed a head set so and made our way round but only got half way before deciding to ditch them and just take it all in. It was absolutely beautiful and as good as it was the first time I went. We had a little trouble finding the Sistine as I got the impression from the book that it was all ajoined but it turns out you have to circumnavigate the Vatican City itself to find it. The Sistine was definately worth a look, though not what I'd expected at all. Its a pretty amazing feat to have achieved all that single handedly, I'll give him that! The museum itself was a little samey with statue after statue - Of course I appreciate this is decades of Roman history but soon one statue just morphs into another and you begin to fail to appreciate the hard work that went into them. The tapestries however were pretty magnificent and the decoration on the ceilings of the museum halls were pretty impressive.

Following this we trecked out way to the colleseum via the Palatine (unintentionally we strolled upon it) which as expected is pretty impressive though the weather was changing and the last tours of the day were about to begin and we felt we couldnt justify 15 euros to see the inside. Instead, we went onto a small coffee/chocolate shop to top up our energy levels and then onto the Pantheon which was definately one of my favourite locations. I didn't expect much from the Pantheon, and the lonely planet guide didnt particularly give much away to give evidence to the contrary so we went there a bit blind really. But arriving just at the end of Mass meant the Pantheon was full of the fresh scent of insense and it had fantastic atmosphere. The hole in the centre of the domed ceiling was also really odd and from what I gather its pretty amazing to see when there is heavy rain and it just falls into the chapel. Even better than any of this though was pitching up a seat in a prime location at a restaurant directly infront of it as sun set. The Pantheon is fantastic by night, a perfect romantic, truly italian atmosphere with tasteful street entertainers to compliment the mood. We were unfortunate enough to be sat next to a couple of pretty rowdy American tourists but they soon went and it was quite a giggle to listen to the couple talk about how the one thing they had really missed since being on holiday was a Big Mac from McDonalds - AHHH, Some people have no culture! :P

We finished off this great day by once again taking the advice of the Lonely planet and going to a World Famous Gelataria. It was a bit of a treck to say the least but my goodness, I have never in all my life tasted ice cream like it. I had pear sorbet and chocolate meringue flavour... I thought I'd died and gone to heaven and despite being exhausted I forgot my achey legs and tired eyes just long enough to enjoy my double scoop!

Day three starting rather badly after we couldnt find a Tabacchi that was open to be able to by a bus ticket. We asked a bus driver who told us the only place we could get one would be the Termini. This was a bit of a treck away and we figured, that no one had checked the buses when we'd bought tickets the last two days and we were only going two stops so we'd take the risk and once at the Termini, we'd get our tickets. Well, unlucky for us, but deservedly so I guess, we got caught and find 50 euro each. I was angry beyond belief and had to find my way to a cash point to pay the inspector before he'd return my passport. Nevertheless after half an hour or so of moaning I got over it and we made our way to that Villla Bouguiese. It was absolutely beautiful. It appeared to be a place lesser known to tourists which was really nice. With it being Palm Sunday the whole park was full of huge Italian families enjoying picnics on the lawns in perfect sunshine. We went rowing on a pretty lake surrounded by Roman statues, saw turtles swimming amongst the boats, took a ridiculous amount of photos and drank Cola and Peroni on the lawn. A perfect way to end our excursion to Rome.

I fell asleep for the majority of the journey back to the airport by train and it turns out we'd been held up for one reason or another to arrived at the airport just an hour before our flight was due to leave. We did see the guy from Grand Designs queueing at the xray scanner though which is always fun. I naturally pressured Adrian to take a cheeky snap shot of him.. but I think he noticed :S We were soon onboard our plane back to Gatwick and very miserable to have it all come to an end.

ROMA PICTURES

Pic 5: Crazy dude at the Babarini

Rome Pictures

Palatine

Random dog statue at the Vatican museum

Wine tasting

Inside the Vatican Museum on our quest to the Sistine chapel - check out those ceilings.

My 24th Birhtday Events

My 24th birthday was made pretty special this year. Luckily I had my usual Wednesday off so I was free to enjoy the day. Mum and dad took and annual leave day and we headed down to the south coast where I'm originally from and my extended family still live. The a large outlet village on the harbour there (Gunwharf Keys) and being your typical girl I wanted to take full advantage of the shops. I met with my grandparents and we took Ralph along. He went for a long walk along the beach with dad while we girls and my grandpa shopped until we dropped. I managed to bag some fantastic bargains in Ted Baker and French Connection which I wore for my birthday dinner that night. We went for some lunch in a bar (A bit like the Slug and Lettuce) and all had chicken sandwiches (minus dad and Ralph who were still busy trotting along the beach).

I got some fab gifts for my birthday and was really lucky. I thought i'd bag a bit of a bargain by buying some Ugg boots from Uggstore.com in Australia. I had heard it works out cheaper to get them imported than buying them here. I ordered them and when they finally arrived I was delighted with them, and was prancing around the lounge like a wally wearing them. Unfortunately a couple of days later I noticed a huge tear down the seams and when I took a trip to the only UggAustralia store in the UK at the new Westfield centre to exchange them I was told they were cowboy ones that had been replicated to look like true ugg boots but actually werent their brand. I was really upset, mum had spent lots of money on them for me and there wasnt a thing we could do. I tried contacted the company but had no response. I've since sent the to a cobbler who doesnt think there is much that can be done. Well c'est la vie, we live and learn. I'll know better next time and buy the real thing I guess.

Other than that I was given some lovely Clarins face cream by Nick and Emily. Adrian bought me an abundance of gifts and was really generous. Everyone came for dinner so I had a pile of gifts to open at the table. I had a much needed DVD player, a beautiful white gold bracelet, a Take That DVD and another of Adrian's awesome poems in my card to mark the occasion. I was delighted and really touched that everyone had gone to so much effort. Emily was kind enough to have made me a massive chocolate fudge cake... which was delicious and I really got my chops into!

The day before my birthday Adrian had a surprise trip for me somewhere. I climbed about a SWT to London, we made one change, which I cant remember now and ended up in Theatre Land in the West End. Adrian took me into a french restaurant called Chez Gerard where we were treated to fantastic food and very posh service. I'd never tasted steak like it, it was so tender. We looked like 'new money' or something the way we were so excited in there, we kept taking photos like proper tourists so we could remember it. We had a bottle of wine and had a fab time. After leaving I was in for my big surprise, I came out of the restaurant into a dark night, and as we turned the corner I saw a massive vibrant green lit theatre showing 'WICKED'. I have wanted to see this show since it came to London and have never found the time or money. We had fantastic seats the music and show was sooo good. It may be my favourite West End Show to date in fact. I was treated like a princess and had such a wonderful couple of days :)

Snow Day!

There was a bit of freak snow storm on the 2nd Feb which took us all by surprise when it ws so thick that we couldnt even move the car out of the driveway. We foolishly decided it shouldnt stop us going to work so we reversed out of the driveway only to end up skidding backwards and getting the cars back end stuck out in the snow. Needless to say no one made it into work that day. And I was relieved to hear that the Margetts' family werent the only ones snowed in. No one at my work made it in but out locum who was sleeping over at a mates house a couple of doors down. 'Big-up Katrina', that was fine work managing QMH single handedly on the worst day of the year.
Anyway we decided to make the most of our snow day by having a snow ball fight with the neighbours. I was a bit scared of being hit by an icey snowball so just rolled a gigantic one that I could stand on - see pictures.
Ralph wasnt too keen on the premature winter weather as he got some nasty icicles stuck in his fur. We had to dunk his feet in warm water to defrost him. Poor chappy! He's certainly a fair weather dog.