We're home.
What else can you say really? The memories of the whole trip come back to both of us, with people who ask what it was like and what our favorite experience was. It's hard to describe the things we have seen, especially as noone has seen them.
Kate starts work again shortly, and I will be looking for work shortly. We have both been busy with recreating the house with painting, sanding and putting pictures up around the house.
To be honest, I'm having the time of my life.
PEACE xx
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Saturday, 6 August 2011
Day tripping
Today we planned to visit the open air museum ...... this didn't go to plan but we had the best day .
So.... Cameron Olly Sam & I set off in the space cruiser with our picnic & instructions of how to reach our destination. Our 1st stop was to be Bern, the capital city of Switzerland it took us an hour to reach Bern & about two hours to find somewhere to park.
Whilst in Bern we visited a Bear enclosurer with brown bears, Albert Einstin's home, a really cool antique shop & watched as filming was taking place of a period TV show or film. From Bern we had to drive through two other towns to get to the museum the time was 2pm & the museum shut at 5pm! On the way to the next town - called Interlarken, means "Inbetween Lakes" - we were stuck at traffic lights for around 15 minutes, enough time for Cam & Olly to make sandwichs for everyone. Alot of the main roads were closed because of roadworks, it was just a nightmare ..
Cam & Olly reconised the roads leading to Interlarken as they had stayed in a hostel here a month back, so we decided to ditch the idea of the museam & to visit Interlarken. We arrived and parked in a supermarket car park and took a walk around, it was crazy busy with tourists! The guys said alot of handgliding & extreme sports go on here so it gets packed with visitors apparently. We passed a Hooters bar on the way in & were so shocked as we all belived this was a bar you only ever saw in America! We decided to go to Hooters and get a pitcher of beer and talk about our Czech waitress. We stayed there for a hour then took a walk back to the car passing the construction of a 'Latino Festival' taking place this weekend... weird.
We decided that I would make tuna pasta for dinner & would grab some wine & buy everything we would need for a real full english breakfast tomorrow, we also decided that tomorrow we would go to where the boys are staying with Pierettes nephew Julian so they can grab some swimming gear & all go swiming at Neachtel lake.
When we arrived home and Pierette offered to make us something called a Raclett for dinner instead of our tuna. We drank some wine & stayed up chatting & all agreeed we had had a great day & were excited for our big fry up tomorrow morning!!
So.... Cameron Olly Sam & I set off in the space cruiser with our picnic & instructions of how to reach our destination. Our 1st stop was to be Bern, the capital city of Switzerland it took us an hour to reach Bern & about two hours to find somewhere to park.
Whilst in Bern we visited a Bear enclosurer with brown bears, Albert Einstin's home, a really cool antique shop & watched as filming was taking place of a period TV show or film. From Bern we had to drive through two other towns to get to the museum the time was 2pm & the museum shut at 5pm! On the way to the next town - called Interlarken, means "Inbetween Lakes" - we were stuck at traffic lights for around 15 minutes, enough time for Cam & Olly to make sandwichs for everyone. Alot of the main roads were closed because of roadworks, it was just a nightmare ..
Cam & Olly reconised the roads leading to Interlarken as they had stayed in a hostel here a month back, so we decided to ditch the idea of the museam & to visit Interlarken. We arrived and parked in a supermarket car park and took a walk around, it was crazy busy with tourists! The guys said alot of handgliding & extreme sports go on here so it gets packed with visitors apparently. We passed a Hooters bar on the way in & were so shocked as we all belived this was a bar you only ever saw in America! We decided to go to Hooters and get a pitcher of beer and talk about our Czech waitress. We stayed there for a hour then took a walk back to the car passing the construction of a 'Latino Festival' taking place this weekend... weird.
We decided that I would make tuna pasta for dinner & would grab some wine & buy everything we would need for a real full english breakfast tomorrow, we also decided that tomorrow we would go to where the boys are staying with Pierettes nephew Julian so they can grab some swimming gear & all go swiming at Neachtel lake.
When we arrived home and Pierette offered to make us something called a Raclett for dinner instead of our tuna. We drank some wine & stayed up chatting & all agreeed we had had a great day & were excited for our big fry up tomorrow morning!!
Thursday, 28 July 2011
LEGEN-HAIRY (Courtelary) - PART THREE
We arrived in Courtelary train station, after our 2 hour train journey from Geneva. As we were deciding what to do first, whether to get a coffee or go straight to our host Pierette's place, Pierette herself walks towards us from further down the platform!
Pierette is a flight attendant for Swiss Air, and had just arrived back in the country from either India, Bangcock or New York, I can't remember to be honest, she flies everywhere alot and works 85% of the time apparently. I'm not to sure how she worked that percentage out, but anyway, I digress. Her daughters (Noemie and Maude) were waiting for her outside the train station with a car, so we all piled into the 90s space cruiser and drove to her place just five minutes down the road.
The first day was really all about sleeping. Kate and I had been awake for nearly 22hours straight, so we peaced out after breakfast and slept til the evening.
Work here really varies from clearing up, gardening, and walking dogs. It's strange for me to be back here again, as nothing has dramatically changed from the time I was here last. Kate has been bonding with the three dogs and two cats they have here, and we are really thinking about getting our own little dog when we get home, maybe something like a dauchund that pees all over wooden flooring and chews leather.
We've taken road trips, visited a zoo, seen more rain than we would have liked, gardened, cleaned, and cooked. We have been to horse shows, chalets, hiked up and around more hills than we ever have in our lives combined, and seen so many trees. It's truely beautiful here.
On our road trip to Evolene we stopped in Montreaux, where they hold an annual jazz festival. The weather was beautiful, and the lake there is huuuuuge (it's practically a sea). They had a hang gliding competition there which was mad to watch, as people were gliding in from the top of this mountain to land on what was basically a floating table! We walked about abit before getting back on the road to the Alps and the apartment we were going to be staying in there.
Once we arrived in Evolene we were blown away by its pure magestic quality. The scenery was breath takingly large, and postcard beautiful. Everywhere you looked was something to take photos of, and here are some of our favourites below.We hiked up hills, and talked to cows. Kate found a poorly cow in a barn, and took a picture of it! Neither of us were dressed for hiking, but somehow my canvas plimpsols (provided by Nick, thankyou) were great nonetheless.
Few bits of drama like dropping our food in a large rubbish bin on our way out of town, then spending around an hour trying to dig it out with a shovel were actual highlights, and although caused headaches at the time, made the trip insanely memorable.
Seriously - Hooking a rufuse sack with the edge of a shovel whilst Kate holds the bin lid open and I hang inside it as local residents drive past was actually insane. The credit for getting the bin bag out goes to Kate, who's steady hand saved the day.
We got back to Courtelary, after getting lost on the way home, and started work the next day. We've shopped in some amazing second hand shops, bought some cheap ass shit, and seen some incredible furniture - all pretty damn cheap, and alot of it antique. Switzerland seems to have this habit of charging through the roof for everyday items, then dropping prices to beyond cheap for second hand shops. Plus as noone seems to want to dress in Calvin Klien 90s jeans, or over sized navy cardigans we can pick up bargins everywhere.
Cont by Kate
We have been spending alot of time fruit picking & making jam. Pierettes family own a chalet up in the hills of Courtelary, so we take the dogs up there for a few hours pickimg cherries, red currents. The chalet has been there since 1600s, it has no running water or electricity but last time we went Sam made a fire & we cooked on it for our lunch .
Today we drove to Pierette's nephews home in a small village near Neuchatel. On the way the car broke down, but as luck would have it we broke down outside a self service ice cream shop! Pierette went into the shop brought some eggs,fresh coffee and ice cream. When we went to leave the car wouldnt start. Pierette Sam & myself all tried to fix the car ( a small cable had come lose )but we couldnt so we called a garage & they sent a guy out straight away . Within twenty minutes we were on our way, the purpose of our journey was to meet Pierettes nephews Help exchange guys two guys from Australia. They were going to be coming back with us to Pierettes & stay with Sam & I over the weekend. We have planned a road trip for tomorrow to a open air museam & we would take them back on Saturday.
When we arrived the guys, Ollie and Cameron, showed us round & they took me to see three beautiful ginger kittens! We also met Maude and Julian (Pierette's nephew), and their two lovely children (Marsha & Zara - Zara was a baby, and baby small with gorgeous ginger hair, Marsha had beautiful blonde hair, all curly!). They told us the story of how today the two goats that Pierettes nephew owns had run away. We had tea & ice cream then headed for home. Sam & I made dinner for our new friends we had some wine & around 9pm took the dogs out for a long, wet walk. We have planned that tomorrow we will get up at 8am the guys will get some fresh bread, and we will have the eggs we bought today for breakfast & I will make a picnic for the roadtrip/openair museam.
Pierette is a flight attendant for Swiss Air, and had just arrived back in the country from either India, Bangcock or New York, I can't remember to be honest, she flies everywhere alot and works 85% of the time apparently. I'm not to sure how she worked that percentage out, but anyway, I digress. Her daughters (Noemie and Maude) were waiting for her outside the train station with a car, so we all piled into the 90s space cruiser and drove to her place just five minutes down the road.
The first day was really all about sleeping. Kate and I had been awake for nearly 22hours straight, so we peaced out after breakfast and slept til the evening.
Work here really varies from clearing up, gardening, and walking dogs. It's strange for me to be back here again, as nothing has dramatically changed from the time I was here last. Kate has been bonding with the three dogs and two cats they have here, and we are really thinking about getting our own little dog when we get home, maybe something like a dauchund that pees all over wooden flooring and chews leather.
 |
| Dog walking jams |
On our road trip to Evolene we stopped in Montreaux, where they hold an annual jazz festival. The weather was beautiful, and the lake there is huuuuuge (it's practically a sea). They had a hang gliding competition there which was mad to watch, as people were gliding in from the top of this mountain to land on what was basically a floating table! We walked about abit before getting back on the road to the Alps and the apartment we were going to be staying in there.
Once we arrived in Evolene we were blown away by its pure magestic quality. The scenery was breath takingly large, and postcard beautiful. Everywhere you looked was something to take photos of, and here are some of our favourites below.We hiked up hills, and talked to cows. Kate found a poorly cow in a barn, and took a picture of it! Neither of us were dressed for hiking, but somehow my canvas plimpsols (provided by Nick, thankyou) were great nonetheless.
Few bits of drama like dropping our food in a large rubbish bin on our way out of town, then spending around an hour trying to dig it out with a shovel were actual highlights, and although caused headaches at the time, made the trip insanely memorable.
Seriously - Hooking a rufuse sack with the edge of a shovel whilst Kate holds the bin lid open and I hang inside it as local residents drive past was actually insane. The credit for getting the bin bag out goes to Kate, who's steady hand saved the day.
 |
| Montreaux |
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| Evolene, kitchen. |
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| RC church |
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| Kate on a bridge, Evolene. |
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| Alps. |
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| Evolene Roman Catholic church |
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| Our apartment building. |
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| View from our window, Evolene. |
We got back to Courtelary, after getting lost on the way home, and started work the next day. We've shopped in some amazing second hand shops, bought some cheap ass shit, and seen some incredible furniture - all pretty damn cheap, and alot of it antique. Switzerland seems to have this habit of charging through the roof for everyday items, then dropping prices to beyond cheap for second hand shops. Plus as noone seems to want to dress in Calvin Klien 90s jeans, or over sized navy cardigans we can pick up bargins everywhere.
Cont by Kate
We have been spending alot of time fruit picking & making jam. Pierettes family own a chalet up in the hills of Courtelary, so we take the dogs up there for a few hours pickimg cherries, red currents. The chalet has been there since 1600s, it has no running water or electricity but last time we went Sam made a fire & we cooked on it for our lunch .
Today we drove to Pierette's nephews home in a small village near Neuchatel. On the way the car broke down, but as luck would have it we broke down outside a self service ice cream shop! Pierette went into the shop brought some eggs,fresh coffee and ice cream. When we went to leave the car wouldnt start. Pierette Sam & myself all tried to fix the car ( a small cable had come lose )but we couldnt so we called a garage & they sent a guy out straight away . Within twenty minutes we were on our way, the purpose of our journey was to meet Pierettes nephews Help exchange guys two guys from Australia. They were going to be coming back with us to Pierettes & stay with Sam & I over the weekend. We have planned a road trip for tomorrow to a open air museam & we would take them back on Saturday.
 |
| Marsha |
 |
| Sam & Cameron |
 |
| Sam & Ollie |
When we arrived the guys, Ollie and Cameron, showed us round & they took me to see three beautiful ginger kittens! We also met Maude and Julian (Pierette's nephew), and their two lovely children (Marsha & Zara - Zara was a baby, and baby small with gorgeous ginger hair, Marsha had beautiful blonde hair, all curly!). They told us the story of how today the two goats that Pierettes nephew owns had run away. We had tea & ice cream then headed for home. Sam & I made dinner for our new friends we had some wine & around 9pm took the dogs out for a long, wet walk. We have planned that tomorrow we will get up at 8am the guys will get some fresh bread, and we will have the eggs we bought today for breakfast & I will make a picnic for the roadtrip/openair museam.
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| Ice Cream shop |
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| Broken down, avec le chiens. |
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| Kate, just before she put the kitten in her bag and ran away. |
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| Sam & Pierette |
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Filthy silver song (Montalto Delle Marche, Rome) - PART TWO
We planned to leave with Carolyn and J-dawg on the 4th July, head to Rome to spend a few days chilling out maxin, relaxing, shootin some b-ball. The Americans would show us around Rome for a few hours, then peace to the airport for their flight to the UK... HOWEVER, there wasn't realistically enpugh time for them to show us anything in Rome, so they headed straight to the airport and Kate and I would travel around the city looking for our hotel.
Rupert dropped us off at the bus station, said our short goodbyes to him and we waited with the Americans.
Once we were in Rome, we were hit immediately by how hot the city itself was. We found our guesthouse after climbing 11 flights of stairs to get the the reception and get the key to our goddamn room. Once we were in the room, we could see the selling point straight away. The delightful orange, burnt orange, red and maroon they splashed over the room! Another of the wonderful features was the early morning wake up call you recieved from the builders, who obviously enjoyed the work so much they wanted to start at 7am!
Rome itself is a beautiful city, and well worth the 3 days we spent there wandering about the sights, restaurants and shops. The food was great, sights we amazing (Trivi Fountain, Spanish Steps, The Colosseum and Vatican City), a beautiful night-time picnic ended our final night in Rome, overlooking some ruins, surrounded by the cities famous feline residents.
Rupert dropped us off at the bus station, said our short goodbyes to him and we waited with the Americans.
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| kate and i doing our best impressions of genuine travellers |
Rome itself is a beautiful city, and well worth the 3 days we spent there wandering about the sights, restaurants and shops. The food was great, sights we amazing (Trivi Fountain, Spanish Steps, The Colosseum and Vatican City), a beautiful night-time picnic ended our final night in Rome, overlooking some ruins, surrounded by the cities famous feline residents.
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| Trivi Fountain. |
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| Kate, at the Spanish Steps stealing magic water |
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| sexy picnic |
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Rome Airport was well dull, but full of mosquitos! |
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Kate and her magic desk (Montalto Delle Marche) - PART 1
his is long overdue and so much has happened to us since we last wrote anything down on here, so here it all is, in full; enjoy.
Our last few days in Casa Bella Fonte with Rupert and Lynne, Carolyn and Joshuha were truely magical. The neighbour's daughter of Rupeo's arrived from Leeds with a little skydiving troup. They were driving across Europe to various jumpsites and skydiving festivals, and arranged to stay with Rupert and Lynne for a few days before they went back home. Whilst they were there, Rupert taught Kate and I how to play poker - something that might be the failing of our finances in the future, as we both love it - and after a few games for no money, we started betting for real. Kate, myself, Joshuha, Carolyn and most of the skydivers (Emma, Hicks and Oli) and our dealer and instructor, Rupert, all put in £5 each taking the pot up to £45!
Poker was never a game I thought I would be any good at, and even enjoy - but, DAMN. Poker is fun.
The skydivers were due to leave the Friday (1st July) before we left on the Monday (4th), and on the Thursday evening I came downstairs to a chorus of Happy Birthday from them all. They got me a card and some chocolate, which was so sweet of them as I didn't expect anything.
This was a warm up to the suprise Kate had in stall for me, with Carolyn and Joshuha helping prepare the house for the birthday morning.
I woke up to Kate getting ready and instructing me not to leave the room as things were being prepared for a suprise...
After some time I was allowed downstairs to find balloons from our room leading towards the kitchen, where everyone had made a hearty birthday breakfast. People from home had sent cards to me, that Kate had secretly arranged with them. Lynne and Rupert arrived soon after we had finished, we started our normal work day. In the evening at dinner, we had a lovely spaghetti bolognese. Rupert and Lynne had some beautiful gifts for me, plus a card which was so unexpected and thoughtful of them both. I had mentioned to Lynne that I admired her snowglobe collection, so they bought me a Montalto Delle Marche snowglobe! We also had talked about badges, so I got a MDM badge too!
We opened a bottle of prosecco, and celebrated the evening of my birthday with a game of cards.
The next day, Rupert and Lynne's son Max arrived with his friends for a small holiday. The house was now filled with people!
Everyone was good to talk to, plus we found out that they were huge volleyball fans - this turned into something we totally enjoyed every moment we could. Whilst Joshuha and I partied in the pool like two 70's gay poster boys, Kate and Carolyn sipped Bucks Fizz with the girls of Max's group, calmly sitting by the side of the pool.
The music got turned on, and we played hard and fast. Honestly, it was one of the defining moments of my life. The fact that my team lost doesn't matter. What does matter is that it was fucking. awesome.
Max and his friends all took turns cooking, and we had delicious food for lunch and dinner over the last few days we spent with them all. Not that the food we had when Lynne and Rupert cooked wasn't delicious, but it was just a different vibe with everyone pitching in. Poker was played, and yet again Kate and I lost. So far, out of the 4 games we played we both managed to snag second place, thus winning back our entry fee.
Doesn't mean we didn't love every second of the games though!
Incidently, we are thinking about starting up a regular FRIDAY NIGHT IS POKER NIGHT once a month if anyone is interested? We can all smoke cigars, drink too much and laugh too hard.
Our last few days in Casa Bella Fonte with Rupert and Lynne, Carolyn and Joshuha were truely magical. The neighbour's daughter of Rupeo's arrived from Leeds with a little skydiving troup. They were driving across Europe to various jumpsites and skydiving festivals, and arranged to stay with Rupert and Lynne for a few days before they went back home. Whilst they were there, Rupert taught Kate and I how to play poker - something that might be the failing of our finances in the future, as we both love it - and after a few games for no money, we started betting for real. Kate, myself, Joshuha, Carolyn and most of the skydivers (Emma, Hicks and Oli) and our dealer and instructor, Rupert, all put in £5 each taking the pot up to £45!
Poker was never a game I thought I would be any good at, and even enjoy - but, DAMN. Poker is fun.
The skydivers were due to leave the Friday (1st July) before we left on the Monday (4th), and on the Thursday evening I came downstairs to a chorus of Happy Birthday from them all. They got me a card and some chocolate, which was so sweet of them as I didn't expect anything.
This was a warm up to the suprise Kate had in stall for me, with Carolyn and Joshuha helping prepare the house for the birthday morning.
I woke up to Kate getting ready and instructing me not to leave the room as things were being prepared for a suprise...
After some time I was allowed downstairs to find balloons from our room leading towards the kitchen, where everyone had made a hearty birthday breakfast. People from home had sent cards to me, that Kate had secretly arranged with them. Lynne and Rupert arrived soon after we had finished, we started our normal work day. In the evening at dinner, we had a lovely spaghetti bolognese. Rupert and Lynne had some beautiful gifts for me, plus a card which was so unexpected and thoughtful of them both. I had mentioned to Lynne that I admired her snowglobe collection, so they bought me a Montalto Delle Marche snowglobe! We also had talked about badges, so I got a MDM badge too!
We opened a bottle of prosecco, and celebrated the evening of my birthday with a game of cards.
The next day, Rupert and Lynne's son Max arrived with his friends for a small holiday. The house was now filled with people!
Everyone was good to talk to, plus we found out that they were huge volleyball fans - this turned into something we totally enjoyed every moment we could. Whilst Joshuha and I partied in the pool like two 70's gay poster boys, Kate and Carolyn sipped Bucks Fizz with the girls of Max's group, calmly sitting by the side of the pool.
The music got turned on, and we played hard and fast. Honestly, it was one of the defining moments of my life. The fact that my team lost doesn't matter. What does matter is that it was fucking. awesome.
Max and his friends all took turns cooking, and we had delicious food for lunch and dinner over the last few days we spent with them all. Not that the food we had when Lynne and Rupert cooked wasn't delicious, but it was just a different vibe with everyone pitching in. Poker was played, and yet again Kate and I lost. So far, out of the 4 games we played we both managed to snag second place, thus winning back our entry fee.
Doesn't mean we didn't love every second of the games though!
Incidently, we are thinking about starting up a regular FRIDAY NIGHT IS POKER NIGHT once a month if anyone is interested? We can all smoke cigars, drink too much and laugh too hard.
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
sleeping in an airport, like a G6
THINGS HAVE HAPPENED, AND AN EXPLANATION FOR THEM WILL BE COMING ALONG SHORTLY. IN THE MEAN TIME, PICTURES.
fin.
 | |
fin.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Monday, 20 June 2011
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