What there is GREAT about Britain

Bad weather, fish and chips, a cup of tea, or Mary Poppins… all associated with Great Britain. But there is a lot more to Great Britain than this. Experiencing it first hand while traveling
the South West of England and Wales we figured that Great Britain is the perfect summer destination.

Most of you probably would forgo Great Britain in summer. Well, there are a lot of other destinations in Europe that might be more attracting just like Spain, Italy, Portugal or France. And I don’t wanna lie to you. We were considering them as well.
But missing the language, the mentality and most of all full English breakfast we just told ourselves “FUCK IT” and decided to spend two weeks in England and Wales.
Looking back it was a great decision! However, no doubt we were quite lucky, as we’ve been told we had the best summer England experienced over the past six years. So please forgive us, if our opinion is a bit biased!

"Into the Wild" somewhere near Postbridge

I don’t know what it is like with you. But we are getting bored quite easily. So spending a week in a four –star resort somewhere in Croatia where you pretty much spend the entire day lying at the beach is just not our cup of tea. At the same time I don’t want to miss out on a great beach because of spending my entire time running around to see the must-see sights in a big city. So what did we do?

Postbridge - Dartmoor National Park

Monika has never been to London before, so we decided to spend the first four days in London. Sightseeing, wining and dining, watching the musical ONCE and strolling around Covent Garden, we had four amazing days. However, being tired of the big city we decided to rent a car to heading down South towards Dartmoor National Park. At the beautiful little village of Postbridge we decided to go for a walk just to get lost and came across amazing landscapes.

I felt a bit like “Into the Wild”, standing at the top of a big rock and seeing nothing but wilderness beneath my feet. From there we were heading to Cornwall, really excited to spend a few days at the beach. And again we were blown away by the beauty of the country. Seas of dazzling turquoise and gold-coloured beaches made us forget that this actually was England. Steep cliffs reminded us of the scenery of so many Rosamunde Pilcher films that we just wanted to stay and never leave again. Right from the beginning both of us fell in love with St. Ives a little but quite touristy town on the South West coast. Stunning beaches, steep streets and cobblestones in the city centre caught our attention. And the cute little shops selling beach themed décor perfected the postcard-like picture.
Keen on having some party and a few bevvies we made our way to Newquay (basically the Rimini of England), a party town that has no equal. Attending the Boardsmaster festival 2013 and camping on a campground with probably the dirtiest showers and toilets we’ve ever seen (and we stayed at some really shitty places before -  so this means they were actually really shit) we met some guys from Wales and had a great night out at Central and Walkabout Australia Pub.

Two days of partying, however were enough to
satisfy our durst and we decided to make our way up North towards Exmoor National Park. We visited the beautiful towns of Lynton and Lynmouth and stayed at a clean and comfy campground. It seemed that peak season was already over and apart from us there were only a few other tourists in the streets of Lynmouth, exactly what I was looking for – a beautiful and quiet coast town.

From Lynmouth it was about a three hours ride to Wales so we decided to take the chance to get to know this beautiful region.
Visiting Cardiff and Gower Peninsula I have to say that Wales is definitely worth a trip. I don't know if it was just of the bad weather we had but it was pretty quiet at the peninsula. In Parkmill we went horse riding and in Port Eynon we walked around the beach and had a great meal at a traditional pub. Unfortunately the weather wasn't too good and we only had one day at Gower so we didn't make it to see the other parts.

Back in Cardiff we started the night at a pretty quiet Kiwi pub and finished the night in a crowded Irish Pub. After having a great Italian meal in a lovely restaurant in the centre of Cardiff we made our way towards Cotswolds. I heard a lot about the Cotswolds and always wanted to see it, so when I first saw the towns of Lower and Upper Slaughter, it turned out to be exactly like I imagined it. And again, this feeling of wanting to stay and never leave again was back. I can’t tell how often it hit me during this vacation. After having a traditional full English afternoon tea in the gardens of the beautiful Lords of the Manor hotel it was about time to leave the Cotswolds and to head back to London to make our way back home!

Must see spots: 

• St. Ives 
• Exeter 
• Land's End
• Dartmoor National Park
• Clovelly 
• Cape Cornwall
• Lower and Upper Slaughter 
• Lynmouth
• Gower Peninsula 
• The Minack Theatre (Cornwall)

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Dublin‘s fair city...

...where the Girls are so pretty *sing,sing*

Finally, we are back travelling! Destination: Ireland! First Stop: Dublin! It’s just for a week though, but other trips are planned soon and we are soooo happy to get out a bit of South Tyrol.

 So at the beginning we wanna update you what happened with us after we came back from Australia in August 2012! Actually: not much. Manu found a job in a Marketing Agency (Brandnamics, Brixen, South Tyrol) and I found a job in Marketing (Red Rooster, Bolzano, South Tyrol).... End of the story J.

After getting our life’s sorted back home we said it’s definitely time to go back travelling, at least for a bit otherwise we will get crazy here J Thinking of the perfect first destination there was of course just one option:  Ireland!

Manu has already been there in 2009 and she loved it! I can remember how annoying she was after she came back from this trip, singing all the Irish Pup Songs and talking non stop about how hot Irish guys are J.  So, after working for 6 month in an Irish Pub and after I met so many Irish I was really curios to get there!

We flew on April 25th from Milan to Dublin, and arrived there at around midnight! It was freezing cold in Ireland compared to Italy, where we had 25 degrees when we left. But the taxi driver explained us immediately we should stop complaining because 8 degrees are pretty good for Dublin J.  I fell in love from the very first moment with Dublin and Manu was anyways already over the moon!  Due to the fact that we arrived very late that day we just went straight to bed.

We started the next morning, of course, with an Irish breakfast! Oh my god, how we missed this awesome food!! I don’t know why everyone always complains about the food up here, we think it’s amazing (and we are from Italy so we have to know it =))! After brekky we went to different sightseeing places: Stephens Green, St. Patrick’s Church, Christchurch, Grafton Street and last but not least: Jameson Distillery! Was really cool there, very interesting, we learned heaps! Especially that Jameson doesn’t taste that disgusting when you drink it with Ginger Ale and Lime J. We met as well some very funny Guys from Switzerland at the Distillery, all teachers at the „Waldorfschule“. For everyone who has no idea what „Waldorfschule“ is: An alternative school where teachers don’t really teach their kids proper math and grammar, furthermore they get taught how to clap and dance their names (no joke) J.

We had some drinks with them and a great laugh, thanx guys! And we all know: You would have had no chance in getting the job (Insider: we saw that Temple Bar was looking for stuff so we made a challenge out of it who is getting the job, the Swiss guys or us J)

After a long day running through the city like crazy we went home to get dressed for the evening: Irish Pub time!! Before we finally could leave the hostel we got some lessons in the Alexander Technique (weird thing about how to get rid of back pain or every other pain just by laying down on the floor every day for 20 minutes in a certain way). At around 11 we finally arrived at Temple Bar! It was absolutely packed, but awesome! We went to some other pubs as well and in one of them was a great band playing! We spent basically all night in front of the band annoying them to play all the songs we wanted to hear (and Manu knows heaps J).

We got home at 6 in the morning, a great night I would say!!

After a good rest the Guinness Storehouse was on the plan that day! One of the Must-Do’s in Dublin! Was very cool, not as cool as I thought but cool J!

I know, there would be many more things to see in Dublin but we found that we‘ve already seen let’s say the basics and so we went after the Storehouse at 2am straight to the Pub! Drinking Kopperberg and Captain Morgan Orange, listening to great music and having loads of fun.

Later that day we just went home to get changed and than off to the pub again! We saw some Irish Dancing, where listening to a band which members where around 15 and played the absolutely best covers of all our favourite songs, met some Canadians who actually thought Manu is from the States (Americans are soooo stupid =) and had some glasses of Jameson – Ginger Ale – Lime.

We had an amazing time in Dublin! But we were really looking forward to our road trip! Next destination: Carlingford!!

Wisdom of the day:

If you go on a road trip with Manu in Ireland be aware of the fact that she knows a song about every fucking shithole... and that she will sing this song to you over and over again till you get into a new town where she starts singing an other song! Never-ending story, unless you drive off the cliffs somewhere J!

10 things to do in Dublin:

1. Pour your own Guinness in the Guinness Storehouse
2. Relax at St. Stephens Green
3. Go nuts in one of the many Pup‘s in Temple Bar
4. Buy a CD from a Band which is basking in town – you’ll never know if they get famous one day
5. Take a picture with Molly Malone
6. Buy the movie „Once“
7. Visit the Dublin Castle
8. Go shopping in Grafton Street
9. Warm up with some Irish Stew at the Porterhouse
10. Stroll around Trinity College

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A backpacker’s tale: About the agony of being home again

Hey folks,

Zippi in Siena

originally our first blog entry was supposed to be about our latest backpacking experience in Ireland. However, I figured there is something more important I would like to write about before talking about the joys of backpacking again.
I call it the agony of being home again. For those of you who have been traveling for a while and had to go back home you probably know what I’m referring to. For those of you who are still traveling this may not be any of your concern yet. However, I do emphasize the YET.

After traveling/ living/ working in Australia for a year it has been quite a challenge coming back home again. Both of us found it really difficult to get used to the life back home. While traveling, every day is just full of surprises, most of the times you don’t know where you are going next and more importantly you don’t know what to expect. You basically live for the moment and that’s what makes everything so exciting. Every day you meet new people, make friends from all over the world and literally every day has the potential of being the best day of your life.

That’s why it was really hard for us to get used to the routine back home. Of course we missed our family and friends and were happy to see them again, but after a couple of days both of us just wanted to go back to Australia and to keep on traveling again.

The problem we both encountered was the fact that we couldn’t enjoy ourselves anymore. No matter what we did or who we were with it was just simply not as much fun as in Australia and New Zealand. We were constantly listening to songs that reminded us of the time in OZ and NZ, recalled stories over and over again and just didn’t want to let go. The good thing was that we were three friends traveling together so being back home at least we can talk to each other as all of us understand what the other person is going through.
Monika and I had different ways of dealing with the new situation. Monika used every single occasion to leave the country again. While on the way to a job interview in Munich she just decided to hop on the next train to Paris. She also went to Siena, Salerno and Florence. I tried to distract myself by focusing on my new job. Not even a month after being back home I started the job which has left me with no time to process the fact of being back again.

Zippi in Paris

While just recently meeting up with a friend in Ireland we met in New Zealand in September 2011 he raised the following question: “Guys, how have you been dealing with being home again?” Before I could even answer his question he mentioned that he felt quite depressed after coming back. Basically he was going through the same things as we did. So that’s when I started asking myself: Was it a depression I was going through? Is that possible?

I don’t have an answer but all I know is that 9 months after we left Australia we still talk about it as it was yesterday. We recall memories, look at the same pictures and listen to the same songs over and over again. And slowly but surely I’m wondering if this will ever change? What if this was the time of our lives and nothing will ever compare to this?
I remember a person from my village I talked to just before I was on the way to Australia. Twenty years ago he has been traveling himself and he still referred to it as the best time of his life. Another friend from work has been traveling in Australia five years ago and after work we constantly meet up to look at old pictures or just to talk about things that happened to us while we were over there.

Zippi in Salerno

Well, after being “depressed” for months I guess
we just realized that instead of being sad and miserable it is about time to cherish what we had and look forward instead of looking back. One day we’ll probably be back in OZ or NZ and by then we just decided to enjoy the time we’ve got at home – even if it means using every single occasion to get out of the country and keep on traveling and even though it is just for a week. :)

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Counting the days. . .

hey folks

It’s been ages that we updated our blog. So here we go!! It happened so much in the last months, but we will shorten it a bit. And to be honest i have no idea where to begin with aaaaall the stories!!

First of all: just the 2 of us, manu and me, are left at this stage in Australia. Max went home in March and Daniel went home about a month ago and surprised his family and friends completely cuz no one expected him. We changed as well our accommodation a couple of times. after we got kicked out of the ymca (loooong story, even we are not sure so far why.... one reason could be parties, swimming in the night, consume of alcohol in the venue, ...) manu, daniel, gully and me moved to the youth shack and brad left Darwin and moved to the outback. manu and me got really soon sick of youth shack though, but luckily we found a reeeeally nice apartment in knuckey street. Daniel decided to stay in youth shack and gully found a house in marrara.

To the job situation: daniel became a really successful manager at red rooster and he was Max’s Boss. Btw, Daniel got a promotion after the second day... and if we consider the fact that his boss was gay... mmmhh... everyone can imagine what that means =)) Anyways, after Daniel left the store had to close down and everyone lost their jobs (only joking =)).

Manu found a second job as a travel agent for peter pans for a couple of months, but kept on working in Shags. I started a second job in the coffee club. We had some really stessful days with 16,17,18 and more hours a day, but we just wanted to earn as much money as possible. But the problem with more money is, that u have as well more money to spent. That’s the reason why we got regular customers at the shopping centre in casurina. The both of us had already to buy a suitcase cuz we had no chance to fit everything in our backpacks.

so, what else happened in darwin.... we met tom green, we got a call from the police to help them to solve a murder, we went to the V8, we spent a great day in Lichtfield National Park, we had campfires, were drinking beer at the mindl markets while watching the sunset, we followed the euros and cheered like crazy for Italy, we celebrated all the Aussie festivals, worked on the Icecube concert, had some amazing picknicks, saw heeeaps of crocs, spent hours at the waterfront, got spoiled with self-made Brekky/Lunch/Dinner, worked for the parliament house and met the first lady of the NT, saw “My week with Marilyn” in the Deckchair Cinema, met 2 rugby teams with the hottest players u just can think of, we were singing Karaoke (what’s my age again - blink), annoyed kangaroos and tigers, were drinking like crazy, worked on St. Paddys day in an Irish Pub (was not really nice, but manu and me had some drinks first... so we were hangover at midnight =)) and of course: we met the most incredible and nicest people ever. I think we really found some friends for life! Thanks guys 4 everything, 4 every single shot (even if we could have killed u the next day =)), every hug, all the fun we had together and the amazing friendship!!

Hope to see everyone of u again and don’t forget: New Years Eve 2011/12 in Dublin!!

At the moment manu and me r sitting in the plane on the way to bali, it’s our last little holiday before we take the flights from Darwin to Sydney/Melbourne and then back home to Italy. We r really sad, can’t imagine to leave everything behind here, all the friends, the good life we had...

But life goes on, and we'll see what the future brings. Hope we have some amazing days in Bali and can enjoy the last days overseas! And as it says already in one of our favourite songs: every new beginning comes from some others beginnings end...

 

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Jobhopping in Darwin

Australia is an expensive place to live… that’s why every backpacker sooner or later needs a job in order to pay for food, rent and the car. But even if Australia is an expensive place to live, it’s easy to make here some money. There are heaps of jobs all over the country and if u r a bit lucky you find a good and well paid job.

When we came to Darwin on the 24^th of January all four of us were pretty short on money. Some of us spent their last money to pay the rent for the apartment. As we found out a bit later we were really lucky with our apartment. An Italian guy in Adelaide told us about the YMCA and encouraged us to go there. So when we arrived in Darwin our first stop was the YMCA. And because the luck was on our side the guy provided us with a big nice and spacious apartment and this for only 100 Dollar per week. We also have a nice pool and bbq area. AND we live in the CBD. Pretty good deal, ay… ;) For the first couple of weeks there was just the four of us. But as there are six beds in the apartment the owner wanted to fill these beds too. So we kept looking for friends who want to move in and that’s why we share our flat now with Guglielmo, a geologist from Naples, and Brad our friend from New Zealand who recently moved to Darwin. But back again to the job hunt! We all needed money… as soon as possible. So on our first day in Darwin we went from restaurant to restaurant and from bar to bar and left them our CV’s. And it looked quite promising as everybody told us they are looking for staff and they will contact us. In the end we realized this is just the Australian way to tell u they don’t need u. At least not right now. In the end Shenannigans Irish Pub called us the same day and told us to start immediately. And that’s what Monika and I did. However, we don’t earn that well in the Irish Pub. 23.40 before tax and 16.40 after tax (however, u get ur tax back as soon as u leave OZ) and we can only make about 30 hours per week, which is simply not enough. That’s why we kept on looking for a second job. We contacted all the job agencies in Darwin and they provided us with some casual waitstaffing jobs at the Parliament or the Convention Center. Another event agency calls us, whenever they need people and that’s why we hop from one job to another.

However, Australia is a great place to make heaps of money. If u r willing to work hard u easily can make 1000 $ and more per week. These jobs, however, are very popular and u have to be at the right place at the right time. What u also need is patience and luck. And that’s why Monika and I are constantly looking for something else. Gardening, construction, mining and traffic control, there is no job we didn’t apply for… All we have to do now is contacting them over and over again and hope they are looking for people.

Daniel and Max on the other hand started working for Red Rooster – a fast food chain which basically concentrates on chicken. Daniel got a promotion the second day he worked there and he is now a supervisor – basically supervising Max. ;)

Darwin is a wonderful place to live. It’s a town with a population of about 70,000 people. However, characterizing for Darwin is its small-town atmosphere. There are basically two main streets, Smith Street and Mitchell Street. On Smith Street u have The Mall which is good for shopping, while Mitchell Street has heaps of bars, restaurants and clubs. Darwin Waterfront is a must-see just like Mindl Beach, Funny Bay and Cullen Bay. Another reason to spend a bit more time in Darwin is because of the people. Many Australians agree that the nicest people live in Darwin. We met some great people from Italy, Estonia, France, Germany and Australia. However, there are a lot of Aborigines in Darwin and that’s why it is also considered to be unsafe at night. However, we never had any problems and to be honest I don’t have the feeling that Darwin is not a safe place. As we want to stay in Darwin until the beginning of June we will keep on working for Shenannigans unless we find another, better paid job. Wish us luck…!!!! ;)))

  

 

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Melbourne, Great Ocean Road and the hooooooooooooooot Outback!!!

After we arrived in Melbourne and we did some shopping (everyone of us is now the proud owner of new all stars =)) we started our second road trip: Great Ocean Road and Outback!!

First stop: Lourne!! The guys spent here already some time because they celebrated New Years Eve here at the Falls Festival. Oh, btw: the guys are too lazy to write the blog to tell what they have done so fare during we girls were in NZ, so we update u shortly. After they had to leave Narry (yeah, they HAD to leave, just ask them why =))) they visited the Grampians National Park and went then to the falls festival in Lourne. Due to the fact that they had no ticket, they were walking every day for 2 hours through the forest (and it is an Australian forest with heaps of dangerous animals =)) to get on the campground and than they managed it somehow to pass the security control and to get on the festival. So they had the chance to see the kooks, the naked and famous, arctic monkeys and heaps of other bands. On the third of January they went to Melbourne and waited there for us.

So, back to our road trip and our fist stop Lourne. The guys showed us around and we took thousands of pictures of the beautiful coast!! The views we had on the great ocean road were just awesome!! we visited all the touristic staff (12 apostles, London Bridge, ...) and we tried to visit the famous lighthouse. But it was already really late when we arrived there and everything was closed, so we had the really great idea just to climb over the fence and to go to the lighthouse without paying and without permit =). but we didn’t realize that there were cameras everywhere and as well security guards who started looking for us as soon as they realized that someone is on the area! in the end we were running around like crazy to escape from the security guards and to get out of the area . it was really funny, but we had no chance to see the lighthouse =((

After we were done with the great ocean road we spent some days in Adelaide! we stayed at an awesome hostel and we met so funny people there! one of them was Steve from France, we were laughing our ass off with this crazy guy!! (the chair is brooooken, me cannot believe =))))).

Adelaide is full of Italians and one of them (Giulio) told us about a good place to stay in Darwin! but we will tell you later on more about it! Adelaide has as well heaps of good Italian restaurants and good shopping possibilities, but we were so broke that nobody could afford to buy something. after some sight seeing tours and a trip on the river with a paddle boat we decided to leave Adelaide and to finally go to the outback!!

So we started driving, and driving, and driving.... and again driving and driving and driving! as soon as we left the cities we had no reception anymore with our phone, cheers Vodafone for that =)). the outback was really, really hot.... and the bad thing was that we were just sleeping in our campervan, and this time we were 4 people!! so we had absolutely no space to sleep and it was soooo hot and some of us (it was max =)) had to go to the toilette about ten times during the night =))!

We passed a lot of little places in the outback, one of them was Coober Pedy! how can we describe this place... I think the Lonely Planet found the right words: an apocalyptic hell hole! it is in the middle of nowhere and really famous because it is the mining Mecca for opals. but it can get there really hot, around 50 degrees. so we spent not too much time there. next stop was Uluru or better known as the Ayres Rock. It was really impressive to stand in front of the ultimate symbol of Australia. We watched the sunset there and walked around the rock. Of course we didn’t climb on the Uluru, because it is still a holy place for the aborigines. even if some of us (it was max, again =)) wanted to go anyways. but luckily the climbing track was closed because it was too hot. the next day we visited the Olgas and the walking tracks there were as well closed because it was over 42 degrees. but we didn’t care and did the track anyways... and it was soooo hot. but the view was stunning and it was so awesome to walk through this bizarre and dominant rocks.

after we got back from Uluru and the Olgas we arrived in Alice Springs and we did some cool stuff there: Manu visited the Ghan Museum and Daniel, Max and me went to the reptile centre where we could touch lizards (one of them shit on me, very funny =)) and hold snakes there! and yes, Daniel and me did it!!! I was close to cry and it was disgusting but we are really proud that we did it!

after Alice Springs we wanted to go as soon as possible to Darwin, because we had definitely enough from the outback! so we just kept on driving the last 1500 km of our road trip. we stopt at some interesting bars like in Daly Waters or Tennant Creek and had a funny night in Katherine, where we visited the Katherine Gorge National Park (but everything was closed because of the wet season).

From Katherine it was not far to Darwin and so we arrived after 12 days in our new home town! it was raining like crazy, but it doesn’t matter: we really felt like "coming home" finally...

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