Scottroos European tour...

[devilsadvocate]

okay, so tommorows the day and im shittn myself but so excited, anyone wanna help me with a checklist of things i need?

CONDOMS!

Take an extra credit card and extra cash!

You lucky bastard. I hate you!

[devilsadvocate]

Oh and try to learn the minimum in the native language of each place you're visiting:

Hello - how are you?

Excuse me, do you speak English?

Thankyou.

[Q.]

Travel Insurance!

[devilsadvocate]

Oh and try to learn the minimum in the native language of each place you're visiting:

Hello - how are you?

Excuse me, do you speak English?

Thankyou.

Also

You have beautiful eyes...

Do you have any Australian in you?.....

[Q.]

"I'm from Australian and I wrestle kangaroos and eat crocodiles"

"Je suis de l'Australie et je lutte des kangourous et des crocodiles mangent"

[JAS]

Oh and try to learn the minimum in the native language of each place you're visiting:

Hello - how are you?

Excuse me, do you speak English?

Thankyou.

If you are going to do one thing to prepare then I'd say do that.

It really is amazing the difference in treatment you get from waiters, hotel staff, shop assistants and people in general if you make even the smallest effort to speak to them in their own language.

Regards
JAS

[scottroo]

arrived in london yesterday, flight wasnt too bad, has a swim at singapore airport along with a few beers, train in london to a mates place had a few more drinks then went and saw trafalgar sqaure etc, then to the pub for lunch and more beers, feeling abit seedy today but about to go and see the eye and do a river cruise!

will update again soon

[Footy Chick]

Alright! running commentary! Keep it coming Scottroo

[devilsadvocate]

arrived in london yesterday, flight wasnt too bad, has a swim at singapore airport along with a few beers, train in london to a mates place had a few more drinks then went and saw trafalgar sqaure etc, then to the pub for lunch and more beers, feeling abit seedy today but about to go and see the eye and do a river cruise!

will update again soon

Lucky bastard!

Head down to Ye olde Cheshire Cheese. Great food, better beer, best pub in the world IMO!

[scottroo]

had a great day today, bit of shopping, hyde park then went into buckingham palace, an amazing place! then headed to brick road for some indian, 9 pounds(bout 17 bucks) entree,popadaams main, rice, naan and a beer! amazing value!

about 9.30pm here now and still light, heading to bed as i have an early morning brekky and then footy training tommorow night, ive managed to hook up a game on saturday for the wimbledon hawks fc

[scottroo]

Well after a very busy week and a half i finally have some time to update this page and add some photos. London is an amazing city, so big compared to what im used to, with an awesome public transport system. Found the price of food and drink to be very reasonable thanks to a weak pound and a strong aussie dollar. A pint of beer is about 3.60p or about 6 bucks aussie, this is for an imperial pint.

Things ive seen so far, Tower of London, Inside Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, A rive cruise, the London Eye, and pretty much the other main attractions. On Saturday i was lucky enough to play a game of footy for the Wimbledon Hawks ARFC and we managed to have a win! Played okay but after a long lay off from footy (and way too many drinks Friday night) ran outta steam pretty quickly! Stuck around after for a few beers with the blokes. These blokes were an awesome bunch of fellas and if anyone in London for work or play in the future I highly recommend this club.

Yesterday we started to do the Monopoly Board pub crawl and did 13 on the first day. Feeling pretty bloody average today though!

Thursday we head off to Edinburgh, things we will do there include the military tattoo, hearts v blackburn friendly, ghost tour, plus the castle etc etc

[Footy Chick]

Sounds like you're having a blast Scottroo, my brother will be there in just on a week, and they don't have a lot of time but will suggest some of the stuff you've done for a whirlwind couple of days.

[devilsadvocate]

Well after a very busy week and a half i finally have some time to update this page and add some photos. London is an amazing city, so big compared to what im used to, with an awesome public transport system. Found the price of food and drink to be very reasonable thanks to a weak pound and a strong aussie dollar. A pint of beer is about 3.60p or about 6 bucks aussie, this is for an imperial pint.
Things ive seen so far, Tower of London, Inside Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, A rive cruise, the London Eye, and pretty much the other main attractions. On Saturday i was lucky enough to play a game of footy for the Wimbledon Hawks ARFC and we managed to have a win! Played okay but after a long lay off from footy (and way too many drinks Friday night) ran outta steam pretty quickly! Stuck around after for a few beers with the blokes. These blokes were an awesome bunch of fellas and if anyone in London for work or play in the future I highly recommend this club.

Yesterday we started to do the Monopoly Board pub crawl and did 13 on the first day. Feeling pretty bloody average today though!

Thursday we head off to Edinburgh, things we will do there include the military tattoo, hearts v blackburn friendly, ghost tour, plus the castle etc etc

3.60?!!!!

Mate, you are getting bent over!
My local in West London had imperials for 1.85 when I first moved there in '07. When I left in '09 it was only up to 2.10.

The tattoo is awesome, you'll love it.

[scottroo]

Been awhile but thought I'd update this for people who are still interested!

Drove from London to Edinburgh with stopovers in Nottingham and York, in Nottingham we had lunch at a place call ye old Jerusalem, which is the oldest pub in the UK, dating back to the 1100s. In Edinburgh we had a fair few beers and went to the military tattoo which was truly amazing, I was skeptical about it but really really enjoyed myself. Also went to a soccer game, Hearts v Blackburn (my team) and Tyne castle Stadium, was only a friendly but it was a great spectacle. Drove back to London on the Sunday and stopped in Moffat and Oxford, both really nice places! The Lake district was some of the most spectacular scenery i have ever seen.

On Tuesday we took off for our 4 day visit to Turkey. On arrival we were greeted by a scorching hot Istanbul day, we were picked up by our hotel and started the drive there, Istanbul really is a great city, bloody big and bloody daunting!

On arrival at the hotel we were greeted by 2 smiling men who were so kind and generous to make sure we had an amazing stay there, the hotel is called the Dara if anyone is planning a trip to Istanbul I would highly recommend! We went out for dinner to a traditional restaurant which was awesome and very cheap!

Next morning up very early as our bus came and picked us up for our tour of Gallipoli and Troy. 5 hours later we arrived in Eceabat and had lunch before we headed to Gallipoli, Wow, what an amazing experience it was, words do not do this justice, you must see if for yourself. That night we headed back to Eceabat and went to the local seafood restaurant, for 10 lira i had some amazing prawn clay pot! The next day we got on the ferry and headed across the dandanels towards Cannakale which takes about half an hour, we met our bus group and headed to Troy, which in its own right is an amazing place!

That night we headed back to Istanbul and awoke early the next day to head to the grand Bazaar which is a massive market, got a few nice cheap things there before a trip to the spice market and the kebab shop! That arvo we headed to the blue mosque which was amazing, lining up in the 40 degree heat however was not so amazing!

back in london now before heading off the amsterdam and the large part (8 weeks) of our trip!

its my birthday thursday so i can see it getting messy

[Footy Chick]

Happy birthday for Thursday Scottroo, you're obviously having a great time, some photo's wouldn't go astray if you get some time

[scottroo]

will chuck some on later today

[Q.]

Adelaide to Scottroo, Adelaide to Scottroo. Do you read me?

[scottroo]

Completely forgot about this thing! sorry! will give a quick rundown on the places i went and what we did

Amsterdam- Stayed at a seedy hotel in the heart of the red light district, celebrated my birthday with a few pints, a space cake and a joint, did a river cruise and caught possibly the worst cold of my life! Amsterdam was definitely an eye opener but not sure if id go back

Barcelona- Flew there from Amsterdam and hit up some nice restaurants on our first day for some tapas, food was delicious and had too many drinks followed by shots of grappa and made a fool of my self singing and dancing on the main strip! Proceeded to climb on lion statue and ride it.

Madrid- Caught the train to Madrid, massive, daunting, stinking hot city, didn't do a whole lot here, caught up on some sleep, went out for food and did most of the touristy things

Valencia- Went to Valencia for la tomatina, beautiful city, lovely beaches and we had an awesome apartment near the casino.
La Tomatina, wow, what a day, chaos from start to finish, was fantastic to do but would never do it again, got absolutely pounded by tomatoes and allot of bogan Aussies there!

Ibiza- Left Valencia and caught a ferry to Ibiza where we planned on a few massive nights clubbing, it didnt eventuate, our hotel was awesome, cheap drinks, awesome pool, we chilled here most of the time sipping on cocktails and eating food, visited the hippy markets which was awesome.

Athens- Flight to Athens, got ripped off by our taxi driver and checked into our aussie run hostel, room was good and did the general touristy things

Mykonos- OMG, heaven on earth, best place ive ever been, the most amazing beach, food, drinks! will definitely return

Santorini- Breathtaking views, visiting the volcanoes, the hot springs and rode donkeys up the cliffs to see a spectacular sunset, awesome place, awesome people.

Rome- Very touristy but some really cool things to see

Venice- a total right off for me, had the runs the whole time!

Vienna- a total change from what we had seen, a clean, beautiful city, only had three nights there and wished we had allot more, the only city i visited that i reckon i could live in

Salzburg- Quiet city, spectacular views!

Munich-OKTOBERFEST. Enough said. AWESOME

Florence- Not a fan at all, dirty hole

Nice- A week in Nice was relaxing, visited monaco, walked the tunnel and went to the casino, awesome week

Paris- Amazing city, beautiful building, on very high terror alert so was pretty bloody scary seeing armed army personel everywhere!

Back on London now but heading to Ireland Monday for a 9 day drive!