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Hoi my peeps!
I hope you are all going very well in the various corners of the world that you are currently exploring.
Our world has just been turned inside out, and seems to be spinning a lot faster than we would like. Since we last blogged (:-P) we have moved house, taken a trip to Nice and started setting up our new abode. It really has been crazy, but a lot of fun at the same time.
Ummm…so yeah…where to start…. The move on the 31st took alllllllllll day, which we were expecting….we moved everything into our house after hiring a massive van and doing the left hand drive thing in a tram haven of an area (which Kai totally mastered by the way), and we did it all relatively easily without killing or seriously maiming each other! Once we had moved everything we then treated ourselves to a meal out, as there was just no way of finding any decent food under the explosion of 'stuff' that had just been thrown into our new place. After dinner we went home and proceeded to make some sense out of the mess and put something of a path together to walk through so we could get to various points in the house without pain. Our bed was a mattress on the floor that night until we had to get up at 5.45am to catch our train out to Nice the next day (After getting to bed at 2am).
The train ride to Nice (via Lake Como and Milan) took 9 hours….you can imagine that after 5 hours of watching a massive guy seated opposite, literally shove food into his dribbly mouth…and I mean literally pushing the food with his fingers into his mouth because he had too much food in there for his mouth to actually close…and then chewing what he could…..so all we could see was this mass of half chewed crap slowly working its way through his tongue, teeth and then into his mouth…and literally dribbling it onto his fat belly ( I swear he ate everything he had packed into his backpack, and I mean everything…he even managed to make a quick exit at one of the short stops just to buy an ice cream), and still tired from the night before…you can imagine our relief once we got to Nice! Only problem was…Nice wasn't quite as nice as we expected! But still lovely.
Nice, apart from the few streets around the coastal beaches actually reminded me of Asia! It was all dirty, smelly and run down! Mind you…some of it is quite cute, but too much of it gets to you after a while. Anyhoos, what IS totally lovely about Nice is the tourist area! The main beach strip and the surrounding streets and into the old town. It is like a European style Las Vegas on the beach! Casinos, restaurants, pubs, clubs, cafés, markets and palm trees galore. It was really pretty! Especially at night! The pics won't do it justice, but when do photos ever do reality justice?
We also spent a day in Monaco…which was absolutely beautiful. Perfectly manicured, clean, fun, and the cars….oh my god! The cars! Absolutely awesome! Where do these people get their money? You can even hire a Ferrari if you feel like it J Why not!? Hahaha I guess the only real problem with Nice and Monaco at this time of the year was the heat. It was about 35 degrees each day with a million per cent humidity, and if I had have ended up with sun stroke and delusional I would have confused the place for Singapore. The beaches were somewhat of a relief….if you overlook the stoney beaches and the associated retarded flailing arm and bent knee dance one must perform to get to the water. We really miss the beaches, as both of us have grown up with them as a huge part of our lives. So it was a lovely break. Ha ha, oh yeah…and the other funny thing is when you try to have a bit of a sun bake, and then when you get up to leave, you have stone imprints all the way down your body. It looks a bit strange, but everyone is in the same boat and so the scary temporary skin condition goes relatively unnoticed.
The final train ride home was scheduled to be 10 hours…but we should have known better….Italian trains, like most Italian schedules, are a little laxy daisy. We ended up home after 12 hours! Thank god for our new purchase of a deck of cards (A MUST WHEN TRAINING ANYWHERE THROUGH EUROPE!) which kept us entertained for most of those hours and passed time far better than on the train trip out to Nice. We even managed to have 3 seats side-by-side to ourselves for the last hour to Zurich…so we got to lay down and be half comfortable J Yay! Which was great because by this time, and after running with heavy suitcases to catch connecting trains after arriving on late ones, I had put my back and neck out so much so that I couldn't turn my head sideways anymore. Hahahahaha
Ok, I know I sound like I'm whinging about this trip a lot….coz I am… but it was just so much fun still. Would you believe me when I say that it's when things don't go right that you remember the most, and usually have a funny story to accompany them. You just have to see the funny side…well, there were so many of these things that didn't go right, that the weekend was just one big comedy fest. It was great. But I don't think we'll be heading back in a hurry :-P
Next stop is Italy though…hahahaha with my parentals J I will make sure I factor a lot of extra time into the train trips this time! But yeah, I am too excited! I can't wait! Both to see my mumzarelli and dadzarelli again, and to frolic through Italy! That's happening at the end of September though when we meet them part way through their Europe/US trip…so just over a month to wait….too excited!!!! Only 3 weeks till you leave now mum and dad!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh yeah…and Hails…we will see you near the end of September too! I can't wait! Hurry up and get here! Yay!
Hmmm what else…there was a 'Love' parade here in Zurich on the weekend…..much like the mardis gras from home, but it's not just about homosexuality…it's basically an excuse for people to dress as weird or as skimpy as they can……..after I pointed out a 65year old lady wearing only chains (so you could see everything), Kai gauged his eyes out and didn't speak to me for about oooooh 30 seconds. J But yeah, it was heaps of fun, with stages set up all throughout the city and main train station so the whole city was like one big rave.
Oh yeah…..we put our cuckoo clock up too! It looks awesome! And the cuckoo and little song that plays at every hour is just too cute! The first night we had it up was a novelty….so we let it play all night…....doors were closed in the end (!), so we now have it set to auto, where it only cuckoos between 9am and 9pm.
My German course is going well…it hurts my head (;-P), but I'm enjoying the classes, and understanding more and more each day. It's nice to be able to find the words that you want to express yourself in conversation and not have to just pull an awkward 'sorry' face and say 'entschuldigung, ich verstehe nicht'…and have to leave without what you came for……so I'm going to stick with it the whole time I'm here. Without knowing the language you just can't wholly immerse yourself in the culture and understand it. You miss so much…so yeah….definitely enjoying learning! And my classmates are just awesome….from all over the globe….and one even from Lancellin! Hahahaha He walked up to me the other day after a lunch break, with a plastic bag, and said in an excited and somewhat sneaky tone (as if he'd found his own secret pot of gold) 'look what I've got'…and opened up the bag to reveal a big jar of vegemite. Hahahahahahahahhaaaa it cracked me up so much coz it's exactly what Kai and I had been missing until our parents came to the rescue and sent some vegimite in care packages. Honey and jam is just not the same on toast in the mornings!!!
Oh, and one last thing…a big congrats to Dave Dennis and his team for making the Olympic rowing finals! We will be tuning in on Sunday for the big race. Viel Glück!!!
Well, I better stop this entry here before it gets too long. Love to you all and miss you all heaps!
I send my warmest thoughts to you all in Perth braving the most freezing winter ever. It will be over soon! Hang in there!
Lots of love
Donzy and Kairo!
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