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Well after a heartbreaking attempt at an enourmous 2.5 hour monster blog which died on us just as we pressed send -we are back!!
There is much to tell but for your sake we will be brief.
Last time you heard from us we were enjoying our Christmas feast back in Lucern.. Boxing day was our last day in Switzerland and we spent it looking at MORE picasso stuff (man that guy is everywhere) and seeing our first frozen lake in front of the famous Lion Monument.
The next day we were off to Heidelberg Germany and the first thing we did when we got there was eat sausages (how predictable!). During our 3days in Heidelberg there was much beer drinking, shopping! and chess playing for hours over breakfast!... huh you say? Not so predictable after all were we? :) There were heaps of old German men playing it in the cafe where we got our free breakfast so we thought we'd give it a try (Ken and Selwyn you should be proud!) but because Greg won the first game we had to play again so Ann could win -which she did! Hours later we made it outside to go and see the huge castle on the hill overlooking the town. We went up a railway that was ridiculously steep and the oldest one that is still running -not very reassuring for Ann's fear of heights!
Next came Copenhagen and New Years. No doubt you've seen the photos -yes we spent our New Years with Abba wanna be's... it was... different -but we managed to get our groove on and enjoy the cocktails to welcome in the new year amoung the huge and dangerous amount of fireworks. Some people we met warned us that it would be like a city under seige -and they were spot on! People were practicing their fireworks days before and on the night they went nuts! On our way back to the hotel someone threw one and we were only 10meters away... it was more bomb than firework and Greg almost jumped out of his skin. Perfect way to end our Copenhapen New Year. New Years day we didn't venture outside our hotel except to get Yiros, more lazy than hungover really. On the last day we bumped into the Royal Palace and did a tour of the currently used Royal Apartments and where Princess Mary was going to host a shindig the next day... no sighting of any Royals though, sorry Liz.
Our next destination was the long awaited visit to the relies in the EXTREMELY snowy and icy Sweden. Wael was the one to pick us up from the train station and Ann recognised him straight away -he looked like a mixture of Ray, Baba and Hassan. We ended up staying with Nana (without too many disputes it seemed). This meant though that Ann had no choice but to remember her arabic -because Nana was the only one who knew NO english at all -so it was fun giving our arms a workout and relying on hand gestures and pointing at things all the time.. by the end of the four days in Sweden even Greg was speaking some arabic! The Iraqi's loved it! He was in! So much so that every party we went to Greg would be invited to drink with the men -first it was Whisky with Sabah (who hadn't changed much at all! still loud and the life of the party) the next time it was Oozo Vodka AND Tequila shots with Sabah, Amil (Ghasoon's husband, a doctor who was really nice and helped translate everything for Greg) and Ammar (Maysem's husband). Even Nana on the last night of our stay pressured Greg into finishing a quarter of a bottle of Whisky before he went to bed 'common its almost finished -there's hardly any left -finish it off..common...yulla'
While Greg did lots of drinking Ann had a great time catching up with the girls and reminissing about the old days when we'd played with plastic tea cups and saucers and had awesome tea parties. The girls all looked so grown up! Noora the youngest always looked perfectly made up and had heaps of trendy clothes, Maysem was pregnant and catering for big parties at her house and Qhusoon was running around keeping all the little kids in line (-who were about our age when we last saw each other!).
Over the 4 days we were kept very busy. On the first night we had a huge gathering at Wafah (who looked younger than what Ann remembered her to be!) and Sabah's place were there must have been over 30 people there -some of whom took Ann a bit longer to remember than others -but all she knew was that they were all related somehow! On the following days we were taken out for traditional arabic lunches (kebab or tikka or qhusi) and went to more parties -one night for Maysem and Ammar's birthdays and another night visiting Fowaaz and family who had only been there 6months. On the last night everyone came to us at Nana's to say there goodbyes. But at every party one thing was for sure... there was heaps and heaps and heaps of food -the only thing that saved Greg from getting rip roaringly drunk!
By the end of the four days we were a few kgs heavier, both Ann and Greg's arabic was much improved, we were exhausted but we were very sad to leave the generous and jolly Iraqi lifestyle.
Next stop was the land of 'the black stuff'. We stayed 3 nights in a beauty of a hotel in Dublin that had a fireplace and everything. Ann started to feel sick with a cold and kept waking at night talking Arabic but these strange occurrances didn't stop us from venturing to the Guiness factory and Jameson factory to learn the wonders of alcohol making. Of course there was tasting involved in the tours as well. Not only did we get a pint of Guiness and a glass of Jameson each but Greg got picked out to do some extra Whisky tasting as well... which wasn't too much of a chore really.
On our 4th day in Ireland we picked up a car and drove down to Waterford to see how they make their Crystal. Much to her horror, Ann was picked out to finish off a piece of crystal that had been days in the making. She managed to perform well under pressure and not smash the whole thing to the ground. That afternoon we drove to Killarney in the dark and halfway ran into rather a lot of flooding that diverted us down some semi-trailer and bus filled winding rural roads... oh what fun. When large vehicles passed, side mirrors were expendable. The next day saw beautiful sunshine on our drive round the Ring of Kerry... this time instead of semi's it was sheep and huge cows with a death wish, literally running alongside the cars on the same narrow winding crazy roads. After 3 days of driving over 1000km we had seen quite a lot of the green Irish countryside and decided that it was definately a place we would like to revisit.
A turbulent plane trip out of Dublin took us to cloudy Wales and our next family stopover with Auntie Joan and Uncle Colin who are still motoring along very well. Colin introduced us to a lot of 'comedians' on the drive home from the airport, namely anybody who he thought was slightly out of order... which was nearly everyone! Despite a fair bit of rain over the two days in Wales we managed to go on a few 'little drives' around the beautiful Gower Peninsular which if it wasn't so wet could have been Victor Harbour or Middleton. Joan's constant references to the state of the weather had us giggling and Colin's jokes seemed to have no end. We stayed up quite late both nights talking and laughing over cups of tea and Yorkshire Tea Cake. It was great to get to know them better and trade stories about Greg's Grandparents.
We just arrived in London and there is so much to see that it is a bit overwhelming. Only 2 weeks to go. Our packs are now at a dangerous level ('woop woop woop').
Love you all. see you soon. keep in touch. And Selwyn, Happy Birthday!
Love Ann and Greg
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