| MARK BUSHY EMAILS |
| Sat, 14 Jun 2003 20:26:01 +1000 (EST) Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls. Just dropping y'all a note to let you know I am still alive and somewhere in western europe. I am having an exxxcellent time, but I do think about you guys back home and miss the normality a little. I look forward to seeing you all. Eventually that is... theres still plenty to go here. Once again, I'll try to give you a brief rundown of what I've been up to.... but seeing as I haven't even made entries into my travel diary for the last two weeks, details might be somewhat rushed and sketchy. As before, if you want the juicy details, then you'll just have to meet me up sometime and ask - I'll be more than happy to tell (well SOME of the details, maybe not all!) and show you the bestof the 1200 odd photos I have taken so far. Speaking of photos, my travelling troll doll companion named Edgar has made an appearance in front of most major attractions around Europe... and there is a wealth of stupidly funny Signs in Non English speaking countries around here, which I have captured for posterity's sake. =) Umm... okay, right I'll try keep it brief. After cruising around the Greek Islands... Oh - Did I mention we hired a car while we were there and got completely lost in the mountains somewhere and asked this old man (with our very limited greek vocab) in a tiny village how to get to a particular beach and he just burst out laughing at how lost we really were (laughter at others misfortune is an international language). I have never done so many U turns in my life. ... Anyways, as I was saying... after cruising around the Greek Islands we caught an overnight ferry to Italy. This was cool as our bus driver brought along his guitar and we sat around all night singing along to the hits (from Pearl Jame to Crowded House to the Eagles to ahem... Ronan Keating and more). I'm gonna be rockin the Karaoke Bars back home boys and girls. Watch out! Getting side tracked here, where was I? Yeah Italy, we pitstopped at the worlds largest tourist cave - Grotto Gigante in Trieste Italy, before passing Verona - home of Juliet's (of Romeo and Juliet) Balcony and rubbed Juliet's Right Breast (the statue that is) for good luck in love. Hey... its not every day people tell you that you have to go into their town and rub breasts . Then we were off to Venice. We went out to a quiet little bar on the mainland and had the good fortune to stumble across a Flamenco display that absolutely blew away the flamenco the guys had seen in Barcelona Spain. Next day was in Venice, a city like absolutely no other. I loved it... very picturesque - in Venice we actually put away the maps and got ourselves lost intentionally - A very rewarding experience... seeing as you have bugger all chance of understanding the street signs in Venice anyhow. Gelato and Pizza and Gondola rides topped of a great time in Venice. Not to mention one more recital of "Volare" with the accordian player and his accompanying percussionist (a traditional italian song that rocks the party!!!) before leaving italy. So much for a brief review of what I have done huh? After Venice we headed for Austria... damn the countryside is beautiful here. Imagine the cleares bright blue rivers you have ever seen surrounded by lush green fields rolling into sheer cliff faces on all sides, and you're there. Then picture yourself sitting amongst it sipping a beer and munching on a bratwurst. =) Theres much much more to Austria than that (such as attending live mozart symponies in the home of classical music, beautiful churches and amazing parks and gardens, a bit of general stupidity in the history museum to spice things up, banging a few down at the schnapps factory, white water rafting down rapids in "frikkin freezing waters", mountain biking around the hills, across the rivers, past the trout fishing ponds etc) but theres no time to tell. Austria was followed by Germany. Brevity is the key, so here goes: Munich = massive beers, sausages and pretzels + one crappy cookoo clock called the Glockenspiel. Damn! My credit just ran out at this internet kiosk - and the computer rebooted - its been a while since I have seen a computer reboot - don't miss that at all. hmm... I am running on fumes here... ironically, that may be closer to the truth than you think - seeing as I am in Amsterdam at the moment -the porn and unregulated drug capital of the world. Not really my scene, but whatever floats your boat y'know. Anyways.... I'll pick up where I left off next time. There's still Switzerland, Germany Amsterdam and the UK to go... another time. If you got this far, thanks for reading. =) Take care all. Bestest wishes, Mark. |