we're here

Just to let you know we got to Croatia safe and sound. Spent yesterday in Split and on a beach on the island of Brac. It's quite hot, 38 degrees yesterday, but perfect sunny weather. Our little white british bodies aren't quite used to it but it's great to have some sun all the same.

We're deciding at the moment whether we head out to another island before heading to Dubrovnik or we head half way down the coast first. We're meeting up with Brett and Nina on Monday night in Dubrovnik which'll be good. Brett and I can drown our sorrows after last week's disappointment...the football of course!

our last 3 nights in london

Well we fly out of London in around 4 hours so soon we'll be off to the train to head down to Gatwick. We then fly into Split in northern Croatia, which I've just saw is meant to be 33 degrees and sunny today. Something tells me we'll be living in shorts and singlets for the next few months.

Before we headed off, we just thought we'd blog on our last few nights of our 16 months as Londoners. Sunday afternoon we spent at the Falcon in Clapham North. We had around 30 people drop by for a drink and to say goodbye. England won at the same time so most were happy campers. It was great to see everyone one last time and to say goodbye.

Monday night Mark and Megan came over (officially our Nando's friends). We had to stick it out at home for a while waiting for our landlord (meant to come at 8pm, rocked up at 9.45pm) but then headed up to The Exhibit, one of our locals. We had a great time spending time with those guys who we will continue to look for every opportunity to make them move to Melbourne. As Mark would say, "Awesome".

Last night we spent at Pete and Becca's where we've had a few great dinners and times together. Pete suggested that he and I head up to the roof (they live in a 4 storey building) and just hang out. What I'd not realised was that his idea of hanging about is to sit on the edge of the building with your feet dangling off the edge. This is somewhere around 30-35 feet from the pavement. He then proceeded to heckle people as they went by to see if he could get them to look up. I eventually stopped straddling the roof and dangled also. Vertigo was not my friend. But we had a really nice night yet again with those guys and Becca's brother's girlfriend Emily. Thanks to Lia for the tokay which went down well with dessert.

The thing we loved about our last few nights was that they were spent with the people we've come to know and love in this diverse, transient, and often superficial city. There's not one of our friends that we wouldn't want to take home with us. Either that, or relocate our other friends and family to be near. The great thing was the prospect of seeing most of them again either in Melbourne or back in London when we return for a visit.

So thanks all, and we'll see you again. Melbourne friends: see you in October, we've got a plane to catch.

the longest way round is the sweetest way home (part two)

The countdown is now on. We have just over 2 weeks until we leave. As promised, here is our rough itinerary. I will forward contact details once I sort them out but email will most likely be the easiest way to contact us.

June 28 - Fly to Split (Croatia) and spend few days heading down the Dalmatian Coast to Dubrovnik where we hope to meet up with Brett and Nina for a day or two. We'll then catch a ferry across to Italy (Bari, on the east coast).
From Bari we'll head across to Naples, up to Rome, Florence, maybe Verona and then Milan. From Milan we'll head to the south east of France and see Nice and Monte Carlo (maybe Marseille and Avignon also).

July 22 - Fly Nice to Paris in time for the final stage of the Tour de France on the 23rd. We'll then spend a couple of weeks in France including heading down to Bordeaux and across to Lyon. We'll hopefully meet up with Andrew and Jenni in Geneva and see Switzerland and Austria with them, ending up in Vienna around the 9th of August.

August 11 - Fly Vienna to Cairo. We're doing a 17 day tour of Egypt and Jordan and will be back in Cairo on the 27th.

August 28 - Fly Cairo to Mumbai (Bombay). We're just finalising our plans at the moment but we will almost certainly be working for 6 weeks in Purnata Bhavan which is 3 hours out of Mumbai. We're hoping to make it to Delhi (gotta see the Taj Mahal) as well before heading south to Bangalore for our flight to to Singapore.

October 12 - fly Bangalore to Singapore and stay in Singapore for a day or two.

October 14 - Fly home (Melbourne) from Singapore.