Travelling to the top of Europe

What a day it has been. And what a start. Our alarm went at 4am. Troy, in a slight act of confusion, thought it was his phone ringing, quickly jumped out of bed and straight into a wooden shelf and has limped for the remainder of the day. But at least the adrenaline was pumping from an early stage.
We took 6 different trains to get to this Swiss mountain with a long unpronouncable name, but it is commonly referred to as the Top of Europe. It is 3500m above sea level. Hence the name. And you could go up onto viewing decks, through an ice palace and onto the actual snow. We were very excited to go onto the snow but sadly we had not really packed winter clothes when we left New Zealand. So we each put on a few jumpers, but it was negative 3 and 40k winds. It just wasnt happening. But we had a great time up there. Infact our whole Swiss experience has been so much fun.
So we are in Zurich at the moment. Fly to London tomorrow then home the next day.
This is a real average computer so cant put our photos on here, but we are home in a few days so can just show them to you all.
Weve had such a good trip, seen so many cool things, met some great people but also looking forward to coming home.
See you all shortly.
Troy (a.ka. Bok Troy, T Noy or DJ Fuzzy) and Chris (aka T-Rip)

Beautiful Switzerland

So we have arrived in Switzerland! So beautiful! Very green and very similar to New Zealand! We are staying with Nadia and Steffi, two Swiss girls we knew from New Zealand. Their town has about 5000 people. Quite small but very relaxing! Yesterday we went down to a lake and had a swim and had played some volleyball before we headed back home for some great Swiss food! Such a good day!

Steffi isnt working at the moment and Nadia finishes at 1. So this morning we are just relaxing and then this afternoon we are off to a mountain somewhere. Should be fun! Then tomorrow we are going to go to Interlauken... I think thats spelt right. Interlauken has one of the highest trains in Europe, goes right up into the snow mountains. And from there we go to Zurich, fly to London and then back home.

So this is the final straight. But what an amazing final straight it is!

Germany.... Slow trains and fast little cars!!

So we had 3 action packed nights in Berlin. It started off not so successfully... we left Krakow, Poland at 8pm on an overnight train due to arrive in Berlin at 7am giving us the whole day to explore the city. The carriages were rather cramped, but you could lie down at least. We woke up at around 8.30am. We were not in Berlin. We hadnt even got out of Poland. They had electrical problems in the night and in the end we got to Berlin at 3pm. 19 hour train ride. We were very tired! We checked into the hostel and then had a rest before we went and explored some of Berlin. Very cool mix of historical buildings and very modern buildings. The

photo of Chris hugging the giraffe is made entirely out of lego. Just outside a legoland kind of place which was probably meant for kids but still a lot of fun!

The next day we drove down to Munich on the Autobahn which was a lot of fun. We had a Mini Cooper. We only just fitted both our bags and us in. Everyone drives very fast (especially Troy) and the roads were so good. Very smooth. And no sign of NZ roadworkers pretending to be working while leaning on a spade and smoking. It was all very efficient!

Next stop..... Switzerland!

Schindlers factory..... was that it?

Ok so we had a free day today and thought it would be fun to explore the Jewish ghetto, and in particular see Schindler's factory, which Schindler's List is based on. Well talk about a disappointment!!
We walked for about 35 minutes in rather hot weather, going through the back roads of an industrial area full of old run down buildings to get to..... well this old, run down building. You cant get inside, there is no information about it, but you do see a few other similarly baffled tourists around. Well at least we've been there!
Troy has also become a mad rapper. For the sanity of the Bartholomew family, I really hope he snaps out of it before he gets home. Here is an example:
Troy: Wow look at that blood on the road!
Chris: Yeah, looks like someone got a stray punch.
Troy: Yeah. Yeah. P to the unch. Punch. Stray punch for lunch. (Troy then bursts into uncontrollable laughter over his apparent genius)
Its quite a site. We are just relaxing at the hostel now for a few more hours then off to Berlin. Just over a week to go now!

Krakow..... a mix of emotions

So we went on a organised tour of Krakow, Poland today. It started with going to the concentration camp Auschwitz where it was estimated 1.5 million Jews were killed during the war. It was a really weird feeling going there, we are glad we went, but it definitely wasnt enjoyable. Compared to some of the history we have seen so far on the trip, it was really recent and it really left you wondering how people could do these things to other humans.
After that we went to see a salt mine. Sounds a bit mundane, but it was actually really exciting! We went down 135 metres into the ground to see this mine which was built about 700 years ago. We were able to see where the salt was mined and there were tonnes of salt statues along the way, and a church which is what the photo is of. We even went into a room where they belted out some Chopin to relax us. It was a great experience!
Tomorrow we have a free day in Krakow before we take an overnight train to Berlin. So we think we might do a touch of shopping and check out Schindlers factory.
Oh and it rained AGAIN today. And its meant to be summer!

Sleeping beauty

Ok so Troy has a special ability.... he can seemingly sleep anywhere! So we have had numerous plane, train and bus rides where he has drifted into the land of nod. Unfortunately he doesnt have a pillow. So to find a place to rest he usually "subconsciously" lands on my shoulder. Its terrible. Ive put this video up to hopefully gain some sympathy

Beautiful Prague

After a massive 26 hours of travel to get from Capadoccia to Prague we made it!

Prague is a really beautiful city, very old fashioned and lots of old buildings. We have had a pretty relaxed time here so far, we checked out some old fashioned castles, looked at some old fashioned town clocks and had some coffee at some old fashioned establishments (also called Starbucks).

We are about to run out of internet time!! Bu

t off to Krakow Poland tomorrow for our first real organised tour. Should be great!

We broke our record and after 31 days had our first day of rain. Unbelievable! It rained for at least 12 minutes.

Photos of Capadoccıa

Heres the photos that we couldnt add before..... we took so many but heres a selection. The one with the mountain looking thing on its own... thats where people live. And very similar to the place we lived for a few nights!!

The best day of the trip

So we are just on our way back from Capadoccia, the cave city! We have had such an amazing time, we both agreed yesterday was the highlight of the trip so far. We'll run you through it.....

4.45am Alarm goes off. Struggle out of bed. Something weird happens. For the first time in the trip we but sweatshirts on. Its a dreadfully cold 19 degrees. How will we get used to it?

5.00am Shuttle comes to take us to hot air ballooning.

5.45am Up in the air! There is about 20 in the balloon. We travel over valleys, checking out an amazing landscape. There are about 30 other balloons around. Incredible! We safely come back down an hour later where we are given a Champagne breakfast and a certificate congratulating us on doing the ride. Although in fairness, we didnt have to do much!

7.00am Back in bed

8.30am Wake again. Feels like a new day!

9.00am Head off on day long tour of Cappadocia. Amazing, we see churches from the 2nd century, houses that have been lived in for thousands of years, all of which are in caves. We see pottery being made, carpets being weaved and explore underground cities, which at a time were up to 19 stories deep. We just went down 4 stories and even that was 45 metres.

5.00pm Arrive home from tour. At hotel for the best part of ten minutes before we head off to Turkish bath. We shower first and then go into the sauna. We then get washed, foamed, rinsed off and massaged by Turkish man. Relaxing and at times uncomfrtable if you can have both feelings at once!

7.00pm Off to Turkish barber for Chris. Barber has no English. Chris has no Turkish. There is no option but to make a shaving noise. Barber shaves head, shaves face with very sharp knife, holds flame to ear to singe hairs, punches back in an attempt at massage and clicks every finger before rubbing something that could only be described as pure alcohol over the shaving cuts. An hour later it has finished. Chris is happy even though he is 15 years old and battling cancer. At least there are still 2 weeks to go!

So our time in Turkey is counting down. Just one long 12 hour busr ide to Turkey where we will attempt to sleep. And then off to Eastern Europe


SORRY!!! Photos arent workıng! We are stıll ın a small Turkısh town and ınternet ıs slow. Should be a lot faster in Prague so will try again there.

A Turkey in Turkey

Well the only to do to compete with my newfound Athenian police friend was to buy a Turkish costume. I kid you not, it is so comfortable! Maybe not work wear, but very comfortable!
So when we have been travelling down through our various countries, there has been a whole lot of similarities, but Turkey really is quite a different country! Different culture, different landscape and a much nicer climate! Its still hot, but not unbearable like Greece was.
We unfortunately had an extremely early flight- to the extent that we spent more time waiting in customs and check in lines than we did sleeping. The Greeks- great builders, maybe not the most efficient at running an airport!
So tomorrow we are off for some real excitement (not that the rest of the trip hasnt!). We leave at 7pm on an overnight bus to Capadoccia, and arrive around 8 in the morning (750km). We then have 3 days of exploring, hot air ballooning and guided tours. Capadoccia has the most amazing landscape- search it on Google but its famous for having these little cave/hills that look like giant stalagmites and hundreds of years ago, the Christians in the town would hide underground and they have these huge underground cities you can visit.
We are staying in a cave hotel. Yeah you heard right! We are unsure what internet access in caves is like, so we may not be on here for the next 4 days. But we will return with some amazing photos no doubt!!

Athens..... Lots of history and lots of good times

So we have just finished 3 days in Athens and it has been a really cool city. You have all this history which was obviously very cool but then the markets and the town just had a realy good atmosphere. You seem to be able to get seemingly anything in the markets, as Troy showed by purchasing a police uniform that was IDENTICAL to the Athens police. Like you literally couldnt tell the difference. However, he did get threatened by a rrest (again) if he wore it in Athens. So it will be saved!
Now the photos.... Chris is lunging for the finish line as this is where the Olympic marathon finishes. It was 45 degrees that day, so we figured a half hour walk equated to a marathon.
Troy is standing next to one of the soldiers who has to stand like that for 6 hours. And it is a highly sought after position. Any takers??
Check out his shoes!
So we really enjoyed Athens, met some really cool people and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now for something different... off to Turkey

Ancient Athens

So we got to Athens. We are in a really cool hostel in that it is about 2 minutes walk from all the main historical sites. So we were able to put our bags in our room and go exploring. We saw most of the main Ancient ruins like the Acropolis, the Temple for Zeus, the Temple of Nike and the Parthenon. Sorry spelling may be off! But they were really cool. It was amazing like some of them started getting built in about 500BC. And we were standing right there infront of them. And when you compare 500BC to how old New Zealand is.... Well its a big difference!!
There were a bit pedantic near the Acropolis.... you can see in the photo that Troy is on my shoulders. Then this lady blew a whistle and told us off. You are not allowed to be on someone elses shoulders there. She didnt explain why!

How annoying! It would appear that the photo function isnt working here! I will try and upload the photos from our next place. But we are surviving, its 43 degrees here today and all is going well! We might to on a day trip tomorrow, either to Delphi or Sparta. Probably Delphi. Apparently there is nothing to see in Sparta. You just grunt and call yourself a temporary Spartan. We will keep you posted!

Our Greek Island

We are on an island called Kefallonia. If you have watched Captain Corellis Mandolin with Nicholas Cage, its that Island. So nice and relaxing but very very hot. Today it is 40 degrees. Tomorrow the locals think it will get to 42. So as you can see by the photos, today we rented out a boat for the day. Was heaps of fun. We would just stop at each little cove and do some swimming and snorkelling and sunbathing.
We are staying in a really nice place here. It is basically someones house, but we have opur own little apartment. So in it we have our own little kitchen and bathroom and lounge, and effectively two bedrooms but its all open plan.
Thats our little house in the photo.
So we have three nights here. Tomorrow we are off to explore some really cool looking caves and then no doubt some more relaxing. Life is good!

The future face of ice tea?

Troy drinks ice tea like its going out of fashion.

If this face doesnt up world wide sales, then honestly, what will?

Facial hair

We are in the most boring town in history. There is nothing to talk about. So we will tell you about our beards.

We have added what we are aspiring to and then our photo underneath. Firstly Troy is going for the Asian wisdom beard. They key to this is not full coverage, but just chin growth. Troy is mastering it slowly but surely. Keep encouraging him.

Chris is going for the Gimley look, but just in the beard. If he grew the hair on top, he would never make it through customs. Please ignore the orange.

So that is about all we have to say right now. We are off to Greece in 4 and a half hours. Now we will do our laundry. You may not have wanted to know that, but consider your lives enriched. There really is NOTHING to do in Bari.

Dubrovnik

We are in Dubrovnik today, our last day in Croatia. It has been a really cool country, the people are a lot more friendly and laid back than the Italians, which we have really enjoyed!
We have just done a massive walk around the city walls. Was really amazing, they are up to 25 metres tall. They are about 500 years old, but you can clearly see parts that were attacked by the bombings in 1992.
We stayed with another old lady with poor English last night. We might have had more room in a prison cell, but it was cheap and comfortable and had TWO single beds which was good. Well everything went well until he broke a light anyway.
We are taking a ferry from here at 11pm back to Italy for a night before heading down to the Greek Islands. Ohhh! And on the ferry to Croatia we saw some dolphins! Definite highlight! Might be a little harder on the night ferry!!

Sunny Croatia... and the difference between a double and shared

So we





have arrived in sunny Croatia. Its is beautiful here! Extremely hot (again). We have just spent a night in Split and then off to an Island to stay tonight. We stayed in a guest house last night, of a lovely Croatian couple. However, we made a slight mistake with our booking... rather than asking for a shared room (two single beds) we went for double (one double bed). So we got that lovely pink number you see on the left. It really looks quite small in the photo! But be assured, we did have a man gap! Its been really good in Croatia, because our currency is a lot stronger, so finally things seem a bit cheaper! We will enjoy it while it lasts.
Sorry to hear about the bad weather in NZ, we will try and get some extra sunshine for all of you. Life is tough at 32 degrees :)

Even gladiators get hungry too....

This was priceless. We were just walking through the train station and out of nowhere these two gladiators came to get some burgers. We had to take a double take.
We cant work out why the one on the left appears to be headbutting the counter

The worlds biggest watermelon?

We went to a supermarket today and found this monster.

It was 11.5kg and it was the norm. It is twice the size of a head.

Its huge.

A message from the Colleseum

So here we are in the colleseum. Pretty amazing here to think that 50,000 people would cram in here to watch humans vs elephants. We just had to imagine.

We also took a big guided tour today through the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica. Was so amazing. So much history! Like things before Christ. It was really cool. And we had a great Irish guide, he had one of those accents that sounded funny even when he was being serious!

So Rome has been very cool. Pity we are staying in Alabama. Its taking us like an hour and a half to get into the city from the hostel. The place itself is really nice, but its been a bit frustrating cos it takes so long to get there!

But weve still had a great time here, and off to Ancona tomorrow

Our time travel

Just finished an amazing night in this city called San Gimignano. It was like we had travelled back in time. It was full of old churches and towers, most of which had been built in the 11th century, and not much had changed since then. We stayed with this Italian woman who spoke no English. Whatsoever. She spoke a lot too. We just dont know what about. But her place was cool. And right in the middle of town.
We are both rapidly falling in love with/ getting addicted to Italian gelattos. They are so good!
We had the transport mission of a lifettime, 3 buses, 3 trains and a metro to get to our hostel in Rome. But we have made it! We are in Rome. So it is now time to as the Romans do. Well we are going exploring now anyway.

As a side note, Jenna, those were totally crutches on the picture. But I didnt see it. The crutch was really thin and its really hot here and maybe my brain was functioning. You have to admit, it was a pretty big arm though....

Bruce Willis?

Chris is pretty sure he was sitting beside Bruce Willis on the train. What do you think? And who would have known he was fluent in Italian?

Venice and some other photos

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So we are just coming to the end of our time in Venice.

Its been pretty cool. So much history, no roads..... everything is floating. Roads are rivers. Ferries are cars. Troy hasnt spilt anything yet.

We have gone through several churches and cathedrals, built in 15th and 16th centuries which have been amazing. Gone to some islands. We went to two different islands today.

Troy- Forgotten the name. Memorable. Thin narrow streets and walkways. Like walking through a maze with a lot of construction. If that doesnt evoke feelings of magicalness, I dont know what will.

Chris- I went to this island called Burano. I heard it was super colourful so I went. Wow it was like the most colourful place on earth. Every house was so colourful and a different colour too. Ive put a photo in.

That top photo is of Troy being a terminator and walking towards the Venice sunset.
Then we have colourful Burano, one of the villages from Cinque Terre and us before we took a scooter ride (We survived).

Off to a town just out of Florence tomorrow. We are healthy and well. Except for a complete inability to format pictures and words on our blog. Sorry if its all over the show a bit!

Weird signs in Venice

We saw this sign on the ferry today. What does the third picture mean....

Seat reserved for hip hop dancers? People with long arms?

Living in Italian paradise

We are now in a little Italian town called Levanto. Its really refreshing to be in a town thats not totally touristy! It is so little that our computer is very old school and has no USB drive, so cant put any photos up yet sorry!

At least in France Chris spoke a bit of French. In Italy we have nothing apart from hi, thank you and please. So dinner was interesting last night when the menu came out only in Italian.
Chris knew (due to expert tuition) that tortellini pasta was a winner so ordered that. It came out. Pasta and only pasta. No meat. No veges.
Troys selection was more bizzare. It was under the antipasta section. And it was salami and what we think was sliced and uncooked bacon. It was really weird. Then not to be content with spilling drinks on planes, Troy lent back and snapped his chair. In the small village it sounded like a gun shot. The lady was luckily very forgiving.

Today we did a walk called the Cinque Terre. 5 lovely little beach side villages all within close walking distance. So we thought. We walked the first one. It seems there are two things that have not yet been introduced to Italy:
1.) Clouds
2.) Flat walking tracks

It was 31 degrees, very hilly and very unprotcted from the sun. So after we walked the two hours to get there and drunk 3 cokes, 3 waters and a fanta between us without once going to the toilet we decided that the train might be the better option. So we saw the rest of the villages, via train, and it was remarkably more pleasant!

Off now to ride a 2 person scooter around town before Italian dinner take two!

We will be travelling tomorrow so may not make it onto the internet, but will put up some more photos the following day.

Chris and Troy

The Day we saw 3 countries in one day like it was nothing

We have just finished an accidental detour which has been incredible. Our original plan was to take an overnight train from Paris to Genova, Northwestern Italy. But it was completely booked so had to change our reservation. So instead we took a train to Cannes (Where they have the big film festival each year, and quite close to Nice) in the South of France. We stayed in this amazing Gothic Mansion, where the owner was renting out a few rooms quite reasnobly. We pretty much dropped our bags and went with our other roomie, Jen from Louisana, to a Lebanese restaurant. It was a really nice night.
The next morning (yesterday) we had our earliest start yet (8 oclock) to catch a train to the second smallest country in the world, Monte Carlo/Monaco. It was blinged out and awesome. It seemed that everyone either had a Porsche or a Ferrari. It was definitely not a country short on money! We did a bit of shopping, Troy even considered buying another knife! Eventually we both got some new sunglasses, Chris because he sat on his in Paris and Troy, just because they looked good. And then we watched our second changing of the guard in Europe, equally impressive.
We went into this amazing chocolate shop and almost brought some to bring home as presents, until we realised that the chances of keeping it unmelted were extremely slim! So sorry! No Monte Carlo chocolate coming home with us!
We cruised into Italy at 2am. We had been awake for 6 hours and been in 3 countries. Not a bad effort!

Paris- the City of Love

Ok so Paris is amazing. You can see how people love it. So much history, so much atmosphere, so few road rules.

We did this bike tour last night which was really cool. We met at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower at 7PM and then started the 4 hour tour. So there is about 20 of us cyclists being led around by this great American tour guide who gave us two rules:

1.) Dominate every intersection

2.) Never look any taxi driver in the eyes

So it was great fun. We went around all the sites of Paris and he would explain the history behind them. And then when it finally got dark around 10.30 we were all put on a cruise boat down the river to see the lights of Paris. Magical.

We are off to explore some markets today. Should be good.

Love hearing from you all and how you're going.

Chris and Troy

The day Troy nearly got arrested

So we are running late for a train from London to Paris. We have three minutes to get our bags checked and run through to the train. Time is of the absolute essence. Then the trouble starts.

"Beep, beep, beep" goes the metal detector as Troy walks through. I assumed it must have been his belt, so thought nothing of it.

As it turns out, Troy had a 3 inch swiss knife on his belt. Just because he always does. As he admitted it was his, he was informed that this was infact a violation to be carrying this and that the police would be called and he would now be arrested.

To worsen his case, he just got his eyebrow pierced and looks remarkably dodgy.

Luckily, a large and endearing black lady came over. She had a good morning. She decided that they would be better to just confiscate it and let Troy go.

No jail time. Also no train as it was long missed.

It was one of those things that was quite scary at the time, hilarious now.

Famous people in London

London is so full of famous people! I mean, just already we have seen J Lo and Samuel L Jackson. I had a slight altercation with Sam. I think he got jealous of my beard I'm growing. Anyway we stared each other out. It was intense.

Ok so if you have astute eyes and an unerstanding of my imagination you will see they are made out of wax. It was incredible! You literally thought they were going to move at any second, so well done.

Tourists and Walking Marathons

Hey guys, We arrived in London on the 15 June to the heat of the european sun :) We have pretty much done everything touristy you could imagine; The London eye, Westminster, Buckhingham Palace, couple of bridges. There was a bus you could take around to see all the sites, but was gonna cost about $65, so we just walked. Oh, how we walked. We both have foot blisters and have calf muscles that don't function anymore. Oh! If only one of us was a physio...

The prices here for things are ridiculous. I (Chris) went to this Indian place with my old flatmate Jono last night. Rice was not included with the meal, and for a bowl of rice we payed the equivalent of $9. Lets be fair though, it was very good rice!

Off to Paris in a few hours. Continuing our apparent tour de Rodney, in his honour as our intenirary somehow resembles an R. We will pretend it wasnt accidental.

Itenirary

So this is a map of our trip. I think its clear that

a. We are going to a lot of countries

b. I may not have such a huge future in art

Very excited. 5 days to go and we are both already packed. Slightly geeky, but very organised.