Travelling the world, cathy style!

Still in london. Can't believe i've been here for almost 10 days!

Haven't posted for a while, have to pay for internet here. I bought an internet voucher and need to use it up, so i figure i'll just update all you guys on my last week or so.

We spent christmas day bumming around jananie & Matt's flat, having a relaxing old time. It's sooo good to be in a REAL home! No locks on our stuff, no fear of bedbugs, no thongs in the shower, no random drunk people coming in in the middle of the night, comfortable beds, and clean bathrooms, and best of all the food! OMG! Thank you matt & Jananie sooo much for your fantastic food! I think i ate at least a kilo of mandarins while i was there! Haven't had real food/fruit for so long, i just went crazy.

We went to Lyuba's for christmas dinner. She has such a cute little apartment. It's soo bridget jones, and even has a turret! It's somewhere in london. I have absolutley no idea WHERE exactly it is. We drove there. Cars are really cheap to buy, and Jananie bought one just a week before we got here! Very convenient, especially since there is absolutley NO public transport available on xmas day. IT was great! We had roast turkey, roast vegetables, peas, chicken, the whole shebang! Christmas pudding, mince pies, trifle, and topped off with great french champagne (courtesy of me). We ate so much, i think i was almost about to burst! It was fantastic to get a REAL meal. me & lisa'd been living off cheap restaurants for so long, we stuffed ourselves silly!

After christmas, we hit the sales, couple of hundred pounds later.... oh man.. my wallet is so gonna be feelin this when i get back!!!

We eventually got kicked out of jananie's cause they've just got too many people staying with them. With Matt's parents & sister there, there just wasn't enough room in a 2 bedroom place for any more!(they also have housemates too)

Been staying at Globetrotters hostel. It's pretty awesome! Thanks benny for recommending it. It's kinda like a uni college dorm, with a huge dining room, tv room, movie room, bar. There's even a 24 hour convenience store and a GYM! (in a hostel!!) And the beds all have curtains, so there's some privacy. I love this place!!!

We met a maltese guy called Noel who was in lisa's room. he's travelling on his own and we were happy for him to tag along. He's been giving us an education on maltese culture. It's a really tiny place. Apparently 29K long, and 9K only wide, or something to that extent. Theres only 3 clubs in malta, and you can drive from one end to the other in less than an hour! Everyone knows everyone else, and you pretty much can't fart without the whole island knowing. Damn that must be really clastrophobic! And i thought sydney was small! Crazy stuff!

We met up with Wing for drinks last friday night. Was trying to get in contact with jacqui too, but stupid woman didn't check her email or her phone!
So me & lisa get ready to go out to meet wing. We don't get to the city til 10pm, which is pretty decent timing for a big night out right? Wing's there with her little posse of UK friends, which we are more than happy to meet and chat with. They seem like a nice bunch of guys! We got to some pub, seems pretty decent place, order a drink, and sit down to get to know each other. at 11 on the dot, the lights come on. WHAT THE!!>?!?!? Even sydney isn't that bad! Me and lisa are incredulous and can't believe that a pub is closing already! And it's in the middle of leciester square in london! Poms must be total wusses!
WE get kicked out at 11:20, and catch the tube home before 12. What a total anti-climax. They close early cause the tube closes at 12 and everyone needs to get home, but still.. it's pretty lame! I only got ONE drink at the bar! (prob a good thing tho, pretty darn expensive drinks here)

The next night i ask around at the hostel and find out that there are night buses that run back to the hostel, and yes, there ARE places that stay open later. So we try again, and hit a pretty decent night club for a few hours, and get home at a respectable time of 4:30am. That's more like it!!!

Since i've been here, the only touristy stuff i've done is gone on the london eye and see the changing of the guards. Pretty lame huh? I did eventually make it to trafalgar square, to catch the night bus home after a night at the pub! hehe.

Lisa left me for tokyo yesterday, so i've been on my own. Which is a good and a bad thing. It kinda forces you to meet new people. So i did. Me & Noel managed to convince a couple of guys to come out with us last night. They all had stuff to do this morning and didn't really want a big night, but i convinced them in the end. One of them (maddie) was Evan flower's little sister! What a small world! CRazy!!! There was also a french guy whos name sounds kinda like 'ehwan', no idea how to spell it. Reminds me of something from lord-of-the-rings. And there was Duston, the drunk american! hehe, gotta love those yanks!

Maddie knew this jazz/blues bar in the city, so we headed off to go there at 10. Didn't get to the joint until 11, but it was still packed and roaring! IT was awesome! Alcohol is pretty pricey here, so i've taken to drinking beer to save money. I had half a 500ml can before we left and another 2 pints at the pub. I NEVER DRINK BEER!!!! And it didn't taste horrendous either! I can't believe i didn't throw up, beer's usually sooo grosss!!

Maddie & the guys were gonna catch the last tube home, but we convinced them to stay out longer. YEs! Maybe i should be a salesman? WE ended up catchng a bus back to a station near our hostel and walking the rest of the way. The pub had been good, but everyone was a bit bummed cause we didn't exactly know where we were going, and it was like 2am in the morning.. We kept asking randoms on the street where we were, and how to get back to our hostel, one of the guys we asked was packing up a truck from a bakery. It was all leftover stock at the end of the day, and maddie asked if we could have some, and the guy let us take as much free pastry as we wanted! SCORE!!! WE all stuffed our pockets with donuts, croissants, sandwiches, apple turnovers, pies, pasties, the works! IT was the best mid-night snack ever! Maddie even took a loaf of bread! So that's lunch, and dinner sorted for the next few days!

OMG, i've shopped soooo much in the last two days! I think i've bought more stuff than i originally brought with me on this trip! And all in pounds too, i feel so guilty! It's okay, i don't have THAT many clothes back in sydney. Hehe

But they have so many nice boots and coats, and clothes! And it's all so affordable! Especially if i was earning pounds. There's just soo much more variety here! Even if it's the same price as back home, just makes me wanna buy it anyway.

And it's so close to europe. jananie & Mat have travelled around europe so easily and cheapily. Especially if your earning pounds. Everywhere you go the currencly is lower.

But the weather here is pretty darn average. I guess it can't be perfect. It's grey and cold, and i haven't actually seen the sun yet. Plus it gets dark at around 4, which is just wierd.

Hope everyone's having a great christmas!!

It's been christmas day for about 20mins here in london. I'm staying with Jananie & Matt. Huge thanks to your hospitality! arrived a few hours ago, but been crazy busy since.

Had a little hiccup with things, and had to change my flight plan out of london. Will be leaving on the 5th instead of boxing day. I'll get to stay for the boxing day sales, yay!!! Lisa's been shopping here for about 2 days already, and she says it's
fantastic. I better get ready for a spending spree.

The little hiccup is that i've lost my passport. (I can just hear you going 'oh no!', but calm down, it's okay. ) Wether its lost of stolen, i don't really know. I had it on me when i checked into my eurostar train journey at Gare De Nord in Paris, and had it stamped as coming to the UK. Then on the train i wanted to look at it and see my 'stamp', and realised it was missing. SHIT! I've been told the ONE thing you need when you travel irrelevant of anything else is your passport. And i managed to lose it. How much of a dumbass do i feel?? Not sure if it was stolen, but either way i don't have it anymore.

So i got to london and called the london police to lodge a report. They told me that since the passport went missing/stolen in paris, it's not their jurisdiction and i have to lodge a report with the french police. I call the french police, and they don't speak english! And i don't speak FRENCH!!! Eventually the guy on the phone managed to give me a number to call, which is kinda difficult since i don't really know the french numbers. Thank god Lisa knew a few more than i did.

The guy who answered also spoke french, and when i asked 'parley vou angles'? He said 'no' and kept talking at me in french which i obviously didn't understand. 5 mins later when i had tried to tell him i'd lost my passport for the 10th time in french, he started talking to me in english, and he spoke perfect english! What a PRICK! And then he tells me i can't lodge a report over the phone and have to go to Paris to do it in person! What the!?!?! I can't GO to paris, I DON'T HAVE A PASSPORT, I CAN'T TRAVEL TO ANOTHER COUNTRY!!!! 'so you just want to report your passport no? Just tell the english police you lost it in london' he says. I'm not gonna lie to the bloody police.

So I gave up on that. And did other stuff like change my flight to the 5th, and cancel my passport with the australian consulate. Then tried again this morning, hoping to get a reasonable police officer. Called the london police first, and told the guy i'd realised it was lost on the train almost at waterloo. Thank god he just took it as being lost/stolen at waterloo station, and let me file a report. Yay! Now i can try to claim it on my travel insurance.

Being christmas day, nothing is open. So i guess i'll just have to wait til the 27th to go to the embassy and get a new passport then.

What a drama. On the bright side i get to hang around here and see london instead. If i get my passport back a few days before i fly i might even have a chance to pop over to amsterdam for a day or two. Alls well that ends well.