Cesky Krumlow

Well - my tour of Europe continues apace. I only have a few minutes so am copying the majority of this text from an email to my parents!! I cannot remember the last post but after Gothenburg, and going up the Swedish coast, I went to Stockholm, which I just ADORED. Met up with my cousin Clyde and his family, and my friend Nina showed me the sights. Awesome time. Then went to Copenhagen which was also beautiful, but rainy (a constant feature of this trip). Then on to Berlin, which I just loved so so so much - great city. Then to Friedrichsdorf to Brett and Belinda's (great to catch up with them) and then to Vienna to start an Intrepid Tour of Eastern Europe.


I am now in Cesky Krumlow (with a lot of accents over letters in that name!!) in the south of the Czech Republic and we leave tomorrow for Prague (yipee!) You should try to look this place up on google - it is out of a fairy tale - all cobblestone streets, buildings going back 600 years, a castle on a hill, river running through - it is too beautiful for words! I really love it here.


So far we have done Vienna, which was beautiful - did the walking tour - the Opera was closed for the summer but I took a photo outside. Went to Schoenbrunn Palace in the afternoon which is just stunning - I really liked that. Then that night we went to a concert of Viennese music which was great (Strauss, Mozart and Beethoven, which I think might be stretching the truth a bit, but who lets the truth get in the way of a good concert!!) There were also Opera Singers which I liked, and ballet dancers, who didn't have enough room to move and I found a bit twee!


Next day we went to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, which was a very small area of old buildings and cobblestones etc., but reasonably underwhelming and I feel no need for a return visit. Four hours were plenty to see the sights!! Then we came here for two days and it has been beautiful. We had a walking historical tour of the town yesterday which was really, really interesting, and then went up to the castle, which is about 800 years old or something!

Then this morning we went mountain biking through the forest (so beautiful except for the downhill on loose gravel/sand which was wet - a bit slippery!!) and the others went rafting this afternoon, but my elbos is still really sore so I skipped that.


So will try to write again later Will eventually hopefully post photos and more details, but at least you know where I am. Hope all are well...


P.S. Hugs to my fave barista!!

From Russia With Love

Hmmm - well, I just hit a magic button and this entry posted without any content. Hope that hasn't bothered people who have subscribed to the email entries!

Am currently in Gothenburg, Sweden, for Erik (our former exchange student)'s wedding tomorrow to Elin. This event has been the focus point of a very loooooong trip from my family, in which I have joined for a few weeks. They first came to Africa and I met them in Tanzania. This was oodles of fun - I flew there the night before them and went to Dar Es Salaam to stay with my former boss and his wife and son. I was close to the family in Uganda and have missed them since they moved to Dar, so it was great to see them all again. After dinner we went to have drink on the ocean, and they made me jealous with all the great shopping (I couldn't believe how much stuff was just on the shelves in the supermarket!) and I had to send a message to Bettina to make her jealous too... The next day we all caught the ferry over to Zanzibar and had a great day wandering around Stonetown before they went to their hotel and I went to meet Mum, Dad and Alex. It was great to see them and welcome them to their first visit to East Africa (and Alex' first time in Africa). After four days in Zanzibar, with the highlight of scuba diving and swimming with dolpins, we headed to the mainland and a week of safari that was absolutely awesome. We drove through Lake Manyara and down to the Olduvai plain, seeing where the Leakeys found the oldest skull in the world. Then on to the Serengeti National Park where we saw all the game, including a leopard and cheetah (which I was most excited about) and finally heading back to Uganda. We had a few days in the north (I think they were pretty alarmed at the trip up there as I drove on the Uganda roads surrounded by Ugandan drivers!) and the family were able to see some of my project work and go to a camp to talk to the IPDs. Then we finished with a weekend at Murchison Falls, where the Nile passes through a thin waterfall before continuing on to Sudan. All fabulous and sad to finish when they left.

I then finished up at work (am taking two months off as am totally burned out right now) and flew to Europe to meet them a week ago (they had been with Jan in Italy). We then went to St Petersburg, which is something I have dreamed about since Mrs Fergus first talked about Russian History to me in 1993. Not much opportunity to give details here as the internet cafe is about to run out of time, but I will be back with details and photos. Suffice to say, it was awesome beyond words - we went to The Hermitage, ballet at the Mariinksy, Tsarskoye Selo, the Peter and Paul fortress (where all the Tsars were buried) and I was in heaven. Four days was not nearly enough - will have to go back. We then caught the train to Helsinki and had a day there, before coming on to Sweden.

And now time's up. More details and photos later...