Old stuff and daffodils

Going from Iceland to Ireland is like going from Winter to Spring.  From bleak but beautiful landscapes of muted colours , alien-like lava fields and icy glaciers to green hills, cultivated fields and small windy roads enclosed by hedges and rocky fences.

 

I like Ireland.  It has a real ‘homey’ feel to it.  I’m not saying that it feels like home, but more a comfortable feeling, like hot soup on a cold day or a warm fire when a heavy rain is battering at your window.

On my first night I checked into a hostel, but it was pretty quiet and I found a brochure for a Musical Pub Crawl so decided to head along.  It was really good.  It was run by two guys, one had a guitar and sang the other had a set of Irish pipes.  They would play and sing and then stop to chat, giving us a bit of a history on the instruments and the musical culture in Ireland and then we’d go to another pub and do a bit more of the same. 

At the end of the night a few people were keen to kick on so the guys suggested McNeills.  A pub that had a session going on including someone who is great on the flute.  The people who I went with were an American couple who were lovely and four American women who were annoying as shit.  On the way there the girl from the couple was saying how she was looking forward to seeing the flutist.  And this other woman corrected her ‘It’s a flautist’ and the first woman was like whatever and continued to say ‘flutist’ and every time she did the other woman would correct her but was getting shitty because the other one wouldn’t say it right.  So I was like, ‘I just call them flute dudes.’  The ‘flautist’ woman was not amused.  Turns out I was wrong anyway - it wasn’t a dude.

So the session was really good.  There was the woman on the flute, a couple of old fellas, a couple of younger guys and the music was great.  There was another young guy who sat at the bar for about an hour sucking on his beer before he just suddenly burst out with a number – gee he was good too. 

I was perched at the bar when the barman comes up and says ‘Your friends left without you’ and sure enough the American women had left; got huffy about something and just walked out without so much as a goodbye.  I said to the barman ‘They’re not my friends.’ and he said ‘Thank fuck for that.  I didn’t think so.’ and then the whole bar was like ‘Thank god they’re gone!’ Then the bar man went and locked the door.  So for my first night in Dublin I ended up having lock-in with the bar man, a few locals including one old fella who was singing up a storm and a Puerto Rican web developer called Ricardo.  Good times.

On Paddy’s day I headed into Dublin to check out the parade.  So the parade started at 12.  I rock up about 11.30 and was like ‘bugger didn’t think that one through’.  The crowds were seven people deep everywhere.  People were perched on bins, statues and climbing street lights to get a view.  There were men setting up ladders for their kids and every second person in the seven people deep crowd was wearing a foot long green hat.

So needless to say, I didn’t get the best view.  I could see the floats which were pretty cool even if I couldn’t figure out what the hell they were about and some of the brass bands were quite amazing.  One did the tequila song and Gangnam style which had everyone laughing.

After the parade I went and met up with Greg, a guy I used to work with who was in Dublin for work, for a beer.  We had a beer or two, a pizza and ended up at McNeills again.  FYI - First and last time I drink Guinness. 

A big surprise waking up after Paddy’s day was the fact that I wasn't too hungover which was great because I got up and jumped on a bus to Ennis to meet Aoife.

Ennis is in county Clare and is about a 3 hour bus ride.  Aoife and I stayed with her parents who were lovely and Aoife took me to the Cliffs of Moher and as she put it 'to look at old stuff'.  Getting out into the country is so much nicer than in Dublin, it's all rolling green hills and daffodils.  And the old stuff; it's everywhere.  You're just driving along and there in the paddock with the sheep is half an old castle or some random wall just sitting on a hill.

The cliffs were pretty cool.  A bleak and imposing view.  And the wind, god almighty, it was strong.  At one stage we were coming down some stairs on a trail and my legs were literally blown out from under me and I landed on my arse.  Then a bit further down the track it flattened out and ran along side the drain.  Poor Aoife got blown over and almost ended up in the drain!

After Clare I caught another bus down to Cork to meet Mags (Down is that the right direction Mags? My geography of where I went is pretty shocking, I really should look at a map occasionally.)

 

I stayed a couple of nights with Mags in her home town of Cork.  With Mera as well we checked out the Cork nightlife, ate a lot of late night pizza and visited some little beach towns.  The weather was a bit crazy and unpredictable, but we did see some sunshine and blue skies when we got to the beach which was nice.

 

We also stopped off for a lunch in a lovely pub and I had a really tasty scallop risotto.  So yummy.  Aoife took me too a good lunch pub too.  The food has been tasty here but I think we all know the best Irish food is found in Melbourne anyway ;)

 

Big giant thanks to Aoife and Mags for having me and showing me around.  I had a great time and had fun catching up with you guys as well as with Mera and with Annette and Barry in Dublin.



 

Fare thee well Iceland

Look, I'm a viking!

So that’s it.  Iceland done. Three and a half weeks here and all I can think is I can't wait to come back in the Summer!  I definitely had to do this trip in the Winter as I really wanted to see the Northern Lights (and did x 3 #winning), but there is heaps to do that you can't do in the Winter, like a lot of the hiking and the Lofthellier Caves looked like they'd be awesome and horse riding I'm sure would be much more fun if you weren't riding through a snowstorm!  But I did get to do some cool stuff like diving in Silfra fissure and a glacier walk.

 

 

 

 

I booked in to do ice climbing as well, but that got cancelled because of shitty weather.  That was doubly shitty because I met an American guy, EJ, who was hiring a camper with a few people and travelling around for a few days which sounded great fun. So I could have gone, but said no because of the ice climbing and then didn't get to do the ice climbing!

On the bright side though, it meant I was in Reykjavik for the folk festival held at the hostel.  It was great, all this local music from people with fantastic names like Bubbi Morthens, Snorri Helgason and Bjartmar Gudlaugsson.  And the music was fantastic too.

The best though was Bjartmar Gudlaugsson.  It was gold.  He was this older fellow and he was singing in Icelandic.  Everyone in the room except us knew all the words and were singing along. Then for one song everyone in the room were pissing themselves and I was like 'damn, he's singing a dirty song and I don't know what he's saying!'  And he totally was, I know it.  But then at the end of his set this woman ran up onto the stage and gave him a kiss. Then all these women were trying to touch him as he left and were trying to get photos. Hillary, a kiwi girl I met diving, was like 'Wow, he must be like the Rock God of Reykjavik.' 

Hold on to your panties ladies, it's the Rock God of Reykjavik

I quite liked the Café/Bars in Reykjavik, for such a small place there seems to be an awful lot of them.  We went out one night for happy hour but the place was so empty that the bar guy poured himself a drink and sat down with us.  But then this crazy dude showed up.  I asked him about his red nails and he told us the woman in the psych unit did them for him.  He was telling us all kinds of mad things then holding my hand, looking into my eyes and telling me ‘You are the most beautiful woman I have seen… today.’  Gee, thanks bloke.  And funnily enough the other girls were not at all offended by this statement.  So we decided to move on, but our new friend wanted to come, poor EJ got lumped with the job of telling him he couldn’t.  But the crazies are the exceptions, Reykjavik is pretty cool.

So I thought I'd leave you with some random Icelandic facts.

Whatever your budget is – double it!  Everyday things are a bit more expensive.  Touristy things are ridiculous - like $400 for an overnight tour that didn't even include dinner!  But you should just hire a car instead of doing all the tours anyway.  Much more fun.

Majority of homes use thermal hot water.  Great for the environment, you just have to get used to the hot water smelling like egg farts due to all the sulphur.

Icelanders leave their prams outside the shops and cafes – with the babies in them! – when it’s -1!  It's true I checked a couple to make sure.

 

Don't bring me down whingers!

 

On my last day I finally got to the famous blue lagoon.  And yes it really is that blue in real life.  In the morning I went down to wait for the bus.  I waited a little while and then just as I was wondering whether it was late or I was early it turned up.  We stopped to pick up some more people and they got on all huffy pointing at their watches and complaining.  Then a woman already on the bus started complaining about how many stops we were making, yelling at the driver and carrying on.  I kind of looked at her like 'WTF are you carrying on about?', she caught my look so switched her whinging to loud whispering in German to her husband.  Then we got to the last stop and more whingers got on.  They were all complaining about the bus being late and abusing the driver and then when he ignored them someone said 'oh god, he doesn't even speak English!'  Three points for you lady:

• If you knew anything about Iceland you would know that practically all Icelanders are bi-lingual
• You're in Iceland why should he speak English anyway
• You're on holidays, just settle the fuck down or if your schedule is so important get a bloody taxi!

But these people kept on and on, the girl sitting in front of me put her headphones on and I was like damn why didn't I bring mine.  After 15 min they were still going and I finally lost it and was like 'OH MY GOD! Enough of the whinging!'  Which was good because it stopped them yelling at the driver, but bad because then I copped it.  Some pompous English dick told me that they had 'every right to whinge' and I told him they were all carrying on about nothing so then one of the women said 'Oh great, we've even got the backpackers on board.  Just shut up.'  So I was about to lose my shit and absolutely rip into her, but then I figured they'd already ruined my day enough so I just ignored them and they finally shut up.

But then, when I got off the bus the girl sitting in front of me was standing there waiting for me.  When I saw her I was like 'Gee, glad that rides over.'  And she started laughing and said, 'They were horrible.  I was so happy when you said something to them.'  Me too, because now I had a Blue Lagoon buddy!  The end.

 

Whales and puffins and sharks oh my!

So this post is for the foodies out there.  For some reason I was expecting the food in Iceland to be pretty average.  Probably all the talk of Icelandic specialities like whale, puffin and fermented shark.

But happy to report I was misinformed.  From the hotdog stand, to drunken waffles, to the top restaurants in Reykjavik it was all great.  (Just to clarify, yes it was me that was drunk – not the waffles.)

So did I eat the whale and the fermented shark you ask.  Whale – yes.  Shark – no.  I think the worst thing about eating whale was the guilt because it actually was quite tasty.  Icelanders say that eating whale is not an issue here as there are so many of them - Minke's aren't endangered or anything.  But when you say that part of the issue is that they are too big to kill humanely they kind of just stare at you blankly.  But when in Rome... so I gave it a go and it was good.  It's a red meat and not fatty at all like imagined.  I also tried some horse, again really good and the puffin - not a big fan, it was kind of like duck I guess.  It's a bird but it's not a white meat.

Nasr found us some nice restaurants and although a bit more expensive than at home they were really nice were lovely - good atmosphere, lovely decor and fantastic food.  They all served yummy homemade breads with Icelandic butter which is so light it’s almost still cream and lava salt.

 

So Nasr, Ali & I went out to one of these restaurants after an afternoon in the pools.  Ali and I went for a swim and hung out in the hot tubs.  Nasr went for a massage relaxing massage but all that restfulness and post-massage calm disappeared after about 10 minutes in a restaurant with Ali.  I'm guessing Ali doesn't eat out much.  After asking Nasr a hundred questions about the menu and being overly-concerned about the lack of shrimp on the menu, he then asked the waitress a hundred questions about the lack of shrimp and finally order a bowl of chips.  The waitress took our order, turned to another table, then Ali was tapping her on the shoulder - when were his chips coming?  Nasr lost his shit at him - gee I laughed.

 

Another thing the Icelanders are a fan of is dried fish.  If you ask me it smells and tastes like cat food - but I liked it and went through a few bags. 

And the hotdogs.  They love the hotdog stand.  They are cheap and they have mustard and tomato sauce and fried onions. Yummo.  Think I went back about four times!  And the last time I went back I was a bit peckish so got two!

Horsies and huskies

So I decided to get out of Reykjavik and see a bit more of Iceland.  Akureyri (ak-u-reh-ree) is a small city in the north of Iceland.  It's about a 40 minute flight up there.  Internal flights in Iceland are done in quite small planes - kind of the size of a big bus with propellers that sound like they've got lawnmower engines.

It's a really pretty little town and when I got there it began snowing; big, fat, fluffy, flurries of cotton wool snowflakes like from English Christmas stories or rom-coms.  

I went horse-riding where you got to wear a nice big orange sumo-suit so you don't freeze your bits off.



Giddy up

I also went down to the local ice-hockey rink to see my first ice hockey match.  Still not sure of the rules of ice-hockey - that's if there are any rules.  But even in local leagues it's pretty rough and good fun to watch, but kind of like soccer in the fact that one team can seem to have control of the game for 90% of the time and still not win.  Dumb.

I also did a tour out to Lake Myvatn (mee-va).  I got on the bus and was like aww crap - I was the youngest person on the bus by about 30 years!  But the people on the tour were lovely.  There was an English couple - he sounded like Ringo Starr and she sounded like Mrs Bucket.  And they were all well travelled interesting people with lots of stories and places seen and adventures had, it was great.  I even had dinner the next night with a couple of them the next night.

Our guide who was a tourguide/hairdresser/bodybuilder took us to see the lake and there was a dog-sledding competition.  But when I went for a closer look I realised that all the people on the sleds were kids!  It was pretty cute.

I'm calling these guys Kujo and David Bowie

 
One of the places we went to on the tour was a place the guide called the Dark City.  It was like these amazing lava columns about 20 metres tall.  They spread out as far as the eye could see and with all the fresh snow looked amazing.  We stopped at a lookout to view them, but along the bottom there were walking trails and apparently it's a great area for hiking in the Summer.  So another reason to come back to Iceland in the Summer!!

  

 

Ice Ice Baby

Jökulsárlón is a glacial lake in the south east of Iceland.  It’s about 4-5 hours from Reykjavik so to get there you need a car or a tour.  Luckily for me, Nasr (backpacker from Hugi’s remember) met a couple of crazy Americans in a bar.  They happened to have a car and were happy enough to take Nasr and I along for the drive.

 

It was a great day; a fairly long drive, but good company so it was fun.  Adrian and Sarah were great value and True Americans.  Everytime they did something funny or dumb or said something to do with home they were like ‘AMERCIA!’ (world police style).  Apparently this must be done whenever you do something funny or dumb or brave or strong or right.   I think the worst thing about the whole day was we ran out of time – or maybe Sarah’s driving.  We’ll have to toss a coin on that one.  But we definitely didn’t get to spend enough time in the places we went to and there were places we wanted to go that we didn’t get to at all.

 

We stopped to look at the glaciers.  From a distance it's a bit creepy how they come down the mountain looking like a great wave.  Like someone has pressed pause on a tsunami.  What if someone unpaused that thing? 

 

This guy could be in trouble if there's too much hot weather 

 

 The glacial lagoon was awesome.  Beautiful still looking water and ice everywhere shining in the sun.  What I wasn’t expecting the birdlife and the seals! They were everywhere, just hanging out in the water, being seals.  Then across the road is the glacier beach.  Black sand beaches with random chunks of ice covering the entire beach.  Ice of all shapes and sizes, murky white ice and shiny clear glisten in the sun ice.  Another photographer’s paradise.  So pretty and if I had the time I’m sure I could have just wandered around for hours taking pictures of chunks of ice.  Ok so maybe I’m just easily amused.

 

 

 

You can also do boat tours of the lake – but not at this time of year.  So I think that’s about reason 23 as to why Kelly should come back to Iceland in the Summer.  

 

So coming home we were pretty late.  It got to after 9 and we were still an hour or so from Reykjavik when Nasr looks out the window and starts yelling ‘Holy shit, stop the car!’  Poor Adrian must have nearly had a heart attack, but he pulls over and we all get out and there are the Northern Lights.  Big and amazing and fantastic and just like the pictures!  The wind was wild and icy cold and in normal circumstances you wouldn’t stay out in it for more than five minutes, but there we were for half an hour watching them stretch across the sky from one end to the other.  They moved and danced, fading and reappearing, doing that thing where they look like powder falling.  We tried to take the impossible photos.  Balancing our cameras on the roof of the car when the wind was so strong it was not just moving our cameras, but the whole car!

But we got back in the car cold and happy.

 

 

Woah, that's one big one

Yesterday was a cold and snowy day in Reykjavik.  A perfect day for experiencing a little of the culture that this fine town has to offer.  So you all know where I went.

And well, it wasn't very big (aw c'mon, it had to be said).  Anyway, there was this big one.

Whale doodle

Humans are the peeny weeny on the end

Icelandic National Handball Team - Beijing Silver medalists

Yep, this ugly squishy son of a bitch is human.

Reindeer - so it turns out it wasn't Rudolph's nose that was red.

Tasty snack anyone?

Gimme a little lavan'

Icelandic places are like Sri Lankan surnames. 
Hard to read.  Impossible to pronounce.

 

Lava fields are everywhere in Iceland and I think they’re great.  Michael, Gabi & I caught a bus to the edge of town to go for a bit of a tramp around.  From a distance it looks like a rocky, barren terrain.  But upon closed inspection is filled with fauna in miniature.  A thick carpet of mosses in varying shades of grey, green and orange.  Tiny flowers that bloom even in the middle of winter.  Grasses of a myriad of colours flattened by the winds. 

 

 

 

The moss is so thick and soft that when you have a sneaky lay down you could close your eyes and believe you’re on a pile of cushions.  Trolls like to have their naps in lava fields.

 

Napping like a troll

The day we went was sunny but had an icy wind.  You could hear ice crunching underfoot and all the puddles were frozen over in crazy patterns.  The lava fields continued down to the beach, dark grey-green water lapping coldly against black rocks and there were a number of derelict buildings spotted here and there over the landscape.  A bit of a photographer’s paradise.

 

The 10 commandments of hostel living

 

Now before I get started, for those of you who have never stayed in a hostel, there are plenty of good reasons for hostels.  They’re super cheap, most have kitchens so you can cook for yourself, a lot of hostels are also good sources of tour/event information and it’s a really easy way to meet people whether you’re just looking for someone to have a beer with or a travel partner for a week.  And most of the time you do get a good night’s sleep.

Anyone who has stayed in hostels will read my list below and go ‘der, everyone knows that’.  But apparently not.  Just occasionally you get a dickhead who doesn’t know the rules.

1.       Be quiet.

2.       BE QUIET.  All hostels have kitchens, lounges, bars, etc.  There is no reason for you to be yapping in a dorm room if people are trying to sleep.

3.       Even if you think you’re whispering – you’re not, so just shut your trap.

4.       Even if it’s 3 in the afternoon, if someone is sleeping be quiet.  They may have been travelling for 27 hours or they may just be hungover – whatever.  Dorms are for sleeping so again, be quiet.

5.       You do not need to zip and unzip your bag 15 bloody times.

6.       If the lights are off – leave them off!

7.       Some hostels have lockers, some don’t.  Either way, leaving things on my bed with a sleeping bag thrown on top is a totally acceptable security measure. Don’t pinch my shit.

8.       If you’re getting up early and need an alarm – there is no snooze button.  Get the hell up the first time!

9.       Don’t switch beds.  If I get in at stupid o’clock after 14+ hours travelling the last thing I need is some douche in my bunk so I don’t know where I’m sleeping.

10.   If you are a bunk-rattling, window-shaking snorer and you book into a dorm room – you are an arsehole.

Rant over – next post promises to be more pleasant J

Iceland is Niceland

So I’ve just had my first couch surfing experience and it has been loads of fun!  I doubt most couch surfing experiences are like this though.  Hugi, our Icelandic host, had 5 of us staying with him.  There was Gabi & Michael, Americans au pair-ing in Belgium & Germany, Ali from Bahrain and Nasr from Germany.  Everyone was good value, even if Ali seems somewhat misguided when it comes to the facts of life.  But Hugi our Icelandic father was there to help him out!

Hugi welcomed us into his home and let us treat his apartment as our own.  He drove us around town, took us looking for the Northern lights, picked us up and dropped us off, took us to his favourite karaoke bar (no I did not sing) and really went above and beyond chasing around after us.  He's tour was good and a total bargain compared to the outrageous prices for things around here (day trips like $150 - $400).  And the clever title for my post Iceland is Niceland I've actually pinched from his facebook page https://facebook.com/icelandisniceland

 

Marshmallows for trolls.  Farmers put these in the paddocks
to stop the trolls from eating the horses.

Going somewhere with Ali, or Princess Ali and we started calling him, was like going somewhere with my sister.  ‘Are you ready?’ ‘Yes’ ‘Great let’s go.’  Then you walk outside and realise they’re still inside and so you wait.  And wait.  Then you’re like ‘What the hell can they possibly be doing?’ and after about 10 minutes they wander out.  Every time.

The Hugi tour was great despite the crazy weather.  He hired a minibus as we ran into a couple of random Germans that Nasr met on the plane over and they decided to come along too.  So we went to a couple of amazing waterfalls.  There was Gullfoss, a huge waterfall that was almost totally frozen. We tried to take a group photo there, but the wind was icy cold and almost blowing us sidewards.  Seljalandsfoss was a really tall waterfall that in the Summer you can walk behind, but this time of year is too icy.  I went to walk up to the lookout at the side, but it was too slippery and I didn't want to slip because of my camera (it's got nothing to do with being a pussy).  But Michael and Nasr went up to the lookout and then behind the waterfall.  But they had a little trouble getting back, having to climb the wall because the path was too icy and Nasr got almost all the way up then slipped and slid back down like of a big slide.  I reckon he wasn't far off ending up in the water!

    

We also went to the Geyser area.  We waited for 10 minutes in the freezing, icy wind only to get a little pfft, pfft fart of a spurt from the Geyser - and because my fingers were so cold I missed getting a picture anyway! 

But the best part of the day I thought was the glacier.  It was raining when we got there, and the wind was blowing sidewards so that whenever you looked up you got stabbed in the eye with rain-turned-ice, but it was so amazing!  The blue of the ice is amazing and the contrast of the ice and the surrounding black lava it looks like another planet.  The photos aren't too good, but it was raining a lot - it's a miracle my camera is still working after this!  But I'm going ice-climbing next week so I might have more luck then.

Well there's a lot more to tell, but I don't want to bore you with long posts, so I'll save those stories for another day.

Pitching tents

Yeah, this is a terrible place because it is cold

Yes I have arrived in Iceland.  Yes it is cold.  No I am not whinging about it.  Today was beautiful and sunny. I jogged up to the nearby thermal pool for a dip in the outdoor pool and it was -1 degree.  The pools are great though.  600 krona (about $6) and that includes all the pools, the hot tubs (there’s about a dozen of them varying in heat), the steam room and a locker.  Not like stingy old MSAC where it’s $7 for a swim, plus $4 to use the spa & sauna, plus $3 for a locker.

A big thanks to Natalie from work who saved me some culture shock and a world of confusion.  She gave me a book about a woman who moves to Iceland.  Luckily I starting reading it last night before going to the pool today because Chapter 2 covers the woman’s confusion and awkwardness at the Icelandic pre-swimming rituals & general acceptance of public nudity.  Going to the pool goes something like this:

·         Remove your shoes and place them on a shoe rack before entering the change rooms

·         Enter change rooms (where there are no cubicles), undress and place clothing in locker

·         Take towel and bathers (that’s right, you haven’t put your togs on yet so you’re starkers) and progress to the next room which has a number of communal showers

·         Shower paying attention to signs which instruct you to make sure you clean your feet, pits and naughty bits properly

·         Now you can put your bathers on and off you go for a swim!

On the way back there is an extra ‘drying area’ where once you’ve had your shower you must dry yourself thoroughly before going back to the locker room.  I nearly skipped this bit, but the big lady in the uniform looked like she would put me in a headlock & drag me back if I went into the locker room dripping water on the floor.

So a little bit different, but all good.

Speaking of different this isn’t the first time I’ve been to a place where they drive on the right, but it takes more getting used to that you would think.  For example, to cross the road you need to look the other way first so you just end up looking each way about 5 times before you cross.  There is a massive increase in the number of awkward sidewalk tangos that happen when people walking toward each other move the same way.  And in the pool you swim on the other side so I nearly head-butted some poor guy this morning when I was splashing along the wrong way down the lane.

The trip over was pretty uneventful.  A quick stopover in Doha which involved getting off the plane onto a bus, driving for 10 minutes to get to the airport, queuing up for a bit, laughing to myself at some guy sleeping in the waiting lounge who was pitching a tent, transferring to another bus which then drove around for 20 minutes until the bus driver found our plane.

Copenhagen stopover even less eventful, but all the staff there ride around the airport on scooters which is pretty cool.

So tomorrow off to the Penis museum.  Yeah you heard me.  Penis museum.

However the fine print at the bottom of the sign says 'No pornography or offensive material at the museum' so it may not be quite up to expectations (yes pun intended). 

Patience is a virtue

Patience may be a virtue, but sadly it is not one that belongs to me.  See look at my countdown for my next trip, I've only started the counting a little early and I only have it appearing every time I open my browser.

'Jeepers', I hear you say, 'Where is she off to now?'  Well, thanks for asking.  This time I am off to Europe for a couple of months. I will be heading to Iceland to see the Northern Lights, will pop over to Ireland and hopefully catch up with a few of my Gaelic buddies for a drink or two.  Then I'll head over to mainland Europe and see where my wanderlust takes me.  After all this, due to some horrid people at work who leave brochures on my desk and email me pictures of baby elephants playing on beaches and wicked national parks, I'll be stopping off in Sri Lanka for 4 weeks on the way home to get in a spot of diving, work on my freckles tan and see those damn baby elephants!
 

Comments or suggestions on where to go in Europe or Sri Lanka are most welcome :)