London town

This be London...

No that's tricks, this is Sarah out the front of Hamish and Anne-Marie's house in Reading. Not London, but very close.


















So what have we been up to? Steve got a haircut but no job.


















Sarah has no haircut, but has a job!
















Woo hoo. National Portrait Gallery look out!

We also have a pad now, in Brixton. Living with two Australian brothers and a couple of Brits. Its a big room on the 4th level, with it's own on suite - very nice! The last girl staying here, even installed a microwave and a kettle which she left for us. Thanks former room owner.

Brixton is quite an African area, so plenty of Jamacian food about and the famous Brixton Market. Also the Brixton Academy is just down the road, where people like the Kings of Leon, Radiohead and the Ting Tings play.


Went to Bristol and hung out with Matt and Shara. First proper Sunday roast with Yorshire pud!













We have also checked out a few of the museums and galleries about the place. It feels a bit like the Brits stole all the good stuff from all over the world and put them on show for tourists - like Sarah and Steve!






























A couple of things that are surprising:

• Riding double decker buses is awesome
• There is fried chicken - everywhere, and its shockingly cheap, Kenny's Fried Chicken (KFC) anyone?
• The local dairy (the off liscence or offie) and supermarkets sell spirit liquor, and if you like cider you can get 2 litres for less than a pound.
• And cheese is cheaper than back home! - why?
• Squrrel's in the garden.

A few things that are not so surprizing:

• English customer service is impressively bad. Way worse than Germany and back home even.
• Its cold and often wet and sun goes down around 3.30. That's not its on its way down - that's it is now proper dark, turn on the lights.
• The underground is grimy and not that reliable, and the further you go down the darker your bogies get.

Alrighty then, bye for now!

Fun times with the Germs

Okey pokey, its been a while and we promised some photos so here we go...

Munich, Germany.



This is Sarah in Munich skipping her way to breakfast








We found this on the way...


















and this is Steve at breakfast looking a little rough, but happy, because yes those are delicious german sausages on saurkraut, with a pretzel on the side. Oh and is that a beer on the side I spy. With that mess of hair and beard - Steve fits right on in...








Ah the beautiful couple, inside the town hall which features the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, which looks alot like this...









We then went on a great free walking tour with Travis from Oz. He had the best Dali Mo ever. The tour took us all over Munich, apart from all the amazing architecture, the highlight was his knowledge of Nazi Germany - apparently Hitler was from Munich (or there abouts) and the whole Nazi movement was started in the city. He showed us memorials to Jews who died there, but they were all so subtle that most people did not even know they were there or understand their meaning. It made us wonder about how well the people of Munich were managing some the difficult history of the city.


We found the market



Is that the cheese shop smile - ah delicious fromage!








And got some kick ass lunch!








which we ate in the park











We also went to the Museum, which was really quite neat Turns out it has the largest puppet collection ever. There were quite a few puppets there.










And we checked out some churches







and then the camera ran out of batteries...

All right then!

Whew! What a full on last couple of days.

Just like to put out a big THANK YOU, you are awesome, to Hamish and Anne-Marie!

So in total now we have been to:

Narita Airport (twice)

Tokyo

Yokohama

Kamakura

Munich

Heathrow

... and Reading town 

Top 5 from Japan:

Hanging with the rock-a-billies and Cos play kids at Harajuku in Tokyo

The shrine of 1000 Buddah's at Kamakura

Roller coasters

Top 5 from Germany

Beer for breakfast

The beer tour with Iain from Wilkshire (and the free walking tour with Travis from Australia)

Pretzels and beer

Sausages and beer

The beer and cheeses and meats at the Saturday market

Not so fun things:

Americans - pretty much all of them. 

Sniffing and hocking noises at 5 or 6 in the morning.  Especially the noises coming from the Americans in our bunk room - just blow your nose, its not hard

German tipping rules - what are they? We didn't even know they tipped. How does it work, its soooo confusing

Plastic vodka bottle tops that break in your bag and then all your clothes smell like fejoa which is nice but they also smell like vodka, which is not so nice. 

Pictures and other interesting stuff soon... promise!

 

Electric town

A few more days into the adventure and both our feet really hurt now! There are lots of things to note now, including:

• Robots are awesome, as are trains and godzilla.
• More people need to collect vintage video games like these:

• Rollercoasters are more fun if they are a little dodgy and you could actually fall off. This is us on the way to one.
• Steve walked...

• Sarah rode...

• New Zealand should take Japan's lead an invest in more travelators, there is nothing better than walking faster without having to try to. Light speed!

• Its really easy to get lost when there are no street names.

More photos:
mmm marbled meats...

Pachingo, like the pokies except way louder

A rocket bike, well maybe just a macking scooter.

And we are off...

Up at 4.00am 29 October - sore eyes and dopey. Over 9,000km 10 and a half hours, 3 meals, 2 movies and one episode of the Simpsons later we are in Japan!

Woo hoo!

Things to note thus far:

• Its sooooo good to have a friendly face when you arrive - thanks Fran.
• Nothing opens till after 11am, so its good for sleep ins, not that we have been able to yet...
• Toilets that look like spaceships with seat warmers and water jets are awesome!

• Japanese style should never to be underestimated or sacrificed for comfort. Guys - wear your suit and tie on a bush walk, and don't forget your briefcase.
  
• Plastic food in shop windows.

• Japan has Crows - big black ones the size of a really big seagull, and they are everywhere, as are really big spiders - I mean really big spiders.

Now for some photos!

Sarah and her new rock-a-billy friend.

Steve and his buddah buddy


Sarah and the big buddah

More buddahs! - from the shrine of 1000 buddahs

Keep left...

Tommy Lee's leather pants

It does get a little busy in Japan