26th October
It is so friggin cold here in Stockholm, I have been travelling with 3 guys through Finland and have been camping alot. We went to see the Northen lights which was fairly awesome. Camping was a lot of fun. I felt so dirty by the end of the week. It is so good to be in Stockholm in a nice hostel, where i can clean myself. We went to see Santa and i felt like such a kid, but it was cool at the same time. There was a fair bit of Snow up north. we drove so far up north. About to go clubbing soon. I will be leaving stockholm on the 27th to go to Norway to stay with a friend. I will be arriving in London on the 29thoct and hopefully i will see you all sometime next sunday.
and by the way just in case you didnt know this, but when Chuck Norris has sex with a man, it is not because he is gay, but because he has run out of women. lol
take care michael
Oct 7th 2007
I am currently ion the Czech Republic at the moment. Eastern Europe is so cheap. I am travelling with two aussies and a canadian through Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and the scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway and Finland. We have hred a really neat Alfa romeo. and mum it was expensive, but we splitted it between four and for 26days it suited our needs. We will be camping most of the time. I figure that i am never going to be in this part of Europe ever again so why not.
We are going up north because we want to see the Northern lights Aurora Borealis. It will be very cold, however i bouight this really durable and cheap sleeping bg in Czech and the boys have tents. Mum i tried calling the past day but could not get through. dont be concerned if you do not receive a call from me. I will be out in the middle of nowhere for quite sometime.
And by the way Oktoberfest kicked ass. It was one of the most best times ever, and one of the most drunkest i have been in my whole life. And dad I am looking after myself. Miss you all and see you within a month.
By the way mum and dad i am changing my flights to be coming home on the 5th nov. Reason being is because i am not really keen on staying in Dubai and they dont have cheap hostels.
love you bye
Mike
1st october(Oktoberfest) 2007
Hi everyone
it has been a long time since my last email. I am inIreland at the moment. i will start from Portugal. Portugal was so warm compared to here in Ireland. I have met some really great people and seen alot of really historical and interesting things. Ireland is so cold and miserable, but i am still having a great time. Dublin was a shithole. i was so glad to get out of there. i made my way to Galway and meet a kiwi guy and an Australian girl. We have been having a ball. Galway is a cute little student town with numerous pubs and clubs, need i say more. Surprisingly th clubs are really good.Sorry for not sending an email lately, we have been on tbhe AranIslands for a couple of days. We hired bikes and toured the Island. had picnics, saw a few celtic castles, they were really cool. I have not been able to add pictures, because the computers that i have been using do not cover up there usb conncetions, so you cant use them.
I went to Cork and killarney National park down South of Ireland. On the 2nd Oct i will be making my way to Berlin, meeting up with this Ausiie guy and hopefully we can hire a car and travel to Poland and up to Estonia. Also i did not plan on doing this but i am off to Oktoberfest on the 4th oct to meet up with some mates.
Short and Sweet, bye for now
mike
Saturday 8 Sept 07
I am currently in Portugal at the moment. I am staying at one of the best hostels. This hostel reminds me of Nonna Grazias house the only difference
is that it has a terrace roof and two computers for free internet. Everyone at this hostel is close knit and the owner Carlos is so cool. I feel like I
am at home. Besides the fact that there was about 20 of us last night who got into the drink and we were fairly rowdy, Carlos became quite irrate.
The funny thing though is that i have never booked to stay at a hostel, I just rock up and hope that there is a bed available. If not I
just move on. Lucky for me there was a place to stay and I am even more lucky i found this place because i met the two aussie girls at Madrid
airport and they asked me if i wanted to join them. and so I did. I am in Lagos, a beach resort club town. Very laid back, relaxing. The
seafood is brilliant ad i ate the best portuguese chicken tonight. when i first arrived i was sceptical because there was not many people and the
nightlife not too good. However the past few days it has picked up considerably.
I have made friends with an australian couple and two really nice aussie girls. We are having a ball.
We hired a car today and drove to the most western point in Europe and had dinner at this forest lodge.
I will be here for one more night and then make my way to Lisbon.
catch mike
Friday 7th September
These are pictures of La Tommattina in Spain, Valencia. Hope they work.
I wrote a very long ellaborate email, and once agian I sent the email and the computer froze. Why do these things happen?
I am so cut.
anyway bye for now.
mike
Wednesday 5th September
OMG... Premier League
Okay, I cant believe you guys made it to premier league. I am so proud to be
part of this club. You guys did so well. It gave me such a sense of
happiness to know that you made it. iIhave been watching the teams progress
throughout the past few months. Cant wait to catch up with the boys. So
excited,So jealous I couldnt not have been a part of it. Would have love to
have been there. Miss you all heaps
Michael
Wednesday 22nd August
After Geneva I made my way to Interlaken in the middle of the Alps. intelranken is the place where adrenalin junkies and people who just want to
get drunk and party go. This is the place for skydiving, hiking and canyoning. I did canyoning through the mountains it was the best fun. The
idea is to run, jump and slide off and from waterfalls. It was so much fun. After spending two nights in Interlaken partying i took of into the moutains
with a canadian guy. We hiked for more than 6hrs and arrived in a alpine village called Gimmelwald.
This hostel had the best few of the mountains and it had a hot tub as well. This place in switzerland was one of the most picturesque places that i have
been too in my life. We hiked to the top of Mt. Shilthorn which is 3000 metres altitude and 10km to walk to the top. it took us 5hrs up and 4 hrs
down. twas satisfying. There were cows frolicking through the meadows and i could see hills as white a cows udder. lol. i crack myself up.. and young
lasses topless holding milk jugs and cheese... ohh please stop i am so funny. No seriously it was gorgeous. Besides trying to squeeze a cows teet
and nearly getting kicked in the face and also being electrocuted by a paddock fence whilst trying to jump it, I'd say this is a place where i
could get used to. At thre moment i am in Barcelona, I will be here for 3 days and then make my way to Valencia.
Barcelona is such a dirty place and there is so much poverty. The people are friendly, the bars are great and Tapas is awesome. i went to go see Sagrada
Familigia, Gaudis work. it is so tragic the poor man was a genius, however he died mid aged by a tram whilst taking coordinates for his building.
i hope this was an informative and user friendly email.
bye for now.
enjoy the pics.
Michael
Monday 13th August
Well, Okay after amsterdam I made my way to Brussels. The city itself was not that exciting, and the weather was miserable. So i decided to go to the
town of Ypres. This town was the last town to hold back the german advance in World War 1. Thousands of Allied troops died here. As a result there are
numerous tombs and cemetaries surrounding the district of Ypres. i loved it because i am a military buff. i know geek. Anyway i met this aussie bloke
who showed me around and he took me for a ride in his car. i know sounds creepy and normally i wouldnt take a ride from a stranger, bnut he strangely
reminded me of dad. I think i am going to cry. So after that cool experience I made my way to Luxembourg. i only spent one night there . Not really worth
it. After luxembourg i made my way to Paris. Now to tell you the honest truth i only spent for days there just becqause i had seen all the sites and
felt that i needed to leave. The eiffel tower and notre dame were amazing. i met some really kick ass people. i am in Geneva, Switzerland now and will be
making my way to interlaken and into the Swiss Alps.
Cheerio mike
Friday 3rd August
After Rome I travelled to Bologna and stayed with Gualtiero who is a friend of giacintos. It was really good because i was able to save money whilst
staying with him. During the day i wandered the streets and checked out a few piazzas. At night time we had dinner with his mates and relaxed with
some beers. One night i went out and played soccer on this astro turf pitch in the middle of these wheat fields it was so much fun. This old man runs
the court and he rents it out to people to play on. After having all of my clothes washed, ( mind you i lost some, heaps) I took a train to Venice the
following day. Venice is a beautiful island and the only way to get into venice is by this very long bridge. I arrived in Venice however everything
was rather expensive so i took a train out of Venice city into a camping site, this is where i met some really nice people. I bunked in a cabin with
this older aussie guy named Matt and we went into Venice together. We made friends with these kick ass English girls and Canadians.
The place we stayed at had everything, supermarket, pool and its very own club. The place was packed with people just wanting to have a good time. The
two things that annoyed me about this place were the annoying americans who talk so much crap about bush and americas view on everything and how there
state does blah blah blah. And secondly Drunk young australians who have no idea about anything and think getting drunk everyday is the way to be, they
really do give Australians a bad name.
I met an English girl name Jo who had intentions on travelling to Milan, so we travelled together through Verona, which is a very peaceful town with
very few tourists. We went there to see the ruins and history of Romeo and Juliet.
It was on the way to Milan anyway. From Milan i flew to Amsterdam and Jo flew to Barcelona. hopefully i will
meet up with her for La tomattina. in Amsterdam at the moment, It is a place where bogans and goths from all
over the world come to gather and smoke reefer. how nice. And sex Tourism thrives. Not that i would know.
I went to a sex museum, red light district..... giggity giggity goo. ohhh right!!!!! and just got back from a 6 hour ride through the netherlands
countryside. So exhausted.
These are just some pics of my travels from Rome, Florence, Bologna, Pisa,
Venice, Verona and Milan.
I am so exhausted I just arrived in Amsterdam from Milan.
hope you enjoy these pics.
Saturday 14th July
It has been a while since my last email, so this email will contain alot. After Santorini and ios we went to Corfu for six days, what a place we drank
so much, slept till 12 and then beach all day. We hung out with bunch of boys from London and drank, chanted and partied all every night. after Corfu
we took a tiresome ferry to Bari, we played cards with some Italians and then slept the whole 9hr trip. When we arrived in the motherland I began to
start to miss home, however my Italian is getting much better because down south of Italy in Calabria where my relatives live no one speaks English at
all and I am forced to speak it. My relatives were awesome, their house was a mansion, they were really understanding.
We drank wine and ate the best meals. I swear I have stretch marks. Thurs during the week whilst i was doing the rounds of visiting
cousins there was a massive fire at the back of a cousins property, the funny thing is that when i arrived they all put down their hoses that they
were using to extinguish the fire and greeted me as if the fire was not even there. Italians are crazy I swear. They are the most dangerous yet skilful
drivers, the women are incredible and the food is the best. We went to a beach party last night in Lamezia, it was massive, we drank so much and we
got our cousins drunk it was so funny. Maria was not happy at all. Oh well.
I met some Canadians who I will be meeting up with in Rome, Michael is on his way home after Rome and I will be continuing up north to livorno, then
Florence near Tuscany.
Hope all is well. and you will probably hear from me when I reach Venice.
P.S Dad I heard that you had an infection, hopefullly they have cleared it
up. I miss you and mum heaps.
P.S Baxter you are guys are doing so well. I wish I was playing. You beat
Cerberus 3 - 2. heaps good
Bye for now
Satuday 30th June
After the many days in the desert we desperately needed to see the mediterranean. We spent two nights in athens in a place called Plaka. A very
traditional and central location in Athens. Little bars and pubs were found everywhere and the restaurants were awesome. We bunked with two japanese
backpackers, one whom travelled with us to Paros. We went out both nights in Athens with a couple of Americans and ended up staying in a dorm that night.
The next day we headed to Paros and spent most of the two days there at the beach and driving on the island on mopeds. So much fun. Paros was fairly
laid back, however there were a few bars where we chilled out.
We then headed for Santorini, This is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen, beaches, sunsets and women. We actually got off at the
wrong island and ended up having to wait 3hours for the next ferry to Santorini.
We are in Ios at the moment and are loving it, there are so many clubs and pub crawls are a must, this is the party island and it stays a party island
till 8am, everyone normally sleeps during the day or hits the beach. This is our second day in Ios and hopefully we will be here until sunday. We will be
in Italy within a weeks time.
Michael
After leaving Cairo, we travelled East over the Suez Canal into Sinai. After ariving at St. Katherines national Pak Hotel, we chilled by the pool and
played soccer with the employees of the hotel on their own soccer pitch. Mind you we all played barefoot on dirt and rocks. ouch!!!
Anyway the night we arrived we had an awesome much needed buffet dinner. it was the best. Mum i still miss your cooking so bad and by the way that sheet
you gave us works a treat. We got rid of our sleeping bags and gave them to some locals, it is too hot and they take up too much room. Sorry gig, rob, nadia.
However the hiking boots were perfect for trekking up mount Sinai.
Today is the 19/6. We are in the resort town of Dahab.
Yesterday we went Snorkelling in the Red Sea for $4 with all the equipment and today we went Quad biking through desert dunes. The best fun ever. I
miss soccer so bad it is driving me insane because over here all the street kids are playing it.
This will probably be the last email for a while cos we are making our way back to Cairo and then off to Athens. Greek Islands are much needed.
non ci sono donne qui in Egypt, Sto andando Patzo.
Mum by the way let me know if anything happens to Nonna or the Nonnis.
Bye for now. Michael
