heya guys!!

sorry i havent been emailing as much as id like. internets and time is fairly scarce atm. the last place we were in that had net was rome a few days ago. and there were only three computers working out of eight, and they guy went home early. i did send some postcards which you should be getting soon. one for liz from the vatican, one for jade and gem from somewhere lost in the haze of memory that may have been venice, and some from here.

am not sure where to start. its been crazy busy these past few days. ive been a bit sick, mostly cause of the two weeks of constant partying at night and sightseeing during the day running me down. my glands all swelled up and ive been exhausted, and last night on the overnight ferry from rome to corfu was awful, the heat was up too high and i was feverish and couldnt sleep. took the day off from towning today though and stayed in bed with cold and flu tablets and my ipod, and my fever broke about midday. still got a sore throat but i feel ten times better and in a few days should be fine. :D there feeding us fairly well for dinners, breakfast leaves a bit to be desired, but thats okay.

i bought some lovely things in venice, some merano crystal earrings, a leatherbound journal, and a venitian mask, and a present for jade. bought a white poloshirt in france, a leather bracelet in spain and two more in florence, and a trinket for gem at the pont du garde in france again. didnt buy any gold in italy, am keeping my spending to absolute minimum, though it was cheap for gold, it was beyond my budget. joel however bought himself a nice (if tiny) gold ring for fifty euro, and mhairis bought a presants for matt. am in greece now though, and apperantly the shopping is really good here. cant wait to hit the markets in santorini and buy some jewellary and new bathers.


i still have my sleeping bag,and my pillow, i dont think ive lost anything yet. had a mild scare when i couldnt find my beret for a couple of days, but it was at the back of the tour bus the whole time. hah. :P mhairi misplaced her camera and was grumpy for two days, but it was at the bottom of her backpack hidden by some stuff, so now shes happy again. were all going together okay, we've started sleeping in seperate cabins and talking to other people, and its good to have some space. we've snapped at each other a few times, but we know when to keep out of each others way so heres been no fights so far. she got us lost in paris one day coming back from climbing the Eiffel tower, and it was pouring down with rain as we raced along the banks of the seine trying to find the tour bus to take us back to camp. we very nearly didnt make it, my bag split open and my stuff flew everywhere, but we saw it driving down the road full of people and waved like madwomen and steve the driver pulled over and let us on. not sure if ive forgiven her for that yet. ;P the rest of the group is pretty good, weve got a fairly wide age range, from 18yos to thirtysomethings. they're all pretty nice, civil at least, and we have some fun together drinking and dancing an craking jokes on the bus. by the end of it they reckon well all be a happy family, and i can believe it. some people are staying in london for a while aftert the tour, so ill have some friends around when mhairi and joel go off on their trip to Berlin, so that'll be awesome. :)

we rocked up in greece last night, and i think today is the last day of the easter. the only thing that was organised for today was a trip into town, and later tonight were going to a dinner and dancing night, where we eat at a restaurant and they put on a show for us. we had one at barcelona with flamenco dancing, and a four course tuscan dinner in florence. nothing religeousy though, that i know of. say happy easter to bubba for me, and eat some piroshki. the food around the place is awesome, but i miss home food. :P had a Florentine steak in italy that was a bit average, nothing i couldntve done at home. had awesome pizza and pastas and gelati though. i finally got to try this buffalo cheese that a guy we met at a party back in aus. it was a little bland and rubbery, but i had it on pizza with SPICY salami, so it balanced the taste out well. the pizzas are HUGE there, either very wide with a thin base, or small with about an inch worth of base and two inches of topping. its pure AWESOME.

the weathers okay. theres a bit of cloud following us around, it rained in paris, arle, barcelona, verona, venice, and pizza but was sunny in nice, florence, some of rome, pompei and today. should be mostly fine untill we start heading north again. the locals are prety good actually. most of them speak english, and if they dont though my french is terrible and my spanish even worse, so far weve been able to make do. theyre pretty nice most of the time, the cashiers in the big places are a little short but thats to be expected, the tiny shops are full of lovely people, except for his one guy in a shop in nice. he asked us something in french, probably along the lines of CAN I HELP YOU?, very fast and with a heavy accent. it took me completely by surprise and i just stared at him while i tried to make sense of it in my head. he then said, very loudly and grumpily in english "WHY YOU COME TO FRANCE IF YOU CANT SPEAK FRENCH?" i gave him a funny look, shrugged and went to the back of the store. when his wife back there asked the same thing in french, he shouted from the from "NO THEYRE JUST LOOKING", and she gave this little nod, took the clothes i as looking at as i went to put them back on the hook and did them herself like she assumed cause i was not from there i was totally arrogant and stupid. that was it, and we left without the skirt i was going to buy. fuck that racist shit. i know what people feel like now when the come to Aus and the same old bigots try the same old shit. its disgusting. the next worse was when i had to go to the loo in barcelona, (there are no public toilets in european cities, only at servos on crosscountry highways and stuff. if you need to go you pay a lady fifty cents to use one in a shop or park, or buy something at a shop.) at this particular place in barcelona, i needed to go after browsing through the dali museum (which was fantastic), and they directed me to a guy in a fast food restaurant who didnt speak english, and didnt explain that i needed to buy something, and when i figured it out and went to buy something took fifteen minutes helping his assistant (who clearly didnt need help) to put bottles of milk into some ice while i was busting my ass off. we got there eventually, but it was just rude and rattled me a bit. they were the only bad experiences though, everyone else has been at least civil.

well, my internet times almost up, so i should go.
if you see my kitten give him extra love from me, am missing you all and feeling a little homesick. randomly woke up after a nap while driving around italy yesterday and saw some gum trees along the road, for a moment i though i was just taking a cruise to melbourne. alas, no, but it made me happy anyway.
will try and keep in contact; the days are flying by and everythings kind of running into everything else, but once i have some downtime im sure itll all come back. its a wild crazy ride, but its awesome fun and totally worth it. :D

much mwah from greece.
~kath