I'm Going on an Adventure (Alastair and Bini's Exchange Blog)

So the aim of today was to get to leeds. After a normal morning we decided to get a train to leeds which was meant to take about two hours. However once we got to the  platform we discovered that train tickets were 130 pounds each.... If we'd pre booked there was much lower prices but on the platform that's all we could get. Both of us decdied that 130 pounds is way to much and began to research what other options we had to play with. The best we found was bus tickets to leeds costing  30 pounds each. After trying and failing to book these tickets online with my citibank card we headed off to the Victoria coach station.  Once we arrived we got the 10:30 bus to leeds  which we had to run for. Anyway an uneventful bus trip and them we booked into our separate accommodation. Bini in her temporary accommodation in Montague Burton and me in my permanent residency in lupton resident.  My room is Nice and I'm slowly turning it into home. As per picture belo...

Really sorry for the super late blogs. I'm finally at leeds now and am trying to catch up. I will hopefully get this one out tonight and then the next tomorrow. The other days I've missed while in Leeds I'll cover in one blog then take a break for a bit thanks for reading. This morning we woke up after having very little sleep. There was an emergency light in our room which the youth hostel refused to fix...  Anyway we went to London tower today.  On the way we bought  a selection of sweets and fruits including an apple triangle thingy, a chocolate donut and an almond croissant.  The tower great. Tickets where meant to cost us 22 pounds each however the lady at the desk pointedly asked if we wanted to make the donation and we said no which brought it down to 19 pounds each... much better. First at the tower we went went on a bee keeper tour (the red and black guys that live there). He was super nice and showed all sorts of things including traitors gate...

Today we took the euro star train from Brussels to London. We had breakfast from the youth hostel and then they gave us as much lunch as we could take for 2 euro each. Very very nice people.  Getting to Brussels was easy and enjoyed got there 1.5 hours early... Which bini wasn't impressed by. Got though passport check without problem although bini got asked how she knew me and why she'd been born in Kuwait.  Euro star train was nice but much older than what we'd got used to on the DB German trains.... Which had WiFi and power sockets which euro star lacked. Also sadly we didn't a windows as our window seat was entirely taken up by a gap in window :( very sad. Bini slept most of the train while Alastair listened to cabin pressure.  Arrived in london at 2 London time and then went  and checked into the hostel. Had a nice treat out for dinner at an Irish pub where we had a nice chicken and ribs with 2 different ciders. Bini's was a black berry cider and was super s...

A late start today at 10:30. Today we went to Bruge by train after eventually working out the ticket machine. In Bruge we had waffles as per picture below. Then then burnt our waffles off by walking up 366 stairs up the belfort tower. There was multiple stops on the way up including the old treasury, the bell making procces, the actual bell clock mechanics and watched them play the quater hour tune and finally the bells themselves which we watched play the half past tune. The veiw from the top was amazing and it had little arrows with names of different main cities and the distance to them.  The steps down were hairy and difficult but some how both us and our knees survived..... just.....  We then had lunch which was stolen from the youth hostel and then we "people watched" in the main square for a bit.  It was now about 3:30 so we decided to do another self guided walk around bruge and back to the train station. On the walk we saw some people in masqu...

Today bini and I woke up at 8, had breakfast supplied by the hostel and then went to do our washing. We found really nice wasbar. Which is pretty much a cafe combined with a laundromat. Here we did our washing  and had Tomato soup for lunch. It wasn't cheap but was nice.    We also had a hot chocolate while we waited. Sadly we don't quite understand laundromats at the moment and the dryer we had been watching got used just before our washing finished and for the next dryer we would have to wait 45 minutes. So instead we walked up to the another laundromats and did our drying there.  After this we went home and had a little rest and then went on a self guided tour around Ghent (found in the tourist info and recommended by dad). This was nice. Ghent is a really nice place to stay and has a very happy friendly feel about it.  Next we went to the Turkish Street of town where all the cheap food was meant to be. We ended up finding a nice Turkish restaurant where...

A pretty uneventful day. Today we travelled by train from Berlin to Ghent via köln and Brussels. We woke up at 4am this morning to get to our train at 6:45. Left youth hostel at 5 and walked thought the teir gardens in the dark and then many more streets to the train station. Made it to the train station at 5:50. Found the platform and made it onto the train. We only had 30 minutes to change trains in köln and this train ran 25 minutes late. Luckily for us we arrived on platform 6 and left on platform 6 so our next train was slightly delayed and we made it. The next change in Brussels was 10 minutes however this time our train got in fine and we got on the next train to Ghent with plenty of time to spare.  Getting to the ghent hostel required a tram. Alastair decided we'd leave on the wrong side of the station..... Bini eventually proved him wrong. Anyway getting the tram was amazingly easy as everyone is super friendly I'm Belgium. A local helped us with the ticket machine and...

Today we went to the Zoo and aquarium. Saw all sorts of animals our favourites being the elephants, multiple birds in the aviary and the grant blue gropper.  There's was heaps on animals at the zoo some with amazing enclosures like the emperor penguins, and others with awful enclosures like one lonely sad female lion.  The aquarium was cool and had a huge array of fish, jellyfish, small sharks, snakes, lizards and frogs. Dinner consisted of 1.5 euro pizza each which was ok. We are both super tired today. Sorry for the short blog. 

Today we visited the Brandenburg gate, holocaust memorial, the berlin Wall and checkpoint Charlie. Was from the hostel and was a buffet however there was no way we would be able to take lunch from there as there was people watching and signs everywhere.  We walked from the youth hostel to Brandenburg Gate though the teir gardens. The walk was really pleasant and was nice to get into a quiet park away from the city noise.   We came out of the park a little earlier than expected and found ourselves near the holocaust memorial. We went there which was confronting. The stories and family history hit bini pretty hard but it was worth doing.  Next we walked to Brandenburg Gate and dae that also took some pictures. We then had lunch of a shared schnitzel and chips and also went to a paid toilet.  Next stop was berlin wall. It was interesting and mins blowing even though there want a huge amount to see. After this we went to check Point Charlie museum which was huge! We paid...

Welp! Almost missed the bus this morning as the alarm on my phone didnt work. Woke up at 8.. bus left at 8:30 from the other side of the train station 15 minutes away. Anyway we made it and i manage grab some fruit from the breakfast buffet on the way. We made it there at 8:30 and the bus driver lucky let us on, but not happily. Bus/ferry ride was uneventful appart from the fact we had free wifi. Had Schnitzel and chips on the ferry for lunch  for 100 DKK. Also last night we bought the second book of bini's series on kindle which we both read on the bus. Arrived in Berlin at 4 o'clock and had worked out the busses by 5. Arrived at youth hostel safely. Then disaster struck! There's no free wifi!!!!!!!! Sadness. We are in male, female dorms tonight and if theres no blogs for the bext couple of days its because i couldnt find wifi.

An interesting day. So the plan today was the go to new harbour then Rosenberg castle and the food markets.  Sadly it's a Monday... In Jan... In copenhagn! Literally every tourist thing is shut except for the free walking tour and the canal tour.  Not kidding all the museums were shut. Rosenberg castle was shut. Church of our savoir was shut. Tivoli gardens was shut. I guess we could have gone to Christian berg and got high as some including our room mates count that as a tourist attraction....  Ah well we did what we could. It was nice sunny but cold day today (-2 degrees). First we did the free walking tour starting  at 11 from the Copenhagen town hall. (I lied that wasn't shut either). We got there a bit early so we had a quick walk around the town hall. It's a great building however it was all to easy to get lost. Our guide for the tour was a Brit who'd been in copenhagn 7 years. The tour was very good. She bad heaps ok interestimg information like where the lead...

An eventful day with some good conclusion.  About an hour after we'd got on the train we decided to go to sleep and found out that our light didn't turn off. After getting the courage we went and asked the Swedish family down the hall for help and they informed us that we would have to call the train personel to come and fix it. We pressed the call button and they fixed it.  All was then good till 4:30am this morning. When the emergency alarm in our carriage went off. Nothing was actually wrong but the alarm had short circuited and we had to leave the carrage.... Into first class room!!! That was kinda cool. The room was the same size accept we had an ensuite and only 2 bigger beds where the other one had three smaller ones.  The fact that our previous carrage was faulty and had to be removed delayed the train by almost 2 hours at that point however by the time we arrived in stockolm we were only 56 minutes late. Sadly we only had 30 minutes to get to our next train and m...

Today was a rest and research day. Breakfast was change from the normal milk and cereal and instead was vanilla yoghurt and cereal. I forgot to say yesterday that we did our research of Copenhagen and discovered that a lot of the mains sites were closed in jan including Tivoli gardens. We've decided that in our one day there we will see Rosenberg castle, nyhaven and a nice food market. The rest of the day was spent cooking. We made pesto pasta and a Thai beef curry. The curry sadly wasnt a success as the meat had spoiled made us both feel sick. The pesto pasta however was good and we packed it ready for the train.  Train was halve an hour late but we got on fine. 

Today was our dog sledding day. First we headed down the the super market... Again. And bought materials to make curry for dinner. Once we got back we read. I've bought the second book in my the series I was given for Christmas on kindle as bini hadn't finished her book yet. Lunch consided of some more of the left over meatballs. Very nice :)  Our dog sledding trip started at 1:30 and we were given huge ponchos which were more like tents. 12 dogs pulled each sled and there was three humans per sled. On our sled we had a mother from Berlin who was very nice and who we nicely gave the front seat in the sled... And then used her as a wind break for the whole trip..... Worth!! The trip was super cool.... Literally. We got so cold! Still we saw some awesome country side but sadly no wild life. The trip took as from abisko oastra all the way into the national park and then out again.  We for home very very cold. In particular I was the most cold I'd ever been in my life. (We were...

Well what a day.  Today bini and I decided we'd walk to the tourist station and have a look around. The tourist station is in the abisko national park and is about a 2km walk away. Also known as a short stroll.  We stocked up with cinnamon roles and oranges in my bag (we decided we only needed 1 bag today) the walk there was good and fairly uneventful. Bini decided to cool of in snow half way there. Once we arrived we discovered that the tourist station was closed for winter. However the hostel there wasn't and was acting as the tourist station. We sat down there and had morning tea of said cinnamon roles and oranges. Also we discovered we could steal there internet as it was in the same sever as the stockholm hostel and we connected automatically.  After morning tea and a little break we decided to go investigate the train station here to see if there was anywhere where we could get our train tickets printed officially as what we had was only a receipt not  a ticket...

Day 2 in abisko. Still cloudy. Snow was actually falling today. We had good sleep then went down to the nearby very very fozen lake :O it was awesome!!! We both made snow angles and made ourselves a little ice hole... Although we didn't get though the ice just the snow.  Both got very tired and cold and decided to spend the rest of the day inside. Made good progress into our books from Santa aka mummy.  Bean fajitas for dinner tonight.. If it works :P Also we got to meet the local husky puppy's which were very cute. They're only 2 months old. A good rest day :)

A good but fairly uneventful day. We got off the train at abisko at 11. Then went to the youth hostel. Couldn't check in till  1 so had the left overs of last night dinner as lunch.  Checked in. Then went for a walk to the local supermarket market. Decided we might have a night out but discovered that there was only two restaurants in abisko and both were well out of our price range. About 100 AUD per person. After this we visited the super market again, bought pasta, Bolognse sauce and Swedish meats balls. Bini was very happy. Dinner was great although no sign of the Northern lights as it was all clouded over :(  Also as per title there is snow everywhere and it is -8 degrees out. It's awesome!!!!

Woke up late last night to see the new years fireworks in stockolm. Luckily for us they were launched from barge 50m from our ship. Fire works were awesome and Alastair bowed the bini's judgement as he hadn't wanted to see them and had got shitty about it. Oops. This morning bini and I finally did our washing.  Once that was done we went and walked around the stockholm old town. Saw heaps of cool things like a Viking shop and the changing of the royal palace guards. Did all our souvenir shopping. Didn't actually get to go inside any of the tourist places as they were all shut for new years day.  Stocked up on heaps of food, picked up our bags from the youth hostel where we had stored them and then headed off to the train station to get our train to abisko. Had a great hot chocolate at the station which kept us alive as our train was delayed by half an hour and we had got to the station an hour early anyway. On the train we had a private sleeping compartment which was nice...