Brisvegas Adventurers

Urinal on the street in Berlin

Sachenhausen Concentration camp, this is the memorial for all of the killed victims in WWII, this is located in the area of the old gas chambers!

TV tower revolving restaurant - Berlin

View of the castle in Prague

Carnivale (Switzerland), Josh playing the white elephant!

Fondue in an Igloo - this photo is taken from the opening of the man made igloo that seats upto 12 adults.

Simplon Pass - Taken just after arriving in the chalet in the alps, and moments before Josh popped the question!

Mt. Leone - Swiss alps

Erika and Bari - taken at a ski slope that had a mini festival on...yes it was snowing!

Hop Visp! Fianl game of the premiership - yes we won!

Florence by night

Street in Naples

Us leaving Capri on the ferry

View from Capri - a neighbouring Island.

Capri - clear blue water and a perfect day, we could have stayed here for months.

One of the excavated streets in Pompeii - you can see the vulcano Vesuvius in the background.

View of Pompeii - Josh climbed above and beyond for this one.

Trevi fountain.

Vatican Post - i hope that you all recieved your postcards from Italy's most reliable postal system - oh and the Pope blessed the stamps!

Having a laugh - making some faces, Erika was in histerics.

The view from Palatine Hill

Colosseo - formerly known to the Romans as the 'Flavian Ampitheatre'.

Hello all!

So you have all read the news that Josh and I are now engaged, what a surprise that was - i nearly lost my breath, not only due to the high altitude but over the shock of the event at hand, it was actually perfect and that is the only word that i can use to explain it.

So further more, now we are in Italy.
We started off in Florence, I must admit that when we got off the train we were grossly shocked at the state of the streets and the smell of this place we were in.
We got to our hostel and that was nothing worth mentioning, the "guest kitchen" was not even a kitchen, it was a room with a sink and 2 little electric hot plates - no fridge and no kettle or microwave!!!!
So after we got over the shock of the disgust, we journeyed around the city - personally i was starting to like Florence, bridge Vecchio (the longest standing bridge in florence) is worth marvelling over as it is full of goldsmiths and jewellery shops, oh and not to mention the polizia that patrol the bridge that Josh thought were strippers after his first glance at them.
We saw the Duomo that is quiet amazing and the Michaelangelo square are also tourist sights to see..... here we had our first taste of Italian pasta and gelati (yes they are the best ever).
The next day we took a day tour to Siena and San Gimignano which are in Tuscany and the drive there was just like the movies - Siena holds an anual horse race around the octagonal town square which is the event not to miss here....Tuscany really is a beautiful part of Italy.

After Florence we headed to Naples and travelling there we werent sure what to expect as we had heard so many bad stories about this city. However, as we had already accepted that there is alot more pollution here than our lovely clean country of residence, arriving was not so bad.
My personal hate is the walk from the train station to the hostel as we are carrying our 15kg+ backpacks and are totally helpless. Naples when we got off the train was busy with scooters speeding through the streets and ignoring the pedestrians, i was a little afraid doing this walk....
Our hostel here was nice though and really quiet homely, however there was a great flight of stairs to climb.
We did a day tour to Capri during our stay here and absolutely loved it, the water was clear blue and the sun was shining brightly... we easily could have stayed here for a week - I would strongly recommend Capri to anyone.

The next day we did a trip to Pompeii, the city that was covered over by the vulcano Vesuvius and then later rediscovered and left to its original state.... i think the vulcano erupted in 79AD and excavations did not commence until the 1700s.... some buildings still have the frescoes on the walls and one particular building worth mentioning is the brothel that is still intact and has concrete beds in each room and frescoes on the walls of "compromising positions"! (the brothel is not in use at present however and has not been since the vulcanic eruption)
I took alot from Pompeii as walking through these cobblestone streets that are now a tourist destination and able to see the vulcano, how immense and extreme this natural disaster would have been.

So leaving Naples we were off to Rome, a much nicer and relatively clean city, the hostel once again is not worth mentioning.
Firstly, Vatican city was cool, St peters Basillica (the largest cathedral in the world) is really quiet large!
And secondly the Sistine Chapel was fascinating - Michaelangelo and Boticelli and other famous artists climbed the walls to illustrate these fabulously colourful and meaningful pieces of work!
I could have sat in here for hours, 'the last judgement' by Michelangelo is the one that will remain my favourite.....
Other sights that we have seen on our walking through the city are : the monument dedicated to the unknown soldier, the pantheon, the trevi fountain, the spanish steps i will mention however they were full of italian teenagers so not alot to build a judgement on....
You may be wondering why i have forgotten to mention another huge tourist destination in Rome..... the Colosseum, well we havent been there yet - we still have 3 more nights here so we are doing that on Monday!

So now we are planning our time with Josh's parents that we meet in Paris in 2 weeks - we are looking forward to spending time with them and driving through Europe (i in particular am looking forward to some female company, and josh some male company).
So i will say goodbye and you should hear from Josh soon about the rest of Rome and some of Ireland (we are going there for St. Pattys day)

As the Italians say "Ciao"

well hello everyone!!!!

i know it has been a ling time however access to the internet has been a little scarce since leaving paris....

So after paris, we headed to Amsterdam for 5 nights.... personally i loved amsterdam and not because of the special biscuits that you can get but it is genuinly a beautiful place.

Josh and i did 2 guided walking tours, the first of the city and learning about the history etc... and the miracle of Amsterdam (google it) very amusing story. It is fascinating there as nearly everyone and i mean everyone rides an old style push bike, most people have 3 bikes registered to their name too...
Something else that we thought hilarious was that in every fire truck contains a scuba diver!!!! due to the large array of canals running throughout and around the city, the rate of people having "a few too many" and falling into the canals is quite high.

The second tour was at night and of the red light district, very interesting to say the least. The working girls stand in windows and the men get to window shop!!!! and purchase if they like what they see.... Josh and i did quiet a bit of "prossie spotting" as you dont know exactly where these windows of opportiunity are located so we went searching for as many as we could!!!

We came across a few interesting people in Amsrerdam and all in all we had a great time...
Following our 5 days there, we headed to Berlin for 4 nights. Berlin is also an amazing place, however the main attraction here is the history. I particularly have a special interest in NAZI Germany, and we had the opportunity to see some of the historical sights that were in practice back in the war and some years after.

First we went to the Sachenhaussen concentration camp, here there is only 2 original buildings as the rest of it was rebuilt in 1962, however they have it there to remind the people of the deaths that occured and the mistreatings of thousands of innocent people there.
We stood in the gas chambers that were running in the camp and also saw the crematoriums that burned all of the people that were murdered. I could go on for ages about it, i will say that it did leave a certain space in my heart for all of those mistreated people and the torture they were put through and to actually go there was breathtaking....

The next day we did a walking tour of Berlin, we learnt about the separation of East and West Berlin and saw the remains of the famous Berlin wall. We saqw the site where Hitlers bunker was and about how he ended his own life..... Also a great, breathtaking history lesson had by both josh and I.
While in Berlin we had to decide where to go for a couple of days as we werent due in Switzerland until the 9th of Feb. We decided to go to Prague.

Arriving Prague, i must mention that we had the best hostel here! Although we were sharing with 10 other people, the room was like a hotel room, very clean and spacious. The bathroom was homely and each dorm had its own kitchen which was decked out with everything.
We chose Prague as my friend Belinda was due to move there from Oz, yes she packed up and left the place she knew as home and relocated to another country with a different language, currency and way of life (although her heritage is Czech - sorry Bel, had to mention it as i think u are awesome) so we though we could catch up with her after her arrival.
So venturing through the city looking for a pay phone that worked, we decided to locate an internet cafe and email Bel hoping that she was online. So we were walking up a street and who comes around the corner? BELINDA!!!!!!
So we spent the next couple of days together and learning about the culture here and wished Bel well and headed to Switzerland.......
to be continued .......

Hello all!!!
Well at the moment we are in Bath (England) our last few days were spent in Edinburgh, Scotland. What a beautiful place to say the least, i must say that i was mesmerised with the fact that you have this normal city with shops and offices etc... and then there is this CASTLE looking over you!!!!!

The first thing that we did as tourists was a tour of the castle, we also hired audio equipment that tells you about different areas around the castle and gives you more of a history of what went on in the 1500's (Joshs idea - thanks babe).... As Josh and i are both very interested in history we found this to be very worthwhile.

On our last day in Edinburgh, we were to go up to the highlands to Inverness and see the Loch Ness... however the weather being moderately wet, one of the roads to Inverness was closed due to SNOW!!!!!!
Yes i had my first sighting/experience with snow.... While Josh and I were waiting for the bus at length, we met this lovely lady, Anne who was also travelling up to see her daughter. When the bus was cancelled, Josh and i decided to stay another night in Edinburgh (this not worrying us as it is such a magnificant place) Anne offered her spare room to us, both Josh and i had wet, freezing cold feet so we acceted without hesitation.
When we got to where Anne lived the snow fall was moderate, I was ultimately in awe of what i was experiencing, undescribable is what i will say. Having purchasing a camera in Edinburgh also, i managed to take photos of my first ever experience in snow! (I will post them next time as my camera is in our room)

Now in Bath, we have a bit to do here so look forward to our next post!

Bye for now, miss and love you all!!!!
Erika

The London Cllub - Tenneriffe Brisbane

Well the night started fairly quietly with alot of our friends attending - besides the hosts, Andrejs, Jess, Leon, Kev, Bella, Sarah, Marcus, Luke, Jemma, Jason, Tiff, Nancy, Grant, Shan and Tony all came to see us at some point in the night.
The food was appetising and the beverages were never ending!

After our time at the London Club, we decided to take the celebration to another venue - the fringe bar. With some of the attendees going home a select few of us kept on with the party - oh and the drinking.

All in all a good night was had with Josh driving home (only drinking a few beers) and Erika a little more intoxicated and adamant about not getting out of the car at home and spending the early hours of the morning passed out in the passengers seat - waking up to the blaring sun in her eyes...... However i feel that i will never forget that moment as the sun in europe is probably very scarce right now.

Saturday (recovery) was spent with Josh and I deciding that we will be spending the next few months in minus degree weather and that we would love to see the beach one last time! We booked a night at the Novotel in twin waters and unwound in the salt water, soaking up the suns rays and kayaking through the resorts lagoon!

I would like to say that i had the greatest time this weekend (my last in Oz for some time) and a big thank you to all that helped share it with us!!!!

love you all

Erika XXooxooOO

Well it is not only 5 days until Xmas but 23 days until Josh and i head over to Europe!!!! (and who is counting?)

Today is a milestone for me however, as i am finishing up at the Terrace, where i have been employed all of this year and started my career...
I am feeling a little sad, however ,i have constant butterflies in my stomach thinking of the experiences ahead..!
I will miss everyone at the Terrace and will be sure to stay in touch on our adventures and expeditions on the other side fo the world.

2 more days left of work this week however and Josh is officailly 'unemployed', this seems a little scary however i know that he is very excited to leave also.
With a few days in January to tie us over in the money department, i will officially be finished full time employment this Friday also!!!

( i feel like everything that i am doing these days in counting...)

Thankyou All at the Terrace for allowing me to have the best year at work and for teaching me soo many things that i will take with me wherever i go....
Cheers
Erika (P)