Lameness indeed. So I will have to go AWOL again. I have a job at a youth hostel in Edinburgh (that's not the lame part!) and I also live there too. That's the lame part because I have to pay for internet! Which means that I will only randomly appear here from time to time. I do intend to get my own laptop soon, but the internet price fo WiFi goes up even more, double actually! But at least I can write blogs and stuff before I go online and that way I'll still be able to post stuff when I have time.

I will try and keep up with comments but I can only try. I at least get to check the internet when I'm on reception but I think they'd freak if I wrote out blogs when I'm supposed to be working!! So from now on, I'll mainly be on facebook so come and find me there

I miss this place already!!!!!!!

Ok, so here is the first of (hopefiully) many travel blogs. First stop on our travels is Greece. I've been fascinated with Greece, mainly its history and mythology, since as long as I can remember. I even went on to get a degree in ancient history so Greece has always been very close to my heart. My wonderful travel companion was my friend, Shelly, who I met at uni while we were both studying ancient history. I had to put that in just to warn you that during these blogs I may go off on nerdy history tangents.

We battled against rude air stewards, delays and jet lag but finally we made it to Athens, after what seemed like an age. You know when you just arrive somewhere and it feels like home? That's how I felt when I took my first steps in the city of Athens. It was bustling, noisy, smelly and I completely fell in love with it. It took a while to find our hotel as the street signs are sometimes only in Greek. But even though I was so tired, it was just a joy to wander the streets. I've travelled quite a bit but this was one place where it really felt 'foreign'. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Once our hotel was found, we made a valiant effort to stay awake until 8pm and then gratefully fell into the land of Nod.

Here is a picture of the busy metropolis:

On our first full day, we were all about visiting the Acropolis. The metro system in Athens is an absolute delight (Thank you Athens Olympic Games, 2004!), so easy to navigate, and we were at the Acropolis before we knew it. I still can't quite put into words what it felt like to actually see the Acropolis and the Parthenon for the first time. I'd seen photos of it, I'd studied it for years and now finally I was actually there!

We began climbing the Acropolis. Ok, first history lesson of the day, just to clarify, the Acropolis is the hill and the Parthenon is the main temple thing on the top. The climb was ridiculous! So steep and of course, we attempted it at midday because we're idiots. The only thing that kept us on our climb to the top was the dream that a small Greek urchin would be selling bottles of ice cold water for us. When we got there, no cute Dickensian street child, no water at inflated prices. Nothing. Finally we found a water fountain and I think we spent more time searching for water than we did looking at the site

My favourite photo of the whole holiday (and yes, I really am that bad at photography!):

This was also the start of my obsession with stray dogs. Athens, and Greece for that matter, is absolutely crawling with stray dogs. All very friendly and all well fed, despite looking worse for wear. I am the biggest dog fan and so I would stop and say hi to every dog. Shelly wasn't such a fan of the stray dogs... she muttered something about rabies, but I can't help it. I think there's something written into my DNA that draws me to canine DNA!

We went back to the hotel and moved on to our next destination, Delphi. But first we had to find the bus that would take us there and so began the longest walk in history. I'm not even kidding. It was at least two hours, walking in the hot sun, lugging our heavy bags over cobble stones. The only good thing was that every single guy (no exceptions!) was absolutely in love with us. Not in a sleazy way, just in an appreciative way. We got stares, we got beeps from horns, we had guys hanging out of windows, calling out to us. We decided we must be hotter in Europe, or that the Greeks like their women all hot and sweaty! And so began another key theme on our holiday, people staring at us. All throughout Europe. It got to the point that I actually wanted to stop people and ask why they were staring at us. People would double take at me and Shelly, they would look at us and then excitedly whisper to their friends. To this day, I still don't know what it was. The best I could come up with was that we looked like European celebrities because that's the sort of excitement that we created wherever we went. It was truly bizarre!

We finally found the address of the bus terminal... and it wasn't a bus terminal. I seriously nearly started crying. What was supposed to be a half hour walk had turned into a two hour trek. I was thirsty, I was tired, I just wanted to get on the damn bus. Neither Shelly or I spoke a word of Greek and even then, there was nobody to ask for help. I have never felt more lost in my life. We slowly went back the way we came and then found the bus terminal down this weird small alleyway.

And apparently, not many tourists take the bus to Delphi. They did not want us there at all. I have never come across a less helpful person in my life than this ticketing lady. She barked the price at us and literally threw the tickets at us. When we tried to ask what platform we would be boarding on, she just ignored us. So rude!

But then things got better. Because our bus driver to Delphi was smoking hot. SO amazing. We spent the whole three hour bus trip staring at his reflection in the rear view mirror. We wanted to get a photo with him when the bus stopped but turned out that Delphi wasn't the last stop and we were unceremoniously kicked off the bus at Delphi.

Delphi is without a doubt, my most favourite place in the whole entire world. It is just gorgeous, it's picturesque and everything you imagine a small Greek town should be. We arrived at about 10 at night and all the locals were just sitting outside their shops or houses, chatting with neighbours and enjoying a nightcap. In ancient times, Delphi was were the oracle hung out. Before you made any important decision, you consulted the oracle and they'd tell you what you should do. And when you see Delphi, you can completely understand why they thought this place was close to the gods. The scenery is mind blowing. The hills are so wide, so deep. Our hotel room had a view overlooking the valleys. So beautiful and majestic. The phrase of the day was "My pictures just aren't capturing the majesty!!". But I'll post a picture of the view from our balcony anyway.

And so this is where I'll leave you because I don't know how much I can write *and* post pictures.

Stay tuned for the rest of Delphi, more stray dogs and backstory of Mouche's true fear of ancient demi-gods.

... and members of TV cop shows came to investigate the crime scene?

This all came to me when watching Criminal Minds. In this particular episode, they are in a victim's apartment. There's the usual mess that you would have in your apartment. Reid comments, somewhat dryly, that the place has a 'lived in' feel to it. Hotch picks up a DVD and says "Looks like she spent most of her free time here". And I don't want Morgan going through my underwear drawer. I want to be wearing the underwear when he sees my underwear for the first time. Although upon saying that, I'm dead so I guess my chances with Morgan are out the window.

What if that particular day you were running late and you didn't have time to make your bed, you left your underwear on the floor and you didn't put the milk back in the fridge? Just thinking about what someone would say about all that makes me shudder! Can you imagine the lame remark that that guy from CSI: Miami would make about me just before the opening credits roll? "I guess the sour milk is the least of her problems now" or something equally 'cutting'.

I would be so mortified. My place right now is an absolute mess. Everything, and I mean everything, is lying around. And someone would make a snap judgement about the status of my mind based on that. Or what if I was killed the day after I did my big clean up? They might label me as an 'obsessively clean person'. Then they'd be going about it all wrong. All I'm saying is "Don't judge me!!"

I don't want Grissom checking for stains on my bed sheets. I don't want Goren standing on my table in order to sniff my air conditioning vent. I don't want Monk counting the number of black socks I own as opposed to the number of white socks.

But... who would you want investigating your fictional murder?

Hello all!

I'm here!! At the moment, I am sitting on my bed with a kitten on the end of it. I'm house sitting for my friend while she's away on her honeymoon. I'm about an hour from London but like a hundred years from my dream of living in Edinburgh. I've sort of hit a dead wall. Dead wall? Is that the phrase? Oh, dead end or brick wall. Hey, I just combined two phrases to make a whole new one, never mind. Um, so where was I? So I'm staying somewhere that isn't Edinburgh and so it is incredibly hard to search for a job or place to live there because I can't go in for an interview or see the place myself. I've been trawling the internet and it's so, so hard! Especially because I'm not going to be there until the 28th. I just want to have that all sorted out and then I'll be fine. BUT because I know it's going to be a while before I can sort it all out, I am currently living in a stressed out state. And I'm never stressed out, which is why I'm feeling so bad!!

Phew!

Needed to get that off my chest. Thanks for playing Dr. Phil for me

Travelling now seems like a distant but wonderful dream. I promised people that I would do blogs on each country I visited and I really will but I decided to save writing about it until I'm all settled with a job and am back in the grind of daily life so that I have something nice to look back on and write about.

And on a nice note to leave you with, here's one of my cute and cuddly charges while I'm house sitting

I thought everyone knew about this but after having a few people freak out on me, I thought I'd do a blog about it. This way everyone knows

It's official. I'm moving. From 17th June, I will no longer be an Aussie. I'm travelling around Europe for six weeks and then settling down, um, wherever. I really want to live in Scotland but I figure London will be easier. I'll be flying by the seat of my pants, I have no place of abode lined up for me there, no job, nothing.

So from now until the 17th, I won't be online very much. I just realised I'm going in less than a month and I've only got a few arrangements sorted out, so I need to be super organised and get everything done. My British passport still hasn't come through and I worked out that the six weeks they ask you to allow for it to come through, is two days after I go... I have been doing some serious prayer!!!!

Although upon saying that, as soon as I have lots of very important things that need to be done, I immediately start procrastinating, so I'm sure you'll see me around very, very often!!

I genuinely count you all as my friends, not people I call my 'internet friends', but my actual friends. And it might be a while until I see you again, but I shall return!