kombi´s selling coconuts

kombi´s selling coconuts
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

there are so many kombi´s in Brazil it is not funny. Here is one being put to good use.

Sorry we are a little slim on photos here - make sure you check our flickr there is a couple more there but the net is quite slow in argentina for uploading photos!

love you all will blog again soon

Leaving the island

Leaving the island
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

Here we are leaving the island - little did we know a nightmare 20 + hrs of travel lay ahead

Nice beach

Nice beach
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

what else is there to say bout this one? nice hey unspoilt perfection 5hrs from dirty Rio

Catching a ferry to Illha Grande

Catching a ferry to Illha Grande
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

she is a beautiful beast

osh me gosh - its hard to find a blog worthy computer (phill)

Hey there everybody,

I know that last time I wrote that I would clean up the blog that afternoon but I obviously never got around to that!

I won´t attempt to recapture the amazing things that I was trying to write about then as they are kinda old hat now. Let's just cut to the recent action.......

Picture us on a beautiful island in the atlantic - rainforest, blue water and golden sand not to mention great cheap seafood. Anyways we decide to do a boat trip for a day and see some other beaches - very nice swimming with the fish and big sefood lunch.

We get back fairly sunburnt and decide to do it cheap for dinner seeing we had splurged on lunch. Not such a good idea for Mel who chose the seafood rissoto. Needless to say she was feeling a little fragile the next day - our day to leave. So we catch the ferry back to Angus Dos Rios (1.5 hrs) then we had about 30 mins to catch a bus to Sao Palo (7.5hr bus ride) to get our flight out the next morning. The bus was booked out!

Not a prob we had had a reserve option the next bus was leaving at 10pm that night with our flight leaving at 745 the next morning we knew it would be fairly tight but we thought we could probably make it. I mean Sao Palo only has 25million people in it and 3 international airports we would have a good 2.15 hrs to get from the bus station to the right airport and on a plane!

Well let's just say that as we waited for the bus there was a little bit of tension in the air (I also was sucumbing to a cold at the same time)but we did actually make it to the airport before the check in even opened! For some reason our bus ride arrived an hour early in Sao Palo I couldn´t believe we were actually in the right place - I kept saying to the driver 'sao palo aqui? (here)' and he would say 'aqui!'. The bus station looked like it belonged in Wollongong not one of the biggest cities on the earth.

When we got to Buenos Aires I slept for 16hrs straight only waking to eat a bannana. Mel is feeling heaps better now too.

We have looked around the city a bit, booked into our Spanish course and went out to the river delta today. I don´t quite know what I think about BA yet but at the moment it feels like a european city with the edge of South American dodgyness. We are staying in this great hostel just on the edge of downtown its nice and quiet ad quite funky - Sarah´s Dad found it on the net months ago for us!

Also, one last thing last night we sent out for Australia Day we had a great time eating the best steaks we have ever had for ridicuouly low prices. You will be proud to know that we did sing the anthem at the top of our voices with a few other expats who just happened to be in the resturant at the time. The australian flag that I wore as a cape to dinner was tied around the waist of the waiter when we left to go on the wall with the other flags.

Sorry to you all that haven´t heard much from us lately - its been hard to find time to write and it get acess to a comupter that can even hack the blogger interface. Anyway I have found an internet cafe now (obviously) and I should be able to upload some photos in the next few days. Having a great time here - both feeling pretty good (my cold now gone!). Spanish school starts on monday!

When my baby smiles at me .........

howdy,

Currently sitting in an internet cafe/dive centre on a remote brazillian island off the coast of Rio called Illha Grande.

We arrived yesterday after spending a few days in Rio. We arrived after dark and made our way to our hostel which just happend to be completly packed with people, mostly argentineans. It is amazing how many people were actually staying there. After a tropical night in the middle of a tripple decker bunk we were stoked to find that breakfast included hot strong black coffee ham and cheese rolls and the pinicle of breakfast - fresh mango juice!

There are a lot of kombi vans driving around some brand new though for some strange reason they are also all white (not sure why).

We say the big Jesus and the sun came out for the first time in 3 weeks, awsome. Later we sat at the bar where the girl from impanema was written - it was pretty cool.

ok I have to leave this blog entry here - time running out 52 seconds left - will improve this afternoon

Museum of Jamon (Ham) - phill

Museum of Jamon (Ham)
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

Hey Friends,

thought I would quickly blog this shot,
it was taken in Madrid and as you can see a lot of pigs did in fact die in the production of this photo. Lets just say to be in Madrid is to to eat ham. check out the sandwiches in our extra photos - see link on the right.

In rio now and having a great time - have to go dinner is on

shell inspired stairs

dizzy stairs
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

this is just one of the really creative things going on in this place

construction continues on the sacred familia temple

construction continues on the sacred familia temple
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

photos can´t do this thing justice it is just so beutiful and big and getting bigger

Breakfast in sunny spain

Breakfast in sunny spain
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

not much internet in espana! (phill)

Hi everyone,

justwanted to get a blog out there to say that we are still alive and going in Spain. Problem has been trying to get to a computer to download photos to blog up. Seems the acnient art of internet cafes is dying and ´hot spots´ are the way of the future - not much use if you dont happen to have a laptop.

Anyway enough about that. We had a fantastic time in Barcelona - so nice to have beautiful warm weather. I can´t tell you everything but we basically spent our two big days checking out the amazing architecture of Antoni Gaudi. He built these fantastic buildings that are just so creative. In particular, he was building this massive church in the middle of spain when he died. They are still building now. Its got these great pillars that are made to look like trees and and these really funky mossaic work on the steples. Out the front was this great cubist sculptures showing the last hours of jesus life - we all looked at it for a quite a while.

Apart form that the main thing to do in spain is walk the lovley wide streets stopping in the many places for a beer and fantastic garlicy, oily or sugary food. The famous food from this part of spain is simply a roll toasted smeared with tomato and lots of good quality olive oil.

We had some fantastic meals and good times with the Batt family. Sarah´s family headed back to the UK yesterday and we caught the overnight train to madrid. despite my best convo in spanish so far being: ¨no quiero fumar por favor¨(I dont want smoke please), we have decided to name the train ¨el stinko¨ because it seems no matter what the rules are, you can´t put a smoker on a 9hr train ride and expect him not to smoke into the air conditioning vent!

But we did get some sleep in our tiny bunks and made it to Madrid without paying for a nights accom. We also saw picasso´s guerica today - awesome, but that´s another story - now to try and upload photos before my time runs out. - we meet up with ben and mel in 2 days and head to Rio!

TATE - Slide artwork

TATE - Slide artwork
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

TATE - Sarah in the slide

TATE - Sarah in the slide
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

TATE - Lunch

TATE - Lunch
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

I went to london to visit the queen

I went to london to visit the queen
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

I went to london to visit the queen

I went to london to visit the queen
Originally uploaded by birtlestravels.

TATE & Windsor Castle (Sarah)

Been to the TATE Modern - saw an amazing collection of Modern Art, it was just like walking through a text book. Something very familiar and yet odd about seeing the real artworks that I've studied in books. For the girls at work I think a lot of Artwise and Cave to Canvas is from the TATE!! I've seen Picasso, Miro, Monet, Dali, Calder and so much more...

We also went to Windsor sunce Liz wasn't at Buckingham we thought she might be out at Windsor - pity she wasn't there. Ah well, maybe shes flown south for the winter and we'll see her in Barcelona. We fly to Barcelona tomorrow!

Kenwwod House, Rod & Brick Lane(Sarah)

Another day in London town, we went rambling on the Hampstead Heath up to Kenwwod House (where a scene from "Notting Hill" was filmed). The best surprise was the fantastic art collection, including an original Rembrandt self portrait and a pice by a seveneteenth century Dutch artist, De Witte I studied at University - quite thrilling for an arty type!!

That night we went to Brick Lane and as you can see from the phots spent a fair bit of time wandering the streets. Brick Lane is where a large bangledeshi community live, the sort of place you might have seen in "Bend it Like Beckham". We had a great time considering the offers of many spruikers, such as 30% off, 40% off, free beer, best curry in the street etc, etc.

We also met up with Phill's cousin Rod, who works in London. He did very well taking the names of an extended Batt family gathering.

a quick trip into the forest (phill)

Well its been a fun couple of days!

Sarah and I got a lift into the south of Brrritten to borrow Mel's (another of sarah's sisters) boyfriend, Rich's car for the day. It was so great to get out and take control of where you are going.

Being hippys we headed out of the city, to a place called New Forest - apparently the old one got chopped down to build boats and so the new one was planted by a past king so that he could still hunt stag. It sounded pretty Robin Hood to us so we thought we would check it out.

We went for a forest walk and looked for stag we could only find friendly wild ponies - sarah sang "my little pony" and we took lots of photos. Not only ponies but an array of other animals were sighted strolling around the forest and occasionally out in the middle of the roads. Its weird to think of squirels, cattle and even big pink pigs as being native!

That night Rich took Sarah and I to a real English pub in the middle of nowhere to drink real ale. It was great. The laneways were narrow with high hedges on each side - so english! (this is also my lastest saying). The pub was small with dried hopps hanging from the ceiling and a sleepy dog lying on the bench. He just shuffled along when we sat down. Sarah had bangers and mash and Rich and I had the beef casserole - Awesome big servings with a huge bowl of vegies each. Real ales are not bubbly, and are served at room temp. There was about 7 or 8 to choose from and whilst some would say I am loosing my aussieness - I quite liked it!

Next morning we both slept in till after 8. Gave Qantas a ring (I am very familiar with their hold music by now) - they confimed the flight we were after out of Bolivia to give us an extra week and a half to visit the christian cafe/missionaries in Sucre we wanted to! Very happy about that.

After a long trip on the bus into Southampton we looked around the town and enjoyed poking around in an few old buldings we had lunch and caught the train back into London. We thought, as it was overcast, sprinkling and windy it was perfect weather to see a few sights. Got familiar with Big Ben and ran into a statue celebrating William Tyndale's life. He was the first person to translate the bible into english so that everyone could read it - not just the educated. He is a legend in my books. We had a kind of cool moment there too just saying thanks to God for they way he has looked after us so much. Then we had a look at Westminter Abbey from the outside and a quick look at Buckingaham Palace - Liz wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Well that was a long post wonder if many of you will get through it all. Here's to you all back home - in half an hour I can start watching the aussies make a whitewash of the Ashes!

New Year's Eve & Day (Sarah)

We've had a great NYE and day. We spent the eve in grungy, funky Camden Town with my sisters and some of their friends. We went to a great venue called the Roundhouse, a huge round building with beautiful iron work, originally built to accomodate trains. We saw 'Riders on the Storm' - basically the Doors ( some original and some new).

We stayed the night at my sister Mel's in South West London and then travelled over to Marlow, a beautiful country town in Buckinghamshire, close to Bec's place. We had lunch with all my sisters, Mum, Dad, Bec, Dermot, the boys and Dermot's parents at a lovely restaurant, called the 'Compleat Angler' to celebrate my Dad's birthday. It is bordered by the River Thames on two sides, which was very high and you could hear the rushing waters inside the restaurant. Phill and I both tried new foods, Phill tried pheasant and I tried goose. After lunch we walked along the banks for a while feeding white swans and geese.

Tomorrow we're off to Southampton where Mel's boyfriend lives. Phill and I will be borrowing his car and seeing some of the South English coastline. We checked the weather and it's going to be a balmy 8 degrees!