Wednesday 25 January 2012

Happy Australia Day!!

Happy Australia Day to all my fellow Aussies wherever you may be in the world...

So far, we have celebrated by having lunch at Sushi Tei, a Japanese sushi train restaurant in Kuta. But my heart is firmly planted with thoughts of home (even if my stomach is closer to Tokyo). I was going to say something about home; that despite all the travelling we do - and will hopefully continue to do in coming years - that I love Australia and life in Melb and have not found anywhere that offers more... but you already know how awesome Aus is, so I don't need to bang on about it.

Not much going on with us here in Bali this week. The monsoon-style rains have slowed a bit and consequently there is less rubbish piled up on the beach (there were huge piles of trash all down the beach when we arrived because heavy rains had washed out the drains of several villages) After a few cooler days, it's feeling really really hot again! Might be time for a day at the beach!

There has been lots and lots of reading, a few long walks and consumption of endless veggie-centric meals to try and expunge the effects of the German sausage feast we partook in over in Europe...

It's become noticeably quieter tourism-wise since we came back (I guess school hols are over, or almost over) and I'm hoping that our last weeks here will be pretty low key and quiet. We haven't finalised plans for the last few weeks of the trip yet, but it's likely that we'll spend a few final days in Singapore before coming home. So close, so close.

Now would be the time to make any souvenir requests via the comments or email. Anyone for a Batik sarong???




- Posted using a healthy dose of Aussie spirit

Friday 20 January 2012

Back in Bali, baby

We have already been back in Bali for a whole week and an event-filled week at that. Time is absolutely flying by with only five weeks left before we're back on home soil. Unbelievable, I know.

We flew into Bali last Friday morning about two hours ahead of Phil's dad, Klaus and his wife, Cornelia who were dropping by for 5 days after a four week trip to Australia. Which meant that we got stuck right into our favourite Bali places whilst showing Klaus & Cornelia around. It was really nice and energising - I think if left to my own devices, I would have slothed around for a couple of days, but instead we went out for lovely breakfasts at my favourite places - Warung Ocha and Cafe Bali - and headed up to Ubud for two nights at the gorgeous Sawah Sunrise in the middle of the rice fields. It was a great visit, although jetlag saw me napping for a couple of hours every day while poor Phil couldn't get to sleep at all!

We visited the monkey forest in Ubud and watched the adorable baby monkeys chase each other around. Also a highlight were dinners at Sari Organik, an organic restaurant in the middle of the ricefields near our accommodation. Not only is the food healthy and delicious, but we sat and ate with a chorus of nighttime sounds (frogs, geckos) in the background and a sprinkling of fireflies in the rice fields which was spectacular! They are open for dinner, but close pretty early and on our last night we stayed so long that the staff actually came over and said that while we were welcome to sit and talk until the morning, they were going home. And they did, leaving us to slowly walk back in total darkness along the path home kept company by the fireflies.

Back in Legian we shopped and walked by the beach and went out for dinners and they made the most out of the plentiful massage opportunities here. It was so lovely to see them and we were really touched that they made the (frankly pain in the ass) trip to Bali from Singapore on the way home to Germany.

The visit was over in a flash and come Wednesday afternoon, Phil and I were on our own again for the first time since early December! We caught up on things like haircuts and some DVDs and are now going to spend the next three weeks in Bali chilling out and doing a few things we haven't yet done... One of which was to visit Warung Asia for dinner, a well-reviewed Thai restaurant very close by. So we went on Thursday night and it was great... Until yesterday morning when I realised something I ate had not agreed with me at all. Cue a whole day Friday spent on the couch watching DVDs. Ah well, no biggie! Although it is rather cruel that since I have been detoxing since we arrived back in Bali (no booze, no caffeine, no meat, no sugar), I managed to get sick from vegetable freaking soup!!

As promised (to myself), I have finished my list of European highlights below:

Hamburg highlights:

- Visiting the Hamburg fish market at 7.30am, especially because it was our first snow, and first 8.30 am German beer!
- Realising that Hamburg had about fifteen different Xmas markets and walking through several of them on the edges of the beautiful Alster lake
- Spending time with Phil's grandmother and her signature apple cake

Mougins highlights

- Making home craft Xmas decorations out of leftover wrapping paper
- Xmas Day as it should be - sleeping in, big lunch, little walk, lazing around
- The fab French champers; mumm, veuve, Moët, anyone??
- Day trip to Italy - San Remo is divine!
- Shopping in Cannes
- Blue skies and 16 degrees every day!!

Baden Baden highlights:

- Soaking in the hot springs for hours
- De kleine knappe bar - our local bar complete with beers from a monestary and cheerful, friendly locals
- The deer stew - OMG if you'd tasted it, you might move there
- Crazy NYE rockets and fireworks (nearly setting Phil on fire!)

Munich highlights:

- The Rattlesnake - the supercool rockabilly bar where there is a train set up to deliver tequila shots to the band
- The mega-Boss shop - Phil in suits. Need I say more?
- Lunch at the Schneider Weisse beer hall - a place where a dish of five sausages and sauerkraut is an entree!!
- Our last group dinner at Kloister Andechs, a monestary that has been brewing beer for hundreds of years. They serve pork knuckle and pork belly. German Heaven.

- Posted using happy memories!

Location:Jalan Padma Utara,Kuta,Indonesia

Saturday 14 January 2012

Singapore stopover

We have arrived in Singapore this evening to a balmy 28 degrees. We're here for one night before flying to Bali tomorrow to meet up with Phil's dad and stepmother, Cornelia. I think we'll beat them there by 2 hours! We're staying in the same Singapore hotel we had on our first two days of the trip because it's super easy to get to from the airport and there's a 24-7 food court downstairs, which is handy for an early start in the morning.

All this means that the European adventure is over. It's incredible, when we were planning the trip, the Europe part seemed soooo far away, and now it's passed.

Our last few days in Munich were lovely. We did have a last group dinner at Kloister Andechs on Sunday night - a monestary and brewery which has been operating for hundreds of years. In the dining hall, they have a cabinet with spaces for steins (the one litre beer cups) which you can permanently keep there (locked up, sadly). Apparently, they are so coveted, the spaces are willed from father to son!! It was fun note on which to end our travels with Nick and Jo, who headed back home via London.

Phil and I headed into town, dropping Nick and Jo at the airport train, on Monday morning and I had plans for some more shopping, but flagged early and headed back for a lazy day. On Tuesday, Chris took Phil skiing / snowboarding in Austria for the day. Having never tried skiing, I opted out, not wanting to hold them up from getting some proper time on the mountain. Thankfully, they had an awesome day with no injuries and I pottered about drinking coffees and reading. We had a last dinner with both Chris and Niko and said all the farewells. And come Wednesday, it was time to go!

I think the most common question you get when returning from an overseas trip is, 'what were the highlights?'. I can tell that after six more weeks in Bali, I won't be saying anything more insightful than, 'not too cold, beer was good'.

So while it's fresh in my mind, I thought I'd jot down the highlights (and lowlights, if I can think of any) of our European leg. I'll do half now, half later. We do have to get up at 6.30am to fly to Bali tomorrow... Ouch.

London Highlights:
- Shopping in Brick Lane markets for an £11 tweed coat (so warm it felt like being hugged by two polar bear simultaneously), cute teapot earrings (sadly lost on the way) and handknitted Xmas decorations.
- Taking bus to my dad's old neighbourhood in east London, on which a group of rough primary school aged girls yelled to each other "is he a pedo?" at Phil when he was taking photos out of the window. Also on the same day, trying the famed pie, mash and liquor of my dad's childhood. Ugh. Seriously.
- Ocean colour scene - A good band performing a great album with an enthused British crowd
- Southbank Xmas markets (especially the life sized snow globe that you could climb into and have your photo taken with sheaths of white plastic blown in the air)
- Finally trying out some amazing Windian food at the mango room in Camden

Brussels Highlights:
- The beer, the beer, the beer
- Phil's vending machine experience in the pub - trying to buy a can of nuts, getting 50 cents stuck in the wrong spot, a very unamused bartenderess and a lot of helpful locals armed with pocketknives
- Live sheep in the nativity scene in the centre of town - picture a life sized nativity scene with sculptures for all the characters and animals... Except throw in a few huge, sleeping sheep
- Europe's worst light show in the main square - basically flashlights on long poles to the sound of opera. There was a better lighting setup at the cash converters!!

Amsterdam Highlights:
-Cocktails on the 26th floor of the Okura hotel with city wide view to celebrate Nick and Jo's engagement!!
- Chilling out with all in our gorgeous apartment
- Visiting Utrecht for the first time in ten years and finding that nothing had changed

Berlin Highlights:
- Alexanderplatz carnival - especially a ride on a giant ferris wheel (the largest ravelling ferris wheel in Europe)
- Feeling very sophisticated, drinking vintage champers at the Veuve Cliquot bar
- Jo's excitement at finding maccas vegie burger and veggie hot dog in the midst of a sausage-heavy Germany
- Potsdamer platz toboggan ride - imagine a man made icy slope, large inflated rings to sit in, and Jo and I sliding down at crazy fast speed, me screaming the whole way down. I think Nick took video - I'll be keeping that one under wraps.

Okay, that's it for now. We're still all good, gearing up for the last six weeks in Bali!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday 8 January 2012

Happy new year!!

Happy New Year!!!

Okay, it's a little late for new years greetings, but better late than never, right!?! We've been pretty busy since the last post, so it's hard to know where to start... Anyway, I suspect no matter how I do it, this will be a longish post.

In the last post we were in Mougins and now we are in Munich and in between we had a long and internet-free stay in Baden-Baden. It seems that the blog is always a bit behind, but I'll try and recap. 

We did end up making it to Cannes for a lovely afternoon. It was our last full day in France and we were keen to visit the perfume factories in nearby Grasse, so we piled in the rental car (kindly driven by Nick who did an amazing job of driving both in France and Italy) in the morning and headed out. Our timing was bad for a guided tour, so we wandered through the Fragonard perfume factory on our own, smelling all the different scents and checking out the traditional perfume making equipment.

And, as is the way, we ended up in a gift shop filled with travel-sized bottles of all different perfumes. There were also amazing smelling candles - the brioche one was so realistic that you'd be craving brioche every time you lit it!! I was tempted, but ultimately left it there - having once had a brandy custard smelling candle at home, I know how dangerous it can be to one's diet to have that smell wafting around. 

In the afternoon, we switched directions and headed towards Cannes for a bit of sightseeing. I had expected Cannes to feel like a super wealthy and pristine town, but while it had some nice aspects, and lots of designer shopping, the town itself was a fairly regular looking city. We were again blessed with gorgeous weather and a stunning coastline. 


We spent the afternoon wandering around the town, checking out all the designer shops - Prada, Chanel, miu miu, Louis Vuitton - and checking out the markets selling vintage designer sunglasses and huge dinnerware and silverware  sets. We even stopped to play with remote control boats set up in one of the fountains!! 


Boat obstacle course

Sadly, there were no Clooney sightings, but Jo and I managed to get a little dress shopping in and each left Cannes with a NYE-worthy black dress...

And on our last night in Mougins, we went out for a French meal at an atmospheric little bistro close to the apartment. There hasn't been much in the way of restaurant dinners on this trip. We've mostly either eaten at our apartments, picking up great breads, cheeses and cold meats, or eaten on the go (especially from the Christmas markets), or cooked up some simple meals. It's been fun wandering through foreign supermarkets and picking up delicious cheeses, breads, wine etc. that are not only yummy, but half the price (or less in the case of beer) than you'd find in Australia. Which has allowed us to splurge a bit on some Moët, and Veuve... And Mumm - but I digress. The point was that we were all keen to try and proper French meal (and wine) and it was a great way to end the French leg of the trip. Phil had a steak that recalibrated the standard and the creme brûlée at the end was delish!

The next day (30th Dec), was our longest travel day so far. The distance between Mougins and our destination, Baden-Baden wasn't that huge. But as Phil pointed out, we were travelling from one small town to another small town, so the connections aren't as great. Loading up on coffee and croissants from the local bakery, we were on our way by 9am, first driving to Nice Airport, the flying to Basel airport, then an airport bus to Freiburg, and finally two trains to Baden-Baden and a bus to the apartment. By the time we arrived it was after 5pm, but having the trip broken up into so many components was actually good for combatting travel fatigue. 

Baden-Baden is a small town in Germany, on the edge of the Black Forest and only 20km from the French border. It is famous as a spa town with hot springs at the centre and as a leisure destination for the super wealthy in need of a winddown. Is the sort of place where you pass a gorgeous old hotel, only to realise it is not a hotel at all, but a house owned by the Rothschilds or similar. One of the main attractions is the Caracalla thermal hot springs which has several warm hot springs pools, both indoors and outdoors, a sauna, series of steam rooms, a whole day spa, sun beds, solarium beds and more. But it's also a lovely place to just walk around and window shop - you can find antique and super deluxe watches, art deco furniture stores (all furniture is original and barely used). It's not a large town, but it has a huge casino, opera house, theatre, modern art museum etc. It's also bordered on all sides by the black forest mountains (well, mini mountains) many of which are strewn with wineries. 

Sounds nice, huh?? Luckily for us, Phil's grandmother has a flat in Baden-Baden which she has generously lent us on a few previous occasions (and of course on this trip also) and we have loved staying there. I think it's one of the most relaxing places I've ever been. 

This is the view from the front of the apartment - you can see the edge of the black forest a few hundred metres away.

All that description of Baden-Baden above may go some way to explain why we didn't actually do a whole lot in the six nights we stayed there. It's just a gorgeous place to go and soak up the vibe, walk through the streets, stop for a coffee and breathe deeply. 

We were very fortunate that Phil's dad had organised with the neighbour to let us in on our first night and that she had opened up the apartment, and most importantly turned on the heating for us, before we arrived on our first night. After the gorgeous weather on the French Riviera, we were chilled to the bone by the time we arrived. 

Our first day in Baden-Baden was new years eve, so we walked into town to find out what we might do. I knew there was a black tie ball at the casino and looked into it, but to judge from last years photos it's a very formal affair with the average age of revellers close to sixty. Perhaps not quite what we were looking for... It turned out that the bars in the town centre were mostly set price dinner affairs, so we decided to try a bar closer to our own apartment (which is 2.5km from the city centre). We found a local bar, with great beer, that quickly grew on us and we spent an hour or two there, but the owners wanted their own NYE celebration too, so we ended up at the apartment for the latter part of the night with beer and champagne, celebrating together. 

At midnight, some of the other tenants in the block asked if we minded if they set off fireworks in the back garden. No problems, right?? Except, these little older ladies had giant rockets that went whizzing all over the place and nearly took out Phil's foot! He was all calm and I ran and hid inside, behind the couch!!! You can buy almost any kind of fireworks in Germany and from our vantage point up on a hill, we could see huge fireworks in every direction, and hear rockets exploding from every second house. All the neighbours came out and watched, and there was a really nice community atmosphere to complement the very real fear of being hit by a stray rocket!!

After a day of concentrated recovery on 1st Jan, we did make it to the hot springs the following day and spent three very chilled out hours paddling around the pools. They have a steam sauna room, which is like an aromatherapy facial for your whole body in ten minutes and a similar steam bath but with brine that was not my favourite. I even tried out the solarium bed for ten minutes... my Bali tan is all but gone!! On our last night, we all (sans Nick) went again in the evening for a final soak and it really was divine. We were all keyed up for the sauna, until we realised it was a clothes free zone... I guess naked sauna-ing something you have to be introduced to earlier in life than 30!!

What else?? We went to a traditional restaurant for lunch and sampled amazing deer stew, spent another night in De Kleine Knappe pub near the apartment, spent an afternoon, wandering around the town, doing a little browsing, stopping for nice coffee, went out for coffee and delicious cakes at one of the many tea houses. Jo and I had a seaweed facial at a day spa that was amazing... Soo much collagen my face was tingling!

We arrived in Munich on the 5th, on the eve of the day of the holy three kings (who are apparently also known as the three wise men). We arrived in a whirl of snow in Munich to the prospect of a relaxing public holiday, which in this part of the world means nothing is open - no shops, no supermarkets, nothing. We are staying at the house of Phil's dad and his wife, Cornelia in Munich - they are not hosting us in person because they are in Australia at the moment, at our place! House swaps are great, although quietly, I think we are getting the better deal! 

Phil's stepbrothers, Chris and Niko are in town though and on our arrival, Niko picked us up from the station, took us home via the supermarket and then took us out to the Rattlesnake. The rattlesnake is a rockabilly bar that Niko both works at part-time and goes to often. Phil had told me much about the place and promised great food and live music and delivered both in spades. The place was awesome. Great food, including an epic veggie burrito for Jo and the biggest spare ribs I've ever seen.

 More ribs than a sane person would eat in a month.

But the highlight was the band who played classic 50s rock headed by a lead singer whose voice embodied Elvis. The bar has a train set which runs the length of the walls and is used to deliver tequila shots to the band members along with requests. The place was absolutely packed with people who got right into dancing and drinking and it was a really really fun night. 

The following morning we woke up to a world covered in snow - very pretty!!! And it has snowed at various points of our Munich stay which has been gorgeous. 
Our first proper day was the public holiday, which as I mentioned earlier is taken very seriously in Bavaria, so knowing nothing much would be open, we headed into town for some sightseeing. 

Southern Germany is a very traditional place. People wear traditional outfits to formal events, and the streets are peppered with Bavarian hats with hunting regalia or feathers in the brim. So it was no surprise to find a parade in the middle of Munich on the holy three kings day in honour of the original inhabitants of the area. Including a rather irritating man dressed as a court jester who was skipping around rubbing ash on the noses of unfortunate bystanders (including Jo who was actually chased by this strange character and ashed!!)



Munich has a gorgeous city centre.


We went past the world famous Hofbrauhaus  which is a beer hall where you can get traditional food and beer. But Niko steered us towards a different - way nicer beer hall in central Munich called the Schneider Weisse brauhaus where we drank delicious wheat beers and ate very traditional German food. My dish of five different sausages was an appetiser. Seriously. 

After a look around and a sizeable lunch, we headed back home for a few hours only. Turns out it was Tobi's 30th birthday that night (Tobi is Chris' friend who stayed with us in Bali in November) and he invited all of us to his birthday dinner at a Greek restaurant! So at 6pm, Chris picked us all up and took us out for a night of Greek wine, ouzo and grilled meats!!  I think we got back at midnight and I definitely felt the combination of beer hall and wine and ouzo by the end of night!!!

It's actually Jo and Nick's last day in Munich today (it's gone sooooo fast) and they are packing up as I type. So we had to pack quite a lot into our few days in Munich. So despite the excesses of the previous day, Jo and I got up at 9am yesterday and hit Munich's shopping streets for the day. Jo wanted to try and get some work suits and so we shopped for clothes and left Phil and Nick with a list of other items (good German knives being up the top of the list). The sales were incredible and we shopped from 10am - 3 pm without a break. 

By the time we caught up with Phil and Nick we were starving, and stopped for lunch. Which turned out to be a fortuitous energy burst because the shopping day had just started to crank up... We decided to head to Maximilianstrasse - the most expensive/ exclusive shopping strip in Munich. Just to have a look. That is until we found that Hugo Boss was having a 50% off everything sale. Coupling that with the amazing dip in the Euro/ surge of the AUD and the lower prices of Boss suits in Germany anyway, I think we all actually MADE money by buying up big. Phil bought, of his own volition, two suits, three shirts and a pair of pants. IN ONE GO. This is more clothing than he buys in an average year. Perhaps two years. I think his wardrobe is now a solid third of Boss. I am still pinching myself!!! Oh and by the time you convert the Euro to $$ and take away the VAT, it cost less than one Hugo Boss suit in Australia, on sale. Oh happy days!! Joelle has dubbed it the Tony Danza day (ie. who's the boss?). And it is hard to tell who is the boss since Jo and Nick also came out with a pile of sharp suits... And even a dressing gown!

And today has been pretty quiet but very Bavarian at the same time. Niko came by this morning with a packet of Weisswurst sausages which are traditionally eaten with pretzels and beer pre-midday. They were delicious and we would not have gotten ourselves organised if it hadn't been for Niko, our consummate Bavarian host!

Tonight the plan is to have a last dinner together at Kloister Andechs, a monestary that is also a brewery.

Phil and I are in Munich until Wednesday and then we head back to Bali to meet his dad and stepmother for a few days. 

BTW - apologies for the lack of emails to all. Will be remedied soon!!

- Posted using the beer that is now flowing through my veins