Chilling out in Jervis Bay. 3 weeks ago
Last stop in Italy
Leaving Italy for France, 2 days before arriving back in the UK.
Currently
Long time, no news. Last time I wrote here I was in europe somewhere, enjoying freedom and hating unemployment in equal measure. Now I’m hating employment and missing freedom. Grass is always greener eh?
Two weeks on Thailand on the way over were equally a mixed bag. On the one hand there was the desire to love in the moment and enjoy the new country and experiences, and in the other the stress and mild depression that the process of major change and upheaval brings. Not to mention all the money issues.
So now I have officially emigrated. I am now defined as a provisional resident of Australia and all that entails; and all the frustrations of living in a similar, but very different culture are becoming clearer. That’s a post for another time I think - I will start compiling a very long list of what to expect!
Flims Bypass
Ciampac from Sass Pordoi
The ciampac ski area from above, in the Dolomites. Can’t wait to go back in a few weeks time.
The Beast…
The car that has so far accrued the aforementioned stats. It’s now rolling with a top box too, so looks even bigger and fits in even fewer city height restricted car parks. Takes about 100 euro to fill it up, averages around 24 mpg and has gone through one battery to the tune of 280 euro. Help.
Stats One
In the absence of something interesting coming to mind to tell everyone, here are some stats to date from our in car GPS…
Total Moving Driving Time: 57:05
Max Speed: 86.6 mph (we *are* in a 12 year old diesel range rover)
Moving Average Speed: 42.7 mph
Total Distance: 2437.2 miles
Countries passed through: 5 (Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, in that order).
Places visited: Bruges, Arras, Chalet, Campitello, Neuchatel, Freiburg…
Not bad going so far.
European Travels - Part 1
Here’s a quick update of our adventures to date…
By mid December we packed up all our belongings and they were shipped off to Australia. At this time they are in a container somewhere - they are due to arrive in late Feb so the ship is probably somewhere around the Suez Canal by now. Who knows!
We then started a week long road trip down to our Chalet nr Morzine. We stayed a night in Bruges (nice canals and surprisingly close to the UK), two in Arras (some interesting war sites) and then arrived in time to pick up my little sis from Geneva airport. The week with her was nice, although she was mega stressed about exams post christmas, which sucked for her. Christmas and New Year passed uneventfully with some nice relaxed skiing and some not so nice family illnesses.
On the 4th January we moved on to Campitello di Fassa in the Dolomites… the 8 hour drive via the Mont Blanc tunnel and some loooong straight autostrada near Milan was interesting for some parts, boring as hell for others. So far Campitello has been fairly kind to us - Ski guiding work this week was minimal, allowing us some time to get our bearings again, and I’m pretty booked up next week which will be interesting - first time being let loose on my own. xAmanda’s sister and nephew will be arriving on thursday which should be fun. We’ll then leave Campitello next Monday and head back to France for some more skiing, then a road trip to Frankfurt via the Rhine valley for them to fly back to Sydney.
Some pics should follow soon. If anyone is interested in visiting us in France for a bit of a ski, the first and last weeks of Feb and late March is currently free, so get in touch.
Stunning.
via kottke
Tracks, Sea & Palm
Lisboa
Some Helvetica.