Steve & Ella's Excellent Adventure

London - Architecturally and Historically Rich On Tuesday (the 29th May), we woke up with the sunshine's rays sneaking through our curtains! Excited with the prospect of some half decent weather we set out on our adventures earlier today and jumped on the tube headed back towards Westminster Abbey. Much to our dismay suddenly the rain began coming down again..Bummer! Still, by the time we reached Westminster it had stopped (perhaps at my subliminal request?) so recharged with enthusiasm we progressed to the abbey prepared to have a good look inside and snap a whole lot of pictures. Imagine how disappointed we were when we got there and discovered they were demanding an entry fee of £10. Crikey! Pouty and cranky, we turned up our noses and continued on foot hoping to return when we had our bank accounts set up and some money transferred over. By then our bellies were grumbling consistently, so we grabbed a bite to eat at a place called "Mmmm Toasty". I love how you can buy...

London - A Cultural Experience! Sunday (the 27th May), was a rainy, windy, cold and miserable day (Or so we thought! Keep reading..) We considered for a moment : "What can we do that will keep us warm and cosy? We know...let's go to the Museum of Natural History!" Unfortunately for us, the entire population of London, plus tourists had the same idea. *chuckles* Rugged up and ready to battle the weather, we marched ourselves out of our room and down to the tube station. "Phew, that wasn't too bad...just like Melbourne." We jumped off at Knightsbridge, because our tourist friendly map informed us that there was a HARROD'S there. Expecting to be rejected for our casual appearance were pleasantly surprised when the doorman opened the door and let us in. Very polite the British, they seem to have doormen everywhere you go! We wandered around for a while dreaming about what we would buy if we were rich, independent and royalty. A store definitely designed and...

LONDON - Off to see the Queen! After some good rest we set off for a big couple of days in London! On Day 1 (the 25th of May) we ventured out to find our way to NEW OXFORD ST. We jumped on the tube confident as ever. The tube here is amazing actually, it is SO EASY to get around and almost impossible to get lost. While you are on the train it tells you what the next stop is and what lines the next station can interchange to. When you come down the stairs at the station there are signs which tell you what side of the platform goes where and lists all the stations. The train goes really fast as well, not like Melbourne. It either goes underground or over bridges and roads so it never has to go through a rail crossing. We also noticed that there are NO overhead wires for an electrical connection to the train. There are extra rails on the line that obviously carry the power to the train somehow, after careful observation we realised the train has to touch both of these rails to complete th...

WELCOME TO LONDON! On Thursday the 24th May at approximately 1:30pm British Time, our plane landed smoothly at Heathrow Airport - LONDON! After a hideously long flight, we both couldn't wait to get off the plane and stretch our legs. At Heathrow airport, we had a quiet little chuckle to ourselves as we progressed to the line that said "UK Visa's" with hardly any people it because as we looked at the line for "ALL OTHER'S" it stretched for what seemed like miles. We were processed very quickly and progressed to the luggage reclaim area to get our luggage. After having nothing to declare we were out past customs and onto British Soil! We had this BRILLIANT idea to catch the "TUBE" from Heathrow (because you can actually do that!) to the destination of our shared living arrangements in Willesden Green. At Heathrow station we met up with some fellow Aussies from Melbourne as well and jumped on the tube in grand tourist style, hoping to know where ...

Hong Kong - DAY 1 & 2 So our last update was from our hotel room on a rather wet and dreary Tuesday morning... Mmmm after a bit of a rest we ventured out for DAY 1 in HONG KONG!! More observations from Hong Kong : 1) There are ALOT of one way streets and most of them very narrow. The shops also were very tiny almost on top of each other. Many of them seemed to be family businesses'. What we did notice is that many of the little shops had fish products in them..and heaps of shark fin!! Just about every second shop on the street was like this. Makes for a bit of a smelly neighbourhood. Also, they are very focused on herbs and herbal remedies, in between all the fish shops there were shops selling a whole lot of dry herbs. 2) Hong Kong seemed to have almost NO pharmacies. They have these neat little shops called WATSONS. You can get almost anything there. I went in there to get something for my travel sickness..and was shocked to find you could buy an oral contraceptive pill over...

WELCOME TO HONG KONG!! We did make it to HONG KONG....in fine style. After 9 hours flight..I was air sick and exhausted. I kept depositing nice warm sick bags to the stewardess after a while she refused to empty them anymore, so I passed them to Steve to remove. We both skipped dinner because I couldnt keep mine down and well Steve couldnt eat next to a vomit gromit! Thankgod for the chinese and their herbs.. JASMINE tea anyone? AS for the weather well when we landed it was muggy and hot and sticky at around 10pm. Hong Kong is NOTHING like you have ever experienced before. A few observations about HONKERS : 1) They just build anywhere they like! Need an extra road or ramp? We'll just build a concrete slab above the shopping district! SERIOUSLY! Right next to THE NOVOTEL : HARBOURVIEW, the street they originally built the place on you look out the window and then there is this ridiculous concrete ramp! God knows where it starts..I almost compare it to a rainbow, with no end and no ...