Hong Kong

Yeah Hong Kong was different to Europe but pretty cool. It was warm humid and smoggy. In the two nites we were there we got to cram a fair bit in like catching a 'cable car' as they call them or chairlift to the biggest buddha in the world, went on a day bus trip around the whole place to the highest mountain in the country and stopped by a waterfront village which was pretty good and fairly clean by their standards. All the people outside our hotel constantly try to sell us suits.

Headin' back...

We're about to leave London now for a 12hour flight to Hong Kong. Flight leaves at 830 tonite so me and Chris prob wont get any sleep on the plane and go 24hour straight without sleep again. Andy will get minimum of 7hours sleep on the plane. Big Baby so tired....

Steve plays for Chelsea

Steve made it into the team photo for Chelsea today before they ran out and lost to Liverpool 1-0 at home. Just sitting in the front row between John Terry and Frank Lampard

Where's Mum?

"Where's Mum we need someone to clean up for us"

"Doesn't matter, no need to use glad wrap the tuna pasta will be ok"

Thorpe Park

Yesterday me and Chris went to Thorpe Park one of the most insane theme parks in the world! I forget the names of the rides but they had 4 big rollercoasters that went upside down! One was bigger than tower of terror on Gold Coast and it went up and then down. Then there was one the had a world record 10 corkscrews in it. Then there was the flyswatter one where your sitting like on a pirate ship except it flips you upside down forwards and backwards about ten times - that was the worst one. The only downside was that the lines were massive for it and 95% of the people in the park were 15-16yo local kids who are all feral and smoke and act like they are 25yo's. It took nearly 2hours to get on the tower of terror ride. Oh and instead of buying the photos at the end we just took photos of the photos and while we were on the ride we stuck our rude fingers up at the cameras. By the end of the day they were actually banning our photos off the screen!

Our Tour Group

Yep this was our tour group that we were stuck with for two weeks throughout eastern europe. Its possibly the ugliest mass gathering of people ever seen except for the two boys up the back. Steve was too hungover from the nite before in Belarus so he missed the photo so he go superimposed next to Chris. Thats why hes bigger and darker than everyone else. Jenny Kangars is two to the right of Andy in the back row - she wished she could be Andys new wife. There is also quite a few other lookalikes in the group for you to spot including: Aunty Andrea, Von Ryan off All Saints and Chris Pontius our tour guide. See who else you can spot...

Maggie and Tammy have been replaced

Outside one of the palaces near StPetersberg we found a stray Maggie and Tammy that we were going to give a home but they were pretty feral. Today in Hyde Park London there was a whole pack of Labradors that were wrestling together on the lawn with their owners. The chocolates name was 'Fudge' who had a kiwi expate as an owner. Dad cant remember what our dogs look like anymore but they still look the same over here...

ANDY ON THE EYE!!!

"They do nothing for me" was his excuse for not going on the Geelong Show ferris wheel, then he chickened out on the Sydney Harbour Bridge walk now finally Andy has faced his greatest fear of heights and gone on the London Eye! He had to have a nervous toilet break on the way in. Then he spent most of the first half trying to send Mum a text message which we found out they disable all phones due to terrorists while your on it. It takes about half an hour to do a lap and the pod things that you are in dont shake at all so its a pretty calm ride. As long as you pick a sunny day like we did you get to see everything aswell so it was pretty good.

London Highlights pt.2

Yeah so the highlights we saw were Big Ben, The Eye, London Bridge, Thames Bridge, St. Pauls Cathederal, Buckingham Palace and a few other ones that were probably important but I cant remember (we've seen so many palaces and museums in the last few weeks!!!) all this while touring through all of the Monopoly streets as we went. Trafalgar Square and The Strand were probably the biggest while Mayfair didnt seen all that special to be worthy of the most expensive piece on the board...

London Highlights

Well after flying in Sunday arvo, Monday we just went bang bang bang with all the sights to see of London. The underground train system over here looks super complicated but if you pay attention its ok. We caught a train to Big Ben and The Eye ferriswheel and went on that then caught an open roof double decker bus to see the sights of the city....

Clean wash

13days in we have a washing machine now...

"No more skids or itchy flakes , that smells clean, life is good again"

London!

Yeah well we spent another day in Helsinki then caught a plane back to London where we are staying now in Earls Court. Once again the laptop is being a piece of crap with internet connecting so I am in a Internet Cafe. Everysecons shop has free or cheap internet however the laptop is just a piece of crap so i cant upload any photos. Its 1pm we mite be catching a train to Big Ben and The Eye ferris wheel soon coz its a sunny day outside...

Back to Latvia for just a sec.....

The Latvian army (all 5 of them!) is patrolling the streets looking for future recruits... I think they can see some good potential in this video

Estonia

After Latvia we went to Estonia for just over 24hours and got a taste of what it is like. More palaces and churches blah blah blah. Estonia has about 1.5million people and they have their own native language but half of them are ok at english. Me and Chris went out clubbing and found a really good strip of nighclubs where we actully got to talk to people our own age and in english for once. Andy got boozed up with Charlie in the hotel nightclub where the had a Elvis cover band playing. Today we caught the ferry back to Helsinki Finland across the Baltic Sea. Tomorrow arvo we leave for London again for 10days. Its been pretty hectic this Trafalgar tour the last 2weeks so it'll be good to get some free time and take it easy in London.

Short Point

Its the original king and princess of Latvia. As you can see their baby turned out white and same with all the future generations of Latvia

Archituctual Highlights of Riga Latvia

Yeah theres a little bit in 'old town' Riga thats survived or was reconstructed after the bombings and wars that theyve been through. They have even tried to copy Sydney harbour. Andy reckons that Riga has been the highlight of the trip so far but I would rate St.Petersberg and Helsinki as better places hahahaha.

Clothing Crisis

"I have to open my suitcase and sniff everything inside"

11days in and no-one has done any washing yet. "Doesn't matter I'll wear this pair for the 3rd time!"

Andy's lost his Latvian

After 8years Dad is no longer fluent in Latvian. He had no idea how to order 'Balsan Black' which is the local shot of alcohol which tastes like crap. (The video is a pretty big file i think). So far the weather has been awesome in Latvia around 16C which feels like around 23C Victorian weather which is just perfect and sunny. We've done a tour of downtown Riga and done a bit of shopping. The people in Riga are all just like Dad - fiesty, in a hurry, and do anything for money. There are no asains, blacks, muslims or gay people in Riga. There is also heaps of property for sale outside of Riga and nearly every house we have seen has a Foxtel Dish - Im pretty sure their favourite show would be SKY NEWS!!!

Also just tonite about 2blocks away Latvia played Israel in an official World Cup Qualifier Soccer. In the 89th minute Latvia scored a goal to steal a 1-1 draw after being dominated all game. We think it was this countries 'John Aloisi moment' by the way they behaved afterwards. We're about to go join the hooligans on the streets now wearing our Latvian shirts! LATVIA LATVIA!!!

Hill of Crosses Lithuania

After Belarus Lithuania was a bit of a rest time. The main highlight was the 'Hill of Crosses' which looks like a good place for a heavy metal video. Back in the day the Lithuanians viewed a cross as a sword being planted in the ground which is a sign of peace. Then along came religion in this area and the views of the cross kinda changed. There are over 40,000 crosses on the hill now dedicated to someone that has died. Normally everyone that visits the site throws a cross in but we had no-one to make one for really so we just threw coins in the well...

Quick update...

Once again the laptop is being a piece of crap! Everytime we get free Internet it decides not to work. Im on a free computer in the lobby at the moment in Lithuania so i cant upload any photos... But to fill you in on the last few days... We left Moscow on Sunday morning for a 700km trip to Minsk, Belarus. We only stayed one nite in Belarus but boy was it a big one! We got boozed up big time on vodka with Charlie the Irish guy on our tour and well to keep it simple we all cant remember most of the nite the next day! Theres quite a few funny photos/videos to upload though. "Your only in Belarus once!" was the motto I think. Then yesterday we drove to Lithuania which was only 1.5hours away but I was sick on the bus the whole way. Then I slept most of the day and missed the tour but Chris reckons there wasnt much on it. We leave for Riga, Latvia at 1pm and are staying there for 2 nites so no doubt we will get boozed up again and Andy can speak Latvian to the locals...

cya
steve

Random funny palace stuff

Where does Russias priorities lie...

Heres on for youse... bottle of water 49roubles, cheap bottle of vodka 49roubles. 20roubles equals $1 Aussie. So you can get drunk for about $5 if you like vodka like the Russians. Everyone drinks and smokes in public non stop everyday. Shot with breakfast, lunch and dinner is common over here.