European Adventure

Gallery: Oktoberfest

jen_gillam — Sat, 3 Oct 2009 23:17:00 GMT

Gallery: Madrid, Spain

jen_gillam — Sat, 3 Oct 2009 23:08:00 GMT

Gallery: Valencia, Spain

jen_gillam — Sat, 3 Oct 2009 22:57:00 GMT

Gallery: Barcelona, Spain

jen_gillam — Sat, 3 Oct 2009 22:45:00 GMT

Gallery: Nice, Monaco & Cannes, France

jen_gillam — Sat, 3 Oct 2009 22:27:00 GMT

Gallery: Orvieto, Florence & Pisa, Italy

jen_gillam — Sat, 3 Oct 2009 22:15:00 GMT

Gallery: Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri & Amalfi Coast, Italy

jen_gillam — Sat, 3 Oct 2009 21:38:00 GMT

Gallery: Rome, Italy

jen_gillam — Sat, 3 Oct 2009 20:36:00 GMT

Gallery: Lake Como, Italy

jen_gillam — Wed, 2 Sep 2009 21:22:00 GMT

Gallery: Milan, Italy

jen_gillam — Wed, 2 Sep 2009 20:51:00 GMT

Italy, France and Spain

jen_gillam — Tue, 1 Sep 2009 19:42:00 GMT

I'm not going to write a long story about every detail about every place I visited. Just a brief outline of where I went and what I saw.

Depart London 31 July

Milan - 31 July to 1 August

Duomo, Montenapoleone shopping district

Lake Como - 1 to 4 August

Menaggio, Varenna, Bellagio
Lake Maggiore - Laveno, Intra, Isola Madre, Isola Bella, Pallanza

Venice - 4 to 7 August

St Mark's Square & Basilica, The Rialto Bridge, Lido, gondola ride, Accademia Bridge, Maria della Salute church, The Bridge of Sighs

Rome - 7 to 10 August

Vatican museums, St Peter's Basilica, Palatine, Roman Forum, Colosseum, Piazza Novona, Palazzo Madame, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps

Italian Adventure - 10 to 12 August

Pompeii, Sorrento, Island of Capri (Blue Grotto, Green and white grottos, Capri town), Positano, Praiano, Amalfi, Ravello

Rome - 12 to 14

Florence - 14 to 17 August

Orvieto on the way to Florence. Galleria dell' Accademia (Michaelangelo's David), Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Santa Croche church, markets, Piazza dell Michaelangelo

Nice - 17 to 20 August

Pisa on the way to Nice. Monaco and Cannes

Barcelona - 20 to 23 August

Montjuic, Catedral de Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Port Vell, Christoper Colombus monument, beach, markets, spanish cooking class

Valencia - 23 to 27 August

Cathedral & Holy Grail, markets, Jardines del Turia, beach, Water and Wine festival, La Tomatina

Madrid - 27 to 30 August

Mercado San Miguel, Plaza Mayor, Catedral La Almudena, Palacio Real, Parque del Buen Retiro, Plaza de Santa Ana, Puerta del Sol, Plaza de la Villa, Plaza de Oriente

Gallery: Windsor Castle

jen_gillam — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:27:00 GMT

Gallery: Henley Royal Regatta

jen_gillam — Mon, 6 Jul 2009 20:55:00 GMT

Henley Royal Regatta

jen_gillam — Mon, 6 Jul 2009 20:36:00 GMT

I felt very English being at the Henley Regatta. The lush green hills in hte background, people with their picnics sitting on the edge of the Thames drinking Pimms. Lizzie, Simon, Stacey and I arrived by train. And we also found a nice spot on the river to have our picnic. Sunday was finals day, so we were watching the best. Crews from all over the world, one crew from Melbourne Grammar. To our surprise there were only two crews per race. The Thames is quite narrow so I guess this is all they could accommodate. Sometimes it wasn't much of a contest. Following each race was an umpires boat. Filled with about 10 people, some just there to look, other standing with clipboards and stop watches looking very officious. There were lots of other boats, from paddle steamers to smaller row boats, travelling up and down the river. We were lucky enough to have the sun shining all day, which made for a beautiful day in the English countryside.

Gallery: Ascot Races

jen_gillam — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:33:00 GMT

Ascot Races

jen_gillam — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:35:00 GMT

A - A lot of preparation involved: dress, shoes, fascinator and matching accessories

S - Saw the Queen, not once but twice. She was wearing a lovely lavender, blue colour. She never seems to look any older.

C - Caught a bus there instead of battling with the thousands on the train. Thanks Lizzie for organising it all.

O - Overpriced, yes. But it was good fun.

T - Tried to win some money with no success.

Gallery: Greenwich

jen_gillam — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:43:00 GMT

Brighton

jen_gillam — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:00:00 GMT

After a rushed trip to the station, Stace and I got on the train to Brighton on Friday 12th June. It only took about 1 hour. It was my first weekend out of London since I'd arrived so I was really looking forward to it. Walking down the road to our hostel all you could see was the ocean it was great. Our hostel, the Seadragon was quite good for what we paid! After craving fish and chips on the way there, we met up our friend Cass who had also come down to Brighton. We went to a place that the guy at the hostel reccommended, a bit overated, but still nice. Saturday was a beautiful day. We met with Cass and another friend Hayley, who had come down that morning, and walked along the beach and the pier. The pier was not as nice as it could be. It was filled with fast food and rides and games for children. We wondered around the streets looking the boutique shops. We really needed to sit down so we hired two deck chairs on the beach. The beach isn't sand either, its pebbles. Not all that comfortable to sit on. We also got a couple of jugs of Pimm's and just sat on the beach watching the world go by. For dinner we decided to go the Jamie Oliver's restaurant. After waiting quite a while, an hour, we had the most delicious meal. Breads, dips, pasta, dessert and wine. It was definately worth the wait. Sunday morning Stacey and I got breakfast at at cafe down the road and ate it sitting on the deck chairs on the beach, so nice. It was another lovely day as well. We met up with Hayley and Cass and just wondered around for the day. We were so lucky to have sunny weather as it made it such a great weekend away!

Transport for London

jen_gillam — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:32:00 GMT

After only doing 3 days of supply teaching, I had an interview with Transport for London in the Safety and Citizenship department. I was successful and had a training day on 24th May and started full time the following week. The job involves going to schools and doing 1 hour presentations to year 6 students abou safety and citizenship on London's transport networks. Its not a very organised place, which most people will know, that annoys me!! But anyway, the first week was very busy. I reckon I went to three new places each day, travelling all over London. So much info was fired at me it was quite a brain drain. Last week I got signed off which means I can go into schools and do presentations by myself. Today was the first time, a good but bad day. Lets just say is good to be able to walk out of the school after one hour and know its highly unlikely you'll ever be back there!! I have to carry about heaps of equipment: tiny computer, projector, cords etc. which are quite heavy. But TFL do pay for my transport which is expensive. Also they have this great 30min rule. If you can't get back into the office for atleast 30 mins before you're meant to finish (for me its 4pm) then you can go straight home from where you are. So today I got in the door at 3.45, pretty good really. Although, tomorrow I have to be on the tube at 7.10am. Its a really great way to see lots of places around London. At this stage I'm working for them until the summer holidays, end of July, hopefully it will be extended.

Gallery: Around London

jen_gillam — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:08:00 GMT