Well, in order to save some money we decided to drive through Albania to get down to Greece, despite having read nearly everywhere I looked that it was not advisable due to the atrocious road conditions and kamakazi drivers.... and believe it or not that is exactly what it was like... Probably two of the most nerve racking days of the trip as we drove across the border from beautiful Montenegro where the only hassle from the border control was having to pay 10 euro 'police' tax and getting asked if I wanted their phone number...

We were staying the night in Durres which was only about 200km away but it took us about 5 hours as the main highway through the country was purely mud and potholes, cows and crazy drivers...

It was an interesting place and so different from anywhere else in Europe, it felt like we were on a completely different continent. Though the people that we did meet were incredibly friendly and despite the stress it was a worthwhile change in plans... It was a big relief though when we crossed in to Greece and came across a nice, brand new motorway that wasn't on the map!!

Our last day in Croatia and our last night with Alfie and Jen, we have had a day of torrential rain and thunder storms so that has given me a chance to upload a few photos of the last week.

We caught the ferry to the island of Brac of the coast near Split where we spent a couple of beautiful warm days. Hired a boat and went off to find a nice quiet beach for a picnic and a swim to cure the hangovers, and after a few attempts (the first being fly infested) we managed to find a nice little cove.

Then we caught the ferry back to the mainland to Markaska, nice little town but not much to do except gorge ourselves on seafood and wine... We spent 3 nights there and were ready to move on by the last day down to Dubrovnik. The weather has not been the best but still a beautiful city... Spent most of yesterday watching the football in the pub after making the most of a bit of sun to see the city...

Heading off to Greece next and have decided to drive through Albania to save some money and see somewhere different so it we'll be heading to Durres on the coast tomorrow...

Well, at the moment we are in Split in Croatia waiting to catch a ferry across to Brac island to meet up with Jen and Alfie for a few days… Since I last wrote we have traveled along the Italian Riviera and then up to Venice where we stayed a little longer than anticipated as we met a friendly English couple who ended up sitting up all night drinking wine with us, so we were forced to spend a whole day lying by the pool to recover..

We then spent a few days in Bled in Slovenia which was beautiful. We hired some bikes and went for a day ride into to the Julian Alps national park. I made it most of the way and then wasn’t feeling the best so took the easy way out and took the train back while Si spent two hours riding up a 18% grade hill…

We then drove down and stopped off at some amazing caves, Skockan Caves

After that it was on to Croatia we spent a morning at the Plitvice lakes before heading down to Sivenik for a night..

Anyways, I have managed to add a few random photos below, and I say random as there is no way for me to view them here for some reason so I have just randomly clicked on some files and what is there is there… Better than nothing though I suppose..

Anyways, time for some food before we catch the ferry…

Well, we are now in the south of France on the coast between Nice and Cannes and not doing much at all except enjoying being back by the sea in the warm weather again. Found a great camping ground and have today not really moved from the pool except to have Si beat me by one stroke in mini golf...

So it also looks like I won't really get this all updated until I get back to Oz, where I will put everything in more detail and with photos..

But a quick recap of the last few weeks.. After Poland we came through Czech Republic, which was beautiful stopping in the Ardspach-Trelice National Park, then onto Prague where I caught up with Vitek again and then down to Cesky Krumlov which was beautiful.

Next stop was Austria, first in Salzburg and the to Innsbruck where we did some fantastic hiking. Then it was on to Switzerland where we spent nearly all out time in Lauterbrunen which was just amazing.

And that brings us to France, and with that I will log off as this keyboard is driving me nuts and the wine has been opened...

Just arrived in Poland yesterday... Am trying to get some phots up but all the connections are awfully slow... Well, that, and the fact that we have been a little lazy when it comes to making the effort to seek out internet cafes....

Will try to get some up at some point!!

After leaving all the guys in Landskrona we started making our way to Stockholm. We made a two night stop in Granna (on a beautiful lake whose name I will add in later when I remember it) to relax after a few ig nights out. After that it was on to Stockholm where we stayed with Troy's brother Jacob who showed us round some of the less known spots of the city.

Stockholm was beautiful and the main harbour itself in a way reminds me of Sydney, though it would be completely different in the winter. We didn't the usual siteseeing and also spent an afternoon doing a boat trip through all the city islands as well as out to part of the archipelago which is made up of more than 14,000 islands.

After waking up to a rainy morning in Copenhagen we packed up Norm once more and hit the road for Sweden. I was looking forward to crossing the famous bridge between the two countries with a bit better weather but unfortunately it was not to be. The bridge itself was impressive nonetheless.

Our first stop was to be Landskrona, a smallish town on the sea which was the location for the 2006 'European' AFL tournament which the guys frokm the Dublin Swans were coming across to play in and worked in well with our plans to be able to catch up with the old crew (Damo, Bryce, Jase, Kat, Dom).

Great couple of days, despite having to drink warm beer due to the bizzare swedish drinking laws... Stayed in a very cheap camping site on the beach before having to say our farewells once again before they were all back off to Dublin and we hit the road for Stockholm.

After leaving the quite spot in Faaborg and the crazy Danish drivers on the motorways, we hit Copenhagen and made our way to the campsite in Brondbyoster. The next few days were spent exploring the city, in the heat. The first day found us in search of a beach after a few hours checking out the city and after a minor detour via the airport we found the one we were looking for with views across the water to Sweden and the bridge joining the two countries.

Our second day was not much more productive as we hit the Calrsberg Brewery which was far less touristy and far more impressive then the Heinken Experience in Amsterdam. The highlight of course being the bar at the end, where instead of just a choice of standard Carslberg there was a selection of more than 16 beers, most of them only brewed on site. Needless to say, we spent a good few hours there, made friends with a russian girl and then all made our way to Tivoli, the amusement park in the centre of the city...

After stuffing myself full of steak tartare when we stopped in a small town for lunch en route to Belgium my stomach decided it wasn't terribly happy so I spent the day in Ypres and visiting the war memorials curled up in the back of the van a little worse for wear...

I was still struggling when we got to Bruges and as such didn't get to watch those cheating Italians win the world cup, though I did have Si coming back to the van every half hour to tell me what a great game I was missing..

The next day I had made a miraculous recovery as we hit the town and managed to stuff ourselves full of mussels and tasty belgian beer

The 5th of July and we were on the ferry waving goodbye to the white cliffs of Dover and thankful more than anything of getting out of the UK without having any hassle about Norm not having passed his MOT... All we really had time for was a quick beer and then we were off the boat again and into France.

With no real plans we decided to head down the coast and hope to find some where peacful by the beach to camp for the night... After a bit of stress and a lot of indecision we came across exactly that, in Stella Plage we camp across a bizzare little camp ground tucked in behind the sand dunes (and very cheap!). So our first night in France, we sat on the beach drinking cheap red wine out of our plastic wine glasses and watched the sun set

Next day and we were off to Paris where we found our camp ground with only a little bit of stress due to some divertions and misleading no right turn signs... We had 3 nights there and it was nice to be somewhere for a few days. We had some great weather as we took in the usual sights, the Louvre, Eiffel tower, Arc de Triumpfe, etc, etc... more cheap wine in the evenings at our site on the edge of the Seine (much cheaper that the 4 euro glasses on beer in town!) and fresh baguettes and jam for breakfast.. Also saw France beat Portugal to book themselves a place in the final....

Next stop was Le Quesnoy, a very strange town in northern France where the boys had wanted to visit as, on 4 November 1918, it was liberated by New Zealand forces from four years of German occupation. Whilst a pretty little town, the camp ground was a bit of trailer park full of children, dogs, dirt bikes and a jumping castle... Still we got to wander down Rue de Helene Clark and check out the memorial to the NZ soldiers...

Next stop... Belgium..