Greetings From Europe

[writeoff]

Hi Everyone,

This is an email I sent off to friends and family that I thought some of you may be interested in. I'll attach photos when I get back.

Greetings from Praha (Prague). Thought I'd drop a quick email to let everyone know that I'm still alive and doing ok. The trip has been long and tiring but filled with amazing sights. It seems so long ago that I arrived in London. Mum and Alan had just moved out of their London house having finalised the sale contract only 16 days earlier. 16 days proved not enough to pack up a lifetimes worth of stuff and they were helped out by a kind neighbour who allowed them to walk across the road and drop off garbage bags of stuff that still needed to be sorted through. Thus the starting date of our European adventure was delayed by a few days which they needed to sort through their gear. I used those days to catch up with Belinda Lester whom I went to uni with but hadn't seen since 1997 (thanks facebook). Belinda is doing well and has bought a place in London with her partner Trent. I also had a lengthy chat with Moni on the phone who had just returned from 4 days in Ibiza. She was a little under the weather so we didn't actually get the chance to meet.

I can't remember the exact starting date of our trip but we began by driving from London to Harwich where we caught an overnight ferry to Esberg, Denmark. From there we drove to the top of Denmark and caught another ferry from Frederikshavn to Goteborg, Sweden. Finally we spent some time sightseeing and the day in Goteborg was great with a bus tour, a habour tour from a boat and finally a trip to an amusement park where I went on rides and Mum and Alan spent the time in a restaurant listening to an Ompa band and drinking Swedish beer. The river cruise was the most interesting part

with some of the bridges so low that everyone had to get out of their seat and squat between the seats to pass under. The Swedes call one bridge the Cheese Grater and another the Hair Cutter. I'll have to show you the photos for you to appreciate just how low these bridges were - OH&S wouldn't allow these tours in Australia.

After 2 nights in Goteborg we jump back into Alan's Ford Mondeo and drove to Oslo, Norway. Norway is beautiful and I'd highly recommend a visit if you ever get the opportunity. We stayed at a ski resort which was expensive but had a amazing view of the city of Oslo below (no snow yet though) and of houses with grass on the roof! We spent a day walking around Oslo and taking in the sights such as the building the Noble Peace prize is presented in each year (the rest of the awards are presented in Stockholm) and were fortunate to see a public display of Steve Bloom's amazing wildlife photos. We went on another boat cruise to view some of Norway's Fjords but we were really on the wrong side of Norway to see the most beautiful Fjords that Norway has to offer.

After a couple of days in Oslo we then drove to Stockholm, Sweden. If you have ever been to Stockholm then you will know that the city is based on lots of small islands all connected by a maze of bridges. Needless to say we got lost and when we eventually found the hotel it turned out to be a hostel that Mum and Alan decided that they were too old for. We eventually found accommodation for one night but couldn't get any for the following night. So I was really disappointed but we only saw Stockholm from the car and after resting for the night drove to Lund, Sweden, which is next to the bridge that connects Sweden and Denmark. The next day in Kobenhavn (Copenhagen) we ran into the same difficulties in finding accommodation and eventually stayed in a small town called Jyllinge which is about a 30 minute drive west of Kobenhavn.

The hotel we stayed in was situated on the waterfront so we had a great view of the sun setting each night but never saw a brilliant sunset due to dark clouds every night. The hotel also had the best food and we ate dinner there every night because the food was sooo good. Another day was wasted in Denmark getting a refund from a tourist agency and trying to find a

laundromat to do some much needed washing but we did eventually get to see Copenhagen. A great city but I need more than 1 day to see it all. After 3 days in Jyllinge we jump into the car, again, and drove to Wernigerode in the old east Germany which is south east of Hannover.

Mum and Alan had been to Wernigerode twice before, over Christmas in 2005 and in May this year and had see it covered in snow and in full bloom. The place is amazing. It is like a town from a fairy tale. Lisa and Jess you would love it. Alan first found the place because it has an old steam train (he is a train nut - perhaps worse than how I am with cars). The old eastern

block of Germany is a strange place as a lot of German money has been spent restoring it since the reunification of Germany in 1989. The result of which is places that are really old in design and architecture but look new. I'll have to show you the photos for you to understand. We spent 5 days in Wernigerode during which time I caught the trains to Berlin twice (a 3.5

hour trip each way) and took a ride on the steam train to the old Soviet radio station on top of the highest peak in east Germany. Berlin was an amazing place and is another city that I have to return to. It is hard to imagine a place that is so alive with the daily hustle that 3.5 million people create and you walk one block over to a war memorial and everyone is walking about in near silence speaking only in hushed whispers. I really wanted to spend a night out in Berlin but that city was also full of visitors and no accommodation was available.

From Wernigerode we drove to Poznan, Poland. The idea of going to Poland was to go to Dabrowka, the town where the Modistach family originally came from before migrating to South Australia in 1844. After the beautiful autobahns of Germany we were in for a rude shook in Poland. The roads were poor (which the exception of a new motorway that we were told the Germans had build but I don't know if that is actually true) and the Polish drivers are suicidal. They would cross double white lines and overtake 4 cars and two trucks at a time forcing the oncoming traffic to swerve and use the emergency lane/shoulder. I can't believe that I didn't see a crash because the drivers were so crazy and unpredictable. We spent one day visiting Dabrowka which we nicknamed 'Modistach village' and saw the old castle and the grounds where the Modistach family had their house but is now a football (soccer) pitch and went to the cemetery were we found the headstones of 7 Modistachs. We spent one day walking around Poznan but decided to cut Warszawa (Warsaw) and Krakow from our journey as we were already 5-6 days behind schedule and the Polish roads were so poor and the drivers so bad. Alas we left the laptop in Poznan and have been waiting 5 days now for it to be sent to our hotel in Prague. Bloody useless Poles.

Prague is an amazing city that you HAVE to visit at some stage in your life. It seems like every building has history in its design and you spent the whole time taking photos. The castle looks like the one from Disneyland at night. Every tourist shop is full of amazing craftwork from the Czechs and it is nice to know that true craftsmen/women still exist where the stuff is

handmade. After 5 days in Prague we are heading off to Graz, Austria today. Accommodation has again been a problem but we have booked the next 2 nights in Graz so we can visit Wien (Vienna) and then head to Italy for Venice and finally Rome. I have booked a flight from Rome to London as we would never have made it back to the UK in time for me to catch my plane to Thailand.

I have tried the local beer from each country and still rank the German Weisbeir (wheat beer) on top followed by the Norwegian beer. Sweden definitely has the most attractive women followed by Poland. I haven't seen too many great cars but did see a Bugatti Veyron in the dealership in Berlin, about 5 hot Corvettes in Stockholm, some Porsche 911s overtaking us

at 200+kmph on the German autobahns, the new Audi R8 in London, stacks of Bentleys and Ferrari 360, 430 and 599 and a Dodge Viper in Praha. Mum just told me they saw a Pagini Zonda whilst I've been typing this email. I will try and visit Maranello in Italy to see the home of Ferrari. So far we have driven 4477km + 2 ferry rides and of cause the flight to London to begin with. Meanwhile my GTR engine rebuild continues and I get updates via email. Hopefully it will be fully ready upon my return.

I hope you are all well. I was sorry to hear that the Crows lost but hopefully Glenelg will do ok. I have taken about 700 photos (David and Scott would be proud) so far and can bore some of you when I return.

Have fun!

David aka writeoff

Edited September 14, 2007 by writeoff

[ISC-Performance]

Hey David, Good to see your keeping busy! Shity shnity night has dropped a few members with Chris in Melbourne any you in Europe.

Catch up soon, Ryan + Bek

[Madaz]

omg that 3 pages of words 1683 to be exact

ill just say hello from Australia and pretend i read it

[HOSTILE]

Hey David, sounds great... I was over there for six weeks about 18 months ago. My fave spots were Austria and Holland, tho I never got to Prague.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the trip...

Will have to check out the GTR when you return.

Cheers, Martin.

[*flick*]

Hey Dave! Jess says to say hello and she misses u lol. Oh and it was her Birthday today, hope u remembered! Send her a text or something!

[writeoff]

omg that 3 pages of words 1683 to be exact

Yeah my 'quick' email became quite lengthy. We were waiting in the hotel lobby for the laptop to arrive and kept getting told it was 10 minutes away. 2 hours later it turned up. I did miss heaps of stuff like tthe hotel TV blowing up and setting off all the alarms at 6am in Prague and other little bits of useless info that make up a journey like this. We're in Austria now in a place called Graz and leave for Italy tomorrow.

Seeya