Maastricht I

Ha ha! (Inside Joke with D&Y ;-))

I had a blast with Yvonne and Dolly in Maastricht this week-end! It has been nearly as long as we have known them (nearly 5 years) that we said we would go to Holland with them. D&Y are our very good Dutch friends and "the parents" of Luna, Pashmina's best friend!

Well, this week end was the week end for me as we decided we to:

"Shop until we dropped" and we ate like pigs and drank like fish (litterly) HA!

I took 227 pictures with my Camera!

I did regret not taking Mark's camera because it is such a wonderful peace of equipement (thank you Amy for recomminding it) but I thought it was a little too big for a weekend out with the girls so I decided against it on Friday morning.

I must admit I was ever so reasonnable about the shopping...I bought 5 bunches of fresh tulips, 3 pots of white jacyinthes (I love the smell of them) , 3 pots of Muscaris and 6 of dark red helleborus (Christmas roses) one cannot resist buying flowers and bulbs in Holland. I also bought a light blue raw silk tie with some flowers for Mark, a lonely planet guide to India for us all, a fun thing for Easter for Bhavishya, some Dutch cheese for Mark and myself (Miss B being intollerent to Lactose) some beschuit and haagel (dark chocolate which is nicer because not too sweet and because it doesn't contain lactose) andsome Dutch cheese.

Oh and some fantastic magazine about gardining!

Voilà.

Planning your next holiday? Vos prochaines Vacances? bis

Well no one really seemed interested on my last post re "your next holiday"...shame...Let me tell you about it anyhow as I think it is a really cool concept and that if I was younger, a richer than I was when I was younger I would definitively do it...

This company called Ozbus operates a regular overland service for backpackers travelling between London and Sydney. It takes 12 weeks to get to destination and one crosses 20 different countries!!!

• On September 16, 2007 the first bus left London.



• On September 23, 2007, the first bus left Sydney.

This is their route:

Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Transylvania, Gallipoli, Istanbul, Turquoise Coast, Bam, Taj Mahal, Corbett Tiger Reserve, Kathmandu, Mount Everest, Bangkok, Ko Samui, Kuala Lumpur, Sumatra, Komodo, East Timor, Kakadu National park, Ayers Rock, Sydney (hence the pictures from my previous post regarding this subject). If you just click here you will find the detailed itinerary.

Picture of the bus (compliments from Oz-bus.com)

They seem to stop every night and use all kinds of "accomodation" varying from desert camps sites to hostels and guesthouses.

Appart from paying your trip (which is NOT cheap £3750 or AUS$9000) you will also need to assist in various chores such as market shopping for provisions, collecting firewood, washing up the dishes etc.

To be it seems a blast except if you have 1 (only 1) pest to ruin everybody's journey! And usually there is always one on those trips (sigh!)