4 countries, 2 days...

But unfortunately no stamps in my passport... Silly open borders of the EU!

Well, my adventures were fun! Italy was stinking hot, Switzerland was raining and now Austria is a combination of the two!

The LONG drive on Friday, not too bad, long, but bearable, didn't get carsick, wahoo! Discovered sleep is the best prevention against that - I slept for a lot of the drive!

Arrived in Fumane in Italy, in time for lunch, ate tortellina that the rellies there cooked (just for me!). Rellies were Hannah and Hugo, Hugo is my host mother's brother. We hung round there for a while, I pulled faces at the 6 year old boy, son of the cousin of Bibi (yes, it was a little bit of a Spaceballs scenario, saw that in German by the way) then went on to our lodgings! The coolest place ever! Very cute! Fumane is about 20 minutes drive from Verona, and this was the most italian hotel you could imagine! Only one person workign there spoke English, the (rather good looking and Italian) son of the owner, so we did lots of sign language and stuff with the lovely owner! I think she loved the fact I was Australian! Bibi and I were left there, while Fritz and Magrete stayed with business important people for 2 nights in Verona, so we spent our evenings at Hugo and Hannah's, which meant ghetting fed lots of icecream!

On Saturday, we were supposed to catch the bus into Verona, but were a little unsure of how or where or how much or anything, so we asked a couple of German visitors who ewre also going to Verona (they were very nice, and I felt it was ok to ask, after praying for protection), so we got into Verona. It was about 38 degrees when we arrived, so we wandered, slowly, around, saw the Arena (the colleseum of Verona), Juliet's grave, the Romeo and Juliet balcony, and other nice old buildings (alhtough I'm starting to get a little old buildinged-outed now!). Because it was so hot we only managed about 4 hours, including lunch with Magrete and Fritz and their friends. Then we went back to the hotel, watched tv (in Italian) for a while (even the ads were funny!) then went to the rellies.

Sunday we slept in, then went for lunch at a pizza and pasta place (mmmm, gnocci) then went back for an afternoon sleep (it was just SOOOOO hot!) then back to the rellies! Did so much really! The one event was that a waitress accidently spilled an espresso in Hannah's lap, to which I think I was the only one feeling really sorry only for the waitress. I know it's not a nice thing to happen, but it does, and the poor waitress (Bibi says Maria once spilled a whole bowl of spag bol down someone, from chin to legs type of thing, I think that's far worse). Anyway, that was really the biggest thing that happened!

MOnday we packed, had breakfast, said goodbye to the laovely owner, wrote in the guestbook, drove onto Switzerland, over a whole heap of mountains! So much fun, I wanted to get out toeh car and go for a bushwalk in the mountains - just make one feel like doing outdoorsy stuff! Definately going back there! Was 30ish degrees at the bottom, 10 where we originally stopped to eat (too windy, went down a bit further). Switzerland was beautiful, reminded me of what you see of britain on tv! Lots of window boxes and flags!! Imo K is very lucky to be working there! The german is munted though.... Got to our hotel, went out for dinner (spag. cabonara... mmm!) then watched fireworks! It was the National Holiday, for liking your country type of thing, and it is legal to set off any fireworks you like here!! Looking forward to New Years now! There were so many different shows all over the place, and we had a perfect view of about 3 from our hotel window. Filmed a bit on my camera, before the battery died! Watched Dead Ringers on BBC, finally some british comedy (not the best, I'll agree, but still good for a starved girl!)....

Tuesady we had about an hour in Basel, while Fritz had a meeting, but it was raining, so we sat in a cafe for most of it. Will definately have to return to Switzerland! Drive home was fairly plain, 7 hours though. Slept a bit, listened to lots of cds, including Findet Nemo (understood most of it) and we stopped at a autobahn cafe place. Saw a few brits driving right hand drives on the autobahns... Looked kinda funny, and now I can't decide which side is the correct side! Freakiest thing was when I was (for some reason, can't remember now) listing what sports i've participated in over the years, fell asleep (or dozing) on Canoe Polo. Woke up and literally the first ting i saw was a car with 3 kayaks on the top..... Mildly weird!

So that meant I was in Italy, Switzerland and Austria, but what was the 4th country? Lichtenstein? No, not quite (we drove past thoguh)... It was Germany, because you have to drive through germany to get from one part of Austria to the other - too hilly for autobahns in that part of Austria!

Well overall it was good. Watching Hornblower and Ghostbusters in Italian was funny, as was driving around in the car of Hannah. She has a (I think) Megane cabriolet thing, which does a very cool thing wehen the lid folds up! We drove around Fuman at midnight in that, and were whistled at by Italian boys (ohlala!)... Although we think they were actually whistling at the car...

Well, must be off, have to go and buy a bag before the shop closes (is like my kathmandu blue small bag but bigger and therefore better for sightseeing), but must first decide whether I want the lilac or the red.... thik the red.... will match my new shoes!

Now I really want to go and see a movie, tempting to go and see Somersault (the aussie one, in English at one of the arthouse cinemas) but not entirely sure where it is, maybe tomorrow! Maybe I'll see Mr and Mrs Smith, or Batman Begins instead...

Hooroo then, Prague next week! Yay!