Righto, lets see if i can get this travel blog business up and running.

Firstly a recap of recent events:

Left cold, freezing Melbourne on Sat morning at the refreshing hour of 7:40am. Doesn't sound so bad unless you consider I was awake at 4am for last min packing and house check. Plus the customary trip back to the house to pick up the pillow i forgot (there's always something).

Anyway, so after an (almost) tearful goodbye to Simon (he drove me to the airport before dawn, what a lucky girl am i) I seemed to get every security check under the sun, passport check then explosives screen followed by a light frisk search. Do I look that dodgy people? Maybe my fancy trackie pants gave me a relaxed demenor......

First leg of flight, Melb to Hong Kong. Would have been almost pleasurable except for the screaming infant that broke into song at regular intervals. Thank god for the good headphones and 2 movies i got through.

After most of a day at Hong Kong airport i've drawn the following conclusions:

1) Not nearly as nice as Singapore, although i did get to play a bit of Mod Nation racers on the free PS3 in the food court.

2) It seems huge but you never know who you will run into. People such as the Fifers, Nathan and Calida, a couple from uni i haven't see in bout 2 years and were on my flight to London for their honeymoon.

Second leg, much more pleasant, actually got some sleep for a change so i arrived at 5am London time and, after an interrogation by a surly Heathrow passport controller I was on my way to the city (seriously, a girl travelling alone with no solid plans as what she's gonna do in London that was in Europe 2 years ago, I must be dodgy, also still in the trackie pants)

With Oyster card in hand I hit the underground train to get to my hostel. Took an hour longer than expected cause there was upgrade works being done on my line EXACTLY where i needed to change lines. The line i had to change to then had signal failure, seems the Tube doesn't take kindly to my type.

So, here i am, sitting in the hostel bar, can't check into my room till 2pm but at least they hold my bag for me. Free wifi and brekky is also appreciated. Just gotta decide on what to do first. Walking tour, night ghost tour, Tower of London, Hampton Castle and a pub crawl are all on the list. Lets see what happens.

Oh yes, and at least one theatre performance. Tossing up between Phantom of the Opera and Chicago. Lets see what the half price theatre ticket place offers me.

It seems I take on a few traditions for my European adventures. Since I tend to travel solo I always aquire a furry cute stuffed toy companion. So I now have Chuck the heart bear to keep me company. Watch for pics of Chuck at famous monuments.

Sorry guys, seems like a long blog to open with, they should taper off as I recover from jetlag and start to do some actual holidaying.

Till next time

Carlie (and Chuck)