After picking up our brand new Peugeot and playing with all the pretty lights & buttons, we hit the road down to Orleans. Wacky hijinks ensued as I missed turn-offs, competed with angry French drivers, entered round-abouts from the wrong direction, drove on the wrong side a few times and had a complete freak-out at a toll booth to a toll road that took us miles away from where we were meant to be going! But after a night in the truck stop that is Orleans, w...

Arriving in Paris we made our way to our small but perfectly formed flat in Montmarte, passing beautiful buildings, walking up narrow cobbled streets and past the cutest little shops, bakeries and restaurants. "Oh I just can't believe I'm in Paris!" was about all I said for the first 3 days, poor Darren, but it's hard not to be blown away by this city of cities. And at 29, to be here with the one I love was a dream come true… although the fairy-tale vision I'...

Since arriving in Belfast airport to an impressive welcoming party (consisting of Clare's Mum, Dad & brother complete with "welcome home" helium balloon) most of the time here has involved either having a pint of beer or cup of tea in hand enjoying the volatile Northern Irish weather. Sunny & mild one minute… wind & hail the next. Luckily, Melbourne has trained us well for this. Admittedly we were supposed to be driving around Europe by now, but...

On 15th of April 2013 we hit the road (or sky) to begin our epic gap year of travel, first stop: Tokyo. Though merely a stop-over and an excuse to break up the long flight from Brisbane to London, Tokyo turned out to be a bit of an eye-opener! We had done little to no research on what we were going to do during these 4 days, so we just made it up as we went along (I've got a feeling that will become a continuing theme in this blog). The only thing we did boo...