Today was Laura's 26th birthday! We got up at 8:30 and filled up on the free breakfast - scrambled eggs on toast and pancakes! Laura checked Facebook and email to read all of her birthday messages, and couldn't believe how many she had - thanks everybody!

On the bus to the zoo, Laura opened her card from me and was suitably impressed! We had a fantastic day at the zoo looking at all of the animals (too many to mention here...we'll fill you in when we get back!) and did a bus tour around the park to see it all - it was huge! Lunch was expensive but Ok and Laura bought some postcards to send to the babies back at home. More to follow next itme we're online...

Right, it's Laura now taking over from Dave...

By the time we got back from the zoo we were exhausted so we tried to sleep but were kept awake by one of the Aussie girls in our room talking on the phone. After getting ready to go out we sat on the porch of the hostel for a while writing out our postcards and then headed towards the beach to find somewhere nice for my birthday meal! We found a nice looking restaurant right on the beach and ordered a bottle of wine since it was a special occasion - usually we order the cheapest beers on the menu! We made a good choice with the restaurant as each main meal came with a starter of soup or salad, and a choice of 2 side dishes. The food was really nice and portions were huge as always. We were quite full after the mains but as it was my birthday I was determined to have a pudding!

After dinner we went to an Irish bar for a few drinks and then to a cocktail bar for a VERY strong pear martini which took us about an hour to drink. After that we went back to the hostel and to bed, after an amazing 26th birthday for me :)