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Well my trip has come to an end and I'm back to life in Ireland again. What a great year with so many experiences. From waiting tables in Perth, to road trips in the outback, the wilderness of tasmania, new years fireworks on Sydney harbour, festivaling it at the Big day out in Auckland, learning Spanish in Santiago, enjoying a futbol game in Buenos Aires, feeling the mist from Iguazu falls, carnivalling it in Oruru, Bolivia, teaching kids in Peru and finaly the 3 day journey to the hidden city Macchu Picchu.

Met some great people along the way, so many went out of their way to make the trip unforgettable. Thanks to Diana and Kahina for getting me through those waitressing shifts, to all at KPMG Perth for making me feel so welcome for my time there, to Brigid for a great christmas Palm Beach, to Tobbes, Rosie & Aoife for a inviting me to stay at their place in lovely Mudgee, to Darren & Pat in Sydney thanks for the nights out on the town in Sydney, to Pat & Margaret McMillan for their kindness and hospitiality in Sydney, to Peter in Auckland thanks for a great week in the north island, to Anna and Elitta for being such fun in Boliva, to Melissa for being such a good sport during the inca trail (despite having no luggage), to Pablo for being my tour guide in Lima.

I'm sure there will be more travel in the future, there still so many places to see but will be enjoying my own country for the next while, theres no place like home.

Met some people though the hostel and from the Ghan train and hung out together for most of the time in Darwin. Mostly sat around the pool in the hostel trying to cool down as it was so warm. Went to the sunset markets and got to eat yummy food and see all sorts including juggling of knives, small snakes, didgereedoos etc. Took a weekend trip to Kakadu and we got to see crocs at feeding time, some aboriginal rock art and cooled down from the heat in a really pretty rock pool.


Also went on the jumping croc tour which was really good, went out on a boat and got up close and personal with massive crocs that they feed over the edge of the boat.

Hi all
I arrived in tokyo last Sunday morning and was pretty jet lagged. After catching up on some sleep i decided to get some dinner. I went to a japenese highrise restaurant block and took the lift to a random floor and just walked into this place. The waiter was really good and sat down beside me explaining the menu. I got a cooked sushi dish and salmon egg fried rice, was really good.
i started my tour the next morning saw the main tokyo attraction. First was Tokyo Tower, its slightly taller than the Eiffel tower

Then stopped at a park with lots of bendy trees !!

Then onto Shinjuku that evening, its got Bill boards and advertisments everywhere, its sortof similar to Manhattan

The next day was an early start, I was late for the bus in the morning! The Japanese are realyl serious about punctuality so they were not to happy to say the least. We went to see mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan, its was a really clear day ad we could get a great view of it.


We went on a cruise beside the mountain after a Japanese style lunch and then had a cable car ride over the hot springs, there was a really strong smell off sulpher here.
We then made our way to the train station and had noodles with some Mexican ppl from my tour.

We caught the bullet train to kyoto, it was delayed while we were in transit so it took about 5 hours to get there instead of 2! I was sitting beside two Japanese ladies, I tried to converse with them using phrase from my guide book, it was pretty funny!

The next day we toured around Kyoto and Nara. We went to see the Imperial Palace, japanese gardens and some Buddhist temples and Shinto Shrines.

That night my Mexican tour buddies asked me to dinner with them and their Japanese friend Kiko. she was really helpful and helped us order our food, we also had Sake thier traditonal drink made from rice. It has a really high alcohol content and taste like tequila!

Spent the last couple of days in Tokyo in K's hostel which was pretty good.
I used my rail pass and got in to shinjuku and checked out all the crazy bill boards adverts etc, multi story malls and took a walk to the park nearby for lunch.

Went to Ginza on the way back to do some window shopping. Some serious clothes but unfortunately way out of my price range.
On my last day in Tokyo I got up early at 6m to go to the famous tsuski fish market. Got the train to the stop mentioned in the guide book but once I got off wasn't sure what direction to take, I knew I was pretty near with strong fishy smell!!
luckily i bumped into couple of americans who were going to the same place. The fish market was huge with every sort of fish and shell fish and some were being killed in front of you. It was a maze of fish and in the end it was quite difficult to find your way out of it.

The smell got quite overbearing after a while but managed to find my way back.. Markets outside were selling fresh sushi. I couldn't quite stomach it for breakfast so opted of McDonalds instead. Headed back to the hostel to check out, had a look at the markets nearby and got the train to the airport. Randomly met Lesley again so we swapped details so probably catch her on the east coast of oz.