hey renee
my name is sara and i have written on this thingo before.
i amalso going on the UE march 2009 solo, i am also a minimal drinker although i have been known to have quite a few on occasions, but tend to have as much fun sober and i do drunk
i would love to get to know a few people before i go over seas to take a bit of the nerves away
i am 19 years old from melbourne
anyways my msn is bigassbilly08@hotmail.com
give me an add and hopefully we can get to know each other before we go...
and do not bag me about my email adress it was made for me years ago

Hi my name is Erin

I will be going on the ultimate European trip plus Greek Islands in March 09 .. I will be traveling solo which will be exciting.. I'm 21 and from Melbourne it would be good to get to know anyone taking this tour

Hope to hear from you

hi renee, sara and erin

renee, i'm also not too huge on the drinking thing, but i do definitely get my party on sometimes! my bf and i will be pacing ourselves i think - 45 days is way too long to go hard all of the time, and i don't want to end up sick! not to mention that i'm paying all of this $$$ to be on the otherside of the world - i want to make the most of it, ie not have a massive hangover when i'm meant to be sightseeing!

how is everyone going with their savings? i've noticed that some of the optionals have gone up in price from last year, but usually only by a few euros.

xx

Hi everyone,

yeh im not so much a big drinker either i always tend to get hangs over and like you all i dont want to ruin my time there...it all depends on my mood

im still having trouble deciding about the UE or the explorer i like the options in the UE, I just hope the concept accommodation is okay I have heard good and bad reviews, does anyone have any ideas?? so confusing lol

Saving wise umm yes i'm not to good at that I'm studying paramedicine and have exams in 2 weeks so after that i will work like crazy..the idea of booking UE has been an all of a sudden thing.. if i fall short ill just put it on visa deal with it when i get back i just want to go and have an awesome time

does anyone have facebook or myspace so we can get to know each other before we meet wow sounds so exciting in London

www.myspace.com/erinaudas

face book name is "erin audaz"

partyon64@hotmail.com (umm yes that's from yr 7 lol)

tlk sooon all

Hey everyone.
My name's Martin. I'm 22 and from Brisbane (i may have introduced myself in another post, i'm not too sure)

Anyway only 22 weeks to go.

I just booked the Ultimate European and Egypt option today and paid in full for the trip plus food fund (it's kind off scary how little money i have left in my bank account, it hasn't been this low for years, gulp) The only thing left is the airfares which i'll do within the next few days, then i have increase my saving (unfortunately by cutting back on chocolate, a necessary evil unfortunately).

I've booked my Airfares leaving Brisbane on the 25th MArch and will get into London the next day, from there i will have a couple of days to look around London. I'm a little nervous as this will be my first time overseas (plus on my own as well), but am looking forward to travelling around the City nonetheless, particularly the Museaums. I'm interested to hear if people are in the same position, especially those who are also travelling by themselves. I'm staying at the same hotel we are meeting at and leaving for these days (can't remember the name though, hopefully i can by next March). It may make it easier going around London with a couple of people. I have also booked an extra day after the tour ends.

I'm also interested to hear about those who have bought Europe travel guides. I recently bought the Europe guide book from EyeWitness Travell. I have found this guide very usefull, plus full of colourfull pictures!!!! It also has street layouts for City Centres, history, as well as all the other tourist information. It even gives you information on climate, which by the way is roughly Brisbane Winter conditions during April in Western Europe. Eastern Europe is a little colder.

I would love to hear from people before we go.
My email address is martinscanlan@hotmail.com.

Best of luck with the waiting and saving over the next 22 weeks.

P.S, sorry if this is a little long. My friends say i have a habit of turning my emails into essays.

Cheers

Marty

Hey everyone. Well I have got mine and my future hubby temp book for this tour depart march 28...we have it held and still making a decision because they can not confirm or deny of we are able to get a twin room for the majority of the trip....its going to be our honeymoon so not too keen on sharing with people for the entire trip, some nights are fine (sorry guys)...If anyone can fill me in on any tips that would be great...


the other option we have been told is to locate other couples on the tour and we can arrange something...any takers out there? I really want to do this tour as all the other tours are filled with people my parents age and I think we are too young for that...22 and 27!

I am hoping to make a decision in the next day or so and book as we already have our flight..depart perth 24th March with emirates...so then we can book accommodation etc..

well it will be great to chat to people interested in this tour, my hotmail is...kristy_58_@hotmail.com or you can find me on facebook by searching my name Kristy Zabaznow (not very common so you will be able to locate me ha ha ha)...Well hi to all out there and enjoy...cant wait

hello everyone,
sara again
my myspace is www.myspace.com/billie_3
i am landing in london on the 25th on march which means i have 3 days to fill around london where i want to see pretty much everything. would be great to meet up there so that those days are not spent alone. fell free to add my to myspace and i hope to get to know a few of u before hand as i am kinda nervous about travelling alone.
i am doing the greek island optin which is different to most of you.
my best mate did the same tour last year and she is a big drinker. her advice is have a few drinks at night and sometimes have a few extra for good luck but before you go out know what ur doing tomorrow and dont have a big night before a big day.
saving is so hard for me but i am getting there. hope u are all doing well!
cheers and i cant wait to meet you all
sara aka billie

Hi Sara and Marty,

I will be arriving in London, in the very early morning of the day before we leave, so i would love to get together with you, that day and see the sights of london.
Marty - i have 3 days in London after the tour ends before my Great Britian and Southern Ireland Tour starts, so we may be able to do something.
As with saving, if you think you have enough, then save more. I dont want to come home thinking that i missed something, but after paying for the tour, my balance is low, low, low.

Renee

quote:

Originally posted by keentravelor:

the other option we have been told is to locate other couples on the tour and we can arrange something...any takers out there?

Hi kristy,

My boyfriend and I also got told that we weren't guaranteed twin share accomm and that unless we found another couple we'd have to split up in the quad share rooms as normally they're single sex only. so we'd be keen to share if that works as far as i know it's only for a few nights so i think it would be fine!

how exciting about doing this for your honeymoon! when are you getting married?

less than 150 days to go now til we arrive in london - we're leaving on the 23rd from sydney and spending a few days in london staying with relatives, although we'll be at the royal national on the friday night before the tour. we should all go to the pub for a few drinks after our group meeting?

xx

Hey Taryn.

I know I cant wait to go, I wish it was now!!! I have done a fair bit of research and it does not really seem to be loads of nights that it will occur so thats cool, but all we have to do it let the tour leader know at the start and they will help arrange something.

We get married March 14th so only 10 days before we leave....I dont know what I am more excited about ha ha ha...

We arrive from Perth on March 24th and are looking at staying at the imperial...have not booked accom yet but just looking...drinks sound good

what are you doing after the tour?

yeh we got told to let the tour manager know at the beginning adn they'll help us out so i'm sure it will be fine it's great to know that there's other couples on the tour but!

wow that is so exciting about the wedding (and honeymoon haha) do you have everything organised? (like dress flowers etc) i better not let my boyfriend see this thread lol he'll get all freaked out about my interest in weddings!

as for after the tour my boyfriend's family currently lives in switzerland so we'll be staying with them for a few months, heading home the very end of july. we plan on travelling on our own to prague, cesky krumlov, berlin and maybe a few others places while we're over there. what about you?

ha ha ha guys and weddings...very funny...I have the majority of things organised which is great. Dont worry about your bf its every girls dream to get married.

We are going to do ireland, wales and scotland for 10 days after as we only have 9 weeks. We are hoping to get back at some stage though...Hopefully if I win lotto tonight I can stay longer (wishful thinking)

Hey everyone.

A lot of the posts up to date have been about booking the tour, which options people are going on and other pre tour stuff.

So as a result, i'm going to try and start a conversation on the actual tour, including handy tips, things to look out for, things which would benefit from reading up on before hand etc.

I've been reading some of the other Ultimate European travellogues. i recommend it except you better block in some time in you diary. I've spent two nights reading one and am only up to the end of Egypt (day 26) at the time of posting, but after reading it i'm glad i'm doing Egypt. One thing i did learn however was what the Merchants were like, and how persistent and aggressive they are. basically by the looks of it their rule is if you touch it you've bought it. Prepare to here "Baksheesh" everywhere. I don't know about you guys but i generally have a problem saying "no" (to the extent which i have gotten suckered in forking our cash for insurance i don't need. I really should cancel it).

Another thing I've realised is that we will be in Rome for Good Friday and leaving on Easter Sunday,so i'm expecting Rome to be very different from what it may be at any other time of the year. Most likely a lot more pilgrims and we may have troubles getting into the more popular tourist venues (unless we try and go during mass or something. Sorry for all the devout Catholics out there).

Oh and for all the Australians out there make sure you pact Febreeze in your luggage (it's an odor rermover in Australia, spray it on your clothes the night before and you're all good to go the next day. It'll beat missing tourist time because of washing instead.

Anyway if anyone knows of anything else and wants to share with the group, or just wants to talk about Europe or whatever feel free. It's a friendly place here. Congratulations to the couple getting married as well. It should be a memorable trip made even more special because of the ocassion. If only you could negotiate and get a twin share room as a "wedding present".

I'm at the really excited stage where Europe is on my mind about 70% of the time. the other 30% is work, but even then i've stuck up our itinery all around my desk and have all these Europe books on it as well. Hopefully we can get some good discussion going on, i would really love to hear from as many people as possible before we start our tour.

Best of wishes to everyone.

Martin
martinscanlan@hotmail.com

Why thankyou for the congrats...cant think of a better time and place to be spending our honeymoon. If we dont get a twin room then it happens.

We have chosen to do the greek island option so that we can have a minny honeymoon within a larger trip. Although, I still would have liked to have gone to Egypt also, but thats an excuse to go again!

What other public holidays are there in europe? I have located one called May day, which occurs on May 1. Are there others?

I have finally been able to sell a horse which means that I now dont have to worry about money. i have enough (YAY) so work is not a priority for me at the moment, and europe is...i cant belive its like 4 and half months till we go!

well i got to go to work, but will chat on here when I can...cant wait to go. Enjoy planning everyone

Hey all

Me again. Just a few questions. Firstly I was wondering how far Stonehedge was from London. Will i need to be up early and block out the whole day? I was probably thinking of going on Tuesday the 12th May, the day after we got back.

the second question is does anyone know if we are going to visit any Medieval Castles and walk around inside one? it's something i'm really looking forward to. If we aren't visiting one on the tour, does anyone know a good one to visit which is accessible from London (get to for a day trip)?

Cheers

Martin