a bad update

Hi peoples who might be reading this blog and wondering what's been happening to us chicky babes (probably not many of you....)

I know I know, there's not been much of an update lately... but, it's tough when you're travelling, there's not a lot of time, and there's a helluva lot of dodgy internet cafes charging exorbitant prices to use dodgy computers, thus the reason for such little updates in the past week.

Well, the last time I was online it our last day in Rome and boy were we glad to be outta there. Rome made us miserable. It wasn't a bad place, it was just the wrong place at the wrong time for us. I will return one day, but perhaps not for Rome alone, I will return for Italy and maybe, just maybe pass by Rome just to say hi and be polite.

Our next stop was Barcelona and we LOVED Barcelona! Barcelona is pretty and the weather was nice and the people were friendly, the boys were sexy and they smelt nice too, gotta love a boy that smells nice - and the sangria helped. I gots me a little tipsy on sangria... :p Me like sangria very very much :) Lulu reckons I was acting all strange (like that would be a first!) - apparently when I get a little drunk, I start talking to myself... and laugh a lot... but I thought I was just having a lot of fun.... Barcelona was great, we had a yummy paella with sangria one night and we had a fabulous tapas meal with sangria the next night (oh, I also had a massive beer as well, darn you Chris!), we may have "over-indulged" just a little slightly... just a tad, not a lot, just an eensy teensy bit - I mean, you wouldn't call AU$85 for one meal for 2 girls too much, would you? Considering our "budget" for each day was supposed to be around that much, we pretty much blew it on one meal. Was that bad? :p

Yup, Barcelona was great, perhaps a little too expensive, but I loved it.

We have taken tonnes of photos, but it's just not possible to upload any today.

From Barcelona we spent a few days in Brussels with some relatives - and the weather was miserable. It was cloudy, wet and drizzly for most of it. At least we had lots of good food and a nice place to stay and it was mostly free... I mean, accommodation, free, hotel food, free - not much more I could ask for really.

There was this awkward incident at the bar... (lu and I mainly hung out in the bar, we got free drinks and it was a nice quiet smoke free place to sit and chat) I won't go into it now, but when I get more time, this is a reminder to myself to write about it. *Note to self, please write about incident at bar in Brussels**

Lulu... poor Lulu, she's got some stories to tell, I have the unluckiest sister in the world! She is Unlucky Lulu. Some highlights, her suitcase broke off piece by piece, until we reached Brussels and then one of the wheels broke off and we couldn't roll it properly, it's not easy for 2 little girls to lift one very heavy suitcase while dragging another heavy suitcase. So, Lulu's suitcase has gone to suitcase heaven, may it rest in pieces, amen.

While at Amsterdam airport, on our way out of Europe, we had one 10 euro note left, our only money, so thought we'd buy some lunch as we weren't boarding for another hour... Lulu was literally holding onto the tenner as we were ordering the sandwich/ roll thing and from the 2 seconds it took for the lady to put it on the counter, Lulu had somehow 'misplaced' this tenner... we searched every pocket, on me and her, we searched every patch of us and no tenner to be seen... so we had to pay for this sandwich/ roll thing by credit card. Imagine paying for a 3 euro sandwich/ roll thing on credit card, how embarrassment! Where on earth did that 10 euro note disappear to? It's not a very Lulu thing to do, she's very organised and has a terrific memory, it's much more something that I would do, losing money.... she's had some pretty bad luck, my sister.

On the other hand, I have had some pretty good luck, but I won't rub it in.

Right now, we're in Hong Kong, staying with relatives. And it has taken us hours and hours to find an internet cafe where we could check our mail... we've definitely got sore feet today!

For such a touristy city, we could not for the life of us, find any tourist office, or postcards, and we really struggled to find this little internet place. Getting around is not a problem, we both speak decent chinese and they have english signs everywhere... our relatives here have been quite busy so we haven't seen a lot of them, which is actually quite good for us, we have a lot of time to ourselves and today have been exploring the place, quite literally. We have no map, no info, no idea where things are, no idea what places we should be visiting, no idea how much we should be spending, we are completely clueless and have just been wondering aimlessly around... but to be honest, there is really only 2 things to do when in HK - Shop & Eat.

We have breakfast, just a tad over 2 mins later, my aunty is discussing what we might like to eat for lunch... and then just after lunch, they are already planning for dinner. And after we stuff ourselves with dinner, even though the enormous lunch we had only 3 hours prior is still sitting pretty in our full little stomachs, we are force fed even more food at dinner.... and the moment the dishes are washed, we are both asked whether we'd like to join my cousins for supper when they finish work (they work late you see, a couple of them finish around 12-1am).

Yeah right, after waking so early in the mornings, it's hard to keep our eyes open wide enough at midnight to go out let alone go out and eat some more. I don't believe I had even finished digesting lunch! This place is an endless parade of food. That's all they seem to think about.

I went to Europe with a small little pot belly, and I came to HK with a slightly larger, more rotund belly... but I will be leaving HK with a really difficult to hide big belly :( It's been slightly over 2 weeks, and I think I've gained 5kg already, and I still have Thailand to cope with and another 2 weeks of endless eating... I could be returning to Melbourne 10kg heavier, which is exactly what happened when I went on holidays for 4 weeks the last time. The worst part is, everybody here keeps telling Lulu that she's too skinny and lost too much weight.... and then they turn to me and say "oh but you, yeah you've definitely put on a few kilos..."

Gee, thanks... I really needed that to be emphasised and rubbed in. These chinese relatives of mine, they really know how to make a girl feel good about herself. You can call me chubby from now on....

Well, tomorrow we're off to Thailand for about 1 week before returning to HK for a few more days... so not sure when I will be back updating this. (maybe when I get home?! :)

I wish I could write more, but there's so much to tell and I'm not quite sure where to start.... and I'm getting lazy and it's kind of dinner time, so we need to look for a nice restaurant for dinner...

hmmm... food.....