Fink Family World Trip

For me, Paris was everything I thought it would be, absolutely gorgeous!!

We arrive in paris late in the afternoon, after an interesting trip with our shuttle service. First being that we had to wait about 30 minutes for him to show, we were then squished into the shuttle and zoomed off, plus we actually hit a guy crossing the road, but to the drivers credit, apparently there was a blind spot and the walk sign was red.. Anyways, our hotel was pretty and in a great location, just one complaint, there was no lift to the reception... Just a narrow winding staircase. It was easy to see why the glass in the stairwell was broke the whole way up.. hehe, no matter.

On our first day of venturing we headed off to see the Effiel Tower, the day was foggy and really cold. We had a beautiful walk through the Paris streets, everything was white and cold, I think it was -5 on the first day. Upon our arrival to the Tower we where sadden to see it was closed. Closed due to the freeze. Oh well tomorrow we though. And to not let the day be wasted we headed off to see the Louve. Very beautiful magnificant building. The artworks were amazing with the sculptures being the highlight for me as well as the roof designs. By this time in the afternoon, Anne's feet were about to fall off, new boots don't go so well for a 7 hour walk.. So we headed back to the hotel for a little rest and a preperation.... Nat, Paul and I were heading to the Moulin Rouge!!!

The Moulin Rouge is a whole new blog in itself. After waiting 30 minutes in the snow to get in, we were initial dissappointed at the level of attire being worn. Sports shoes and t-shirts are best left at the pub.. Anyways, Once inside we were in awe at the beautiful room. The colours and set up were perfect. On being shown to our table, our faces grew wider as the waiter took us closer and closer to the stage. We were literally front and center!! If those dances mis-judged a kick we would have had a black eye. The performances were AMAZING!!!, the dances and costumes we spectaular!! Mind you all the songs bar one or two were in French.. didn't matter though. The performance was great. I should also mention our dinner... Entree was snails.. squishie, chewy herbie snails.. I didn't mind them, but by the looks on Paul and Nat's face, they did not... hehehe.. All in all the night was great.

I will continue the Paris blog a little later.. breakfast time
Lots of love to everyone.
From Karma and the others... who I think are still in bed..
xox

Hello once more!
We arrived in Berlin on the afternoon of New Years Day. Once we arrived to our Hotel, I'd had enough and went straight to bed, the others ventured in search of food. And that was day one!
Day Two: It snowed!!!! Yey! How excited we all were! After breakie we headed out to the street and found a sight seeing tour company. On we hopped and around the city we went, Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall and Brandenburg Gate were a favourite among us...and so was Starbucks mmmmmmm Starbucks haha.
The sight seeing took up the day so when we got back to the Hotel we thought it was time to have some dinner. The previous night Karma and Ann found a nice Italian Restaurant so we decided to eat there. OMG the best food ever (no offence Dave's mum or nanna) but OMG!!!
After a delicous meal we thought we would go to the pub around the corner from our Hotel....big mistake (well for me anyways). So we ordered our drinks, Dad and Ann had wine and myself a Bacardi and coke, Paul a scotch and coke and Karma a vodka orange....Now picture a tall glass, now fill that glass 3/4 of the way full with spirits and then add 1cm of coke/orange and you have yourselves a drink...this is what the bartender was doing for all our drinks and after approximately 3 of these I had the bar tender teaching me how to salsa (I have no recollection). All I remember is having Paul escort me home and hugging the toilet bowl haha OMG Paul got the best picture ever of me passed out over the toilet very funny. So a good night over all, maybe too good for me to handle haha.
Day Three: Today was the day we were going to go the Wolfsberg (home of the VW head office and factory) Although we realised that it was going to cost 72€ and take 3.5hrs to get there and 3.5hrs back so we decided to go to the Berlin Zoo!!!
On this day it was cold...I mean real cold! The wind felt like ice and none of us put enough layers on because we didnt think we would be outside for very long! Over all the Zoo was good, we even got to see little Knut, although not so little anymore! Some of the animals we kind of felt sorry for being locked up in small cages because it was too cold for them to be outside but what can you do?
Day Four: Today was the day we left for Paris, but we had some time to kill so we thought we would hit the shops. Only problem with this is it was Sunday and on Sunday in Berlin, nothing is open, not even the main shopping centre! So we found a little cafe and got some ice cream (meanwhile its -6 degrees outside) and chilled out for a bit before our ride came to get us.
So that was Berlin good to see and lots of snow!!!

Hello again,

Sorry we have been so slack with the blog entries but the internet hasn't been working to well. So hear is our update for Zurich.
We'll what can I say, Zurich took our breath away and I think I speak for everyone when I say that. It is an amazing city and a must see for anyone traveling through Europe.
We arrived in Zurich after a 13 hour flight and whilst dad and Ann stayed at the Hotel and relaxed, myself, Paul and Karma went for a walk around the town.
To give you a brief idea of what Zurich is like....Picture an old European city filled with churches, stone buildings and winding back streets and that is what Zurich is like...absolutely breath taking!!
After seeing what was around the city, we were needing some food...we found a cosy little pub on one of the back streets and settled in.
We all got ourselves a pint of beer and a hearty pub meal...very very nice.
Day two (New Years Eve), we decided to be slightly more adventurous and headed for the snow fields by train. What was ment to only be a 45min trip turned out to be slightly longer as we didn't know we had to catch a few trains to get there, and then missing a train didnt help the situation either...but we finally arrived and what lay before us were beautiful snow covered mountains and lakes and wooden cottages with smoke coming out of the chimneys, it was gorgeous!
So we ventured, by cable car, up to the snow fields.
Me, Karma and Paul intended on hiring some snow boards but it worked out about 80€ each and for a couple of hours thats freakin' expensive, so we opted for a walking track instead.
The afternoon was spent throwing snow balls and tackling each other in the snow, which is fun at first...but then the ice kicks in and everything starts to burn, when this happens, you know its time to hit the pub.
So to the pub we went and this is where we stayed to see in the Australian New Year...everyone thought we were crazy for screaming HAPPY NEW YEAR and singing the National Anthem but it was good fun.
This is also where we learn't that Ann only needs 3 glasses of wine to be wasted!!!
Which made the ride back down the cable cart very very funny (and i got it all on film) hehe.
So back to Zurich we went and now to celebrate their New Years Eve.
It was absolutely freezing and started snowing very hard. All the pubs and restaurants were completely booked out, but we managed to find a nice little Italian Restaurant out of the snow.
When we walked back out side it seemed like everyone had disappeared!! So we had nothing to do and no where to go for New Years Eve so to the hotel we went....how sad haha

Anyways that was Zurich a very beautiful city!
Now I must be off cause there is someone waiting to use the computer.
So we shall enter in Berlin and Paris when we have more time.

Bye bye for now

Love Nat and co. xoxox

Hello everybody!!

Just thought I would provide a bit of an update on the last few days. We arrived safely to Hong Kong and a very nice ride to our hotel in a van with leather seats and dvd players. Very swishy only problem was that the driver had a liking for the Kylie Mongue dvd (sorry for bad spelling and sorry to Nat and Anne because they liked the dvd ). After check in we ventured out into the world of Hong Kong. I can't believe how bright the streets get lit up at night! Neon 'Sony' signs were the clear favourite. The smell however left much to be desired. Reminded me of the streets of Kuta, for any of you who have been there.

Day two was awesome. We set out to explore the Hong Kong island. We took the 'Star Ferry' from Kowloon which cost a grand total of HK$2.20, which is about 55c AU. Once on the otherside we ran into a England salesmen for "The Big Bus Tour Company", big red double decker buses with no roof on the top floor. It was an excellent deal which took us on a bus tour of both the Hong Kong island and mainland Hong Kong. Half way on the Hong Kong island we jumped off to visit "the Peak", the highest point on the island, which is reached by tram heading up a near vertical railway, and to get back down, the tram simply goes backwards... kinda scary, but great fun.

The afternoon was filled with shopping... lots and lots of shopping... I think Paul wants to kill me for that.. (oh by the way this is Karma...) At least we got some exercise lots of exercise.. To end off an awesome day we headed to the 7eleven to purchase some beer.. 4 pack of beer came to the very reasonable price of HK$14, or $3.50 AU. I think I get to like this place

Our last day was spend somewhat as homeless people. After check out we had to wait 7 hours for our pick up to the airport... So what do any normal people do to pass time... they drink of course. So we found a authentic looking Mexican place that made AU$10 margarita and we drank. After that we headed to the harbour and pulled up at a Starbucks which was our home for the next 3 hours. And what do people do at starbucks.. drink much coffee.. We have photos, not sure what was fueling our energy, could have been the pint of margarita or the pile of coffee, but the time sure did fly

Now we are at the airport, our flight leaves at 11:59pm, and arrives in Zurich a pleasent 13 hours later. Should be interesting... Glad I have the window seat.

We have heaps and heaps of photos of the beautiful Hong Kong city and the array of Christmas lights, they will be uploaded at the first chance we get

My love to all,
xox
Karma and the Fink Family.

hello everyone!!
just a quick update on how we are going so far. we arrived at singapore on the 25th at 2:45pm local time and headed straight for the bar haha. karma and i discovered the best cocktail ever... well the strongest cocktil ever with a combination of 7 different spirits and only pineapple juice to mix them all together..it was appropriately titled green space and yes we were very spaced after drinking a couple of them!! so we headed off that night to try some local cuisine, only problem is, that in sinapore it is impossible to find local cuisine!!! there are alot of italian, french, australian, american, chinesse, japaness restaurants but not many singaporian ones!! so we settled at a dodgy cafe on the streets and sipped some sinapore slingers and hoped out dinner would not repeat on us haha! day two, we thought we would hit the sights so off to santosa island to visit the merlion (protector of singapore city) we had a great time (will add photos when we get a chance). next we hit suntec city, although got very lost along the way haha we ended up in china town, then arab town and then god knows where!!!! we eventually decided to take the subway and very glad we did because we were on the complete wrong side of town!!! so we staggered into santec cite, 4 towers of shopping!!!!!! excellent!!! we slowly made our way up and down the levels whilst getting lost on several occasions! after a couple of hours doing this we headed to the hotel for a swim in th pool and a cocktail as well! so now we are at the airport now waiting to board our flight to hong kong for more shopping of course!!
anyway thats all for now stay tuned for more and hopefully some photos!!
love nat and the rest of the mob

Hi all,

This is the plan for our trip.

25 Dec 08 - 27 Dec 08 Singapore, Singapore
27 Dec 08 - 30 Dec 08 Hong Kong
30 Dec 08 - 01 Jan 09 Zürich, Switzerland
01 Jan 09 - 04 Jan 09 Berlin, Germany
04 Jan 09 - 07 Jan 09 Paris, France
07 Jan 09 - 08 Jan 09 Helsinki, Finland
08 Jan 09 - 10 Jan 09 Kemi, Finland
10 Jan 09 - 12 Jan 09 Rovaniemi, Finland
12 Jan 09 - 13 Jan 09 kakslauttanen, Finland
13 Jan 09 - 14 Jan 09 Helsinki, Finland
14 Jan 09 - 15 Jan 09 Stockholm, Sweden
15 Jan 09 - 19 Jan 09 New York, USA
19 Jan 09 - 23 Jan 09 California City, USA
23 Jan 09 - 26 Jan 09 Honolulu, USA

We arrive in Australia on 28 January 2009.

If you want to check the current time of any of the places you can use www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ for a quick reference.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and safe and happy new year.

xox

"The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see." 'G.K. Chesterton'

"And that's the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind." 'Dave Barry'

"There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror." 'Orson Welles'