Update ahoy!

Ok, I know it's been a while. Please don't hurt me!

This is only a very quick update to let everyone know what I've been doing.

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The first thing I'd like to say is thank you so much to everyone who left me messages and sent me emails commiserating about my camera. It really helped when I was feeling depressed and pissed off.

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Ok, when I left off I was in Dublin. I spent 10 days there, where it rained nearly every day. I'm talking torrential rain with plenty of flooding. Unfortunately because of that I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked.

After Dublin I stayed with my friend Rebecca in London (we went to uni together and spent many hours talking in HSS library when I was working there on weekends and she was doing research for her honours paper). She was lovely enough to put me up for 2 nights and we had a great time just chatting and catching up on each other's digs. We went out for the most amazing meal on my last night in London. Rebecca found this place called the Hoxton Apprentice (if I'm remembering correctly. I've got it written down somewhere but am feeling too lazy to check). The restaurant was started by a woman named Prue Leith, who is one of the judges on Great British Menu. Her idea for the restaurant was to take people who were down and out and train them to be chefs in this restaurant. The food and the service were amazing and it was one of the best meals I'd had since leaving Perth. I had steak!!!! It nearly broke the bank, but it was steak!

I left Rebecca's place on the 20th August and headed to Faversham, Kent for my second dig. Long story short, it started out extremely badly. I was going to be digging for 2 weeks, but ended up deciding to only dig for one week. I promise I'll explain more later. I did spend the second week seeing some of the local area and I went up to London for a day.

Then my lovely Mum arrived for 2 weeks. She flew into London on the 8th Sept very early in the morning. I met her at Heathrow airport and then that afternoon we flew to Marseille. Poor Mum spent over a day on planes!

Mum and I spent the next week doing the express tour of France - 1 night in Marseille, 1 night in Nimes (visited the Pont du Gard), 2 nights in Dijon, 1 night in Strasbourg, 1 night in Reims (which is actually pronounced 'Rance' - don't ask! Quite a forgettable city) and then 1 night in the ever wonderful Paris. From Paris we flew to Reykjavik, Iceland.

Iceland was definitely an experience! The weather was really cold because of Hurricane Ike that had gone through the US. Once it had downgraded into a storm system it headed up towards the arctic, got very cold and swung around to hit Iceland. But we didn't let it stop us, we just donned several more layers of clothing and continued on.

In Iceland we did a tour called the Golden Circle, which takes you past a couple of waterfalls and a series of Geysers which were very impressive. We also went to the Blue Lagoon, which is an amazing day spa with a huge outdoor pool area. The water is the most amazing bright, milky blue colour. It was such a bizarre experience. We spent quite a while just floating around with Silica mud on our faces.

We had also planned to do a whale watching tour but it was cancelled because of the weather!

I had to leave Mum and Reykjavik behind on the 19th September to fly to my last dig on the Island of Menorca. Having to leave Mum in Reykjavik made me extremely homesick! I couldn't fly direct - surprisingly not many people want to fly straight from Reykjavik to Menorca. Who would have thought it!? :D I had to spend about 10 hours in London and transfer from Heathrow to Luton airport. And then of course you all know what happened with the airport and my camera, so I won't rehash that.

The dig on Menorca was fantastic. It was only a very small group of us excavating, 6 in fact. Everyone was lovely and we had a great time digging and getting to know one another. We had a great apartment right in the centre of Ciutadella (one of the towns on the island) with our own cook! We didn't have to cook, clean or do our own clothes washing. It was pure luxury! I felt so spoilt.

I had a couple of days on Menorca after the dig had finished before I could fly to Athens. I spent the time sight seeing around the island with a couple of the people from the dig.

I should mention that my computer also chose to die on Menorca. It decided to give me the ever lovely Microsoft 'Blue Screen of Death'. I'm hoping that it's not too bad and I can get it fixed when I get home. Until then I'm carrying around an extremely heavy brick! I'm not having much lucky with technology at the moment.

I left Menorca on 11th October and had to fly to London Gatwick. It turned out to be so much cheaper to fly to Athens via London than if I'd gone directly. Unfortunately it also meant that I had seven hours in Gatwick airport. I found myself a nice comfy-ish spot on the floor and settled in for the wait. It wasn't too bad and I feel like a true backpacker now.

I arrived in Athens the afternoon of the 12th. I pretty much just slept away the rest of the afternoon. I did manage a very quick look at the Acropolis from afar. I headed out first thing on the morning of the 13th on a 5 day tour of Greece. On the 13th we visited Epidaurus and then I spent the night in Nauplion (which is gorgeous), and then on the 14th we visited Myceanae which was amazing. Then today, the 15th and my birthday, we visited Olympia. Olympia is phenomenal. I can't believe how much has survived untouched. Tomorrow we will be seeing the site at Delphi and then the following day visiting the monasteries at Meteora. Then I'm heading back to Athens for 6 nights before I fly to Turkey. I think I may spend my first day back in Athens just sleeping. I haven't stopped moving in a long time.

Anyway, that's it for now. I promise I'll update again soon and I will expand on what I've just posted with more detailed info. And I haven't forgotten about Rome. It was just such a huge experience that I need time to sit down and write, write, write.

Toodles for now.

Casey.