Western Europe (5 - 25 September 2009)

Back in March my dear ol' Mum turned the big 50 (though she still claims to be 39 when asked). I went home for her birthday as a surprise visit - only my brother Jared knew about my coming. Having not been home for three years, I'm sure that was something of a gift in itself hehe, but her real 50th birthday prezzy was a trip around Europe, and Jared too since he turned 20 in July (and this can be his 21st present for next year ;) Since I moved to Europe three years ago and have done all of this tripping around, Mum has forever been saying "Ohhh I'd love to go there" and "Ohhh I'd love to do that" etc, however it's a little easier said than done and so I made it happen (and have been planning to do this for the last couple years!). I forked out for their flights, accommodation, and transport around the continent, and played tour guide for three weeks :) Our itinerary and a map with our route are below...

I could only take three weeks off work for the trip (and that's all I could afford anyway) but in that time we crammed in a lot of stuff! I've already been to all of these places and done most of the same stuff before (most of it as part of another massive trip I did exactly three years ago), but it was bloody good to revisit some of my more favourite spots, and this time I had Jared there to get in trouble with ;) Having done all of this before and written about it at length throughout this website, I was initially intending to take very few photos for a change. However, I got back to London after these three weeks with 1200 of the bloody things to sort through. Always the way. Click a link below...

		Amsterdam, Netherlands
		Paris, France
		Interlaken, Switzerland
		Venice, Italy
		Rome, Italy
		Athens, Greece
		Greek Islands Santorini Mykonos

Our first night back in London (Friday), spent on the piss with Katie and my flatmates - Chris and Sophie. By the end of it we were all wearing Sophie's skirts, dancing around the living room, and Jared had his arse out hahaha!

We were only in continental Europe for three weeks but it felt a lot longer. As I mentioned above, I'd been planning to do this for Mum's 50th for at least the last couple years, and frankly the whole trip was simply amazing! We all had the most incredible time, met a lot of awesome people along the way, and all got told off a lot. Hopefully it was a dream come true for Mum, and a huge eye-opener for Jared to see and experience some of the world. Hooray for Europe! If you've never been, you really should (I'm thinking about quitting my job and becoming a tour guide :)

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