Alan and I have just been to the mall in Winnipeg, narrowly escaping the busyness. I bought a cover for my iPhone because I have seen so many iPhones with smashed screens. I went for the recycled plastic option. We also got some thermals, it’s going to be a cold winter.
So winnipeg was interesting. Out couchhost was a fun girl, plenty of time having recently been made redundant, along with most of her crazy friends but we spent most of the time partying, there isn’t much else to do in that town. It is the grain trading capital of north America.
And the people there are crazy, many of whom walk around making wierd sounds, screaming or talking to themselves. There’s too much winter, no excitement or hope, not even any population growth, the gun crime capital of Canada so we are told.
So we are now in the real prairies, you can see for miles and miles, forward the road dissappears on straight to the horizon and to the sides are endless yellow field where crops grew in the summer.
It’s so straight and boring that they have giant signs to keep you mind active like odometer checks. But no worries if you fall off the road asleep, there’s nothing to hit.
It’s barely above zero degrees and they’re still harvesting.
So wawa was no too interesting, lots of goose statues.
Thunder bay, out host wasn’t too talkative until we got him a bit drunk, and he hit on us.
So the most important thing we did was go to an employment centre to canadianise our resumes. We’ve applied for several jobs now. Not much response yet.
The car is super dirty because I decided to do some off roading just to wake me up from the boring drive.
Oh and I got myself a lovely yellow hat, mmm warm

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Alan and I just swapped over driving, he has to get us the last 100km to Wawa on the north east corner of lake superior. We’ll have driven around 850km, which doesn’t sound much, just over 500 miles, but these long straightish, boring road are tiring.
I can’t wait to get to a motel and lay on a bed, a bed I’ll have all to myself
So yesterday and Niagara falls, I found to be a bit of a dissappointment. Maybe because they are so hyped up, maybe because we couldn’t ride the boat under the falls due to it being winter, but they are real impressive and powerful, but just can’t compare with some of the things that we’ve seen on our tour. At least that’s another thing I can tick off having achieved in my lifetime.
We also crossed into USA, and the town on the otherwise is a dump, dirty, crumbling, boarded up and generally unhappy. We had two errands to do, one sucessful, one not. We did have lunch there, probably cheaper than Canada, but I’m not sad to see the end of USA for this year, ‘oh canada’
After a tedious trafficky drive back to Toronto in rush hour for me, we sat down and got productive. I think that we’re sorted for places to rest on this long drive, and we made a start on applying for work in the Rockies, so go us.
The night ended with pitchers and gravy fries in town.
Oh today we went into one of these drive in lube places for a service. I find it pretty novel that you can just drive up and have your car serviced. It puts my mind to rest that out car is healthy and should be problem free for our drive in the almost wilderness.
So goodbye Toronto, courtney, laura, Cara and all else like city culture and off into the endless prairies we motor.

The photos are; niagara falls, the car in mr lube, niagara falls town and the view I can see out of the windscreen right now.

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We ended up spending almost a week in New Mexico, a bit longer than the expected day and a half. We certainly enjoyed our time there.
As you can tell we aren’t in NM any longer but now Texas, so far we drove 60 miles and saw 2 cars until we got to this town for a late mexibrunch.
Albuquerque was pretty cool, and felt like we were there three days, rather than the 1.5 that was reality. It was our first couchsurf of the trip, staying with jessica and cloice near their university. So first off we went out to a greek night held by a church. Nothing religious, but Greek food, dancing, drinking and fun. We even tried dancing, couldn’t get the footwork down but was a laugh. Love for spinaköpita! After we had a bit of a drink with their friends before turning in.
Shame it wasn’t an early night as we had to get up at half four un the morning, which was painful. And so cold that it required dressing for winter. We had to queue for a park and ride, yellow school bus #3, and queue and queue again for the event, toilet, lame breakfast burrito. We spent a good while watching the bizarre spectacular that is known as Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, the worlds largest event of this type. Literally 100,000s of people from all overbthe world come to see around 750 hot air balloons taking off, or for some just attemping, supposedly the worlds most photographed event! It’s was cool, amazing, surreal, cold and we we knackered.
So after another sleep we woke up, feeling like a new day we went into town for a chill, chat and pizza. Later after being locked out, we went out to a blues night, which I’d pretty cool, no way I’d try to dance to that, bit it was enjoyable to sit and watch and drink the night away. I had a minimal sleep being kept up by our host, but we escaped yesterday after an authentic new Mexican meal, not to be tried again!
Yesterday we passed by White sands, where the first atom bomb was tested, they still create misiles and there are the White sands dunes. In the middle of nowhere are some pure brilliant White beautiful sand dunes, great for some fun, photos and alan to get his second run in with the law. Luckily for him he still managed to go Scott free.
Later we arivedbin Carlsbad, a little late, for our next couchsurf experience where we slept from arrival to departure. Oh and barely escaped alive thanks to that mental dready dog. All fingers still attached we went to the the caverns by the same name which was awesome. Not the largest, deepest or longest cave system in the world, maybe the beautifulest. It’s a nice long walk, with lots of geological wonder.
So no more new Mexico, time for the mammoth state of Texas, which doesn’t sound too exciting, going by lonely planet and Lets Go guide books.
It’s about time we made some distance.

Check this out a plane in Germany hits a flock of starlings. http://m.gizmodo.com/site?t=IQxSOq4TnD4FiWtHRytU8A&sid=gizmodoip

Alan and I are now in New Mexico, a first for both of us.
We’ve had great fun off roaring through hunting country, in an attempt to find somewhere to have a pic nic/avoid the boring interstate. It wad fun, and the car is now brown and dusty.
We woke up and headed into Sedona to check out the scenery. Sedona is like the Glastonbury of USA. It is supposed to have the highest natural energies on the planet, so it’s super new agey, and people are pretty friendly. Due to the natural naturedness of the place, the architecture is pretty earthy, so much so that the place looks like the flintstones, especially with the rock formations towering above. So imagine macdonalds in the flintstones, that’s what I call trippy!
So afterthat we did our cross country fun, making sone top gear style movies
So after that we headed down to the petrified forest, it’s safe to say we expected something a little more awesome, but we had fun, and watched another mind blowing sunset.
We say goodbye to one of the most beautiful mind blowing geologically stunning states. And we have had our second day with clouds.
So now we find ourselves on the Route 66 in a motel in Gallup, New Mexico, all because there weren’t any places back in the other side of Arizona.
We have little idea what we are doing tomorrow, or the next few days, so I guess we have a lie in and wait and see.

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the trains go past this lodge/hotel, so it’ll be ear plugs tonight.
Yesterday I didn’t quite get my mind around how awesome it was to skydive. We were suited up by half eight in the morning having gone out til 3am. Then I was the last into the plane. There were 2 pilots, 6 jumpers with 6 instructors. Then the plane drifted off and up into the sky, it felt so surreal, the ground disappearing away, as we sat facing the tail of the plane. I was by the hatch, part open I could put my hand outside and feel the wind as we gained altitude. Being last on meant first out and down, just big smiles from me, I was lucky, though missed seeing the others falling out of the plane. I had the chance to hold the controls and spin us down to the ground while the guy behind me hinted at tips. All in all it wasn’t anywhere near as scary or aldrenalin pumping, but was well worth the money, and I will definately try it again.
So after we had pizza delivered to our room we headed out middayish. First off to the Stratosphere hotel. It’s a tower like a telecommunication tower, 800ft high, 112 floors. Other than a restaurant at that level are three fairground style rides.
Again the train blares past, these trains are enormous, 3 locomotives at the front and rear, so you can imagine how many cars long they are, and how long they take to pass!
So these rides were high, involving being thrown off the tower, swung around it and shot up from it. Hot, sunny, scary, wonderful views and super fun.
After that we went across the road to the Sahara hotel, where they have a Nascar themed bar. In this bar is a competition whereby if you manage to finish eating their 6lb burrito you get it for free. 6 f*€#Â¥>g pounds of food, that’s enormous, the size of a baby human! So there is a wall of shame, as if you partake in the big eat, you are sat in a fenced off table area and photographed. If you fail you go on the wall of shame. In the nine months of this year nine people have managed this. As you’d have guessed most are large men, but two were actually skinny, and none are women! The hotel had a wicked fast rollercoaster, the goes from the hotel, outside through the sidewalk, the backwards again.
Afterwards we wandered the other end of the strip, saw the bodies exhibit that tours the world, awesome to see inside real bodies, a little freaky but much more informative than an A-level text book.
We then had a casino/bar crawl down the strip; excalibur, new York new York(including the rollercoaster, I triedbto record a video on camera, resulting in the ride being stopped while me camera was temporarily confiscated), MGM, the finally some champagne in Paris. Another highlight was the M&M store, four floors of M&M memorabilia!
So that was us knackered, walking back to out hotel for dinner and watched a film(Anchorman) before passing out, what a Saturday!
Today we’ve driven via the Hoover dam, along the famous Route 66 and are now in an Indian reservation called Hualapai, on the southwest of the Grand Canyon. It’s a lovely lodge, food so tastey, and tomorrow we’re off to have more fun.
Until tomorrow we have fun with trying to sleep with the trains going past. Good night.

So I’m on a bumpy easyjet flight to Manchester. It’s not bad, I’m sat by the wing exit so have plenty of leg room
On the way through airport security I removed everything from my pockets, removed my belt, and still I beeped passing through the scanner. So while the security guard tried to pat me down, it got tricky as these shorts have no hope of staying up without my belt or hand to hold them, so all the security guards had a good joke on me.
On Wednesday, Nic and I headed down to Milan for the afternoon. The day started of with nic having a huge hangover and me a little worse for wear, but driving over the Saint Bernard pass was so stunning I felt great. So awesome that I had to keep stopping to take in the views. Driving across Italy was smooth and fast as usual. We chose to do the park and ride, thanks to wikitravel’s advice.
Milan is pretty cool, didn’t seem too touristy, but was pretty while modern also. I had liked to find some sunglasses, as I’d like some with prescription lenses. But like with current spec trends, I’m not a fan and never found anything, I’ll have a look in London, but may have to wait until LA.
Pizza and cocktails ended the day by the canal before heading back to Verbier.
Yesterday ian and I did some stuff, like cleaning the car, photographing it, then going for a joy ride up the mountain. It was super strange to be up there where I’ve spent so much time in the snow. It got a bit steep but nothing my car couldn’t handle, maybe a little something for the vertigo. We saw some marmots, odd creatures, take lots of photos, and made the car all dusty again.
The week I have been surrounded by Wii’s, but I prefer doing the real sports.
Oh and I’ve been having trouble with my ears, especially my right ear. They’ve been blocked, I’ve had trouble hearing, and it even got to the point where my ear was hurting. I’ve tried ear drop to see if I could clear them that way, but it on improved for a day. My toncils have been swollen and sore also, so I think I’ll have to try and see a GP when I find one. And my ears are having issues at altitude now.
So no more car now. It’s been great fun to have a comfortable, powerful, head turning car, but I’m not sad to lose it. I’ll certainly think twice before buying such a luxury toy in the future.
Maybe we can find something fun to drive in America.
So to the lake district with dad this evening, a nice walk tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be nice and fit for it after exercising at altitude the past days.

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After the sleep lacked night, I woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the channel. Then off to the boat and I decided not to use the gps. I lost confidence in her, and prefer to find a more interesting route. Not to mention the fun of getting lost.
It was a beautiful drive to Belgium, Luxembourg, across to Germany, back to France along the Rhone, into Germany with some flower picking. There I got some speed up, but got a spot of trouble when I filled up the tank and my cards wouldn’t work, but thanks to martin I got away. I came into Switzerland just before sunset, which made for a stunning drive from Basel to Bern and Lausanne, a wonderful fun drive down, akin to watching Top Gear.
Sunday morning nic and I went for a dizzying walk, and even saw some marmots!
Monday I went to the gym, didn’t notice the time and left two and a half hours later aching and tired.
I went to see harriet and cedric, then back to nic and toto’s for a dinner party, yum yum, but couldn’t wait for sleep.
Now nic and I are doing errands, working on getting the car ready to sell.

Driving from Dover to here, dads place, I ran over something, I’m hoping a badger, rather than a dog. But still it was horrible to hit something, anything.
Well apart from that I had a nice day. Chatting French here and there. I had the best crepes I have ever had at a place called grand mere alice in st. Malo.
Then I took a leisurely drive through the country to mont saint michel. It is impressive, it is touristy, and I didn’t feel worth the parking charge.
I took a little tour of boulogne in my car, and my verdict is that it’s just as manky as Calais.
I hate the sound of my car, I need the exhaust fixed, so job 1 tomorrow is to go to the garage.

The trip of awesomeness is or about to end. It has left me with stories to tell for a long time, and memories that will last a life time.
We’ve learned that Dutch people are everywhere, a sign of quality when travelling.
I’m amazed at how cheap it is to travel, spending €20-30 per day.
That said alex managed to run out of money over a week ago, so ran up a debt. He’s young I think, and bought too many gifts and things.
We’ve managed to spend six weeks playing the same card game, asshole. Renamed shitface by me. We tried playing new games last night, with little success.
Ian and harry fart like nobody I know, it can be hell in a van for 8 hours after eating!
The van was. Good to us, surviving in the end, but was a nightmare also, a vw rollercoaster.
I lived the whole trip missing a tooth, I can barely imagine life after I get a new one, note to self, must book flight.
My iPod has been the most useful item all trip, translator, calculator, music player, Internet, dictionary, note taker, games, weather, blog writing, facebook, it goes everwhere with me. I’m surprised I haven’t lost it.
Mosquitos have been the bain of cortney’s legs.
Driving is the most comfortable position in the van. It’s been fun. It’s been sucky. It’s been beutiful. It’s been scary. It’s been cheap. But damn I’m happy to have my car again, to have a normal gearstick
We’ve taken photos, lots, even under water. It’ll take me weeks to go through my 1000’s, but it’ll bring back great memories.
So by the end the van stunk so bad I had to keep the window open even when it was pissing it down.
The broken radio of the van was nice, but not.
We barely had rain, the weather was great. We missed the summer season on our trip, missed the parties, but t least we know a hundred new places to go back and party.
This is the most fatty I’ve been since I was fifteen. I’ve looked forward to the end of re trip, end of drinking beer every day, exercising and losing weight.
We did a total of 12129km in the van, she survived, she’s now at over 320000km, and good luck to the rest of her life.

So I’m writing this still drunk from last night, so I expect it to read like crap on papyrus. We’re in lacanau, east of Bordeaux, right on the coast, a surfing Mecca. It’s beautiful here, but like everywhere we’ve been, we’re a week before the season begins. Even though, we had a great party, harry having to be carried home, christening my car, missing alex, cheap wine.
I can’t wait for 10 for the pool and slides to open.

This has been one of the best times of my life so far!!!

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Now it seems that I don’t find the time or energy to write. But sat here in southern Greece, sat by the sea, I am in good spirits.
So from our campsite in dubrovnik we met a couple of guys from Dorset hicthing around Europe. Sonja and Gabriel, a couple of friends who live simple, slightly eccentric lives in the south of England were nice to hang with for a day. It’s good to have new blood and different ideas, for different conversations. So being that they were headed to Montenegro, like us, alex offered them a ride. We all stopped off in budva to have lunch. It was strange to be sat by large expensive yachts, eating Chinese, in a strange little country in south east Europe. The food was great, and after we said goodbyes to our new friends. I hope to see the again at some point.
So next up we had a shitty drive to Podogorica. First up, our ‘go europe’ book doesn’t cover a great chunk of this part of Europe, so we are left with no idea of language, culture, currency, accomodation or sights. So we let our visions from the film casino royale guide us to podogorica, Montenegro’s capital. We expected lush streets lined with expensive cars, and casinos, well at least one. It couldn’t have been further from that. It was run down, with nothing worth staying for. No sign of an old town, just crumbling industry and rusting vehicles. So we decided, although already late in the day, to head south towards Albania, also unknown in our guide book.
Having reached the outskirts of podogorica we saw a hitched, who sounded like he asked us in French if we head to Albania, so we did a quick u-turn. It turned out he was American, and we had a new companion for a while, Justin. I think he was in his early thirties and has been travelling, mainly hitching, around Europe for 10 and a half years. He spend around three years in each country working, and manages to master the language if staying longer. I think he must be returning to the US every now and then. He seemed very timid for one who is so well travelled, buy very amiable and knowledgable.
So we got to the Albanian boarder, and did I mention that alex’s father hadn’t left the van to us with insurance papers? So we have to pay for local insurance, as well as road tax in each country that we go to now. The road in Albania started off so poorly that we could barely make 40kmh. We made it to the first city, and lost, de to the lack of road signs, justin and I hopped out to ask for directions. We bumbled into what we thought was an info centre, which turned out to the the office of a political party, the Serbian minority party of Albania. The president was a very genial guy, and sent us off with another guy to show us which way to go, and meet a random man on a street corner to exchange some money. So now armed with some leke, and the direction to travel in we headed back to the bus. Justin asked us if we’d mind him joining us for the night, so we all stuck together for the night. I think he wanted some companionship, being a little homesick.
So we managed to grab some food, super low cost, great! And we continued south. The idea was to rough it for the night, to camp out in the open, being that there is no tourist industry, there are no campsites. This proved rather troublesome for re group, as we all had different ideals. Justin was easy and comfortable, alex worried about leaving the van, ian anxious about sleeping on private land, courtney worried about all, not havining a good gut feeling about it all, and I was happy with anywhere, as long as we diet have to sleep in the van. So with much trepidation, we finally set up camp on a grass track, glow flys all around us, 100m from a farm, but shielded by some trees. We had an early sleep, and an early rise due to concerns about being woken up by an angry farmer with a shot gun.
Soon after, we said our goodbyes to justin who wanted to make his was to the coast and do some writing. His plan is to spend some months in Iran, but he doubts he will get there before headin to the US first. I look forward to Reading of his travels.
Albania, a place I beleive to be one of the poorest countries in Europe, is by far the bizarrest. The people are amazingly friendly. Everywhere they are building, and everybody has a mercedes Benz. Some are old, but many are not. I would guess at 75% of all vehicles being benz’s. Where do they come from? Which then brings me onto the question of why there are so many cars, mainly Benz’s, with British of german registration plates? We never worked this out, but they were definately not driven by Brits. Maybe stolen?
So we went to Tirana for breakfast, a crazy little city, all colorful. Like Africa on the outskirts and America by the centre.
I drove us on through the Albanian country side. There are two highways through the country, one from Montenegro to tirana, crazy drivers in abundance, and the other from Tirana to macadonia. So we covered all of these. The whole way is single carriageway, sometimes running along cliffs, even making it’s way along a ridge, absolutly beautiful.
Next up into Macedonia, a country not in the eu, but trying. Strangely enough I still prefered Albania to Montenegro and Macedonia. We stopped by a great lake in a place called ohrid. Super touristy, but cheap enough for lunch and make facebook contact. We’ve been trying to get the contact details of a girl. That courtney kind of knows near Athens. I finished the 10hour drive at a campsite by the beach at the foot of mt. Olympus.
Yesterday alex driving and I think we were lost in re outskirts of Athens, the target destination for our trip, but we were trying to find a campsite out of town, so here we are near marathon. Oddly enough our campsite also has a restaurant open to locals. A beautiful view over looking the sea, atop a cliff, so last night we treated ourselves and had a drink and bite to eat. Yum!!
As a group we ate having some seriously deep and heated discussions. We are all intelligent, stubborn, opinionated people, so it makes for interesting evenings, inbetween the games of asshole.
So our target of Athens reached, we plan on staying around for maybe four days. We need some rest time, plus to see Athens.
So iPod battery is dying so I better head back to the camp.