As I went to brush my teeth and get dressed I walked out and came across the horrible lady from yesterday who stood in the passage way taking up the entire room as if to say “you can’t pass here” I waited and waited.. Until I finally just shoved past her. This woman has no understanding of manners or train etiquette! Our cabin just felt too small for 6 people so Chris and I went and got ‘breakfast’ in the food carriage who could only offer pear or grapefruit juice for your breakfast options. Not so impressed. We killed time here, desperate not to go back to our dodgy little carriage but eventually needing to get our passports back made our way back to the carriage where we asked a passing conductor for our passports to be returned, it was almost as if he slapped his forehead as he said “oh, of course! Will go get them now” and then disappeared for a further half an hour… We then got into Paris one hour late and we leapt off thankful to finally be in Paris and off the train from hell!!

We made our way to the hostel only to find that they have a ‘lock out’ from 11am until 4pm. This was ridiculous! Chris and I had been in the same sweaty clothes for over 24 hours now and were sweaty, tired and in desperate need of a shower (we smelt, I mean really, we smelt!) The lady on reception said that we could ‘dump’ our bags in the baggage room that was the size of a small pantry and then go do something. So, we put our bags in ‘storage’ and went to have breakfast. When we saw the price of a cup of coffee we very quickly decided that we weren’t actually hungry and instead just sipped very slowly our 4 Euro drinks… its incredible how much they can charge for simple things like coffee or water for that matter!

We took a small walk around the area discovering what is near by, found a bakery and brought a large baguette to share for breakfast/lunch. After this we stumbled into a near by cinema where we asked in very broken English if they were showing any English movies and then settled on watching “Public Enemies” that the older woman on the counter assured us (in way of charades) was in English. After this it was almost 4pm so we dragged ourselves to the hostel where we checked in and SHOWERED!!! Oooh, it was glorious! No longer did we smell, no longer were we wearing hideously sweaty, dirty clothes… it was so great!

We were so buggered after all this but made the effort of dragging ourselves up and out for a cheap dinner of Crepes that we noticed was mentioned in our trusty “Lonely Planet” guidebook. The crepes were huge and delicious, so it was worth the fact that we had had to hurl ourselves up a steepish hill for them. We then very slowly strolled the surrounding streets of the Latin Quarter and came across both the pythanon and then the Luxembourg gardens, both of which were lovely. We sat in the gardens for a time relaxing and taking in the sites and sounds that were happening around us before then dragging ourselves back to the hostel for a well deserved, much needed good nights sleep!!

written by  Chris and Emily on July 29, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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There are many nice and interesting paintings here (as you’d expect being the Louvre and all) but my fave was a painting of “Noah’s Ark” but unfortunately I can’t remember the artist of this piece. I just found it really interesting and beautiful with all the work that went into it.

We spent 6 hours wandering about the Louvre, looking at paintings, sculptures, relics, pottery, Egyptian bits and bobs, and down into the basement where you’re able to see the old fort walls of what use to be the old Louvre. It was lovely, but admittedly exhausting!

We had a small break before moving onto the Pompadour Centre. This is a modern art building, built with all the escalators etc on the outside, it’s not particularly attractive but it’s modern art and in some ways that says it all huh? We sat outside it for a little while just taking in the look of it all (it looks like a building from a Mario Party world, it has all these different colored tubes etc and you half expect Yoshi or Princess to pop out) It doesn’t cost to go into the main area of this centre, so we decided to go in. Once in, you’re limited to looking at about 3 stores (the others are on another level and you have to pay to get up there) So we had a quick look at a book shop and then a modern art shop full of rather nifty and entertaining appliances, we could have brought a few items from there… had we had a few grand with us… A quick ice cream and we then made our way to Sac re cur.

Sac re cur is an impressive place to visit to say the least, but it would be easy for one to be put off visiting just by the sheer steepness of the hill that you have to climb to get there! And as if the steepness isn’t bad enough once you get to the gates you’re met by, and I kid you not, 30 men all standing in a group trying to sell you crappy souvenirs and trying to grab your wrists and then make you a bracelet that you can then not get off and you have to pay for… We folded our arms against us and shoved through this crowd saying “No” to all the men that pushed themselves into our face, I felt sorry for the unsuspecting young tourists I saw having these bracelets made onto their wrists, but it was a case for every man for themselves! As we were pushing through this throng of incredibly annoying, incredibly pushy, incredibly rude men I kept repeating over and over again “NO” If I didn’t want a souvenir from the first 25 men why would I change my mind on the 26th? Anyhow, by the end I’d had enough and just yelled “NO” at one young man who tried to push himself in my direction. He became angry then and yelled “NO” at me and then “HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?” To which I gave him a dirty look and moved on. They can’t expect to be that rude to someone and then get crabby when that person becomes annoyed/rude back, its total harassment!

Anyway, that aside, it was quite a pleasant day, even the walk up the STEEP hillside wasn’t soooooo bad in the end. We got to the top and were able to see for miles! It was a lovely view of the city from here, you could see everything, and it was really relaxing to sit up here and just take in the city and relax in your own little corner. Very nice! We were getting pretty tired by now, so we made tracks home but as we did so made a detour to the Moulin Rouge which is a 10 minute walk away, it was tiny, but great to see it after seeing it in films and having heard of it, we were now really buggered so we head back to the hostel where we crashed out and fell asleep pretty quickly!

written by  Chris and Emily on July 30, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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Chris and I lined up for 10 minutes or so and said goodbye as he went in, saying we’d meet up across the street in an hour, and then I was alone in Paris. It felt kind of refreshing and nice. I now had only my bad French and self to rely on (well, lets be fair, I couldn’t really rely on my French to get me anything but some strange looks and laughter…) While I wandered about the city area looking at the little stores and being tempted to buy little items I don’t really need, but for the sake of the fact that they were on sale, did so, Chris walked beneath me looking at totally decomposed dead people.

We met an hour later where Chris said that he’d had a really good time and that it had been really interesting and that I should have come as it wasn’t that bad (yeah, right) He mentioned that these bodies had been placed down in the catacombs (old mine shafts) when the cemeteries became to full. That a group of people had been hired to stack the bones etc, and had become ‘creative’ and had then begun to make patterns and shapes with the bone parts, for instance, there is a love heart made out of a bunch of skulls. Charming. He also mentioned that there are some sick (very sick if you ask me) people out there, who, like to climb down into the catacombs, take drugs and then have sex on the bones… eeeeewwwwwww! Anyhow, I’m sure he mentioned many other interesting facts and stories to me but I sort of shut off after hearing that, sort of put me off but at the same time it was the only thing I could think of, really really disgusting. I then happily showed Chris my purchases from the morning where he rolled his eyes and informed me that I buy the oddest things, and now, as I look back on it, he’s right, I don’t really need a teeny tiny miniature ashtray, but still, it was only a Euro… I’m a girl I’m MEANT to buy nonsense items and spend money, right?

We then found a little food market where we brought some bread, dips and chicken and made our way to the Luxemburg gardens where we had a little picnic and spent hours just lying about under the trees and relaxing, it was really lovely. Feeling slightly more revived and ready to face the crowds once more we head off in the direction of the “Shakespeare and Co” bookshop. This is an English bookshop which is famous for the fact that all the people working there are writers who live upstairs of this business and for the fact that they have many authors coming in and doing readings of their work throughout the week. It was a very busy little bookshop and a little bit of a paradise for me, I could have looked at all the books, but, on time restriction was only able to spend half an hour looking through the stacks of books for a gem or two.

It was getting later now and we decided that tonight was the night. We were going to go and see the Eiffel Tower at night tonight. We arrived as the sun was beginning to lower itself and lay back on the grass waiting for darkness to descend and we weren’t disappointed. At 9pm the golden flood lights came on and it was just gorgeous. The whole area was flashing as many many tourists took happy snaps, and then, at 10pm the little twinkle lights came on and the whole area erupted into cheers and applause and then, all the French people there broke out in a song ending in cheers, it was a lovely moment and with the twinkle lights it was just breath taking gorgeous. We spent some time admiring this but decided that we’d leave when the twinkle lights went off (half an hour or so they last for) so, after this we head back to the hostel where we once more fell into bed exhausted but happy.

written by  Chris and Emily on July 31, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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As we were leaving at about 3pm we didn’t really have much of a day to play with, so we just took a leisurely breakfast at a very nice little café close to the hostel. We relaxed with our hot drinks, our bread and croissants, our jams etc, just took it easy and then skyped home for a chat with the family. Before we knew it, it was time to get going and head back to the hostel to pick up the bags and head to the train station.

The Eurostar was quick and painless (as we expected) but we had to laugh and at the same time roll our eyes, as we left Paris with beautiful blue sky and a beating heat… and as we came into the UK were met with grey clouds and pouring rain. It is England after all. Digging about at the bottom of our bags we were able to find our rain jackets and after donning these made our way to the next train which would take us to Sue and Patrick’s. It was so nice to see these guys again; we’ve really missed our UK family! We spent a long time catching up and filling each other in with all the news and goings on over the past 7 weeks or so, it was just lovely to see them again! A lovely home made meal completed the lovely evening and soon after that it was into bed for everyone.

written by  Chris and Emily on August 1, 2009 from Buntingford, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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It sounds sad, but the main event for today was WASHING. God we had a lot! It may sound even sadder, but I had a total sense of satisfaction seeing all the dirty laundry now washed and hanging in the breeze to dry!

It was just a lovely day catching up with Sue and Patrick and occasionally sticking our heads into Rachs’ room to see how she was and say ‘hi’ (she’s not feeling well today sadly.. could be Swine flu...here’s hoping it’s not!!)

We had a lovely Sunday Roast before Chris and Patrick took off to Sue and Patrick’s business to look at the computers and servers… something I know nothing about. They were gone for sometime, so in this time Sue and I relaxed chatting and eating some very very yummy chocolates, before Sue went up and offered some to Rach and, having a slight conscious, left some for the boys.

A very light dinner was had before we head back upstairs to pack and watch DVDs. A lovely lovely day!

written by  Chris and Emily on August 2, 2009 from Buntingford, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We left Sue and Patrick this morning and head to the hostel that we’re staying in for 3 nights to dump our bags and then tube it to Heathrow to pick Luke up. We found that we were running slightly late, and as we were coming into the airport Chris looked up and saw an airplane from the airline Luke was flying with coming in, we looked at our watches and noticed that it was the time it was meant to land, so this spurred us on to get there even faster. We made it to Lukes gate and waited with great excitement for him to walk through the doors, and half an hour or more later, he did so, hurray! We gave him huge big hugs and we all talked at once trying to fill each other in on everything that has happened in the past 4 months or so.

We made it back to the hostel and as Luke was pretty hungry we made our first agenda item: consuming of food. Chris and I went up and ordered, leaving Luke to relax on a couch and when we got back Luke leaned over and whispered “that’s Will Anderson” and sure enough, over Lukes shoulder sat Australian comedian Will Anderson. We contemplated going up and saying hi, but he was sitting by himself and busy on his computer, so we left him alone, but I know that he noticed the three of us because as I began to choke and cough loudly in a very unlady like fashion on a piece of my burger, he looked over and watched me, we had eye contact, so I claim that he now knows of my existence, albeit, it wasn’t a very pretty first impression for him.

We dumped our bags in a teeny tiny room that’s supposed to sleep 4 people but I think was more designed for 4 midgets, and head out. We know how badly you want to sleep when you first arrive in the UK, the jet lag can be a real pain, but we also know that the best way to beat it is to stay up until it’s bed time and then head off to the land of nod, so we dragged Luke off into the city and took him past Buckingham Palace, through St James Park, over to Big Ben and Westminster, over to Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square and then off to Hyde Park. I was very proud of Luke, for someone who hadn’t slept in 40 hours he did very well at keeping up, and keeping awake.

Hyde Park is amazingly huge and pretty! It was a lovely day, clear blue sky and hot with just a slight breeze flowing over you, just right. We lay in the park for a while taking in the activities around us, roller blading, soccer, rowing on the lake, picnics, boot camps, it was busy but chilled out, it was really nice to take it all in. There was a little café on the lake in Hyde Park so head here for a bite to eat before heading back to the hostel where we all fell asleep not long after putting our heads to the pillow

written by  Chris and Emily on August 3, 2009 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We walked onto South bank where we took Luke to look at the London Eye, we contemplated going on it but then saw the line up for tickets and backed away very quickly, it was huge! We strolled along the river Thames taking in the sights around us and dropped into the Tate Museum quickly where we looked at some Picasso paintings and then left. London is currently chockers with tourists so it’s pretty crazy at the more popular places of interest, you can barely move and it can become quite claustrophobic really! We kept walking until we came to a bar we’ve sampled earlier in our travels and stopped for a drink or two in the sun, before again rising to our feet and heading off to see the Tower Bridge, from a distance, our feet were beginning to hurt a little. We slowly head off to the tube station, stopping briefly at the Portobello Market Square where Chris was able to sample a ‘very good’ coffee (highly recommended by the Lonely Planet booklet)

We made it back to Leicester Square where the movie premier was just beginning to take off, the red carpet was rolled out, the barriers were up, fans lined the streets… we noticed that there was a two story Burger King right across the road from the movie theater, so we went in there and it was a very good decision to do so I think. We had a brilliant birds eye view of the events, we watched as dancers came out and performed, and then as little explosion things took off and red love heart glitter things fell from the sky, and then, Garod Butler (mmmmm) and Kathrine Hiegl arrived. We watched them walk down the red carpet stopping to pose with fans, sign autographs, talk to press etc etc, they seemed very nice, especially Kathrine Hiegl, who despite knowing of, I’ve never been a huge fan of. It took a long time for them to make there way down the red carpet which was about 150 meters long all up, but it took them about an hour and a half, we actually left BEFORE they finished there appearance, we were getting really tired of standing about!

As we were in the movie district we decided that we would take a rest and relax by watching “Star Trek” it was as good as we first remembered it being, but this time, as it played I suddenly heard a little snoring sound… I looked over and despite all the loud explosions and yells etc, Luke was sound asleep in the movie theatre, we let him sleep through out this and only roused him out of his slumber to make a move back to the hostel.

written by  Chris and Emily on August 4, 2009 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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It was a quick tube trip to Paddington Station where we boarded our train to Bristol. Normally you get plenty of time to make your way down the platform to your carriage, but this time, for some reason it appeared that the conductors were all very eager to get the train on the tracks and were blowing there whistles as we just made our way to the platform. We ran a little thinking that we would make it to carriage B, but when we realized we wouldn’t, leapt onto another carriage and then had to make our way through the carriages to our seats. It was an uneventful trip otherwise.

To get to Ann and Bryans we had to take a taxi from the train station and we had the funniest taxi driver EVER. He told us joke after joke as if he was auditioning for a stand up gig and he had us giggling the whole time, he was very funny and also very nice.

It was great to get back to Ann and Bryan. We haven’t seen them in so long, it was lovely to be able to catch up again and introduce Luke.

The evening went quickly and it was also really great to see Jenny and Martin once more. Jen joined us for dinner and after he’d finished work, Martin popped by also. It was a really nice, relaxed evening and, an early for once!

written by  Chris and Emily on August 5, 2009 from Bristol, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We caught the bus into the city centre where we then made our way to the ‘ferry café’ that we really love for a cup of coffee and hot chocolate. Now feeling revived and more ‘awake’ we slowly made our way towards the shops of Bristol, stopping on the way at the ‘Walkabout’ pub quickly jump on the net (still checking prices of up coming travels!) and then onto to the mall to find both the boys some new thongs. It seemed a little redundant as it was raining, but still, we’re optimists, we figure by buying thongs the weather HAS to get better, right? It was a successful mission buying thongs for the boys and finding t-shirts for Luke.

Back to Ann and Bryans where we then got ready for our evening at the balloon fiesta that was staring tonight. We were dropped off at the bus station, which, thanks to the immense traffic took about 45 minutes when it should have only taken 20 minutes! Once on the bus we made our way to the grounds where we were greeted with a large ‘carnival’ atmosphere. There were rides and side show alleys and on the oval one lone hot air balloon. We had been expecting many hot air balloons to be blowing gently in the breeze, so to see one lone one, promoting a local big name store, was a little disappointing. We quickly made our way to the alcohol tent for beers and Pimms before making a round trip of the oval.

Martin then met up with us and from there our little group grew as some of Martins friends joined us, including Rich who we all met when he and Martin made there way out to Australia, it was really nice to see him again.

We stood around talking for a while before a set of fire works signaled the start of the ‘balloon fiesta’

The Balloon Fiesta is a big carnival where people come from all over the world with their hot air balloons and there are all sorts of different activities, take offs, shows etc and, on the first night, like tonight, there is a show where the balloons all light up in time to music that is playing, such as ABBA, Tom Jones, classical tunes etc. It really does look spectacular against the night sky! This lasted for about half an hour and the end of this was once more signified by a large firework display that seemed to take place RIGHT behind us, which made us jump a mile, let me tell you!

We made a hasty retreat at the end of this in a bid to outrun the 5000 strong crowd; we did well, though we still managed to get caught up a little. Martin had parked a good 20 minute walk away, so we made the trek to the car which was probably good for us after all the hideous greasy food we’d consumed that evening! Ann had waited up for us and to hear all the news from the balloon festival, so we had a chat with her for a bit before hitting the sack for a few hours sleep in preparation of tomorrows activities.

written by  Chris and Emily on August 6, 2009 from Bristol, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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We said goodbye to Ann and Bryan and promised to be back soon and that we’d be safe and then made our way to Wells for a quick stop to show Luke where the film “Hot Fuzz” was filmed and we then made our way on towards Newquay.

We soon discovered the reason as to why there was no accommodation in all of Newquay, there were major surf title competitions on the go, and also, a big weekend concert. Newquay was packed with tourists and locals alike!

On the off chance and on a whim we pulled into a caravan park and asked if they had a caravan that we might be able to hire for a night, and to our relief, they did. It was a cozy two bedroom caravan with a lounge room, kitchen and bathroom. It was more than adequate for our one night stay!

We head into Newquay Centre and found a spot at a bar that over looked the water where we could watch the goings on at the beach and take in the views. The surf competition itself was around the corner, but it was so packed and busy you couldn’t get there without a fight, and to be honest, we were all quite tired now! We had a meal, watched some of the Ashes and “booed” when all the other people in the bar would cheer (Aussies weren’t doing so well during this test) and then moved on for a look through the town picking up a few groceries for tonight and breakfast tomorrow.

The caravan park we were staying at was more like a mini city, and I say that with complete honesty. There were, I kid you not, 1000 caravans and tents there and on site there was a water park, a bowling alley, a pizzeria, a grocery store (over priced of course) a restaurant bar and a ‘club’. As it was still a little early when we got back we thought we’d go and check out the club, looking forward to meeting some other travelers, having a beer and some music, and generally, just relaxing. We walked in, and to our amusement and horror the club was infact a bingo hall. There were at least 500 people sitting about at tables all playing the game with the tackiest music and lighting going on in the background. It was truly truly awful. But it got worse. As the numbers were called the announcer would call out something really tacky, but number 22 was the worst, the announcer called out “Two little ducks swimming side by side, number 22” and the whole room erupted into “QUACK QUACK QUACK!!!” the announcer smiled and said “Thank you quackers” and this happened twice while we were there. Getting the rooms attention was painful too. The announcer would go “SH SH SH- SH SH…” and the room would finish it off with “SH SH” oooohhhhh, it was bad. We thought that the best way to deal with this was to drink a few drinks QUICKLY and then get out, so we ordered drinks that were on special and being promoted only to be told “oh, we don’t stock that” yet, there were big banners saying “special give aways with this drink, this week” etc, and then, as we stood at the bar giggling, an incredibly large, incredibly drunk young man, who was bright red from sunburn and who, I hate to say it despite it being the truth, had no fashion sense, came up to us and went “WWWWOOOOOOO” in our faces, pumping his arms in the air victoriously, to which we took the micky and copied him, he stalled for a moment as if contemplating us, but then moved on to the front of the room where he danced (badly) souly. He gave it a go though and was very enthusiastic in his terrible moves.

We could only stand one drink and then had to get the hell out of there, it was killing us. We made it back to the safety of our little cabin where we barracked ourselves in with a bottle of wine and some beer and chips and enjoyed the rest of the evening chatting and watching bad TV.

written by  Chris and Emily on August 7, 2009 from Newquay, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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