Giverny As far as I can remember, I always wanted to visit Monet's house. I am a big Monet fan and love his landscape paintings. One of my favourite paintings is of the waterlilies pond in the Japanese gardens of his home. I was very excited seeing the spot where he painted this! I decided to join a tour one afternoon. There were six of us in the minibus and we made our way to Giverny. I got chatting to Gisele, from Brazil, and Francie, from New Zealand, on the tour. It took us around an hour to reach the village. We received our VIP entry tickets and it was great that we did not have to queue! Makes a nice change! We had around two hours to look around the house and gardens. I walked ... read more

Yesterday, I got my new travel money card to use on my forthcoming Paris and Alicante trips (and also for future trips). It is just under a month that I am off to Paris. Lately, I have been thinking where I would love to travel on future trips. The list is so long!!! I come to a realisation that it would not be possible to see everywhere and do everything in my life so I have to prioritise. I know where I do not want to go but the list is too short with just three countries! I have been doing some further research on my Paris and Alicante trips. I now have got some ideas of what I would like to do and, in the case of Alicante, expect to see. I have finally paid ... read more

It has been a while since I last made an entry to my blog. Finally, I have got round to booking flights and making travel plans for this year. I have decided to stay in Europe and explore more of the continent. At the end of July, I have booked a trip returning to Paris coinciding with my birthday and having opportunities to explore more of the city. I would like to revisit some of my favourite sights, visit some art museums and check out some sights I have not yet seen. I had an amazing time in Paris last year where I attended French language classes for which was part of my GCSE French exam revision (I am happy to say that I passed!). Later on in the year, there are also plans to visit ... read more

After uncertainty and definitely anxiety of a strike threat involving Chilean immigration and customs staff, the day came when I would get the bus back to Santiago for my flight home the following day. I was very concerned because if the strike happened the consequences I would face would obviously seriously affect my plans returning home such as missing my flight! The threat did not help my issues I had in Mendoza. However it turned out not to be any problems at all. I got the bus OK and the bus was half empty. I think many travellers have deterred travelling to Chile because of the strike threat. The only bother I had were companies hassling me to buy tickets for Chile! I explained to them that I already prebooked my ticket. Obviously, the sales would ... read more

I got picked up around about 7.30 am and we picked some more people from another hostel. We began out journey on the Ruta 40 (nothing special, just the suburbs of Mendoza) then we joined the Ruta 7 towards Chile. Our first stop, for a comfort break, was Uspallata, a village famed for Seven Years in Tibet movie and this was the village and the surrounding areas where the movie was made. We drove further into Alta Montaña stopping at some lakes after Uspallata then onto Fortin Puchueta. This colonial bridge has some significant history as the bridge was crossed by the San Martin forces during the campaign for independence from Spain in the 18th Century. We then began riding up to some amazing scenery until we reached Parque Provincial Aconcagua. We stopped at the entrance ... read more