Paris and Brussels

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Hello again everyone,
Well therest of my visit to spain went well. Visited Ferrol, where SImon works, which is basicaly one massize ship yard, not a very scenic place, but the vino was great. We had a lovely christmasy dinner on our last night, with roast and apple crumble, and a freshly decorated Xmas tree.
On THursday Simon and Mands dropped me at the airport and then i was jetsetting again to Paris. Had only minor difficulties getting from the airport to the hotel. With phrase book in hand i got tickets and got on the metro and arrived, taking about 1.5hrs... THe big day was friday, so i spent most of thursday night working on my talk and waiting for scotty to arrive. Although i did sneak down to what would become my favorite street in paris. Got some pastries and soup, i worked out pretty quickley that if you just say 'wi' to everything, things seem to work out.

Paris...What a city!!! Holy shit. Full on.
Friday talks went well, i think that they are pretty interested in Scotty, so we will se what that eventuates in over the next few months. It was also scotty's birthday on Friday, so i took him on a nice night tour of Paris, from the louvre up to the arch di triumph. Which included the christmas markets of Paris.
Saturday was sightseeing, musee dorsay, louvre, arch di triumph, and more christams markets, Paris on Saturday night... oh my god, you could not move. THere must have been many thousands of people on the main drag...completely crazy, and not very relaxing.

Sunday, more sightseeing, notre dame, conciege, st chapelle, effel tower. It was freezing this day, but we managed to hang out on the tower for over two hours. It really is a lovely view. The blue lights of the tower are much more interesting when you are onthe tower than when you see it from afar.

Paris, although beautiful, was very full on and not super enjoyable. Its overwhelming, too much to see in too little time, and very poor value for money after australian conversion. $40A for two sausages in bread and two mulled wines. Its hard to justify eating...

Monday after a whole day at the louvre, which really is the most remarkable place we saw in paris. we headed via train to Brussels, Belgium. Which after meeting Slyvia Verbanck for more work talks, which went well. we have enjoyed the christmas markets here and the scenery, it is much more layed back than paris, more relaxed and more enjoyable.
Yesterday we ate, waffles, pom frittes *2, chimay, chocolate, mulled wine (too many to count). Today i think we might repeat yesterday. THe shops here are amazing, i love it, chocolate shops, bakeries and beer almost cover the whole city. What else could you possibly need. ?
Tonight we will head back to the chritsmas marketd and have a session on the ice rink. Did i mentioned that it snowed yesterday!!!!! oh my god, it was so cool. I still can't believe it.

TOmorrow we will head to Bruge and then to Prague on friday to meet up with SImon and Mands for the weekend and then down to chesky crumlov. Then onto Poland, Sweden and London.

Hope all are well,
sorry for the fairly boring email.

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Photos

The Tower
Pretty blue lights

Crazy Paris
People, cars, lights...

Amazing
wow

Scotty and Ness
Brussels Christmas Markets

Grand Place Christmas Lights
The Christmas lights 'dance' to the music