Advertisement
Published: October 16th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Guiness
The people thought we were very strange, as none of us actually like Guiness, but we pulled our own pint anyway, and had a sip. Lots of fun at the factory, its really quite impressive. Well. Hello.
Sorry its been such a long time coming. I did actually catch this blog up in Barcelona about 8 days ago, but the computer crashed and deleted all my work. Very annoying.
So, Im currently in Croatia, with a key board where the keys for Z and Y are back to front, so I apologise if I get it wrong.
But, back to where I left off last.
We left Naxos and headed back to Athens on the ferry, and checked back into our hostel. We had nothing to do, and everything was closing, so we went to the cinema! We saw United 93, about the plane that crashed on 9/11, and in the middle of the film, the screen came up with INTERMISSION and the film stopped and the people walked out for about 15 mins then came back in and started again. You should have seen our faces! We were so shocked! The film was quite good, and then we headed on the metro back up to our restaurant, just up the road from the hostel, where we had eaten the time before in athens. The boys recognised us, and we had previously
Eiffel Tower
Well, forgive the bad hair, on a bus all day. The Eiffel tower is very pretty at night. taken a photo of us with one of them there, so we printed that out and gave it to him. He was very pleased and invited us out for disco tech, but not til 1am, so we declined and went to bed.
Left for London the next day on easyJet. No hassles. Arrived at the airport, got a taxi out to our luxury guesthouse and checked in. Pretty nice, house on these big grounds, so went for a walk, and then ate a picnic dinner on the floor of the lounge room watching TV. Went to bed, falling asleep to the sound of Kath and Kim.
Slept in the next morning as our taxi wasnt picking us up til 11am. Had a lazy morning, arrived at the airport and our flight to Dublin was delayed for 3 hours. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of flying out of Gatwick airport, there is nothing to do there. By the time we got on the plane we had been at the airport for 5 hours, and had the worst service on an airplane I have ever had. Flew with RyanAir, and not only did they not
Moulin Rouge
You just have to at least go past. apologise for being late, the steward was rude from the moment we sat down. So much to the point that I still have my boarding pass with the flight number and I wrote down the guys name and I am going to make a complaint. Its certainly a case of you get what you pay for. The flight was 1pence, and taxes were about 15pounds, so very cheap.
By the time we got through the flight, immigration, picked up our bags and caught the bus into the city, it was 7pm, so we were pretty hungry. Ended up running into this american guy called Chad (yes, im serious, the Chad), and he showed us where to have dinner. Went to a couple of bars in Temple Bar, and got back to the hostel about 12midnight.
Got up early the following day to sight see. We did Trinity College, the book of Kells, the Guinness factory, Dublin castle (where we saw Jonathon Reece Myers, shook his hand and everything, and just missed Sam Neill, they were filming a TV series there), Temple Bar. Did some washing, and then went out for dinner again. Listened to some local live music,
Far from home
I'm actually surprised we made it on the list! and had a pretty early night in the end.
Chez and I left Alex behind in Dublin and headed back to London. Our flight was again delayed, but only by an hour, so not too bad. Better service that time. Got back to London after lunch, and headed straight for the hostel, just down the road from Hammersmith. Checked in, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed back to Shepherds Bush to Alexs old house to pick up some of Chezs stuff. We could have walked in about 30mins, and we were on the bus in the pouring rain for about 45min. We were heading to a friend of Mums for dinner, and ended up being and hour and a half late, which I felt very bad about, but they were very understanding. Rachel and Paul took us out to dinner at this great little pub, and we had a fantastic time. They also let us leave some of our accummulated stuff with them, so we didnt have to take it on tour, for which we are very thankful.
After dinner, caught the tube the 5 stops back to our hostel, and went to bed. I was very
The Louvre
Another one of those things you just have to visit. And we had no queues! proud of myself cos I repacked and was able to close my extension zip on my bag! There was even spare space! Straight to sleep as we left at 6.30am the next morning on tour.
So, up to the tour. Up very early for breakfast, and met some people on tour. We left on the bus at 7am once everyone checked in. Its a full tour, 45 of us, and there was lots of chatting going on on the transit to Dover to catch the ferry over to France. Met a couple of people sitting in front of us, mostly cos I eavesdropped and interupted their conversation, but it worked out well, cos Im now really good friends with both. Cassie and Steve. They were both on the tour on their own.
Got the ferry from Dover to Calle, and met our Cookie and Bus Driver. Our tour guide, Martina, is fantastic, shes from Slovakia (not Slovenia, which is a running joke), and is just gorgeous. Our cook, Brad, is a crackup, and Steve the driver is great. Had lots of chats on the ferry over with others from the tour, including 2 other people from Canberra, including
The Thinker
We found him! Sara Cameron, who went to school with Jess. Freaky stuff.
Drove from Calle to Paris, quite a long boring drive, and once we arrived in Paris, checked into our hotel. Ended up in a 4 bed room with Cassie, Sara, Chez and me. Once we dumped our stuff, we went down and back on the bus to be taken to Sacre Cur. This giant church sits on top of a hill, but affords gorgeous views of the city, particularly at dusk. Lots of photos. Had dinner in a little french restaurant, with two other guys from the tour we ran into, Deann and Phil, and then back down to the bus for a Paris bus tour. We got shown Moulin Rouge, Arc de Triomphe, City Hall, Opera theatre, Napoleon museoleum, etc. Went around this crazy round about around the Arc de Triomphe, which basically has no rules, 12 entrances, no lanes, and you basically just get on and hope like hell you can get off again. Insane, but heaps of fun. And, of course, we saw the Eiffel Tower. Just as we came around the corner, they turned the flashing fairy lights on, which run for a few minutes each hour, so we couldnt have timed it better. Once it was all done, we headed back to the hotel, and went to bed.
Free day in Paris followed the next day, and instead of doing the bike tour, opted to do our own thing. Went up the Eiffel Tower, which was great, and then caught the metro to Notre Dame. Didnt go in, as there was heaps of people, but took some photos. Walked to the Louvre, didnt really have to queue more than 10mins, found the Mona Lisa (so Cassie was thrilled, cos she wanted to see Mona), walked around the Louvre for about another hour and a half (it takes 9 months to walk every corridor if you stop at every piece of art for 30 seconds), then walked to the Arc de Triomphe. Stopped for lunch, then went all the way up and under the round about to be in the middle of the crazy thing. After some more photos (plenty of those to come), we walked to the Ronin Museum to see the Thinker, the statue. Then back to the Eiffel tower to have a champayne picnic right outside. And it poured with rain. Lots of fun though! Food was great, salmon, snails, etc, and I tried snails, which were pretty exciting and didnt taste too bad at all! Then we went to a Cabaret show, which was pretty crazy too, and then back to the hotel and back to bed.
I have now been typing on this crazy keyboard for an hour, so will have to catch you up slowly. No where near where I am currently on tour, seeing Im up to day 2 in the blog, and day 17 on the tour, but Ill get there in the end. The most important thing is that Im having a fantastic time. Stay tuned for the next installment!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0435s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb