Europe!!

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Hello everyone!!
sorry i have no photos to show as do not have time to load them up owing to jessie and my crazy sight seeing schedule....
the rest of thailand was heaps of fun, stayed in ko samui for 6 nights then bangkok then flew to london on new years eve and met tash and simon on the plane!!
new years eve was a blast, gabby (english cousin) had friends round at her flat, after arriving round 10pm a home new years was just what the doctor ordered and allowed us to adjust to the new climate.

in london caught up with the family, everyone was so amazing and hospitable! 4 of us stayed with dan and laura. saw steph for the first time in months, she's shacked up with 4 kiwis in a share house have a wow of a time. spent the days shopping and a bit of sightseeing and a couple of nights at the pub, true london style!

from london we bussed it to see the manchester family. the new addition, william, to the freeman family is a little angle, cutest baby ever! unfortunetly manchester was too short a stay but spain was calling us, so on 7th jan we packed our packs (again) and flew to barcelona...

i can barely describe how incredible barcelona was!!!! really sad i dont have photos to show!! our 3 nights there was incredible. as usual we packed a lot in, walked 1000 km so see the beautiful city and magnificant buildings and saw lots of gaudi. the food was fantastic, paella is the best thing ever invented and had the best hot chocolate of my life (so thick you can almost stand a spoon in it!) the people are all so trendy and friendly! not speaking spanish wasnt really a problem, bit of a smile and a point and you can work it out. completed a spanish cooking course ... which involved making large quantities of sangria...cheap red wine, sugar (of course), chopped friut, and liquer. needless to say we remember little of how to make the paella, tapas or gespacho. but it was a fun night.

from barcelona we eurailed to toulouse, in the south of france. culture shock number 2! we were determined to learn a bit of french as we would be there for a couple of weeks. the first day we mastered "i dont speak french" "do you speak english" "where is..." "i would like..." unfortunelty our skills have not progressed far, as even when i use my handy phrase book i think my pronounciation is so bad they feel sorry for me and speak english. luckily have not come across any of these rude french people you here of! everyone has been lovely and helpful!
toulouse, the rose coloured city was a great place to start. wandered the streets and tried to local specialtiy, a type of casserole, "cassoulet". i dont know what meat was in it and i dont want to know, but it was very tasty!

next stop marseille, frances oldest city. it was based around the port. the actual city has a large african population so culture is very diverse and so interesting. lots of funky african shops and music.
the city was very hilly and the veiw from notre dame was very special. enjoyed our 2 nights but i was happy to leave as i didnt feel that safe walking the streets. markets of stolen goods on the side of the street dont instill much confidence!

nice was nice!!!! beautiful sea side city!! some parts were fairly tacky and surfes paradise like but the old city was gorgeous. one highlight was its proximity to monaco. on the 2nd night caught the train there and spent the evening living the high life (well pretending!!) went to an antique car collection, dad you would have loved it! spending the evening and soaking up the glitz and glam made jess and i determined to become or at least marry rich! hehe

lyon, a larger city was stop number 4. we immediately took a liking to this clean and chick city. went to a silk painting factory and enjoyed people watching in the "urban aorta" of town. the people of lyon pride themselves on their cruisine which involves eating all parts of animals!! we were extremely careful when ordering dinner!! had to check it wasnt tribe, pigs feet or livers...although i was made to try blood sausage by a waitor we befriended! i asked what the plat de jour was and he refused to tell me and made me try it insead! not as bad as it could have been, luckily it was drowned in creamy sauce to ride the colour. we treated ourselves to 4 course set menus 2 nights in a row, the rich cruisine was incredible. luckily we had a 4 km hike up a huge hill to our hostel everynight to work it off!

so PARIS PARIS PARIS! every day would be a count down til our arrivel. now its here!
on our first night we checked in a 6pm and quick smart organised our night out...a trip to the opera!! it was opening night for the italian, modern opera (the name of which escapes me) but we luckily got last minute tickets for 20 euro. even though it was sung in italian with french sub-titles, it was so incredible and we were able to follow what was going on! what a way to start our 4 nights in paris.

day 1 of crazy sight seeing has been everything we could have hoped for. started with arc de triomphe, checked out the city square Place de la concorde, hotel de ville...notre dame was breathtaking, as were were able to go up top and look out the onto the whole of paris. after a les halles and culture georges pomidou, we headed to the cool student area or latin quarter for a cheap lunch and soak up the atmosphere. walked off lunch in the jardin des plantes (which has nothing on melbournes botanical gardens!), saw sarbonne, very famous uni and the pantheon.
on the agenda for tonight is the lourve (free admission after 6pm -score) then a rooftop terrace view.
tomorrow eiffel tower, held off for today coz was fairly cloudy, very hard to restrain!
going to sacre coeur for a sunday service and obviously have to check out the moulin rouge...so a few more days of fun then will head back to london on monday and home on tuesday!!

congradulations for those of your loyal readers that made it to the end of the essay, as my 10 and a bit weeks of travels draw to an end i look forward to catching up with everyone at home.
love and miss you all
lizzie

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Comments

[Dan and Laura]

hello!
wow! what a fantastic adventure you are having. see you next week :-) remember you always have a home in London!