Paris

Bonjour de la belle Paris!

We have had an interesting time here to say the least. New Year’s was spent overlooking the Eiffel Tour, obviously surrounded by thousands of people. It’s incredible being in a city where people actually fly just for New Year’s (they are certainly much keener than us as it got so cold we nearly went back to the hotel!). As it was so cold, we ducked into a cafe for dinner and discovered that after we’d finished our coke it cost AUD$14 a glass...woops! However, the Eiffel Tour was beautiful all lit up and we decided it was probably worth being there.

Apart from that, we had a great afternoon yesterday admiring Notre Dame and the Palais de Versailles. It truly is amazing to be in the midst of buildings that were built thousands of years ago with such intricate design - puts Australia’s history to shame really.

Unfortunately on Thursday evening Juz came down quite unwell and spent a considerable amount of time in the bathroom...it was a pity all the money we spent on food went to waste! After a fairly good sleep and restful morning he felt much better.

After waking up to a snow covered city yesterday morning, we spent the rest of our afternoon at the Eiffel Tour, where we waited for a tedious 2 hours and 20 minutes in a queue before absorbing the incredible scenery over Paris... a truly amazing view which was well worth the long and cold wait. 

This morning we head off to Nice on the TGV (fast train) where we hope to do some sun-baking. We’ve been told it’s much warmer down there - about 8-10 degrees!

A bientôt..

London

Our first European city together! Despite the cold weather, the sun has been out and we are having a great time in London. For Juz, this has been his first time seeing a red double decker bus, old-fash

ioned taxis, the places on the Monopoly board and all the main sites. For Jessie, it’s been great to come back and actually enjoy London (last time she was here it rained all day and didn’t go down as the most fond of memories!).
Some of the more enjoyable moments have been walking through London’s beautifully 

maintained parks, seeing a squirrel, visiting all the main attractions (Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Mayfair, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge), taking in the nightlife characterised by very talented buskers and markets, and even finding the equivalent of Borders Bookstore and warming up on a hot chocolate while flicking through the pages of a travel guide for free! Dinner on our  

second evening was also a highlight after discovering a quaint little underground restaurant.

Yet we have also s

een the other side to London, which included arriving at the train station and being informed of delays because someone was ‘under the train’, witnessing shop lifting first hand (conjuring images of ‘Oliver’), the immense socioeconomic gap between the wealth of Mayfair and the homeless man walking down the street, and learning that stabbings are well and truly on the rise here. No doubt these stark realities will continue to face us as we travel through other areas of Europe.

From here on, we are meeting up with Steve Kehayas for dinner tonight and then fly to Paris in the morning. On Saturday we’ll catch the train to Nice before travelling through France, Switzerland and Germany by hire car.

Until next time…