After a pretty good nights sleep, I'm ready to tackle breakfast and hit the streets of Paris :-DWow, what a day! I enjoyed breakfast at the hotel then headed down the streets of Paris. I started walking down the champs élysées and it was so early there was no one around! Just the odd runner... I just checked out what shops were around and decided to head towards the Tour Eiffel! I walked the streets and eventually found my way there, got to admire the old building along the way. Very beautiful :-)
Then BAM! I was instantly in love with the tower! I walked along the river siene and it slowly got bigger and bigger! I couldn't believe the size, I knew it was big but holy cow! I guess everyone has that reaction lol. I was early and there were people everywhere! Lined up in every direction... Crazy. I didn't line up cos I wanted to wait for the others to go up the top. I just found a seat and soaked up the beauty for a little while.
I headed back towards the river and found a crepe stand - Nutella crepes - Cassie u were right, amazing!
After I enjoyed my crepes I headed back towards the champs and on further to the louvre! It was a long walk but I enjoyed it, so much to see along the way. I lined up to enter (only wait maybe 5 min) and I was in. Pretty cool inside that big diamond. Got my ticket and headed towards the Mona Lisa. Found her, and of course there were people everywhere... A lovely lady took my picture and I was out of the way. On the way to see the Venus de milo I saw some amazing artworks and amazing sculptures (getting excited to see David now) and some other awesome stuff.
It was time to head back to the hotel to meet up with the gang and as I headed back up the champs with the arc in sight, I stopped in a few shops but nothing tickled my fancy.
I got back to the room to learn they'd already arrived and had taken off again, lol. Soon enough I found then and we headed back down the champs in search of a phone shop (Brett is keen for a data card so he can access the Internet anytime). What we did find was a Nike store - Brett is addicted. A quick shop and we headed back to the room to get ready for moulin rouge!
We attacked the metro and won, getting us 2 steps from the front entrance of the moulin rouge, excited!
Once inside the atmosphere was wonderful with cute little tables and stuff, shame about the waiters. There were so rude... Anyways, not to worry. After a simple meal the show begun and it was amazing! Lots of boobs, lots of color and some great dancing and singing (I still think there were miming!)
During the comedy breaks Brett was asked to go up on stage to participate in a 'movie'. He did a great job and I think he enjoyed getting up off his seat! Lol.
The rest of the show was amazing and we tackled again the metro to get home. A huge day, but absolutely fantastic. Now to bed so we can get up and do it all again!
Wow, yet another huge day in Paris! Started with breakfast and packing our ports to check out of the hotel. We made our way to the Eiffel tower (and I had crepes again (-: ) and we lined up to go up the escalator to the viewing deck. What a view! We thought about going up the very top but they wanted to charge more, and it was super super busy, so we just went down. Did some fun shots with the tower, it's such a good poser.
Then we caught our first Paris taxi to the louvre - mostly because of rude people in the metro while we were trying to figure out how to get there and waiting to talk to a lady when another lady just stood in front of us and took our spot - crazy rude, we couldn't believe it.
Anyways, we headed towards the louvre and the line up was ridiculous and no one wanted to wait so we walked to the hard rock cafe for lunch. It was pretty cool, same food as the rest of the world, lol. Brett collects the shirts so that was the main reason for our visit. We left there and walked a little way down the street to galleries Lafayette. Holy busy! We didn't stay long, it was not and crowded. We did go up to the top and admire the panoramic (almost) view :-)
We shopped for a bit, then made our way back to the hotel to grab a bite to eat and get our ports to make our way to the train station.
We had some dinner - Brett and I tried the onion soup - different. Carrissa ordered snails - not terrible but not delicious . And Alisha had tomato and cheese. Carrissa and I also had a French beer, nice.
We had a wonderful taxi driver on the way to the train station and we actually enjoyed his company and service - first time since we arrived. Found our way easily to the station and waited maybe 5 minutes and we were on the train. It was a pretty quick trip and we were in London!!!
Straight out and straight into a taxi, so cool. A short trip into town, checked in and time for bed.
London! Wow, amazing! First day and we were in the thick of it. We started with the hop on hop off bus and got to,see big ben (awesome) and got off and straight onto the London eye! What a view. The other girls were a bit worried because it was so so high, but when ur on there it doesn't even feel like ur moving! The cart thing is really big too, so you feel nice and safe. The one thing we are loving the most at the moment is the British accent ;-)
Back on the bus and we made a quick stop at st Paul's church, beautiful! Carrissa and I did our phone booth photos and we got some snacks. Back on the bus, through the city of London (did u all know that London is split into two? The city of London, and the city of Westminster? You know ur entering London when u see the dragons. Found that quite interesting) drove over the tower bridge, saw the London tower and made our way through the rest. We could feel the vibe immediately and loved it. We got off on a specific stop to do a Beatles walking tour. Basically we were led through the streets and shown building, cafes, bars etc were famous stuff happened with the Beatles and other famous artists. Very interesting, very cool.
We had lunch at a place called gar funkels and I had a pie and mash - yum!
Another walking tour and this one was supposed to be a ghost tour / pub crawl. First stop was Sherlock Holmes pub. Great little pub, great atmosphere. We all tried ale, hated it. We kept walking through the city and were shown a few spots were ghosts apparently lived, and a few famous houses again. Very cool.
We were all exhausted so we just got room service and went to bed.
The next started with a quick stop in a souvenir store then a brief walk to bucking ham palace. Holy cow, how frikken awesome is it! We admired the front entrance then made our way to get our tickets to take the tour. It took maybe an hour or so and the history and just plain awesomeness was unbelievable. It's too hard to explain, but if uve been, u'll understand.
Next stop was the original hard rock cafe for lunch. Great vibe, great service (Aussie waitress, lol) and good food. A stop in to see the museum, half led zeppelin guitar (and others but i cant remember) and we were on our way. Just up the road to my excitement was harrods!!! Such a huge building and such awesome things inside! Fist stop, Christmas land. I'm sure our jaws dropped to the floor when we walked in. We looked around then found the harrods gift store bit and looked around there. Carissa and I then found an ice cream parlour (yeah, inside) and had a choc caramel sundae! Delicious.
After that, we headed to Oxford street for a quick shop. Time flew and before we knew it we were back in the room getting ready to go out.
Brett and Alisha stayed shopping a little longer than we did so needed more time to et ready. Carissa and I retraced our steps and went to the Sherlock Holmes pub for dinner. Bangers and mash, so delicious! Just like a home cooked meal. Then a short cab fair to the Apollo Victoria to meet the others and see wicked! Boy was it wicked, the singers just blew us away and a great story.
Home, bed, lol.
Last day in London and we were all a little sad, we didn't want to leave. Brett and Alisha were keen for a day of shopping so Carissa and I were left to fend for ourselves. First stop, changing of the guards at bucking ham palace. What a show! Their outfits, the music, everything, it was great.
We then found an underground station and caught the tube to abbey road. It was so cool! We walked on the crossing (of course) and checked out all the graffiti on the surrounding walls - we left our mark also.
Back on the tube to baker st where we found a place serving fish and chips. Yes please, and wasn't it delicious :-)
Then a short walk to Madame Tussaud. Great little attraction, but very busy. We got some photos taken (stuffed if I can think of his name - the guy that does the colorful photos in four squares - most famous for doing Marilyn Munro) and watched an avengers 4d show - that was cool.
Back to Oxford street to visit the biggest Nike store in the world, where I got some new shoes. It was huge, the shop.
Anyways, moving right along. We had to head back to the room to meet up with Brett and Alisha and make our way to the contiki meeting/checkin. Arrived t the hotel, had their little talk, filled in the forms and headed to the London pub to have a kind of meet and greet. Everyone was lovely and we shared a few beers. This got us all very excited for the trip.
I really wanted to see big Ben and the eye at night, so we did that then headed back to the room - 6am start 2m. Eek
430am, the alarm goes off - NO! Up we got and headed to the hotel to get our ports weighed and get on the bus. Seedy as we were, we did it. About 2hrs 45mins down the road, we boarded the ferry to head back to Europe, Paris. The ferry ride was about 1hr 30mins and we had some breakfast while on board. Back on the bus for another 1 hour or so, stopped for lunch then back on again for I think an hour? I feel asleep. We arrived to our Paris hotel around 4 and had 2 hours until dinner. Dinner just down the road - in a little Parisian restaurant - loved it. Then we headed on our night city tour. We drove all through the city and were told plenty of history - none of which I remember because I have a terrible memory. We stopped at another restaurant were we had snails and champagne. These snails were actually in their shells, but tasted pretty good.
Back on the bus to finish the tour and what a way to finish. We finally got to see the Eiffel tower at night. Omg, so damn beautiful! I fell in love all over again. We headed back to the room, I did a spot of washing (in the small ass sink with no plug) and were off to bed. Free day in paris tomorrow.
Hope u enjoyed this long ass addition of euro 2012 - we haven't had hotel wifi for 4 days! Lol.
