So, we woke bright and early on the Sunday (i know - kill me), in order to visit the Louvre, for a guided tour. We had set the alarm the night before so that we had plenty of time to get ready (read: i had plenty of time to snooze), but suddenly Cleland is all, "Quick. Get ready. Get up! Get ready." I look around in blind and half-asleep confusion, blearily asking what the time is. Cle replies, "time to get up." I get ready in record time (15 minutes), and as we are power walking towards our meeting point, me trotting behind, I ask why we are in such a rush.
Turns out we forgot about the whole london-paris hour difference thing, so instead of having an hour and a half to get to the Louvre, we now had 40 minutes, and it was our first morning in Paris. So basically, we had no idea where we were going. Luckily Cle is a dab hand at maps, because anyone who knows me well knows that what i dont know well is my left, right, forwards, backwards and occasionally sidewards.
Anyway, after 40 minutes of out of control super walking (for Cle, with me continuing to trot behind) we finally reach the meeting point.. and hang around for 15 minutes waiting for all the late people. Of course!

I felt a little sorry for the guide, as everything she said she had to say three times, but i felt more sorry for Cleland, as the second she started on Italian my mind would drift, and so would my feet. She would finish, I'd be off somewhere buried under a crowd of Japanese tourists and their cameras, and Cle would have to fish me out and bring me back to the group. Some of the paintings we saw were amazing, and it was fascinating to hear the histories of some of the work we were so familiar with yet knew nothing about.
It annoyed me, however, that people have so little respect for art. Around the Mona Lisa there were a ton of security guards, makin sure people weren't taking photos (especially photos with flash), but people would just ignore them and take them anyway. I ruined a few photos by deliberately putting my hand in the way, less because i was being a good patron, and more because I'm annoying by nature.
One guy almost got kicked out because he was warned three times not to take photos, and then took it anyway - the french guide got so hepped up, and started yelling at him for having no consideration or culture. Damn right!

We soon realised that Sunday is a realllly bad day to go to the Louvre, but spent a bit of time on our own looking around before attempting our first French breakfast ordering. It was all up to me.. I pretty much said, "Uhm.. doux pain au chocolat.. uhm... iced chocolate?" haha I dont think iced chocolate is french. And i dont think they get the idea anyway, as it came out as lukewarm chocolate. Hmmm.. nothing better on a 30 degree day than warm, thick, sweetened milk!

After the Louvre, we decided to walk up the Champs Elysee to window shop and basically take in the atmosphere. So. We are walking up the street, when Cleland subtly directs me up off the sidewalk. I think he's being nice, and getting me out of the flow of traffic. He walks me slightly to the right. I am so taken by Paris that i barely notice. Suddenly, my skirt is up around my face. I'm frantically trying to push it down, thinking a particularly strong gust of wind has caught the material.. but its coming from all sides. No, thats not quite correct. It's coming FROM BELOW. Yes, my especially darling boyfriend has walked me over A TUNNEL AIR VENT.
In shock, I run off the vent, and start laughing the way only the truly embaressed can. I say to Cleland, "Can you believe i did that?" And he says, laughing his head off, "I cant believe you fell for that!"

Lovely.

I don't mind too much, because, hey, even i at times have a sense of humour, but i then turn around to cross the street, and step in a four foot deep puddle. In thongs.

We are not amused.

haha.

Even so, the beauty of Paris must be some sort of Valium, because i not only refrained from killing Cleland, but i regained some of my sense of wonder about 20 minutes later. (Come on - i had to be in a funk for a little while, you wouldn't believe the story, otherwise!)

Next time - Monday.


Yup.


Stay tuned!

Yes, I am finally back in Sydney, after another delightful 23 hour flight. Hmm, sarcasm, my oldest friend.

I apologise for the lack of updates, but this occured for a few reasons -

1.) Paris was so delightful that I didn't want to waste any time on the computer;
2.) I didn't really HAVE any time to waste on the computer as we walked EVERYWHERE, and saw so much;
3.) The keyboards in Paris are different to ours; after spending ten minutes attempting to access my internet banking and getting the password wrong, i decided an update was far too ambitious.

Now I am in a strange, zoned out state due to the jet lag, where all I'm mentally capable of is sleep (I'm even struggling to find the energy to want to eat).. coherent sentances are pretty much out the window.

As such, I will update more fully shortly, and will include such stories as "The day Paris saw Belle's Knickers", "Sightseeing with Americans", "Disneyland!!!!!!", "Trois crazy men", "Why I hate European Airports", "Where is my luggage?" and much much more.

I looking forward to catching up with you all soon!!

Stay tuned...

Last night we went to Jo and Jonathon's for dinner (Jo is Cleland's mum's cousin), which was really great (and i'm not just saying that because i know they're reading haha). The house is amazing - a four story English house with a little English block of garden in the back, which is so nicely kept (Jo is also staging a subtle 12 year slow takeover of the end of the block too - go the squatter's rights!).
As well as a beautiful home cooked meal - I've missed real vegetables and meat, not to mention the summer pudding - we were introduced to EXTREME ironing, where brave souls iron in precarious situations. Sky diving, under water, hanging from trees - no ironing is too tough. However, I have a real problem with the fact the irons aren't plugged in while theyre ironing.. it seems fruitless to me, if EXTREME. haha

THEN...
Today...

we went to see...

Othello..

At...

THE GLOBE THEATRE.

That was AWESOME. I was soo excited by this, and dragged poor Cleland and Alex along (Alex enjoyed it and i think Cle didn't find it TOO painful). It was just amazing to see my favourite play performed the way it would have been performed back in the day (despite the use of female actors).
The guy who played Othello was brilliant, and I just loved it. Well worth the money. :)

During the day we shopped again, i bought a couple of new work things, and Cle got some new shoes. Tomorrow we are off to France, which while exciting, will also be a little sad, because I've really enjoyed staying with Alex and i LOVE London.

Anyway, I must adieu, as there is ice cream to be eaten and Dog the Bounty Hunter to be watched.

BYEEE!!

I do. My bank account is getting smaller than Nicole Ritchie's thighs, but i dont care - the shopping here is just lovely!

Yesterday Cle and I went to Madame Tussauds to get our photos taken with celebrities, which was fun. Cle had the best poses.. he played scissor paper rock with Adolf Hitler, shook his head at the stupidity of Bush and Blair, and had a punch up with Muhammad Ali. I was going to get my pic with Britney, but she was all about a stripper pole. I instead instructed Tiger Woods on the lie of the green, sat on Lincoln's lap, and posed with Kate Moss. Good times.
After the celebrities, we headed down to a new exhibit called Chamber Live, which is about serial killers and was pretty freaky. It has real actors dressed as killers, who jump out from cells and scream in your ear. I jumped a few times, let me tell you. It also had information on hanging and garotting etc.. all very lovely and romantic. haha

After that we headed to a car-ride exhibit which show-cased English history, and this was my favourite part. It was brillantly done, and quite creepy in parts (particularly the plague section.. they had set up mirrors with "ghosts" and the music was really scary). I am suddenly obsessed with English history, and want to learn more about it all when i get home - it's just amazing when you think of all the things that have shaped this country compared to back home, which to be honest really has no history at all.

Hmm.. after MT, we had lunch and went shopping.. Cle spent his time in Lilywhites, which is a 5 level discount sports store that is awesome - it has heaps and heaps of designer sporting labels, all for about half of what you'd pay in Sydney.

I meanwhile toddled off and went shopping in Next, Top Shop, Miss Selfridges, Zara and Dorothy Perkins. I spent a bit, but i dont think any more than i would have in Sydney, and the clothes here are comparably a lot better quality for the cost.

Last night we went on the Sinister London Tour, which was good, but combined with another, London Pubs, tour. So we got taken around London and learnt stuff not only about Jack the Ripper and debt prisoners held captive in the Gin Palace (they'd put 16 people in these tiny, tiny cages and there was a hole in the roof where they'd put their hands up through the ground to beg for food. Most people would just defecate on them. They'd stay down there until they died, living in their own waste and starving away.), but also the history of alcohol in London.
It was really interesting, if not a little freaky. The thing that got me the most was thinking about the plague pits buried underneath the city where they would just pile up their dead, and sometimes, those merely close to death. Its odd to look at the little park where nearby nurses now go and eat their lunch and think there are literally thousands of dead bodies under the soil. Apparently when they were building the tube line they uncovered one of the pits and hundreds of bodies threatened to spill out, so they had to cement it all in and then wind the tube line AROUND the death pit. They still have no idea where all the pits lie.

Anyway, sorry - that was a bit depressing, wasn't it?

Today Cle and i are having a bum around day - we slept in this morning and now we are going to take a wander up to the post office to see about mailing some stuff back home (so i can buy more now haha).

Miss you all!!

So, I've been lazy for the past few days and haven't updated - which is quite ironic as when we were in the hotel and i had to seek the computer and pay for time i did it, whilst here at Alex's the computer is literally a metre from my bed and I'm like, "meh". I guess I like a challenge. :D

So, we have finished our Wonders of Britain and Ireland tour, and are now back at Alex's place, which is great. I loved the tour, but its really nice to see what its like to live in London rather than staying at random hotels. I love love love their supermarkets (the fact that they sell alcohol in them has nothing to do with it i swear), and could spend hours, and many many pounds in there, and come to think of it, regularly do. I love that their prepackaged fridge pasta is actually FROM italy. I love that they have aisles and aisles of fresh cookies, croissants and cakes. I love that they have things in there ive only ever read about in english novels. The only thing i dont love is the total lack of organisation, making it impossible to find anything.
But like i said before - i love a challenge! Especially a shopping one.

Speaking of shopping, on Sunday we spent the day at Camden markets which was awesome. They have rows and rows of stalls (which are little bit too emo-fied for my liking), but then they also have shops full of REAL vintage clothing. Racks and racks of old dresses and skirts, all crying out to me to take them home. As it was i bought a newish jackets (which was actually from Next, and looked brand new but was only 9 pounds and wanted to be my friend), two really colourful skirts, four tee shirts with amusing pictures on them (yay super mario brothers mushrooms and Mr T), and some really pretty little earrings in the shape of leaves from a little bric a brac/antique store. Hmmm, bargainy vintage goodness.
Oh i also ate a goat curry from a West African Foods stall, made and served by a real West African family. It was goat, but it was good. Go goats!

We then we to the London Eye, which was really cool cause we have fast trak tickets and got right on (sooo worth doing EVERYTHING touristy by fast trak, waiting and Belle don't go). I loved being able to see the whole of London, and it was a really good day for it, really clear. The weather gods have been smiling upon us, as it was reallly hot (hard to believe but true - skirt and tee shirt and i was still sweltering).. but every day since has been nice and cold and grey again. I really like the cold and grey days.. i can get warm in Sydney.. i dont want to be doing muchos walking in humid heat!

After the eye we went back to Alex's and we had dinner in the grass park area across the road from her house, which was lovely.. it was like a little picnic. The really nice thing about the English is when they have a nice day they grab it with both hands, whereas the Australians have become a tad nonchalant about their surplus of lovely weather. We saw people sitting on the grass in bikinis, reading books, having picnics, cooking sausages (on little bbqs they'd obviously bought that day for the one day of summer this year haha), and generally having a great time. It was so nice! I guess it helps that it stays light til about 11pm here, too.

Yesterday we went on a discovering London tour which i enjoyed because it was a bit laid back, and the tour guide definitely made me realise how good our other guide, Harry, had been. She was good, but a bit of a nightmare - she looked like a kid that had gotten into her mothers make up drawer... dark eyeshadow everywhere, pink lipstick all smeared around her mouth.
We also had a really, really annoying American woman on the tour with us, who had decided to wear a singlet and shorts and had then decided not only that it was cold, but that it was the tour directors fault. So she'd stand next to her and say really loudly, and accusingly, "its cold." And the poor befuddled guide would stammer, "Well yes, its not a warm london day, thats for sure," before nervously giggling. Tha lady reminded me of an old, blonded up version of Roseanne. haha

Today we are going to see Madame Tousauads which I'm realllly looking forward to, and then we're also going to do some shopping in the centre of London. I already know which shops I want to hit, and my credit card is wincing in anticipation.

Once again I miss you all, and I really appreciate all the comments people have been leaving (especially Claire - good work with that, you will be a technogeek if i can help it, you will!!).

A reminder to anyone who will be in Sydney on the weekend of the 7th-8th (Jodi this means you especially haha), that I'll be having a BBQ on the Sunday so keep it free!! I promise I won't bore you to death with my photos.. (death would be too kind.. maybe just a mild coma that I can bring you out of and then put you back into repeatedly) muhahha.

Just kidding.
Or am I....?

Stay tuned...

PS: our phone number, if you feel like smsing us, is +44 791 967 5986

Because the Hilton internet is being all weirdo..

I can't believe this is our last full night of the tour!! Today i got to see Shakespeare's birthplace which excited me enormously, and we went to this cool old fashioned castle theme place. My English is enormously good right now.

Yesterday we were in York, home of the yorkshire pudding, the yorkshire terrier.. and of course, my mum! It was fun, and we had real live yorkshire puddings that were ENORMOUS.

Anyway, I'll update more later when the net decides to behave itself...

:D

So, we have now left the Emereld Isle, back across the Irish seas, and are in Chester. I haven't been able to update the last few days mainly because I'm lazy, and Cle and i decided that watching back to back episodes of My Super Sweet 16 was more important than updating.

We spent two nights in Dublin, the first night going for a two and a half walk through the city, which was sort of unintentional. It was so pretty, and there was so much to see, that we just kept walking in what we thought was the right direction. We finally asked for directions at a convenience store, where the clerk stared at us and said, 'Thats in Dublin Four. You're in Dublin One. You can't WALK there. Its like, an hour.'
We didnt tell him that we'd just walked from there.. instead we flagged a cab and had an interesting chat with a local irish cabbie.. who while waiting at the lights, kept gunning the engine to freak out the crossing pedestrians. We gave him a tip for that, it was muchly amusing.

Yesterday we did a city tour of Dublin in the bus, but we pretty much saw the same stuff we'd seen the night before, when it was slightly nicer weather, so instead of tramping through the city again, this time in pouring rain, we went back to the room and did some much needed washing. Cleland even conned the staff into letting us use their dryer which was closed to everyone else. SCORE. :D

Today was a very early morning, as we had to catch the ferry back across, so we were up at the ungodly hour of 5:15am. The ferry trip was pretty good.. i slept most of the way and Cle won money on the pokies which were amusing and very hypnotising.

We then made our way to Chester, and then did a tour of Liverpool, which was GREAT. We had a local guide who told us many facts about the beatles and the local cathedrals.. there was one in particular that was amazing - designed by a 21 year old architect - who also, incidentally, designed the red phone boxes that litter london. Interesting fact for you all.

We also drove down the infamous Penny Lane, which was interesting to see.

Ahh.. anyway I have to stop typing because my 15 minutes is almost up...

I miss everyone, and i still can't remember the number... dad, could you post it in the comments section?

Thanks!!

PS: Don't really miss work, but i hope you guys are looking after my bulletin - dont tell me if you're not. haha

Stay tuned for adventures to Edinborough (spelling, sorry!)

BYE!

Hi mum...
Miss you.

Love C

Last night was a blast. (As you may have guessed from my wine inspired post from last night :D ).
We were taken to a little pub named Dolan's, where we were treated to Irish music and dancing, humour and food. It was really good. Its really amazing to watch a whole family (four boys, their father and one unrelated main singer/emcee) play instruments on stage, and have as much fun doing it as you are having watching it.
On the bus on the way back, we continued the trend and Harry, our tour leader, lead us in some Irish singalongs. Fun stuff.

Yesterday morning we went on Jaunty Car rides through the town, which are like little horse drawn carriages. The guy with the reins (the jarvey) was very irish and very, very funny - he had those gullible Americans in the palm of his hand. Cle and i were sitting up the front with him, and we were trying to hard not to laugh too loudly, as they just didn't get it.
Example: a small, fluffy brown dog runs past with its owner.. it couldnt have been much bigger than Ted. An american lady comments on it, and the jarvey says, dry as anything, 'ah, yes.. that there is an Irish wolfhound.' The Americans then ooh and ahh, and say, 'oooh, irish wolfhound!' hahah

Anyway, it was very good quality, and we ended up giving him a 5 euro tip just because it was so funny watching the american's reactions to the absolute codswallop he was feeding them.

We then drove through to Limerick, and went to a place called Bunrutty Park, which is like a Colonial Park which houses Bunrutty Castle. We were going through taking photos of all the old houses with thatched roofs, remarking upon how great they were, when one of the women who work there tell us 'oh, the only thing thats original here is the castle and one house. Everything else is purpose built.'
Well, thanks for ruining that illusion for me. haha. I was quite happy in my deluded little world, being all snap happy!

Anyway, the food continues to be quite lovely, and I'm loving the croissants... even better, one of the american men today told me to eat more, becuase I'm a 'skinny little wisp of a girl'. I told him he'd go far, and that if he continued that, we'd be best mates. haha. I'm guessing he means skinny compared to the larger American women back home, but hey - thats fine by me! :D

Now we are off on an adventure to Dublin, where we will be spending two nights. Im excited - Cleland and i have tonight to ourselves, so we're going to go somewhere very irish for dinner and guiness.

Stay tuned!

Ireland continues to amaze me.

Yesterday we went to the Waterford Crystal gallery/showroom, which was beautiful but a leetle outside my price range. I took lots of photos, however, of the tribute to the Ryders Cup, dad, and Cleland bought himself a little something too.

We then went to Blarney, where we kissed the Blarney stone. So different from what i expected.. you have to walk up this narrow stone staircase, which is quite slippery as the castle has no roof. Its amazing to see the stone windows, through which numerous arrows would have been shot. I keep forgetting places are actually rEAL - its like you convince yourself things have been created just for you as tourists.
Anyway, i was freaking out a bit walking up these stairs, expecting my foot to slip at any moment and for me to slide all the way back down on my bottom, taking out American tourists along the way, but luckily for me, and the below tourists, i stayed strong, and we soon reached the top of the castle.

We lined up for a while, and soon it was our turn to kiss the stone, which is surprisingly freaky. You have to lay on your back, dip your head back, and kiss a tiny patch of wall, while being held on for dear life by a little irshman and trying not to look down and see the ground far far below. I also made everyone wait while I made sure i was kissing the right PIECE of the stone.. i didnt want to go all that way and then kiss a piece of granite.

We then did some shopping, and headed off to on our journey to County Kerry. I still can't get over how beautiful the landscape is.. all the greens and little rivers and tiny little houses.. obviously where we are now is much more urban, but its still so pretty.

We also stopped along the way at a pub called the Scarrif Inn (i think ive spelt that wrong), which had gorgeous views along the water and all the tiny little islands along the way. Beautiful photo op - nothing like you'll ever seen in Australia, thats for sure.

Anyway, thats about enough for now - the internet at the last hotel swallowed my entry, and tonight we have been at a lovely irish show that i will write about tomorrow... and the red wine i consumed during the hilarity, singing and general mayhem may be influencing my ability to write coherent sentances. :)

I miss you all, and will update more in the morn!

Stay tuned!

PS: I tried Guiness and i quite enjoyed the tiny mouthful i had..
The soap in our rooms was called 'Flarretys'... and was made in Italy of all places..
And finally, for those in the know and who care about such things.. there is a gas chain over here called.. yes.. EMO.

Lovely.

BYE!