During an a stroll through the English countryside.
I'm actually posting on my blog! We are currently staying in Edinburgh which is ridiculously cold for being winter! We got down to 14 degrees Celsius which is shocking. To be honest, someone should come fix Scotland. Before I get to our shenanigans in Edinburgh however I believe that London should be covered, as that was an adventure all in itself!
But before London, I should say a little something about L'abri. *Sniff sniff*
My
experience at L'abri was hard to describe. It was amazing, challenging,
fun, painful and so many other emotions that seem to conflict, but, as I
found out, you can actually experience simultaneously. So what was the
big thing that I learned while at the Manor House. I have been taught
by God that loneliness and solitude are different things. That even if
something is resolved from your childhood that there are still
consequences that need to be examined. I learned the Norwegian card
game, which I will take back to my homeland and spread through the
colonies! I learned that time isn't always necessary for intimate
friendships to be established, and I learned that living in community is
hard.
On
a lighter note; my last night at the Manor House was wonderfully fun!
We had a game of rugby (State of Origin rematch: Queensland won...) in
which I accidentally bit a small child (sorry Ned), a lecture about
Cheese and Epistemology, a night out at the Greatham pub, a not quite PG
rated story from Daniel, and potentially some shenanigans on the Manor
House roof. In summary, a pretty good send off.
I am so loved...
But
onto the story of London! So I headed off to London Waterloo where I
was to meet Amelia and her friend who we were staying with. So with sad
heart but still excited about seeing Amelia I arrived at Waterloo where
I eagerly waited in the proposed meeting spot, sending messages about
how I was there. 12:30 came around and still no Amelia when the thought
hit me like a ton of bricks... Amelia flew out on the 25th of June, and
arrived on the 26th of June in London. Today was the 25th of June, I
had arrived a day early. I had no where to stay, I didn't have Amelia's
friends number to call, I was stuck. I sat down a corner of the
airport my mind becoming very dramatic. Would I have to sleep in the
train station? What if they kick me out of the station and I have to
sleep on the street? What if while sleeping on the street someone steals
my stuff or worse... what if they kill me? After getting to the
point of death in my mind I then calmed down and thought. In God's
wonderful provision I had met some wonderful ladies at L'abri a couple
of weeks before. Nicola and Amy stayed at L'abri for four days but I
had got Nicola's contact details. At that time she gave me a phone
number which I thought was funny considering that I would never use
it.... wrong. With her number in hand I marched out to a phone booth
where I inserted the last pound coin I had in my wallet into the phone.
When Nicola answered I felt my heart leap and when she said that I
could stay with them I was floating with relief. She had just finished
giving me her address when the phone went dead, I was out of coins. So
armed with an address I marched back into London Waterloo and bought a
ticket to a suburb not knowing where I was going. I got to the suburb
fine and dropped my bags off in the front yard behind a hedge. I was
walking down the road towards town when I thought that I should probably
check the number of the house again. Sure enough I had got 55 rather
than 50. Yay Erin! Way to go! So then I lugged my bags down the
street in the plain sight of a car which circled around twice to see
what I was doing and dumped them in the front yard, praying that it
wouldn't rain. After that it was pretty smooth sailing, it didn't rain,
I bummed around town until the girls got home from work, I was treated
like a queen at there place and I met Amelia the next day at the right
time in the right place.
But
London... oh my London! The history of it is almost too much to be
believed and the beauty of some of the structures is hard to
comprehend. On the day of Amelia's arrival we walked for about 4 hours
around London getting pictures of Monopoly streets. We walked across
London Tower Bridge and wondered what the really old building at the end
of it was, taking pictures as we went. Got to the middle of the bridge
when alarms start going off! The bridge was opening to allow a ship to
go through. We dashed to the other side and kept going. Turns out that
really old building I was talking about was the Tower of London. Yeah,
we're pretty intelligent I know... try not to let it intimidate you.
London-1 Australians-0.
"I wonder what that building is?"
As we walk across 'Tower Bridge'
"I think it's the Tower of London!"
Random food pic...
Anyways, I'll have to leave you hanging for a while about the rest of London and Edinburgh.
Love to you all! xoxo
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So I have a new task master
*cough* Amelia, who is "encouraging" me to keep up with my blog a lot
more regularly. To be honest I really just want to skip to the pictures
of Scotland but I will finish up with London.
So
London.... where was I? I think we just inadvertently visited the Tower
of London. So for the rest of that day of which we were extremely
tired and (maybe) a little cranky we walked around finding the streets
from Monopoly. We got to King's Cross station (and saw Platform 9 &
3/4 which I may not have known about until we watched the first Harry
Potter movie on our way to Edinburgh) before we decided to call it a
day. When we got back to Leah and Andre's place they asked us where we
walked, jokingly asking: "Did you walk all the way into the city?" Yes.
Yes we did. And then some. Blisters and pressure sores were our friends
for the many days after this... in fact my blister is now hardening
into a callus.
So
after a good nights sleep and a free breakfast we headed off again,
deciding we would take it a little more leisurely. We started at
Paddington Station and visited the Paddington Bear shop! We then walked
down to Hyde Park. Let me stop there for a second. Hyde Park....
like... what.... um.... wow? Just strolling through Hyde Park it was
hard to remember that we were in inner city London. The beautiful
grounds stretch out for ages and the beauty is hard to describe. Amelia
got her wish and chased some squirrels while I photographed her doing
so!
We
then strolled down to the lake where we indulged in ice cream. They
had deck chairs there, but being typical London you had to pay, so as an
act of defiance we sat down on the ground directly next to one. No one
however was on hand to see our act of defiance however so I feel a
little cheated in my rebellious moment. After Hyde Park we walked down
Park Lane still pursuing our Monopoly challenge. I think it was here
however that we realized we were just enjoying exploring London. So we
abandoned our challenge and kept walking. Buckingham Palace was next
and then Parliament House and Westminster and then the Big Ben!
After
these iconic sights we may have just chilled on a boat on a river
cruise on the Thames. We sailed down to Greenwich and back seeing some
beautiful and historic buildings and experiencing the wonderful English
humor. My favorite was: "While there are some very monumental bridges across the Thames, this is not one of them." Another being: "And
over there we have the studios of the Network which brought us the
rubbish TV such as Britain's Got Talent, which this year was won by a
Romanian group and the year before, by a dog, therefore proving that
Britain does not have talent." So good.
After
we returned to Westminster we headed off to West End where we were
meeting Leah and Andre for dinner and also seeing Wicked! We arrived in
West End and went to the Apollo Theater only to find out that we were
seeing Wicked! in the the Apollo Victoria Theater which wasn't in West
End at all but rather Victoria. Our bus was just across the road so we
sprinted across (almost getting hit by a cyclist) and jumped on. We did
arrive to the pub in time and we enjoyed a very traditional meal of
bangers and mash! Then onto Wicked!
Loved.
It.
So.
Much.
I
know not else what to say apart from that... It was phenomenal, the
set, the singing, the acting, it was all so amazing! We then stumbled
home to our welcoming bed and promptly fell asleep.
The
next day and our final day in London it was a typical rainy day. Not
so typical for me however who had been in the UK for a month already
with only a few drizzles. We started the day off with a wonderful talk
to my long neglected family which was amazing! Unfortunately I didn't
realize how much I missed them until I talked to them. So after pressing
on through my depression, we headed off to see St Paul's Cathedral.
Such
a stunning building! We took a while to walk around it and admire it
from all sides before we headed over the Millennium Bridge to the Globe
Theater where we had yard tickets for 'The Last Days of Troy' by William
Shakespeare. If I could recommend anything to do in London that is
cheap, it is going to the Globe Theater. For 5 pound we got to stand
(albeit in rain) at the front of the stage and watch one of the best
performances of Shakespeare in an iconic place. It was worth the pain
of standing and every raindrop. The passion, the excitement, the drama
all catches you up to another world of Trojans and Greeks and gods in
their petty arguments. Amazing.
After
that it was back to Leah and Andre's to get our bags to head to
Victoria Coach Station where we were catching a bus to Edinburgh. But
Scotland is for another day...
I
will write again soon as I am dying to post pictures of Scotland. We
leave for Ireland tomorrow, but hopefully I'll write again soon!
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Scotland. The land where
their national flower is the thistle and their national animal is the
unicorn. This is a very good summary of Scotland... as it is the land
where bins are non existent and toilets hard to find, but haggis is sold
in a sweet shops and men wear kilts.
Our
journey to Edinburgh was long (9hrs) but both Amelia and I managed to
get some sleep on the bus. Despite our sleep deprived brains we managed
to find our way to the address of our accommodation, lugging our huge
backpacks up cobbled streets. The address was easy enough to find but
as our first AirBnb experience was in an apartment block, the trick was
to find the right apartment. Harder than you might think. After
wondering around for about 15 minutes looking at all the numbers on the
houses we finally found the right block and the right buzzer. Sure
enough we are let up to our room where we were met at the door by a
lady. That doesn't sound very traumatic does it? This little detail
might make is sound more so: she wasn't wearing any trousers. (Just as a
note I have learned to say trousers as opposed to pants as in the UK
pants mean underwear.) Without a hello or a 'how are you doing' she told
us to leave our bags in the hall. We dropped them and ran. Or rather
attempted not to giggle all the way down the stairs. So that was our
introduction to Edinburgh. Crazy Scots.
Oh
how I love those crazy Scots, for they built one of the most beautiful
cities I've had the privilege of visiting yet. We had booked a free
walking tour from Sandmans (highly recommend this) and our tour guide
was a Scottish man called Billy. Billy took us around the city and with
much hilarity and with jazz hands he showed us a snippet of what is
Edinburgh. We learned about equine statues (and the way you can tell
how the rider died), heard fun stories about how tartan became legal
again due to Sir Walter Scott and saw the cafe that J.K. Rowling wrote
the first Harry Potter book. It was so great and we were able to see
corners of the city that we would never have known about. After the
tour was finished we found lunch and then headed off to Edinburgh
castle. By this time our feet were sore and the lack of sleep was
catching up with us but we persisted and walked up to the castle. The
views from the castle were incredible and the knowledge of the history
behind it frankly blew my mind.
It
was truly spectacular but by this time we were tired, it was cold
(someone broke summer in Edinburgh), and we had plans to go to church
that night. So we settled down in Edinburgh's beautiful garden which is
just below the castle (or rather the rock the castle is on). We
purchased our obligatory ice-cream and I may or may not have slept for a
little bit.
That
night Amelia had found a baptist church down a little lane called Rose
Lane. Walking down the street on both sides are cafes and pubs until we
arrive at a entrance for Charlotte Chapel Baptist Church. There were two
angels of men who were handing out hot drinks. We eagerly accepted
them and nervously stepped into the church.
So. Good.
Like
seriously so so good. The message was the gospel message about 2 Peter
3, and it was challenging and it applicable. So so so good. After the
service had finished we chatted to a couple for a while. I then found
out that the husband had actually been to L'abri when he was younger, so
that was a fun connection to make. After we left the church we headed
down Rose Lane to where we had seen Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant.
However we were politely informed that they were booked out for the next
2 hours. So we decided to go to a pub and have a pub meal. We had
dinner and walked back to our accommodation with some nervousness.
Turns out we had a right to be nervous, again we had our host show us to
our rooms with no trousers on. The room was comfortable however and
she left us alone for the rest of our stay so it was in all not a
terrible stay.
The
next day we dropped our bags off at the bus station into lockers and
headed down the other end of the Royal Mile (one end is Edinburgh
castle, the other is parliament and the Queen's residence when she is in
town). We decided we had enough time to hike up Arthur's Seat. So off
we set... and what a walk it was.
It
was a steep walk and I know that I turned around and "admired the view"
many times in order to rest my poor legs. But the view was worth every
step. 360 degree view of Edinburgh on a perfect day made the experience
one of my favorite yet this trip. It was truly incredible. We then
walked all the way down and to the bus station where we set off for
Glasgow. But Glasgow will have to wait for another day I think.
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So currently I'm writing from a beautiful house in Beauvais, France.
France. I'm in France.
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So currently I'm writing from a beautiful house in Beauvais, France.
France. I'm in France.
Anyway,
moving back in time to bonnie Scotland where I believe we were just
traveling to Glasgow. Now as a city I wasn't super impressed by Glasgow
(sorry Scottish friends) but the place that we stayed in was absolutely
gorgeous. It was an old converted house that to my understanding was
owned by a few of the residents and the rest of the room rented out
(like the room we stayed in). We were met by Felix the renewable energy
engineer and Toby (I'm not sure what he did). They showed us around
the place, gave us the Wifi password and Netflix password and then gave
us a map of Glasgow with places highlighted that were good to eat. After
that welcome we settled in for the night ready for our exciting day to
follow, slightly exhausted from the hike we had done that morning of
Arthur's Seat.
We
awoke. Which was good because we had a tour booked that day to go to
(drum roll please)... the Highlands. This included Glencoe, Loch
Lomond, and Loch Ness (cue gasp of awe). We walked into Glasgow and
successfully found our minibus. With the sound of bagpipes coming
through the speakers we started our tour with our tour guide; Grant.
First place we drove pass was Loch Lomond. This was the first loch I've
seen and it didn't disappoint. Even our brief look driving by was enough
to fill the soul with awe of creation.
Loch Lomond
We
then moved on to start driving through the highlands, stopping
regularly in order to have photo opportunities. I can't tell you much
about the places but I think that pictures speak louder than words, so
prepare to be bombarded.
That's snow... I was freaking out!
Glencoe
We
then got to Glencoe where the sad tale of the MacDonald massacre was
told to us. It was hard to fathom that such a beautiful place could
hold such a sad history. It's hard to know how to write the wonder and
awe I felt when looking at these beautiful sights, words do not seem
sufficient to write about the colour and the splendor of the mountains
and valleys. Every shadow, every cloud, every tree in perfect placement
to create the picture of absolute majesty. The heavens do indeed
declare the glory of God and the earth displays his power. Even in it's
corrupted state it is beautiful. Praise seems very appropriate in
these places.
Emo cow (also known as a highland cow)
Loch Ness
"IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!"
Found Nessie... you can stop looking now.
We
drove all the way to Loch Ness, stopping at another loch, the name of
which has escaped me, where Amelia had a whiskey tasting. At Loch Ness
we had a boat cruise for an hour, which was amazing! Surrounded by
Scottish countryside (keeping an eye out for Nessie) and on a boat...
doesn't get much better than that! Needless to say we had no sightings
of the monster but we got an eyeful of beautiful mountains and a castle!
It was phenomenal!
The drive back to Glasgow from Loch Ness was only interrupted by one stop to stretch our legs and get some refreshments. Back in Glasgow we went to a Scottish pub for dinner where Amelia decided to try some haggis. For those of you who don't know what haggis is (and after you hear what it is you might wish you had stayed that way) it is "Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock," (Wikipedia). After she had taken the first taste I then tasted some myself. It wasn't too bad at all, just tasted like really rich meat pie filling.
That day was the first we hadn't walked massive distances and it was wonderful to have that break. Little did we know that the next day would have enough stress and bother to cover a week.
The next day was the day that we would fly out to Dublin. We decided to have a lazy morning just relaxing as we did not need to get to our plane until 12:30. Finally we packed up and walked into Glasgow with our packs on our back. We manage to find the bus stop we needed and caught the bus with just enough money (down to our last pence!). About 10mins into the bus trip we see a sign: Glasgow Airport. Then we saw a sign pointing in the opposite direction to where we were heading reading: Glasgow Prestwick Airport. With sinking heart we then realized that we were headed to the wrong airport. Turns out that Glasgow Prestwick Airport isn't actually in Glasgow. Crazy Scots. We then look up where we were supposed to be and it is 40 minutes away from the where we currently were and we were about 10 minutes away from Glasgow Airport. We knew that we would miss the flight due to the fact that we would miss the chance to check in luggage. So we called up Ryanair on a pay phone (6 pound later) where they tell us to head to the other airport and they would sort us out with another flight. So we literally turn around and catch the exact same bus we had just hopped off back into Glasgow. From there we caught the train out to Glasgow Prestwick (took us 40 minutes). At the airport we walk up to the desk to ask what our options were. We were then told that the next flight to Dublin was tomorrow at 1:30pm. We had no idea what to do. We asked what our other option were and were told that there was a flight leaving that night for Dublin from Edinburgh and we might be able to make it. We decide to go for the flight and pay for it. We then hopped on the exact same train we had just caught back into Glasgow. On the train we booked a Megabus to Edinburgh for that afternoon. In God's mercy we made our flight and we landed in Dublin safely!
In Dublin we caught a taxi to our accommodation and I have never experienced a scarier drive in my life. The driver was cranky due to not earning much money that day and this was manifested in driving in no particular lane and really fast. I think we almost died multiple times, but the Lord obviously wasn't done with us yet. We arrived and we actually had lovely accommodation with a lovely Irish woman who told us of things to do in Dublin and surrounding areas. And there dear friends I will leave you, but with this thought.
After such an awful day both Amelia and I were struggling to feel happy (obviously). There may have been tears and the sinking feeling that comes to you when you realize what has happened is truly awful. That night however when we were waiting for our flight I flipped open my Bible to this verse: "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad." (Psalm 118:24) This was hard to grasp. After such an awful day, where we ended up in 3 different cities, and spent a lot of time and money we were supposed to rejoice? I realized that yes, today had been awful, but God's mercies and his provision was so much greater, that even if I said that the day was terrible, I could still rejoice in that God gave me an opportunity to serve Him in every situation. I rarely grow at all in moments of comfort and when everything is going well, when I'm tested it forces me to grow in trust and faith that God will ALWAYS pull through, even if I can't seem to see it. So with that little reminder here is two last photos.
The drive back to Glasgow from Loch Ness was only interrupted by one stop to stretch our legs and get some refreshments. Back in Glasgow we went to a Scottish pub for dinner where Amelia decided to try some haggis. For those of you who don't know what haggis is (and after you hear what it is you might wish you had stayed that way) it is "Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock," (Wikipedia). After she had taken the first taste I then tasted some myself. It wasn't too bad at all, just tasted like really rich meat pie filling.
That day was the first we hadn't walked massive distances and it was wonderful to have that break. Little did we know that the next day would have enough stress and bother to cover a week.
The next day was the day that we would fly out to Dublin. We decided to have a lazy morning just relaxing as we did not need to get to our plane until 12:30. Finally we packed up and walked into Glasgow with our packs on our back. We manage to find the bus stop we needed and caught the bus with just enough money (down to our last pence!). About 10mins into the bus trip we see a sign: Glasgow Airport. Then we saw a sign pointing in the opposite direction to where we were heading reading: Glasgow Prestwick Airport. With sinking heart we then realized that we were headed to the wrong airport. Turns out that Glasgow Prestwick Airport isn't actually in Glasgow. Crazy Scots. We then look up where we were supposed to be and it is 40 minutes away from the where we currently were and we were about 10 minutes away from Glasgow Airport. We knew that we would miss the flight due to the fact that we would miss the chance to check in luggage. So we called up Ryanair on a pay phone (6 pound later) where they tell us to head to the other airport and they would sort us out with another flight. So we literally turn around and catch the exact same bus we had just hopped off back into Glasgow. From there we caught the train out to Glasgow Prestwick (took us 40 minutes). At the airport we walk up to the desk to ask what our options were. We were then told that the next flight to Dublin was tomorrow at 1:30pm. We had no idea what to do. We asked what our other option were and were told that there was a flight leaving that night for Dublin from Edinburgh and we might be able to make it. We decide to go for the flight and pay for it. We then hopped on the exact same train we had just caught back into Glasgow. On the train we booked a Megabus to Edinburgh for that afternoon. In God's mercy we made our flight and we landed in Dublin safely!
In Dublin we caught a taxi to our accommodation and I have never experienced a scarier drive in my life. The driver was cranky due to not earning much money that day and this was manifested in driving in no particular lane and really fast. I think we almost died multiple times, but the Lord obviously wasn't done with us yet. We arrived and we actually had lovely accommodation with a lovely Irish woman who told us of things to do in Dublin and surrounding areas. And there dear friends I will leave you, but with this thought.
After such an awful day both Amelia and I were struggling to feel happy (obviously). There may have been tears and the sinking feeling that comes to you when you realize what has happened is truly awful. That night however when we were waiting for our flight I flipped open my Bible to this verse: "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad." (Psalm 118:24) This was hard to grasp. After such an awful day, where we ended up in 3 different cities, and spent a lot of time and money we were supposed to rejoice? I realized that yes, today had been awful, but God's mercies and his provision was so much greater, that even if I said that the day was terrible, I could still rejoice in that God gave me an opportunity to serve Him in every situation. I rarely grow at all in moments of comfort and when everything is going well, when I'm tested it forces me to grow in trust and faith that God will ALWAYS pull through, even if I can't seem to see it. So with that little reminder here is two last photos.
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After our stressful day in Glasgow both Amelia and I were keen to sleep in a little the next morning before heading off to Enniskerry. We decided to spend a little time in Dublin (Amelia had a certain shop she wanted to visit) and then catch the bus to Enniskerry. We made it downstairs from our room to find that our host had prepared breakfast for us. Always keen for free food we sat down to eat and started to chat with our host. She was really wonderful giving us tips of what to see in Dublin and so forth. After giving us directions she sent us off with this little advice: "Don't get involved with an Irish man, they are terribly unreliable." So with that odd little tidbit we headed off into Dublin city. The next thing we learned about Ireland is that Irish bus drivers are unbelievably nice. We were attempting to catch a train into the city but we didn't have the exact change that the bus needed. The bus driver took what we had and told us to get on. With relief we lugged our bags onto the bus and headed into Dublin. From Dublin we again got into a bind where the bus to Enniskerry, one that only came once per hour, didn't accept notes, only coins. But again they let us on with the promise that we could change a note at the other end. Extremely good experience with the Irish, not sure what our host was talking about.
From our hostel balcony
We
were so fortunate to have no one else in our dorm making it like a
private room! After we dropped our bags off we went exploring. We
walked down the through Irish lanes and found a creek that we may have
stayed at for a good portion of time, and found a wood full of beautiful
trees.
Irish
countryside is beautiful! After deciding that we needed to walk back to
get some dinner we then proceeded to make a sheet and pillow fort on
the bottom bunk in order to watch some Harry Potter. The next day we
decided we wanted to find a waterfall called Powerscourt Waterfall that
we had seen on some map somewhere. So we headed off to find this
waterfall. An hour and half later of walking we come to an entrance to
the waterfall, for a 5.50 euro fee. We decided that we had seen a lot
of beautiful waterfalls and decided to move on without seeing the
waterfall. Seeing a sign for Enniskerry that said we were 3km away we
decided to head towards there.
We stopped for lunch with this view
We
powered on and on. It seemed as though no matter how much we walked
the signs still said 3km away. Just as we were getting tired and our
feet were aching we saw a sign for Powerscourt house and gardens. The
previous day we had been told that the only place to get cash out was at
Powerscourt gardens and so we decided to go and take advantage of this
fact while we were there. So down we walked to the beautiful house and
gardens of Powerscourt. Unfortunately both the ATM wasn't working and I
had forgotten to bring my card. Fortunately, the view was beautiful and
the boulevard we walked down towards this magnificent house was also
stunning so we weren't complaining too much. We also met a horse, and
that makes a lot of things better. After finishing up at the house we
decided to walk into Enniskerry and then walk back to our hostel.
The walk to Powerscourt house
We
stopped in at a little shop to ask for directions back to our hostel
and the gentleman there said; "Well you've got a beautiful sunny day
today and it shouldn't take you much longer than an hour." He was right
about one thing; it didn't take us much longer than an hour. He was
dead wrong about the weather. However walking in the rain along Irish
roads isn't all that bad at all. I taught Amelia the word 'earnest'
when I described the rain coming down in earnest and we met some
horses. So in all we walked for about 6 hours but it well worth it to
see God's marvelous creation.
Our Irish gentlehorse...
We
arrived back at the hostel pretty wet and fairly hungry (or at least I
was) so we headed back up to our room where we found that we had room
mates in a fairly abrupt way. There was a woman brazenly moisturizing
her legs, with no trousers on. How we manage to find these people is
beyond me but find her we did. This woman (who Amelia nicknamed Nellie
No-pants) proceeded for a large majority of the evening with no trousers
on so Amelia and I made a quick escape out to the common room. After
making dinner and uploading photos and writing blog posts we then headed
to bed.
The
next day was to be our last in Ireland however we didn't need to be at
the airport until around 5:30, so we headed back into Dublin where we
dropped our bags off at a internet cafe and purchased a ticket for a hop
on, hop off train that did a small tour around Dublin with plenty of
Irish music to numb our brains. We then found an Irish pub so that
Amelia could try some true Irish Guinness. The half pint remained half
full upon the arrival of dinner. I wouldn't want to try Guinness after
Amelia's response to it. With plenty of time to spare we traveled to
the airport and caught the plane to:
Beauvais
But they are other stories for another time.
Goodnight friends!
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So now our awkward little chat is over I can move on to our next destination: Beauvis/ Paris.
Wow.
Just... wow.
I've never been to a more surreal place. Every head turn and you are looking at the next famous monument. Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph (funny story coming about this), the Louvre, Love Lock Bridge and Notre Dame just to name a few. We actually didn't stay in Paris itself but rather Beauvais which is a city a hour out of Paris. Our host in Beauvais definitely counts as one of the highlights of our trip. Agnes is this wonderful french lady who we stayed with via AirBnb and she was almost motherly. She picked us up from the airport, drove us to the train station and even came into the train station with us to determine how to get tickets and help us communicate (Amelia's high school French failed us a little). She washed our clothes and made us breakfast and suggested good tips for our journeys into Paris. We were thoroughly spoiled.
One our first day in Paris we started with another Sandeman's tour. These have been so helpful in orienting us around the cities we've attended. On this tour we met some other young people, one Brisbane girl and two Brazilian guys whom we "bonded' with. Bonded means we stood in the pouring rain together listening to our tour guide and ran around the streets of Paris to find a cafe that was open on a Sunday, wasn't too expensive and had a table free. We ended up losing our Brazilian friends in the end as they wanted to go to the museum but for anyone who was concerned we found a crepe place.
The tour started at Saint Michel's Fountaine and toured near Notre Dame, across Love Locked Bridge, the Louvre (which is enormous), through Catherine Medici's garden and finished with a view of the Eiffel Tower. As I mentioned before it rained the entire time and by the time it was finished we were soaked and cold, but we were in Paris!
In the afternoon we wandered over to the Arc de Triumphe and saw the Eternal Flame! As I promised there was a story that that made us Australians giggle when the tour guide told us it. Apparently the eternal flame has burned steadily since the initial lighting apart from two occasions. The second and most recent time included some Aussie blokes. These two wonderful representatives of Australia had a little too much to drink and decided to have a BBQ over the Eternal Flame. Unfortunately for the lads one of the sausages fell off their sticks and onto the Eternal Flame which promptly extinguished it. The French weren't too excited about this as they quickly deported the boys back to Australia and banished them from the European union for the rest of their life. Turns out the French government can't actually ban anyone from the ENTIRE European union but the lads did get banned from France for five years.
Arc de Triumphe
The Eternal Flame
Eiffel Tower
Amelia's great shot from the top
Notre Dame
The
next day we head back into Paris with our bags saying goodbye to our
wonderful hosts. We find our train station and we are sitting there
perusing Facebook when a comment on Amelia's snail eating pictures comes
up. It suggests we try this other French food. We look it up and it's
horse meat. We then look up pictures of what it looks like and my
mystery meat from the night before no longer was mystery. I was
horrified to find out that I are raw horse meat and sat there in the
train station shaking my head for about 10 minutes.
I
have to make an apology to you few friends who actually read my blog. I
had the "wonderful" opportunity of reading through a couple of my blog
posts recently and.... how do I say this? They were a little boring...
okay a lot boring, so I've decided to just write about the highlights.
Hopefully this will be a little bit more interesting, even though I know
you guys just love hearing about my trips to the ATM.
So now our awkward little chat is over I can move on to our next destination: Beauvis/ Paris.
Wow.
Just... wow.
I've never been to a more surreal place. Every head turn and you are looking at the next famous monument. Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph (funny story coming about this), the Louvre, Love Lock Bridge and Notre Dame just to name a few. We actually didn't stay in Paris itself but rather Beauvais which is a city a hour out of Paris. Our host in Beauvais definitely counts as one of the highlights of our trip. Agnes is this wonderful french lady who we stayed with via AirBnb and she was almost motherly. She picked us up from the airport, drove us to the train station and even came into the train station with us to determine how to get tickets and help us communicate (Amelia's high school French failed us a little). She washed our clothes and made us breakfast and suggested good tips for our journeys into Paris. We were thoroughly spoiled.
One our first day in Paris we started with another Sandeman's tour. These have been so helpful in orienting us around the cities we've attended. On this tour we met some other young people, one Brisbane girl and two Brazilian guys whom we "bonded' with. Bonded means we stood in the pouring rain together listening to our tour guide and ran around the streets of Paris to find a cafe that was open on a Sunday, wasn't too expensive and had a table free. We ended up losing our Brazilian friends in the end as they wanted to go to the museum but for anyone who was concerned we found a crepe place.
The tour started at Saint Michel's Fountaine and toured near Notre Dame, across Love Locked Bridge, the Louvre (which is enormous), through Catherine Medici's garden and finished with a view of the Eiffel Tower. As I mentioned before it rained the entire time and by the time it was finished we were soaked and cold, but we were in Paris!
In the afternoon we wandered over to the Arc de Triumphe and saw the Eternal Flame! As I promised there was a story that that made us Australians giggle when the tour guide told us it. Apparently the eternal flame has burned steadily since the initial lighting apart from two occasions. The second and most recent time included some Aussie blokes. These two wonderful representatives of Australia had a little too much to drink and decided to have a BBQ over the Eternal Flame. Unfortunately for the lads one of the sausages fell off their sticks and onto the Eternal Flame which promptly extinguished it. The French weren't too excited about this as they quickly deported the boys back to Australia and banished them from the European union for the rest of their life. Turns out the French government can't actually ban anyone from the ENTIRE European union but the lads did get banned from France for five years.
Love lock bridge
After
gawking at the incredible structure the Arc de Triumphe is we decided
to wander over to the Eiffel Tower for a peek before we took the long
journey back to Beauvais. Pizza in France completed our day.
Day two: The wait.
The
next day we headed back to Paris, forgoing our plans to go to Monet's
garden as it would take us 3hrs each way. So we decided to climb the
Eiffel Tower instead! Which really consisted of waiting in lines for
about 2 hours. But in other proud moments I managed to bump my head on
the Eiffel Tower. I've always had a problem with my height. Just
kidding, but I really did smack my head on the Eiffel Tower and it hurt.
Wouldn't suggest it as a tourist attraction.
View from the top
We
also saw a proposal at the top! It was super cute but then we were just
awkwardly staring at this couple not really knowing what to do...so we
left.
After
the Eiffel Tower we wandered over to Notre Dame to have a looksie.
There was also a massive line to look inside but we contented ourselves
with admiring the outside and eating our typical icecream.
Amelia was a little distracted
After
sitting in a park listening to to live school band music we headed back
over the Seine to visit Shakespeare and Co. which (surprise surprise)
had a massive line. So we looked on the outside and then headed home.
Notre Dame
Beautiful shop
When
we arrived back in Beauvais we asked our host to drop us off at a
French restraunt as Amelia really wanted to try some Escargot. We found a
French restraunt that was open and sat down to eat. Unfortunately for
me the menu was completely in French and the waitress didn't understand
much English so I decided to go for a safe choice and chose the option
that sounded like salad. Out came our meals and Amelia has the escargot
in sauce and I have this interesting looking salad with mystery meat on
it. The meat looks a bit like corned beef but it is not, nonetheless I
eat it and we move on to desert congratulating Amelia on finishing her
snails. We finish up our meal by awkwardly thanking the waitress in our
dodgy French phrases and head out to explore. We then come across this:
Beauvais Cathedral
So
interestingly Beauvais has this massive cathedral! And it is beautiful,
one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen! Incredible.
I'm still horrified.
However, the bonus is that they saying: "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse," takes on all new meanings for me now.
Au revoir mon ami!
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Our next destination from Paris was Annecy. Annecy is a little town just on the edge of the French and Swiss border. It is also one of the most beautiful places I've ever set my eyes on. We were staying about 5 minute walk from the old city center in our next AirBnb experience. We arrived in the middle of a storm; we like to make an entrance. This was a fairly good for warning of how the weather would be like not that we knew it at the time. However we were met at the train station by a public piano in the comer which is a beautiful idea that I thoroughly enjoyed!
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Hey friends! Tonight I am blogging from a room in Rome full from a dinner of gnocchi and camera full of pictures of the colosseum. But you will have to hear about it another day as I still have to catch you up on both L'Isle sur la Sorgue and Barcelona.
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Our next destination from Paris was Annecy. Annecy is a little town just on the edge of the French and Swiss border. It is also one of the most beautiful places I've ever set my eyes on. We were staying about 5 minute walk from the old city center in our next AirBnb experience. We arrived in the middle of a storm; we like to make an entrance. This was a fairly good for warning of how the weather would be like not that we knew it at the time. However we were met at the train station by a public piano in the comer which is a beautiful idea that I thoroughly enjoyed!
We dropped our bags off at our
accommodation and our host kindly gave us a tour around the old city,
where she kindly pointed out the most hopping bars. We politely nodded
and filed that information away for the next time we wanted to go to a
club. She did however give us one of the greatest gifts ever by telling
us about the best ice-cream in town. Our eyes lit up with love and
telepathically I think we agreed to go there that afternoon. We left
Aurelie to do some more walking about town and the lake.
Like
I said before, Annecy is stunning. Picture crystal clear water that
shine cobalt blue with mountains that tower over one side. The side we
were on was a town where little canals from the lake ran through under
bridges and next to houses. There were flowers everywhere and the boats
and benches were all painted bright beautiful colours while the lawns
were perfectly green. It was idealistic! We wandered around for a bit
with our jaws dragging on the ground and went and got ice-cream.
Best ice-cream I've ever had.
And
that is saying a bit as Amelia and I have sampled ice-cream from every
country we've been too, almost every city. It was so good that the next
day we went back despite the temperature. But I am getting ahead of
myself. We ate our ice cream in a garden surrounded by beautiful
flowers. This garden also happened to be the edging of a path, so I have
a suspicion we looked a little strange. While eating our icecream a
group of French guys coming walking along. When they see us they start
talking in French, shooting one phrase at us with laugh. With my great
skills in French I have translated it to either: "you are two beautiful
roses in a rose garden" or "look at those strange foreign girls". I'm
inclined to take it as a pick up line and label myself as a French
heartbreaker. It helps me sleep at night okay?
Good
food was eaten, sleep was had and then; the next day came (crazy times I
know). We had already established that we wanted to hire bikes and ride
around the lake, stopping to go for a swim somewhere and we were
determined to do so! The next morning we check the temperature and
weather forecast to find out that it was going to reach a steamy 15•C
and that there was 90% chance of rain. How do you say yay in French?
Nonetheless we were determined! So we dress really cutely (at least that
was my intention) with our swimmers underneath and go off to hire
bikes. We hire bikes (for cheaper than we originally thought; thanks
French man ;) ) and head off on our grand adventure. At this point we're
both still feeling pretty snug. Croissants for breakfast by the lake
was perfect and then hop on our bikes cheerily and start off around the
lake. And then the rain gets harder, and harder. Still we go along our
merry way laughing at how wet we were. We make to half way around the
lake when we decided we don't want to ride any further that direction.
So we lock our bikes up and sit next to a beach along the lake. It was
raining please understand, and by this time we were wet and cold. But we
ate lunch under some trees sitting on Amelia's poncho and tried not to
think of what we were planning to do next. To paint the picture image a
lifesavers hut, with 3 lifesavers sitting in front of a computer
watching a movies rugged up in the jackets. Then there is Amelia and I
in our swimmers ready to go swimming. And in we went with the lifesavers
looking on as if we were crazy people, which we were if the truth be
known. The water wasn't bad actually a whole five degrees warmer than
the air outside. The problem lay in getting out. I also had the problem
that my towel (which is more like a tea towel) hadn't completely dried
from the morning and I may have accidentally left it in the rain. So I
didn't even have a nice dry towel to wrap myself into. I want laughing
so hard now as my teeth chattered. We awkwardly changed behind the hut
and then decided to head back to the city. I was so cold... and off we
go breezing down hills on our bikes my body slowly turning into a giant
icicle. By the time we have ridden back however my body had warmed up,
my clothes had dried and the smile was back on my face. We continued
around the lake the other direction now and the paths were easier and we
were warmer and it was just brilliant! After an hour an a half we
decide we should turn around and head back again. Then the rain started
again, but I'm not talking about lovely, refreshing, light rain but
intense torrential rain! I think I would have been drier if I had gone
swimming. We push through and about half an hour out of town the sun
opens up through the clouds and there is bright blue sunshine ahead of
us! We finished our ride only racing an old gentleman once who I believe
got so competitive that he left his wife behind. We won.
We
had more icecream, ate burgers and headed back to our accommodation. We
decided to watch a movie but as we were still thawing out from our day
we decided to close the door that led out onto the balcony. This meant
that we had to move the cat litter inside. No problem, until the cat
lets rip the most putrid, disgusting excrement we've ever smelled.
Gagging we wrenched open the door to get some air in before we passed
out. We survived, but it was a close call. Giggling therefore ensued and
we finished our movie (which Amelia cried through a per usual). And
that was our Annecy experience. We left the next morning for our next
stop:
L'Isle sur la Sorgue
Au revoir!
Hey friends! Tonight I am blogging from a room in Rome full from a dinner of gnocchi and camera full of pictures of the colosseum. But you will have to hear about it another day as I still have to catch you up on both L'Isle sur la Sorgue and Barcelona.
So L'Isle sur la Sorgue.... Amazing. Another place that is out of the way and yet stunningly beautiful! L'Isle
sur la Sorgue is in the Provence region in France and it is the
"island" of the Sorgue river. The river runs throughout the town and
lanes with water wheels swirling around. We actually stayed in an
artists house that had a functional water-wheel out the front.
I actually felt a little nervous while on the train to L'Isle
sur la Sorgue as we were passing all these run down looking towns, and I
knew that L'Isle sur la Sorgue wasn't a huge tourist attraction. Also
on the train were two French guys who kept looking over at Amelia and I
and laughing and making comments in French. Unfortunately for them their
beautiful pick up lines were wasted on us who do not understand the language of love.
Breaking hearts again. We actually ran into these guys again when they
spotted us as we were walking through town. One yelled out the window of
the house he was in and Amelia, not understanding French, assumed he
was yelling at someone else an ignored him. Me, I was trying hard not to
make eye contact and giggle.
To
return to my original point; L'Isle sur la Sorgue did not disappoint at
all. Beautiful water ways, sunflower fields, and springs were only some
of the attractions! We finally had our first real summer days as well!
The
first afternoon there we wandered around town looking at all the lovely
shops and marveling at the crystal clear water of the river. We
eventually had to find dinner (most places didn't open until 7) and we
ended up having Italian food! This was then followed by pizza the next
night due the copious amounts of Italian restaurants. But to redeem
ourselves in regards to cusine, we did eat a lot of pastries from
patisseries.
The
following day was I think one of Amelia's favourite days! We decided
that we were going to walk out to Fountaine-de- Vacluse which was a
small town about 5-6km away that possessed the source of the Sorgue, a
spring from the mountains. We had resigned ourselves to not seeing any
lavender or sunflower fields as it was just too hard without a car but
we embarked on our adventure with cheery hearts!
We
had walked just out of town when Amelia starts behaving like a kid who
has just been given the keys to a lollie shop, or an adult who has just
seen sunflower fields! There they were, in their glorious splendor,
fields and fields of them. Of course we frolicked through them, took
copious amounts of photos and basked in the beauty of creation! We sadly
had to move on with our walk after a while. Along our walk we stumbled
across a vineyard in which we frolicked and took pictures. It was a
beautifully warm day with the wind blowing a gale we were unaware of the
sun and it's burning rays!
Nonetheless
we continued all the way to the source stopping by the river to eat our
lunch. By this time it is becoming apparent that Amelia's boots may
have just given up the ghost. We have done so much walking that her
boots were worn down both on the bottom of the boot but also in the
inner soles. Poor Amelia had a boot staple sticking up into her foot. So
in we limped to Fountaine-de-Vacluse. We saw the waterhole where the
river originated, ate some icecream and a peach flavored licorice string
before heading back home. Amelia made it home with her feet still
relatively in tact but unfortunately the sun had it out for her and we
saw in horror that her neck had got very burnt.
Before
we got home however we visited a certain shop in town that we had
visited but hadn't bought anything the precious day. In this shop was an
extremely attractive French gentleman whose smile may have made me melt
a little, not going to lie. And now I have an announcement: I am moving
to L'Isle sur la Sorgue! Just kidding but he was extremely lovely, made
even better by the fact he have us a ridiculous amount of free stuff!
Didn't even have to bat our eyelashes! So that is the reason why
sometimes traveling as two single girls works perfectly.
With that and with these picture I will say au revoir for the last time. Next up; Barcelona!
Church we found in the center of town.
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We
left L'isle sur la Sorgue with very few issues (apart from Amelia
getting stuck in the train doors) and headed off for Barcelona in sunny
Spain! This was a big day of traveling for us, catching three trains and
taking 9 hours to get there. However eventually we arrived in Port Bou
Spain. Here we had a bit of a wait until our next train and so we
stopped to eat our yogurts that we had purchased in France. Because of
my experience with Spanish I was nominated to go ask for some spoons.
Unfortunately I couldn't remember the word for spoon and even more
unfortunately the lady serving didn't speak English. After me acting out
eating with a spoon several times the lady thought to ask someone else
to help. This Spanish woman heard what I asked and nodded confidently,
promptly getting me a knife and fork. As I was too embarrassed to ask
again, we then proceeded to eat our yogurt with a fork. My Spanish was
about as effective as Amelia's French. Nonetheless by some miracle we
caught the right train into Barcelona and made our way to our street.
One of the consistently frustrating things about our stays over here is
that the hosts often leave out very important information such as what
apartment number they live in. So there we were, standing in front of a
locked door with Italian men walking by giving seedy looks. We tried
asking shops keepers, we asked to borrow a phone but nothing worked. We
however did not have to sleep in the street as an angel of a Spanish
woman who lived in the building came to our rescue. She buzzed up, and
even unlocked the door for us! We then met our host; Josè. He was lovely
helping us with our bags upstairs and giving us a tour around the
apartment.
View from our accomodation
We
made ourselves comfortable and headed out for a night on the town. We
ate at a real Spanish restraunt where we had a small sample of tapas one
of which was a devine Porchetta with honey mustard source. So good. We
also continued our tradition of wooing European men by receiving free
bread and olives. Amelia accomplished this when we were offered some
bread (she had already ordered olives). She turned and asked if we had
to pay for the bread to which the Italian waiter winked and patted her
arm. "Don't worry," were his words and we both celebrated inwardly at
more free stuff! We also recieved another arm rub and a wink from the
bartender. After dinner we ventured through the narrow streets of
Barcelona to a Jazz club where we bought some overpriced soft drink and
sat down to listen to some live Cuban Jazz. They were wonderful and it
was so much fun to watch the Spanish people dance the night away with
incredible rhythm. Amelia and I did attempt it but I feel that our
awkward shuffling was not quite up to the same standard. Nonetheless it
was great fun and we ended up leaving at 1am.
Jazz club shenanigans
The
next morning was church and this week we headed to the International
Church of Barcelona. Here we were welcomed most warmly, worshiped with a
dozen other nationalities and heard a wonderful sermon base in Acts. It
was such a good experience of fellowship with other believers.
That
afternoon we went on another Sandeman's tour. This one wasn't as good
as the guide only had two weeks of experience and he insisted on basing
us in the sun rather than the shade. This aside we did buy tickets to
the Sandeman's tapas tour for the following night. That night was the
World Cup final and we found a bar that was showing the game and got
some seats. We arrived an hour early which was fortunate as the bar
became packed as the game started. We watched the game between
continuely asking people not to stand directly in front of us and I
began to see red when the guy who was standing in front of me blocking
half the screen when he started to make out with his girlfriend. However
I wouldn't have changed the night for the world. We ended up being in a
corner with 5 other Australians and were surrounded by passionate
Germans and passionate people who were going for Argentina. Our chosen
team lost after an amazing game but the cheering and excitement were
more then enough to satisfy us!
The
next day we decided to head to the beach, excited about swimming and
getting some sun into us. The worst thing about being Australian is that
when you grow up with some of the best beaches in the world, everything
else is disappointing. Barcelona has an 8km long artificial beach that
was made for the Olympics. The sand was Egyptian sand and they have to
pour more sand onto the beach every single night. There are no waves to
speak of and the water isn't anything to sing about. So disappointing.
Yet we swam, wondered about how someone could lose their swimmers in the
very calm ocean, and went and ate calamari and chips. Because food
actually makes everything better, even Egyptian beaches in Barcelona.
The beach.
That
night was our tapas tour and it was so great! We went to three
different tapas bars and drank from pitchers in true Catalan style! We
met some interesting people including a dozen Australians! Seemed
to be the place to be if you were Aussie. A walk along the beach and a
desert of lemon sorbet served in a lemon finished our night with class.
Drinking water from a wine pitcher
Barcelona streets
Our
stay in Barcelona was finished with a very confusing airport experience
where we waited in lines only to be told that we were in the wrong line
and sent to stand in another very long line. However there was a small
victory celebration when we weighed my bag and it was exactly 15kg!
Hurray! Next stop, Rome!
Adios!
P.S I apologize for the poor picture placement in previous posts. That's what happens when you upload it from your phone apparently.
P.P.S More pictures!
P.S I apologize for the poor picture placement in previous posts. That's what happens when you upload it from your phone apparently.
P.P.S More pictures!
Barcelona port
Parc de la Ciutadella
Bubbles... giant bubbles
The cathedral in Barcelona
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