Oo la la Paris... or somewhere close.

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

                  Arc de Triumphe

                The Eternal Flame

                      Eiffel Tower

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

      Amelia's great shot 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

                       Notre Dame

                       Notre Dame

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. 

                    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. 

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'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!   

"Do not marry an Irish man," and other advice...

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.

Once we got to Enniskerry we called a cab to take us to the hostel.  In the meantime we went and had customary ice creams from the local sweet shop.  With ice-cream in hand we headed up to the hostel to be met with this view:

 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! 

Bagpipes, emo cows, whiskey and other Scottish experiences...

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.

Bonnie Scotland...

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.

Something a little more personal...

So I thought I might post this even though it's a little more serious and personal than I have posted previously. I was looking back over things that I wrote while at L'abri (withdrawal symptoms) and I found this which captures what a lot of my struggles came down to at L'abri. 

Shame

Shame, why do you taunt me so? You call my name at every corner, every aspect of my personality, you cast shadows over my mind. You force my eyes downward to hide the glory of Grace, you encourage my heart to wither. In your presence all sense of worth vanishes, courage and hope become phantoms in my head, whispers of things now gone, doubts that they were ever there. You are a plague that infects every member of me. My hands behave so strangely, my mind is clouded and foggy, my spirit trembles and cowers. Shame, you tell me of your victory in the war still raging on, you tell me that surrender can be my only option. 

But you are wrong. 

There is a stronger power, a grace whose name is love, a victor in this war torn heart, a shelter in the storm. Shame have you not met him, this warrior of peace? You tried so hard to master him but he has the victory. For yes you won the battle but the war has already been won, on a tree where great and awesome power met true humility. Naked, bleeding, dying, displayed for all to see. Love wore my shame so that I, could finally be free. 

Walking 500 miles... and then walking some more

 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! 

Ciao!