Noël and Saint Emilion.

Wow, i'm here again already!

I have had a fantastic, eventful few days... Bordeaux and the sorrounding area has brought out the goods again - they just put so much effort into everything.

On Saturday, Jeanne (the mother in my host family) and I went to the les Marchés de Noël (Christmas Markets) of Bordeaux. Despite the persistant rain and the damn cold it seemed like half of Bordeaux was there... and unsurprisingly, it was beautiful!

I love how much effort the Bordeaux council puts into its city's image. I was already dazzled by the city's natural beauty, its cleanliness, its big, open plazes, its modern transportation... (you get the idea) but for the Marchés de Noël, they went all out. Lights now dangle from every concievable location, Christmas trees adorn the sidewalks and clever lighting highlights the beautiful old buildings.

The bustling Marchés de Noël

Preeetty.

And there is a great atmosphere as you wander through the stalls, smell the sizzling crèpes and sip the vin chaud (hot wine). Although i was tempted (especially by those addictive crèpes!) I refrained from buying anything. I have become the ultimate stinge! haha!
After the markets we just wandered the streets of central Bordeaux - with me stopping every 10 seconds to take a photo - and entering whichever shops looked interesting...

The streets of lights ...

the open plazas ...

And Noël trees everywhere!

As beautiful as it was, we still returned home drenched and freaking freezing!
Later the night, however, i ventured back out into the rain to meet the NZer Ross from the alliance course and his friend, Rebecca (another Kiwi). We booked a table for 10pm at a lively Spanish bar the Bodega Bodega. It was another really fun night - we ordered a whole lot of different desserts and a forgotten amount of cheap pitchers of wine. The atmosphere was infectious and we were soon out of our chairs shouting with the loud, dense crowd especially after seemingly random trumpet calls. We were particularly amused by a table of girls next to us who had even more empty pitchers of wine!

As it approached 2am however, we left and followed the trail of people to a few more bars. By this point, however, we were more interested in the people around us and after getting into a lively discussion about Flight of the Conchords, we began to ask people if they knew the show. We had a little format going. We'd approach some random people, and one of us would ask in accented french Connaissez-vous l'émission Flight of the Conchords? (Do you know the show flight of the conchords) and they would look at us blankly and so we'd launch into a rendition of one of their songs - prodiminantly, it's business, it's business tiiiiime!! We thought that we'd found a kindred spirit when a girl replied 'oooooh, flight of the conchords?' and we were like YES, but then she replied 'oh no.'
Our eventual failure was so much more bitter after thinking we'd hit success.
This time i got home without a hitch and the door was much more responsive. I did find out however, on my arrival at home that i had lost the french SIM card that i had bought earlier that day so that i could recieve calls without paying and send cheaper SMS (I was very proud of myself - talked to a random french salesperson in french and understood. Yes, a nice moment). Mmmm, clever hey. Better a 10euro sim though then my wallet or something valuable!

I didn't actually drink much on Saturday night and so this morning i woke feeling tired but happy. After a delicious stew for lunch (which is like dinner here) we departed for a village near Bordeaux called Saint Emilion - I realised when we got there that this was the village that the random man was gushing about about last thursday night when he was buying us wine. And the random man wasn't lying, it was beautiful. An old traditional village set against endless fields of grapes!

The Girard Famille (minus stanislas who was playing hockey)

Emilion and I

Ahh, europe!

The Saint Emilion church..

This was the entrance to some wine making area..

The township.

And that's all for now.

Until a few days. It's time for bed.

La Lenteur du Jour

Hello all again,

Just thought i would give an update - its been a while. All is much the same here. I am talking french, writing down new words and going to classes. It's all très très exciting! Maybe not exciting, but i am still really enjoying my time here. The fam is fantastic and i actually feel like i am learning something. Bordeaux is also beautiful!

Some fountain that i saw while going for a jog (not the best idea when it's 3° and you're only wearing shorts and a Tshirt)

Bordo.

The kitchen - for some reason this is the only photo of the house i have...i'll take more bientot!

As mentioned, it has been pretty quiet here, but last night i ventured out of the house to a bar in in the centre of Bordeaux - a few metres from the Place Tourny. I was expecting a Bordeaux-like bar - ie. sleepy but pretty - but Chez PomPon (at Pompon) was packed with with people of all ages. I was meeting some friends from Alliance, so i waited outside for them for a few moments before we ventured into the unknown - the unknown because the entrance was obscured by a dense cloud of cigarette smoke.
As i said, there was people of every age there which provided a different and interesting atmosphere. A DJ played the usual American pop broken up everynow and again by the French equivalent. The biggest difference, however (apart from the language obviously) was the drinks. Instead of beer, the wine bottle and glass was ubiquitous - containing the fruits of Bordeaux of course!

Chez Pompon during the day

And at night - the lights come out!

A bit packed in here.

Despite the prominance of wine, i and Ross (the newzealander i was with) decided to stick with de la bière (the other guy we were with, Balthazar kept on the wine). When Ross went to the bar to order however, a random guy overheard and interupted: "Vous êtes à Bordeaux, vous devriez boire du vin!" (You are in Bordeaux, you should be drinking wine!).
Now at this point i should add that i had a genuine intention to not drink much. Afterall, my French is terrible sober, let alone after a few drinks AND i had to go to French class the next day at 9am... so i went out that night telling the fam that it wouldn't be a big night (they looked a bit sceptical however).

But after telling this guy that we weren't from Bordeaux but from Australia, NZ and Germany he decided that it was his duty to educate us on the local wine. He bought a few bottles and made sure our glasses were never empty. It just so happens that he married into a wealthy wine making family from a place near Bordeaux (at this point i definately couldn't retain too much information) and so was constantly surrounded by good wine.

I wasn't complaining - it meant that i had to spend less money, and got an interesting insight into some different red wine. It was a fun night but speaking french in a packed bar with loud music to a local that you had never met before was challenging. He was accomadating though, and so spoke nice and slowly (there was still lots of 'pardon's and smiling and nodding but for the most part, we could communicate).

We stayed at chez pompon for a few hours but decided to have a relatively early night because of french the next day - which meant i was in bed asleep by 12.30.

I had an interesting walk home however because after getting a little lost i had to try and find out exactly where i was (luckily, learning from past mistakes, i brought a map!) - this wasn't helped by my light headedness or the intense cold. But i was content to take my time and enjoy the strangely empty, belles petites rues (I also had trouble unlocking the front door, but that was just because it's a hard door to open!).

Alone except for my shadow.

This morning at French i was a little worse for wear (as were the others) and so we took it pretty slow. The class has about 12 people and it is actually really entertaining. Hearing and talking in another language is interesting and results in some funny moments. It also helps that everyone in the class is there because they want to learn -we all have that common ground which is good because the class is so diverse. There are people from Argentina, Greece, Italy, US, NZ, Taiwan and interestingly, the most spoken language in breaks (among everyone) is Spanish. My first week is just about over and i have learnt a lot, but i'm not expecting any miracles. I will finish this better at French, but annoyingly, with a lot of work to still do!

Anyway, the kids are telling me that NCIS is on buuuut it's in French which makes just a little difficult to understand... I'll watch it anyway.Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!
Au Revoir!

Regrouping: Consolidating London

Hello all and welcome back!

It's been ages since my last post but that's because I had no free internet and to be perfectly honest very little time. But I think it's nec

essary to keep this blog thing going for all our sakes! Right now I'm listening to the slightly kitsch and dirtily spun guitar licks of 'Spoon' in Tim's (very tasteful) cousin Ian and his lovely wife Danielle's londonesque house in the district of Croydon, south of the buzzing capital where I have been embroiled since I got here. 

So I left off sat night, before bed. Apparently in Stockholm there is no such thing as dressing for the cold, there are only good looks or the tasteless. This principle was demonstrated soundly by countless Swede femmes as they strode powerfully down the snow lined streets in skirts that looked more like a strip of gaff tape they were so thin. I swear they all have some kind of cold resistant viking blood or something. 

That following morning, I said my goodbyes to Farhad and Manijeh who sent me off with plenty of chocolate (the last of which I finished yesterday in a feat of self control). So I travelled first class next to a Swede nearing the end of her four year psychology degree who loved the rock and roll bands of the 70's, like me, and so first class didn't turn out to be as cold and isolated as I imagined. And she even pointed out that the man whose hair I thought was terrible (the result of a horrendous attempt at covering the thinner areas with a few greasy strands of existing patches) was even a famous Swedish film star. that was pretty ahsome.

Ok so I made it back to Lund. Mitra told me with a great hug that she would miss me. I wasn't suprised, but I was enamored all the same. But seriously I would miss them all so much, especially because I was facing bad showers, expensive accomodation, names with easy pronunciation, and most of all complete independance ahead of me. But we have to keep

 moving don't we! So Amir and I went back to Malmo for another photo run and saw the city by light of night. We talked and drove around before calling it a night. I packed, booked the following day's accomodation at the cheapest hostel, which turned out to be very cheap. £4 a night actually, and I wouldn't have payed a pence more!

This is one wing of the castle in Malmo

So the first plane afforded a long talk with an American expatriate who was traveling home from Denmark for christmas. The next trip from Amsterdam to London I sat next to a brit fresh from the streets of the famous city (who was still stoned and complained endlessly about his window seat) and a businessmen. Between their tips, I lined up the next couple of day's destinations. 

A shot from the plane over Denmark

That night, I got to the hostel, had Indian at brick lane and saw four indie bands play at '93 feet east' which was awesome. Mmmm hostel provided breakfast. That day I went to Shepherd's bush Westfield to buy 'watchmen', which turned out to be very addictive. Suffice it to say it was finished by the following night. And I've been scouring the internet today for hints of the movie being released about it. 

This is the last and best band at the gig who were called the 'shortwave set' and sounded like the lovechild of air and angus and julia

Who would have thought?

 So I hit South Kensington, got lunch out and inevitably ended up at a pub. My average has been just over one pub a day since I got here, never the same one. Talked to the regulars and that, asking for the most recommended beer. Bishop's finger it was today, which sounds like it wouldn't sell too well in Australia considering the disreputable history of said name. But it sure was nice, and I felt that little bit closer to the gritty culture of London. I walked (literally) all through Hyde park, to the Albert memorial, the street overshadowed by embassy after embassy, past the Kensington palaces and Princess Diana's memorial garden. That was moving. I found it hard to get pictures though because of all the people. Bloody tourists.

One of the well placed but not high quality coffee houses in London

A church nestled among houses in South Kensington

A mad angle in Shepherd's bush station

A street end near the pub I stopped by one day

The lake in Hyde Park

Near the Prince Albert memorial from Hyde Park

I think this was the French embassy? The flag was obscured

Indian ensued, which is the cheapest way to eat out and I went looking for a nice jazz joint I found the previous night with a Danish girl who also had nothing planned. The next day I had to book another night at the hostel because of Tim's hiccup which reverberated across England, in fact causing a hiccup for me also. But I had a great day with Maria the Danish girl. We went to Marble arch first, then to the three musuems south of Hyde. First was the natural museum, then we took a coffee break (I read some more of 'watchmen') then it was the science museum and we were too tired for another. Museums are notoriously tiring! so we walked up to Hyde park corner and had dinner at a pub with some smooth beer to celebrate the day. I read the graphic novel until end and then slept so I could wake up early enough for tim's arrival. 

The interior of the natural history museum. wow.

At the station, 0500 hours, I learned painfully that the tube doesn't open till 0530. oh well! We define our existance by suffering, and by extension any 'hiccup' we run into makes the trip infinitely more memorable. So after hours crawled by in the scalding cold, I find myself in a much needed and indisputably manly embrace fresh from Oz. I laughed so much yesterday! just like a minute had passed since we were back home. So we began what was a very difficult day and hauled our packs into the trains towards Victoria station, hoping to find cheap storage for them. But, nothing is cheap. It was £6.50 for ONE item for a couple of hours. So we manned up and lugged them back onto our shoulders. It wasn't long before I was calling nat desperately to ask if we could dump our gear at her place, but she said we could just leave them at her work, which was mad. So we staggered around King's cross with these immense weights upon our backs, my spine slowly deforming until an x ray would have indicated it now resembles a question mark. But Tim and I had a ridiculously smooth and tasty ale at a pub near nat's work that made up for it all and then some. So we unloaded our stuff, and had lunch with nat, who knows a lot about w'gong gossip considering her geographical distance. 

Then Tim and I went to St Paul's, which at dusk looks very different. We walked due south from the spectacular monument towards tate modern, the lights of this vibrant city trembling across the river thames. The Rothco displays in tate cost like £15, so we said 'to hell with art who wants to look at that minimalist shi- anyway' and straddled the river towards the west. In the riverside tunnels were many troupes of muscicians many of whom had accordians which was really welcome to our dejected ears. Then we saw the eye, like a ring of technicolour spinning slowly in the thin air above the south side. We walked around, bathed in neon, and found our way into waterlo tube. Then, we picked up our massive bags and bought tickets to get to Croydon, our current locale. Poor timmy needed rest, so we had pasta so good it made me wonder if I had died and been ressurrected as an Italian heir.

The minstrels who played for Timqth and I

Then we awoke groggily, found out we could save £20 on our eurostar ticket via our eurail passes, booked them, booked tickets to a first division soccer game on sat (oh. yeah.) which is right near the field. Tonight we're going out with nato, tomorrow is porto bello road and my cousin bel and craig her husband at some point then pub before match. sun we're going to head to bath and stay somewhere outside of london for a night I think, then to Paris on tuesday. 

Well well well! that's all people! talk soon hopefully sooner than 5 days because this post was long!

kiss and hug (optional)

The wonder-ale that we downed near nat's work, opposite a preschool. No wonder why the beer culture is so ingrained in London, they're conditioned.

Timqth's first Hiccup

But the good kind of hiccup. Like one when a lil bit of pee comes out and its probably a bad thing but it felt nice anyways.

I'll start you off with my favorite image of the trip so far. I woke up on the airplane, mini bottle of vodka/coke in my lap, electrical storm outside the window, Coner Oberst carressing my eardrums and the cute Welsh girl with a billion peircings (and a boyfriend *sigh*) sitting accross the isle from me was giggling at how much my hands twitch when I sleep. That was when I made my decision to become prime minister (or assist Nick in becoming prime minister) and then give every school leaver $3000 in travel vouchers so they will experience what I hope to.

So after a fairly good plane trip (Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder, Wall E, Family Guy, Scrubs) our plane started to turn away from Thailand and head towards Singapore. The captains explaination was "there's a riot or something at the airport. I don't really know." But thankfully it was the right decision by the captain or I would be stuck at the Bangkok airport with the angry american I saw on the news who blamed the receptionist for the protestors.

This hiccup was probably my favorite hiccup ever. After sitting on the plane at Changi airport for about an hour we finally got let off, piled onto a bus and driven to a hotel where one nights stay was probably the troisbros entire yourope budget.

But it was British Airways shout.

So at 3am local time (about 6am Aus) I got a sandwhich, talked to some people about if anyone knew what the hell was going on (I didn't actually care, I just wanted a reason to talk to some of the young laaaaadies, and subsequently some gents to), went up to my two person room on the 16th floor and crashed.

Awaking at 12:15pm the next day to a phone call I discovered a plane was leaving that night and there would be a free tour of Singapore at 2pm. I'd put pictures up but im at the airport and have no idea how. Singapore is pretty sweet. Some things Australia should take into consideration (such as everyone riding in the tray of eachothers utes) and some things we should avoid (like everywhere smelling like spit and cigarettes).

I do believe i get into London at like 5am England time. But I don't really know.

2mins left of free internet. Hope everyones good. I love you all.

Except you.

Timqth.

Incase you have forgotten

I am also leaving behind this incredibly warm and sportly talented country.

At 5:30pm tuesday evening/afternoon/dinnertime (if your one of those weird families) I shall be embarking on my very own yourope trip.

Goodbyes with Pheefa.

After giving nick and fanman a few weeks head start (because they’re a lil unfit, especially tricky) I will arrive in London starry eyed and greasy haired at 6am their time. I will then proceed to meet up with Nafan and together we shall tackle the ‘fresh’ British weather and enjoy the gracious and entertaining hospitality of my cousin Ian and his wife Danni, whose sister I am apparently betrothed to. After a week or so in the motherland we will then make our way from the top to the bottom of France (or bottom to top if you are sitting on the opposite side of the table to the person holding the map) and meet up with the vertically blessed garcon and together we shall tackle the rest of yourope, hopefully leaving our footprint in many a woman's (and some men's) heart.

I don’t have much else to say, just thought I’d let everyone know the final piece of the trios bros puzzle will soon be in place and this blog will be over flowing with stories of love, pain and all things in between. Also, for your enjoyment, I’ll give you a video of our adventurous trip to the airport, just to reiterate Nick’s earlier blogs.

I will miss you all and will try my hardest to not hate the next two months.
=)

Bonjour de Bordeaux!

Bonjour tout le monde!
Je suis arrivé à Bordeaux!

I have arrived in Bordeaux and am now staying with a real French famille! They are fantastic! A young family - with four kids! They have already made me feel welcome with a big bed, big meals and lots of gesturing!!

The Fam! Stanislas et Margaux

What isn't fantastic, however, is the keyboard i am forced to use. The french just have to be different! Nothing is intuitive. Instead everything is squashed together - i have to press 3 buttons to get the @ sign for example.
They make up for it, however, because their computer has a Sony memory card reader, which means i can upload photos!

Blue skies for a moment.

Other then getting here, i haven't really done much except try try try to learn as quickly as i can. Already i have a notebook with 6 pages of new French words! I did however walk around Bordeaux today with Stanislas (13) and Margaux (15). It is beautiful - even more then i expected!

A monument in Bordeaux's grand square (the biggest in Europe)
which had a name that i have forgotten.

The CBD of Bordeaux - très très jolie!

My alliance français course begins on Monday, so it will be interesting to see whether it is any good (i am not so sure at this point as they seem more unorganised then me - and that's saying something)...

City on the river!

Well, i have nothing more to report really -- except the falling aussie dollar which i was blissfully unaware of until yesterday - 1AUD=0.5EUR :(

But it's not all bad, Australia won the rugby, so i have some bragging to do! Aller Australie!

Au Revoir!

PS: Timo will be here in a matter of hours! Excited much?

PPS: I can't access facebook here...

Oh Happy Days: Wintertime In Sweden

Hej! (My Swedish has improved, no?)


Aha! Ha ha 'Nique' yes you can have some fun too lol it sounds like all trois bros are very, very confident in their decision to go overseas. For my part, I don't think my mind was built to be able to sustain such an extended period of bliss! This colossal groggy smile is climbing up my face as I think of all the amazing things nick has already done, the excitement timqt must be feeling about to embark on his own tour de yourope, and as I think about Farhad (Manijeh's husband) laughing as he was throwing snow at Manijeh (Farhad's wife) who was pretending to be mortally embarrassed before she returned fire herself. And yes. 'Woly shi' as pheebo would remark. My extremities are only just having feeling returned to them after trudging, not feeling begrudging and not through sludge here but through fresh, pure, crunchy white snow! I am so complete right! Everything looks like it's out of a Hans Christian Anderson fable! Little picturesque cottages and stoic red barns all blanketed in an obstinate layer of snow! yay!

So last post was just before bed. I called mum (because I know she thinks about nothing else but her son roaming the world all by himself) at about midnight and then slept. So that day I set my alarm even earlier to compensate for my terrible waking abilities. But I managed to haul myself fully geared up out the door by 0900 which was a feat!

Which brings me now to my new segment: Sweet as Swedes; which chronicles my first encounter of the day with a classic aryan femme. And today it was at about 0920 at the bus stop. I'm just lucky I guess! But the segment gets better. Yes, he said it. It turns out the bus was travelling a school route lol. I almost missed my stop!

Ok so I caught an impressive coffee on the water's edge to kick start my day, then I made my way across the archipellago that is east Stockholm via ferry. I met a Swiss woman who was getting pretty frustrated because I kept asking her questions and she said it had been years since she had had to use so much English!

mmm some smooth familiar beans to begin a cold day with!

This was taken from the ferry with great difficulty because my hands were so damn cold from the wind off the water.

After the ferry I toured a gallery dedicated to the history of Swedish culture which was, at times, a little bit dull (one hall was set aside for table settings) but the next museum was pretty impressive which housed a fully restored C17 ship that was lifted out of the Stockholm waters a few years ago. Then I headed to Skansen, which is like a zoo. I didn't have much time because I had to meet Abtin at his work in an hour and a half so I was power walking my way around all day. This was a good call I got some really good photos of things I saw. I was so involved I didn't realise that I missed lunch! It's about as big a deal as trick forgetting to tell someone, anyone, about how much he loves Obama or tim forgetting to get his daily hit of Mitchell Davis. So I made my way to station centralen with an empty stomach and my body seizing up from the cold. I left my gloves in Lund and only had two layers on and I tell you I could feel it that was for sure.

This was the first museum, which like most buildings here is completely sublime


This is a university affiliated building that I thought looked fantastic to omit


It's a really big boat

Les Grand Garcon (a psuedonym for le trois bros) vying for supremacy in bear form. Timqth isn't quite at the same level as trick and I (he's the one at the bottom of the rocky peak and also at the bottom of the world), he can only watch for the moment until he sets foot in you rope.

'wow woo we wow wow' was the most eloquent reaction possible to this scene

So Abtin and I (after visiting 'Mk Daniels', which reminded my of 'coming to America' all the way) made our way through snow covered nordic plains and craggy tree lined overpasses to get to Vasteros, a student city west of Stockholm. Doing (only a couple) of burnouts on the black ice in the carparks, we headed into town to this club where a cover band took me straight back to the australian pub scene. 'Don't feel like dancing', 'Sweet child of mine', 'Suspicious minds', 'Highway to hell' all characterised what was a great night out. Abtin's entourage and I then meandered through the streets to Konrads (Wayne's world?) where we rode out the majority of the night. Lots of fun and lots of beer. We then climbed like 40 stories up to a sky bar and mused over the night with the yellow sea of lights pulsing below. I may have overcompensated my undernourishment of the day a bit as my wallet was quite a bit lighter!

I parted ways with Abtin today, and there was as much guy love in the air as could be deemed heterosexual before I caught the train to Stockholm. I then met Olaf (Olaf!) and Saro with whom I shared stories of Australia in the summer sun and became a little nostalgic. So far today Manijeh, Farhad and I have also been to see the runestones left by the marauding nordes a millenia ago and see the viking town Täby Kyrkby which still hides a few nordic remnants such as this old church which listed all the pastors since the 1500s! pretty moving.

Bye Amir

Now who did that? I'm bringing in snow-fitti, which is a clever combination of the words snow and graffiti. The Swedes will love it.

It's a house from a fable!

Ancient stones left by bloodthirsty seafarers as they abandoned their heathen vestiges to erect these monuments in the hope that eternal life would ensue

Now I look for trains tomorrow morning (preferably at 0600, to get the most out of the day!) and pack, plan and procrastinate my way towards leaving Stockholm and, inevitably, Sweden. Some parting shots will be fired tonight, however, as I am yet to explore the more bohemian south side of Stockholm, and will keep you informed and glued to your monitor in due time.

Hejdo, och vises snart! Goodbye and see you soon in case my very. very. good Swedish accent was difficult to interpret!

Au Revoir Paris!

Bonjour!

I have finally discovered a way to upload photos!

yay!

It turns out that the hostel computers had a memory card reader the whole time -- but the stupid computer won't let me upload them all at once, so a few will have to suffice for now.

The Egyption Obelisk

Unfortunately, i am all alone now. Katy has returned to London with a massive list of things to do before she boards a flight for Australie. But still, our adventure continues. Much has happened during the last few days, but it was all trumped by a trip to the eiffel tower. I feel so dirty writing that... i mean, it's just so... touristy... but it really was amazing to admire the sparkling view from the cold, windy peak. We went at night which meant we bypassed nearly all the ques (cues ... i can't figure out how to spell that... no combinations look right!!) It was a breathtaking sight. The streets became rivers of light and France's ancient sights, particularly the Arc de Triomphe looked tiny (although just as impressive) from 300 metres. Katy could barely stomach the top for more than a few minutes (i remember saying: 'You're such a woman' and she, looking outraged, said 'No i'm not!) but despite the freezing wind, i felt obliged to stay up top and soak up the sight.

Pretty amazing hey. These photo's just don't do it justice.

Paris has so much character - such a different feel to London. The old school metro is always packed, not just with people going to and from work, but performers - we watched some guy rap and dance around our carriage. Way more interesting their London counterparts! The only tradeoff is that you get these old women walking around, with their arms outstretched, chanting 'J'ai tres faim. Sil vous plait'. Similarly, the streets are full of life. Katy and I were just walking around and we walked straight into a scene from high quality movies like 'step up', 'step up 2' ...
Basically some guys having a 'break-off'.

Sorry about the bad filming... it's really hard to film and watch at the same time!

Who could forget the Moulin Rouge.

The Lourve was amazing. It is just absolutely massive.
I still can't decide whether i like the pyramids though.

And although we were largely ignored in London, the people here always seem to be ready to take advantage of naive tourists - and while it can be annoying, it can also be funny when its not your wrist being tied with string. Unfortunately, too often it was my wrist which was being literally and metaphorically tied - katy and I went to visit the Arc de Triomphe and this woman, obviously seeing my wide-eyed expression from a mile off, ran up to me and started tying and braiding string around my wrist. I didn't realise at the time that she expected me to PAY for it. So i got a little shock when, at its completion, she demanded 20 Euro. I couldn't help but laugh 'I'm a student! I can't afford that type of money!'. She relented - 'Okay, okay' she said in a heavy accent 'i give you special discount... 10 Euro'. In the end i did have a good talk to her - apparently she has a debt of 2000 Euro's and no job, so the only way she can survive is by ambushing tourists - i ended up giving her 2. WAAAY more then she deserved. Katy also was suckered - although by choice. It turns out she'll do anything for a dog and so she couldn't go passed a dog carrying a basket. 'A basket!' So she gave the dog (not the man she tried to justify) 2 Euro. We could have bought a sucre crepe with that!! haha!

Katy and her 2 Euro Chien.

The Arc de Triomphe

My internet time was juuuuuust about to run out then, but i was offered an internet pass by some attractive girls who were sadly leaving (couldn't let nathan have all the fun!)

Anyway, where was i? I have also been trying to practice my terrible French here, and despite the unhelpful person or deux, everyone has been so nice. The 'arrogant' French myth has been well and truly busted. I didn't have to say much at all - just something simple like Nous voudrons avoir (we would like to have...) or puis-je avoir/voir/mange (can i have/see/eat) and people would look at us in surprise before replying in French - at this point i would need them to say it again (pardon, mais pouvez vous repetez sil vous plait) or say more slowly (pouvez vous dit lentement, sil vous plait). Most of the time they would take one look the confusion evident on my face and just repeat in English! hah!

The inside of Notre Dame.

Anyway, i can't wait to return. There is so much that i didn't even get to describe. So you just got my impressions and what came to me as i sat to write this. New Years here will be fantastic though, that much i know for sure.

It's Christmas! Noël!

Today i head off to Bordeaux. I'm staying with a French family (they seem really nice), hopefully to learn a little bit more. But whether it's a success or not, it still should be fun.

Missing you all every now and again!

Nick