and then there was one...

... so I admit defeat. two blogs is one too many and I'd rather have one decent dumping ground for my thoughts than two mediocre ones. So for those of you who read this, love you many, keep reading! my travel stories will now be published here *yay*

gai paris, oui oui!

bottom line? 3 days is not enough.

Paris is insanely beautiful, and everyone seems to know this because the theme of the city is really "to queue or not to queue". There are queues for the churches, queues for the monuments, queues for the museums, and there are even queues for the pastry shops! Ok, granted we are talking about the world famous Laduree, but still, queuing to buy cake?

Anyway, we queued - selectively.

We spent Sunday afternoon lazing under the Eiffel Tower, and at dusk decided to join the hour-long queue to ascend its tower. The queue was long, as expected, but also deceiving as once you reach the elevator (cheering for joy), you're lifted to level 2 where you are once again ushered into line to await the next elevator which brings you to the summit.

And once you arrive at the peak... to be honest? Preeeetty over-rated. Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful, but it's just another viewing platform and i much preferred lazing under the tower, gazing upward at its magnificence.











After all the waiting, the irony really was that I wanted to see the view by night, and because our queue moved to fast, we were there at 9.30pm, and in Europe, 9.30pm is light. Dammit.

The Eiffel Tower aside, we also queued for the Rodin Museum, which was well and truly worth the wait. I studied Rodin in highschool and found his sculptures incredibly sexy, especially the level of emotion and angst he can convey through the hands of his subjects. Hands. Seeing with my own eyes The Thinker, The Gates of Hell and especially The Burgesses of Calais absolutely blew. my. mind. I know, what a geek!












In our three short days, we also managed to stroll up Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe; wander through the streets of Montmartre, visit the Sacre Coeur and taking a peek in the Moulin Rouge; relax on a cruise down the River Seine; get into Laduree and Fauchon for delicious macaroons; admire in awe the brilliance of Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle; and laze by the fountains next to the famous pyramids at the Louvre.







































oh, and we ate.

Lots packed into three short days.

The next trip will be themed "to queue".

18 months, baby!

Can you believe it's been 18 months since this? I'm blushing and cringing equally when I read back on old posts and the way I was gushing in such an unladylike manner over Panu. Terrible! oh wait a minute, I still do!

It's funny, I've been unusually sentimental the last few weeks, it's the homesickness really kicking in and I have confided in anyone who will listen about how much I missed my life in Sydney... I especially miss 2006, my year for freedom and fun and me. I was single, living it up and loved life.

But you know what? I think I should love living it. Because I have the best person to share my life with...

brussels and bruges

A thousand apologies for not having blogged about our first European trip to Belgium! It’s almost come time for our second trip (Paris this weekend!) and in a midst of guilt and panic, here is a snippet of our little getaway to the home of mussels, waffles and frites!

We caught the Eurostar from Kings Cross on Friday night – it is the most convenient and comfortable way to travel, none of the rubbish with checking in 60 minutes pre-flight and missing luggage. The train flies through the gorgeous English country-side, under the English Channel, finally emerging on European soil. We arrived in the evening, checked in to the Hilton, and thus began our very first European adventure!

Saturday was spent in Bruges, which to me (though I am a newbie) was just the most stunning, peaceful, beautiful town I have ever laid eyes on. Holding onto its medieval architecture, Bruges truly is a step back in time. We wandered the streets, climbed the bell tower and ate copious amounts of mussels, waffles, frites and ice cream. The mussels eventually landed me in hospital but nevertheless, it did not taint my view of Bruges…



















Tired and weary from our day in Bruges, we camped in the Grand Place that evening, ready to watch the light shows. Which never happened. But the warmth and ridiculously late sunset allowed us to sit and take in the pure grandness of the Grand Place – nothing really beats people watching, wherever you are in the world!




















Sunday was spent in Brussels itself, visiting the Music Instruments Museum and more enjoyably, the Comic Book Museum, where I got a photo with my smurf friend *grin* Our bellies were filled with frites, waffles, chocolates and croissants and when we were just about full, we had steak and ice cream for dinner! It bewilders me that I am not so large that I could have given birth to that double decker bus that just mosied past my window.











Monday… well, I won’t dwell on this but I had an allergic reaction to the mussels from Bruges, landed in hospital for a few hours, absorbed about 10 gallons of steroids via intravenous drips and hey presto! I’m out and about at lunch time, and we enjoyed the rest of the day shopping for pressies and headed back happily on Monday afternoon.

brussels... in a nutshell

I can only provide a nutshell version of the trip for now... and this is how it went down people:

Day 0 ~ arrived at 9.30pm, checked in to the Hilton which is totally art nouveau gorgeous, then headed straight out to supper!

Day 1 ~ day in Bruge, a little medieval town about an hour away from Brussels. Loved Bruge. Satisfied my insatiable hunger with mussels, waffles, frites, ice cream, vol au vent...

Day 2 ~ day in Brussels, started with heavenly croissants, followed by waffles, steak, more frites, creme caramel, more ice cream, chocolates...

Day 3 ~ punishment. Monday morning sees me lying in a hospital bed in the emergency ward with not one, but two intravenous drips in my right arm. Turns out I am violently allergic to European mussels and almost went into anaphylactic shock. it was not a pretty sight.

Oooooh yeh.

but fear not. Got out of hospital at midday and managed to get more frites, french onion soup and chocolates into me before heading home at 5pm!