Day 65 to 72

Day 65: Wednesday 24^th August

So, we got breakfast whilst walking into the centre of Paris which consisted of an half a chocolate croissant and half an almond croissant each! (When in France… eat as the French do!) Which were absolutely divine!

We originally had planned to do the walking tour… however, we got terribly lost and so missed the beginning of it. So instead, we just wondered up and down the river (which is in the centre of the city) and saw the Louvre (we didn’t go inside), the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe and once again the Notre Dame.  There isn’t much to say about what we did because it was us walking around being Tourists for about 6 hours – which for us was incredibly fun but sounds really boring when we describe it.

We got a baguette and two croissants to share during the day. So, we halved a croissant for breakfast and ate the baguette for lunch and had the remaining croissant in the park in front of the Eiffel tower!

Outside of the Louvre 

Inside the Court Yard of the Louvre 

Paris is an absolutely gorgeous city. The architecture is beautiful and the skyline is all basically one height so the point of the Eiffel tower can be seen from almost any where in the city. 

Arc De Triomphe

Eiffel Tower

After six hours of walking around Paris, we decided that we were completely shattered and got food from our bakery on the way home and then went to bed relatively early.

Day 66: Thursday 25^th August

Today we went to Disneyland!!!

Honestly, it was one of the greatest days. It was so so so much fun. We had vegemite and butter baguettes (true Aussie/French style) and had packet chocolate croissants so we ensured that we could last the entire day! We caught the train from the main station in Paris and arrived at Disneyland at about 11:30am. We bought our tickets and the first thing we did was watch the Tarzan Show which was pretty cool. The performers had to be gymnasts or acrobats as their tricks were incredible.. their dancing was average but the flipping was amazing. Not going to lie… Katherine and I definitely appreciated Tarzan’s body ;)

The first ride we went on was called “Big Thunder Mountain” and it was a rollercoaster that “hurtles through an abandoned gold mine at breathtaking speed aboard a runaway mine train” – Basically it was a really fast rollercoaster that went around a mountain. It was brilliant.

Us and the Rollercoaster

We then went on a Haunted House ride. Sometimes we feel utterly ridiculous about the things we do. This time, it was us being utterly petrified and unbelievably paranoid about going on the ride. I mean to start off with you enter a pitch black room and they yell at you in French – I understood NOTHING whilst Katherine got “You can never escape”, so, to begin with it was pretty frightening. However, as the ride went on and we got onto the train thingo, the ride got less frightening and we began to feel ridiculous as we were more scared going on the ride than the majority of the little kiddies.

Us before the ride

One of the coolest things about Disneyland I thought, was the different lands and how different they all looked. The first two I thought had the most obvious difference between them. The Frontier land was like the Wild West whilst Adventure land was about Pirates and Indiana Jones.

Adventure Land

So, the third ride we went on was known as “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril” and once again, it was a rollercoaster which went at high speeds and this one went through and around a “temple”. Such great fun!

As well, in Adventure land they had like tree houses and areas where you can explore caves and such. Honestly, I felt like a kid on Christmas day – Katherine and I were just ridiculously excited about everything! The next ride we went on was a Pirate’s of the Caribbean ride. It was a water ride that went through a place that looked like the set of the movie. Very, very cool.

So, we then moved onto Fantasy Land and went on the Peter Pan ride. Which was us in a boat flying over London and Neverland. Also, very cool!  

Flying over London

We did the Snow white ride, the Pinocchio ride and then we watched the parade. I thought the parade was rather cheesy… but Katherine loved it and I do admit it was pretty entertaining and looked like so much fun to be in.

The Parade

We went on a Buzz Lightyear ride which was us shooting Zurg (the bad guy). Let’s just say that our score… was rather low.

The Last ride we went on was by far the best. It was another rollercoaster but it was really different from the last couple. It is described as “blast off on a spinning, rocket-powered rollercoaster ride to the edge of the universe”. You go in a rocket thing which speeds you up so much that… how do I explain it… okay picture a pug dog with their face outside a window in a car and their skin gets pushed back… that’s what our faces looked like! And then you go on loop-d-loops, and twisty turns all in pitch black. It’s absolutely brilliant.

The Space Mountain Ride

We eventually got home at about 10:30, got Maccas really quickly and then slept!

 Day 67: Friday 26^th August

We actually made the walking tour today! Even though we had already seen the sights, the walking tours are always good because you get to know the history of a place. So, we went from the Notre Dame all the way down the River Seine, past the Louvre to the Grand and Petite Palaces.

Katherine and I at the Louvre

So, yes, we walked around for another three and a half hours seeing places we had already seen. But we did learn a lot more about them. The triangle in the Louvre was built as an upgrade to give more space to the Gallery and originally, the Parisians hated it. As well, the Eiffel Tower was only meant to be standing for 10 years or so, however the Parisians decided they liked it and kept it up!

That night, we went for dinner with Peter (Katherine’s family friend) and his girlfriend, Vicki in the Montmartre region, where the Moulin Rouge is. I’d show you the picture of us with it…. But it’s on Pete’s camera!

Then, the four of us did a pub crawl. Funnily enough, we started the French pub crawl at an Australian bar which we all found hilarious. The night was good fun, we had lovely cocktails all night and the crawl finished at a club where we danced for hours and hours before walking home!

Day 68: Saturday 27^th August

This morning, we caught a train from one of the main stations in Paris to a town called Reims which is the capital of the Champagne Region in France.

We got there just after lunch time, and so we check in to our hotel and then after dumping our bags we had a quick walk around the town to see what was there and then had a long nap!

After our nap, we got up and went to find the Tourist office so we could get phone numbers to book Champagne tours for the next day. After eventually finding the Tourist office, we went and had a drink before going to have Asian food for early dinner so we could have an early night.

Day 69: Sunday 28^th August

We started the morning off by ringing several Champagne labels to book tours and tasting. We booked one and then noticed that all the English tours were all at very similar times so we only could do one, which we were a bit disappointed about.

So, we bought our morning chocolate croissant and almond croissant to share and wondered towards the town’s Cathedral, which is known as Reim’s Notre Dame. It is honestly, gorgeous. The amount of detail in the structure is unbelievable. It must have taken years and years to build.

Notre Dame of Reims

After the cathedral we went inside the Palace of Tau which was a place of residence of the Monarchy of France.

The Palace of Tau and Notre Dame of Reims

26 of the Kings of France were coronated in the Cathedral which is connected to the palace. Inside the palace we saw many statues and many tapestries from the Royal family of France. We also saw the hall where all the banquets and such were held after the coronations!

Inside the Palace

We then went for a walk towards the place where the Champagne tour was going to be held, but as we were early we stopped by a French Garden (characterized by straight lines) and were annoying tourists taking photos of everything!

We then had a Champagne tour of the label G.H. Mumm. We had a tour of their cellars and an explanation of how their champagne is made and the difference between traditional and vintage champagnes. Vintage champagnes are made from grapes only from that season’s grapes whilst traditional champagnes can be made from grapes from a range of seasons to gain the right taste.

14 metres underground in their cellars 

After going through their cellars, we got to have a tasting of two of G.H. Mumm’s champagnes. One was stronger than the other, whilst the other one was slightly sweeter. Both rather nice though.

We spent the afternoon wondering through the centre of Reims before eventually having a baguette for dinner and we finished our evening by watching Pirates of the Caribbean in French!

Day 70: Monday 29^th August

Back to Paris

So, we caught the train back to Paris at about lunch time and met up with Peter Schell (my uncle) who we would be staying with for the two remaining nights in Paris. After dumping our stuff at the hotel, the three of us wondered down the road to grab a baguette for lunch. We then went to La Fayette Galleries – which is the equivalent of a really fancy Myers. It had floors and floors of clothes – very cool!

We wondered through the Louvre and past the Opera House before spending the next hour wondering through a really nice shopping district and we finished the afternoon with a chocolate frappe in a cute French café.

We also saw Mary Magdalene’s church in Paris. It is this beautiful old building with gorgeous detail throughout.

That night, the three of us went out for dinner before then meeting up with Jeremy (cousin) who was just passing through Paris for the night. We went and had a drink before heading back to the hotel.   

Day 71: Tuesday 30^th August

Today, we found out that most Parisian museums close on Tuesday – including the Louvre. So those of you heading off to Paris…. THE LOUVRE IS CLOSE ON TUESDAYS. We were all terribly disappointed so after finding out that lovely piece of information, we headed off towards the left bank where we wondered around. A thing we really liked about Paris is that it is truly a beautiful city. In saying that, I mean that it is highly picturesque. You are able to get a stunning photo of the majority of the city. So, wondering around almost mindlessly doesn’t worry either of us at all as we can look at the city.

We managed to see the Pantheon of France which is where they celebrate the greats of the country. For example, Marie Curie is buried here as well the author of The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas.  Before being a Pantheon the building was originally built to be a church, so you imagine how gorgeous the inside is.

The Roof of the Pantheon

After visiting the Pantheon, we did some basic tourist shopping and shopping for Peter, and then we went and had a nap after hours and hours of walking around. After the lovely nap, the three of us went out for dinner before then heading to bed.

Day 72: Wednesday 31^st August

Off to Madrid

As Katherine and I arrived at the airport at 8:00am to get a flight to Madrid! The flight itself was alrighty… we slept for a bit and then chatted to the French guy next to us who was going to study in Madrid for a semester!

Once in Madrid, we checked into our hostel, dumped our stuff and then went and had a wonder around the centre of the city to get some kind of directional bearings. Lucky for us, our hostel is literally a five minute walk from the centre. After a long walk, Katherine and I went for a shop… not actually buying things – but we had fun trying clothes on.

To finish our evening, we got some Spanish food at some restaurant near the hostel and then had a relatively early night.

Any who,

Adios,

Cait and Katherine

Day 57 to 64

Day 57: Tuesday 16^th August

Off to Edinburgh

So Katherine and I caught the 9:15 train into London and arrived at Kings Cross at about 11 and then met up with Bridget (Katherine’s friend whom we spent the majority of London with) in a pub in Kings Cross. After a delicious lunch, the three of us caught a train at 2pm to Edinburgh.

What was amazing was that once we crossed the border from England to Scotland, we were engulfed into a curtain of fog and rain. Honestly, it was the most stereotypical thing and had us all in hysterics. When we got out at the main station it was absolutely bucketing down with rain. Luckily, I had my umbrella at easy reach but poor Bridget and Katherine had no umbrella! The three of us arrived at the hostel (which was in the centre) completely drenched. Frankly, it looked like Bridget and Katherine had had a shower in all their clothes and with their bags!

After checking in, the three of us dumped our stuff in our room which took 398583 minutes to find. The receptionist forgot to mention that there were two buildings and that only the 2^nd one had half floors – we were on floor 3M so after running around like headless chickens with huge backpacks we eventually found our room.

We spent the afternoon wondering around the old part of the city. The centre of Edinburgh has two parts – the old and the new. We stayed in the old centre which had cobble stone streets and stone buildings. The main street of the old part was completely bustling with people as the Edinburgh Festival was on! The Edinburgh Festival is a festival of up and coming dramatic acts, from comedy, to musicals, to plays and to cabaret shows. The main street has people from a lot of the acts handing out flyers advertising their acts. Some of the performances were free and the others range from really cheap to expensive.

Photo of the Main street

We finished the evening by hanging out in one of the local bars and with a bottle of Champagne!

Day 58: Wednesday 17^th August

We started the morning with our amazing buffet breakfast that was provided by the hostel. We all felt like slight old ladies as we smuggled bread into our bags so we could have vegemite sandwiches for lunch!

After breakfast, we did the free walking tour (once again!) which was fascinating. We learnt about a lot of Scotland’s history. For example, that originally Scotland was a combination of four tribes and that the name the “Scots” came from the Irish tribe!

Unfortunately, a lot of the photos are on Bridget’s camera and so I shall upload them when we have access!

We then had lunch in the main park of Edinburgh underneath Edinburgh Castle which was gorgeous and in true Scottish fashion, it started to rain on our walk home!

Bridget and I

That evening, we went and saw one of the free shows that were apart of the festival. We saw a cabaret show by a group called “The East End Cabaret”. The show was hilarious. They had a mixture of traditional cabaret, their own songs with well known modern songs (i.e. It’s getting hot here… so take off all your clothes!). At the end of the show, we ate dinner at the bar under the hostel and had delicious chicken fajitas before heading to a club known as The Hive.

The club was brilliant. It has two rooms, the first with current dance music and the second with hits from the 90s. We spent hours and hours dancing between the two rooms and meeting loads of people. Weirdest thing that did occur, was that we ran into Michaela Vaughan and Claudia Farrell whilst inside.

Day 59: Thursday 18^th August

This morning, we lined up for at least an hour to buy tickets for three shows we were to see over the next two days.

Once we had bought the tickets, we wondered over to the first venue where we bought traditional Scottish Shortbread to have whilst we watched the shows. The first show we watched was “Hitler the Musical”. To be honest, it was crap. The performances and the songs themselves were very well performed and the actors were very talented, however the story line was useless and not as amusing as it could have been.

We then had lunch at the local pie shop which was delicious before heading to another cabaret show. This show was done as well as the first. This cabaret was one lady acting as four different ladies with four different styles of cabaret. It was very, very well done. As well, it was in the coolest of venues. It was in a innovative modern venue that was built underneath some of the old bridges in the old town.

I’d show you all a photo, but…. As the rest of them… they are on Bridget’s camera!

During the night we were all exhausted from the night before, so we just hung in the bar at the hostel. There was a trivia night which we are proud to say we got the lowest score and one a rubber duck that lights up.

Day 60: Friday 19^th August

Today was our final full day in Edinburgh. We took a day trip out to a town on the coast known as North Berwick. It was stunning.

Bridget on the Coast

We caught the train out and it took about 30 minutes to get there. We wondered around the coast and on the beach for about an hour. It was such a cute town with green hills and for Scotland it was quite warm.

We eventually visited the tourist office, who informed us of a castle which was 35 minutes away by walking. We discovered that this was a lie. A huge lie. We took up this challenge of the uphill walk towards the castle. We passed fields, towns, caravan parks and houses on the walk that ended up being OVER AN HOUR.

The castle itself was so cool. It was set on the side of a cliff and we had to cross two bridges to get to it. Really… I can’t explain it well enough. So, take look at the photos below.

We got back to Edinburgh just before the last theatre production we were to attend. We saw Macbeth being put on by Cambridge students. It was truly amazing. We left the theatre absolutely speechless. The performance was incredibly in your face, meaning that they moved in and out of the audience and they used lighting and sound to increase any emotional reaction one would have. Honestly, it was the best Shakespeare performance I have ever seen.

That evening, we had dinner in the bar underneath the hostel before heading out to the clubs that lay on the cross road to our street. We started off at a reggae club.. which was fun but was a bit quiet, we then moved onto the Hive again. Which I thought was just as fun but Bridget and Katherine did not like the music as much. So we moved onto another club known as ‘Sin’ which was held in a place that was a church. It was the funniest experience I have had in a while. It was a rave club and so Bridget, Katherine and I just danced and danced and danced for the entire time we were in their. Finally, we moved back to the Hive, where we danced until 5am!

Us at the Hive

Day 61: Saturday 20^th August

Off to Dublin

So, after a wonderful sleep in…. okay, well after about 3 hours sleep, Katherine and Bridget got up to speak to their friend Alex at some ridiculous hour and then because we were off to Dublin today we also had to packed our bags and check out.

After completing those tasks, we had a fantastic breakfast and then Bridget headed to the train station to get a train back to London and Katherine and I got onto a shuttle bus to go to the airport.

The flight itself was really uninteresting – we fell asleep before it took off and woke up as it was landing!

When we finally checked into our accommodation in Dublin it was something like 4:30 so, we decided to have a little look around before sitting in the pub near where we were staying and got some early dinner before heading to be around 10ish.

Day 62: Sunday 21^st August

Today, Katherine and I did the free walking tour around Dublin. It was pretty interesting as we leant why the Irish hate the English and all about the revolutions and the wars that have occurred on their small island.

Did you know, that the main palace in Dublin was held by the British for nearly 700 years? And it used to hold the Irish parliament before the British decided that they had to sent representatives to Westminster Abbey (British Parliament) instead of having their own.

Dublin Palace

Like a lot of European cities, Dublin is situated around a river. It is a pretty city. I wouldn’t say it was gorgeous like some of the other cities, but it is still nice. They have tried to modernize the city with the new millennium (which kind of failed in most of the their eyes).

So, we saw a Cathedral, some bridges, a beautiful park and learnt about the important people within their society. We also learnt about the potato famine which killed nearly 2 million people within Ireland.

After the walking tour, Katherine and I went to various museums and saw some lovely exhibitions on Vikings, Egyptians and the medieval Irish.

That night, we did a pub crawl run by the some company who ran the free walking tour (different to the companies in most cities). It was fun… but definitely not as good as the other cities.

Day 63: Monday 22^nd August

We started relatively early today as we wanted to do a lot. We started by having a

Quick shop whereby Katherine bought a new handbag as hers was breaking. We then headed to the Leprechaun Museum!

Sign to the Leprechaun Museum 

It wasn’t really a Leprechaun Museum, it was more like a really cool place to learn about Irish mythology (where there is a lot). It was honestly so cool. We felt like big kids – not to mention we were probably one of the eldest there without kids!

It was designed very cleverly, as the museum told the stories of ancient mythology that was very important to the Irish people whilst at the same time entertaining for those within the museum. It had a “Big” room, whereby all the furniture was huge and we were meant to feel like leprechauns!

All in all, it was a very cool place!

We then walked to Kilmainham Gaol – which was the main gaol during all the revolutions within Ireland and it was one of the first reformist gaols within Europe.

Reformist gaol meant that it was one of the first gaols to separate male and female inmates and ideally have each person within the gaol in isolation; however the isolation did not occur during the main revolutions as the gaol became very over crowded.

The aim of this gaol (as of any gaol) was to reform these people to fit in with the rest of society as well as increase the safety of the inmates during their stay in the gaol, especially the safety of women.

A wing of the Gaol 

We finished the evening by having a meal in the pub before going to bed rather early as we had to be up at 3:30 the next morning!

Day 64: Tuesday 23^rd August

Off to Paris

So, we got up at 3:30 so we could get a bus to the airport at 4am as we had to be at the airport at 4:30am! We were flying with Ryanair and for those of you who don’t know… it’s a really cheap airline and they make you pay for everything separately. So, the taxes, the flight and checked in luggage all add up to make your ticket. With Ryanair you can pay for either 15kg of luggage each or 20kg but the 20kg is about 20 euro more expensive – so, with Katherine and I both being tight with our money… we chose the 15kg. Amazingly, we got our backpacks down to 14.1kg EACH!!! Although I do reckon that our handbags weighed probably about the same weight.

We got to Paris at about 9:30ish and then got a bus into the centre and finally got to our hotel. We checked in and dumped our luggage before walking around our area and then near the centre where we got to see Notre Dame. Before seeing Notre Dame we managed to find a cheap bakery just around the corner from us which we have used every day in Paris since.

Us in front of the Notre Dame

Eventually, we decided that we were too exhausted and at about 5ish we wondered back to our hotel where we got a baguette for dinner and went to bed after watching Pride and Prejudice.

Well… that’s it so far. I shall update with the rest of France soon!

Au Revoir!

Cait and Katherine xx