too much text? here are some pictures

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1 - Last day in Rome, walking from St Peter's Basilica towards the hotel - a good 3 hour journey

2 - my artistic shot :) Leo, me, leo :)

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3 - Beer for Chris

4 - me forcing down this vile beer for Chris

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5 - Oz Day in Rome, Lulu after a day in the wet, rainy, cold, miserable weather - didn't feel good that we got ripped off by the Vatican
6 - Gelato made us feel better, gelato made this miserable Australia Day worthwhile. If we were in Lyon, we'd be having free Foster's in an Aussie pub...

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7 - Me at the Pantheon, I look like this because I just had a yummy pizza

8 - our shared toilet in an enormous room at the hotel. I know I said it would be weird to show you a picture of the toilet, but if you didn't know I was weird by now, then there's something wrong with you.

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9 - me eating again
10 - Lulu looking for postcards and souvenirs again. this was at the Hall of Maps at the Vatican Museum, which being the big doofuses that we are, didn't realise that it wasn't the Sistine Chapel :p

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11- me eating the best pizza in the world outside the Pantheon
12- Lu eating the second best pizza in the world outside the Pantheon

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13- The hot one and doofus (you decide which is which, but please don't tell me)on the steps of the umm... forgotten the name Veneticio something?? Oh, guess I'm the doofus :(

14- We found a puddle of Australia!

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15- Lulu and turtle outside the Colosseum

16- Lulu and a slice of Vatican pizza

Roma Roma Roma

First impressions of Rome.....hmm.... it's a little bit dodgy....

Fortunately our hotel is close to the station, unfortunately, Rome is full of cobblestone roads and streets so dragging a heavy suitcase on that is not fun at all - especially late at night when you're really tired.

Our hotel is ok... but our hotels are getting dodgier and worse as time goes on... this is what happens when you spend too much money and can't afford a nice place. The first hotel in Lyon is now seeming more and more swish.... we have to share a bathroom and I really struggled to cope with that... but I'll survive it for 2 days. I should know by now how much of a princess I really can be :p

Our room is small, but the bathroom is HUGE - go figure. I'd show you a pic but that would be strange :)

we managed to walk around Rome in 1 day and saw many of the sights by foot. Gees, for so many different touristy things to see, Rome is quite a small place. I think 3 days in Rome may be too much. Everything can be reached on foot and can all be done in less than 1 day! We were really struggling to find things to do.... as Lu's friend puts it, "Rome is nice, you can walk everywhere and see lots of broken things"

A truer word could not be said... a lot of broken things, a pile of broken rubble - that's pretty much Rome. I must admit, I'm a little let down by Rome (sorry Rosanna), it hasn't impressed me as much as I had hoped it would. I can't wait to get to Barcelona.

Paris - a quick tour

We had an awesome time in Paris. I personally really enjoyed myself. Here's a quick tour:

Our hotel room was ok, location good, staff friendly and helpful. It was supposed to be a 2 min walk from the station, but for some reason I still don't quite understand, a 2 min walk turned into a 40 min trek! So before we left, we made sure we knew how to get to the station and timed ourselves... even with heavy luggage, it only took us less than 10 mins to get there, so how lost were we on that first day?!

As we were both kind of knackered the first night in Paris, we thought we'd take it easy.... never happens the way we want. After dinner with Lu's friend, Ling (who also happened to be in Paris) we walked and walked and walked. Ended up making our way to the Louvre and it was just stunning at night all lit up with lights and better still, not many people around so I could take many many photos all by myself :) I really do hate crowds.

From the Louvre, we made our way past the Jardin des Tuilleries and down the Champs-Elysees and headed towards the Arc de Triomphe. On our way we saw in the distance, the Eiffel Tower go bananas. It was lit up with a billion flashing lights, enough to to cause a severe seizure and it certainly looked like the Tower was having one - very beautiful though.

Had one very expensive dessert at Laduree's on Champs-Elysees, apparently it's famous for its macaroons, but it was quite posh and upmarket, I felt quite out of place with my beanie hair and over-sized rain coat and backpack sitting amongst the well-groomed set. It was only after I started eating my macaroon dessert thing that I remembered that I don't particularly fancy macaroons.... oh well, at least I can tell people that I had something to eat on the Champs-Elysees and it wasn't McDonald's :)

By the time we got back to the hotel, we were absolutely buggered.. Good thing about Paris is that no matter how late we're out, I never feel unsafe because there are just so many people around, even at silly o'clock at night, the metro is still full of people, can't say that happens in Melbourne. Back home, I sometimes feel frightened catching public transport when it gets dark at 7-8pm at night.....

I can't imagine what peak hour would be like if at 11:30pm at night the metro is still packed with people!

People never tell you this, but I will because I'm nice. Paris stinks!

I thought Lyon smelt bad when I got there, it's all the ciggies, BO, dog poo and wine but -pooey- Paris REEKS! It smells of all of the above plus a bit of urine and add a little French arrogance, multiply by 10 and you just about have it. It smells like piss just about everywhere you go, on the streets, in the metro, in decent-looking shopping centres..... nearly everywhere! No wonder the French love their perfume so much.

It's so wrong but this is what happens when you start charging people to use the toilets!

I miss the smell of home.

On the second day in Paris, we went to the Louvre. WOW! What an amazing place. I really really really love it there. I wanted that place to be my home.I know I've written about it before, how we raced through and wished we could spend more time there. What I realised while in Paris, that we Aussies are taking over here. If you were wondering why Oz was so empty, where everybody went, well they are all in Paris!! It was great to hear the familiar Aussie twang everywhere we went, made me miss home a lot. The hotel where we stayed, I think it was about 80% full of Aussies - ok, I may exaggerate a little (it could be only 78%) but I'm telling the story here, so there!

We did many things on the last day in Paris, but I've mentioned most already. Montmartre, Sacre Coeur, la Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame etc.... the Refuge Fondue... ahhh, the fondue place. That was the the second highlight of our stay in Paris. Good food cheap, welcoming and funny hosts, entertaining, weird, good next-table people, it was fun and we had a good time.

That was the tour of Paris.

Observations

Since I do not have much time to blog down all that I want to tell you, there is just so much happening and so much around to see that I can only give you an excerpt of my manuscript of travels. I’m sure that when I get home, I’ll be seeing many of and will be boasting about this trip for many moons to come and you will all get so sick of my rambling on about it…..

So there are some things I’ve noticed:

Dogs! Dogs are everywhere! There are a lot of dogs in Lyon and Paris. They are allowed in shops and restaurants. Sometimes, they are more well kept than their owners. I’ve seen scungy-looking beggars (‘scungy’ is that a word?) with beautiful dogs…. I love dogs, I miss Taxi. The bad side of all these dogs is that rather than concentrating and enjoying the beautiful scenery and architecture, I’ve had to learn to focus one eye up and one eye down, looking out for all the poo :)

There are a lot of security around… in Paris and Lyon it was fine, but here in Rome, it could be a bit overload. There are teams of police, guards, soldiers, security absolutely everywhere we went – I’m not sure whether to feel safe or not safe because surely there must be a reason for all the security? Is it really that dangerous here?

Latin. I’m all Latined out. If only I could read it, perhaps things would make a little more sense when I see them?

Pushy street vendors, hate them, leave me alone, if I didn’t want to buy the crappy souvenirs from the first 398 vendors who approached me 2 seconds before you did why would I buy it from you, the person who is selling the same crappy souvenirs for the same price?

Last day in Paris

Fondue place that gave us wine in a baby's bottle, that was kind of weird, Lu greedily dipping into the fondue, prawns from our paella. I love prawns :)




Some bar in Lyon offering free booze to Aussies on Oz Day, what we eat when we spend much more money than we plan to (and I mean MUCH MUCH more money than planned), Lu taking charge - and still getting us a little bit confused...



CHEERS! (or as Lu would say, 'don't look stupid'). A whole stack of pics of me and Lu eating and drinking - Chris, 2 cities, 2 beers! So far so good, but I don't know how much more I can take, beer tastes really vile :(

Last day in Paris

I have one more hour in Paris before we must leave and make our way to Rome. It's a very miserable day outside today but not nearly as miserable as it was yesterday. Yesterday was c-c-c-cold!! The wind was cold, the wind was strong, we had layers and layers and layers yet our bodies still felt ice cold.

We packed so much into 1 day yesterday, traipsing from one end of Paris to another and ended up in quaint little Montmartre for a lovely fondue dinner and met some cute little Aussie backpackers at this restaurant. The dinner was so yummy, it needs no other word to describe it, the host was very welcoming, and so French and so funny. Even though we were so full we were busting out at the seams, I felt guilty if we didn't finish our meal. Loads of bread, too much cheese, a little too much wine (drunk from out of a baby bottle, that was kind of strange... werido French people!) , dessert was my highlight. I love it when the food I order makes other people envious, and my vanilla ice-cream did just that - sure it doesn't sound too glamourous, but you had to see it and taste it to see how lucky this little girl was last night.

We've also climbed the Eiffel Tower, seen Sacre Coeur, got accosted by nasty looking ghetto people who wanted to tie me up and sell me as a sex slave to some African prince... ok, maybe I'm being a little overly dramatic, maybe they just wanted some money, but still, it frightened me, I needed my lil' sister to come to my rescue. I was with 2 other people, yet they only gave me trouble, why?! I must look like a real big sucker, I must have the french word for sucker plastered on my head because it happened again on our way to the Eiffel Tower! A slimey sleazy strange dude grabbed my arm and started dragging me away, but quick-thinking Lu, who appears quite seasoned to these sort of rorts made yet another brave rescue, slapping the smelly man's hand from me... all the while, all I could think about was, eeewwww, stop touching me you weirdo smelly con artist - and he really was an artist too.

Ummm.... well, Lu finally got to see the Eiffel Tower from the top after 4 visits to Paris, and we spent a good 3 hours in the Louvre, madly rushing through trying to absorb all the history and culture but could really only absorb the smells of all the other whiffy dumbass tourists (me being one of them... reminds me, must do some laundry in Rome...)

Oh, and if you're wondering, yes we did wave and say hi to the lady of the Louvre - Madam Mona Lisa herself. Poor woman, trapped like an animal behind a thick pane glass...

Our verdict of the Louvre, just awesome, we just needed a bit more time - I could suggest perhaps a sleeping room for the tired and weary, it is quite a massive place afterall.

Our verdict of the Mona Lisa - over-rated. Seen a better side of her in books, much clearer and less crowds. The security personnel stood closer than any of the visiters, so go figure.

Lots of photos, I've already maxed out the memory card.... can't wait to get more organised and show them off.

Maybe in Rome, we will get in touch again

Ciao
Buttsore & Blistered Feet

a few Lyon pics...

Some food, some food exchanges, questionable french sign - what on earth do the french do in public??!?! the Roman Theatres, and a grand roue.

Lulu and me, my first meal, some turtles we found swimming in a line, and happy lulu with her turtle obsession.

Pain, pain, pain

Arrived Lyon 10:20am, the weather was not as cold as people had me believe. In fact, it was not cold at all, people lied to me! It was 39 degrees on the day I left Melbourne, so I had on a sleeveless top, and I didn't really need much more than that when I arrived in Lyon. What was the temperature you ask... a very balmy 10 degrees and blue skies. The same temperature in Melbourne would've been freezing but strangely enough, isn't so bad in France.

I did a lot on my first day, Lulu thought it was a great idea to take advantage of the great weather and took me all over town - nevermind that I was severely jetlagged and exhausted, the sun is out and we gotta make the most of it!

It was wonderful to see my sister again after 5 months, I really missed her a lot, we had so much to catch up on, I don't think we stopped talking at all - ignore the fact that I spoke to on the phone every week... it's very different to talk in person.

I have lots of photos that I had wanted to post up for you to see but doofus me, I left the cable to the camera back at the hotel so perhaps next time...

This keyboard is driving me mental (this is q noq,qkl thing thqt I doulzd fhdq zmkjakjsd)

Righty, now that I got that out of my system - here's briefly what I did over the last 3 days:

First meal - a baguette, how French! Little did I know that when it comes to cheap and fast food, the choice is almost endless. You can have bread or you can have sweet bread. There are many many take-away outlets that sell baguettes or pastries and that's pretty much it. There are no greasy Chinese, no healthy sushi, no delicious curries, no fish & chip shops, just boulangeries (bakeries) The french word for bread is 'pain' so, it is quite amusing to me that not only am I actually in a little bit of pain, but I have to eat it too.

oh, I discovered, the other thing you can get are kebabs... but you can't get that in a shopping centre, even though there is only ONE shopping centre here. (and our hotel is conveniently, just across the road from this one and only shopping centre) :p

Anyway, back to what we did... we visited a church or two, the Notre Dame de Fourviére was stunning, so over-the-top, so extravagant, and such beautiful views of the city. I'm sorry I can't show you in photos how gorgeous this church is on the inside. My photos really really can't do it any justice. You have to see it to experience its splendour.

We had a meal at a 'bouchon' which is not quite a restaurant and a little bit like a cafe but not quite. You can only experience a bouchon in Lyon, it's a very Lyonaise thing apparently. The only I can say about it is - WOW! The food was incredible, and way too much, it's a rare occasion when I can't actually finish all the food put down in front of me, especially good food. I hate wasting food. If you ever get to try a herring salad, go for it - don't knock it til you've tried it, it was surprisingly good and I hate herrings! There are some weird stuff on the menus though, I wasn't brave enough to try the calf's head. I was a little curious to see how it would have been presented, would the baby cow's head just be slapped onto a plate and put down in front of you? EEWWW, I've put myself off lunch for today :(

We packed up Lulu's stuff, posted them back home, moved her ginormous suitcase to the hotel and checked out of her residence for the last time. I think she is really glad to be rid of that miserable place. We had a lot of fun manouvering this monster suitcase through the metro, up and down countless stairs. I don't really look forward to doing it again.

Had a gorgeous chocolate crepe. Yum

Had an 'ancient' hot chocolate - not exactly sure what they mean by that but they do love to using it to describe things, especially food. "ancient" hot choccie, "ancient" crepes, "ancient" bread etc...

watched an 'ancient' clock in a St Jean's Churh chime. It's something that's supposed to be quite special but I must admit was kind of a let down. The clock itself is hundreds of years old, perhaps because it still works is the reason why it is so special... but the old lady next to us took the words right out of my mouth when she said ' C'est tout?' (is that all?)

French women are so stylish and thin and beautiful in general, I feel so much like Miss Frumpy Dumpy from Planet Bumpy here... I don't think I've ever felt so invisible in my life. But then again, they all smoke so I know I smell a lot nicer than any of them and will get to live a lot longer too.

Lulu has gone to do an exam (yup, she has an exam on a SATURDAY!) so I've been exploring the place little bit on my own this morning. I must look like a local now or at least look like I know where I am going because I had 2 people come upto me asking for directions and all I could say was 'ne comprend pas' hehe, I've forgotten all the French I've learned in high school, I'm not even sure I spelt that correctly. Nobody would ever believe that I used to be at the top of my French class for a number of years. I was really quite good at French, but it's all escaped me now.

Funny thing was, I even managed to help a French man buy a metro ticket! I barely know what I'm doing myself and here I am, the blind leading the blind, showing this gentleman what he needs to do to buy a ticket!! That's the highlight of my day today :)

ok, well I have to go now to find my sister, I think she's taking me to some famous museum, hope I don't get lost because 'Je ne comprends pas' anything here :)

I was gonna write about what happened on my plane ride here, but it's a little bit complicated and long to explain and I can't type quick enough but probably most of you wouldn't care anyway so it doesn't matter. I got here via London instead of Amsterdam as originally planned, and I got here safely is all that matters. If you want to know more, just ask me, I like telling stories.

Two hours sitting in this internet cafe, on a very uncomfortable wooden chair and you can see why my butt is sore....

Until next time, be good dear friends

Welcome to Buttsore & Blistered Feet

I think the title is pretty self- explanatory and quite appropriate.

Many a traveller get sore butts from all the long hours spent sitting in planes, trains, and automobiles and blistered feet from all the exploring done 'au pied' style.

If Lulu had her way, Buttsore & Blistered Feet will be 2 cartoon characters on a great adventure... I'll be Buttsore and she can be Blistered Feet - I can see the movie offers rolling in as I type this :)

Well, I don't have much time and I can't re-learn & re-train my fingers to type on this weird French keyboard so I've had to regress back to being a 2-finger typist and I'm finding it really frustrating to type so slowly.... so, I can't write the epics that I normally would do, but that's probably not such a bad thing. I can hear people breathing sighs of relief already :)