The Longest Night Of my Life!

WOW! Where to start… Maybe from the beginning is best. What an incredible few days it’s been. Days? Day? I can’t even tell anymore..

30th of March:
Mum and I both woke up at 7:00 so she could take me into my bus stop where I could say my last goodbyes to Laura. After than mum, dad and I began packing the few last minute things we needed to do. Of course in our family this took much longer than we anticipated. Dad kept working on seeds and things and mum got very angry. Grandma and I tried to stay clear of them. Finally, half an hour later than we expected, we left at midday to the airport.
When we arrived we met up with my aunty Jenny to have lunch with at the airport, but things didn’t go as planned because as we were checking in, dad realised he had forgotten his passport. Jenny quickly left with him to go home and get the passport. Grandma, mum and I stayed behind and worried as we couldn’t really do anything else. But Jenny drives fast and a man called Daniel took the passport and drove halfway to meet up with Jenny and dad. This saved half the time and dad checked in just in time. We didn’t really get to say goodbye as we were in such a rush but we did make it in time even thought the plane was late. Instead of flying off at 4:30, we left at 5:30 but that was ok as it gave us some time to get a drink and some food before leaving.
The trip to Singapore was amazing!!! We flew right over Uluru and Kata Tjuta (Ayres Rock and the Olgas), though we didn’t get ton see Uluru as it was on the other side of the plane but we got a great view of Kata Tjuta!
Though I didn’t spend too much time looking out the window because I was much too interested in the little T.V screens that were on the back of the chair in front of me. I watched Twilight and Marely & Me and played a bit of checkers which was good fun.
We landed in Singapore at 11:00 pm local time but 1am Australian time. Singapore airport is just beautiul! they had fake plants everywhere and random ponds, water falls and lottery game shows!!! All the pictures on the side are pictures from Singapore airport. We boarded the Air France plane at midnight/2 in the morning and tried to keep my eyes open to watch the lightning show outside but I fell almost instantly asleep.
I’m not sure when the next day began but I’ll say its here for arguments sake.

31st of March
After this it was very hard to keep track of time. It was dark outside for the whole 13 hours we spent on the plane, which was difficult to comprehend as it was dark 4 hours before we got on that plane. So I think I woke up around 9 am but it was still very dark. On this plane flight I watched Shakespeare in love.
We arrived at 6 30 in the morning in Paris but I was used to it being 4 30 in the after noon.
Paris Airport is no way near as fancy and imaginative as Singapore but it was just as big. We walked out and had to catch a train to get to where the baggage came out! When we got there it was again so easy because we walked in and searched for orange packs and they were just coming around the bend at the time.
Later we caught the metro after some struggle to get a ticket and got off at “Gare du Nord” at peak hour traffic as everyone was going to work. We then walked a while with our packs to the next station, La Chapelle. From there we took the metro to Père Lachaise in Gambetta. We then went into an internet café and got some reeeeeeeeeeally nice “Chocolat Chaud” (hot chocolates) and a croissant. We then attempted to ask the waiter if we could borrow a phone but he did not speak English and it was very difficult to get one until the woman sitting a few tables away came and asked in English if she could help and we borrowed her phone and paid for her bill to say thank you. We called up Marta who is the owner of the apartment we were to stay in and told her we had arrived. We got shown how everything works, like the buzzer at the bottom of the apartment near the doors like in American Movies. We were all going to go in the lift as our floor is five stories up but the lift was so small only 2 people and one pack could really fit in there so dad and I had to climb 5 floors with our massive heavy packs on!
So our apartment is small but huge for a tourist in Paris. We have a nice bathroom and kitchen and I’m sleeping on a comfy little sofa bed.
Well that’s really it for now. Its half past 2 in the morning at the moment and half past 11 in the morning at home so suffering from jet lag here!
Anyway I’m going to try and get some sleep now
Good night!

The day my childhood dream came true...

2/4/09

So when I was little, my favourite movie was “The Hunch-Back of Notre Dame” and I have loved that movie ever since and always wanted to go and see it. So on Thursday I lived my childhood dream!
We began the day by going to St Chapelle church by train onto the island in the middle of the River Seine. It had the most beautiful stain glass windows I had ever seen though I did think some of it was a bit over the top! You first walk in and find yourself in a large room, though small for a church, with the most beautiful ceiling and stone architecture that looked like wood.
Then we climbed up stone, spiral steps and walked into a room about the same size as the floor below only the walls were unbelievably tall with stain glass windows…
After gaping for a while here, we descended down the spiral steps and walked across the river Seine and saw the statue of Saint-Michel.
We then walked a few more blocks and found ourselves at Notre Dame Cathedral. We took heaps of photos and then went inside. Inside Church choirs were playing, not actually choirs but recorded voices. This made me want to cry… We sat down on the pews and stared at the 3 beautiful stain glass windows ahead of us and the huge figure of Jesus and the gold Cross. Then we walked forward into the light of the Rose windows… This was the moment I had been waiting for for years. We circled the area where Jesus on the golden cross was and took heaps of photos of the many beautiful windows and statues… Many of the photos didn’t come out so well as it was so dark, but I can share what I did capture.
We were then going to go onto the tower above Notre dame but the queue was huge so we decided to do it another day.

Well that’s it for this day.

I’ll keep you posted!

the Best day of my life!!!!... so far

What a day!!!!!!!!!!
We began the day by waking up after an 18 hour sleep and conquering our jet lag. We got ready and walked to our closest train station (about a block away) Père Lachaise. We bought a 5 day pass for train travel though occasionally the tickets don’t always seem to work but we’ll figure that out today maybe. So we took the train to “Charles De Gaulle Etoile” and walked the few steps and stared at the Arc de Triomphe! It was one of the best things I have seen in my life! I couldn’t really believe it was standing in front of me and it was so much bigger than I had imagined! It was so big and the sculptures on it were incredible! We went underground so we could stand in the middle of the round about as we were originally looking from across the road and to cross the road would be suicide as everyone was screaming around corners in cars, going anticlockwise with no lanes on the road.
So I was completely overwhelmed by all this and couldn’t stop taking pictures! Finally when I began to believe the sight mum pointed to the south and I could see the top of the Eiffel Tower! This blew my head in and I had to sit down!
We then walked down the Camps-Elysees and checked out all the designer brands like Cartier and Vuittons Louis. Also “Quality Burger Restaurant” as apposed to Macdonald’s earlier on the street!
As we were walking we passed a huge garden and bought ourselves Nutella Crepes! Mmmmm they were sooooooooooooooo good!!!
We continued walking and found ourselves at “Grand Palais” and “Petit Palais” with beautiful copper and marble sculptures. Also amazing mosaics on the outside walls guarded with marble pillars. We then walked down over a gorgeous bridge with golden statues placed upon tall pillars. Later we got this great shot of the Eiffel Tower in between these two pillars.
Next we found ourselves at Place de la Concorde with a huge Obelisk placed in the middle. I was very surprised when I saw Hieroglyphics written all over it. Apparently someone presented it to France as a gift. It was made out of one rock which was then just pulled up onto the mount it is sitting on today. I would stay clear on a very windy day!!!
We then began to walk through some gates and found ourselves in a desert. Well not quite but an area just filled with white sand which was being picked up by the wind and thrown all over the people sun baking on the green chairs next to the water ponds. This area was for the horses to walk around on apparently.
So we kept walking and looked ahead and saw The Louvre! By this time my feet were beginning to ache so we sat down for a bit and had another chocolat chaud in the sunshine facing the Louvre. After counting the small amount of bird species we had seen we decided to go closer and check the Louvre out. We were not planning to go inside but to look at the amazing building from the outside and admire it as its own piece of artwork, not a place where artwork is stored.
So we saw the pyramid that is in the movie the Davinci code and looked for the roseline but was unsuccessful.
So anyway im being pressured into finishing so I’ll begin to skip a few of the minor details that maybe aren’t so important.
So after this we caught a few more trains and headed for the Eiffel Tower. Dad and I looked at the two lines, one for lifts, one for stairs and thought lets take the stairs, its cheaper, and what an achievement that would be, to have climbed all the steps on the Eiffel Tower! Mum thought we were mad so she waited an hour in the lift line while dad and I waited 25 minutes and climbed all the stairs in 15! So we spent about 20 minutes without mum and then waited on the east side of the tower because the sun was beginning to descend and it was the only sunny side, not to mention that strangely it was completely calm and the opposite was very windy!
When mum finally caught us up at the second level (because the steps cant take you to the third) dad decided to go to the third by lift. Mum and I were much too tired so we stayed on the second.
So I’ll put the photos up a bit later and maybe a bit more detail but now we have to go and scream “the Bells!!!” at Notre Dame!

Gubye! :)