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back to reality…kind of

Thursday, June 29th, 2006

My last night in paris I spent having picnics under the Eiffel tower again! Great night and not a lot of sleep. Which may have affected my thinking so much so that I somehow missed my train down to Cannes! I know I couldnt beleive I missed it, I left the hostel too late and got lost in the station and arrived 2 mins too late…so frustraiting, luckily they give you an hour to change you ticket so I was able to get on a later train without paying any extra! which was good as train are very expensive. But now I know that though it doesnt give me much motivation to make trains on time.

So I got into Cannes later that evening and Milly picked me up with the kids. Looks like itll be a fun month, its a pretty good deal as I get to stay in their lovely big house. There are 3 kids all speak french and english and trying to teach me some french. Olly is 2 and just charges around, Mathilde is 4 and very talkative and hyperactive and Ella is 6 and kind of serious and always looks after the other 2. The are all lovely and Milly their mother is great, from Christchurch and very relaxed. The girls made me presents when I arrived! They have loads of books in French and english and last night tried to get me to read the french books “Arnika I dont understand what your saying….” guess we’ll just stick to english ones from now on! They live in a place called Grasse, close to Cannes and and Anitbes/Nice. I’m only doing 4 nights a week so I’m going to try find something else for the days as I pretty much have zero dollars at the moment. So this should keep my busy till end of the month then I will move on to find something else for August.

It is crazy hot down here and I’m in Antibes for the day which is nice but dont have any swimming stuff so Im hiding from the heat in the internet cafe! It is nice to be able to cook real food and kind of feel like im in a kind of real world again, things like school, holidays, meals, bed times all are beginning to matter, and while I like moving around it is nice to be in  one place for a while and wash my clothes in a machine!

Paris!

Monday, June 26th, 2006

I really love Paris, its so amazing. I have seen the Eiffle tower now uncountable times and eaten many meals in the Latin quater but I dont care its great! Have been here for a week and spent the first 3 nights with Mum and Sarita. Stayed in a really nice little hosltel and didnt eat pasta! Great times seeing Mum and Sarita again, not just cause Mum payed for stuff, but that did make it better!

We did a lot of the usual touristy things. Even went out to the cemetary where all the famous people are burried. Kind of a strange sort of tourism as you can buy these maps and go around to the different graves, very weird but we still did it. So we saw Jim Morrisons grave as well as Chopin and Oscar Wilde. It is a very cool graveyard with crazy huge graves everywhere, some gravesites are actually little church’s. Probably the coolest thing was going to see an actual Moulin Rouge show, Mum got a bit carried away and brought us tickets (definitely out of my budget) so we went to the realy Moulin Rouge, its was pretty amazing, super flash inside and you get served champagne. The inside is all tables with candles, its very cool. Nothing like the movie at all but its cool just to be at somewhere like that. The show itself was impressive, caberat style with big dresses and feathers and sparkely things, although the Moulin Rouge doesnt have courtasans anymore its still the Moulin Rouge and all the girls are topless in very little clothing, but in a very classy way! One part they raised a big pool and a girl swum around with pythons! So there was dancing, singing, clows, little ponies, very very cool!

After Mum and Sarita left I moved to a hostel (back to being poor) where I was meeting Ben and Michael, but unfortunately Ben had his passport stolen and had to go back to Denmark to get it so they ended up coming a day later. Had a really cool night that night though with a great bunch of people from the hostel, we had a little picnic down under the eiffel tower, drunk wine and I even got a rose from someone! Hung out for ages at my favourite place in Paris on this big wall that looks over the tower and its all lit up in the eveing. Perfect evening in the perfect location!

Finally meet up with the boys late the next evening as the earlier train was full! I went to the Louvre while waiting for them because on friday eveings its free for under 26’s. It was the perfect time to go as not many people around, no line and could walk straight up to the Mona Lisa, which was not all that impressive as expected. Also saw the venus de milo and other big sculptues, paintings etc, like all museums I got a bit over it by the end. It was great to see the boys finally, we went for a walk out to the Eiffel tower and ate kebabs. Spent the next day checking off sightseeing lists, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre dam and the Latin quatier. Its nice to be with friends from home for a change. While the boys watched soccer….so much soccer…I went to the eiffel tower again with some people and stayed up far to late playing card games.

As the weather was pretty average the next day the boys went to the Louvre and then we all went off to Starbucks for about 4 hours!! I know so uncultural….then after that hard afternoon we moved to a nice french restuarant for dinner then back to the hostel for more soccer and card games. I just left the guys at the train station where theyre off back to Germany and I’ve got one more night here before moving on to Cannes where Im working for the next month. So Paris has been great! I can imagine Ill probably end up at the Eiffel tower again tonight but thats cool, its great atmosphere in the park there always full of people having picnics and playing soccer, juggling; its cool. Funny though how every night at about 10 the sprinklers turn on and everyone sitting on the grass gets wet!

Next blog will be when I actually have a room and not moving for a whole month, itll be nice for a change.

under the eiffel tower…

The land of chocolate and beer

Sunday, June 18th, 2006
Belgium has turned out to be a lot of fun. Staying at a great hostel (centre van gogh) and its full of really cool people and nice atmosphere. First night spent it with an american and an english girls, had ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sleeping in hotel foyers

Friday, June 16th, 2006

Ive finally arrived in Belgium after a very long journey here. Pretty much just hung out in Tours for the last day then caught the last train to Paris that evening; becuase my bus to Brussels was a 6am the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Biking around the Loire

Tuesday, June 13th, 2006
New photos on my photo page, click on my photos on the right under my links My last afternoon in Tours was made slightly more interesting by the homeless people who I made friends with in the park. I don’t know ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Tour de Tours

Friday, June 9th, 2006

I've decided that catching buses to hostels is over rated and I can always walk and save 1 euro, however it is very hot and my bag with my tent is very heavy so after arriving in Tours from LaRochelle, ... [Continue reading this entry]

La Rochelle, more beaches, boats and ice cream

Thursday, June 8th, 2006

I swear I will be sleeping on the streets soon because I spend all my money on ice cream, I just cant help it. I know I dont have much money but it looks so good....so I spend maybe 2 ... [Continue reading this entry]

moving North

Monday, June 5th, 2006

I did eventually leave Anglet, although now thinking I should have stayed longer! Got into Bordeaux yesterday and the youth hostel here is a big clean, modern, shiny place=bad times, and the most expensive hostel Ive stayed in yet. Nobody around, no ... [Continue reading this entry]

2 days….2 weeks, wasting time at the beach

Friday, June 2nd, 2006
well my 2 nights in Anglet have now dragged on to 6 and now Ive brought a tent and am going to camp there a bit longer. Pretty much just sitting on the beach all day and sitting around all ... [Continue reading this entry]