Tourist Sunday!

So after a very lazy Saturday mostly sleeping (I did only get home at 5am) I decided to implement Tourist Sundays! I woke early (9am!) to a rainy cloudy day - this was not what I had planned! A quick google of things to do in Paris on a rainy day & I was off to see the Underworld of Paris - the sewers! Being an environmental engineer I was actually really, really excited, these guys were the inventers of modern day centralized sewer systems, they had to use pen and paper to do their hydraulics, some of the things they came up with were amazing and yet so simple...

So first thing you notice is that these are live sewers, you can hear the 'water' gushing under your feet (great rivers of sewage!) and most of the displays show signs of being eaten by the sulphiric acid, it didn't really smell that bad, but you knew it was sewage!
The next ingenious item were these massive steal balls that used to clean the sewers with, basically they work by creating a 'dam' behind them of sewage and then the pressure of the water forces it to go under the ball at a very high velocity, in effect scouring out the grit which then was deposited into specially built grit holders (basically deep pools where the grit settles). These were emptied out every now and then. Such a simple solution and yet doesn't use any extra water or energy...very smart!



This is a phot showing the guys from Les Miserables walking through the sewers (I forget the whole story), but basically they escape through the sewers because they are all interconnected. I really should do more research...
The vast majority of the old sewers are not used anymore, they do still run the majority of cabling/water mains etc along them as it makes it so much easier to maintain becuase you can get access to them.

By the time I emerged from the dark, it was a picture perfect day in Paris, so off to Tracadero for a few shots of the Eiffel Tower and then I walked all the way to the Arc de Triumph and up went all the way to the top, was an excellent view and stood in line for 10 mins max (compared to the Eifell Tower that is nothing), here are a few snaps...Looking straight up from underneath the tower.A cute little flower shop on the corner of a 'wedge', wedges are really common in Paris with its spiralling streets. Spiralling staircase going up the Arc.
Looking towards the Eiffel tower.
Me, with the Champs Elysees in the background.
Looking towards La Defence

What is it with Irish Pubs?

They are amazingly fun all over the world! We went to Pont des Arts last night for a 'picnic' and I only got home at 5am this morning! After drinking copious amounts of wine as a true Parisienne, and waving to les touristes as a true Parisienne we went to an Irish Pub. It had a really good German singer, singing all these familiar songs although I couldn't quite get the words right in French! Here are a few photos.



I am definately over living in the suburbs, it takes forever to get home.... On Thursday night I only got home at 4am. We were going to the Mixclub, its free to get in on Thursday night as a student. Alas, when we arrived it was closed, along with the rest of Paris it is closed the whole of August. So we decided to go to the Boat Party, it's free entry until 12.30p. So we all go there as a big group, they let just about everyone in for free and then stop the last 3 of us and say its past 12.30 you ahve to pay 20Euro! As poor students we refused but by this time the Metro had shut (closes earlier on a weekeday). So we decided to check out the Velib's - free bicycles - well 1 euro and a deposit! Unfortunatley we didn't really know our way around but headed south-east and managed to find our bus after 2 hours of cycling through Paris. Guess who was on the bus - the rest of the crowd. While they had been partying it up, we;d been slogging it out - A good story though!

I amsterdam!

So we left Paris for Amsterdam at 11pm, took a few sleeping tablets and successfully woke up in Amsterdam at 6am in the morning. I had this image of sitting out by a canal, eating waffles and drinking coffee while the city came alive. Alas, Amsterdam is a night city and there was absoultely nothing open until about 9am! Since we couldn't get into our hostel until 2pm, we wandered the streets as it drizzled! eventually sat on a park bench for a nap - such a bogan thing to do! Amsterdam is gorgeous but there are so many bicycles around it looks really messy and unkept. I though Paris streets were hard to navigate, in Amsterdam there are 4 sets of lights, one for the cars, one for the trams, one for bicycles and one for pedestrians - very confusing! The streets were really dirty, admittedly there were street sweepers still cleaning up when we arrived.



Ever wondered where XXX comes from?

I did eventually get my waffles with cherries and icecream!

So after Amsterdam decided to wake up, the first thing on our to do list was a canal cruise. It was a bit rainy so I think we missed out on the atmosphere a bit because we were enclosed but it is still amazing that all the canals were made so long ago -a really good example of good town planning.




After the cruise, Kris went to the Heineken brewery but I decided to go check out the famous markets. They were amazing, selling absolutely evrything under the sun, from fruit & veges to bicycles and souvenirs. I bought the best raspberries there - absolutely delicious! The Heineken brewery did actually like quite fun from the photos... next time!

A few choice photos from the Red Light District, it was amazing to see girls just standng in the windows... I'm such a prude! We tried to see how long an 'encounter' took but generally got bored before they finished. It was funny to see the guys coming out of the windows after their 'services' looking sheepish. The whole place smelt of Weed and the 'coffeeshops' were full of people - at all times of the day!





On Sunday, we decided if we can't beat them - join them, so we hired bikes and hoped on a ferry to the "North Island", we had no idea where we were going we just hopped on! The bike paths are so good in Holland, these ones were really good as they went along a few creeks and through big parks. We were lucky enough to have picture perfect weather that day.



After returning our bikes, we went to the Sex Museum, recommended by my brother. Stuart, you will recognise the giant penis!



After a bit of break sitting by the cannals, it was back to the bus station for the long drive home. Got back to Paris at 6.30am and was back in class at 9am. An absolutely huge weekend!

Jouez du foot

So Europe is soccer mad, so off we go to play soccer. The World(US, AUS, Russia, Brazil, Spain) vs. Mexico, the world won wohoo! Considering that football is so popular here, there are very few sports fields that you can use, so we went to play at another University residence which has a gravel field, bad choice. I fell over and grazed my shin really badly - it looks really bad but it is just a graze, I hope that I don't scar too badly though...

The winners (minus Pablo) and their victory wounds!


Gross!

LeTour de France

So on Sundya 25th July, the last leg of the Le Tour de France finishes in Paris along the Champs Elysees so couldn't miss an opportunity to see it live! I was overall oretty disapointed! They go past so fast, that for the 3-4hrs we were there I think only saw about 2 mins of cycling in total! Before they had the race come through the caravan comes through with all the sponsors having cars and trucks decorated with all sorts of things, here are a few choice photos...


I went off to find Cate & Chris, thankgoodness for my red umbrella otherise I would never have found them, they had a good spot to watch the cyclists coming into the Champs Elysees, they are all very gentlemanly before they get to the Champs Elysees, all riding in a pack before sprinting along the Champs Elysees.

After they flew by in less than 10 secs we moved to the Champs Elysess, where they tooka bout 40 mins to do 8 laps - they were going bloody fast so only saw them for a few seconds going up the hill and then even less on their way down!


After the race, Cate, Chris & I went out for dinner in The Marais before I had to say goodbye. I got quite sad and homesick saying goodbye! It was so nice to talk easily with friends and I wouldn't have minded popping home with them for a few weeks...