Berlin

So I seem to have completely missed out on writing a blog from when I went to Berlin- I loved Berlin so not sure how I forgot. I arrived in Berlin after a late flight from Paris on Friday (15th April). I stayed in a lovely hostel and had an 8 bed room all to myself on the first night which was nice! My first day in Berlin I had booked a bike tour outside the city (bit sick of touring round boring monuments!).

The bike tour was to Potsdam which was only about 45mins away on the train. There were only 5 of us on the tour which was great because it meant we could almost pick and choose what we wanted to see. We rode through the town first and rode under the Jager gate – the inspiration for the Jagermeister logo! I wasn’t quick enough to take a photo of it though!
There are lots of palaces and the parks and lakes were beautiful. One of the more famous palaces was Sans Souci (means No worries).

It was quite modest for a palace; it looked like you could actually live in it. It turned into a lovely sunny day so we went to a beer garden for lunch. Beer and schnitzel – delicious! I love German food! We also went for a tour through the Cecilienhof Palace which was where the Potsdam Conference was held at the end of WW2 where they decided deal with Germany so they didn’t start another War!

After getting back to Berlin, I just had enough time to head ‘home’ for a shower and a change for a pub crawl. I managed to convince one of the girls who was staying in my room to join me. The pub crawl was so much fun. Immediately met some great people - yay for single travellers –we’re so much friendlier! Pretty much the whole group were ‘expats’ working in Europe and travelling on the weekends – also meant they were around my age. The pub crawl consisted of visiting 4 pubs with free shots in each pub and drink specials and we got a carton of beer to share while we waited for everyone.

Absolute bargain for 12euros! Had a fabulous time and definitely must do more pub crawls in other cities. I didn’t stay too long at the last club but still only got home at about 1am!

The next morning I had another bike tour of the city booked in so I had to drag my hungover self out of bed to be on time. Luckily there was a Starbucks nearby and I managed to consume enough coffee to get me through. The bike tour was great – saw all of the major sites.

Brandenburg gate, Holocaust memorial, Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, where Hitler’s bunker used to be, Parliament buildings, Tiergarden.

It was great to see and touch all this history that you learn about in the classroom. We had lunch at a beer garden in Tiergarden. Another beer and schnitzel – yummy! We spent a lazy afternoon sitting on the grass on the island of museums.

Now when we got back I looked at my watch and it was 4.30pm and I needed to be at the airport at 6.30pm. I thought I had enough time to quickly go see the eastside gallery before I went to the airport. So hopped on the train out there and the next time I look at my watch it was 5.30pm and I was on the other side of Berlin – I don’t know where the time went! SO long story short I ended up missing my flight and having to pay 250Euros for a flight out the next morning at 6am which meant another night in Berlin and a very early start. A very expensive lesson to learn! It was very lucky that I had such a fabulous weekend otherwise I would have bawled my eyes out about it.

Rach's Birthday!

I arrived at Rach's place straight after work to celebrate her birthday only to be greeted by one the kids saying - Nikki can you quickly make a little cake for Rachel! With pretty much no recipe or time I managed to make some cupcakes - not a bad job I reckon! We had to count out the correct amount of candles for the kdis - thankgod the smoke alarms didn't go off!!

After dinner, we headed out to party, first stop was a Scottish pub where Rachel made me order 2 shots -blowjobs- thanks Rach! They are pretty elaborate shots, Baileys and Midori and then Whipped cream in trail all the way down the glass. You have to have your hands behind your back, lick the cream and then take the shot - not a particularly classy shot to do but fun nonetheless! Headed out to Cafe Oz afterwards and got home at about 3am, and I had work the next morning and a train to London...was not happy the next morning!

ANZAC Day - Western Front

So I arrived in Amiens after an already big weekend to prepare myself for an early morning. My hotel was full of aussies, so nice to hear them all. All the aussies I met were on holiday or were living in London and came for the weekend. Was hoping to find sole aussies living in Paris :(. The aus embassy had organised buses out to the dawn service at 3.45am - early early start! It was a bit disorganised to start off with, but I think everyone got out there in plenty of time. Being on my own, I was able to go closer to the front and take the spare single seats(one of the joys of travelling alone!). Ended up sitting next to a lovely couple who were also on the day trip.

The ceremony was amazing and I was so impressed with the design of the memorial, the sun rises over the back of it behind the central tower. Watching the light change as morning drew near was a once in a lifetime experience. It was a different dawn service compared to others that I have been to, the amount of people there for one and when you think Australia lost 23 000 men in these fields where you are standing, France lost something like 204 000, it brought it closer to home. Not being a true Australian (although I will argue otherwise), I got a bit confused about it all, decided I was there to remember all those that die serving their country. I do like the dawn service though and I love Australia for keeping up the tradition and passing it onto future generations.

After the ceremony, there was coffee, tea and little pastries for everyone which was a nice touch and got everyone socialising. I had signed up for the all day bus tour that the embassy had organised for free! Others left to go back to Amiens after the ceremony but our dedicated group went off to the next service in Villers-Bretonneux, the town organised a concert as well which I stayed for a bit but fighting sleep I then headed to the school here which was built using donations from school children in Victoria and also houses the museum. Below is the sign they have in their playground. The museum was good and Kevin Rudd was there!

After we nearly got left behind by the bus (they were doing an easter egg hunt in the park for the kids) we headed off to a school for lunch that the Aus embassy organised. There were lots of defence and embassy staff there. Most didn't have as many medals as Matt I noticed! hehe! Then it was off to Bullecourt for a ceremony in the village. There was a cute little pub on the corner called the Canberra where we had a welcome beer before the ceremony started. The crowds had definitely thinned by now - it was basically the embassy bus and defence representing Australia (definitely rent a crowd by this stage!). Got a good possie here and took a snap of KRudd....

Then it was a short procession to the Australian Digger Memorial on the outskirts of the town. I really liked the idea of everyone walking there as a bit of a pilgrimage. Another ceremony, was a bit weird, aussies seemed to congregate on the left where the aussie soldiers were and the french on the right were the french soldiers were. It just happened naturally - very odd!

So after the last ceremony we all traipsed back to the village where the Mayor had put on champagne and nibbles for everyone :) After another few well deserved beers in the pub we headed back to Amiens and the train back to Paris. Had a late farewell dinner with Smithy and Ingrid and then finally crawled into bed. A long long day, but one for the memory bank!

Ingrid & Smithy do Paris!

I love having visitors who want to see and do everything, think they might have regretted this as I think I wore them out a lot! Smithy and Ingrid are old friends from uni days (seems a long time ago already!) and were travelling around Europe with first stop in Paris for the long weekend. Unfortunately France work on Good Friday so I had to be at work for their first day but they went out to Versailles for the day and I met them after work to take them up to Sacre Coeur to watch the sunset :) After we got through a bottle of wine we headed out to dinner and then down to Moulin Rouge before I finally let them go home to bed!

They were up early to get up the Eiffel Tower, so I met them afterwards and we went to see the Arc de Triumph and the bloody staff were on strike - Quelle Surprise! So didn't end up going up. Walked down Champs Elysées and a lovely picnic in the Tuileries, before having a photo stop at the Louvre :)

Got icecream at Ile-St-Louis and ended up having to put up Ingrid's umbrella (bad tour guide didn't bring one!) Such a brief little storm, was funny but we needed it as it was so hot. We were planning on doing a night bike tour but ended up going on an evening cruise along the Seine with snacks and more wine!

I forgot my camera the next day so you get repeats of Day 1! Ingrid and Smithy were very keen and got us a place in line to go up the bell tower at Notre Dame - I still hadn't been up so was nice to have someone there to get in line for me! Was a nice view from there but wouldn't have waited in line for it. They can only let a group through at a time as there is a small set of stairs to get up the top that you couldn't have people going up and down at the same time. As it was Easter, we didn't make it into Notre Dame as there were services on the whole time and they closed the doors.

It was easter weekend so Paris was overflowing with people so decided we should head to a less touristy place - Jardin des Plantes, another place that I hadn't yet been to in Paris. All these firsts. We had lunch there in a little restaurant with a rude little french waiter so got that ticked off the list too. It was a pretty aprk but still not allowed to sit on the grass so crossed off my list of places to go. We ended up sitting on the banks of the Seine in the outdoor statue park. We got more ice-cream- I love Berthillon ice-cream, not sure I am going to cope without it at home!

Then I had to leave them as I had a train to catch to Amiens for the ANZAC dawn service! So nice to have vistors and so glad I could show people around my city. Thanks for visiting guys!

Day 2 Cassis & Marseilles

So our next day started bright and early with plans to catch the early train to Marseilles. Actually made the train, only to find the next train we had to catch had been cancelled... so ended up travelling to the little village of Nimes to wait for the next one (2 hours later!). Managed to find the Arene de Nimes (or something like that). Like the smaller, dumber country cousin of the Colosseum! Anyway, Rachel slowly went mad from having to get up early resulting in the following picture!
Anyway, we finally made it to Marseilles after catching the 'fast' train which we didn't have tickets for! Rebels - not really we were freaking out about it the whole way! Arrived in Marseilles and immediately decided to leave - such a dirty town! Went to get out planned boat to Cassis which is a little village on the coast North of Marseilles, only to find the boat didn't stop there. Planning fail for me! So had to take a bus that only left like 2 hours later! Painful! Totally worth it when we eventually got there. The water was so blue but really really cold! Had lunch and chilled on the beach for a bit before heading out on our cruise of the Calanques. The Calanques are these white cliffs that are beautiful, the locals were all sunbaking and jumping off them into the water. The water was so amazingly blue, so different to anything I've seen before.

After returning to Cassis, we chilled on the beach again - tough life! The beach wasn't actually the best - made up of tiny little stones - it really hurt your feet. I've definitely been spoiled by Aussie beaches. Heading back to Marseilles we had a bit of time and decided to head up the hill to see the Notre de la Gare - a big church overlooking Marseilles. It was a big walk up the hill but totally worth it to see the sunset over the water. Then it was back to Paris, after another running for the train episode - we need to learn to do better with time!

Day 1 Provence

Our weekend started on a late train from Paris to Avignon, we were on time this time round. We had booked into a hotel near the train station which was a bit of a scary walk but we got there safely. The forecast for the weekend was a sunny 24degrees, such a big change from dreary Paris! The next morning we hired a car so that we could visit all the little villages around Avignon. I was petrified of driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the car, bur we managed. Probably would have been good to have an automatic car as my right arm is pretty bad at changing gears! Roundabouts and turning left were the hardest parts but soon got the hang of it although I did give some guys in a campervan a scare when I turned onto the wrong side of a small road!
Our first stop was at Pont du Gard, an old Roman aquaduct. We refused to pay for parking at the official site but managed to find a little road on the other side of the river that we could park the car and walk.
The aquaduct was built of stone only, no mortar - it pretty impressive when you think about it like that. The river was a beautiful colour, not like the muddy rivers you get in Aus! In summer you can swim in the river and float under the aquaduct (next time maybe!)

Next stop was Les Baux-en-Provence, a little village on top of a huge rocky outcrop. It was gorgeous, if we weren't so stingy we would have had lunch there! There is an old chateau there and a vineyard on top of the plateau. The village was very pretty with cobbled streets and cute little shops. It definitely only exists for tourists but still gorgeous.
Before our next stop in Gordes we stopped for a picnic lunch by the side of the road and some sunbaking. I ended up with a burnt left arm and shoulder from driving anyway!

We ended up skipping going to see Gordes (another little village on a hill) and instead went to Rousillon which is another little village on top of a hill but has red houses and cliffs nearby. This was definitely my favourite village, the red walls and blue shutters were gorgeous. The yummy icecream was good too!

We also visted a few other places on our way,the Abbaye de something would be pretty in Summer when the lavender flowers
but going in spring meant we got to see cherry blossoms...
Then we headed back to Avignon, thinking it wasn't going to be a very nice town - turned out we were wrong and it was a beautiful city inside the walls. We camped out on the Rhone river with the Palais de Papes and Pont d'Avignon behind us, a bottle of wine, some snacks and had us a proper sundowner.Then it was time to return the car after a very long day in preparation for day 2!

3 days in Paris

I have/have had a lot of guests visit me in Paris during the last 6 months that I am here and I think I have perfected the itinerary for 3-4 days in Paris on a budget(over the weekend works best).
So to start on Friday get the token tourist stuff out of the way:
In the morning go up the Eiffel Tower, you need to book a time otherwise you will be waiting in the queue for ages. Bookings can be made here. After that grab a baguette from a bakery, some camembert, saucisson and a bottle of wine and cross the Seine to have a picnic lunch on the steps of Trocadero overlooking the Eiffel Tower. Fridays is also the best days to head off to the Louvre as they are open until 10pm. Take your pictures outside the pyramid but take the side entrance through Carousel de Louvre to skip the long queue to get through security. Here is a quick map showing where the side entrance is.
After the Louvre, head to the steps of the Sacre Coeur (with another bottle of wine and some snacks) to watch the sun go down while listening to the buskers belt out a tune. As it starts to get dark, head down the hill to Chez Marie at 27 Rue Gabrielle for a fabulously cheap but good quality meal. If there is a wait for a table - I recommend the pub on the corner for a few well priced beverages. After dinner, head further down the hill to get a feel for the seedier area of Paris, visit the sex shops and get a photo in front of the Moulin Rouge! It's a pretty big day but now you can truly chill out in Paris knowing you have ticked off the big touristy things.

On Saturday, wake up late and head to a bakery or café for a croissant and café créme for breakfast. Then I would really recommend a bike tour with fat tire bike tours. I've been on both the day and night tour - both fantastic! Meet the guys under the Eiffel tower at 11am and head off for 4 hours seeing the sights of Paris. You'll be pretty famished afterwards so pack a big picnic lunch and head to Jardin de Tulleiries to rest your legs. After lunch, take a stroll up the Champs Elysées to take in all the designer shops and the feel of the Grand Boulevards and classic Parisien architecture. If you have time, head up the Arc de Triumph and watch the crazy French drivers negotiate the round-about! Dinner on Champs Elysées is expensive so find another spot for dinner. For those with a big budget - you get gorgeous views from the restaurant at Tour Montparnasse. Otherwise, a ham and cheese crepe for a main followed by a nutella crepe generally hit the spot! On your way home, stop and check out the Eiffel Tower at night to see the sparkling lights.

On Sunday, have another lazy breakfast before heading to St Michel to check out Notre Dame, you must go inside to see the beautiful stained glass windows. I have never been up the bell tower as the queue normally puts me off but if you are an early riser definitely give it a go. Then, walk along the banks of the Seine until you find Pont Neuf and you'll see a cruise boat terminal there, you can get cheaper tickets if you buy online here and you can find timetable info here. But they generally leave every half hour.
The cruise will take you about an hour and return you to Pont Neuf. For lunch, skip the touristy St Michel area and head to Ile-St-Louis (behind Notre Dame) for a much calmer bite to eat. Grab an ice-cream at the café on the corner and have a stroll around the island to burn it off. So Sunday night is free, if you are into it a night at the cabaret (will be doing a Lido vs. Moulin Rouge post soon) would be a good addition here. Otherwise, a viewing of the Eiffel tower at night is a must (on the hour it literally sparkles). If you are doing only three days, its back to the airport you go!

So now, if you are lucky and have an extra day, there are a world of possibilities.
1)Versailles which makes a good day trip (I don't think the Palace is open on some Mondays). If its a nice day, skip the inside (I don't do museums very well) and head to the gardens, hire a bike or golf cart and explore the Grand Canal and the surrounding area. Pack a picnic but you must try their fresh squeezed OJ and sit on the grass along the canal recovering from your weekend!
2) EuroDisney makes another good day trip. If you are only here once I would recommend going just to tick it off your list. It's a long day and definitely do the 2 parks as you need the princessy stuff and the more adult rides of both Disneyland and Walt disney Studios. Be warned you will spend the majority of your day in the queue and it is quite an expensive day!
3) Shopping - the best place to go shopping in Paris is around Galleries Lafayette ( a major department store) near Metro Opera. You'll find all your designer shops as well as staples like H&M, MANGO etc. If you do buy anything expensive you can claim the tax back at the airport before you go home.
4) More Paris - there are so many other things to do in Paris here's a little list of the more intersting ones:
a) Les Invalides - pretty interesting displays from WW1 & WW2, also get to see Napolean's Tomb
b) Catacombes - at Denfert-Rochereau, if you are into bones and creepy things (good option if its raining)
c) Jardin de Luxembourg - gorgeous gardens and the museum has just reopened there
d) The Marais - lovely old area of Paris, you get the best falafel along rue de Rosiers and some great boutiques for clothes.

So there you have it, Paris in 3-4 days - EASY!

Printemps

So Spring came (and seems to have gone away again) with temps being in the low 20's but the flowers are out in full bloom and at least you can go outside at midday without a heavy coat! Walking in Paris is gorgeous at the moment - all the flowerbeds have daffodils and tulips flowering....

In Parc de Sceaux they have fields of cheery trees all with blossoms, you can't appreciate the colour in this photo but its gorgeous... These are the cherry blossoms outside Notre Dame, still a cloudy sky but so pretty against the almost ugly stonework.
The time changed the other day, means I still get up in the dark but its still light until about 8.30/9pm. So nice to come home in the light for a change. Spring suits me :)

Champagne

I had planned a weekend trip away with Rach to Reims to taste Champagne to drown my sorrows about Matt leaving but as he was still here and Rachel was nice, Matt and I ended up going alone. I didn't have anything really planned for this trip but the Champagne houses have tours fairly often so it was great. The first place we went to was a lovely Art Nouveu style house (so gorgeous) and the champagne was pretty good too. Two full glasses each!

The next place we went to was Tattinger which had caves that we could visit. They are all old chalk quarries that keep the temperature really constant for when they ferment the champagne. They gave us a tour of the caves and gave us the blurb how they make etc. Got a bit bored of the 'talk' as we did it all over again the next day!

We got another 2 glasses of champagne there and then headed home for a nap.

We had a late dinner at this awesome seafood restaurant, we tried a tasting platter which had all sorts of crazy things (cold sea snails -urgh, tiny little shrimps and really good oysters!). The best part of dinner was my lobster risotto-doesn't it look yummy!

On Sunday, with our champagne tour booked for the afternoon we decided to explore a bit more of Reims. About 95% of the buildings were destroyed in the war and it was where the peace treaty was signed, the museum was closed for lunch so we didn't go inside but it gave us something to take a picture of other than champagne!

Waiting for our next tour at Pommery (one of the more famous caves) we had lunch in a park nearby-soaking up the sunshine. At Pommery we tasted 4 different types of Champagne, I thought Champagne was champagne but you could really taste the difference when you compared them all.
We (ok, Matt splurged) splurged on 2 bottles of champagne, one to take back for a special occasion and another to drink with Rach when we got home, hence the drunk photo below!
So after our wonderful weekend away, it was time for Matt to go home. I was so lucky to get an extra week with him (thanks appendicitis!) but wasn't too sad saying goodbye knowing I would be home in 3 months!

Appendicitis in Paris

So after we returned from our fancy pants dinner, Matt started to complain about having a sore stomach. Then a few hours later he had the most expensive vomit ever! After a restless night where neither he or I got any sleep and after spending Saturday morning at home with Matt at his best whingy self I finally cracked and decided to take him to hospital. At this stage I was thinking they will tell him to take a pain killer and get over it! Of course, Matt had googled stomach-ache and had self-diagnosed himself with appendicitis. Luckily there was a hospital just down the road from where we were staying (I made him walk there!), turned out the hospital was one of the leaders in digestive surgery. After registering at the desk, where the nurses had a giggle at him having a surname like French and not being able to speak a word, we proceeded to wait about 2hours to get into see a doctor.

Then they did a blood test, then we waited another 3 hours for the results which weren't conclusive so then he went for an ultrasound where they saw his appendix was swollen. Felt a bit guilty for being mean to Matt and calling him a sook when he was actually in pain! My bad! They then admitted him and took him to the wards (about 2am at this stage). I got to sleep in a chair overnight - fun! They got him up at about 6am to have a shower (turned out to be a hosepipe in a room with tiles!) and where told he would have his op that morning.

They kicked me out of the ward at about 10am as it wasn't visiting hours under the impression that he was going in before lunch and to come back at 3pm to see him afterwards. Came back and he still hadn't gone into surgery. Was going to start throwing my toys out the cot when they came to get him (almost 24hrs after we arrived at hospital). He was out of the op by 8pm. I thought I had at least the morning to organise ourselves as we had to find another apartment to stay in and had to change Matt's flights and stuff but they rung me at about 10am to go and pick him up!

After about 2 days in bed, loving having me at his beck and call Matt was up and about as if nothing happened! And we got to spend an extra week together :)