Bring me your cheese and your wine...

Well, this is interesting, to say the least! I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Paris, freaking out over the crazy keyboards. You know how I said the keyboards in England were different? Well, in France they're not even QUERTY. They're AZERTY. If my typing speed was slow before, heaven knows what it is now...! To add to the challenge, the computer is set up in French, and you can't change it, so I'm spending half my time translating the screen.

Everyone else went off to the Moulin Rouge tonight, but I wasn't inclined to pay 130 euros for the pleasure of a dinner I probably wouldn't eat and a bunch of semi-naked people. Before coming here, I went next door to the supermarket, and - although identifying food on the shelf - found myself struggling when the checkout chick fired off something in rapid French while pointing at the banana I was attempting to purchase. I asked her to repeat herself. She did. Still unintelligible. Damn. We reached an impasse, where we stared at each other for a moment, before she rolled her eyes and marched off with the fruit, returning a moment later with a barcode sticker stuck on it. Apparently you weigh and barcode your own fruit and veg here before taking it to the checkout... The things you learn, eh?

Other than that little hiccup, things have been going quite well. I managed to purchase tissues, throat lozenges and Nurofen from a pharmacy without resorting to English, and ordered and paid for a meal in Versailles 99% in French. I'm very proud of myself : ) I saw the Palace de Versaille and the Eiffel Tower today, did a night tour of the city yesterday and I'm going to a perfumery and up to the top of the Tower tomorrow. Chicago - for those whom I have not spoken to directly - was entertaining, though the stage was small and the set was... minimalist, shall we say?

Anyway, that'll be it from me for now. I have photos to upload and dinner to eat. A demain!

They do things differently here...

Okay, so I've been in London for four days now, and I'm absolutely LOVING it. Well, I'm loving everything except their crazy keyboards - the backslash button is where the shift is at home, the at sign's been replaced with quotation marks, and there's a hash sign usurping half of my beloved backspace button's spot. As a result, I'm typing at Mum Speed in order to keep it accurate ; )

We went up in the London Eye today, and did the Big Bus Tour around London. Ended up at Harrods, where we utilised their very swish bathrooms (would you like to freshen up with your fave perfume? Sure! They're all sitting there, ready to spritz. Insane, I tell you.) and did a very smal amount of shopping. No, I didn't buy the Harrods bag - ridiculously expensive they were, at a starting price of £12.95. Please.

Tonight we're heading over to the West End to see Chicago, with Kelly Osbourne in the role of Mama (miscasting, much?) with two of our fellow Contiki-ers, Christine (who hails from NYC), and Chad (from Ottowa, home of everyone's favourite Charter, LOL). Then it's back to the hotel to pack, because we're leaving for Paris (cue Rufus Wainwright) at 7:30 tomorrow morning.

So, what have we been doing so far? Well, prior to Rach arriving on Friday, I headed up to the British Museum and checked out the Egyptian and Mesopotamian artefacts - the age of them continues to be a bit beyond my comprehension. I would have loved to poke around further, but I was still pretty jet-lagged, so I left it at that for the day. I plan to head back next week to see the Terracotta Warriors exhibition.

When Rach arrived, we headed down to the shops (the new Brunswick complex, opposite Russell Square station - very handy tothe hotel, and similar in layout to the Italian Forum in Leichhardt). Grabbed dinner from Waitrose (a more upmarket supermarket than Tesco) and began walking back to the hotel. However, we got caught up in the (Hindu?) lights festival parade, which was part of the Bloomsbury Festival running last weekend. Lots of fun, and I got plenty of good pics : )

On Saturday we took a stroll down to South Walk, checked out the street performers, ate lunch, wandered up over Westminister Bridge to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, then (after finding out that a single journey home on the tube would be £4) decided to stroll back to the hotel via St Clements, Australia House and Holborn. Ate in again on Saturday night while watching Le Coup de Monde on the telly.

Yesterday started with a puke-worthy brekkie in the hotel dining room (buffet food at its worst - a bain marie with scrambled eggs, sausages, baked beans, etc.), cold toast, unidentifiable fruit, and the usual array of cereals. Then we had to bolt downstairs to catch the bus - first stop Stonehenge.

There was something surreal about seeing the hanging rocks up close and in person. I took 16 photos, only to find out later that Rach had beaten me with 17. We hopped back on the bus and headed to Bath, only to double back five minutes later when we realised Charissa had been left behind. So we gathered up our lost sheep and spent another two hours on the road (thankyou, Steve Jobs, for inventing the iPod!).

Bath is gorgeous, and full of historic sites that we didn't have time to visit, sadly. We took a tour of the baths, and I had a Jane Austen moment by poking my head into the Pump Room (Northanger Abbey! Persuasion! Such bliss...). Then a quick lunch (or a frozen yoghurt, in my case), and a poke around the town, then back on the bus for the three hour drive back to London.

Went out for a pub dinner with some fellow Contiki-ers last night - all North Americans, mostlyfrom the States. We ended up at the Essex Serpent near Leicester Square, and were served by some strange Polish women... More on that when I have more time. We planned on going to the Ice Bar afterwards, but pub time dragged on and Rach and I took oursleves home to bed.

No piccies for now - I'm on a tight schedule - but hopefully I can upload some when I get to Paris. Hoping everything is well back in Oz, and you're all enjoying the exciting election campaigning! Hee.

LCC

First Post

Just testing...! This is the site of my upcoming travel blog.

Move along, there's nothing to see here... yet.