A week to relax in Lagos!

We’d both heard so many great stories about Lagos we had to add it onto the itinerary for the trip. Lagos is a small seaside village in the south of Portugal and home to what we were told was Europe’s second most beautiful beach, Praia Ana. Out host Rita asked us not to ask about the first most beautiful beach, as she didn’t know.

 

Our villa (which looked like a Mexican hacienda) was only a 10-minute walk to the old town and another 10-minute walk (in the other direction) to another main attraction in Lagos called the Ponta de Piedade. To get down to these grottos it took approximately 200 steps, so you get to do some good exercise and once down there you have option of taking a little boat to see the coast for about 40 euro.

This small town was so chillaxed that we decided not to rock the boat and just enjoy the vibe. It gave us time to catch up on some reading, blogging and much needed exercise. This is where we started our morning jogs to the Ponta de Piedade every morning, followed by some hard ab work and then the rest of our time was spent between the beach and our pool. We explored the old town in the afternoons, pacing ourselves and settling nicely into Mediterranean life.  Life here is very easy going, no one is really in a hurry and it suited us just fine. It was absolute bliss!

You can see why people just love coming here. The scenery is breathtaking and beaches are just minutes away from your doorstep, the food is fresh and the sunsets are amazing. You definitely feel like you’re on a holiday when you’re here. Would recommend it to anyone who is down this way.

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Lovely Lisboa

We took a night train from Madrid to Lisbon and upgraded to first class so we could get some sleep. Luckily, an upgrade meant we got breakfast, dinner and access to the members lounge. The only catch being it was an additional 200 euros – we did it though for sleeps sake and had we not been on what seemed to be the world’s bumpiest train ride ever we would have got a great nights sleep.

We arrived into Lisbon at 7am – a bit too early to check into our apartment, so we left our luggage at the train station and set out to see the sights. Not knowing much about Lisbon and being too tired to work it all out, we decided to get the hop-on and off bus around Lisbon. We ended up spending about three hours on the bus and got to see a whole lot of Lisbon (in between napping of course) and didn’t get off the bus until we were back at the starting point. The great thing about this bus was that there was a stop around the corner from our apartment, so we could use it as public transport.

Lisbon, we discovered is an eclectic mix of old versus new city. At the moment the old city wins just because it seems to make more sense. The new city called “Parque das Nações” was built for the World Expo in 1998 and much like the Docklands in Melbourne – has strange “art” on it’s streets, lots of sport stadiums and just randomly shaped buildings. Impressive, but I think if you go to Lisbon you should centralise yourself in the Old Town. There is much more of an ambiance and many more options for sight seeing, eating and drinking.

Barrio Alto: We were told Barrio Alto is place to visit for restaurants and bars. The direct translation for Barrio Alto is High Neighbourhood and it certainly was!  There is a funicular that takes you to the top and we took this option to get up there, once in the Barrio there are plenty of restaurant or café options. Don’t know if we were just used to the exuberant prices in Paris or Madrid, but the meals in Portugal were very cheap. The first night, Gus was desperate for Peri-Peri chicken – just to see if the Nandos chicken really tasted like flame grilled Portuguese chicken. It surpassed all expectations and we had two grilled chicken meals and a jug of sangria for 20 euros.

We were warned before heading to Europe that some places may charge you extra for bread and not let you know until the end of your meal. This place took it to a whole new level and managed to place bread, olives and a whole cheese platter in front of us. For a brief moment we thought we’d won the lottery for being awesome customers. But alas, reality set in and realised that the other patrons tables were empty – we probably just looked like saps! We sent back the cheese and bread and kept the olives – they were delicious!

 

Barrio Alto is where we met our first ‘Dinner Friends’, a Dutch couple that were sitting next to us and were eyeing off our olives. They were lovely and after Gus photo-bombed (a phase he is going through) their holiday snap there was an awkward exchange of “haha’s” and “good one”.  I don’t think he would have done it if he knew we were going to sit next to them the next night at a place called Café Luso.

This place was renowned for it’s Fado show – traditional Portuguese dancing and singing. The show was great, the singers were extremely talented – it lasted about two hours and you get to choose between five or six options on the set menu. It’s good food, a little bit pricey – but then we were watching the show also so it worked out nicely.

This is where we met our Brazilian friends, sitting on the other side of us. Gus photo-bombed their happy snap and they loved it! We spoke the whole night, the Dutchies joined in after a while and it was an international friend party! Great night and good way to finish our stay in Lisbon!

Belem: Belem is the historical part of Lisbon. We took the bus there from our apartment, situated in a part of Lisbon called Santos. Belem is home to the old port of Lisbon, which is why there is an abundance of lighthouses, castles and forts. We must have been lucky to head there on the Sunday as we caught a show of folkloric dancers at the park with pretty average singing, but great dancing.

As well as it’s historical sites; Belem is also known for it’s famous vanilla flan pastries at this shop called Pasteis de Belem. It sells something ridiculous like 8,000 per day – so we stopped in to see what the rave was about and they were absolutely delicious!

We spent the day cruising around Belem, lots of gorgeous parks and amazing scenery. Great place to spend the day!

Fatima: Fatima is a 90-minute bus ride from Lisbon and is a small town with a population of about 8,000 people.  It is famous (at least in the catholic community) for an apparition of the Virgin Mary over 90 years ago. The story goes the virgin appeared to these 3 children in about 1917 and prophesied three secrets which the Vatican kept under lock and key for about 60 years.

Being so close to it, we thought it might be nice to visit it. The place were the apparition took place has become a chapel and there is a monumental cathedral and massive courtyard for people to gather on the anniversary days. The celebration takes place on the 13^th May and thousands of pilgrims usually gather at the site, most do the walk on their knees all the way to the altar. We saw two people doing this on just a normal day, so you can imagine it would be pretty insane on it’s anniversary dates.  It was a beautiful sanctuary, very quiet and lots of trees. It was good to finally see the place after hearing so many stories about it.

It was great to experience Lisbon and learn that it’s more than just Christiano Ronaldo and Nandos. Everyone in Lisbon was incredibly friendly and spoke perfect English so we didn’t struggle at all. Just in case you’re interested, Gus has continued his photo-bombing trend across most of Europe. No black eyes yet – so lets hope he’s onto a winner!

Madrid… Ole!

Our next stop, Madrid, the capital of Spain! Like most capital cities (with the exception of Canberra) Madrid did not disappoint – majestic architecture, bull fights and flamenco.

We had to quickly accustom ourselves to the loud and screaming ways of the Spaniards. Conversations we initially thought were fights between strangers – were nothing more than a happy and joyful greeting between friends. Of course there are the hand gestures and body movements that may suggest otherwise, but once you immerse yourself in some paella, sangria and futbol you realise that the people here are just extremely passionate! It was refreshing…

Our taxi driver from the train station to our hostal must have been an ex tourism official – he loaded us up with maps, coupon books for the best restaurants in town and lots of information. He explained the buildings on our way to the hostal and told us:

“Madrid es bien viejo, si no fuera por los autos estariamos como los romanos – montando caballos” (Madrid is very old, if we didn’t have cars we’d still be like the Romans – riding on horseback).

The hostal was right on Gran Via which is the main road in Madrid. We’d booked into a B&B on the 6^th floor of a gorgeous old building.  Luckily there was a lift, the only catch was it didn’t work! So Gus (my hero) ran up six flights of steps to get up to the hostal, while I minded the bags. I don’t know what happened up there, but when I got up via the service lift our host Char was scared. She asked if I spoke Spanish and when I said yes, she explained that she was desperately hoping that the lift would work because she was scared of what Gus might do to her if it didn’t.

“Su cara..Dios mio” (His face…my god!)

Gus explained that he was merely a bit tired and probably a bit red from the run up the stairs!  Lost in translation…

The Bull Fight: One of the many things our taxi driver told us about was the Festival of Bull. It’s only on from mid-May to mid-June and bonus for us we were there right at that time! We got our tickets from a road in the center of Madrid called Calle de la Victoria and headed off to Plaza de Toros the next night. The Plaza de Toros is amazing, we were so excited to see it. The area was packed out with people proudly wearing their Spanish flags, we could smell peanuts being roasted and the atmosphere was just electric. You couldn’t get more excited – we paid two Euro for little cushions to sit on as the seats in the arena were all concrete and we wanted to enjoy the show!

I’m not really sure what we expected to see when we got there, maybe a little dance with the bull, perhaps some “Oles!”? Gus spent the whole two days working up his hate for the bull and ate steak everywhere we went. It still didn’t work and if you’re a die hard animal lover, I would skip this part right now.

We knew as soon as the fight started there would be six bulls fighting. Basically the bull comes out (already drugged) and then is tested  to see how strong it is by three or more “wanna-be” matadors with the cape. If the bull struggles to run or falls, then the crowd go crazy and scream for another bull. Which I thought was great, because it meant the mother and fellow lady cows come to collect their son. I thought the bull would be saved by its fellow cows, but alas no bull is spared! They are only taken to the back to kill it!

If the bull out runs these “wanna-be” matadors and can go to the next level – the Picadores – who come out on horses. Their job is to stab the bull in the back with two spears and hope his horse doesn’t go down in the process. We were both amazed by the horses who are blindfolded, so they can’t see the bulls. The horses were lifted by the bull almost every time and didn’t do anything. They may’ve been drugged too.

Once the bull has passed this level, then come the Banderillos which is another “wanna-be” matador, who throws another spear at the bulls back. As you can imagine, the bull is pretty pissed off at this stage, not to mention half dead and very tired.  It’s only then that the real Matador comes out and finishes the job.

We were both traumatised by the carnage and going for the bull. There was a point in the night, when one of the matadors was attacked by the bull to which the whole crowd went silent and Gus was the only one screaming “That’s what you get! That’s what you get for messing with the bull!”.  Needless to say, we were the only ones applauding the bull attacking the matador and we left soon after.  That night we had chicken for dinner.

I don’t think either one of us will ever attend a bull fight again. It’s part of the Spanish culture and maybe there was a time when a herd of bulls attacked the nation – but it’s just plain cruel now. If you must go, maybe visit the Plaza de Toros.

The San Miguel Market: Our lovely host Char gave us the tip on the San Miguel Market and it was so good we went back the next day for lunch. Much like all markets, its produce was fresh, cheap and delicious! You can find everything here from steak to antipastos such as cheese, ham, olives and the delightful churros. When our whole lunch came to 15 euro, we decided to go back the next day! Its great food and it gives you the opportunity to eat like the locals do on their lunch break -although I’m sure they only have the one meal as opposed to five! Great for foodies or just a quick and delicious snack!

 

The Flamenco Show: We booked our tickets a day in advance for this show. The show was at a bar called Las Tablas and was brilliant. We got there a bit early, 9:15pm and the show didn’t start until 10pm. But we got a great table right at the front and you could almost feel the tapping of their shoes in your face!

The show was simple, but very entertaining! Two guitarists, two singers (with very loud hand clapping skills) and two dancers. The dancers were amazing, very fast tapping with their feet and the music has inspired me to learn Spanish guitar while Gus wants to take up Flamenco dancing!  He’s also learnt how to clap excessively loud, which comes in handy for clapping those street performers every now and then. A win for all and definitely something you should do when in Madrid!

El Palacio Real: El Palacio Real is the Royal Palace in Spain.  We have made a rule that we must go see something cultural at every stop we make and this was it for Madrid! The Palace is beautiful, but if you do go – make sure you get the audio guide. It makes it easier when you walk from one gigantic room to the next. The gardens of the palace are free to visit. Unlike, other palaces in Europe, the King and Queen of Spain still use this Palace – we couldn’t find them though so best of luck to you if you try and look.

Madrid was a great stop for us. It was where the Spanish Revolution started and I believe still is going strong!  Great to see some city action after being in the quieter regions and the perfect place to practise our Portugese…onto Lisbon!

San Sebastian and a 30th to (almost) remember!

If you ever want to travel across Spain, Basque country  – San Sebastian is an amazing place to start. A laid back fishing village, with copious amounts of pintxos bars, Sangria and sandy beaches.

The people at HomeAway.com must have known it was the weekend of Angus’ 30^th, as they randomly decided to upgrade us to an apartment overlooking the river. The location was very central to the old town and spacious enough to cater for our lovely London friends who kindly flew down for the weekend of celebrations!

We met Ineke and Matt on the Friday night for some dinner and drinks. The old town is relatively small and we found ourselves walking the same streets over and over. (This was prior to the drinking starting!) The first tip we got before arriving in San Sebastian, was to obviously try the pintxos bars (tapas bars), but to eat at the bar with the floor littered with the most napkins- as it signifies that a lot of people have eaten here. If you really want to try a local spot, look for places with saw dust on the floor, we tried a place with both! The pintxos are delicious – Ham being the main ingredient in most pieces – Spaniards LOVE their ham. We found ourselves eating a plate of pintxos and a glass of sangria for about six euro each. Great for the budget traveller! 🙂

 

Restaurants in San Sebastian do not open for dinner until 8:30pm, so these pintxos bars thrive on business up until then and then clear out at 8:30pm. We had reservations at a Michelin star restaurant called Bodegon Alejandro. It was a degustation set menu with eight courses, just as you thought you’d had enough, they’d bring out more. I actually asked the lady to stop but the dishes kept coming. It was insane!

The next day we explored much of the same streets and prepared for the events of that evening. We’d decided that Saturday night would be the night of Angus’s 30^th celebrations as Eka (our other London friend) was arriving that night. The celebrations started in our apartment at about 7pm – Andy joined in via Skype for a couple of drinks and then had to head off to sleep! Rightly so, it was 2am in Melbourne! We partied on though and six bottles of wine, a couple of appetisers and many photos later we headed out into town!

 

We started in the same form as the previous night, some pintxos bars with the emphasis being on finding some that catered for our vegetarian in us all!  And Eka also of course! We made our way to three or four bars, the birthday boy skolling sangria or Spanish cider at every stop. Interesting fact: The cider in San Sebastian is poured straight from the barrel at a distance to ensure the cider has a good head. We decided that we had to finish off dancing it up at a small nightclub/bar that played all the top 40 hits from 2006.

 

We danced the night away, while Eka refilled our drinks, Gus was superman and used his jumper as a cape, Matt helped the birthday boy fly his cape and Ineke and I…well…we were busy happy snapping the events of the night! A lot of sangria and a whole five hours later we called it a night. A successful and happy 30^th birthday celebration, with success defined as finding our apartment at the end of the night!

As you would expect the next day was a write off, so we won’t go there. But the day after (Angus’ real birthday) we checked out the best San Sebastian has to offer. We hiked up Monte Urgull and saw the spectacular beach views from the top. There are ruins of the forts that were used for the French revolution and a giant Jesus statue at the top of the mountain. The hike was tricky, with old cobblestones and cracks in the paths that make it difficult to trek in thongs, so if you’re going to do the hike make sure you wear appropriate footwear. We stopped off at a bar on top of the mountain for a few drinks and just absorbed the gorgeous views.

 

That same night we had a food and wine tour that we had originally booked for the previous day, but were too hungover to do. We met our lovely tour guide at the information desk in the middle of the town and headed off to our first stop. Our first stop was at a local bar (that we hadn’t gone too yet) and included patatas bravas, mussels and fried calamari. By far, the BEST patatas bravas ever! We were bummed that it was our last night there, because we would have had them every night – probably a blessing in disguise. 🙂

 

Our tour guide took us to at least four different bars and depending on the dish gave us wine or cider to match. It was a great tour and showed us a lot of places we wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. The tip she gave us was to order our pintxos hot. Even though some of the pintxos out on the bar are cold, we can ask for fresh ones or ask them to heat them up inside. This would have been good to know at the start of our stay at San Sebastian as all the pintxos we ate were cold! Still delicious, but can you imagine the potential if they were fresh or heated up! Massive tip for next time.

We finished off the night back at the apartment, with some wine and some Tiramisu birthday cake! An awesome weekend with some awesome people. A special shout out to Ineke, Matt and Eka for coming from London to share this special event –  Angus had an awesome 30^th and none of it would have been possible without you or San Sebastian for that matter. No more SANGRIA! 🙂

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/24584866 w=600]

Bordeaux…

We took a three-hour train ride across the country side from Paris to Bordeaux. We had purchased a Eurail pass before leaving Australia, to cover us for travel between France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. It’s a great way to travel because you get to see a lot more of the country and avoid the hassle arriving two hours early to check in your bags at an airport.

Being our first trip, we thought we’d arrive at the train station an hour prior to departure just to be sure. We had to validate our tickets before travelling, get some snacks and find the platform. When we got there we looked up at the departure board and saw that the train to Bordeaux was leaving in five minutes- 6:55am. We instantly thought they had changed the times on us and bolted for the train. We got on and 30 seconds later the train took off. So much for thinking an hour was enough time to check in!

 

We got our tickets out for an inspector and the inspector started yelling at me in a very sexy French accent telling me I had to “Respect the time on the ticket!”. I told her we looked at the board and that it said 6:55am – she said “There is another one coming, you have to wait!” – We got let off with a warning because it was our first time and it also meant we got to Bordeaux a whole hour early! Bonus!

The first tip for Bordeaux is to get all your public transport organised while at the train station, the airport or online before you arrive. There are ticket machines at all the tram stops, however they don’t take foreign credit cards – this also goes for the bicycles. There are offices at the main train stations and airports that can sell you these tickets and can process a credit card payment.

The Old Town: The old town is the heart of Bordeaux and where all the action takes place. We stayed across from the old town in a suburb called “La Bastide” and it was a short five-minute tram ride to the old town. We spent most of our time here, exploring, eating and drinking. I imagine that because Bordeaux has an abundance of red wine, every menu we saw offered at least a glass with your meal. A menu consisted of an aperitivo (cocktail), a glass/bottle of wine, an entrée, main and dessert – with tea and coffee if you desired. A quick way to ensure a new and tubbier you!

The New Town: It’s not called the new town, but I have no other name for it – so we’ll just go with it for the moment. Along the river banks there are lovely plush gardens, riding paths and the Miroir d’eau. The Miroir d’eau is a pool with about a centimetre of water that would mist up every 30 minutes and gently spray everyone in the water. Refreshing on a hot day, which we seemed to have a lot of!

We initially decided to ride a bike through the old town. But with the steep hills and my inability to avoid terrorising pedestrians, we thought it might be best for all involved to head for the banks of this river. Gus’ advice – “Keep your eyes on the straight road” proved invaluable, as I awkwardly rode my bike like a female version of Robocop. It did the job though and we saw a lot more that what we would have walking. This area was what we referred to as the Docklands. Weird factory outlet shops and the odd tourist floating around, we got out of there pretty quick smart.

Winery Tour: We knew Bordeaux was famous for it’s wine and it was the one thing we wanted to see before we left. We booked in for a tour to take us out to Saint-Emillion – a region famous for it’s red wine and beautiful old town.  The tour itself was a bit disappointing. The wine tour consisted of an explanation of the winery itself, the process of fermenting wine and the wine tasting lasted a whole 10 minutes – tasting three different wines. The area is quite unique in that the vines must be grown in specific conditions pertaining to the area they are in. Anything but, is illegal in this region and would not be considered real Saint – Emillion wine.

 

The tour then took us to the old town of Saint-Emillion where we saw the largest underground cathedral and catacombs. No lovely vibe here, just a lot of dust and bones. The town itself was beautiful and we really wished that we’d hired a car and taken it out there – as there are so many more wineries and shops that we could have seen.

We loved Bordeaux. It was a nice change in pace to the hustle and bustle of Paris and highly recommend that if you are ever travelling between France and Spain – you make this worthwhile stop.

Paris…

Paris! The city of lights, Eiffel Tower, Crepes and some may even say it’s the most romantic city in the world! We flew to Paris from Montreal and after a 10-hour flight, a transfer in Zurich and a couple of Metro stops later we arrived at our accommodation. We thought that because accommodation was so expensive in Europe, perhaps we would be better off staying in apartments. We used airbnb to find our apartment and the found that the overall process was completely flawless.

Our first apartment was in an area called Ile de France and was about 30 minutes away from the centre of Paris. We used the Metro to get everywhere and we actually got a four days pass for 36 Euro each, which we thought was VERY pricey- but it covered us for our entire stay. Massive tip for Paris – the trains don’t wait for you. The doors will close very quickly and if you’re half way out the door they will slam shut on you. So, as soon as you hear the beep-beep warning signs, either jump off or stay on. We saw two couples get separated because they were either too slow or just being polite letting people off the train behind them! It was definitely a wake up call for us to start pushing our way on and off trains and live like the French!

Eiffel Tower: Our first stop was of course the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower (and Disneyland) must be the one attraction that is always FULL of people. We got there at about 6pm and there was still a lot of hustle and bustle. We ran when we saw that there was a line with only 10 people at the south west end of the tower and stood in line quite content with ourselves. That was until we realised that we had found the ‘Climb the Tower’ line where you need to walk up the first two levels of the tower, so we quickly jumped out of the line and went to another line with 100 or so people at the south east end of the tower. This one used the lift to get up.

The line took us about an hour to reach the counter to buy our tickets (which were only 14 Euro each) and about 30 minutes to get into the lift. There is a stop on the 2^nd floor to transfer lifts, which of course has a new line with another 200 people, so another hour there. We ended up making it to the top at about 9pm – perfect to see the sunset over Paris! Amazing! It is a hassle getting up there, but once you do it’s worth it…you can drink a glass of champagne up there for 12 Euro, have an ice-cream or simply lookout at the sights…it’s breathtaking and very romantic!

The Sights: The next day, after a good sleep in we set out to see the sights! We mapped out everything we wanted to see on Google maps and decided to take the Metro everywhere. First up was the Louvre. We must have had good ‘Line Karma’ from the previous night, because we got off at the Metro station and used the entrance from down there to buy our tickets into the Louvre (10 Euro each) and we also bought tickets to see Chateau de Versailles (25 Euro each). There was no line at the entrance, so we sailed straight in. Those that did line up at the top near the Pyramid entrance had a much longer wait in the sun than what we did – so try and take the Metro to the Louvre to avoid waiting in line. 🙂

The Louvre is the biggest museum in the world. It’s King Louis’ old Palace and is just absolutely massive – they say that if you spent one minute at every artefact, it would take you four months to complete. We were quite proud that we managed to do it in 90 minutes. The Mona Lisa is surrounded by Red Carpet and glassed in, so it’s quite hard to get a good photo, especially when you have about 200 people crammed into the one spot and flashes going off every second. We thought the line to see the Mona Lisa was more impressive than the painting itself… but that sounds improper… so I’ll stop now.

There are some amazing pieces of art here and we both wished we’d really paid attention in history class, so we could appreciate the pieces a lot more. The staff at the Louvre know this though and they are kind enough to offer you a guide with the ‘main’ pieces of art on each floor – so that you don’t feel completely lost. Regardless of whether you are a history/art buff or not, it would almost be a crime to come to Paris and not see the Louvre. A definite must see!

We cruised down to the famous Notre Dame Cathedral after our Louvre experience. You may remember Notre Dame from movies such as the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Quasimodo – Vampire Slayer. Not sure about the last one…but Notre Dame was very beautiful. Lots of stain glass windows and a very ornamental cathedral. There was no wait to get in here and there wasn’t a charge either. There are souvenir coin machines inside the cathedral where you can put in two Euros and in exchange you get a memorabilia coin from Notre Dame Cathedral. Good as a small keepsake of your visit.

Champs d’Elysees was next on the list and Gus’ dream of singing Champs d’Elysees is a busy street became a reality and he got to sing it all the way down. We came from the Metro George V, so it wasn’t until we got right down to the end of the street that we saw the Arc de Triomphe. With 300 steps to get to the top of the Arc, we were quite happy to admire from below. I did get lost in one of my favourite shops Promod for about 40 minutes. I was going in for a quick browse and it ended up taking a bit longer that expected! This impressive street has just about everything cinemas, shops, restaurants and the crazy round a bout with four lanes. After a jam-packed day so we headed to one of Paris’ many parks to enjoy an afternoon siesta – something we have become very accustomed to lately! Great way to finish off the day…

The following day was a bit more chillaxed, with only three things on the itinerary. A cruise down the river Seine, Sacre Couer and a visit to the Moulin Rouge. The cruise down the river Seine was lovely; it went for about an hour and covered a good 10 km’s of river. At only 12 Euro each it’s good value for money! Montmartre is the artist district and where you can find both the Sacre Couer and the Moulin Rouge. Sacre Couer was just stunning. We took the 200 steps to get to the top of the hill and had the most amazing view over Paris. Heaps of people here, street performers and plenty of great photo opportunities – if you get the right photographer. We seemed to find the worst photographers in Paris, where you would ask for a photo in front of the Sacre Couer or the Eiffel Tower and they would take it of us and leave the monument out of it! We got it right eventually and came up with these beauties! There is also a funicular that can take you to the top if you’re not up for the climb. But a great place to sit and take in the best Paris has to offer.

A short 20-minute stroll down this red light district of Paris, led us to the main doors of the Moulin Rouge. Heavily guarded by a massive bouncer he was bemused at the fact that we were looking for tickets that same night. “Saturday night”, he stated “is full!”. So, tip right there – book about one week, maybe two weeks in advance for a show at the Moulin Rouge! Tourist buses arrive here by the droves, maybe next time we’ll look into another Burlesque show that isn’t so touristy.

Our last day in Paris we dedicated to the Chateau de Versailles and its gardens. We took a train to the Chateau and arrived 40 minutes later from the Champs de Mars station. The line to get into the Chateau Versailles was ridiculous; it was definitely a Disney line, which snaked around 4 times before we could even contemplate getting in. We tried bumping the line and going straight it, as it seemed quite easy to do – but two security guards came out of nowhere and pointed us to the back of the line. 😦

The line did go quickly though and we were ushered into the chateau. It’s an enormous palace, with golden tipped gates and doors. You can get the audio guide at the entrance (four euro) which helps explain the in’s and out’s of the chateau and it’s history. The gardens were a lot more impressive. Perfectly manicured gardens spread out across over 100 acres, with it’s own man made lake that people can row their little boat in. You could walk for what seemed to be a lifetime and always discover something new. These gardens were beautiful, so if you go to the Chateau make sure your ticket includes the gardens because otherwise it’s not worth it!

We finished off our day with a walk down to the St Martin Canal. Lovely for an afternoon stroll and drink or snack on it’s banks. There was a ferry that interestingly enough would cruise down for approximately 2km before the gates behind it would close and the canal would fill up with water, while emptying the previous gates water. This process was repeated every 2km or so down the canal. Very interesting and amusing to see all the passengers on the ferry think they were going down with the ship! 🙂

There is so much to do in Paris. We packed everything into four days and we know this is only a fraction of what we can see and do in this unbelievable city! On the way to the train station, we got the loveliest Taxi driver who showed us the best places to shop and dine when in Paris – of course we hadn’t seen any of it. We weren’t disheartened though, we told him we’d come back and see it all again…

Nutella Crepe - As seen on http://picmyplate.posterous.com

Quebec…

Arriving in Quebec was a shock to the system. We took the train into Quebec and I could see the thongs were probably NOT the smartest footwear choice I could have made. It was freezing cold, windy and we made a pact right then and there that we would never travel to Canada in winter again.

A two-minute taxi ride and we were at our hotel. Our hotel was located in the Old town, right in the heart of Quebec. The hotel was great, plush, big room with WiFi and very modern – definitely not what it looked like from the outside. A short stroll in 3 degree weather and we were done for the day, luckily that this (and the last day) were our only bad days in this beautiful town.

The Old Town: The Old town was our favourite place to explore. Lots of old architecture, castles, boutiques, restaurants and bars.  There is a staircase called “Breakneck” that takes you to the lower level of the Old Town, where you can see a cute little chapel that starred in Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie Catch Me If You Can. Unfortunately, it only opens on Sundays from 9am to 11am – so we missed out on going inside, but you get the general vibe from the outside.

 

I found it was similar to Banff, in that it felt like a Christmas village with it’s own Christmas shop, old lamp posts and different coloured buildings. One of the displays projected the Aurora Borealis onto one of the government buildings at night. Just so you can feel close to the action!

 

A good tip we later found out, is that you can take a Funicular to get to both the lower and upper levels of the old town for $2, as opposed to taking “Breakneck” staircase. It’s not a hard walk, but just slippery when it rains or snows! The old town is great to enjoy a leisurely stroll and to immerse yourself in some culture!

Montmorency falls: We took a tour to see Montmorency Falls – it’s a waterfall that boasts about being 30m higher than it’s neighbouring Niagara Falls and didn’t fail to impress! What we didn’t really know was that it was a 10 minute bus ride from the centre of Quebec and we could have probably driven there ourselves. It is in fact right on the freeway and people can see it as they drive in and out of the old town. So, we’d probably recommend getting a bus or hiring a car out there next time.

Isle d’Orleans: The next stop on our tour took us to an area where most ‘Quebecers’ spend their summer holidays. It’s a little island about 5km off the coast of Quebec called “Isle d’Orleans”  – the isle has many beautiful houses with coloured rooves that made this area especially unique. Apparently, people used the colours of their roofs in the olden days to locate their homes. It’s a heritage listed area, which means no buildings may be built and any restoration or modification to an existing home needs to be approved by a whole panel of people.

 

It was here that we stopped off at a chocolate factory and stocked up on some Milk chocolate & Almond treats and indulged in some hot chocolate. The second food stop took us to ”Maries’s Bakery” where we sampled some Maple butter on toast, one of the things Quebec is particularly renowned for and we milked it for all it was worth! It tastes like sweet condensed milk and from that point on, anywhere we went for dinner we made sure Maple butter was on the dessert menu…probably not the best for you, but hey…when in Quebec!

The last stop was at a Copper factory -another one of Quebec’s proud legacies to the world…but that was quite boring so we’ll skip that bit.

Fort: We spent our last day cruising around the main part of the city. There is a wall that separates the old town from the new part of town and you are able to walk along the walls of the fort. It hovers over the centre of the city and it’s main road called “Rue xxx “. There is a huge park within the walls of the fort that you can explore or just use to lounge in some sun.

Quebec was a lovely town, again like Montreal I think it would be different in summer, as it thrived when we had just a little bit of sun! But even when it rained, it definitely has some charm to it. I loved that it gave us a chance to practise our French before hitting Paris and although people probably prefer to speak French, once they hear you stutter your way through the basics – they’ll break out into English for you. Very kind! Definitely rate it and would love to come back here…

 

Montreal…

Montreal or Monreal (to the locals) was for lack of a better word…Merde! Although, to be fair it did have three things working against it from the get go:

1. We were there for the Easter break – which meant everything was closed
2. It poured down rain every single day we were there
3. And we had just arrived from NYC – the city that never sleeps to a city where all we did was sleep.

 

The hotel that we stayed at was brilliant! They fed us for free on Good Friday (as nothing else was open), there was a bar that sold $3 spirits, lots of Aussies and even a one-man-band. The bonus here was that we didn’t need to hunt down a laundromat, as the hotel offered a wash, dry and fold service for $10. Score!

Notre Dame Cathedral: That Saturday morning we explored the old town and the Notre Dame Cathedral. It’s one of the most spectacular cathedrals I have ever seen, it’s alter looks like the façade of another church…very cool. We had Easter Sunday mass there too – so we got to experience the choir and organ playing.

Latin Quarter: The Latin Quarter (Rue Saint Denis) is the place to be to see some Montreal folk and join them for some dinner and drinks. There is a wide variety of restaurants ranging from Japanese (my favourite) to French burger joints to McDonalds. I say this because I coerced Gus to get Japanese on three of the five nights we were there, it was delicious.

 

This is where we also checked out the local pub one night to watch the Montreal Canadiens take on the Boston Brauns. There was a guy playing his acoustic guitar during the breaks and as soon as the game started he was promptly removed from the stage and replaced by a 75 inch projector. Much more entertaining!

Biodome: Gus had been to the Biodome in a previous life and recommended we check out this attraction. The Biodome was once home to the 1984 Montreal Olympics Velodrome and has been remodelled to a tropical rainforest zoo. Interestingly enough, the layout resembles each continent and the animals that inhibit them. Key here is to dress lightly, it gets pretty warm in the Americas and doesn’t get any cooler by the time you reach Antarctica, so layer up!

Casino: What to do when it rains in Montreal? Try your luck at a casino! Still on a high from Vegas, we thought we’d find a Craps table and roll some die. Unfortunately, there were no Crap tables, only Black Jack and Roulette. We stayed on though and watched some boxing matches on the screen until dinner time. On our way out weplayed 75 cents on one of the pokies and won what seemed to be 600 credits or $6. What was strange was that a lil old lady was saying something to us in French “Tres bon” was all she kept saying and letting her friend know we’d won $6. Unbeknown to us we kept playing until we got to 500 credits and was where we realised it was worth a good $150. We finished Montreal on a high!

You can tell Montreal has so much potential, but we where there at a really poor time with the weather and Easter. Summer may be a better time to visit.

New York City…

After a 40-minute flight and a night of sleeping on Boston soil we arrived at La Guardia airport.  Relieved that we were able to finally get into the city, with only four days to get the “Big Apple” done before Jack and Gabe left us – we got busy quick smart.

First stop…organising transport! We’d read about the different ways of getting around NYC and the subway seemed like the easiest.  We got a 4-trip ticket for $10 and used it to head into the Bronx for our first night time adventure in NYC.

Baseball:  We knew we wanted to see the Yankees play while in New York and got our tickets online through stubhub.com (thanks @stuartcox26). Along with seeing the actual baseball game, there were also a couple of other things we needed to check off the bucket list- such as devouring baseball hot dogs and nacho hats. We managed to do the hot dogs, but Homer lied about the nacho hat – there is no such thing! The game itself was probably one of the more exciting games we could have seen, four home runs (one of which Gabe captured on camera) and lots of rain to keep us on guard.  Not ideal when you’re sitting in an open roof stadium, but we stayed strong and rugged up in our NY Yankee beanies and sweaters. So, what can you say about baseball? It’s probably ideal for summer, lots of catchy sing-a-longs to “Take me out to a ball game”, but its relatively slow paced. Dare I compare it to cricket – with the exception of the players being a little tubbier, or fluffier. I’m glad I got to see it once, but would probably leave it off the list for next time. Final score – Yankees came back from behind to win by a run! Go Yankees!

The Sights:  The next day we headed out to see the sights. With so much to do we started at the No #1 attraction listed by Trip Advisor – Top of the Rock. It’s an observatory from the top of Rockefeller Centre. The views are amazing and on a windy day one might say breathtaking! The line was a hassle to get tickets, a good 30 minute wait so you might want to get them online. But once you go up 86 floors (in a lift) you can see Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State and Chrysler buildings – makes for a pretty awesome snap of the city.

 

The Statue of Liberty was next on the list. We took the train to the Staten Island Ferry dock, where we were told by a security guard (and his very cute labrador) that the last ferry out to Ellis Island was at 3pm. Being that it was 3:30pm, we thought about taking the Staten Island Ferry which floats passed the side Statue of Liberty, but doesn’t stop on the island. We didn’t do either – you can still see the Statue from Manhattan so we got some photos from here.  See if you think they’re any good?

From Google maps it looked like Wall Street, more importantly the Wall Street Bull was only two blocks away. This was one of the rare times Google maps let us down. It ended up being a waterbag trip and a whole 40 minutes later we arrived at a cross roads with the bull in the middle of the road. Strange location, but again a “must see” when in NYC. Try mounting the bull for a different kind of picture. It’s quite hard to stand out and get the bull to yourself with 50 people surrounding it, but Gus and I managed. While if you look closely Jack and Gabe stole the show from the poor guy on the left hand side of the Bull.

Ground Zero was a bit of a let down. There’s nothing there. Not even a monument or names of those who perished …NOTHING. There was a sign that said the swimming pool was now visible, but from where? And why is there swimming pool there? Bizarre! We did have an awesome calzone on the way to Ground Zero.

Anywho, we moved onto SOHO (which stands for South of Houston Street). Very impressed! SOHO is full of delightful coffee shops, cup cakes, boutiques and lots of art galleries.  Perfect for a stroll, some coffee or shopping. We did all three – Jack and Gabe went shopping and we had a coffee. We then went for a stroll in to the East Village and found Gus’s Graceland – The Little Lebowski Shop. I have never seen Gus so excited about shopping! We managed to get some T-Shirts and a sticker that read “The Dude Abides” (which has since been lost :().

Massive day! But it wasn’t over yet – we’d worked up an appetite so we headed off to Times Square for some dinner. On Will Ferrell’s recommendation we went to the Olive Garden, which was lovely! Times Square is like nothing you’ve ever experienced before, hundreds, maybe thousands of people, massive LCD screens and lots of lights! Bright lights everywhere! While cruising down Times Square we were approached by a man yelling “You guys are miserable! You miserable bunch of humans….Do you want to see a comedy show…Do you want to see comedy!?”. We were excited, because he was so loud and had awesome neck rolls…so we said “Yeah!” and he took us to a basement. The place was called “HA!” comedy lounge and that night we saw 5 incredibly funny comedians! Like crying from laughter funny and probably the best stand up’s I have ever seen. The tickets to get into the lounge were $10, but we had to spend $20 each on drinks. They don’t tell you that before you walk in…but it’s a small price to pay for some laughs. We were on such a high from this show that we signed up the next night for another show at the Comedy Factory in the East Village. WARNING: Don’t go see this show! The comedians were NOT FUNNY…not even a bit!  The highlight of the night came from Jack as he continued to heckle the host – “Why do the Australians hate me so much?”. We heard re-hashed material from the night before and were majorly disappointed, so try and avoid the Comedy Factory if you can!

Broadway Show:  It’s hard to find a Broadway show that doesn’t break into song every five seconds. Things like pouring a glass of water or picking up a newspaper can generate the longest 10-minute tune that will have you ripping your hair out of your scalp by the third minute! Luckily, we found a show, called Rain – A Tribute to the Beatle on Broadway .  The stage and props that they used were replicated to look exactly like the real performances on the Ed Sullivan and Yankee Stadium. The guys looked scarily similar to the Beatles and there was audience participation. It’s a great show, you’ll know the songs and you can hand sway into your neighbours face if you get restless…good times!

Somewhere in this mess we found our way to the diner they used in the Seinfeld show. It’s called Tom’s restaurant and is on on 112^th and Broadway. The diner is covered in Seinfeld memorabilia from Seinfeld jackets to the Kramer painting. Pretty cool – we had some lunch here and the obvious happy snap here too! How could you not “George is in the building!!!”

Central Park:  We decided to do a horse and carriage ride around central park. $50 US will buy you 20 minutes for a very short stroll around, but showed us the main attractions like the ice skating rink and the building used in the Ghostbusters film. Not much to see on this stretch, so if you can hire a bike or are a bit of a rollerblader then do it this way. You’ll see more of the park for less money!

 

On our second last night, Jack and Gabe went to an ice hockey game at Madison Square Garden and met us for dinner for our last supper. We went to a Korean BBQ place that served up delicious prawns, chicken, beef. It was an awesome way to finish up the five weeks travelling together.

New Jersey: The next day we wandered off to New Jersey. We had heard of the phenomenon called Cake Boss from Luis and Marianna who love this reality show of Buddy and his cake making skills. They said, “You have to go to Jersey and go to the cake shop”.  New Jersey is pretty, much quieter than its neighbour – surrounded by cherry blossoms it looked very inviting. Very different to what the Sopranos would have you think.

 

The line to get into the shop crossed three blocks and we could see about 400 people in the line. The shop itself had about 20 people serving behind the counter, a security guard at the door and NO Buddy in sight. We gave up trying to line up after the lady who was only about 50 people away from the door said she’d been lining up for three hours. We went across the road to try and get some more pictures, when we saw these 10-year-old girls jumping on this little old lady and asking for photos. Gus jumped at the opportunity and said “She must be famous, let’s get a shot!”. So we asked the girls to take a photo of us with the little old lady. We then asked them …”Who was that lady!?” and they said “Oh that’s Buddy’s mom!” … so there you go…we finally got our celebrity shot!

 

New York is a vibrant city like no other! So much culture, with people from all walks of life.  There is so much to do, you will never run out of shows to see, places to eat or visit. We will definitely come back for a visit!

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Boston

This post almost didn’t happen. In fact, this post shouldn’t have happened. But sometimes when you travel, unexpected things happen. Unexpected things, like Boston!

Our flight from Punta Cana to JFK was going really well. We left on time and the flight was one of the smoothest I’d been on. The duration of the flight was meant to be just under four hours. After our initial arrival time had passed and several banking turns later, we started to realize that something must be wrong. Finally the American Airlines pilot came on the radio and said that the weather had deteriorated in New York and so air traffic control had instructed us to go into a holding pattern. Unfortunately we were running low on fuel so the announcement was made that we would reroute to Boston to refuel and then head back to JFK.

This didn’t bother me too much. We’d only left five hours ago and I’d much prefer to land safely than try to land in a storm. We were told we were second in line for the fuel truck and we should be back in the air within 45 minutes. THREE HOURS LATER the pilot finally announced we had been refueled and were now cleared by air traffic control in JFK to head back to New York. We were told it was a short flight – 40 minutes and we’ll be there! So about nine hours since we left and we’d finally reach our destination.

About an hour into he flight back to JFK a very sheepish pilot came back on the radio to announce that the weather had actually gotten much worse since we left Boston and that all flights into NY have now been cancelled. Back to Boston we go!!  It should also be noted here that none of the staff working on the flight spoke Spanish – which I thought was odd seeing that we’d just left from a Spanish speaking country.  Karla was asked to translate what the captain was saying to all the non English speaking passengers!

Once we landed (again) in Boston we were told that due to most flights being diverted here from New York and the fact we we were an international flight and had to clear customs, there would be a short delay in getting us all off the plane. Two hours later we finally disembarked the plane we had boarded 11 hours prior for a ‘less than four hour flight’ only to be greeted with a customs line that was so long it took another three hours to get through.

We made it through customs at roughly 2am. Collected our bags and headed to the American Airlines desk to see when we could get on a flight to New York. We we’re told 10am but we’d have to fly with US Airways. No worries! As it was less than eight hours until we flew out we decided to setup camp at Boston International Airport. Karla setup her digs on our suitcase, Gabe managed to steal a foldaway bed from what appeared to be a homeless guy and Jack and I roughed it on the floor.

 

The next morning everything went fairly smoothly, with the exception of US Airways charging us $100 for luggage because it was a domestic flight. Very annoying but we were too tired to worry about it and just wanted to get out of there.

So there you go. The post that shouldn’t have been. We did however managed to get a Boston stamp in our passports and can hopefully assume that the worst of airport adventures are behind us!

Tips for when you’re stuck in an airport:

• Always have a sense of humor
• Don’t freak out at the staff – they want to go home as much as you!
• Find a quiet, and if possible darker, part of the airport to sleep
• Wheelchair monos offer some comic relief