Gay Paris

The best thing about going travelling has got to be the people you meet. Ask anyone thats done it, your memories are about people and not so much the places (that you may spend thousands of pounds to go and see... ooops!)

So when one of our friends that we met in Mexico, a resident of BA, decided that he was going to cross the pond and frequent the Tardis, Han & I were mega excited.

After a couple of weeks of hopping around the UK and some of Europe, (the best week of which was OBVIOUSLY speant at the Tardis with his faves), next stop for Lucas was Paris... with yours truely of course.

Weirdly, despite it being a mere couple of hours on the Eurostar away I've never been to Paris (if you ignore the couple of laps I use to do in the car with the fam everytime we got lost on the roads round it on the way to the sunny coast of France).

So finally I rocked up in Paris... feeling a little bereft as it's the first time in a long time I haven't had my trustee Montana by my side to guide the way through foreign places new. Topped off with a mobile that wouldn't work & no deets of where we were staying, you'd think I'd be bricking it. I've become a little bit too adjusted to having no idea whats going on as soon as I leave English soil, so slipping straight back into travelly ways I started to wander round the station, luckily bumping into Lucas pretty much straight away.

Let the sight seeing begin...

I actually think we walked a distance equivalent to England and back, but there is soooooo much to see!

Top sight, as cliche as it sounds is definitely the Eiffel Tower. I knew it was big, but I didnt realise HOW big!

 

 

So originally the plan was to do the steps challenge to the top. However, one look at just how big it was put me off, as much as I love a steps challenge, we wanted to get up there in time for sunset so didn't think it was the best decision. Instead, we paid the extra 4 euros or whatever it was to get the lift, and after about an hours queuing we were at the top, bang on time.

 

My pictures arent that great annoyingly, I don't know what I had done to my camera settings... some people were getting some proper good ones.... SOMEONE GET ME AN SLR!

We finally made it down FREEEEEZING. I think its safe to say that Paris is at its most spectacular at night...

Not that it isn't beautiful in the day time too... although I have to say the Moulin Rouge loses its 'mysterious' edge in the light of day! Looks more like something you'd see on the crazy golf pitch at Pompy...

So our day times were speant jostling the tourists round all of the attractions. The funniest has got to be the Mona Lisa... I know its famous... but really, trying to get a photo is a feat in itself. I managed to get a little snap shot, unfortunately I also managed to beautifully capture some mans head in the meantime... naaaat cool, but the best I could do.

And of course, because no trip with Lucas is complete without sampling every sweet food available... eating A LOT of pastries.

Anyway, fun and games for all in Gay Paris (said with only the best of French accents)... ideas for next stop please....
 

The Travelly Anniversary

So believe it or not its been a year since we departed for Mexico. I can't quite believe it, but I'm sad to say that it's true.

Anyway, obviously Hannah and I couldn't just stay at home in order to commemorate such an event... so we decided that it was the perfect to hop on the plane to Oslo, Norway, all for the bargain price of £35 return. Thank you Ryan Air.

Not only is this to try and dull the blow of London gloom during January when we would've been soaring towards hotter climes before. It's also part of our new years resolution. We have decided that throughout the year we will aim to do at least 6 city breaks.

As far as we have planned at the moment we're not doing too badly.

We have already ticked off Oslo, we've got Paris booked in for April, Amsterdam in June & Germany for Octoberfest. So 4 decisions made, 2 more to go and we're open to suggestions. I read a lovely article on Budapest in the stylist the other day so that's now looking quite appealing, as is Athens... opinions please....

Anyway, really I should be writing about the excitingness that was Norway.

The main reason for our little trip was to see our lovely viking ladies. Unfortunately one of the girlies was unable to make it, but Cecilie still managed to provide us with great hospitality. We tried copious quantities of Norwegian grub by the time I came back I didn't think I would ever eat again!

Not only did we give Cecilie's fave Norwegian dinner a go, and her gross sour milk, but we also gave mayo and toast a try. Last time I went to Norway I had a distinct memory of squeezy cheese, squeezy ham, squeezy bacon so I thought that this was the squeezy cheese with the yellow packaging... how wrong I was. Squeezy mayo on toast. oops!

You may think that it being called majones would be a bit of a giveaway, but apparently not.
Our vikings are some peeps that we met in Brazil and who then proceeded to stalk us round the world... all the way to Argentina and Laos. Sooo we thought only fair to return the favour. And off we trundled to snowy Oslo.

I was assured that there would not be any snow in the city when we arrived but HA she lies!!!

loads and loads of snow! YEY! Although no sledging for me even though I was very tempted to give it a whirl down here...

The sea being right next to this was enough, however, to put me off taking the plunge down the slope a little bit though. We did see some nut cases do it & watching them bail as they approached the sea was probably more fun that riding the sledge itself.

So we did lots of cultural things, checking out the opera house (above), seeing the building that got bombed last year, visiting the church & memorials, going for coffee by the harbour, the palace & of course visiting the nakey park.

Mature hey?

No this park was actually beautiful & obviously being an English grad I could see the obvious significance of fertility & the 'circle of life' in the statues. There were lots of other cool statues too...

 So culture well out of the way, it was time for a little trip down memory lane... BRING ON THE BUCKETS

 Our thank you present to the Viking for having us... and what more appropriate!?

This obviously made for a couple of fun nights out a la Norway style at some cosy pubs & an awesome retro 50s bar. Gotta love it. All that and we managed to go out, in heels, in the ice, without falling over. Impressive stuff.

Norway will be visiting England shortly, ready to commence the warfare themed party... let the battle commence.