CONTIKI BABY! Paris and Lucerne

This was written earlier today (4th Jan) so makes a bit more sense!

Right FINALLY getting some time to write in this thing! Sorry to the 3-4 people who probably actually still read this, been so busy i literally have not had a spare 10 minutes to write anything. And contrary to popular belief “Wiffy” / Wifi is not in abundance all over Europe. So I am currently en route to Nice/Monaco on our Contiki bus. First things first, Contiki is AMAZING. Absolutely loving the whole experience so far. Aside from being on a bus full of aussies, literally 34 aussies 3 koreans and then us TWO kiwis! Very unexpected to be in such a minority but also kinda fun to be like a novelty to these aussies. One in particular loooves to take the piss out of me but he is hilarious and only meaning it in fun so i take it all in the fun of it. One quite embarrassing example of the culture difference is we were talking last night and dean said that at least now i can literally travel  all of Australia with all the new friends ive made on this trip since they all live all over aussie. Annnyway so i said well you can all come to wellington then but not all at the same time please and dean said don’t worry wel all bring our own swag and i was like random but sweet. And they were like umm do u know what swag is i was like “Yeah like your attitude” (with a little head movement) and they all burst out laughing for like 5 minutes soooo apparently a “swag” is like a sleeping bag/mattress thing you take places. Who the hell knew!! Soo Chris (other kiwi) and I tried to impart a little kiwi  culture/wisdom on these aussies and showed them poi e and sung the song and tried to mock pois. Suffice to say we should not be employed by tourism NZ as none were too keen to come to NZ after that little performance.

Anyway onto a few rundowns of the days so far.

Day 1

This was a freakin early morning waking up at 5 to be at the Contiki meetup point at 6.45. Got there and there was literally like 200 people there i was like whaaat. Turns out there was about 5 tours going that morning. So found my way to my bus and was away. At this point i hadn’t really had opportunities to meet people so was a bit loner. But then we got off to the ferry to paris and i decided f it  i have to just approach people so ended up chatting to two aussies who were actually travelling alone too. Turns out theres at least 10 of us travelling alone but some had met nights before staying at the hotel so at this point i was like damn i shud have stayed at the hotel but now looking back it really doesn’t matter since were all friends now! So then from here we bused to paris. Get to our hotel FINALLY and it being new years eve were all amping to get out. We head to a dinner at another hotel then a city tour and tbh were all eager to just go and have a damn drink! So we head to a bar and start the real night. Some of us decide we want to go see fireworks so about 12 of us pile into the metro to head to the Eiffel tower to see them. SUCH a fail. By the time we squish in we realise we aren’t going to make it in time for 12 so we need to get off somewhere else. We choose the arc de triomphe and literally seconds before 12 we finally bust our way out of the tube (after having a French woman yell bitch at me becayse i was pushing her child, pff more like being pushed into her tiny children by other French people and who takes a small child on the metro at new years anyway??) and we see ONE firework. So the firework idea was a bust and were being trampled getting to the champs elysees. So it wasn’t exactly an epic new years to be honest. However when can i ever say again that i was on the champs-elysees for the NY countdown! Right now I am shamed to say that I DID receive a new years kiss HOWEVER it was completely unrequited and totally unwanted. I was walking with the group and this random indian stops me grabs my face and says "HAPPY NEW YEAR" and literally pulls my face to his to kiss me! So I somehow turn my head and he plants one right on my cheek! And I am like openly DiSGUSTED. Like ew ew ew wiping my face and he just thinks its hilaarious. So thats freaking great first kiss of 2013 and its from a slimey indian..wooo.... So after that we missioned home given the extreme day wed had and we decide to make the 1^st of jan our new years night. All in all a great day though getting to know everyone and deciding that yes there were some freakin cool people on this tour!

Day 2

Today we did touristy crap went to the Eiffel tower to start with. SO cute one of the guys on the tour proposed to his girlfriend on the top of the tower!! Great story to start off the trip. Obviously she said yes or thered be some mega awkwardness on this bus right now. I just have to say how totally awesome our bus is like i literally like pretty much everyone! There are a few weirdos mayyybe 5 but no one is like mean or bitchy or anything and everyone just gets on so well. We kinda have divided into couples and younger people and then smaller groups within that but we can all hang out together and sit with anyone else from the tour anywhere we go so that is just so so cool. Back to day 2, so today we also did some more wandering then i went back and went for a run which was good to get out and do after so much bloody food, i have some sorting out to do! Then that night we went to Moulin Rouge dinner and show. So cool! Quite long though and by the end i think wed all seen enough boobs to last a lifetime. Really glittery and pretty show though. Some VERY gay men too who looked like ken dolls. So funny. Chick swimming wth huge snakes and magician who tossed all thse flashy things, very very cool. Really yum dinner and some French wine and champagne. Then headed out after to the bar next door and we were in for a BIG night. So many shots and jager bombs that everyone was pretty messy. Very fun though just continuing to get to know people! Theres also another bus doing the exact same tour as us so it was cool to meet some of them, sounds like i SO got on the better bus though the other bus sounds bitchy and immature and full of 18 year olds pheeew.

Day 3

Today is what we now call a travel day. This consisted of travelling all the way from Paris to Lucerne, Switzerland. Took us around 9 hours it was brutal. The whole time i had this guy dave next to me who thought he was going to spew so that wasn’t toooo fun. Then had luke on the other side who thought the same thing so i was wedged between two potential spewers, grrreat. Thankfully neither did. Once we got to lucerne and our feature hotel (meaning a smaller more cultural or just a different cool one) which was amazing we had a dinner there then straight to bed everyone was exhausted.

Day 4

Today was action packed. First we went up mt Pilatus up like a 35 min gondola ride to the top of the mountain which was BEAUTIFUL. The whole place actually reminded me of a bigger queenstown. Had fun up there throwing snow around and having yum coffee and chats. Then back down for lunch where we ate at a pub. THIRTY FREAKING DOLLARS for a salad and coke zero!! What the  hell. Apparently lucerne is like one of the most expensive places in Europe...cheers contiki! Haha but no it was absolutely beautiful definitely fell in love wth it! Anyway that arvo we wandered round went to some churches did some shopping then headed back to the hotel for dinner. Had some more good chats and drinks with people that night. We were considering a pub crawl byut we just decided it was too expensive to even get to ttown (50 francs for a taxi! So like $65 and it was only like 10min drive) and too expensive for drinks, around $20 for a GnT what the hell!! And we decided all we really wanted to do was have fun and hang out with each other rather than randoms in a club. So we had drinks in chris’s room which had a lounge so that was fun just getting a bit rowdy then bed by about 1 since its travel day today.

Day 5

Today is travel day from Switzerland to Nice and Monaco. So nothing too exciting to report just fun times on the bus and just went thru Italy actually to get to Nice so spoke some Italian and by spoke I mean read the sign that I assumed meant salad and kinda retardedly pointed. Either way i got my food so i was happy! So thats really it for now! Tonight is casino night at monte carlo, AMPED! Cannot wait to get my james bond on woohoo.

Some random side note comments:

The person who I am roomed with is Tamika and she is a teacher in Tasmania. SO many teachers on this trip like about 15. Because its all their school holidays so its a good time for them to come. A few students in the same situation as me and some that are just mid uni and wanted a holiday. Strangely enough im the only one here for like a decent amount of time. Everyone else is just here for the contiki then off home or possibly a few days in London either side. So everyones quite interested in my travels so far so im like this veteran traveller at present haha. Hmm well i think thats all to report. NEED to try and do this more often so im not struggling to remember everything ive been doing. Sweet, until next time xxx

A Welsh Christmas

Okay so this was written on the 30th of Dec only just getting to upload it now!

WALES

So I have been in Wales for the last 8 nights and it has been so so nice to spend time with family. I arrived here on the 22^nd and am writing this on the train back to London. Soo where to start... Well most of the time here I have just been chilling and hanging with the fam and I have to say nothing beats that even a night out in Paris. Watching lots of Friends and eating lots of chocolate – Dave swain is the worst influence ever. When he picked me up from the airport he just cranked a whole packet out the inside pocket of his jacket casually, its always stored away somewhere on him. So naturally one of my Christmas presents was a whole huge dairy milk block yummm. Aside from our many games of Ps and As (reigning champion if we don’t count last night which im deciding that we don’t) and Cluedo we had many nice dinners. One at Gwens caths sister in law – amazing food she is French so im assuming that means makes delicious food because that was just amazing. That night we exchanged some pressies and played some rock band on wii which is actually so fun. Then on Christmas we had more present exchanges and then a delicious dinner cooked by Cath with her parents which was also amazing. Then on boxing day uncle david and I went to see phantom of the opera at the millennium centre which was so cool, really glad i got to see a show here the whole thing was just so well done and really good singers/actors. Apparently the guy running it is like “the guy” in terms of west end musicals so pretty cool. Then we did a bit of a sight seeing day and went to st Fagans which is like all these old houses from 17^th to 19^th Century which have been moved to this one site. Really interesting to see how people would have lived in those times ranging from the well off to the super poor. And interesting to see their methods of cooking etc. Then the next day we went on a day trip to Bath. LOVED bath. So pretty. Went to see the roman baths which were also so interesting. So the baths were all excavated 200 years ago when people realised there was like a whole town under the city. You could see how the romans would have used the baths back in roman times it was unlike anything ive seen before. And the whole town was just really pretty all yellow stone buildings. Yesterday we went shopping in Cardiff which was nice bought my one item from Wales which was a red woollen jersey cheap and good quality. Got to experience my one night out in Cardiff last night and I was impressed! Had some drinks at Joe’s student house before heading out which is always where the most fun is had. Converted Ps and As into a drinking game which i can report back doooesnt really work since everyone is too competitive to want to drink and lose their concentration and since i was losing i wasn’t exactly amping on the game as im sure you can understand. Anyway we headed out spent the night at one bar which was just too fun to leave lots of old 90s music that reminded us so much of bach times and family stuff. So cool to have a night out with Joe bron dan and chloe and a couple of their friends. Danza is officially named the human dustbin amongst the welsh they are astonished at how much he can eat and given he had 22 chicken nuggets as a casual after town snack last night i can understand this name. Anyway im now headed back to London to stay one night then the contiki starts tomorrow! Having dinner with larissa tonight which will be nice to catch up on the last few weeks. Until next time!