J'adore Paris

September 5 - September 8

Day One

We arrived in Paris at Grand de Nord station in the morning after a lovely night sleep on the train (compared to the one we had from Budapest to Rome).

We hopped into a taxi and then arrived at the Victor Masse Hotel, way to early obviously to check-in.

We stored our backpacks away and off we were to one of the most visited museums in the world…Musée du Louvre. 

It was my second time, and J’s first, I wondered if he would be as overwhelmed as I did on that first visit, or underwhelmed due to how small Leonardo da Vinci’s painting the Mona Lisa (La Giaconda) actually is.

Once we received our map and an electronic guide (a Nintendo 3DS), we worked out exactly what we wanted to see (we took our time) we did have a few hours to kill before we could check-in and have a hot shower.

The first floor is where you find: Mona Lisa, The Winged Victory of Samothrace and The consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I.

The most interesting art piece and what J and I spent most of our time looking at was; The consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I, it gives a specific insight into French history and is a beautiful painting.

Then it was down to the ground floor to check out the vast collection of Egyptian and Greek antiquities. 

The most famous being that the sculpture of Aphrodite or otherwise known, the ‘Venus de Milo.’

The sculpture of 'Venus de Milo' in the Louvre

And then there is an actual mummy, by far one of the coolest and oldest things I think I’ve ever seen.

You could almost imagine you were standing in Egypt, shadowed by the Pyramids (another dream adventure of mine).

Then on to the Lower Ground Floor where we delved into medieval Louvre history and walked around the original standing walls.

Once we finished looking around the collections we came to see, it was time for lunch.

J and I didn’t have to wander far, the Louvre boasts a great cafeteria, with many lunch favourites.

Plus they have three-course meal deals: with a main, entrée and dessert.

After we found which exit to take out of the museum, one of my wishes came true, to eat macaroons in Paris. 

As the Louvre complex is home to a Lauderée store, where I bought four for J and I: rose, chocolate, salted caramel and violet.

We were able to eat them when we reached the Arc di Triomphe, or as I like to remember it, as the craziest round about I’ve ever seen. 

J witnessed for his first time, the infamous round about, where the drivers as they drove around were taking their lives into their own hands; while we munched on the macaroons.

From the Arc di Triomphe we headed down Champs-Élysées, whilst singing to ourselves 'Parlez-vous Francais' by Art vs Science…

“The Champs-Elysees is a busy street.
We getting down with everyone we meet.
If you understand, then listen to me:
Si'l vous plait ma cherie allez tombez la chemise…”

J was impressed that Champs-Élysées was home to the car showrooms, so of course we then went into Renault, Toyota and BMW, which I have to admit were interesting, especially reading about the new technologies they’ve come up with and seeing shiny new expensive cars.

Eventually it was time to head back to the hotel, where we were able to check-in. 

Not knowing where to go to eat a lot of the time while we were traveling, we had started relying on tripadvisor.com for suggestions as well as discovering our own.

So after relaxing a bit in our room, one of the reviews we read was on a restaurant in Montmatre for a fondue restaurant Les refuge des fondus.

A small restaurant with just two long communal tables lining both sides, after being greeted by an eccentric man (whom we guessed to be the owner), we were then guided to our seats where I was offered his hand to climb up on to the seat so I could hop over the table to the opposite seat. 

By far one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had whilst dining, especially being sat next two total strangers and then the ‘owner’ bluntly asks what wine you would like: white or red, then basically tells you will be having cheese fondue.

It was a recipe for a relaxing and enjoyable environment. 

Though we weren’t ready for the experience of drinking our wine out of baby bottles (it makes for hilarious photos). 

We sat next to two Argentinean guys and a Canadian couple (who later gave us their card and told us to come visit them one day at their B and B in Venezuela).

After finally having had enough wine and cheese fondue (which surprisingly fills you up) we decided to walk up to the top of Montmatre and sit and look at the view from Basilica of the Sacré Coeur, where we kindly bartered with Pakistani men for some cheap 250ml bottles of Heineken and sat and enjoyed our first night in Paris.

Day Two

We woke up and decided crepes were the go for breakfast, because we were so close, we headed back up to Montmatre near the restaurant we ate at last night and sat down at a café opposite.

J and I both having ham and cheese crepes, J’s slightly heartier with a fried egg to top his off. 

Then we went back to Pigalle Metro station and caught the train to go visit my favourite cathedral; Notre Dame.

It was as beautiful as last time, and J thought it was pretty spectacular as well. 

After walking around Notre Dame and after I had taken a million photos we walked across the road and had a look at a Holocaust Memorial.

Then we walked across the bridge, a romantic bridge all covered in padlocks, similar to ones we had already seen in Berlin, Prague and in Verona. 

Walking around the Latin Quarter, where were trying to find a bookshop I had wanted to visit last time, but never got the chance; Shakespeare and Company.

A bookshop I had been curious about for some time, for its interesting history and the people connected to it by the written word.

We walked around the bookshop; looking at books, looking at messages left by customers and other travellers, listened to someone playing the piano and then we played a game of chess.

We came out with a couple of books: J with an edition of The Game of Thrones and I had bought Paris Without End: The True Story About Hemmingway’s First Wife.

J and I then enjoyed delicious cakes at a patisserie around the corner from the bookshop. 

The cakes at the patisserie around the corner from Shakespeare and Company

After heading back to hotel to get changed for dinner, J had found another gem on tripadvisor.com; La Billebaude restaurant.

We spoilt ourselves with a 100 Euro bottle of wine and a three-courses each including one of the most scrumptious desserts we have ever had; soufflé ice-cream.

Just around the corner from the restaurant was Le tour de Eiffel.

La Billebaude restaurant

We only had time to walk up to the halfway viewpoint before having to descend all those stairs, because we were off to see the Moulin Rouge.

We hailed a cab, because we thought it would be quicker, needless to say, we arrived to a massive hour-long line-up to get in to the Moulin Rouge (even though we had pre-purchased tickets).

What a show though, it was worth the wait.

Majority of the costumes were spectacular, though J and I both agreed that it may not be worth the money you spend; when you consider you have to share a table with other people and some of the costumes and songs were a bit stuck in the 80’s and we did go there expecting a bit more 1920’s Paris. 

Though it was brilliant we were expecting it to be a bit more ‘va va voom.’

But what a second day!

The Moulin Rouge

Notre Dame

Day Three

We repeated our breakfast routine with crepes at the café at Montmatre; we then relaxed for the rest of our last day in Paris.

Starting with a visit to the Oz Café to watch the NRL semi-finals; Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs versus Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, and enjoyed the company of some fellow Aussie boys watching the game.

We headed back near that restaurant La Billebaude (from last night) where the street around the corner is home to patisseries, butchers, grocers and wine stores. 

J and I went crazy and probably ended-up purchasing the most expensive picnic hamper ever down that street, but we had bought: roast chicken, fresh baguette (an award winning one), camembert and delicious French cakes. 

What a treat. It was extremely romantic (not for the faint hearted), sitting under the Eiffel Tower, under the warmth of the summer sun. 

We were so full, that we both nearly fell asleep.

Around 7pm J and I met under the Eiffel Tower again for the Fat Tyre Bike night tour around Paris.

It was a great idea, it was so refreshing and I get such a buzz from riding around busy European cities. 

The highlight for J and I was the stop at Berthillon, an ice-cream shop, in close proximity to Notre Dame, where the group stopped enjoying the ice-cream while the sun was going down.

The bike tour ended with a boat cruise on the Seine, where we enjoyed wine that the tour guide had brought for the trip; a great way to soak up our remaining moments in the enchanting city.

The Eiffel Tower at night time

Real Madrid

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September 3 – September 4

After having drank those pitchers of sangria in Barcelona, once we arrived in Madrid and at Mad Hostel, we made sure to find the bar (conveniently around the corner from our room) and drank some more.

Why not, we were in Spain.

Slowly the small terrace bar started filling up with its thirsty guests enjoying the afternoon sun, cheap beer and those pitchers of sangria.

J and I were minding our own business reading and writing. When both of our ears pricked, not with the exciting conversation, but the many Aussie accents filling the air.

J and I had been travelling for nearly a month and had not come across any Australians, New Zealanders, yes. But no Aussies, they were a warm welcome.

We eventually worked up the courage and asked if we could join the six or so other backpackers who had all formed into one big group.

After learning all their names and where they were all from, we had decided we’d all do a bar crawl the hostel was offering that night.

We were there for the night, ‘what the hell’ we thought.

The ‘getting to know’ conversations with everyone lead us to know they had all basically travelled around the same way (with Busabout) and had all just come from Valencia.

Travelling in the same circle, and who also later joined the growing group on the terrace, was none-other than a well-known Aussie comedian: Josh Thomas.

Poor him being stuck with that many Aussies, whom all just about knew who he was, probably gave him a fright.

So from the Mad Hostel, we followed two Gold Coast girls to the Cats Hostel where the Mad City Pub Crawl started at 11pm.

Many shots were had, we met loads of other Australians, and after having way too much Vodka, the crawl began.

Basically all I remember is J running around the corner of one of the bars and returning with a kebab.

Well the next morning certainly reminded me of my trip around Europe with Topdeck.

After that particular night, we made sure to grab our stash of vegemite to have on toast.

We then decided to join Andrew and Lauren (a couple we met the night before) on the free walking tour of Madrid.

I will suggest to those who are trying to make that decision while travelling: don’t do a walking tour when you have a hangover!

The highlight of the walking tour was going into the oldest restaurant in the world, Restavrante Botin, opened since 1723 and learning about why Spanish people eat grapes to celebrate New Years Eve.

Once the tour had finished J and I returned to that same kebab shop as the night before with Andrew and Lauren for lunch.

Not being able to handle anything to strenuous such as more walking. We decided to wait our hangovers out in the common room at the hostel before it was time to leave to head to the train station for our second overnight train. This time bound for Paris, France.

A chef at work in Restavrante Botin.

The gardens of Vienna

August 17

We arrived in Vienna in the afternoon on Friday August 17. Unfortunately we were only spending the one night in the Austrian capital, because we liked what we saw on our stroll around the city that afternoon.

After asking the guy at reception at the A&O Wien Hostel where to find places to eat and where to find things to see during our one night there. We were off walking down a main road leading us to Vienna's old town. We finally came to exactly that, but what we felt were luxuriously ginormous versions of an old town. We walked past two beautiful twin buildings that make up Vienna's Natural History Museum and an art gallery. Then we came to the Imperial Palace, where we decided to sit on the grass with a few other people to take in the beautiful architectural surroundings.

Continuing on from the Imperial Palace we came to Volkren Park, a park full of rose gardens; where you can find roses of all sorts of different colours, with the beautiful summer rose scent.

Volkren Park then lead J and I out to stand infront of Vienna's Parliament House. A magnificent white structure, needless to say J was impressed with the look of the building.

After a fairly long walk, we needed to find the nearest McDonalds to use their bathroom, funnily enough McDonalds are very handy whilst travelling in Europe, for one. to use their toilets and two. wifi. Except we walked into this McDonalds and we needed a pin code to get into their toilets (as J and I didn't actually eat there, we hadn't obtained a pin). Lucky there was a lady needing to use the bathroom at the same time as us, (had to share this story because I've never come across that with any McDonalds over here before).

Walking back towards the Parliament House we came across stampede of people riding bicycles. In awe of how many people were joined in this protest or group(we weren't sure which), because Vienna is similar to most European countries and have bike paths throughout the city - though we didn't come across too many that day (probably because they were part of this group).

Waltzing back up the main road where we came from, past many little second-hand shops, we came to Model, a very hipster looking bar where I tried a delicious lemon flavoured mineral water, an Austrian brand of course, so there's no way I'd be able to get it back home. After our quick refresher, we found a restaurant tucked away up an alley way full of people (always a good sign of travelling). J and I both ate delicious home-made schnitzels (his pork, mine chicken of course) and I drank an orange version of the mineral water I had, had at the previous bar. Followed by chocolate crepes for desert; it was an awesome meal.

Then we strolled home, wishing we could've picnicked the next day in one of the many gardens of Vienna.

Volkren Garden

Summertime in Praha

Tuesday August 14 - Thursday August 16


The day Tuesday August 14, had been by the far the most stressful day of our trip. Let's start with our train ride from Warsaw to Prague, the train hadn't even reached the half way mark of the journey before we got told by Polish authorities that our Eurail global pass was not valid (which we learnt from Polish authorities on crossing the German border into Poland the couple of days before). So we ended up having to pay 220 zlotys for a train ticket to the border of Poland for both of us. We had only been given our train reservation ticket for the train ride from Warsaw to Prague, a separate ticket, we still had to use our Eurail pass from the border of the Czech Republic to Prague. We had never been told to pick up a separate ticket by anyone(travel agent included) for Poland.

Then when we arrived at Hotel Julian in Prague after our eight and a half hour train journey; we found our reservation wasn't until August 15, wow were we swearing at our travel agent in our heads. The lovely receptionist however gave us the last room for 112 euros for the night, and it happened to be the attic business suite, and we didn't have to move from there for our whole stay. 

Thank goodness! We then got into the room, and double checked all our train tickets and made sure they matched the nights we check into our hostels.

After a stroll the night before we were excited to see what the city of Praha had install for us. We headed in the direction of the embassies, to have a look at the John Lennon Wall, a dedication to the man who was an embodiment of love and peace for then teenagers growing up through Communism Prague. The wall was everything I expected, scrawling hand writing and paintings of John, accompanied by many tourists making their mark on history.

Strolling not much further than the wall, we came to a nearby park where we stopped to have a couple of chocolate pralines we'd bought from a shop moments before. The park gave such a great view of the Vltava river and the other side of Praha.

After walking further around the city, and across one of the many bridges, J and I noticed heaps and heaps of paddle boats on the river. We quickly found one on our side of the river, renting it for an hour. We paddled and relaxed under the midday sun. Having just come from Winter in Australia, we welcomed the heat and of course quickly applied sunscreen. It was a great afternoon activity(as touristy as it was), we had the breeze lifting off the river and got a panoramic view of the city.

We unfortunately we settled for lunch at La Taressa, a Spanish tapas bar. Though I had warned J about eating tapas, when we were just weeks out from actually being in Spain. We paid for the gorgeous view of the city and the overpriced food.

Later that night we entered the centre of the city, to go on a tour of Prague's microbreweries for 500 Koruna each. I hadn't realised the Czech Republic loved their beer so much, until I found out that night, they are the highest consumers of beer in the world; Australia didn't even make the cut last year. The tour began at the microbrewery Puazsky Most where we had two of our complimentary beers for the evening(one light and one dark). The dark one had the sweetest caramel notes of burnt sugar. The funny thing J and I have found out so far on our trip, is that you aren't served icy cold beer; there isn't even icicles on the beer taps like there is back home.

The second brewery Budweiser Budwar is where they actually sell the original Budweiser (not the American crap), the Czech Republic had invented it first. Tough we didn't try this Budweiser, J and I were very happy with the beer we tried there; one that had been stored in a wooden barrel and was red in colour, it was soon enough our favourite beer we had tasted thus far in Europe.

We finished the tour at Il tri ruzi, a newest microbrewery, where we tasted a golden light lager. Finishing our beers, we were given our 'free' beer guides, and J found soon enough the next microbrewery to visit. We headed off in the direction of The Pub with Australian, Daniel and Canadian, Rhiannon whom we spoke a lot to on our tour.

The Pub was quite an exceptional bar, as you could sit down at a table which had an electronic beer tap in the middle of table, so you could record and pour your own beer. You could also compete against the other tables, with a projected screen keeping tally. Unfortunately we never came a place, especially when we were up against a table of nine, who had drunk 40 beers by the time we had arrived.

Then you know beer turned to spirits, and J and I found ourselves walking across the Charles Bridge after midnight.

To be expected after that many beers(for me anyway) but I didn't feel too crash hot the next morning. So we ended up staying in the hotel till one, when we headed out to go up to the palace for a free walking tour.

The walking tour was lead by a bubbly local lady, who was excited to share her secrets about the city she called home. We started at a monument of Braha and Kiepel to astronomers hired by the king years ago that also called Prague home, then we made our way to the palace grounds while the tour guide continued sharing her local knowledge and secrets. Walking to the front of the palace, you notice what a great view of the city you have from being a little higher up. The guide shared the local legend about the crown jewels being cursed for anyone other than the King to wear them; wearing them could result in death. The only person in history to ever wear the crown jewels other than the king was Heidrich Himmler during the German occupation of the Czech Republic; he died a few months later(not that the Czech people were upset by that). The guide also loved sharing stories about former President of the Czech Republic, Havel. Whom the country are still mourning since he passed away last Christmas.

After our walking tour, we returned back to the hotel to change into warmer clothes; the weather changed from the perfect summer day to typical European weather. We then returned to Budweiser Budwar to eat dinner in the beer hall(I had beef goulash and J had roast chicken) and to drink one of those Budweisers. Well we ended up preferring the beer we tried the day before compared to this one, but thoroughly enjoyed our hearty dinner.

We ended the night packing our backpacks and getting ready for the next day, when we heard a few loud noises. Looked out our attic windows with the view of the city and saw a brilliant display of fireworks. Oh yes summertime in Prague!

The John Lennon Wall