Baby Hammerheads

Melbourne Aquarium is currently home to baby Hammerhead sharks. Sounds adorable right, so of course we had to go and see them.

The Aquarium doesn't change much, so it was a quick tour around until we hit the new exhibition. The baby Hammerheads were in a little netted off section of the big shark tank. (So they are hard to photograph) The scareist looking shark they have in the tank is called Mitchell. He is a Grey Nurse and is around 3m long. But it is those eyes of empy death that make him look scary. They have a "show/talk" called Sharks after Dark, where they turn off all the lights in the walkway and round room of the shark tank and an aquarium worker gives a talk about the sharks and various other fishspotlighting them with a torch. It was informative and fun even if it was directed at little people.

GB and I love doing these kinds of things. And after our "holiday of Awesome" we agreed that we should try and have more days were we behave like tourists in our own town.

Holgate Brewhouse

What happens when you get 5 couples together and head off to a brewery for the night. You would

expect the rest of the post to be full of debauchery and lewd photos to prove it. Alas, no.

GB and I had talked about going to this particular Brewery for the night for at least a year. You can imagine the anticipation when we finally got around to organising it. This perhaps contributed to the feeling of being slightly let down.

The Brewhouse was a big old pub. The sight of it on the corner of the main street of Woodend was filled with promise. The atmosphere was kind of like a pub but I am not sure if they were trying to be something else. It just didn't have a great feel to it.
But this is how I would sum it up: The beer was good. The food sucked. The rooms were great.







But once you take away all of that, it was a good night spent in good company.

It is done.

Today has been the worst day in my own head in a very long time. It has been exactly 4 days of feeling great. Now I am back to being very unhappy. With everything.

They say that when you are in an heightened emotional state, it is not the time for making big decisions. That it is emotionally immature to do that.

But I say poo to that. I am going to make a couple. Actually I have already had these decisions going on in my head for a very long time. I think I am now just brave enough to say it.

I am going back to Spain. But I am going to learn Spanish properly before I do. And that is all I am going to concentrate on this year.

I really thought I would have had a dog to look after, a house to save for and an engagement party to plan. But it appears those things are not happening. So I am making a promise to myself right here and now that this year is for me and me alone.

I will strive in my health goals, money and education. I will not let anyone distract me with bullshit and empty time wasting.

I am 35 yrs old. I don't want to wait for anything anymore. I have waited long enough. Now I am just going to make things happen for me. No more procrastinating, living in my comfort zone.

Yes. This type of resolve makes me feel better. I feel like I can breathe again. I actually feel excited.

Thoughts

I just read one of my friend's blog and her last post struck a chord with me.  The questioning of oneself.  As much as it can make people who are self assessing a little more neurotic, I think it really is a necessary part of growing and changing.

There is no moment in life where changes are not on the way or just passed and being aware of where you are emotionally/mentally during these times help strengthen us. Not every one likes to look at themselves in this way - to think about such things. I just function that way.  

Makes it impossible to use the excuse "I don't know why I did that" for any of my behaviour.

There are things about myself that I don't particularly like at the moment (and have been there for a very very long time) but I am working on them.  I am trying to become a better person. My version of what I think would make me a better person, not someone else's vision.  That is all one can do.

Some of the best people I know are too hard on themselves.  And I find it hard to reach out and let them know that I think they are the bees knees. 

The Holiday of Awesome

We have been back in Country for 2 months. Heh, I like the way that makes me sound like I am a constant traveller, a nomad. It is not true. It had been over 12 years since my last real overseas holiday and I had never done one like this before.

Destination: Paris > Avignon > Toulouse > Andorra > Madrid > Granda >Valencia >Barcelona

There are many positives about holidays, not having to trudge to work everyday is right up there for me. Then the obvious ones come to mind. Experiencing a different culture, even the ones that are only slightly different to ours. Seeing the most amazing buidings from a history that seems beyond us as a such new Country. The animals and plants that are unique to their environments. The food!

I found that GB and I's approach to the holiday was pretty similar, perhaps why we had such a great time in each others company, we wanted to see the architecture and the great tourist must-sees, we wanted to taste all the food. From the corner store Croque Monsieur to a fine meal . Then there was all the beer, oh so cheap, and I gave the sentence "un vasso de vino de la casa, por favor" a good go aswell.

And it was the best time that I have ever had.

Disneyland Paris

The happiest place on earth! Disneyland Paris is a short 30 min train ride from the centre of Paris (and our hotel). Even though it appeared to be school holidays we picked the right time to go to the place where MAGIC happens.

Having never experienced anything like Disneyland before, it was a wonderment for the senses. When the train of characters come by loud fun music sounds from speaks all over the park alerting the crowds to the trains presence. Everyone stops and waves at the characters and dances to the fun music and it is like a mini party that follows the train around the park.

We headed out of town square (the entrance) into Frontierland where I was scared by the doorman at the Haunted Manor. Expectation of being scared can be enough but when I went to raise the knocker on the front door and the doorman loudly tsked me - I wasn't expecting it. He was amused how spooked I was already and the ride hadn't even started. GB assured me it was the same ride from when he had gone years before with his father. Pretty impressive considering the sets and design etc are pretty old.

From there it was to the first roller coaster of the day "Big Thunder Mountain". Turns out I quite like roller coasters so I dragged GB's reluctant bottom to the Indiana Jones and the temple of peril coaster, where GB experienced his first 360 degree inversion on a roller coaster. It was pretty scary actually :). Some of the other highlights of the day: "Space Mountain" and "Pirates of the Caribean" and of course the "Mad Hatters Tea Cups" All the rides that I had heard about.

All the buildings and rides are so detailed. There really is so much to take in. And don't forget the gift shops. It was like they were an evil virus replicating itself and taking over the park.

Incredibly fun day and worth every euro we spent on it.

Afterwards we had some administration do to. ie: plan tomorrows events, as we grow closer to the end of the Paris leg of the journey we are both aware that we are not going to be able to fit everything in that can be done. And then there was the small issue of finding another hotel. Turns out that the hotel of awesome that I booked for the first 4 nights is booked out from Saturday onwards. So we are moving from just behind the Lourve to closer to Gare De Lyon in a couple of days.

Tomorrow we have some Basillicas and cathedrals to attend to.

I think both GB and I miss Paris already and we haven't even left!

Mont Saint Michel

Today GB and I got on a bus to travel a round trip of 9 hours to reach the border of Normandy and Brittany. The day started with us being told off by a stern french lady at the tour guide office for being late and the gentleman running the tour. GB seems slightly amused to be roused on in French. I just feel roused on.

Between the river and the sea that borders the two regions (Normandy and Brittany) was a pyramid of rock, upon this rock "they" built an amazing Abbey/Monastery and later a small village. On the top spire, which stands over 80 metres off the ground is the Archangel Michael. It was one of the places that pilgrims risked their lives to reach, to guarantee their place in paradise. To my surprise, the lady narrating the tour advised that one of the dangers in getting to this place on foot was quick sand. I really didn't expect it to be there. I thought that stuff only existed in exotic jungle locations.

It wasn't surprising that our tour group was made up of Japanese, Americans and Australians. And it wasn't surprising that everyone lived up to their stereotype. The Americans were annoying and complained about everything, the Japanese were quiet, polite and took endless video and photos. The other Australians on the trip turned out to be slightly annoying also. But spending 14 hours with strangers can often lead to one being very much in need of some alone time.

We had lunch at a hotel restaurant about 1km away from the base of the "Mont". It was quite surreal dining with such an awe inspiring and impressive backdrop. Normandy is famous for cheese and for cider, a very happy combination. This was served for lunch, both GB and I seemed to be the only enthusiastic consumers of the refreshment provided.

The tour lasted about 2 hours where we wandered through the different levels of the Abbey and were told of the history behind it all. I am really glad that we ended up doing a guided tour for this one. I think the learning in-depth history while we were there made it even more special, to know that it was used as a Bastille (gaol) for over a century around the time of the French Revolution. Also that different levels of the Abbey were for different classes of people. The clergy and noble class being able to occupy the higher levels and the pilgrims and working class civilians relegated to the dark chambers below.

GB and I got to touch stone walls that were erected before even the bloody Poms were sent to our shore. Something that I am sure all Australians find overwhelming when traveling is the immense history of places in Europe. The little village is namely made up of tourist shops and restaurants. There are 100 permanent inhabitants of the village. It is very quaint and they would make a pretty darn good living on the folk who come to visit this centuries old magnificent wonder and then spend $ for all the little trinkets to remember their trip by. It was also the first time I had to pay to use the toilet. 40 euro cents!! GB discovered Croque Monsieur and has now vowed to eat one every day we remain in Paris.

I even got to touch the North Atlantic Ocean.

Today was just amazing.

For now we are sitting in our hotel room, updating our photos, drinking wine from plastic tumblers and eating the left over strawberries from our picnic yesterday. It feels so very indulgent. Paris has won our hearts. I think both of us would consider moving here for a year or two.

We'll always have Paris

It is 19:39 (7:39pm) in Paris and it is the end of day 2 of our trip. I am sitting on the bed in our hotel room. It is pretty noisy - the metro station is 4 metres away and the Rue de Rivoli is the next street up, very busy. But it is the bustle of city life that fills the room and it is surprisingly not annoying. Certainly not as bad as GB snoring :)

Today we got up at a reasonable time but because of the lack of internets it was a slow start. Once you become reliant on instant information on all things, when you don't have it, well it makes you pause for a second and wonder how people got by in the olden days :P After we got our "merde" together we headed out to find a cafe. Managed to find one with a guy willing to try and interact with dirty English speaking people. In saying that all the people that we have come across have been more than willing to try and understand us. No one has been outright rude. It appears that the French or at least the Parisians are balking at the stereotype and being polite if not friendly.

After our cafe experience we headed to Rue Montorgueil where there was an abundance of awesomeness, namely in the form of food. We bought some fruit, cheese, olives and bread for our picnic lunch we had in Luxembourg Gardens. Yes I know. I was pinching myself. This street is full of beautiful food stores selling fresh and ready to eat foods. What I noticed most about the place and Paris in general is that there food shops sell food that is ripe and ready to eat today. The punnets of strawberries are spectacular - it is almost like they go through them by hand and only put out the best produce that can be eaten on the spot. There is no unripe stuff you buy to take home. It really is about shopping day to day and getting the best produce when it is ready to be consumed. And because of that everything taste amazing.

After Le Jardin Luxumbourg we headed out to the Catacombs. It is kind of hard to explain what it is like down there. So basically the French decided that their cemeteries were too full and taking up too much space, so they transported all the bones to this underground tunnel system. I actually don't have to vocabulary or the way with words sufficient to describe what it is like, it is a maze of tunnels with hundreds of thousands if not millions of peoples skeletons stacked into piles - they even make patterns out of how they stack the bones. Very overwhelming and hard to comprehend the enormity of it. I was surprised that it didn't smell like decay. There was a slight odour at the entrance as you walked down a spiral staircase into the depths but afterwards nothing notable.

Today GB and I worked out how to use the Metro (train system) which enabled us then to get home and bypass a bar that may become our local while in Paris. We had several drinks there before returning to our hotel via the supermarket or Marche FranPrix :) I like going to the supermarkets because there is just enough interaction that I get to speak very little French and not anymore that I get out of my depths. I say good morning or afternoon (Bonjour etc) and then Merci Auvoir at the end - makes me feel like I am getting along ok :) Today I was asked for directions by French people twice. The second time the guy looked at GB and then me and decided to ask me the question. I told GB that was because he looked like a Kraut and I looked French :P But it made be feel good. I am not too fat to be French!!! I have not seen one overweight French person yet. I am sure they exist - I just have not seen any. All the french people seem to be slim with brown hair.

Tomorrow we are getting up very early to head off on a tour of Mont Saint Michel. Apparently you can only get to this Abbey at certain times of the day depending on the tides. We are taking a bus tour as it is a bit of a distance from Paris and no real train line to get there. I am a bit excited about it. From the pics I have seen online it is a sight and a half.

The history of this place is probably the thing that is the most awe inspiring for both GB and I. Touching walls and walking on street that were built before we had a federation is quite amazing. They seem to maximise what space they have. So many apartments. I haven't seen a free standing house, but the apartments are all just beautiful and some have the most stunning gardens in them. And there parks are all set up for people to come and hang out. What I noticed most about the Le Jardin Luxembourg is that they were set up to be enjoyed and used. So many chairs and benches provided for people to gather and hang out in the park.

We have so much that we want to fit in - we are probably going to extend our stay in Paris past the 5 days and make it 7 and skim off a day or two somewhere else. It is hard because we haven't been to the other places yet to know whether it is worth it or not.

WE ARE IN LOVE WITH PARIS

The holiday of awesome begins

Friendly Qatar Airlines ferried our incredibly excited butts from Melbourne to Paris via a small stop over in Doha airport.

Left Melbourne around 22:00, landed in Doha around 06:30 and it was already 32 degrees. Lucky they had all air conditioners turned up to 11, even on the bus. So much so that everything was wet with condensation. It was icky and cool. We should arrive in Paris early afternoon.

The flights over were not so bad, although the last couple of hours were the hardest. The person that was sitting next to me on the 14 hour leg moved seats so GB and I had a 3 seater to ourselves - but stupidly the arm rests didn't go all the up so you couldn't really take advantage of the extra space. The service on Qatar seemed ok, certainly nothing to complain about - if you don't include the stupidity of the other passengers. Doha airport is small and I am now dreading the 6hr layover we have there. Might have to see if we can pay to get into the good bit of it. Doha from what we could see flying over and from the airport looked incredible. Sand everywhere, buildings grouped into compounds - just amazing.

15:00 arrived in Paris. Had a passport check but no customs to go through. The airport seemed huge but not as busy as I expected. I also think that perhaps I was in a bit of an adrenaline fog from the sheer joy I was feeling of being there at last.

Paris airport > Train to Gare de Nord > on foot to the Hotel Flor Rivolli

Our Hotel is in a fantastic location, room is small and accessed via a narrow spiral staircase that I am sure will be responsible for one of us ended up in a neck brace.
..................

Last night after we had showers we headed to the Pompidou Centre and had a drink on the rooftop terrace bar. It was amazing. Very romantic! The view is said to be the best in Paris. I could see Notre Dame, the Effiel Tower light show and all the way to the Sacre Cour.

On the way there we happened by Saint Merry, where they were having an art show, it was quite amazing, we want to try and find it again today to check out some of the paintings in daylight.

We then walked up to check out the Lourve at night. I think both GB and I are a little overwhelmed sometimes when we realise the stone walls we are touching are older than anything we have touched before. I must say that the evening paints a very different picture of Paris. They know how to light their buildings to make them look magnificent. Even streets that looked a bit dodgy in daylight all of a sudden look fun.