Euro Star takes me far.

It’s funny waking up in the morning and thinking “I’m going to be in Paris this afternoon.” Yet, the journey thus far has not been as easy as one may expect.
After my morning jog, skypeing my parents, eating a big bowl of cereal and ripping my dress, we popped in the car and headed to London where we would catch the 12:20 Euro Star train to Paris.

While the bustle of unbelievably stacked traffic and several roadwork creating several detours to our plans started to work at the patience of the passengers in our Europ hire car, all seemed somewhat insignificant when my eyes laid upon the sight of police tape, a truck, a mangled bike and the presence of a black bag.

Running for our train with 15 kilogram bags didn’t seem like much of an issue afterwards. In fact, I felt quite alive and slightly like a pregnant woman (which is a situation I have not had a chance in experiencing thus far). Laughing practically the whole way, we arrived in time to board our train.
Now brings me to the present (at the time of writing it was the present, however now that I am posting it on the internet it is in fact yesterday) where I am sitting on a train looking out of a big window to the view of the French countryside. Red roofs on white houses, big luscious green fields neighbouring with contrasting big golden brown fields and tractors are common scenes in which keep unfolding. Occasionally, we pass a stunning looking church.

As I sit in this ear popping train, I am slightly struck by life, adventure and the thrilling thought of the unknown.
I love arriving in a new country, walking out of the train station and seeing this as my first picture of Paris:

After walking more than 1 kilometre, Alice, Izzy, Gina, Fraser and I arrived at our french apartment where we would be staying for our nights in Paris. After annoyances with the lock and 4 flights of stairs (which now looking down are quite beautiful) we walked into our apartment and this is what we saw:

After settling in we were all keen to have a look around our area of Paris. Stopping at a cafe near our place we all celebrated with champagne and beer. It was so amazing listening in to another language. Even though most of us couldn't understand much french, a rush of excitement hit that we were indeed in PARIS. 

We continued on and decided that a baguette from the boulangerie, cheese, ham, butter and jam from the fromagerie and some wine would be great for a snack. 

Our snack became dinner due to over-excitement.
Our tummies then took us to a little restaurant just down the lane, where we delighted in nougat, chocolate mousse, creme broulee, apple tart and ice-cream. Apparently we were going to do food here right. 
Alice and I head off after that to a bar down the road. After an expensive (shit) glass of rose, we wandered on until we reached a cute african theme type bar. It wasn't before too long that I felt my eyes droop and we walked back to the apartment. 


Now brings me to today. This morning, Alice and I woke to Izzy saying "we got croissants, a baguette and nutella." A beautiful breakfast, enjoyed also by Clancy:

Today brought many orgasmic scenes to my eyes (the artist side of me was in heaven). Walking the whole 9ish kilometres we weaved through the Parisian streets visiting the Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, a couple of cafes and many unnamed (or forgotten by me) buildings which probably have massive importance and history...but I just enjoyed the architectural significance today. Take a squiz at today's pictures: 

Baked Beans on Toast

I have been rather busy these last few days. Friday saw myself, Tamsin, Olivia and Alice lying underneath one big umbrella next to a resort type pool on a 40 degree day. The sun was so warm on our skin, and the pool was a perfect temperature. However, after about 10 minutes, the sun was a little, erm too warm, but luckily we were equipped with some sunscreen. Later after bathing in the sun's glory, we started to get the house ready for the party that Tamsin and Olivia were having for us. With Lea buying 4 slabs of Heineken, the walls now being very clean and the music ready to go, The Sheikh himself would be happy with the outcome (funny enough, a Sheikh friend of Tamsin and Olivia did come to the party). 

The party was great, with the ring of fire and good ol' aussie beer pong providing much entertainment. Alice and I met some lovely people, with many repeating over and over "Australians are just so nice!"

The next day saw hard times, with early rising and a plane to catch for Alice and I. 8 hours, 4 disney movies, 1 episode of friends and a game of tetris later Alice and I had arrived in England at Heathrow airport. It was a beautiful concrete grey outside and true English weather awaited us. 

Our temporary residence lies with Alice's mum's boyfriend's parent's house in a town called Fleet. A bit of a mouthful I know, but it has been very lovely with Cris and Pauline providing very comfy cozy accommodation and non stop food and drink (our first meal being baked beans and grilled cheese on toast).

Myself and Alice have kept our running up, and we have ran the last few chilly mornings. On Sunday, after our refreshing run and the massive cooked breakfast that was provided for us, we ventured to Windsor where we walked and walked around the beautiful (I am not sure really whether you would call it a town or a village..., I'll just call it a 'town-village') town-village. Windsor was beautiful, with the castle in the middle providing an exquisite centre for the town-village. Once again, it is really impossible to describe such sights in words, so, to make my job a lot easier, here are some snaps:

Stopping at a french cafe, we met Yvette who was a very nice change from previous English work-women and men who tend to be very disinterested. There, we had our daily coffee (I still feel quite lethargic in the evenings and caffeine tends to give me the 'pick me up' that I need). Continuing further we set our sights on a satyr. Sitting happily, the satyr was placed on the outside of a house (I must admit, the statue did make me like the house a lot more). Later on, I had my first English beer 'London Pride'. I didn't really have to much pride in London after tasting it to be honest.

Now I am up to Monday. Monday, we were quite adventurous. We had decided the night before that we wanted to go to Stonehenge, Salisbury and the 'forest' so at about 9am we took off on our journey making our first stop at Stonehenge. Now, we didn't actually see the point in going inside, paying extra and all for a mere few metres, so these pictures are from our view from behind the fence...Actually, you get a better view than we did, because we put our cameras over the fence...the fence that was too tall to see over. Stupid fence. 

Our next stop was to Salisbury, a medieval town. The Cathedral we visited was amazing, with cool looking gargoyles hanging off some of the outside walls. Our walk around Salisbury was very lovely with the architecture of the town providing amazing sights, one of my favorite pieces of architecture being where we stopped for lunch. A tall building with much character, with cute little windows made from small shards of glass surrounded by wood panels. Around the 16^th century, roughly Elizabethan times, the glass could not be blown into large shards due to the lack of technology.
Alice, Izzy and I shared a jacket potato, macaroni and cheese and a burger that lunch.

The new forest was our next destination that afternoon. It was not like Stonehenge, or Windsor which were popular tourist spots…no, it was quiet and our walk took us into the depths of the trees and shrubs where squirrels ran, deer grazed and horses got hoof deep stuck in thick English mud. For a moment, the chirping of birds and the slight sound of rustling were the only noises that could reach our ears.

Oh, and some friendly donkey's surrounded our car to say 'hi'.