PARIS- the romance capital

After navigating through the public transport system from Charles de Gaulle airport, we found our hostel and were pleasantly surprised!!! For the first time we had our OWN bathroom!!!! SOO exciting to not have to wear thongs in the shower =)

My time in Paris has been thoroughly enjoyable. I feel it has been a very well-balanced stay, having both enough time to see what I wanted to see and just chill out.

Highlights:

- Ascending the Eiffel Tower to the very top level!!! WOW!
- Standing on the Arc de Triomphe watching the chaos unfold on an 8 lane roundabout that appears to have no rules.
- Slipping and sliding our way up the stairs to Sacre Cuer whilst in the middle of a snow storm. All very fun.
- Also enjoyed looking inside Notre Dame and simply wandering the streets and taking it all in.
- Dinner out for Jordan's birthday
- Being joined by Katie, Stevo and Tim from Rochedale, as well as Dorothea from Germany for New Years!!! What a fun night!!! We spent most of it having a bit of a party in Room 1 of Hotel Liberty and then madly made our way to a vantage point to see the Eiffel Tower light up at 12. Unfortunatley, those of you who were watching TV would have seen more fireworks than we did because the eiffel tower had none, but i'm told by my dad that the Arc de Triomphe did... oh well. We saw plenty of DIY fireworks along the riverbank where we stood.
- Ellie and Jordan taking me out to dinner last night
- First time ever using a Laundromat (paid 7 euros for 1 load washed and dried- that's about 11 dollars, same amount I have just paid for 2 hours on the internet... pretty shocking: bring on Turkey and Thailand!!!! PLEASE!!!)
-Talking to mum, dad and Nishan for extended periods of time because we have a phone in our room and because we are stationed in one place for a decent amount of time
- Looking forward to dinner out tonight to farewell Kizzie, leaving us tomorrow =(, and then a trip to see the Moulin Rouge which will be fun =), esepcially after watching it in French the other night! We have had so much fun picking up the French words. Our favourite phrase is "Wee Wee", said in multiple tones to indicate either excitement, agreement or that one is impressed with what they are seeing or hearing. We also know how to excuse ourselves when we run into ppl or are in the way (happens when you'rein a big group), as well as greeting people and thanking them. Overall, our experience with the Parisians has been extremely positive. They are very friendly and willing to help us when they realise that we are actually trying to communicate in their language =)

The plan from here: We pick up the car at the airport tomorrow and then head off in to the French countryside. We have a very loose plan of where we're headed so we'll see where we end up =) All I know is we're doing a bit of France (mainly the Loire Valley), then Belgium, then Italy and then we give the car back. No doubt we have PLENTY more adventures ahead of us!!

I hope you all had a fantastic New Year and are looking forward to the adventures that 2006 will bring you. I know 4sure that this year will be one full of adventures and plenty of change for me personally and for my family. I'm pretty sure I'm ready for it, or at least I will be by the time I get back =) Love to you all. Anisia xoxox