Home Sweet Home

Hey all,

Due to myriad reasons, we have made the painstaking decision to come home early, despite which it has cost us an arm and a leg. I suppose due to a lack of thinking, at every fault of our own, and perhaps just being a little naïve about this whole travelling idea.

Adam is such a comfort zone person, that the thought of travelling has thrown his entire existence, which inevitably lead to constant negativity and ‘I wanna go home’ – which eventuated in our return back to Melbourne this September’s Father’s Day.

And, I suppose, out of my own flaws, such as impulsive spending and a retail addiction, and being as stubborn as a bull – ‘I wont let this skin condition stop me from doing anything’ – which, again, inevitably it did.

So to all those who loyally read our blogs and flicked through our copious pictures, we will be seeing you all again soon in the fantastic Melbourne.

We have had such a brilliant experience. We have both learnt so much, about ourselves; about life and just how culture cannot be changed, no matter how idealistic you are; about each other – we certainly know where egg shells and concrete flooring lay; about being an adult, being independent and having only yourself at times to rely on – no one to place the blame, to carry the entire brunt of burden on your own two shoulders, and to realise your limits – if you can’t do it, you can’t do it. I guess in terms of cultures, having a more solid understanding and education of it can make you more impartial to it, which in turn has made us realise how amazing our lives are back home, and that we have to take responsibility for our actions, and to create a life for ourselves – no one else can make it happen but yourself.

We have seen such amazing things, things some people will never get to see in their entire lives, and will never be able to comprehend the appreciation for being able to see these things. We have discovered so much about life – travelling is just so thought provoking that we will be coming home with new found appreciations, interests, respects, and hobbies too!

We have seen some things that have truly impacted our lives, and our thoughts and feelings. You walk past a beggar on the street – a woman, with two toddlers, and breastfeeding a new born. You see stray animals in the streets, and a cat has just given birth to a dozen kittens, all of which will be neglected. We have seen some cultures where there is a complete lack of care and respect for other people – like taking a penny from a person who is only worth a penny, and being satisfied that they are now 1 penny richer. And we complain about our mobile phones not working, or that there is no guest kitchen in the hostel so we have to eat out all the time. Its like our travelling was a complete walking contradiction. The entire experience of our travels we have come to call ‘the plastic cutlery lifestyle’, meaning we eat with plastic cutlery; we live out of a suitcase; we wear the same clothes because washing machine facilities cost 12 euro; we find bliss and pleasure in brushing our teeth; we have dry, brown feet from walking in thongs on dusty roads; we complain of the exhausting heat and insatiable hunger whilst strolling though a German concentration camp; we complain about our budget 4 euro steaks are undercooked; and we get annoyed when the tap water tastes bad, and riddled with disease that we have to spend 20 Dirham for a bottle of water. And all the while, we see people on our travels, which are far less fortunate than us, which we turn a blind eye to – you have to. It kills us, but you have to. There is just so much poverty and heartbreaking conditions of living, that you just cannot stop to help – it is something, I think, all travellers have come to do. But at the end of the day, as contradicting as it all is, it makes us appreciate how amazing our life is at home – and something we should never take as a given or for granted.

But I think most importantly, we have shared the experience together, and we have helped each other. We would always be at opposite ends of the dichotomy – always there to pick the other up, and catch them when they fall. And out of this, we both have obtained a very personal, independent and individual perception of our own lives, and now our futures seem so much clearer. It is nice to see clear goals, dreams and aspirations ahead of us – perhaps this time over, more realistic and plausible than before I had left. And also, that these dreams and goals are actually achievable.

We can’t wait to be home, but sad to be going. But so excited about what both represent for us.

Love u all, and we’ll be seeing you this weekend,

Ashleigh and Adam in Transit.x

"Home Sweet Home"

I flew all the way to London,
And had dinner with the Queen,
But Big Ben just won’t cut it,
It’s not the best place I’ve been.

I then hopped along to Ireland,
And drank Guinness dressed in green,
But as high and wide as their great land goes,
It’s not the prettiest I’ve ever seen.

I then drank Scotch in Scotland,
In my kilt and tartan sweater,
But sorry Ness, you ain’t the best,
I know a place much, much better.

I ate croissants and crepes in Paris,
And climbed the Eiffel Tower,
But I like a place with nicer people,
The French are far too sour!

I mountaineered in Switzerland,
And paid my way in Francs,
But if I was asked to live here,
I’d politely say ‘No Thanks’.

I then sunbaked in Nice,
And drank wine in Millionaire Bay
But celebrities, villas, and paparazzi,
And mega yachts won’t make my day.

I drank Sangria’s in Barcelona
And tried to speak some Catalan,
But I would not stay, not one more day,
No matter how great my tan!

I lazed on the beach in Valencia,
And got in a big tomato fight,
But how long would I stay, you ask?
I’d only stay a night.

I joined the fiesta in Madrid,
Then partied the night away,
But salsa and tapas is just not for me,
Too spicy I’d have to say!

I rode a camel in Marrakech,
And loved chicha’s and Moroccan tea,
But as amazing and brilliant this place is,
It is certainly not home for me.

I’ve been around the world and found,
That no matter where I may roam,
Nothing beats Australia,

The place that I call home.

Roking the Kasbah in Marrakech!!!!

Hey all,

So as some of you may already know, we have made the trip from Madrid over to the amazing Marrakech, Morocco. And yes, for those who are a tad geographically challenged, Marrakech is in Africa – and I know some of you had some hesitations and concerns about me going there – but I am proud to prove you all wrong! Marrakech is such an amazing place. We are staying in this absolutely adorable Riad right near the souks. When we first arrived, we were a little ambivalent, as we had met up with a group of four girls and were heading out from the airport to our Riad by an arranged transfer. But we had been informed that sometimes locals will pretend they are from a company and just take you anywhere and will make you pay for them to take you back. So we got in the bus, as he had a company sign held up at the airport, and we figured ‘safety in numbers’ so we went along – it all felt fine. We took a short drive through the ‘new town’ and the streets were just amazing. People buzzing about the streets, motor bikes with entire families on it flying past us, carts of fruit and eggs pulled by donkeys, and the streets were lined with palm trees and cacti. And on top of that, at about 10pm on our arrival, it was a good 37 degrees. I asked the driver if this weather was normal, and he replied ‘this is excellent weather, during the day it’s about 50 degrees!’.

But as we were driving, we noticed we were following a massive wall – taller than a 3 storey building, and it looked like an amazing castle/fort type Moroccan style wall. Then we stopped. And all our luggage was taken out of the van, and put into a cart. We were then told we had to walk from the new city into the old city. We were all very confused, but followed suit. We started walking with this one man, who did not speak very good English, down through the enormous labrynth of Marrakech, old town. And when I say labrynth, I mean it was like a maze – dead ends, underground paths, secret doorways – absolutely amazing. Scary, but amazing. As we are walking, there are motor bikes flying past us, missing us by a bees dick – left right and centre – coming from infront, and behind us – and people buzzing around; it was an experience you could only believe if you were there yourself. We were all a little worried about this man, leading us into dark, dustry streets – often times picth black as there was no street lights. But after many twists and turns down sandstone walls and mosaic doors, we came to the door of our riad.

We entered in, and it was just stunning. As you enter this amazingly intricate carved wooden door, you enter a massive courtyard, which the entire building is built around – with lovely plants and a fountain in the middle, and decked out with white soft couches, and red pillows, and within a void of 3 storeys high, with Moroccan style windows placed evenly throughout the walls of the courtyard. We were invited to sit in this little room, with lovely, soft couches, and hand made wooden table, with a gorgeous hand crafted copper plate. A young man called Kamaal welcomed us. He was very lovely, and spoke rather decent English for having studied it for only 6 months and being his 8th language. He began to tell us about the riad and a little bit about Marrakech. Then he welcomed us in the traditional Moroccan way with some Moroccan tea. Now this tea was the most amazing thing I have had in my entire life! He poured the tea from this gorgeous hand crafted silver tea pot into tiny glasses – and as we all took a sip, we all exclaimed ‘oh my god – this is amazing’ – the surprise on all of us was hysterical. This was the best tea in the whole entire world. Kamaal went on to say that we are welcome to have as much tea as we would like for free – which I have made good use of! I am officially a Moroccan tea addict.

(pouring some Moroccan tea!)

After our teas, Kamaal went on to tell us about the old town, the new town, and what to expect. He also got out a map and showed us where to go for some sightseeing. But I think the best thing he did for us was informing us about how the merchants in the souks will try to rip us off as tourists, and gave us appropriate price ranges for everything and anything we would want to buy. He then said we were welcome to settle in, have a shower and then he would take us out to the square for dinner, so that we can learn how to get to and from the square as it is such a confusing maze to get around. The place was built like this many thousands of years ago for various reasons, but in essence, the old town is completely housed by a massive wall (the one we saw when driving in) and further more, there are Kasbahs within the walls, which is in essence a walled city within the walls to keep out western influences. But we headed out to the Medina (the main square) for some food.

(some markets in the souks)

This main square was just amazing – like nothing I have ever seen before. I think it was then and there that I declared this place to be 1. My favourite place of all the places I have been, and 2. The biggest culture shock of my life. We entered into the square to see stalls of food and people and shops and lights as far as we could see. We were warned that the merchants would do anything to get us to go to their shop – we thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. we started walking down the stalls to try and find something to eat, and every single one we passed, someone came out and was like ‘best quality, superb, best price, you come here and eat here’ and people are grabbing you by the arm, trying to pull you over to their shops, and people yelling from every direction, trying to grab your attention – it was chaos! We kept walking and we saw stalls of food – masses of food! Meat, salads, couscous (of course), soup, and animal heads – just chopped off and cooked with everything intact - yummo! Actually one of their dishes is eating the brains of a calf straight from the skull. And we were a little worried about the blood splashed onto the streets – but we’ve heard that’s purifying the streets. Hmm.

So, we were trying to decide where to eat, and we have these people yelling at us, trying to get us to eat there – and when we choose somewhere else, they yell ‘losers, wankers’ and call us ‘shits’. Very amusing. But we had a somewhat decent meal – some mixed Moroccan salad, and some shish kebabs. Then we somehow made our way back to our riad, and fell asleep in our luxurious room – you could only begin to fathom how amazing this place is by seeing it yourself. The ensuit is all stone, and the shower is open and walk in. fantastic.

We woke up feeling great – and yes, it was bloody hot at sunrise. We got up and went down stairs to have some traditional Moroccan breakfast – 2 types of Moroccan bread – hard to describe – with freshly made marmalade and fig jam. And some freshly squeezed orange juice – like nothing we have ever tasted – fresh from the medina. And some coffee – and I swear this was like super coffee or something – cos it was bloody amazing. Not even Mocha Joes could top this! It was just brilliant. And the best part of the morning? Kamaal said because it is so hot during the day, you just cant go out – so u have to stay in this gorgeous riad all day, up on the double tier roof terrace to see the gorgeous views of the atlas mountains and of all the palm trees and roof top terraces of the riads of the entire city, just lazing away, sipping Moroccan teas and smoking chichas. Just brilliant.

(Me and Adam smoking chichas.)

At about 4pm, when it began to cool to about 40 degrees, we headed out to the souks for some haggling. Kamaal said we should just look and see what prices we could get for things and not to shop for a couple of days. Now, being a shopping addict like myself, this was very hard – but we did well and didn’t do any shopping until the next day. And Kamaal was spot on, and we are so greatful he had told us how bad the merchants can be. For instance, we wanted to get a chicha, and kamaal said it should cost no more than 150 Dirham, which is about $27 or so. But when we went into the shops (and none have any prices up) we ask ‘c’est combien’ (they speak French here) and they’ll reply with an absurd amount, like 700 dirham! Sometimes, we even got 1000 dirham! It was hysterical. And after many many hours of haggling, we got it down to 150 dirham. So we did well. And it was the same for everything and anything you wanted to buy – absolutely anything you had to haggle down to the actual price. We were told of other tourists going out and getting things, such as Henna for 1500 dirham – it should only cost about 5 dirham! It is just exhausting and frustrating to have to haggle absolutely everything, but if the merchant is nice, it can be a lot of fun. Some of them get angry at you, but some you can laugh with and have a good time – cos at the end of the day, you know what something is worth, so if they wont budge, you walk out, and then they yell out ‘ok ok, 150’ or whatever. Hysterical.

And I thought it was hysterical that I had become everyone’s personal shopper. The people we met in the riad (mainly aussies) all wanted me to come out with them to help them haggle – I must have a knack for it! I had gotten this amazing canvas painting down from 700 to 120 dirham. And the chicha we bought we got down from 700 to 150 dirham.

But to talk a bit about the culture – as most of you may know Morocco is an Islamic country – so all women have to wear their dresses and head pieces – and so did we. Well, not the head pieces, but if we were to leave the riad, we had to cover our selves from our knees up to our necks – so no shoulders or cleavage. It was a hassle making sure we were always covered, but I had come to their country so I had to respect their customs. It made it very hot, though. And it was funny how the men react to women here too – they adore them – especially the western women – we’re treated like royalty here. So I have found it to be quite an odd combination. That women here are expected to cover their bodies up – which I had always found to be very sexist, but ultimately, men worship women here! By many, I had been asked if I was married – and if I loved my boyfriend (in a very serious context). One guy tried to trade me for a tea pot (which I thought was a little insulting – at least 2 tea pots and throw in the glasses too!) and Adam has been told he is very ‘lucky’. But despite all of this, I loved that they think I look like a Moroccan girl from the Atlas Mountains – sounds very exotic, doesn’t it!

(the courtyard of our Riad)

And further more on the culture – we arrived here just before Ramadan – so we were able to see the contrast, and to see what its like for a whole town to commence such a strenuous religious act. For those who do not know, Ramadan goes for 40 days, where they cannot eat, drink (even water), sleep, smoke, or have sex until the sun goes down (except sex where they can’t have sex at all). So throughout the day, when its 50 degrees, they cannot eat or drink. And it appears to be very difficult. But when the sun sets, there are sirens that go off and the whole city of Marrakech sings out their prayers over loud speaker – it is such an amazing thing. And then everyone rushes over to the medina to eat – and it is absolute chaos. There are people just grabbing food and shoving it into their mouths – and there are groups of people sitting in the streets with massive feasts. And everyone is happy! But then they really can’t sleep either, as they have their next meal at about 1am, and then at about 4am, you can hear the sirens go off again for the final food call. It is such a culture shock. And as you wonder through the streets during the feasts, you walk past the mosques and can hear their prayers – very intriguing.

(At sunset as the sirens go off)

(I just wanted to say, that as I am typing this blog, I am sitting, watching the sun set from the roof top terrace, and just waiting for the sirens to go off, as one of the many stray, but very social cats walks past my feet. It is such a surreal experience.)

But onto the shopping! I have had such a great time here shopping. As this is our last leg of our trip, I have gone crazy with shopping – buying such lovely Moroccan plates, tea sets, and chichas. It’s just so amazing. We have gotten some great gifts for people so I am very excited to be giving you all your gifts and to tell you of the haggling stories behind it!

Well, we have had such an amazing 5 days here in the simply stunning Marrakech, and we highly recommend this place to anyone – this has been, by far, the best place we have visited. Even though its heart breaking to see women begging in the streets, breast feeding her new born baby, and to see so many stray cats – some have just given birth to a litter and is feeding them in the corner of a dusty road. And to see homeless puppies – the most adorable little things that you have to convince yourself in your mind that they have a family that loves them and that will take care of them – its so hard to do when you’re walking away from those gorgeous puppy eyes – he’s so happy to see you, but so scared to come up to you. And getting eaten alive by mosquitos – don’t worry, Morocco is 90% malaria free – and dying in the sweltering heat – this has been the best place by far and we loved it!

We will be seeing you soon!

Love you all,

Ash and Adam in Marrakech.x

Going Mad in Madrid

Hey all,

To sum up our final days in Spain, we could easily say – Frustrating. I think, from what we have learnt in all our travels is that the people you are with and the hostel you stay in can really make or break a city. I could never imagine how anyone could hate Paris – but met two girls who left after 2 days, absolutely hating it because of how bad the accommodation and people were. We had the same experience in Madrid – we now understand why they could come to hate Paris, as we have come to dislike staying in Madrid.

(the park we spent most of our time)

Please don’t get us wrong – Madrid is such a gorgeous city – very traditionally Spanish and such amazing cuisine. But we were unfortunate to have bad experiences with our accommodation and the people. We’ll start on the accommodation. When we arrived, we had to check in and pay – not a problem, you pay for accommodation (obviously) however, when they told us how much was owing – it was substantially more expensive than the invoice from Hostelworld.com, where I booked and paid a 10% deposit. Not only did they ask for the full amount (my deposit was apparently worthless) but they also increased the price by 10 euro each a night. So in total, we had to pay over an extra 60 euro. And then the place was just utter shit too. Absolutely tiny – 12 bed dorm, with the bunk beds lined up next to each other, if I had rolled over, I would end up in someone else’s bed. Then there was breakfast – bread. Its free and non existent. Ace. Coffee is provided – hot water, and some milk, but no coffee. If you can find bread – you can’t find spread. If you can find spread, you can’t find bread. Just shit. And then, on top of that, we were kicked out for the day – ‘lockout’ for the cleaners. So from 11am to 3pm we were locked out. Sure it’s great to go our an explore the city, but if you need anything – you can’t get it. And in Madrid, nothing is really open until the evening anyways – Spanish love their siestas.

(Adam drinking his first mohito (not sure how to spell it) YUMMO!)

So, the accommodation really destroyed Madrid for us. Then it was the people. We had a real problem with people staring at us, and hassling us, trying to sell us roses and trinkets in the street. And Spain is known for pick-pockets so we were on guard 24/7. We spoke to too many people who have had to pack up and go home cos they lost everything (poor Laurence). But we were lucky to have left with everything we came with.

(Drinking Sangria's!!!)

(adam guarding our suitcases)

But at the end of the day, we really made the most of our time in Madrid. We ate Felafels, drinking Sangria’s and just lazing in the park, watching the busy world go past us, in the gorgeous, Spanish sun.

(Eating a Felafel!!!)

We bid farewell to Spain, and now saying Salaam to Marrakech!

We’ll keep you posted!

Love you all,

Ashleigh and Adam in Madrid.x

Sangria, Tapas and Bull Fighting...

hey all,

so as you all know, we're in Spain. It has been nice here, both Adam and I have said how gorgeous we think the city is - we just don't like the people. but if you try hard enough, you can avoid people so we're paying out efforts to everything else.

(Plaza de Ayuntamiento in Valencia)

We love the cities - Valencia was just beautiful and the city is surrounded by hundreds and thousands of acres of Valencia orange trees - man do they love their oranges. Barcelona was just amazing too - if we were put there and not told where we were, we'd think we were in Melbourne to be honest. just really pretty. And now we're in Madrid - and it is spectacular. We thought Barcelona and Valencia were amazing, but this is just so Spanish in anyway you could imagine it. and it is super duper hot here! 40 degrees today. But the weather is odd - 40 degrees here is like a 30 degree day for us Aussies - the sun is very different. me and Adam lay out in the sun all day, and wont burn - its just a very progressive tan. we don't even need to wear sunscreen - i know we should, but we just don't burn here! in Aus, you go out in the sun for 30 minutes and you'll start to burn.

(a lake in a garden in Madrid)


but anyways, we also love the food and drink here. The Agua de Valencia is a favourite and tradition of Valencia - freshly squeezed Valencia oranges with Catalonian wine called Cava and a shot of Vodka. Another traditional drink is the sweet 'horchata' made from tiger nut milk and almonds. but we have to say our favourite is the Spanish Sangria's - we cannot get enough of them - we went out to a bar the other night and got the 'grande' for 7 euro - which was 1 litre of Sangria each. I was absolutely smashed. good times.

(Madrid Botanical Gardens)


They also have, of course, Tapas! we have seen shop after shop of tapas, but we're waiting out for San Sebastian - the hometown of Tapas. But whilst we are in Madrid, i am thinking about checking out the bull fighting arena - it just does not follow my beliefs though. its a very cruel sport, but none the less, i respect it is a very important sport for Madrid and part of their identity.

(Just down and around a corner in Valencia)

We have really enjoyed what Spain has to offer - we are just exhausted, and i am still sick. And the people here have a 'Mañana' attitude - meaning 'tomorrow'. so its been frustrating. but we wanted to clarify how much we loved the Spanish cities - they really are beautiful. Its funny actually, that the way you envisage each place, Spain, France, Italy, etc. it is everything and more - that each place does possess that stereotype, and just going through one border to the next country is a massive difference, even in the countryside - from Switzerland being lush with snow capped mountains and riddled with grand lakes, to Italy, being tall, where green meets the sand, and little terracotta houses are just plopped about - then to France, with dense forests in the North, to dry and baron scattered with what looked like gumtrees in the South. And now to Spain - it is all you could picture it as - hot, dry, with sandstone huts amongst fields of vineyards and orange trees, and dusty roads, leading to the floral and concrete masterpieces of their cities.

(We love Spanish food!)


we're off to Marrakech in a few days - we can't wait - but we are loving Spain. Oh, and its great that you can get absolutely anything behind the counter without a prescription!!!



España es hermosa. Espero que todos puedan venir a aquí!


Adórelos,


Ash y Adam en España.x

50,000 People, 1 Street, 3 Tomatoes, and Some Broken Ribs

Hey all,
So. La Tomatina. I’m sure you are all wondering how that went! I guess most would have some crazy expectations, granted as the festival has been voted 3rd most craziest festival in the world (below Papilloma Running with the Bulls and Japan’s Penis Festival) or perhaps some were worried? Well both had warranted feelings. It was the most intense, insane, and idiotic experience of our lives. We thought we were going to die.

We had a 6am start – you want to get there early to get right into the action. We boarded our Busabout coach and got our orange Busabout goggles and arrived in Buňol at about 9am. Already, the streets were filled with young, drunken fools. I’ll have to admit their efforts were impressive – some were dressed up as Ninjas, some tennis players, synchronised swimming teams, just to name a few. But what had concerned me most were the packs of guys sculling beer and wine. We had been warned by many to wear multiple layers – particularly for the girls, as the guys will surround you in packs and rip your clothes off. I think that was a general fear shared by all females there. Last year, a girl had all her clothes ripped off – not cool.

We all started walking down the streets to get to the centre of it all, Galle del Cid. All the houses in the street were covered in massive sheets of plastic, and the locals were on their roof tops with hoses and buckets of water, throwing it down on the people below. There was cheers and screams of drunken young fun. At this point, everyone was pretty happy. The festival hadn’t quite begun yet. Basically, everyone gathers in the streets, and for a good 2 hours, the locals pour water and wine all over you while you organise yourself (if you can call it organisation?) into the streets. Then, at the stoke of 11am, a gun fires, and people run towards a flag pole in the town square, which is coated in soap and butter, and has a ham on top. As soon as someone gets the ham, the tomatoes come out. There are rules to this though, basically, it’s anyone’s game to get the ham, except if your female or a tourist. So, basically, only male locals can get the ham. If a female or a tourist attempts to get the ham, even if they’re half way up, they’ll rip them down by their shorts.

We were waiting for the trucks to come round in the main street, the Galle del Cid – and as this festival has gotten more and more popular, and the streets aren’t getting any wider, people began cramming the street, which meant that the people already in the middle were being crushed – including us. We were picked up by the current of people and pushed down one of the side streets. Then, the tomato truck came by, and with well over 50,000 people in the street no wider than 5 metres, there was no where for the people to go, other than down this street. Me and Adam were completely crushed amongst all of the people. There were groups of drunken idiots forming a chain of arms and pushing people down the street – however it turned into massive crushing. There were girls next to me who were crying from terror. Big guys who look strong enough to hold them selves up were pulled under the massive rips of people. And this was just from the first truck.
And then, even though we were neck to neck with anyone and everyone, we hear cries of ‘everyone move, there’s a baby’. And so we squish together as hard as we can to create some sort of path way for this complete idiot of a woman who thought it was a novel ideal to bring her 2 year old son into the crowd. This little Asian woman had her son in her arms, and they were both decked out in their La Tomatina top and goggles – this was a consciously made decision. But from this point on, the crowd just got worse and worse.

I was clinging onto Adam, and the crowd pushing was so fierce, I was wedged between two random people (half naked, sweating guys – delightful) and I was stuck so tight, I was moving with the crowd with my feet off the ground – and moving down the street. I lost my thongs and was completely barefoot on the slushy ground. After this massive flow of pushing, it calmed for about 2 minutes, and I was able to stand. I told Adam I lost my shoes, and he was not the least bit pleased. So I quickly had a look on the ground, found one, but not so sure where the other one was. Then I look over and see the back of my thong – and there’s a foot in it! Clearly not the owner of the shoe though – I can spot my shoes a mile away. I go up to this little Asian girl and say ‘can I please have my shoe back’ – she responds ‘oh, is this yours?’ Arrgh. Anyways I got my shoes back. But then there was no time for rest as the crowds started moving like an ocean again.

I’m clinging onto Adam, and he’s wiping his face onto his shoulder, but his arms are pinned around mine, voluntarily and involuntarily. He’s yelling to me something, but the crowds are so loud I can’t hear him, even though his mouth is up to my ears. I say back to him ‘do you want me to take your goggles off?’ – And he screams YES! – His goggles were fogging up and he couldn’t see. I had removed mine as soon as the crushing started. The pushing just kept getting worse and worse, and Adam and I began to get very scared. We were being pushed and crushed, and were losing our footing, and getting sucked under. The people surrounding us were terrified – we all said ‘this is not right’. This was not supposed to happen. The crushing just got worse and worse, to the point where my ribcage was being pushed against other people so hard I think I have broken a rib. I couldn’t breathe I was being crushed so hard. And poor Adam was baring the brunt of so much weight just to hold me up. We had to get out of there. But the festival lasts for 1 hour – 11am to 12pm – when the gun fires. And we were only half an hour in.

After the third truck passed, and the mass of crushing had eased for a few minutes, we ducked into the rapids of people and squeezed our way down to the end of the street, and out of there.

And out of this entire time – we saw a total of 3 tomatoes. Yep, that’s right, 3. When the first truck passed, they threw 3 tomatoes down the street, and moved on. The second truck threw shoes, bottles, and thongs (genius, what goes up must come down, and in this case, onto people’s head) and absolutely no tomatoes. The same for the third. Adam and I came out of this, not covered in tomatoes like we expected and were told we would, but just in other people’s sweat and red wine. Just imagine – 1 street no wider than about 4 metres, 50,000 drunken people squished in – and 34 degree heat. Absolute cesspool.

When we got out, some of the locals had their hoses out, so we washed ourselves down. We were just in shock. And thankful we were still alive. We were very scared. And we thought we were the only ones, until we met up with the rest of our group – who all said the same thing. They were thankful they were still alive. We’re not sure what happened, but we know that it wasn’t supposed to be like that. Further down the street was much better, but was the only area where tomatoes were being thrown and where there was enough room to move – but those who were in that area just came out with bruises from the tomatoes.

It was not a pleasant or fun experience. We payed a lot of money for this, with a tour company, and at the end of the day, all they did was take us there (not even on their busses – they used local Spanish busses) and said ‘woohoo this is so much fun, yay’ and made tomato jokes the whole way. For those who are keen to participate in next year’s festival (despite which I wouldn’t recommend it), do not go with a tour, its very easy to get to and from and no reason why you need to be on a tour for it. And second of all – please don’t bring infants to the festival – it’s a tad dangerous. Also, remember it is not all fun and games – if you get into the wrong area, you can and will get crushed. Don’t follow the crowds, and go the back way – to the top of the town square away from Galle del Cid. Once you’re in – it’s a fucking mission to get out.

I’m sure this story is not what you expected, perhaps it was? Me and Adam are fine. A little battered and bruised, and I’ve probably punctured a lung, but other than that, we’re in one piece. But we probably won’t be doing that again next year.

There are more tomatoes in the fridge at home than what we saw today. Very disappointing. But at least we stuffed our faces with Burger King afterwards, and have our own private double room in a 3 star hotel! Shit happens.

Love you all,

Ash and Adam in Valencia.x
Glad to be alive.

In Bed with Barcelona

Hey all,

Well, to finish up our stay in Barcelona (we only had 2 full days) I was unfortunately still very ill so we didn’t get up to much in the glorious city. We did however take a short stroll to find some dinner and ended up on La Rambla (the equivalent of Chapel Street) which was a lot of fun, and we saw what we thought was the big sand castle cathedral – as it was never completed it is permanently in scaffolding. But in our short lived stay in Barcelona, we saw how amazing this place was.

(one of the many side streets of Barcelona)

We went out for dinner at this awesome place which was traditional Spanish buffet full of the most flavoursome foods – and as it was all-you-can-eat, Adam made sure he got his money’s worth – I on the other hand stocked up on the deserts. I don’t know why there are no good all you can eat places in Melbourne – cos this place was amazing – good quality food that was just so filling and so healthy. It was the best meal we have had since travelling – we both said we had not felt that full since being home. And it was great too – salads, vegetables, meat, lentils, wholemeal bread – no wonder I’m feeling so much better!

(our yummy 2 euro ice creams!)

The next day we had to find a grocery store for some lunch and dinner, and on our stroll, we passed a statue completely covered with pigeons – someone had dropped their cup of seeds – so the birds were going ape shit – piled up on top of each other. Hysterical. We moved on to the cathedral, but I’m pretty sure we saw the wrong one – but it was still impressive. There was a live band playing some good old Spanish acoustic, which was really lovely. Then we wondered down some of the amazing little alley ways, packed with people exploring all the fantastic boutiques and stalls. Their little alley ways are just gorgeous. Tall buildings with intricate Spanish designs, and at their roots are little gems of stores, selling such individual goods, mostly hand made and excellent quality. And if you continue on basically any of these little adorable streets you’ll no doubt end up on La Rambla.

(Psycho Pigeons!)

We got to La Rambla and had an ice cream- it was so good. We got a massive cone with two scoops (which was plenty) for only 2 euro! Having come from places like Nice, Monaco and Paris, we were pleased to see a price so easy on the wallet. We got one on the way back, too! We walked up La Rambla and it was just organised chaos. There is a market that runs the length of the street up to the town square. But all the stalls in the market were pet shop – with turtles, iguanas, ferrets and chicks and ducklings. Very odd. And there was street entertainers lined up, next to each other. You could see some of them put a lot of effort into their act, hence why they steal all the business from the others. There was this one lady, dressed up in some sort of gypsy outsit, and just standing there and waving to people. No wonder she got zero business. We then found the grocery store.

(La Rambla)

We got our food and headed back to our hostel. And basically we stayed there for the rest of our time in Barcelona – I was just too ill. It was very disappointing, but we have quite a lot of time for Spain, so we’ll do our best for the rest of the trip.

(Spanish accoustic band playing out front of the cathedral.)

Love you all,

Ash and Adam in Barcelona.x

Bus Ride from Hell

Hey all,

Making this one a quick one today. From Nice we headed off to Barcelona! Very exciting. Until we got on the bus anyways. In the morning, we had to be up and out of our hotel by 7:30 as our bus left at 8:00am. But what do we know, reception is closed until 8am, and if you wake up the staff, you get a 50 euro fine – and we already had a 30 euro deposit on our keys – we didn’t wanna risk losing 80 euro. So we went up to the bus and asked if we could put our luggage on and then run down to our hotel to get our money back. All was fine of course, but just stress we didn’t need.

After getting our money and finally making it on the bus, we departed quite late, around 8:45. so we knew we were already going to be quite late. After many hours of bus travel, we were buggered and just wanted to sleep – but busses aren’t really designed for sleeping – so we tried our best. Adam got quite shitty after a while, understandably though – those buses can get very uncomfortable after about 7 hours of driving.

At around 4pm, and after many hours on the bus, I started to feel a little unwell. Within an hour, I had a blocked nose, burning sore throat, fever and aches and pains all over my body, and not enough energy to hold myself up, and on top of it all, conjunctivitis! I was not a happy camper. All I wanted was a hot shower and a nice bed. Though amongst it all, I thought I’d just mention I thought it to be very weird to hear Delta Goodrem on Spanish radio! Go Delta!

We’re driving along the Catalonia Highway in Spain, and there are many signs along the way which said 281 deaths this year on this motorway, and over 790 injuries. I heard the bus driver say to our tour guide ‘is there an accident up ahead?’ and as our tour guide could speak Spanish, he replied ‘No, there is just a risk of accidents on this motorway’. No more than 2 minutes later and no more than 10km away from the hostel, a BMW X5 decided to cut the bus off, and tried to squeeze in between a Mercedes and the bus (which had just cut us off previously and left about 7 metres between us). The Mercedes slammed on its brakes (for no apparent reason) and the poor bus driver tried to slow down at 90 km per hour with a bus load of people, and only 1 metre between him and the BMW in front, but unfortunately slammed into the back of the BMW – shattering their rear window, and rear bumper. Me and Adam saw the whole thing as we were sitting at the front of the bus – Adam had to give a statement. But all the while, I was crouching over in absolute agony – I was so sick, I was crying. And due to this accident, and being only 10 k’s from the hostel, we had to wait 2 and a half hours for the bloody police to turn up.

We arrived at 11pm in Barcelona – and didn’t even know where we were staying – had to get on the net and look it up, and still had to get to our bloody hostel too, lugging our luggage all the way there. We found it which wasn’t too far away, but I was so sick it felt like miles. We finally got in, and we took a sleeping pill each and slept like a baby. Thank you so much mum for the sleeping pills – you have no idea how much they have helped us! Adam says he wakes up like a champion! I wake up a little groggy though – not too sure why, but I get the best sleep!

Well, I’ve just woken up – 1pm. And it appears I’m spending the day in bed. I am still very sick, and every one keeps staring at me – it looks like Adam has been beating me up my eyes are so swollen. But Adam has been so great – he went out and got us some breakfast and was being so lovely. I feel much better today – but still too ill to move too much.

We will try our best to see as much of Barcelona as we can, but due to my illness, don’t expect to see a brilliant blog on it.

We’ll keep you all updated!

Love you all,
Ash and Adam in Barcelona.x

Four Seasons in one Day? Try Four Countries!

Hey all,
Well, we left lovely Lauterbrunnen and headed off to Naughty Nice! The bus ride over took us on quite a trip! Quite a delight really! And this one’s for Caleb! We thought we’d never get to go to Italy, but our Busabout trip to Nice was right through Italy! We got stopped at the Italy border, and was all asked to get off the bus, and our bags were searched and had a sniffer dog too! Those Italians really love their country, ey? But we figured they just wanted to check out the pretty girls – only the pretty girls had a ‘proper’ search – alas, I was not one of them. After about 6 hours of driving, and now well into Italy (which is just gorgeous by the way) we stopped for something to eat. And what do you know, Paul and Emily are at the same stop! It was such a shock, but was the best feeling to see such a nice, familiar face! Paul took a photo of me and Adam and sent it to my Dad. We then parted off, but going to the same place – Nice!

(Seeing Paul and Em in Italy)

After going from Switzerland, then through Italy, we travelled through the glorious Monaco! It was a very brief bus ride through, but we were determined to go back! We then arrived at Nice and luckily our hotel was 3 blocks down from the busabout drop off! And our accommodation wasn’t too bad, either! We we’re pretty happy! On the first night we met up with Paul and Emily and went out for dinner. Really great dinner at a rather reasonable price too – for Nice anyways. Nice, which is in essence the Cote d’Azur or French Riviera – is seriously super super expensive – for anything! So it was a constant mission to find budget food. After a late night of catching up on our travel stories, and heading down to the beach, we went off to bed.

Bright and early in the morning (which felt great to get up at 6am again! Truly.) We met up with Paul and Emily for some breakfast and to kick start our day! Our first stop – Monaco! We adored this place – and it was seriously loaded! Ferraris, Lamborghini’s, Mercedes, Porsche, anything crazy expensive, it’s there. We stood at the corner of Hotel de Paris for about half an hour watching all these amazing cars drive past, or to watch the stupidly rich people arrive and have the valet take their Ferrari – it was insane. But there is no wonder that the application fee to apply to live there is 1 million – it is a super nice place to be! We went up to the Palace, which was awesome cos we got to see the changing of the guards. The palace gardens are the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen – I wanna live there, can’t say I have an extra 1 million laying around – unlike Michael Jackson who applied to live there (and yes, the application fee alone is 1 million, even if you get rejected) and, well, lets just say he’s not currently a resident of Monaco. But Bono is! We saw his house, and he has his own private island. Quite nice. And we saw the Grace Kelly rock – the one she fell off and died – quite tragic really. But they loved her there! The city is as beautiful as she was. Simply stunning.

(Paul, Em and Adam in Monaco)

We then caught the train over to a place called Villefranche – a real hidden gem. Such a beautiful place. All the tourists go to the beached in Nice, but not many people know about Villefranche. The most gorgeous hidden town – if you walk along the beach you wouldn’t know the town existed. So we wondered the mini labyrinth and sat on some quaint steps amongst the 6 storey high walls that shaded us, and had a delicious French baguette with ham, cheese, egg, mayonnaise and tomato and lettuce. After a little relax, we headed down to the stunning beaches for some more relaxing in the hot hot sun. It was about 27 degrees or so, and not a cloud in the sky. And the water was crystal clear blue. And Paul loved the topless tanned beauties, baking away on the sand – but all the men did – these women were just gorgeous (fat cows…bitches…) simply stunning. We went in the water, and it was really quite lovely, even though I lasted about 20 seconds then had to get out. But it was ok, I laid on the san and worked on my tan, which is coming along nicely!

(Adam with one of the many very nice fancy fast cars!)

After that, we headed back to Nice, and had some really nice dinner and had a few reds with Paul and Em – Paul has gotten me onto red wine now – Tom, I’m sure you’re glad to hear that! Even though it was a 2 euro bottle, it was called ‘Bordeaux’ so you can’t go wrong! We’ll be stopping in Bordeaux soon too!

(View from Monaco Palace)

After our lovely day, we went off to bed – very drunk, and woke up with a bit of a head ache. We had some nice French breakfast – croissant and Nutella, coffee, and some of the Ovomaltine we got in Switzerland. Then we all headed off to see a bit of Nice – which is just a lovely place. The promenades, and boulevards, beaches and hidden streets are just oozing with celebrity style vacancés. Quite a nice preserved city – very boring and not a lot to see – this place is really designed for pure relaxation – sea, sand and sun. and sadly we had to finish up early, but only to head off for our St Tropez boat cruise.

We got on the bus and drove for quite a while – through the lovely Cannes and Grasse – I have never seen such gorgeous architecture – the French really got it right. Mind you, these houses were mega houses worth millions upon millions. Just gorgeous. Adam fell asleep on the bus, but my eyes were peeled out the bus window, wowing at all of these beautiful French villas – or mansions. What ever you want to call them. We then stopped at a place called Port Grimaud – which was a gem. Housed in complete walls – this was the exclusive and very private side of the Cote d’Azur – like a mini Venice – bridges, gondolas, and mini boutiques. Stunning. We then continued on down to St Tropez (pronounced ‘San Tropay’) and jumped on the yacht. We had an open bar so Adam and I made use of all the free booze – not matter how bad the beer was – I stuck to my red wine! And we got a commentated tour of St Tropez and Millionaire Bay. We saw Brian Adams house, Mohammed Al Fayyad’s, George Michael’s, Brigid Bardot’s, and the Heineken house – the most expensive in all of Europe, valued at 44 million euros. We also saw the L’Oréal house, Calvin Klein’s summer house, Mercedes house, and the Rolex house. And this one is for Lauren – Johnny Depp’s house! And we also saw P.Diddy on his brand new mega yacht – taking it for a test drive. And the funniest thing – the paparazzi helicopter – they would chase boats! And get as many photos as the can and would just spend an entire day just chasing speed boats and yachts. They even came over us!

(Villefranche - just gorgeous!)

So that was Nice! Lots of fun, lots of sun, can’t beat it! Who made heaven a place on earth?

Love you all,

Ash and Adam in Nice.x

P.S - we got some amazing photos and we wish we could put them all up on this blog - but we can't. So we've put them into albums on Myspace. Follow this link for the Albums and just browse through - you will probably have to go to the second page of albums to see the photos from the Cote d'Azur. Here's the link:



http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=149380279

Interlaken Seil Park Adventure

Hey all,
On the last few days in Switzerland, we had a lazy day because it was raining, but was good to catch up on our strength after our massive mountain hikes. But on the second last day, as it was such a gorgeous day, we decided to go off to do our High Ropes Course. So we set off with our hired bikes to a place called Interlaken Adventure Seil Park, and we barely made 20 metres down the road, and I couldn’t change gears, and before I knew it, the bike chain broke – snapped into pieces! Now, in Lauterbrunnen it’s a very small town with no more than about 20 shops, mainly hiking stores, and absolutely everything is closed between 12pm and 4pm, and we hired our bikes at about 11:45am. And bare in mind, our bikes cost us 30 Swiss Francs each. And when the bike broke, we got back and reception was closed. So we had to wait until someone turned up – we didn’t want to take the blame for the bike as it was not our fault. But when we spoke to the guy we rented the bikes from, he was very understanding and said we could hire the bikes tomorrow – I prayed the day was just as good and not raining.

(Our bikes - that broke)

And it was such a gorgeous day! The weather was fine, sunny and not a cloud in the sky! So we got up bright and early and set off on our bike ride to Interlaken. Little did we know just how far Interlaken was from Lauterbrunnen – a good 3 hour bike ride – and not all flat. I was so buggered. I think I have a long way to go in getting my fitness back from nearly 10 years of smoking (biggest mistake of my life). But we finally made it! It was an awesome bike ride – riding along the white water rapids, with killer views you just cannot get anywhere else. But we knew there was no time for rest just yet.

(all geared up in my harness!)

We got to the Seil Park, and we were so excited. It was such a huge ropes course! We got all decked out in our harnesses and were given a safety lesson – then we were free to climb trees! The first course was easy peasy! Of course. And just a lot of fun. But the courses just got harder and harder! And higher and higher. Adam was a little too confident and said we should go straight for the ‘eagle’ course (the hardest one) but luckily I could convince him to try the other ones first. By the third course, we were absolutely exhausted. This was not easy. It required so much strength and balance, and definitely coordination. There were thin wire tight-ropes, flying foxes (which sounds easy, but not when its at least 40 metres long and 20n metres high) and some of the most difficult obstacles. We soon realised where me and Adam differ. I have a ridiculous amount of stamina and could just keep going and going – Adam on the other hand had massive amounts of strength so he could fly through most of the strength obstacles – I flew through all the balance and coordination.

(the ropes courses)

But when we finally got to the fifth course – the black eagle course – nothing would have changed how hard it was – perhaps if we had done it first and were less exhausted it would have been easier, but none the less, so bloody hard! I managed to fall off - don’t worry, I had a harness, which I probably should have used instead of my armpits to hold myself up! The skin on the underside of my upper arms were ripped to pieces and bruised – ouch! Adam really struggled with one of the balance obstacles – and was close to giving up. And I froze on probably the easiest one – the jump sling. You put your foot in a little hole and have to jump over to the net on the other side, about 3 metres away and 20 metres up. I froze cold. I just couldn’t do it. I sat there for about 10 minutes trying to force myself to do it – and I did. But the hardest wasn’t over yet, well, for me anyways – Adam was fine.

(one of the easier obstacles)

The last part of the eagle course was a massive flying fox – absolutely massive – probably about 40 to 50 metres long – and nothing slowing you down. I was like a dart in the wind – and there was noting to stop me except for the tree at the end and a 2cm padding – Adam could hear the massive ‘thud’ from the other side! I was relieved to have finished in nearly one piece.

(Adam on the Flying Fox!)

Then we had to ride back – but we thought bugger that – and caught the train. But it was really because it started raining. Then when we got on the train, the ticket inspector asked for our tickets, and we asked to pay for them then – and he said ‘that’s 20 francs please’ – 20 francs!!! Would you pay $20 for a bloody train ride – 2 stops away? I think not. So we didn’t either. We told him we’d pay when we got off at Lauterbrunnen – and rode off. We really have to stop doing this!

But Switzerland was amazing! We had such a blast! And would love to go back, it was just such a spectacular place. Next was Naughty Nice!

See you then!
Ash and Adam in Interlaken.x

Army Knives, Lindt Chocolate and Rösti…We’re in Switzerland!

Hey all,

When we arrived in Lauterbrunnen, we were in a little 4 bed cabin, sharing with this one lovely guy from Australia, who will be basically following our journey up until La Tomatina in Spain. He was really nice and lots of fun. We arrived at night, so of course the first thing to do is to go to the pub. We thought we’d go check it out. In Switzerland, every house built is required by law to have the same amount of space beneath it – a bunker. So the camping grounds (where we’re staying) had turned their bunker into a bar. It’s a pretty cool concept. But we only had one beer (beer is not their best attribute in Switzerland) and went to bed, being so buggered from the 10 hour drive from Paris. But at about 4am, we woke up to our lovely room mate coming in from the bar. Normally we wouldn’t care, it’s a shared dorm, you get what you pay for. But when they take a piss in the corner of the room, we reckon we didn’t pay for that. We just didn’t know what to do. We just laid there, and as he went off to bed, he began snoring like a royal arsehole. The snoring was so so bad. To the point I was hitting the wall and screaming ‘fucking prick shut up’.

(The Alps - out front of our door step!)

As we arrived in Lauterbrunnen at night, we couldn’t really see what was surrounding us until the morning. When we got up, and quickly got out of the piss room, we were in absolute awe from our surroundings. We were right in the valley of the Swiss Alps. And if you see pictures, nothing compares to seeing it in person. Every time I turn around or look out our cabin room window (and yes, we did change rooms) and see those snow capped mountains, it takes my breath away, every time! The valley is mates with 72 waterfalls, and pals with 11570 feet of magnificent mountains. It is like nothing we have ever seen in our lives, we could easily live here and never come back! It still snows in the summer time! The sun will be shining and you’ll see snow. And at least 20 times a day, you see base jumpers just throwing themselves off the mountain – it’s crazy! It’s amazing. I think I like it here more than France, which is a huge statement coming from me. But it’s pretty safe to say Adam likes it here best.


(Me and Adam half way up the Alps)

Well, on our first day, we thought we be all wild and adventurous and trek the Wëngen (pronounced Vengen) walking trail up the Alps. We first hit the town to get me some decent hiking boots (240 Swiss francs later) and then began the walk up this enormous mountain. And we walked UP, and I mean UP for 5000 metres. On at least a 55 degree incline. Ouch! We pushed on and pushed on, and it was so hard! Our legs were killing us, but we kept going, and finally made it to the top. I don’t think I would have made it if I was still smoking. I actually said to Adam at the top how disgraced I was at the thought that if I was still smoking, I probably would have had cigarette breaks on the way up. But I made it up, and I felt on top of the world – I probably was. At the top, the view was breathtaking, and there is a little village, so we had some lunch and strolled through the shops.

(White water rapids!)
We then thought about taking the train back down, but figured we had made it all the way up on foot (unlike all the other lazy people!!) so we’ll go down on foot too – probably not the best idea. It was so hard to hold ourselves back, we ended up running most of the way down – really scary cos you can’t stop yourself when you build up a bit of momentum. There were some people on mountain bikes flying down – crazy freaks. By the time we got down, about 9000 metres later, my feet were killing me from the new shoes, and our legs were like jelly. We were glad to get back and have a well deserved shower. Well, Adam was anyways. I was just happy to be clean. The hike itself gave me an awful rash – very painful. It was shocking, I was a turnip. And then the shower after – my skin was on fire – I cut myself from all the scratching. It annoys me so much that I can’t just do these things. But at the end of the day, I still did it – I pushed through and made it all the way to the top and back.


(Our view! among many...)

Well it may not seem like we did much on our first day, but that took hours. We had dinner at 10pm! But from day one, we realised how brilliant Switzerland is. Not only does it have the natural beauty of the Alps, but every shop sells Swiss Army Knives (please send us an email if you would like us to get you one – they have special edition ones you can only get in Switzerland), they sell Lindt Chocolate everywhere too which I have been making full use of! And they have a massive Ovaltine range here (as it is Swiss) so we have been having Ovomaltine (ovaltini musli – yum!) every morning for breakfast. But I think to top it off is their traditional dish: Rösti – it’s a big potato, cheese, bacon, egg, tomato, basil big lump thing. Sooo good. We will have to make one for everyone when we get back to Australia!

(Me at one of the shops - Swiss Army Knives everywhere - Adam bought 2!)

Well, lots to do, this is the adventure and skiing capital. We love this place; it’ll be hard to leave.

(Lauterbrunnen!)

We’ll put up the photos soon on Myspace. To all those who have sent us emails, for my birthday or anything else, I have checked it, but we’re so pressed for net time, its really hard to get online to reply – so just hang in there, you’ll get a reply soon!!!

(View from under the waterfall!)

We love you all,
Ash and Adam in Lauterbrunnen.x

Paris – Au revoir!!!

Hey all,
On the last few days we had in Paris, we did the final things on our ‘to do’ list. Paris really cannot be done in one day – at least a week is needed. The first part of Paris we thought we’d be money wise and walk everywhere – but by the 4th day, we were so exhausted we couldn’t bare to walk another inch – so we made use of their very good public transport system. We caught the train out to the Arc de Triomphe which was pretty cool. We saw some awesome driving skills there too! The French are crazy – especially at this round about! We then walked down the Champs Elysées and I got a photo under the sign, which just so happened to be out front of the Cartier store. The Champs Elysées was actually pretty cool. Some really lovely little café’s, awesome shops and boutiques and it was so busy. I think people feel very special when walking it. They seem to hold their head up high – Adam just wanted to find the nearest train station to get out of there!!

(Me at the Arc de Triomphe)

We then caught the train out to the Louvre. We had visited the Louvre on my birthday but it was closed for cleaning, which I think is actually a good thing cos you get a discount on Wednesday’s after 6pm. And boy did we get a discount! As we were walking into the Grande Pyramide, and deciding whether it was worth our 6 euro each – not huge fans of big arse paintings and I’ve seen the Mona Lisa (and I’m not sure it would change Adam’s life too much if he missed seeing it) so after standing and tossing the idea up over and over, a young man approached us, and asked us if we spoke English. He then handed us his tickets for 2, explaining his friend never showed – so we got ourselves some free tickets. We felt awful though – we were so shocked that he was giving us the tickets, we didn’t even think to offer him some money or to ask if he wanted to join us – instead, we waved him goodbye as he went up the escalator. We figured we had to go in now. So we did. And there was some pretty impressive stuff there, but they all looked very similar – all massive, dark, and with naked women. I think the downfall of the Louvre is that there are so many paintings that you just can’t really stop to appreciate them – it’s like a hoarder’s house – too much really can be just too much. And it’s clear that everyone goes for the Mona Lisa – we got a few photos, but it’s was like a circus in there – everyone wanted a photo. And I still stand with what I said 10 years ago ‘that’s it? It’s so small!’ so I still really don’t see what all the fuss is about. But Adam loved all the paintings of David and Goliath – I think that’s all he liked. But we did really enjoy the African exhibition – really creative.

(Me at the African Exhibition at The Louvre)

We headed home (home – funny I call it that) and had our fantastic packet beef ravioli and baguette. In the morning we headed off to Sacre Coeur. It was pretty impressive, but I loved the area more so. We were in Montmare where all the cool and absynthe’d up artists headed to live in their mansions. The streets are very alive and packed with café’s, markets, and discount stores and of course, the red light district. It’s just very vibrant. It reminds me of a ‘swanky’ Camden market. So it was pretty awesome. We walked on, and had a look around in the shops and café’s, and then walked up to the red light district to the original Moulin Rouge! It really wasn’t what I expected – but I guess my expectations were shaped by the movie – and the movie made it look pretty damn awesome.

(Adam at the Sacre Coeur)

On the train back, there was an entertainer with puppets. He really did nothing with the puppets but bop them up and down, but the song was funny, and in French. But anyways, we got off to go see the Catacombes. And the map was incorrect, so we were wondering around for ages – then pulled out Europe on a shoestring and got a better idea of the location. When we finally found it – it was closed. It was the very last thing we needed to do to complete our ‘must do’ list. So I was very disappointed and shitty. So we sat in the Victory Gardens and had some lunch, and as I do when I’m shitty and wanna brighten the mood a little, I got out the camera and took some stupid photos. It was good for a laugh. And besides, we’ll be back in Paris for one more night so we’ll go see the Catacombes then.

(Me and Adam at the Victory Gardens)

And that was about it for our lovely stay in Paris. We had a ball, and saw so much – and that’s really what we wanted out of this trip. We see so many travellers who are wasting their time being wasted all the time (I’ll elaborate on our next Blog and you’ll see why) so we made the most of our time in Paris and saw some amazing things that many people will never have a chance to see. And I think that’s also the advantage Australian’s have. We travel far more than any other nationality, yet we have such beauty in our own backyard, so we can really see it all if we want. Next on our list (and I’d love to go with Nik and Jess) is seeing Australia. So much to do and see. How exciting.

(Me at the original Moulin Rouge)

Well, we had our crepes, croissants and baguettes. The next stop is Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland. We caught the bus, and headed on the 10 hour journey. We’ll see you in Switzerland!!!

Love u all,
Ash and Adam in Paris.x

Or Adam and Ash in Paris.x (as Adam claims is better.)

My 20th Birthday in Paris!

Hey all,
To start off the birthday celebrations, Adam and I went for a late night walk down the River Seine from the 11th arrondissement (where we’re staying) all the way to the 7th – to the Eiffel Tower! We arrived at about 10pm, and sat down in the gardens beneath the tower for some dinner – French baguette, salami and cheese. Yum! We sat and just gazed at the tower, lit up in blue, and sparkled in the night. It was just gorgeous. We strolled over to the carnival and got a chocolat noisette crêpe (chocolate and cream) and devoured that on the stroke of midnight – so I think I brought the new decade of my life in well.

(The Eiffel Tower at night.)

We caught the train back and went to sleep in our lovely double deb. In the morning, we had a very traditional French breakfast – called Petit Dejuneur (small lunch) which was a coffee (the best coffee in the world), croissant (the best croissant in the world) and orange juice (the best orange juice in the world – seriously). We had this at a little French café/restaurant called Le Ray – which we had been visiting every day since coming here. And its handy that they have wifi (pronounced wiffee) so we’re able to put these blogs up. We just really love that little café. The staff are always so lovely and friendly and very helpful, and we have a laugh at our language barriers – sometimes it looks like a ‘charades’ competition in there! But it is also helping my French skills! I have learnt a lot from them!

(our french breakfast!)

After the delicious (and surprisingly filling) breakfast, we walked all the way up to The Louvre. It was funny when Adam saw this nice little garden and wanted to grab a photo. I chuckled a little, knowing what was on the other side – The Jardin Des Tuileries – such a spectacular garden. We took plenty of photos of the building itself and the Grande Pyramid! One thing we noticed though, there were so many street merchants, and people hassling you. One man approached us, claiming to be deaf (come to think of it I’m not sure he was) and asked us to fill out a form – so we did, thinking it was a petition of some sort. Then we see on the very last column, ‘amount to donate’ – we donated 1 euro as that was all we had. We were then approached by another group and they basically put the pen into my hand, and I said ‘no donation’ and he replied no. I filled out the form, got to the end, and it said ‘amount to donate’ – I said to him ‘no donation’ – and he said ‘no no no, just a small donation, 5 or 10 euro, very small’. I was bloody furious. I said ‘no, zero donation’ – they were quick to get their pens back. But none the less, we enjoyed our stay at The Louvre and gardens. We didn’t actually enter the Louvre as it was closed for cleaning, but we will be doing that today. But the grounds of the Louvre is spectacular, we sat there for quite a while. It was really pleasant.

(Me and Adam at the Louvre!)

At this point, I was getting a little upset that I hadn’t heard from my family. I then realised that I cannot receive phone calls if I have no phone credit (stupid system really) so Adam and I frantically ran about the city of Paris trying to find a phone card or a Vodaphone shop. But every second shop is a bloody café so it took us a while. We eventually got a phone card and I called my mum – got not answer L, and then got a chance to speak with my dad and brother. Adam then spoke to his parents, which was the first time he had spoken to them since he left, so it was quite nice hearing from our families. Just a quick note – thank you to everyone who has sent messages, emails, comments, and e-cards (thanks Jason, and dad and Tiff!) on my birthday. You really made my day!

We continued on walking, got lost for a little while, but eventually made our way to the Royal Palace. It was odd, as it had been turned into a shopping mall – however the gardens were stunning. Paris really has some gorgeous gardens. We were lucky that the weather was so fantastic – very sunny and had only rained briefly in the morning. We continued our walk (and yes, we were walking a long time – probably about 10k) and walked up to the Place de la Concorde – this was pretty cool. It is said that the pink granite ‘obelisk’ (some 3300 years old) in the middle of the square was once in the temple of Ramses at Thebes. We continued on to the Grande and Petit Palace (big and small palace) which was impressive, but not as impressive as its bridge. The bridge was made in 1800 (or so) and was lined with statues and gold and lanterns – and directly opposite was the Hotel des Invalides. It was built in the 1670’s by King Louis XIV to provide housing for 4000 ‘invalides’ (war veterans). On the 14th July, 1789, a mob forced its way into the building, and after fierce fighting, seized 28,000 rifles before heading onto the Prison at Bastille and revolution. So that was pretty damn cool too. By this stage we were super tired and hungry, so we stopped for a Citrôn Sucré crêpe (lemon and sugar) at the Champ de Mars. Yum Yum – I love crêpes! and we sat, and ate, and watched the world move past us.

From the Champ de Mars, we could see the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de l’Etoile (that crazy roundabout) and the Champs Elysées is a continuation of the Champ de Mars. But despite being so close to it, I was exhausted and just wanted to get my French pastries and tarts and sit at the Eiffel Tower. So we did. We wondered around for ages trying to find a patisserie, but most businesses in Paris close for lunch (between 1 – 3pm) and the area around the Eiffel Tower is quite residential, so we couldn’t find anything. Instead, we spent 10 bloody euros on some shit Eiffel Tower Touristy food shop – muffins the size of Adam’s thumb, and chocolate donuts with Nutella filling, and the dough was just dry and crap. Quite depressing. But meh – moving on. We sat down on the ‘lush’ grass under the Eiffel tower and I fell asleep for a bit. I woke up annoyed that a couple had chosen to sit about 1 metre from us, and lit up their cigarettes. Not happy Jan (considering I have successfully quit smoking). But either way, the sun disappeared behind a massive rain cloud, and the sky became grey. So we made the decision to climb the Eiffel Tower.

After waiting in queue for about 1 hour or so, perhaps more, we began our massive hike up the 679 stairs to the second level of the tower. The views were just awesome!!! Not to mention the wind tho! The wind was so powerful, Adam even had trouble standing! We thought this was super cool, and wanted to go to the ‘summit’ – then realised there was another queue to the top (had to get the elevator). We were in this queue for at least an hour and a half, in the freezing cold wind! But we were determined it would be worth it!

And it was. We finally got to the top, and it was surprisingly warmer up there (I guess closer to the sun! we were 324 metres high!) and just to our luck, the sun was slowly setting. We got such amazing views it was breathtaking. We didn’t stay up there too long as it was massively overcrowded with budding Asian tourists (making that ‘peace’ sign with their fingers at every photo opportunity – hysterical…). I must say though, the Eiffel Tower really topped it off! I had the best birthday! How many people can say they climbed the Eiffel Tower on their 20th Birthday? I feel pretty damn lucky!

(Me and Adam at the top of the Eiffel Tower)

We then got a train back to our hotel and got some warmer clothes on. (When Adam first arrived here, he brought with him some gifts for me from my family. Thank you to Nanna and Pa for the awesome Cadbury Chocolate! The chocolate in England is super shit, and you can’t get Cadbury herein France – so I have now have my Cadbury chocolate fix! And the singing card was so sweet too! To mum, thank you so much for the Astrology guide, I think it has truly saved me from a lot of arguments thus far! And I don’t know if you have read it but my return to Australia looks promising for my career!! So I’m sure you’d be glad to hear that! And to Dad and Tiff – for the Europe on a Shoestring – this guide has saved Adam and me so much! We use it like the bible! We read it every night, and fully read up on our next destination. And also for the 40 euro for a birthday dinner!!!) We then went out and tried to find somewhere for a nice ‘French’ dinner. We stayed local as we’re near/in the Latin Quarter, and quite close to the Bastille (which is lined with really funky shops and café’s) so we just wondered up Rue de la Roquette to find something. We found this little French restaurant, and sat down. We then spent quite a while trying to understand the menu, and as we really sucked at that, we thought we’d wait for assistance. We waited, and waited and waited. About half an hour to 45 minutes past, and the waiters just flew past us. I cracked the shits, and we walked out. I was grumpy, well, I was pretty good surprisingly, Adam was infuriated. So I treated myself to another Citrôn Sucré crêpe – that put a smile on my face. As we were walking back home, we passed Le Ray.

And we were happy. We had been to Le Ray basically every day and really loved the place. It was French in every way. And the staff were just awesome. We sat down and attempted to understand the menu – I understood all the deserts at least! And then the waiter came over and helped us with the rest. We had a very French meal! We had a 3 course meal. First was a massive salad, and ‘egg mayonnaise’ for entrées. Then I had roast chicken with Dijon mustard and French fries and salad. Adam had a more daring choice and went for the traditional French dish. It was a special French sausage with cheese mashed potato (awesome awesome!!). And it was bloody awesome! Then for desert, Adam had a crème caramel, and I had a super chocolate mousse with a chocolate chunk in it. It was like a boat of chocolate, and it was so thick and rich and sooo good. But of course I had no troubles polishing it off! Adam’s crème caramel was bloody awesome too! It was a full on French crème caramel – made properly – not like the ones you buy in the packets at Coles or Safeway! And the best part – it came to exactly 40 euro! Thanks dad and Tiff!

(The desert!!!)
I had the best birthday ever! 10 years ago, I turned 10 in Thailand, and now for my 20th, I’m in Paris. I couldn’t ask for a better birthday present! It has just been so awesome. And I am so happy to have spent it with Adam – thanks for following me around and letting me take copious photos! Thank you for being in my life!

Happy birthday to me!!
Wow, I’m now 20! Into my 3rd decade!

Love you all,

Bievennue!! Bonjour!! Merci!!!...Yep, We’re In Paris!!!

Hey all,
Well, we arrived late to Paris (thank you Easyjet, again) but eventually made it to Paris in one piece. We arrived at about midnight, and had to find our way from the airport to our hotel. In other countries, such as Scotland and Ireland, we managed fine as asking people for help wasn’t an issue, but here in Paris, there was a bit of a language barrier. We spent a good 2 hours in the airport trying to work out how to get to the city – train, taxi, shuttle? We thought the train would be the cheapest option. And it certainly was. We couldn’t work out how to purchase tickets for the train, and there was no service booths open, no staff, or anyone who knew what they were doing. So we figured we made an attempt to buy a ticket at least, so that was good for our conscience. We jumped on the train, and every time the doors opened we freaked that someone would ask to see our tickets. We freaked out when we saw 4 macho police men – they were like ninjas!!! Really scary – decked out with batons, guns, and were power walking on a mission or something – really freaky. Nearly shat my pants. But we made it to our stop without being asked – so yes, it was the cheapest option.

We arrived to the hotel fine – at about 2am. We have our own private double, which felt just amazing – it had been like 3 months since being in a double bed. I had always been in a single bunk! Our room isn’t luxury or anything like that, in fact it kinda feels like a bed in a bathroom, but it was the cheapest private double in Paris and in a really good location. We are just a walk away from the Place de la Bastille and the Cathédrale de Notre Damn de Paris.

(Cheese stall at the Bastille Market)

On our first day, we had to find some sort of breakfast, and as it was a Sunday morning, most things were closed except some café’s which were seriously expensive. So, we had McDonalds. It was funny to hear English music on the radio in between French music. But after our revolting McDonalds breakfast, we went to one of the café’s and had a really nice coffee (which cost us like $8 each). Paris is really packed with café’s – they’re everywhere. And the interesting thing is, all the outdoor seating faces outwards, like cinema seats, allowing you to watch the world go by. And that’s what the Parisians do, they sit there, with their coffees, and just watch the world move past them. It was quite unique.

We had our coffee, and we were offered a Coffee, Croissants and Juice – which appear to be a traditional French breakfast here – we didn’t have it as it was a tad expensive for our first day, but we will be sure to have it some time this week. It sounds mighty simple, but really appealing.

We then went for a walk down to the Place de la Bastille. As most of you know, it was once a prison which was demolished and destroyed during the French Revolution, and is now a busy round about, with a massive monument in the middle. Quite a sight. Right opposite is the Bastille Opera House, and down one avenue is this amazing market! We had a blast. The French markets are like nothing I have ever seen. It was a bit like the Queen Vic in Aus, but with so much more culture. There was a man juggling with a bowl of fish on his head. And the produce there was so fantastic. All the fruit and veg were sooo fresh. Adam and I bought some nectarines and bananas (not to get confused with ‘l’anana’s’ – which is pineapple in French!) and they were so perfectly ripe and sweet! There were some amazing art sculptures and stalls of fresh fish, cheese, wines, and breads and pastries. I think I was in my zone – I was going crazy. I loved every second!

(some of the amazing culture found at the Bastille Market, Paris.)

We then walked a little further along the river (which runs from the east to the west – right from the Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower) and walked over some glorious bridges, lined with simply stunning French architecture, and street musicians playing proper French music. We then walked up to the magnificent Cathédrale de Notre Damn de Paris (sorry, no hunchbacks found!). Adam and I were amazed by the beauty of this cathedral – that took 200 years to build. The spires are lined with decorative statues of biblical characters, and was once brightly coloured as a ‘bible for the poor’ – i.e. for the poor people who could not read, therefore was to learn the bible by bright and colourful pictures. It is not colourful anymore, but so amazingly beautiful.

(For Lauren - So many little dogs here - EVERYWHERE! and there are heaps of French Bulldogs - i'm getting one!!!)

We then headed around to the front of the Notre Dame to the Place du Parvis Notre Dame – the gardens our the front of the cathedral. I think it would have been a gorgeous garden (garden being pebbles and statues – surrounded by trees) but it was packed with tourists. The line to enter the Notre Dame was a good 200m long. The Place du Parvis Notre Dame is the place where distances to every part of metropolitan France is measured from! We entered the cathedral, and it was so pretty. We didn’t climb the north tower as we are on a budget, and I didn’t want to see the Eiffel Tower until my birthday. But the ground level was gorgeous. People still use it as a place of worship, which I think is nice, and sometimes tourism can ruin things (I know, we are tourists ourselves!).

(Me and Adam at the Cathédrale de Notre Damn de Paris)

We then continued on down the river to see the Ste-Chapelle and the Palais de Justice, which was pretty, but disappointing we couldn’t actually see the Ste-Chapelle – It is tucked away behind the walls of the Palais de Justice, so you can only just see the top. The Ste-Chapelle was the first cathedral ever built in Paris, the most exquisite of Paris’s gothic monuments. We also stopped by the Conciergerie, which was the main prison during the Reign of Terror. 2700 prisoners were held here in the dungeons (or cachots), among them being Marie Antoinette, who was later sent to the guillotine.

We also saw the Georges Pompidou Centre, but for first thinking it to be a construction site, and Adam thinking it was a water park, we didn’t bother to enter until realising what it was when reading our Lonely Planet – Europe on a Shoestring. We also saw Hotel de Ville, which is facing opposite some massive French Embassy thing – quite impressive. We sat down out the front of it, where there was minigolf, and had some fine French pastries from the patisserie across the road. I had an Apricot Croissant and Adam had a Citrus Tart. These pastries were bloody awesome. So fresh, so light and fluffy. The croissant was so perfectly light, with a custard cream throughout, and an apricot glaze. Adam’s citrus tart was just perfect too. The filling was so smooth and creamy, it melted in your mouth. But the taste was just divine. It was a perfect lemon taste without the bitterness. Bon Appétite! But the highlight from that experience was that I ordered it all in French. It was so awesome! I’m like ‘Oui, Oui, Oui’…haha!

We continued on to the Tour St. Jacques, which looked cool from the top, but the base was covered by construction work. At this point we were so buggered from all the walking (about 6 hours of walking so far, and still had to get back) so we turned back – not realising The Louvre was just 2 blocks down. But either way I was saving that for my birthday!

On our way back we passed Saint-Michele which was pretty damn cool too and happens to be in a very funky square of Paris, so all the cafes and stores surrounding were really funky and colourful. We continued on walking down the river, and went to take some photos of the surrounding buildings, and Adam turns to me, jokingly, ‘look Ash, it’s the Eiffel Tower!’, and I turn around and say ‘Oh my god, it is too!!!’. It was so funny. He didn’t know what it was, and just through he’d joke around, but turned out it was indeed the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is magnificent, and so enormous. We were a good 10k’s from it, yet you could see it so well. That will be the highlight of this trip I think.

(The Conceirgerie - can you spot the Eiffel Tower???)

As it was a Sunday, the was not a great deal open at 7pm – so we were somewhat stuck for dinner. We walked down the road from out hotel and were relieved to see the bakery still open. We got 2 massive French baguettes, and got some cheese – and please don’t hate us for this – Vegemite! So for dinner was vegemite and cheese on a French baguette. Tasted good tho! I’ll be sure to have some traditional French cuisine throughout the week (no snails though!).

I adore Paris. I always have. I guess I’m a romantic at heart, cos this place just fills you with love, romance, beauty and splendour. It makes my heart flutter, and feels like I have butterflies in my tummy. I just feel so at peace and at home in this magnificent city. We have so much more to see, and we just can’t wait. After a massive day of knocking off some places on our ‘must-do’ list, we realise we have so much more to go. Lucky we’re here for a week!

We’re gonna check out Château de Versailles today, and to take the long walk up to Sacré-Coeur and Gare du Nord. On Tuesday, for my birthday, is jam packed of proper French stuff – Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysées, The Louvre, and the Champ de Mars. And on Wednesday, we are both very excited to be going to the Catacombes! Spooky!!!

We hope you like the photos (we haven't put up any on myspace yet as we are too pressed for internet time - though sitting in this lovely little French cafe is gorgeous, we could spend all day here!) but out of the 200 photos we took on our first day, we can only upload 5. we hope you like them!

Oh and by the way, me and Adam have been discussing moving here!!! (Adam rolls his eyes)...but seriously - we could so totally get into that (sorry, too much family guy).


Je t’aime!!!
AshnAdaminParis.x