See Ya, would'nt wanna be Ya!

Goodbye Stavoren- On the day of leaving, i felt torn. On one hand i was going to miss my three little buddies who had been such a big part of my life and also their parents, who had watched me grow from a funny little teenager into an even funnier little woman haha. I was dreading being apart from mike for so long and i was going to miss Virpi so much it hurt. But i was also excited- excited because i was heading off to sunny spain, excited for my move to london and excited for the unknown future. I couldnt wait to set myself up in one of the most amazing cities in the world and yet i  knew that despite how frustrating stavoren was, i was going to miss the sleepy little town and its few lovely inhabitants.

Redbad- the theatre production from the all friese company SULT

Now how could I forget this moment of my life haha.

Redbad- The poster gives nothing away- it could have beeing for anything- except for the small line underneath the title that says something like: The New Kings Drama from director Douwe Kalma... which i never took notice of- even though it was plastered on every window in stavoren :)

Shortly before i left the Netherlands Barber was involved in a cultural event in Stavoren. She kept calling it Sult- which was the name of the company- And she asked me if i would like tickets to see the event. Naturally I said yes because nothing happens in stavoren and apart from work i had all my free time to kill haha. My understanding of the event however was very different from everyone elses. A few months prior Barber had staged a musical production in Hindeloopen the next town over- It was a new instrument that relied on pipes being sunk in the water and once done so they could create harmonies by using the wind blowing past- like a giant Piano underwater organ I imagine. I had really wanted to see that performance as i often heard the melodies being carried this way on the wind.

 Now looking at this scaffold- minus the people one could assume it had nothing to do with anything remotely theatrical- or so i thought :)

Sult, however, was something entirely different and i did not realise or even think to ask until the moment we walked into the tent and barber turned to me and said- 'now emily, i just want you to know that they take the whole 'being friesian' thing very seriously'... Now this threw me for 10 haha. I was thinking to myself 'What does being born in friesland have to do with musical water pipes?' It was then that she saw the confused look on my face and explained that i was about to watch a theatre performance in the friese language, concerning the history of three beloved friese kings. Now for anyone reading this and thinking what the heck is this language- let me explain.

Back before man invented fire The Netherlands as we know it today was actually two or more separate countries, and was rife with civil wars. Friesland was the strongest and most patriotic of the separate countries and the town i lived in (stavoren) was founded quite near all the famed battled grounds. Eventually Friesland was conquered and fell under the rule of the Dutch- Today however there remains a second official language of the Netherlands- and yep you guessed it. Its Friesian. The reason this language still remains is because the locals of Friesland are ridiculously patrioitic and consider themselves first Friese and second Dutch. They lobbied long and hard to have their language officially recognised and when it was so they took to harassing poor Australian girls about not being able to speak Friesian. When i would politely ask something in Dutch they would often reply in Friese, or worse in a strange un-recognized pseudo friesian language that was more a dialect and often found within small towns. I was determined however, never to learn another language in that country- having already learned fluent Dutch within the space of a year.

I should have known something was up when i arrived at the beer tent and saw this- it was a funeral pyre for the deceased king- I just thought the decorator had had one to many spliffs before coming to the show tonight... In my defence i wasnt being ignorant by not reading all the little plaques about- I was just a) busy meeting with Barber's family and colleagues and b) I CANT READ FRIESE!- the latter being the most problematic hehe

Imagine then ladies and gentleman my surprise of being told i was about to sit through a few hours of a play in a language i could only just understand? I didn't have time to worry however- A man in a very creative costume quickly jumped up upon a wagon in the beer tent and began regaling us of the Friesian history before we were moved to the stage.

The stage was one of my favourite part of the entire performance- It was a scaffolders dream of perilous drops and hazards in the shape of a castle defence wall. Having watched it being built from time to time (it was rudely being built where i took the little kids to swim- i had to endure many complaints because of it) I never dreamt it was a stage. Upon seeing the photo on my blog you guys can appreciate that i just assumed it was part of the strange water pipe piano from Hindeloopen. But it was much better than that in the end!

Tension between father and Son- Before the king had died his son (in blue duct tape on the left) had tried and failed to murder him. This Prince was then banished and not permitted to return to Friesland while the King lived- The banished Prince's own son however was to remain in Friesland and be raised by the king. Imagine then the tension after the King has died and the murderous Prince takes the throne and must contend with his own son protesting his rule... So many kings, princes and sons for such a small country me thinks!

We took our seats on the grandstand and made ourselves comfortable- I will admit that in the opening scenes the amount of dialogue being spewed forth in a strange language made me bored and I took instead to looking at all the funky costumes! I really loved the details and the funny costumes that had been constructed from what looked like a scrap material heap- one lady was stitched into a sleeping bag with a blue plastic crown on her shoulder (symbolising royalty) Others had duct tape insignia's and royal house flags plastered on old blankets that formed their clothes! It was all brilliantly done and I was thankful for such detail as it helped me keep tabs on who was whom during the play.

Two blue duct taped crowns meant you were the king, and one crown meant you were of royal blood. This was very helpful as son tried to murder father and son took crown and then grandson took crown back. The dark also made all the good looking blond and muscly friesian men look like clones rather than family members.

My favourite costume was the queens, in these two photos you can see that she is wearing a sleeping bag. Bloody creative genius i say :)

The play itself was fast paced and situated around the death of a great king and his grandsons transition into an ever greater king to be. There were moments on family rivalry over religion and murder plots resulting in banishment. It was fraught with civil and foreign wars as well as guerrilla attacks on beloved monuments and castles. I especially liked the weedy British man that managed to seduce the princess and gain a foothold for a quick take over on Britain's behalf. Good old England.

 The princess is wooed with false promises and british 'pomp'- i love her costume here and yes she is holding an ipad to boot. The whole production was very tecnology based- with the scaffolds and the ipad as well as giant monuments being erected in a minute flat, explosions and amstel beer bottles existing hundreds of years before their creation. Cool Cool Cool i say!

I was most surprised however by the fact that I understood what was going on, and i found myself chanting along with the crowd saluting the King and such haha. All the actors did fantastically well in the freezing cold, especially when they were forced to wade out into the water to farewell the funeral pyre of the king. they didnt even wince and yet remained at all times in character- had it'd been me i would have dragged my feet towards the beach and then complained it was not in my contract to get wet on the job haha.

 The cold cold water and the burning glow of the lights helped to recreate the glow of the burning funeral pyre long after it had gone out. The funny little black box on the right hand side also exploded during a particularly tense moment in the play- to what point and purpose i know not. But it was freaking cool and an attack on the castle followed soon after- The visual effect in this play out did themselves on a number of occasions.

I also happened to know a few people in the performance. My archery teacher was funnily enough one of the archers- they set the funeral pyre alight with flaming arrows. It was quite realistic and very clever to have the funeral pyre burning and floating away from the performance as the new king stepped into role and took his new kingdom in opposite directions to his father.

The treacherous Prince who became king (two blue crowns= king, remember?) and his son who fought for a kingdom that would continue in line with his Grandfathers wishes. What the outcome was i cannot quite remember, i know that the unfortunate prince (with the bow) was later hung after he staged an attack on his fathers kingdom. As seen below.

 

By the end of the performance i felt i had had a truly wonderful time and a new appreciation for the stubborn and patriotic friesians i lived with. And the costumes and set were just so effing awesome i couldn't enjoy the craziness that was going on amongst it all! It was definitely a night to remember :)

Please note that i do not own nor did i take any of the above photos- they remain the property of the Sult production company.

Update

What happened to my last few months in Stavoren... My memories are very vague- but one thing i can remember is feeling finally at home in my last few days in my little caravan that I was so afraid and yet desperate to leave... But leave I did. I have since moved to London- A place I can easily call my home. Ive travelled through out the UK, Spain, Finland and returned back to Mike in The Netherlands countless times...

Ive grown so much and Ive done and seen so many amazing things. I only hope I can do them justice as i recount them on my blog. No one has missed this blog as much as i have missed writing it and committing my experiences to memory. Watch this space. Ill be looking to blog my adventures in Spain next :)

Mike and I escaped to the bos together on a rare day we both had free from work. It made me so happy to be with him and out of the house and rain that i just couldnt stop smiling.

the sun eventually came out and i felt like the young emily who would disappear on a sunny winter's day taking photos of anything and everything. 

i couldnt stop laughing while catching my little froggy friend, which we later came to know was a toad. bleugh.

 Le toad...

and i had dozen of butterflies and dragonflies having a nice rest on my head and nose. What can i say, i attract bugs :) And we were also informed by a very helpful lady that we were in fact standing in one of the only patches of meat eating plants in the netherlands. dont panic like mike did... ok it was me that panicked. but only because i thought she would get cross.

crouching- about to fall on his butt and the have his hair eaten by a naughty goat- and the flesh eating plants. Cute huh.

it however turns out that the plants are a) too small to devour anything other than baby dragonflies :( and b) very abundant in the reserve. so she didnt get cross at all :)

on an irrelevant note mike also fell on his butt and then later dropped me on mine. i laughed. he did not :) hehe.

Paris day 4:

Today has to be one of my favourite 24 hours on earth so far. Today I was off to Giverny, the home of Claude Monet and the settings for many of his amazing artworks. It was an early start for both Joanna (who was going to Marseille) and I. I arrived at the Gare du Nord train station and quickly found a spot to wait for the train, I had enough money for my ticket and was told that instead of going out to find an atm there would be one at the station in Rouen, my end destination before Giverny... and 'Out of Order' one at that. I arrived quite peacefully at the station and enquired how to get to Monet's house, I was advised that a bus would be leaving for there shortly. So onwards i skipped towards the Atm machine. Out of order. I ran back to the lady at the information desk who gave me stupidly wrong direction through the long underpass and over the other side of the train tracks where i was told that there was no atm on this side, but one on the other side and down the corner road from the station. So back I ran. Around the corner road and into the pub. It had an Atm machine- oh no wait, that was an Atm machine shaped cigarette dispenser. Back to the station. The bus had arrived and I had no where else to go, So i counted what coins i had and came up 20pence short. I asked the gentleman if i could please pay with my card. 'no card machine' 'no speak english' I tried in vain to explain that the atm machine was broken and that i could pay him once at the small village i was going to. He tried to boot me off the train. Much to my humiliation in front of a bus full of strangers tears sprang to my eyes which i bit back in fury. I couldn't believe i had such a small window of time to visit Monet's gardens and i was being thwarted by a silly rural blip of a french town. And then the most amazing thing happened. A woman stood up and asked me what was going on. I told her my story and in perfect french she told the bus driver she would be paying for me. She also i think made him feel bad for humiliating me and told him why i had no money to pay. He gave me a single ticket for free. I near cried out of gratitude and thanked the lady so much she blushed.
We arrived in Giverny shortly afterward and never have i felt so happy to be anywhere in my life. I was so blessed to have met such a kind and caring woman. She would later tell me it had been her dream, like mine, to visit Monet's garden, and that she couldn't let other people not share in the happiness she felt at being there. I hope she one day see's this and knows how thankful I am for her kindness after all this time.

The lovely woman and her adoring husband. She walked around smiling all day long.

The first thing i did when arriving in giverny was find an atm and enquire about an entrance fee. There was none and it was then that i headed off to Monet's Water Garden with it's famous Japanese bridge and waterlilies. I spent a good hour in this small peaceful garden just watching the light stream through the willow leaves and play on the water.

the water lilly pond and me standing on the southern Japanese bridge looking at the other bridge. I was so happy i forgot to take a nice photo of the bridge itself haha.

I could not shake this feeling of absolute peaceful bliss at my luck in being there. I also enjoyed taking lots of photos for other people seeing how happy they were and having lots of small chats about how wonderful it was here. I even met a lovely American woman who gave me my own photo shoot after i took her photo. She said i was brave for being here alone and that i shouldn't miss out on looking pretty in my own photos. There must have been some divine blessing on the place that day. Because everyone behaved like angels.

The front of Monet's house and his small trail through the personal garden- its no wonder this man was amazing at landscapes. He lived in a dream landscape himself!

After the Water Garden I headed towards Monet's house itself. I immediately fell in love with his personal gardens- The Clos Normand. Walking through row upon row of flowers and bushes and plants i felt that this was somewhere id love to bring dad. He could marvel in the many species of flowers all living neatly together. Once in the house i realised we weren't allowed to take photos but i did manage to sneak or two in. I especially loved the lounge room with its cluttered paintings stacked upon one another on the walls, sofas, bookcases and anything that would support them.

 Monet's lounge room- over looking the garden through big bay windows. Look at all his works stacked one on the other. This room is done in the exact same style as photographs of Monet's house have previously shown it was styled. I wish i could have been there having tea with Monet amongst his works and canvases!

And most of all I loved the yellow kitchen. I could imagine myself cooking away in such a gorgeous room for hours on end. calling a big family to dinner and laughing all night long. I can see why Monet did not want to ever leave this house.

Now we know why emily loved this kitchen- look how bright and spacious and happy and warm it is! i would love to raise a family in this room alone haha :) (photo by Ariene Cauderlier)

After a bit more wandering through the house and the Clos Nomad i ventured over to the gallery next door. I was quite inspired by the artists within and there was not a scrap of Monet to be seen, i had to contend myself with buying his art in the gift store next door and so i quickly moved on to the hilled area over the way. I sat here under the shade of the apple tree for a long time. Watching the school children draw the field we were in and lovers take picnics further up the hill. I lay back and watched the clouds float by and was content to stay there and become a funny little statue to look out over the area forever and ever. But i realised that it was time to go and i decided to walk a little through the town before hand.

Sitting in the field watching the world go by

I never really gave though to the people that would have lived in the area but after discovering they were all artists and all the houses had their fronts turned into walk in galleries it made sense they would live in the famed home of one of the best artists of all time. So i enjoyed many things i came across before heading to the bus and being able to pay for my return ticket this time.

Two of my favourite photos from giverny- me in front of Monet's House and a hedge maze leading to the grassy field of Monet's works... everyone knows i love hedges. So i thought i should let you know i went weak at the knee's seeing these ones :)

I returned home exhausted and blissful and relaxed awaiting Joanna so i could regale her of my day. And we enjoyed a peaceful last evening sleeping soundly in Paris.

Paris day 3:

Today was the day we finally managed to visit the Louvre. We then discovered how un prepared we were for the sheer magnitude of rooms and artworks. Even today I still find myself admitting to people that 'no i didnt manage to see such and such's famous painting', and 'no i didnt not even know that mr blah blah had an entire room dedicated to his works'. But the works i did manage to see were fantastic to say the least, as is customary i was shocked and let down by the size of mona lisa, but wah- so is every body. And i still managed to get a photo in despite the huge crowd of happy snappers.

The beautiful La  Joconde- Mona Lisa, she really did look quite serene with her secret smile. It must be pretty nice to have an entire wall set up in the middle of a giant room in the biggest art museum in the world. A bit lonely too for such a pretty woman I'd imagine

I especially loved the building itself. The grand sweeping staircases the statues and roof decoration, The windows and wall trimmings. And the huge sky lighted windows that seemed to span for an age down the long halls.

One of my favourite roofs. The artwork surrounds such a detailed piece of wood carvings and all the scenes are two fold. The painting describes a story, so does the wood a fake gold!!! Its also beautiful because it was far away, normally im not a fan of such grandeur, but this was simply divine when viewed from below.

I especially loved seeing the painters who were painting copies of some of the more famous art works, one woman happened to mention her daughter while we were complimenting her on her canvas. It turns out there is a 5 year old master running about the Louvre, showing the older painters where they need to add more detail to their works. I wish I had've met such a talented prodigy.

 The mother of the 5 year old master painter. Her work was simply splendid in terms of capturing the artists representation of the model. I only wish i hadn't been so tired and enquired more about why she choose that painting in particular.

Again as i walked into the first long hallway inside the building i had a certain attack of deja vu- I remember myself running along the hallway lined with paintings, only this time i wasnt running from someone but rather i was trying to find something quite desperately. I wonder if i was a french spy/ james bond in another life... who knows!

 The hall i dreamt i was running through, even the people shuffling about were there. I remember being so frustrated at their slow paces when everything was depended on finding this thing... cool huh :)

Joanna and I spent hours inside the Louvre, wandering and gazing and discussing pictures, jewellery, statues and pottery- But we began to realise how exhausted we were and so opted to head into the underground shopping centre at the entrance to the Louvre. It was hear that we snapped some photos refuelled with yummy foods and discovered some quirky shops! My favourite being one that specialised in artistic toilet paper.

 

Imagine the joy of wiping your butt with the american bank notes! We however simply took advantage of the free toilets there- a test drive facility perhaps- and left. Because who has the money to buy customised TP these days?

We also had lots of fun trying to get a good photo in front of the bottom point of the glass pyramid, lots of people kept getting in my way and then finally a tiny window of human less space opened up and after 10 minutes of trying we had a photo worth keeping :)

 The small window of photo opportunity Joanna and I had inside the Louvre shopping centre

At the end of the day Joanna and I decided to give into our girly needs and go shopping- alas no purchases but we did come across a very talented homeless artist and his sausage dog. As well as come to find that MacDonald's does a very amazing box of macaroons from mccafe. We attempted to go out that night, and had a wonderful Tibetan meal after getting lost and using all the battery on our cameras up. So alas no photos of our evening- i did however ask a random man (who was dressed like a waiter) for a table- much to the amusement of the entire restaurant. In my defence he saw us enter and rose to greet us. What was i supposed to expect?

His self portrait. I would have loved to have sat with him a while and chatted about him and his life. But i didnt want to be ranted at in a language i couldnt understand and unfortunately i was not brave to meet him.

Fin.

Paris day 2:

After our magical evening picnicing by the Eiffel Tower we awoke sweaty and stuck to our 2euro rental bed sheets. Haha. Not much to be said for non air conditioned accomodation except the experience is defintely a crummy part of the backpacker's daily grind. The great thing however about being awake early was the opportunity for us to beat the lines at the Lourve! Wohooo. Carefully avioding my Romanian buddy we showered and rushed downstairs for our quick inclusive breakfast- which consisted of picking up tokens for a coffee machine and a crossaint vending machine- funnily enough the machines were not time opperated and should you be one minute outisde of the breakfast hours 7-9 you were not given your tokens for the token only vending machines. You could also not take the conveniently packaged and slightly stale crossaints out of the hostel (????) nor could you buy more tokens if you found the big toe sized crossaints to dainty for the most important meal of the day....
hehehe. Im sure i found this irritating at the time but my word is this all a bit hilarious!

Back to Paris sightseeing we boarded the metro and headed for a docking point for the Hop on Hop Off Ferry- We still had half a day available for our use and so we decided to relax on the full length journey for some photo opportunities and then make our way to the Lourve.

One thing i found really interesting in paris is the amount on homeless person's in the city. Before living in London i had never seen so many persons sleeping on the street (the netherlands has a really fantastic system that had almost eliminated the problem) so i found it really fascinating and also confronting to see the shanties made up on the flood banks on the Seine. Or tents simply pitched under bridges, in rundown buldings and as many other imaginable things.

Shanty below street level of the Seine, you can just see the water line in the bottom right hand corner of the photo, flood danger indeed!

It just makes me so sad to know that some people out there have no other option than to live on the streets, i remember feeling really melancholy after seeing the homeless persons in need, but im always so grateful for what i have because of it...

Moving back towards the brighter side of the story Joanna and I soon figured out that the Lourve was closed for the day, unfortunate but we made the mostof the set back by jumping back on the ferry and heading towards Notre Dame! We met a lovely old man on the ferry who proceeded to give us a signed photograph of him doing the splits... He was 70 odd years and apparently quite a celebrity... he was so kind and very vocal about his talents that i couldnt help but fall in love with his confidence and promise him to check him out on facebook.

Then the beautiful cathedral came into view and all conversations ended with our mouths hanging open in awe...

We hurried on over to the Notre Dame taking great care to cover our bare shoulders ready to enter the church, once inside the church i was simply amazed at how beautiful it was (and how much it felt like i was in the disney movie- The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
The only real shame was that it was so crowded, but most tourist spots are. And so joanna and I managed to walk around and snap photos inside the cool cathedral before planning our next move.

The stained glass windows and huge arched ceilings were so beautiful to behold!

As we were leaving the cathedral we noticed a sign directing people to the meeting spot for climbing the bell towers, Joanna and I needed no pushing as we sprinted toward the entrance, we were however slowed by a line the length of the east australian coast!
We made ourselves comfortable as possible and began to wait for our turn up the bell towers. we saw lots of interesting things happening, like the army special forces blazing past with semi automatic weapons flying about and cars and sirens- that was a tad disconcerting haha. But after iceream and lots of water we were finally admitted into the building ready to go on up the stairs...

The very winding stairs and then the view we arrived at- you can see the Seine and the Eiffle Tower in the far background!

The climb was very steep and naturally winding as we were ascending what i thought was a turretted tower- The view was breath taking as we arrived on the viewing platform, and the Gargoyles were just like the animated ones in The Hunchback of Notre Dame- although unfortunately these gargoyles really were 'only made of stone'.  

This cheeky little gargoyle has obviously been cast mid feast- wonder if he will ever get to finish his meal?

Joanna and I tried our best to wander slowly through the walk way- this was no problem for me as i was mostly intent to sigh and stare at the vista before me- imagining the hunchback of notre dame coming to be friend me haha. But before to long we moved on towards the bell tower- something i have been looking forward to for a long long time!

some more gorgeous photos of notre dame...

We began to climb the wooden platform upto the bell chamber and i suddenly got goosebumps all over me, i could hear the echoes of everyones distorted voices coming  from inside the huge bells above, if there werent so many tourists about it would have been beautiful to have a conversation inside the room. Romance as only the french can create haha.
When i saw the bells for the first time i thought they were so beautiful. All of them were huge and it must have sounded amazing to hear them ringing and clanging all at once. I was so awed that i lay my hands on the closest one ( a big no no!) and could feel how smooth and firm and cold the bells were, even on such a sweltering day.

 im very glad that joanna had the presence of mind to snap some photos- as you can see in the right photo, i was clearly to mesmerised by the bells to do anything but stare haha. Must have had a brain frazzle from the heat, likely thing to happen in that ridiculous jumpsuit i was wearing. Bloody fashion.


After our exploring through Notre Dame was completed we set off towards Montmartre in search of the Sacre Coeur and Moulin Rouge. I had by this stage given up on my jumpsuit and changed outfit into a very short blue dress, which was a big hit on the steps towards the Sacre Coeur, So dont mind me in the photos, ive just had an outfit change.
I wish i had stopped to take more photos while we were lost in Montmartre trying to find the stairs to the Sacre Coeur, It had begun to rain and one of my most vivid memories of Europe is the feeling of running for shelter amongst the winding paris streets.
We managed to find the steps leading up towards the giant mountain top, not realising that the cable car was just hiding beyond the trees, and so, we walked. To the top of one of the highest point in all of paris, on a hot summers day, with dresses and backpacks haha. Defintely a less favourable memory, we did however see a bride and groom posing for wedding photos on the steps. Bonus! The french just ooze public romance haha.

This is me posing quickly for a photo in front of the Sacre Coeur after a long and sweaty climb up the entire hill, not just the steps to the place of worship, but the whole kit and caboodle, We also stupidly took the stairs out of the metro- all 7 billion of them, now i understood the long line waiting patiently for the lift... haha.

(please note that the picture on the right belongs to the moderator of The Paris Blog- sourced by me from google.)

Unfortunately you cannot take photos inside the cathedral- which no one except us paid any adherance to, so Ive nothing to show there, however i can tell you that we were lucky enough to witness a small service inside and that the singing was simply beautiful- the light was streaming in through the many stained glass windows and the voices really were angelic. It was very peaceful to sit and be thankful for a few moments, I only wish some other tourists stopped to listen, they might have had more memories than photos after their holidays.

 enjoying a break from the heat with out paris fans.

Once outside again Joanna and i took a rest on the stairs to watch the men build a skateboard ramp (the size of a small house) for some crazy bugger to skate down- now anyone who knows this steep hill can fathom the sheer drop and then speedy ascent to the end of the ramp. Kind of like all those crazy skating of the side of the great wall of china youtube vids we see. I wonder how sucsessful the skate was?

 

The view :)

We then decending the stairs in the cable car- very relaxing and not like our ascent at all haha. However, before i could warn Joanna of the crazy dudes at the bottom of the car we were accosted by two Gents who were very intent on making us string bracelets. I tried to warn Joanna, she wanted to chat, they gave a hand massage- which i refused and glared at them for, then the began twisting the string this way and that around our wrists whilst chatting about Holland and Australia and a party a few blocks away we were constantly being invited to. Then they wanted 5 pound for a string bracelet.I kept the i told you so locking inside my mouth, but refused to even fork out for the 'price of a coffee' reminding them i had never wanted the bracelet but was just here for moral support- and to watch the valubles when they began making one for me anyhow. Funnily enough I, the one who was very vocal about not wanting a bracelet or a finger massage was given the bracelet as a gift. It was in the end well made and a very funny story to add to our trip haha.

Ill skip the horrific grocery trip where joanna and i could not walk around picking up wine, cheese, ghurkins and crackers without accompanying marriage proposals. I was focused on getting out and about without looking like too much like a tourist sized piece of meat. Instead I shall speak of our lovely picnic infront of the Moulin Rouge....

This photo took an hour to upload >:( But its the moulin rouge, on a busy intersection- We sat on the metro air vent and ate our cheese and crackers- people looked at us like we were a bit weird... eating ghurkins and pickled onions with out fingers. turns out french people dont eat like peasants anymore.

We did however see some cool stuff while we were relaxing in the cool air here, we saw the show ponies being led into the building- baby shetlands i think they were, im sure there are dogs bigger than them haha. We also saw lots of people doing the marylin monroe on our air vent with the moulin rouge behind them. I must admit though i was excpecting a more baz lhurman looking site for the greatest dance spectacular in the world. I was sad not to see the elephant and a little freaked out by the 100 euros one would need to pay to watch the topless ladies dance. I think its something to attempt after making my vast fortune at the age of 25 haha.

Joanna and I posing for photos, I would have gladly jumped up onto the air vent- however as we can clearly see in the first photo my dress- being as short as it is- would have flown right over my head and off down the streets of paris... not a good look guys haha

what a fun way to end our 2nd day in paris.