Paris...

After leaving Portugal our (Dad & myself) next stop was Paris.

We arrived in Paris at an airport almost 2hours outside the city so we took a 1.5hr bus trip towards the city and then the Metro to the hotel. We had booked a hotel based on a recommendation from an American bloke we met on the train in Portugal. After seeing the location, quality and price of the place we were definately glad we bumped into him! The hotel was right smack bang in the middle of the city, 5min walk to Notre Dame.

After checking in we decided to go and look for another hotel for my Aunts and cousin and her friend to stay in, ours was booked out! So after spending about 2-3hrs walking around Paris we had only found a couple of places that had vacancies and had prices considerably higher than where we were staying. Again, this made us feel even better about where we were staying.

Enough of that walking. It was time to sit down and have some dinner. We chose a place not far from our hotel and waited about 15min to get a seat outside. After sinking a few beers and waiting almost an hour for our meal (30mins before we got to order) we were finally satisfied and the duck I ate was happily swimming around in my stomach.

After dinner we went for a walk around the area and stumbled across a few buskers. One of which was singing good old classic songs and was really good until some drunk French guy decided he'd try and start a fight with the singer. Fortunately it wasnt to happen as a bunch of onlookers pulled him away and sorted him out. Very interesting for our first night! Next was a walk over to the Notre Dame and a crepe for the walk.

The next day my reloz arrived and we somehow got them a room in our hotel. We jumped on a hop-on hop-off bus and drove around the city seeing the sites. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame and various others. Unfortunately we missed out on seeing Montmartre. We were planning to go up the Eiffel Tower and we lining up when it started pouring down with rain so we ran for the bus-stop and huddled together until the bus came. Tomorrow...

After a hard days sightseeing we all deserved a drink. So we grabbed some takeaways from an off-license and a kebab and sat down by the River Seine outside Notre Dame. After some good drinking fun and shenanigans we made our way back to our beds. Another great day in Paris!

After missing out on the Eiffel Tower the day before, we had planned to do that today. First we stopped at the Louvre for a quick run to the Mona Lisa and back. After our quick art session for the day we walked from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower which wasnt as far as I'd have thought! Finally we were going up! What an amazing view you get from the top of the tower! Its crazy when you're going up the lift and looking straight down the side of the tower, if you have vertigo you'd be stuffed!

As night began to fall we readied ourselves for the big night ahead, Moulin Rouge! First of all we jumped on a Illumination tour bus which drove you around the sites and showed you them illuminated at night, the Eiffel Tower was awesome to see at night, especially when it started to twinkle with thousands of lights! When we drove around the massive round-a-bout which circles the Arc de Triomphe there were thousands of people all dressed in white having a sit down dinner on the pavement. They were all going crazy waving their napkins in the air and some even ran over and jumped on our bus!

Eventually we arrive at the Moulin Rouge theatre and saw what lay ahead, a 200meter line! Oh well, so to the back of the que we went! Dad went into the pub and bought some Corona's for the wait. Finally we arrived at our seats in the theatre and popped a bottle of Champas. The show was fantastic with costumes and sets like no other! Extravagent! It's for sure the best show I've ever seen! The show finished up at 1:30am and we made our way back to the hotel for the final night before Dad flew off...

The next day we packed out bags and checked out of the hotel. I went to the station with Dad to say our goodbyes and then he was gone... Dad, I had an awesome time with you! Some of the best parts of my trip! Thanks for a GREAT time!

Next it was my turn, so I said my goodbyes to my Aunts and jumped on a train to Brussels, Belgium which is where I am now. Actually I'm leaving for Amsterdam now so I'll update on Brussels from there.

Don.