Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle -- Paris

In the morning we went to Notre Dames. It was such an amazing Gothic cathedral with stunning stained glass rose windows.

One of the rose window

To help us understand the importance of the cathedral (and because it was free), we went on a tour of Notre Dame. It was really interesting to learn about Gothic architecture and the reason behind the three levels in the church and the use of light and height to assist in explaining the religious message further. I was so surprised to learn that Notre Dame was the keeper of the crown of thorns that was worn by Jesus in the Crucifixion. Not being a very religious person this whole tour was very eye opening to me and I really enjoyed learning more about the architecture .

After Notre Dame we walked over to Sainte Chapelle which was produced for Louis XI to hold his collection of holy relics including the crown of thorns. The first thing that you notice about Sainte Chapelle is that it is so light due to the huge stain glass windows. Most of the windows are the original from 1248. It was amazing.

The high ceilings and stain glass windows in Sainte Chapelle makes it feel better than it is.

Paris, France-- Haley's birthday!

I arrived in Paris at the North train station at 9am. Haley's and Pia's flight did not arrive until 12. I had not work out any accommodation and decided I would just crash on the floor of Haley and Pia's hotel room for the night. So I had some time to kill until they arrived. I decided to walk from the North Station to their hotel via the Lourve and Jadin du Luxembourg. It was a long walk but I was so excited to be in Paris that I did not even notice how heavy my bag was or anything.

Me at the Louvre

After reaching the hotel and having some lunch I waited for Haley and Pia in the foyer. Their bags were delayed to they were a bit later than expected. It was so exciting when they arrived!! Haley had been studying in Italy for the past 3 months and Pia just came over for a break from work and to see Europe.

Pia and Haley in Paris

The three of us at the Eiffel tower

After our initial catch up we had lunch in a very French looking restaurant watching everyone walk past on the street. We decided as it was Haley's birthday we should go to the Eiffel tower to celebrate so we slowly we made our way there.

The Eiffel tower by day

Everything in Paris looked so lovely. The building where just like I had imagined them. Also unlike everyone had warned me, the people were so friendly and no one cared that I could only say Bonjour and Parlez-vous anglais? in French.

That night we had champagne on the grass in front of the Eiffel tower and at 9pm we joined the line for the lift to the top. The view from the top was really impressive and I could have spent all night there but it was really cold and we were not dressed for the weather so instead we took a cab back to the hostel.

The Eiffel tower by night

Us up the tower

The cab ride home

Notre Dame by night

That night we had a really hard time finding dinner at 11pm. Everywhere we asked stopped serving dinner hours before. This was a shock to Haley and Pia who had just come from Spain and Italy when food is available at all hours of the day. Finally we found a place and I had a great steak! Yum!

Berlin, Germany

I arrived in Germany at around 7pm and took the train to the main train station, Hauptbahnhof. It was really weird coming to Germany after being here back in 2000 on a high school exchange. On my exchange I was is Wurzburg which is down south near Frankfurt so i never made it to Berlin and was so excited to finally see it.

The new and very impressive Hauptbahnhof




I have not spoken German since high school but was really surprised how much I could still understand. Once at the train station I booked a train ticket to Paris using my Eurail pass. Because I wanted to leave the next night I had to upgrade to first class as the train was full. But I needed to get to Paris to Meet Haley and Pia (from High school) for Haley's birthday on the 31st July. After organising my ticket all in German might I add I went to the information desk to work out some accommodation for the night.




It is amazing how things can just fall in to place. The information woman had one place in this hostel sightly out of the city for 10 Euro a night. Which is really cheap for Western Europe! I headed out to the hostel and was meet by the lovely Canadian hostel owner. She had just moved to Berlin with her new husband to start up this hostel business. She was really friendly.



That night I had dinner with a few of the others from the hostel and then had an early one. I was exhausted after all the partying in Tallinn.


The next day I got up early and checked out and went to the train station to leave my bags for the day in a locker while I went sightseeing.


Berlin was just as I had imagined it. I went to the Bundestag, the Brandenburg Tor and Check point Charlie just to name a few sights. While at Check point Charlie I called my Dad and sister for the first time this trip. It was great to talk to them!

The Bundestag with its glass cupola, which would have had a nice view if the weather was better.



The Brandenburg Gate built as the cities gate-cum-triumphal arch but now stands at the fulcrum between the form East and West Berlin.
The very contentious Jewish Memorial.

The notorious Check point Charlie, the most infamous crossing point from West to East

After our chat it started raining and did not stop for the rest of the day. I tried to keep sight seeing and followed the path of the course of the form wall but ended up to wet and cold so called it a day early.

Some of the remaining wall

That evening I catch my train to Paris. Being First class was great!!! I shared the cabin with one other girl and slept the whole way in my comfortable bed. In the morning I was woken with a free breakfast! Yeah what service!

Tallinn, Estonia

The Medieval town wall

Welcome to the most visited Baltic cities, Tallinn Estonia. According to the poster at the International Pier this city, with a local population 400,200 people, has 7 million tourist every year!! And I can understand why. It is one of the nicest looking cities I have seen with a medieval walls enclosing most of the old Town.

Treas and I arrived in Tallinn at 11pm and got a lift to our hostel from this really nice girl from the bus. We were exhausted so went straight to bed. The next morning we went to explore the city. First we headed to Raekoja Plats, the historic centre with a lovely market place. All the girls working in Tallinn dress up as peasants clothing. And I have to say they are the most attractive woman I have ever seen. There was a running joke at our hostel that there was a machine out the back somewhere producing these prefect women.

After looking around the square, we went up the hill to see the castle and the view of the city. We did not last long as there was just too many tourist. Three of the huge cruise ships were in for the day and all their tourist were out following their tour guide around. It was amusing to watch them all following a tour guide with a flag, but I could not hanged it for long. So we went down to the Pier to look at the boats.







Treas and I walked around the Medieval wall.

Tallinn from the top of the castle hill.

From the Pier we walked over to the Kadriong Park, which is a heavily wooded area just 2km from the old town. It was so nice to find yourself in the middle of wildness right next to the city. After walking in the wooded we stumbled out to find our selves on a beach and the Baltic sea!!

On the beach watching the huge boats

The beach was a really beach like home; with white sand and everything. However the weather was not like home, it was cold and windily. Despite the weather we sat on the beach for ages watching the cruise ships and ferries take people to Helsinki and Stockholm.

That night was Treas and my last night together as Treas was flying back to London the next morning, so we decide to go on a pub crawl. And Tallinn is just the place for pub crawls.

We started the night at the Kompressor bar which has the best pancakes I have ever eaten. I had a cheese and bacon pancake. yum!!! They were so filling that I had trouble finishing it. After a wonderful meal we went to another few bars one of them was this communist bar which has not changed since the old days. It was really funny.

We also went to this bar that was modelled after Mac computers. Everything inside was white and futuristic. It really felt like you were in a Mac book or something. We tried to finish the night off with another pancake but Kompressor bar closes at 1am. Boo!

The Mac bar

The next morning we got up early, hoping for another pancake hit before Treas had to catch the bus to the airport at 9am but once again we were disappointed as Kompressor was closed. Treas and I said our final farewells and he left on the bus.

I then went back to the hostel and hung out in the common room with some Aussies and kiwi's guys . One of the Aussie guys use to live in North Fitzroy just down the street from me. How small world is that!

For lunch we went to this Estonia restaurant where one of the Aussies guys knew the waitress. She gave us the lunch special which is normally only available to locals and is heaps cheaper than the tourist menu. So we ate really well.

That night we had some more pancakes at Kompressor bar again. Then we hit the bars of Tallinn again. It was a Friday night so there were heaps of English guys out on their Bucks nights. They were all so drunk and rather disgusting.

The next morning I had a final look around town and then caught a flight in the afternoon to Berlin, Germany.

Riga and Sigulda , Latvia

We arrived in Riga really early in the morning because the bus ride from Vilnius to Riga is only 5 hours. We stayed at this really fun hostel. When you enter the hostel you are first in a bar and then you can open the bookshelf to reveal a staircase which leads to the dorm rooms. Really cute! As we were so early they let us have a nap on the floor of the kitchen. Yeah I know I am all class!

After a nap we had a look around town. When we were in Vilnius we meet this Aussie guy who told us that the exchange rate between Australian dollars and Lats was divide by 3. However we did not check which way he meant to divide by. So I was a bit shocked when I withdrew 200LS from the ATM and they came in 20LS bills. After a bit of shopping at the supermarket the penny dropped! LATS are equal to the pound! Silly of us for not checking. Needless to say i did not plan on spending all that cash in our 3 days in Latvia!

After looking around the town we went to the Occupation Museum to learn more about the history of Latvia and the other Baltic states. I could not believe how long they had been occupied for and that they only became independent 16 years ago. The Museum was really interesting and I would recommended it to everyone!

This house is next to the Guild Hall. When the owner of the house was not allowed to join the Guild Hall he turned the cats around so that their butts faced the Hall. It is now one of the big jokes of Latvia.

The Freedom Monument!

That night we went on a boat cruise down the Daugava river. Treas was conceived that the bridges over the river were used as example in our textbooks in first year uni. I have to admit my memory is not that good.

Treas and one of the bridges.

The next day wee took a bus to Sigulda to see the national park and go canoeing. The town of Sigulda is really cute and we stayed with this family in their spare granny flat. Sorry I didn't take any phones of canoeing cos I was worried about my camera getting wet.

Canoeing was great fun but it was very cold and wet. After canoeing we took a bus back to Riga and then got another one to Tallinn, Estonia. This time Treas convinced me not to take a night bus. He just wanted a really nights sleep for once. Fair enough! So we got to Tallinn at 11pm. We meet these really nice people on the bus who were coming back from some European Union teenage conference. One of them got her dad to give us a lift to the hostel! How nice is that!

Vilnius, Lithuania

Treas and Me in Vilnius

What is there not to love about Lithuania and in particular Vilnius. It has a lovely old town with cobble streets and is nicknamed the Northern Jerusalem. It also has a monument to Frank Zappa!




It also has some really weird art!

We started our day in Vilnius by seeing Frank and then visiting The Cathedral which had been rebuilt after the war and I did not like it as much as St Anne's Church. However it does have a very special tile near it. Next to the Cathedral there is a small coloured tile that say 'stebukla' (miracle). This title marks the spot where in 1989 2 million people from the Baltic states formed a human chain that stretched from this tile to Tallinn, Estonia to protest against the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States! How amazing is that! A human chain that covers three countries! The protest did not work as the Baltic states were not granted there freedom until 1991.

The Cathedral, everyone in the right corner is standing around the stebuklas tile.

St Anne's church!

I am not the only one who likes St Anne's, apparently Napoleon wanted to take this little church with him back to Paris. It is made out of something like 30 different types of brick! That means the pretty little patterns on it where not cut into the brick after it was built but the bricks were made like that. WOW!

After looking at churches we went to the Upper castle for a view of the city. It took us a while to find a way up the hill but the view was wroth it.

The next day we took a bus to Trakai. It was the former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and wroth a visit. It is located on a peninsula between two lakes. It is home to two castles the better of the two being the Island Castle. It was great. We spent the day looking around Trakai and the island castle and timed it perfectly to get our bus back!However everyone else also decided to take that same bus so we could not get on.

The Island Castle

I swear I didn't do it

Both Treas and I had been talking about how much we wanted to go hitching and how eastern Europe seems like a good place for it so we hitched a ride with these two guys in a five seater Ute. The younger one spoke a bit of English and we chatted to him for most of the ride. They then dropped us off in the city and told us the best places to go and see in Vilnius. They were so nice!

After our ride back to town we went to see the old Russian church. I still love the look of Onion domes.

That night we took another night bus this time to Riga, Latvia!!

Warsaw, Poland

I was so excited when I got to my hostel that I would be meeting Treasure (Paul Treasure a friend from uni) soon! I was standing out the front of my hostel sending him a message to see where he was and then just as I pressed send I hear someone yelling. It was Treas! Yeah!

Treasure had booked himself in to a different hostel as he was not sure this crazy plan would work out. So we spent the day together sightseeing in Krakow and I told him about my amazing train ride and meeting the girl who knew Dr Krodkiewski. He filled me in on his travels for the past 9 months and I told him about all the gossip at Connell Wagner. Treas worked at CW before me.

Everyone had told me that Warsaw was ugly but I really liked it. The city has its communist block housing but with a bit of exploring you can look around the stunning old town and climb up to the green roof on top of the University Library. And like every city in Europe it has a Castle! Unfortunately this castle is used as the now so you can not walk around everywhere.

Treas at the Castle

The University Library

The green roof at the University Library. It is the best Green roof I have seen. I would have hung out here heaps if I went to uni in Poland.

My favourite building in Krakow. I just love the bubble look! If you see it up close you can see that the glass colour changes with the bubbles adding to the effect!

The next day we had a culture day with a capital K! Well that was the name Treas came up with. We went to the Nozyk Synagogue. I had never been inside a synagogue so jumped at the chance. The Nozyk Synagogue was the only Synagogue in Warsaw to survive the war. They had a small museum which showed how everything else in Warsaw was flattened during the war. It was really interesting. After visiting the Synagogue we had lunch at the Kosher restaurant next door. There we meet this really nice couple from Paris David and Sarah. They invited us both to visit them in Paris anytime. They were so friendly.

That evening we took a night bus to Vilnius Lithuania! Poor Treas had to put up with my obsession with using night public transport to save money on accommodation.