Sorry :(

Hey guys,

Wow I know right, there's finally a new blog! Well, don't get too excited.

As you may have noticedd my blog is very outdated, reason being that:

1. I have very limited time to write
2. I'm very tired by the end of the day
3. Alot of hotels have had internet, but just as many haven't. And sometimes it's very expensive.
4. The hotels that do have internet are never able to upload a blog in less than 2 hours, just because of the poor wifi connection or the internet speed is bad. You generally pay for the internet by the hour.

So yeah, so sorry about my lack of blogs. I have more written but they won't upload in enough time. This is a short one, so it works, but it will still take a little while to upload.
Some of you may have seen me on facebook and are wondering why I can do that but not blog...well, facebook works for me and for some reason this doesn't. So while writing blogs etc. I upload photos to facebook and contact a few people and when we don't have internet access in the hotel I use my phone to post updates etc. on facebook. Unfortunately I can't write blogs on my phone :(

But don't worry! I have them all saved on the computer and they will be uploaded whenever I get the chance, and even when we've arrived back home.

For those of you who don't know, we're Italy now in the middle of our tour :) It's fantastic! I'm in love with Italy and being on a tour is so much easier, relaxing, fun and informative too because the guides know so much. It's great :)

Hope you all are happy and well. Have a great Christmas and a fantastic new year! Bring on 2011! :)

Love,
Mia

Au revoir London... Bonjour Paris!

The day we departed London began with an early 5am start. Unfortunately too early for the hotel Continental breakfast, but we managed.

Due to the freakish November weather, Dad arranged a tentitave booking for us at the hotel we had been staying at, just in case our train to France got cancelled.

We lugged our massive suitcases (in the snow!) across the road to St Pancras station and located the entrance for the Eurostar at 6am. Luckily, our 6:55am train was not cancelled. Phew! What a relief. The train leaving at 7:55am had been cancelled, so we were super super happy, but this meant that the Eurostar now ran on a 1st in 1st serve policy. Which basically meant that if people with the later trains that were cancelled checked in before us, too bad, they'd get a place on our train. We all thought it was a pretty stupid system, but we were happy because we got in in plenty of time, and therefore still had a spot on our train.

For those of you who don't know what the Eurostar is, it's basically a train that goes from London to Paris with a few stops in between. It goes under water for about 20 minutes, but other than that it's all on land. Because you're travelling to a different country you have to go through customs just like you would on an International flight, but fortunately for us, it didn't take too long at all. We sat and waited for a little while, got a hot chocolate each and just waited for our boarding time.

It was rather crowded, so when it was time to board the train, our huge bags weren't at all helpful. Lugging them onto the train was pretty difficult and putting them into the baggage carriers was hard because of their size. It didn't help that these baggage areas were right near the doors, so a whole heap of people were held up for a while and weren't too happy, but what can you do? We couldn't leave our bags behind.

The train ride was very smooth and we had a rather white view as there was heavy snow in England. I slept for most of it, but apparently the 20 minutes underwater wasn't too bad, but Mum freaked out a little haha. The journey took 3 hours instead of the usual 2, due to the weather but we weren't complaining, we were just happy it wasn't cancelled.

Once we got off in Paris, we automatically noticed that the Gare du Nord station was a lot more open then King's Cross and St. Pancras in London. So we were very cold!

It was about 11:30am by the time we were off the train. We had arranged for a transfer to pick us up and take us to our apartment when another Eurostar arrived at 4pm as our check in time wasn't until 4pm. We had some time to spare so Mum had originally planned for us to leave our baggage in the lockers at the station and go and see the eifell tower. But due to our train delay, the dismal weather and the cost of the baggage lockers, we decided it wasn't worth it. Instead we lugged our baggage across the road to Maccas, got some brunch and decided that we'd just have to wait until our transfer came.

It was a long wait and as I mentioned before it was a very open station, which meant it was freezing. They even had outdoor heaters lined up along the station but it was very busy, which meant heater access was limited. This meant they we had to FREEZE for hours. This was the coldest we had been so far, we even got desperate enough to pretend to browse for books in a french news agent just because of the warmth. There were no indoor places to eat or anything. It was terrible. I distracted myself with my book, but Mum, Dad and Sam were just sitting there feeling cold and thinking about being cold. Meanwhile, we had a whole heap of stubbornbeggars constantly approaching us speaking gibberish or holding up signs. Not a nice experience.

Just like in London, we had already paid for the transfer so we didn't want to pay for a car to take us anywhere. And even if we did, we had no where to go. We couldn't take our bags into cafes or shops. We weres stuck waiting freezing in the station for hours and hours and hours and hours :(

It got to about 3pm when realised that none of us could feel our fingers or toes and the train that our transfer was booked with got delayed 50 minutes. Greeeeat. Another 50 minutes to wait.... When 4:50pm finally rolled around we were standing right where the passengers of the train were entering the main station. We waited and waited and checked every sign. But just like in London, no transfer turned up. By 5:30 we were packing our bags into the back of a massive taxi all feeling like we had hypethermia.

The car cost 80 euros. Great. Feeling very frustrated, annoyed, cold and hungry we were highly relieved to arrive at our warm apartment in Marais. It was lovely. The apartment was so spacious. Two large bedrooms, a bathroom, a toilet, a kitchen/laundry, a lounge/dining area and free wifi! Ahhhh so good! After 10 days of cramped hotel rooms, this was luxury. After our horrible day we had no desire to go out for dinner, so instead Mum and Dad went out, got some Pizza and groceries while Sam and I stayed at home.

They had been out for 45 minutes when I started to get worried, they still weren't back. I decided to give it another 10 minutes before I went into full freak out mode. 5 minutes later Mum and Dad arrived at the apartment. Phew! I have no idea what I would have done if they suddenly went M.I.A. on Sam and I. Turns out that they had been standing outside the appartment for about 15 minutes entering in the door code, but it wasn't working. They even tried to get some French girl who lived in the same section of appartments to help them, but due to the language barrier nothing was achieved. That was until they realised that they were standing at door number 6... we were staying at door number 4. Niiice one Mum and Dad.

Oh well. They brought back Pizza from a local store which was really yummy, but different from home (it had corn on it haha), as well as some bread that we could toast for breakfast the next morning and a few other things. It was really nice to have a bit of a homely feeling happening in the appartment, especially after the day we had.

Not the best start to Paris, but we were determined not to let that experience ruin our view of France. We had two days of sightseeing in Paris to change our minds.

England

Some general thoughts about England.

• Way too many people in such a tiny space
  
  
• There seems to be more French people than English! We seemed to be surrounded by French people in our hotel as well as just walking around the streets (most carrying around Louis Vitton bags I might add), having said that it's only a two hour train ride from Paris to London and we were right across from King's Cross station. But there even seemed to be more French waitresses and waitors than English.
  
  
• In general people were very nice, we did have some not so nice people, but most were very friendly.
  
  
• The houses in the suburban areas look just like you would expect them to, so lovely :)
  
  
• However the suburban areas were just as congested as the cities!
  
  
• Beautiful architecture. Just stunning.
  
  
• Amusing accents. They're all so different!
  
  
• Gorgeous country side and country villages (still congested!)
  
  
• London's people traffic on the pathways, was just as bad as the vehicle traffic on the roads! There were tons and tons of people walking on the streets, it was hectic! And as for the traffic on the streets? Well, everyone here thinks that they're the King of the road and gives no mercy! And for anyone reading who knows how my Dad drives... they're all the same as him, if not worse.
  
  
• Excellent shopping :)
  
  
• English speaking country is always a bonus.
  
  
• Cold... very very cold!
  
  
• Very historical! A beautiful sense of being somewhere that had so much history and so many stories attached to it.
  
  
• Yummy food! There was lots of traditional English foods offered on menus which was nice, in pubs etc. and a large variety of restaurants (Chinese, Thai, French, Italian etc.). And of course there was Maccas & Subway and all of those fast food places we have at home, which was an easy fix at meal times. Overall, the food was very nice :)
  
  
• Felt as if there was too much to see and not enough time to see it in.
  
  
• Overall an amazing and very beautiful country with so much to offer!

London - Day 4

After a few exciting and action packed days in London, we thought we'd have a bit of an easy last day.

We started off by heading off to King's Cross and taking a train to a station directly down the street from Abbey Road. Yes that's right, the one and only Abbey Road.

Unfortunately the street isn't actually as calm and traffic free as it appears in the photo. On the other side of the crossing there is actually a busy intersection, so taking a photo was rather difficult. There were 2 other small groups of people trying to achieve the same reanactment photo as us, which made it even harder. Yes it is a crossing, but the person taking the photo isn't on it and you imagine how annoyed the locals would be after 40 years of this; so the drivers weren't very patient when it came to happy snapping.

There was a guy there who offered to take a photo of us all crossing the road and explained how it was his job to take photos of people crossing Abbey Road, and printing out an instant photo for them. We weren't interested, as he weirded us out a bit and who knew how much it would cost. Instead I quickly ran over to an island slightly to the right of the crossing on the adjacent road and took a few photos of Dad and Sam doing the classic Beatles Abbey Road walk. The photos weren't perfect, but good enough.

We headed over to the Abbey Road Studios and took a few happy snaps, but then headed back to the station, as really Abbey Rd. is just a street, there's not much to actually do except take photos haha. Mum had planned for us to visit a store called Harrodm next, which is incredibly famous in Britian because basically it's amazing. Originally I was sceptical, thinking "okay, so we're going to visit a store? What's so special about a store?". Well the answer is, everything. We walked in and were all instantly overwhelmed by the number of perfumes being offered for us to sample and the amazing decor in the store. By the way the new 'l'adore Dior' is really nice :)
From the perfumery we walked into the food section. This was basically a billionaire's grocery store, fine wines and cheese were being sold along side hundreds of breads and gourmet deserts. In the next section of the food department there was fresh fish and freshly cut meat, along with a very very fancy smancy sushi bar. There was a seperate section that was decked out with candy's and chocolates of every single kind you could think of, it was incredible! Like nothing I've ever seen in my life! And this was only the beginning!

The clothes were just as high class as the food and perfumes. I'm talking Chanel, Dior, D&G, Couture, Ralph Lauren and Louis Vitton, and this was not only in womens wear, but in menswear and childrenswear! These brands were also in the accessory section. We were having an excellent time gawking out our amazing sorroundings, however I swore at any moment a snooty french perfume spritzer would say "Excuse moi? May I please 'ave a look at 'ur coat?" See the tag and realise the fact it was bought in a cheap department store, call security, disinfect her hands and then faint from shock. We felt incredibly out of place. It sounds insane, but with this place all decked out with designer everything, egyptian style decor and shop assistants that resembled porceline dolls, I wouldn't be suprised.

We walked into the toys section and finally I felt at home. It's sad I know, but in here you felt like you could actually touch things and ask questions without a porceline doll giving you the evil eye. Don't let that fool you though, everything was still designer brand! I saw a teddy bear about 20cm long that was priced at roughly 150 pounds. Designer teddy bears... what has the world come to.
But anyway, it was very fantastic and dream like, there were people everywhere with a badge saying "Harrods Toys Entertainer" who were demonstrating how some of the toys work. May I just say, what an awesome job! The whole atmosphere was just so fantastic and fun. There were giant lego men and a huge doll house, and even a teddy bear that smelt exactly like strawberries. This place was awesome.

Once we'd finally managed to drag ourselves out of Harrods and had finished staring at their amazing window displays (Peter Pan themed by the way) we headed back to the underground and took the train to Oxford Street, with an intention to go shopping for boots for Mum and I. By this point we were getting pretty hungry, so before the we began our shopping escapade we found a nice looking pub to sit down and have lunch in. We were seated upstairs in a nice cosy room with pictures of celebrities all around the walls. We were later told by the waitress that all of these celebrities had been to that particular pub. Lunch was very nice, we even treated ourselves to a desert :) (and yes Breanna Foley, I got sticky date pudding lol).The waitress was named Natalie and was very friendly, one of the nicest people we had met in England. She got chatting to us and eventually we found out that she was from the suburb next to where Mum was born :) Natalie was such a nice person, she told that she takes care of her 95 year old Grandfather during most of her spare time and so she hasn't had the chance to ever leave England. We really liked her, so much so that we even gave her our email address so that she could contact us if she was ever in Australia.

After lunch we spent an hour or two on a constant hunt for warm boots for Mum and I. We were in and out of shoe stores for what seemed a very long time, when eventually we stumbled upon a Sketchers store. Mum and I bought a pair of Sketchers shoes each to wear over here and they had been treating us well so we knew we were in a good store. Unfortunately Mum couldn't find herself anything, but I found myself a nice pair of warm boots :)

We then decided that seeing as it was our last night in England, that we'd take the bus back to the hotel instead of the underground. We got on a double-decker bus :) Woohooo haha. It felt weird going up stairs on a bus! Even though it took longer than the underground due to traffic, it was a very nice and scenic drive to the hotel :)

You can see the photos from this day on my Facebook in the album 'England - 3' at http://www.facebook.com/mia.allwright

Steak, Music and Celebrities.... just a usual night in London

After a rather full on day of sightseeing, we were very tired but ready for an exciting night out :)

We dressed ourselves up a little bit and headed over to King's Cross where we boarded a train to Picadilly Circus. The streets were very busy around this area, which is highly understandable! There was so much there! Most of the streets were decorated with glittering, lit up signage advertising various West End musicals :) I was in awe. Anyone who knows me and my mother well, knows that we love musicals.

Finally after a short walk we saw the name 'Les Miserables' lit up in the distance. The excitement I felt at even just seeing the name of the world's longest running musical lit up in front of me was indescribable! We walked over to a rather empty theatre entrance and picked up our tickets, ready for the show in two ours at 7:30pm. We asked the man in the ticket booth to advise of somewhere nice to eat, he suggested avoiding the steakhouse across the street as he swore that "they serve horse meat" (hahaha) but that a different steakhourse over towards Leciester Square was very lovely.

We walked down a few streets, past London's China town and the local Maccas, when we finally located the "Angus Steakhouse". We noticed on our way in the door that there was a massive and very glittery set up of some sort with a lot of Narnia posters in the centre of the square and right outside the restaurant. When we walked into the lovely, warm and rather fancy looking steakhouse, we asked the lady seating us what was happening outside and she calmly informed us it was the London Narnia premiere. Oh, you know, just a movie premiere... pft...common things they are..... !!!!!!!!!!!!! We were so excited! We could even hear the stars of the movie being interviewed via microphone whilst sitting in the restaurant.

When ordering our meals, the waitress told us (also rather calmly) that the Queen was attending the premiere.... Oh, who? The Queen? Who's that again?..... We were shocked. The Queen of England was going to be within 100 metres of us in an hour or two, how exciting! Dad then found out that her time of arrival was 7:15pm. Oh. Our bubbles all burst. Les Miserables stopped seating people at 7:15, as the show started at 7:30 :(

Mum and I were rather content with the fact that we would miss seeing the Queen, of course it would be a wonderful once in a life time experience, but we couldn't miss the show for a 2 second glance at her majesty. Dad however (being Dad), was not convinced. He was sure that we could see the Queen as well as make the show.

We all thorougly enjoyed our meal at the restaurant, for me personally, it was the best meal I'd had whilst in England. Definately not your average steakhouse! As much as the deserts tempted us, we simply did not have enough time, so we paid and headed outside. Dad was ahead of us and next thing we new he was walking over towards the entrace to the theatre that Narnia was going to premiering in. There was a red carpet and everything :) We waited amongst the surprisingling little crowds at the barrier of the carpet. It was 6:45pm by this point. We waited and waited, but nothing really happened. Just a bunch of random people clicking away on their mobile phones walking briskly into the cinema. Then suddenly, who should appear, but the great Aslan himself, Liam Neeson.

He briskly walked down the red carpet waving here and there and before we knew it he was inside. Pretty cool though :) By this time it was around 6:55 and Mum and I were starting to get a bit nervous. As much as we wanted to see the Queen... we didn't want to miss the show. At 7pm we decided we'd go to the show, I especially did not want to risk missing it. Dad and Sam on the other hand wanted to see the Queen and swore they would make it on time.

........

It's 7:30pm the curtains are closing at the theatre doors, the lights are dimming and suddenly the overture starts to play and the stage curtains open. I look to my right, and there sits my Mother staring blankly at the stage with two young girls next to her. I look to my left.... I see two empty seats. They didn't make it.

Mum and I were devastated, but we promised that we wouldn't let their own risk ruin our experience. But it was hard, as their absence was very distracting. A rather long song started off the show, setting up the story a bit, mainly performed by the main character Jean Valjean. It was fantastic! I had already fallen in love with the show and it had barely started and I absolutely adored the voice of the performer who played Jean Valjean. But of course the boys were still on my mind. The song finished for the first time in about 7 minutes. I lookd back during the applause and I see Dad and Sam being let into the theatre and being showed to their seats by a man with a torch. Phew! Mum and I had thought that they may not have let them in until intermission. The very breifly told us that they had missed out the Queen, had met Liam Neeson again and had watched the beginning of the show on the televisions outside. Mum and I were not impressed, but we forgot about it and just enjoyed the show.

It was fantastic! Ahhh so good :) Did I mention I love musicals? I could go back and see this a million times over. The music, the stage, the acting and the story... it was all just so brilliant. I loved it, so much :) And if you're going to see a musical in West End at any time in your life, I suggest you pick Les Mis. It's not the longest running musical for no reason!

As we left the theatre and took the underground home, the boys explained to us that the red carpet had been a set up. Because the Queen was coming, they set up a fake red carpet on the opposite side of the square to the real one, and sent all the stars of the movie into the fake one to distract the public and the press. Basically once the Queen was safely inside they sent all the stars back out and over to the right cinema. What a waste of time haha. But we were then told, that on the way out of the fake cinema Liam Neeson shook Dad's hand. Dad couldn't get the smile off of his face. He was definatey more impressed by that than the show, but oh well. He recorded a video of his encounter with the big celeb so he was pleased :)

Overall a fanatastic evening :) and by the way, the Les Mis songs have been stuck in our heads ever since haha

Photos!

Hey all,

I've been posting a few photos throughout my blogs, but sometimes the hotel internet just won't let me do it. So feel free to have a look at my facebook page. I've allowed 'everyone' to see my Europe photos, so they should be able to be viewed by those who don't have facebook.
However, if this isn't the case please let me know asap through a comment on the blog! My facebook page address is facebook.com/mia.allwright

By the way guys, feel free to leave comments! I'd love to hear anything you have to say :)

More blogs to come!

Love,
Mia

London - The tower! (Day 3)

Our 3rd day in London was just as good as thee days before :)

With the strike over, we were able to use the underground and save a few pounds, which was excellent :) It was a freezing cold day... and snowing. It basically never snows in London, especially not at this time of year! So, basically this was a very cold, wet, white and special day :)

We started our day by again, enoying a continental breakfast and I thankfully got to also contact my boyfriend David back in Australia via skype :) We then headed over to King's Cross station, coats on and hoods up. We then took the Moorgate line to Tower Hill only to find the snow had increased! We walked straight out of the station into the cold and purchased a small umbrella each from some touristy store next to the station. In the travelling spirit and all, Sam and I chose a very cool/incredibly dorky (depending on your view of cheesy tourists) union jack umbrella, Mum and Dad on the other hand got boring maroon ones. I have discovered on this trip that snow is just as annoying as rain, it is just prettier and colder.

We headed over just to the Tower of London, which over the years has been home to many monarchs and prisoners, but now it is a museum that houses the Crown Jewels. This exibit was equally as fascinating as the Abbey, just not as beautiful. I loved it. I'm a big reader and love history, so this kind of thing, is my type of tourist attraction :)

The four of us managed to travel throughout the entirity of the tower, in a period of 3.5 hours, but it didn't feel that long! Our umbrellas were of much use to us whilst moving through the outdoor areas in between the different segments, but as they were cheap ones, they eventually broke. The tower was fantastic! It's very large, but the arrows and signs made it really easy to find which way to go, otherwise we would have been completely overwhelmed and have not known where to go next.

According to our travel book, "For much of its 900-year history the Tower was an object of fear. Those who committed treason or threatened the throne were held within its dark walls and often executed." Therefore, throughout the tower there was a lot of engravings on the walls made by prisoners over the years, that had been preserved and were covered over with glass. The majority of the inscriptions were of bible verses but some reffered to some of the people who had been hanged etc. or fellow prisoners e.g. Lady Jane Grey("Jane" was engraved quite often on the walls). It was all very interesting.

There is a place in the castle called The Bloody Tower which is associated with the disappearance of two Princes in 1483. Basically the story is that Prince Edward and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York were mysteriously killed, just as Prince Edward (13 at the time) was living in the tower to prepare for his coronation. It is suspected that Richard III or Henry VII ordered for their death.
They had a whole few rooms in the tower completely dedicated to the tale of the Princes and even had a button you could press to vote for who you thought the culprit was.

There was also an amazing exibition at the tower called "Fit for a King". Basically this consisted of "five hundred years of spectacular royal armour, offering a fascinating insight into the personalities, power and physical size of England’s king." That's right, the real thing guys! The real armour of the King's and Princes from hundreds of years ago. They even had an interactive section where you could feel the wait of weapons and attempt to shoot a bow and arrow (simulator, not real haha). It was really cool :) And I definately knew that all the guys at home would be particularly jealous haha.

We saw a lot of things in the tower, a lot of history and a lot of stories, we even got to see torture methods :S but our favourite exibit by far was the Crown Jewels! Just like Westminster Abbey, no photos were allowed to be taken in this section, but wow. It was incredible.

They put on display not only the coronation crown, the crown's of previous King's and Queen's etc. but also the special dining ornaments (gold engraved and shaped plates and goblets etc.) from right back in the 1400s. They even had the orb and scepter held by Queens and Kings right back through the monarchy, at every coronation, including the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. It was so incredible, yet so surreal! It was hard to believe that the ginormous jewels in front of you were real and not just cheapo fake ones, but having said that you could definately tell that they were authentic! This was by far our favourite part of the tower :)

We saw a large group of ravens all in a particular section of the tower. Legend states that if they leave the tower, the kingdom of England will fall. Hence why all their wings are clipped. Poor things.

We also visited the Tower Green which was "where aristocratic prisoners were executed, away from the ghoulish crowds on Tower Hill....Execution inside the Tower, away from the gawping crowds, was a privilege reserved for those of high rank, or for those who had dangerously strong popular support.

The best-known among those executed on or near the site of the memorial are the three queens of England: Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, who was in her early thirties, Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife, barely in her twenties, and Lady Jane Grey, who was only sixteen." Soooo amazing (and slightly disturbing) to think that I have stood where all of these famous women were killed.

I encourage you to find out more information about the tower at either http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/stories.aspx or http://www.toweroflondontour.com/ It's worth it! :)

We then all moved up to the Tower Bridge. We walked up lots of slippery steps and continued to walk right to the middle of the bridge, where usually it where the roadway would seperate when big ships have to pass through. We were all really enjoying just standing on the bridge, so chose not to spend the extra money to look at the exhibiton. It was lovely :)

We then walked through the bitter cold, windy, snowy, FREEZING weather(...not pleasant) along the riverside embarkment to The Golden Hind, a replica of Sir Francis Drake's boat. The boys enjoyed that one.
We had already had lunch whilst at the tower, so we then went into a nearby pub for a quick drink and a bit of a warm up, which was very nice, but unfortunately we soon had to return to the freezer awaiting us outside.

The four of us then walked to the nearest station and took a train back to Covent Gardens (which we had visited on day 1) to go back to Pineapple Studios. Whilst the boys went up and looked around the studios, Mum and I went into the store that was closed the last time we went through the area. It was a really awesome shop with great dance gear, but I just chose to get a simple T-shirt that said 'Pineapple Dance Studios' just for a bit of memorabilia and for something to wear in Egypt and Singapore in the coming weeks. The girl at the desk told us that the weather was so bad that she couldn't drive home that night and was having to find accomodation in the area :S very odd weather for November!

We then hopped promptly back on the underground trains, on the Picadilly Line back to King's Cross to get ready for our night out on London's West End :)