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As you may have noticedd my blog is very outdated, reason being that: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

London - Day 2

We woke up in our second day in London, ready for an action packed day of sightseeing :) only to look out our hotel window to see crowds and crowds of people around the train station. This was followed by turning on the television and finding out that the underground workers were on strike. Excellent timing. This meant that basically, we had to either walk everywhere, take buses or get taxis.

After having our continental breakfast at the hotel (not too shabby by the way) we walked over to King's Cross to look more into the situation. Basically no trains were running, and the ones that were packed! Luckily the majority of the work crowd had cleared off by that point, but it was still busy! We chose to get a taxi due to our lack of knowledge of the bus lines and the ridiculous amount of time and energy it would take to walk all the way to our first destination, Westminster Abbey. The taxi line was ridiculous, it bended all the way past the 4 rows of the line up area designated to it and went half way down the walkway into the station. The line was very long and was made up of very angry looking people with ugly expressions on their face, yelling into their phones whilst holding suitcases. We decided that we might head back over to the fake platform 9&3/4 that we had found the other day and take some pictures :) Unfortunately there was construction taking place around the photos, so they're not as good as they could be, but oh well :)

Yes we all look a bit dorky haha, but I still think that it's pretty awesome :)

Anyways, we headed back to the line for the taxi's to see had decreased by about a 5th. It wasn't great, but it was better than nothing. We waited in line for a while, but not really too long, between about 10 and 15 minutes. We hopped in a traditional style London taxi... but with some not so traditonal advertising and headed over to Westminster. The cabby was a really nice man :) He had a nice general chat with us about the city of London, a few stories about some celebrities he's driven (btw Sean Connery, is apparently one to stear clear of...) and we told him a bit about Australia. During the drive we even got to see the Horse Guards at the Whitehall :) It was a lovely chat/drive and before we new it we had a arrived at Westminster Abbey.

This place is honestly one of the beautiful places I've ever been in my life. It was marvelous. Now for anyone who doesn't know what this place is, it's basically a resting-place of Britian's monarchs and has been the setting for all the coronations since 1066. Some of you might think it's a bit morbid, but anyone who is familiar with the architecture of the churches here in Europe knows what I mean. The architecture of this church in particular is an example of medieval architecture and it was marvelous!

Out of respect and also not to damage the quality of the paintings etc. photos were not allowed to be taken inside, which I thought was completely understandable. Have a look at some pictures/info/history on it at http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history it's definately worth a look.
The experience we had at Westminster Abbey was one I'll never forget. We were given a free audio guide that talked you through the whole place, going into detail about the main areas and people. You get to walk past the crypts of many of the royal in the church, such as Elizabeth I and her sister Mary, who are burried together, Henry VII and his wife, Edward the Contessor as well as a lot of other monarchs. There were many other people buried there or at least commemorated through some sort of plaque or monument.

There was a specific place called poets corner, that includes the crypts or memorials of poets, writers, musicians, actors etc. such as William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and a whole heap of other people. Throughout the place people are buried everywhere, in the floor, the walls, just everywhere. The building is sooo unbelievably beautiful and still in such good condition. Westminster  Abbey by the way, is where Princess Diana's funeral took place. There is so much I could say about Westminster, but I would be here forever! So have a look at the website and have a look at some of the pictures etc :)

We then headed over to the houses of parliament, which is located really close to the Abbey. So we had a bit of a walk over there and took a few photos of the massive building. By the way, this makes parliament house in Australia look rather pathetic. For those of you who aren't aware of what this building looks like, think about the scene in Harry Potter 5, when the Order of the Pheonix were flying next to this magnificent looking building next to a river....well that was the houses of parliament. (You can see it here for a brief second on the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKC0W3mF1wA ) As you can see in the photo below, the famous Big Ben is a part of the building and was just as magnificent as you would assume it would be. Sam in particular was looking forward to seeing Big Ben, so he was very pleased :) 

As you can see from the photo above, the Westminster bridge was right near the Houses of Parliament. From the bridge we could see a great view of the London Eye, along with the other more industrial side of London.

We decided that despite the distance we would walk from Westminster all the way to Buckingham Palace and then head over to the marble arch. The walk up to the palace seemed to last forever but it was worth it :) The palace was beautiful! But we all agreed that it didn't have the same grandeur as the Abbey. The guards were rather amusing, and we had the pleasure of watching them do a guard change. Unfortunately the Queen wasn't polite enough to come out and say hi.

We then walked towards the Marble Arch. Now this was not a short walk and a rather painful one for me as my back had started playing up again, but we made it. On the walk we got a chance to look at the wealthier areas of London and walk past a whole heap of fancy-smancy car dealerships. Understandably, the boys enjoyed this part of the walk and took a few photos of some of the cars.
When we reached the Arch, we were more fascinated with the amount of pigeons that inhabited the area, than the arch itself, but nonetheless it was very beautiful. Just by the way, the pigeons here are ridiculous, they're like rats with wings. But anyway, we took a few happy snaps and headed down Oxford St.

By this point we still hadn't had lunch and it was around 3:30pm, so we were keen for a warm place to sit down, eat and have a bit of a rest. We walked up the street for a fair while and still hadn't found anywhere other than Maccas, which we really weren't interested in. We were desperate so we headed into a large and expensive department store called Selfridges, which we knew would have somewhere to eat. As we walked through the designer brand clothes, bags and perfumes, feeling very much like street urchins in comparison to the Barbie doll like sales people, we finally located a restaurant on the top floor. We looked at the menu and as we had expected, it was a tad pricy, but Mum and Dad decided that we'd treat ourselves to something nice.

We were seated on the table next to two french women, baring Louis Vitton handbags and Prada and Dior shopping bags, who were speaking french. We felt just a tad out of place. Mum and I ordered a nice mushroom risotto, Sam had chicken nugget type things and Dad had garlic prawns. The meals were all very nice, Dad's of course was too small for him, but we all enjoyed having a break from walking and being somewhere warm.

We then left to go look for a cinema to go and see Harry Potter, but unfortunately the next showing was in 2 hours, so we decided to head back to the hotel and have a restful evening after a long day. Due to the underground strike we had to take a taxi, but again we had a lovely cabby :) He told us that his wife owns a property over in Redcliffe in Qld, which we thought was pretty cool haha.

So, after a long day we finally got home and pretty much just crashed, ready for London, day 3.

London - The exploration begins!

Well, what was technically our second day in London was a very exciting one!

We started off the day by heading over to Covent Gardens via the underground. We were suprised to find that the underground railroad system in London was actually rather easy to figure out! I even found it easier to navigate ourselves around than I do on the public transport system at home. Below is a map of the undergound. Click on it to enlarge it.

Finding your way to your train and knowing which one goes where is really easy with the underground map and all the signs around the station. I want an underground back in Brissy! It's all so easy! We bought 3 day tickets, as Sam got in for free (yay!) and took the Picadilly Line (the dark blue one) from King's Cross Station to Covent Gardens, just a few stops away. We navigated our way from the station exit, to Pineapple Dance Studios, which was just a short walk around the corner. It's a very famous dance school that is involved heavily in the performance industry in the UK, we've seen a reality show based on the studio on Fox 8 back at home and therefore wanted to pay it a visit.

As we walked down the cobble stoned road to the studio we saw a man standing directly accross from the entrance of Pineapple. He looked a bit odd just standing there staring (with no coat on by the way! ...crazy person), but oh well. We took a few photos in front of the entrance, but then Dad and Sam insisted that they go inside. Not wanting to be extremely embarrassed, Mum and I headed down the street to have a look at the Pineapple clothes shop just on the end corner of the same road, while the boys ventured inside. The clothes store was closed as it was a Sunday, which was expected, but we had a good peek in the window.

When we returned to the studio entrance, Dad and Sam were outside again talking to the guy who was previously standing opposite the studio. He was explaining to them that he was a stage manager for one of the Christmas pantomimes that were being produced by Pineapple and talked to us about some of the people we had seen on the reality TV show about the studio. It was really cool being able to speak to him :) But just as he was telling us about his family or something, he suddenly interrupted his story by saying "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to get you to move to the right a bit, I have a VIP coming through.".....a VIP. Awesome! We were all in awe as to who it could be, as many celebrities are involved with the studio. The guy opened the door of the car, only to reveal....drum roll........

........

David Hasselhoff. That's right, the Hoff. Of all people... the Hoff. I have to be honest, I was a tad dissapointed. I was secretly hoping that Emma Watson or Keira Knightley (my favourite actress) would be said VIP, but no. It was David Hasselhoff.
Dad politely asked him for a photo, to which he obliged and quickly shook Dad's hand and said "Hello kids!". Yes, that's right, sadly at almost 18 I'm still being reffered to as a kid(strangely enough when I'm with my hairy-faced boyfriend, we get offered alcoholic drink menus...hmmm). Oh well, I was still content with my greeting :)

Well after that exciting celebrity encounter, we started to explore Covent Gardens. We headed over to the very croweded markets, which was really nice. Although the markets are now mainly fashion, art and craft places, years ago this used to be where all the local groceries were sold. Back in the day little carts used to deliver all the foods to the market place, but when things started to become more industrialised the trucks became too big to fit through the area. They considered knocking the whole thing down and putting some modern building there instead, but the locals prostested, so although losing its original purpose, the markets of Covent Gardens are still present :) And they are lovely. It was very crowded and cold, but it was very nice and the decorations were amazing. There were massive christmas tree decorations above our heads! It was also good to seesome different things to the usual market products that we're used to seeing in Australia.

We then just casually walked around the area, looking through the windows of various stores and checking out the various topiary figures (e.g. ballet dancer, reindeer). It was a lovely area :)

We then went for a walk to the British Museum. On the way there we got to have a look around and check out the buildings and the general atmosphere of London, we also went past the theatre on Drury Lane that is showing the official production of Oliver. We took a few photos outside the theatre and had a bit of a look around the street, but unfortunately, despite my investigative efforts, no muffin man was found. Very disappointing.

The walk to the museum was rather long and by this point my back, ridden with scoliosis, was yelling at me and Mum and Dad had a few aches and pains as well, but we pushed on. The museum was huge! Mum very efficiently suggested that we decide what we want to see and stick to the plan, as we would be in the museum for days if we went around and saw everything. We chose to focus on the greeks and the egyptians. The exibits were very extravagent and very grand. It made the Brisbane Museum look an extremely pitiful wannabe. Here a few pictures.... just so you catch my drift.

Pretty self explanitory. We then ventured back over the road to a little cafe, where we each had crepes for lunch and hot chocolates. £25. It's pretty expensive in London, but what can you do, we've got to eat. And the crepes were very nice! Crepes are very popular here, especially with nutella. I don't know why but they're almost everywhere you go. I'm not complaining haha.


We then went for a walk along Fleet St., I requested this especially, as Dave is a big fan of Sweeney Todd and I just couldn't pass up the novelty. The street was very interesting, so many different styles of buildings, a mix of traditional and modern. We also came across an old church that was bombed in the war and inspired the first tiered wedding cake. We thought that was a pretty special find :)

We then found our way to St. Pauls Church. It was extremely beautiful, but as it was a Sunday it wasn't open to tourists, however, we were allowed to walk inside briefly and have a look around, as long as we weren't talking. Mum and Sam went inside first and had a peek. Meanwhile Dad and I waited on the steps. While waiting we were approached by two men who asked both Dad and I to send a Christmas message to the troups overseas. We told them that we were Australian, but our messages were still much appreciated. So we each filmed about a 10 secound message and in return recieved a little badge. I was very honoured :) Dad and I then went inside the church. It was honestly so beautiful. We couldn't go too far in, but we still very much appreciated what we did see :)

After a long day of mostly walking we walked to the Holbourn Station and took the tube to King's Cross. Full from the crepes Mum and I didn't want any dinner, but Dad and Sam got something from the Burger King below the hotel. An overall lovely day, but a cold one! It was nice to just casually take in the atmosphere of London :)

More blogs coming soon! Hoping to have internet at our next few stops!

xx

London - The Arrival

Well, we arrived in France today guys, and I'm only blogging about London now. We've just had such a busy past week in London that's it's been hard to find the energy and time to write, but don't worry, you'll get to read about it all :) Starting now!

On the afternoon of our arrival in London (after the whole driver drama at Heathrow) we checked into our hotel, which is really nice :) It was a rather modern hotel and has very nice clean and attractive rooms. The room we were in had a double bed that Mum and Sam slept in, and two single beds (those ones that fold up into part of the wall) Dad on one and I on the other. The bathroom is very nice and the room is warm, which is lovely :) And a lovely treat was the free wifi! I especially loved that!

Once we'd settled into our room, we set off to have a look at the two stations across the road. We literally only have to walk about 3 metres to the right of our hotel door until we reach the stairs to the underground railroad. Mum got a great spot :)

We managed to find our way to the main area at King's Cross through all the hussel and bussel of the station. It's so busy all over the city. You don't even know what a city is until you have been here, it's manic, and that applies to the stations too. It's crazy, but rather exciting. We managed to navigate our way over to St. Pancreas Station. There was actually shops throughout a large portion of the station, which was suprising. It had things like wine tasting bars, cafes, clothes stores, gift wrapping stores, restaurants and almost a whole market lined up a long one long wall. I've never seen anything like it in a train station! We also had a peak at the entrance to the Eurostar (the international train that goes from England to France).

We travelled up the escalator, onto the next level up from the shops and was suprised to see a wedding occuring! They had the full orchestra and all. We were lucky enough to see the happy couple walking down the ailse, the first time as a married couple :) I personally would not have my wedding in a massive train station, but it was still pretty awesome haha.

On the same level we saw a very large statue of a man and women kissing. We assumed it was to signify some kind of cliche fairwell or coming home, at a train station (you know, all hollywood style...) but we spoke to a lovely elderly couple who explained to us that it was to signify the soldiers of WWII saying goodbye to their wives and families at the train station when they were being sent to country areas. You know, like at the beginning Narnia? I thought it was rather nice :)

That same couple got chatting to Dad and before we knew it we were being lead across the road, through busy crowds, all the way back to King's Cross. The man told us about an old steam train they had seen come in only about 20 minutes earlier. He explained that it this wasn't a usually occurence and it wouldn't be too long until it came back again and that it was worth waiting for. Mum and I weren't too fussed, but Dad and Sam were very keen on seeing the train. So we waited... and waited. A train pulled in... but Dad said it wasn't the one we wanted to see. So to pass the time Mum and I went for a walk and located a special Harry Potter platform 9 & 3/4 thing that they had put in a random place on platform 8 (I know right.. you at least would have though that they could have put it somewhere on platform 9). When we returned to the boys, no steam train was in sight, just the one that was there before. So we showed the boys the Harry Potter thing, but decided to come back and take photos another time due to the massive cue.

On our way back to the platform, that the steam train was apparenly going to arrive at, Dad talked to a railway employee and found out the train that "wasn't the right train" turned out to be the back of the steam train! So we had waited for all that time for no reason haha. Oh well, we found the fake platform 9 & 3/4 :)

We all walked down the very slippery and long platform and stood down right at the very front of the train, along with many train enthusiests. Many cameras were flashing away and video cameras were out too, but unfortunately we hadn't bought our cameras as we were just going to check out the stations, we didn't expect this! But oh well we have the memories :) It was very loud and busy, but was pretty cool and the boys especially enjoyed it. My level of enthusiasm however was not even close to the fanatics around me. I made the mistake of saying to Mum (quite loudly by the way, due to the noise of the train) "We better move back a bit and let the people who actually like trains get a good view." ....I recieved a fair few dirty looks from the people around us because of that. My bad.

Once the train left, we decided that we would just use the Maccas down the road from our hotel for dinner. I'm not a big fan of the whole Maccas thing and neither is Mum, but it was a quick, easy and cheap solution to feeling hungry and tired.

We had had a long day by that point and just wanted to get rested and start a new and better day, exploring the beautiful city of London :) Which you will hear about over the next few days when I get everything back up to date :)

Goodnight my Australian friends & family! I must be getting to sleep, I have a big day in Paris tomorrow!

Love you all

x

Nottingham, Family and getting to London - My catch up blog!!

Well guys, it's been a fair few days since my last blog. So sorry for that, but we've all just been so tired that I haven't found the energy or time to blog before I fall asleep! But the next few blogs will get you all up to date :)

So, the night of my last blog, when we were staying in Nottingham turned out to be more exciting then we thought! It was a bout 10pm and I had been asleep for about half an hour, (Mum, Dad and Sam however had been asleep for longer) when the hotel fire alarm went off! I woke up feeling rather startled, but soon realised what was going on and was happy to see that the fire wasn't in our room. Meanwhile Dad was trying to turn off what he thought was his phone alarm lol (he tends to be a bit loopy after just waking up), Mum was getting herself out of bed and Sam was still in a deep sleep! (I have no idea how, as the alarm was extremely loud!). When Dad finally came to his senses he grabbed the passports, Mum grabbed her purse and I grabbed my phone whilst shaking Sam yelling "Sam wake up! It's a fire alarm! We have to get out! Sam there's a fire! SAM!!!" ....he still slept lol.
Mum and I quickly grabbed our coats as Dad finally managed to drag Sam out of bed and we all ran downstairs and out the front door... with no shoes on. Now I'm not sure of the exact temperature at this point in time, but the maximum for that day was somewhere around 3 degrees. So, we were standing on cement in our PJs and coats, in negative degree weather along with the rest of the hotel guests feeling like we were in the arctic. Then 2 minutes later the hotel officials say, "It's safe to go back in now. It was a false alarm... probably just another person smoking in the rooms." .....did I mention that I hate smoking? lol.
We promptly returned to our rooms feeling very cold, a bit shaken and rather tired, Sam on the other hand still had barely any idea of what was happening haha. Thankfully we all managed to get back to sleep fairly quickly :) As unpleasant as this experience may have been, it's one that we will  definitely remember!

The next day we up bright and early and got some breakfast at Starbucks. As per usual it was really cold so we warmed ourselves up with a nice hot chocolate and coffee :) The mugs were huge! Mum and I got a small and it was about the equivalent of a large in most places. As I don't go to Starbucks back in Australia, I'm not sure if this is a global thing or not, but I like it :) There are Starbucks' everywhere here! I swear sometimes I see 3 or more on the one street! Very different to at home.

We quickly popped down to a local store that we had seen the night before called 'schuh' which is, as you might have guessed, a shoe store. We saw this amazing brand in this shop called 'Irregular Choice' which is pretty much exactly what the brand is like. The shoes are like nothing I've ever seen before! They all looked very Marie Antoinette inspired and were very beautiful. As I am a shoeaholic I ended up getting a pair of nice white shoes with a gold decorative pattern on them and flowers on the front. So lovely :) While shopping, we also got Sam a new coat and checked out some of the Christmas decorations in the shopping mall. This same day we went to visit family in suburban Nottingham :) We met Nan's sister Connie, her daughters and their family and had really nice lunch at their home, which was just overall a really lovely experience :) We spent the afternoon their too and then just drove back to the hotel.
We then went looking for a place to have dinner and came across a place called T.G.I. Fridays (check them out here http://www.tgifridays.co.uk/), which is a restaurant kind of similar to Hog's Breathe in Australia.... but better :) It was lovely and warm inside which is always nice in this kind of weather. The place was buzzing! The restaurant was American themed and had heaps of decorations up, music and videos around the place.The bar tenders were doing all that flippy bottle stuff and the whole place just looked fantastic!  The service was great! We had this waiter named Kurt, who was a blast. He was not only our waiter but was making us laugh all night :) And the food was amazing, such a large variety of different foods, yummy foods and lots of it! The plates were huge! If you're ever going to the UK, keep an eye out for one of these joints, it was the kind of place that could suit a family, a couple or a group of mates. It really made our night!

Heathrow.

Our travel agent had arranged for us to meet a transfer car(the people who hold up the cards with your name on it) at the airport so that we could drop off our hire car near the airport and get a lift to our hotel in London. However the only way to get a transfer car was to say that we had travelled in on a flight. The travel agent chose a Manchester to London flight that arrived at 12:30pm. We arrived at Heathrow at around 10:30am and had to wait for 2 hours before our driver was scheduled to pick us up. I read to make the time pass, Mum just waited and Dad & Sam walked around the airport, checking that our driver hadn't arrived early. It hit 12:30, so we got our baggage and stood over at the arranged meeting place, after an hour of waiting and reading every single driver's sign in the airport and even putting a call out for our driver over the PA system, no driver had arrived. (by the way, we have already payed for the transfer car). A very annoyed Dad then called up a taxi service to take us to our hotel in London. Our hotel is located directly across the road from both St. Pancras and King Cross Station :)

We had a very nice couple of days, although not much sight seeing took place, it was still rather eventful! My London blog will be up soon... plenty of sightseeing there! :)

Hope you're all well!

Mia
xx

Leciester & Nottingham

Well, I'm currently sitting in the Hilton Hotel in Nottingham at 8:05pm, after a freezing cold day out in the city.

We spent yesterday on a country drive from Reading (pronounced Reding) to Leciester (pronounced Lester). It was a lot of driving but we got to see some very beautiful villages, towns and the lovely country side.

There were some really beautiful houses along the way, that date back to medieval times. We often feel as if we are driving through a movie set, as everything is so old and traditional and rather similar to the world of Harry Potter.

We stopped at a place called Bourton on the Water, which was very nice. It's a very popular tourist attraction which is often called the Venice of Coltswolds because of the bridge-spanned-stream that runs through the village. It was very beautiful and had lots of coffee shops and cute little stores. We visted an iconic attraction, which is basically a model of the village. It was very clever and has been there for over 70 years, everything was very detailed. Overall it was a great experience. We then visted the local motor museum, which was fantastic! It was organised into eras and not only included cars, but clothes and appliances etc. It was also the home of the real Brum! You know, that little yellow car that had it's own tv show haha. In this video you can see the garage he pulls out of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNAvuaPO1yw , that garage is the motor museum that we vistited :) The village was very beautiful and I would suggest it to anyone visiting England.

We headed off to a hotel in Leciester last night, and stayed the night there in two seperate rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. It was very nice and I slept very well. Mum, Dad and Sam on the other hand all woke up at around 4 am. This I assume is our bodies still adjusting from the jetlag; we've had a bit of dizzyness, headaches and tiredness over the last few days, but overall it hasn't been too bad. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant last night and this morning we had a free breakfast at the hotel, which was rather nice.

We packed up and headed out to a frosty car, literally, we had to sit in it and let the ice thaw out on the windows so that we could see! It's really cold here! Today it was 3 degrees max, which is such a contrast to what we have at home! We drove to Nottingham in the frosty weather and had arrived by mid-morning. Mum has selected a great hotel, which is right in the thick of the city and all the lovely spots here in Nottingham.

We headed off to go and buy some warmer coats, which are practically like doonas, but they're keeping us warm! Sam unfortunately is suffering from a severe case of chapped lips and I always have bright red cheeks and nose haha. But now at least that we have our warm coats, our bodies are nice and warm :) We also met a lovely tailor in the shop where Dad bought his coat from who really helped make our day as he was a real gentlemen and lovely man, who was very friendly :)

We walked down (in our new warm coats) to see a statue of Robin Hood and the remains of the old castle. Across the road their was a house that had been built in medieval times and had been moved to Nottingham, which was really amazing. We only saw the outside of it, but that was plenty good enough for us :)

There was also a lovely place that we visited called 'Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem' which is the oldest Inn in England. (check it out on the website http://www.triptojerusalem.com/) This place is so incredible! The walls were all made out of sandstone and all in very odd shapes and heights, there was also many traditional decorations, stools and tables etc. The atmosphere was really amazing. Whilst having a few drinks the owner told us a few stories about the Inn, which we all found very interesting/amusing. We were told that in the room next to us a little girl who used to live in the chamber of the room haunted it. He also got us to play an very old game as we were about to leave, where you had to swing a ring on a long string onto a large horn on the wall. The owner did it the first time, us however all came very close (except poor Mum) but never quite got it on. This has been one of our favourite spots so far.

We have spent the earlier part of our evening wandering around the city streets having a look at the various stalls and shops, selling things such as candy apples, chocolate covered fruit and lots of hot beverages. There's some lovely Christmas decorations out and even an outdoor ice rink! ...too bad none of us can skate haha.

Tomorrow we're off to visit family in the more suburban part of Nottingham. It will be lovely to catch up with them and meet one of Nan's sisters :)

Anyways, everyone's asleep now besides me, so I better be getting off to bed! It's only 8pm, but we all get very tired.

Hope you all are well!

I'll hopefully be able to get back on here soon and update you all :)

All the best!

Mia.

We've arrived!!!!

Hey guys!

Well, we're in England and it's currently 7:30am, and we've just woken up from a long sleep :)

We had a 15 hour flight to Dubai which was very long, but I slep for 9 hours of it and there were plenty of movies,games and tv to entertain ourselves. However, Mum and Dad barely slept at all :S so they were veeery tired.

The Dubai airport was an expereince! The architecture of the place was amazing, and very flashy, so many lights and amazing water fountains within the airport. But I have to say that the toilets weirded us all out abit. There was a woman who briefly cleaned the cubicle after someone left it and opened the door for you as you entered. A tad strange lol.

We enjoyed stretching our legs at Dubai, but Mum and Dad were very tired and just wanted to get to England already!

So we caught the A380 (a huuuuge plane) to London for a 7 hour flight that got delayed half an hour. I watched plenty of movies such as toy story 3, valentines day, the last song and a whole bunch of others so I was entertained :) but by this point we were all getting a bit sick of airline food haha. Mum and Dad unfortunately did not sleep on this flight either.

Once we arrived in London we felt the cold straight away! It's around 7 degrees here at midday :S which is pretty crazy! We collected our car and rugged up in our coats ready to get going :)

We headed towards Windsor, through the craaaazy hectic traffic to see the Windsor castle. We couldn't get too close, but it was pretty amazing! And we got a chance to have a look at Eton, and drive past Prince William and Harry's old school, which was pretty cool! Eton looked like the typical English town that you see in Postman Pat haha. The houses make you feel like you're in a movie set, they're just so beautiful! :)

We arrived at our hotel in Reading at around 5:00pm England time. Which for those of us who haven't slept felt like 3 am Aus time haha. So we got here and by 7:00pm we were all asleep. So we slept for about 12 hours last night. Which was nice! So we're all feeling very rested and ready for the relaxing country drive ahead of us today :) We're headed to Leciester today, so that should be nice.

Have to go and get rugged up now, as it's soooooo sooooo cold outside haha. (by the way, it's supposed to be snowing here in London on Saturday, when we return here!) But I'll try and get on and blog again sometime as soon as possible! :)

By the way, a big thanks to Ellen for sending me my SAIs! I was very pleased :)

Miss you all!

Love, 

Mia

Today's the day!

Hey all :)

Well, the time has come. At 4:30 this afternoon we leave for the airport. It's very exciting, but hard to believe we're actually going! We've been planning this for so long!

I said goodbye to my wonderful boyfriend Dave this morning. It was rather teary as I won't see him for 6 weeks :( but I'm still excited for tonight! :)

Hope everyone is having an excellent time during their schoolies celebrations! I can't wait to see you all when we get back and here about your OP results! How exciting! :D

Anyways, I've got to go shower and start triple checking that we have everything!

Hopefully I'll get to blog again sometime this week :)

Love you all!

xx

Map of our trip :)

Here's a map of our trip :) It outlines the basic route we'll be taking over the next 6 weeks!

Our flight is tomorrow evening at 8:30pm. We'll be flying to Dubai, and stopping there for around 2 hours, then jumping on another plane to London :) So we're in for a very very long flight full of movies and sleep lol. But it will be worth it!

It's almost time :)

Hey all :)

I've created this blog as a way to contact those who want to know what's happening on my holiday overseas! I will try and get online as much as possible and update you all on what we've been up to, as well as posting photos :)

Today I graduated from high school! Woohoo! haha. And now on Monday my family and I are heading overseas for a 6 week holiday!

We're starting off in England, then heading to France, Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and Singapore! Such an exciting trip that we have planned!

The year has gone so fast, and it's hard to believe that we're leaving in a few days! We'll be packing like crazy this coming weekend, making sure we haven't forgotten anything.

This past week has been so surreal with formal, mystery tour and graduation, and now I'm heading off overseas! I can't wait! Going to miss everyone so much though :(

Anyways, I better be getting to bed! I've got a lot of packing to do tomorrow :)

Night!