San Sebastián, Tours and Paris

The weather forecast for our last day in San Sebastián was thunderstorms. Luckily, the rain held out during the day. However it was horrifically windy, and quite cold; and the sky was an ominous grey, hinting at a storm all day. So not the best day for laying around the beach or going hiking. We had found a bookstore the previous day that sold English books, and we were both in desperate need of a new book, so we decided to make that the first task of the day. We made it just before they were about to close for seista, and thank goodness we did! They not only had English books, but they were so cheap! We found the next few books of the few series that we had started reading, and got them all for a ridiculously good price. We were more than happy! For lunch we found a cheap kebab place, and sat in the sun and ate kebabs. We went for a bit of a walk along a walkway that wound around the rocks and connected the surf beach to the swimming beach. 

About halfway along we had to turn back. The wind had gotten worse, it had gotten colder, and it looked like the sky was going to burst at any moment. On the walk back to the hostel we stopped at an ice cream store and got some ice cream. We got cappuccino and brownie. They competed with the Italian gelato! It was delicious ice cream. 

Before returning to the hostel we had stopped at the grocery store and bought groceries for dinner that night, as the hostel had a kitchen. However, when we walked in the front door, the lady who's family owns the hostel/guest house informed us, in very broken English, that we were infact not allowed to use the kitchen, as it was for family only. We were so annoyed! We had just bought all this food and it was going to have to go to waste. We lay around in our room for a bit, really not wanting to go out into the rain to find dinner. Before we headed out, we found the lady and used google translate to tell her that she could have the mince we had purchased, as we were leaving the next morning and couldn't keep it. I think she felt bad for us, but she used the translate app to say that we could use the kitchen, but fast. And that she never saw us in there. It was very nice of her! So we rushed into action, and hammered out the quickest pasta bolognase ever. We had to sit out the back to eat it so no one would see us. It was a strange experience, but we were really grateful that she let us cook. 

The next morning, as we do every 3 days, we got up bright and early to catch the bus. Today we were travelling to a place in France called Tours. We were done with Spain! I was pretty sad to say goodbye to tapas and siestas. Our first stop of the morning was in a small town called Biarritz. The place we stopped had a beautiful view over the ocean, and a cute coffee shop where we got a delicious sandwich. 

We arrived in Tours at about 5:00. Since Tours is fairly small, there weren't any hostels, so we had to splurge and get a hotel room. We had looked up our hotel before arriving in Tours, so we knew that it was quite far away from the drop off point. We were unsure about buses and public transport to the hotel at this time, so we had to catch a taxi. The taxi took us further and further out of the town centre, and eventually stopped at this run down looking hotel on the side of the highway. Needless to say we were a little nervous. However once inside it was much nicer. Our room was very tiny, just a bed, small desk, and a tiny bathroom. But it had a double bed, and it was our own room which we hadn't had for a long time. It was nice to be able to spread our stuff out, and not have to worry about anyone else. 

Next to our hotel, there was a nice looking Chinese resturant. We decided to have dinner there, as we didn't have a kitchen to cook our own dinner. We walked in, and were the only customers in the whole resturant. We sat down, looked at the menu and ordered our food. We had ordered spring rolls, but rice paper rolls came out instead. We were a bit annoyed but didn't mind too much, as we both like rice paper rolls. We took a bite of the rolls, and almost had to spit them back out again. They were disgusting! I rolled mine up in a servitte and put it on my lap, and we opened Harrison's up and salvaged what we could from it. They were the worst rice paper rolls I've ever eaten. It was like they had been frozen and then thawed, which they probably had. Next came the meals, which were actually okay. We ate and got out of there as quickly as we could, dropping the wrapped up rice paper roll in the bin on the way out. 

After talking to the hotel staff, we found out that there was a bus into the town centre. So we decided to go explore Tours the next day. After a 40 minute bus ride, we finally made it there. We went into the tourist info centre and grabbed a map, and made our way into the old town. On the way there we stopped at an adorable little cafe and got some lunch. There isn't too much to see in Tours. We had walked around the old town and seen most of the important sights within an hour. 

We wandered in and out of little shops and strolled through the cobbled streets. We came across a candy and liquor store, which I found quite amusing. After walking around for a bit, we felt satisfied that we had seen all there was to see in Tours, so we stopped at a pub and got a drink. 

We caught the bus back to our shabby little hotel, and walked to a grocery store to see what we could do for dinner, as we knew better than to go back to the Chinese resturant. We got some tuna, veggies and bread and had tuna sandwiches for dinner that night. They actually weren't that bad. Better than the food from the previous night. 

The rain came down hard the next day, the day we had to leave. Our bus only arrived at 5pm, so we thankfully didn't have to get up too early, and were able to hide from the rain in the hotel for a while. As the time drew nearer, we trekked to the bus stop and made our way into town. There is large train station in Tours, that we hoped had lockers for us to store our bags while we waited. Unfortunately they did not. They were able to point us in the direction of a bike rental store that had luggage storage, so we went in search of that. The rain was coming down quite hard at this time, and it took us a little while of walking around in the rain to find the bike rental shop, but we finally found it and they were able to keep our bags for only €4! Our next mission was to find lunch. So back out into the rain we went to hopefully find somewhere indoors to eat. Ironically we stumbled across another Chinese takeout place, which was the only food place we had found with available indoor seating. The food was not much better than the previous place, but we did get proper spring rolls this time at least. After lunch we went walked around for a bit in the rain, and I got a new phone case as mine had broken during the trip. 

Once we were done we sat in McDonalds until it was time for the bus to arrive. 

The bus ride to Paris was only supposed to take four hours. However due to the ridiculously heavy rain, the traffic was atrocious. Luckily it cleared up near the end of the trip, so we only ended up getting in an hour late. Since we were driving passed the Eifle Tour at night, and on the hour (10pm), we got to see it light up and sparkle! It was an incredible thing to see! The sparkling made that ugly piece of metal into something beautiful and magical. I am really happy that we got to see it! We also drove passed the Moulin Rouge, which was cool to see at night. 

We finally got to the drop off point at 10:30, and it had not stopped raining. We donned our rain jackets and trekked into the night, in search of a metro. We welcomed the dryness and warmth of the train. We were due to change trains, so we hopped off the first one, only to discover that there was track work on the line we needed. To get to the station we needed we would have to go back the way we had just come, and get on two more trains after that. I was tired, hungry and drenched so I put my foot down and basically demanded we get a taxi. It was almost 11:30 by this point and we had not eaten since lunch time, it was raining heavily and the train station we were in smelled like pee. I had had enough. We found a taxi and finally made it to our hostel, just before midnight. 

The whole bus ride to Paris, I had been really itchy. I had hopes that it was just from sitting for so long, or just in my head. But when we got into our hostel room, and I stripped down, I was dismayed to find bites all over my arms, legs and back. After four months, we had finally gotten a taste of bedbugs. And not even from a hostel! From a hotel! I was so annoyed. Luckily Harrison didn't get them too bad, but I am covered. Even on my hands the little bastards! And I have not reacted to them well, the bites have swollen to three times their original size and are itchy as all hell. I got into the shower and tried to scrub away the itch, but nothing helped. By 12:30 we had settled in and finally been able to go make some dinner. However I was so exhausted, I felt too ill to eat so I just went to bed. 

This morning, the first thing we did after breakfast was scout out the closest laundromat and wash all of our clothes on the hottest wash we could. Hopefully we managed to kill any bugs left on our clothes. Tonight we are making the awful over night bus ride to London, so we have just been preparing for that all day. I can't believe that our time in Europe is over. It feels like we just arrived in Paris to start our journey, and now we are leaving. It has been an incredible few months, we have experienced so many amazing things and met some equally amazing people. This trip has changed the way that I look at the world, life and myself. It has been a huge eye opener, and a true test of character. And if I am being truly honest, I am really proud of both Harrison and myself. We have faced and overcome some pretty bad things, like having our stuff stolen during our first week in Europe, sickness and hospital visits. We have made so many incredible memories. I am proud of the person that I have become, and the things that I have achieved. I am sad to be leaving Europe, and our backpacking days, but I am also so excited to be starting the next chapter of our adventure in South Africa! 

Marchés Bastille & d' Aligre. Amsterdam.

Our last full day in Paris was a Sunday, so a lot of the big markets were open. We got up bright and early, and left the hostel at 8:40am ready to go to the Marché Bastille. Once we got to the place where the market was being held, our first order of business was to find a takeaway coffee. Let me tell you that Paris does not do take away coffee. Or if they do it's ridiculously expensive and pretty crap anyway. We ended up having to resort to Starbucks. Coffee in hand we began combing the markets, searching for hidden treasures. 

As always the markets blew me away. They were beautiful and colourful and full of life. There were so many food stalls, from seafood to baked goods to fresh produce. It all smelled so amazing! There were also tons of little souviner stalls and other gimmicky things. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great, so we did get a little rained on. However the rain did not deter the people of the market, and the vibe of the place was still just as awesome. That day (June 21) was world music day, so there were quite a few people playing instruments throughout the market, which added to the whole experience. I think I had a huge grin plastered on my face the entire time we were there. The markets make me so happy. I love the colours and the smells and the people and the sounds. 

I'm sorry for constantly going on and on about markets! I just love them so much! We spent about 2 hours weaving through these markets before moving into the next one.

The next market was the Marché d'Aligre. It was partly indoors, and partly on the streets. This market was mainly food, and flowers. There was a small flea market to one side of the food markets which we didn't really like. It was kind of just creepy people selling piles of junk. However the food markets were very impressive. By the time we were done looking around the weather really hadn't improved, so we headed back to the hostel. 

That night we were once again treated to an amazing Korean dinner. I'm not sure what it was called, but you had to take a piece of lettuce, some rice and a slice of pork and smear it with a sauce, fold it up and put the whole thing in your mouth. The Korean people staying at the hostel helped all of us who didn't know how to eat the meal, and found it really funny when we were trying to shove those whole lettuce leaf of food into our mouths. It was a really fun dinner of learning how to use chopsticks and how to properly eat Korean food. 

The next day we had to get up at 5:30am(!) to catch the metro to where the bus was picking us up to go to Amsterdam! Our means of transportation throughout Europe (country to country) is through a company called Busabout. With Busabout you can book many different travel options. For example you can book a certain amount of trips, or you can book a certain loop. We booked the North, West and South loop which means the bus basically takes us around the whole of Europe. We can get on and off the bus as many times as we want throughout our stay as long as we book our seat at least 24hrs in advance, and it comes to the stops every two days. It's a really convinient and fairly priced way to get around! Plus you get to meet a bunch of new people! 

So the bus left from our stop in Paris at 8am. Although it is not a tour bus, there is a guide on board to help you out with information on each stop. Our guide was really helpful! Throughout the trip we get a certain amount of stops to get off the coach and stretch our legs and pee and eat. Our first stop was at a place called Vimy Ridge. Some of you may know the name, but for those of you who don't, (I didn't, don't worry) Vimy Ridge is one of the places in France were WW1 was fought. It is an incredibly important place for Canadians, as it was the Canadian troops that helped take back Vimy Ridge. The terrain is completely destroyed. Whilst there is still trees and grass, it's like looking at the land of another planet. There are huge craters in the ground where bombs hit. It looks like waves of grass. 

There is no flat land. We were given the opportunity to walk through the trenches that were used during the war. 

There was also a visitors centre, so we could read about what went on there. It was a truly amazing and moving experience, and I am so grateful we got the opportunity to see it. The bus doesn't usually stop at such interesting sites, usually just gas stations. But they told us that since Vimy Ridge is on the way, they figured why not stop there. 

Our next stop was in Brugges, Belgium. This was for people who were getting off the bus there, and people who had been in Brugges and were now moving onto Amsterdam. Unfortunately we didn't get to stop there for too long, as we were running behind schedule. So we didn't get to see much of the town. 

I think it's so amazing that you can just drive through a whole country in one day. We just stopped in Belgium, like it was no big deal. Upon arriving in Amsterdam we had been in 3 countries in one day! It blows my mind! We got to Amsterdam at about 7pm. A bunch of people from the bus planned to meet up for dinner, a bit of a tour, and a sex show. Our hostel was about 30 minutes walk from where the bus dropped us off. A couple from the bus were staying at a hotel right near ours so we all walked together, which was nice. Once getting to the hostel and quickly getting changed, we met up with them again to go to dinner with the other busabout passengers. We ate at an Argentinian steakhouse, (no clue why there are so many Argentinian resturants in Amsterdam, but there were about 5 on this street alone) and it was really good! Harrison and I had ribs, and they were so delicious. A huge upgrade from soup! 

Once we were done with dinner, our guide from the bus took us on a quick tour of the red light district. It is a truly interesting place. There are these huge windows lining the streets, and behind them are half naked girls showing themselves off. We walked through an indoor semi circle type thing of girls in rooms, trying to flirt with boys and get them to come in. We walked past half a dozen sex shows and strip clubs, and the smell of pot in the streets is kind of overwhelming. After the tour we all went together to a place called Casso Rosso (I think) to see a sex show. The bus was selling discounted tickets, and the guide said that it was something you had to do in Amsterdam. So we decided to give it a go. It was interesting to say the least! It's set up in a theatre, with a bar and a stage (we got two free drinks with our tickets which was rad). Basically it's people on the stage having sex and girls dancing and performing and whatnot for a live audience. Some of the acts were really funny, and some were pretty cringe worthy. But it was an experience, something you can't do anywhere else in the world! 

Unfortunately today I woke up with a migraine, so I was pretty out of it for most of the day. The hostel we are staying at has pretty shocking wifi, so I probably won't be uploading photos until our next location. 

Montmartre

Our second day back in Paris, the weather was beautiful so we decided to go to Montmartre! We had heard a lot about it on the walking tour we did before, and it sounded like a place we would enjoy. We arrived at the metro, on a bustling street full of people, vendors and Cafés. We started heading towards the Sacre Coeur, which is a huge cathedral on a hill in the middle of Montmartre. We walked through a very busy street to get there filled with souviner shops, food stalls and all sorts of other shops. We walked into one of the chocolate shops on the street and were blown away to find these massive chocolate sculptures inside! There was chocolate Notre Dame and chocolate Eiffle Tower and so many more! It was amazing! So glad we went in there. 

We walked out and the Sacre Coeur was peeking through at the end of the street. When we got to the end of the street, we could finally see the cathedral in it's entirety. It was massive! And there were sooo many stairs to climb to get to the top. We began the trek. 

There were so many scam people there. I don't mind the guys on the road and at these tourist places that sell stuff and aren't pushy about it, I actually quite like looking at their stuff. It's the ones that won't leave you alone that really bug me. Especially these guys that will grab you by the arm and start braiding a bracelet on there, without asking. Then once they are done you're expected to pay for it! We watched one of these guys grab a little girl by the arm and pull her over to try and braid on a bracelet! Luckily her mum pulled her away, but the poor girl looked really scared. And there are these girls wandering around with 'petitions', that will stand right in front of you and follow you trying to get you to sign the things. I really feel like these people ruin some of the experience of seeing all these amazing things. 

Once we got to the top of the stairs, we were greeted with the most beautiful view of Paris! From the top of the hill you could see for miles and it was just wonderful! We went into the catherderal and it was really beautiful! There were so many people there though. And we were pretty shocked that there was a gift shop inside the church! I think that's pretty bad! But it was really beautiful, we walked around for a while looking at everything. It wasn't the best cathedral we have been into, but was still beautiful nonetheless. 

Once we were done with the cathedral we walked back down the stairs to look for something cold to drink, it was so hot!  We found a cafe and had an iced coffee. So far we weren't too impressed with Montmarte, as it seemed that it was only that one busy street and the cathedral. However after a quick look on the internet we decided to walk to artists square. We began the walk and were unhappy to see that it was back up another lot of steeper stairs! It was a rough climb. 

Once we made it into artists square, it all felt worth it. The atmosphere was amazing, there were so many people and so many artists selling their incredible art! 

There were painters sitting in the square set up with their canvases painting away! And artists who were drawing peoples portraits on the side of the road. I wish we could have had ours done! They were pretty expensive though, and we don't really have anywhere to carry them. They were so well done! 

We looked around the square for ages taking in all the art. I absolutely loved it, and was so glad that we had found it! Montmarte had definitely redeemed itself. 

From there we decided to try and walk to the Moulin Rouge building, as it wasn't that far away. We started getting further away from Montmarte, and further into an area that was really just scary. We never made it to Moulin Rouge, as we got lost and weren't comfortable in this area that we had ended up in. So we made our way back to the station and headed home. It had been a really long day, we only made it back around 6:30, so we were pretty exhausted! Dinner time came around and we were again served a delicious Korean meal! I think this one was even better than the first night! 

I can't believe how lucky we were to find this place. It's so nice! We are really enjoying it here. 

Today the weather wasn't great, and we weren't really feeling up to much so we had a lazy day and read and walked to the grocery store and just stayed in our neighbourhood. It was nice to relax. 😊

Limoges

Sadly it had come the time for us to leave  the little town of Gourdon. We were both pretty sad to be going, as we had really come to love the town in the short time we spent there. The next place we were off to was called Limoges. We had picked it because it was on the tran line, and we had time to spare before heading back to Paris, and our hosts had said that it was a nice town. We left at about 4pm, and arrived in a downpour! It was the hardest rain we have had since being here, and we had to walk through it, bags and all. So our first impression of Limoges wasn't the best. Thankfully the rain eased up long enough for us to go out and find something for dinner. The place we were staying at was literally just a room. There was no kitchen, not even a kettle or microwave that we could use. We were pretty worn out from travel and trekking through the rain to find the hostel, so we got pizza for dinner. It was cheap and easy. Our room was tiny, a bed, cupboard, small desk and a shower off to the side. But it had an awesome sky window! It was one of the first places that we had our own room (apart from staying with people) so that was nice too. 

Luckily, on our second day in Limoges the weather had cleared up, and the sun was shining once again! We headed out to the grocery store to buy a baguette and some ham and cheese for lunch, and then went to find the tourist office. The people there were super helpful, and gave us a map of the town with suggestions on what to do. The museums in the town were all closed that day, so we decided just to wander around and explore. We found a beautiful park to have lunch in. After eating we walked around the park, it was so much bigger than we had expected! And absolutely beautiful! It was so incredibly manicured, with beautiful hedges and flowers and fountains. 

We spent ages just wandering around and discovering new parts of the gardens. We walked along the river for a bit and started to head back. 

On our way back to the hostel, we came across a beautiful old cathedral! It was absolutely amazing! You were able to go inside, and it was breathtaking. 

It felt like we had stepped into the past. There were huge stained glass windows all along the sides of the buildings.

 

The ceilings were so high and the walls were covered in decorations. There was a beautiful, massive old organ on one of the levels. 

And they had beautiful choral music playing, which gave it a magical feel. It was so amazing, I'm so glad we stumbled across it! 

After the cathedral we walked more into the centre of town, or the shopping district on the map. It was really weird seeing these really new and modern shops placed in these old, historic buildings on cobbled streets. We spent a long time just wandering around looking at different shops and bakeries. We found a cute little cafe and shared an awesome Nutella muffin. 

We were lazy again that night, and ordered pizza for dinner. Can you believe I'm getting sick of pizza? 

On our third day in Limoges we decided to go to the Musee de La Resistance. It was a museum about the different resistance groups during WW2 in Limoges. It was really interesting! Luckily you could get an English audio guide, so we could actually understand what was written about everything. We managed to spend 2 hours in the museum without even realising it! Once we were done we went back to the park we had found the previous day and had a late lunch. 

Once we had eaten we went wandering again. We came across a really old section of the town with beautiful old buildings. We found a creperie too! And of course we had crepes. So good! 

For dinner that night, I refused to eat pizza. Yes, it was easy and yes, it was cheap, but two days of pizza is enough. Instead we went to the grocery store and got the ingredients for a tuna salad. We didn't have any plates or bowls at the hostel, so we got a container to use as a bowl. We had been eating our breakfast cereal out of mugs we stole from the shelf near reception. This place had nothing. But nonetheless, we got by and made a pretty delicious tuna salad. 

One thing (among many) I love about Europe is that it stays light outside for so long! It will be 10pm and only just starting to get dark. It's so beautiful. 

Today we left Limoges to travel back to Paris. Our train took just over 3 hours, and we arrived in Paris at 1:30. Our new hostel was about 40 minutes away from the station we ended up at, so we were on the metro for a while. When we got off at our final stop, we were greeted with more rain! The world just really seems to hate us walking to our hostels. We started the search for the hostel, and it seemed that as we followed the directions we were going further and further into an area that did not look too friendly. We got lost for a little while, but after a quick look on Google maps we seemed to have found the right way to go. We had hoped this would take us into a better area, but no we continued in the same direction. We found the hostel, and once again discovered that we were staying in another Korean lady's house! We keep stumbling upon these places by accident, but they have turned out to be our favourites, and this one is no different! Although it seems to be in a bad area, and is quite far out of Paris, the hospitality of the owner makes up for it. Not only do we get free breakfast, she also makes dinner for EVERYONE every night! It's really amazing! Tonight we had a massive Korean spread of all sorts of Korean foods. I don't even know what I was eating some of the time, but I know that it tasted awesome! 

I couldn't really get a good photo of the table, this is less than half! 

The hostel itself is nice too. Everything's clean and the rooms are nice. And the owner has a dog!! We are both really happy about the dog. It's so cute! 

There is also a grocery store nearby, but we will only be needing lunch so we don't have to worry about making dinners! I'm really glad I found this place, it has such a homely feeling to it! 

Paris and Gourdon

Our third day in Paris started pretty well. We had decided to walk around and find some of the famous markets that are all around the city. I was really excited, as I love markets. The first market we arrived at seemed to only have less than half of its stores open, which was disappointing. We looked around for a bit, but there wasn't all that much to see so we moved on. The next market we arrived at was just completely shut! I had checked on Google what days the markets were open, and it had said that they were open on Tuesdays. So I was (and still am) really confused and disappointed that they were closed. 

Our day had been a bit of a failure in the sense that we didn't really make it to any markets, but we had a good day nonetheless. Searching for the markets we were given the opportunity to explore more of Paris. I definitely think the best way to see a place is to just walk around it. You get to see so much you might not see by bus or car. We both loved walking around the streets, not really knowing where we were going, discovering new things. Near the end of the day we found a small crepe vendor on the side of the road and shared a crepe. I love crepes. I don't know what I am going to do without them when we leave! We decided to head home. We stopped in at the hostel to grab our books. We bought a bunch of cherries from the local fruit shop and headed to the park nearby to sit in the sun and read and eat cherries. It was a pretty great afternoon!

However, it started to go downhill from there. When we were walking back to the hostel at around 5:30pm, we noticed a big police van parked in the street of the hostel, with police wandering around the street. We thought this was a bit weird and wondered what had happened. When we got back to the hostel, no one was there. Not even the owner and after 5 she was always there. Even weirder her bedroom door was open, which it never was. We started to worry at this point. We thought something might have happened to her. Harrison wandered upstairs to grab his DS, only to discover it was no longer where he left it! By now we were both in a bit of a panic. Harrison's DS, my IPod and the hard drive were gone. We frantically searched the hostel, thinking maybe we had left them somewhere and just forgotten. No luck. We had no idea what to do! It was then that the owner returned back to the hostel in quite a panic. Three men had broken into the hostel, while she was inside. At first when she heard people she said she thought it was just one of the guests returning. However, she became suspicious when they were weirdly quiet. She came out of her room to see who it was, and was confronted by one of the theives coming out of the girls dorms. He threw what was in his hand at her and bolted up the stairs, where the other two were already. The three of them left through the upstairs window and escaped over the roof of the apartment. By this time the owner was hysterical and ran into the street screaming for the police. 

She had just finished talking to them when we arrived. Apparently the thieves had gotten into the whole apartment block. They took the stuff of ours I mentioned before, and a Korean boys notebook laptop. We were devastated. Although I had (luckily!) been backing the photos up, I hadn't done all of them. So we lost more than just electronics. I also won't be able to post camera photos until we find something to replace the hard drive. I will take a few photos on my phone every now and then. 

Fortunately there was a girl staying at the hostel who spoke French, and she came with us to the police station to file a report. We are so incredibly greatful she was there, as the police didn't speak any English. 3 hours later we were done at the police station. We headed back to the hostel and all sat together, with all the doors and windows locked. We were all pretty shaken up. We had dinner and wine together. We were sad about the things we had lost, but were thankful that no one got hurt. It could have been so much worse. 

The next day we were still feeling pretty down about the previous day, but decided to go to the Louvre. However our first stop was to a pier which we had seen the previous day. The gates of this pier are covered in love locks! We had had a lock engraved for us back home, and were looking for somewhere to put it as the original bridge had just been taken down. So we were pretty happy to find the pier. We locked our lock onto the gate and threw the key into the water! I know, we are so lame. 

When we arrived at the Louvre we were greeted with the longest queue I think I've ever seen to get into anything. We joined the end of the line and begun our wait. It was so extremely hot. 

An hour and a half later, we finally made it to the front and into the Louvre. Firstly, I'd like to say that the Louvre should definitely invest in an aircon. It was so uncomfortably warm in there! You can understand under the glass pyramid it would be warm because it's in the sun, but the rest of the galleries were just as hot! It made the day kind of unpleasant. And come on, it's not like they can't afford it.

Secondly, the Louvre is beautiful. The building is absolutely amazing! It's so huge, and so beautiful. Blew my mind. We spent most of the day there looking at all sorts of different things. We saw the Mona Lisa from a distance. There were so many people crowded around the painting, it was kind of ridiculous. Like being in an art style mosh pit. After a while once we had seen a lot, we were just too hot and decided to leave. We went down to the beautiful park by the Louvre and had another crepe.

Later that night we were due to catch a train to Gourdon. So we headed to the big train station that the train was leaving from. We had dinner at the station and sat around and read until our train was ready to leave. We left at 10:40pm. The seats reclined, so I managed to get some sleep. Since it was a night train they don't announce the stations, so poor Harrison stayed up the whole trip so we didn't miss our stop. He is truly amazing. We arrived at Cahors at 5am and had to wait an hour and 40 minutes. We didn't know that the night trains didn't have anything to buy food and drink wise on board so by the time we arrived in Cahors we were so thirsty! And nothing was open. It was a very long wait. Luckily a little shop opened up around 6 and we were able to buy a bottle of water. The train to Gourdon was only 30 minutes, and we arrived there at 7:10am. We are staying with Sallie and Ian, who are my grandmas friends. They live in the most gorgeous house. We arrived at their home, had breakfast and went to bed! We were exhausted (especially poor Harrison). 

After a bit of a nap we got up and were greeted by the most beautiful lunch spread! There were cheeses and ham and tomatoes and cherries and baguettes!

 It was amazing, and so delicious. After lunch we headed out to explore the town. It is such an incredibly beautiful town. It's an old medieval village, and all the buildings are still from that time. It's amazing and I absolutely love it here. It's so tiny and quaint!

 We wandered around exploring for a while and then headed back home. For dinner we were spoilt to a home cooked roast dinner! It was delicious and amazing to have proper home cooked food. 

Today Sallie and Ian took us around some of the other villages close by. The first one we went to was Domme. It was the same style of buildings as Gourdon and was beautiful. We walked up and down the little winding streets, looking at all the different small shops. We went to a view point where you could see for miles! You could see all the old buildings and the fields and rivers. It was so beautiful.

 We had lunch at a small pizzeria. It was so yum! I had the best homemade walnut tarte. Absolutely amazing! Next we went to Beynac. Part of the town is built into a cliff! It's really incredible. 

We wandered around the town and along the river. We saw a whole family of ducklings! It was adorable! After a while it started to rain so we had to go home. We've spent the rest of the day lazing around, reading and listening to the rain. I love it in Gourdon, I don't think I want to leave! 

Paris!

The bus trip to Paris was long and tiring. It took 9 and a bit hours and we arrived in Paris at 6am, on a Sunday. We were confused because on my clock it said we had arrived at 5am, which was an hour earlier than expected. Later in the day we remembered that there was a time difference between London and Paris. It was actually quite funny. Since we thought it was 5am, and the buses only stared at 7am, we caught a taxi to our hostel. We gave the taxi driver the address I had down and off we went. We arrived in a small backstreet, in a neighbourhood that did not look the greatest, infront of a block of apartments. Needless to say we were a bit confused, as there was no obvious signage for a hostel. Even the cab driver was hesitant to leave us. However after a quick investigation we found the name of the hostel on one of the apartments buzzers, and he felt comfortable enough to leave us. We were still really confused, as it seemed we were going into someone's home rather than a hostel. We rang the buzzer and were greeted with a fairly disgruntled Korean lady. We had woken her up at 6:30am. It was however, our hostel. It is very strange, but it seems this lady has turned her home into a B 'n' B style hostel with bunk beds in all the rooms. She lives in a little add on in the apartment courtyard. Very strange. There is a rule at the hostel that from 11am-5pm it is closed for cleaning, so you have to leave. And since check in wasn't until 11am we weren't able to actually check in yet.

So we left to explore and pass the time until then. We got on a train and went to the last stop. Which happened to be the stop for the Louvre! We had breakfast at a small cafe on the side of the road (Nutella and banana crepe, so good!). We wandered around the outside of the Louvre and took the mandatory tourist photos with the glass pyramids. 

We walked down the road and found a beautiful park that had reclining chairs set up around a fountain that you could sit on. We settled in to people watch and enjoy the sunshine. But I fell asleep. I was so exhausted, that I fell asleep siting up in a hard chair in the sun! And got sunburnt on the half of my face that was facing the sun. Harrison got even more sunburnt! Our skin is definitely not used to the sun after the UK!

Since our clocks were wrong, we showed up an hour after check in, and once again couldn't be checked in and were told to come back at 5. We went to find a grocery store to buy lunch, but soon found out that grocery stores in Paris are closed on Sunday! So we had to go to another cafe for lunch. We shared a sandwich kebab, and it was delicious! Since we were back in the neighbourhood that the hostel is in we decided to look around. It looked far more inviting with people about and cafés open. We found another park to sit in. And I fell asleep again. Not doing well!!  Harrison wouldn't let me sleep anymore, so we lay around in the sun and read our books. 

Since the hostel we are staying at is so small, we were given the chance to meet basically all of the other guests. There is only one table/common room, so we all have to eat dinner and breakfast together. I really enjoyed it! We met a guy from California, a girl and boy from South Korea and a girl from Puerto Rico. We sat around and shared snacks and drinks and spoke about our travels and our lives. It was really nice! Especially since the girls will be my roomies while we are staying here. It's nice to actually be kind of friends with the people you are sharing a room with, rather than just moving around the room in an awkward silence we actually talk to each other. So although the hostel is a bit weird, and isn't in the best area, I am really enjoying staying here. 

Yesterday, feeling much better after a good nights sleep, we went on (you probably guessed it) a walking tour! Sandemans, you have redeemed yourself. We absolutely loved it! Our guide was great and we got to see some pretty cool things, and learnt a lot as usual. We ended the tour near the park I had slept in the previous day! From there we decided to walk to the Arc De Triomphe. It's so huge, that it was incredibly misleading during our distance estimating. It took a lot longer to get there than expected. It was a really nice walk though! We went through the really fancy part of the city, with all the designer shops and fancy resturants. Once we made it to the Arch, we were pretty awestruck. It is absolutely massive! It is such an incredible sight to see.

 Sadly you had to pay to get to the top of it, so we didn't get to do that. But we did walk through/under it which was still pretty cool! It was so beautiful, I really loved it. 

Once we were finished gawking at the arch, we thought it would be cool to walk to the Eiffle Tower. Again, the walk was much longer than expected but was beautiful nonetheless. We walked through some of the more suburban, quiet parts of Paris which was nice to see. I love all the vendors on the side of the roads, selling fruit and flowers and paintings. There is just so much colour in Paris! We made it to the Eiffle Tower! 

Being in Paris, and seeing the Eiffle Tower has kind of made the realisation that we aren't in Australia really set in. In London it kind of just felt like we were back home, because everyone spoke English and it was pretty similar to Australia. But being in a country that doesn't speak English, and that is so incredibly different has made this trip feel real. It's really amazing. So yes, the Eiffle Tower. Let me say, it is prettier in photographs. Yes, it is an incredible piece of architecture but God, it's ugly. You also have to pay to go up the Eiffle Tower, and we have heard it's not worth it, so we didn't go to the top. We did sit around in the park to the side of it and watch all the people go by. It was something that, as tourists, we had to do. But as our new Korean friend said "It's just like looking at a picture in a book". I think that's a pretty good description. 

After a very long day of walking, we finally made our way home.