Brussels

We completed a second day of playing the tourist in Paris. We bought ferry tickets on a hop on hop off tour boat and saw what remained of the popular sites of Paris. We graced The Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Musée d'Orsay. All were more beautiful then expected.

Sun burnt and tired we said goodbye to Paris the next morning without any reservations, happy to move on from the big city and the traffic. We vowed not to fall into a tourist trap again.

This was the morning of Friday the 12th that we hit the road for Belgium. We arrived after a short drive and booked into a site in a beautiful place called Wezembeek-Oppem, it was half suburb, half farm land and a welcome change from the busy city. The site is surrounded by lush green forest and is about a twenty minute metro ride to Brussels, during which you pass the infamous Kunst-wet station. I could not contain my inner adolescent each time we passed it. Brussels was absolutely amazing. Every second shop was a chocolate shop every other a waffle and then there is the occasional pub thrown in for good measure. The Grande Place (town square) was so amazing but unfortunately we have got into the habit of forgetting our cameras so lets all thank Google for the photo below.





We made our way passed Kunst-wet into Brussles city center on Saturday night to hunt down a couple of Jazz clubs we had read good things about on the net. We found L'archiduc after walking in circles for a couple of hours. It was very small but very stylish and Miles Davis had once graced it with his presence. There was suppose to be a pianist playing but like we also discovered the next time we went there, there was not. I think the promise of live music is just a marketing ploy.



L'archiduc

We stayed despite this and luck was on our side when a Norwegian couple sat down opposite us and shared our table due to lack of space. Usually I would rage against such and invasion but we were on holidays so I though, what the hey. That could have been my newly discovered free spirit talking or maybe just the wine. It turned out Sven, Svens come in droves over here, and his girlfriend Ragnhild were great fun and Sven extended an invitation to join him and some friends on a big night out on the Monday. Drinking on a Monday! We agreed and parted ways. This of course was easier said then done as little did we know we had just missed the last metro back to Wezembeek. Our only option was a taxi but it took us so long to hail one we thought we must be doing something wrong. This is the point at which the subject of blame arose. When a taxi finally stopped, I guessed he sensed our long wait and desire to be back in the comfort of our van that he got us home in no time flat doing 160 kilometers whilst talking on his mobile phone. Very talented if you ask me. My knuckles are still white.

On Monday we celebrated our six month anniversary with a pizza. The best pizza ever! Yes it was a Pizza Hut pizza but it was a great change from pasta with tin tuna (we have moved on and up from peanut butter). We then made our way back into Brussels to a bar called Monk to meet Sven.There was the two of us, Sven, another Norwegian girl and two guys from Iceland, I think their names were Eggle and Steagle. Being so far from home and a little out of our comfort zones it was great to have a night out with people that felt like old friends. It was a night to remember...if only I could. We did not move from our table all night, my face was sore from laughter and I drank more then someone that belonged to a species with only one liver should. The highlight of the night was a story told by Eggle and Steagle about one drunken night from their youth. Their escapades ended with a heading in the local paper that read “Petrol Crises Blamed for Youth Arrested Siphoning Petrol with a Hose and a Coffee Pot”. Remind me to tell you the story some time.
The rest of our time in Brussels we spent recovering and exploring the forests and surrounding areas. Oh and jump starting the van. We found the Abbey Rouge Cloitre which Chris remembered from his last visit. It took us sometime to get there but it was well worth it. It was in the middle of a beautiful forest and it served great coffee.



Abbey Rouge Cloitre


With six days in Brussels under our belts we decided it was time to move on to Germany.

London to Paris

Lionel Willis. That's the name of our van. We didn't make it up it he was wearing a name tag when we bought him. Well he had a sticker inside the wardrobe that said so.





We headed out of London on Friday afternoon. Well we first headed straight through the center of London in our giant camper which was probably about the most nerve racking thing I had ever done. Little did I know this would be over thrown a few days later when we drove through Paris.

We made our way South East to Dover, which is where we were to catch the Ferry to Calais, via Seasalter and Canterbury. Well can't say much about Seasalter except that I will never go there again. We spent our first night in our van there, a suburb in the middle of nowhere. It poured! Oh, and yes our van leaks. Canterbury on the other hand is beautiful and green. The city was surrounded by a wall in Roman times half of which still remains. This is due to the fact it was rebuilt in stone in the 1370s. It was a fantastic site. I felt like dressing up in tights and running along the top of the wall whilst flailing a bow and arrow. I chose to restrain myself.

We caught a SeaFrance ferry across to Calais on Saturday afternoon which was quite an interesting experience. The ferry is huge. Lots of shops, bars, restaurants and even a poker machine hall. I chose to spend the two hours and forty minutes drinking wine and having Chris teach me one of his favorite computer games in which the aim is to push a man down some stairs and see how much damage you can cause. We found pushing at the base of the neck accumulates the most points.

We arrived in Calais about five o'clock and decided that we would find some where to stay the night and attempt the drive to Paris in the morning. At this point we didn't realised we had changed time zones so for the next twenty four hours we were a little confused. We found a campsite in a very small town not far from Marquis. It had nothing but cows and holes in the ground which the locals referred to as toilets (not that I could understand cos they were speaking French). Enough said.





We left for Paris the next morning, well what we thought was morning but was actually afternoon as we still hadn't realised the time difference. The drive was fun and the weather was on our side and with one stop in Amiens before we new it we were entering Paris.



Gargoyles in Amiens


Driving through Paris was insane! Our GPS navigation lags, so it informs us of our next turn once we have already passed the road. Good work RAC, fantastic! Well we made it in one piece anyway, oh except I forgot to mention that thanks to Chris's handy work inputting addresses into the “fantastic” GPS we booked ourselves into the wrong campsite. Lets not rub that in. We slept the night and made it to the correct camp the next morning. We are about 10 minutes from the center of Paris so everything is really accessible. Today we went to the Eiffel Tower, as one must do when in Gay Paris. I had no intention to climb up I purely wanted to stare at it from beneath with some ice cream. There were enough stairs in London I don't feel the need to go climbing any for pleasure.





At this moment it is about 7.30pm, still bright as day and too hot for clothes. The people next door have just invited us for a drink so I will go now and join in the festivities. I will put more clothes on first.

In London Still

Yes we're in London still despite our best efforts to the contrary. Roy was a dud so we have been playing musical hotels while we look for another. It's about fifty percent cheaper to book a hotel room last minute so each day we have changed hotel and lugged our packs up and down High Street to save some pounds. Each time my heart sinks a little as I get sucked into a false sense of security believing that the new room can't possibly be any smaller than the last. It always is.

Headed into Camden Town last Sunday to meet up with Lana and Dimity. They haven't changed a bit! We drank, ate, played with reptiles, drank and drank more. I found it hard keeping up. That really says something.





I Hate Snakes. Obviously!

Camden is cool. Dimity lives above The Worlds End which is a big pub/bar that reminds me of a mix between the Loft and the Grosvenor back in the times before Perth pubs were filled with fo hawks. I loved the fact that you can carry your pint between pubs! If you get bored you pour your beer into one of the plastic cups provided at the door and you move on. Oh you can also ride a bike without a helmet which cancels out the problem of hat hair. It's anarchy!

For whom ever said food was shit in London, I am glad to say you are mistaken. We went to Wahaca, the most amazing Mexican restaurant ever! I will never eat Mexican in Perth again. I highly recommend the char grilled steak burrito to those who are soon to be on their way to London. There is also a fantastic dim sum. Best pork buns I've had to date. Sad to say that apart from the above it has been peanut butter sandwiches all the way.

Chris just arrived back and we have apparently just bought a van! If all goes well we should be on our way to Paris tomorrow. I think I might go celebrate with some wine and a peanut butter sandwich.

London Calling

Well I would just like to inform you all that despite popular belief London is freakin stinking hot! So now that I purposely spent many hours packing only winter attire I have one summer outfit that I have had to wear all week. The only other thing that makes this situation worse is that our shower only has hot water. Why? The English are crazy. Due to the pressure from this so called shower it would actually be better named a very light sun shower. This light sun shower washes away none of the sweat accumulated from the six flight hike up the stairs to our room. (The lift is broken). Point of the story... we are starting to smell!

Ok well apart from the obvious London is great. We have not done any tourist stuff yet as we have been spending our time wisely sleeping and preparing. We have been searching for vans over the last couple of days which has meant we have had to train out to the middle of no where to look (I couldn't find platform 9 and 3/4 even though I tried). We found one yesterday in whoop whoop it's name was 'Roy'. It ran like a charm but the inside had... character, I guess some would call it. Mainly those in the business of selling shit and talking it up. We liked him anyway, so we will check out another one this morning and then choose between the two to be our new home.

London is hot, we are living on bread and I got chased by a squirrel who wanted my apples. I said NO!