Dec 2006

OMG, i've shopped soooo much in the last two days! I think i've bought more stuff than i originally brought with me on this trip! And all in pounds too, i feel so guilty! It's okay, i don't have THAT many clothes back in sydney. Hehe

But they have so many nice boots and coats, and clothes! And it's all so affordable! Especially if i was earning pounds. There's just soo much more variety here! Even if it's the same price as back home, just makes me wanna buy it anyway.

And it's so close to europe. jananie & Mat have travelled around europe so easily and cheapily. Especially if your earning pounds. Everywhere you go the currencly is lower.

But the weather here is pretty darn average. I guess it can't be perfect. It's grey and cold, and i haven't actually seen the sun yet. Plus it gets dark at around 4, which is just wierd.

Hope everyone's having a great christmas!!

It's been christmas day for about 20mins here in london. I'm staying with Jananie & Matt. Huge thanks to your hospitality! arrived a few hours ago, but been crazy busy since.

Had a little hiccup with things, and had to change my flight plan out of london. Will be leaving on the 5th instead of boxing day. I'll get to stay for the boxing day sales, yay!!! Lisa's been shopping here for about 2 days already, and she says it's
fantastic. I better get ready for a spending spree.

The little hiccup is that i've lost my passport. (I can just hear you going 'oh no!', but calm down, it's okay. ) Wether its lost of stolen, i don't really know. I had it on me when i checked into my eurostar train journey at Gare De Nord in Paris, and had it stamped as coming to the UK. Then on the train i wanted to look at it and see my 'stamp', and realised it was missing. SHIT! I've been told the ONE thing you need when you travel irrelevant of anything else is your passport. And i managed to lose it. How much of a dumbass do i feel?? Not sure if it was stolen, but either way i don't have it anymore.

So i got to london and called the london police to lodge a report. They told me that since the passport went missing/stolen in paris, it's not their jurisdiction and i have to lodge a report with the french police. I call the french police, and they don't speak english! And i don't speak FRENCH!!! Eventually the guy on the phone managed to give me a number to call, which is kinda difficult since i don't really know the french numbers. Thank god Lisa knew a few more than i did.

The guy who answered also spoke french, and when i asked 'parley vou angles'? He said 'no' and kept talking at me in french which i obviously didn't understand. 5 mins later when i had tried to tell him i'd lost my passport for the 10th time in french, he started talking to me in english, and he spoke perfect english! What a PRICK! And then he tells me i can't lodge a report over the phone and have to go to Paris to do it in person! What the!?!?! I can't GO to paris, I DON'T HAVE A PASSPORT, I CAN'T TRAVEL TO ANOTHER COUNTRY!!!! 'so you just want to report your passport no? Just tell the english police you lost it in london' he says. I'm not gonna lie to the bloody police.

So I gave up on that. And did other stuff like change my flight to the 5th, and cancel my passport with the australian consulate. Then tried again this morning, hoping to get a reasonable police officer. Called the london police first, and told the guy i'd realised it was lost on the train almost at waterloo. Thank god he just took it as being lost/stolen at waterloo station, and let me file a report. Yay! Now i can try to claim it on my travel insurance.

Being christmas day, nothing is open. So i guess i'll just have to wait til the 27th to go to the embassy and get a new passport then.

What a drama. On the bright side i get to hang around here and see london instead. If i get my passport back a few days before i fly i might even have a chance to pop over to amsterdam for a day or two. Alls well that ends well.

I copied some photos over from my sim card to my usb drive. Unfortunately it got full, and the photos didn't get copied in order and i didn't realise that photos between 752 and 943 didn't get copied over before i deleted them. Damn!!!

It's also very annoying typing on a french keyboard. The punctuation, A, Q, W, M and Z keys are in different spots but otherwise its the same.

Currently in Fours. It's a little town near nevers in burgandy, france. I'm staying with Nico, Leia's boyfriend. Huge thanks to Nico & his family for letting me stay. It's so beautiful here, picturesqe. I woke up this morning and everything was covered in frost, and the landscape was fantastic. There are little cute cottages everywhere all covered in white. And its not even snowing!! Looks like something out of a painting. We walked past the town church today, you can hear it ring every hour on the hour from Nico's house. Its such a cute little town.

They've also been feeding me all this fantastic food!!! There is a type of cured ham that is similar to proscuito, Wonderful cheeses from all over france, fantastic bread!! Roast beef from the local special cows, and tonight we had crepes for dinner! yuuummmmmmmmmmm!!! I swear any weight i lost in spain has come right back plus more.

Leia arrived this morning. She got to heathrow last night but due to the fog there are no short haul flights. She was stuck there for 7 hours and was finally able to catch a bus to paris that took 8 hours. Damn!!! By the time she got to paris she'd missed the last train out to nevers and had to stay overnight and get one first thing in the morning. She Finally got here after 3 days of travelling. Poor thing, she's exhausted.

We went to Nico's Uncles farm today. They have cows, horses, and a duck! We got to see a calf that was only half an hour old. It was pretty darn hairy and big! Can't imagine giving birth to something like that!!!

Leia & myself were constantly amazed at the frost and frozen puddles. Nico & his sister (fanny) must've thought we were crazy, or stupid or both! hehe

They have three beautiful dogs, velour(velvet), bluebird, and titun. They are soooo cute! I could watch them and play with them all day!

Congrats to everyone who passed their part III exams!!! I finally got a chance to see the pass list, and looks like alot of people passed this semester, well alot of the people i know passed.

YAY i passed!!! happy dance!!!

okay, so i checked myself into this cheap hostel for one night to save money. it sucks. lots and lots of reasons why it sucks, but right now the main reason it sucks is because the internet will not allow me to open adobe pdf and check the exam results. Crystal, Bow, and Kiat all say i've passed. but i just want to see the results for myself!!!! Damn it! I can't quite grasp the idea that i don't have to study GI ever again.

Lisa's in london somewhere. Her flight got cancelled cause of fog in heathrow. But i think she gets to catch the train instead. She'll be Celebrating tonight probably. She passed too. yay!

I forgot to mention, lisa had her luggage lost at barcelona airport for 3 days. It sucked alot.

went to the catacombes today. Very freaky. First time i've seen any dead people. And there was heaps!!! In case any of you didn't know, it's a place underneath paris where they put all of their dead people a couple of hundred years ago. They had the plague and the dead were just being chucked in a big pit. It started to get full cause so many people were dying, and they were worried about the spread of diseases and stuff so they dug these catacombes instead and took 2 years to transport all the dead down there. Must've been a shit job! Lugging dead decaying people across paris in the dead of the night and shoving them into an underground storage place. They even arranged the bones into cool patterns and stuff. I went on my own, which was a pretty stupid idea, and got freaked out walking down the tunnel. Luckily i found a nice kiwi couple who were happy to hang out with me. Being in an underground cememtery alone is pretty scary. Especially when the lighting is pretty dim and it's just you and tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of skeletons. I"ll try to upload a photo when i can. Most of these places don't give you access to the actual computer hardware thingie.

Congrats to anyone else who passed. All i know of so far are Bow, Sarah, Mo, Laybutt, Nina... Not sure who else.

$1.50 euro for 10mins? what the ?!?!?!

typing quickly

paris is cool. lourve is massive. bought nice boots. food is good, been going by lisa's paris food book. Streets are fun, could possibly live up to most beautiful city in the world, the notre dame is okay, prefer the sac-recur. not sure how to spell that.
shops are good, french people are okay, not too snobby.

feel like an absolute dag, everyone is so well dressed. Wish i had nice coat and better clothes.

Going to the eiffel tower tonight. They like cats in this city. Beautiful views of stuff at night. Not as dirty as i've been told, and seen lots of chocolate shops, fromagaries, and bakeries. Could just eat all day here, if it wasn't so fucking expensive. Scuse my french. why do people say that??

Bye