Paris

To put a quick pause in the road trip story (which I will continue...it's hard work with all the photos) I thought I'd quickly update about Paris. We've been here for about 2 weeks, staying with friends from home in their really, really teeny apartment. I was working at a bakery for the last week but I quit this morning...the owner was really an ass and I had to work with him only most of the day and it just gave me the shits. He was always contradictory, negative without being helpful, generally angry and not good company. Plus I was on less than minimum wage. CV has already been dropped at English/Irish pubs around and emailed to a few more receptionist type posts (I had an interview for a hotel receptionist post a while ago but it didn't work out). I should find another job soon enough - I need to to be able to afford an apartment for me and Tom (we can't stay with the girls for too much longer since other people are coming to stay) but I have enough to afford food etc in the meantime.

Paris is really nice - its like all of a sudden being able to read and listen and understand everything which is refreshing. We went to the Eiffel Tower on a gorgeous sunny afternoon for the usual wandering and photo taking. More tourism to come after we get more settled (plus the Louvre is randomly free on the first Sunday of the month which is coming up). And the croissants here are definitely better than at home.

xox
Amandine (which I got called all week - it's the name of a cake)

THE ROAD TRIP (Part 1)

5 countries in 10 days: the adventures of 3 teenagers driving through foreign countries in an 88’ BMW with a broken speedometer, rev counter, gas and temp gauges, and left blinker, but a working GPS. (A retrospective; we all survived, and more importantly had a great time)

Note: names of towns/cities visited are in bold.

It started on another annoyingly early morning at the train station. We actually bought a decent train ticket this time, so it was more direct. We sat on the train with a random American backpacker who was good company. Arriving in Basel was pretty cool – the town sits on the border between France, Switzerland, and Germany, so you can switch countries pretty quickly. After meeting up with Blaise (who now has really blonde hair) we popped to France for lunch just for novelty’s sake and then headed south into Switzerland.

Arriving in Zurich was hard work. Easily the most difficult city to navigate that we encountered by car. It has enough one way streets to get you to the opposite side of the city before you can turn the way you want to. But aside from our navigational difficulties, the city was beautiful with lots of old buildings alongside the water. We spent a while trying to find a hostel (many were booked out or too expensive) but we found a sufficient one with a view of the river out the window. (Ended up being a good move – it had a REALLY nice hot high-pressure shower). We had a decent wander of the city checking out the shops, stopping for an awesome chocolate milk in a proper Swiss chocolate store, and a few drinks at (pathetic, I know) the English 'Oliver Twist' pub.

We set off (reasonably) early in the morning and drove through some really pretty farmland to Lucerne, where we stopped for lunch and checked out the really old nice covered bridge. Dealing with Swiss German was pretty funny – Tom could barely understand a word which left me completely in the dark. Then we set off to Lugano via a truly stunning drive in the rain with cliffs and waterfalls on either side of the road as well as a trip through the Gotthard tunnel which used to be (and is now 3^rd) longest road tunnel in the world. (It was freaking long…just kept going…and going…) In Lugano we met up with Suzanna, Blaise’s cousin, who is impressively quintilingual (is that a word?) She was very nice, showed us around and offered us a bed for the night.

It was really cool and bizarre to see Italian everywhere, on ads and buses and signs (since Lugano is in Italian Switzerland) and it made me realise how much German I do know…compared to Italian that is. Lugano also had a cool river with fast flowing water which ducks were surfing.

In the morning we headed south to Italy, where we were stopped at a border for the very first time! We were questioned by Italians with pretty amusing English who thought we were trying to smuggle drugs into the country. They believed us and decided against dog-searching the car.

Freeway signs in Italy...HUH? It looks important...

We stopped on the side of the freeway for yummy sandwiches and coffee and then took a gorgeous drive through vineyards to Verona, where sadly the boys had no patience for my search for Juliet’s balcony. It was a nice town though, with ancient walls and cute little shops.

Our next stop was Padova, where we got really, really lost trying to find a tourist info place to direct us to a campsite. Tom and Blaise spent ages on street corners arguing over the GPS (which we discovered is completely useless as soon as you step out of the car) and every shop we found was shut before we got there. So we drove towards Venice where we found a decent campsite juuuust on the mainland, in a town called Mestre. We had dinner at the only nearby restaurant registered by the GPS, which was an annoyingly expensive seafood place with a cool cheerful multilingual waiter. That night it poured with rain and we had a miserable cold night in the tent.

To be continued... (and more photos to be posted in the photo albums - these are just a taste!)

Paris phone!

So our speed-road-trip is over and we have finally arrived in PARIS! :)
A huge update to follow once I write it all up, but for now, our french number is +33642599518 if you want or need to call.

Bisous
Amanda

phone

Oh, and I forgot to add: we have no idea whether or not our German phone works once we cross the border, so sorry if you can't end up reaching us. An email is still your best bet because I'll get to it eventually.

Travel!

We're counting down our last few days in Germany! Spent today in Hannover buying pressies for people. We're off to Switzerland on Thursday to see Blaise and then drive back up here via wherever we want before flying to Paris on the 16th :D The plan is to visit north Italy, Prague, Berlin...will be great fun.

Won't be online as much though - so please don't think I've fallen off the edge of the world. I'm just nowhere near a computer for the next few weeks.

Love always
Amanda