Luke's Blog: Contiki Diary

Finally i've begun typing up the diary. Hopefully i'll still remember everything by the time i finish writing it. I haven't focused on the language much, otherwise it'll feel like work. so here goes...

Day 1

After only 3 hours sleep the tour began at 730am. We got on the bus and headed to Dover. Caught the ferry across the channel, met a few people on the tour, saw the famous white cliffs and after a few hours arrived in Calais. After a few more hours of driving, we arrived in Paris in the afternoon. Before checking in we were taken on a driving tour of the sights at night. The Eiffel tower was spectacular at night with all the glistening lights that happen on the hour.

Louis the tour guide put on some famous French song and introduced us the Arc de Triumph roundabout by ploughing right into the middle of it causing all the traffic to stop, it was crazy! We checked into the hotel at about 1030pm, met Aaron, my roommate for the next 21days and went straight to bed.

Day 2

Had my first of many continental breakfasts, namely croissants and juice. We were dropped off in the city at the Eiffel Tower and began a massive day of sightseeing. The queue was over an hour long so we decided to take the steps. 780 steps later we reached the second level and then caught a lift to the very top. The view was amazing, you could see so much.

After the tower, we walked to some golden palace (can’t remember the name) then to the Arc de Triumph and from there down the Champs de Eliesse which a famous Boulevard with all the big name shops (you could even but a Ferrari). Halfway down the road some of us had lunch, including my first of many Espresso coffees. No sugar, no milk, straight up. After lunch we headed to the Louve Museum, home of the Mona Lisa.

As we were running on a tight schedule, I only spent 45 mins inside. So after seeing the Mona Lisa (and yes the eyes do follow you), I checked out the upside down glass pyramid where, according to the da Vinci code, points to the location of the Holy Grail (sorry for those who haven’t read the book). I met up with a few guys outside the museum and we headed for the Musee de Orsee which has some famous modern art (still a few hundred years old though) and is actually a converted train station. After that, we headed to the Notre Dame church. On the way, we stopped into a café/bar right on the river, bought a bottle of red, sat at a table outside and watched the traffic pass by. That was one of the highlights of the tour. So we checked out the church, its better than I expected, took something like 200 years to build. It has this famous stain glass window called the Rose and its like 6 metres in diameter or something.

And that was the end of my sightseeing, I must have walked 15 kilometres or soand my feet we killing. That night we went to the Moulin Rouge, it cost 130 Euros, but as if i wasn't gonna go!

The show was pretty cool, the girls loved the extravagant costumes and choreographed dancing but us guys we loved the boobs, dozens of beautiful topless girls. After the show we to an irish bar next door. Got to talk to a few people from the tour as well as some locals. I learnt the hard way that its very difficult to strike up a conversation with someone who doesn’t speak English. 3 of us walked some German girls home in the cold rain (stupid idea) and eventually crashed at 3am.

more days to come, but here are some pics (i posted these a few days ago) cya

this is in monaco, at the palace