Parisian views and food

Ok grab a coffee or a glass of something stronger to enjoy while reading this, its turned into a long one!

Upon arriving at Paris the instructions to our hostel were simple; '3 minutes in a straight line from the train station to the hostel' - yea that's if you take the correct way on exit from the station. 30 minutes later and soaked from the rain we found it!! (We've got lost so much on this travels, my geography instinct should've packed a compass, life would be so much more easy!).

Hostel room was nice, we even had 2 pillows each so we were happy about this seeing as we've had to cope with one each in all our other accommodation resulting in stiff necks! Only issue was our curtains had a couple inches gap. We solved this by tying them together around the window handle with one of my hairbands!

After a good night sleep we headed down for our continental breakfast then went out sightseeing. Trying to save money where we can we aim to walk as much as possible. We headed for the Eiffel tower but found ourselves in the queue for Notre Dame Cathedral! I was very impressed we didn't have to pay an entrance fee :) If I'm honest I was expecting this cathedral to be more impressive and big. The size reminded me of the size of Gloucester Cathedral. Wikipedia clarified this for me - they have very similar dimensions. I'm not religious, so cathedral visits arent normally on my to-do list, however i did enjoy the architecture and stain glass windows. I also enjoyed sitting inside the cathedral listening to the organ music while people watching :) Afterwards lunch was needed so we settled for traditional French food of McDonald's (shock horror).

Percy enjoyed Notre Dame Cathrdral

We then continued the long walk towards the iconic Eiffel tower. The closer we were getting the more excited I was getting, singing made up stupid song lyrics like 'I'm soo excited, we're going up the Eiffel tower, it is chucking it down, we might not even see anything' (definitely a number one song coming along there). We decided that we would walk up to level 2 of the Eiffel tower, then get the lift up to the top. Well after about 2 minutes I was regretting not getting the lift the whole way! Needless to say the views were incredible even in the horrible cold, rain, fog and wind. We spent a good two hours admiring Paris from above! On the descent we decided to warm ourselves up with hot chocolate on the second floor. By now it was getting dark. My friend Christie gave me the heads-up about the Eiffel tower sparkling on the hour for 5 minutes once dark. At half 8pm we made the final descent down the Eiffel tower to get a good view on the ground for the 9pm light-up. Well annoyingly the stairs were closed so we had to queue for the lifts. We jumped off the lift literally as time struck 9pm and the lights started glittering. We ran backwards away from the Eiffel tower to a better spot for some obligortory selfies! I loved this, the Eiffel tower lit up is beautiful!! The Eiffel tower is a must for anyone visiting Paris, it doesn't even cost a great deal!

Looking down onto Paris

View from top of the Eiffel tower

Eiffel tower at night from below

Then was the realisation that our hostel was located on the other side of Paris, a good hour+ walk away, it was pouring with rain, dark and both our phones were about to die. This meant we opted to catch the metro back. 10pm gone, with wet clothes and very tight legs (walked miles/hours), we got back to our hostel where I collapsed into bed. I was then awoken at 5am by horrendously loud cheering/shouting/screaming from the sports bar downstairs. Apparently there was some important boxing match on. This experience reminded me of living in uni halls with being awoke by drunks and other loud noises. Ironicly this hostel was called 'St Christophers Inn' and the halls i lived in during my second year of uni was called 'St Christophers court'.

Paris day 2, we washed our clothes while eating breakfast while deciding who we were going to vote for in the UK election. With rain still pouring we headed off on our walk to Sacre Coeur. The views here were just as impressive as those I witnessed on the Eiffel tower, however here it was just a smaller viewing radius and from less high up. We wandered around the back streets into souvenir shops looking for our Paris shot glass memento (we collect shot glasses from our travels, we have for many years). We also stumbled across a cute little quaint French patisserie. I had a pain au chocolat, chocolate cake and hot chocolate while sitting in the seating areas watching little birds fly above our heads. Very friendly they were with one even getting close enough to knick some of my left over crumbs - cheeky thing! We then went on another very long stroll to the arc de triomphe. I loved the architecture engraved on the arcs stone.

Sacre Coeur

Arc de triomphe

By now it was late afternoon/early evening on a Sunday. We planned to walk back to our hostel along the river but half way back our bladder's had other ideas. With it being Sunday everything was shut so the metro came calling again to get us home quicker.

We spent the evening having dinner in the sports bar, writing out 22 postcards and then went back to the sports bar where I had my first alcoholic beverage of the trip :)

Monday morning I packed my bag up yet again and caught a couple of trains to my next destination...

On a side note, annoyingly I bought a pedometer for my travels to see how much i was walking but after it claimed I had only walked 3 miles for each of my first 3 days of my travels, which was blatantly inaccurate ive stopped using it. I'd love to know what I walked these last few days in Paris!

Amester x

Meet Percy

Everyone meet Percy. Percy is my mascot for my travels. He is a white tiger and very small. He's also cute and cuddly.

Hello, I'm Percy :)

This is Percys first travels but so far he is enjoying the experience. He thinks he is a model and keeps posing for pictures.

Train journeys are fun :)

I wonder if they do small clogs for my size feet

I love McDonalds!

Hiding from my owner is good fun :p

Bruges was beautiful

I'm a cool dude! Nearly as cool as my owner :)

The view from the top of the Eiffel tower was incredible but it was quite scary up here

Switzerland is stunning!!

Percy also has a brother aptly named 'Tiger'. His adventures can be viewed over on Jens blog.

Its fun chilling with Tiger :)

I love my family :)

Amester x

A brussel sprout in Brussels

'A brussel sprout in Brussels', whats that all about I hear you shout?! Let me explain...At work I wear green & yellow, so we call ourselves brussel sprouts hahaa, and I'm currently in Brussels - so there you go :) I haven't actually seen any proper brussel sprouts here though!

The city of Brussels, the place that I went to with uni in my final year, the place that opened my eyes to the want to travel! Since then I've wanted to return, so I'm glad it became a part of my European travels 2015 :)

After a pancake breakfast in Amsterdam we boarded a 3 hour train to Brussels on Wednesday. We then found our hotel to dump our bags then went in search of food. We found a quaint little Italian restaurant with a good variety of vegetation food (Jens vegetarian) and meat dishes. Filled up, we headed around the corner to Mannekin Pis. Aptly named its a famous statue about 24 inches tall, of a boy peeing. Its surprising how something so little can bring so much attention :p We then skyped our parents/dog, then I skyped by best friend (Abbie this is the shout out you asked for :p). I then slept.

Yummy Italian food

Mannekin PiS with clothes on for once

Thursday was the day to explore Brussels further. Alarms were set early but silly Jenny set it for the wrong day so no alarm happened meaning we overslept. Our hostel is called 'Sleep well youth hostel' - sleep well we did :) We rushed down for breakfast then caught the metro to 'little Europe' a miniature village of all things Europe. All the models are at a 1:25 ratio to its real life equivalent. I made a brief visit here on my last Brussels trip, but wanted to go again. I also knew jen would enjoy it. We saw all the famous European landmarks so now I guess we don't need to continue our European adventure :p the attention to detail here is incredible.

Little Europe model with atomium in background

In the afternoon we dodged the rain and tried to plan the next leg of our trip. Initially we planned to head from Paris to Tours in the Loire Valley and then south to Toulouse. However, on further thought we decided that Toulouse wasn't worth the long train journey and unfortunately Tours will have to bypassed as travel options out of here into our Switzerland leg of the journey is unrealistic for our timeframe :( Instead we eventually can up with a realistic plan of action - from Paris we will head to Interlaken in Switzerland. This new itinerary frees up 5 days including 2 travel days. 

Ultimately this means we can spend longer in either Germany, Austria or Czech Republic.

On the evening of Thursday we found chips and waffles for dinner while walking the city. We decided to head for a comic strip art wall; the walk turned out to last a lot longer than we anticipated, the areas we were walking though seemed to get dodgier, then darkness fell, so before we actually got to our destination we decided to turn back to our hostel. I still enjoyed the walk and we saw the untouristy backstreets of Brussels so that was good :)

Wafflesss!!!!

 Today I have visited the town of Bruges. Its such a beautiful place, made even better by the sun! A lovely long walk along the canal path lead to some windmills. We enjoyed a picnic on the canal bank also. The actual town has all cobbled streets with horse drawn carriage still very much a used transport option. Beautiful town houses and lovely squares with awesome architecture. I'm now writing this blog post on the train back to Brussels before getting another train tonight to Paris :)

Windmill

We have about 65 hours in Paris so where should we visit to utilise our limited amount of time? Also any suggestions on where to head in Germany? Please comment suggestions below, it would be appreciated :)

P.s. I'm struggling to put lots of pictures nicely within my blog posts from my tablet so make sure you click my Instagram link on the left side panel for more photos :)

Amester x

I am AMESTERdam

Goedenavond!!

I am Amester in Amsterdam

Country one of the trip draws to a close tomorrow so thought I should probably spend the evening updating my blog :) Soo where to start... I have a red face (my nose resembles Rudolph), thanks to the sun on Kings day! My shoulders hurt after about 4 hours of carrying my 8.5kg bag on the first day,and i'm fed up of having to pay to use a toilet!! But other than that I can't complain - free WiFi is super easy to get hold of over here :)

Accommodation's basic but nice - good old bunk beds! Well the top bunk doesn't actually have a side barrier and is rather narrow so my mattress is staying on the floor. It minimises the risk of accident prone Amy rolling over in her sleep and dropping a metre or two! Also for a couple of nights on a trott, drunks have mistaken our door for their's, thank god for locks I'm telling you! Its like being in student halls again in a way.

We visited the Anne Frank house museum on Sunday! We queued for two hours in cold wind but I'm glad we did. If i'm honest I couldn't really remember the story, all I could remember was the bookcase door. Nonetheless I found this experience interesting and definitely thought provoking.

Sunday evening and Monday 27th saw Kings night/day celebrations! Kings day is the kings birthday, with massive celebrations and people wearing orange!  I bought anm orange top andca funky headband to wear :) From what I could gather its a chance for a massive p@#s up and party! Obviously I had to join in so I had a hot chocolate and chips!! In the morning we visited vondekpark where the place was heaving with children selling; old toys, food, drink (non alcoholic), making pancakes, fresh orange juice, performing; circus skills, playing musical instruments, singing, etc. Its quite a sight to see! We listened to a live samba band then sat along the canal for hours watching the hundreds of boats go by blaring music from on board sound systems/DJs.

Big bike advertising the tour de France 201

Traditional Dutch windmill

Today we hopped on a train to the town of Utrecht. Utrecht is the starting point of the tour de France 2015. Here we walked along more canals and saw a tradiational Dutch windmill. The evening has been spent writing our travel journals and updating our blogs. Head over to Jens new blog post here.

Amsterdam's transport system is nuts!! To me it had no logic and its beyond me how I didn't see a crash. It was near impossible to differentiate between what was cycle lanes, pedestrian lanes, car lanes, bus lanes and tram lanes. It appears that trams and cars just fight for the same space.Bikes and motorbikes use the same lane at speed with neither vehicle willing to move out the way. Also I'm pretty sure most roads didn't have designated pedestrian walking areas. It seemed we just had to dodge the bikes and motorbikes. Also when crossing on a green man, it appears vehicles will still use the road regardless. So that's also risky! (This paragraph reminds me of my 3rd year transport assignment on the Brussels transport system, haa)

Enjoy reading!

Goede Nacht

Amester x

I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when i'll be back

So in 9 hours i'll be somewhere in the clouds in an aeroplane!!! En route to Amsterdam! Me and Jen have finally packed (always last minute us), my bags heavy, and I look like a purple bug, but that's fine, I enjoy bugging people ;) (I like puns i'm afraid) Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything major (must check passport)!

This week I've been rather nervous and anxious more so than excited. Most likely due to the realisation that we haven't got a great deal physically booked. I know in a past post, I stated ideally everything would be booked up before going, but hey, this is me and Jen you are talking about!! As much as we hate it we do leave things to the last minute! Sorry mum and dad for the last minute stresses :p Anyhow, we have our 2 interrail tickets, our flight out and accommodation for the first week booked up so at least that's something :) For the remainder we have a rough plan of action and i'm sure we will be fine, either way its going to be an adventure :) 

Mum was singing annoying songs earlier when she came out with the song with lyrics 'i'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when i'll be back'. The realisation that I will be leaving England without a set return date became all to real (we know what week we are returning but not what day).

I have to be up at 2:45am, I am trying to decide if it is worth trying to get to sleep or not. You see, i'm normally still awake at 1am, although in bed, I just surf social medias and YouTube on my phone until I drift off to sleep. Hopefully I can manage to fall asleep before the turn of midnight!

Nanight

Amester x

Anonymity

Just under 11 months ago I started this blog. Something new to try out to run in parallel with the new chapter my life was starting. For the entirety of this time only 3 people have known about this blog – My mum, dad and sister. Ok so a few times I have accidently let slip to friends about it, but I have never once revealed the blog name, therefore its location was unknown and still anonymous among those I know. The exception to this was last week I woke to a WhatsApp message of my blog link shared with family members, my mum and her big mouth! I've never jumped out of bed so quick to tell mum off (she didn’t realise I wasn’t revealing it yet). I also had views from Australia, I put two and two together and realised she had shared it to family further afield! But other than that, no one knows. Basically I have been talking to myself (isn’t the first time that’s happened  :p).

I have enjoyed having this ‘secret project’ as I like to call it. It is something I have been doing just for myself, where I had no commitment, could post as and when I wanted, about whatever the hell I wished, without any expectations and judgement. I have never been one for writing, it isn’t my strong point, I expect my grammar and spelling isn’t fantastic on here, but who cares! I quit English after GCSE’s for a reason! This blog has helped me to keep my academic brain functioning occasionally, and I feel it is a good way to keep my writing skills relatively ok (for my ability anyways).

However with my big 6 week European adventure starting in 5 days (eeekk!!), my blog anonymity is going to disappear this week. I am going to tell family, friends, work friends and whoever else I bump into about my blog. Like I mentioned in my first ever blog post, I enjoy documenting my life. This is where I am going to document my travels. Providing I gain decent Wi-Fi while away, I plan to blog on the tracks (choo choo). Whether any of my friends and family actually read what I have to write is up to them, I will not be offended either way, but it would be nice to share my adventure with those closest to me.

So hi family, friends, oh and any strangers if you happen to come across this blog. I hope you enjoy what I have to blog about, at times I expect it will be random rubbish, partial to some moans (apparently I moan a lot) but I also hope it will be informative and fun to enjoy!! Also feel free to share it with people who I may not know but you feel will be interested. 

I am sharing this trip with my sister Jen. She will also be blogging on her blog. Although we will be experiencing the same thing, and both blogging, I’m sure both of our accounts will be varied. I may talk about something Jen doesn’t, and vice versus. She may decide to talk about an embarrassing story (if any happen) which included me which I would happily not include on mine :p You can find Jens blog by clicking here

On the left side panel you can click through to my other social medias. Alterrnativerly click here to follow my blog twitter for on the go tweets. Click here to follow my instagram for my photos, and click here to follow my YouTube, as upon return I plan to make a mini series of my travels.

Amester x

European Travels - Where im heading :)

17 days to go!! I’m sooooooo excited!!

As stated in my previous blog post, in 17 days I will be embarking on a 6 week European adventure. Despite having not physically booked much up at this point, we have a clear idea of where and when we will be heading during this time.

The current plan of action is:

• Fly out to The Netherlands on 25^th April spending 4 nights in Amsterdam, with one day trip to Utrecht. While in Amsterdam we will experience the Kings Day celebrations.
• From the Netherlands we will Head for the cities of Brussels and Brugge in Belgium
• Next we will spend around a week in France, we will definitely be experiencing Paris, with current plans to head to Tours and Toulouse
• Then it will be a whistle stop tour of 2 days in each of Switzerland, Germany, Prague in the Czech Republic and Austria.
• Before finally heading for Italy where we will be spending 2/2.5 weeks touring this country

As you can see some places we plan to spend longer in than others. Italy is somewhere me and my sister have wanted to travel to for a long time, so we feel 2 weeks here will give us the best chance of exploring as many areas of the country as possible. Whereas there are places such as Switzerland and Germany where we only plan on spending two days. This is because we can see ourselves visiting these countries at a later date, whether that’s just another short weekend visit or longer.

Our current situation is; we have booked our flights out to Amsterdam, purchased our first interrail pass (10 travel days in 22 days), and we have booked our Amsterdam accommodation. We are in the process of working out the logistics for Italy to work out which ‘one country interrail pass’ would be beneficial to purchase for this leg of the trip. We will then book further accommodation for the rest of the adventure and reserve our trains. Ideally this will all be complete by the 25^th – wish us luck!

Amester x