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Angharad Dowse
Angharad Dowse

Angharad Dowse

56 ülke gezdi Okumaya devam et🇦🇺New South Wales
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  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Baku day excursion part 2

    29 Kasım 2022, Azerbeycan ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Things I forgot to add yesterday.

    - There was this cool rock at Gobustan that when you hit with another rock it makes music sounds.
    - when we went to lunch we got stuck in a lift which is a mild fear of mine. More the getting stuck part and no one knowing I’m stuck but we were with our driver and he can speak Azerbaijani so I was less stressed. He pressed 30 buttons and it worked again. We tried to take the stairs on the way back but had to do half half cause one of the doors to the street was locked.
    - we saw the first oil rigs on our drive. They are incased by glass to protect.
    - to get married in Azerbijan you have to take. blood test so both parties have all info haha

    Jet lag is such a problem for me this trip. Can’t sync in time.
    This morning was a struggle but there was hot water so I did manage a quick rinse in before getting ready.

    Traffic was bonkers so driver was a bit late but did come. 🎉
    We scrambled in so we didn’t piss off every else behind us. They do like their horn here.
    It’s raining so even more chaotic.
    Still significantly more organized that other cities. They follow the rules for the most part.
    It took us about 30 minutes to get to the fire temple. Didn’t open for 10 mins so we looked around the gift shop. Found this ornament vase thing which I LOVED but only from one side. It was also expensive( 100 Manat ) so we didn’t buy it but maybe old town has some things. 👀 We’d like a souvenir from here because it is so bloody random.
    Paid 10 Manat less than quoted so that makes up for yesterdays extra 10 for the mud volcanoes. I had assumed we underpaid because we didn’t buy the guide option but we did. Nice girl showed us around.

    It’s called Atashgah temple or fire temple. It has 3 religions attached the building. First fire people who did have a proper name… Hindus and Seiks.
    It was originally used by the fire people with natural occurring fire but they mucked it up when they stated digging for oil so now fire is not from the land.
    It has 26 rooms and she showed us many of them.
    Different things found at the sight and figurines depicting scenes. The usual. They had a punishment room and it’s self inflicted to remove sin and get to heaven. Only for top level people. Took us a few rooms to realize they actual kill themselves, not just hurt themselves with the fire. They lie on a slab and differs methods but the stone Is hot so it’s probably even more painful to half simmer your body for who know how long until you die, rather than an also horrendous, but quicker few minutes on full burn 🥴🥴
    They also starved themselves/ didn’t drink and became paralyzed half bodied etc.
    Sounds fun.
    They had a cremation spot for these people. Other people went on top of building in the center and fed animals essentially.

    One scene was of someone looking after animals-the sight had a specific sacrifice stone for the animals.
    another scene was someone paying someone to pray for them because they didn’t have time.
    Pomegranates are a big deal here but the fact they are red helps with the ongoing fire theme. Lol
    Will nearly took his head off entering each door. I had to bend so he had to BEND.

    Got through it all quite quickly then headed to fire mountain. It was quite built us cities/villages along the way but with a much bigger trash and graffiti problem. A lot of butchers doors wide open. One had a truck of sheep next to it 😔
    Only good thing was they didn’t appear stressed waiting so at least it’s not unnecessarily drawn out for them.

    Arrived at Yanardag. Super basic but super cool. The mountain has been burning for either hundreds of years … or 70 ( depends who you ask 😆😆) because of the gas in the soil.
    Got some pics. It was raining so we didn’t linger but pleased we saw.
    On our way back now.
    Going to give our driver a decent tip simply for offering us a solution because I was so sick yesterday.
    I will then message original driver to see if he can drop us to the airport haha.

    I think we was pleased with his tip.
    I don’t mind at all. He really did us a favor and did it with a smile. I would have eternally been disappointed if we had missed it because of me.

    We are currently in a Resturant called Shakespeare. Had an English menu out front but we weren’t given one inside so are winging it by pictures.
    Best food. First food in ages where every flavor was what I wanted. Love me some chicken fingers and lettuce haha.

    We then went to Maiden tower. Due to the price I climbed it and Will didn’t. He wasn’t particularly interested but I wanted to do.
    Lots of stairs.
    It’s the symbol of the city. Gotta get involved. The view from the top would have been better if it wasn’t raining. The glass had water drops so hard to see out.
    The glass exists because a few suicides because of the tale of the tower, people took inspiration.
    So they put a stop to that.
    Personally not how I’d want to go but moreover I’d pick somewhere higher. Not a 100% guarantee ..

    We then went looking in some shops. I over paid for a few things but i don’t mind. What’s an extra dollar to me. These people sit in these shops day in day out. He had a good day today. 🤷🏼‍♀️
    Bought a new coin purse cause I broke my other one yesterday.
    And a magnet. Not satisfied with the magnet but it will do if I can’t find a better one at the airport tomorrow.
    I loved a carpet one at the temple this morning. Should have bought it.
    We then went to the Palace of The Shirvanshahs. It’s the old royal palace. Really needed your imagination but I liked the throne room, bathhouse, crypt and courtyards. There were a few little pray rooms too. Would have bought a jumper but they didn’t have my size.
    I really want something from country 50 so I settled on a mug. Everything else I wanted will likely break along the journey 😔

    Have organized an airport transfers and have spent an hour cleaning my shoes. Made an absolute mess and clogged the shower. It was already clogged but now it’s in a bit of a state. Ha.

    Very impressed with how progressive it is here. Even Will commented they have statues of Women. How good and unexpected. One was featured on the literacy building as one of the country’s most recognized contributors.
    Like a minute later we walked past a statue of a girl in a tube top on the phone in the shopping district. She even has boobs.
    For a Muslim country this is considered butt naked. And yet there she was.
    We then walked past a lingerie store.
    Good job Azerbijan 👏🏼👏🏼

    Packed. Went out for dinner. CHEAP. Had to use our remaining Manats and now going to bed cause very early morning tomorrow!!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Baku day excursion

    28 Kasım 2022, Azerbeycan ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    We had a 40 minute mosquito hunt around 1am.
    Unbelievably. Could not kill the little bastard. We were tying to hit him, sprayed him with deodorant, threw towels at the roof with no success.
    We are at least happy he is the culprit of Wills new bites and not bed bug saga #2.
    Will jumped up suddenly around 2am after we had given up and got the prick.
    Great sleep if it had been longer but woke up ok this morning. There was hot water so Will jumped in. My hair desperately needs a clean but it think it will have to wait. The shower is too small even for me.
    We left at 8:40 to go the bank next door - very efficient so left us standing on the street waiting for 15 minutes.
    Something was clearly going on. The streets were littered with police.
    Traffic stopped too and it was a little earily quiet for my comfort …
    There was a policeman standing directly in front of us but he didn’t tell us to move so we stayed put. 🤷🏼‍♀️
    Eventually police car after police car came racing down the street and a few other vehicles. Must be someone very important.

    Then it was like it never happened. Police walked away and traffic and city came back to life.

    Our driver was a little late because of this but he did turn up so that’s always a plus 😆

    Drove for about 40 minutes to reach Gobustan reserve. We went past so many oil rigs it was insane.
    The further out from the city the more obvious the oil money wasn’t shared with everyone. 😅

    Arrived and paid 35 Manat for both our entries and a private guide. She first took us through the museum. She was a bit stiff at first and explained all the info boards very robotically. She would only make eye contact with me. Maybe Will made her uncomfortable 🤷🏼‍♀️
    It was basically this is what a rock drawing is. Here are examples worldwide. Here is what you will find here. Examples of shelters and lifestyle. Some cooking and hunting stuff and animal bones.
    She asked where we were from as we drove to the rocks. She became much more friendly after we said Australian.
    The rock carvings were really cool. Neither of us had seen any before. About 4000 years old and some of them really clear. Lots of goats and hunter depictions. Very very cool. She had a little laser which was very helpful at showing us things we missed.
    We didn’t really need her for the museum part but for this part I’m very glad we had a guide.
    She showed us lots and lots of different rocks and one part where they use to live. They found a child’s bones recently and there is old campfire leftovers. The cave is now open due to earthquakes but it was once enclosed.
    Lots of the rocks had drawings on top of drawings showing different time periods and groups. The area nearby was very flat. You could see out to the Caspian Sea (not sea, biggest lake in the world).
    Our driver drove us all back to the museum, she jumped out and off we went to the mud volcanoes.
    We had to swap cars. Our driver stayed behind and we had new random man to drive us who thought he spoke English but most certainly didn’t
    Nothing like a bit of off roading in a crap box.
    About 15km away.
    The volcanos were awesome! He took us to a bigger one first and we stuck our hand in. Just thick cold mud.
    Loved watching it bubble.
    Then washed our hands in a big salt water pond. He couldn’t explain properly but it was a bit random to be there.
    Then went to a section with lots of little mud piles.
    A deceptive surface - completely ruined my shoes and fell in a 20cm mud pile lol.
    Will told me I was a goose then did it too.
    Had to get back in the car and felt really bad about it cause shoes were a mess.
    He drove us back to our driver and I felt so sick.
    It was now past 12 and hadn’t eaten and the motion was making me so nauseous.
    Had a difference of opinion on price. I got told 20m Manat but he reckoned 30 and tip.
    I asked our driver to help. Driver though it was 30 too so I gave 30 but no tip. I asked for change from 40. He wasn’t happy but gave it to me.
    He was like no 40 is fine.
    40 might be fine for you but not fine for me 😆
    Got back in with our driver and headed back to city. 1pm by now and I couldn’t continue. Had to get food. Stopped at some Resturant and i firstly spent 15 mins in the bathroom trying to clean my shoes cause it was while polish stone floors. Eek.
    Bathroom had no running water which made for a challenge. Did the best I could.
    Will ordered for the both of us (now fired from this job after we got the bill)
    I ate as much bread as I could and some of the tomato but couldn’t do it. Will ate a lot of the meat. Bill was 130 😬😬😬😬😬
    All places we have been to keep trying to change our order. “You will want this”
    No. I have given you my order. I think he got conned into a meat platter rather than 3 separate kebabs options which would have come in under 40.
    Is what it is.
    Extra annoying cause I couldn’t eat it or I would vomit.
    I was so disappointed but had to call it a day.
    Asked the driver to drive us back. he has agreed to do the next half tomorrow morning for the same price so we gave him 50 euro today and will give him other half tomorrow. Happy with this arrangement.

    Got home and crashed for a few hours.

    It’s a big problem the not eating properly or only waiting salads because I don’t like or understand the menus. What I wouldn’t give for a kitchen to cook my own food.
    Need more water too but it’s so costly only buying bottles and Europe’s tap water is gross tasting 😒

    Have had dinner and got Oreos and bread for breakfast. Nothing in supermarket, just alcohol and pasta/sauces. The food diet continues.

    I’d like to stop with the better, not better, better rubbish.
    Hopefully tomorrow I’m better whole day.

    Wills throat is sore again so that’s also fun.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Baku

    27 Kasım 2022, Azerbeycan ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Felt better this morning but we slept in a loooot.
    No regrets cause we have had a great day. Lol
    Firstly messaged tour man with my overnight decision. I said we want a one day tour, not two and i cut some POI’s off the list to make it plausible. I cut off their main mosque and yet somehow now it has made its way back on the list.
    He will now magically make it work 😆
    So we are going tomorrow.
    Went walking and Will decided he would wear shorts.
    Didn’t take long to notice the stares so we went home and he changed hahaha.
    At first we just walked around. We went through the gates of old town. Pests everywhere annoying us because we stand out as obviously not Azerbaijani but not as bad as many other places AND it was better because they couldn’t switch to English when they needed to make their sale so they then left us alone yewwww.
    One dude told us about his Resturant and we eventually went back to him because he could speak English. He took us down to the Resturant which was actually really lovely. Trees and benches covered in rugs/carpets and pillows and it was all just very bright.
    English menu so that’s a win.
    When I say English it’s like 3 words but I’ll take it.
    The Azerbijan menu is like a paragraph explaining the food and underneath is “lamb with onion”
    Either way very helpful and we ended up getting lamb and some bread things like naan and I got a salad. Not meant to drink the tap water and they would have washed the salad but I took the gamble. Pomegranate is big here so that was the dressings and it was great.
    I fed some lamb to a cat. He was happy.
    They treat the cats very much like the Turkish. 💕
    Dogs not so much. They aren’t considered clean but we only saw 2 of them and about 1000 cats.
    We then walked to the carpet museum 😆😆😆
    The building is even in the shape of a rolled up carpet. Love their commitment to the museum and carpet.
    English signs so yay.
    Had to put my bag in a locker which has our passports in it because it’s law here they be on our person at all times. Did not like putting them in a local swimming pool quality locker but they survived.
    It had some visual which I enjoyed because it helps my little brain see how it all works.
    Some lovely carpets.

    Copied and pasted this from a picture of sign i took. (new iPhone feature - when you read this back in years to come please note this is currently exciting and new for you. You will have forgotten this feature didn’t once exist on your iPhone 7 haha)
    “In 2010 the traditional art of Azerbaijani carpet weaving entered on the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”

    Some lovely carpets.
    What else can I say about carpets? 😆

    We then got some pics with the flame towers cause I need to do a Facebook 50 countries post, obvs 💁🏼‍♀️💅🏼
    (Got better ones later but good to have options haha)
    Walked along the boulevard on the way back towards fountain square. Some awesome buildings across the water. One like a donut.

    Went to Starbucks for a drink and to steal Wi-Fi but Wi-Fi needed a code so just a drink..

    Met our guide.
    His name was Ziya. He was fabulous.
    We were the only 2 for a while which I was nervous about because that means we alone are responsible for his tip 😬😬
    But then another couple came so that helped. I would prefer many more to share the love because sharing is caring but we will take it.
    Lucky he was such a good guide I’m not angry we have to give more money than usual.
    We started outside the old town entrance at the 2 gates.
    Baku wasn’t the original capital. Baku use to just be an old fortified little area - he showed us a picture of what it use to look like - an earthquake destroyed the old place so they had to move and I think they moved back then back again.
    The gates use to be one in front of each other but one got moved so they are side by side.
    He showed us some Arabic script which is very detailed and helpful to historians. Literally says when it was build, who by and who ordered it ro be built. Gosh why doesn’t everything old have such helpful details haha.

    Talked about oil briefly here. They use to be right on the water and they would fill the moats if being attacked - they have reports where they would put oil in the water and burn everyone alive so they have to at least known about the oil since 12th century. Obviously didn’t boom right then.

    F1 drives past here. Apparently locals don’t like the F1 coming, they think it costs too much money to have here.
    It’s the only reason ANYONE has known where Azerbijan is so can’t be bad for tourism 🤷🏼‍♀️
    Went in and he showed us an old bath house/ Hamam. We couldn’t go in but you could see the outline and the “chimney” I suppose you would call it.
    Walked through what I think was the old royals gardens then we ended up at the Maidans tower which is the cities famous landmark.
    We sat here so he could tell us a legend.

    Basically king is a dick. Princess (other kingdom) goes and tells him to stop being a dick. He agrees. Princess and King marry (to make bond). They are in love. Princess now Queen dies birthing their baby. King blames baby and orders it to be killed. It is not killed but hidden. When baby is adult she handles a wild bird which happens to be kings who is in the area and she is invited to meet him. King thinks it’s his wife and falls in love. Realized its his daughter but doesn’t care and still wants to marry.
    Daughter has secret boyfriend btw.
    Stalls the marriage with king by asking for a tower.
    Years pass with out the tower then suddenly there is a tower. She hides in it. Boyfriend and King go to find her in the tower. One is killed fighting the other in the tower. She cant see who - she thinks king/dad has killed boyfriend and is now going to make her marry him. She jumps of the tower and kills herself.

    The end.

    “There are many more romantic versions of this story like she jumps and was saved by the mermaids. You can’t tell a 5 year old about a Princess with Incestuous relations with her dad who then suicides.”
    I laughed.

    It was probably a watch tower but they don’t know.
    Which is why so many stories.

    There was a house for stray cats near by ❤️❤️😭😭

    We then walked through the labyrinth suburban streets which I really enjoyed.
    Only about 2000 people now. People have moved out. If you live with grandma and she needs an ambulance you are up the creek. Will have to carry her out yourself. No cars.
    We saw Muhammad Mosque. It has the first minaret of Azerbijan. Not an operational mosque. Then walked up some stairs and could see the water and the oil boats out in the sea. 98% of oil comes from the sea not land.
    Then arrived at the royals old residence which we plan to visit another day.
    Got some hectic photos of the city. It has old school vibes in the foreground and then oil money in the background with the flame towers. 3 different animations on the towers at night - flames, the flag and then a person waving the flag.


    Tour could have ended here but the next 2 stops were a happy hall or something. Which is a wedding venue which is a replica of another building in (I want to say Germany or Italy) and wife liked when traveling so husband built her her own one.
    He was then killed invaders in his home and didn’t want to get in trouble so killed himself so “there was no happy ever after”….
    Okkkk. Onto the next stop 😅

    Another building (charity building) where some greedy dude paid for it it just to show everyone he wasn’t greedy for not paying his sons medical bills and letting him die. Son had TB and was $50,000 to fix but he has tens of millions cause he was an oil dude so no reason other than bad guy.

    Tour ended at literacy museum with statues of influential Azerbaijani writers.
    Tipped him 30 which is just under $30 AUD. Don’t know if that is good or bad so did a runner.
    He deserved good money. I gave him a review so at least his employees know he did great and he gets more time slots.

    Went to hard rock where I had planned to buy a jumper but they were sold out 😭😭😭😭
    PLANS RUINED
    and then they got my order wrong.

    So sad.

    Did washing at the hotel and skipped the queue and don’t even feel and about it. Whole foyer is taken up by a group of 20 Indian/Pakistani men who make me soooooo uncomfortable.
    Went to ask for a bottle of water and they just stared at me so obviously even Will noticed.
    Go away.
    Our clothes still smell though so that’s a bummer.
    Don’t even want to know the quality of water our clothes were washed with.

    Haven’t had a hot show. Would like to ask reception but too uncomfortable to go because they are all watching me 👀😩

    Bed time. Have to go to an ATM in the morning before we get picked up at 9.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Transit

    26 Kasım 2022, Azerbeycan ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    I had a really bad headache last night - very happy it’s gone this morning.
    Will had to get up before me to pack *evil laugh*
    It was 5:30 at first alarm. Disgusting.
    Went over to reception next door and handed in our key.
    I am very proud of us. We got the tram instead of a taxi to the airport. Normally dislike this option because so many more things can go wrong - such as the trains not running like in Paris.
    But this decision, which worked brilliantly, saved us 32€ so YAY.
    Only 1.5€ each.
    Took about 30 minutes. Lucky I did research last night and knew it was an underground tram or I wold have been frantically searching the streets.
    Very straight forward otherwise.

    Airport empty. French really not keen on work.
    You could only check in at the counter 2 hours before check in. Why say you must be there with 3 hours spare then?
    We got a juice and croissant at the only shop and checked in on the machines instead.
    We think we got an exit row 👀👀
    Wouldn’t that be good.
    We didn’t get bag tags so have to go to the desk later anyway.

    Our whole plane is a Korean tour group. They have to take up at least 80% of seats. A gazillion of them.
    They are early too and all just waiting In line putting pressure on the workers I like it haha. We get to at least skip that line because we are checked in and go straight to bag drop line.

    Check in was so efficient! I had to show her our vaccine certificates and visas for Baku (I’m glad she checked our documents - I’d rather be stuck here than there) and she gave us new boarding passes.

    TSA took my kindle and Wills bag.
    My kindle passed all tests but Will had honey in his bag. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ probably a weird consistency on the X-ray machine.
    It got binned.

    I feel dizzy so we sat.
    We have gone through another custom check cause we are leaving the EU and we got another stamp 🕺🏻

    I may have bought another magnet….
    It was just so perfect! 😅😂 It’s a racing helmet with the casino and palace on the visor.

    Have I mention I think I have a skin cancer on my head? Will tells me I’m an idiot daily but this pimple started on the trip to the Grand Canyon cause I remember talking to Helen about it and thinking it was good I didn’t have it for the wedding.
    But it hasn’t gone away and hurts when I touch it. It’s been a month.
    Will cancer was like this 👀
    We shall seeeee.

    Boarded. We are in the exit row yewww. Of all the people on the plane I can confirm I am the person least likely to be of assistance in an emergency landing. Not because I’m weak and can’t open the door but because I’d be mid panic attack.
    Well actually maybe not. If we landed and I was still alive I’d be in a great mood.
    The falling out of the sky part. Not good not good.
    It was a good flight. Had a nap. Got fed ok food. And all in all went quite quick.

    We didn’t need a visa for turkey which took me months to figure out because they have a regular visa and a transfer visa and the wording is not clear at all.
    Transfer visa sounded like something we might need as we are transferring through…
    I was 99% sure I had understood properly and I had. 🕺🏻
    Didn’t even need to rescan bags. Just had to show someone our next boarding pass.
    A transfer visa is for if you want to exit the airport for a bit If you have a long layover.

    Airport is huge.
    We were gate B which was a 19 minute walk to the gate. I have no memory of Istanbul airport from last time but very impressed this time.
    I have decided I am getting some Turkish delight when we come back in a couple of days time. It’s everywhere in the airport and I LOVEEEEEEEE.
    We had Popeyes for lunch which I didn’t like. Thats strike 2/2 for Popeyes. Edible but hardly a standard to be a massive chain.
    They accepted euro cash but pretty sure we overpaid. Would have had to pay a conversion with wise anyway as I hadn’t preloaded any Lira.
    On our 2km walk to our gate we exchanged some Euro for Manat and got ripped off hard core. We exchanged $200 euro and only got 250 Manat.
    Current exchange should be 350 manat.
    The 100 Manat missing is $87.
    No choice though. It wasn’t available to buy in Australia, Wise doesn’t pre load it and we only did enough so we could pay our hostel fee tonight. Will find a better exchange on the streets somewhere tomorrow.

    Airport had a toilet for dogs.

    This is not an exaggeration. 1 in 5 men has hair plugs in the airport. Apparently Turkey is Europes go to for cheap cosmetic surgery like how we go to Thailand.
    I genuinely could not believe the amount of men. And some ladies.

    Had to go to a squat toilet. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve used one.
    Still not a fan. I don’t mind the process in theory. But ladies don’t have a pointer to direct their wee. Floor is covered. If I didn’t have to stand it I wouldn’t actually mind the squat part haha.
    I’m fairness men have a pointer and still do a worse job. I swear they close their eyes and sway.
    If you miss clean it up, it’s not hard.

    Condoms for sale outside the toilets. What everyone is desperate for in an airport.

    Had to do a Covid vaccine and passport check before getting on the plane.

    This is the most important piece of information for the day:

    A man bought a seat in business class for his cat.

    The greatest thing I have ever seen.

    It was so calm. A very well travelled cat hahahah.

    I’m not sure what native Azerbaijani people look like. Turkish, Russian, Asian? Not a clue. I think I pictured middles eastern and I’ve only decided this because I’m surprised by the amount of blue eyes and blonde hair on our plane.

    We did a quick google search before getting on about basic words because English is going to be much harder to come by.

    20 month old on the plane escaped its Mum. He went crawling up the isle and like 4 different people tried to grab him before he got returned 😆

    With one hour to go the crying children have started.

    Dinner was a delicious rosemary pasta.

    Landed and got through passport checks very quickly, got our bags and walked to the entrance hall and found our driver with a flimsy, hand drawn bubble letter sign BUT HE WAS THERE SO 🎉.

    So Baku is super duper clean.
    It was cool to see the skyscrapers all lit up with their flag colours.
    We are keen to go exploring tomorrow. We think we are going to go to the carpet museum. I’m already so stressed we don’t have enough time here.
    Our driver is a tour guy dude so took his details.
    Have been going back and forth with him all evening about a 2 day tour.
    I don’t want to do the tour over 2 days. There is one online for half the price.
    But I take the gamble it’s going to be extremely rushed and that I won’t understand the guide.
    I understand our driver.
    It’s 100 euro per day for the both of us. More than reasonable.
    But then there is entrance fees.
    So I’m very torn and I’m going to sleep on it.
    Originally put aside 200AUD for the tour so bit of a difference.

    I also felt extremely sick this evening so I’m feeling rushed and overwhelmed. Gonna have a big think.

    Our hostel is a bit dodge. Well it’s actually ok but I think a lot of permanent residents. The elevator was so dodgy we went one at a time in case it failed the other could alert someone 😆

    COUNTRY 50!!!!!! 🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Monaco

    25 Kasım 2022, Monako ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Will had planned to go to the free Gym in our hostel and then we were going to go to market before catching the train but that didn’t happen. Hahah

    So instead we just went to the station around 10 and had to figure out the ticket machine. One machine was stupid and one was terrific.
    We then had a quick snack while we waited for the train and hopped on.
    About a 25 min ride to Monaco. Lots of cops on the train escorting the ticket people.
    Decided half way to have a panic because we didn’t have our passports with us.
    Haven’t needed them once but today I decided we would.
    We didn’t need them 😂

    Country number 49!!!!

    First we walked to the casino which was wildly underwhelming. It was the size of a large house?
    Had to find a sign to make sure we were looking at the right thing.
    It was perfectly fine with a nice facade I just suppose because everyone talks about the Monte Carlo casino I expected more?
    We then walked down to the start/finish line of the F1 race track.
    It’s literally just lines on the floor but I was so excited. Love the F1!!!
    About 50m away was the Prince of Monaco’s car collection museum. It was only 10€ to enter each which for Monaco i thought was more than reasonable.
    About 100 cars In the collection and even though I’m not a car person I really enjoyed it.
    Even Will got his camera out for some of the cars.
    I liked the F1 cars the best, obvs.
    They had Red Bulls Pierre Gasly and Max Vestrappens (Pierre is my favourite driver) and a Lewis Hamiltons Mercedes. 2014 though so not a championship year.
    Very cool!
    There was a average joe Lexus that Will didn’t know what it was there until we realized it was the Princes wedding car.
    It was all see through in the back so paparazzi could take pics which was different.

    Lots of old school cars. I like them better because they have character.

    We then got lunch.
    We ordered a lot because we were very hungry 😅😅😅😅haha.
    All reasonable really except Wills 9€ crepe which you can get for 2.5€ at the market.

    3 or 4 shops later and I found an acceptable magnet.

    We then went walking up the hill to find some viewpoints.

    Amazinnnnnnng!!!
    I particularly enjoyed looking at the billions of dollars worth of boats just sitting in the harbour.
    3 different viewpoints and all fabulous!

    Saw the princes castle - he was home so couldn’t visit.
    Of note:
    The current Prince has an older sister but she wasn’t allowed the job - this one I’m not too bothered by because of the when.
    I am bothered that he has twin 7 year olds - the girl is older but boy is the heir. *eye roll*

    Old mate Lizzie did a bang up job.

    Traditional is not always synonymous with good.

    Child brides and genital mutilation also come under the “but it’s tradition” umbrella.

    If someone had tried to arrange his marriage to his cousin because iTs trADitiONal be mightn’t have like tradition so much.

    Stupid.

    Anyway.

    Walked back to station.
    Only had 2 of the stupid machines to buy tickets. We figured it out but what a hassle.
    Got the train out to the airport because there was a north face shop there and we took a gamble and it paid off. Will got a jacket.
    Nearly choked when she said the price.
    We read the 5 as a 3 😑
    Thank goodness it’s Black Friday so we got 125€ off and it was 375€ instead.
    Still. He better wear it ever bloody day.
    I’m most cranky because I don’t even like it hahah but he does.
    I read him my journal every/most nights before posting to check I haven’t done any major spelling boo boos but I’ll skip that bit tonight. He looks like a rectangle. 😂

    Caught the train back. Have showered, packed, semi organized how to get to the airport in the morning and got salad for dinner.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Nice

    24 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Didn’t pack last night because I was tired but most definitely should have. I have not mastered the art of the last minute pack like Will and he had to wait for me.

    Farewell Marseilles. We won’t be back. Never say never but it would be for a purpose and not a “gosh wasn’t Marseilles beautiful let’s go see it again”.
    May not make it out alive next time.

    We are currently on the train. We haven’t left yet - it appears to be a more day to day domestic train cause the standard has dropped (no Wi-Fi, smaller seats etc) and I think there is going to be a fair few stops along the way. We don’t have set seats so we have plonked ourselves near our luggage. We tried to find food earlier at the station and very few options. Ol reliable McDonalds had signs pointing somewhere but we couldn’t find it so we have what we think are chicken wraps. It’s a 2h 40m train so will need something along the way.

    The walk to the station was gross. There is a dog poo epidemic here. I suppose if you are a refugee you have come from a place where respect for your environment isn’t a thing. Busy with other/bigger priorities.
    But haven’t cottoned onto the concept that if you want something to stay nice you can’t keep up your indifference here.
    There was one diarrhea poop that you could tell someone slipped in. 😫
    Lots of junk stores selling anything and everything but everything covered in dust.
    Why sell a 1980’s Barbie kit next to shoe polish or potatoes?

    On our way and currently halfway between La Ciotat and Toulon on the map. Not sure where exactly but it’s beautiful. It’s terracotta roofs, green trees and bright blue ocean.
    Amalfi coast vibes.

    A man just got on the train with the WORST B.O GOOD LORD.
    We separated half way through the trip so we had more room to spread out but Will still bothered to mentioned the BO man when we got off. He had the same thoughts. 😆
    The whole train ride was beautiful along the coast.
    And as we got off the train in Nice…
    One view of its train station and it was already prettier than the whole of Marseilles.
    And it improved as we walked toward our hotel.
    Just a main shopping strip but clean and had people?? Have missed seeing people.
    Loiterers out the front of our hostel was the first bad look of the city followed by the most inefficient check In ever
    BUT
    *drum roll*
    OUR CARD ARRIVED 😭😭😭😭
    First girl gave a very half hearted look pretending to move things and “look” then asked another worker and he was like oh yes. I wrote a note and he pulled it out a cupboard 😭😭😭
    HOW GOOD.
    Our room is nice. We got a private and it will definitely do the job. We are on the 3rd floor and elevator is broken but they are 100% forgiven for everything because of the card. Haha

    We went for a walk down to the promenade. Beautiful!
    Can’t photograph properly because it’s too far away so it’s blurs but the water is calming, the weather is very warm, and I like the houses in the coast line.
    The beach is pebbles/rocks and not sand but people still laying on it.
    We went looking for an atm to activate our new card.
    Found one and got out some cash which we will plan to convert in the airport but had to use an atm anyway to activate card.
    Went to Starbucks to get a drink and check it worked -

    AND WE ARE BACK IN BUISSNESS YEWWWWW.

    My hot chocolate is some fancy praline biscuit flavor or something which I didn’t ask for but was given and I don’t really rate it but still the best drink ever hahah.

    We went back to the hotel and have planned tomorrow’s itinerary.

    Went to get salad and they were closing (it was 6:10pm) 😒
    So we went to hard rock. Got my mango berry cooler for 5€ cause it was happy hour 🥳

    Pic one is Marseilles- the rest are nice    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Marsellies

    23 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Better sleep cause of better sheets.
    We were in absolutely no rush this morning because we have one thing we want to do and that’s it.
    And we couldn’t do it 😆

    Made our way down to the dock to buy tickets to chateau D’If but they weren’t running today because of choppy seas.
    Seas looked flat as a pancake to me but ok. 😪😪
    Chateau D’If is the prison from the count of Monte Cristo - fabulous movie and book of which I’m still sitting at 49% even though I’ve read 800+ pages. Started on our last euro trip and one day, maybe when I’m bored in a retirement village, I’ll finish.
    It moves rather slow.
    Anyway, based off real events so we both wanted to do.
    You could get tickets to another island so we bought them instead. Otherwise we have come for no reason which is worse than usual because at least normal I still would have seen a pretty city. this is a shit hole. I asked if we could at least see the prison from the boat and she said yes so that’s something.
    We picked the later boat giving us time to eat otherwise we would come back right in there 5 hour daily food strike from 1-6.
    Went to hippos and Will had fish and chips which he really enjoyed. I have onion soup - really it was mushed bread. They didn’t give me a spoon with my soup so waited ages for someone to come back so I could ask for one.
    No need. Soup is not liquid. 30mls of liquid in the whole thing. Half was cheese other half was bread. Those 30mls were really good. I also had a side of mash potato cause I didn’t have enough time to translate the menu with my phone so did a quick pick. That was yum!

    There is a cathedral at the tippity top of the city that Will suggested we go to.
    Maps said 25 minutes there and 20 back. We had a hour so we decided to give it a crack and walk really quickly and should be able to shave of some minutes.
    We had regrets hahaha.
    We raced to to the top. Will dying. Didn’t even make it into the cathedral and didn’t enjoy the view when we finally made it. Just sat on the bench and breathed hahah.
    Inside the church was boring anyway. Just white walls and a few statues so pleased for him he didn’t miss anything cool haha.
    Loved the view though. ✔️✔️✔️✔️
    It reminded me of Athens at the top.
    RACED back down. I was getting both sad and angry because Will refused to run and we were going to miss the boat.
    Power walked my ass off.
    He agreed to run the final leg and we made it by the skin of our teeth. Thankfully the French are useless so we left late.
    I liked the boat ride. Very pleased with how close we got to Chateau D’If. I’m significantly less disappointed now. I went to the top deck of the boat as we went past.
    We arrived at the island Frioul.
    It photographs beautifully but eh.
    If we didn’t have sore legs from our marathon earlier we might have walked around a bit more but Instead we got hot chocolates (wasn’t actually expecting any buildings or shops on the island but people do live there)
    We then just walked along the bridge bit.
    Could see the harbour and some nice rocks.
    Founds some probably stray kitties who look like the were have a good napsies in a sea bird nest haha. 💕

    Waited for the boat and got back on.
    Sat up top again for round 2 of the prison. It’s only a quick 20 minute journey so quite good really.
    When we got back to the port we stole some Wi-Fi then headed towards the north face because Will needs a new jacket too.
    It was a hassle and a half. We had the same problem in the other shopping center when trying to use the info machine. Reckons North face wasn’t in the shopping center so had to search the whole thing ourselves - found it. It exists .. 👍🏼
    Only like 1 or 2 jackets per style though so Will only fit one in the whole store but even then it was a little tight and synthetic and not down jacket so we didn’t get it.
    I’ve message Helen in England to ask what other down jacket brands she recommends.
    We are back at the hostel now. Feel much safer here hahaha.
    Shit hole.

    A bunch of fees came though today - About $106 this far in conversion fees for the 9 days so far without our wise card. Oh plus another $40 or whatever it was for the car. 🥴
    I hope it arrives in Nice cause otherwise 🙃🙃🙃
    Our Paris accommodation fee was $40. We haven’t paid for any of our upcoming accommodation 😫🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
    Our card was in Singapore this morning and is currently in Bahrain. So in theory will arrive on time just a matter of if I have put the address down correctly cause how they write addresses is different.
    I’m feeling optimistic.

    We went for salad. Only it was not a salad shop but a salad section in a grocery store which was like 4 ingredients and all mixed together.
    So we went to McDonald’s next door because we didn’t want to walk the streets at night.
    I don’t want bloody McDonald I WANT SALAD 😭
    Booooooooo

    Not had a cracking time here hey hahahaha
    Nice tomorrow.

    I have include 5 photos of fake Marseilles which photographs beautifully and one of what it actually looks like.
    Very much like Morocco - favourite photos from our Europe trip but also a shit hole.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Transit

    22 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

    I can’t deal.
    I had the giggles all night.
    What is wrong with this bed.
    I felt like a penguin on a slab of ice. Simultaneously too hot.
    What is happening.
    I’m on a single bed and the doona is big enough for a double so hangs off the side and pulls the mattress off the bed.
    WOT.
    So In conclusion I’m a bit tired this morning.
    We had a free breakfast but skipped it cause it was very basic and will need more food anyway cause the train is 3h40m and we don’t arrive until after 3.
    So we got subway on the way to the station.
    2 main points here are I petted a good boi doggo and I had honey MUSTARD on my sub which is a another Dijon themed accomplishment lol.
    Train was very easy to find and low stress compared to last time.
    The baggage is a problem every time we get on the train. Nowhere to put it. We have to rearrange everyone’s bags. Soz.
    They really need more room for such big trains going to places so far away - people will have luggage.
    Also people were in our seat so we did the awkward uhmmmmm excuse me - showed them our ticket.
    They moved one forward 🤷🏼‍♀️
    They must not have set seats but I thought you had to have reservations for the fast trains. The rules change I swear.

    Going through the country side presently.
    Niiiiiiice.

    Someone keeps farting on the train and I’m sure its Will even though he says it isn’t.
    He says it’s my breath 🙄😆

    Arrived and had a 1km walk to our hotel.

    Oh. My.
    Where are we.

    This is 110% housing commissions or a refugee camp. 😆😆😆😆
    The smorgasbord of nationalities was intense.
    Thankful I’m with Will or I would have been preparing for my rape and murder.
    Even then.
    I have removed our credit card from my wallet in case we are mugged.

    The hostel we are with is a Menninger who we have stayed with many times and like and are confused about why they would have a set up here unless this has gone down hill recently.
    Inside the hotel was lovely. You wouldn’t know about all the red flags outside.
    Our room is lovely and clean.
    It’s more hotel than hostel vibes.
    Still ages away from main port.
    From memory I think I picked here because I’d rather walk to city center several times than walk once with our big bags.

    We went for a walk toward the old port.
    As Will said “…. Are we in the wrong spot?”
    Because it’s, dead, boring, ugly and falling apart.
    This is meant to be their biggest port and is romanticized in every book and movie.
    👀👀👀👀
    There was nice church. That was about it.
    We walked back around because we came to a dead end and finally found some boats.
    The port was full but they were mainly little fishing boats not impressive yachts. Still better than no boats ha.
    Same story as usual. Nothing open. Sat in a McDonald’s for Wi-Fi.
    The most dodgy McDonald’s you have ever seen.
    2 people took there burgers back up to the counter and were like uhhh our burgers are frozen? 😂😂😂😂😂😂 they were even tapping on them to show the worker 😂😂😂😂
    Found a restaurant with workers inside only it didn’t open until 7 so not for another 2 hours ……
    Walk walk walk.
    Found a place that had heating and English translations under the foods.
    Only 2 types of pizza on the whole menu that we eat cause the whole thing was seafood but they were good.
    We then followed the tram line home which was a much more lively route.
    If we hadn’t already paid I’d be happy to move on tomorrow. Will thoroughly unimpressed. Even less impressed than me haha.
    We went to the Aldi near our hostel and I got some m&m’s for a snack to watch France Vs Australia in the World Cup. We had plans to watch in a pub or something but the city is not a vibe…
    Home it is.

    We scored first goal to Wills delight but are now losing hah.

    I have just noted that new bed sheets are a bit scratchy. Brilliant news means I won’t slip out of the bed 🎉

    We lost 4-1. 😏
    Will loudly yelling at the tv his thoughts.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Dijon

    21 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Had a lovely lie in.
    Did better on my towel last night but still nearly fell out the bed a lot because the mattress moves.
    I smell a review hahah

    We went to the tourist information center which was pointless. Was going to ask for information about the self guided tour around the city by following the owls but they struggled with the word “map” so never mind…
    Went walking ourselves.
    Everything is closed. I can’t put into words. It’s everything. Its a Monday what the hell man.
    Ended up in McDonald’s because ONLY OPTION.
    We got the reusable stuff which was cool.
    A BIG COMMOTION DOWNSTAIRS. I could hear yelling and gradually everyone stopped talking.
    This guy was yelling, something got thrown or dropped then a lady whimpered and that’s when a bunch of people raced off to help.
    2nd time in a week I was cranky I couldn’t easedrop haha
    Is this dangerous or is it just a crazy.
    People started walking back so assumed just a crazy.
    His yelling when on for so long. People were taking it in turns to go have a look haha. When we left there was a paddy wagon near by which potentially was holding out friend.

    There are owls/arrows all over the floor through the city that which if you follow will show you around the city to their main points of interest.
    The owl is the symbol of the city and one thing you’re meant to do is rub an owl statue on the cathedral with your left hand for luck.
    So we both did this.
    And here ended things to do in the city.
    WOWOWOW what a boring city 😆
    It’s pretty but it’s DEAD. We followed the owls for a long while past a few church things. There was an architecturally boring palace thing the dukes use to go.
    A Christmas tree being put up and that’s literally it.
    Nice verandas, flower pots and windows shutters.

    So we went back to the hotel.
    We are meant to be boycotting the World Cup but it’s the only things we can follow without needing to know French.
    It’s currently Iran Vs England. The Iran team refused to sing the national anthem in protest to the disgusting happenings there. BRAVE 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
    Goal keeper just took a head butt to the face. BIG OUCH. He had to go off.

    Our wise card is on the way 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

    Have really enjoyed our lazy afternoon. Feeling recharged. Have been trying to learn some Azerbaijani words. I don’t think this is going to go well. SIM card will remain in phone the whole time I think haha

    We went to ‘eat salade’ for dinner and I AM FURIOUS BECAUSE IT WAS DELICIOUS AND I WANT 100 MORE BOWLS BUT WE LEAVE TOMRROW. This is the Ghent Poke bowl place all over again 😭😭😭😭😭
    You picked your base then added ingredients and it was just magical.

    Went to a bakery to get Will a croissant after. He really enjoyed and it’s good we did that at a proper bakery while in France.

    Got back to the hotel and Will did the SMELLIEST fart in the lift. Like appalling.
    And for the first time since we arrived someone was waiting to get in the lift.
    I nearly died.
    They probably got out and took the stairs.
    Omg.

    Back home, will pack in a moment and get organized for tomorrow.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Dijon

    20 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Dijon is dead on a Sunday. And notably clean.
    Unbelievably clean actually.
    Not even a leaf on the floor.
    I’m not sure if it rained or if they literally mopped the whole city. I think they internationally wet it.
    Immaculate.
    We enjoyed our breakfast because it was free, ha, then went to the meeting spot which was at an old English phone booth so easy to find.
    We were joined by a couple from the USA (dude lives in Japan) and our guide drove up to get us.
    Her name is Ann and I really liked her.
    Ann can talk holy moly. We didn’t actually leave the meeting spot for a good 15 minutes cause she was explaining regions and wine types and showing us all sorts of maps.
    It was far too advanced for me, she needed to start with picture A “this is a grape”.

    I enjoyed when people explain with translations

    Says something in English, flips to French with such ENTHUSIASM and finishes with “you see!”
    Like they have explained something…

    I swear I have an auditory processing issue when it comes to accents. I can’t hear you.
    Stop putting your beautiful trill on words. I don’t know what word you are saying. I need bogan sound please so I know what the letters in the words are
    She was talking about some man and then Will staterted talking about Louis Vuitton and that’s when I was able to understand her version of the name and that’s who she had been talking about.
    Not with 100 guesses would I have got Louis Vuitton on my own.
    I need subtitles. I can read very well. I can’t hear you though. 😆😆😆

    She was so passionate. So it was a little stressful to have her driving. She talks with her hands and makes eye contact. Watch the road!!! 😆😆😆
    Still 800% better than Paris but I was still hyper aware.
    We drove to a lookout first over some vineyards.
    I’m trying to think back to information I learnt today and it’s just so much I can’t organize it so dot points it is: (all potentially wrong btw cause she got super technical and there were a bunch of exceptions…
    But best we can do is:
    - there are different wine classifications. Grand Crus is the best in the region. It’s a lot of effort to get their stamp or whatever. It’s then Premium Crus, Village appellations and Regional appellations.
    - the grapes are the same for the whole area. One for white, one for red (we think - I have just checked with Will and that’s his understanding too )
    What differs is the plot it is grown in. It’s all about location and that’s what the label says. Vintage (year), type of wine classification (only for top levels), plot name and wine maker.
    - There are always exceptions but all whites are Chardonnay.
    - Lots of families own just a few rows.
    - worth MEGABUCKS.

    We drove past the Romanee-Conti vineyard which produces one of the most/the most expensive bottles of wine in the world. An average $18,000 a bottle. The 1945 bottle sells for over $500,000.
    So, just pocket change really.
    Got a picture with the sign. The closest I will ever be to having some 😆
    We drove for what felt like ages.
    Got to wine tasting number 1 at the Moillard winery. Opened 1850.
    This one is considered very big for the area. We went down to the tasting room and had 6 tastings. 2 whites and 4 reds.
    Along with my brain my nose is also broken.
    I’m sure people are making crap up.
    “oh yes I smell the oak and a hint of cherry, maybe raspberry.”

    Smells like wine but ok.
    I can smell that they smell slightly different to each other but they don’t smell like fruit.
    The American lady, who was Asian but American
    (this is relevant cause tour guide misunderstood that she was not the one living in Japan so kept speaking to her as if she was all in the know about everything Asian and it was a little awkward cause she clearly didn’t view herself as Asian 😅)
    Bragged about having a sensitive nose and reckons she could smell meat.
    I hope not.
    Side note she has the WORST teeth. It is odd to m when people are dressed in high fashion stuff, full face of make up, fake eyelashes but have rotted teeth. Does this not bother you?

    Anyway.

    I didn’t LOVE any of them but all were nice. Able to drink all of them.

    There was a big map on the wall with all the different plots which was helpful so when we tried new wine we read the bottle and found on the map which zone and plot it came from. The Americans bought a bottle.

    We then drove to Beaune (pronounced Bone/ Bourne) we were going to do a day trip there so we were pleased it was included in the tour. We had nearly 2 hours free there. It was both a positive and negative that it’s the busiest weekend of the entire year. There is like a auction for wines for the hospital and they raise MILLIONS.
    People from all over come. And come they did.
    We were starving but it was so packed. After a long while we found somewhere and both tried their traditional beef stew. Not as saucy as I’d like but pleased to have the chance to try a local specialty. They had escargot which we said we would try this time around. It was only 9€ for 6 and if it wasn’t a drinking day I would have done it. Did not want to vomit snail.
    We were also freezing. But no indoor seats 😩
    We will have to buy Will a new jacket soon too.
    Hopefully we find a Black Friday sale lol.

    We then got a crepe each and walked back towards the car.
    The auction had started so saw some of that which was cool.
    Guide told us first 2 barrels sold for 18,000 and 19,000 each.
    They have 836 barrels to sell……
    And the final barrel is different (couldn’t remember why but Will has said it’s because it’s the wine the hospital makes itself) and sold for $800,000 last year.
    MILLIONS AND MILLIONS.
    Must be the best bloody hospital in the world haha.

    The stalls looked interesting - cheeses, soaps, meats etc.
    We were early so we walked with the guide to get the car she parked a little walk away. Keen to get back in the heated vehicle asap.
    My only regret for beaune is the reason we were originally going there was to see hospice but couldn’t get to it because of the auction.
    In reality seeing the auction take place is more special.
    I did see the pretty roof from the car hah.

    Drove to our next and final wine tasting.
    The drive was probably my favourite part of the tour.
    It was charming.
    Love the villages. Love the never ending vines. Love the limestone buildings and walls. Loves it all.
    The second tasting was in a private residence in Fixin.
    She whipped out a key and we walked down the stairs into an AWESOME cellar.
    We had 7 tastings here.
    2 whites. Too crisp for my liking, I like dessert wines.
    Then 5 reds. One of them at least was the top tier label.
    It was only meant to be 6 tastings all up but she was like you can have one more so asked Will to help open her cork screw, wine pouring thing because it needed a new cartridge and he broke it 😬😬😬

    She was so put out.
    Just talking to herself that it is so expensive. I shouldn’t have asked you to help me. What do I do.
    She was trying to problem solve.

    And we were just sitting there veryyyy uncomfortably.
    I was waiting for her to tell us we had to pay.

    Lucky she didn’t cause a quick google and they sell anywhere between €250 - €4000 and it was the wine cellar owners so I wouldn’t be surprised it it was a top level one 🫠

    She mentioned that she didn’t know what to do because she didn’t know if any other groups were due to come through.. they wouldn’t be ale to sample if they did…
    Eek!
    She found a different, nearly empty bottle to pour us instead so was able to open fully without compromising the remaining wine.

    Then old mate America was like if we all chip more money can we try another wine.
    Buddy, Don’t sign me up for paying more money without asking me. This is already nearly double what we had planned to pay.
    Because no I don’t want to pay, I’m more than satisfied with my 13 samples.
    I thought it was really presumptuous and rude.
    Thankfully she said no hahaha wooooo.

    He bought 12 bottles to have shipped to Japan for $700.
    Excellent day, but the wine was not THAT good. Crickey.

    We then drove home, it had started to drizzle. Guide was crap taking about Chinese guests and even Will said when we got out the car how uncomfortable because the woman is probably Chinese heritage not Japanese like she misunderstood her to be. Just bagging on her grandma 😆
    Anyways we made it out, paid then went to dinner.
    Had to get a translator.
    I’m sure I mention this every single trip - Will is not good at talking to people who struggle with English.
    Stop with the full sentences.
    Use less words.

    This evenings example of not everyone speaks is -
    Will to the waiter : is this steak?
    Waiter responds in French ****** clearly does not speak English if is speaking to us in French.
    So I asked him “do you speak English?
    He replied very poorly “little”
    So Will starts asking him what type of cut the meat is? Is it rump, sirloin?
    Babe he doesn’t speak English. If he doesn’t know what “steak” is he doesn’t know rump.
    The waiter then got another staff member to help.
    Like duh.
    It then became a very uncomfortable scene cause fest waiter was in a mood.
    I was also hyper paranoid because we were sitting between people and I despise being over heard when I want to ask questions. So we both settled and quickly selected and both hated our meals.
    His steak was burnt on the top and mooing in the middle.
    He tried some of my goats cheese and now refused to try again.

    Back home and keen for bed. Slept terrible last night and I determined the problem around 7am.
    The bed is too slippery which sounds like the most ridiculous problem but it honestly is.
    I want to sleep with my knee up and it keeps slipping down and I’m getting the shits. Could not get comfortable all night. Genuinely nearly fell out the bed a few times.
    I have laid down a towel under me for tonight.

    Forgot to add one of the wines we tried came from Les Damodes which is a plot on the border of the most expensive. So like 50m max way.
    I think this counts 😆    Okumaya devam et

  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Transit

    19 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Woke up 9:30.
    Dordled down to breakfast. It’s a good breakfast but 5 days in a row it’s a bit boring now. Don’t know how people have the same thing everyday.
    Stilll loved my cup of tea. My favorite part haha.
    Went back up so Will could pack..
    Then went down to pay. So far the damage doesn’t seem to be too bad but we will see if a secondary bill comes through from Nab for converting the money. We have recieved a few but not one for every transaction so don’t know how it all works.
    Nothing can be done so 🤷🏼‍♀️
    It does at least appear Nabs bills are less than other options.
    We opted to pay in AUD at Sixt cause it was an option and we were like oh cool we will avoid the conversion fee at least - their exchange rate was like 57c and charged an additional 3.5%
    Never mind. Won’t do that again. Just pay in the euro.
    Hotel in Bern said we can send our new wise card there. I think I’ll give it a try and order when we gy to Dijon. Worst case scenario is timing doesn’t line up and I cancel the card again. Worth a shot I think.

    And here began the FUN.
    We had waited in our hotel a while because it was really basic to get to the station our train comes from - just needed to catch one metro 3 stops and we were there. It should take 17 minutes from hotel front door to station.
    I gave myself a big pep talk - stop being so stressed for no reason at all times. You just make it harder on yourself so today I decided I would not demand we be there an hour early.
    We walked to Madeleine station and needed to get metro 14.

    It was all boarded up with tape.
    So we asked around. “It’s closed”
    Terrific.
    How do we get to Gare de Lyon?
    You have to get this metro here then this metro here.
    Ok. Easy enough. Problem is now time.
    Thankfully the trains run very frequently.
    Arrived at Gare de Lyon. With 10 minutes to find our train.
    Had to find which section first because there is metro, buses, local domestic, long domestic, international blah blah.
    Found a board and it said we were platform 13.
    Ok great except the platforms are all letters and every single other train on the board has a letter and hall number. We have neither.
    Fuck me.
    It was also PACKED. You couldn’t just walk. We were shuffling.
    Thousands of people. No obvious help desk.
    Spotted some numbers in the distance and walked towards them. Thankfully they happened to be the right spot.
    Had to scan ticket to get onto the platform. Phone kept leaving the ticket screen and loading my bank card. Fml.
    Tried different ticket and it worked after several tries.
    Got on the train 🎉 🎉 🎉
    In our seats with 3 minutes to spare.
    My chest. 🥵

    The train has Wi-Fi so that’s good.
    Also we are first stop which I like because we can’t currently see our luggage from our seats so it’s nice knowing for sure they haven’t left the train lol.

    Nearly in Dijon. There has been this stream winding along side the train for the last 15 minutes and it’s just so pretty. 😭

    Arrived and our hotel was a straight line walk.
    Foyer smelt like fish. It’s one of the few places we he pre paid so only the city tax today 👏🏼
    Dumped our stuff and looked for a laundromat. There was one nearby where you apparently drop your stuff and get it back cleaned and dried. Everyone online said fabulous value and all 5 stars.
    Couldn’t find exact cost mentioned online so we though we would go ask and price.
    5.9€ for whole service. + 1€ for every extra kilo.
    DONE.
    Means we don’t have to wait for hours and play the translate game.
    We went walking for food. The shopping strip is lovely. We have unfortunately ended up in Burger King though as the continuing problem of they shut food places from 2-6 and it’s currently 2:50.
    It’s PACKED. Have been waiting 15 minutes already and our order had only just loaded onto the board as being made.

    Chilled in the hotel until it was time to go get our laundry and I had a freak out.
    Could not find our wallet.
    It is not in any obvious place. It is not under beds. It is not in my bag or jacket pockets. It is not in the corridor. It is not with any of my stuff which is where I would put it.
    Freaking the absolute fuck out at this point as both our NAB cards are in it and all cash.
    5 of the longest minutes pass and Will lifts up his bag off the coffee table and it’s under it. 😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑
    And he asks “why would you put your wallet under my bag” 😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑
    Obviously you put your bag on my wall let but ok.

    And that’s when the relief set in and I had a very big sobbing fit.

    Got our laundry for 7.9 - we went over the weight - it was 2 huge bags worth 😅
    But It’s even folded!!

    I made Will interact with the man and get it cause we made a joke earlier if he was an undie sniffer that would explain the low prices and why he bothers for such low profit so I couldn’t even look him in the eye 😆

    Have showered and got the matted knot out of my hair.
    Very keen for tomorrows wine tour!! 10am is a little early to start drinking but I’m sure we will manage haha.

    Corresponded with a lot of people tonight and have ordered a new wise card. Went to send to Switzerland but have taken a risk and opted to pay $40 for express and in theory it is meant to arrive by 25th - so next Friday when we are in Nice. Our hostel will keep it for us if it arrives.
    I don’t have high hopes but worth a try 🤷🏼‍♀️
    If it works many of my stresses will leave me 😆😆

    We went for poke bowls for dinner hahaha
    Same company as in Luxembourg- Will not fussed by it so I’m not allowed this company anymore. That’s ok! There was another place 100m away from our hostel! 🤪
    He wanted a McFlurry for dessert so we went to maccas round the corner - very efficient. All their workers were under the pump.
    If you eat in you get reusable chip box and drink glass which i thought was fab!
    Back at hotel. Have just booked a bunch of trains.
    Haven’t been told tour isn’t going ahead so I’m pleased. Bed time 🥱 😴    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Paris

    18 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    We made the call to not do the walking tour last night for several reasons.
    - We have done Paris well and will be re seeing a lot.
    - We walk at least 10-15km a day. Our feet and bodies are SORE.
    - it’s 4km to starting point followed by 3 hours of walking. Nope.
    We decided to go to the army museum instead which we LOVED. 20/10.
    Even Will keeps asking me if I’ve given them a 5 star review yet 😆

    It was 14€ which was terrific. We spent hours there and skipped a whole bunch of it. It’s huuuuuuuuuge.
    First section was old knights armor, swords. Canons etc. So cool and so unbelievable just how many they have. They had displays which went on and on and on but also this hallway with canons in it but on the other side was glass showing their storage collection. They had all the armors facing the window so it was like walking past an army which was so so cool.
    Cool will be used a lot to describe today.
    The oldest we found was from 1100.
    You see stuff like this and get a date like 1609 and stick your nose up at it for being so recent 😆😆
    The next section was the world wars. Best displace I’ve seen. It had every country represented with their uniforms and stuff.
    I loved in the WW2 section that they had a Swastika flag. I love that it didn’t get burnt and is on display and that someone hasn’t complained its offensive. We noted in Germany their lack of ww2 museums because they don’t want to be seen as promoting or praising.
    I think this museum did it all really well - It was all factual.
    It also had some of his stuff which was noteworthy.
    It also had a quick woman’s section which I really enjoyed for WW2. I like when it’s individual stories and you get given a face to imagine alongside the story.
    Interestingly 65, 068 French resistance medals were awarded. 10% of those medals were awarded to woman. Good job girls. Doing good effort from home 💪🏻
    Lots of weapons, personal belongings, art and uniforms were the main contents.

    Next was the French resistance part which I think if you were French would be more interesting.
    We skipped a lot of this part.
    We then went into the chapel to see Napoleons tomb.
    His older brother Joseph and Son also are buried there.
    His tomb was so ridiculous. Big center piece in the middle. So extra.

    Then onto Napoleon and King Louis’s XIV + XV section. Bit bored in this bit too. We were spoilt and had seen too many thing by this point. Napoleons horse had been taxidermied though so I like that bit.

    We walked home.
    On the way a man started yelling and full tackled another man to the ground maybe 20 meters in front of us and kept screaming at him.
    Will just kept walking towards it.
    “What the hell are you doing?????
    Why are you walking towards that????”
    So many cops near by because we think it’s parliament near by - literally 2 cops every corner.
    They took their sweet ass time responding to the fuss. My only thinking is maybe they hesitate in case they are worried it’s a decoy for something for sinister. Cause I did expect a bit of a quicker response to the yelling and violence..
    We think maybe the guy stole something from the fancy shop and it was a citizens arrest?

    Either way I don’t speak French, i don’t know what’s happening, so I crossed the street like a sensible person with some self preservation. Will had to be yelled at by me to do so.

    I’m in the bath and we absolutely need to do washing but are done for the day so will wear dirty undies to Dijon and do tomorrow 😆😆

    Will wanted Mexican for dinner so we went to a random burrito shop.
    Keen to move on from Paris but I will miss this hotel. It’s probably our best standard until we get to London lol.
    Have to pay tomorrow though so we will see the damage then 😬

    OH.
    3 days in a row we have put the do not disturb sign on the door and 3 days that has been ignored.
    😑
    Today we came back mid clean and she couldn’t speak English but was hesitant to let us in.
    Excuse me but you shouldn’t even be in here gtfo.
    I find it rude actually. That sign is universal in meaning. No not ignore. I might have hidden my stuff better and moved my dirty undies off the floor. 😒    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Hire car

    17 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    Will does not have the same anxieties I do about being late so he made us go down for breakfast. If I was by myself I would have gone straight to the car rental place. 😆
    Really enjoyed my cup of tea from my saucer. Does the shape change the taste? 🤔🤔🤣

    Walked to pick up the car which was only about 1km away. Arrived at 8:10am. So not too late 😅
    Naturally ended up being way more expensive than our quote cause I paid an extra 10€ for complete insurance cover rather than have an excess. Then was given the option of paying 57€ for them to fill up the car or we could do ourselves. As we haven’t seen a petrol station and more importantly can’t read French so may not be able to know how to operate the nozzle etc we opted for the easy option and paid the extra money.
    And the huge deposit.
    Quote was 140€
    Dinged my card for $822. Sigh. I should get $460 back though.
    We are the first drivers ever of the car apparently so will be very obvious if we scratch it haha.
    Went down to the car park. Nice enough car.
    Gps was at least included so that’s a plus.
    As I had to activate my roaming yesterday anyway and I have half a day left, my phone is backup for directions. Which it was looking like I might have to use cause the gps is in French.
    Nothing worked cause we were in the garage.
    What an absolute nightmare trying to load everything while driving.
    Finally figured out gps and told me to go opposite direction of my phone…. Good…

    Will Zoomed it out to look at the route but we couldn’t zoom back in. I was trying to cancel the route so I could reenter it. But what do all the French words mean?!?! 😭😭😭
    Will yelling at me which way do I go
    I DONT KNOW 😩😩😩😩😩😩

    Tried every possible button and something eventually worked.

    Holy crap on a cracker.

    What an absolute kerfuffel.

    The road rules are there are no road rules.
    Worse than Romania.
    I had actual chest pains from stress.
    No lanes. No designated place to turn from.
    Are you in a left turning bay but want to go right. No worries. Just go.
    Watch for the 700 bikes.
    Oh my word. It took us 50 minutes to get out of Paris and my professional advice moving forward for everyone is to catch a train out of Paris to pick up your car elsewhere.
    Could drive through London with a blindfold in comparison.

    Finally on some sort of highway. I was DYING for a wee and finally there was a maccas so pulled in. France is on strike over toilet seat lids apparently.
    Fine in principle but the rim is to big and i don’t like falling in the toilet 😆

    Drive drive drive and came to a toll.
    Erm. What do we do?? 😆😆😆
    Pressed a button and got a ticket and the boom opened.
    Don’t know how or when we are meant to pay so thats fun.

    Better be the best bloody chateau in the world I tell you 😭🤣

    Exited the toll.
    16.30€ 😪😪😪😪😪
    Will have to pay on the way back too.
    Booooooooooooooo.

    Once we came to the country side part it was lovely little cookie cutter cottages 😍
    Parking was easy to find and 6€ which I thought was reasonable for whole day parking when really they could charge you whatever they want.
    It was about 12 when we arrived so we needed food and went to the Resturant.
    Again, reasonable prices. Will got the Boar which he quite liked. I got “piece of beef”.
    To add a dessert was an extra 2 euro so we both did. He got chocolate cake and I absolutely should have too. I opted for a cheese platter. I made the assumption it would come with some sort of crackers or something?
    I’m not in the habit off just eating a chunk of blue cheese like a sandwich, like I was expected too hah.
    The chateau, as all of Europe is, was surrounded by scaffolding. 🥲

    It was very quite which I expected because our ticket is valid for the whole year and not you must be at the gates at 12:43:37 or you won’t get let it. When we entered we watched a video about the spiral staircase which is very cool. 2 entrances and they wind so you don’t cross paths with the other person. Me and Will tried :)

    The most impressive thing about the chateau was it’s size. It was basic in design, stone floors and wooden beams with basic furnishings but still makes an impact.
    There is over 60 rooms and it’s a massive maze. Every room has a delicious looking fireplace.
    The kings room was obviously the best.
    It has its own chapel which was a bit extra.
    I liked the taxidermies and the antlers everywhere giving off cabin vibes.
    Lots of dragons on doors and on the ceiling too which i looove.
    The view from the top was nice.
    Biiiiiiiiig grounds.
    Downstairs was another section that had original bits of the building that needed to be removed and also some old carriages which I liked.
    Places like this is the setting for literally everybook I read. Just magical 💕 haha.

    Got some cool photos of the front and back of the chateau. Tried to find the horses but the show was 2 hours away so no pats today :(
    Started to rain just as we were leaving which was good because we did some off roading on the way because of road closures and the car was a touch dirty 😅
    The drive back was significantly better than the way there only Will was getting tired very quickly so we stopped for a coffee break. Servo had a DIY Starbucks machine that of course ran out of milk halfway through our order after we had paid.
    So we had to get help.
    Lady tipped out our order and we weren’t sure if were going to get another one because she didn’t speak English to us. It took her ages to pour like 10 cartons of milk into a box.
    We did get a new one thankfully.
    Will said it was surprisingly good considering.
    He woke up a bit which was good. I would have camped the night before offering to take his place.
    Under no circumstances can I drive in Paris.
    We eventually made it back and the route was so much more simple. I think live map updates should be banned of a morning unless there is a traffic accident because the route changed several times along the way which made it 20x more stressful. Turn right. Actually no turn left 😭😭
    Drove very close past the Eiffel Tower which was lovely and we saw the French Statue of Liberty nearby too. ✔️

    Found the car park. The instructions given to us were poor.
    We parked then found where we were probably meant to park but not told to park… so we moved just in case.
    Car park is designed for motorbikes not cars. Tiiiiiight.
    Next was finding where to drop the keys.
    Supposedly near the lift but there are multiple lifts…..
    Eventually found.

    Went to hard rock and so upset with myself. Ordered a coke instead of a mango berry cooler cause I was trying to save a couple euro but it was apparently happy hour so it was cheaper to get that. I could have had 😭

    We are now back home and very pleased to be.
    Driving was horrendous but the chateau was awesome!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Paris

    16 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Important story I didn’t write on yesterdays post because I was too busy trying to finish and get to bed because it was like 12:30.
    The walk back from moulin rouge was intense. Will needed to poop 😆😆
    We finally made it to the hotel only to find a notice on our hotel door saying “receptionist away, will be back shortly.”
    It was a looooong wait 😆😆😆😆😆😆

    We were meant to go on a walking tour this morning but I cancelled it at about 10am cause I just couldn’t get up. Couldn’t.
    Have moved to Friday instead.
    We left the house at about 1. Our bodies are so sore.
    Walked in the direction of the police museum with the Louvre and Notre Dame cathedral on the way.
    It’s very miserable weather so I brought a backpack with our raincoats and lucky we did because we found some art 🤗🤗🤗🤗
    Walked past this lady actually painting which we always prefer so we know it’s theirs. I actually really liked all of them so we stopped to look.
    I asked how much and she said 17€
    I asked Will what he thought about buying 3 for like a combo piece for the bathroom or something and he agreed. We agreed on one, he picked one and i picked one. I would never have picked the one he chose but all together they look lovely.
    45€ all up. Wills mind popped. He thought she said 70€ which he accepted so he is thinking bargain for 17!!! Well 15 with our deal 🕺🏻
    She was lovely and said it’s so good to see Australians (all tourists) back we have been missed. Glad to be back.
    Walk walk walk and came across another art shop and bought a big painting of the Eiffel Tower became we were so regretful we got no art last Europe trip we pre planned to buy in Paris this time around. Pleased with our purchase for 35€

    Didn’t do much other than get a quick photo of both landmarks on the way but the line for the Louvre was short like last time and the cathedral was really interesting to see after the fire. The front façade survived but the back was a hot mess. Lots of cranes working on it.
    Had Turkish/Lebanese for lunch. The Tzatziki was saaaaaa good.
    Walk walk walk.
    Found the police museum and it was so bizarre. Had to do a security check then go into a proper police station and awkwardly be like uhhh museum?? And they pointed upstairs.
    Walked past all the criminals and victims lol ok.

    Museum was awesome actually. Would like more English but front desk person gave a quick briefing and some signs had translations.
    The different sections were past policing uniforms and police chiefs etc (5 different ones 1815)
    Then onto what we visited for - the only surviving guillotine used during the revolution. VERY COOL.
    It also had a noble execution sword on display and other bits and bobs.
    Next up was a bunch of murder weapons and crime scene photos and descriptions. Very grim I lovedddd it hahah. I got the jist but would have loved some more descriptions. The skull with half of it missing next to a hammer was self explanatory lol.

    Really enjoyed it actually. And museum is from 1909 which is why it’s in such an odd spot - original headquarters.
    It was raining so to protect the painting (which was sticking out the top of my bag cause it’s too big) we got the metro.
    2 different ones this time. It’s very straight forward like London.
    Went to the Place de la Concorde which is where King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were both executed.
    A boring square but historically important.

    I kicked over a beggars jar of coins by accident. And they went everywhereeeeeee.
    I know it’s a scam and purposely put in the middle of the footpath but I still gave her 2€ cause she was a child and what a crap life to be sent out to do that.

    We then went to an exchange place and exchanged Wills left over pokie winnings from before we left. Exchange is so bad 😭😭😭😭😭 61c 😪
    Walked home and I went to buy tickets online for the chateau tomorrow and of course more money needed to be spent - They had to send me a security text because I was using my NAB card. So I had to activate my sim. What’s another $10🥲having Chinese for dinner and I am KEEN

    Chinese was good. I want Australian Chinese but definitely acceptable haha. They don’t do any of the normal orders except sweet and sour pork.
    Portions were tiny so we went searching for a frozen yogurt place but could not find it so Will demanded Starbucks. As we walked out of Starbucks we found it 😑😑😑

    Home now and in the bath. Have to sort out all the minor details for our trip tomorrow. Car place seems to be close so that’s good.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Paris

    15 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    Money arrived overnight into our NAB account so that’s a real plus.
    Our free breakfast in the hotel was excellent.
    Freshly squeezed orange juice, tea (pot of hot water, tea bag, jug of milk and sugar), a croissant, and half baguette with differnt jams, Nutella and butter, yogurt and apple purée. 👌🏻
    Presentation was 10/10.
    We pre loaded our 2 maps. Me getting to the station. Will getting to the Palace from the other station.
    Excellent timing - there was a delayed train that was going where we needed to walked straight on.
    Love their seats. Each seat is 2 colours - all fluro.
    8 different colour options. A very bright train.
    A beggar person walked down the train. It was the most unbelievably act. Fake limp. Fake voice tremble. Also had to pay to get on the train but ok.
    Everyone ignored them lol.
    It was a 40 minute journey.
    Once we arrived Will went through the ticket barrier but my ticket wouldn’t work and I got stuck.
    As did about 10 others who also had valid tickets.
    No train workers in sight. We were all in quite a bright mood about it all I think cause we were all in the same boat.
    Will went to try find help.
    Occasionally on the 15th try someone’s ticket would work and they would get through.
    One lady snuck behind another person and set of the alarm.
    Eventually it was just me and another older lady left. She couldn’t speak a word of English and I French but we were just chatting to each other like we understood haha.
    I pressed a button and the fist door on the wheelchair section opened but I didn’t enter in case I got stuck. She entered and got stuck.
    Pressed more buttons and she got released and re joined me in the station hahah.

    Finally help arrived and the guard opened the gates for us.
    We were early so that was a good time killer. Lol
    Walked to the palace. Signage is appalling.
    Big sign that says “audio guides” ➡️➡️ so we went that way and lady was like no?? You get them in the palace?? Like I was the silly one for following the BIG ARROW.
    Next needed toilet. Went where it says toilet.
    3 door attempt later I found a disabled which is most definitely not where the sign was talking about but I was getting annoyed by now lol.

    We were early so we went out the back to the gardens first.
    A bit Eh To be honest. Will thought they were fab. My memories remembered hedges and less I suppose, nothingness. The space itself was HUGE which is what I think Will was taken aback by but it wasn’t as extravagant as I either remembered or expected.

    Time to go In. Got my audio guide and once again had no idea which way to go.
    Started in Du Dauphine suites (I think)
    Like I even know what that means. Thought it was a lady but they kept talking about a man. Don’t know if king or different man. Not a clue.
    I’m still so confused even with my audio guide.
    Everyone has the same name, 20 children each, 13 different wives, names/titles change and people die. Can’t keep up.
    Things I learnt though is that each apartment suit has 5 rooms and the further in you go the more private they get.
    They weren’t WOOOOOOW but still lively. Intricate roof carvings and lovely painting + furniture.
    Adelaide* is the owner of one of the apartments we saw.
    Someone (🤷🏼‍♀️😆) had a lot of sisters and she was one of them. There were 8 or 9 girls what I found interesting is that only the eldest ever married because they were catholic and appropriate Catholics matches were hard to come across because everyone was Protestant. A lonely life but better than being made to marry some dirty man 40 years your senior for some BS trade agreement. Still surprising though. Pleased for them lol.
    The somebody** visited the girls daily.
    Maybe King Louis XIV?
    A lot of the stuff is replicated, some real.

    Came out somewhere and went into next door we found because why not. Again, the signage was terrific…
    This was a sort of tribute to king Louise XV. The last king to die in Versailles.
    Pronounced Vers - eye. Have read/said about 10 different ways - all wrong.
    It was about him as a person and his story. It was interesting and had some cool stuff. Also kind of had a family tree but still not overly helpful cause not everyone included. The infant death rate is just heartbreaking.
    He loved art and science so a lot of his collection was there. All art except painting which he didn’t collect - it was more like decorative furniture and Knick knacks.
    He was a horn dog and his wife refused to sleep with him anymore which was accepted but she had to source the girls. Lol.
    Somebody stabbed the king. The king forgave him but everyone else screamed for his blood so some lovely court documents and pictures showing his public torture and he was drawn and quartering. This was the last public torturing and it’s called the “Damien’s affairs”.
    He loved to hunt. Some horrendous and yet fabulous art of animals being eaten to death by dogs.
    A lovely little drawing at the end someone drew after his death when his body was exhumed and thrown into a mass grave. Yep. Definitely been dead a while in that little sketch.

    We then went to the grand apartments and that’s when the extravagance came to alive. It became much more exciting very quickly. I love nothing more that a decorated roof.
    Started with a big room with the best fire place. A whole wall.
    #goals.
    It had a big roof painting which apparently was the biggest worldwide when painted.
    I don’t know how to describe other than room after room of cool ceilings with beautiful paintings. I always think the beds are tiny. For the lavish lifestyles why are your beds so small. Can you even lie flat?
    I particularly enjoyed learning that they had daily getting up and going to bed ceremonies which I can only imagine were unbelievably tedious. The kings suit didn’t get used for his actual sleep - all the audio said was he preferred his other chambers - didn’t specify Louis XIV or XV.

    The kings rooms were themed of the 7 planets they knew. Like the legends of Venus and shit like that. Kings chambers in center of whole palace facing north.

    Saw another kings chamber later on. Presumably the sleeping room.

    The queens chamber was the best room on the house or rather the most exciting to learn about. The only room I passed the audio guide over for Will to listen. 2 queens dies in in the bed. A queen had NINETEEN children in the bed - King Louis XV was one of them.
    Births were public viewing - lovely.
    Marie Antoinette did not die in the room but whas in the bed when the castle got stormed and escaped to the kings chambers through a little door which was cool to see.

    As I mentioned. Love the roofs.
    The gardens from the side were cooler cause they had mini hedges.

    It all ended in an art gallery vibe hall thing. First place in 2 hours to have seats. Pointless. Your 20m from the end.
    Well not pointless, we still sat. 😆
    We need to buy Will new shoes. His shoes have died and we are doing 10km+ everyday. His poor little feetsies are sore.
    We had tickets to another part of the grounds but it was the other end and we weren’t walking. The building was just a spec in the horizon and we also didn’t want to hire the golf buggies they had available. It was only 2€ extra for entrance to that part.
    Again. No signage to say what it was either so 🤷🏼‍♀️
    Finally finished. Gave my audioguide back - and headed to find food then the train station.
    No ticket drama this time and all trains go to the station we needed so couldn’t go wrong.
    Walked to Starbucks to steal Wi-Fi to reload map home.
    The front desk has printed out tickets for tonight so we are ready to go.
    Resting our feet.

    Wise has cancelled our card and will refund us for the fraud purchases. Have emailed asking them the plausibility of sending our new card to our hotel in Switzerland.
    NAB will do for now.

    Walked to a Resturant near the moulin rouge. Very cheap cocktails so we got one each.
    I got another goats cheese salad because the one in Strasbourg was amazing but this one wasn’t as good. We also got a lava cake to share but it was over cooked so just cake. lol.
    Should have got the cheese fondue that every other table ordered.

    Went to moulin rouge and I have a lot of thoughts.
    1. The opening act was so bad. Will nearly walked out. I would have been mad but understood.
    It was an under 15’s eisteddfod Jazz piece and had lots of men which we weren’t expecting.
    2. Not a single male dancer could dance. Not one.
    3. Most of the woman couldn’t dance or weren’t trying.
    4. Requirement seems to be must have nice boobs. Nothing else mattered. Smashed crab faces, can’t do a double turn, 90° high kicks. What am I watching?
    5. Some of the costumes were AMAZING.
    6. The interval, individual performances were spectacular except one. There were strong gymnastic men who lifted each other, a contortionist and roller bladers who spin.

    But also a girl who jumps into a pool of water (like a proper pool size) and pretends to wrestle snakes.
    The snakes were so SO distressed and trying to escape. And she would grab one, pull it under the water and pretend to be wrapped by it under the water.
    Surely some animal rights violations…
    7. The lip syncing was terrible 😆😆
    8. Old guy on other side of the theatre HAVING THE BEST NIGHT IF HIS LIFE. I had a blast watching his facial expressions.
    Dude near us was drunk having a good time too.
    9. Our seats weren’t good. Glad we didn’t pay the proper package cause it’s a lucky dip where you sit as no assigned seating.
    Got offered a glass of champagne for 20€ out of a bottle that is $15 in Dan Murphys. Nope.
    10. All round unprofessional but still a novelty watching so many naked people. Haha
    11. The only thing I’ve come away actually angry and pissed off about were the snakes. It was terrible. (I’ve since read reviews online from people sitting closer and apparently their mouths are taped shut while they get drowned 🙃)
    Lose that and despite the crapness I would still tell people to go. My trained eye makes it harder to not find fault.
    Also. They should update some of their costumes and not put black people in white person stocking/bras. It reeeeeeally draws the eye cause it doesn’t blend (obvs) but also just overall shit for them.
    Walked home and weren’t mugged. Yay.    Okumaya devam et

  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Paris

    14 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Today is our earliest train so far I think. Still not that early leaving at 8:55 haha.
    It was only a quick 5 minute walk to the station then we waited a bit to be given a platform. A whole school seems to be on our train. We have a wagon number and it was helpful because the platform is so long they gave us a letter to stand on so we knew where our carriage would arrive.
    We are both in isle seats across form each other. Only a 2 hour journey.
    I think I had a little nap.

    Update: boy oh boy we have HAD A DAY 😪😪😪
    First half good. Second half baaaaad.

    When we got to Paris it was easy enough to get the metro. We will probably use again. We could have got a second metro to get us closer to our stop but opted to walk the 1km cause next stop was only 300m closer.
    Less lunatic bikes already.
    Gothic is my favourite style but the French (what ever style it is) is sophisticated.
    Check in was easy and the man was really nice. Our room key is literally half a kilo. When we headed to the Eiffel Tower later I was very happy to learn we give it back to reception, they hang it up and we collect upon return.
    Also very happy we were about to check in. It was maybe 11:30ish and check in wasn’t until 3 but our room was ready 🎉
    Went walking towards the Eiffel Tower which was about 4km away. Had to walk past the shopping street with the $10,000 outfits in the window. Some shops had lines. I don’t understand it. The designs are hideous, I wouldn’t buy even if I could.
    We were hungry so Will found us a burger place to eat called quick burger.
    The lady was lovely. Food was garbage and 4 times the price of what is should have been.
    Bowl of lettuce, cheese and tomato for 10€.
    Walked to tower. Walked around entire tower trying to find entrance…

    You can walk up for a cheaper price and I had a laugh because it was an hour wait to buy tickets for the elevator or buy tickets immediately and walk up.
    To be fair it’s 1,600 steps.
    Not a single person in the walk line hAHahaha.
    We waited an hour which was a delight cause Will is so good in lines…
    Got on the lift up to the 2nd floor quite quickly but the the wait to go to the roof was where Will started to really have the shits lol.
    I made him wait though. This is my 3rd trip here and I still haven’t been to the top. So we are going to wait, William.
    Eventually got there and frankly wasn’t worth it 😆
    But have done it so yay.
    The price and waiting was too much.
    The views in fairness were lovely. I like how the buildings all connect and make shapes.
    Back down. The waiting for the lifts again omggg.
    Walked home. Very sore feet.
    And that’s when the day soured.

    Got a notification from wise about a live purchase i didn’t make.
    Checked card.
    3 purchases today I didn’t make.
    Aye aye aye.
    Have transferred all money off card (transaction/transfer fees are terrific aye)
    And have frozen account.
    Have emailed Wise to see what they say and look at options.

    And we know who it was 🙃
    The lovely lady at the burger place.
    We both noted she took our card under the desk and I said to myself in my head that was odd.. they did that in America all the time maybe they do it here too..
    I hope she likes her new hijab, eyelashes and whatever other clothing piece she bought starting 20 minutes after we left the burger shop.
    All stores are online and in Paris.
    And the hijab really limits the clientele options. Obvs wasn’t me.
    Sigh.
    We were looking ok for money too 🤦🏼‍♀️
    Now have to consider the lovely transaction fees and hidden bank fees blah blah.
    We both think Wise is terrific. We will see what they say. Maybe they can ship a new card and we collect in Switzerland or something.
    She only spent $150 and there was $5000 on the card so could have been much MUCH worse.
    I haven’t received the transactions yet (lost money in exchange rate again switching it back btw🙄) but I did receive the $1.32 I sent myself because I refused to let her have even that left haha.
    So if I received that I have definitely sent the rest of the money to the right account so the waiting for it to arrive won’t be as anxiety inducing for me.
    We are so lucky I happened to be in a Wi-Fi area when she purchased something or I wouldn’t have noticed the $12 missing.
    Since I cancelled the card she has tried to use the French version of Uber 3 times but been denied. I hope she is stranded lol.

    We decided to go confront her at the shop so walked 3.5km back.
    She wasn’t there but we talked to her colleagues. Her name is Rim.
    Thankfully one of the workers could speak English. He took a picture of my transactions. He actually chased me back down the street to take the picture so at least he is pretending he is going to investigate.
    We think we will make a police report tomorrow.
    Walked back.
    Our feet are sore.

    Decided to buy dinner on my Nab card to see what the rates are. Doesn’t appear too bad but doing several transactions a day will add up.
    Is what it is at this point 🤷🏼‍♀️
    We didn’t pay for our hotel this morning, we do it at checkout. It’s our most expensive stay the whole trip and will surely have a nice fee for us. Wish we had paid this morning with the pre loaded currency. :(
    Dinner was garbage too 😆😆😆 the English menu didn’t have prices and wowwwww €5 each for our cokes.
    Not our day lol.

    I’m very excited for our activities tomorrow though so trying to stay positive!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Strasbough

    13 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Up and at ‘em.
    Had cereal and milk we bought last night. Hopefully we don’t get sick cause it’s not long life milk but it’s unopened and our room is cold soooo
    Well actually I personally felt the room was boiling overnight but that’s every night for me haha.
    We put on more layers today - I put on an extra pair of pants - my snow pants so I look like a right douche but that’s ok. I’m warm.
    We walked to le petite France first which is why we came to Strasbourg. It’s a bit like chefchaunen for me. Photos are misleading. I was expecting at least triple the amount of cool stripy houses they had. Better than chefchauen cause it was still pretty. Chefchaun is a massive hole.
    We watched the water boats in the canals which was cool. They got locked in a section. Pumped that section with water so the boat rose then the the doors opened on the other side and the boat floated on.
    We saw St Thomas I believe that gets no attention because of the big ass cathedral but Mozart liked the organ inside which was cool to note as we walked past.
    Walked to the cathedral and bought our tickets to go up to the viewing platform.
    300 something stairs in a spiral.
    My legs.
    Absolute jelly.
    100% worth it though. Frothing at the view.
    Looooove how old the roofs are and all the little hatch windows and wonky-ness.
    Beautiful. 10/10 would climb again.
    The bell dinged and gave me a heart attack. Much louder when so close 😅😅
    Walked back down which was a breeze compared to going up but going around and around so quickly made us feel a little dizzy so we went for lunch.
    I got my salad 😭😭😭😭
    It was goats cheese on little bread things with honey and nuts and then like a kilo of lettuce, tomato and onion.
    Delighted.
    We then went to Starbucks for a hot chocolate. Nice defrosting technique for our hands.

    We have walked to museum palace Rohan except same problem as climbing the tower yesterday - they don’t seem to have people available to cover work lunch breaks so it’s closed for the next 45 minutes. 😆 We are just waiting in a foyer/courtyard. So easy to imagine parties of people arriving on their horses and being greeted.
    Bonkers these are people houses.

    Currently watching some instagram couple take photos of themselves in the courtyard. It’s a real process. I think they are uncomfortable I am watching. They moved hahaha.

    Will had to activate his Wi-Fi to read the menu at the place we had lunch which is probs a good thing so he is amused while we wait and I can write this in peace haha.

    Ummed and ahhed about which ticket to buy.
    It was 16€ each for all 3 sections of the museums which was archaeological, paintings and decorative arts. I opted for just the decorative arts tickets so 7.5€ each. Gotta get back some of my jacket money 🥴
    Got us access to the palace section which is my favorite thing to see.
    Went through lots of decked our rooms. Amazzzzzinnnggggg. Not the best we have seen but still love love love love love.
    Notable guests include King Louis XV, Marie Antoinette and Dauphines Marie Josephe de Saxe.
    Napoleon too In the second part of the palace.
    Love the bed chambers. And the library 😍😍
    Some very pornographic frog art which I did not expect to see in a palace.
    Also some big display from some family who made crockery.
    I loved one of the signs describing the display. There were aninal/bird ceramics that were used at dinner parties because they looks like they could fly and it delighted the guests.
    I often read this and just wish dead people could be woken up for a day and see the advances. Their heads would short circuit.
    Parts of the original and the 2nd archaeological clock from the cathedral were there. Very cool.
    The 3rd one is currently in cathedral.
    There was also a toy collection.

    Lovvvvveddddd.

    Bought my magnet - felt pressured so not perfect but as I already have a France one I’ll take my small win. Also regretful that I didn’t buy a waffle one in Brussels cause it wasn’t “perfect”. I try not to waste opportunities when Will is in a “want a magnet?”mood. Never know when the next one be hahaha

    Walked past our favorite homeless lady. She has a whole section for herself- has set up a tent and even has like 20 little plants for some decor 😆😆

    We opted not to go to Colmar because I’m worried it will be the same as Strasbourg regarding the lack of stripy houses and also online tickets unavailable this morning. Could have gone to station but I’m happy with todays activity choice instead.

    I showered and packed, stapled some stuff and did some research before we headed to dinner.
    Will fancied Indian so we went to the creatively named “Namaste” Resturant.
    Good food. Indian is always good food really ahah. Had to scoop the coriander out but I’ll forgive cause the waiter was really nice. The Resturant was super clean too.
    They forgot to charge us for our cokes and my inability to steal made me tell them.
    Walked back and I’ve spent 2 hours booking things. I’ve booked Versailles, and a wine tour. Well hopefully a wine tour. They don’t give themselves much wriggle room. It’s maximum 5 people because of Covid but will only run if 4 people 😅 so they haven’t taken money yet and I will hear back from them. I hope it runs. The one I had planned is unavailable and this one is more expensive but does look good.
    And if we don’t do a wine tour our whole trip to Dijon is pointless sooo.
    Our back up plan is to go to a fancy dinner and do a wine pairing experience but I’d rather a wine tour.
    I also went to book our Lichtenstein tour but backed out. I’ve booked us a return train to somewhere near the border. Lichtenstein doesn’t have a train station or airport so we will have to catch a bus from the train station but it’s meant to be a direct route. I opted for this after months of going back and forth because the tour is 7.5 hours but only 45 mins in Lichtenstein and time in other Swiss villages. I don’t want to come away feeling like I didn’t see it properly. So train it is.

    Will has been putting off packing all night and has just made the call he will do it in the morning. Who here is shocked? *searches and find nobody*    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Strasbourg

    12 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Woke up at around 10. It’s very cold today.
    We went to get Will a hair cut. He is allowed 2 this trip. We have this set rule of else he would insist he get one every week like he does at home.
    We are very good at charades. The French do not like speaking English. The main guy doing his hair did at least speak to ask what he wanted but the hair cut itself was done in silence. Lol
    Great value. Only 12€
    We went walking and I said I wanted to have a look in the north face store I saw yesterday to have a look at prices for their jackets cause I’m constantly freezing.
    Our jackets are just not made for this weather AND I’m loosing feathers everyday 🙄
    Walked out with a disgusting expensive but 700 goose fill jacket.
    Being warm is important.
    We went to 5 guys for lunch. Good food actually.
    We then lined up to go into the cathedral. Will wanted to get up early tomorrow to skip the line but line was moving fast so I made him wait 😊
    Didn’t take long at all.
    Inside isn’t as WOW as outside but still beauuuuuuuutiful. And obviously the roof is very high.
    It had an astronomy clock inside which was awesome and we happen to be there at 1pm so we saw the figurines walk around which was cool. Love that it works.
    We then went to go up the tower but it was closed for 30m so we went to get a hot drink cause it’s coldddddd.
    Another person unhappy to speak English 😆 but our hot chocolates were yum!
    So many chihuahuas! It’s the most common dog in Europe so far which I am LOVING.
    Love all the dogs in coats. 😍
    Went to re line up for the tower but I needed to wee and it suddenly became urgent cause our tour was 20 mins away and goes for 2 hours soooo not going to end well.
    Ran around for 15 trying to find a toilet - went back to 5 guys. When washing my hands a man walked in and another man walked out of the other cubicle 🤔🤔
    Maybe in the mens room, I don’t know hahah there were no urinals 🤷🏼‍♀️

    Found the tour and to my delights there were at least 30 of us which is great so I’m not obligated to leave a huge tip.

    Tour started in front of the cathedral which she talks about for a long while and pointed out some of the statues and talked about them - over 2000 on the cathedral.

    She then took us to a square where they use to sell chicken and spices but main purpose was because it’s pretty.
    She talked about the street signs. They are in French and Alsatian. Alsastian is local dialect but a German dialect so gets a bit political which she went over later in the tour.
    There is a local artist who does pixel designs in street corners often of what you will find on the street. This one was a beer cause of the restaurants.
    We then went to a another square type place where she showed us a good example of a building where the ground level is significantly smaller than the first and second floor and all the building lean on each other to keep balance.
    This is because you were charged tax on how big your ground level space was and only ground.
    People avoiding taxes since the dawn of time 😆😆
    Walked us to a building that is a school- they speak 6 languages there 🥴🥴 she said it is referred to as Strasbourg’s Hogwarts - local artist had added a Hufflepuff symbol. Walked along a river thing past lovely buildings and into an area where all buildings looked like train stations and big banks.
    She said 90% of the time if a building is Pink based the French built it.
    If it is grey, the Germans built it.
    We then had our history lesson.
    Basically is someone was born in 1860 and died 1950 in their live they saw 3 wars and changed nationalities 4 times.
    She drew a G (German) and F (French) on the floor and a line in the floor then started history and made us move over to the other side each time it changed countries from political power plays and wars.
    She explained why Alsatian is so important to them. They clung to it as they change. Whether French Alsatian or German Alsatian they were always Alsatian.

    We saw a war memorial and she pointed to a mother holding 2 naked dead sons and they are naked on purpose. They are not clothed because it does not matter who they fought for or what side as they had no choice. The memorial is for the dead not dead French or dead German. Each son fought for a different side and both a dead.

    We were FREEZING both of us. Partly regretting my jacket purchase at this time but also holding onto hope it was because I had no beanie or under layers.

    She showed us a statue with 2 faces which represent Strasbourgs past which I liked. Then into another area where she made a big point that we must know the French national anthem was written in Strasbourg and told the history of why it’s called la Marseillaise and not la Strasbourg lol.
    (First heard sung by people from Marseilles)

    Into another square. Statue in the middle of dude who won some fights for napoleon. Hard to hear he but some of his body is under that statue.
    Back to the cathedral where she showed us this pole. If you worked for the city you had to be able to squeeze between the pole. If you were too fat to fit you would be viewed as being selfish and not giving enough to the people.
    As Donald trump said
    “You’re fired”.
    Didn’t take a pic cause huuuuuge vomit there hahah.

    Gave her 5€ cause everyone tipped her good so she will do well for herself. She was a good guide, city itself missing excitement - The history lesson was good though.

    Went home and had hot showers. Amazing.
    Added more layers then eventually headed out to one of the places recommended to us by the guide.
    Added a thermal and beanie and doing much better. Still put out that I’m cold as in theory it’s only 6° and is going to get drastically more cold but maybe if I wear proper pants? I don’t think my torso is cold?
    Greatest butternut squash soup omg.
    Will doesn’t know what he had. I don’t know either. Looked interesting. Chicken, mushroom and …something... probably best we don’t know.
    Went to the supermarket and I found some fruit 😭 and found some cherry tomatoes which you didnt buy in a box but spooned into brown bag like mushrooms which I loved. Only €1

    Back at hotel.

    *update got a pic tomorrow of the belly measure pole. Have added picture to todays journal.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Transit

    11 Kasım 2022, Fransa ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Garbage sleep. Had to pee like 5 times and being on top bunk and toilet not in room this was rather bothersome.

    One thing I really like about hostels is the small moments of excessive stupid joy you get from looking at a meme. The fact everyone is sleeping so you can’t make noise makes everything 1000 times funnier. I looked at 3 memes last night and I honestly couldn’t breath I was wheezing into my pillow trying to be quiet having a genuinely fantastic time.
    I’ve looked at them again this morning and they aren’t even that funny.
    Makes me think of a time in Florence when a guy couldn’t open his locker at 3am in the morning and was swearing to himself and I was beside myself with fits of the giggles. It wasn’t funny? But i could not stop laughing. Same thing.

    Everyone left our hostel room before us so we could spread out to get ready which I really appreciated.
    Checked out and walked up biiiig hill to the bus stop.
    We read the bus board timetable last night so we know it’s the right stop.
    Do you think my google maps knows that when you ask it? No. It tells me I’ll have to change bus 🙄
    Easy DIRECT bus to station.
    There was a sandwich shop but no seats and we were an hour early so we went walking for somewhere to sit. Nothing opens until at least 10. Burger King was 11 today. I just want to sit 😩
    Sat in maccas and got a singular cheeseburger to hold me until lunch. Will got a meal except somehow I managed to order him 2 chips instead of a drink.
    So i gave the spare chips to a homeless man on the way back.

    We are currently on the train. An hour in with an hour to go.

    Arrived and walked to the hotel which was only 450m away.
    Small room but at least we have our own space.
    We want food but everything closed at 2:30. We will have to wait until 6:30 for everything to open again.
    Walked down the street to a grocery store. Got milk and cereal. Only we didn’t get milk 😪😪😪
    So had to venture back to get milk again but this time with the translated word on my phone haha.
    Had cereal, have had showers and now just waiting for 6:30 cause I’m still hungry haha.

    We had a nap ha. So went for food at 7ish.

    I found a poke bowl shop …. 👀😆
    Probably the worst so far but also the cheapest so that’s fine.
    I just want fruit and veg. It’s all I want.

    It was dark on our walk so can’t see much but lots of little spots bursting with character I can’t wait to explore tomorrow.

    But the main thing was -
    It’s not often a cathedral stops me in my tracks. Almost never.
    I’ve seen 1000 at this point.
    Every city has one or several.
    And yet the Strasbourg cathedral is the best I have ever seen hands down. No competition.
    I couldn’t believe how big it was - it just disappeared into the sky.
    It was even cooler because it was foggy and so gave off extra big spooky gothic vibes.
    It’s 142m high built in the 1400’s.
    It was the tallest building in the world until 1874.
    Absolutely incredible.
    Everything about it was jaw dropping.

    You know something is good if even Will gets out his camera.

    Photos can’t capture it obviously but I think one of them shows how much taller than the other building it is and how far away we are and yet it still dominates.

    We are going to go inside tomorrow. Keen.

    Back home and watching a comedy show in French for background noise haha.

    Lucky today with the trains as well. France strike yesterday so we have dodged 2 now by 1 day.
    May our luck continue 😬🤞🏼🤞🏼    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Luxembourg

    10 Kasım 2022, Lüksemburg ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    We have had a sensational day.

    Dalton went downstairs and stole everyone a bread roll for breakfast because it was 5 mins to 9 and I still wasn’t up. Didn’t ask him to he just did.
    Bless him. (Breakfast ends at 9)

    Got cracking. I cannot express what an absolute champion dalton is because unless it’s a train or walking I can’t use google maps. I was looking up a route last night and it was so bloody complicated. I don’t know why but it doesn’t ever give me the most basic route unless I put station name to station name. I can be 30m from a station and it will tell me to walk 3km north to a different station to catch 3 buses. When the 30m away station has a direct route. It’s super annoying.
    Point being 10 points to dalton for being guide today.
    We had to walk through a forest to get to first tram stop. I made a joke had I misunderstood where the trek is and was this it? Cause it was beautiful.
    All uphill though boooo.
    Caught the tram then walked to the bus stop which was a little more tricky because it was soooooo foggy. Couldn’t actually see 10m in front of us to spot the bus stop in the distance.

    Found it. 10 mins until our bus.
    It’s wild the transport is free because it was an hour journey. I could understand inner city because of demand but our bus was basically empty (more like a coach actually) I think it’s terrific but surprising. It was nice to see all the little towns.
    We got off in Mullerthall at some random stop so had to walk down the mountain for 20 mins before we found the start of the hiking trail. First stop was Heringer Millen - unexciting bread mill.
    We began our walk.
    So beautiful. The water colour was amazing. The famous part of the hike was a bridge which was splendid but once we kept walking became obsolete compared to the rest of the trail.
    The colours of autumn were amazing but we also had so much fun pointing out different mushroom to each other.
    It was only 3.5km but took us several hours. Lots of climbs and lots of picture taking.
    The best part of the hike was the use of the rock formations, you often had to walk between them and it was just amazing.
    I don’t really know what to write to describe it but it was beautiful.
    Beyond pleased we did it.
    Got to a village called Consdorf which has a population of 2000 - first stop/village only had 76 or something haha.
    It was 2pm by then and all any of us had eaten was a bread roll so we needed to eat.
    Found a pizzeria.
    Brilliant value. Only 11€ for Wills pizza which was twice as big as a dominoes.
    Walked to the bus stop thanks to dalton 😆 and caught a direct bus back to where we got the tram this morning. Walked back through the mini forrest, said bye to dalton cause he has a 6pm flight then sat in our room for a bit because we were buggered.
    An chatty Italian joined our room so we excused ourselves and made our made to the museum. We did offer for him to come but thankfully he was tired haha.

    We took the Panama lift up to the top (the hostel is in a valley) which was good because we didn’t have to walk up the hill but I actually found that because of how many lights there are and because you are encased in glass you can’t see out because of the reflections which kind of defeats the purpose.

    Bought my magnet.

    The museum (national art and history) was very well laid out and presented wonderfully considering how boring its history is compared to its neighbors lol.
    The art bit and then a “Gast Michels” exhibit, which was terrible (childrens craft standard) had English write ups but the history section didn’t.
    Lots of cool stuff but not really sure what I’m looking at. Your usual bowls, spoons and ruins.
    It’s free though so ✔️✔️

    Had McDonald’s cause both not really hungry so got bare minimum then walked home.
    Gave a homeless guy a euro cause we pass him everyday and he has a great strategy of saying hello or bonjure to everyone so you have to acknowledge him or your a dick.
    Felt he earned his euro hahah
    60 year old man has joined our room.
    Haven’t had a girl roommate yet.

    Fabulous day.

    Dalton fun facts:
    Canadian, Vietnamese heritage, 23, pharmacy student, has girlfriend. (Mentioned cause Will is flabbergasted by this. I said straight but he was adamant he was gay. The hair rollers are an unusual choice I’ll admit 😆)
    Very calm dude.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Luxembourg

    9 Kasım 2022, Lüksemburg ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Look, not thrilled by this hostel. 😆

    I was so hot omg. Didn’t care my knickers were probably on display for all to see cause I couldn’t use my blanket. I was a living breathing flame. We also had a snorer. Not the worse type of snorer but not a great one. Had to wake Will when I needed to wee and probs woke everyone else up opening the door. Needs some WD40. Clunk clunk clunk.

    We made breakfast just in time. Free but very basic. Had a Nutella roll and Will had cereal. They were the only 2 options really.

    Got dressed and walked up the gigantic hill to town.
    Needed a drink but we don’t really understand cause the whole city is closed and it’s a Wednesday. Where is everybody?
    Walked in to maccas but told it was closed. Walked into a Burger King and ordered a drink.
    They were also closed but gave it to us bless them haha.
    Very strange, it’s 10am wakey wakey.
    At 11 we walked to the tour start point.
    Our guide is hard to describe.
    Undiagnosed adhd is the best I can do. Very bouncy but not in a coherent flamboyant way. More of a cant keep a train of thought type of way and uses body to communicate very disjointedly.
    She was from Minsk, Belarus so that was cool.
    50% of Luxembourg people are not from Luxembourg.
    They have 3 languages French, German, Luxembourgien*. French in the language legislation is in. Luxembourgien was fast fading but when Germany took over during WW2 they banned everyone from speaking French but not Luxembourgien so it made a come back.
    Not the most interesting of cities. We have done the tour and didn’t think it was overly detailed but have been given a map of the city and the highlight were all in the tour so actually it was a pretty good tour lol.

    We saw the palace with the guards out front. The duke was in according to the flag position.
    They changed the laws recently enough that if the first born is a girl she will become duchess. 🎉
    They have had one dutchesss before during the war cause the duke had 6 daughters so a singular exception was made. First duchess I believe was Maria? Didn’t do a great job. Had lunches and parties with the Germans which didn’t go down well. Her sister shortly took over and did a bang up job and is in essence why the monarchy lasted. Her name was Charlotte. When she fled to London she sent daily radio messages to troops for morale so she is greatly loved. In London she set up relationships that helped keep and rebuild Luxembourg. Killed it. 💅🏼

    The palace is patrolled by guards but guide said they are in essence a tourist attraction as army is only 1000 strong. Not much of a global impact haha.

    We got told about a chocolate house we plan to try later.
    Was shown a troll head someone put outside their house to protect them from witches.

    Was pointed out the oldest pub and a secret Luxembourg society building - only for men so she didn’t know much and then a museum we will go to tomorrow.

    Walked to stand on an old fortress with beautiful lookouts. The entrance to the bocks casemates are closed which is a shame but ah well. (Tunnels under city)

    “Bock Promontory: cradle of the city of Luxembourg, linked to the city by the castle bridge (1735). On the "Bock” are situated the foundation walls of the first stronghold belonging to the Luxembourg Counts, converted into Monument of the Millennium in 1963. Incomparable panorama”

    Took a pic of a map and that’s what it says - I think it’s where we were idk. All very confusing. They call different things the same name and the same thing different names.
    Point being - old place, cool views.
    Walked along the view point. There was a purple statue she talked about the legend of a mermaid lady of the city.
    We walked down the hill then got an elevator back up.
    Came out at a Jewish memorial monument and then went in the Cathedral of Norte Dame (see, another repeat name)
    There was a Mass happening which I loved because the singing echoing sounded incredible and the feeling of holiness was uplifting but did think odd as it was 12:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. About 20 all up in attendance but all very spread out. A lovely church. Stain glass windows and all the works. Deceptively large. Outside looks like matchbox.
    An important church for the Duke. You are baptism here, married here and put in the crypt here.
    Went down to the crypt - 1 obvious crypt/casket and then 2 other maybes. Nothing like the Austrian one with all your relos for the last 1000 years. All 300 of them. 😬👍🏼
    Maybe just bad signage or has a secret spot out the back haha.
    Last stop after church was just to show us th statue of “Gelle Agra” who was lost for 40 years after the war cause she was hidden and only found in 80’s when doing some construction work.

    We talked with 2 guys on our tour. One was Dolten who is Canadian and in our room but also sleeps with hair rollers in which gave me a great amount of joy last night the other was Rob who I wasn’t fussed by. He was Australian. Been to 70 countries so at least had stories.
    Rob followed us the chocolate house where you buy a mug of hot milk and a spoon of chocolate and you have to melt the chocolate in the milk. Loved it, had a fab time. Delicious hahah

    Had another poke bowl… 👀😆

    We have now come back to hostel and are doing washing. Only one washer and owner of previous clothes MIA so had to move his undies 😒😒
    He came back and English is POOR just chatting to us in some other language. No idea hey.
    Bit of a back log for the dryer now.

    So old mate stayed and chatted for TWO HOURS. He was French Canadian but a rather odd person. English improved but still atrocious.
    Does not know the word for dry. Had to touch his undies again cause he used the dryer and we asked if they were dry and couldn’t not process this question. Had to touch his clothes myself to give us the all clear to put our stuff in. He stayed THE WHOLE TIME we dried our clothes and was EXTREMELY friendly because we are white… he was wicked racist. And at first I was like translation issue? No.
    There is a black man in his room and he is very unhappy about this “this man is very unsafe, very dangerous”
    He has made sure all his possessions are locked away because of the bad black man.
    Has HE actually done anything to you for you to vehemently distrust him more than anyone else in the room..? or just his existence is enough?
    Also recommended cities because all white or dont go there because all black.
    Crickey.
    Made worse by his bluntness and lack of communication skills.
    Very uncomfortable cause you can’t correct him or clarify because of his English but also because a lot of black people are staying here I was so on edge - I am so thankful none of them came to the laundry area to hear him. Very ballsy of him.

    He would not leave.

    Will currently napping. We are going to go to the oldest pub in Luxembourg shortly.

    Jokes no we didn’t. He wanted a burger.

    Found a good spot and actually turned out to be great food and live entertainment. Apparently the whole of Luxembourg (or what felt like it) were doing a running race tonight through the city. Started with 2 sprinting men. I said to Will as they pass I wonder which one is the athlete and which one has the ego problem cause they were RUNNING.
    A gazillion people then passed a few minutes later.
    Lap 2 and man #2 was nowhere to be seen. 😆😆

    One dude was enticed by men at the pub, chugged down a beer then kept running. I feel he will have regrets later hahah.
    Once dude was in a wheelchair good for him hahah.
    I wasn’t paying attention to numbers but 1297 was the number the winner was wearing so at least that many competitors.
    It looked fun.
    Walked home and have been talking to dolton about doing a hike together tomorrow.
    If not we will go to the museum.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Transit

    8 Kasım 2022, Lüksemburg ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    It’s 3:50 pm and it’s an uneventful day so far.

    Got up, Will packed, walked to the tram stop - had to ask for help to find the right spot for going back towards the station and not away from it.
    Caught tram.
    Sat in Starbucks cause we were early.
    Bought some sandwiches for the journey.
    Clarified what platform we needed.
    Boarded our first train.

    While waiting for the train
    Will: “ wait, we have to catch 2 trains I thought it was direct.”

    I have been over these plans at least 9 times the last 2 days. I even got his input about which train to book.
    I went with this one because there was a train every hour but this one was the only one the whole day on the half hour so if we missed our connection we would only have to wait 30 instead of an hour for the next round of train.
    He agreed this was a smart idea. And yet is flabbergasted we have to get second train.
    🫠

    Caught train 1. 40 mins

    Found platform for train 2 and are still on it. 2hr 50m overall.

    Just been reading and looking out the window.
    My sandwich had tomato on it so was all soggy 😑

    Sky is looking a bit glum and we have to figure out the buses once arrived.
    Dislike buses haha.

    Did not have a good time with the buses. The instructions given by the hostel were garbage from get go.
    1. Exit station then turn right. Buses were on left off to a cracking start.
    2. Was given 4 bus numbers we could catch. Asked bus man for help - 3 don’t exist and number 9 comes from other side of station not from the bus station section.
    😪
    Walk walk walk. My bag is extremely heavy with no support on my shoulders so I’m in a lot of pain.
    Been fine carrying the weight if I know 1km straight line will get me there but walking in circles for no reason in pain was pissing me off lol.
    Again thanks for Will. He took over and activated his Wi-Fi and found our stop up the street.
    Never would have found that. Would have got a taxi if I was by myself.
    Transport is completely free so that is a big plus. If we get the wrong bus it’s ok. No money wasted we will just get another one lol.
    Some beautiful viewpoints along the way.
    The instructions on what to do once off the bus were at least correct. Down a big hill that would be horrendous if icy.
    Checked in.
    We’re not overly impressed this far 😆
    I specifically pick places that don’t have an end to their beds so Will fits.
    We are not in a room with those beds. Our beds have ends. 😒
    No toilet in the room and only 1 keycard so we have to wake each other up during the night to go to the loo.
    Also not major but I didn’t have to provide ID at check in which I think is suss.
    Made our beds. Nothing I love more than making a top bunk bed 🙃
    Girls toilets only have 3 toilets for an entire floor. Lucky it doesn’t appear very busy. Our dorm is full but people are not buzzing around the place.

    Went for a walk for Poke bowls 👀👀😆😆
    Originally very sad about the ingredients options but ended up liking this version too.

    Walked back. The views are very pretty overlooking the area - the lighting makes it’s very charming.
    They have a hectic bridge. Our hostels right under it but adds oomph to the whole view.
    Keen for our walking tour tomorrow.
    Just chilling in our beds for the moment.

    A Belgium train strike starts tonight so we are lucky we made it.

    There is a French one too on the 10th. We leave the 11th so hopefully not affected. Shall wait and see.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Ghent

    7 Kasım 2022, Belçika ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Woke Mr Pickering up at 10 and we got cracking.
    We walked in the direction of the square first in search of food and found a Burger King. It was shocking.
    After a few clues and then some sneaky observations we discovered they don’t cook any of the food onsite.
    My microwaved onion rings were delicious.. 🫠
    Walk walk walk. Back to some of our old favourite spots. Went to our old hostel to look at its view point of the bridge and buildings. *sniffle* just lovely.
    We walked along the water and just around and around. I did remember to bring my camera but despite charging it last night it didn’t make the whole journey. I have 2 other batteries at home which I didn’t bring cause we only used one for our entire 3 weeks on Everest so wasn’t expecting such a short life span. Ah well. Still got some good shots.
    Still equally delighted by the 3 animal water trough as last time haha.
    Past the castle then past the 3 towers. I wanted to see the views again so we paid to go up the belfry. Saw the dragon again and went to the top for views of the city. Caught the lift this time 😆
    Got my views but I was sure it was the castle I loved. Will told me it wasn’t.
    BUT
    Have just confirmed (currently 9:30pm) on my fb posts from 2017 it was indeed the castle with the views I wanted. 😪
    Win some lose some lol.
    Views were lovely but I just knew they were “wrong” haha.
    Went across and over to St Bravo. Sensational insides with the most amazing stain glass windows. Went to see the mystic lamb again - they had moved it but was also £16 euro so thought better of it. Have seen before so 🤷🏼‍♀️
    (Most stolen painting in history)

    Went for a walk via Dunkin’ Donuts (having a health day) there selection is 32 donut options. Americas was 6. Poor form USA.

    It would be very easy to die here. The roads are not clear. Be aware at all times. Doesn’t matter where you are standing a car/bike might just appear. They ride in zigzags.

    Had a coffee in a square. Got served what we thought was melted chocolate on the side but was hazelnut liquor crap and we both struggled to swallow the big dollop we both out in our mouths 😆
    It thereafter remained untouched haha.

    Went to graffiti street loooooooooove it. There was a Kermit the frog which was fabulous illusion.
    Just love the colour. So many truly talented people.
    Went to our hotel for a few hours - ordered our marriage certificate, booked tomorrows train, wrote some reviews etc.
    before venturing out again.

    Boring is not the right word but a city you have already done well, can be redone quite quickly haha.

    Went and had some Poke bowls and am now going to demand to have one every city.
    we spent like an hour trying to find a place that does salad and found this one and THE GREATEST.
    It was still really early so Will found us a shisha bar which we walked about 1km through suburbia to get too.
    It was unbelievable that it was only 6:30. You would think 2am. NOBODY on the streets.
    Walked past some house of people eating dinner inside in little flats. Looks very authentic and hipster with their plants and wine. Hahah
    It was a shisha boat. Very habib vibes with the music and black furniture but we had a good time. They had Wi-Fi and we had some Turkish teas. *smacks lips*

    Now back home and I’ve packed for tomorrow. Will will once again do in the morning haha    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Transit

    6 Kasım 2022, Belçika ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    I slept. 🎉 Will did partly but still not great.
    At around 10 we went to get our free breakfast thanks to our bed bugs.
    Checked out around 11:30 after spending some time trying to help Jess cause she was having panic attack cause her flight got delayed so she might not catch the next one. I gave her flight centers emergency 24hr number. She’s rather stressed as the flights aren’t on the same ticket booking.

    On our way. Know our way to the train station despite all the twists and turns cause we’ve been there every bloody day. 😆
    20€ ticket and off we went. Bit of luck 50% trains take an hour 50% take 30mins. We got the quick one woot.
    I just love the county side 😭😭😭
    When we arrived we had a bit of trouble figuring out the trams but we got there. Had to get line one for about 7 stops.
    Immediately recognized where we were when we got out. Our hotel different direction from our hostel but everything was familiar. Keen to properly explore tomorrow. It’s raining today.
    We checked in - check in lady was lovely and went through a map with us then we went up to our room. It’s has very big hostel vibes. A bit run down but cheap.
    We went and got lunch on the street she said was the Resturant street.
    I need to remember to charge my camera battery tonight so I can take some nice pics tomorrow of all the little artistic accents of the city.

    We found an Indian restaurant that looked nice so we went in.
    Food was delicious but service was terrible we were laughing.
    First of all dude saw us come in but did not approach. We grabbed our own menu and picked our own table.
    Still did not approach for 10 mins until suddenly he asks “ready?”
    Yes you clown 😆
    Resturant was empty except for us and his daughter playing English cartoons on her iPad on volume level 100. We could follow along quite easily. They obviously all live upstairs and it sounded like someone hitting the roof with a broom or kids jumping on the bed THUMP THUMP THUMP then some yelling at each other between levels of the house. It was so funny. It was like living in their lounge room. Totally oblivious to having customers.
    Lucky food was nice!! Haha
    Walked back in the rain and having some down time cause it’s cold and wet. Our day tomorrow will be more than enough to get everything done.

    Had an hour nap cause I could NOT hold out. We Shall see how badly I’m affected later at 3am lol    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Brussels

    5 Kasım 2022, Belçika ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    So we slept. But too much. I crashed at 9. Woke up at 12:30am, then 3:30 then suddenly it was 12:30pm. 😪😪😪😪😪😪

    We went for lunch cause I was starving at some grill house and got some streaks with mash potato and mushroom sauce.
    Amazing.
    My big complaint though is they didn’t do free tap water and the iddi biddi baby bottle they gave us was €5.50
    I will forgive cause food was mouthwatering.

    Got waffles on the way home. Shaped like vagina ad penis’ because why not. Will got a mannequin piss one with honey cause he is super adventurous. 🙄 I got a giney with white chocolate and strawberries. The chocolate was saaaaaa good.
    Went back to hotel to grab our stuff and headed to train station.

    Currently on the train and it stopped at a station for 15 mins for no reason which is not good for us. hopefully we make it in time to our tour.

    Tour 5:30. We arrived 5:29 cause we RAN from the station for about 800m

    Tour was terrific. My only disappointment was that it’s the weekend so the factory isn’t operational. I would have loved to see the belts sort all the bottles.
    Still.
    First up we watched a movie about the brewery.
    Apparently it’s 5th generation.
    HOWEVER.
    It was father then son then it wasn’t the daughter, it was the daughters husband who is being counted as 3rd generation. 🤔🤔🤔🤔
    Bud you aren’t related.
    She didn’t get a mention btw. Standard.
    4th generation is legitimate but his face for 3rd gen was a nope for me lol. Should be both their faces if she is the link. Otherwise that’s cheating. 😆

    Then a video about the robots they use to sort because we wouldn’t see them working. Don’t know what they do. Didn’t understand a lot of the tour 🤣🤣
    Just nodded along. Lots of fancy ass processes and terms for the fancy machinery. Sure thing. Great. Hahaha.

    Enjoyed seeing all the boxes and barrels and fermenting cylinders.
    They make 1 million bottles a day.
    It was surprisingly clean.

    They sell under a different name in Argentina because they won’t allow the name “Delirium” as that a disease or something haha.

    Lots of stock as it takes 4 weeks to make one beer.

    After the tour we had sampling of beer. I had a water which the guide was very put out about 😆
    Will got a shirt. Pleased for him. He never gets souvenirs lol.
    An excellent tour for only 12 euro each. Most of the guests (about 10 of us - 3 kids) would have made their money back from the free beers at the end haha.
    It was little awkward at the bar cause everyone else spoke Spanish and we were just standing there like dopes.

    A difficult tour to organize but very glad we went. And have not wasted the entire day 🥴

    Nearly back at central.

    Got pizza and pasta for dinner and ate in the room.
    Off to Ghent in the morning, pleased to see check in is 1:30 instead of 3 or 4.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Angharad DowseWedding and HoneymoonGezgin

    Leuven and Antwerp

    4 Kasım 2022, Belçika ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    Organized a walking tour In Antwerp last night.
    It’s currently 5:20am and we have been awake for 2 hours. Getting pretty over this.
    Extra over for the 2nd night in a row they turn the hot water off during the night so even at 7am couldn’t have a shower.

    7:30 we went downstairs and bought the hotel breakfast vouchers for 9€ each. Pretty reasonable i think for what they offered - pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, muffins, ham, cheese, cucumber, cereal, juice, coffee etc.
    We then dordled back to our room. So exhausted and the day hasn’t started. 😩

    Off to Leuven first. Finding our train was less straight forward this time because there was a few delays so had to really pay attention to what train we were getting on.
    It took about 30 mins to get there.
    Beautiful, every single building.
    I always get the giggles when I look at absolute stunning architecture and it’s being used as a Burger King.
    Some dude was just in his little balcony with a cigarette and a croissant. Very movie like all it needed was a naked lady inside wrapped up in a sheet. Walked to the town hall **
    Amazing. A bomb landed on it in WW2 but as luck would have it didn’t detonate so the building remains. Stunning.
    We went into St Peters church which was nearby which was grand but not pretty. I have high standards now I’ve seen so many. Haha.
    We then went to the main square which was wildly underwhelming as the picture of the square is why we chose to visit Leuven .
    Just crappy day markets everywhere and obvs the trees where all bare so blah. Lots of old lady knickers for sale. And nana nighties.
    And fish. Lots of fish 🤢
    Found a cafe and had a hot chocolate. I turned my seat around because no one else in the cafe was facing each other, they were sitting side by side facing the markets watching so I turned around too lol.
    The whipped cream they add is brilliant. Australia needs to adapt.

    We are now on the train to Antwerp. We are going to skip Mechelen this time I think. It was the bottom of my list anyway.

    Had time to kill so just strolled. Ended up in maccas because not particularly hungry so just got a cheeseburger. Will tummy not great so he used our only coinage to use the toilet there. I was busting for a wee but she refused my 20€ so had to hold and find somewhere else.
    Bought a coke to get some change and then found a toilet.
    What a joke.
    Had to use my CARD to buy a ticket to operate the turnstile barriers to use the loo. 1€
    I’m sure I mentioned last time I do believe this to be a human rights violation. Especially if you are going to get arrested for going in the street. What are the homeless meant to do? €1 to use a bathroom a few times a day is huge. Sorry no food money for you.
    Anyways.
    Walked in and found our meeting point for the tour.
    Lovely square.
    Originally disappointed with who we got as our guide. The other persons English was significantly better but in the end I actually really like her.
    She started with info about the square. Good and bad history, a place for festivities and executions. they have one of their own mannequin pis and lots of guild houses around the square. Only 3 originals remain.

    Next stop was the entrance to the sewer. Said it smells and has rats but is authentic. Said brewing started up when water was diseased. Horse got sick from water so they made an alcohol of some kind to give to the horses. Someone along the way thought it a terrific idea to try the horse drink and now it used for woman with periods as a helper.
    2 dudes next to me physical recoiled at the mention of periods. Very funny to watch their discomfort. Hahah
    She talked about the importance of Antwerp harbour and diamond industry. 80% of rough and 50% of smooth diamonds go through the harbour.
    (Could be other way around)
    We walked to a fort castle thing that was used as a jail. If you were rich you could pay to have the executioner sharpen their sword. The poor had a rough death..

    One guild not in main square - butchers. Built on purpose to try look like bacon 😆
    Built away for sanitation reason.

    Walked down a bit and stood in a walkway
    where 2 small wooden door were which is the last remaining puppet show stall. Very common back in the day, used to complain about politics.

    Walked around a corner and stopped in another area where she pointed to Mary hanging on a corner.

    Talked about legend of boy who shape shifts - best one was he change into a baby so he would be breast fed 😆😆😆
    If you put Mary on your door or corner of street he couldn’t get you. That was the legend version.

    Then talked about the downfall of Antwerp in the 1600 when the Spanish king* made the Protestants (who had all the money and intellect) leave and move north to Amsterdam which started the golden of Amsterdam in the 1700’s.
    Mary on the corners was a symbol for catholic.

    The same spot was were prostitutes use to hang out. They have been moved along recently and are now in the safest building in Antwerp. Has a police station, security like fingerprinting to get into rooms and an on scene nurse and doctor.
    👏🏼👏🏼

    Walk walk walk.
    Showed us a decorative hole in the wall. Originally used to wipe horse poop off your shoes lol.

    Own an alley to the oldest bar.
    Then around the corner to a church and statue of Antwerps famous writer statue whose name I can’t remember haha.

    Inside church was lovely.
    Had a Reuben painting.

    We walked past a rather ordinary building but she mentioned it’s important as it was Europe first skyscraper.
    Saw Neuhaus chocolate house who claims to have invented the Belgian praline.
    She was a skeptic of the story/claim.

    Walk walk walk.
    Another big square with a Ruben statue and another cathedral with one tower because it took to long (400 years) and they ran out of money.

    Talked about Ruben a bit
    He was an outrageous of the day “how do we say ah. Less is not more for Rubens” hahah

    Went down BEAUTIUL Alley that twisted and turned - 10 families (shoemakers) with 8-12 kids each once lived here with one toilet. Fathers could earn more by ringing church bell.
    Would have been the pits.
    Now it is incredible with a real romantic vibe with vines and cobblestone bricks, flower pots etc.

    She showed a fancy doorhole - it has grooves to help find the hole in the dark before electricity

    She then asked to take a pic of us to prove she did the tour lol
    I gave her 20€ - normally they mentiom at the start of the tour that it’s tip based - she didn’t do that and many were either unprepared or unwilling. Some have none some gave some coins.
    It’s a 2 hour tour and she did a good job. Tut tut. give her something.

    She gave us all a coffee flavoured sweet.
    She needs more confidence but did a good job.
    Along the way she showed up some pics from her book and explained some Belgium politics. She said it’s really complicated but it sounded pretty universal.
    Not everyone agrees with each other and certain groups want certain things 🤷🏼‍♀️

    To finish the tour we walked to other size of cathedral.
    There is a Japanese story as famous as cindarella about a boy and dog and Ruben’s paintings that the government added a statue for the Japanese because tourists kept asking where it happened/is.
    Was going to go in cathedral but costly so nope.
    Walked back to station and currently on train.
    Crashing hard.

    Have officially confirmed we did not see what we went to see in Leuven. 😆😆😆😆
    The fly impaled on the needed was a good substitute though haha

    We went Hard Rock Cafe for dinner again. Not hungry but wanted veggies.

    Decided to complain about our bedbug situation - got a new room and breakfast vouchers.

    Crashed.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör

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