France: Running and Walking

Running and walking.  It seems like those two words sum up a great deal of the French leg of my trip.  I've had to run to catch both a plane and a train these last two days.  I rarely run, so I was quite surprised my legs could handle all the running I've done.  Add in a lot of walking at Disneyland - Paris, and over 300 stairs up to Sarah's place, I'm not surprised how tired I am today.

The first time came when I landed in Frankfurt.  I had 50 minutes to clear immigration, security and then get to my next gate.  I ended up having to run from one end of the Frankfurt airport, down two flight of stairs, across the entire airport, up two flight of stairs and then down another hallway to catch my plane to Pairs.  Luckily the crew was late coming in from Oslo, so I made it to the gate before they started bording.

Once in Paris I met Sarah and we travelled on the RER to our hostel in the suburbs of Paris.  We hung out, walked around the neighbourhood, looked through the sales at the market, and ate some deliscious pizza.  Thursday was filled with walking around Disneyland - Paris.  It's quite a bit smaller than the North Americian ones, but they had most of the popular rides there though.  (Our favourite rides were definitely "Buzz Lightyear's Lazer Blaster" and "It's a Small World After All") After a fun filled day at the park, we took the RER to the train station to catch the train to Laon. That's when we had to run again.  We arrived into the RER station at 7:57pm and had to make it to the train station by 8:05pm.  We ran with our lugage down a long halway and up a very large set of stairs and down the platform.  We made it there at 8:06pm.  I thought we had missed it, but luckily we managed to catch the train as they were just about to give the "all clear" and head out.  Since I was running with 25 pounds of luggage, I was definitely out of breath, but we made it!

We didn't have a seat on the train until the first stop, but I was more than happy to collapse on the floor.  I think I even slept a little bit.  It's amazing where you are able to fall asleep when you are exhausted.  Sarah and I enjoyed a snack after snagging some seats and I think we both slept the rest of the way to Laon.

Sarah lives on the third floor of a school on a butte in the middle of Laon, which means there is at least 350 stairs between the train station and her place.  I was proud of us for making it after such a tiring day, but what amazed me were the houses on the side of the butte.  In order to get to the houses in the middle you would have to walk up or down 150 stairs just to get home everyday as there are no roads anywhere near those houses.  Can you imagine hobbling home on crutches, or moving a new couch in?  I would sure hope those homes are cheaper.  Who would want to pay more for that?

Today Sarah is working, and I'm enjoying a relaxing day at her house.  Tonight we hope to go see the Cathedral when it is all lit up this evening.  Tomorrow we head to Saarbruecken to meet Stefan and start our trip to Austria. 

à bientôt!

Andrea

Tasmania

Tasmania is so beautiful!  Mountains (high enough to have snow), lakes, rivers, lots of trees ... any nature nut would love it here.  In fact, their license plate slogan is "TASMANIA - YOUR NATURAL STATE".  I thought this slogan was quite humorous the first time I saw it!

Luke and I have decided to rent a car to go see some of the sights around Hobart these next two days.  Hopefully tomorrow we will see the Huron valley with all of of the trees and scenic lookouts, and Thursday we hope to see some Tasmania Devils and the convict prison at Port Arthur.  Both are going to be super long days, as I'm sure we'll get lot a couple of times and we'll want to see as much as we can.  Hopefully the driving on the left side thing won't confuse us that much! 

I can't believe we've been traveling for 18 days already!  It seems like only yesterday that we were leaving Calgary!  I'm definitely have to plan a trip back to Australia sometime.  We haven't even touched the North or West coasts on this trip!

Well, I'd better get to bed early as we will be picking up the car at 8:30 am tomorrow, and then heading west long the coast.  Oh, two random things before I go:  The river that terminates in Hobart is the Derwent River (same name as Dad's hometown), and we hope to see the Cadbury Chocolate Factory on Friday before we leave!

Love you all,
Andrea

Highlights from my weekend in Sydney

There have been 5 highlights from the last 3 days.  In chronological order they are:

 

1. The new batman movie "The Dark Knight" on Imax: the screen made me dizzy, and made the gross parts really gruesome, but  it was a great movie!

 

2. Missa Solemnis: This is a mass written by Beethoven, and is supposedly his favourite.  I can see why!  The brass and double bass parts were awesome, and it was so cool to have 4 bassoons and a contra bassoon!  It was so exciting to see a performance at the Sydney Opera House!  I could go on about the acoustics and aesthetics forever, so it f you want details on this later just ask!

 

3. Bondi Beach: home of the first lifeguards, as well as a very beautiful beach and trendy suburb of Sydney.  The ocean was almost glacial lake cold, so we didn't go swimming.  But, it was hilarious to see the crazy tourists who did!

 

4. Closing Mass: there were 500 000 people there!  The crowds were unbelievable!  It was cool to attend a traditional mass with the Pope.  It was so traditional it included Gregorian chants and "Our Father" in Latin. But what was really exciting was being next to a huge group of Spaniards when the Pope announced WYD 2011 will be in Madrid, Spain.  They went nuts!

 

5. Hillsong Church Service:  from traditional church service to rock/punk service all in one day...  quite the opposites!  It was really cool to attend a famous church of that size and upbeat nature.

 

It's been so much fun here in Sydney.  Now we are off to Tasmania, where it will be cold (1 or 2 degrees) and not crowded at all.  I'm looking forward to the later and not the former!

 

Love,

Andrea