Day 68 - Paris to Zermatt

Got up at 7, determined to make the 8:40 train from Paris to Geneva and then from there to see the Matterhorn. It was a spur of the moment decision to go, but i really have nothing but time and have wanted to go to Zermatt ever since i saw Matt (Moore) and Geoff's (Matthews) pics from their trip a couple years ago. At the time i thought it looked like one fo the nicest places ever and had to go see for myself while have the chance. Would be a long, long ride there, but i was hoping worth it.

I was an idot though and hadn't packed so it took awhile to get moving, woke up everybody in my hostel dorm room banging around in the dark, and for the 3rd day in a row didn't get a chance to shower. Class act. I finally got on the road and rushed out to the subway station and then under the city to the Lyons station.

I got there with time to spare, only to see utter madness inside the station. . Just happend that my big travel day decided to coincide witha one day train strike by the lazy French.

Awesome!

Luckily though not all trains were stopped, but only about 1 in 5 regular trains were running, meaning I couldn't get out of Paris until 10:30. So that whole getting up early, rushing out the door thing was for nothing. I'm sure the people in my room would be happy to hear that. And with the way my body felt after last nights festivities, a couple more hours of sleep could have done me a world of good.

So with two hours to kill i went off in search of breakie and eventually found a place to have a coffee and omelette at a somwhat reasonable price.

Two hours later i was tucked in my seat on the train and off for the land of tunnel cheese!

The ride was great. Really nice train and some of the most amazing views, especially as we got closer and closer to Switzerland.

Day 67 - Dublin to Paris

Got up at 6:30, finished packing headed off for this spot near the Spire where the airport shuttle apparently leaves from. Picked up a local Irish delicacy for breakfast, then made it to the spot just in time for the bus. Ride was just under an hour, then checked in for the flight where they charged me 28 Euro extra because i was 4 kg over the 15 kg 'Ryan Air Limit'. Bastards. Then had to sit around for 3 hours for the flight because it was almost an hour late leaving.

The flight was fine. Went up, came down an hour and a bit later, and lost an hour because of time zones. So by the time we landed back at the Beauvais Airport it was almost 2 local time.

Waiting for my luggage i met this kig, Elliot from Ottawa who's only 18 and is taking a year off before going to university. We rode the bus from Beauvais to Paris together, than took the subway together back to the Aloha hostel.

By the time we got to the hostel it was almost 4. Soon as we walked in i ran into Mike (the guy we met originally in Vienna adn then again in Paris the night before we left for Ireland). He'd been there since we left and was leaving the next day for Belgium.

I dropped my stuff off in my room, cleaned up abit, then the 3 of us hit the grocery store to get some cheap beer for the night. On teh way back we hit 'Old Faithful', the same Chineese place that me and Rob had eaten at so many times before. Mike and Elliot were very surprised with the big hello and hand shake that i got from the two owners when we walked in....haha.

We brought the food back to the hostel, ate, then headed to the upstairs common room/movie room. We hung out there for the rest of the night talking, playing cards and telling stories. The three of us ended up being joined by two 20 year old girls who were quite the amusing pair (Edmonton and Melbourne) as well as a very annoying kid from PEI adn later in teh night by a very, very drunk Aussie girl who didn't seem willing to give us the time of day earlier, but was now all of a sudden loving us in her drunken haze. We all got pretty wired up together and all crawled upstairs to bed at some point when the beer was gone. Elliot was especially done in by trying to keep up with Mike and me. The poor kid was in a world of hurt and had he not got so drunk could have had either of the two 20 year old we were with all night....haha. Stupid kid.

Day 66 - Limerick to Dublin (again)

Got up at 10 and rushed to dress, make sure i had all my stuff, siad goodbye to Rob, and then caught a cab to the train station.

ON MY OWN!!!

THANK GOD!

(just kidding of course)

I was actually pretty sad leaving Rob behind. I was really hoping he´d change his mind last minute and change his flight and come with me.

So i got to the statioon and hopped on the 11:30 train to Dublin. That first train ride was really weird being alone for the first time in almost 8 weeks. I got to Dublin around 2:30, then jumped on a city bus to Temple Bar and then walked to Temple Lane where i was staying at Barnacle´s hostel. Pretty sweet hostel. Very nice and clean, big enough rooms and beds, and a huge kitchen area for cooking your own meals. I threw my stuff on my bed, chatted abit with the two girls in my room (from South Africa and Italia) and made plans to meet the South African girl, Lindsey, for a pint at 8ish. Then i headed off to wander on my own.

I wandered around the Temple Bar area and south of there for a couple hours, stopping to do some shopping and buy some presents and souvenirs and then bought some pasta and sauce at a market on the way back to the hostel.

When i got back i decided to go for a quick stroll north of the river and found a place that would cut my hair for €6. I just told the guy ´short´and next thing you know he pulled the clippers out and did a stroke through my hair. Apparently ´short´means pretty much bald in Ireland. So me and my crewcut wandered abit more then back to the hostel, showered, cooked, and ate.

I met Lindsey at 8 and we went for a walk looking for a pub (not hard in this area). We ended up wandering in a big loop for 30 minutes and ended up right back where we started, right next to our hostel at a pub called The Temple Bar (in Temple Bar....confusing). Lindsey turned out to be yet another med student, studying in Johanesburg and is in Ireland during the African Summer Break (December through March) to work and live in a new country for the sheer experience. She´d landed a job in a coffee shop and for a cateror part time.

We had a couple pints of Guiness each and chatted about our countries and compared how different they are. Very, very different. When she asked me after our first pint if i wanted another, i responded ´Does a bear shit in the woods? ´, to which she responded, ´I don´t know. We only have regular animals back home like lions, elephants, and rhinos.´.

Case in point.

An Irish band started playing during our second pint, so we watched them for awhile, then called it a night early (11ish) and both went to bed as she had to be at the coffeeshop at 6, and i had to leave the hostel by 7ish.

Day 65 - Limerick

Got up around 10 and then we sat around waiting for Dave to come home from Maureen´s. He´d reserved a car for us so we could drive up the coast to see the cliffs and go to Galway. We gave him a call around 11 and he said he´d be back by 12:30.

12:30 went by.

1:30 went by.

2:30; Dave shows up.

Was a bit annoying because i was excited to get out into the country and see a bunch, but with him coming back so late and with it getting dark so early, we wouldn´t get a chance to see much. Can´t complain though, he has been really awesome to us and let me stay for free basically for 4 nights, so no big deal. Another place i´ll just have to come back to.

So we got going by about 3 adn set off for the Cliffs of Moher. The drive was pretty awesome through the green of Ireland. I love how they leave old stone structures standing in the middle of fields. Some of them look awesome. Especially the ones where there´s only a wall or two left with the old window holes still there. The roads were soooo narrow. I don´t think i´ve ever seen anything narrower and whinedier (is that real word?).

We got to the cliffs of Moher, parked and then wlaked the path up along a field to the edge of a cliff. We could see down the coast at a bunch of other cliffs. It was gorgeous. By the time we got there it was 4, so the sun was pretty low in the sky, making for some awesome pictures. the cliffs were huge; they must be at least 150 feet. I´m guessing they could see me waving all the way from Newfoundland. From there we drove south down the coast which was pretty nice too, and then back to Limerick.

At 8:30 we went out to a steak house where i had my first steak in over 2 month. It was awesome. We got back to Dave´s around 10:30 and he headed to bed because he had to work early Monday and me and Rob stayed up for a bit and had a couple beer. It was our last night together so we hung out for a bit, remembered some of the thing that´ve happened to us together over the past few weeks, then went to bed ourselves.

It has definately been good.

We´ve had some amazing times together, seen and done some crazy things. Its so weird that we´ve both been looking forward to this tirp for so long and just like that its done. Its gonna be weird for the next couple weeks to not have Rob there for everything, especially on trains and hostels (who´m i supposed to snuggle with a night now!?). thing just won´t be the same. I know it´ll be fine travelling on my own, but half the fun has been having a good friend to share it with and he has definately been that....tear, tear.

Day 64 - Dublin to Limerick

Took us awhile to get moving this morning after the debauchery of the night before. Woke up to the smell of half eaten chicken chow-mein mixed in with the wonderful smell of Rob´s shoes and Dave (he just stunk period).

When we finally did get moving we caught a cab down to the Guiness brewery. The whole operation is actually absolutely huge and Guiness property and warehouses and stuff stretch along a huge portion of the river and through alot of the downtown area.

There was a pretty big line to get in (seeing as it was Saturday and the Guiness brewery is ´the only place worth visiting in Dublin´) and about half an hour later we got in. It wasn´t really a ´brewery tour, more like a museum. Pretty much teh same as the Heineken museum, but for Guiness. Had all the history of how Arthur Guiness switched from brewing an ale to a porter and how he roasted his hops to get the black colour of Guiness. Then there was a bunch of stuff about how Guiness used to be shipped, about how they brewed it and brew it now, and a whole floor dedicated to the famous Guiness posters and slogans. The whole museum was in the old brew house and started on the ground floor and we kept going up from floor to floor until eventually we were up on the top floor where they have a big circular bar on the roof with a 360 degree view of Dublin called the Gravity Bar. When we got up there we got a pint of Guiness (i asked if they had anything Canadian on tap and only got a stare....sense of humour = negative). They pour it in a pattern so that when they top it up there´s an outline of a shamrock in the head (foam). Pretty cool. I have to say that i´m definately more of a Guiness fan leaving Dublin than i was coming in.

Of course on the way out of the museum you have to walk through the store where i bought more stuff than i have room for in my bag. They must make sooooo much money there. After the museum we walked around for a bit and Dave took us for a walk through the Trinity College campus (where he did his med school). Pretty nice campus.

We got back to the train station in time to catch the 3:30 train to Limerick beacuse Dave had to get back for a hospital ball at 7. All we´d had to eat all day was a pint of Guiness so we grabbed a few €5 sandwiches and bottles of Coke at the station.

We got back to Limerick and cabbed back to Dave´s place by just after six. Dave hurried to get ready and Maureen came by with Dave´s tuxedo and brought me and Rob her DVD player so that we could rent some movies. We hung out with Max for awhile while he waited for Dave to get ready.

Dave has got to be the slowest person i´ve ever met (maybe even slower than Oreo). Dave, on several occasions over the course of the weekend, would say 30 minutes and be ready or show up an hour and a half later.

After they finally left, me and Rob walked to the mall and hit the Tesco (grocery store) for some dinner food adn then rented a couple movies (Ring 2 adn Soldiers and Saints). We got back to Dave´s cooked some pasta for dinner, then just watched some movies and went to bed.

Day 63 - Limerick to Dublin

We got up around 11 with both Millman boys looking pretty rough. Well...they´re both pretty ugly to start with...but they managed to look even worse come the morning.

We got up, cleaned up, showered, then headed for the train station to catch a train to Dublin. We got on the 12:30 train and then switched trains at Limerick Junction and got to Dublin around 2:30. We jumped in a cab and went to our hotel, dropped off our bags, and then went to ´Rocket Eddy´s´for a burger and fries.

From there we rolled north for about 40 minutes to Temple Bar. ´Temple Bar´isn´t actually a bar, its an area of town, on the south side of the river where there are a ton of old old pubs and stores with the streets pretty much all cobblestone.

So we sat down and had our first pint of Guiness and watched some crickett (Australia/West Indies) and after our pint switched to a different pub, had another pint of the ´black gold´, then to yet another pub where we this time stayed for a few pints and watched a small group playing Irish tunes for awhile. Form there we hit a couple more pubs, but none of the 3 of us much remember much about those.

We´re not 100% sure how we got home or when, but i know i got Chineese food from the place around the corner and we also know that Dave passed out hard, fully clothed, and then snored his ass off.

Day 62 - Paris to Limerick

We got up at 8 and rushed to get dressed, packed, and get to the bus station to catch our shuttle to the Beauvais airport where our Ryan Air flight was leaving for Shannon, Ireland. Our flight was only €19 each ($30 Canadian about) including tax, but the pain in the ass thing about Ryan Air is that although they´re very cheap, they always fly out of very remote airports that usually cost you as much to get to as the actual flight cost.

We took the Metro out to where we were told the airport shuttles left from and once we got there were absolutely lost. We met up with a girl from Calgary looking for the same mysterious ´parking lot across from the mall´where the bus was supposed to leave from for Beauvais. We finally found a parking lot, full of people with bags adn suitcases, looking just as confused as us. There were about 150 people and only one bus and we thought we were screwed for getting to the airport, but soon enough a few more buses showed up and about an hour after getting off the subway, we finally made it onto a bus for the hour bud ride to the station.

After getting to the airport and a quick bite to eat at the smallest airport we´ve seen yet in Europe (think Timmins here people...) we jumped on the plane and were airborn towards the green island by just after 2 o´clock (30 minutes ahead of the scheduled departure time). We had a beer on the plane to help calm the nervous flyer between the two of us down and we landed in Shannon (just north of Limerick) at 2:30 (but really a 1.5 hour flight) local time adn then sat around for almost an hour waiting for the bus to take us to Limerick. the bus finally showed up just before 4 adn we got to Limerick just before 5. Rob´s brother Dave was waiting for us at the station.

Rob´s brother has been in Ireland for a few years studying medicine. He did med school at Trinity College in Dublin and is now doing his residency in Limerick.

So we took a cab to his place that he shares with two other med interns, we showered, dropped off our stuff, adn then went to a place called Luigi Malone´s (we magaged to polish off all of Dave´s beer somehow too before leaving).

Luigi Malone´s was definately the fanciest place we´ve been in on this trip and without Dave we had zero business being there at all. It was a sweet place. Me and Rob kinda felt like everyone in the place stopped talking and eating to stare at us as we came in. No. Everybody DID stop talking and eating to stare at us as we came in. I´m sure we were there first backpackers of 2005. We met up with Dave´s girlfriend, Maureen, and a few of her friends, a couple other random people, and one of Dave´s housemates, Max, from Edmonton (also doing meds in Limerick). We had a bunch of beer, wings, and then a big, and very good meal. The whole thing was awesome. And the bill definately reflected that. Huge. But thank god for us, Dave treated us. Very, very nice of him. Awesome guy.

Form there we went to Nancy ´Something´s bar where we had a few rounds, but not many because last call was called at midnight. Apparently all the pubs in Limerick close at midnight becuase otherwise there are too many fights that break out. The Irish apparently don´t manage their booze well. You can still, though, go to clubs after the pubs close, so we went to a place pretty much right across the road with a €7 cover charge then we hung out there for a couple hours. Rob went home with Max at about 1:30 and i stayed with Dave till about 2:30, then home to bed.

Day 61 - Paris

Last day in Paris.

We´ve been here since last Monday, so 10 days now. Awesome city. Tons to see and do and great atmosphere. I think i´ve also enjoyed it because i can actually talk to the locals here. Being able to communicate helps alot for sure and makes everything alot easier. Even just being here for a week and a half my French has gotten alot better than when we first arrived. Been speaking French quit abit, especially when we were with Gabrielle and Laticia who i only talk to en Francais.

Anyways.

We got up at 9 and headed on the Metro to the French Science Center (Cite des Sciences). We´d pretty much done everything in Paris we wanted to and we´d saw signs for this huge Star Wars exposition at the Cite des Science, so we thought´d nerd it up and head there for a few hours to check it out.

We got to the center around 10:30 and paid for the Star Wars Expo which also gave us access to the rest of the exhibits in the science center. The Star Wars stuff was pretty cool. The exhibit had a whole bunch of the costumes, models, and sets from the 6 movies. There was alot of ´behind the scenes´type stuff where they explained how they did different parts of the movies and explained some of the science (possible or not possible) behind different parts of the movie. It was good.

We spent about an hour and a half going through the Star Wars stuff and then another hour or so going through the rest of the center which really wasn´t that good. From there we jumped back on the Metro and headed to Sacre Coeur, a big church (yup...yet another church) up on a hill looking down over the city and probably has a whole history and significance that i don´t know.

So we got there around 2, go hassled by the Africans looking to sell you anything they can think of, went through the church adn the crypt underneath, then climbed up to the viewing platform in one of the towers. The view from the top was pretty good, but definately not as good as from the Arc de Triomphe. From there we had a quick cappuccino while my pics got burnt to cd at the store next door.

We took the subway back to the hostel and hung out and showered and stuff. We met up with a bunch of older Aussie boys and this guy from London, ON who we´d met back in Vienna at Wombat´s. So we got a bunch of beer from the corner store and spent the rest of the night hanging out and watching Road Trip (again) and Austin Powers, laughing our asses off.

Day 60 - Paris

Slept through our alarm abit and didn´t get up and moving till almost 10:30. When we finally did get moving, we hit a bakery for a ham&cheese sandwich on a baguette as well as a chocolate mini-baguette, then jumped on the Metro and headed for the RER line that goes to Versailles. Luckily we found out that the RER is covered by our Eurail passes so we got the hour ride to Versailles for free.

We got to Versaille around 12:30 and headed straight for the castle. It was only about a five minute walk from the station and when we rounded the corner and faced the castle we were blown away by how huge it was. It was way bigger than the castles we visited in Stuttgart and Vienna.

We walked up to the front entrace of the castle, then roamed around to the back to the gardens. They were incredible. Going straight back from the castle where was a long long major path with huge fountains and a big long rectangular pond further down. Off to either side of the main path there were tons of small paths weaving through hedges and a small forest.

We spent about 2 hours just wandering around the gardens, sat down in a little hidden alcove type thing with a water fountain for awhile and then through King Louis XIV´s private section of the garden. It was pretty insane how huge and well manichured the whole thing was.

From there we went into the castle and took a tour through the royal apartments. They were REALLY nice. Everything was incredible from the frescoes on every single ceiling to the famous paintings and the highly detailed furniture, walls, framets, etc. Definately felt like you would expect a royal palace would. I couldn´t imagine living in there...no t.v. anywhere.

After the tour we went back towards the station, bought a few souvenirs, then took the train back to Paris and went straight back to the hostel to shower and relax for awhile.

At 6:30ish we went back to the same old Chineese place for one last meal then went to Gabrielle and Laticia´s place. We stayed there for about 2 and a half hours playing cards and me and each each burnt the pics from our digital camera. Back to the hostel afterwards, movie, then bed.

Day 59 - Paris

We got up midmorning and tried to figure out what to do for the day. Everything seems to be closed in Paris on Mondays so our options were limited. We wanted to go to Versailles, but again, closed, so we decided we´d do that tomorrow and spedn the day walking around Paris, exploring some new areas.

We finally got our asses out of the hostel by noonish, hit a couple bakeries and a coffeeshop, then headed toward the Seine. We headed up past the Notre-Dame Cathedral adn then north to the Picasso Museum. We´d heard from someone in Normandy that it was pretty good, so we paid and spent a little over an hour checking out the museum.

The whole thing was filled with nothing but Pablo´s work, most of which were his sketches and doodles of his famous complete works. It was pretty interesting to see how his sketches evolved from one to next, and then finally into a final product. But wow....was he ever one messed up dude. Definately a gear or two not turning somewhere, but obviously people love it, or there wouldn´t be a museum dedicated to just his work.

Aftewards we did some shopping on le Champs-Elysees and walked around the Arc de Triomphe, then back south across the Seine, under the Eiffel Tower (we´ve been under it so many times that the novelty has pretty much worn off...its just the way to go now), then back to our hostel, grabbing some snacks and Chineese food (from the same place as always) along the way.

We were both exhausted after walking for 7 hours straight, so we just spent the rest of the night in the hostel relaxing and watching movies again.

Day 58 - Paris

We got up very late. We were all so tired after our full day Saturday that all 4 of us slept till noon. We finally got up, had breakfast, and sat around for awhile. I took a walk down the block to make sure there was room for us that night at the Aloha Hostel (turns out there was) adn then i went back, we grabbed our bags, thanked Gabrielle and Laticia for their hospitality, and then headed for to the hostel.

The rest of the day was one of our most uneventful yet, but great. We both spent the day catching up in our journals, i updated my blog, we each read our books for awhile, and napped abit too. Very nice, relaxing day.

We hit the grocery store and made pasta in the downstairs kitchen for dinner and then watched a couple movies (Something about Mary and Road Trip) in the hostel with a bunch of other people staying here and then to bed by 1ish.

Day 57 - Paris

Gabrielle and Laticia got us up at 8:30ish and we had croissants, coffee, and toast for breakie adn then we took off for the Paris Opera House up north of the Seine River. We decided to walk up there and enjoy Paris so we headed north and under the Eiffel Tower; it was cool because you couldn´t even see the top of it because clouds were so low (it was drizzling out). Then we crossed the Seine adn walked through a food market with all kinds of fresh seafood, breads, cheese, and poultry (they had full partridge type birds for sale, wings, feet, heads and all; weird).

By the time we actually made it up to the opera house it was almost 12:30 and Laticia jumped on the Metro home from there because she had to do some homework. So the 3 of us guys skipped out on the opera house and went to a strip joint instead.

Kidding...we went to the opera house...have the pics to prove it. It was a pretty cool place all done up in marble with gold chandeliers everywhere. There was a very impressive stairwell with all kinds of statues around and awesome big balconies looking down over the stairwell and then a huge hallway in the upstairs part that looked fit for royalty (i´m a royalty expert now after several royal palaces by the way...). We also got to go into one of the boxes and see the opera hall itself which was alot smaller than i would´ve thought, but very elegant and fancy none-the-less.

After looking around for about an hour, Gabrielle left us to go do some work himself and me and Rob stopped at a placed called the American Dream for lunch which was expensive and ended up being terrible.

From there we took the Metro south and got off at the station nearest to Les Invalides, home to Napolean´s tomb. We went into Les Invalides and did a tour of the cathedral with Napolean´s tomb (over 5m or 15 feet high by 4m or 12 feet wide) and then did a tour of the French World War II museum also located in Les Invalides.

It was pretty interesting to compare the French, Belgian, Canadian, and German views of WW2 after having been in museums in all 4 places. It was particularly interesting to see how the French concentrated more on the French rebels than the fact that their government basically rolled over to Hitler and fled Paris although they had one of the largest armies in the world at the time. It was pretty crazy to see the pictures of Hitler in Paris, particularly the one in front of the Eiffel Tower.

We got back to Gabrielle and Laticia´s by 5:30 and we clead up and then left their place at 7 for a creperie around the corner from their place. I had crepes with sausage and eggs then crepes with strawberries for dessert and then headed for the Metro. Gabrielle and Laticia treated us to the dinner...very nice (Thank you again!).

The metro to the Stade de France took about 35 minutes and we hurried to get in the stadium for the start of the game; me and Rob bought ´Aller France!´ scarves along the way with the French rooster on it. We got in just in time to see the teams come out on the field.

The stadium was HUGE. It was amazing. Its the stadium that Paris built for the ´98 World Cup and it sits almost 90 thousand people. We were in the upper deck but were still surprisingly close to the field. It was pretty awesome being there, cheering ´Allez les Blues!´ (Go Blue!) with all the other French fans.

I do have to give it to the Germans though. The two or three sections of fans that they had consistently made more noies than the French and seemed much crazier. I wanted to go over and sit with them...haha. We even recognized a bunch of the songs from Oktoberfest and at Christian´s in Stuttgart!

The game itself wasn´t all that exciting of a game. Both teams were very cautious and you tell that they aren´t used to playing with each other just yet after being with their club teams all season. Plus, they weren´t wearing skates on ice, with sticks and a puck..... The game finished in a 0-0 tie which sucked. Woulda been good to have seen at least one goal.

The most exciting thing that did happen was a huge brawl in the first level stands right underneath us, behind the French net. It looked like a big group of German fans left their section (all young kids ; teenagers and early 20s) and all of a sudden a whole section was just going at it, fists and feet flying for a solid 5 minutes; it was nuts. The security couldn´t calm them down for a long long time and then eventually kicked out the whole lot of them.

After the game we went back to Gabrielle and Laticia´s place and crashed out. Great, great time at the game and a full, full day of stuff.

Day 56 - Caen / Courseulles

*** Remembrance Day ***

We got up at 7 and rushed to get our stuff packed, clean up the rooms abit after last night, stick our bags into a spare room, and get to the bus station for 8am to catch the bus to Courseulles-sur-Mer where Juno beach is. We got to the station with lots of time to spare so that we didn´t miss the bus like the train yesterday.

We didn´t miss it.

Instead it just didn´t come.

We didn´t realize that November 11th is a national holiday in France marking the end of the 1st World War, rather than as a day of remembrance for the two World Wars like in Canada. So nothing was open at all adn the buses were all running on Sunday schedules which meant that the first bus to Courseulles-sur-Mer wasn´t leaving until 11:30am and the only ones coming back were at 4:30 or 7, but our train back to Paris was at 7, so we´d have to take the earlier one. so we sat around for 3 hours, had a coffee, and checked with the tourism office to make sure the schedule for today was what we thought it was (we´d been there the day before but they failed to inform us of the holiday....thanks...very helpful....idiots). The lady told me that the bud didn´t stop at the regular place at 11:30, so we went where she told me to go, but when i asked at the coffeeshops around where she said it would be they all told me that no buses stop there.

Great! For sure we´d just wasted 2 days to go to Juno Beach and then not actually get to go out there.

Luckily, Fate decided to side with us this time and the bus did actually show up where the lady said it would be. One the bus we met 3 other people our age from BC and one other from Montreal, all of a sudden making us a group of 9 Canadians.

We got to our bus stop (Champs-des-Oiseaux) at about 12:15 and got to Juno Beach about 15 minutes later. The Juno Beach Center was closed from 1-2, so we spent the next hour and a half walking around Juno Beach Park each on our own trying to imagine what had happened right there on that beach 61 years ago. It was pretty moving. The beach still had a few bunkers and pillboxes left over from D-Day and there were a bunch of plaques and monuments at different places telling stories of what happened there on June 6th, 1944. It was so hard to begin to imagine the horror of what that day must have been like, but made me definately proud to be Canadian and thankful that myself and my generation will likely never have to live through a time like that.

At 2 o´clock we all went up to the Center and did a one hour tour of the museum. The museum was really well done adn was made for the Canadian veterans under their supervision and took us through the whole history of Canada in WW2. They had these special pull-outs with the stories of each of the Victoria Cross recipients and i found and read the story behind why Aubrey Cousens from Porquis Junction (basically Iroquois Falls) earned his Victoria Cross.

At 3 o´clock we went outside for the Remembrance Day ceremony put on by the Juno Beach Center near the beach. There were probably about 150 people there for the 45 minute ceremony. There were no Canadian veterans there, but they had half a dozen French veterans carry the colours and different people from the Courseulles community placed wreathes around the statue outside the center. They had a grade school class from a local public school sing both national anthems and a young girl recited Flanders Fields. The center always has 3 Canadian university students working at the Center and they each said a short speech in both French and English about what being Canadian means to them. The most kind´ve ´special´part was during the two minutes of silence. Here we were, on Juno Beach, observing the two minutes of silence with the waves crashing onto the beach less than 100 meters away. Very moving.

After the ceremony we stayed around for another 30 minutes or so and then hurried to catch our bus back to Caen where we picked up our bags at the hotel, caught a quick bite to eat, and then caught our train back to Paris at 7:30.

We said goodbye to Aaron and the girls when we got back to Paris and met up with Gabrielle and Laticia who were waiting for us back at the station. Gabrielle is a friend of Rob´s girlfriend, Marissa, from back when she did an exchange to France in high school and then last summer Gabrielle and Laticia spent the summer at Marissa´s parents place while Laticia worked at Marissa´s father´s company (or something like that anyways). So anyways, Rob had been in touch with them and they invited us to spend Friday and Saturday night at their place. They were even awesome enough to get us tickets to the international football (soccer) match between France and Germany at the Stade de France in Paris Saturday night.

So we met up with them and then took the bus back to their place. They live in a small one room apartment. Definately not a Canadian apartment. The place is about 12 feet by 15 with a small washroom. They have a raised bed in one corner with a desk underneath, a small kitchen on one side of the room, and a futon next to the desk with a small coffee table and a small tv and stand. Us being there definately was invading their space, so very nice of them to have us at their place.

They´re both French and speak descent English, but get along much better in French, so i got lots and lots of practice with my Francais. When we got in and settled Gabrielle was showing me on a map where we were in Paris and when i started to figure out where we were i asked him if there was a Chineese place around the corner. Turns out there is. Turns out we were less than a block from the Aloha hostel and 100 feet from the Chineese place where we ate two nights in a row before going to Caen. Since we took the bus there though instead of the Metro, we didn´t recognize where we were. Crazy that in all of Paris they just happen to live in the same neighborhood that we´ve been the whole time in Paris.

We sat up talking for awhile then went to bed around 1am. Me and Rob shared the futon and slept together for the 2nd night in a row. He´s getting used to my snuggling and doesn´t fight back (as much) anymore...which is nice.

Day 55 - Paris to Caen (Normandy)

We got up early, early and met Aaron downstairs in the hostel lobby at 7:30 and the two Quebec girls arrived 10 minutes later from the 3 Ducks. We walked to the nearest Metro stop (Volontaires) and then headed to the Saint-Lazare metro station to catch our train at 8:40.

By the time we got there and the 3 of them got their tickets we were just on time to watch the train pull away and the conductor wave at me (i gave him a good old Canuck salute right back). No big deal though because our schedule said there was another one at 9.

Our schedule was wrong.

We got up early, missed our train, and now we were stuck at the station till 11:30. So we sat around, read, and chatted, then caught the 11:30 to Caen.

Caen is a town in the province of Normandy about the size of Kingston (120 thousand) and was once the home to William the Conqueror and was totally destroyed during WW2 adn was one of the first towns liberated by the Allies after D-Day. Its about a 30 minute ride from Courseulles and Juno Beach where the Canadians landed on D-Day and now home to the Juno Beach Center, dedicated to Canadian war veterans.

We got to Caen around 1:30, got directions to the Central Hotel, and then hoofed the 25 minute walk to the hotel with all our gear. We´d booked 2 rooms; one with a double for the girls and one with a double and a single for the boys. We dumped our shit off in our rooms and Rob stayed back to rest and the 4 of us headed up to the big castle in the middle of town that was built almost 1000 years ago and once home to William the Conqueror. We wandered around the castle adn up on the old walls. Some of the stone steps were so old that they were indented from all the people having stepped on them. It was pretty cool. We hung out there for a couple hours, then wandered through town and ended up at something called Les Abbeyes des Hommes. Not sure what it was, but it had a great looking garden out front with a bunch of flags and the building itself was very nice.

We wandered back to the hotel afterwards and grabbed some food and beer at the grocery store around the corner. Then we just spent the rest of the night eating, drinking beer, and playing cards (ran the Gauntlet ALL night long) and hung out.

Day 54 - Paris

Somehow i slept through my alarm (i know, i know, very shocking for anyone who knows me well), but we eventually got moving and headed off to the Louvre (in the rain unfortunately). The alk took at least an hour, but again, even in the rain, Paris is gorgeous and a great city to walk around.

We finally made it to the Louvre around 11ish and headed into the big glass pyramid and down the spiral staircase. We dropped of our coats and bags then headed straight for the Mona Lisa. To get there we had to walk down the huge Italian painters hallway lined with more famous paintings than either of us could even come close to understanding and then eventually found the heavily guarded room with Mona Lisa hanging on the wall behind thick glass. The room was, of course, packed, but it was way easier to see it and get close to it than i´d imagined. I´d also heard about how small it was, but to me it was pretty much exactly what i´d expected.

Other than seeing the Mona Lisa, there wasn´t really anything that i was excited to see and i can´t say that i even recognized anything else for the rest of the day. We spent the next 3 hours basically wandering aimlessly through Italian and French paintings, through the Egyptian collection and then through the huge sculpture collection. I probably enjoyed the sculptures more than anything. We got split up somehow in the sculptures and couldn´t find each other at all, but eventually luckily ran into each other at the museum exit adn from there took off west along the Champs-Elysees through les Jardins des Tuleries, towards the Arc de Triomphe.

The walk was WAY longer than it looked on the map. We stopped along the way and each had a ham and cheese crepe (maybe the grossest thing i´ve ever had) and then continued on checking out the awesome shops along the way (where we could never afford a thing other than maybe a pair of socks...and mismatched at that).

We got the Arc about an hour before sunset and went up and through the small museum dedicated to Napolean´s army and then up to the viewing platform. The view was pretty incredible, especially with the sun going down and the great view of the Eiffel Tower. We took some pics and got a great pic of us with the Eiffel Tower in the background (TRAVEL TIP: if you want amazing pictures of yourself, ask an Asian tourist...they´re good).

By the time we walked back to the hostel from the Arc it was almost 7 and we both cleaned up, grabbed some Chineese from the same place (2nd night in a row) and watched part of the movie Traffic on the big screen plasma TV in our hostel and booked a place in Caen for Thursday night. Then i headed with Aaron for a beer at the 3 Ducks and to let the Sherbrooke girls know where and when to meet us in the morning so we could all go to Normandy together, then to bed early.

Day 53 - Paris

We were originally planning on taking a bike tour around Paris with the same company that we went with in Berlin (Fat Tire Bike Tours), but we decided instead that our time would be better spend going into places rather than biking by them because Paris, arguably of course, has better indoor things to see and less actual ´sights´than Berlin does. Anyways, we didn´t do the bike tour.

Since we were moving hostels we decided to get that out of the way early and walked over to Aloha, then back to the 3 Ducks and met up with the girls from Sherbrooke and headed off for the Paris catacombs. Tooks us about an hour to get there, but the walk was great because Paris is such a pretty city and the weather was so great all day. We walked through an old old cemetary on the way and say the grave of some dead French writer that Andrea really likes adn then found the entrance to the catacombs, which was totally unassuming considering there are the bodies of millions of dead Parisians down in them.

The catacombs in Paris are in an old underground rock quarry that were converted to an underground tomb in the late 1700s because of disease spreading throughout Paris because of the overflowing cemetaries. So basically they exhumed millions of bodies and then under the supervision of priests brought them into these underground tunnels and stacked them all up.

So we paid and then descended th 20m underground and walked through the 1.6 kms of tunnels. It was a bit creepy, dark, and very moist down there, and, oh yeah, there were human skulls and bones stacked everywhere. It was pretty mind blowing to see so many bones everywhere, neatly stacked, in these long underground tunnels. The bones you could see were mostly femurs or large arm bones and skulls and they were stacked 3 to 5 feet high and 5 to 10 feet deep in most places. It was all pretty weird but cool. Must be alot of ghosts down there. It took us about an hour to go through the stretch of tunnels and then came up in a completely different neighborhood seeing as we´d gone a mile underground.

So we got our bearings, then hit a grocery store for a small lunch and found a park to eat in not far from the catacomb entrance. Again, i couldn´t resist and had to feed the pigeons which pissed Andrea off cause she´s terrified of them, and even worse so, so ended up getting shit on because of me....haha.

From there we headed in the direction of the Cathedral to Notre-Dame just after 4 and went into the church in search of Quosi Modo, but to no avail. The church itself was pretty good, maybe a bit of a disappointment as far as the popularity and legend of Notre-Dame, but then again, every church has been a bit of a disappointment after St. Peter´s Basillica, although i hear the one in London is bigger, so i´ll have to check it out.

We left the church and wanted to go up to the top, but they let the last group of the day up 20 seconds before we got there so couldn´t. So form there we walked down the Seine River, watched some trick rollerbladers for awhile, and then stumbled onto the Great Canadian Pub on the bands of the Seine, and were about to sit down and have a pint till we noticed that a pint was going to cost us €6 ($9 Canadian) so we just took a free picture instead then headed back to our hostel.

We cleaned up and relaxed for awhile back at the Aloha and ran into a Canadian guy, Aaron, from London, ON, and he came with us to get some Chineese food from around the corner and then we headed to the 3 Ducks for some beers because our hostel doesn´t have a bar or much of a social scene. We chilled there for a couple hours, then back to the hostel around 1am and went to bed.

Day 52 - Brussels to Paris

We got up and checkd out of our hostel by 10 and lugged all our stuff down to the main station and then walked down to the main square to buy postcards and souvenirs. Then we jumped back to the station and got on the train to Paris at 11:10.

The train ride was pretty uneventful, but we were both pretty excited to get to Paris (our last major stop together) and were both abit anxious to see what the situation on the ground was goign to be like with the riots going on all over France.

Mom i think was pretty nervous about us going to Paris and tried persuading me to skip France and go to Spain or something instead, but we figured that it couldn´t be bad right downtown Paris where we´d be, and of course, it wasn´t.

We got to Paris around 2:30 (we were on a high speed train) and the second we got out of the station all we saw were cops everywhere. It could be that they always have lots of cops around Paris, but i had the feeling that things were stepped up quite abit because of the situation in the country. So really, central Paris is probably one of the safest places in Europe right now.

So we figured out how to get to the Love&Peace hostel and we walked the 20 minutes only to find out it was booked solid, so we picked another one out of my guidebook that i think somebody from Queen´s told me about called the 3 Ducks and gave them a call. They had room, so they gave me instructions and we took the Metro all the way across town then walked the rest of the way, taking us about another hour in all.

The 3 Ducks is in a great location, right by the Eiffel Tower, but definately was not as nice as other places that we´ve travelled to and stayed at. The rooms were tiny and not that clean looking and were just off a small outdoor courtyard in the middle of the hostel which contained the only two washrooms and showers in the hostel (all outside, dirty, and tiny). so we threw our stuff in our rooms, i showered (Rob hasn´t showered since Amsterdam) and then headed out. We figured we´d check out another hostel close-by to see if it looked better for tomorrow night, the Aloha, and then go check out the tower and eat something.

The Aloha was only a 10 minute walk away and looked much cleaner and nicer so we paid for Tuesday night and then headed for the Tower. By this time it was already dark so the Eiffel Tower was all lit up, and as soon as it hit 6 o´clock, random lights started blinking really quickly all over the tower and this went on for a solid 10 minutes. Was kind´ve cool, but also pretty tacky (same as getting engaged up there....Sean.....jk). So we walked around and underneith, took a few pictures, then started wandering back to the hostel. Along the way we stopped at an Italian restaurant (ran by an Indian guy with two Indian helpers) and had pizza and split a bottle of wine.

Afterwards we went back to the hostel, had a beer at the bar, and met two girls and a guy we were sharing our room with. The two girls, Andrea (19) and Michel (20) are from Sherbrooke, but are first language English, and the guy was a Swiss police officer on holidays for a week and is trilingual, speaking German, Italian, and French, but no English at all. So the five of us spent the next few hours talking mostly in French with a bit of English for Rob. It was pretty interesting talking to the Swiss guy and hearing about some of his cop stories. We both wanted to go find some riots pretty bad just to see them, but obviously decided to just have another beer instead adn then eventually all went to bed.

Day 51 - Brussels

We finally got to have a solid sleep-in day and slept till about 11. When we did get outta bed, we dragged our assess showering, had a coffee, then headed off. We walked from Luke's place all the way to the EU Parliament and Congress (or whatever the hell they call it). From there we wandered up and under the big arch in Brussells to where the war museum and Autoworld are, right across from each other, on either side of the arch.

We went to Autoworld first which is a car museum that's been used for car shows since the early 1900s. Kind've looked like an airplane hangar and had cars ranging from original models right through until modern cars. We looked around for about an hour, and it was okay, but could've been better. The war museum on the other hand was pretty fantastic. It was humongous and had exhibits dating from ancient times right through to World Wars I and II. They had everything from ancient swords and suits of armour to modern weaponry, all kinds of cannons, Allie and Nazi gear, and even a whole courtyard full of American, German, and Soviet tanks from the wars. It was awesome. The best part i thought though was this HUMONGOUS hangar with all kinds of airplans ranging from early, early planes to fighter jets. They had a bunch of WW2 planes from both sides and even a couple with big maple leafs on the side including the Canadian Avro. They had one room dedicated to British, American and Canadian forces thanking us for liberating them. It was pretty nice.

From the museum we headed with Dan to O'Reilley's Irish Pub near the downtown core to watched some Sunday football (soccer not NFL). We got there just in time to catch the 3 o'clock game, but were only there that early to get seats for the big game at 5 between Manchester United and Chelsea. The first game was M'Borough vs ____?____ and was actually a really really good game.

The second game was awesome though. The bar was PACKED with Man. U fans adn they beat Chelsea 1-0 giving them their first loss in the English Premiere League in a year. Everybody was going nuts the whole game. At one point i went downstairs to go to the washroom and a huge guy in a Man U shirt grabbed me by both shoulders and kinda yelled in my face "Who do you cheer for!". I dirtied my pants and then calmly replied "The Toronto Maple Leafs of course.", then walked away. It was pretty funny.

After the game we went back to Luke's and grabbed our stuff, then checked back into the Van Gogh hostel for the night, then headed downtown to meet up with Luke, Dan, Imka, and some random dude from the magazine. We had a few drinks at a couple places, then me and Rob headed back to the hostel around midnight. When we got there I ran into Lisa (met in Berlin heading to Amsterdam) and hung out with her for awhile, then tried to go to bed.

I say 'tried' because first of all my keycard wouldn't work, so i had to get, not one, but two new cards before i could get in. We were on the 3rd floor, so that meant walking up and down 3 times before getting in, only to find i had no pillow. So i went back down again, got a shitty little pillow cause he couldn't find any regular ones, then back upstairs, only to find i was locked out again. They guy at reception ended up coming up with me and let me in. And then i turned out that i had the creakiest and loudest top bunk ever, with no ladder to get up with, so i had to step on the random guys bed under me, waking him up.

Shitty room and hostel.

Day 50 - Brussels/Leuven

We got up and packed our bags by 10 and jumped on the metro to meet Luke at his stop across town. We said the hell with our hostel and thought we'd try our luck with staying at Luke's place although we'd been warned that it was "tiny" and "gross".

So we jumped on the metro, headed to Luke's stop and met up with him. I can't remember which stop he was at, but it wasn't too bad of a part of town, although he claims its sketchy. We walked about 15 minutes and then go to his place.

He was right. "Tiny" and "gross".

What a shithole.

It was the smallest "apartment" (if you can call it that) that i've ever seen. He lives there with a Spanish guy and there place consists of two tiny rooms with cubby hole beds built into the walls about 8 feet up, and an entrance/kitchen that's about 3 feet wide and 8 feet long with a shower (not toilet) at the end. The toilet is in the hallway and is shared with a bunch of other apartments. His flatmate was outta town for the weekend though, so i could sleep in his bed and Rob split with Luke.

Luke's buddy Dan met us at Luke's place before we left and he spent the day with us. He's a small little English guy, who i didn't really like at first, but he grew on me and ended up being an alrite, and pretty funny, guy. On the way outta town we hit a waffle place so that we could say that we had Belgian waffles (although overpriced and not that good). So anyways, we through our shit in his place and then jumped on the metro to the main station, then caught a train to Leuven which only took about 30 minutes.

Leuven is the beer capitol of Belgium and home to Stella Artois (check the bottle, you'll see the name). The only real reason to go to Leuven is to see the gorgeous architecture..............wait for it.............and to try as many brands of beer as possible. So we got there adn took a walk down by the Stella brewery, but didn't take a tour because we heart it was a waste of time and then wandered up to the main square with boasts over 40 pubs and more beers than you can imagine.

So we sat outside at the first pub, had a couple pint, then chowed down my umpteenth Doner kebab of this trip, then wandered around for abit more, grabbed some beer at a grocery store, and then sat down in this huge square. The square was like any other we've been in with a huge building at one end, but the weird thing was that right in the middle of this square, there was a huge 50 foot 'pin' with a huge green fly on the top upside down looking like he'd been stabbed right through the middle. Weird. I couldn't help but wonder who came up with an idea like that. And what they were smoking or drinking.

"Hmmm...you know what would look great in this square, Tim????"

"No. I don't. What would look great in this square?"

"A great big pin with a huge green fly that's been stabbed by the pin. What do you think?"

"Great idea! Let's do it!"

Honestly. And what did the town people say when they woke up one morning to this huge fly in the middle of their historic square? Very odd.

Anyways.

From there we hit yet another pub, pounded back a few more pints, then headed to the station around 8 or so and caught a train back to Brussels after waiting around at the station for about an hour for the train.

When we got back to town we just headed up to Luke's place, chilled out and watched some shows on his computer, then went to bed pretty early.

Day 49 - Amsterdam to Brussels

We got up at 10ish and i caught the end of breakfast in the basement, then packed up. We hung out with the gang for abit adn played a few last games of pool and then Rob finally convinced me that it was time to go. We'll maybe see Lisa in Brussels Sunday night and I've run into James 4 times now, so i'm sure i'll see him again. Good chance i'll see Will on the 22nd in Paris. Apparently there's a free bed for me.

The train ride was fine and we rolled into Brussels at 3. Then we walked around. Felt alot like Berlin all over again actually. Again, I let Rob navigate, and again, we got lost. Finally abotu an hour later we got straightened around and found the Van Gogh hostel where we were staying near the Botanique metro stop. Pretty nice place downstairs in the lobby/bar area, but really shitty rooms and a stupid rule that says that between 10 and 2 you have to be out of your room (which isn't that odd for hostels) ALONG with all our bags and belongings (they had lockers downstairs for us to use, but still a huge pain in the ass to pack everything up each day).

So we threw our shit in our room and then headed to the main square to meet Rob's old housemate, Luke, who works at the European Union Parliament in Brussels for a Scottish member. We met Luke around 7:30 then went with him to a bar with a huge menu of differnet beers. The place had well over 2000 beers on the menu and had pretty much all of them in stock. So we sat down and started at number 1 and tried to see how far we could get. Well, not really, we just tried what were supposed to be some of the better Belgian beers, including one that was apparently voted best beer in the world. Apparently. I thought it was pretty shit.

People would also argue though that i like Molson Canadian, so i don't get a say.

I say screw them. The beer sucked.

Next we went to a bar around the corner where we met up with a few of his friends who work for a new European business magazine that's about to be launched in January. An English guy, Dan, a Dutch girl, Imka, and a Belgian guy, Simon. So we had a couple drinks there, then across the road to another bar where they give you a 4L tower of beer with a tap on the bottom. After pounding that back we hit one more bar, then home for the night.

Good time hanging out with some real Europeans rather than travellers for onces. Although i do have to say that we have alot more in common with other travellers than we probably did with most of Luke's friends, but still a good time.

Day 46 -- 49 - Amsterdam

November 1st through November 4th.

Great time.

Very relaxing.

Played lots of pool.

Did a tour of the Heineken museum.

Went to the Van Gogh museum.


Send me an email at nealboudreau@hotmail.com for more details.

Day 46 - Berlin to Amsterdam

We got up at 7 and hurried to pack and get down to the train station to catch our lift to Amsterdam at 8:30. At the station we met this Aussie girl, Lisa, who was also heading to Amsterdam, adn good thing because we didn't realize that halfway there the train split up, and we weren't on the righ end of the train, so had it not been for her, i'm not sure where we would've ended up.

We got to Amsterdam at 3ish adn between Rob, Lisa, and this 18 year old Aussie kid, Will, we met on the train, we found our way to the hostel. We're staying at the World Famous Flying Pig Downtown. Possibly the most famous hostel in the world. The place is pretty awesome and different. A hippy's haven. Soon as you walk in you're at the reception/bar and you have to go through the bar to get to your room, so that's a huge problem as for getting anything productive done in any kind of timely fashion. Out front by the main windows there's a huge kinda floor area with pillows and low low tables for laying around in (Sign: No Shoes, No Sleeping, No Sex). The middle of the bar is full of a bunch of bar height tables and the bar itself and a small DJ stage in the corner. In the back was the pool table surrounded by chairs where we spent most of our time. There's also a bunch of couches, plasma TV, and a 'Happy Room' in the back.

The place is located right in the heart of the city adn right around the corner from the famous 'Red Light District'.

Great great hostel.