When the East meets the West!

5th October

God bless Easyjet company and their cheap flights! The only time when I was glad to spend the pound sterling came when paying 54 pounds for my flight from London to Prague.

Prague was originally founded by the Romans but it wasn't until 14th century that it flourished under the Czech ruler, Charles IV. It was my first experience seeing a city that has both the western influence in the form of medival, roman, gothic and baroque style and also the european eastern communist dull square box style about the place, and you can often spot this difference especially in the architecture of the city's buildings.

I checked into my hostel and you must forgive me for having the first impression that Czech people are not the most creative. This impression is derived from my hostel's name, wait for it...Traveller's Hostel. Uh huh..told you so. This however is where the drawback of the place is limited to. Great helpful staff, wonderfully clean and spacious room and amenities all make this place a home away from home, which came as a relief I must say after how I've been spoilt for accomodation in terms of staying with friends in the last 3 of the 4 cities I've visted.

As I sauntered around the main town centre, only a few minutes walk from my hostel, trying to get a feel for this magical city, I noticed that the inhabitants of the city were made up of the serious morose looking elderly folks, the hard faced business people in their cold black suits and carefree bubblegum popping youngsters with their ipod mini and smarting hip hop fashion wear...not too dissimilar really to elsewhere in the world but perhaps the more depressing looking post-communist infra structure of the city somehow gave it that tired look. However, if you could look past the depleted dusty exterior, you will discover the time before the hardship, when the ancient castles and towers sparkle like jewels across the Baltic sea.

6th October

This morning I decided to join yet another walking tour given my past success and enjoyment of them. This time I found a bargain! 7 hours worth of guided tour through Prague plus a ferry trip and a complimentary night walking tour thrown in..but wait! There's more!! (Always more!) We would also get a complimentary lunch in one of Prague's oldest restaurant serving a range of local cuisine.All this for 30 Euros (which is NZ60 but you're not suppose to convert..so imagine if it's like NZ30 for all this!) I must sheepishly admit that due to my trademark tardiness, I almost didn't turn up in time for the start of the tour but made it in the nick of time, pheew!

We met at the centre of the city, the Old Town Square. Our guide's name escaped me because I got there after he introduced himself. So for the sake of this tour, let's just call him Stalin (if he ever reads this, he'll kill me, you'll see why later). He was a short mid 30'ish guy with a big umbrella, that doubles as a pointer and walking stick. His English of course had a thick Czech accent and it could take a while to understand him. Anyhow, he began by informing us that Prague is divided mainly into four sections, the old town, which includes the old jewish quarter, the new town, the lesser town and the Prague castle vicinity. The lesser town and the Prague castle vicinity are separated with the other two sections mainly by the Vladava river and they are linked across this river by the infamous Charles Bridge, named after its popular ruler, Charles IV. I didn't know whether Stalin was just not a morning person or he was just plain dull and dry...perhaps both but I remembered thinking to my self, oh boy, this is going to be a long day.

Church of the St Nicholas (one of two!) built in 18th century located at the Old Town Square.

Here horsey, horsey, horsey...one of the many tourist trappings located at the square.

We were taken around the square and stopped by this door you see above. The picture isn't very clear but if you look at the top of the arc, you are meant to see a very 'happy face' on the top left, a very 'sad face' on the top right and slightly to the bottom in between the two faces, you'll see a very menacing looking face with sharp pointy teeth. Stalin explained that it is tradition for Czechs getting married at this St Nicholas church to enter through the door on the left to this one and once they're proclaimed husband and wife, they would exit the church through this door. The significance of exiting through this door? Well, the 'happy face' symbolises the bride, who's happy she's finally married. As you would guess by now, the face on the right would be that of the groom who's miserable being tied to the ball and chains. The scary face in the middle would be none other than 'the mother in law'! :P

Then we went past the jewish quarter and I took some photographs but I'll save those for later viewing. We then came to halt in front of this building where Stalin explained that it is typical in Prague in the 15th century for houses to be built with keyhole shaped windows in them.

See top left - hate to see the size of the keys!

We then made our way past 2 Japanese tourist groups, Stalin carefully making sure that I didn't get caught in the tidal wave of the rising sun and disappear into an obscure sushi parlour at the back of some darkly lit street.

We then arrived at this:

Yeah..wow alright!

One of the most impressive gothic sacral building in Prague with the construction of which lasted from the mid-14th century to early 16th century but due to some religious upheavals as a result of which, Prague became the fist Prostestant city in Europe, the interior of the church was never finished and it wasn't until the late 17th century that the interior was rebuilt in baroque style upon the return of catholism in Prague.

We then walked down to the pier to our awaiting ferry and its lovely staff greeting us with the Czech greeting of "Ahoj!" (pronounced Ahoy!), meaning Greetings, or hi! The boat trip was very pleasant indeed going up and down Vladava river listening to Stalin rattling on and on about how communism has ruined his country. He would point to some gothic style building on the right and said "And you see, how beautiful this building is? Now look to your left and see that ugly box? That my friend is communism!" And this was the theme for a while before we sailed past a big old sports complex, so then Stalin got all excited again as he started to lecture about the great Czech tennis players who had to flee the country when the communists took over and how that destroyed the country too. Dunno if it was the complimentary budzar (Czech beer) or simply being in good mood due to the beautiful sceneries but I found Stalin's monotonous whining about communism rather funny and entertaining.

Soon after, to everyone else's delight, Stalin's thirst got the better of him and he went off to enjoy a glass of beer, leaving the rest of us to ponder in our own thoughts as we continue the water journey accompanied by classical music. Ahh...bliss...

We disembarked from the ferry and continued our journey by making our way to Charles Bridge. The imposing arc greets you as you approach the bridge. This arc was built in the late 15th century and later used as a gun depot.

Prague's Arc de triumph! :P

Then we met the man himself, Charlie boy IV!

Here, Stalin explained Charles' obsession with astronomy and as such, when he was deciding when would be a good time to set the cornerstone for the building of the bridge, he consulted his astronomer who came up with this diagram:
......9
....7...7
...5.....5
..3.......3
.1.........1

Looking at this pyramid numbers, you'll see the astronomer's advice to Charles was to build the bridge in the year 1357, 9th July at 5:31am (which happened to be sunrise at that time). This date can be followed from reading the pyramid numbers from the bottom left and right to the top and back down on the right hand side again. So Charles had the first coernerstone laid exactly as advised. Interesting huh?

There's 15 bronze statues being placed with equal distance apart from one another on each side of the bridge. I took a few photos but the most significant statue was that of Saint John of Nas who became a saint after he, acting as a confessor to the queen refused to reveal the queen's confession to the jealous king, who had him killed.

If you look at the statue closely, you'll see the shiny dog on the left and the shiny woman on the right. The locals believed it was good luck to touch the 'woman' who was the queen as you walk past and as the bronze statue becomes dark green over time, the constant touching of the queen polished her and made her figure shiny again. You're now wondering why is the dog shiny then? Well, one night, drunken students who walked past the statue felt sorry for the dog as nobody touched him, so they polished it until it shined. The next day, people who saw the shiny dog thought you're meant to touch both the queen and the dog, and ever since then, both have been touched religiously by people!

During this walking tour, I made friends with couple of Americans and a Japanese tourist and we soon became like 'photography buddies' i.e taking photos of one another and cracking jokes about the trip, including the total number of times Stalin would be whining about the effects of communism in Czech by the end of the tour. After crossing the bridge, we caught a tram to the the old restaurant for much needed food, our tummies grumbling along the way, echoing our hunger. The restaurant was small but very cozy, decorated in a hunting theme, with animal skins, heads and various old rifles hanging against the otherwise bare walls. We were first served with this yummy vegetable soup before being offered a choice of main course meals, all of local food. I ordered the Czech goulash, which as it sounds, was beef ghoulash with dumpling (not like English or chinese one, but more like hardened dough medalions). For dessert, we sampled the "little coffins" which are meringue shaped like lil coffins with cream on top, sugar haven!

From here, Stalin, fully fed was back in high spirits as he led us on to the castle. It was rather interesting for us to note that as the tour goes on, Stalin began to relax a little and what we originally perceived as his dryness and lack of sense of humour were actually the opposite, his sense of humour were just dryer sounding due to the accent and his poker faced outlook. He broke away from this mould when his face suddenly lit up as he recalled a joke while telling us about communism and its effect on freedom of speech in Prague. He quipped "Like other countries, we were free to speak, it's only after we've spoken that's the problem". He laughed heartily and we politely chuckled while pretending to admire the next approaching building.

We soon walked past what seemed like an ordinary looking pub. We were however informed by Stalin that this is the cheapest pub in Prague? "So what, they give away free beer now?" asked Chris the American from our group. "Almost..it costs only 23 crowns (NZ$2) for a pint of beer." A few Danish men in our group started to edge away from our group and inching closer to the pub before their wives 'tsk,tsk' them back into place as we walked along. Next we walked past an old antique shop which Stalin loudly boasted as "the first Sex Shop in Europe". In response to our puzzled looks, he pointed to this rusty looking steel device and announced that it was a female chastity belt. Charming..

We finally arrived at the front gate of the Prague Castle (there's 3 gates all together before you enter the castle). By the front gate, there stood two Czech guards standing motionless cum London guards with Marge Simpson hairdo.

The last pic of me with my sunglasses outside the palace gate before I lost it (or was it stolen?! Hmmms)

The castle, like the bridge was built in 1357 and its construction continued on for several centuries, completed in various stages. Upon entering the first gate you see the more modern building that housed the current Prime Minister's Office and through the second gate, we finally arrived at the glorious sight in all of Prague (so I believe!) It's the Prague Palace Cathedral, also intially built in 1357 in gothic style but due to the religious upheaval, wars and political coup de tat, it wasn't completed until 1927.

The tower was so high I couldn't even get it all in frame!

The cathedral from the side view and yours truly.

One of the stained glass featured in the old cathedral. If you look at the bottom, there's some Czech words which translated to "Who would save you at times like this?" And the rest of the stained glass reflects the troubled times when you need saving. And the answer to the question being provided in either of the two: 1. The eye right at the top of the glass, depicting God as the saviour...or 2. Right at bottom left together with some pic of leaves are some words which basically translate to "Czech First Insurance". That's right folks, commercialism strikes again! Apparently, the church needed an old window replaced with stain glass and the insurance company agreed to sponsor the building of the glass provided they get something back.. so there you go!

From there, we then went up the south tower, all 318 steps (huff, puff,huff) to the top, just enough breath for me to mutter that the view better be great! Luckilly it was...

One of the shots taken from top of the tower overlooking Prague.

After leaving the tower and the cathedral, we made our way past the third gate and out towards various palace buildings that has become museums but we did not enter since it wasn't part of our walking tour. The last building we saw before we exit the castle was the "Black Tower" which is another old Tower that's colour is anything but black, it was white actually. Why the name? Well, apparently, there was a big fire this one time at the castle (aka bandcamp), the smoke of the were so black and thick that it covered the entire palace, the ashes sticking to the walls of this tower turning it black and it was then named the Black Tower and the name stuck, even after the clean-up. With that explanation, Stallin bid us adieu.

Me and the view of the city from outside the castle.

What a day..The American-Japanese-NZ alliance also made their way discussing the day and one thing everyone agreed upon was the great value of the walking tour. We would have probably not learnt so much about this place had it not been for our guide. I then excused myself quickly from the group to head home to get ready for dinner with Pohu. John, whom I met on this travellerspoint.com website (who advised me a lot about Europe as he used to live in Europe), is also a good friend of Pohu, a local Prague girl who had coincidentally been to NZ before (and hence her nickname, Pohu, from Pohutekawa tree). She took me to dinner at a nice restaurant in the centre of town and we had a good time talking about anything and everything! It was nice meeting a local to spend your evening with and a good way to unwind after a hectic day of sightseeing.

7 October

My last day in Prague was spent sightseeing in more detail the places I've already been to during the walking guiding tour but just taking my time a bit more to study or take pictures of the things I like. I also bumped into Ron, another American who was also on his own touring Europe. Unlike the other two Americans I met yesterday, Ron's from New York with your typical New York accent. We decided later to have lunch at this very nice cafe by the old St Nicholas church (the second one that's on the way to Prague castle). From where we sat, we had an awesome view of the city. Then I made my way back into the city, packed and head off to Bratislava, 5 hours away and capital of Slovakia.

Lunch with a view!

AO rating: Prague's amazing!! After Paris and London, would definitely be the best city I've seen. Did not have the fortune of discovering more castles in the suburbs but definitely will come back more to explore! 5 castles down, 996 to go!

4 October

Part of going on this super "Big Bus Tour" the day before allowed me one free entry into one of the walking tours and taking up this opportunity, I set for the meeting place for the walk, Trafalgar Square, which was of course, just slightly further than the Strand but if I land on the "community chest" and the card says go straight to jail and not collect $200", then I'm screwed :P Yes folks, who said Monopoly was just a game?! It was like a topographical map for me.

Today's walking tour would take us from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace through a cobblestone path called the Mall (pronounced "mahl") so as to discourage Harrods mogul, Al-Fayed from storming into and taking over the palace and turning it into yet another shopping disneyland (will elaborate on this later). It was the second day that the sun shone unaccompanied by any clouds, which in itself is a highlight of this visit!

Trafalgar in the early morning (before the sun came through and the clouds disappeared)

The arc seperating Trafalgar Square from "the Mall"

Our tour guide promised that this path will lead us to witnessing the changing of the guards, which takes place every 48 hours (afterall, sooner or later, the guards on duty will either need to relieve themselves or go watch soccer, most likely the latter being more of a pressing matter).

The Mall is roughly about 800 metres long with the St James Park on both its left and right side and you can see statues of previous Dukes of York (title given to 2nd son of the King/Queen - current one being Prince Andrew, you know, the one that married the 'ginga'!). The tour guide begailing us with stories of the past Dukes' mischiefs (middle child syndrome?) to kill time while we await the new guards to march out from St James Palace (the old palace of the monarch)where they have been practising and rehearsing how to stand still and do bugger all (not for the feeble minded you know..) Eventually, we know they were about to emerge when Her Majesty's royal calvary (guards on horses) trotted from Buckingham Palace to St James, to escort the guards. It was really a magnificent sight to behold, noble horses and their riders, smartly dressed in glory, medals shining and dangling from their chests. A less elegant but yet amusing sight followed, in the form of a small green truck with two big round brushes at its front, gracefully cleaning up the poos left behind by the horses.

can't see the green truck, but it's there!

Few minutes later, the unmistakable sound of bagpipes tore through the air and soon after, a band of bagpipe players in their dark and blue green kilts (no matching wooly underwears detected..I checked to be sure they keep to tradition..) proudly marched in unison, leading the new guards, the first few on horses and the rest on foot, left right, left right...in perfect syncronised rhythm, their well polished shoes tapping the stone path together, ocassionally interrupted by the sounds of 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' and cameras clicking away (Japanese tourist brigade in tow...). We followed them until they marched into the Buckingham Palace ground and the iron gate closing behind them. Any thought of perhaps this was the end of the tour was soon forgotten when we heard a marching band music playing, getting louder and louder as the other new guards arrived (from another path leading to the palace) and also making their way into the palace grounds. Then the changing of guards ceremony took place. The leading music band would play a few tunes and the guards led by this bad would move forward. Then other music band would play and the guards they led would move forward from the other direction. Slowly but surely these two group of new guards then merged to meet the old guards and after captains of both 'new' and 'old' guards exchange their duty garments and ornaments, then the old guards marched and separated into two groups, each group marching until they're behind the two music bands. Then the new guards marched further into the palace grounds and the old guards were then led by the music bands as they march out of the palace. All very prim, proper and organised, wouldn't have expected anything less from the English.

Guards entering Buckingham Palace

That was when our walking tour ended and we were 'dismissed'. I then made my way to Hyde Park, which is just beside the palace. This park would be the city's equivallent to our Auckland Domain or Hagley Park, except that it's like 10 to 15 times bigger and it is also the home to the Kensington Palace (where Princess Di used to live), Princess Di memorial and Prince Albert Memorial. I decided I was now ready for the 'running' tour. You see, I refused to give up my jogging for fear of losing my fitness (walking's just not the same). In fact, I've gone as far as trying to ensure I do at least one run in every country. So far been successful except for in France due to the more rainy weather over there.

Greeting me at the entrance to the park was the bronze statue of Achilles, in his naked splendour. I chuckled to myself as I recall the bus tour guide's explanation on this statue the evening before. She said that this naked statue was the first of its kind to be unveiled in London in the mid 19th century. When the public first saw it, the reactions of 4 women were ghastly! The first two fainted. The third one had a stroke and the fourth just couldn't reach! :P :P

I couldn't reach either dang nabbit!

I ran all the way to Kensington Palace but was a bit disappointed that it was just a modern structure, nothing impressive and certainly not picture worthy! However, my disappointment was short lived further into my run when I came across the larger than life statue of Prince Albert, beloved husband of Queen Victoria who orchestrated this over-the-top tribute in the form of this memorial to show her undying love for him. She was so saddened by his death that she had the entire city's railings, lamp posts all painted black and ever since then, Londoners could never imagine their city look any more cheerful than this.

Lucky Albert aye?!

Looking at the time, I finished up my run so I could go visit Harrods department store. You're all probably thinking why would the history mad Adelina be interested in a gigantic shopping mecca? Well, I asked Evelyn the same question when she suggested this as a must-see! She then explained that Harrods are more than just Ballantynes or Smiths & Coheys..this is a store that is rich in tradition and customs as it is expensively catered for the upper class customers. Each department has a theme and decorated accordingly, like the Egyptian room that has a gigantic statue of a sphinx guarding its wares, right down to the 'elegant lady's public convenience room', that's right...good ol' loo even got a shape-up. They also have their own Harrods Bank which dated back to the 19th century, today it serves more as a money changer than a real bank. It was certainly interesting and worth having a look, but definitely a case of "once is enough".

All smells money and prestige ain't it?

From there, I took a very brisk walk to the Parliament House and Westminister abbey to take more pictures. On the way there, I walked past the Lincoln Inn, where the new lawyers get admitted to the bar. Nice place to get admitted...I was so jealous!

Of course, Parliament House is where the Parliament Tower, the infamous landmark of London lives, better known around the world for the name of the bell in the tower, Big Ben. West Minister abbey of course is the monarch's church and where many of its past kings and queens were buried.

Sure beats the beehive hands down doesn't it?

View of the front of Westminister Abbey

View from the back..England's answer to the French's Notre Dame.

Can't go to London and not take a picture of this!

I made it home just in time to grab a quick bite and a shower before rushing out again to finally see my first London West End musical, the Lion King. In my rush to run to the taxi, I slipped and fell, grazing my knee and elbow in the process and no, unlike my runs, this will not be repeated in other countries *fingers crossed*.

Arrived at the Lyceum building in the nick of time. I've been sitting here for 5 minutes trying to think of how to describe the musical. UNBELIEVABLE would be the closest adjective and yet still an understatement. The singing, the acting, special effects especially how they created the giraffes, gizzelles and elephants from humans were simply amazing. This certainly would go down as one of the best things I have ever done. Watch out you all, when I get back, I'll be looking for musical buddies....so "BE PREPARED..."

The show was truly the icing on the London cake. Unfortunately, my evening was tainted slightly by a 'bug' that landed on the cake. I have had a great rapport and respect for London's black cabbies because they're professional taxi drivers but the one I encountered on my way home was indeed an exception, rather than the rule. I won't go into detail regarding his rude behaviour but suffice to say, he must have realised it too in that when I gave him 10 pounds for the 8 pounds 20 pence ride, he claimed that he gave me back only a pound and claimed not to have any change, obviously realising I was not going to voluntarily tip him. He said 'sorry' and then proceeded to say 'actually, I'm not sorry, it's just the way it goes'. It takes all sorts I guess.

So that's London..short but certainly sweet!
AO Rating: Like its Queen, this country's capital has aged really well in accomodating the hustle and bustle of its long working days and sleepless nights of lights, dance, pubs, plays and musicals. If you're here, you'll be working and playing hard, no doubt about that!

Tomorrow, I'm off to Prague, the City of Castles!!

London, capital of England, Great Britain and United Kingdom, most likely the only city in the world that's a capital three times over. Please don't even ask me to explain the difference. I tried once long time ago make sense of this but to no avail. Suffice to say that being a country only the size of New Zealand but once an empire that ruled over half the world, perhaps it's a hangover imperialistic behaviour of the yesteryears...who knows.

I arrived in London by the ever efficient Eurostar, a very very fast train from Paris to London's Waterloo Station, the entire journey only take about 2.5 hours. Damien, a fellow kiwi who migrated to London for the 'greener pastures' together with his now wife, Evelyn were waiting for me. It was indeed wonderful to see familiar faces again! D&E are the most atypical accountants you would come across. Damien with his jovial disposition and the bigger than life Evelyn, who easily commands your attention through her booming voice, perhaps to make up for her lack of height, or so I would tease her.

My dread in having to spend exuberent amount of money by virtue of the expensive cost of living in London and also the high value pounds was somewhat alleviated slightly by D&E's kindness in letting me stay with them. I must say in that respect I've been very lucky so far having to stay in a hostel only once in Amsterdam and since then, had friends coming to the rescue! However, I have a feeling the money I've saved up from accomodation will now be spent in this extravagant city.. The evening of 2 October was spent catching up with them both. Evelyn is also from Malaysian and so she relished being able to switch to speaking Hokkien with me, our commonly shared Chinese dialect from the state of Penang, Malaysia, where our parents derived from.

3 October

D&E, who had been entertaining other friends prior to my arrival, were helpful with providing all the typical tourist like pamphlets offering bus tours, walking tours etc but wild horses wouldn't drag them through another of those with me given that they've already done 8...EACH! So I was more than happy to excuse their lack of interest..a worry really when each of them could repeat word for word the tour guides' commentaries and they could even produce the same exact voice and monotones as the museum audio guides...so off I went on my own to explore what London has to offer.

Raphy (from France) had said that if I don't do anything in London, I should at least go and see one play/musical in West End (I knew London was where my wallet was going to get lighter). I half heartedly agreed but didn't really think I would find anything that would interest me but lo and behold! There were a few! Les Miserables was playing and so was the Lion King! I always wanted to see the Lion King and so it didn't take much to twist my arm (and open my wallet) before a ticket was purchased for the next night. I was extremely excited and would have jumped for joy (and click my heels together) if it wasn't for the fact that I was among the serious conservative English, hear, hear!

Bought one of those "BIG BUS TOUR" ticket to see London where you pay 20 pounds for 24 hours worth of bus ride across the famous tourist attractions. You can also step off and get back on again during this time. But wait! There is more! You also get to go for your choice of 1 of 5 walking tours available and if that wasn't a good deal enough, they even threw in a free ferry ride down the Thames! (What made you think they paid me to say this?!!!)

I walked from where D&E stayed to St Paul's cathedral which is a beautiful old church located in the centre of London and also the starting point of my bus tour journey. No sooner than 10 minutes from getting on the bus, I could see the tower bridge approaching and right beside it, the Tower of London, the historic castle originally built by William the Conqueror in 1066 and later expanded by the English Kings and Queens. I decided this would be a good spot to get off the bus as I could spend some time touring the castle and coincidentally, my free ferry ride takes off from the pier just beside the castle too. We Asians are well known for killing many birds with one stone (or boulder if that's required). The ticket cost 15 pounds (I tried hard to stop myself from converting that to kiwi dollars..that's freaking NZ$45!!! Arrrgh) Ok, slow yoga breathing....think of sipping tea with the Queen...

Outside St Paul's Cathederal on a gloomy English day, even that didn't put me off!

One of the many castles located within the Tower ground. This one houses the country's crown jewels. Although not able to take photos, I can confirm that I've seen the largest cut diamond in the world (The Cullinan I) *drool* gimme, gimme.....

Me standing outside by castle, with the red guard with Marge Simpson hairdo and his crown jewels..err, I mean he's guarding Her Majesty's jewels..

So, once I got my ticket (the vendor having to rip the money from my tight clutches...) I joined the rest of the Japanese tourists (could have sworn it was the same trigger happy clicking group from France) and made my way into the castle gate. Waiting for us there was a Yeoman Warder. Yeoman wha??!! Funny you should ask, a Yeoman Warder is a former serviceman to Her Majesty from any of her comonwealth countries, rewarded by the the Queen for his (yes, sexist pigs!!)service to the country and the reward allows the Yeoman to stay and live in the castle grounds with his family and to show pestering tourists around the castle. Did I say reward?!! These Warders wear an interesting bright blue and red costume (see below) which made it hard for me to imagine them as serious SAS officers or Warrant Officers in Her Majesty's army. Our particular Yeoman was a real character as he took us through the 50 minutes tour (I counted to see where my NZ45(!!!) got me). His narration of the history of the place often accompanied by quirky and witty remarks of a guide who no doubt takes his work seriously and thoroughly enjoying himself in the process.

That's our Yeoman Warder..he was once part of England's first line of defence against the enemies..

From our Yeoman I learnt that the Tower of London that were originally used as residence to the Kings and Queens of England were later abandoned and used as storage for armoury, artilery and gun powder but more imoportantly, it was also used as a prison where several infamous occupants were beheaded. Amongst them, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard (2nd and 5th wives respectively of King Henry VIII), and Lady Jane Grey, the 17 year old would-be queen. Ooookk, mental note for women ever feeling the urge to go back to the past. Never do the following as a queen: Barren, cheat on your husband (who has 8 other mistresses anyway) and be ambitious daddy's political pawn.

I won't bore you with the rest of the historical journey that I took visiting the rest of the Tower but suffice to say that the White Tower (which was the original castle), together with the 4 other towers were truly impressive in terms of its medieval design, right up to the renovations carried out by subsequent rulers of the land. I took lots of pictures but won't clog up the disc space her with them.

Also from just outside the castle, you get an awesome view of the Tower bridge as you can see. This was the main bridge that originally separates London from the rest of the world. Many Kings in the past have used the Thames to travel to the Tower on business as opposed to using the conventional carriage in order to try and avoid paparazis, autograph hunters and of course, Oliver Cromwell (the dictator that turned England into a republic for a very short time).

The English don't do anything without style and aplomb do they?

Then after being satisfied that I've spent enough time in the Tower to justify spending NZ45!!!! on a tour ticket, I made my way to the pier to enjoy my FREE fery ride. It was rather a pleasant evening trip down the Thames, especially when due to a technology failure, one of the boat's crew, a young 15 year old boy ended up being our tour guide. He apologised profusely prior to his commentary which he feared would not be good enough for us. By the end of the tour, I think there wasn't a doubt in a single member of the tour's mind that the impromptu guide was not really that impromptu after all..very clever. I shall stop here as many of what I saw will later be described in more detail in my next and last day in London.

1 October

It is indeed without doubt a city of love. Before setting foot in France, I didn't understand why it earned this title. Sure, The Eifel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe are great, they got lots of museums, but how do these stone cold buildings and historical artefacts inspire heart to skip faster and the emotions to flow? The answer my friend is as the french says...Paris has a sense of 'je ne sais quoi' about it. It's not one thing that stands out but the entire city together, from the incredible romantic setting borne from a successful marriage of artistic and scientific designs in architecture, to the beautiful fresh flowers of kaleidescope colours strategically displayed by the grocer in the morning at its corner shop at the fringe of the city, the grand parks and gardens, lustrous green acres adorned with the glorious fountains and monuments from ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, right down to the simple joy carved at a young man's face as he cycles down a narrow street with his shy girlfriend sitting behind him, holding on to him and smiling contently to herself. Scenes like these are constantly in abundance, it is no wonder that they cause strolling couples to pause their journey and to turn around gazing into each another's eyes before softly kissing, savouring the moment, the moment when everything feels right...because Paris says so, no, Paris expects love..and the couples lost in its magic were naturally drawn to answer this call.

As I didn't have the fortune to stick my tongue down some poor guy's throat, I settled instead to enjoy the company of friends. Raphy and I were lucky enough to have his 2 year old daughter, Lianne, and French no.1 female badminton player, Pi Hongyan (ranked no.3 in the world) joined us for our exrcursion on my second last day in Paris. As Raphy's a reporter, he'd became good friends with Pi and so our outing doubled as a catch up session for them both.

We went to Montmartre, which in 19th century, used to be the 'hang out' place for the creative types, writers, artists, politicians.. did you just laugh out loud?! Today it is an area of mimes, buskers, tacky souvenir shops and commercial artists.

Talking of souvenirs, if you were previously expecting any, this is the time for you to rid yourself of this utopian delusion. That's right, no lil mini Eifel towers, wooden clogs or teapots shaped in the head of the Queen or Charles..or Camillia for that matter, urgh!
It is hard enough carrying myself across Europe with my turtle shell without the extra weight and dangling sounds from dragging them around. So sorry..you'll just have to make do with this journal :P

Also located on top of a hill in Montmatre is the Basilique du Sacred Coeur, built in 1870's as a result of a vow taken by Parisian Catholics (they don't take their vows lightly those days). From the top of this hill you get a good view of the city too.

It may look like I'm posing, but I'm actually trying to transfer the energy of happiness to the sad looking bars I'm holding on to..yes, that's what I'm doing..

At the centre of the small town, I took a few pictures as you will see. The waiters at any of these restaurants continue to wear the typical waiter type clothing of the 19th century era to create that ambience which inspired the artists in the past.

In front of one of the oldest building in France, going back some centuries ago (yes, I forgot the date, kiss my ass!)

Garcon! His name is Gerard..but for an extra 5 Euro, I could call him anything I wanted..

Then we took a train into town, and got off at the Arc de Triomphe! I finally got what Raphy meant about the ridiculous round-about. Cars tooting and swerving right and left to try to get on to the roundabout! Apparently, if you can drive through this roundabout, you can expect to receive a diploma that says you are now skilled to drive anywhere else in the world...not sure if i want to die trying..

The reason why I looked so stiff is because I was standing in the middle of the road, only inches away from that mad roundabout when the pic was taken, sorry if I look like I was clenching my butt so tight I could crush nuts!

From there, we strolled down the world famous street, the Champ-Elysee, where the creme de la creme of French consumer stores set up their business to rob you blind. Great street to walk on and window shop, and unless you feel like paying NZ$20 for cup of coffee, I wouldn't recommend eating or drinking there either.

We continued walking into town and I took more photos but I'll save them until I get back, so at least I'll have a good excuse to have you guys pay for my meals as I show you my pictures. I must admit while we walked that day for 5 hours, you certainly don't feel the time flew perhaps because there were so many things to see. I did notice that the French do walk around taking oxygen from a higher plane..(aka snobbish) and while I don't think that's a commendable trait, I certainly come to realise then that perhaps it's not so much arrogance that make them walk around with baseball bats stuck up their peverbials, but more the case of pride...pride to be the citizens of country of immense wealth in history, and decendants of pioneers in the advancement and cultivation of knowledge, arts, science and culture to the highest degree. And if you ever pull out a bat from one of their arses, you will see that the bat would have been designed in a greco roman style and had been left behind (excuse the pun) from the previous 7 generations of the family.

2 October

Last day in France. Still haven't had a chance to see the Notre Dame. Had only 5 hours sleep, staying up writing this journal. So half asleep and probably looking like a chinese immigrant that just got let out of the container at the harbour, I made my way to Notre Dame. The night before a celebration was held there in honour of the Brazilian catholics living in France. The cathedral which is normally lit up at night was dark except for the light projection of Jesus against the front wall of the church, this projection being a copy image of the huge statue of Jesus situated at the St Jude Mountain in Brazil (I think...)

During the day, it's still impressive, given that its white ivory like walls look different to many of the buildings built around the same time in the city. The splendour of this building is evident from the craftiness of the design and workmanship, not too surprising perhaps given that it took more than 180 years of hard labour before it was completed in 1345.

View of the front, note the size!

Taken from the inside on one of the stained mirrors. There were at least 14 of them, all beautifully done and the light from the chandaliers hung in the centre illuminates these stained windows fortelling a tale of the past so vividly and beautifully.

View of the southern wall of the church. Look at the intricate design of this holy place of worship.

The end of my Notre Dame tour also marks the end of my visit to Paris. A sense of sadness filled me as I walked back to catch the subway train to take me back to my apartment. It was like an end of a delectable affair..one where you know the conclusion is inevitable but you kept on hoping that perhaps miraculously..the affair would last and it was the same for me..a reluctant farewell..stubbornly and perhaps understandably, I prefer "A bientot" instead of "au revoir".

And my utmost gratitude to Raphy and his family (and Pi) for their time, kindness and patience (plenty of it) in showing me their pride and joy, their land, their home. I'm really humbled by it all.

AO rating: A whirlwind affair taking me by storm, but leaving behind not devastation but cherishable memories to last a lifetime. An affair definitely worth a rekindling...

This is the castle where Mary Antoinette, Queen of France and wife to Louis XVI, was executed during the 3rd French revolution. Past so tragic, Presently so romantic...

30 September

After hearing from Mark that I would at least need a day or two to fully appreciate the Lourve, I decided to dedicate this entire day to visiting it. The weather was gloomy with the heavy black clouds threatening to pour down and so I was glad that I would be spending most of the day inside.

Arrived at the Lourve and managed to buy my ticket without having to stand too long in the queue, still too early for those Japanese tourists I guess, muhahaha! Once inside and armed with my audio guide and detail plan of the museum and its specific exhibits (slowly turning into a seasoned museum tourist I know...), I was ready to be cultured and educated. Beam me up Da Vinci!! That's right, amongst many other things, the priceless Mona Lisa IS IN DA HOUSE!!

Just to give you an idea of what I was up against, the Lourve museum is divided into 3 different sections, namely Sully, Denton and Richelieu. Each section has 4 floors and each floor has different exhibition(s) and there can be up to 20 rooms on each floor. So basically, if you do the maths, we're talking about 240 rooms of history, art, culture and priceless artefacts. I was in heaven! The genre on offer on the day of my visit was Art of Islam, Sculptures, Egyptian Antiquities, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities and the Medieval Louvre on the ground floor, Oriental and Egyptian Antiquities, more Roman and Greek Antiquities and arts of Africa; Asia, Oceania and Americas on the first floor, Objects d'art, Italian and French paintings and prints & drawings on the 2nd floor and on the 3rd floor, we have German; Flemish and Dutch paintings & drawings and Russian; Belgian, Swiss and Scandinavian paintings & drawings...yeah, that's all, not much :P

Words could not describe all the amazing things I saw, especially the Greek & Roman sculptures. I also confirmed my theory that Greek & Roman men took steroids, that's the only fallible explanation to why they've such muscular and big bodies but with small errr..you know...not that I was looking too closely of course *cough* (sooo glad they're not ice sculptures). It was endless series of facinating piece of history, one after the other..each time you think you've seen the most amazing sculpture, you then walk into the next room and there's the gigantic statue of Diana, Goddess of War that just blew you away.

Also equally impressive was the Crown Diamonds Room filled with the royal crowns and jewellery belonging mostly to Napoleon Bonaparte and his first Queen, Josephine. Talking of which, just like in Versailles, we were treated to Napoleon's apartment which in my humble opinion, was even more opulently and luxuriously decorated than his predecessors' chambers. Like many of the rooms in his apartment, the dining room was probably the most impressionable with 8 grand and large chandaliers lighting it, fully convincing me that the largest French import during that time must have been candles.

Then there were the paintings and drawings. Goodness me, room after room of incredible lifelike paintings by famous Italian and French artists. One of the more notable one was the coronation ceremony of Napoleon Bonaparte as painted by the royal artist to His Highness, David. Nothing obviously though could even come close to the hauntingly beautiful Mona Lisa, the room of which this painting was kept I saved for last...A funny incident took place here too. There was a sign in front of the picture that says no cameras allowed, obviously for fear of what the camera flashes would do to the lighting of this old painting. They have this Morrocan staff worker whose job was to walk around telling ppl off if they do decide to try and take any pictures. So I felt sorry for her when this incident happened. She walked across to one end of the group to tell them off for taking pictures but while she was doing that, at the other end, the flashes were going off as ppl used this opportunity to take some on the other side. This lady would then walked to this group and tell them off for taking the pictures and the other end would then start clicking away. So this poor lady just walked left to right constantly yelling out "excusez-moi, no pictures, s'il vous plait" to no avail.

I must confess towards the 5.5 hour mark of my visit yet to another room full of paintings, I began to lose interest and started to just skim through the paintings and walk out again. I liken this 'overdose of information' to when you see a Bargain Bin during a clothing Sale and there's tonnes of people rummaging through hundreds of clothing. They might be good quality clothing but somehow seeing so many of them in bulk and so easily available seemed to make you appreciate them less, a case of 'less is more' definitely. The wow factor took a hit and I knew then that I've seen enough that day and it was time to call it a day.

Venus/Apphrodite, The Roman/Greek Goddess of Love. Yes I know she pales in comparison when taken next to me...oh woe is her... :P

From the outside, The glass pyramid in front of the Louvre. Took more pictures, but afraid I'm running out of disc space to show all. Maybe when I get back...

That evening, Raphy cooked me dinner, not altogether French but I did try the 'foie gras' which is a goose liver pate, a specialty here in France, an appetizer normally favoured by the high class society, sharing the limelight with other fancy appetizers such as salmon or caviar. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate liver with a passion but for some reason, I really like this but Raphy assured me that I don't want to know how they're made or I'll never eat them again. Once again I opened my mouth and then thought better and kept on eating...

Tomorrow, will be walking to the Arc de Triumphe, Champs-Elyseé and all around the city to take in the general view of the city.