Kassie’s Blog

Hi all,

Paris was an absolute blast.  It’s such a beautiful city.

Day one:

We arrived in at Charles De Gaulle and waited about an hour to buy a train ticket to get into Paris.  It worked out being that we flew to Paris quicker than queuing for a train ticket.  I fell asleep on the train in and Daragh didn’t even wake me for the views of the Eiffel Tower!  Grr. I wasn’t impressed.  I was greeted by a million Parisian trying to get onto the train as I was trying to get off with a 15 kilo suitcase.  Train ride was finally over! Now I could start enjoying Paris.  Our hotel - Hotel du Petit Moulin (www.paris-hotel-petitmoulin.com) was just what we wanted to stay in.  It was very “us”.  You’ll read about it on the webpage but a quick overview was that it’s a 17th Century bakery that was converted into 17 hotel rooms.  All the rooms have different and very funky interiors.  The hotel was designed by the fashion designer Christian Lacroix. 

After settling into our room, we headed out for Trocadero where Daragh surprised me with the Eiffel Tower right in front of me.  We walked along the River Siene and viewed the Princess Diana memorial and tunnel in which she died.  Then we walked up to the Arc de Triomphe.  For those of you who don’t know, this is a giant roundabount with a huge arch in the middle of it.  5 main roads of Paris lead to this one roundabout.  There are no designated lanes and it is the only place in the world where not a single insurance company will insure you if you have an accident.  Well in the 10 minutes we stood there, there was a car pulled over with a shattered window and a man got hit my a car and was knocked off his bike.  That should give you a fair idea of how mental it is.

Day Two:

My birthday!!  I woke Daragh up early because I was excited and wanted to open my presents.  Mum and Dad bought me a 0.8 carat key necklace and earrings.  Daragh bought me a white gold ring with a rose gold band around it - no, not an engagement ring as everyone kept insisting.  We then headed to go up the top of the Eiffel Tower.  After a quick queue and a scary lift ride later, I was standing on top of Paris.  The sites were breathtaking.  We went for dinner at La Cantine (www.lacantine.com).  This was the coolest restaurant I have ever been to.  It was not typically French with most of the staff and clientelle speaking English.  It has a very funky ambient atmosphere, with a DJ playing some top tunes.

Day Three:

Today we hired bikes and cycled around Paris.  I think that is the best way to see the City - if you can get by the crazy Parisian drivers.  We cycled to the Lourve to find massive queues that I didn’t fancy lining up in.  That evening, we headed to Monmarte.  That’s the red light district where the Moulin Rouge is.  We found a crazy loo-laa lady in a restaurant who pretty much dragged us in off the street.  She had a menu in French, English, Italian and even German.  We thought that if it was bad food, at least the entertainment from this woman would have made up for it.  She served us a bread basket, walked away, walked back to our table, picked up the bread basket, walked with it to the front door, then came back and put it on our table.  What the??  The story goes on and it’s all about 10 year old ketchup, brawls in the kitchen etc etc.  Daragh and I enjoyed the craziness with a litre of wine to ease the pain.  We drunkenly strolled through Monmarte to the Moulin Rouge.  The street was lined with sex shop after sex shop.  A great atmosphere though and a very different side of the city that I had seen the previous 2 days.

Day Four:

Our last day was rainy.  I think that’s because Paris was sad it was losing us.  We made our way to the Lourve and got in.  A bit of information for people considering going to Paris.  Don’t line up in the queues I mentioned above, get the train to the Lourve stop and that stops inside the actual museum. Duh! How stupid did we feel.   We followed the crowds to see the original Mona Lisa painting.  It’s all I wanted to see.  We shopped around a bit and had some lunch before leaving for the airport.

Our flight was delayed taking off, circled above London for about 20 minutes before landing.  We were then hit with tube strikes in London.  All of the tubes, except for 3 lines, are out today.  I took 4 busses in order to get to work and I finally arrives at 10:40am this morning.  Craziness.

Overall, I absolutely loved Paris.  I couldn’t think of anything better to do for my birthday. I got spoiled lots too.

Pictures will be up in the next couple of days.  There are lots of them but my Mac is still getting fixed.  With the tubes being out, I’m not sure how I’m going to get there to collect it.  But watch this space and I’ll let you know as soon as they’re up.

Lots of love,

Kas xxxx

Can you tell I’m getting excited?  I’ve been researching things to do and I’ve found cheap-ish tickets to the Moulin Rouge so I definitely would like to go and check that out.  I think it’s one of those things you have to do when going to Paris.  I’m going to go camera mad when I get there so don’t forget to check out my Flickr when I get back www.flickr.com/photos/kl_strano 

My Mac is in at Apple getting fixed, I hope to have it back soon.  It was so boring not having any DVD’s to watch.  That problem too is solved with having purchased a new TV.  It was delivered on Saturday morning.  It’s a 32″ LCD and it looks fabulous.  It’s almost as big as my apartment, but, I’ll happily live uncomfortably in order to have TV.  I watched TV for the first 4 weeks that I was here, then I didn’t see it until Daragh moved here a month ago.  I was so excited to sink that little bit further back into reality.  So I hope everyone appreciates their televisions.

Alright, must be off.  I’ve got a busy day at work today so I will scoot.

Love Kas xx

I’ve just put up a couple of pictures from the weekend. Daragh’s good friend Ciaran came over from Ireland for the Rugby and as you can tell, the two boys about town got a wee bit drunk.  www.flickr.com/photos/kl_strano

Kas xx

Hi again,

It’s the week leading up to my 21st. Oh my God! How scary.  Daragh and I are off to Paris on Friday morning and we get home Monday night.  I can’t explain how excited I am.  I just can’t wait.  I’m glamming myself up for it.  Heading off to get my nails done today at lunch, then I’m getting my haircut on Thursday evening.  It’s all happening. 

We had a long weekend here just gone.  It was nice to laze about.  We were supposed to head to the Notting Hill carnival on Monday but Daragh’s camera broke, I wasn’t in the mood, and there are hundreds of thousands of people that go and that’s not really my kind of scene.  We went to an amazing exhibition in the TATE Modern on Global Cities.  It was a really educational exhibition listing some amazing facts of major cities populations and growth etc.

The Grand Prix was also on in Turkey on the weekend.  I’m not sure how many of you know but Daragh and I booked our tickets to come back to Oz in March.  I’ll get dates to you all soon, but we’re spending 4 days in Melbourne for the Grand Prix, then heading to Brisbane.  We’re back for about 2 weeks. 

I’m back there in a few weeks time also.  I get into Brisbane on the Friday evening of the 28th and leave on the 12th of October.  It’ll be good to see everyone and catch up.

 I’ve got so much to tell but will save it for another day.  You’ll be hearing from me in Paris.

Lots of love,

Kas xx

Righty-o, so I’ve taken my time in starting this up. But I’m really enjoying reading Conor and Claire’s blog (www.conandclaire.com) about their travels, so thought I’d do the same.  I’m thoroughly enjoying myself in my new job.  Everyone here is lovely and there are a few Aussie’s to make me feel a bit more at home.  I’ll probably be a bit quiet over the next week or so because my Mac has died.  I wiped the hard disk from it.  It’s on the way to Apple at the weekend to see if they can sort it out.

So here it is, Kassie’s new blog, all about life in London, and a little bit of Ireland, and a few places in between too!