A week in Paris

I've been in Paris for a week now, and I have to say that I love this city!

I know there have been one or two people in history before me who have expressed similar sentiments, but it's all very new for me!

I've been staying in the Latin Quarter, which is an old student area. My hostel is on a cobblestone street with a market at the bottom of the hill. As I've discovered, pretty much any part of Paris that looks 'quintessentially Parisian' is usually full of tourists, but it is still very pretty!

My first full day in Paris I did the classic thing - went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was bloody cold and windy, but the view was pretty amazing! I think it also helped me to get a bit of orientation for the city.


After that I decided to head to Notre Dame. It's kind of amazing to be at places you've only ever seen photos of. I haven't climbed the towers yet - I was a bit surprised at just how long the lines for everything in Paris (and I'm assuming most of Europe) are. So I will save that for another day.

My second day here I went to the Louvre for a bloody long time! It was pretty amazing, but I probably would have enjoyed it if I did it over two shorter days rather than one big one. But hey, who wants to pay €9.50 twice?

Did I mention there were lots of people? I think there's a painting there somewhere...



The next day (I think - it's already a bit of a blur) I went to le Arc de Triomphe. This might be controversial, but I think I liked the view better from there than I did from the Eiffel Tower. Maybe because you could see the tower itself?

On my brother's advice (nay, insistence) I've also been to Sainte Chappelle. It was built as a private chapel for the King, and to house what's supposed to be Jesus's crown of thorns (it's now in Notre Dame). But it has these elaborate stain glass windows that tell different biblical stories. They are so elaborate and complex it is amazing to think that some poor sod made them all.

Next to Sainte Chappelle, in fact actually part of the same complex, is the Concierge, which was a royal castle back in the day, but was used as a tribunal and prison during the Revolution. Marie Antoinette was imprisoned there, but a lot of the building has been changed around since then. 

Possibly my favourite day so far was yesterday. I went to Montmarte, which is the district where the Moulin Rouge is. I went to Sacré-Cœur, which is a beautiful church on top of a hill. From the top of the steps you can see an amazing view out over Paris. And to me, it's a prettier church than Notre Dame.

I sat on the steps out the front of the church listening to this dude play a harp (he played Ave Maria, followed by Let It Be!) for a long time, and just taking in the view.

Montmarte was an area which attracted lots of artists in the middle of last century, and there's a museum there of Salvador Dali's work. Now, I don't claim to understand a lot about surrealism. There were lots of melting clocks. Yes I know, I know, it's about the unrelenting nature of time etcetera. I say suck it up Salvador, it's how the world works. But seriously, it was pretty amazing. I like some of his stuff better than others of course, but it is very interesting to see these sorts of things in person rather than in a textbook.

I've also just spent a fair bit of time wandering around and trying to get to know the city a bit, and dropping into a café for a glass of wine or a coffee. It is just amazing that this city could have been built.

So far I am having an amazing time! I think I'm getting used to the cold (I bought a nice coat at a flea market, which helps a lot!), and I'm starting to be able to navigate some parts of Paris without having to look at my map every two seconds!

I'm largely enjoying travelling alone so far. It was a bit overwhelming on one morning in particular, but I have to remind myself to be sociable when I'm at the hostel and make friends, otherwise it doesn't really happen. That can be hard when I'm cold and tired, but it's worth it.

On the morning of my birthday I stood up at breakfast and announced to the room that my name is Steven, I'm Australia and it was my birthday. I ended up going out with Germans and Mexicans to sing karaoke! I did my best to educate them in Australian musical culture, vis-à-vis vis Midnight Oil.

My French is appalling, but getting better. I met up with a friend of my sister and brother-in-law who lives here, and she helped me with a few pronunciations!

As for my plans from here, I have a friend from England who I met in Ngukurr in the Northern Territory of all places coming over next weekend! So I'll stay here until then, then think about heading somewhere. Not sure where yet, I'm looking at either Normandy or Dijon.

I feel like I've done a lot more than what I've written here, but that's enough for now!

Abu Dhabi and Al Ain

Right now I'm sitting in the kitchen of my hostel in Paris, eating a lunch I've cooked myself which I'm particularly proud of, but I'll tell you about that another day. 

When I booked my ticket to Paris from Sydney the cheapest airline was Etihad, and so I decided to spend a few days in Abu Dhabi on my way over. It was a pretty good decision!

For the first time I tried a webstie called airbnb.com - it's great for travelling. Kind of like couch surfing but you have to pay. I stayed with this lovely French couple (providence perhaps?) Edouard et Sophie, who were both lovely. They were very generous with their knowledge and time, and offered to give me lifts to various places.

I landed in Abu Dhabi very early in the morning local time, about 5am. After clearing all the checkpoints, I got to Edouard et Sophie's flat about 6.45am. They were very patient about the early start! Their flat was on the 40th floor, and my room, which was very luxurious, also had an excellent view over Abu Dhabi. 

Not bad eh?

So I arrived early in the morning, had a coffee with Edouard et Sophie, caught up on some sleep and then went for a wander in Abu Dhabi.

Now, anyone looking for traditional Arabian culture probably should not go to the United Arab Emirates. Edouard told me to Emiratis make up only 18 per cent of the country's population. If you want French food, Italian food, Lebanese food, the UAE is a great place to go! I did manage to find one place which made Saudi food, but it was hard to find.

Anyway, I spent my first day wandering around pretty much what you can see in the above photo (there are a lot more sky scrapers behind the perspective of that photo).

That evening I went to the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It's named after Sheik Zayed, who is called the father of the UAE. Pretty much half the country is named after him. It's the only mosque open to the public in the country, and you can take a tour around it. Construction began only in 1996, so it's pretty modern. It is kind of amazing. It has 82 two domes, is made largely of imported marble, the gold on top of the domes and minarets is all 24 caret, has a capacity of 40,000 for prayer time and is just huge!

Inside the main prayer hall (under the biggest dome) is a chandelier that weighs 12 tonnes. They claim to have the largest carpet in the world in their main prayer hall. It boggles the mind how much it all must have cost.

I hung around the mosque until sunset, wandering around and taking photos. The evening prayers started, and hearing the music that calls people to prayer was very interesting. 

The next day I decided to go to Al Ain, on my brother Kris's advice. It's about two hours from Abu Dhabi by bus, and was actually where the leaders of the Abu Dhabi emirate came from before Abu Dhabi city was developed. So to me it felt a lot more authentic. 

Now here's a fun fact. Most of the attraction in Al Ain are shut on Mondays. Guess which day of the week I was there? The city has a lot of old forts with museums in them, but I was unable to go into any of them. Still, it was interesting to wander around and have a look at the outside.

Al Ain is where it is because there's an oasis there. It's actually still used as to farm dates. They have a traditional method of irrigation which is basically flood irrigation as far as I can work out. The water flows from wells through these channels, the side of which can be opened (or unblocked really). It wasn't particularly hot on the day I visited, early 30s I would say, but even then it was clear what a relief it was to enter the oasis and be shaded and cool.

I managed to find a really good Middle Eastern lunch at a street-side cafe, and then decided to head to Jabeel Hafeet, the mountain which you can see from pretty much anywhere in Al Ain. It is a really, really weird landscape. It kind of looks like a Star Trek producers dream - one can imagine Captain Kirk fighting a giant lizard there without any problems. It's just rocky outcrops coming from nowhere in the desert. 

I hired a taxi to take me to the top. Unfortunately you can't climb right to the top, but this is the view from a lookout showing the summit. On the other side of the mountain is Oman (I think). 

After that it was back to Abu Dhabi for a lovely dinner with Edouard et Sophie. They cooked Australian beef, and I bought a bottle of South Australian wine to share. Had to have an early night though, as my flight to Paris left at 8.45am the next morning. 

There were a few dramas at the airport, but I might save that for a later post. I've now spent four days in Paris and am loving it. I'm staying at a hostel in the Latin Quarter, and have already done a few touristy things. But more on that later.

Driving south

Right now I'm at my sister and brother-in-law's house waiting to go to the airport to fly to Paris! 

Well, actually, I'm spending two nights in Abu Dhabi, then onward to France. This has of course meant I've packed up my life in the Northern Territory, and delivered a load of junk to my parents' shed.

I was able to find a guy who wanted to get his twin cab Hilux from Darwin to Sydney, but didn't want to drive. So I offered to do it for him! I hadn't been to Uluru, so I wanted to do that, and it also meant I could visit my grandparents in Cobram, Victoria, with only a bit of a detour. It also meant I could stay with my colleague and friend Caddie in Alice Springs.

All up it was a touch over 5,000 kilometres. I had my dog Bruce with me, and he behaved very, very well!

After two nights in Alice with Caddie I went to Uluru - which was amazing! This is a photo taken at sunrise. I also went and had a glass of red wine while watching the sunset, but I reckon the sunrise photos are better. You can also see Kata Tjuta to the left. Amazing.

After watching the sunrise I raced up to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). The sun was up, but the colours were still amazing. I did part of the Valley of the Winds walk, and would have liked to stay longer, but I still had a long way to drive that day.

I had never been south of Alice Springs for work, so it was great to see that part of the NT, and the South Australian outback. This photo was taken driving south of Coober Pedy. It was a beautiful sunset. The outback was so, so different to the country around Katherine, but beautiful in its own, desolate way.

One of the best bits of the drive was rolling my swag out at a rest stop about 60 kilometres north of Woomera. The stars were amazing and just the sense of isolation was pretty unique. 

After that I drove to Cobram, which was a bloody big day, but it meant I could have two nights there and spend time with my grandparents and my extended family. Given I'm about to head to Europe for an indefinite period of time I'm very glad I made that effort.

So anyway, just a quick update - the first one for about two years! I'm planning to blog here from time to time, but I make no promises about regularity!

I'd better go make sure I don't miss my flight...