We love Paris

We had very pre concieved ideas about Paris and French people esp Sean. However we are really enjoying it. Our timing has been good and bad. Yesterday was esther Monday so heaps was such, which was not cool but it was good cause the metro and streets we really empty so we could enjoy area and take everything in. Also we have not met any rude french locals which we were expecting. We went up the eiffel tower which was cool can tick thtat off bucket list, however not happy standing in line for an hour. Visiting Arc de Triomphe, notre dame, visited the louvre but it was shut today and yesterday. Done a little shopping and went to the big famous shopping mall Galeries Lafayette. And done heaps of walking and wondering. On and we have this amazing pretty cheap pastry shop near our hostel where i buy my dessert from, the best cirtus tart!!!
Catch ya

Paris

We arrived in Paris last night with great success finding our hostel. Its good however the 1st place with no air con and boy do we need it it sooo hot! Today not sure of pln yet its a public holiday here, but we will sus something out. Only 3 nights lmeft of holiday, looking forward to nz and seeing every1.
Catch ya later, also happy easter

From the ship

We have been cruising for 5 nights now and its awesome. so much to do as well as just relax. The weather has not been amazing every day however still very cool. Each day we stop at a port and go off for the day. It only rains 22 days a year on Santorini and with our luck it rainned. But still cool. The food on the ship is amazing and just sooo much of it. We can chose to eat at the buffet or in the resurant. We eat dinner at the resturant which invovles 4 courses every night. Today is best weather we have had its 20 degress with no wind and sun shinning. We just been on the deck having a game of bingo, didnt win :-(
We docking in Corfu in 2 hours so better go have some lunch first, we eating in the resturant for lunch today so another 4 course lunch. yummmm
Catch ya in Paris in a couple of days.

Arrived in Venice

Ohhh also forgot to mention we did visit Santa Maria del fiore the amazing church that my mum played her bass in when she was in Florence.
We caught the train to Venice and easily found our hotel that's on the mainland just out of Venice. We then headed on 5min train ride into Venice. The expression of just get lost in Venice is very true. Even with a map it's impossible to no where you are. We found the rialto bridge and wondered round the shops filled with either glassware or masks. It's cool to be here where so many of our fab movies have been set such as Jason Bourne jumping across streets through windows. Early night tonight in our quiet hotel unlike the roudy hostel in Florence.

Stunning florence

We have both really enjoyed Florence.we love how everything is central and in walking distance of our hostel.we have spent most of our time just walking the streets.we enjoyed the huge market,walking up piazzale michelangelo which gave an amazing view of the city, walked across ponte vecchio a very old bridge with heaps of jellery shops over it, we walked around the boboli gardens,we visited David the replica and we have eaten a lot of pasta and pizza.today we headed to Pisa by train and visited that famous leaning tower. Heading to venice tomorrow. Hope all is well with everyone at home.

Ahhhh this is the Italy I was looking for.

We caught the fast train to florance arriving just after lunch we were able to find our awesome hostel with an easy 7 min walk.after checking in we headed out to wonder the streets found heaps of shops and a massive market. Awesome! Heading to hostel restaurant for a cheap €5 tea. Yeah can't wait till tomorrow. Loving weather!

The end of Rome

Yesterday was interesting, it started with a productive sleep in which we needed, then we planned to head to the Pantheon however we wanted to go to Trastevere a region that runs along the river which is full of restaurants, we planned to go there for lunch. As we live in the suburbs we found out there was an over ground train that took us straight there so we set out. We waited for our train and it never showed... 1 hour later...wondering what has happened to Romas so faithful transport system lol, then we clicked it was a Sunday does this mean they dont run? We studied the timetable and no nothing about Sundays, however it did say it did not run during a day of Jewish celebration. Was it our luck, we waited for another half hour to see if the next one showed and yes it did. Thankfully. Crazy City! It turned out this train did not take us to the lively part of Trastevere  it took us to the scary part of Trastevere and luckly we meet an American with good knowledge on the train who told us not to get off there and to travel into the city and walk. Which we did especially once we saw the Suburb of Trastevere out the window of the train, ahhhhhh. We walked to the Pantheon  amazing place and happy there was no line to got in, then wondered the streets seeing lots of cool things. Came across the nice Trastevere  and found a resturant for Dinner, yum. Headed back to Accmmodation for a relaxing evening.
Our observations of roma
A city with such potnetial to be so stunning is distroyed by as Lorna described Dirty, Dirty, Dirty - i have never seen so much graffitti ever and A city with a pretty dodge Transport system
However if you look beyond these thinng Rome is really amazing with a truck load of history that has amazed both of us.