I'm slacking...

  Tuesday I didn't do much-- Paris recovery and WICKED!  Chris and I went for supper at this great place that was all chicken.  Then hit up the theatre and saw Wicked, finally.  I've wanted to see this for so long!  The show was fantastic, despite having to stop the production after the third number for a few minutes to fix some technical malfunction that was making a loud noise... The pic i've posted is of the main screen, a map of Oz highlighting the Emerald City.

Wednesday I was back in action-- got up and tubed to Kensington High Street to shop.

  However, I didn't really find anything to buy--strange I know.  But, even on sale, stuff here is SO expensive when you convert the money back to Canadian, and I haven't found anything I couldn't get at home.  I'm going to hit up some more places tomorrow in a last ditch shopping effort, but it isn't looking good.

Instead, I walked through Kensington and Hyde parks, down to Green Park and Buckingham

 Palace, then over to Whitehall, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  It ended up being a day of

 signtseeing and walking for 7 hrs.  So sore.

  (Thursday has been a somewhat recovery day too... chillin til Cirque du Soleil!)  It was a perfect English day-- damp, cool and foggy.  Looked like Halifax.  

Today is also cool and foggy... I am heading out to check out some more stores, and Chris and I are heading over to Royal Albert Hall to see CIrque du Soleil's Quidam tonight!

Romantic Paris!

So, this day began with a 4am wake up call. We hauled ourselves out of bed and got ready, and went down to meet the car at 5 am. The night before, I had requested a "taxi"...we got outside and it was a sleek, hot Mercedes. We were like.. "uhh...how much does this cost?" 24 pounds to Kings Cross...ok. Acceptable. We found out later that that was amazing, as we took a real, garbage cab on the way back to the hotel and it was 26! Anyway... we started with a Mercedes. Good start.

Caught the train at St. Pancras to Paris, and had 9 hrs to be fabulously French. We started by mastering the Metro (maybe not mastering...) and heading to St. Michel Notre Dame. I've always wanted to see Our Lady, mostly because of Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame and was a little disappointed to not see Quasimodo and Esmeralda. Alas. The building is insane and so gorgeous... there isn't much I can say about it. It was just a beautiful place.

We next headed over to the Louvre, walking towards Champs d'Elysees. The Louvre is huge and majestic, and would be impossible to get through in an entire day, let alone a few hours. We decided to give it an hr, and went to see the general tourist sites-- the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo! Both were incredible to see, as was the entrance to the Louvre itself. Chris and I were like... :

Chris: That's the thing from that movie...

Me: Yea, the Tom Hanks one...

Chris: yes, where she is buried...
Me: Exactly, that Dan Brown novel! *silence*
Chris: yea, that one.

We then decided to skip L'Arc de Triomphe, as we were running low on time... we also missed Versailles, which was the dream. So, another trip to Paris will be in order! We had some slight Metro issues here, trying to get on the right line to the Eiffel stop... but then realized we were reading the bus route map and quickly got straightened out. Quickly = 20 mins later. The Eiffel is still majestic and romantic in the day, though it is kind of a giant stick of steel. We couldn't go to the very top level as it was closed for the week for renovations, but the second level was still high and gave us some great views of the city.

After touring Eiffel, we decided to hit Montmarte and the centre of Bohemia (Toulouse!). Montmarte was everything I expected it to be, and we stopped to have a glass of wine and a snack at a cafe, and proceeded to check out some of the sex shops. Wow. These are a little different from the Canadian version. Let's just say more "fetish". We were really curious about the peep shows... but decided we didn't have the time!
Of course...we couldn't miss the famous Moulin Rouge. We didn't have time for supper and a show, but it was still awesome to see!

Londontown!

Well, after a grueling journey across the pond I have made it to the beautiful hotel and mastered the Tube lines. Mostly. No mistakes today, anyway!

I got into London and decided to be cheap and take the tube to Gloucester Rd and walk to the hotel, saving 30$ from a bus and a whopping 90$ from a cab (the British Pound will kick the Canadian Dollar's ass any day). Unknown to me was the fact that it was about 2 miles to get from Baggage to the trains. So that was a good time. Then I bought my tube pass for the week, looking like total garbage, and tried to make little eye contact and get straight to a shower. No judgment.

The hotel is fabu and much more spacious than my previous London accommodations. They also have wonderful room service, as I ordered the kids menu for 7 pounds. Score. They brounght me pizza, garlic bread and a wee banana split. Delicious.

My goal today was to find Paddington Bear, so the first thing I did was hop on the Circle Line and head to Paddington Station. There were lots of lame tourists like me taking pictures and buying bears, so I didn't feel totally lame. And I got my bear. And I love him.

Then it was off to Camden Market, which is a massive area that springs to life on Sundays. It was essentially a lot of ethnic markets put together, with a dash of tattoo parlour and goth renaissaince faire garbage. But, the food was delicious and the crowd was happy and there was a lot to see! There was a lot of stuff from India that had been taken from a super cheap Indian market and moved to London with 10x price increase, so I didn't buy much. But, I got some gifts for other people and beautiful art. I got a set of 3 black and white oil paintings and one of 2 elephants...very Indian, for luck! It was the one thing I didn't get in the country, so I was happy to find it here.

By this time...around 330, I was passing out. I got on my train home and fell asleep twice, but didn't miss my transfers! Yay! I came back and had a fabu nap and am now waiting for Chris to get here. Travelling by yourself is only so much fun...can't wait for Paris tomorrow!

Yes, this is totally for my Mother. Cindy, I hope you are happy!

Ye Olde Motherland

Up next: London and Paris. I will keep you ( =my mother) apprised of my survival as I trek around the homeland!