June Highlights

Michaela's visit at the start of June took a lot out of me as we had a crazy week and crammed a fair amount in so the week or so after that was pretty chilled and then I got back into the swing of things and resumed normal pace for the rest of June, Here are some pictures of the highlights : )

The 11th was Sara's (Italian roommate's) Birthday so we decided to have people around for dinner, have to admit it was a bit of a mission getting home at 6:30 and having lasagne for 10 people cooked by 8pm but we managed to pull it off and we had a great time, even moved the table out into the garden so had a nice night chilling outside (inbetween showing new flatmates around!) Two friends of her's visited from the 13th - 18th (great to meet them as Im going over for a weekend in July) so we went dancing at Roxy and Koko and cruised around Portobello Market.










I didnt have any travelling plans for the whole month of June but I managed to have a couple of amazing weekends, with 16/17 June being particularly international. On the Saturday Jess (old soccer buddy from Vic) was over on a long weekend from Hamburg for a work function so we caught up over lunch and chocolate cake at my place before I headed out to a party at Ania (Polish mate's) place with all her friends which was awesome to chill and catch up as I havent seen her in ages. And then on the Sunday it was Juliette (French friend for Japan's) birthday picnic in Greenwich Park so had a pretty amazing weekend :)










For a couple of days my cousin Tom (Paul's brother) was visiting on his way to France so it good timing that I was in London otherwise I would have missed catching up with him. We met on Sunday to have fish'n'chips at Anchor Bar by the Thames for lunch and then checked out the Refugee Festival on South Bank - I swear there's always free music and stalls and entertainment along there! After a busy weekend my evil cough came back so I had to take a few days off work but wasnt going to miss the opportunity for one final dinner with Tom and Paul. We went to Gaucho (an Argentine Steak Restaurant in Picadilly) inside was dimly lit with animal prints on the walls and we spent four hours there enjoying a delicious dinner - of course we had to order the steak! So Good! Dad would be jealous!



















On Thurs the 21st four of us when to check out the Dave Dobbyn concert - kind of hypocritical that my first time to see him perform live would be in London not back home but it was a great atmosphere. There were two opening acts - the first sung the most beautiful version of "E Papa Wiari" Ive ever heard and then "Chris Cope and Band" played some pretty cool stuff (and the lead guitarist was gorgeous!!). Dave came on and everyone knew the words to his songs, he did all the favourites and a lot of new arrangements too, and involved everybody for "Welcome Home". It was just a great Kiwi night out and gives you a lot of pride in your country, unfortunately I didnt get a pic with him to add to my "Famous Friends" list of Elemeno P and Steriogram but I did manage to catch his water bottle (with cat-like reflexes) so might have to load that up on Facebook.





































That weekend there was a free "West End Live" event happening in Leicester Square where the cast from a whole bunch of top West End shows were performing 15 minute "enticers" alongside a load of other musical acts. http://www.westendlive.co.uk/ I was there for 12-3 on Sat and managed to see Dirty Dancing, Kids Hip Hop Performance, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Fame, Mamma Mia, Chicago, Kids Chorus/Dance Groups and Avenue Q - so definitely have a few things to add to the ever growing "Must-do before I leave London" list





































Saturday arvo I caught up with and Aussie mate of mine, John to watch the NZ vs SA Tri-Nations game at the Walkies in Shaftesbury Ave, pretty tense but the last ten mins were amazing - looking forward to the NZ vs AUS game this weekend! Headed to John's mates place in Leytonstone (East London) for a BBQ party on their rooftop and had a great time hanging out with a bunch of randoms all dressed up in trashy 80's costumes (not too sure what the theme started out as but it ended up being fun)



















Back at the West End Live on the Sunday to catch Stomp, Menopause: The Musical, Wicked and Bollywood dancers, but the most amazing was an electric string quartert called "Stringfever" http://www.stringfever.co.uk/ Hunt around for some videos of them, especially the "History of Music" it was amazing. Caught up with Sara's other Italian friends who were visiting and grabbed a coffee as West End Live wound down but definitely and amazing way to spend a weekend - yay for free stuff in London!










Had been out to a Green Day cover band gig on Friday at the Swan with a Candian mate Brady (who I met on the Becks tour in Bremen and came along with a mate of his Jordan to a BBQ at Paul's earlier on in the month) who is now crashing in our lounge for a couple of weeks while he finds his feet in London so the last week on June involved quite a few late night chats (good thing I don't start work until 9:30!). It also meant I had someone to celebrate Canada Day with, good memories as I was actually in the Rockies for the last Canada Day, so checked out the live music and festivities in Trafalgar Square on Friday and finished up a busy weekend with a few drinks at the Maple Leaf in Covent Garden and dancing at Zoo Bar in Leicester Square until 3am on a Monday morning with new friends was a great finish to a crazy weekend




























I was all over the show this weekend, between Freddie's (ex-Swedish housemate) leaving drinks on Thursday after work, catching up with Ian in Cockfosters for dinner on Thur, Lunch with Juliette in Greenwich on Fri, Free outdoor movie called Monsoon wedding (entirely in Hindi with no English subtitles - awesome!) near the painted/signed guitar display at London Bridge on Fri night, up early on Sat with Katia to watch us lose the game, another BBQ and dancing at Revolution in Clapham...










Okay so now its technically July but its all part of the one weekend so our Sunday day trip out to Greenwich can slot in here, we had lunch at Slug before heading out to the Greenwich market and the Prime Meridian of the world (the rain stayed away - just!) There was yet another BBQ to attend - this time at Juliette's - she goes back to France on Sat : ( After that we headed back into town and watched our Saffa friends (Greg and Dave) in a metal gig at Tottenham and then finished off the weekend with the aforementioned Canada Day antics. Good times. If things continue on this way I may have to do more than one blog post a month though. Glad life is still keeping me on my toes - no point in slowing down now!

One year on...

Seeing as its my one year anniversary of the trip (I left NZ on 26 June 2006) I decided chocolate cake for afternoon tea at work was in order - yay for M&S Swiss Rolls : )

I wanted to write something deep and philosphical (dont think I can even spell it and Im not great with words) and I thought there were some things that deserved a mention on this anniversary. Firstly I wanted to say a huge thanks to my family and friends back home and around the world for your support this year (Big Warm Fuzzy Melissa Hug!) Thanks for your emails, phonecalls, presents, comments, chocolate fish, photos and visits (keep them coming!) Its been amazing and I can't believe its less than 6 months before I will be back home with some of you.

I could say this year has gone really quickly, which in some respects in has but Ive also managed to cram in quite a lot of stuff. Its great to flick back through this blog and reminisce. Yes Ive taken all the amazing pictures of the Rocky Mountains, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Sydiving, Niagara Falls, Times Square, Big Ben, Stonehenge, The Eiffel Tower etc but at the end of the day its the things that haven't made it into this blog that are the most amazing; the way I can wander down streets where the houses are all attached in London and not think its weird anymore and its the D&M chats until the wee hours with the Polish guy in the Krakow hostel, The Scottish guy I met in Oxford and the Canadian guy I met in Bremen that have really made this trip worth it.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes"

Thanks to everyone I have met along the way, so many people have been so kind to me and I want to repay this kindness - even if I can't do this directly to them, I like to think I can project it out into the world. I have loved being able to open my home, travel to other's homes and spend time with people from all around the world, and I have learnt so much from these conversations, but I think Ive lived up to my profile of "travelling the world to open my mind and heart" and I look forward to continuing this in my last six months.

Plans for these last six months have changed a little bit but it should still be exciting. I've bought a rail pass for September so will cover Italy, Greece, Switzerland and Southern Germany (finishing with Oktoberfest). Ive got an evil lingering cough so not up to doing the camping tour in the Western Desert and cruise down the Nile in Egypt this time round so have decided to head off to Scandanavia for the couple of weeks in October before leaving Europe for two weeks each in Thailand in the Philippines in November and home in time for graduation in December. Should be fun

Well, sorry this has been a really wordy post, I couldnt find many pictures to express the way Im feeling about how much Ive learnt from travelling this past year, but just to remind you Im still the same old Melissa you all know and love, here is pic of me playing inside the water fountain at South Bank a couple of Sunday's ago - good times!

Peace and Love xx

Lunch In Paris

5th June 2007
Just so happens to be Mark's Birthday - Happy 21st babe!

We had a pretty early start, but if you're planning to go to Paris just for the day then I guess it's to be expected - and the sunrise at 4am was beautiful!










Taking the Eurostar (not actually as expensive as Id first thought especially seeing as they do youth rates for under 26's) we arrived to the station at 10:30 and Adeline met us there. It was great to see her again and we recognised each other straight away even though its been almost two years. The first thing we did (after grabbing a quick crossoint for breakie) was head straight up to Basilique du Sacre Cour, it was a beautiful building and so were the views from the top of the hill out over the city.










Having Adeline to show us around was amazing (especially seeing as we didnt really have time to get lost). We wandered through the artsy markets of Monmarte, a guy made a silhoutte of me out of a single piece of black paper and scissors and we tried on buree's - look how French I am! (okay so when you're writing this down it doesnt seem so funny but in my head you should have a French accent when you read this : P)










We wandered back down the hill towards the town and hopped aboard the Metro, gotta love the great public transport connections in all major cities in Europe! For our one meal in Paris we decided to get crepes from a street vendor, Ive had them in Japan and England with sweet toppings on but for lunch I went for ham, cheese and egg and it was delicious. We took a break to soak up the rays, eat lunch and wave at all the tourists on the floating restaurants on the Le Siene (river that runs through the city) before another wander.

With Adeline guiding us we just happened to stumble upon Notre Dame and later on, the Lourve. Unfortunately the Lourve happened to be closed on Tuesdays (something to keep in mind if anyone else is crazy enough to go to Paris just for the day - not that you'd be able to get around the whole thing in one day anyway!) But it was nice to chill outside for a little bit.












We walked past the Place De La Concorde and through Jardin Des Tuilertes (a big park in the middle of the city - kind of reminded me of the National Mall in DC with the Washington monument!) and then we wandered along Champs De Elysees to sit down a little cafe for a bit of afternoon tea and a coffee. We were just sitting quietly chatting and enjoying the afternoon sun in the outside part of the cafe when all of a sudden a group of armed policeman made a row along the footpath in front of us and about ten minutes later a group of protestors showed up. Adeline said it was something to do with them outsourcing a call centre of a telephone company and explained that protests were at the essence of French culture, so I had to get a photo looking like a hippy in from on the armed policemen!



















The two big "must-see's" in France were a great way to end our trip, we wandered all the way to the end of Champs De Elysees to be greeted by the Arc De Triomphe - I still dont understand why they build these amazing structures in the middle of roundabouts... the same thing happened in Madrid too but it makes it so hard to take a decent picture! And we finished off the day with a photo of the three of us in front of Tour Eiffel.














Mick was pretty tired after an intense day covering as much of Paris as we could so she chilled in the park for a bit while I went up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower. There were huge queues to take the lifts up but none for the stairs so I decided to walk up (you can only walk up as as high as the second level) and although I didnt have time to take the lift right to the top, the views from the Eiffel Tower out over Paris in the late afternoon were still pretty amazing.



















Well, we managed to cram about as much into Paris in a day as possible. It was a great chance to catch up with Adeline and awesome to take Mick to another country for the day on her visit. Had an amazing experience with you guys : )