We are going to Phuket in Jan 2019 just before school goes back! Super excited to have a week of relaxation after the stress that will be family Christmas ❤️
We will be staying in a mood suite at the Burasari Resort which looks something like the pics below. Needless to say, having my own jacuzzi has me ridiculous levels of happy.
Woohoo 2015 adventures ahoy!
So this year I get to have two grand overseas trips. One was planned at the end of last year and is a 4.5 week jaunt through Barcelona, Rome, Naples and Paris in October/November. The second has been a little unexpected (read: last minute) and will hopefully see me adventuring to the USA for 10 days in late June.
So first, let’s talk about Europe. We jet off on October 12th to Barcelona and after a few days lounging in the sun we will join up with our intrepid tour. This will see us traveling for 15 days from Barcelona through a variety of locations across to Rome. After fare-welling our tour and a few extra days in Rome, we will head to Naples which puts us nice and close to both Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. A few nights later it will be up to Paris for 5 nights, including attending the Moulin Rouge to celebrate my 30th birthday! Entering the age of denial in style.
Intrepid tours are a company I am not familiar with but B has done a very extended one before and had a lot of positive things to say. Their online reviews are positive and the idea of a small tour appealed to me although I am not sure how I will cope with the reliance on public transport to get from one city to the next, as opposed to say…an air conditioned coach. We have chosen one of the more relaxed tours (no camping etc) although they did have all sorts of trips for all sorts of interests and budgets.
The USA trip is a little more haphazard as it will be planned and booked very last minute. B is likely to be heading away for work over there for a few months so I get to go visit…hooray! The visit has been timed around my work commitments which is why it will be about a month into his work trip rather than closer to the end. At the moment it is actually still not fully confirmed as I can’t book my flights until he has the work go-ahead but it is looking likely. He will be based in the Washington area so there will be lots of exploring of Washington as well as 5 nights in New York! EEEEEE! Do you guys realise what is in Washington? Do you? DO YOU? Let me show you….
Not to mention…NEW YORK!! Very exciting. Probably our last year of travel adventures for a while (although South America and Antarctica/The Arctic are still high on the want list) so time to make the most of it. Did I mention that there will be bears in the US? Baby bears? Baby pandas? Did you see that?
Since Europe is mostly booked and paid for and the USA is still a “wait and see” operation….
The big discussion in our house is around luggage choices at the moment.
Neither of us are super happy with our suitcases but I am not prepared to fully commit to a backpack and B is not prepared to let me just have a suitcase on the intrepid tour as we are relying on trains to get around a fair bit. Stubborn man. So at the moment we are both spending a lot of time reading and researching. This is my front runner – the 80L Osprey Sojourn convertible wheeled bag although there are a lot of other similar things that cost less (but seem to break easy). He is a mad Osprey lover whereas I am new to their products….so we shall see.
Mel Update: No USA trip ended up happening…but Europe looms!
Well, where to begin!? Last nights post had all my daytime Paris photos, there were quite a few as we crammed A LOT into one day.
We woke up very early and instead of waiting for the coach, caught the RER (local train) into the city. We went to the Louvre first and were there at 8am to take some lovely morning photos and be first in like at the carousel entrance! Woo! We wandered through part of it and saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and a few other famous pieces. I spent quite awhile in the Botticelli wing. We then figured there was plenty of time to have a quick breakfast before catching the RER to meet the tour group at 11am to go up the Eiffel tower.
Ba-bow. Wrong!
Apparently the French definition of “quick cafe service” is “I will make all your food individually, one at a time and chortle quietly to myself whilst you wait”. Forty minutes later…we were running through the streets trying to make the Eiffel tower meet up! We were 8 minutes late but the tour manager waited for us 🙂 lucky!
We went up to the 2nd floor and the views were amazing. We also went up to the top but you couldn’t see anything due to the fog. I don’t care, I can still say I went to the top of the Eiffel tower! Errr I can also say I stuck my head out through the wire because emma is a terrible influence on me….all the other tourists up there thought we were hilarious.
We took a bunch of photos up, down and all around the tower then walked back up towards the Arc de Triomphe and stopped at a delicious little French bistro for lunch. We all climbed the arc (284 steps, with really bad asthma, possibly not my best idea) and the view was great. The history was amazing as well. Although still foggy we could take photos which actually had the Eiffel tower IN them. We used the rest of our day to walk down Avenue Des Champs Élysées and check out the majorly expensive shops I felt hideously uncomfortable even looking at, let alone walking into.
I had a nutella crepe omnomnom.
The tour bus picked us up at 4pm for a quick change of clothes before dinner and a show at Moulin Rouge. It was amazing. A woman jumped into a tank with no clothes on and a bunch of giant snakes! You can’t take photos inside but can outside so that was the best I could do. I was surprised there were so many male dancers. Afterwards, a lot of the bus went out to get drunk but I felt crummy and very tired so didn’t go, I have recaught the death cold going around! It was 1am by the time we got in from Moulin Rouge and we were up at 6am.
This morning it was time for contiki family goodbyes as lots of our bus stayed in Paris and then on to London. That was sad as I have made some really good friends but Facebook and mobile numbers mean we will be able to keep in touch. 9 hours later we arrived in London. The ferry trip was very rough but at least I got some amazing pics of the white cliffs of Dover, grandma will be happy.
We are staying at the royal national hotel again tonight before heading out to do one night with family in Potters Bar tomorrow…then back for 3 nights in London.
Tonight we went for a walk up and down Oxford street and ate £60 worth of amazing Indian food and delicious cocktails. Such an improvement over service station food and mass prepared meals! It is 10:30pm now and time for bed as we are both very fluey and my asthma is making me very tired. Damn contiki cough.
The blog shall continue until i leave London because although the contiki part is over, I’m still on holiday and having a grand adventure with lots of pictures for you guys at home 🙂
Today I got some lovely “have a safe and super fun trip” presents from my amazing colleagues at Canning College. I felt so special!
The presents were: a toiletries bag, travel diary, individual shower “sheets” in a dispenser (looking forward to testing those!), a reading light and a lovely, perfumed scarf! Plus the Vegemite from the other day 😀
I feel very lucky to work with such lovely ladies xo
Mel's Travel Blog 