“Oooooooo. I LOOOOOVE Paris!” exclaim most travellers excitedly after a visit to the City of Light. After all, it’s the home to some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks; of high end fashion, art, and literature; the streets are filled with the aroma of baking bread and designer fragrance; and there is always something new…
Author: dani
Bon appetit!
We were warmly welcomed by everyone in Paris (Disney staff excluded). The girls running Boulangerie Midore (our morning coffee/pastry shop) encouraged Milana with her French ordering. Wait staff in all bistros, restaurants, and boulangeries have been friendly and helpful, perhaps because we’ve been trying our best to do what we can in French, and not…
Mona Lisa Smile
The Louvre is the world’s most popular museum with over 7.8 million people visiting in 2022. Visitor numbers are currently capped at 30,000 daily, but even with timed tickets, expect having to wait in a queue. If you haven’t pre-purchased tickets, you may be waiting for hours. We booked late-night tickets hoping to avoid the…
Stop! This is the empire of Death
In the late 1700’s, Paris’ authorities realised that something needed to be done about the city’s overflowing cemeteries. Basements neighbouring church cemeteries were collapsing due to the weight of centuries worth of bones. The ingenious plan was hatched to fill a series of unused underground mining tunnels with exhumed skeletons. Over 2 years from 1785,…
“The bible, but as a graphic novel”
“The bible, but as a graphic novel” is how Milana described the incredible stained glass windows of Sainte-Chapelle, built between 1242 and 1248 to house a bunch of holy relics (including the allegedly authentic Crown of Thorns) by France’s Louis IX. Entering the upper chapel of the church is one of those breath-taking “HOW did…
The Happiest Place on Earth (Part 2)
We were blown away by Disney Sea in Tokyo when we visited in 2016. We’re not a big Disney family. Of course we’ve seen most of the films, but we don’t LOVE Mickey, wear Disney merch, get about with mouse ears on etc. But Disney Sea had us so immersed in a world of fantasy,…
You MAY know this structure
The Eiffel Tower. You may have seen it before? Probably on a teenager’s doona cover, in any American rom-com, and on anything to do with anything remotely French. We struggled through many barricaded areas and fenced-off walkways as the city readied itself for the next day’s Fete de la Musique, and took the obligatory snaps….
In Search of Amelie…
We arrived at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport exhausted. Cam had researched the transport situation and we wanted 4 x weekly Navigo cards so we could ride the Metro as much as we could all week. Of the ten ticketing machines at the airport, for people who are arriving in France and will likely need…
The Jewel of Singapore
Singapore’s Changi Airport is astounding. An adventure in itself. After a very early morning and the 8-hour flight from Sydney, we were happy to have an overnight stop before continuing on to Paris. I love the mini-quests that go along with travel. Getting off the plane and navigating the 4-terminal, multi-story, Skytrain-linked maze of Singapore…
“Le cheval mange une orange”
“The horse is eating an orange”. I have turned to Duo Lingo these past 2 weeks, cramming in as much French as I can before our next trip to Europa. Looks like comms are set to be a breeze, especially when we spark up conversations around equine or citrus content! It’s been 3.5 years since…
Back to Reality
Well we’ve been back in Australia for just over a month now, hearing two of my most disliked phrases “back to reality” and “looked like the trip of a lifetime” over and over again. For me, travelling is a natural part of our lives, not a “ONCE in a lifetime” experience. And what IS reality?…
“My house in…”
“…Budapest. My hidden treasure chest.” I wonder if George Ezra knew his song would be a smash when he wrote it on a back packing tour of Europe in 2013. The ironic thing was that he never even made it to Budapest after getting drunk at a Eurovision after party and missing a train from…
The Caramello Koala Apartment Rating System
5 weeks. 6 countries. 8 apartments. We booked and paid for these places months ago without knowing anything about most of the cities we were visiting. You scan the pics on Booking.com, check there is a washing machine and that it’s in a part of town close to transport and a supermarket. But did we…
Take it or Leave it
Granted, we were only in Bratislava for a couple of days, but when the area around your house looks like this… …it’s easy to get a negative vibe about a place. This vibe intensifies when your husband is harassed by a rashy drunken dude in the car park who scampered off when he didn’t understand…
Beam Me Up!
“Now. This is going to be an expensive meal girls. Just drink water. And elbows off the table.” These were our sage, tight-arse words of advice before ordering my birthday meal at UFO watch. taste. groove, which is said to be one of the best restaurants in Slovakia. Fair call on the water when mains…
Countries, currencies, castle, deer.
In what was perhaps the most emotionally charged day of our trip, we travelled through 5 countries, fumbled through a purse filled with 3 different currencies, visited what may well be the final castle of our trip, and hit a deer on a foggy pot-holed road. We woke up in Croatia, had a goodbye coffee…
The Token Traveller 