Hi All,

Well here is the next update. I know I left you in a bit of a hurry while i was in london, but it feels like that was forever ago. So much has happened since then, and Im definitely enjoying myself better now that im with a group. Its a bit disappointing however as the whole group apart from two people are from Australia. 2 are even adelaide boys. one who went to pultney so has the pleasure of telling me that his year (05) beat us in footy, and the other goes to uni with chelsea barlow. the world is so small!

Saturday we left london at 7am and drove to Dover where we caught the ferry to france. We were on there for 90mins and got an amazing view of the white cliffs of dover as we left. we then drove through the countryside of france and arrived in paris at about 5pm. Sara (the only canadian on the trip & my roomate on the tour) & I thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk when we arrived in Paris and see what its like. turned out not to be such a great idea. we were staying in a pretty sketchy area, & decided it was a much better idea to return to the hotel. After tea that night we went for a nighttime tour on the bus to check out the sighs of Paris. the first up close view of the eiffel tower at night was amazing. Our tour guide Scandy is really good, and its amazing how much interesting information he has to share with us.

Sunday was honestly the craziest day of my life so far. We got dropped at the Eiffel Tower at 9.30am when it opened & caught the lifts all the way to the top. the view wasnt the most amazing thing in the world due to the weather, but it was the most amazing feeling actually being there and looking out over paris. we then walked from the tower to the arc de triomphe, which is probably my favourite structure, but i cant explain why. it is at the centre of the craziest round-a-bout in the world. 12 streets meet at this round-a-bout and i found out that no insurance company in the world will insure you for an accident u have on it. there are several lanes of traffic driving around it but no actual lines on the roads. its insane!

from there we walked down the champs elysèe to the louvre gardens. it is amazing how many fascinating buildings, structures, memorials, gardens, fountains etc you can see on the way, none of which mean anything to us as all we hear is about the eiffel tower but all are just as intriguing. the louvre was fascinating, & i did manage to make it inside and see the mona lisa. it wasnt quite what i imagined, and the old & the new didnt quite blend properly, and there were about a hundred people just standing around the mona lisa taking photos but its still great to say ive been there, & ive seen that!

From there we walked to the Notre Dame which is one of the most impressive buildings ive ever seen. there were stunning stain glass windows throughout it, and the gothic architecture on the outside was amazing. i think everyone should have a chance in there lives to go to paris to see all of these things. but definitely take more than a day because i didnt even see the half of it. the whole centre of paris is full of amazing things.

the louvre alone is daunting. if you looked at every piece of work in the louvre for one minute you would be in there for 9 months straight walking the 18km of halfways that make it u! its crazy!

That night we went to Moulin Rouge which definitely lived up to its name. The entertainment was amazing, & there were 3 different acts in between the dancing, all of which were equally as entertaining as the last. we had strong men balancing on each others heads, a man juggling 5 ping pong balls in his mouth at once, & the last was a ventriloquist. i loved it.

we then went next door to o`sullivans where there were 3 other contiki groups partying the night away. all which had just as many australians on it as ours does. there are definitely alot of australians floating around europe at the moment!

The next day a very seedy looking bunch piled onto the bus & travelled all the way to Lucerne, which is where I am now. We didnt arrive until about 6.30pm, ate tea, and then just cruised down to the local servo, bought some drinks and then settled into the hotel to bond as a group.

The day long drive wasnt actually that bad. at one stage scandy made us all stand up & introduce ourselves to the bus & I got the pleasure of going first. was a bit of an adventure but the idea was good coz it was an easy way for everyone to learn a little bit bout each other.

Today we all just casually strolled around Lucerne in a much more relaxed atmosphere that Paris. we have gone from a city with a population of 13 million to a 60,000 city. I defintiely prefer lucerne. it is so beautiful here, plus i can actually understand the language which is definitely a bonus!

we had a cheese fondue lunch, with traditional swiss sausage & pototoe as the main which was fantastic!

tomorrow we are up again driving back to France. This time we will be in Lyon where the general consensus is that we will be eating frogs legs n snails for dinner. hmm interesting, but i guess i better try it!

From there we then drive the next day to Barcelona where we are going to a flamenco show and doing who knows what else. i will let you know more then.

Hope all is well, am looking forward to ur emails letting me know what is happening in Australia.

Thinking of you.

Speak Soon

Love Amy

xxx