TRAVEL: Nile Cruise, Egypt (Part 2) - Edfu & Komombo

Before you start, make sure to read my last Egypt blog here! 

Maybe due to the movement of the boat, the heat or something else, but I woke up after my first night on the boat not feeling too great. Nonetheless, it would take a lot to defer me from an excursion, so I dragged myself out of bed to head off to Edfu Temple via horse and carriage, with carriage drivers bustling at the side of our boat to be the ones to take us, and therefore get our money. The road was filled with carriages, with horses in various states of looked-afterness, but alas it was the only way to get to the temple.

Edfu was very impressive with its large and imposing structure dedicated to the god Horus. I loved seeing all of the different hieroglyphs which our guide argued had even been used to predict future events, if you read into them closely enough. It seemed most of the Nile cruises take much the same route, as I recognised people from other ships that I'd seen the day before. 

After we'd wandered around the temple for a while, we had to 'run the gauntlet' back in the form of walking through a series of shops to get back to the carriages. The sellers are extremely persistent, and I didn't appreciate my way being blocked repeatedly by people trying to sell me things, although I seemed to have gotten off easy as a man in front of us was forcibly shoved into some clothing one of the sellers was desperate for him to buy. We caught the same horse and carriage ride, although mine was marred by the driver consistently asking me for money even though wage and tip had already been handled by our tour agency. This sort of persistence seems to be the norm, but unfortunately took away from the beauty of the places we were visiting, and I knew it would only get worse when we got to Cairo.

Much of the reset of the day was free for us to do as we wished, so we walked the world sail by and read books to pass the time. I'm no good at this relaxing thing, so tested out the small pool on the top deck, although didn't last long given that the majority of the pool was about an inch deep with a small swimmable section. Lunch was followed by afternoon tea (read: tea and biscuits) before we docked in Komombo for our next excursion. All of the ships are docked against each other, so we had to walk through two ships (which seemed rather nicer than ours!) to get to the shore.

As the sun set, we walked to Komombo Temple, which again was covered in beautiful hieroglyphs, many outlining recipes for medicine as the back of the temple had served as physicians offices. Our guide Essam regaled us with tales about how to tell if a woman was fertile (tests of which I'm glad they no longer undertake today!), natural viagras, breastmilk as the cure to the common cold, and more information on Ancient Egyptian gods, many of whom are depicted on the walls of temples such as this.

Included in our ticket was a visit to the museum of the crocodile god Sobek, although crocodiles are only present in a small section of the Nile now to keep them away from humans. Inside the museum were around thirty mummified crocodiles - something I never thought, nor wished to, see. Still, the history of why they had been mummified and their connection with the god was interesting. 

Dinner was Egyptian themed, which meant yummy falafel and baba ganoush, one of the nicer meals I'd had on board so far. Unfortunately, along with the Egyptian themed dinner was the suggestion to guests to dress up in Egyptian attire, which didn't sit very comfortably with me. Seeing all of these tourists in stereotypical dress seemed more like cultural appropriation than a good time, but to each their own I suppose. This was followed by a galabalaya party upstairs which I chose to skip in case there was any 'Egyptian' dancing by cruise guests... but there was still plenty more of our Nile cruise to come, stay tuned to read about it soon on the blog! 

I hope you enjoyed today's travel blog! I'll be back with more very soon so make sure to stay tuned on my Twitter @CiarasCountry, and drop me a message in the comments below with any comments or questions you may have about my adventures - thanks for reading!

TRAVEL: Nile Cruise, Egypt (Part 1) - Luxor, Valley of the Kings & Temple of Hatshepsut

Our journey in Egypt began late at night as we touched down in Luxor, which I'd previously only known as the famous pyramid shaped hotel in Las Vegas. As it turns out, it is in fact one of Egypts most renowned and historical cities, and the starting location for our Nile cruise. 

We drove along the dark roads occasionally criss-crossed with railway tracks which are used to transport sugar cane, the city's main harvest, during harvest season. Even late at night, it was very much still bustling as we made our way to the Port. Our destination was the Steigenberger Legacy ship, which is essentially a hotel on water, sleeping about 150 guests across four floors. 

Tired from our day of travelling, we checked in upon arrival and headed to our relatively small cabin which indeed, looked like your average hotel room, for some rest before our 6:30am start the following morning. Awakening at the crack of dawn, we headed downstairs for breakfast, where we were sat with the ten or so other members of our English-speaking Discover Egypt group. 

At 7:30, our small group piled onto a coach to head to the West Bank of Luxor, and along the way our guide Essam told us about the history of the city, and how the East side was always seen as the side of 'life' as it is where the sun rises, in comparison to the West where the sun sets, and is therefore the side of 'death' and home to many historical tombs. 

After about an hour of driving, we arrived at the Valley of the Kings, home to 64 impressive tombs, many of which used to house Egyptian royalty including Tutankhamun prior to their excavation by Lord Carnarvon, whose family own Highclere House (aka Downton Abbey) back in the UK. Our ticket, which cost about $8, would allow us access to three of the open tombs. 

The three which we went into, that of Ramses III, Merenptah and Ramses IV, were relatively similar in terms of style, being a long corridor lined with hieroglyphs and other impressive drawings, leading to a chamber where the sarcophagus would have been stored. However, the brightness of the colours varied, as did the length of the corridors, with the middle tomb being over 160m long - we were told that the size of the tomb generally correlated with how long the Royal reigned, as a longer length of reign meant more time to build the tomb. 

 

Back on the bus, we made a quick pitstop to an alabaster factory, for which the region is famous, where we got to see how stone sculptures and vases are made, with the opportunity to buy some of our own afterwards, of course. As we were shown how the rock was sculpted, I couldn't help but wince as one of the workers used his foot to secure a piece of rock before sawing into it (the rock, thank goodness not the foot) with a scary looking saw. I remember being told off for not holding the stair handrail at work once - clearly the same health and safety measures do not apply here! 

There was a vast selection of goods inside, and we were trailed round by something of a sales rep who claimed there was no pressure to buy anything but did not leave our side as we browsed! Eventually we settled on some cats and scarab beetles in alabaster and basalt, and managed to negotiate to a decent price after some haggling - as everything is unique and different shapes and sizes, there's no defined price list, so that's something you and your sales rep have to agree on yourselves! 

Next we headed to the Temple of Hatshepsut, famous for being the first female King in Egypt. Subsequently, she had built an impressive three storey temple with pillars galore, and even more hieroglyphs for us to admire. It seems that Egypt is a land of legacies, and I was impressed to see how someone who had lived thousands of years ago had still left their mark on the modern world. 

On the way back, we stopped briefly at the statues of Aegamemnon, known for his role in the battle of Troy. The two tall statues were of the same likeness but built differently, one carved out of the rock and the other built with stone slabs - after all, great individuals love to be remembered in many different ways! Being a tourist hotspot, this place was swamped with street sellers who I found overly persistent, some literally shoving items into your hands to make you buy. Alas, I suppose this comes with the territory, but I was pleased to have done our buying at the factory as some of this was very 

clearly Made in China! 

Back on the boat, we had a simple buffet lunch before being given the afternoon to ourselves as the boat pulled away from the port. I chose to ensconce myself on a sun lounger on the top deck (in the shade of course, and not the baking hot sun) and watch the world go by as we moved from city to villages. As the sun went down, I passed the time waving to children on the banks of the river and watching sugar cane pasture after sugar cane pasture float by. 

From the other side of the ship came some commotion - it appeared that two men in a small boat had attached themselves to our ship via rope and were being pulled along as they attempted to sell embroidered goods to guests on the top deck. It seemed someone was keen as a bag was tossed up four floors from the boat, money put in and tossed back, before a large scarf was thrown up to its new owner. A unique way of shopping indeed. I can now confirm that the two men are still attached to the boat even after an hour of being pulled along, and still yelling outside my window for customers - they must be pretty far from home by now! And with that, our journey down the Nile had begun - more coming to the blog soon! 

I hope you enjoyed today's travel blog! I'll be back with more very soon so make sure to stay tuned on my Twitter @CiarasCountry, and drop me a message in the comments below with any comments or questions you may have about my adventures - thanks for reading!

TRAVEL: Paris, France - what to do in a weekend (for FREE!)

This was the closest I had come to almost cancelling a trip due to a few things going wrong in the days before I was due to leave, but realising that that would be a disservice not only to my loyal readers but also to myself as a budding travel aficionado, I said ‘problems be damned’ and scurried off to catch the Eurostar from London St Pancras.

The Eurostar is a fine way to travel – fairly similar to a plane in the amount of legroom you get, but with the added benefits of not needed to travel far from London as you may have to do for an airport, and that there’s no such things as baggage allowance or limits on liquids.

Plus the view is actually quite pleasant – I amused myself staring out of the window as we rushed through the British countryside to Dover, had a quick jaunt through the tunnel, and emerged in the French countryside, which looked pretty similar to where we had come from except we were now an hour later.

I arrived at night, which perhaps wasn’t the best decision to have made. Normally I’m a very confident traveller and have no problem travelling solo around so-called ‘traveller-wary’ places like Mexico (you can read about that trip here), but in the lead up to my trip I’d been told plenty about the dangers of travelling solo in Paris, let alone as a woman (no thanks to Liam Neeson’s Taken), and now with the added presence of the gilets jaunes riots that had been taking place.

Such was the case that I had turned myself into a walking Swiss Army knife – everything I needed was on my person and not in my bag, and tucked under as many layers as I could manage to deter any pickpockets who might want to take it. My first port of call was to get to my accommodation, and then hopefully the nerves would ware off by the time morning rolled around.

Due to the issues mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I’d ending up booking my accommodation that very morning (always a good idea) to stay at Le Village Montmartre hostel, about 15 minutes away from Gare du Nord. The reception seemed modern and welcoming, and it was only once you’d checked in and got your key that you opened a door to the rickety wooden staircase that looked like it had been there since the beginning of time.

In spite of appearances, it was a perfectly nice hostel. The first floor had a little terrace with a wonderful view of Sacre Coeur, and my 4-bed female dorm on the fourth floor did exactly what it said on the tin with 2 bunk beds, lockers, and even an ensuite! Who could ask for more.

I was alone for about two minutes before another girl burst into the room shouting down the phone in a language I didn’t understand and crying – having seen her down in reception, I think this was due to the accommodation and perhaps some miscommunication with whomever had booked her a hostel instead of the five-star hotel she had been expecting… She locked herself in the bathroom, still crying, and I took that as my cue to head downstairs to start planning my weekend.

Aside from my initial contact with one of my roommates, everyone else I came into contact with at the hostel was very nice. A flight attendant from Toronto offered me suggestions of what to see and do, and two Korean girls who turned out to be my other roommates invited me to share (spicy) ramen with them that evening. I can see why people choose hostels as good places to stay if you want to meet people.

The big downside of staying in a hostel is that you live on other peoples time, as I found out at 5:30 the next morning when some of my roommates got up to pack and depart. So much for a lie-in! It was soon time to carpe the diem anyway, so I headed downstairs for breakfast – a glass of orange juice; your choice of coffee, tea or chocolat chaud; a croissant; a pain au chocolat; and a piece of baguette. Not a bad selection and mine was included in the price, although I’m sure you could have found nicer French patissieres for the same price just around the corner.

And so it was time to begin Day 1 in Paris. I was disconcerted stepping outside at 8am to darkness. Had I somehow misread my watch and it was actually still the middle of the night? It turns out winter sunrises are pretty late here, so I began walking down the dark streets, shops and bars still lit up with neon lights. Using my trusty printed Google Maps (I’m a fan of going off-the-grid when travelling) I wangled my way down-city for about fifty minutes until I reached Fontain de St Michel, my meeting point for today’s tour.

Knowing that I was going to do my usual free walking tour of Paris, I decided to book a tour of Versailles with the same company. As the square in front of the fountain starting filling up with tour-goers, we split into two groups – the twenty or so Spanish speakers, and four English-speakers - a nice little tour for us then.

We began by catching the train to the end of the line, getting off at Versailles and taking a short walk to the Palace and its ornate golden gates. Here we were explained the history of Louis XIV who, along with Louis XV and Louis XVI, would be our protagonists for the day.

Whilst I was aware that my tour ticket, which I’d bought for 30 Euros, didn’t include entrance to the Palace, I had hoped it would be somewhat similar to my trip to Potsdam, just outside of Berlin (you can read about that here), where there was so much to see and do that you didn’t require going inside any of the buildings.

However, what frustrated me was that whilst marketed as a ‘Versailles Tour’ online, it is in fact a ‘Gardens of Versailles Tour’ – those two minutes outside the Palace would be all we would see of it, and the rest would be spent walking around the gardens behind it.

Yes, the gardens were nice (although I’m sure they would be more pleasant in warmer months when plants are in bloom and the statues are not covered up in bodybags), and our guide as very knowledgeable, telling us plenty about the three kings and how many of the statues in each of the ponds represented Louis XIV’s obsession with the God Apollo and being known as ‘the Sun King’; so it wasn’t a bad way to spend the time. However, buying a ticket to the Palace itself would’ve probably been a more interesting and cheaper option, so there’s that.

By 1pm, the tour was over, so I headed back to the train station. In my mind, I’d decided to take the ambitious route of catching the RER back to the Eiffel Tower and then walking along the Seine to St Michel where I would pick up the walking tour. However, this didn’t take into account that the time I arrived at the station there would be a half an hour wait until the next train when they were supposed to run every fifteen minutes max… snowglobe shopping it is then!

I returned to the train station twenty minutes later and hopped on the train. As we got closer to the Eiffel Tower stop, I kept thinking that maybe, just maybe, I might have enough time to enact my ambitious plan. In the same vein of ‘problems be damned’ that this trip would become known for, I decided to hop off and risk running the last leg if I had to.

It was totally worth it. Whilst Paris might look small on a map, it really isn’t, and walking the four RER stops between the Eiffel Tower and St Michel takes an hour, so getting this side of the city over and done with today meant that I would have more time in the next few days to do other things.

The Metro stop brought me right next to the tower, which is now significantly more heavily securitised than I was when I was last here about ten years ago. You can no longer walk under the tower without going through extensive security checks, but I got plenty of nice photos from the surrounding street. Eiffel Tower, tick!

I continued along the Seine, singing La La Land’s ‘Audition (Fools Who Dream)’ in my head and mentally crossing off each bridge as I passed them, and basically doing one of those Seine river cruises without spending a dime. There’s the Grand Palais, there’s Hotel des Invalides, there’s Musee d’Orsay and so on and so forth.

I arrived at St Michel just in time and we set off on our tour, first to Notre Dame, then Pont Neuf, the grounds of the Louvre, and finishing in the Tuileries Gardens. It doesn’t sound like much and to be honest I’d expected more, but what we did see was well-informed.

The tour not lasting as long as I’d hoped was actually a blessing in disguise as I decided I would now have enough time to visit the Louvre which I’d planned to do on Sunday morning, but was open late on Friday evenings. The best bit? I got in COMPLETELY FREE. You heard right, EU citizens between the ages of 18-25 get into the Louvre FREE! And that’s not all, you’ll be hearing more about the benefits of being 18-25 from the EU to come…

I had no plan of action, and in fact because I hadn’t needed to buy a ticket, I hadn’t been able to pick up a plan of the museum either, so I was free to happily wander. There were signs pointing towards the Mona Lisa, so I figured that was a good place to start. For those who’ve not seen the Mona Lisa IRL, she’s small and she’s crowded, but you have to see her, you know?

I continued my wandering until I picked up signs to see the Venus de Milo which frankly I’m only really familiar with from that Simpsons episode (don’t hate me, art historians!) Picking up a map in Spanish off the floor (#nolittering) I knew that I wanted to see Napoleon’s apartments as they had been recommended by today’s tour guide, so that was my next destination. These were very cool with their ornate furnishings as if palatial rooms had just been plucked up and placed inside the walls of the Louvre.

By this point I’d actually wandered through quite a lot of the gallery so decided it was time to head on my merry way. I took the long walk back to my hostel, rested my aching bones (I’d done a LOT of walking) before getting ready for that evenings entertainment.

Thankfully my destination, the Moulin Rouge, was in the same district and a mere fifteen minutes walk away. Unfortunately, this district so happens to be the red light district, which certainly was interesting to walk through at nighttime… Before long I arrived and was seated two rows away from the stage in this beautiful ballroom type place – not bad, eh? I’d arrived plenty early so whilst higher-paying guests finished their meals, we were serenaded by singers before the show began.

I’d booked this ticket being a gullible tourist and knowing little more than there had been a movie made about the Moulin Rouge (Do I remember the plot? No) and that it’s just one of the many things to do in Paris, so I didn’t really know what I’d gotten myself into…

I would like to sum up the Moulin Rouge with France’s national motto – ‘liberté (freedom), égalité (equality), fraternité (brotherhood)’. Freedom – absolutely, of the nipple. It is essentially an hour long musical (with no plot), in which most of the women seem to have forgotten their tops. My favourite review on Tripadvisor is titled ‘Disney with tatas’ and I think that does it justice.

Equality – frankly, this show could be the poster child for double standards, as about a quarter of the cast were men and yet never showed more than their hands and heads… Seems fair, right?

Brotherhood – well, I don’t really have much to say on this point so I’ll just tell you my honest opinion. I spent most of the time wondering whether or not I had accidentally taken drugs as these half naked women flounced around the stage, occasionally with tiny horses or dancing in a pool with snakes (definitely not approved by animal services), and one of the dancers accidentally overshot her cartwheel and landed smack on our table.

However, by far better than the chorus dancers were the individual acts which included a roller skating duo who flew round a small raised platform, her being flung around by leg, arm, and even neck just inches from the ground; a contortionist who could literally sit on her head; and a juggler who could juggle seven batons at once (you’ll know I’m a fan of juggling if you read my Cruise Diaries here!)

So yes, it was entertaining, and admittedly I would have been even more entertained had I not paid 112 Euros for the privilege (with that kind of money you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment), but I paid so you don’t have to. Or do, it certainly is an experience. And so to bed.

It was an early start the next morning so that I could be amongst the first in the queue for Musee d’Orsay, another museum I got into FOR FREE! I’d heard the fifth floor was the place to be, and this was actually an excellent decision as whilst everyone else started on the first floor and worked upwards, I started at the top and worked downwards, meaning that I was often the only one in each of the rooms.

This museum is really something special, and I walked through admiring the colourful impressionist paintings including a few by Monet himself. The second floor had an exhibition on father and son Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Jean Renoir; as well as some Van Gogh. I took a picture of his Portrait of an Artist, and I swear to you the eyes move… The ground floor has the long corridor of sculptures and small rooms to each side highlighting different styles which I very much enjoyed looking at. I knew this would be my favourite museum of the trip, and it remained that way.

Done by 10:30, it was time for the next museum, Musee d’Orangerie (for FREE!). This is quite a small museum, so perhaps not one that I would recommend paying entry too unless you really want to. The first floor has some of Monet’s Water Lilies stretched across vast walls; whilst downstairs had a rather creepy exhibition by Paula Rego and some permanent pieces by the likes of Cezanne and Matisse.

With that not taking long, I headed off for the quick jaunt across the Grand Palais. Or so I’d hoped. The gilets jaunes had thwarted my plans (as would come to be a theme) and the whole Place de la Concorde was cordoned off by police meaning I had to take some convoluted route across the river and back, and then get questioned by the police as to why I wanted to go to the Grand Palais!

I decided to start with the Petit Palais. This one is free to all, and I’d say is a good bet if you want to get some culture in for free as it has a good range of artworks from paintings to sculptures and furnishings. With the bar set high by Musee d’Orsay, I wasn’t too bothered with paintings that didn’t float my boat so breezed my way around and left.

Across to the Grand Palais, I was astounded that they offered no gratuite to 18-25 EU citizens, and having been so spoilt by all the other museums that let me have my culture for free, decided I couldn’t be bothered to pay, especially when each of its three exhibitions cost individually, and who’s to say if I’d like them or not?

I had great fun trying to get out of this area as it was again cordoned off by police but eventually squeezed my way out onto the Champs Elysee, aka the street to be seen on. Now if you’ve gathered anything from my travels, I like to do things on a budget, so popping into Louis Vuitton or Chanel was not really an option, and most of the shops along the street were of a similar ilk.

However, I did make an exception to visit Laduree, home of the macaron. When in Rome, right? I spent a while deliberating over which four I would spent my hard-earned cash on (yes, they really were that expensive) and opted for rose-litchi (Why? I don’t even like rose! But it was in the shape of a heart); fruit de passion (This one was yummy); fraise bonbon (Passable, a little too crunchy); and Marie Antoinette (Citrus with a rose filling. Thankfully the citrus overpowered the rose so it was nice). Thank goodness the museums were free!

My intention had been to climb the Arc de Triomphe (for FREE!) but I was thwarted once again by the gilets jaunes whose threat of protesting had shut down the monument to tourists. My loving family later sent me links to articles showing protesters being tear-gassed (not sure why, I don’t think they were being violent…) right outside so I probably left at the right time.

Next stop – Galeries Lafayette! Or not… After passing about a million police vans (they were all going in the opposite direction, that must mean I was going the right way!) I was about a hundred metres from the Galeries when people starting running in the opposite direction. Why? Yellow vests. Again. Deciding I didn’t want to get tear-gassed or batoned, I guessed it was better to head on.

I had walked about three marathons by this point but that wasn’t going to deter me so I headed down to the Ile-de-la-cite to visit Saint Chapelle (for FREE!). I walked in and there were some pretty stained glass windows – nice, I guess. Then I headed upstairs to the Upper Chapel. Oh my goodness, what a sight to see! Wall to wall of stained glass beauty, each window depicting different Bible stories. Wow wow wow. This is something special.

I headed next door to the Conciergerie aka Medieval royal palace aka Marie Antionette’s prison (for FREE!). Not too much to see here, but hey, it was free. Round the corner, you bump into Notre Dame which if you look closely you’ll see is actually imperfect – the doorways are all slightly different and one of the towers is thicker than the other. This is because only God can make perfection – interesting, huh? Being a church, this is also free to all, so I had a little wander round inside before heading round the side to see about climbing the Towers.

Turns out that you have to book a ticket so they have machines that let you pick a time to reserve – the earliest availability was thirty minutes later so I hopped across the river to Shakespeare & Co. This bookshop has become somewhat infamous because it looks like what you want a bookshop to be – windy corridors, narrow stairs, books out the wazoo.

It was pretty crowded but a nice place to rest my weary feet before I returned to the Notre Dame, and good thing I’d arrived when I did as tickets for the day were all gone by the time I got back. I had to wait in the cold for a little while as you can only go up in certain time slots. You’re taken to a gift shop/ticket booth (mine was FREE!) and then clamber up the many many steps to the top.

The view was very nice, but shrouded by anti-suicide/anti-throwing-things fences (for good reason) so I had to stick my phone through gaps to get a good photo. This is not a place for those with vertigo or claustrophobia as the spaces you have to squeeze through are far from large.

It’s also a one way system, so we had to wait a while whilst those at the upper level made their way down before we could go up to the higher level; and then wait again to come down. Nevertheless, you’re not going to get better views of Paris (no, not even from the Eiffel Tower – you want it in your photo, don’t you?) but make sure to book beforehand!

My feet had had enough and it was a real struggle to get all the way back up to Montmartre – every hotel and hostel I passed on the way seemed to be mocking me by saying ‘if you were staying here, you’d be home by now’ but eventually the sight of the Sacre Coeur welcomed me home yet again.

For my final day in Paris, I decided I’d done pretty much all I’d wanted to do. What now? My first thought was the Musee Rodin which would probably be the next one on my list, but on second thought was just too far for my little legs to manage. Instead, I decided to make use of my surroundings and walked round the back of my hostel to the Sacre Coeur.

Maybe it was because I was visiting it pretty early in the morning, but this seemed to be a less touristy destination than all the others I’d visited – perhaps because it was much farther away from everything else, or perhaps because you weren’t allowed to take photos inside. Pretty nice.

The people I’d sat next to at the Moulin Rouge had told me of a food tour they’d taken around Montmartre which had brought them to the ‘I love you’ wall. Having spent so much on the Moulin Rouge, I wasn’t willing to shell out another 90 Euros for the food tour, but I could go to the wall (for FREE!) since it was just round the corner. The words ‘I love you’ are written in many different languages, the perfect place for a quick photo stop.

As the gilets had stopped me from visiting Galeries Lafayette, I thought I might go there next. However, noticing just how many shops were closed on this Sunday morning, I wondered whether the Galeries might be shut too. As fate would have it, my handheld map had been produced by Galeries Lafayette (maybe that’s why I was so keen to go – subliminal marketing?) and handily told me they didn’t open until 11am, so I swiftly changed direction.

I headed across town to the top of the St Martin Canal, with a sub-mission in my mind to find myself a nice French crepe. Everywhere. Was. Closed. I ambled down the canal, marvelling at the fact that there were probably very few tourists around since I was so far away from the main area. Again, it looks small on the map but it’s really quite a distance, so by the time I reached the end of the canal, I was dying for a crepe.

Planned routes be damned, my crepe took priority. Google mapping ‘crepe’ (it works!) I picked one that was slightly off my route and ended up at Chez Alain Miam Miam for my crepe avec Nutella. The crepe was scalding hot and nice and light, although by the time I’d finished I felt like I never wanted to eat anything ever again.

I was now in the Marais district which was a pretty nice place to walk around, and accidentally ended up right outside Centre Pompidou. Since I really didn’t have any set plans for the day, I decided I’d go in and see if my 18-25 EU citizenship would get me in for FREE here too (it did!) and decided to check out the modern art.

I’m going to be honest – I don’t get modern art. Sure, the Picasso ones are interesting in their own right, but let me give you some examples of some of the other pieces of art in the Pompidou. 1) A white canvas. It’s a canvas, painted white. It looks like a blank canvas. Why? 2) A white canvas with a circle painted on it. Same as above. 3) A literal chair. I could tell it was an art piece because it had a ‘do not cross this line’ sticker in front of it. 4) A room of rolled up insulation with a piano inside. You get the point. Again, I went so you don’t have to. Or maybe you want to. Maybe you get modern art.

And so I trudged onwards to the other side of town to my beloved Galeries Lafayette. Honestly by this point, all I wanted the store to provide was somewhere to sit down because my three days of non-stop walking were taking their toll. But as I went up floor after floor, there was not a seat in sight. There was however a floating glass walkway hanging out beneath the centre of the dome which I of course had to go stand on, but no seats.

I could take it no longer, and knowing that I would only have to walk half an hour before I got back to the hostel (and to some form of chair) decided that that was the best course of action. A short while later, I was on my way to Gare du Nord to say goodbye to Paris, and no doubt to free entry to museums, once again.

Tips for visiting Paris: If you’re an EU citizen aged 18-25, you have literally no reason to go. My trip (in cash, not including pre-booked tickets, accommodation and travel) cost under 50 Euros. It’s a no brainer. I recommend visiting Versailles – it’s just one of those places you’re supposed to go, right? And then maybe you can tell me what it’s like and if it was better than my tour. In terms of museums and attractions (particularly if you’re a paying customer and want to pick the best), my top picks would be 1) Musee d’Orsay 2) Saint Chapelle 3) Louvre (they have eight miles of corridors, surely a good way to pass the day and get your exercise in?) Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog and would love to know your thoughts on my journey, as well as your own experiences of Paris! Drop me a message in the comments below or on Twitter @CiarasCountry. Thanks for reading!

Canary Wharf Winter Lights Festival 2019 (Things to do in London)

They say the best things in life are free, and I believe that saying to be more than true when talking about big city attractions. For the second year running, I headed into London’s business district of Canary Wharf to check out the Winter Lights Festival taking place there.

We started right outside the Upper Bank Street exit of Canary Wharf station, picking up a map of the festival from one of the helpful volunteers standing nearby. Right in front of us was the first lightwork, trails of hanging lights in a grid called Submergence. Its layout reminded me of the famous lampposts outside LACMA in Los Angeles.

Entering into Jubilee Park, we encountered Light, Stone, Pavement; a hopscotch set that lit up when you jumped into each square. I loved how they’d made many of the exhibits interactive, feeling less like a museum than a living artspace.

Next up was Flow, a volcano like sprawl of lights that ebbed and flowed with different colours like water or lava down the gentle slope. On the water features we found Floating Islands, UV painted plastic bottles in the shapes of animals and plants. I didn’t know whether it was intentional, but having plastic floating on water as it does in so many of our oceans felt somewhat poignant. Please, take all of the plastic out of the oceans and turn it into art instead!

We’d now made our way to Jubilee Plaza and Prismatica, spinning gem-like structures that again were great fun and interactive. Bit.Fall was just around the corner but unfortunately not working at the time we walked by. However, it was the same exhibit as last year, so you can read about it on my blog from then if you’d like!

I was really impressed by the next exhibit, Two Hearts, as it was literally two massive beating hearts in the windows of a building across the water. How they got permission to have an exhibit there when the building isn’t even completed yet, I’ll never know.

I like the next one a lot too – Whale Ghost, whose name gives you a good indication of what it was. The skeleton of a whale writhed and swam above our heads all whilst creepy music accompanied it in the background. Very eerie, but extremely well done.

We headed next to Westferry Circus and the utterly beautiful Sasha Trees – luminescent trees shifting in bright colours. I could happily have had all of them as my Christmas trees, and really feel like this should become a permanent exhibit. Perhaps my favourite of all of the lights we saw.

Round the corner in Columbus Courtyard was Blue Neuron, nerve like wires that stretched from tree to tree; Time & Tide, an hourglass like UV activated rope construction; and a smaller version of Prismatica had you missed the first one.

The Cabot Square fountains were dancing with light and music as we approached, and as if they knew I was coming, started to dance to the Star Wars theme tune. I realised how many dancing fountains I’d seen in the last few years alone, from those in Kuala Lumpur to Budapest, and now in the city in which I live.

From here we could see the Heofon Light Maze which acted in some ways like a hall of mirrors in that the reflections of the light off the glass made it difficult to know which way you were going, even though the maze can’t have been bigger than a few metres long!

We turned left onto Crossrail Place, walking through the epilepsy inducing Colour Moves, an optical illusion frenzy that spanned the bridge. In a room to the side was a fascinating exhibit entitled Recyclism, miniature cities created from toy cars and the like. We put on our headphones to hear about these Blade Runner like cities, with the narrator telling us all about how different they were ‘from the cities of the 2020’s’ and in which building Elon Musk ‘now over 100 years old’ resided. Very cool.

Heading down the stairs we saw Aura, or what I think would’ve been better termed Aurora, as the lights reflected off shoots of water to resemble the Northern Lights; and one of the many Angels of Freedom we’d seen floating around, a huge set of wings and an illuminated halo.

On the top deck of Crossrail Place was Vena Lumen, a light bench that matched your pulse with lights, interesting to watch as you saw people become nervous at all those watching them! Also here was Enchanted Connections, which lit up the roof gardens flora as we walked by.

Back on the ground level we found sticks of light called We Could Meet; and Last Parade, shadow-like animals which processed projected along the wall. Looking back at it, I wonder if this too was trying to make a statement (or maybe I’m just reading into it), as the animals we saw were those I would class as endangered, perhaps really heading for their ‘last parade’ and then fading just like shadows do.

And with that, we reached the end of our journey. A pleasant evening of lights to brighten up these rubbish winter days. Catch them while you can!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences at the Winter Lights Festival! Interested in hearing more about my adventures in London, and across the globe? Drop me a follow on Twitter and Instagram @CiarasCountry for more content like this! 

TRAVEL: The Cruise Diaries - San Diego, California

Welcome to the final installment of The Cruise Diaries - make sure to read previous installments here first! Follow my journey from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to the Caribbean Islands, through the Panama Canal, up through the countries of Central America, and finishing in San Diego, California. New installments coming every few days so make sure to stay tuned on the blog and Twitter @CiarasCountry - on with the trip!

Day 17

No one seemed to care that we had a red-eye flight upcoming in the evening as we were called out of bed at an ungodly hour to clear immigration onboard the ship before they would let us onto US soil. At least this meant a long and leisurely breakfast consisting of pancakes, French toast & fried bread (carbo-loading, baby)

Afterwards it was a case of waiting for our badge colour to be called so that we would be allowed to disembark. Our bags had already been carried onshore as soon as we'd docked, so it was an easy enough case of rushing off the gangway, collecting our luggage (which had grown considerably since the beginning of the holiday - always leave room for souvenirs!), and heading to our tour coach.

Whilst needing to be at the airport early afternoon for our flight, we made the unusual decision to risk arriving at the airport less than our usual four hours earlier and opting for a Holland America organised tour of San Diego Highlights and then an included airport transfer.

The bus was pretty full as we pulled out of the port and made our way into downtown. We drove through the Gaslamp Quarter where every shopfront was a different restaurant - what a hobby it would be to try a different restaurant every time you went out. Nicely, the city was designed with small blocks to take advantage of higher rent you could charge for corner front properties, which meant pleasant views up and down the streets at regular occurrences.

Our first stop was Balboa Park, the largest urban park in the States, and with enough things to see to make us get out and have a bit of a walk around. The architecture here is stunning with huge frescos adorning many of the buildings. You could easily spend a day here with the number of museums to visit in the park, as well as the stunning collections of gardens you can spend hours wandering around. Definitely somewhere to return to.

Back on the bus, we crossed the Coronado Bridge and headed towards La Jolla - 'The Jewel' of San Diego. The beautiful beachfront properties here are marred only slightly by the stench of guano in the air, but with views like that I'm sure you'd be willing to make sacrifices. What is particularly interesting about this area is that if passed down through generations, properties here only have to pay tax for their original price, so if your house is now worth $3 million but was bought for $10,000, you only pay tax on the $10,000. Not a bad deal, eh?

We took a stroll along the seafront, admiring the sea lions and seals who basked in the winter sun, barking when stupid tourists got too close to them. Whilst it was a pretty cold day in California standards, there were still people in swimming and snorkelling in the pretty blue waters which I'm sure only get busier during the summer months.

We drove back into San Diego's Old Town where we had an hour to wander around this lovely old style saloon town. The buildings here are in excellent condition and are now home to eclectic shops and plenty of Mexican restaurants. I got pulled in by the brightly coloured paintings adorning a gallery front and left with yet another painting (I've thus far accumulated quite a few despite not having a house of my own!), special not only for its lovely colours but that it was painted by local art students who received scholarship contributions from the gallery - plus they were doing a half price holiday sale, and I simply can't say no to that.

Old Town was another place I could have spent countless hours but alas we only had one, so we walked through the main plaza and up to the old graveyard which has helped to inspire numerous ghost stories about the area. A ten minute drive later, and we were dropped at the airport at the end of yet another memorable trip - I certainly hope you've enjoyed reading about it!