Paris - France

Paris was amazing. Simple as that. It lived up to all my expectations.

The food was incredible. My diet consisted of croissants, Nutella crepes, baguettes, cheese and eclairs. This was my first crossaint - so light and fluffy!!

We arrived in Paris pretty late on our first night as our plane was delayed. So we decided to have a big first day in Paris and hit up Paris Disneyland! It really was the happiest place on earth. I mean, it was just magical. I can't imagine how kids must feel when they walk in. We got tickets to both Disneyland and Walt Disney studios which was next door. 

My favourite things in the park - the Alice in Wonderland garden.

And here are a few other snaps from the day:

The next day we went to the Roland Garros (french open) to watch a women's and men's quarter final game. We watched Maria Sharapova vs Jelena Jankovic and then Rafael Nadal (swoon) vs Stanislas Wawrinka (love his name).

It was awesome to be there, but I do think the Australian Open has a much less formal and more lively/fun atmosphere. I'm already excited to go again in January!

We sure felt like a long way from home seeing this sign...

On the way home from the tennis, we found the crepe place reccommended to us by our friend Emily. The nutella crepe was to die for.

That night myself, Laura, Ness and Lotte went to a bar just near our house. I am proud to announce that I finished my first beer (it was small, but I finished it nonetheless). It was a really yummy french beer and I haven't found it since. 

The next day was an epic tourist day. the walking shoes were on and we conquered the Notre Dame, Luxembourg gardens, champs elysee, Arc de triomphe and the Eiffel tower. It was a huge day of walking but well worth it. Everything was so beautiful.

Laduree macarons!!

That night we had dinner in Monmarte and then walked up a thousand steps to the Sacre Cour. The view of Paris was quiet pretty from up there.

Friday was our last full day in Paris. We decided to see the Louvre and all the wonderful things it contained. It was huge. No one could finish seeing everything in a day, and we were only there for 2 and a half hours. My favourite section was the Egyptian section which spanned over about 20 rooms. But my favourite artwork was the Feast at Cana, hanging opposite the Mona Lisa. The Feast at Cana was huge and just beautiful.  

That night we had a picnic by the Eiffel tower. Once it got dark we walked up the stairs to both the first and second floor look outs. Climbing those stairs was dead scary. I felt so brave haha and it was so worth it in the end.

On our last half day in Paris, Josh and myself went to the  catacombs. This is where thousands of human bones from old cemeteries were transferred underneath the city of Paris in old quarries.

I still didn't get to see everything I wanted to in Paris. Monet's garden and the palace at Versailles are two things I would love to see next time I come.

Next stop- Amsterdam!

Dubai - United Arab Emirates

On the 1st of June at 2pm we arrived in Dubai. All of us where dead to the world but SO super excited to be there!

Dubai is this huge city where the middle east meets the western world. At first it was a bit of a culture shock for me, but i think it was just the western notions of the middle east that made me a feel that way. The most important thing is to understand and respect their culture. 

We arrived at our hotel, Atlantis the palm and were in awe. This place was amazing! So extravagant, so beautiful, so vegas-like and the service was amazing. One thing about Dubai in general is that wherever you go, the service is great. 

This is the Atlantis

This is the hotels AMAZING aquarium. If you are rich enough, you can have a room that looks into the aquarium - wouldn't be too bad.

Once we checked into the hotel and freshened up we went to see the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world). We bought tickets to go up to it's observation desk (you must buy them a few weeks in advance) which is about 500m up. The Burj Khalifa is about 800m tall.

Here are a few pics of Dubai from above!

After the Burj, we went into the Dubai mall which is right underneath. The mall is HUGE! Plus there is another fantastic aquarium inside. Just outside they have a fountain show every half an hour which went to music. It was really awesome! 

We had dinner at a lebanese restaurant, couldn't understand half the menu but still ended up eating such a delicious meal. Then we went to 'millions of milkshakes' which is a famous American milkshake store. The Oreo milkshake was amazing.

After cruising the mall a little more (it closes at 12am), we headed to bed for another day of activities ahead!

The next morning we devoured the biggest buffet breakfast anyone has ever seen. They can even make your own omelette.

Once stuffed to the brim, we went to the mall of Emirates. This was another huge mall with cheap Nike clothes and an indoor ski slope. Yes you heard right, a ski slope.

After a shop we went back to the hotel to get ready for our desert safari! Our driver picked us up and took us for an hour long drive out of the city, to the desert. In our 4WD we rode the sand dunes for a while. If you get travel sick beware, definitely take some tablets for that part of the ride. We had a few near spewers and one actual spewer (ie. Josh). But it was so much fun!

Then we headed to the camp which had camel rides, shishas and henna tattoos. We watched a show before a buffet dinner and belly dancing after dinner. It was a really fun night and definitely worth the money! (Not expensive at all)

Once we got back to the hotel we went to see the hotels aquarium. It was amazing. 

After the aquarium, we found this really chilled outside bar with couches and shishas. The bar overlooked the hotel pool and was just so relaxing after a busy day. At that moment it really felt like we were on holidays and finally living the dream.

On our third and final day, we got up early to make the most of it since we had to catch a flight to Paris at 3pm! 

We went to the hotels water park (yes a water park).

There is this epic 25m high slide called 'the leap of faith' and I who is scared of heights  went on it, twice!! It was scary but so so fun! I have the funniest picture now on a magnet of me going down screaming my head off.

There were heaps of other slides and rapids.

All in all, Dubai was fantastic!