Paris and THE ALL BLACKS!!!

its monday afternoon here 5pm and already dark outside, oh how i wish i could still see the sun! i got back at 3am this morning from Paris after a tricky journey home from Paris. 24 of us went on a coach tour leaving on Sat morning at 6am, they like early starts around here! its a 2 hour drive to Dover where we take the ferry to Calais in France and altho it seemed wrong, we started our first drinks about 9am. the coach trip went quite fast and we were glad to arrive at our hotel about 5pm in the afternoon in time for a quick nap before the 9pm game. was very awesome being in a European city surrounded by very proud Kiwi's. I think I've mentioned before how I love telling people where I'm from and educating them about our country. we got to the game at Stade de France with over an hour to spare to made the most of it by having a few beers. eventually found block L where we were sitting (yes the stadium has blocks of A thru to Z, its massive!) and joined the other 80,000 fans - WHAT A SCENE!! loved walking into this massive stadium where the supporters were easily half Kiwi's, my new flatmate even happened to be sitting about 8 rows in front of me! great game, not as a convincing win as last weekends game, but still a win, looking great for the world cup next year! our hotel was quite a way our from the city so we were quite happy for an earlyish nite after the game.

next day we had breakfast at the hotel before driving to the Eiffel Tower and walking around for an hour and a half. we walked up to some big old building (then again, thats like every building I've seen over here!) and to the Arc d'Triomphe, that famous massive roundabout where they finish the Tour de France. we had to be back at the bus at 12.30 to leave so hurried back........
only to find the bus had broken down! the engine wasnt turning over at all, 3.5 hours later, we were finally on the road again! it did mean we had time to walk around more and see more of Paris which was brilliant. been there twice now and can quite easily go back! finally got on the road and made it back to the ferry. before we left the docks, the captain said the seas were quite rough so it would be a rocky trip, but we were busy playing games so didnt notice too much. and just when we thought we'd be nearly on land again, the captain told us another ship needed tugboat assistance and we'd be out on the water for at least another hour - it was about midnite by this time. not much you can really do so we just kept entertaining ourselves.

finally left the boat, changed to a new coach which was waiting for us and got back to London at 3am, up at 7.45 for work! not sure how I'm still awake but I made it through work.

even though I'm loving the travelling, I'm really looking forward to this weekend at home in London for a change.... and a sleep in!

the weekend after that I'm off to the British WRC rally with Josh, Craig, Katie, Michelle and Lawrence - bring it on!! and I thought I'd have a quiet life over here, hehe.