Somewhere over the rainbow

The last couple of months have been abit crazy with both ups and downs, so I have not updated everyone mostly because there where allot of times that I was too home sick or I was just lazy. To make it easier on everyone and myself, I have decided to divide this blog into sections:-

Paris
A weekend in Paris....

As it turns out, the romantic notion of catching a train (even if I was not in the 50s) is the most comfortable way to travel. It only took 2 hours and once I got over my small panic attack of not understanding the language, I was on my way in the city of love.

The sights are amazing, and trying to speak the language is an effort in itself, plus I even lost my walking tour when another 'single' (as I like to call us people that travel alone) and I got side tracked at the Louvre.

As French food goes, I tried some Escargot (snails), which I really liked, kinda taste like mussels and calamari mixed together - plus the pleasure of not having a pretty woman moment.

I also went clubbing in the 'red light district' near the Moulin Rouge. That was a jasventure - I saw the scariest fight in my life. Everyone was happy drinking away, and suddenly there is a loud noise and two barman grab a guy and wrestle him outside, while the other bar guy grabs his baseball bat (in France??) and proceeds to beat the crap out of this guy, then they all calmly walk back inside, clean the blood off of the baseball bat and start serving drinks again!!!! I was so confused,  both horrified and excited by the whole situation. Until, the guy returns with a car load of people.

I seriously had images of a shoot out, and was looking for a good place to hide underneath stuff, which also presented a good viewing point. But nothing eventuated out of that as everyone just left after some yelling, and we proceeded to move on to the next place - where I had a lot of cocktails and somehow managed to get back to my hostel.

Sunday was mostly just waiting in the freezing line for the Eiffel Tower which was worth it and a beautiful lunch with a side order of sunshine (which I had not found in London).

Paris is an amazing city, and I hope to get back and do the whole thing properly, and also to see other parts of France, but for now I can survive on only the weekend.

My Birthday
As you may be aware, my plan for my birthday was to go to Bath and Stone Henge.

OMG.... I have never been so moved by a place in my life. I don't know what it was about both places, but they both seemed to be so magical. I even had a teary moment as I threw a coin into the ancient hot spa for a wish.

Stone Henge on the other hand, was something completely different.... Luckily, I paid extra to go inside the circle, as I can see how from the outside it would be boring. But, as it was sunset, and the place was cleared out of tourists - our small group had the place to ourselves. I don't know why, but the entire time was spent in whispers, and a strange kind of tingling occurred as you breached the circular barrier. I cannot begin to explain my feelings to this place, I am in love, it is truly magical and for whatever reason that it exists, it deserves to be standing as it does have a purpose. Plus, as we were driving off into the sunset, a rainbow appeared directly over the stones - so I had to listen to the song, it was just appropriate!

Scotland
Ok, so I know I have spoken allot about how beautiful everything has been... It is true, but in different ways. Paris, was man made beauty, Stone Henge/Bath was ancient beauty and now to Scotland.

Scotland is a natural beauty. I did a three day tour of the highlands, which as far as I'm concerned has hardly changed from the day that the Earth was created. For those of you who know me, you should know that I love history.. I know a fair bit about Scottish history, and I could not imagine all these Clans fighting hand to hand going to battle in this terrain. However, I can understand to some extent the reason. I would most definitely fight for a place that looked like that and is so obviously naturally rich.

I cannot even begin to remember some of the names that I went to see (as most of them where in Gaelic), but from the ones I know, we did see Fort Williams and Augustes, the Isle of Skye, Colloden Moor, a magical place similar to Stone henge, we also got to stay in a place just off from Loch Ness.

London
All of these places were amazing and the last three months have been awesome, sometimes lonely, but worth every moment. Not allot else has been going on in between my travelling, just making friends and living everyday life.

Plans for the near future - I want to do a bit more exploring around the UK, so places such as Leeds and Brighton and saving for a bigger holiday. Italy is up there, and I'm secretly aiming for that, but I also would love to go to the running of the bulls and the tomato festival in Spain (July and August). However, as that's a bit far off, we will see what I can achieve. For now, its finding a job - then saving.

But least its somewhat a plan.

Love you all and be safe.