G’day!

So, driving out of Paris was a little adventure, mainly because;

1.  I have never driven on the right hand side of the road before, and

2. I got to experience driving through the Arc de Triomphe roundabout.

On picking up the car we were told that this roundabout is only one of two in Paris where you have to give way to traffic coming onto the roundabout.   We weren’t quite sure what to expect, and on our approach it was extremely daunting, it was huge, with many lanes of cars, no lines, zero organisation, not to mention we had to make a fast exit which would require traveling across about 4-5 lanes of traffic very quickly.  As we entered, we basically held our breath and hoped for the best, but the really strange thing was when we got onto the roundabout and went with the flow, it all was organised and everything just ‘worked’ (not sure how), and we made it to our exit pretty uneventfully!  So, the adventure was more about us being worried about it more than the roundabout itself!

I am sure there is a really good self help lesson in there somewhere…lol

Oh, and when I say “I got to experience driving…” and  “we went through the roundabout”, it was actually Todd driving, I just like to pretend sometimes (as you may have guessed from my previous blog entry, where in the photo you can see I wasn’t even near the steering wheel when ‘driving’!!), hehe.

This now leads us to being at Disneyland!  Yay!  Here is my collection of photos for the day:

AHHHHHHH, He is going to eat me:

Some more from my boat trip, maybe a castle could be a good next residence for this chicken:

Look at meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, I am driving the fast action runaway train!:

Here is me being Chicken in Wonderland:

Me stuffing my face with special Disney chicken food (well, my travel mates said it certainly wasn’t normal peoples food so it had to be mine):

And to finish off the day, there was a Parade!

Wow, that was tiring…..One thing you may be thinking when looking at the photos is “what’s with the slow rides”?  Well, two reasons; first it was a bit hard to carry a camera on rides that send you flying and spinning at a million miles per hour, and second, I didn’t meet the height requirements for the good stuff (although I did manage to sneak on, there was no chance that I was going to miss out)!

What was the best part?!? That’s easy, seeing my travel mate (no, not Yas but Todd) scream like a girl on the roller coaster – heeeeeeeeeeeeeee, way too funny!

Well, I better get going as it’s off to Germany for us!

We are leaving Paris (well kind of, we have one more stop to make), yep, we have had our fun, we have now picked up our little car which will be my home for the coming weeks, and heading towards Germany.  Our trip is largely unplanned, we will travel where and when we feel like it, which is exactly how I like to travel!

First stop however is planned, we are off to EuroDisney!

Yipppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

This was me pretending to drive in the Paris traffic.

Louvre day today!

It’s a normal touristy day for this chicken; I got up early so I could travel to the museum as soon as it opens.   I got ready, jumped on the metro, and because I was early I found a little patisserie to sit, have some breakfast and enjoy the morning.  All was going well, until I realised that I had forgotten my memory card (it was still sitting at the hotel where I uploaded the photos the previous night). But not to worry, my trusty guide said there was a huge shopping center nearby, so off I went looking for it. I ended up continually looking for it for an hour when I finally realised that it was right below my feet (I was looking for a big building, not for escalators heading down!)….how embarrassing.  Some good did come out of it though, I actually realised that I am still able to understand directions in french, yay!

2 hours late, I ended up at the Louvre.

Chicken and Venus:

Myself and Mona (I got a lot of attention while getting this photo taken, you would have thought from the reaction from the people around me that they had never seen a chicken before!!):

Here is one of Ramses II (I will be traveling to Egypt before heading home on this trip, so it was a little taste of what was to come):

Lastly, I couldn’t resist getting this photo with Agasias of Ephesus:

OUCH!

Au Revoir!

What journey to Paris would be complete without a trip to the Eiffel tower? Here I am at the top (luckily my travel mates didn’t make me walk up these steps…. I know they thought about it), I forgot to get one of me in front of it, which is a shame.  but at least you get a view.

For lunch today I had a baguette, so fresh that I didn’t need anything with it, and before coming up here we decided to lie on the grass around the Eiffel tower and have an ice-cream.

I also had the chance to practice my french when a passer by asked me how my ice-cream was.  This was exciting because I realised, while I have spoken french to people asking for things (a ticket, food etc), I haven’t had the chance to chat….and while I could only say “I do not understand french”, I did get to chat for a little bit, mostly in English.  I think he may have found it funny listening to a chicken trying to speak french, always good to see those french lessons at school were pretty much forgotten! The somewhat good news is, I do remember how to swear and some odd phrases like “put the eggs on your head”.

Tonight we are going to relax, have a nice dinner, and perhaps see a movie or hang out in a cafe.

Louvre is next

I have just decided that I should have my own sign out tag….hmmmm, will think of one, in the meantime,

This is chicken saying au revoir

If you have seen the movie Amelie, you would recognise this Church. Got here nice and early in the morning as it was only a few blocks from where we stayed….which is lucky as we seemed to avoid the crowds.

As you can see there are a few stairs to climb, if you squint you can see me making my way up the stairs. By the way, why is there a man painted on the stairs next to me, is this possibly what happens to someone who tries to climb them?!?!?

The good news is they have a funicular so you don’t have to walk up the stairs, the bad news is my travel mates wouldn’t let me use it (it’s ok for them, the stairs aren’t taller than their heads!!)

We sadly said goodbye to Moscow and headed to Paris.

We stayed in a cool place around the corner from the Moulin Rouge (which I almost forgot to take a photo of), the area Montmartre is very cool and I recommended staying here. As an extra bonus our hotel is a block from the metro, which will get us anywhere and everywhere we want in Paris.

We’ve spend our time just walking around the area, relaxing and cafe-ing it up, as starting from tomorrow we will be putting our touristy shoes on and seeing the sites!

It’s my last night in Moscow and for the occasion I thought I would look back on my brief time in Moscow and think of some things I have learned about Moscow, not sure how practical they are, but still:

1.  Make sure you see the sites at night, it’s a must

2.  Walking across the road, make sure you leave PLENTY of space between you and any cars coming on the horizon (and when you think you have left enough space double it)!  I went to cross the road today with the guide just getting out of the car, and he screamed for me to stop.  I turned and asked why because I couldn’t see a car for ages, he said that Russian drivers can drive very fast and often don’t slow down for pedestrians.  Now, I didn’t get this fact checked, so I am not sure if it’s true, but if you saw my twitter video the other day (ie people driving way too fast to handle the black ice on the road), and based on the taxi ride from the airport, I thought I would pass it on.

3.  Do not assume the guards at the Red Square have a sense of humour, in fact, if you are a chicken and can not speak any Russian, I may even suggest sitting this one out.  But, if you enjoy a full body/cavity search – then be my guest.

4. If you have a guide that shows you around to the shops in the area, it’s probably best you don’t drink every vodka shot they offer you, despite what you think, it’s not rude to turn it down! (But it sure makes things more interesting)

5.  Oh, if you are up for some illegal drag racing, Sparrow Hills is the place.  On the same note, if you wish to be caught by the police drag racing, Sparrow HIlls is the place.  If you just want to watch to see if they get away with it….well, you know where to go….or so I am told!

6.  Lastly, yes the toilet/sink water turns the opposite direction to the southern hemisphere (I know it’s been said a million times, but it’s always cool to see it for yourself)

So, what do you do when you have had some busy days in Moscow, lots of fun and tonnes of walking?  You retire to your bed, here is mine (as you can see I am a messy chicken!), with a great view that’s hard to see at night (with this camera):

And I know you are all wondering “and what did this adventurous chicken eat”?  Something local, new and exciting?  Something fresh and fantastic to finish off the trip with?  Well, errrr no.  Despite our better judgement we spent the last night in Moscow eating hotel food.   Here’s me claiming all the wedges to myself (oh and lets not forget the coke with the bendy straw, you gotta love a good bendy straw):

I now say goodbye and spi-ceee-ba (I didn’t learn how to write it) to Moscow, and tomorrow I am back on the plane, heading to Paris.

Oops, forgot to show you some more photos from victory park, this is the main monument, a bit of a crappy photo, but you get the general idea. Is it just me, or do I have a bit of a radioactive tinge? …..maybe it’s just wishful thinking, I kinda like the sound of “Chicken the Hulk”

This monument is located on Poklonnaya Gora, the highest site in Moscow, the park is huge and the views of Moscow are impressive, if you go, make sure you check it out at night, as many buildings are lit up.

After hearing Napoleon was left waiting in vain for the keys to the Kremlin here in 1812, all I can say is at least he had a good view! (not to mention, anyone that leaves Napoleon waiting is pretty awesome in this chickens book).

PS  Heheheh looks like the monument is bent……  yea, I know small things etc etc

Before I talk about Lenin’s Mausoleum, Let me tell you about my day…

First, I tried to get into the Red Square. We get held up by the guards checking everyone’s bag, and when it’s my turn to go through the guard can’t figure out what I was! He starts feeling me in all sorts of places, then tries to pull me apart – OUCH! I certainly didn’t say thank you to him!! Since he couldn’t speak English, and I only knew how to say one word, and our guide was far away, things were looking very bleak.

Luckily our guide came back and explained to the guard who I was (I am sure he said I was ‘very, very important’!!). Unfortunately, the guard didn’t quite understand, apparently I am the first traveling chicken he had seen. Luckily, after about 20mins, and some very unhappy people lining up behind us, the guard gave in and he allowed me to go through.

We finally got to see Lenin’s Mausoleum!

We didn’t get to go in and see his body though. You see our guide went home, it was getting late, and all bags had to be inspected again before you could go in, and since I was well aware of the guards feelings towards me, I decided to pass.

What trip to Russia would be complete without seeing the KGB headquarters? This large, imposing and slightly eerie Building housed the infamous Lubyanka Prison. You can’t help but wonder about the secrets and deaths that went on within the walls. Pretty scary stuff for this little Chicken!