Wow it's been a long time since I've sent one of these emails - I guess I've been really busy lately!! I'll try to just give a quick little update on what I've been up to the past few weeks...

Paris
In Paris I had a few bigs days dedicated to Monet. Firstly I went to the L'Orangerie museum to see some of his massive waterlilly paintings. Another day I took a trip out to Giverney to see Monet's home and waterlilly pond, complete with the Pont Japonais. And finally I went to a museum called Marmottan Monet where I found some of his most famous works - Impression: Soleil Levant, Pont Japonais, Roeun Cathedral and many other beautiful paintings from his garden.

I was fortunate enough to be in Paris for the Fete de la Musique, so on that day Alisha, some of her friends and myself went down to Ille de cite for a picnic and listened to a little jazz band all afternoon. Then we headed to Monmatre where people were jamming in the streets, dj-ing on rooftops, and there was even karaoke at Sacre Coeur! Later in the night we went down by the Seine (and were joined by what seemed to be everyone living in Paris) and sat by the water drinking and listening to Reggae.

I was also joined by Pat for a few days and we went to Tour Montparnasse for an amazing view of the city (it's the best view beacuse you can see the Eiffel Tower and the ugly Montparnasse building isn't in the way!). We also went to a concert to see Rodrigo y Gabriela, a guitar duo from Spain. The sounds they made just with their guitars was absolutely incredible - it sounded like they had an entire band backing them up!!

South of France
I had gorgeous weather while I was in Carcassonne and Nimes, which provided me with a fantastic opportunity to work on my tan :). I spent alot of time wandering around the castle and ramparts at Carcassonne because my hostel was located inside the city walls, and I also went on a lovely 6hour walk by the canal one day. It was a strange hostel though, full of school kids and old czech people on a bus tour, so the few real backpackers there stuck together and we all had some nice nights sitting in the bar chatting. I even made friends with the hostel owner and got myself free alcohol and dinner!

Then in Nimes I was joined by Lauren for a few nights. We visited the Pont du Gard, the roman aquaduct, and swam in the beautiful river below it. While we were in Nimes we also managed to get tickets to a James Blunt concert which was held in the 2000 year old roman arena - it was a fantastic night!

Lausanne (again)
I managed to squeeze in another quick stay in Lausanne before I hit the UK, and had one beautiful day of sunshine which enabled Lauren and I to go on a lovely walk around the lake and up through all the vineyards near Cully. I also caught up with my uni buddy Alice and I had the best hot chocolate in the world!! It was so thick and gooey I had to eat it with a spoon mmmmmm :). The sunny weather also meant that I was brave enough to try swimming in Lake Geneva for the first time, so Pat, Lauren and I had a nice afternoon frolicking on the water's edge.

Edinburgh
Next was a stop in Edinburgh to catch up with my friend Gwen. Pat followed me across to Scotland too, so the three of us spent a few days going to museums, climbing Scott's Monument, riding bikes around the suburbs, and also heading out for a few cocktails with a night of trivia madness (which we unfortunately lost)! There was also a mini Swiss reunion when we met up for dinner with another Scot, Helen, who had been studying in Lausanne with us as well.

Dublin
In Dublin I caught up with an old work friend, Jane, who recently moved over to Ireland with her sister. I had a fun time with them, and Pat as well who joined us for a few days. I then stayed with John and he was kind enough to take Pat and I on day trips to Wicklow, the Guinness Valley and the town of Glendaloch. I also managed to travel north up to a place called Knowth which is a 3000 year old monument and consists of a giant mound with monolithic art on the rocks surrounding it. Another day trip was down to Kilkenny to see the castle as well as the Dunmore caves.

Canada
So now I'm in Toronto, Canada, and it's the final country on my round the world trip. The first few days here I hung around with a Welsh girl and we explored the city and took a ferry ride out to the islands for a beautiful view back towards the city. I'm finding Toronto not too different to Sydney - the people, skyscrapers, food etc, all remind me a little bit of home. And the prices here for things are alot cheaper than what I've been paying in Europe which is a lovely change :). Yesterday I went to Niagara Falls which was a 1.5 hours bus ride away. It was an incredible experience and I was overwhelmed by the amount of water that cascaded over the massive falls. I went on the maid of the mist boat trip as well where I was absolutely drenched after the boat hovered by the bottom of the falls.

My next stop is to Belleville to visit a friend for a few days before I head across to Vancouver to start a 2 weeks bus trip though the rockies. Then I'm back home on August 13!! YAY!

Can't wait to see you all soon.

I'm writing to you from the very hot town of Vienna. After a 12 hour rail adventure across a Switzerland and Austria (in a train that was having major problems with its air con) I finally made it to Vienna where I felt like I had walked into a sauna. Unfortunately my arrival in Austria has coincided with a very badly timed onset of some sort of sickness (not the thing you want to be dealing with while travelling on your own). But despite my desire (and need) to stay in bed for days, I've been trying to get out and explore the town.
 
My first full day was spent with a walk down to the main museum and castle area where sadly much of the beautiful architecture and gardens was covered up with construction for fan zones for the Euro 08 (soccer comp). So I retreated to the inside of the castle and saw a display of Hapsburg  silver, glass and crockery, as well as an amazing museum dedicated to Empress Elizabeth. Affectionately known as 'Sisi' she married her cousin (the Emperor) when she was young and had a very strange life that was ended when she was assassinated in Geneva (I never knew Switzerland was so big for assassinations!). There was also a tour of some of the imperial rooms that were spectactular.
 
The rest of the morning was spent snoozing in the gardens (which was completely necessary cause I was on the verge of collapsing while in the castle). Once I revived myself a little I explored the old town, treated myself to a schnitzel in a fancy cafe, and went up to the top of the main church for a view of the town. I also stumbled across a free organ recital in one of the smaller churches which I found very atmospheric. In the afternoon I went to a museum (forget the name) where I saw paintings by Monet, Kandinsky and Picasso. That night I returned to the hostel and fell into bed at the extremely early hour of 8pm and did not get up til 11.30am the next day (much of my well-needed sleep was unfortunately interrupted by my roommates getting ready to go out at 11pm and then one of them snoring for hours upon hours upon hours.... ah, the joys of hostel life!)
 
Today I was feeling a little better so I embarked on a little adventure to the imperial palace down the road. I had a tour of the rooms, roamed the perfectly manicured gardens for hours, and then got lost in a maze (i gave up after 15 minutes and spent about that time again trying to find my way out). This palace was exactly what I thought Vienna would be like - miles of flowers and mazes and beautiful buildings!
 
Tomorrow I've booked myself on a bike tour out to the vineyards - should be fun!

I'm currently in the quaint town of Chezard in Western Switzerland - it's about 20 minutes by car out of Neuchatel. I'm enjoying the lovely hospitality of my roommate from my year in Lausanne. Her family lives in this beautiful old farmhouse that has three levels with many hidden rooms and corridors. The best thing about being here is the wonderful meals that Chloe's mother makes for everyone every day. I'm very well fed at the moment!
 
On my first night we went across to La Chaux-de-Fonds to see Chloe's cousin play in a band, and to get there we had to take this amazing 5km long tunnel - there are tunnels through the mountains everywhere here! At the concert the music was amazing, and the first band played an accordian and even a digeridoo! The next day was raining, but we braved the weather and took a drive to a lake where we made friends with a herd of cows (took lots of pictures of cows for you Claudine!). We then went to some Moulins Souterrains (windmills in an underground cave) where we learnt about these amazing structures. The tour was all in French, so it was fantastic practice. And you would think that there would be some places where aussies are not taking over, but even in the centre of the earth in switzerland I ran into two ladies from Sydney!
 
Yesterday was a bit nicer weather, so Chloe, her sister and I went on a hike up Cruex du Van. From the top we had a view across the lakes of switzerland, down towards lake geneva, and we could even faintly see the swiss alps in the distance. It was an absolutely beautiful place, very 'Swiss' and up the top of the cliffs I even found some remaining piles of snow!
 
I've been speaking lots of french here - absolutely no english - so it's been quite an exhausting few days. Somehow I'm managing to get my point across, though I'm often appearing as a bit of a crazy aussie. The strange thing is that I'm even starting to think in french (scary stuff)...
 
Tomrrow I head on a 10 hour train trip across to Vienna - wish me luck!

Alex and I have been having a great time the past few days exploring the country and reminiscing about old times. We've been exploring  Lausanne a bit, taking some walks along the lake and also taking some very random trips into the countryside.

On Monday we had a whirlwind of a day. We met in the morning up at Lucerne where we spent awhile feeding ducks by the lake. It was amazing how many people stopped to see what we were doing - I had no idea that feeding ducks was so strange to everyone in this country! We were then going to take a boat to a glass factory, but I had been keen to go see some waterfalls up north so we jumped on a train to Zurich, hoping that it would take us in the right direction. In Zurich we got some random directions from information which saw us jump on a train to Winterthur then change to a small S-Barn train that was suppossed to stop at a station that is only open for a couple of months a year. As we got further and further into the countryside on this train we were starting to have concerns about where we were going. Thankfully our stop turned up and we walked down a staircase where we were confronted by the most spectacular view ever!!! The Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen in Northern Switzerland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Falls) are absolutely enormous - and the amount of water falling every second is deafening. There were a few different platforms that extended out over the waterfall itself, so we were able to get a really up close and personal view. Down by the river we found a boat that could take you to the little island that intersected the waterfall. The trip out through this water was really scary, with the little boat chugging with all its might to inch closer and closer to the falls. I've taken many photos of this waterfall andI hope to get up online soon.

The next day we decided to take a day trip to the foot of mount blanc in France. The train trip through the mountains was absolutely spectacular, despite the cloudy and slightly wet weather. We saw towns perched precariously on the top of mountains, and villages that were seemingly cut off from the rest of the world. Once we arrived in Charmonix the weather was unfortunately too bad to see Mount Blanc itself, which meant that a trip up the hideously expensive cablecar was out of the question as well. So we spent 2 hours walking around this ghost town (everything there is closed on Tuesdays we discovered) before catching the train home. The trip back was a very slow process with an unexpected stop for an hour at the border station were we were left to wander up and down a pretty much abandoned street a few times. And strangely at this station, the customs/border police came up to just us, no-one else out of the hundred people there, and asked to see our passports. They spent quite awhile looking at them and examining every single stamp in the book and quizzing us about whether we'd bought any cigarettes or alcohol. Very strange - they were probably just bored out of their minds... there was NOTHING in that town.

Today Alex and I went on another crazy adventure, this time using the tedious transport of bikes. I met up with him at Yverdon, and we hired bikes in the hope of reaching some roman ruins. We started off well, winding our way through the town then along some tracks by a canal, and seeing some beautiful scenery along the way. At some point we decided that our path would be down this rocky, dirt track, but unfortunately it ended in a dead end and we had to turn around and return via the painful jaggedy track. Following that bad turn we made several others, but it wasn't all bad because we were able to explore a few farms and even saw a couple of wild hares running through the fields. Eventually we made it back to the 'proper' track for awhile, but then somehow ended up following the back roads to Orbe rather than the main route. That meant riding on the road and constantly being overtaken by cars and trucks - scary stuff!! We thankfully managed to make it to the roman ruins in one piece and spent about 20mins admiring beautiful mosaics that had been unearthed in a field. Following that we had a well-deserved lunch and hot choc in town before Noe picked us up in her car and took us on a bit of a sightseeing trip. We were grateful for an escape from the painful bike seats - cycling makes you discover so many muscles that you never knew you had!

Tonight is the long-awaited pub night up at 13ieme siecle, so hopefully it will be a fun time out with the girls. Tomorrow is my last full day in Lausanne, and I'm going to see the new Indianna Jones with Alex :). I'm sending a package home to Sydney on Thursday, so if anyone has any requests (e.g. chocolate) let me know and I'll add them to the pile.

Keep up with all the emails!

It's been a busy few days here in Switzerland.... the weather has been absolutely awful, but that hasn't stopped me from going out and having fun!

On Thursday I went to an amazing photography exhibition called 'Controverses:Une histoire juridique et éthique de la photographie' and it had famous (and not so famous) photographs from journalism, art and advertising that had created a scandal at some point. There were photos of death, body parts, nude people, weird subjects....For example, there were photographs taken by the girls who 'discovered fairies' in their garden, the last photos of Princess Diana and a section on photo manipulation where they showed an altered image where someone standing next to Stalin has been erased. I was excited to see some of the images by photojournalists that I studied in uni last year - photos by W. Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier Bresson, Robert Cappa, and many more....

I'm finally at Patricia's at Cedres, and it's strange being back in this student housing. People are always coming and going from all the apartments, popping over for dinner, yelling at friends through the huge windows. Friday saw me make my way to my old university campus where I met up with my old Tandem buddy Alice. It was lovely seeing her again, and it even gave me a chance to have a yummy (and cheap) uni chocolat chaud! That night most of the town headed to EPFL for the big Balelec concert. I had made the trip with Patricia and some of her Canadian friends, but after meeting Alex, Noe and Paola at the front gates I ended up being separated from Pat and didn't see her til the end of the night. Balelec is this massive music festival every year that attracts around 15 000 people and has about half a dozen stages with bands playing til 4am. I organised to meet up with my old Swiss roommate Chloe and we watched a couple of bands, including an amazing Reggae group who played really fun music that we could all dance too.

The following day Pat and I, along with another aussie, headed north to go to an Absinthe factory in Motiers. It was an absolutely gorgeous train ride past the lake at Neuchatel and then through towering mountains and forests. As we changed to a tiny regional train and made our way past some very very tiny country train stations we began to worry where on earth this strange factory was actually located. Passing towns that seemed to have fewer than 50 people, we didn't hold much hope for arriving at a big tourist spot. When we finally pulled into the station it was pretty much what we thought - a tiny little community hidden in a cute valley. Noe and Alex turned up and we made our way inside the factory and it absolutely stank! The smell of absinthe is extremely overpowering. We had a nice little tour of the house where the man made the absinthe and he told us the history of how it originated in Switzerland and then banned in the early 1900s, before being legal again in 2005. Despite most people thinking that absinthe is green, this original pure stuff is clear and then white when you mix it with water. It didn't taste too bad, so we bought a few bottles in preparation for Pat's green fairy party next week.

When we left the factory the man had told us about a free museum up the road. When we walked up there it turned out that it wasn't free til the evening, but somehow we talked ourselves into free entry after saying that we were all arts students at the University of Lausanne and would tell all our friends about the place. We thought we'd just have a quick look around the place, but the man went over to the front door, locked us in, and then started to give us a personalised tour of the entire place. We had no idea what the museum was about and listened patiently as the man explained the story behind every single item in every single room. There were rooms dedicated to making cheese, clock production, a kitchen, weaving, and of course Absinthe. He talked for at least an hour and a half, and by the end we were exhausted from concentrating on all this information being thrown to us in French. After visiting all of the rooms he proceeded to lead us across to the museum next door where he asked another man to fill us in on more history of the town. So again, all in French, we got a long and detailed history of Jean Jacques Rosseau, a Swiss philosopher who lived in this building while he was in exile. This museum curator gave us the most detailed history of this man, and was even asking us questions as if we were it was a uni pop quiz - like 'what was the title of the book Rosseau wrote in a certain year..?' - we didn't even know who this guy was, let alone anything about him!!! Pat saved us from more torture by saying we had a train to catch, but we left the other two behind because Alex was very interested in all this stuff. All in all it was an interesting adventure - the type of strange day that happens when you least expect it!

Today is a lazy Sunday, and sadly it's still raining outside. I can't believe how cold it's been here atm. I thought I'd be here for beautiful summer weather (which it was earlier in the week) but the last few days feel like winter back home! I'm about to head into town to meet Alex, and later on tonight we're catching up with Anna, the aussie ballerina we met here in 2006. We'll also be making a long-awaited stop at Ouchy for Movenpick icecream - yum!!

Amanda

Thanks for everyone who sent replies to my first email - it's great hearing from all of you.

I've now moved from the youth hostel across to the student residences at Cedres, just by the lake. I was supposed to stay with a girl called Pat last night, but in the late afternoon I recieved a frantic message from her saying that she'd missed her flight from Berlin to Geneva and wouldn't get back to Switzerland til the same time the next day! Drama! So I spent the afternoon trying to contact people that I used to know in Lausanne, searching for somewhere to stay. Eventually I heard back from one of the Aussie girls who is studying here at the moment, and despite her being sick, she allowed me to sleep on her comfy couch and we spent the night relaxing and watching movies. It was nice staying with someone I knew and being able to talk, rather than being alone at the hostel.

The past few days have been absolutely beautiful here in Switzerland. Most of my time has been spent reading and relaxing by the lake, or wandering around town. On Tuesday I did alot of shopping (good old H+M and Zara!) and visited a few of my old haunts. While I was up by the cathedral, I was approached by an Italian guy asking for directions. We ended up chatting for awhile (in both french and english) about Italy and where he should go in Lausanne, and eventually I ended up showing him a few places around town cause I really didn't have anything better to do, and it was nice to be able to talk to someone. After an hour or so I left him by the Palais de Justice and headed back to the hostel where I ran into a canadian in the common room. We talked about places to visit in Europe for awhile and then I ended up showing him around the port at Ouchy. I think I'm turning into a tour guide - I should get paid for this!!

That night I also met up with one of our old Swiss friends, Joelle, and had a lovely Swiss dinner with her before going for a drink at King Size. It was so nice to see her again, and we spent ages catching up on a year's worth of news.

So this morning I'm just stealing my friend's internet while lying on her couch. The weather is a bit less appealing today, but I'm planning to research some day trips for me and Alex, who arrives in town tomorrow. YAY! :)

Hope you're all well, and keep up with the emails!!

Hi all!

This is just a quick email to let you all know that I've arrived safe and sound in Switzerland! After a very very long flight (which was made slightly better by the fact that I had an empty seat next to me that I could spread out on for part of the trip) I landed in Zurich and then took the beautiful train journey down south to my lovely little town of Lausanne. I'd forgotten how lovely the countryside is here, and what a thrill it is to come through the final tunnel on the way to Lausanne and be confronted with the awesome view of Lac Leman.

I arrived quite early in the morning, so after dumping my big pack I went off for a long-awaited walk by the lake. The weird thing that I've noticed so far is that pretty much nothing has changed here in the past year and a bit - the same pelicans are swimming around, the same trees are lining the shore, and the same bike riders are speeding along the paths ready to knock you over if you're not playing attention. During my stroll by the water I noticed that the parks were literally buzzing with people - there was barely and inch of grass to be found for me to sit down on. Everywhere I looked there were bbqs, ball games and people sunbaking (but noone was in the water - it's way too cold for the poor swiss people, they just like to soak up every ray of sunshine). Also, as I went to buy a few supplies the lines in the supermarket were ridiculous!! People pushing and shoving, and lines running up every aisle. But then when I took a walk through the centre of Lausanne, it was like a ghost town! It was then that I took the time to read a sign on one of the many closed stores that i realised that it was Petecost!!

Tonight is going to be a quiet one as i curl up with my book. I've got a lovely room to myself with a balcony and a view across the lake towards the French Alps - very romantic... too bad I'm all alone!! But things are looking up on the social front - I may be meeting one of our swiss friends, joelle, tomorrow, and then on Wednesday I'm moving down the street to stay with the lovely Patricia :)

Hopefully next time I write I'll have a few more adventures for you!!!

Amanda

It’s been a very busy few days lately, and I really wish I had more time to update you all on all the crazy adventures I’ve been having this past week, but you’ll just have to settle for quite a condensed version as I need to get up quite early tomorrow to catch a plane for my long-awaited trip to Denmark.

First of all, the wonderful layer of white powder from the 2 days of snow that we had early last week is now slowly starting to disappear as the temperatures start to go up once again. It’s a shame the snow couldn’t just keep coming and coming like it’s supposed to at this time of year, but I guess I should be grateful that I got to see some of the winter magic before I head back home to insane 40 degree heat. It has been nice heading around town and seeing the results of the snowfalls, with random piles of whiteness dotted throughout the city. And on the days when there’s a bit less fog across the lake we are able to see some of the alps in all their winter glory. There were of course a few more little snow fights occurring here and there, and I have now fallen in love with the snow boots I bought earlier in the year. They’re almost like slippers and I’ve started to wear them everywhere I go now, regardless of whether it’s wet and snowy, just cause they feel so comfy!

Friday 26th was Australia day for all of you in the know, and we decided to celebrate with a party at trent’s house, which was sorta combined with a little birthday party for myself. The morning saw laura and I rushing around the bulk supermarket of Alligros buying up big on sausages and other supplies for what we hoped would help our recreation of the good old sausage sizzle. We also managed to seek out some aussie wine with the fantastic find of a bottle of Jacob’s Creek for only 9fr! It was then a huge effort to haul all the stuff back to Triaudes where laura set about making ANZAC cookies for the party. Many of the aussies had agreed to whip up a bit of an aussie feast so we ended up having dishes of veggie sandwiches, fruit cake, tim tams, and a few other delicacies. So the party was a nice success, with good traditional music quietly playing in the corner, and a big flag hanging on the wall as we attempted to recreate a bit of aussie atmosphere. Although, it was quite a strange sight in the end to see an Irishman cooking our aussie BBQ outside in the middle of the snow standing next to a snowman. Very bizarre!



Near the end of the night we ended up having the aussie contingent standing in front of the flag attempting to sing along to the national anthem which resulted in some very confused looks from people in the room who had never actually heard our anthem before and were waiting for a rendition of Waltzing Matilda. These people have a lot to learn! After the party Alex, Ryan, John and some others headed over to Captain Cook to continue the celebrations, and there we found a couple of aussies in town draped in flags and making the most of the night. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay long though as I had a quite early start ahead of me…

So bright and early I bundled myself up in layers of clothing and jumped on a train with the Xchange group from uni where we headed to the small mountain town of Chateau d’Oex. This was the place I had visited with beth earlier in the year when we had our beautiful day of hiking and memorable sound of music experience in the blossoming fields and sunshine. Therefore I was quite excited to be heading back in the middle of winter to see the contrast with the town being completely enveloped in fresh snow. The train journey was magnificent as we weaved our way up the hill behind montreux, staring across at the snow covered peaks of the French alps. As we progressed towards d’Oex, you could see the waves of snow falling from the sky, and all around us the countryside was covered in mounds of fresh snow. When we arrived at the town it was still snowing quite heavily and I could even see real snowflakes with their perfect shapes staying intact even after they landed on your clothing or in your hair.



We had headed to this town primarily to do a bit of showshoeing through the mountainside, which pretty much involved tying racquet type contraptions onto your shoes so that you don’t sink when walking through snow. However, the day that we had chosen to go was also during a huge hot air balloon festival, so we were able to witness balloons of all shapes and sizes being pumped up, taking off and then floating through the air all afternoon. And we were extremely lucky that the day started to clear up and we were blessed with blue skies as a background to this magnificent sight. There were balloons in the shape of aliens, horses, oranges, and we even saw at one point what appeared to be a turtle chasing a chicken! So while this event was taking place the 20 of us were plodding our way through the snow, ducking under barbed wire fences, struggling up impossible climbs, and tumbling down hills. All in all it was really hard work and left me totally exhausted at the end of the day, but I had heaps of fun playing in the snow and making loads of new friends while participating in constant snow fights throughout the walk. One funny incident occurred however when we stopped for lunch on some person’s farm. Their dog, Anis, had come out to investigate what we were all up to and was constantly sneaking around to pick up crumbs and pester people to give her a pat. But when for some reason trent was using me to demonstrate how to dip someone when dancing, my sunnies fell off my head into the snow and quick as a flash Anis had them in her mouth and was sprinting across the field through the snow. It was absolutely hilarious and trent had to distract her in order to get them back! I had a really enjoyable day and it will definitely be one of my favourite memories of Switzerland.



That night I headed to john’s where I promptly fell asleep on his couch while waiting for the nice offer of a meal with him and Lisa (another Irish girl in Cedres). After a few games of cards and some whisky taste-testing we headed down to the party room at Cedres to have a look in on the farewell party for the two Mels. It seems weird to think that they are leaving in a few days, and was strange to be attending the first of what will probably be quite a number of going home parties.



The following day was my 22nd birthday! A nice relaxing morning was followed by a huge greasy lunch of eggs, tomatoes, bacon, mushies, onions, and sausages which was kindly cooked for me by Trent. It was absolutely delicious, and the first big aussie brekkie equivalent that I’ve had in ages. We then met up with Laura, Maria and John down at the iceskating rink where we had hoped to get in some final practise cause it was the last day, however when we got there the condition of the ice was absolutely terrible and you could barely glide without falling over. It was such a disappointment (though we’re gonna try and fit in one final session at the indoor place at malley before I leave). So instead while trent and the others headed back to fix up my birthday cake, john and I decided give up on the skating for the day and have a nice relaxing hot chocolate up in town. Then we went to trent’s where I got to indulge myself with a wonderful pavlova cake and real French champagne. Very fancy! For dinner that night it was a nice pasta dinner which contained whatever Laura and I could find in our respective cupboards, and then we settled down to watch a movie. It was a lovely birthday, though a bit strange to be celebrating so far from home.



Today was pretty much my final day of uni classes in Switzerland cause I obviously won’t be able to make it tomorrow, and next week I will be frantically trying to organise everything for my return home and I don’t think I’ll have time to duck up to uni. There really is so much to do, and my list of chores is just growing and growing as I constantly think of more things that I have to, or want to, do. There’s packing, closing bank accounts, cleaning my apartment, final dinners, a trip to Geneva to finally visit the UN, a final walk by the lake, goodbye hot chocolates, and also finding time to see the people I have come to love in this town. I know this has been a recurring point in my journal lately, but I think the hardest thing will be trying to say goodbye to people, and not knowing when or if I will ever see them again. It’s become so comfortable to know you have people you can just call up and head on over to their place for a catch up dinner and movie, or hear about random parties that are going on here and there. Even running into people you know on the metro is a fun experience. And I’m also going to miss the constant ability to step out my door and start conversing in French. It’s gonna be weird to get home to Australia and know that I don’t have to plan out every conversation in advance, however it’s been nice having this new form of conversation to use.

Ah well, enough moping for now. I’m gonna hit the sack and get up and start on my new journey to Denmark. Talk to you again in a week…
Xx

PS. The assignment is finally done! YAY! I feel so free….