After Japan we back tracked through a bunch of the cities we’d been to last year, plus a few new ones. First stop was an underwhelming night in Hong Kong redeemed only by the hockey, champagne and mojito filled wait at The Bridge Cathay Pacific lounge. Then, onto 3 lovely days staying with friends, Garett & Tanya and their spoodle Dexter in Singapore where we relaxed and enjoyed the warm sunshine – and avoided the $20++ pints of beer.

Further east and back to a somewhat colder Istanbul where a delayed flight meant we had only 2 days of cat visiting time. Rainy weather kept us inside boutiques & cafes (one playing loud techno with a cat asleep in the corner) and provided an excuse to chill at our most excellent hotel, the Tomtom Suites, drinking çay and playing chess. We took a rare sunny opportunity to walk over to the Grand Bazaar for some good old fashioned hassling and sightseeing before being graciously sent off to Berlin by our hosts with a gift box of Turkish Delight. Arguably the best room/breakfast/service of all time.

Berlin was a blast, a varied 3 day stay of visiting historical sights, partying & general wandering. The damp weather and grey skies enhanced the coldness of the remaining parts of the wall and various symbols of the war that lay around the city. Vegan currywurst, Australian made flat whites and bargain local beers, we were well satisfied.

A discussion was had about the likelihood of a visit to Berghain. Will there be deep house? No. Drum & bass? Definitely not. The desire was neutral however a 7am beer changed my perspective somewhat and after a couple of trains and a diabolically cold walk we stood in front of the converted power station hoping for a chance to dance. The place is notoriously hard to get into and that was proven by the couple in front of us being denied and they spoke German! Jaymin engaged the bouncer and we were thankfully directed over to the quickly moving “line” of 2 people before entering the belly of the beast. Our eyes adjusted to the dark, very dark interior to see outfits & activities traditionally reserved for the bedroom, overflowing toilets, graffitied walls, a guy drinking a pot of tea and can that be right? €3 beers. It was all amazing. 4hrs later and we had spent most of the day downstairs in the main room enjoying the best sunday techno session in a good while before exiting the club happily exhausted just before sundown. Success!

No Line! what the!

Next stop London where we got to spend quality time with friends and the beautifully natured, ever so softly furred Olga, recently adopted by our ever accommodating hosts, Nick & Bi.

Visits to Tate Modern, Borough Market, Museum of Natural History & a high tea set in the whimsically decorated drawing rooms of the Ampersand Hotel allowing for a scones and cream fix left us with a suitably British experience, ready to take on the last leg of our journey in North America.

T & J

Paris!! You stole our hearts (and our previously trim waistlines). We didn’t even get close to the Eiffel Tower, we only looked at the Louvre, Notre Dame & Sacre Coeur from the street but we experienced so much – and loved every minute of it! Arriving via overnight bus from London very ahead of time at around 6am, we took the metro to our airbnb pad on Rue des Dames in Les Batignolles in the 17th arrondissement. We parked ourselves at a nearby cafe drinking coffees and eating croissant until we were due to meet our host. We already felt at home in the city. Our apartment was perfection, with the couch facing the window, overlooking an array of old buildings. We spent many hours, sparkles in hand, chatting and staring out at the changing skies.

After catching up on some sleep we walked around our hood in the warm afternoon sunshine and stopped off at the grocery store spending the best part of an hour swooning over all the cheeses, wines and my personal favourite, mustard flavoured chips!! This was to be the beginning of many meals at home that somehow all involved cheese and multiple bottles of wine/sparkles. Delish!

Our second day in Paris had us walking down to the 9th arrondissement where we perused the beautifully dressed windows of the department stores Printemps and Galeries Lafayette and wandered up and down the streets admiring all the architecture and discussing ways in which we could arrange our affairs so that we could live in Paris! The evening weather was springtime perfection so we packed a picnic and walked to Montmartre. The hill turned out to be a little too angled to enjoy anything without it rolling away so we settled on drinking a bottle of red until we were hurried away at closing time by security.

When you have a whole week in a city, it allows you to really slow down and not feel pressured to see things every minute of every day. So we took full advantage of this, not leaving the house until 7pm the next day, flipping through the multitude of fashion books and magazines our host had lying around, planning our next stops, napping – and eating cheese of course! In the evening we walked through tree lined streets, manicured parks, past Parfums Christian Dior to take a quick snap in front of l’Arc de Triomphe and head out for dinner. It was around 10pm when we sat down to eat and the streets were still buzzing. We ordered onion soup and beef bourguignon (and French fries bien sûr!) and faced out into the street people watching, with l’Arc peering over at us in the near distance. Magnifique!

Le Marais had been hyped up to us so much that we thought we had better dedicate some time to it. It was a really warm day and we thought it would be great to go by foot which had us walking through the manic 10th and taking a diversion to walk past Notre Dame and lay our eyes upon the Seine. By the time we were exhausted and somewhat underwhelmed but what I’m sure would usually be a great neighbourhood. A champagne and a beer fixed this but not long after we were lost and decided to call the day and pick up some supplies from the store and metro home for a night in.

My absolute favourite day in Paris came next! We ate breakfast and took the metro to Canal Saint Martin where we wandered alongside the water, stopping to admire a ducky with her 6 ducklings (this took quite some time), watching boats go through locks (this also took quite some time), and checking out cute little boutiques. We went to Helmut Newcake, a gluten free bakery that made up for what was missing in wheat with copious amounts of sugar and dairy. Accompanied by a bottle of sparkling wine, we set ourselves on the edge of the canal amongst the locals and imagined ourselves as Parisians, if only for a moment. We then took a long stroll up into Belleville where Jaymin had read about a bar with great views of Paris. Once we reached the top of the hill we spied the Eiffel tower from afar, our first time since arriving! Moncoeur (Le O’ at the time) was interesting, it did have a great position perched high above Paris, but be sure to wear covered shoes when visiting the bathroom…We stayed for a drink and then walked down the hill, stopping at another outdoor bar along the way with an equally as detestable bathroom before heading back to Les Batignolles.

New York based, and improved, its highline on Paris’ Promenade Plantée. We decided to put our walking shoes on and stroll the 4.5km. It was a wonderful way to see Paris from the level of the treetops. We got hopelessly lost at one point where they had built a massive freeway in the middle of the train line but took a right turn and ended up in a sprawling park full of activity, then got hopelessly lost again before getting help to make it back to a metro.

Our final day in Paris (*sob) brought some chill in the air. What hadn’t we seen yet?! How were we going to prepare ourselves to say goodbye to the city we’d grown to love in such a short time? We took the metro to the Louvre but the masses of people immediately had us walking in the opposite direction through the beautiful parklands towards Les Champs Elysees. We saw 2 goats tied, ‘mowing’ the lawns and walked past amazing buildings, through grotty streets and almost to the Eiffel Tower when it started bucketing down with rain. We planted ourselves in a cafe and spent hours drinking coffee and eating crêpes while writing in our journals and reading our kindles. When the rain finally dissipated we headed home for a siesta before going out for a disappointing late dinner. Jaymin was yet to try a croque madame in France after indulging in many Canadian versions. Unfortunately the last meal in Paris turned out to be nothing more than a dry piece of toast, with non existent cheese and a poor excuse for a fried egg. Quel dommage! Still, it was only a small negative on an otherwise amazing week in the French capital. À la prochaine!

T & J