Hi friends. We're in Switzerland right now, we just left a town called Lucerne, or Luzern as they say it. Its known for its cheese, chocoloate, watches and knifes. Its a really cute little place with a population of 30thousand or something like that. Kirsten thought it was a nice change after being in Paris and London but Allison likes her big cities. We arrived after a FULL day on the bus, in which we were all sooo hung over from moulin rouge.. still worth it though. We were both lucky enough to sleep most of the way there and when we got to our hotel we spent the night writing emails and uploading pictures. As some of you may know we only had wifi in the bottom floor so it was impossible to do anything online! I sat in the lobby and skyped for a bit but its sucks cuz everyone can hear you.

We started the next day by walking to this mountain called mount pilatus, legend has it that this was the mountain that the man who condemmed Jesus to death found peace in after he passed away, and his soul was guarded by a dragon. For hundreds of years no one was allowed to go up the mountain because of the dragon and the evil spirit. Eventually a priest went up to the moutain and realised it was a friendly dragon. Now people can ride up the mountain in a cable car and the dragon is a symbol of Lucerne, its everywhere. So up we rode for about half an hour, all the way to the top, wow was it ever high. It was awesome, but very similar to the rockies, just with no animals. All of the aussies on our tour absolutely loved it! Some of them had never seen snow before, and there was a lot of snow! One of them even stripped down and starting rolling around in it, it was hilarious! There was also a man playing one of those big long horns at the top... not sure what theyre called.

After the mountain we went on a little walking tour and saw some famous bridge, a bunch of swans and a lot of cute little buildings. We eventually split up as Kirsten went to the cheese fondu lunch and allison being lactose didnt. We parted ways for the first time then and spent the afternoon with other people in our group, wow was that weird! We both spent the afternoon shopping for chocolate and checking out the mountains. We also both manged to see this thing called Luzern's Lion which is a lion carved into a mountain, its really cool.

So now we're on the bus on our way back to france with something like another 6 hours to go. We will be sleeping in a legit castle tonight though, which we're both really excited for. Also we just passed a bunch of bison.. what!?!

Danka for reading,

Kirst and Allison

 The Tower at Night. So pretty!!!

---PS KIRSTEN'S FAMILY!!!
Theres this guy called Bryn that reminds us so much of Spence! At first it was just the fact that he spent the last 2 months in BC snowboarding that reminded me of him, but everyday I find something that reminds me of him more. Its so funny! He's tall and lanky, has curly hair just like my brother and their styles are exactly the same. I was looking at the swiss watches since theyre the best in the world and i saw a couple that i thought spence would really like.. i told allison spence would love this, he has a nixon watch just like it. Then two minutes later I was talking to Bryn and I saw that he was wearing a nixon watch. He also wears this toque which is exactly like the black or navy one my brother has too (except aussies dont call them toques, they call them beanies) To top it off im sitting on the coach now I just looked over and realised he was wearing oakleys and beats. Soo funny. You guys are identical Spence.

 The Bridge in paris with all the locks on it.

We are now in Switzerland, the past 3 days have been a whirlwind! We started Paris by having dinner at our hotel. Kirsten was really excited for some french wine, bread or cheese! But was so dissapointed when they put a plate of turkey, tomato and french fries in front of her. After dinner we got back on the coach (bus) and headed off for our paris by night lights tour. It was absolutely gorgeous but Kirsten was so exhausted she was nodding on and off and finally woke up for good when we got to the eiffel tower. The tower was incredible, we got there just in time for the light show. We were there for about 2 and a half hours, got to go to the top and everything, but almost missed our bus going back to the hotel because the lines were sooo long. That night we were pooped from a full day of travel and took it easy in preperation for moulin rouge the next night.

Our day in Paris was amazing! We saw so many things! We started at l'arc de triomphe and climbed 200 and something stairs all the way to the top. It was without a doubt, the best view in Paris, just the right height to be able to see everything. We then moved on to the champs d'elysees which for you sheltered people is a street in Paris with big name stores all along it. It is a street for looking, not for shopping. We then took the metro to the opera house which is a beautiful building no longer being used for operas. We also saw la gallerie lafayette (a huge designer store in france, its basically 20bays) it was unfortanetely closed as it was a sunday. So we got back on the metro and headed to la cathedral notre dame. We arrived a few blocks away and started walking towards it but then had to make a detour as there was a beautiful foutain at the corner of the street. This aussie Ben we were with also spotted a little alley packed with people, cafes and stores. So we went down the alley and ended up finding amazing souvenir shops and great crepe places. Notre Dame was incredible as well, Kirsten was in awe and Allison took 5 thousand pictures.. (partly because Kirstens had died on the way) The cathedral was covered in stained glass, statues, and beautiful architecture. We really wanted to go up to the bell tower but we didnt have enough time. We walked back to the alley and bought some crepes for lunch, then went and sat down on this ledge and ate them. While sitting there Kirsten realised there was a huge group of peoples standing by the fountain with the serian flag. (she didnt know what flag it was, Ben did) and wondered allowed if it was a riot. Almost instantly a riot broke out and there was police everywhere, including a swat. We then realised why there had been a dozen police vans parked on the street beside le cathedrale. We booked away from there, as looked like shit was going down. We walked down a path beside the seine river all the way to the louvre passing many bridges, each with its own unique story. We passed a bridge called le pont royale which napolean had made with all of his friends faces sculpted onto it. After that we came across le pont solferino (we think anyways, there are way too many bridges to remember.) This was one of the coolest parts of Paris, walking up to it you think it has a golden fence, but when you get up close you see that it is a wire fence with thousands of padlocks on it. People come to this bridge when they are in love and write their name on a lock, then lock it to the bridge and throw the key in the river, symbolizing their love lasting forever. People say that Paris is a romantic city, and this was by far the most romantic thing I've ever seen. There was one we found that said "she said yes!" with the date he propsed. It was soooooo cute. We kept walking after the bridge and made a full circle to la champs d'elysees where we walked down a different street and found Marc Jacobs, Celine, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Versace, Chanel, Chloe, Jimmy Choo, Dolce and Gabana, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Fendi, Prada and Nina Riccy. It was getting late by that time so we got back on the metro, going waaay to far by accident and making our trip an extra half hour.

We got back to the hotel with 45 minutes before we had to leave for Moulin Rouge and ran around the room, trying to get ready for one of the nicest places we'd ever been too, exhausted and straightenerless. We did it, but made a pig sty out of our room. Walking into moulin is how we would picture an old school movie theatre, red velvet carpet, big goldenpicture frames, golden hand rails and a coat check with huge black canapes, and a black granite counter. The inside looked just like in the movie, red lights on the table, almost endless wine and table after table after table. Every aspect of this concert room was incredible, unfortantely we weren't allowed to take picture though. Dinner was great! We had smoked norwegian salmon and a vegetable/couscous mix with bread and of course lots and lots of wine and champagne. There was also a waiter who was so impressed that we spoke french and hit on allison everytime he was at the table (apparently he came to the bar afterwards) The costumes were so extravagant, with feathers, sequins, buttons, sheer, lace, beads etc. The girls wore thongs and beeds as shirts, not covering anything. This took a little away from the show for Kirsten, but she still loved it! Allison wasnt fased, she loved the costumes. Their were men in shiny skin tight clothes and a ring bearer who started all the madness. Throughout the show there were a few breaks from the dancing and singing were 2 amazing acrobats performed, along with a hilarious mime and fantastic juggler. The show had animals as well, from boas to other snakes to mini horses that pranced around with the dancers. The show lasted about two hours and we headed to a pub beside it called something irish... we were too intoxitaed to remember. It was an amazing night, our tour guides were dancing on the bar (pantless, to sexy and i know it) we were poppping bottles, doing train shots and birthday shots to our new bff bryn. While sitting outside the boys were being harassed by a rose salesman who insited that they buy a rose for the pretty ladies. Eventually they gave in and Allison recieved a bouqet of 3 roses. One of which we have no idea where it came from. Finally we decided to call it a night and took a taxi back to the hotel. That was interesting.. trying to tell the cab driver where to go when our hotel was too farth north to be on the map, and with a couple of drinks in us the thick france accent was impossible to understand! We eventually got there and managed to wake up with enough time to chuck everything into our suitcases and run to the bus.

That was Paris, we can't wait to go back.

ttfn

This morning at 6am we dragged our butts out of bed and down a block to meet up with our contiki tour group. They weighed our bags, checked our passports and we were finally off on our tour!!!!
On the bus our tour director Mike told us what was in store for us, which only made us more excited. We also got to chat with some of the other people on the tour. It seems like half the people on our tour are from australia, theres also a few japanese people and one american. The american guy and us had fun comparing english with the aussies and found some interesting differences, mostly in pronounciation, so we cant really explain. Oragano and tomato were proncounced differently, but not potato. Cherios are also mini hotdogs. Apparently cilantro has a another too.
We travelled for about 2 hours until we reached the white cliffs of dover, which really are beautiful. They are on the coast of the english channel and we transferred onto a huge ferry as soon as we got there. It is beautiful standing on the deck on the ferry, but it is sooo foggy, we can hardly see anything. The boat has everything on it! There is a food court, a bar, a few game rooms, a duty free perfume/ makeup/alchohol store and many comfy chairs. Stella artois was 14pounds for a 24. Beer is actually cheaper than water.
Another hour or so on the ferry and then it'll be back on the bus and on our way to Paris!! We can't wait, eiffel tour and moulin rouge will both be conquered today. Kirsten is also unbelievably excited for the wine, cheese and dinner we are going to have.
Goodbye England, Bonjour France.

So we made it to London, after two hours of sleep and 16 hours of travel. Only to get to one of the biggest airports in the world, London Heathrow. We first headed to customer were we happy to see a line of about 400 people. We waited and hour and a half in a line with a family and screaming baby ahead of us and toddlers that enjoyed hugging our legs and running around us....not the cute kind. The couple behind us no sense of person space and felt that it was necessary to aggressively tap our shoulders and yell AHH every time there was half a step room in front of us. He and his wife spoke no English and we felt like farm animals being corralled. Once we got to the desk the customs office asked us one simple question " why are you here today" glanced at our passport stamped it and we were on our way.

Next was getting our luggage and trying to get to our hostel. We decided that the underground subway was best option. So we headed to the subway got our ticket, stepped into the subway and we were off. After one transfer of subway lines and just over an hour we had come to our find stop Lamberth North. We climbed around 50 with 40 pound suitcases and our backpack and headed for daylight. We went stepped out onto the road we came to realise the intersection went 6 way and the streets were not so clearly marked. After 15 minutes of deliberations we decided to head down a street that looked promising turns but turned out we were in  the polar opposite direction. Round two began as we travelled for 20 minutes without success but closer to our final destination. We paused for a moment to gather ourselves to quickly see a man with suit coming out of the only street we had not gone down yet. We figured it looked promising and followed his trails (Karen your way does work!). We finally arrived to the London Eye. ( Alyse getting lost is what travelling is all about!!)

Our night at the hostel was interesting. Our room was on the top floor and had to climb another 25 stairs to get there. Once we entered we opened the door to see a clean small room packed with 5 sets of triple bunk beds. There wasn't enough room to leave our all 15 peoples belongings on the floor, we had to place them on our beds.We were only there for hald an hour before we battle the crazy street and the london subway once again.  That night we both slept with ear plugs but there was no curtan on the window and someone wanted the window open. (probably because it was 100 degrees in the room). Even with ear plugs we were still able to hear the 3 am argument between 2 drunk English boys who were arguing over a girl who had apparently slept with both of them. Allison was also in the middle, she learnt very fast that Kirsten moves a lot and very roughly in her sleep, also the guy sleeping under me did the same thing. I felt like i was trapped in moving box and i could stop myself from rocking.

This morning we packed our bags and got into our hotel where we meet up with our tour group. Our room is very small but this is paradise compared to last nights adventures in the dorm. We spent the entire day walking around central London observing the London Eye, Big Ben and Westminster's Abbey. More excitingly we took the double Decker bus around town, and ending up getting lost. Turns out we went 45 Minutes in the wrong direction from our hotel, we have located the H and M, the M.A.C store, top shop, mark and Spencer's and pizza hut. We have come conclusion that the buses are more exciting but the subways are easier to get around in.

Tomorrow we are off to Paris, but leave at 645 in the morning.
Night Night to you folks back home.
ps. London's was cooler.

THIS IS WHERE WE CAME OUT OF THE SUBWAY

THIS IS ONE VIEW OF THE 6 STREET INTERSECTION.

Sitting at TGIF in minneappolis.... a massive airport comparered to wpg but we're sure not even close to as big as heathrow, london. We were greeted by a lovely man named Gilmore, who asked us if we were happy to be here and if we were ready to party!? He told us about how happy he was and reminded us that his name is like happy gilmore!! To top it off our server was the oddest lady.. we dont even know how to explain her other than different... so nice though, guess we should get used to dealing with weird people.

Our flight here was quick and easy. We were on the smallest plane ever though, no way a fat guy could walk through the aisle. We did run into a minor complication however before leaving.... Kirsten realised she forgot her wallet on her desk at home. Gooood job. The good part about this is that she had everything important with her.. the only things in her wallet were a spare debit card, her drivers liscence and 100pounds. (Ps mom please remember to deposit that into my bank account)

While Kirsten was going into damage control mode, Allison made friends with a lovely american who had been to europe 5 times and was sooooo excited for us. We boarded the plan shortly after Kirsten figuring out everything and 3 hours later here we are.. with another 3 hours to kill before we reboard for london. Wallet shopping here we come!

Sitting in the Winnipeg Airport waiting to leave..... off to an excitng start!

Our trip began with allison forgetting the most crucial item for the trip... the hair straightener. We sent her Dad home to get it, who actually managed to forget! ahhhhh. He arrived with plenty of seconds to spare, and we said goodbye to everyone and almost no tears were shed.. except for rylan. (and the security lady scared them out of kirsten)
Also, allison was chosen for the random bag check, wonder if she will be lucky enough to repeat this everytime we board. Our plane just arrived, so we're off to minne city.

Bye for now