Bordeaux: I Went on a Bus, Got Caught In The Rain (And It Felt So Good, I Wanna Do It Again)

Rosie, if you're reading... it's the curse of the musician. I can't help but make jokes with Bachelor Girl's "I walked under a bus, got hit by a train..." song.

On day 2, I decided to do a bus tour, since Mum, Dad, and I had enjoyed many of them during our travels. This one was not such a good call, as it was only an hour long and was not hop-on-hop-off. Plus, it was kinda wet, so the usually open-topped bus had a plastic cover, which meant it wasn't even really worth taking photos 'cos of rain drops, and 'cos it was fogging up a bit. However, did get to relax, out of the rain, for an hour, while seeing sights (many of which I'd already passed on foot) and learning a bit more about them.

After that, decided to take off on foot again, and revisit some of the places the tour had been on, to get better photos.

Cathédral Saint André: one of many impressive churches in the area. Amazing that things like this are just down at the end of a street. Just chillin', casually!

I look fairly serious here, but this is the Place de la Victoire (central square). Thought I'd better take some photos with me in them, so people would believe I was actually here. Hence serious look: trying to decide whether I'd got it well-framed.

Decided to lunch the French way, and headed into a resto that I stumbled across, where I had a very nice Boeuf Bourgignon and chocolate mousse. Very, very tasty. Just as well, as it was about 20E... yeah, that's right. I paid about NZ$40 for lunch. I actually didn't expect it to be that expensive, but hey. It was very nice.



Went wandering again after lunch. Bad call. Or, at least, bad call to try to protect myself from the rain with just a jacket. My pants got soaked through: at the base because I hadn't tucked them into my boots, and at the top because of the water running off my jacket. Then, to top it all off, cars driving past on the Pont de Pierre actually splashed me. Epic fail.

I retreated to the hostel to dry out and try to stop feeling grumpy. Made the most of French tv (another luxury I haven't yet got at my place), and planned some lessons. Met a girl who studies international relations, and spoke very good English.

Ventured out again in the evening, when the rain had eased, and got some nice night-time shots.




That night: luxury. Had the 2-person room to myself. Alriiiiiiiiiight!

Goodbye NZ! Auckland - Hong Kong

After a day of hanging around, fiddling with packing and carry-on, we made it away from Napier. My bag weighed about 28kg... As Kelly said, excess baggage is allowed when you're going for 7 months. Sadly, the airline still made me pay. ;p Had a good farewell crew of whanau and Marj, our awesome travel agent!

By the time we got to Auckland and ate tea, Mum and I were ready to go to sleep. Unfortunately, we still had about 3 hours before we could board our next flight (to Hong Kong). Flight was pretty good, and I tried to make the most of the last bits of Kiwi-ness by listening to Crowded House and Gin Wigmore, and watching some Outrageous Fortune.

Arrived in HK and had about 45min bus ride to our hotel, which gave us a chance to take in some sights. Don't really know what I was expecting from Hong Kong, but I thought it was quite random that it's so industrial/high-rise, and then has surrounding bush-covered mountains. The apartment buildings are so huge; just can't get my head around it! There were also some huge bridges that reminded me a bit of San Fransisco, and a massive port.
We've been doing a lot of wandering around, not really knowing where we are or (really) where we're going. However, I quite like just wandering the streets because it gives you a feel for the place. And it's so different- for me, at least, since I've never been to Asia before.

Thanks to an extremely helpful and friendly woman (who was keen to practise her English) we managed to get the train down to the Ferry terminal, where we eventually got tickets for the Big Bus Tour. This was definitely a good idea, especially after all the walking we'd been doing. So nice to just sit back and be driven around, while getting some history and info about buildings/districts around us.

Every time we want to eat, we end up going for quite a wander to find somewhere either with English or pictures on the menu, but both meals so far have been great. We felt like we were really being watched last night, though, as I think we were the only non-locals in the restaurant. They brought out spoons & forks for us so, clearly, we looked like we couldn't use chopsticks.

Some of the things which have stood out so far:

• great service/eager to sell!



• cheap



• lots of tall, tall (and kinda grotty) apartment buildings



• huge neon signs hanging over the street



• people walk slowly



• umbrellas (not jackets!) are the business here. They are everywhere in the streets and, when you go into a shop, they give you a little plastic bag for your wet umbrella. When you come out the door again, there's an obligatory pause as everyone puts up their umbrellas again.