After getting up extremely early after such a late night we all headed to Kings Cross Station and grabbed some breakfast. I left Jessi, Chris and my bag and at Kings Cross and caught a train to St Johns Station to walk to Abbey Road. Again at a disadvantage travelling alone as no one could take my picture of me crossing so I took a photo of my foot on the crossing. Thank goodness Abbey Road has a webcam; I'll look up the archives an email a photo to myself.

I then caught a bus to go to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. The people I met at the bus stop and on the bus were wonderful. Helping me with directions and general chit-chat, it's nice that there are so many great people to help me out. I'm noticing if I start to get a confused look on my face, which is often, people come straight up to me and ask if I need help which I'm so grateful for. I found myself in Oxford St so I decided to hop off the bus and have a look around. I want to know why London has a H&M store and Australia doesn't, it's so not fair.

Icaught my first Black Cab to take me as close as possible to the palace as my feet are starting to get sore. The driver was another wonderful chap who was extremely helpful and nice. He told me where to walk and what side of the gates to stand by. Now this was about 10:10am so I took a seat on the gate and started typing my blog up. By about 10:45am the crowds started to close in so I stood to hold my front row position. Thirty minutes waiting and it starts, by this time my feet are killing me and the crowd doesn't understand personal space. The Changing of the Guards was great but I was too busy watching the band that I nearly missed the actual changing of the guards.

At about 1pm I headed back to Kings Cross Station to catch the Eurostar to Paris. Okay so some of you out there think that I'm loud, well you're wrong. The first 30 minutes of the trip there was this very loud non-stop talker sitting just in front of me! Luckily before I had the chance to tell her to shut up she headed out of the carriage. When I got to Paris I caught a taxi to the hotel only to discover later that he also ripped me off by only €2.50, not much I know but this is the second time off a bus (or plane) that it has happened. Brain must be jet lagged I think or I look like an easy target.

While travelling over I had a terrible thought that I neglected to charge up my spare camera battery and considering I had low battery when I was taking photos of the Changing of the Guards this was not a good thing, especially since I didn't pack my charger. Unfortunately I was right and now I have two near flat batteries for the weekend. Definitely jet-lagged! Called Jessi to find out where she was and hoped I could borrow her spare battery as my camera is only one model up from hers. Once I got directions from "Cutie Pie" (the day clerk at the hotel who I never asked his name so herein will be known as "Cutie Pie") to Jessi's hotel I started off and promptly walked passed her street. I have learnt today the "Rues" are like our streets and "Boulevards" are like our highways and this knowledge comes in handy when navigating Paris.

When I finally got to their hotel I discovered that the batteries were a different size. You have to love Canon the camera but hate the fact they change batteries sizes probably with each model which is stuffed. Also to prove my jet-lagged brain I lost (well thought I lost it because I found it once I got back to London) my key to my luggage but yet again "Cutie Pie" came to the rescue and opened my bag without any damage.

So off we go to the Eiffel Tower and my first time on the Metro system. A little bit better than the Underground but marginally. We get to the station for the tower and while walking to the Eiffel Tower Jessi starts to tell me all the "Don't do's" of Paris - don't sign anything as they tell you it's a petition but it's really a contract for you to pay them money which is enforceable; don't catch flying babies if someone throws one to you - it's a dummy so they can pick-pocket, the list went on... I mean to say who throws babies anyway. We get in line and it was reasonably short considering 15 minutes later it was double the size.

I convinced Jessi & Chris, more Jessi than Chris, to go to the summit of the tower and about an hour, and yes by this time my feet are throbbing, we get to the second level just as the sun starts to set. You get a magnificent 360 degree view of Paris from this level. After getting some great photos we headed to the line to go to the summit. It's the first time I have seen my niece whimper and yes I mean whimper, actually it's the first time I have seen anyone whimper... She was fine once we got to the top but totally freaked getting there in the elevator. The views were even more amazing from the summit and you also got to see the history of the tower and where Gustaf Eiffel lived on the summit.

By this stage I was ready to go back to the hotel but when were coming to the tower I mentioned wanting to go to the Arc of Triomphe. Well Chris challenged Jessi and I couldn't do it so off to the Arc we go. It was now a game of swapping memory cards with Jessi in order to get some great shots as by now my camera had died. The only good thing is that I had my Sony Cybershot to take photos for the rest of the weekend. Well we made it up all of the 284 steps.... Just!!! Well for me any how it was Just!!! We took some great shots of Avenue des Champs-Élysées and made our way back down another 284 steps.

I was so exhausted by this stage but hungry so we decide to get some McDonald. OMG how slow can Parisians work. The lines were huge but the Parisians don't work any faster they just take their merry time and meanwhile my feet are ready to drop off. They were bad after the guards that I got some Deep Heat to try and ease them (I know Donna, I should have got Peppermint Oil but they didn't have any) and now they are just ready to drop off. I shouted a taxi back to the hotel for us and we asked the driver to take us around the roundabout. If anyone doesn't know about the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the roundabout - look it up. There are five different Boulevards, which are about three lanes wide, all converging into this roundabout but no lines to follow. Jessi filmed it for us so I must grab it from her.

This taxi driver was really nice and explained the sights as we went. Once we dropped off Jessi & Chris we got to my hotel the driver took me to mine and I'm sure it was the long way.. After collecting the fare he promptly asked me out. If I hadn't got up at 6am and stood on my feet most of the day I probably would have taken him up on his offer but I was tired to the bone and just wanted off my feet and get some sleep. As of now I have a new friend on Facebook. Good start to my holidays though 3 days in and have been picked up by a con artist Indian in London and now a Lebanese living in France. My ego is feeling pretty good by now.

Well day three down and now I'm wondering if I'm going to survive....