On our fourth day in Paris, a Sunday, we spent a large portion on a HOHO tour. That day, le Tour de France was having its final stage down the Champs-Élysées, which contains a ton of huge tourist attractions in Paris. Our tour bus normally would have gone down that avenue, but it had to be rerouted. That meant that a lot of the time, it didn't have commentary and was just going down random streets. When the commentary was on, it wasn't necessarily telling us about what was nearby us; that made it difficult to keep up with what we were seeing. We saw a ton of stuff, but I honestly couldn't tell you what half of it was! ha It was all very cool to see, though.
One of the interesting things about the tour is we had a chance to talk to a lot of Americans and hear what they thought about the city. Everyone we talked to had the same opinion and experience in the city as us--the city was pretty gross and the people were rude to Americans. We met a kid who was probably somewhere around 12 years old. He was with is mom and grandparents. They had come to pick him up as he had been staying in a French village for a month. They all said that the village he was in was great and that everyone was wonderful. It seems that really the only rude city in France is Paris. Thats either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.
We spent a large part of the day working our way towards a certain bus stop, one close to the Rue Cler district. My mom had wanted to go there to eat lunch. We made it there and found that many of the places were closed as it was Sunday. We were particularly looking for a restaurant that served French onion soup. We finally found one and sat down to eat. The waiter brought us out an American menu and then proceeded to wait on pretty much everyone else in the restaurant before helping us. It was pretty frustrating, but we made it through. The soup was delicious!
After that, we wandered through the neighborhood. We bought a Nutella crepe at a stand, but were disappointed when the guy just heated up one that he had made earlier that day. It was still yummy, though! We also stopped in a gift shop and met one of the few nice French people of our trip. The lady spoke good English and was very friendly! My mom bought magnets for her coworkers and I bought some postcards. We then got back on the bus and made our way towards Lurve, the closest bus stop to the Champs Champs-Élysées.
We walked up to the racecourse just as the bikers rode by on their 7th lap of 8. We got a fairly good spot to watch and took some pictures, excited to be there. There were tons of people there including some very proud Norwegians drinking Heineken and--to our excitement--Americans! Okay, so it was more that we saw an American flag in a window of a building where people were watching from, but still! After 2 1/2 weeks away from the USA, it was a nice sight! We walked around the racecourse some more and were very lucky to find a small area--enough for two of us--that was open! My mom and I stood with an unblocked view while my dad and sister stood in back of us.
My sister had her FlipCam out and was able to record the entire group of cyclists as well as all of their crew. Meanwhile, my mom and I took lots of pictures. Let me say that after six years or so of seeing the race on TV, it was a pretty amazing experience to see it in person! We screamed loudly as they all rode by and, somewhere in the crowd, saw Lance Armstrong, our American cycling hero!
After they all rode by, we were about to make our way to the stage they had set up for the closing ceremony when Jen told us she had to use the bathroom. Let me tell you, it is near impossible to find a place to use the bathroom in downtown Paris! My dad finally asked a police officer and he said (I kid you not), "Just go in the street!" My dad said it was for his daughter and the guy told us to find a bar. We finally found one (with a long line, I might add) and watched the closing ceremony on TV while it was happening just down the street. It was pretty disappointing that we didn't get to see it in person, but it was still nice to see it on TV.
After that, I bought an official Tour de France t-shirt. We then made our way to the RER (underground) station. My sister's friend Alan, who lives in Italy, happened to be in Paris that weekend, so we split up from my parents to meet up with them. We got some sodas and then wandered around town. After a couple hours, we said goodbye. We stopped by a Subway and I got dinner before we headed back to the apartment. We had another exciting day planned the next day!
First album of photos.
Second album of photos.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Paris Day 3
Before I begin, let me apologize for not updating this blog in a while! I'm still on vacation and don't have wifi at my grandparent's house. Their computer is really slow so it takes forever to do anything online. I'm currently sitting at a Starbucks drinking a mocha and using their free wifi. :)
So the last post was from our second day in Paris, France. You may remember that my parents had left that day to spend a night in Normandy, so Jen and I were on our own. The third day was a big one for me. When I heard we were going to France, I told my mom immediately that I wanted to go to the Palace of Versailles. I didn't know how close it was to Paris, but I wanted to go if I could. I had first heard about the Palace in 7th grade World History. My teacher told us that it was a really amazing place and to go and see the Hall of Mirrors. I've wanted to go ever since then! We also talked about it back in my second year at SVC and my teacher once again said that it was an amazing place and to try to go. So my mom made plans for that third day in Paris for Jen and I to go.
As my parents weren't there, we had a bit of a later start. Okay, ONE of us *coughbigsistercough* had a later start. We were supposed to leave the apartment at 10 but we didn't leave until 11, which meant that after our train ride, we finally made it to Versailles at 12. It was so exciting to be there, though! We first stopped at the Starbucks so that Jen could get a coffee, then made our way up the road to the Palace.
It was astonishing. It was a nice, sunny, warm day out so the Palace gates just glimmered as you walked up the road. The gate and many of the outside parts of the Palace are gilded in gold, so you can see it from quite a distance. There is a huge area outside of the Palace where you can see the outside from behind a gate without paying. There were many people out there, but we of course were going to go in! I had pre-purchased our tickets the night before so we just had to wait in the entrance line.
Once you got inside the estate, you walked into the front courtyard of the palace. We decided that we would do the free audio tour first, so we made our way to the proper place and got our audio receivers. We began the tour and I was having a really hard time understanding the thing, but kept going. We saw all kinds of amazing paintings on the first floor and a big row of cool statues on the second before beginning our walk through all of the rooms. I was excited because they had the famous painting of one of the Louis wearing red high heels. haha
When we reached the first major room on the second level, I had Jen listen to my receiver while I listened to hers; it was perfectly clear while she remarked that she could understand why mine was so bad. She had thought I was just having trouble understanding the thick accent. She waited for me in that room while I fought my way through the crowds and got another receiver. I finally got back up to her and we continued on.
There were so many amazing rooms in there that had amazing paintings, ceiling murals, thrones, beds, etc. It was pretty incredible to see! One of the coolest things was that the ceiling murals had painted in borders that looked three dimensional. It was amazing artwork!
We finally made our way to the Hall of Mirrors, the room I had been most looking forward to! This room was full of history. One of the most important things that happened there, though, was the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. The room is a long rectangle. On the right side, there are many windows that have a great view of the gardens behind the building. On the left side are mirrors that are parallel to the windows on the right side. There are ornate chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and fancy chandelier like lights sitting on gold statues. It was spectacular!
We made our way through the second half of the building, which included all of Marie Antoinette's chambers. Somewhere during this time, my receiver stopped working. It reset itself and when it turned back on, the commentary was in Spanish. The guy working there said the only place that could change the language was the distribution desk on the first floor. Instead of taking a 20 minute trip down to get it, I decided to just share with Jen. We probably looked pretty funny holding the receiver between our heads, turning in unison whenever the commentary mentioned a feature of the room. haha We definitely felt pretty funny! We also took a tour of the apartments of the Dauphin and Mesdames' Apartments, which were the apartments for the royal family including the king's daughters.
By this time, it was close to 3 o'clock and we were quite hungry. Prior to leaving the city, we stopped at a patisserie and got a couple of pastries, but that can only keep you going for so long! After the previous night's raw beef fiasco, I told Jen we were just going to go to McDonalds and eat there. She reluctantly agreed. There was a HUGE line there, so it took us a long time to get through. Jen was also pretty tired and wanted to relax for a while. We also went into a couple of souvenir shops, so it was about 5 before we made it back to the Palace.
At this point, we walked over the the gardens of the palace and took a very quick look. We didn't purchase tickets to go inside because the website had said they would be closed that day. As it turned out, they were only closed for part of the day for a private event. Regardless, we were able to see a small portion of them and got a few pictures before making our way back to the front courtyard and gate area, where we took many, many pictures and videos. It was such an amazing place!
Finally, we had to leave as the Palace closed at 6:30. We made our way back on the train and went back to the apartment to rest. I had found beef Top Ramen at the store the day before and purchased it. I was so excited to know what it was! haha So I had that for dinner and we just chilled while we waited for our parents to return. They finally made it back and told us about their fun couple of days in Normandy. We then went to bed in eager anticipation of the next day--the final stage of the Tour de France!
All of my pictures from the Palace of Versailles can be seen here. A lot of them were taken by Jen!
So the last post was from our second day in Paris, France. You may remember that my parents had left that day to spend a night in Normandy, so Jen and I were on our own. The third day was a big one for me. When I heard we were going to France, I told my mom immediately that I wanted to go to the Palace of Versailles. I didn't know how close it was to Paris, but I wanted to go if I could. I had first heard about the Palace in 7th grade World History. My teacher told us that it was a really amazing place and to go and see the Hall of Mirrors. I've wanted to go ever since then! We also talked about it back in my second year at SVC and my teacher once again said that it was an amazing place and to try to go. So my mom made plans for that third day in Paris for Jen and I to go.
As my parents weren't there, we had a bit of a later start. Okay, ONE of us *coughbigsistercough* had a later start. We were supposed to leave the apartment at 10 but we didn't leave until 11, which meant that after our train ride, we finally made it to Versailles at 12. It was so exciting to be there, though! We first stopped at the Starbucks so that Jen could get a coffee, then made our way up the road to the Palace.
It was astonishing. It was a nice, sunny, warm day out so the Palace gates just glimmered as you walked up the road. The gate and many of the outside parts of the Palace are gilded in gold, so you can see it from quite a distance. There is a huge area outside of the Palace where you can see the outside from behind a gate without paying. There were many people out there, but we of course were going to go in! I had pre-purchased our tickets the night before so we just had to wait in the entrance line.
Once you got inside the estate, you walked into the front courtyard of the palace. We decided that we would do the free audio tour first, so we made our way to the proper place and got our audio receivers. We began the tour and I was having a really hard time understanding the thing, but kept going. We saw all kinds of amazing paintings on the first floor and a big row of cool statues on the second before beginning our walk through all of the rooms. I was excited because they had the famous painting of one of the Louis wearing red high heels. haha
When we reached the first major room on the second level, I had Jen listen to my receiver while I listened to hers; it was perfectly clear while she remarked that she could understand why mine was so bad. She had thought I was just having trouble understanding the thick accent. She waited for me in that room while I fought my way through the crowds and got another receiver. I finally got back up to her and we continued on.
There were so many amazing rooms in there that had amazing paintings, ceiling murals, thrones, beds, etc. It was pretty incredible to see! One of the coolest things was that the ceiling murals had painted in borders that looked three dimensional. It was amazing artwork!
We finally made our way to the Hall of Mirrors, the room I had been most looking forward to! This room was full of history. One of the most important things that happened there, though, was the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. The room is a long rectangle. On the right side, there are many windows that have a great view of the gardens behind the building. On the left side are mirrors that are parallel to the windows on the right side. There are ornate chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and fancy chandelier like lights sitting on gold statues. It was spectacular!
We made our way through the second half of the building, which included all of Marie Antoinette's chambers. Somewhere during this time, my receiver stopped working. It reset itself and when it turned back on, the commentary was in Spanish. The guy working there said the only place that could change the language was the distribution desk on the first floor. Instead of taking a 20 minute trip down to get it, I decided to just share with Jen. We probably looked pretty funny holding the receiver between our heads, turning in unison whenever the commentary mentioned a feature of the room. haha We definitely felt pretty funny! We also took a tour of the apartments of the Dauphin and Mesdames' Apartments, which were the apartments for the royal family including the king's daughters.
By this time, it was close to 3 o'clock and we were quite hungry. Prior to leaving the city, we stopped at a patisserie and got a couple of pastries, but that can only keep you going for so long! After the previous night's raw beef fiasco, I told Jen we were just going to go to McDonalds and eat there. She reluctantly agreed. There was a HUGE line there, so it took us a long time to get through. Jen was also pretty tired and wanted to relax for a while. We also went into a couple of souvenir shops, so it was about 5 before we made it back to the Palace.
At this point, we walked over the the gardens of the palace and took a very quick look. We didn't purchase tickets to go inside because the website had said they would be closed that day. As it turned out, they were only closed for part of the day for a private event. Regardless, we were able to see a small portion of them and got a few pictures before making our way back to the front courtyard and gate area, where we took many, many pictures and videos. It was such an amazing place!
Finally, we had to leave as the Palace closed at 6:30. We made our way back on the train and went back to the apartment to rest. I had found beef Top Ramen at the store the day before and purchased it. I was so excited to know what it was! haha So I had that for dinner and we just chilled while we waited for our parents to return. They finally made it back and told us about their fun couple of days in Normandy. We then went to bed in eager anticipation of the next day--the final stage of the Tour de France!
All of my pictures from the Palace of Versailles can be seen here. A lot of them were taken by Jen!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Paris Day 2
Day two in Paris didn’t start out too well. We were supposed to spend the morning on a hop on, hop off (hoho) bus tour, but we couldn’t find the pickup location. By the time we found it, we didn’t have enough time to justify spending the money. We decided to push it off until Sunday when we’d have most of the day. Instead, we walked around trying to find something to eat. I was really, really uncomfortable not being able to read any of the menus. Everything was in French, obviously, and its not easy to figure things out. I was totally not looking forward to trying to order something from a French restaurant. That is why I was quite excited when we found a Subway. I had a nice ham sandwich and was quite satisfied. We also found a pastry shop so we picked up some delicious pastries. We ate the pastries on a park bench in Luxembourg Gardens.
We then made our way back to the apartment so my parents could pack. They were heading out for the night to Normandy, where they had a private tour booked. After they left, my sister and I just relaxed at the apartment. Paris has this cool bike rental program where you can pay one Euro for a day and ride city bikes around. The first half hour on each bike is free, then it’s a Euro for each 30 minutes afterward. The bikes are available all over the city, so its really easy to switch bikes every 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the machine wouldn’t let me buy the passes with my debit card. We had been really looking forward to riding around.
Around 6 or so, we started walking down to Notre Dame, which was fairly close to the apartment. I had decided that day that my best bet for food was to go to McDonalds and Subway whenever I could. I normally avoid McDonalds, but it was a great choice in France since the menu is pretty much the same as America’s. Jen, on the other hand, was not willing to eat American fast food as she wanted to experience the French cuisine.
Our neighborhood Parisian McDonalds haha
We ended up at an Italian restaurant where Jen ordered some dish in French. She told me it was a pasta dish with asparagus. Boy, was she surprised when her plate came to the table! She had actually ordered beef carpaccio, which is thinly sliced raw beef with asparagus on top. She refused to eat it so we kinda cut up everything and mixed it around, then put a crinkled napkin on top. We paid before they took the plate away and booked it out of there. Apparently, Jen was a bit embarrassed. Haha Plus, she ended up eating at McDonalds.
Jen's raw 'le beouf'
Jen's reaction to her raw le beouf
Jen's uneaten, covered up raw le beouf
We made it down to Notre Dame and it was, unfortunately closed. There was a service going on. We hung out outside and took a ton of pictures, then went to this awesome (English speaking!) bookstore. After wandering around there for a bit, we went back to Notre Dame, where Jen’s friend Jo was meeting us. She was born in New York but has lived in France since she was about 3, so she is fluent in English and French. It was so nice to have somebody to do the communicating for us!
This statue of Charlemagne looks like Davy Jones!
Notre Dame
I'm waiting for Mr. Tumnus
I'm Charlemagne and I'm gonna punch you in the FACE!
Entrance to Notre Dame
Notre Dame
I'm the hunchback of Notre Dame!
The side of Notre Dame
We ended up walking in on some big free concert. It was pretty hilarious. The guy performing was trying to be really emotional, but his voice just didn’t fit it. His name was Ando, but I thought he sounded more like a Gustav. We wandered around the stage for a bit, where there was so much smoke that I’m sure I now have lung cancer. Smoking is really big in Europe. Its pretty dumb.
Sunset on the Seine.
Ando!
We then make our way over to a Haagen-Dazs shop, where Jen and I shared a scoop of ice cream and a freshly made Nutella crepe. SO GOOD! We soon parted ways with Jo and make our way back to the apartment for the night. Overall, it was a pretty interesting day. It was cool to see stuff like Notre Dame, but I still was not really enjoying Paris as a whole.
Le Quasimodo
Jen and Jo
We then made our way back to the apartment so my parents could pack. They were heading out for the night to Normandy, where they had a private tour booked. After they left, my sister and I just relaxed at the apartment. Paris has this cool bike rental program where you can pay one Euro for a day and ride city bikes around. The first half hour on each bike is free, then it’s a Euro for each 30 minutes afterward. The bikes are available all over the city, so its really easy to switch bikes every 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the machine wouldn’t let me buy the passes with my debit card. We had been really looking forward to riding around.
Around 6 or so, we started walking down to Notre Dame, which was fairly close to the apartment. I had decided that day that my best bet for food was to go to McDonalds and Subway whenever I could. I normally avoid McDonalds, but it was a great choice in France since the menu is pretty much the same as America’s. Jen, on the other hand, was not willing to eat American fast food as she wanted to experience the French cuisine.
Our neighborhood Parisian McDonalds haha
We ended up at an Italian restaurant where Jen ordered some dish in French. She told me it was a pasta dish with asparagus. Boy, was she surprised when her plate came to the table! She had actually ordered beef carpaccio, which is thinly sliced raw beef with asparagus on top. She refused to eat it so we kinda cut up everything and mixed it around, then put a crinkled napkin on top. We paid before they took the plate away and booked it out of there. Apparently, Jen was a bit embarrassed. Haha Plus, she ended up eating at McDonalds.
Jen's raw 'le beouf'
Jen's reaction to her raw le beouf
Jen's uneaten, covered up raw le beouf
We made it down to Notre Dame and it was, unfortunately closed. There was a service going on. We hung out outside and took a ton of pictures, then went to this awesome (English speaking!) bookstore. After wandering around there for a bit, we went back to Notre Dame, where Jen’s friend Jo was meeting us. She was born in New York but has lived in France since she was about 3, so she is fluent in English and French. It was so nice to have somebody to do the communicating for us!
This statue of Charlemagne looks like Davy Jones!
Notre Dame
I'm waiting for Mr. Tumnus
I'm Charlemagne and I'm gonna punch you in the FACE!
Entrance to Notre Dame
Notre Dame
I'm the hunchback of Notre Dame!
The side of Notre Dame
We ended up walking in on some big free concert. It was pretty hilarious. The guy performing was trying to be really emotional, but his voice just didn’t fit it. His name was Ando, but I thought he sounded more like a Gustav. We wandered around the stage for a bit, where there was so much smoke that I’m sure I now have lung cancer. Smoking is really big in Europe. Its pretty dumb.
Sunset on the Seine.
Ando!
We then make our way over to a Haagen-Dazs shop, where Jen and I shared a scoop of ice cream and a freshly made Nutella crepe. SO GOOD! We soon parted ways with Jo and make our way back to the apartment for the night. Overall, it was a pretty interesting day. It was cool to see stuff like Notre Dame, but I still was not really enjoying Paris as a whole.
Le Quasimodo
Jen and Jo
Paris Day 1
Our eventful time in London ended the next day. We checked out of the hotel and took a tube to Kings Cross/St. Pancras train station. St. Panras is home of the Chunnel, though that is no longer what its called. It’s actually known as the Eurostar. We took the Eurostar to Paris. Were on the train for about two and a half hours, which was a great length of time to sleep! Haha
We finally got to Paris and reality hit quite fast. We got some Euros at the ATM and then my mom and sister went to get us a snack. During that short five-minute period of time, two gypsies looking for money approached my dad. We had received fair warning about the gypsies and pickpockets in France, but it was still pretty unnerving.
My mom and I both got these amazing bags from a company called PacSafe. Our bags had wire in the strap so that they couldn’t be cut off of us. They had wire mesh on the bottom so nobody could slash the bottom of the bag and take our stuff. Then, the zipper to the main compartment clipped on to the strap so it couldn’t be opened. Despite the awesomeness of these bags, my mom and I were still pretty nervous.
We had rented an apartment to stay in for the time we were going to stay in Paris. Without going into the long details, I’ll just say that after booking and paying for the apartment, we were notified of a bunch of rules that included talking in a whisper and not wearing shoes after 9PM. We were pretty frustrated because as a family on vacation, we want to be able to relax, not be held down by a bunch of rules.
The company we rented the apartment from told us that it would be too difficult to take the subway to the apartment with all of our luggage and that we’d need to get a cab. We waited in the 30 minute taxi line at the train station, where we were cut in line by a French woman who pretended to speak no English when we told her that there was a line and showed her where it started. You could tell she knew exactly what we were saying but didn’t care. So within 45 minutes of being in France, I was seeing the negative part of Paris.
We finally got our taxi and made our way to the apartment. We lugged our luggage up the three flights of stairs, then made our way out to find some food. We had been told that the city is full of pastry shops, bread shops, cafes, etc. Well, we apparently picked the wrong part of town to stay in because we couldn’t find any of those. We did manage to find a grocery store around the corner, so we picked up some sandwiches, chips and soda. It was really difficult to pick out food as everything was in French with no translation or anything.
We ate our lunch and then headed out to take the underground to the Eiffel Tower, where we had 8:00 reservations. We tried about 5 times to buy transit tickets and none of our attempts worked. We ended up catching a taxi there so as to not miss our reservations. We did arrive a bit early, so we split up. My mom and I took pictures while my dad and sister walked to a nearby subway station to try to buy tickets again.
The Eiffel Tower is huge in person. I mean, you expect it to be big, but it was way bigger than I thought. Its just massive. But it really is beautiful. My mom and I had to go quite a distance to even be able to take pictures of the full tower. There were tons of people there selling stuff. You couldn’t walk anywhere without getting approached. Whenever the police showed up, the all went running, which obviously means that something about their operation was illegal. There were also some armed guards there, but they didn’t do anything about the salespeople.
At 7:50, Jen returned and told us that the credit card companies had frozen my parents cards despite the fact that we had called ahead and told them that we would be using the cards in England and France. My dad was supposed to come back by 8, but he didn’t. By 8:30, my mom told my sister to just go up the tower by ourselves because she needed to wait for my dad. The time limit for our reservations was about 8:45 so we ended up having to go up without either of my parents.
I am extremely afraid of heights, so by the time we got to the second level, I was as high as I could go. It was a beautiful view of the city! We walked around a bit and took pictures before heading down the elevator to meet up with my parents. We had reservations at 10:30 for an evening boat tour on the Seine River. We got down and my parents were nowhere to be found. I was starting to get pretty nervous after about 20 minutes of waiting, especially after getting lost in London the previous day. Finally, my parents showed up. As it turns out, somebody who worked there took pity on my parents and let them go up without waiting in line or paying any extra, despite the fact that the four-person ticket was with Jen and I halfway up the tower. There are nice people in Paris!
My dad had been on the phone with the credit card company for about 45 minutes trying to figure out why the credit cards were flagged. He was actually unable to resolve the issue. He just gave up since everyone kept telling him that the problem was fixed when it wasn’t.
My parents came down about 10 PM. We caught another taxi down to the river and made it to the boat perfectly on time. It was a really great, relaxing tour. We floated past the Eiffel Tower just as they started their hourly light show. It was really beautiful to see in person! The nice thing about the tour is that it was pretty slow paced but you still saw a lot in the hour. Not only that, but the tour guide said everything in French and English! I was shocked when, at the end of the tour, she told us it was her first week. She did a great job!
When the tour ended, we walked back to the apartment. My mom called to talk to the credit card company. She was told that they didn’t know why the cards had been frozen and that once again, the problem should be fixed. We then asked them if they were going to reimburse us for the cost of all of the international phone calls and all of the taxi rides we had to take due to the cards being messed up. Their solution was to give us 10,000 frequent flyer miles. Seriously, how does that pay my sister’s cell phone bill?
We all went to bed that night pretty exhausted. The one great thing about the apartment was that the beds were extremely comfortable. I was sleeping on a pull out trundle bed and I loved it. I slept great! However, I did go to bed hoping that things would become a little less stressful. I was very uncomfortable in the city as I don’t speak any French. Lets just say…not much changed the following days.
Napoleon Bridge
Passing under a bridge
Eiffel Tower from the cruise
We finally got to Paris and reality hit quite fast. We got some Euros at the ATM and then my mom and sister went to get us a snack. During that short five-minute period of time, two gypsies looking for money approached my dad. We had received fair warning about the gypsies and pickpockets in France, but it was still pretty unnerving.
My mom and I both got these amazing bags from a company called PacSafe. Our bags had wire in the strap so that they couldn’t be cut off of us. They had wire mesh on the bottom so nobody could slash the bottom of the bag and take our stuff. Then, the zipper to the main compartment clipped on to the strap so it couldn’t be opened. Despite the awesomeness of these bags, my mom and I were still pretty nervous.
We had rented an apartment to stay in for the time we were going to stay in Paris. Without going into the long details, I’ll just say that after booking and paying for the apartment, we were notified of a bunch of rules that included talking in a whisper and not wearing shoes after 9PM. We were pretty frustrated because as a family on vacation, we want to be able to relax, not be held down by a bunch of rules.
The company we rented the apartment from told us that it would be too difficult to take the subway to the apartment with all of our luggage and that we’d need to get a cab. We waited in the 30 minute taxi line at the train station, where we were cut in line by a French woman who pretended to speak no English when we told her that there was a line and showed her where it started. You could tell she knew exactly what we were saying but didn’t care. So within 45 minutes of being in France, I was seeing the negative part of Paris.
We finally got our taxi and made our way to the apartment. We lugged our luggage up the three flights of stairs, then made our way out to find some food. We had been told that the city is full of pastry shops, bread shops, cafes, etc. Well, we apparently picked the wrong part of town to stay in because we couldn’t find any of those. We did manage to find a grocery store around the corner, so we picked up some sandwiches, chips and soda. It was really difficult to pick out food as everything was in French with no translation or anything.
We ate our lunch and then headed out to take the underground to the Eiffel Tower, where we had 8:00 reservations. We tried about 5 times to buy transit tickets and none of our attempts worked. We ended up catching a taxi there so as to not miss our reservations. We did arrive a bit early, so we split up. My mom and I took pictures while my dad and sister walked to a nearby subway station to try to buy tickets again.
The Eiffel Tower is huge in person. I mean, you expect it to be big, but it was way bigger than I thought. Its just massive. But it really is beautiful. My mom and I had to go quite a distance to even be able to take pictures of the full tower. There were tons of people there selling stuff. You couldn’t walk anywhere without getting approached. Whenever the police showed up, the all went running, which obviously means that something about their operation was illegal. There were also some armed guards there, but they didn’t do anything about the salespeople.
At 7:50, Jen returned and told us that the credit card companies had frozen my parents cards despite the fact that we had called ahead and told them that we would be using the cards in England and France. My dad was supposed to come back by 8, but he didn’t. By 8:30, my mom told my sister to just go up the tower by ourselves because she needed to wait for my dad. The time limit for our reservations was about 8:45 so we ended up having to go up without either of my parents.
I am extremely afraid of heights, so by the time we got to the second level, I was as high as I could go. It was a beautiful view of the city! We walked around a bit and took pictures before heading down the elevator to meet up with my parents. We had reservations at 10:30 for an evening boat tour on the Seine River. We got down and my parents were nowhere to be found. I was starting to get pretty nervous after about 20 minutes of waiting, especially after getting lost in London the previous day. Finally, my parents showed up. As it turns out, somebody who worked there took pity on my parents and let them go up without waiting in line or paying any extra, despite the fact that the four-person ticket was with Jen and I halfway up the tower. There are nice people in Paris!
My dad had been on the phone with the credit card company for about 45 minutes trying to figure out why the credit cards were flagged. He was actually unable to resolve the issue. He just gave up since everyone kept telling him that the problem was fixed when it wasn’t.
My parents came down about 10 PM. We caught another taxi down to the river and made it to the boat perfectly on time. It was a really great, relaxing tour. We floated past the Eiffel Tower just as they started their hourly light show. It was really beautiful to see in person! The nice thing about the tour is that it was pretty slow paced but you still saw a lot in the hour. Not only that, but the tour guide said everything in French and English! I was shocked when, at the end of the tour, she told us it was her first week. She did a great job!
When the tour ended, we walked back to the apartment. My mom called to talk to the credit card company. She was told that they didn’t know why the cards had been frozen and that once again, the problem should be fixed. We then asked them if they were going to reimburse us for the cost of all of the international phone calls and all of the taxi rides we had to take due to the cards being messed up. Their solution was to give us 10,000 frequent flyer miles. Seriously, how does that pay my sister’s cell phone bill?
We all went to bed that night pretty exhausted. The one great thing about the apartment was that the beds were extremely comfortable. I was sleeping on a pull out trundle bed and I loved it. I slept great! However, I did go to bed hoping that things would become a little less stressful. I was very uncomfortable in the city as I don’t speak any French. Lets just say…not much changed the following days.
Napoleon Bridge
Passing under a bridge
Eiffel Tower from the cruise
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
London Part 4
Day four in London...this is a fun one. We woke up fairly early and made our way to the bus stop. Our plan was to see as much of the city as we could on the big red open air tour busses. We went down Fleet Street, across the Tower Bridge and by Saint Paul's Cathedral, among other things. By 10:15, however, it wasn't looking like we were going to make it to Buckingham Palace in time to see the Changing of the Guards, which I had really wanted to see. So we hopped off the bus and took a tube. The closest tube stop was still a bit of a walk away from the palace for security reasons. You had to walk through a park and then down a road.
London Eye
Fleet Street...
Barber shop on Fleet Street...get it?
Tower Bridge
It was about 10 minutes until the ceremony was supposed to start and we were still walking through the park. My mom told me to run ahead and that the rest of my family would catch up with me. I ran through the park and saw about 14 men in their guards uniforms riding horses. I had the perfect timing to follow them down to the left. I made it in just enough time to see the ceremony. It lasted about 30 minutes and I hadn't seen my parents yet. I waited and waited in the hot sun. This was the one day I decided to wear a tanktop, though I didn't have sunscreen on. I was too preoccupied with being lost to worry about preventing a bur. As a result, I got a pretty bad burn on my shoulders and chest, and a really sweet TOMS tan on my feet. I walked around for about 3 hours before deciding to walk back to the tube and heading back to the hotel. I was SO convince I was at Buckingham Palace but after three ad a half hours, I figured I should do something other than just stand there.
The horses at the ceremony I went to
The Royal Mews, which I was convinced was an unimpressive Buckingham Palace
One of the guards and I
I was pretty freaked out because I was in London by myself with no cell phone and nobody who I could contact. About halfway into the park, I heard somebody yell "There she is!" I looked ahead and saw my family running towards me. They said that they had been looking for me that whole time and didn't see me. I told them I was at Buckingham Palace and they said they never saw me. I though that was odd because I thought I was standing in a pretty obvious position. I told my dad that and asked which direction had gone at the end of the park and I told him left. Wrong answer. As it turns out, I was actually down at the Royal Mews that whole time. I was pretty freaked out with the whole ordeal, but I had to keep moving since it was our last day in London.
Our next stop that day was Abbey Road, where we got pictures as crossed the street in front of traffic. Then we signed the wall. It was pretty neat because there were lots of people there to do the same exact thing as us. After that, we quickly mad our way back to the tube to catch another hour or so on the bus tour. My parents had a tour booked in Notting Hill, so they got off at that stop. Jen and I stayed on until we reached the Paddington Station, where there was a nice selection of places to eat.
The famous crosswalk in front of Abbey Road Studios
Signing the wall
My signature
With the statue of Paddington Bear at Paddington Station
We then took a tube over to Camden, where Jen had planned a cocktail night with some of her friends. We went to this awesome bar that was totally my scene. There were concert posters up all over the place. We each had a couple of cocktails as it was 2-4-1. Then we walked around outside a bit. It was pretty funny because I was acting like my normal crazy self and Jen's friends made a comment about giving the 19 year old alcohol and that I was tipsy or something. I'm not quite sure they believed us when Jen and I told them that that was how I always acted. haha
Cocktail time!
Jen's friends
Camden
Jen heard some people doing an acoustic concert on the balcony of one of the buildings and liked it, so we all went up to the balcony. Somebody asked a guy who was watching them who they were and he told us. He turned out to be the band's videographer. It was an indie band, nothing major. Somehow, word got out that three of the six of us were broadcast journalists and all of the sudden, Jen and her friend Hannah (who is a grade below Jen in the journalism program) ended up doing an interview with the band on Jen's FlipCam. It was all pretty random.
We ended up talking to the videographer guy for a while. He tried hitting on because he liked my accent or something like that. I shut him down when he asked for my facebook info. haha So then we made our way back to the tube station. It took forever to get home as one of the lines was down for maintenance. We did finally make it home quite tired. Jen and I also both got sunburnt as the sun was beating down on us while I was lost. Luckily, I had brought some aloe vera gel, just in case.
Oh, and after all of that, I never got to see Buckingham. Next trip!
Katie
London Eye
Fleet Street...
Barber shop on Fleet Street...get it?
Tower Bridge
It was about 10 minutes until the ceremony was supposed to start and we were still walking through the park. My mom told me to run ahead and that the rest of my family would catch up with me. I ran through the park and saw about 14 men in their guards uniforms riding horses. I had the perfect timing to follow them down to the left. I made it in just enough time to see the ceremony. It lasted about 30 minutes and I hadn't seen my parents yet. I waited and waited in the hot sun. This was the one day I decided to wear a tanktop, though I didn't have sunscreen on. I was too preoccupied with being lost to worry about preventing a bur. As a result, I got a pretty bad burn on my shoulders and chest, and a really sweet TOMS tan on my feet. I walked around for about 3 hours before deciding to walk back to the tube and heading back to the hotel. I was SO convince I was at Buckingham Palace but after three ad a half hours, I figured I should do something other than just stand there.
The horses at the ceremony I went to
The Royal Mews, which I was convinced was an unimpressive Buckingham Palace
One of the guards and I
I was pretty freaked out because I was in London by myself with no cell phone and nobody who I could contact. About halfway into the park, I heard somebody yell "There she is!" I looked ahead and saw my family running towards me. They said that they had been looking for me that whole time and didn't see me. I told them I was at Buckingham Palace and they said they never saw me. I though that was odd because I thought I was standing in a pretty obvious position. I told my dad that and asked which direction had gone at the end of the park and I told him left. Wrong answer. As it turns out, I was actually down at the Royal Mews that whole time. I was pretty freaked out with the whole ordeal, but I had to keep moving since it was our last day in London.
Our next stop that day was Abbey Road, where we got pictures as crossed the street in front of traffic. Then we signed the wall. It was pretty neat because there were lots of people there to do the same exact thing as us. After that, we quickly mad our way back to the tube to catch another hour or so on the bus tour. My parents had a tour booked in Notting Hill, so they got off at that stop. Jen and I stayed on until we reached the Paddington Station, where there was a nice selection of places to eat.
The famous crosswalk in front of Abbey Road Studios
Signing the wall
My signature
With the statue of Paddington Bear at Paddington Station
We then took a tube over to Camden, where Jen had planned a cocktail night with some of her friends. We went to this awesome bar that was totally my scene. There were concert posters up all over the place. We each had a couple of cocktails as it was 2-4-1. Then we walked around outside a bit. It was pretty funny because I was acting like my normal crazy self and Jen's friends made a comment about giving the 19 year old alcohol and that I was tipsy or something. I'm not quite sure they believed us when Jen and I told them that that was how I always acted. haha
Cocktail time!
Jen's friends
Camden
Jen heard some people doing an acoustic concert on the balcony of one of the buildings and liked it, so we all went up to the balcony. Somebody asked a guy who was watching them who they were and he told us. He turned out to be the band's videographer. It was an indie band, nothing major. Somehow, word got out that three of the six of us were broadcast journalists and all of the sudden, Jen and her friend Hannah (who is a grade below Jen in the journalism program) ended up doing an interview with the band on Jen's FlipCam. It was all pretty random.
We ended up talking to the videographer guy for a while. He tried hitting on because he liked my accent or something like that. I shut him down when he asked for my facebook info. haha So then we made our way back to the tube station. It took forever to get home as one of the lines was down for maintenance. We did finally make it home quite tired. Jen and I also both got sunburnt as the sun was beating down on us while I was lost. Luckily, I had brought some aloe vera gel, just in case.
Oh, and after all of that, I never got to see Buckingham. Next trip!
Katie
Sunday, July 25, 2010
London Part 3
On our third day in London, we really started in on our touristy visits. We spent the morning at the Tower of London, a real castle set right along the Thames River. Its not just one tower but many different buildings all with a lot of history. My mom is awesome and found a two for one coupon, too, so we only paid half-price to get in! The Tower of London houses the Crown Jewels of England, which was our first stop at 9:30 AM or so. They are one of the most popular attractions at the Tower and can be quite backed up. However, as we were there so early in the day, we had no lines whatsoever!
The Crown Jewels are literally inside of a giant vault. When you enter, you enter through a vault door. There are actually several rooms housing the numerous treasures and then you exit through another vault door. Everything was enclosed in glass. They had everything from coronation robes to dishes to scepters. They even had a giant gold bowl that could hold 144 bottles of wine! It was crazy. The big attraction, though, were the crowns. They are set up with a moving sidewalk on either side so you can't really stand in front for too long. They are so cool to see, though, as several of them contain some of the biggest diamonds ever found.
After seeing the jewels, we did a tour with one of the residents of the tower, called a Beefeater. They are the ceremonial guards of the tower, formerly in charge of looking after the prisoners who were held there and such. They now are basically in charge of things like tours. The guy who did our tour was hilarious and we learned all about the history of the tower, which included quite a few beheadings. I am actually supposedly related to Mary, Queen of Scotts, who was held there before her execution.
After the morning at the Tower of London, we made our way by tube to this station that had tons of food. It was a really hot day out and we were all really overheated, so it was nice to relax for a bit with some cold drinks. After that, we made our way over to Westminster Abbey. It was really beautiful in there, and really interesting as well. We all did individual audio tours. One of my favorite areas was the poets corner, where they commemorated all of the authors that were buried there.
My mom and I were going to do a bike tour through London starting at 3:30, but we lost track of Jen in the Abbey. My mom and I tried running for it, but we would have been late, so we just had to skip the tour. So once we found Jen, we all made our way over to Harrods, a giant department store in London. We had dinner from there and then made our way back to the hotel. We hung out in the dining area where there was A/C and power plugs for our laptops.
Overall, it was a really great day to see some cool stuff in London.
The Crown Jewels are literally inside of a giant vault. When you enter, you enter through a vault door. There are actually several rooms housing the numerous treasures and then you exit through another vault door. Everything was enclosed in glass. They had everything from coronation robes to dishes to scepters. They even had a giant gold bowl that could hold 144 bottles of wine! It was crazy. The big attraction, though, were the crowns. They are set up with a moving sidewalk on either side so you can't really stand in front for too long. They are so cool to see, though, as several of them contain some of the biggest diamonds ever found.
After seeing the jewels, we did a tour with one of the residents of the tower, called a Beefeater. They are the ceremonial guards of the tower, formerly in charge of looking after the prisoners who were held there and such. They now are basically in charge of things like tours. The guy who did our tour was hilarious and we learned all about the history of the tower, which included quite a few beheadings. I am actually supposedly related to Mary, Queen of Scotts, who was held there before her execution.
After the morning at the Tower of London, we made our way by tube to this station that had tons of food. It was a really hot day out and we were all really overheated, so it was nice to relax for a bit with some cold drinks. After that, we made our way over to Westminster Abbey. It was really beautiful in there, and really interesting as well. We all did individual audio tours. One of my favorite areas was the poets corner, where they commemorated all of the authors that were buried there.
My mom and I were going to do a bike tour through London starting at 3:30, but we lost track of Jen in the Abbey. My mom and I tried running for it, but we would have been late, so we just had to skip the tour. So once we found Jen, we all made our way over to Harrods, a giant department store in London. We had dinner from there and then made our way back to the hotel. We hung out in the dining area where there was A/C and power plugs for our laptops.
Overall, it was a really great day to see some cool stuff in London.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
London Part 2
Our first full day in London, we split up. My parents went to Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's home) while Jen and I went on a full day Harry Potter tour! We went all over London and even over to Oxford. Our tour guide, Ryan, picked us up at 9 AM. Our first stop wa the Millennium Bridge, which is in the opening sequence of the Half-Blood Prince. Its the bridge that they show the death eaters destroying. its a really cool looking bride...very modern.
From the movie
From the tour
After that, we went to the two different locations used as the outside of the Leaky Cauldron. They used one location for the first movie and then another location for the rest. We went to Kings Cross again and stopped at the fake Platform 9 3/4 as well as the location that was used in the movie. I had actually walked by the one they used in the movie quite a few times not knowing what it was. The interesting thing about Platform 9 3/4 is that at Kings Cross, there is actually no barrier between platforms 9 and 10. JK Rowling meant to use the train station Euston; however, that station doesn't have a barrier between platforms 9 and 10 either.
Clip from Sorcerers Stone showing Platform 9 3/4
We then made our way up to Oxford, where parts of Hogwarts castle sets were based off of. Oxford is an interesting campus as the university buildings are mixed in with the city. Oxford is made up of many smaller colleges, such as Christ Church. If you attended Oxford, you would consider yourself a student of your specific college, not the university as a whole. The Great Hall in Hogwarts is based off of three different great halls in three different colleges. Unfortunately, we were only able to see one because the other two were closed. We saw the one inside of Christ Church, which was really cool. They have portraits all over the room of different alumni of the school and such. They also have stained glass windows all over the place. If you look close enough at the ones towards the front, you can see figures from Alice in Wonderland in some of the corners.
Alice in Wonderland!
We also went to a room in one of the other colleges that was used as the infirmary in The Sorcerers Stone. Lastly, we went to a courtyard at one school that can easily be recognized from Goblet of Fire. It is the location where Mad Eye Moody turns Mayfoy into a ferret as well as when Harry tells Cedric about the dragons, etc. Just standing in the courtyard, you could tell it was from the movies. It was so cool!
We also were given an our to explore the city a bit. Ryan showed us the pub where the Inklings, a group of authors that included CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, met every week for years. We were actually able to have lunch in the corner where they sat week after week. They had pictures and placards up around the table and people were coming up the whole meal to take photos. CS Lewis is one of my very favorite authors, so it was amazing to see. We were going to go inside the free museum in Oxford that has a lot of Egyptian artifacts, but its closed on Mondays. We did look through the gift shop, but that was it.
Epic picture outside of the museum
Ryan then drove us the hour and a half back to London and dropped us off at our hotel. We were talking to him on the drive home and Jen mentioned that she likes this musician Marcus Foster and that she goes to his gigs a lot. Ironically, Ryan is a musician and just played with Marcus Foster the week before. How crazy is that?! So now Jen is going to one of Ryan's gigs at the end of the month. haha Anyways, after we got back to the hotel, we just chilled and tried to keep cool. And I got McDonalds from the train station.
The end!
From the movie
From the tour
After that, we went to the two different locations used as the outside of the Leaky Cauldron. They used one location for the first movie and then another location for the rest. We went to Kings Cross again and stopped at the fake Platform 9 3/4 as well as the location that was used in the movie. I had actually walked by the one they used in the movie quite a few times not knowing what it was. The interesting thing about Platform 9 3/4 is that at Kings Cross, there is actually no barrier between platforms 9 and 10. JK Rowling meant to use the train station Euston; however, that station doesn't have a barrier between platforms 9 and 10 either.
Clip from Sorcerers Stone showing Platform 9 3/4
We then made our way up to Oxford, where parts of Hogwarts castle sets were based off of. Oxford is an interesting campus as the university buildings are mixed in with the city. Oxford is made up of many smaller colleges, such as Christ Church. If you attended Oxford, you would consider yourself a student of your specific college, not the university as a whole. The Great Hall in Hogwarts is based off of three different great halls in three different colleges. Unfortunately, we were only able to see one because the other two were closed. We saw the one inside of Christ Church, which was really cool. They have portraits all over the room of different alumni of the school and such. They also have stained glass windows all over the place. If you look close enough at the ones towards the front, you can see figures from Alice in Wonderland in some of the corners.
Alice in Wonderland!
We also went to a room in one of the other colleges that was used as the infirmary in The Sorcerers Stone. Lastly, we went to a courtyard at one school that can easily be recognized from Goblet of Fire. It is the location where Mad Eye Moody turns Mayfoy into a ferret as well as when Harry tells Cedric about the dragons, etc. Just standing in the courtyard, you could tell it was from the movies. It was so cool!
We also were given an our to explore the city a bit. Ryan showed us the pub where the Inklings, a group of authors that included CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, met every week for years. We were actually able to have lunch in the corner where they sat week after week. They had pictures and placards up around the table and people were coming up the whole meal to take photos. CS Lewis is one of my very favorite authors, so it was amazing to see. We were going to go inside the free museum in Oxford that has a lot of Egyptian artifacts, but its closed on Mondays. We did look through the gift shop, but that was it.
Epic picture outside of the museum
Ryan then drove us the hour and a half back to London and dropped us off at our hotel. We were talking to him on the drive home and Jen mentioned that she likes this musician Marcus Foster and that she goes to his gigs a lot. Ironically, Ryan is a musician and just played with Marcus Foster the week before. How crazy is that?! So now Jen is going to one of Ryan's gigs at the end of the month. haha Anyways, after we got back to the hotel, we just chilled and tried to keep cool. And I got McDonalds from the train station.
The end!
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