Hello all! At long last the older sister is going to post her perspective on our Paris trip, I was waiting around for Sarah to post first, so she could get through the main details, and I could just add a few of my thoughts. I will start off by saying it was an amazing trip and I LOVED seeing my sister again, that was my absolute favorite part of the entire time…seeing Sarah! Buildings, palaces, history, all that doesn’t compare to seeing your best friend!
So in a similar fashion to Sarah here’s how it went on my end, I won’t go into the massive amount of details she did so that you won’t get bored by too much repetition, but will mention the highlights for me of each thing we did, and maybe add a few minor random details that she may have forgotten. J
Sunday-Monday, March 6-7, 2011
First, a little history, I originally planned this entire trip thinking I was still going to be in management at the time, so I booked an evening flight, BECAUSE I was planning on working that day, rushing home, then rushing to the airport. However in the wonderful providence of God, I ended up being out of management before the trip, so I happily had the day off! However, I was still stuck with my 7pm flight.
So, since I happily had the day off work, I went to church as usual in the morning, and went to our Flock Group afterwards, it was really neat to see everyone so excited for me as it was well known I was leaving that day. I got lots of prayers, hugs, and encouragement; it was a good way to spend the day of your flight. Dad drove me to CVG, we got me situated, and I went through security and headed to my terminal for the typical long wait you do before flying. I got an overpriced milkshake and fries at the McDonalds in the airport, mostly because I knew I was in for a long flight and wouldn’t be eating any “real” food for awhile, sat, paced around, talked to Dad and Mom on my cell phone some, tried to read, and mostly wasted time being restless and bored. J
Oh, one other important thing to note…I hate flying. Seriously, I really do. Unlike my sister who thinks that flying is the most amazing experience EVER! I am one of the people on this planet, who still think humans shouldn’t fly. J Not really….but I really don’t enjoy the experience. I’ve flown twice before to South Carolina, and that was with Sarah, so this was my first flight out of the country and going by myself. Fortunately, I don’t get sick or anything, I just am stressed out and wishing I was on the ground. J Anyway, all that to say….my first flight ended up getting a slight delay, some sort of airline door problem or something, I forget, all I know is that it took forever. J Eventually we boarded, and it was a very small plane, short flight about 45 minutes to Detroit. I had a window seat and had a guy sitting next to me. I think he worked for the airlines, I pretty much ignored him the entire time, (I was not overly thrilled and I was wishing I didn’t have a seat mate on this first flight) I’m sure he noticed at some point how nervous I was. Every bump of the plane before and during landing, I grab my armrest and close my eyes and grimace. J Anyway, eventually we landed in Detroit and I had to run to my next connecting plane, the lady who pointed me in the direction of my next flight said “Paris, I wish I was going there.” Funny, but when you’re worried about missing a connection, you don’t really care. J Happily, I did get to my flight in time, but it was boarded already! I was shocked! I don’t think I’ve ever been on a flight where practically everyone is seated but me…not a cool feeling. I tried calling home as I was running through the terminal, but for whatever reason my cell phone wasn’t working, once I was in the plane, I did manage to have time to send a text saying “hi or bye” something like that just so the family would know I made it to Detroit, after that I wouldn’t have any contact with family until I saw Sarah or got to a computer.
I finally settled down some once I was in my seat in the plane. There were four seats in the row I was in, someone on the very end, an empty seat, me and another empty seat…ahh…ideal, here I was for a long 8 hour flight or so and I had elbow room, life is good…as good as it can be on a plane. J When I booked my flight, I purposely tried to find empty seats…even more important than a window seat to me. J Anyway, the plane was really huge! My first “big” overseas flight, the attendants had French accents and I thought the whole thing rather neat. All the seats had their own personal televisions attached to the seat in front of you, and the arm rests had little remote things, and you got a packet of free stuff, ear buds, eye mask, ear plugs, and something else probably. Anyway, it was really neat, although I was rather confused if the movies were free or not, I eventually just decided that they were. J
I also realized something…flying in a big plane is a lot better than a small plane! Even though I probably had more turbulence issues with the big one, for whatever reason, I felt the bumps less, or wasn’t as concerned about them, I think my philosophy is: if the plane is bigger it can handle this stuff better, not sure how accurate that is, but I did finally start relaxing more on that flight than I ever have before when flying. Anyway, so highlights from that flight: One it was really long, two, I didn’t sleep, maybe an hour or two at the most, but yeah, sleeping just doesn’t work for me on my first major flight overseas…I knew it wouldn’t. J So, I had originally planned on reading, however, that didn’t work out too well, since they dimmed the lights, because the REST of the plane seemed to have no problem sleeping, and I felt weird turning on lights that might disturb others.
SOO, I watched movies! That was fun, they had one called “Tangled” which I saw in theatres last November and loved it then! I was so excited to see it as an option to watch! It was my favorite part of the flight. Watching Tangled from 11 to midnight…just have to be careful not to laugh too much. J They also had these options to listen to music, so I was able to listen to some classical music and doze for a little bit, that was neat. I did get some reading time in, I brought the book “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” by Victor Hugo to read, I’d never read it before, and since I was going to go see the REAL thing, I figured now was a good time to educate myself on it. I probably got about a third-half way through it, still haven’t finished it yet! It’s umm…kind of boring…hopefully it gets better; I’ll try finishing it one of these days. J I noticed that one of the flight attendants noticed the book, I think he was probably intrigued/curious why an American was reading that book on a flight to Paris…maybe he saw the irony, I don’t know, he never said anything to me about it.
Anyway, at some point during that flight I was finally starting to get REALLY excited about the trip! It was real! I was actually leaving the US and going to see my SISTER! I think I was grinning a couple of times. J Those are my main memories of the flight, oh, and the food, it was tolerable, but left something to be desired.
I finally landed in Paris (CDG) airport, and then went through the masses of people, shuttle stuff, to the next part of my journey…customs! I got my passport stamped for the FIRST time! (which is very cool) and then went through so much security I forget how the entire processed work. If you’ve never flown or been through security…imagine massive amounts of people being herded like cattle…that’s pretty much what I imagine it’s like. J Anyway, I was finally at my next point of waiting for the flight that would take me to Barcelona, and I had a little bit of time to spare, I really wanted to find a bathroom, but for some reason I couldn’t find signs anywhere pointing to one. I was rather frustrated, how on earth could an airport this HUGE not have a restroom?? Anyway, I didn’t want to waste too much time looking for one, and decided to just wait. However, ANOTHER delay ended up happening, and so I was able to relax enough to search harder…and I did find the bathroom. A very brightly painted one too… Anyway, so, I waited around some more, felt tired, someone tried asking me a question about Spain, but I didn’t really know the answer so I wasn’t able to help him. Finally, we boarded! This flight I had a window seat, and seatmates, but at this point, I was so tired, I really didn’t care. J I just wanted to get out of airplanes and see my sister! That flight was maybe 1.5-2 hours long.
I eventually landed in Barcelona, and got off the plane and began the fun process of figuring out where my luggage was. Oh joy! I found the luggage rack thing, and waited, and waited, and it soon became sadly obvious that my luggage wasn’t going to magically appear like it’s supposed to. (it wasn’t just me either, several others on my flight had lost luggage too, actually, I think the guy who asked me a question in the Paris airport was one of them!) Anyway, I kept standing there forever, just praying that it would appear, this was so not on my list of things to happen this week! J Anyway, after wasting a lot of time standing there, I headed over to the lost claims place. I finally talked to someone, gave them description of the stuff, and Sarah’s contact info etc. One thing they didn’t tell me was that I had the option of getting reimbursed if they didn’t get my luggage in time, I figured that out when it was kind of too late. J
Anyway, so, I’m in this haze of “my luggage is lost” and headed to the next thing, that I thought I had to do. Customs. J Yeah, I had done something in France, but Sarah had made it sound like I had to go through customs here too, so I started wandering around, and trying to insist to the Spanish security people that I needed to you know…get processed or something! J They insisted I was fine and could go through, okay, whatever…weird. So, I went to where the doors were, they opened, I didn’t see Sarah that first time she screamed, and then they closed, and I went back again to try to convince the people that I was about to enter their country and I didn’t have a stamp or anything in my passport. J They again insisted I could go through, I went over there, was SHOCKED by my sister screaming in public! Hee! Anyway, we hugged, were excited to see each other, but I still kept rambling to her that they didn’t stamp my passport, I wasn’t sure if I could go through, and oh yeah, my luggage is lost. J I for the third time, went to the Spanish security people trying to insist that I was about to enter their country, and they finally convinced me I could leave. I think I was amusing them by how confused I was. J (hey, I’m about to enter a foreign country, my luggage is lost, I don’t want to get deported or anything!)
Anyway, I finally leave the place, and Sarah and I head into the confusing world of shuttles etc. I forget all the details of what happened next, but we eventually arrive in the train station in Barcelona where we get some food, chat and wait for the train. J I think once we were over there, is when I started feeling the “weirdest” I didn’t know what to expect jet lag to be like, since I’d never experienced it, I felt, obviously tired, and very lightheaded, but was that jet lag or just…lack of sleep? Anyway, regardless, food helped some, but for most of the evening I felt very “off” and like things just weren’t normal. J
It was nice to eat some normal food with Sarah while we waited for the train, and while we chatted something else that happened, which Sarah forgot to mention. We had finished most of our food, but had a few chicken nuggets and fries left, and a guy came by, and asked in Spanish (I think, unless it was Catalan, I have no idea) if he could have them, Sarah conversed with him, and let him take them. It was really unusual to me! But we were glad someone could enjoy them. J
We eventually get to the point where Sarah goes through her whole panic thing about “ahh! We missed our train!” I kind of just stood there and tried to get her to tell me what was wrong, and kept saying, “we’ll be fine!” I mean, my sister has been living here for months; I had absolute confidence that it wasn’t the end of the world, and it would get figured out. (maybe this was exhausted jet lag too) The ironic thing is, I am a very panicky person in situations like that and Sarah is the calm one, it was rather funny to see our roles reversed! We finally boarded my first ever train ride experience, which was neat, but I was kind of too tired to really care. We arrived at our next point, where Sarah made me RUN to get to the bus station thing. Sigh, asking your older sister to run when she is very tired, it’s late at night, in a new country, and trying to absorb everything, and all I want to do is go to bed is…not really fun. J
So, we’re finally on board the bus to where we get to go to Sarah’s friend’s place who will be taking us to Sarah’s flat. I was really excited to actually get to meet Sarah’s teacher friend Laura and her husband Jordi! I had originally wanted during this trip to meet some of the kids, and more of Sarah’s teacher friends, but it wasn’t going to work out. So I was, even though very tired, super excited to get to meet some of the people who’d been taking care of my little sister for the past several months!
I also knew that I’d be getting the typical Spanish greeting, I’d read enough of Sarah’s blog to know that handshakes don’t happen, but it was still hard to try to remember that and not freak out when perfect strangers start kissing your cheeks and hugging you. J I think I managed to hide how weird I thought it was though. J Anyway, we got to eat some food, and chat for a little bit, I got to see their sleeping son Quim, which was neat! It was just so cool to see Spanish hospitality first hand! It was also a “proud big sister” moment where I could observe my sister talking to these people in another language…it was really cool! I could catch words here and there and sort of follow parts of the conversation with my limited High School Spanish, but for the most part, I was confused…but that was okay…it was just neat to see these people, my sister interacting with them, and experiencing hospitality! I was also grateful for a toothbrush…it was the one thing I knew I’d have to get if I didn’t get my luggage back quickly.
We eventually said good bye, and Jordi drove us to Sarah’s flat, Sarah and Jordi did most of the talking up front, while I tried to concentrate and pick up bit and pieces of words I knew and tried to follow their conversation. I think I did ask Sarah to ask him why the tops of most of the trees were cut off, something about a pruning process, I think. Finally, we said goodbye to Jordi and headed into Sarah’s…FLAT!!!!!!! Yay! We were there!
Now, I knew a little bit what to expect, Sarah had done a video of the flat, and so I had a general idea of what her area looked like. I did not get to see the hallway/step area that leads up to her flat though, and it was really pretty and decorated very nicely, I mentioned it several times to Sarah that week. J I was also weirded out/intrigued by the fact that the door knobs were in the center of the doors! Strange…but interesting. Sarah’s flat, yes, I had seen the video, and quite frankly, if you’ve seen that video, I umm, thought it looked really….ugly. J I really did, but seeing it in person it was a little less so. Still it had very colorful walls, which I knew it would, it’s just weird seeing it for yourself! Also, the flat is very small, which works for Sarah and myself for a couple of days…but I don’t think I could live like that all the time…I need…space! J Anyway, we talked some, and we finally went to bed around midnight or later, I forget when but…ahh…sleep!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
I was awakened by a horrible noise around 7:00 am…Sarah’s alarm…good way to have a heart attack. J We decided Sarah would get up and get ready then wake me up when it was time for me to get a shower. Haha, she however decided to let me sleep for a lot longer than I planned! Nice of her, but a panicky feeling when you aren’t expecting it! J She eventually woke me up, and it was a really weird feeling to know I had just slept an extra hour or two…it didn’t feel like it at all! I really felt like when she woke me up again, I’d maybe only slept an extra 20 minutes or something. However, a shower helped a lot, I felt alive again! Still tired, but functional! J We then took some to eat some breakfast…and wow…another weird experience. Ahem, big sister, shall now go into a long tattling experience of how Sarah’s lives…. J
Sooo…first thing, Sarah doesn’t have bowls. Yeah, seriously she doesn’t! The apartment didn’t supply her with any, and Sarah thinks it’s unnecessary to invest into any…weird! J She was kind enough to buy a Spanish brand of Honey Nut Cheerios for me to eat though…which I did…in a coffee mug. Yeah, not my normal morning routine, the mug, haha, yes, a big silly blue face looking mug thing, that Sarah decided she COULD buy. J Anyway, I poured my “Spanish” honey nut cheerios and milk into a coffee mug and had that, I think a croissant roll, a tangerine, and maybe something else. Interesting thing about the cereal: It’s really funny to see foreign brands “copy” US brands, you know the Bee on the box of Honey Nut Cheerios? They have it on there too, but it looks really different it’s hard to explain but it made me smile to see the differences. J Also, the cereal itself was a little different, kind of “flatter” and maybe a little sweeter. The milk is also different, you don’t have to refrigerate it, if you don’t want to. Sarah explained all this to me, but I forget everything she said now. J
Anyway, we finished our breakfast and then headed out to the train to go to Tarragona. I was very excited to visit, I had seen Sarah’s pictures of all the Roman history and ruins, and it was something I wanted to see for myself. We had a good time wandering around, chatting, getting snacks, and just enjoying the atmosphere, I think it was the most relaxed I was all week. We also were going to take the time to buy something called, churros, I think that’s the name, they are these stick like pastry things, almost like…French toast sticks, if you’ve ever had those, but thinner, and different, anyway, they’re good. J We were standing at this outside vendor thing debating on what to get, when an older man who just purchased some, took one or two out and gave us the rest! It was again…neat, but different! Sarah told me he said they weren’t good for him, and he only wanted one or two. So we ended up not buying any. Not sure what the people who were selling them thought. J
Oh, one other thing, I loved the experience of riding trains for the first time…except, most of the time I was so tired I had a hard time appreciating it as much as I wanted to. Still, trains are way more fun than planes, in my opinion. J
We also got the phone call that my luggage would be delivered the next day, you can read Sarah’s post about the details on that call. Eventually we headed back to Montblanc, I got to see the library, post on facebook to let people know I was alive, albeit luggagless, and wander the streets of Montblanc at night, and then go back to the flat, where Sarah and I stayed up until 3:30 am talking! It was great! We kept saying we needed to stop and go to bed…but we didn’t. J I got to hear all about the horrible mice details more, discuss her church, tell her what life was like back home, and all the other fun sistery stuff you talk about that you haven’t been able to tell someone for 5 months about. J
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Ahh, Wednesday, we got up fairly early (which was difficult when you went to bed really late) because the luggage people were supposed to be around that morning to give us my luggage. We waited forever, and had a hard time enjoying the morning because we were just waiting for them to come, but they didn’t. It was frustrating, but we knew that we had to get over it and start planning on enjoying our time in Paris regardless. I was so excited to show Sarah all the stuff I brought for her and my new things too…but…oh well! Eventually we headed out, took the taxi, got on the plane and we were on our way to Paris! It was exciting. J We arrived in a different Paris airport than I connected in, and took this bus thing which took about an hour or more to the center of Paris, it was a long trip, and I dozed some. We got word from Sarah’s landlady that my luggage arrived…yay! At least it wasn’t lost forever. J We finally got off the bus and started this really long process of looking for metros, wandering around trying to find our hotel, and starving to death. J Along the way, we saw the Eiffel Tower, it was exciting, but I think Sarah was a little more thrilled than I was, I just wanted to find our hotel, drop off the luggage, and eat something! But it was very cool seeing it in person! We did find the hotel, and it was nice, it was recommended by friends who had stayed there a couple of years ago, we were on the sixth floor…more on that later. Anyway, we got settled, and then headed out to find food and explore.
Sarah unsuccessfully tried to convince me we should go up the Eiffel Tower that evening, I told her we needed to eat something first. J We also got some medicine for Sarah that evening. We wandered around forever trying to find food that looked normal and not too expensive. (who wants to spend a ton of money on something you might not even like??) We did get the famous jelly donut thing, that I snatched my half from Sarah and promptly ate…she found it much funnier than I did. J
We finally decided to go to a grocery store. We stocked up on stuff for that evening and for our breakfasts while we were in Paris, and got some other snacky things to live on. I think it was money well spent! We did buy a couple of things that were not so great…they had these things that looked like “cereal” bars, you know the kind that are soft and have jelly type filling? Well, that’s what I thought these were, but they were actually hard and crunchy…Sarah hated them, but I managed to eat a few, I also got these things that I thought would be mini cookies with icing in them, however they had cream cheese in them, not icing, I didn’t care for those much… It’s hard buying things when everything is in French. J I also thought it was kind of neat, that they charge for plastic bags. I thought it was a sensible way for people to think about how many plastic bags do you really need, and be motivated to get the recyclable ones.
Anyway, we finally took our food back to our hotel and ate…it was one of the best meals we had all week! It was so nice to sit and eat. We decided not to go back out and just go to bed, Sarah went down to check email in the lobby and I opted to go to bed…she took a really long time though, I thought she’d only be gone for 30 minutes or so, but it was more like an hour, I was starting to worry about her, and was trying get up the energy to check on her and make sure she hadn’t been kidnapped or something. J She did finally come back up!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Our main Paris day! It was fun, but insanely crazy with us rushing around getting lost all the time. J All I can say is, if you consider yourself to be friends with Sarah and I…NEVER travel with the two of us…you won’t like us anymore! We’ll make you walk, run, get lost, starve, and won’t let you take time to do normal things. J You can read Sarah’s post for the main details of things we did that day, but here are some of my thoughts and memories:
· The Lourve…wow…it was so HUGE! My first thought when I saw it was: “I feel small” It was a really neat experience, but after awhile I got kind of bored with all the art, and seeing naked statues everywhere, and being surrounded by people. Business majors don’t study major art pieces in college, unlike Sarah. J I was amazed at how big some of the art was in there. It was frustrating though, all the art pieces were in French, so most of the time I didn’t know what I was looking at, I’m sure they have guides or something you could pay to have things better explained, but we didn’t have the time or interest to pursue that route. The Mona Lisa was interesting, but I didn’t brave the ridiculous crowd to get a better picture, unlike Sarah. I did really like seeing painters doing their own paintings of the originals, it was really unique and different, I didn’t expect that at all. Finally, I did enjoy being there, because Dad had been there years ago, and it was fun being places that your parent had been in once. J
· The Notre Dame…the inside was nice, and I liked the windows, I think looking back, I should’ve taken some more time to relax and enjoy the atmosphere, but I wanted to get started on the line that would take us to the top. Before we got in line, we got the infamous crepes Sarah loves so well! First, a word on how my romantic imaginative mind works…Before I left the US, Sarah and I emailed about how we wanted to eat lots of pastries in Paris…and one of those was crepes, I had the romantic notion that we would sit in this cute outdoor café, eat crepes, enjoy the Paris atmosphere and just “soak it all in.” J However, life rarely works out how you dream it will, and here’s one example of how reality works… We ordered our crepes, it was neat watching the lady make them, headed over to the wall of the Notre Dame, stood in line, and then attempted to eat these crepes standing up, in the cold windy weather. Yeah. Oh, and one other thing to add to the atmosphere…my strawberry crepe decided to drip all over me, my jacket, my purse, my fingers, the ground…yeah, this was not how I pictured this! J All I can say is, if I ever eat crepes again, it will be sitting down, with a fork and a plate. J The crepe was good though…just messy. Anyway, we stood in line a long time, and finally we started the climb up the Notre Dame…so many steps! The view at the top was neat, and the gargoyles were interesting, but ugly. J I enjoyed watching my sister get frustrated with the obnoxious Americans. Hee! Anyway, it was a good view of the Eiffel Tower and I’m glad we went up there.
· The infamous crypt…yeah, don’t do it. It was boring. But it was really neat to wander around see the guy playing the accordion and just get some of that “Parisy” atmosphere, we wandered around one section that reminded me of the movie “An American in Paris” with Gene Kelly that was cool. We got some good pictures during our ramble trying to find this crypt.
· The Pantheon…which we didn’t get to go in, that was discouraging! But it was neat to see the outside and take the time to eat some more pastries.
· The Orsay…yeah, you can read from Sarah how fun it was trying to find that and how we eventually spent the money on a taxi. J It was really neat in there, so much quieter than the Lourve, and felt just very serious, and I liked the art in there a lot more than the Lourve.
· The Arc de Triomphe! My favorite site. I think I enjoyed it so much because, we were sooo tired, and just wanted to be done for the night, and we had to climb MORE stairs, and when we finally got to the top, we got to see the Eiffel Tower light up and sparkle! It was just really special and neat, and I’m glad we did it. J It was so worth the effort!
· Staring down the Champs Elysees …a classic Amanda and Sarah moment, it was late at night, we looked down the street that was going to have a bunch of overpriced stuff we would never buy, and said, “yeah, this is NOT worth walking down just to say we did this…let’s be done!” J So we didn’t see it, and if you’re a shopping fanatic, sorry…
· Seine River Cruise…it was a fun way to end our evening! We debated on buying a picture they took of us, and I would have it had a famous landmark in the background, and not just night sky and buildings.
· Finally back to our hotel! Ahh, it had been a long and exhausting day, but fun! We then went to go up the elevator back to our room…and for some reason the elevator wasn’t working. Rather than asking someone about it, we trudged up six flights of stairs to get to our room. Yes, we had walked all over the city, climbed the Notre Dame, climbed the Arc de Triomphe, and were now walking up MORE stairs…I think maybe that was the most whiny I felt all week. Not sure if Sarah knew that or not…but all I can say is, I am never complaining about our 23 steps up to our house again…EVER, they are NOTHING compared to the amount of stairs and walking I did this day…whenever I feel like complaining when I walk up the stairs to our house, I think, nope, this isn’t bad at all. J We finally got to our room and collapsed for the night.
A couple of other random things before I get started on Friday…
It was really interesting having the two of us wander around at night in a huge city by ourselves. It felt very safe though! We would SO never wander around by ourselves in Downtown Cincinnati at night alone, but it was a very fun and special time wandering around in the dark with your sister in Paris.
My thoughts on metros—I hate them. They are so confusing to me! I’m glad Sarah was around to navigate because I really don’t think I would’ve found anything on my own. I also was freaked out the entire week because both on the metros and trains reminded me of too many movies where people get blown up, have weirdos waving guns around, get in crashes, etc. Anyway, my over reactive imagination was constantly on the alert, but nothing ever happened, we didn’t get robbed, blown up, shot at, or crashed, and mostly we were just crowded. J
Another thing, maybe this is just because I’m the daughter of a fireman and pay attention to this stuff, but it was interesting noting the difference between the sound European emergency vehicles and US ones. Have you ever seen a movie where you hear a police car in Europe and compared the difference to a US police car? Well, it’s real! There is a difference! The US sounds much more whiny/wailing and Europe’s sound more like how I picture a World War II bomb raid siren sounding. It was neat at first to hear the difference, but after awhile it started to annoy and stress me out. J
Also, a word on the cultures I experienced. I really liked that feeling of being a “foreigner” it was just neat to experience it first hand, and realize how important knowing other languages are. I liked observing people on the metros and trains. Although, one thing that's hard to get used to is how affectionate everyone is, and they don't mind getting in your "space." On our long bus ride from the airport into Paris, there was this couple in front of us that kept kissing, Agh! It was driving me nuts! One of those things we don't see here that often, but over there it's very normal. I will say though, that it was always refreshing to hear English being spoken! And I was glad to get home to my normal life when it was all over with. It was neat to experience, but I think it would be exhausting to live like that all the time. J
Anyway, back to other things…
Friday, March 11, 2011
Another early morning, after a late night! We were off to Versailles today! It was a sobering morning though; we had the news on and found out about the Japanese earthquake that morning before we headed out.
We took a train to Versailles, and I think dozed again during that trip. J The palace was amazing! I loved being out of the crowded, hectic pace of Paris and seeing something different. Again, it was so huge, everything is huge and old in Europe…and it’s just neat to experience that! Yes, I did listen to the audio guides, and loved being able to have an explanation in English of all the things we were seeing! The Hall of Mirrors was by far the best part. Definitely see Versailles if you ever go to Paris! It’s totally worth getting out of the city for the day and it’s just an amazing place! We did get some overpriced tarts at the café there, and the pear tart I had was amazing! The best thing I ate all week! Sarah’s chocolate one was awful…but she liked it. (I’m not a fan of chocolate) That was our lunch for the day. J We headed out to wander around the gardens and see some of the other things on the property. I wish the gardens had been in bloom with all the water running in the fountains…but they were still neat to see! I enjoyed seeing the trees that were…uh, what’s the word…”special” “trimmed” I’m not sure, but the reminded me something out of Alice and Wonderland. J I doubt I’ll ever go back, but if I did, I’d love to go when the gardens are blooming. Another memory I have of Versailles, is discussing our thoughts on the French Revolution. We wondered what the people now think of their past etc, I really wished we could’ve talked with someone to get their perspectives. After viewing the wealth and opulence of Versailles it was easy to see why the French people who were starving were upset and had a revolution. We finally left the palace and took the time to buy some postcards and souvenirs outside the actual palace.
Oh, one other thing that happened, as we got ready to leave and go back to the train station, something scary happened. I don’t know why or what exactly happened, but this older guy approached us and scared Sarah and I to death, it’s hard to explain what happened, but it was by far the scariest thing we experienced all week. Weird timing too! It was in the middle of the day and we were crossing the street! We were fine, but we did take off running… J
Eventually we got back to the train station, and then stopped off near the Pantheon! Yay! We finally got to go inside! It was neat in there, but very cold…seriously! They had heaters there! Sarah as usual, knew a lot more about the stuff in there than I did, but I did like see the tombs of Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas (French authors). I also liked seeing the Joan of Arc paintings, the Curie’s tombs, and Braille’s tomb, again, the Pantheon is huge and has some really neat architecture in there.
After the Pantheon we went to a fun pastry shop and ate the fun hotdog things Sarah mentioned, they were really good! I liked that shop. J
The Eiffel Tower…again, Sarah explained stuff so well, I don’t want to go into too many details. It was really neat, and I enjoyed going to the top, seeing it go from dusk to night and it was a great way to end our time in Paris.
After the Eiffel Tower, we went shopping for more souvenirs and pastries. J One random ramble, when we were in Versailles I saw this pretty blue china thing that had sites of Paris on it, I really wanted it, but it was kind of pricey and I dreaded walking around with something breakable the rest of the day, so I skipped it. However, after the Eiffel Tower when we started shopping, I found it again in Paris for about half the price! Yes, I got it. J
I loved the fact that we got to talk to someone and get a discount when I got a fried donut and Sarah another crepe. Anyway, we had a good time wandering around in the dark again, getting our pictures taken together by some other Americans, and eating our pastries with the Eiffel Tower in view. J
Eventually we went back to the hotel, I think that’s when I finally took the time to write some emails, and experience the French keyboard, and we ate some more of our food from the grocery store, and then crashed for the night. It might have been the earliest we got to bed all week. I think it was before midnight. J
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Another early morning, we toted our heavy luggage, and eventually got to the bus thing we needed to get to the airport. That airport seemed big and crowded and I was worried that we were going to be late the whole time. J It was a different airport than the other two I had been in that week, and I was in a total of three different Paris airports that week! We got on our flight, and headed back to Barcelona…we had hoped to arrive in time to catch some trains to go back to Montblanc to pick up my luggage, but that didn’t happen. Once we got to Barcelona and headed on a train to get to our hostel, it was kind of a depressing ride, because we knew the luggage was going to be stuck with Sarah for the next couple of months, but one thing that was neat and kind of cheered me up, was there was this Spanish guy playing an instrument on the train. Again, it such a neat cultural thing to experience! Actually in the course of that day, we saw three different people playing three different instruments, it was cool!
We got to our hostel, where I made a call to the airlines to talk to them about my luggage, and yeah, that may have been one of the most frustrating conversations, realizing there was no way in the world the airlines would ship my bag back to me…sigh. We finally left the hostel and went to find food. We again searched forever, and found a pizza place. It was really good and nice to sit in a restaurant for a change and eat food! After that, Sarah proceeded to drag me to some famous church in Spain…the Sagrada Familia. Yeah, it was rainy, and if you ever see the pictures of my expression it depicts well what I thought of the whole thing. After that we went to a shop to get some breakfast food for the next morning, I think it was there, that I was looking at some apples and trying to find the best one and put one back, which I think annoyed the store keeper, but I’m not sure. (I have trouble remembering if that was in Spain or in Paris now) Anyway…we went back to our hostel and tried to go to be early, since we’d be getting up at 1am to get to the airport for my flight. (actually, THIS was the day we went early to bed, around 9pm or so)
Memories of that hostel…I wish I had taken a picture of it, Sarah was very impressed with it, and since it was my first hostel experience, I was very…unimpressed. It felt very sparse, and well, like a prison! But Sarah says it’s nice, and I’m sure it was. J I also have memories of talking with Sarah about my luggage, sorting through all of our stuff of what I’d take home with me, and chatting about our England trip in June. I’ll always remember Barcelona as being the place where I lost my luggage and stood in the rain to stare at a church…yeah… J
Sunday, March 13, 2011
I was awakened by my sister trying to get me to wake up. It was weird, I always hear alarms, but I didn’t that time…ugh, getting up at 1am is NOT fun! I got a shower, snacked on some of our breakfast food and headed out with Sarah to find a night bus thing. Wow, Barcelona at 1am on a Sunday morning, yeah, there were A LOT of young people out, it felt very…weird! I was like, why aren’t these people in BED? J It was maybe the second weirdest/scary time during the week, but nothing happened, it just felt strange. We found the night bus and eventually arrived at the airport. I checked in, and said goodbye to Sarah. I wasn’t sure how I would handle the goodbye and even the hellos, but I wasn’t emotional at all either time. I had an amazing week with my sister, was glad to see her, but I was ready to go home. I was tired. J I got through security, and of course remembered AFTERWARDS that I was going to give her some of my extra euros…oh well! I found my area to wait in, and then went to McDonalds to get some real breakfast food. I had to wait for it to open, and had to practice some of my Spanish there in ordering. J
Eventually I got on the plane, which, ironically, took me back to Paris CDG where I then connected to my flight that would take me back to home sweet home! I got some great pictures on the flight from Barcelona to Paris in the early morning hours. My flights home were pretty uneventful; I slept quite a bit, more than I did on the way up. But I also was extremely restless and bored on the trip from Paris to home. I was just…ready to be home and out of horrible planes! I was in 7 different planes in the course of 8 days! That trip did have movies, but not quite like the ones on the way up, the tvs were on screens more where everyone could see, and the airlines chose the movies.
Anyway, picture being on vacation when you are a kid and you are tired of sitting in the car and are whining to your parents about “Are we THERE yet?” that’s how I felt on the way home. Sadly though, I didn’t have anyone to whine too, and I’m a grown up, so I have to resist the urge to run around screaming, “I want out of here…NOW!” J The food on the way home seemed a lot worse than on the way up too, they had something they called pizza…but…I don’t think it was…it was a microwaved soggy piece of saucy bread. J Anyway, I did eventually get off that plane, and then headed through customs to enter the US! I was home! It was cool having the airline lady tell me “Welcome home!” and the border guy who checked my passport, welcomed me back, and also noted the street I lived about a Café we have here (weird…how do people know about that so much?)
At some point, I think there was a delay because I was later getting to Dad and Mom than I was supposed to, but I don’t remember why. J It was fun to see my parents again, tell them about Sarah, my trip, explain about the luggage, and finally get in the car to go home! I think by the time I got home it was between 4-5 pm, but I have trouble remembering. LONG day, LONG week! Home felt good! Mom had Skyline for supper that night and I was glad to finally eat some “REAL” food. J After doing some other things, around 8pm, I decided to “rest” on the couch, I didn’t want to sleep yet, but I did end up falling asleep, until midnight! I didn’t hear anyone walking around, the phone ring, or anything, I was totally out of it. I got up at midnight, got ready for bed, and went upstairs to my bed.J I woke up around 8am…I had slept for 12 hours! I felt quite refreshed and ready to do something that Monday! I had taken the day off work, so Mom and I went out and shopped some, mostly because I was bored, and after a week of constant activity I needed to do something. J I got some things that week to tide me over until I could be reunited with my luggage…mostly earrings, skirts, and some shirts. J I also stopped in at work to say hi to people and let them know I was alive.
I think the time difference hit me more at home than it did when I was overseas, it was weird, the entire week I was there, I never felt that it was supposed to be a different time, the time always felt normal. At home, it took several days to get used to, I’d get really tired around 6-8pm, and then by the time I’d go to bed, I’d wake up around 2-3am and be ready to start my day. J
A few other closing thoughts…
The whole luggage thing, wow, it was such a weird experience! Parents never tell you how to prepare for that kind of stuff growing up. J Thinking back I wish I would’ve thought through the whole thing better, but I lived and learned. J It was neat though, I really think God gave me extra grace during the whole experience, I didn’t panic, get mad, cry, or “lose it.” It was a neat learning time to trust in the Lord.
I’m so thankful for the time I had overseas! It was special spending that week with Sarah, experiencing a new culture, seeing so much history, and despite all the crazy stuff that happened, I’m glad I did it!
Thanks for taking the time to read…and get ready for some more posts about England! Sarah and I meet up together in London this coming Wednesday, June 1st. I’m dreading another long flight alone, but am SOO excited to see my sister again and to see the UK! We will be spending two weeks together and have a very packed itinerary planned…it’s going to be great! London, Spurgeon’s church, Jane Austen stuff, Bath , Stonehenge Tour, seeing “Pemberly” from Pride & Prejudice, Bronte Parsonage, York, Edinburgh…
It’s going to be another great trip with I’m sure a lot more getting lost, starving, staying up late, sister chats, and experiencing tons of cool history…oh and this time we KNOW the language…I can’t wait! J
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