An American Gal In London

So I would like to begin this blog with an update from my last blog...

The man who I mentioned from my last blog who was staying with us is actually from Lyon! Paige and I were downstairs where we could only get internet in Paris, and Kelley was upstairs reading, and she happened to talk with him. Well, a little bit, he doesn't know much English. BUT the important thing is that when Kelley say us come in she was like "Well our new roommate is really nice! He's from this little place called Lyon" and my face just lit up!

For those who don't remember- Lyon was the city where I spent 3 weeks when I was ten years old. So obviously it has a really special meaning to it. He was only in town for the night, since he was there for a Nine Inch Nails concert, and so he was gone for it by the time that I had made it back upstairs, so I didn't get the chance to talk to him. Plus, he apparently spoke very limited English, so it would have been a challenge anyways to try to communicate. But, who knows! Maybe he was Frederic who was my peer host! Or maybe he could possibly know the family who I spent the time with. Last I heard they have moved down to Cannes, so it's probably doubtful, but once again- who knows. I only now wish that when he had come in that I had actually spoken to him and maybe talked a little of Lyon.

Lesson learned: the strange man sleeping in the same room as you could actually be a friend of a friend! Hope that makes you feel a little bit better dad....

The Chunel to London today was pretty fun. I ended up not being in the same carriage as Kelley and Paige, which made it a tad bit difficult with my luggage, but I had a lot of nice people help me out. It was really difficult trying to find out hostel, it was actually in Greenwich instead of London, which is a nice place, but just happens to always be cut off of maps. Not like the busses and layout of the city really helps...

So today we were the ultimate tourists. We first went on a double decker tour bus and got to see all of the sites. Unfortunately, we were moving so fast that it was kind of hard to really get photos of everything. Our ticket for the bus also included a free pass on a river tour, so we got to do that too. So we got up close views of the London Eye Ferris wheel, the London Tower, and all of that jazz on the River Thames.

Tomorrow we're planning on going out to Hampton Court, and I'm really excited about that too! I don't really know what to expect, so it should be fun. After the court we're either going to be doing our self-made Harry Potter tour, or going to the British Museum and Library. Either one, I'm sure it'll still end up being a great day.

Our hostel just so happens to be attached to a pub downstairs, with cheap food and such. We all got ourself a Foster Ale (which was the special for students tonight) and then I got a BLT. All of about 7 pounds, so that's not bad at all! And even though it seems like it would be loud, being above a pub and everything, it already seems a lot quieter than our one in Paris, which many of the young patrons were busy enjoying the social scene of the city while we were trying to sleep.

I'm already liking the Tube a LOT better than Paris' metro. It's nice that everything it much more connected, so there's a lot less changes to get somewhere. Like I mentioned earlier, the buses have really been the problem. In general they're just super confusing, and on top of that they're doing construction on the pipes in the city, so there's been a lot of new traffic patters and directions which are not marked on our maps. So confusing!

But in general, I basically forgot how much I love this country. It's just, I don't know, amazing. Although I would like to make a comment that I have not spent a day in England without it raining.... But,  I'm just so excited to be spending so long here, I only wish I could spend longer actually. It'll be different once I get from London to Oxford, I know, but I know it'll still be lots of fun.

Anyways, I'm going to finish my Foster and watch some more Cricket, trying to pick up the sport is going to find itself to be quite difficult.

Love y'all lots annnnnnnnd

Keep Followin'!

P.S. The photo was just taken at the bar with Paige, me, and our Fosters. I'm trying to upload more on Shutterfly, but it says that it'll take more than 8 hours to upload just Paris without Versailles or London. So we'll see about this...

Versailles and Other Adventures

So, my body is hurting allllll over! It's been a busy couple of days.

When I left off with y'all, I had just visited the sewers. Well we ended up going back to the Eiffel Tower, and got to view the city. We only visited the 2nd floor, since it's kinda expensive to go all of the way up to the top, but that was fine with me! After that we went to go visit the mini-Statue of Liberty just down the street (think National Treasure 2). It was a bit of a walk, and we had to back track a bit, but we finally got there. It was no where close to being as tall as the US one, and you couldn't really get a great picture with it since it was right by the water, but it was still nice to have a bit of home there.

Today was Versailles! I love history, especially of this sort, so I've been looking forward to going here for almost as long as I've known I've been going to Paris. Seriously, how could Marie Antoinette want to stay in Belgium instead of over there? I mean, I guess she didn't speak the language, didn't know the culture, or didn't have any of her family there... But it was so gorgeous! The chapel (which unfortunately wasn't available for entrance) was so pretty, and of course the Hall of Mirrors was amazing! It was really just so crazy to think of all of the history which occurred in those halls. I seriously would not have minded being Marie Antoinette... Well, without the head chopping I guess.

The actual chateau was nothing compared to the garden though. It was 6 euros to get in to, but that was a pretty good price for how long we stayed in there. The gardens are famous for Antoinette and the breathtaking scenery. I'm not even kidding. We explored all of the gardens which was quite large, I have no idea how many miles we walked today. There were lots of ponds which had referrals to the Greek gods and goddesses. My 2 favorite was the one dedicated to the Titans and then the Hercules ones. There were also countless statues just everywhere, and I gave up trying to take pictures of all of them. My favorite place of the entire gardens was actually the ballroom area. I could only try to imagine what it would be like to get all dolled up in their outfits, even if they were painful, and dance to live music out there. Kelley got a great panoramic photo which I may just have to steal from her. It's just so hard to believe that people actually used to just hang out back there. I would absolutely love to go horseback riding back there and get to see everything, and stop to play in all of the ponds. It's a definitely a must on my list of recommendations for France!

Living in hostels is not ideal, but it definitely could be worse. The coolest part is actually just hearing where everybody comes from. So far, I haven't heard any other Americans here. A couple of Australian guys are right next to us on the group computers, so that's probably the closest. There has actually been a lot less American tourists here than I would have imagined.

Our first night we had our dorm of 6 beds to ourselves, but tonight it's a full night which has already found for it's self to be a bit awkward. Last night a guy and a girl who came together took the 2 bunkbeds on the other side of the wall from us (the guy snored...) and there weren't too many bump ins with them. But we just got another roommate, a Frenchman, which is really weird. I know it's only 1 night, but we're not really looking forward to there being 2 bunkbeds of us and him. Thankfully Kelley and I are sharing a bed, so he's going to be with Paige!

Another thing I'm just kinda missing from America is my personal space. That bubble I've been used to? Yeah it's been burst. It's a little bit uncomfortable and annoying, but oh well, it's all part of being in Europe!

Well tomorrow we leave Paris and go to London. So instead of people speaking a funny language, it'll only be a funny accent. We'll be waking up at 6 to go to the Chunnel, and then will spend 2 hours traveling there, get to the Hostel (hopefully) around 11, and have the rest of the day to explore! I think tomorrow we're taking a Double Decker bus to explore the city. On our list is also a self-made Harry Potter tour and I believe Windsor Castle along with other things.

It's been a short time in Paris, but I really do think we've made the best of our time of it. I'll definitely be looking forward to the 2.5 hours just sitting on the train. My photo count is up to 165, and hopefully I'll be able to upload some in London. Apparently we'll have free WiFi there.

Well, love and miss y'all! Can't wait to write more!

P.S. The picture is of me posing like the Statue behind me! Thought I'd add one here!

Je'Adore Paris!

So I'm in Paris now!!!

We got in yesterday, and it was pretty tiring. I was unable to get ANY sleep on the plane, because of my turbulence fear and the lady sitting in front of me was really fidgity. At least I was able to watch the Zac Efron movie 17 again.  There was a very nice old man who was at the Air Port who helped us find which trains to take to the hostel. I'm really glad that I grabbed my map of Paris in the morning, since we didn't have one and it has been found to be quite useful!

It was a work to get to the hotel, mostly because I had 2 suitcases (hey, being in Europe in 6 weeks requires a lot of clothes!) and the metro was very crowded. As soon as we got to the hostel we went out and visited the Catacombes. It was pretty morbid, but kinda fun! I was so tired that we then went ahead and passed out. I went to sleep at 6 and then we all woke up for the day at 8 in the morning.

Today has been pretty busy so far. We went to the Louvre and spent a couple of hours there. We saw the Mona Lisa and, the statue of Venus, all the other fancy artwork. I absolutely LOVED the Egyptian stuff that they had. We then walked down and did a short tour of Notre Dame. Mass was in session in both French and Latin. After that we went ahead and took the metro down to see the sewer system of Paris. Not exactly what we were expecting, and very smelly, but it was still an experience! That was right next to the Eiffel Tower so we sat and looked at it for awhile, and were going to go up for a bit, but then it started raining so that's why we came back. After dinner I think we're going to go up to the Arc De Triumphe and something else, I can't exactly remember.

I would also like to mention that between the Catacombs, the Sewers, and the metro- we've spent a LOT of our time here underground!

Tomorrow is Versailles day! I really can not wait for that! Especially the Hall of Mirrors. We decided to go ahead and to the Eiffel Tower tomorrow afternoon also, and hopefully see the light show in the evening.

If I had more time online I would write more, but I hope this does for now.

Kisses for the family! Including Hunter. Wish y'all were here!