I. Am. In. Paris!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAYYYYYYYY!!!  After all of the waiting, we were finally in Paris.  The best part about it was that the weather cleared up in the city and it had been drizzling in every other part of France we had been in.  The weather was just really on our side this whole trip!  We got into Paris at Gare d'Austerlitz and took the metro around to our stop to pick up our Paris Pass we had purchased before leaving for the trip and that would give us "free" travel in Paris while we were there.  We got off the metro and started walking to the office and on the way...Braden stepped in poop.  Dog poop.  :)  After finding the place and getting all of the stuff sorted out, we got into a little fight.  We were only a block from the Eiffel Tower and even though I knew we were seeing it later, I just wanted to see it now.  Braden wanted to go immediately to the hostel.  I said that I would just meet him there, but in the end he came with.  It was so great.  I loved it.  A lot. 

After that, we went to the hostel and waited for April and Maria to find their way there.    They ended up taking a taxi, so I didn't get to make fun of them for not finding it right away.  Ugh.  Our stop, Anvers (on-vair) was probably the most worthless stop on the entire metro map and required two changes to get anywhere, but...it functioned.  We went there and took it to the Opera House to catch the hop-on hop-off tour that was included in our pass.  We took a night tour around Paris.

We stopped at the place that overlooks the Eiffel Tower and night and took some photos and then walked up to the tower and took some more, and then we got onto our free boat tour of the Seine River that cuts through Paris and did that.  

There were some annoying little brats from Canada behind us, but for the most part it was enjoyable.  We saw some awesome sights of Paris at night, which, in my opinion, is when it is at its best.  It is lit up so well and looks so much more magical than it does during the day. 

We got off the boat and took the metro up to the Champs Elysees to get some food at McDonald's (it being Sunday and we having not seen anything at all affordable).  From there we could see the Arc du Triomph at night and...oh...everything was just so great.  It was a wonderful first night with the exception of Braden's mood, but that can be overlooked.  We got back to the hotel and slept.

The next morning we woke up and all but sprinted to The Louvre.  While we were waiting we took a picture with the place that is (according to The Da Vinci Code) Mary Magdalene's grave.

I think I was like the 3rd person into the museum, and Braden and I (having left April and Maria to fight their way up the stairs) were 3rd and 4th into the room to see the Mona Lisa.  I didn't have to wait at all and even got a picture with it!

After that we did some more exploring of one of the top rated museums in the world.  And...for all that, we got bored.  We were just really museum-ed out and nothing was impressing us at that point.  There were, of course, some beautiful pieces, though.

After spending the morning in The Louvre, we walked along the river to the Champs Elysees to see the memorial where The Bastille once stood.  The Bastille was a prison that held all of the political prisoners of the French royal family that ended with Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.  The French Revolution began when the "common" people attacked the prison and tore it down brick by brick and freed all the prisoners.  They used the bricks to build the nearby bridge.  That became the place that held the guillotine of Paris.  The one that killed the king and queen and hundreds (maybe thousands) of other people that were considered for that day at least to be traitors to the new free French nation.  That's enough history for now.

We walked all the way to the end of the street and seperated a bit for lunch.  Braden and I stopped at H&M and I bought sunglasses (it was sunnier than I had thought it was going to be).  After we met up again, I quick photo-bombed someone and then we made our way to the top of the Arc du Triomph.  Again, Braden and I powered our ways up to the top and April and Maria lagged behind.  I only say that because I am proud that I can do stairs.  If there is one thing I've gotten from this trip, it is even better legs than I had before I left.  Thank you Shape-Ups+10,000 stairs.  The views from the top were really great.  I didn't even know that Paris had a downtown with super-tall skyscrappers. 

Maria=typical Asian tourish, me=typical European tourist

After we got down to the bottom, we decided to get back onto the hop-on hop-off bus tour that we had free for just one more day and take that the rest of the way we hadn't gone on it yet.  We drove all around and got more beautiful pictures of the Eiffel Tower (I'm addicted) and stopped at Notre Dame.

There, we went souvanier browsing and I bought a ton of postcards to go along with the postage I had bought in The Louvre.  I didn't see any shot glasses that I liked, though.  After getting my first French crepe (cinamon-sugar) and loving it, we got back on the bus and took that to the metro and went back to the hotel to get some shopping done.  It was overall a very full and fun day and a GREAT first full day in Paris. 

We ended the night by going to an Italian restaurant.  That was, of course, not the original plan.  What we had wanted to do was go to an Indian restaurant that was right down the road from our hotel.  That was closed.  We didn't know why and none of us know enough French to translate the reasons...all I know is that it was closed.  So, we asked the guy at the hotel (who was not the friendliest or most helpful) where we should eat.  He obviously sent us to his friends Italian place.  It was not by any means fantastic or cheap and the way he made is sound was not what it turned out to be.  Ah well, we had food and it wasn't terribly expensive.  The best part of this story though is April asking for directions to this place.  The man had terrible handwriting and none of us knew at all what he had said and when he asked, "do you understand?"  April said, "yup" and off we went.  Well...she didn't really understand so we kinda just walked in a general direction until we luckily happened upon the place.  It was an adventure in the back streets of Paris. 

After dinner we got some supplies for sandwiches for the next day and were off to bed.

I was getting creative with the camera...

France (not Paris)

OK, it has been quite some time, so these aren't going to be as detailed because they were about a week or two ago.  I was without internet in Paris, Edinburgh and London, so I didn't have much time to write, I also didn't have as much train time because we flew a little bit.  So, I think I left off when we were entering France.  That morning was an interesting one.  After having used my Spanish while we were in Spain, it was now Braden's turn to take the reigns and use his French in France.  I was excited for this to say the least.  When we arrived in France, it was 7 in the morning in Hendeye (hen-die-ah).  We had to wait in line to make reservations to Bordeaux.  Braden did the transaction in French and we should all be very proud of him.  We got onto our train and were sitting behind a grandmother and her three granddaughters that were SO adorable.  The little girl had the biggest eyes and she just stared at me and I smiled and waived. 

We got off the train in Bordeaux and went first to drop off our bags in a locker so we didn't have to carry them all around town.  We went trough metel detectors and had to put our bags through the machine, I thought it was a little much for a train station, but securtiy makes me feel safe, so that's fine by me.  After figuring out how to work the lockers (and finding the concealed English directions) we were on our way.  I made Braden ask a worker how often trains leave for Tours (our next stop and our Hotel for the night).  He went to the man and asked in English "Trains for Tours?"  and the man asked, "You don't speak French?"  Braden: "No...Tours??"  to which the man pointed to the tourist office and said, "Tours." ...perfect. Also, it was raining.  Oh...and the office he pointed to was closed.  So far, Bordeaux was not my favorite, but Braden was excited, and that is always a little contagious.  We could not find a map, so we chose to take a tram and figure it out from the center of town.  We found the tourist office on the tram map and got on there. 

The tourist office was big and easy to navigate and they gave us a free map.  Things were looking up.  We went to the fountain that commemorates the lives sacrificed for "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" aka the French Revolution killing sprees.  The fountain was also an obelisk and was really pretty.  There was also a fair going on in town and it looked fun...it also looked like they would not speak English to me. 

We wandered around a little more and saw the church.  That was holding a protest in front of it, so we didn't go in.  After that we ate.  I had a great ham and cheese sandwich covered with melted cheese and my first French croissant.  SO GOOD.  We then strolled back to the tram stop and saw some more pretty buildings, bridges, and the river.

From Bordeaux we went to Tours and checked into our hotel.  It was (of course) on the top floor, but we had our own room and it was spacious enough.  We wandered around Tours and saw what there was to see.

SPRING (for my mom, because she is sad about the brown in MN)

We then went shopping for some food stuffs to save money and also bought a baguette, some brie and French wine and had ourselves a  cheap fun night in the hotel room! 

The next morning we were leaving for Paris, but we had a layover in Orleans (or-lee-on-s), the home of Joan of Arc.   We were going to be getting to Paris well before April and Maria, so we decided since it was not far out of the way it wouldn't be too bad to stop and see some of that town.  When we got off the train we looked right away for when the next train left was...it was in 2 hous.  We couldn't decide if we wanted to stay or just go to Paris, but by the time I decided the train had left.  So, stuck we were.  I could not make heads or tails of the maps they had posted in the city, so Braden went to sit down and I explored to try and find a postcard.  Well, while out, I figured out where we needed to go after studying the map for about 20 minutes.  I went back and got Braden and we explored Orleans.

It was a really cool little city, and I liked it I think the best of the three French cities we visited.  At first I hated it because the trains were so infrequent, but I eventually warmed to it.  We had to walk all the way to the church to find something that was open and selling postcards, though.  Sundays in France are just as bad as they are in Germany and the only place that was going to have shops open was going to be Paris.  Speaking of Paris....that is where we went next!

LISTEN TO THIS!!!!

So, you all have to listen to this.

http://ryanseacrest.com/2011/03/25/listen-to-lady-gagas-country-remix-of-born-this-way-audio/

Thanks

P.S.  I know that I am way behind, it's just been really crazy and I haven't had good internet :/

Lisboa is AWESOME!!!

The next morning we woke up nice and refreshed and got ready for our tour.  Braden had found a tour group called "We Hate Tourism Tours" that had rave reviews on all the websites we looked at.  It was only a year old, and we were very excited.  We went to the place where we were meeting and waited.  The driver, Martha, was a bit late, but that's fine.  We got in along with a Russian family of father, mother and daughter.  In the front seat was a girl about our age from Canada who had already been picked up.  We got started and went up through Lisbon to the suburbs.

Our first stop was in Sintra, just outside of Lisbon.  She pulled up to a bakery and told us what to order and how much we would love it.  She also pointed to a castle/palace on a hill and said that we would meet there in about 10 minutes. We got the pastries and were delighted, they tasted SO good.We were able to walk up a gently sloping hill and admire some great views and explore the area around the castle before she took us and told us about some awesome shots of cherry liquor that I am going to keep a secret for now :)

We got back into the van and drove to this garden/mansion place.  We had to pay for our own admission that I wasn't thrilled about (though it was only 4 Euro), but I am so glad we did.  I should have known they wouldn't take us somewhere stupid.  The place was like a natural playground with Grottos, hills, caves, a church and a mansion!  Here are some cool pics:

The mansion had a super cool room ont he third floor.  It was a library that when I walked into it, I though was super huge.  There was a floor floating in the middle of the room, seemingly supported by absolutly nothing.  The books went from the floor to the ceiling on thie floor and the second floor below it.  I was amazed at this floating floor and how it was holding up Braden when he walked in until I was told that it was mirrors all along the wall making it seem like there was an extra floor.  It was so cleaver and so freakin' cool.  We went up to the turret and got some great views of Sintra.

After that we got back into the van and learned that there really are no famous Portuguese people except Christian Ronaldo, and that's because he's pretty.  Photo here:

Also, the richest man in Spain is richer than the top 10 richest people in Portugal, so they really don't have a ton of money.  They are rich in scenery, though.  Our drive from location to location was fantastic.  We stopped quickly at a hotel that had a great view and then were off to Rocket Point, the furthest point in contenental Europe to the west.  We stopped fast for her to pick up lunch and off we went.  We talked about how Portuguese kinda sounda like bastardized Russian and Spanish when it is spoken, but when written is pretty easy to understand if you know Spanish.  We talked a lot about language.  We also found out that Maggie from Canada has been travelling Europe nonstop since November and has been spending a least a week in all of the major Western European cities that Braden and I are only spending 2-3 days in.  She is doing our vacation only VERY extended.  Which sounds awesome and terrible. It'd be great to really see all of these places, but I'm already getting sick of living out of a suitcase and I would not want to do it for 5 months straight.

So, we got to this point and the weather was perfect.  It was soooo cool, and the closest that I will be to home until July!!  The scenery was so picturesque, and now that we had friends, we trusted people to take a picture of us together with me not holding the camera!

 HOME!!!

After we walked around the area for a while, we stopped and had a picnic lunch right on the end of Europe.  Literally, the people of Europe once thought of it as the end of the world, with everything else nothing but water until you get to China.  So freakin' cool.  We had a lunch of a sort of choriso hot pocket thing, fresh cheese and, a European staple, red wine.  SO GOOD.  Braden even had some fresh olives.

After lunch, we packed up and headed for a beach.  The beach was perfect.  Not much else to say except the water was supa cold.

From there was an excursion to Cascais, a town on the tip of Portugal where a friend of mine from high school and Concordia, Karine Norberg, studied for a year when I was a sophomore.  It was hella beautiful and so quaint, and we had the best gelato ever.  Hands down.  It was at a place called Santini's and it was owned by and Italian, but it was so much better than all of the stuff we had the entire way through Italy.  I had lemon, mango and cream and I was in heaven the entire time.  Wow, it was so good.

From there, we went back to Lisbon after a stop in Belem to taste the pastries there (which, again, we fantastic).  When we got back to the meeting point we rushed to the hostel and met up with the girls!  It was so great to see them.  We sat in the room for a few hours just catching up before walking around the city a bit and going to dinner and gelato (at the Lisbon branch of Santini's).  

I tried to call Lauren, but the internet was not very good.  I'm sad that I wasn't able to talk to her on her birthday.  I tried again the next day, but it didn't ring.  I did the best I could, though, and I'll try to call her tomorrow from France.

The next morning we woke up, packed up, ate breakfast and went off to explore Belem properly.  It is an area of Lisbon that houses the President's house as well as 3 "discovery monuments".  These places are here to acknowledge the hundreds of years of Portuguese naval strength in the world and their many conquests before the 1974 revolution ended all of the territorial holds in the world (namely, Brazil and 5 African nations).  We saw some things, got some good views, but really just enjoyed each other's company.  We got back to Lisbon's city center and walked through the tourist shops trying to find Braden a mug (I had already gotten my postcard and shot glass).  He had found a mug in Belem, but I asked if he was sure that is the one he wanted and he put it back.  Well, he couldn't find one and now he blames me for himself not getting a mug, though there were many to choose from.  I'm fairly certain he didn't buy one just so I would feel bad about it.  I don't, by the way, he could have gotten a mug.

Maria and April punch each other when they see smart cars, like slug bug.  Well, I picked up on that game and got them twice.  I think it's fun, but soon I'll forget about it and then I'll get punched a lot.  They also say, "Oh Honey" a lot.  This got me thinking, what do Braden and I do a lot.  Oh yeah, we're writing a musical.  Often times when we are just walking from place to place we just kinda break out into song.  We make the words up as we go.  Sometimes it's the song we heard on the Barcelona metro by a poor gypsey, "Senora, Senorita....Estoy pobre y inferma..." other times it is Braden singing about how he knows there is somewhere out there who loves him, he just needs to find him....and other times it's about me wanting desperatly to find a McDonald's because I'm starving and poor (to the tune of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina".)

I can't finish my discussion of Lisbon without addressing the number of times I was asked if I wanted to buy pot/hashish from random creepers on the street.  Braden was asked once, but I was asked I think 7 times.  I don't know why I look like a toker, but, I guess I do.  It got kinda annoying.  It happened twice in Barcelona, too.  They just come up to you really creepily on the street and ask, "would you like some marajuana".  I'm like....wtf is happening.  Needless to say, I did not take them up on their offer.  Anyone selling drugs like that does NOT feel legit to me, and I would have no idea what was actually being sold to me.  Probably poison.

I'm really excited to catch up on Glee as well.  Regionals are while we're in Paris...I don't know if we'll watch it right away...but I really want to.  We will see, if not it will have to wait for St. Patty's day when I'll be back in Jena for a night.

We said a farewell to the girls (for a few days) and boarded our night train to Hendaye, France, the beginning of our next adventure.  We have a bed again, so it should be a pretty good experience.  

Braden's Dream Day/Welcome to Portugal

Upon arrival in Lisbon, we took some time orienting ourselves, which we have to do for every city, so it is getting easier.  The metro here was a must because the train station was quite a distance from the city center and our hostel.  We had to buy a metro card and fill it up to use it, but it wasn't terrible.  We found the hostel without much trouble and walked in.  It was only about 8:30 and check-in was at 2, so our room was not ready, but, they let us eat breakfast, store our luggage, and take showers for free.  They were so great!  Breakfast had eggs.  They were fantastic.  'Nuff said.  After 2 nights of having next to no sleep, Braden was not in the best of moods.  Hunger to me = sleep to Braden.  Lesson learned.

While we were getting to Lisbon, we got a text from the girls in London.  They were supposed to meet up with us around 10 and should be flying, not texting.  It turns out they were late to their flight by 4 minutes and British Airways had given away their tickets as they were "no-shows".  BAD NEWS.  The tickets were non-transferable and they were not going to rebook them, they'd have to buy their own tickets.  WORSE NEWS.  All the flights for that day were booked, so they would have to buy another hostel in London and fly out the next day and not get into Lisbon until 3 in the Afternoon.  THE WORST NEWS.  This meant that we were going to be in Portugal alone for 24 hours, with them 24 hours and then leaving.  We were very sad, but decided to move on with our plans as scheduled.

We looked up times and found a train up to Porto, Portugal, and explored the city while we waited for the train.  We saw the river that runs from Spain through Portugal and enters the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon's port.  It was low-tide and there were beaches.  It was really cool.  I tripped and almost landed on the jagged rocks below, but NBD.  When the time of our train came, we got on and saw that the chairs and room were far superior to our night train and were pissed, but nevertheless, we settled in for the 3 hour ride and took a nap.

When we got to Porto, we walked around the station for a long time trying to orient ourselves.  I (finally) found a map and for once in my life could not make heads or tails of it.  I knew where we were and where we needed to go and even what streets we had to take, but I could not for the life of me execute this plan.  We ended up walking down a huge hill only for it to turn out a dead-end and having to walk all the way back up.  After that fiasco, we buckled and bought metro tickets.  From there it was very easy and we found our way, after a point in the right direction from the Tourist Office, at the waterfront.  It was gorgeous!  There was a huge bridge, and we needed to cross it to get to our destination.

You see Porto is where Port Wine is made.  All of the Port in the world (I think) comes from here, and this is why Braden was so excited to visit.  He had been raving about coming here since we arrived in Europe, and it was really living up to his expectations!  We chose to go on a wine cellar tour for only 4 Euro that included two small glasses of wine at the end.  Braden chose Sandeman's because that is the famous one he knew, and I'm glad we went there.  It was so cool, and they have one of the first official logos for a product in the world.  It's called "The Don" and it combine the Portuguese student's cape with the Spanish hat.  This is because the company made Port and Sherry, which was from Spain.  The tour and guide were awesome and the Port Wine was the best wine I have ever tasted.  It was so fantastic.

We hadn't eaten since breakfast and I was feeling a bit tipsy from the 20% volume of the Port Wine so we ate at Sandeman's restaurant.  It was fairly cheap and had a view that couldn't be beat.  I had a burger and Braden a Portuguese meat sandwich covered in hot sauce, and, of course, we each had a glass of Port.  It was so relaxing and wonderful and it was really beautiful.  It was just such a great experience.

The walk back wasn't at all fun because it was entirely up hill for about 20 minutes, but we managed and got back to the station just in time, we do that a lot.  The train got us back to Lisbon safe and sound and we went straight to bed.  They were so comfy and we slept like rocks.