Recap 2!

We have safely arrived in Paris! First, I will fill you in our last afternoon in London.

After trecking through the cold and rainy weather in the morning, we decided to head back to our hotel. We did some laundry and laid around. It is so fun being together again, and we often act like little girls! We stayed in bed for a while and just talked, talked, and talked. Martha commented that, "Clearly, I am made to live in America" when we realized that our apartment in Rome has no airconditioning. That girl just cracks me up. After resting a bit, we headed out to explore Victoria. We walked along back streets and soaked in the London culture. We had tea and cinnamon croissants at a local cafe, and hung out with our good friend Rick Steves. Rick Steves has been invaluable this trip. He has given us tons of advice through his book Europe 2011. We planned out where we wanted to head out the rest of the trip. We decided to cut our days in Paris and Interlaken short, and spend a few more days in the Tuscany part of Italy! After tea, we had dinner at this great little Pub. It was much better than the day before. We then went and saw Wicked. It was just as wonderful in London as it was in New York. They spoke in Bristish accents which was really cool. I will admit that I got goosebumps and cried during several of the songs.

The next day, we took the EuroStar to Paris. We were expecting to be under water for almost the whole time, but it was actually only about 20 minutes. We sped through the French countryside and it was unbelievable. Thankfully we talked with a girl from Germany who sat beside us on the train. She had lived in Paris for 6 months and gave us some great tips. She told us which train to take to our hostel, and we are glad she did becuase I don't think we would have made it here. The metro system here is terrible! We arrived at our hostel. It is a little different than where we stayed in London. We are sharing a 5-bunk bedroom, so we have roommates. We were quite delerious yesterday, and just thought the whole situation was hysterical. Thankfully I think this is the worst place that we will stay in.

That afternoon we headed towards the historical part of Paris. We went to Notre Dame, which is beautiful. The architecture is amazing! We walked around the Latin Quarter, and then saw St. Chapelle. We rode the metro to the Eiffel Tower area, and spent some time walking down Rue Cler. Rue Cler is a wonderful little street North of the Eiffel Tower. It is filled with market shops and lots of cafe's. We sat down at a cafe and ordered some wine and food. We then stopped for a delicious pastry, and took a River Cruise. We decided to see how busy the Eiffel Tower was, and the line wasn't long at all. We got there at the perfect time, around 9:30pm. It was still light outside while we were up the Eiffel Tower, but when we came back down it was dark. We were able to see it all lit up, and were entertained by the dancing lights! We really felt like we were in Paris!

Yesterday we went to the Lourve and the Orsay Museum. The Orsay was great becuase they had a ton of Monet paintings, and he is my favorite. We decided we wanted to get out of the touristy part, so we headed east. We walked, and walked, and walked! We ended up in the Bastille area, and loved every minute. We sat at a cafe and ordered a bottle of delicous French wine, and ordered a cheese platter. We watched people go by and out our snack. We then walked some more, and walked by a delicous looking chocolate shop. We had to stop in! I bought the most delicous Chocolate Gnache and a Cafe Au Lait! Yum! We tried to rent some bikes, but it really wasn't worked out for us. We then walked back to the city around Notre Dame where we sat by the Seine. We bought some bread, hummus, wine, and water for dinner and spent about 3 hours down by the river. It was declious, cheap, and relaxing! This was my absoulte favorite day in Paris!

Today we went to see Versaille. We are idiots and purchased a 2-day museum pass that expired yesterday, so we had no ticket into the actual building. We walked around the outside and viewed the gardens which are incredible. It was very pretty, and a lot bigger than I was expecting. This is where Marie Antoinette lived and where the Treaty of Versaille was signed which ended World War I. It is so cool to see all of this places that have impacted history. Parisians are extremely laid back, and the thing-to-do is to sit at a sidewalk cafe, face the street, and stay there for hours with wine, cheese, and bread. We are total Paris people! Ha.

On a side note, it is so wonderful to actually experience Europe. If you know me at all, then you know that I love to read. Well many books that I read are based in Europe or the characters travel there Well I was reading a book yesterday, and they visited London in the book. It was so fun to be able to know and visualize what they were talkign about!

Tomorrow we are headed for Switzerland. It is a 6 hour train ride, so we have a long day tomorrow.

Paris is wonderful, but it is very toursity. Thankfully we have not had to stand in many lines, but I do not like all of the tourists!

I want to leave you with a couple funny stories. They might not be funny to you, but they were pretty hysterical to us!

While we were at communion at Westminster Abbey, we were of course really nervous. We had never been to an Episcopalian communion service and we had no idea what do to. Well to recieve the bread and wine, you have to stand in a semi-circle and the priest gives it to you. Well I am of course the first one who is in line. I didn't really know how to take it, and thankfully the 2 priests sort of demonstrated for us. Well when priest number 1 fed the bread to priest number 2, priest number 1 ate it like a dog out of the other priests hand. Of course I start freaking out thinking this is how you do it. I was like no way, I will put it in my mouth myself. So I take the bread, and then the priest gives me a sip of wine which was pretty awkward. So after it is all done, we leave the Abbey feeling pretty reverent and relaxed. That afternoon we start talking about communion. Little did we all know, but we were all thinking the same thing! We were all so scared, and they looked to me to know how to do it. After it was all said and done, it was an awesome and hysterical experience. They took the bread from the priest, and then the priest gave them a sip of wine. I am pretty sure we were supposed to take the goblet ourselves. Ha. So funny.

Yesterday we were trying to rent bikes to ride around Paris. They have a machine that takes your debit card information incase a bike doesn't come back. Well Rebekah put her card in there, and it wouldn't come out for like 5 minutes. We were FREAKING out!!!! Thankfully it did come out! Sadly, we couldn't get any of the machines to work. We are dumb Americans. Ha.

The first time that we tried to get off the metro was so funny. In London, the doors open automatically. They do not open automatically in Paris. The metro came to a stop and Rebekah stood at the door. Well she waits for a few seconds and then literally starts freaking out saying, "Ah! Ah! Ah!" She then thought that she needed to get to the other side of the train, so she turns around and starts asking people to move. I was cracking up and then Martha calmly hits the exit button and the doors open. I am sure that we provided tons of information for the locals on the metro!

While in Paris, we have tried to fit in as much as we can. Not really working out for us. While buying tickets at St. Chapelle, the ticket lady said "Merci!" and I responded with "Beaucoup!" I of course thought I was so smart and French, but I thought that I might have gotten it wrong. Which I did. I am pretty sure that "Beaucoup" is not a response, but goes along with "merci". While we were at a restaurant, Rebekah wanted to thank the waiter, so she said "merci!", but it sounded exactly like "mercy!". Ha. We are such southeners! We all had a good laugh with our pronunciations.

Hope you can laugh with us! :)