Nicoletta and some Cinque Terre lovin.

The next segment of euro tour 2008 was Cinque Terre. For those of you who aren't familiar, Cinque Terre (which literally means five lands) is a National Park in the northwest part of Italy. It is beautiful and famous because five towns of brightly coloured buildings are just plopped into mountains along the coast. People go there to hike the 12 km stretch between the little villages. Being the 'Alberta girl' that I am....I was very excited to be in NATURE! As were Kate and Sarah. We all agreed that it was nice to be out of a city for a change.

I had been getting comments before this trip started that to 'truly' backpack you have to arrive in a destination not knowing where you will be sleeping that night. Well, our Cinque Terre experience began that way so I guess we are real backpackers now! Thursday morning we woke up and realized that we better get searching for a place to stay since we had a five hour train ride ahead of us and didnt want to end up in rural italy sleeping in the woods. After a few frantic website searches we started to get serious and phoned people. After a few failed attempts...I reached Nicoletta. Now, Nicoletta spoke about two words of english. I speak about three words of Italian. This...was very interesting. This was another moment on the trip that a simple small handbook with phrases and words in a language I do not speak came in handy. I suppose it sounded quite hilarious to Sarah and Kate who were listening, but I surmised from our little....very little chat that Nicoletta indeed had a place we could rent for the night (maybe) and we should call her number when we arrived. We had to run to get on a waterbus to catch our train and the day was already off to an adventurous start! After three trains and five hours we arrived in Manarola...the small village we would be calling home for the next four days. We went out in search of a phone and dialed Nicolettas number....only to be told in Italian that Nicoletta was not available. Hmmmmmm. Ok, no need to panic, we'll just go use the internet to see if there are any other options. Hmmmm again. No internet in Manarola, only in Riomagorre which is a ten minute train ride away and the internet spot there might not be open. We went back to the phone to give Nicoletta one last chance....and luckily she came through! Not only did she show up to meet us and show us her lovely little apartment we were renting, but she gave us a discount because "I have two children...I know money problem". After getting the grand tour she proceeded to take us to her basement and give us a hearty portion of her homade wine(which was very potent!). She is quite the character. She recommended her friends restaurant down the road (the only one open) and after depositing our belongings we headed out for an amazing feast of lobster ravioli, homeade gnocchi and pesto and some fabulous wine. We definitley treated oursevles that night. I guess we were proud that we had pulled this off.

We spent the next two days hiking, and enjoying the amazing scenery around the park. Some of the hikes were challenging but it was so nice to be active and outside that it was worth it. The views of the ocean, the vineyards, olive groves and the signature multicoloured buildings of the area were spectacluar. It was very rejeuvanating to be in that environment. We also enjoyed waking up and going to the market for fresh food for the day, cooking for ourselves and even indugling in music from the cd player Nicoletta provided. We were really in heaven. We hiked every single path except for one that was closed because it had rained before we arrived and this path was particularly damp and I guess dangerous. However, we lucked out with the weather and didnt have any rain at all while we were there (a trend that would not last later in the trip). We visisted every small little town and even reviseted Vernazza because we found a cute little lunch place we liked (which also had internet and babely italian boys). We finished each day by watching the amazing sunsets on the Mediterranean. Each time it was nice to just take a deep breath and realize how lucky we were to be witnessing this! All in all the Cinque Terre segment of the euroshow was a must-see and a highlight for everyone! It was just what we needed.

48 hours in Venice

it is hard to explain just how excited kate, katherine and i were for our adventure to begin in italy. waking up last tuesday in barcelona felt a little bit like christmas morning. we boarded a shuttle bus headed for the remote barcelona airport, and braced ourselves for our next ryanair experience. turns out we were much more relaxed this time, and nearly missed our flight because the board said "west midlands" instead of "venice". needless to say, when we heard "last call for venice", we became a little flustered. all this aside, we made it! our arrival in venice that evening was just a little unwelcoming... it began to lightly rain. we boarded the venice public transport... water buses to navigate through the canals, (somewhat like a subway line) and hoped for the best. then it began to really rain. then it began to piss rain. we got off at our stop, with all of our worldly possessions on our backs, and no sweet clue where our hostel was. it was a bad scene. we were absolutely soaking wet within seconds, and and all we could do was burst into laughter. katherine kept saying "this is an adventure guys!!", and really, all we could do was accept our fate, and try and figure out where our hostel was. we finally found it (after fifteen full minutes in the pouring rain), and we could not have been happier! we had a little hotel room on our hands, HAIR DRYER INCLUDED! this was very exciting after weeks of limp locks. we unpacked our gross bags, and kate and i had to hang up almost all items of clothing to dry. being the alberta girl that she is, katherine had brought a camping pack, and none of her stuff was wet. lucky her. after a change of clothes and a good laugh, we ventured out to have our first italian meal in italy. we have been trying very diligently to eat the cuisine of the country we are in on this trip. it was important to us to get a taste of the local food. FINALLY we were in a place where pizza and pasta WAS the local food!! we called it a night pretty early, knowing that we had a big day on our hands on wednesday.

we awoke on our first full day in venice to... sunshine! we deserved it after the night we had. we also were treated to a breakfast tray in our room... what service! by the time we wandered down to the reception desk to get davide, our host, to help us plan our day, we were dying to know the results of the american election. he enthusiastically said "OBAMA!" and we all celebrated for a moment. throughout our trip, we have politely corrected those around us who call us americans, firmly saying that we are in fact, proud canadians. we found it really interesting and really quite neat that people all over venice were celebrating, so enthusiastically, such a monumental day in american history. suddenly, being confused with americans was not so bad, and the win was certainly a conversation piece all over town. after finding out that happy result, we got down to business planning our day. davide told us that the only way to really see venice was to get lost within the tiny labrinth of streets and canals, and that we did. we checked out san marco and the rialto bridge first, and after the major sights, we just wandered around. it was a fantastic day. in the afternoon, after a pannini break of course, we hopped on the water bus headed for murano, to explore the little island known for its blown glass craftsmanship. it was definately a highlight, and we appreciated seeing a different area of venice during our short stay. for supper, davide sent us to this little restuarant that his friend owned in st. toma square, a short water bus trip away from our hostel. it was a great little dinner, and we made it home in time to enjoy the 1.70 euro bottle of wine that we had purchased earlier. to bring you up to speed, we made a deal early on in the trip to try and buy the cheapest wine we could find in each country we visited. we must have hit the jackpot in madrid, because the 99 cent bottles there were amazing. this, on the other hand, reminded me of vinegar, and we decided that maybe springing for a 3 euro bottle next time might make all the difference. although our time in venice was very short, we really appreciated the chance to see such a unique and beautiful city. there really is no other place in the world like it, and before we went to bed on wednesday night, we traded cameras to look through each others photos of our great little trip to venezia!

From Barcelona with love!

We arrive in Barcelona on Halloween day and were very surprised/kind of scared by what we found. We found our hostel right away on the same street as two of Gaudi`s famous buildings included La Pedrera. We moved into our first Shared (6 bed dorm) and found our new Australian roommate dressed in a revealing Oktoberfest outfit and covered in fake blood. She told us about a Halloween party that the hostel was putting on in the lounge so we got a quick supper and a bottle of wine to share and headed to the "party". The party turned out to be a bunch of first time halloweener´s dressed in very strange outfits and a band that might have been one of the worst I've ever heard. They played their instruments and then at random times would yell into the microphone HALLOWEEN! So needless to say we finished our bottle of wine and headed out to a tapas bar for a tamer Halloween, where we ordered lots of great tapas and another bottle of wine! It turned out to be a really fun night and just what we were in the mood for. Unfortunately, our Oktoberfest clad roommate was a snorer and so our sleep was not the best of the trip.
On Saturday we woke up to another rainy day in Spain but made the best of it and headed down to the Gothic area of Barcelona where we wandered around and happened to stumble across many of the major sights we were trying to find. We walked down La Rambla, went to the Barcelona Cathedral, saw the Palau musica de Catalonia, and had a great little Mexican lunch. We got back to the hostel and met our new Australian roommate Drew, who turned out to be awesome and we had nice Tapas dinner with him and a few of his friends. After a few bottles of wine our night got a little crazy and it ended with playing drinking games in the hostel room.
Sunday was a pretty low key day but we did end up going to the Picasso Museum with our new friends which was really cool (and cultural!). After the museum we were pretty hungry so we went to a noodle bar which turned out to be really good!! Asian food has been a trend so far. After a long night, we took a much needed siesta and relaxed for a little while until we decided to be very Spanish and went out to a Tapas restaurant that had been highly suggested by a friend of Sarah´s . We were really happy we went because we really enjoyed the food and also the American man at the next table told us it was the best tapas bar in Barcelona and ordered us an amazing Spanish dessert! We went to bed early and were very happy to have the 6 bed dorm room all to ourselves!
We made a big day out of our last full day in Barcelona! We went to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's amazing cathdral, which is still under construction even though it was started in 1886 and is now projected to be finished by 2030. It was amazing and we were really glad we went to see it. After that we walked down La Rambla again and got to the really neat St. Josef´s Market which Sarah had been waiting for all weekend. We got some baguettes, cheese, some fruit and a few other treats and took it down the the waterfront and had picnic lunch by the pier. From there we walked to the Barcelona city beach which I'm sure in the summer is packed with people but today was just lovely! It was a little too cold to swim in (at least for us, but we did see one man swimming!) but Katherine put her feet in and I think that was enough for all of us. We sat on the beach for awhile and took in the view until it started to cool off and we decided to head back to the hostel. On our last night in Spain, we had some more tapas and wine for a late dinner and were going to call it a night early so we are well rested for our travel day tomorrow!
We all had an amazing time in Barcelona, it's a beautiful city with some amazing things to see but we are also all extremely excited for Italy and Venice tomorrow!!!

On a train to Spain....

We left Lisbon on a night train to Madrid and were prepped to get some serious shut-eye as we were exhausted from our previous night out in Lisboa...we stepped onto this train only to discover six eighteen year old Canadians (fresh out of high school) drinking and playing "shake that ass" on their loudspeakers. We were NOT pleased...to say the least. Not only were these characters on the train, we also noticed a cross-stitching man beside them who we thought would be harmless (I named him cross-stitch Kathy) however what we didnt realise was that in his spare time, he was also a cross dresser. He proceeded to pull out his wigs, and give us a show. We had to laugh. Hysterically. However, the novelty wore off (as it always does) and after an hour and a half we decided to pay the fee and be moved to a sleeping car...with beds. This....was a great idea. We went to sleep and woke up in Spain...somewhat rested.

When we arrived in Madrid we had to meet Kevin´s co-worker to give us the keys to Marie and Kevins apartment. Once we had these....we felt a lot better knowing we had our own place to call home in Madrid. That day we explored the city and found the gem that is Retiro park. I was in tree heaven as the leaves were changing and we had a lovely picnic in the park followed by rowboating on the pond. I had been telling the girls since before the trip that I thought their blonde beautiful locks might draw some extra attention....and it turns out I was right. The spanish word for blonde is RUBIA and we have heard many men yelling this in our direction since we arrived in Spain, including our lovely rowboat dude. We took advantage of a kitchen that night and made Kates favourite meal....fajitas! We settled in and watched love actually as well....it was nice to relax a little. Our first whole day in Madrid was wet and cold as it rained all day. However, we still set out to explore and went to all the major sightseeing hotspots...Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor and the Museo Del Prado. That evening we met up with Laura and Jon (a friend of Sarahs from Ridley) for a night on the town. We went to Laura and Jonathans favourite restaurant and then for Sangria (copious amounts) and Mojitos. It was a very fun evening. The next day we went to Toledo....which came highly recommended by Ryan. It was very cool, and full of amazing history. We went to a few beautiful cathedrals, Museo El Greco (this is where the artist "El Greco" lived) and to a jewish heritage museum in the jewish quarter. We took a train back to Madrid and came back to make yet another tasty meal for ourselves. On Thursday we explored the Latin quarter and Old Madrid...both of which were amazing. That evening we went for another few pitchers of Sangria and to the oldest restaurant in the world....Casa Botin (this was also a fave of Hemmingways and was in his book, the Sun Also Rises). There, we ordered their specialty "Suckling Pig" (which I even ate!) and some other tasty dishes. This was a great conclusion to our Madridian experience. That night we came back to the apartment and I went to turn on the light and blew a fuse. I felt great about this. We went to bed and hoped to wake up to electricity in the morning. Unfortunately things dont fix themselves and we were still without power the next morning. I got my Spanish translation book (thanks Dan!) and headed downstairs to get some help. I knocked on a random door and using broken Spanish asked the man who answered if he had "electricidad". He did, and using hand gestures and a few spanish words he understood what our issue was. He was on his way to work but sent his son upstairs to help us. He fixed it almost immediately and Sarah was so happy...she hugged him. I am not sure he knew what to do, so he just left. That afternoon we took a train to Barcelona, our new favourite city!

remember that time we have not updated our blog for over a week?

greetings, avid blog readers. we would like to issue a formal apology for our lack of blogging activity lately. i guess we have just been having SO MUCH FUN that time has literally escaped us. after our days in porto with toby, we packed up and got on a train to lisbon for the weekend. we checked into a hostel that was a little slice of heaven. the lisbon poet´s hostel was fabulous, and it really made our experience there great. it was painted bright colours, had big beanbag chairs in the lounge, and we got a 6 bed dorm room to ourselves all weekend, which was a huge perk. we spent our first evening in lisbon at this little restaurant we found up the street from the hostel, where i possibly had the best meal of the whole trip. from what we gathered, and from what the waiter told us, it was a collection of portugese, italian and english food... but we are pretty sure it was italian. kate and i dipped into the rose wine, after a week long hiatus since our south of france experience, and we had a great first night on the town. on friday we ventured out to the district of belem, where we visited the exploration monument, the tower of belem, which is a UNESCO world heritage site (a theme on this trip, we are slowly realizing), and had a great picnic lunch in a park in the sunshine. crossing the street, we ended up inside this beautiful monastary, and took a moment to enjoy the beauty of our surroundings. we have been spending a lot of time in churches so far, and this one was a highlight. we headed back to our hostel and hooked up with jonathan and laura sousa, friends of mine from our summer cottage who happened to be visiting relatives in lisbon while we were there. laura is studying in madrid this semester, and jonathan, her brother, came to visit. what luck! jonathan, who had been to lisbon before, led us on an adventure up every single stair in lisbon, and we ended up at the st. jorge castle, overlooking the city. it had great views, and we took some beautiful photos. that night we
met up with our german host, toby, who was visiting lisbon that weekend with his exchange friends for a traditional portugese dinner at a beer hall. we knew it would be good because we had to wait to get in, and it proved to be worth it. our hostel is conveniently located in the nightlife district, and we just had to see for ourselves... it was part of the cultural experience, right? katherine introduced toby to the jagerbomb, apparently a canadian specialty, and we ended up having a fantastic night in the streets of lisboa... we were almost locals. saturday was our best day in lisbon, as we ventured out of the city and toward the palacial town of sintra. we are so glad we did this! the views were spectacular, and the palace community so beautiful. we wish we could share our photos. while kate and katherine explored the palace, jonathan, laura and i also hiked to the moorish castle, which was fantastic. the terrain was rough, and laura sprained her ankle, but was a real trooper and didn´t really tell us how much pain she was in until that evening. after we got home from sintra, we split up for the night, and i went out for dinner with jonathan and laura and their relatives just outside of lisbon´s city center. they are portugese, and they had warned me that there would not be much english spoken, but it was great, and really fun to meet their family. katherine and kate went out with toby and his exchange friends for an authentic sushi boat experience (?), and eventually ended up in a cool area on the water with lots of bars lining the harbour. sunday was really a very lazy day, we had to pack up and check out but we were not leaving for spain until the evening, so we wandered around the city and visited a park we found on our first night in the day time which was a highlight. lisbon was certainly a great destination for us, and we were really sad to leave, but looked forward to our night train to spain....
sarah

porto and tour guide toby

So my first day in Portugal was not exactly the warm, beach-like weather I had been hoping for. However, it was filled with interesting portugeese food, lots of sights, a port house tour and a lot of rain! We are not exactly fans of Port but since we were in PORTO we decided to explore some of the port houses and it was a great experience. I know my dad is going to be jealous, but I did pick him up a little treat! It was cold and wet and we were very relieved to have super tour guide toby to lead us around so that we were not aimlessly wandering in the rain. He, I must say, is a proficent map reader and was invaluable to our tour. Also, because we speak not a word of Portugese. Although we are learning to say sorry and thank you, which have become essentials. On tuesday we decided to go out for traditional portugese food at a small little restaurant in downtown Porto. I felt like we were actually in a Portugese family kitchen as our chefs and servers were two parents and a son, the walls were covered with beautiful traditional portugese tiles, the tv was on and tuned into the Porto football game and our dinner came out in metal pots! Since we could not read the menu and the staff could not speak any english, Toby and his Brazilian roomate Daniel oredered for us. There were five of us and we ordered four dishes to share. Well, when the food came out we quickly learned that we could have easily only ordered TWO meals. We had enough food to feed both football teams that were playing on tv that night. Everything was going swimmingly until Daniel noticed something unusual in his dish. He asked all of us what we thought it was, first Kate thought it might be a screw, and then we discovered that it was in fact a CATERPILLAR. Yummmmm. I was the first, and only to suggest that perhaps Portugese people need a little extra protein? So, luckily Daniel speaks Portugese of course and he dealt with it. The portugese mama came over and was absolutely shocked. She said since they opened the place ten years ago this has never happened. At one point she went to the back and brought out a huge frozen fish to explain the process they use to cook their meals. She took off two meals from our bill, which was actually nice since we were treating everyone! Poor Daniel is scarred for life though and I do not know if he will be able to eat out in Porto for a while.

Our next day in Porto was very lovely. The weather was amazing and we took it easy because Toby, being the german drillmaster that he is had worn us out the night before. We just wandered around and ate a lovely lunch on the water in front of all of the Port houses in Villa Nova de Gaia which is directly accross the river from Porto. The setup is similar to Dartmouth and Halifax and they even have the same saying in Porto as they do to Halifax that "The best thing about Gaia/Dartmouth is the view of Porto/Halifax! We hung out at the beach before going to the grocery store with our official portugese translator, Daniel to buy things to make dinner for the night. We really wanted to make Toby and his lovely roomates a traditional Canadian meal but we were stumped at what we could make and what we would find ingredients for so we settled on Ann Milligans famous pasta! We also tried to make them Ceasars, which we think are indigenous to Canada but since we didnt have Clamato, they were not as awesome as they could have been. But luckily we had bottles of wine (which cost 1.50). The rest of the evening was spent with Matcheks family (one of tobys roomates) who came from Poland to visit. His Dad was showing us photos of his trip to Africa and it was fun to see all of his kids translating for him. Kate and Sarah decided to stay in for the night and I went out with Toby and his friends. They took me to this huge square in the middle of the city where students were drinking beer and a port-like drink. There were hundreds of students in black capes, which is apparently what upperclass people wear on a daily basis and all of the "frosh" were in yellow shirts. It was like Mount A frosh week as all of the younger students were performing embarassing tasks and doing huge group cheers. That is how I had the opportunity to turn down my first (of many?) marriage proposal on my first night here because an upperclass student told a frosh he had to ask me. Now, we are in Lisbon and are in a beautiful hostel....Toby is joining us for the weekend with a bunch of his friends from school and Sarahs two friends from her cottage will also be in Lisbon so I am sure it will prove to be quite fun! Adeus!!

portugal and toby, the best german host

When we arrived in Portugal, Sarah and I had our fingers crossed that Toby, a friend of Katherine´s and a boy we had never met would be waiting for us at the arrivals gate to pick us up. Katherine had sent us an email (entitled "hot boy at the airport") with a picture of him which we studied thoroughly before we left Antibes. Luckily as soon as we got to the arrivals gate we spotted him and got to ride in his sweet van back to his apartment. We became fast friends as Toby is VERY nice and made us feel extremely welcome. He gave us a lovely breakfast and then let us have a much needed nap in his room for a couple hours, as we were severely lacking in sleep from the night before. When we got up, we all took a walk from his apartment through Porto, on the way to the beach! It was a beautiful Portugese day, 25 degrees and sunny and Sarah and I felt like it was a beautiful summer day in the Maritimes. Toby showed us his University on the way where we bumped into one of his friends from school and he introduced us as his friends from Canada even though we had only known him for approximately 4 hours. We got down to the water and had an amazing view of the Atlantic Ocean from the side we are not used to seeing. We walked along the water until we came to a beautiful beach where we lay out on towels and soaked up some sun (well Sarah did, I clearly applied sunscreen!) I put my feet in the Atlantic but decided that it was not quite as warm as the Mediterrean, so my feet were as far as I got. From the beach, Toby took us to a have our first Portugese beer which we very much enjoyed. We took the bus back to the apartment, and While Toby went to class Sarah and I relaxed for a couple hours before we all got back in the sweet van to pick up KJ at the Airport! When Katherine finally arrived after her 20 hour travel day, we were all very happy to see her and very excited to complete our threesome. Even though the first words out of Katherine´s mouth were " I am so tired" she was an amazing trooper and Toby took us all out to a Portugese bar where we met a lot of his friends and drank caipirinha´s, a very strange frozen drink which I´m still not sure exactly what it was. Katherine, being very sleep deprived was a little delerious but very entertaining for the rest of us and proceeded to ask a fraternity, sorority type of organization who were at the bar why they were all wearing black capes.... one thing lead to another, ending with one of the first year students proposing marrige to her. All in all it was very good night but an even better sleep.
- Kate

that time we slept at the marseille airport

sunday night kate and i fulfilled every backpackers duty... we slept at an airport. although it was way better than we expected, we hope to never do it again! we took chris saw us off from the station in antibes at 830 that night, and we arrived at the marseille train station at 11. we were very worried about finding the connecting bus to the airport that we had booked, and getting there in time, as the last shuttle left at 1130pm. after that, we would have needed to take a taxi, something neither of us were very keen on. we found our bus platform, and decided we would get some mcdonalds, as we knew hardly anything would be open at the airport once we arrived. it was the worst mcdonalds experience we had ever had!! pretty sure in france, they pre-make your food and at 1130pm, it is not very fresh. we got on this huge bus, and thankfully there was one other passenger... because our bus driver was a little crazy. we listened to a hilarious selection of english radio hits, ending with "sexual healing" as we pulled up to the airport. we were glad to arrive, and both agreed the whole experience could have been much worse. we found a comfy area of floor, and each managed to get a little sleep, before having to switch terminals at 440am to check in for our ryanair flight to portugal. let me take this opportunity to shed some light on our first ryanair experience.... assigned seating does not exist with this airline, and kate and i quickly learned that once they call your flight, the best plan of attack is to RUN to get a place in line. it was completely bizarre! people would step right in front of you in line and stay there! we got seats together, but it might be more difficult travelling with three than two in the coming weeks! one thing is for sure... taking your time is not an option when flying ryanair!

day 4, 5 & 6 in the south of france

on friday morning, kate and i woke up, checked out of our comfy little paris hostel and got on a five hour express train to antibes, a little town in between nice and cannes in the south of france to visit chris and james, friends from mount a living there for the year. the train was awesome, we covered an incredible amount of ground (all of france) in such a short time. we learned quickly that train travel in europe is going to be very efficient for us. we arrived in antibes, and needed to call chris for directions, as they had to be at work setting up for the 20th anniversary of their bar... the party was conveniently that night and even better... they were giving away drinks! kate and i unloaded our stuff, and took the map that chris left for us in the kitchen and walked around the old town of antibes. it is so gorgeous there! chris and james live in an apartment on the 4th floor of a house on a cobble stone street in the old town. true to chris, the apartment was spotless, and kate and i took over his room for the weekend. we wandered down to the little beach near the harbour and stuck our feet into the mediterranean for the first time. by this time, the free drinks at the bar had started, and we went by for a drink or two (and a welcome to antibes jagerbomb from james) before supper. we ate at this amazing little restaurant just down the street from the apartment and decided we were going to drink some rose wine, because it appeared all the locals loved it. by this time, we certainly didnt need the bottle of rose we had purchased, but we drank it anyway back at the apartment, and ended up at the bar. chris proceeded to give us another bottle, and things went seriously downhill from here. i broke two wineglasses (one on james greens foot), and by the time kate and i got home, we couldnt even wait up for the boys. welcome to antibes. chris took us to the beach on saturday, which was a perfect activity for us after our evening out. it was a beautiful day, and we even got some swimming in. after the guys left for work, we hopped on a train to cannes, just 12 minutes away to check out the most famous area in the south of france. it was pretty unreal... very ritzy and we enjoyed the serious window shopping we did at louis vuitton and hermes. back in antibes, went down to the boys bar for some drinks, watched the montreal game with james (a die hard fan) and ended up back at the apartment where we stayed up until 6am having some drinks and visiting. lets just say sunday was a very lazy day, which was exactly what we needed after our whirlwind weekend. packing up our backpacks is not as fun as we had imagined, and takes a lot of mental prep. i am fast realizing that i brought too much stuff!!

day 3

today was our last full day in paris, and we had a great one. we woke up this morning and took care of some reservations at the train station for our trip down south tomorrow, and then ventured out on the suburban paris metro lines to versailles. we got off the train, and walked about five minutes from the station, turned right, and there it was. the palace was so incredible... no detail was spared. we got to tour through all the private chambers of the royal family, and we saw marie antionette's bedroom and the king's hall of mirrors and the peace drawing room. everything about the place was unbelievable... the hallways were long, the arches were high, and the highlight was probably the chapel. the grounds were just as impressive as the palace itself. the gardens are kept immaculately, and we took some pretty amazing photos. tonight we headed to the bastille quarter for supper. we were supposed to meet kate's friend joanna, and we waited, but she was about 45 minutes delayed when the ATM in the station ate her bank card, so we decided something had come up and we went to find a place to eat ourselves. we ended up at this trendy little bistro called chez oscars, and we had the best meal we have had in paris. tonight we have been packing up our bags and getting ready for our early morning train to antibes, to visit chris and james for the weekend. the weather forecast looks nice and warm, so we are very excited for the weekend!

day 2 in paris

today was a great day, although we woke up to gray skies and some rain. we totally made the best of it and did a serious tour of the city's great sights. after a much needed 12 hour sleep, we had the hostel's free continental breakfast which was great, and headed out to the louvre. the palais-royal was a sight to see in itself, such an impressive building rich with history. as soon as we saw the glass pyramid, i think we began to get really excited. we toured through the museum at a decent pace, hoping to see as much as we could in a short time frame. we got through all the egyptian exhibit (a ryan lebans suggestion!), and partially through the greek antiques and sculptors, before we got lost, and ended up at the mona lisa! it was pretty cool to see in person, although there were about a million people trying to get a picture in the hall. it was actually a lot smaller than i had imagined, but impressive all the same, especially considering there are people that stop at the museum exclusively for this piece. we got through the italian sculptures, and ended up calling it quits after ending up near the escalator out. it is difficult to navigate in the building, and we figured if we didn't leave then, it might be another hour or so until we would have the opportunity and we still had lots we wanted to do! we ended up at the arc d'triomphe, which was pretty impressive, and i took lots of pictures because i knew my dad would think it was tres cool. we wandered down champs-elysse, and did some serious window shopping at louis vuitton before having lunch at a cafe. we got back on the subway and decided to head over to see notre dame cathedral before the afternoon was over. it was actually a huge highlight for me, the stained glass was so impressive, and they let you tour through the church which i wasn't sure they would. it was also cool to see the famous gargoyles gaurding the city. we went out for dinner tonight in montmartre, a really trendy area of the city, and also home to the moulin rouge and the paris red light district. it was a little shocking walking down the street, but an experience for sure! we are back in the hostel trying to plan our day tomorrow to versailles, but very pleased with our second day in paris!!

arrival in paris!

after a very long twelve hours, we have made it to paris! the seven hour flight wasn't too bad, and we were able to sleep a little bit which was nice. we arrived in paris around 10am this morning local time. everything upon our arrival was almost too easy... there was hardly a line at customs, our bags arrived (we were a little worried kate's might have been lost in the connection from halifax) and we exited to find the train station. we were able to purchase our tickets, find the right train and get on it without asking for help once!! we were bound to encounter a problem by the time we arrived at the central paris station. we think we were scammed by a guy who was awfully helpful to us, but we aren't really sure. he led us to a ticket machine and explained the type of pass we should get, and before we had really said yes or no, he had shoved his OWN credit card in the machine to make the payment. it ended up being about thirty euros each for this three day pass, and we thought we had been totally ripped off, but it turns out it is for the metro, the bus systems, and the RER trains which can take us all over the city and to versailles, so we might be OK. it was unsettling though, and it certainly taught us to be careful of friendly strangers!! we made it to the hostel on the metro, and now we are waiting for our room to be ready at 2pm to freshen up before heading out and hopefully visiting the eiffel tower and getting some much needed food and coffee!! its looking a little grey outside, but paris is lovely already. the trees are all changing colour and they line the streets. we can't wait to explore!