I'm in Paris!!!! It's so cool!!! I'm staying with a super nice family in the 16th district. It is about a ten minute walk to the Eiffel Tower and maybe a 15 min. walk to the Arc de Triomphe. I have seen a ton already (stay tuned for pictures.) The amazing mom that I am staying with (three kids under the age of five...need I say more?) and I went for a really long walk the first night I got here. We saw the Eiffel tower glittering with flashing lights and then lighting up the night with an incredible shade of blue. We saw the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais as we walked along the Seine river. We also saw the Eternal Flame; a monument to Princess Di right over the tunnel where she died. Then we walked up to the Arc de Triomphe and I almost got plowed over by a car trying to take a picture of it.
Today I went to church in the Notre Dam Cathedral!!!! How cool is that!!! :-) The singer that led the litergy was amazing! It was great! I didn't understand a word they said, but I sang along anyway and even got to take communion. There were wafers but no wine. I don't know what is up with no wine. I mean this is France!
Okay, now I can't get it to stop typing in italics. Stinkin blogspot! I guess you'll just have to suffer through reading the rest of this like it's a thought in my head.
We went to the Hotel de Ville and walked around by the Cathedral. Then we went for a river boat cruise on the Seine River and saw a ton of stuff!!! It was so cool! Then we walked down to the French Model of the Statue of Liberty. It was really fun. I really enjoyed all the sights and have taken about a million pics of the Eiffel Tower. Tomorrow is my big touring day. I can't wait! There is a lot to see in Paris and it's relatively easy to walk to everything so it's really great! Maybe I'll take a job in Paris... :-)
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Quimper, France
I am finally staying in the same place for a few nights!!! I am visiting my friend Sophie, her husband Ben, and their adorable son Raphael in Quimper (10 mins from the Atlantic Ocean in the West of France.) It is near a city called Brest. And yes, it is pronounced exactly as you would think. I just thought I'd mention it. I won't be seeing Brest while I'm here and I won't be posting any pictures of Brest...
Anyway, I just got here last night. The train was an hour late getting in, which apparently never happens. But of course I was on the train so I was not in the least surprised. :-) I had a whole day of traveling yesterday. I left Luxembourg at 8 am on the train, sat in the train station in Paris until 3 because there were no more seats left for Eurail pass holders on the noon train. I had a French Bagette sandwich for lunch and finished my book, 80 Dates Around The World by Jennifer Cox, which I would highly recommend, it was hilarious! I arrived in Quimper at 8:45pm and saw my friend Sophie! I was so happy to see her and know that I was staying for 5 nights at her lovely home! She is 7 months pregnant and is an extremely cute pregnant lady with a cute little belly. :-) Her son Raphael is absolutely adorable (see photos) with huge blue eyes, a gorgeous smile, and the sweetest disposition. Ben and Sophie are very hospitable and they are a very cute couple. You can tell they are in love just by the way they look at each other and interact. And they are both very good at English (which is necessary because my french is nonexistant.) "Bon-Jure! Jew-mop-L Marla." "Bagette See-voo-play, mare-see!" Yeah...no bien. It is fun to see them speak English to each other. It must be odd for them.
They are feeding me very well. I probably won't fit into my pants after all the bread and cheese. We went to the beach today and it was lovely. I am really enjoying it here.
Anyway, I just got here last night. The train was an hour late getting in, which apparently never happens. But of course I was on the train so I was not in the least surprised. :-) I had a whole day of traveling yesterday. I left Luxembourg at 8 am on the train, sat in the train station in Paris until 3 because there were no more seats left for Eurail pass holders on the noon train. I had a French Bagette sandwich for lunch and finished my book, 80 Dates Around The World by Jennifer Cox, which I would highly recommend, it was hilarious! I arrived in Quimper at 8:45pm and saw my friend Sophie! I was so happy to see her and know that I was staying for 5 nights at her lovely home! She is 7 months pregnant and is an extremely cute pregnant lady with a cute little belly. :-) Her son Raphael is absolutely adorable (see photos) with huge blue eyes, a gorgeous smile, and the sweetest disposition. Ben and Sophie are very hospitable and they are a very cute couple. You can tell they are in love just by the way they look at each other and interact. And they are both very good at English (which is necessary because my french is nonexistant.) "Bon-Jure! Jew-mop-L Marla." "Bagette See-voo-play, mare-see!" Yeah...no bien. It is fun to see them speak English to each other. It must be odd for them.
They are feeding me very well. I probably won't fit into my pants after all the bread and cheese. We went to the beach today and it was lovely. I am really enjoying it here.
The Lock
Justwhen things were going so well...
There was only one hostel available in Luxembourg city. So of course I was expecting it to be a total dump. Why make the place nice when the backpackers had only one choice? But when I got there, I was very pleasantly surprised! It was by far the nicest hostel I had ever been to in my entire life! It was huge and very clean and had everything you could possibly want or need out of a hostel. And I got in a female dorm of 6 for only 19 euro. Cheaper than Frankfurt even. It had a beautiful view as well and was just really lovely! And free breakfast!!!
My room was pretty big and had it's own bathroom and shower and lockers for everyone. So of course I locked all my belongings in a locker with my trusty old lock. Or so I thought...
When I returned from my lovely afternoon out, I decided to change into something a little warmer. But when I put the code in on my lock it wouldn't open! I tried it again and again and still nothing. I don't even know how to reset the code on it, so I have no idea how I could have accidentally reset it. I have not had a problem with it for the last 5 years. But it would not open. I did notice that the top dial seemed very loose. It was just twisting around in a circle freely without seeming to settle in on any number. So maybe it just broke. I have no idea. Never the less, I sat in front of my locker for an hour trying different combinations. I tried just one number off of each dial in case I had accidentally reset it that way. Then I just started at all zeros and tried different combos from there. But nothing worked and I got very frustrated. My already "wonderful" trip was getting more "wonderful" every second. Finally I went down to the front desk to see if they had a wire cutter or whatever you call that tool that cuts locks off. The front desk person brought one up to my room and had to work for quite awhile to get it off. I was nervous he would just give up and I would have to complete my trip with only the clothes on my back. Finally he got the lock off and handed it to me with a very frustrated look. I thanked him of course and he headed back to the front desk. As soon as the door shut I looked down at the lock. It's mangeled body lay in my hand, its functionality completely destroyed. All the sudden I was overcome with emotion. I had used this lock for the last 5 years and now it was worthless. Besides that, my belongings were pretty much my only friends these days, so I felt bad for the poor guy. The damaged body of my little lock friend was lying dead in my hand. I was suffering a loss. Not only that but now I had no way of locking my belongings up. Needless to say, it was a tragic afternoon for me. :-( I plan to never travel by myself again.
There was only one hostel available in Luxembourg city. So of course I was expecting it to be a total dump. Why make the place nice when the backpackers had only one choice? But when I got there, I was very pleasantly surprised! It was by far the nicest hostel I had ever been to in my entire life! It was huge and very clean and had everything you could possibly want or need out of a hostel. And I got in a female dorm of 6 for only 19 euro. Cheaper than Frankfurt even. It had a beautiful view as well and was just really lovely! And free breakfast!!!
My room was pretty big and had it's own bathroom and shower and lockers for everyone. So of course I locked all my belongings in a locker with my trusty old lock. Or so I thought...
When I returned from my lovely afternoon out, I decided to change into something a little warmer. But when I put the code in on my lock it wouldn't open! I tried it again and again and still nothing. I don't even know how to reset the code on it, so I have no idea how I could have accidentally reset it. I have not had a problem with it for the last 5 years. But it would not open. I did notice that the top dial seemed very loose. It was just twisting around in a circle freely without seeming to settle in on any number. So maybe it just broke. I have no idea. Never the less, I sat in front of my locker for an hour trying different combinations. I tried just one number off of each dial in case I had accidentally reset it that way. Then I just started at all zeros and tried different combos from there. But nothing worked and I got very frustrated. My already "wonderful" trip was getting more "wonderful" every second. Finally I went down to the front desk to see if they had a wire cutter or whatever you call that tool that cuts locks off. The front desk person brought one up to my room and had to work for quite awhile to get it off. I was nervous he would just give up and I would have to complete my trip with only the clothes on my back. Finally he got the lock off and handed it to me with a very frustrated look. I thanked him of course and he headed back to the front desk. As soon as the door shut I looked down at the lock. It's mangeled body lay in my hand, its functionality completely destroyed. All the sudden I was overcome with emotion. I had used this lock for the last 5 years and now it was worthless. Besides that, my belongings were pretty much my only friends these days, so I felt bad for the poor guy. The damaged body of my little lock friend was lying dead in my hand. I was suffering a loss. Not only that but now I had no way of locking my belongings up. Needless to say, it was a tragic afternoon for me. :-( I plan to never travel by myself again.
Luxembourg
First of all, thank you so much for all the support! It has been extremely uplifting to read everyone's words of encouragement. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.**
I apologize if the blogs get shorter. The keyboards are getting worse. Now the Z, W, X, A, M, and most of the punctuation (including the period) is in the wrong spot. I say wrong because of course I am an ethnocentric american. Would it kill the rest of the world to just put all the keys in the same spots? Seriously! I should not have to use the shift key to use a period. That is one of the most common keys used!
Okay, on with Luxembourg. It was absolutely beautiful!!!!! I could have just sat on a bench the entire afternoon and looked at the city!!! actually, that is pretty much exactly what I did do. I have a ton of pictures and I walked around all day just looking at the city. I also found myself in the middle of a marching band dressed in traditional outfits (wigs and all) marching down the beautiful streets. It was really fun to watch and they even stopped and shot their rifles off. I walked all around the old stone constructions that have been there since the 900s. And sat by the river and on a bench on top of a hill overlooking the city and wrote in my journal. I was finally starting to feel good about my trip and glad that I had come to this beautiful city. Yay for feeling good about things!!! I recommend Luxembourg to anyone who is in the area!!
I apologize if the blogs get shorter. The keyboards are getting worse. Now the Z, W, X, A, M, and most of the punctuation (including the period) is in the wrong spot. I say wrong because of course I am an ethnocentric american. Would it kill the rest of the world to just put all the keys in the same spots? Seriously! I should not have to use the shift key to use a period. That is one of the most common keys used!
Okay, on with Luxembourg. It was absolutely beautiful!!!!! I could have just sat on a bench the entire afternoon and looked at the city!!! actually, that is pretty much exactly what I did do. I have a ton of pictures and I walked around all day just looking at the city. I also found myself in the middle of a marching band dressed in traditional outfits (wigs and all) marching down the beautiful streets. It was really fun to watch and they even stopped and shot their rifles off. I walked all around the old stone constructions that have been there since the 900s. And sat by the river and on a bench on top of a hill overlooking the city and wrote in my journal. I was finally starting to feel good about my trip and glad that I had come to this beautiful city. Yay for feeling good about things!!! I recommend Luxembourg to anyone who is in the area!!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Meltdown
After my last post I was starting to feel better. Just typing things out on the blog made me feel a little better and I decided to be more positive and adopt an "I can do this" attitude. I chatted with some nice people in the hostel and wrote in my journal some more. I invited my hostel roommates to accompany me to dinner, but they both had other plans. Darn! I really wanted someone to come with to figure out the subway with me. (Hi to Marie if you really did remember the blog address I gave you!)
With map in hand, I headed to the main train station. I waited in line forever to ask how to take the train to Sweitzer Platz where I was to meet my friend. The ever so friendly German train worker just pointed to a machine where I was to buy a ticket. I probably looked like an idiot trying to push buttons that weren´t really buttons to make my ticket come out. I finally figured it out and headed over to the trains. After a few minutes of staring blankly at the German sign I asked someone who appeared to work there where my train was. He didn´t speak english but managed to gesture that I was to go downstairs to the underground and take train 4. Seemed easy enough. But when I got downstairs there were a gazillion trains and no #4. I went down to train 104 (maybe he just didn´t know how to say "one hundred and") and tried to negotiate the map. I asked a few people but no one seemed to speak english. So I hopped on the train and listened for Sweitzer Platz. A few stations later, I started to get nervous. My friend said it was very close and I was getting too far away. I got off and studied the map again, but everything was in German and it was really confusing. I probably could have figured it out if I had had more than 2 hours of sleep in the last 32 hours. But all the sudden I just started to freak out. I was lost in a foreign country and I had no idea how to get to my friend. I started to get extremely emotional. How could my friend expect me to figure out how to take the train all by myself on my first day in Europe! I was all alone and I had never done trains before! I started hyperventilating and could not stop the tears. I tried to compose myself and asked a nice looking young lady if she could help me find my way to Schweitzer Platz. I showed her that I had written it down and had a ticket. She didn´t really speak English but gestured that I follow her and pointed to the sign to show me what train. When it arrived, she pointed to the train and then got on as well. I sat across from her but still had no idea where to get off or what to do and she didn´t really know how to explain it to me. That´s when the meltdown happened. I got out a kleenex and tried to hold in my sobs, but little squeaks kept coming out as my shoulders bounced up and down and I soaked the tears up with my kleenex. Everyone was looking at me like I was some psycho. Those emotional Americans you know. I´m sure they were thinking the little sheltered girl tried to come and hike through Europe on her own without her cell phone and English translator and she can´t do it. The train stopped and the nice lady that I had followed on tapped me on the shoulder and motioned for me to follow. We got off the train and went to a different platform where she showed me my destination on the map, pointed to which train to take, and motioned that it was the second stop. I understood and said danka shane a bunch of times. Then she waved goodbye and went over to a totally different platform. I don´t think she even had to get off at that stop, she was just helping the pathetic sobbing girl. I was so lucky to have run into her. I got off in two stops on the next train and found my friend waiting. It was obvious that I had been crying so I explained what happened and she felt terrible while I felt really stupid. The rest of the night was much more fun and my friend was more than hospitable. At the end of the night she suggested I take a cab back to the hostel. :) But I was determined to redeem myself. I asked that she just explain exactly what number trains I had to take, in which direction, and how many stops. She did this and also provided me with a map. I found everything just fine and got home with no problems whatsoever!!!! I was very proud of myself and after a good night´s sleep am pretty embarassed about what happened. But I blame it on exhaustion. Things have definitely been and will continue to be uphill from there. :)
With map in hand, I headed to the main train station. I waited in line forever to ask how to take the train to Sweitzer Platz where I was to meet my friend. The ever so friendly German train worker just pointed to a machine where I was to buy a ticket. I probably looked like an idiot trying to push buttons that weren´t really buttons to make my ticket come out. I finally figured it out and headed over to the trains. After a few minutes of staring blankly at the German sign I asked someone who appeared to work there where my train was. He didn´t speak english but managed to gesture that I was to go downstairs to the underground and take train 4. Seemed easy enough. But when I got downstairs there were a gazillion trains and no #4. I went down to train 104 (maybe he just didn´t know how to say "one hundred and") and tried to negotiate the map. I asked a few people but no one seemed to speak english. So I hopped on the train and listened for Sweitzer Platz. A few stations later, I started to get nervous. My friend said it was very close and I was getting too far away. I got off and studied the map again, but everything was in German and it was really confusing. I probably could have figured it out if I had had more than 2 hours of sleep in the last 32 hours. But all the sudden I just started to freak out. I was lost in a foreign country and I had no idea how to get to my friend. I started to get extremely emotional. How could my friend expect me to figure out how to take the train all by myself on my first day in Europe! I was all alone and I had never done trains before! I started hyperventilating and could not stop the tears. I tried to compose myself and asked a nice looking young lady if she could help me find my way to Schweitzer Platz. I showed her that I had written it down and had a ticket. She didn´t really speak English but gestured that I follow her and pointed to the sign to show me what train. When it arrived, she pointed to the train and then got on as well. I sat across from her but still had no idea where to get off or what to do and she didn´t really know how to explain it to me. That´s when the meltdown happened. I got out a kleenex and tried to hold in my sobs, but little squeaks kept coming out as my shoulders bounced up and down and I soaked the tears up with my kleenex. Everyone was looking at me like I was some psycho. Those emotional Americans you know. I´m sure they were thinking the little sheltered girl tried to come and hike through Europe on her own without her cell phone and English translator and she can´t do it. The train stopped and the nice lady that I had followed on tapped me on the shoulder and motioned for me to follow. We got off the train and went to a different platform where she showed me my destination on the map, pointed to which train to take, and motioned that it was the second stop. I understood and said danka shane a bunch of times. Then she waved goodbye and went over to a totally different platform. I don´t think she even had to get off at that stop, she was just helping the pathetic sobbing girl. I was so lucky to have run into her. I got off in two stops on the next train and found my friend waiting. It was obvious that I had been crying so I explained what happened and she felt terrible while I felt really stupid. The rest of the night was much more fun and my friend was more than hospitable. At the end of the night she suggested I take a cab back to the hostel. :) But I was determined to redeem myself. I asked that she just explain exactly what number trains I had to take, in which direction, and how many stops. She did this and also provided me with a map. I found everything just fine and got home with no problems whatsoever!!!! I was very proud of myself and after a good night´s sleep am pretty embarassed about what happened. But I blame it on exhaustion. Things have definitely been and will continue to be uphill from there. :)
Friday, August 22, 2008
Frankfurt, Germany
Well...here I am! My plane rides were nothing to complain about besides only having gotten about 2.5 hrs of sleep. I realized just what I suspected as soon as I got to Frankfurt: I can`t travel alone! I was completely lost and everyone I asked for help seemed like they would rather break a beer stein over their head than help another pathetic American tourist. I somehow made it to a hostel and then tried to get ahold of my friend, but the mobile phone that I was given for the trip that was supposed to work all over Europe apparently only works in France. I tried to inquire about a phone card at the train station but all I got were blank stares. I also tried to get some info about the trains and how to get to Luxembourg and then to Quimper. But again, felt like I was really inconveniencing these poor people employed by the train station to help people get the correct tickets!!!!!!! I wanted to cry and tell someone how frustrated I was, but there was no one to tell. And it was 2 am in the states so I didn´t really have much of an option. I also feel it necessary to mention that the Z and Y keys on this keyboard are in the opposite places. So I keep tzping things like this and wondering whz thez aren´t coming out correctlz.
Anyway, I calmed down by eating some falafel at a cafe right by my hostel and writing in my journal. I got ahold of my friend on the hostel phone and we are meeting up for dinner. I took a free walking tour of the city and apparently saw all there is to see in Frankfurt. It was quite lovely and we even got some free ice cream!! I haven´t met anyone from the USA yet believe it or not. Lots of Canadians and Australians.
I am pretty bored by myself, so I´m going to see if I can figure out the train schedule tomorrow morning when I get up and head straight to Luxembourg. Maybe I can even take a night train from Lux to France, but I have no idea and I have gotten two different answers so far. I guess I´m learning to be more flexible. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and I will have a nice person helping me figure out what trains to take to get to where I´m going. I will keep you posted!
Anyway, I calmed down by eating some falafel at a cafe right by my hostel and writing in my journal. I got ahold of my friend on the hostel phone and we are meeting up for dinner. I took a free walking tour of the city and apparently saw all there is to see in Frankfurt. It was quite lovely and we even got some free ice cream!! I haven´t met anyone from the USA yet believe it or not. Lots of Canadians and Australians.
I am pretty bored by myself, so I´m going to see if I can figure out the train schedule tomorrow morning when I get up and head straight to Luxembourg. Maybe I can even take a night train from Lux to France, but I have no idea and I have gotten two different answers so far. I guess I´m learning to be more flexible. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and I will have a nice person helping me figure out what trains to take to get to where I´m going. I will keep you posted!
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