Ole!--Day 1

5 May 2010
Madrid, Spain
via Rome, Italy (8 May 2010)

We slept in pretty late, but still managed to get an early start to the airport. This turned out to be fortunate, as the RER (commuter train) to the airport is a ridiculous thing. For those of you who use the metro to get to the Charles DeGaulle airport, you must purchase an additional ticket for the RER in order to exit the train station once you reach the airport. Don't be fooled by the fact that the RER doesn't require this ticket for you to get ONTO the train. Anyhow, we spent a good thirty minutes trying to get through the little glass partition. I hate to admit it, but we managed to sneak out behind some people. I'd say the CDG airport really needs to do something about this, though, as about 90% of people who were exiting the RER had the same problem. Thankfully, a few people had the insider info, so we were able to do a little tailgating. We did save quite a bit of money going this route, but it was a big headache too.

We flew to Milan first with an hour layover to Madrid. We boarded the plane by piling on a bus that took us out to where the plane was on the runway. This was Josh's first experience boarding a plane this way. I'd disembarked once before on my trip to Rome several years ago. It's definitely different from the US.

We got to the Madrid airport, located the metro station, and managed to find our way to Silvia's place by around 9:00pm. She and her boyfriend Javie (short for Javier--and remember J's are pronounced like H's in Spain) welcomed us. We sat around chatting for a bit, then Javie and Silvia made us Spanish omelettes for dinner. I'm not a big fan of eggs--I actually really dislike them--but I thought I should give this a try since I was in Spain and all.

It was AWESOME. I think I'm going to try to make this at home when I get back to Memphis. It's really more potato and onion with egg to hold it together, so you can't really even taste the eggs! We also had chorizo in ours. Sooooo good.


Then we went to bed so we could get up in the morning to start our Madrid sightseeing. Silvia's apartment was very nice. She lives with two other girls, but only one of them was there while we stayed with her. Her living room was enormous and even had two couches so neither of us had to sleep on an air mattress or the floor! The kitchen was small, but that seems to be common in European apartments. The bathroom also had a real shower which was a nice change from the French bathtubs we'd been using.

Bonjour!--Day 3

4 May 2010
Versailles et Paris, France
via Rome, Italy

For our last day in Paris, we relocated from Compiegne to Paris. We got a sweet little hotel near the Montemartre area of Paris. We were close to the Moulin Rouge actually!




some of the fountains at Versailles. beautiful, beautiful, beautiful






We started off the day with a trip to Versailles on the train. The weather was nice, but very windy. We skipped the palace part and went for the gardens. They were lovely. At some point, my camera battery died. What terrible timing, I know! Luckily, I had my iPhone with me. The light was good, so I got some really great photos.

We stayed at Versailles for a few hours and headed back to Paris for a little break and to settle our things into our hotel room. Then we did a walking tour of the Montmartre district that my guidebook suggested.




pretty stained glass from a church near the beginning of the walking tour







This turned out to be a pretty good route. My favorite part was the Sacre Cour. It was around 5:00pm or so, and there were nuns singing! That was really neat. Josh and I actually wound up climbing over 300 steps (after having climbed over 100 that morning at Versailles) to get to the top of the center dome. It was a fabulous view and definitely worth it, though! Pictured here is the church as well as one of the photos I took from the top.




For dinner, we wound up eating at a little cafe along one of the streets.

We each had a bowl of [French] onion soup.








I had chicken,







and Josh had pasta.







Then we had creme brulee for dessert. We thought we were ordering brie which was included with our meal, but our non-English speaking waiter misunderstood us. It was an acceptable mistake, though.




We continued our tour around Montemartre to the Moulin Rouge. It's a pricey establishment, so we just took some photos outside like everyone else was doing.




For our last event, we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up at night. This was definitely awesome. It was pretty during the day, but even better at night. Naturally, I took a million photos of this thing, but I'll only post a few here =)

We headed back to the hotel after that because we were exhausted from the past few days of sightseeing.

RIP camera =/

7 May 2010
Madrid, Spain

So today was a sad day. My camera was stolen by this homeless man while Josh and I were eating in a restaurant. Thankfully, I had the majority of my photos already copied to my computer. Alas, all of the ones I took this morning are not on there, and the ones of our tasty dinner from last night too =/ Anyhow, luckily, I brought my other camera, so I've got a backup. But it runs off of regular batteries which is going to cost me a fortune.

This has in no way enhanced my sympathy for homeless people.

I'll tell you more about my adventures once I get to Rome if we have free internet there. If not, I'll have to update that when I get back to Memphis on Wednesday!

Bonjour!--Day 2

3 May 2010
Paris, France
via Madrid, Spain (6 May 2010)


Our first day in Paris consisted of following one of my guidebook's recommendations. We started off at the Louvre.







As unartistic people, we went to see the most famous thing (Mona Lisa) and admired the other things along the way. This was amusing to me, as the Mona Lisa is a very small painting that has it's very own wall in the middle of a big room.










There is GIANT painting on the wall across from it that is a painting of a marriage feast. The Mona Lisa was really crowded, so I wound up buying a postcard because my picture of it didn't come out too well.






and winged victory, which i think is kinda neat.








After the Louvre, we headed off to Notre Dame. On the way, we admired the view of the Seine from several spots along the river.

We also stopped for lunch at an Italian restaurant (I know, I know, but we were hungry, and it was tasty!).




St. Michael fountain. Beautiful.





















Notre Dame was absolutely beautiful, of course. There was also a choir singing when we got there, which made it really nice.











the famous rose window at Notre Dame.









I really wanted to visit the Saint Chappelle after that, but the line was really, really long =/

Instead, we headed to the Champs Elysees which begins at this square with the oldest object in France in the center. The object is an Egyptian obelisk.











We hopped on the metro to the Arc du Triomphe to speed things up a bit.














From there we headed towards the Eiffel Tower. By chance, we took the wrong metro line which led us through another area of Paris. We happened by a 100 year old pharmacy. It was small and really pretty, and the pharmacist spoke English!













Aw. Sweden =) so far away. I miss you!







The Eiffel Tower is every bit as awesome as you might expect. We waited in line for a long time, but not too terribly long for tickets, then again to get on the lift. We went allllllllllllllll the way to the top which was an awesome and terrifying view. Eventually, we headed back down to the second level where there is an exhibit that tells about the construction and some facts about the Eiffel Tower. We then climbed down the stairs to the first level. This was FREEEEEZING. I don't recommend doing this unless it's warm outside.





After some issues with navigation, we made it back to Compiegne in time for dinner with Amy and Micael. We had soup and salad. We also had these little Belgian waffle-like desserts with nutella and whipped cream. Whipped cream was actually invented in France in a place called Chante. The French refer to whipped cream as Chante, not whipped cream.








Amy and I spent the rest of the evening talking over high school memories and catching up.

Bonjour!--Day 1

2 May 2010
Compiegne, France
via Madrid, Spain (6 May 2010)

Hey, folks! So I'm actually in Madrid, but I'll update you first about the trip from Sweden onward.

First of all, we left Lulea on Saturday. Scandinavian airlines were luckily flying (no more volcano clouds!) to Stockholm that day. From Stockholm, we got on a plane bound for London, England.

When we arrived in London for our 11 hour layover, we got an Underground Pass and headed off to see a bit of London. We made it to Trafalgar Square on the Picadilly Line of the Underground.







We ate some fish and chips at a little restaurant off to the side. While we were eating, it started to rain pretty hard. After we finished eating, it was still raining, so we opted to see London via bus. Sadly, this bus went about one stop before stopping. We got off in the pouring rain, wandered around a bit trying to find another bus stop or an Underground station.




We walked by the London Eye and Big Ben before we found the Underground Station. We decided to call it a night and head back to the London airport. We spent the night on the [freezing cold] floor of the London Heathrow airport. We woke up around 4:30, checked in, and went to the gate. I slept there for a bit longer, which was surprisingly comfortable considering that I slept sitting up.




Finally, we got on the plane to Paris! Somehow Amy managed to find us in the arrivals at the airport. We went back to Amy & Micael's place in Compiegne. The drive was just beautiful--through fields of flowers. The sun was lovely, and the weather wasn't even all that cold!

We got cleaned up and ate lunch. Micael made a spinach and onion quiche with homemade crust. Yum! We also had a salad with feta cheese and vinaigrette dressing. Man, I love feta cheese.

After lunch, we headed off to do a little sightseeing.





We passed by the City Hall which was lovely.









Then we went to check out the church where Joan of Arc prayed just before she died. It was also lovely.







After the church, we headed to Pierrefonds Castle. This was BEAUTIFUL Josh and I took a trip through the castle. There weren't any furnishings, but there were a lot of neat artsy metalwork pieces. The castle has been completely redone with the exception of a very small section. It's absolutely beautiful, as is the surrounding countryside.






Approaching the castle









Ahhh, isn't it just like in a movie?










Actually, this is also the set for the TV show Merlin.











hedgehog wallpaper. LOVE it.









I'm not sure why, but this is one of my favorite pictures from this trip to the castle.











and this is my absolute favorite. again, i'm not sure why. i just like it.












We got some ice cream and went down to the Pierrefonds railway station. This is actually closed and has been turned into some apartments.









We played around the outside on the lawn while we waited for dinner time to roll around.












My personal fave photo of the day. Amy and I reenacted our own Parisian version of American Gothic.










I tried to get Josh to pose like this, but he refused. Micael complied with my request.






For dinner, we ate crepes. Josh's had an egg and some sausage, I think.









Mine had goat's cheese and tomato on it. yummy. You can also see Micael's and Amy's.


















For dessert, Amy and I had butter and sugar
crepes.







As we were leaving, there was a rainbow that appeared over the palace! I don't know how well it photographed, but this was the best I could do.













We swung by Napoleon's palace on the way home. It has a matching section on the other side, but I couldn't get it all in the photo, and I haven't mastered panoramic stuff yet...






We went to bed early so that we could get an early start on sightseeing in Paris the next day.