Nicole and I woke up on time, obnoxiously early and quickly got ready for our trip. Nicole opted to dress up for her trip home with a skirt and tights. I on the other hand opted to dress in my most comfortable clothing because I knew the next 22 hours would be hell. I was able to pack everything I owned into my two bags, very carefully of course and with bursting zippers, but it all fit. I warmed up some chocolate croissants for Nicole and I's breakfast and made my way over to tackle the inflatable bed.
It was so much harder than I expected to deflate this enormous inflatable bed. I started by just opening the valve and air started rushing out, but as time went on the air stopped flowing. So I went through a series of rolling and hopping and folding the air bed to get all the air out. Nicole walked in the room to find me sprawled out with all my limbs on all corners trying my hardest to push all the air out. I'm sure it was a hilarious sight, and I am happy to leave you all with a visual. Finally we both worked together to roll up the inflatable bed and got it inside its original bag, with all the tools it came with. Whew, it was a lot of work so early in the morning!
Once everything was ready to go I shouted at Jim that we were ready to hit the road and he rushed up to say goodbye. We gave quick hugs and said our goodbyes and he walked us out the door. I carried my HEAVY backpack on my back and my vintage bag in my hand, both were heavy and extremely uncomfortable to carry. Nicole had two bags around her shoulders and her small wheeler suitcase. We were quite the team pushing our way through the metro stops during rush hour. It took some maneuvering and some serious energy to get all our belongings onto the train, and through the next station and onto our final train to the airport. It felt so good to finally set my bags down on our final train and sit down for a moment of rest.
We didn't quite know what stop we needed to get off on at the airport, but we took a guess with Terminal 1, the last stop. Once we departed the plane and saw the terminal we immediately regretted our decision and found an information desk for help. The women very coldly assured us that we were in the right place, we just needed to head 2 floors up to Terminal 2A. We found the American Airlines desks first, which was my stop. Continental was right around the corner and so we said our goodbyes and parted ways. It was sad to see my companion go, and it was very lonely standing in lines all by myself.
The line was not short in the slightest, in fact it was so very very long. I waiting in line for check-in for about an hour. First through a securtiy questioning person and next to the checkout counter person. I was very thankful to drop off my large backpack once I was up to the check in desk. After the hour I just spent waiting in line, they ushered me to the security checkpoint and I had to wait in line for another hour to get through. At first there was a line for French passports and then all other passports. But the French Border person left and left only one person to check everyone's passport. It was incredibly slow. Once I was FINALLY done going through all the lines I had to rush to my gate. My plane was already boarding and it was scheduled to take off in about 30 minutes.
I made it onto the plane, but not without injury. I tried to stuff my coat inside my vintage bag, I was rather rushed in doing so and the bag cut my hand open in two different spots. OUCH! To make matters worse I had to carry the large bag with the same hand making the blood gush out even faster. It was not a fun task juggling things so I didn't get blood everywhere. I found my seat and got everything situated. I even had time to throw off my walking shoes and put on my cozy purple boots. It was a very smart choice for the rest of my journey.
Our plane stood on the run way for a long time and once in the air it was announced that we were taking a detour to avoid weather over the Atlantic ocean. This meant we needed to fly very far north, over Greenland to avoid the storms and it would add 45 minutes if not more to our flight time. Wonderful. The flight was...terrible. It lasted over 11 hours and it was light the entire time leaving me awake for most of the trip. I tried to doze off every once and a while, but it just didn't work and instead it left me with a splitting headache. The food was less than impressive and I was practically teary eyed near the end of the flight. I was starting to feel sick and just needed off the plane as soon as I could. We did indeed fly over Greenland, and I must say it was gorgeous. Miles upon miles of snow/ice covered mountains, it was so untouched and therefore so beautiful.
I was so very happy to finally land in Dallas and get off the plane away from the smell that planes have and all the people around me. I rushed off the plane and through customs. Fortunate for me the US Citizen line was the shortest I have ever seen it and I breezed right threw. I went to baggage claim and waiting tirelessly for my baggage. We had arrived late and I needed to get to my connecting flight ASAP. Finally my bag showed up and I was able to recheck it and make my way to my gate. I arrived just in time for the last round of boarding and took my seat on the plane.
I was not happy of course to be back in a plane, but I knew this journey would be short. As I settled in my seat and took in my surrounds, I soon realized, I was in fact on my way back to Nebraska. I was no longer surrounded by international people who all spoke different languages around me, I was instead surrounded by people mostly with a southern draw all speaking very loudly so I had to hear every word they were saying. I was no longer surrounded by nicely dressed Europeans with unique styles and fun haircuts, I was instead surrounded by poorly dressed people with Nebraska football sweatshirts and torn jeans, or worse...Texas sweatshirts and hats. I longed for the comfort of Europe with constant chatter that was merely background noise since I didn't understand a word of it. I did not care to listen to the conversation taking place behind me about a specific Frat and a roommates wedding that turned into a Frat reunion and how totally awesome it was. To say the least my flight home did not give me the comfort I was looking for after leaving my hiatus from the real world. I kept my head in my Terry Pratchett novel to help the time move by faster.
And finally the wheels of the plane touched down in a snow covered Nebraska and we parked at the gate. I deboarded the plane and headed straight for the exit. And there they were, my family smiling brightly at me right outside the gate. It was great to see them and we all hugged and greeted each other. It is always nice to be greeted with a warm sense of home. Lucas helped me pick up my bag from the baggage claim and we headed to the car. We laughed and I told stories about everyone I saw during my trip. It was great to talk about things I missed and things they should have seen. Grace and Katie couldn't come to the airport because Grace was very upset and they decided it would have been a bad idea to bring her to the airport. So we stopped at their house to drop off Lucas and of course to see Katie and Grace.
Grace is so big! And so adorable! She has grown up so much since I last saw her and even though she wasn't in the best of spirits it was great to see her! We stayed at their house and chatted for a while. It was great to be surrounded my family again and talk about the things families do. Lucas and Katie's place looks great all decorated for Christmas and Lucas has made a lot of progress on staining their chairs, nice work! After a while Grace got pretty upset and we decided to step out. Lucas and Katie have been housing my car this whole time, warm and toasty in their garage. Mom and Dad drove home in their car and I was able to drive my car home.
Oh how I missed my car and driving, it felt great to be behind the wheel again, even though there was ice and snow covering the ground. I even found my cell phone in the car and was able to turn it on for the first time in a month and check my messages. As I headed to the Interstate my favorite song for the moment, came on the radio and it certainly put a smile on my face as I thought, Welcome Home. I very much enjoyed my drive home, it is one of the things I missed the most, driving that is.
Dad helped me park my car in the garage giving me directions so I didn't bump my stacked up furniture from my old apartment. Its a tight fit, but I was able to get the car inside. We settled upstairs for some cookies and milk and chatted for a bit. I pulled out some gifts to show Mom and finally it was time to retire to bed. So here I am, lying in my comfortable bed after a clean shower and ready to go to sleep.
I am happy and sad to be home all at once. There are so many things I missed from home, but there are so many things I will miss about Europe. My trip was the trip of a lifetime, it was wonderful and I owe a special thank you to everyone who housed me and fed me. Jim, thank you for all your hospitality, it was wonderful spending so much time with you and experiencing everything we did.
As it is the end of my trip, I will say goodbye. I do hope you enjoyed my stories, I was so pleased to share my experiences with you. Bon voyage Europe, I hope to see you again soon.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Day 29 - Credit Card Day Finishes my Time in Europe
Jim woke up this morning to go to work at his usual time. Nicole and I were a little later, but we were able to get up at a good hour and get ready for our day. We rushed through getting ready with plans to meet Jim at 2:00 at his shop. My cell phone minutes had run out completely and we had no way to contact each other, so we had to meet at a certain time.
Nicole and I left the flat and headed straight for La Defense, the new grande arc of Paris. It was a LONG ride out to Le Defense. We sat across from a little boy about 3 or so, and he was the worst behaving child. Well not really, but boy did he get on my nerves. He decided to roll his lips together which resulting in him spitting everywhere and all I can say is the ride was even longer sitting across from such an obnoxious boy.
We arrived at La Defense and immediately walked out of the metro station. The arc was right in front of us and big as ever! The area around was kind-of pretty. Very different from the regular Paris, it was all glass and metal business buildings, but it all looked very cool. We took a lot of pictures and admired the area. It was so foggy you could hardly see across the metal buildings. It was very eerie looking and Nicole hated it, but I thought it made the glass buildings look even more neat. The fog separated this business structure from Paris and cut us off completely.
I was so excited to turn around and see a very large Christmas mart behind us. I haven't seen such a large Christmas mart in a long time and I was so excited to walk through it. There had all the usual junk that they sell, and some very cool things too. We had a great time walking through and seeing it all. We laughed at the French acting out info-commercials in front of us and trying to sell us things. I was able to buy a crepe for myself, thinking it would be my last and enjoyed it immensely. Nicole bought herself some warm chestnuts, which were...interesting to say the least. I hated them and liked them all at once, but we were only able to eat a couple at one time.
We finally left the Christmas mart at 20 till 2:00, we stayed there for so long! We intended to head to Sacre Cure, but we had run out of time. So we tried to find a pay phone to call Jim, but turns out the pay phones here don't except cash, only cards. So...we decided to just head to the bookstore now to meet Jim. We walked towards the Metro station and I handed Nicole her card to enter the metro, as I always did. But the exit was open, so we just walked right into the station without using our tickets. So I turned to Nicole to get her new ticket back from her so we could keep them all together. She handed me two used tickets and I told her they had already been used, where was the ticket I just gave her? But she insisted she couldn't find it, and it must be one of those two. So we are still bickering over the lost ticket, because this is the second time I have handed a blank ticket to Nicole and she lost it. So I made a vow right there to not hand her a ticket until we walk right up to the gate for her to use. Tisk Tisk.
We walked to Jim's bookstore and entered to say hello. On the walk there from the metro station we saw Santa Claus walking towards us. Actually, Nicole saw him walking towards us and shouted, "Santa Claus." It was really fun and I took a picture. It was a great thing to put us in the mood for Christmas. Once in the store, we were able to say both hello and goodbye to Jack and the other Jim. All three of us left and headed to Jim's local restaurant on the corner for lunch. We sat down at the only open table since it was rather crowded and as we were taking off our coats, I hit my head on the lamp above me and knocked the shade completely off the lamp. To make it worse, the shade hit my arm and I accidentally shot it across the restaurant, and I believe it hit at least about two people. I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of our entrance, and goodness they were. Everyone gasps and then laughed at me and even the waitress made fun of me after taking our order. Great.
Lunch was delicious and once everyone forgot about my lamp experience I settled in my seat a little better. But my table was wobbly and every time I moved it would shake and threaten to throw my drink on the floor. This restaurant was very good at making me feel like a clumsy giant who would break everything in sight. In the middle of lunch the women behind us turned around and said to me, "I heard someone over here speaking very good English, was it you?" She had a very southern accent and was with her two children and husband. I said that we were all American and she made a sigh of relief. She told us she bought an International cell phone, but she couldn't figure out how to dial to the US. So we told her how to call home and she was so excited to have the help. She said she didn't know any French and it was great to have help from fellow Americans. We all thought it was rather funny, but I was excited because I actually knew the answer to her question.
After lunch we walked back to the bookstore because I forgot to take a picture in front of it. Next we walked the streets of the neighborhood which were very cute and Jim took us to a specialty shop so I could pick up a little something. Once we finished there, Jim took us to the best crepe place in Paris. We walked up to a little shop window painted dark blue with large glass jars filled with jelly's and peanuts outside. The street was full of drunk men around, Nicole and my age filling out of the Irish Pub across the street. There were men everywhere, and I mean everywhere! We all laughed because we were the only women in sight and all the boys turned to look at us as we walked up the street. Every single guy had a beer in their hand and some had football scarves around their necks. We guessed there was a big football match in Paris and this was the meeting area for all the boys. It was incredible. Nicole and I each ordered a crepe with chocolate and banana and it was so fun watching the guy make them. The first bite and I knew it was the best crepe in Paris, it melted in my mouth. It was so good, so I had to take pictures with us and our crepes in front of all the boys! We walked right in the middle of all the action to watch all the boys as we finished our dessert. Oh what a sight!
When we finished, we got back on the metro and Jim left us to head home. Jim realized earlier today that he could not find his credit card and he was in a rush to get home and see if he could find it. The last place we remember him using it was in Amsterdam, so we were all wondering where it had gone. Nicole and I went on to Sacre Cure. We finally arrived and took pictures in front of the very large cathedral. We sucked it up and walked up the HUGE amount of steps to get to the top. On the way up we were accosted by groups of men trying to sell us shit. They just would not take no for an answer and it was so frustrating trying to get away from them.
The Scare Cure Cathedral is my favorite, its so huge and really is inspiring. It felt really great to be back there, especially my last day in Paris. The view from the top of the hill is great too and we stood there admiring it for a long time. We took our tour of the cathedral and I lit a candle there for John. Outside the Cathedral we walked the streets and in and out of the shops. We found ourselves in a Chocolate shop where the guys working loved us. They kept shoving chocolate down our throats with all different samples and it was so much fun being in there. We continued on going in and out of touristy shops and finally made our way back home.
Once home I was able to tackle my backpack and started packing all my things. It was a challenge believe me! I have a lot more now than when I started and as I type this I have no idea how I will get it all home! But I did as much as I could and then we drank some wine to relax.
It was time for dinner and Jim took us to his local Mexican restaurant just a little ways from his apartment. I was so excited for Mexican! The place was so fun, it was so cozy and they were so friendly, I loved it. We ordered a pitcher of margaritas and nachos to share and we gulped them all right down. It was so funny to be in Paris and be at a Mexican restaurant. We were speaking French, Spanish and English! Dinner was AMAZING, I have missed Mexican food so much and it was WAY better than Mexican food at home! We finished the meal with ice cream, well Nicole and I did. Jim had a Cognac. Nicole had chocolate and coconut ice cream and I had mango and coconut. AMAZING! The coconut was so good, it melted in my mouth. As we were paying the bill my credit card was declined and I had to use another one. This was commemorative of my last night here in Paris...I need to go home now, I have no money left. But I paid for my part of the meal and we headed to a bar around the corner.
Jim wanted to show Nicole and I the neighborhood he calls Bo Bo. We walked around and he pointed out all the bars, packed with people. It did look very fun and I would have really enjoyed it, if I could speak French and I wasn't so tired. We settled at a bar called the Green Place and ordered a round. They played Michael Jackson the whole time, and I have to admit it was very comfortable! Once we finished, we continued our tour of the neighborhood and Jim walked me by a bar that he thought was so funny. It was called Sans Gene, meaning without Gene. He just had to get my picture in front of the bar. I felt a little silty, but it was quite funny.
So here we are at home, Jim is showing us some very neat pop-up books he has in his collection and I am typing away. I am getting very tired and not only am I dreading my long day of travel tomorrow, I am dreading going home. :(
It has been a wonderful trip around Europe and I certainly don't want the real world to hit me quite yet. So, although I don't want to come home yet...I will see you all soon! Can't wait!
Nicole and I left the flat and headed straight for La Defense, the new grande arc of Paris. It was a LONG ride out to Le Defense. We sat across from a little boy about 3 or so, and he was the worst behaving child. Well not really, but boy did he get on my nerves. He decided to roll his lips together which resulting in him spitting everywhere and all I can say is the ride was even longer sitting across from such an obnoxious boy.
We arrived at La Defense and immediately walked out of the metro station. The arc was right in front of us and big as ever! The area around was kind-of pretty. Very different from the regular Paris, it was all glass and metal business buildings, but it all looked very cool. We took a lot of pictures and admired the area. It was so foggy you could hardly see across the metal buildings. It was very eerie looking and Nicole hated it, but I thought it made the glass buildings look even more neat. The fog separated this business structure from Paris and cut us off completely.
I was so excited to turn around and see a very large Christmas mart behind us. I haven't seen such a large Christmas mart in a long time and I was so excited to walk through it. There had all the usual junk that they sell, and some very cool things too. We had a great time walking through and seeing it all. We laughed at the French acting out info-commercials in front of us and trying to sell us things. I was able to buy a crepe for myself, thinking it would be my last and enjoyed it immensely. Nicole bought herself some warm chestnuts, which were...interesting to say the least. I hated them and liked them all at once, but we were only able to eat a couple at one time.
We finally left the Christmas mart at 20 till 2:00, we stayed there for so long! We intended to head to Sacre Cure, but we had run out of time. So we tried to find a pay phone to call Jim, but turns out the pay phones here don't except cash, only cards. So...we decided to just head to the bookstore now to meet Jim. We walked towards the Metro station and I handed Nicole her card to enter the metro, as I always did. But the exit was open, so we just walked right into the station without using our tickets. So I turned to Nicole to get her new ticket back from her so we could keep them all together. She handed me two used tickets and I told her they had already been used, where was the ticket I just gave her? But she insisted she couldn't find it, and it must be one of those two. So we are still bickering over the lost ticket, because this is the second time I have handed a blank ticket to Nicole and she lost it. So I made a vow right there to not hand her a ticket until we walk right up to the gate for her to use. Tisk Tisk.
We walked to Jim's bookstore and entered to say hello. On the walk there from the metro station we saw Santa Claus walking towards us. Actually, Nicole saw him walking towards us and shouted, "Santa Claus." It was really fun and I took a picture. It was a great thing to put us in the mood for Christmas. Once in the store, we were able to say both hello and goodbye to Jack and the other Jim. All three of us left and headed to Jim's local restaurant on the corner for lunch. We sat down at the only open table since it was rather crowded and as we were taking off our coats, I hit my head on the lamp above me and knocked the shade completely off the lamp. To make it worse, the shade hit my arm and I accidentally shot it across the restaurant, and I believe it hit at least about two people. I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of our entrance, and goodness they were. Everyone gasps and then laughed at me and even the waitress made fun of me after taking our order. Great.
Lunch was delicious and once everyone forgot about my lamp experience I settled in my seat a little better. But my table was wobbly and every time I moved it would shake and threaten to throw my drink on the floor. This restaurant was very good at making me feel like a clumsy giant who would break everything in sight. In the middle of lunch the women behind us turned around and said to me, "I heard someone over here speaking very good English, was it you?" She had a very southern accent and was with her two children and husband. I said that we were all American and she made a sigh of relief. She told us she bought an International cell phone, but she couldn't figure out how to dial to the US. So we told her how to call home and she was so excited to have the help. She said she didn't know any French and it was great to have help from fellow Americans. We all thought it was rather funny, but I was excited because I actually knew the answer to her question.
After lunch we walked back to the bookstore because I forgot to take a picture in front of it. Next we walked the streets of the neighborhood which were very cute and Jim took us to a specialty shop so I could pick up a little something. Once we finished there, Jim took us to the best crepe place in Paris. We walked up to a little shop window painted dark blue with large glass jars filled with jelly's and peanuts outside. The street was full of drunk men around, Nicole and my age filling out of the Irish Pub across the street. There were men everywhere, and I mean everywhere! We all laughed because we were the only women in sight and all the boys turned to look at us as we walked up the street. Every single guy had a beer in their hand and some had football scarves around their necks. We guessed there was a big football match in Paris and this was the meeting area for all the boys. It was incredible. Nicole and I each ordered a crepe with chocolate and banana and it was so fun watching the guy make them. The first bite and I knew it was the best crepe in Paris, it melted in my mouth. It was so good, so I had to take pictures with us and our crepes in front of all the boys! We walked right in the middle of all the action to watch all the boys as we finished our dessert. Oh what a sight!
When we finished, we got back on the metro and Jim left us to head home. Jim realized earlier today that he could not find his credit card and he was in a rush to get home and see if he could find it. The last place we remember him using it was in Amsterdam, so we were all wondering where it had gone. Nicole and I went on to Sacre Cure. We finally arrived and took pictures in front of the very large cathedral. We sucked it up and walked up the HUGE amount of steps to get to the top. On the way up we were accosted by groups of men trying to sell us shit. They just would not take no for an answer and it was so frustrating trying to get away from them.
The Scare Cure Cathedral is my favorite, its so huge and really is inspiring. It felt really great to be back there, especially my last day in Paris. The view from the top of the hill is great too and we stood there admiring it for a long time. We took our tour of the cathedral and I lit a candle there for John. Outside the Cathedral we walked the streets and in and out of the shops. We found ourselves in a Chocolate shop where the guys working loved us. They kept shoving chocolate down our throats with all different samples and it was so much fun being in there. We continued on going in and out of touristy shops and finally made our way back home.
Once home I was able to tackle my backpack and started packing all my things. It was a challenge believe me! I have a lot more now than when I started and as I type this I have no idea how I will get it all home! But I did as much as I could and then we drank some wine to relax.
It was time for dinner and Jim took us to his local Mexican restaurant just a little ways from his apartment. I was so excited for Mexican! The place was so fun, it was so cozy and they were so friendly, I loved it. We ordered a pitcher of margaritas and nachos to share and we gulped them all right down. It was so funny to be in Paris and be at a Mexican restaurant. We were speaking French, Spanish and English! Dinner was AMAZING, I have missed Mexican food so much and it was WAY better than Mexican food at home! We finished the meal with ice cream, well Nicole and I did. Jim had a Cognac. Nicole had chocolate and coconut ice cream and I had mango and coconut. AMAZING! The coconut was so good, it melted in my mouth. As we were paying the bill my credit card was declined and I had to use another one. This was commemorative of my last night here in Paris...I need to go home now, I have no money left. But I paid for my part of the meal and we headed to a bar around the corner.
Jim wanted to show Nicole and I the neighborhood he calls Bo Bo. We walked around and he pointed out all the bars, packed with people. It did look very fun and I would have really enjoyed it, if I could speak French and I wasn't so tired. We settled at a bar called the Green Place and ordered a round. They played Michael Jackson the whole time, and I have to admit it was very comfortable! Once we finished, we continued our tour of the neighborhood and Jim walked me by a bar that he thought was so funny. It was called Sans Gene, meaning without Gene. He just had to get my picture in front of the bar. I felt a little silty, but it was quite funny.
So here we are at home, Jim is showing us some very neat pop-up books he has in his collection and I am typing away. I am getting very tired and not only am I dreading my long day of travel tomorrow, I am dreading going home. :(
It has been a wonderful trip around Europe and I certainly don't want the real world to hit me quite yet. So, although I don't want to come home yet...I will see you all soon! Can't wait!
Day 28 - Versailles and Tour Eiffel
We were determined this morning and actually set our alarms to make sure we woke up early. We also dressed for warmth because it was raining and miserable outside. We all managed to get ready and out the door by 9, which is impressive for us. We made it to the train station and easily purchased our tickets for the train, and for the entire grounds at Versailles. The train was a double-decker train and I decided I wanted to sit on top for a change, so we did. Jim also directed Nicole and I to the side of the train with the better view, and he was right the views were great!
We pulled into Versailles and walked the short distance from the train station to the Chateau de Versailles. The weather had not improved in the slightest but luckily I brought my hat to help keep the rain off me. The gate at the Chateau is very impressive, all gold, it most certainly stands out. We walked up through the gate and went through the main entrance with the tickets we purchased at the train station. Jim and Nicole had to check their large umbrellas at the door, but I walked in with no problems.
Once inside the gate we saw a large sculpture by Jeff Koons called "Balloon Flower" in front of the Chateau. It looked very out of place, but it was a cool sculpture. We walked inside the Chateau to follow the tour and I searched for the audio guides. Jim was very hesitant to walk around with an audio guide, and he refused to do it at first. But Nicole and I were both getting one, so we finally talked him into it. Yes, we did look silly, yes we did take a picture, but they did keep the tour interesting. The tour started with the grand chapel built by Louis XIV. JeffKoons sculptures were placed in various rooms throughout the tour and I have to say having modern art inside a room from the 18th century was an odd experience. The palace was beautiful and the art was really cool, but we did play a game of "what item in this room does not belong" with almost every room we walked into. It actually became a rather entertaining game.
It is winter here, and although the palace was not packed with tourists, there were a lot of them. It is sad to say, but the palace was filled with the stereotypical Asian tourists. They move in herds as their tour guide leads them along and they snap pictures of anything...anything! I will describe our favorite girl, she was dressed in brightly colored converse shoes, white and pink socks with a floral theme placed over green and black stripped tights, a creme colored eyelet skirt, a maroon jacket with a backpack on and funky colored glasses. Nicole and I watched her move from room to room and snap picture after picture of the stupidest things. The best part was she didn't even look at the screen to see the picture, she would just hold up the camera in a general direction, take a picture and then turn the other way and snap another. I bet she took 200 pictures inside the palace alone! Okay, maybe I had more fun watching all the tourists inside the palace than actually admiring the palace. Who can blame me? It was an experience just watching people's excitement.
I on the other hand took my camera out, maybe three times to take picture of Jeff Koon's art. Guess what happened my fourth time? My camera died. Yes, I came all the way to Versailles and no camera. Perfect. I do have to note that this new camera is fabulous, I have not charged the camera once since I left for Europe on November19th ! Almost a month later and it finally dies. Incredible! Of course it doesn't give me much of a warning that the battery is getting low, but still I couldn't believe this is the first time I needed to charge it!
I will say the Hall of Mirrors was my favorite part, I can't imagine living in a world like that! After the tour we found a bathroom and had an interesting experience getting the umbrellas back. Jim and Nicole walked through a maze, back through security and had to get through locked doors, all to get back their umbrellas, it was so so odd. I really wanted to tour the gardens and see Marie-Antoinette's Village, so we decided to brave the cold and walk around the property. I said, "we should go until we just can't take it anymore," and off we went. The gardens were beautiful in the dead of winter, so I can't imagine what they would look like in the summer! Sadly almost all the statues were covered and the fountains were turned off, so we didn't get to see the gardens in their full splendor, but it was still really pretty to walk through.
In case you have never been to Versailles, let me tell you, ITS HUGE!! We walked for a couple miles in the cold and found ourselves at PetitTrianon , which is a smaller home just like the palace. We took our tour and walked around the gardens there finding ourselves at the Temple of Love, which is gorgeous. The Temple is placed in the middle of a small island, as Nicole and I walked over the bridge we admired a swan for a long time. He was so graceful as he dipped his head into the lake for food and swam around close to us. Since I didn't have a camera with me, Nicole took a few pictures of the swan and the area. Jim took a picture of me in front of the Temple of Love, Nicole however refused to be photographed on 'island of love'...not sure what that is about. :)
We looked at the map and figured we still had another 2 miles to walk until we reached Marie-Antoinette's village called, Queen's Hamlet. It was way past lunch time and we were freezing and hungry so we decided to make the walk back to the palace and onto the train station. The walk was uneventful and as we neared the train station we turned another directions to find us a nice little place to eat. We were so happy to sit down that is was hard to focus on the menu. Jim and I both eyed our neighbors large iron pot of Beef Stew and happily ordered. Nicole could only find one thing on the menu that was vegetarian and ordered it, a salad. Poor girl, Europe is just not made for vegetarians. We ordered wine for the table and at last minute Jim asked me ifi would share some oysters with him. I have eaten one ray oyster in my life and I HATED it. But I am not the type of person to back down from trying new things, so I agreed. A little while later 6 oysters arrived in front of Jim and he gave me the basic overview on how to eat them..."scoop out the foot on the bottom, make sure to scrap it out so it floats in the water...". I did everything he said and added a little red wine vinegar with onions. Nicole snapped my picture (with her camera of course) and down it went. It just slid right down...and it took me a second to realizei was actually pretty good! I was really surprised with myself, I actually liked it. It tasted like the sea, which is hard to explain, but it did! Jim offered me another so I went through the same routine and ate the second one. I am not sure I would settle down with a plate of oysters for a meal, but all in all I like them. So there you go, I tried something new again and I liked it. The stew arrived and Jim and I were both very pleased with our decision. It was AMAZING and the perfect thing on a cold day like today. Nicole's salad wasn't quite as good as she would have hoped and I felt bad for her. After Jim's usual coffee we walked to the train station and got on the train. We weren't positive it was our train, but we figured what the hell?
Nicole and I instantly dozed off after having a full stomach and some wine. Jim started reading, but I'm pretty sure he dozed off too. I woke up just in time to see us arrive at the station Tour Eiffel. Earlier we discussed Nicole and I stopping at the Eiffel Tour on the way home and meeting Jim at the apartment later. So Jim casually said, "you know, you two could get off here to see the Eiffel Tower." And with that Nicole and I jumped up and ran down the stairs and off the train. My knee was really stiff and I was amazed I actually made it to the platform without falling down. Nicole and I walked out of the Metro and straight to the Eiffel Tour. It was great to see it again in all its mighty. I took numerous pictures of Nicole in front of the tour and just as we finished a young guy asked me if I would take his picture too. So I agreed and knelt down, my knee still killing me, and it gave out and my knee hit the pavement, the wet, cold muddy pavement. I took the picture, handed back his camera and looked down to find my newly washed jeans dirty in one big circle around my knee. Bummer! I was so sad, and my mood as a little ruined. But the smell of cotton candy was enticing and Nicole said we will find some treats to cheer me up. We walked around the bottom of the tour, found a bathroom and looked at the not so long line. We were approached by MANY guys trying to sell little Eiffel Tower trinkets, which we found so funny. We like the little stations set up on the ground with strings on either side, so when the cops come they can grab the strings and run!
We walked across the street to get the best view of the Eiffel Tour and stopped at a little stand for a snack. You guessed it, we each got a Crepe of Nutella and a Coca-light. On our way, we were again asked by a nice couple if we could take their picture in front of the tour and we agreed. We then made our way up the stairs and enjoyed our delicious snack watching the Eiffel Tower. The clouds had finally broke for the first time since our arrival and we could see the sun's reflection on the clouds as it was setting. It was beautiful outside. The sun went down and we watched the Eiffel Tower suddenly glow a blue/purple color, that I declared as Indigo. The Tour was also decorated with large golden stars that turned on as well, and it was so pretty to see it shining in the city. The view from up there was great too. It was finally not quite as foggy and we could see all the monuments of the city. We stood there for a long time enjoying the atmosphere. We walked up a little higher and again, two guys asked us if we could take their picture. I swear I must have had a large sign saying "I am here to take your picture, just ask!" But oh well, at least I was able to help people out. Nicole and I slowly made our way down the hill and back towards the metro. It was so nice outside that we took our time walking back.
Once inside the metro we navigated our way to the fancy department store because I still needed to do some shopping. We went to the Opera House Metro stop and walked outside to head over to the department store. As we walked to the department store, Nicole excitedly pointed toward a girl walking in front of us and shouted "oh my god its that picture girl!" Sure enough walking on the street in front of us was the odd dressed girl from Versailles, strutting along. We couldn't believe out of the entire city of Paris and after our stop at the Eiffel tour we would see her here! It was so funny! We shopped a little bit, but left empty handed and went back to Jim's apartment.
Jim let us in the door and we all were able to sit down and rest. Nicole instantly fell asleep on the air mattress as I talked to Jim for a little while. I tried to startblogging , but I felt tired as both of them were napping and I laid down next to Nicole to take a nap myself. Only Nicole had decided to lay on top of the blankets wrapped up in the bathrobe, so it was a bit of a battle getting under the cozy comforter to sleep.
Jim had told us about a houseboat party that night and Nicole and I thought about going. It started at 7:30 and was supposed to have French poetry readings and live music. At 8:30 Jim woke us to say we should probably get ready if we wanted to go to the party. We slowly got up and it took us a long time to decide if we wanted to go or not. It was so cold outside and we didn't know where we were going, plus it was a long ride to get there. But at last we decided we have to go and quickly got up to get ready. I was finally able to get out the black dress I brought with me and get dressed up for an evening out! Nicole and I took some time getting all dolled up and Jim researched directions on how to find the houseboat. Jim showed me onGoogle Maps how to get there and we were off.
We navigated our way through the metro, to the speed train, 14 and all the way outside the city center to the Bibliotheque. We got off the Metro stop just like Jim said and walked outside. It took us about 15 minutes to realize we didn't come out of the right exit and we still needed to go up farther to find our way. Once we found the right street (after a lot of puzzled looks at the map), we confidently walked down the street to the river and took a right, just like Jim said. We were supposed to take a right, walk to the next bridge and the boat was supposed to be on the left side in the water. But we walked the whole way (most likely 2 miles) and it was all industrial stuff. Mostly cement factories lining the water. We finally gave up after about an hour of walking and trying to look at the map and retraced our steps to the metro station. As soon as we reached the bridge we started at we saw lots of boats with flashing lights and looked over the pier to find two boats filled with people. We thought we recognized the one boat from the picture but it had a HUGE line out front. At this point we were so frustrated and tired that we really didn't want to stand in a line, in the cold next to the river to get into this party. It was already after 11, and the metro stopped running at 12:45 and we had a long ride home. So we said forget it and made our way back to the station.
You can imagine we weren't in the best of spirits, but we decided to stop in central Paris and find a bar and a place to eat to end the evening. Once we were in central Paris we realized all the restaurants had closed down and it was very difficult to find food. We remembered a food stand from earlier and walked there. Nicole got a baguette with cheese and fries. I just ordered fries, but it took me a while to explain to the workers what I wanted. They didn't understand fries, and apparently I couldn't pronounce "frites" correctly. Finally I said Chips and they were instantly knew what I meant. After we ate our food, since we were starving, we went out into the street to find a bar. We walked around the corner and settled for a fancy looking techno bar. We walked in and walked straight to the bar. The bartender was really friendly and helped us order with mixed English and French. We paid €7.50 each for our tiny drinks with fancy glow sticks in them and took a seat. Once we looked around we soon realized we were in a gay bar. Leave it to Nicole and Anna, our one night out looking for a bar and we settle for a gay bar. So we laughed and said it was just like our game earlier, "what in this room doesn't belong?" It was still a delicious drink and we were entertained.
We wanted to go to another bar, but it was nearing time for the metro to stop and we really didn't want to miss that, so we walked back to the station. After waking Jim up upon our arrival and explaining to him that we never found the boat we went to bed. We were pretty hyper and talked for a long time about us not wanting to go home yet, and perhaps we should change our tickets and go to Ireland instead. Finally we dozed off after a long day.
We pulled into Versailles and walked the short distance from the train station to the Chateau de Versailles. The weather had not improved in the slightest but luckily I brought my hat to help keep the rain off me. The gate at the Chateau is very impressive, all gold, it most certainly stands out. We walked up through the gate and went through the main entrance with the tickets we purchased at the train station. Jim and Nicole had to check their large umbrellas at the door, but I walked in with no problems.
Once inside the gate we saw a large sculpture by Jeff Koons called "Balloon Flower" in front of the Chateau. It looked very out of place, but it was a cool sculpture. We walked inside the Chateau to follow the tour and I searched for the audio guides. Jim was very hesitant to walk around with an audio guide, and he refused to do it at first. But Nicole and I were both getting one, so we finally talked him into it. Yes, we did look silly, yes we did take a picture, but they did keep the tour interesting. The tour started with the grand chapel built by Louis XIV. JeffKoons sculptures were placed in various rooms throughout the tour and I have to say having modern art inside a room from the 18th century was an odd experience. The palace was beautiful and the art was really cool, but we did play a game of "what item in this room does not belong" with almost every room we walked into. It actually became a rather entertaining game.
It is winter here, and although the palace was not packed with tourists, there were a lot of them. It is sad to say, but the palace was filled with the stereotypical Asian tourists. They move in herds as their tour guide leads them along and they snap pictures of anything...anything! I will describe our favorite girl, she was dressed in brightly colored converse shoes, white and pink socks with a floral theme placed over green and black stripped tights, a creme colored eyelet skirt, a maroon jacket with a backpack on and funky colored glasses. Nicole and I watched her move from room to room and snap picture after picture of the stupidest things. The best part was she didn't even look at the screen to see the picture, she would just hold up the camera in a general direction, take a picture and then turn the other way and snap another. I bet she took 200 pictures inside the palace alone! Okay, maybe I had more fun watching all the tourists inside the palace than actually admiring the palace. Who can blame me? It was an experience just watching people's excitement.
I on the other hand took my camera out, maybe three times to take picture of Jeff Koon's art. Guess what happened my fourth time? My camera died. Yes, I came all the way to Versailles and no camera. Perfect. I do have to note that this new camera is fabulous, I have not charged the camera once since I left for Europe on November19th ! Almost a month later and it finally dies. Incredible! Of course it doesn't give me much of a warning that the battery is getting low, but still I couldn't believe this is the first time I needed to charge it!
I will say the Hall of Mirrors was my favorite part, I can't imagine living in a world like that! After the tour we found a bathroom and had an interesting experience getting the umbrellas back. Jim and Nicole walked through a maze, back through security and had to get through locked doors, all to get back their umbrellas, it was so so odd. I really wanted to tour the gardens and see Marie-Antoinette's Village, so we decided to brave the cold and walk around the property. I said, "we should go until we just can't take it anymore," and off we went. The gardens were beautiful in the dead of winter, so I can't imagine what they would look like in the summer! Sadly almost all the statues were covered and the fountains were turned off, so we didn't get to see the gardens in their full splendor, but it was still really pretty to walk through.
In case you have never been to Versailles, let me tell you, ITS HUGE!! We walked for a couple miles in the cold and found ourselves at PetitTrianon , which is a smaller home just like the palace. We took our tour and walked around the gardens there finding ourselves at the Temple of Love, which is gorgeous. The Temple is placed in the middle of a small island, as Nicole and I walked over the bridge we admired a swan for a long time. He was so graceful as he dipped his head into the lake for food and swam around close to us. Since I didn't have a camera with me, Nicole took a few pictures of the swan and the area. Jim took a picture of me in front of the Temple of Love, Nicole however refused to be photographed on 'island of love'...not sure what that is about. :)
We looked at the map and figured we still had another 2 miles to walk until we reached Marie-Antoinette's village called, Queen's Hamlet. It was way past lunch time and we were freezing and hungry so we decided to make the walk back to the palace and onto the train station. The walk was uneventful and as we neared the train station we turned another directions to find us a nice little place to eat. We were so happy to sit down that is was hard to focus on the menu. Jim and I both eyed our neighbors large iron pot of Beef Stew and happily ordered. Nicole could only find one thing on the menu that was vegetarian and ordered it, a salad. Poor girl, Europe is just not made for vegetarians. We ordered wine for the table and at last minute Jim asked me ifi would share some oysters with him. I have eaten one ray oyster in my life and I HATED it. But I am not the type of person to back down from trying new things, so I agreed. A little while later 6 oysters arrived in front of Jim and he gave me the basic overview on how to eat them..."scoop out the foot on the bottom, make sure to scrap it out so it floats in the water...". I did everything he said and added a little red wine vinegar with onions. Nicole snapped my picture (with her camera of course) and down it went. It just slid right down...and it took me a second to realizei was actually pretty good! I was really surprised with myself, I actually liked it. It tasted like the sea, which is hard to explain, but it did! Jim offered me another so I went through the same routine and ate the second one. I am not sure I would settle down with a plate of oysters for a meal, but all in all I like them. So there you go, I tried something new again and I liked it. The stew arrived and Jim and I were both very pleased with our decision. It was AMAZING and the perfect thing on a cold day like today. Nicole's salad wasn't quite as good as she would have hoped and I felt bad for her. After Jim's usual coffee we walked to the train station and got on the train. We weren't positive it was our train, but we figured what the hell?
Nicole and I instantly dozed off after having a full stomach and some wine. Jim started reading, but I'm pretty sure he dozed off too. I woke up just in time to see us arrive at the station Tour Eiffel. Earlier we discussed Nicole and I stopping at the Eiffel Tour on the way home and meeting Jim at the apartment later. So Jim casually said, "you know, you two could get off here to see the Eiffel Tower." And with that Nicole and I jumped up and ran down the stairs and off the train. My knee was really stiff and I was amazed I actually made it to the platform without falling down. Nicole and I walked out of the Metro and straight to the Eiffel Tour. It was great to see it again in all its mighty. I took numerous pictures of Nicole in front of the tour and just as we finished a young guy asked me if I would take his picture too. So I agreed and knelt down, my knee still killing me, and it gave out and my knee hit the pavement, the wet, cold muddy pavement. I took the picture, handed back his camera and looked down to find my newly washed jeans dirty in one big circle around my knee. Bummer! I was so sad, and my mood as a little ruined. But the smell of cotton candy was enticing and Nicole said we will find some treats to cheer me up. We walked around the bottom of the tour, found a bathroom and looked at the not so long line. We were approached by MANY guys trying to sell little Eiffel Tower trinkets, which we found so funny. We like the little stations set up on the ground with strings on either side, so when the cops come they can grab the strings and run!
We walked across the street to get the best view of the Eiffel Tour and stopped at a little stand for a snack. You guessed it, we each got a Crepe of Nutella and a Coca-light. On our way, we were again asked by a nice couple if we could take their picture in front of the tour and we agreed. We then made our way up the stairs and enjoyed our delicious snack watching the Eiffel Tower. The clouds had finally broke for the first time since our arrival and we could see the sun's reflection on the clouds as it was setting. It was beautiful outside. The sun went down and we watched the Eiffel Tower suddenly glow a blue/purple color, that I declared as Indigo. The Tour was also decorated with large golden stars that turned on as well, and it was so pretty to see it shining in the city. The view from up there was great too. It was finally not quite as foggy and we could see all the monuments of the city. We stood there for a long time enjoying the atmosphere. We walked up a little higher and again, two guys asked us if we could take their picture. I swear I must have had a large sign saying "I am here to take your picture, just ask!" But oh well, at least I was able to help people out. Nicole and I slowly made our way down the hill and back towards the metro. It was so nice outside that we took our time walking back.
Once inside the metro we navigated our way to the fancy department store because I still needed to do some shopping. We went to the Opera House Metro stop and walked outside to head over to the department store. As we walked to the department store, Nicole excitedly pointed toward a girl walking in front of us and shouted "oh my god its that picture girl!" Sure enough walking on the street in front of us was the odd dressed girl from Versailles, strutting along. We couldn't believe out of the entire city of Paris and after our stop at the Eiffel tour we would see her here! It was so funny! We shopped a little bit, but left empty handed and went back to Jim's apartment.
Jim let us in the door and we all were able to sit down and rest. Nicole instantly fell asleep on the air mattress as I talked to Jim for a little while. I tried to startblogging , but I felt tired as both of them were napping and I laid down next to Nicole to take a nap myself. Only Nicole had decided to lay on top of the blankets wrapped up in the bathrobe, so it was a bit of a battle getting under the cozy comforter to sleep.
Jim had told us about a houseboat party that night and Nicole and I thought about going. It started at 7:30 and was supposed to have French poetry readings and live music. At 8:30 Jim woke us to say we should probably get ready if we wanted to go to the party. We slowly got up and it took us a long time to decide if we wanted to go or not. It was so cold outside and we didn't know where we were going, plus it was a long ride to get there. But at last we decided we have to go and quickly got up to get ready. I was finally able to get out the black dress I brought with me and get dressed up for an evening out! Nicole and I took some time getting all dolled up and Jim researched directions on how to find the houseboat. Jim showed me onGoogle Maps how to get there and we were off.
We navigated our way through the metro, to the speed train, 14 and all the way outside the city center to the Bibliotheque. We got off the Metro stop just like Jim said and walked outside. It took us about 15 minutes to realize we didn't come out of the right exit and we still needed to go up farther to find our way. Once we found the right street (after a lot of puzzled looks at the map), we confidently walked down the street to the river and took a right, just like Jim said. We were supposed to take a right, walk to the next bridge and the boat was supposed to be on the left side in the water. But we walked the whole way (most likely 2 miles) and it was all industrial stuff. Mostly cement factories lining the water. We finally gave up after about an hour of walking and trying to look at the map and retraced our steps to the metro station. As soon as we reached the bridge we started at we saw lots of boats with flashing lights and looked over the pier to find two boats filled with people. We thought we recognized the one boat from the picture but it had a HUGE line out front. At this point we were so frustrated and tired that we really didn't want to stand in a line, in the cold next to the river to get into this party. It was already after 11, and the metro stopped running at 12:45 and we had a long ride home. So we said forget it and made our way back to the station.
You can imagine we weren't in the best of spirits, but we decided to stop in central Paris and find a bar and a place to eat to end the evening. Once we were in central Paris we realized all the restaurants had closed down and it was very difficult to find food. We remembered a food stand from earlier and walked there. Nicole got a baguette with cheese and fries. I just ordered fries, but it took me a while to explain to the workers what I wanted. They didn't understand fries, and apparently I couldn't pronounce "frites" correctly. Finally I said Chips and they were instantly knew what I meant. After we ate our food, since we were starving, we went out into the street to find a bar. We walked around the corner and settled for a fancy looking techno bar. We walked in and walked straight to the bar. The bartender was really friendly and helped us order with mixed English and French. We paid €7.50 each for our tiny drinks with fancy glow sticks in them and took a seat. Once we looked around we soon realized we were in a gay bar. Leave it to Nicole and Anna, our one night out looking for a bar and we settle for a gay bar. So we laughed and said it was just like our game earlier, "what in this room doesn't belong?" It was still a delicious drink and we were entertained.
We wanted to go to another bar, but it was nearing time for the metro to stop and we really didn't want to miss that, so we walked back to the station. After waking Jim up upon our arrival and explaining to him that we never found the boat we went to bed. We were pretty hyper and talked for a long time about us not wanting to go home yet, and perhaps we should change our tickets and go to Ireland instead. Finally we dozed off after a long day.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Day 27 - A Cold Day of Art
Nicole and I stayed up late last night reading my book, laughing historically the entire time. We found it highly entertaining and it was hard to put down. So, we woke up late...again. Last day, we swear. I began the morning with a load of laundry as Nicole and I got ready. Jim left for work and we told him we would meet him at the bookstore when we were ready to go for the day. We left the apartment after all the laundry had been finished and we had put our things away. Nicole and I navigated to Jim's bookstore via the metro and walked in to say hello.
Jack had just returned with his lunch so we browsed the store for a while so he could eat his lunch in peace. Jim handed me a copy of "A Year in the Madre," and told me to read it on my plane ride home. I gladly accepted the gift called A Year in Shit and tucked it away in my purse. After Jack finished his lunch he came downstairs to man the desk so Jim could escape with us for about a half hour. So we all three left and Jim directed us to the art gallery shopping district. We stopped in at Cozy for lunch, a quick salad and sandwich shop. Nicole and I both ordered a baguette with mozzarella, lettuce and tomato and a coca light each. Jim enjoyed a wonderful looking salad. We ate in about 10 minutes without hardly saying one word to each other and that was the end of that. Jim pointed us in the direction of shopping streets and headed back to the bookstore.
So Nicole and I walked up and down the streets, sometimes stopping in art galleries and other times too scared to open the door. I should say sometimes we tried to open the door, but it was locked. Very strange these art people. We saw a welcoming hallway full of art and walked in the door to browse. We made it about half way down the hall and realized it was not an art gallery at all, it was a school. So we casually turned around and headed for the door, but not before a young women could stop us and inform us that this was indeed a school and what exactly were we doing. We quickly said, yes and ran out the door.
We spent the next hour or so walking up and down the streets, stopping in stores mostly for warmth. It was a freezing cold day in Paris and we decided to spend it shopping outside, what were we thinking? We finally stopped for a warm cafe and had a good conversation. Once we left the cafe we walked to a Christmas mart around the corner, but we mostly just walked right through. It was too cold to stop and look. We spent the next 2 hours walking in and out of cute boutiques and its amazing how quickly time flys here in Paris.
While we were in a store called Muji, Jim called to say he was almost done at the store and we should head back to his bookstore. We tried to find our way but got distracted by a post office and a fun dishware store with lots of bright colors. I didn't know exactly where we were, but I let my sense of direction kick in and we walked toward where I suspected the store to be, and wallah...there it was.
Jim was anxious to get out of the store and wanted to forget about his long day at the office with some chocolate. He lead us straight to what he considers a VERY good chocolate shop and we waited for a table. Once we found a table we each ordered a real hot chocolate with real whipped cream on top, then we all got up one by one and pointed out exactly which dessert we wanted to eat. Well Jim and I ordered a dessert, Nicole ordered a pretzel and the lady behind the counter thought she was crazy. She kept telling Nicole it wasn't sweet, and Nicole kept saying, I know, its perfect. I got a kick out of it. Jim ordered a chocolate/banana pie and I ordered a very thick cookie. It was all very good and it certainly was an overdose of sugar...just like we like it.
After we left the shop, we went directly across the street to a very neat boutique with really fun furniture. Its a shame we couldn't bring any of it home. We left the shop and Jim lead us towards a large department store so I could do a little last minute shopping, but we were distracted on the way and stopped at Sephora. Jim and I have a ritual where we stop at Sephora and do some perfume and cologne shopping together, so we couldn't let our tradition die. I was able to walk away from Sephora with 3 samples while Nicole was told only 1 per person. Looks like I got the better deal! But they didn't have the perfume I really wanted, so I didn't get to buy any. Jim found one he really liked, but I told him it smells a little like sunscreen to me. So we will see if he decides he likes it.
After a half hour in Sephora we finally left and headed toward the department store. To my disbelief they didn't have anything I wanted and we left empty handed. This was just not our day for shopping! On our walk home we stopped at a fresh fruit and vegetable store and loaded up on vegetables for a stir-fry dinner tonight. We also picked up some delicious fruit for tomorrow morning. Nicole and I had a lot of fun looking at all the different fruits and vegetables available to us!
We jumped on the metro and after a short ride home, and Nicole almost falling over with our groceries in hand we arrived at Jim's stop. Jim went to the store to buy wine and sour cream for our beats and Nicole and I headed toward the apartment. Well as usual we were distracted by a grocery store on the way and stopped in to get a few things...orange juice (because we drank all Jim's), Coca-light (because we have to get our fix in) and Kinder chocolate eggs (because Nicole apparently adores them). We met Jim back at the apartment to find he also bought orange juice, so he is all stocked up now!
Immediately Nicole and I began to clear off the dinner table that we had been stacking with our personal things throughout the week. Jim began cooking our dinner by chopping up all the veggies and steaming the rice. I was instructed to put on some music, wash all the dishes and wash the spinach. Nicole shelled all the peas and tore apart the spinach and I'm sure did some other things while I was busy doing dishes. Jim cooked a wonderful stir-fry meal for the three of us and we all sat down to enjoy it together. Along with our stir-fry and rice he served beets with sour cream. Its actually a good combination and I might take that one home with me. We ate at the dinner table for the first time since my arrival with lit candles and a bottle of wine. It was all very lovely and Jim entertained us with stories of his yesteryears.
After dinner Nicole and I did the dishes while Jim did research for our day trip tomorrow. Now we are all nearing bed time as our day was exhausting walking and trying to keep warm. Jim has a chocolate mouse yet to serve, and the best chocolate ice cream in the world. Its a good thing we all like chocolate, because I have most likely eaten it with every meal here. Nicole did open her Kinder chocolate egg but wasthoroughly disappointed to find a Madagascar Hippo toy. I might leave mine for another day, I don't want her to get two major disappointments in one day. :)
Nicole and I will most likely end the night reading my book again...we are nearing the end and we just think its hilarious. Its been really fun having Nicole here, we keep each other laughing and something always seems to happen.
Night! We have an early day tomorrow!
Jack had just returned with his lunch so we browsed the store for a while so he could eat his lunch in peace. Jim handed me a copy of "A Year in the Madre," and told me to read it on my plane ride home. I gladly accepted the gift called A Year in Shit and tucked it away in my purse. After Jack finished his lunch he came downstairs to man the desk so Jim could escape with us for about a half hour. So we all three left and Jim directed us to the art gallery shopping district. We stopped in at Cozy for lunch, a quick salad and sandwich shop. Nicole and I both ordered a baguette with mozzarella, lettuce and tomato and a coca light each. Jim enjoyed a wonderful looking salad. We ate in about 10 minutes without hardly saying one word to each other and that was the end of that. Jim pointed us in the direction of shopping streets and headed back to the bookstore.
So Nicole and I walked up and down the streets, sometimes stopping in art galleries and other times too scared to open the door. I should say sometimes we tried to open the door, but it was locked. Very strange these art people. We saw a welcoming hallway full of art and walked in the door to browse. We made it about half way down the hall and realized it was not an art gallery at all, it was a school. So we casually turned around and headed for the door, but not before a young women could stop us and inform us that this was indeed a school and what exactly were we doing. We quickly said, yes and ran out the door.
We spent the next hour or so walking up and down the streets, stopping in stores mostly for warmth. It was a freezing cold day in Paris and we decided to spend it shopping outside, what were we thinking? We finally stopped for a warm cafe and had a good conversation. Once we left the cafe we walked to a Christmas mart around the corner, but we mostly just walked right through. It was too cold to stop and look. We spent the next 2 hours walking in and out of cute boutiques and its amazing how quickly time flys here in Paris.
While we were in a store called Muji, Jim called to say he was almost done at the store and we should head back to his bookstore. We tried to find our way but got distracted by a post office and a fun dishware store with lots of bright colors. I didn't know exactly where we were, but I let my sense of direction kick in and we walked toward where I suspected the store to be, and wallah...there it was.
Jim was anxious to get out of the store and wanted to forget about his long day at the office with some chocolate. He lead us straight to what he considers a VERY good chocolate shop and we waited for a table. Once we found a table we each ordered a real hot chocolate with real whipped cream on top, then we all got up one by one and pointed out exactly which dessert we wanted to eat. Well Jim and I ordered a dessert, Nicole ordered a pretzel and the lady behind the counter thought she was crazy. She kept telling Nicole it wasn't sweet, and Nicole kept saying, I know, its perfect. I got a kick out of it. Jim ordered a chocolate/banana pie and I ordered a very thick cookie. It was all very good and it certainly was an overdose of sugar...just like we like it.
After we left the shop, we went directly across the street to a very neat boutique with really fun furniture. Its a shame we couldn't bring any of it home. We left the shop and Jim lead us towards a large department store so I could do a little last minute shopping, but we were distracted on the way and stopped at Sephora. Jim and I have a ritual where we stop at Sephora and do some perfume and cologne shopping together, so we couldn't let our tradition die. I was able to walk away from Sephora with 3 samples while Nicole was told only 1 per person. Looks like I got the better deal! But they didn't have the perfume I really wanted, so I didn't get to buy any. Jim found one he really liked, but I told him it smells a little like sunscreen to me. So we will see if he decides he likes it.
After a half hour in Sephora we finally left and headed toward the department store. To my disbelief they didn't have anything I wanted and we left empty handed. This was just not our day for shopping! On our walk home we stopped at a fresh fruit and vegetable store and loaded up on vegetables for a stir-fry dinner tonight. We also picked up some delicious fruit for tomorrow morning. Nicole and I had a lot of fun looking at all the different fruits and vegetables available to us!
We jumped on the metro and after a short ride home, and Nicole almost falling over with our groceries in hand we arrived at Jim's stop. Jim went to the store to buy wine and sour cream for our beats and Nicole and I headed toward the apartment. Well as usual we were distracted by a grocery store on the way and stopped in to get a few things...orange juice (because we drank all Jim's), Coca-light (because we have to get our fix in) and Kinder chocolate eggs (because Nicole apparently adores them). We met Jim back at the apartment to find he also bought orange juice, so he is all stocked up now!
Immediately Nicole and I began to clear off the dinner table that we had been stacking with our personal things throughout the week. Jim began cooking our dinner by chopping up all the veggies and steaming the rice. I was instructed to put on some music, wash all the dishes and wash the spinach. Nicole shelled all the peas and tore apart the spinach and I'm sure did some other things while I was busy doing dishes. Jim cooked a wonderful stir-fry meal for the three of us and we all sat down to enjoy it together. Along with our stir-fry and rice he served beets with sour cream. Its actually a good combination and I might take that one home with me. We ate at the dinner table for the first time since my arrival with lit candles and a bottle of wine. It was all very lovely and Jim entertained us with stories of his yesteryears.
After dinner Nicole and I did the dishes while Jim did research for our day trip tomorrow. Now we are all nearing bed time as our day was exhausting walking and trying to keep warm. Jim has a chocolate mouse yet to serve, and the best chocolate ice cream in the world. Its a good thing we all like chocolate, because I have most likely eaten it with every meal here. Nicole did open her Kinder chocolate egg but wasthoroughly disappointed to find a Madagascar Hippo toy. I might leave mine for another day, I don't want her to get two major disappointments in one day. :)
Nicole and I will most likely end the night reading my book again...we are nearing the end and we just think its hilarious. Its been really fun having Nicole here, we keep each other laughing and something always seems to happen.
Night! We have an early day tomorrow!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Day 26 - Crepes de Rat in Power Cable, Nebraska
It was a lovely morning of sleeping in for all of us. Nicole needed to cure her jet lag, I needed to cure my cold...and Jim needed to enjoy his last day before going back to work. It was quite comical watching me try to get of the bed this morning, because it is wedged between a desk and a bookshelf, so you can only get in or out from the foot of the bed or the top of the bed. Nicole was laughing at me as I tried to get my foot down on the floor, but it was blocked by all our bags and I practically had to roll out feet first. But I was finally successful.
Jim ran out to the bakery around the corner and picked Nicole and I up some croissants to start our day off right. And they sure did! I took my medicine with some orange juice and I started to feel much better. We took our time getting ready for the day and didn't end up leaving the apartment until around 1:30. Nicole and I agreed it would be our last lazy morning. We headed straight for the canal and Jim took our first picture of Nicole and I together in Paris. Oh and also we snapped a picture of Jim and I. We then made our way to the Opera House and across the street to the fancy Department store called Gallerie Lafayette. The shop windows were our first goal and we were highly satisfied with what we found. The first window we walked up to was a window full of moving babies smoking a hookah pipe. The babies were floating on mushrooms and a flower was the leader of the hookah. Each baby was doing something different in the scene...one couldn't stand, four had the pipes in their hands and the rest were doing odd things. Each of the windows was directed by moving wires, making each object a moving puppet and we figured from the first window that Alice in Wonderland was the theme of the windows. Our guess was correct as we moved to each window. The next window was the tea table set by mini flamingos and a hiding Mad Hatter. The next window was a doctor's office full of dogs and some upside down flamingos. The next window scene were teddy bears trying to keep a door closed and the last window scene was full of mice making a flamingo look very pretty, as if the flamingo was Cinderella. We also saw a lot of shop windows set up with Alice in different designer dresses with the biggest hair you have ever seen. One of them was a mirror and the reflection was of Alice on the ceiling. I could go on and on about the windows, they were very impressive.
We finally walked inside the department store and the center of it is all open with a HUGE Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling. It was decorated with pink and purple and I thought it was magnificent. As was the department store, Jim and I made our usual stop in the Perfume area and smelled a couple of perfumes that I have been thinking about buying. We were able to walk around and look at all the beautiful clothes...all the beautiful clothes that none of us can afford. Jim left us not too long later to head off to work for the afternoon. So he handed me his apartment keys with direct instructions, "do not lose these!" So I slipped them in my purse and assured him they would be safe and sound. So Jim set off and left Nicole and I by ourselves.
Nicole and I continued around the department store for a little while longer until we both decided we needed to leave before we start buying things. So we walked across the street and looked at more fancy windows from the same department store and walked a little further to an H&M (Nicole's favorite) and did a little shopping. Nicole bought an over the shoulder purse for herself for the trip and then we made our way to the street again. We stopped in a couple of fun shops along the way and ended at the Opera House. We walked into the Opera House and looked around for a while. Once we got in line to buy tickets for a tour we saw a sign saying the Auditorium was closed for rehearsal, so we were a little bummed about that and decided not to go in.
So we brainstormed our next move and decided to head toward the Louvre and find some crepes in the park nearby. On the walk we admired the shops, and perhaps stopped in a few, its hard to remember now. We found the Louvre and took some pictures of ourselves, aren't we special? We didn't see a crepe place in our line of vision, so we moved on through the Louvre and onto the river, The Seine. We walked across the bridge and tried to see the Eiffel Tower, but it was too foggy outside, as we expected, it was a freezing cold day. So we took some pictures and moved on to the main bridge in the area, Pont Neuf. The bridge is decorated with goblin heads under the main portion and Nicole was quick to point them out since she learned all about them on her boat tour four years ago. We celebrated with pictures and decided to head somewhere warm. We walked across the street and carefully selected a cafe to stop at based on whether or not they served crepes. Once we found a cafe we thought was suitable we walked in and took a seat.
Right away, Nicole and I ordered an American Coffee. At this point I figured the bigger the better, more warm substance for my body to get warm. We also studied the crepe menu very carefully, for those of you who know me well, you will know that crepes are one of my favorite foods and I instantly fell in love with them my fist time in Paris. I ordered a crepe de nutella and Nicole ordered a crepe de chocolate and banana. I can't even describe how delicious they were. My first bite was like heaven melting in my mouth. I had waited 4 years for this and it was so worth it! We were both completely indulged in our crepes and we were very proud of our decision to find them.
After our warm up stop we decided to surprise Jim at his bookstore and navigated the streets we needed to walk to get there. It wasn't too far really, so we thought it would be a good choice. On the way there we crossed over the bridge Pont Neuf and walked down the main street there. It was full of the cutest/funniest shops and we found ourselves continuously stopping to shop. Each store was so unique and so fun to look at, I really enjoyed our time shopping. We did find a shoe store and I picked up a very cute set of boots to check the price thinking it would be astronomical, but it was actually within my price range! I couldn't believe it! So we stopped in to try a few pairs on, and I ended up buying two pairs of boots for myself! I know, I know, but as Nicole reassured me, I need a Christmas present for myself! I bought a pair of purple boots and a pair of gray boots. I am very excited about them, I am just not quite sure how I will get them home. One thing at a time...;)
So after stopping in many more shops we finally found ourselves at Jim's bookstore. I was a little surprised to see someone I never knew behind the desk and introduced myself. Once Jim returned from upstairs, he was just as surprised to see me and introduced me to James, his computer guy. We talked a little about what we had done and I showed Jim my new boots. He's not too crazy about the purple ones, but thats okay with me. :) We talked to Jim about what to do next and Nicole and I both mentioned we wanted to see the Museum of Modern Art. We looked in a guidebook in the shop and it didn't close until 9, and it was closed tomorrow so we decided to go. We took 1 guidebook from the shop to borrow for the rest of our time here and said our goodbyes.
On the metro, Nicole and I only had 3 stops to go and we got off the train right when we were supposed to. The trouble is, we had no idea how big this station actually was. We tried to follow the Exit sign, but it kept leading us everywhere but outside. We walked forever underground and it kept leading us to new train lines, with another sign pointing another direction to the exit. When we finally found a real exit we were so excited we didn't care where we ended up. Well, just like that we had no clue where we were once we were above ground. We tried to find street signs and find ourselves on the map, which we did an okay job doing, but we couldn't find the museum on the map so it really wasn't too helpful. But we decided to start walking and figured we would spot the building sooner or later. We also stopped to grab our baguettes out of our bag to snack on as we walked.
I finally spotted the industrial looking building out of the corner of my eye and we made our way to the entrance. We checked our bags (my shopping bags of course) and coats and bought our tickets. I was actually able to get a discount for being under 26 without an official youth card. Alright! Nicole was not so lucky. Bummer for her. We made our way to the top of theescalator that stands on the outside of the building to see Paris at night. It was very beautiful, but it was still really foggy outside, and we couldn't see too far. The building was really cool though and we enjoyed the view. We walked through the two galleries on the top floor and had a great time. The art was great, it was Futurism mostly and an artist called Jacques Villegle. We had a great time looking at it and once we left we walked out toward the escalator and saw the Eiffel Tower twinkling in the fog. It was beautiful! It was so foggy that we could only see the bottom half, but still we could see it!
We made our way down 2 stories and went to the main museum to see the installation art. We toured the first floor extensively and found it all so cool. It was a great museum but as we were finishing the first floor they announced that it would be closing in a half hour. We had one exhibit on the first floor that we really wanted to see so we quickly rushed downstairs to make it in the exhibit. The exhibit is Ron Arad called No Discipline and it is all very unique chairs. The exhibit was awesome, we spent about 10 minutes taking pictures and walking around until they announced that it was closed and a women asked us to leave. Sad.
So we went to get our coats and bags and headed to the gift shop. We walked around and looked at all the books until Jim called around 9:00. We met Jim outside the museum, after I took a picture of Nicole in front of the air blowers outside the museum...of course! She was so excited about these air blowers, so she took a lot of pictures. We found Jim and he asked us how Thai food sounded for dinner. We all agreed enthusiastically and followed Jim all the way to the restaurant. WE walked in a very nice restaurant and sat down where it was nice and warm. We had a little bit of a hard time finding a vegetarian meal for Nicole, but we finally found something and we all ordered our food. We did order a Papaya salad, and it was great...shredded papaya, carrot and a vinegar sauce. We also ordered some egg rolls and our dishes. They brought the wrong dish out to Nicole and she had to wait while they made the correct meal for her, but she said it was good once it finally came.
We left dinner and decided to stop by the crepe place for yet another crepe. Why not, you only live once, right? So as we were walking to get our crepes, Jim said, "oh, remind me at the crepe place to show you the rat store from Ratatouille." So then we joked about Crepes of Rat and made our way. The crepes were deliciously warm and Nicole and I were very happy...it was our second crepe of the dayafter all ! We walked around the corner and Jim pointed out the window of the Rat killing store. All the sudden Nicole and I weren't so happy with the food in our mouths as we stared at the dead rats in the window. Ew, that's the one word I have for that place. :)
Jim walked us to the metro station and Nicole and I decided to sneak the system and use one ticket to get us both through. Which meant sliding through the gate together...kind-of awkward. Jim said they hardly ever check tickets at night, so we should be fine. Welp, sure enough we turn the corner and there they are...checking tickets. It was our lucky night, because all of them were tied up with people and we practically ran by. Jim said we really dogged a bullet on that one and we swiftly made it to our train.
We made it home to Jim's cozy apartment and I immediately settled in on the computer. Nicole and Jim have been very patient with me. Nicole has been entertained by books from Jim's apartment and Jim is entertaining us with fun stories about...well anything really.
Jim just handed me a copy of Terry Pratchett's novel Sourcery because he knows I will love the series. I read aloud the author's biography and we all laughed at how funny it was. I am really excited to start reading the books because it just sounds so odd. I handed it to Nicole to look at and she asked if we had read the dedication. We both said no and she decided to read it aloud. In the dedication he thanks a fat American women with a broken suitcase on wheels and Power Cable, Nebraska. So we all had a good laugh once we found out the meaning of the term, which none of us had ever heard before.
Jim actually has to get up on time tomorrow, since he is opening the shop. And I need to get up and do some laundry before Nicole and I head out for the day. Its already late and I need to take my next dose of medicine to help me sleep. It was a fantastically fun day and it was so much fun having Nicole here. We were able to laugh and shop just like we have been doing for years.
Until tomorrow...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Cable
Jim ran out to the bakery around the corner and picked Nicole and I up some croissants to start our day off right. And they sure did! I took my medicine with some orange juice and I started to feel much better. We took our time getting ready for the day and didn't end up leaving the apartment until around 1:30. Nicole and I agreed it would be our last lazy morning. We headed straight for the canal and Jim took our first picture of Nicole and I together in Paris. Oh and also we snapped a picture of Jim and I. We then made our way to the Opera House and across the street to the fancy Department store called Gallerie Lafayette. The shop windows were our first goal and we were highly satisfied with what we found. The first window we walked up to was a window full of moving babies smoking a hookah pipe. The babies were floating on mushrooms and a flower was the leader of the hookah. Each baby was doing something different in the scene...one couldn't stand, four had the pipes in their hands and the rest were doing odd things. Each of the windows was directed by moving wires, making each object a moving puppet and we figured from the first window that Alice in Wonderland was the theme of the windows. Our guess was correct as we moved to each window. The next window was the tea table set by mini flamingos and a hiding Mad Hatter. The next window was a doctor's office full of dogs and some upside down flamingos. The next window scene were teddy bears trying to keep a door closed and the last window scene was full of mice making a flamingo look very pretty, as if the flamingo was Cinderella. We also saw a lot of shop windows set up with Alice in different designer dresses with the biggest hair you have ever seen. One of them was a mirror and the reflection was of Alice on the ceiling. I could go on and on about the windows, they were very impressive.
We finally walked inside the department store and the center of it is all open with a HUGE Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling. It was decorated with pink and purple and I thought it was magnificent. As was the department store, Jim and I made our usual stop in the Perfume area and smelled a couple of perfumes that I have been thinking about buying. We were able to walk around and look at all the beautiful clothes...all the beautiful clothes that none of us can afford. Jim left us not too long later to head off to work for the afternoon. So he handed me his apartment keys with direct instructions, "do not lose these!" So I slipped them in my purse and assured him they would be safe and sound. So Jim set off and left Nicole and I by ourselves.
Nicole and I continued around the department store for a little while longer until we both decided we needed to leave before we start buying things. So we walked across the street and looked at more fancy windows from the same department store and walked a little further to an H&M (Nicole's favorite) and did a little shopping. Nicole bought an over the shoulder purse for herself for the trip and then we made our way to the street again. We stopped in a couple of fun shops along the way and ended at the Opera House. We walked into the Opera House and looked around for a while. Once we got in line to buy tickets for a tour we saw a sign saying the Auditorium was closed for rehearsal, so we were a little bummed about that and decided not to go in.
So we brainstormed our next move and decided to head toward the Louvre and find some crepes in the park nearby. On the walk we admired the shops, and perhaps stopped in a few, its hard to remember now. We found the Louvre and took some pictures of ourselves, aren't we special? We didn't see a crepe place in our line of vision, so we moved on through the Louvre and onto the river, The Seine. We walked across the bridge and tried to see the Eiffel Tower, but it was too foggy outside, as we expected, it was a freezing cold day. So we took some pictures and moved on to the main bridge in the area, Pont Neuf. The bridge is decorated with goblin heads under the main portion and Nicole was quick to point them out since she learned all about them on her boat tour four years ago. We celebrated with pictures and decided to head somewhere warm. We walked across the street and carefully selected a cafe to stop at based on whether or not they served crepes. Once we found a cafe we thought was suitable we walked in and took a seat.
Right away, Nicole and I ordered an American Coffee. At this point I figured the bigger the better, more warm substance for my body to get warm. We also studied the crepe menu very carefully, for those of you who know me well, you will know that crepes are one of my favorite foods and I instantly fell in love with them my fist time in Paris. I ordered a crepe de nutella and Nicole ordered a crepe de chocolate and banana. I can't even describe how delicious they were. My first bite was like heaven melting in my mouth. I had waited 4 years for this and it was so worth it! We were both completely indulged in our crepes and we were very proud of our decision to find them.
After our warm up stop we decided to surprise Jim at his bookstore and navigated the streets we needed to walk to get there. It wasn't too far really, so we thought it would be a good choice. On the way there we crossed over the bridge Pont Neuf and walked down the main street there. It was full of the cutest/funniest shops and we found ourselves continuously stopping to shop. Each store was so unique and so fun to look at, I really enjoyed our time shopping. We did find a shoe store and I picked up a very cute set of boots to check the price thinking it would be astronomical, but it was actually within my price range! I couldn't believe it! So we stopped in to try a few pairs on, and I ended up buying two pairs of boots for myself! I know, I know, but as Nicole reassured me, I need a Christmas present for myself! I bought a pair of purple boots and a pair of gray boots. I am very excited about them, I am just not quite sure how I will get them home. One thing at a time...;)
So after stopping in many more shops we finally found ourselves at Jim's bookstore. I was a little surprised to see someone I never knew behind the desk and introduced myself. Once Jim returned from upstairs, he was just as surprised to see me and introduced me to James, his computer guy. We talked a little about what we had done and I showed Jim my new boots. He's not too crazy about the purple ones, but thats okay with me. :) We talked to Jim about what to do next and Nicole and I both mentioned we wanted to see the Museum of Modern Art. We looked in a guidebook in the shop and it didn't close until 9, and it was closed tomorrow so we decided to go. We took 1 guidebook from the shop to borrow for the rest of our time here and said our goodbyes.
On the metro, Nicole and I only had 3 stops to go and we got off the train right when we were supposed to. The trouble is, we had no idea how big this station actually was. We tried to follow the Exit sign, but it kept leading us everywhere but outside. We walked forever underground and it kept leading us to new train lines, with another sign pointing another direction to the exit. When we finally found a real exit we were so excited we didn't care where we ended up. Well, just like that we had no clue where we were once we were above ground. We tried to find street signs and find ourselves on the map, which we did an okay job doing, but we couldn't find the museum on the map so it really wasn't too helpful. But we decided to start walking and figured we would spot the building sooner or later. We also stopped to grab our baguettes out of our bag to snack on as we walked.
I finally spotted the industrial looking building out of the corner of my eye and we made our way to the entrance. We checked our bags (my shopping bags of course) and coats and bought our tickets. I was actually able to get a discount for being under 26 without an official youth card. Alright! Nicole was not so lucky. Bummer for her. We made our way to the top of theescalator that stands on the outside of the building to see Paris at night. It was very beautiful, but it was still really foggy outside, and we couldn't see too far. The building was really cool though and we enjoyed the view. We walked through the two galleries on the top floor and had a great time. The art was great, it was Futurism mostly and an artist called Jacques Villegle. We had a great time looking at it and once we left we walked out toward the escalator and saw the Eiffel Tower twinkling in the fog. It was beautiful! It was so foggy that we could only see the bottom half, but still we could see it!
We made our way down 2 stories and went to the main museum to see the installation art. We toured the first floor extensively and found it all so cool. It was a great museum but as we were finishing the first floor they announced that it would be closing in a half hour. We had one exhibit on the first floor that we really wanted to see so we quickly rushed downstairs to make it in the exhibit. The exhibit is Ron Arad called No Discipline and it is all very unique chairs. The exhibit was awesome, we spent about 10 minutes taking pictures and walking around until they announced that it was closed and a women asked us to leave. Sad.
So we went to get our coats and bags and headed to the gift shop. We walked around and looked at all the books until Jim called around 9:00. We met Jim outside the museum, after I took a picture of Nicole in front of the air blowers outside the museum...of course! She was so excited about these air blowers, so she took a lot of pictures. We found Jim and he asked us how Thai food sounded for dinner. We all agreed enthusiastically and followed Jim all the way to the restaurant. WE walked in a very nice restaurant and sat down where it was nice and warm. We had a little bit of a hard time finding a vegetarian meal for Nicole, but we finally found something and we all ordered our food. We did order a Papaya salad, and it was great...shredded papaya, carrot and a vinegar sauce. We also ordered some egg rolls and our dishes. They brought the wrong dish out to Nicole and she had to wait while they made the correct meal for her, but she said it was good once it finally came.
We left dinner and decided to stop by the crepe place for yet another crepe. Why not, you only live once, right? So as we were walking to get our crepes, Jim said, "oh, remind me at the crepe place to show you the rat store from Ratatouille." So then we joked about Crepes of Rat and made our way. The crepes were deliciously warm and Nicole and I were very happy...it was our second crepe of the dayafter all ! We walked around the corner and Jim pointed out the window of the Rat killing store. All the sudden Nicole and I weren't so happy with the food in our mouths as we stared at the dead rats in the window. Ew, that's the one word I have for that place. :)
Jim walked us to the metro station and Nicole and I decided to sneak the system and use one ticket to get us both through. Which meant sliding through the gate together...kind-of awkward. Jim said they hardly ever check tickets at night, so we should be fine. Welp, sure enough we turn the corner and there they are...checking tickets. It was our lucky night, because all of them were tied up with people and we practically ran by. Jim said we really dogged a bullet on that one and we swiftly made it to our train.
We made it home to Jim's cozy apartment and I immediately settled in on the computer. Nicole and Jim have been very patient with me. Nicole has been entertained by books from Jim's apartment and Jim is entertaining us with fun stories about...well anything really.
Jim just handed me a copy of Terry Pratchett's novel Sourcery because he knows I will love the series. I read aloud the author's biography and we all laughed at how funny it was. I am really excited to start reading the books because it just sounds so odd. I handed it to Nicole to look at and she asked if we had read the dedication. We both said no and she decided to read it aloud. In the dedication he thanks a fat American women with a broken suitcase on wheels and Power Cable, Nebraska. So we all had a good laugh once we found out the meaning of the term, which none of us had ever heard before.
Jim actually has to get up on time tomorrow, since he is opening the shop. And I need to get up and do some laundry before Nicole and I head out for the day. Its already late and I need to take my next dose of medicine to help me sleep. It was a fantastically fun day and it was so much fun having Nicole here. We were able to laugh and shop just like we have been doing for years.
Until tomorrow...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Cable
Day 25 - A BIG Surprise in Paris
Jim and I woke up at 9 this morning in order to get packed and ready to check out of our houseboat. We were able to get everything packed and ready to go. I will admit I felt awful this morning, my head was all clogged up and I feel like I could stay in bed all day with this cold, but we had to get back to Paris. I did have two Chocolate crossiants to help make myself feel better and they were delicious! So we did dishes and cleaned our part of the houseboat. Once everything was packed and we were ready to catch our train, we checked out of the houseboat with David and said our goodbyes. I did sign the guestbook with my name and Lincoln, NE just in case any of you go there someday, you will know I stayed there too!
We left for the train station and made it in plenty of time! We stopped at a cafe upstairs and Jim was able to order and omlete and coffee while I treated myself to Hot Chocolate. We finsihed up and headed to our platform to wait for our train. Once the train pulled up Jim and I boarded on our seperate coaches and the train pulled out of the station less than 10 minutes later. I enjoyed the long train ride with the book I had taken from Jim's book shelf and it really wasn't too bad of a ride. I struggled breathing the whole time through my nose, but I was very entertained by my book.
Once we pulled in to Gaud de Nord I got my things together and walked onto the Platform to find Jim. I didn't see him anywhere, so I waited a few minutes until he emerged from the train. We began our long walk down the platorm without really saying much to eachother. Jim had his two large bags and I had my heavy backpack on. As we were walking suddenly a very excited girl in a hat came rushing towards me waving her arms in excitment. It took me about 2 minutes to realize who it was, it was Nicole DeWald! Nicole from Lincoln...I couldn't believe it, I was stunned. I had no idea what in the world Nicole would be doing here and her and Jim said hello. I went to introduce them still in shock, and they said they already knew each other. I asked Nicole what she was doing here and she said she flew to Paris for the week to surprise me! I honestly was frozen in shock and my face was glued with a look of puzzlement the entire time. I couldn't believe Nicole was actually here in Paris. She said she decided to come to Paris last week and made all the plans contacting my parents and my uncle to make all her reservations. She wanted it to be a surprise, so she did it all behind my back. She will be here during my stay and we will leave together on Friday to go back to Lincoln. We paused for a brief conversation and Nicole told me about how she planned everything, I just couldn't believe it! Jim needed to go to the bookstore to get the keys to the apartment, so we sent him on his way while we looked for a Pharmacy for me to get medicine and have a coffee. Sadly Nicole had arrived in Paris at 10:30 this morning and had to wait until our train pulled in at 4:30 this afternoon. We stopped for a coffee and she told me everything, I am still just so shocked she pulled everything together. It will be really fun to have a friend here this week while Jim is working and we will be able to see all the touristy sights! We were able to catch up about everything over our coffee, but sadly we didn't find an Pharmacy that was open.
After our coffee we got onto the Metro and I lead Nicole to Jim's apartment. Nicole forgot pajama's, so we stopped in a few places to find something for her to wear. It was more difficult than you would expect, but we found her some pants. We met Jim at the apartment and he let us in. I gave Nicole the tour and I showed her all the goodies I have collected so far on my trip. Jim went to the store and upon his return handed us bowls of snack food and wine while we relaxed and used the computer. Including the Marshmallow's mom sent to uncle Jim through Nicole. Thanks Mom! Nicole would like me to mention to Kimmy that we are enjoying wine and cheese together. :) Wish you all could be here. The apartment is freezing after a weekend with no heat, so we are all cuddled around the heater.
After our relaxation time, we left the apartment to get some dinner. We got onto the Metro and stopped near the Modern Art Museum, which looks like a very industrial building. We walked around the neighborhood a little, which is very pretty. Jim pointed out the stand where I had my very first crepe EVER, 4 years ago. I was tempted to stop, but dinner sounded a little more filling. We all agreed on Italian and made our way to a cute little restaurant off of Place des Enfants square. Jim told us a story about the square from a book called Perfume about a famous perfume maker. He also informed us the Rat Store from the Ratatouille movie, the scene where the father shows the son the Rat killing store, is right around the corner from the restaurant. Jim knows how to speak to me with Pixar film relations.
Nicole and I shared a salad and pizza while Jim had a salad. It was a very nice meal and the restaurant was really warm. I was in heaven until my medicine decided to stop working and I felt horrible. All I wanted was to go home to bed, and so we did. Thankfully. I started to feel better on the walk home, but I was anxious to pop another pill and hit the hay. And so I did, with my vapor rub to help me breathe. Nicole and I shared the air mattress which was a very cozy fit, but it helped us stay warm. Well I can only really speak for myself, but I slept great. Although it was a little tough moving around because the bed would make these awful noises and the whole thing would shake, so you couldn't help waking the other person up. Either way it was great having Nicole here, and I really still can't believe she planned the whole thing and everyone was able to keep it secret from me. As Jace said in her card, "What's better than Paris?...A best friend in Paris!" On that note, thanks for the cards girls!
We left for the train station and made it in plenty of time! We stopped at a cafe upstairs and Jim was able to order and omlete and coffee while I treated myself to Hot Chocolate. We finsihed up and headed to our platform to wait for our train. Once the train pulled up Jim and I boarded on our seperate coaches and the train pulled out of the station less than 10 minutes later. I enjoyed the long train ride with the book I had taken from Jim's book shelf and it really wasn't too bad of a ride. I struggled breathing the whole time through my nose, but I was very entertained by my book.
Once we pulled in to Gaud de Nord I got my things together and walked onto the Platform to find Jim. I didn't see him anywhere, so I waited a few minutes until he emerged from the train. We began our long walk down the platorm without really saying much to eachother. Jim had his two large bags and I had my heavy backpack on. As we were walking suddenly a very excited girl in a hat came rushing towards me waving her arms in excitment. It took me about 2 minutes to realize who it was, it was Nicole DeWald! Nicole from Lincoln...I couldn't believe it, I was stunned. I had no idea what in the world Nicole would be doing here and her and Jim said hello. I went to introduce them still in shock, and they said they already knew each other. I asked Nicole what she was doing here and she said she flew to Paris for the week to surprise me! I honestly was frozen in shock and my face was glued with a look of puzzlement the entire time. I couldn't believe Nicole was actually here in Paris. She said she decided to come to Paris last week and made all the plans contacting my parents and my uncle to make all her reservations. She wanted it to be a surprise, so she did it all behind my back. She will be here during my stay and we will leave together on Friday to go back to Lincoln. We paused for a brief conversation and Nicole told me about how she planned everything, I just couldn't believe it! Jim needed to go to the bookstore to get the keys to the apartment, so we sent him on his way while we looked for a Pharmacy for me to get medicine and have a coffee. Sadly Nicole had arrived in Paris at 10:30 this morning and had to wait until our train pulled in at 4:30 this afternoon. We stopped for a coffee and she told me everything, I am still just so shocked she pulled everything together. It will be really fun to have a friend here this week while Jim is working and we will be able to see all the touristy sights! We were able to catch up about everything over our coffee, but sadly we didn't find an Pharmacy that was open.
After our coffee we got onto the Metro and I lead Nicole to Jim's apartment. Nicole forgot pajama's, so we stopped in a few places to find something for her to wear. It was more difficult than you would expect, but we found her some pants. We met Jim at the apartment and he let us in. I gave Nicole the tour and I showed her all the goodies I have collected so far on my trip. Jim went to the store and upon his return handed us bowls of snack food and wine while we relaxed and used the computer. Including the Marshmallow's mom sent to uncle Jim through Nicole. Thanks Mom! Nicole would like me to mention to Kimmy that we are enjoying wine and cheese together. :) Wish you all could be here. The apartment is freezing after a weekend with no heat, so we are all cuddled around the heater.
After our relaxation time, we left the apartment to get some dinner. We got onto the Metro and stopped near the Modern Art Museum, which looks like a very industrial building. We walked around the neighborhood a little, which is very pretty. Jim pointed out the stand where I had my very first crepe EVER, 4 years ago. I was tempted to stop, but dinner sounded a little more filling. We all agreed on Italian and made our way to a cute little restaurant off of Place des Enfants square. Jim told us a story about the square from a book called Perfume about a famous perfume maker. He also informed us the Rat Store from the Ratatouille movie, the scene where the father shows the son the Rat killing store, is right around the corner from the restaurant. Jim knows how to speak to me with Pixar film relations.
Nicole and I shared a salad and pizza while Jim had a salad. It was a very nice meal and the restaurant was really warm. I was in heaven until my medicine decided to stop working and I felt horrible. All I wanted was to go home to bed, and so we did. Thankfully. I started to feel better on the walk home, but I was anxious to pop another pill and hit the hay. And so I did, with my vapor rub to help me breathe. Nicole and I shared the air mattress which was a very cozy fit, but it helped us stay warm. Well I can only really speak for myself, but I slept great. Although it was a little tough moving around because the bed would make these awful noises and the whole thing would shake, so you couldn't help waking the other person up. Either way it was great having Nicole here, and I really still can't believe she planned the whole thing and everyone was able to keep it secret from me. As Jace said in her card, "What's better than Paris?...A best friend in Paris!" On that note, thanks for the cards girls!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Day 24 - The Twilight Zone
Jim and I woke up a little later this morning and headed first to the Rembrandt House. I officially admitted to myself that I have a cold this morning. I didn't sleep too well and my nose is completely stuffed up. It is not fun to be sick on vacation. :( We took a tour of the house, me with an audio-tour and Jim without. It was a very pretty house considering when it was built and it was set up just like it would have been used by Rembrandt. However at the top of the exhibit they had a large exhibit on Backer, which was Rembrandt's student. So it was really more focused on Backer than Rembrandt which was odd. It was a good tour though.
After the tour we walked around the Red Light District, but it doesn't have quite the same charm during the day. We stopped in a few shops for some shopping including a very fancy hat shop where we had a good time. There were so many hats in there that would be so fun to own! Jim had a wonderful time trying on all sorts of hats and actually decided to spring for one. Through the rest of the trip he would continuously mention how much he likes his hat. So I'm glad he was able to find something he liked.
We toured the shops and the sights for a while and made our way back towards the flower market. I spent a long time here deciding what to buy and what would be good to take home. We even took a little break to grab some lunch at Wok to Go. It was very good fast Thai food. After we ate and warmed up a bit we went back to the flower market and I was able to make some decisions on what I wanted. We made our way back to the houseboat but we spent most the time stopping in little shops along the way and looking at all the cool things they have to offer. Shopping is really great in Amsterdam, its filled with all sorts of boutiques and really great furniture and art shops.
We got back to the houseboat with our intention to warm up and head to the VanGough Museum. But we checked the times and it closed in a little over an hour, so we wouldn't make it anyway. So we settled with writing postcards and taking a nap before we went out later. The nap felt great and I was able to get warm again. We stayed at the houseboat for a long time and ended up watching a Dragon show called Merlin...not much is on Dutch television, but we found it entertaining.
We finally left the houseboat later in the evening and took the metro to the red light district. It was certainly more populated now and I will say it was very different at night. It was interesting to walk around and see everything. We were hungry at this point, but we couldn't find a cash machine so we spent a long time looking for one. We finally found one very close to where we had started and then continued our search for a nice place to eat. We finally agreed on a Pizzeria Steakhouse down an alley. The food ended up being okay, but nothing to cry home about. It was after all just a small place in the red light district. But it was nice to spend some time enjoying the evening.
After dinner we went next door to a coffee shop called The Twilight Zone. I enjoyed a nice piece of cake while we sat and took in the atmosphere. Jim and I were very excited about the name "The Twilight Zone" and we were very happy with our selection. It had a great crowd and we enjoyed ourselves. After The Twilight Zone we made the long walk back towards our part of town and tried to decide on a bar. Most of the bars were packed with people, but Jim and I weren't in the mood to jam ourselves in a loud bar, so we settled for a very quiet bar on the corner near our hotel. A little party was happening inside and the crowd was very entertaining. They were dancing and singing to old American music like Madonna, Prince, etc. It was hilarious. We sat for a long time and sipped our drinks, but the night was getting very late so we headed home. I was very happy to get to bed and take some medicine to help me breathe. It was a long day, but it was a great day to end our time in Amsterdam!
After the tour we walked around the Red Light District, but it doesn't have quite the same charm during the day. We stopped in a few shops for some shopping including a very fancy hat shop where we had a good time. There were so many hats in there that would be so fun to own! Jim had a wonderful time trying on all sorts of hats and actually decided to spring for one. Through the rest of the trip he would continuously mention how much he likes his hat. So I'm glad he was able to find something he liked.
We toured the shops and the sights for a while and made our way back towards the flower market. I spent a long time here deciding what to buy and what would be good to take home. We even took a little break to grab some lunch at Wok to Go. It was very good fast Thai food. After we ate and warmed up a bit we went back to the flower market and I was able to make some decisions on what I wanted. We made our way back to the houseboat but we spent most the time stopping in little shops along the way and looking at all the cool things they have to offer. Shopping is really great in Amsterdam, its filled with all sorts of boutiques and really great furniture and art shops.
We got back to the houseboat with our intention to warm up and head to the VanGough Museum. But we checked the times and it closed in a little over an hour, so we wouldn't make it anyway. So we settled with writing postcards and taking a nap before we went out later. The nap felt great and I was able to get warm again. We stayed at the houseboat for a long time and ended up watching a Dragon show called Merlin...not much is on Dutch television, but we found it entertaining.
We finally left the houseboat later in the evening and took the metro to the red light district. It was certainly more populated now and I will say it was very different at night. It was interesting to walk around and see everything. We were hungry at this point, but we couldn't find a cash machine so we spent a long time looking for one. We finally found one very close to where we had started and then continued our search for a nice place to eat. We finally agreed on a Pizzeria Steakhouse down an alley. The food ended up being okay, but nothing to cry home about. It was after all just a small place in the red light district. But it was nice to spend some time enjoying the evening.
After dinner we went next door to a coffee shop called The Twilight Zone. I enjoyed a nice piece of cake while we sat and took in the atmosphere. Jim and I were very excited about the name "The Twilight Zone" and we were very happy with our selection. It had a great crowd and we enjoyed ourselves. After The Twilight Zone we made the long walk back towards our part of town and tried to decide on a bar. Most of the bars were packed with people, but Jim and I weren't in the mood to jam ourselves in a loud bar, so we settled for a very quiet bar on the corner near our hotel. A little party was happening inside and the crowd was very entertaining. They were dancing and singing to old American music like Madonna, Prince, etc. It was hilarious. We sat for a long time and sipped our drinks, but the night was getting very late so we headed home. I was very happy to get to bed and take some medicine to help me breathe. It was a long day, but it was a great day to end our time in Amsterdam!
Day 23 - Book Fair and Spareribs in Amstherdam
Jim and I woke up and took our time getting ready...we are on vacation after all. I was able to wake up to some warm croissants and coffee. We left our cozy little houseboat and walked to the Book fair taking place in a square near the flower market. Jim wanted to take care of some business on this trip and needed to sort through some books. I looked through briefly and then walked into a few shops along the streets. I
also found an internet cafe to entertain me. About an hour and half later, Jim was done with the book fair and said he was able to get enough books to feel satisfied.
We had decided the night before that it would be really fun to go to a football (soccer) game in Amsterdam, so we were on a search to find tickets. We walked all over for a long time on a little bit of a goose chase to find tickets for tonight's game. We walked down the major shopping streets and saw the Queen's palace. We made our way towards where the tickets would be on sale, and stopped for a quick lunch. It was delicious, we just found a cafe overlooking a canal and Jim had a soup which he loved. I enjoyed a nice salad and we were happy to rest where it was warm. After our cozy little lunch we walked around a market right across the canal and Jim found a few buckets full of swiss army knives, wine bottle openers, etc for €1. He was very excited to walk away with a bottle opener/corkscrew/knife with a wooden frame. We walked around the market for a while looking at all the interesting things. We finally found the shop called Primera where they sell football tickets, but the cute British behind the counter told us the game was sold out and you have to have a special club card to get in. :( So we purchased a Time Out magazine for Amsterdam and the cute British boy told me to have a good holiday and said Cheers as we left. So we made the walk home through sand to drop off Jim's books.
It felt great to get inside our cozy little houseboat and we relaxed for a little while. We flipped through the Time Out magazine to find what has happening that weekend, but we striked out on things to do. After a little while we left to walk around before dinner. We intended to take the street car to make our journey a little easier. We waited for about 10 minutes in the cold before we finally gave up and decided to make the walk to where we were going. We stopped in a cute little art gallery to admire all the art. Some of it was quite interesting and some of it was really great. They had a really cool hand sketch of three ostriches, it was so cool! I couldn't bring myself to buy it, but I thought it was the coolest looking thing ever!
We walked down the main street and stopped in some shops for shopping. I wanted to admire the boots, which Jim quietly went along with. We made our way to what Jim suggested was a really cool postcard shop with all kinds of different postcards. We got lost for a little while, but Jim was able to find the location. But when we arrived we saw the cool postcard shop had been bought out by a card store chain, and it just wasn't the same. I was really disappointed.
We walked back to the main street and found the little ice rink Jim had admired the night before. We decided on a nice Irish Pub next to the ice rink for a drink. I had an Amstel beer and Jim had some whiskey. We soon found out a promotion for Bushmill Whiskey was happening and they were going around to each table offering free whiskey. Jim and I took them up on the offer, while we listened to a good looking Irish man explain the whiskey to us. Jim decided he liked him previous Jameson better, and I decided I didn't like Bushmill at all. But while the man was talking to us, they took video of our conversation and picture after picture of Jim and I drinking the whiskey. So who knows, Jim and I might end up in a whiskey commercial sooner or lather!
After the Irish Pub we made our way to Jim's favorite Argentine restaurant for some spareribs. On the walk over we walked passed many men in football uniforms cheering loudly in the streets. I think it was a little glimpse into Amsterdam during the summer months. We walked there in the cold and we were both happy to settle into our seats for dinner. We sat next to a large table full of very drunk men. We each
ordered a plate of spareribs with French fries and a half lither of wine. It was delicious, it didn't taste like ribs from home but it was still delicious.
We went next door to a coffee shop to hang out for a little while before we finally made the cold walk home. Once we got home we intended to rest for a while and go out lather in the evening to see the red light district. It was about 10:00 now, but we still had time for lather. But once we were curled up on the couch with our wine glasses and time was nearing 11, we decided to stay in for the evening.
I was a little relieved to be home for the night as the day progressed I started to not feel very good and my cold was starting to get worse. I had a sniffily nose and I was happy to be curled up in my big fluffy blanket. We stayed up a bit lather and finally went to bed. I took some medicine to help me breathe and I was out for the night.
also found an internet cafe to entertain me. About an hour and half later, Jim was done with the book fair and said he was able to get enough books to feel satisfied.
We had decided the night before that it would be really fun to go to a football (soccer) game in Amsterdam, so we were on a search to find tickets. We walked all over for a long time on a little bit of a goose chase to find tickets for tonight's game. We walked down the major shopping streets and saw the Queen's palace. We made our way towards where the tickets would be on sale, and stopped for a quick lunch. It was delicious, we just found a cafe overlooking a canal and Jim had a soup which he loved. I enjoyed a nice salad and we were happy to rest where it was warm. After our cozy little lunch we walked around a market right across the canal and Jim found a few buckets full of swiss army knives, wine bottle openers, etc for €1. He was very excited to walk away with a bottle opener/corkscrew/knife with a wooden frame. We walked around the market for a while looking at all the interesting things. We finally found the shop called Primera where they sell football tickets, but the cute British behind the counter told us the game was sold out and you have to have a special club card to get in. :( So we purchased a Time Out magazine for Amsterdam and the cute British boy told me to have a good holiday and said Cheers as we left. So we made the walk home through sand to drop off Jim's books.
It felt great to get inside our cozy little houseboat and we relaxed for a little while. We flipped through the Time Out magazine to find what has happening that weekend, but we striked out on things to do. After a little while we left to walk around before dinner. We intended to take the street car to make our journey a little easier. We waited for about 10 minutes in the cold before we finally gave up and decided to make the walk to where we were going. We stopped in a cute little art gallery to admire all the art. Some of it was quite interesting and some of it was really great. They had a really cool hand sketch of three ostriches, it was so cool! I couldn't bring myself to buy it, but I thought it was the coolest looking thing ever!
We walked down the main street and stopped in some shops for shopping. I wanted to admire the boots, which Jim quietly went along with. We made our way to what Jim suggested was a really cool postcard shop with all kinds of different postcards. We got lost for a little while, but Jim was able to find the location. But when we arrived we saw the cool postcard shop had been bought out by a card store chain, and it just wasn't the same. I was really disappointed.
We walked back to the main street and found the little ice rink Jim had admired the night before. We decided on a nice Irish Pub next to the ice rink for a drink. I had an Amstel beer and Jim had some whiskey. We soon found out a promotion for Bushmill Whiskey was happening and they were going around to each table offering free whiskey. Jim and I took them up on the offer, while we listened to a good looking Irish man explain the whiskey to us. Jim decided he liked him previous Jameson better, and I decided I didn't like Bushmill at all. But while the man was talking to us, they took video of our conversation and picture after picture of Jim and I drinking the whiskey. So who knows, Jim and I might end up in a whiskey commercial sooner or lather!
After the Irish Pub we made our way to Jim's favorite Argentine restaurant for some spareribs. On the walk over we walked passed many men in football uniforms cheering loudly in the streets. I think it was a little glimpse into Amsterdam during the summer months. We walked there in the cold and we were both happy to settle into our seats for dinner. We sat next to a large table full of very drunk men. We each
ordered a plate of spareribs with French fries and a half lither of wine. It was delicious, it didn't taste like ribs from home but it was still delicious.
We went next door to a coffee shop to hang out for a little while before we finally made the cold walk home. Once we got home we intended to rest for a while and go out lather in the evening to see the red light district. It was about 10:00 now, but we still had time for lather. But once we were curled up on the couch with our wine glasses and time was nearing 11, we decided to stay in for the evening.
I was a little relieved to be home for the night as the day progressed I started to not feel very good and my cold was starting to get worse. I had a sniffily nose and I was happy to be curled up in my big fluffy blanket. We stayed up a bit lather and finally went to bed. I took some medicine to help me breathe and I was out for the night.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Day 22 - Train to Amsterdam
Jim and I woke up a bit early and got ourselves all packed and ready to go. His worker Jack came by to pick up his keys and we left for the train station. I let Jim borrow my new bag and I was able to admire it while we made our commute. I also realized its going to be hell getting both my large bags to the airport next week, but it will be doable. At the train station we waiting a few moments to find our platform and we validated our tickets. Once Platform 8 was announced we made our way to the train. Jim was in car 16 and I was in car 17. The numbering system was a little off, so it was a bit confusing, but we found our coaches nearly at the end of the train. I found my seat and made myself comfortable settling in with a book Jim leant me from his bookshelves at his apartment.
The train pulled out of the station around 10:30. We stopped in Brussels and Jim came to find me saying a seat next to him was open. So once the train started moving again, I went to find Jim, ended up walking right past him, but he shouted my name and I found him. We went straight to the cafe cart to grab some food as it was just about lunch time. I enjoyed a chocolate croissant and a coca-light, while Jim had a coffee and some chocolate. After we ate we went back to our seats to chat some more. We made a few more stops and I started reading my book again. We finally pulled into Amsterdam Central Station at 2:30, it was great to finally be at our destination.
Luckily I was with Jim who has visited here frequently and I could just follow him around without doing much investigating. We walked straight to the ticket office for public transportation and each bought 3 day passes for Amsterdam. We found our train and boarded. Jim and I read the directions from the houseboat owner a few times to make sure we could navigate. Once we arrived at our stop a very short ride later we found the correct exit, with a little help and walked up to the street level. We followed the directions a bit more, but they weren't exactly the most precise directions, but we found ourselves across from house #6, with 3 houseboats sitting below us in the water. The directions told us the 1st one was ours, and the 2nd one was the owners. So Jim sent me down the very dangerous tiny staircase to knock on our door, but no one answered. So Jim walked down the other tiny staircase to knock on their door and he was greeted by David. David and his wife Abbey own both houseboats and rent out the one we are staying in. He opened the door for us and gave us the tour. The boat is very nice inside, with a large living room/kitchen in the front. A very updated bathroom and a small bedroom in the back with the most amazing bed, 2 singles pushed together. It was so cute, I was very excited about our accommodations. The entire living room and bedroom is lined with windows to see the view of the canal and all the houses and houseboats on our block. I opened the window to take some pictures and was quickly greeted by a small black "coot" with a white feathered top. He started chirping at me and Jim said he must be fed constantly at the boat, so we made friends. Jim and I opened the screw top bottle of wine left by the owners and relaxed a little in the warmth of our houseboat. The wine tasted a big like grape juice, but it was still a nice welcoming gift. On the table was a cute little guest book with lots of writing inside, I read through some of them and saw people from all over the world. I read the funny ones aloud and we chuckled. I also ready several times how much people enjoyed feeding the coot. So there you go, he demands food!
After we sat around for a while we decided to get out and see a bit of Amsterdam before the sun went down. It was a very cloudy day and I tried to take pictures, but it was started to get too dark so they weren't turning out the best. We walked over our canal and over the drawbridge near our house towards the center of the city. Jim usually stays in a hotel right around the corner so he is very familiar with the area.
We walked and Jim pointed out some important landmarks, so it was nice to see everything. Amsterdam is so much quieter than I ever imagined! There is no hustle and bustle on the street, hardly any cars and the people are so kind and relaxed. However, bikes are HUGE here. People ride bikes everywhere, all the time and its a bit scary trying not to get hit by one. Jim said he knows he will either get hit by a car in London or a bike in Amsterdam and that will be the end. I thought that was a bit funny, because its so true! Nah, but honestly bikes are everywhere here and Jim said in the '70s all the standard Dutch black bikes (that you see everywhere) used to belong to the Dutch Government and people could take them and use them as they pleased, just leaving them in places when they were done. But once the '80s came, people started to steal them so they couldn't do that anymore. This is all from the wisdom of Jim, so who knows. :)
We walked by a very large flower market in the square and I was able to admire all the different kinds of flowers they sell and bulbs. I saw a dozen roses for sale for 6 Euro...I thought that was hilariously considering Lincoln prices. The flower market is very pretty and I enjoyed looking at all the different types. I pointed out a few of my favorites to Jim, but we are not sure if they can grow in Nebraska.
We stopped at a small cafe across from the flower market to grab some late lunch. I ordered a sandwich, while Jim had a salad. We also ended the meal with some coffee. After that we walked around the city for a while and Jim pointed out his favorite spots to go. At this point it was freezing and I was ready to get inside. I think Jim thinks I'm a bit of a wuss, but it was freaking cold! As we walked I found myself very distracted by all the shop windows, they have the coolest stores here! But after a few, almost running into a bike moments, I decided it was more important to focus on walking, and shop later. We stopped at a small grocery store to pick up some breakfast food and I was able to stop and get a pastry for tomorrow morning. We made our way back to the houseboat and it felt great to get inside where it was nice and warm!
We opened a good bottle of wine and snacked on some chips and cheese. We watched some Dutch television for a little while and tried to figure out what was happening. I got bored of that quickly and so we watch some American television and I curled up in a blanket on the couch. As it got later, Jim wanted to go out for dinner and drinks, but I was too tired and really didn't want to go out in the cold. It had started drizzling, and it just sounded miserable to go outside. The movie Brothers Grimm came on the TV and Jim told me it was a good movie, so we watched the beginning. Then Jim decided to go out for dinner, but I wanted to stay inside. I know, I know, but it was so cold!! And I have two more nights here!
So Jim left for dinner and I watched some TV in my blanket and with my wine...oh and some biscuits I picked up! I listened to the rain fall on the houseboat and the water for a long time and admired how beautiful it was outside. It was incredible. Jim came home a few hours later and said he had an amazing time and it was absolutely gorgeous outside if you can get over the cold. I was a little sad I didn't go, but not so much because it was nice to finally have a calm, relaxed evening. Jim told me all about his adventures and finding an oyster bar overlooking an ice-rink and a comedy club. He ordered 9 oysters and 2 glasses of white wine and enjoyed himself immensely. He liked our waiter so much he said he might call for reservations on Saturday night for the same table for the both of us. But he told he it was a very expensive restaurant so we will have to think about it. He also explained him walking around and what he saw. We stayed up talking for a long time about different things and finally went to bed at around 12:30. Jim slept on the pull out couch in the living room and I got the high cozy beds all to myself. The bed was like sleeping on clouds, everything was white and it was the most comfortable mattress with all goose down pillows, bedding, etc. Incredible! I had a bit of a stuffy nose and I didn't feel too good so I took some Benydrl and I slept like a rock star. I swear I will be so mad if I get sick on this trip!!! I sure hope not, fingers crossed.
A bid goodbye, Anna
The train pulled out of the station around 10:30. We stopped in Brussels and Jim came to find me saying a seat next to him was open. So once the train started moving again, I went to find Jim, ended up walking right past him, but he shouted my name and I found him. We went straight to the cafe cart to grab some food as it was just about lunch time. I enjoyed a chocolate croissant and a coca-light, while Jim had a coffee and some chocolate. After we ate we went back to our seats to chat some more. We made a few more stops and I started reading my book again. We finally pulled into Amsterdam Central Station at 2:30, it was great to finally be at our destination.
Luckily I was with Jim who has visited here frequently and I could just follow him around without doing much investigating. We walked straight to the ticket office for public transportation and each bought 3 day passes for Amsterdam. We found our train and boarded. Jim and I read the directions from the houseboat owner a few times to make sure we could navigate. Once we arrived at our stop a very short ride later we found the correct exit, with a little help and walked up to the street level. We followed the directions a bit more, but they weren't exactly the most precise directions, but we found ourselves across from house #6, with 3 houseboats sitting below us in the water. The directions told us the 1st one was ours, and the 2nd one was the owners. So Jim sent me down the very dangerous tiny staircase to knock on our door, but no one answered. So Jim walked down the other tiny staircase to knock on their door and he was greeted by David. David and his wife Abbey own both houseboats and rent out the one we are staying in. He opened the door for us and gave us the tour. The boat is very nice inside, with a large living room/kitchen in the front. A very updated bathroom and a small bedroom in the back with the most amazing bed, 2 singles pushed together. It was so cute, I was very excited about our accommodations. The entire living room and bedroom is lined with windows to see the view of the canal and all the houses and houseboats on our block. I opened the window to take some pictures and was quickly greeted by a small black "coot" with a white feathered top. He started chirping at me and Jim said he must be fed constantly at the boat, so we made friends. Jim and I opened the screw top bottle of wine left by the owners and relaxed a little in the warmth of our houseboat. The wine tasted a big like grape juice, but it was still a nice welcoming gift. On the table was a cute little guest book with lots of writing inside, I read through some of them and saw people from all over the world. I read the funny ones aloud and we chuckled. I also ready several times how much people enjoyed feeding the coot. So there you go, he demands food!
After we sat around for a while we decided to get out and see a bit of Amsterdam before the sun went down. It was a very cloudy day and I tried to take pictures, but it was started to get too dark so they weren't turning out the best. We walked over our canal and over the drawbridge near our house towards the center of the city. Jim usually stays in a hotel right around the corner so he is very familiar with the area.
We walked and Jim pointed out some important landmarks, so it was nice to see everything. Amsterdam is so much quieter than I ever imagined! There is no hustle and bustle on the street, hardly any cars and the people are so kind and relaxed. However, bikes are HUGE here. People ride bikes everywhere, all the time and its a bit scary trying not to get hit by one. Jim said he knows he will either get hit by a car in London or a bike in Amsterdam and that will be the end. I thought that was a bit funny, because its so true! Nah, but honestly bikes are everywhere here and Jim said in the '70s all the standard Dutch black bikes (that you see everywhere) used to belong to the Dutch Government and people could take them and use them as they pleased, just leaving them in places when they were done. But once the '80s came, people started to steal them so they couldn't do that anymore. This is all from the wisdom of Jim, so who knows. :)
We walked by a very large flower market in the square and I was able to admire all the different kinds of flowers they sell and bulbs. I saw a dozen roses for sale for 6 Euro...I thought that was hilariously considering Lincoln prices. The flower market is very pretty and I enjoyed looking at all the different types. I pointed out a few of my favorites to Jim, but we are not sure if they can grow in Nebraska.
We stopped at a small cafe across from the flower market to grab some late lunch. I ordered a sandwich, while Jim had a salad. We also ended the meal with some coffee. After that we walked around the city for a while and Jim pointed out his favorite spots to go. At this point it was freezing and I was ready to get inside. I think Jim thinks I'm a bit of a wuss, but it was freaking cold! As we walked I found myself very distracted by all the shop windows, they have the coolest stores here! But after a few, almost running into a bike moments, I decided it was more important to focus on walking, and shop later. We stopped at a small grocery store to pick up some breakfast food and I was able to stop and get a pastry for tomorrow morning. We made our way back to the houseboat and it felt great to get inside where it was nice and warm!
We opened a good bottle of wine and snacked on some chips and cheese. We watched some Dutch television for a little while and tried to figure out what was happening. I got bored of that quickly and so we watch some American television and I curled up in a blanket on the couch. As it got later, Jim wanted to go out for dinner and drinks, but I was too tired and really didn't want to go out in the cold. It had started drizzling, and it just sounded miserable to go outside. The movie Brothers Grimm came on the TV and Jim told me it was a good movie, so we watched the beginning. Then Jim decided to go out for dinner, but I wanted to stay inside. I know, I know, but it was so cold!! And I have two more nights here!
So Jim left for dinner and I watched some TV in my blanket and with my wine...oh and some biscuits I picked up! I listened to the rain fall on the houseboat and the water for a long time and admired how beautiful it was outside. It was incredible. Jim came home a few hours later and said he had an amazing time and it was absolutely gorgeous outside if you can get over the cold. I was a little sad I didn't go, but not so much because it was nice to finally have a calm, relaxed evening. Jim told me all about his adventures and finding an oyster bar overlooking an ice-rink and a comedy club. He ordered 9 oysters and 2 glasses of white wine and enjoyed himself immensely. He liked our waiter so much he said he might call for reservations on Saturday night for the same table for the both of us. But he told he it was a very expensive restaurant so we will have to think about it. He also explained him walking around and what he saw. We stayed up talking for a long time about different things and finally went to bed at around 12:30. Jim slept on the pull out couch in the living room and I got the high cozy beds all to myself. The bed was like sleeping on clouds, everything was white and it was the most comfortable mattress with all goose down pillows, bedding, etc. Incredible! I had a bit of a stuffy nose and I didn't feel too good so I took some Benydrl and I slept like a rock star. I swear I will be so mad if I get sick on this trip!!! I sure hope not, fingers crossed.
A bid goodbye, Anna
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Day 21 - The hunt for the Perfect Chocolat
I woke up this morning to the sound of the hustle and bustle of the street outside Jim's apartment window. My night on the inflatable mattress was very comfortable and very warm under the large comforter Jim gave me. It was hard to get out of bed because I was so warm and cozy. But I did and Jim and I spent the morning slowly getting ready and drinking coffee around the apartment. It was a nice change of pace to just relax and lounge around for a while.
We left the apartment around 11 or so and walked to the train station. We both needed to pick up our train tickets for tomorrow that we had reserved online. It was a little sunny outside and it was pretty nice weather. Nothing like Barcelona, but for Paris winter it was a nice day. Once we found the ticket off at the train station we stood in line for a little while. Jim was able to pick up his tickets with no problem and swiftly exited leaving me to get my tickets. The women kindly looked up my reservation and asked me for the credit card I used to reserve the tickets. I gladly handed over my card and she swiped it, but it did not match the original reservation. She explained this to me and asked for the correct card. Then in dawned on me, when Dad and I were booking this back in the states my credit card wouldn't work because they thought it was suspicious activity so we ended up charging it to Dad's credit card. I panicked and explained to her that I didn't have the credit card with me. She looked at me with such annoyance and responded with there is nothing she can do, I can't have my tickets. Great, just great. So I told her that I needed to buy new tickets for the exact same trains and times. She obliged and looked up the tickets, but she told me the train was near full and it would cost more than I originally paid. She looked at my reservation and saw the discounted price I originally paid and laughed rolling her eyes and saying, no way, your tickets are going to be WAY more. Great, just great. But there was nothing I could do, so I ended up paying about €100 more than I paid on my first set of tickets and was able to confirm I had tickets for the train tomorrow. So I walked out of the office paying lots of money and walking away with 2 reservations for the train. The clerk told me I could cancel my reservation online to get a refund for my original ticket, so at least that was a little reassurance.
After I explained the story to Jim he laughed a little, as did I as I shook my head in annoyance at not having he credit card with me. We quickly stopped at a photo booth so Jim could take his picture. He was able to finally get his very first Senior card and he needed a picture to go with it. Once he was happy with his picture and it was printed we walked down to the metro station. I think the picture looked very nice by the way. We then went to a shop where Jim could change some money before our big trip tomorrow. Right across the street from the shop was a very cheesy Christmas scene including a fluffy stuffed dog and a polar bear. We stopped to take a quick picture, our first picture together and laughed at the very odd scene. We walked a couple blocks and walked right in front of Notre Dame, it has a very (as Jim would say) putzy Christmas tree out front and I was able to take a picture of Notre Dame with the putzy tree. We walked around the touristy areas and Jim showed me a few of his competitors who have shops in the area. We stopped at a little Greek restaurant for lunch and I had a gyro with lamb and some french fries. It felt good to sit inside where it was warm. During our wonderful conversation at lunch suddenly girls started screaming and pushing chairs out of the way behind me. I quickly turned at all the commotion and realize a pigeon had flown into the shop and 3 tables of young girls started screaming and freaking out. It was hillarious to see them all so frantic, it was like a classroom of school girls. As Jim said "its only a pigeon."
We left lunch and Jim gave me a little tour of a church right near by called, Saint Severin. It was very nice, small yet magnificent. We walked a little bit longer and found ourselves in front of Jim's bookshop. On the walk there, Jim pointed out a shop where his old business partner recently opened a bookstore to compete with Jim's shop. Its about a half block away and I could see why Jim was a bit pissed off about it. We walked into the shop and greeted the other Jim, they discussed a few book orders while Jim dropped off some books from his apartment.
We walked down Rue St. Sulpice to Ruenns and turned left to find ourselves at a large and very fancy department store called Bon Marche. Jim wanted to show me the shop windows which are usually very impressive this time of the year. They were pretty, but we didn't think they were spectacular. We walked into the very pretty department store, which was a little fancy for my wallet, but Jim explained this is where be bought Lucas and Katie's wedding gift. He also walked around to show me all his favorite designers and all the clothes he would buy if he could. He has very good taste in clothes, much better than myself. We walked around a little to look at all the spectacular things, mostly in the men's area and then decided it was time to move on.
We took the metro to a shop on the outer part of central Paris and walked what Jim called, "very very long blocks," until we reached a little leather repair shop. Jim had dropped off his leather coat here a while back to fix a small tear in the sleeve. He had decided the shop lady was a little crazy and he could get it repaired at a better place. He also wanted to take it with us on our trip just in case it rained. We were greeted by the crazy French lady who I thought was very fun in her own way, but I couldn't understand a word she was saying. I think Jim was very thankful to get his coat back and felt better about finding a new shop to have the tear fixed at a later date.
Our errands were done for the day and on our way home we decided to stop for Chocolate, or hot chocolate. Jim decided on a place he wanted to go and we got off the metro. As we walked Jim explained we were now in the Jewish Quarter and right as he said that we walked right past a synagogue with the star of David in front. The area was really nice and it had great little streets full of great shops that I very much wanted to go into, but then I realized I couldn't afford anything inside. We walked in front of a restaurant with two Christmas trees outside and Jim pointed them out, "Christmas trees in a Jewish neighborhood." As I turned to look at them, I responded with "well they are sprayed black, so thats probably saying something." We had a little chuckle.
We turned the corner and a short distance later we walked into a nice sized cafe. We sat down and got cozy and took a look at the menu. We each ordered Hot Chocolate and two desserts. Jim ordered the cheesecake and I had a tarte with fruit and ice cream. The hot chocolate came in 2 small saucers and 1 larger saucer of cream. You pour real melted chocolate into your mug and then pour the warm creme on top and add some sugar to top it off. It was really sweet, but very good. My tarte was delicious, it was made of a pastry, prunes and apricots (I think). It was perfection. Jim's cheesecake was very good too, it was whipped and very light. It sure was a very sweet break, but it was the perfect time of day and it was nice to enjoy it!
Right across the street was a small art studio featuring about 15 or so original artists works. We flipped through the very fun artworks and made friends with the Norwegian saleswomen. She was very interested in helping us find what we were looking for and where we are from. She was really nice and as Jim mentioned later, far from French because of her kind nature. During our dessert Jim mentioned there was a small retro/used clothing store right around the corner that he frequents to buy neckties for €1. I asked if we could go and after the art store we walked around the corner and walked in. The place was PACKED. It was craziness as people dug through the coolest looking old clothes. Jim went straight for the neckties, and me the scarves. Jim found one red necktie with rhinestones, but it had a small stain so he passed. I found a few great finds in the scarves and we made our way downstairs. Jim found a neat old coat that was really fun, but the sleeves were too short. He said he often has that problem in Paris, but was a little bummed it didn't fit. Back upstairs I found a few large bags hanging from the banister and I studied them for a long time. There were two I really liked, leather and vintage. Jim was standing outside and I waved him back in to see the bags. He was very impressed with my finds and helped me inspect them. We decided the smaller of the two was not real leather, but the other one was. Jim said he was a little envious because the bag would be a great travel bag. I fell in love with it and decided I could carry it home on my flight and check my other bag. I told Jim he could use it this weekend to travel with and he was satisfied. I was so happy to walk out of the store with it. Its really nice brown leather and is clearly vintage. I think I will be excited about that find years from now.
We finally made our way home and I was able to do some laundry as we sipped wine. I found a book on the shelf about Trailer Travel and asked Jim a few questions about his childhood at the trailer park. He pipped up and filled me in on plenty of stories from his younger days. It was so interesting to listen to, I can't imagine the life him and my Dad grew up in. He has the most outrageous stories and it was so fun to learn more about my Dad. Jim also got out his old scrapbook my Grandma had made him of his baby pictures and we looked through that. It was great to see all the old pictures. He also showed me his scrapbook of Vietnam, which was VERY different but hilarious to see. I saw so much resemblance of my Dad and my brother from pictures of Jim when he was younger. It was a little eerie. I like hearing all the stories Jim had to tell about my grandparents, great-grandparents and of course my own father.
I went to change my laundry from the washer to the dryer and realized my favorite gold scarf had ruined all my whites! The color from the scarf had run and stained all my white clothes a yellowish green. Great. But oh well, they weren't really important clothes, but it did ruin my scarf. :(
When I waited for my clothes to dry I was able to get online to the ticket website and attempt to cancel my first reservation to get my money back. The trouble was the website is in French. Dad and I were so excited to have booked the tickets in the first place because we were able to navigate a French website. Well, now I needed to cancel the tickets in French. I asked Jim for a dictionary and tried my hardest to look up all my options. I finally looked up the word "cancel" and I was able to find it under the help section. Jim was packing and said he wouldn't really be much help anyway, so I tried to do it all on my own. When I finally found the screen explaining how to cancel my reservation Jim came over and we were able to follow the directions together. And we figured out how to cancel one of the tickets! YEAH! But for some reason the other ticket won't work, it keeps saying Electronic error. Damn. Oh well, at least I got a little over half the money back. I feel really proud that I was able to figure it out in French. Pat on the back for me. :)
Once the laundry was done we set off for dinner. Sushi, which Jim was actually surprised to here I liked. We walked just around the corner to a small Sushi restaurant. We ordered the same plate of Sushi and took our time eating. Jim enjoyed some sake, but I stuck with water. After dinner we headed back to the apartment to do some ironing. I was able to iron my pants and then I spent some time online. Jim just enjoyed some chocolate ice cream, but I told him I was chocolate-d out for the day and I passed.
Now I need to spend some time selecting which clothes I want to pack for tomorrow. Jim was able to pack his things in my new bag and I think he likes it just as much as I do! I finally don't have to travel with a hugely full backpack because I will be able to leave some things here! I am very excited about only taking what I need for the 4 days we will be gone. Now I just have to pick and choose what to take and what to leave...I hope it doesn't take me too long.
For those of you who voted, Jim and I are going to Amsterdam tomorrow and we will be staying on a houseboat!! I am so excited, it will be my first time in Amsterdam and my first time on a houseboat!
A Bientot, Anna
We left the apartment around 11 or so and walked to the train station. We both needed to pick up our train tickets for tomorrow that we had reserved online. It was a little sunny outside and it was pretty nice weather. Nothing like Barcelona, but for Paris winter it was a nice day. Once we found the ticket off at the train station we stood in line for a little while. Jim was able to pick up his tickets with no problem and swiftly exited leaving me to get my tickets. The women kindly looked up my reservation and asked me for the credit card I used to reserve the tickets. I gladly handed over my card and she swiped it, but it did not match the original reservation. She explained this to me and asked for the correct card. Then in dawned on me, when Dad and I were booking this back in the states my credit card wouldn't work because they thought it was suspicious activity so we ended up charging it to Dad's credit card. I panicked and explained to her that I didn't have the credit card with me. She looked at me with such annoyance and responded with there is nothing she can do, I can't have my tickets. Great, just great. So I told her that I needed to buy new tickets for the exact same trains and times. She obliged and looked up the tickets, but she told me the train was near full and it would cost more than I originally paid. She looked at my reservation and saw the discounted price I originally paid and laughed rolling her eyes and saying, no way, your tickets are going to be WAY more. Great, just great. But there was nothing I could do, so I ended up paying about €100 more than I paid on my first set of tickets and was able to confirm I had tickets for the train tomorrow. So I walked out of the office paying lots of money and walking away with 2 reservations for the train. The clerk told me I could cancel my reservation online to get a refund for my original ticket, so at least that was a little reassurance.
After I explained the story to Jim he laughed a little, as did I as I shook my head in annoyance at not having he credit card with me. We quickly stopped at a photo booth so Jim could take his picture. He was able to finally get his very first Senior card and he needed a picture to go with it. Once he was happy with his picture and it was printed we walked down to the metro station. I think the picture looked very nice by the way. We then went to a shop where Jim could change some money before our big trip tomorrow. Right across the street from the shop was a very cheesy Christmas scene including a fluffy stuffed dog and a polar bear. We stopped to take a quick picture, our first picture together and laughed at the very odd scene. We walked a couple blocks and walked right in front of Notre Dame, it has a very (as Jim would say) putzy Christmas tree out front and I was able to take a picture of Notre Dame with the putzy tree. We walked around the touristy areas and Jim showed me a few of his competitors who have shops in the area. We stopped at a little Greek restaurant for lunch and I had a gyro with lamb and some french fries. It felt good to sit inside where it was warm. During our wonderful conversation at lunch suddenly girls started screaming and pushing chairs out of the way behind me. I quickly turned at all the commotion and realize a pigeon had flown into the shop and 3 tables of young girls started screaming and freaking out. It was hillarious to see them all so frantic, it was like a classroom of school girls. As Jim said "its only a pigeon."
We left lunch and Jim gave me a little tour of a church right near by called, Saint Severin. It was very nice, small yet magnificent. We walked a little bit longer and found ourselves in front of Jim's bookshop. On the walk there, Jim pointed out a shop where his old business partner recently opened a bookstore to compete with Jim's shop. Its about a half block away and I could see why Jim was a bit pissed off about it. We walked into the shop and greeted the other Jim, they discussed a few book orders while Jim dropped off some books from his apartment.
We walked down Rue St. Sulpice to Ruenns and turned left to find ourselves at a large and very fancy department store called Bon Marche. Jim wanted to show me the shop windows which are usually very impressive this time of the year. They were pretty, but we didn't think they were spectacular. We walked into the very pretty department store, which was a little fancy for my wallet, but Jim explained this is where be bought Lucas and Katie's wedding gift. He also walked around to show me all his favorite designers and all the clothes he would buy if he could. He has very good taste in clothes, much better than myself. We walked around a little to look at all the spectacular things, mostly in the men's area and then decided it was time to move on.
We took the metro to a shop on the outer part of central Paris and walked what Jim called, "very very long blocks," until we reached a little leather repair shop. Jim had dropped off his leather coat here a while back to fix a small tear in the sleeve. He had decided the shop lady was a little crazy and he could get it repaired at a better place. He also wanted to take it with us on our trip just in case it rained. We were greeted by the crazy French lady who I thought was very fun in her own way, but I couldn't understand a word she was saying. I think Jim was very thankful to get his coat back and felt better about finding a new shop to have the tear fixed at a later date.
Our errands were done for the day and on our way home we decided to stop for Chocolate, or hot chocolate. Jim decided on a place he wanted to go and we got off the metro. As we walked Jim explained we were now in the Jewish Quarter and right as he said that we walked right past a synagogue with the star of David in front. The area was really nice and it had great little streets full of great shops that I very much wanted to go into, but then I realized I couldn't afford anything inside. We walked in front of a restaurant with two Christmas trees outside and Jim pointed them out, "Christmas trees in a Jewish neighborhood." As I turned to look at them, I responded with "well they are sprayed black, so thats probably saying something." We had a little chuckle.
We turned the corner and a short distance later we walked into a nice sized cafe. We sat down and got cozy and took a look at the menu. We each ordered Hot Chocolate and two desserts. Jim ordered the cheesecake and I had a tarte with fruit and ice cream. The hot chocolate came in 2 small saucers and 1 larger saucer of cream. You pour real melted chocolate into your mug and then pour the warm creme on top and add some sugar to top it off. It was really sweet, but very good. My tarte was delicious, it was made of a pastry, prunes and apricots (I think). It was perfection. Jim's cheesecake was very good too, it was whipped and very light. It sure was a very sweet break, but it was the perfect time of day and it was nice to enjoy it!
Right across the street was a small art studio featuring about 15 or so original artists works. We flipped through the very fun artworks and made friends with the Norwegian saleswomen. She was very interested in helping us find what we were looking for and where we are from. She was really nice and as Jim mentioned later, far from French because of her kind nature. During our dessert Jim mentioned there was a small retro/used clothing store right around the corner that he frequents to buy neckties for €1. I asked if we could go and after the art store we walked around the corner and walked in. The place was PACKED. It was craziness as people dug through the coolest looking old clothes. Jim went straight for the neckties, and me the scarves. Jim found one red necktie with rhinestones, but it had a small stain so he passed. I found a few great finds in the scarves and we made our way downstairs. Jim found a neat old coat that was really fun, but the sleeves were too short. He said he often has that problem in Paris, but was a little bummed it didn't fit. Back upstairs I found a few large bags hanging from the banister and I studied them for a long time. There were two I really liked, leather and vintage. Jim was standing outside and I waved him back in to see the bags. He was very impressed with my finds and helped me inspect them. We decided the smaller of the two was not real leather, but the other one was. Jim said he was a little envious because the bag would be a great travel bag. I fell in love with it and decided I could carry it home on my flight and check my other bag. I told Jim he could use it this weekend to travel with and he was satisfied. I was so happy to walk out of the store with it. Its really nice brown leather and is clearly vintage. I think I will be excited about that find years from now.
We finally made our way home and I was able to do some laundry as we sipped wine. I found a book on the shelf about Trailer Travel and asked Jim a few questions about his childhood at the trailer park. He pipped up and filled me in on plenty of stories from his younger days. It was so interesting to listen to, I can't imagine the life him and my Dad grew up in. He has the most outrageous stories and it was so fun to learn more about my Dad. Jim also got out his old scrapbook my Grandma had made him of his baby pictures and we looked through that. It was great to see all the old pictures. He also showed me his scrapbook of Vietnam, which was VERY different but hilarious to see. I saw so much resemblance of my Dad and my brother from pictures of Jim when he was younger. It was a little eerie. I like hearing all the stories Jim had to tell about my grandparents, great-grandparents and of course my own father.
I went to change my laundry from the washer to the dryer and realized my favorite gold scarf had ruined all my whites! The color from the scarf had run and stained all my white clothes a yellowish green. Great. But oh well, they weren't really important clothes, but it did ruin my scarf. :(
When I waited for my clothes to dry I was able to get online to the ticket website and attempt to cancel my first reservation to get my money back. The trouble was the website is in French. Dad and I were so excited to have booked the tickets in the first place because we were able to navigate a French website. Well, now I needed to cancel the tickets in French. I asked Jim for a dictionary and tried my hardest to look up all my options. I finally looked up the word "cancel" and I was able to find it under the help section. Jim was packing and said he wouldn't really be much help anyway, so I tried to do it all on my own. When I finally found the screen explaining how to cancel my reservation Jim came over and we were able to follow the directions together. And we figured out how to cancel one of the tickets! YEAH! But for some reason the other ticket won't work, it keeps saying Electronic error. Damn. Oh well, at least I got a little over half the money back. I feel really proud that I was able to figure it out in French. Pat on the back for me. :)
Once the laundry was done we set off for dinner. Sushi, which Jim was actually surprised to here I liked. We walked just around the corner to a small Sushi restaurant. We ordered the same plate of Sushi and took our time eating. Jim enjoyed some sake, but I stuck with water. After dinner we headed back to the apartment to do some ironing. I was able to iron my pants and then I spent some time online. Jim just enjoyed some chocolate ice cream, but I told him I was chocolate-d out for the day and I passed.
Now I need to spend some time selecting which clothes I want to pack for tomorrow. Jim was able to pack his things in my new bag and I think he likes it just as much as I do! I finally don't have to travel with a hugely full backpack because I will be able to leave some things here! I am very excited about only taking what I need for the 4 days we will be gone. Now I just have to pick and choose what to take and what to leave...I hope it doesn't take me too long.
For those of you who voted, Jim and I are going to Amsterdam tomorrow and we will be staying on a houseboat!! I am so excited, it will be my first time in Amsterdam and my first time on a houseboat!
A Bientot, Anna
Day 20 - Snow in Paris and a quest for an inflatable mattress
It was an early wake up call this morning, I had to get dressed and packed in enough time to catch my train to the airport. I said goodbye to Ada and Maria first as they headed off to school and work. Ada gave me a goodbye kiss and it was sad to see her go, I wonder if she will remember me? After a very quick breakfast Roger and I headed to the Metro station and caught a train to a major station a few stops later.
Roger walked me to the train station section, which was a very long walk I might add...all with my large backpack on my shoulders. I bought my ticket and Roger and I parted ways. He assured me to catch the 8:50 train to the Aeroport at platform 1. I waited at platform 1 for about a half hour watching as trains came and went, praying I didn't miss my train. At 8:50, sure enough a train saying Aeroport pulled up and I got on. About a half an hour later we arrived at the Airport...I was so happy to get there because it took all my energy fighting off sleep on the train.
Right off the train I had a hard time finding a Departures board with my flight on it, it was a little too early to be listed, but I found it and it said Terminal C. I will have to admit I had a very hard time finding Terminal C. There were signs pointing to Terminal C and then there we no signs. I had to wait in a long line to finally ask where I needed to go because I couldn't figure it out. Turns out I needed to go outside the airport and walk a while to get to Terminal C. No where did a sign explain that! But finally after my long walk I found my check-in counter and was able to check-in. Only when I booked my flight I didn't sign up for baggage but I wanted to check my bag. I could have probablly carried it, but its so much nicer to not have to worry about it until I get to the airport. So she informed me that I had to pay a fee, which I gladly paid so I didn't have to carry it around anymore. I made my way to my gate and sat down before we were loaded on a bus and driven to our plane. Again I sat right across from a women breast-feeding, I don't know why that always happens to me, but its like a train wreck...you don't want to watch, but you can't help but look. Just cover up lady! We took the bus to our plane and rushed inside to find our seats.
The flight went very quickly for me. I slept through almost the whole thing except the last 10 minutes before we landed. It was cloudy the whole flight so there was nothing to look at. When we landed in Paris the clouds were so think I could barely see the terminal. It was also snowing!! I was so excited to see snow on the ground and snow lightly falling from the sky. This is the first time this year I have seen snow and it was just so beautiful landing in Paris with snow falling. I went to baggage claim to collect my bag and I realized maybe the snow wasn't so great...my bag was soaking wet on the front, so I had to take a few things out to make sure they weren't ruined. Then I had to find my way into Paris. It was a bit difficult finding the shuttle bus to the metro station, but a very nice woman at the information desk helped me and gave me a nice map of the metro station along with circles stops on where I need to change trains and where my final destination was. I found the shuttle bus and once I arrived at Terminal 3, I gave Jim a call to tell him I was in Paris! He was to wait for me at his bookstore, so I purchased a train ticket and made my way down to the platform.
I was on the first train for a long time, but most of it was outside and I was able to watch the snow fall. It was great and it really put me in the mood for Christmas! As we got further into the city the snow turned to rain and it wasn't so pretty anymore. I changed trains at Guad de Nord and had to make one hell of a walk to Line 4. Once I was comfortablly on Line 4, I only had about 6 stops before Odeon. At Odeon I got off the train and walked up from the Metro station to the street. This is where I had to use my memory, Jim said his store was right around the corner, I just had to remember what corner. I could of called him of course, but I wanted to find it on my own. It took me two guesses and once I made the right turn I instantly recognized a corner of large cement posts sticking out of the ground. Four years ago, I ran into one of these as Lucas, Kate and I were walking because I wasn't paying attention. I laughed at the memory and it was great to have a sense of familiarality. I walked up the street and straight into The San Francisco Book Company, Uncle Jim's bookstore. i was immediately greeted by his employee Jim, and on my right Uncle Jim stood up behind the counter and said hello. I was able to put my heavy pack down and give Jim a hug.
I put all my things down and Jim and I headed to lunch right around the corner at a place Jim frequents for dinner after closing the store. Jim ordered a salad and a coke, I ordered a club sandwhich and of course a Coca-light. Once our food arrived Jim reminded me that I needed to eat my sandwhich with a knife and fork, none of this using your hands business. I laughed and told him I was used to it and expected to use a knife and fork. I've already eaten french fries with a knife and fork, so I'm prepared to convert. I enjoyed catching up with Jim and talking about our weekend excursion coming up and our week together next week. We talked about a few errands we needed to run today and tomorrow to prepare for our trip and I was glad to hear I have a relaxed couple of days ahead. After we finsihed Jim ordered a coffee and intended to order me hot chocolate, but I ended up getting a chocolate dessert instead. It was still delicous and I ate every last bite!
Next we went back to the bookstore to grab my bag and Jim wanted to check to see if a customer had stopped in. I grabbed my bag and we made our way to Jim's apartment. We had to switch trains once, otherwise it was an easy commute. Altough one of the trains was a bit packed and I was standing next to the doors. Each time we stopped I had to make sure my bag made it inside the doors...it was a bit tricky, but it worked out just fine. Out of the Metro station, it was a short walk to Jim's apartment right around the corner. Jim's other employee Jack was working at the apartment taking inventory of books. Jack greeted us and it was nice to meet him, he is originally from Chicago, but married a French girl and they just had a baby. Jack was going to the post office for the bookstore and offered to take my postcards with him to mail. It was a very kind offer! Jim gave me the tour of his apartment which is very nice! A lot bigger than his previous apartment and its decorated making it feel very homely. The apartment is filled with book shelves and books making it a bit of a library. Its decorated with the most unique things and a lot of antiques. The walls are filled with old posters and framed prints. My favorite is a very large antique map of the world framed above Jim's bed, its huge and so cool to look at. Jim said he had it has his bookstore in San Francisco and was able to get it all the way here. That is very impressive considering its size...it takes up the whole wall! I really like the apartment and I find myself looking around at all the interesting things.
After my tour we left to go buy a bed for me to sleep on! Jim need to buy a bed for a guest to sleep on and we made our way to a Department store right across from City Hall. On our walk to the Metro station, Jim pointed out a few things along the way. The shop where I should buy my breakfast if I like croissants (indeed I do), the canal near his home which runs from Belgium, and the Square called Plac Republic with a large statue in the middle.
We took the Metro to the department store which was very nicely decorated with Christmas decorations. Jim pointed out City Hall where we went to "White Night" 4 years ago when Annie and I visited. He also pointed to Notre Dame in the distance. The department store was filled with people and lots of things I would have loved to look at, but it was probablly best that we walked straight to the escaltor to go up. We went up and up and up, turning the corner at every floor to go up farther, it felt like forever. Finally on the top floor we walked out to the furniture and bedding. Jim walked directly over to the blow up matress he wanted and it was gigantic. Much larger than any matress I have ever slept on! Jim picked up the box and we made our way to the cash register. Then we walked over to the elevators and watched the 2 go up and down like racing horses until finally one stopped on our floor. We took it down to the basement, which happens to be the hardware section. Jim said he spends a lot of time here picking up things for the bookstore. We walked directly to the Metro station, which was attached to the Department store.
We got back to the apartment and I was able to sit and relax for a little bit while Jim went to the store. Upon his return he ran next door to put in some laundry and then we worked on getting the blow-up matress up and ready for me to sleep on. I am kind of excited, it fits perfectly between his desks and bookselves and it is up really high. We will see how it feels to sleep on. While I was on the computer Jim handed me a glass of wine, apples and cheese to snack on before dinner. Yum! We talked a bit about different things while Jim waited for the laundry to be done.
After laundry Jim made a delicious dinner of a bean salad and sausage, potatoes and carrots. It was delicious and warm! After dinner I sat for a while to relax and studied Jim's guidebook for our trip. Then I asked about a couple of books on his shelf and Jim handed me two books to look at...Paris in a basket and Paris Underground. Paris in a basket was all about the Paris Markets and Jim mentioned that we will miss his neighborhood market this week, but we thought about trying to find one on Monday to go to. Paris Underground is a rather unique book about the caves under Paris where they mined for limestone. People have gone down into the caves and painted all the walls, and the author went to take pictures of all the artwork down there. Its very unique, mostly spray painting from the '60s. It was fun to look at.
It was time for bed and I made sure my inflatable mattress had plenty of blankets to keep me warm, and it sure did!
*I want to give a very special thank you to Roger, Maria and Ada for being such amazing hosts during my stay in Barcelona! Thank you for everything you did and for making sure I was as comfortable as possible. Your hospitality is more than I could have ever asked for!
Roger walked me to the train station section, which was a very long walk I might add...all with my large backpack on my shoulders. I bought my ticket and Roger and I parted ways. He assured me to catch the 8:50 train to the Aeroport at platform 1. I waited at platform 1 for about a half hour watching as trains came and went, praying I didn't miss my train. At 8:50, sure enough a train saying Aeroport pulled up and I got on. About a half an hour later we arrived at the Airport...I was so happy to get there because it took all my energy fighting off sleep on the train.
Right off the train I had a hard time finding a Departures board with my flight on it, it was a little too early to be listed, but I found it and it said Terminal C. I will have to admit I had a very hard time finding Terminal C. There were signs pointing to Terminal C and then there we no signs. I had to wait in a long line to finally ask where I needed to go because I couldn't figure it out. Turns out I needed to go outside the airport and walk a while to get to Terminal C. No where did a sign explain that! But finally after my long walk I found my check-in counter and was able to check-in. Only when I booked my flight I didn't sign up for baggage but I wanted to check my bag. I could have probablly carried it, but its so much nicer to not have to worry about it until I get to the airport. So she informed me that I had to pay a fee, which I gladly paid so I didn't have to carry it around anymore. I made my way to my gate and sat down before we were loaded on a bus and driven to our plane. Again I sat right across from a women breast-feeding, I don't know why that always happens to me, but its like a train wreck...you don't want to watch, but you can't help but look. Just cover up lady! We took the bus to our plane and rushed inside to find our seats.
The flight went very quickly for me. I slept through almost the whole thing except the last 10 minutes before we landed. It was cloudy the whole flight so there was nothing to look at. When we landed in Paris the clouds were so think I could barely see the terminal. It was also snowing!! I was so excited to see snow on the ground and snow lightly falling from the sky. This is the first time this year I have seen snow and it was just so beautiful landing in Paris with snow falling. I went to baggage claim to collect my bag and I realized maybe the snow wasn't so great...my bag was soaking wet on the front, so I had to take a few things out to make sure they weren't ruined. Then I had to find my way into Paris. It was a bit difficult finding the shuttle bus to the metro station, but a very nice woman at the information desk helped me and gave me a nice map of the metro station along with circles stops on where I need to change trains and where my final destination was. I found the shuttle bus and once I arrived at Terminal 3, I gave Jim a call to tell him I was in Paris! He was to wait for me at his bookstore, so I purchased a train ticket and made my way down to the platform.
I was on the first train for a long time, but most of it was outside and I was able to watch the snow fall. It was great and it really put me in the mood for Christmas! As we got further into the city the snow turned to rain and it wasn't so pretty anymore. I changed trains at Guad de Nord and had to make one hell of a walk to Line 4. Once I was comfortablly on Line 4, I only had about 6 stops before Odeon. At Odeon I got off the train and walked up from the Metro station to the street. This is where I had to use my memory, Jim said his store was right around the corner, I just had to remember what corner. I could of called him of course, but I wanted to find it on my own. It took me two guesses and once I made the right turn I instantly recognized a corner of large cement posts sticking out of the ground. Four years ago, I ran into one of these as Lucas, Kate and I were walking because I wasn't paying attention. I laughed at the memory and it was great to have a sense of familiarality. I walked up the street and straight into The San Francisco Book Company, Uncle Jim's bookstore. i was immediately greeted by his employee Jim, and on my right Uncle Jim stood up behind the counter and said hello. I was able to put my heavy pack down and give Jim a hug.
I put all my things down and Jim and I headed to lunch right around the corner at a place Jim frequents for dinner after closing the store. Jim ordered a salad and a coke, I ordered a club sandwhich and of course a Coca-light. Once our food arrived Jim reminded me that I needed to eat my sandwhich with a knife and fork, none of this using your hands business. I laughed and told him I was used to it and expected to use a knife and fork. I've already eaten french fries with a knife and fork, so I'm prepared to convert. I enjoyed catching up with Jim and talking about our weekend excursion coming up and our week together next week. We talked about a few errands we needed to run today and tomorrow to prepare for our trip and I was glad to hear I have a relaxed couple of days ahead. After we finsihed Jim ordered a coffee and intended to order me hot chocolate, but I ended up getting a chocolate dessert instead. It was still delicous and I ate every last bite!
Next we went back to the bookstore to grab my bag and Jim wanted to check to see if a customer had stopped in. I grabbed my bag and we made our way to Jim's apartment. We had to switch trains once, otherwise it was an easy commute. Altough one of the trains was a bit packed and I was standing next to the doors. Each time we stopped I had to make sure my bag made it inside the doors...it was a bit tricky, but it worked out just fine. Out of the Metro station, it was a short walk to Jim's apartment right around the corner. Jim's other employee Jack was working at the apartment taking inventory of books. Jack greeted us and it was nice to meet him, he is originally from Chicago, but married a French girl and they just had a baby. Jack was going to the post office for the bookstore and offered to take my postcards with him to mail. It was a very kind offer! Jim gave me the tour of his apartment which is very nice! A lot bigger than his previous apartment and its decorated making it feel very homely. The apartment is filled with book shelves and books making it a bit of a library. Its decorated with the most unique things and a lot of antiques. The walls are filled with old posters and framed prints. My favorite is a very large antique map of the world framed above Jim's bed, its huge and so cool to look at. Jim said he had it has his bookstore in San Francisco and was able to get it all the way here. That is very impressive considering its size...it takes up the whole wall! I really like the apartment and I find myself looking around at all the interesting things.
After my tour we left to go buy a bed for me to sleep on! Jim need to buy a bed for a guest to sleep on and we made our way to a Department store right across from City Hall. On our walk to the Metro station, Jim pointed out a few things along the way. The shop where I should buy my breakfast if I like croissants (indeed I do), the canal near his home which runs from Belgium, and the Square called Plac Republic with a large statue in the middle.
We took the Metro to the department store which was very nicely decorated with Christmas decorations. Jim pointed out City Hall where we went to "White Night" 4 years ago when Annie and I visited. He also pointed to Notre Dame in the distance. The department store was filled with people and lots of things I would have loved to look at, but it was probablly best that we walked straight to the escaltor to go up. We went up and up and up, turning the corner at every floor to go up farther, it felt like forever. Finally on the top floor we walked out to the furniture and bedding. Jim walked directly over to the blow up matress he wanted and it was gigantic. Much larger than any matress I have ever slept on! Jim picked up the box and we made our way to the cash register. Then we walked over to the elevators and watched the 2 go up and down like racing horses until finally one stopped on our floor. We took it down to the basement, which happens to be the hardware section. Jim said he spends a lot of time here picking up things for the bookstore. We walked directly to the Metro station, which was attached to the Department store.
We got back to the apartment and I was able to sit and relax for a little bit while Jim went to the store. Upon his return he ran next door to put in some laundry and then we worked on getting the blow-up matress up and ready for me to sleep on. I am kind of excited, it fits perfectly between his desks and bookselves and it is up really high. We will see how it feels to sleep on. While I was on the computer Jim handed me a glass of wine, apples and cheese to snack on before dinner. Yum! We talked a bit about different things while Jim waited for the laundry to be done.
After laundry Jim made a delicious dinner of a bean salad and sausage, potatoes and carrots. It was delicious and warm! After dinner I sat for a while to relax and studied Jim's guidebook for our trip. Then I asked about a couple of books on his shelf and Jim handed me two books to look at...Paris in a basket and Paris Underground. Paris in a basket was all about the Paris Markets and Jim mentioned that we will miss his neighborhood market this week, but we thought about trying to find one on Monday to go to. Paris Underground is a rather unique book about the caves under Paris where they mined for limestone. People have gone down into the caves and painted all the walls, and the author went to take pictures of all the artwork down there. Its very unique, mostly spray painting from the '60s. It was fun to look at.
It was time for bed and I made sure my inflatable mattress had plenty of blankets to keep me warm, and it sure did!
*I want to give a very special thank you to Roger, Maria and Ada for being such amazing hosts during my stay in Barcelona! Thank you for everything you did and for making sure I was as comfortable as possible. Your hospitality is more than I could have ever asked for!
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