Europe Day 4

Well, I didn't do a whole lot today.  Somehow I managed to sleep in until 1pm.  I wasn't overly tired, so I'm not sure how that happened!  I quickly got ready and then headed into town again.  Tomorrow is my last day in Ireland, so I wanted to make sure I got to see things outside of Dublin.  I booked a County Wicklow day trip that leaves tomorrow morning.  If you're a fan (or just have watched) P.S. I Love You, Co. Wicklow is where they filmed the parts in Ireland, specifically that gorgeous scene where that one chick and Gerard Butler meet.  After that, I went to the Decorative Arts and History branch of the National Museum.  Instead of spending time figuring out bus routes and time tables, I opted to just walked there.  Turns out it was about two miles away.  Whoops!  Oh well, I got my exercise in for the day!  They had all sorts of exhibits there, from military history, to the history of Irish coins (super exciting, that one was!), to interior design, to clothing throughout the years.  Some of it was kind of boring (the coins), but some of it was pretty cool.  When I finished there it was fairly late but there were still a couple of places I wanted to go.  By the time I walked all the way over to where they were, I had kind of had it.  I was tired and I'm not a nice person when I'm tired.  I did walk more around Temple Bar because I wanted to have a pub meal, but in the end I couldn't bring myself to go in by myself.  Lame, I know!  Instead, I walked back towards where I catch the bus and grabbed a quick dinner of fish and chips.  The fish and chips were good, so all was not lost.  I then caught the bus back to the apartment.  I want to make sure I get to bed early tonight so I don't run the risk of oversleeping in the morning.  Somehow during the day today, my phone got all screwed up and the clock is off by about six and a half hours.  The calendar also says that it's December 31, 2004.  Not sure exactly what happened!  I'm hoping that once I get back to the States and take it off of airplane mode, it'll fix itself.  We shall see! 

Europe Day 3

I actually took pictures today!!!  Hooray!  I slept in again this morning (I am on vacation, after all!), then went back into the city center.  The first thing I did was stop and get a tattoo . . .

I had been planning on doing this for a while and had already picked out what I wanted, so I went prepared.  It didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would and it only took about 10 minutes to do.  After that I walked over to the Famine Memorial on the banks of the River Liffey.  This was one of the things I was most looking forward to seeing . . .

After that I joined up with one of the hop-on, hop-off bus tours.  I skipped the first few stops, but got off at Christ Church Cathedral.  The highlights of Christ Church, for me, involved dirty laundry and a dead cat and rat.  In the crypt of the church, they had some of the costumes from The Tudors, which had apparently filmed scenes there.  Seeing Jonathan Rhys Meyers' dirty laundry made this whole trip worth it.  Sorry the pics are so dark, but like I said, we were in a crypt.  There tends to not be a whole lot of light down there.

And here are the cat and rat.  I guess curiosity really did kill the cat!

Next I went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was the site of something else I had been looking forward to seeing; The Door of Reconciliation.  You can read the story below.

  

A few other pics from St. Patrick's:

After St. Patrick's, I hit up the whole point of the bus tour:  Kilmainham Gaol.  I won't go into the whole history of the place, but there were many political prisoners held there, including many who were executed for the Easter Rising in 1916.  Parts of In the Name of the Father (which is a great movie and book, btw-seriously, look it up!) were also filmed there. 

One thing about the jail that I thought was kind of interesting was that the prisoners could only use the spiral staircase.  They specifically designed it with that staircase because you can't run, get into fights, or otherwise cause problems as easily on a spiral staircase.  By the time I got to Kilmainham, the weather was starting to turn pretty cold and after being in this limestone, freezing-cold building for an hour and a half, I was ready to head home.  I finished up the bus tour, which thankfully let out close by where I pick up the bus.  I warmed up on the bus a bit, so I stopped at a Chinese restaurant around the corner from the apartment, and had dinner there.  I love that in Europe they always seem to have early bird specials where you can get a starter, main dish and dessert for a set price.  Given the price of decent restaurants in this part of the world, it makes things a lot easier on the pocketbook/credit card! 

P.S. For the record, I'm not going to be revising any of these traveling blog posts as I'm too tired by the time I write them, so I apologize for any errors they may contain!

Europe Day 2

I slept in yesterday morning, then caught the bus in to the city center, which was a little bit scary, given I had no idea where I was going, other than the destination my hosts had told me to go to.  I made it though, and basically just started walking around, trying to get my bearings.  It felt like I walked for miles, but I'm sure it wasn't quite that much!  The first place I went was the National Gallery.  Unfortunately, a lot of it was closed for renovation, but they had kind of the cream of the crop, I guess, available to the public still.  What I was really excited to see was a painting by Vermeer, who is my favorite artist.  I've seen some of his works in New York and Paris and it is now my life's mission to see all of his paintings in person.  Fortunately he wasn't very prolific-I believe there are only 36 known works.

Next I went to go to the National Museum of Ireland, but mistakenly ended up at the Natural History Museum.  I should have known by the large group of children that were lined up outside, that this was not what I thought it was, but I went in anyway.  For those of you who went to BYU or are from the Orem/Provo area, it's basically the Irish version of the Bean museum.  It was entertaining for a few minutes.  Then I went around the block and found the actual museum that I had been wanting to go to.

The National Museum of Ireland has a great collection of Irish historical items.  My favorite part was the bog people.  They had bodies (or rather, parts of bodies) of people who had (mostly) been murdered and had their bodies thrown into the bogs.  They were amazingly well preserved.  You could even see the red hair on one man.  The skin looked just like leather handbags, which is what I will now think of any time I see someone who has spent too much time in the tanning bed.

After hitting up the museums I grabbed a quick lunch at a cafe, then walked over to Trinity College.  I walked around the grounds a little bit, which was kind of cool, then went to see the Book of Kells.  All of the guidebooks warned about huge lines to see the Book of Kells, but I was able to walk right in.  I don't know if I would have waited for hours to see it, so it worked out quite well.  The book, itself, was neat, but once you spend a minute looking at it, you're ready to move on.  Or at least I was!  Upstairs from the book, there is a big, long library that's full of old books.  There's some law that requires that they receive a copy of every book that is published in Ireland and, I believe, in the UK as well. 

Next I walked around Grafton Street for a while, which is a pedestrian shopping area in Dublin.  When my parents were here, they said there were lots of people out playing music, etc. on the street, but I only saw a couple of people.  Maybe it was because of the time of year?  Who knows . . .  Anyway, after walking around there and a little bit around the Temple Bar district, I headed back to the apartment.  I was pretty worn out by this time!  And, just like in Paris, I had a huge blister on the bottom of my feet.  Unlike Paris, though, it wasn't too bad and it wasn't a blood blister, so I can't complain.

Europe Day 1

I guess this technically is about days one and two since I left Utah early Friday morning.  I had to be at the airport at 5:30am, which sucked, but due to my lack of sleep, I was able to snooze on the flight from SLC to Chicago.  Unfortunately I had a 7 hour layover in Chicago, which was never-ending.  I took myself out to lunch at Chili's and walked all around the entire airport to kill time.  I also tried to get some work done, but they don't have free wifi in the Chicago airport.  Lame!  I bought a one day pass, but the connection was horrible, so I didn't get much work done.  I finally boarded my Aer Lingus flight for Dublin and was pleased to find out that the plane was only about half full.  I had plenty of room to stretch out and relax.  After watching Taken 2, I finally did get some sleep, although it wasn't hugely restful, as you can imagine. 

We arrived shortly after 9am local time.  I made it through immigration, got my bag and caught a taxi without any problems.  I'm staying in the apartment of a couple named Liam and Aisling.  They're both super nice.  Upon arrival, I took a shower and a nap that went on for several hours longer than I had planned.  I decided to take things easy today and not really do any sight seeing.  I did walk around the neighborhood, locate the bus stop and visit the grocery store, though.  I love European grocery stores!  They always have such interesting stuff.  As I type this I am eating King Prawn Cocktail flavored potato chips.  They are delicious!  While at Tesco, I also picked up the latest and last Maeve Binchy book.  I wanted to wait to buy it here so that it would be special.  If luggage weight and money weren't an issue, I would go buy a copy of all of her books just so that I can say I have all Irish copies of them.  Yes, I know I'm a dork!  After getting back to the apartment, I had a migraine come on pretty suddenly and started throwing up, so it was a really good thing that I chose to take it easy today.  Fortunately the migraine didn't last long and I was able to sleep it off.  I spent this evening chatting with Liam about the problems Ireland is facing and different locations in the States that he wants to go.  He and Aisling both have a family member who has or had a disability, so we also talked quite a bit about my work. 

Other than my moment of being sickly, today was nice and relaxing.  I'm really glad I took the day off; I really needed it!  Tomorrow I'll be on the go all day and keeping busy, I'm sure.  There's a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of Dublin that I want to do tomorrow.  I think it'll be a good way to get the lay of the land and one of the places I really want to go, Kilmainham Gaol, is further out on the other side of the city, so this will be the perfect way to get there.  I also want to go out for some proper Irish food.  I'm thinking a nice stew or chowder at a pub for lunch tomorrow. 

traveling

I suck at blogging these days.  Sorry about that!  Fortunately I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Europe, so I will be sure to blog about my travels, even if it's only for my own record keeping.  I just finished packing and as someone who normally way overpacks, I feel like I may have gone too far to the other end of the spectrum.  I'm tired of packing a bunch of things that I end up not using, so for a 17 day trip to Dublin, London and Paris, I have packed the following:

• 2 pairs of jeans (wearing one, packing one)
• 2 fleece vests (wearing one, packing one)
• 4 long sleeve shirts (wearing one)
• 5 pairs of underwear
• 5 pairs of socks
• pajamas
• rain coat
• 2 tank tops for layering purposes
• sturdy boots (wearing)
• black flats
• umbrella
• toiletries
• 2 bras (wearing one, packing one)

 I'm planning on doing laundry while gone, so I'm thinking this should be plenty.  I also packed a mini bottle of Febreze so I don't stink.  :)

update and pics

Last weekend didn't go quite as I had planned.  Instead of hibernating and eating cake, I ended up spending the weekend in Wyoming, playing nurse to an injured friend.  No worries, though, it wasn't quite as dreary as it sounds (despite the lack of cake).  I actually had a great time, as always seems to happen when I'm up there.  It gets harder and harder to leave every time. I swear one of these days I'm going to go for a weekend and just not come back!

Since I'm doing updates, I should also mention that there's only three and a half weeks left until my trip!  Woot woot!  I decided to cut my time in Dublin and London a little bit short and spend some additional time in Paris.  My dad is on sabbatical this semester and will be in Europe at the same time, so we're going to meet up in Paris to finish out both of our trips.  We'll be staying in the same condo we were in last summer.  So yeah, 5 days in Dublin, 5 in London and another 5 in Paris.  Speaking of Paris, I never did post any pics from last summer's trip.  I didn't actually take any pictures on the trip, but I stole these from my brother:

The Moulin Rouge.  Sadly, Ewan McGregor was nowhere to be found.

From the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Did I mention that I hiked up many, many stairs to get to the top?

Stained glass at Sainte Chapelle

This place was pretty amazing.

Pictures obviously don't do it justice.  It must be experienced in person.

I love gargoyles and other grotesque carvings.  Good times!

The atmosphere in old churches . . . amazing!

Mass at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame

More Notre Dame

The Steps from Midnight in Paris.

People watching is always half the fun!

From our boat trip on the Seine.

Loved all the little scenes like this.

Chopin's grave

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

The area dedicated to WWII was unbelievable.

The monument for Auschwitz.

Year in Review

It's that time of year again.  Part of me says thank goodness this year is over and part of me is sad to see it go.  Then there's the biggest part of me that really just doesn't care either way.  That is definitely the dominant part.  Nevertheless, as I have been horrible at blogging lately, this is the perfect opportunity to compose a blog post that will hopefully entertain, enlighten and perhaps cause a few tears to be shed.  Haha, not really, but that was quite dramatic!  And now I shall commence with the discussing of me and my year, as that is what is truly important tonight.  :) 

Highlights of 2012

• Moving closer to my family.
• Every single moment in Paris, even the ones I didn't absolutely love because hello, it was Paris! (Except for the one lowlight, see below.)  I can't pass this one by without mentioning a few specifics:
• Sharing the experience with my family.
• Seeing works of art that brought tears to my eyes and are some of the clearest examples of the influence of the Divine that I have ever seen.  It never ceases to amaze me how the arts can be such a spiritual experience.  
• Pastries!  Glorious, glorious pastries!
• Weekends spent in Wyoming.  
• The fact that the moments where I felt like all was right in the world far outnumbered the moments where I felt like everything was wrong.
• My daily email and text conversations with Traci, who saved my sanity many, many times.
• My apartment and the solitude, serenity and pants-free environment that it offers.
• Antagonizing people on Facebook for sport during the election season.  I really felt like it was the only way to make those few months before the election bearable.  If any of those people are now reading this, I apologize if you were really and truly offended.
• Temporarily living with BFF Amber after I moved back to Utah. 
• Discovering Homeland, Misfits, Iwan Rheon, Harlan Coben and Lee Child. 
• Taking my client that had cancer for a CT scan a few weeks ago and finding out that there is no sign whatsoever of cancer!

Lowlights of 2012

• The whole Wyoming exodus.  Leaving my friends and clients was heartbreaking and many tears were shed.  Then there was the whole having to give my dog back to the shelter drama.  I still can't speak of it. 
• Moving three times in one year.  I don't want to move again any time soon.  As I wrote that I felt like I was jinxing it and condemning myself to move again in 2013.  Nooooooo!!!!!!
• Having my car stolen.  I still can't quite believe it actually happened.
• The slight (meaning major) nervous breakdown I had early in October.  It was the perfect storm of events and circumstances that caused me to question every single thing in my life; not eat, sleep or bathe for a while; and watch an excessive number of episodes of Roseanne.  Very glad that it's over and that there were people around that I could lean on for support.  On the other hand, it was this event that led me to make my plans for Dublin and London because I needed something to look forward to, so I can't complain too much!
• Being in Paris and having massive blood blisters on the bottoms of my feet that caused excruciating pain with every step I took.  I had to pad and tape my feet every day, but then it would all just come off with all the walking around.  :(  
• My client being diagnosed with cancer and the subsequent treatment.  Taking her to radiation every single day for weeks on end was definitely one of the lowest of the low moments of the year.  And I wasn't even the one with cancer! 

I know I'm forgetting many things but these are the things that immediately came to mind.  There were so many other awesome events, people and moments throughout the year and also several other really crappy moments, but all in all, I consider 2012 to be a success.  I have learned much and experienced much and I am ending the year feeling more content and secure with myself and my life than ever before.  Thanks for reading and being part of my journey!

weekly wrap-up

There wasn't much that entertained me (and that was appropriate to post somewhere where my family will see it) this last week or two, so I threw in some oldies as well.

• Cosby GIF mania!
• Celebrating the Year in Channing Tatum
• Least Likely to Be Adopted Project-I want them all!  I still really think that my dad should do something like this with his photography skills instead of taking pictures of birds.
• Burger King Delivery Service in NYC-I'm ok with not having Burger King delivery service, but I do really wish that more restaurants would have drive-up windows.  Or at least car-side service like at Sonic.  My point is that I will get in my car, but not get out of it. 
• Pictures from James Mollison's Where Children Sleep-Love the boy from Kentucky.  The girls from Nepal and Brazil break my heart.  Check out these pictures if you need a gratitude check.
• Russell Brand interviews two members of the Westboro Baptist Church-I feel like this is a combination of people that should have been an epic disaster, but Russell Brand handled himself with dignity (mostly) and his guests with more kindness and respect than I ever could have.
• Butt Implant Malfunction-So many things wrong with this.
• iPet Companion-I haven't actually tried this yet, but how could something that lets you remotely play with pets in shelters be a bad thing?
• My favorite travel blogger is Adventurous Kate.  She is the one that inspired me to take this solo trip to Ireland and England next March, so we can all blame her if things go horribly wrong!

Confessions, updates, nonsense

• My travel plans are coming along nicely!  I was going to stay in a cheap hostel, but then a friend of mine recommended Airbnb.  It's a website that allows people all over the world to rent out spare rooms and such in their homes.  Let's compare . . . for $15 per night at a hostel, I could have a bunk bed in a room with 9 other people in it (most of whom are around 20 years old), share a bathroom with many people and get minimal sleep due to said young'uns coming in drunk at 4am.  Or I could pay $30ish dollars per night for a private room with a king size bed, my own private bathroom and stay with a lovely, young Irish couple who live in a nice suburb of Dublin which is only a short ride away from the city center by bus.  And, to make the decision even less complicated, if I stay with the nice couple, I won't have to bring my own towel or keep my belongings locked up so that other travelers won't steal them!  Happy day!
• The weather here has been a bit crap.  It's snowed over a foot since Friday, which I don't really mind, but my power went off for most of Saturday morning.  That, I do mind.  I think the internet has turned my brain to mush because I can no longer concentrate on books like I used to.  I'll read for a little bit, then have to take a break.  Clearly I have newly acquired LADD (literary ADD).
• Why is it that I always end up with the gimpy cart at the grocery store?  The other day my cart clanked the whole way around the store, causing people to stare at me.  I think a better question may be why didn't I take the cart back and get a different one?  Oh yeah, that's right, I'm lazy.
• The definition of bitterness . . . having to pay several hundred dollars on my insurance premium for a car that I NO LONGER HAVE!  Yes, I know I should just be grateful that I have insurance, but I would be far more grateful had my car not been stolen in the first place.
• Lately I have started keeping a small tub of bleu cheese crumbles in the fridge.  Every so often I have a little spoonful and revel in the deliciousness of the mold.  
• I looked out the window the other day and remarked to my OT on how bad the weather was looking.  Then I realized that I was looking at the grayish wall of the building next door.  
• It took me 3 weeks to realize that there isn't a second room at my OT's office that has exercise equipment in it.  What I thought was a special work-out room was really just the reflection on the glass exit door of the exercise equipment in the room I was currently sitting in.  
• Still obsessively listening to Iwan Rheon.  You can download each of his albums (which sadly only have 4 songs each) for under $4.  It is well worth it. 

Brills!

I've finally made my flight reservations for Dublin and London in March!  Whoohoo!  In thinking about what I want to do on this trip, I stumbled upon a brilliant idea.  So you know how I run a group home for people who have disabilities?  And you also know how I get a little obsessive about things?  Well, due to my obsessiveness and my dedication to this community of people, I thought it would be cool to see if I could possibly check out a program of a similar nature in Dublin as I would really like to see how other countries provide these services.  I found an organization that looks cool, so I'm going to see if they will let me come check out their facilities and meet some of their clients.  Now here comes the brilliant part . . . I'm going to see if I can set up a pen pal program with my clients and their clients.  How great would that be!?!  There are some of my clients (and actually some former clients-I'm working on that piece of the puzzle too) who would love doing this and I think it would be an awesome opportunity for them.  So yeah, that's my exciting news.  And yes, I realize that this plan is probably exciting to no one other than myself!  :)

Paris Summary

Favorite things:

• Marie-Antoinette's English peasant village at Versailles
• the Louvre
• the Musee D'Orsay
• L'Orangerie
• fresh baguettes every morning

Least favorite things:

• Most of Versailles
• the crypt at Notre Dame
• the price of everything
• not speaking the language
• feeling like a schlub next to all of the impeccably dressed Parisians 

Favorite foods:

• baguettes, obviously
• these pastries that had a waffle cone-like shell, then a custard inside, and were topped with fresh raspberries

Least favorite food:

• A quiche my dad bought the last morning that had fish in it.  I don't mind fish, but this was gross and I threw it up.

Most overrated:

• Champs Elysees
• the Mona Lisa

Most underrated:

• The kindness of the French people

Paris Day 7

Our last day in Paris we all went our separate ways to try to fit in the last couple of things we each wanted to see.  My dad and I went to L'Orangerie first, which is a smaller art museum that has some amazing works of art.  My favorite part was two oval rooms that were completely lined with Monet's Nympheas panels (part of his water lily paintings).  It was pretty awe-inspiring.  There were also works by Cezanne, Renoir, Modigliani and many others.  It wasn't very crowded and the size of the museum was just right; I didn't feel rushed to see everything and it wasn't overwhelming.

We then walked through the Tuileries Gardens and went back to the Louvre for a few more hours.  We split up there so that my dad could take many more hundreds of pictures (I think his total for the day was over 700).  I managed to fit in everything I hadn't seen before-the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern sections.  I also checked out Napoleon's apartments and the decorative arts section, then made my way to the gift shop.  There are actually several gift shops at the Louvre, and they all line a large hallway, at the end of which is the inverted pyramid you may remember from the end of The Da Vinci Code.  Was I perhaps in the presence of the remains of Mary Magdalene?  Hmmm . . .

Everyone met up after that for lunch and then my dad went back to the Louvre to take even more pictures, while the rest of us went to the Centre Georges Pompidou.  It's this really neat building that is kind of inside out.  There are visible pipes everywhere, both inside and out, that are color coded for water, electrical wires, etc. and there's a glass-enclosed escalator on the outside of the building that was cool to ride, but unbelievably hot inside.  The Centre also houses a large modern art museum.  They have a section that they redo every two years with new art and artists and then a permanent collection as well.  I'm not a huge modern art fan, but there were many great paintings there, including the Chagall painting that was in Notting Hill. 

I then went to a grocery store to get some fun treats to bring home with me (best place to get gifts to bring home to people, in my opinion) and then went back to the condo.  I messed up my right foot somehow during this trip and I didn't think I could stand any more walking around.  Even cutting the day a little bit short, it was still a great ending to a great trip.

Paris Day 6

Today we got up early and went to Versailles.  I wasn't overly impressed.  Well, I was impressed by the size of it-it really is huge, but overall, it was probably one of my least favorite sites that we've been to.  The Palace was huge, but we were only able to go to a small portion of it and I thought the insides of the Royal Palace in Madrid were far more impressive than at Versailles.  The famous Hall of Mirrors was just o.k.  All in all, I wasn't a huge fan.  It did, however, contain one of my favorite little areas of the whole trip-Marie-Antoinette's little peasant farm village.  That tiny area was great-cute, little buildings with thatched roofs, a small lake with fish, very impressive vegetable gardens, and even some animals.  If I had my pick of the actual Palace of Versailles, the Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon or the peasant village, I would most definitely choose to live in the peasant village.  Royalty, I am not!

If you're in Paris and want to go to Versailles, I would recommend that you go earlier in your trip rather than later.  There is a ton of walking (and I have several large blisters on my feet from walking around yesterday), both to get to the actual entrance of the Palace from the metro stop, not a ton inside the building, but then tons more on the grounds.  We rented bikes to ride around the grounds, which was the best idea ever, but to get to where you can even ride bikes, there's a pretty long walk (which is uphill on the way back, right when you're the most tired).  Riding around the grounds was definitely fun, though.  I haven't been on a bike in years and it took me a minute to get used to it, but it was well worth it.  It wasn't hugely expensive either and once you get out there on the grounds, there aren't many people around.  Btw, I keep saying grounds, but technically I believe they are gardens.  I refuse to say gardens, though, because it's more like a forest.  There's a small area with actual flowers, but the rest is pools and trees and grass. 

Also, make sure that you're prepared for massive amounts of people.  We didn't go on either of the two busiest days of the week, but it was still insane-wall to wall people inside the Palace.  Obviously, there are less outside, but if you walk around where it's shady (which you definitely should because it's really hot out there-side note--don't wear a black t-shirt, bring a hat and sunglasses), it's a little bit more crowded. 

We headed back to the condo in the late afternoon and I am thoroughly exhausted.  Versailles is definitely a day trip, not just an afternoon or morning thing.  I stopped for pastries again on the way home-I have to get my fill while I can!!!  Tomorrow is our last day.  I'm not sure what the plan is-I still want to go back to the Louvre and also to L'Orangerie.  I definitely won't be doing much walking around, though-my feet feel like they're on fire.  One of the blisters goes up between my toes and that one is the worst.  Sad face.

Paris Day 5

Yesterday we spent the morning at the Musee D'Orsay.  It was pretty awesome-lots of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings from Renoir, Monet, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Corbet, Caillebot, Degas, Cezanne, Seurat, Gaugin, etc.  The paintings were amazing, but the building, itself, was also really cool-it used to be a railway station.  After the museum we went out for lunch and I had duck.

We then went to the Rodin Museum and most of the statues were out in the garden, and it was really hot.  I have a vague recollection of BYU not allowing the statue, "The Kiss," to come to their art museum because it was of nudes.  Such a shame.  Afterward, we went over to Les Invalides, which has a military museum (from medieval times through the second World War), and also houses Napoleon's tomb.  The tomb is pretty big-there are actually four different tombs inside.  Not really sure why.  My sister in-law, Melissa, and I were pretty much done after the tomb, so we headed back to the condo and stopped along the way at a patisserie and got a bunch of delicious pastries.  It's strange to think that what we thought were amazing pastries are probably mediocre to Parisians.  My standards aren't very high, I don't think!  We had one tart that had strawberries on it and they were how strawberries should be-so flavorful.  A total difference from the huge ones you get at CostCo!

Paris Day 4

We went to the Louvre first thing this morning and needless to say, I was in heaven!  I felt like a 13 year-old at a Justin Bieber concert and got all teary-eyed when I saw several paintings I've loved for years.  We went to see the Mona Lisa first, but I've never been a huge fan, so that wasn't overly exciting other than for the fact that now I can say I've seen it.  It's just a little overrated in my opinion.  We're planning on going back a second time, but just in case something comes up and we don't make it, I wanted to make sure I saw all the really big stuff-Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, the Code of Hamurrabi, the Vermeers, Michelangelo's Dying Slave, and paintings by Rubens, Gericault, David, Murillo, da Vinci, etc.  There are far too many must see pieces of art in my mind!  There are still many things I want to see that we didn't have time for, so I'm definitely going back.  I didn't even make it into the Egyptian section at all!  We decided to only spend about three hours there so we didn't get museum fatigue, and that was about perfect.  I could have maybe done another hour, but then I definitely would have been worn out.

For lunch we went to a creperie and had a really nice meal.  Mark tried escargot which smelled delicious, but looked disgusting as he pulled it out of the shells.  He said it tasted like boogers.  I had a savory crepe with spinach, creme fraiche and an egg on top, and then a sweet crepe with just butter and sugar.  The savory crepes were made with buckwheat flour and I didn't like that as much as the regular sweet crepes.  They were still delicious though.  It was nice to finally have French food since we've been having Middle Eastern food for lunch everyday.  I enjoy kebabs, but we're in Paris, I want French food!

After lunch we went to a flea market that is supposed to be Europe's largest.  Initially it appeared like the market was really small and we thought maybe it was because it was Monday instead of the weekend, but then Mark went exploring and found that the area where we were wasn't really part of the flea market, it was just the outskirts.  Once we crossed the street, the place went on for what seemed like miles.  It was HUGE!  And also kinda dirty and ghetto.  There were lots of hookas and gangsta rap t-shirts for sale.  There were also many booths full of African stuff-jewelry, carvings, etc.  We stayed for probably an hour and a half and by then we were burning up (severe lack of shade there!) and tired, so we headed home.  I did find my original art there though, which oddly enough, I purchased from the same artist that my brother purchased his two pieces from the last time he was here.  It's just a small painting of an African village (the artist is from the Congo), but I love it.  I also found a cool Middle Eastern wall hanging and a new carry-on suitcase that has a map print on it. 

We were going to go to Versailles tomorrow, but most of the museums in Paris are closed on Tuesdays, so all of the tourists go to Versailles.  We're going to save Versailles for Wednesday and go to the Musee D'Orsay (HUGE collection of Impressionist art) and Les Invalides (where Napoleon is buried) tomorrow instead.  Yesterday, after the Pantheon we stopped by the steps where Owen Wilson sits in Midnight in Paris, and my older brother wants to go back there, so we'll probably go there as well. 

P.S.  Breakfast this morning was amazing-still warm baguettes, pain du chocolat, and a pastry with chocolate chips and a glaze on it, another with bacon, and yet another with Roquefort cheese.  Unbelievably delicious!!!

Paris Day 3

Yesterday was a busy day, filled with lots of cool stuff.  We started the day out by going to Sainte Chapelle, which was one of the things I most wanted to see.  The stained glass there was truly amazing.  They're restoring it all, section by section, so we didn't quite get the full effect, but it was still breathtaking.  Nearby Sainte Chapelle is the Conciergerie, which is a former royal palace and the prison where people, including Marie-Antoinette, were kept during the French Revolution.  They had a replica of her cell and examples of the other cells they had at the time.  They had bigger cells for all the riffraff, and then, if you had money, you could buy your way into a cell that had actual beds in it.  These were supposedly slightly cleaner and, according to the signage, were not as rife with promiscuity.  They had a couple of great slide presentations about the French Revolution and Marie-Antoinette's time at the Conciergerie.  I would like to read about her life-I know very little about it, other than she didn't actually say let them eat cake.  It sounds like she was definitely a character, but also a pawn in a political game that ended up with her being executed. 

Next we went to Notre Dame.  They happened to be doing Mass when we got there, so as we walked in you could hear the angelic singing and smell the incense.  The inside wasn't hugely impressive, but the outside was cool.  I loved the gargoyles and ended up buying two cheap, touristy replicas later in the day.  There is a small crypt outside of Notre Dame that we went to that was boring and hot.  It showed the remains of the original city center that's been excavated below the Notre Dame area.

We next had Lebanese food for lunch (delicious), then went to the Cluny museum.  It's a medieval museum and it contains the famous (possibly only to me???) Lady and the Unicorn tapestries.  I was like a kid in a candy store with those things.  They're pretty darn amazing!  The rest of the pieces in the museum were pretty cool too-they had several portrayals of Jesus being circumcised.  My dad spent an excessive amount of time taking pictures here, although I think you could probably say that about just about every place we've been to at this point!

The Pantheon was next.  It's a mausoleum that houses the remains of some of the most distinguished French citizens.  We saw the burial places of Rousseau, Voltaire, Braille, Madame Curie (and her husband), Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo.  The crypt, where they are located, was actually really cool this time around.  The Pantheon, itself, houses Foucault's pendulum (although this one is from 1995), and different monuments to things I can't remember because I got distracted by Mark's app that allows you to place cats in different pictures.

We had planned to go to the Musee D'Orsay at this point, but it was too late, so instead we went over to the famous bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, and then my mom and I did a little souvenir shopping back over by Notre Dame.  We then went back to the condo, to meet up with my brother and sister in-law, who had just arrived after a few days in London.

Today we're hitting the Louvre and Europe's largest flea market.

Paris Day 2

The day isn't over (it's around 7:30 or so here), but we've just come back to the condo and I think I'm in for the night.

We started the day off by going to Pere Lachaise, a famous French cemetery.  We saw the graves of Edith Piaf, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Steine, Marcel Proust, Auguste Comte (founder of Positivism, a religion based on science), Marechal Ney (one of Napoleon's generals), and of course, Jim Morrison.  Those of you who know my father can guess which two graves he insisted we see!!!  There was also a whole area with graves and monuments dedicated to people who resisted or were killed by the Nazis during WWII.  That was probably my favorite area.  Most, if not all, of the concentration camps had their own monument.  Several had statues on them that were amazing-skeletal looking people and such.  Pictures to follow.  It was really moving-I think of WWII being such a far away thing, so it was strange to think that part of it happened in France.

After the cemetery we went over to Sacre Couer, which is a basilica set on the highest hill in Paris.  It had a great view of all of Paris (it's even higher than the Eiffel Tower), but was fairly small inside.  Beautiful, though.  From there we walked over to the Moulin Rouge, which was disappointing.  I guess in my mind I had pictured it as being this big windmill set off on a hill kind of by itself and surrounded by artists.  There were no artists, but it was surrounded by sex shops and strip clubs.  Needless to say, I did not find the art I was looking to buy! We also passed by Le Musee de l'Erotisme.  We didn't go in, but there was a chair out front that had part of the seat cut out and attached was a wheel that had items sticking out that resembled tongues.  Use your imagination. 

Next we went to the Arc de Triomphe.  It was pretty impressive just to look at it, but you can also climb to the top.  There were 284 steps to get up there, all of which my legs keenly felt.  The view was well worth it, though-AMAZING!  After hiking back down we walked the entire length of the Champs de Elysee.  We stopped at Laduree, which supposedly has the best macaroons in Paris.  I also had to stop in at the Sephora there, which was huge!  It doesn't look that big from the outside, but when you walk in, I swear it goes back about a quarter of a mile.  Very impressive!  The Champs de Elysee ends up at the Place de la Concorde.  There we saw the obelisk that marks the spot where the guillotine stood during the French Revolution-Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were executed there.  We didn't walk around much-by then we were all hurting and ready go head back to the condo.

It was a fun day and we saw lots of cool stuff, but I think my favorite part of the day was the WWII section at Pere Lachaise. Tomorrow we're going to Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, and a museum or two, and my brother and sister in-law arrive from London.  Fun, fun!

Paris Day 1

I don't keep a journal, so I'm documenting my trip here.  

Mark and I arrived in Paris yesterday morning safe and sound, but really tired.  Neither of us could really sleep on the plane, which sucked, but hey, we're in Paris, so there's no complaining allowed!  We got our metro pass and headed to the condo to drop our bags off, which they were nice enough to let us do even though the rooms weren't ready yet.  Then we went out to explore!  We walked around the neighborhood a little bit and, of course, stopped at a patisserie for some pain du chocolate (chocolate croissaints).  Then we took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower (at which point I finally felt like I was actually in Paris instead of any random European city) and walked around for a little while before taking our river cruise on the Seine.  By this time, however, we were both exhausted since we hadn't slept for over 24 hours.  Both of us were doing the bobble head thing and nodding off.  The cruise was actually quite nice, though-we saw Notre Dame and many other sites we will soon be exploring.  Afterwards we headed back to the condo to take a shower and a nap.  My parents finally arrived around 8pm (they had been in Scotland) and we visited for a while, then walked over to the neighborhood grocery store to grab stuff for dinner and breakfast.  We had a great meal of soup, bread and cheese, then madeleines and pudding stuff for dessert. 

The condo is nice-it's out of the city center, by Chateau de Vincennes.  It's three bedrooms, two bathrooms (split up weird-one full bathroom, one room that has just a toilet, and then in one of the bedrooms, a room with just a shower stall and a sink), a kitchen and living room/formal dining area.  We have a little balcony as well.

I'm sitting here eating breakfast as I type this-fresh baguettes from the local baker, and what I thought was yogurt, but is not.  It looked like yogurt and the label said Danon, but it turns out it's actually whipped cream with the kind of strawberry syrup you get at the bottom of fruit-on-the-bottom yogurts.  It was a delicious surprise!  We forgot to pick up butter last night, so my Dad has gone to the market (which is just across the street) to grab some for the bread, then we'll be off to sight-see for the day.  I think we are going to go to Montmartre for the morning to see the Moulin Rouge and Sacre Couer.  It's an artsy area, so I'm hoping to buy some art while there.  My brother and his wife got a couple of cool paintings when they were in Paris a couple of years ago, and I want to get something for my walls too.  

Later!