Plans for the wedding are coming along quite nicely. I always wish I could help more being that I am stuck over here in Germany. I am looking forward to making my way to Texas in March for a few days of planning and Mexican food. I really want some good Mexican food! I have been researching Tuxedos and Sarah has been looking for her dress. She told me she ordered one, but won't show me a picture or anything because I am not supposed to find out what it looks like until she walks down the aisle. I'm sure she will look stunning.
In political news commentary... I'm sure we can all agree that seeing Hillary get Pummeled by Barack in South Carolina was AWESOME. The polls had predicted a 10 point win for Obama. Try almost triple that.
My sister Catherine and her husband Louie just got back from Playa Del Carmen, and they stayed at the same resort that Sarah and I are going to for our honeymoon. She posted some great pictures on her blog if you want to check it out. http://catherineandlouie.blogspot.com/
Well, I have wasted enough time at work... guess I better actually get something done.
PFC Owens... OUT.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
One from John
Hi everyone,
Though Sarah may no longer be 5324 miles from Austin, I unfortunately, still live on the other side of the world... Since Sarah left Germany to go back to Texas, I have been rather sad and mopey. I realized how well we work together and how much support we really give each other when I went to the grocery store and after wandering around for 2 hours left with Dr. Pepper and breakfast food. I need her her to help me! :-) I don't want to waste everyones time though with my endless complaining, so instead I thought a bit of commentary on the ongoing presidential race might be... I don't know... interesting? I know we normally use this blog to keep people informed about what is going on in our lives, but hey, just thought some commentary might be a nice change of pace.
Alright... So on the Republican side we have The Mormon, The Evangelical, The 9/11 guy, The guy who was once in the military, and the crazy guy who will never win... On the democratic side we have The Woman, The Black Dude, and a Wannabe John F Kennedy. The question that fits for almost all of these candidates is... "Is America really ready for 'X' to be the president?" Is America ready for a Mormon, a black man, a woman, an evangelical? How about we elect a extra-conservative Mormon black woman? We can just get all of the minority issues out of the way in 4 short years.
Now realistically, There are only about a few possible outcomes in the primaries, Hillary or Obama, and McCain, Huckabee or Guiliani. Now if you know me you know that I am personally an Obama fan, I believe that he is the only candidate with half a shot of re-uniting America. The country is so divided on issues that we can't get anything done. The right is further right then they have ever been, and the left is further left. We need someone who is the candidate of the great American middle; a candidate who can unite Washington and can get things done because of it.
Probable outcome? As usual, we will have to pick the lesser of two evils. Hillary or Huckabee. :-( I don't trust Clinton, she is way to much of a politico, and I don't trust Huckabee because he is too conservative to unite Americans which is what we really need. This whole situation makes me very sad.
OK... enough politcs... on to something much more funny. I guess its still kinda politics, but its funny nonetheless.
Though Sarah may no longer be 5324 miles from Austin, I unfortunately, still live on the other side of the world... Since Sarah left Germany to go back to Texas, I have been rather sad and mopey. I realized how well we work together and how much support we really give each other when I went to the grocery store and after wandering around for 2 hours left with Dr. Pepper and breakfast food. I need her her to help me! :-) I don't want to waste everyones time though with my endless complaining, so instead I thought a bit of commentary on the ongoing presidential race might be... I don't know... interesting? I know we normally use this blog to keep people informed about what is going on in our lives, but hey, just thought some commentary might be a nice change of pace.
Alright... So on the Republican side we have The Mormon, The Evangelical, The 9/11 guy, The guy who was once in the military, and the crazy guy who will never win... On the democratic side we have The Woman, The Black Dude, and a Wannabe John F Kennedy. The question that fits for almost all of these candidates is... "Is America really ready for 'X' to be the president?" Is America ready for a Mormon, a black man, a woman, an evangelical? How about we elect a extra-conservative Mormon black woman? We can just get all of the minority issues out of the way in 4 short years.
Now realistically, There are only about a few possible outcomes in the primaries, Hillary or Obama, and McCain, Huckabee or Guiliani. Now if you know me you know that I am personally an Obama fan, I believe that he is the only candidate with half a shot of re-uniting America. The country is so divided on issues that we can't get anything done. The right is further right then they have ever been, and the left is further left. We need someone who is the candidate of the great American middle; a candidate who can unite Washington and can get things done because of it.
Probable outcome? As usual, we will have to pick the lesser of two evils. Hillary or Huckabee. :-( I don't trust Clinton, she is way to much of a politico, and I don't trust Huckabee because he is too conservative to unite Americans which is what we really need. This whole situation makes me very sad.
OK... enough politcs... on to something much more funny. I guess its still kinda politics, but its funny nonetheless.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Back in Tejas (Paris Part 2 and Leaving Deutschland)
Well I'm back home now...but I will get to that later in this post.
John and I forgot a really great story from the end of our Paris trip. After midnight on New Year's, we took the subway back home and all the cars were really crowded. I noticed this woman standing behind John with the most beautiful smile. I leaned over and asked (in French) if she spoke English. When she said yes, I told her that I thought she had a great smile, and she said she had been thinking the same thing about me. I don't know how it came up, but she said she was Swedish but lives in Paris. When she got off the car, I said "ha det bra!" (goodbye in Norwegian, but understandable to Swedes). She answered back with "ha det bra" as well.
Ok, so that wasn't the great story I originally reference, because the great story is ten times better than that. While all this was going on with the Swedish woman, all these French people (around our age) were jumping around next to us and singing in French. Soon, they noticed John and me and asked John what his name was. They then pleaded with him to sing everyone a song. I leaned over and told him to sing the Beautiful Girls song, so he did. Atfterwards, all those French kids started chanting "John! John! John!" and wanted him to sing another, so he sang Stand By Me. They cheered a LOT when he was done. It was so much fun. Like John said, when else is a whole subway car going to cheer your name?
I also wanted to write about the two days before I left (Friday and Saturday). I wanted to take John out for coffee on Friday night, so we headed to this little coffee shop we found a week or two ago right by the Schwetzingen castle. We were stopped at the door by bouncers!! They said we weren't dressed up enough ("too sporty" they said). Apparently the calm coffee house turns into a nightclub on the weekends. Weird! That wouldn't have been the calm evening grabbing coffee that we had envisioned even if we had gotten in. We tried to go again on Saturday afternoon, and it had returned to its normal coffee shop atmosphere. (Think about how weird it would be to go to a Starbucks on a Friday night and get denied entrance because you weren't dressed up enough, and inside, there was a big nightclub scene.) We decided to get a late lunch there, and I had the BEST sandwich. It was on top of a baguette (as in the bread wasn't sliced open) and had sliced tomatoes, zucchini, mozzarella cheese and oregano or some other spice. So tasty. IT figured that I would finally find something I liked to eat the DAY before I left.
My flight out was on Sunday at 2:10 PM. We got up early and left for the airport shortly before 11. We got into the check in area around noon, and there was a REALLY long line. We had wanted to get a leisurely lunch together after checking in, but because it took over an hour to get through the line, we had to eat a rushed lunch in order for me to make it through security to board my plane on time.
We said a very tearful goodbye, and I made my way through security. John didn't stay to see me through, because we agree that it's better to just say goodbye and go so we don't have to stand there watching the other person leaving. I cried my way through security and was worried that I had mascara all over my face. When I got to the man who stamped my passport, I asked him if I had mascara on my face. He didn't understand the word mascara, so I repeated "Do I have black on my face? I have been crying." He misunderstood and thought I told him he had black on his face from crying. While wiping his face, he replied, "Oh, no. Must be from stamp." I didn't laugh until after I'd passed him, but it was funny.
My flight time to Chicago was roughly 10 hours, but we sat on the runway for an hour before taking off because the fog was pretty bad that day. Unlike my flight to Germany, I had someone sitting directly next to me. It really cut down on the already tiny amount of room you get in coach. To make matters worse, my seat didn't recline. Bummer! There weren't any other seats to change to, either. I don't mean to complain too much about my flight, but I also have to mention the food they served. The lunch was ok, but dinner was a mushroom pizza. Mushrooms? Mushrooms?! Why serve something so many people don't like? After I scraped off a majority of the mushrooms, I discovered the bread was also terribly tough.
I guess I shouldn't have expected anything more from airline food though!
When I got to Chicago, I had to go through Customs, which took about an hour. I waited in line to get my passport stamped, then I had to pick up my luggage (two gigantic suitcases), drop off my Customs Declaration form and haul the suitcases to another room to be rechekced for my next flight. Then, I got on the O'Hare rail system and went to the terminal for my flight to Austin. Once there, I had to go through security AGAIN. Afterwards, I went to Chili's and enjoyed a nice long dinner while watching the Cowboys lose (not so nice). My layover in Chicago was about 4 hours, so I had some time to pass.
My flight to Austin left a little after 9:30 and felt like it took forever. I couldn't fall asleep even though I was very tired.
My roommates (all 3 of them) met me back in Austin and took me home. *sigh* I guess it's good to be home, but I sure wish John could have come too.
One last thing... 5324miles.blogspot.com will still work to get you to this blog, but we decided to make a permanent blog together. That blog will be at www.sojoblog.com. We might transfer completely away from this blog, but then again, we might not! We really want to find a format that will let us customize how the blog looks, so stay tuned!
John and I forgot a really great story from the end of our Paris trip. After midnight on New Year's, we took the subway back home and all the cars were really crowded. I noticed this woman standing behind John with the most beautiful smile. I leaned over and asked (in French) if she spoke English. When she said yes, I told her that I thought she had a great smile, and she said she had been thinking the same thing about me. I don't know how it came up, but she said she was Swedish but lives in Paris. When she got off the car, I said "ha det bra!" (goodbye in Norwegian, but understandable to Swedes). She answered back with "ha det bra" as well.
Ok, so that wasn't the great story I originally reference, because the great story is ten times better than that. While all this was going on with the Swedish woman, all these French people (around our age) were jumping around next to us and singing in French. Soon, they noticed John and me and asked John what his name was. They then pleaded with him to sing everyone a song. I leaned over and told him to sing the Beautiful Girls song, so he did. Atfterwards, all those French kids started chanting "John! John! John!" and wanted him to sing another, so he sang Stand By Me. They cheered a LOT when he was done. It was so much fun. Like John said, when else is a whole subway car going to cheer your name?
I also wanted to write about the two days before I left (Friday and Saturday). I wanted to take John out for coffee on Friday night, so we headed to this little coffee shop we found a week or two ago right by the Schwetzingen castle. We were stopped at the door by bouncers!! They said we weren't dressed up enough ("too sporty" they said). Apparently the calm coffee house turns into a nightclub on the weekends. Weird! That wouldn't have been the calm evening grabbing coffee that we had envisioned even if we had gotten in. We tried to go again on Saturday afternoon, and it had returned to its normal coffee shop atmosphere. (Think about how weird it would be to go to a Starbucks on a Friday night and get denied entrance because you weren't dressed up enough, and inside, there was a big nightclub scene.) We decided to get a late lunch there, and I had the BEST sandwich. It was on top of a baguette (as in the bread wasn't sliced open) and had sliced tomatoes, zucchini, mozzarella cheese and oregano or some other spice. So tasty. IT figured that I would finally find something I liked to eat the DAY before I left.
My flight out was on Sunday at 2:10 PM. We got up early and left for the airport shortly before 11. We got into the check in area around noon, and there was a REALLY long line. We had wanted to get a leisurely lunch together after checking in, but because it took over an hour to get through the line, we had to eat a rushed lunch in order for me to make it through security to board my plane on time.
We said a very tearful goodbye, and I made my way through security. John didn't stay to see me through, because we agree that it's better to just say goodbye and go so we don't have to stand there watching the other person leaving. I cried my way through security and was worried that I had mascara all over my face. When I got to the man who stamped my passport, I asked him if I had mascara on my face. He didn't understand the word mascara, so I repeated "Do I have black on my face? I have been crying." He misunderstood and thought I told him he had black on his face from crying. While wiping his face, he replied, "Oh, no. Must be from stamp." I didn't laugh until after I'd passed him, but it was funny.
My flight time to Chicago was roughly 10 hours, but we sat on the runway for an hour before taking off because the fog was pretty bad that day. Unlike my flight to Germany, I had someone sitting directly next to me. It really cut down on the already tiny amount of room you get in coach. To make matters worse, my seat didn't recline. Bummer! There weren't any other seats to change to, either. I don't mean to complain too much about my flight, but I also have to mention the food they served. The lunch was ok, but dinner was a mushroom pizza. Mushrooms? Mushrooms?! Why serve something so many people don't like? After I scraped off a majority of the mushrooms, I discovered the bread was also terribly tough.
I guess I shouldn't have expected anything more from airline food though!
When I got to Chicago, I had to go through Customs, which took about an hour. I waited in line to get my passport stamped, then I had to pick up my luggage (two gigantic suitcases), drop off my Customs Declaration form and haul the suitcases to another room to be rechekced for my next flight. Then, I got on the O'Hare rail system and went to the terminal for my flight to Austin. Once there, I had to go through security AGAIN. Afterwards, I went to Chili's and enjoyed a nice long dinner while watching the Cowboys lose (not so nice). My layover in Chicago was about 4 hours, so I had some time to pass.
My flight to Austin left a little after 9:30 and felt like it took forever. I couldn't fall asleep even though I was very tired.
My roommates (all 3 of them) met me back in Austin and took me home. *sigh* I guess it's good to be home, but I sure wish John could have come too.
One last thing... 5324miles.blogspot.com will still work to get you to this blog, but we decided to make a permanent blog together. That blog will be at www.sojoblog.com. We might transfer completely away from this blog, but then again, we might not! We really want to find a format that will let us customize how the blog looks, so stay tuned!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Paris Part 2: Days 3-5
Disclaimer: This entry is very long. It recounts three very busy days in Paris. If you want to skip to the end to see the photos, I don't blame you. By all means, go ahead.
Thanks to John, I finally figured out what happened after we went to the Eiffel Tower. We initially tried to find an entrance to the subway, but we were very hungry and ended up stopping at what appeared to be a trendy yet inexpensive French restaurant. I ordered a chicken mozzarella panini and ended up with just that...toasted panini bread, completely unseasoned boiled chicken breast and mozzarella cheese. It wasn't good. I asked for mayo even though I'm not a mayo fan, and it helped enough to choke it down. John, still craving the duck, ordered a honey glazed duck breast and French onion soup (yes, again). The presentation of the duck was nice, too bad it still didn't taste good. When we got back close to our hotel, we decided to go by The Depot again, but we didn't stay long because we were pretty tired.
On Sunday (the 30th), we left our hotel with the intention to go straight to the Louvre, but when we came down from our room, we discovered a farmer's market/flea market type thing going on all down the street we were staying on (Rue de la Convention). We stopped and looked at various things and ended up buying some fresh strawberries. They were the tastiest strawberries I have had in YEARS. We saved about half of them until we took the subway to the Louvre. We ate the rest of them while sitting on the end of one of the fountains at the Louvre.
We thought the line to get into the Louvre was going to take forever, based upon our experience the previous night from the Eiffel Tower. Surprisingly, it only took 5-10 minutes to work our way inside. Because we had slept in, we knew we couldn't spend all day there. So we decided to just hit the highlights. We saw the Venus de Milo, and the Mona Lisa, along with quite a few of Michaelangelo's statues.
After we left the Louvre, we hopped on the subway to Île de la Cité to see Notre Dame. When we arrived, the line was extraordinarily long, so we decided to just enjoy the facade. We walked from there over to Sainte-Chapelle. We decided to go there instead because the inside has ornate stained glass, and we wanted to see it while it was still daylight. While waiting in line, we were hungry, because we hadn't had lunch and it was about 3:00. John decided to run over to the sandwich shop on the corner. He ordered his sandwich (in French!) and waited while the guy at the counter toasted it. While it was in the oven a French man walked up and ordered the same sandwich. The guy behind the counter gave him John's sandwich. John ordered again, and it happened again... and again. Finally, John just decided that the man didn't want to serve an American and walked off. Which is just as well because I was nearing the front of the line to get into Sainte-Chapelle. The inside was gorgeous. All the walls were covered in stained glass, and each small small pane depicted a different story from the Bible.
When we were through, we went and got coffee and some sandwiches in the Saint Michel area. Afterwards, we took the subway to Saint Germain, which put us in the middle of a small Christmas market. We were also right by the oldest surviving church in Paris, the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. We looked around the church and then went shopping in a nearby bookstore for a little bit before dinnertime. We had looked at eating dinner in the Saint Germain area and had picked out a restaurant called Le Procope for the evening.
We managed to get there right before the dinner rush and didn't have to wait very long for a table. Dinner itself, however, lasted three hours, which was not a bad thing. We ordered a half-sized bottle of wine, mineral water, and we both had the coq au vin for our entrée. Everything was delicious. I did have one small problem occur during dinner...my hair rubber band - suddenly and completely unprovoked by me - snapped. I realized this when my hair suddenly felt very loose; it had been up in a ponytail. In a moment of panic, I turned to the girl to my left, who I had heard speaking some English and asked if she had a rubber band I could use. She saved the day. Who says the French are rude? Ok, back to the meal... we decided to order dessert since we were having a nice dinner out. I got the profiteroles which are pastries filled with homemade ice cream and covered in a chocolate drizzle. John ordered the crepes flambéed in Grand Marnier. It also came with a shot of Grand Marnier as a digestif. Following dinner, we went next door to Le Pub Saint Germain.
The next day, New Year's Eve, we went to Sacré-Cœur which is a basilica located at the the highest point in Paris and is surrounded by the Montmartre district. While there, we enjoyed listening to a guy play the guitar on the stairs in front of the church. He had quite an audience. Once we went inside the church, we were amazed at how beautiful it was. We both wanted to take some time before leaving to sit in the pews and pray.
Our next mission was getting to the Café de Deux Moulins, which is the restaurant featured in the movie Amelie. The trek there took us through the red light district of Montmartre, where we saw Moulin Rouge. We were a bit grumpy by the time we made it to the café since we hadn't eaten and ended up giving up on eating there (it was crowded and smokey). I truly just wanted to get on the subway and go anywhere but there, and John agreed. We ended up getting off at a stop we always change trains at but had never gone above ground there. This put us up at Montparnasse. We were so hungry that we saw a sign for McDonald's and headed there without hesitation. It was quite a change from our fancy French meal the night before!
We went and bought some Champagne and baguettes before the shops closed. Later, we
had dinner at restaurant down the street from our hotel. Unfortunately it was only so-so, but our server was very nice. After dinner it was time to head to the Eiffel Tower for the countdown to 2008 and fireworks. We got there around 9:30 and got an exceptional seat on the stairs at the Place de Trocadero. We were literally directly in front of the Eiffel Tower with an unobstructed view of everything. We waited and waited and waited. At 11:58, there was still no sign of a countdown, but we were standing champagne in hand, ready to pop the cork and celebrate the new year. The Eiffel Tower started "sparkling" (via strobe lights) like it does on the hour every evening, so we figured maybe that was the one minute countdown. When nothing changed about four minutes later, we looked at each other, shrugged and said "Happy New Year?" No Fireworks...such a bummer. People set off their own fireworks here and there because there is no law against doing so, but there were no big city fireworks.
We headed over to the Champs-Élysées and were amazed at how many people had packed that wide, long street. There were broken champagne bottles everywhere. We had a good time enjoying the sights.
The next day we slept in and got ready to leave. With only a small aggravating incident at check out, we were on our way back to Germany.
If you have made it this far through the entry, I applaud you. You definitely deserve a gold star. Now for the fun part - photos!
Thanks to John, I finally figured out what happened after we went to the Eiffel Tower. We initially tried to find an entrance to the subway, but we were very hungry and ended up stopping at what appeared to be a trendy yet inexpensive French restaurant. I ordered a chicken mozzarella panini and ended up with just that...toasted panini bread, completely unseasoned boiled chicken breast and mozzarella cheese. It wasn't good. I asked for mayo even though I'm not a mayo fan, and it helped enough to choke it down. John, still craving the duck, ordered a honey glazed duck breast and French onion soup (yes, again). The presentation of the duck was nice, too bad it still didn't taste good. When we got back close to our hotel, we decided to go by The Depot again, but we didn't stay long because we were pretty tired.
On Sunday (the 30th), we left our hotel with the intention to go straight to the Louvre, but when we came down from our room, we discovered a farmer's market/flea market type thing going on all down the street we were staying on (Rue de la Convention). We stopped and looked at various things and ended up buying some fresh strawberries. They were the tastiest strawberries I have had in YEARS. We saved about half of them until we took the subway to the Louvre. We ate the rest of them while sitting on the end of one of the fountains at the Louvre.
We thought the line to get into the Louvre was going to take forever, based upon our experience the previous night from the Eiffel Tower. Surprisingly, it only took 5-10 minutes to work our way inside. Because we had slept in, we knew we couldn't spend all day there. So we decided to just hit the highlights. We saw the Venus de Milo, and the Mona Lisa, along with quite a few of Michaelangelo's statues.
After we left the Louvre, we hopped on the subway to Île de la Cité to see Notre Dame. When we arrived, the line was extraordinarily long, so we decided to just enjoy the facade. We walked from there over to Sainte-Chapelle. We decided to go there instead because the inside has ornate stained glass, and we wanted to see it while it was still daylight. While waiting in line, we were hungry, because we hadn't had lunch and it was about 3:00. John decided to run over to the sandwich shop on the corner. He ordered his sandwich (in French!) and waited while the guy at the counter toasted it. While it was in the oven a French man walked up and ordered the same sandwich. The guy behind the counter gave him John's sandwich. John ordered again, and it happened again... and again. Finally, John just decided that the man didn't want to serve an American and walked off. Which is just as well because I was nearing the front of the line to get into Sainte-Chapelle. The inside was gorgeous. All the walls were covered in stained glass, and each small small pane depicted a different story from the Bible.
When we were through, we went and got coffee and some sandwiches in the Saint Michel area. Afterwards, we took the subway to Saint Germain, which put us in the middle of a small Christmas market. We were also right by the oldest surviving church in Paris, the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. We looked around the church and then went shopping in a nearby bookstore for a little bit before dinnertime. We had looked at eating dinner in the Saint Germain area and had picked out a restaurant called Le Procope for the evening.
We managed to get there right before the dinner rush and didn't have to wait very long for a table. Dinner itself, however, lasted three hours, which was not a bad thing. We ordered a half-sized bottle of wine, mineral water, and we both had the coq au vin for our entrée. Everything was delicious. I did have one small problem occur during dinner...my hair rubber band - suddenly and completely unprovoked by me - snapped. I realized this when my hair suddenly felt very loose; it had been up in a ponytail. In a moment of panic, I turned to the girl to my left, who I had heard speaking some English and asked if she had a rubber band I could use. She saved the day. Who says the French are rude? Ok, back to the meal... we decided to order dessert since we were having a nice dinner out. I got the profiteroles which are pastries filled with homemade ice cream and covered in a chocolate drizzle. John ordered the crepes flambéed in Grand Marnier. It also came with a shot of Grand Marnier as a digestif. Following dinner, we went next door to Le Pub Saint Germain.
The next day, New Year's Eve, we went to Sacré-Cœur which is a basilica located at the the highest point in Paris and is surrounded by the Montmartre district. While there, we enjoyed listening to a guy play the guitar on the stairs in front of the church. He had quite an audience. Once we went inside the church, we were amazed at how beautiful it was. We both wanted to take some time before leaving to sit in the pews and pray.
Our next mission was getting to the Café de Deux Moulins, which is the restaurant featured in the movie Amelie. The trek there took us through the red light district of Montmartre, where we saw Moulin Rouge. We were a bit grumpy by the time we made it to the café since we hadn't eaten and ended up giving up on eating there (it was crowded and smokey). I truly just wanted to get on the subway and go anywhere but there, and John agreed. We ended up getting off at a stop we always change trains at but had never gone above ground there. This put us up at Montparnasse. We were so hungry that we saw a sign for McDonald's and headed there without hesitation. It was quite a change from our fancy French meal the night before!
We went and bought some Champagne and baguettes before the shops closed. Later, we
had dinner at restaurant down the street from our hotel. Unfortunately it was only so-so, but our server was very nice. After dinner it was time to head to the Eiffel Tower for the countdown to 2008 and fireworks. We got there around 9:30 and got an exceptional seat on the stairs at the Place de Trocadero. We were literally directly in front of the Eiffel Tower with an unobstructed view of everything. We waited and waited and waited. At 11:58, there was still no sign of a countdown, but we were standing champagne in hand, ready to pop the cork and celebrate the new year. The Eiffel Tower started "sparkling" (via strobe lights) like it does on the hour every evening, so we figured maybe that was the one minute countdown. When nothing changed about four minutes later, we looked at each other, shrugged and said "Happy New Year?" No Fireworks...such a bummer. People set off their own fireworks here and there because there is no law against doing so, but there were no big city fireworks.
We headed over to the Champs-Élysées and were amazed at how many people had packed that wide, long street. There were broken champagne bottles everywhere. We had a good time enjoying the sights.
The next day we slept in and got ready to leave. With only a small aggravating incident at check out, we were on our way back to Germany.
If you have made it this far through the entry, I applaud you. You definitely deserve a gold star. Now for the fun part - photos!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Paris Part I: Days 1 & 2
Sorry it took me a whole week to get a post from Paris up. Between being exhausted from our trip and trying to tie up some loose ends before I head back to Texas, we have been pretty swamped with stuff to do.
Paris was a lot of fun but not really what I had envisioned. Perhaps if we go back in the spring or summertime, it might be different. Something else I didn't expect?...the LINES! Oh my goodness, we had to wait to wait again to do almost anything. I will say, however, that people were a bit nicer than I had prepared myself for. Only a couple people were so snooty as to ignore us altogether purely based on the fact that we were Americans. We were even trying (really hard) to speak French. John didn't know any French before the trip and was amazing at picking it up. I only took a semester of French during my first semester in college (five and a half years ago!). Between the two of us, I think we did really well for ourselves.
Our first test was when we got off the train at the main station in Paris. We had to navigate where to go and how we should get to our hotel. It didn't take us long to find a subway map and locate the subway stop for our hotel. We plotted out our route from the main station and set out to find a way to buy tickets. We found these computers that dispense tickets, but everything was in French. Still, we managed to get our tickets fairly easily using the little knowledge we had of French, and we were on our way. We got to our hotel between 11:30 and midnight (our train got in around 11 PM), put our stuff down and headed back to a cafe/bar we passed when we came up from the subway.
We made two stops at this bar during our stay. I believe the place was called The Depot, but I could be wrong. It felt kind of Austin-y and was a nice place to relax...except for the smoke. That's another thing. There is smoking everywhere in Paris - even more than in Germany. I had a hard time with it since it gives me such bad headaches, but it definitely made me appreciate all the no smoking areas in the US. Speaking of, if you ask to be in a smoking section in the US (if the restaurant even has a smoking section), you are usually sent to a small room in the back of the restaurant. It's the complete opposite here. If you want the non-smoking section, you're in the small room in the back, and usually, there are still people smoking there too.
Anyway...the next day, we got up early and went to a little bakery right across from our hotel. I ordered as best I could in French, and we got two quiche Lorraines and two delicious glasses of orange juice. We then made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. The traffic circle that surrounds it is crazy, by the way! There don't appear to be any lanes - just a lot of crazy driving. At least that's what it looked like to me.
We didn't go up in the Arc de Triomphe but walked around the outside. It was pretty neat, and being able to look all the way down the Champs-Élysées was cool. From the Arc de Triomphe, we walked down the Champs-Élysées. There were a number of really expensive stores and nice cafes along the street. We never knew how expensive Cartier could be until we saw their watch and other jewelry displays in their front window. We only went in a few places - a few car stores (not dealerships...think showrooms), the GAP (I was trying to find a hair clip...never found one), Virgin Records Megastore and Louis Vuitton.
We stopped for lunch at a nice little cafe toward the end of the main part of the Champs-Élysées. I had the most fantastic ravioli, and John ordered French onion soup and what he thought was duck. Well, he ordered duck foie gras. Neither of us knew what foie gras was but decided the duck must be pretty good, because it was a bit pricey. When our food came, we thought we were missing the duck. I had my pasta, and John had his soup and some random plate with toast and a orange-ish paste (kind of like butter) on it. When no duck came, we concluded the paste thing must have duck in it. It wasn't until we got back to Germany and could look online that we found out that duck foie gras is duck "fat liver." Here's an explanation I took from Wikipedia: " Foie gras (French for 'fat liver') is 'the liver of a duck or goose that has been specially fattened by gavage' (as defined by French law). Foie gras is one of the most popular delicacies in French cuisine and its flavour is described as rich, buttery, and delicate, unlike that of a regular duck or goose liver. Foie gras can be sold whole, or prepared into mousse, parfait, or pâté (the lowest quality), and is typically served as an accompaniment to another food item, such as toast or steak." Eesh...I'm still getting nauseous thinking about it. I tried it and didn't think it was good, but I guess at least I tried it. Ew.
By the way, I just looked up what gavage is. I don't think John or I will be eating anything foie gras again. Gavage means feeding someone or something against their will. :o(
Ok, back to happier Parisian thoughts. After lunch, we decided to ride the ferris wheel. We're both very glad we did that. It provided great 360 degree views of Paris, and was definitely worth the money. As you can see in our picture slideshow below, we saw a lot of the major sights we later visited close-up while up in the ferris wheel.
The sun was getting lower in the sky, and we didn't want to run out of daylight, so we hurried to the Eiffel Tower...only to wait around 2.5 hours in line just to go up in the tower. During that time, we got very cold and it poured rain on us. Luckily, some very nice Italians in line behind us graciously lent us their extra umbrella during the downpour.
Going up in the Eiffel Tower was pretty neat, but it would definitely have been more enjoyable if we had done it in warmer weather. It was cold and extremely windy the higher we went up (of course). We went to both of the lower observation decks and the deck at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Both John and I were a little squeamish about the height. For once (truly once), I think I was a slight bit more adventurous, because I didn't have quite as much of an issue getting near the edge. I'm sure it wouldn't have been as easy if I didn't have John holding me by the back of my jacket, though!
My photos for the day end here, and unfortunately, I have a terrible memory, so I don't remember what else we did. I'll have to ask John later and get back to y'all on that.
Here's our slideshow for Paris Part I! Be sure to pay attention the the captions in the slideshow if you're not familiar with Paris. I tried to caption everything as best I could.
Paris was a lot of fun but not really what I had envisioned. Perhaps if we go back in the spring or summertime, it might be different. Something else I didn't expect?...the LINES! Oh my goodness, we had to wait to wait again to do almost anything. I will say, however, that people were a bit nicer than I had prepared myself for. Only a couple people were so snooty as to ignore us altogether purely based on the fact that we were Americans. We were even trying (really hard) to speak French. John didn't know any French before the trip and was amazing at picking it up. I only took a semester of French during my first semester in college (five and a half years ago!). Between the two of us, I think we did really well for ourselves.
Our first test was when we got off the train at the main station in Paris. We had to navigate where to go and how we should get to our hotel. It didn't take us long to find a subway map and locate the subway stop for our hotel. We plotted out our route from the main station and set out to find a way to buy tickets. We found these computers that dispense tickets, but everything was in French. Still, we managed to get our tickets fairly easily using the little knowledge we had of French, and we were on our way. We got to our hotel between 11:30 and midnight (our train got in around 11 PM), put our stuff down and headed back to a cafe/bar we passed when we came up from the subway.
We made two stops at this bar during our stay. I believe the place was called The Depot, but I could be wrong. It felt kind of Austin-y and was a nice place to relax...except for the smoke. That's another thing. There is smoking everywhere in Paris - even more than in Germany. I had a hard time with it since it gives me such bad headaches, but it definitely made me appreciate all the no smoking areas in the US. Speaking of, if you ask to be in a smoking section in the US (if the restaurant even has a smoking section), you are usually sent to a small room in the back of the restaurant. It's the complete opposite here. If you want the non-smoking section, you're in the small room in the back, and usually, there are still people smoking there too.
Anyway...the next day, we got up early and went to a little bakery right across from our hotel. I ordered as best I could in French, and we got two quiche Lorraines and two delicious glasses of orange juice. We then made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. The traffic circle that surrounds it is crazy, by the way! There don't appear to be any lanes - just a lot of crazy driving. At least that's what it looked like to me.
We didn't go up in the Arc de Triomphe but walked around the outside. It was pretty neat, and being able to look all the way down the Champs-Élysées was cool. From the Arc de Triomphe, we walked down the Champs-Élysées. There were a number of really expensive stores and nice cafes along the street. We never knew how expensive Cartier could be until we saw their watch and other jewelry displays in their front window. We only went in a few places - a few car stores (not dealerships...think showrooms), the GAP (I was trying to find a hair clip...never found one), Virgin Records Megastore and Louis Vuitton.
We stopped for lunch at a nice little cafe toward the end of the main part of the Champs-Élysées. I had the most fantastic ravioli, and John ordered French onion soup and what he thought was duck. Well, he ordered duck foie gras. Neither of us knew what foie gras was but decided the duck must be pretty good, because it was a bit pricey. When our food came, we thought we were missing the duck. I had my pasta, and John had his soup and some random plate with toast and a orange-ish paste (kind of like butter) on it. When no duck came, we concluded the paste thing must have duck in it. It wasn't until we got back to Germany and could look online that we found out that duck foie gras is duck "fat liver." Here's an explanation I took from Wikipedia: " Foie gras (French for 'fat liver') is 'the liver of a duck or goose that has been specially fattened by gavage' (as defined by French law). Foie gras is one of the most popular delicacies in French cuisine and its flavour is described as rich, buttery, and delicate, unlike that of a regular duck or goose liver. Foie gras can be sold whole, or prepared into mousse, parfait, or pâté (the lowest quality), and is typically served as an accompaniment to another food item, such as toast or steak." Eesh...I'm still getting nauseous thinking about it. I tried it and didn't think it was good, but I guess at least I tried it. Ew.
By the way, I just looked up what gavage is. I don't think John or I will be eating anything foie gras again. Gavage means feeding someone or something against their will. :o(
Ok, back to happier Parisian thoughts. After lunch, we decided to ride the ferris wheel. We're both very glad we did that. It provided great 360 degree views of Paris, and was definitely worth the money. As you can see in our picture slideshow below, we saw a lot of the major sights we later visited close-up while up in the ferris wheel.
The sun was getting lower in the sky, and we didn't want to run out of daylight, so we hurried to the Eiffel Tower...only to wait around 2.5 hours in line just to go up in the tower. During that time, we got very cold and it poured rain on us. Luckily, some very nice Italians in line behind us graciously lent us their extra umbrella during the downpour.
Going up in the Eiffel Tower was pretty neat, but it would definitely have been more enjoyable if we had done it in warmer weather. It was cold and extremely windy the higher we went up (of course). We went to both of the lower observation decks and the deck at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Both John and I were a little squeamish about the height. For once (truly once), I think I was a slight bit more adventurous, because I didn't have quite as much of an issue getting near the edge. I'm sure it wouldn't have been as easy if I didn't have John holding me by the back of my jacket, though!
My photos for the day end here, and unfortunately, I have a terrible memory, so I don't remember what else we did. I'll have to ask John later and get back to y'all on that.
Here's our slideshow for Paris Part I! Be sure to pay attention the the captions in the slideshow if you're not familiar with Paris. I tried to caption everything as best I could.
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