"The slide is under construction. Besides, it's for children"

The last two days have been jam packed with sight seeing. Since yesterday I'm sure we've managed to walk at least 12 miles in the heat. And being the smart one I am, I chose to wear flip flops. Good call, dano ;)

Yesterday we went to the Arc de Triomphe, walked up about 250 some stairs to the top, and had an amazing view of Paris and Champs-Elysees. Totally worth the stair workout. After that, we walked all the way down the Champs-Elysees to the Louvre.. Which is apparently closed on Tuesdays. But we got to see the pyramid and sit on the edge of the water next to it, which was super relaxing after the long walk.

The people sitting behind us are all on the edge of the pool. We all had the same idea that day ;)

After sitting for a while, we walked on to find Notre Dame. It is absolutely beautiful and if you ever have the chance, you should go there. It's hard to describe because it's so amazing. Words aren't enough. From there, we went down the block to a little restaurant called Quasimodo's (I think) where they didn't have ice cubes, but they did have a menu in ENGLISH. That's right, english! Anything in english at this point is great.

Once we were rehydrated we went to get Julia, went to dinner, and went to watch the world cup game by the Eiffel Tower again with all of Philippe's friends. That night it was Spain versus Portugal. It was CRAZY. There were so many people we couldn't even get into the field. So we all stood in the masses and watched from afar. Almost everyone there was cheering for Spain, and after they won the crowd went wild. There were fireworks and lots of fans driving around honking and yelling "Espana!" Not to mention all of the vuvuzelas. Navigating through the giant crowds reminded me of a mosh pit. After making it throuhg, we retreated to Philippe's sister's flat in down town Paris where we spent the night.

The next day came too soon, as I rolled out of bed for a quick workout before starting off another eventful day. First on the list was Parc de la Villette. If you do not know what this is please look at this link and you will understand why I needed to go there so badly.

http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/2000_images/Europe/LaVillette/villette04.jpg

Basically I am a child.

So off Sam, Philippe, Julia and I went to Parc de la Villette. Except I thought it would be fun to take a boat there.. Unfortunately, they were all kind enough to listen and be a tourist with me. What we didn't know was that this boat ride would turn into 2 hours of locks. Once we had finally arrived at the parc, Philippe asked the tour guide where we could find the slide. He responded and french and the three of them laughed. I asked what he had said, and apparently the slide was under construction, and "it's not a big deal anyways. It's for children." Thank you kind sir.

While walking out of the Parc (Since we had to leave right when we got there because we didn't know it would be a two hour boat ride) I snapped a picture of this theater- 360 degrees of screen. Pretty cool :)

At that point we had to go because it would take an hour to get back on the train, so we hurried through the parc to the train and we were off again on another train adventure. At our last stop Philippe's neighbor picked us up from the train station and brought us home, where we all grabbed our swimsuits and made a run for the pool. To end it all, Philippe made us all dinner. How nice :) (it was delicious by the way. Ask him to cook for you sometime when you meet him).

Tomorrow's looking like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre with Florence, Philippe, Julia and Sam. One last day in Paris tomorrow, and then I'm off to the Netherlands on friday.

Ooh Europe.

"My mom said I should come here and eat a baguette" "What's that?"

Today was pretty chill. We were all super tired after a long day yesterday (at least for us, philippe just likes to sleep a lot), so we slept for some where around 13 hours. After that we took a million trains into Paris and hung out with Philippe and his friends. I tried my first crepe! Which tastes like a flavorless pancake to me.. which was some what unfortunate haha. After that we went to a field by the Eiffel Tower and watched the Brazil vs. Argentina world cup game. Since the French didn't make it into the top 16, it looks like they've all jumped onto the Brazil side. There were so many people there watching the game! And some of the brought their vuvuzelas. Of course ;)

After that we left the game, met a drunk frenchman ;) and went to meet Phliippe's mom at the champs elysees, which is pretty awesome by the way. Once we got in her car we drove around Paris at night and saw all the lit up buildings and museums. At that point it was about 12:30 at night so we went back to Philippe's, and Philippe and his mom went to bed, and here Sam and I are, at 1:53am and we are wide awake because it's 6:53am.

Oh! And totally random, but I saw a firetruck here and it was a Mercedes! Which I thought was funny. So I took a picture :)

Wish you here :)

"You can also shower in the morning"

Finally, after endless hours of travel, we have arrived in Paris! But not until after we had a tv crisis and made a pit stop in Iceland. While flying with IcelandAir we were able to learn all sorts of fun things about Iceland. Fun fact! Iceland's most popular restaurant is a hot dog stand. I didn't believe it either until we had landed there and saw only a few houses in the capital. The airport is only a few miles from the coast, so when we walked off the plane we were instantly hit with the sweet smell of the sea. That alone was motivating enough to come back someday.. Until I found this!

A puffin! At the iceland airport! What a surprise :) After that we quickly boarded our next flight and were off to Paris!

Turns out Paris has a super cool airport with uphill and downhill moving sidewalks and cool tubey escalator things. I can't describe them any better unfortunately. Anyways, we hurried our way through the airport, got our luggage, and found Philippe and his mother Florence waiting for us :) They were kind enough to take us in for the week, and are driving us around Paris, and feeding us endless amounts of good food.

After settling in and eating lunch we decided to go walk around Chateau de Versailles. It's a giant castle with gardens that go on forever. Google might have a better picture then me.. This is the backside though. I couldn't get the whole Chateau into one picture.

After walking around the Chateau and eating ice cream, we decided to call it a day and head back to Philippe's house, where a shower and bed awaited us. I'm not sure what's in store for tomorrow, but we're going into Paris so it's sure to be great.

Wish you were here!

Check list

I can't believe I'm leaving for France on Saturday. It's finally here! I'm sure the time until I arrive will drag on, but luckily I will have a lot to fill my next few days with. At least I can cross 'making a blog' off of my To do list :) I think this will be the easiest way to keep you all updated. I can't guarantee long and detailed posts (I'm not as good as Kelly ;) ), but hopefully I can keep you some what up to date on my travels.

The next 30 days I will be traveling with my team mate and friend, Sam. He is quite the world traveler and speaks (almost) every language (although he will deny it). We'll be flying into Paris, then we'll be off to the Netherlands, Germany, and back to France- Only the second time we will be staying on the beach :)

I am so blessed and fortunate to have this experience and I can't wait to share it with you all.

Au revoir !