MUM in a Million: November 2011

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Europe Adventure: Part 2

PARIS (July 5^th – July 9^th)

I didn’t think Paris would be that different from London, and boy was I wrong. The culture was a shock. People are not so nice, it stinks (I am sure I contributed), everyone is speaking a language that I can’t understand. I was so lucky to have Megan. She did all the talking, fighting, and bargaining. She introduced me to Pauls. My favorite place and boy do I just crave my favorite pastry everyday, a malfoy. I loved Paris though, it is beautiful and the food is amazing! What a fun city. I hope that I will be able to go back someday.

Day 8: July 5^th

I woke up early today and took off on my next adventure….PARIS BABY! I have wanted to go to Paris forever. I took the tube to the airport and was off. It was weird that most of the people were speaking French on the flight, even the flight attendants. I was a little nervous because my friend Megan was picking me up in at the airport and I had no way off contacting her. I got off the plane and everything was in French. Haha what did I expect right. Luckily Megan saw me walking past the door I was supposed to go through and she yelled my name. The first thing we did was get a sandwich from Pauls. I didn’t know it at the time but feisty Megan was fighting with the person ringing us up. Haha it was really funny. We bought a metro pass for the week and then we left the airport. On the metro, Megan was talking to a guy and he invited us over for coffee. Since I don’t speak the language I just sat and smiled. In France, people don’t smile. It is really weird. So Megan told me that when you smile the guys think you want to go home with him. oops! haha! We took my bags to Nicoles house one of Megans converts. She was so cute and so nice. I just loved her and she was so kind to let me stay at with her. Then the rest of the day we went to this huge shopping mall and shopped our little hearts out. We both bought some cute dresses. We went grocery shopping and Megan knows all of the good things to eat. It was fun to experience some new foods and they were so good. At the mall, we went to Paul’s again and bought a tartlet. It was insanely amazing. Words can’t even describe it.

Day 9: July 6^th

Today we walked our little butts off. Our first stop was the Eiffel tower. It was amazing to see it in person. It is huge, especially when you are standing right next to it. We had fun taking pictures and walking the streets of Paris. At the Eiffel tower we got some ice cream. It was seriously the best ice cream I have every had. We walked down the side of the Seine River, which is right next to the Eiffel tower. We ran into a guy that did metamorphosis pictures with the Eiffel tower. They were pretty cool so we bought a few pictures from him. We then walked across the Pont Alexandre 3. It is an arch bridge and is known as the most extravagant bridge in Paris. Across the bridge is the Petit Palais. It is a beautiful building and inside is the museum of fine arts. After we roamed the museum we walked down the street that leads to the Arc de Triomphe. This street was filled with lots of big name shopping stores. These stores were pricey but what a fun street to walk down. We walked down to the Arc de Triomphe. This is such a cool monument in Paris. It is so huge. This is where I got my Paris painting. There were guys selling them underground and one wanted Meg so bad. Haha.

Day 10: July 7^th

We went back to the Eiffel tower today to go to the top of it. We thought we were in the line to walk up the stairs, but we weren’t. Haha! I am not going to lie I was relieved, I think I would have died half way up the stairs. So we took the elevator to the first and second floor. It was so cool to get this kind of view of the city. You could see everything and it was incredible. We waited inline to go all the way to the top and it was freezing. Meg and I were dancing and taking video’s to help us stay warm. They are pretty hilarious I must say. I am so glad that we went to the top. Paris is truly a beautiful city. We did walk down the tower from the second floor. So many steps! After, we were walking back to the metro and we stopped to look at hats. We both bought one but I had to get it for Cami since she had wanted one of these hats forever. The guy we bought it from was flirting with me, haha, in a different language. He wanted my number. Wow why can’t the men in America be like the men in France? We then went and ate at a restaurant that was right next to the Notre Dame. We got a crepe for desert and it came out with a firework on it. It was quite a show. We then went to the Notre Dame de Paris. It is a gothic, catholic cathedral. It is a cool building and the inside is awesome.

Day 11: July 8^th

Today, we took a train out to the city of Versailles. It was cool to get out of Paris and see a little more of France. We went to the Palace of Versailles. This is a royal chateau in Versailles. It is so extravagant. It is the palace of King Louis the 14^th. Their was a chandelier room that was incredible. Outside the Palace is the Gardens of Versailles. The gardens occupy part of what was once the royal demesne of the chateau of Versailles. The gardens cover 800 hectares. The gardens are beautiful and were full of classic French style trees and statues. Touring the palace and gardens took up most of the day. We headed back to Paris and went back into the city to see the Eiffel tower sparkle. I was really excited to see this. They have searchlights on the top of the tower and then the tower sparkles every hour on the hour. It was so cool. This was one of my favorite things about Paris. On our way back to Nicole’s place their was a guy playing his accordion on the metro. Meg was a dancing fool. It was hilarious. Megan seriously made this trip to Paris the best. She is just so fun to be around.

Day 12: July 9^th

I cant believe that my trip to Paris had almost come to an end. Today Nicole spent the day with us, which was a lot of fun! She had met a girl on the metro the day before so she was going to hang out with us. We meet up with her at a shopping mall place. It was weird because some how they got on a religious conversation and the whole mood went sour. I couldn’t understand anything but just by the body language of Meg, Nicole, and this girl, I could tell that she found out about our religion and was freaking out. We ate lunch and then after the girl decided she didn’t want to be around us. Oh well, her lose cause we really were the cool kids roaming Paris. So we went to the Musee Du Louvre for a few hours before I had to head to the airport. The pyramid outside the Louve is so cool. They had an exhibit of Rembrandts paintings of Christ. It was really cool. Some of the pictures were weird but it was really cool to see how he portrayed Christ’s life. I also enjoyed the statues and paintings that were in the Louve. I wish I would have had more time to browse but their were SO many paintings. I mean like walls and walls that went on forever. It was so cool to see the Mona Lisa (which is a lot smaller than I pictured) and to see the Venus de Milo (the famous statue without arms). You could seriously take hours in that place it is so big. After, we stopped at a place to buy me some chocolate bars to take home because I didn’t even try the chocolate while I was there. Weird huh? I couldn’t leave Paris without of course stopping at Paul’s one more time.

Tartlets from Paul's

So Good!

Meg knew all the goods. These were some of my favs

Eiffel tower!

Best Ice Cream ever!

Had to Plank in Paris

View from the Eiffel Tower

The guy we bought our hats from.

Now that is a crepe

Notre Dame

Palace of Versailles

Gardens at the Palace of Versailles

We are awesome! what more can I say

Nicole & Megan

Mona Lisa at the Louvre

Venus de Milo at the Louvre

The one and only Malfoy from Paul's

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Europe Adventure: part 1

LONDON (June 27- July 4th)

Where do I even start? What an adventure! I have never done anything like this trip before in my life and it was incredible. I always told myself that if I was still single with a grownup job that I would take advantage of my summers off while not being tied down. My friend Lisa lives in London and I kept telling her that I was going to come over and I actually made it happen. I got my passport, booked my flight, and I was ready to go! Two days before I left I bought myself an ipad. I had wanted one forever and wanted to have something to do on my very long flights so I said what the heck and splurged. If going to Europe wasn’t splurging enough! My friend Meg, who I was going to be in Paris the following week with, was so kind and took me to the airport on monday morning. I was so excited but scared as well because I was traveling by myself to a foreign country. I had a layover in Texas and when I got on the next plane I was so excited because all the people around me had English accents. I loved it and that was when it really hit me that I wasn’t going to be in Kansas anymore. My flight to England was really long. I didn't sleep much on the plane but I stayed occupied with my ipad and with the inflight movies. I finally got to London and I was so excited and nervous. I was going through customs and I didn't have Lisa’s number or address and the guy looked at me like I was an idiot. Here I was in another country and didn’t have a clue of where I was going to go or be. Oops! Haha yeah not prepared. After getting my bag, I was relieved to find Lisa waiting for me just like I knew she would be. We took the tube back to where Lisa was staying until she could move into her new place. We grabbed a little bit to eat at the market and I went and took a nap. My first thought of England was awesomeness! Buses and cars traveling on the wrong side of the road. No houses but businesses everywhere with apartments on top of the businesses. It was cool. After my nap, Lisa took me downtown to sightsee for the night. We walked past the Tower of London, and went to the Tower Bridge. I had seen the tower bridge in movies but it was so cool in person. We went and ate at this really good Italian place and tehn we just walked around and looked at everything that was by the tower bridge. We were walking on the sidewalk and we saw some people just waiting around for something. Across the street there was a royals car. Lisa said it was probably just Prince Charles or something, but we were both curious so we decided to wait around for a few minutes. Well little did we expect but the Queen herself comes walking out of the building with her husband Charles. Oh my gosh, seriously this just happen! She is such a cute old lady. Lisa couldn’t believe that my first night I got to see the queen. That was Lisa’s first time seeing her and she had lived there for almost a year. My trip started off right! How could I beat that.

Day 2: June 29^th

First we went to the Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, which is the official residence of the Queen. It was so cool. We were pretty close to the gate but there were so many people. There were lots of men on horses, a band, and lots of guards in the red. It was a big deal. The English take their traditions seriously and it was cool to see. I wish I could have toured Buckingham palace but it was not open to the public during my trip because the queen was living it in at the time. In front of the palace is the Victoria Memorial, which is a huge sculpture of Queen Victoria. After the changing of the guard, we walked through St. James Park. One of my favorite things about London is that there are huge parks in the middle of the city. It was a beautiful park with a river through it and lots of flowers. After the park we went to Trafalga square which is one of the most famous sights of London and is known as the heart of London. In Trafalga square is the National gallery. I am usually not that into looking at art but it was cool to see paintings that I have seen and studied about in my schoolbooks. We then went to Piccadilly circus. We just got off the tube to look at this. It was awesome. It is a big shopping place but it has huge video displays and neon signs. It is what I picture New York to look like. Then we were off to shop on Oxford street. This street went on forever and was packed with shops and people. It was a lot of fun. Lisa wore me out but it was an awesome day.

Day 3: June 30^th

We went and saw some magnificent buildings today. First stop was the Palace of Westminister, also known as the house of parliament. Attached to the palace is Big Ben. Big Ben is referred to as the clock tower and is the largest four faced chiming clock in the world. Funny story, I leaned over to Lisa and told her that it reminded me of the Peter Pan clock. She looked at me and was like Allie it is the Peter pan clock. Haha I felt stupid. The palace of Westminster was incredible. It has the medieval feel to it and it is huge. After that we walked over to Westminster abbey. This is where Kate and Prince Williams got married. We then went to the Tate Modern Museum. This is full of international modern and contemporary art. After the museum, we walked across the Millennium bridge. Lisa calls it the Harry Potter Bridge because it is in the movie and she is the biggest Harry Potter fan I know. It is a huge bridge only for pedestrians. While crossing the bridge you can see St. Pauls Cathedral.

Day 4 and 5: July 1^st and 2^nd

These two days I helped Lisa move into her new flat. I experienced the famous Fish and Chips, which were delightful and ate at Pizza express which was one of my favorite places to eat in London.

Day 6: July 3^rd

We went to Lisa’s singles ward for church. It is always so cool for me to see that the church is the same whereever you go, just different accents. After church we went to Hyde Park and walked around with one of Lisa’s friend. It is a 350-acre park and one of the most famous parks in the world. There are a lot of things to see in the park. We saw the Albert Memorial, the Royal Albert Hall (one of the premier concert halls in the world), the Peter Pan statue, and the Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain (a memorial for princess Diana).

Day 7: July 4^th

Lisa started her new job today so I decided to go explore. Jerome, who works at my dads shop, told me I had to go to Windsor castle, so I thought since I had the day to myself I would make a trek out to Windsor. I was a little scared but I felt like I had the tube down after riding on it all week. Little did I know that the train station would be so different and a bit more confusing. So I first found my way to Paddington Station. I was so excited because one of the only books I really remember enjoying as a child was called “A bear called Paddington.” The story takes place at Paddington Station. I made it to Windsor safely and it was such a cute little town with lots of shops. The castle was incredible. I loved going inside the queen’s dollhouse. It was huge and so elegant. I want one! I bought some souvenirs and then did some shopping and headed back to London to met up with Lisa for dinner. Windsor castle was one of my favorite things that I did in England.