France!

Also known as the day the cruise ship discovered Christmas.

Today was (by design) a pretty relaxed day.  Royal Caribbean only offered six excursions, and none of them really sounded impossible to miss, so we opted to sleep in a little.  And then watch the new Spiderman movie.  Had to happen.

Once we had gotten our super hero fill, and some food, we took advantage of the ferry to Toulon, which is the city in France where we had docked.  Toulon is definitely not a tourist city, but we walked around the marketplace for a while anyway.  It was probably the best weather we’ve had, with direct sun and pleasant temperatures for the majority of the day.  The area around Toulon is beautiful – all these mountains just seem to rise up from right behind the city.

A few hours later, we headed back to the ship and used the rest of the afternoon to read in the sun.  I’ve finished The Life of Pi (thrown for a little bit of a twist there at the end), so I’ll have to download a few more books for the flights home before we leave tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was accompanied by a Christmas tree and a large ice sculpture, and there was another Cirque du Soleil-type performance (I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this, but every other night or so, I’ve stumbled into an aerial performance in the centrum) this evening, also complete with Christmas theme and tree.  I probably should have expected it – it is Black Friday, after all, but for some reason it still just seems very early to me.  Guess I should get on the shopping, and maybe it wouldn’t have caught me so by surprise.

One of the greatest things about traveling by cruise ship is the staff’s willingness to take care of all of the details.  We packed up our bags tonight and stuck them outside of our stateroom, and Royal Caribbean will take care of getting them to the airport for us tomorrow.  It’s very, very streamlined.  Have to love that.

As much as I love traveling, coming home is pretty great too (obviously minus the many hours spent in an airport/on an airplane).  Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!!

The $.65/minute internet was down last night.  But anyway...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope that you’re all having a wonderful holiday, surrounded by family and friends J

Today we docked in Livorno, which is relatively close to Pisa and Florence in Tuscany.  Our excursion du jour was to tour a Tuscan Vineyard and to do a wine tasting.  We were pretty excited because the excursion didn’t start until 1:15, which gave us a little bit of extra sleeping time (every other excursion has required a pre-7:00 AM wake-up call).  We were somewhat foiled, however, because the crew had its muster drill around 9:00 AM (3:00 AM, EST).  It’s pretty darned hard to sleep through a fire drill.  So we got up.

Being awake for a few hours pre-excursion did allow me to finish my fifth book of the trip, and because I’m trying to do a better job balancing trashy romance and not trashy romance (the two Kindle book categories) on this trip, I’m now reading The Life of Pi.  I can’t even express how much I love my Kindle.  I don’t read as much when I’m not on a trip, but the fact that I can go online for anywhere, without having to pay $.65/minute, and download a new book, which is often discounted and doesn’t take up any additional room in my suitcase, is a strange and wonderful thing.

The Tuscan Vineyard was a little more than an hour away, and so our tour guide gave us some information about the area on the way there.  She was interesting – reminded me (probably more than was flattering for her) of Melissa on The Real Housewives of New Jersey.  She kept having us wave to the black sheep for good luck and giggling into the microphone.  Ben was pretty sure that she was smashed the entire time.  Anything’s possible.

When we got to the vineyard, we took a “tour,” which consisted of about 10 yards of walking to one corner of the (now hibernating) grape vines, about a paragraph’s worth of information, and backtracking about 5 yards to an olive tree, where we talked briefly about the process of making olive oil.  Having also toured a vineyard in Sonoma Valley, which was a much more robust and informational experience, Ben and I were both a little underwhelmed by the “tour” in Tuscany.

The main part of the excursion was the wine tasting.  There were two red wines, two white wines, and then later a dessert wine.  The vineyard also gave us bread, oil and vinegar, roasted tomatoes, cheese, ham, and olives to snack on while we tasted.  Sitting around, eating, drinking, and chatting with our fellow cruisers was a very enjoyable experience.  The other two people at our end of the table have done more than 20 cruises, and they were happy to talk about where they’ve been that they’ve liked and disliked.  They’ve done some really awesome sounding trips to southeast Asia… not on my current top five travel destinations (which may include Peru, Austria, Scotland, Portugal, and Turkey), but will definitely need to happen at a point when I have more disposable income to travel.

We came back from the excursion and both of us pretty promptly fell asleep for a few hours, waking up just in time to go and enjoy a Thanksgiving turkey dinner.  The fact that our cabin doesn’t have any natural light is very disconcerting for naps.  We woke up and had absolutely no idea what time it was (though I suppose that natural light wouldn’t have helped us all that much – sunset was at 4:42 this evening).

In closing, I’m grateful for so many things (including the opportunity to travel :) that I want to share.  I’m thankful for the support my parents and family have always given me, and for my brother having suggested that we start to do some traveling together.  I’m thankful for Troy and our awesome life together (with cats!) in North Carolina.  I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to go to Massachusetts three weeks ago to see my family (hurricane be damned!) and to have seen all of the (recently enlarged!) Carter family two weeks ago when we came up for the Morgan State tournament.  I’m thankful for my support system of friends, and the technology that helps me to stay close to them, even as we have scattered around the world.  I’m also grateful to work with colleagues I enjoy in a position that I find challenging and rewarding.  And, while it doesn’t come anywhere close to the level of gratitude that I feel for everything else I’ve listed, I’m grateful that I am now within the 48-hour window for a real Diet Coke. 

Tomorrow, to France!  Since we don’t have an excursion planned, we will be like Napoleon.  First we will show up.  Then we will see what happens. 

Rome!

Well, today was what felt like the entirety of Rome (but in reality was only a relatively small section of what used to be the ancient city).  The weather was gorgeous – high 60s to low 70s, and sunny.

From the ship, we had a roughly 90-minute drive to the center of Rome, where we were given some vague directions and the crappiest map on the planet.  If I had access to a scanner, I would show everyone just how bad this map is.  Most of the streets are not labeled at all, and the map-makers extraordinaire have stuck clip art pictures of the major landmarks over the landmark destinations (presumably so that we know what things like the Coliseum look like), but they’ve made the images large enough to cover several blocks in any direction from the actual location of the landmark, so that you can’t easily tell where things are actually located on the unlabeled streets.  NOT helpful.

Despite having to overcome significant adversity, we were able to see a number of historic sites in our morning free time.  We started by looking for the Pantheon, but managed to find the (very impressive) Tomb of the Unknown Soldier/Italian military museum first.  After some backtracking, we were able to find the Pantheon, which is one of Rome’s more-than-400 churches.  We then headed west (ish) to the Trevi Fountain, where I threw money from my right hand, over my left shoulder into the fountain.  Apparently, this indicates that I will quickly return to Rome, which seems like money well spent to me.  Our final morning visit was to the Spanish steps, before returning to meet our group at St. Peter’s Basilica prior to the afternoon’s guided tour.

Our tour guide for the afternoon was awesome.  She was enthusiastic, knew a lot about what she was talking about, and repeated herself endlessly.  She walked us across the street and into the Vatican, where we hit some of the most sensitive metal detectors I have ever had the privilege to walk through – people had to take off their earrings.  Crazy country, that Vatican.

The tour of St. Peter’s Basilica was really interesting, and when you walk in (and until the tour guide starts telling you the heights of different parts of the ceiling… over and over again) it doesn’t really sink in, just how massive the building is.  For reference, in the tallest dome, you can stack two Statues of Liberty on top of each other, and still have room before you get to the top.  The letters in gold around the bottom of the dome are seven feet high.  Construction started on the Basilica in 1506, and didn’t conclude until 1626.  One of the other crazy things about the building is that there’s not a single painting or tapestry in the place – it’s all mosaics, with the rationale that mosaics can’t be destroyed in a fire.  So everything that you walk in and assume is cloth or paint or anything other than tiny tiny tiles, is actually an incredibly detailed mosaic.  Hence the fact that the Basilica took 120 years to complete.

After crossing the street back into Italy, we went to a small church that contained Michelangelo’s Moses sculpture, and a few relics, including the chains that held St. Peter.  This was a relatively quick stop, on the way to the Coliseum.  We didn’t actually go into the Coliseum, but rather walked around the perimeter.  Apparently, the Coliseum could be filled to capacity or emptied completely within five and a half minutes – quite the feat, considering that it could hold up to 20,000 people at a time.

I really enjoyed Rome, and as I said, it was great to have an enthusiastic guide.  Tomorrow, we opted to do the Tuscan vineyard excursion, which Ben is very enthusiastic about, rather than the tour of Florence or Pisa.  Those will just have to wait until I return to Italy (I hope I threw enough change in the fountain for American Airlines to have overbooked our flights home and for them to offer $800+ in compensation for volunteering to wait for a later flight…cross your fingers, everyone!)  Happy day before Thanksgiving everyone!

Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius

Today started out bright (read: rainy) and early, with a quick breakfast and then a departure for our Naples excursion.  We had docked around 5:00 AM, having sailed between Italy and Sicily last night around 8:30.  Our first stop was a tour of the Pompeii excavations.

Pompeii was a city with a population of approximately 20,000, of which approximately 8,000 have been recovered through the excavation process.  We toured the forum, one of the bathhouses, several of the main streets, temple ruins, and one of the city’s more than 20 brothels.  Interestingly enough, though residents in Pompeii did have water pumped in to their homes (via lead pipes), because the city is situated on a lava flow, the ground was too hard to allow for sewer lines.  Raised crosswalks were created to accommodate people who did not wish to walk through the rivers of sewage created during wet weather.

The only real downside to Pompeii was that it rained off and on the entire time, and since the only parts of the buildings that did not survive the Vesuvius eruption 2000+ years ago were the roofs, we ended up being pretty damp by the end of the tour.  Not a huge deal at that point, because the temperature was pretty mild, and it didn’t rain all that hard, just consistently.

After touring Pompeii, we had a quick stop-off at a cameo factory, so that we could explore their gallery and take advantage of their “30% off sale.”  The cheapest cameo I saw started at 300 euro, so I abstained, even with their generous offer.

One of the benefits of the stopover was that it allowed our tour guide to call and confirm that the road to Vesuvius was safe for the bus to travel (it was).  The road itself had been used (and repaired) since Roman times, and included some very narrow ledges, and some very quick switchbacks.  Not for bus drivers who are faint of heart, certainly.

Predictably, though I hadn’t considered it, the temperature stepping off the bus was pretty significantly cooler than it had been at Pompeii.  The bus had taken us most of the way up the volcano, but we were on our own for the last mile or so, which was a steep, volcanic gravel trail up to the volcano’s crater.  So, it was cold, the wind had picked up some, and we were already wet from having walked around in the rain for a few hours.  Then it started raining again.

We worked our way up the trail, and, though the mist obscured our view of the coast for most of the trek, every once and a while the mist parted a bit and we were treated to a much better view.  At the crater, there was a guide post, which shared some information about Vesuvius and its eruption history.  Between that guide post and another toward the end of the trail around the crater, the wind picked up significantly, and it started snowing/sleeting.  As you can see from the picture, we were mostly unprepared for that turn of events.  Needless to say, we headed back down the volcano pretty darned quickly.

We got back to the ship and opted for a late lunch and dry clothes, as opposed to exploring more of Naples in the rain.  Hopefully, the weather will be more cooperative tomorrow for Rome.  Either way, I’m excited J

Day at Sea – Waved at Sicily :)

Safe to say that it has been a VERY lazy day, brought on by the fact that our sleep schedules are pretty screwed up.  Neither of us fell asleep before 1:00 AM, and so, hearing the Cruise Entertainment Director discussing the morning’s activities at 10:00 was quite a surprise.  Having an interior cabin is a little weird – there’s no natural light anywhere, so keeping track of time has been a somewhat futile effort (especially since there also aren’t really any clocks).

So, we kinda hung around and then went and had brunch.  I spent the day moving from comfortable reading nook to comfortable reading nook.  Had to be entirely indoors, as it was cloudy with intermittent showers all day long.  Because that put a cramp on the shuffleboard and mini-golf, I had to be content to move the nap up on the agenda.  Le sigh.  Hard life.  Now, after having seen Canadian Wipeout, it’s time for dinner (and frozen yogurt…obviously).

Croatia!

Hello friends!  Today was our Croatian adventure, which started first thing in the morning.  The ship set anchor a ways out from Split (probably because it’s too massive to fit in the harbor), so we took a 20-minute water taxi in to the city.

Our excursion was a tour of the central part of Krka National Park.  The park has a total area of 109 km2, and encompasses the entirety of the Krka River and its basin.  About an hour and a half outside of Split, the park was established in 1985, and includes an island Franciscan monastery, remnants of a Roman aqueduct, and several (non-operational) water mills along the length of the river.

The section of the park that we toured today was a network of interconnected boardwalks that wove around several small islands and waterfalls in the river.  By and large, the walkways were under tree cover and over water, which was a very interesting experience, as the river seemed to meander everywhere, with the trees growing out of the water.  There were a series of small waterfalls, until the boardwalk path wove down to the bottom of the largest waterfall.  For reference, the climb back up to the mill from the bridge at the bottom of the waterfall was around 220 stairs.

The walk around the waterfalls was a giant loop that took about an hour to walk – we, being the active people we are, and given that we had two and a half hours to spend at the park, did it twice.  On the way back from the excursion, we learned more about Croatia.  The landscape between Split and the park was mountainous, with mostly low bushes and rocky terrain, which was a pretty sharp contrast against the river basin.  Split has around 200,000 residents, and is the second largest city in Croatia.

When we got back to Split, we walked around for a while, since we had three hours before the ship departed.  It’s too bad that we had to see Split on a Sunday.  My feeling is that it would have been a much livelier place, any other day of the week.  We walked around the historic area of the city, which was originally a retirement palace for one of the early Roman emperors, who had been born in the area.  Within the area that used to be the palace, there were a lot of narrow, winding streets that opened up into huge courtyards (now bordered with restaurants).  The weather was more or less perfect, and we enjoyed wandering around.

After our (much choppier) ride back to the ship, we grabbed a late lunch, and I hunkered down in the Solarium to finish “A Casual Vacancy.”  I liked it reasonably well, but it wasn’t what I was expecting.  Somehow, I had it in my head that it was a mystery, so I kept waiting for the plot to thicken and some suspense to kick in.  That said, I still found it entertaining.  And I'd love any other book recommendations if people have them - I tend to go through books pretty quickly on vacations, and I have a kindle, so I can download from here.

Favorite things about the ship so far include: the mini golf course and the frozen yogurt machine.  I don’t know why, but when on vacation, I cannot seem to stay away from the frozen yogurt machines.  I have no problem staying away from the outpouring of trendy new fro-yo bars in Charlotte and Gastonia, but give me a cone to enjoy on a vacation, and I’m a happy camper.

Tomorrow is our day at sea.  I’m planning to read, take naps, try my hand at shuffleboard, and eat frozen yogurt.  That’s more or less the sum total of my plans.

Made it to Venice

Through a series of fortunate events, I can report that we have successfully made it to Venice, gotten aboard, and are en route to Split, Croatia!!

The flights were… flights.  Charlotte to Boston was delayed, but not by all that much.  We had both planned on just flying with carry-ons, but the overhead baggage storage filled before we boarded, which meant that we had to exit the terminal and then go back through security with our bags in Boston.  Boston to Heathrow was very smooth, except that the 12-year-old sitting next to me didn’t have much self-awareness or personal space awareness, so that got a little old.  Lucky that we had a two hour stopover in London, because we made it with minutes to spare, after moving from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5.  That is one sprawling metropolis of an airport.  London to Venice was awesome, because I was dead asleep for most of it (the only two hours of sleep that I’ve had in the last 30 or so).

Actually getting on to the cruise was super easy (in spite of the fact that they had us coming into Venice having had a layover in Frankfurt, rather than in London).  Check-in took about 20 minutes, and went very smoothly.  Priority sub next was to book our excursions for the remainder of the trip.  We have chosen to:

·         -Visit a national park, renowned for its waterfalls in Croatia (tomorrow);

·         -Hike Mt. Vesuvius and tour Pompeii on Monday;

·         -Do a “Taste of Rome” tour on Tuesday.

We’re still on the fence about the other two stops (Florence and Marseilles).  For Florence, I was thinking a full-day highlights tour, while Ben was thinking a Tuscan wine tasting.  Dad, I know that you’re pulling for a tour of Florence, but if this excursion doesn’t work out, I’m calling it all the more reason to start planning a full-family trip back to Italy (with you as a translator, of course ;).  None of the excursions for Marseilles have struck us as “must-do’s,” so we may wait and see how we’re feeling after either the tour or the wine tasting.

So far, everything has gone more or less exactly as planned.  Looking forward to the first excursion (and as much sleep as I can possibly cram in between now and then)!

P.S.  My blog posting may be a little more sporadic than it was on my last trip.  The Internet is available on the cruise, but it is $35 per hour.  That is ridiculous.  I cannot handle it.  So… moral of the story, I may be posting a little less regularly.

Soon to be galavanting :)

Hey all,

Already time for the next trip!  Today, my brother and I leave for Venice, where we will depart on a week-long cruise.  Most of the ports are in Italy (Naples, Rome, Florence/Pisa), but we'll also be stopping in Split, Croatia and Marseilles, France.  Here is our cruise information.

And here's a nice picture of my brother feeding the giraffes at the Lazy Five Ranch in NC.

Getting excited!

Catherine

The Blue Lagoon

Oh my goodness... the Blue Lagoon.  I'm just going to post some pictures and go to sleep.  That's just how relaxing it was.

 

Travel is such an adventure :)

Hey Everyone,

Despite some significant and unexpected adventuring, we've made it to Iceland and have settled into our room nicely (as the first one all week to have a private bathroom, I have dubbed it my favorite).  Most of the adventuring happened yesterday, so we'll start there.

Figuring that since our flight departed from Heathrow at 1:00, we wouldn't have much time to do anything in London yesterday morning, we took it easy and planned to leave the hostel around 10:00 am.  This happened.  So far, so good.  We got to the Tube station and were able to transfer to the appropriate line.  Still going well.  Then we hear an emergency announcement essentially stating that a person had gone under a train, and to expect delays.  Well, that was bad.  Mostly for the person under the train.  When we were able to move past the station where it had happened, we pretty quickly ran into a delay caused by a signal malfunction.  All in all, the trip that should have taken us 50 minutes took us almost two hours.

We were able to check in and get to our gate, located in random no-mans-land, Heathrow, with a solid 8 minutes to spare.  Oh well, no lunch for us.  Fast forward through the entirely uneventful flight, to luggage pick-up.  When all was said and done, we had two bags... instead of three.  The bag that Becky had ended up checking (containing important things, like her laptop, toiletries, and camera) was missing.  It hadn't made the flight.  Luckily (and unfortunately), we were not the only ones in this predicament, and Iceland Air assured us that the bag would be on a later flight, and would be delivered ASAP.  Inconvenient, but probably the best possible outcome at that point.

So, Becky and I made our way to the Flybus, which took us back to our hostel/apartment room.  There was a brief moment where it looked like someone had taken my bag by mistake, but that was quickly resolved.  From there, we actually had a pretty relaxing evening.  By the time we were settled, we were both pretty famished, so we descended on the first restaurant we stumbled across (a pizza place... not really traditional Icelandic, but it needed to happen).  After dinner, we stocked up at a grocery store and came back and read for a while, after which we both crashed pretty hard.

This morning, our slightly slow start was rewarded, as Becky's bag was delivered with all contents present and accounted for.  Definitely awesome, as losing luggage has a way of putting an unfortunate stain on a trip.  For the morning, we did a walk around Reykjavik, trying to figure out what was actually open at the end of September.  We were able to find a fair amount of shops, and Icelandic monuments to explore, so despite the fairly constant 20 mph winds, we had a pretty great time.  We stopped in to a place advertising great Icelandic Meat Soup for lunch, had the meat soup, and were forced to agree with the "great" assessment.

Now we're back at the hostel for a bit, and pretty soon we're going to go catch the bus to the Blue Lagoon Geothermal Spa (!!!).

Yay!

London - Day Two

Hey All,

Today was a pretty great day, with one somewhat off-putting exception.  The first thing on our agenda was to go see the Changing of the Guards Ceremony at Buckingham Palace.  I had seen it last time we came to London, but actually remember very little of it, and Becky had never seen it.  We got there about 45 minutes before anything was supposed to start happening, and it was already pretty crowded.  We opted for spaces where we could see the new guards and the band process in, rather than fighting through everyone to get to spaces with a (still obstructed) view of the actual ceremony.

So, we stood at the rail for half an hour or so (it was raining - go figure) and looking through the settings on my camera, when all of a sudden we heard a pretty decided thunk.  A tourist (I can only assume) got clipped by a passing car, maybe 30 yards away from us.  The car stopped immediately, and the response from security was very fast, but the gentleman didn't do much moving for the remainder of the time that everyone in the (fairly sizeable) crowd stared at him.  The ceremony still occured, but I think that they did a modified version, to keep everyone out of the way of emergency vehicles that were en route to assist.  Fortunately, the emergency vehicles arrived fairly quickly.  Unfortunately, the procession and the ceremony were hidden behind approximately ten rows of camera-toting tourists.  Becky had mentioned a few times, that if a tourist was going to get injured in London, it was while crossing the street (we automatically focus on looking the right way, everywhere except the UK).  This definitely drove that point home.

After our lack of guard-changing viewing, we hopped back on the Tube and went to an area of the city that is well regarded for shopping and street performers - Covent Gardens.  After walking around for a while, we went to a pub and had lunch.  I am somewhat shame-faced to admit that the bartender asked me several times if I wanted "Oice," and I had no idea what he was saying (he was asking if I wanted ice in my water... no clue).  After lunch, we had planned to go to the British Museum, but upon further reflection (and a tinge of exhaustion), we decided to mosey back to the Hostel and relax for a few hours before going out to the West End tonight.

I'm really glad that we decided to take it easy for the afternoon.  We've taken this trip at a somewhat breakneck pace, and, while I hate to "waste" part of a trip day, I have every faith that both Becky and I will return to London and go to the British Museum another time.  The bonus was that we were both well-rested to go see Shrek: The Musical, which was AMAZING.  So so good.  They did a really good job connecting with all the things you hope for from the movie, and there were a lot of little quippy one liners that were very amusing.  I was really impressed with just about all of it, but I haven't been to that many shows.  In talking to Becky afterwards, she said that she was especially impressed with the use of technology throughout the show.  I mean, at one point, a working bridge arose out of the floor so that Shrek and Donkey could cross the river of lava to reach Princess Fiona.  I actually think that my favorite character was Lord Farquad, who was acted by a gentleman who had to do everything from his knees, so that his character would be appropriately short.  It was such a blast :)

On the way back, we stopped off at Westminister to see the river lit up at night.  Tomorrow, we'll get up, head to the airport, and hop a flight halfway back across the Atlantic.  I can smell the slightly sulpherous Blue Lagoon Spa and Hot Springs already.  So excited!

More from Iceland!

Catherine

England, Day One

Hiya,

So, since I've managed to catch up to today and upload all my pictures, I should go ahead and catch my blog up too (ulterior motive: I'm stalling to build up my anticipation for the oh-so-dramatic conclusion to my current smutty novel).  Let me tell you, I am in a fabulous mood (and not just because I know that everything will be alright in the end for Elizabeth and Patrick of Highland Outlaw).  I'm having a great time on this trip, everything has gone really smoothly, and (though I wouldn't have put this high on my priority list prior to last Friday) I have conditioned my hair.  Let me explain.  Since I didn't check any baggage, I wasn't able to bring much by way of shampoo and conditioner on this trip.  I figured that I would buy some in Paris.  Well, the grocery store near the hostel only had shampoo, and consequentially, I had a really hard time feeling like I had really gotten all the grime associated with Paris (not the cleanest city I've ever visited) off of me.  No more.  I'm now a very happy camper. 

Both being kinda pooped after the EuroStar trip in from Paris (and Becky having developed a bit of a cold), Becky and I slept in until around 9:30 this morning.  We then had breakfast at the hostel (which is super adorable, and may have changed my mind back on the whole booking hostels in the future idea) and hit the road to the Westminister area.  We did kind of a slow drive-by of several of the attractions in that area, including Westminister Abbey, the London Eye (most expensive ferris wheel ever ~$30 for one go around), and Big Ben.

What we ultimately decided to do was take a Thames cruise to the Tower of London.  Since we knew exactly where this one picked up, it was much more successful than the Paris version (check plus for London).  The cruise was really very nice, and we got to see a lot of buildings with historical significance from the riverfront (a replica of the Globe Theater, St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Bridge, and Cleopatra's Needle, to name a few).  Half an hour later, we got off at the Tower of London.

The Tower of London is really more of a complex, so we walked around the grounds taking pictures for a while.  We stopped for lunch in one of the adjacent restaurants, which was also very nice.  I tried rabbit for the first time, which I generally liked, but the medallions were stuffed with the rabbit's other internal organs, and a few of them had somewhat unfortunate textures.  After lunch, we got back on the tour boat and headed back to Westminister, where we promptly hopped on the Tube.  Our plan for tomorrow was to go see a show on the West End, so we went to see what was available.  As it turns out, War Horse is sold out, and the Lion King is nowhere near our price range, so we settled on tickets to Shrek: The Musical!  I don't really know what to expect, but I'm excited nonetheless.

After a relatively full afternoon, we headed outside the city to meet up with Kerry, who is from Northern Ireland and studied at R-MC for the year after I left (Becky's senior year).  We met up with her around six and went for what was billed as Cantonese, but I guess was more of a pan-Asian cuisine.  I had a great time hanging out with Kerry and Becky - Kerry's very funny, and she just moved to the UK to teach fourth graders.  She has 35 students in her class, 25 of whom have first languages other than English (with some who speak absolutely none), and despite the fact that that seems to me to be a pretty daunting task to undertake, she was incredibly positive and excited about it.  It was a great way to spend the evening.

Until tomorrow!

Catherine

Pictures!

Hey,

If anyone is interested in seeing more photos (and isn't friends with me on Facebook), I think that this link should take you to all of the Paris pictures.

Happy viewing!

Catherine

Last Day in Paris

Hey All,

To catch up on my blogging efforts, this post is actually for yesterday, September 24, 2012.  Becky and I decided to take it a little bit easier during our last day in Paris, as we'd been done a lot in the first two days, and we figured that a less crammed day might be nice.  It probably would have been, had it actually happened.

What we decided to do, for our relaxed day, was to do a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of the city.  Because we had plenty of time, we decided to add a cruise of the Seine River to our bus tour.  So.  We checked out of the hostel at 10:30, and made our way to the Arc de Triomphe, where we had seen this particular bus tour before, and we got there by about 11:00.  Unlike the other days on our trip thus far, yesterday started off... blustery.  It was cold, rainy, and very, very windy.  But, as we were not to be detered, we hopped on the bus and started riding around.

After the distance to all of one stop, I decided that it would be more fun to be on the top half of the double-decker bus.  The open air half.  It had more or less stopped raining, and had warmed up a little, so aside from the fact that everything was soaking wet, it was actually a pretty good decision.  You could see a lot more from the top (especially since Becky and I were the only ones up there).  We rode until the Louvre stop, which was where (we thought) that we were supposed to pick up the River Cruise.  After stopping for lunch, we looked for the appropriate port.  And then we realized that we were in the wrong place. 

Figuring that a cruise of the Seine must actually begin somewhere on the Seine, we walked along the river, more or less backtracking the bus.  After an hour and a half or so of less than ideal luck, we decided to just pick up the bus again and take it to where the cruise was actually happening.  So we looked for the bus stops.  We made our way up to the Army Museum, where we felt like there was sure to be a stop, because it's a bigger attraction, and located between the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, which were both stops on the bus tour.  Lies.

So, we backtracked all the way to the Eiffel Tower, and ended up having walked for almost two and a half hours straight.  Given that we needed to be back at the hostel at six to get our stuff for the EuroRail back to London, we finished the bus tour and got back on the Metro.  Never did figure out how we were supposed to get to the river cruise.  Despite all the wandering, it was actually very nice.  Around mid-afternoon, the weather got a lot better, and we were able to see a part of Paris that we hadn't spent very much time in, which was lovely, and just filled to the brim with all sorts of attractions.

When we got closer to the hostel, we took a quick detour to walk up to the Sacre Coeur and do a little bit of souvenir shopping (I have a magnet collection, and as Becky quickly found out, I'm obnoxiously picky when it comes to adding magnets).

An hour and a half later, we were back at the train station getting on the EuroRail.  France was kind enough to give us two more passport stamps each (!!!), and we made it to London with no trouble at all.  Such a smooth trip!

More to come!

Catherine

Hi Everyone,

We've made it to the UK.  And because this hostel's mattress has memory foam, we opted to fall asleep immediately instead of updating the blog for yesterday.  Expect more tonight!

XOXO,

Catherine

Hey All,

After yesterday’s adventures, I uploaded my pictures to Facebook, but because of the epic amount of time that took, I postponed blogging until today (though I still plan to do two separate posts). 

Yesterday was our second full day in Paris, and I think that we really took advantage of it.  We started off at the Catacombs.  Though we got there exactly as it was opening, there was still about an hour’s wait to actually enter.  We finally made it through the line, got our tickets, and descended seven or eight stories underground.  Let me say off the bat, I had some expectations for the Catacombs, as I visited the ossuary outside of Prague a few years ago.  My expectations were not to be immediately presented with the geologic history of the area of the Catacombs.  Apparently, within the last few years, the museum has shifted to really focus on the geology of the area, so there was a lot of information about that throughout the exhibit.  Not that I mind geology – I don’t – but in terms of information presented, I feel like I got more out of that than I did the walls of bones.

The entire Catacombs area takes about 45 minutes to walk through.  Most of it is just your average tunnel, seven or eight stories below ground.  Maybe a quarter of the tunnel system actually has information, or stone carvings, or bones.  Truth be told, I was a lot less at ease walking down the average poorly-lit tunnels with barred off entrances to other tunnels than I was in any of the areas with bones.  Not sure why, just somehow eerier where I expected to be creeped out less.  In terms of the areas with bones, it’s completely overwhelming.  I have a very hard time conceptualizing the skulls and walls of hip bones as living, breathing people.  Part of that probably has to do with the sheer scale of the individual skeletons, and part may have to do with the arrangement of bones.  You’re not seeing a single skeleton, laid out and arranged as if the person had just died – you’re seeing piles of femurs that make up the walls, and artistic arrangements of hundreds of skulls each (much less artistic, I might add, than the arrangements in Prague).  That said, it was a cool, creepy experience to be that far underground, with very little light, and very unique décor.  Certainly worth doing, but I’m not sure that if I came back to Paris, I would do it again.

 

After the Catacombs, we (Becky, Rachel, Ashley (one of Rachel’s friends from RMC who is studying abroad in Stockholm), and one of her friends – Roxanne – who is also studying abroad (from Canada) in Stockholm) went out for lunch.  After all the waiting in line, we were looking for something fairly quick, so we ended up going to an Asian restaurant and having sushi (which was very good).  Post lunch, we split up, with me, Becky, and Rachel heading toward the Seine River, in the general direction of the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay.  It was a really nice day, so we took our time wandering along the river.  One of the coolest things that we stopped at was the lock bridge.  Initially, I thought that this was pretty much the most romantic thing ever.  Couples purchase a lock, engrave their names on it, clip it to the bridge, and throw the key into the river.  ADORABLE.  However, due to the ever-present power of Google, Becky was able to find out that this is something that this was started by tourists, and is actually not something that the French are all that excited about.  Apparently, the locks end up weighing a lot, and so they’ve done significant damage to the infrastructure of the bridge.  So much so, that the locks had to be moved to a second bridge, so that repairs could be completed.  So… as usual… there are two sides to every story.

When we got to the Musee d'Orsay (after having taken the requisite photos at the Louvre), Rachel went to the museum, and Becky and I headed back to the hostel for an hour, prior to meeting the whole group at the Eiffel Tower a little bit before sunset.  The line to get up to the Tower was pretty extensive, but obviously this was a tourist attraction that just had to happen.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get to the top (it was closed), but we did get to the second level.  The gentleman taking tickets was very nice – apparently if you’re under the age of 24 you get a rate decrease.  He asked me how old I was, and I told him I was 25.  He gave me the reduced rate anyway, because I didn’t lie to him about it.  I can appreciate that.  The Tower itself was awesome, and we were there to see the sunset over Paris, the Tower light up, and then to see the flashing lights for a brief period (during which time we took pictures constantly).  So cool.

Maybe the only negative to the day was that on the way back, we took the Metro, and Ashley got caught in the equivalent of a toll checker’s speed trap.  She wasn’t able to produce her validated Metro ticket, and was forced to pay 30 euro on the spot for that lapse.  I think that was the first time that I’ve ever had to actually produce my validated ticket on the Metro.  I remember having to do it on the busses in Marburg, but other than that, new experience.  To make up for Ashley’s negative experience, we decided to have dinner at the Paris Hard Rock Café, which was kinda fun.  I think that the only one I’ve been is in Boston.

Overall, I’m calling Sunday, September 23, a pretty unqualified win.  More next time!

Catherine

Day One, Part Two

Hey All,

Becky is looking this up as we speak, but today we climbed 387 stairs at Notre Dame and 284 stairs at the Arc de Triomphe.  Plus all the miscellaneous sets of stairways attached to metros and whatnot.  While that's no marathon, I feel like it's an acceptable gym-substitute.

As of the last post, we had planned to do the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.  Well, by the time we finished the Arc, it was around 7:30, so we decided to go to a nearby bistro for dinner.  Dinner was delicious (I got a salmon dish), but by the time we finished, it was post-10 pm and the Eiffel Tower was less of an option for the evening.

So some reactions to the places we were able to see today:

I liked the Saint Chapelle a lot.  They had a video going in the room with all the stained glass that detailed the glass restoration process, and that was pretty interesting (read: painstakingly complicated).  It was definitely nice that we were able to go there earlier in the morning, as I think that the sun made a big difference in the colors we were able to see.

Notre Dame was awesome.  We waited for maybe 45 minutes or an hour to get in (or at least long enough to get through several rounds of "Who am I?").  The views were really incredible, and I loved all the different gargoyle statues at the top of the church.  We got to go up to the bridge between the towers and go inside to see the bells, and then a little while later, they let us up to the very top of one of the towers.  It was a little crowded - clearly the original architects had not envisioned the throngs of modern tourists that would descend on their 18" wide paths around the tops of the towers - but largely people were very agreable and it was a great experience.

The Arc was pretty cool, and the line to get in was way shorter than it had been for Notre Dame.  The other nice thing about the Arc was that the stairs were much wider - at Notre Dame, it would have been pretty challenging for two people to stand next to each other on a step.  The views there were also very cool, and we got to see the Eiffel Tower light up (Eiffel Tower, here we come!... tomorrow).

Looking forward to going to the Catacombs and the Eiffel Tower tomorrow!
 

And we have a few photos! I don't know where the link on Facebook is to show people who aren't on Facebook, so unfortunately these will have to do for now.



 

So far today, we've gone to Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle.  The Catacombs have been pushed to tomorrow, due to Paris being something of a tourist-attracting city.  Surprise! There are lines.  But, Notre Dame was definitely worth the wait :)

 

 

And now we're off to the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe!  A more complete blog will follow :)

 

Quick update!

We've made it to Paris, Becky's sister Rachel has made it to Paris, and pretty much all is right in the ways of the world.  After some serious mapping and triangle formations, the agenda for tomorrow morning is as follows:

- Notre Dame
- Saint Chapelle
- The Catacombs

Then, post lunch and post-lunch nap, we're looking at doing the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.  Maybe some other stuff too.  We're playing this by ear a little bit (surprise!)  So... hopefully lots of pictures will get posted for tomorrow.

In more of a "growing older, let's reflect" moment - I have to say, I'm not sure that I'm going to be booking hostels much further into the future.  It's not that our room isn't nice - it's fully functional in terms of a non-sketchy sleeping arrangement.  I think I've been spoiled by a lot of nice hotels rooms that include en suite bathrooms and/or showers.  This is a sad (and potentially expensive) realization day. 

Anyhoo.  More adventures tomorrow!

-Catherine

We made it to Paris!

Hey All,

Despite my best efforts, I was unable to post that we reached Iceland at 2:00 AM EST (6:00 AM Icelandic time).  We’ve now made it to London, and we’re waiting in St. Pancras Station for our high-speed train to Paris (we should be allowed to start boarding in 10 minutes or so). 

Thus far, the trip has gone very smoothly.  I slept most of the way from Charlotte to BWI, and then again from Iceland to London.  Not enough sleep, but probably better than nothing.

I can already tell that this is going to be a great trip for passport stamps.  We got one coming into Heathrow, and now leaving for Paris.  I’m hoping (though it may not be reasonable) that we get another one in Paris and one when we actually stopover in Iceland.  This will make up for all the debate trips to Montreal where asking for passport stamps is frowned upon, or would go against Canadian policy.

And now we’re boarding for Paris!

Blog soon J

p.s.  We made it to Paris!  Success!

Airport (sub 1)

Hey all,

Made it through the first round of security in Charlotte.  Already getting sleepy, which is pretty much my default airplane state (with the goal of being asleep by the time the plane has reached cruising altitude).  In the mean time, I'm right behind a gentleman who is attempting to sell people on US Airways credit cards.  Most people seem to be approaching him as if he can give them directions to other parts of the airport.  Not one taker in the 25 minutes I've been sitting here (#happythat'snotmyjob).

And now I'm off to see Becky!  Yay for vacation!

Bon voyage!

Catherine

The Travel Bug Has Bitten Again

Hey All,

Long time, no blog (which is not to say no travel... just no blog).  That, however, is about to change.  Tomorrow evening, Becky and I will fly off and go galavanting around Europe for nine days.

Here's our itinerary:

First (brief) stop: Iceland.
Next (brief) stop: London.
Next (actual destination) stop: Paris (for the weekend).
Followed by London (for three days).
And finally Iceland (for two days).

As you may imagine, that's a decent amount of currency to keep track of, so here are the status quo exchange rates:

1 pound = $1.6198
1 euro = $1.3014
1 Icelandic Krona = $.00815

All good information to have.  And beyond having looked up the exchange rates, I have done remarkably little to prepare for this trip.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  Flights are booked, trains are booked, connections are booked - but that all happened ages ago (I think my travel style falls into the punctuated equilibrium category).  I haven't packed (or checked on what the weather is like in these places in September).  I have a single food recommendation for Parisian chocolate gelato (and really, why would I want to eat anything else?), and I have not charged a single piece of electronic gadgetry.  I have not mentally prepared myself for the lack of Diet Coke and the disappointment that always accompanies Coca Cola Lite (yuck).  I guess that it hasn't really even hit me yet that I'll wake up on Friday (assuming that I fall asleep on the plane) and won't be going to work.  Weird.

I'd sit here and ponder that, but if I don't get my digitizing done now, how will I miss it later?

Over and out,

Catherine