Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Europe Trip---Paris

At this rate it might take me a year to write about our lil 2 week trip, and by that time I'm sure some details/fun thoughts would have been forgotten. Oh well, such is life.

So as we arrived in Paris, it took us awhile to find where we were staying. Mainly our fault, we didn't read the emails our host sent to us before and so we of course became the annoying guests who kept texting him "Where are the keys?" "What is the gate code?" At least he was nice and understanding. When we walked into our Airbnb place we were a bit....taken back. It looked just like it did in the pictures, just MUCH MUCH smaller. One other thing we found out about this apartment, the loft bed was easily the WORST bed in history, so we pulled up the sofa cushions and put them on the bed. Also the bathroom was sooooo tiny, that Tyler had to squeeze into the shower door sideways to get into the shower. Not really an apartment made for tall Americans, I fit in fine :D.
I had one anxiety attack during our stay in Paris, and I think part of that was because we felt so cramped in the living space. So I was grateful for Tyler and his patience...as always.

Ok PARIS.
The first day we were there and dropped off our stuff, we looked at the metro to see what was close and decided to go to Notre Dame before it closed. It was soo beautiful, the stained glass windows are so big and colorful--no picture does it justice. It was also free to go into, which we really like :D We walked around and followed our noses to a cafe area. I had some chicken curry with rice that tasted like cinnamon and a bit of desert--y, not like a dinner at all--it was soo good. Tyler had pasta. Our hostess was kind of annoyed with us because we were eating her food so fast, but 1--it was good 2--we were freaking hungry. After that we went to the Arch De. Triumph, as it wasn't on our list of things we had to see...but we wanted to try to fit it in. We at first thought we could walk to it....HAHAHAHAHAHA...however, by doing this we walked along the bridge full of love locks. Then we took the metro after we realized how much further we had to walk. We got in line to get passes to the top of the Arch, and we are soo happy we did since we didn't get ones for the Eiffel. Also the view is fantastic! We were up there at about 10pm so the lights on the Eiffel were on, they didn't sparkle though which they do on the hour...and these girls would not let us take a picture because they were waiting for it to sparkle. Just the start of the annoying people Tyler did not like in Paris.

Day Two
VERSIALLES. If I ever went back to France again--mainly the Paris region, it would only be to go to Versialles again. It is beautiful. We left fairly early, but the line to get INTO Versailles was still WICKED long. I actually cannot comprehend why it is so long....they should take a few notes from Disneyland on how to get people inside. It wrapped around I think 8 times total...and then once you were inside the gate (you get your ticket before you wait in line btw) its free and easy. It really was mind boggling why it took an hour to get inside.
Well the first time we walked in the inside area, then the outside gardens. We walked around the ENTIRE garden area - besides the Marie Antionette section, didn't care to buy tickets for that-- and did not understand why the fountains were not on, so we asked someone they said "Oh the fountains do not come on till 3:30-5:30" where it is not stated on the brochure anywhere----I could be mistaken, but I didn't see it. So we got lunch. The MOST AMAZING food OH MY GOSH. The gravy on Tylers food tasted like Thanksgiving gravy got a 10+boost of melt in my mouth and stay there. I ate every drop of that gravy with our bread rolls. So after lunch we decided to go to the BIG fountain and wait for it to turn on. 3:40.....it still isn't on. 3:50--still not on, I go ask someone why is this fountain not on yet? "Oh the Neptune fountain? That only turns on from 5:20-5:30"  (Do you see why Tyler is annoyed with the French yet? No offense to any french people I know...this was just his experience) So we walk around again, to all the other fountains and come back to Neptunes fountain at 5:10, we find a spot and the fountains only go on from 5:22-5:30, we timed them.
I think though that we made a really cool fountain video...but I also think I'm awesome anyways :D
After that Versailles closes up basically, so we left and decided to get off at the Eiffel Tower since it was on our way back. The line to just get to the first two levels to get tickets...was ONE HOUR long. No thank you. So advice-buy tickets WAY IN ADVANCE ONLINE. We still enjoyed strolling around the park and I THINK that was the night we decided to eat super fancy. (See told you, memories are jumbled now that I'm writing it months later)
Anyways, we had some really good food and sat next to a spoiled brat of a 10 year old and her grandma who was taking her for a 10 day trip to paris for her 10th birthday. She bought her granddaughter a $50 plate of food, and the girl ate just the fries. They were funny to talk to, see the other side of the extremely rich and have nothing better to do with life. Talking to Tyler we think we ate fish...and it was good, but that the restaurant was always out of something we were trying to order the first time.

Day THREE
The LOUVRE. I love museums. Love them Love them Love them. So first I will go over annoyances of this museum--This one is not free, its expensive and the audio guide that you download and buy on your iPhone does not contain all the audio portions unless you want to buy more portions, or buy the nintendo 3ds audio portion. The descriptions to ALL the artifacts/paintings are only in French. SERIOUSLY, one of the biggest museums of all time only in French writing. It opens too late and closes too early for you to ever see everything in one day. We did pretty good, all but two halls in one wing. We must be really bad tourists, because we didn't really find good food around the Louvre. Worst food days of the trip. Now to the good parts-- Beautiful artwork in the museum, seriously some of the biggest and most detailed paintings I've ever seen. They had similar artifacts to the British Museum as well. Some of the rooms were soo decorated it was like the whole room was precious. We really loved it, but were saddened we missed out on two hallways. They started to physically usher us out of the hallway we were in at 5:30 even though the Louvre doesn't close till 6. I was super annoyed with this. I was like but I have 30 more minutes!!! I could have seen everything had they not ushered me.

Next morning we were headed out to Berlin, our host got us a driver to take us to the airport, which was great since apparently the taxi's were boycotting that day and the metros would have been over ran.

Overall thoughts of Paris: We like the food the most, Tyler was annoyed by a lot of people---those especially who would talk to him in French, he would try to communicate with hand signals (he's a he man) and they would still just talk to him in French even though they understood his English, or they would ignore him and talk to customers who would then translate for him. I found Paris to be really really dirty feeling. I did not feel clean at all, and I showered every day--that also contributed to the anxiety attack I had. I think if we ever return to France, it will not be to Paris--or I would be there alone with Terra--and we will research more of where we want to stay even though our place was ok, it was wayy tooo small.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Europe Trip---Cardiff

           So we took a bus to Cardiff from London, which wasn't soo bad. I was actually surprised how BUSY the bus station was. It was INSANE. There was barely any room for people to sit, and it was a pretty big complex. They had buses going everywhere across the UK. I thought it was really cool, especially how cheap it was to for us only 10 pounds...which is roughly 15 dollars. Anyways, we get on the bus expecting it to be super packed due to how many people are going, and it wasn't at all. So I took up a row and tried to go to sleep. Note for anyone riding in a moving vehicle---make sure the seat belt buckle fasteners are tucked away, otherwise you WILL wake up with a huge pain in the back that will not go away for like a week.
      The view was great on the bus, all green rolling hills. Totally opposite of the hustle and bustle of London. When we got to Cardiff, the bus had two stops...which was silly as they were literally a block away from each other. Tara was right across the street to greet us which was awesome!! We then stopped at a market store (I refuse to call them grocery stores as they are the size of my house packed) and grabbed a sandwich in a box to eat. They were surprisingly better than I thought they would be, but I saw a lot of people eat them--very light but filling once you got to the second half.
     Tara then took us to Cardiff Castle and we went in the tunnels in the walls that they used for World War II bunkers during the air raids. I thought it was wicked cool. The Castle of course was beautiful and I sat down on a chair that you were not supposed to sit in. Oops. Tourist?? :D We left our luggage in their storage area for lawn equipment basically, and it was totally fine :). We then met up with stinker Kevin who got to see DR. WHO FILMING---seriously annoyed that I missed it by like 30 minutes or so I bet. Oh well, but seriously jelly.
     We then got the rental car...and they made me drive....on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car through like 7 round abouts that go the wrong direction. It was like my worst nightmare. We got to their house and dropped off our stuff and walked down to have some AMAZING Curry. The only food I didn't take a picture of. It was DELISH. We then hiked up to the "observatory"---it gets quotation marks, because when I hear this word I think telescope, It was the top of a hill with a cool art feature. However along the way we saw a toad, a hut made out of trees, and a hill turned into the shape of a horse. It was awesome.

Day TWO of Cardiff.
      After Tara cooked us a lovely breakfast we headed off to look at ruins. After ten minutes of me being extremely tense driving, Kevin took over THANK GOODNESS. We saw easily 5 or 6 different ruins/castles and at each one Kevin gave us the history of what was going on. It was like having a live audio guide....that you wanted to punch at times :D JK. maybe. :D I loved the castle that was at the beach, it was soo nice to see ocean and sand. I love the beach, this beach was full of jellyfish!! We thought they were dead till I posted them online and our French friend said DONT TOUCH THEM, they are still alive, they will go back later...oops. We only touched the mantle not the tentacles though. There was a naked child swimming in the ocean though....surrounds by these huge jellies, and her mom, that was interesting. There was no way I'd swim in that.
      We also figured out how to have fun with the pano feature on my iphone which made pictures even better :) We seemed to drive short distances to each ruin that by the time we decided to head back, it was such a long drive back I was very confused distance wise of how far we actually went.
    OOO Lunch was at another amazing castle, Tyler had a great soup with a cheese block in it and I had beef with mashed potatoes on top. It was sooo yummy and hearty.
     There were two finished castles that closed before/when we got to them so we could only go on the outside which was a bummer, because one seemed wicked close to their house. Oh well, don't know what you miss if you don't see it right? Still the outsides were beautiful. You can even have weddings at these places. AMAZING.
      They did get us lost on only one trail....so I think total that day we hiked like 56 floors. Tara made us dinner that night and we just chilled the rest of the night.

Day Three Cardiff.
     THE REASON WE CAME--(no offense Tara and Kevin) DR WHO EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!! It was AWESOME!!!!! So it is not a typical museum thing. You get your experience thing and they take you through various scenes of the Dr. Who life while on a big screen the Doctor sis giving you instructions, you have to run from Daleks not blink at Weeping Angels. It was great fun. Then it exits you out into the artifact museum of tons of costumes from the current season and some old classics. There are soo many things there I just LOVED IT. That then exits you out into the gift shop--which I spent quite a bit of money in, and wished they had more things to spend money on....lol. I got sonic screw drivers for some grand kids, notebooks for others. Ty and I got two tee shirts, I got a dalek for our puppies--which they don't care for, and a few other things for me. We then went to the water tower that was used in Torchwood all the time and Ianto's shrine.
     By the time all of that was over we wanted food and saw another Gourment Kitchen Burger, this time we ordered different milkshakes....stick to their chocolate :)
      On the train from dinner, we ran into a crazy bonkers Welsh man. He first stopped us at the station and told us we were idiots for talking about chocolate and had no sense in life but that he meant no offense and wanted to keep hearing us talk because he liked our accents I think?? Then he got in an argument with Kevin on the train about a castle...which of course Kevin took on...and another much nicer drunk next to us was telling us that Kevin was right and that guy was bonkers and he had too much to drink and didn't make it to the game but was hoping he could make it home. Oh yes, there was a huge game going on between Cardiff and Belgium for soccer and the whole main town square was full of fans getting drunk, singing, chanting. It was loud and crazy and I wanted a scarf to fit in :D .

Day FOUR--heading to Paris
      So the only thing I'm going to mention here is that we were basically treated like we were terrorists at the Cardiff airport.  Its a podunct airport, and I think they were bored to be honest. They had me unpack three of our bags to grab things out that they considered to be liquid and needed to be a in a clear bag. Like my chapstick, my 1 oz bottle of eyeliner, my mascara....etc. Then they proceeded to tell us only ONE CLEAR BAG PER PERSON...so we had to cram everything in our tiny two bags. They were wicked annoying---and then when we tried to order food from a restaurant there they only did part of the menu, but of course that was not mentioned on the menu.


            Overall thoughts: Cardiff is pretty country, sooooo freaking green it almost makes you sick. A lot of people drink there, and I'm surprised there are not more car accidents with how people drive. Its freakin scary driving in the tiny roads where only one car should fit. Our hosts/friends were awesome, even though Kevin needed to be hit more than he was. Tara is the bomb. And YEAH for them having a washer/dryer---we didnt pack enough clothes for Ty to stay clean...oops. We bought him more at Dr. Who. I LOVED DR WHO and the ruins. It was a good mixture of fun and history in this short time.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Our European Extravaganza--London

      It's been awhile since I've written, but generally it's because I don't care to. Now I have something awesome to write and remember about. Our European Extravaganza!! I will go in order and address what we did, saw, how we felt about things etc. All pictures will be loaded on facebook--its become a scrapbook website for me. (Once I figure out how to do that from the iPhone)

     Our flight plan was from SLC--> Seattle with a 3 hour layover, then to Iceland--> London, with a 55 minute layover. BTW, did not know this when you book, but if you fly through Iceland you can increase your stop over time to a week with no extra charge. Also the Iceland airport bathrooms were easily some of the cleanest, coolest bathrooms on our whole trip of public bathrooms. OOO I found a picture of them online. So those things that are hanging out to the side of the faucet---the hand dryer!! Every bathroom "stall" is completely private with its own toilet and sink, and its all automated which makes you feel really clean--plus enough room to put the baggage to the side and not cram in a wee lil stall.

    Besides that we had no idea that the sun does NOT set on your flight from Seattle to Iceland as its so close to the Arctic Circle--so we were wicked tired when we landed in London. We tried to sleep, but it was a bit hard when the cute kids in front of us kept opening their windows and exclaiming... "It's still there!" They were amused by the sun not going down.

LONDON
       So we get to London, use the directions our airbnb host gave us to get to the right end of the city where we were staying at. We find some food...and seriously was not happy with it. Thought it would be cool to order an avocado chocolate and apple spinach "smoothie" with two sandwiches. (I "" smoothie, as it is really juice...and we will learn through our trip that all European "smoothies" are juice with ice) They did not get either of our sandwiches right, and when I went to fix mine they apparently didn't have anymore of it and so I ate cake that was the same price. Also, they did not give us our smoothies till we went back up ten minutes later asking them for it...in which they replied Oh those were yours?? We gave those away, guess we will make some new ones. Yeah...service in, whi Europe...doesn't exist.
     Our London flat was just a few buildings away, and Ty was wonderful to get the key for us that was a half a mile away. The flat was nice, simple--but had no air conditioning and just a wee little fan. Since we were only there at night, it worked for us. We stayed in the Shoreditch area of London, very hipster vibe to it. After we cleaned up our faces we decided to mosey about the town. We ran into this awesome market. Tons of food from everywhere, tons of trinkets etc. We didn't have a lot of cash on us at the time and decided to go back the next day. Bad decision---it was only going on Sunday nights, so we missed buying anything. Anyways, we took the underground--which in London is SUPER easy to navigate through, and they have a great card system---to explore downtown London. We went to see the Tower Bridge, and as we were walking to it IT WAS OPENING and CLOSING for a cruise ship. That is a sign of good luck :) We also went into some cool church---plenty of those in Europe. Decided to walk to the Globe Theatre and see if we could get any tickets to any show, but alas we did not plan ahead (as you will notice a few times in this trip) and they were sold out till the day we left. We also tried to go to the Tower of London, but it was closed--no worries we made it there again in two days. 
        We then walked around the area some more till our stomachs said FEED ME SEYMOUR (guess that movie) and stopped at a place called "Gourmet Kitchen Burger" It was fantastic! It reminded me of Red Robin, we had their truffle cheese fries--always get things with the word truffle in it, their chocolate milkshake was to die for and cheeseburgers, I added pineapple on mine. Delish. We then went home exhausted and ready for the next day. 

DAY TWO: We left semi early in the morning to make it to the British Museum, which has been one of those "you must go here in your lifetime" places for me. Before we got there, we tried to find breakfast. Once again we found a place serving "smoothies" the girl grabbed it from the fridge below her and shook it and put it on the counter---needless to say, we walked away. We did find another place that did smoothies and pastries, but at least they made their "smoothie" fresh, so it was decent enough, 
    We entered the British Museum from the back side, since we actually got lost trying to find it. Worked out ok for us. Spent six hours in there going from room to room and floor to floor. I loved it. I think Ty likes looking at the artifacts to, he doesn't complain and is willing to do crazy fun poses in front of the objects/statues/paintings with me. We also ate lunch there which cost an arm and a leg. We had Salmon that was encased in deep fried breading, and a chicken pot pie. Even though they don't serve breakfast they serve hearty lunches. While we were eating lunch an alarm went off and it said "A fire alarm has been activated in a different part of the museum, please stay where you are" The employees rolled their eyes like it happens every day. 
     Things we LOVED about the British Museum: It is actually possible to finish in one day, the artifacts have different languages describing them. The crowds were not too crazy, except by the Rosetta Stone. People were wicked nice there, and would offer to take your picture. There are Hands on tables at almost every section, and we were lucky enough to play with a lot of the tables--just have to have an employee there, who gives you more history of the objects. OOO and big plus ITS FREE.
     Things we didn't like: The lack of really cool things in the gift shop--hehe, the audio guide was also very opinionated. It would say things like "this could have been a basket or a crown on her head if we imagine it" It was silly, but British for sure. 
   We then decided to go to the Harry Potter 9 and 3/4 quarters area which is NOT in King's Cross Station where they filmed it. Its in the underground station that is across the street from King's Cross Train Station, so we took pictures at both places. There was a funny bird cage in between them with a swing in it to, we had a bit of fun there. By that time, we decided we needed to get food---and the places we sat at at King's Cross were only serving alcohol. That was something we did not like about London, the kitchen would be closed..but the bar was open. Or the kitchen would be closed for 45 minutes if you wanted to wait. Luckily the place right next to our loft opened their kitchen to make us truffle mac and cheese. Again, truffle cheese...AMAZING. 

     Day Three: We decided to go see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. There was 3 or 4 people in front of us, when this shorter Indian woman decided to lean her entire body on mine as if to push me forward. Honestly, I haven't had someone that close to me in a public place since I was a teenager at a concert trying to get to the front row in a mass of sweaty bodies. I swiped my hand across my back and bum two times, and she still kept laying on my practically. On the third time, I turned around and said "Don't touch me!" She looked me annoyed, and moved to the guy next to us, who was more freaked out than I was. She moved on...but we saw her later that day at the Tower of London, lol. Anyways, changing of the guards----was kind of lame--we left a bit of the way through it and took pictures around, then decided to go to the Tower of London.
    Even though the Tower of London is expensive, we really enjoyed it. We jumped on a tour guide at the start of the gate as it was free to join, and our tour guide was hilarious. We went through the museums with the crown jewels--cant take pictures there (or a lot of places in Europe) and the armory which was really cool. We thought that it was kind of ridiculous how much gold they have made into silly items. Overall we really enjoyed our time there, and would recommend it to anyone--it is over priced, but still worth a go. We had fish and chips for lunch outside of it, and the portions were soo big we ended up handing our leftovers to these funny teenage boys from the midwest that I was sneaking fries to. He was like mom I'm soo hungry, those fish and chips look so good. They were a funny family and we talked to them for a bit.
     After the Tower of London we went to go see Big Ben, the Parliament building and Westminster Abbey. Right when you walk out of the underground Big Ben is RIGHT in front of you, and is super impressive. It was such a beautiful building, I couldn't stop looking at it. Then we went to Westminster, and the tours were all out....BUT their services were going on, in which you can go to for free...just no pictures, so OF COURSE we went to service. We're religious, and we can appreciate other religions. It was interesting since I'd say 98% of the congregation were tourists, but their choir and priests were not. The choir was kind of amazing for only 6 or 8 people. We then crossed the bridge and tried to go to the London Dungeon or aquarium--but closed, and the line for the London Eye was wicked long. So we walked through the park till our noses smelt something delicious. We ate at Archdukes. AMAZING!!!! We had 4 non alcoholic cocktails, I had chicken and fries--it was ok, tasted like a fancy chicken finger and Ty totally won at this dinner, it was like rice, with spinach sauce, and marinara in a deep fried roll...I don't even know--it was gooood. I had a brownie for dessert that tasted more like a truffle, and Ty had ice cream. We then went home, feeling that we ended London on a great note. 

Overall thoughts on London---Its kind of dirty, wish that the food places would open earlier, and the kitchens would stay open late. Loved how easy transit was. EVERYONE is practically running in London till you hit a tourist spot, everyone seems to be in a such a hurry. We would go back there again. Did not like that the pound is practically double a dollar...makes it very expensive when you think your actually getting a deal, then you look at your bank account...lol.