Au Revoir Paris :-(

Sadly, I write this from the States. I almost wish I could have come back for just a few days to see everyone and then head back over to go exploring again. But alas, I can't, so I can only find solace in the fact that I know I will be back there again soon and in the meantime, I will appreciate my warm showers, comfy bed, and television with dialogue in English!

We arrived in Paris after a very early train ride from Zurich. I slept for most of the 4 hours because at this point, we feared we had bug bites, and I couldn't sleep at night in the bed without feeling like things were crawling all over me (fortunately they weren't). We checked in at our hostel at noon and immediately set out to explore. We covered as much ground as we could before finally reaching exhaustion at the Louvre, so we turned around and headed back for a nap. Post-nap we wandered around again until reaching a lovely restaurant called Pizza Pino and enjoyed personal pizzas and their house rose wine. There are so many outside eateries to sit and relax and people watch, which is exactly how we spent our nights in Paris!

On the second day, we climbed two stories up the Eiffel Tower before taking the elevator to the very top (they don't let you climb any further, thankfully, because I just about had an asthma attack by the time I reached the second story anyway). The view was just incredible - definitely worth waiting in line for and spending the 9 euro to see! Our legs managed to hold out for the walk to the Arc de Triumph before it was time for our usual nap before dinner. We trekked into the city a bit to see what was going on on Saturday night, and met an American who lived there for 5 months and said that the Oberkampf area was the place to be. Of course it was, since that is where our hotel is located and we had just left the area to see what else was going on in Paris. By the end of the evening, I was craving french fries with mayonnaise (don't knock it till you try it), so I went into McDonald's for the only awkward language experience in Paris. Dialogue as follows:

Me: Bonjour! Frites se vous plais?
McD: uhhhh.
Me: Freeeetays?
McD: uhhhh.
Me: Fri-tayyyys?
McD: uhhhh...???
Stranger: She wants Frites.
McD: ohhh!!!!!
Me: WTF.

Sigh. Anyway, day 3 had us at the Louvre for 4 hours. The Mona Lisa was roped off so we had to stand pretty far away to take a picture of it, and other than that, there really wasn't a whole lot to see there. We enjoyed the Egyptian art and sculptures and the recreation of Napoleon's apartment, but otherwise we've seen those paintings before in other museums on the trip. We also took a cruise down the Seine river on Sunday night to see the major monuments while they were lit up. Monday took us to the Notre Dame, a garden palace, and the Pere Lachere cemetary where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, and Moliere are buried. On Monday night we headed to the Eiffel Tower for a picnic to see the light show that happens every hour. People hyped up this light show, saying you had to pay 10 euro for a spot to sit, so we were fully expecting a SHOW. There was no one to pay, for good reason, since the big show consisted of flashing white Christmas lights on the tower for 5 minutes. THAT WAS IT. People got up and left and there Abbe and I sat, in shock that we spent more time traveling to the tower than we did watching any sort of "show". We sat and talked about the trip for awhile, and sure enough, the big show happened again at 11pm, lucky us!

For our last day, we split up to cater to our separate interests. Abbe wanted to see the Catacombs, which was an underground tunnel full of bones and skulls from an era when people thought dead bodies were carrying diseases. They actually dug bodies up from the cemetaries to dump them underground. Then she took a bike tour to cover more ground and get extra pictures of the city. I decided to sleep in a little and then walk down the Rue de Rivoli, Champs de Elysse, and other side streets filled with shopping opportunities. This is a bit of a tease since I couldn't fit much in my backpack, but I enjoy window shopping nonetheless. At night, we had dinner in our little Oberkampf section, and found a nice little hole in the wall bar to sit for a few hours and talk to the English speaking bartender about life in Paris.

It was sad leaving the trip that we spent so much time, effort, and money planning, but I was ready to get back to America and resume my life again. Abbe is about to start a new chapter, moving to South Carolina and beginning her career as a school psychologist. Even though it's the same old story for me, my life has decidedly changed for the better as a result of this trip. I feel more confident, independent, self-sufficient, knowledgeable, cultured, etc. Though friends may say I've always possessed those qualities, I know it took 5 weeks abroad to make me truly appreciate them.

I'm fighting jet-lag right now, but I'll be back on to post some more details for people who may want to plan a trip of their own - such as hostel and transportation recommendations, packing tips, and things to do and/or avoid in each city!

Zurich is interesting...

First let me apologize for any typos because the keyboard in France has the keys in a weird order and I only have a few minutes to type! We spent three nights in Zurich, and unfortunately alot of time was spent sleeping there. The weather was cold and rainy and we were still getting over our colds. On the nice day, we took a walking tour of the city to see the major sites. The view from the bridge looking at all the houses in the suburbs of Switzerland was gorgeous. We also took a boat ride to get further out into the river, which was a fairly cheap activity at 8.00 for such an expensive city. People there must earn two to three times as much as Americans do because the prices were jqcked up at that rate. It cost 23 dollars for a cheeseburger in a restaurant we walked past - 8.00 if you wanted that burger minus the drink and fries at McDonalds!

The best part of our stay in Zurich, other than having MTV on non-stop in the hotel room, was the two nights we spent listening to live music. On Thursday we went to a prominade on the river where a band played a mix of songs in German and English and we met two older gentleman who asked us to be their dance partners - amusing to say the least, and there is video footage of this! On Friday we went to a biergarten where a Swiss trio played some classic Swiss songs with some American ones thrown in for good measure. The worst part? Not even the steep prices, but the zillions of bug bites we got fro, walking near the river. At first we were afraid they were bug bites, having stayed in hostels for a month, but then the itch became all too familiar and we are just trying to refrain from scratching so they will go away before we get back to the States in 4 days!! More posts to follow on Paris, tips for travelers who may want a to do a similar backpacking journey, and random bits of info like lists of our favorite things and our thoughts on Americans... from an American perspective!

Biergartens in Munich

This post is coming late because Zurich has no free wi-fi and I had to buy a 5.80 tall caffe latte just to write this! More on Zurich in the next post though, this is about Munich!

We arrived at our Wombats hostel on Saturday after a 4 hour train ride from Prague. We had just enough time to unpack and shower before heading down to the hostel bar to meet our fellow travellers. Rob and Karly (from Brussles and Prague) were there, as well as Lyle who we met a few days earlier in Vienna. There are 6 major breweries that provide the goods for the biergartens and we were determined to hit all of them. Saturday night was spent with a large group from Wombats at the Augistiner Brau, where we ate pork schnitzel and french fries. On Sunday, Abbe and I split up so she could do a bike tour (I have a severe aversion to bicycles so I avoided it to spare a trip to the hospital), and I went to the museum of modern art. That night we went to the most popular biergarten, the Hofbrauhaus. It was ginormous. Rooms upon rooms, outdoors and in, lined with picnic tables and benches full of people singing along to the traditional German music. There was a live band who wore lederhosen! We were there with three of our hostel roommates, a set of brothers from Oklahoma. We ordered a gigantic pretzel so big that you could stick your whole face in it! The Hofbrauhaus was definitely a highlight of Munich for me.

On Monday, I trudged through the rain to do a walking tour of the city while Abbe went off in search of replacement flip-flops and cold medicine. We took a gigantic nap in the afternoon because (surprise, surprise) it was still raining. At night we braved the weather to try 3 more biergartebs with Lyle, and had a delicious meal of sausages and potato salad. I can't believe I've been going to Musikfest for so long and never ordered the traditional German food. I'm definitely looking forward to doing that when I get back next weekend!

That's all for now, will write about Zurich when we get to Paris tomorrow - six nights left!!