Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

Yeah, just try pronouncing those names. I'm so thrown off kilter with the whole German thing. Romance languages I can deduce a lot because of the common Latin base they share with Spanish but I'm just done when it comes to German. I got nothin. ANYWAY.

Today was castle day. I headed to Fussen this morning and ended up on the train with a guy from New York who is here on business. We chatted for awhile until my transfer. Once in Fussen, I caught a bus up to the little area right below the castles, walked right up to buy a ticket and headed up to Hohenschwangau to wait for my number to flash on the screen. I love the off season. Sure, I'm there shivering and being rained on, but it is FABULOUS to see all those snaking line guard things and walk right past them and up to the window without waiting behind a single person.

The way they do the ticketing and such for the castles is very interesting. And very conniving. Haha. Very efficient when there are hoardes of people, and maybe a little frustrating when there aren't.

When you buy tickets, there is a time and a group number on your ticket. No matter what, there will be at LEAST a half an hour from the time you buy your ticket until the time on your ticket. This is by design. With nothing much to do, the royal family, who still owns most of the tourist shops, restaurants etc, hopes that you'll spend more money. The minimum you can get between the 2 castles is 2 hours, which leaves you with about an hour and a half to kill after touring Hohenschwangau. Those sneaky royals!

Anyway, here's Hohenschwangau:



Its so big this is the only way I could get the entire thing in the frame! This is on my way up to Queen Mary's Bridge.

A little history: Although there is a long pedigree of kings who had something to do with Hohenschwangau, they kind of focus it around King Ludwig II since he's the one who built Neuschwanstein. He was born here and grew up in this castle and lived here while Neuschwanstein was being built. In fact he even had a telescope set up in his room pointed toward the new castle so he could watch its progress. There were lots of childhood busts of him and his brother as well as some other cool things. The coolest being the first ever glow in the dark stars on his bedroom ceiling. They were translucent and lighted oil could be added from the floor above to make them shine! Genius!

When I finished the rather quick tour there, I headed back down into town and ate some German Potato Soup (P90X anyone? anyone? Leslie will get it if no one else does!) at a little cafe and it was delicious. Nothing like hot soup and a freezing rainy day. Then I started truckin up the path to Neuschwanstein. Didn't take me long to go from shivering to sweating with that steep of an incline! There was a shuttle option as well as a horse drawn carriage you could take . . . but not for me! I baby tractored my way right up.

[Sidenote: I just got new roommates in my hostel - 3 guys from Edmonton. They promptly informed me that they are completely wasted and are headed downstairs to continue drinking. This may turn out to be an interesting night!]

Anyway, I got to this little waiting area and finally remembered to ask someone to snap a picture of me!



The views from up there are obviously amazing. The castle is seriously like a huge fantasy land. It was not designed by an architect, it was designed by a painter! Ludwig and Wagner were very good friends and Ludwig loved Wagners work so he basically did the entire interior as a tribute to Wagner and his works. Each room represents a different opera and has paintings from scenes from the operas on the walls. One of the operas has a cave in it, so Ludwig had a cave built right inside! Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside. Its a pretty fanciful castle. He died under mysterious circumstances (murder or suicide, no one is quite sure. He was found in the bottom of a lake) before it was ever finished and he lived there for less than 6 months! Crazy! The thing that was sad to me is that Wagner died before ever having the opportunity to see what Ludwig had done for him.

Anyway, after touring that castle, I headed up to Queen Mary's Bridge. Here's a view of it from the castle:



It was another steep hike to get up there but more than worth it when I walked out onto the bridge and saw this view:



AND, I even asked someone to take a picture for me. Twice at one place, am I on a roll or what?!



Another sidenote: one of the guys just came back and climbed up to his top bunk bed and passed out. I have never seen someone fall asleep so fast. He was snoring in less than a minute, I'm not even kidding!

Anyway. Its after 11 oclock so I'm gonna start majorly condensing. I'm so tired and I need to get up early to make it out to Dachau.

So I took this secluded trail through the gorge that goes under the waterfall that you can see from earlier. Apparently no one else knew it was there, I was the only one on the trail! It was incredibly beautiful. I wanted to make the 4:30 bus back to Fussen though so I quite literally ran down the entire mountain. I stopped and walked only when it was too steep, slippery and wet to run. I was glad I did though cause I made it just in time for the bus.

As I was waiting for the bus, I heard a guy call out to another girl in Spanish and I immediately recognized his accent and asked if he was from Spain. He was. I got to talking to him and his girlfriend and they are AWESOME! They had met another girl, Megan, from Cali so the 4 of us sat together on the way back to Munich. We had to make 2 transfers on the way back and one of them was about 40 minutes long. So while Megan went to the supermarket that was close, Victor, Sara and I went and ate bratwurst in a little cafe. I seriously love both of them. It was so so fun to speak in Spanish and talk about Spain with them! We all felt like old friends by the time we got back to Munich. They're going out tonight to bar hop. Won't be joining my new friends on that trip! But we are officially Facebook friends.

Anyway, great day. Another tiring day, what with the hiking and all. And train travel. Tomorrow will be another full day. Sheesh, I still need to blog about actual Munich! Tomorrow. It sure aint happenin tonight. Sorry for the lengthy post with fewer pics. It happens.

So Long, France

So I started typing today on the train for a post - so this is from earlier:

So I am currently sitting on a train headed for Munich. My train left this morning at 7:30 and I’ve already made my one transfer in Stuttgart. On the first leg, I sat next to a very nice German guy named Tim. He is living in Paris for a year working at a home for people with Alzheimers. He spoke English really well and we talked for a long time. It was great. He translated words on my train ticket for me and asked the guy the question I had about transferring. And he carried my suitcase off the train for me. Awwwww! It was cute cause he’s been speaking in French (obviously) a lot lately so he was struggling switching to English. He would revert not back to German but to French. I can totally understand that. Anytime I’m somewhere where another language is spoken, I somehow automatically revert to Spanish, not English – as though my brain goes “oh yeah, non-English . . . I’ve got non-English stuff in here too”. I catch myself starting to say gracias instead of merci or thank you. Funny.

Anyway, Tim and I got each others’ names so we can be Facebook friends. Cause I’m so into Facebook. Haha. He was very cute, but way too young for me. [Now that I'm here in Munich, Tim has already added me and I was definitely right about too young for me. He's 20. And just turned 20. HA. But I can prove that he's cute thanks to Facebook. Fyi, he didn't look like he was posing for a hair magazine today. His hair was done quite a bit more . . . conservatively. Check out those cheekbones!]

So I’m officially done in France. Sad. I really liked Paris a lot. I found people to be very friendly and helpful and I loved the city. AND, I never got rained on! Before I came, the forecast showed rain for every day. I was prepared to be battling rain the entire time, but Heavenly Father must really love me cause no rain! It rained overnight and the streets were often wet, but I never got fully rained on. So nice. The forecast for Munich shows rain as well, so we’ll see if it comes to pass this time.

Anyway, I thought while I’m sitting here on the train, I’d put together a post of things from Paris that weren’t part of the specific “sights” necessarily.

First of all, I realized I never posted the pictures I took of my hostel room. So here they are now, now that I’m gone.




This was a really nice hostel – as you can see all the beds have curtains, which was great. Also, each bed had 2 plugs and a little light so you could light up your own little bed area. The “lockers” were under the bottom bunks and they’re basically big cages with a spot for a padlock. Here’s mine with my lil suitcase in there nice and secure. Last night I finished getting all packed up and ready so I could sneak out early this morning. I put everything in my locker, shut and locked the padlock and as I did so realized that the key to the padlock was inside my backpack . . . now locked up in the locker. Way to go Linds. The couple from Singapore was in there and saw me shut the lock and then immediately slap my forehead. They were so nice and helped me tip the cage and the bag until I could reach in and grab the key. SOOOO glad I realized that last night and not this morning when I was trying to be quiet enough not to wake the 9 other people in my room up. Luckily, it wasn't too loud last night. I was a bit worried. But the Australians were only getting started on the cheap stuff in our room before they went out for the night. I guess alcohol is really expensive here. They were even nice enough to offer me some of the cheap stuff they were drinking! If they only knew.

Next subject. A couple years ago, Paris started this AWESOME (in my opinion) initiative where they have public bikes. Seriously the coolest idea. All around town you see these rows of futuristic looking bikes that can be “rented” from any of the depots and returned to any of the depots. Like a Redbox for bikes. They’ve all got baskets on front and headlights and such and I just think it was a genius idea. No need to lock them up everywhere you go, you just leave it at the depot and get another one when you’re ready. I loved seeing the depots all over the city.





And while we’re on the subject of transportation – bikes specifically – one of the things I LOVE about Europe in general (not just Paris) is how people of all ages and from all walks of life use numerous means of transportation. You see men in suits riding bikes or scooters all over the place. Old men with white hair on bikes with a messenger bags. I love it! This is the only shot I could get while being surreptitious; I wanted to get one of the older gentlemen so bad.



Actually a lot of the shots in this post are going to be a bit blurry or tilted in the name of sneakiness. I obviously didn’t want to bust out the camera and snap a picture of someone right in front of them, as though they’re one of the attractions . . . so I’d pull out my little point and shoot and pretend I was looking at a picture or something. Hold it down at my waist, not up by my eye. I’d keep my head up like normal and be walking and trying to point the camera in the right direction as I went. Standard trick I’ve used many times. Haha. Sometimes it works great, but lots of times I have random pictures of my own feet or the tops of peoples’ heads and such. Good times.

One thing I realized is that Paris is not the fashion capital of the world for nothing. It seems like EVERYONE dresses out of a magazine there. And they’re all super skinny. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many bone thin people. Kinda funny – every once in awhile I’d see a girl and think, “she’s not as skinny as the rest of them, I guess there are normal sized people too!” and then I’d hear them speaking English and I’d realize they weren’t French. Obviously, this is a generalization but it feels like everyone looks like a model. There are a lot of attractive people in France – men and women. I’d say quota wise, Paris is up there in regards to number of attractive people! Haha. Maybe even as many as Interlaken Switzerland. Anyway, here are a couple sneaky pics of fashionable ladies. And they totally pull it off!




I honestly didn't realize that people actually dress like the stuff you see on the runways. There's my ignorance coming through. Complete ignorance when it comes to the fashion world.

Anyway, the HUGE thing right now is BOOTS. EVERYONE wears boots. From 10 year old girls to 60+ year old women. Half boots, whole boots, lots and lots of boots. Boots with leggings, boots over jeans, boots with shorts and tights, boots with skirts, boots with dresses. I suppose that is in in the US as well, but wow I've never seen so many people wearing the same thing! I have to admit, though, I think the boots are really cute. Even the half boots and boots that only cover your ankles are growing on me, whereas before I thought they were hideous. Just call me the frog in the increasingly hot water that's too stupid to jump out. Or the guy in the desert that lets the camel in a little at a time.

So I love the random things you see on the streets in large tourist filled cities. The musical instruments and acts change a little bit, but you find these guys everywhere. I love the piano guy!





Another thing you see, and this one might actually be particular to Paris, is a photo shoot of a model happening right in front of the Army Museum. Nice!



Actually, I take it back now that I think about it. In Madrid in the Plaza Mayor we saw them doing something similar with a lady all dressed up.

This one just made me laugh. American Apparel. I love that the mens clothing is all red white and blue. As though people in the USA only dress in American colors. LOVE IT! [Walking around Munich tonight I saw a "Western Store" - that was literally the name of it, and the point seemed to be the same. They had Levis. Very American]




Anyway, that about covers it for Paris. Great place. Glad I got to spend some time there! Munich looks promising as well. (We're back to the present tense now) Tomorrow I'm headed to "Mad" King Ludwig's castles in Bavaria. I did some stuff in Munich tonight but I'll have to blog it later. I'm tired, I'm waiting for my laundry to finish and then I'm going to bed!

Versailles

Versailles is . . . let's see, what's a superlative that I haven't used yet?! Magnificent! Completely, wonderfully magnificent. After visiting there today I am suddenly very interested in reading up on things like Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Napolean, and the French Revolution. Louis XIV is the one mostly responsible for the grandeur that you see at Versailles today. Wow did he have a flare for the fabulous.

Here he is on his horse with the enormous palace behind him:



The picture is a little dark but I can't fix it on this computer. As you walk up, you see the golden gate that is actually a new edition as of 2008 . . . 5 million euros later. Sheesh.



The palace is home to this Royal Chapel - Louis XIV worshipped from the upper level facing the altar and the organ while the peasants worshipped below facing Louis.



There are endless rooms with different names and I didn't take many pictures of those. Lots of paintings and furniture and huge four poster beds etc. The coolest part, in my opinion (and probably a lot of other peoples'), is the Hall of Mirrors.



This is one famous room! A few stats: the room is 250 feet long with 17 arched mirrors that reflect the view of the gardens coming from the corresponding 17 arched windows. Along the way are 24 gilded candelabra and a host of Roman busts. Ambassadors, nobles and guests would congregate for parties and other things here, which was a special treat since they could admire themselves in the mirrors. Also, this is where the Treaty of Versailles was signed that ended World War I!

This is also where I took the only picture that has (part) of me in it. I just forget to ask people to take pictures for me and it seems like a hassle sometimes. So I have a lot of pictures of cool places and not many of me in those cool places. I was also using the big camera, which means you get a huge shot of my face. Nice.

After finishing in the Chateaux, I headed out to the gardens. Wow. Unreal beautiful. I LOVE going to different gardens and this was definitely no exception. In Spain on our trips, Jas and I would often use our free time to explore the main garden of whatever city we were in and we found some beautiful ones. There's just something about being surrounded by all the cultured lawns and flowers and trees and shrubs that are perfectly trimmed etc. Love it.

Anyway, here's one little side of the gardens called the Orangerie. Louis XIV grew ORANGE TREES in France! He had greenhouses where they were kept when it was too cold and they were wheeled out on almost a daily basis.



This next view is the view. This is the Royal Drive. With the fog you can't even see it all. Actually you can't even see it all without the fog! And this is in just one direction!



The body of water you can see toward the back there is the Grand Canal. Yep, just like the one in Venice. Louis XIV decided he needed one too so had this one built. Its a mile long and he had authentic gondolas brought over from Venice to be used in it. Boats would move along side the gondolas with musicians playing music so they could listen as they went. Now that is a life of luxury!

I walked down one of these endless tree-lined paths to get to the Trianon area. So Louis XIV built Versailles as a retreat from all the hubub of Paris, but it soon became so busy that he needed a retreat from that too. So what did he do? Built another palace deep in the garden.



This one is the Grand Tianon. His successor, Louis XV, built the Petit Trianon, another smaller residence. There was also a summer house where Marie Antoinette spent time with her friends, as well as the Hamlet - her little get away that was remiscent of where she grew up. The Hamlet felt like I was stepping back in time . . . or into a Thomas Kinkade painting! SO vastly different from what you see in the palace. Completely picturesque and homey all at the same time.







Anyway, I LOVED Versailles. I have more pics but my hostel room is now quite busy. 3 new people just showed up from Australia (actually 5 including the 2 that went to bed already - but they're from a different part of Australia) and they're busy drinking cheap booze. The couple from Singapore just got back as well so there's a lot going on. And as I was typing that, the girl from Canada just walked back in, so we've got a full house!

Tomorrow I head to Germany. Paris has been fabulous. I've been pleasantly surprised, its been better than I expected! More to come.

Another Day in Paris

So today's agenda was a little less demanding than yesterday's. Only walked about 14 miles today!

I started off at the Arc de Triomphe. That thing is WAY bigger than I realized it was. Way bigger than the arches I've seen in Rome and such. So cool too.



This week (November 11) is Armistice Day and so they were already setting things up for it outside. I think there will be a huge parade and such because there were also barricade things all along the Champs Elysees. Not in use yet, but just there to be used. I talked to someone that said there will be lots of celebrities here for it and stuff. I'll be on my way to Munich though!

Anyway, they also had a HUGE French flag flying beneath the arc as well. I'm not positive, but I think that is normal, I don't think that was special for the celebration. Could be though.



Champs Elysees

After leaving the Arc, I continued right down the Champs Elysees toward the Louvre. The Champs Elysees is a famous street that has been the "it" place since the late 1600s. There are car dealerships and cafes (which celebrities frequent) and Louis Vitton and other high end stores, night clubs and an apparantely very famous cabaret.

I stopped in the Peugeot dealership and saw some of their futuristic cars. Cool.




After passing through the Place de la Concorde, I got to the gardens that lead to the Louvre.

The Louvre

The Louvre is HUGE. So huge. Beyond huge. Incredibly huge. I was standing this far back and still couldn't get the entire thing in one shot!



The famous pyramid:



Thanks to Rick Steves, that was yet another long line that I didn't even think about standing in. I went to another entrance underneath one of the buildings where there was no one. NO ONE. Not a single person, which made me wonder if I was in the right place. But I walked up and showed the guard my pass and he sent me through! I ran my bag through the xray machine and walked right in under the pyramid. Again: massive. There are 3 major wings that branch off in different directions. This is directly under the pyramid, which is where all the light is coming from. You can see the escalators going up to different wings.



So I didn't spend all that much time in the Louvre. I know, I know. But after the Prado and the Thyssen and all the other museums I went to in Spain, most of it looks pretty similar. You can only see so many Madonnas on the Rocks. And naked women and babies. The sculptures are always cool, but again, after Italy and the Vatican museum and such, very similar. SOOOO, I hit the highlights and called it good enough. The main highlight, of course, is the Mona Lisa. Here she is:



Venus de Milo is another of the "must sees". Here she is in all her armless glory:



She is a rare Greek original rather than a Roman copy. The cool thing about her is that her entire body is in motion: left leg raised, right arm dropped, knee pointed one way, head the other. What talent to capture all that in STONE!

Winged Victory is another boasting point for the Louvre, from 190 BC. Amazing that we can go look at something that was created 200 years before Christ was born.



This is the Grand Gallery - where Jacques Sauniere dies in the beginning of "The DaVinci Code".



Other than that, I looked at all of Leonardo DaVinci's paintings - the Louvre has the biggest collection in the world: 5. Also some of Raphael's. I took pictures but I'm feeling more than done with blogging and it takes awhile to upload pictures.

Here's a little clip that shows all of the Louvre since I couldn't get it all in one shot:



And here's the picture the couple from Queen Creek took for me:



After the Louvre, I went to the gardens at the Palais Royal. Very pretty. One more picture:



I actually took quite a few there that I'm excited to play with once I get home. I don't have Photoshop on my mini so the adjustments will have to wait. But I think there are some print and frame worthy ones.

ANYWAY, another good day. Tomorrow is Versailles, I'm pretty excited for that. Paris is incredible. It has exceeded my expectations quite a bit. There is still a lot that I want to blog about and other pictures I want to post but I've had it for today. I'm ready to take a shower and go to bed early.

Paris Day Two

WOW. I have done so much today. I brought a pedometer with me and I am so glad I did! I have walked over 17 miles today. No kidding. Over 37,000 steps. And at least a couple thousand of those were stairs! I left the hostel around 7:30 this morning and enjoyed some very quiet streets of Paris. Here's a clip:



A word about the clips: they're probably boring. I do them for journaling type purposes and it probably gets annoying, so feel free to skip em.

Anyway, I got on the Metro and headed for my first stop, which was:

The Eiffel Tower

Wow. There's a very good reason the Eiffel Tower is such a recognizable icon in all the world. It is an engineering marvel. It was built in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days for the World Fair in the late 1800s and Gustave Eiffel was involved in every step of the way. It is absolutely incredible!

I started out at a little park to the North of the tower. It was empty and I had no one to ask to take my picture so I did the timer thing and got this:



It just gets more mind boggling the closer you get. This is standing almost under it as I was walking closer:



It was cheaper to climb the stairs than to take the lift, AND the line was way shorter so I decided the stairs were definitely the way to go. Little did I know how many stairs I would end up climbing today! The picture isn't great cause I was walking as I took it, but that's what the stairs in the Eiffel Tower look like. The public is only allowed to climb to the second level, you have to take a lift to the 3rd. So that's what I did! Here's the view from the top:



Pretty amazing. Even though there were lots of people, I know it was way less crowded than the summer. There were times I was pretty much by myself up there, which was nice! I planned on it taking at least 2 hours, probably 3 but I actually did the whole thing in a little over an hour!

When I got down, I headed South toward my next destination:

Napoleans Tomb

I love the grandeur of so many of the monuments in Europe. They go all out to impress, and they do a great job! Napolean is laid to rest under this golden dome. The tomb/coffin thing is massive and enshrined with other statues and stuff. Incredible. Hard to get a good perspective from the picture, but this is his coffin:



Sidenote: One of the guys in my hostel has a cold (or the Swine Flu . . . heaven forbid) and is coughing like every 30 seconds. It is driving me nuts. Good thing I'm a deep sleeper. He told me earlier that he was coughing all night and someone gave him medicine in the middle of the night. I semi remember hearing coughing but I slept right through it. THANK HEAVENS.

ANYWAY, so after the Tomb, in the same complex there, I went to the

The Army Museum

I didn't really take any pictures. They have multiple wings of different war eras etc. I went to the World War I and World War II parts and left the rest. With so much to see and do, I admit I didn't read much as I went. I just looked and walked. LOL. But that's the beauty of doing what I want when I want, I don't HAVE to read the plaques if I don't want to!

Walking away from the Army Museum through the garden type area there has been one of my favorite parts of Paris. It is beautiful. Amazing. Fantastic. I got down a ways and came to this intersection:



The bridge right after or behind that intersection is incredible. There are statues and obelisks and intricately carved banister type things and beautiful lamp posts. So great.



As I was walking, I also saw these guys playing some type of hockey . . . on bikes! Whaaaaat?! How does that work without someone getting killed?! Looked pretty cool though.



I got back on the Metro and headed back over toward Notre Dame so I could go to the

Saint Chapelle

From the outside, it doesn't look like much, but its definitely worth seeing. I climbed yet more stairs to reach the top level with this chapel that is almost entirely made of stained glass windows. So intricate and there are about 15 panes just like this. They depict over 1000 scenes from the Bible all in vibrant color. Amazing. Pictures don't do places like that justice in any way shape or form.

After I finished there, I continued on to the

Conciergerie

This was another pretty quick visit. It was used as a torture/assassination building until the invention of the guillotine, and then it became the final holding place until people were beheaded. Marie Antoinette had a cell here before she lost her head. Now, in addition to recreated cells, they have some modern art type stuff to fill the halls. In my opinion, the building itself was the most interesting thing. Very beautiful.



I finished there and went back over to the Deportation Memorial.

Deportation Memorial

The Deportation Memorial is right behind Notre Dame, but it was closed yesterday by the time I waited to go to the top of Notre Dame. It is a tribute to the French citizens who were sent to concentration camps. Its a very beautiful tribute. There is an eternal flame and this hall that stretches all the way down with lights:



Archeological Crypt

The archeological crypt is something that I can access for "free" with my Paris Pass (actually everything I did today other than the Eiffel Tower was included in that pass) so I stopped in there. Its right in front of Notre Dame and you can see the old foundation from Roman times. I think I spent a good 5 minutes in there walking through it. :)


Hotel de Ville

I walked by the Hotel de Ville, which is Paris' city hall. Such a beautiful building! I walked by it on my way home as well and got an ok night shot of it too.




After passing by that, I continued North to the

Jewish Museum

The Jewish museum included more and more stairs for me to climb. This was another quick walk through. I'm sure I could have learned a LOT by reading and listening the free audioguide but I just wasn't feeling it! This is the only picture I took there and its from the outer courtyard.



Almost done with my day, promise. Believe me, it was longer doing it than reading about it. My last stop of the day was the

Pompidou Center

Here's part of the front - I couldn't fit it all in the shot.




The back was the coolest though. The tube up the back is where the escalators are once you're inside. Awesome!



The ground behind it was painted with a huge calendar. You can see the massive line there . . . there was another one in the front that was even longer. There was no way I was going to wait in a line like that (especially at the end of my day) so I did what I usually do - find another way. I walked to an area where I saw people walking right through and saw that it was for annual pass holders. I walked up to the guard and showed him my Paris Pass and asked if there was a special entrance for me. He flashed me a smile and let me through right there. So I skipped all that waiting! LOVE IT!



Modern Art is so interesting. There is some that is really fun cause of all the colors and shapes. Some that is weird, some that is scary and a lot that makes you go, "huh". I took pictures of some that fell into each of these categories, but I have now been blogging for over an hour and I must go to bed. Its almost midnight but I knew that if I didn't do this tonight, I'd get behind and never catch up. You're welcome mom. Lol.

So 17 miles later, I'm completely trashed. Whereas yesterday I was tired from serious lack of sleep, tonight's exhaustion is more of a bodily sort. My body is worn out. Therefore I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight to all.

Paris! Notre Dame and the Seine

Wow, I am BEAT. I can hardly keep my eyes open. I am excited to go to bed and I want to RIGHT NOW, but I have to blog first. Sigh.

So after eating lunch (at an ever ubiquitous Doner Kebab - they're everywhere!)I was able to check in at the hostel and then head downtown to Notre Dame. Paris is pretty stinkin great. Its very similar to other European cities in a lot of ways, but still new and intriguing. Have a looksee:



Notre Dame was pretty cool. After all the basilicas and cathedrals I've been to, it was hard to be TOO amazed; but Notre Dame is pretty much the I Ching. The original. Its massive! Climbing the tower was included in the Paris Pass I bought, so I waited in a very long line to do that. (I thought it was the off season?!) It was a great view though. You could see the gargoyles right up close and some great panoramics of Paris. Here's one of my favorites - thats the Eiffel Tower in the background.



Ok, I need to take more pics with my little camera for the explicit purpose of blog posting. It takes a loooonnnng time for the ones from the big camera to upload. Bummer. Anyway, here's the same gargoyle but from the front. He's the famous one.



Here's Paris in the fading light. The cloud in the upper left was tripping me out. I kept thinking someone's finger or head or something had gotten in my shot. Nope, its a cloud.



I was supposed to see a lot of other things in that vicinity today, but by the time I got done waiting in the line to climb the tower, everything else had closed. Oops. Maybe I can fit some of it in tomorrow. I learned today that the Picasso Museum, which was one of the things I was going to go to tomorrow, is closed for renovation until 2012. Thanks Murphy. But it might free up some time to do the things I missed today.

Okay, that's as much as I can do today. I'm going to bed. I can't keep my eyes open any longer!

On the Road Again

I love to travel. Have I ever mentioned that? Love it! I landed in Paris a couple of hours ago and I'm in the lobby of my hostel. Can't check in for another hour and a half so I thought, "Why not blog?!"

My journey started Thursday night when I caught the red eye flight to PHL. My dear friend Amy picked me up at about 6 AM on Friday morning. Amy was one of my mission companions and I absolutely adore her! It was great to spend the day with her and her beautiful baby boy, Freddy. (And her husband, Burgess, briefly before he went to work!)



With the strike in PHL, downtown was out so we spent the day mostly talking and hanging out! I was also able to take a nap which was GLORIOUS after a fitful 4 hours of sleep on the plane being my only sleep for the night. We went to a great Thai place for lunch and drove through Valley Forge on the way. BEAUTIFUL! I definitely plan on going back to King of Prussia to spend some more time with the Coffields and see some of the sites that are close to them.



That evening, Ames took me back to the airport and I took the 9:00 PM flight to Paris. The flight was not too shabby! The flight was not full so I was able to semi lay down for part of the way. That coupled with some Dramamine meant at least some sleep. But boy is it hard to wake up! My eyelids want to close so bad. After I check in I'll head downtown and walking will help me stay awake til tonight so I can get on their schedule.

Anyway, Not much to show or tell at this point. After landing, I took the airport shuttle to the train then connected to the metro and ended up here, at St. Christopher's Hostel. Here's a lil clip from the train station:



And here is the only picture I've taken in Paris so far - from where I'm sitting in the lobby looking out. As I walked up, the bridge you can see was hydrolically lifted cause a boat was going by. Cool. I'm right on a canal, its pretty cool. Lots more pics to come.

One Year

Today marks one year since my good friend Shane was killed by a drunk driver. Life is so precious and it really hits home to have someone close gone in an instant. I've thought of Shane's wife and baby on almost a daily basis over this past year. I know how much he loved them and though I can't imagine what it must be like, I know it has to be incredibly hard to keep on with regular life after something like that.

Shane was amazing. Had the kindest heart and was always smiling and making people laugh. I miss him.

Nostalgia

Yep, I'm doin it. I'm updating the blog. I've been missing Ecuador and South America a LOT lately so I was going thru my pics and decided to do a trip down memory lane on here. Not much writing, lots of pictures. Here's a night view of Salinas, my "home". So pretty.



Looking toward the boardwalk from close to where we live. Its amazing to look at the first picture and see all the high rise nice beach view hotels and then realize that literally a couple blocks back this is what it looks like. Its not even paved.



Other typical things you see in our neighborhood there in Salinas:



I miss walking everywhere on those dusty streets



And seeing "family transportation"



Things like this made us laugh so hard. NOT Sunglass Hut, but Sunglass HOT!!



I don't think I ever posted pictures of the aquarium in Valdivia. Pretty much the coolest aquarium I've ever been to! Completely antiquated and amazing. The barefoot boys that work there are volunteers but boy do they know their stuff! Check out these crazy crabs. Everything they have there was brought in by village fisherman!



I love this! They're growing things in these bags of water. Seriously the coolest aquarium ever.



The black tub is where the sea turtles were and the concrete pool thing those people are standing by holds "baby" the seal. The thatched roofes you can see in the background are where all the tanks were. There were 5 or 6 little covered areas like that, each with old aquariums in them.



This is a blue footed booby. Check out those blue feet!



And here's nena (baby) the seal



Its hard to see through the dirty scratched glass, but these starfish were awesome. Black with bright orange spots on them. Psychadelic! All of the tanks had 2 liter bottles rigged up like this one. So great.



This video is one of my favorites. This is one of the little boys that was acting as our guide. We had just finished feeding chunks of squid to the sea turtles and he was showing me the leftovers on his hand. I'm asking him what it is, and when he answers, he says "a hand!" SO FUNNY! So cute.



This was at the aquarium as well . . . a screaming penguin. This guy was NOT happy. Pretty funny though.



At the end of our "tour" we had acquired quite a few lil guides. We nicknamed all of them in English and they practiced saying their new names. They were so dang fun!



The other really cool thing about Valdivia is the archeaology. They've found tons and tons of relics, some that are 5000 years old! We talked for a long time to this guy who just had tons of them. He was telling us how people find them when they're digging up their gardens or digging footings for houses etc. Awesome



I really miss cheap amazing produce. We'd go to market with like $10 and hardly be able to carry it all home. Fresh pineapples and mangoes and avocados and grapes and blackberries and bananas, and so much more.



I miss friends! I miss laughing and talking with everyone and meeting cool people. Like Oren from Israel and Megan from Chicago and Luz and Stefani and Jorge Luis and Erika and Danilo . . . such fun times!






La familia Chavez, the greatest family EVER! We stayed with them when we first got to Ecuador and anytime we were in Guayaquil. Nena and Caro (the 2 girls) came to Salinas a couple times to visit us. They are the best.



Traveling was the best. So many cool little (and big) places to explore. Such adventures getting to said places. Like when Andy and I headed south for Peru and before we'd even gotten to Cuenca, we hit a roadblock:



We later found out that the purpose of the road block was to try and get speed bumps on that road. Its a main road that goes right through a little town and apparently 4 people had been killed that week by cars going through there. :( By the time they finally let us through there were news crews there and lots of military guys. The road was very backed up on either side.

You can hear me sigh in the video when I have to move for the guy who came on the bus to sell things. Kinda funny. I had started that little video like 3 times and every time had to stop cause someone was getting on or off the bus and I had already stopped to let that guy on! Haha. Good times.

Machala was seriously the shadiest place. We sat for hours in that little waiting room watching Eddie Murphy movies and drinking stuff that a guy was selling right there on the property. Traveling is the greatest! I love all the crazy unexpected things that come up that make it memorable.



This was somewhere in Peru. Ollataytambo perhaps?! Hard to remember right now. The little shower stall down there was I think the coldest shower I've ever had. And there were spiders in there. Nice. But it was actually a pretty nice hostel all things considered.



So Andy bought a charango on our trip to Quito and being the music genius he is, taught himself to play it. Its got 10 strings, so quite different than a guitar. As you can see, he got pretty good! And his voice is amazing. That song is SO ECUADOR to me. Andy and Brett both played it and sang it. This was in Aguas Calientes, I think the night before we went to Machu Picchu. This place told us they had hot water too. Also a lie.



We saw a lot of cool things in Peru, like my Peruvian Abuelita! It was so fun to see her in Lima.



Other random great things we saw while runnin around South America:

Beautiful Andean women in their native dress. Love it.



Natives washing their clothes in the river in Cuenca



Awesome houses on the island of Puná



The majesty of the cathedral in Quito



Ollataytambo was one of my favorite cities. The cobblestone streets with ancient ruins in the mountains overlooking it were just magnificent. I had such a great time wandering the walkways early one morning with just me and my camera.



I love this dog just chillin on the mini bridge.



This boy was herding his goats along one of the walkways and had to work very hard to keep them away from a native lady selling her produce along the way.



Here's the train that took us from Ollataytambo to Aguas Calientes. It was a beautiful trip. The only way to get there is by this train. You can't go by bus or car, this is the only option.



This is in Aguas Calientes. I love the layout of this city! Its right in the mountains and the city just goes up and down with the lay of the land.



This shirt says "The coke leaf is not a drug". Its all about coca there. Coca candy, coca tea, coca everything. We sucked on coca candy to avoid altitude sickness. Apparently it worked cause we didn't get too sick.



These market type places are the best. Tons and tons of hand made incredible artesania. Rows and rows and rows of this stuff everywhere.



To be honest, I'm not even sure where along the way I took this, but what a beautiful valley!



I never did say anything about Panama. Andy and I spent the day in Panama on our way home and quite literally almost didn't make it out of Panama. We went to Casco Viejo and wandered around the old part of Panama City and had a great time. We rented a car and forgot to take traffic into consideration and very nearly missed our plane. Another sprint thru the airport - great memories!



There's the Panama skyline in the background.

Some of the old apartment buildings in Casco Viejo. They're so colorful and so old. Very interesting.



Hard to see thru the fog, and such, but the bridge in the distance is the one that goes over the Panama Canal. Several U.S. administrations have done really questionable things over that one spot. Don't even get me started.



There was a lot more of a Caribe feel in Panama, I liked it. Made me really want to get to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and such. I love seeing the different varieties in the way the natives dress. I love the ankle wraps they wear in Panama.



Moral of the story is: I miss Ecuador. A lot. I think what I miss most of all are these three:





I miss the laughing good times. And there were plenty of those to go around - just look at those faces! Actually, last month Andy was in Sacramento visiting Brett . . . and I risked being held in contempt of court to go visit them for one night. I was on jury duty and flew out after getting out of court one night, stayed the night at Brett's and then flew home the next morning. Except the flight was completely full and I couldn't get on and had to by a standby pass for Southwest where I was the last and only standby person to get on. Dangerous. But I had to see them! We had a great time laughing and talking and reminiscing. We even did a video chat with the Chavez and it was GREAT!

Anyway. As for my current life, I work for US Airways - it rocks. I bought the cutest dang car you've ever seen and I love it.



Being back in AZ after years of not living here, no longer being in school, and attending a Spanish Branch rather than a singles ward equals not a lot of people to hang out with, but life is good. I just fly to where my friends are!

So after 6 months, that's all I have to say. I'm dying to travel. Being able to take lil trips on the weekends certainly helps but I'm feelin the itch like crazy. I keep changing my mind about where I'll go this fall. India? Australia? More Europe? More South America? Egypt? South Africa? I just can't make up my mind!

Machu Picchu Part II

Por fin, some pictures of Machu Picchu. Its been awhile, I do realize this. But I am now back in good ol AZ with full speed internet and it will take me way less time to upload pics. Sweet! I miss Ecuador like crazy, but it was great to get home just in time to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Good news is I still have hammocks available as I brought a couple home. They're a hit. Everyone loves them, and why shouldn't they? They're so dang comfortable!

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to put up pics of Machu Picchu. So here we go. Andy and I got up at 5 am so that we could be on one of the first buses up to Machu Picchu and therefore make it in the line to be able to hike Waynu Picchu. The Peruvian government put a 400 person daily limit on the hike, so we wanted to make sure we were able to do that. Thanks to Brett and Nikki, we knew the way to do it was to get there early and not stop to enjoy Machu Picchu until after getting in line for the tickets. We got tickets for the 10am hike and then entered the ruins for the hours before we could hike.

There are llamas walkin around the ruins and its so fun to see them. When we first got there in the morning, they were on the trails and stuff, but as more people got there they moved onto the grassy parts where people weren't. I love llamas. Ever since Emperor's New Groove (which is pretty much a tribute to Peru) I have had a thing for llamas.



Here's a little video (hooray I can finally add videos!) of the ruins that I took while we were exploring.



Seriously breathtaking! Machu Picchu is amazing. As we were walking around, we saw this cool bird chillin' there. It let me get pretty close to take its picture. How kind.



There were these amazing bright red flowers all over that were just beautiful. There were the hanging kind (first picture) and then some other ones that were on the ground. When you'd look at the hill side it looked like little fireworks all over.




Here are a few different angles of the ruins. It seemed like every time we turned a corner we'd have another spectacular view!









Andy is an artist (a really good one I might add) so he was really enjoying sketching the incredible things we were seeing. I love this picture cause you can see the sketch there with the actual stuff right in front of it. Sweet!



Right before 10 we headed over to hike Waynu Picchu. It was such a steep hike! It didn't take long, less than an hour, but it was tough! Waynu Picchu is the big steep mountain that you see behind Machu Picchu. It juts straight up and there are more ruins at the top. The view from up there is AMAZING!!



That's Machu Picchu down there behind me! The hike was so totally worth it. It was an incredible view from up there.

This is a shot of just Waynu Picchu that I took after we had hiked back down. Its hard to see, but if you look close, you can see little white dots on the mountain side. Those are people. You can kind of see how steep the climb is by looking at where all those little people are. Crazy!



I like this picture of the llama chillin there looking around with its legs crossed. Llamas are so cute!



And to finish up, here are a couple of shots of Machu Picchu as a whole. Or at least as much as my camera could get. I was feeling the lack of a wide angle lens there!




Anyway, it truly is an amazing place. Easy to see why its one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Has to be pretty special to merit over 100 hours on a bus to see it, right?! Gosh I'm thankful to be done with hours and hours of bus trips. But I miss Ecuador like crazy, its such a great place. I miss our house in Salinas and the malecón and our friends there and and and. Now its time to WORK like crazy and pay off this great time I've been having. Once that's done, I'm thinking India . . .