Won't waste the chance that I've been given

Location: Paris, France

Happy New Years Eve!!

It's about 8:30 and I'm coming in to update before I head to the Champs-Élysées to see what's going down for the new years celebration. I'm not sure yet where the party is going to be, but as long as I find someone who speaks English, I'm sure I'll be fine... This may be more difficult than I had originally planned :-/

Today was SOOO busy. I really doubted myself when I woke up this morning and knew that I had exactly 7 hours to do the entire city of Paris. I guess this is a very good example of the pace of this trip, but I actually finished everything on my list.

First, I started by walking the Jardin du Luxembourg. It's right next to the hotel I'm staying in (which is actually some guy's house that he rents out the spare rooms in and calls it a hotel). The garden is very obviously beautiful in the spring/summer and it was fantastic now, but I know that it was not at it's prime. The palais still looked wonderful though and I really wish I could just buy the whole thing and live there. After that, I walked up the Blvd. St. Michel to the Pantheon. Now, I stumbled upon this last night as I was walking home. I honestly had no idea it was in Paris. Nonetheless, I spent a good deal of time walking around and snapping photos.

Next, I headed to the river. I went to Notre Dame and then headed up the river towards the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre. The river was really beautiful today as the clouds made it this sort of dreary gray color. The Musée d'Orsay was closed so I didn't have a chance to go inside, but the Louvre was open. Here's where the magic really started. I somehow managed to be allowed to skip the entire line of people waiting to get in. I have no idea why... really. I asked a guy where the entrance was, he said some French garbage and then led me to the front of the line. These Italians got really mad and started yelling at me, but I just completely ignored them. From here, I started my super speed Masterpiece tour of the Louvre. I bought a crash course tour that I downloaded to my ipod that led you to the "10 most important masterpieces" in the Louvre. I went to the original medieval castle walls, the statue of Venus, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Napoleon's Coronation, the Mona Lisa, the Marriage of Cana, the Beautiful Gardener, the Raft of Medusa, Liberty of Paris and Michelangelo's Slaves statues. I was also supposed to see some horses, but the exhibit was closed. I power walked from each exhibit to the next and took pictures along the way (I thought you weren't allowed to take pictures in the Louvre but apparently you can...) and ended the tour/ticket buying/line waiting process in about 1.5 hours. Amazing.

From here I walked through the gardens in front and then down the Champs-Élysées. I got a chocolate and banana crepe as I was walking (Natalie... they really are the most amazing things I've ever tasted) and almost made myself sick I ate it so fast. I bought myself some new boots, a new hat and a new scarf (Happy New Years to ME) and then ended up at the Arc de Triomphe.

Heading South now, I walked along a cute little shopping street which led me directly to the Eiffel Tower - which is just as magnificent as I had always imagined. It was so huge and so amazing. I spent a little bit of time marveling before I caught a cab back to the Boulevard St. Michel and then walked around in the 'burbs to get some supplies for later. I got a couple bottles of champagne, some cheese, ham and bread and then a couple pastries for desert. I went back to the hotel, ate my New Years Feast, watched the Simpson's in French for about an hour and then decided it was time to be social. So here I am, being social... HA!! I really am leaving here though... and going straight to be social.

Well, I hope everyone has a fantastic New Years Eve!! I love you all and give you all a cyber-toast from way over here!!

Oh and just to rub it in, my really awesome bottle of authentic French Champagne cost $3.40. Muhahaha.

XOXO

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Now playing: Lindsey Buckingham - Never Going Back Again
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When it rains, I don't mind being lonely

Location:Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Most of today was seen from inside a vehicle. It was raining most of the day so I found a neat little city tour bus and hopped on and literally rode it in circles for hours. I think I may have made the loop 3 times. I got off the bus a lot to look at stuff so I wasn't just sitting there the whole time, but, still... pretty funny.

Luxembourg was amazing. Even in the cold rain, I loved it. It's such an interesting city with an amazing history. I didn't get a chance to go into the villages or see the country at all, but I think it probably was amazing as well (I was told by some pretty awesome Lithuanian women that it's worth seeing, so I'll have to try it out :) They seem pretty reliable). The country has a really cute little monarchy which has a nice set of Royal sons... I pick Prince Felix... he looks the cutest, plus he's not the heir so we'll always just be a cute little Prince/Princess family. And as a bonus, I get to live in Luxembourg!! YES!! And he likes polo (says Wikipedia... wow, this has gone too far) so he rides, which makes him my perfect match. We can have ponies at a castle and be rich and live happily ever after. *sigh*

Anyways!! Back to reality. The city was beautiful. I stumbled upon Notre Dame Cathedral pretty early in the day (right at 11 AM to be exact) and so I went to part of mass, but I didn't stay because I was in jeans and I felt like I was too under-dressed. From there I walked down to the Palais du Constitution and looked at some really amazing views of the old fortress. Apparently, some king acquired the original castle from the Romans which he built on and turned into a really large castle. Because of the central location of the city on the continent, it has been through a lot, and most of the fortress has been destroyed, but there are still quite a few towers that are visible and most of the underground part is still there. St. Micheal's church is another one that is in Old Luxembourg (the part originally surrounded by the fortress) and is really beautiful.

The most interesting part about the city is how diverse it is. Although Luxembourgish is the national language, almost every person in the city spoke fluent English, French and German as well. The newspaper had articles in German, French and Luxembourgish... it's just whichever language the author wanted to write in. My bus tour was telling me that in law, the opening statement of each lawyer may be in a different language than what the judge gives the verdict in or what the jury gives the sentence in. It's so interesting. Plus, they call themselves Luxembourgers... who doesn't want to be a part of that party!

I got on a train at about 5 and rode to Paris and now I am here and I am so in love. Everything has been so beautiful. My hotel is amazing (I didn't know how to get in at first, but Mom came to the rescue). I have a really cute little balcony with an amazing view and it's right in the middle of town. I'm so excited for New Years tomorrow. I have quite a big shopping list for myself and tons of things on my to-do list considering there is only like 8 hours of sunlight. YIKES!!

Ok well off to bed. Can't wait til tomorrow!!!

XOXO

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Now playing: Bush - Glycerine
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Grolsch, Girls and Ganja

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Long, LONG, day of travel. I left at about 10 AM this morning and got into Luxembourg at about 5:45 this evening. Just after sunset. I can already tell this city is fantastic. Even in the dark and in the rain it looked beautiful. I can't wait to see it tomorrow. I had the great idea that I would just walk to my hostel from the train station. It said it was only 3 km which didn't seem TOO bad and it was nice outside - that is, it was nice until I got far enough from the train station to not know how to get back and not be able to catch a cab anymore. It took me about an hour to find the street that intersected the street that my hostel was on. And about half way through that hour... it started POURING. At this point, I'm walking around the outter wall of some castle and there's a 500 foot drop to the lower town on the other side. I am so dead lost I don't know what to do with myself. I ask two nice looking people for help, one couldn't understand what I was asking and the other had never heard of this 'Rue du Fort Olivay' before... GREAT. So I made my way to a busy street and stood there and waited... in the rain... for a taxi to come and take me down the 500 foot plunge into the lower town (I never would have guessed that it was down there). It's nice and warm. I am grateful to be here.

Last night was great fun. (Ear Muffs - Kate Z.) Nate and Brian called me shortly after we last spoke and I met up with them and two of Nate's friends Matt and Eddie. We went to the bulldog so they could go to the 'coffeeshop' and get 'supplies' then we went to a bar and drank Grolsch and Heineken and they depleted their 'supply.' It was really quite amazing to me that this all went down in a bar. We walked down the street to another locale and passed a special Mushroom store that sold only mushrooms... again... interesting. And of course there were all of the girls in their little apartment looking things in the dark alleys... this town cannot be real. It seems so innocent during the day (except the Cannibis museum that you can go to). I had to be back by my 2 AM curfew, but the boys say I missed out on a whole lot more of the same thing. Grolsch, Girls and Ganja (i may have butchered that so forgive me for not being a pro).

The train ride today was beautiful. There was so much water and so many birds. Swans were everywhere in the countryside. There were canals leading every which way and the little sheep in contrast with the green green grass was just so pretty. And of course, there was the occasional windmill too. And the occasional reindeer. And the occasional Nuclear Power Plant (I swear I saw 4). One place I do want to go back to is Trois Ponts. It looked like Crested Butte but in Belgium. It was so pretty with the mountains and the trees and this little river with rapids running through the middle. It was definitely somewhere worthy of a second glance.

I had a lovely little lunch and dinner en route. I bought 2 baguettes, a chunk of gouda, a chunk of some sort of ham sausage stuff and a bottle of wine for €7.50 and had both lunch and dinner on the train. It was SOOOO yummy and I felt so cute and back-packery. Oh and when I got into Luxembourg the country, I got a cute little welcome text that said "Welcome to Luxembourg and LUX GSM!! We wish you a Happy New Year 2008!!"

Well, thank you Luxembourg... I wish you a Happy 2008 as well!!

Out for now, I'm sure I'll have a lot tomorrow.

XOXO

PS - Terri and Becky... you guys owe me some brownies :)

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Now playing: O.A.R. - Anyway
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Eaten en Drinken

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Today was fantastic. Fantastically COLD, that is... I spent a good portion of my day inside a café analyzing the Dutch language. Don't worry... we'll get to that in a little bit.

First... I swear I'm trying REALLY hard to get pictures posted but life is just not agreeing with me. I will have all the remaining from Scotland, London, Brussels and Amsterdam up as soon as humanly possible. I thought tonight would be the night, but alas, its not looking good.

I got up pretty early today almost feeling not sick. But again, after a few hours of being awake, everything started to get all clogged up again. I went to a bike rental shop and rented a cute little red bike (don't worry, I took a picture of it - oh, and thanks Sarah and Zaff for the recommendation on the bike riding!!!). I rode my bike ALL over town to the flower market - which is this road FULL of flowers for sale. Literally, there was a booth dedicated to tulips that had HUNDREDS of different kinds of bulbs and they were all for like €3/lb. After that I went down the canals (which I had no idea existed... Amsterdam is ALL water) and went to the Anne Frank House and then over into the old Jewish district. There were still a few places where there were high walls to divide the Jews from everyone else.

After this, I rode down to the Van Gogh Museum and the accompanying park (which was fun, but cold). I didn't stay long because of the temperature, but I did look and acknowledge that the museum exists and people do go there. At this point, I was really cold and decided to go home. I rode down past the Heineken Brewery (just to look at it) and then up through town and back to my lovely little hostel. On the way back (I had to stop quite frequently in order to re-charge myself and ensure that I was going the right way. I almost got hit by like 400 cars) I was looking over one of the bridges near Jordan (Jewish town) and saw these two duck things RUNNING on the water. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen. I took a picture of the duck, but he wouldn't run on the water when I asked him nicely.

I just ate some New York Style Pizza for dinner because I couldn't figure out what else to eat solo. I also picked up a Snickers and a Diet Coke. Good well rounded American meal. I just talked to my friends that I met on the train yesterday and I believe we are going to attempt to do Amsterdam after dark tonight. I'm sitting here waiting for a phone call but in the mean time I think I'll finish Eat, Pray, Love. Nat - it's been a good one, I appreciate you giving it to me!!

Oh, and now, of course... it's time for your Dutch lesson for the day. Ok... I'm going to give you some words in Dutch, and then you have to guess what they mean in English. Ready? (I promise.... its not hard, they're just funny) Ok, I'll even give you a practice round.

1. Eaten en Drinken = Food and Drinks... see EASY

These are the others I found entertaining

2. Kippensoep
3. Tortillachips met chilisaus en guacamole
4. Kipnuggets
5. Jonge en oude (pronounced 'yong en ode')
6. Sap (ex. appelsap, tomatensap, perinsap)
7. Chocomelk
8. Kerks

Ok... ready for the answers?

2. Kippensoep Chicken soup
3. Tortillachips met chilisaus en guacamole haha Tortilla chips, salsa & Guacamole
4. Kipnuggets Duh... chicken nuggets
5. Jonge en oude (pronounced 'yong en ode') Young and Old (get it?)
6. Sap (ex. appelsap, tomatensap, perinsap) Juice
7. Chocomelk Chocolate Milk
8. Kerks Churches

Another funny thing to note is that the churches in Amsterdam are all just named by where they are or how old they are... examples...

Noorderkerk (North Church)
Zuiderkerk (South Church)
Westerkerk (West Church)
Oudekerk (Old Church)
Nieuwekerk (New Church)

Not kidding... those are all real names of churches in Amsterdam. I looked for Easterkerk but I couldn't find it. Anyways, hope you enjoyed your lesson for the day. Talk to you tomorrow!!!

XOXO

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Let me take you down

Location: Brussels, Belgium

Brussels is, well... different. First off, no one is speaking English. Most people do SPEAK it, but no one does unless you talk to them first. Yesterday I spent most of the day in London. We woke up early to go on the Westminster Abbey tour. We went to Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and then we went to the Globe to go on the Globe tour. It was interesting, but its not the original Globe Theater so it lost a little bit of excitement for me. Among all of these authentically historical buildings, it stood out as the baby of the crowd. We had a quick snack by our hotel and then went to the train station where my parents caught the bus to Heathrow and I caught the train to Brussels.

The Eurostar is this incredibly fast train that only makes a couple of direct point to point trips between big cities. One of these trips is from London to Brussels. And it was a very quick trip - about 2 hours. We started across the British countryside which was very pretty and then all the sudden we went down, very fast. My ears popped a lot and it hurt even more than normal because I´ve been so sick. We stayed underground for about 30 minutes. Turns out we were going under the English Channel. So, you can imagine my fear when the train stopped... Underground... I´m not sure exactly what was wrong because the conductor was yelling things in French. Probably best that I didn´t know.

Once we came back up though, we were in France. We made a quick stop to let some people off and then headed to Brussels. Once there, I spent a good 30 minutes trying to figure out where I was. Everything was in French, Dutch, even German, but not English. I learned (by eavesdropping on someone else's conversation) that when growing up in Belgium, you are required to learn all four languages. You learn French and Dutch early, then German and English in high school. So although nothing was labeled in English, almost everyone spoke it perfectly. I took a cab to my hotel (Lesson #1 in Brussels... do not ask the cab driver if £15 will get you to your hotel... Guess how much your final fare will be? £15!!! I think it probably would have cost me about £10 anyways and I was just so happy to be where I was supposed to so I´ll pretend it was a good deal :) The hotel was extremely nice for what I paid and I got to watch Friends and the Grinch in French. I took a bath in this HUGE tub and then took some meds and went to sleep. I woke up this morning feeling almost better, then as soon as I sat up in bed, I was sick again.

I decided not to spend too much too much time in Brussels. I went to the Grand Place which was this huge square with these massive buildings on all sides and the coolest part was that they were all decorated for Christmas (Thanks for that suggestion Emily!!) The buildings were beautiful and absolutely HUGE!!! I got a Belgium Waffle Ice cream thing (Belgium Waffle with Belgium Chocolate Ice Cream on top. Quite a breakfast I know but, I had to do it). It was SOOO tasty. It was so sweet that it almost made me sick. After this I went to a park by the Cathedral and sat in this lawn chair looking thing and rested for a little bit. Every time the train would go underneath, the chairs would vibrate... it was so strange. I took the train from the central station out to Midi where I am now. I´m going to go get on a train to Antwerp right now and at least stop and see what´s going on there. For now though, I have to leave because this French keyboard is driving me INSANE!!! all of the letters are in the wrong place and it`s taking me an incredibly long time to type this out. Talk to you soon though!! Amsterdam tonight!!

XOXO

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Now playing: The Beatles - Strawberry Fields
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The Bells were Ringing out on Christmas Day

Location: London, England, UK

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Ours has been a VERY relaxing one. We slept in this morning and started our day with a little Gone with the Wind and then a HUGE brunch at the Hilton complete with Mimosa's, every kind of meat imaginable, mince pie, bacon wrapped sausage, pralines, a truffle tree and raspberry cheesecake; not to mention all of the things I didn't get a chance to try. At each table, we had a little box present and a Christmas popper which contained balloons, a paper hat, confetti, those firework poppers and a little present. I got measuring cups :) Everyone in the restaurant was letting the poppers off, blowing up the balloons and then letting them go and fly and it was so loud and fun! Before the end of the meal, we were all covered in confetti and gifts. Santa also brought us some magic markers, but he made me and Andrea share because he said we were too old to be getting our own!!

After a quick rest, we jogged down to Kensington garden where we got some fantastic pictures of the sunset. There were these two swans swimming in the Spanish ponds that kept following us around and we got a lot of pictures of them as well. We walked in the dark to Prince Albert's Memorial which was huge and all lit up. We took a cab back to the hotel where we watched the end of the African Queen. Dinner tonight was at a very cute little Italian restaurant who had the most amazing tortellini. We're calling it another early night because we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. The family is heading back to Tulsa and I am off to mainland Europe. It's also Boxing Day here in the UK which is a holiday that was originally started as a holiday where gifts are given to the poor. The name originates from the fact that on Christmas, collection boxes are sent around churches and then the next day, the "boxes" are divided and passed out. Now, its basically a huge day when no one has to work and everyone shops, so we think it's going to be quite busy around town.

Anyways, Merry Christmas again!! I'll try to get pictures up as soon as possible. I know I'm a couple days behind.

XOXO

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Now playing: Elvis Presley - Blue Christmas
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With all our Tricks we're making Christmastime

Location: London, England, UK

After I last updated, we found a fantastic little corner pub right next to our hotel called the Sussex Arms Pub. We knew we were going to like it after the first Guinness that my dad bought had a four leaf clover drawn on the top of it in the foam. It was a really cute little local place and by the time we got there, most of the people were quite toasted. By the end of the night it was like a group karaoke session. We were singing songs like "That's Amore" and doing pub-wide cheers to Christmas!! It was really fun.

This morning we woke up early to start sight seeing, hoping that we would be able to do tours in the globe theater, tower of London and the Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, all three of them were closed. We went to the globe theater first which was Andrea's favorite part. She was really involved in drama in high school so I think she had a little more personal attachment than the rest of us. The theater was very cool to look at though. After that, we went to St. Paul's cathedral, which is the one that Princess Diana got married at. My dad says that this is the location of every Royal wedding and funeral and we could see why. The building was huge and looked more appropriate as a state capital building than a cathedral.

We took the tube to the tower of London, hoping that we would be able to walk around inside, but unfortunately they were closed for the day. We walked around the outside and down towards the Tower Bridge and took a lot of pictures. The water was beautiful and the weather was nearly perfect. The sun kept peeking out from behind the clouds but remained behind enough for us to get perfect lighting for our photos.

After this we took the tube to the Westminster Abbey which was... surprise... closed. We walked around the outside and down around parliament which was just as amazing as the first time I saw it about a week ago. We decided to start heading back to the hotel to get ready for Christmas. We went to Harrods to get a couple board games to play tonight and to grab some food. The store was HUGE. There was this wonderful Egyptian staircase that ran through the center of the entire store with carvings on the escalators and hieroglyphics on the walls. Our favorite area of the store (besides the jewelry department... duh) was the toy store. There was the amazing snow (that we made my mom buy) that was a powder that turned to real snow when you added water to it. Like real wet cold feeling snow. I have no idea how it works, but it was amazing. Don't worry, we're bringing some home :)

After Harrods, we tried to make it down to Buckingham palace but it was getting dark too early so we headed home to start decorating for Christmas (My parent's don't know we did this yet so don't tell :) We hung stockings and Christmas lights and tinsel in our room and put candy and stocking stuffers in the little stockings. It's nothing special but we wanted to make sure it at least felt somewhat homey in our little Abbey court hotel room.

I put a picture up of our little home away from home :) After that break, we went to eat at a corner pub and have been sitting there since then. We actually left the parents there to come here and check email and update the blog, so I probably should get back to them; who knows what kind of trouble they are getting into without us!!

Anyways, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas Eve!! We enjoy all of the wishes and blessings you guys have sent to us on the message board and I appreciate all of you following along!!

I hope everyone has a safe holiday and I love you all!!

XOXO

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Now playing: Amy Grant - The Night Before Christmas
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Where you go, is where I want to be

Location: London, England, UK

Today was all train rides. We woke up relatively early to have breakfast and then get on the 10:30 train back to London. One thing I have realized is that travelling in groups over 2 people without reservations on a train is a BAD idea. It's just really hectic trying to find seats together and, expecially during the holiday season, its impossible to find someplace to put your luggage. I ended up tying my backpack to a luggage compartment and just letting it hang from the top because I couldn't find any other place to put it.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. We passed through almost all of England, through fog, rain, snow and ice. The only thing that was really noteworthy was when we passed through a town called Preston, England. See, I had a dream about 2 years ago, and the image from above was in my dream. I'm not sure if I had seen a picture previously, or if I was somehow pre-installed with this stock image, but I have seen this before; and as soon as I saw it, I knew exactly where that deja vous was stemming from.

Not sure if you signed up for tagging along for my philosophical divulgance into chicken before the egg, but unfortunately (or fortunately) for you, when you signed up to follow my physical journey, you also signed up to follow the emotional and spiritual development that I am sure to experience while I am over here. Consider yourself blessed to catch a glimpse at my inner workings ;)

All for now. We have arrived in London and checked into our hotel the Abbey Court in Hyde Park for the evening. We had some pizza and bruschetta at an Italian restaurant chain called "Ask" and now we are off to have a pre-bedtime brewsky at a local pub. Tomorrow will be busy, but at least it seems to be a little bit warmer here!!

XOXO

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