le 1er aout: Paris again

We slept in Saturday which was heavenly. We were always going a mile a minute it seems like so finally taking our time was nice. We stopped at Versailles on our way to Paris. We just went in to see the gardens. It was rather expensive because they were having a fountain show that day but luckily Brittany and I got a student discount. Poor Marilyn didn't get one. We had breakfast in one of the gardens. We just got crepes and sat down to eat there.

Versailles really is very pretty. It would be fun to live there I think and spend the day in the garden sometimes just relaxing or renting a row boat. There are some sections of the gardens that are free. We didn't know where those were though, and I think mostly only locals do. Kaitlin does but she wasn't there to show us unfortunately.

After we got back to Paris, we headed to the Pompidou, the modern art museum which I was very excited to see. It was so cool. We went up to the top floor of the free exhibition area and started there. They had a special exhibition going on called elles@pompidou downstairs and upstairs to go along with it, the rooms marked with a red doorway had art from significant women artists who have been historically overlooked. Their work was amazing. There were some prints from photographers we had talked about in photo class as well as some new ones that were just captivating. They had quite the variety of works there. There were paintings, photographs, some sculpture, mixed media pieces, and furniture and home design pieces as well. It was a very cool museum.

On the lower level was the main part of the elles@pompidou exhibition. It was all about women and I LOVED it. I wanted to spend more time in it but I had to hurry so we could meet Kaitlin and Rosie at the train station. I bought a little book about it. I really wanted the full book with information about all the works on exhibition but it was like 50 euro so I just got the 9 euro super condensed version.

We left the Pompidou and quickly found a boulangerie where we bought sandwhiches for our hungry tummies. The pastries looked amazing. I don't think any dessert in America can compare to the pastries in Paris both visually and tasteally (lol what is the word for what I am trying to express?).

We were going to pick up another friend of Brittany's (how random, right? Like how many friends can you have in Europe at the same time by coincidence?) named Rosie. She had recently moved to Germany with her husband who is in the army. She was very cool as well, very sweet and mature.

Kaitlin picked her up and we luckily found them at the train station. It was worrisome because neither Kaitlin nor Rosie had a phone so if we missed them it was going to be very very hard to find them. We went to a very famous cafe called Les Deux Magots. It was a favorite haunting place of several intellectuals and writers and surrealist artists of Paris.

After our very French afternoon, we went for a walk through the Tuleries. Brittany and I had been there before but it was fun to see them again. We walked through a lot of Paris after that. We were heading towards the Eiffel Tower to sit down and eat but we had to go to a grocery store first to get some food. We went to the Champs-Elysees and went to le drugstore. It's like a super fancy everything-you-want type of store, but very cool and not too expensive. It was a little more pricey than your standard grocer on the corner but still less expensive than a restaurant for a full meal.

After we bought our food, we had to walk a ways to sit down and eventually just decided since we had already walked so far, we might as well walk back to the Eiffel Tower to sit there and eat. It was beautiful as always. I seriously still can't believe I just sat and ate dinner under the Eiffel Tower several times. It's been a dream since Jr. High. Dreams really do come true :) Lol, here I am getting all nostalgic, but finishing up these posts makes me miss it.

We caught the last train to Versailles but had to get a taxi back to Jouy en Josas because those trains stop earlier. It wasn't badly priced split between five people. We all slept in Kaitlin's adorable apartment. I really liked all of Brittany's friends. I wish I could get to know all of them more. They were really fun, good, sweet, open minded, and genuine women. Brittany, if you ever read this, you have good taste in friends if I may say so myself ;)

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le 31: Back to Paris

We got up for breakfast at the Hotel du Congres. It was just like a french hotel breakfast, cold cuts and scrambled or boiled eggs, toast/croissants/pain au chocolat, yogurt, cereal, juice/coffee/tea, etc. Brittany wasn't feeling very well because she felt a migrane coming but she ate a little bit and we got her some water to drink and that helped a bit. She used to get really bad migranes a few times a week but she was on medication to keep them away. It apparently works because she didn't have one any of the time we were in France and the one she started to get didn't come on full force which was good.

We thought our Belgium adventure had wrapped up nicely when we had a shakey experience in the metro. We went to buy our tickets and realized we were short some money with the coin euros. And the ticket machines didn't take bills. Or American credit cards. And there were no ticket windows with people in them open. We were starting to freak out because we had to catch our train back to Paris, especially because we were going back on this student deal and couldn't transfer our tickets. If we missed the train, we would have to buy all new ones. We had already dealt with that nightmare in Paris and didn't want to have that happen again.

So, this man came down into the metro and I went to ask him if he knew where a ticket office was. He was like there are machines you can use and I tried to explain our predicament to him but he didn't really understand. We should have just hopped on the metro but the we ended up getting one ticket with the coins we had and then the man bought one with his credit card and we gave him the rest of the coins that we had which were pretty close to the cost of one ticket. I think he thought we were just retarded and couldn't use the machines but then he realized that we were short and seemed a little put off that we couldn't pay him back all the way but he got over it quick. We thanked him profusely and felt like idiots lol.

But good news, we made it to our train on time! And even better, we were riding first class. It was a crazy awesome deal we found online and so on our return trip it was cheaper to ride first class than second. The train was pretty empty but we somehow weren't sitting next to each other. I think there were four other peopl in my car. Brittany and I should have just sat next to each other but we didn't know it was going to be so empty I guess. Anyways, we got served a lovely breakfast and the staff serving were so nice and accomodating. I was surprised when they wheeled the cart by with the croissants and rolls and held them for you to take one that you got to take both and then they came by later and let you get seconds. I of course did lol and was like "Oh! Vraiment? Merci!" and the lady holding the croissant basket laughed at me ha ha.


We were meeting Brittany's friend that day who was also coming into Gare du Nord so we stayed around the area, I went to the atm for my last withdrawal and we went to pick up Marilyn. By time I met her, I felt as if we had met before because I had heard about her so much from Brittany. I was happy to meet her. She was interesting and funny in a subtle sort of way, and I was very impressed with her life plan. She wants to be an art historian focusing on jewelry art. She has a double major in English and Jewelry Making and was doing an internship in London's V&A Museum (which has an amazing collection of jewelry) under one of the pioneers of the jewelry art movement and one of the first to write about jewelry conceptually while not being a jewelry crafter. Don't know if that makes sense. But Marilyn like set up the whole thing herself. She called this guy after reading is book and was applying for a grant to do an internship and asked if she could work with him. She didn't get the grant but she got the internship. I thought it was impressive.


After we picked up Marilyn, we went out to eat. We went to St. Michel in the latin quarter and walked towards Notre Dame. There is a touristy restaurant called le petit pont nearby where we sat down to eat. It was hilarious. I just ordered a crepe and it came with like a sparkler on it. Then some people down a little ways from us had this giant drink with like a legit firework stuck on it lol. It was pretty funny. Marilyn likes English literature almost as much as Brittany so we went to the Shakespear and Co. Bookstore. After wandering there for a bit, we took a leisurely stroll along the Seine until we came to the Jardin des Plantes. I realized when we got there exactly where we were in relation to Madame's house and felt with great sadness that I was about to leave Paris just as I was getting to know her.

After my sudden revelation of direction within the lovely city, I was able to lead us to Rue Mouffetard where we sat down at a cafe and ordered Orangina which was probably the most expensive drink I have ever had and it's just orange soda!!! It was like four and a half euro. I wouldn't have ordered it if I knew it was going to be that much but they didn't give us a menu when we sat down because we were just getting something to drink. Sheesh, I will never make that mistake again lol. But it was good memories I guess. There was this crazy musician guy standing across the street with his guitar and singing loud for us. I don't think he was French because he was singing all English songs but they do listen to American music a lot so I guess he could have been.

We headed back to Gare du Nord where Brittany and I reloaded our luggage. (The lockers had a 48 hour maximum time) and then we went to Montparnasse where we got on a train to Versailles and thence to Jouey en Josas, where we were staying with Kaitlin for the next couple days. Kaitlin was spending the night in Paris so she met us there after she got done with work and then headed out to meet her friends there. Marilyn, Brittany and I went to the local grocery store called "Simple" and bought some picnic foods. We sat out on a little patio that Kaitlin shared with the people who's backyard apartment she lived in. It was so picturesque. I felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast, like in some cute little French town. Oh, I miss it.

And, as always, pictures:

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le 30: Belgium

Brittany and I left Madame's over an hour before we had to catch our train to Brussels but we still managed to miss the train. It just took too much time carrying those gigantic bags in the metro which is horribly inaccessible for those with large and heavy suitcases or other impediment to climbing innumerable stairs really (isn't public transportation supposed to be accessible???).

But really what it came down to was the huge line at the train station at the ticket office and only 4 people working. One thing Americans do well that the French lack is efficiency. Really? Four people in an international train station on the eve of France's month of holidays and vacations? We put our larger suitcases in train station lockers and coughed up some extra euros to get tickets for the next train.

We had a decent ride there and arrived in Brussels with no idea of what to do next lol. We realized that we were quite unprepared. We only had a vague idea of what we were going to do based of an itinerary my friend who studied in Brussels had written for one of his friends who came to visit.

After walking around the station for a few minutes, we found a place to buy tickets to Bruges. The tickets were substantially more expensive than we had anticipated but not terribly unreasonable so we coughed up those euros too. We ended up buying this youth train pass that the lady told us was cheaper than the regular tickets and if I happen to be in Belgium, I can use the pass I bought again (highly unlikely that that will be the case but who knows what could happen).

On the train ride to Bruges, a little girl Clara sat in front of us with her grandmother. She kept turning around and playing with Brittany and I and we tried to talk to her in French but sometimes she was hard to understand. I don't know if that was because Brittany's and my French was bad or if she had a funny accent or if she just couldn't prononciate well being only about to turn 4. Or a combination of those options. She had a little Goofy doll she was playing with so I got the doll I bought Gretel out of my bag and played with her for a bit. Clara loved the doll and was sad when I put her back in my bag.

We got to the Bruges train station and went to the information desk to make sure we the train times for coming back to Brussels and stowed some stuff in lockers there. We got a 50 euro centime map of Bruges and headed out the door. To our surprise and pleasure, we found out that Bruges is a small city, and very easy to walk. We ate some pricey waffles that tasted more like cake than breakfast but I was ok with that :) . Waffles are more of a desert in Europe, sometimes they sold them at crepe stands in France with nutella or fruit.

We saw a shop called DIDI and I had to buy my sister something from it because that is her nickname. Then we found the main square with the Belfry tower. I felt like I was at Disneyland but it was real life. It was mostly funny to me and I exclaimed in disbelief, "What is this?" Brittany was like, "This is Bruges." We just stood there for a while taking it in and spinning around in the middle of the square to take in all the colors and architectural details on the Gothic buildings.

We decided to climb the stairs to the top of the Belfry. I am glad that Europe has discounts for students and youth because it was like eight euro normally which would have been a rip off but for those under 26 it was only four! It is motivation to go back to Europe in before I get past my mid twenties for sure. It is much cheaper that way and the cheap way is still assez cher. But anyways, the Belfry was pretty cool. The stairs were very narrow, windy, and steep. I felt like I was basically crawling up them at some points. The view from the top was beautiful and we stopped on a level to see the giant music box like contraption that plays the bells every 15 minutes. On some special occasions, the bells are still played manually.

After our descent, we wandered through streets looking in chocolat shop windows. They were all different and yet the same. Some were cute and whimsical with chocolat ducks and shells and others displayed their impressive selections of pralines. Some had pretty displays dressed with boxes and bows like jewelery stores. On our way, we decided to impulsively take an hour boat tour. There is a river/canal that goes through the center of the city (it seems pretty like the cool thing to have in your city in Europe ha ha, of course because that is how civilizations developed, around water but anyways, it is something different and charming). Our tour guide spoke English, Dutch, and French and said all his informational blurbs and jokes in all three. Pretty impressive but I could see it getting really old for him after two boat tours lol. Brittany and I loved it.

After our lovely tour, we went to the Church of our Lady and saw Madonna and Child by Michaelangelo. They had a lot of really cool art in that church and even a small museum with admission fee. We just stayed in the free part of the church and admired the workmanship as Brittany explained some Catholic beliefs and ordinances to me. It was all pretty fascinating actually.

We wandered through a few more chocolat stores and I bought some chocolat gifts and we decided to head back to the train station. We made it back to Brussels around 7:00 and were once again completely clueless as to what to do next. We had a hotel reserved but didn't exactly know how to get there lol. Luckily the girl at the tourism booth was extremely helpful. She gave us excellent directions and we took a short metro ride and walked less than five minutes to our hotel.

The hotel was surprisingly nice and had free wifi, something we didn't notice when booking so that was a pleasant surprise as well. We checked in and relaxed for a while. We had a rough morning so it felt good to just lay on our beds for a few minutes and check email.

As our need for rest gave way to our hunger, we decided to head out in search of Belgium's traditional meal of mussels and french fries our as the French say, Moules Frites. We saw some places very close to our hotel and didn't feel like walking to the center of the town because we weren't exactly sure how far that was in addition to the fact that we were very hungry so we sat ourselves down and orderd a moules frites to share as per Madame's recommendation that the dish is large and perfect to split. The moules were great and the fries even better. We ate them with mayonnaise instead of ketchup and I think I will do that forever. It was good. I know it sounds disgusting and fatty but trust me, just try it. Maybe get some European mayonnaise first though... I don't know if french fries and Miracle Whip or Best Foods would yeild the same taste. (I just have to have a disclaimer in case you don't like it :-P)

After our yummy Belgiun dinner, we walked towards the Grand Place, the center of the city. Luckily the city was tiny and so it took us like five minutes even though looking at a map you'd think it was like a twenty minute walk. Brussels is pretty at night and pretty quiet until you get to the Grand Place. There was a light show on it with music, and I got the impression that it is a regular occurance. I wonder if they do it every night. Brittany got some ice cream and I bought a waffle and we sat down to watch the show. After the show was over, we walked through some more central streets. It was a lot more lively there and there were more restaurants and greater selection of cheaper mussels so we were kind of upset that we hadn't walked down here earlier. It was a lot more happening and there were people actually out and about walking through the streets through the colorful shops and restaurants.

We didn't stay out too late because we had to walk back to our hotel alone but we actually felt very safe. We didn't really see any shady people or anything really and the streets were very lit up. But we were also tired and needed our rest.

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