Spain, Barcelona: July 10th

Barcelona is so beautiful!! I can't get enough of the architecture, the colorful apartment buildings, and the simple lifestyle. It's so much more relaxed and calmer here compared to Paris! I'm loving it!!

Today we did lots of exploring down cute streets, visited the Pablo Picasso museum, saw a cathedral, relaxed, attempted to talk to our new friend who lives at the place we are staying at who speaks Spanish, waited for Alex's man to email her from the MTC while we were in wifi, and had kebab for dinner! It was our first day that wasn't super structured and it was nice to have a little down time. 

Exploring! 

I couldn't stop taking pictures as we saw so many dreamy streets! I had to really control my desire to take pictures of everything and everyone! Haha

Me and Tony

While Alex was taking a picture of me on the street, Antonio did some hand signal to me, apparently people do that here to show interest, and said that I was pretty. He came over and asked to take a picture with me. Alex was enjoying this moment a little too much and already had the camera ready and I couldn't resist this toothless man's charm... So we took this picture! After that we introduced ourselves, he gave some nice compliments, and went on his way! He seemed to be a great guy, but I don't think things would work out between us with the language barrier. Unfortunately, my high school Spanish skills don't get me very far! Bummer!

Church of Santa Ana

 

Pablo Picasso Museum

This museum was really cool! I wish we could've taken pictures inside so you could see. This museum had a collection of Picasso's artwork from when he lived in Spain from age 12-24. After this period of time he left to Paris and his work took off! It was really interesting to see the progression of his artwork and watch it evolve into the style of work he is known for. What a creative and talented individual!! 

Since I couldn't take pictures in the gallery I took some of the post cards in the gift shop. Haha!

Trip to the market:

What a fun experience! I wish we had more markets in the states! Don't get me wrong, I've gained greater appreciation of stores like Walmart and Target while I've been out here! I love that you can go to one place and get everything! It's nice to have so much fresh food in one place though. It's crazy to think that the market is a part of people's normal, every day routine!

The dead fish grossed me out. They just lay there staring at you... Sick!

Paris, France: July 8th

On this morning we were supposed to go on a "Secrets of Paris" bike tour... But we ended up going on our own adventure because we were given the wrong address. Haha! Alex and I had to take the subway to a farther part of Paris and then were searching for the street this bike company was supposed to be on. We couldn't find it on the map or around us so I did what any normal lost tourist would do... Asked anybody I could! In total I asked 7 different people including a man at a cafe, 3 taxi drivers, and anybody who looked helpful! We were desperate because we didn't want to miss the tour! Most people had never heard of the street. The secretary at Best Western hotel was the most helpful and printed directions for us. What an angel! 

We got to the super small street and found the address, which didn't have any sign of a bike tour place. I asked some men at a local grocery store and they hadn't heard of it. One of the guys was super nice and let us borrow his phone and call the company. The lady who answered said we were at their main headquarters office and that there's a different meeting spot. I guess we didn't get that email and only got an email with the other address. Pretty annoying! We were bummed to miss it, but it was a funny experience. We learned that we are two determined ladies and that we can have just as much fun being lost as we can biking around Paris! Haha! It was cool to see how nice people are with helping us find our way. We were grateful to make a few new friends and that we were able to get a refund for the tour we paid for online. :)

Close to the area we were led to by the wrong address, we found a cute bakery to have lunch in. It was a nice change to be out of the main city of Paris and see the calmer parts.  

It also rained quite a bit today... Here I am with my trusty umbrella! Hahaha! 

Palace of Versailles 

At the Palace of Versailles Alex and I had a great time seeing how royalty used to live. Before we got in we waited in line for about two hours... Even with a fast pass! Half of the time it was pouring rain! That was pretty entertaining! Luckily it stopped after a while and we were able to dry off a bit before we went inside.

 Everything there is so beautiful!! It's unreal! We toured the Hall of Mirrors and the Grand Apartments.

The gardens are amazing!!

Another Eiffel Tower visit!

Overall, we had a great time in Paris! It was unfortunate it rained quite a bit while we were here, but that also created some really funny memories! Tomorrow we are taking a 7 hour train ride to Barcelona, Spain! Hello gorgeous weather and Spanish speakers! Can't wait!! :)

Paris, France: July 7th

Today we started off with a fun journey to the train station to reserve our tickets to Barcelona. We thought this would be a quick thing... Boy were we wrong. We ended up circling the huge station a couple times trying to find the "international tickets station" that a worker told us to find. We kept looking for a sign that said something to that effect in French and couldn't find it. We asked at least 4 people before someone understood us well enough and spoke clear enough English to send us to the right place. Then when we got to the ticketing area, that didn't have a "international ticketing" sign, we waited in line for over an hour. This made for a good time to have lunch and write in my journal. So this took the place of a museum, but was a funny experience.

The Louvre

Seeing all types of ancient art at The Louvre was incredible!! It made me wish I could remember everything I learned in my art history class from my freshman year of college! The highlights were seeing the real Mona Lisa painting and Aphrodite.

Modern Art Museum

Not much to say for this place besides the fact it was pretty unique and very odd. The coolest part was a chalk board exhibit that we could draw on! 

Arc de Triumphe

Only had to climb, what felt like, 1,000 stairs to see this gorgeous view from on top of the arc! 

Just trying to blend in:

Paris, France: July 6

The French Men

Our first real day in Paris started off with a nice confidence boost! First thing in the morning we hit the subway station headed towards central Paris. As we were transferring trains and going up on an escalator, a young man comes up to Alex and says, "Excusez-moi" and then starts mumbling out something in French. Alex replied, "Sorry, no French." She thought she was in his way and leans away and scoots closer to the side. He then leaned in closer and said, "English?" Alex, "Yes!" Then he said with a French accent, "You are very beautiful." :) (Side note: this made me really happy. Not only do we both agree that she is gorgeous, but I was also happy it was her and not me!! Haha! Last time I got an old man at Wimbledon hitting me on and wanting to fly and meet us somewhere on our trip. Haha... Not happening.) 

Then him and his friend start talking to us with their basic English asking us where we are from and trying to get our numbers. (I thought I was off the hook until his friend Steve came into the picture.) We told them our phones didn't work because we don't have service here. Then they ask, "You have Facebook?" Darn, they got us. Who doesn't have a Facebook?! Us, "Uhh... Yeah..." So Alex's man pulls out his phone and has her type her name into FB. Luckily my guy didn't have his phone and just asked for my email. Then they asked the key question, "Do you have a man?" Us, "Yeah! We have boyfriends, sorry." They were slightly bummed, but it still didn't stop them from telling us both we are beautiful and trying to add us on Facebook. 

As we said goodbye they first gave us a high five, then talked to us a little more and we gave them a hand shake, and then Alex's man started coming in towards me for a kiss! Ahh!!! I had no idea what was happening!! He was getting closer and closer and I was frozen thinking, "Why me?! You were picking up on Alex!" But then he gave me a kiss on each cheek. Still pretty uncomfortable, but I suppose some people do that in Paris? Hopefully? That guy then did the same to Alex and then his friend followed in his footsteps and kissed both of us on the cheeks. (Full contact, not just the noise and motion like normal). Although they were really nice guys, we felt pretty weird after that encounter. Sorry Andrew and Zach! Haha! We did our best to escape!

Notre Dame

The first stop we made was to Notre Dame! It is gorgeous inside and out! We got to see church going on inside and it looked like a Cathoic mass. It's amazing being in such ancient buildings! An interesting fact I learned was that when constructing the building the men would use a human-size hamster wheel contraption to use as a crane to lift the stone. Crazy! Thank goodness for modern technology!

It rained quite a bit while we were in Paris! It made things slightly more inconvenient, but way more hilarious as we ran around trying to avoid getting soaked. 

St. Chappell

This is a chapel that has the Old Testament stories all the way up to Christ's cricifiction in the stain glass images! 

This picture is one of the most important because it is of Jesus Christ with the thorns on his head representing his crucifiction. I'm amazed at how they could show these stories with glass images. They also only used 4 colors!

Eiffel Tower

We loved our visit to the Eiffel Tower! This was a moment where I had to pause and soak in the fact that I am in Paris at a place I've only dreamed about visiting. It was very surreal to be standing under the Eiffel Tower and convincing myself that this is real and that I am actually experiencing this! I feel so blessed!!

Funny experience: I asked an Asain man to take a picture of Alex and I in front of the Eiffel Tower. He said yes and took a pretty bad picture of us. Haha! Then in broken English he held out his camera and said, "You take picture?" I replied, "Of course!" I reached out for his camera assuming he wanted me to take a picture of him in front of the Eiffel Tower in return. Nope! He handed his Alex his itouch and motioned for me to take the picture with him. Alex and I were so confused! Once we figured out what he was wanting each of us to do my new friend and I posed for the picture that Alex took for us! Haha! If we knew this was going to happen I would've capitalized on the opportunity and got a picture on my camera too, but I didn't think of that in the moment. Biggest regret of the trip so far! Haha! Before we parted he showed me the picture and said, "Very nice! Thank you!" I said your welcome, said goodbye, and watched my new BFF walk away into the distance. 

Escargot (snail):

Couldn't have the real Paris experience without trying some escargot! I thought it was pretty good! 

London to Paris: July 5th

After our amazing time in London we were sad to say good-bye! Luckily we had Paris to look forward to, so it really wasn't that hard to leave. On Saturday morning we woke up super early, around 4am, to pack up our bags and take "the underground" (aka: subway) to our bus station. We then rode a bus for the next 8 hours to PARIS!! I am super grateful the bus had wifi because Alex slept the entire time and I could only sleep for 2 hours! I was super jealous of her sleeping abilities! I was able to update the blog, catch up with Lex and Andrew a bit, and took in a lot of different scenery throughout the drive. 

Things got pretty interesting once we made it to Paris... We weren't quite sure how to find the subway and then once we stumbled upon it we had no clue which rail to take to get our place outside of the city. The language barrier made things a lot more complicated. We ended up figuring it out, getting on all the right subways, and making it to our place safely. What a relief! 

That night we walked around the town we are staying in called Champigny. We also had dinner and then solidified our plans for the next few days! Can't wait to explore more of Paris!

Backpacking through Paris! 

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To wrap up the London part of our trip I wanted to write about a few things that were different compared to the states!

Different words on signs:

America --> London, England

Exit --> way out

Restroom --> toilets

Take out food --> take away

Subway --> the underground 

(I'm sure there are so many more... I just can't think of them right now.)

Other notable differences:

- people driving on the left side of the road

- drivers on the right side of the car

- getting used to saying pents and not cents

- holding the fork pointing down

- walking on the left side of the sidewalk (so hard to remember!)

- crazy drivers and even crazier pedestrians crossing the street whenever they want

- precious little cars that look old fashion

London, England: July 4th

Highlights: Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, fish & chips, and WIMBLEDON!

Buckingham Palace

At Buckingham Palace we were able to see the changing of the guards! It was cool seeing the men in the red suits and fuzzy hats playing instruments. They formed a really impressive band. I was trying to imagine what the job qualifications must be for that job... Trained intensely in the military and part of the marching band in high school? Either way, they must be cool fellas! 

Honestly, we were pretty distracted from the actual event because of how crazy the tourists were. Some of them are really intense. As we are standing in a crowd a small Asian man shoved into Alex to get in front of her and then ended up directly behind me, shouting some language in my ear. I assumed he was talking to his family behind him in the crowd... But he could've easily been telling me to move or something. Too bad I couldn't understand him! Haha! It's really interesting being in that kind of touristy spot because you hear SO MANY different languages and accents. You also come across many different personalities as well. You have to love the diversity!

This picture can give you a glimpse at how many people show up to this! It's insane! 

The flag being up means that the queen is home. :)

St. James Park

Eating apples, talking, enjoying the nice weather, and people watching. 

We had to try some fish & chips to get the full England experience! It was "fantastic" and "simply splendid"!

Next we were off to Wimbledon!!!

It was so surreal to be at Wimbledon! I would've never believed anyone if they told me 6 months ago that I would have this kind of opportunity! Once again, Alex and I were like giddy kids on Christmas Day! 

We stood in a line for about 2 hours to get in and made friends with the people around us. We also got to play some mini tennis during the wait! It took some convincing to get Alex to play with me, but once a cute English boy told her it was just "a fun, casual knock around" Alex couldn't resist! The funny part is that there are a ton of people watching while they are waiting in line. We played on a tiny, fake grass court with squishy balls. Let's just say that our normal tennis skills did not transfer over. I could hardly play because my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. We called it quits when Alex served and almost hit a couple girls standing in line to play! Hahaha! This moment is by far the funniest of the trip so far! I'm sure the people watching us in line got a good laugh at the crazy American girls!

 

Now we can say we played tennis at WIMBLEDON!! Here are some pictures from our intense match! ;)

After having a "casual knock around" for the fans and "queuing" (waiting) in line for a while, we finally made it inside, just in time to see Federer's match against Raonic. It was the coolest experience ever getting to sit with the fans on the hill outside the center court and watch the semi-finals game on the big screen at Wimbledon! Federer won and is going to the finals! I just wish the rest of my family and boyfriend could've been there to enjoy it with me! We are all tennis fans!

I can now check this off my bucket list! :)