Twins Take on Paris (Saturday and Sunday)

So the twins got in on Saturday at 6:30am. They came straight to my apartment and we all slept until like 11, since they hadn't slept at all on the plane. When we woke up, I had bought my fave microwave fondue, so I ran down to the corner and grabbed a baguette and we had some cheese fondue and caught up at my apartment.

Since we were in the neighborhood, we headed up to Sacre Coeur. I couldn't remember whether or not I had actually been in the basilica, so we checked that out and then sat outside for a bit before heading back through Montmartre.

Next we headed down to Pigalle, which is like the Red Light District of Paris. No prostitution (legally, at least) but lots of sex shops, sex shows, and of course the Moulin Rouge. Here is the only picture I took that day:


The Sexodrome decorated for Christmas! Everyone is feeling the holiday spirit! The twins took more pictures. I say this collectively, because while it was Amelia's camera, I think Hayley took the most pictures. When they go up I'll be sure to share.

Then we headed back to the apartment, where we tried to meet up with my friend Melanie, and her friend Megan who was visiting from Barcelona. Megan wanted to buy some tea, and I have a really nice tea shop between my metro and my house, so I sent them there. An hour later they called us back, they had been in the shop the whole time! So at this point they were about a 5 minute walk from my house, and I went to wait outside to let them in (I have 2 door codes and a key to get in, very safe!). I waited for about 10 minutes, then realized they should have been there. I went back in to get my phone, and the twins said Melanie had called and she was lost. My phone can't call out, so I had to wait for her to call AGAIN so she could get to my house! My neighborhood is confusing.

Anyway, eventually they came over, we hung out for a bit, the twins met my roommate Jennifer, and then we went to the hotel. The hotel was really nice! I mean, not REALLY nice, but considering I had only stayed in 2-star hotels in Paris and this was a 3-star, I was pretty impressed. There was one big bed, and two small beds. I will NOT call them twin beds, because they were waaaaay thinner than a twin. Seriously, if I was laying on my back and tried to roll onto my side, I had to be careful not to roll out of bed.

So we left Amelia in the hotel because she was exhausted, and Hayley and I went to try and find Pizza Hut. Ridiculous? Yes. But we love Pizza Hut, so we looked it up on their website and walked to the closest one listed. It was WEIRD AS HELL and it looked like it was only for pick up and delivery, like no one would take our order. So on the twins first night in Paris we had McDonalds in the hotel. I do not regret it.

The next day we slept in because the twins were jet lagged, and because I am lazy. We left the hotel around 11 and walked down rue de Rivoli toward Angelina's. We walked through the courtyard of the Louvre (again, they have the pictures) and then headed back toward rue de Rivoli and got what we were looking for:


Chocolat chaud, yeeeeah! Amelia doesn't do chocolate (I know, right???) so she had a hot vanilla thing that tasted like melted, hot whipped cream aka delicious.
Also we got food:

Hayley had a club sandwich

I went for the quiche Lorraine
And we were in our own little room, so it wasn't even ridiculously embarrassing to take pictures!


The we decided to cut through the Tuileries to get to the Musee d'Orsay, which in all of my trips to Paris I had NEVER been to! But it was freezing rain, and horribly cold, so we tried not to look too miserable.

SEE THE FERRIS WHEEL??? It's at Place de la Concorde. There are TONS of pictures of it in my slideshow because I'm obsessssssed. Oh yeah, and Amelia is in that picture too.

Then we waited in a really long line in the cold and rain to finally get into the museum


Saw some art



Saw the ferris wheel again!


Saw a room we want:



Then we went to the Orangerie (the one that my roommate Lia won tickets to once, but I found out I can get in for FREE!)

THEN I FINALLY GOT TO GO ON THE FERRIS WHEEL

I was THIS excited:


Don't ask my why Hayley's chin is in the air


yeeeah, we kind of picked a bad day. And by we I mean I. But I just couldn't wait!

Then Hayley ate a hot dog.


Then we went back to the hotel and found Pizza Hut. I'm not even kidding, and again I do not regret it. It was delicious.
And that was then end of the first weekend.

C'Tis the Season!

So, I had great intentions of updating about my sisters' visit while they were here, but I forgot my camera cord at the apartment. I could have gone to get it, but the hotel we were staying at was by school, which is like 45 minutes from my apartment and it didn't seem worth it to me. So now I have a lot of pictures to upload, lots of entries to write, and lots of resting to do, because I'm getting sick.

But it's starting to look like Christmas here (decorations are up! It snowed last weekend!) and so I am in the holiday spirit. You may or may not know that I LOVE Christmas. I really, really do. So I picked a few of my favorite songs from the 220 song (yes, literally) Christmas Music playlist, and created a little mix for you all.


(click for the larger version)

The songs aren't in any real order, but they're either some of my favorite songs, favorite artists, or songs that remind me of friends and family. If you know how to download mixes, enjoy! Just follow the think to the MediaFire page, and click on the link to download. I used MediaFire all the time and I promise it won't destroy your computer.

Anyway, enjoy!
C'Tis the Season!

And I promise I am working on pictures and real blogs in the very near future

Praha

I LOVED Prague. I really want to go back. We were only there for 2 days, which was not nearly enough time.

Our train got in super early, like 6:30am. We got out the directions our hostel had sent us, which said they were walking distance from the train station. I guess we must have been at a different train station, or something, because the people at the information desk told us we had to use the metro. At that point we were in trouble, because we didn't actually have a map, just directions for how to get to the hostel. We found some guy at the station we were sent to who basically pointed up (duh, we were underground) and told us we were close to where we needed to go.

So we take the escalators up to the street, and what do we see? Golden. Arches. Our hostel didn't even open until 9am, so we had some time to kill. We decided finding the hostel was not a priority, and instead followed the signs to a huge McDonalds.

Oh yeah. Obviously we ordered breakfast and sat down for a bit. At this point we really had no clue where we were in relation to our hostel, so I said, "Well, let's just go this way."

I was wrong. I led us up a hill before Jesse realized that we should probably ask for directions. So she did. And the guy pointed us back toward McDonalds. Back at McDonalds we asked two more men for directions, both of whom pointed us in a different direction than the first. We chose the person who said, "See that building there? Walk to it."



So we ended up in Wenceslas Square. It took about 5 more people before we finally found the hostel, only to be told that check in wasn't until 2pm. So we dropped off our bags at reception and headed back out, this time with a map from the receptionist and a list of key Czech words.

We found ourselves once again we found ourselves on the street. We took a few minutes to and and look at the little market outside our hostel

before deciding it was too cold for that. We headed to a little cafe-ish place for pastries and coffee while we planned out our day. Jesse is big on shopping, and she had asked a friend who lived in Prague to recommend a few vintage stores. So we found the stores on the map and made those our priority for the morning, along with seeing the Charles Bridge.

This first two vintage stores were right near our hostel, then we headed for the river on our way to the third.

We took some pictures from our side, then decided that we would save actually crossing for the next day, when we were going to do the castle.

We walked past the souvenir-y stands along the river and bumped into people we knew! Erin and Elizabeth from CEA were apparently in Prague at the same time we were and happened to be in the same place at the same time!

On our way to the next store we found the town square, with the Astronomical Clock.


We also found a bookstore where I bought 3 children's books. One is in English, Czech and German, another is by Peter Sis, an author I studied in my International Lit class, and the last looks like a poetry book? I don't read Czech, obviously, but the illustrations were soooo cool.

Next came more food! We found someplace with a fixed-price menu that was less than $10US for an entree, dessert, and half a litre of beer.

Yep, still in my pajama shirt. We couldn't change at the hostel so I was still wearing the shirt I slept in.

Okay I officially love Czech food.

A fried block of cheese (giant cheese stick, pretty much) with tartar sauce, french fries and a little salad.


A crepe with custard, whipped cream, ice cream, and chocolate sauce.

At this point we were able to go back to the hostel and check in. Our room was great, we had a six-person room (that was actually two rooms and a bathroom) all to ourselves, which was great. It had a fridge and an electric kettle, too! After all of that food and beer, and having "slept" on the train and woken up at 6:30 we were exhausted and took a nap basically until it was time to eat dinner.

For dinner we walked back to the town square. There were a bunch of booths set up selling food like sausages, and cooked dough and stuff. I got this thing:

Which is chicken and veggies grilled and skewered. Delicious.

After cheap street food, we went to a restaurant for drinks. The girls got hot mulled wine


I had a hot coffee drink. We watched the astronomical clock chime. And then we went back to the hostel and went to bed early.

The next day we woke up and tried to find the Jewish area. We found a couple of synagogues, but that was about it. Oh, and Cartier, where they had already begun to decorate for Christmas!


Then we were starving, so we ate AGAIN

Lamb with rosemary, potato dumplings, and garlic spinach

CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE!

Oh my God, I am such a fat kid.

So then we hit the streets, saw a crazy sculpture


And headed for the bridge. It was actually under construction, but I still got some pictures (more in the slideshow, including some of "The Bridge Band")


On the other side of the bridge we checked out a Starbucks and a book store on our way to the castle! Also on the way to the castle came a billion stairs, which in turn meant lots and lots of pictures. More of those are also in the slideshow.


Then came the castle!

Here I am in front of it! Please note that I am only wearing one mitten. I had the other hand free to take pictures. I'm so glad Lia thought to point it out when we took the photo.

And here is what happened when I tried to go in:


So then I used my impeccable sense of direction to lead us nowhere... we walked around for like 15 minutes and ended up right back where we started, and still had to go back down via the path we had taken up.

I saw Mama in Cinque Terre, in Prague I caught up with Dad:


The walk back over the bridge was not too shabby


That's a good final photo. After that we went back to the street vendors and I had a sausage for dinner. At this point I needed a little bit of cash to get me through the night (and to pay for our cab the next morning). Jennifer and I found an ATM, I out in my card, punched in my PIN and it asked how much money I wanted. I said ~$30US, and instead of giving me money, it told me it was keeping my card and I had to contact my bank. I had put my credit card into the machine, and punched in my debit PIN. So my credit card peaced out in Prague. Luckily I still had my debit, so things are fine, but it's still a hassle.

Once again we headed back to the hostel early because our flight left the next morning at 6:30. We woke up at 4:30 and had a cab come for us at 5:30. Once again, Eastern European cab drivers are insane. This cabbie had seven air fresheners. SEVEN. What could possibly smell so bad that you need SEVEN pieces of cardboard soaked in smelly chemicals? I felt nauseous for a good twenty minutes after we were out of the cab.

Anyway, we got back to Paris in one piece! I had a great fall break, and finished out the weekend by doing absolutely nothing, which is how a school break should end.

Cracovie 2

Auschwitz

This may sound terrible, but I really don't have anything to say here about Auschwitz. I have a lot of private thoughts, but all I have to say here is that if the opportunity presents itself, you should visit. I'm really glad that I did.
Auschwitz was a full day, and the following night was similar to the first: dinner, drinks at the hostel, late night munchies, then back to the hostel to sleep.

The next morning, Lia and I decided to part ways with Jennifer and Jesse. While they headed to the Jewish quarter to shop, Lia and I headed to Wieliczka! The Wieliczka salt mines have been operating since the 13th century.

The inclusive tours, with transportation, weren't running in the morning, and so Lia and I had to navigate there by tram AND bus. There were a bunch of stops for the bus in Wieliczka and we had to ask the bus driver where to get off for the mines. We started to walk the wrong way to look at a sign and he honked at us and everyone on the bus pointed in the direction we had to walk. Pretty sure a few Polish people got a good laugh at us.

The lines to get in were EPIC! You would have thought it was Cedar Point or something. We had to wait in line for over an hour just to buy our tickets, and then even longer until the English-language tour started.
The tour was 3.5 km and covered less than 1% of the mines!

We walked down a billion stairs

(according to Wikipedia it is actually "some 400" but look at that! That's really far down!)



And we saw a bunch of stuff carved out of salt. Some parts looked like a cave, but none of it actually was. They just looked like it because of the path they carved into the salt. There was even a taxidermied horse. Yeah, I just turned "taxidermy" into an adjective.

There were a few chapels.

That is painted wood. It is 200 years old and has never been restored, because the salt is such an effective preservative. Cool, huh?

That was nothing compared to the biggest chapel



The entire thing was carved by just three men-- and only one man at a time!


This recreation of the Last Supper is just slightly more successful that my family's at Thanksgiving '06

I think they had the advantage though. Stone doesn't laugh, and you can carve as many people as you need.

But I digress. Lia took a picture of me

Then we realized that her alignment was less than ideal, and I appeared to be wearing the chandelier as a hat. Hilarious, but a redo was necessary


Also, apparently everyone's fave pope, JPII, once visited! They commemorated this event with a salt statue


Then came a weird light show and an art exhibit. Apparently there is also a boat portion in the works that looked very much like the best scene of Willy Wonka. So basically, the coolest salt mine ever. I could probably live there if I didn't enjoying seeing sunlight every now and then.



Afterward we found a really simple shuttle that cost as much as a tram ticket and it took us directly back to the city.


We met up with Lia and Jesse at the hostel again, ate some more, and then headed for the NIGHT TRAIN! To Prague!


Such a crazy experience, so glad I did it.