Nice is Nice

We are now in the South of France and realizing that we have been on fast forward, when we really need to slow down! We had nowhere to stay and tried a few places with no luck. We decided to run over to a hostel with no vacancy to ask for advice. Lucky for us, they had space! We are now staying in a hostel here. It is 5 floors, traditional on the outside, and Ikea on the inside. We are sharing a 4-person room with 2 sisters from Finland. They are 17 and 18. We took a bus up into the hills of Nice where we stumbled upon a beautiful church (with a dead body!), an amazing hillside park with olive trees, little dogs, and people under umbrellas, the Musee Matisse (art museum), and a whole excavated Roman city! Everything was free and we felt like we hit the jackpot. Also, being on a hill, we had an amazing view of Nice and the Mediteranean (I know, that's probably spelled wrong). We rode the bus back down and somehow ended up a mile in the wrong direction. The bus driver kicked us off but told us he'd come back and give us a free ride in 15 minutes. That's where we met the sweetest old lady. She reminded me of my grandma Betty and was so cute! We began talking to her in French, with the help of our dictionary, and found out she knew absolutely no English. Actually, I do think she said "New York," but that hardly counts. She taught us words and we were all laughing together. It was definitely one of the best experiences thus far. When the bus driver finally rescued us we began looking for some cheap food. My goal is 3euro for breakfast, 5 for lunch, and less than 10 for dinner. Hunter, on the other hand, just eats whatever. We ate at a little Italian place with awesome pizza and paninis. We're going back tonight for gelato. We haven't gotten to the beach yet, but we're shooting for tonight and tomorrow. Hunter is still passed out, but I'm ready! We'll be in Nice tonight (and I'M hoping tomorrow).

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Sorry, I'm back! Hunter is napping and I already showered and did my laundry, so it's back to blogging about Paris! So we left our bags at the hostel and hit the market. There was a market for every type of food: pastries, meat, fish, bread, produce. There were also many antique anf thrift stands. It was a dream come true! And unlike America, where only old people and weirdos go to markets, all the Parisians come out to shop. Everyone buys all their food and pulls it around in little shopping bags with wheels. Almost everyone you see at any time has a long piece of bread under one arm. We decided to buy a boat ticket, which allowed a full day of cruising the Siene, hopping along all the tourist spots. I thought I'd seen a lot of Paris beauty, but I hadn't seen anything. Notre Dame is huge and so beautiful! We want to go back and see the roof and gargoyles. The Louvre is even bigger, and I never knew that Napoleon once lived there. It was late, so we decided to visit another time and headed to the Arc de Triumph. Along the way was an awesome obelisk. We'd bought a train ticket and decided to get ready to leave. We didn't want to but every place we tried was totally booked. We bought a couchette bed in a ten-hour train to the South Coast. We were dead by the time we boarded. We shared with an old French man and a young couple. I fell asleep quickly, but Hunter tossed an turned all night. We woke up eaely and met a nice family of 6 from Queen Creek, AZ who traveling Europe. So far, the South is beautiful. All the houses are pink with red roofs and swimming pools. The beaches are rocky and the water's clear blue, like Florida.

Paris: Take Two

I woke up early and showered while Hunter slept in. We had a yummy breakfast at the hostel and headed out in search of a new placw to stay. We stumbled upon a whole street market. My backpack was already killing me so we decided to head back to the hostel and watch our bags (Right now we're sitting on a park bench talking to the coolest old lady who speaks NO English! She's so sweet!)

The City of Lights

Paris was our first night in a hostel and our first chance to catch our breath. We slept in a room with 6 bunks. Hunter and slept head-to-head on the top. All the kids were *merican in our room: Philly, Brooklyn, and Kansas. There was also a girl from Australia who's been living in various hostels for 6 years! Everything was clean and we even got free breakfast, which was bread and jam, and cereal with warm milk. The only downside were the showers, which turned off every 30 seconds and were extremely tiny. (It's Sunday and Hunter hasn't showered since Thursday haha) That night we walked to the Eiffel Tower and watched it light up. It's beautiful and a lot bigger than I'd imagined. What was awesome was the people. Hundreds of young Parisians sat in the grass around the Tower, riding up on mopeds, drinkning wine, smoking cigarettes, laughingN singing, and eating. It was something you'd never see in the US. We decided to save going to the top of the Tower for another time because we were exhausted. Oh and I forgot the drama: our phone wouldn't work in Paris, we were both tired/grouchy, couldn't get to Nice, and were starving. We got a good Indian meal and felt a little better. Then Carol got a hold of her French customer who really helped us out. It was a good night in Paris.

Paris, hostels, and overnight trains

I am writing in the darkness of a couchette on an overnight train headed for Nice, France...

French Trains are Tricky

So apparently you need reservations to ride high speed trains and main lines. Since we didn't know, we are now stuck on an incredibley slow train headed for Paris. Oh and our situation wasn't helped by the fact that our phone was an hour off local time, meaning we slept in until 8 instead of 7. Once we get to Paris we don't know what to do. We were supposed to be in Nimes tonight, but that probably isn't going to happen. That means we lose 32euro on the hostel we booked, since we wouldve had to cancel at 6pm last night.Maybe we'll get to Nimes, maybe not. Maybe we'Ll do Normandy instead. We're bummed but trying to keep our hopes up.

30 Minutes in Dover

Now I've seen the cliffs of Dover. Ecerything is Great Britain is GREEN! On top of the cliffs is an amazing castle and tunnels are cut under it. You can see little windows carved out. I want to tour it on our way back. We would've missed our ferry if it hadn't been 15 min late. Yikes! We were 2 of only 6 foot passengers. Most others drove cars or freight trucks. We met a guy named Josh who was from Texas. He was a little different, but a really nice guy. After the ferry we walked to Calais with him, when suddenly a woman pulled over in her car to help us. Her name was Nancy and she gave us a tiny tour of town as we drove to our hotel. She was so sweet she even took Josh back to her house so he could use her internet. Our room was tiny, yellow, and had bunk beds. We were happy to shower and sleep... But we should've looked at the train schedules...

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We were running late to the train station but managed to meet Brian's family. They live in a really cute, traditonal home. It's made out of flint and brick. Everything was colorful and embellished. Brian's wife made us homemade quiche and salad. It was amazing. On the way to the train station we drove through downtown London, which I think was the West End. It was filled with many colorful people and beutiful old buildings. When Brian parked the car he paid with his cell phone, so interesting. Also, you never seen big trucks or SUVs likw you do in the US! The train station is confusing, especially since we tried to get on the underground one. Finally, with less than 5 minutes to go, we made it on our train to Dover. We are both really excited to spend our last few days with Brian's family. :)

Travels so far...

Our plane was amazing. We had 70 movies to choose from and tons of tv to watch. We even got cute little gift bags with socks, eye masks, and blankets. Even the food was surprisingly good: Chicken, pasta, a salad, roll, and dessert. The ride was smooth and actually pretty quick, though the seats were way too small to sleep in. We arrived on time but were delayed by the airport, they didn't have a terminal for us. When we got off we were given some trouble by the immigration officer for not knowing Brian's address. We just crossed everything out and went through another lady who didn't ask so many questions. Brian was waiting for us outside and took us home in his tiny Toyota. It's so weird driving on the wrong side of the road! Plus, people from London drive so differently. Everyone tailgates, speeds, and never stops, everything is roundabouts.

Stuck in Calais

So we're stuck in Calais. Apparently it's a huge holiday here so all the trains are booked. Our only option is getting to Paris at 4. So much for Nimes. We'll try for tomorrow but who knows, we may not be making it to the festival at all.

Safe and Sound in Calais, France

We are ready to sleep! Write a ton in the morning, don't worry! P.S. We made an American friend on the ferry and we rescued by a monderful French woman who showed us the sights and drove us to our hotel :)

I'm letting Nick create a post...

hi my arm got broked

Planning for the trip!

Hey everyone (aka our parents)!

This is a test-drive of the blog... I'm just adding the link to our intinerary, which I'll try to fill in as much as possible! There's a possibility that this will be a total failure, but if not, it might be kinda cool!

Check it out:

http://www.tripit.com/trip/public/id/80F505D8EE33D15072EDA41D659AF1AE