The Amazing Race: Family Edition - Day 1

"Arrivals"

Ever since I found out my sisters would be coming to visit me in Europe I had been planning our reunion. It would start with me running up to them at baggage claim with presents and Cokes in hand. We would do the bises and I would welcome them to London.

And then I didn't wake up to my alarm.

There was no Coke, no bises, and no welcome to London. Luckily, I had wrapped the presents before going to bed.

Before you judge me for being such an awful sister, you should know that my plane was delayed by about three hours and instead of getting to London at 22:00 I got in around 1:30. My sisters arrived three and a half hours later at 5:00.

The rest of the day was spent finding our hostel, canceling our reservation, wandering with backpacks in tow to four other hostels before finally checking in to a less-sketchy but still sketchy hostel, hanging out with Peter Pan for four hours, and falling asleep at the only restaurant that sells waffles past 9:30 PM.

I guess that's what happens when you plan a full day of sightseeing for three girls on no sleep.

The Amazing Race - Day 25

"Dream Come True"

On my first day of French Culture and Civilization, the professor gave a lecture about events happening around France. She covered the entire year, but I stopped paying attention around April because I wasn't supposed to be here after that. However, when she mentioned the Cannes Film Festival in May I found myself paying attention. And taking notes. The Cannes Film Festival is a big deal. Important people go there and do stuff with film. I took notes about how to get into the festival even when you don't have tickets, where the best place was to go star gazing (celebrity stars, not night stars as I originally thought) and why the festival is important. And then I tuned her out again.

Over the next four months, I forgot about the Cannes Film Festival.

One evening my host mom and I started talking about everywhere I was planning on traveling. When I mentioned Nice, she asked if I would be going to the Cannes Film Festival. Suddenly I remembered Cannes and how much I wanted to go there. We finished dinner and then I ran upstairs to check the dates of the Festival against when I would be in Nice. I was going to arrive two days late.

But when you're that close, changing your plans is worth it. Actually, I probably would have changed my plans no matter what.

My first morning in Nice I woke up nice and early for my hostel's free breakfast before heading to Cannes. As luck would have it, I got to sit next to one of the Festival's short film directors from LA. He even had a badge.

I figured if I was running into directors at my hostel in Nice, it would be a piece of cake to run into stars in Cannes. It wasn't.

Everyone I saw in Cannes was walking around with the same "I'm allowed to go into the Festival" badge I had seen earlier that morning. How was I supposed to know who was actually cool enough to get excited about seeing? Just kidding, I was excited to see (and very jealous of) everyone with a badge.

At one point when I was walking back from the beach, I'm pretty sure I walked behind someone famous. I have no idea who they could have been, but they were carrying two iPhones in one hand.

Just when I was about to give up hope and head back to Nice, I saw a large group of people gathering near some barriers. I wandered over and managed to make my way up to the front right next to the red carpet. An hour later, the stars arrived. Now, I'm not one to drop names, so I'll stick with pictures.

 

Two days later I was back in Cannes for the final night of the festival. Unfortunately, my train was 45 minutes late, and I got stuck on the wrong side of the red carpet where all I could see were the sides of people's faces. Once everyone was seated inside, they used the screen outside to let us commoners watch the closing ceremony of the festival. It was a remarkable experience to not only be there, but also listen to them translate everything into French and understand it.

In 5 years I plan on going back to Cannes. Only next time I'll be one of the privileged many walking around with my own badge.

A Big Thank You / Mes Rêves #9

#9: SCUBA dive at a WWII wreck site ✓

I would like to give a big thank you to the country of Malta for building up my dreams to unrealistic heights and then quite literally smashing those dreams into the rocks.

I am referring, of course, to the WWII wreck site of the HMS Maori, just off the coast of Valletta, where I am now. Unfortunately, the wind is coming from a northeast direction, smashing the waves -- and my dreams -- into the rocks. I might be willing to risk my life anyway, but so far I haven't found a dive shop that will take me out.

The other WWII wrecks are either above my skill level or above my experience.

Lucky for me, my goal does not read "dive a WWII wreck site" as I originally thought, but says dive at a WWII wreck site.

During WWII, Malta was center-stage in the Mediterranean theater of war - literally and figuratively. It's location was ideal for getting supplies to the Allies in North Africa as well as launching an attack on Italy. Consequently, they dealt with some of the heaviest bombing during the war. In fact, Malta holds the record for the heaviest sustained bombing attack - 6700 tons of bombs over 154 days and nights*.

You know what that makes Malta? A WWII wreck site.

Ergo, diving at Malta = diving at a WWII wreck site.

And if that isn't enough, my dive buddy was a marine for 32 years. Which means that I, a WORLD traveler, dove with my buddy, a WAR veteran, TWO times.

Diving in the Mediterranean Sea was really cool - I saw an octopus and jellyfish and even got to go in some caves (don't worry Mom, I made it out alive), but I'm still sad I didn't actually dive a real WWII wreck site.

Current score - Kenna: 0. Malta: 9.

So while Malta may have won the battle, I plan on winning the war. My new life plan involves getting wreck and technical deep certified, going on about 50 more dives, then coming back to Malta and diving not only the HMS Maori, but the Bristol Beaufighter, the Barge X-131, the MV Odile, and the Blenheim Bomber as well.

Next time I come to Malta I will be prepared. And Malta won't know what hit it.

*http://www.visitmalta.com/en/world-war-2

The Amazing Race - Day 13

"Production Issues"

I was bored a couple of days ago and decided to take the time to read the entire Wikipedia post on The Amazing Race. I learned a lot of random stuff about the show. One such thing was production issues - if the producers have problems with the start of a new leg, they'll extend the current pit stop by 24 hours. This gives them time to sort out the problems, but for the viewer, it looks like the race continued as planned.

Today I took a production issue break. Venice is cool, but I pretty much saw the city yesterday, so today I hung out at my hostel's pool all day. I fixed a few problems with my itinerary, relaxed, and got a whole lot of sun.

Continuing with the random, useless facts, your fingers get wrinkly in water because it gives you a better grip on slippery objects underwater. (Courtesy of GoogleFacts)

Finally, did you know Phil Keoghan, the host of The Amazing Race, is from New Zealand? Now you do.

The Amazing Race - Day 12

"How to Pack for 2 Months in Europe - for girls"

There are about a million websites that tell you how to pack for Europe. I know, because I've read most of them. And of the ones I've read, almost none are actually helpful. They usually tell you things like: lay out everything you think you need, then take half as many clothes and twice as much money, or: take clothes you don't mind throwing away. Hello, if I don't mind throwing them away, I've already thrown them away and no longer own them.

As the million and one-th list, I probably don't have any new information to share, but everything on this list I gained from personal experience, so maybe it will be helpful anyway. At the very least, feel free to laugh at what I thought was a good idea to pack for two months of travel.

1. Bring clothes you look good in. You're going to be taking a lot of pictures as you travel around Europe. Don't bring the clothes you're thinking of throwing away, just throw them away and pack cute clothes.

2. Don't pack a lot of clothes. No matter how well you pack, there will come a point when you will consider throwing away every single item in your backpack. The less clothes you have, the less likely you are to throw any of them away. Considering you've packed all the clothes you look best in, this is a good thing.

What exactly is packing light? Personally, I packed a pair of black jeans, a skirt, a dress, two pairs of shorts, five t-shirts, pajamas, and a swim suit. Every couple of days I find myself wearing the exact same outfit I did the day before out of necessity, which I take as a good sign of having packed light.

3. You get two scarves maximum. Maybe you're not a scarf person, but I am. Either way, you do not need more than two scarves. Wear one and pack the other.

4. If you ignored the above advice because scarves are light and you really need that third one, at least have the sense to pack scarves you don't like. Unlike clothes, you can pack scarves you don't like because they won't ruin a picture. Then when you need more room you can start throwing scarves away. (They take up a lot more room than you might think.) Whatever you do, don't pack your three favorite scarves or you'll be stuck with them the whole trip.

5. Check the weather forecast and then pack for the weather you're going to get, not the weather you want. If you choose to ignore the weather forecast because you're an optimist you'll be stuck with exactly one outfit you can wear comfortably in cold weather. This means you'll either going to wear one outfit for two weeks or you'll have to suffer through the cold.

6. If the weather says rain for the entire time you're traveling, pack an umbrella.

7. If you choose to leave the umbrella at home, at least be smart enough to pack a rain jacket.

8. If you don't bring a rain jacket, you're going to need a fleece. (This is the only one I got right.)

9. Even in the summer Europe can be cold, especially in the north, which is why I recommend a fleece. It keeps you warm even when it's wet. Kind of.

However, if you are spending a lot of time in Southern Europe, it is worth it to be cold for a while and avoid having to pack a huge jacket all around Italy. So bring a jacket, but not a huge one. You'll be cold for a while, but you'll survive.

10. Don't pack the new towel you bought while you were studying abroad that you love because

a) it is very hard to find a place to dry a towel in a hostel

b) towels do not smell that great when they don't have the chance to dry before you pack them back into your suitcase

c) it is not fun to dry yourself after you just got clean with a towel that smells weird.

Just sayin'.

11. Yes, you can pack that curling iron. Some people may think this is a waste of valuable space, but some days you'll just want to curl your hair, and that's okay. You're going to Europe, not the wilds of Africa. It's okay to want to look cute.

12. Be careful with shoes. It's easy to go overboard with shoes, especially for a girl. So keep it simple - a pair of closed toes, a pair of flats, and a pair of flip flops that can get wet (for the beach, shower, etc.) No boots and no heavy shoes. At some point you'll try and pack them and wonder why your suitcase is suddenly twice as heavy. I get frustrated enough when I try to pack my converse-like shoes in my backpack and they are about the same size as my flats.

13. Toiletries take up a lot of room. Accept that and move on. No, you can't throw away your shampoo, toothpaste, and brush. Unfortunately those are things you have to carry with you the whole time.

In other news I spent the day in Venice where I finally got to wear a warm weather outfit without being cold. It was a good day.

The Amazing Race - Day 9

"I Still Don't Like Germany"

Of all the countries in Western Europe, Germany was the one I cared the least about. All I've heard about Germany is they drink a lot of beer, so I was pretty much indifferent to the entire country. However, you can't do an amazing race around Europe and not visit Germany.

This morning I did a Free Walking Tour. I've heard so many amazing things about FWTs because you first go on the tour and at the end pay your guide what you think the tour was worth. I have no idea how much a tour is worth, just tell me how much you want me to pay and I'll decide if I think it's worth it.

But I went anyway, expecting to pay between 5 and 10 euros. And then my tour guide made a huge deal about how the tour isn't free, we just pay at the end instead of the beginning. He also made a big deal about how we needed to adjust for cost of living and how long the tour was - how much do you want to get paid for working four hours?

That's a valid question, and it got me thinking. For four hours, I want to be making somewhere around $40. That's more than I want to pay for a walking tour. However, since he's taking 12 of us on the tour, if we each only paid €4, he would still make more than me, even after taxes, and that's not even accounting for the euro-usd exchange rate. (Life is pretty much always like this as a math major.)

So does that mean I can pay €4 for this tour? Of course not, he already told me he expects more than €5.

I ended up paying way more than I wanted to, because the entire tour I was guilted into making sure I tipped well. If I had been on a paid tour, I would have paid the same amount and avoided all the guilt.

Strike one against "free" walking tours.

However, then I went on my paid bike tour of the city. In the rain. In a poncho. Just for future reference, it's a good idea to check the weather before booking a bike tour.

It was a fine tour, minus the soaking wet and cold part. Then we got to the end of the tour and all I wanted to do was go home and take a warm shower, but we had to have an end-of-the-tour goodbye meeting. I probably should have seen it coming -- but didn't -- when suddenly I was told I was expected to tip my guide. And I had to go through the whole process again - what is an appropriate tip for a bike tour? Luckily I only had one small bill in my wallet, so that was the tip. But really, I would have rather had the tip included in the original price so I could know from the beginning what I'm expected to pay. Why is tipping even a thing? Can I start a petition to get rid of tipping?

Strike one against paid tours.

In conclusion, I still don't like Germany. Anything Germany can do, Austria can do better, because Austria is amazing.

The Amazing Race - Day 7 / Mes Rêves #17

 #17: Visit a significant movie site of a movie filmed in Europe (I'm not really sure what this means, but I think I'll know it when I see it) ✓

I originally made this goal with The Sound of Music in mind, but I didn't imagine I would have the chance to make it over to Salzburg. And now here I am.

First of all, some sad news about The Sound of Music - the hill and lake scenes were not filmed in Salzburg, they were filmed 28 km away. So get rid of any ideas you had about singing The Hills Are Alive as you run around the hills. Other than that, it is very easy to get to the sites around Salzburg.

1. Mirabell Gardens: these are found in the city center near Mirabellplatz. This is where parts of Do-Re-Mi were filmed. Highlights include the tunnel they run through and the Pegasus fountain.

2. Catch Bus 25 from Mirabellplatz to Schloss Hellbrunn. (Cost: €2.30)

Schloss Hellbrunn is the current home of the pavilion where Sixteen Going On Seventeen happened, as well as Something Good. Unfortunately they locked it a couple of years ago because someone got hurt trying to recreate The Sound of Music, so now all you can do is see the gazebo in a place that wasn't even in the movie. But it's still pretty cool.

3. Walk to Schloss Frohnburg (about 50 minutes)

Schloss Frohnburg was used as the front of the Von Trapp house because the front of the other house is completely obstructed by trees. The path leading up the the house is also the one where Maria sings part of I Have Confidence.

4. Walk to Schloss Leopoldskron (about one hour)

This was used as the back of the Von Trapp house - this is where the kids fell off the boat and where Uncle Max ate schnitzel, among other things.

5. Walk back to the city center and up to Nonnberg Abbey (50 minutes if you don't get lost, 1 hour 15 if you do)

This was the basis for the abbey in the movie, but in reality they filmed most of these scenes in a studio. One of the only things this site was used for is when the kids come to the gate to try and visit Maria.

6. Walk to Residenzplatz (15 minutes)

This is where Maria sings the other part of I Have Confidence, most importantly when she splashes the horse fountain thing.

And there you have it - my own Sound of Music tour around Salzburg. I have headphones in most of the pictures because I was listening to The Sound of Music soundtrack on repeat the whole day. I finished the day by watching The Sound of Music... again.

The Amazing Race - Day 6

"The Hangover"

I don't know how drunk people do it. After my night at the bar and three hours of sleep, I felt like death, and all I had been drinking was apple juice. I can't even imagine what a real hangover feels like.

Lucky for me, today was another travel day. I made my way from Vienna to Salzburg via Grunau.

You've never heard of Grunau? Me neither, which is why I completely ignored it as a potential stopping point on my trip. My guide was determined to try and convince the three of us on the bus (yep, same three from my first trip) to change our plans and stay in Grunau. At first I thought she was crazy. But then we started driving through Grunau. And then we stopped at the hostel for lunch. And then I found out you can rent horses from the hostel. They hand you a horse and send you on your way to explore the area.

Why am I not staying in Grunau? Especially when this is backyard of the hostel:

                          

Yet another place I have to add to my "Need to Visit" list. It seems that the more places I go, the longer that list gets.

Anyway, I eventually made it to Salzburg. I wandered through the countryside, ate a dinner of chocolate, and then watched The Sound of Music - the hostel plays it every night at 7:00.

Nothing prepares you for a day in Salzburg like watching three hours of people singing around the city.

The Amazing Race - Day 5

"Schnitzel & Strudel"

I spent most of Sunday doing nothing. I justified it by telling myself I was just trying to be a good person by resting on Sunday, but in fact I was just being lazy. Consequently, I had a lot to get done today.

At breakfast I met some fellow travelers and joined one for a walking tour. There were so many people that I didn't get to hear much about the sites, but I did get to see them, so that was cool. We also tried Sacher Torte, which is a Viennese speciality. It's essentially chocolate cake, except it's better than chocolate cake. We then wandered over to the Hapsburg's summer palace. It's about a five minute walk from their winter palace - must be nice to be royalty.

This evening I finally got to go on the walking tour I had missed on my first night in Vienna. This walking tour was much smaller than the morning one, so I could actually hear the stories behind all the buildings. The city is also much more quiet in the early evening - probably because everyone is at the opera.

At the end of the tour, I got to try schnitzel and apple strudel. I still don't know what schnitzel is, but I do know that it is huge. One piece took up almost an entire plate and came with a side of fries. After all of this, I still had to try apple strudel. After dinner we sat at the restaurant sharing travel stories as a group. I think that is one of my favorite things about traveling Europe - getting to meet people from all over the world and hear their stories.

I ended the night with some friends at the hostel bar drinking apple juice, laughing at drunk people, and singing Don't Stop Believing until 3 o'clock in the morning. I'm going to miss Vienna.

The Amazing Race - Day 3

"All's Well That Ends Well"

For the next month I will be traveling around Europe with Busabout. Busabout has a bunch of different trips you can do from sailing around the Greek islands to touring around Eastern Europe, but the one I'm doing is their hop-on, hop-off pass. Starting wherever I want I can travel all over their North, South and West loops.

Today I hopped on my first Busabout bus leaving from Prague to Vienna, with a quick stop in Česky Krumlov. Vienna is one of the mandatory overnight stops, otherwise I probably would have skipped over it.

Because it was the first bus of the season leaving Prague (Busabout only runs during the summer months) our bus was pretty empty. There were a total of three passengers and four crew members. At first I was worried that it would be weird to be in such a small group, but it ended up being a great day of travel.

The guide and driver are so helpful. Before coming into a new city they give you a quick history lesson and tell you what there is to do around the city - this is perfect for a girl who knows nothing.

The more I learned about Vienna, the more excited I was to spend some time here. I booked a walking tour for my first night so that I could get familiar with the city before having two days to explore.

At 5:40 I started walking to the meeting spot, without a map. Not my best idea. But my guide had said that it was about 400 meters down the street on my right. How hard could it be?

It turns out it can be very hard. I can't even estimate standard measurement and here I was trying to guess how far 400 meters is.

I turned right at what I thought had been 400 meters at a place that looked like it could be the opera house and just started wandering. The meeting time came and went, and still I couldn't find the opera house. Eventually I found a map at the bus station, but after staring at it for 5 minutes, I couldn't even find where I was, let alone the opera house. Finally, some guys on bikes helped me find my location, and from there I found the opera house. It was about 100 meters north of me. (Probably. Like I said, I don't do estimates, especially metric ones.)

I finally made it to the meeting point 15 minutes late, but of course the group had already left. I walked around the opera house hoping to run into them, but I didn't even know who or what I was looking for, so it was a wasted effort.

I sat down on a fountain outside the opera house and tried to keep myself from crying. This probably seems really embarrassing, but you need to know two things. 1) I had already paid for this walking tour and 2) The price included dinner. Dinner of schnitzel and apple strudel. Now, I don't know what schnitzel is, but I know it's one of Maria's favorite things, so it must be good. And I'm fairly certain apple strudel is just apple pie - which I do not like - but I wanted it anyway. I felt like a five year old who didn't get a pony for Christmas. I wanted to sit on the side of the road and throw a temper tantrum until someone bought me schnitzel and apple strudel.

But I didn't. Instead I started making my way back to the hostel so I could spend my night in misery. On the way I was stopped by a man dressed in a costume who was selling something. My first instinct was to ignore him and walk away, but something stopped me and I decided to hear him out. He was selling tickets to the opera. Now, I like the opera about as much as I like apple pie, but I was in Vienna, and going to the opera is mandatory.

I bought a ticket and then wandered for an hour before the show started. As I started making my way to the opera - still without a map - I got lost, again. Luckily, I ran into the guy who had sold me the ticket. I told him I was lost, he laughed at me, and pointed me in the right direction. I started walking that way, but somehow managed to miss it. As I started turning in circles, trying to figure out where to go, I heard a whistle and looked over to see the guy laughing at me and once again pointing me in the right direction. He ended up walking me all the way to the door to make sure I didn't get lost, and finally I was at the opera.

The opera was amazing. I didn't go to the real Opera House, just a little side palace, and the orchestra was only made of six people, but they were all so talented. I even got to hear Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in the room where he had first performed it. Vienna turned me into a fan of the opera. It was even worth missing schnitzel and strudel.

The Amazing Race - Day 2

My Adventures in Prague Continue.

On my second, and only full, day in Prague it rained. And I got lost - a few times, so I had to make a decision between going to the park and going to the castle.

Obviously, I chose the castle.

The gardens/parks surrounding Prague Castle are not only beautiful, they are huge. This meant there were a lot of muddy hills to climb. I did a lot of sliding around the hills, but luckily no falling.

There was also a ghost tunnel in the gardens, which was really cool. (I don't think it was really a ghost tunnel, but if I were a ghost, that's where I would hang out.)

I even got to explore the Lobkowicz's Palace, which was the setting of the weird book I read. Even though it was weird (I know that that is the third time I've used that word to describe this book, but if you had read it, you would feel that it was justified) it was still really cool to be transported into the setting of the book. Plus, one of the Lobkowicz Princes had been a patron of Beethoven, so not only did they have original compositions by him, he had actually played and been in the rooms I was walking through. It was such a cool experience, and I wasn't even on any drugs. (That was the whole premise of the book - taking drugs to feel Beethoven's presence.)

In conclusion, Prague is awesome.

The Amazing Race - Day 1

I've been debating about when my amazing race actually started. Was it when I sent my luggage home and was living out of a backpack? When I left Lyon? Or when I left France?

I've decided it all started when I left for Prague because a) this is my first time taking a flight since getting to Lyon and b) this is my first time in a country where I literally know none of the language.

This is what I knew about Prague before I got there:

• There is a clock that does something cool every hour.
  
• There is an important bridge or something.
  
• There is a castle

I only knew about the castle because I read a fictional book that occasionally had true facts, such as there is a castle in Prague. The rest of the book was about taking a drug to travel through time. It was a weird book.

Anyway, since going to Prague I've learned:

• The clock show is not that cool. The only really cool thing is a skeleton that raises his glass up and down.

• The important bridge is kind of lame. It is essentially a very crowded tourist trap with silly souvenirs.
 

• The language they speak in Prague is Czech.
 

• Ahoj means hello (informal) in Czech. This is the only word I could remember because it looks like ahoy. I never got to use it, though, because I didn't know if it was rude to use an informal hello to people I didn't know, so instead I was much more polite and played charades with everyone.
 

• The Lennon Wall is in Prague.
 

• There are also some dancing houses that do not look like they're dancing.
 

• And finally: the Prague castle is stunning.

Let's Talk Bread: Mes Rêves #6

#6: Try 5 different types of bread at 5 different boulangeries in one day ✓

I love bread. In fact, that was one of my main reasons for coming to France. When I told people at church how much bread I planned on eating, they warned me that I would get fat.

But I don't care, because I love bread.

It's surprising, then, that it took me so long to make it to five different boulangeries. I didn't even make my first attempt until last Saturday, but only ended up making it to four on account of rain and Iron Man 3.

So Tuesday when I had a full day in Paris, it was essential that I finish this goal. Being the genius that I am, I started off with a 250g Fougasse à la Fleur d'Oranger. For those of you who don't speak metric food measurement, 250g is the same as 2 1/2 baguettes. Plus, the bread wasn't even that good. It was dry and there was not even a hint of orange to it. But I ate the whole thing anyway. All 2 1/2 baguettes of it.

I then had to eat four more types of bread, and I wasn't even hungry. Consequently, my next four choices were all about getting the smallest thing the boulangerie sold.

My second choice was pain au chocolat. It wasn't very good. Pain au chocolat from the bakery is always dry and flaky and not very chocolate-y. If you want some really good pain au chocolat, you should pick it up from a grocery store. It's much better.

Next I got a mini beignet framboise and a mini viennoiserie. The beignet was really good. The viennoiserie, on the other hand, was not. I thought it was going to be a mini viennois with glaze on the top, but it ended up just being a gross croissant.

I then took a break, because quite honestly I was full and didn't know if I could eat any more bread. In fact, I was so full that I only got a petit gelato. I never get petit, it's always a debate between medium and large, so this is a big deal.

Finally at the end of the night I made it to a fifth boulangerie, where I finally tried a Madeleine. It was pretty good, even though I was full, and tasted strangely familiar. I still haven't figured out what it tasted like.

It was a lot of fun to see Paris through its bakeries, and I got to try a lot of new breads/pastries.

Lessons in French / Mes Rêves #8

Vous avez un stylo? Do you have a pen?
Oui! Yes!
Merci. Thank you.
De rien. No problem.
*runs away with pen*
Donc, j'ai eu un stylo. Well, I had a pen.

#truestory

But she came back! The girl who stole my pen brought it back! And she made me sign some stupid paper. The paper people have you sign to steal your money. But whatever, I had my pen back. Except then I didn't. Somehow she got it back. I felt sorry for her -- or my judgment was seriously clouded -- so I gave her two euros. She looked at me and said there was a $10 minimum donation. That's fine, I'll take my two euros and my pen back! Except then she was leaving with my money AND my pen. How is this happening? So I asked for my pen back and she told me no. Umm, excuse me? So I switched her. I gave her a different pen in exchange for my pen. She told me no again, but I was firm. I wanted my pen back. She finally said yes, looked in my grocery bag to see if I had any food, and ran off.

So what's the big deal about this pen? The pen itself is actually kind of embarrassing because it has I Heart Paris all over it and the Eiffel Tower, but it writes so well. And it fits in my hand perfectly. It's also my only souvenir from Étretat, potentially my favorite place in France. Well, at least top five.

Anyway, yes, I did get the pen back. And on top of the original overpriced 2€ I had to pay, it cost me another two euros and my second favorite pen.

But I got it back.

Speaking of Étretat, I went there yesterday. It's a small city on the northern coast of France best known for its cliffs. Well, that's what brought me there.

#8: Visit the cliffs of Normandy ✓

One of the things I learned at study abroad orientation is I needed to talk to my parents about "my wishes" if I died abroad. My mom about killed me when I brought it up, and probably isn't happy that I'm mentioning it again, but I continued talking about it anyway. I told them that if I died in France and they couldn't secure me a place in the Panthéon I wanted my ashes thrown off the white cliffs of Normandy. I had no idea if these were even real things or things I made up in my head, but those were my wishes.

Now that I've been to Étretat and hiked all over these white cliffs, I've changed my wishes. I no longer care about the Panthéon, I want to be thrown directly off the cliffs of Étretat, even if someone comes back to life and a spot in the Panthéon opens up. Here's why:

I mean, who wouldn't want to spend the afterlife here? Word of warning, though: make sure the wind is going away from you so that my ashes go out to sea and don't come flying back at your face.

Mes Rêves #16

#16: See the Musical Fountain Show at Versailles✓

Sunday afternoon I went out to Versailles for the musical fountain show. I got there an hour early, so I had a picnic by King Neptune's fountain and then spent some time just wandering around. At 3:15 as I was wandering, I heard some music start and could see the very top of a fountain show. I hurried over, but right as I arrived the show ended. I was so disappointed. I had missed the opening ceremonies!

Everyone else there had some sort of program with them, so I decided to follow the crowd to wherever the next fountain show would be. I ended up just stalking a family for 5 minutes before I decided they weren't going to lead me to the next show.

They didn't lead me to the next show because they couldn't lead me to the next show. The musical fountains are all on for two hours. Even the "opening ceremonies" show repeats. I found this out when I stumbled upon it a second time, right as it was ending. I decided that I would just sit there and wait however long it took for the show to come back on. It turns out that the 3 minute show is played about every five minutes. So even though I walked up at the very end, I only had to wait about two minutes for it to start again.

The only thing I did miss was King Neptune's Fountain. It's supposed to do something special from 5:20-5:30, but I was there from 5:10-6:00 and nothing special happened. I did get to see water coming out of it, though, so maybe that was all there ever was to see.

One final important note about Versailles: They're chocolat chaud is gross.

Mes Rêves #12, 15

#12: Visit the Geneva Temple✓
#15: Order something at a store correctly and understand everything they say✓

Today was my last full day in Lyon and I figured it was time to finally run around to 5 different boulangeries to try some bread. Even though it was raining and even though I wasn't hungry. Not my smartest idea. I got to three, almost threw up eating a brioche praline before going home to dry my soaking wet feet. On my way back out I made it to a fourth one, but couldn't find an open fifth one. Which means I'm going to have to re-eat 5 different types of bread in one day.

On the plus side I got to try my first French beignet. I've wanted to try a beignet ever since I saw The Princess and the Frog and saw Tiana's delicious looking beignets. My sister and I attempted to make them once, but I don't think the beignets we made were the "key to a man's heart" that Tiana made them out to be. The beignet I had today was so delicious. It was almost a donut but more bread, less glaze, and topped off with Nutella and powdered sugar -- very impressed.

However, today was not a total waste, because when I went to the first boulangerie I ordered, the lady told me how much I owed, I thanked her, and left. When I got outside I realized the whole thing had happened in French without me realizing it. Don't get me wrong, I put a lot of effort into making I said my French right, but I was able to understand her as well, which was awesome. After a semester in France I can finally do what I came here to do -- order at a French boulangerie without any weird stares. It was a great feeling.

Lastly, three and a half weeks ago I went to Geneva. I never got around to writing about it so quick summary - the UN building is awesome and brought back a lot of great memories about Model UN, fondue can not be bought for a reasonable price between 2:30 and 6:30, and Geneva is a weird mix of big city and nature.

Another fun fact about Geneva - the Mormon Temple is not in Geneva, it is in Bern which is a 45 minute, 90€ train ride away. That's right, 90€ one way. Which means that I did not make it to the temple. Lucky for me, Geneva has a whole Temple Place on the map, so I used that to fulfill my goal. It wasn't the same as seeing this temple:

...but the places I did get to see were pretty cool, too.

One final thought (and then I'm really done): if you're following me on Twitter/Instagram (...you're not following me? I can't imagine why not, but let me try and persuade you - #bananart #ananart #nooffensefellowmormons) you will know that my favorite catch phrase is true story. Tonight during Ironman 3 I learned how to say true story in French - histoire vrai. Oh, you haven't seen Ironman 3 yet? That's because it was released in France a week before it will come out in the States.

#HistoireVrai

A Less Sleep Deprived Day - Mes Rêves #5

#5: Make a wish on the star at Notre Dame in Paris. ✓

Remember that one time I went to Paris?

Just kidding, I've been to Paris more than once.

The trip I'm referring to is the day trip to Paris that turned into a day trip to Paris and a night at the Charles de Gaulle airport.

Despite the many things that went wrong on that trip, though, at least one thing went right because I got to make a wish on the star at Notre Dame. Granted I was surrounded by a bunch of annoying teenagers, but that's okay. And sure, my wish didn't turn out like I hoped it would, but it did come true.

I hate it when fate is tricky like that.

Unfortunately, my only photo evidence of accomplishing this is on my computer, surrounded by layers of bubble wrap and in my luggage on its way back to the USA. Or, it would be if DHL had picked up my luggage today. Instead it was just me and my luggage sitting outside reading a book while we waited for a truck that never came.

I do have proof of that though:

I can't decide which was more fun, sitting there reading for two hours or dragging my luggage back up the stairs after no one showed up. (The elevator is broken from floor 0 to 1.)

Most of all I'm looking forward to re-dragging my luggage down tomorrow and another two hours of quality time with these belongings before they really head back to the states.

Serves Me Right For Wishing on Stars and Packing My Sunglasses - Mes Rêves #18

#18: Visit the Count of Monte Cristo Chateau in If ✓

Before booking a trip to Marseille, you should first check the weather.

After checking the weather, you should plan your trip according to that forecast.

This is not what I did. I booked my trip and then checked the weather. And after seeing it was supposed to be cloudy and cold all day I planned a trip that was based entirely outside.

The only things that I knew I wanted to do in Marseille were see the Chateau d'If, visit the Ile du Frioul so I could walk on the beach, and maybe go for a short hike in the Calanques if I had extra time.

In the end I didn't get to do anything of these things.

I got into Marseille at 8 and since the first boat to the Chateau doesn't leave until 10:30 I decided to go exploring. The city was beautiful. There is something special about walking around a city that's still waking up. I got to see the main sites without a bunch of tourists holding up their iPads to get a picture. I also got to see people setting up a fish market at the Old Port. It was everything I hoped Marseille would be.

Well, almost everything. I had hoped to walk around Marseille in shorts and sunglasses getting a tan on the Mediterranean Coast, but it was actually freezing and cloudy. Luckily I had the sense to pack my fleece jacket at the last minute.

At 10:00 I found the Frioul - If Ferry and confidently asked for a ticket - in French. Then the cashier told me I could only go to Ile de Frioul. I froze and just stared at her. What did she mean I could only go to Frioul? The only reason I came to Marseille was to visit the Chateau!

I walked around looking for other ways to get to the Chateau, but there was no use. No boats were going to the Chateau today, all because of a little wind. And by a little wind I mean I-almost-fell-in-the-water-from-standing-to-close-to-the-edge kind of wind.

I was so shocked that I was being defeated in this goal that I got some bread to eat while I thought things over. I finally decided to go to Frioul and try and see the Chateau as we passed in the boat. That's almost the same thing as actually visiting it, right?

However, by the time I made this decision, the boat schedule had become even more limited. It was now only making two trips out to Frioul and I either had to stay there for 20 minutes or six hours. By this point it had started raining and since the only thing I wanted to do in Frioul was walk on the beach and read I figured it wasn't worth it.

But I was determined to see the Chateau. I had specifically read The Count of Monte Cristo before coming to Marseille to be sure I fully appreciated this trip.

So in the wind and rain and my very thin fleece jacket I started walking away from the port and up a hill I hoped would lead to a view of the Chateau.

As I came around a corner I finally saw it. It was beautiful sitting all alone in the middle of the stormy sea. And while I didn't actually visit it, seeing it was almost as cool. Who wants to tour a chateau and see the tunnel Edmond Dantès dug anyway?

I sat there on a bench just looking out at the sea for a while until the rain finally got to me and I had to make my way back to town.

All I wanted was to find somewhere inside and warm were I could pass the next 11 hours. The Chateau was no longer an option, I had missed the boat to Frioul, and I had no intentions of hiking around the Calanques in the wind and rain.

I managed to find a street lined with stores and pretended to shop for a while when really I was just using them for the heat and shelter from rain they offered.

Finally at 1:00 I gave up and decided to head back to the train station.

I got lunch at the grocery store across the street and sat on the floor of the train station so I could charge my phone while I watched The Princess and the Frog. Of course the only outlets also happened to be right next to the door. Every time someone opened the door I was reminded of how cold I was and how much colder it was outside.

I had completely written off Marseille at this point. In fact, as I was sitting there in the train station I decided that if I ever met someone from Marseille I would blatantly tell them their city sucks.

But then I had the chance to spend 5 hours at the train station. And let me tell you a few things about the Marseille train station:

a) It is an open train station. If it's cold outside, it's cold in the train station.

b) The climate-controlled waiting room is hidden, but it does exist. There are chairs and outlets here.

c) Apparently sleeping in the climate-controlled waiting room is frowned upon. The security guard will wake you up and look at you judging-ly for having the gall to sleep on the floor.

d) There are two sets of bathrooms; one costs money and one is free. The free bathrooms are always closed, though, because they have problems with vandalism, and they will direct you instead to the 50 cent bathrooms.

e) There is a piano in the train station that anyone can play. This is the best place to pass time as you will get to see a variety of very talented musicians perform.

I ended up buying an earlier ticket home and only spent five, instead of the originally planned ten, hours at the train station, but in that time I learned something about Marseille. I think the city purposely made sure I couldn't do the things I wanted to and offered me a different view of Marseille - the people side; people who are nice and let you practice French even as you butcher their beautiful language and people who genuinely love their city. I think that told me more about this city than anything I would have seen if today had been what I wanted it to be.

And who knows, maybe one day I'll go back to Marseille and actually visit the Chateau and hike the Calanques.

Then again, maybe not.

Homeward Bound - Paris Part 4

Click on these to read Paris parts one, two, and three.

Of all the people to be stuck at an airport with, I'm glad I was with my friend Montserrat because she reacts well in a crisis. If she didn't live in Canada I might vote for her for president. She didn't sit on the ground and start crying or complaining about how unfair the situation was, she started helping me find a solution to the problem.

We were at an airport/train station so our first thought was to check for trains. There was one leaving in five minutes, but first class was the only option left. It was also going to cost 250€ and we weren't that desperate... yet.

Next, we checked online for another bus. They were reasonably priced and left at 8 the next morning, so we bought the tickets. Unfortunately, IDBus requires you to print your tickets before you can board, so we set off to find some way to print our tickets.

At an airport.

On Sunday.

In a country where everything closes at 8 on the weekend.

The Sheraton Hotel on the third floor of Terminal 3 was very helpful and offered to print our tickets for free, but their computer couldn't pull up the PDF. Information wasn't at all helpful because they had closed at 10:10. (Seriously, who closes at 10:10? That's just weird.) SNCF was even less helpful. The lady who could print wouldn't because it was for IDBus (a company within SNCF, by the way) and the guy who wanted to help couldn't because he didn't have Internet access. Finally we went downstairs and asked Hertz if they could print our tickets for us. Originally they said no, but after we desperately pleaded, they made it work. When the guy walked out with our printed tickets I was honestly speechless. I couldn't even express to him how grateful I was because I was in shock that we actually had tickets.

We were going to make it home.

Still, we had 8 hours to kill before we could get on our bus and go home. The airport terminals were freezing, so we sat in the lobby of the ibis hotel for a few hours. Around 1 in the morning we decided to try and find some dinner. The 24 hour bar was only for guests and also didn't have any food. The vending machine was beyond disappointing and extremely overpriced. We then had to walk back to the airport terminal in search of food. Nothing was open and we were forced to settle on the airport vending machine which had much more variety. The machine only accepted coins, so we pooled our money and came up with 4€70 for dinner. It was probably the most pathetic dinner ever imagined in France.

After eating we laid out on the floor and tried to sleep with all the people who were waiting for connecting flights.

It worked for a while. We had been on a bus the night before and had gotten a maximum of four hours of sleep. It was now 2 in the morning and we were tired. Unfortunately, we weren't so tired that we could ignore the freezing, hard, dirty tile floor. We began to long for the warmth of the ibis lobby and its comfortable chairs. At 4:45 we couldn't take it anymore and we went back to the hotel and tried to look like we weren't sleeping in their lobby because we were too cheap to pay for a hotel room.

It's now 6:45 and I've had a lot of time to think about the long tunnel we're in. Although we spent the night in Paris, we're not really in and able to enjoy Paris. We didn't even get to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle. But we are also not able to go back to Lyon. We're stuck here in this in-between place without a warm place to rest or good food to eat.

One Week Later.

I eventually made it back to Lyon. There were only three people on our bus and so we were able to lay out over four seats and actually sleep quite comfortably. At some point we stopped for food. I hadn't eaten anything besides a Special K bar in 20 hours so my sandwich was really something special. I also missed my least favorite class because the bus got in so late, so I guess all's well that ends well.

Finally back in Lyon

Well, except Notre Dame. Notre Dame is celebrating its something-hundred and something anniversary and had construction all over its beautiful square. But that is a story for another less-sleep deprived day.

The Long Tunnel - Paris Part 3

Read Paris Part 1 ici and Part 2 ici.

When people are going through customs they usually have to travel through a long tunnel. This area is international ground so for a short time these people are stuck in an in-between place; they obviously aren't still in the country they left, but neither have they arrived in the country they're going to. This in-between-ness is known as "the long tunnel."

This weekend I went through the long tunnel. Well, a long tunnel.

We were on our way to the Eiffel Tower. It was starting to get dark and we really hoped that we would get to see it sparkle. We got in line at about 6:45 and the closer we got to the front of the line, the closer it got to 7:00 (the Eiffel Tower sparkles every hour on the hour.) We bought our tickets at 6:59 then sat staring at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower for a minute. It didn't sparkle.

The tickets we bought let us climb up to the second floor of the tower. We didn't have time to wait in any of the elevator lines so we decided to take the stairs. Maybe it wasn't the best idea considering I am terrified of heights and we were so short on time, but we did it anyway.

We started out really strong. But the higher we went, the slower I got. I get afraid on the stairs going up to water slides, why in the world did I think climbing the Eiffel Tower was a good idea?

Looking back, I honestly have no idea how I made it up all the stairs. But in fact, we made it up so quickly that we had plenty of time for pictures. Even though we didn't make it to the very top the view was still amazing.

Eventually we had to leave. We thought we had plenty of time until we got stuck behind a couple holding hands. They were taking their time, as well as all of ours, strolling down the steps.

We managed to sneak past them at the first floor and started running down the Eiffel Tower stairs. It was almost exactly like the scene from Monte Carlo -- you know, the one where they're about to miss their bus so they have to run down the stairs of the Eiffel Tower and that one girl is afraid of heights?

Unfortunately the similarities ended there and there was no hot Australian to offer us a free trip to Monte Carlo because I happen to look like a British heiress...

From there we literally ran to the metro. The guys selling Eiffel Tower key chains didn't even try selling us anything, they just got out of our way.

We checked the map and ran to catch our metro. As we ran up the stairs we watched it pull out of the station. So we checked the map again and started to worry about time.

Once on the metro, though, there wasn't much we could do. So we sat and watched time tick by and counted down the stops.

We jumped off, pushed through the slow-moving crowd, bought our tickets, and ran to the RER line. Once again we watched the train pull away from the station just as we ran up.

Even at this point, I still believed we would make it to our bus. We joked on the ride over about what would happen if we missed the bus, we stressed about time, and we created ridiculous scenarios about how the bus could be late.

We looked like two drunk girls coming home from a night of partying - at 8:30 on a Sunday night. We were laughing, crying, and overall freaking out.

The RER train pulled into the station at 8:45. Our bus was also scheduled to leave at 8:45, but this is France and we were confident that it would be late. We only needed a minute or two. So we ran outside to the coach station and started frantically searching for our bus. We saw it pulling out onto the freeway so we ran up the hill to stop it, only to realize it wasn't actually our bus.

Despite our best efforts, we had missed our bus back to Lyon.

Shock started to set in as I realized we had no way of getting home nor did we have a place to stay. We were stuck in a long tunnel - no longer touring Paris, but not back in Lyon either and no way of getting there. Plus, we were literally in a long tunnel walking to Terminal 3.

The saga ends here.