Trip Wrap-up

Finally home!  This trip was an absolute blast but it is SO nice to sleep in my own bed after 7 weeks!

Leaving Strasbourg was bittersweet.  The weather was just starting to get consistently nice and with everyone out of school there were a bunch of festivals and such starting up in the downtown area where I lived. I'm really going to miss my host family; they were so sweet!  On Saturday afternoon I took a train (the TGV=super fast) from Strasbourg into Paris, where I met my family!  We stayed in an apartment-style hotel overlooking the Eiffel Tower- absolutely gorgeous, especially at night.

I had forgotten about all of the funny little things that are different in Europe (I guess by this point I had gotten used to them) until my sister started pointing out all of the same things- "These cars are so small!" "Everyone here is so fashionable!" "Water is so expensive!"

Anyways, you all know my mom, so no surprise in saying that the whole week was JAM PACKED with sightseeing, courtesy of Rick Steve's guidebook (and iPod audio tours, which was super helpful).  We used the metro to get around the city and hit all of the big sights- the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, the Orangerie, the Notre Dame, the Sacre-Coeur, the Champs Elysees, Versailles...but we also made time to see many places I hadn't been before- Rue Cler, the Latin Quarter, the Marais Area, a Seine River tour, Musee Rodin (the Thinker), the French Opera, Place de la Bastille, Marie Antoinette's little village in Versailles, the Pompidou Museum, the Saint Chappelle Cathedral (my favorite, with the absolutely stunning and breathtaking stained glass).

And of course my sister went absolutely nuts with all of the sales there.  The best find was this chouette vintage clothing store in the Marais area, where my sister loaded up on all sorts of funky dresses and shirts.  Then she proceeded to parade around saying, "when people ask me where I got this, I can say, 'oh, you know, just some vintage store in Paris, no big deal!'"  Haha.

The food was excellent as well.  We had all kinds of meals!  My dad, of course, wanted to try everything French, which meant that we ate crepes, baguettes, pastries, croque monsieurs, duck, capuccinos, croissants, etc.  But we also had a chance to have chinese food (twice...there are a surprising amount of chinese people in Paris.  My mom got to whip out her Mandarin on several occasions, quite proudly too), burgers (god I missed red meat!), and the BEST MEAL EVER- a falafel in the Jewish district of the Marais area, followed by to-die-for icecream.  Goodness I'm getting euphoric just thinking about it :)

I guess highlights of the week:
The Marais Walk was really cool; kind of an off-beat area with lots of funky hidden shops and food places
The Versailles Gardens were incredible!  I had been to the palace before but had never really gotten a chance to explore the gardens....they are SO expansive!  I mean, Louis made a castle just as a get-away from his castle. Crazy, right?
The Montmartre area- again, another kind of off-beat tour behind the Sacre-Coeur, where there are artists everywhere, and little famous sights like Van Gogh's house, just tucked away and forgotten in some very plain-looking neighborhood streets.  It was really hilly and reminded me of San Francisco

On Friday, the last day, the family went to Disneyland Paris, as kind of a peace offering to my dad and sister (they were good sports, after all, being dragged from one historical museum to the next).  Like everything else in France, their version of Disney was a lot smaller than the Disney you'd find in Florida or California.  It was, as my dad called it, referencing Super Man, the "Bizarro Disney."  A lot of the same rides and attractions were there, but of course all in French (imagine an Armageddon thrill ride, the Buzz Lightyear shooting ride, Mickey Mouse, or Tow-Mater from Disney's "Cars", but all in French! Weird.)  Another strange thing was that seeing the characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, etc) was a lot different.  It wasn't organized; the Characters just got off of their parade float but instead of people lining up to taking pictures or get autographs, the crowd just MOBBED them.  It was crazy!  Also, a lot of the restaurants closed really early, like at 5 PM, which made it pretty problematic for me, who's always hungry.

Anyways, looking back on the trip in it's entirety, I am so so SO glad to have went.  It was such a wonderful experience getting exposed to other cultures, living on my own, and taking care of myself.  I definitely want to travel again- maybe to China or Australia.  But for now, I am glad to be home (even if that does mean two-tons of laundry and 95 degree weather await me).  Thanks for following my blog!  More pictures will be up on facebook soon!