Back into the swing of things...kinda...

Cassy and Katie are now home safe and sound back in the US. And I am left with nothing but studying to do. :(

Well, that's not entirely true. I have the Istanbul trip to look forward to, but that is little consolation when I see how much of my books I need to get through before then. AHHH!!!! So much to do....yet here I am procrastinating... Oh well. You all wanted an update anyway, I'm sure!

This last week was an absolute blast. Cassy, Katie, and I had so much fun exploring Brussels and Paris that we practically walked our feet off. We saw all of the typical touristy things. In Brussels, the Manakin Pis, Grand Place, the cathedral, the Royal Palace. The first day was our grand tour, where we walked the city from bottom to top. Hitting all the major places, plus the musical instrument museum where we got a free concert. The soprano who sang was fantastic. This skinny, pretty little thing, and out came this huge gorgeous operatic voice. WOW! We had great timing since we didn't even know about the concert, but got there about 15 minutes before it started.

Before that, however, we saw a huge "to do" happening in front of the Royal Palace. We stood around for about half an hour watching the soldiers all lined up in front as well as a military band playing songs. The street was all blocked off and it was obvious that someone important was coming. Turns out the President of Hungary was arriving just then and we got to see the royal welcome. Would have been a great experience except that the Brussels weather did her thing and decided to pour rain just during the 45 minutes/hour we were standing there. Ah well, good introduction to the weather for C & K.

The second day we managed to get ourselves kicked out of a museum. Well ok, not really, but we got in trouble twice. Once for drinking water, and once for sitting outside on a terrace that apparently wasn't supposed to be open for the public. No signs. Door unlocked. But I guess you're supposed to know that, somehow? So we were pissed and kicked ourselves out. Stupid country.

WARNING, Rant ensuing: So, I have two more complaints against this country! Case Number One. Apparently they have city wide breakdowns of the few places that will accept credit cards (reference my earlier blogs on my issues with cards in this country), namely the train station and museums. Grr... We went to buy our Paris tickets, me fulling planning to put it on my credit card since its a bit of money. We get through booking all the tickets, we go to pay, and "Oh, you will need to pay with cash because our card system is down." WHAT?! You couldn't mention that before we booked? Good thing between the three of us we managed to have enough cash to get the tickets bought. Nothing works in this country when you need it. The failed credit card machines followed us the next few days.

Case Number Two. I get on the internet on Monday to check to see if C & K's flight is on time and to check bus schedules. THE INTERNET IS NOT WORKING! Now we've had problems with it working badly, but never it just fully not working. So I think, ok, its probably just a temporary thing. NO. It's down for THE WHOLE WEEK! Such a pain, considering we needed it to confirm bookings and reservations and such. Of course it would pick the one week my friends came and the internet was actually a necessity for communication.

Oh, OH! Case Number Three! So I'm on my way to get to the airport to meet C & K, and guess what... That's right! The bus I need to get to the airport on time BREAKS DOWN! This was not such a big deal, but I ended up having to take a later bus and getting there well after C & K got out. Annoying, and just one more issue I have with the reliability of things in this country.

Ok, rant done. Just needed to get that off my chest. :) Things aren't so bad really. But when you go to Paris and things work so smoothly, you realize that Belgium really is a little backwards.

And on that note... PARIS! Our trip to Paris, was really great. We got there, ended up at a pretty nice (and cheap!) hostel, and road that subway system to every touristy thing in the city! Thanks mom and dad for the Paris map you gave me! It had the subway system on the back, which was FANTASTIC! Luckily, I new pretty much how to get to everywhere already, but with the map it made it super easy. So below is an outline of pretty much what we did. Keep in mind that Paris is HUGE and that we rode the subway between just about everything.

Day 1:
-Catch the high speed train to Paris at 8am
-Check in at hostel and drop off bags
-Climb the Eiffel tower (top level was closed for wind. Two tries and two strikes for me on that) one.)
-Lunch: sandwich and over-priced drinks at a touristy cafe
-Notre Dame (Brave Kathryn hiked the stairs to the bell towers all by herself!)
-Back to hostel and a three course meal/long night out at a fantastic restaurant. Bravo to C & K for their first try at escargot!

Day 2:
-Up at 7am to get to the Louvre Museum before it opens (to get to the Mona Lisa before the lines start)
-In the Louvre, saw the Mona Lisa (still underwhelming), Venus de Milo, and many other fantastic works of art
-Walked to the Opera House
-Opera House tour
-sandwich lunch in a park at the foot of the Champs Elysees.
-Saw the Arc De Triumph
-Saw the stained glass windows at Saint Chappel
-Hiked the massive hill of stairs to the Sacre Couer for the best view of Paris
-Had ourselves a Crepe
-Snapped a picture of the Moulin Rouge (in the daytime. No sketchy redlight district at night this time.)
-Back to the hostel to pick up bags
-Dinner near the train station
-Back on the train and pulling into Brussels around 11:30pm.

Then, I met up with Kristoffer at a house warming party. C & K went back to the apartment because they were tired (NO KIDDING!). And I pretty much was falling asleep on my feet. Got home around 3am and SLEPT IN!

Saturday was a lazy day. Had some coffee, bought some chocolates, and watched some House. That night we went to a jazz restaurant, where they serve Italian food and play live jazz, blues, and funk. It was so fun! Great way to end their stay, and over all a really fun week.

I'll get some pictures loaded sometime this week, but I've got to sort through them first. Anyway, quite the adventure. There were some iffy moments, but for the most part everything went really smoothly in Paris. Quite a "Tour de Force" if I do say so myself! :)