Last Couple Days in Europe

Well as I'm writing this last post for Europe, I'm sitting at my gate in Philadelphia waiting to board the plane to San Francisco. The last couple days we basically were traveling from France back to Italy in order to catch our flight from Roma. I have to say that we had mixed emotions on Friday and Saturday. Part of us was super excited to know that we'd be back home, but the other part was sad that our vacation was over. 

Our trip really was flawless. We didn't miss any trains or get on a wrong train. No one in any of the countries we visited were rude to us and were very friendly and accommodating. We did our best not too stand out and made an effort not to act like typical American tourists. We wanted to blend in and I believe we succeeded very well.

I fell in love with Rome. Italy is an amazing place and was my favorite out of the three countries we went to. The history of the place is apparent everywhere and you can feel it as you are walking through the streets. I loved the pace of things, the way of life, the beauty of the city, and the wonder of it all. I wish we could live in Italy someday; no, I want to live in Roma.

On Friday we arrived in Milano after a 6 hour train ride. We got something to eat, watched "The Bourne Ultimatum" on my laptop, and settled in for the rest of the day. It was a day to hang out and relax.

On Saturday, we got up and caught the train back to good, old Roma Termini- our old stomping grounds. We checked into our hotel and got lunch, then we headed over to the metro and went to the Trevi Fountain. IT WAS AMAZING! I've always loved fountains- part of the reason for my disappointment that the fountains at Versailles were not operational-and the Trevi fountain is a wonder to behold in person. Photographs don't capture the beauty and feeling of the place. It was one of my favorite places that we went to.

After the Trevi fountain, we wondered down to the Pantheon- the oldest Catholic church in Rome, and also was a temple to Zues and the other "pagan gods" before that. It was truly a marvel and I was glad that we got to see it before we had to go home. My reading of Angels and Demons as we traveled through Rome gave me a new appreciation for the things we had seen and it was cool to discover that the Raphael is laid to rest in the Pantheon. 

Well I have to board the plane now. See you all in a few hours, or in some cases, a couple days!

Versailles and Paris

On Monday we had gone to the Eiffel Tower and the Musee de Armee, but got to the Louvre too late to go. So on Tuesday, after discovering the Louvre was closed for the day, we decided to take a train out of Paris to go to Versailles. Versailles exceeded my already high expectations from what I had learned about it in high school. It was a magnificent place. We ended up being able to bypass waiting in line for an hour to buy tickets by a mere matter of chance. Two European college students happened to ask us out of every one in line if we would like to buy their tickets off of them since they discovered after buying tickets that they were eligible to enter for free (one of the many perks to being a student in Europe= free admission to most places). 

Versailles in its scope and ornamentation is quite a sight to behold. I was constantly impressed by the fact that each room was unique and customized; each room seemed to outdo the rooms that preceded it. The Hall of Mirrors was certainly a highlight of the palace. The palace was impressive, but the Versailles grounds were far more impressive. They made the palace seem like a cabin in a middle of a forest. I was amazed at how vast the Versailles grounds were and still more amazed that so much of it was still intact. It was truly remarkable. My only disappointment was that the fountains were not operational and some were even covered up to protect them from the cold. We ended up spending all of Tuesday in Versailles, getting back into Paris in the early evening.

The following day, Wednesday, we decided would be the day that we'd finally get to the Louvre and planned on doing it first that day. But after doing some research on Pere Lachaise (the Paris Cemetery), we decided that it would be best to go there first. While googling Pere Lachaise and how to find Jim Morrison's grave, I came across a warning from someone's blog who said that the cemetery is so vast and convoluted, that it could take hours to find a particular grave. This person was dead right (pun intended- ;-)). I've been to my fair share of cemeteries- some to visit the graves of family and some to visit just to visit- Pere Lachaise outstrips ALL of them. The cemetery was incredibly old and the tombs AND family crypts were absolutely amazing. It was like something out of an old Dark Shadows episode or any other super spooky graveyard in an old black and white horror film. To complete the eery vibe of the place was the fact that it was a dark, overcast day in the middle of winter where not a single leaf could be found on a single tree. Still even more spooky was the fact that you could hear crows cawing. I've never heard or seen so many crows in a graveyard- simply classic! 

We looked up where Jim Morrison's grave was on the map by the entrance of the cemetery and thought it should be easy enough to find. Yes, in theory maps are extremely handy but only if you read them correctly....On the map there was a number 30 AND a number 6 by Jim Morrison's name on the directory. We assumed that the 30 was the zone of the cemetery we needed to find and blatantly ignored the 6. We wondered up and down the narrow cobble-stoned pathways of the cemetery, up and down hills, and up and down stairs for 2 hours before realizing that something wasn't right. We found zones 28, 29. 31, and 32, but no zone 30. Finally we decided to go back to the very beginning and look at the map again (there were only two maps from what we could tell). And there was the number 6. After we figured out that we needed to go to zone 6 and not zone 30, it only took us about 20 minutes to track down the Poet. It was amazing how many people had come to pay their respects. The grave was covered in flowers, candles, empty wine bottles, and a feather boa. 

After we left the cemetery we headed to the Louvre. The Louvre, which looked impressive in daylight, looks absolutely beautiful at night. We spent a good couple hours walking through the Louvre. We tracked down all the famous pieces- Mona Lisa, the Aphrodite, Wedding Feast, The Dying Slave by Michelangelo, etc. By the time we got out there was not enough time to go to Notre Dame so that's when we went to the train station to get our tickets back to Milan.

While we had originally had planned to stay three days in Paris and then return to Italy to go to Venice for a couple days before returning to Rome to fly home, we ended up staying two additional days. We extended our stay by one day originally because the Louvre was closed on Tuesday, causing us to plan to stay until Thursday so we could devote all of Wednesday to going to the Louvre and to Pere Lachaise to track down Jim Morrison's resting site. However, as fortune or misfortune would have it, when we went to the Gare de Lyon (the only train station in Paris that has trains that go to Italy) on Wednesday we were informed that EVERY single eurail reservation seat on EVERY train from Wednesday thru Sunday were completely booked. So we heavy hearts and now even lighter pockets we had to pay for two regularly priced train tickets instead of only paying the cost of reserving a seat since we could not use our Eurail tickets. Oy!

So today we ended up getting to see Notre Dame after all. It certainly was worth seeing and I was amazed by the fact that from the outside you could not tell that there were stained-glass windows but from the inside the windows were in brilliant colors. It was a beautiful place to see. The only thing that marred the beauty of the place was how the old cathedral had found ways to capitalize on the tourism appeal of the place. Every 10 feet or so was a little stand where you could donate money to light a candle or donate to the church, and of course there was a gift shop.... But the ambiance in all was still largely intact and we even got to hear the beginning of a service being conducted. The acoustics in the cathedral are miraculous- architects truly are masters.

That about sums up our last three days in France. We'll be taking a 6-hour train to Milan tomorrow morning and will stay the day there, then we'll be getting up Saturday morning to return to Rome where we'll stay until Sunday when we fly out.

Can't wait to see everyone again!

Paris Adventures

Today was a success. We woke up this morning and had a taxi called to whisk us away to the Eiffel tower. As we kept driving through the city I kept looking out the window and was wondering where on Earth (or Paris) is it! Just as I was beginning to think we were being taken the wrong way, I turned to look out the other window and there it was in all its glory! It was pretty amazing to see the tower that has been featured in so many movies and television shows. We arrived there around two in the afternoon and there was already a huge line to go up the four different elevators to go up to the top. We decided it would be best to not wait in line for the hour it would take to get into the tower, and headed along the River Seine.

We grabbed some tea and had lunch at a cafe on the corner on the other side of the Seine from the Eiffel tower. It's always an experience to order food in another country. I must admit having some anxiety over how to order and how NOT to stand out as being obviously American. I had a club sandwich with French fries (oh, yes!), and Sean got this amazingly huge omelet that smelled awesome. When the time came to ask for the check (another moment of nervousness), our waiter, who had been fairly short and cold during the rest of our lunch, suddenly became talkative and asked us about Walker, Texas Ranger, once he found out we were from America. (On a personal note, I still don't get the whole fascination with Chuck Norris, but to each their own I suppose.)

We decided to walk down and cross this amazing bridge that had gold ornaments adorned on it and walked straight to the Musée de l'Armée where Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb is located. We made it just a half an hour before the tomb was to be closed for the day. It was pretty impressive as far as tombs go, and the actual tomb of Napoleon was not what I expected. It was enormous and made out of wood. We decided to then hurry back across the river to try to make it to the Musée Du Louvre. We were walking along the river when Sean suggested that we cut into the city early before getting to the Louvre so we can see more of the city. We entered into this huge plaza and headed through a park, where we walked past this little food stand where this most amazing smell was emanating from it. It was a little oasis of wonderful aromas that managed to travel through the freezing cold air to call to us. The stand was selling crepes and waffles. Without even asking each other whether we should get crepes we found ourselves in line. Sean chose chocolate banana and I decided upon apricot since I have never ever been a fan of chocolate. It was absolutely amazing and warmed me up as we made our way across the park to the Louvre.

Just as we had passed a frozen fountain where many confused ducks and seagulls were walking around on the frozen surface wondering what on Earth they were to do with themselves now, we saw the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. As we passed through the Arc we saw the giant glass pyramid that marked the entrance to the Louvre. We went inside and proceeded down the elevator only to discover that tickets had stopped being sold for the day 15 minutes before we arrived. Sean and I were both a little disappointed by this but decided that it only meant that we would wake up early and make sure we had plenty of time to walk through and appreciate the enormous museum.

It was becoming dusk by the time we exited the louvre so we decided to call it a day and caught a taxi to take us back to the hotel. It's always fun to take a taxi ride because you get to look out the window and see all of the many shops there are. Once we were dropped off we decided to walk back down to the end of the street where our hotel is (de' Italie) to investigate the shopping mall that we had noticed in the taxi. We got a couple sodas and spent an hour wondering around the various shops. I tried to find a scarf since the one I had is far too thin for the type of weather we've experienced today, but had no luck. I will continue my search for a warm Parisian scarf while we're out and about tomorrow. After the mall, we headed back to our hotel and settled in for the night.

Tomorrow we're planning on making our way to Versailles and then will go to the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre, as well as Père Lachaise cemetary. If we end up not having enough time for everything tomorrow we decided that we'd stay an additional day to make sure we don't miss out on anything. That's the wonderful apart about not having an itinerary, if you don't have enough time, you can make the time. After Paris, we decided to go to Venice instead of doing Milan and Florence. We thought that it would be an interesting Italian city to experience before we had to return to Roma.

Well that's our adventures thus far. We'll post again tomorrow!

~Chloé

It's hard keeping up...

Well, I figure I should bring everyone up to speed from Bern to our first night in Paris. It's hard keeping up on these things so a lot of stuff gets backlogged. Suffice it to say that the entire trip has been amazing. We've had slower and faster days, exciting and relaxing days - but we've had it all. We've realized that sometimes it pays to just relax in your hotel room at the end of the night with a slice of local pizza and watch a movie. That, of course, doesn't mean that we haven't experienced every city we've been in - well, execpt maybe Bern.

Bern was an interesting place, to say the least. On the train ride from Milano, I chatted with a native Swiss named Steven about everything from music and careers, to the pros and cons of the American and Swiss school systems - one can't help but feel jealous at the fact that most Swiss citizens are trilingual by the time they hit college. Normally I hate talking to strangers, but Steven seemed like a genuinely nice guy. I spent a good three hours talking it up with him before we parted ways at a stop in Thun, Switzerland.

We arrived in Bern, assaulted by the COLDEST weather I have ever felt. At no point did I feel like I had a snow jacket and jeans on because they provided next to no protection against the stinging chill that the air in Bern provided. We pulled in around 9:30pm and were surprised to see how much younger the population of Bern was in comparison to our time in Italy. The station in Bern, Baunhhof, was directly next to a central bus station. Teenagers and young adults were running around from bus to bus and congregating in front of the trainstation in masse. It was a little intimidating to anti-socialites like Chloe and me, I'll be honest. Exhausted we crashed at our hotel, Hotel City am Bahnhon (Hotel City on the trainstation).

Our first day in Bern we chalked up to laziness. It was horridly cold outside and we were exhausted from an entire day of travelling the prior day. We sampled some Swiss-Chinese food which suprised me quite a bit, and then wandered around a little before we sought refuge in our hotel room; it was so hard to explore when you couldn't feel your nose and hands. We relaxed in our comfy hotel room for most of the day, playing games and watching TV shows we had missed in the states. We went out that night to grab a pizza which, while good, didn't really amaze either of us. We turned in that night hoping to make the most of our last day.

Our last day in Bern was interesting but expensive. Apparently, Europe's largest mall is in Bern, so we decided to check that out. Our maps said it was only 10 minutes away, but like everything in Bern, it was expensive: a 10-15 minute taxi ride cost $40. After recovering from the dull pain of having spent $40 on transportation, we explored the mall. It was what you would expect, for the most part. A lot of high end clothing stores intermixed with media and book stores. The design of the mall was impressive; it was very angular with criss-crossing elevators that generally serve to disorient you. After a while, we grabbed a bus ($2.60) back to the station and our hotel. The rest of our night was a rather enjoyable date-night. We saw The Wolfman at a local theater (theaters near our hotel generally played one movie per building, which we found interesting). Half way through the movie, lights were thrown on and a strange "enjoy your break!" image came on the screen - apparently Switzerland still holds to the age old concept of intermission! Either way, the movie was great and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. The theater was beautiful, and while the screen was smaller than in the states, everything else was top notch. We finished the night eating at a Swiss-Mexican restaurant called "Desperado." Try and imagine what Swiss-Mexican food might taste like... Yeah, not very good. Charming restaurant, but the food was incredibly bland and, of course, pricey. We turned in that night looking forward to the bright lights of Paris!

My conclusion on Bern is mixed. I ultimately feel that we should have done more, but the cold was so stifiling that we never felt motivated to walk around at great lengths like we did in Rome and Milan. Had I to do it over again, I would probably have chanced it and maybe went out the first day to Interlaken; but maybe that is just my idealism. The fact is that it was far to cold to spend vast amounts of time outside, and I feel like our down-time in Bern served to charge us up for these days in Paris!

The next morning, Valentine's Day, we promptly cought our train to Paris. It was a long four hour trip, but train rides are decidedly more bearable than plane rides in that respect. It was great seeing the beautiful snow-covered Swiss and French countrysides on the way to Paris. I would like to do a car trip through continental Europe sometime, so long as I can avoid driving in any major cities! We were surprised to find that Paris was just as cold as Switerland, but it would be difficult to keep us inside during our stay. We (possibly) had our first run in with some anti-American sentiment when we tried to get a taxi to our hotel. When I showed the driver the address he motioned down the street mumbling something about "10 minutes" - our iPhone GPS said it was a 45 minute walk, which it turned out to be. When I indicated that it was cold and we just wanted a ride, he said a few things in French and didn't really seem motivated to take us anywhere. After debating a little, we grabbed a different driver who was more than happy to take us to our (amazing) hotel.

Our hotel, unfortunately, is poorly positioned. If you look at Paris's city center like a circle, we are at the bottom and all the major sights are in the north and east. Nothing was in walking distance and it had already become mid-afternoon by the time we got in. It was Valentine's Day, afterall, so we had an amazing dinner at a cafe near our hotel. We both had 3 cheese penne pasta, which smashes anything I've ever had of the same name in the states; the cheese was amazing, though at times surprisingly rich. The cafe was bustling, but still quite relaxing. Our experience interacting with the French has been great so far. Everyone has been more than happy to accomodate us if it seems to we don't speak French. I generally adhere to the rules of keeping it simple, concise, and lots of hand gestures - it has worked well so far.

We had planned to do the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, but apparently everything is closed on Sunday. But we walked around our neighborhood a little bit, excercising my ability to come off as French by keeping all transactions to "merci" and "bon jour." We were more tired than usual, so we settled into our hotel around 8 or 9. Like any good Valentine's Day, we snuggled up and watched Kill Bill, Vol. 1 before falling asleep around 10. In a perfect world, the Eiffel Tower would have been opened and we would have broke bread beneath its massive gaze, but this wasn't to be. We enjoyed our dinner and walking around the neighborhood just as well.

Today we have a ton of stuff planned that I'll bring to post next time. We are going to experience everything we can in Paris, because the energy here is amazing.

Hope that wasn't too long winded! We miss everyone in the states and we'll see you all in a short six days!

//Sean

Greetings from Bern, Switzerland!

Sean and I are now in the second country in our three country adventure. Bern is COLD. Now I have been cold before, but nothing beats the cold stabbing air of Bern after nightfall.

Lesson 1: Bern is cold.

We arrived at 9:30 last night after catching a second train much later in the day then we had intended due to our train from Roma Termini to Milano Centrale being late to arrive to the station but a mere 10 minutes.

Lesson 2: Trains leave on time in Europe. No exceptions.

We decided to have a down day in our hotel room today and are planning on seeing the sights tomorrow. I particularly want to see the Bear Pit on the western part of Bern. Google it- It's pretty interesting! We found out about this phenomenon from our fellow train companion who happened to have grown up in Switzerland.

Lesson 3: Let yourself take a day to relax.

~Chloé

In addition...

Well, Chloe did a proper job summarizing the trip thus far. We realy only have a half hour left in the internet cafe, so she had to be brief. Suffice it say that the trip thus far has been nearly flawless. The only hang-up thus far happened today when our train from Rome got in 30 minutes late and we missed our connection to Bern. I can't complain though - there are worse places in the world to be stranded than Milan, Italy!

We're in good spirits and we have no idea what to expect from Bern... Well, we expect a lot of snow; but other than that we're not sure. We will be rolling into France on Sunday to kick off our final week so that will be exciting, as well.

As Chloe said, we will be posting pictures and video when we are able to use her laptop for internet. I suspect we will have internet access at our hotel in Bern, so hopefully we'll be be able to put something interesting up by then.

//Sean

First Three Days- Roma

Sean and I had a smooth flight to Rome and arrived at 8:30 am local time on Monday. We got to our hotel (Luciani) which was across the street from Roma Termini (the main transportation hub in Rome). We spent the day getting used to our surroundings and stayed in to recover our sleep for the rest of the day.

The next day we woke up at 6:30 am and had breakfast then navigating the metro system to take us to the Colosseum (absolutely amazing!) then we walked around and explored the southern area around the Colosseum. We walked around the Palantine hills and then headed along the Tiber River to find the Aventine. We finished out the day by walking around the Circo Massimo and hopped back on to the metro to go home.

The second day (yesterday), we got an all day bus pass and headed to Vatican city. We walked around the Castel Sant' Angelo and then headed across the way to Saint Peter's Basilica. It was an incredible sight to behold and we got to walk around inside the church. Then we walked up the hill and paid to see the Vatican Museum, which included the Sistine Chapel (which was on my must see list). It was absolutely a 100% worth it. We have some amazing videos and pictures to show you all later.

Right now we're in an Internet cafe in Milan waiting to catch our train to Bern, Switzerland, at 6:25 pm. Our train from Roma Termini to Milan Centrale was late to our station so we missed our original connection to Bern which was supposed to leave at 11:20 am. Thank goodness for Eurail passes!!!!!

Hopefully we'll have Internet at our hotel in Bern so we can upload some video and pictures from my laptop. Post again soon!!!!!!!

And Away We Go!!!

Sean and I finishing up packing and will be heading out to San Jose where we will fly out tomorrow morning at 8:30 am! We'll post again when we land in Rome, Italy!!!!!!!

Fixed Comments

I was informed that there was a problem posting comments before, but I have fixed the problem. When you click comments a pop-up window will appear where you can leave your comments. Make sure your pop-up blocker is off if the window does not appear for you! Let me know if anyone else has trouble with anything on the blog so I can fix it before we leave on Sunday morning. Thanks all!

One Week Until Rome

It's amazing that in one week Sean and I will be on a plane heading toward Rome, Italy! Sean and I are looking forward to celebrating our graduation from college in such a wonderful way.

I will be posting pictures and my stories here when time allows while we're gone from Feb. 7th to the 22nd.

Comment if you like. :-)