Today we woke up early and got going. We wanted to visit the catacombs, which is very popular, and they only allow 200 people in at once so the line doesn't move quickly and gets long fast. It opened at 10 am and we got there at 9:15. Upon arrival the line already had about 155 people in it, so we were glad we got there early. Even when they opened at 10 the line moved pretty slow. We didn't get in to the catacombs till about 11:15. So even getting there 45 min before it opened we still waited 2 hours to go in. It was well worth the wait. It was really neat. I have never seen so many bones! Maybe I should say I never imagine so many bones could be in one place. It was ridiculous, just rows and rows and rows of bones piled up on top of each other. Sometimes they were even made into designs. They said they are the bones of over 6 million Parisians buried in the catacombs. We mad a few funny, possibly disrespectful/inappropriate videos while we were inside (again, I reverted to my inner teenager.) After the catacombs we went and found a place to buy a panini for lunch and took our lunch and headed to the EIffel Tower. We planned to eat our lunch in line as we waited to go up on the top. Unfortunately, when we got there the sign said "Eiffel Tower Closed - Social Dispute." I seriously could have cried, we all could have. Talk about disappointment. I guess the workers went on strike. We asked someone and they said that it may be open tomorrow but who knows. The only way to find out if its open again is to go to the tower and see. So hopefully we will be able to go on Thursday or something. That is the one thing mom wants to do.
We slowly made our way back to the metro and headed home. When we got back we went to the mall again. Mom and Katie walked around and looked at clothes and I went back to the grocery store to get a few more things for my Mexican dinner. I feel like I can somewhat appreciate what the Spanish speakers in our country feel like all the time. It is hard to be somewhere and buy things that are all in a different language, unfamiliar products and an unfamiliar currency. Not to mention not being able to ask a sales associate for help if you have a problem or communicate a problem at the check out line. It would be so hard for that to be my everyday life. Not to mention I am pretty well educated by American standards but when I am here in France and can not communicate I feel like everyone looks at me like I am dumb, and I'm not. I just don't speak their language. So just a few things that made me think a little.
While at the mall I also enjoyed a raisin cinnamon like pastry AND an ice cream thank you very much. I did share but, I also ate a lot myself as well. Yumm.
We got back to Mandy's in time to pick up Amelie from school then headed over to feed the ducks. When we finished that I came back and mom helped me chop veggies for dinner. I made fajitas and a salsa like guac. It was pretty good, but the fajita seasoning was not at all like the one in the states. It actually tasted more like BBQ, luckily Mandy had a taco seasoning packet that someone had sent them from the states. That made it taste a little more Mexican. Of course I also had my baguette and Boursin cheese :) After dinner Mandy walked us to the bus stop that we will have to use in the morning to get to Disney. Then we just came back home and hung out. We tried to get to bed early so we could get up early and go to Disney. The only problem is its hard to get to bed early when it is light outside till 10:30. I wish it was like that in CT. ..
Today we got off to a little bit of a late start. We took the metro to the Notre Dame Cathedral area. I was surprised and proud of how well I remembered the area. I was able to guide us over to the cathedral easily. Of course on the way we had to stop and pick out a French pastry. We chose a chocolate eclair and it did not disappoint. The front of the cathedral had a big stand in front of it that made getting a good picture basically impossible. But we were able to stand on the benches and read a little about the front of the cathedral from our Rick Steve's book. The line to enter was way longer than last year but moved fast. We poked around inside a little then came out. I wanted to get some pictures of the cathedral from the bridges around the area. I knew they would have a better view and I also knew one of the two lock bridges was in the area. We found the love lock bridge and added our Mcknight girls lock to the mass of other locks. As prepared as I was with having bought a lock in advance, I still wasn't completely in the loop. I didn't know it was suppose to be a lock with a key that you toss into the river, ours just has a combination. Oh well at least I remembered a lock at all. By now it was time for lunch. Last year I remembered Mandy and I had gone somewhere in the area for a panini and a gyro so I used my excellent memory and found the same two stands. This time we all opted for the amazing chicken gyro with fries. It seriously hit the spot and filled us up for only €5. Then we saw a cool crepe stand that was selling chocolate creeps, which we hadn't seen a lot of (most of the time it was Nutella.) we waited in line for 15 min only for them to tell us that they just ran out of chocolate. Seriously!? The saddest thing in the world. So with disappointment we carried on, off towards the Louve we went. We were able to stop and see the second lock bridge, which was a lot busier than the one by Notre Dame. We ended up taking the scenic route through the courtyard to the Louve. Mom was so tired she told us to go take our pictures while she rested. Katie is making a video so she was taking some clips. She wanted one of her dancing, which reminded me of the Ellen Dance Challenge. Basically you go up to some unsuspecting stranger and dance behind them. If they turn around you walk away all "casual" like. So we found some people to dance behind while we recorded it. It was seriously hilarious to us. There is something about being around my sister that makes me decrease in age by ten years. I start acting like a 16 year old and giggling like a tween. It's a lot of fun and I love it. It. Reminds me of the How I met Your Mother episode where Lilly and her BFF from high school get together and they act ridiculous. Then when you get her friend one on one she is this really well educated person with an impressive vocabulary. I feel like that when I get around my sister. So we spent a good amount of time dancing and laughing.
After the Louve mom was tired (and so were we, I can't lie) so we took the metro to the Arch de Triumph. We were there long enough to take pictures then headed back on the metro to the Eiffel Tower. We had fun scouting out good picture spots. We went to one place I hadn't gone last year and it ended up being a great place for pictures. We wanted to go up on top but of course the line was long and it was late. So we decided to try doing it the next day and headed back to the metro.
When we got back to Cretiel we went to the grocery store. That is always interesting in another country. We had to do our best to guess at what some things were. You had to weigh your own fruit and veggies, which is fine except for the fact I couldn't read what the veggies were and the pictures only got me so far. Luckily a kind french person helped us out. That happened a few times. The other time we were looking for sour cream, we had a hard time decide what it was. We found what we thought it might be and asked the lady next to us who was buying it if it was sour cream. She didn't speak good English but was able to express that it was basically what we were looking for. In case you were wondering it is called creme fresh, but it's spelled all French like. They don't sell a lot of Mexican food stuff, no black beans which stinks. I had planed to make fajitas for dinner the next night and had a hard time finding stuff for it. We didn't make it back home till 8:15 and we were BEAT. We had dinner and vegged out until we couldn't stay awake any longer...
In an attempt to get on a schedule we woke up at 8am. Mandy made some delicious pastries and served yogurt and fruit for breakfast. Then we all got ready for the day and headed down to the old city market. This market is so cool with tons of out door stands selling EVERYTHING from fresh fruits, meat, fish, shoes, clothing, cheese ect. Ect. Ect. In one tent we even found a whole skinned rabbit, horse meat, cow brain {and other internal extremities} and a whole skinned pig. Let me tell you folks baby Jenson did not like that part of the tour one bit. It was so smelly and gross I spent the whole time gagging and covering my nose with my cardigan. We went outside the market and bough fresh nectarine, raspberries, strawberries and cherries for RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP and they are to die for. Why don't we do this in the states? Freshly grown fruits at reasonable prices. We also got 4 baguettes that were warm out of the oven and 2 delicious rotisserie chickens. On the way back we stopped at the grocery store so I could get some delicious creamy peach yogurt, Boursin cheese and potato chips (#pregnancycraving.) It ended up being a lot of stuff to carry back to the house. We ate as soon as we got back, although not all the baguettes made it home... They may have been consumed in route. We spent the afternoon trying to plan the next few days. Around 4 we walked around the lake by their house to this summer festival they were having. It was really cool with lots of fun stands with food and balloons and such. It was so fun, despite the little bit of rain. There was also a parade that we watched. It was a bit different than what we think of in the states. The music was played on loud radios carried by vans. The people in the parade were dressed up in cultural attire and danced to songs from their country (or so it seemed, i didn't understand a word of it.) At the end of the parade it looked like it was going to pour rain on us, so we ran back to miss the rain. When we got back we had an assortment of snacks for dinner, including my peach yogurt (which my mom said tasted more like peach pudding) and pesto flavored chips. I was able to Skype with Mike for a while which is always fun because I miss him so much. We also facetimed with dad, Bryant and Lizzie and watched a funny/not funny French show where they showed videos of these horrible freak accidents. Crazy tv shows over here. ..
Today we woke up super late and had to run out the door to breakfast before it closed. It wasn't the best way to start the day as I was already so tired when I woke up. Katie wanted to do some shopping so naturally we hit up Oxford street. She wanted to go to Top Shop, it was HUGE. They had a bakery and froze yogurt stand inside. I feel like my stomach is quite round at the moment (and know it will just get bigger and bigger.) So I wasn't really in the mood to shop for myself, not to mention it all seemed quite expensive after you converted it from the GBP to the USD. After we finished there we went to Primark, which is basically like a cheaper version of forever 21. That store was massive. It was 4 HUGE floors of clothing, shoes, and accessory. Which is basically Katie's dream come true and my nightmare realized. I kind of followed them around like a lost puppy or dedicated boyfriend. It was quite exhausting, all two hours of it. I couldn't believe how much time or money she spent in that store. Unfortunately her shopping spree cost us our trip back to Trafaulger square to see this fun broadway expedition they had going on. I was pretty bummed, but happy Katie was able to do something she enjoyed.
We headed back to the hotel and made Katie stay with all our shopping bags while mom and I ran down the street to get a delicious burrito from this Mexican place called Taquito. Then we packed away our burritos to eat on the train to Paris. We repacked our bags to fit all of our new purchases then headed to Kings Cross/ St. Pancras to catch the Eurostar. This next part of our trip was very... Well adventurous. We had to wheel our huge suitcases (my mom had a big suitcase and a small suitcase) down steps and up escalators. At first it wasn't that bad but after a while my arms started to burn and my shoulder hurt like crazy. We took the underground to the train station. We got off and wheeled our things to platform 9 3/4 to get a picture. When Mike and I went last year there was no line, this time it was like a half our long. We were afraid we weren't going to be able to do it. But when I went up to ask the worker if we'd have enough time someone in the front told us we could go in front of them. It was so kind! We got our picture and ran to the other train station to catch the Eurostar. I don't know why but I was surprised with all the security to get on. It makes sense, since we were entering another country and all. Anyways the train ride went by really fast. We ate our burritos {finally} and then I napped until we got there. Then the real adventure began. The metro system is not as nice in Paris, no escalators, only stairs. I can't even begin to tell you what a scene the three of us made carrying our things down, then up, then down the stairs again. We had to transfer trains once and the station we got out on had a ridiculous amount of steps. We hulled the suitcases up the stairs walked 10 yards then had to haul then back down the stairs. Walked 15 yards and saw yet again another set of stairs. It was so ridiculous we just laughed. Then a kind group of strangers came along and helped us carry our things down not one, not two, but three MORE flights of steps before we reached our platform. Lucky for us it was 9:30 pm and the metro wasn't crowded so on our ride to Mandy's we were able to sit. When we got to Cretiel Mandy and her family met us at the metro and walked back to their apartment with us. We stayed up far later then we should have visiting and getting situated. By the time we got into bed it was 1am.... another jet lag fail..
