Peace, Love, and Hot Dog Cakes

I've decided to go to the Caps draft day party on June 22nd, because it will probably be the last time i get to DC in the next 4-5 years (barring a return to the Stanley Cup Finals). This will be the weekend before I get married, so maybe we'll turn it into a bachelor party of sorts. I'm pumped

Boyd Gordon
Take Which Washington Capital are you? today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

Well, today was very nice. Went to Bayeux and then to the American Cemetary for D-Day which was probably one of, if not the, most amazing things we've done this whole trip. It actually makes you swell with pride for America and her history, even when our country seems to be pretty divided on a number of issues. It was a long trip just for an hour at the cemetary but it was definitely worth it. I only wish I got to see more stuff at the beaches, but I'll leave that for another trip.

Put up a link to some of the pictures here. I'll be fixing the pictures (i.e. the ones that are turned the wrong way) and adding captions when I get back to the states so if you care about that check up on it in a few days (probably Sunday night).

Had an interesting trip there and back nonetheless. We decided that it's just something about Paris - no matter what you do or how hard you try you're going to miss flights, trains, metro stops, etc...and you're going to see lots of interesting people along the way. It's been a great trip and i've had a blast but i can honestly say (and griffin echoes these thoughts) that I can't wait to be back in America. Excited about bbq, mexican food, speaking english and being understood completely, cooking for myself, and sleeping in my own bed, oh... and not having to carry my 50 lb backpack. We leave here at 11:20 tomorrow (5:20 Eastern USA Time) and arrive in Raleigh at 6:10 USA time after a layover in ATL. Hopefully we'll get some real food and i will be extremely glad to be back (until I have to start writing that 40 page MAP...). It's been fun - thanks for keeping up with me. Hopefully see some of you soon. Au revoir, Europe!

Scott

That picture is us at the Temple of Love in the Gardens at Versailles.
Did i sound like i was tired of France in the last one? I hope so, because I am. I liked paris because of it's art and the cool things that they have, but they are a crappy bunch of people to have all this cool stuff. Parisians (and maybe french...i dunno) are for the most part very rude, snotty, inconsiderate, and self-absorbed. They are actually lazy...and not laid back lazy. lazy as in they just dont want to do anything (especially for you, even though you the tourist are paying their salary).

Also, I'm tired of tourists. yes, i know I'm one. I know i've taken hundreds of pictures and paid good money to go to lots of museums, but there is a difference between that and being a tourist. I remember back in Sophomore year of college when taking great books we had to read Dante's inferno, Dante's imaginary trip through hell. We had an assignment to a) put 3 people in the pit of hell (in satans mouth or something...i think i picked Hitler, Stalin, and the meanest, most evil slave owner from the ol south whoever he would have been) and b) describe what our own personal hell would be like. Well, if I had gone to visit the eiffel tower before I wrote that assignment my tower would have been much like the later half of my evening tonight: Wait in a line full of tourists who are smoking, talking loudly, and talking in foreign tongues that irritate the ears. Next, most of these tourists butt in front of people in line and no one else says anything. Finally, after waiting in line over and hour you get to buy your overpriced ticket. After that, you wait in another line while people continue to skip places and butt in and let their friends in who weren't waiting in line but whom they bought tickets for. Then you start to go up, only to get to a level where you have to change elevators. But to change elevators you have to (you guessed it) wait in another line. People butt in front of you in this line too, and you have crazy german teenagers in front of you and loud asians behind you (albeit nice asians) After over 2 hours have passed while you wait on top of a windy perch, you cram into another elevator and go up to the top. The view is actually about the same as the view where you just waited for an hour, it's cold, its almost midnight (you got in line at 9), and they are closing. So you wait in another line to go down. You go down to the second level, where there is another hour long line to go down. So instead of waiting in line, you decide to take the steps down. The steps aren't bad until crazy Middle Easterners start running down the steps in some sort of race. They fly by you and jump down flights of stairs, shaking the stairs and freaking you out a bit. I mean this thing is over 100 years old...it could crash. Finally when you get to the bottom, every dirty man you could think of is pushing light up arc de triomphe's, flying birds (i can't explain it in words), and roses at you. Finally you just scream at some poor soul "NO!! I DONT WANT TO BUY A ROSE!" and then you laugh about it. But at least i can say i've been up the tower.

Yep, thats pretty much what happened. In other news, we saw some cool Monet paintings today along with the Rodin Museum (the thinker) and pirates of the Carribean which was quite fun. (we needed a break from paris). Tomorrow i think we're going to Normandy and then we come home on Tuesday (i'm actually kind of looking forward to being back in USA.

Here is a a picture of us on top of the Arc de Triomphe with eiffel's tower in the background.

Whew today was long...ready to hop in bed and sleeeeeeep. Went to Versailles this morning (really cool but lots of tourists (ASIANS), lots of walking, and lots of gardens. Very cool though...highly recommended.

Versailles took most of the day, but we saw Napoleons tomb this afternoon then walked down the Champs Elysses toward the Arc de Triomphe and went up in that. Had a nice dinner but the waiters take forever to bring the bill and i'm tired of that. French food also isn't that good. i miss san trovaso.

Went to the eiffel tower tonight but the lines were too long for our level of tiredness. Gonna do that tomorrow along with a few other things. I'll put the pictures of all that up tomorrow. thats it.

So, since we didn't do too much yesterday we decided to pack in a lot today. We started out this AM with a ride on the metro, then we went to Brian's school (Notre Dame). We had a delicious lunch and gelato on the Ile St. Louis and then walked down the Latin District (no latino's thank god, just named that because the educated people who spoke Latin used to meet there and drink and do educated things). After that we went and toured St. Chapelle which was beautiful. We went in the Concierge (prison where most of the Revolution prisoners were held before having heads chopped off, including Marie Antoinette and Robespierre). After that we had a little break and ate a crepe and got a delicious coke (it tasted so goood...i dont know why) and then went to the Musee D'Orsay (huge impressionist collection; impressionists are my favorite by the way). Got to see Degas and his little ballerina's, Monet and his girl with an umbrella and some water lillies, and a bunch of other stuff). I decided i hate people who take lots of pictures of paintings because they just make the museum so freakin touristy. I mean, there are hundreds of pictures online...just write down the name of the piece you like. I think most of them just want to prove that they saw it. (because i'm always saying "whatever...i dont believe you really went to paris and saw the mona lisa" when people say they did. you better have a picture to prove it or i wont believe you).

I also am amazed at how much Europeans smoke. I thought it was crazy comparing the North and South, but I'm pretty sure that Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds are kept alive by Europeans. it really is amazing...everyone smokes. If they aren't smoking they are a tourist.

Also, I am tired of asians. They all travel in huge tour groups and jibber jabber in the ching chang chong. They take tons of pictures but never smile. They dart in and out of places like a bumblebee. I know that's probably incredibly racist but you spend 3 weeks traveling in europe with tons of asians and you tell me how you feel. It's like being in disney world except you can't escape to dumbo's flying elephant ride. You have no idea how much i'm looking forward to gettin a little redneck at the Fiddlers Convention.

Anyways, the Louvre is open till 9:45 tonight so we're going to grab a quick bite to eat from a stand and then go hit the louvre during dinnertime (supposed to be less crowded). I think we're going to stay in paris for the weekend and see what we get done, do Versailles tomorrow, and then if we have time head for a quick daytrip on Monday to Bayeux and check out a few sites if we can. Anyways, au revoir or something like that.

Paris pictures
Well, after a wild (and long) day of travelling on Wednesday, we had a lazy and relaxing thursday in paris. Yesterday we had a great time on the scenic train from Interlaken to Geneva but then we had an extremely long layover (almost 4 hours) in Geneva which was quite boring. Then we finally made our way to paris and made it to the station in time to get our train to Bayeux (normandy) only to run around the station until we were dying (had to run up 4 or 5 flights of stairs with backpacks on) and then found out that the train to bayeux listed on our schedule actually doesn't exist and the last trip to Bayeux was before we even got to the station. so we freaked out a bit and then calmed down and called the hotel we were staying at in Paris starting thursday (tonight) and got a room there. We had a great dinner where we ate chicken and mashed taters, talked to a family from Durham and two women from Australia, and griffin had her crepe. Today we slept in, ate a long lunch and walked around, took a nap (yesterday wore us out beyond belief), and then walked all around Paris for a couple hours. Had a nice dinner (griffin got duck which was pretty good, i got a delicious steak with a gorgonzola cheese sauce which was actually better on my french fries than on the steak. Anyways, now we're making a plan for the rest of our time here (we might still go to Bayeux on Saturday night/sunday). Also, put up more picures on the switzerland and cinque terre so check those out (links in yesterdays blogs). Anyways, here's a picture of us at the louvre:

First off, the national day fireworks were amazing last night. very cool! We had fun sipping wine on our balcony and watching them and then we checked out the bonfire in the park. Defintely recommend switzerland on swiss national day! I also uploaded a few (but not all) of our photos from Cinque Terre (and leaving venice) and Switzerland here:

Cinque Terre

Switzerland

PICTURES









Sorry it took so long...crazy trip! so we've had lots of fun in switzerland. Cinque Terre was great but it was still incredibly hot, but switzerland has been AMAZING! spent our first night in Interlaken at the Villa Hostel which was a lot of fun. I got some good beer (finally - italian beer is no good) and some bratwurst. Had a fun and relaxing first night after we rode the train ALL day on sunday. Monday we went up into the Alps. We checked into our hotel in Gimmelwald, rode trains, cable cars (gondolas), and funiculars, and then went on a beautiful hike above Murren. It was absolutely amazing, gorgeous, beautiful...you get the point. After our hike we had a cheeseburger with a birds eye view of the valley and then we walked around Murren some more. We went down to Gimmelwald (where we stayed) and got some fondue and I had a beer and Griff had a wine. We met some cool folks from Seattle who told us about stuff we should check out on our next trip to Europe. Finally we slept in the straw in a barn which was actually really comfortable, a little smelly, but lots of fun (and cheap). I've decided Switzerland is kind of like Italy except in italy the bells you hear everywhere are church bells and in switzerland they are cow bells. In Italy the Gondolas ride on the water and in switzerland the Gondolas ride through the air. And actually, i like switzerland a lot better. It's kind of like Colorado or Utah without the pretentiousness and mormons. Other than that I guess they don't have too much in common We have had lots of cheese and jams for breakfast, the most delicious hashbrowns ever(Rosti) for lunch (usually with some combination of sausage/ham/onions/cheese mixed in), a cheeseburger or two, and Fondue for dinner last night - who knows what for dinner today! We were going to go up this morning to a revolving restaurant on the top of a mountain but it was rainy and cloudy so we saved a good deal of money by coming back down to Interlaken for the day, which worked out wonderfully because today is Swiss National day (July 4th for Swiss). We saw a parade, alpenhorns, cows, crazy firemen, and lots of other sights. tonight is an awesome fireworks show that we have a front seat for on our balcony - we picked up some wine at the Coop (grocery) and are going to sit on the balcony and watch fireworks tonight. Man I have so many stories that I wish I could type up but so little time (and you dont want to read this all day unless you're my mom). Will try and upload all the pictures later today but we'll see. Finally got showers - anyways, we're out! Chuss! Auf Weidersen!