The twin's european adventure

My best friend (Danielle) from back home decided to seize the opportunity to visit me in France this past week.  It was so nice to have a familiar face around (especially at a really difficult part of this very long year).  We had lots to catch up and lots planned to do throughout the week.  Our visit started out Friday night technically when her flight took off from Johnson City, TN.  She arrived in Brussels around 8:30am Saturday morning.  I had pre-booked trains to pick her up, but for some reason my train heading to the airport was pretty delayed.  After I found her at the arrivals area, we bought tickets to go back to Lille.  Unfortunately the next TGV for Lille was all booked, so we had to take local trains through Belgium to get back.  After about 2+ hours and one train change, we finally made it back.  It was nice to have the time on the train just catching up on everything we've been doing.  She actually wasn't tired and jet lagged (if at all) once we got back to my house, so we dropped off her suitcases and headed out to explore.  We took the bus to Auchan (a giant shopping center) so she could see a mega grocery store and some clothing shops.  Once we got back from the outing we made dinner and she met all of my housemates.  The next morning we went to an art museum in Roubaix called La Piscine.  The building was once used as a private pool and has since been renovated into an art museum.  The building still has some shower stalls used back in the day and every once in a while a recording plays throughout the museum of children splashing in water all to remind you what this building used to be.  I'd never been before, but it was on my list of things to do while living here.  I'm really glad we got to go and Danielle got to see at least one art museum in France.

Once we got back to the house I did some lesson planning (the last of the year!) and Danielle organized her suitcase.  She had brought me some goodies from the states: Jiff peanut butter, US weekly with an article about the Bachelor, all the ingredients to make pumpkin pie (she knows how much I missed not having pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving), and some bath stuff from Bath and Body Works.  We made pumpkin pie that night and it was soooooo good!

Monday morning I only taught one hour at Boris Vian because my first class was on a field trip and no one told me about this "minor detail" before Monday morning.  Then I only taught 2 hours at St. Exupery since one of those classes was also on a field trip.  I did get to go home an hour early, which was nice to have an extra hour at home with Danielle.  That night we pack our bags to leave for Paris the next morning.
When we woke up Tuesday morning it had snowed more than expected, which meant the buses weren't running.  Luckily we left early enough to just walk to the metro.  We then found out the metro wasn't running into town.  I panicked on how to salvage the situation so I called Deliece and Janine to brainstorm alternative options on what to do.  We ended up taking the metro into Roubaix and got off at the train station stop.  Once we got there we found out there may not be any trains running into Lille.  As we were trying to decide whether or not to just return our tickets a train pulls into the station and we hear someone say "Lille" so we ran for the train and hopped on without a clue as to where it was going and not having a ticket.  We both were too determined to give up!  Luckily it did take us into Lille, but we then found out that all trains in and out of Lille had been cancelled until noon.  All we could do was sit around the train station and wait for a departing train to Paris to be posted.  We left and got breakfast.  We spent majority of the morning going between the shopping mall and the train station to check on train times.  We met up with Emily at one point since we was heading into Carre four we decided to pass the time hanging out with her while she grocery shopped.  As we were walking back through the metro station into the train station I noticed a train for Paris was posted as leaving at 11:40am but it was already almost 12:45pm.  I knew they wouldn't keep old trains posted on the screens so that had to mean a train was still in the station and due to leave relatively soon.  We quickly made our way to the train and just got on.  Of course the train was all mixed up with people sitting in each other's assigned seats, but since this was the first train out of Lille to Paris that was bound to happen.  We did get seats and after about a 20 minute wait the train slowly rolled out of the station.  There was only a minor 30 minute hold up along the way, which was better than the sight of miles and miles of semi trucks pulled over and stranded on the highways.  France can not handle snow.  Once we got into Paris we bought lunch at a small cafe right outside the train station.  After buying our 2 day metro passes we located our hotel.  We had booked a hotel in the Montmartre area (my favorite part of Paris), and had a perfect view of the Sacre Coeur.

 






We dropped our bags off in the room and headed for the Place de la Concorde and the Champs Elysee. The snow was coming down pretty hard and the wind didn't help as we walked along the famous street.  We saw the Arc de Triomphe, but couldn't cross under the street to see the tomb of the unknown soldier since there was a military ceremony going on.  We then caught the metro to the Trocadero to see the Eiffel Tower in the snow.  She was pretty :)  We were there just in time to see her light up at 7pm.  We then went to the Louvre Museum and the Notre Dame to see them by night.  We ended the night with a fancy dinner along the Seine.  We both got a chicken in a creamy lemon sauce and a side of vegetables.  When we were walking back to the metro headed for the hotel I saw my first rat in Paris.  Scared the shit out of me!  We ended the night with a trip to the Moulin Rouge (just from the outside).

 

The next morning we checked out of the hotel, but luckily we could leave our backpacks chained to the heater in the lobby for the day.  We started out with nutella crepes for breakfast by the Eiffel Tower and then to the Notre Dame (no rats this time).  I did make it back to the Lover's Bridge and found Chad and my lock still attached to the bridge.  We did a little souvenir shopping before heading back to the Louvre and the royal palace.  We then took the metro up to the Montmartre area, where we had to climb the giant hill.  We stopped for a traditional french lunch of quiche lorraine with fries and a salad.  We then walked to the Sacre Coeur to see the gorgeous 180 degree view of Paris.  We finished up our souvenir shopping in Montmartre before we stopped back at the hotel to pick up our bags.  We had some time to kill before our train was scheduled to leave so we stopped at a little kebab shop outside of the train station for dinner.  While we were waiting for our platform to be announced in the train station I noticed a recorded announcement kept playing over and over that our train was to join another train on the same platform, but the large monitors that list the train times and platforms didn't reflect this announcement.  Luckily we decided to head down to the platform to check out the situation and indeed we were supposed to be taking that train, even though the departure screens didn't reflect that information.  Typical France... I had bought a tarte aux fraise (strawberry tart) towards the end of the day and rewarded myself with a nice dessert on the train as we headed back to Lille.  

 

 
Thursday morning rolled around and despite the fact that the buses may have been running in the snow I still decided to take a mental health day after a whirlwind of adventure the previous two days.  In the afternoon Janine came into town with Danielle and I for a tour of downtown Lille.  We did a little shopping too, since I had finally received my CAF money.  (What a nightmare...)  It was nice to buy myself a little something nice after all the heartbreak that stupid CAF office put me through.  Hey in the end it is free money.  After dinner that night all the girls of the house piled onto the couch to watch the season finale of the Bachelor.
I worked my three full hours on Friday at St. Exupery.  That night the housemates and Danielle met up with some of my other friends for a drink in Lille.  I'm glad Danielle got the chance to meet all of my new friends in France.  We had to come back rather early so as not to miss the last metro home and rest up for our trip to Brussels the next morning.
After eating a quick breakfast we headed to the train station to catch our ride to Brussels, Belgium (and outta France!)  The train went on without a problem and when we got into the station we bought our train passes for the airport the next morning.  Our next trek would be finding the hotel.  We'd looked up the hotel on a map and even figured out which metro lines we needed to take.  The one thing we didn't account for was a crappy 3G signal, which means we had no means of navigation.  After trying to figure out our current location on a map we finally decided to stop a bus drive to see if he knew where the street our hotel was on was located.  He was so kind he let us ride his bus one stop which dropped us off one street away from our hotel.  (Wouldn't get that type of kindness in France.)  We checked into the room and dropped our bags off before heading back out to explore.  We first stopped into a giant church that was absolutely impressive on the inside.

 

Next we headed into the center of town and got a real belgian waffel.  I of course got a waffel covered in speculous.  I just needed a moment to take it in and indulge myself.   After went into at least 5 different chocolate shops, and Danielle got some assortments to take back to her family in the states.  We walked through the Grand Place where the locals were giving out fre hugs.  We then went on an adventure to find the famous statue of a little boy peeing into a bird bath.  Super lame as we soon found out.  We did take some pictures to mock all the chavs we saw taking ridiculous photos in Paris.  (You kinda had to be there to appreciate it.)

We walked through a couple of shopping galleries and found the palace of Brussels.  Just next to the palace was a large spanse of gardens that lead to the parliament building.

We were getting hungry at this point and ventured back into town to find dinner.  We found a quaint winding street lined with traditional Belgian restaurants.  They were all offering the same menu deal but each restaurant manager tried to offer us something different from the last.  We finally settled on one of the many restaurants.  We each ordered a starter, entree and dessert with a free beer all for only 12 euro!  The food was excellent!  We were pretty stuffed and tired after dinner so we went back to the room for an early night's rest.

 

The next morning we woke up bright and early to take the metro then a train to get to the airport so Danielle could catch her flight.  So many modes of transportation.  Danielle got checked in with no problems and all her flights went well.  It was so nice having her visit and I think she really enjoyed the trip!  It will be nice to have a couple of weeks to rest up from 4 weeks of intense traveling before I dive back into sightseeing Europe on Easter weekend.

Mother Daughter Reunion pt.3

Rounding out my trip to London, England:
On day 6 we started out with a boat trip down the River Thames.  We started at the West Minister Pier and got off just past the Tower Bridge by the Tower of London.  My mom and I were the first in line to get on the boat and secured great seats at the front of the boat.  The trip lasted about 30-45 minutes and there was an audio guide streamed throughout the ship pointing out important landmarks along the way.  After leaving the West Minster port we saw the London Eye, The Tate Modern, and Millenium Bridge.  Out of the right side of the boat we could see a replica of the Globe Theater used by Shakespeare.  We also passed an old WWII battle ship that is docked in the River Thames and used as a museum.  We finally arrived at the Tower Bridge and made a pass under the bridge, turned around and docked at the Tower of London port.  I had always thought that the Tower Bridge was the London Bridge, but in fact the London Bridge is just a cement bridge with a small marking on the side saying "London Bridge".

 

My mom and I walked around a part of the Tower of London, which is where many people were held captive before being beheaded by the guillotine.  We decided not to do a tour of the Tower of London since it was 18 pounds/person ($26).  You do get a guided tour by an authentically dressed Beef Eater, but we couldn't validate the price.  This the point in the trip when a pigeon pooped on my head.  Luckily, I was wearing a hat.  That I would later accidentally leave on a seat in the underground (problem solved!)  We then went on to Somerset house where we paid to see the permanent exhibit and a special exhibit on Picasso's paintings.  My mom and I aren't huge art fans, but I figured we can't come to London and not see some famous artwork.  The nice thing about Somerset house is that the rooms themselves are like pieces of art.  This building is where many royal tudors lived just after the reign for Henry VIII and his successors.  

 

After the Somerset house we ventured off to find the Temple District in the city.  This area was once ruled by the Knight's Templar and has remained in the olden architecture to remember the men who once lived and ruled in this district.  There are actually two silver dragons stationed at the entrance to "the city" and during the times of royal rule over England the king and queen would stop before the silver dragons and ask permission from the mayor of London to be granted entrance into the city of London.  

 

After buying dinner at a small grocery mart around the corner from our hotel and resting for a short bit, we decided to brave Oxford Street at night for a little shopping.  We didn't find too many stores that weren't high end and out of our price range, but we did pop into Hamley's.  I think this could be the world's largest toy store, if not the biggest one in London.  There were 5 stories jam packed with toys for all ages and toys of all kinds.  The thing I liked best about Hamley's that you don't often see in a true toy store is most of the workers were set up at stations actually playing with the toys or making crafts.  This not only shows the child (and the parent) what the toy can do and whether or not it's worth your money.  It of course draws the kids in to watch the demonstrations and then they plead with mum and dad to pretty please buy every toy in the store, but still pretty cool.  

 

Our last full day in London started out with a trip back to Kensington Palace and a stroll through Hyde Park.  The weather seemed to be getting a little warmer so we were more open to walking around a little more today.  On the south side of Hyde park we caught the #9 red double decker bus across town.  It was so neat to sit at the very front of the bus and get a 180 panoramic view of the streets of London.  Man can those buses get close to other cars, light poles, and pedestrians!  On the red double decker bus my mom and I split a candy bar called a "double decker", seemed appropriate.  

We had lunch in Chinatown and stopped into a Chinese grocery store just to look around.  We then made our way over to the London Eye to redeem our tickets for a trip around the wheel.  Since it was rather foggy and stormy out that day we opted to wait till night to see the city all lit up.  We did however go ahead and watch the 4D movie experience of the London Eye.  We decided to explore the other side of the River Thames for the afternoon just to see what all was over on that side.  Not much we found out.  We did see a man making some of the biggest bubbles I've ever seen and entertaining school children with his talent.  I dropped a few coins in his tin so we could buy more bubble solution.

 

  As we were walking to the Tate Modern Art Museum, we say a row of people along a fence dressed in dark drab colors and some with rather professional cameras.  After striking up a conversation with a lovely man who was chocked full of info, we found out that these people were paparazzi waiting for some big name british celebs to come out of a recording studio.  We didn't recognize any of the names the man listed so we decided not to stick around and wait.  We did finally make it to the Tate Modern museum.  We quickly found out modern art is weird.  Not to judge against someone's taste in art, but after seeing a display of two pigeons nailed to a wall with arrows, we decided this is not where our time should be spent.

Once it got to be dark out we made our way back to the London Eye and got in line to board the next carriage.  The trip lasted 30 minutes and we did indeed get a 360 view of London.  On our way back across the West Minster Bridge we noticed what appeared to be a photo shot for some commercial or ad.  It took too long for the crew to set up, so we decided to just catch the tube back to our hotel.  

 

We woke up early the next morning to turn in our hotel key and catch the tube to St. Pancras station.  It was mid  journey that I decided to verify the time of our train and realized that it left 3 hours later than originally thought.  Oops!  So we bought some breakfast at a cafe and hunkered down till it was time to catch the train back to Lille.

I had an amazing trip with my mom and really enjoyed London!  Thanks for all the great new memories mom!!