Travel Day (Barcelona to Portifino)

(3:00pm Barcelona Time)

Dear Fans,

I’m sorry for neglecting my blog for so long, we’ve been moving faster between cities and it’s hard to find time to write.
We finished finals on the 13th, just in time for Bastille Day celebrations in Paris on the 14th. On Bastille Day. There is a huge concert under the EiffelTower so weheaded there, picnic in hand. The plan was to be there around six, eat our baguets and cheese, and watch the fireworks show at 10:30. The problem was that it appeared everyone in all of Europe had the same plan and the concert was PACKED. So after about a half an hour,David and I left (Lizzie stuck it out and I have to admit I’m a little jealous of the amazing time she had, the fireworks were increadable, you should all go look at the photos on her blog!)

Saddened that we missed out on the biggest event of the year, we soon decided to head over to the second biggest event of the year (also on the same night), the “Firehouses”. On Bastille Day the Fire Stations throughout Paris turn into Night Clubs just for one night. It’s hard to picture if you haven’t seen it, but imagine two courtyards filled to the brim of people (mostly our age), dancing away. As if it’s not strange enough just to be dancing in afire station, the courtyards to lined with little stages on which the firemen are dancing. Now when I say dancing, I mean DANCING, they honestly looked like strippers but without the stripping. Inside the fire station, there were about five different kinds of bars: mixed drinks, Champaign, wine, beer, etc.

The next morning was David’s birthday. Lizzie went out early in the morning and brought back pastries galore while I wrapped his littlepresents in anything I could find – paper, magazine pages and shopping bags. After that we had lunch in the park before heading to the airport to fly to Monaco.

We arrived in Monaco to a beautiful birthday Champaign welcome from Nadine and Mary. After that, we headed out for a late dinner, which our new friend Jon drove us to (thank God) because Monaco is, seriously, the singly most confusing city I’ve ever been in. However, being adults, we decided we could surely use our hotel’s “easy-ten-minute-walking-directions” back to the hotel. The directions were as follows: “walk along the palace, walk around the round-about, walk through a mall, take an escalator through the mountain, cross a bridge…and so on”. Needless to say, we were lost in about ten seconds and had to call a cab.

The next day, we spend the whole day on the beach, building up the courage to try to attempt another walk into the city of Monte Carlo. Much to our delight, we successfully made it to the Casino AND back with only limited assistance from Jon. The highlight of Monaco was simply sittingat a café outside of the Casino enjoying some highly entertaining people watching (or car watching in David’s case).

From Monaco, we made our way to Fontville, an adorable town in the South of France adjacent to the town where Van Gough lived, worked and eventually went insane. Because I have written so much about France, I won’t write much about Fontville besides that it was the cutest place I’ve ever seen (I think the pictures will show you more than I could ever write).

After Fontville, we drove to Barcelona, I expected there to be a lot of young people in Barcelona, but I wasn’t prepared forthe throngs of college aged people in every direction, every street looked like bruin walk ten minutes before class started. I also had no idea how beautiful Barcelona is, the S. Familia Cathedral is one of the most beautiful, creative buildings I’ve ever seen. They started building the Cathedral in 1880, and it’s far from finished today.
We were in Barcelona for two days and we mostly just walked for hours because every corner had something different to see.

This morning we said our sad good byes to Lizzie, we’ll miss you, Blizard!
Now David and I are on our way to meet Mary and Nadine in Italy, so excited!!!

Paris, Day 10

(July 11, 2011)

We have spent the last couple days at some of the most beautiful chateaus in the world! The day before last we went to Vaux le Vicompte at dusk for a picnic dinner. At night they put out thousands of candles that light up the whole garden, it was beautiful!!

Yesterday, we went to Versailles. However, seeing the lines stretching for what seemed like miles we immediately decided to spend the whole day in the extensive gardens and not to go into the palace itself. This ended up being a fantastic plan because the gardens were so large that it took us all day just to meander from one side of it to the other (with breaks for ice cream, lunch, puppies, statue posing and Marie Antoinette’s House).

We also rented a rowboat to paddle around the lake on the far end of the gardens. While struggling to make our boat go in a somewhat straight line, we sang songs, inserting the words “row”, “lake”, and “boat” whenever possible.

Our adventures have been so great and so

many that I can’t possibly write them all now. Plus, technically we have finals the day after tomorrow, Yikes!

Mom and Dad - thanks for answering my call today, I love you both!

Willard and Small Fri – I miss you both! I’m excited to see you in North Carolina!

Everyone else – hugs and kisses!

Paris, Day 4

(7:30pm Paris Time)

Paris is absolutely amazing! Lizzie, David and I would like to thank our parents for giving us these fantastic memories!!
Our days have been a blur of crepes, baguettes, parks, museums, and long strolls along the canal.

However, today we decided to switch it up and go to the Catacombs to see a bunch of bones of dead people (why? I don’t know). I was a little creeped out so to get my mind off of things David decided we should scare Lizzie. So we ran ahead and hid behind one of the corners.

When we heard Lizzie’s voice we jumped out screaming. Our screams were soon joined by more screams, but unfortunately not Lizzie’s. We had accidently scared the lady that had been walking right in front of Lizzie. Not only did she not find it very funny, but we also got yelled at in French by the security guard and we still had to walk the remaining half-mile following the poor scared lady, being tailed by the angry security guard and surrounded on either side by dead people.

After that, we walked to the nearest park, dipped our feet in the pond in front of a gorgeous palace and ate bread - so much for trying to switch things up, I think we’ll stick with this for a while.

So far, our favorite memories are: shopping at the farmer’s market (fresh bed, buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil), making the most delicious sandwiches ever and eating them under the Eiffel tower at night, a canal cruise along the Seine, leaving the catacombs, watching the street performers in front of the Notre Dame, the four-hour walking tour (we walked seven miles, ouch!), and eating. I would like to note here that I had the brilliant idea that I should devote the rest of my blog to food, and just write about what I eat everyday but Lizzie and David talked me out of it. So to those of you who really wanted to hear about the delicious open-face baguette with cheese, tomatoes and black olives cooked to perfection, or the carmel ice cream that rivaled Bi-Rite’s Salted Carmel or the tomato and goat cheese crepe…you have Lizzie and David to blame, sorry!

Love you and miss you all!!

Amsterdam, Day 2

(12:50am Amsterdam Time)

I have never walked more than I walk in Amsterdam! But it’s finally sunny (and really, really hot!) so none of us mind being outside.

Yesterday we walked all the way across the city to the famous Rijks Museum, known for their large collection of Rembrandt paintings. It was nice to get out of the sun for a couple hours but we were also glad to walk around the park and take pictures in front of the "I AMsterdam" sign.

Last night we went on a dessert canal cruise at sunset. I'm surprised to be saying it, but Amsterdam is one of the prettier cities I've ever been to.

Today we went to the giant park in Amsterdam, Vondelpark and we all splurged and bought lunch at a cafe by the lake.

Mostly though we've just been walking and exploring, I didn't think I'd love Amsterdam, but I really do! I'll be sad to leave on Friday!After that, we went to the Heineken Museum/Factory which included things like the "Brew-You ride, a 4-D experience!", and a make-your-own Heineken music video station (David, Lizzie, Camille and I sang the Amsterdam Theme song in Dutch and yes, we have a copy).

Travel Day (Brussels to Amsterdam)

(6:00pm Amsterdam Time)

We are on our way to Amsterdam! Right now we are driving through meadows with massive windmills on either side of us and there are twice as many bikes on the road as cars, it's awesome!

Belgium was amazing, the first day in Brussels we visited the EU, which we were all really excited about. Unfortunately the only time slot for the presentation we were attending was at 9am, meaning that we had to leave our hotel at 8am (7am London time). Long story short, after our first night in Belgium it was almost impossible to wake up and sitting through a two-hour presentation on the voting and legislation procedures of the EU was even more difficult. So in order to stay awake we made a list of possible "team names" for our group. Possible names included Team Barrilicious (After our professor, Barry), Team Amurica, Team Awesome Sauce (Parks and Rec Reference) and Team Nap-time (for obvious reasons). But after we overcame our tiredness, the EU itself was fantastic!

Yesterday we went to Brugge, a historic town with canals running though it. We were excited to see the old buildings, the canals and the famous Michelangelo statue, but more than anything we were excited to be in the city with the highest chocolate per capita ratio in the world. Yum!!

Last night we went to a bar with the most famous beer in the world: Delirium Tremens. The night consisted of me trying to understand why people like beer (I still don't understand), David trying to keep his roommate out of trouble (he didn't succeed), and Lizzie warding off the advances of men left and right (one guy even cried because she wouldn't dance with him, he didn't understand why his full-proof pick-up line "you have sexy legs" didn't make her swoon).

We did a lot of amazing things in Belgium, but my favorite was the Atomium which was a huge structure built for the world fair, the whole thing looked like a molecule with spheres connected by tubes but it was so large that you could walk inside the tubes to get to the different spheres and each sphere had something in it: a restaurant, a museum, a cafe, etc. From the top sphere you can see all of Brussels! Eating waffles in a sphere suspended hundreds of feet off the ground = the perfect Belgium moment.

And we are looking forward to Amsterdam!

Brussels, Day 2

(12:00am Brussels Time)

We are in Brussels! I wanted to post some pictures, but I don't have enough time to write a long blog.

I hope everyone is healthy and happy back home, we couldn't be having a better time!

Miss you all!

Travel Day!

June 22th
(2:00pm London Time)

We are crossing the English Chanel, playing SPOONS! It’s cold and windy outside but we’re happily sitting in the lounge where’s it’s warm and cozy ☺

We’re sad to be leaving London; we had such an amazing time! The day after my last post we went to Hyde Park and visited Kensington Palace.

On our way home we decided to get off the Tube at Leicester square to see if we could find some discounted tickets for a show. Of course it was pouring rain but we were determined to get the lowest price possible. So we put newspaper over our heads and sprinted from discount ticket booth to discount ticket booth, wheeling and dealing until we settled on fairly cheap (back-row) tickets to Mouse Trap, the longest running in

play in the world. Having finally bought the tickets we looked down at our watches, it was six thirty and the play started at seven thirty. Our hair was matted with rain and we looked like we had just spent the whole day in the park (because we had). At this moment I remembered our family motto when it comes to plays: if you’re not running it’s not a play. So we ran all the way back to the Tube, and from the Tube to our Dorm.

We got dressed in 8.5 minutes and bought a pizza out of the vending machine downstairs (which was actually pretty cool, it makes it in the machine right there in front of you!). We then ran back to the Tube, and from the Tube to the play, arriving with just enough time to get little glasses of wine and compose ourselves enough to pretend that weweren’t obnoxious Americans but rather civilized, wine-drinking British Folk.

Yesterday we decided to fully embrace our tourist status. We went to the National Gallery (Van Gough, Monet, Botticelli, Michelangelo and Da Vinci), the National History Museum (Rocks, Dinos, Jewels and Animals), Buckingham Palace (we may or may not have seen the Queen, it’s up for debate), Covent Gardens (shopping and tea) and St. Martin’s Cathedral (brass rubbings!!!).