Your first thought when viewing this post is most likely, “Thank god he is still alive!” Yes, I know it has been almost four weeks since my last post and I will not sit here and give you a list of excuses on why it has been so long (I could, but I will save us both the time). Instead, I will jump straight to my Paris trip with Katie.
Hmmm, on second thought I do not want my parents to stop paying for my education and my food while abroad, so here is a shout out to them!! They came for the first two weeks of October and we had a fun-filled, exciting, non-stop (except to drink beer and eat) trip that was full of great memories. I think we sufficiently conquered not only Vienna, but Salzburg as well (my Mom had to go on the Sound of Music tour of course). My Dad has a whole bunch of pictures from the trip and I will perhaps put up a link when it becomes available. I really could spend a long time discussing that trip but I think my Dad’s pictures will do it justice and considering that half of my readers already went on that trip, I will continue on to more recent material. Overall though, I was really glad they came!
Now that I have that covered that and you all know I have great parents who traversed across the world to spend a week with me, I will move on to Paris! If you are interested in Katie’s point of view please check her blog out
here. If you are interested in learning about other adventures Katie has had in her life, such as her travels to Cadiz two summers ago and her internship in Washington DC last summer, you unfortunately cannot view them on that blog. If you want a good read though, here are the other two links for
Cadiz and
DC (Sorry Katie!! I just had to throw it in there :D)
Now back to Paris. I think Katie does a very good job of capturing every thing we did in her blog, which was a lot, but also she completely underestimates the role she played in organizing the entire trip. The basis for this trip started long ago with our knowledge of three things: I knew I would be in Vienna, Katie knew she would be in Edinburgh, and we both knew we wanted to meet up somewhere in Europe. Of course, it took a mere five minutes of sitting down and discussing our options to decide on the city of love and lights. It was over the summer that we officially started planning our trip. I put Katie in charge of creating an itinerary because I was in the midst of making my own for Egypt and she said she would have plenty of free time in between the end of her internship in DC and her departure for Edinburgh. Now, when she eventually showed me the itinerary I expected a short list of the top 10 things we had to do in Paris. Oh no no no, what was I thinking? This was Katie Lovett and I should have known how much effort she was going to put into our trip. She must have read at least three books, gone through every walking tour and looked up every restaurant and hotel in the city of Paris. I know this because every time we walked by a hotel on our trip she would say, “Oh hey, look, I think I remember reading about that one.” I point out all of these things so everyone who reads my blog understands that this trip would not have been even close to as successful if it were not for Katie. Of course, she will probably tell you that I am overestimating the amount of work she did but do not believe her!!
Okay so now you know I have both amazing parents and a great girlfriend (how lucky am I?). I have also complimented the majority of my readers :D So finally, I have reached the point where I can post some pictures of the highlight of the trip! One last thing though, for how well this tripped worked out, it could have been a complete disaster. As some of you might know France recently decided to raise their pension age from 60-62 and this has led to a lot of strikes in France. Well Katie and I were there right at the beginning of our strikes but very fortunately, they did impact our travels to any great degree. We didn’t make it to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, but that will just have to wait for another trip.
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| Katie with her very important Lonely Planet Paris Encounter book that she had out all the time. Now I know how Jack felt in Egypt! |
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| We ate in the Latin Quarter the first night but before we sat down we snapped some pictures in front of Notre Dame. By the way we got extremely lucky with weather, I think it only rained on us once or twice. |
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| The next morning on our way back to Notre Dame we stopped at a historic book store for Katie. What can I say, she loves books. I took the opportunity to look at Tintin!! |
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| She picked up one of her favorites Madeline and throughout the trip brought up her story. "Hey, Katie, I wonder what that big blue van is, an ambulance or a police car?" "Well, Patrick, it must be an ambulance because a van very similar to that is in Madeline!" "Ummm, okay Katie" |
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| Admiring all the books! |
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| Inside Notre Dame, and Katie looks like she has Mickey Mouse ears. |
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| On top of Notre Dame |
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| A gargoyle with Grapes?! Katie had to try some for herself |
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| Katie being Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, another one of her favorite movies. Sometimes I wonder about how one of my best friends (Jack) and my girlfriend are both obsessed with Disney. (Not that there is anything wrong with that) |
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| Inside St. Chapelle |
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| Katie trying to figure out all the meanings of the stained glass windows |
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| She should wear this hat when she makes me mac and cheese |
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| Our lunch that consisted of a sandwich and a crepe for dessert. We decided to eat it right on the river! |
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| Me posing for a good shot with the river and the Eiffel Tower in the background as we walked from St. Chapelle to the Louvre |
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| Katie joined in for the next one |
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| Katie posing with Venus of Milo |
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| And me posing as well. Notice how I am the only one wearing an audio guide. We did not feel the need to spend an extra 6 euros, instead we just turned the volume up and stood next to each other. |
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| Thar she blows!! By golly, it's the Mona Lisa!! |
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| Katie being her proper Azalea Belle self in the apartments |
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| She got too tired of being proper I guess and just passed out on one of the benches. But seriously, the Louvre is tiring!! |
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| A shot outside once we were done |
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| Place de Concorde. I am 95% sure I stood at the spot where this Obelisk used to be in Egypt which is cool to think about |
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| Under the Arc, unfortunately we did not make to the top. Katie is looking for dinner places though |
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| After dinner off to the Eiffel Tower!! |
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| The view from the top, the blue streak is the spotlight |
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| Versailles! |
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| Majestically listening to the audio guide |
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| Sleeping in the King's bedroom surrounded by gold. Do you think they ever got tired of gold? |
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| Huh? Apparently there is a Japanese modern art exhibit going on in Versailles to make up for the lack of furniture. Did not really fit... |
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| Katie once again being proper in the gardens like all southern belles! |
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| Us being goofy with our cameras, it happened a lot actually |
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| Snapping a picture on the big pond |
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| At a side island surrounded by a moat, naturally we had to cross |
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| I made it and was jumping up and down and of course Katie captured me at the most awkward moment |
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| So much goofing around made Katie sleepy so she needed some coffee from a vending machine. Also, please note the two bags of grapes she has in her hands. Basically, you could not do better to sum up Katie in one picture |
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| The Catacombs!!!! Zoinks like hey Scoob, like, are there ghosts down here???? |
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| Spooky |
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| So that was a bit of a jump. The next morning after the Catacombs we went to Orsay which I actually really enjoyed! I even bought a little painting to take home with me. But here we are at Napoleons tomb! |
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| Then we decided to cruise the Seine and take fun pictures |
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| Like this one reenacting the Titanic, I am sure all the other tourists loved us |
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| I have about 20 of these pictures and picked what I think are two of the better ones |
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| In front of the Sacre Couer in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris |
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| Katie at the top |
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| One view of Paris from the top, in this you can see the tower and the arc |
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| Then we had our romantic last dinner, the menu was in French so we were not quite sure what we were going to get. When this came out Katie's mouth dropped. She started talking to the dead fish saying things like, "I am sorry you just taste so good!" And when she was finished she organized the bones and the head so it resembled a little fish again. She did say it was one of the best complete meals she had ever had (besides her Mom's cooking of course!) My meat was also tender and delicious! |
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| How Katie starts her day! |
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| Whoops!!! We missed some paintings the first time! (Not sure how, probably we were just too overwhelmed) But here we are back at the Louvre being a little silly as always |
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| And as Humaniteers, the trip would not be a success without a picture in front of this painting. |
After the Louvre we headed off to the Monet exhibit. We did not have as much time as we hoped since we had to wait in line for over an hour but our brief stroll through the exhibit was actually really interesting. I am not sure I will ever see a collection like that ever again, and who does not like Monet?
Okay so there is our trip to Paris!! Since I have returned from Paris, my good friend Paul came to visit Jack and I for an extended weekend and we had a great time, again with some memorable moments. Then the day after he left, I started my midterms, which I am fairly pleased with. IES is just a little bit easier than Davidson (probably a UGE understatement). I finished on Tuesday and it has been nice to relax even more and cross some things off of my to do list. I have started planning for Istanbul, Katie’s visit to Vienna and also worked on my resume. One other thing I did today was vote!! I spent about 45 minutes going through my voters packet and filling out my ballot. Naturally, I voted for Initiative 1098 which my Grandpa spent a lot of time making happen. You can actually read about it here. Always fun having your Grandpa on the front page of the Sunday Seattle Times!!
