Fall Break!! Paris and Barca with my parents!!

This is gonna be a long one... read at your own discretion. (p.s. I wrote this journal while I was traveling, so I'm just typing it exactly as I wrote it)

To begin with... my parents had a ton of flight troubles due to snow in Chicago and didn't make it in on Saturday like they were supposed to. Instead, they flew directly to Paris and arrived there on Sunday morning, and I flew from Barcelona to Paris to meet them there.

Sunday, October 15
My flight experience was a little crazy... I caught the airport shuttle from the plaza and got to the airport about 3 hours before my departure. The lines to check in were about 80 people long each, and I started to get really nervous. Some random guy walked over to me, asked me if I spoke English, and told me to hurry to this new line that had just opened! (I guess I looked like I was a nervous American, lol) What a nice guy, though!! The new line only had like 10 people in it. I finally made it to the counter and the guy spoke no English... He kept asking for the credit card used to buy the tickets, but I didn't have it since it was my parents, and he wasn't understanding that my parents weren't going to make it on the flight. Finally he let me get away without it, but he told me that my flight was going to either be really delayed or cancelled, but that there was another flight leaving in 25 minutes that he was going to put me on. I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever run so fast all the way across an airport. I almost fell flat on my face because I was running on the moving walkways, so by the time I got to the end and jumped off I was going SOO fast that I flew off the end. Anyways, I made it to my plane and landed in Paris safe and sound... and luggage-less. It didn't make it on the plane. They told me it was on the next flight in, and would be there that afternoon. And I couldn't get a hold of the shuttle I had scheduled to tell them I had arrived early so I had to take a cab to the hotel. I was SOOOO excited to see my parents when I got to the hotel! I've missed their hugs so much! We stayed on the smaller of the two islands which sit on the Seine River between the two halves of the city... Ile de Saint Louis. It was SUCH a cute area of town!
We spent the afternoon exploring some of the city. We saw Notre Dame, walked along the coast of the big island, saw the flower and bird market, The Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette was held prisoner and beheaded), and ate at a cafe along the Seine River. We took a nap in the afternoon, went for hot chocolate/coffee and a cheese plate, then took the evening boat tour of the city. It was windy and FREEZING but so beautiful. We came home to find out that my luggage STILL hadn't been delivered. I called and they said it'd be delivered some time tomorrow... great.

Monday, October 16
I had to wear the same clothes today. :-( We went to the metro station first this morning to buy metro passes for the rest of the week. They have a HUGE metro system here! We rode the metro to a stop near the Louvre to find our bus tour. We took a 2 hour bus tour around the city and got to see all the major attractions... it was really cool! Then we walked down Champs-Elysees looking at all the shops. We stopped in Louis Vuitton to gawk at the amazingness and outrageous prices. The Champs ended at the Arc de Triomphe where we stood in the middle of the road to get good pictures, lol. Did you know that there are 11 roads that run in all directions away from the Arc? It's crazy!
Next stop was the Eiffel Tower. I couldn't believe how big it was! We rode the elevator ALL the way to the top... thought my mom was gonna pass out on the way up. What an amazing view of the city, though! It was definitely worth the wait for the elevator. After that we went to find a restaurant for dinner that my dad used to eat at 10-12 years ago when he came to Paris a lot on business. La Ruelle Entrecot, or something remotely close to that. All they serve is steak and fries. It was DELICIOUS. Then Profiterols (cream puffs drenched in chocolate)... heaven on a plate.
And now... ONE OF THE BEST PARTS OF MY TRIP: My dad got out of the restaurant before us, and when we got out there he told us that Will Ferrell had just walked by! I kind of thought he was kidding but I mad them hurry up the street to check anyways. The guy he saw stopped at the next corner and as we walked by I looked to see. Sure enough! There he was! I was being to shy to ask if it was him, so my dad finally did and then I got to take a picture with him!!! He was so nice, too! Probably because he was in Paris and not being mobbed by people as he would be in the U.S. but he made the effort to have a conversation with us-asking why we were in Paris, where we were from, etc. Anyways, talk about being in the right place at the right time... just some random back street in Paris! And MANY thanks to my dad for helping me meet my first celebrity ever!
When we got home my suitcase was sitting in my room waiting for me!! YAY! Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, my parents, good food, and my first ever celebrity encounter all in ONE day... could life get any better than this??

Tuesday, October 17
Today we took the metro about 30 minutes to Versailles to see the Chateau, the former palace of the royal family of France. It was HUGE! We did an audio walking tour first and saw numerous rooms, as well as the chapel and opera house. I can't imagine ever living there--it's so formal and wouldn't feel like a home at all... but it was absolutely beautiful. The details and wall decorations were so ornate and original.
Later, after lunch in a small cafe in the garden, we took a guided tour through parts of the palace we weren't allowed to see on our own, such as the King and Queen's bedrooms, bathrooms, and dining rooms. We learned that over 30,000 people have lived there over time, which is crazy considering that its only a summer house for the royal family. It was really interesting to learn about the way of life back then too. They woke up in the morning, bathed, had their hair powdered (hence the reason they all look like they had gray hair), and makeup applied. A lot of the young boys looked like girls because of all the makeup they wore. I got really confused with all the lineage and Louis' that have been in the royal family, but I do remember that children married at VERY young ages (3-14 years old) and many of them married within their own family... such as first cousins. I also thought it was really cool to see the room where the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the end of World War I.
After the tour we headed home, napped, and went to dinner at a restaurant down the street, La Testavin. It was an expensive little French cafe, but it was absolutely delicious! Fried goat cheese salad, Veal with an amazing sauce, and caramel ice cream! Plus a bottle of wine for the three of us, of course!

Wednesday, October 18
Today we went to a part of the city called Montmartre. On the way we walked through the red light district and saw Moulin Rouge! I was slightly grossed out by the long line of elderly people standing outside the door... We also stopped at a really strange cemetary that had grave stones that looked like mini houses and had entire families inside them. Apparently some famous people are buried there but I didn't want to look around all that much... kinda creepy, especially after a black cat walked by right in front of us. Anyways, up the hill was a little part of town that used to be a well known art colony. There were tons of cute little shops, cafes, and painters on the sides of the streets. Oh! And even some really cool windmills up on the hills! We got chased down by a couple persistent caricature artists, but other than that it was really fun... we bought lots of souvenirs! :) We went to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur, a HUGE white basilica overlooking the city. It was so beautiful, both inside and out. We walked back down to the main square and had lunch in a cute little cafe, then headed back towards town.
Then we went to the Palais du Luxembourg, and spent a long time wandering around in the HUGE garden behind it. We watched kids pushing mini sailboats around a big pond using wooden poles, saw an AMAZING playground, some old guys playing bocce, pony rides for children, and lots of pretty flowers and ponds.
We headed home after that and went to a crepe restaurant for dinner... YUMM!

Thursday, October 19
This morning we got up early and walked to the Louvre. We spent probably about 4 hours there looking at some of the most famous pieces... Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory... and some others. That museum is ENORMOUS! We were getting lost even with maps... insane! You would have to spend DAYS in that museum to see everything... but I'm not a big art person in general, so I just wanted to see the really famous ones, which I did! :) The Mona Lisa is so small though! I don't really understand why it's so famous, lol. I guess I just have no appreciation for art, but oh well. Neither do my parents really, so we were all in the same boat. :)
We walked through the Jardin de Tuileries, had a chocolate croissant, and then did A LOT of souvenir shopping along the streets. I got some cute paintings to put up in my new apartment when I get back which I'm very excited about! And some other fun stuff.
Later that night we went out for an AMAZING dinner. Another restaurant right on our street. It was a fixed price menu and we got TONS of food. For appetizers we got a HUGE basket of vegetables, a huge basket of sausages, a soup, bread, and pate... all you can eat of all those things. Then we got to choose an entree... I got steak and fries. SO good. Then came a cheese plate... nearly all of which were disgusting. The only one we liked was muenster. The rest smelled like a barnyard and tasted worse than they smelled... guess I don't like cheese as much as I thought I did. Then came dessert! I had a chocolate mousse thing that was to die for. Oh, and I forgot to mention the all-you-can-drink wine. What a FUN and PERFECT way to spend our last night in Paris.

Friday, October 20
Got up SUPER early to go to the airport back to Barcelona. I was on a different flight than my parents, but we all made it back safe and sound. We took the shuttle to the hotel and spent some time exploring the city. We had lunch at a little cafe that Megan and I go to a lot then we went down to Las Ramblas and the Gothic Quarter, then walked down to the port and through the mall down there. Then we took a quick nap in the hotel and headed up to my apartment so that my parents could see it and meet my senora. We socialized for a while, then we all went out to dinner together. It was SO WEIRD translating EVERYTHING between my parents and senora, but it actually went really well and I was quite proud of myself. We were able to keep a conversation going throughout the duration of dinner! I don't know if my parents had ever really heard me speak spanish before that!
We were pretty tired after that and just crashed in the hotel for the night.

Saturday, October 21
We decided to take the double decker tour buses around Barcelona today, like the ones they have in NYC. Since my parents didn't have much time in BCN, I thought it'd be a good way for them to see all the major sites of the city. We spent nearly the entire day on the buses. We stopped at the beach for a while, and at lunch at a restaurant right on the sand, and stopped at Parc Guell to see the Gaudi architecture and great views of the city. Besides that, we pretty much just rode the buses all the way through. It was really cool for me, now that I have a much better idea of the city, because I knew where we were and I got to see a few of the places that I haven't had time to see yet.
We stopped at the hotel for a bit, then went to see the fountains at Montjuic, one of the mountains that backs up to the beach. They have a really cool water/music/lights show in their fountains during the evening. We tried to go to Poble Espanol, a village that has recreations of spanish architecture/houses/etc from the past, but a lot of the shops and restaurants inside were closed, so we decided that it wasn't worth it to pay to get in. We took the metro back toward the plaza and found a nice restaurant named Citrus. It overlooked one of the main streets in the city and had delicious food! We stopped for gelatto on the way home and headed back to the hotel to pack up and get to bed.

Sunday, October 22
Got up super early to get mom and dad to the airport for their 9am flight. The cab driver was doing 160 km/h in the 100 km/h speed limit. (Someone look at their spedometer and tell me what that converts to in mph!) I thought we were going to die... pretty sure we were taking the corners on 2 wheels. My parents got to the desk to find out their tickets had been cancelled since they missed the first flight to Barcelona the first time, but eventually they got things worked out and got tickets on the same plane they were originally booked on. I walked them to the security gates, said goodbye, and tried not to cry as they left.

I had THE most amazing time this past week. It was amazing not only to see my parents, but to get to spend a week with them in Europe. It created so many special memories that the three of us will share and remember forever. I'm so incredibly grateful. I have the most wonderful, loving, caring, selfless parents in the entire world. I wish Ryan and Danielle had been able to join us, but I'm hoping that some day we'll get to travel all together. I HAVE to come back to Europe. There are so many beautiful places here that I want to visit.

A few random memories that didn't make it into any of the entries above:
-buying cheese to eat in our hotel room, not finishing it, and returning later that day to a room that smelled like something DIED in it... and proceeding to put the cheese outside on the windowsill for the night in order to air out our room.
-my mom and i seeing a guy walking around naked in his room, right in front of his window, across the courtyard from us in the hotel in paris.
-pushing two twin beds together in the hotel in barcelona for all 3 of us to sleep on.

:) You're probably crazy if you read that all. It's mostly only for my own memory, but kudos to you if you read it. If you're thinking about traveling to Paris... DO IT. And ask me for advice! :)