London, England

Congratulations. You have made it to my final Europe trip Post. Hooray for our side. (If you are interested, a small portion of the 1,200--no kidding--pictures that I took in Europe can be seen on my Flickr page. The link is on the right-hand side).

So, after a grueling romp around three countries, I finally caught an early morning flight back to London. I arrived in the bone-chilling, rainy English capital at ten in the morning, and my flight back to Texas wasn't scheduled to leave until noon the next day, so I figured I would go into town and get some Tea and Crumpets while I was there.

I hopped a train into central London (on which I got asked for directions by an Italian man--since this was the fourth time being asked directions in a language I totally didn't understand, I just started yelling and flailed my arms and he ran away crying) along with my ridiculously large Backpack and my now infamous Rolly Suitcase. Luckily, everything was in English, so I found the Underground with relative ease and walked out right next to Big Ben. Aside from the biting Wind and Rain, the city was actually quite nice. I was by myself though, so it made it less Fun (mostly because I had to carry all my crap). Anyway, I breezed through Parliament, Westminister Abbey, the Tower of London and a fun Bagel Shop before catching the Train back to Gatwick.


I still had 14 hours to kill at the airport, so I found a Starbuck's with a few couch-like structures and tried to sleep. Unfortunately, I was soon joined by a red-headed Giant in tight jeans who liked to talk. For those of you who don't know, I hate talking to strangers. I know this is hard to understand as I could easily carry a five-day conversation with my Cats, but it is something I try to avoid. A lot.

Our (very painful) conversation went like this:

Red-Haired Giant In Tight Jeans: Hi.

Me: *silence--turned the page in my Book to imply that I was engrossed...although I wasn't*

RHGITJ: Ummm...Hi?

Me: What? Oh, hi.

RHGITJ: Where you headed?

Me (realizing not only was he American, but he was Texan, I thought about lying and saying Chicago): Ummmm, Dallas.

RHGITJ (with a LOT of enthusiasm): ME TOO! That's crazy! Are you from around there?

Me (thinking about seeing how he would react if I started speaking Spanish to him): No. Well, yes. Kind of.

RHGITJ: Cool! Me too. I'm from Fort Worth.

Me (ah, Fort Worth explains the tight jeans): Cool.

RHGITJ: So, what do you do?

Me (I thought our conversation was over with my last, ever so slightly abrupt response): Well, I'm an algebra teacher. I'm working on lesson plans now.

RHGITJ: Oh, awesome! I work with kids, too.

Me (thinking that I really should start working on my lesson plans): Mmm hmm.

RHGITJ: Yeah. I work with drug dogs in high schools. It's great. My dog is awesome. Her name is Molly. Two weeks ago we found a bunch of stuff, and people were flipping out all over the place. And then, last month...

Me (not lying at all): I have to go to the bathroom.

Barcelona, Spain

When we arrived in Barcelona, it was actually quite a beatiful day, but we decided to go directly to the Hostel without first dragging the Rolly Suitcase around the city. The Hostel turned out to be a great place, complete with internet, Food, maps, and FIVE ridiculously long flights of stairs to our room. My friends, lets just say I had thighs of steel and four asthma attacks by the end of our stay.

After a wild goose chase for Lunch that ended up in mayonnaise covered potatoes, we visited the Barcelona Cathedral, some public Park, the outside of the Zoo (we could smell the animals, but not see them), and then climbed back up the Stairs of Destiny to our rooms where we slept. For a long time.



The next day, we pulled out my handy Guide to Spain and tried to look as much like clueless Tourists as possible (which we pulled off quite well with the ultra large map, the ultra large Camera, the scary reflective sunglasses, the ultra large "Bag of Necessities," and the ultra large fanny pack). Okay, so we didn't have the fanny pack, but that was all that was missing. We did a "Do It Yourself" tour of Antoni Gaudi's most famous works, including some really crazy Buildings. During our wandrings, we stumbled upon an awesome market filled with fresh Veggies and Fruit, Candy, and lots of scary meat. We stopped to look at some crabs on ice that were quite large, and upon close inspection, discovered that they were indeed ALIVE, despite the fact that they were rubberbanded and on ice. We almost lost our eyes to very cold and angry pinchers.



Luckily, we escaped the market of scary meat products and promptly found that one of us had misplaced her Metro ticket. I don't want to embarass the loser of said ticket, so I won't mention Laura's name here. Since we had already worked our leg muscles to rock-hard Walking Machines on the Stairs of Destiny, we decided to walk the 47 blocks to the Sagrada Familia. My usual happy temperament turned into a veritable Temper Tantrum by the end of our trek (and, if you're reading, sorry LB) but the Sagrada Familia at the last block was Awesome.

After some tasty Indian Food and a good night's rest, we spent the next day touring the Palau de Musica (which was Gorgeous), and hiking the seventy three Uphill miles to the Parc Guell (also Beautiful, but just so far far away) where we got a great view of Barcelona from above, and another taste of my Bad Temper (my knees were about to explode at this point). Finally, our time in Barcelona was done, which was actually kind of sad. But, I did take away some valuable lessons. For example, I learned that lots of walking in Foreign Countries in uncomfortable and unfashionable Shoes while trying to speak a Language that is nothing like it was promised to be results in me getting Irritable. Who knew?

Paris, France

We woke up at 4:30 AM and took a breathtaking (in the scary way, not the awe-inspiring way) cab ride to the airport in Rome. Before long, we were walking the Streets of Paris in the bitterly cold wind and rain. I, being the well-prepared Traveler that I am, realized that we had been plopped in the middle of a strange-languaged Country with no idea where the crap we were. After a visit to a self-cleaning Toilette and the purchase of a map and some Fruit Mentos (both of which we needed for survival), we headed off in a definite direction (kind of) with my rolly Suitcase getting drenched and dirty at my heels.

Finally, we made it to the Arc de Triomphe, walked down the Champ d'Elysees, and ended up at some famous National Garden. Since we are obviously two hot American chicks with many plentiful goods in my Muddy Suitcase, some Parisian man came up and offered to show us the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. Saying "No" in French is pretty much the same as saying "No" in English, so we had to knee him in the groin and run when he didn't get the hint.

After barely escaping the evil clutches of the over-friendly Tour Guide, we managed to find our hostel and then the Louvre (which we literally had to run through because it was closing). After staring at the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo for thirty whole seconds, we searched for a suitable dinner for hours, and after giving up on discovering some hidden Bistro where we might stumble upon Brangelina or Bennifer, we stopped in a local grocery and bought Bread and Cheese. Very exotic.

The next morning, we found the Eiffel Tower, and perhaps more importantly, a Crepe Stand that fed us Breakfast and Second Breakfast. We battled through the throngs of Asian Tourists to get to the second level, which was freezing and windy and freezing. After abandoning the trip to the top for fear of being trampled by the aforementioned Asian Tourists, we wandered around and discovered Notre Dame and more Fruit Mentos (thank God).


Our final stop in Paris was the infamous Moulin Rouge. We looked around for Nicole and Ethan, but they didn't show. We did, however, find several Sex Paraphenalia Shops. And I mean like fifteen in a block. Being innocent and sweet as we are, we covered our eyes and ran underground to catch the Metro home.