Today we left Barcelona for Carcassonne. Took metro to Barceloneta stop. There were no signs for the Franca train station, but we were able to eventually find it. It was also raining lightly to make things more interesting. Brian wrote a song about the rain. He calls it, “Don’t cry for my Barcelona” + Once we were at our train platform, Brian set off to find some food for breakfast. He first searched within the security zone, but there was only a newspaper store. So he left the security zone to the front of the train station. Eventually he found a restaurant, but it was only serving overpriced coffee, wine, and beer. Determined to find some food he went outside and surveyed the land. Nothing. He recalled that they had passed a bread store on their way to the train station so he ran through the rain to buy two chocolate croissants and a Napoleonic cream croissant. The store didn’t sell drinks though, but he was confident that the train station would at least have a vending machine. he returned the food to Amy waiting by the train, and then gathered their coins to go find a vending machine. He found several next to the restaurant with no food. Yet none of them worked. We were not meant to drink anything that morning I suppose. + The train was super slow. At times it felt like it was crawling. In fact one time Brian once looked outside and saw a man standing right by the tracks and the train slowly passed him. At Narbonne we were, supposed to catch a train to Carcassonne. However that train ended up being just a bus. We along with an elderly British couple were very confused as to where this bus was picking us up. The French information girl just kept waving her hand very vaguely. We did catch it though, and promptly passed out until we reached the Carcassonne station. + Upon arrival we discovered, with the help of a nice train info lady, that our hotel was far far away, in the middle of the boonies. She told us it was in the direction of the prison… so if we can’t find our hotel we could stay there for free (we just needed to commit a crime first!) We also discovered after talking to another Tourist information lady that it was about a 20 minute walk and that the next bus would not come for another hour. So we set off, each with our huge backpacks and our smaller backpacks. In the rain…around 40-50 minutes later we collapsed in our hotel which was thankfully clean. note: Brian was a nice friend and helped Amy carry her smaller backpack. Imagine Amy with her main backpack and her green umbrella and then Brian with his huge backpack and two smaller backpacks in front and no umbrella. + The reason we came to here was because Amy really wanted to see their walled city castle. So with a brief rest, (time enough for Brian to collapse on the bed) We were back outside walking up to this castle. + The castle is pretty impressive, and is much like what you would imagine one to be. + We arrived around 5:00 so we couldn’t take the chateau tour, but we the cathedral was still open so we went in there. + Then we wandered around the outer wall. Amy liked stepping on the old stones and connecting with history (dork) and Brian liked romping around like the boy in the video game ICO (nerd). +

Woke up at 4:00 (two hours after we went to sleep) + Patrick and Severine drove us in Patrick’s brothers european car to the bust station. + Waited with a crowd of confused people. The situation was like a candid camera prank. see illustrations coming soon + Patrick and Severine stand as sentinels guarding our luggage in the luggage compartment until the crazy crowd filters away. Thanks for everything, Severine and Patrick! + Slept on the airplane. + Brian used his language skills for real communication for the first time. He is very proud of himself. He smiled for 10 minutes. + Went to McDonalds because we hadn’t eaten very much since lunch the previous day and it was near by. sorry! + The go to Reina Sophia museum and see the Picasso exhibition + Picasso was a very prolific artist… Totally picasso’d out! + Followed Rick Steves’ Tapas bar crawl to eat genuine Spanish Tapas! Very yummy! Had a small shrimp in onion dish, fried eggplant, and pig’s ears! (oreja) + Participated in a Rick Steves Gathering + Brian couldn’t eat very many of the pig ears + Wandered around the Puerta del sol area (Amy really liked the small, busy pedestrian streets) + found a movie theater, checked times for Iron Man + used navigation to get back to the central square, passed by a McD’s express and got a soft serve ice cream for 0.75 euro + Walked back to Opera, decided to walk back the other way (about a 5 minute walk, 10 if we’re slow and wanted to walk by the churros store) to watch iron man at 10:15 (it was just so nice and bustling! Nice warm night!) + Watched Iron Man + Brian really enjoyed this quote: “It’s impossible, it can’t be done!” “Tony Spark built this in a cave! From scraps!” + Amy thought it was really funny how iron man was super cool and could fly and all, but to fly, he had to hold out his hands like little ballerina wings + Walked back to hotel (still a lot of people on the streets!), sleep!

stories: Rick Steves’ Gathering
We were following Rick Steves’ Tapas crawl tour in Madrid and we go into the Casa Toni Bar to try their fried eggplant (bejerena) when we overheard the three American ladies at the table by the window trying to ask an Italian couple at the next table what they were eating (we recognized it as the eggplant we had on our table) and the Italian lady pulled out a Spanish-Italian dictionary, which wasn’t really helping the American ladies, so the Italian lady gave them a piece to try. Finally, Amy couldn’t stand not helping out so she said “It’s eggplant!” The ladies couldn’t hear her, so Brian tries to get their attention. We tell them that it’s eggplant and everybody’s happy, the American ladies thank us for telling and the Italian lady thanks us for helping. Then, another American couple comes in, holding a Rick Steves’ book! The three American ladies get all excited and point out that they also had a Rick Steves’ book. Of course, we had to jump in and flash our own Rick Steves’ book that was lying on our table. All of a sudden, Rick Steves’ book wielding American travelers took over the tapas bar, babbling about taking pictures and sending them to Rick Steves. Brian, a lady from the first American group, and the lady from the American couple stand together with their Rick Steves books and take pictures. Then, they commenced asking each other for recommendations on hotels and where they were staying (Brian was the one participating in the foray, not Amy. She just mostly watched). The three American ladies were from the Sacramento area and had come in from Bilbao, and the American couple had come to that same tapas bar for gezpacho the last time they came into Madrid. The ladies figured out we were “techies” almost immediately after we said that we lived in the Palo Alto area. Brian’s Stanford Swimming tshirt probably helped them deduce. We then all sat down at our respective tables and did our own thing. The couple left after their gezpacho and when the three ladies were about to leave, Brian, who had churros on his mind all night, got up to ask them if they knew where to get good churros. They didn’t know, but they talked about other tapas bars to try and said goodbyes while hoping that we’ll cross paths again. Afterwards, Brian noted to Amy that the ladies and the couple were on a different level of Rick Steves travel. They were all staying at 3 dollar sign hotels! We’re still at 1! We saw both the couple and the ladies together one last time in front of La Casa de Abuello, where we had shrimp in olive oil (gambas al ajillo) earlier. We didn’t say hi, though, and went on to our last tapas stop for the night.

Utilized the French post office. They have standard package for a 2 kg max parcel for a set rate for international post, so we gathered our brochures and maps (all stuff we got for free…) from our first part of the trip and put it together on Severine’s scale, and it was 1.93 kg! But… we figure that with the envelope the post office gave us, it would push it above 2, but we decided to try it anyway. It turned out to be 2.1 kg! But the post man was nice enough to let us slide without bumping us to the next weight level (for maybe 15 euro more…) Thanks Severine and Patrick for looking up every possible international post option available from France + Waited in a pointless line for Sainte-Chapelle for 2 hours. Turned out to be a horribly inefficient metal detector line that they make everyone go through because Sainte-Chapelle is inside the French Justice Department complex + Finally got in to see the amazing stained glass windows of Sainte-Chapelle. + Ate a crepe. banana and nutella. yum! First crepe in France, and cheaper than palo alto! + Cluny Museum aka the Musee National du Moyen Age aka the Middle Age museum. Amy loved being near such old artifacts. Brian was surprised that he enjoyed looking at the tapestries (He usually finds them a bit boring). + The Louvre: the Denon Wing. Saw Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, and of course the crowd in front of Mona Lisa. (We also were able to see the Mona Lisa, but it was mainly the crowd.) + Went to have a final stroll up to the Eiffel Tower. It is large, and quite nice in the dusk sky. + Last on our Paris list: Statue of Liberty. Yes there is a statue of liberty in Paris. (Amy tells me it faces the one in the US) If you don’t believe me watch National Treasure. It took us three attempts to find a sidewalk that would lead us to her, but we finally made it. The streets were pretty deserted too.

Mona Lisa tip from Brian: People kept saying that the Mona Lisa is a big disappointment when seen in real life. Most often the complaint is that it is so small. Or that the line is so long. Well I found a trick. I prepared myself mentally beforehand. I convinced myself that the Mona Lisa was boring and tiny and not worth my time to see. So when I saw it, I was pleasantly surprised that it was larger than I expected, and the wait was not long at all. I enjoyed watching everyone take photographs between the gaps in crowd too.

Today was France’s Labor day. + Lazily woke up and ate breakfast. + Patrick gave Severine and Amy the traditional flower on May 1. Cute little bell flowers that Amy really liked but she already forgot the name. Severine! Help! + Lazily worked on booking hotels for the rest of the trip. + Relaxed. + Panicked when we realized our early flight out of Paris was out of a budget airport that is 55 miles north of Paris… We figured out their bus system to the airport (basically, there’s a bus 3 hours and 15 minutes before your flight. Ours just happened to be at 8AM, so the bus would be there at 4:45AM. The metro doesn’t start until 5! We contemplated sleeping at the airport, but we read online that it was a horrible airport to sleep in. Patrick convinces his brother Julien to let Patrick borrow their car to drive us to the bus station. Thanks Julien! + Watched a 4 hour Indian movie. Amy danced. Everyone shava shava!

note: I think neither of us took a photo this day! A French Labour day miracle!

Severine walked us to bus station (at 7 in the morning! on her day off!) + Took TGV train to Nantes. Slept for the two hour trip. + Went to Les Machines Incredible. + Rode a giant robotic elephant. It reminded us of something straight out of Miyazaki’s films, like Howl’s Moving Castle! + Amy bought a cute steel bookmark with a weasel and a jester. + Ate (very slowly) in a restaurant, while watching European music videos. + looked at puppies at a pet shop. + Toured the Chateau des ducs de Bretagne (Castle of the Dukes of Brittany) + Amy learned a lot about Queen Anne of France and Brittany. She had 3 babies by age 15! Maybe 17, but still! Crazy. + Brian jumped over a dog to avoid a dog fight. + Ate at a Chinese buffet. + The tram employees got lazy or something so they made everyone get off the tram on our way to the train station. We walked one station and hopped on another tram from there. + Two hour train ride back to Paris. + Saw the Eiffel Tower twinkle from Trocadero.

Stories:
While on riding on the elephant there was a large crowd watching it from the ground. One little boy was looking at the waving trunk in particular interest, when all of the sudden the elephant began to bellow, making elephant sounds and raising its head. Then it sprayed water out of it’s trunk… directly hitting the kid. The kid jumped back but he was trapped between the wall and the elephant spray. He escaped into the building. Later his mom drug him out to dry him off. He was not happy, and glared at the elephant with the intensity that one acquires when they meet their arch-nemesis!

Note: Brian was very excited about today. He likes giant robotic elephants.

Slept in + Waited in the Orsay Museum line for over an hour in the rain with Severine and Patrick. Got very wet + Ate some sandwiches while in line + Followed Rick Steve’s audio tour guide in the museum. Saw lots of impressionistic art. Stayed until the museum closed. + Visited Notre-Dame, but the tower was closed. + Ate a soup snack at a Chinese restaurant. + Returned to their apartment for dinner: Ratatouille! +

Bought our Orange metro passes (like a real Parisian! Photo ID and everything!) and train pass to Nantes. We were waiting in three lines at once! Patrick checking the ticket machine, Brian holding a place in line for the metro ticket counter, and Amy grabbed a number for the regional train office. + Caught a free walking tour. Lu, our guide, studied European history and was very informative and we learned a lot + We went by the Arc de Triomphe. + We enjoyed the walking tour so much we caught their next one in Montmartre. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough people for Lu to start up another group, so we followed George! He was an olympic track hopeful turned European student. That tour covered this artist district with sites like Moulin Rouge, film sites from Amelie, Places Van Gogh and Picasso hung out, and Amy’s favorite church Sacre-Coeur. + Ate at a Vietnamese place in Montmartre. Amy noticed that the waiters all dressed with lots of piercings and chains that a gangster might wear… but only stereotypically. They were still very nice and friendly waiters, though! + Went back to Arc de Triomphe and went to the top for a spectacular night view! +

We dragged Severine to St. Sulpice to hear an organ concert. We lined up at a small door in the back of the cathedral. Everyone in the line had a Rick Steves’ book. While we waited we got to hear a 30 minute organ concert. Severine felt lost in a sea of tourists. Eventually we got to go up and see the “big organ” (they have a second small one for when people sing) and the talk to the organist. Amy asked lots of questions. Severine told the organist, “So you are the one making all that noise” and realized immediately after that she might have been too rude, but luckily, he played along and said, “yes I am.” It was really neat up there! He has a set of mirrors that let him watch the procession and all he has for organ music is a one line melody that he improvises ~10 minute pieces! Amazing! He’s been playing at St. Sulpice for 15 years or so and before that, 20 some odd years at Sacre Coeur, and before that, he pretty much played organ his whole life. He has his own little organ at home now, but that was a luxury he didn’t have when he was learning, so he played on low volume mode at churches to practice + Ate a baguette. The bread cut the roofs of our mouths! ouch! but we were hungry so we didn’t mind. + Relaxed and avoided the sun in Luxembourg Garden. Pigeon watched and discussed how Hemingway used to strangle them in this park. And this brought up the guillotine. + Met Patrick for roller skating at the bastille. We (Amy and Brian) still remembered how to “go”, but we had forgotten how to stop. We slowly made our way down the road, grabbing onto signs, buildings and posts for dear life every time we needed to stop or slow down. Amy crashed once, but her safety gear worked. After a while we began waiting for the rollerskating parade. Every week Paris has two huge skating events, one on Friday and one on Sunday afternoon. Around 10,000 rollerskaters and roller bladers turn out for these events every week. They arrived like a wheeled army, and we rolled into the front of the line. By the end of the route we were at the very end of the crowd. + Relaxed in a cafe by the Bastille and drank coffee and chocolate drinks. + We go back and Severine teaches us how to make a quiche like pie with cream and milk and eggs (three spoons of cream with three eggs with some milk), steamed salmon, pan cooked spinach in butter, and Parmesan cheese on top. Yum! +

Severine and Patrick give us a great breakfast with warm bread and all sorts of delicious condiments + They take us to the center of La Garrenne Coloumb (Sorry if I mispelled this) to buy French cheese and meat and the supermarket for ingredients for an American Hamburger (American Burger Buns, American Ketchup, American Cheese slices, Pickles) + Severine teaches us how to make a very easy Rissoto dish with rissoto, leeks, onions, and cheese for lunch + Walk to La Defense and appreciated the modern architecture while Severine and Patrick went shopping for gifts + Went back to prepare for Patrick’s Brother (Julian) and girlfriend (Clementine) and baby (Chloe)’s arrival + Brian calls his mom for pointers on making hamburger + Chatted with everyone after Julian and Clementine came, French style with little snacks and drinks! + Helped Severine make hamburgers with onions and mushroom + I asked for one without cheese and Severine nearly killed me… “YOU DON”T LIKE CHEESE???” “No no… just not on my burger…” ::cower:: + Played “Time’s up” with everyone. They filtered the cards so that we wouldn’t get too many French people that we didn’t know + Amy still had a lot of trouble because she didn’t know many famous people (except for those on Star Trek) +