The story of Paris!

First of all if you want pictures, see the blog below! Next I will take you on a day to day tour of our trip to Paris. I will try not to make it to long. Last, we did take a TON more pictures with Becky's camera (including Disney )so keep an eye out on her blog. It may take her a day or two because she is moving to her new family this weekend and needs to pack. So, be patient!

Friday:
Becky and I got up early and headed to the train station. We locked our bikes up in the outsides racks because the ones with security wouldnt be open when we returned. Then we headed to the station with Eurolines! We were on our bus and heading to Paris by 9am. Our bus driver was super cool. We sat in the front and talked to him the whole way. The drive took about 8hrs. We finally arrived in Paris at about 5pm. The trek to our hotel was about a 20 min train ride, but it took us a little longer to figure out what train to take. Once we arrived we attempted to check in but had a problem with the credit card. Don't worry it was just the bank flagging it because of the charges in Europe. Once we got it all figured out we relaxed for a little while. Then we headed out to the "Village". It was located right next to the train station so we walked. Im glad we did because we figured out how to walk there instead of paying for a bus. After dinner we walked back and went to bed!

Saturday:
We had decided to go visit the Louvre first. We headed into town in the direction of the Louvre. Soon we discovered that Train/Metro tickets around town were not cheap for as much traveling as we would be doing. Luckly we had an employee give us a wonderful tip. She sold us 3 euro Day passes. They take you anywhere you want to go including train/metro/bus as long as you are in the specific zones. For example most of the city was in the zones for that day pass, but our hotel wasnt. So, we would have to choose the right zone for that. However, the gate that takes us to the train that takes us to our hotel also has other intercity trains. So, we could easily get through the gate and on our train no problem with our day pass! It worked perfectly! We saved a ton on travel! The Louvre was easy to find. The metro we took dropped us off right in front of it! We took TONS of pictures. We ended up spending about 5-6hrs there and only saw a little of the 1st and 2nd floor and most of the 3rd. The place is HUGE! The Mona Lisa was pretty cool, but we didn't understand all the excitement about it. There are hundreds of fantastic paintings and sculptures! Oh and the Line to get in rapped around the entire pyramid in the courtyard! It probably would have taken hours to get in! However, we somehow snuck in line about half way up and suddenly a Louve guide came and led our half of the line to a different entrance. Which, put us right at the front. Hahaha on the way to the other entrance I was filming a video blog and ran into a post! hahaha See the video below. You will pee your pants laughing! After walking the Louve, its garden, and seeing the arch we headed to get some dinner. On the way we took pictures with the Eiffel tower lit up in the distance. By then if was hailing/raining. We had some yummy wite fish, salad, and potatoes for dinner. We finally headed home. Ecxept we got a little lost in the metro system and ended up taking about 3 hrs to get back to the hotel! We were exhausted and got back around 12 or 1.

Sunday:
Sunday was sight seeing day. Once we made the journey into town we headed straight for the Eiffel tower! We bought some sandwiches, water, and an eclair to eat at the lookout. After lunch and pictures we headed to the base of the tower! It was amazing and the lines/cost to go up even more amazing. We didn't feel like going up it but we did enjoy the view. Soon after we headed to Notre Dam. It was only about 2 metro stops away. Once there we explored around it and waited for the bells to ring (I made a video blog of them). The building is beautiful. Next we headed to the shops right next to it and grabbed shwarma, falaffel and ice cream. We headed home with almost no problems and crased early.

Monday:
This was a super fun day! We went to Disney. We ate breakfast at our hotel and hoped for a nice family to give us a ride there. Of course we were to timid to actually ask, but it was worth a try. The trip to Disney was longer then to town. Even though our Hotel was about a 10 min drive, the busses were closed due to a public holiday. So, we had to ride into town and then all the way back in the same direction to catch the train that would take us to Disney. Lucky for us Disney does have its own train station so not much walking once we arrived! Euro Disney was amazing! I loved every minute of it. The weather was pretty tollerant. It actually did snow a little, but somehow we missed walking around in it because it would stop as soon as we stepped back outside. The rides are pretty much the same but a few. They have Space mountain #2 now. It is SOOOO Much better. It actually goes fast and loops and cork screws! Oh and we bought mickey ears, but they don't do the name embroidery there. That was sad, but ok. We didnt see ANYONE else that was wearing the same hat. I guess they aren't as popular as in the states. Anyhow, the park was better the expected. We got a "Candlebration" show at the end for the 15year celebration (Becky has it on video) and then we stayed tell closing. We left Disney at about 10pm and headed back to the hotel. We got to the hotel pretty late and crashed.

Tuesday:
Our last day in Paris. This is a long one! I hope you have time to read it all. Its tragically entertaining. We got up early enough to pack, get some breakfast and head out. We arrived at the train station with 3 hrs to make a 1hr trip to our bus. We had plenty of time (or so we thought) to make it to the bus home. The first train didn't show up at all. The second we got on and waited and waited and waited. We heard some announcements in french. After asking around we discovered the train needed a repair! We found out there was a bus that could take us to the main station in Paris. We hurried over to it only to discover that it was compelety full and there were about 30+ people waiting for the next one. We didnt want to take the chance of missing a second bus. So, we headed back over the tracks to our train that was still sitting still. In panic of not making our bus we attemped to call the Eurolines to try to change our reservation for later in the day! My phone didn't have enough minutes to call international and Becky's current family had shut hers off without telling her! So we resorted to the DEVIL of a pay phone. We couldn't get through to the bus lines but got through to Beckys mom in hopes she could contact them. Finally after 2 hrs our train was leaving. We arrived in Paris by 1:15. We where supposed to check into our bus at 1 and leave at 1:30. Our connection that would take us from where we were to our bus was about a 20 minute ride. There was no way we would make it in time! We called Beckys mom back who had talked to the bus line, but they just refered here to another number. We weren't sure what to do at this point! We called the bus line again and got through on the number they had given Becky's mom. They told us we were outta luck and the next train wouldn't leave tell the next morning. Which would have been fine, but we had already checked out of our hotel and I had to work the next morning at 7:30am. So, we had to get home a/s/a/p. I called Myriam so that she knew what was going on just in case we got stuck in Paris. She was very helpful and suggested we go to the other station because all the international trains leave from there. Meanwhile we searched for a train or bus to get us home. Everything was way too expensive because of the last minute booking. I was freaking out and crying. Oh and durring all our calls we found out that we were being charged $11+ per call on our CC!!! We had to find a phone card that didnt last long. The phone card took us FOREVER to figure out! It wasn't working. Finally a really cool lady, who spoke english, helped us out! The other station was about 5 min walk from where we were. We had done it before and knew where to go. We were dragging our suitcases behind us and exhausted to no end. Some guys were standing in the walk way so I hopped my suitcase off the curb into the street to go around them and kept walking. Then I heard Becky shouting my name. When I hopped the curb the zipper on my suitcase gave way and popped open!!! The top half of my clothes were all over the street! I scowled at the guys for getting in my way and hurried to shut my suit case. Lucky it had a double zipper and shut! Somehow made it to the other station and found some train tickets to Amsterdam for about 105 Euros each that was the last train and leaving in 45 min. We figured it was our only hope and tried to charge the card! My cumorah card (the one that had barely enough money to cover it) wouldnt work! We had to step out of line. Just then Myriam called and was trying to help us. She had put extra minuted on my phone, offered her credit card (which they couldnt take over the phone), and called dad to let him know he could call my phone and that the CC wasn't working. We sat and waited tell I talked to dad so he could call and let Cumorah the charge was legit! Once we got the call we ran to the window to buy our tickets with only 3 minutes to spare!!! It was the last train and we HAD to make it!!! The guy at the window was very pleasent and informed us that we wouldnt make it in time. We were sooooo frustrated (I was starting to really show it too!). The guy at the window then told us that there was one last train that the other girl hadnt told us about, but it would cost 235 Euros total instead of 210. We scraped all our last cash together and paid for it. We were happy to get on a train 30 minutes later. We arrived in Amsterdam at 12am and took another train to Naarden. (KEEP READING THERE IS MORE! lol) We were sooo releaved and happy to get home. We just had to load our suitcases on to our bike and ride for about 10min. Once in Naarden at about 1am. Becky walked straight to her bike and my heart sunk! I had parked and LOCKED mine up 2 spaces from hers. It was NOWHERE to be seen! We spent about 40 minutes scanning EVERY single bike and couldn't find it! I remember Myriams voice running over and over in my head "Always lock the bikes up and try to lock them inside with the security". By then it was 1:45am and we were soo tired and needed a bathroom. We decided to put Becky on a bus with the suitcases and I would ride the bike home. Our only problem was the last bus was at 1:15. We had missed it. Which meant we had 1 bike 2 suitcases and both of us to walk home! It wasn't that far, but there was snow on the ground, we needed to pee and the suitcases wouldnt be fun to drag. We loaded 1 of the cases on the bike and Becky dragged the other. On the way we realized we needed the bathrooms way too bad to continue on! We found a construction site and a port-a-potty! So grose but necessary! Finally we made it home at 3am! Becky had to work the next day, but her phone was shut off and had no way to call them. She slept at my house and called in the morning. I also rode to the station to search for the bike 1 last time. I found one that looked exactly like it, but a lot of bikes look the same here. My lock wasnt on it and it was in a different spot. We have no way to prove if that was it! Anyhow, It was my fault and I will end up paying for a new one, but I am ok with that. We knew better then to not lock it in the sucure area! Oh but what a trip!!!

In the end we loved paris, but were more then happy to make it home! The french aren't very nice if you can only speak english. The city is amazing though! We plan to visit another day, but hope to be more prepared! It will be a while before we go back, but I am sure glad we went! You will have to go check out Becky's pictures and blog when it is ready! She has all the Disney pics and more videos! I hoped you liked the blog and sorry its so long! Have a great day!!!