Moving on to our time in Paris. The train ride through the chunnel was quick and EXPENSIVE! Well when we arrived at the train station in Paris the first thing we needed to find out was where our hotel was and how we were to get there. Our friends were staying in a different hotel than us so we split. The trouble with finding our hotel was that the signs were in French and the people did not speak English. Oh yeah, it was also raining outside and my sisters rolling luggage was not a rolling luggage anymore because the wheels fell off. So we took the subway to get to the street we needed to walk to our hotel.
The subway was extremely shocking to our eyes. I laugh now. Ha. However, it was muggy down there and the train we needed to get on was packed so we were to wait for the next one. Even though it was packed, more people were shoving themselves in so that the doors could not even close. One French guy started yelling at the top of his lungs like he was going to die. WEIRD.
After enduring to smelly subway and walking in the rain while dragging (literally) the luggage, we finally got to our hotel. It was very nice and clean. As soon as we arrived and cleaned ourselves up. We found that Eric Tanovan has a cousin who lives in Paris that could show us around. So we contacted him and waited for his arrival. We ended up dozing off and he arrived at 11:45 pm.
We were starving so we first ate at nice restaurant in the expensive part of Paris. Chad ate a chicken curry dish and Jamie had ravioli. It was so good. Patrick, Eric’s cousin, ended up paying for the whole meal. He then drove us around giving us a tour of the city. We stopped at the Eiffel Tower which was lit up at night and took some pictures. We also walked through the lobby of the Hotel Athenee, which is where famous people including the Sultan of Dubai reside when in Paris. We ended up going to bed pretty late.
The rest of our trip through Paris was both relaxing and full of site seeing. We toured the Louvre, where I got pictures of the Mona Lisa. We also went up the Eiffel Tower and took some pictures. We also saw many other monuments and walked through some stores on the main shopping strip.
Our overall experience in Paris was great. The French were for the most part nice, the food was pretty good (the Crepes), and the weather and the sites were beautiful. Everything in France in what we expected it to be and everything looked as if were right out of a picture book.
After Paris, we took a never-ending train ride to Nice. Before we arrived to Nice, we expected a beautiful beach with resorts lined up because of the hype that the media gives it. After we checked into our hotel, we walked to the beach (only a few blocks away) to discover that it there was no sand, but rocks, and that there were no results. We quickly realized why the rich and famous stay on their yachts. The two days that we were there, we enjoyed the sun and view of the Mediterranean as much as possible. We even walked up endless steps to the top of a cliff where the view was beautiful. We also had gelato in a park up there. Nice was nice. HA. However, we were ready to move on to the next city, Milano.
NOT SO FAST. It wasn’t going to be that easy. There was a strike at the Milano train station and there were no trains going out to Italia. This is where it all began. We first thought that there might be a bus that was going to our destination, but that was also shut down. So what now. Every hotel was booked besides the expensive rooms and we had no where to go. We decided that we could sleep at the train station in the waiting room. We began to fall asleep there when guards woke us up and told us that they were closing and we had to leave. OH BOY! We then, with other stranded travelers, posted up in front of the well lit train station. Everything was going great, as far as dangers and annoyances go, until the three stooges arrived.
There were three drunken men that decided to hang out in front of the train station. Two were homeless and the other was from a nearby hotel. The rest of the night was like watching a comedy show (to an extent). First they would argue then laugh. On of the men tripped and fell flat on his face right in front of us as the others laughed at him. He then sat up on the curb. Minutes later, a pigeon pooped right next to him, and in a French accent, pointed up and said “Pigeon.” All four of us wanted to laugh so hard, but we did not want to draw unwanted attention to ourselves.
We ended up taking the 5 am bus to Milano switching trains twice on the way and ending up in Milano.
Our initial experience in Milano was great. Everyone seemed to be real nice. Jamie wasn’t feeling well so she decided to rest in the hotel while Chad brought her food and went shopping quickly. The very next day we left Milano for the long-awaited, Venice.
Stepping out of the train station in Venice, we felt as if we stepped into a movie. It was as we have seen in many films. Our hotel was 200 feet from the station which was nice to not have to drag our stuff around. Venice was good for relaxing, eating, and enjoying the scenery. We fed bird at Saint Marcos Square, we rode the gondola at twilight, and we also saw glass blowing at its finest. Venice is really a “romantic” place which lives up to its reputation.
Florence was our next destination. It is a city in the Tuscan area and is beautifully surrounded by hills. The main attraction in Florence was the Duomo, which is the 4th largest cathedral in the world, the David statue, and other small museums. This was also a city were we relaxed and enjoyed the food. We found a restaurant by the Duomo called Lo Scudo, which had excellent food for a good price. The worst part of the trip was the hotel room. One word can only describe the room and it is “HELL.” It ran in the high 90s in Florence and that does not go well with a room with no air conditioner and a bath room that smelled liked sour milk and cra…you know what. We endured the three nights of laying in our own sweat while fighting off mosquitoes which were biting us. They were coming in from the window which needed to be open in order to endure the unbearable hot and humid air. Outside the hotel at night, it was beautiful. Inside, in sucked.
So we are here now in Rome, where we found that our hotel is far from the center of the city and decided to get another hotel.
We will show pictures when we return. They take to much time to load and we are paying for it.
