Officially Official!

OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS

In 608 days, I'm going back to Europe! I'll be going with one of my former high school teachers on an EF tour that she's leading.

It is an 13 day trip and it'll go to Berlin, Prague, and the Alps, as well as Paris.

I know I said I didn't really like Paris, but there is no way I'm letting a minor dislike of a city keep my from Europe. At least I won't have to go to Versailles again! It was gorgeous, but not gorgeous enough to go back. That is, unless I went and just explored the gardens. I'd do that. I don't want to see the palace again though.

I'm really excited because a lot of the activities involve WWII, so it's almost a supplement to the class I took in London. I don't know how much I'll remember in two years, but still, it'll be great!

This is our map. The numbers are how many days we're spending in the city. My group is doing the Paris extension, so from Lucerne, instead of going to Zurich, we go on to Paris.

I am definitely most excited about seeing Dresden. We learnt about how it was bombed at the end of the war in my class and I wanted to see it so badly. I will also get to see the 1st concentration camp, Dachau.

This is literally the only hunk of notes I have on Dresden, so we didn't talk about it much. It was enough to make me desperately want to visit though.

It'll be weird having a strict schedule as opposed to being almost completely free to do whatever, but I prefer black and white. I'd rather know exactly where I have to be when.

In Paris, so often it was,
"Well, do you want to do xyz?" 
"It doesn't matter." 
"It doesn't matter to me either." 

I'd rather be told what I'll be doing instead of having to figure it out myself. That way, there's also no fear that whoever your traveling with really does care but doesn't want to say they do. There isn't a choice when it's a tour. That's nice, because I don't like to make decisions.

I just want to be there now. I don't want to wait! At least I have several things to look forward to to pass the time until this though. I have a family cruise, Passion Houston, and spring break.

Passion will be amazing though. It's in February and might be the first time it's been in Houston. Usually it's only in Atlanta. It's put on by Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin (people who I saw at Hillsong Conf in London.) Francis Chan, Kristian Stanfill, David Crowder, Matt Redman, and Hillsong will be there as well. I think Passion will be the highlight of 2014 and Europe, 2015.

Day 10: Back to London and Hillsong Church

Today, we headed back to London. Our train left at 8:31, so we were going to leave the hotel at 7. But wait! We discovered that on the weekends, breakfast isn't served at the hotel until 7:30, so we decided to leave at 6:45 instead, to find food on the way at Gare du Nord station. After what seemed like forever, we walked into the train station at 7:30. I pull out my paper to see if it has a platform number, and it didn't, but what I did see was a train that left at 8:13, not 8:31. Not quite panicking yet, we picked up the pace skipping breakfast and heading to the checkin line. We got a stamp on our form that said "Boarding not guaranteed" because it was less than 30 minutes until take off. Starting to panic, we rush to the border control. The line is taking forever and soon we only have ten minutes left. Everyone is taking at least five minutes and we're two people away. The guy calls us forward and two minutes later, we're running to the train. We made it, but literally as soon as I sit down, the doors slide closed.

Anyways, after that excitement, I'm not sitting safely back in my dorm room laughing about how we almost missed our train.

Most of today, I just relaxed in the dorm room. I eventually journeyed to Sainsbury's, a grocery store a mile down the road. I bought turkey and lettuce to make wraps and I got bacon and eggs. I also got other stuff, but that's not important like the bacon.

This was lunch!

Around 4:30, I headed to Tottenham Road Station to visit the Dominion Theatre. On week days, the theatre is home to the London exclusive "We Will Rock You." On Sundays, the theatre is the home of Hillsong London. A few weeks ago I saw Hillsong United in concert, so going to the church is something I desperately wanted to do.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I arrived. I went alone. I exited the tube station and it was right in front of me. You couldn't miss it.

I walked in around 5, an hour early. The inside was empty, so I just stood around awkwardly.
One host noticed and asked if I was new. She showed me around and talked to me for a bit until she had to get back to her job. Another person talked to me after that. Then another person. The last person introduced me to two girls so I would have someone to sit with during service. I was supposed to give one my number so I could sit with her again next week, but with a full theatre leaving at the same time, she was hard to find.

It's about to start! 

This entire foyer was full after the service ended. SO MANY PEOPLE.

I was super bummed that I couldn't go to this entire conference because of classes, so when one of the greeters mentioned they added night sessions, I snatched up a card. I am currently having problems buying the tickets, but I WILL be there! Especially for the Louie Giglio night!

I will be going back to the church for the next two Sundays and when my mom and I visit London someday, we'll go then too!

Day 9: Paris Day 2: Chateau Versailles, Palais Garnier, and Moulin Rouge

We started today with breakfast at the hotel. I had ham and yoghurt. We also met a French family near the elevator. The guys sons took the stairs, but the father stayed at the elevator. He asked where we were from and when we said Texas, he got excited and told us how he lived in San Antonio for five years. He said he was taking his kids to visit later this summer. When we got downstairs, he called his sons and said "Boys, these people are from Texas!" It was a nice start to the morning.

A spur of the moment decision was made the night prior to this day once we realized we were an hour ahead of schedule. We decided to cram as much as possible into Paris Day 1 as we could without feeling rushed. By doing so, we were able to visit the location I wanted to see the most: Versailles. It was about a half hour train ride and it was a full train. Everyone was visiting that day. We arrived around 11 and entered the castle a little after noon. We only bought a ticket for the palace, so I'll go back someday and visit the gardens, but for yesterday, the palace was enough.

The next pictures are of the approach to the palace and the queue we waited in. I might caption some, I might not.

Finally out of the line and into the courtyard where we would be surrounded by tons of people for two hours. The people who got audio tours took up all available space to stand looking aimlessly at a wall whilst listening to their tour.

All of the ceilings were this ornate. 

The second pastry from the right was a chocolate covered marshmallow. I would have gotten it, but it was reserved for tea room patrons.

While Versailles was beautiful, I didn't enjoy it too much. We didn't eat lunch until around 2, so I was getting cranky. People who stopped in front of me infuriated me and it was hot. I just wanted food. I had a lot more fun after eating.

After we finished at Versailles, we headed back to catch another train to Paris. Our first location to find was Palais Garnier. We were about ten minutes late to go inside, but it's the opera house that inspired Phantom of the Opera!

We popped out of the metro station, took a picture, and went back into the station.

After Palais Garnier, we tried finding a vintage shop that Patricia had found online. We found a shop, but not the one she wanted to see. Instead of getting hopelessly lost, we decided to just go to the final stop of the night.

We took the metro all the way one station over to Blanche where we found the Moulin Rouge. It's kind of in the red light district, so we weren't planning on sticking around too much, but there was a fantastic souvenir shop that I got a ton of stuff for family at for super cheap.

The Moulin Rouge!

After the Moulin Rouge, we decided to find dinner near the hotel and call it an early night. The Place d'Italie, where our hotel was, had a ton of little cafes near it, so we picked a different one for every meal. I had a burger (with no bun) and french fries. I ate way too many potatoes this last week...

For dessert, we HAD to have ice cream. 

Vanilla, coffee, chocolate

After that, we headed back to the hotel, which now that I'm no longer there, can tell you was called Holiday Inn Express Place d'Italie, to try to Skype the Wizard of Oz cast back in Wichita Falls. They were having a matinee show, so we called during intermission. It didn't work too well, but we got to say "Hi" to everyone!

Speaking of the hotel, it was really tough to decide on. I was dead set against a hostel, so we had to find a hotel in a safe area for a reasonable price. We searched hours on Tripadvisor and I decided to click on this one, even though it was out of the zone we were looking in. I saw almost immediately that one of my Facebook friends had reviewed it. It was my old teacher! She had good reviews, so I texted her and she said it was a great hotel. It had free breakfast and free wifi, so with all of that, we picked the hotel! The front desk let us check in a half hour early and they were super nice.

After that, we packed everything, set an early alarm, and went to sleep.

Day 8: Paris Day 1: Pantheon, Eiffel Tower, d'Orsay and more!

Today, me and Patricia woke up bright and early to catch a train to Paris. The next few photos are of the train adventure. 

It's too early!

We left from St. Pancras, but we had to stop here on the way. 

Ready to go!

I took a nap and woke to this on my phone. It was how I knew we were in France. 

We got super cute jam jars with our breakfast. I kept mine. 

After they fed us, I fell asleep for at least an hour. It was really nice. 

We arrived in Paris around 11 in the morning and the first thing we did was buy a two day metro pass. We definitely used its worth today. 

After that, we got lunch at a cute cafe near where we are staying. 

Jamon omelette

Then we checked in and began our adventure!!

The adventure began with the Pantheon. Here are some photos from it. 

Rousseau's grave

Marie Curie's grave

Voltaire's grave

After the Pantheon, we headed to the Notre Dame. We couldn't find it for like a half hour. We felt like failures. How do you miss something like that?

River Seine

We thought this was Notre Dame. It was St. Jaque's. 

THIS is Notre Dame!

Isn't it pretty?

From there, we headed to Musee d'Orsay. We wanted to see Van Gogh. 

Musee d'Orsay! There was a Doctor Who episode that was partially set here, Vincent and the Doctor, so we had to go see Van Gogh's work. 

After that, it was Eiffel Tower time. 

We didn't go to the top. It was stunning enough walking underneath it. 

We tried to find the spot where tourists pretend to push over the tower, but we couldn't. 

After the tower, we headed to the Arc de Triomphe. We didn't go up it either, but that's fine with us. 

Dinner was great too! Both places we ate were right around the roundabout by our hotel. I'm trying new things too! I tried the dressed salads that I've gotten and disliked then, but I tried them!

We were also going to the Moulin Rouge tonight, but it was getting too dark out. We'll go tomorrow after Versailles and Palais Garnier. We get free breakfast and free wi-fi at the hotel, so we aren't slumming it too much. 

I was really nervous about Paris before we arrived. I don't know why. There is almost no difference between the two cities. The tube/metro is exactly the same and there are maps everywhere. 

Oooh, also, when we first got to London, our tube stop was closed for maintenance. We dealt with it knowing we'd have full use the rest of the month. Guess what? We get to Paris and a huge chunk of the line we needed was closed for maintenance. It won't even open while we're hear. At least it's just one line and not the whole station though. The stations aren't as frequent as they are in London since Paris is a bit bigger, I think. 

Au revoir!