Stairs, stairs and more stairs

The theme for today was definately stairs. We started our day fairly late. We spent an hour or so in the morning booking hostels and stuff for the rest of the trip, so we didn't head out until about lunch time. First stop: Ile de la Cite where the Notre Dame cathedral is. It is spectacular!! After exploring the inside and grabbing a banana and nutella crepe for lunch (YUM!!), we decided to go up into the tower. Many, many spiralling stairs later, we got to the top where there is a spectacular view and you can see the ornamentation up close (like the gargoyles that I wanted to come to life, but unfortunately I don't live in Disney's animated world). The stairs up to the bell tower were the scariest because there were people going both up and down a stairway about 2 feet wide.

After that, we explored the island a little and made our way over to the other island: Ile St. Louis (it's actually a little strange calling them islands... they definately don't feel like islands). This was a cool little place with lots of fun shops and really, really good ice cream :-).

Despite a little bit of rain, we decided to head to the Eiffel Tower (finally!). We took the bus through a cool part of the city that I definately want to go back to and explore. The Eiffel Tower is swarming with people, but I didn't see any gypsies throwing babies at people like I had been warned. We decided to wait in the shorter line and pay less money by going up the stairs instead of the elevator (starting to see the theme??). 668 stairs later (no, I didn't count: they had counters on them) we were at the second level exploring the view and the shops and stuff. It was pretty amazing. I know I say that about everything, but how can I not?? This whole trip is amazing.

Around the corner from the eiffel tower we found an asian restaurant to pick up some supper. As we left to find a subway station it started to pour rain. My new raincoat passed its first test :) The subway was SO packed and SO disgusting, but we made it back. To finish the theme day off, when we got back to the hostel there were about 10 people waiting for the elevator that can only hold 5 at a time so we took the stairs up to our room on the 6th floor (which is really the 7th because here they don't count the ground floor as the first).

So needless to say, I think I'm going to sleep well tonight. Tomorrow's plan: the Arc de Triomphe and maybe the Catacombs (although they may not be open).

See ya!
Kaila

The Louvre

Today was great! We woke up and headed out to The Louvre by around 10:30am. Justine and Graham got in for free because they were under 18... I'm jealous :p It was pretty amazing. We spent the first couple hours wandering around: saw Greek and Roman sculptures, a bunch of Italian paintings (all of which were religious) and then finally made our way to the Mona Lisa. It was pretty cool, but the crowds in that room were rediculous. I thought the next room we went in was much cooler: the crown diamonds. There were more diamonds in that room than I knew existed in the whole world!! One diamond from a king's crown was 140 carats. The crown itself had probably more than 20 or 30 diamonds. Craziness!!!!!

We took a break for lunch ( at which point Graham got scammed into buying a bracelet that some dude made for him... although it is pretty) and then headed back in to see the egyptian stuff. I loved that part!!! The hieroglyphs and the mummies and some of it over 5000 years old!!! Incredible.

We did a little shopping at the touristy shops outside the Louvre, checked out the Palais Royal which was a cool little gardin/park and called it an early day. Since getting back to the hostel we've done laundry for the first time (yay, clan clothes!!!), cooked ourselves a real supper (spaghetti of course) and had a nap.

Anyways, my time runs out in 1 minute... gotta run
Kaila

Paris day 1

So today was my first real day in Paris. It was pretty laid back, but so far Paris is cool (but not literally because it is ANYTHING but cool here). We slept in until about 11am (which is actually only 6am at home :-P), had showers and then headed out. We spent most of the day wandering around the city, window shopping and such. Surprisingly, Graham is the only person that bought anything: a rugby jersey. Most of the stores were designer stores that were SOOO expensive, but fun to look at :-). We spent some time laying in the shade in random parks that we found, including the one by the Louvre (which isn't open on Tuesday's) where we cooled off by putting our feet in the water of the pond. We've pretty much been eating baguettes and pasteries: yummy but probably not all that healthy.

My favorite part of Paris so far is people watching, it's great! And I love evesdropping on people to hear what language they're speaking to see if I can understand. So far I'm pretty impressed with my french skills. My spanish definately needs some work though :-P.

Anyways, nothing to exciting to report on today. I'm just trying to waste my hour on the internet because someone stole my ticket, so if I don't use it all now I won't be able to finish it up. Stupid guy next to me... grrrr...

Tomorrow's itinerary will probably be much fuller than today. First stop: The Louvre :-). I'm still not sure it's really sunk in that I'm actually here... all very surreal.

Hope to hear from you soon!
Kaila

P.S. I changed my properties so you don't have to register to leave a comment (I think... it's all in french, so a little confusing). Now noone has an excuse for not leaving me a comment :-P

Paris = HOT

Don't have much time today (plus this keyboard is the most annoying thing ever). Couldn't leave London until about 4pm, so got a chance to spend a few hours at the Natural History Museum (MUCH more interesting than the modern art museum in my opionion :-P) Just got to Paris a couple hours ago (after spending a few hours next to a VERY stinky man on the train - ugh) and it's super hot. The hostel is cool and we have a room to ourselves, but I think it might be in a little bit of a sketchy part of town. Oh well, we'll just stick to the hostel and the subway station. That's all for today!

Later,
Kaila

London: the overview

So we pretty much did everything you could possibly imagine doing in one day today. We started out going to London Bridge and then saw London Tower and the Tower bridge. After that we headed to the Tate Museum of Modern Art, which was pretty cool. Saw some Picasso, Matisse, and the list goes on. I must admit though, a lot of modern art is way above my head. I don't get the big deal. I could put a urinal on it's side and sign my name on it! We had lunch at the museum and then headed out. We were going to go to the Museum of Natural History, but we decided to go check out the Lion King, and get tickets for the night, but there was only a matinee, so we got some of the last tickets for that about an hour before it started. While we were wandering around waiting for it to start we found trafalgar square with pretty fountains and fun lions that we climbed on. Even though I saw the Lion King in Toronto in Grade 11 it was SO worth it!! I'll never get sick of musicals :-D. Plus, Graham had never been to a real musical, and I'm pretty sure he loved it, so that makes it even more worth while (despite the cost). By the time that got out, it was too late to go to anymore museums, but we just wandered around, seeing the sites like Big Ben and the House of Parliament. Then we decided that the big ferris wheel that we'd been seeing for the last 2 days would be fun to go on, so we did! What an amazing view!!! By this point it was almost 9pm and we were all getting pretty tired, so we headed home. Now we're back at the hostel and are going to settle in for the night (I'll probably write my first postcards :-)).

Tomorrow we head to Paris. If the hostel there has internet access I might still have time to update/check my email this often, but I'm not sure. I'll do my best.

Lots of Love,
Kaila

I made it!!

So here I am in London, England!! It's pretty cool and pretty surreal: I still don't think it's really sunk in. The last couple have days have been crazy. I was on the plane for about 10 hours last night and might have slept 3. So even though it's only 7pm here (3pm at home), I'm ready for bed :-P. Today we didn't really do anything too exciting. Just sorta explored the city. Once we found our hostel, we took the subway to Hyde Park, saw Buckingham Palace, went to Harrod's (crazyness!!)... some other random stuff... can't really remember.

It's my first night ever in a hostel and so far it's not so bad. Me and my 2 cousins (Graham and Justine) are in a room with a mother and daughter who have been travelling for 3 weeks. They seem pretty nice. We went to the grocery store for supper and ate down in the kitchen. That was a little weird. It seems like all the people down there live here! Like one girl was just getting home from work. And they all knew each other, so I definately felt out of place. But the hostel isn't too bad (except the bathrooms are gross), and we're pretty close to everything. London is EXPENSIVE!! I'm so glad I'm not staying for too long, I'd be brok in no time!!! The plan for tomorrow is to go to all those touristy things you can't go to London and miss. Big Ben, Tower of London, etc... and maybe a few of the free museums (like the museum of natural history :-)). Monday we're off to Paris!! Yay!! Apparently it's been disgustingly hot there the last little bit, so hopefully it'll cool off a bit before we get there. Cross your fingers for me!!!

Anyways, my time on the internet is running out, so that's all for now! I hope everyone isn't missing me TOO much :-P. Keep in touch and let me know what's going on with your life!!