Last Day of Paris + 3.5 Days in Sweden

The last day in Paris we were going to get up early and climb the Eiffel Tower, but we were so tired we ended up sleeping in until 10 or so (it was totally worth it). We decided we wanted to go see the Musee Rodin, but when we got there we found it that it was closed Mondays. No problem though, because it was right next to Invalides, which was our second choice anyway.

We spent a couple hours in there and saw lots of things like Napoleon's tomb, the midevil museum, and the WWI/WWII museum. It was more of my kind of museum - filled with all manner of sharp, explosive, and otherwise dangerous objects and machines. Afterward we headed back to the Cafe du Marche for lunch (I had duck, which was delicious).

After lunch we took a walk down the Seine looking for shops where we could find scarves and other gifts. We were going to go check out the Louve, but when we got there it was a little later in the day (3 or 4) and we didn't want to spend another hour in a huge line, so we decided to just keep walking. We found some nice shops near the Louve and got some scarves and a poster for Lauren. We were planning on walking over to Notre Dame, and on the way Lauren found a really nice purse.

We finally decided we were too tired to make it all the way to Notre Dame, so we took the metro back to the hotel. That night we got all packed up and ready to go the next day, then fell asleep.

Napoleon's Tomb

Invalides

Napoleon's Tomb

Invalides

Invalides

Louve

The next day was all traveling to Stockholm (so I'll keep it short). We got up and had delicious pastries at the boulongerie across the street. We made it to the train station, which took us to the airport. We actually got there with plenty of time to spare, and waited around in the terminal for a few hours. The flight was around two hours, and when we landed our luggage came in pretty quickly.

Kristina met us outside customs and we found an ATM so we could get bus/metro passes. When we got outside the air was so cold and dry that Lauren and I both started coughing (it was probably in the teens at that point). I greatly appreciated not having to do any navigating back to the apartment, especially since it was two buses and one train.

When we got back to the apartment we were tired and hungry, so she made the Swedish meatballs that her mom sent up with her. They were really good, and Lauren became a fan. After dinner and drinks we were tired and passed out pretty quickly.

(No pictures for today - just travel)

The next day we decided to go sightseeing after breakfast. First we all (Lauren, Kristina, and I) headed out to Kaknäs Tower, which is a huge 30 story tower on the edge of Stockholm. We took the metro (which was the prettiest, cleanest, all-around-nicest one we saw in all of Europe). While waiting for the bus out to the tower we saw the Esplanade Hotel, where my family and I stayed ~10 years ago when we stayed in Stockholm (picture below). It was in the 20's, so we were freezing waiting for the bus.

Finally the bus came and took us straight to the tower. We took the very fast elevator to the top, but unfortunately it was so foggy that we couldn't see much. However, we didn't mind so much because there was a cafe at the top where we got some really yummy little snacks and just relaxed for a little while.

Next we took the bus over to the Vasa Ship museum, which was really neat. It's a museum built around the Vasa ship (a 17th century ship that was recently brought up intact from the bottom of the harbor). The museum was really neat (one of my favorite museums in Europe) and we spent a few hours in then. Luckily I got plenty of good pictures thanks to my mini-tripod (it's very dark in there). After we were done in there we headed back to the apartment (after a quick grocery run).

After dinner and some wine, we all fell asleep as usual.

Esplanade Hotel (you can see the sign mounted vertically on the building down the street right in the center of the picture - you might have to zoom in a bit)

Me being silly at the Vasa Museum

Lauren and I in front of the Vasa Ship

Vasa Ship

As usual we woke up, ate breakfast, and went out for some more sightseeing. It was new years eve, so we decided not to stay out too long. We went down to old town Stockholm and looked around. We saw the palace and the Nobel museum, but by this time it was snowing pretty hard, so we went into a little coffee shop and got some food and warm drinks.

Afterward we walked down the main little street full of shops and looked around (though we didn't really find anything to buy). Then we got off the little island that old town was on and walked up a hill to a point where we could see most of the city. It wasn't as good of a point of the tower, but we could see alot more just because the fog wasn't nearly as bad. We took some pictures, then headed for the metro station to get out of the cold.

We took the metro back home and made dinner for new years. We ate a delicious dinner and made yummy cocktails (I never realized that Absolut Vodka was Swedish). We all ended up getting really drunk. Everyone was setting off fireworks everywhere (including all around Kristina's apartment building), so at midnight we took the Champagne downstairs and outside to watch the fireworks for a while. The alcohol only kept us warm for so long (it was still snowing) so we came back in and promptly passed out before 1am.

Nobel Museum

Stockholm

Lauren and I on the point overlooking Stockholm
Happy 2010 - It's really cold

New Years Fireworks (they were being set off just feet away from us)

There's not much to say about the next day - Lauren and I were both quite hungover (Kristina was somewhat more resilient than us and managed to be mostly fine the next day). We really didn't do much this day, which was fine because I figured it would be our recovery day anyway (the exact reason that I didn't book flights back for this day). We just stayed home, rested, and got all packed up since we had to leave at 4 in the morning for the airport (our flight out was at 7:10 am).

The next two days were spent traveling - Stockholm to Rome took 9 or 10 hours, then Rome to Home took 28 (sleepless) hours, not to mention the hell Lauren and I were both put through at our separate connecting airports (I was in Toronto, she was in DC), but we made it home fine. My sleep schedule has been much better since I got home (going to bed before 10 or 11, waking up pretty well around 6 or 7), but I hope to correct this and return to my usual college student lack of sleep schedule.

Anyway, this concludes my travel blog. Hope everyone enjoyed reading it.

Day 14 - 3rd Day of Paris - Versailles

Today we decided to give Versailles another try. We woke up by nine or so, and after getting ready and consuming another nutella crepe, we headed down into the metro. We went back to the same station and got our train tickets again. This time we made sure to specifically ask that the train was running, and which one to get on. She said get on train “Vick”, which didn't seem to exist the day before. When we got to the platform, it still seemed that it did not exist. Only train “Sara” was there, which was the incorrect on the day before. However, there were a ton of people waiting by a track that didn't appear (on the overhead monitors) to have any trains running on it. And yet within 10 minutes, train “Vick” showed up on that line.

Very odd that it didn't show up on the monitor, but that must've been what we did wrong the day before – we didn't wait for a train that we didn't know was coming. Oh well. We jumped on it, and sure enough it took us right out to Versailles (just how I remembered it from 4 years ago). When we got off the train, we headed straight off to the palace. Unfortunately when we got there, there was a huge line for tickets. We had to stand in line, in the cold windy courtyard, for 40ish minutes until we got inside to the ticket counter. There we bought tickets to see the palace, the garden, and Marie Antoinette's Hamlet (which was the one place at Versailles that Lauren hadn't seen before).

It was decent weather, partly cloudy, but it was very windy (I've never seen clouds move so fast) and we were worried that it would start raining later in the day, so we decided to do the gardens and the hamlet first. We walked down the main path to the end of the gardens, which was very far away – the gardens huge, even if you take the most direct route through them. From there we had to walk along the road to Marie Antoinette's hamlet – the little fake country village that she had created just so she could pretend she was in the country side. The walk to get there was again, very far, and our feet and legs were quite sore by the time we even got there (I think they got sore faster every day because of lack of recovery time).

When we got there we walked through her country house at the entrance, which was, as usual, ridiculously lavish (especially for what was supposed to be a simple country retreat house). Then we headed out into the landscaped gardens. It was a huge area with lots of paths that branched everywhere – including into little tunnels through the trees and such. We ran across a very neat area with a huge stone area above a large pond (which was frozen over – just like pretty much all standing water around Versailles) and some sort of simple building. There we sat down and just rested and admired the view for a while. Then we headed off towards the hamlet – but I intentionally took us over some little hills and through the trees because the pathways were so neat. This is the kind of area you just want to explore for a day (I can see the appeal for Marie Antoinette).

After another lengthy walk, we arrived at the hamlet, which was a really neat little village that was constructed around an small lake (no doubt artificial – like everything there). It even included a little light house. There were lots of coy, a couple ducks (that kept diving underwater), and even very loud swan. We headed over towards the little fake farm, where there were lots of animals. First was a cage containing chickens and rabbits – it was pretty funny to watch a rabbit chasing a chicken around (though another rabbit got pecked in the nose when he tried to smell an annoyed looking chicken). There were also turkeys, sheep, goats, cows, some very sad looking donkeys (I think donkeys just naturally look sad), and even a dog. We couldn't tell if the dog was trained though, because we didn't know the French command for “sit”.

We were very tired, so we headed back along the path to the entrance of the Hamlet, then back along the road to Versailles. By this point we were very hungry and our legs were pretty much just non functional, so we stopped and grabbed sandwiches and sat down for lunch in the gardens. It seems that the gardens are a perfect place for cats though, because no less than 4 cats (all very cute – especially the calico kitten) would emerge from the bushes and sniff around for dropped food. When we were done with lunch, we headed back to the palace to walk through there.

Inside it was very crowded. We walked through the palace and saw many of the rooms, including the king's room, the hall of mirrors, and others. The one thing that always struck me was how short their beds were – they must have been so short. We saw lots of neat things, but it was very crowded, and while I'm not a claustrophobic person, by the time we left I was just about ready to punch the next person who bumped into me (it was just that crowded the entire time).

It was 4 or so and we were really tired and ready to head home. First we stopped by a starbucks near the station so Lauren could get coffee and I could get water. On the train ride home, I was so tired I fell asleep (and it was only a 20ish minute ride). I also almost passed out on the metro ride back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel rather early (no later than 5), so we napped and rested for a couple hours before heading out for dinner.

For dinner we headed back to that same bar/cafe for some more onion soup. It was delicious as always, and afterward we split a burger and fries there, which was also very delicious (and not in a gross greasy way either). After dinner we headed back to the hotel, and passed out as usual.

Day 13 - 2nd Day of Paris

Today we decided to head out to Versailles because it was a relatively nice day (in the 40's, mostly clear). We woke up a little after nine, which means our sleep schedule is finally back on track – I think being lazy in Barcelona corrected it. After getting up and getting ready, we headed out for the metro by 10:30 or so. As per our daily routine, we each grabbed a crepe at the crepe stand right by our metro stop (a little spoiler – I have a nutella crepe almost every morning in Paris). We jumped on the metro, and headed towards the Invalides stop where the train to Versailles passed through.

We were a little unsure about how it would work with the train because we heard there was an accident on the tracks a few days before (some rocks fell off an overpass and damaged the track), however, it wasn't on the area of the tracks we would be going over. We got to the station area and bought our tickets, then walked through the ticket gates. Once inside, we were very confused because it seemed there was only one train going in the correct direction, but it wasn't going to the correct destination (because the tracks split twice on the way to Versailles). Finally we decided to board it and get off near Versailles, then just walk half a mile. Unfortunately, after just two or three stops, the train immediately makes the wrong turn – it didn't seem to be headed anywhere near Versailles. So we jumped off at the next stop and hopped back on the metro into Paris.

It was already noon or so, so we decided we were better off just staying in Paris for the day, and figuring Versailles out the next day. First we decided to go see the opera house in Paris, so we took the metro over there. It was really neat inside – nice to see something like that, that isn't religious for once. We walked around it and saw the grand staircase, as well as a private box that overlooked the stage and all the seating. We also walked through the hallways and out on the balcony, as well as through some small galleries they had. Probably the coolest part though was the box overlooking the entire stage and seating area. We were disappointed though that we couldn't go to the top floors or a box on the top floor (that really overlooked everything).

After we were done there, we decided to get lunch before seeing the Musee D'Orsay. We took a metro as close to the D'Orsay as we could (conveniently) without using the slower RER, so we got off near the Louve. There we found a little cafe, and we did lunch cheaply by splitting a 7€ pizza (which was quite good). After we ate we walked along the Louve side of the Seine until we got near the D'Orsay, then crossed the river to get there.

The line for tickets was huge, but it actually moved pretty quickly, so we headed inside and bought tickets. As with many museums, I had to check my backpack, so I just took my camera in (it was nice not to have to carry everything for a while anyway). Inside, we walked around and saw most of the paintings. Lauren had the Rick Steve's Paris book with her, so we followed the first part of his little tour. However, they had an area or two closed for renovation, so the tour kind of got disrupted. Eventually we just headed off towards the impressionist paintings, where we spent the rest of our time. At the end, we went and sat down at the cafe because our legs hurt so badly and Lauren needed her Coca Light fix.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel, sorely in need of dinner. Lauren had been talking nonstop about wanting French onion soup for the past few days, and the day before she had noticed that one place near our metro stop had it, so we decided to go there and get it. It was a nice little bar/cafe, and the soup was very cheap. It also managed to live up to our expectations, and was quite delicious. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and watched “Death to Smoochy” (I love that movie so much) until we fell asleep.

Grand Staircase in the Opera House

Opera House

Opera House

Seine

Musee D'Orsay