14
August
2008
August
2008
Looking Back on Our Trip: The Good, the Bad, the Embarrassing
The Good:
- The food in Paris. Delish!
- Walking along the Thames and the Seine. This is where all of the life of the city is!
- The coffee! It’s so tasty! They don’t brew coffee like we do. They use espresso for all of their coffee drinks. There were a couple of times when Kyle wanted American-style coffee, so we hit up Starbucks, where they do make our kind of coffee (he’s a weenie). By the way, the food at Starbucks is way better in London than it is here…
- The weather. Although it did rain a lot (sprinkled more than anything), the weather was so nice. It was between 70-80 the whole time. I wanted to die when we came back to 100 + weather.
- The pubs. I’m no big drinker, but the atmosphere in the pubs was so enjoyable. Very laid back.
- The drinks. Again- I’m no big drinker, but the cider was so good in London and the wine was so good in Paris!
- The general atmosphere of both cities. London is very busy- there’s always something going on. Paris, on the other hand, is more laid back. Kyle and I felt so at home in both cities.
- The performers on the Metro in Paris! There were accordionists, violinists and even puppeteers on the Metro!
- Learning that the United States is not the center of the world. I’d like to say I knew that before, but I know even more-so now.
The Bad:
- EasyHotel. This place made Kyle and I hate each other! It was so cheap though…
- The body odor! Oh my god, I can’t believe how stinky some people were!
- Not having a hair dryer! I had to go out with wet hair every day.
- My feet. My feet hurt ALL OF THE TIME! It was miserable. I blame myself for not having supportive shoes. I wasn’t alone though. Kyle had blisters on his feet almost the whole time we were there.
- The plane ride. Isn’t it about time someone develops some sort of teleportation device?
- The movies on the plane. The long plane ride is bad enough, but when you have to watch crappy movies the whole time, it’s even worse!
- Plane food. AHAHAHA! Since we’re veg, we had to eat curry both ways. I’ll never forget looking over at Kyle, and seeing his eyes light up as he ate it. He looked over to me and said, “this is pretty good!” I about died laughing. In all honestly, it wasn’t that bad, but it can by no means be classified as good.
- Missing Pidden. And my friends and family of course!
- Coming home.
The Embarrassing:
- Being silly Americans. We were sitting outside of the Louvre watching the Eiffel Tower sparkling, and we started to talk about the new Batman movie as if it were a great masterpiece of cinema. I believe I even said, “it was so deep!” (I was tired, okay?) Then I look over to my left and notice that a woman was video taping the Eiffel Tower right next to us. So basically that woman is going to go home and watch her video of the Eiffel Tower, and she’s going to hear two ridiculous Americans talking about how “deep” the new batman is.
- Using public bathrooms. Kyle went “number 2″ in the Louvre, just steps away from the Mona Lisa. He was gone for a long time, and when he got back I said, “you did not just do that in the Louvre museum!!!”
- Going to the wrong hotel in London. The guy looked at us like we were morons, which I admit, was deserved.
- Not being able to understand British English. It was horrible! We speak the same language, but I had the hardest time understanding the Brits.
- Feeling sick during King Lear. I had to go outside a couple of times to get some fresh air, and the people were getting irritated with me. I made the right choice by just leaving altogether.
- Our experience at the movie theater in London. Everything was so confusing! There was a separate place (i.e. building) to buy the tickets, get snacks, and watch the movie! Plus, we thought the movie started at 7:00, but it actually started at 7:55, so when we tried to go in around 6:45, the guy basically yelled at us, saying that we were too early.
- There were a few times where we ran out of cash, so we weren’t able to tip cab drivers…
- Kyle peeing in a children’s hospital.
Random Observations:
- Contrary to popular belief, Parisians are so much nicer than Londoners.
- I felt that Londoners were very serious people. Not uptight- but serious. Parisians on the other hand, are very laid back. Both cities reflect this.
- The British like weird food. Kidney pies, prawn mayonnaise, and beans on everything! To be fair, much of it was pretty good (I obviously didn’t try the kidney pie or prawn mayo).
- Everyone is thin and well dressed in London and Paris. I definitely noticed the obesity rate go up when we landed in Texas on our way home.
- Everyone smokes in London and Paris. There isn’t even a minimum age to buy cigarettes in Paris.
- While London does have quite a few Starbucks, they have lots of other coffeeshops too. I know Paris has some Starbucks stores, but I didn’t see one the whole time we were there. That was a nice change. However, Paris doesn’t have any straight-up coffee shops. They are all cafes, where you eat too. I guess Parisians think of coffee in a different way than we do. They believe you should sit down with a cup of coffee and chat with a friend, while we think coffee is something you get on the go.
- Europeans don’t have seat covers for toilets! However, their bathrooms are incredibly clean!
- If you wait to cross the street until the walk sign lights up, you are obviously a silly tourist. You cross the street when no cars are immediately coming, or you’ll look really stupid waiting for the sign to change.
- In London, the traffic light turns yellow before it turns green! Weird!
- Parisians love celebrity boobies! All of their magazines have naked celebrities on the front cover… and they don’t censor anything!