New Things

 

This trip is amazing. I'm sitting in Paris right now. Let me catch you up on the last couple of days. On our second day in London, Ale and I met up with a friend named Lloyd. Ale and Lloyd met in Austria a couple summers ago while she was studying abroad and he was a tour guide. He was born and raised in England, so it was nice to feel like I got to see London from the tourist and the local perspective, at least to some extent.

 

I obviously had to try fish and chips, so I ate half of the plate and then let Lloyd fix it up how he would normally eat it: with salt and vinegar. Then I continued to eat. I think salt and vinegar could be an acquired taste for me. Lloyd said that McDonald's fries are called fries in England because they are long and skinny, but chips are usually shorter and fatter. Sometimes I can't tell the difference, but chips are in lots of restaurants. Later in the day we ate at a cheap Chinese Buffet, and they served chips there too! On the potato note, baked potatoes are called jacket potatoes because they still have the skin on. Cool huh?

  

Cheesy picture, I know. After eating lunch, we went to all the tourist places I wanted to go to because I was the only first-timer in our group for being in London. I don't know if that last sentence made sense or not. But oh well. We saw the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey (sorry Mom and Dad...we didn't see the place that Downton Abbey was filmed).

 

Westminster Abbey-One of my new favorite buildings.

At the Museum of London, I found out the history of these phonebooths. A man named Giles Gilbert Scott entered a competition from the English General Post Office to design a new public telephone. He won with a design that was green and silver, but the General Post Office insisted that it be red to ensure that cars don't run into it.

 

We stopped by the world premiere of Snow White and the Huntsman. No, I didn't see Kristen Stewart, but I saw some other cool people...I think. Pretty sure this guy is a huntsman.

  

It was sprinkling rain for the first half of the day. I took off my shoes to dry them out before going to see The Phantom of the Opera in the west end of London! Christine was seriously the BEST Christine I've ever heard in my life. I wanted to buy the CD just to I could hear the trio between her, Raul and the phantom again. The theater was pretty cool. Our view of a corner of the stage was blocked because we got cheap seats, but the seats in front of us had binoculars attached to their backs which could be used if we put a coin pound into a slot. That was pretty cool. After the show, we got gelato and it made me excited for Italy!

We woke up the next day and saw the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, then shopped around a bit before heading to France. On the train ride to France, we met this adorable couple:

 

They are from Scotland! He is basically Santa Claus. They were fun to sit by because they gave us traveling advice, and they are just cute. Dad and Ev, I just want you to know that he approves of the souvenir I bought you, so be excited. I told him about the Scottish Festival in Utah and he said that we probably do more to celebrate the Scots than they do in Scotland! His favorite Highland Game is the one with the logs, but he has never played it.

When we arrived in France yesterday, we found a cute produce store that I adore. I discovered white asparagus and grape tomatoes still on the vine!

Today we spent the whole day at Versailles! It was breathtakingly gorgeous. Everything was lavish and extravagant. I can't even fathom the time, money, know-how, and effort to build that huge palace. I think I could have stayed there all week. I also think that I saw a Bernini Painting. Brenna probably saw one today as well!

Marie Antoinette's Oak.

Part of Marie Antoinette's House

Marie Antoinette's House was pretty far away from the castle (a mile or two), but it was so pretty. It was basically straight out of a Disney movie or fairy tale. Definitely worth the extra time and money.

Old Man Who Thought I Was Taking a Picture of a Tree

Thermometer with numbers on the right, and words like "cold" and "warm" on the left. Perfect for Mom and Dad!

Dad, this fireplace has huge logs in it. Do you think that's how they burned wood?

I got a little dancey.

 

The garden of Versailles was completely amazing. I enjoyed simply walking through the tall bushy walls and the trees, accented with statues and fountains. It was beautiful.

Another reason I love the garden is because it is weirdly historic and modern at the same time. I'm sure the gardens I saw today look similar to those of the eighteenth century, but unlike the palace, the plants are living. They are the current version of what King Louis XIV planned.

Mariachi Band that started playing on our way to Versailles

Un baguette!

After Versailles, we were pretty tired. We stopped at a shop and bought fruit and bread for dinner and now we have time to catch up on blogging.

Tomorrow we plan on hitting the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, and Notre Dame before catching an overnight train to Amsterdam. Can't Wait.

Nice Things I've Seen in France:

•  2 people helped me carry my heavy bag in the Subway! Both instances happened right after the nice Scottish man told me to be careful about pick-pocketers so I was a little hesitant to let them help me. But they were just nice people being nice!
• Ale and I shared strawberries with our 3 roommates, which are awesome by the way! 1 guy is from Oregon/Idaho, and 2 girls are from South Africa and they are basically me and Ale but a few years younger. 
• When I was struggling with the language barrier at a restaurant, the chef said "It's ok, speak English." But his English was limited. He was willing to struggle with the language barrier so I didn't have to.

Differences Between France and England:

• The toilets are a lot smaller. There's often no lid or anything.
• Language. It complicates things for us Americans.
• I've heard that French people are mean and that they don't like Americans. Maybe that is true, but everyone has been pretty nice to me so far. Most people do seem to be more introverted, but I don't think it's mean-spirited.
• The subway system is more confusing.
• Dirty. Everything is dirtier. More litter, more graffiti and other forms of vandalism, more smoking, more dirt on the walls, more dirty.
• I've seen a lot more children so far in Paris. I saw about 3 groups of children on field-trips in London and that seems to be it. But in Paris I see them a lot more. I see more kids/teens walking on the streets alone, more small children with parents on the subway, etc.

Au Revoir! Loch Sloy!

Meryl