Okay, now that I have had some Käsespätzle I feel ready to continue...
We left Harrods and headed to the train station to hop on the Eurostar to Paris. My dad was super pumped about going through the chunnel or something and then slept through the whole thing. We had delicious Marks and Spencer salad meal things that Amy and I ate a ton of last summer. Nomz.
8. Paris
9. Hotel sneaking
We got to Paris and got over to our hotel, I had to wait outside and sneak in later because once again I was not a real guest. *That sounds bad, but really it was great because I felt like a spy in stealth mode*
The hotel was very close to the Eiffel Tower so we walked over there and looked at it for a bit. It did its spastic sparkle thing on the hour for five minutes and the creeps tried to sell us champagne, wine, beer, water, keychains, cigarettes, babies, monkeys, drugs, themselves, everything in the world.
10. Walking Tour
The next day we did a walking tour and saw some of the major things: some street called the fishing cat street or something because cats used to fish in that street when the city flooded and French people are creative....Notre Dame, Louvre, other museums, egyptian pillar obelisk thing and more. Then came this:
11. more walking
12. more walking
we did SO MUCH WALKING. We only realized the extent of the walking when we got to:
13. Top of Tower
We went all the way to the top and looked at all of the Parisian things, and charted our walking and it was IMMENSE. and thennnnnn I used the bathroom at the top and I think that was the tallest bathroom I have ever used. (except on planes, but still) THRILLING. Also, these Paris things are out of order because I think we did the Louvre before the Top of the Tower. and before MK+A so we'll get back to that.
15. Louvre
Went in the Louvre and looked at the art things and I had to see this stupid lady again:
Mona's hot younger self on the left. More about that here, and everywhere on the internet.
14. MK+A
After looking at the things, we did the walking because I think the Louvre was in the middle of that and then later on we did some fencing with baguettes in front of the Eiffel Tower. I'll add photos later...
16. D'Orsay
Next day we stored our luggage at the train station then went and looked at the Musee D'Orsay and saw some Degas, Renoir, Monet things. I liked the Degas sculptures. We also went and walked around Montmartre and went in the Sacre Couer, I don't remember when this was, but I illegally took this photo(shhhhh, don't tell anyone, internet people):
We also went in the Notre Dame, again not sure when this all fit in to the Paris timetable...
17. Night Train
That night we took the night train to Hamburg from Paris. There was a mix up and Deutsche Bahn attached the wrong sleeping car to the train and we had a slightly less plush sleeping car. Still cool though. The train guy was ultra german and he tried to explain the whole ordeal to me in German because I answered his 'Do you speak German?' question with 'a little' mistake. He had to re-explain in English.
18. Hamburg
We arrived in Hamburg around 9 am and headed to my place to drop off our things. We wandered around the schanze for a little bit and checked out the weird people before heading to the city center to do some shopping and eating on Mönckebergstraße. I got a new coat for my birthday! Now I won't freeze. (20. Shopping for everything)
19. Apartment
We headed back to my neighborhood to check in to the apartment we rented. The apartment was HUGE. It had a living room, kitchen table room, and large bedrooms. My bathroom was nicer though, toilet and shower in the same room! It was interesting to compare the two apartments.
21. walking tour/Hafen City
We did another walking tour in Hamburg. I liked this tour guide more than the last one I had in Hamburg. Despite his weirdly giant pants... We saw all the things and then wandered around the Hafen City... we made it down to the Unilever buidling, which looks a bit weird on the outside, but has a cool atrium. After some internet searching we learned that it is a suuuuuuper green eco building and has won awards for that. Get it Unilever.
22. ferry boat
We took a ferry boat taxi metro public transport boat trip around for a little bit(2 HOURS!) It was freezing but there were some entertaining German children at our table. I was eating a granola bar and they were watching me and then pulled out some cookies and candy. You showed me, children. You win.
22.5. Fischmarkt
Don't know why this wasn't on the list. We did soooo many things my brain is mush. We got up super early Sunday morning to head over to the Altona Fischmarkt. It is a huge deal in Hamburg. The fish people sell the fish to drunken partygoers and early risers. There was also delicious waffles, baked goods, pasta, clothing and an auction hall with a live band. I have been to the Fischmarkt once before but I was in the other category of visitors last time, so this was a whole new, much colder, experience.
23. Blankenese
We headed to Blankenese on Sunday. It is the Treppenviertel stair town stair quarter stair something... It was cute! lots of stairs and winding streets that lead to the water. It reminded me more of Italy than Germany so that was interesting. In one of the stores there, this was on the wall:
I'm pretty sure that was real. blegh. poor little guy. I'm telling myself it was a painted horse, somehow that makes me feel better about it.
24. Hamburger Meile
Monday we hit up the Mundsburg center and Hamburger Meile shopping mall. It was GREAT! We bought shoesssss. I posted this on facebook:
Parents are doing Europe RIGHT! I also got some new boots to help with the winter and horrible weather, some cool high top sweater tennis shoes and some cool heeled short boot shoe things(photos soon). Also bought a pair of black ankle boots to replace the pair I bought last year in Amsterdam, but they are suuuper squeaky and loud, so I am going to try to return them tomorrow.
25. Wheelie
26. Future fabulous life
These two really go together. Wheelie is the three-legged dog I will have in my future life. It was determined that my future life will be fabulous and expensive and I will have a lot of excellent leather luggage and purses and wallets and things and an adorable three-legged dog with a wheel named Wheelie. This is super important to me.
BONUS
We ate so many delicious things over this trip. Breads, more breads, delicious potatoes from this place near me, must go back often, beers, wines, noodles, cheeses, desserts(mom and I had waffles for dinner at this place in London, YUM!)
and then Dad ordered this:
It is a pig knuckle. And it had hair on it. Sooooo there's that. Good beer though.
Okay, so that's the end of the trip! They headed home with suitcases packed full of shoes and wine and candy and presents and things... I had a great time! See you guys for Christmas!
I will hopefully upload some more photos soon! Still need to transfer them from my camera... and now that I have home internet I should probably post some more photos from the last 3 months... but I just keep watching internet television. Caught up on White Collar! and now all the Fall shows are starting, I don't know how I will make time for it all...
Happy almost birthday to me!
22 just sounds so much more real that 21. Maybe it's time to start looking for Wheelie
