Goodbye to London!

Final day in London this morning. It was, surprise surprise, raining, so walking around the city wasn't very pleasant. Still, my mom and I hit quite a few of the London highlights after we dropped our bags at St. Pancras; we walked to Leicester Square and onto Trafalgar, and eventually headed out to the Thames, where we could see the Eye and Big Ben/the Houses of Parliament. I want to come back sometime when the weather's not so terrible, because I could see myself really enjoying London in the right conditions (though it is incredibly expensive, and I imagine it only gets worse during the summer, when I'd be most interested in returning). My mom wasn't impressed with it, but she did like the Underground. I did, too; it's very clear and efficient, and oh-so British. I also felt like we neither of us were in our best moods the entire time we were there, so I think a dedicated trip now that we know the landscape might make things better all around.

It's Raining in England (A Stunning Turn of Events)

England is well-known for its miserable weather. I knew that going in, just as I knew this week's forecast was particularly awful. But it didn't make walking to the British Museum in pouring rain and strong wind gusts any more fun. At least the proprietess of our bed and breakfast had made us a hearty meal that morning, and kindly shared her travel advice and museum map. And I have now been to another place from the Harry Potter books, Tottenham Court Road, which seems to be the electronics hub of London.

London Calling

Rainy Day in Paris

When my mom and I booked our trip back in February, we were fully expecting the weather to be pleasant and springlike. Paris in April? What on earth could go wrong? Well, we woke up this morning to grey skies and chilly temperatures...

Musee Day

For our second day in Paris, my mom and I decided to check out some art museums. I'd been to the Louvre once before, but she wanted to see the Mona Lisa, so off we went. I love Renaissance art and didn't have much of a chance to look at it closely the last time; this time around, I saw basically nothing but Renaissance art. We went up to the Italian art section first thing, and there were so many people there that after we finished looking at that one section, my mom felt claustrophobic enough to ask for a break to get something to drink and then to go to the Musee d'Orsay. I can't say I blame her; we were already tired from walking through the museum, and it was really crowded.

I'd consistently heard good things about the Musee d'Orsay, and I'm a fan of impressionism, so I was pretty excited to pay a visit. Mom wanted to see some Monets, which we eventually did. There were so many pieces I studied for my art history class two years ago! I wish I could have taken some pictures, but unfortunately photography was forbidden. It was still incredible, and the best use of an old train station I've ever come across.

After the Musee d'Orsay, we walked to the Metro and went back to our hotel. Both of us were nodding off on the way, and when we got to our room, my mom went right to sleep and I ended up taking a nap myself. Neither of us was hungry for dinner, so we sat around eating trail mix and plantain chips and watching news about the French election on Al-Jazeera English. Speaking of which, we saw quite a few reporters milling about in central Paris this afternoon. It's pretty awesome to be in France when such an important election is happening.

Last full day in Paris tomorrow. I'm sad the time is going by so quickly, but London calls on Tuesday, and I'm basically jumping up and down about the idea of finally visiting in person. Plus, we get to speak English! I can get by with French, of course, and a lot of people in Paris do speak or at least understand English, but it's nice not to have to worry about using your non-native tongue for a while. A demain!

My mom and me in front of the Louvre

Beginnings (and Korra, "The Revelation")

I woke up this morning at an ungodly hour to catch a train to Paris. My excitement to see my mother overpowering my grumpiness at having to get out of bed, I made it to Lille-Flandres with plenty of time to spare and ended up in Paris without incident. If I had thought ahead, I would have bought a train ticket directly to the airport to meet my mother, but instead I ended up having to take a regional train once I got to Paris-Nord. This was a crowded and uncomfortable experience, and my poor mother had to wait for me much longer than I was comfortable with, but we eventually found each other. Charles de Gaulle is one of the most confusing airports I've ever been to. It's a good thing I knew which terminal my mom was flying into, because her cell phone doesn't work in Europe and we had no way to get in contact with one another.

It was wonderful to see her. I've been looking forward to this trip for about two months now, and it's hard to believe it's actually happening. We didn't talk much at first, mostly because we had to take the packed regional train and then the Metro back into Paris and to our hotel, but after we dropped our things off, we had a nice lunch at a sandwich shop and just enjoyed being together. It was a reasonably nice day out; I regretted not taking my jacket with me from the hotel, but the sun occasionally made an appearance and the cold wasn't as noticeable as it has been recently. After lunch, we went up to our room, whereupon my mom promptly fell asleep for several hours, and I followed suit, waking up in time to watch the new Legend of Korra episode but not motivated to do much else. I fully expected my mom to be extremely jetlagged; I was basically a zombie when I first arrived in Europe, so frankly I'm impressed she managed to stay on her feet as long as she did. Around 6:30 we stepped out for dinner, and ended up eating at a vegetarian place called Aquarius I'd read good things about on TripAdvisor. We weren't disappointed; the food was tasty and the staff was very nice. Our server spoke some Spanish, so our meal ended up being a mishmash of my three languages (and my mom's two). My mom had expressed interest in seeing the Eiffel Tower, so we took the Metro out in that direction, but it was cold enough and the line was long enough that we decided to head back to our hotel without going up. We Skyped my dad and each took a shower, then watched some Spanish news on our TV. Museums tomorrow!

My mom at dinner

My dinner

Meanwhile, have some disjointed and spoilerific thoughts on the latest Korra episode:

Western European Adventure Week

My bags are packed and I'm about to hit the hay before I set off for Paris tomorrow. I'm very excited to see my mom and have a great week with her. Hopefully I'll be able to blog from our various destinations. Until later!