Crepe-land.

Paris, France.
"The City of Love"
"The City of Lights"
"The City of Pretending Americans Don't Exist"
"The City of Chocolate Croissants, Crepes, Cheese, Baguettes and skinny people??"

Favorite things:

• Dogs that look like just like their owners and walk around with their chins in the air. French dogs are a breed of their own. An American dog wouldn't sit patiently and posed as their owner eats a ham and cheese sandwich.... That's for sure. 
• Unhealthy daily crepe intake. "But we're in Paris!"
• The Eiffel Tower!! At night it sparkles every hour and it is impossible not to smile. It is your standard "What is the significance of this tower again?"- monument mixed with the Disney Cinderella Castle. AMAZING.
• All kinds of interesting people.... street performers, metro riders, shop owners, beggars. Even saw a few cliche Parisians in barrettes. :)
• You can pretty much climb up any major monument/tourist attraction in Paris. Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel, Notre Dame.. apparently looking and "ooh ahh"-ing isn't enough for us dedicated tourists.

Our hostel was FAR from luxurious and had terrible service. Don't worry I funneled all of my anger into a bad review on trip advisor. :) Probably shouldn't have expected much booking off of a "hiphophostels" website haha.

French was a tough language to master. I felt like any attempt at "excuse moi" or "oui oui" would be taken as mockery. So I went with the blank stare and Spanglish instead...

Friday night we went to the Lourve museum and saw THE Mona Lisa. Highly underwhelming.. but I saw it! 

After we headed to the Eiffel tower and had some crepes and wine. :) Why can't the Washington Monument sparkle?!?! Wouldn't hurt would it??

Saturday morning we saw the Catacombs (piles of bones underground!), Notre Dame and the Museum d'Orsay. We got to Orsay 30 minutes before they closed and ended up running through it like chickens with our heads cut off trying to see the "important" things. I'm noooo art enthusiast but I ended up loving the museum. Degas and Signac are my favorites and what's cooler than being able to say I have fav artists??

Sunday I took my Eiffel Tower jumping pic and although not prime weather conditions, I got it first try! Reason enough to love Paris. 

We stumbled into an awesome open air market near the Eiffel tower and took our time exploring. I've developed a fascination for outdoor markets in each city, they're all so colorful and different. Ended up buying a ring and a big baguette to help me look more native. :)

We walked down Champs Elysees to do some shopping and by shopping I mean drooling over Louis Vuitton and Gucci... We waited in line to get into Abercrombie which was SO over-the-top it was comical. A gate entrance with a huge garden and half-naked-cut-out-poster-looking models to greet you at the front door. 

Last stop we headed to Versailles to see the palace. Once home to Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI. As if a palace of nearly all gold wasn't enough it is surrounded by acres and acres of perfectly maintained gardens. The Louis' even had a "thrown room". Which got me thinking, Delta Gamma president should have her own thrown. :)

We explored for hours and then headed back to Paris for dinner and more Eiffel Tower-gawking. Paris is stunning and definitely somewhere you could spend weeks exploring. Tough to leave but ALWAYS a treat coming back to the Montarina.

Caio for Naio!

PORTUGALlivanting around SPAINtacular

Some lessons learned:

I’m scared of waves

I’m beginning to think I’m narcoleptic.

They don’t wear sombreros, eat quesadillas/burritos or drink margaritas in Spain.

Tapas are for skinny people.

First stop: Madrid, Espana!

We arrived to Madrid EXTRA hangry (hungry/angry) and we’re sent to a nearby restaurant for traditional Spanish paella. Not our best meal… unidentifiable seafood and greasy rice… one has to wonder why a city nowhere near the coast would specialize in seafood dishes…

We took our first of many siestas (naps) and headed out to a HUGE 7 story club called Kapital. They had different music playing on every floor but don’t worry we managed to find the American 90s jams floor and I even go in some Destiny’s Child Kareoke. The Spanish don’t go out until 1:30am and casually leave the club when the sun rises at 7am. Nocturnal-ism. I gave it my best shot but my internal clock is still hating me.

I woke up Saturday morning with yep, you guessed it pink eye. -__-

The group tried to be nice but I could tell they wanted to put me in a giant bubble. Not a happy Spaniard but I pushed through and made the best. We went to a great tapas place for dinner called El Tigre. They served huge mojitos and unlimited tapas along with it. It was crowded, sweaty and loud but delicious and worthwhile.

Sunday the guys had tickets to the Real Madrid and Spain soccer game so we tagged along to try to scalp tickets. I was the girl who played soccer as a youngster strictly for the orange slices at half time… Long (not really) story short I ended up falling asleep for the entire game. Not just the casual head on the hand eyes getting heavy, full on laying down with my scarf as a pillow. In my defense we were in the nosebleeds, I was running on roughly 2 hours of sleep, and was still pink eye inflicted. Not my proudest moment but don’t worry great pal and Delta Gamma sister, Jill managed to catch pics at every angle and even a video of me nodding off.

Stop 2: Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon was BEAUTIFUL. I start every blog that way but something about Portugal was especially pretty.

Miles, Bryan and I took a surfing lesson Tuesday morning and it rang in as almost as frightening as night sledding. It occurred to me as we were walking out to the waves with the oversized board I wasn’t even capable of carrying that BOOGIE BOARDING scares me, let alone surfing…  Our instructor was blunt about the terrible water conditions with comments like “these are not waves for beginners ” and “hopefully we don’t run into the rocks”.. I did a lot of nervous laughing and silent praying but it ended up being a more than worthwhile experience. I was the only girl and clearly scared out of my mind so our instructor stuck with me and helped keep control of my board/my head above water.

Once we got back we visited a small fishing town outside of Lisbon called Cascais. We walked up to a place called “Hell’s Mouth” a little cove on the coast that makes a growling sound as water splashes it. We watched the sunset, caught some amazing views and got dinner.

Last stop: Barcelona, Spain!

Favorite city so far. Another repeated blog phrase... We took our first bike tour of the city which was awesome- minus almost being mowed down by moving traffic several times.. I had NO idea what a huge deal this Gaudi fella was. No doubt, his architecture was beautiful and unique but come on he’s talked about like he single-handedly BUILT Barcelona. He was killed by a tram in the 1920s and ever since they have been outlawed.

My favorite thing in Barcelona was the the Boqueria, an open air market with fresh fish, fruit, candy, chocolate spices, waffles etc. An outdoor Wegmans, essentially. Our last night in Barcelona we bought shrimp and supplies at the market and cooked a dinner together at the apartment. Group bonding/ major teamwork activity. I stepped up to make Sangria (cut up fruit and dropped it in the premade sangria…….) Really made me question my cooking abilities. It might be time to expand from easy-break Pillsbury cookies when I get back.

Our last night in Barcelona we stayed up to watch the sunrise on the beach. I was limping on one heel and freezing cold. The sand felt like SNOW. Jacob was nice enough to give me his pants to stay warm (mostly to shut me up..) We were quite a sight to see.

Our journey back to Lugano didn’t go as smoothly as planned… and wasn’t planned at all to be quite honest. We took a 17 hour overnight train from Barcelona to Milan and then realized there were no outgoing trains to Lugano for the next 4 hours. We made the best and hung out at a nearby unlimited Chinese buffet. Stuffed ourselves with unlimited sushi, Chinese, pizza and managed to waste sufficient time. We met a women straight out of “Eat Pray Love” who is traveling around Italy by herself for 3 months. She travels purely off of where people tell her to go and says yes to EVERYTHING “within reason.” It was clearly some kind of mid-life crisis, but inspiring, nonetheless!

Ciao For niao!