"Tapas", easy to find, hard to buy

Here are a couple of pictures from my camera that we didn't post last time:

1. Vodka shots in the alley for the pub crawl.

2. The Eiffel tower sparkles at midnight (sideways video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIBqaRMPTKc)

3. Some fountain in Bordeaux.

Yesterday we left Bordeaux. The dinner we had was great, but the hostel was probably the worst place Ive ever stayed. The smell was horrible and Ryan killed some giant centipede in the morning.

We trained into San Sebastien and eventually figured out how to get to our new hostel, using bus maps as a guide. The city was nice but the weather was not welcoming. After we checked in, we decided it was time for lunch. We wandered the streets and there was hundreds of bars serving tapas, but no one spoke English so we had a hard time figuring out how it works. Eventually we came to the conclusion that you have to ask for a "plato" and fill it up, and pay afterwards. Tapas are nothing like what they serve at La Masia, but still pretty good once you finally get them.
















4. Some rare sun in San Sebastien
















5. Peek-a-boo, eye see you!

While looking for a place to eat dinner, we ran into some people playing drums and dancing in the rain in the middle of the street (we arrived at the end of some festival here).
















6. People playing the drums.

We heard from some people in our hostel that there were fireworks at night, so we headed down to the beach to watch them. They definitely blew the Vancouver fireworks away. We were basically right under the fireworks, and the sparks were flying past our heads.





















7. Fireworks in the streets.





















8. More fireworks
















9. And more fireworks...

After the fireworks we went to some bars to check out the San Sebastian nightlife. Beer was pretty cheap, and somehow we ended up in the middle of a spontaneous Spanish congo line.

Now we are going to hike up to see Jesus on a hill, and then find something for dinner. We have an overnight train to Madrid that leaves at about 10 30. We are under the suspicion that one of us got ripped off with the ticket prices.

Bordeaux

Well, we had our first encounter with the Euro rail today. We woke up fairly early, had a quick bite to eat and headed to the train station. We somehow fumbled our way onto the correct train which took us on a 3hr ride into Bordeaux (of which I slept most of). Now we took the advise of the hotel we were heading towards and hopped on the tram. This took us about 40ft in the span of about 15 mins and then abruptly broke down. Something was announced in French and we all got off the tram. So, now we were faced with almost an hour long hike with our heavy, heavy backpacks on which caused us to get lost a couple times. Along the way I also was coaxed into sticking my tounge out for a picture for some school kids scavenger hunt, at least thats what I gathered they were doing from there french babble. Finally, we came across our hotel and checked into our smelly room. Unfortunatly after all these delays we missedall the wine tours we came here for but it is still a beautiful city and I am sure we will find something to do. We leave early tomorrow for San Sebastien, Spain so we will have to take it easy on the wine and cheese tonight :)

Thank you all for your comments, please keep them coming!

Pictures

Today we went to the Louvre and Notre Dame.

We found an Internet cafe that will let us upload pictures, so here are a few:















1. Ryan happy to arrive at our 5 star hostel.















2. First beer in Paris.




















3. First sight of the Tour Eiffel.





















4. View from the top of the Eiffel tower.















5. Us at the top of the Eiffel tower.















6. Ryan enjoying some ancient company - piles of bones with skulls in between them at the Catacombs.















7. Two skulls at the catacombs.




















8. Eiffel tower at night, minutes before sparkling.




















9. Entering the Louvre...




















10. MMmmmm... Gummi Venus De Milo.















11. A hard to get picture in front of the Mona Lisa.




















12. The Arc de Triomphe.




















13. More Arc De Triomphe.




















14. 5 floors of over priced purses...















15. Lauras new suitcase.
















16. Entrance to the Louvre.















17. Notre Dame cathedral.

More to come later... Tomorrow morning we're hopping on a train to Bordeaux!

Day trois

Well, today started a little slow as both Jordan and I had a couple too many "free" orange and vodka shots on our booze cruise last night. However, it was a fun trip and probably worth the euros we wasted :) After finally hitting the streets of Paris we took the Metro to the Catacombs and stood in about a 1 hour line. Once inside we were treated to piles and piles of bones and skulls! Apparently back in the day they used the old mines as cemetaries, we took lots of pics but again we are still trying to find a computer that will allow us to upload them.

After hanging out with the dead people we tried to make our selves a dinner in the communal kitchen. All in all it turned out pretty good and saved us some cash, next time will be better though. Then it was off to the Eiffel tower to get some night pictures of it and catch the midnight sparkle show (strobe lights all over the tower), it was pretty good. And as most of our blogs end we are just sitting here in front of the computer now and getting ready for bed.

One night down...

Last night we wandered around looking for a bar and found nothing but drunk French men, so we called it a night.

We got up early today and had a free breakfast in what is best described as a dungeon. It was a decent croissant and bun and OJ. Later we went off on the Metro and got lost, but eventually made our way to the Eiffel tower. 3 hours later and after many stairs, we took some good pictures from the top.

We went to the Champs D'eleseeys (horrible spelling) after, and saw the Arc De Triomphe. Ryan purchasd a 34,000 euro suitcase at Louis Vuitton for Laura which should be arriving next week.

Now we're off for dinner and a pub crawl...

Finally Arrived!

Bonjour from Le Paris (We have quickly realized we suck at French!)
After many months of planning we have finally arrived in Europe!! It took us about 11 hrs to get from Vancouver to France but Zoom Air was suprisingly good. They served us a couple decent meals, gave us free wine, and played a couple decent movies. We also got to sit next to Shannon fom LOST (or at least her Frence twin), she was even making out with her brother like in the TV show...man the French are odd.

Upon arriving at the air port we confused the bus info girl with our English trying to find our hostel but eventually figured it out on our own. Once at the hostel we were upgraded to a free prvate room, but I use the term "upgraded" loosely. The room is actually ok, a little run down but a decent place to rest for our first couple nights (we will post pics when we get to a computer that will allow us to do so). After dropping our bags we went for a stroll and I attempted my broken French to order a couple beers and cheese sandwiches, it was a very poor attempt. After this snack we walked a bit more and returned to the hostel and now here we are...

We'll be off to find some dinner in a bit here and then probably have an early night. Tomorrow the plan is to see the Eiffel tower, Thursday the Louve, Friday the Catacombs and maybe Notre Dame. After that we'll see but there will be plenty of pics to come in the next couple days so stay tunned.

Miss you all, Au Revoirs!

5 days and counting...

It's been a pretty boring blog so far, but that's all about to change in 5 days! (Well, 4 days, 19 hours, 38 minutes and 22 seconds according to the Countdown on Facebook).

Not much new has changed, other than most of the stuff we had to do before leaving is done! It's now into the packing & preparing, which is taking quite a while.

Friday is the last day of work, Saturday I'm moving out of my condo, and Monday @ 5:15 Zoom airlines takes us to Paris. The next few days are going to fly by...