Where there's a will, there's a way

5:30 am- Wake up in our hostel and attempt to get ready without waking up the entire building.

6:00 am- Pay for a train to get to a metro station. Do not realize that we can use our Eurail pass to avoid this fare.

6:15 am- Arrive at metro station. Pay fare to get to another train station.

6:30 am- Arrive at train station. Are informed that there is a train strike in France and we cannot get to Nice the way we had planned. Nobody seems to have any information, so we take a train to a town at the border between Spain and France.

10:07 am- Arrive in Portbou, where there are many cops inside the train station. A man tells us the only way to get into France is by taxi, so we begin wandering.

10:30 am- Realize we are in a beautiful town right on the sea. Find a tourist information office and the lady there speaks English! She calls a taxi for us, so we continue to wander in search of food.

11:15 am- Find a restaurant willing to serve us this early.

11:45 am- Go back to the beach and practice skipping stones.

12:10 pm- Taxi arrives, and we take it for 10 euros with a young couple from California who had also been stranded. They had to hop through hotels all night without sleeping. We casually drive through the border into France with no notice except a small sign.

12:30 pm- Arrive in Cerbere, another beautiful time. The taxi driver tells us a bus for 1 euro will come at 1:30 to take us to Perpignan, a train station that can connect us to Nice. We wait on the beach and continue skipping stones.

1:30 pm- No bus. An older French couple calls the company and finds out that the bus does not run today or tomorrow. They call a taxi to go to Perpignan, and tell us it will be 20 euros each. We tell them we cannot afford that, so they offer to pay half of our fare.

1:45 pm- Taxi arrives and we drive through gorgeous scenery.

2:45 pm- Arrive at the train station. There is nobody at the information booth, so we wander.

2:55 pm- There is someone at the booth, and she speaks English! She plans out an itinerary for us with a few connections to get to Nice for free by 1:00 am.

3:00 pm- Get on our first train, which is supposed to leave any minute.

3:20 pm- Are told that the train is delayed until 3:40.

3:40 pm- Set off for Nimes!

5:55 pm- Arrive in Nimes. Look at schedule and realize that the bus to the center station in Avignon (our next stop) leaves in 5 minutes.

5:56 pm- Run to bus stop.

6:00 pm- Get on bus. A lady keeps talking sternly to Colleen in French but she is completely clueless. 

6:45 pm- Get to the station. Eat baguettes because apparently they are all Europeans eat. Run to a shuttle to connect to another station.

7:15 pm- Take bus to station. Begin to understand why people do not bring suitcases on these types of trips as we run inside.

7:30 pm- Stop at information booth where they tell us it is impossible to get to Nice tonight. Settle on going to Marseilles because at least it is in the right direction.

7:40 pm- Run out of water.

7:45 pm- Realize we need a reservation for the Marseilles train. Beg a station worker (who looks like Owen from Grey's Anatomy) and the conductor to let us on. Almost kiss them both when they say yes.

7:50 pm- Leave on Marseilles train. A woman tells us that we cannot get to Nice for at least another few days by train because something collapsed and there are stones covering the tracks. 

8:15 pm- Laugh so hard that we cry because of how unfortunate this has been.

8:30 pm- Ask at the Marseilles station if there is any possible way to get to Nice. A lady tells us there will be a bus. Colleen searches for a bathroom, only to find that they close at 8.

9:00 pm- Find bus. Make friends with a woman from Germany and a man from Taiwan who also need to go to Nice. Find out that the bus driver will not go to Nice and we have to end at Cannes, which is 6 miles away. Push our way on because it is utter chaos. Our friend from Germany doesn't make it.

9:27 pm- Depart on the bus. Everyone cheers.

10:00 pm- Couple in front of us tells us that the entire trip will take about 2.5 hours.

11:00 pm- Bus reaches Toulon and we realize that the bus driver doesn't know where he's going and the passengers are giving him directions.

12:15 am- Stop for a bathroom break.

1:30 am- Bus driver announces that he needs to take his 45 minute break. We are told that we are 10 minutes away from Cannes. We run inside and beg for a taxi. Colleen buys some sort of rice meal.

2:15 am- Take taxi and beg the driver to go fast because our hostel locks at 3.

2:55 am- Run into hostel. The man feels bad for us and changes our reservation to a private room. We now have wifi and cable in our room, along with our own balcony and bathroom for the same price. We refrain from crying out of sheer joy. Then Colleen realizes she has been eating tuna.

Moral of the story: no matter how many people tell you it's impossible to get somewhere, there is always a way. Also, France seems to be full of bad luck.

Barcelona

We have spent a little over two days here and have definitely sacrificed sleep to fit everything we want in.

Monday began in Valencia, and we spent the morning walking around the City Center. We saw Valencia's oldest and largest cathedral and went to one of the best farmers markets in Europe to get snacks for the train.

 We arrived in Barcelona a little after 6, but spent a little over two hours in the train station waiting to make a reservation for our train to Nice. It turned out that we couldn't make the reservation anyway, so tomorrow will be an adventure of taking quite a few trains in order to get there. We will spend the entire day traveling, but we might be able to get there for free with our Eurail passes!

By the time we got to our hostel, we were crabby and exhausted so we decided to just stay in for the night and book an extra night to have a little more time. This hostel is much better than the one in London. We have met quite a few very nice people and have had a great time here!

Tuesday we went on a free walking tour of El Gotic, which is the oldest part of the city made up of a maze of narrow streets. We learned about the Catalan culture and were surprised to find out that the people here want to obtain independence from Spain and speak their own language. 

Then we decided to take another tour immediately afterward, and we learned about the Modernism movement in the city's architecture. We saw several buildings all resurrected between 1880 and 1914, including Barcelona's famous concert hall, hospital, and three homes designed by Gaudi. Gaudi was definitely our favorite architect of the time--just as a side note, it is said that George Lucas got his inspiration for storm troopers from Gaudi's chimneys. This tour ended at La Sagrada Familia, which was Gaudi's last project before he died. It is a massive and very ornate cathedral. Only a quarter of it was built before he died, and it is still under construction today! It is supposed to be finished in 2026.

We then went on one last tour, which was more of a pub crawl. We got to try different types of Tapas, which are traditional small dishes that are served at pretty much every pub and restaurant. On these tours, we even made a couple new friends...a girl from Australia and a girl from Canada! At the last pub, the four of us ordered take away wine (which is actually legal here) and took it to the beach. When we got back to the hostel, we met up with two more girls from Australia who convinced us to go to a nightclub with them. This was definitely an experience, since neither of us had ever been to a club before, let alone in Barcelona. It was pretty much the typical scene from movies, and we stayed out late and had a good time.

After only 5 hours of sleep, we spent all day today walking. We wandered through La Rambla, which is a street full of little shops and performers. Something really trendy right now is a mouthpiece that makes your voice sound sort of like a high pitched duck, so there were men all over yelling with them trying to sell them. We went into another market like the one in Valencia and marveled over how disgusting some of the animal parts were. 

Our walk then took us to the harbor and the beach, then we found our way to the Picasso Museum. The building itself was as eye-catching as the art inside, and we learned about Picasso's transformations as an artist and were able to pick out scenes from Barcelona in some of his pieces.

Tomorrow we are leaving bright and early to begin our train adventure to (fingers crossed) Nice! 

More Normal Spanish Adventures

Well, after arriving back at the apartment Friday night, the couple we are staying (Miguel and Gemma) with offered to take us out with them. It turns out that a couple blocks from us are two festivals that come here for a week every summer. One is an "alternative" festival, meaning that everyone there is a hippie. They were dancing and selling homemade jewelry, clothes and food. Right next to this festival is the Festival of Nations, which features booths from around the world. Most of them sell different types of food, and some also sell clothes, shoes and jewelry. We had great conversation with Miguel and Gemma. They work from home and have their own wedding photography business. After stopping at every dessert stand to ogle at how good everything looked, we came back to get some sleep.

Yesterday we slept in until 10:30, which was huge for us! We went to the city beach, not expecting too much because we had been told it was not the greatest. It turned out to be gorgeous! The weather was perfect; sunny with a nice breeze. We decided to eat lunch at a restaurant on the beach and had delicious veggie paella. After waiting an hour and a half to get our food, we ate enough to feed an entire family.

Once we were sufficiently exhausted from the sun (and Colleen was crispy, of course), we went back to the apartment to relax in the shade for a while. We have been taking full advantage of the great internet connection here, so we think Miguel and Gemma think we are strange for spending so much time inside yesterday.

Today we ventured to the train station and made our reservation to leave for Barcelona tomorrow. Rachel had read that there was a 'ghost bus' that takes people from just outside of the station to an amazing beach called El Saler. We could not find the bus stop anywhere. After Colleen got directions from about five different people, we finally saw the yellow bus driving toward its next stop. It turned out to be a stop that did not even have a sign! Naturally, we ran across the street and stopped traffic so that we could make it to the stop before the bus. It took us to the beach and we had another sunny, relaxing day!

Our next post will be from Barcelona!!

Dentistry and Other Adventures in Spain

Since Friday was a rather special day, we felt it was necessary to write about it in a special format. Here's how it went...

12:00 pm  Arrive in Valencia, Spain without Long Tooth (Colleen's front tooth). 

12:30 pm  Arrive at the correct metro stop near our BnB. Begin searching for said BnB

1:00 p.m.  Still have not found the BnB even though it is a three minute walk from the metro stop.

1:05 pm    Begin asking random strangers where the apartment is. Get hilarious looks from Spanish natives since only Colleen speaks any Spanish.

1:10 pm    Find nice man in neck brace who works across the street from our apartment.

1:20 pm    Arrive at BnB. Finally.

1:45 pm    Arrive at the dentist office across the street from our apartment. Are disappointed to find that they close at 2 pm and will not open again until Monday, but are encouraged by the fact that it is very obvious what the problem is. Are pointed in the general direction of a dentist clinic that is open late and on weekends.

2:00 pm     Arrive at what appears to be a university and hospital combined. 

2:05 pm     Mistakenly walk into Spanish emergency room. 

2:15 pm     Colleen is admitted to Spanish ER and led away from Rachel.

2:15-2:30 pm Colleen explains to doctors that she did not fall, and they laugh and wonder why she is in the emergency room. Doctors direct her to the dentist across the street.  

2:15-2:30 pm  Rachel wonders how long the wait will be, so buys lunch from the vending machine in the Spanish ER waiting room. Does not enjoy food.

2:35 pm     Walk into what we thought was the dentist across the street. Are told it is further down the block. 

2:40 pm     Arrive at real dentist office! The secretaries do not speak English, but tell us to come back at 4 when the dentist returns.

3:00 pm    Find Spanish cafe down the block to eat lunch at. Order bocadillos because they are only two euros. 

3:05 pm    Learn that bocadillos are sandwiches made with French baguettes.

3:15 pm    Rachel stops crying from laughing so hard. Colleen bravely attempts to eat baguette.

3:30-4 pm   Enjoy nice stroll through a Spanish park with cool birds. 

4:00 pm     Colleen consults with 25 year old dentist and fills out medical history forms in Spanish. We are worried that she keeps saying it will be difficult to fix. We are asked to return at 5:30 for the procedure.

5:30 pm      Return for the procedure.

5:35-6:00 pm   Dentist and her assistant begin crafting a new tooth.

6:00 pm     Dentist calls friend into room to marvel at how big the tooth has to be. 

6:15 pm     LONG TOOTH HAS RETURNED! 

8:00 pm    Colleen eats soup for dinner and opts out of the free appetizer--slices of a French baguette.

Last (and most eventful) day in Paris

Today we woke up semi-early (but we would have considered it very early before this trip) to go to the Catacombs. We didn't really know what they were so it's okay if you don't either. In the 1700s one of the cemeteries in Paris become unhealthy for people to live by, so they began moving the remains of the people buried there into a system of underground tunnels. These tunnels were from an old mining quarry with rock dating as far back as 48 million years. Skeletons continued to be dumped there, so the place is now the largest underground ossuary in the world. It was definitely the creepiest place we have ever been and it was difficult to comprehend that we were walking through the remains of over 6 million people.

Afterwards, we stumbled upon an outdoor street market with shops that had all different kinds of food. We were excited to eat a French baguette with cheese and fruit, then buy a pastry for dessert. Unfortunately, this is where our day took a turn. As Colleen was biting into her baguette, it turned out to be a little overcooked and strong enough to break her tooth. (For those who may not know, she has a veneer added on to her front tooth because it is weird and set way farther up in her gums than her other teeth...long story...) So, she looked in the mirror and realized that she now looked like a hillbilly. After the initial shock, she was upset and crabby but is now trying to embrace it and laugh at how funny of a story this will be after some time.

Anyway, after we realized that there was nothing that could be done today, we headed to Notre Dame and the Louvre. Notre Dame was a beautiful, humongous cathedral (obviously) and is currently celebrating its 850th anniversary. On our way in, we saw an adorable group of nuns going on a tour. 

Between Notre Dame and the Louvre, there was a screen set up in the middle of the block with tons of people sitting outside to watch the French Open! The rest of our walk took us through a shopping district that led right up to the museum. We knew the Louvre was big, but we definitely did not expect it to be the size of a small city. We did not have the time or the energy to walk through it all, but we did walk around the grounds to see the famous Louvre Pyramid and crossed the street to stroll through the Jardin du Tuileries.  

Tomorrow we leave for Valencia, where we are staying in another BnB with a very nice couple who both speak English! They are going to take Colleen to the dentist in search for a solution.

Paris (Days 1&2 of 3)

SO! Yesterday we arrived in Paris at 10:30 a.m. after a grueling overnight bus ride from London. Let's just say London residents could probably still smell our breath.  We found our way to our apartment (that we rented on Airbnb--great site--check it out!) with NO help whatsoever from the information desk. Side note: Parisians really are helpful, just not the ones at help desks. Go figure. The flat is in a great location since we're next to a ton of cafes, patisseries, and specialty markets. Unfortunately the flat itself is no Ritz Carleton, but hey! No complaints here. We relaxed for a bit before adventuring out, but as usual had a packed day full of sightseeing! First we walked down to the Champs-Élysées, a street of high end shopping, cafes, and mini parks. One shop mixed high end fashion with Ferraris. Needless to say, we didn't buy souvenirs here. The walk ends at the Arc de Triomphe, which was actually a lot bigger in person than we expected. The best part was probably the memorial to the unknown soldier under the Arc itself. 

Next, of course, we walked to the Eiffel Tower, which no trip to Paris would be complete without. We took the elevator to the top (281m high!) and could see the whole city. Pictures will tell the story better than words. 

Today, we woke up early again--gotta stick to that granny schedule we've been on!--to take the train to Versailles. This palace was absolutely breathtaking. From the Hall of Mirrors to the Royal Gardens, the Kings and Queens of France really had it made. The grounds themselves were enormous. When there is a minitrain from one end of your land to the other, you know you're doing something right. We didn't see Marie Antoinette's chalet because it was too far, but the gardens and royal bed chambers were enough to fill three hours of our day. 

We took the train directly from Versailles to the French Open, which for Rachel meant crossing off a part of her dream to attend all four major tennis tournaments. While we didn't see any headline players, we did have a lot of fun! First we saw a senior mens doubles match, which was hilarious because even the players didn't take it seriously. At one point one player pretended the throw out the chair umpire and dragged him out of the stadium! Next, we saw a women's doubles match with four of the top 30 players in the world. We had front row seats! At the tail end of our visit we caught a few point of the wheelchair tennis tournament and watched Djokovic and Nadal on the big screens outside Suzanne Lenglen court. 

Tomorrow we'll have another absolutely packed day, and then off to Valencia, Spain on Friday morning! We changed our plans a bit in search of warmer weather, but we'll still be venturing north to Barcelona next week. 

Harry Potter!!!

We realize that this update is very late, but we have been SO busy that it has been impossible to find the time to write. We will try to catch up tonight!

If you're not a Harry Potter fan, you might want to skip this post because we are very passionate about these stories.

On Sunday, we had our tickets to Warner Bros. Studios booked to see where the Harry Potter movies were filmed. We were exhausted from Friday and Saturday, so we decided to sleep in and stay in the hostel until leaving for our tour. This excursion was definitely our favorite part of London. We got to see all of the original sets and props used to make the movies. It was so much fun to be able to look at such intricate details and reminisce on all of the stories that we love so much! It is impossible to put into words how excited we were. We even got to taste Butterbeer, which was delicious!

It was amazing to see how much detail went into these movies. Even after all of the plot details had been written by J.K. Rowling, there were thousands of people planning the designs and effects that made the movies come to life. Going through this tour really made us appreciate why it took so long for each movie to come out.

As you may have seen on Facebook, some of the highlights of the tour were: 4 Privet Drive, the Knight Bus, the Hogwarts Bridge, Dumbledore's office, the potions classroom, the Great Hall, the Ministry of Magic, Umbridge's office, Hagrid's hut, the animals that played Sirius' owl, Fang, and Crookshanks, and pretty much every prop you can think of! 

The end of the tour consisted of a walk around the model of the Hogwarts castle that they used for filming. Obviously there is no such thing as Hogwarts, so they used tiny cameras to make the model look gigantic. While walking through this room, there was nostalgic music playing so of course we both teared up.

We took our time during the tour, of course. So by the time we made it back to the hostel it was time for us to get some sleep. At this point in the hostel a group of 7 Americans had moved into our room. They were very inconsiderate, loud and obnoxious in the mornings. If anyone reading this ever decides to stay in a hostel, bring ear plugs and try to be courteous so your roommates don't hate you.