Bloggin' Foo' Strikes Again

Here I am, as promised, writing my heart out for YOU. Fasten your seatbelts, you're in for a long, bumpy ride. Shall we begin?

The plane landed in Londres (this is London for the non-frenchies). My phone got lost on the plane, or someone stole it (due to this unfortunate event i have no pictures) and I almost got sent back to America because I didn't know the address of the hotel I was staying at. I was late to meet Evelyn at Paddington station because I had to make a detour to the claims dept. to tell them about my lost/stolen phone. This actually cheered me up a little; the man in line ahead of me was reporting his lost baggage, which had mistakenly been shipped to Normandy.. Whoops.

Luckily I made it to Evelyn, only 30 minutes late, and from the beginning of the trip we proceeded to walk EVERYWHERE. We saw just about everything there is to see, from the London Bridge to¨Parliment to the Gherkin.(pssst this is a link) You name it, we saw it. We also had a "real english breakfast" which for those of you who don't know... is a little bit different from brunch à la Succotash. We had to find a pub. An English pub that was open at 10 in the morning. We found a shady building and walked inside. Before our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we practically ran into the mysterious man drinking white wine at the bar, which apparently is totally natural because there was an elderly couple drinking whiskey in the booth across from us(???)... Then we paid at the bar for our breakfast, which included: baked beans, basted eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. Top it off with some jam and the London equivelent of ketchup and Bam!(it's Emeril approved..) The complete London breakfast.

HARPER'S TOP 10 OF LONDON

1. London Fashion
2. Day Trips to Windsor
3. River Thames and all the places surrounding it (eg: the London Eye, Parlaiment, cute shops, city hall, fish et chips, etc)
4. Oyster Card. Basically a pre-paid metro card. Right now they have a special edition Will and Kate card. It's adorable.
5. Downtown London
6. Camedon Market (think swap and shop, only way more expensive... and full of souvenier booths)
7. Hyde Park(the real deal!)
8. Buckingham Palace (sans queen)
9. Squirrel Man. This man was a regular of "the enchanted palace" and fed the chubby squirrels almonds everyday. It was super cute.
10. London Tube. So easy. Slightly jealous

before we leave London, a question for my readers: Why did they paint the Tower Bridge blue?



next stop: Pologne

Krakow. What an interesting place. As you have read, no one speaks English. Thus, you have to read body language/expressions, and imitate everyone around you... without them knowing (Nobody wants to be pegged as a tourist, it's like saying you have the black plague). It was pretty amusing. We went on a free walking tour with Chris, who had the greatest polish accent and wore a t-shirt that said, "born to be guide". He took us to the Jewish community, which is a misnomer because there are only 97 practicing Jews in the entire place, which was pretty astounding. They never returned after WW2... Schindler's List was filmed in the Jewish community. It's a movie the locals know very well... and they protest that some parts aren't 100% correct. For example, Schindler had 3 lists, not one, and lots of people had to pay to get on it. The American movie is based on an American novel that this guy wrote after interviewing ONE local. Go figure. Good movie though.



salt... everywhere. even the chandalier


I also went to the salt caves; these caves deep(we're talking 400 km) underground where miners carved figures out of salt. The walls, the floor, the ceiling... Everything was made of salt. I licked the walls. They were salty. On one of our many walks Evelyn taught me how to eat a strawberry, green leafy top and everything. I dare you to try it. She also influenced me to eat a kiwi with the peel . This girl is freaky (she's from Canada). You should try it though, really. It's not bad. She grew up on a farm, and claims that lots of people eat the entire fruit... like bananas, apples, pears, kiwi, and strawberries etc. I asked her if she ate the whole banana, and she replied, "No, that would be weird!" I like this girl.

Our 20+ mile trek is already documented, so refer to facebook for more info. I will add; the Monestary had awesome sausages.

Are We There Yet?

paris! We stayed at the Holiday Inn (this link is especially for my father) in Paris thanks to Evelyn's Dad and his hotel points. It was so awesome. The beds had ironed sheets and a real bathtub with a shower(which honestly impressed us the most). Showers in Europe... are tiny. In fact, tiny is an understatement. I had so many bruises on my elbows from taking showers in London and Krakow... showering became dangerous. You cant reach your toes, you can barely reach your hair, and god forbid you drop something....  We were super clean in Paris. Which is ironic, because Paris is extremely dirty. The streets are lined with cigarette butts. Luckily they added lights to the Eiffel Tower that light up every hour on the hour to distract the tourists from the filth.

Gosh. This is going to take awhile. More on Paris later. SO much to say...

a couple sidenotes:

• parisian couples. they kiss in parks. everyone knows that. literally on top of each other, less than 10 feet away from the other people in the park(usually another kissing couple, or a child staring). they also kiss on the metro, they kiss on the busses, the kiss in cafes, they kiss in the cathedrals(they have no shame), they kiss on the trains, they kiss in the streets. im pretty sure they kiss everywhere except their bedrooms.... and thats why french people have chapped lips all the time. just kidding. they're perfect. they should though (its not fair).

• Alright, so let's talk about this. I finished watching the Bachelorette season finale, the one with the guard and protect your heart guy, and she ended up with Roberto, the guy I liked from day one(and she did too) and she has to pick between him and this other guy who her family likes and is consistant and an all around good guy blah blah blah. This is the hardest decision of her life etc. She has to pick one that she wants to spend the rest of her life with so she can't fuck up and she's having so many issues and decides to go with the one that she has a stronger attraction to. He ends up proposing to her and she says yes, and while they're showing this romantic beach proposal with the sun setting and the lion king's "can you feel the love tonight" playing in the background she says something like: "ever since i met Roberto two months ago-". Wait, What? Rewind. "ever since I met Roberto two months ago-".. Two months ago?? You've known this guy for 2 months and you're ready to tie the knot? you havent even spent every single day of those two months with him. you've been off with other guys... you haven't even had time to learn about his faults or introduce him to your friends... this is when I realized that this show is a load of crap, and that if anyone is going to play lion king music for their season finale, they need to grow up. life is not a disney movie. (good luck to the happy couple...)

 


and lastly, im going to end my blog with a small insert from my personal journal; something to tie you over until I have the strength to finish what I started in Paris and move to Lyon, where I'm currently staying with a suuuuuuuuper cool host family(stay tuned)

...and I thought my luck was bad. It's not. I'm extremely blessed to have everything I could need. No matter what happens to my camera or my car or my bike, I will always have myself and those around me who love and support me. There is no telling what will happen, but I know that if I keep this in mind, everything will be just fine.

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so to those of you reading this, know that im thinking of you, and that you're that one of a kind, cant-live-without sort of person. and you mean a lot to me :)

lots of hugs and kisses

harper