Its been 3 days since the last blog, or at least since I last typed one out. I have gone another full day exploring venice, slept on a 13 hour night train, met up with the Ducrocq's, a family just outside of Paris spent an afternoon in downtown Paris, then an entire day with the kids yesterday, and then another evening downtown. Today we have spent the morning and midday with one of the girls walking around the town of Surens, which is the town they live in, just outside of Paris. I have grown to really love this family, but I will start my recap with the second day in Venice.
We woke up at ten so we could sleep in a little bit. Nick, Erin, Adam, and I had a pretty good feel for how the public transportation system worked by now, which is all the boats that go through the grand canal through the center of the city and the strait of water between the island our hostel was on, and the main city of venice. Erin still needed to buy her ticket for the night train to Paris that night, so we had to get to the train station first. We took the city boat through the heart of the city on the grand canal to the train station just for Erin to wait in like for 20 min, then be told that even though she already had a reservation and still needed to pay for the ticket, they couldn't do anything about it or sell her anything because it was too late. So we said we'd try later that evening. We then walked our way to the Rialto bridge while looking through shops and grabbing some gelato. That city is amazing. The canals are beautiful. We made it back to the hostel around 2pm and got ready to go to the beach. Once we had our trunks on, we took the city boat to the island of Lido, which has a very big white sand beach on it, around about 60% of the island. The boat ride took about 20 min before we landed on the adjacent island. From there we walked strait across the island and found the beach… oh my, there must have been 3,000 people there. The beach was full of people, tops on and off, kids running around everywhere, beach stands, volleyball games, and plenty if kites and sailboats. We swam for a bit and laid out on the sand taking pictures, really just enjoying where we were. Its weird, the longer we spend away from home, there is this cycle of thought that makes me appreciate where I am more. You see, I really wish I was at home with mom, dad, lauren, whit, the people i love. But then I feel bad because I only really get to do this once and know I should really appreciate and enjoy where I am, so I take a minute to think about home, and where exactly it is, and then where I am. Its amazing how much it hits you then, I am 5,000 miles away in ITALY on a beach! (But I am also wishing more and more I got to spend this time and enjoy where I am with the people I love).
After about 2 hours it was time to go back and get pack up. The four of us made it to the train station again on the city boat, and then ate dinner at a near by cafe. I picked up one last present down an ally with shops. Venice had definitely been my favorite place for presents! There are so many cool gifts that aren't too cheesy and lame, but more functional! I don't want to give them away but you'll just have to find out. We walked to our train at 7:40, with the train leaving at 8. With said our goodbye's to Adam, who was going to go to a bar that night and watch the soccer game with the Italians.
Our train ride to Paris ended up being 13 hours total. Fortunately I slept for about 10 of those 13. The first hour and a half Erin, Nick, and I (Adam stayed in Venice one more night and then traveled to Como to meet up with a friend) had fun the 6-bed slave cabin horsing around and sticking our heads out the window going 150 miles per hour. I passe out after that, once the other three french people joined our car and went to sleep. I had about a foot and a half from my head to the ceiling, and about 1 foot less distance than I was tall to stretch out my legs. Nonetheless, I fell asleep hard, had a very vivid set of dreams, one of which was about Stan Nelson and Mt. Rainier.
At 8 the ticket guy woke us up, and gave us back our passports which he had taken the night before. Erin was expecting to have to pay for the ticket now, but they told her not to worry about it! She basically got a free ride. That was cool.
The mother of the family we stayed with here in Paris wrote out directions for us to her house from the train station on facebook which we had written out, unfortunately, as we would figure out, the Parisian tram and underground system was out to get us. We got lost after getting ripped off by a guy at the ticket machine who we thought was helping us. 27 euros lost. Then we bought the right tickets, made the correct transfers on the underground. Then we had to figure out which tram to take. You see, Paris has TWO different transportation systems that you magically have to know how to buy tickets for simultaneously on a machine where you have to scroll through a thousand different menus before getting to the right one… in French. Once we had bought multiple wrong tickets a woman showed us how. We made it to what we thought was the right stop, then did some directional navigating, and started walking in the 80 degree heat with 60 lbs of stuff each. We somehow miraculously just happened to stumble across the correct streets and find their place as if it just appeared out of no where. It turns out the tram will take you about 50 feet from their doorstep, but we had no idea what that was or which train to take there.
Okay. So we made it into this home after not having a very good first impression of Paris. And from that point on, my time here has been some of the best moments on this trip if not the best. The Ducrocq's, Camille (mother), Elan (father), Hippolyte (13, boy), Eglantine (10, girl), and Felicie (7, girl) have been the most welcoming and loving family. They welcomed the three of us into their house with a French kiss on the cheek, fresh bread, and a cold glass of French ice tea. I could go on for days about how much insight I have gained from them, and all the laughs and fun I have had with the girls, and Hippolyte.
The first day we were there, the three of us students wanted to get the downtown Paris out of the way. So we took the train downtown (after buying another wrong ticket), and walked around by Notre Dame, The tower, the arc, and the other old historical buildings around the river. We made it back to the house in time to see the kids come home from school and none of them were shy in the slightest. They all came up and gave each of us kisses on the cheek and wanted to be with the whole time! They all speak an amazing amount of english. Even Felice, the smallest speaks very well for her age and can express what she is trying to say very well with body language and familiar sounds. Its amazing to see the kids think through how they can say something, and communicate to us. They just love speaking english and teaching us French. These kids are sooooo smart. That night we ate a home cooked meal: a cooked dish of tomatoes, mozzarella, cucumbers, other veggies, and cheese, sliced beef, salad with balsamic and oil, baguettes, and of course, an array of French cheeses, finally for desert, yogurt! Apparently thats they're ice cream, healthier huh? After dinner the family and the three of us piled into their big van that they never drive and got a free night time tour of Paris! (Mom they eat dinner regularly at 9pm!!!!) That was sooo much fun.
When we got back everyone pretty much went to bed. I woke up with Erin at 8 to go running. There is a park (actually owned by the US) about 50 meters from their house up the hill that we ran at. The days have been soooo hot so it was nice to run in the morning when it was still below 80. When we got back, Nick got up, as well as the kids, and Eglantine took us to pick up some fresh baguettes (a morning regular here). We came back and had a French breakfast (no not french toast). But baguettes and an assortment of spreads with very strong coffee. Camille went to work at this point and we had the rest of the day to ourselves with the kids. And guess what we did, we spent the entire day with these awesome french kids. We had multiple water fights, learned plenty of french, taught english, played music (they all play an instrument), made crepes, played around outside, played ping pong, watched a really funny movie called Top Secret, and then dropped water balloons on mom from the roof when she came home from work! At one point, I spent over an our with Felicie just coming up with fun things to do with a broom stick. It was one of the funnest days I've had on this trip. That night the three of us went out to a restaurant that Nick and his family went to 8 years ago. The evening was alright. We got ripped off a few more times, and the food was very good but not substantial. We were all anxious to get back to the Ducrocq's and didn't make it back until 10:30 when everyone was going to bed. Nick, Erin, and I sat at the kitchen table, killed a carton of sorbet while discussing things like life, travel, love, and what its going to be like when Erin leaves (tomorrow) and Nick and I go to Ireland for another week.
The next morning I slept until 9 when the kids got up and we went to get more baguettes. We had breakfast and then we spent a few hours walking around Suresens, the town they live in, with Eglantine. She showed us her favorite shops, including the pet store where she had to get a few things for Luva, her pet mouse. We went to a library for kids, flower shop to pick up flowers for Camille, a candy shop, and a high end smaller target type place. It was a nice afternoon before spending the rest of the day doing the same things again, playing with the kids. I can't wait to be a dad.
This evening when Elan, the dad got home we ate a delicious dinner of home made French lasagna, salad, french bread and cheese. After that we all had an intense ping pong tournament. USA won haha. The kids are VERY good. It has been so amazing to watch Eglantine and Felice and Hippolyte learn things to quickie. They can pick up on things so quickly. And they are sooo polite! It seems like it is so rare that children in the US say thank you as often, or offer to help with everything. It makes them seem very mature for the age. By the end of yesterday, Eglantine and Felicie were holding my hands all night long. And Hippolye and I were carving our names into our swiss arm knives. I am going to be very sad to leave them, but happy knowing I am getting closer to my own awesome family:) And Camille and Elan are soooo madly in love and head over heels for each other after 20 or so years. I love that. They are both hopeless French romantics (especially Camille). Cant wait to see my mom and dad like that (and of course see my own love:)
Eglantine wanted to type something.
eglantine says something : I am so happy to see three American, I can show them my life in france and they are very nice! nick is so strong, sean is so athletic and erin is so beautiful and they are the three very very funny!!!!Me and my brother, we teach them a lot of french words! bye bye !!! See you america!! eglantine
So tomorrow Erin is leaving for home at 8:45. Nick and I will leave the house around noon. We wrote in their traveler journal so they wont forget us. They just took a 6-month family trip around the world, and have a book of people signing it as their new friends, and we all contributed to it. But Erin will leave in the morning and it will just be Nick and I for the next 6 days. God help us haha. Our plane is at 2 to Dublin. I will dearly miss the Ducrocq's and hope they will visit the pacific northwest sometime.
We have had a slight change in plans for Ireland. We will stay in Dublin tomorrow night, and the night of the 1st of July as planned. After that we will take a train to Gaway, directly west on the other side of the country. We have the remaining three nights booked at a hostel there. We plan on taking day trips to the cliffs, and surrounding land scape. Maybe rent bikes. And I plan on going on some great runs. Mom! I managed to get my shoes packed!
One more country, a lot more planes rides. Can't wait to see you Lauren, Mom, Dad, Whit:)
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