The City of Lights: Matt

So I guess we are taking turns writing on the blog at the moment... We aren't really sure who all is reading this but we appreciate the interest you have in joining us on our adventure!...and feel free to comment as well.

Paris is quite the city. For one it is very large and spread out. It was definitely confusing at times but now we have the metro system figured out and that means the city is at our disposal. It seems the french take that saying literally as there is plenty of litter being tossed onto the street. It has been quite warm and humid here as well, very nice weather if you are from Seattle.

As I write this we are at McDonald's because they seem to have free wifi everywhere in Europe (...well at least in London and Paris). With all the nice restaurants around, I laugh thinking that we just go to McDonald's. McDonald's does have its perks; it's cheap, it's familiar and the whole free wifi bonus. Plus we are eating REAL french fries! There has definitely been a little culture shock going on over here in Paris. I think Tim has experienced it the most here. The other day he went over to some Americans on a train just to talk to them and told them he wanted to talk in English with some other people that could actually understand him. We have been going to a few non tourist places like a big shopping mall and random little supermarkets. People assume I am french or at least speak it. It's kind of nice to blend in a little... I can get by with bonjour and then paying for something at a store. However in museums or tourist places I can't get by so easily because sometimes they start repeating things and raising their voice in french, I just look at them blankly and then they say something in english like "I need to search your bag" and then I respond "ooooh ok".

Today we visited the Arc de Triomphe and that was a fun place. It had a huge roundabout going around it...and maybe 12 big streets converging on the circle. Mike and I climbed up to the top while Tim read a book. It had a unique view of the city and that was worth the money and energy.

One thing I look forward to when traveling around is meeting the different people. We haven't talked much with french people in france or english people in england. It's more the people at our hostel that are from other places around the world. We had a Ugandan roommate and an Austrailian roommate which we talked to. It's fun hearing about other places in the world and sharing different perspectives.

Today we met two Australian girls at the Arc because Tim offered to take their picture for them which he is good at (both asking and taking pictures) and we usually then have them take a picture of us (we seem to do this at every tourist site). So for this one we actually struck up a conversation and I ended up practicing my Australian accent with them. So in my best Australian accent, I said "put another shrimp on the barby!" and immediately both of them said at the same time "no! that's scottish!" and then they started laughing at me and the fact that they said it in unison... It turns out everytime I try and do a australian/new zealand accent it sounds scottish and everytime I try and do an english accent it sounds like forest gump (I know at least one of you knows that already)...some wiring in my brain must be off a bit. Hopefully someday I can figure out what accent I try ends up sounding like the actual accent I want.

Well we are taking a sleeper train down to the south of France in a few hours and then we are transferring trains to go down to Madrid! Hopefully all those years of high school Spanish and a couple quarters in college will actually pay off. Maybe we won't get lost as easily and can communicate with the locals. And hopefully we will have internet in Spain so we can share our experience...until next time. Au revoir!

Paris: Tim

Alright so I am here to do the anthropological analysis of the trip so far. It is actually amazing how similar the "Western" countries are to each other. I find myself on the public transit unable to guess whether someone speaks french, spainish, or english. The dress is almost identical and so are almost all mannerisms. The interesting thing to note so far is that almost every group of Americans we run into in Paris is girls. We have yet to see any American guys abroad without a girlfriend....besides ourselves. This must mean that the girls in America either like traveling more than the guys, or the girls find guys in other countries more enticing. Either way I find it hard to be in this city of romance and lights without my better more attractive half.

I know some of you may be reading this and think of all the excitement of such a great "vacation" but that word means nothing to us. This trip is almost everything but relaxing. From getting lost in Paris with our backpacks on while it is extremely hot outside, to walking close to 5 miles in Versailles today. It is safe to say that backpacking through Europe is just as tiring as a full time job....Except at the end of the day I think I will have lost weight and hopefully my butt won't be as big, and we come away with some amazing pictures!


This was down the the catacombs under Paris where there were millions and millions of bones. This was me playing Jenga with the bones because they were stacked so perfectly...though I couldn't actually get up the courage to touch the bones, none of us could. But apparently people regularly try to steal bones.


This was us at the Palace of Versailles which was enormous, but even more impressive were the gardens. They were very large and Marie Antoinette had here own little "hamlet" within her own garden! Le Petit Trianon I beleive was the name of it, but it was very...cute I guess is the only word to use there.

Now from a freudian symbological perspective, I wonder if the reason Seattle and Paris are romantic settings is because of the complete phallic symbology of the Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower...

Lost in Paris: Michael

We left London around 11:32 and made it to Paris safely around 15:00 in time to see a group of anarchists in the train station playing loud music and yelling about no borders. At least that is what the British Newspaper told me. Anyways, we were in the train station for about an hour. The first 20 min. we were looking for where to buy metro passes (Paris's subway) and the next 40 min. in line to buy our tickets to Madrid. After finishing this we got onto the metro to go to our hostel. This is where the day started to get tricky.

First of all the only map that we had was a tiny one that probably did not even have all of the big streets of Paris on it. So we walked one way and then the other and then back again only to find ourselves completely lost. About 15 min. of wandering around lost we decided to ask for help and discovered that no one around could speak English. Luckily for us Mr. Rick, a wine store owner who is American, saw us looking completely lost and showed us a better map to get where we needed to go. It turned out that our hostel was just a short 3 min. walk from the metro station in the completely opposite direction then the way we decided to take.

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel at 17:45 we decided to head for the Louvre.



It is difficult being amid the city of romance with all of this beautiful art for me and Tim because both of our girlfriends are back home. But it was at the Louvre that Matt was finally able to find the woman of his dreams.



Her name is Venus de Milo and he made us visit her no less than 3 times within the span of 45 minutes. Doesn't she look like a handful. Anyways Tim and I were able to see some of the thins we wanted like The Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Dying Slave by Michelangelo, and of course the Mona Lisa. After wandering the overwhelming halls of the Louvre for a while we left to visit the Eiffel Tower.

We managed to get to the Eiffel Tower with only a 15 min. detour due to misdirections but eventually we were able to climb the stairs to the second story for 3.5 euro a piece. The line to take the elevator to the top was well over a two hour wait at would cost an extra 11 euro. We got to the second level around 21:23 and decided to wait for the breathtaking sunset that took place at 22:05 just after the Tower's lights sparkled at the hour.



We then came down the tower and saw a somewhat tear jerking sight.It was that of on of Ratatouille's relatives been killed by a cat. Tim's comment was at least it gets to die in such a beautiful place. After watching the cat play with the mouse for a while we sat down in the park watching the Eiffel Tower for another half an hour before it lit up the sky with its twinkling lights at 23:00. We called it a night and went back to the hostel to sleep.

Our first day in Paris was an eventful one in both good and bad ways. The thing I enjoy about Paris is the antiquity and grandeur that is around every corner and I look forward to seeing more of the city and its magnificent places.

Wimbledon: Tim

Alright so we knew we were going to be waiting in line for a couple hours when we showed up to Wimbledon, but we were not expecting what we came upon. After getting out of the underground (which was pretty well packed) we were handed free stuff left and right from advertisers on our way to the Wimbledon Park Grounds. Granola bars, water, juice, a can of tennis balls. It was crazy! And they were all speaking with English accents which just catches me off guard every time! Once we got to the grounds, we were herded to the end of the queue and given a queue card saying we were the 11,000th people in line because we were supposed to stay in order. And then we just sat on the grass for 3 hours after they told us it would be 6 hours till we got in. All the english people were incredibly nice though they seemed to litter EVERYWHERE!!! Even if they were just feet from a rubbish bin. The free stuff didn't stop while we were waiting in line either, we got stickers and booklets about wimbledon and we stopped the ticket girl to ask her some questions because she seemed friendly enough. We asked her if she ever got to be a ball girl (because she had on a wimbledon uni that looked like a ballgirl one) and she told us that only people in the wimbledon junior and senior high schools got to be ball people and they had to train for 6 months to do it as well!!! And once we got inside we realized why! It was funny seeing the routine of the ballpeople no matter what!....they also did not seem overly coordinated. Something tells me at wimbledon schools you either play tennis....or are a ballperson. But like matt said we did get to see the Williams sisters play a bit of doubles and were in the front row to a lesser match, but don't let that fool you, it was the best tennis I have ever seen played in person! Alright well today we are off to Paris via train and hopefully some more exciting things there.

London! : Matt

Hey everyone! Yesterday when we got in we were super tired but we managed to take the tube into the city and wander around a bit. We walked around and took pictures down by Big Ben and Trafalgar Square. We also visited the British Museum. It was lots of fun just walking around the city.


Today we heard about a little tennis tournament going on called Wimbledon. So we decided to go check it out! We ended up "queuing" for about 5 hours to get a ticket inside. But it was a nice day and how often does someone get the chance to go to Wimbledon?! So we after waiting for a long time we finally got tickets inside and watched some really good tennis. We even saw Venus and Serena Williams for a little bit. We ended up watching a match on court 5 which had people we didn't recognize but none the less it was still great tennis! We are super exhausted from the heat and sun but overall it was definitely worth it! Here are some pictures and video from that...

We Made It! : Matt

Just wanted to say we made it safe and sound to London! Now to go get some sweet stories to share...

Pre-trip 3: Tim

I know I am still the only one of us posting on here, but Matt and Mike will be starting shortly. We head out tomorrow morning at 4:30 am in order to get to the airport in time....and none of us are fully packed. Instead we took a little break to rock out on Guitar Hero with some friends. While Mike was off with Christine having bubble tea somewhere. My last night in the states for 5 weeks...and I never seem to sleep soundly before I travel. Usually my heart is pounding and I toss and turn in bed for hours. Well I am off to finish up the packing.

Pre-trip 2: Tim

Well the time is almost here. My 21st birthday and then off to Europe to sleep on hostel beds for 5 weeks, hopefully they aren't too painful. I find myself freaking out about packing especially into this backpack in which I will carry everything. But I guess if I can't pack it over there has got to be some way to get it there. I mean how can hundreds of millions of Europeans survive? They gotta have some way to get the basics. Anyway, I think the excitement of the trip has finally sunk in and I am going crazy trying to think of things to do while we are on this adventure. So far I have decided that I want to visit the BMW factory in Germany and the Eagle's Nest in Austria. But it will get more precise as we go along. At least they have internet in Europe! right?

Anyway here is an updated picture of the band of bros before we head out on this trip.