JOURNALING EUROPE

DAY 1, JANUARY 1: Felt like an extremely long day. In a car for 3-ish hours to the Houston airport and a 9-ish hour flight into Paris.








DAY 2, We arrived into Paris around 8:20AM. We got our passports stamped in a jiffy. After meeting the family we took the metro and right as we stepped out we saw some motorist get knocked off his bike by a green van. Saw some important features of Paris of course. Had pizza, vegetable soup to die for, chicken, crepes, and chorizo's. Had a nap! So many cars, some poo to watch your step for and coldness!

DAY 3, My morning in Paris started at 4:00AM to the sound of the radiator clinking. Then some huge trucks (i guess though they probably wouldn't fit down the street) were rolling by a little later. Once I'm up I hardly care but I was getting peeved especially since now it's not making any noise at all. Matt and Heather apparently have a really quiet room. No idea what we're doing today, it figures. I don't ask, but also, no one tells me. Great communication...nope. My goals for today are to be a little bit nicer, be a little bit warmer, and take everything in for another go. JUMPING FROM PARIS TO BELGIUM. Today went well with a small breakfast and a trip to the Louvre. For lunch we ate as top dogs in the top of a cafe where I had the pleasure of eating raw roast beef...I had half of my dad's club. Americans should have boiled eggs on their clubs. Returning to the hotel to grab our stuff and go metro and train. 50 cents to potty. 1ish hour train ride, very comfy. I don't recognize the jet lag...just being tired from not resting is all I know. There's snow on the ground and there were very few flurries in Paris. Wow, I just wrote Paris. Cooking some chili, noodles, and salad. Hopefully the hot chocolate doesn't get me wired. Their house is quite nice, I expected it to be smaller from what they were saying but nope. Haha, just like I expected the Mona Lisa to be 8.5x11. Shakira is playing, thank you Audrey.

DAY 4 The day started around 11:15 when I got out of bed. Shocking sure, but today was a resting day. We ate Belgian waffles for brunch. We went for a long walk in the woods, snow fell from trees which made it seem like it was snowing. It apparently doesn't snow often. Went to the appliance store to buy a humidifier. Linner/Lupper (lunch and supper/dinner combined...I almost confused myself as I reread this)...around 4:30 maybe, was split pee soup/left over chili and salad. We took Brandy back to the sitters house and it made me want to speak another language so bad since the streets and houses were so foreign to me. Had a nap upstairs, not sure what dinner will be.

DAY 5 The morning we blindly woke up (not knowing what time we actually needed to be up at) in time to eat cereal and head out in the cars to jump on the metro/train into Brussels. The whole day was a tour-filled experience with a packed lunch we ate in a pub. We bought chips and coke, the man in it was very kind and took us to a marionette show, but it was closed. We went to two museums, an antique shop, and an expensive furniture shop. We also saw the Manneken Pis, "manican-pee" in Audrey's words. Following our bread crumbs we're back at home, after stopping at the grocery store for tomorrow's fixins and to my happiness Crispy M&M's, we're sitting down to dinner. A new beer every time they sit down to the table! Not a fan I am. (I'm slowly accepting Jeff's interests) Ate a lovely dinner of spaghetti and meat balls, no dessert for our stuffed bellies but we did follow it with a great couple games of Catchphrase. Shower and sleep to come! Brittany Spears...for the win, we saw lots of wonderful art today!

DAY 6 Woke up to leave at a decent time of getting to Ypres, Belgium but all the museums there were closed. So we visited a handful of monuments. An American, Canadian, and British. I don't react to them quite right. Eating our lunch in the car. We made our way to the bus station to go to Brugge, Belgium. We climbed up the tower 300 and something steps, 100 more than the Arch de Triumph in Paris. We toured some shops, oddly enough a toy shop next to a libido focused one (I just like using libido now days), my dad whisked me away right as I noticed what I didn't notice at first glance. We went round and round and then got hungry for another round of pizza's. They don't refill anything like drinks in Europe, yeah, but at this place they charged a convenience price because most of us split our pizza's. The long drive back is forgettable from the bus station. Who knows what up for the rest of the night.

DAY 7 Woo hoo! Day 7! It's not moving fast that's for sure. Today my camera finally told me to charge the batter...it lasted quite a long time I must say. Today was another rest day starting around 10:30AM or earlier. I could have slept longer since the window shades make it night in the room, but there was no real need to so I got up. Another brunch of eggs, bacon, and pastries. How dare they get donuts only for Audrey. What were they thinking. Yes, I still get jealous. We split up at some point and Heather, Mom, Malinda and I went on a ridiculous voyage to find an antique shop. It was a pain waiting to get there and I didn't even buy anything. Then it was back to the house and on to Waterloo. Saw it from the top and from the inside panoramic. Now we're waiting around for dinner and I've been given a research job for tomorrow's adventures. Sweet. Audrey just loves playing the same song over and over again on the piano. Waterzooi in the tummy!!!

DAY 8 It's so close to the 10th! Today we woke up around 7:30, Heather, Jeff and I walked to the bakery. We got a ridiculous amount of pastries, well, I guess. Today we split up: The boys and Adele went to cemeteries and monuments and the rest of us went to Antwerp(en) to admire the Cathedral, the 4th largest port in the world, the Statue of Brabo, and the Delvaux and skirts at the Mode Museum. It was a nice day driving to and from. Mom got some more Crispy M&Ms perhaps I'll give some to Kiesha! Guacamole is on the table. Oh yeah, we ate awesome pizza today though we packed our sandwiches. Oh well, we ate them when we got back from Antwerp. There's also an American food store there with some foods you can't get here in Europe...at least not in Belgium. They're imported of course so it is all pretty expensive. It's crazy how much money they spend here. It is a wealthy country though...or I think that's what they told us and Jeff is a big part of DuPont apparently. We had a nice meal of Flemish Stew and Fritz and some dessert cake. Now we must pack to leave early for Amsterdam. (it wont let me delete the extra picture...crazy!)

DAY 9 Woke up early to hop in the car and head to Amsterdam. We finally got to the hotel (Schiphol) and ate our packed sandwiches and split 2Euro cokes. We then hitched a ride to the airport with the shuttle and bought some train/metro tickets for inside of Amsterdam. We went to the Van Gough museum first and then walked around the town in the cold entering only a few stores. We ate dinner then walked back to the train station then back on the bus onward to our hotel. That night I made my way to play Spades but couldn't and didn't really care to catch on so I grabbed this book (my journal that I wrote it) and drew. Went back to the room to take a bath and then watched a small bit of Shrek and then off to bed for some difficult attempts at sleeping.

DAY 10 Woke up with ease to no alarm due to it not being set correctly. Hit the shuttle and then the airport for breakfast and to hit the "sit and wait" button all the way back to Houston with another 3 hours or so of driving ahead of us.