A wee little update from me :D

So! It's been a bit of a whirlwind adventure with a couple days here and there to recouperate, which has been perfect. Today is such a day - though, tonight around 9pm I'm hopping on a train back to Frankfurt to catch a cheap flight to Rome first thing in the morning (gotta love sleeping in the airport!).

Where to begin?

I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany no worse for wear, except that I stupidly forgot my iPod in the seat pocket infront of me on my AirCanada flight 844, Seat 30A. *sigh* I know, it's replaceable, but man oh man oh MAN, do I wish I had some tunes... the lack of tunes may have been my inspiration for not taking the train all the way to Italy and flying instead... or the fact that the train would've taken 16 hours. You choose ;)

Once I made the train trip to Aachen I was greeted with open arms by my ex-roomie Hilary and her hubby Rich... and was driven to their very fabulous rooftop apartment in the centre of the city - only 93 stairs to climb to get up to it! Goodness, can you say 'winded'? We lounged on their balcony in the sunshine, soaked up some rays and relaxed for a bit before heading out for some food in the Markt. One jumbo Mojito and some nachos later and I was ready for bed -- no sleep for over 36 hours will do that to a girl. ;)

Sunday was pretty much a right off - both Hilary and Rich got sad family news and I was completely jetlagged, so we all hung out in our pj's, watched movies, and did a whole lot of nothing. It was a good choice.

Monday, Hilary and I took off for my mother's birthplace in the Netherlands. Aachen is a matter of minutes (5 maybe?) from the Belgium/Netherlands border. We got to the middle of no where, aka Wolphaartsdijk in Zeeland, in about two hours or so, took some pictures infront of the house I *think* was once my mother's, wandered around the town - church, grocery store, ring road and park, etc, and then headed back to Aachen via Antwerp and then Maastricht. Three countries in an afternoon - not too shabby! ;) We got home exhausted, of course, but stayed up late watching movies like the good old days when we were roomies.

Staying at their place is much like being Hil's roomie again... we were pretty awesome roomies, I must admit, and it's nice to have a 'home' away from home, especially while travelling.

Wednesday I headed out to Paris on a fast train -- fabulous city! I stayed in a crazy, horizontally challenged hostel, called Peace & Love Hostel on Rue LaFayette in a fabulous part of Paris - just a couple stops from the Paris du Nord train station. If *ONLY* we had a metro system like this one back in Vancouver/Abbotsford/anywhere!! -- cheap, efficient, and easy to use! I arrived in the early evening - enough time to find some breakfast for the next morning, climb the 80 odd stairs up to my room (in a circular staircase so narrow that backpacks scrape the wall as you go up) and get stuff settled in, then enjoying a beer (happy hour!) in the common room.

Thursday was bright and beautiful -- after moving my stuff to my new room (top floor of the building - another 30 stairs up higher or so - yes, this trip to Paris is all about stair-climbing!) I headed out on my own walking tour of Paris. Started at Notre Dame, walked to Jardins du Luxembourg, blasted past the Pantheon, and then got lost and turned around trying to find the main entrance to the Catacombs. Found it, though, after some random stranger was able to help me. From there I headed on the metro to the Eiffel Tower and took the time to make my way all the way up - had no idea so much waiting would be involved - waited 40mins to buy my ticket, another 10 to take the elevator up to the second floor, another 40 to get to the top... and then once at the top had to wait to come back down to the second and then wait to come back to the ground! BUT, the view was pretty incredible.. and I can say I've been to the top ;) *checks it off her list of things to do before she dies*

After the Tower I did a very touristy thing and hopped a double decker 'Red Bus' and did a 2.5 hour tour of Paris, sitting on the top, wind in my hair, camera in my hand...

Got back to the hostel around 10pm, had a beer in the common room, and then passed out on my bed once again. EXHAUSTED.

Friday was a bit of a downer, weather-wise. Blustery, grey, and threatening to rain. I headed to the Louvre and managed to spend almost 4 hours (okay, 3hours...) there before becoming overwelmed by the number of people and enormity of the place. Really? It's that big! It's huge! Ridiculously huge! I took pics of all the important things (Venice de Milo, Mona Lisa, etc etc) and then tried to dodge the crowds as much as possible. Crazy-town. I actually felt a little defeated once I left the Louvre and was uncertain what else to do with my time. My bus tour the night before had given me an excellent feel for the city and going to another museum was out of the question. As I left the area, I came across a mini-orchestra (about 12 folks or so) performing in a small square, plopped myself down, and listened for almost 2 hours. Very revitalizing and it was great to people-watch and just get the feel for Paris without being go go go. The sun even peaked out from behind the clouds on occassion, which was lovely. That evening I took in a British film, subtitled in English, called "Good Morning England" (I think it's called something a bit different in the USA/Canada -- Radio Rock or something?) - fabulous movie - had me laughing out loud. See it! :D

Got back to the hostel and met up with a bunch of Canadians for drinks before heading to bed for my last sleep in Paris. Saturday I went for a long walk along the river Seine, and did some people watching, before heading back to the train station to begin my D-Day/Normandy adventure... but more about that at a different time.