Today was pretty wild and we definitely experienced some problems with language. When we got off the train in Brussels, we went straight to the information desk and asked for a schedule of when the trains go to Mainz tonight before 7pm so that we could travel on the same day of our Eurail pass. This whole conversation was in a mix of French and English, I believe, so perhaps I got confused? He ended up giving us a print out of the trains "apres sept heure&qu...

Today we woke up early and went to the train station. To reserve our spots on the TGV tomorrow morning, it only cost us an additional 10 euros each and the rest is covered by our Eurail. After we got all that figured out, we went over toward Sacre Couer. The location of this basilica is amazing: it's on the highest point in Paris. We had to climb soooo many steps to get to it, but that was nothing compared to the view from up there. We took pictures of the ou...

We didn't set the alarm this morning, so we didn't even leave the hostel until 11:30ish. Oh well. The sleep was good and much needed. We tried to go to the Catacombs, but encountered some troubles. It took us 25 minutes of running around the same three blocks before we could even find the entrance, only to find out that it is closed for repairs this month. How ridiculous. We headed over to the Pantheon instead, which was pretty cool. We went downstairs to the cr...

We arrived n Paris earlier today, so we found our hotel and then headed to the Louvre. We walked around there for nearly 3 hours. We saw the Mona Lisa, but there was a huge crowd around it, obviously. It's a beautiful painting, but what really makes it so different than all the others? We saw so many gorgeous paintings ... it just seems like a cult obsession. After that we walked around the tuleries. A girl saw my University of Michigan Dance Marathon t-s...

Yesterday, we slept in late to make up for the last couple of days. We didn't leave the hostel until noon, but we still managed to be pretty productive. We got groceries, went to the Cathedral and climbed all the way up the tower. The view was amazing! We took lots of pictures and then went over to the Jardins de Alcazar. These gardens were sooo beautiful. We also went to the huge department store, El Corte Inglais, and ate Whoppers at Burger King. I know ...