I don't even know where to begin! France is by far the most frustrating place I've ever been to. We saw some amazing things and places, and I got a lot of great pictures, bit other than that... France is definitely not for me. We went to Champs Élysées, Eiffel, Notre Dame, Musee de Louvre, and countless train and metro stations. If I don't take a train or metro for awhile, that's totally fine with me. On good notes, Alison and I drank our share of wine, under the Eiffel at night... Were just THAT romantic. Met a ridiculously cute couple from St Louis, they were too cute together.
Everything we saw was grand, I don't know how else to describe it. Huge architecture, intricate designs, better than you imagine basically. You feel so small and in awe of what people could achieve before the technologies we have now.
Were currently on our last leg to Venice! Very excited to be out of that godforsaken hotel (no offense, Dad, thanks for the points and all but it really wasn't up to par) I miss hostels. We left the Marriott at 620am to catch a bus to a metro to the train station, where we left at 740am for Milano. Big surprise, our train was slow as hell and we missed our connecting train to Venice. Maybe if at every stop they DIDNT have 10 min smoke breaks, we could have even been early. Not to mention we didn't even have seats on the train from Paris to Milano. They overbook trains by a ridiculous amount. I understand the need to make money, and that they have small fold out seats at the end of most cars, but that was about 20 extra seat when they overbooked by at least 30-40. There's also not a lot of room for luggage, so some suitcases were clogging hallways completely (fire hazard much?) and tons of people were sitting on floors or standing in the dining car. We were part of those people.
We originally had assigned seats from Milano to Venice, but since our train was late and we missed it, I'm currently sitting on my backpack on the floor. It's been so bad, there's nothing to do except laugh about it. Were just looking forward to delicious Italian food and wine :) I cannot wait for pasta, pizza, wine, gelato. It's going to be amazing!!!
I know I complained about France a lot, but I've enjoyed most of the trip, and I'm excited for sun and 90-something degree weather for the next 7 days, then I'm prepared for chilly rain in Dublin before returning to Chicago!
I also bought some really great souvenirs in Paris :) 2 scarves for myself, and the lucky few of you who are getting things will just have to wait and see what I found!
I really cannot wait for true Italian food and wine!! Venice! Gondola! Sun! We have 3 nights in Venice before we head to Florence!

Picture count: 1033

Ps..... Made it to venice! And got our Florence train booked :)