Well, I could write about this weekend, but instead I'm going to write about my trip to Europe this Christmas...

So I left on Saturday, December 20 for Paris (with a short stop in London). My buddy, Nate Roth, came along with me. The trip to Europe is always agonizingly long. I never seem to get enough sleep and I'm always dead when I arrive. I did find some help this time taking a dose of Nyquil (pill form). Sleeping pills just don't work on me. I've tried them and I never felt the least bit tired. Nyquil is pretty strong and I was out within a half hour. This kinda stinks though because as I was falling asleep, I really got into the movie I was watching, but I couldn't stay awake to watch the end of it. It had Woody Harrelson and John Cleese and it was about robbing a bank or something. I'll have to rent it. Anyways, I slept about 6 hours straight which is pretty good for a flight. I was still tired when I got to London. I fell asleep waiting for my next flight, but after we got to Paris, I was able to stay up until about 8pm.

The next morning, we got on the chunnel and went back to London. I'm totally serious. We decided to do the excursion to London after the plane tickets were already bought. I think next time I'll just go to London and take the chunnel to Paris a couple days later. The chunnel is very convenient. You can go from Paris to London and vice versa in about 3 hours. This is a trip that would take you the entire day by car/ferry. London is my favorite city in Europe. It's also great because people speak English there although sometimes I can't understand them with the accents. Not everyone in England has a pure British accent. So the first thing we did was something I wasn't able to do last time I was there which was go inside Westminster Abbey. There are tributes to many famous people throughout Englands history from William Shakespeare to Laurence Olivier. There are also many buried heros, kings, queens, etc. If you're not really into seeing the inside of churches, you can save 6 pounds ($10) and just check out the outside which is more impressive than the inside. Actually, most of the old churches in Europe look pretty much the same with a few exceptions. They are worth seeing for their architecture, but when you get back home, all the pictures look the same and you can't remember which church was what anyways. Also saw Pariliament, Big Ben, Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, the Thames River, Cleopatra's Needle, Tower of London, and Trafalgar Square. We didn't go inside many places. We were still getting over jet lag so I would get pretty tired in the evening. I almost fell asleep at dinner once and the other night I did fall asleep on one of those cheesy bus tours. It was pretty cold too, so going to a warm hotel room was very inviting. London is a very cool city to experience even if you don't do much touring. I was quite satisfied. We also rode a double decker bus and ate at an authentic fish and chips place. I definitely recommend the hotel we stayed at (Swiss Cottage Best Western). It's close to the subway (tube) station and just outside Central London. It's very affordable and gives you a less touristy experience of life in England. The hotel is actually in a neighborhood. It was pretty cool.

We got back to Paris on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, I got a scarf which came in handy. In London, I was wishing I had owned a scarf. Now I do, woohoo! I probably won't need it again until the next Christmas in Paris, ha ha. We watched Lord of the Rings at one of the local theaters. The movie was in English, but had French subtitles. Not bad except for when they spoke Elvish since those subtitles were in French. Luckily, there are only a few Elvish lines in the movie. I had already seen it in the US before I came over anyway. It was kinda funny since the text would appear before the lines were said so people would laugh about a second before the jokes were made. That night we also checked out some of the more familiar structures in the city like the Arch du Triomph, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Seine River.

On the 27th, my friend, Pam, arrived and the next day we set out for Normandy. Normandy is actually a region, not a city, so we stayed in the city of Bayeaux which happened to be the first city liberated by the Allied Forces in WWII. My parents drove their car and my two brothers went with them. My friends and I rented the cheapest car (Citroen C2) we could fit 3 people into. We just barely fit. I thought my Honda Civic was small. It wasn't a very strong engine either. It was difficult keeping up with my dad at times. I'll never complain about gas prices in America again. I paid a good $5/gal in France. Gas is very expensive in Europe. Driving is considered more of a luxury than a need. However, having the car was useful for us since we were driving between all these small towns in Normandy. We visited the beaches of Normandy where the battle of D-Day took place. We also saw the American Cemetery where all the white crosses are. There are alot of our people buried over there. We also saw the grave of Roosevelt's son there. Even the President lost his son in that war. After the cemetery, we took some cool pictures from a cliff above the beach. The puddles had frozen over there and so we were picking up these huge sheets of ice and breaking them over are heads and stuff. It made a glass breaking sound. I guess we looked pretty silly. My parents said that looked like the most fun we had the whole trip. What do you expect from people who were raised in Southern California? We also visited an old island fortress called Mont Saint Michel. This is a really cool place. It's a must see if you ever visit France. I had to take a picture in front of it because it looks so fairy tale like, I doubt anyone would believe it was a real place. Returning the rental car in Paris was somewhat of a tense situation. Finding the return lot entrance was no easy task. We were driving in circles for at least a half hour. Parisians have got to be the worst drivers in the world. I'm sure the way the roads are set up has alot to do with it.

Well, I'll have to continue with part 2 later. It's late and I have to travel on business tomorrow to Florida. I'll be gone for two weeks. I'm not sure if I'll have access to the internet or not. If not, I'll be back on January 30.