day 24: a relaxing day.

sorry, friends and family...
these last blogs may not be as interesting or descriptive as the others.
as our travels are coming to an end,
we are starting to realize how tired we are.

here's some photos from the day.

we started out with walking around town again.

lang needed to pick up some tea and a teapot.

then we made our way to the edge of town...


...to see the lion monument.
it was designed as a memorial for the mercenary soldiers from central Switzerland,
who lost their lives while serving the French king Louis XVI during the French Revolution.mark twain described the lion of lucerne as the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world.





we then visited the hof church.
it was very pretty inside, like most all european churches.
it belongs to a benedictine monastery older than the city itself.





tomorrow will probably be my favorite day of them all.
we are going to an old farm that has been recreated to look like old lucerne.
there will be horses, cows, pigs and other farm animals there.
there will be fields.
there will be mountains.
i can't wait to share with you all.

day 23: mountains and lakes. the best.

today, began with some lunch at a local vegetarian cafe.
i've missed salad so much.

then we rented a paddle boat for an hour.
it was so much fun.
we had the beautiful alps surrounding us.





a weird looking bird:


we spent some time exploring the town.

found a really cool shop.
the lady and her husband bring in the stuff from morocco, where they're from.
i wanted to get so many things,
but once again, lucerne is too expensive for me.

oh, and i bought a sigg.
i needed a new water bottle,
and figured i get one from the country it's made in.

this evening, we went for another walk around town.
here's some photos of the town at night.

swans are everywhere.
i love it.


two polaroids i took.

the chapel bridge and water tower:


and here's one of kate.
she's so good at getting pictures of me,
so i thought i'd show you one from my photo shoot of her.

day 22: hallo, luzern.

oh, sweet switzerland.
you are so wonderful.

i'm so happy to be out of the cities
and in the mountains.

this morning, lang, kate and i
caught a train from paris to lucerne at 6:45 am.
it was a long ride,
but we made it smoothly.

we didn't do much,
but we walked around a bit
and discovered some bad news...
lucerne is expensive.
more expensive than paris. than anywhere.
so unfortunate.

i paid 16 franc (which is equivalent to $16)
for the mini pizza and green salad.
don't be fooled, the mini pizza isn't a personal sized pizza.
it was two bagel bite sized pizzas with a patch of lettuce.
oh well.

after lunch, we were still hungry so we grabbed some pastries.
it was still too much for too little,
but i shared with a swan anyways.


tomorrow, we will explore.
and i will take in this fresh, mountain air some more.

day 21: au revoir, paris.

paris is crazy,
but i'm going to miss it.
well...
i'm going to miss the language.

today, was our last day,
so we tried to fit in as much as we could.

after taking the metro into the city,
we wandered around for a bit,
trying to find a few favorites of kate's.

fortunately, we ran into two italian guys,
who walked us to the places we were looking for.
their names were marco and giovanni.
apparently, they're videographers.
giovanni gave us his card,
which read, "piece of me."
haha.

first, was "the best falafel place in the world."

it was pretty good,
but i think it's kind of hard to go wrong with falafel.

next, we stopped by a vintage shop
and found some oldies, but goodies.

then, we went to the louvre.
we thought we were going to have a solid amount of time there,
but while walking toward the mona lisa room,
we realized the museum closed early,
security roped off the room just as were about to enter
and motioned for us to exit the museum.
turns out it was a holiday.
i feel like europeans are always on holiday.

but, the mona lisa looks good from a distance.
haha.




here's some from the best photographer ever, kate.
without her, you probably wouldn't know that i was ever in europe.



after the louvre, i tried to find my mom some herbes de provence.
turns out everything else closed early too.
sorry, momma.

to end our last day,
we decided to grab some food
and have a picnic at the eiffel again.
it was beautiful out,
and we waited to see the tower light up one last time.

on our last metro ride out of the city,
we ran into a chemist from lebanon.
unfortunately, i think he liked our company
a little more than we liked his.
he told me that i look like women from his country.
with fair skin and blue eyes.
"eyes of tiger," he said.

haha, things never get boring around here.

day 20: back in the ghetto.

today began beautifully.

after checking out of kate’s hotel,
the four of us, including kate’s roommate, lindsay, headed to church.
it was the first time we’d been since being in europe.
and it was so good.
we went to the hillsong paris church,
which was about a 30 minute walk from the hotel.
it was amazing.
being able to worship the lord with a community of people was so refreshing and reviving.
and being able to sing in french was so cool.

after church, we grabbed some lunch
and then headed back to the hotel to grab our luggage.
the night before, we had booked a hostel for our last two nights in paris
and were headed there to check in.

this is where it gets interesting again.
after having a somewhat stressful and frustrating experience getting there,
(which always ends up being comical)
we found our hostel.
funny thing is,
this one was in just as scary of an area as the last.
now we know why our hostel is surrounded by a huge gate with bars.

anyways, we checked in and spent some time resting
before heading out into the city for the night.



we saw the notre dame.


spent some time in a little bookstore, shakespeare and company.





roamed around the latin quarter.


and ate dinner at a small italian restaurant.

on the walk back to the metro,
we met a man who gave us everything in his shop for free.
i guess he liked us.
he gave us his card.
then called his cousin in to meet us.

overall, we had a lot of fun.
and to whoever says that the french are mean,
i beg to differ.
well, french boys at least.
we seem to have no problem finding ones
that carry our luggage up flights of stairs when we’re struggling,
or give us directions when we’re lost,
or even free stuff. haha.

day 19: je t'aime versailles.

today's adventure: a day trip to versailles.

lang and i went off on our own today to see the chateau and the gardens at versailles.
i'm starting to like this place.
and we've mastered the public transportations system, which means everything.


the gates in front of the chateau.
we didn't want to pay to go in.


it was so incredibly windy yesterday, but here's our attempt to take pictures of us.


bassin et parterre de latone:

the entrance to bosquet de l'encelade:


some beautiful trees:


the pathways throughout the gardens:


i wish you all could have been there to enjoy it with us.
while you walked through, they had classical music playing.
it was so peaceful.
so refreshing.
gardens are a beautiful thing.

tonight, we had a picnic at the eiffel tower.

it was beautifully lit up against the night sky.
somewhat romantic.
we saw a girl cry over it, which i thought was ridiculous.
i don't think anything manmade could ever move me like that.