Paris 2, Dublin, Home Saweeet Home

Cassandra again :) … here to fill you in about our final days in Europe. So yes, one of our last blogs...I’ll try to make it real juicy ;)

I’m actually surprised that D (aka Darin) didn’t fill you in about Moulin Rouge because as he said “It was better than Wicked.” Of course, I don’t agree, but it was still pretty sweet. We went to the 11:00 pm show on Sunday night, hit up some dinner before, and then waited in line for an hour or so before getting in. The place was packed with people sipping on champagne and being mesmerized by the flashiness of the dancers, singers, costumes, acrobatics, ventriloquists, and the scantily clad dressed women. It was pretty late by the time the show was over so we headed back to the hotel and chilled there.

Monday:
Exploring Paris - We slept in a little and then ventured to the Louvre. We moved through the museum pretty quickly (determined to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo) with some stops for interesting photo opportunities along the way. Straight down the street from the Louvre and mini Arc de Triomphe is the real Arc de Triomphe, so we trekked in that direction. Stops for shopping were a must, but we eventually made it to the Arc where we climbed to the top to take in another gorgeous view of Paris. The rest of our afternoon consisted of:

-Banana and Nutella crepes…YUM!
-Finding the bus station we need to go to in the morning
-Grocery shopping for dinner that night
-Realizing that it was very inconvenient to carry around the 8 bottles of wine we had purchased so as true tourists do, we stopped along the side of the road, pulled out a map, and then continued to walk through Paris and ride the metro juggling our wine/groceries/shopping purchases and receiving looks from everyone we passed

And now for what might possibly be my all-time favorite evening of our entire trip……………..
***Picnic by the Eiffel tower…Menu: sandwiches made on fresh baguettes from some random bakery, French wine, parmesan cheese, and chocolate.
***Watching the Eiffel tower sparkle for 5 minutes on the hour at 10:00 and 11:00….BEAUTIFUL!
***Seeing the end of a World Cup game…there was a huge TV screen by the tower and the place was packed with Brazil fans cheering, shouting, blowing horns, etc.…it is crazy awesome how stoked people get for the World Cup!
***Soaking in our final night in Paris….

Tuesday:
Traveling to Dublin in a daze (well I did anyways since I had decided that we weren’t going to sleep while in Paris :) ) - The morning began with a not-so-patient, unnecessary wait in various lines at an airport outside of Paris. Also, Joe has some issues passing security due to a corkscrew that Darin has secretly stowed away in Joe’s bag (not on purpose of course). Eventually, we made it safely back to Dublin, where to our surprise….it wasn’t raining! Dublin did its best at redeeming itself from our initial bad first impression at the very start of our journey. The boys and I spent the day shopping, walking along the river, searching for an Ernst and Young building, eating fish and chips, and napping.

Wednesday:
Traveling home – Not a whole lot to say…breakfast, flight to Manchester, layover with lunch, flight to Philly with 2 meals, layover, flight to Chicago, bus to Rockford. Yeah that’s right, between the getting up early and the time changes, we managed to have 3 meals before noon. Boom. And it doesn’t stop there! We had all been craving TACOs for days and since high-quality, fast-food tacos are non-existent, I decided that a classic Happy Joe’s Taco Joe pizza would be the perfect first meal back in America :) Besides eating the entire day, we basically spent our time in the air sleeping, watching movies/TV, completing crossword puzzles, and enjoying our final hours with each other.

Thursday:
Home, laundry, transitioning from living our adventure to reflecting on it, adjusting to reality, & visiting with all our wondering friends and family (you!).

Signing off for the last time...all my love,
Cassandra