Lessons learned in Southern France

-Please play this song as background music to this post, as we had it stuck in our heads the entire time we were in the South of France.

-The day we were heading down to Montpelier (remember how that was the only destination in the South available to us?), we woke up bright and early, stopping at a bakery for breakfast. We clumsily ordered a giant loaf of bread for both of us, and some macaroons (heaven on earth). And that is all we ate. The. Entire. Day. And because of that, we learned this simple lesson: Man cannot survive on bread alone. Though it's a pretty cheap alternative.

This is a video I took on the train ride from St. Malo to Rennes, on the day we were heading down south. This is the day we only at bread. The video/scenery isn't too exciting, and the only sound is the people around us, but Heather's in it, and she's cute, so you should watch it. And when you see her eating, don't ask what it is because you already know. 

- The next lesson we learned: sometimes events are too coincidental to be coincidences -- Remember God is watching over us and is in control. Hop on these events like white on rice. (Even if it means doing so illegally? Um...potentially. Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut instinct, even if it's not what the "authorities" would tell you) When we arrived in Rennes, I was preparing to wait for our next train that would take us to Paris, and then to Montpelier, where we would be arriving in a creepy city at 1am to head towards a creepy hotel. I was feeling not so fantastic about this, when Heather said, "Meg, there's a train heading to Montpelier right now. We would get there around 3pm - a much safer time. Let's take it." I don't know how she saw that, but we went to the ticket box to ask for a reservation, fully expecting --- and eventually receiving --- a big fat NO. But, Heather and I weren't giving up that easy. We were now left to decide: do we get on that train without a reservation, after we've been told we can't, or do we take the train we do have a reservation for, and put ourselves in danger by arriving at 1 o'clock in the morning? After praying and thinking that the worst that could happen to us was that we'd be kicked off the train at some random stop and charged lotsa Euros, we decided to take the chance. It was the most uncomfortable 7 hours of my life. I was so paranoid, neither of us could relax, and we were scared of every single train man that came by to check our tickets. Since we didn't have reservations, we weren't assigned a seat, so every stop that new people came on, we had to move around so we weren't in someone else's seat. It was so nerve-wracking. I had to pee so bad, but I knew the ticket man hadn't come around to check our tickets yet so I thought I would wait. Heather finally told me to just go, and of course, that's when ticket man showed up. Heather said she  just showed him her Eurail pass, he looked at it like he didn't know what to do with it, and moved to the next person. It was so intense. Oh, and we were starving and so sick of bread! But we both believe we made the right decision, because Montpelier was a sketch-a-thon when we arrived at 3pm, and it would not have been good to be out on the streets at 1am. 

-When you're staying in a sketchy town, in an even sketchier hotel, you become very resourceful. The hotel in Montpelier we stayed in had a shared bathroom for showering. Heather and I gagged everytime we stepped into it, and felt dirtier coming out of it then we did going into it. One night, Heather and I were loudly discussing ALL of our plans - where we were going, where we were staying, what trains we were taking, etc. Then Heather left to go to the bathroom, and I realized we had left our bedroom window wide open. Not only that, but directly underneath our window was a rooftop that led to the next building's wide open window. And in that wide open window was a man, talking on his phone in French. This man could easily hop out of his wide open window, crawl over the rooftop, and hop through our wide open window and murder me in about 2.5 seconds. I got so freaked out, I started listening to his conversation, and I swear I heard him say something about AMERICANS. I quickly ran to the door, shut off the light, and waited for Heather to return. When I told her the story, she looked over at the window and saw that there were no curtains, and a dinky lock on the window (what would a lock do when the window was GLASS???!!) So, she very simply and decidedly began to drag the GIANT ARMOIRE that stood as high as the ceiling over to in front of the window. We slept soundly that night, as the old wooden armoire creaked nonstop, settling into its new position in front of the window. Ain't no murderer gettin' through that security system!

- Nothing beats the ocean. After being so stressed out the last couple of days, Heather and I both needed something to lift our spirits. The ocean is what did it for us. The ocean seemed sacred to me this day in a way it hadn't ever before. It brought me closer to Adam, to God, to who and where I wanted to be right then and there. The open air of the ocean was refreshing, and I could feel my lungs and brain rejoice at the chance to clear out the gunky and smoky city/train air.

- Sometimes I like to not listen to the travel books, but usually they are pretty right. Case in point: The South of France wasn't as great as I thought it would be. From Montpelier, we took a train to Marseille, where we hopped on a boat and took a tour of the Chateau D'If (think Counte of Monte Cristo). The ocean and the boat ride were gorgeous and oh-so-refreshing. However, the castle was only worth it because we were already there. I'm glad we only spent one day in Marseille. In the future, I would not plan a separate trip to Marseille (we later found out that Marseille was a major drug port! Joy!). However, if you are already in Marseille, then the castle and walking along the boardwalk is a fun day trip

- Bring sunscreen. It's really expensive in Europe (just like everything else).

- Don't think of travel/train days as "wasted time." It's easy to fall into this trap of thinking, if you're not doing something cool, then it's a wasted day in Europe. But Heather and I had a lot of time on trains, and we came to really love that time. We could just sit in peace and quiet, nobody bothering us, not being paranoid that something out of our bags is going to get stolen, we could rest our legs, we could just chat and reminisce about high school days, and play phase 10. Plus, you are still seeing and enjoying the beauty of Europe while you are on the train - just look out the window at the scenery, fields of flowers and tall grass, wide open spaces, old cozy homes, and, like our trip to Nice, the ocean.

-We love hostels. I always felt so much safer in a 8 person mixed male/female dorm room than I did in a run-down hotel with just Heather and I in the room. Even when me and the older Asian man would wake up at the same time in the morning and somehow manage to lift our heads at the exact same time and find each other accidentally and awkwardly staring at one another at 7 in the morning. And even when we had to skillfully dodge the annoying blonde canadian and her two men that she found and latched onto, and her texting and phone calls to her boyfriend late in the middle of the night, and her extremely unbecoming potty-mouth. And invitations to go drinking. 

-Save your money on food by shopping at grocery stores. (So you can splurge once later!) We learned our lessons with the bread day, and started shopping at grocery stores when we knew we were going to have a long day on the train. This was healthy, cheap, and delicious. And it allowed us to save money, so when we had a relaxing night in a beautiful city like Nice, we could splurge a little at a nice sit-down restaurant and not feel guilty (or completely broke). 

- The tops of mountains and hills aren't just the tops of mountains and hills in Europe, as we learned both in France and in Switzerland. In Nice, we walked down the Promenade des Anglais, and skimmed around the shops and streets in Vieux Nice (like Old Town). We found and took some steps leading up to a panorama view. But what we found wasn't just a great view, but a playground, a giant field for running/playing, a restaurant, a cemetery, and an archaeological site. Incredible. One thing I really learned to love and appreciate about Europe (minus Italy) is that they love their open space. They leave so much s p a c e to just relax and enjoy, 

- Overall, France was so different than what I was expecting. I would go back, but only to see more of Paris. Nice was more exciting/ more worth it than Marseille or Montpelier, but I still would rather spend my time in Europe in places like Switzerland or Austria, our two next stops. 

Lessons learned in Northern France (St. Malo)

I'm slowly getting through my whole trip...each post on every country takes so much out of me! I'm glad I wrote in my journal everyday during my trip; there is no way I'd be able to remember everything we did without it.

Paris was a totally different story from the rest of France.
France and Paris needed to be kept separate ---- here's France's lessons:


-Book your train reservations as early as possible. Days, weeks, etc, in advance. We headed to the Paris train station after hitting up our last site: Le Sacre Coeur. I assumed that since it had been so easy to get reservations while I was with my dad in Italy and Germany, that that would also be the case in France. Wrong. wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG. Everything was already booked up for Eurail Pass Holders getting down to the south of France, where we had reservations in a couple of days. Apparently, they only reserved a certain amount of seats for Pass holders? Hadn't heard of that before? (Why was every country SO different? Couldn't they make something like a TRAIN work the same? Since it went through all the countries?)
          So....my plans completely changed in a matter of 2 minutes. Months and months of hard planning, searching, reserving....all down the drain. I told the lady, Fine, if it's booked to Marseille, just get me somewhere, anywhere, in the South. "Montpelier is nice?" she said. We'll take it!

 But there was two catches: 1) We didn't have any place to stay in Montpelier. 2) We didn't get in until 1am in a creepy city where we didn't have a place to stay. I was out of my mind with worry. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, I am a planner. And I do not like it when things do not go according to plan. My mantra for the next 5 days as we shifted in and out of planned and unplanned events: I can do hard things.

- So, I learned that things do not always go according to plan. And so that must mean I was where I was supposed to be, when I was supposed to be there.

- I must not have learned the above lesson yet. Don't let spoiled plans spoil anything else. Shrug your shoulders, say "Oh well," and move on. Fast. One plan that was supposedly still in tact was to get up to St. Malo, on the north corner of France. From there we were going to visit Mont St. Michel, a chapel out on an island --- the ONLY reason we wanted to go up north in the first place. We hopped on the train from Paris to Rennes, and then to St. Malo. We stayed the night in a ghetto hotel (not a hostel), with a beautiful ocean view off our balcony. We awoke early, and started looking for the bus to take us to Mont St. Michel. After struggling through several conversations with several different people (and learning that there was somehow no internet access in the entire city? Wha...?), we learned that there was only one bus to Mont St. Michel. And we had already missed it for the day. We would have to try again tomorrow, or pay 80 euros for a taxi - I almost did it. Can you believe that? I was almost that spoiled, determined, stubborn...or stupid. But we could do neither. I was sooooooooo bummed. I wanted to cry; I had specifically made room for this one side trip just to see this chapel and now I wasn't able to -- I felt I had wasted an entire 2 days for nothing. I know, lame. I was in Europe. In France. And I was whining. I made myself sick! So I quickly dropped that poor attitude, remembering how blessed I was to already have seen so much, and how much I had to sacrifice (and Adam too) for me to be out here. Heather and I figured out something cool to do in the city we were in. We learned to take what we were given and enjoy it to its fullest, wasting no time, no bad energy, and no hard feelings. And we learned that St. Malo had some endearing qualities of its own - we just had to seek out the good, and we found it quick. Another lesson? Nutella crepes fix everything.

-Listen to your gut and get out of bad situations fast. This one is important pretty much anytime of life, but especially when you are 2 young girls traveling alone. We got to St. Malo around 8pm, and it was still pretty light out. We were waiting for the bus to take us to our hotel. There was one other kid standing by us and we tried to be friendly without being, you know, conversational (since we don't speak very good French, and all). A chemically, internally altered girl (ie drunk, high, or both) came up to us and started asking for money. I said I didn't speak French, so she gave me a real nice tourist welcome, which ended in some rude gestures and an "eff you" stare. Heather and I were both pretty weirded out, but when we saw her coming back with 2 other boys and a nasty looking dog, we knew we had to get out of there fast. Heather started heading back to the train station, but luckily we spotted some taxis first. They started pestering the boy, and we bee-lined it for the taxis, praying for a nice and safe taxi-driver. He was both, and delivered us at our hotel in one piece. It was worth the extra cost to not get beaten up or into a situation we wouldn't have known how to get out of. As we pulled away in the taxi, the boy's mom had come to pick him up, but the groupies were still bothering them. We hope they all were safe.
Another example: We were at a train station. looking at our maps, and a creepy guy next to us was muttering, "Oh baby...Americans...." we promptly got up and found a seat surrounded by normal-er looking people.

-Churches are sources of comfort, no matter the religion. We always liked to find the churches in whatever Old Town we were in, and just sit for a minute or two, enjoying the peace and quiet and rest. We never felt rushed or in danger or on the defense when we were in a church. It was building dedicated to God, and as such, a sweet spirit was there.

- Genesis 2:18: It is not good for man to be alone. Haha, this scripture kept popping into my head the entire trip, thinking about Adam all alone at home. I missed him so much during my trip. I struggled with the pay phones and making contact with him. At this point in my trip, I had gone 7 days without talking to Adam, and about 4 days without even being able to email him. I thought about him going to work, and I was just so torn up that I wasn't there to support him during the start of his first real job. I thought about what he did with his free time (watched movies, made a desk and bed frame, re-did our kitchen table) and tears would sting my eyes at the thought that it wasn't spent with me. I sent him about 2 postcards a week, and all of them were hanging on the wall when I got home.

Lessons learned in Paris

Oh France....

The relationship we have is very much a love/hate one. This is where I did my most learning - and I will always remember that about France. I've got to separate my lessons: one from Paris, and one from the rest of France. We did Paris in about 1 1/2 days. I would love to go back to Paris. It was my favorite part about France, hands-down.

France also began the game of "Worth it or not" ---

- France is where I left my family to join Heather. This is the point where my entire view on how I carried myself and presented myself to strangers began to shift. I mean, I was paranoid when I was with my dad. But now that we were two young, attractive (at least Heather) women traveling alone --- my paranoia increased by about 77%

- When you pick a meeting spot, stick to it. If things aren't looking so good...pray. God is the only one who knows where you are, and who knows where they are, and can make the universe collide in such a way that you two will meet. (hey, that sounds like love, too. If you don't know what you're doing - just stay where you're at and pray, and God will lead you to them. Interesting side note).

This makes everything all better.

-When you make a reservation for a hotel, print off your reservation number, the phone number, the address of the hotel, and the exact name of the hotel. Unless, of course, you want to get off at the wrong bus stop because there are TWO hotels with the same name in very close proximity to each other and then when you tell the French dude you obviously don't have the address with you or else this mistake wouldn't have happened, all he can say to you is, "Wow..." with a cocked eyebrow, roll of the eyes, and a loud sigh.

-You can sleep in a dirty, hairy bed. You can. It's just one night. You will survive. (although I'm not entirely positive you won't get bed bugs, or something closely related to them, as I noticed a bunch of small, itchy red dots on my arms and hands when I got home. Meh. oh well -they're gone now!)

-Pick a good travel buddy. One with whom you can exercise patience and receive patience in return. Or at least where you fit each other's gaps. I planned the big stuff (airplanes, hotels, destinations), Heather implemented the little stuff (which train to take to get to the Louvre, when/who to ask for help, etc)

-Hostels are interesting specimen. They have a very warm, welcoming atmosphere that I immediately gravitated to, clinging onto anything familiar in such strange places. Everyone is young (well...usually....), everyone is traveling, everyone is out on an adventure. Are hostels worth it? It's a good deal for the price. The downside is, of course, when you're LDS and don't drink/party and/or you're married and are therefore an old geyser and like to go to bed early, you must be prepared for late-night disturbances. I would suggest earplugs to drown out the midnight returns, and a sleeping-mask to blind yourself from the little Asian man with no sense of privacy who strips down to his skivvies before making his bed (which requires a lot of hands-and-knees-type-bowing when you're on the top bunk). 

Steps in Paris Hostel

Our first hostel, in Paris, we loved. The next one in St Malo was more like a cheap hotel with a toilet in the room, hidden behind a curtain (no number two's in there - nuh-uh. Not allowed.) We felt a little sketched there, but that was mostly due to an incident at the bus station that pretty near got us involved in a gang fight.

Our hostel in Montpelier (one of the days we were supposed to be somewhere else) was quite sketchy, too, but we fixed that problem fast (more on that later). Nice, Bern, and Austria Hostels were similar to our Paris one - the youthful, friendly environment. And I think the difference is that they were actual hostels, and not just a cheap hotel (be careful with that one - it matters). If you want the names of where we stayed, email me and I will get them to you. 

-The line into the Louvre is definitely do-able. And worth it. And, so is the Mona Lisa. 

People said she was small, a let-down, disappointing....blah,blah,blah. She is amazing. Just to be in that room, cheek smashed against the shoulder next to me, raising my camera high above my head just to get a decent shot of her above the crowd until I could weasel my way to the front (and weasel I did) Thrilling, and yes, worth it. 

(oh yeah, other things in the Louvre are worth it, too, once you stop caring about getting lost/looking for specific exhibits and just enjoy the art and beauty of it all. We hit up the crown Jewels and Napoleon III's apartment display, both lovely.)

-We visited Notre Dame; This became one of those, meh, check-it-off-the-list type of touristy destinations for me. I decided from day one in Rome that I was going to respect all signs that said "No photos" inside churches (wouldn't I want the same from them if they were visiting a temple open house?), and it is nearly impossible to take a picture of the outside that hasn't already been shot before. If you like old beautiful cathedrals, then by all means! But, I think I could have enjoyed other parts of Paris more. Worth it? Not as much.

-Eiffel Tower - Worth it? DEFINITELY. I had had people tell me that the Eiffel tower was just a touristy waste of time and to only see it if I "absolutely had to." Well, apparently I did absolutely have to and I'm soooo glad I went. It was one of the biggest surprises about Europe - how ENORMOUS it is. I seriously had no idea it was so stinking huge. I loved it. It is such a big ugly construct, but I fell in love with it.

-Crepes from a street vendor are heavenly. They are worth every cent you will ever spend on them, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

-Champs-Elysee/ Arc de Triomphe - not so worth it. We took a picture of the Arc (on the run, even), and left. I'd rather shop at stands along the side of the river than in shops on this street.

-Jardins de Luxembourg - very worth the break. We rested here when we didn't know where else to go, and stumbled upon a relaxing afternoon break. Flowers, Eiffel Tower in the distance, green grass, trees that seem to never have lost their leaves.

-Sacre-Coeur - our hostel was directly at the foot of this church, so it was worth it because it was easy for us. Had the day not been cloudy and gray, the view would have been incredible.

- Despite what I'd heard from other people, Parisians were friendly, warm, and helpful. I approached them with what little French I knew and they replied with what English they knew and we just made it work in Paris.