TravelStream™ news feed for member romero on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/romero en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:43:24 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1176516780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1176516780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1176516780/tpod.html Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:43:24 -0400 Our Honeymoon....

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Iguazu, Argentina

4-13-2007 Iguazu Falls

Jose: Iguazu Falls was amazing and we took so many pictures it was ridiculous. The pictures we are going to upload are the highlights of Iguazu we have easy 3 to 4 times the amount of pictures that we are not uploading. That being said the day began with a good hearty breakfast of champions at the hotel which was surprisingly great. We took several pictures of the dining area because it was quite modern and cool looking unlike our mold infested rooms. After breakfast we were greeted by Eli and Angelica waiting for our tour operators to pick us up. The ride took about twenty minutes and in that time we met Stacy, a single 45 year old woman that looked like she was my age and was also traveling the world...after quitting her boring and quite stressful job at Lockhead Martin dealing with defense contracts...did I mention she got her MBA at Colombia...Anyways she told us about traveling and about Asia which is where she spent several years teaching English when she was my age which means she probably looked 12 ...Honestly she really looked young to be 45 I mean I was floored when she told me but...

Anyways, we got to Iguazu Falls and I couldn't hear any waterfall so I was wondering whether it was really as big as people described it...Boy was I in for a shocker because as you can see by the pictures this place is MASSIVE...it took us an hour to get to the upper trail but once I saw the falls the sound was impressive ...Roaring water that makes Niagra Falls whimper. The falls seemed to be endless...and when we got to the bad boy, La Garganta del Diabelo (The Devil's Throat) it was breathtaking. You're about 20 to 30 feet away from the mouth of the waterfall. One thing curious to note is that on the walkway to the Devil's Throat(I took a picture of andrea and stacy there) the water that will soon be eaten by the devil's throat is incredibly calm, it is not rushing nor seems to be moving until you see the devil's throat. I hope my pictures do a better job of describing the falls than I do. But again all I can say is it felt both awe inspiring and spiritually peacefull, awkward considering the roar is so impressive. We took Video of the falls that we will upload as soon as we can get a video editor that can compress our files. Our files are currently about 100 mb each for video and we have several. Ohh and by the way I would have taken even more pictures that day but while I was taken a million pictures at the Devil's throat the mist created from being 20 feet away was the equivalent of about 10 shamu's splashing water all over you, so needless to say the camera decided it needed a break and decided to make all further pictures incredibly blurry from the water that had penetrated the lens. Given this outcome I must say I was incredibly proud of Andrea because when I told her not to worry about it she actually listened, which made the day that much better. So after completeing the upper trail we headed down for a boat ride that was optional that is really not if anyone comes to Iguazu they MUST take the boat ride it was the highlight of the day. We bought the DVD that came with the boat ride so we can show everyone how awsome it was. Basically you get on the boat about a mile down the river and they bring you by boat to the falls but the mile down the river is incredible by itself without the falls, it reminded me of jurrasic park because on either side was a wall of rocks followed by 7o ft trees. I was waiting for the Trex to pick out one of our shipmates, but ..luckily for us...we all made it. At the falls the boat drivers get you absolutely soaked by driving the boat right up to each waterfall and they pierce the edges so we feel the power of the waterfall. Of coarse to us it seems like we are in the middle of the waterfall, it was only after seeing the dvd that I now know that we barely entered each waterfall but trust me I thought we were going to go under from all the water rushing into the boat. IT WAS INCREDIBLE both felling the waterfall and also getting a firsthand look at the water fall from the water. It was so great that if I ever come back again I would defintely do it. So after our boat ride we took some more pictures as we dried up and headed home. That night we went out to the same bar we had been the previous night with the Australian/England Couple...hoping to see them since we had bailed on them and I really wanted to play chess..BIG dork what can I say...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184506500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184506500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184506500/tpod.html Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:52:09 -0400 Our Honeymoon....

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Reykjavik, Iceland

After a slow morning (still recovering from the AMAZING Bastille Day celebration...), we sadly packed up our bags and headed on to the first of many trains to get to the airport in Paris. Well....let's back up a second. I, (Andrea) was sad....Jose on the other hand, was slightly ready to be done with Europe. You know how Jose is with money - and Europe has not been cheap. I think he is also ready to get back to the good ole U.S. of A....but first we have to stop in Iceland!!! Before we left the hotel for the train station, we spent a good hour searching the web for a hotel in Iceland. It turns out that Iceland is RIDICULOUSLY expensive (more to come on that topic later). We decided not to book the $220/night guest house outside the city and wing it. You know Jose - "we'll figure it out" has become one of his standard phrases on this trip!

Anyway, THREE trains and what felt like 3 hours later (ok, an hour and half really), we finally made it to the airport. It was pretty easy to find our way around - Air Iceland it seems has maybe two flights per day.....and the line for ours was already full of people. Somehow we ended up with the most horrible parents possible standing behind us and their two somewhat bratty children. The father talked and looked like Elmer Fudd, and he was so mean to his daughter that at one point I wanted to adopt her and take her home with us instead. The husband and wife were the "stupid Americans" you so typically envision. Anyway, we cracked up about Elmer Fudd for a long time, at least until we landed in Iceland....

Our back up plan had been to just sleep in the airport if we couldn't find anywhere cheap to stay...it sounds sketchy, but we figured it would be safe, semi-comfortable, and obviously cheap! And we were only in Iceland for two days!! Anyway, once we arrived....we realized that this plan was not going to work. Apparently the airport is a good 45 minutes away from the actual city of Reykjavik, and there is literally NO civilization outside the airport. No businesses, gas stations, housing, ANYTHING. It is quite beautiful though - you can see the ocean, some hills in the background, and plenty of wide open plains. The worst part is that the economical transportation option to and from the airport cost us $40 per person! And that was a huge bus with only scheduled departure times. The taxi driver wanted to charge us $100!!! Yikes! Needless to say, Jose was NOT happy at this point. After speaking with the tourism desk, we were both feeling negatively towards Iceland. Jose then decided to check and see how much it would be to get the flight tomorrow (Monday), rather than Tuesday. Unfortunately, they wanted to charge an extra $2,000 (yes, thousand) per person to change the ticket. And no, they don't DO standbys at Air Iceland. It was madness!

Jose at this point was REALLY not happy. I took a picture of him as we sat on the bus waiting to leave. It is one of the funniest pictures ever - Jose the Grumpster. Anyway, we figured we'd just take the bus to the youth hostel and pick up whatever room we could get from them - even it had to be a dorm. I must say we've been very fortunate so far on this trip to get private rooms at decently economical rates in all the hostels/hotels in every country. Well, until Iceland that is. Before I go on, the other interesting thing we noted while being grumpy on the bus was that EVERYONE on the bus and at the airport was over the age of 70. At least. The average age was a good 80. As the bus pulled away and began dropping tourists off at various hotels, we wondered who else could POSSIBLY be staying at the Youth Hostel?! None of these old timers, that's for sure. We felt confident that we could finagle a room at the hostel with no problem.

Or so we thought. Upon arriving at the hostel, which seemed to be situated in the middle of a residential neighborhood and next to a gigantic pool, we rushed into the desk and asked about a room. Of course....they were completely booked. HOW? we thought? Who goes to Iceland, honestly? But apparently July is prime tourism season in Reykjavik, and they were completely booked. Fortunately, they gave us a list of local guesthouses in the area, and we set off walking (yes, with the incredibly heavy backpacks) to the closest stop. The woman that answered the door was about 100 years old, and unfortunately did not have any rooms available. We started walking again to the next guesthouse, much further away, until Jose had another one of his bright ideas. He turned around and went back to the old lady's guesthouse, and sweettalked her into letting him use the phone. Thank Goodness he did! Most of the guesthouses on the list were full, except for one - The Salvation Army GuestHouse. Yes...the Salvation Army has a guesthouse in Reykjavik, and it is still expensive. It was going to be quite a walk to get there, but we figured if it would save us $100 it would be worth it. We set off on our hike to the guesthouse, and decided to stop halfway for some dinner at Subway. Yes, there are Subways in Iceland! Who knew? Unfortunately...the prices just don't translate across the Atlantic... For ONE (1) twelve inch sub and drink, we paid the equivalent of $20 U.S. Dollars. OUCH.

Realizing we were going to be WAY over our budget for the two and half days in Iceland, we grouchily continued our walk. Fortunately, the Salvation Army guesthouse is in a much better location - right smack in downtown Reykjavik. There are tons of restaurants (expensive, of course), shops (ditto), and a 24 hour grocery just around the corner. The Salvation Army is nice enough - a tiny little room with a bathroom shared with everyone on the floor - but at least it is clean. For $120/night though, I would expect a little more...but hey, it's the best we could do. Did I mention that there was a gaggle (yes, I said gaggle) of teenage girls staying on our floor? They stood in the hallway in towels giggling and talking for what seemed like forever, but they were at least entertaining!

We've just decided that instead of being grumpy about the whole Iceland situation, we're going to make the best of it...especially considering that the liklihood of us coming back here in the near future is SLIM to none. So we've booked a full tour for tomorrow and a trip to the hot springs on Tuesday before our plane leaves. We WILL have fun, even if it costs us a fortune. It is quite beautiful here though, and strange enough, it is almost midnight and it looks like it is about 5pm Miami time. The sun is just starting to go down, and the sky is still filled with light. And it's MIDNIGHT?

Anyways, we'll be closing the blinds tightly and trying to get some rest before the big day of touring tomorrow. Good night everyone!!

Love,

Andrea and Jose
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184765880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184765880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184765880/tpod.html Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:38:54 -0400 Our Honeymoon....

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Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States

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]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184679420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184679420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184679420/tpod.html Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:37:53 -0400 Our Honeymoon....

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New York City, New York, United States

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]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184592960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184592960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184592960/tpod.html Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:36:52 -0400 Our Honeymoon....

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Reykjavík, Iceland

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]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184449920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184449920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184449920/tpod.html Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:34:56 -0400 Our Honeymoon....

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Paris, France

We woke up slightly later than usual this morning, but luckily in time to catch the end of the Bastille Day Parade on TV in the hotel lobby...OOPS. We had planned on going, but it didn't look like we missed too much! We were really excited about tonight's events - an open air concert and fireworks show on the lawn behind the Eiffel Tower. We packed our backpack full of picnic gear and headed to the corner market to pick up some wine, fruits, and snacks. We filled the entire backpack to the brim! It was pretty funny!!

We decided to spend the day at the Musee d'Orsay, a musuem located in a historical train station and absolutely filled to the brim with beautiful works! The line to get in was surprisingly short. Luckily the security guy let Jose in with the HUMONGOUS backpack full of food! The coat check workers were amazed that anyone could carry such a bag to begin with! We just didn't want to have to trek all the way back to the hotel and then to the Eiffel Tower later - they are on the complete opposite sides of town. Anyway, I think my favorite part of the Musee d'Orsay had to be the building itself! It is an incredibly designed station, with all sorts of types of windows, archways, and interesting rooms. The artwork was incredible too. We started off with a special exhibition called "From Cezanne to Picasso", which was basically centered around this famous art dealer named Ambroise Vollard. He was an incredible businessman of the art world, at least that's how I interpretted things. He cultivated relationships with all of the great artists of the late 1800's/early 1900's and encouraged them to try different art mediums, helped them obtain gallery space, and just encouraged and developed their careers. The paintings in this exhibition were really exciting for me - Jose didn't like the paintings as much (he has more of a classical taste), but he liked learning about this Vollard guy. Some of my favorite artists were displayed - Van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse....it was incredible to see these originals up close and personal! It was starting to get very crowded in this exhibition though, so we moved on to the rest of the beautiful museum. There were statutes upon statues from Rodin, which I loved, and even a whole room devoted to Art Noveau furniture - which I took way too many pictures of.

To make a long story short, I LOVED the museum, but Jose was much happier at the Louvre and at Versailles' rooms of art. What can you do.

Anyways, we really didn't have much else to do today, since it is our last day in Paris. We headed over to the Eiffel Tower area, thinking we would just be early for the concert and hangout for a bit.....boy were we wrong. The place was Packed already! It was only 4pm and the concert didn't start until 8! We searched around until we found a good spot on the corner of a patch of grass, and spread out our sheet as much as we could to conserve space. It was obviously going to be incredibly crowded. We could barely see the stage though - that area was already completely packed with people and there was nowhere to sit. We did have two huge screens directly in front of us though and speakers right there as well - so it felt like the front row!

We settled in for a few hours of snacks, wine, and chatting with the people sitting around us. It was the most beautiful day we've had in Paris - sunny, no clouds, but not too hot at all. It was perfect! There was a Spanish family sitting next to us, so we talked with them for awhile. And then the show started....it was awesome!!! It started out with a DJ spinning some techno music - which usually I'm not a huge fan of, but this was actually quite good. Then we had a young French singer, and even though we couldn't understand a word she was singing, she sounded wonderful!! Then there was some rock band that was pretty good - I forgot their name already - something Tokyo? None of them were Japanese though, so I was quite confused. Or maybe it was the wine! Who knows! Anyways, the next act was the best - Nelly Furtado and Timberland!

Can I just back up for a second and say how cool it is that Paris has this event? And that it is free? A concert like this in the U.S. would cost at least $40/ticket....not to mention that this concert really did have something for EVERYONE - techno, rock, pop, sentimental slow songs, and older, Tony Bennetish type, etc. etc. How nice!

Anyway, the Nelly Furtado/Timberland duo was by far the hit of the night. They sang all their hits and everyone was up singing and dancing. It was SO much fun! The only NOT fun part was having to use the restroom....imagine thousands upon thousands of people crowded into this little area, with only about 10 porta potties..... now imagine how wonderful those porta potties smell/look after several hours of partying.....it is not a pretty sight! And I thought the toilets in Asia were bad!!

Anyway, by the time Nelly Furtado had finished (and by the way, it was so nice to hear familiar songs, in English as well!), it was dark outside. They had an older man up on stage singing, and they put on this really catchy song in French about Paradise. They played the words on the big screen - so it was kind of like group karaoke. Or those sing-along videos we used to watch when we were kids. Either way, it was a good song and so much fun to sing to! We have some extremely horrible video of Jose and I trying to sing along....I think by the end though we finally got the chorus right - not that we can sing at all!!

Anyway, after this song, everyone turned around as the fireworks show began over the Eiffel Tower. This was possibly the coolest fireworks show I have ever seen...the Eiffel Tower shut off all its glittery lights, and an amazing fireworks display went off right behind it, set to all kinds of american/french music - a little Mary Poppins, Moulin Rouge, some French songs, a little bit of everything. It was SO beautiful!!!!! It was also probably one of the longest fireworks shows I've ever seen - which made it that much better! It was very romantic as well - the perfect way to end a 3 month honeymoon!! Only in Paris!

Anyway, when the lights finally stopped, it was total chaos with everyone in thecrowd trying to leave at the same time. We walked for awhile - avoiding the huge lines for the metro, until we finally spotted another metro rail -almost as packed, but a little better. So with that, we headed home after the most perfect Paris day possible!!! I love Paris!!! Good night everyone!!

Love,

Andrea and Jose
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184622660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184622660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184622660/tpod.html Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:41:51 -0400 Our Honeymoon....

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Paris, France

7-13-07 Versailles and the Eiffel Tower

We woke up slightly later than expected this morning (again), but then immediately headed off to the Palace of Versailles. Jose has visited Versailles back in high school and absolutely loved it, so I figured it had to be good! We set off on what we thought would be a quick metro/train ride to Versailles.....but it ended up taking over an hour an a half just to arrive at the train station in the town of Versailles. It was crazy!! The hardest part was finding the train station that went to Versailles - I think we took a wrong turn coming out of the metro or something. But anyway, after a LONG trip, we finally arrived in the Versailles train station, only to realize that we couldn't get out! We had just hopped on the train, figuring our eurorail passes would cover us, but in order to leave the Versailles train station, you had to show your ticket! Oops! Fortunately for us, the ticket attendant helped us get through without a problem. We're still not sure if we were supposed to have paid/purchased a ticket or not, but oh well!

So we began the walk to Versailles from the train station. The actual town of Versailles is SO cute! Its very small, but has lots of cute little shops and restaurants lining the streets along with huge trees and big grassy areas. On the way, we passed a huge, gorgeous building - I think it was the Hotel DeVille. It was breathtaking! As we kept on walking, we started to notice more and more people (tourists), but we didn't think too much about it until we walked through the main entrance gate to Versailles.....

The line was humongous! At first, we headed over to a sign that said "tickets", which was much shorters, but made sense to us - we needed tickets! But after about 2 minutes, we figured out that this line was for people who already HAD tickets. Oops. So we made our way over to the really, really, really long line. And stood. And stood. After about 10 minutes, Jose started to get antsy. In true Jose fashion, he told me to stay in line and that he would go "figure something out". As I'm coming to learn as normal....in less than 15 minutes, he was back, waving at me to get out of line and come with him! He is truly amazing!!! The line had barely moved at all, so I was relieved to get out of there. According to Jose, he walked to the front of the line where he noticed some French people gathering for a tour. The guy in front of him - an American - tried to buy tickets for this tour and was rejected - something about French only. So, Jose began to listen very carefully as the French in front of him purchased these special tickets. He then mimicked them and said "deaux, we, merci!" and they handed him two special tickets for the castle which included an audio guide tour and also tickets to Marie Antoinette's apartment. We then walked back over the shorter line, handed them our tickets, got our audio guides (in English), and we were good to go! Jose is the best!!! He's saved us at least 24 hours in waiting time total on this trip - how he does it, I don't know, but I'm so glad to have him!!!

Anyway, once inside Versailles, I was amazed! I've seen many castles in Germany (many, many, many castles, thank you mom), but none have been THIS ornate. I could probably do a Jose-special 10 page report on just Versailles, but let me give you the highlights: 1. The hall of mirrors - gorgeous, with a beautiful view of the gardens. 2. THE GARDENS are absolutely amazing - hedges carved in intricate designs, huge fountains, and statues all over. One of my absolute favorite places! 3. The rooms in the palace are all dedicated to heroic historic figure - be it Alexander the Great or Ancient Greek and Roman gods, the artwork and details in each room are incredible. 4. The first set of rooms we walked through all had fabric with a damask patter on the walls and the window treatments - but each room was a different, bold color. So as you walk through, you may be standing in the vivacious red damask room, but you can see the blue, green and yellow rooms down the hallway. Absolutely beautiful!!!!!! 5. Jose's favorite part was the gallery of artwork - huge, and I mean HUGE historical paintings that line the walls and seem unending. The paintings themselves are all gorgeous - but the history and grandiosity of each work and the overall effect of seeing them all together is spectacular! 6. The GARDENS! Did I mention I liked the gardens? J

Anyways, after spending a good 3 hours wandering the halls and gardens of Versailles and taking a good 300 pictures, we headed back to the train station with a quick stop for a good French lunch. The food here is good - even the cheap lunches taste amazing!

When we arrived back in Paris, we decided to head over to the Eiffel Tower - amazing we've been in Paris for 3 days and still haven't gone there. You can see the tower from pretty much everywhere in the city though. Once we got to the tower I was AMAZED. Not by the tower though....but by the sheer number of tourists who were waiting in line to go up it! It was worse than any amusement park line I've ever seen!! It would have taken us a good three hours to get to the top, and by this point it was late in the afternoon and we were exhausted. So, I decided that the movielike trip to the top of the Eiffel would have to wait until another trip. I've already seen the view of Paris from the Sacre Cour Cathedral.....so oh well. We then grabbed some crepes and headed over to the park below the Eiffel Tower where lots of people were laying in the grass enjoying the sunshine. We joined them! It was such a beautiful day - we spent a long time just lying in the grass, staring up at the tower and the clouds and people watching. It was great! We noticed that they were setting up for a huge concert on the lawn as well - for Bastille Day tomorrow, so we will definitely be back for that tomorrow!

After a good rest and a bit of wandering, we decided to jump on the River Cruise for another look at Paris. The cruise was great - it was kind of funny though - we were the only non-Chinese on the whole boat! Apparently we were on with a Chinese tour group. It was nice though - we heard the stories of all the bridges of Paris and saw a gorgeous sun setting over the river. I love all of the French architecture as well - so it was nice to just sit and enjoy the views.

After the cruise, we grabbed some more of those delicious French baguette sandwiches and watched the sun set over the Eiffel Tower - and then the lights began to twinkle. It was so romantic! What a great day!!
Love,

Andrea and Jose
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184277000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184277000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184277000/tpod.html Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:49:06 -0400 Our Honeymoon....

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Paris, France

After a quick breakfast of the fabulous
French sandwiches, we headed off to the Montmarte area of Paris for
some more exploring. The weather is still not the greatest, but the
rain stopped after an hour or so. Our first stop was the Sacre Couer
Cathedral. I didn't really know what to expect - but Jose had
vague memories of his high school trip here. The Cathedral is seated
high up on a hill in the northern part of Paris and it has a great
view of the entire city. Lots of stairs to get to the top - but
quite a beautiful cathedral inside. I love all of the different areas
of Paris - we have the neat and quiet residential area that our
hotel is in, the shear beauty of the Louvre area, and now the
Montmarte area - full of hustle and bustle. It is also full of
artists doing any type of portrait you can imagine - cartoons,
realistic portraits, charcoal sketches - you name it and someone
will draw it for you!! We spent a good amount of time exploring the
Sacre Couer and enjoying the view from the top, and then decided to
head over to the Moulin Rouge. It looked like on the map that it was
right nearby....but I definitely should have asked! The note on the
map of the "...Moulin..." was NOT the Moulin Rouge, but luckily
we found some very nice Parisians who spoke good English who sent us
in the right direction.



The Moulin Rouge was not at all what I
expected, but the best part was definitely their little exhibition
outside telling the story of the theatre. It is so old -and so many
famous people have either starred in a production here or have closed
the theatre to the public to enjoy a show (Queen Elizabeth, anyone?).
I love the history of it all! And the big windmill on the top was
just what I pictured - so that was neat.


We then decided to head over to the
Galleries Lafayette Department Store. This place was amazing! It is
HUGE! I think Jose got a few photos looking up from the bottom floor
- but it was I think six stories - with a separate conjoined
store for the men's stuff. It was also completely decked out in
gold and decorative molding. Very neat. Walking in on the ground
floor you totally just FEEL like you are in Paris - surrounded by
perfume and make up counters that could take up at least two football
fields! We wandered around the women's and men's stores for a
LONG time. Some of the designer prices were just outrageous, but some
weren't too bad. I fell in love with a million pairs of shoes....but
decided to hold off on the purchases for a bit! I found a totally
cool rock star fur jacket for Jose - but he wasn't going for it!



After spending a long time in this
department store, we headed back to the Champs D'Elsysees for more
shopping! My favorite! We also walked down to the Arc de Triumph (not
that amazing - but nice to finally see it up close!). On the way,
we also found the most expensive men's shoes. I think they were
over 3,000 Euros for one pair! Who buys this stuff, honestly??
Anyway, we grabbed another quick dinner of the yummy French
sandwiches and strolled around some more. The Toyota dealership had
this really cool concept car on display, as did the Peaguot
dealership. Hopefully they actually begin to make them - and don't
take out all the cool stuff before putting them into production!
These cars were gorgeous!


As it started to get late, we decided
to check out this brewery-type bar we had seen. We totally lucked out
with this one! The first floor was a restaurant, and it looked like
the second floor was as well. Then Jose peaked downstairs, and we
headed down into this great club. There was a live band playing the
BEST Afro-Cuban Music we have ever heard! They were amazing!! And
they spoke French! Who would've thunk it! We snagged a couple of
seats next to some university students and also this amazing dancing
couple. Jose was starting to feel a little inadequate, because the
guy of the two was by far the best Latin dancer I have ever seen. He
never repeated a move, and was so smooth!! The girl he was dancing
with was also SO amazing! I wish I could move like that! She was
wearing the really high-waisted paints from the 80's and this teeny
tiny top - straight out of Dirty Dancing! But it worked for her I
guess! It turns out that the guy was WITH the band - kind of a
professional dancer that goes along with them to help get people on
the floor. Well it worked! Jose and I danced a bit, and lots of
others tried as well -but no one could match these two!!!! There
was also this REALLY really cute old man, black with sunglasses who
would walk around and talk to all the girls in French. I think he was
trying to encourage them to dance, but he was just such a cute little
old guy!!! The drinks were actually very reasonably priced, so we
stayed for a few hours - and the band just kept playing! I wish we
had taken video - they were SO good!!!!!


Anyways, after a long day, we are
headed off to bed. Our feet our exhausted! Good night!!!


Love,


Andrea and Jose
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184190600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184190600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184190600/tpod.html Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:25:19 -0400 Our Honeymoon....

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Paris, France

When we woke up this morning, the
weather was COLD and slightly rainy.....not what I expected for Paris
in July, but what can you do. We decided to first head over to the
Notre Dame Cathedral. On the way, we found a cute little café
advertising a breakfast deal. Everything here seems so expensive -
more expensive than the U.S., and definitely more expensive than the
countries we've been in the last few months! The breakfast was good
though - toast, a crepe, orange juice and coffee in a gorgeous café
on the street overlooking the river. I was a little worried as we
walked over to Notre Dame...we passed St. Michael's and it had a
HUGE line of tourists standing outside the door. I started having
flashbacks to Rome and the humongous line at the Vatican museums and
got really worried. But when we got to Notre Dame, surprisingly there
was just an itty bitty line, and it was moving along quite quickly.
For being as old as it is, Notre Dame is in great condition. The
circular windows are incredibly beautiful. We grabbed an audio guide
and did a full tour of the inside. It was beautiful. There was a mass
in progress, which made it even better. I felt pretty lucky that we
were allowed in the church in the middle of a mass - also slightly
rude as there were so many tourists, talking and taking pictures, but
the mass was beautiful nonetheless. One really cool part of the
cathedral is an area where at one point the monks decided they needed
a quiet, private place to do their praying - away from the main
altar. So they built huge walls in a square area behind the main
altar and they are decorated in glittering gold and bright colors.
Only two walls remain, but they are in great condition and very
pretty. All of the little chapels around the sides are also very
beautiful.



After we finished our tour of the
inside, we headed outside to go up to the top....then we found the
line I had expected!! It probably was at least a two hour wait to get
to the top....so we said forget that and walked around the entire
cathedral. The back of the building has a really cool architectural
design - these supporting joints that jut out of the walls and up
to the top. I didn't think I liked Gothic architecture very much -
until I saw Notre Dame! It was just so beautiful! The stained glass
was all redone in the last 40 years, so the colors really jump out at
you.



Anyway, I don't think I missed too
much by not going to the top - if so, we'll just have to come
back next time! We headed over to the statue of St. Michael just
around the corner. Such a cool fountain of St. Michael fighting with
Satan. It's too bad other cities (MIAMI) don't have such neat
monuments around every corner! The only problem I see with Paris is
ALL the tourists! They are swarming around everywhere!!! We decided
to brave the Louvre next - even though I was SURE there would be a
huge line. After walking through the back entrance of all the old
buildings, we finally found ourselves in front of the huge glass
pyramid. It is such a strange dichotomy to see this huge, old castle
surrounding this very modern, pristine glass pyramid. Who came up
with this? It kind of confuses the brain at first glance. Anyway, I
was so happy to see that there was another itty-bitty line to get in,
and the ticket window was empty! I don't know if we came in between
rushes of tourists or what, but it was great to see it so empty!!!


What can I say about the Louvre? There
is so much, and I am not in the mood to write a 10 page Jose-esque
essay! We spent EIGHT hours there! And we still didn't see
everything! The Highlights? 1. The Ground Floor exhibition of the
history of the Louvre! Not too many people were down here or even
seem to know about it. Apparently, the Louvre also used to be a
fortress. The old walls are still in tact, but they are below the
entire museum. There are tons of pictures of their archaeological
excavations and the walls are in great shape. Definitely a cool site!
2. Hammurabi's Code. We almost walked right past it - until I
started looking at some official stamps and saw his name. Then I
realized that this huge, black stone structure in the middle of the
room is the REAL Hammurabi's code! SO AMAZING! They had a guide
translating some of the code, and it was so neat to see the laws that
Hammurabi had enacted WAY back then. Rules and regulations for suing
people, for marriage and divorce, property ownership, etc. etc. SO
COOL! 3. The room that the Mona Lisa is in...it is PACKED with mobs
of tourists taking photos of the teeny tiny Mona Lisa that is the
only painting on this huge wall (and behind glass...) - but on the
other wall is another AMAZING painting by Veronese - The Feast of
Canaan. I think the audio guide said it was the largest painting in
the Louvre, but it was incredible! Jose loved all the Renaissance
artwork - but my other favorites were the ancient Roman and Greek
sculptures. Psyche and Cupid is one of my favorite, but we also saw
Venus de Milo, which was neat - even though now they don't think
it is actually Venus or Aphrodite, but instead the Patron Goddess of
Milo. It was also neat to see the ancient sculptures compared to the
Baroque, French, and Renaissance times. I find it amazing how over
2,000 years ago they created such beautiful works - and that they
are still in decent condition today! We also spent a brief period in
the State Apartments - or what used to be the state apartments,
with the original furniture still in tact. I did not know the
previous uses of the Louvre - but prior to the early 1700's it
was the center for the government (Kings and Napoleon), and contained
the meeting rooms, apartments for officials and guests, and all kinds
of other goodies. Very very cool. Last thing - the center rooms
containing the sculptures. Apparently the lighting is set so that it
is always the same and always looks like daylight. This was done
because the statues were originally designed to be shown in gardens,
so the museum has arranged them to represent a garden -but indoors.
It was very beautiful!

Anyway, to sum it all up - We LOVED
the LOUVRE! I don't think I've ever spent so much time in one
museum and NOT be bored one bit. By far the best historical museum
I've ever visited - and trust me, I've been to many (Thanks
Mom). As the Louvre was set to close, we decided to head out and grab
a cheap dinner of baguettes from a street vendor. They were
surprisingly amazing! We walked through the Tuileries Gardens, which
are so gorgeous, and we watched the sun begin to set over the La
Place de la Concorde and the huge Obelisk. We have now seen obelisks
in Egypt, Italy, and France. It is so funny how this trip has really
taught me so much history - and helped connect everything all
together. Anyways, we strolled up the Champs D'Elysees and found
the cutest little bakery (Thanks for the recommendation Cuqui!). La
Duree is just what you would expect of a French bakery -and the
macaroon cookies are AMAZING. We bought a little box of
mini-macaroons so that we could try each flavor. Jose really liked
the coffee - but I thought the mint was absolutely incredible -
it tasted like fresh mint - not that sweet, candy type mint you
normally would expect. And the insides were so full and creamy!
YUMMMMM. I wish I could bring them home!


Anyway, after a LONG day of exploring,
we decided to head back to the hotel to get some rest. Good night
everyone!!!

Love,

Andrea and Jose
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184104080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184104080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/romero/romerohoneymoon/1184104080/tpod.html Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:14:50 -0400 Our Honeymoon....

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Paris, France

We woke up a little late this morning -
it is hard to get up when you have a comfortable bed to sleep in!
Jose was feeling a little sick - coming down with a cold I think.
But we headed downstairs to our free breakfast (the joys of a nice
hotel!) and I ate more than my fill! I love European breakfasts!!! We
originally had been planning on taking the early train to either
Brussels or Nice to spend a day or two, but that plan was x'd after
we stayed up late and missed the early train. We instead spent the
morning lounging and using the internet at the hotel. A nice way to
relax for a bit - and it was raining outside! Fortunately, the rain
started to clear after lunchtime, so we decided to head into town and
jump on the train to Paris to spend our last few days in Europe. We
figure it will be nice to have a home base to be able to spend a good
few days - and we are sick of packing and unpacking the backpacks!!

We grabbed some cheap kebabs (mmmm) and
took the first train to Brussels with no problem - poor Jose slept
the whole way - he needs some more rest! Anyway, when we got to the
platform in Brussels for the Paris train, we noticed that it was
absolutely packed! There was a huge MOB of people waiting for the
Paris train - something we hadn't experienced with any other
train. Jose pushed us to the front when the train arrived, and we
snagged some decent seats before any others could get on. This worked
out for about 5 minutes....then the people who had reservations for
OUR seats showed up. It turns out the entire train was reserved! And
full! We didn't really know what to do - we debated hiding in the
bathroom (where there is power ),
but decided to be honest and talk to the train officials. The train
was already moving, so what were they going to do? Kick us off?
No...instead they just charged us $40 (ON TOP OF OUR EURORAIL) and
told us that we could have any empty seat in second class... That
would have been nice if there were any empty seats! We managed to
find some fold out chairs at the train door - which weren't so
bad, considering the whole ride was jut a little over an hour. It
sucks that we had to pay so much money though for crappy seats! Oh
well!




When we arrived at the Paris Nord train
station, everything seemed very hectic around us. People were
everywhere and the signs were all slightly confusing. We finally made
it to a MUCH needed ATM though, and set off to find the metro to our
hotel. It seemed like a pretty good deal to buy a week's metro pass
for the next 5 days, considering our hotel is located slightly
outside the center of the city. Then the guy at the desk told us we
had to have our picture taken to put on our little passcard. This
seemed a little ridiculous, but I told Jose we might as well do it -
at least the card will be a good souvenir! Our first attempt at
photos gave us a nice 4x6 glossy of a sick and tired Jose who was mad
to be paying so much money for a stupid picture! It is hilarious!
Anyway, we finally figured out how to get the right sized picture for
our cards, and set off on our way. It seems that it was a waste of
money now, but oh well - again, it's a good souvenir!




Our hotel is small, but located in a
cute little residential neighborhood about 15 minutes from downtown.
We immediately dropped our bags and headed out for some food and
drinks - we were starving! We found a cute little restaurant down
the block that appeared to have good daily specials. Slightly
expensive -but it is Paris afterall! This was definitely a local
spot though - nothing in English and no one there seemed to speak
ANY English whatsoever. I decided to be adventurous and ordered the
"....tartare de ...." Beef". Jose ordered some herring for an
appetizer and a good bottle of French red wine for us to start- and
both were AMAZING! I was really really getting excited about French
cooking...until my tartare arrived.... I had thought it would be
cooked steak, but served cold. Nope. It was RAW hamburger. With a raw
egg on top! Luckily it came with a huge salad and fries - I was not
going to touch the raw hamburg meat!!! Oops! So much for my first
experience with real French cooking! At least the wine was good -
Jose's dish was good too - some type of fricassee in a pot. Of
course we had to order a real French crème brulee for
dessert...and it was AMAZING! The best I've ever had! Definitely
helped me forget about the tartare de beuf!


Anyways, after a really late dinner, we
headed back to our hotel. The old guy at the front desk doesn't
speak any English, but he likes to try and speak Spanish to us! It is
very cute though. Paris overall is such a CUTE city! And the people
are friendlier than I had expected!


Au revoir!


Love,


Andrea and Jose
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