"Who says you can't go home..." (End of EuroTrip 2011)

I figured I might as well end this trip with one final blog. I'm typing this from my house in New Albany, but I wrote most of it while on our long flight from Munich, Germany to Chicago (good way to kill time on a 9+ hour flight!). I realized that by the end of the flight, we'd traveled 5000 miles in just one day! That's pretty crazy to a small town girl like me. When we were boarding this Munich flight, I realized it is the sixth flight of the trip. I love flying. I still always get that little excited kid feeling every time a plane takes off. And I feel so incredibly lucky, not only that I was able to go to Europe on this amazing trip, but even down to the small things like the fact that I've been on an airplane six times in one trip! My parents and I didn't fly a ton growing up, so it still feels special every chance I get to do so, which I like. I think it makes me appreciate these opportunities even more.

I'm not going to lie, I got a bit teary eyed as our flight from Munich to Chicago got off the ground. This first visit out of the US for me has been so enjoyable. I've always known there is so much more out there to see and experience, but this was my first chance to actually do so, and I can't imagine a more perfect trip. In a lot of ways it almost feels unreal, that we got to do so many amazing things in just a month's time. So many things on my bucket list can be crossed off just from this vacation! :) It was everything I dreamed it would be, and honestly I think a bit more.

I'm not trying to suck up in the slightest, but I truly think a big reason this trip was so wonderful was because of the extremely warm welcome we received everywhere from Keegan's extended family. I've been excited to meet all of these people I'd heard so much about for quite awhile, and I'm so glad we were able to meet as many family members as we were! :) Thank you to all of you for showing us around, feeding us, and just letting us spend time with you. I think I can easily speak for Taylor and Keegan when I say we loved every moment with all of you! :)

We really got lucky with all of our flights/trains/planes during this trip! Zero delays!! :) Our only small hiccup was in Paris when we were heading to Munich and then home. We assumed our flight was with United (which we flew at the start of this trip when going to London). We got to the United counter and saw a sign for Chicago, and when we told the guy directing people we were going to Chicago, he had us cut in line to go straight to checking in. We were all the way to the point of checking our bags in before someone noticed we actually had a Luthansa, not United flight! Luckily we'd gotten through United lines so fast that it was no problem to go through Luthansa's and security, and still have more than an hour to kill!

In Munich we had to go through a couple passport checks and thought it might be tough to make our flight, but we got to the gate right before the start of boarding! Even had time to shop for about 5 minutes! :) I took a couple pictures while we were at the airport as proof that we were in Germany. And waved to my friends there! :) Then we got on our awesome plane. We had individual tv's with lots of movie options. It was a lot nicer than our United flight actually, so I'm glad we were wrong about the airline!

We had a fun couple days up in Hobart with Taylor's family for the 4th of July. They had an awesome fireworks show! :) But it's nice to be home now. It feels a bit weird actually! I told my mom I had no idea what I wanted for dinner because it's been so long since I had all these options that we have here, so nothing particular was standing out to me! I'm looking forward to catching up on laundry and sleep these next couple days. And uploading a LOT of pictures! (Working on that now!)

While on the plane, a song came on my iPod and this one line from it stood out to me.. "This was the very first page, not where the story line ends." Maybe it's a bit of a stretch, but to me this quote means that this was my very first trip out of the States, but it's definitely not the last. Now that I've seen some more parts of the world, I can't wait to explore more. It's a tad cheesy, but it made me feel better when I was a bit sad about the trip being over. I have been planning and talking about this trip with our families for well over a year now, and it is hard to believe it's over! But, I'll just have to start planning the next EuroTrip I think! :)) (Oh and just in case anyone was curious, the song is a Taylor Swift song... don't tell Keegan! Ha)

Thanks again everyone involved with this trip. And special thanks to my parents for letting me go! :) I know it was tough haha. Sending love to all of you who are reading this and who I'm thinking about while writing this!! :)

Much love,

Kaitlyn

End of the trip: Final day in Paris!

Bonsoir everyone! This is possibly the last blog on the trip (maybe one more once we get back to the states just recapping and letting anyone who is curious know that we made it back ok). I am about to crash and get as much sleep as I can before our LONG travel day tomorrow. It probably isn't going to be too fun. But, it's been a great trip so I suppose one long day heading home isn't the end of the world. I am hoping to sleep more this time so it goes by faster. We'll see how that goes!

But back to today! We decided not to sleep in too much so that we could make the most out of our last day in Paris/Europe. After a quick breakfast, we hopped on the metro and set out to see the Catacombs. This may not be as well known of a tourist attraction as some others in Paris, but it actually is really popular and interesting. But for people like myself, it is also a bit creepy and probably not something I'd do more than once. I am glad I went though. This was the main thing Keegan really wanted to do in Paris, so I called it his Trooping the Colour! (becuase we had to wait in line for like two hours to get in to this thing, and I made him and Tay stand outside in London for more than two hours for the parade...) But anyway, for those of you who are not aware what I am talking about, the Catacombs are underground burial sites for millions of Parisians from hundreds of years ago. You basically go down a creepy dark tunnel deep underground, and then eventually reach hallways just lined with skeletal bones and skulls and such. It is amazing to see, though very creepy! I probably haven't done the best job explaining it, but if you want to know more I recommend just Googling it :)

Keegan very much enjoyed his Catacombs tour, as did Taylor and I suppose myself. Afterwards, we went by metro to Luxenburg gardens. It's really pretty there. I enjoyed just walking around a little. There are some tennis courts on the grounds and the maps made them look like they may be grass courts, but sadly they were just hard courts so I wasn't that impresed. Ha but it was still neat. We had lunch just across the street from the gardens at a very nice cafe. Taylor had a cool blue drink that she enjoyed quite a bit, I enjoyed my good 'ol American/Italian style pizza, and Keegan liked his steak and beer. So all was well :). Then we walked to the island where Notre Dame is. It was very crowded due to the fact that it is Saturday and that is a very touristy area, so we took a few pictures and then just headed back to our hotel area. It was a pretty tiring walk. We relaxed a bit, and then went back to the same place we had dinner and drinks the previous day. The guys there all recognize us now and say hi and have little conversations with us. One guy and I try to converse about tennis and he told me to come back and watch the Finals tomorrow. I am bummed we can't do that! We'll be on the plane then though heading back home. So he said to look the restaurant up on Facebook! haha It's funny how even people over here use that to stay connected.

Well, my eyes are very tired so I am going to call it a night soon. Hopefully our good luck continues tomorrow and we have no problems with our flights and travels back to the homeland. I am excited to go back, but bummed to leave as well. It still is crazy to think about how much we have done the past month! It's been so wonderful :)

Goodnight friends and family! Thanks again for reading!!

xoxo, Kait

Paris, J’Taime! :) (Friday July 1)

Bonsoir! We have had a very nice time in the lovely city of Paris. It really is a fantastic city. And it is a very easy place to get around, which surprised me at first. I thought things would be more spread out, but it is all very accessible. And since we got here Thursday morning instead of Friday afternoon, we have plenty of time to see and do what we want without feeling rushed. It also probably helps that we are using the metro a lot here, which gives our poor feet some nice breaks!

This morning (Friday) we ate some food we brought with us from Lyon for breakfast, and then we took the metro to the Arc de Triumph. I’d heard from my French teacher that you can get great views from the top of it of the Eiffel Tower and Paris in general, and she was right! I’d say it was definitely worth the 6 euro entrance fee. After getting some nice pictures and enjoying the views from the top, we headed back down and then got back on the metro to get closer to the Eiffel Tower!

We got off at a place recommended by Keegan’s cousin Brendon. We were at the Theatre de Challiot, which is a GREAT place for pics of the Eiffel Tower, without all the annoying tourists found on the other side of it. Brendon had told us about a café in the theatre/museum which was free to enter and had fantastic views of the Eiffel Tower. He was absolutely correct! It was perfect. While there, we had a waffle with chocolate sauce and whipped cream (yum!) and Keegan had an espresso while we just enjoyed the wonderful view. I highly recommend doing this to anyone who travels to Paris. It is easy, and well worth it!

We walked under the Eiffel Tower and took some pictures on the other side, too. Then we walked around a bit more before heading back to our hotel area. After lunch, we gathered our bags and went to our next hotel, Cosmo’s Hotel. It’s a really cute little place with wonderfully cheap (unbeatable) prices. The location isn’t nearly as superb as our first place, but it is easy to get anywhere with the nearby metro stations.

I was eager to catch the end of the Tsonga/Djokovic tennis match, so while Taylor napped Keegan walked with me in hopes of finding a bar showing Wimbledon. We look our chances with a really cute bar lounge just down the street, and the nice guy working was so kind and changed the tv to show the match just for our request! And I was delighted to find out he was a Djokovic fan, too! (Though surprising, since Tsonga is French…) We had a drink each and a very fun time watching the match there. We loiked the place so much that all three of us went back for dinner! Dinner was wonderful as well. We all chose pasta dishes. Taylor and I loved our three cheese tortellini, and Keeg liked his penne pasta, too.

After dinner, we grabbed some warmer clothes and then headed towards the river/Eiffel Tower and went on a night boat tour! We all really enjoyed it and would recommend that, too, especially at night. This is when all the monuments, buildings, etc are all lit up. The Eiffel Tower almost looks fake it is so pretty! It’s definitely an image that would be difficult to forget! It’s safe to say, we all love Paris! J

~Kait