We made it back to the ol' US of A!
Well, we tried to get bumped from our flight so we could stay in France for a while longer but it didn't work. That's OK we had to get home to pay those bills that were surely going to be arriving in the mailbox soon.
If you couldn't already tell from our updates, we had an amazing time. We were so proud of ourselves for how we managed to get around without any incidents and keep things within a decent budget. Ben says he is proud of how I carried my pack without complaint for three weeks in 5 countries. It wasn't that bad, really! We weighed our packs at the airport, mine was 37 pounds and Bens was 50 pounds, I think. Not bad for a couple of novices. We are both in love with the whole backpacking idea now and can't wait to make some more money so we can go on our next trip.
The rest of our trip goes like this...
We decided it would be best to spend the last night in Paris so we would have plenty of time to catch our train and get to the airport. So we left Charleroi for Brussels Sunday morning and took the fassttt TGV train to Paris. Things just whizzed by as we sat in our plush first class seats. (Thanks Mom and Dad for those rail tickets!) We stayed in the Marais Neighborhood in a cheap pension, a double for 220 francs (about 40 dollars) that was fine for our needs. The thing is that in the states that place would be shut down for the conditions but in europe we happily accept the tiny room with bad paint and the WC and shower on another floor. We skipped showers the next day because we discovered that it was an addition 15 francs for each of us to get a shower in the not-so-nice shower. We were on a plane all day so what did we care!
We spend the Sunday afternoon in Paris walking and taking the Metro to many sights we'd already seen so we could take some black-and-white photos. We went to the Rodin Museum, which houses Rodin most important pieces, ie. "The Thinker" and "The Kiss". It was a quaint museum full of masterpieces and a lovely garden with the Thinker. We hunted around for some lunch, and since it was Sunday it was hard to find. But we discovered a cafe near the Eiffel Tower and ate steak and frites (french fries) and tall glasses of soda. It was much warmer that day that the three weeks early when we had first arrived in France. Plus, there were so many more people. The end of April is definitely the time to go, the end of May starts to bring more travels and I here that June and July are just mobbed with tourists.
We enjoyed eating at a Chili's restaurant in the JFK airport and loved the fact that nobody was smoking in the whole place! Ahhhhhh...! How refreshing! How we love the Clean Air Act!
We were met by Rob, Ben's college roommate, who delivered us home, where Jay was waiting to greet us! It was good to be home and great to be in our QUEEN size bed! It has taken a few days to adjust to the time change but it really wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. We awoke at about 5:30am and I crashed at about 9:30pm both nights since but I think that I am fine now.
It was bizarre to not have our little red furry dog there to greet us! We can't wait to bring Sadie home, though we know she is quite content with my parents and the other dogs.
Ben went back to work yesterday, his 25th birthday! I brought him 25 balloons and some Star Wars stuff. Jay and I took him to dinner at Tony Roma's for ribs and steak and then went home for ice cream. Jay and I got him Rollerblades since the path behind our house is now paved and the Arizona house has a paved path throughout the neighborhood.
We move into our new house June 19th, and are sad to leave Utah, but excited about our future in Arizona. Until our next voyage... Au revoir.
Kim and Ben
More from KimnBensEuropetrip2000 here