Chillin Out, Maxin, Relaxin All Cool…

We finally made it to Dahab around 1pm after our looooong, cramped overnight bus ride. Dahab is tiny. There are literally only two streets that separate the red mountainous dessert from the clear blue waters of the Red Sea. It’s small, but it’s gorgeous. The bus dropped us off in front of this sketchy looking alley between a small crappy looking restaurant and a convenience store. I was a little weirded out when our guide said our hostel was down the alley, but we unloaded all out crap and followed him. Behind the shops, the alley opened up into this huge garden hostel, Bish Bishi,  with each room being its own little hut with a bathroom. It turned out to be really nice.

After unloading, we all walked to this restaurant right on the water. The place didn’t have regular tables and chairs, but instead had short tables and cushions on the ground. The food turned out ok, and while we were eating, a guy from the local dive shop came over to talk about all the stuff we could do (dive, snorkel, wind surf, etc.) while we were there. Erin and I and three other people from our group decided that we were going to get our dive certification the next afternoon, so we walked over to the guys shop after lunch and watched the first video to prep for the next day. Once that was finished the guy gave us some snorkel gear and we jumped in the water. Whats cool about Dahab is there is a reef surrounding the town that is only about 10ft from shore, so anywhere you jump in you’re seeing tons of fish within seconds. We called it quits after an hour or so, grabbed a quick dinner with the group, and then went to bed around 8pm knowing we weren’t going to get much sleep.

Less than 4 hours after we went to sleep, my alarm went off. The plan was to meet the group at midnight to catch another bus for a quick 2 hour ride to Mt. Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the 10 commandments. The bus was more of a van with all the seats occupied, so sleep was pretty hard to come by for this 2 hours. It didn’t help that the guy was driving like a maniac, and, because he wasn’t wearing his seat belt, we all got to hear the van “ping” for the entire 2 hours. We finally got there and started our climb to the top. The idea was to make it to the top in about 3 hours, lay out the sleeping bags and sleep for about 2 hours, then watch the sunrise. The path to the top wasn’t too difficult. After about 2 hours of walking, with a few breaks sprinkled in at small Bedouin huts along the way, you get to the bottom of a set of over 700 steps that will take you to the summit. It was a little chilly at the bottom and everyone was fine while hiking up, but when we got to the top it was cold. There were still traces of snow up there. We were some of the first people up there so we staked out a primo position, bundled up in our sleeping bags, and tried to get some sleep. While we were laying down, it was amazing to look up at the stars. There were no lights up here, so the number of stars you could see had to be in the millions. It was so clear you could easily see the Milky Way as well… soo cool. After about an hour of freezing cold sleep, we all woke up to a bunch of Japanese tourists running up to us yelling “cocoons, cocoons”. I’m assuming we looked like cocoons in our sleeping bags, but I guess I’ll never know because as soon as Erin was woken up she shot a pretty serious death stare at them and they backed off. Once we looked around we saw that by this point there were tons of people up here with us. I guess its a pretty big pilgrim destination because its significant to so many different religions. Watching the sunrise from up there was pretty cool because we really had no idea what the landscape looked like, having hiked the whole thing in the dark, so once it was up we were able to see all the other mountains around us. After going back down the 700 steps, there are two paths you can take to the bottom: the way we came up or the “steps of penitence”, a set of another 3500 really steep steps. We chose to take the steps. We got to the bottom around 7:30, hung out in the sun for about an hour and a half, and then checked out St. Catherine’s monastery when it opened at 9. This monastery was built in the 5th century and holds tons of old art, manuscripts, and codex. Even the huge wooden doors are from around 554AD. There was some pretty amazing old art in there. Also, the burning bush from the Bible is in one corner of the monastery… it’s not flaming any more.

We got back to the hostel around noon and were supposed to SCUBA around 1. Instead we slept until 4 and decided that getting a SCUBA certificate wasn’t really worth it right now, so we’re putting that on hold until Africa or Thailand. Two nights in a row of no sleep took it out of us. We woke up, grabbed a quick meal and a few beers between just Erin and I, then met up with the group for a few more drinks on the beach. The next day about half of our group took a taxi about 20 minutes away to the Blue Hole in Dahab. the blue hole is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a hole in the ocean that’s about 100m deep that is about 10m from shore. There are only a few of them in the world, and apparently some of the best places to SCUBA/snorkel around because the entire hole is lined with reefs. We were in the water for about an hour and saw millions of fish of all sizes and colors and an octopus. We got out, chilled on the beach for a while, and then headed back to the hostel to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day!! The whole group went out to dinner where we got the freshest calamari I’ve ever had then went out to what I think was the only bar in Dahab. We all had a few drinks, celebrated with our Irish guide, then walked back to the hostel. Turns out there was an Egyptian pizza place across the street from the hostel where 5 of us stopped to split a pie. Egyptian pizza isn’t really like Italian pizza, but it’s just as good. We got a pepperoni and a dessert chocolate pizza. There were both out of this world. Bars and late night pizza… gotta love Egypt.

The last day in Dahab was pretty relaxed. Erin and I woke up early and walked for a few hours through the town and then just down the beach taking pictures. We got back around lunch time and had some local koshary. Koshary is a mix of small noodles, rice, lentils, tomatos, and a bunch of other stuff all mixed together. It’s pretty delicious. We walked around the market for a while afterward, picked up a few postcards, and then headed back to pack. The next morning we took an early bus to the ship yard to jump on a ferry to Jordan. The ferry was supposed to leave at 11:30am. We got to the shipyard around 10, had to deal with some crazy customs/metal detectors/passport checkers and then sat around and waited. We then found out that the boat wasn’t going to leave until 4, but we could board at 1. Around 1:45, finally got on board, sorted out mine and Erin’s cabin and waited some more. We finally left the dock around 5:30. Time was spent on the boat reading, napping, and playing cards with the group. We landed around 10 where we now will meet up with the overlanding truck we’ll be with for the rest of our trip. Jordan should be cool. We’ll be checking out Petra and the Dead Sea before we head into Syria in about 5 days!

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I’m on a Boat

Sailing a felucca down the Nile is easily the most relaxing thing in the world. We boarded with the group around 10am on Thursday and set sail for two days of laying in the sun, swimming in the Nile, and drinking beers around the campfire at night. The only thing we didn’t account for is the low temperatures. It was about 80-85 degrees in the sun, but in the shade it was much cooler. Throw in the wind on the water and the added breeze from sailing and Erin was bundled up in her winter jacket. The first day on the boat we sailed until around 2, pulled the boat up to the beach, and had lunch. There were three Egyptian guys who did all the sailing and cooking for us on the boat. They cooked falafel with two sides for lunch. Each meal on the boat outdid the first. It was incredible how good of cooks these guys were considering after talking to them we found out that the only cooking they do is when they’re on the boat… at home that’s woman’s work.  Regardless of how much I pushed the issue, Erin was unwilling to bring this traditional Egyptian heritage back with us.

We were docked for about 2 hours, so after lunch I pulled out the two decks of cards I had bought at the local market the night before to play some asshole (uh… a card game (usually a drinking game) for those of you who didn’t know). Playing asshole with different groups of friends is difficult enough, with all of the different rules. Playing it with people from different continents is extremely difficult. We ended up playing with a combination of everyone’s rules. Turns out playing asshole is one of the few things (e.g., grilling, chick flicks) that are exponentially more fun when alcohol is involved. Once we pushed off from shore again, time was spent BSing with the group, napping, reading, listening to music, and watching the Nile river pass us by. Right before sundown we ran the boat aground again and had dinner. This time it was a zucchini stew with rice and pita. After the dinner the cards came back out, we were able to crack a few Stellas (the local Egyptian beer), and hang out for the rest of the night. To sleep, they wrapped a blanket around the canopy area to stifle the wind, and everyone jumped into sleeping bags. The sound of the river against shore put everyone to sleep within minutes.

The next day was more of the same. After a quick breakfast of Egyptian French toast (pita fried in egg) and fried eggs, and playing with some local kids who overtook our campsite, we set off again. It was a little bit warmer though, so during our lunch break a bunch of us put the trunks on for a quick dip (Erin chickened out). It was a little cold, but we were able to stay in for a good 5 minutes or so before we ran up the sand bank to lay in the sun and dry off before setting sail again. The landscape in the area is quite interesting. After about 10 yards of palm trees and what looks like tropical plants, the desert begins. While we were drying off in the desert area, we saw a few desert foxes running around which was pretty cool. Even being seemingly in the middle of nowhere, we could still hear the mosque calls loud and clear on the river. Though not as booming as in the cities where they wake you up around 5 in the morning, they’re still pretty loud and have become a part of the background noise everywhere in Egypt. That night the 3 Egyptian guys, started a bonfire and started singing and drumming a hybrid of traditional songs mixed with a few songs we would know. To Erin’s extreme pleasure “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” was one of the tunes. She can really “A-wee-ma-whey” with the best of them.

We got off the boats on Saturday morning and it was just a quick bus ride to Luxor. This was easily our favorite city so far. It has the awesome markets and store fronts that Cairo has, but you don’t fear for your life trying to cross the street. The markets are fun to walk around and hear all of the witty lines the vendors throw out. I regularly get offered all of the camels in Egypt for Erin. We also have been kicking butt in haggling… we have the good cop/controlling wife routine pretty much down. We’ve felt extremely safe in all of the locations we’ve been in, but here we walked around at night and through the markets without issue every night. After getting to Luxor, we checked into the hotel grabbed a quick falafel sandwich from the stand around the corner (we ended up going here every day both because they’re amazing and they’re around 30 cents), got a mug of sugar cane a few stores away, and then napped for an hour or so. If there’s one thing I’ve learned so far on this trip, it’s that a mug of pure sugar cane is the nectar of the gods. It tastes amazing and gives you a solid 20 minutes of sugar high before crashing back down. The hostel we were at in Luxor was pretty cool. Our room was much larger than the one in Aswan. The bathroom was still a little dicey as you couldn’t flush paper down the loo, there was no shower curtain, and the hot water heater was hanging above the shower. The bed was extremely comfortable though, so it was an enjoyable stay. The best part about the hostel was the rooftop garden. We were on the 4^th floor, and the stairs up to the fifth floor just led right up to the roof… no doors or anything. There was a garden, a bunch of tables, and a few couches up there, and a night time they served beers, shisha, and tea. Generally, Erin and I would take our lunches up there for a nice place to eat as well.

That night we walked over to Luxor Temple. It was interesting as it began to be built over 3500 years ago and was continued by multiple pharaohs, including King Tut. The part I found most interesting was during the time Romans ruled Egypt, they plastered over the hieroglyphics and painted Roman murals. These paintings are still clearly visible in parts of the temple and where it’s chipped away you can see the hieroglyphics that were hidden underneath. After the temple, we walked over to the market and grabbed dinner with the group at an open air rooftop restaurant overlooking the market. We ended the night hanging out on the roof garden with a few beers and a shisha. By the end of the night, the owner of the hostel came up to hang out with us. We started talking about Mubarak and the future of Egypt and he, like everyone else we’ve had a chance to speak with, was very excited about the future. We’ve had a lot of people ask us why we’re still traveling to Egypt with everything that happened right before we left. Granted, for a while we were really considering pulling the plug and rearranging out trip, but once everything shook out with Mubarak stepping down and the army taking over we decided to stick to our original plan. There are issues travelers run into seeing as how there isn’t really an Egyptian government currently (more on this later), but what a cool time to be here. Everyone is extremely happy with the outcome (at least everyone we’ve talked to… a few of the younger people have said their parents/grandparents were pro-Mubarak just because it was all they knew), and was more than willing to talk about it. For example, according to our guide, one of the guys who was sailing our boat hasn’t really spoken much in the year or so that the guide has known him. The first 15 minutes of being on the boat the other day, that guy was talking our ear off saying things like “I am freedom” and “Now I am like all of you”. Many of our conversations with locals start out this way and it’s really cool to see it.

Yesterday we woke up kind of early, and jumped on a bus to head to the Valley of the Kings. This is a valley in the mountains on the west bank of the Nile (Luxor is on the east bank) where they have excavated over 60 Pharaoh tombs, including King Tut. It was crazy to go down into these tombs which were built over 3300 years ago in most cases and still seeing the colors painted on the walls and ceilings perfectly. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take any pictures in there as the flash can dim the colors. After Valley of the Kings, we went over to the Valley of the Workers. This was where the head builders lived a few miles from the Valley of the Kings. The workers who build the Kings’ tombs built their own here. They were much smaller than the Kings’ but decorated with much more detail and much richer colors. The few that we were able to go into looked as if they were painted yesterday.  We got falafel for lunch and then went over to the orphanage the tour company we’re with sponsors in downtown Luxor. We were given a quick tour of the facilities and then were able to play with the kids for about an hour. A bunch of the boys had a soccer field set up in the yard so Erin, me, our tour guide Dave, 2-3 other people from our group, the head of the orphanage, and 4-5 kids played. It was awesome. I guess the kids play like every day so even the 9 year olds were blowing past us (Erin was the only one able to hang with them… I think she only knocked one of them over). Luckily, a few minutes in I was tapped to play keeper. While I was able to make more than a few spectacular saves, the pipsqueaks still fired a few past my head and nutmegged me at least 3 times. In the end, my and Erin’s team won. It seems like the organization does a great job with the kids, and we had a great time hanging out with them. After a quick three course dinner overlooking the Nile we crashed early. Those kids wore us out!

Today we went to Karnak Temple, via horse drawn carriage, which is the largest temple in Egypt. There are statues, obelisks, ruins, and pillars everywhere. After taking some amusing group shots around the pillars, we were shown the oldest Christian paintings in Egypt and walked around an ancient statue of a beetle to ensure good luck and long life. After hitting up the falafel place one last time and packing up our stuff we jumped on a bus for a 5 hour bus ride to Harghada for a pit stop on our way to Dahab, a beach town on the Red Sea where we will be staying for the next 4 days. One bad part about traveling in a country which has no official government is things can change without any real notice. This morning we found out that the tunnel under the Suez Canal which is usually open 24 hours, is now closed from noon to 6am. Meaning our hour pit stop in Hargada for dinner turned into a 5 hour stop off. We now don’t leave until midnight which should put us in Suez right before 6. We should get to Dahab around 2pm tomorrow. Hopefully we can sleep on the bus!

Dahab should be a good time. Apparently they have some of the best snorkeling/SCUBA in the world, so assuming it isn’t too cold we’ll check that out. After 4 days there, including St. Patrick’s Day with our Irish guide, we’ll head to Jordan. We should have good internet in Dahab, so expect some wedding/Paris/Egypt pictures posted to this site and my/Erin’s facebook page. Keep the comments coming. We miss you all!

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Walk like an Egyptian

So… Egypt is pretty awesome. We had an early start our first day. We met with out group around 8 for breakfast. The group consists of 2 Australian girls our age, a New Zealand guy our age, 2 more Australian girls our age, an older New Zealand guy, an older English guy, and an old Welsh woman. The group is led by a mid twenties Irish guy who is pretty stoked about Paddy’s day coming up! We grabbed a quick breakfast with the group, which was some Egyptian sausage and bread, and then jumped on a minibus and headed over to the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo. This is the museum which sits right next to Tahrir Square and a few antiquities were stolen during the Egyptian Revolt. We drove past the square and saw that there are still quite a few people gathered, but most of them were just there because they didn’t have work yet. I guess most of the people survive off of tourism, and tourism is only just starting to return. The museum was great. We were able to see all of King Tut’s treasures including his sarcophagus and burial jewelery which was amazing.

After the museum we went to a perfumery, where a guy fed us some traditional Egyptian food which consisted of rice, legumes, tomatoes, onions, chili pepper, and some other stuff all mixed together. It looked a little dicey, but ended up being really good. While we were eating he explained his shop where he makes concentrated flour oils which are then sold to perfume manufacturers in Europe to make all the name brand perfume and colognes we buy. It was pretty crazy, you could just name a brand and he would pull a bottle off the shelf and it would be the exact same smell, just stronger.

After lunch we went to the great pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Seeing these wonders was breathtaking. We took a camel ride between the pyramids and then were able to go inside one which was pretty cool. There are a ton of guys hawking souvenirs everywhere and some of them can be pretty funny. They only know a few things about the countries everyone are from so you hear a lot of repetition from them. Like when they ask where you’re from and the girls say Australia, all of them just start either yelling Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, or say G’Day Mate. For us, for some reason they just say “Welcome to Alaska” or “I have a brother in California”.

That night we had to jump on an overnight train from Cairo to Aswan which is in the Southern part of the country. The train was a little tough to sleep on as they didn’t turn the light off, but we managed. We arrived in Aswan around 11, were able to take a nap and check out the local market, and then took a quick boat ride across the Nile to a Nubian village for a tour of the village and a traditional Nubian dinner. The house we were in was made of mud brick and painted bright blue and yellow using local dyes. The food was pretty good consisting of rice, chicken, and a tomato and potato dish.

Yesterday was really busy as we had to wake up at 2:45 in the morning to jump on a bus to take a 3 hour journey to Abu Simbel temples which are only a few miles from the Sudan. We had a police escort the whole way, mainly because if we got a flat tire or anything, not a lot of other traffic is on those roads. This temple was incredible.  It rivaled the pyramids for most breathtaking so far. Once we get a better internet connection we will upload more pics to show you all what I mean. After this, we drove to another temple near Aswan called Philae temple. This was cool. It had hieroglyphics everywhere, and we were literally the only tourists there so we got some amazing pictures. We went out to a nice dinner on the Nile with the group and then walked the markets last night.

This morning we woke up around 6:30 to take a boat across the water and then jumped on a camel for an hour or so long camel ride around the local ruins. Now we’re packing up to jump on a feluccia boat ride up the Nile to Luxor. We’ll be without internet for a few days, but hope to post pics when we get to Luxor!

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The Adventure Really Begins…

Our last few days in Paris were awesome, but not exactly what you would expect a of couple on their honeymoon. Friday morning we woke up and decided to go on a tour of the Parisian Catacombs. So in the late 1700s, a bunch of Parisians who lived around this one cemetery started to get sick. The solution was to exhume all of the bodies from said cemetery and move them to an abandoned quarry/mine. Over the next 50 years or so they did the same thing to a whole bunch of other cemeteries. If that’s not weird enough, the guy who was in charge of all this had the bones of all these dead guys arranged into a weird display. There are literally millions of peoples bones in this set of underground tunnels stacked up for people to pay to see. Erin and I were pretty interested in checking it out, but honestly it really creeped me out… Erin had a good time though.

Afterward we grabbed a beer to cheer me up. The bad thing about the tour was it let you out in a different part of Paris than where itstarted, so we don’t know where we are and just had a beer. An hour and a half  and about 3 miles later, we were finally back on the right track! We were lost but still got to see a lot of the city we otherwise would have missed. We treked a little while longer over to the Eiffel Tower, took a bunch of pictures in the park surrounding it, and then shot up the lift to the top. The view from the top was amazing, but when its only 40 degrees at the bottom its muuuuuch colder at the top. We spent about 3 minutes checking out the view and then went back down. We grabbed a nice dinner nearby and then walked to another super nice restaurant right on the water to grab a quick drink. They had a heated outdoor seating area so we were able to sit outside and watch as the Eiffel Tower lit up (it glitters for about 5 minutes on the hour after dark).

Since we stayed up pretty late the night before, and we had done most of the stuff we had wanted to do, we took it pretty easy on Saturday. We wanted to check out Jim Morrison’s grave (Erin is a huge Door’s fan). This was easily the longest walk we’d have to make this week, but after stopping along the way at a amazing little pastry shop and a falafel window we were feeling good. We went to a really good restaurant right next to the Sorbonne for dinner then had to head back to the hotel early to pack up to leave for Cairo the next morning. This day easily wins the award for best food day!!

This morning we decided to reward ourselves for walking all week by taking a taxi to the airport. More expensive, but better than carrying our 6 bags for blocks down busy Paris streets. The flight to Cairo went well, and our ride was waiting for us before we even went through customs which made things extremely easy. Driving to the hotel was another story. Driving in Cairo is ridiculous. Lane lines are merely decorations. Picture rush hour on the beltway, but instead of 4 cars packed into 4 lanes there are 6 cars packed into 3 lanes plus the shoulder, and people sprinting across the street whenever they can.  At one point, after stopping at a red light and then speeding through it, the driver turned around and said in Egypt red means “go”. Erin was like “Oh, that’s different”. To which the guy responded “No, I make joke.”

We just checked into our “luxurious 3 star hotel” (I’m assuming the Middle East has a slightly more lax ranking system), and start checking out Egypt tomorrow. Should be a good time!

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Bonjour World!

The past few days here in Paris have really flown by. We’ve been constantly on the move, trying to catch as many sites as possible before we leave on Sunday. We’ve been lucky and had amazing weather so far this week (sunny and mid- to upper-40s) so rather than taking the metro from place to place, Erin and I have opted to walk. I think we’re averaging around 7-8 miles a day which isn’t too bad, and it lets us pop into any interesting shop, bar, or bakery we see along the way.

After our 7 hour “jet-lag nap”, we shower the 7 hour plane ride off and hit the streets. We decided to walk up to the  Basilique du Sacré-Cœur which is a huge Catholic church at the highest point in the city. On the walk over we picked up a baguette and some cheese and ate on the churches massive steps which overlook the city. The area around the church was pretty cool. It had these narrow streets that were blocked off from cars and were full of people and shop owners hawking all sorts of stuff. After our little grub sess, we walked back, stopping briefly to grab a beer. All the French people we’ve come into contact with have been extremely nice, but our conversations are usually pretty awkward.

French Waiter: Unintelligible French
Me: “Uhhh…” (sideways look to Erin) “Bonjour?”
Frenchie: More French (shoots us both uncomfortable looks)
Me: “Uhhh… two beers?” (throws up the hook em horns)
Frenchie: Smiles and nods “Deux bieres”

It’s much easier when there’s a menu because we can just point, but often times we resort to the “two beers” approach.

Wednesday we decided to get up early and check out a few museums. We grabbed a quick breakfast and then shot over to the Musée d’Orsay followed by the Louvre. Erin is definitely the artist in the family, but I still have a good time at these places by people watching, trying to make Erin laugh by cracking lame jokes, and consistently repeating “This is my favorite one!”. We both liked the Orsay better than the Louvre, so we kind of sped through the Louvre catching the major highlights (still  think we were in there for a few hours) and then headed over to Notre Dame before it closed. So far, Notre Dame has been the highlight of the trip. The inside of the church was amazing. We walked through the inside, lit a candle, took a few pictures, and then headed outside to wait in line to go to the top. At the top you can see the entire city. It was here where Erin learned shes in love with our new camera. She took a ton of pictures from up here (I promise we’ll post some soon). Erin learned two important things at the top: 1. A chimera is different than a gargoyle because gargoyles act as spouts for rain water while chimeras are decoration and 2. Erin loooooooves chimeras. You’ll see from the pictures we end up posting that she took a million of these guys. Afterward, we took Heuer’s advice and got crepes. I don’t understand how something so simple can taste so so good.

Today, we took the train out to Versailles to see where the King lived in the 1600-1700s. Dude knew how to decorate. There was gold everywhere. We did the walking tour with an audio guide to check out the king’s digs before heading back to Paris. When we got back we went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe for another view of Paris from above as the sun was setting. On the way back we grabbed a few sandwiches for dinner to eat in the room before calling it a night.

So far the trip has been exhausting, but extremely fun. We can wait for the rest of Paris. A special shout out to Cari who gave us the awesome Paris museum passes which got us into all of the above for free. Thanks Cari!!

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

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The Celebration Never Ends

What a crazy few days its been!! Our wedding day went off perfectly, and Erin and I have been in a mad scramble ever since to make sure we got everything packed before we took off. The events started Friday night with the rehearsal at the church followed by dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill. The drinks were flowing, the food was outstanding, and the company was top-notch. After a few post-rehearsal dinner drinks, everyone was off to bed to prepare for the big day.

On Saturday, the events started out at 2:30 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in D.C. The church was gorgeous, but couldn’t hold a candle to how stunning Erin looked (if things get too cheesy around here let me know). After a quick Catholic ceremony (oxymoron?) the wedding party took a few pics around the church, then hopped in a limo with our photographers to take some pics around town. Let me tell you, this was a blast. Our photographer is amazing, and we can’t wait to see how these pictures turned out. You can check out the samples here, here, and here, and we will post them all as soon as they’re ready! Highlights of this were, taking pictures as we were swarmed by tourists around the Lincoln Memorial and stopping off for hot dogs.

Around 6, it was finally time for the reception, and  the Carnegie Institution was an amazing place to have it. Erin and I want to thank everyone who came out for making the day so special. We had a blast. After the reception, the party moved back to the Beacon Hotel around the corner where boxes of left over booze was carted into the lobby. You know it’s a good party when everyone I talked to the next day said something to the effect of “Man last night was awesome, but I have no idea when I went to bed”.

The day after the wedding, we spent all morning and early afternoon saying goodbye to all of the out of town guests as they packed up. After a way too short nap, we began to pack. When we began planning this trip we decided that we wanted everything packed up for our trip the weekend before our wedding to try and reduce the stress of having a wedding and leaving the country for a year right after. In theory, this plan was foolproof, but as it turns out, much harder to implement in reality. We started packing around 6 on Sunday and finished about 20 minutes after we were supposed to have left on Monday morning. The good news is I don’t think we forgot anything. The bad news is I don’t think we forgot ANYTHING.

When we landed in Paris, we realized quickly we made our first travel mistake: we forgot the printout of our hotel info, and we had no smartphone, internet access, or French speaking ability to aid us in our quest. We did what any true Americans would do in this situation… we winged it. I knew what street the hotel was on, and the general area (and I use “general” in the loosest possible terms). After taking the train from the airport and hopping on what we hoped was the correct transfer metro line, we got out with our 6 bags and walked 5 blocks to our hotel. It really couldn’t have turned out any better, but it definitely taught us a lesson… nothing can’t be fixed by just winging it.

After a quick nap to brush off as much jet lag as possible, we’re getting ready to head out on our first Parisian adventure. I think the plan for today is kind of just roam around the city and soak it in. Tomorrow we’ll begin checking out museums and the such. We can’t wait to really begin our trip, but we already miss all the folks from home. We’ll write another one of these in a few days that will hopefully be filled with more adventures and hopefully be much more entertaining!

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