I'm Back!!!!!

Europe was fantastic! I loved it a lot, and out of all the family vacations my family has been on, this has been one of our best. We hardly fought at all, and overall we all had a good time!

Paris was absolutely gorgeous! It was pretty rainy while I was there, but that didn't take away from the city's beauty. We saw all kinds of beautiful landmarks, shopped, ate amazing meals, and even visited the Musee d'Orsay! I definitely want to go back there sometime before I'm thirty. 

London took awhile for me to fall in love with. It had gorgeous, old buildings and landmarks juxtaposed against ultra modern (but amazing) buildings and structures and hideous office buildings from the 1970s and 80s. It took awhile to get used to that, because the buiildings in Paris had a uniformity of sorts that made the city blend together well. I thought Paris was easier to get around than London, but the London Underground was much easier to understand than Le Metro. We actually got lost in Le Metro, and thanks to the remnants of knowledge I gained from doing a stupid stupid stupid project in French III I was able to get us back to our hotel.

In England, we visited some landmarks (and spent like 4 hours in St. Paul's Cathedral thanks to a ridiculously long guided tour), caught up with some of my mom's old friends from her time in England, saw a club water polo match, ate terrible terrible meals, shopped a TON, and went to the West End to see Bend it Like Beckham The Musical. The show was fantastic, by the way! I loved it a ton, it was really different from many of the musicals that I've seen in the past.

The most difficult parts of the vacation were the flights. Our overseas flights were great. Lufthansa is now officially the greatest airline EVER in my opinion. Their seats were comfortable and spacious, we had a selection of free, endless entertainment, a fantastic in flight meal, and excellent service! It makes me want to fly to Germany more often! The domestic U.S. flights were ATROCIOUS though. On our first flight, they took off an hour late due to computer issues. On our flight back from the Newark airport, we had a half hour delay, no air conditioning on a packed flight in 90 degree weather, and very uncomfortable seating. But hey, if the worst parts of a vacation are getting there and getting back home, that's a pretty great thing!