A Hop, Skip and a Jump to Paris

I felt that our honeymoon started as soon as we entered the plane to leave Minneapolis. MN and head to Paris, France. We had spent the day preparing for the trip. Chris had to pick up a last minute international license and I had to pick up a digital camera as mine had gone missing at some point during our wedding. We also both picked up some reading materials. Chris chose the newest Star Wars novel, and I chose 2 romance novels. Both slightly different in hopes of using them for research for my own novel. Besides, who doesn't love a romance novel.

As we started to read on the plane, I started to get concerned about blood clots as I had read about long flights causing blood clots or hemorrhages and killing people. I tried to keep my legs moving and to continually change positions. Chris was trying to encourage me to take part in the free alcoholic beverages on the Delta International flight, however, I don't enjoy using the rest rooms on planes,so I try to avoid drinking things that make me have to pee alot. Like Coffee and Alcohol. I ended up sticking with water. However, I did end up having to use the on plane bathroom once, but it was fine, no lines or anything and no one had done anything gross in it just before me. 

After we landed, we went through customs pretty quickly and were able to get to the tourism stand where a french woman told us where we needed to go to catch the train to the Eiffel tower. We were told that we wouldn't have enough time, but we did the math and had just enough time to get there, take a few pictures and then head back. 

It was a bit of a struggle to find the train, but we just kept trying to follow the signs for RER which we found out to be what they call the ir underground subway system. The train ride was about an hour and 15 minutes with one train switch. We rushed our way to the Eiffel tower, taking pictures on the way. Once there we couldn't stay long and headed off to find a near by cafe to grab a quick bite to eat before jumping on another plane. We were able to find a small cafe a few blocks from the Eiffel tower and Chris ordered a cheese and meat plate and I ordered a ham, onion, cheese, potato omelette. The funny think about my omelette is that even though there were potatoes inside of it, there were also french fries served on the site which I ate with mayonnaise and ketchup a European favorite. We also ordered coffee or Cafe as they call it and I ordered a latte. Chris got what looked like a double espresso and mine came as espresso with steamed milk. We both enjoyed our coffee beverages and food and then had to run back to he train station.

Once we found it again, we hopped back on the train towards the airport. Even though we ran into some delayed trains we ended up arriving at the airport in more then enough time. We waited about 2 hours before the plane boarded. Since neither of us slept on the train from Minneapolis to Paris,we decided it was time to catch some shut eye. After boarding the plan for Florence, I fell asleep for a while, only to find when I awoke that our flight had taken off 45 minutes late. . Chris and I slept on and off throughout the flight and when we landed, we hopped on a bus to pick up our rental car which ended up being  a little white fiat. Chris was nervous about his ability to drive the little car since he hadn't driven a stick shift in years, which of course made me nervous as well. Chris and I hopped into the car and I suggested he practice a little in the parking lot. After one lap around, Chris said "Well, this will be interesting" and he followed the neverlost directions on to a main road. I was pretty sure this was going to be the death of us. Chris stalled a few times on our drive to the hotel, but that wasn't the scariest part. We had Italian drivers driving very close to us on all sides and we were often unsure where the lanes were because what we have noticed is that the Italians don't really stay in the lanes. 

The never lost device led us to the road the hotel was on and from there we kind of had to guess, but we found it. This was as the sun was just about to go down. We were greeted by a man named Nidar at the front desk, he checked us in and showed us our room. I was a bit upset at first, but now that I have seen some of the other rooms I think our room is just fine. We got our luggage into the room and unpacked into the very small amount of clothing storage space they have here. (a very small closet and two drawers) Then we walked down to the pool to see what it was like. We were both very tired from our travels so we pretty much went to bed right after that. I took 2 sleeping pills so that I could sleep in my new surroundings and according to Chris we slept for about 12 hours. It was wonderful!