PARis

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Well, well, well. I’m sure all of you have been waiting at your computers to hear about all about my trip to Paris. Wait no more. Here it is.

Our trip begins with us waking up at 545 in the morning to catch the tube to Paddington Station where our train is set to depart from at “7 in the morning.” We were running a little big late and just our luck, the Circle Line was closed over the weekend for repairs and that would have taken us straight to Paddington. Instead, we had to change to the Bakerloo Line which took even longer. Aimee is a very prompt person and she was worried we would be late for the train so she checked our reservations and it turned out that our train didn’t actually leave until 8. So we were relieved that we wouldn’t have to rush to the station. When we arrived, we ate some breakfast and waited to find out our platform. We started joking about how it would be so funny if PAR wasn’t really Paris and then headed to our platform to board the train. The night before, our friends had all gone to Roller Disco (which was awesome) where we dressed up in ridiculous outfits and roller skated, so we were exhausted and basically just fell asleep for the majority of the trip. We noticed some green scenery and some ocean view and thought “Wow. France is a lot like England…” Then I just passed out and was awake for maybe 20 minutes of the whole ride. The time had come. We were in what we believed to be Paris. It was really strange because it was the smallest train station I have ever seen (not that I have seen many stations, but you get the point) and I noticed some advertisements; all of them were in English. So at this point, Aimee and I are kind of freaking out. We step of the train wondering where we are and must have had looks of confusion on our face because the man who works at the station asked us if we needed help. And guess what. He said it in English. Not French. He asked us what we were looking for and Aimee and I look at each other and said, “The Eiffel Tower.” (Which might I add was NO WHERE in sight) Do me a favor and Google PAR + United Kingdom and see where it is in relation to London and to France. After you have done that, you will realize that not only were NOT in France, but we were not even remotely close to France. We are on the OPPOSITE side of the UK. Since we had no idea where we were, we high tailed it to a bed in breakfast. Luckily, Aimee needed to borrow my computer so we had brought it on the trip and were able to use the wireless to figure out exactly where we were. It sounds ridiculous but we had NO IDEA where we were and it’s not like we could go up to people and say “Hey, can you tell me where I am?” After finding out where we were, which was on the miles and miles from where we actually wanted and believed we were, we remembered that our soccer coach is English and therefore has parents who are English. And wouldn’t you know it, a little town called Tourquay happened to be where they lived which was only an hour and half from PAR, or Paris, whichever you prefer.

First, we grabbed a brew to relieve some stress and told our embarrassing story to the bar tender at the B&B. Then, we called Nick (our soccer coach) and woke him at 6 in the morning. We proceeded to tell him the story while he laughed, which I’m sure most of you are doing right now. We figured out we could get to Tourquay by train and Nick arranged for his parents to pick us up from the station. The rest is awkward. We met Nicks entire family, including his brother, their kids, and their 4 dogs. We awkwardly watched the football match and tried to make small conversation with these people we didnt know. Nicks dad took us on a tour of the town and it was really pretty. They live near the coast and the town is actually built on 7 hills that are made of limestone. The limestone would absorb the heat and then release it in the winter which is why they have palm trees all over the city. It’s almost like a miniature California. In the water, there are really neat “islands” that you can boat to. While we were taking a tour, we stopped behind a car to look at the ocean view and there was a little boy about 5 or 6 in the car in front of us and he just flicked us off, TWICE. Nick’s dad flicked him off back and the kid kind of laughed. Nick’s mom cooked us our first homemade English dinner which consisted of chicken, potatoes, and English bread, salad, and rue barb for dessert. It was actually the best English food we have had yet. We watched the match between Holland and Russia and went to bed.

DAY 2
The next morning we slept in until about 10:30 and were welcomed to breakfast laid out for us. I had Cocoa Crisps (MEGA-chocolate) and Aimee had just regular Cocoa Crisps. Pretty sure mine were better because they were MEGA—that’s how I roll. The orange juice was phenome. After breakfast Nick’s parents offered to take us to town so we could do whatever we wanted with the afternoon on our own. We took them up on the offer since it was a MUCH nicer day than the day before. Nick’s parents also gave Aimee their phone number so they could call us when we were ready to be picked up. Of course, Aimee forgot the phone in the car so they got a hoot out of that as well. We headed to the harbor and walked along the shops. We were attracted to one shop by an annoying recording that yelled, “Oh no, here comes Mr. Wiggles!!!” This advertisement was for this weird toy shaped like a worm that kids apparently love. The kids in the video of the advertisement looked like they were ten years old in the 1970s. We shopped around and Aimee found a couple gifts for some people. We asked the tiller if they had to listen to that ridiculous Mr. Wiggles advertisement all day and the girl replied, “Every minute for six whole years.” She then told us how cool it was that we wore cowboy hats in Texas. We didn’t want to disappoint her vision of Ye Ol’ South so we told her we ride horses too. After shopping we decided to hike to a viewpoint Nicks dad showed us the night before. We walked for what seemed like ages. We were joking that we should have brought our iPod’s with the Nike chip to see how many miles we traveled. We got a bit lost but eventually found our way looking over a huge cliff into the ocean. The first views we got were probably not very safe but it was still very pretty. We could see people below and decided to walk until we found the correct path. We found a path which eventually led us to yet another viewpoint. This one actually had a manual swing (aka. a small tree branch attached to a rope hanging from one of the trees) We saw some young kids with their family swing on it and decided it was a perfect picture opportunity for two 21 year olds. We snapped some action shots and headed back down the mighty hill. Eventually we arrived alongside the Meadfoot Beach and walked along the sand/rocks. We took yet MORE glamor shots of each other on some huge rocks and did a bit more climbing. After about an hour, we decided we should probably hike back up the mountain and head back to town. On the way back, we saw a couple old ladies wearing nothing but their tiny bikini’s tanning on a deck. This woman was burnt to a crisp!! It looked like she doused herself in butter and smelled like a butterball turkey. (Kramer reference if any of you get it)

We hiked and hiked and got sweaty armpits. When we finally arrived in town we saw yet MORE old ladies belly dancing. Oh yes, do not fret…I have pics. These woman were hilarious, and happened to be awful at belly dancing. One of the ladies had to be at least 80 years old! After watching the grand spectacle, we searched for a place to feast. What better place to feast than a place called “Camelot.” In the spirit of the musical Spamalot, we decided to go in. You know what made us decide to pick Camelot?? Extra large Turkey legs…mmmm. When Aimee went to the bathroom she saw a sign that said, “I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!” hahaha. We feasted on our turkey legs like any royalty would and found a telephone booth to call the Cowell’s. After a long day we were pretty tired and waited around for the match between Spain and Italy—aka. the most boring match we have ever seen. EVER. But before we could waste three hours of our life we had to feast, again. This home cooked meal was turkey with brown gravy, peas (not mushy thank goodness), potatoes and apple sauce. The dessert was weird but delicious—it was something called a maragne cake over ice cream and strawberries. Delicioso! We watched the match and it went on and on—kind of like this blog. HA. I tried my first cup of tea with milk and sugar and everyone made fun of me for taking sugar. The Spanish won in penalties, which means we can all sleep well tonight. Luckily in the morning we did not have to go all the way back to PAR—the craphole of the world. Instead, we get to go straight from Newton Abbot and head to Paddington from there. We will save about 4 hours time total and 12 pounds. Overall, the weekend ended swell and we are glad we made this stupid mistake. Hopefully we can go to Paris with our families when they come in instead, and see the Eiffel Tower instead of Nick Cowells’ grade school. Love you all and feel free to make fun via comments!

PS. Some of you should be expecting postcards soon from PARis.

PSS. I'm sure you have realized the pictures are the beginning are not actually from Paris. But I figured ya'll would enjoy a little bit of Paris. haha.

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Photos

Bed & Breakfast
our saving grace

in the trees
on our hike

from the view spot
we walked really far to get some of these pictures

Comments

[Sarah]

wow mal.........
I can't believe you guys didn't make it to Paris..................good thing it all worked out....seriously....I would have been freaking out....haha but it seems like you and Aimee kept your cool.....good work! Your parents are coming to visit you?? When's the new trip to Paris then? Can't wait to hear more stories! p.s. that disco sounded awesome!! xoxo love you! ~Sarah

[grandama Retta]

nothing
Mal, I have been reading all of your writings and seem like you are really having a great time. So great to be young and fancy free! Did you ever get to Paris i really didnt understand if you did or didnt. Love you and missed seeing you at Georgetown Love grandma