The Trip to Europe

The adventure starts from the moment you pull out of the driveway. (especially when you completely forgot that you are supposed to be to the airport 2 hours early for international flights)

We spent 3 days in Paris, 5 in Chamonix, and 3 in Rome. Warning: I must mention that traveling with a snowboarding bag is not ideal! It doesn't fit on the metro well when you are crammed in a small space with lots of people.

Paris

My favorite thing in Paris was the Eiffel Tower at night. It was amazing!! I was suprised at how big it was. At every hour the tower lights up with thousands of strobe lights up and down the entire structure that everyone oohs and aahs at. Very FUN! We took an elevator to the middle where you can overlook a spectacular view of the city. I was bummed cause they usually make french fries up there but the fryer had broken before we got there so we couldn't get any.

Let's just say that our hotel in Paris was so ghetto that we weren't worried about people breaking into it. The closet of our room had been converted into a bathroom which included this luxurious 1x1 shower. The first morning I was sitting in our room when I noticed a slight flood coming from the bathroom. Jason was taking a shower and didn't notice all the water that was coming out. We had to use all of our towels to mop it up, I kinda expected to find our stuff outside the room when we got back that night. Luckily we didn't get kicked out.

Unfortunately I was on camera duty in Paris and I didn't do my job well. The things we did that we didn't get on film were the Louvre (where we saw the Mona Lisa, another fav. of mine), The Arc de Truimph and a full day at Versailles. Versailles is a beautiful palace about 30 min. outside of Paris.

Chamonix

Chamonix, France was a little more Jas and Caroline style. It was a smaller city nestled among a very steep mountain range. Here is where we had the best food! My favorite place was a sandwich shop called sandwich chaude. (Hot sandwich). They had delicious paninis, sandwiches with fries on them, etc. I think we ate there 3 times.

They have a little train that takes you up to the Galcier. The Glacier is called the Gare du Montevers. You can also take a 20 km ski ride down to it. The small opening you see is an ice grotto that they re-carve each year because of the glacier movement. Inside the grotto they carve out cool stuff like this couch. It has lights and techno music...so European!


This is Jas and I at the top of Auguli du Midi. Which is about 12,500 feet. We did some riding in these gorgeous mountaints. But we both agreed that Utah snow is BETTER! Jason is shown here riding what we named a crotch rocket. It is a long bar with a disc at the end that drags you up the mountain. They aren't really designed for snowboarders and let's just say it's not that fun and I can't believe that they still have them around!

Rome

Rome was the best. Everyone seemed really nice there and there was tons to see. The Coliseum
was pretty cool. Jason was telling me everything he knew about it...but I have a suspicion that his source was from a movie called The Gladiator.

I felt like I was on a honeymoon becasue most of our pictures are just of one of us.
The coolest fountain was this one. The Fountain De Trevi. One thing that seems a little peculiar to me is that so many people come all the way to Rome to see a bunch of ruined buildings. Does that seem odd to anyone else?


St. Peters square. This is were the apostle Peter is supposed to be buried. We saw were the most recent pope was buried. It was cool to see a lot of people gathered around His tomb to pay their respects.


The Vatican. Huge museum with hundreds of white statues. The ceilings are incedible. We went in the Sistene Chapel where they decide who will be the next pope (I really liked it.) I was suprised at how much gold is in the Vatican....does anyone else see anything wrong with this???


I know you are wondering why I took a picture of a bum. It's because that bum is ME! We couldn't get a taxi to our hotel so we had to spend the night at the airport. Us along with about 30 other stranded passengers spread out at the airport and tried to get what little sleep came. How many of you would actually do this? I hope to never do it again!!