Anyone that knows me well knows that I love culture and knows that I am passionate about travel. I like submersing myself in an environment that I am not use to and I enjoying gaining cultural perspective. One of my favorite scriptures, D&C 90:15 states "And set in order the churches, and study and learn, and become acquainted with all good books, and with languages, tongues, and people." I have particularly wanted to travel to France for as long as I could remember, I started taking French as a freshman in high school and I am enrolled in French as a college student. Last year after our 1 year anniversary Sean and I decided that no matter what, we were going to go to France for our 2 year anniversary. So we started saving, which for us, was difficult. I love going out to eat, I don't particularly like to cook. We use to go to the movies every weekend, possibly twice in one weekend. We liked spending money. We decided to cut back on all unnecessary spending, only going out to eat for special occasions like birthdays and holidays and the same for the movies. I don't think anything else could have possibly reigned me in. When I started going back to school it became even more difficult to save because we had that extra expense. Somehow, we were able to do it, and it seemed easy after we had built better habits of cooking and finding other ways to entertain ourselves.
One of our first miracles was setting us up for our journey several months before hand. Sean was able to go to England for a temporary duty station for an airshow last summer. While he was there he learned how to navigate the subway and learned which trains to take from Mildenhall Air Force Base in order to get to London. This tiny bit of knowledge ended up being incredibly helpful on our trip along with Sean's military service.
About 2 months before we were planning on leaving, one of Sean's fellow airmen was stating how difficult it is to take leave to a foreign country. We believe this was a miracle in itself for Sean to overhear this statement. We had never asked for leave outside of the country and thought the process would be the same, but it actually is much longer. If Sean had not heard this he would have requested leave to late and we would not have been able to go.
A week before we were about to go, one of the families Sean home teaches needed a priesthood blessing. He was able to go to their home and assist in the blessing. After the blessing they shared their experiences about the trip they had just returned from. They had just went to Europe, particularly Paris and gave Sean a number of pointers and let us borrow their electrical converter. A majority of this advice was helpful to us along with their electrical converter, the one we had originally purchased ended up not working.
For this trip we were fortunate enough to travel Space Available Travel with the Air Force. Space Available travel is basically just that, if there is space on a military aircraft that was going to travel from one base to another anyways, active duty military can travel with their dependents on that flight for a small cost or depending on the aircraft, for free. The only downside to this is, you can not reserve your spot, schedules are released only released 72 hours ahead of time, many times these schedules change, and you can be kicked off of your spot up until the last minute the aircraft is scheduled to leave.Here is a photo of what we had to base our plans off of.
If you are an avid planner like me, this is rather nerve racking if you are going to use this as your only method of travel. For us this was the plan. We reserved our hotels in the middle of the week and decided that if we got there before then we could always get another room. Two hotels scheduled in the middle of the week were the only thing we had planned. Of course I would get anxiety so bad sometimes that it would bring me to tears we decided to pray and I'm a little embarrassed to say it, but we also fasted. I'm not embarrassed by the act, I'm embarrassed by the concept of me fasting for something I wanted versus me fasting for something I needed. I don't think I have ever fasted for something I wanted. I have a really hard time praying for something I want, even though I know it is encouraged to pray for what your heart desires I guess I was a little embarrassed that my heart desired to go to Europe (lets face it there are bigger problems in the world). I know that if you have a righteous desire that Heavenly Father will answer your prayers, I just had the most difficult time acknowledging this as a righteous desire. After much contemplation and prayer I came to realize that it was OK to pray for this, that I would have the opportunity to put my learning of a new language to use, that I would become acquainted with language, tongues, and people, and most importantly I would be strengthening my relationship with my husband. So I gave up all of my planning and left it up to the guy who knows all.
We facebook friended all of the passenger terminals on facebook about a month earlier and watched to see if there was a trend and noticed that a certain air force base had been releasing 10-30 seats every certain weekday and was traveling to England. This was the closest air force base to our house. We decided to take a shot and go down there. By roll call ten seats had been released and there were 20+ people in the waiting room. Sean kept calmly stating that this was going to happen for us and that he was even excited about going, he has so much faith I wish I could be more like him. At this point I was a bit of a pessimist and a realist and said that we should be seeing if we can even afford a plane ticket over there because we weren't going to get on that flight. The airman working the desk that day happened to be very nice, she made some phone calls, and got everyone on the plane. (Stay tuned for our journey home, it was not this simple!)
Even though the airmen working on that aircraft had done us a favor by making room for all these people, they apologized for being late, and were incredibly nice. Taking the Space A flight was an adventure all on it's own. It was total peasant style. I'm not complaining because we were beyond lucky to be able to travel over seas for free, I'm more or less giving any military families a heads up in case they are interested. It was a lot like camping. It was freezing, we sat in fold out style chairs ( my husband's seat had a metal bar going down the center of his bum), there was cargo right in front of our legs, and it was pretty care free. This was nice if you wanted to sprawl out and lay on the floor, but it wasn't so nice in the sense that one mom with two kids took up 6 seats and they spilled their juice all over our camera case and no one really told her that wasn't OK. Rules stink when you have to follow them, but they keep people in line around you, in this case that would have been nice. Nine hours later we arrived in England!
One of the passengers was asking if someone wanted to split a cab to Ely where the train to London left and we asked him if we could. One sweet lady on the plane offered him a ride instead and he invited us to ride with her. She was nice enough to go along with it. Another little miracle for us, a cab ride even split would have been incredibly expensive. On the way there I was glued to the window and was convinced that I was meant to live in a British style home. They all were so quaint and had so much character. I was excited to see pheasants the size of roosters in their fields, it's always interesting to see new terrain, new birds, trees etc. Ely was the cutest little town, I wouldn't mind living there. I wish we had taken more pictures there but we were driving. We took the one hour train ride from Ely to London, once we arrived in London we went hunting for platform 9 3/4 which was right outside of where we got off of our train! It was really neat to come into London on Kings Cross as I am a big Harry Potter Nerd.
We purchased our train tickets to Paris, we originally were going to go straight there, but our train left two hours later, it took us about 30 minutes to generate a plan and figure out what we wanted to do, we decided to try and go to see Big Ben, we thought we had ample time. We completely underestimated London traffic, we had time to hop out of our cab get a picture and hunt down another cab. It was still a pretty fun experience being able to see it.
Sean and I decided that we need to make England a visit all on it's own some day. I definitely wouldn't mind being stationed there. We made our train to Paris and slept most of the way. We ended up landing in the Northern part of Paris, which I knew to avoid because it was a sketchier part of the city. We got a cab ride to our hotel, it was dark by the time we arrived so I didn't really get to take all of Paris in until the next morning. I was very pleased with our hotel. It was cute, it was in a great location( in the Latin Quarter), and it was within walking distance from Notre Dame. We could hear the bells chime, such a magical sound! The only difference between American hotels and Parisian hotels was the room size, I knew before hand that most moderately price Parisian hotel rooms were small, we only had space for our bed and to walk around it.
That evening we went for a walk in the rain to get dinner. We ate right across the street form Notre Dame. I was still in shock that we were there, it hadn't really hit me yet. I ordered a Croque Monsieur, Sean got a chicken dish. Both were really yummy, but our desert was amazing! We order Panacotta, which is cream in a gelatin form with a raspberry sauce over it.
Sean has tried making it since we have been home we are having a hard time mastering it but it is still pretty good. 
After dinner we went went and looked at the outside of Notre Dame. I've wanted to go ever since I was a little girl, I knew about Notre Dame before I knew about the Eiffel Tower. We have so many pictures of Notre Dame because it was the most accessible to us. I loved that area of town.
We went to bed around midnight. You know that feeling you got when you were a little kid and would wake up at 5 am on Christmas morning and you have absolutely no sense of being tired because you are so excited? That was me, five hours after we went to bed. We got up at about 5:30 am, got our things together, and left our hotel at six am. We didn't plan it that way, our alarms were set for 8, but we decided to take advantage of our sudden burst of energy. Another little miracle, I believe, I am NOT a morning person. We got the best croissant I have ever had and fresh pressed orange juice from a Boulangerie around the block from our hotel and ate it on our morning walk. Paris sleeps, I love that about this city. It felt like Sean and I had run of the whole city that early and we got to see the sun rise behind Notre Dame and on the river.
Because we were up so early we decided to go and see the Eiffel Tower, it took us a little over an hour to walk there. I got to see some of my favorite cultural aspects on the way. We got to see parents dropping their kids off at school. I don't know why I loved this so much, probably because it was different than the way I was used to being dropped off at school, I'm sure there are similarities in the United States but I didn't grow up in a big city. There was no specially sanctioned school grounds. It was a regular building in between and attached to 2 apartment complexes and several other row of duplex like buildings. It was so sweet to see kids kissing their parents good bye. We also got to see teenagers on their way to school, and people on their way to work. I saw a man walking his adorable Bichon Frise, but he wasn't on a leash, he was trotting adorably behind his master, with the cutest little grin on his face. I know I've said it before but this was the best morning of my life!
We finally made it to the Eiffel Tower, I tried to act cool about it and not "touristy" and excited, from what I hear Parisians point fun at all the silly tourists that gawk over the Eiffel Tower, but I think I failed miserably. I was a tourist, I was gawking, I was excited.
Following the Eiffel Tower we got a crepe with nutella and started searching for the metro because it started to rain. One really nice lady gave us her tickets for the metro. I'm so glad Sean learned how to navigate the subway system in London, we would have been lost. Again another little miracle that the weather was beautiful throughout our whole morning walk, and the rain forced us underground allowing us to get faster travel, if the weather would have been nice, we would have attempted to walk everywhere.
Speaking of being watched out for, when we came out of the metro, a guy saved us from being pick pocketed Sean and I are naive and easily fall into traps, after that little fiasco we arrived 15 min after the Louve opened, and this was my initial reaction to the line.
"I'm not getting in that line"
"There has got to be a shorter one somewhere"
"There is no way that is the line"
I was mildly frustrated with the concept, I had been warned that the Louve is crazy, I seriously thought if we arrived around opening time it wouldn't be so busy. False. It was like Black Friday. After I accepted that I'm not the only person in the universe that loves art, I started to have a good time. I have been a Da Vinci fan ever since I saw Ever After with Drew Barrymore, I got really emotional when I saw his first set of painting's that weren't the Mona Lisa and tried to keep it together so people wouldn't think I was crazy, I was especially happy that the people who only knew about the Mona Lisa weren't crowding his less known works which were in a different area than the Mona Lisa so I could stare for a while. The Mona Lisa is another story, you definitely had to push and be aggressive if you even wanted to see her. I'm taking art history and I got to see some paintings that I had learned about in that class and others that I had no clue who the artist was, the techniques, or the intention but I thought they lovely. It was awe inspiring and refreshing to just marvel at such beauty.
Following the Louve we made our way to Versailles. If you are in Paris, you can take the metro to Versailles. I'm glad we learned this on the way back to Paris but wish we would have know going out there, we ended up paying around 32 Euros for the taxi ride out to Versailles. When I was in middle school I read a biography of Marie Antoinette's life, and even though I have always been disappointed in her poor example to her people I have always had this guilty fascination with her journey as queen of France. The steps in the Palace are stone, but are worn down in areas where people walk the most a lot like carpet in house that receive a lot of wear and tare. The Palace and the history behind it was beautiful.
Following Versailles palace we made our way to the Arc d'Tromph. By this point we were feeling pretty fatigued and hungry, luckily I had some grapes and peanuts in my purse that were getting us through. I never really had that big of interest in the Arc d'Tromph, Sean was interested in going and I am so glad we followed through with that interest! We got to see some beautiful views from Paris from up there, plus the detail actually put into the architecture was intricate. On our way back to the metro from here, a lady asked me for directions (in French)! I was so pleased by this, and even more please when I could give her accurate directions.
Beings Notre Dame was so close to our hotel, we tried to see if we could make the last tour to the top, we made it to the line at 4:15 and the had quit taking tours at 4. A little disappointed and a little relieved we went in the inside and got to see the beautiful stained glass free of charge. There was a nun asking for donations, we happily gave her one. I was disappointed more people didn't, we are imposing on their place of worship to take pictures of stain glass windows, you should be able to muster up a Euro or two. Again, more beautiful architecture in Paris.
We got a sandwich from the same boulangerie and made or way back to our hotel room. We had been gone since six am, we were exhausted. Sean fell asleep on the bed, I got in contact with an old friend from high school who was a foreign exchange student from Germany. Stay tuned to hear more about that adventure! After Sean's nap we went back to the Eiffel tower to get a night view of the city. I'm so glad we did things the way we did, get a day view of Paris from the Arc D'Tromph or Notre Dame, as they close around four or five, but the Eiffel tower stays open til about 11 pm and it is so much more beautiful and romantic to see at night.
When we made it to the bottom, we still had about two hours before our metro passes expired, and we were anxious to get them used. So we hurried over to Sacre Cour at night, knowing it would probably be closed when we made it there, and knowing it wasn't in the safest part of town. Sean wanted to go, and as much as I didn't want to go anything he wanted to do I did because I already felt like this trip was more my thing than his. I was a little stressed, the metros stopped working at midnight, it was eleven, I didn't want to walk to our hotel from there, it would have felt dangerous and it was really far, plus I was tired. But we went and it was another little Paris check mark. If there ever is a next time it certainly is a day time visit not night. I was happy to make my husband happy though, and once we were back in our hotel room we looked at one another and were so proud of what we accomplished and so humbled we had so much help from our Heavenly Father for that day. Every night before we went to bed we offered up the most humble prayer of gratitude. Our experiences and accomplishments had nothing to do with us, it was all due to him and at times the kindness of other people. 
We had no trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. We made our way to get in line to get into the Notre Dame tour. If you are touring Paris, plan on this one taking a while and going with a group, I wanted to breeze through it as we had to check out of our hotel by noon but we had to be patient and wait for the group for a lot of the tour. Notre Dame is hands down my favorite part of Paris.
We hastily made our way back to our hotel, stopping and getting croissants (definitely not as good as 6 am croissants) from the same boulangerie that had saved us so much money! It was so much more affordable to go here rather than eat at a restaurant every day and the food was still new, interesting, and yummy to us.
We took last minute pictures of the area we had stayed in, packed our bags and with super heavy but excited hearts took a taxi to the train station. I did not want to leave Paris, of course we didn't do everything there was to do there, and I am glad. I want to go back someday, I don't want to completely have that city conquered (even though I think we did an awesome job with how little time we had). I miss it, and day dream about our experiences there all the time since we have been home. Several times on this trip I would glance over at my husband either asleep in some strange position on whatever form of transportation we were on, looking at a map, or flipping through our camera settings and just think to myself, I am the luckiest woman in the world, to have this guy who would not only go to the ends of the earth for me, but constantly be in some form of action in order to make it special for me. I love him!
Part 2- Nice!
On our train ride to Nice, we slept for some of the trip but would wake one another up to look out the window. I loved being able to see France and see the terrain change as we headed down south. As we came into Provence/Cote D'Azur we got to see the ocean from our train. The train ride was an experience all on it's own. I got a Lay's chips brand that we don't have in the US, roasted chicken, it literally tasted like I was eating a roasted chicken. Side note, France has an orange soda drink called Orangina. It's just that good.
Once we arrived at our hotel we were surprised by the wonderful hospitality and the beauty of the hotel. We checked in at the Negresco, it is one of the icon's of Nice. It was completely Sean's idea to stay here, awesome pick! I am grateful we got such an amazing deal on it, we never would have been able to afford it otherwise. It is one of the fewer privately owned palaces in Europe. The owner is an art collector, our last night there we went and looked at the artwork on every floor, she owned pieces ranging in extremely modern to Francois Boucher. I really enjoyed our stay there.
Our first night, we went on one of the more popularly traveled streets and got dinner. We were so close to the Italian border that we saw/heard several Italian people. There was really good Italian food on a lot of the restaurant menus as well. At dinner Sean got some amazing pizza, and I got clams cooked in wine with a side of fries, it was so yummy! We got a feel for the culture and had a romantic walk back to our hotel. Nice and Paris are like night and day, both beautiful, both culturally diverse, you can't have one without the other. If someone asked me to pick I wouldn't be able to do it. After another nights sleep, we decided to force ourselves to relax. I came to the conclusion I am completely incapable of relaxation, and that on vacation, I don't do that. I usually go and go until I am so exhausted that deliriously I make my way back to bed and continue that way. So we slept in as much as our bodies would allow and took our time at breakfast, crepes and waffles on the beach. We sat on the beach for probably 3 hours, it was wonderful!
3 hours in, I was stressing that we were missing out on something so we got our things together and took off on another adventure. We toured old Nice, seeing colorful historic buildings and making our way up the side of a hill to get a good view of the city.
Once up on the hill the weather became warmer, we saw a beautiful old cemetery and a park fashioned around the ruins of a medieval castle. From up here we saw a breathtaking view of Nice. I have a hard time guessing what Sean is thinking, I'm always wondering if he is enjoying himself, if he likes where we are, if he is having fun. Most of the time I have to read his body language, pry and ask questions but up here I got to hear him actually vocalize "Nice is beautiful".
After spending some time up on the hill, we made our way back down into the city, we made our touristy purchases: cheese, chocolate, lavender, soaps and made our way to find some pizza, had a romantic walk on the beach and end the night with some jazz music in the bar at the Negresco. We finished the night with looking at the art in our hotel and stressing over what and where we were going the next morning.
Part 3 - Strassbourg, FR- Germany, going home!
The Internet wasn't working very well in our hotel, but we were trying to figure out which train ride to take to Germany and how we could get to see my friend Sandra. In the end we were finally decided to go to Strassbourg and try to get a train ticket to Saarbrucken. This is when God's hand became very evident and we had angels with us every step of the way. With the Internet not working it was so hard to figure out which time trains left, we couldn't buy tickets, and couldn't do much research. We went to the train station really early and got a ticket to Strassbourg, out of all of our train experiences this one was the most interesting. We saw beautiful views of France, other than this, it was a stressful experience. We changed trains in one area and a lady with little children took our seats, the argument was over my head, we involved one of the train workers, they told her to move she didn't so Sean and I were separated. A really sweet young woman about my age gave Sean her seat so we could sit together. This usually wouldn't be such a big deal, but we were exhausted and had a difficult time falling asleep if we were not close to one another out of fear of being pit pocketed in our sleep. Usually one of us slept while the other was awake, in short I was so glad she offered Sean her seat. Once in Strassbourg the only train tickets we could get to Saarbrucken where my friend lived left 3 hours later. We tried to purchase WIFI at the train station (we were charged 20 dollars for it) and it didn't work. I needed to get in touch with my friend so she would know when to come and get us, if I couldn't find Internet we would surely miss her. On top of this, no one in Strassbourg spoke a lick of English so it was all up to my French speaking abilities. With the added frustration I broke into tears in the middle of the train station and was having a hard time getting it together to ask questions. After this little break down we walked around the train station and thankfully found a connection and I was able to send this simple message.
"We will be there 9:15 pm! Dinner with us?"I was so grateful to be able to get that through! After that little bit of stress was lifted off of my shoulders we toured Strassbourg with the short amount of time we had. It was definitely not a part of the plan, at all. I am so glad we got to see it, it was only a taste but it was just enough. We ate some German food ( after we told Sandra she thought it was funny that we got German food in a French country, and that in Germany, American and Italian food is what was most popular).
Our visit was mostly walking around and seeing the city, it certainly was vastly different from Nice, and Paris but still beautiful in it's own way.
After Strassbourg we went to Germany and waiting on the platform was my old high school friend Sandra! She greeted us with such enthusiasm and excitement it was so wonderful to see her. She took us to the area that she works by in Saarbrucken. We ate dinner with her, she left us for a moment while looking for a table and this waitress asked us a question and we were completely lost. I still don't even know hello in German. None of this was in our plans, but I am so glad Heavenly Father led us here. I got to see my friend, her home, country, and catch up with her. She also arranged for us to get to the air force base in Ramstein, without her we never would have made it to the base. It was not a coincidence that everything happened. the way it did. She arranged for us to get a train ticket from Saarbrucken to Ramstein, had a taxi waiting for us there. I love her and I'm so glad our paths crossed!
Our journey was coming to a close. We went into the Ramstein passenger terminal a little overconfident, beings the last Space A flight, that only had 10 open seats got us to England we certainly thought Ramstein would get us to the United States as their facebook pages appeared to have multiple flights leaving daily to the US. The flight we were hoping to get on had 50 tentative seats. We were certain we would at least get on that one if not another following it. We signed in, roll call came around, and what was once 50 tentative seats fell to 0 firm seats and there were no more flights leaving that day. I had school the following day and a dance rehearsal that I was dreading to miss. I was a little upset. We knew something like this could happen, but it stings a little more when you are so sure you are safe. We signed into an Airforce hotel and visited a mall attached to it. I tried to get caught up in homework. I was dyeing from the anxiety of being stuck in Germany forever and having to drop out of college because we were stuck there for a week, we didn't have money to buy a plane ticket home as tickets out of Frankfurt were $4,000 a person. The next day rolled around and we prayed and prayed for a ride to any state in the US, and we got one! In all this chaos we got to celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary waiting in the terminal for our ride home. The plane we got on was nicer than any commercial plane I have ever ridden. Out of 230 seats I think 214 people were on this flight, several were those coming home from serving in the middle East. We had to pay $30 a person for this one but it was quite nice, best service I have ever had on an airplane.
When we landed in Baltimore we came out of the passenger terminal, there was a large group of people cheering for those serving in the military, I turned bright red and ducked my head and didn't want any sort of praise. I was very moved that there were people who care for these people who serve our country, one lady looked me in the eye and said thank you, I had no idea what to say, I definitely didn't deserve any praise as there were people who were coming home from the middle east and felt mildly like a dirt bag yet still moved for those who were seeing the US after months from being away from their families.
After a rough time finding a plane ticket to Omaha, American Airlines was EXTREMELY helpful in getting us a flight to Chicago, after many other airline counters told us to go online and buy our tickets, they wouldn't help us face to face. American Airlines gave my husband a great military discount on our tickets, and was overall very polite and helpful. After our flight to Chicago, we ended up renting a car from Budget where we received another great military discount and drove home through the night. We got home at 7:30 am, and I left for school 30 min later at 8:15. Our adventure was officially over when I walked into class. It felt like my whole week was a dream, and even though people asked how it was, I didn't feel completely comfortable indulging on details, well because I had this much to say and how do you summarize all of this? I am so grateful we had this opportunity. I am grateful that this trip didn't come to be available to us until now, now was the right time for us to go. Heavenly Father was there for us every step of the way.
