The European Month

I really should have started this sooner, but alas! I'll just have to quickly summarize what I've been up to since leaving Illinois.

Our flight to Johannesburg took us through Paris, so my parents decided it would be a good idea to stay for a month in Europe. Tim and I had never been farther than Mexico, so we decided to do a complete(ish) tour of the western part of the continent. The first stop was Paris--our base camp, so to speak. We have some family friends who live in St. Germain-en-Laye (a nearby suburb), and we lived in their apartment for a few days while we saw the Parisian sights. Things of note:
1: Crepes and baguettes are so much better in France! Croissants are about the same.
2: I can legally drink wine in France! It's a good thing I like it, because people instantly are nicer to me once they see I drink wine.
3: My French is passable! Shout out to Madame Lopez!!! Whenever my mom wasn't around, I was the go-to communicator. And I spent the entire week trying to teach Tim how to pronounce "Je ne parle pas francais." Or as he says, "Je papa francais."
4: The Louvre is ginormous. I swear I walked 5 miles in there. It's also awesome though.
5: French people are barbarians who don't eat cereal.

But seriously, the wine culture here is hilarious-- as is the urge people have  to praise you. We took a bike tour of the city one day. which ended with a boat ride and wine. The guide (Maxim, who was awesome) offered me some wine, so I accepted. "Good Man!" he stated. Later, when asked for a refill, he exclaimed "Excellent!" When he offered me a third glass and I declined? "Sensible!" He proudly announced. Or take, for example, the guy at Chipotle (yes, I sought out the one Chipotle in France) who told everyone "good choice" when they ordered. Parisians are still pretty snobby, but not when you give them money!

Anyways, we left our bags in Paris and took a train south to Le Puy. We set out from there on a weeklong, 100 mile backpacking trip on Le Chemin de St. Jacques. The Chemin is a centuries-old pilgrimage ending in Spain, but we just hiked through part of France. Each night we would stay in a hostel made for pilgrims. We slept in a barn at one point thanks to M. Pic (or Pique, nor sure which). That was cool. Another night our host looked just like Karl Radnitzer. His wife was the best cook ever.

When we finished our hike, we rented a car and drove through Italy to Austria and Deutschland. More things of note:
1: Our car got randomly upgraded to an Alfa Romeo! So my dad was basically beaming with happiness the entire trip.
2: The tour book said that traffic laws are seen as optional to Italians, and they weren't lying. The Autostrada was filled with "strattlers"-- drivers who would drive in both lanes at ones so they would have the option of passing the car in front of them at a moment's notice.
3: It feels like half the people in Europe had a Benz or BMW. And Dad successfully out-accelerated a Ferrari coming out from toll booth.
4: Bathroom cleaners in Europe wait outside the bathroom for a tip after you relieve yourself. Weird.

So we got to Austria, spent a night in the town of Gschnitz (best name ever), and drove to Salzburg, where we spent a few days doing more tourist stuff. From there, we went to Munich for a few days. Highlight of Germany? Beer Gardens. We went to the Englischer Gardens twice, and it was awesome. There were Oompah bands, lots of beer, and lots of drunk people in line for the bathroom. The beer was good, but the french fries and rotisserie chicken was much, much better than I expected from a place catering to drunks.
Also, beer gardens are apparently a popular place to get married-- we saw two weddings in one evening there.

From Munich we drove back to Paris, ate crepes, got our stuff, and boarded a plane to Africa.