From Idaho With Love, Molly

So I didn't get to bed until like 1:30 am because I was double checking my luggage and getting my last minutes of internet in before I'd be without it for two weeks. I then set my alarm for 3:30am so I could say goodbye to Jessica, and give her back her laptop adapter. I also said goodbye to Andrea. It was kind of sad to see us all off. We had become close over these 5 weeks and so to be split up was strange. I mean I think we were all ready for our time alone but it was still weird. Then I crawled back into my bed where my alarm would later wake me up at 7:00am. I really didn't want to get up when it came time. I was so tired and could have slept for so many more hours. I crawled out of bed anyway and got ready for the day, as did Elyse. We then headed down to breakfast were I had a glazed donut for Benae. I also had canned pears which I like more than fresh pears. After breakfast we checked our room one more time and made our way to the lobby so we could meet the shuttle ...

I woke up at 3:30 AM so I could say goodbye to Laura, and Danielle who were leaving for Italy. I wanted to say goodbye to my London roomie. I said goodbye to them and went back to bed until I had to get up to get ready for my day. I had a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, fruit and some bread. Then I met up with Jessica and Benae. We all knew what we wanted to get for our families. We were on a mission. We headed past the tent city of protestors. One had a tree house! That was cool to me. We saw this street with a couple of stands were local artist were selling their work. Jessica bought a clock for her architect brother. And I bought a plate for my mom, as did Benae. It was green, red and yellow/orange. It was perfect! It matched our house colors and everything. Now I just had to buy for my brother and dad. I was lucky my list wasn't as long as theirs. We went down the Rambla and down the streets we had been on our first night in Barcelona. They wanted to go to Shana where yo...

I got up kind of late on my first free day. It was a free day! Today was going to be a day for finding the Banner bags, as I call them. Unfortunately I didn't know it would be a day of walking. I first went to my computer to see if I could find the name of the place and try and find it on a map. I found one place and you had to take the subway to get to it. So I took the metro to this kind of sketchy part of time. I first tried to figure out where I was on the map with no success. Then I decided to wait and go back and try again. I got a little further but then I ended up in an even sketchier place so I decided to bag it and try and find the one in old town. So I got back to the subway and had to buy another ticket cause I lost the other one. This trip was getting pricey. Then I got back on the metro and took it close to the Barcelona Arch de Triumph. I then tried to find the Rambla, which I did but didn't know I did. The signage isn't the best overseas. I just continued to...

Today we would have another tour with the wonderful William. This tour would be mostly Gaudi's work and new town. We started off by driving in a bus. William explained that when they started planning for new town they decided that all the building's corners would be diagonal because it was so hot in Barcelona and the diagonal corners would allow for the breeze to get through better. I can't imagine how hot it would be without those corners because it is already a really hot place. Gaudi designed some of the sidewalk tiles. That was across from the bone building. The building that I had seen when I was younger and it was a dream to see it in person. William made a different speech about it though. He explained it as a dragon. We went to Sacred Familia (sacred family) the cathedral that has been under construction for years. It looks kind of scary from the outside. And then you go inside and it is so light and welcoming. The stained glass is amazing. It is so beautiful and br...

We spent our morning in the airport. We had to get up early yet again. We didn't get breakfast because it wasn't open as early as we were. We all had our bags and were freaking out about weight. And as we waited for the bus to pick us up we used the scale over and over again. Then we got on the bus and we were all exhausted and most of us didn't get ready for the day. We arrived at the Paris airport where we ended up standing around and waited till we could check in. Some people went to find food and came back with a McDonalds mask. Andrea had it on so we had some fun with that. While we sat there we a had a rather rude lady sitting next to us. I don't know if she didn't like us because we sat next to her or if it was because we were American. We weren't even that loud. We were half asleep anyway. But she was a real pill. But that soon was over and we were in line for our tickets. I had to check an extra bag and I was thinking it would be a lot of money but it w...

Our last day in Paris, and we had A LOT to do. But first we were going out for a surprise as Darrin and Susie called it. Only a few people knew where we were going. And it was bugging us all. We wanted to know! So we all got up and after our last breakfast headed out. We took the metro and then walked a distances to some very large walls. Then Darrin asked Leslie tell us where we were going. She said the very famous cemetery, Pere Lachaise Cemetery. I was really excited because Leslie and I had wanted to go there for our entire trip. We walked in and all the tombs were above ground. I thought that only happened in New Orleans. It was crazy to see. All these tombs everywhere all headed up a cliff. It was a very different landscape then I was used to. There was a beauty to it. We were told we had about forty minutes to wander around. It wasn't enough but Leslie and I jumped into action. We both wanted to see Jim Morrison's grave and Oscar Wilde's. I navigated our way through ...