Monday + {Day Thirty-Five: Paris}

Back in Paris! We arrived around nine in the morning and got hideously lost trying to find our Airbnb. But we found it eventually, thankfully! Upon arriving, our lovely host gave us some slippers!

We didn't do much today because of the long night on the night train (Gooligan didn't sleep as well as I did). And then there was the little deal with the train giving us all-day motion sickness! Fantastic! All kidding aside, today was great. Our host recommended this pretty good Chinese buffet!

After the buffet, we came back to our place and kind of hung out while I wrote more of my novel and both of us watched television. Then we headed out to find some groceries for dinner and snacks for the rest of our trip.

We ate in the living room and talked to our hosts who were both home from work. I was shocked to learn from our hosts that they have never been to the United States because it costs too much even for a transit visa to somewhere in South America. (Just to have an hour layover in Miama would set them back almost two hundred euros each!) It really made me think about my American privilege. We have been to something like eight or nine countries (including brief transit stops, such as Iceland and Wales) and we never once had to pay for any kind of visa, even for longer trips. It's like no one thinks that we'd have any interest in immigrating anywhere but everyone thinks that the rest of the world is so eager to move to the United States. Like we don't have a lot of problems that make us a really unideal country at the moment.

But anyway, enough rambling. Our hosts fed us all these delicious Parisian desserts and then I collapsed onto the bed unable to move because I was so full! We went to bed early because we want to go to Versailles tomorrow!

Wednesday + {Day Thirty: Venice}

Today is Gooligan's birthday! After letting her sleep in a whole ten minutes, I woke her up! We had breakfast (cereal and toast provided to us by our lovely hosts.

After breakfast I gave Gooligan her gift! It was a disposable camera! 27 pictures. We've taken a lot of pictures of our trip with my phone and our camera, of course, but there's something special about film. Having to line up the perfect shot and come to terms with the inevitable imperfections. When we get back I'm going to develop them for Gooligan and frame some. So we have an extra special reminder of today/Venice.

After breakfast and gift giving we had to spend some time doing laundry. Unromantic but necessary.

Then we walked to the bus through these beautiful crunchy yellow leaves. It really feels like fall here.

Once on the island we took a vaporetto (a waterbus) around the island to the restaurant we'd picked out for lunch.
Probably the fanciest place we've eaten this trip (but not unreasonably fancy), the food was completely worth it. Gooligan got the spaghetti and clams and I got the seafood spaghetti. Both dishes were perfection. They also served their Coke lemon slices, an odd European touch I've grown to love. We've been drinking a lot of Coke here (unlike at home) but it tastes so much better made with real sugar.

After lunch we wandered the streets and Gooligan happened to spot a mask shop she liked. We went in and the woman was so nice and let Gooligan try everything on. She picked out a gorgeous mask, her main birthday present!

Then we went to Doge's Palace, where the rulers of Venice operated while in power. It was gorgeous. We rented an audioguide and shared it as we wandered in awe from room to room.

After the palace we walked around until we were exhausted and then found this little restaurant on the canal where we had sparkling peach wine and tiramisu to celebrate Gooligan's birthday! Because no birthday is complete without cake and a rendition of Happy Birthday by yours truly!

Once dessert was over we headed home on the bus and after a brief detour of getting lost we made it home! For dinner, with the assistance of our host, we ordered some Chinese food that arrived on a Vespa!

After we ate we curled up in bed to watch Sleepy Hollow and I promptly fell asleep. All in all I think Gooligan had a pretty good day!