Jack, Les, and this place called Europe

Last night at about 8 p.m., Celeste and I limped to our front door and stumbled through it, officially marking the end to our long and exhausting European adventure. What a fool I was to think that I would actually be blogging last night, as I had promised in my previous post. After visiting 6 cities, 4 countries, walking over 30 miles, having an airport sleepover, and finally learning the true meaning of jet-lag, blogging quickly dropped to the bottom of our priority list. Instead, our priorities went something like this: collapse, stand up, limp, collapse, shower, brush teeth, collapse.

All that said, Europe was INCREDIBLE. "Incredible" doesn't even do it justice. It was scrumtralescent. Seeing as there is no way to share everything with you without boring you and making my hands cramp, we're going to do a quick highlight reel, along with some rankings and just a sampling of the pictures we took that are sure to make you jealous.

STOP #1: Belfast and Derry, Ireland
DURATION OF STAY: 4 days
HIGHTLIGHTS: Seeing my sister Mandy and her husband Bryan, going to Bryan's work to see the sets and production offices of "A Game of Thrones", a new HBO series that will come out next year, eating a delicious meal in an Irish pub while local folk musicians filled the air with their music, touring Belfast City Hall, Dunluce Castle, The Giant's Causeway, seeing the most beautiful and emerald green coast under heaven, walking through Derry where "Bloody Sunday" occurred back in the early 70's (you know, the U2 song, British Army, the IRA and all that), teaching Mandy to play the guitar.
LOWLIGHTS: Being absolutely screwed up on sleep. Jet lag, coupled with the fact that the sun rose at 5 a.m. and didn't go down until about 11 p.m., was extremely unforgiving on our bodies. Never before had our internal clocks been so confused and angry at us.

STOP #2: London, England
DURATION OF STAY: 2 days
HIGHLIGHTS: Spending time with friends Andy and Erin and listening to their evolving British accents, The London Eye, an organ performance at St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament, Buckingham Palace, one of those cheesy but well-worth-it double decker red bus tours, seeing J.K. Rowling's house, a stroll through Hyde Park, discovering the magic of a raspberry sorbet on a sugar cone (over and over again), highly impressive street performers, the Royal Botanical Gardens, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, riding trains, the beauty of the Thames.
LOWLIGHTS: Only having 2 days there, developing blisters on the feet.

STOP #3: Paris, France
DURATION OF STAY: 3 days
HIGHLIGHTS: Climbing the narrow winding staircase to the top of Notre Dame, a romantic night stroll along the Seine River, Le Saint-Chapelle with stained-glass that gives you a headache just thinking about how it was created, the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo at the Louvre, King Louis' Versailles Chateau and gardens, and taking a rowboat out onto his personal canals, The Musee de l'Armee and Napolean's tomb beneath the Golden Dome of Invalides Cathedral, the Arc d' Triomph, watching the sun set atop the Eiffel Tower.
LOWLIGHTS: Having our hotel lose our reservation on our first night in Paris, forcing us to scramble for a place to stay, the place we ended up staying, the pillows at the place we ended up staying, discovering on day 2 that our shower was no longer in service at the place we were staying (do you see a trend here?) Not speaking the language, the Orly Airport, adding blisters on the hands to the existing blisters on the feet from the rowing at Versailles.

STOP #4: Barecelona and Valencia, Spain
DURATION OF STAY: 5 days
HIGHLIGHTS: Seeing Mandy again (she joined us for this last leg of the trip), attending church in Valencia where Celeste served her mission, seeing Celeste's apartments and meeting friends from the mission, swimming in the Mediterranean, La Mercat de St. Josep, touring La Sagrada Familia and learning about Gaudi architecture, beaching it up in Barcelona, walking La Rambla and watching in disbelief at some of the street performances, The Gaudi Musem and Casa Milla, The Montjuic Castle, Palace, and Fountain, The Picasso Museum, authentic paella, eating Celeste's favoirte Spanish treats and candies, walking Barcelona's endless web of charming streets, alleys, nooks, and crannies, more raspberry sorbet.
LOWLIGHTS: Pain with practically every step, discovering how much this whole thing cost us.

I know that's a lot to swallow all at once, so if you want to sift through all the info and find out what we enjoyed the most, Celeste and I have created a Top 5 list of things we did:

CELESTE'S TOP 5 PLACES, SITES, OR ACTIVITES:
1. The Irish coast
2. Swimming in Valencia in the Mediterranean Sea
3. Visiting the Mission
4. Cathedral of Notre Dame
5. London Double-Decker Bus Tour

JACKSON'S TOP 5 PLACES, SITES, OR ACTIVITES:
1. Dunluce Castle and the Irish coast
2. Swimming in Valencia in the Mediterranean Sea
3. The city streets of Barcelona
4. Cathedral of Notre Dame
5. Versailles Chateau and Gardens



Also, of the six cities we visited, we've ranked them in order of which we enjoyed the most. Be it known, however, that we enjoyed them all immensely, so there's really no dishonor in being last on this list.

CELESTE'S EUROPEAN CITY RANKINGS:
1. Barcelona, Spain
2. London, England
3. Valencia, Spain
4. Paris, France
5. Belfast, Northern Ireland
6. Derry, Northern Ireland

JACKSON'S EUROPEAN CITY RANKINGS:
1. Barcelona, Spain (without a doubt)
2. Paris, France
3. London, England
4. Belfast, Northern Ireland
5. Derry, Northern Ireland
6. Valencia, Spain

Now we're in North Carolina, but not for long. Tomorrow we leave for Utah and another 2-week vacation. Behold the fruits of being a teacher.

At the airport, near the end of a long, long journey