013 - SUPERBOWL CHAMPS! (and a weekend in Paris)

Warning: long blog post. If you need to take a potty break there will be an intermission.

First off: I am incredibly jazzed that the Packers were able to overcome so much adversity and injuries and bring the Lombardi Trophy home. I am also glad I got to watch the game, but more on that later.

Secondly, I hope I'm doing this whole "blogging" thing well enough that ya'll are not bored, but are enjoying it. I'm doing this blog in lieu of a write down journal, mainly because I don't have a lot of time to write in a journal and I'd rather share my thoughts with the people who care about me enough to read this.

SO, my weekend.

Woke up at 3am to head to the airport for a 7am flight to Paris. And by Paris I mean Beauvais airport 75km from Paris. Luckily they have busses into the city center, so we did that. Upon arrival we just started walking and wouldn't you know it we ran into the Arc d'Triomphe. Afterwards we walked down the Champs Elysees, going into some stores and such. After getting lunch we found our way to the Eiffel Tower, a good photo-op. Our next stop was Notre Dame, which for those of you without a map handy, is a good 3 miles (or so it seemed) from the Eiffel Tower, it took a while to walk there. The outside of the cathedral is not great compared to the ones in Italy, but it's the inside and stained glass that makes it unique. I then remembered that my high school French teacher has a friend (Mme Faim) on Ile Saint Louis. I managed to find her "famous" shop, but also remembered that she retired just a few years ago. It was still great to see though. It was getting late after that, so we headed to check into our hostel. Let me tell you it was an experience. Four beds to a room, or should I say closet. But the other people in my room were from France, Brazil and the UK.

The next day, after a good nights(ish) sleep. We headed to the world famous Louvre. Walked around that for a few hours. Now I'm not a huge art fan, matter of fact I was a little bored and Rome sick. But there were still some cool pieces, like the Mona Lisa (obviously). After the Louvre we headed to the Opera House to see if we could find the Phantom. We did not find him, instead we sat on the step and people watched for a while. Next we went to Invalides, this fort type thing where Napoleon is buried, unfortunately you had to pay 9 euro just to see his tomb, kind of stupid if you ask me but the French just love ripping off tourists. Again it was night fall, so this time we went to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. It sparkles for 5 minutes every hour, which is cool but gets old quickly and frankly wastes electricity, silly french. Of course we did not leave Paris without a glass of champagne which was great, albeit expensive.

**INTERMISSION**

Sunday it came time to leave Paris, but we had seen a lot and walked a lot so it was great to get back to Rome. Mainly because the Super Bowl was on that evening/morning. It took us over 2 hours to get back from the airport because Rome's public transit runs when it wants to run, it's not on any schedule and I'm really surprise they even have designated bus routes. Urg, I miss the CTA.

I had decided since the NFC Championship game that I would for sure stay up and watch the Super Bowl. So I found out that it was playing at the Hard Rock Cafe Roma. Getting there was a total non-issue. We actually had to walk up the Spanish Steps on the way, well we didn't HAVE to but we did anyway. The game was great, duh, but a little bit of a nail bitter and the end. But my boys pulled it out in the end. I always knew they'd hang on. What a great year. I'm definitely buying the DVD highlights of the season, as I've mentioned before. The Italians were very rowdy for the game, which made it more fun, there were also a number of Americans there as well wearing Packer jerseys. Now as for getting back to the J-Force, we tried to find a taxi stand, no luck. Walked all the way down Via del Corso to piazza del popolo, still no taxi's. Then I remembered that the N6 night bus stops at Piazza Cavour, so we walked that way, kind of a long walk but just as we got to the stop we see a bus and its luckily the N6. We finally get back at about 5:15am. I have a 9:30am class on mondays so that kind of sucked this morning, but nothing a little caffe can't solve. Also, I just found out my 2pm italian class was cancelled for today. Still have one more class later, but this leaves a little time now for a siesta.

WHEW, sorry for the long post, but I hope you enjoyed it. I mean this blog is partly for me so I can go back later on and see what I did week to week. Calcio (aka soccer) starts this week. My toe is still bothering me, it's all the darn walking. I hope it will be alright for playing.

Ciao ragazzi, I miss being in the states a lot, can't believe I was not there for this great Packer moment, but I'll be able to look back on this time and always smile. Repeat next year Pack? I think so.