Be-Fra-Lux....Yes, I made that up

Working night shift you would think jet lag would not be an issue. I'm used to sleeping when it's not natural to sleep and I'm used to not getting a lot of sleep. I do great when I'm on vacation, but coming home for some reason really messes me up. And regardless how little I've slept in the last 48 hours, I still have to come to work. To pay for said vacation. So it really brightened my not so bright day at work when I walked in and was asked how my trip was. And then simultaneously several people mentioned different locales that I have traveled to in the last 3-4 months. Not one of them being the trip I'm recovering from. Apparently no one knew I went on this trip and had just gotten home. But I didn't tell them about it then either. I just said they were great. I thought it would be rude to mention that I had been on yet another trip. Despite my blog, I rarely tell people that I travel. I think it's conceited, plus, do other people go around blabbing about their addictions? So since I didn't get the pleasure out of telling anyone about my latest adventures...

Advice/things people don't tell you:

It's really cold at the top of the Eiffel Tower. So cold that I ran in place for 30 minutes to warm up. I finally warmed up, at the expense of looking like an idiot.
When all the locals are waiting for the elevator at the metro station, go ahead and wait with them. They probably know that there are 200 steps just around the corner.
The metro during afternoon commute is not the best time to travel with all of your luggage. We may have made a lot of French enemies while trying to get off with our packs.
6 layers may not necessarily keep you warm when it's snowing in Belgium
Tights like this will never be in fashion. And don't do fur. I'm not even an animal right's activist. It's just not attractive

Two twin beds pushed together is just not the same as an actual king bed. And it does not feel good sleeping on the crack between
It does not matter what country you are in--Angela will still need to take everything out of her bag to find something.
Churros in Luxembourg are just as good as churros in South America. And way better than Costco.


Okay, the rest of the pictures are just for fun. I tried not to add too many pictures...

This is a famous statue of a boy peeing. They like to dress him up, and the day we were there he was dressed as a doctor. The scrubs say "European Associate of Urology"
This was one of the trip highlights: The US Military Cemetery in Luxembourg. This is the grave of Alex Penkala. Which is of interest to anyone who watches Band of Brothers which is one of my favorite movies.


The Louvre was the sleeper of the trip. I'm not really into art and wasn't expecting much, but it was surprisingly cool. I still don't understand the big deal of the Mona Lisa, but we saw it nonetheless.