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After another pretty late night, this time in Versailles, we also once again woke early (although we did get to sleep in until 8, such a luxury! Luckily Versailles was only just around the corner from our hotel and man is it a sight. I sound like an uncle right now, but really, it is so lavishly decorated with gold and expertly carved stone. As you can tell I'm struggling to find architectural terms to describe this palace, but if anything you need to go see it with your own eyes (if at all possible). You can buy a "passport" pass which gets you access to the palace, the gardens, and the separate houses as well like Marie Antoinette's cottage house and where guests stayed when they visited. It is such an immense place altogether that it is hard to see every inch of it. We saw most of the palace (I think) well, at least the main part of it where you start, and then the right sides of the gardens and a couple of the other outer buildings, but Marie Antoinette's cottage house was closed for restoring sadly. We still spent a substantial amount of time there because of how much ground you have to cover. I know it would be very expensive, but I didn't like how none of the fountains were on, it just doesn't make the garden grounds look as truly magnificent as they're supposed to be. Looking out over the whole gardens and when you walk through the palace, it gets you thinking how insane it is that a family lived there... there is just so much space and multiple buildings and separated gardens that it's hard to imagine living there. That was pretty much the only thing substantial we did today because after we were done there we had to go get our luggage from the hotel and head on our long trek to the hotel (next to the airport). First we got on the RER (train) around the corner, thinking that could take us to the destination we wanted, but turns out it was actually the end of the line after a few stops. So then we had to walk across the street to the metro and take that to the next line we needed, but that ended up going a different way so we got off at another stop to get on a different line that would take us to where we needed. Sorry this is very hard to explain when I'm not even very familiar with it either! Finally we boarded one that would take us to the airport, or so we thought. We got off at the (technically) first stop of the airport which was actually not that close to the airport at all so we had to go upstairs then exit and go back downstairs in a different section to get on a train that would take us to the terminals at the airport and from there we went to the hotel shuttles they had running. It took nearly 2 1/2 hours to get to our hotel from Versailles which was insane and I'm still not sure why it took so long, we did have a few bumps along the way. For instance, when we got off at the first airport station, we were supposed to insert our tickets into the machines to let us exit, but it said it didn't take the kind of tickets we had and there was no other exits or anyone at the help desk sitting there so we just kept walking in circles for 10 minutes before someone finally returned and let us out. My luggage also got stuck in one of these stations that you put your ticket in and I honestly didn't know what to do but someone came behind me with a ticket so it opened again. A taxi is extremely expensive here, while taking the metro is only $3, so if you want to save money it really is worth it, but it's also a pain in the ass to carry your luggage up and down multiple sets of stairs while people are all around you as well. But it's whatever because it makes for good stories and it's over eventually and then you can laugh at your pain, right? So yeah, tomorrow we have to board an early flight to Ireland and then have a 4 hour layover :( before taking off for around an 8 hour flight to O'Hare in Chicago and then drive another 3 1/2 hours home. It'll be a long day, but considering how exhausted I've been, I think it shouldn't be too hard to fall asleep *fingers crossed* Thank you to all of you that have kept up with my posts this past week and and I can't wait to keep blogging for you all to read!