now for a couple calms weeks in Paris...

After Kelly left I was conpletely exhausted after having the craziest 4 weeks in a row that I can remember! Since I'm about 2 weeks behind in my blog posts, I'm going to try to do some quick catching up since I'm leaving in 13 days for my Maymester.

I spent the beginning of the week doing lots of homework. I had a reseach paper due in my Intercultural Studies class and other assignments in my other classes, since I didn't have very much time do to homework with friends and family visiting! Tuesday night I went to have a drink with my roomate to celebrate her gettting an internship in the US. We went to a bar/restaurant near our place because they had 2 euro glasses of wine. It was nice to relax and we had a discussion about Charlie Sheen with a French couple that was sitting next to us... I guess its big news over here too.

Friday night was my friend Brittany's birthday so we had to celebrate her 21st. We went to Planet Sushi for dinner, which was a really neat Japanese fushion type restaurant where the sushi travels on a conveyer belt so you can as much or as little as you want. Since I'm not the biggest sushi fan I got some delicious salmon and chicken skewers with rice and miso soup. It was fun to be able to see some friends that I hadn't hung out with in a while.

The food wasn't very expensive either which was a plus of course. After some sushi we went back to Brittany's house to pregame and then we went out to the Bastille area on Rue de Lappe. There is a ton of bars, almost reselmbing a mini college town. There was some drama between friends but it turned out to be fun night with a couple different groups of friends.It is funny to see all the different groups of people, but especially to see all of the Americans near Bastille. When I was in the bars, I kept hearing English which you can't help to eavesdrop. Saturday I did some walking around my area for a while, seeing the Parc de Belleville which is just a couple of blocks away and I did another visit to Pere Lachaise, the cemetary thats about a 5 minute walk away since it was such a nice day outside.

After doing some exploring, I went to hang out at my friend Valentina's house with some of her friends that I just met. She lives in such a nice part of Paris, right on the Place de la Concorde so getting off the metro being in some of the most beautiful areas of Paris is pretty cool. We hung out there for a while, looking at youtube videos and music and such, and then I went to my friends Matts for a "French" party. Everyone was supposed to dress French and have a good time.I wore a sleeveless blouse tucked into a long flowly skirt, heels and red lipstick with a barrette in my hair. It was really fun to see everyone in there costumes ranging from Moulin Rouge dancers to Tour de France bicyclists. Drinking lots of wine and eating lots of cheese as the French do, it was great. I met some really cool people so overall it was fun.

Sunday I was a bum for most of the day. I went to the Pharmacy with Adrianna to try and get her some medicine for her being sick. In France, pharmacists can give recommendations on what medicines to take when you are sick and can do pretty much everything except write perscriptions. After helping her out I went to Buttes Charmonte, which is this really amazing park/lake/really hilly area in Paris. Napoleon 3 built it to be a "sightseeing area" in Paris for the poor Parisians so they could feel like they were in other parts of Frace. I went with Valentina and we drank some wine and ate some cheese on the rolling hills. I can't believe I have never been there before though! There was so many people hanging out and even some were "laying out" Parisian style. We walked around for a while since the park was so big, There is a temple on top of this huge mountain thing surrounded by a lake with bridges all around... There even was a 20 meter waterfall. It was really neat especially since it is in Paris to see all of this open green space. After walking around the park we went to get some mussels at Leon de Bruxelles on Champs Elysee which was so delicious yumm!

On Monday I didn’t have class in the morning so I spent the night at Valentina’s place near Place de la Concorde. We ate lunch at this cute little Italian place near her house and then I decided to do a little sightseeing. I really wanted to go to Musee Rodin and I got all the way there before I realized it was closed. However as it is near Les Invalides there is a lot to see so I spent some time looking at some really beautiful parks and churches until I had class until 4:30. After class I hung out at my apartment catching up on some of the television shows I had missed in the US.

Tuesday I had class in the morning and then I spent a couple hours at the Canal St.Martin near school, eating lunch, drinking wine and hanging out with friends. It was really warm outside and I think I even got a little bit of a tan. It is a really popular Parisian activity to do some hanging out by the Canal/River so it was a lot of fun.

Hector Guimard's work

Wednesday I had a walk for my French civilization class. We met in the 16^th arrondisement which is about a 40 minute metro from my apartment instead of the usual 7 so I wasn’t happy we were that far away. 

Our teacher went over the architecture through the decades through the 20^th and 21th century and showed us examples from the buildings. There were some really cool things and examples from Hector Guimard who designed the famous metro signs.  The 16^th is famous for being a really nice area of Paris so it was exciting to do some people watching there. After walking around for a while, we went into this architecture museum/house of Le Corbusier who is a very famous Swiss architect that started the Art Deco movement in France. We had to wear these medical booties over our shoes so we wouldn’t get it dirty and it was a pretty weird place. Almost no furniture and some random paintings were the only things remaining except for the strange/interesting architecture. Apparently he designed many other buildings around the world and especially in Paris.

the thinker

After that part of the walk we went to the Palais of Tokyo which houses some awesome modern art. We saw the largest mural in France which shows the evolution of technology since the middle ages.  We also saw the Trocadero gardens and the area around the Eiffel Tower. 

After doing the walk I went to Musee Rodin to see the sculptures and the gardens… It is in an old house with some of the most beautiful gardens in Paris, some people don’t even go to the museum! I was able to see The Kiss, The Thinker and Gates of Hell as well as some other pieces by him and his ex-lover Claudel. After the museum I walked around in the gardens, which apparently Hugh Jackman was visiting the same day! I wish I could have seen him but no luck. There was also some paintings by Van Gogh and Monet for him since apparently they were friends .

inside chartres cathedrale

That night was my friend Chadi’s birthday so we celebrated by going bowling on Rue Moufftard which is a street full of bars that resembles USC’s Five Points. After some bowling we went to a couple bars and I went home pretty early after having a long day

Friday I decided to take a day trip to Tours, Chartres and the Loire Valley. It was amazing trip and it was great to be able to discover different parts of France. I took the train to Chartres which is a city about 45 minutes away from Paris. It has one of the most beautiful and famous gothic cathedrals in Europe. I had a delicious lunch literally 10 feet away at a small restaurant while I people watched tourists, locals, and the homeless begging out in front. Inside, I realized it was Good Friday and I was actually able to see them act out the Stations of the Cross.

Chartres

Even though it was French I understood most of what was going on, and it was a really amazing service to see somewhere that’s about 800 years old. In the cathedral, they have a chapel featuring a relic of the cloth that supposedly Mary wore when she gave birth to Jesus. It was a gift given to the Cathedral of Chartres during the 800’s. After walking around the Cathedral I decided to do some exploring of the city. It was very small but I found myself sitting and hanging out next to the Eure River…. very different from the hustle and bustle of Paris. I saw this really neat Museum of Stained Glass. Since one of the things Chartres Cathedral is known for is its glass there were some cool explanations/displays of the stained glass. It had an old town feel as there were ruins of medieval fortifications in the city. After finishing up exploring the city, I took a bus through France to the city of Tours, one of the biggest cities in the Loire Valley.  It was a 3 hour bus ride because we stopped in the train station in pretty much every tiny town on the way. Fortunately I slept most of the way and I finally found myself in Tours at about 9 at night. I went to the hotel and dropped my stuff off and decided to just take the night to relax and watch some TV because I had a busy day planned for the next day.

Cathedrale of Tours

I woke up at about 7 am because I wanted to explore the city of Tours before I took my van trip to some different chateaux in the Loire Valley. I arrived to the beautiful City Hall surrounded by gardens! I wasn’t really sure where to go so I just looked at a map and picked some of the areas that looked pretty cool. I bought a day pass on the bus so I could bus around everywhere along with doing some walking. I first walked through some really cool gardens with some statues of some famous people from Tours… Tours is referred to as the Garden of France and they really aren’t kidding, my allergies were horrible the entire time I was there! I went to see the Theatre, the Musee of Beau Arts and the Cathedral of Tours. It was really beautiful, as most cathedrals in Paris are but it was really great to walk around for a while. After walking around and taking a lot of pictures, I walked to the Chateaux of Tours and reached the Loire River.

There was this really pretty French resistance statue, talking about the French Freedom forces that existed while they were occupied by Germany.  I did some more walking and saw this huge market similar to the ones I have seen in Paris, selling fish, fruits and vegetables and some cool vintage clothing. I had lunch at a small pizzeria and then made my way to the Tourism Centre where I met up with the bus tour to take us to 2 different Chateaux in the Loire Valley. It was a small van of an American family, a Japanese couple and myself and luckily our tour guide spoke English. There are more than 1,000 Chateaux in the Loire Valley alone so outside of being able to visit 2 I saw about 4 more passing through the little villages.

Chenonceau

Our guide told us information about detailed information of Tours, the history of the Loire Valley and about all the chateaux that we were able to pass/tour. We went to Chenonceau first which started as a “house” for one of the King Henri VI’s favorite mistresses Diane of Poiters. Lots of drama happened since then of course and at one point it was a military hospital during WWII. But it is really an amazing piece of architecture as most of the chateux takes palce over the Cher River, with archs so boats can go under.The land included a farm, 2 large gardens and a really cool labrynth with a temple/tower thing in the middle. It really was amazing considering it is now owned by a wealthy cocoa farmer family, which I can’t even imagine how much it costs.

Chambord

The furniture and such still mostly remained from the time before the French Revolution which is pretty neat.  After exploring all the chateux and the surrounding gardens we went to the chateuax of Chambord which was about an hour drive away. We passed through tiny villages and beautiful landscapes of vinyards and canola oil fields (looks like yellow flowers) Chambord was owned by generations of kings and was eventually passed down as the hunting lodge of the emporers and now presidents.

The land surrounding the castle is the size of Paris and its 20 arrondisements, which is amazing. If Mr. Sarkozy wanted he could shut it down to go hunting on the land with him and his friends, but he doesn’t seem like the hunter type J The castle has a couple awesome double helix staircases which means 2 people can go down the stairs at the same time and not even see each other! The terrace was my favorite part because you can see the land, which involves acres and acres of lakes and forests, and also includes a small village.

I saw the chapel, the bedrooms and also some interesting hunting memoriabilia… not that I am a hunting fan but oh well. There were also some artifacts from different kings, queens and counts which was cool to see and read about.  After doing some more exploring we had to go back to Tours, so we got to see the city of Bloise on the way with an amazing medieval fortress and cathedrale. I had about 2 hours left in Tours so I ate a relatively quick dinner at this wine cave, since I really wanted to try wine from the Tourraine region. It was probably the best wine I have had in France and it was only 5.50 for a glass so it was a win-win for all.  I was able towalk around the city to see somethings I hadn’t seen yet, and then I took the train back to Paris. Overall,I was really happy that I was able to see more of France than just Paris since it is such a beautiful country with much to offer!

Now, another visitor comes to Paris!

Kelly arrived early in the morning so after I dropped Zach off I came back to the apartment and we took about a 3 hour nap, which felt amazing! After our nap it was about 1 pm so ready to do a little sightseeing.  Near Saint Germain-de-Pres we saw some amazing chocolate shops and had a delicious brunch with eggs, salad, orange juice, mini crepe, bacon,and Kelly had her first crepe!We went to Saint Michel and walked around for a while, took pictures of the fountain and then went to Ile-de-la-Cite where we went to Notre Dame. I have been about 6 or 7 times but it really still is amazing to see. After Notre Dame we went to the rest of the island and saw Palais de Justice which is really beautiful. It was kinda a cold day compared to what it had been so we didn't spend too much time outside. It was really relaxing just to walk around though and not rush around trying to see everything. That night we just stayed in since we were pretty tired..

Monday unfortunately I had class in the morning and afternoon but we were able to do some sightseeing in between my classes. We went to Champs Elysee and walked through the Grand and the Petit Palais and then down the boulevard to the Arch de Triomphe. We ate at Leon de Bruxelles,which is a chain of Belgian restaurants whose specialty is mussels and fries (my favorite.)

Kelly had the mussels au gratin, which has cheese and sauces on top and I had a bucket of mussels Ardenaise style yum! After walking for a bit I had to go to class unfortunately, but after class we went to dinner since it was 8 p.m. I wanted to take Kelly to an authentic French meal, so we did some research and found a palce called Chez Paul in the Bastille area. I had steak au poivre (steak with pepper sauce) while Kelly got her French on and ordered Steak Tartare and escargot(so proud :) Mine was delicious, definitely one of the best steaks I have had here in Paris, and she loved the escargot. On the way home, we stopped at the pastry shop and got some delicious delights for dessert.

On Tuesday I had to go to class in the morning and then we were off to go discover Paris. We went to see the Eiffel Tower first thing and we were able to take the elevator up. It was a sunny day with almost no clouds in the sky so luckily the view was really good. As usual the elevator to the top was really long but we were able to see all of Paris, and I got to be the tour guide and show her all the sights. We walked the Champs de Mars and through the Trocadero gardens. I’m guessing the Gendarmarie was on it that day because I didn’t see a single vendor trying to sell us souvenirs and such… it was kinda nice. 

 We then got some sandwichs at a local deli and then went to Champs Elysee again. We had walked a little bit on the Avenue on Monday, but Kelly wanted to go to the top which I had never done before. Its not as high as the Eiffel Tower but seeing all of the crazy avenues and watching Parisians drive was very entertaining. It also gives a great view of “La Grande Arche” of La Defense which is the business district of Paris, one of the places on my list to visit next! While we were walking towards Place de la Concorde to visit further down the avenue we stopped and watched these amazing street dancers.

I have seen them before near Sacre Coeur, and it is a group of about 6 dancers that put on a show! We took lots of pictures ;) and gave a tip especially since the only girl was from the USA.  We window shopped past Cartier, Louis Vitton, H & M and some other awesome stores. After walking on the Champs Elysee for a while we walked to see Rue Fauburg St. Honore, the most expensive street and Paris and one of the top in the world. We got to see the famous auction house of Sotheby’s, stores such as Chanel, Louboutin, Hermes and many more. It is so crazy how many designers are just on one street. After we walked to see the Grands and Petit Palais (built for the 1900 World Fair) along with the bridge Alexander 3.

The next day I had class in the morning, but luckily it was my last class of the week and then we continued our adventures. I was craving some Mexican food so I stopped by El-Nopal which is a tiny place near my school that has the best Mexican in Paris (I promise) and its not very expensive. Its not as good as the American version but it is still delicious, After, we went to see Les Invalides which included Napoleon's tomb, L'Eglise des Invalides, and the WWI-WWII museum. I went to see them when Zach was here, but it was pretty cool to see all of the military stuff again. I learn so much about French history everytime I have gone so now I feel more like an educated French student. Since it was a gorgeous day out, we met some of my friends for a picnic at Parc Monceau. It was fun for Kelly to meet some of my friends, drink some wine and play a couple games. For dinner we had to try the famous crepes and that is another thing that I am going to miss when I am back home in the US. We got nutella and banana which was delicious!

Thursday I had no class so we did a lot of sightseeing and exploring of Paris. We started out at the Louvre and I saw many things I didn't see last time. We saw all of big sights including the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Michelangelo, and lots of Egyptian and Greek artifacts. It was pretty crowded but it was awesome to not get lost and to explore some new parts of the museum. We were starving after we left so went to an delicious Italian restaurant for some pizza, pasta and bread. I had veal with a creamy lemon sauce and Kelly had a vegetarian pizza with lots of veggies and cheeses. Amazing! After lunch we went to see the French Senate and Luxembourg Gardens. Since it was such a beautiful day it was pretty packed but it was really nice to walk around the Garden. We still had to go to Montmarte, so we only spent about 30 minutes walking around the gardens before we were off. Once in Montmarte, we went to see the Moulin Rouge and the Red Light District of Paris and then we walked around Sacre Coeur/the artsy area of Montmarte.

Us at fondue

 It was pretty busy with people so it was fun! After spending some time on Butte Montmarte we went to Les Refuge de Fondue with a big group of friends for some baby bottle wine, fondue and fun. We were there for almost 3 hours, and then we went to the Neo Club for an event that our school was holding...I had to show Kelly some of the amazing club life in Paris! It was a lot of fun with some really cheap drink specials and being able to hang out with a lot of people from ABS. We were out until about 4 am which is pretty normal in Paris but we were really tired. It was a really busy day/night.

Waking up on Friday after 2 hours of sleep was not a fun experience but I was excited for Geneva. Since I don’t have a European credit card with “un puce” microchip and no help from some snotty French train employees we unfortunately missed our train and had to pay extra to make it on the next one.

In front of the UN

The train ride was about 3 hours long and traversing though France was a sightseeing adventure in itself. I couldn’t take the best pictures since we were moving so fast but I took a couple. Once we made it to Geneva we took a taxi to our hotel which turned out to be in France! I didn’t know that Geneva is so close to France, but the reason our hotel was so cheap is because it was pretty far away from the city center.We checked in and then took a bus into the center of Geneva. For some reason we could not find any help from a tourism side, no maps,no signs directing where to go from the train station. We were starving, tired and a little hung over so we went to eat some lunch at some Italian place we found. Switzerland still uses the Swiss Franc which was strange having to exchange my money, since most of Europe luckily uses the euro. Geneva is known as one of the most expensive cities in the world, and I can testify to that now!

A glass of wine at a normal restaurant was about 7 francs, or 9/10 dollars! We tried to keep our trip as cheap as possible however. I looked at a map at one of the bus stops and saw that the touristy part of Geneva is surrounding the lake so we just started walking towards there.  It was beautiful, parks and old houses surrounded by the Alps in the background. The presence of the lake reminded me of Stockholm, and in the middle of the lake is the tallest fountain in the world. I took some amazing pictures of the lake, city and mountains behind it.  

We finally saw some street signs for the old town ( in Geneva they speak both French and German so I was able to communicate pretty well) and followed those. We saw this really cool clock thing made out of flowers that actually worked, and statues of famous Genevans surrounded by beautiful parks/gardens.  One of main things that Switzerland is famous for is the Swiss chocolate so we got a couple bars and they were literally some of the most amazing things I have ever eaten! There was a chocolate shop probably ever couple blocks so we were in heaven. We went to visit the old town of Geneva which was really cute and found a church when John Calvin who started the Calvin religion preached. Adjoining the church was a beautiful 14^th century chapel that was strangely but ornately decorated. We finished our walk around the old town and really needed to use the restaurant so we snuck in a McDonalds to use it but turns out you have to buy something in order to get the bathroom code on my receipt. I bought a regular Coke fountain drink and it was 2.5 francs, about 3 dollars….there is no real dollar menu in Switzerland.

 After doing some window shopping at some of the expensive looking shops we wanted to try and find the UN. After walking around for what we thought was towards the UN, we asked some nice lady who told us it was about an hour walk but that we could take a bus there. There is no metro in Geneva but there is a really efficient bus system so we were able to get there in about 10 minutes. It was pretty cool to see all of the different flags of all of the countries around the world and knowing how important the UN is to the world today. There was a really neat monument in front that was a chair was only 3 legs, the fourth was destroyed about halfway down the trunk. It was supposed to represent mine victims around the world. We took lots of pictures and then went to try and find dinner. We found a Chinese place close to the UN so we split some Sweet and Sour Chicken and then decided it was time to make it a night. However we walked by the Red Cross Museum, but unfortunately it was already closed by the time that we made it there. We  were able to take a bus to the hotel and we went to sleep relatively early after the late night on Thursday.

Saturday morning was the last full day that Kelly was there so after arriving back in Paris we went to Versailles along with my roommate Adrianna.  It was great to be able to see Versailles again after seeing it with my family. The Hall of Mirrors, the kings bedroom, and so many other that are included in the palace. It is so crazy how all of the land and the gardens belonged to a handful of people during the reign of the kings. It was a gorgeous day and so after exploring the chateau, we met up with some of my friends that we having a picnic on the gardens. We spent a couple hours there,and we dined on some wine, cheese and ice cream. Some of my friends even rented a rowboat on the lake which was pretty cool. That night we were pretty tired so we decided just to stay in and hang out. It was an amazing trip and I was so glad that Kelly was able to come visit me!

zach comes to visit!



Hotel de Ville



Sunday after I got back from Spring Break I was exhausted! I took literally a 6 hour nap and did some homework to prepare for class on Monday. I had a group presentation for my international Marketing class Monday and other than that I spent most of the day cleaning and wait for Zach to arrive! I was so excited to see him because I hadn’t seen him in over 2 months. I was going to pick him up at the airport but unfortunately he had to take a taxi because I had a midterm in my class. Luckily his phone worked so we were able to keep in touch and after saying hello we went to the market to get some groceries for the week and then off to le Centre Pompidou, which is a really cool modern art museum that has a movie theatre, restaurant, library and the building is so weird but neat.

 Unfortunately I didn’t do my homework so I didn’t realize that is closed on Tuesdays. We just explored Ile-de-la-Cite, saw the Notre Dame, Hotel Dieu, Hotel de Ville and walked around St.Michel for a while. In front of Hotel de Ville they were filming a WWII movie complete with soldiers, tanks, and everyone dressed in 1940s outfits.It was really cool and we watched for a while the whole process. I wanted to take him to an authentic French restaurant so we went to Roger la Grenouille, the same place I went with my family. He had a steak dish while I had some delicious lamb stew and tricked him into trying foie gras haha. He was not a fan but at least he tried it.  It was a great dinner and afterwards we just did some more walking around St. Michel. That night we just split a bottle of wine and stayed in because unfortunately he was experiencing some jet lag, its a lot worse than you think!

The next day I went to class and Zach was able to sleep in a little bit and then we decided to go to the Louvre. For some reason, it was only the first time I had been so it was nice to do something that I had never done before. On the way to the Louvre there is this street full of animal pet stores so of course we had to stop in almost every single one to admire the puppies.
it was so cute/depressing to see them, it made me miss Jazz and Wes! The Louvre was amazing too! We saw famous works such as Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Hammurabi’s Code, The Dying Slave, along with so many others. The museum was so huge that we actually got lost for about 45 minutes just trying to find one part. They had things such as jewelry and sphinx from 3000 BC to pieces of the Pantheon in Greece to 18^th century Italian paintings and pretty much everything in between. It was so much bigger than I expected and it is true that you could probably spend a couple days in there.

I enjoyed seeing the major sights of course but there was some amazing sculptures and paintings that I really fell in love with. It was really fun and we took some amazing pictures! Afterwards we explored the Tuillerie Gardens and Place de la Concorde. Zach wasn’t feeling very well so we ended up going back to my apartment. Unfortunately he became so sick I had to take him to the hospital which was not a very fun experience as I don’t know very much medical French. Somehow we got by and he was given some medicine and an IV and was feeling better by Friday luckily. Something I hope to never have to repeat but everyone was very nice and understanding of my limited French skills. 

Place desVosges



The next day we mostly hung out at the apartment because he was still feeling really sick, but it was kind of nice just to hang out and watch movies. We watched Hall Pass and then later that evening we decided to try to have a little picnic at Place des Vosges, one of the oldest and prettiest squares in the city.  We got some bread from the delicious bakery next to my apartment, and chevre au poivre (goat cheese with pepper) and a desert cheese to celebrate our picnic. We walked around the Bastille area for a little while to just to show him the sights such as the Bastille monument and the new Opera Bastille. It was a nice relaxing day after a long night at the hospital.

Friday we had a very busy day to catch up on some of our sightseeing plans. We started out with a bus tour from Saint Michel to over 50 of some of the most well known sights in Paris. It was great to see the Arche de Triomphe, Opera Garnier, Place de la Concorde, the Louvre, and some other cool things. We took some great pictures and it was nice just to sit, relax and see everything without dealing with the stress of the metro or walking around. After the bus tour we decided to walk through some of the vendors we bought some old magazines from the 1940's; I bought an Elle magazine from 1948 and Zach bought a really neat WWII magazine (in French of course.) We went to this amazing Italian hole-in-the-wall restaurant that I went with my family after. Zach got this giant pizza and I got veal with lemon sauce. It was really nice to eat and have a glass of wine apres! Then we went to Luxembourg Gardens to walk around and relax for a bit. It was a beautiful day so of course there was a ton of people but it was really nice/romantic to sit in chairs near the pond.  We also got to see the French Senate as it is housed in the former Luxembourg Palace on the property.

There were lots of statues and mini-ponds as well as trees, fountains, and everything in between. I never realized how big it is until you walk from one end to another, which we did. But it was fun :)

Following Luxembourg Gardens we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower, but first we made a pit stop to the Musee Cluny which is a medievil fortress/museum. The outside is almost as cool as the inside! Then we walked through Champ de Mars and Ecole Militare and then decided to go up to the second floor of the tower. Since it was such a beautiful day, Champ de Mars was packed with people, on picnics or riding bikes or even playing with their dogs. Being exhausted from a day of traveling, we took the elevator. It was great to be able to show him some of the best views of Paris. The line to go to the top was really long but going to the second floor was plenty high enough for me. It was close to sunset so the city really looked amazing!

Finally after all that sightseeing we were hungry for some food. We went on the Champs Elysee to one of my favorite restaurant chains in France"Leon des Bruxelles." I had some amazing mussels Ardenaise style, and Zach had a burger since he is not a seafood fan. We had some Belgian beer as well which was delicious. We were pretty exhausted but we walked around Champs Elysee for a while, looking at shops like the Mercedes-Benz store, Louis Vitton and the Virgin Megastore.

Luxemburg Gardens

Saturday was the last day that Zach was in town so we wanted to do a lot of visiting around Paris. We started with going to Les Invalides, which includes Napoleon’s tomb, Military hospital and a couple military museums. I had never been inside so it was nice to be able to see everything. We went to the WWI-WWII museum which was one of the best museums I have actually ever been to. I have been to a WWII museum in the US but this one put a whole new perspective on the wars.



Montmarte at night



France obviously was a major player in both but they were so devastated in terms of buildings, people and way of life. They had uniforms, weapons (which Zach loved!) photos and some amazing memorabilia.  It was really awesome and I really learned a lot. For example, I had no idea that France had many of its colonial powers fight for them in both wars. 

It was really cool to see military uniforms and memorabilia from the fighters from Senegal, Madagascar, Indochina and many others.  One of the things that kinda disturbed me the most for pictures of the German occupation of France, including some of the road signs with German names and a picture of Hitler in front of the Eiffel Tower! But I would definitely recommend it if you are ever in Paris.  After seeing that museum we went to the Eglise de Les Invalides, which houses some of the remains of France’s most famous military heroes, many of them I wasn’t familiar with. Of course, Napoleon had a giant tomb in the middle of the church and it was a very impressive setup. It was a beautiful church with a giant organ and intricately decorated high ceilings. After exploring the church and seeing the resting places of heroes such as Foch, and some others we decided to go see the Opera house which was very pretty from the outside. The Opera from Phantom of the Opera is actually based on that opera and yes, it does have an underground lake! We then went to Galleries Lafayette, which is one of the most famous “department stores” in the world.

Galeries Lafayette

It is full of all of the designer brands in an amazing 7 story building, including Hermes, Louis Vitton, Chanel, Tiffany and Co, and many others. It was amazing just to walk around and see all of the super expensive designer brands. Zach bought me a Longchamp bag as a present, since they are so popular here and I am a big fan. It was so busy that we had to wait in about a 15 minute line just to get in the store! While walking by Tiffany and Co, I wanted to look at some of the diamond rings and found one that was €300,000. Wow!

After some shopping we went back to my apartment for a quick nap and then we were off to Montmartre. It was nighttime when we got there so it was packed with people. We went inside Sacre Coeur, and it looked so beautiful all lit up, and right after mass. Since it was a Saturday night the stairs leading up were full of people, drinking wine and singing and having a mini picnic. We then walked to the artsy area of Montmarte where there were many artists try to sell their work, along with street dancers and singers. We were kinda hungry so we decided to get some gelato (not as good as in Italy but still amazing!) and then make our way down the hill to eat some fondue at Les Refuge de Fondue aka the baby bottle wine place with my friend Valentina.

posing with our baby bottles!

 It was really fun and we met some many really cool people… it helped that Valentina spoke Spanish to them since they were from Argentina. We ate waaay too much cheese/ bread/meat and drank a little too much wine haha.  We spent about 2 hours there and we were going to go a really fun club called Showcase, but me and Zach were really tired so we just decided to go home… especially since Kelly was landing at 6:15 the next morning. I had an amazing time with Zach and he had a great time (other than the hospital visit) as well, especially for his first time in Europe!

Kelly’s plane actually arrived an hour early at 5:15 so she took a taxi to get to my apartment.  I brought Zach to the train station at about 9:15 and it was a pretty sad moment for me L I held it together though as we said our goodbyes because I knew we would see each other soon.

More Scandinavian adventures

Day 2 in Stockholm started off with some sleeping in for once in our spring break trip. It felt great and definitely was a nice break from waking up at 3 or 4 am. We had our breakfast at the hostel of just a croissant, orange juice and fruit and we were on our way to do some more exploring around Stockholm.

We walked around Gamla Stan and went through the Gardens and the area around the Royal Palace. It was cool to see the guards and the fountains that went along with the Palace. We ate lunch at this small cafe where I tried this "chokolatebal" which is exactly as it sounds, a ball of chocolate! After passing through and visiting more of the Old Town we went to the trendy district of Soldermalm where we saw this beautiful canal that was still covered in ice.... pretty weird to see since it was about 45 degrees outside but it was really awesome. It was a sunny day so we went exploring and took lots of pictures of the different islands. Since they don't check any tickets on the public transport, we decided to go bus hopping to see more of Stockholm then we could on foot. We explored more of Soldermalm and of Djurgarden, where we were able to see the Skansen fairgrounds, which is the largest open-air market/folk musueum in the world.

In front of the icy canal

The view from Djurgaden to the rest of Stockholm was amazing, especially seeing the white swans and wildlife. Although it was a little chilly, we had so many layers on that we felt fine. Once it got dark though we decided to go back to our hostel to warm up and take a nap before going back out for dinner. We found another traditional Swedish place were we enjoyed some more Swedish meatballs and we tried reindeer! It tasted a little like a mix between venison and a steak but it was delicious.  After dinner we just decided to stay in and hang out at the hostel were we met some really interesting Austrailans, Italians and some Germans. That is oneof the great things about staying in a hostel is you are able to meet some many cool people from different nationalities. We had a very early flight, having to wake up at 4 so staying in probably was a good choice since we were off to Copenhagen the next day!

Once we arrived in Copenhagen we were really exhuasted/hungry. We found our hostel which turned out to be a really cute bed and breakfast in the central of Copenhagen on the main pedestrian shopping street of Frederiksberggade. The lady that owned it was really nice and gave us some great recommendations of stuff to do and places to eat. However we felt like eating some American food so went to the Hard Rock Cafe that was about a 5 minute walk from our hostel. The food was as you would expect and but it was kinda nice not to eat as exotic as we had been earlier that week. We walked down Frederiksberggade and found a huge LEGO store!

Famous Marina

 As Denmark is the home of Legos, they are quite popular there and apparently they have a gigantic Legoland park outside of Copenhagen, but sadly we didn't have to the time nor the money to go see it. We also walked around to see the Tivoli Amusement Park, which is the oldest amusement park in the world. Sadly it was closed because it wasn't warm enough yet but it was neat to see. We found one of the most famous and photographed marina's in Copenhagen so we spent some time just hanging out near there until we ate some Japanese food for dinner. Since we took a good 3 hour nap during the day we couldn't see as much as we wanted too, but we ended our night with some Pelsforth beer which is Danish and delicious, just hanging out in our hostel. A little lame but it had been a loooong week!

Rosenborg Castle and Gardens

The next day was our last official day of spring break so we still had a lot that we had to see in Copenhagen. We had a typical Danish breakfast at a restaurant which included eggs, a strange kind of bacon, fruit, picked herring (didn't try itsince it was breakfast) and bread with lingonberry jam. It was so much food since most Danes eat a much bigger breakfast than other Europeans. It is nice that everyone in Copenhagen spoke English but I also looked up someDanish words just to help me out! It was a great meal and then we were off on our day. We decided to rent bikes which was both really fun and really scary since we both hadn't ridden bikes in so long. Copenhagen is ranked #2 in Europe in terms of bike usage and they even have their own designated lanes in traffic, complete with turn signals and stoplights for the bikers. We biked around the city centre and found these amazing botanical gardens hiding behind this normal house... ate some "pigs in a blanket" at a 7-11 and then went to the Rosenberg Castle which had some of the most amazing gardens. We didn't have the time to go inside, but it was nice just to relax outside the gardens and go around the outside of the Castle. It was built in the 1600's by the king at the time but it has been virtually untouched since then! After the gardens we biked to the Little Mermaid statue,since Hans Christian Anderson who wrote it was from Copenhagen.

Little Mermaid

It was right on the harbor surrounded by rocky beaches which was really amazing to see. We also saw some other tourist sites such as the Opera house, the Royal Library and also the National Art Museum. That night we wanted to eat on the Marina so we ate at an amazing Danish restaurant that was actually outside. Although it was freezing, we felt fine because they had high powered heat lamps and huge fleece blankets that we wore over our clothes. It was an experience but it was fun to be outside in the cold with that many layers on people watching! I had some lobster and some mussels, yum yum :)

Wall of Legos!

We had another chill night because we were so exhausted from biking all day and sightseeing but it was an amazing spring break with memories I will never forget!

Spring Break (part 1)

Sunday night was the start of my spring break, Europe Style!  I took the night train to Orleans, a city an hour south of France with my friend Olivier, Alexandrine and Valentina. It was a beautiful city but unfortunately we had to leave almost immediately after we got there we had to drive to Barcelona with our friend David. We drove by the Orleans cathedral though which was amazing! We were a little smashed having 5 people in a small 2 door car barely fitting 5 people but it was an adventure driving through south France on our 8 hour drive to Barcelona.

University of Barcelona

I didn’t really sleep very much, but we arrived in Barcelona at about 8 am, then checked in to our apartment and went exploring for the day. I ate some amazing tapas of mussels, mozzarella salad and fried shrimp (prawns.) The city was so beautiful but very different from Paris, from the architecture to the weather and of course the language. It was about 65 degrees and sunny which was an amazing way to start off spring break. We walked to the University of Barcelona, the main square where all of the shops were, and to Parc Guell.

Parc Guell

 It is a huge park on a hill overlooking Barcelona that a famous Spanish architect built? It is a little strange, but it looks like a mosaic/dreamland. We hung out there for a while drinking some Spanish sangria and enjoying the view and the beautiful weather. I also bought some delicious gelatto since it was so hot… what a treat! I bought a really awesome ring and a bracelet that my friend Valentina was able to barter down for me; both had cool gems and were made out of these crazy wire designs… hard to explain but they look sweet J After doing some exploring we decided to go take a nap because of the lack of sleep that we had… 3 hours later I woke up feeling not so great. We went to get a late dinner at this Spanish restaurant where I had some really interesting chicken with a salad and fries. Since we were so tired, we didn’t go out or do anything that night and Valentina and I had to leave early in the morning to go to Brussels. I wish we could have stayed in Barcelona longer, but unfortunately we left a little later for Barcelona than planned. I loved the weather, the Spanish style architecture and just the city/food otherall… but we were of to another adventure of Belgium!

Valentina and I had to wake up at the crack of dawn and after some difficulties we finally managed to navigate the Barcelona metro and airport. Our flight was delayed so we had to take a power nap in the airport, but finally we took off and landed in Brussels at aboutSince we were only there for the day, we wanted to get in as much sightseeing as possible. The weather was similar to Paris, but it was colder than Barcelona which was sad. We dropped our suitcases off at a really cool hostel in downtown Brussels and then walked around the city exploring. We got to see the Brussels Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful and the Grand Place. It is a central square in the middle of the city where there are lots of shops, city hall, museums, restaurants, cathedrals, and a mini flower market. It was beautiful and the architecture really was amazing. As Belgium is famous for its beer, chocolate, waffles, and of course French fries (they really aren’t French!) we had to try all of them! We got some fruity beer (which was delicious) and a waffle with nutella, ice cream, strawberries, bananas, whipped cream and chocolate syrup. It was more like a huge desert than anything to eat for lunch, but I was pretty impressed. After taking the break we walked to the famous Manneken Piss (the Pissing Boy) which was cool but not as big as I expected.

Some other sights that we saw included the Brussels stock exchange, Palace of Justice, and many neat museums. There was some really cool graffiti that I took lots of pictures of and lots of gay bars which surprised me. However, as a city Brussels was much better than I expected. The people were really nice and spoke French (which helped for me!), Flemish and German. After eating some Greek food for dinner since we napped too long to eat at a normal restaurant, we relaxed with a couple of the world famous beers Leffe which is even better in Belgium! The next day we had to leave for Stockholm so we hung out at the hostel café and then went to sleep.We left for Stockholm early the next morning and arrived a little nervous for some Scandinavian adventures. I don’t speak any Swedish so I looked up some phrases such as Thank you and Do you speak English but I didn’t have a big need for it as everyone spoke English fluently, but I tried to use Thank you as much as possible which is “Tak.” After getting off the plane and taking a metro “tunnelbana” to the city centre, we were extremely overwhelmed not speaking any Swedish and trying to find our hostel. Luckily this really nice woman basically walked us there which was on the island of Norrmalm. Stockholm is made up of 14 islands so unfortunately we were only able to visit about 5 of them. Our hostel was one of the coolest places I have ever stayed in! It had a mini-café/restaurant thing attached to the hostel with an outdoor patio as well. You had to take your shoes off when you entered the hostel (It’s a Swedish thing!) but it wasn’t too weird. There was about 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and a huge kitchen with a mini-fridge for each room complete with 2 stoves and sinks. In the middle was a big common room with couches, a TV and a couple Mac computers. It was pretty cheap and we met some really neat people.

After unpacking our stuff we decided to do some sightseeing. There was literally an H & M on every corner and most of the streets in the city center of Norrmalm. We ate a hotdog for lunch because they LOVE those in Scandinavia for some reason… really small bun and long hotdog was a little awkward but it works. We walked through Norrmalm and Djurgården, which is an island famous for the world’s largest folk museum, fair and zoo all in one area. We saw some beautiful buildings, fountains, and parks bordering the lake…. 

The weather was a little chilly at about 35 degrees but we wore about 5 layers so we were okay. On our long walk on the way there we saw one of the most beautiful sunrises in my life. Since Stockholm is so close to the Arctic Circle, then sunrises and sunsets are breathtaking. We went to the Vasa Museum which had the Vasa warship, which houses the world’s oldest fully recovered warship. It is from the 17^th century and the museum is housed around this giant ship. It was really amazing to see it looking almost good as new and learning about Swedish history and culture. After exploring the museum, we went to a highly rated restaurant (according to frommers.com) and gave it a try. The service was awesome... (All Scandinavian people are the nicest people I have ever met!) and we each tried Swedish meatballs and Swedish brand beer. I have tried the meatballs at Ikea (another Swedish product) but these were so delicious and creamy, with the fresh lingonberries on top. The beer was pretty good as well. After dinner we were just gonna go back and hang out at the hostel but we met these cool guys from Spain that were going out so we decided to join in. We walked around after going to the Seven-11 and getting some beer and finally found a really neat club called Sky Bar. There were about 5 different rooms with each one having different music and decoration. It was pretty fun to meet some other European guys and we danced with some Swedish people as well. We didn’t get home until late after a looong day but I was in love with Stockholm.



Swedish meatballs with ligonberries and mashed potatoes



vasa warship