I haven't blogged in a while because I've been lazy. And I still am a bit so I'm going to try to keep it short and just put lots of pictures. I had a lovely winter break spent with my cousins. We visited Brussels together and hung out in the Netherlands for a while. On New Year's Day, one of my cousins left and the other one and I embarked on a great adventure around Western Europe.
Paris
We took a train to Paris and had five days of intense sightseeing. We even created a schedule and mapped out our routes each day, starting from early in the morning to late at night. We stayed at an airbnb, which made it feel like we were natives! We felt like we knew the city so well by the end of our trip and were sad to leave it (we actually left the day before the terrorist attack occurred). Paris is a beautiful city, and I completely understand the hype around it.
Highlights of Paris were:
- visiting some very beautiful churches
- going to the Louvre (IT'S HUGE) and many other museums
- eating baguettes day and night
- trying escargot and loving it
- eating macarons at McDonald's (and also at Laduree, of course)
- seeing the Eiffel Tower by night
- going to a really cool jazz club in this underground cave with a friend of my sister
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| Eiffel Tower!!! |
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| Macarons from McD's (cheap and delicious...my palette is not very refined so I can't even taste the difference between these and the ones from Laduree) |
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| Sainte-Chapelle -- so beautiful! |
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| Escargot yummm |
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| Les bouquinistes along the Seine (Notre Dame peeking out from behind) |
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| Hall of Mirrors at Versailles...it's ridiculous how decked out everything was there |
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| The Seine |
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| Crepes for daysss |
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| With new friends at the super cool jazz bar in the cave |
London
I loved getting to experience different cities and how evident it was that each city has its own feel. London was also very fun! I think Paris is beautiful and has an old charm, but I think London feels much more modern and is always bustling. It was also very nice to be able to speak English everywhere! It's fun being in countries where languages other than English are spoken, but at some point, it just feels nice to know that your native language is the one that everyone else wants to communicate in too. In London, we stayed with my cousin's friends, and it made our stay even more fun that we got to hang out with them and be taken around the city by them. Highlights of London were:
- seeing Wicked for a second time (it was weird hearing it with British accents but still just as amazing as the first time!)
- visiting the Harry Potter Studios
- seeing Buckingham Palace and feeling a deep connection with the royal family
- eating fish & chips
- seeing Sherlock's apartment
- every time I passed by a telephone booth
- going to the gigantic Primark on Oxford Street (the clothes are incredibly cheap)
- attending an Evensong service at St. Paul's Cathedral -- it's so beautiful!
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| Me with a fake guard |
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| Me with a real guard |
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| WICKEDDD (plus a double decker bus) |
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| Me with a telephone booth |
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| I'M IN ENGLAND!!! |
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| We had a nice relaxing afternoon with high tea! |
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| At King's Cross |
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| I have now been to Hogwarts |
Ireland
Our next stop was Dublin! Dublin is very cute. It is actually not very big, so it feels like a cozy but still very alive city. We stayed at a hostel in a very good location and loved every minute of being in Ireland. The Irish people are so kind and so friendly! Also, I loved how all the signs are in both English and Gaelic, but most people just speak English still. Their accents are so warm and lovely! We didn't just stay in Dublin (in the east) actually -- we also traveled to Galway (in the west) and Belfast (in the north) and saw some really cool landmarks. Highlights were:
