I am currently on the EuroStar while writing
this on my way to London so I can get back to manor. Words cannot describe how
amazing this trip was. Hands down this is one of the best trips I have been on.
So lets start at the beginning....
(Clearly no longer on EuroTtar… kindle died on
the way home.)
Tuesday night was America night in the Bistro
because of the elections back home. I wasn't planning on going because we were
going to leave for Paris Wednesday after class and I still hadn't packed or put
away my clean laundry. Well my friend came knocking at my door and I was talked
into going down for one drink. After that, I packed and headed to the computer
lab to finish some last minute things so I wouldn't have to worry about it on
my trip. Instead of going back to EIU in the spring, I'm going to Sonoma State
University in California so I had a few more documents to send to them. Before
I knew it class was over and I was on my way to Paris.
Getting to Paris involved a lot of on and off
traveling. We took a bus from the Manor to Grantham Train Station and then that
to London and then we hopped on the EuroStar. After that we had to take the
Metro and we finally were a block away from our hotel. YES, I SAID THAT
CORRECTLY. WE STAYED AT A HOTEL, NOT A HOSTEL! I was pretty excited.
Wednesday night we decided that we had to go
out. Kelsie, Jasmine, Megan, and I walked to the Eiffel Tower. We had no real
clue how to get there. It was dark. We spoke English. Problem? Surprisingly no.
I ended up asking for directions and everyone was really nice even with the
language difference. Also, a lot of people know English.
On our way to the tower we stopped at a great
pizza place and it honestly was the best I ever had! We continued on our way to
the tower and an hour later we made it there. Because it was late and a
Wednesday night we pretty much had it to ourselves. Our first night in Paris
may easily be the best day I have had in Europe all together. We attempted to
talk to locals and we just sat, talked, and watched the Eiffel tower glitter
(it happens every hour). Five hours later we were finally back at our hotel and
all ready for bed.
Shoot the rat! Totally forgot about that. Did
you know Paris had rats? We didn't! WE SAW TWO RATS OUR FIRST NIGHT HERE!!! The
first one was far away so we played it off as a cat but we all knew it wasn't
...the second one ran right past us!! I thought I wad going to die!!
Thursday and Friday were both mostly spent in museums,
which was amazing!! We were able to buy a two day pass that allowed us into a
bunch of museums and we got to cut the lines which honestly saved us hours. If
you went to four museums you already bought back the pass. By Thursday night we
were three euros short of paying for the pass. That was only day one of museums
too!!
As we all know I kinda really love art...AHH I
THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO EXPLODE!! I was able to see sculptures by Michelangelo
and de Vinci's Mona Lisa at the Louvre. We went to the Louvre both days and I'm
pretty sure we still missed things there. It is bigger then big. By the end of
the first day I thought my feet were going to fall off. The M'O was another
amazing place. I saw paintings by Monet and so many more artists that I'm in
love with. We also went to the Centre Pompidou. Needles to say, I loved the
art.
Friday night we did a wine tasting. I'm not huge
on wine, but since we where in Paris I had too :) It was so much fun! And I learned a lot about wine. Our wine tasting
guide was so funny. It was six Harlaxton students and a lot other Americans and
an Australian couple. I did find out I like white wine more than red wine. Ugh
going back to America and being underage for three months will be annoying. It
will be nice to turn 21 in California.... on Easter Sunday. Haha.
After the wine tasting we got dinner and then
went to another art museum. After that we went back to the hotel, I took a nice
hot bath and called it a night. Paris is amazing but very exhausting!
Saturday was our free day. We had nothing
planned but we knew there was a lot of Paris still to see. Saturday of course
was a great day. My friends and I were able to sleep in a little, which was
amazing! We got our great breakfast from our hotel and were on our way to
walking around Paris. Saturday was a lot of walking and sight seeing. We went
to the shopping part of Paris…. which none of us could buy anything, but it was
great seeing everything! I could of lived off of crepes they are so good!! I
wish I go be back at Paris so I could eat all the great food. It did rain on
Saturday, but it was our last day so it could have been worse. I had on flats
that had lace on the side…. needless to say I could not feel my feet by the end
of the day! Jasmine and I had to go to the Eiffel Tower one more time, so we
did that on Saturday night after getting great pasta for dinner. The Eiffel
Tower is really fun to hang around. We got crepes (again) and just sat and
talked, it was a great time. However, we were wet, cold and tired. Oh…and we
had an hour and a half walk back to the hotel. We grabbed some hot chocolate
and made the walk back. Paris is such an amazing city because even just walking
around is so much fun.
It’s now Tuesday and I have three weeks left of
school. I can’t believe that my time in the UK is almost up. I really miss
home, and my friends. I miss long nights at EIU doing stupid things with my
best friends, but this semester at Harlaxton has been life changing. I have so
much schoolwork to do this week, and then on top of that I have Sonoma things
to do for next semester. It’s pretty stressful, but I wouldn’t trade this for
anything. I can’t wait to see everyone over winter break, but I will never be
ready to say good-bye to Harlaxton and all the memories that have taken place
here.
