Falling more in love with this city by the day

I didn't think it was possible to love Paris more than I already do, then another day passes. Everyday I discover either a new cafe or a cute boutique or meet a nice and welcoming Parisian that breaks the stereotypes. There is so much to discover in this city! My favorite thing to do is to pick a new area on the days that I don't have class or I only have a few hours of class, and just walk around and explore. It's so much easier to discover new things when you don't have an agenda for the day. Some of my favorite areas that I've explored so far are the Marais, Palais Royal area, and Saint Germain des Pres.

Exploring! 

Taking advantage of a pastry class at La pâtisserie des rêves. 

Amazing french onion soup! 

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Loire Valley with our program. Its to the west of Paris and there are many famous castles that were home to french royalty. The castles that we visited were Chateau de Chambord, Chateau Amboise, and Chateau de Chenonceau. They were all beautiful! We all loved just walking around the gardens surrounding the castles because had missed the greenery since living in Paris. I had no idea but Chateau de Chambord inspired Beauty and the Beast! Our program also surprised us with a wine tasting in Loire Valley. We got to try white, red,  rosé, and also Crémant which is the Loire Valley version of Champagne. They also gave us samples of venison and goat cheese to spread on little pieces of baguettes. Of course I couldn't leave empty handed so my friend and I split bottles of the white wine and Crémant :) 

Chateau de Chambord 

View from the top of Chateau Amboise.

This past weekend our program took us on another excursion but this time to Normandy. We went to the American Museum (which opened 2 days before we got there because of the government shutdown), Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc, and Le Mont Saint-Michel. Walking on Omaha Beach was unbelievable. It was so calm and it looked like the beach went on for miles. I learned so much in the museum about the history from all the different countries involved. Later that day, we went to an apple farm for an apple cider tasting. Since Normandy is known for their apples, this farm was very popular and produces over 40 different kinds! One of my favorite things about fall is apple picking so this definitely cured my apple craving! The next day we went to Le Mont Saint-Michel. The castle used to be on the mainland but now it is out further in the sea and affected by tides. When the tide comes in, its impossible to get to the castle. But when it goes out, a road opens up and visitors can discover this beautiful castle. The area around Saint-Michel is known for the way they cook their eggs because they whip them heavily. We all tried them but I wasn't too crazy about it. I felt like I was eating one big cappuccino because of how much foam was on the inside of this omelet!  

Omaha Beach

Our weird whipped omelet with of course, some french fries. 

Le Sont Saint-Michel

I've been really busy in the past few weeks with presentation and exams in my classes and that could only mean one thing...FALL BREAK! Don't get me wrong, I'm a little sad that we're almost halfway done with our time here, but I am excited for this adventure. Me and a few other girls on my program are taking an eastern Europe trip. Were going to Interlaken, Switzerland first and into Grindelwald for a day. Grindelwald is where I competed in my Young International figure skating competition when I was 12 so I'm really excited to go back! Then we are going to Budapest, Vienna (where my mom studied abroad for a year), Prague, Berlin, and Munich. We are taking the trains everywhere we go and even a few overnight trains in some of the further destinations. I am insanely excited for this! We all refuse to sleep while were on break because of how little time we have in each city and how much we want to get out of this adventure. All of this sleep deprivation should make for one happy Sam for when I come back to Paris next Saturday and MY PARENTS ARE HERE! I'm so excited to see them and show them around Paris and all of my favorite spots! 

How about Italy this weekend?

Last week me and one of my friends studying in Paris traveled to Italy for the weekend. We used (the dreaded) RyanAir for the first time because it was so cheap. We had to take a bus to a Paris airport that was about and hour and a half outside of the city. Then once we got to Rome, we had to take another bus to the train station where our hostel was. This was both of our first hostel experience’s so we didn’t really know what to expect. The hostel looked like a dirty hole in the wall and that’s pretty much what it ended up being! There was definitely nothing fancy about it.  It didn’t bother us too much because we spent most of the day touring the city. We wanted to get as much in 2 days in Rome as we could!

The first thing we did in Rome was walk to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.  We went inside the Colosseum and it was huge! Standing there and thinking about the history of it is just amazing! Then we ventured down into the Roman Forum. We both really enjoyed seeing all of the monuments but there were SO many tourists around!  It definitely seems like there are not as many in Paris. Then we made our way through some very cramped streets to the Spanish Steps. They didn’t do too much for us aside from them being crowded with tourists and guys trying to shove roses in your face….then asking for money for them. But the view from the top was very pretty! It was a great view of most of Rome and the other places we had visited that day. After making our way down, we walked through a couple of Piazza’s and found a café to sit and eat lunch at. The couple sitting next to us heard of speaking English and asked us where we were from. I said Kansas City and the couple was from Jefferson City, MO. Such a small world! After lunch, we walked to a beautiful park where we finally started to like Rome a little more because of how peaceful and beautiful it was. After vegging out there for a little, we started to walk back to our hostel and decided we HAD to get gelato before going back. We stopped at a little stand and we both got Nutella and mint. It was so good!!! Everyone was right when they said the gelato here is unlike anything in the States!

Inside the Colosseum

Amazing gelato! 

The next day we got up a little earlier and took the metro to the Vatican to beat some of the crowds. No crowds were beaten. It’s insanely busy no matter when you go to the museum. We made our way in within an hour and the museum was great! I didn’t know too much about it before but I definitely learned a lot. I would have learned more if we had done a guided tour but we didn’t have time for it with the short morning that we had. At the end of the museum, we saw the Sistine Chapel. This was my favorite part because of the Michaelangelo painting on the ceiling. There were no pictures allowed in there and the security guards did their best at trying to hush everyone in the room. After finishing the museum, we stood in (another) line to see St. Peter’s Basilica. It was amazing to see a place that I’ve seen on TV so many times. It was beautiful on the inside! It was so elaborate and there were so many rooms inside the Basilica. After that, we made our route to walk all the way back to our hostel. We stopped at a few piazza’s and then the Trevi Fountain. It was neat seeing such a famous fountain, but it was packed!!! This had to have been the touristy spot we were in the whole time we were in Rome. After finishing our tour of Rome, and probably walking a total of 20 miles or more, we headed back to the train station to hop on a train to Florence. We got into Florence and got situated into our new hostel pretty late on Saturday night.

St. Peter's Basilica 

Making wishes at the Trevi Fountain! 

Sunday morning we woke up and met another girl from DU studying in Florence for breakfast. We went to this really cute bakery and café. We instantly liked Florence a lot better than Rome. We think it was because there were far less tourists, more open spaces, and less trash everywhere. After breakfast we walked around Florence for a little. We ran into the leather markets and had a blast there! There were so many gorgeous leather goods! All of our wallets definitely suffered a bit. My friend and I did splurge on some leather jackets, though. Then we made our way to the Academia Gallery where we saw Michaelangelo’s, “David”. It was much bigger in person than what I was expecting! I’m really glad we got to see it because the rest of the museum was gorgeous, too. After the museum, we met up with our other friend who was traveling around Italy for the week and we all went out to this amazing pizza place for lunch. Mine had mozzarella cheese, capers and oregano! For most of the rest of the day, we walked around Florence and shopped in the many cute boutiques and specialty stores and the dozens of jewelry stores along the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence.

Spending time in Florence with two of my sorority sisters.

Beautiful Florence! 

The next morning we woke up early to do some more exploring of Florence because one of the girls I traveled with had to catch a train back to Rome to fly back to Paris. We went to an indoor market that is very famous in Rome. The selection of fruits, vegetables, homemade pasta, fresh sauces and spices, and everything else was amazing! I wish I could have brought back more stuff than I did but flying with RyanAir kind of limits you… We had so much fun looking at everything though! Later that day my other friend and I took the train to Perugia, Italy to visit a sorority sister studying there. It worked out perfectly because Perugia is in between Florence and Rome which of where I was flying out of the next day. I am so glad I got to see Perugia! It is such a small, genuine Italian town and not like the other big touristy spots in Italy AT ALL! The scenery from the town was amazing because it is in the middle of rolling hills and smaller mountains. The clouds were low that day because it had been raining and you could see them sneaking into the town at the foot of the mountain. It was beautiful! We walked around the area and explored that night. There were so many great views and beautiful parts of this little town to discover! English is not as expected there as the other parts of Italy that we visited that weekend.

Spending time in Perugia. 

I guess Perugia is pretty, too :)

The next morning, the three of us went to breakfast before one of my friends had class and I had to leave to begin my (long) journey back to Paris. I headed back to the train station and took one back to Rome. Then I took a bus from the train station in Rome to the Rome airport that my flight was leaving out of. Once my flight got into a small airport just outside of Paris, I had to take another bus back into the city of Paris from which I then got on the metro back to my apartment. After 12 hours of traveling that day, and thankfully everything going smoothly, I was finally home! It was such a great weekend in Italy and I was so happy I got to see everything that I did in such a short amount of time, but I was so happy to be back in Paris. That’s when it started to really feel like Paris was really my home! 

Falling In Love With The City

Sorry for the late update on my beginning adventures in Paris but I have barely had time to sit down. There is so much to do here! When I got here, it was definitely the biggest culture shock out of all the other places I visited because I was expecting everyone to speak a little English but that was not the case. After finding my apartment, figuring out how to get in, and meeting my 3 roommates, I was FINALLY able to unpack my suitcase. My apartment is huge! It has a living area with a few chairs and a couch connected to a room with a dining table surrounded by tons of travel books left my students in the past. This huge room is leading out to a balcony with a cute table and a few chairs. Then we also have a full sized kitchen, 2 bedrooms for the 4 of us, 2 bathrooms, and a washing machine. We definitely got really lucky with the size of our apartment and it is also only a 20 minute walk from school and a 25 minute walk to the Seine. We are living in the 13^th arrondissement which I am loving because it is residential, so I feel like I am really living in Paris, but it is also close to a ton of really fun areas.

Finally in Paris! 

The view from the end of my street.

We all went at our programs headquarters the next morning. We had the chance to meet everyone working in our program and also all the students participating in it. We are all American but there are people from all around the country. After a little orientation, I was your typical tourist and saw Notre-Dame with a few of the girls I met that day. It is beautiful inside! The next day we met at ISA (International Studies Abroad) again and went over the academics of our program. Every class is 3 hours long and taught in French with the exception of 4 hour long classes taught in English. The classes I signed up to take are an intensive French language course, Discovering Paris, Discovering French Culture, and Fashion in France (taught in English). This gives me 19 hours of class time a week which is surprisingly more than what I have at home! Later that night we took a boat ride down the Seine with everyone in our program. It’s a great way to see a lot of the big monuments of Paris in one spot. It seems like the theme of our first week in Paris is to be as touristy as possible so to continue the trend, we got crepes for dinner!

Some other girls from the University of Denver on our boat ride on the Seine. 

On Thursday we had to meet at ISA again to go over some final things with our housing. We got dismissed around 11:30 am and had the rest of the day free. Having no plans for a day in Paris is one of my favorite things. One of my friends knew of this bakery and café in the 7^th arrondissement so we went there and got food for lunch. This café had everything from sandwiches to quiches, unique salads to tarts, and any type of bread you could imagine to beautiful pastries. After grabbing one of their delicious quiches, we headed over to the Tuileries Garden on the gorgeous day to eat. We spotted the Arc de Triomphe down the way and decided to walk to it and see what we stumbled on in between. Aside from it being a beautiful walk all the way down, we had so much fun going into many of the shops along the Champs Elysees. There was a Laudree half-way down so we HAD to stop in. Their selection of macaroons and pastries was never ending! The entire bakery was also gorgeous. I wanted my first ever macaroon to be here at Laudree in Paris, and yes, it was well worth the wait! After walking the rest of the Champs Elysees up to the Arc  de Triomphe and around, we decided to just walk to Montmartre where we were meeting the rest of our group for a walking tour. Montmartre is famous for Moulin Rouge but we also learned a lot about artists living in the area that I had no idea about. At the end of the tour we walked up to Sacre Coeur for some breathtaking views of the city. I believe the best way to see the city is to walk! You never know what little café, boutique, or monument youre going to miss by taking the metro or a cab.

My first macaroon!

Beautiful assortment macaroons at Laudree. 

Sacre Coeur 

The next day we took a day trip to Versailles. I knew I was going back o Sunday for a tour with my uncle so I just jumped from room to room. The décor and extravagance of every room is amazing! We also walked around the gardens outside because it was a beautiful day. I couldn’t get enough of, what looked like, miles and miles of gorgeous gardens! My friends and I sat by the water in the middle of the gardens for about 2 hours but it seemed like only 10 minutes with that kind of scenery, and company.

Just a little bit of the gorgeous gardens at Versailles.

The Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. 

On Saturday, a few of us went to an outdoor flea market in northern Paris. It was definitely not what I was expecting. We had fun looking around but I was expecting more unique markets than what there were. I have a few other flea markets to check out on my list so hopefully the next few are better!

I love stumbling into these cute outdoor markets throughout the street of Paris! 

On Sunday I met my uncle and his friend at the Plaza Anthonee for breakfast before we ventured off on our detailed tour of Versailles. The hotel was absolutely beautiful and right off of Avenue Montaigne, another popular street in Paris near the Arc de Triomphe. And of course I could get used to walking in and being greeted with, “Right this way, Madame.” My uncle was sick and couldn’t go to Versailles but his friend and I went anyways. It gave me a different perspective than the other day to hear all the history behind the palace.

That next week I started classes. I couldn’t wait to meet people from all over the world studying in Paris! People in my classes were from the United States, Japan, Korea, Cambodia, Columbia, Spain and a few other countries. It’s weird being in class with a student from another country and your only mutual language is French! My classes are going well but they are so long.  We aren’t used to having 3 or 4 hour long classes back in the States. I can definitely tell my French is improving with how much we are speaking it and hearing it in our classes and outside the classroom, but I can’t wait to see how much it improves by the end of the year! 

I have already fallen more in love with Paris and I have only been here for a few weeks. Someone is going to have to drag me out of the amazing city at the end of December because I know I will not want to go home! 

I traveled to Italy last weekend with a few of my friends so I will try and update my blog on my adventures as soon as I can! 

The Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden. Check.

What a week this has been! I made it to three countries in a matter of 6 days and had an amazing time everywhere I visited!

Starting off with my flight to my connection in London, I sat by a young girl from Cairo, Egypt.  It was so interesting talking to her and comparing customs. She even taught me some Arabic! I then flew to Amsterdam and took the train from the airport to Den Haag where I stayed with a friend from school at DU for a few days. The trains I've used in Europe so far have been really easy to navigate and use, even with everything being in Dutch! Even though I may have looked like an idiot trying to lug my 50 pound suitcase up and down the train station stairs...

I took a sigh of relief once I met up with my friends in Den Haag because it had been such a long 24 hours of travel and I was happy to see some familiar faces! My first full day in Europe was started off at a cute cafe in Leiden. That was when I had the realization that I probably won't ever be able to go back to drinking regular coffee in the states. Help. My friends had to go to class all day so I took the train into Amsterdam and did a little sightseeing myself. Amsterdam is quite an interesting city! I walked around aimlessly for a while then decided to take one of their metro trains to Museum Square. Thats where the "I AM AMSTERDAM" sign is located along with multiple museums surrounding a large park. I rained a lot that day so it was hard to walk around the park but I really enjoyed just being in the city! And the buildings along the canals weren't too shabby either. I met up with my friends later that night in Leiden after their long day of classes.

Amsterdam Centraal Train Station

"I Amsterdam" sign...being a tourist.

Canal in Amsterdam

Leiden

The next morning we started off the day at another cute cafe and then I said my good-byes and headed off to Maastricht on the train. I loved Maastricht because I have so many friends from school studying at Maastricht University! I spent a day touring the city with one of my friends who didn't have class. We did everything touristy from walking across the bridge to shopping in all the fun boutiques and stores and getting a waffle with ice cream from Pinky's. I think just about everyone told me that I HAD to go to Pinky's while I was there because the waffles were so good....and they were right.  I loved catching up with friends in Maastricht even if it was only for a few days!

Maastricht on the water

Pinky's Waffle. So good! 

On Friday I took a flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen to visit another friend studying abroad. Getting from the airport to her apartment was extremely easy. There is a train that takes you straight into the city and she lived only a few streets over. Of course I was having a hard time finding her small street so I asked a bicycle taxi for directions. After he told me it was just a few streets over, I decided to ask him if he would be able to take me to her place because I was so tired of lugging my suitcase around. He happily agreed and I pulled up to her apartment in the front of a bike and made quite the entrance! Her apartment is in a great location near the heart of Copenhagen.

Copenhagen

On Saturday we decided to take the train to Lund, Sweden to visit some sorority sisters studying there. It was so easy because the train ride was only 45 minutes. Lund is a huge college town with almost 40,000 students! The town was so busy during the day and we enjoyed walking around and looking at the all the old architecture and the botanical gardens. The school has been around since the 1600's so there was a ton of cool history within the University.

Walking around in Lund.

On my last day in Copenhagen I did most of my sightseeing. I went on a run around a beautiful park surrounded by colorful buildings. I love going on runs and long walks in cities because I feel like I can see more than just taking a bus or a taxi. Then I ran down one of Copenhagen's most popular streets for shopping and ended up on the canal. There were all different types of restaurants lined up and down the canal with many places to just sit and enjoy the beauty of Copenhagen. Later that night, my friend Katie and I rode bikes back down to the canal and ate some gelato. The gelato was amazing and the scenery definitely made it better! We then rode the bikes a little around the city by some of Copenhagen's old castles and buildings that were built centuries ago. It seems like most of the cities I've visited so far are built for bikers. It seems like there are more bikes than cars and bike lanes almost everywhere.

The canal in Copenhagen.

This is my last night traveling out of my huge suitcase and backpack. Can't say I'm not excited to finally unpack and start my journey in Paris but I will miss jumping from country to country and seeing so many of my friends. Less than 24 hours until I can call Paris my new home!

Off I go!

It seems like I've been waiting for this moment my entire life. I couldn't be more prepared and ready to study in Paris for a semester and travel the rest of Europe. I'm looking forward to doing all the cheesy touristy things in the big cities, and also finding the hidden gems off the beaten paths.

I'm waiting in the Dallas airport right now to board my flight to London. From London I will fly to Amsterdam and take a train to Leiden where I will stay with one of my friends studying abroad. I am going to stay with her for a few days then travel down to Maastricht to stay with more friends. I'm so lucky to have friends studying all over Europe during this semester. It definitely makes traveling so much easier!

The next 24 hours will be a huge culture shock. I will literally be taking planes, trains and automobiles to my many destinations! Wish my luck!!!

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."- Augustine of Hippo

Exactly two weeks from today I will leave on the adventure of a lifetime. Words cannot explain how excited/nervous/anxious I am for my study abroad adventures!