Sorry about the delay in the blog. With traveling and finals, things fell to the wayside. Anyways, here goes my last week in London and my awesome spring break.
London
During our last week, nothing too exciting happened-We saw Judi Dench in Madame de Sade and The Convicts Opera as well. Both were ok, not my favorite shows to date though. I spent most of the week writing, studying, and hurriedly packing for my spring break. I managed to do the London Eye while I was in London and the sights were magnificent. I am so happy I was able to do it and it was a good capstone experience, since I knew what a lot of the major buildings were versus from when I originally got there. We ended Sarah’s class with a river cruise which was really nice and overall I have to say I enjoyed my time in London immensely.
I am trying to think of any life lessons learned thus far and I think the only major one was don’t worry about tomorrow. If anything, that’s what I will take away from my experience in London. As Matthew said, "...Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day” (6:34).
Paris
On Saturday morning, I began my journey to Paris. I boarded the Eurostar with many of my classmates and we trained it two hours to the city. When we got there, we stowed our stuff in Amanda’s place and set out in exploring the city. We first hit up Notre Dame which was really pretty, but not nearly like Westminster Abbey—one bonus though, you could take pictures! After that we wandered around town a lot, ending up at the Pompidou and then ending at the Arc de Triomphe for the day. We had a really good pizza for dinner and then did what apparently is very Parisian-drink wine out of the bottle along the Senne. George almost got us into a fight which would have been very bad and it was just a strange, but good night overall.
The next day saw us puttzing around at first and then finally going to Versailles, which was beautiful. I wish I had gone in because I am sure it would have been amazing. The gardens were huge and we ended up having an adventure trying to find the entrance to the Little Hamlet, but in the end we failed. After Versailles we hung out, got baguettes for dinner, and waited for Cady and them to meet up with us. We ended up going to the Eiffel Tower that night and it was beautiful. Every hour it twinkles and it was so much fun to just sit there and think wow, I can’t believe I am here! We ended up wandering around a lot and went to the Louvre, which was really pretty at night and the Pyramids stand out so much as well.
On Monday we slept in and then decided to go to Montemarte, which had a really pretty church and a bunch of little street shops. This then led us to the Moulin Rouge, which is not as exciting in person as you think! All there is was a Red windmill and that’s it. Boring. I had that day a Banana-Nutella crepe and let me just say, it was the best thing in the world. I highly recommend it! After we went out for a drink and ended the night rather early.
On Tuesday, me and George went to the Louvre to find out it was closed on Tuesdays. I was really upset but we decided to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower instead. The views were breathtaking and I would highly recommend it for anyone who has the spare change. I am sure it would have been great at night too. After the tower, we met back up with everyone and went out again, this time to a more American bar to play beer pong. I was kind of like ehhh whatever but some of my company was head over heals for going to play. After that, we went to what is called an Absinthe bar and tried, well absinthe. It wasn’t the crazy green stuff that makes you go looney but it was very much like a piece of licorice in your mouth. It wasn’t too exciting, an experience more than anything.
Bonn
On Wed. I went to the train station and started my trek to Bonn. I know its kind of out of the way in terms of big cities in Germany, but my friend Jenni is studying there and I got free room for a few days. Eventually I arrive in Bonn and for the life of me, I can’t find Jenni. I searched for an hour before we finally ran into eachother. Thank god because I was getting really worried. We went to dinner then at a nice Greek place and walked around with my luggage and a beer. Oh Germany! That night we went to her buddy Tom’s and just hung out, it was a pretty relaxing night.
On Thursday I slept in while Jenni went to class. It was nice to rest. She then came back and we grabbed lunch and she went back to class and I went and had a long and much needed chat with my mom. We went to the store and got a crate of beer for the night-what’s really cool is you can return the crate and bottles for about 3 Euro as part of a recycling initiative. It is pretty sweet. That night her friends came over and then we all went to one of the dorm bars, which let me just say, is a little bit shady. Eventually we left and called it a night, with me having a pretty decent one.
48 Hours of Hell
To pretext, not everything in the next 48 hours is hell but a majority of it is. Be warned.
To start, I woke up feeling terrible and we went to get Brats for lunch. I was able to try Mezzo Mix for the first time and it was create. It is orange soda and coke mixed together to make an awesome combination. We then chilled and I talked to my mom again and we decided to go out to dinner. I got some type of Steak Florentine, which was good. This is where the night goes bad. About 2 hours after dinner, my stomach feeling nasty, I end up giving up all I had eaten that day. We go out for drinks after and I get an iced tea and water, same thing happens. I could not hold anything down for the life of me. It was terrible. If you want more info, ask, but I doubt you do.
On Saturday, we woke up and went to Trier to meet Mallory, another girl I go to school with, who is tripping it for a few weeks in Europe for her program. Trier was really pretty and I wish I had not forgotten my camera. The churches were really cool as was the Porto Nigra, also known as the Black Gate. After Trier I got on a train to Koblenz to get on a train to Milan to get on one to Florence. This is where hell happens again. I get to the station and I can’t find what platform my train is. I look and look but no avail. I finally ask some guy who doesn’t know English but gets what I am asking and points me to the right direction. Well I get to the platform and it’s the right one or so I thought. I waited for almost an hour after I was supposed to depart and nothing. So I went around to seacrch and when I came back up, it was there, but on a different platform. I ran do the train and was like 30 seconds ahead of when it would take off. Thus my weekend of hell. I found my coach and I simply passed out and awoke this moring to Italy and drug dog searches, since the train had originally come from Amsterdam. I also am out 60 dollars because my train ticket to Florence from Milan could not be refunded and I missed the train I was scheduled for because the over night one was late and because of the stupid time change. So as I sit here writing this on a train to Florence. I go into my first weeks in Italy a little perturbed but also excited. Day Countdown=55!
