Le fin de la journee...

Well I'm home now! The last few days in Paris were nice, but definitely the hardest. It almost seemed as if Paris had had enough of me just as I had had enough of it. 

We decided to go to the Eiffel Tower again just to walk around and see it one last time. It was a beautiful day out until we got there. We took some pictures and then it started to down pour harder than it had the entire time we'd been there. And let me tell you, it had rained pretty much everyday since the first week there. It was still great to be there though and get to see it again in the daylight, but because of the rain we decided not to climb up. It was a sad moment. 

The next day we had lunch at our hostel and the employee at the register was very rude to me. Other students on the trip had encountered such instances with the staff but this was the first time I had. It was kind of upsetting, all I did was ask for some butter and she gave me a great deal of attitude. Then after I took my tray up I slipped and fell on the hard linoleum floors. Apparently they had mopped but not put up a wet floor sign, so I now have a large bruise on my knee. ouch! 

The class decided that we'd all do our own things during the day and then meet up for dinner at 5 in front of the Notre Dame for one last group meal together. I decided to go with a few friends to finish up our souvenir shopping. I finally got my sweatshirt that I had been searching for! Its pink of course and says the Universite de Paris on it. We discovered that about 10 of us all got the same sweatshirt in different colors and so we took a group photo of us all in the airport the next morning before we left- its going to be on the brochure for the program next year! We all met for dinner as planned and found a place that had a deal for 17 euros which included an appetizer, entre, and dessert. I had Mussles in a white wine sauce, Salmon in a white sauce, and creme brulee! Delicious!

After dinner we all went to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up one last time. No sooner had we sat down than it started pouring of course! We stayed until it lit up but it just got too cold without an umbrella to stay until 10 and see it sparkle. Then walking back to the metro my friends shoe broke, and then while buying a metro ticket the ticket lady started yelling at my friend. It was just a mess. No one was happy by the time we got back to the hostel. Especially when we realized that our internet subscription had run out! haha. Then when I was trying to use the free wifi in the lobby of the hotel the roof started leaking on my laptop! Just couldn't catch a break haha. Then the next morning when the problems continued! 

We woke up at 7:30 to finish the last of our packing and then get some breakfast. No more croissants! I've had enough of them haha. Then when we went back up to bring our bags down to wait for the bus, two elevators were all of a sudden out of service. Which meant it took me 25 minutes to get an elevator to bring my things down. Then on the bus ride to the airport one of the girls gets sick in the back of the bus. Awesome! When it rains it pours man let me tell you! haha. After delays and medical emergencies and they confiscated my french wine (gahh!) I finally made it to Buffalo and all but sprinted out of the airport to the car! haha While I enjoyed my trip its so true that there's no place like home! Its so nice to be here and just be able to relax for a bit. I really do want to go back someday to see the things I missed out on and explore other places more thoroughly but for now I'm glad to be back in the USA! :) 

London

What an interesting day. So one of the girls on the trip signed up for a day trip to London together. It was kind of expensive but it included the train fares to and from London, a hop on hop off bus tour, a walking tour, a boat ride on the Thames and free time to explore on our own. Or at least it was supposed to.

Initially it seemed like it was going to be a very organized trip, we arrived at the train station in Paris and they had a representative there with our tickets and he showed us where to go and how to find the tour guide once we arrived at King's Cross station. We arrived on time and found our guide standing there with our names on a sign and a driver to take us to the tour site. We found our bus and hopped on and began to tour the city. We decided to just ride along until we got hungry and then get off for lunch just to hop back on, then take our boat ride back to the starting point where we could further explore the things we saw on the boat and bus tours. We had decided before hand that we wanted to see Buckingham Palace and the guards and then find Abbey Rd (Beatles!). 

So we drove by Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral (where Princess Diana was married) and some other interesting sites before we decided to hop off at Oxford street to do some souvenir shopping and get some lunch. We found a few souvenir shops and then stepped into a pub for some fish and chips of course! We also had this drink called Pimm's which is just a mixture of different ade's and ice tea with fruit in it. It was interesting tasting to say the least haha. After lunch we decided to hop back on the bus to finish that portion of our tours but a bus never showed up. We were given a map of the bus routes with a list of the different stops and the times that a bus should arrive at each stop. Well we waited through three different stop times and did not see a single bus from our tour group. So an hour later, after I started to get really angry, we walked to another stop that was a few blocks over. After a half hour there one finally showed up. That was an hour and a half we wasted waiting on transportation. 

Next we saw the London Bridge and took some pictures and such before the boat ride. The bridge was amazing, but I didn't know that it was so blue, and I mean bright blue! After that we went to get in line for the boat which ended up being a half hour late. Which meant that we had wasted 2 hours waiting for transportation. We no longer had time to go back to Buckingham Palace or find Abbey Road. I was livid. We essentially paid 260 dollars to drive on a bus past some sights, eat fish and chips, buy a t-shirt, ride a boat to the London Eye, hop in a cab and get back on the train to Paris. So frustrating. While it was amazing to have been able to see some of these historical sites and architectural landmarks I did not want to just drive by. We were supposed to have had time to return to these sites and walk around so we could fully appreciate them. I wanted to try and make a palace guard move and walk across Abbey Rd like the Beatles did damn it! It was just so frustrating that the reason we were unable to do this was because of an unorganized tour group's transportation system.

This will absolutely be a place that I will return to one day, without being tethered down to a bus tour program! The time I spent there was enjoyable, and everyone we met were very nice. The food was delicious and of course the sights were amazing. Overall I did see quite a bit - Big Ben, London Bridge, London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Platform 9 3/4, and more. & I made it out before the riots started apparently. Though I say they're lucky I didn't start a riot over how angry I was with the bus tour! haha I actually did not even hear about these until I returned to the U.S. so I guess its a good thing it was only a day trip after all!

Telephone booth...smelled like urine. yuck!

London Eye!

In front of the London Bridge!

At King's Cross, off to Hogwarts!

Fish and Chips!

Good ol' Big Ben!

World War II in Normandy

Monday morning we hopped on the bus and drove off to Caen, France. It was a typical french town with a few exceptions. It had a great WWII museum and a strong connection to the events of the war itself. 

We went to The Peace Museum of Caen on our way down. It was very interesting. There were 4 parts to the museum- the Nobel Prize Gallery, the time period before 1945 (WWII), the period after 1945 (Cold War-present), and a temporary exhibit on Mein Kampf. It was all very well put together with lots of newspapers, artifacts, and video clips on display. There were booths in one part of the museum where you could sit and listen to the testimonials of individuals who survived different attacks and bombings in their hometowns around the world. These individuals were all children at the time from cities such as London and Berlin to tiny villages in Japan. It was crazy to hear from each of them how similar their experiences were at the time and  despite how far apart geographically they were.

After the museum we checked into our hotel and had sometime to explore the area before dinner with the class. We discovered that the port outside our hotel was a stop on a sailboat race that was taking place throughout Europe at the time. Unfortunately the boats didn't arrive at this stop until the morning after we left but everyone was busy getting ready for their arrival! Aftter dinner, overcooked steak, french fries (again!), and some really eggy creme brulee, we found an Irish pub that we invaded for a bit. Brought us back to Ireland for a bit. The girls that went with me before and I all split a pitcher of some Irish cider and then we ordered a baby Guinness shot, still delicious!

The next day we drove to the coast to see the Mont Saint Michel! It was beautiful, but the image I had in my head was that of the island when the tide was in, and unfortunately it was out while we were there. Oh well, its still beautiful! We hiked all the way to the top, and many many stairs later we started our tour with the fabulous Pierre-Jean. I love that guy. He carried a nerf sword around so we could all follow the group through the abbey, it was hilarious. Then he got in an argument with another tour guide who was yelling and being very rude. He is a feisty little man! haha The inside didn't impress me as much as the outside architecturally, but it was still interesting to hear about the various uses for each of the rooms. Apparently on one of the top levels there were lavatories where you just went off the edge of the building onto the grass of the garden below. I just want to know how the women managed.

The next day we drove out to the Ponte du Hoc. This was the cliff between Omaha and Utah beaches that the US rangers scaled at night to take out the German forces atop the cliff. We got to see the large craters in the ground from all of the air raids and gunfire. There were also still quite a few bunkers in tact enough to walk through and it was very interesting to walk through there and envision the set up that the soldiers had to work with. After the cliff we went to the American military cemetery in Normandy. It was really something seeing all of the white marble crosses lined up in rows like that. If you stood at certain angles looking at the rows it was almost dizzying because of the scattered pattern they made. We also found the markers for the graves of Preston and Robert Niland. They were two of the brothers from the family that Saving Private Ryan was based upon. 

Then we went to Omaha beach to eat lunch and explore a bit. It was very hot out so walking in the water was quite welcome at that point. Though I still hate sand! Its disgusting! Blahh! It was beautiful though and i do love that pretty blue water! It was very interesting though to see how public the beach was. It was almost as if nothing tragic had ever taken place there. Many of my classmates were upset that it was not preserved or memorialized better, but my professor made a good point. She said that some people view the use of the beach as a thank you to those who died their. They gave their lives so that the people of France could freely use that territory as they pleased once again. I prefer to think of it that way and there were several monuments in place along the extremely long beach. Then there was even a very nice ceremony in which the nation anthems for the different allied countries who participated in the war were played as their flags were each raised individually. It was a really nice gesture, and I really enjoyed getting to hear all the different national anthems. Its something that I'd never really put much thought into before, but each one is distinctly unique with its own set of emotions that are portrayed. A great experience. 

A journal from the ghettos

Hitler's brief case

The Mont St Michel

Inside a little nook on the ramparts of the Mont St. Michel

Depiction of St. Michel and Bishop Aubert...& PJ with his sword leading the way!

Ponte du Hoc where the Soldiers landed and climbed that cliff on the left

Standing in the middle of a crater

The American Military Cemetery

Eating lunch at Omaha beach, Monument in the background on the right

Venezia, Italia!

Well Thursday night we decided to go out to this place called Club Mix, which is free Thursday nights for international students, for our classmate Megan's birthday. It was a lot of fun! We had the whole club almost to ourselves when we got there at 11 and were able to just goof off. Then it filled up pretty quickly and we all just danced and had a lot of fun. We headed back at 12:30 thought because we had to get up at 4:30 to head to the airport for Venice!

Yes thats right, 4:30 meaning by the time I got back and actually fell asleep I only got 3 hours of sleep. Needless to say we were all exhausted. It was just Abby and I going to Venice but three other girls were also going to Italy on the same flight so we all stuck together. We went from the metro, to a bus, to the plane, to a bus, where we parted ways with the other group at the train station and hopped on our 12:30 train to Venezia! So tired! So I slept most of the way, once again. Its getting easier and easier to sleep in these weird positions hah. Though my back is definitely starting to hate me for it! Once we got off the train in Venice it took us a few minutes to orient ourselves and figure out how we were expected to navigate the canals to find our hostel haha. You take the water shuttle of course! Its a good thing I don't get sea sick!

Our Hostel was in a great location. It was a five minute walk from the well-known Rialto bridge and right behind the clock tower in San Marco's square. As for the condition it was in, thats another matter entirely! haha. We got the true hostel experience this time. There were holes in the floor that they just covered up with the carpet so we kept stepping in potholes as we navigated upstairs to our room. We were in room number 105 which was on the 3rd floor right across the hall from room 208. Interesting right? haha. The beds were clean enough, the pillows felt like they were just large sacs of flour. They were so heavy! The wardrobe in the room was falling apart, and there were no screens on the windows (there aren't usually in Europe) so the mosquitoes invaded the rooms at night and I got eaten up! The room was small and a bit run down but it served its purpose so thats all I can ask for. It was also really easy just to run in and drop off a bag of souvenirs if we didn't want to carry it because it was right around the corner from all of the tourist shopping spots.

We easily spent the majority of our time split between looking out at the water and in the different shops. There were just streets and streets of shops full of the most beautiful things. Murano glass is what they're known for so it was everywhere and the things they can make with glass is incredible! We just kept getting distracted by how beautiful everything was! I spent so much money! hahah. The first night we got some dinner and then just explored. I had the cannelloni ricotta e spinaci! aka yummy pasta! We just walked around to the different shops and sat by the water while we digested our first Italian meal! We saw that a concert was being set up in the center of San Marco's square so we bought a bottle of Bellini and just sat on the steps of the church waiting for it to start. We knew all of the songs but couldn't remember who sang them. It wasn't until we looked it up later that night that we found out it was Sting! We accidentally stumbled across a Sting concert in San Marco's square in Venice...Oops? haha Amazing!

We turned in early the first night to try and catch up on some sleep the night before. Then we slept in until 10:30! haha. It was the first time I've slept in since the first weekend we were here I think. It felt great. We got ready and were out the door soon enough though. We decided to explore more toward the Rialto bridge that morning. There were street vendors everywhere by the Rialto bridge! I didn't buy anything from them because everything was kind of cheap looking and my friends had told me to be careful where you buy the Murano glass from because some people will try and scam you, I figured an actual store would be safer! Then we started spending money left and right! haha. It was just all so beautiful! I found a t-shirt that says I heart NY on it (just like in NYC) but then the NY is crossed out and it says Venezia over it..too funny! So I bought one. :) Then we went for a gondola ride!

It was kind of expensive but we were able to talk the man down a little bit and we decided it was worth it. You can't go to Venice and not go on a gondola ride! It was amazing. So peaceful just floating around and the man rowing our boat was your stereotypical large and loud italian man. He kept telling us about the history of some of the buildings but I could only half understand what he was saying through his accent! He was really nice thought so I tried to nod my head and act like I appreciated it, which I did, I just couldn't understand him haha. It was really interesting to be able to see the city from that perspective. It just made everything so much more beautiful viewing it from the pretty blue/green water! For lunch we got pizza! It was good but I was surprised at the lack of flavor to their tomato sauce. I expected some serious garlic and pepper to it but it was rather plain. We ended the night just walking around, finishing our shopping, and eating lasagne and gelato by the canal.

The restaurant by the canal was pretty touristy and I regret going there. But it was only 8 euros compared to the 14 for lasagne everywhere else. Now I know why. It was extremely bland, and cold on the inside. I wasn't the only one displeased with the service though. There was an Italian man sitting next to us and he was with an American woman. He was obviously showing her the city and everything. Its polite to wait until a person finishes their salad before bringing over the next course but the servers here didn't do that because it was a really relaxed place. The man started arguing with the waitor in Italian right next to us. Now in Europe right next to you means literally in the chair next to you, you sit with other people sometimes, its just how it is. So it was kind of awkward but at the same time I was enjoying it cause I wasn't happy with my food either! haha. We just sat around the water for a bit and then turned in early because we had a busy day of traveling the next afternoon.

We checked out of our hostel at 10:30 and di d some more shopping! I bought a bright pink Venecian mask for my room at home! I'm still not entirely sure what the significance of them over there is, but the masks are apparently a really big deal. Then we decided to just walk along the canal in a different direction and explore some more while we killed time...of course I got sunburned! While on our walk I was hunting for a place that had spaghetti and meat balls. The owner of one restaurant told me that I would not find it anywhere in Italy because it was just not done. "Just meat sauce-a, no-a meatball-a." Well I finally found one so there! I wanted to buy him one so I could throw it in his face, he was quite rude about it.

Finally we had to go torture some pigeons in San Marco's square. Its another must while in Venice. So Abby kept running through them while I got one to eat bread crumbs out of my hand! It was crazy! Its claws kinda tickled my hand but its little beak was kinda sharp! We got so distracted by the silly birds we almost missed the water shuttle, but don't worry we made it. We got on the train and everything fine, and when we got on the bus it just so happened that the other group of girls were on the same one! So we spent that hour ride to the airport exchanging fun stories from our trips. Then came the scary part. The line for Visa checks was extremely long. It took 45 minutes to get through which left us only 25 minutes to get through security and find our gates before our departure time! It got kind of tight but we made it without any problems. We actually had to take a bus from the gate out onto the tarmac to board the plane. It was very strange. In any case we made our flight and arrived back in Paris in time to pack quick and then get up early the next morning to head to Normandy for our World War II excursion.

C'est la vie a Europe? haha

The Venetian Masks!

Pigeons in Piazza di San Marco

Murano glass! Yes even the guitar.

Mmm Pizza!

Gondola ride! :)

Piazza di San Marco

Sunset in Venezia<3

By the grande canal in front of San Marco's

Belgium!

After we got back late from Ireland we quickly packed and went to bed. We were up, showered, fed, and on the bus headed for Belgium by 9 am the next morning! Needless to say I slept most of the way! 

Belgium was very quaint. It was nice to be able to relax a bit and recover from our crazy weekend full of traveling and sightseeing. We stayed in a town called Iper or Ypres depending upon which language you speak. Apparently Belgium is very touchy about which language you use in which region of the country. Half prefers French while half prefers Flemish, so its a lot safer to speak English! They get insulted in Iper if you speak French so I tried really hard to suppress what French terms I'd been adopting into my vocabulary the past few weeks. It was hard! Our hotel was really really nice though and I got a whole queen sized bed to myself! It was heaven after these uncomfortable twin beds we have in Paris. 

We visited two different World War I Museums and the little town of Brugges while we were there. It was very interesting to see the different exhibits in each museum. My favorite museum was the Flanders fields museum. It was very well put together. When you walk in they five you a little card with an identity of someone who was involved with the war. Then throughout the exhibits there are different screens where you scan your card and learn a new piece of information about their lives. It was really neat. Then as you walked through there were constant flashes of light and the speakers played noises from airplanes and air raids. It was a great simulation of the battle field experience. I jumped at the first bomb drop! haha In the last room there is a wall that listed the different armed conflicts that have occurred since the supposed 'war to end all wars.' There have been 126 as of 2008. Its insane to think about. 

While in Brugges we went on a ride through the canals. Apparently the town is nicknamed the 'Venice of the North' though it doesn't have that pretty blue water. It was really a cute little town. I got to eat some Belgium waffles, with chocolate sauce and speculoos ice cream. Speculoos is this gingerbread flavoring that is everywhere over here, its delicious! Its in coffee, ice cream, bread form, spreads, chocolate, etc.! Anyways the waffles are delicious! Then of course I bought tons of chocolate! Ahh can't wait to get back to eat it! I haven't broken into any of it yet because I knew once I did there'd be no stopping me! haha. The vendors there gave us all really great deals since we were a large group of students. They were really nice and gave us samples of everything too :) 

It was a really great three days to relax, eat waffles, chocolate, and drink Belgium Beer of course! (I may have bought a bottle to bring home too : p )