Paris

Paris was the trip of a lifetime. I ended up going for my three week spring break during school with my friend Elise, and my mom, dad, and brother. One thing that made the trip was the place we stayed. It was literally almost across the street from the Louvre. The place we stayed felt like an apartment and had all of the furnishings of one. It was from this Web site called http://francetoyou.com the best part was it was about 116 dollars a night and had a full kitchen, a bedroom, and a pullout. It was in an apartment building with other permanent Parisian residents.

I thought that it was much more beautiful than London. On the other hand it didn’t feel nearly as safe. The French weren’t as rude as everyone said they would be but they got annoyed because we didn’t speak the same language.

We were  not there for very long, and I didn’t get the chance to explore the city that much but  I will give some hints.

1.     1. Do not take the bus from London to Paris. It was terrible hot, stuffy and let me tell you the bathroom had no light which meant complete darkness when you were going to the bathroom.

2.    2. The Louvre is a must, and would take days to explore.

3.    3.  Stay at one of the apartments through francetoyou.com, it is probably the cheapest and best way to go.

4.    4. Eat crepes and croque monsieur’s… mmm delicious

5.    5. Go to the Luxembourg Gardens

6.    6. Walk the stairs up the Eiffel Tower and if you are nervous about heights do not go to the very top. You will feel like you’re moving. It made me nervous. Very nervous I went down as quickly as I went up!

7.    7. Don’t get tricked by old men who tell you they found a gold ring. They will try to give it to you then ask for money it’s a scam!

8.    8. Drink lots of wine!!!

 

The start of our adventures.

 Over a year ago now I left for a semester to travel see Europe and study abroad. I wanted to create somewhere my boyfriend and I could share travel tips and plan for any upcoming ones I might plan. 

Maybe I should introduce myself and my boyfriend a little bit. I went over to London like I said to study abroad, I was there for about six months overall.  I studied at Roehampton University in the South West of London and was a terrible place to study, it was the worst part of my trip. Although I did have a maid haha. woooo. anyway.  My boyfriend, Trevor ended up coming over in the beginning of April which was such a nice surprise because we did not plan on him coming over at all.  I hid him in my dorm room and we stayed there together for about two months. This was nice because it gave him a free place to stay. 

I don't think London would have been the first place I would have picked to travel in Europe but it by far by passed our expectations. I have so many fun memories. When I was trying to choose a university I got deceived because they told me Roehampton was right in the city. Well try - a twenty minute bus ride and twenty minute tube (subway) ride to anywhere exciting. I would have picked a different place if I had known that fact.  

Other than that I loved being a permanent tourist because I got to know the city well enough where I could find a ton of cool lesser known spots. Then at the same time we got to experience all of the touristy type of stuff. I definitely want to get more into that stuff later

We also traveled to Ireland and Northern Ireland, France, Whales, and more. Next we want to go backpacking and stuff like that.  I just have to say that we are addicted to traveling now that we have gotten a taste of it. ahh.  Trevor is also such  a great travel partner!

 

Oh yeah, I took both of the pictures above of the city center. The picture on the bottom was as we were walking along the River Thames in Westminster near Big Ben. The one on top is a picture of Oxford Circus when I went on one of those cheesy bus tours.