Finally, London and Paris!

1. All of us girls in front of the Eiffel Tower.
2. One night before we went out, us all dolled up :)
3. Me in front of Notre Dame.
4. Notre Dame on the inside!- Amazing.
5. Us girls in front of the louvre.
6. THE Mona Lisa, herself!
7. Cory and I in front of the Arch de Triumph.
8. Cory and I with the Eiffel tower!

Wow… Where to begin. I guess I should start with my London trip! I was excited beyond words to arrive in London and see people that I have missed SO much. I took a bus from the center of Granada to the airport, and luckily, two other girls from my program got on the same bus… that happened to be travelling to London as well! That was a relief because I was originally going to be travelling the entire way alone. We ended up chatting, and sitting by each other on the plane. Our plane arrived in Stansted, London, and then I needed to take a train to Liverpool. This part in my journey was to be done alone, because those girls were meeting people in Stansted. I knew I would be fine, but I was just so anxious to finally be with my friends! I got in line to buy my train ticket, and I met a couple from Holland! That’s right, Holland. What are the chances? They even spoke very good English, because they were actually English teachers at the high school level in Holland. They bought their tickets and we said our farewells. Turns out, they ended up buying the same tickets as me to Liverpool, and even somehow got on the same CAB as me! We then had even more time to talk, and ended up talking for the entire hour and fifteen train ride. Apparently we hadn’t gotten on the express train that we had paid for… so it ended up taking us an extra half hour later than what we had originally anticipated. If I hadn’t had them for company, I don’t know what I would have done with myself! They were just the sweetest couple ever… offering me mandarin oranges, mints, and water. I sang them a few of my Dutch songs that I know from Dutch dozen and Tulip Court… they LOVED it. They could even understand what I was saying. BOMB. They told me that they would LOVE for me to come visit.. gave me their email address, and told me that I was always welcome in their home. Also, while I was getting money out of an ATM there was a man from Norway, and he was listening to “Man of Constant Sorrow” on his phone. He was playing it out loud, so of course I noticed. I turned around and started singing with him. The funny thing is, he barely knew English, but he knew how to say. You like bluegrass too?! Hahahaha. I love moments like these. That is what being abroad is all about! Well then came the time of arrival in LIVERPOOL. Cory was going to be waiting for me there, and I was beyond excited. I was running about an hour and a half late, and had no phone to tell him that everything was ok… so I was sure he was going to be pacing back and forth. I stepped off the train, and it felt like a movie. I saw him off in the distance, my arms flew up in the air, and I couldn’t help but run/skip the entire way towards him. It was the best feeling in the world.  We then made our way to Vandon House, which is where all of our central friends were living. Once we got there, they were all ready to hit the town! We went to super fun club/bar called the “Zoo Bar.” There were three levels in this place, it was HUGE. The top floor had 80’s music, the middle floor had techno, and the basement had rap/club music. It was so neat to see something so huge and get to experience it! The next day, which was Saturday, we woke up and started our tour of the city! We got to see Big Ben, The London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the Palace, and all that’s in-between! At this point, Felica was with us as well. It was so great to be with her again!  London was really beautiful, but it reminded me a lot of America, just older. It was very clean which I appreciated! And the taxis were so cute. The people were also very nice. Cory, Jermey, Beem and I left early Sunday morning back for Granada! We made it on the plane and arrived in Granada around noon. I helped the guys find the Kabob stand, which they fell in LOVE with, and satisfied their hunger. We then found their hostels and decided to rest up for a bit that afternoon! While they were all here in Granada, they went to the Alhambra, hiked a mountain, and went out for tapas almost every night. I think the guys really enjoyed/appreciated the concept of tapas. Not ONLY do they get a drink with free food on the side, but it’s also MUCH cheaper than anything you’d find in London! You better believe they took advantage of that! Wednesday night was Saint Paddy’s day, so we went out for tapas, and then found a disco-teca that had free entrance and drinks all night! It was a blast showing them the Spanish culture in the clubs. The music was typical, and they got really into it! Watching them try to talk in Spanish to the bar tender was pretty comical. I loved every minute of it. ;) Thursday was my last day of class for the week, and after my classes we went straight to the Airport to leave for PARIS! Paris, oh sweet Paris… how I love thee. Paris was absolutely amazing. But let me backtrack a bit on how we got there. Like I said, we left Granada for Barcelona on Thursday. We arrived in Barcelona at about 8:00, and our flight for Paris was going to leave at 6:25 a.m. Friday morning. SWEET. So we decided to rock the “airport hostel” another time…lying blankets down on the cold airport floor. Good thing we are still young, or I wouldn’t have been able to get back up off that floor. We got a couple hours of sleep, boarded our plane, and heard Paris calling our name. When we got to Paris we had to take an hour bus ride to the center of the city, where our friend Taylor was waiting for us! We then jumped on the metro, and made our way to our hostel. Our hostel was called “Hotel Darcet.” It was PRETTY sketchy, but it was also the cheapest we could find. So we didn’t mind saving a few extra bucks, yet have to deal with holes in the walls. Ha. We got to the hostel around 11:00 in the morning, and then found out that we couldn’t check in until 3. So, we left our bags there and decided to walk around and explore until we were able to clean up and shower. We walked up to a look-out point where we could see Notre Dame, the Eiffel tower, and basically the entire city of Paris. There was also some GREAT live music being played in this area, so we sat down for about an hour and just relaxed while we were serenaded. During this time, I tried my first crepe with Nutella. AMAZING. I LOVE Nutella, and having it in a crepe was heaven. That night we went to the Arch de Triumph, Moulin Rouge, and saw the Eiffel tower sparkle. Paris is absolutely beautiful at night. During the day it’s a BIT dirty, but at night it’s breath-taking. At night we went to an Irish pub, because it was so close to our hotel. It was so fun being with everyone again.  The next day we got to sleep in and catch up on some sleep. We woke up, and decided to make our way to the center of the city once again. It was Eiffel Tower time! We spent a few hours in front of the tower taking millions of pictures and just people watching. I had men coming up to me trying to sell Eiffel Tower key-chains, and they would call me “Lady Gaga.” Not sure where that came from… but I went along with it. I sang them a little “Bad Romance”, and I think they appreciated it. Haha. After the Eiffel tower, we made our way to the Louvre. During this time, I ran into one of Kylie’s friends from high school. It was SO random that we literally “ran into each other” at the Louvre in Paris… I was so confused and stunned at first! The Louvre was amazing. We didn’t have as much time looking around as I would have liked, but I can still say that I saw the actual Mona Lisa, so I’m pretty blessed! After the Louvre, we went to Notre Dame. I would have to say that this was my favorite site… even more so than the Eiffel Tower! Since we were there on a Saturday night, we were able to listen to Mass. The inside of Notre Dame is absolutely stunning. The architecture and even just the “mood” inside were spectacular. In addition, being able to listen to songs and the congregation reciting things in French was so neat. I saw people making confessions in special rooms, and it was just so so so…. Powerful. That night we got all dolled up, but our pearls on, and went out again. Since it was raining, we decided to go to a bar that was very close to our hostel… and had a great time trudging through the rain. We woke up, and had to say our goodbyes to our Central friends that had to go back to Pella. It was HORRIBLE saying goodbye.  They left our hotel at 6, so I woke up, gave my hugs… and tried to go back to sleep. We didn’t have to leave until 9:30 so I could get some more sleep in. Us Spain kids got on our plane fine, and did some studying during the trip. Mid-terms are this week, so we kind of had to study as much as we could! This week is going fine. I’m trying to catch up on my sleep for this weekend. Its spring break, and I am going to Barcelona this weekend, and then to the Canary Islands! Woot! After I get back from that, I really only have a month and a half left in Spain. It’s SO crazy how fast time is flying… so so crazy. I’d also like to give a shout out to my happily engaged cousin, Holden. Congrats Holden and Kelly! Love you both  Hasta Luego!