Spain round 2! I had around a week and a half with absolutely no plans in the midst of finals so I decided to plan another big trip. I went from Glasgow to Madrid (with a stop in Switzerland for a few hours) to Athens (with a stop in Brussels) to Malta before heading back to Glasgow.

I went to Madrid for a few days mainly to see one of my few friends studying abroad before she left for the semester. As I mentioned above I had a layover in Geneva, Switzerland before making it to Madrid. Since my layover was 8 hours I decided to head out to the city center and see a little bit of Switzerland. I visited the Brunswick Monument and the Jet d’eau. The Brunswick Monument was built in 1879 to commemorate the life of Charles II, Duke of Brunswick. The Jet d’eau is a fountain in Lake Geneva that shoots water 150 feet in the air. I also made sure to try some Swiss chocolate before leaving (it was delicious).

I then headed back to the airport for my flight to Madrid. It was a quick flight and I headed right to my hostel in Madrid to check in and get some sleep. The next day I decided to go on one of those free walking tours that are offered all over Europe. It started in the Plaza Mayor, a major public space in the heart of Madrid. It was once the center of Old Madrid. The plaza dates back to the 15th century and used to be a place for bull fighting.

The tour took us around parts of Madrid, going over the history and what the old buildings were. We even were able to see the Royal Palace of Madrid, but we did not go in. It was nice to be able to walk around Madrid and get a feel for the city. It was a beautiful, sunny day out (I even got sunburnt)!

Afterwards, I met up with my friend Annie for happy hour. Annie and I went to middle school together and have kept in contact over the years. We really wanted to have the chance to see each other while abroad so thankfully this trip ended up working out. We went to this place for happy hour nachos and margaritas. They were delicious! We retired for the night after since it had been a long day (I was starting to feel the sunburn and Annie had had a test earlier).

The next day was much more eventful. We walked around the other side of the city I had yet to see. Madrid has some absolutely gorgeous buildings to see. We had lunch then headed out to El Retiro Park. It was absolutely huge and gorgeous. We spent a few hours laying out there (with my sunburn only getting worse) before exploring the park. We went to the Crystal Palace and looked around inside. It’s made almost entirely of glass and the inside is just so cool to see on such a sunny day. Next we headed to the lake and did a hour long row boat ride. It was a super cute lake and fun to row around. It was nice being able to be outside and do things without being super bundled up.

We stopped at a Dunkin Donuts on our way back and hung out there for a bit, just catching up. I was able to get an iced coffee (for anyone who has ever spent an extended time in Europe they understand how important finding Dunkin iced coffee is). That was basically the rest of our day since the sun made us pretty tired.

My final day in Madrid was fairly simple. We met for tacos for lunch and were first in line at this very popular taco place (we were 30 minutes early to opening). By the time the place had opened the line was a hour wait time. Afterwards we decided to check out the Mercado de San Miguel. It’s basically a smaller scale version of the market in Barcelona. It was super cute inside but we did not get anything because we were full from lunch.

We split for a few hours after that before meeting up at Starbucks to study for a bit (yay finals). After we separated for dinner before meeting again for my final night in Madrid. We headed to one of the local bars for shot night (yay!!). It was a really fun final night together before I headed out to Athens the next day.

We really only had one day to spend in Krakow, Poland so this post will be a little shorter. We wanted to do a tour of Auschwitz and they really only go out of Krakow so we took the train from Prague to Krakow and arrived very late. Our original tour was supposed to take us to both parts of Auschwitz but with it being the Easter weekend the museum in part one was booked. We instead were able to get on a tour that went to Auschwitz-Birkenau and the salt mines.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was a concentration camp in Nazi occupied Poland. Birkenau was the largest of the Auschwitz complex of camps. It opened in March 1942 as a death camp. About 90% of the victims of Auschwitz Concentration Camp died in Birkenau – approx. a million people. We were able to see the original train tracks that led into Birkenau as well as the many barracks there. Some of the barracks we viewed included the ones that held the twins they did experiments on during the Holocaust. We also saw the remains of the gas chambers and the memorial for the victims. Out of respect to those who died there and those affected by the camp, I only took pictures of the front gate.

We only had just over a hour at Birkenau before we had to head back to our bus to continue on to the salt mines. We all agreed we could’ve spent the whole day just seeing Birkenau due to the mere size of it. We missed out on seeing most of the camp but it was important that we got to see any of it.

Next on our trip we stopped in a small town right outside of Krakow for lunch and the salt mine tours. Lunch was fairly good and we decided to order some drinks since alcohol is cheap in Poland (plus I needed something before going into those salt mines). For anyone who knows me, I hate two things in life: being very far above ground and being very far underground. So, understandly, I was not a huge fan of the salt mines. We visited the Wieliczka Salt Mines which still lie in the metropolitan area of Krakow. The salt mines were excavated from the 13th century and continuously produced table salt until 2007. The mines reach a depth of 327 meters and extends over 287 kilometers. We walked through the mine and saw different ways the salt was mined and a bunch of different chapels in the mine.

After the salt mines our tour took us back to Krakow. We went out searching for pierogis and find some at a cute little local place. I had some delicious strawberry filled pierogis with cream on top. We even were able to find a place that sold paczki (I always remember going to get a paczki on Casimir Pulaski day when we lived in Illinois because we always got that holiday off). Afterwards, we headed to our hostel to sleep before another early morning at the airport heading back to Glasgow!

After spring holiday I headed back to Glasgow for a few days to take my first final. That Wednesday we flew out again for a trip to Prague in the Czech Republic. We stayed in a cute little hostel right next to the famous Charles Bridge. It was also around the corner from the John Lennon Wall which put us in a great spot. Our first day there we decided to check out the Prague Castle. The castle is a castle complex dating from the 9th century. It is also the current official office of the President of the Czech Republic. In addition, the Bohemian Crown Jewels are kept in a hidden room inside the complex. The castle complex holds a massive cathedral along with multiple mini museums that detail Prague’s history and old relics.

There’s also a museum of armour and torture in the castle complex as well as multiple little rooms set up to look like they did when people lived there. We saw rooms belonging to a psychic, herbalist, and a film maker plus a dungeon.

That was all we saw for the day before retiring to our hostel for some much needed sleep (I need to stop with the early flights). The next day we decided to go to the Prague zoo for the day. The interesting thing about the zoo in Prague is that the enclosures are not very extensive. In some cases there were complete barriers (nobody wants to be bit by a Tiger), but in most cases there was some rope and space between the animals and people. The lemur exhibit was completely open and they could walk right up to you. It was a very interesting experience with the zoo, especially feeling like you could really see the animals. And I was, of course, excited to see the elephants!!

We then headed back into the city to check out the Easter market. The Easter market was super cute and they had some traditional music being played which was interesting to listen to even though I didn’t understand any of it. We found the astronomical clock after seeing the market. The clock was first installed in 1410.

Afterwards, we set out to find some Trdelník. Trdelník is made from rolled dough that is wrapped around a stick then grilled and topped with sugar. It is also commonly called “chimney cake”. You can get multiple things inside the Trdelník but I opted for ice cream and chocolate.

As I mentioned earlier we were staying by the famous Charles Bridge which we had to take to get back to our hostel. The bridge crosses the Vltava river. Construction of it began in 1357 under King Charles IV and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. We, of course, had to get pictures on the famous bridge.

We also ventured over to the Lennon Wall for some cute pictures too. In the 1980’s the wall stared being filled with John Lennon inspired graffiti and lyrics from Beatles’ songs.

Our final day in Prague we decided to check out the Jewish Quarter or Ghetto in Prague. We were able to see multiple synagogues, the Jewish cemetery, and the Jewish museum.

We then started our way back to our hostel to get our luggage and catch our 7 hour train to Krakow, Poland. I had to stop for one last Trdelník before we left (they are so good!). And I also had to say goodbye to the cutest little kitty that lived at our hostel.

Bon Voyage!

On Wednesday evening, we took a train from Rome to Venice, Italy. This was the final stop of our 2 week Spring Break before heading back to Glasgow for finals (for a few days before our next trip – we can’t sit still). We arrived in Venice at a fairly late time so we went straight to the hostel to sleep. Our hostel was a very quick walk away from the train station which was nice. The hostel itself was in a residential area of Venice so it was very quiet and dark at night – not that there’s a lot of noise at night in Venice to begin with. We had a private three bed room in the hostel with a cute little balcony that opened into the building’s courtyard. There was even tea, coffee, chocolate, and apples in our room for us when we got there. Overall, the accomodations were in a great location and really nice.

We didn’t have much of a plan for Venice. Our only full day there was Thursday since we were catching a train in the late afternoon on Friday. We started the day off a little late because we decided to get some much needed sleep. To start, we walked aimlessly around, looking for somewhere with cheap food to eat. We found a pasta restaurant that was fairly cheap. The pasta was good, but nowhere near as good as the pasta in Rome. The thing about Italy, as well, is that you have to pay for water (and its not cheap) and soda is nowhere near cheap.

We decided to just explore Venice from there. There’s a loop you can walk around Venice that we set out on, doing some of it not all. Venice doesn’t really have any cars driving there, especially once you go past the train station. This is because the streets are not made for cars. They tend to be very narrow and alleys are well traveled. Since Venice is a canal city, there’s a bunch of bridges. Unlike in Amsterdam, these bridges can be small and they more than likely have stairs (I’m not sure I saw any that didn’t have stairs to get up to it). This makes the bridges impossible to be used by any vehicle. Venice has around 400 of these bridges scattered around the small city. These bridges span over 150 canals (Wild).

We continued on with the loop we were walking in Venice and ended up out by the water. We checked out the different bridges over here since there’s some bigger ones that overlook both canal and the Laguna. You’ll also notice there’s some buildings on the islands out across the water. These are more basilicas. We didn’t go see them because we had no idea how to get over to them.

We also stumbled across some more statues, basilicas, and the naval museum and base. I also took pictures of the theatre and some Venice streets. Like other places abroad so far, alleyways are heavily traveled and not as dangerous as they are in America. Overall, Venice does not have a lot of wide streets so they tend to look like an alley. We walked aimlessly around and often took the same streets back to where we were because they all looked the same.

While in Venice for the two days that I was, I was able to meet up with a friend from back home. Kenzie, my roommate at UNCG and sorority sister, is currently studying abroad in Malta for the semester. She started her spring break as I was getting to the end of mine so we were able to meet up for a little over a day. We haven’t seen each other since the first week of December so it was a very exciting reunion. Enjoy this video I took while running to hug her.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around and eventually stopped for dinner. Since we were in Italy we decided pizza was the move for dinner. We walked around until we found a fairly cheap place to eat. We sat there for awhile just catching up and eating. After, we parted ways to head back to our hostel for the night.

The next morning we met up and took pictures on one of the large main bridges that overlooks the main canal. It was very windy and bright in Venice making for bad pictures but we got some anyway. The walk up the bridge wasn’t fun since it was so crowded and tall but the view out is gorgeous. After taking a bunch of photos (notice a theme of what we do here?), we headed back down towards the Laguna and walked along it again. We wanted to do a gondola ride because when in Venice, right? We found the main one and decided on the longer ride that would take us on a large loop through the canals. The gondola ride was a lot of fun, especially since we saw a lot of buildings that we had not come across before. It was terrifying to get into the gondola because it rocked a lot and felt like you were going to fall in, but once everyone was in and we were going it became a lot of fun. We passed under the bridge that is the cover to the book The Thief Lord. We also saw the place Mozart stayed at in Venice and Marco Polo’s home in Venice. We also went by the most expensive hotel in Venice. Rooms go for $12,000 a night!!

After the gondola ride, we decided to walk some more and find some lunch. We found a cute little sandwich place to eat at. I was able to get a turkey sandwich with cheese, tomato, and avocado. That was super exciting because turkey is hard to come by in the UK. It’s been hard not being able to eat a turkey sandwich since I eat them so much in the States. It was a delicious lunch. The nice thing about Venice is we did not see any chain restaurants so we were able to get the local food experience for the most part.

We then went to check out San Marco’s Basilica which is the famous one in Venice. We were able to get in quite quickly but no pictures are allowed inside the basilica. It was still very pretty to see.

We wandered around for our last bit before I had to catch my train and Kenzie had to get a bus back to mainland. We sat at a little dog park by our hostel for a bit (it was a very residential area we were in). When it was time to go, we grabbed our bags and headed towards the train and bus station. We stopped at one final bridge to get a few pictures together before leaving.

It was super sad having to say goodbye to my best friend but thankfully we will be seeing each other in the beginning of May when we meet up in Greece. That will be our last time seeing each other until college starts back up in late August.

After saying goodbye, we boarded our train to Bergamo, where our flight was out of in the morning. It was a long train with two train changes so it got fairly interesting. On our last train change, we were at a train station at 9 at night in the middle of nowhere with nothing open. We ended up grabbing the wrong train thinking it was ours because it was five minutes late and we had yet to see it. Thankfully, we realized quickly we were on the wrong train and got off at the next stop. We weren’t too far from the station before and were able to catch a train within the next half hour back to the station. We then caught the train we were supposed to take, but a hour later. We still made it to Bergamo and got to our hostel. It was very funny taking the wrong train. We were in the literal country of Italy at a train station with absolutely no one there besides a couple of teenage boys having a rap battle in Italian. It felt like something out of a movie. At one point, the phone just started ringing loudly at the station and would not stop. If you have ever seen the Rock Bottom episode of Spongebob, this was literally what our train experience was like. We made it back fine though and caught our flight back to Scotland in the morning with no issue.

As always,

Bon Voyage!

On my last day in Rome we decided to go see the Vatican City. To get in, we had to stand in a line outside while it rained (and we had no rain jackets or umbrellas). When we did finally get in we were completely soaked. That didn’t dampen our day though and we went about seeing the Vatican City. Vatican City is a city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy. It was established with the Lateran Treaty. Vatican City is ruled by the pope and all Catholic clergy of various origins are the highest state functionaries. Within the Vatican walls we were able to see the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum, and St Peter’s Basilica. We paid to go inside to see the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. I took a few pictures inside to show what it looks like. The Vatican museum houses a bunch of sculptures and even a mummy or two.

We then headed outside to get in line to see St Peter’s Basilica. The line is long because it’s free but it is only a bag check so it moves very quickly. It was really interesting to see inside. The basilica was designed primarily by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Catholic tradition says that this is the burial site of Saint Peter. Unfortunately, we did not get a glimpse of the pope while there.

Italia!!! I have to say, Paris will always be my absolute favorite, but Rome is a close second. The food, the culture, the buildings – I loved it all! We decided to stay in an airbnb in Rome since we figured we’d be tired of hostels at this point. The airbnb as stayed in was in a building built in 1470!! That’s older than the United States. The building was gorgeous and we had a lot of space. We were also in a great area, not too far from any of the sites. In addition, we were right next to the street market so we were able to go see that the one day. Overall, it was an amazing place to stay.

We got to Rome in the afternoon so we decided to go see the Pantheon before grabbing dinner. The Pantheon was free to get into and very pretty. They had a concert going on while we were there so we had some background music to our experience. The Pantheon was a former Roman temple, now used as a church. Construction of it started during the reign of Augustus. The painter, Raphael, is buried there. The Fontana del Pantheon is also in front of the Pantheon. Next, we went to the Trevi Fountain and I got to live my Lizzie McGuire moment. According to legend, if you throw one coin into the fountain over your left shoulder using your right hand then you will return to Rome one day. If you throw in a second coin then you will find love. A third coin thrown in means you will get married. I threw in a coin to ensure my return to Rome.

We headed to a local place for dinner, recommended to us by our airbnb host. I just had margherita pizza there but it was absolutely delicious. Nobody does pizza like Italy. We also had tiramisu for dessert which was delicious.

The next day we got up early and headed to the Colosseum. It was hard getting there because there was a 5k going on so most of the roads were blocked off. We finally made it there and got in pretty quickly. The Colosseum is an oval amphitheatre and is the largest one ever built. It was comissioned to be built in AD 72 by Emperor Vespasian. His son, Titus, completed it in 80. It has 80 arched entrances. It could house 55,000 spectators and they were seated according to rank. The colosseum is now in ruins, with two-thirds of it being destroyed over time, but is definitely interesting to see.

The Colosseum is just east to the Roman Forum so that’s where we headed to next. When you enter into the Roman Forum area, you also have access to Palentine Hill. Paletine Hill is the centremost of the Seven Hills of Rome. It is one of the most ancient parts of the city and has been called the first nucleus of the Roman Empire. It’s 40 metres above the Roman Forum.

We explored all over the different parts of Palatine Hill, especially the side that overlooks the Roman Forum. We wandered through the Farnese Gardens, which were built over much of what was the Palace of Tiberius. The gardens even incorporate some of the ruins. The gardens overlook a lot of the Roman Forum.

We then went down to the Roman Forum to check out the ruins. The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important government buildings. There are ruins of many temples there (so many that I forgot what most of the pictures are of). The Forum first served as an everyday marketplace before becoming more functional and having public affairs held here. There’s even a little museum down there now with different pieces of rock or sculptures from different points in history. There’s even some rock pieces and sculptures from the 1st century.

We then headed to check out the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument or the Altar of the Fatherland. This was built in honor of the first king of a unified Italy. The tomb of the unknown soldier is here.

We stopped for lunch quickly afterwards at a pasta place (I mean where else? We were in Italy). I had a delicious pasta with a creamy spinach sauce. Italy really does do pasta right.

We then headed to check out the Spanish steps. We didn’t walk up them at all since there was a lot of people and we were very tired at this point. The Trinità dei Monti church is at the top of the steps.

We also walked up a hill to one of the extensive parks that gave us a great view of Rome. We took some pictures up there before heading back down towards our airbnb.

I’m also just going to dump a couple photos I took of different fountains and statues. Rome has so many fountains that I lost track of what my pictures were of so if you know what the picture is of, lucky you.

Lastly, there was an amazing gelato place right by our accomodation. For only €2 you could get two scoops of gelato and have it dipped in chocolate for free. We went way too many times. It was absolutely delicious. I mean look at it:

Sadly, the next two days in Rome I spent sick in bed with the flu:( It was not a fun time. But on our final day in Rome I was able to rally and go see the Vatican City and St Peter’s Basilica. I’ll make a blog post for that adventure next.

For now,

Bon Voyage!

We arrived super early Thursday morning to Barcelona so we decided to sleep in to get some actual sleep (something we’ve been lacking this week). When we did finally get up, the sun was shining despite the cold weather here in Barcelona. We decided to head out and just check out the sites as we went. We started off with heading towards the water since we were staying close to there. We stopped and looked at the Columbus Monument on the way. It’s a huge monument on a little island in the middle of the road there.

The water was absolutely gorgeous. It’s always amazing to see water in different places but also just to see it in general because I miss the water so much (never thought I would).

After walking along the water for a bit we decided to check out the Mercat de St Josep. It’s a famous market in Barcelona and has just about anything you could possibly think of. We decided to get lunch here since there were so many delicious items. I got an empanada special from one of the stands which included my spinach and cheese empanada, a fruit salad of just cantaloupe and strawberries (it was some of the most delicious fruit ever), and a fruit juice (I got two of these while at the market because they are so good). I then went back and got chocolate covered strawberries on a stick from one of the many stands. Absolutely everything at the market was delicious to eat.

From the market, we roamed around a bit more. We passed by this gorgeous church that I had to take a picture of. There are so many gorgeous churches in Barcelona that if I took a picture of all of them my camera roll would be full so I stuck to just taking a picture of this one church. We also passed a memorial for Sir Alexander Fleming with a bust of his head. I just had to get my picture with it because of the little science nerd I am. Plus, my honors class last semester read a book about his Nobel Prize winning work. Sir Alexander Fleming was a scientist who received a portion of the Nobel Prize for his contributions in discovering penicillin. He was not, however, the one to develop it into a medicine. Sir Alexander Fleming actually stumbled across penicillin after it had grown on a bacteria tray that it had left out and had killed the bacteria around it. He was fascinated with penicillin and tried to figure out exactly what it was but he was unable to harness it into something useful.

Next we went to check out the Arc de Triomf. If you remember correctly, there is an Arc de Triomphe in Paris (two actually). This Arc in Barcelona is modeled after the one in Paris. It was interesting to see this after seeing the Arc in Paris and being able to compare the two. They’re definitely similar but also all their own at the same time.

Finally, we headed to the Sagrada Familia. We chose not to go inside because it’s expensive and it was so late in the day that we would never get in. Instead, we marveled at the work of Goudi from the outside and took pictures with the Sagrada Familia in the background. The disappontint thing, though, is that, like most thing I have visited, the Sagrada Familia is under construction and has a bunch of cranes up around it. It was kind of annoying to get all of the cranes in the pictures but the Sagrada Familia was still the stunning sight it is.

I also captured another church on my way back so enjoy this picture.

For dinner, we chose to eat outside at one of the many restaurants by us. We started off with tapas that consisted of some meat, chips and cheese, bread, and calamari. For the main course, I had pizza (sorry I’m basic), but I did try the paella and one of the mussels that the other girls got. I just don’t have a huge taste for seafood so I stayed away from getting a paella of my own. Since we were in Spain, we each ordered the litre Sangria and it did not disappoint. It was absolutely delicious and definitely not like a grocery store sangria (as the waiter promised us). It was definitely a must have in Barcelona.

The next day we once again slept in (oops it’s a bad habit) and got up later than we planned. It was another cool day in Barcelona and actually rained a bit so it wiped our original plans of it being a beach day. We decided to go to the Park Guell (which you might know from Cheetah Girls 2). Unfortunately, to go see the really cool bench that looks over the whole city you have to pay and it was sold out when we went so we decided on the free route. We still were able to go pretty high up and were able to see Barcelona in its entirety. We only spent an hour or so here because rain clouds moved in so we decided to high tail it out of there before it started to pour (and pour it did). In the pictures below you can see a pinkish house that is fairly close. That is the Goudi House Museum from his time leaving there. He designed the house himself and actually lived in it for a bit. We opted out of actually going into the museum because you had to pay. There was some very pretty flowers there, already in bloom. Sometimes it’s so nice to flowers bloomed since we miss that in Scotland.

Also please enjoy this picture of me laughing obnoxiously at something someone said.

After the Park Guell, we headed to the market once again for food. There, we were able to get a burrito stocked full and chips for 7€. It was an absolutely delicious burrito (I got both queso and guac for free so it won me over). We also decided to try some ice cream since it looked absolutely delicious. I got a two scoop cone with Kinder bueno and Ferrero Rocher. I figured it would be fun to try ice cream that I can’t normally have. Afterwards, we headed back to our hostel to relax and pack since it had been a long week so far.

The next morning we got up at a fairly decent time (yay for flights not super early in the morning or super late at night) and headed to the airport. Now, we’re off to Rome until Wednesday!

Until my next post,

Bon Voyage!

Our first two days was a wirlwhind of seeing the city, but for the 3rd day we decided to venture out to Versailles. The Palace of Versailles was created by King Louis XIV when he decided to move the royal family out of Paris. Whether this was a move to protect the monarchy from the conspiracies of the capital or not, Versailles quickly became a symbol of power. The move also stemmed from King Louis’ need to show his elegance. He originally lived in the Louvre but the palace was land locked from buildings around it and was unable to be expanded anymore. Louis wanted to design his own piece of the royal palace so he scrapped living in the Louvre and instead built Versailles and moved there in 1678. Many important people lived in Versailles, surrounding the King with princes, courtiers, and ministers. Versailles was a truly stunning place, tucked away from common folk.

Château de Versailles, or Palace of Versailles, was originally a hunting lodge for King Louis XIII. When King Louis XIV decided to build the palace where the hunting lodge was, the grounds had to be reconstructed and extensive levelling was done. The area where the grand canal is was actually originally a swamp so that had to be drained out. The inside of the palace is extremely elegant. Every aspect of the palace shows the extreme wealth the royal family had (no wonder they had their heads chopped off eventually).

The thing I found very interesting about the Palace of Versailles is how intricate the paintings on the ceiling are. Most palaces have detailed paintings on their ceilings but there’s just something about Versailles’ paintings mixed with the luxurious rooms that make them stand out.

Of course, you can’t go to Versailles without seeing the Hall of Mirrors. Talk about a luxury that just shows your rich and can spend your money on whatever you want. The hall, which contains a total of 357 mirrors, is also the same place where the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending the First World War.

We finally headed out to the gardens, the most extensive place of Versailles. We barely walked any of it, in retrospect, because of how large the gardens are. We trekked through to see some of the fountains but the gardens are huge and it was a cold day so what we saw was limited. Fun fact about the gardens: Versailles did not have a huge water supply since it was not on a river. Due to this, the water used in the fountains had to be pumped out of Seine River and pushed through aqueducts under the gardens. To do this amazing feat, new techniques and hydraulic methods had to be invented. They drove the water from the Seine River more than one hundred meters above the Seine level in order to reach the aqueducts. All of this was done so the fountains to activate as the King walked and deactivate after he passed them.

While it was only April 2nd when we were there, some flowers had started to bloom throughout the gardens. We took the opportunity to get a few more pictures in before leaving.

We then headed back to Paris from Versailles because it was getting fairly cold and late. We relaxed for a bit after getting back before deciding to try out the Latin Quarter for dinner. A lot of the restaurants in the Latin Quarter are on back streets where cars can’t drive down. The restaurants tend to be fairly cheap and we were able to get a three course meal for 10€. I had onion soup as a starter, a delicious steak and fries for my main course, and chocolate mousse for dessert. The restaurant we went to was very cute. We sat downstairs, surrounded by empty wine bottles which just added to the whole atmosphere of the restaurant.

Because we were in Paris, food was definitely a main focus. We went and got macarons which were insanely delicious. Our hostel that we stayed at even offered breakfast which was just bread! Each morning we received a baguette and a croissant. It was absolutely delicious.

Our final day we had to leave for the airport at 6pm so we slept in a bit before hitting the Eiffel Tower and catacombs. We decided to check out the different places they suggest for Eiffel Tower pictures and they did not disappoint! We took a bunch of pictures in all of these different places. There’s a street next to the Eiffel Tower that they suggest for pictures because of the amazing view it has of it. The street was absolutely adorable and not too populated so it was a bit easier to get some pictures taken. We also went across the river to Trocadéro Square. This area had a bunch of people taking pictures but we still got a few.

Lastly, we went and saw the Catacombs of Paris. This was definitely an interesting one. The Catacombs are underground ossuaries that are in a small part of a tunnel network that was built to consolidate Paris’ ancient stone mines. The ossuaries hold the remains of slightly less than 2 million people. These people were buried here in an effort to eliminate the city’s overflowing cemeteries. It was an experience to see the Catacombs. Don’t look at the pictures below if human bones scare you.

After the Catacombs we headed back to our hostel and then to the airport. Off to Barcelona we went for 2 full days!

For now,

Bon Voyage!

March 29th marked the last day of classes for me and the start of a 2 week spring holiday. To start off spring break, we took an almost 5 day trip to Paris. Our flight was at 7 am out of the Edinburgh airport so we took the 3am bus from Glasgow to Edinburgh. We had a 3 hour layover in Birmingham airport (still the uk) before continuing onto Paris. Since we got little to no sleep before starting our travels, we all decided to take a nap during our 3 hour window. So I can check sleeping in an airport off my list. Once we landed in Paris, we had to take a bus and then the metra to get to our hostel so it took another hour and a half before we were finally where we were staying. So we traveled for over 12 hours to get to Paris but when it comes to cheap tickets, you get the bad travel times. The hostel we’re staying at is very cute and just above a mile walk to the Eiffel Tower. We’re off a quiet road so it’s really nice for getting some sleep. Once again we lucked out with the hostel and have a four person room for the three of us. So far it is just us and nobody else has taken the 4th bed. Also, our hostel offers breakfast (which was a croissant and a piece of bread – yum!) which is a plus.

Our first night we took a trip to see the Eiffel Tower and just walk around Paris. We were super tired after a long day of travel and barely getting any sleep but we wouldn’t to see the city a bit. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Walking to the Eiffel Tower was fairly easy and we got some really nice photos during sunset. We then continued back and ate at a cheap little burger and chicken place that was surprisingly delicious.

The next morning we decided to sleep in a bit before heading out to explore the city. We had an introduction to Paris walking tour scheduled for 3 pm so we slowly headed that way. We stopped to take pictures by the Musee d’armée, or the Army Museum, because, like most buildings in Paris, it is very beautiful. There was also an old car show going on in front of the museum so we got some photos in front of those as well.

We didn’t go into the museum but it was very pretty to look at. We continued wandering the city, trying to go down any street we thought looked pretty. The one thing I’ve noticed about a lot of Paris streets is that there’s a lot of flower shops. They make the street smell like flowers. They’re so much fun to walk by and see and smell.

The other thing about Paris is that we passed a lot of gardens (or jardins if you want it in French). We finally decided to stop in one and see what it was like and we were not disappointed. It had tons of flowers, bushes, and different kinds of trees there. We even saw some bamboo. It was so pretty there we couldn’t resist taking pictures.

We continued on our way afterwards and decided to stop for lunch so it was getting late and we had to actually get to our tour soon. We stopped at one of the many restaurants that line the streets of Paris and sat out at one of the tables on the sidewalk. It was a gorgeous day out and the sun was shining so it was the perfect time to eat outside. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my food but I did order a diet coke and got a picture with the cute glass bottle.

Finally, we made it to our walking tour that started by the Saint Michel monumental fountain. Place Saint-Michel, the square where we started our tour, is in the Latin Quarter and lies on the left bank of the river Seine. The monumental fountain there was created by nine major sculptors.

Our tour then led us across the Seine River and to see the Notre Dame. We only looked at it from outside but the next day we paid to go up it and light a candle. Notre Dame took 200 years to build and is just a gorgeous sight. The pointed arches that are featured there are because pointed arches hold much more weight than round ones. As you can see, Notre Dame needed the support because of how high it is built and the weight behind it. And yes this is the Notre Dame from the Disney movie the Hunchback of Notre Dame. In France, there was a time when there was contempt towards religion and anything that was a religious piece. Because of this, Notre Dame went through a time where it was no longer appreciated and people could care less about the religious building. This is where the original book that inspired the Hunchback of Notre Dame came from. The author, Victor Hugo, released different parts of the story, which centered around the Notre Dame and brought interest back to it. People began to see the Notre Dame as the amazing and spectacular place it was once again. Fun fact: Victor Hugo was laid to rest in the Pantheon where you can view his grave.

Next, we stopped to look at the Sainte-Chapelle, Palais de Justice, and Conciergerie. All three of these together made the former royal palace, the Palais de la Cité. It was used as a royal palace until the end of the 14th century and then the Louvre became the royal palace. The Conciergerie was a prison and is now used mostly for law courts. It can also be toured to see the old cells. Marie-Antoinette’s cell is also there but it is not open to the public. Napoleon III was also kept there in a cell. During the French Revolution, the prison housed many people. It was common for people to point to people on the street and accuse them of counter revolutionary tactics. If someone was accused they were automatically tried and found guilty. It was the Reign of Terror in France.

Then, we walked down to the Seine River to see the River and the beautiful bridges. We were able to sit down and take a nice little break here which was much appreciated after all of the walking we had done. When we walked up from the bridge there was a statue of the Chicken King or King Henry IV of France. During his role, he said that he would make sure everyone had a chicken in the pot every Sunday. He was a beloved King during a time where Protestant and Catholic religions were fighting for control over the country. King Henry was born of Catholic faith, raised Protestant, and married into a Catholic family. He hopped back and forth between religions, trying to keep the peace. Many people loved his ways but others found his religion hopping wrong and attempted to assassinate him. One fateful day when he was headed to talk to the Pope, someone succeeded in stabbing the beloved King three times, hitting the aorta and killing him.

Next, we walked across the Love Lock Bridge which lacks locks but has a beautiful view of the river. The locks were banned in 2015 after the weight threatened the safety of the bridge. The bridge itself is a pedestrian bridge and not meant for tons of weight. People still, however, put locks on the light poles there even though it is illegal. The city does clean out the locks like every months so they don’t stay up long.

Our next stop was the Louvre. The Louvre Palace became the royal palace in Paris after the royals vacated the Palais de la Cité. The Palace started off fairly small but each new King added on to the palace, making it bigger. The styles were also very different, making the two courtyard look as though they are different buildings. This was the palace of the royals until they moved out to a new Palace in Versailles. When the royals lived in the palace, the royal collection was housed there and constantly expanded. After they left the palace, the collection stayed, starting the Louvre museum. Most famously, the Louvre houses the Mona Lisa. Surprisingly, the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the museum but for the oddest reason. The Mona Lisa was housed in the museum for many years prior to it becoming famous. It was stolen out of the Louvre one day and the staff didn’t even notice until a visitor asked what was supposed to be in the empty spot. Postcard sized photos of the Mona Lisa were then printed out and passed around in hopes of finding the painting. Because of this, everyone soon knew what the Mona Lisa was. This was in 1911. Vincenzo Peruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa, disappeared with the painting for two years before popping up and being discovered in Italy. So the Mona Lisa became famous because it was stolen. We went back to visit the actual museum the next day (it’s free for people living in the EU).

Fun fact about the Louvre museum: they have silver metal blocks that you can stand on to get the pinching picture above.

We also were able to see the small Arc de Triomphe which is right across from the Louvre.

Our walking tour basically concluded after that so we headed to the Montparnasse Tower. The Tower is the only skyscraper in the actual city and is a site for sore eyes (as our tour guide said: it looks like the box the Eiffel Tower came in). The tower is nice, however, for viewing the Eiffel Tower. It has a panoramic view of the city on the 58th level of the tower, making it a good place to view the Eiffel Tower. It was very pretty to see Paris from this view.

To finish off the day, we stopped for some crepes at a cute little French crepe place. I had a dessert crepe and it was absolutely delicious.

Day 2 was a long day. We got up early to get in line at the Louvre. Since the UK has yet to leave the EU and we’re under 26 currently living there, most places in Paris are free, including the Louvre. We still had to wait in line for over 30 minutes but it wasn’t too bad. We went straight to the Mona Lisa when we got in which is super overrated. Like I said before, it is only famous because it was stolen. Honestly, I’m not much of an art person so I didn’t really take pictures of any pieces besides the Mona Lisa and a sculpture of Nike.

One thing about Paris is that all of the bridges have a super pretty view. Even the not super extravagant bridges are cute and have a good view. So we took a few pictures on different bridges this week.

We made our way back to the Notre Dame today to go see the inside and the top. To go up to the top, you have to reserve a time so we didn’t go up until later in the day. I will write more about it further down in this post. However, just going inside the Notre Dame is completely free and gorgeous. We checked out the big inside of the church and we were even able to light a candle! The glasswork there is literally so goregous, it’s surreal (but wait until you see pictures of Sainte-Chapelle).

Next we headed to the famous Luxembourg Gardens. It was a beautiful, sunny day out and it just made the jardins even more gorgeous.

We then headed off to see the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a building in the Latin Quarter. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St Genevieve. It now functions as a secular mausoleum and contains the remains of distinguished citizens. Some of the remains there belong to Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Jean Moulin, and Rousseau. Construction on the Pantheon started in 1758 AD and ended in 1790 AD.

We finally headed back to the Notre Dame to walk to the top. It takes 422 steps up to the top of the Notre Dame and the staircase is small and winding the whole way up. Once again, we were able to get in free due to the UK still being in the EU (lol thanks politicians for never being able to come to a decision). The view out from the top of the Notre Dame is probably the best in the city. The first level we went up to (which was very high) gives the view out of the Notre Dame towards the Eiffel Tower. On this level you’re able to go up and see the bells and read the story of Quasimado and Esmeralda. After checking out the view (and the gargoyles – fun fact the gargoyles actually have pipes inside of them and were used to filter out water from the building), we headed up another few flights to the very top of the Notre Dame. The very top gives you a panoramic view of the city and is very high up. Another fun fact: I’m terrified of heights. It was awesome to be up high and see the city but I was more than ready to get back to the ground. All around, the Notre Dame was amazing to see and going up it was definitely worth it.

Our last tourist attraction of the day was Sainte-Chapelle. As mentioned above, it is part of the Palais de la Cité and Conciergerie. Once again, entrance was free to us (honestly the best thing about Paris), so we took a little time to check it out before heading back to our hostel. The inside of the chapel is completely gorgeous. The glasswork is literally a piece of art.

After we quickly went through Sainte-Chapelle, we headed back to our hostel to change before a river cruise. We took the 8pm river cruise because it starts off at sunset and it’s dark by the time you come back. You really get to experience why they call France the city of lights as well as see it in the daylight. It was really cool to go past all of the sights we had seen on foot and be able to see them from a different view. We also got to see the streets of France a bit better plus the different bridges. When we came back, the Eiffel Tower was completely lit up. As we slowly pulled back in, the Eiffel Tower started twinkling with white lights for a few minutes. I definitely got my share of pictures with it. My room is Eiffel Tower themed and it was a dream come true being able to finally see it. It was absolutely breathtaking in person.

Just a few extra Paris things I wanted to point out. For starters, Paris is one of the few places I have seen with public waterfountains. On the sidewalks, you’ll find different things labeled with “eau de Paris (or water of Paris)” and it will have a constant stream of water. You would never notice it is a water fountain because it looks like it could almost be a sculpture. Also, we took a trip down one of the more narrow streets of Paris in the Latin Quarter and I thought I would share. The streets of Paris used to be very tiny with buildings that slanted in. Back then, Paris had an average of 23 or so people per room based on the population of the city and the housing available. Realistically, there was not that many people in a room and a good chunk of these people were homeless. Due to the time, human waste was also dumped out of the window and onto the streets. All in all, Paris was fairly unsanitary. Napoleon decided to make a city wide project to make the streets wider, which was not due to sanitary reasons. He actually did this as a military tatic. When the streets were that small it would be easier for the people of Paris to revolt and blockade a whole street. You will find a few small streets though and they are definitely worth taking a minute to look at and remember life then. Lastly, I just feel the need to point out how many steps I had on my 2nd day. My first day in Paris was a lot of steps but nothing truly compares to the 2nd day. We had over 33,000 steps (ouch) and 52 floors (thanks Notre Dame). We are definitely feeling all of the walking in all of our muscles. Definitely can’t wait for some relaxing days!

Bon voyage!

This weekend I went on a not even 48 hour trip to Iceland. Our flight, which was supposed to leave at 12:30 but was delayed until 2, landed in Iceland at 4:15 pm. We then took a 45 minute bus ride to our hostel. Luckily, our hostel ended up being on the coast and was quite cute. It has 4 levels and each level has a cute, different sitting area.

After we put our stuff away, we headed down to the coast to check it out. It was quite cold out, notice the snow, but it was nice to see the water. We climbed on the rocks and looked out over the water. Notice in the pictures the big mountain covered in snow in the background.

Then, we noticed that there was something a little ways down the road and headed to check it out. There was no sign to describe the ship but we believed it might have been a memorian to a Viking ship, seeing as the Vikings were in Iceland. From the ship, you could also see the mountain a bit more clearly.

We’re staying in the town of Reykjavik…..and yes it is hard to spell and pronounce. It’s one of their larger cities, but is small compared to what we are used to.

We then went on a Northern Lights tour that took us two hours away from where we were staying to try and see the light. Yesterday was a stormy day and it snowed while we were looking for the lights. We were taken out to a hilly area with only a single church illuminated there. It was completely dark out in order to see the lights which made it fairly easy to lose your group (which I did for 5 minutes). The lights were kind of hard to see but there was a break in the clouds where we could see a white light that popped up orange in my pictures. While the lights were hard to see, the sky had so many beautiful stars in it that it made up for it. You could literally see the stars twinkle.

We got back to our hostel at 2 am and got up for a tour the next morning at 10 am. The tour was very interesting and informative. Iceland is a young country in idea of formation and has very little minerals. Due to how young it is, things like coal, gold, and oil have not or have barely formed here.

Since Iceland has a lot of geothermal activity, hot springs are formed here. Iceland is operated on geothermal energy because of how much is available. The tour we took for our one full day here took us to one of these hot springs first. The water is filtered out of these geothermal reservoirs and is produced through vents along the whole hot spring. The water is a great temperature (I’ve been in hot tubs hotter so it’s just perfect) and along with the snowy mountains and steam it’s an experience. As you move through the hot spring the temperature will get warmer as you get nearer to the vents. Being submerged definitely reminded me of the feeling of hot sun on my skin in the summertime (something Scotland lacks: hot sun).

Then we headed out to see a Geysir. Due to all of the geothermal activity, there are a bunch of geysirs in the area. The most popular is Strokkur because the Geysir goes off every 4-6 minutes. It shoots scalding hot water out of the ground and into the air. The water is between 80-100 degrees Celsius (yes it is literally boiling in the ground). We were able to capture some videos and pictures of it happening. Notice the big bubble of water that forms out of the ground before the water shoots up.

Next we saw Gullfoss waterfall which was very pretty. The interesting thing about Iceland is that it is so bright there that it has perfect natural lighting. We didn’t see the sun set until 8:30 the first night we were here. We also played around a bit in the snow by the waterfall because it was so plentiful there was no way to resist.

Lastly, we walked up to Pingvellir National Park. The walk, although slippery, was very pretty and the views were amazing. There was a little waterfall there and a huge lake that was half frozen. You could also see the snow covered mountains in the distance.

With it being our last night, we decided to go get ice cream and see the famous cathedral there. Our goal was to spend very little money in Iceland since everything is so expensive due to it being an island. Because of this, ice cream is the only food we actually bought there and instead brought our own food with us. After eating our ice cream (which was super delicious despite how cold it was), we walked to see Hallgrimskirkja which is a Parish church in Reykjavik. It is 74.5 meters tall and is the largest church in Iceland and among the tallest structures in the country. The cathedral is named after the Icelandic poet and clergyman, Hallgrímur Pétursson. He is the author of the Passion Hymes. In front of the church is a monument of Leif Erikson, given to Iceland by the United States to commemorate the 1000 year anniversary of Albingi (the parliament of Iceland). The inscription on the back of the statue says “Leifr Ericsson Son of Iceland Discoverer of Vinland”. Leif Erikson is regarded as the first European to land in North America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus. He established a Norse settlement at Vinland (which is thought to have been on the northern tip of Newfoundland in modern-day Canada).

Iceland was very gorgeous and it was great to actually see some snow that stuck. The only thing that was not good about Iceland is that the bus we originally booked to take us to the airport never came and we had to hop on another bus line and buy tickets for it. Uber is illegal in Iceland and the only way around without a car is by bus. We thought we would barely make our bus because we were a hour late leaving, but the airport in Iceland is super quick and easy to get through. Overall, it was an awesome trip and experience. Next up: Spring Break!

For now, Bon Voyage!