paris!

i can't believe i forgot to write about my trip to paris!

i went directly to paris from bruges in early november, just for the weekend.

so we had to get up at 5 to catch an early train into paris, and when we got there we went to our hostel to freshen up and then headed to the louvre.  going to the louvre was especially amazing for me because a lot of the art we had been talking about in art class was there, and it was really cool to be able to see it all first hand!  

and i saw the mona lisa, which is really no big deal.  pretty small.

after the louvre, we got the rest of the afternoon free, so we went for lunch, went to the l'arc de triumphe and then took a double decker bus tour of the city.

i screamed when i saw the eiffel tower for the first time.  not that it was any different than i was expecting, but it was just amazing to see a piece of architecture that you've seen in a billion pictures and BOOM it's right in front of you.

that consumed most of our afternoon, and for dinner we went to georges (a really trendy expensive restaurant, you know the one from sex and the city when carrie goes to meet alex's wife) and then we went to see the eiffel tower at night with its light show etc.  i wasn't a HUGE fan of the lights, but before they started it was really nice seeing it lit up.

the next day we did a bike tour of versailles which was AMAZING.  it had been a while since i had ridden a bike and it was good to be riding again.  we got our lunch at a fresh market, which was delicious and went to the palace etc.  a great day

dinner at the hostel, went out.

the next day i went on a walking tour of montmartre (the 'artist district' of paris) and that is where i will live one day.  after that we had the afternoon free again which is used to go shopping in amazing vintage stores (oh my word.) 

an amazing trip!  so glad i finally made it there.

barcelona

barcelona!  my first independent travel!  me and eleven of my friends went to barcelona on the weekend of the 20th of november and it was excellent if i do say so myself.

we took a train to geneva and then a plane to barcelona.  when we arrived it was pretty late, and there was no time for sightseeing of any kind, so we got a very very late dinner and walked around for a while.

the next day, we went for a quick lunch then took a double decker bus tour of the city (my theory on taking a double decker bus tour is DO IT if you can because it's not very expensive, you see all of the sights, and you can get on and off at any point, using your ticket for the whole day.  this is especially ideal if you only have a few days wherever you're staying) we saw a lot of Gaudi's architecture which is AMAZING.  we got off at Gaudi park aka a Dr. Seuss book, and walked around there and took pictures for probably two hours.  we got back on the bus and walked back to our hotel and went out for the night.

the next day we went to the aquarium (you know how i feel about sea life, this was very exciting for me) which i do have to say, was a teensy bit disappointing considering the first aquarium i ever went to was the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago- the most amazing aquarium in the world. ANYWAYS. there was this huge huge tank at the end with billions of sand tiger sharks and this one huge really really really strange looking fish (i wasn't able to take photos because my camera ran out of batteries) and you could walk under and look up and that was cool.

and then i bought a shark t shit.

yeah.

i know.

one of my life goals completed.

it was really nice weather so we went out on the long stretch of grass in front of the aquarium and hung out there for a while and pretended we didn't have to go back to neuchatel anytime soon.

i would call that trip a success, considering i had to be responsible for everything by myself.

that's all for now! byeeeeee

ps: i unfortunately didn't have my nice camera with me which explains why the pictures are not very high quality

bruges remembrance day trip

Hello all!

Well, this past week has been a busy one for traveling.  I went to Bruges, Belgium with the whole school for their remembrance day ceremony and to visit World War I sites.  We flew into Brussels on the Tuesday and then took a bus to our hotel in Bruges.  That afternoon, we took a walking tour of Bruges and went to a local restaurant for dinner.  The next day, we went to Ypres for the Remembrance Day ceremony, which was really good.  There was a parade and then the actual ceremony at Menin gate.  Afterwards, we went to Menin gate and looked at that, and then left the area to tour some areas of importance with regards to WWI.  We went to different Canadian graveyards and to Passendale.  The next day we took a bus ride to Vimy Ridge which was beautiful and went to the monument which was incredible.  It's huge in size and really artfully done.  We spent some time taking pictures and taking the whole thing in, and then got back on the bus.  Our next stop was the Newfoundland monument and another tour of the landscape.  Overall it was an amazing trip and really interesting because I didn't have much knowledge of WWI before that point, which inspired me to learn more about it!