Le jour de départ

Hopefully there will be a few more catch-up posts to come (I still have to write about my beautiful trip to the French Riviera) but here I am sitting in the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, and I may as well write about my last day in France as it's happening.


Yesterday, after a check-out meeting with my landlady and a last visit to the program office to do some last minute errands, Ali, Molly and Emily brought me to the train station to see me off. It was a pretty surreal day, and very weird to be leaving my apartment for the last time.  We said some hurried tearful goodbyes and tried not to make each other cry by crying. It's weird not to know when I'll see them again, but hopefully I will be able to take a trip to Minnesota someday soon or they will all take a road trip to Boston. 


I had a pretty relaxing train ride to Paris, and then maneuvered my to big bags onto the 63 bus towards Louise's. I'm sure it was like something out of a movie, watching me try to stand up on the bus while I was trying to get off. The only downside to bags with four wheels is that they have a habit of rolling around on jerky busses. 


We had a delicious dinner at a restaurant downstairs from the apartment  with Louise, Charlie and Charlie's step-father, Norm. I tried Millefeuille for dessert, which means a thousand papers (really layers) and was full of creamy delicious-ness. 


I forced myself to stay up as late as possible, watching British tv shows with Louise, and then went to sleep for my last night in France. 


This morning was lazy, since I have an afternoon flight. Once I had everything together, I took a cab to the airport bus stop and set off for CDG. I have successfully made it through security and am now waiting at my gate for about 2 more hours till my flight takes off. 


There are so many emotions going on in my head right now I'm not even sure how I'm feeling. So sad to leave this life and these amazing people behind, but I can't wait to see Josh waiting for me at Logan in a few short hours. Only one more minute on the free wifi, so I better post this. Thanks for reading!!!


xoxo Holly

Semi Marathon in Nîmes

Back in February, when I was working out with no foreseeable goal, my friend Ali suggested that we train for and run a half marathon while we were in France. 


On May 1st, the day finally arrived. After training a lot, but with no idea whether or not it would be enough, we headed to Nîmes for their 20th annual half marathon. We took an early train, and arrived a few hours before the race actually started, to make sure we could get through check-in and get warmed up in time. 


At first we thought there weren't a lot of people, but it turned out we were just there extra early, as people started filing in slowly but surely. The biggest shock was when a couple hundred members of some French militia/army/regiment trotted in wearing tiny shorts and tank tops. We ended up running most of the race with two of them, and it turned out a lot of them were international and they were all required to run the race. 


Anne went ahead of us right away, but Ali, Trisha and I stuck together for almost the whole time. The first few miles I had some stomach cramps, but at the first water stop I realized how much a small sugar cube can do. It gave me just the kick I needed and I hit my stride for the rest of the race. Apparently I trained better than I thought I had, because the race felt really good, and I came in right around my goal of under 2:10 at 2:06! It was a little bit surreal finishing a 13 mile race. I never really thought I could run that much, let alone enjoy doing it.

To top things off, we got awesome quick-dry shirts, bottles of wine and olive oil, soap and crackers. And of course lots of free bread and cheese and oranges at the end!

After beers and croque monsieurs at a little brasserie by the train station, we headed back to Montpellier for a lazy, relaxing afternoon.

Saint-Guilhem-le-désert

For the last free excursion through our program was to the ancient city of Saint-Guilhem-le-désert. Because it is so isolated in a tiny valley surrounded by mountains, it has not changed very much in hundreds of years and is still a quaint, old-fashioned town of about 250 people. It was recently voted one of the most beautiful towns in France, so it was sad that it was an overcast day, but it was still very pretty and fun to walk around the little alleys and see all of the old architecture. 

We started off the day by taking a tour of the city with a really nice tour guide. He showed us the abbey and the biggest plane tree (looks like a sycamore) in France. 


We were on our own for lunch and then got to wander around a little bit. We took a small hike up one of the hills outside of the town and found some really gorgeous views, and then explored some of the boutiques selling French goods from the region. All of the store owners were so proud of their heritage and a lot of them made the crafts themselves. 


Next we went to a cave outside of the city and had a tour of the inside. Since I went to a cave in Ardeche with mom and Nick it was a little bit less exciting the second time around, but still pretty mind-blowing. It was actually pretty different from the other one I saw, and had more different sections. Unfortunately the tour went on for a little longer than I would have hoped, but for the most part it was really beautiful, especially when they played a light show lighting up the biggest chamber. 

After the caves we went to visit the Pont du Diable, a famous bridge outside of Saint-Guilhem. We were supposed to go swimming, but it was too cold, so we just visited the gift shop and skipped rocks in the river before getting on the bus and heading back to Montpellier. 


Wonderful to see such a pretty little town and wander around the tiny, twisting streets. Also a really nice time hanging out with lots of different friends in our last couple of weeks in France.

A little France for Dad and Paris with Louise

Dad and I took a train from Barcelona to Montpellier, so he could see my city and my apartment and where I've been living for the past four months (wow, four months...eeee!).


We got here in the evening, so had a nice dinner at one of my usual restaurants and then went to bed. The next morning (we only had one full day in Montpellier) we had a lazy sleep-in and then made our way out into the town. There aren't a whole lot of touristy things to do here, so we mostly just walked around the streets and enjoyed the sun. We made a quick but unsuccessful visit to the mall to look for sandals for dad, and then walked through the Antigone, which is the new part of town, towards the river. It was a nice quick visit, and fun to show Dad around the town a little bit, and for him to get to see my home in France. 


The next morning we got on a train to Paris. It's a really easy trip, only 3.5 hours to Gare de Lyon, and from there we took a bus to Louise's apartment near les Invalides. Dad only had the afternoon in Paris, his flight left the next morning, so we decided to do the most iconic Parisian thing and go see the Eiffel Tower. This was also his first trip to Paris since he was 12 years old. 

After leaving the Tour Eiffel, Louise walked us around her neighborhood and showed us some of her favorite things in the vicinity including a really amazing building front which I, unfortunately, did not get any pictures of. Then we went to a brasserie so that Dad could have a cup of French coffee. 


We got dinner on Louise's street in a nice little restaurant, they both had pasta with mushrooms (I swear the French have hundreds of different types of mushrooms) and I got a really yummy steak with frites and we shared a creme brulée for dessert. 


Dad got up really early for his plane, so after Louise came back from taking him to a taxi to find the airport bus, we both had a nice long sleep in. I went for a quick run (in the final two weeks of training for my half marathon) and got ready to head out into Paris. 


We had an exciting belated birthday shopping day, which mostly consisted of being shocked by the prices of dresses at Printemps and encountering some very strange fashions. We also ventured out of the department store and found some more reasonably priced clothing. 


For dinner we went to a really nice restaurant with lots of courses that included some delicious oysters (I just recently discovered my love for them) covered with tiny pears, salmon, cheese and soufflé. It was fun to have a real fancy French meal, since I don't encounter those very often, and we had a great time catching up and chatting. 

On Saturday we did a little bit more clothes shopping, as well as food shopping for a small dinner party Louise was throwing for me later. That evening three of her friends came over, two ex-pats living in France and one hilariously wonderful French-Brazilian 80+ year-old woman. We ate paté and olives and lots of delicious appetizer-like foods and had a really great time chatting and laughing. Louise and I finished off the night by watching a few episodes of a thrilling murder-mystery show.


Sunday was my last day in Paris, and we had a pretty lazy day. We had lunch at a sushi restaurant, actually a pretty big chain in France who just opened up their first shop in New York City, and then mostly just hung around the apartment for the afternoon. My train left at 9pm, so I slept most of the way home and then went straight to bed on my return to Montpellier. 


All-in-all it was a really great vacation, very different from my two weeks in February and a much less exhausting type of travel. So nice to get to spend the weekend with my godmother enjoying Paris, even if it did rain everyday. 

Barcelona

I spent most of my second, two-week break in Barcelona with Dad. We met in the train station (he flew in from New York and I took the train from Montpellier) and walked a few blocks to our first Air BnB apartment. Dad recently discovered airbnb on a trip to Colorado. It's basically like couch surfers but more credible. People all over the world share their apartments/houses/guest houses with other people through the website for varying amounts of time.


Our first night we stayed with Enrique. We barely even met him, as he had to go to work pretty soon after we got there, but it we had a nice room, and a shared bathroom and kitchen with our host. After we settled in, we went for a walk around the neighborhood to explore a little bit, eventually finding some Paella and tapas for dinner (2 most popular dishes in Barcelona).


The next morning after a nice sleep-in (Dad was still on EST) we found our way to Klaudia's our Airbnb host for the rest of our stay. She is a young Polish woman who lives with her boyfriend and teaches English in Barcelona. They have a fairly big apartment, and discovered airbnb as a way to make some extra money and use the extra bedrooms in their house. It was very nice, and had a wonderful terrace off the back that had just finished renovations the day we got there.


For our first real afternoon, Klaudia sent us for a walk in a park nearby, which was really beautiful. Then we walked along the beach for awhile, although we were followed by a very ominous looking thundercloud, so we decided to go find some food and shelter. 

We had pasta and pizza for dinner, needing some comfort food, I guess and it never rained. We were concerned about the dark clouds, so we asked the waiter to put us under a roof, instead of out in the middle of the square, but the clouds never hit the courtyard where we were and it stayed sunny the whole time. 


After dinner we went up to the top of the Christopher Columbus tower that gave us a view from up high of all of Barcelona. We also went to the mall that is in the middle of the harbor. It's amazing how much has been built up right on top of the harbor!


For our second day, Klaudia suggested we take the funicular/gondola/cable car from the harbor to another park up on a hill. We waited for awhile in line, but eventually got up in the tower to another amazing view and then in the little car that went on a cable across the city. We arrived for a small lunch of Paella and wandered around what we figured out was the old Olympic park from when Barcelona held the Olympics in 1992. At the edge of the park is a huge art museum that almost looks like a mosque from far away, with big domed roofs. The architecture of the museum was almost as amazing as the art inside it. 

Kaudia had told us about the "magic" fountains below the art museum, but we didn't totally understand what she meant until we were walking away. Right around 7pm, a long row of fountains started to turn on one by one. Then larger fountains up closer to the museum turned on and eventually the giant one in the middle started. They played a montage of Disney songs as the fountain put on a show and there were hundreds of people watching. 

After we watched two rounds of the fountain (the show goes off every half an hour starting at 7) we went in search of food. We found some yummy tapas, and then headed back towards the fountain, hoping that once it got dark the show would include lights. Unfortunately, on our way there we got caught in a torrential downpour and got stuck in a mall. We tried to wait it out, but eventually decided just to head back to Klaudia's instead.


The next day was our Gaudi day. Gaudi is a spanish architect, inspired by nature, who designed some really wonderful and totally original buildings in Barcelona. First we went to the park where he lived for part of his life and designed some buildings, bridges and other structures. It rained here too, but we found refuge and ate lunch while we waited for it to stop. It's pretty hard to describe the Gaudi park without actually going there, so here are a few pictures that don't even do it justice:

After Gaudi's park, we went to see his incredible cathedral, the Sagrada Familia. This cathedral is so complicated that it is still under construction. It has 18 towers, and is covered with stained glass and facades so intricate that it's understandable why its construction has taken so long. We spent a really long time inside, just staring up at the ceiling. It is seriously amazing, and again, photos don't do it justice, but here are a few. The pillars are designed to look like trees.

For our last full day in Barcelona, we took a train outside of the city to Montserrat, which means serrated mountain. We took a tiny train up the side of the mountain (it got really steep at the end) to where there is a big monastery that has become sort of a small touristy town at the top of a mountain. We followed a hiking trail to one of the many chapels that are scattered throughout the mountains and visited the cathedral in the monastery as well. It was nice to get away from city life and tons of tourists, and the views were stunning. Although it wasn't warm, the sun did stay out for the whole day, so we warmed up hiking up and down the slopes of the mountains. 

The next morning, before heading out on the train, we stopped at a market down the street and wandered around to all the stalls. We bought a few things, but were mostly just there for the experience. So many smells and colors and different amazingly fresh looking foods. That's something I will seriously miss when I go home. Markets in the states just aren't the same...

Easter

Easter weekend was a fairly slow one. It was the beginning of our spring break, so most people had taken off for their various adventures. On Saturday night, I went out to dinner with my friend Ali and her mom and aunt who were visiting, which was a lot of fun. We found a nice little restaurant that I hadn't been to before and I got ribs, which is an interesting concept in France. I felt sort of funny eating them with my hands, but the waiter assured me that was how I had to do it.


I planned to go find some sort of Easter Sunday church service with Ali and her family the next morning, so I got up early and dressed up and headed out to meet up with them. They assumed that someone at the hotel would be able to help us find a church service, but no one really seemed to know where we might find one. Even Ali's french host mom had no idea where to go for an Easter service.


We decided to just wander around Montpellier to see if we could find some churches that might have a service for us, since France has quite a lot of churches and a very catholic population. We were able to find 2 pretty size-able churches in the city, but both showed no signs of people around and they were both closed. After awhile of searching, we gave up on church and decided to just go walk around a park for awhile and get some coffee and breakfast. 


It wasn't a total loss, since I wasn't ever really set on going to church, but it was really strange to be in a country that I know to be so christian and have such a hard time finding a service on Easter Sunday, of all days. It was also interesting that no one seemed to know where we should go. I guess a lot of French people are religious but don't actually leave their houses to worship? Who knows, guess I should ask around and see if I can figure something out. Another weird thing was that even the night before when we were looking up Montpellier churches online it was really difficult to find any information other than the fact that the churches existed. None of them had websites, let alone information on when they had services, holidays or any other time. 


The rest of my Easter was a little more successful, although not necessarily Easter-y. I met up with my friend Lauren to lay out in the sun for a few hours. The original plan was to go to the beach, but it was a little too cold, so we stayed in the city and went to a big grassy park. to soak up the sun. We got a little chilly from the wind that annoyingly wouldn't stop blowing, but otherwise had a nice afternoon.


For dinner, Jalynn and I had our friend Emily over. We cooked chicken and mashed potatoes and watched Sex and the City (one of our favorite dinnertime rituals) and afterwards enjoyed the chocolate kinder egg that we picked up at the grocery store as a replacement for the Easter baskets we knew we would be lacking this year. 

Provence with Mom and Nick

So here I am playing catch-up again. Once I get caught up from the last few weeks, I am going to try really really hard to stay on top of my blogging for my last month in France.


Mom and Nick came to visit in the end of March, and I got to spend two lovely weekends with them. The first weekend they arrived in Montpellier, so we spent a few days shopping, touring the city and, of course, eating. Nick did some visiting of the more tourist-y parts of Montpellier on the day that Mom and I did our shopping (since it's not really his thing).

I don't get a chance to eat out much, so it was nice to get to go to the few restaurants I know about and also explore some new ones. We ate some delicious French food, and also learned that the French do not know how to make iced coffee. This spring weather has been making me seriously crave Dunkin' Donuts' iced coffee. I know, I know, I'm in Europe so I should enjoy their coffee, but there's just something so satisfying about Dunkin's and their iced coffee on a warm day.


After the weekend, Mom and Nick took off in their little, fuel-efficient rental car to Avignon, where the spent the week touring around Provence while I was in school. On Friday, I took a quick, easy train ride to Avignon to meet them. The first afternoon we walked around Avignon and went a little ways out of the city to see a giant, beautiful garden that used to be the regular strolling ground of bishops. We had a nice picnic and walked around. Everything was just starting to be in bloom, so the country-side around us was a bright, light-green and a lot of the flowers were just starting to come out. 

After the garden tour we had a nice dinner in the centre of Avignon. 


On Saturday, we drove to Aix-en-Provence, another sweet, Southern French city. We walked around and enjoyed the warm weather, did some shopping and stopped into a small art museum. It was fun to see another city that I've heard about for awhile, but never visited. There was not a whole lot to do, but it was a nice few hours spent there. 

Sunday we took another day trip to l'Ardèche. This is a region of France where there is a huge gorge/canyon. There is a long road that winds and twists along the top of the gorge, with lookout stops every few miles to see the view of the river and the valley below. There were some pretty incredible views.

We also made a stop to visit one of the 700 caves that have been discovered behind the cliffs of the Ardèche. It was really cool to see real stalactites and stalagmites and go really deep into the ground. It's pretty astounding what nature can do over hundreds of thousands of years. 

Near the end of the gorge, we happened to drive by a natural stone archway, which apparently is shown in the move Cave of Forgotten Dreams. I haven't seen it, but Mom and Nick have, and they recognized it right away, so we had to stop to take some pictures and soak up some sun.

On Monday, en route back to Montpellier, we stopped at Pont du Gard, a really old, huge Roman bridge. We walked along with a whole lot of tourists, American, French, Spanish. The parts of Southern France I've been in are not too touristy, so it was kind of a surprise to see so many foreigners. 

We ended up getting to have two goodbye dinners in Montpellier, because Mom and Nick got stuck here an extra night, due to strikes at the airport. Not so great for them, but it was nice to spend one more evening with them before they took off.


Wonderful to show off where I've been living to them and to travel to some other really great parts of France that are so close by but that I haven't had a chance to see. 

Birthday Post!

So last Wednesday was my 21st birthday. I was lucky enough to have Mom and Nick here visiting the weekends before and after my birthday, although they weren't actually here on the day of, so we started off the celebrations on Sunday night with a birthday dinner out with Jalynn. 


On my actual birthday I got to open a present from Josh, which he sent with Mom, specially to France. It was nice to get something directly from home to start off my day. After a busy day of classes and beautiful weather, I might add, I came home to start the festivities. I had a few friends over to have a spaghetti and meat sauce dinner (our favorite family recipe) as well as some delicious garlic bread which was a huge success. We all ate too much, because I also made a cake from an American mix that I specially requested Mom and Nick bring me. It was delicious, and topped with some easy icing and fresh strawberries. As yummy as French pastries are, it was fun to have good ol' cake from home to celebrate. 


Once I had time to shower and get dressed and make myself presentable after rushing around the kitchen cooking, we headed out for the evening to meet up with some more friends from the program. It was a wonderful birthday and an awesome night, and I was so lucky to have so many new friends to share it with me. It's too bad I'll have to wait till May to have my first legal drink in the states, but it was still pretty great to celebrate my birthday in France, and my friends helped me to make it a great one! Now I just have an excuse to have more birthday celebrations with the rest of my friends when I get home!

Skiing at Pelvoux Vallouise

Still in the process of catching up on blogging since my vacation, so here's an update on my ski trip a few weekends ago.


The trip was organized through our program, so about 30 of us went, plus three of our program coordinators and their daughters. We took a five hour bus ride on Friday night to the hotel and went to bed pretty soon after we arrived, but not before taking in the gorgeous nighttime view of the mountains all around the hotel. Even in the dark, it was easy to notice the huge mountains on each side of us.


The next morning we got up early for breakfast and headed to the ski slopes to get fitted for our equipment. I assumed it would be pretty cold, so I borrowed a hat and mittens from friends and brought as many layers as I could to make sure I wouldn't get cold. As it turned out, I started getting hot before I even got my skis on, so shed most of my layers before we started skiing. 

Some of our group split off for ski lessons, and the rest of us decided to start out on the easiest hills to get some practice runs in. The first time I ever downhill skied was four years ago, my junior year of high school, in Montana and Alberta, Canada, and that was also the last time I skied, so it had been awhile. Fortunately it wasn't too hard to pick back up, and I got increasingly confident throughout the weekend. 


After spending the morning on the easy slope, stripping off layers after every run, we decided to head up to try more difficult slopes. We tried out the blue trail a few times, not too bad, but significantly harder than the first hill, before breaking for lunch. I hadn't realized how much I have been missing wheat bread until I ate the sandwich that was provided for us with three pieces of delicious mountain home-made bread. 

After lunch we went up a little bit higher on the mountain to try a new slope. It was pushing 70 degrees and hadn't snowed there in awhile (both my parents were shocked by the lack of snow in my pictures when I showed them the mountains) so the fake snow on the slopes got increasingly slushy and difficult, but the views were still beautiful and it was nice to have warm weather. 


After skiing and some relaxing time, we took the bus into the adorable little ski town of Vallouise to do a little bit of touristy shopping. It really consisted of a few streets with two gift shops, a church and a bar, but it was cute to see a very different French town from the ones I have visited so far. 

We ate a delicious, though cheesy, mountain dinner and then I spent the evening getting to know some new people in my program, which was a lot of fun. Then we went to bed pretty early since it had been a long day and we had another one to wake up early for. 


On our second day, we brought many less clothes and more ambitions. By the early afternoon, a few of us were ready to venture up to the very top of the mountain and brave the red and black trails (there's an extra color in French trail difficulty levels). A few of the boys in the program who are much better at skiing than us, took us up to the top and helped encourage us to get back down again. The view at the top was absolutely stunning. It was amazing every time that we got a little bit higher, but after flying up the steepest part of the hill with just a metal pole to hold between my legs (I was holding on for dear life) the view was absolutely the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I was blown away. I can't even fully describe how crazy it was. Pictures can't even capture it.


 After we went down the red trail, we decided to go back up to the top to take a snack break there. Then, my crazy friend who had never skied in his life until the previous day, decided that we really needed to go down the black trail so that we would be able to say we had done it all. Although I did make it down that hill in one piece, it was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done. It was sooooo steep. We were basically just going sideways back and forth across the hill, gaining a little bit of ground at a time. My legs were killing me from holding me in the same position for so long. I actually had to fall a couple of times just to slow myself down and get a little bit of a rest. We did make it down the steepest trail though, so now I can say that I've done it, although definitely not very gracefully.

So all in all, probably the best weekend that I have had in France so far. I got to be outside for two whole days taking in absolutely breathtaking scenery, making new friends and just having a wonderful time. I slept for a lot of the bus ride home - it was a pretty tiring weekend as well - and arrived in Montpellier to similarly warm temperatures!  

Flying Solo in Paris

Day 11:  On arriving in Paris, I had a number of up-in-the air plans about where I would be spending the night. I made my way to Montmartre to try to meet up with some friends while frantically contacting everyone I knew in Paris as all of my plans fell through. 


It was a spectacularly gorgeous day in Paris, slightly marred by the fact that I had no idea where I would be spending the night. I explored the funky streets of Montmartre, trying really hard to appreciate everything and take it all in, while trying not to be too stressed about my sleeping arrangements. 

I eventually made my way to the Gare de Lyon to try to change my train ticket home, without success, before I finally got in touch with my friend Dominique from my program. Fortunately she had an extra bed in the hotel she was staying in with her mom. I was so relieved, after a lonely stressful morning during which I had to carry my bag with me everywhere, I had a place to stay!


That night we stayed in the hotel room since all of us were tired from traveling, and we had a little picnic and watched French tv.


Day 12: Dominique and her mom had to leave early for the next part of their travels, so I slept in, and once I left the hotel I made my way to the Louvre, which has a free baggage check and is free for students in Europe! I also had never been, so I felt like it was a pretty important tourist attraction that I should probably see. 


Like in Rome, it was a really cool experience to see the actual paintings of a lot of artists that I learned about in my class last semester. I explored a lot of the Louvre before I realized I was starving, so I left and ate the remnants of our dinner from the night before. 


En route to meeting up with a Brandeis friend for coffee near the Eiffel Tower, I stopped for awhile to read in the Tuileries garden, even though it was raining a tiny bit. 


All in all, a pretty nice day in Paris, even though I spent the majority of it by myself. It was cool to know that I could navigate around myself and figure out the metro maps, aided by a tiny map I had brought from my Frommer's guide to France. 


Day 13: On my final day, I walked around Paris a little bit more, but was really just ready to head home. I had managed to change my ticket to an earlier time, after dealing with another complicated train station debacle, so I got back to Montpellier around 3:00. 


It was the most wonderful feeling to step out of the train station in to the 65 degree weather and onto streets that I recognized. It was also amazing to come back to my own apartment and to be able to wear different clothes!


Traveling was amazing, but 13 days of travel was way more than I ever had imagined it would be, and it took a lot out of me. I spent the last weekend of break re-cooperating and relaxing and enjoying Montpellier. Even discovered a few new restaurants when Jálynn's mom, who was visiting, took us out for two delicious dinners!

London Baby!

My apologies for how long it's been since I last posted. I wanted to leave some time between my looooong vacation updates, but then I got sidetracked by life and haven't gotten back to blogging in awhile.


Day 7: After a great week in Italy and a long sleepy day in the Marseille train station, I said goodbye to Mary and Ali (they were going back to Montpellier that night) and headed to the airport to fly to London. When I arrived, I went through the first customs/passport check of my trip. Apparently they're pretty lax when you're traveling between some European countries, so I don't have many passport stamps to show for the places I went to. I took a train into London, where my friend Hilary met me. At this point it was around 11 pm and I was still running on no sleep, so we just caught up in her dorm and then went to sleep. 


Day 8: On my first full day in London, Hilary and Rachel, friends from Brandeis who are studying in London through the BU internship program, took me to see the sights. First, we went to Old Spittlefields Market, a huge covered markets with booths selling everything from jewelry to vegan salads.

Right next to Spittlefields was Brick Lane, which was full of food. Seriously, so much food! There were booths with food from every ethnicity imaginable. I stopped in the way in for a red velvet whoopie pie before getting to the real foods. Each booth had food from a different place, bubbling and sizzling and steaming on electric woks and hot plates, which made it look even better. We saw Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Sri Lankan, Lithuanian, Spanish, Mexican and so many more. The building was also incredibly packed with people, all looking at, tasting and munching on different food items. It was really hard to decide what we wanted for lunch because everything looked and smelled so amazing. I have never seen such a colorful, good-smelling selection of foods, I wanted to have about five meals! I ended up choosing Sri Lankan, a mix of rice and noodles with about four different meat/sauce combinations mixed together. It was delicious. As were Rachel and Hilary's Thai combinations. 

After an awesome lunch, eaten standing up, squeezed between everyone else at a tiny counter in the corner of the room, we headed out to see the big, London touristy spots. 


They took me across the Tower Bridge, although we didn't see the London Bridge, because apparently it's not very exciting or nice looking. Then we headed towards Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. After some confusion on Hilary's part over which was which, we took a bunch of pictures and enjoyed the sights with all of the other tourists. It was pretty cool seeing all these places that I've heard about and seen in pictures and movies. We didn't go inside anywhere, which was fine with me since I did plenty of touristy things in Rome as well. 

Tower Bridge

Westminster

Big Ben/London Eye

That night we made dinner in Hilary's dorm (much cheaper than eating out) and streamed The Blind Side online, since I was still recovering from my exhaustion and Hilary had a final exam the next day. 


Day 9: After sleeping in while Hilary was at her exam in the morning, she sent me to see Buckingham Palace, since she had to study for another test. It was cool to navigate London by myself and figure out (with Hilary's directions) how to get to Buckingham. I took a ton of pictures and walked around Saint James Park. It was just starting to show some signs of spring, so it was fun to see all of the little crocuses and snow drops as well as the biggest variety of birds I have ever seen in one place. 

That night we explored Piccadilly Circus with some Brandeis friends of Hilary's and went to the famous M&M store, which was pretty exciting, although expensive. We went to a drug store as soon as we left to find cheap chocolate. 


Day 10: After sleeping in again during Hil's next exam, she took me to get lost in Herrod's for awhile. We talked about how American department stores can't even touch the fanciness of Herrod's. It was fun to see all of the intricate rooms and very very expensive merchandise. Hilary's favorite part was the pet shop with two adorable puppies playing around. I had to drag her away from them. After another fairly relaxing day, we met up with Rachel and her friend in Chinatown for dinner in a Korean restaurant. I didn't end up having any traditional English food, just Asian. Interesting how these things work out. 


My last night in London we went to bed pretty early, because the next morning, very early, I was leaving and Hilary and Rachel's break was about to start, so they had to be to the airport bright and early as well. 


Although I probably didn't absorb as much of British culture as I should have, I had a great time hanging out with Hilary and Rachel and doing "drive-bys" of all of the popular London tourist destinations. It was also nice to get a lot of sleep after my whirlwind Italian adventure filled with too much walking and not enough sleep. 


The next morning I was off to Paris for the last few days of my vacation to meet up with my friend Marielle who was visiting Europe for her spring break, although I would have been just as happy to head back to Montpellier.