I went to Paris this last weekend and it was amazing.  I guess i'll start from the beginning.  Tyler, my room mate, and I left our room around 10:15pm and we headed to the Victoria coach station where our bus to Paris was to depart from.  We got a few snacks for the long (about 9 hours) ride to France, showed our tickets and passports to the bus driver, and boarded our new temporary home.  Unfortunately, the bus was pretty packed on the way there, so not only could Tyler and I not sit near each other, but neither of us had our own row to ourselves.  We were hoping for a relatively empty bus since it was so late at night, but apparently Thursday night buses are pretty popular.  There was wifi on the bus which was nice, but the seats were not the most comfortable thing i've ever sat on.  We left at 11:30pm, and I got about 5 or 6 hours of sleep which I was pretty happy about.  We arrived at the Bercy train station in Paris around 9:30am.  We went to a restaurant and got a nutritious breakfast which consisted of a coffee, a plain croissant, a chocolate filled croissant, and a french roll.  It was all delicious and much needed after the bus ride.  We then headed towards the place we'd be staying at, which I found through AirBnb.  We paid $93 for two people for two nights, so about $23 per person per night which was much cheaper than pretty much anything else that we were able to find.  Here's a few pics of the place.

The bedroom

The bedroom was fine, we had the place to ourselves so we each got a nice bed to sleep in.

The toilet

The toilet was fine but there wasn't any toilet paper....

This is the bathroom

The bathroom with the shower was the worst part of the place.  It smelled moldy and was not very appealing...so we did not use it much.

  This is Tyler in the elevator that went up to our place...as you can see it's relatively small.  Tyler's also rather large though.  

Overall, the place worked fine and for the price, it was alright.  After we dropped our stuff off at the place, we walked to the nearest metro station which is called Montgallet.  We decided to head to the Eiffel Tower, so we took the metro to Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel.  We got out and walked around the tower for a bit, it was incredible to see such an iconic building and it felt enormous when we were standing beneath it.  The line was really long, so we didn't go up to the top of it at this point, but we kept walking around.  We headed south and walked along the park that's right next to the tower, and then we looked for a restaurant to get some food at.  Everything around the Eiffel Tower seemed pretty ridiculously priced, so we searched around until we found this Chinese place.  The measurements were all in grams, so for example they would say that something is 2.99 for 100 grams.  So after some calculations we figured out that there was around 450 grams in a pound, so this is how we figured out what to order.  Well at least that's how we tried to figure out what to order, somehow we each ended up with about 2 pounds of food and we both spent more than double what we had planned to.  So after eating an absurd amount of chinese food and feeling like we got tricked into it, we headed up towards the Arc De Triomphe.  It was under construction, but still cool to see.  Here's a picture of that:

After that, we headed to a park to sit down and relax for a while.  The park we went to was southeast of the Arc, and I believe it was the park that has the Grand Palais in it, but I can't find the name of it.  If you follow the park to the east it eventually feeds you into the Louvre.  

After we left the park, we kept walking and eventually went south of the Seine River.  We found this enormous market called Le Bon Marche and it was incredible.  It seemed like a really high class department store, and we tasted wine and scotch there which was interesting and fun.  Tyler bought a bottle of Moscato which was alright, it was pretty sweet though.  We went to a cafe and then back to the Seine afterwards and sat across from the Louvre for a bit.  We were pretty tired at this point so we went back to the place and went to bed.

On Saturday, we started our day by getting crepes and going to the Louvre.  It's incredible how large the building is, and I liked the entrance/exit through the pyramid.  

Louvre

Mona Lisa

Oath of the Horati

After the louvre, we headed towards Notre Dame.  The line was ridiculously long, and Tyler's not a fan of long lines, so I decided that I'd come back and do it on my own.  He booked the wrong bus ticket back to Paris so I basically had an extra day without him.  Notre Dame was amazing though, the intricacies of the building are really cool, it's probably my favorite building that I've seen so far.  We then went and got a drink at this cafe right across the Seine from Notre Dame.  The tables were all really small, and it seems that sitting on the same side of the table as who you're eating with, even if you're not romantically involved with one another, is a common thing.  We sat there for a little while, and then decided that we wanted an actual meal, so we found a fondue place online.  This place was amazing, it was basically just bread dipped in cheese although they had other options with meat and other foods as well.  We had some wine with the fondue, and the seating area was located in a cellar-like area that was underground.

Pain Vin Fromages

After the fondue, we went back to the Eiffel Tower determined to make it to the top of it.  We took the metro over to the same stop, and we both had to pee pretty badly.  They have these public toilet stalls that are called sanisettes so we waited in line for about 5 minutes for one, and then eventually the door stopped opening to admit people.  Basically it's a stall with a door and the door closes behind you when you enter, then you leave and it closes behind you again to go through a wash cycle, and then it opens up for the next person.  So this sanisette seemed to have stopped opening...so I manually opened the door and began to use the toilet.  After I started urinating, a loud automated voice came over the stall and told me to get out and that a wash cycle would be beginning soon.  It was of course too late for me to stop what I'd already began, so I kept going.  The toilet then retreated into the wall and I was left with nothing to catch my urine except the floor.  I quickly finished and then got out, glad that the wash cycle had not started while I was inside the stall. We then walked to the base of the tower where the line was incredibly long to take the lift to the top, but we saw a stairs only line and we decided to take that option.  After seeing several women in heels turn back after getting through most of the line, we paid 4 euros and climbed about 700 stairs to the middle floor where you have to pay another 6 euros to take an elevator up to the very top, which was about 1000 ft.  The view from the top was amazing, and it was probably my favorite thing that I did in Paris.  Here's a few pictures of the view from the top and of the Tower from the bottom.

Looking North

Looking West

Looking South

Looking Northeast

Looking East

After we climbed back down the tower, we headed back to the place to get some rest.  Tyler's bus left at 11am on Sunday, and mine left at 11pm on Sunday, so in the morning we didn't do anything before he left.  After he took off I ended up walking around 7 miles.  I emailed the lady who owned the place that I was staying at and made sure that it was okay for me to leave my stuff there until 9 or 9:30pm, and she said it was so thankfully i didn't have to carry my backpack around with me everywhere.  I left the place and took the metro to notre dame.  I put a lock on love lock bridge for Kate and I and then got in line at Notre Dame.  The inside was incredible.  Mass was going on when I was there, so I caught a little bit of that, but unfortunately I didn't hear the organ.  I then headed outside to stand in the line to get to the top of Notre Dame.  This line took a lot longer, they admitted about 20 people every ten minutes, I think it took 40 minutes for me to get through it all.  It was worth it though.  Here are some pics of Notre Dame.

After Notre Dame, I didn't have too much else that I really wanted to cross of my list, so I headed towards Pere Lachaise Cemetery. I know that may sound kind of weird, but I'd read some good reviews on it, and was pleasantly surprised when I got there. Before I made it to the cemetery, I walked by a roundabout that had, I believe, 10 roads feeding into it.  It was in Bastille and it had this statue in the center of it:

I continued on to the cemetery after admiring the statue and roundabout for a minute or two.  I had also read that Jim Morrison's grave was at Pere Lachaise, so I figured that'd be interesting to see.   There were a fair amount of people around, so that made the visit a bit more enjoyable as it might've been weird to be wandering around a cemetery alone.  Here's a picture of Jim Morrison's grave:

After that, I was exhausted from walking, so I went back to the place for a bit to relax and charge my devices.  I soon got restless and felt like I was wasting my last half of a day in Paris, so I headed out on what ended up being a very long walk.  I walked in the direction of where the bus would be departing from, as I wanted to make sure I knew exactly where to go to get back to London.  So I kept walking and eventually got to the Seine and followed that up northwest for a while.  I then cut away from the seine and walked to the Luxembourg Palace and Garden.  It was really cool and I had some of the most amazing vanilla ice cream I'd ever had there.  Here are a few pictures from my walk. 

Group of people dancing by the river

Luxembourg Palace

Luxembourg Garden

More Luxembourg Garden

After the sun went down, I went back to the place to gather all of my stuff, have one last meal in Paris, and then board my bus back to London.  I emailed the lady before I left to let her know that I'd be vacating her place, and I walked to an Italian place i'd seen earlier.  They were closing, but they let me make an order for take away.  I didn't know what too many of the dishes were...so I ordered Pasta Burro, which apparently just means buttered noodles.  So I took my food to the bus station and ate while waiting for the bus to come.  I boarded and eventually we go to customs.  I waited in line and got to the agent, and when he saw my visa, he wasn't really sure what to do with it.  He told me that he didn't know what stamp to put in my passport and then he disappeared into the back office for about 20 minutes.  His tone implied that everything was fine, but everything else about the situation was not incredibly settling.  He eventually came back and stamped it, and I got back on the bus.  We drove about 200 feet and then we were told that we'd be boarding a ferry to cross the English Channel, but that it wouldn't be arriving for another hour and a half.  So I fell asleep, endured the two hour channel crossing from Calais to Dover, and then somehow made it through the next two hours or so that it took to get back to London.  

Overall, the trip was amazing.  I wish I had more time to explore Paris, but I hope go back someday.  We didn't really have any problems with the language, and being on the euro as opposed to the pound was a very nice change.  

I have spring break coming out in a couple of days.  I'm very excited to go and to have the opportunity to see so many different places in Europe.  I'll take a lot of pictures and will post them after I get back.

Hope everyone is well!

March 3rd

Well it's been a while, hasn't it? I know this post is long overdue, so i'll try to make it a good one.

Many things have happened since my weekend in Cardiff. I've gotten pretty comfortable and confident at getting around the city. The tube makes everything incredibly easy up until about 12:30am, and then everything after that is covered by the night buses. They're less frequent and the bus stops can be a bit harder to find than the tube stations. Most of the time it's easy, and the night bus always provides an interesting people-watching experience. I think my favorite so far has been a group of about 5 boys who were all singing some song I'd never heard...but the girl (she was from the bay area actually) that had a little too much to drink and decided that the bus would be a good place to puke was entertaining (mainly disgusting) as well.

I've now been to some of the major attractions, such as St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London. St. Paul's has been my favorite so far, walking up to the dome and walking along the outside of it was amazing.

From left to right: Katy, Nathalie, me, and Oliver

From left to right: please use above photo

The Tower of London was really cool too. Unfortunately, I definitely did not allow enough time for this. I went in around 2:45 and it closes at 4:30. The worst part about that is that it's one of the more expensive attractions to visit. The Crown Jewels were cool to see, and I liked seeing all of the old weapons and armor.

I've also been to a number of parks here. Regents park is close to my place and it's huge, but very nice to walk around. Part of it goes right by the zoo, and you can see some of the larger animals from the park's paths. I saw camels. There's also a boating lake on the south eastern side of the park. Just north of the park is primrose hill, which is probably one of my two favorite views of London that I've had from outside of a building so far (i'll get to the other one soon).

    Regents Park:

This is primrose hill, it doesn't really do the view justice, but it's really cool.

Primrose Hill at Night

Hampstead Heath

Another park i've been to is farther north of primrose hill, and it's called Hampstead Heath. Parliament hill is here, which provides a view similar to primrose hill. It's farther away from the city and a little bit higher up than primrose is though.

I've also been to Battersea Park. This parks south of the river, and it has a children's zoo in it. I unfortunately didn't walk by the zoo, so I don't know if you can see any animals from outside or not. I instead walked by the duck pond area and it was really cool. They had some small trails that went off of the main paths, so of course I took those.

The last two parks i've been to here are Kensington Garderns and Hyde Park. I believe that they're technically two separate parks, but they're connected to each other. There's a lot of statues here as well as an italian garden, which basically has a bunch of cool fountains. Hyde Park is also right next to the Marble Arch.

Hyde Park &  Kensington Gardens:

Cool Bridge

This is Princess Diana of Wales' Memorial Fountain which is in Kensington Gardens

That's enough about parks though...spring break is coming up kind of soon and I've been planning. It starts on April 10th, and i'll be flying to Barcelona on Thursday, the 10th. I'll be there until the 14th when I'll be flying to Palma De Mallorca, which is an island just off the eastern coast of Spain. I'll be staying there until the 16th, which is when I fly to Geneva. I have four nights in Geneva, so i'll probably be taking a day trip to Montreux. On the 20th, I leave Geneva for Nice in the south of France. I have until the 24th there, and I need to find probably one other place that's easy to get to from Nice for a day trip. So any suggestions (maybe Marseille, Monaco, or a trip inland into the mountains..) would be appreciated! On the 24th, I fly to Amsterdam where I'll be for two nights and I'll fly back to London on the 26th. I'm very excited for the whole trip, I think it should be a lot of fun.

I'm also going to Paris on the 27th of March. My room mate and I are going down for the weekend. Still have to work out where we'll be staying and I wish we had more time there, but I had to get to Paris at some point in my time abroad.

I've also been keeping a list of beers that I've been trying...well, most of them at least. Here's my list:

Abbot Ale
London Pale Ale
Hobgoblin (delicious)
Carling
Camden Ale
Carlsberg Export
Carlsberg
Fullers London Pride
Doom Bar
Strongbow Cider
Nicholson Pale Ale (Delicious)
Winter Lightning
Scottish Ale
Brooklyn Lager
Moretti
Kronenburg
Tuborg
Zywiec
Green King IPA
Red Hook
Night Watchman
Camden Wit
Tiger Beer
John Smith (nasty)
Freedom Ale
Old Crafty Hen
Tribute Scottish Ale
Weisse Rothans (delicious wheat beer)
Kernel Brown Ale (also delicious)
Porter Number 6
Camden Ink
Bread of Heaven (delicious)
Lowenbrau
St George's ethiopian beer
Shoreditch triangle IPA
Hook Norton Ale
5am Ale
Asahi Japanese Beer
Ghost Ship
Old Hookey
Golden Hookey
Citra Oakham Ale (delicious)
Noble English Ale
Dark Star Ale
Yardbird pale ale
Wainwright
Leffe

I like the beer here a lot, the ales are really good. My favorite pub that i've been to is called The Cask. It's in Pimlico, which is relatively close to Westminster abbey and everything else that comes with that. I had the Weisse Rothans, Kernel Brown Ale, and the Porter Number 6 from this place and they were all great. The other thing that I like about The Cask is that I could go there pretty often and I'd never run out of new beer to try, they have a big selection.

I've also been to Abbey Road:

And the Millennium Bridge:

And the Prime Meridian  Back to front is: Brett, Diana, Oliver, Me, and Katy.

I think that covers pretty much everything.  I've been pretty unsatisfied with the sandwiches here, they all seem to be really skimpy.  Usually a layer of meat, maybe two if you're lucky, cheese, tomato, and the bread.  I almost gave up and settled for subway when I found Birley's Sandwiches.  I had one of the best roast beef sandwiches i've ever had there and i'll be going back probably every Monday (it's near the building that my class is in on Mondays).  Anyway, I hope everything is well with all of you and i'll try to post again soon.