London Town

This weekend I began my month of travels with a short trip to London to see my dad who happened to be there on business! We were SO lucky that the timing worked out. I began my first solo European trip by waking up at 5 am on Saturday morning in order to catch the 730 Chunnel train to London. I was bleary eyed and quite frazzled but luckily managed to make it onto the train just in time for departure (I had to deal with the early morning and unreliable Paris metro, and three ticket retrieving machines that wouldn’t identify my non-European credit card.)

After a quick and enjoyable 2.5 hour train ride I met my dad at St. Pancreas station on what turned out to be a very cold and windy October day. We managed to fit in a LOT of sightseeing. First we went to the National Gallery, thinking it was the National Portrait Gallery and upon realizing our mistake, quickly left and found what we were really looking for. We walked around the National Portrait Gallery for about an hour – we followed British History from Henry the VIII all the way to an entire room dedicated to Twiggy! After the museums we took a bus tour around the city, and got off around Oxford Circus. For lunch my dad managed to remember the name of, and navigate the cab to, one of his favorite pubs from when my parents lived in London. The Grenadier was down a really small side street and had amazing fish and chips which I had for lunch, and according to my dad, Bloody Mary’s which hadn’t changed in 20 years! After lunch we walked down to Buckingham Palace (which my dad insisted was “just the carriage house”) and then to the Thames River where we caught a boat tour which took us past London Tower and London Bridge and then finally to Canary Wharf, a little ways out of the city, where my dad was staying.















Before dinner we had tickets to see Sister Act in the West End. The story line was the same as the movie (which I had seen but my dad had not) but all of the music was original and it turned out to be a really good show!! After the show we found an Indian restaurant for dinner where they informed us that we either had the option of chicken or duck dinner, we got one of each as well the Indian version of crepes, I think. Luckily, the chicken “dinner” lived up to the high expectations I had as an Indian food first-timer! Finally we went for dessert at Garfunkel’s which was surprisingly hopping for midnight. After good American dessert food we were ready for bed.
So of course, I could not be in London without visiting the famous platform 9 & ¾ at King’s Cross Station… which just happened to be across the street from St. Pancreas! On our way to the train station Sunday morning I dragged my dad into King’s Cross and over to the platform where after A LOT of camera problems he snapped one of my favorite pictures, ever! What a great note to end my quick little London excursion on!

musical metros

Another lovely, but BUSY week in Paris:

lundi: After class BU had another theater outing for us. This one was the see Un Air de Famille at a small theatre near Saint Germain des Pres which was VERY hard to find. We got lost multiple times trying to find it and walked into the theatre about 2 minutes before the show started!

mardi: Dinner night with Mme Boudet! I was a bit hesitant to eat the fish that she had nuked instead of cooked, but it turned out to be a very good dinner....Esther and I always get a kick out of the debates she likes to start with us!

mercredi: Esther and I were very "productive" before class and went shopping in the Marais. We found a ton of cute boutiques and made some purchases before having Paris' best falafel again for lunch and then going to class. My econ class was held at the WEU (Western European Union) which we learned that it has no real political power or defined function in Europe (it's not associated with the European Union)....although we did have a very interesting class. After one of the directors gave his presentation he handed us over to about 8 interns from around Europe who each presented on a defense subject pertinent to Europe today and then we had a debate/discussion about issues in Europe and the United States. It was especially entertaining to hear the interns curiosity and opinions on the Obama administration!

jeudi: Esther, Juliet, Lauren and I found a very small, hole-in-the-wall Sangria bar that had been highly recommended to us. The Sangria was really good and it was full of French people our age who were really fun to talk to!

As I was traveling around Paris on Wednesday by metro, it hit me that Paris really does have the best of so many things - including metro performers. On my way home there was a violinist playing Pachelbel's canon with a boom box backing her up while I waited and then when I got on the train I was greeted by a Spanish singer whose act was complete with an amp and his CD taped onto his guitar. At one point I could hear the Spanish folk music in one ear and the violin canon in the other - oh Paris!

parisian walk

Due to a very uneventful week of being sick and doing nothing exciting aside from going to class, I was very ready to get out of the house and do something this morning when I woke up FINALLY feeling a little bit better.

Esther's friend from home Craig is visiting her for the long weekend so we decided to take him to the best falafel restaurant in Paris for lunch. We rode the metro to the Marais (which has fabulous shopping that Esther and I exercised a lot of self control to avoid), and with my Aunt Maurine's help found L'As du Falafel which wasn't hard to spot with a line half way down the street. We bought our falafel (topped with eggplant!) and thoroughly enjoyed it on a bench before setting off to wander around the city. We covered a lot of territory...walking from the Marais to the Bastille and then along the Siene down to Notre Dame, where we found a very fun little park behind the church with a do-it-yourself tiltawhirl. Upon jumping on it, we realized it spun a lot faster than one would think and we probably had a little too much fun for a bunch of 20 year olds.

After Notre Dame we wandered down to the Latin Quarter and Saint Germain district and from there we walked past the Louvre and Place de Concorde before ending up along the Siene again which we followed to the Champs Elysees, taking pictures of all the beautiful ponts (bridges) along the way. Just before going home we stumbled upon a Vogue exhibit along the Champs Elysees sponsored by Sephora. The sidewalk on one side of the avenue was flanked on either side by assorted Vogue covers from 1920 to present. It was so much fun to see how the covers, models, and even prices have evolved over the years.

After 5 hours on our feet we took the metro home at sunset and turned onto our street just as it started to rain. As we passed our favorite Moroccan restaurant and waved to the owner he came out and asked how my throat was and then told us that we had to come in for tea because it would make me so much better. My favorite mint tea was the perfect end to the day, and as always, it was "on the house!"

flying pigs, colorful clothes, and apple pancakes

I'm not sure that a post can do our trip to Amsterdam this weekend justice, but I am going to try!

After taking 2 exams on Friday morning, it was off to Amsterdam....for me, Juliet, and Esther it was via Charles de Gaulle airport, for the rest of our 14 person group is was via unknown French, Belgian, and Dutch roadways (I think I made the right choice). Our train ride to the airport was perfectly timed and without any major events, unless you count the karaoke singer on the RER who decided to perform upwards of 5 montages complete with background music and special effects. We walked right into the Air France terminal, printed off our boarding passes and headed through security without anyone even taking a glance at Esther's passport. We had a whole row to ourselves on the plane and had a very enjoyable flight which consisted of the sticky-note game, takeoff, cokes and tortellini crackers, and then immediate touchdown. We walked off the plane in Amsterdam, out of Shiphol airport and onto a train, once again without anyone so much as glancing at our passports. We somehow managed to navigate ourselves to the hostel via one train, one tram, and a lot of walking. Inspired by the name and nice website we had hopes (or at least I did) for the Flying Pig Hostel, but we turned out to be very wrong....


We walked into a tiny little building and squeezed ourselves and our bursting bags down the 2 feet wide staircase to the reception area....which was actually a bar and lounge room with a small desk to one side. Upon checking in we were told that due to overbookage, our 8 person hostel room would be broken up into 2 rooms of 4 (translation in our heads: 2 separate rooms with 4 beds each, no problem!) however after we paid she gave us the sheet with our room numbers on it which looked like this: (room 11 beds 1, 3, 5, 6 - room 15 beds 2, 4, 6, 7). After we realized that this meant other people were sleeping in beds 2, 4, 7, 8, 1, 3, 5, and 8 the arguing began. She somehow managed to convince us that it was fine and that there was nothing we could do about it so we placidly accepted free drink chips and stalked off to put our stuff down. With three keys to room 11 in hand we decided it couldn't be that bad and with a lot of pep talking from Esther we thought maybe it could be a good experience.....then we walked into room 11 and found 2 girls in combat boots passed out on their beds, there was also another pair lined up against the wall. After about 2 minutes of gaping at each other and our "roommates" we stalked right back down the 2 foot stairs and attempted to argue our way into an 8 person room. Instead we ended up getting an 8 person room for the next night and keys to room 15 so we could decide which of the roommates were better. Luckily, room 15 was much better; the girls were from upstate New York and much nicer/lacking combat boots. We decided we could live with them for one night and pawned the combat boot girls off on the people in our group who had yet to arrive.


We spent the rest of Friday night exploring Leisenplein, the lively little square about 5 minutes from the hostel. We ate dinner at a Mexican Restaurant which had frites as a side with everything and found the best Belgium waffle place for dessert!

We woke up multiple times Saturday morning, first to a mysterious alarm clock, then to a "grizzly bear" snoring in the bed next to Lauren and me (she had refused to sleep in the combat room and was therefore sharing my bed), and finally to our roommates getting dressed with the lights on way too early in the morning. After waking up for good we found an amazing Dutch Pancake Corner right down the road. I ordered a hot chocolate and junior apple pancake which turned out to be huge! It was kind of like a crepe but a little doughier in the middle and with the apples baked right on the top. While everyone else went to the Anne Frank house (which I had already seen) I found Westerkerk, the church in Amsterdam with the highest steeple. I then managed to stumble upon the Kath Kidson store, (which is Kitsch Kitchen in Dutch). Esther and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Amsterdam and loving the cute the apartments, canals, and boutiques. The people watching was also phenomenal…it was so refreshing to see the Dutch women wearing color as opposed to France where for 95% of the people, back is the color of choice. We stopped for coffee at a cafe just in time for it to start pouring so we ended up taking the tram back to the Flying Pig.


We met up with the rest of our group at the hostel and then ventured out for dinner after deciding it wasn’t worth it to shower in the small and dirty bathrooms with questionable towels. Our original plan was to try a restaurant called Envy we had passed earlier…so we all trekked through the POURING rain for 20 minutes just to find out they had a 1.5 hour wait. So we wandered around some more, cold, wet, and famished until we finally stumbled into an Italian restaurant. After dinner we went to walk around the Red Light District…it was definitely something to see while in Amsterdam but after having seen it I have no desire to go back!


We woke up on Sunday morning and went to buy postcards and visit the I Amsterdam sign at the Museumplein. I felt like I was at Amsterdam’s version of the bean…everyone there was having their own photo shoot. After walking around the plaza, Juliet, Esther, and I had to book it to the airport. We made it just in time to grab a sandwich before boarding another short and easy flight. We were once again amazed to walk out of Charles de Gaulle airport without so much as a glimpse of customs or security.

Getting off the plane from Amsterdam and STILL being in a foreign country was a little weird, but then I realized how truly lucky I am that although such a fun weekend had to end, the next day I would be starting another fabulous week in the city of Paris!