So as promised, here's the continuation of my study abroad series! After completing our program in Paris, France (study abroad posts start here) Michael and I boarded the Eurostar at the Gare du Nord and travelled to London! We arrive in London at 12:30 pm, and took advantage of the fact we still had almost a full day left! We dropped out stuff off at the flat we were staying in (we rented a room through Airbnb! This website is great for people on a budget who don't really want to stay in hostels) and immediately hopped onto the Underground and went to the London Bridge. We just wandered around this area until we stumbled upon an organic farmers market in the area. This was fun and interesting to look at, and it was nice to finally speak to other English speakers (you almost take it for granted being able to speak English until you are somewhere you must speak another language for a prolonged period of time!) From here, we walked all the way to Buckingham Palace! (yes, lots of walking!)

London has such pretty architecture!

Near the center of London!

Buckingham Palace! As you can see, it was a perfect day to walk around because it was overcast so it wasn't too hot!

After walking all over the city, we decided to take a break and ride the bus for a while. It's nice riding the bus in London because you can do some sight-seeing without having to walk! The fact that the buses there are double decker buses make them great for sight-seeing and tourists!

Travel Tip for London: Be sure to buy an Oyster card when you get there! (I believe they cost around 10 pounds) They are reloadable cards that you can buy in the Underground (their metro system) and you use them on the Underground and on the buses in London. It makes traveling much easier and when your done using it, they'll refund you your 10 pounds! Just make sure to look up a place that will exchange the Oyster card back into pounds for you... I believe we exchanged ours at Heathrow airport?

Where's you favorite place in London?? Did you use a lot of public transportation like us? As always, I love your feedback and comments. If you have any questions, leave a comment! :)

xoxo, Morgan  

The Travel Breakdown: Study Abroad in Paris; Académie De La Bière, Mummified Animals, Yummy Mussels

With only a week left, I really felt like a true Parisian. On day 24, my friends and I got breakfast and attended class and then walked around the area of Bastille (the metro stop!). I love this area because they have tons of tiny boutiques that offer unique items and they have a couple open air markets here. Of course, I can't go to the open air market without picking up cherries and peaches... for some reason, they're so much better than the ones from home! For dinner that night, a group of us went to
Académie De La Bière (In English, this means the Beer Academy) and got the moules et frites (mussels and french fries!). Evidently, this place is known for this dish and I can see why! It was excellent and they gave super large servings! They're also known for their beers, but I'm not a big beer drinker so I obviously didn't get any. A great place to eat and they're open late ;) If you take the RER B, get off on Port-Royal.. it's very close to the RER exit.

On day 25 of my study abroad experience in Paris, Michael and I visited the Louvre Museum after class. With our program, we got in for free to all the museums in Paris, and since this museum is HUGE, we decided it was a good idea to go back and explore the museum one more time before we left. We spent more time in the Egyptian wing of the museum, and looked at all the mummified cats, dogs, fish, and crocodiles! So crazy! This is one museum I could spend days in and still not lose interest...and that's saying a lot ;) After, we got coffee and dinner at a cafe near the Cité Universitaire and met up with some friends to enjoy their company along the Seine River.  

Some of the displatys in the Louvre

On Day 26 of studying abroad in Paris, it was a typical day except we got a bunch of friends, crepes (yum!), apple cider (an alcoholic version of sparkling apple juice that's super popular in France), and a blanket and hung out in front of the Eiffel Tower for the night. We stayed there all night watching the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower and the people, who were all enjoying the beautiful warm, evening weather. It was amazing being there with good company, and just relaxing, which is sometimes hard to do in such a busy city :) We caught the last metro back (the metro closes at 2 am I believe) and went to bed!

Even though it was the middle of the night, you can see how busy and lively this area is all the time! :)

 Almost done with my Paris trip! So sad :( Let me know what you guys think or if you've ever visited any of the places I've mentioned!

Read my next post on Sacre Coeur and Montmartre! Seriously so beautiful!

xoxo, Morgan 

The Travel Breakdown: Study Abroad in Paris; Pétanque, Galeries Lafayette, Saint-Chapelle

By day 22 of my study abroad experience in Paris, we were back from Normandy and Brittany. The weather was much warmer (around 85 degrees!) in the city than near the coast. We continued to resume our normal routine and got pastries and coffee at Aux Castelblangeois and went to class. After class, our whole study abroad group participated in a game of Pétanque. Evidently, this game is a popular French game. It's similar to bocce ball. It was pretty hot and we were all still tired from a weekend away, so we weren't really into the game. After playing for a while, we stopped by the Carrefour to pick up things to eat for dinner, and then went back to the Cité Universitaire and ate dinner. This day was pretty uneventful just because we were still recovering from the exciting weekend.

After class on day 23, a group of us went to the Galeries Lafayette shopping mall. This is a huge, 10 story mall that features all kinds of designer brands. I've visited this mall in the past (before I studied abroad in Paris, I had visited Paris during the summer of 2011 for a couple of days) so I just walked around and looked. This mall is pretty impressive if you've never visited before, so if you're big on shopping, definitely stop by!

We walked around the mall for a couple hours and went back to the Cité Universitaire to get ready for the opera. We got all dressed up and headed over to the famous La Sainte Chapelle to watch a performance around 6:30 pm. The performance was a Renaissance-style concert, and featured songs the royalty of France would have listened to centuries ago. I loved this performance because it made me feel like I was French royalty! Definitely something you should look into if you ever visit Paris :)

After watching the performance, we wandering around Paris at night! So beautiful!

After we finished watching the performance, we wandered the city and got late-night crepes. We walked around the Notre Dame, which is my favorite place to visit at night. I love how they illuminate the beautiful church. It literally looks like it came straight from a fairytale :) By the way, if you ever visit the Notre Dame, you MUST stop by an ice cream parlor called Berthillon. It's on the Île Saint-Louis (if you need to, Google it!) and try the salted caramel ice cream! That's the best one in my opinion :)

What do you think of this series so far?

Read my next post about The Academy of Beers and great eats in Paris!

xoxo, Morgan

The Travel Breakdown: Study Abroad in Paris; Normandy, Brittany, St. Malo, Omaha Beach

For days 19-21, my study abroad group and I went on an excursion to Normandy and Brittany. This was an optional excursion, and was an additional $300 to go on. This weekend was DEFINITELY worth the money though! This was easily my absolute favorite part of the whole experience.

On day 19, we all loaded up on nice charter busses and headed to Brittany. On the way, we stopped at Mont St. Michel. This place is magical. It's kind of hard to explain but it's close to the coast. When the tides come in at certain times during the year, the whole city and monastery (which sits on a mountain) is surrounded by water. This makes is kind of an island...kind of not. Look up information on this area if you're interested because it's a little difficult for me to explain. Anyways, we walked around the quant little city, which has only one main path up the mountain to the monastery on top. Once we got to the monastery at the top of Mont St. Michel, we got a tour. The inside was obviously magnificent, and the views were to die for!

The view walking up to Mont St. Michel

The monastery at the top of Mont St. Michel

You can see how the ocean in the background! During certain times of the year, Mont St. Michel is surrounded by water!

The garden in the center of the monastery

Michael and I by the courtyard of the monastery

After our tour and lunch, we hopped back into the tour bus and arrive at our destination in St. Malo. St Malo is a really neat area because the whole city is surrounded in castle walls. It's literally an area frozen in history and has a ton of character. If you can make the trip out here, definitely try! It's such a fun little beach city and it was really refreshing to get outside of the busy city.

The sunset at St. Malo

The view while walking around the walls of St. Malo. The ocean here was is so beautiful! You can see they built a pool into the ocean in the background, complete with a diving board! 

Walking along the walls surrounding the city on our first day in St. Malo.

You can see how St. Malo is truly a "beach city". 

On day 20 of my study abroad experience, we got an official tour of St. Malo in the morning. We then got into our charter busses and visited the city of Dinan. This place literally looks like the city from The Beauty and the Beast. We walked around this city for a bit, got lunch, and headed back to St. Malo. This day was also Michael's 21st birthday, so I ran out to a local bakery and bought him a cake. We then got a HUGE group of us together and went out to dinner. We at a place called Cafe Simon, and got a preset meal. Preset meals are really popular in France, and they'll give you an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert for a set price.. you just have to pick from options they provide. There's usually 3-4 options for each course. I tried duck for the first time, which was really good! I liked this place because it was a fair price and good food. They also brought us complimentary macaroons :) To end the night, we all walked along the beach and watched as the tide came in.

Some of my fav girls on the trip! :) Had a blast with these ladies. The picture is really grainy because it was actually pitch dark when we took this picture....we just held really still and had a long shutter speed :) haha

Michael and Eric decided to jump in! haha

Our group at Cafe Simon for Michael's 21st birthday in St. Malo

He couldn't resist. Haha. You can kind of see my dinner, which was duck!

Day 21 of my study abroad in Paris was the last day of the excursion. We got on our charter bus and visited Omaha Beach on the way back. This was really fun for me because I'm a huge history buff. We got to see where the landing of D-Day was and saw all the war memorials. I took some sand back to the United States with me from Omaha Beach! They also a store where they sold vintage war memorabilia. I found a gun clip holder with a soldier's name on it so I bought it for about 30 euros and brought that back as well for my dad. He loved it :)

Michael and I walking along Omaha Beach... We were looking for neat looking rocks and shells to take home with us as souvenirs!

Literally, this excursion was the highlight of my trip. Everything we did was incredible, and I would really like to visit again one day. So much history and it's really nice to see another side of France.

Would you ever visit these places?

Read my next post on Petanque (a French game), La Galeries Lafayette (HUGE department store), and Saint-Chappelle.

xoxo, Morgan

The Travel Breakdown: Study Abroad in Paris; Victor Hugo, Orangerie Museum, Club Rex

On the 15th day of my study abroad adventure in Paris, I had another lazy day. I was a little tired from all the festivities from Bastille Day (to read about Bastille Day, click HERE) so I basically went to class, visited the Notre Dame to watch a choir performance, and then made dinner back at the Cite Universitaire.

Day 16 was an interesting day because our travel abroad group visited the home of Victor Hugo, the author of Les Miserables and Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). His home was cute and had a lot of art from Asia surprisingly!

A bust of Victor Hugo in the entrance of his home.

One of the walls in a room that was dedicated to Asian art.

A room in Victor Hugo's home that was filled with art from Asia!

Artwork in Victor Hugo's home that featured a scene from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. 

On the 17th day, the metro broke down on our way to class -__- We were almost an hour late but we were excused since it wasn't really our fault. After class, we met up with our study abroad group and we get a tour of the Orangerie Museum. This place is not a must visit if you're ever in Paris, but if you're interested in impressionist and post-impressionist art, this place is covered in it. Our group then walked through Les Jardin des Tuileries again and our professor talked about some of its history. One thing I observed while walking through the gardens was how many French people were sun tanning! They love a nice, tan complexion surprisingly! Also, lots of Parisians were out picnicking...summer in France is a great time for this activity. We finished the day by walking around the Le Marais area, which is kind of like a "Jewish" area in Paris. They have YUMMY falafel in this area, and if you ever visit this area, check out a place called L'As du Fallafel. This place is known for their falafel and it's pretty cheap too!

Day 18 on my study abroad in Paris experience was a normal day... until the sunset. This night in particular, we decided to go to a notorious club called Club Rex. It's supposed to be a big hot spot in Paris. A group of us decided to go, so we fueled up on some wine and headed out. We got to the club around 11:30 pm and were then told it didn't open till 12. We ate food while we waited and then headed inside when it opened. It was, of course, empty, so we asked the bartenders when more people would come. They told us 1 am, but when 1 am rolled around, we were still the only ones there...weird. We asked again and they told us 2 am so we waited again and you guessed it... still empty by 2 am. We left around 2:30. I have a feeling it was because we went out on a Thursday night. Here, in the United States, college students typically go out on both Thursday and Friday. But obviously that's not the case. Overall, out of all the clubs and bars I visited in Paris, I wasn't super impressed because they were just like the bars and clubs here. Not really too different... well except the nights they are busy!

Add caption

Even though we were the only ones in Club Rex, we still had fun! :) 

I will be adding pics for this post in the next day or so, so come back and check them out :) And don't forget to let me know what you think of this study abroad series!

Keep reading! In my next post, learn more about my excursion to Normandy and Brittany! This weekend was easily my favorite weekend of the whole trip!

xoxo, Morgan