Second Day in Paris

Breakfast was at 7am. My options were French pressed coffee, water, toast, and toast with raspberry jam.

Sadly, Matthew was leaving for Lyon. He invited me to visit him but I had Paris to discover. I started off at the place I've dreamed of going since my first art history class, the Louvre. The line was reasonable and it took about 20 minutes to get a ticket and get into the exhibitions. The secret I found out online was to go to the entrance underground through the mall.

I was able to see everything my little heart desired. It's amazing to see the difference in a masterpiece in front of you and from a picture.

I kept seeing a huge flower display outside in the center courtyard of the Louvre. I say a bit later that is was for the Dior fashion show. I had lucked out and was in Paris for fashion week. After walking through all of the exhibits I excited through the underground mall. I noticed that there was a line with extremely well dressed people leading into a room with thousands of clothes and people running about like their hair was on fire. I decided to get in the line. There was a bag check by two burly men and then you were allowed to go into the big tent and sit. You were only allowed to take picture if you had a pass.

I had made it into the Dior fashion show! I think I saw Rhiannon in the front row but it was very dark. The clothes were amazing and I could not believe my luck.

After the show I got some fancy macaroons and had a bit of a picnic in the park. I then walked around the Seine river looking at the artwork. When my feet had enough I headed to the apartment to rest up for the next day.

First Day in Paris

I arrived in Paris around noon. It was an interesting flight. The announcements were in made in Spanish, French, then English. I was staying at my first ever AirBNB booking and the host put that  check in was 7pm. I made my way to the metro station and booked a ticket to my host's stop. The metro was easy to navigate and I only had to change trains once.

I arrived at my destination around 1pm. I had looked online on the museum's policy on backpacks. I found out when arriving to the Cathedral Notre Dame that there was a limit on the size of the bag you could bring inside. I was allowed to go into the Cathedral but it looked like I would have to wait till the next day to do all the other sightseeing. I ended up staying in a coffee shop that offered free WiFi until my host would arrive.

I made my way to the apartment around 7pm. I met my host in the stairwell of the building. There were several other people staying with him during my stay. One lady who was about 50 named Monica who was from Argentina and only spoke Spanish and another guy named Matthew who was from Lyon and was a Rugby player. Monica was not back so Matthew, my host, Thebalt, and I decided to go out. The apartment was located in the Latin Quarter of Paris. It got it's name from being one of the oldest areas and most of the people who lived there were students or professors who would speak Latin. It was a bustling area.

Matthew, Thebalt, and I found a place where they were showing the rugby championship. It was a wonderful evening that ended with swing dancing.

Last Day in Buenos Aires

I would have to leave the hostel at 3am to make my flight to Paris the next day. I decided to go on the free walking tour with two of my roommates. It was really interesting and if you ever find yourself in Buenos Aires I highly recommend it. The tour guide was from Italy and gave the tour in English. You got to learn a lot about the history of the city.

We learned that a spurned Irish family created an architectural masterpiece to block the view of church another family built. Buenos Aires also has a striking resemblance to Paris because they took the fronts off of buildings in Paris during World War 1 as payment for beef. The live long and prosper symbol was actual created by a Rabbi in Buenos Aires and there is a church created for their favorite  soccer player.

First Day in Scotland

I woke up with a sore throat. I decided the best thing to do was to try get as much rest as possible before my train ride to Scotland and take the nasty cold and flu drink mix Allison had given me as part of my care package before leaving. I went to the train station about two hours early and I was lucky I did because they had changed my departure train station. I was now leaving out of Kings Cross instead of exchanging trains there.

I made it to King's Cross and Platform 9 3/4. I then went up to the first class lounge to wait for my train. The lounge and free WiFi offered by Virgin Trains was very nice. I then boarded my train for Hogwarts... Umm.... I mean Scotland. :)

I was fortunate to score the first class ticket at half the price of a regular ticket. There are not that many perks to first class versus regular like in the United States. First class came with an assigned seat that you got to pick, free WiFi (which would have been 14 pounds), limitless drinks and food. The food selection was two types of  sandwiches, smoked salmon or egg, crisps, and apples. It was about a five hour train ride to Edinburgh. I had studied the map and felt comfortable about finding my hostel. It was right next to the castle that was on top of a hill. How challenging could that be!?

After asking three different people for directions one of the club bouncers asked an elder man who knew everything about the city. I was suppose to go to the giant glowing clocktower and make a left and the castle would appear. The bouncer asked if there was a clocktower and the older man assured him that there was one. He pointed me in the direction I must travel down. It was nighttime and the light rain gave Edinburgh a somewhat haunting look. I found what I thought was the clocktower and turned left. I followed the street for a while then spotted a Starbucks. I went inside to confirm that I was heading in the proper direction. The two workers said I wasn't the first person to come in and ask about that particular hostel but they had never seen the inquirers against so they imagine they found the place. I was on the right street which I had seen outside. I went back outside and walked a bit more and found the castle and then the street my hostel was on. It was a fairly large building attached to a church. I checked in, unloaded my backpack and went down to the common rooms. I met some people that had been in Scotland for various amounts of time and they gave me suggestions on places to go and see in Edinburgh. There was a group of people planning on taking a day trip out to the country but since I had such a limited time in Edinburgh I decided to stay and see the city the following day.

Second Day in London

I had booked a trip with Evan Evans tours for Windsor, Stonehenge, and Oxford. I had read where one reviewer had wrote that he had booked the Downton Abbey tour and was never picked up from his hotel and it ruined his life. I made sure to be at my hotels scheduled pick up about 20 minutes early.... just in case.

My pick up time came and went. The concierge walked by me on his way back to the hotel. I inquired about the tour and his only response was to come inside. Not happening dude. I waited another 10 minutes and then I say the giant Evans Evan bus. I waved and ran to it. The tour guides seemed bit shocked about my elation on making it on board. I took a seat and they dropped us off at Victoria station with our assigned gates. Our tour guide spoke Portuguese and then English. There was one family that spoke Spanish. She let us know how long we would have at each of our destinations.

She went into a lot more detail on the history of each of the places we were visited when she spoke in Spanish and I was thankful I could understand.

Our first stop was Windsor and I was a bit amazed that the inside looked so much like Versailles. We were not allowed to take any pictures of the inside of the buildings. There was another girl on the tour that was by herself and I quickly made friends with her. Her name was Natalie and she was from Toronto by way of Singapore.

Our next stop was Stonehenge and about two years a go you could park pretty close to the monuments. They had decided to move the parking to about a mile away. There are little audio guides they offer that go into the history and age of the burrows, grounds, and monuments. It was interesting to see these giant stones in person.

It was rainy this day as well and we really lucked out because there was only a drizzle at each of our destinations and a significant downpour as we loaded the bus. The English country side was beautiful.

Our last stop was Oxford university. There was a walking tour and I decided to peace out early with Natalie in search of Christ Church where they filmed the great hall in the Harry Potter movies. We made it a minute later to their last tour. A little heavy hearted we walked the streets of Oxford and checked out the campus. Natalie and I decided to have dinner together at a funky restaurant I saw on my tour. It's called Churchill Downs and looks lovely on the outside and has a bunch of cool funky things on the outside. Normally there is a long line for the restaurant but since it was a Tuesday night we were able to go right on end and snag one of the tables.

They were having the Rugby Championship in Britain and I got to see several Rugby players out and about on the streets of London. The big screen TV was showing the match that night of Fiji and Uruguay. After dinner we decided to walk back to our hotels since Natalie's was about three blocks closer than my hotel and in the same direction. It was about a 4 mile walk with intermittent rain. We were in the Notting Hill/Kingston Gardens area. There were a lot of night runners out on the street. I said goodbye to Natalie at her turnoff and then made it safely back to my hotel.

First Day in London

I left around 5am to make my train to London. There were several lines of security to get into London. I made it into London around 10am. I then tried to find my hotel. It supposedly was right outside the Euston train station. I thought surely this should be a piece of cake. I was very wrong with a 45 pound backpack on my back. I ended up asking two different information stations before I was able to located the hotel.

I did not realize that there were still city sweepers that cleaned up the leaves on the sidewalk. When I got to the hotel I dropped off my luggage and went to inquire about the hop on and hop off buses. The concierge only recommended one line. The Big Bus Tour. I decided to go with that option over going back to another information station to book another line. It was a bit tricky finding out where they pick you up from. After about 15 minutes of running after the Big Bus I was able to get on one. My ticket included a cruise down the Thames. The bus driver was extremely helpful on which route I should take to get the biggest bang for my buck.

It was raining the entire time I was in London but it didn't take away from how amazing the city happened to be. Every street there was a story about a significant event happening. Their gardens and parks are incredible and so is the price tag of being able to afford to live there. I was able to see all the sites and take the river cruise. The Big Bus Tour did not last as long as they promised then they ended up dropping me about 12 blocks from my hotel. Luckily, it was about 6 blocks from the best Fish and Chips restaurant I had researched online.

After about 30 minutes of heading in the wrong direction due to bad directions I was able to locate it. The owner came and took my order and talked about how his daughter currently lived in Savannah, Ga. There was another single dinner from Japan and he and I ended up eating together. I was only able to eat half of the fare and so they booked it up for me and I made my way through the rainy streets of London.

I was about two blocks into my journey to my hotel when I randomly ran into one of my best friend's brother on the street. I had reached out to him earlier about my trips but he was under a lot of stress due to that being the second week of school starting and beginning classes. I did not think that we would see each other on this trip due to my limited time.

We ended up talking and decided to go back to the street I was just on to grab a cup of tea. We caught up and decided to post the same picture to see how long it would take for his sister to see that we were able to hang out in London.

I then made it back to my hotel to rest before my last and only full day in London.