"Just Singin' in the Rain"

The London Eye

Well it’s December, to which I say: “When did that happen??” This semester is flying by so fast and I can’t believe it’s already coming to an end! Since I depart from Cyprus on December 18^th, I’m at the point where it is too easy to count down the days. I will make the most of my remaining days, and of course I have papers to write and finals to study for too, but right now I’m going to reminisce about my free week, during which I traveled to London and Ireland! 

England

London

Buckingham Palace

     The flight from Larnaca, Cyprus to Gatwick, United Kingdom felt so long! It was about 5 hours, and after taking shorter flights during my previous travels, 5 hours seemed like forever. I can only imagine what flying home is going to feel like! On the plane I started reading ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’, and I actually finished the book before I even arrived at my hostel! It was a great book, I loved the writing style, and I can’t wait to see the movie. (You should read it if you haven’t already!)

            When I arrived in Gatwick Airport, passport control took too long and I missed my train to Waterloo, the closest station to my hostel. Unfortunately that was the last train for the night and I had to figure out another way to get to my hostel. Without giving me any directions, the ticket teller switched my ticket to Queen Victoria and told me to take a bus from there. I was a little overwhelmed that I had to figure out a new transportation route so late at night when the one I was supposed to take was so easy! Luckily Kyle, my friend from Cyprus, was already in London and met me at the Queen Victoria station so we could take the bus together to the Steam Engine Hostel. To make matters more difficult, my bankcard didn’t work at the ATM or the hostel, so I had to borrow money from Kyle so I could sleep in my bed! Knowing I needed Pounds instead of the few Euros I had on me, I called my bank before going to bed to fix the issue and went to bed at 3am London time, so it really felt like 5am Cyprus time!

Going back to Neverland :)

            After a few hours of sleep, I got up for a busy day in London! My first stop was to see the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens where I felt like Wendy flying back to Neverland, just like Junior year of high school when I played her in the musical. There was light rain but I didn’t mind because I expected that in London. I also went to Hyde Park; the parks in London are lovely!

Me at the GLOBE!

             We stopped in Harrods department store just to say we did, and I enjoyed the Disney window displays. Being typical tourists, we took pictures 

in an iconic red phone booth and went to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey before enjoying lunch in Traflagar Square at Pret A Manger. (Pret is on EVERY corner of London, I swear!) I also saw St. Pauls’ Cathedral, Millennium Bridge, London Bridge, and of course toured The Globe, which was awesome! Unfortunately the show season at the Globe had ended, so I guess I’ll just have to return to London someday to experience a performance like in Shakespeare’s time.

Two Towers Bridge

            Later that night we came across Two Towers Bridge, which was gorgeous lit up at night, the light reflecting in the River Thames. For dinner I sought out Fish and Chips, which came with a side of mushy peas, as the menu called them, and I enjoyed the meal despite having to pick around some bones. 

"Singin' in the Rain!"

      And then it was time for ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ at the Palace Theatre! The performance was absolutely wonderful and the rain on the stage was the coolest thing I have ever seen: 12,000 liters of water during every performance- Wow. What an appropriate show to see in London, haha!  This is also where my post title comes from:"Singin' in the Rain"(watch this if you've never seen it!)

THE GREAT HALL! :)

Hogwarts Castle model

       The next day we went to Warner Brother’s Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter. Seriously, this was my favorite thing I did in London! All 8 movies under one roof, and I got to walk through The Great Hall, see Gryffindor’s common room, Dumbledore’s office, Hagrid’s hut, the night bus, Privet Drive, Diagon Alley and 

many other places! I could really imagine what it was like to make these films that I grew up with, and everything was authentic! I got to see some of my favorite props including: the sorcerer’s stone, the snitch, and all the Horcruxes! I learned about the animatronics like Buckbeak, prosthetics of the Goblins and creatures, and visual effects like the fire breathing Horntail. I even got to experience special effects on the green screen by flying on a broom! The tour was an overwhelming experience, and I must admit I teared up a bit to see all of these wonders in front of me and to witness all of the work that went into my childhood favorites. My favorite parts were the giant castle model of Hogwarts, the concept art room, and Ollivander’s wand room, which had the name of over 4,000 people who worked on the movies on each wand box. It took 3 hours and 20 minutes to go through the whole tour, and I even got some butterbeer too!

Finding Danielle at Platform 9  3/4

            To continue the Harry Potter theme of the day, we went to King’s Cross Station to cross through Platform 9 ¾, and guess who came to Hogwarts with me?....I met Danielle, my friend from high school, because she’s studying abroad in London! It was great to see her and catch up over lunch, and yet again we ate at Pret A Manger.

            It was time to switch gears for the day and do something unrelated to Harry Potter, so we metro-ed to Abbey Road and took some pictures crossing the street just like the Beatles, trying not to get hit by cars of course, haha. And later we went to Fleet Street and I even found a Barbershop there! Perhaps it is owned by Mr. Sweeney Todd himself? I didn’t go in to find out….

            I loved walking through the streets of London and seeing all the Christmas decorations. On my final day in London we visited Covent Garden Market; I wish money were endless and suitcases didn’t get full because I would’ve bought something otherwise. We also went to Primark, which is the Target of London, and I actually bought something there, a pair of gloves, since my old ones had a few holes, which resulted from using them as shoes in Vienna. (See my post from Austria entitled “I've Always Longed for Adventure, To Do the Things I've Never Dared” if you’re confused!)

Such a Tourist <3

     Keeping an eye on the time, we headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and catch our train to Gatwick airport to fly to Dublin, Ireland! I liked our hostel because it was easy to navigate around London from there, and the transportation system was simple to use and quick! Trains are expensive though and an all day metro pass was $12-14. London is expensive so I’m glad I didn’t spend too many days there! Despite the costs, I loved my time in London and I would be happy to return or maybe even intern/work there someday.  Only time will tell of course.

            Thanks for reading about my travels to London! My next post will be all about Ireland, so stay tuned!

Till next time!

-Courtney <3

"Morning in Paris, the City Awakes to the Bells of Notre Dame"

France

It’s time to read about Strasbourg and of course Paris, France!

Strasbourg

Sunset on the Ill

We arrived in Strasbourg during sunset, and it was beautiful to see the colors reflecting in the Ill River. After checking into the hotel, we set out for dinner and found a cute French place in Petit France where Katie and I shared roast duck with a caramelized ginger glaze, and spätzle with a puff pastry and chicken in a cream sauce. I also got chocolate moose for dessert!

Chocolate Moose!

When I returned to the hotel that night I discovered that I left my European adaptor in Salzburg, Austria. Whoops! I never leave stuff behind, but I guess I just left it in the wall with all the hustle and bustle of moving around so much. I called the hotel, and luckily they found it and were willing to ship it to me free of charge! I am happy to report that my adaptor set is complete again because they were true to their word and it was waiting for me when I returned to Cyprus!

Strasbourg was adorable :)

During our tour of Strasbourg I learned that Strasbourg has exchanged hands between Germany and France several times, so it’s no wonder that most of the signs were in both languages. It’s a cute harbor town, and the economy is in great shape because of the harbor.

A quirky thing about Strasbourg is that they are known for their storks. Apparently they didn’t return after migrating one winter once the Germans took over, and they became a sign of the Revolution because they returned when France took over again. I didn’t get to see any storks since they migrated for the winter.

At a local bakery, I tried their 7-spice special gingerbread, and it was refreshing even though I’m not a gingerbread fan.

Me and Katie with our bikes!

Celebrating Halloween in France...Vampire?

For the rest of the day, Kaite and I rented bikes and rode alongside the Ill River until we reached Oranjerie Park, where we continued to bike by lamplight. The weather was surprisingly pretty warm for a change and I was so happy to be riding a bike! We passed the Zoo inside the park, but of course it was closed at night, so I pulled my bike over to the wall and stood on the seat in order to look in. I knew there were Storks in there somewhere, so I decided the sleeping thing I saw in the closest cage was a Stork. I guess you can say I sort of saw one, maybe? Haha

We celebrated Halloween in Strasbourg by going to an ‘American’ diner, where they served burgers, fries, and shakes. It was kind of nice to be in that atmosphere since they had decorations and were dressed for Halloween. We wondered if people think all American diners still look like the 50s.

Paris

Paris!

Paris was the last city in our tour of Europe, and it was a nice way to end our adventure. We left Amsterdam at 9am and it took 7 hours for us to drive to Paris. The drive wasn’t actually bad at all! We were lucky with traffic during our entire trip really. After checking into the Hotel we walked to the Eiffel tower, and it glowed a beautiful gold color against the black night sky. It also twinkled on the hour, which reminded me a lot of a show at Disney. There's a video below!

Escargot!

We went to Monmarte and Basilique du Sacre-Coeur (the Sacred Heart Bascilica) where we could see Paris lit up in the night. For dinner we went to a cute little place with a piano player and I even tried Escargot (aka snails)! Surprisingly, the snails were pretty good. I’m not sure I would seek them out if I wasn’t in Paris, but I liked how the butter and garlic complemented the snail.

At the Moulin Rouge!

Kyle, Kristi, Katie and I walked to the Moulin Rouge; tickets were way too expensive and we didn’t care to see that kind of show anyways, but it was cool just to see it all lit up.

The Louvre (Yes, I took this picture!)

As a group we visited the Louvre, Paris’ most famous museum. The architecture of the building with glass pyramids and a ‘u’ shape structure was art in itself! Our audio guide was a Nintedo 3Ds, which made navigating the massive museum a little easier and it was super cool to use!

Mona Lisa :)

I enjoyed looking at a bunch of statues and paintings at the Louvre, the most famous of which was the Mona Lisa. I had heard that she is actually pretty small, but I guess I pictured her too small because she was bigger than I imagined! Haha

Pont des Arts

Next we crossed the Pont des Arts to walk along the Seine River, and I think the amount of locks on the bridge were the most I have seen yet! Of course we visited Notre Dame, which is as extravagant as you’d imagine, and I couldn’t help but break out into "The Bells of Notre Dame" from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is where I took my post title from today!

Notre Dame

If you ever go to Paris, stop at Shakespeare & Company, which is a quaint bookstore that used to house aspiring artists, writers, and musicians at no cost so they could pursue their art. I thought it was really cute and worth looking around at least if not purchasing a book or two.

It wouldn’t be Paris if it didn’t rain for at least a little bit, so we endured some heavy rain for about 4 hours; I’m glad that’s all we had to deal with compared to other stories of rain in Paris I’ve heard about! There was a beautiful double rainbow across the sky though! Katie, Lauren and I did some shopping in the fashion capital of the world on Rue de Rivoli during the rain.

Enjoying a Crepe!

My trip to Paris wouldn’t be complete without getting a crepe, so I got a banana, butter, and sugar crepe! Yummmm…I also had nutella crepes for breakfast almost everyday at the hotel. haha

Arc de Triomphe

After throwing around the idea to spend the day at Disneyland Paris or go to Versailles, Lauren and I decided to stay in Paris and just explore the city. I saw the Arc de Triomphe and strolled down Avenue des Champs-Élysées all the way to the Louvre. It was a lovely walk and along the way we saw street dancers that were pretty good; good enough that I put some change in their hat! 

Climbing trees in Luxembourg Gardens

Statue of Liberty

Père Lachaise Cemetery

We crossed through Luxembourg Gardens, which is absolutely beautiful, and we even took the time to climb some trees! We found the Statue of Liberty, watched some gentlemen play bochee ball, and headed to Père Lachaise Cemetery. This cemetery is a must see in my opinion because it was so interesting to see the long rows of elegant resting places; I even found Chopin’s grave!

View from the second level of the Eiffel Tower

For my last day in Paris, I woke up early since we were departing Paris at 11am in order to get to the airport. I decided to climb the Eiffel tower as the last thing that I would do on my 18-day journey across Europe. I left the hotel around 9am and climbed 1,665 steps to the second level in about 10 minutes. The weather was oddly warm and I climbed without a coat. I didn’t take the lift to the highest point because I was worried about time, and quite frankly I didn’t want to spend the extra money either. I climbed the tower alone since most of my friends did the tower the day before, but I’m glad I went alone because it allowed me some time to reflect.

The Group at the Louvre

While looking down to Paris below, I thought about the whole 18-day trip and how much of the world I had seen in such little time: 13 cities in 8 countries. Traveling around Europe so quickly was certainly exhausting but I enjoyed exploring so many cities and countries, and trying new foods was a big highlight of the trip! I learned some things about myself and I certainly feel a lot more cultured! When I arrived at Paris’ airport, I used the airports’ free 15 minutes of internet in order to register for Spring 2013 classes at Muhlenberg. Luckily I got the classes I wanted and I am happy to say that I am looking forward to returning to the Berg in the Spring.

Thanks for reading my post about France! I’ve posted a few updates within the past week to separate my trip for organizational purposes, so be sure to check if you missed any Country posts since there were so many! Next time you’ll get to hear all about my trip to Egypt, so stay tuned for the continuation of the craziest semester of my life!

Till next time!

-Courtney <3