29 Juni 2012

This morning Katie, Liz, and myself set off bright and early for a whirlwind weekend trip through Belgium and Paris. Our train left at 7AM Friday morning and we arrived in Bruges, Belgium, around 3:30PM. We had plans to stay in a bed and breakfast, and one of the owners, Emmanuel, picked us up from the train station and drove us to their home. The property was gorgeous. It was a white house in the middle of a huge plot of land complete with chickens, cows, a pond, and rope swings. We spent the afternoon wandering through the woods and then biked into the village up the road for some dinner. That's right, I rode a bike! I am the most uncoordinated person under the sun but somehow I managed the bike without falling. My girly girl self probably looked so out of place in the woods and on a bike, but it was so fun. I'm glad we did it.

The next morning we got an early start and biked into Bruges. We spent the morning wandering through town and perusing through the shops. Bruges is called the "Venice of the North" and you could see why. Canals ran through the city that made for some pretty picture moments. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Bruges. I thought it was just be a little stop on the way to Paris, but I think I might have enjoyed it even more than Paris.

After many complications and much stress, the three of us were finally all at our Parisian hostel at about 10PM that night. We went out to see the city at night, and had a relaxing start to our visit. The next morning we got up bright and early to see all that we could before we had to leave. We visited Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower, but were unable to go inside any of them because of the incredibly long lines at each one. There was easily 1000 people waiting to get inside the Louvre at 10AM. Along the way, we had a delicious lunch of quiche, steak, french onion soup, and escargot. The snails were so good! And how can you go to France and not eat snails. It was a must. We then stopped and took a nap in the sun on the banks of the Seine River and wandered along shopping at all the street vendors. Then we boarded our 14 hour train back to Berlin and crashed.

Our last day of class was a late start. We visited the Soviet Memorial and went up to the top of the TV Tower for one last view of the city. Then a few of us went with Mr. Caldwell and ate African food for dinner. I had ostrich and it was delicious! Definitely wish we would've eaten at that restaurant earlier because I would've gone back a second time. After dinner, Connor, Will, Lauren, and myself spent the night out soaking up everything Berlin had left to offer us. We ended the night with one last view of the Reichstag before going back to our apartments, finishing packing, and starting our long day of traveling.