Loire Valley!

Outside the Chateau de Chambord!!


On the little boat in the moat!


View of the rooftop terrace


Me and Bay in front of Chateau de Chambord


Outside of the Winery


One of the many wine cellars


The gardens at Leonardo da Vinci's mansion


Leonardo da Vinci's House


Chateau de Chenonceau (the whole grounds)


View of the front of the Chateau de Chenonceau

This past weekend we went on a program trip to the Loire Valley. I was a bit skeptical and almost didn't go because I'm not the hugest fan of my program, but I'm glad I did. We left Saturday morning at 8 am and got to the first Chateau at 11. This Chateau was the Chateau de Chenonceau. It was a little castle on fairly small grounds, but it was so pretty! It was built in the 11th century and King Francis I, King Henry I, and King Henry II all lived there during their times. The gardens were beautiful, to the right of the castle was the garden of Catherine de Medici and it was really pretty. We spent three hours there before boarding the bus to go to "Le clos Luce" which is the house of Leonardo da Vinci. His house was really interesting and it overlooked a HUGE garden with a river. The best part of the house was the basement level. IBM took all of da Vinci's plans and used materials that would have been available to him during his time to build all of his designs. The basement housed all of these inventions and it was really interesting to see the plan and then the final product. Its amazing how someone can come up with the things he did at the time he lived. We learned that he was an estimated two centuries ahead of his time (scientifically speaking). After touring his mansion we were taken to a winery and we were treated to a free wine tasting, which pretty much consisted of an entire bottle of wine each once you added everything up. We tasted two different reds, two whites, one rose, one prestige, one rose champagne, and one regular champagne, and were able to have more than one sample of a few of them. Needless to say we were all in great form boarding the bus to head to the hotel haha. The winery was really pretty and it was awesome to get to see the different stages in the process and learn a little bit about how each kind of wine or champagne is made. The winery we went to has used the same recipes for the last 500 years, so they must be doing something right. We also learned that you can tell what part a wine is from just by looking at its bottle because each region has a different shaped bottle. I never would have noticed that unless someone told me, I had no idea the shape of the bottle had any significance. After that we headed to our hotel (The Holiday Inn) and we all showered and got ready to go out to dinner. Cory ended up splurging a bit and splitting profiteroles for dessert which were SO good. We were all so tired from the wine and from all the traveling that a few of us didn't go out and headed back to the hotel around 11. I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 1115 haha. The next morning I was up and ready at 8, grabbed breakfast, and was on the bus by 9 am. We were off to the Chateau de Chambord (in the region where the Chambord liquor is made). This castle is the biggest one in France and it was BEAUTIFUL! We had the entire day there and even though it was a bit windy, it was still nice out. The castle was started by King Francois I in the 1500's, but he never lived to see its completion. It is perfectly symmetrical and houses over 400 rooms! Complete with a hunting wing and a wing to park the carriages in. After our tour of the castle we ate lunch and were given tickets to rent little boats to drive around the moat in and we could also rent what looked like golf carts with pedals to drive around the grounds. This was a lot of fun. Afterwards we were told we had a surprise waiting for us, which was another wine tasting (this one not so big, thankfully). We got to try two different white wines, and they mixed one white with some chambord. We were given an assortment of six different types of cookies that they eat in that region and I probably ate 10 of them...oops haha. We left there at 3 and I was back at my apartment by 6. Overall it was a really good weekend. Now I have two exams and a quiz standing in my way of two and a half weeks of spring break starting on friday! Then we're off to Dublin until monday and Mom and Gram and Grampa come on tuesday!! I can't wait...only three more days until it begins. Now back to studying...bummer...

Prague! (finally)

Saint Nicholas Cathedral (view from the top of the Clock Tower)


Astronomical Clock


Prague Castle!!!


The back of the Cathedral at the center of the Castle


Where the Prague Symphony plays


It was raining on our tour so why not have a beer?


The last remaining theatre that Mozart played at


Old Town Square and the Easter Market


Prague!! From King Charles Bridge


First drink in Prague


Cool chandelier at Hard Rock Cafe

Sorry for the delay...spring break starts in 5 days and I have so many exams before that so I've been studying. Obviously I'm taking a break to do this because I'm bored out of my mind studying the stupid french language and cinema and french...booooorrrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg. Anyways...Prague was AMAZING! Definitely my favorite city. The city has the same population as Paris, but everything is so much more condensed and you can walk everywhere!! (Which would take an entire day in Paris) When we got there on friday we went straight to our hostel which was HUGE! It had over 500 beds in it and had a restaurant/pub, swimming pool, and sauna! It was insane...Steph and I even had our own side of the room so it felt like it was just the two of us in it which was nice. Then we went out in search of something to eat. We were told to eat at this place called Bohemia Bagel (because we wanted bagels and can't get them anywhere in Paris) and after searching for over an hour and finding nothing, we stumbled upon a Hard Rock Cafe which meant one thing: NACHOS! So obviously we went in! It was sooooo good! After that we went to Old Town Square and found the Easter market (Prague apparently takes Easter very seriously). The market was so cool, it was a bunch of little stands with Czech food and desserts everywhere. Then we walked over King Charles Bridge which was this huge walking bridge with a ton of venders and painters which was really cool except it took FOREVER to cross it because everyone was walking SO SLOW! I wasn't a fan...I hate inefficient walkers. After that we went back to our hostel and got ready to go out for the night. The hostel told us a few bars to go to so we just picked one and headed there...except we got lost and took the wrong fork in the road and had to get a cab (who totally screwed us over because come to find out we were ONLY one street off). Anyways we finally made it and we ended up joining a pub crawl and made friends with a group of american guys on vacation. The two pubs we went to were really cool and after staying out ALL NIGHT, Steph and I finally walked home (in the daylight) and slept all day. On Saturday we had planned on doing a free walking tour, but Steph was a bit too hungover and we ended up at the wrong starbucks (we were supposed to meet at a starbucks) so we missed the tour and she was too sick to stay out with me so I walked around Old Town Square. I found a little crepe stand and listened to the Prague Symphony play songs from Pirates of the Caribbean and then went to the Chocolate Museum by myself. The chocolate was really good, but the museum itself was such a rip off. After that I walked up to the Prague Castle (which is the castle that the one in Beauty and the Beast is based on). It was BEAUTIFUL! The walk up was quite the workout, but it was so worth it. I could see all of Prague from up there and the weather was perfect. After that I headed back to the hostel and got ready to go out. We met two guys from Switzerland and went to this 5 floor club. It was a huge tourist attraction but it was really cool. Each floor had its own theme. But after running into the guys from the night before we decided to cut our losses and head home because the night was getting creepy and awkward. Europe is FULL of creepy men...I thought frat boys were bad enough! But it was still a good night. On sunday we FINALLY made it to the walking tour which was so worth it! Our tour guide was this little English guy from Wales and he was really entertaining!! We saw the Astronomical Clock, which is the oldest working machine (from 1300) which was really interesting. We met these two guys on our tour who graduated from Arizona State (which is where steph goes) and we ended up hanging out with them for the day. They came with us up to the Castle and we stopped at a little pub and checked out the Absinthe shop, who knew there were so many different kinds of Absinthe?! We didn't. After the Castle we headed back to Old Town Square to see the Astronomical Clock strike a new hour...which was a bit of a disappointment haha the rooster sounded like it was dying. After that we walked up to the top of the Clock tower and we were able to see the entire city at night which was really cool. All of the lights looked so beautiful! For dinner we went to a steakhouse and all got burgers, which you also can't find in Paris unless you eat fast food (which I still don't). They were really good except the waiter "pretended" he didn't understand us and when steph and I asked for jalepeno's on our burgers, he brought out fried jalepenos and cheese? The boys ordered two orders of fries and got one whereas steph and I ordered one order of spicy fries, and got two. Either way, the meal was really good. We ended up going to bed really early since we had to be up at 4 am to catch our 6 am flight. We had the most obnoxious cab driver ever! I mean, he was trying to be nice and give us a tour, but after repeatedly telling him we don't speak czech we just gave up and had to listen to him narrate everyting in czech for the remainder of the drive...notttt what I wanted to hear at 4 am thats for sure!

LONDON (finally)

I finally have time to update this (and I added pictures to the Barcelona post too) haha. London was AMAZINGGG! It was so nice to be able to leave from downtown Paris, take the Chunnel, and arrive in downtown London, instead of our usual which is taking shuttles to airports in the middle of nowhere to land in the middle of nowhere and have to take another shuttle to get where we want to go. Talk about exhausting. Since half of our group missed our train haha (typical) we waited at the station for their train to arrive and then went out to find Harry Potter! The first thing we did was go to King's Cross and go to platform 9 and 3/4! If ISA did one thing right, it was accepting a bunch of kids with a Harry Potter obsession into their Paris program. After that we went to find our hostel, which was basically in the London countryside...notttt very close to the downtown area, but whatever it was only 11 euros a night! It was okay, but there was no way those bunkbeds were legal, I'm pretty sure stacking three beds on top of one another doesn't meet firecodes, but oh well, they were an experience. We ended up walking around the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament areas that afternoon. Even though it was raining (typical) everything was really cool to see. For dinner we had our first English Pub/fish and chips experience, we were all so excited for fish and chips, I'm pretty sure I ate it three times while I was there. At least there was no gelatto haha. That night we met up with Chelsea and Sarah, I was so excited! We went to this three story pub which was really cool. On the top floor they had a live band and it was good to hear American songs, sung by people who actually speak English. On saturday (our second day), I ended up getting really homesick, London reminded me a lot of home. Add that to being stressed out about watching my bank account dwindle down to almost nothing and Betsy leaving the next day, yeah needless to say I wasn't in the best shape. I ended up leaving the group for the day and just walking around alone. It definitely made me feel better to not have to deal with 8 people wanting to go in 12 different directions. I ended up getting off the tube (the subway) at Covenant Gardens and just walking. It reminded me of Faneuil Hall because there were a ton of little stores and little places to eat. Then I went to the Tower of London and ended up meeting up with Chelsea and Sarah and we got fish and chips again, of course. Then we went to Hamleys, which is a 5 story toy store! It was so cool! If I were 5 years old I'd still be there. Since Sarah wasn't in the best shape from the night before so we just ended up splitting up and heading home. That night we went out for Steph's 21st. One of her friends was DJing at a club and he told us he could get us in. Little did we know it was some super super upscale club and everyone was dressed up like they were going to some black tie affair. But it was fine, it's what she wanted to do. I'll never be able to afford going to a club like that again as long as I live haha, but it was an experience. Betsy, Mike, and I were all so broke from the club that we couldn't afford a cab so we had to figure out the night bus. Easier said than done. But after asking a few police officers and random people we met and meeting some guy in a silver space suit, we got home okay. On sunday, Bay, Betsy, and I met up with Chels and saw her school. It is BEAUTIFUL! I'm so jealous. It's an actual campus (which I don't have here), with actual dorms (which I don't have here), and free tennis courts (which I ALSO don't have here), and a meal plan...well you get the picture...she had pretty much everything I don't have here in Paris. Oh well though, Paris is still better. I can totally see myself living in London one day. Paris, not so much...I've learned that if it's efficient, the french don't like it...and I'm also recently learning that somehow (I haven't figured out exactly how yet) but somehow, the french internet is connected to the weather. It works great when its sunny and it works HORRIBLY when it rains. It must have something to do with their dislike for efficiency. Someone must've woken up on the wrong side of the bed one day and gone "I think our internet is too fast, since it rains here all the time, I'm going to make it not work when it rains...and voila...horrible internet" I have a bone to pick with that man, since it took me 4 hours to upload 300 pictures. Not a fan. Anyways, back to London. After getting lunch (fish and chips again) Chels and I put Betsy on the train to go to the airport :( . After that we all went to Abbey Road and took the generic tourist picture...oh well, it had to be done. We were so exhausted from our travels that we just went out to dinner for Steph's birthday on Sunday night and went home. We were all so happy to get on the Chunnel on monday to get back to Paris.


Yummy-fish and chips!


Buckingham Palace!!


All the girls in front of the Parliament Building (and Big Ben)


The London Eye!!! So cool!


Yup we went to Platform 9 and 3/4's (Harry Potter)


The ceiling of the club (yup it had hanging crystals)


Me and the Birthday Girl!!!


A bridge (can't remember the name)


Tower of London-where the crown jewels are kept


My boyfriend Prince William (I wish)


COOL! Look what I found in the bookstore! (Maybe we're related and he'll pay for my college education)


We made him laugh, no lie!


Abbey Road!!

Barcelona!!!

Wow what an amazing weekend!!! But sooooo exhausting! We woke up at 5 am to catch the first metro to make sure we made the right shuttle to the airport. Our plane left at 9 so thankfully it wasn't as bad as last weekend was going to italy. As soon as we landed we had to catch another bus that took us into Barcelona. It took us a total of 7 hours of travel to finally arrive. Our hostel was so easy to find and was located in such a good area of the city, so we lucked out there (good job steph haha). After finally eating we took a much needed nap to get ready for the night. The hostel was a bit strange. Our room was shared with three guys who didn't seem to like us much and it was FREEZING! We had to pay 6 euros each for sheets, blankets, and towels which is a total rip off. But whatever. That night we met up with Stephs friend who was studying there and we went out to dinner at this really cheap/really good restaurant. So good. Barcelona is kinda strange because they don't go out until at least midnight, but they stay out until like 5 or 6 am! We got to the first club at midnight and the second one at 3...Betsy and I called it a night around 4...we were so tired! But the clubs were really cool! The second day we went to the beach and walked around there for 5 hours...it was gorgeous. I can officially say I've put my feet in the mediterranean sea!! I wish it had been warmer but it was still about 60 degrees. The beach was so cool, there were TONS of outdoor restaurants that reminded me of the deck. Although I'm sure the food is better, if not consistent haha. When we got all the way down to the other end of the beach we found that that was where the clubs we went to the night before were located. Haha who knew the reason why it was so cold was because we were on the beach the night before!!! Oops lol. We got gelato twice that day (oops again). But it was so worth it since its impossible to find in paris. On the metro home Bay almost got pickpocketed. Well she did, but she realized as it was happening and was able to get her phone back. Barcelona is apparently known for having the highest crime rate for pickpocketing. The guy was such a scumbag. He looked like the main character in Taken. Gross. For dinner we tried out a Tapas bar, which they have all over barcelona, and it was SO good! You basically order a bunch of appetizers and share them and its really cheap. That night we went to the Dow Jones bar, which was kinda in the middle of nowhere, but pretty cool. The drink prices reflected how popular each drink was and fluctuated with the amount sold. Every half hour or so they would "crash" the market and the prices would drop dramatically. I got two draft beers for less than 4 euros total. Sick. It was another late night though, we didnt get back until almost 4. Our last day we did a lot of sight seeing. We went to the Picasso Museum (I'll never go back). I don't understand the big deal with him, it looks like a 5 year old colored all of his paintings. Weird. But art really isn't my thing anyways. We tried to go to the chocolate museum, which claimed to be open on sundays, but WASN'T! We weren't very happy. We found this tapas bar that sold nachos which was sooo exciting since you can't get nachos anywhere in paris!! We ate so much that we weren't hungry for dinner so we just had gelato. Very healthy. That night we climbed up the park which is basically a mini mountain where you can see the entire city from the top. It was so nice, we made it up there at sunset, which was awesome. It made me think (for a second) that it would've been romantic to have a boyfriend there with me...but I quickly remembered how much fun relationships are (NOT) and realized it was better to be there with girl friends haha. The last night we went to an absinthe bar. Disgusting. Anyone who tells you that black licorice flavored alcohol is good, lied to you. I can at least say I tried it and the bar was pretty interesting, it was like 200 years old or something. But I think I'll stick to tequila from now on. Getting to the 345 bus leaving Barcelona was ROUGH! We didn't go to sleep, we went straight from the bar to check out of the hostel and then jumped the bus. Not the most enjoyable trip home if you can imagine. When we finally got home we immediately went to bed. Bummer that I have so much work to do tonight, but oh well...London on Friday!!!


It reminded me of home...


One of the many cool sandcastles they had on the beach


After we put our feet in the Mediterranean Sea!!!


The main beach in Barcelona...so pretty!


The ocean!!!!


Sagrada Famiglia (some huge church)


The Dow Jones Bar!!!


Sunset from the top of the Park...all the way up on the top is the Sagrada Famiglia


Barcelona!


So romantic.

In Italy, cars are powered by hamsters

BERGAMO ITALY! (That on the hill is the Old City-their one and only tourist attraction)


Our amazing tiramisu in Milan


Ray Ban ad in the main square of Milan


Milan center!


After our final run-so happy!


Foppolo, Italy


Hands down the most beautiful place I've ever seen...


Our tiny little car run on hamster power...


Yup we flew over the real Alps (we only snowboarded the foothills if you can believe it!)

So the trip started out successful...NOT! Bay and I thought we were doing well by calling and setting up the cab the night before (it was set to come at 430 am). After a false alarm at 230, we proceeded to sleep until 440! Missed the cab and ended up beginning the trip sprinting to the main rue near her apartment to catch a cab. Luckily some guy gave up his cab so we could make our shuttle on time. Had we missed that we would have missed our connecting flight...would've sucked. Butttt we made it! After sleeping the entire drive there (it was an hour) we arrived at a closed airport...you know its early when you arrive at an airport that isn't even open yet. NEVER AGAIN! We were finally able to board at 8 am and the flight was like any other...after the horror stories I had heard about Ryanair, I expected a plane with wooden benches and airbags or something horrible like that...and a blind pilot. But we had none of the above. Talk about a spontaneous trip. Bay, Alyssa, and I landed in a country where we didn't speak one word of the language (we weren't sure if ciao meant hello or goodbye, so we decided not to try to use it), and had no idea where we were snowboarding and how to get there. After basically playing charades for two hours with the airport staff to find a car rental company and a tourist information desk, we decided to cut our losses and find the hostel. We were pointed in the direction of the "correct" bus, and ended up in a lot full of about 30 busses...jokes on the stupid american's I guess. I tried to buy a ticket from an automated machine that was so broken it wasn't even funny and everyone laughed at me. Again, stupid american. We finally made it to the right stop and according to our directions there were stairs right as we got off the bus. LIE! We had to hike up a hill in order to find the stairs, but if we had known the italian word for hostel was ostello we could've followed the signs. Note to self: find a phrase book for the language of every country I visit. Charades gets you nowhere. Anyways after walking up 500 stairs we arrived and found out we had a lovely 50 year old asian roommate who was a BITCH! Who stays at a YOUTH hostel at the age of 50...I'll tell you, A FREAK! Whatever...we were in italy. We were totally jerked around the entire first day and traveled all around italy to find this "tourist info center" which we had the hardest time finding, italians have to have some internal GPS system that americans dont have or something because we ended up just getting gellato twice before finally finding it...only to find out, shuttles dont run on sundays...nothing runs in europe on sundays...its bull. So after retreating back to the hostel and booking a rental car only to find out you had to be 25, we finally found a company to rent from for 35 euros for the day! AMAZING! We went out to dinner at this tiny little italian place that was free as long as you bought alcohol...dream come true? I think yes. We finished the night with gelatto...(yes im going to be fat in may). We woke up bright and early for breakfast which was "bread"...but I think they just served us street hockey balls and butter...I honestly contemplated sending them home to Nick and Brooks...they were that hard. Dad you would've surely broken a tooth or twenty on them. Not even americans consider hockey balls breakfast and americans will eat anything. Anyways, the car was this tiny little red hybrid (standard, which was fun) and I swear to god if I had looked underneath it, I would have seen 20 hamsters running in wheels with wires attached to their ears to power the car. No lie. Our car was surely powered by running hamsters, and you can bet money on the fact that they gave out on me on more than one occasion, especially going up the tiny mountain roads. Our drive was pretty though, we passed the headquarters of Pellegrino water. When we finally got to the mountain I couldn't believe it. THE. MOST. BEAUTIFUL. PLACE. ON. EARTH. No lie. Amazing. I'll never see anything like it as long as I live. The mountains in New Hampshire don't even compare to it. Itd be like comparing a snowbank to the mountains back home. Maybe not even that. CRAZY. Luckily I didn't kill myself on the slopes and Bay didn't have to wait very long for me. Seeing all of these other touristy european cities will be fun and everything, but nothing will compare to this past weekend. On our way back, I somehow missed our exit which was clearly labeled and we made the decision to continue on to Milan for dinner. I mean, why not drive to Milan for dinner? When in Rome right? WRONG. Nothing is open in europe (if you didn't get that by now). So after somehow finding the most assbackwards road in italy to milan and driving through the ghetto countryside we arrived. We proceeded to pull a quick change into classier clothes on the side of the road (such classy americans we are) only to find that dinner wasn't served (at probably the only restaurant open in Milan) until 7...it was only 5 and we hadn't eaten since 1...so why not get gelatto? We sure did. We found this insane mall where I couldn't have even afforded McDonalds (not like I'd ever eat there anyways, but still the point remains) because the McDonalds was sandwiched in between Prada and Gucci or something like that. INSANE. Dinner was AMAZING though...we had homemade tortellini's in a cream sauce with proscuitto and real tiramisu for dessert. Yeah we had to basically roll ourselves home. Back at the hostel we had our lovely bitch of a roommate make us switch our locker because she didnt want to wake up before 8 am...we were getting up at 745...some people have some nerve. Youre 50 years old staying in a youth hostel, paying 15 euros a night. I wanted to tell her to suck it, but Bay switched the locker...shes much nicer than I am. ZERO TOLERANCE for stupidity. Common sense is very UNcommon. Humanity is doomed. Anyways...the last day we ended up having 7 hours of free time and NOTHING to do with it...some places in europe nothing is even open on mondays...bergamo is one of those places. We found an open market and basically ate lunch in free samples of cheese (fresh parmesan is amazing) and sausage. We also had to get canoli's...can't leave italy without getting one. SO good. We found this cheap restaurant/cafeteria thing that was open only to get locked in when it closed for a random 4 hour time period mid afternoon...bizarre. Yes, we got locked into a restaurant...why they wouldnt just ask us to leave is beyond me...locking us in seemed so much more efficient. Idiots. I swear I'm a magnet haha. Anyways, after finally arriving at the airport (Bay talked me into a final gelatto) we were on our way home (to start our diet). Only to arrive into an apartment that looked like it tried to reenact (successfully) vietman or hiroshima...thanks roommates...but thats another story and probably shouldn't be told via the internet. Amazing weekend. I still can't believe I went snowboarding in the Alps...I'll add pictures later...I'm still wayyy too tired from traveling. C'est tout!

Weekday adventures with Bay and Steph

It's so good to be back in Paris after that trip to Normandy. I don't see myself going on anymore ISA trips. I hate busses and I hate waiting and I hate people telling me what to do...soooo me and ISA trips don't mix. Whatever though. Steph, Bay, and I have gone on some cool weekday adventures. On monday we went to le sacre-coeur in northern paris and it was soooo much fun! They had a ton of street performers, one guy was juggling a soccerball while balancing on a railing...he even climbed up a lightpost balancing it on his head! It was sooo cool! There was also a trio of street dancers that were pretty good but the best part was this little two year old boy decked out in burberry who kept running away from his grandmother to stand in the middle of the circle and try to dance with the dancers. He was SO CUTE! After that we went to the Moulin Rouge which is located smack dab in the middle of the red light district which apparently equals an entire street of sex stores...definitely won't be going there at night anytime soon. We saw enough people in drag during the day! They had some cool bars on the outskirts of the district though and we found a place where we could get 5 euro margaritas and 3 euro nachos! Can't beat that...we'll definitely be going back there!!
Today Steph and I had the entire afternoon off because our fashion class got cancelled! SO NICE! We picked up a bagette and drank wine all afternoon and then ventured out to find this awesome sushi place called the sushi shop! My new fav is a spicy tuna spring roll! SO GOOD! On the way home we found this cute cupcake store. Not as good as cupcake charlie's, but definitely good enough to go back. The best part is both places are so close to school! Can't wait for this weekend to go to Bergamo and go snowboarding! I hope my skipants arrive tomorrow, or at least by friday! Oh and we're going to see a ballet at the famous Opera house on thursday. Pretty decent end to the week haha so I can't complain. C'est tout! Salut!