The Beginning of the End

My last day of spring break, last day in Belfast, was spent staring at the river, wandering about the city and pretty much just relaxing. My flight was scheduled for six thirty, but delayed two hours so it was almost midnight by the time I got to the airport in Paris, and almost 1am when I got to the Gare de Lyon, where I would have a 6 am train back to Montpellier. What I unfortunately didn't know is that the station closes between 1:30 and 4:30, so I was left sitting on the benches outside, wandering the streets of Paris in the middle of the night, going to the police prefecture to use the toilet... Interesting night.

I got back to Montpellier a few hours before my one Monday class, so I dropped off my bags, changed into some cleaner clothes, and went to class more tired than I could imagine - luckily we were just going over our last test.

This week was finals and classes, from here out all I have left is a lit test and several more German classes. It's nearing the end!

April in Paris

So despite sort of staying there back in January after Disney, this is really my first time seeing Paris; odd that I'd see so much of the rest of Europe before finally seeing the capital of the country I live in! We got in from Luxembourg in the early afternoon, our hostel being a short walk from the Gare de l'Est where our train arrived. I guess we didn't realize when we booked it, but this wasn't really the nicest part of Paris... This is definitely the worst hostel I've ever been in... It was dirty and creepy, but it was livable for the one night we were there.

After dropping off our bags we bought a metro pass and headed out to see the main sights: Notre Dame, L'Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower... The Louvre is sadly closed on Tuesdays but knowing us we probably wouldn't have paid to go in anyway. We saw the outside at least, which is quite impressive in itself.

In the evening we met up with Stevie's friend who was now living in Paris, she and her boyfriend showed us around near the Bastille and we ended up getting dinner and then sitting for a while in a café in true Parisien fashion. I got a few more nice pictures and we took the metro home, going to sleep later than usual.

We got up and headed for Charles de Gaulle airport, and arrived quite early for out flight to Glasgow. It was nice to relax though, and now that we're in Scotland we're trying to figure out what the rest of our trip holds... Hard to believe we have only a few days left!

Bonne Année 2009!

I arrived in France Tuesday afternoon after an uneventful flight from Minneapolis, a short and rushed connection in Amsterdam, and a quick flight to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I met up with my sister outside of the baggage claim, and we boarded a shuttle for our resort at Disneyland Paris. We spent two nights at the Hotel Santa Fe, the cheapest resort but still rather pricey. It was all worth it though, as we had a wonderful time running around the two theme parks and counting down to the new year in French with lots of fireworks.

New Year's day we took the metro into our hotel, at the Porte de Montreuil in Paris' 20th arondissment. Since Sam had to leave for the airport at about 4am, we just went to eat and then went to bed early. After sending her along in a taxi to the airport, I got my affairs together, had breakfast at the hotel and took the metro back to De Gaulle. There I was able to meet up with most of the group from my programme, where we had a short flight here to Montpellier.



I'm now in the hotel in Montepellier where I'll be staying for the next few days before moving into my dorm. We're free for the rest of the evening, so I'll probably start wandering around the town, find some food and what not. I'm already very impressed by what I've seen, and I'm quite excited for everything that's yet to come!