Tower of London

The Tower of London was built around 1,000 years ago! The castle actually has a moat and served as a home for the royal family, a prison, home of the Crown Jewels and more. It was amazing to be able to touch the castle walls and walk the corridors as they were back in the 16th and 17th centuries. A lot of the activities we do include reenactments or replicas of certain events or items, but this time it was all authentic!

This is my professor, Malcolm Magee. Zach took this fantastic picture.

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

For prisoners

Pictures of different kings with the actual swords they used

Tallest armor in the world...it is for a man who is 6’8"

Changing of the guard

I couldn’t take any pictures but this was wonderful! All of the crowns were beautiful and complete with outrageously huge diamonds...as expected.

Tower Bridge with the Olympic Rings!

After we were finished at the Tower of London, we had a lazy afternoon in our flats and I took a nap! Later some friends and I went out to a pub and visited Piccadilly, which is basically the Times Square of London. 

Piccadilly

This isn’t a good picture, but that is Batman! This is where the European premiere for the Dark Knight Rises is going to be held...it’s tomorrow night.

Tomorrow we are visiting the British Museum and I am hoping to go to Harrods, a huge and expensive department store. Professor Magee wants to show us his side of town (he lives near Chris Martin of Coldplay and Gwyneth Paltrow) and told us about some places he’d like to take us during the evening—a great mexican restaurant and his favorite pub.

Updates to come, with love!

Overlooking Chanel

Mondays are normally pretty hard...this Monday, however, was a diamond in the rough!

During class we watched a movie and following lunch we went to Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. It was incredible!

The distressed wood on the stage isn’t normally there but the theater is currently showing Henry V and it is needed for the play

I thought this was awesome

For the actress who played Queen Elizabeth. It took two people to help her and 90 minutes to put it on

After the Globe Theater Zach and I went to Starbucks (which is right next to our flat) and did some homework. Julia surprised us with a gift card to a very expensive, classy restaurant so we got a little dressed up and treated ourselves!

This was on the same block

This is where we ate. It used to be the Michelin headquarters! We were looking right out the large window in the middle and saw a Chanel store staring back at us. Our server told us that Mick Taylor from the Rolling Stones ate there last week...wow!

Escargot 

The best fish & chips

We are now back at the flats and winding down for another fun day tomorrow.

Updates to come, with love!

Paris, France: Yay or Nay?

If I had to describe Paris in one word I think it would be ‘emotional.' When Zach, Julia, Quinn and I first got off the train and onto the Metro (subway) we were actually a little scared. It was dark and rainy and the Metro compared to the Tube in London was filthy and filled with graffiti. We hopped off at the stop closest to our hotel and after trudging through deep puddles of mud we made it. We booked a room for three people originally and added one more thinking we could get by without any problems. Well, Sylvian the desk receptionist had a different perspective. The most frequently used word in his vocabulary was ‘no’ and he had no problem saying it to us over and over again. After a lot of chatting calmly and a little bit of anger from Zach (shocking, I know) we ended up just having to pay around 40 euros for another room. Sylvian actually used the words, “You’re in France now, not America.” This about sums up the night:

In the morning Julia and I were upgraded to a new room with a king size bed, so it all paid off! The first day a group of us walked around for about 9 hours, avoiding pick pockets and small children wanting money, and snapped some beautiful pictures!

Our first French friend

Beautiful artwork

Eiffel Tower

Disco ball for Bastille Day! 

Tasty pastry!

Kisses

From underneath the tower

Goofing off on our long walk

The Flame of Liberty. It sits right near the tunnel in which Princess Diana passed away

We accidentally spent 15 euros on bulk candy in the street

Love padlocks on the bridge

There was a carnival!

The Louvre 

Mona Lisa

Ran into Adam...we were being pushed by the crowd wanting to see the Mona Lisa, but snapped a picture anyway

Venus de Milo

Julia finally replaced her broken umbrella

Zach and I walked through the carnival and got some churros!

Happy birthday pizza

The next day was Bastille Day! We celebrated with more walking around and fireworks by the Eiffel Tower. It was the most beautiful fireworks show I have ever seen and made the weekend trip completely worth the lows we experienced.

Snail

Arc de Triomphe

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Book sale going on across from our hotel

Their afternoon before fireworks...Troy and Connor

Charlie

Euchre with Zach, Eric, and Erica

The pictures do not do the show justice...it was disco themed and I think we were the only ones doing the motions to the YMCA

Today we took our time getting up and checked out of the hotel before noon. We went (window) shopping along the expensive strip and I made it a personal mission to pet every dog I could because they were all so cute. I gave myself an extra point for finding a Dalmatian. 

Our humble abode

Had to get a baguette in Paris! 

France was an amazing trip. From the language barrier, to breaking my purse, to the pastries, to the holiday it was an eye opening experience and I will never forget it. I will especially never forget the time that I had to pay to use the bathroom, and the other time I accidentally slipped through without paying...they just about wiped my butt for me. Too much info? Nah.

Needless to say, I appreciate London and the kindness I feel everyday from those around me. It is definitely good to be back for another week.

Updates to come, with love!