Goodbyes

Surrounded by my fellow sleeping travelers at, yes, 7:37 pm... I decided that I would write a quick blog. Not about traveling but the people and experiences I had whilst traveling.

I was lucky enough to get to spend this semester abroad. Everyone that I have talked to asks me, "why Wales?" To be honest, I  really have no idea.What I do know is that if I had studied in Rome or Paris or Madrid or some quintessential European city, I would not have had an experience even close to what I had while in Swansea.

Over the past week I have had to say goodbye to more people that were wonderful friends that I ever have had to do before. I cannot say enough good things about my friends because to be honest they are what made this semester so wonderful. Of course the traveling was wonderful. The cities were beautiful, the museums grand, the art work amazing. But it was truly the people that made this trip.

I have had such a wonderful semester, and I said this the other day, but it really was the best of luck that I had which makes saying goodbye to all of them so difficult.

So, thank you parents and family and friends, for keeping up with me throughout this journey of a lifetime, literally.

There will be one more post about Nice and Southern France and then this blog will be adjourned for a while.

~Julia

Paris!

I am waiting for my laundry to be done so I can finish packing! It is pretty strange to think that in two days I will be leaving my home of three plus months and saying goodbye to the people I have seen everyday and have grown to love. More on goodbyes later...

PARIS PARIS PARIS! Paris was wonderful. Alison and I were lucky enough to sell our Paris school trip tickets to two of our friends so we could have more time in the city, we have four almost five days instead of two... It was a bit pricier than we had planned but it was worth it. We flew out on Wednesday and got into Paris around 6 pm. Our hostel was in a really good location, three blocks from Notre Dame. So we managed to get into the city with no problems and we dropped off our stuff and headed back out to dinner. We had decided to treat ourselves to a three course meal at this little restaurant we had read about. We both had french onion soup, Alison does not like onions but she loved this, it was divine. Then we didn't really know what we ordered for our main course because it was hand written french so we just chose two fish dishes. Alison's fish came out as a fish... mine was prepared. Both were good and not something we would normally pick. For desert I had creme brulee which was of course delicious. That night we explored a bit and just walked around till we turned in for bed.

Christmas at Notre Dame

Thursday we were off to Versailles! This one on the top of Alison's list and since she usually just goes along with whatever I want we decided to do this first! It was a bit rainy, but to be honest we are pretty used to that. (Thank you Swansea for being the worlds rainiest city.) The train to Versailles was about 35 minutes from Notre Dame so it was very manageable. The guide books and others had said that you need at least a good half day if not a whole day to do Versailles so we had planned for that. Versailles is huge... I don't remember if you remember Potsdam from Berlin, that palace was like a maids quarter compared to Versailles. It was beautiful, even in the rain. We wandered through all of the rooms and it took us only about an hour. We saw Marie Antoinette's bedroom and the door she escaped through. We walked down the hall of mirrors which was really neat and looked out onto the gardens. Also, we had wanted to do some biking around the gardens because they are so huge but I guess flowers are not so big in December so we didn't get to do that which was a little bit of a bummer. After the tour of the palace we went to a local place to have some galettes and crepes! Galettes are made with buckwheat and for the tourists signs usually advertise them as salt crepes... which is what they tasted like. Salt and pan haus... another weird thing made from buckwheat that my family eats on Christmas. Needless to say I am not a huge fan of galettes but crepes are always delicious! We were done a lot sooner than we planned so we just headed back to the city to do some more things.

We went into Notre Dame and tried to climb the tower, for some reason though we could not find it which is a huge bummer because some of the best views in Paris are from Notre Dame's top. Next time. We also walked over to the Pantheon and went inside that. Alexander Dumas, Marie Curie, and Victor Hugo are some of the famous people buried in the crypt. The crypt was by far the nicest we have seen, it was huge and white, tall ceilings. I think it was nicer than the upper part of the Pantheon. We also got our first real glimpse of the Eiffel Tower from here so that was wonderful! From the Pantheon we went to a neighborhood market to gather some things for dinner. On the way I found my future home and a school, maybe I can teach in Paris... My mom is loving me saying that. At the market we got french bread, clementines, and cheeses; the cheese guy was super nice and helpful and let us taste a variety so we knew what we were getting. It was a delicious dinner... Next we left our hostel again to go explore the Islands which were really close to us and we went in and out of all these cute shops, Thursdays are a nice day to do this because everything is open later Thursday night.

Versailles

Friday everyone else was getting into Paris! Adam and Kyle were going to meet up with Alison and me to do the bike tour by the same company we used in Berlin. We met them there after quite a hike... our hostel was very close to Notre Dame but a good 45-50 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower along the Seine river. Adam and Kyle had gotten very little sleep on the bus so they were tired but we all started off for the bikes! Unfortunately the tour was not as good as Berlin... it was a bit weird because we really hardly saw anything and got a very limited history. It was disappointing especially because it was three and a half hours so that was time we could have spent doing other things. After our bike tour we went to have an early dinner with Maggie and it was nice. Alison and I went to Pierre Herme after to have macarons and found a nice square to sit and people watch while eating them. Macarons are delicious.

Conner, Adam, Me, Al, Kyle

Saturday was a busy day! We started at the Louvre and made our way through that in about an hour and a half just seeing some of the most famous things because it is just way too huge to do anything more than that unless you have more time in Paris. We saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo which was neat to do, but underwhelming. We also went to the Musee d'Orsay which Alison and I both enjoyed more. It was a former train station so it was just a neat building to begin with but it also housed a lot of impressionist paintings which are our favorites. At 3:30 pm we were scheduled to go up the Eiffel Tower so we got there just then and met up with Alex, Zach, Alex, Jamie, Bianca, and Pam. I had already ordered our tickets which was good because we got up faster and Alex and Zach were handed someone else's tickets so they got to go up with us. I do not think I am scared of heights but I was a bit nervous and at the first floor we got off on I was okay with not going further. Zach was as well... but we went all the way to the top. The views were incredible and it was a really neat experience. We got to stay on it until it lit up and then we made our way down. The Christmas Market was also going on so Alison and I walked over to the stalls and walked down Champs-Elysses towards the Arc de Triomphe. It was fun and very Christmasy.

Sunday... Alison was tired of art by Sunday but I still wanted go to Musee de l'Orangerie to see Monet's water lilies. So we separated for a bit. Luckily there was no queue and I got right in. The water lilies were wonderful and it wasn't terribly busy so I was able to watch them for a while. The lower part of the museum had a lot more impressionists as well so I think it was my favorite. It was small enough to not feel overwhelmed but had enough variety to be interesting. Alison and I met up after and got one last crepe before she left to catch her plane, which left an hour or so before mine. I didn't really know what to do because I wanted to get up to the art district but I didn't have enough time so I just walked along the Seine looking at all the street art. Paris is wonderful. Of all my trips this was my favorite and I didn't really expect that, it was just a really nice combination of things.

Sacre Coeur from Musee d'Orsay

So now... I have said goodbye to two of my flatmates which was a lot harder than I imagined, our whole house has been full of tears for two days now. Tonight we are all going out to dinner and then people are leaving from here on out. I can't imagine having had a better experience and I know how lucky I am. Thank you parents for supporting me, financially and emotionally! Thank you to my friends at home, I am so excited to see you! And lastly, and surely not least, to my friends here who made my semester in Wales what it was.

Back to packing... leaving for London to see Les Mis on Thursday and then leaving for Nice on Friday and home next Thursday the 22nd! Time flies!

Julia

Croatia!

So I was supposed to write about this a while ago but things have been going by so quickly here that I haven't really gotten a chance. I leave in one week for France and then two weeks to go home to America... it seems so strange, time really does fly.

I hope I remember enough about Croatia... Croatia we realized was going to be a very different experience than any of the other trips we had been on and were going to go. It is a little of the beaten track and since we were going to Zagreb rather than the coast it was even more so. First of all, I had looked at the weather the day before we left and we knew it was going to be cold. We just did not realize how cold... freezing, literally. None of us had winter coats because we did not even bring them with us to Swansea. There was frost on the ground and the three almost four days we were there, there was sun for approximately for four hours in the national park. Alison and I went off and explored a bit when we got to the hostel, which at first did not let us in so we were a bit worried that it had been closed or something and we would have to sleep in the hall. Luckily a guy staying there let one of us in and we just waited until the employee showed up to let us check in.

Dolac Market with the Cathedral in the background

The architecture was really fantastic and a lot of the building were painted a light yellow color which I am sure would have been even better with sun. There was not a whole lot to actually do, more just see. There were a few museums we went to and art galleries, I found a really cool one called the Naive Art Gallery and I got two posters, one for me and one for Ellen but of course I left them on the train into Paddington and I have not heard back from them! Zagreb also had a huge market everyday with more fruits and vegetables than I had ever seen. Fresh bread and fresh pasta as well. One night we just got a lot of veggies and pasta and made a nice homemade meal in our kitchen which was a fun evening.

Alex, Pam, Me, Alison, and Nick at the lakes

The best part of Croatia was Plitvice National Parks. This was a park about two hours away from us and our hostel organized a bus/van to take us there on Saturday. As soon as we entered the park the sun came out which made for a really nice and warmer day. It was a huge park and we had a little more than five hours to explore so we set out on a trail that was supposed to take 4-6 hours using buses and ferries as well as hiking.  It was beautiful and the water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom. This is definitely a place to visit!

Alison and me at the lakes again

I want to go back to Croatia but think that during the spring or the summer would be best, and it would be a lot of fun to go to the coastal cities to experience a different side!

Hopefully this was short enough and I still have to update on the amazingness of Paris... will do that soon!!

Home in 14 days... so strange! What a wonderful adventure this has been.

~Julia