As the curtain closes on my amazing spring break 2011 as I ride back on the EuroStar under the English Channel on my way back to London I am realizing how fortunate I am. I really am blessed to have been able to have this opportunity, to afford it, and to actually carry it out safely and successfully. So much has happened in the past few days it is quite absurd and honestly overwhelming. At the same time I am anxious to get back to London as I feel like it is my home now. Of course Maine is my true home and will never be replaced, but for the time being London feels comforting and safe to be going too. With that said lets take a look back at the events (and drama) of the past few days.... okay deep breath.... and..... GO!
Barcelona. Three words. Stole my heart. I am truly jealous of the persons studying in this city as it was incredible. Although I speak no spanish further than “si”, “adios” and “gracias” (or the American prenunciation 'grassy-ass' I like to use every once in a while) I would learn as quickly as possible to study there. The city is absolutely stunning in its set up and history. The colors and architecture along with the stunning natural beauty associated with its beach front location all worked together to give it a warm and welcoming European feel that was refreshing because it was just so different than Morocco, Madrid and London. On our first night there I asked the front desk worker if people went running in this city (just to check so I didn't look like a crazy person) and if it was okay if I went even though it was dark out. She told me that not many people ran in the city but that the city was really safe and extremely well lit. So I took out a map and planned on running quite literally repeatedly around this small triangle of a root around the hostel just to be safe. But once I got outside I quickly realized that she did not know what she was talking about. There were many runners, bikers and rollerbladers out being active and working on their fitness (I was there witness, just to make a quick Fergie reference, that will be the only one of this post.... G-L-A-M-O-R-OUS YEAH! Okay I'm done) so I felt comfortable running a little further away from the hostel. I ran through amazing archways, past enormous fountains and sculptures, through a zoo, and down to the beach front. It was stunning. I ran back into our room to tell Yasin and Sarah how cool the city was only to be greeted by an Asian family on the other side of the door. AWKWARD. I had totally forgot that we were staying in a room with other people that night, and honestly did not expect an Asian family at that since the name of the hostel had “youth” in it. Nevertheless, they were really nice and quiet (wait is that racist, I didn't mean it. But they were good at math). Moving forward to less racy topics (play on words there, win).
That night we decided that we wanted to go to one of the famed Ice Bars in Europe. The one in London was ridiculously expensive and the fact that they used the same price that they did in the rest of Europe but using the pound instead of the Euro, thus making it even more expensive, we decided that the Barcelona one was our best bet. So we made our way down to the beachfront club and on the way were given a flyer to go to a club called Opium (at first I was worried that I would be drugged just entering this club) and read that they were having a free entry and chocolate fountain night at the club, which for our fat-asses sealed the deal. This was absolutely going to be our destination after the ice bar, even if that meant walking in, immediately going to the chocolate fountain and then turning around and walking out with hands full of chocolate. Anyways, the ice bar was amazing and definitely well worth it just to experience such a marvel. It was almost more like art than a club. The sculptures inside and the intricate lighting designs were incredible. The music was really fun and featured many awesome 90's classic hip hop which made this guy very happy. Not to mention we had the entire room to ourselves so we could just run around everywhere and dance on anything we desired/take pictures everywhere with no hesitation. The ice bar brought me back to many a ski seasons standing on top of those mountains for umpteen hours waiting for a race with its constant -7 degree celsius temperature. Ahh, good times. But the bar was really fun and I'm really glad we did it not only because it was cheaper to do so in Spain, but also because we afterwards got to eat free chocolate. Which leads me to Opium. We think that this club is pretty new and this was one of their promotional events trying to get people in their club as everything looked brand new and because everyone was dressed very nicely. We made the most of the club and ate our chocolate and had a really fun time as we found ourselves in a club that probably costs a lot to get into for free just like the one in Morocco.
The next morning I woke up and went for a run to see the city in the daylight and once again was impressed by the beauty of the city and the amount of people out being active. This day brought a free walking tour we found out about through our hostel. The guide we had was amazing, really funny and made the history of the city extremely interesting. We toured the narrow and adorable streets of the old city section of Barcelona and got to see so many amazing pieces of history. Unfortunately Sarah was really suffering from her food poisoning on this day and struggled just to make it through the duration of the tour. She ended up having to leave and go back to the hostel while Yasin and I did a little more exploring before we had to leave. We got to see some amazing modern architecture as well as experience the vibe of the city as we roamed the streets all over. With that being done it was already late afternoon and we had to catch our train to Nimes for the night. The ride to Nimes proved to be our longest journey of the trip even though it was geographically the closest to its prior location we were traveling from. Poopy. So we sat on the train for a good 5-6 hours before we reached Nimes, with one very confusing transfer (the person at the information desk continually gave us this spaced out/shocked look at our asking if we getting on the right train, it was a simple question and he was acting as if we were asking if we could bring a nuclear weapon onboard). But we made it to Nimes fine and were immediately impressed by the small city feel.
But Nimes provided its own problems. Firstly, I did not have a hostel for this night as Sarah booked a room for two people since there were no 3 person rooms and then I was supposed to book a single. Of course I didn't do this. So the night before I was researching where I could stay since, of course, the place Sarah and Yasin were staying was fully booked. But they convinced me that they could sneak me into their room as they would act as if I was one of their lovers for the night. I was a little unsure about this but thought it would be pretty funny, and I knew of other places I could stay if for some reason it didn't work so why not. When we arrived at the hostel, and as I waited in secrecy around the corner hoping not to be seen by the front desk worker, the girls were greeted at the door by a quite hasty man who was not very friendly. Within 10 minutes I heard both of them walk out the door and saying repeatedly “sorry” so I knew something was wrong. Turns our Sarah had accidently booked the room for the following night, not that night and there were no rooms available. So the girls found themselves upon the streets just as I was anticipating myself to possibly be. So we lugged our stuff back towards the train station where the hotel that was my backup plan was located. Luckily they had a room for three and it wasn't terribly priced either. The room was actually really nice and we even had a tv. And so we all got a good nights sleep after what could have turned out to be a disaster of a night. The next day I got up and went for my run and essentially went exploring just to get to know the city. Nimes was highly influenced by the Romans and this shows in their colliseum arena, statue filled parks, and ancient ruins. I was blown away by all of this and had so much fun on my run as I ran up the hillside gardens that led to a strategically located old military tower atop a hill that overlooked the entire valley. Afterwards I essentially took the girls over the same route I had run since it was so incredible. The weather turned around for us as well as the sun broke out of the clouds and was even warm enough for no coats. We sat on top of the hillside garden at the tower for a good amount of time just basking in the glory of our lives and soaked up the incredible moment together. After we made our way down into the city center and explored the adorable narrow streets that were filled with clothing designers, pastry shops and mom-and-pop shops. Nimes really took us by surprise and it seemed like a great city to go to school in as it wasn't too overwhelmingly large, it seemed like the place where everyone new eachother yet could still live a city lifestyle. I loved it and would go back in a heartbeat to also explore the region as it seemed boasting with amazing sites and activities.
This brings me to definitely the most dramatic part of our trip so brace yourselves. That night we were going to Grenoble up in the french alps, which was my most favored destination of our spring break plans. I really was dying to go into the alps just to experience them and reconnect with my ski cultured roots that I was raised on. Notice the first “was” in that last statement, its important. So we went to the train station in Grenoble and got our train ticket to Lyon as we needed to make a transfer there to get up to Grenoble. Our train was scheduled to come in at 4:58 and so we looked up at the arrival board and saw, Paris Gare De Lyon and so we figured that the train we were going on had the final destination of Paris but would be stopping in Lyon, where we would get off. So it shows up at 4:51 and we figure its just a few minutes early, no big deal. The train was extremely nice and definitely a high speed one. So onwards we pushed until we realize, “hey we were supposed to get into Lyon at 6:10 and its 6:20 and we left early, why hasn't it stopped?” Well it turns out that train was headed to Paris, and Paris only. And that the station in Paris that it was going into was called, “Gare De Lyon”. Great. So now we are in a state of shock at our stupidity and are scrambling to find if there is going to be a train to Grenoble from Paris we could take. Granted this would mean we would arrive much later than intended but that was literally the price we paid for. Unfortunately when we got to Paris we came to find that there were no trains to Grenoble that night and therefore had arrived an entire day early, with no where to stay. Great. Luckily the woman working behind the ticket counter was an angel directly sent from God. As she ascended from the heavens to help us make some phone calls to the hostel we were supposed to arrive at in Grenoble and scramble to find one to stay in that night, we were all just in disbelief that we had been so stupid. Well with some quick thinking, some internet cafe use, and last minute bookings we found a hostel in Paris that could house us for the night that wasn't going to cost us an arm and a leg like the hotels we were quickly being forced to consider. Exhausted we made our way out to this hostel which was out in the, what we would call the ghetto but what Parisian's apparently just call a normal living section of the city. Not to mention our hostel was quite literally a converted old hospital with wider than normal doors and elevators, awkwardly large corridors and giant metal gates at the entrance and exit. But with a roof over our heads and internet access we could plan the next day. I was still dying to go to Grenoble and decided that I would just do a day trip of it the next day leaving early in the morning and coming back late at night. The girls were done with traveling and had made their minds up that they would just stay in Paris for the day. So we planned to part ways for the day.
The next morning I woke up early and got my bum down to the train station ready to catch the very first train to Grenoble. Yet when I got there the ticket salesman informed me that all of the tickets were sold out and that every ticket to any destination in the alps was sold out for that day as well. Great, I literally wanted to cry I was so disappointed. So then I just straight up asked them, “where would you suggest I go?” And they told me Lille was really nice up in the Normandy region, aka the northeast region. So off I went up to this unknown destination hoping to make the most out of the garbage dump of a situation. I was pleasantly surprised by Lille as it was obviously a city affected greatly by the world wars with many monuments and obvious sections of the city where modern architecture was used atop old ruins of bombed regions of the city. But the mixture of these two, the old and traditional with the new and innovative, made for a very intriguing and different experience for me. I really enjoyed my time there and by the time I was back in Paris I was glad that I had decided to go. That night however I was exhausted and decided to stay in as Yasin and Sarah wanted to go out and do a pub crawl since they were leaving in the morning. I however stayed in since the next day was my day to explore Paris. Turns out their pub crawl kind of sucked and they left early because they really weren't having a good time. So I'm actually kind of glad that I didn't go with them in the first place as they felt it was kind of a waste of money.
Which brings me to today. Starting in the morning I went on quite possibly the best free walking tour of all time. It was absolutely amazing. I had the funniest and most amazing tour guide, Jacq (short for Jacqline) who was from Australia but had lived all over the world it seemed. She was seriously funny enough to be a stand up comedian, smart enough to be a professor, and friendly enough to be I don't know... a nun? Well something really nice. Anyways she made the tour extremely fun and we got to see a lot of great things. After the tour she invited the group to go get wine and cheese with her at a little Parisian cafe. Since I had nothing else to do I was like, why not right? Have an authentic Parisian experience. Out of our entire tour of 30 plus people only 4 of us went to get the goods at this cafe but we had an amazing time just talking and getting to know one another. There was this adorable old British woman and a relatively youthful (maybe mid 30's) Irish couple who gave me great advice for my trip to Ireland. But it was just an amazing way to spend the afternoon. I had a cheese/meat sampler with the most amazing Brie cheese ever made I think. I was really nervous to try the cheeses as my cheese experience goes as far as American, Cheddar and Swiss oh and the rare provolone. But I was adventurous and tried them anyways and the Brie blew my socks off. It was a great way to spend the afternoon and I got to know the tour guide better and it turns out she has a bachelors of arts in photography so we got to talking about that. Also these tip only run tours are her only means of income while in Paris which is quite risky and she explained how it definitely can get frustrating because of the inconsistency of the pay but she loves what she does. And she lives in Paris so thats not too bad either. Following this I only had a few hours before my train back to London so I walked over to see the Eiffle Tower which was actually great because the sun was setting so it looked gorgeous. After I walked up through the streets and saw the big archway, Arc de Triomphe and watched the chaos of all the cars going around it (where apparently there is an accident every 30 minutes, craziness). After I made my way back to the hostel, then walked to the train station while eating a great piece of pizza I got from a little pastry shop on the way. The EuroStar was absolutely fantastic on the way back as somehow I was in first class even though I know for a fact I only paid for standard class. So I was living the fab life sitting in my own extremely comfortable seat reading a Time Magazine feeling all educated and important while I rode back to London. The ride was so fast and smooth it was ridiculous. We crossed the English Channel in what seemed to be 3 seconds it was crazy. Everything went very smoothly and I have to say I was quite excited to get back on the tube and hear the voice say, “This is a Picadilly Line service to... Heathrow Terminal 4 and 1-2-3.” I felt at home again!
So there you have it, my amazing spring break! I am so excited because I am now starting my internship on Tuesday, so wish me luck! Also one of my very best friends (who is being given the opportunity to go to Istanbul over his spring break, God the things Harvard can pull off is ridiculous) Danny Pellerin is coming to visit! I am so excited to see him and show him around London, its going to be crazy!!! I am doubly blessed because one of my best friends from Marist is coming to London as well very soon, Jen Alessio so I will be able to see her as her father is coming on business! DOUBLE WIN! So these upcoming weeks should be jam packed with lots of fun and new experiences, as if I didn't have enough on my spring break! But for now I am just glad to be home and hearing about everyones crazy antics and on-goings-on over their spring breaks. We all have had great stories and laughs about the events that occurred. I hope everything is well at home for everyone reading! Take care, much love, all that jazz!
Here are some pictures to make you all jealous of my life, haha!!!
And thats all she wrote for spring break 2011, you most certainly will go down in history!!!
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