France

October 25th, 2014

France! First of all, France isn't as dirty as everyone makes it seem. I mean, yeah it's not the cleanest place on this planet, but it's also not the dirtiest. As for the smell.. It's not constant but every so often there is a pungent smell of I don't even know what. Just imagine the smell of the dirtiest public bathroom you've ever been in and multiply it by ten. 

Notre Dame

Our day started with a 2 hour train ride to Paris. The train wasn't the best experience that I've ever had, however I would choose it over flying (when it's cheaper) every single time. Once we got to the train station, that's when the fun started. Note: don't be alarmed if you see soldiers carrying huge guns walking around, apparently it's normal.We bought our 5 day travel card and tried to make our way to the hotel. If you're intimidated by the tube in London, let me tell you something: compared to the metro in France, the tube is child's play. I have never in my life witnessed so many people in such a small box. I really wish I had taken a picture of it so that I could show you. Once we made it to the street, we found our hotel and took an hour to regroup. 

Once we had freshened up and stuff, we decided we would go to the Notre Dame (the metro was less scary on the way there), it is absolutely beautiful. We didn't

Locks on the Bridge

actually go inside because there were 15 million people in front of it, and there was some kind of ritual happening. After taking some pictures we decided to walk down the road a little bit and that's when we discovered the lock bridge. It was one of the coolest things we did in Paris, being able to look at all of the locks and wonder about all the stories behind them. While we were there, a couple who had just gotten married put a lock on the bridge, and another couple asked Meighan to take a picture while they were putting their lock on. It was the cutest.

After that, we did some shopping in the little souvenir stores along the roads and found a subway. And, that's how our first day ended; sat on our bed eating subs. 

October 26th, 2014

L'Arc de Triomphe

By our second day, we had figured out the metro system, so travelling was fairly easy. We started off our day at L'Arc de Triomphe, which was absolutely beautiful (and huge). We were able to stand under the Arc, which was absolutely breathtaking. We sat down for a few minutes, just to take it all in and to pay our respects, then we were on way again.

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower. What can I say? It was a dream come true. I still cannot believe that little ol' me from little ol' Shearstown was stood underneath the Eiffel Tower. It was a very emotional moment because even though I always dreamt of it, I never imagined that it would actually happen. There were a lot of people around, so we didn't actually go up in the Eiffel Tower because we wanted to spend the day seeing the rest of Paris and not standing in a lineup. 

We went on a river cruise, which was a great way to see most of Paris. We could hop off at any port next to the major attractions,

Part of the River Cruise

so we decided to hop off at the Louvre. It was lunchtime, and we were hungry. One small problem; try finding a restaurant or a place to eat near the Louvre. There are restaurants literally everywhere, except there. There was one little café on the whole stretch, we ended up paying an arm and a leg for a meal. The Louvre, was kind of boring, not going to lie. It was cool to be there an all, but after we saw the Mona Lisa and looked around for a bit, we were more than ready to leave.

We went back to the Eiffel Tower (because why not?) and bought a crêpe. It was absolutely delicious and everything I had ever imagined. We were absolutely exhausted, so we stayed long enough to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night (omg), before heading back to our hotel.

October 27th, 2014

Selfie with the Castle

Disneyland Paris! So exciting; there are so many great things at Disney. We went to the park that's very similar to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando the first day. The first ride we went on was Space Mountain: Mission 2, it was so different from the ride in Orlando and it was absolutely amazing. There are so many different things about Disneyland Paris, such as the size of the park; both parks were separated by a five minute walk. There's also the fact that the castle in the park in Sleeping Beauty's castle, not Cinderella's. It was the most beautiful day, sunny and warm; I almost forgot that it was the end of October. We had a lot of fun, got our picture took with Mickey Mouse, even caught the end of the parade (which now features Frozen :D), but by the end of the day we were absolutely exhausted and more than happy to go

My polaroids <3

back to our hotel.

When we got back to our hotel, I FINALLY was able to download 1989. I listened to it all and absolutely died because it's perfect. Mom texted me to tell me she had bought the hard copy for me, and send me a picture of my polaroids, let's just say it was the perfect ending to a lovely day! 

October 28th

Walt Disney Studios

Day 2 of Disney. So because it was so hot the previous day and I had been so warm in my jeans, I decided to wear just a thin sweater and some leggings. BIG MISTAKE. It was absolutely freezing and misty all day. We went to Walt Disney Studios (the other park), where we got in the lineup for the Tower of Terror. After about 30 minutes, they told us the ride wasn't working and we could come back later; we we completely rotted. We were convinced that this was about to be the crappiest day ever. But thankfully it wasn't. Other than being cold, we had the most brilliant time. We were even able to get on the Tower of Terror later that day, and the coolest roller coaster ever, Crush's coaster (Finding Nemo). 

Once it started to get dark, we were getting hungry and wanted to go home. So we decided to look for something to eat. Guess what we found? McDonalds (yaaaasss). So now, I have had a Big Mac meal in five different countries. While, the Canadian Big Mac is the best, the Big Mac in France was a very close second. 

After we ate, we went back to our hotel and packed up for our early train back this morning.

Another weekend in London..

October 11th, 2014

So, I’m a bit late posting this because our Internet has been down. We spent our first full weekend in London and no; I didn’t see Taylor Swift (just knowing I was in the same city as her was enough).

We were supposed to go to the zoo, however the forecast said there was going to be heavy rain showers, so we opted for the Natural History Museum instead. Thankfully, it did not rain because we were stood outside in a queue for an hour and a half; apparently on a Saturday afternoon you can’t just walk into the museum. Once we got in, we were greeting with the skeleton of a huge dinosaur #rawr. Overall the Museum was a huge disappointment because I really thought I was going to see the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, however all I was able to see was a robotic one. Had I not been expecting that, the museum would have really been great because I really did enjoy the mammal exhibit and the human biology exhibits. When we left the museum, we took the tube (favourite transport) to our hotel.

Once we checked in and freshened up a bit, we were off to Piccadilly Circus to see the One Direction movie. The cinema was the absolute craziest; you could buy beer and wine to drink while you watch the movie and the seats were super comfy (almost like a sofa chair) and reclined! I bought some very delicious sour candy and kicked back to enjoy the show. I may have been a little too comfy though, because I ended up falling asleep (and waking up in a panic because I thought that I had missed my favourite song). When the movie was over, it was nighttime, so we got to experience a bit of London at night. It was so very pretty, all of the lights and people. We didn’t stay out long though because we had to get back to our hotel and do some lesson planning. We ended up going to sleep pretty early because we knew we’d need all our energy for the next day’s events.

October 12th, 2014 

We went to Oxford Circus (well actually Oxford Street)!! My bank account still hasn’t and will probably never forgive me. There are so many stores on that stretch of street, and I’m pretty sure we stopped in just about every one of them. I have 90% of my Christmas shopping done and now may have to buy another suitcase to get everything home. It was actually amazing, you were able to barter with the shopkeepers for just about everything. One guy wanted £40 for a sweater, but as we screwed up our faces and started walking away he shouts, “but for you £20!” (we all know I bought the sweater lol). So many great deals! We were absolutely exhausted by 2 o'clock and we decided to head back to Harlow.

Overall, it was a lovely weekend! We don’t have any travel planned for this weekend and we are the most excited. No alarm for the first time in weeks!

Copenhagen, Denmark

October 4th, 2014

DENMARK! What can I say about Denmark? Lets start off with us getting lost for three hours. Having no access to technology and a language barrier while you're lost is very scary, just sayin'. First of all, it technically wasn't our fault that we got lost, we asked the lady at the information kiosk in the airport the best way to get to our hotel and she sent us to the wrong hotel (on the other side of town). We happened to get off the train next to a mall, so we went inside and robbed some Wi-Fi so we could find out where we were. We figured out that we needed to take a bus to the other side of the town. After a long bus ride, and some help from a very nice bus driver, we finally (3 hours later) found our lovely hotel! 

We went to the town centre and joined in on a free 3 hour walking tour. The tour guide was the nicest Australian man, who made the tour that much more enjoyable. He knew so much about Copenhagen and it's history, it was very lovely. He took us to the Nyhavn, which was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life. The harbour used to be used by pirates and has a lot of history. It's now used as a place to just chill out, and it is literally the most relaxing place I've ever been to. ALSO you can drink alcohol anywhere in Copenhagen, so you can sit on the side of the dock and have a beer. Basically, I wish I lived there. Tip: If you plan on visiting Copenhagen, you should know that there are bicycles everywhere. Do not get in their way, they will curse you up or run you over. We witnessed this first hand.  After the Nyhavn, we went to the Amalienborg Palace; the home of the royals. Apparently, they just walk the streets as a normal person would without security or anything. We saw a lot of things, I'm not going to talk about them all because I would be typing all night. The tour ended up taking 4 hours, after walking on cobblestone for 4 hours (7 if you count the 3 hours we were lost) we were exhausted. We headed back to our hotel, after a quick detour to McDonalds (YUM! I've had a BigMac in 4 different countries now and Canada has the best ;) ) and pretty much passed out. 

October 5th, 2014

Day 2 started off with a breakfast buffet filled with Danish cold cuts. It was delicious, but not really my choice of breakfast. We checked out of our hotel and went to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek - an art museum that was a 2 minute walk from our hotel! It had some of the most beautiful pieces of art that I have ever seen. There were so many marble sculptures, and the sun was shining in through the windows so they were sparkling. Every single item in that museum was beautiful. 

We left the museum after a couple of hours and went to the town centre. We basically just looked around there for a bit, bought a pastry (I had the most delicious cinnamon roll) and people watched for a bit. There are so many babies everywhere. There was one little boy who was trying to toddle across the square, but was going too fast for his little legs; it was the cutest. 

We walked around some more and discovered the cutest little park behind the museum. There were so many happy people there; couples having picnics, old folks just enjoying the scenery, and people playing with their dogs. It was like a scene in a movie, so perfect. 

After all of that, it was time to go back to Harlow. They say Danes are the happiest people on the planet and after spending a weekend there, I can see why!