"You sound like you're from London"

London!

On my way to Dublin, I realized it would be cheaper to fly Paris->London-> than just straight to Dublin. Plus I had an extra day which I decided to spend the day in my new favorite city!

Minus staying in the worst hostel imaginable (their slogan was "if you like beer, you belong here" if that gives you any sense of the feel of the place...), I absolutely LOVED this city!

After I got in, I went right over to the Wellington Arch and did one of the NewEurope tours

(the same company as the Paris one from my last entry) and it was great. On the tour, we saw Green Park, Buckingham Palace, two other palaces (I can't remember their names...), the street where the prime minister lives, St. James Park, the Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey, among others. It was perfect because with such a short amount of time there, I was still able to see a bunch of the highlights of the city!

After the tour ended, I wandered on my own over to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. Both were gorgeous and that's when I decided I'm moving to London!

Straight from there, I met Madeline at her metro stop, Chalk Farm station, which is in a lovely little neighborhood and only a few blocks from where she lives. After catching up for a bit in her room, we visited two other parks, then wandered around a bit (we saw Sylvia Plath's London home, which was neat, and also in the middle of this beautiful square of houses) and had dinner in a restaurant on a little shopping street (I'm a little bit in love with this city...). After dinner we went out with her friends for gelati and then it was time for me to get to sleep, since I had a very early bus to catch.

April 17

2 weekends ago, South African Emma and I decided to go on one of the Sandeman's Free Walking Tours of Paris (side note: since then, I also did London and Dublin. If you ever have a short amount of time in a city, I definitely recommend these tours- they're walking tours between 2-4 hours long and cover all the highlights of a city). It was great! It was a lot of stuff I've seen on my own in Paris already, but it gave a lot more background info and fun facts.

After the tour, we decided to go to LaDuree, which is a fancy bakery in Paris. It's actually the most famous one for macaroons, the french version of which are COMPLETELY different from what we consider macaroons. They're these small, cookie sandwich-ish things with a layer of a jelly-ish thing in the middle. I realize I've painted a very specific picture with my description but here's a real photograph to better explain:

Later that night, we went to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. On the way we also made a stop at the spot where Princess Di died in her car accident- a little morbid but it's also where there's a statue of the flame from the Statue of Liberty.

Finally we made it to the Champ de Mars to watch the Eiffel Tower all lit up!

Ok, I can see why some french people might see it as a LITTLE tacky, but I personally love it! Also I just realized that we're actually in this picture- that's me and Genevieve, but we're a little hard to see.

Versailles

On April 12, my friend South African Emma and I went to see Versailles. It's about a 40 minute RER ride away (plus a 40 minute Metro ride to my apartment) so it was a bit of a hike! But I've been looking forward to seeing Versailles since I saw Marie Antoinette, that horrible Kristen Dunst movie everyone in the world hated besides me.

We decided to save going through the gardens for a more summery day, but we walked all through the house. It was just a LITTLE bit showy...
Hall of Mirrors- that's me and Emma in the reflection if you look closely.