Hola!
I know that I should have blogged about this a couple weeks ago but I figured better late than never! I have been so busy traveling that I have not had much time to blog. Right now I am on the bus taking a trip to Morocco. Even though I went with Brian I decided to go again for a 5 day trip with a group to the Sahara Desert. So far we have done a lot of traveling more so than sightseeing because it is a hike to get to the Sahara. So far the food has been AMAZING here. The morocco food has been very healthy with lots of vegetables, fruit, and rice with chicken. Today for lunch we ate chicken and kous kous (Sp?) which is a typical morocco dish. I have been trying to be very careful with not drinking the water here. Last night when I brushed my teeth I realized afterwards that I used the water from the sink, I didn’t even think about not using the water so I had a minor freak out!
Right now we are back on the bus and we are heading to Merzouga where we will get on 4X 4 jeeps to get deeper inside the desert. The jeeps will then take us to go onto our camels which will take us to our campsites in the desert. The “berbers”, the people who live in the area” will then cook us dinner. At 6am we will wake up and climb up the sand dune so that we can watch the sun rise, I heard it’s the coolest thing ever!
So now about my trip with Brian….
First of all, it was SOOO great to have him here! Even just having someone from home to be able to share with them where I have been for the last 4 months was wonderful. When Brian first got here I met him at the airport. Luckily he came on a Wednesday and I only had one class to go to so I was done with work by 9:15. After my one class I ran to the train so that I could make the next train. When I was waiting for him at the airport it was torture because I was not allowed to go into the baggage claim area. I saw that his plane had landed and I knew that he was right behind the door getting his luggage but I was not able to go in and see him, it was the worst! Finally, I saw from far away a “Chicago Bears” hooded sweatshirt and I knew it was him J. It was one of the best feelings ever, to be reunited with him after those 2.5 months. I can’t even imagine how it will when we have to go 5 months without seeing each other. That is going to be ROUGH. Not looking forward to it one bit.
PARIS!
When Brian first came we spent a few days in Sevilla while I finished up working. Then on Friday morning at 7am we had a flight to go to Paris. That was not fun getting up at 3:45 in the morning. In Paris we saw all, or mostly all, of the touristy attractions. Our hotel was less than a 10 minute walk from the Eiffel tower so of course we went there at least once or twice a day. On the last night we climbed the stairs ( to the second level, that was a workout!) and then we took an elevator the rest of the way up. That was awesome to see at night with all of the lights from the city and everything. In Paris we also saw the Notre dame, Arc of triumph, went inside the Louve but didn’t see the Mona Lisa, we went to the Palace of Versailles, and we did some shopping of course. I actually did not buy anything in Paris, I was quite impressed with myself. One night we went out to eat and there were a few little mice that were running around. It was pretty bizzare. They were coming in through a little hole in the ground between the wall leading outside and the floor. So we got a little Ratatouille action in Paris, its not just in the movies! Overall Paris was beautiful but
Brian and I both agreed that it is a little overrated. Regardless, I am so glad we went because its something that yo
u want to see at least once in your lifetime. The people were just not very friendly which kind of put a damper on the time there. Plus, not knowing French made it a little bit more difficult to communicate.
LONDON!
From Paris we took the underground train to London. London was amazing! It was so incredibly nice to be in a place where English was the spoken language. I did not realize how much I missed living in a English speaking country until I came to London. Even though I love Spanish and I am trying my best to learn the language, it was so nice to be able to speak English everywhere. Being able to know what people are saying around you and being able to say whatever you want to whomever you want is the best feeling. Not only that but I love the British accent and the phrases that they use. A highlight of mine was when Brian and I got there for the first night and we were looking for our hotel, we asked the worker at the train station if he knew where our bed and breakfast was. We had a late train and our B &B was a little bit outside of the center so it took a while to get to our hotel. It was about 10:30 at night and it was raining out, we had no idea where we were. When we asked the worker where our B&B was he said “ Just follow your nose up this street here and you will find it on your left.” We got a kick out of that phrase and started to use it throughout the trip. We finally found our place but still had yet to eat dinner. By the time we got checked in it was already 11pm and the only place that was open was the gas station so being our only choice we went and got some snacky foods, which didn’t fill us up but it we had no other options. In London we were very busy, going to as many touristy places as we could. While we were there a protest was taking place in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral. They were protesting about the banks and how they have control over their money. We also went on the London Eye at night, this was the most expensive ferris wheel ride I have ever and will ever pay for. Regardless of the price it was well worth it. When we went to Westminster abby there was a meeting that was taking place with their government and the public was allowed to go in and watch the meeting take place. We didn’t really know what we were doing but we wanted to be able to go inside and take a look. In order to do that we needed to seem interested in the London politics. It was quite funny actually. Right when we got in we went through a security check and they took our pictures and everything, it was intense. Besides doing all of the touristy things we were able to find some time to go shopping! Funny story: before going I was told by some friends to go shopping at Primark, It is this big store that sells cheap and nice clothes. After my roommate Alice ranted and raved about this place I knew that I had to go once I got there. The first full day we were there we were able to find some time to go to Primark. Brian was not happy. He is not a fan of shopping and when we got in the store it was infested with women walking/ shopping in all different directions. He found a seat and said “ Just do your shopping and I will meet you here once you are done.” I looked around a bit and tried on some coats but I couldn’t find anything. I convinced Brian to look around while I looked at some shoes. When I met up with him I still had nothing in my hands and he had found about 5 things we wanted to buy! It ended up that he bought more things and spent more money at Primark than I did. It’s funny how that works out but it turns out that the boy did enjoy himself J. I think one of my favorite things about London was going to some of the parks and walking around. The weather was really nice and we were able to just stroll through the park and take in some of the “Londoness”,
AMSTERDAM!
I Looooved Amsterdam! Even though I did like London a lot I think that Amsterdam was my favorite city. I liked Amsterdam because it is just so different than what we are used to. All of the social norms that we are used to in the United States are just the opposite in Amsterdam. The Red light district was crazy, nothing like I have ever seen before. Just to give you a picture of what the red light district was like: there were prostitutes in windows just trying to get business from men. Weirdest thing ever. Amsterdam was just so pretty. They have the old buildings with a lot of little rivers that go throughout the city. I heard that there are more rivers in Amsterdam than there are in little towns in Italy. Also the people in Amsterdam just seemed very happy. They ALL ride bikes. ( The first picture is just a glimpse of the the bikes in Amstersdam).Everyone and their mothers rode bikes. When crossing the streets you equally had to look for bikes on the bike paths than cars on the road. The people there have no reason not to be happy. It’s a small town so they are able to ride their bikes everywhere and get exercise. The drinking age is 18, your able to smoke, get prostitues, you name it! There are just no limits and everything is so liberal. In Amsterdam we were able to see the Anne Frank house ( Really cool!), the Heineken Museum ( Also very fun!), and the Van Gogh museum. We were lucky and went on a special weekend where you could buy a wrist band and get to go into all of the museums and free transportation. At some of the museums they had parties with drink specials, so that was pretty sweet!
Overall the trip was an amazing experience and I am so happy that I was able to share all these experiences with Brian, mi amor :).
Advice:
1) Make sure you do your research on how much time you need at a place. For example: We did not need a full 4 days in Paris, but we could have used an extra day or two in London, If we would have done more research we would have planned it out better.
2) Try to avoid 7am flights. You don’t get much sleep on the plane and end up not enjoying the rest of your day without a nap.
3) Even though going out and experiencing the night life is fun, you gotta get sleep to enjoy yourself the next day!
4) Always try using your student ID cards, It saved me about $30 by bringing it!
NEXT UP: Blog about my trip to Morocco!
P.S. To see all of the pics from the trip look at my Facebook photo albums!
No comments:
Post a Comment