PARIS.
So I just spent the past 3 days in Paris, having an amazing, wonderful, exciting, exhausting experience. I ate French, Thai, and Belgian food, and I saw tons of monuments and museums in the area.
Still, though, there was so much that I wanted to do...it´s a good thing I´m planning on coming back in three months (:
In any case, one thing I wanted to rave about was 1) the quality of the food and 2) the nice people I met there! For any of you f-listers who weren´t aware (which might be a lot of you because I´m not sure that I mentioned it before), I am traveling with four other people--two girls and two guys--from my program, and we are going to Paris, Barcelona, and Venice in a week.
So far, obviously, we´ve completed our trip to Paris...a little heartwrenching, mainly because the city itself is so wonderful (though NOT as beautiful as Rome is, in my opinion). The food there is incredible, and not just the French food, which we didn´t even really eat until the last night, after seeing the Eiffel Tower all lit up. We started the trip with some delicious Thai food, which was both incredibly cheap and incredibly authentic, from some hole in the wall place across the street from the Hotel San Sebastien (which, by the way, offered free croissants and baguettes for breakfast, yum). I had a ridiculous amount of food--fried rice, thin noodles with ground beef, dumplings, and a spring roll, and all of it made me feel as though I was back at home.
We also, in the process of finding this restaurant, stumbled across a bakery on the street that our hotel was on. It, too, was a hole in the wall sort of thing, and oh so very French, and the woman who worked there was named Nadia and she was a lovely old lady who gave us free desserts and took photos with/for us.
Surprisingly enough, I found French people to be not at all anything like the American stereotypes might suggest. They were warm, friendly, kind, and helpful (also, not smelly, for the most part). However, my experience may have been helped by the fact that we were living in an area that wasn´t very touristy, but rather more local, so I suppose the locals weren´t as used to or annoyed by tourists.
I´m in Barcelona now, which is a completely different experience. There are less things to see--or at least, less that we´re interested in seeing--and as a result, we have more time to relax and enjoy ourselves, relax on the beach, take walks through the city, etc etc. We´re also able to go out at night and party since we don´t need to be up at 8 the next morning to sightsee. AND the food is so delicious and SO MUCH CHEAPER than Paris--everything is soo much cheaper.
I wish I could upload photos to show you all, but unfortunately I´m using the hostel computer and it doesn´t have a place to insert my memory card...so I guess you´guys will have to wait until the end of the week.
Guys, I love Europe. So fucking much.
Still, though, there was so much that I wanted to do...it´s a good thing I´m planning on coming back in three months (:
In any case, one thing I wanted to rave about was 1) the quality of the food and 2) the nice people I met there! For any of you f-listers who weren´t aware (which might be a lot of you because I´m not sure that I mentioned it before), I am traveling with four other people--two girls and two guys--from my program, and we are going to Paris, Barcelona, and Venice in a week.
So far, obviously, we´ve completed our trip to Paris...a little heartwrenching, mainly because the city itself is so wonderful (though NOT as beautiful as Rome is, in my opinion). The food there is incredible, and not just the French food, which we didn´t even really eat until the last night, after seeing the Eiffel Tower all lit up. We started the trip with some delicious Thai food, which was both incredibly cheap and incredibly authentic, from some hole in the wall place across the street from the Hotel San Sebastien (which, by the way, offered free croissants and baguettes for breakfast, yum). I had a ridiculous amount of food--fried rice, thin noodles with ground beef, dumplings, and a spring roll, and all of it made me feel as though I was back at home.
We also, in the process of finding this restaurant, stumbled across a bakery on the street that our hotel was on. It, too, was a hole in the wall sort of thing, and oh so very French, and the woman who worked there was named Nadia and she was a lovely old lady who gave us free desserts and took photos with/for us.
Surprisingly enough, I found French people to be not at all anything like the American stereotypes might suggest. They were warm, friendly, kind, and helpful (also, not smelly, for the most part). However, my experience may have been helped by the fact that we were living in an area that wasn´t very touristy, but rather more local, so I suppose the locals weren´t as used to or annoyed by tourists.
I´m in Barcelona now, which is a completely different experience. There are less things to see--or at least, less that we´re interested in seeing--and as a result, we have more time to relax and enjoy ourselves, relax on the beach, take walks through the city, etc etc. We´re also able to go out at night and party since we don´t need to be up at 8 the next morning to sightsee. AND the food is so delicious and SO MUCH CHEAPER than Paris--everything is soo much cheaper.
I wish I could upload photos to show you all, but unfortunately I´m using the hostel computer and it doesn´t have a place to insert my memory card...so I guess you´guys will have to wait until the end of the week.
Guys, I love Europe. So fucking much.