Home Sweet Home!

I'm back in London and it feels great to be home! Haha. I really love it here. London is just an amazing place to be, and living in flats is totally my style. Its like an extension of the dorms! I just love being surrounded by people and always having someone to chat with and have fun with! Its always a party! :)
Paris was really exciting and I'm SO glad we went, but if I had to pick between the two cities I'd definitely pick London. I'm sure the language thing has a lot to do with my soft spot for London, but I don't know, I think there's something else too. London and I just really like each other. :)
Our last day in Paris! We started off the day perfectly- a banana and nutella crepe. :) Wow. Probably the best breakfast I've ever had. I could definitely get used to that every morning. The coolest part was that Caitlin and I just woke up, went down the stairs, and got crepes. The crepe/baguette shop is right next to the subway which is right under our apartment. :) Awesome.
After we got ready we headed to Notre Dame to climb up the 387 steps to the top of the tower! The trip involves 3 spots- the first level of towerness, the bell tower part, and then the very top of the top tower! So cool. The views were really neat, as usual. Its neat how we got to see great views from 3 different spots in the city- Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, and Notre Dame. I enjoyed seeing the city from different view points, it really helped to get a feel for the layout of the city. Its so congested! I guess all cities are, but Paris seemed especially congested. London has so many parks and other things, I think its a little more spread out. Anyway, it was super fun and I had songs from the Hunchback of Notre Dame in my head the whole time. :) We saw all the gargoyles and stuff also which was sweet! I took some pictures, but unfortunately it was really cloudy so they're not quite as cool as they could've been. Oh well, still awesome!




After Notre Dame (which took forever because of super long lines and people everywhere), the three of us girls went to get lunch at the baguette place below our apartment. I know this is surprising, considering how yesterday I expressed the overkill of baguette sandwiches I had experienced, but today's was actually good because it had more than just ham on it! :) It had tuna, mayo, lettuce, egg, and tomato (which I actually liked! Must be because I've only had ham for 5 days... )! It was delicious. Then we were all freezing, so we headed to the cafe across from our apartment where Elena and Caitlin got the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted in my entire life and some creme brulee. I snagged a raspberry tart from the patisserie 5 feet away and together we had a grand ole time. :) We had to enjoy our last day with this amazing French food!! Caitlin was in heaven the whole time- I wish I had her metabolism! Instead, I think I've gained 2 pounds for each day in Paris... if only I was talking about the English currency. ;)
Anyway, after stuffing ourselves with as many calories as one person would eat in two weeks, we headed over to Saint Chapelle, a church on the top 10 list. I didn't realize it until we got there, but we studied this chapel in my Civ class (have I mentioned that I LOVED my civ classes?? ok i'll stop.)! Its not very big, but its really neat because it was built in 6 years! Thats nuts for back then! Notre Dame took about 200 years to build, as did most other huge churches back in the day. It was completed in 1248 I believe, and is a perfect example of Gothic Architecture. This combined with the fact that the walls are like 90% stained glass are the reasons we studied it in Civ. When we walked up the stairs and took our first step into the chapel, we all just kinda stopped and said, "WHOA." There is stained glass EVERYWHERE!!! Anyway, there isn't much else to the church besides this chapel, but its well worth the wait in line to see! I'm definitely a fan. :)
Alright so all my pictures pretty much look the same, and I look super greasy and gross in the picture that I'm in... so here you go. ;)


After this we headed back to the apartment and packed everything up so we could get going and catch the eurostar on time... yeeeeah. It wasn't exactly a smooth process. Quite the story actually, but we made it! :) And it feels so great to be back! I actually kind of enjoyed the adventure, but I think Caitlin was about ready to throw up, haha. Elena's family is so cool though! Definitely different from mine, but really really fun. I really enjoyed the whole trip and feel SO ridiculously lucky to have been able to go! Everyday (about 10 times a day actually) I just have to stop and think about how blessed I am and how fortunate I am to have all these opportunities. Life is just so great! I'm a little scared that something really terrible is going to happen to me soon because everything in my life is just wonderful, but I guess if some trial comes my way it'll just make my life even better in the end! :) I'm just extremely grateful for everything I have and all these opportunities I have to learn and grow from people, places, and the world! Its great. :)
Oh, last thing! The eurostar goes in to King's Cross station, so we had to pay a visit to Platform 9 and 3/4! :) I haven't been up to date on Harry Potter stuff in a while... but I had to take a picture anyway. :)

Well thats it! Goodnight! :)