"We'll Always Have Paris"

I figured while I'm cozy in this cafe with some awesome wifi, that I would also write my farewell blog and leave you with some tips (if you plan on studying abroad in the future..!) I still can't believe that my time in Europe is over. It feels like yesterday when I first arrived in London for the weekend, eager to meet new people and experience some crazy stuff. Now I am sitting in a cafe in paris, sipping on a latte. Last night I ate snails and drank a glass of some pretty awesome wine too.. what is life. Rather than going on and on about how fast the time went by and talk about all of the great memories I have made, I instead compiled a list of 10 tips that I learned while studying abroad.. I hope maybe you will use them or find interest in them at least!

1. Don't blow through your money in the first couple of weeks 

This tip is extremely important and a terrible, classic mistake that I made. I was so excited to have a bunch of money that I made in the summer that I blew through most of it on clothes and food within the first month. While it is great to want to spend your hard earned money.. be thoughtful of the fact that you are spending a semester in a foreign country and will constantly find yourself in an adorable boutique asking yourself, "do I really need this....?" Trust me, you will thank me for this later. Also! don't spend your money on stuff you can buy back in America.. get that shit when your home. Buy a sketchy pair of llama fur gloves from Prague instead. 

2. Pack an extra duffle 

Trust me, you're guna need this. If you plan on traveling on the weekends, roll up a vera bradley weekender and shove it in your already overpacked bag. Its easy to pack and a great bag to have with you. Also, you can use it on your trip back home, rather than having to buy a whole new piece of luggage (because we all know you buy way more than you think you will while abroad... oops.)

3. Space out your trips 

On our fourth trip in a row, I realized it might have been a better idea to space out our weekend trips... 5 trips in a row was definitely a bit of a struggle. While it was awesome to see one beautiful place after the next.. I wish we had spaced out our trips every other weekend so therefore we could appreciate our time where we were more and therefore, be less exhausted. 

4. Make new friends 

I traveled here alone, so it was necessary that I made friends on my own- something I suggest! While it was definitely nerve racking and uncomfortable at first, it made me go outside my comfort zone and  force myself to make new friends. However, if you plan on studying with people you know, making friends in other countries during your travels is also awesome! We met some great people from all over the world while traveling - staying at great hostels also helps because most likely the people staying there as well as the staff are super friendly and outgoing :) 

5. Eat like there is no such thing as calories 

I firmly stand behind this tip.... you are only in Europe ONCE. aka enjoy all of the wonderful food there is to offer and don't look back. Also.. don't be alarmed when you see a second chin growing mid semester.

that is all.

6. Don't always have a plan

My friends would call these kinds of days, "Gail days..." It's okay to not always have a to do list... some of the best days were when we literally walked around the city and said left? right? straight? and stumbled apron great cafes or boutiques.. just go with it! Not knowing where you will end up is always a fun feeling and its nice to know you found somewhere great worth visiting rather than somewhere a book told you to go to

7. Expect something to go wrong while traveling 

If you don't expect something to go wrong.. you are only going to get frustrated and annoyed that much easier. Pretty much every time we traveled there was either a delay, someones ticket was missing, the hostel sucked or we got ripped off... C'est la vie! Just go with it and work around it.. especially on weekend trips. You have a limited time in the country you paid to see, so enjoy it and don't sweat the stuff you can't control.

8. Say yes to everything 

Even if you're like ehhh... idk I'm tired, or scared or iffy about the whole thing. Just go for it, cause you really never know how it will turn out until you're doing it. For example, in Prague my friends really wanted to do a bar crawl. I was soo tired and it was our last trip and frankly, I just wasn't really in the mood. However, I got my shit together and did it, and it ended up being one of the best nights out in Europe. Just go for it!! Sleep when you're home.

9. Travel.

This goes without saying... travel is dirt cheap and quick in Europe... an hour plane ride and you're in another country that can feel like another world. Don't feel obligated to stay in one place and don't be afraid to go even more outside of your comfort zone. See as much as you can! Traveling ended up being my favorite part of my study abroad experience, which I wasn't expecting! Take advantage of it!

10. Stop & Stare

Every once in a while, my friends and I would find ourselves in a moment where we would be like... "seriously... this is our life?" Definitely take moments to just soak up your life and where you are. My most favorite moment was when we were on a sailboat at 5 am in the French rivera with sailors we had just meant enjoying some cold beers. We simply stopped, realized where we were and what we were doing, and simply enjoyed it with gratitude and astonishment. 

Thank you to all who have read this blog! It was an unforgettable semester!!! 

Au Revoir :)

Gail 

Weekend Adventures Take 5; Prague - Christmas Edition

Hello!

Only 9 days left here in Europe, and I still can't get over how quickly the time flew by. This past weekend I was in Prague, which marks my 8th country in 3 months... pretty cool! I'm making this blog post Christmas themed because Prague was decked out in Christmas markets & Christmas spirit.. so I figured, why not! I think Prague has been my favorite place I have visited because of all that it had to offer - our hostel (hostel one -- totally recommend it) was filled with friendly people (mainly from Australia, which surprised me..) and was in a great location. Everything was SO cheap -- 30 cents for a beer cheap. My kinda place. There were markets everywhere, magical buildings and cool side streets. Here are the highlights :)

Stacks on stacks (really only like 200 euro..) the currency was so weird.. I took out 5,000 crowns and felt like a baller 

John Lennon Wall - there was a man playing John Lennon music in front of it & it was super colorful and peaceful

Me in front of the wall sporting some red pants 

The lovely Christmas markets

The giant Christmas tree

Possibly one of the best things I have ever eaten... a cinnamon pretzel thing. 

Me feeding a pony.. naturally I acted like a 5 year old and freaked out 

One of the oldest bridges in Europe

I had always wanted to get one of these notorious fish pedicures, so when my friend suggested it, I was all in! It was the weirdest sensation, but overall worked really well. I felt like Kim Kardashian..

Special shout out to miss Virginia for toughing it through this creepy experience.. she was quite ticklish and had me laughing the whole time

More pics of friends doing the pedicure 

We climbed to the top of the astronomical tower and this was the view... it was amazing!

If you are a college student, I hope your finals aren't going too bad! Almost there!! 

Until Next Time :)

Gail

P.s... I only have 3 days left...

holy...

shit......

Weekend Adventures, Take 4

Hello!

& it's December....it's gotten sooo cold in Paris lately! I feel like it was fall two days ago and now we're in the middle of winter.. Minus the snow, which I never thought I would miss. (Vermont probs..)  I spent the past weekend in Amsterdam, which was unreal! It was like a whole other world over there. Colored, brick buildings lined the canals and people rode bikes all over - I had major anxiety in the cabs, thinking we were going to hit someone every 2 seconds. My favorite part was the Anne Frank house... it was so surreal and heavy. The craziest part was seeing the actual bookshelf that concealed her family's hiding spot. We also saw her bedroom, where there were original posters on the wall, that were given to Anne by her father. One of my favorite things in life is being somewhere, where important history has occurred. It baffles me that I can be in the same spot as someone who is so important to history, even if they didn't know it at the time.

Here are some more highlights of Amsterdam! :

Me straddling the "a" in the Amsterdam sign  

One of the many beautiful canals - Amsterdam has over 1,500 bridges!

Another canal pic :)

Where you can purchase marijuana like cigarettes 

One thing Amsterdam is known for.. their delicious pancakes. 

A taste of home :)

I have a quick fun fact of the day for you:

To see every piece of art in the Louvre, you would have to look at everything for 4 seconds each, 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, for 4 years straight!!!

Hope you're enjoying the start to this lovely season... I know I am! 

Until next time,

Gail

Weekend Adventures; Take 3

Ciao!!

I figured I would blog now about my lovely weekend in Venice before my week gets hectic here in Paris! To put it in one word... Venice was amazing. Even before coming, it baffled my mind that a city could be built completely on water - but actually being there was something else. I especially loved how peaceful it was without the noisiness of cars driving around. All of the buildings were brightly colored and looked 100 years old.. laundry was out to air dry in-between streets, and gelato stores were at every corner. Don't even get me started on the food... I ate my weight in pasta and pizza. Here are the highlights!!

What the streets looked like :)

Laundry out to air dry - reminding me of the simplistic lifestyle that I envy 

There was a big stretch of pier facing the water and the other islands, that was gorgeous to walk along at the end of the night with the sunset in the background

Of course I had to get a gelato.. I ate it in like 2 min 

Me & kelly on our romantic gondola ride.. <3 

The view from the gondola!! 

I am still very confused/intrigued on how the men who operate the gondola's keep their balance and don't fall in the water 

Dinner - Pasta with tomatoes and basil :) soooo good 

Our drink of choice for this fine weekend... Prosecco :)

Overall, it was an amazing weekend with a lot of laughs and great food! Can't wait for Amsterdam next weekend!

Until next time, 

Gail 

Weekend Adventures Take 1 & 2

Hello!

Time is flying by so quickly... I can't believe it's already almost December! It's crazy that I'll be leaving this beautiful place in less than a month :( All of the Christmas lights are already up in Paris which is super exciting because I LOVE Christmas. My roommate and I actually just checked out the Christmas markets on Champs Elysees which were so beautiful... tons of crafts, food and music! I am all for celebrating Christmas early on, so it was perfect.
A lot has happened since I last blogged...! These past two weekends I have visited Belgium and Ireland with my friends, which was awesome! We saw a bunch of sites and ate some delicious, traditional food. Here are the highlights through photos from our trips:

                                                                 Brussels, Belgium

City square, which was the main attraction of the city 

Delirium Bar, which had 3 floors and over 2,000 different types of beer! Definitely my kinda bar.. my favorite beer was the Guinness Export, which was only served on the second floor. We met people from all over and everyone was super friendly & the music was great! 

Mussels in Brussels! A Belgian classic - even if you don't like seafood, I highly suggest this dish. Even the smell alone was delicious and yes.. I ate that whole pot full of food on my own.

Kind of hard to see but this is Manneken Pis, which is a famous statue of a boy peeing.. hahah. It was surprisingly very small, and dressed up in some weird costume. There was a really large crowd around him taking pictures, and pretty much all of the souvenir shops sold a statue of him.

This wouldn't be a proper blog post about Belgium without some Belgium waffles.. They were sold literally everywhere and you could put all sorts of toppings on them. They were absolutely delicious and all throughout the streets, it smelled like waffles.... yum. 

Bruges, Belgium

Soo pretty much Bruges is straight out of a fairytale... there are storybook houses everywhere, lining canals. They already had Christmas decorations up and the church bells rang every hour.. I was a very happy human while walking around the beautiful town. 

Me, Kelly & Renata on the boat in the Canal! Our instructor's accent was a riot - it was like Dutch, mixed with French.. we saw a lot of Bruges and crossed swans in our path! 

What the boats in the canals look like!

What most of the shops looked like.. there were homemade chocolate stores everywhere! 

Bruges was so beautiful and is definitely now one of the best places I've been to in my life!

Dublin, Ireland

Our first morning in Dublin, we tried a traditional Irish breakfast. The food was delicious and so was the Irish coffee! It was a little hard to drink early in the morning, considering 75% of it was Baileys.. 

For someone who loves beer (especially Guinness).. the Guinness factory was a must. 

The Guinness Academy - where we learned to pour the perfect pint of Guinness! We got a certificate afterwards with our names on it, which was really cool! 

& here I am again.. with more Guinness... 

We walked around at night, and Christmas lights were all up! It was beautiful & definitely got us in the Christmas spirit! :) The Christmas markets were all set up as well which was awesome, but unfortunately the lines were too long :(

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland 

Honestly, the most beautiful place I have been to in my life. Even though I am deathly afraid of heights and when I looked over the edge I saw myself plummeting to my death... I still was obsessed with this place and couldn't help but completely fall in love. 

Casual cow on the side of the cliffs.. there were cows everywhere and to the left of the cliffs were farms stretching out for miles. 

Me on the side of the cliff! (thinking in my head.. "I'm sitting on a couch, not an 800 ft. cliff...) 

Just another pic of this beautiful place :)

Off to Venice for the weekend!! Happy Friday!

Gail