A Slice of Spain

The fearless four were down by one last weekend... Gwen's mum and aunt spent the week in London giving her some much needed family time-- which continued into the weekend. Sam, Nat and I temporarily became the 3 Musketeers as we set sail to España!  Usually I'm the go-along-with-everything-type and let someone else be the group leader/major decision maker, but one way or another I was elected 'finder of the hostel'. If I do say so myself, we had an awesome hostel! Our room slept 6 (back to the bunk beds) we had free WiFi access with six computers, a kitchen, showers, bathrooms, beer fridge, and comfy couches in the commons area. There were tons of young people staying there (a few actually living there) and really friendly staff.

My favorite part of Madrid was simply meeting fellow travelers. I find it so interesting to see what others are doing with their lives and how they ended up in whichever country we happen to be visiting. We saw signs posted all around the hostel announcing a night out at the bars starting in the lounge downstairs. We decided it would be fun, and jumped right in. We met lots of 20-something year old's who are also studying abroad in various European countries. We met a really funny military couple from Florida who now live in the UK, a solo backpacker from Jersey, a guy from Boise of all places, a quirky couple from England and Peru, more Americans, a Canadian who spoke perfect French, a Brazilian, and plenty more I couldn't keep track of. Free beer kept reappearing on the coffee tables as we sat their and got to know everyone... no complaining here! 

Once midnight hit we made our way to the bars. It's true what they say, Madrid never sleeps! I was amazed by how many people were out and about at every hour, including 4 a.m. We all agreed the two most important Spanish terms to know are: cerveza and el baño

Our first day in Madrid we took our time walking around and enjoying the sunshine, it was VERY bright out! We came across a small pond/lake hybrid of some sort... equip with rent-able row boats. These ones looked much safer than the punting boats we tried in Cambridge, so we decided to hit the water!   

I told you it was BRIGHT out! 

I particularly enjoyed the Spanish style buildings and the very low key lifestyle of Madrid. It was very lively at all times but never too much. 

We found a tree full of initials carved into it-- and decided to leave our mark

K+S+N
USA
(seemed appropriate) 

Our first night in the hostel, we had the room to ourselves leaving 3 empty beds. The second night we had a full house... I was unaware of this until the following morning. Just a tidge bit awkward since we had two men and one woman sleeping/snoring only a few feet away from us (not to mention they were of Asian decent). I'm very proud of us for giving the shared room hostel situation a go, not bad at all!

 We met lots of interesting people, experienced Madrid's lively day life and exciting night life, and most importantly gave ourselves a break from finals week. The past two days have been ridiculously studious and painfully productive. It's our last actual week of class-- followed by presentation week, one final weekend in London, a trip to Africa then our journey back to the states... I'm loving this busy/exciting/learning lifestyle! 

Francy Pants

It seems like our weekend in Paris was ages ago, I still can't believe how quickly the time has gone! Before this particular trip, the four of us had been traveling on our own- no tour guides. Just a map, backpack and each other to count on. AIU provides tons of different group activities to join in on, making sure everyone has an opportunity to experience Europe one way or another. We decided to branch out for this one and travel with the group (40+ students to be exact). We have an amazing activities director named Tony. He has the BEST JOB EVER! this was his 16th time guiding the Paris trip. He's full of knowledge, witty comments, fun facts and great traveling advice. Having him in Paris made everything that much more interesting, meaningful and memorable.

My two favorite Tony quotes from the weekend:

"He's about one sandwich short of a picnic"

"If you call past 11 you'll get one tired Tony" (in a funny British accent of course) 

Traveling with a giant group had a few benefits... like the sweet hotel we stayed in! The beds were so comfy I could have spent my time there simply sleeping.

We spent a good amount of time visiting the historical attractions of Paris

Notre Dame Cathedral 

Sainte Chapelle Cathedral 

Louvre Museum 

Venus de Milo

And of course spent some time at the very beautiful ones as well... 

So pretty in person, and BIG! 

The 'love bridge' quite possibly the cutest idea I've ever seen

The entire length of this fence is covered with a collection of locks- locked in place by couples looking to symbolize their ever lasting love by tossing the keys into the river below. Adorable. 

Another delicious find we quickly stumbled upon... 

Macaroons! 

They may look like tiny hamburgers.. but don't be fooled! 

On our last night we explored the 'bohemian' parts of Paris where we visited the very place the can-can originated! Followed by the Moulin Rouge. It was time to put on our dancing shoes! Gwen and I ended up here---

The 1st Jazz bar in Paris

We certainly found a dance floor- it was packed! A little out of our age range but very lively and entertaining. Keeping it on my list of places to visit again someday. 

Wonderful weekend full of exploring, sight seeing and souvenir shopping. Paris quickly made it's way towards the top of my favorites list! 

Journey to Geneva

4:00a.m. came WAY too early. I must have slept-walked my way down the stairs, out the door and to the bus stop. As expected, things were off to a rough start almost instantly... we had to navigate our way around town relying on the night buses-- which seem to have unpredictable stops and schedules. We spent a good amount of time chasing buses, missing buses, asking for directions and of course laughing at ourselves since it was so typical us. Keep in mind- its raining, still 4:something a.m. not to mention we're wearing our giant backpacks which make running very difficult and ridiculously funny looking. As always, we caught our ride in the nick of time and made our way to the airport. 

On this trip we were lucky enough to have a lovely couple host us for the weekend. Through a string of people there was a connection to Michael and Trudy-- who live in Geneva and were happy to take us in. They have a very beautiful and spacious apartment with an awesome location in the 'Old Town' and plenty of room for the four of us to sprawl out for the weekend. It was SO nice having someone to show us around, treat us to home cooked meals, teach us all about different types of wine, understand our American ways and lack of French speaking... we were very well taken care of. 

Geneva was so beautiful. Fall colors covered the trees in every direction and we finally spotted some mountains--with snow on them! They have endless public parks along side the lake where we stopped to play on the swings and enjoy the pretty scenery (London seems to be lacking grass & big trees). 

We spent an afternoon in a cute little ski village- Chamonix which is in France but was only an hour or two away. The mountain air and the view surrounding us was amazing! I've definitely got an itch for ski season now! During lunch Michael suggested we try 'foie gras' which is a very fancy name for 'duck liver'. To my surprise, we all tried it... I thought it tasted something like cream cheese, the texture more than anything. After lunch we took a lovely stroll alongside the river and made our way back into town. That evening we went out for fondue to celebrate Gwen's birthday! Switzerland sure does love cheese. We made sure to take advantage of the many chocolatiers as well, YUM. 

                                     

We said our goodbyes, kissed cheeks and made our way back to London. It was a wonderful weekend surrounded by nature and nurturing. If I ever have the chance to visit Switzerland again, I plan on taking full advantage of the snowy mountains! 

"When in Rome"

The girls and I loaded up our backpacks, hopped on a plane and headed to ROMA! With a map in hand and adventure on the mind, we weaved through the streets of Italy and found our weekend landing pad-- Hotel Christina. Sami rang the buzzer... (seemed like the logical thing to do) in a matter of seconds the little speaker was shouting at us in angry Italian telling us to open the door. We decided to avoid the questionable looking elevator and hiked our giant backpacks up the endless spiral staircase. We followed the echo of the still shouting Italian man where we found the reception desk and our room key... fabulous. Oh the room, quite the little gem if you ask me. Someone put a whole lot of effort and even more wallpaper into decorating it. We're all convinced it used to be a dining room at one point in time. It worked out just fine, bunk beds and all! 

Beautiful chandelier right? 

At least the bunk beds match the wall paper 

We spent our days walking around and sightseeing-- we managed to do everything on foot and avoided buying a bus pass, woo go us! We ate endless amounts of pizza and gelato, visited tons of historical sights, and of course took a whole bunch of pictures... enjoy! 

Rome was both beautiful and historic. Surprisingly smaller than I was expecting, but compared to London everywhere seems small. The majority of the locals we encountered struggled with English but they were all pretty determined to carry out a conversation with us... Italian is a much prettier language. 

The weather was in the 70's with lots of much needed sunshine during our daytime adventures. We encountered a big thunder storm the last night of our stay-- it was SO loud! My favorite memory in Rome was taking a bottle of wine (or two) to the Trevi Fountain for some people watching, tossing coins while making wishes, and just loving life.