Europe is amazing.
I don't even know where to start! The people, the culture, the history, the food. Ooooh yes, the food.
Well... let's start from the beginning, shall we?
Dear TOP,
The past week has been splendid. I never thought I could enjoy going anywhere better than going to Asia. I mean, come on. Asia has cute things, cute guys, good food, cheap things, and it's just... fun! (Not to mention the places in Asia I go use language that I can understand) I mean-- please, Europe? The land where they don't eat rice (how am I going to survive), no cute idols that I can ogle, and where half the countries use languages I can't even begin to understand. Why would I ever want to go to Europe?
Well, maybe I wasn't that pessimistic about this trip; I was actually pretty excited (although I must admit the language barrier worried me quite a bit), but my expectations weren't high.
Europe blew me out of the bloody water.
First stop! London, UK. When I first stepped off the plane the constant presence of the infamous British Accent kind of drove me insane, but I learned to deal with it. We started off by going to our hotel, where we learned that they had transferred us (free of charge) to this brand new, brilliant hotel that was literally just across the street from St. Paul's Cathedral. The room was huge and very comfy, and the water in the shower came from the spout at the top AND straight out of the wall. .___. That was decidedly weird...
But nevertheless, the hotel was a pleasant surprise, and a wonderful way to begin the trip!
So we set our stuff down and took a walk along the river and across the Millennium Bridge (the one that got torn apart in HPHBP ahhahhaha... it was cool to know what that was :D) and ate a dinner of fish and chips and pie. I swear the UK has the largest fish slabs I've ever seen. -______-
Anyway, it would take me hours to describe the rest of London, so here it is in a nutshell! The food was normal, decent stuff, but the attractions were beautiful. I snuck pictures in St. Paul's (but I swear I didn't know at first T_T... oh! and the cute ticket guy said "cheers!" to me when I said "thank you". That made me smile ^___^) and we climbed billions of stairs to get to the top (there were at least 500 stairs. holy crap I was so tired-____- AND they were spiral stairs, so I was dizzy.). The Towers of London were really cool! I've always liked medieval stuff, and it was like walking through a castle! Oh... and those crown jewels are beautiful and amazing. -______- London Bridge was a really pretty bridge, but it was really windy at the time hahaha.
Buckingham Palace was amazing. The fuzzy black hats will never cease to amuse me. And the horse guard change was pretty cool... if you want tradition, England's got it for sure -__- Big Ben was really really pretty, but we didn't really do anything there but walk around.
The British Museum was filled to the brim with history. AND it was free! I loved the Egyptian exhibit, and it was just really really cool to wander around and have so much history at my fingertips to explore (says the girl who abhors studying history... but looking at it through my leisure time is fun. :D).
I can't remember anything else we did in London at the moment (except for the fact that I went hunting for Platform 9 and 3/4 in King's Cross. ehehehhe), so let's move on to Paris.
Paris is beautiful. We took the Eurostar over (which was actually kinda boring, considering it was mostly dark tunnel outside anyway- -) and had an unpleasant experience communicating with this snotty French ticket booth lady, but she's the only French person I've met so far that was snooty. Humph.
The hotel was so cute... I felt like I was living in a dollhouse!! Except I'm not nearly as doll-like as a doll, but that's not the point. Paris itself was crowded and very compact-- there were so many people wandering the streets (I'm willing to bet at least half the people were tourists...), and the monuments and museums were ridiculously crowded, but despite that it was still wonderful!
The first day was the visit to the Louvre. The place was amazing (the pyramid is beautiful close up), but there were FAR too many people, and that detracted from the experience rather well. -_____- I laughed when I saw a giant blank wall... and a tiny Mona Lisa in the center. HAHA The museum was too big. It would have taken weeks to get through the whole thing. -____- Anyway, after that we went to Notre Dame, which was pretty but overall decidedly boring, as we were too tired of people to stand in the line to wait to get to the top. -_____-
But after that was dinner. Which meant food.
Wow. I have never had better food in my life. The fish in Paris is amazing. T____T And the steak, and the freaking dessert!!! Tante Louise is a must-go restaurant if you're looking for excellent dessert and food. The only problem was it was crazy expensive. ): Let's all become rich and dine in Paris. Please.
Anyway, we went to Versailles the next day. The golden gates were magnificent, but the 2-hour long line was decidedly less so. I spent two hours alternating between sitting and staring at people walk by and standing in line. -_____- I did get to eat a rather tasty salmon and cheese sandwich though. That was good.
Inside the castle the only thing really worth seeing was the Hall of Mirrors and the King's and Queen's chambers. Wow. Glorious place. Hard to describe adequately in words. Ah well.
But what blew me away was the garden. Goodness. Louis XIV must have had a fun time in his stupid garden, because the bloody thing was about the size of El Dorado Park. Maybe even bigger. -________- It was beautiful, and I had lots of fun rowing the boat on the lake. I'm a good rower!!! :D
The Eiffel tower is pretty much just a big hunk of metal... but it's a wonderous work of engineering. And the view is beautiful. But once again, Paris' biggest flaw-- WAAAY too many people. -_____- I am sick of tourists.
The Arc D'Triumph is pretty much the same thing. Really nice and majestic! And looking at the roads branching out from it is pretty cool. Didn't bother going up top though. hahahaha
Anyway.... That was pretty much the end of Paris! The shopping districts were ridiculously expensive, but that's about it. -_____-
Next up is Nice.
I got back to the hotel room at around 11pm, but even then the streets are alive. I love this place hahaha. We got here when the sun was starting to set, and the views are amazing. It reminds me more of Italy than France, which I guess makes sense because it's a Mediterranian area, but nontheless.
The ocean is breathtaking. It's this brilliant shade of blue with just a hint of green that sometimes shines out and sometimes doesn't. And when it reflects the sun... just wow. hahahah
Anyway, dinner was nice! As you walk the streets there are lots of performances going on (you can't really get more than ten meters without running into something), and there are lots of ogle-worthy cute guys. ^__^
While we were eating icecream at the Haagan Daaz restaurant, there was this guy who had painted himself gold and was pretending to be a moving statue.
He was pretending to be Jack Sparrow.
I was so happy. I gave him money and then he took a picture with me. I couldn't stop smiling for... a long time after that. HAHA
But yeah. The first day in Nice has been so relaxing and just plain breathtaking. It makes my heart jump!!!
...Yeah, lame. sorry. ehehhhe
It can only get better from here. I'm excited.
Your writer, who is guilty of letting the quality of her writing deteriorate as she kept going because this post is too long and there was way too much crap to talk about,
I don't even know where to start! The people, the culture, the history, the food. Ooooh yes, the food.
Well... let's start from the beginning, shall we?
Dear TOP,
The past week has been splendid. I never thought I could enjoy going anywhere better than going to Asia. I mean, come on. Asia has cute things, cute guys, good food, cheap things, and it's just... fun! (Not to mention the places in Asia I go use language that I can understand) I mean-- please, Europe? The land where they don't eat rice (how am I going to survive), no cute idols that I can ogle, and where half the countries use languages I can't even begin to understand. Why would I ever want to go to Europe?
Well, maybe I wasn't that pessimistic about this trip; I was actually pretty excited (although I must admit the language barrier worried me quite a bit), but my expectations weren't high.
Europe blew me out of the bloody water.
First stop! London, UK. When I first stepped off the plane the constant presence of the infamous British Accent kind of drove me insane, but I learned to deal with it. We started off by going to our hotel, where we learned that they had transferred us (free of charge) to this brand new, brilliant hotel that was literally just across the street from St. Paul's Cathedral. The room was huge and very comfy, and the water in the shower came from the spout at the top AND straight out of the wall. .___. That was decidedly weird...
But nevertheless, the hotel was a pleasant surprise, and a wonderful way to begin the trip!
So we set our stuff down and took a walk along the river and across the Millennium Bridge (the one that got torn apart in HPHBP ahhahhaha... it was cool to know what that was :D) and ate a dinner of fish and chips and pie. I swear the UK has the largest fish slabs I've ever seen. -______-
Anyway, it would take me hours to describe the rest of London, so here it is in a nutshell! The food was normal, decent stuff, but the attractions were beautiful. I snuck pictures in St. Paul's (but I swear I didn't know at first T_T... oh! and the cute ticket guy said "cheers!" to me when I said "thank you". That made me smile ^___^) and we climbed billions of stairs to get to the top (there were at least 500 stairs. holy crap I was so tired-____- AND they were spiral stairs, so I was dizzy.). The Towers of London were really cool! I've always liked medieval stuff, and it was like walking through a castle! Oh... and those crown jewels are beautiful and amazing. -______- London Bridge was a really pretty bridge, but it was really windy at the time hahaha.
Buckingham Palace was amazing. The fuzzy black hats will never cease to amuse me. And the horse guard change was pretty cool... if you want tradition, England's got it for sure -__- Big Ben was really really pretty, but we didn't really do anything there but walk around.
The British Museum was filled to the brim with history. AND it was free! I loved the Egyptian exhibit, and it was just really really cool to wander around and have so much history at my fingertips to explore (says the girl who abhors studying history... but looking at it through my leisure time is fun. :D).
I can't remember anything else we did in London at the moment (except for the fact that I went hunting for Platform 9 and 3/4 in King's Cross. ehehehhe), so let's move on to Paris.
Paris is beautiful. We took the Eurostar over (which was actually kinda boring, considering it was mostly dark tunnel outside anyway- -) and had an unpleasant experience communicating with this snotty French ticket booth lady, but she's the only French person I've met so far that was snooty. Humph.
The hotel was so cute... I felt like I was living in a dollhouse!! Except I'm not nearly as doll-like as a doll, but that's not the point. Paris itself was crowded and very compact-- there were so many people wandering the streets (I'm willing to bet at least half the people were tourists...), and the monuments and museums were ridiculously crowded, but despite that it was still wonderful!
The first day was the visit to the Louvre. The place was amazing (the pyramid is beautiful close up), but there were FAR too many people, and that detracted from the experience rather well. -_____- I laughed when I saw a giant blank wall... and a tiny Mona Lisa in the center. HAHA The museum was too big. It would have taken weeks to get through the whole thing. -____- Anyway, after that we went to Notre Dame, which was pretty but overall decidedly boring, as we were too tired of people to stand in the line to wait to get to the top. -_____-
But after that was dinner. Which meant food.
Wow. I have never had better food in my life. The fish in Paris is amazing. T____T And the steak, and the freaking dessert!!! Tante Louise is a must-go restaurant if you're looking for excellent dessert and food. The only problem was it was crazy expensive. ): Let's all become rich and dine in Paris. Please.
Anyway, we went to Versailles the next day. The golden gates were magnificent, but the 2-hour long line was decidedly less so. I spent two hours alternating between sitting and staring at people walk by and standing in line. -_____- I did get to eat a rather tasty salmon and cheese sandwich though. That was good.
Inside the castle the only thing really worth seeing was the Hall of Mirrors and the King's and Queen's chambers. Wow. Glorious place. Hard to describe adequately in words. Ah well.
But what blew me away was the garden. Goodness. Louis XIV must have had a fun time in his stupid garden, because the bloody thing was about the size of El Dorado Park. Maybe even bigger. -________- It was beautiful, and I had lots of fun rowing the boat on the lake. I'm a good rower!!! :D
The Eiffel tower is pretty much just a big hunk of metal... but it's a wonderous work of engineering. And the view is beautiful. But once again, Paris' biggest flaw-- WAAAY too many people. -_____- I am sick of tourists.
The Arc D'Triumph is pretty much the same thing. Really nice and majestic! And looking at the roads branching out from it is pretty cool. Didn't bother going up top though. hahahaha
Anyway.... That was pretty much the end of Paris! The shopping districts were ridiculously expensive, but that's about it. -_____-
Next up is Nice.
I got back to the hotel room at around 11pm, but even then the streets are alive. I love this place hahaha. We got here when the sun was starting to set, and the views are amazing. It reminds me more of Italy than France, which I guess makes sense because it's a Mediterranian area, but nontheless.
The ocean is breathtaking. It's this brilliant shade of blue with just a hint of green that sometimes shines out and sometimes doesn't. And when it reflects the sun... just wow. hahahah
Anyway, dinner was nice! As you walk the streets there are lots of performances going on (you can't really get more than ten meters without running into something), and there are lots of ogle-worthy cute guys. ^__^
While we were eating icecream at the Haagan Daaz restaurant, there was this guy who had painted himself gold and was pretending to be a moving statue.
He was pretending to be Jack Sparrow.
I was so happy. I gave him money and then he took a picture with me. I couldn't stop smiling for... a long time after that. HAHA
But yeah. The first day in Nice has been so relaxing and just plain breathtaking. It makes my heart jump!!!
...Yeah, lame. sorry. ehehhhe
It can only get better from here. I'm excited.
Your writer, who is guilty of letting the quality of her writing deteriorate as she kept going because this post is too long and there was way too much crap to talk about,
2 comments:
Your expectations weren't high for going to Europe?! Were you out of your bleeding mind?! Oh heavens... I would kill to go to Europe someday...
I forget who originally came up with the term "ogle-worthy." I get the feeling it was Jodie or me...
Aww, I wish I could go to Houston with you. Not for the smelly spaceset boys, but for you <3
GYYYAAAH my aunt's been to europe...a classmate of mine back in freshman year has been to europe...everyone but me :(
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