Finally

My trusty travel partner, Charlotte, and I have both always wanted to go to Spain.  It was the one place that we both came on exchange knowing that we really wanted to visit.  Paris has always seemed like another one of those places that everybody tells you that you can't miss when in Europe.  Well, after our midterms in April, we strategically packed our backpacks and started off on a 10 day trip that we've both, independently, always wanted to do.

Our first stop was Paris.  We took a remarkably cheap, but rather excruciatingly long way of getting there.  It started off with a two hour train ride to Eindhoven, the Netherlands because [HOLY COW!] bus tickets to Paris from there were only twenty Euros round trip.  As much of a steal as it was, the already long bus ride was elongated when we ended up having to spend a few hours in Brussels, Belgium on the way there. Nevertheless, I can't really complain because, come on, we were in Paris!

We spent the first two days on the scene with a few other people from our house who were in town at the time.  We saw the Eiffel Tower, met Mona, checked out the Notre Dame Cathedral (we didn't see the hunchback), checked out the coolest bookstore I've ever seen, and wandered around the Louvre.

It was huge and amazing and we marveled at it for quite a while.

 Here's Mona, she says hi. She was so kind as to look right at the camera for me when I took her picture.To be honest, I wasn't quite impressed with her, but she was a real hit at the museum.  I avoided most of the painting section of the Louvre but I absolutely loved the rest of the museum! I was surprised, because I knew there was a lot of hype surrounding the Louvre but I never thought I'd be that interested in the overly-large museum.  However, there were countless sections and exhibits of things from all over the world at all different time periods. They had things from old Egyptian tombs to sculptures from Napoleon.  It really was one of my favorite museums I've ever been to.

Here's the Notre Dame Cathedral.  A very beautiful structure. They were actually having a ceremony when we were going through it.

Now this isn't a very good picture by any means but this is the Shakespeare & Co. bookstore near the cathedral.  Inside it looks exactly like all bookstores should and was the neatest little place ever.  They had an old piano upstair that you could play, and, of course, I had to take advantage of that opportunity!

The next day we checked out the amazing Chateau Versaille and headed up to Sacre Coeur, a church on hill overlooking the city.

Getting to Barcelona was really great because it exceeded all of our expectations.  The sun was out, there were palm trees, the city was beautiful, and  I got to practice some Spanish.  The city itself has such a great vibe and atmosphere and was filled with a ton of beautiful parks, for siestas, and awesome buildings.  A lot of the coolest buildings were done by the famous Barcelona architect, Gaudi.

Madrid was an awesome city too, but Charlotte and I both agreed that we preferred Barcelona.  Madrid was probably more lively and big city-like and it had a different atmosphere than Barcelona.  All in all though, it was another great leg of the journey...

We headed back to Paris for another day and a half before we went home and we made sure to hit the Eiffel Tower at night.  That was really cool because they have a light show with music every hour at night.  We also checked out the Arc de Triomphe and went back to the Louvre to hit some more sections of it.

I have to say, this really was an amazing trip.  We both got the chance to accomplish one of our goals we've been looking forward to for a long time. It was also a good time because we got to be gone for so long.  Granted, it was exhausting and we took a few days to recuperate afterwards, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything! And I know Charlotte said the same.