February 25th, 2013 - Nice & Monaco Trip
Beach of Monaco
This past weekend we went to the south of France to the most beautiful place I have ever visited, Nice. Not to mention I finally was able to work on my French! It was definitely a refreshing change. This was a city built into the cliffs and mountains that overlook the most beautiful blue ocean. And to our surprise, Nice was still celebrating Carnival so the weekend was full of parades and performances just minutes away from our hostel.
We left on Friday afternoon right after our Italian final at 12:30, which, by the way I passed, woo! It was quite a long trek of about 9 hours so we arrived in Nice in time only to go out. Our hostel was in the most perfect location which also happened to be the same exact hostel my best friend Kelly, who's studying abroad in France, stayed in last weekend! Such a coincidence. The 12 of us, all girls of course...it's more fun, all went to a bar called Wayne's which is known for its live music and huge dance party! We listened to everything from "Grease Lightning," and "Wannabe" by Spice Girls of course to new Rihanna and that weird new Harlem shake song? Everyone dances on the tables too! Anyways it was so so so much fun dancing. Afterwards we headed to a bar called Pompeii which had a live band too! Saturday we decided to take an afternoon trip to Monaco! It only cost us €1 for the 30 minute bus ride too! This place was the ritz of the ritz. Bentleys on Bentleys on Bentleys lining the streets. It was crazy. We had to stop in the Monte Carlo casino and play some slots, we lost all our money...haha just kidding we only spent like €5. It was fun to experience though, and I wish I had more pictures of the inside because it was basically made of gold, marble, crystals and red carpets, but they had a very strict no cameras rule. Afterwards we just explored more of Monaco including the beach! OMG the beach. It was the most beautiful blue color and instead of sand, it was made of little pebbles. We spent a good 30 minutes taking pictures and selfies of course.
We headed back to Nice for dinner at a place right near our hostel and we all got sangria and pasta, so good! Now this is the part of Nice I didn't like. Saturday night we all went out to a bar that was right on the beach called High Club. And well, we're still not exactly sure why we didn't get in, but they pretty much turned us away because we were Americans, I kid you not. We took out our ID's to get in, and he just said no and closed the ropes off to us. So stupid, so Saturday night was a bit of a bust, but we did get to see part of the Carnival so it made up for it. On Sunday we had the best weather in the morning! The earlier part of the weekend, it was cold and rainy so it was so nice to have a little warmth and sun. This is when I truly began my love for Nice. We went to a huge market where they had everything from flowers, fresh produce, herbs, oil paintings, scarves, everything. And then. We found. The. Beach. This was even more beautiful than the beach in Monaco. The beach itself was made purely of rocks so when the waves receded, it made the most relaxing sound. We sat for an hour just soaking it in, and of course taking more pictures. We ate lunch at a cafe right on the water as a last hoorah in Nice. Unfortunately, as soon as we left the café it was pouring and freezing again. We had to catch a train at 4:30pm so we didn't do much after lunch considering how cold we were. Nice is definitely a place I have to go back to when it's warmer. Perhaps my honeymoon spot? Haha, one can dream, right? Next weekend we are off to Paris! And I get to see my best friend Kelly! Ciao for now!
We left on Friday afternoon right after our Italian final at 12:30, which, by the way I passed, woo! It was quite a long trek of about 9 hours so we arrived in Nice in time only to go out. Our hostel was in the most perfect location which also happened to be the same exact hostel my best friend Kelly, who's studying abroad in France, stayed in last weekend! Such a coincidence. The 12 of us, all girls of course...it's more fun, all went to a bar called Wayne's which is known for its live music and huge dance party! We listened to everything from "Grease Lightning," and "Wannabe" by Spice Girls of course to new Rihanna and that weird new Harlem shake song? Everyone dances on the tables too! Anyways it was so so so much fun dancing. Afterwards we headed to a bar called Pompeii which had a live band too! Saturday we decided to take an afternoon trip to Monaco! It only cost us €1 for the 30 minute bus ride too! This place was the ritz of the ritz. Bentleys on Bentleys on Bentleys lining the streets. It was crazy. We had to stop in the Monte Carlo casino and play some slots, we lost all our money...haha just kidding we only spent like €5. It was fun to experience though, and I wish I had more pictures of the inside because it was basically made of gold, marble, crystals and red carpets, but they had a very strict no cameras rule. Afterwards we just explored more of Monaco including the beach! OMG the beach. It was the most beautiful blue color and instead of sand, it was made of little pebbles. We spent a good 30 minutes taking pictures and selfies of course.
We headed back to Nice for dinner at a place right near our hostel and we all got sangria and pasta, so good! Now this is the part of Nice I didn't like. Saturday night we all went out to a bar that was right on the beach called High Club. And well, we're still not exactly sure why we didn't get in, but they pretty much turned us away because we were Americans, I kid you not. We took out our ID's to get in, and he just said no and closed the ropes off to us. So stupid, so Saturday night was a bit of a bust, but we did get to see part of the Carnival so it made up for it. On Sunday we had the best weather in the morning! The earlier part of the weekend, it was cold and rainy so it was so nice to have a little warmth and sun. This is when I truly began my love for Nice. We went to a huge market where they had everything from flowers, fresh produce, herbs, oil paintings, scarves, everything. And then. We found. The. Beach. This was even more beautiful than the beach in Monaco. The beach itself was made purely of rocks so when the waves receded, it made the most relaxing sound. We sat for an hour just soaking it in, and of course taking more pictures. We ate lunch at a cafe right on the water as a last hoorah in Nice. Unfortunately, as soon as we left the café it was pouring and freezing again. We had to catch a train at 4:30pm so we didn't do much after lunch considering how cold we were. Nice is definitely a place I have to go back to when it's warmer. Perhaps my honeymoon spot? Haha, one can dream, right? Next weekend we are off to Paris! And I get to see my best friend Kelly! Ciao for now!
March 4th, 2013 - Paris Trip
Notre Dame
Paris, Paris, Paris!! This past Friday we left for Paris from Lugano at 6:15am and arrived at around 1:40pm or so. It took us a little while to get situated with the subway system here because it was so big and there were so many lines, but I worked my magic with the French I know and figured it out ;) haha. When we arrived at our hotel, it wasn't exactly in the best location from what we could see, but the hotel itself was safe and we had beds instead of bunk beds for once, woo! The receptionists spoke little to no English so it was fun actually being able to communicate in a foreign country for once (it's hard for me to even get around in Lugano sometimes because of the Italian barrier). We ended up wandering a bit around the area our hotel was in to find an early dinner. We ended up getting doner kebab...big surprise. These are basically everywhere in Europe and its cheap sandwiches with shaved meat. It wasn't what we wanted but it was super cheap and we wanted to save up for a nice French dinner on Saturday. Afterwards, we went in search for Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower! We actually walked into Notre Dame right before mass was starting so we sat down for some of the mass and took it all in. Then, we headed to the Eiffel Tower! We got off the subway and there it was, all lit up! At 7pm and at every hour afterwards, the Eiffel Tower does this light show and it looks like it is glittering. So we were literally running so that we wouldn't miss it. We actually did a lot of running this weekend trying to get all of the sites in. We met up with one of my best friends from home, Kelly, underneath the Eiffel Tower and took a million pics of course. I was very excited to see a face from home! We ended up taking it easy on Friday night so we could wake up early Saturday morning and see all the sites!
Saturday morning we were out of the hotel by 9:30am and we were off to Sacre Coeur, a church at the top of a big hill, and at one point was the tallest point of Paris. Standing at the top of the steps at Sacre Coeur brought back a lot of memories of my previous trip to France with my mom back in high school. After lots of photo ops at the top of the steps, we headed towards the Louvre. We were under the impression that we could get into the Louvre for free with our student visas but no, because our visas are from Switzerland and not part of the EU, we couldn't get in for free. Luckily, the first Sunday of every month they open the Louvre up to everyone so we saved it for Sunday morning. We walked from the Louvre all the way to the Arc de Triomphe along the Champs Élysées! I wasn't able to do this the last trip to France so it was really fun for me to do that. We found one of my favorite places in Paris called Ladurée which is a well known patisserie in France that is one of the best places to get macaroons and hot chocolate, so we of course stopped in for some and continued along the Champs Élysées. After stopping for some pictures at the Arc de Triomphe we ended up getting lunch at Chipotle...yup. Don't judge us. Chipotle is only in Europe in London and Paris so we couldn't pass it up. I ended up running into a girl from my sorority who is studying abroad in Paris there too! We then walked to the Galleries de Lafayette which is a huge shopping block that had everything and anything expensive. Rolex, Cartier, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Swarovski, everything. We just liked going into every store and finding the most expensive item, haha. After a quick stop at H&M, we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to sit on the lawn, pop some champagne and watch the light show again. It was way too cold to go up to the top of the tower so we ended up just sitting on the lawn for an hour just enjoying the scenery. Then we made our way back to our hotel to get ready for the rest of the night. For dinner, we finally ate our French meal. We found a reasonably priced place right near our hotel called Le Cadran Bleu. We had the best waiter! He was so generous and gave us appetizers and creme brûlée for free. He said he had lived in California for 3 years and this was his way to give back to the US for all the great times he had there. It was so cute. We even got some escargot to share! It was actually really good to my surprise. It just tasted like a chewy scallop with garlic pesto. After a long dinner we went a bar that my friend Kelly had heard about called Espit Chupitos, and anyone that goes to Paris has to try this place. It was crazy! It was just this small little bar, but it had, I kid you not, 600 different types of shots. And these shots weren't just normal shots. Kelly and I got the "Boy Scout" which is a shot where the bartender lights a small amount of alcohol on fire on the bar, then you roast a marshmallow over it, dunk it in the shot glass and drink it! It was so cool. Some of the other friends had shots with names like "Finding Nemo" and "Harry Potter." I wish we had more time there but we had to be back on the metro before it closed at 1am. There is apparently another one in Barcelona so we'll have to try it out there again.
On Sunday morning we woke up early again so that we could get to the Louvre and be on our train by noon. We were literally running through it so we could see all the hotspots like Mona, duh, Napolean's apartments, and Venus de Milo among others. I really hope I can go back to Paris at some point in my life because I love it there! It's hard to believe but next weekend we are off on our second 10-day trip to Amsterdam, London and Dublin! Ciao for now!
Saturday morning we were out of the hotel by 9:30am and we were off to Sacre Coeur, a church at the top of a big hill, and at one point was the tallest point of Paris. Standing at the top of the steps at Sacre Coeur brought back a lot of memories of my previous trip to France with my mom back in high school. After lots of photo ops at the top of the steps, we headed towards the Louvre. We were under the impression that we could get into the Louvre for free with our student visas but no, because our visas are from Switzerland and not part of the EU, we couldn't get in for free. Luckily, the first Sunday of every month they open the Louvre up to everyone so we saved it for Sunday morning. We walked from the Louvre all the way to the Arc de Triomphe along the Champs Élysées! I wasn't able to do this the last trip to France so it was really fun for me to do that. We found one of my favorite places in Paris called Ladurée which is a well known patisserie in France that is one of the best places to get macaroons and hot chocolate, so we of course stopped in for some and continued along the Champs Élysées. After stopping for some pictures at the Arc de Triomphe we ended up getting lunch at Chipotle...yup. Don't judge us. Chipotle is only in Europe in London and Paris so we couldn't pass it up. I ended up running into a girl from my sorority who is studying abroad in Paris there too! We then walked to the Galleries de Lafayette which is a huge shopping block that had everything and anything expensive. Rolex, Cartier, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Swarovski, everything. We just liked going into every store and finding the most expensive item, haha. After a quick stop at H&M, we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to sit on the lawn, pop some champagne and watch the light show again. It was way too cold to go up to the top of the tower so we ended up just sitting on the lawn for an hour just enjoying the scenery. Then we made our way back to our hotel to get ready for the rest of the night. For dinner, we finally ate our French meal. We found a reasonably priced place right near our hotel called Le Cadran Bleu. We had the best waiter! He was so generous and gave us appetizers and creme brûlée for free. He said he had lived in California for 3 years and this was his way to give back to the US for all the great times he had there. It was so cute. We even got some escargot to share! It was actually really good to my surprise. It just tasted like a chewy scallop with garlic pesto. After a long dinner we went a bar that my friend Kelly had heard about called Espit Chupitos, and anyone that goes to Paris has to try this place. It was crazy! It was just this small little bar, but it had, I kid you not, 600 different types of shots. And these shots weren't just normal shots. Kelly and I got the "Boy Scout" which is a shot where the bartender lights a small amount of alcohol on fire on the bar, then you roast a marshmallow over it, dunk it in the shot glass and drink it! It was so cool. Some of the other friends had shots with names like "Finding Nemo" and "Harry Potter." I wish we had more time there but we had to be back on the metro before it closed at 1am. There is apparently another one in Barcelona so we'll have to try it out there again.
On Sunday morning we woke up early again so that we could get to the Louvre and be on our train by noon. We were literally running through it so we could see all the hotspots like Mona, duh, Napolean's apartments, and Venus de Milo among others. I really hope I can go back to Paris at some point in my life because I love it there! It's hard to believe but next weekend we are off on our second 10-day trip to Amsterdam, London and Dublin! Ciao for now!