Praha

St. Wenceslas Vineyard

St. Vitus Cathedral 

We traveled to Prague on Saturday and The train arrived around 7. Our hostel was super close to the train station (we've been lucky with that). Our hostel seemed more like a hotel. It was very nice and full of young kids it had a rotating bar called 360 which was neat and the overall decor was very modern. We ate dinner at the hotel because we were really tired. I had classic Czech food that was really good. It was duck, cabbage and gnocchi. Our hotel had accidentally put 5 girls into our room instead of four, so they moved us to a six girl room for the night and upgraded us to a private two person room for the second two night The girls that were in our old 4 person room were from Australia. They were really cute and nice. We met them in he bar for a little after dinner and decided to try to go to the famous five story club. We all hated it. It was not our scene. We only stayed for about 10 minutes.

Bohehmia Bagel

The next day we switched into our private room and explored the city. We saw the famous astronomical clock tower strike an hour. When it does this, some skeleton looking things automatically ring bells. It was interesting but over rated. Then we walked to the Charles Bridge and up the bell tower on it. The view from the top was beautiful and Joanna and I were strangely the only people up there the whole time. We walked across the bridge and up a hill to the Prague Castle and into the Saint Vitus Cathedral. We got another great view of the city! Our friends recommended a vineyard by the church where we could get a glass of wine a some snacks. The terrace sat over the whole city and we sat there enjoying the view and nice weather all afternoon.

Lennon Wall

Dancing Building

The next day we went to a bagel shop for lunch to get our American Food fix for the trip. It was very good an had been recommended by a lot of our friends. After, we went to a mall to find a Topshop, then went to the John Lennon Wall. Some people had extra paint, so they gave to to us to paint something of our own! I could not get very creative as usual, but we got to make our mark. After, we walked to the Dancing Building. We were planning on going up to the cafe at the top because it was supposed to have a Great view, but it was closed for renovations.

That night we had dinner with our Australian friends at a really good Italian restaurant across the street from our hotel. We all got different pastaS, pizzas and salads and ate them family style. It was one of the best meals of Europe! We went out to a neat underground bar where we all split one giant Mojito! Prague was a wonderful city!

Vienna

Butterfly Garden

Inside of the Butterfly Garden

St. Stevens Cathedral 

We made it to Vienna at about 730 in the morning. We left out stuff at the hostel and went out in the rain to walk around. We saw the huge and elaborate Hofburg palace and went into a butterfly sanctuary which was attached. The butterfly place had them flying all around felt like we were in a rain forest. We went to a Viennese restaurant for lunch which was really good. Finally, we were in a city where the prices were "cheap" compared to everywhere we had been! We were able to budget ourselves very well in Vienna. The lunch was very heavy an we went back to take a nap at the hostel (Ley Ley recommended this hostel). It was nice to be in a "real" bed where I didn't even feel the need to use the sheet thing I brought to sleep in. Joanna and I shared a double bed, and the room was big enough for just about that. My huge suitcase barely fit in the room! After our nap, the weather had turned into cool air with the sunset. We went back to the area with all of the famous palaces and architecture. We went to a gothic cathedral called Stephansdom. They were having mass inside so we won't in a watched that for a few minutes. We walked all around this area. It was so pretty at this time of night! We ate at the Swarovski crystal little pop up café in the middle of the street (Austria is the home of Swarovski). We sat there for hours people watching. After, we went to the famous/ historical hotel Sacher get their chocolate torte that Ley Ley told us about. Joanna and I split one with a glass of red wine and it was so good. The hotel was super fancy, so it was exciting to eat in there. Thankfully the prices of the torte and wine were not high at all! We took the metro back to our hostel to get a good nights sleep.

Dinner at the Swarovski Cafe

Chocolate Torte

Schonbrunn Palace 

On Saturday, we woke up and took the bus to the Scholob Schönbrun palace. It reminded me a lot of Versailles. We got ear guide machines and went through a lot of the rooms. That was about all we had time to do in our short stay in Vienna. The architecture there was beautiful but I feel like we got to see most of the things we wanted to see. The only thing I wanted to see that I didn't was the Gustav Klimt art exhibits. Right now I am on the train to Prague. We had an open ticket which meant we could pick any time to leave, so we decided to leave on the 2 pm train to get to Prague around 7.

Interlaken

Interlaken was even more than I expected it to be! When we arrived at the train station, we took a bus that was only about a 10 minute ride to the Balmers tent village. We got our tent, named Mexico City, and walked down the street to a pub to get dinner. We were so excited to get out of Paris where every meal was over 10 dollars, but we were disappointed to see that every single restaurant in Interlaken was the same if not more expensive than Paris. We tried our best while we were there to shop at the grocery store across the street and eat wisely. That night they had a band in front of our tent. It was so relaxing to sit on the lawn chairs in the cool, mountain air and listen to the music. The temperature drops about 30 degrees every night. The days get up to about 85, but at night its about 55. The tent is not very good at keeping us warm but thankfully they gave us a lot of blankets.

Seilpark

The next morning, we went to Seilpark, a high ropes course. I had never done something like that before and it was terrifying but fun! They gave us a harness and gloves, and a quick tutorial on how to use all the equipment. Basically, we were up really high in trees and used the clip things
On our harness to attach us to ropes when we crossed wires. There were also a bunch of zip lines that we attached ourselves too, which were my favorite part. It was really fun and forced me to forget about any fear of heights that I had. After that, we walked what seemed like all the way around Interlaken. We sat in the hammocks the rest of the day and night and read.

Cayoning!

On Wednesday we woke up early and went Cayoning! It was so much fun and involved so much adrenaline. So much of Interlaken reminded me of camp/Cashiers. There was a group of about 8 of us taken by 2 guides up a mountain in a van. Our gear included, two wetsuits, a harness, a live vest, a helmet and shoes. We reached the waterfall/stream/river where we were going to jump/slide/walk down. The water was the coldest I've ever felt. We had to slide down rocks and jump from rocks from super high (like turtle falls high) into TINY deep areas with rockers all around us. One of the guides would always do it first to make sure it was deep enough. We just had no margin for error! The experience was thrilling and I want to do it again! They gave us two free beers when we got back to the Outdoor Interlaken shop. One of the guides had a camera on his helmet the whole time videoing us. They offered us a personalized video of all of it, which now I really wished I had gotten. At the time, I didn't want to spend an extra 30 francs, but the experience was so cool I wish I had had this to remember it by. Oh we!ll!
Interlaken houses all of the extreme sports. Almost everything you can think of they have. I really wanted to go parasailing or skydiving, but it was
More expensive than cayoning, which definitely was a bang for the buck. After cayoning, we got really good cheap and huge kabobs by our hostel and went back to read for a little. We were really hitting it right on our independence days, because it was Swiss day that day! It was so hot reading so we went down to anothe hotel's pool where we were allowed to go and uses their pool. They had this awesome slide that was so fun and a DJ. I think I would have never gone

Warning Sign for Slide!

On the slide if I hadn't been on the high ropes course and cayoning previously. I am so glad I did! I did it 3 times!

That night they had a big fireworks display for Swiss day. I think that the Swiss are very fond of their fireworks, because we heard them going off non stop all four days we were there. They had so many kinds I had never seen before! Also, before and after the show, it was a free for all on setting off the fireworks. Everyone was around this huge grassy square, and so everyone was setting them off all around it. It was kind of frightening, because they would come out of no where. We met some people from South Carolina who both go to mUSC. We sat with them the whole fireworks show. We walked back to the hostel just in time to miss a giant thunderstorm. The weather had been perfect since we had gotten there, but it was relaxing to go to sleep in the tent to the sound of rain.

Swiss Day 

Thursday we woke up and rented some bikes with some friends we had met. We took our bikes on the bus up a mountain. We cruised all the way down, which was a very scary experience for me. It was SO steep and I was scared the whole time that my breaks were going to give out because I had to use them so much! But the view the way down was beautiful, overlooking a huge lake of turquoise water. We stopped at a restaurant that was recommended to us by a guy who works at the tent village. It was overlooking the mountain, and the food was so good!! We went back to the hostel and showered, getting ready to make the train. The night train was not the most ideal situation. Thank goodness two of the girls in our 6 person cabin were normal Americans are age from Raleigh. Sleeping was impossible due to a German man also in our cabin, who snored and took up all the bed space that was created by the 6 chairs pulling out strait. Next time I will go for something above the lowest class night train seat... All in all Interlaken was awesome and I could stay there for ever! There was so many activities to do! It was a great transition into traveling outside of Paris.

The Grande Finalé

The last week of CEA Paris was jam packed. I spent most of it studying for finals, doing daily readings, writing papers and doing a project. On Monday, I went to L'as du Fallafel to do my Culture project. We were to pick a place in Paris and observe how different people use the space. I picked this famous spot in the Jewish district in the Marais because it is always hustling and bustling. I sat there for about an hour before class and interviewed someone that worked there.

Lavina

That day in Wine class we had a walking tour of the city. He showed us to famous restaurants and other wine bars. After walking for about two hours, he took us to the largest alcohol store in Europe. It's called Lavina and it was extremely fancy. It's about 4 stories and he took us to the restaurant in it. We all sat at a table and he ordered a different glass of wine for everyone, and told us a lot about each one. He told us that store is losing money because their rent is out the roof and they jack up the prices on everything. After that, we walked to a famous chocolate store and he let us pick out what seemed like 50 Chocolates that they had that fit into a box. We went back to his wine bar and he gave us a glass of wine that goes with chocolate. We are very lucky to have such a generous teacher, because I know CEA is not paying for all that he's given us!

Le Pause

That night we walked to a really good restaurant that was in the Let's Go Europe book. The book never lets us down! Thanks Mom and Dad. Joanna and I got this oriental salad that had delicious chicken and then rice/sushi rolls in it. The restaurant was called Pause Café and it was packed!

Monet Water Lilies

Thursday night was the CEA goodbye meal at a huge Mosque. Strangely, the Mosque has a restaurant in it. They served us cous cous with this vegetable broth and our choice of meat. I got sausage and it was really good. They also gave us some kind of hot tea and then our choice of all these arabic desserts. It was basically everyone's last night in Paris except us, so we were sad we couldn't go out with all of our friends due to the massive amount of homework we had on Friday.
I woke up really early to study for my test and finish my final paper. It was such a relief to finish both. Joanna and I went to a really fresh and cheap sandwich shop for lunch (also from

Dinner at Mosque

the book). When I thought about taking a wine class in Paris, I was not picturing filling up an entire blue book for the final exam. My hand had not experienced that kind of a work out since I took APUSH! I did really well on the exam (better than everyone else) so I was happy!

After the exam, Joanna and I went with a few of my classmates to L'orangerie to see Monet's water lilies. I've been wanting to go back since we went on our first trip to Paris. I retook the same picture 7 years later! We walked around the Tullerie gardens in the rain for a while which he hadn't gotten to do yet. That night we went to Ô Chateaux to have some wine and watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. It was a neat place to watch it! When France came on, we all cheered! We met my teacher's fiancé, who is from Mississippi who had just come from the states. We were envisioning her to be this America turned Parisian woman because Olivier was born and raised in Paris. However, she was wearing cowboy boots and looked as American as you can get.

Sacre Coeur

On Saturday we went back to the Columbian restaurant which served as our breakfast, lunch and dinner for the day. On Sunday, we went to Sacre Coeur. I would not recommend going there on a weekend, it was jam packed. That night we went to a pizza place from the book with some CEA friends.
Monday came we said Bientôt to Paris. We woke up and dropped off our luggage at CEA and headed to the train station. After an easy ride, we made it to Interlaken. We met a girl who goes to Princeton, her mom and grandmother who were traveling
On the train. They made for nice company on the ride!

Olympics

Loire Valley Failure

Last Friday a bunch of us from CEA wanted went to a Lebanese restaurant for lunch. We ate outside in the street and it was nice to have some tubouli and hummus! I was starting to have withdrawals due to how much I was eating earlier this summer. The meal was topped off by some baklava. Yum. After, we took the metro to the Galleries Lafayette shopping mall. It was not a very pleasant Parisian place to shop. It seemed like an Orange Park mall of Paris. This was near the famous Café de Fleur, where Belle Epoque artists used to frequent. We got their famous hot chocolate. It was SO GOOD. We haven't made it to Angelina's yet, but after this I don't know of we need to.

That night we went to ô chateau, my teachers wine bar. All of the people who work there are really nice and get to know you. They tell you everything about the glass of wine you choose and the prices are very reasonable. We ended up staying until close, and the group of us who was there went to a secret underground bar called The Ballroom. It was funny to be there with my teacher. When we got home, Joanna set her alarm for us to wake up at 6, because the bus for the Loire Valley left at 7:30 and the stop was really far away. Our roommates we already asleep so we figured they had set their alarms too. Well, no one in our apartment woke up until 9. Joanna's phone volume was not up loud enough so none of us heard the alarm. I kick myself for not setting mine. After being really upset for missing the bus and being told there was no way we could meet the group, we finally cut our losses and planned the rest of the weekend.

One of my roommates, Myrah has researched an authentic Columbian restaurant in Paris. She moved to the U.S. two years ago from Columbia to go to College in DC. She says it is impossible to find cooking like she has at home in Columbia in the US. We went for dinner and it was delicious. We had no idea what anything was, so Myrah ordered for us. We ordered this whole platter with empandas, some sort of beef, types of potatoes, and lot of different plantain type things. The best part of the meal was the juice that Colombians drink. It is fruit blended in different flavors and ice so it is thick like a smoothie! Myrah picked her favorite "Lulo" flavor. Lulo is a type of fruit in Columbia. It was great to finally have a smoothie type drink. It was really refreshing. We have found that all the French cafés generally have the same menus. I never realized this before in our other visits. I have eaten so many French salads that it is nice to find some ethnic restaurants here.

Paris Plage

Lulo

Sunday, we went to check out the "Paris Plages." They were set up along the Seine for the second part of the summer so that people who can't afford to go on vacation to the beach can still have a beach experience. I don't know how they get all that sand down there! We got some food at a stand and a beer, and we ate it in the sand. It was all really cheap for once. It felt so good to feel the sun. It has rained so much! We walked up and down the beach from start to finish. They had really cool chairs and bean bad looking things set up in some areas. They also had a kids beach playground type area with a sandcastle building station, mist areas, fuss ball tables, clowns giving away balloons and book rental places. We stopped and got some ice cream and it was so good. I got green tea and macaroon flavored. We read for a little bit on the beach.
After we went home and met our friends for dinner who had been at the Loire Valley on Saturday and Sunday. They said that it had been really nice so get out of the city for a night. That was the part I was really jealous of. They also said the goat cheese farm was cool and the river cruise, but other than that it had been castle overload.

Week 3

Breakfast In American Blueberry Pancakes

B.I.A veggie omelet + hash-browns

We have been using Sundays in Paris as a day of rest. The weeks are so busy, so it is nice to have a break. My roommates and I went to a famous restaurant called "Breakfast in America" which is pretty self explanatory. We haven't really had a breakfast here, I buy yogurt from the supermarche and have a banana, so we were excited to get real breakfast food. It did not disappoint, as we all got an obscene amount of food. Later, I went on a much needed run around my neighbornood. I ran along the Seine and it was perfect running weather. It was in the upper 60's and beautiful.

Running bridges on the Seine

Monday consisted of dealing with the mysterious rash that Joanna discovered on my back when I was changing. It was very scary, but it turned out to be from an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin I had gotten from strep throat. My body seems to be rejecting the Parisian lifestyle. Thankfully, CEA is extremely helpful when this happens. They made me a dermatologist appointment for that afternoon, which unfortunately was not an "at-home" visit. It was difficult finding the office, because I had to take the RER, which I hadn't taken before and their stations are much more confusing than the simple metro. I also found out that French doctor's offices do not have reception desks when you walk in, so I was very confused on what room I should go in and if I was even in the right place. Luckily, after waiting in something that looked like a waiting room, the dermatologist came and got me and she was really nice. It was another experience of the French-English language difference, but in the end I think we understood each other. 

Much to my liking, we finally went to the famous falafel place that everyone had been telling us about for dinner after class. A Jewish part of Paris called Rue de Rosiers is famous for the dozens of falafel joints it has, and we went to the "best" one. I had never had a falafel before and it was right up my ally. It was fried falafels (hummus sort of fried balls) + cabbage + lettuce + taziki sauce in a pita. Yummy. Joanna and I went shopping the next morning in the area before class, and I got another one for lunch :)

I am doing my culture project on this place, where I am going to interview the men that work there, observe the people that go there and learn their story. Plus, it is an excuse to get more falafels. After dinner there on Monday night, we enjoyed the first sunny night we had seen in a long time, and walked to the famous Berthillon ice cream place by the Notre Dame. It was my first ice cream in Paris. I have not seen as many gelatto places this trip as I remember seeing in our previous visits. It lived up to its reputation as the best ice cream in Paris. I got chocolate and Hazelnut. MMM. We ate it sitting along the Seine, and then discovered that it was not too far to walk home from the Notre Dame. 

Tuesday night we went on the boat tour of the city which CEA had given us tickets for. We went with a group of about 10 of us which was fun. We went on the 10:30 boat tour so that we could see the city at night (it doesn't get dark until 10:30 here!) 

Boat Cruise

Wednesday we did not have culture class in order to work on our midterm essays, which meant we would get out from class at 3:30 instead of 6:30. We used this time to go to the Pompidou which is almost right next door to CEA. It is really hard to visit museums because we are in class during the hours they are open on Mon-Thurs, and the weekends haven't allowed the time. The first weekend I was sick, last weekend was Bastille Day, and this weekend we are going to the Loire Valley. Joanna and I have decided to stay in our apartment in Paris a few extra days, as CEA allows us to do this for about 20 euros a night, because we feel like there is still so much we haven't had time to do. We are supposed to be out next Saturday, but I think we are going to stay until our reservations in Interlaken on Tuesday night. I am really excited to not have classes so we can fill the days up with activities. 

The Pompidou was cool to go to. I have always wanted to visit it since I did a 7th grade French project on it. I enjoyed the building's architecture better than the art inside of it. The view from the building was incredible. Standing on the edge like that was very scary because the concrete blocks I am standing on kept coming loose. We went with some CEA classmates and then to a crepe place after for dinner. 

Bastille Day

Louis Vuitton exhibit

This weekend was one for the books! On Friday, Joanna and I went to the Louvre L'arts Decoratives part museum. It is the fashion/textile etc. museum of the Louvre. We were happy about getting in free for being students in Paris, and not having to wait in the mile long line for the real Louvre. They were having a Marc Jacobs/Louis Vuitton exhibit, which was really cool. We ate at really cool organic restaurant by the Louvre.

Salad at French Organic Restaurant

Just shopping with Kelly..

After, Joanna and I decided to walk down Rue d'Honore, a long street that has about every high end store on it, along with Zara, etc. I remember going into that Zara with our family! After walking around for about three hours, we really wanted to find this store Collette that Leigh had recommended to us. We asked about 10 people for an hour because we knew it was on the street. Finally, we found it. It reminded us of a upscale Urban Outfitters, and it had a cafe on the bottom with coke bottles designed by Karl Langerfeld, the designer of Chanel. We were about to leave, when I spotted Kelly Ripa with her husband, Mark Consuelos. My heart was racing because she cracks me up and I have always loved her. I grabbed Joanna and told her I was going to go say hi, and Joanna was too afraid to go. Un-characteristically of me, I went up to her and said "Hi Kelly! I am a big fan would you mind getting a picture with me?" Joanna walked over towards us and said hi and we all started having a conversation. She told us she was here for 48 hours for the Madonna concert, and that it was nice to have a vacation without her 3 kids. We told her we were studying in Paris and she thought that was really cool, asking how our french was going. Also, she asked us where we were from! The whole time I was shaking. I don't think I've ever met a famous person like that. And it didn't help that I have always been obsessed with her and watch Regis and Kelly as much as I can because of her wit. Anyways, Joanna and I were on cloud nine for a few hours after. It was a great day. It was very relaxing spending the day just the two of us, because we have been in a large group for a lot of the trip. When we got home, we did laundry at our laundry mat downstairs. Surprisingly, we figured on how to work it in French, and it felt so good to have clean sheets. I felt like I was living in the 60s thought.

Baby Bottles..

That night, some friends of ours invited us a nice restaurant for dinner. They had made reservations, and we haven't been to a nice-ish meal since we got to Paris. Still, Joanna and did not want to spend the  26 euros on the set dinner + drinks, so we picked up sandwiches before so we could get a small appetizer at dinner and ate them in the laundry mat. The dinner was really nice and the restaurant was really swanky. After, we went to a bar where they serve drinks in baby bottles, and every drink is named after a Disney character. They gave us dry erase boards and said if we can draw our character the drink was named after that we wanted, they would give us 4 euros off the drink. They also had a variety of games to play at the table, and we played a fun game of UNO. Not the typical bar experience, so it was very amusing. For Bastille day, almost every arrondissement has something called the "Fireman's Ball," which is basically a big party put on at the fire stations to raise money. We followed the loud music we heard, and found one. I was surprised that they allowed this to go on, because it was outside and I am sure very disturbing to the neighbors. It was really fun and different because it would be shut down by the police in a second if it was in America...

Now for Bastille Day! We slept in on Saturday, which was nice. We met a big group of CEA people and ate lunch by the Eiffel Tower. I've found that I really don't like to be in big groups of people, especially at meals.. But anyways, we got to the Eiffel Tower lawn at about 6 or 7 pm, and found a really good spot right dab in the middle. The weather was SO nice, which was a great surprise because the weather had said it was a 90% chance of rain all night. We had not seen sunny skies in what seemed like forever. We sat on the lawn until 11 when the fireworks started. I think they had an 80's theme, because the tower had a huge disco ball hanging from it, there were disco balls set up around the lawn, and all they played was 80's music during the show. We all thought it was funny that it was almost all American 80's music. The fireworks show was amazing, lasting 30 minutes. It was so pretty and I kept thinking how lucky I was to be standing there watching fireworks behind the Eiffel Tower. I will never forget it! The only downside was that it was freezing the whole time we were sitting there, but we were glad it wasn't raining. After, we were all really tired and did not feel up to enduring the Fireman's Ball round 2. We took the jam packed metro home, and enjoyed a great nights sleep and sleeping in.

Happy Bastille Day!