And I wondered what kind of food was Parisian food

Two blog posts in one day?!! Woah there!

Bonjour, merci, si vous plais....The only three french words that I knew that I didn't start using until I finally got back to Spain. Last weekend, I met Hannah, Jessie, and Ann Louise in Paris! I had gotten so used to Spanish that even in Paris I would say Hola and Gracias. It wasn't until when I got back in Seville did I try to say merci to someone.

I arrived in Paris Thursday night, met Ann Louise and went out for a delicious dinner before we picked Jessie up at the train station.

Friday, we woke up and headed to the Arc de Triumph and climbed to the top, only 285 steps. From there we wandered down Champs-Elysees, peeking into all the fancy stores, and the Disney Store of course. Despite the freezing cold, we wandered around for a while, stumbling upon Christmas markets, Hotel Invalides, and the Army Museum. Coming from 60 degree weather in Seville, Paris was freezing! We grabbed some lunch, the first of many bread and cheese combinations in Paris. Then we headed down to San Chapelle. The church was much smaller than I expected it to be but it was filled with beautiful stained glass windows. From there we went back to the train station to meet Hannah then went to Sacre Core. It was a beautiful church. Like in Rome, there was a statue of St. Peter where many pilgrims touch his foot. I had a croque monseuir for dinner, layers of bread, ham, cheese, bread, cheese. Like I said, so much bread and cheese! Dinner was full of catching up and gossip and laughs. So nice to be reunited again. Before we headed back, we made a quick stop for some crepes and then down to Moulin Rouge!

Arc de Triumph

View from the top

Inside of San Chapelle

Sacre Core

Saturday we woke up earlier because it was going to be a long day, but a good day! Started off the day being so Paris and went to the Eiffel Tower. After plenty of pictures, we climbed 670 stairs to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower! Whew, that was a workout for the day. The view was really pretty though. Most definately worth it. We headed down to the other end of the river, where we went to the lock bridge! I had brought the lock that I bought for my hostel locker in Cadiz. Early that morning, we all signed the lock and decorated it. We locked it to the bridge and threw the key away, officially locking in our friendship. Like we really weren't official friends before that? haha. Grabbed some more lunch...you guessed it, more bread and cheese! Then we headed to Notre Dame. I want to give a shout out again to Rick Steves for enlightening us about another fabulous city and cathedral and another shout out to Ann Louise for knowing all about Gothic architecture and telling us about it! We were going to climb the bell towers but we figured we should keep moving onto the Louvre. We were fortunate enough to be visiting Paris during the off-tourist month and got right in to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and a bunch of other famous paintings, including the Wedding at Cana right across from the Mona Lisa. From there we walked back up Champs-Eysees and stopped at Lauderee for some macaroons. It was our last night in Paris so we walked down to the Eiffel Tower to see the whole thing at night (even though we could see it from our apartment window!). We even got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle. We headed back up to the Monmarte area for dinner at a delicious fondue place. They gave you wine in baby bottles too! Even though we were so full we stopped for a crepe filled with nutella and banana for dessert. What's a Parisian experience without some crepes?

Eiffel Tower

We are now officially friends

Notre Dame

Wow, she really is that small

Selfies at the Eiffel Tower 

Sunday we said goodbye to Ann Louise and Jessie early. Both Hannah and I didn't leave until later in the day so we went to Musee d'Orsay to check out some impressionist art. It was cool because I liked the Van Gogh and Degas paintings and Hannah loved the Monet paintings. What can I say, we are quite the cultured art connoisseurs. Grabbed some lunch....bread and cheese? No, omelets for a change! But yes, we did grabbed another crepes before we said goodbye and left Paris.

Luckily I had a relaxing weekend in Seville where I was able to catch up on my journal and blog posts. Next weekend I will be in Vienna visiting WheezeDog with a guest appearance from Momma Fron! From there we come back to Seville where more Frons will be visiting! I've got some exciting last few days coming up before I head home from this incredible semester abroad.

A Birthday I'll Never Forget

Sorry its been so long since I have blogged. I knew it was a long time when both my dad and Ann Louise were looking for blog posts. Traveling has been incredible but it takes a lot of planning and is exhausting. I now understand how much time my parents put into planning our incredible family vacations. And I thought planning for a weekend was a lot. Mix traveling in with some school work that I suddenly have and I've been busy. haha.

Anyways. Over my birthday weekend, Abby Burns met me in Seville and then we travelled to Morocco for the weekend. What better way to spend a birthday than traveling to Africa with a great friend! Abby got to Seville on Thursday. It was so nice to catch up with her, especially since I haven't seen her since Oktoberfest! We spent Friday dinking around Seville then got on a bus to head to Morocco in the afternoon. After a long bus ride and a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar, we arrived in Morocco. Had some couscous at our hotel for dinner and headed to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

Saturday, we had to wake up at 6:30! We went to the cave of Hercules, supposedly where Hercules lived. Then we rode camels! We were in a smaller group of about 25 people so we got to ride the camels down along the beach. It was so fun! Kinda, like riding a horse, but not quite. You had to hold on when the camels stood up! Also, some of them were not the friendliest and would make a growling noise.

Selfies with the camel

After riding camels we took a bus to the blue city, Chefchauen. We ate lunch at a restaurant called Aladdin. We took a tour through the city and got to see all of the really pretty blue doors and walls. Then we had some free time to explore the city and shop around. In Morocco, it is very common to bargain with the shopkeepers. It was not the easiest to say the least. It was one of the first times I had really bargained, usually momma fron helps me. Also, it was all in Spanish, so that was interesting. The artisans and shop keepers liked it though. It was like a game to them. My first bargaining experience was when I bought a blanket and I started bargaining with the guy and he was smiling and saying "change your number, change your number" and was so excited about it all. After some more bargaining, it started to get really cold and windy. Luckily we had all bought a bunch of pretty scarves that we bundled up in. We drove 3 hours back to our hotel for dinner again.

Pretty curtains in the medina

Sunday, I woke up in Morocco on my 21st birthday! Had some crepes and nutella for breakfast. Then we took a bus ride to Assilah. It's famous for an art festival where people create beautiful graffiti on the walls. We explored the city a little. It was really cool. Some of the graffiti was still left from the last art festival. 

"the road that joins us does not need maps"

Spending my birthday in Morocco was one I will never forget. It gave me a taste of Moroccan culture and I cannot wait to return to both Africa and specifically, Morocco.