Welcome to Poland! We’re staying at Greg & Tom’s Party Hostel, on the corner of Mikolaja Zyblikiewicza and Librowszczyzna in case you were wondering. Easy to pronounce, right? We got to the hostel pretty early today, so we decided to go out and explore. First stop: pierogi!!!!! Yum, this reminds me of home! After stuffing ourselves with ruskie, kapusta, and curd cheese, we stopped by an ice cream shop before hitting up a free walking tour. Our tour started at St. Mary’s Basilica and then continued through the entire Jewish district. We saw a lot of the set from the movie Schindler’s List, and we actually stopped at the factory. We passed by a lot of synagogues that had been turned into bomb shelters during the war. We also went to the Empty Chairs Memorial:
Today my dance class was canceled because Suzi was sick, which actually kind of stunk. I love that class so much! But, it was nice to be able to come home early for once and pack for my trip this weekend. Going to Eastern Europe, finally! I can’t wait!
I had an IB paper due today that I totally forgot about… so I may have had to go to school a half hour early to write it really quick. Oops! I pulled it off though, so no biggie! Janae left for a class trip today, so I was all alone in Econ. Boo.
Meg and Kelly left for Italy this morning, too, so I ate dinner solo tonight. Awk. Now I’m finishing packing so that I can head off to sleep at the airport with Ken & Kara tonight. Again. Ugh. My least favorite part of all of this traveling, but I know that I have a fun weekend ahead of me!
Roomie date! Janae and I went out for a mojito and tapas tonight before our show. Our Spanish class went to a play at Teatro Pavón. It was really cool and our seats were great, but they used the Spanish equivalent of old English, so it was hard to understand. Definitely a good experience though, and it’s bringing me one step closer to pulling off that whole fake Spaniard thing ;)
Vocab:
- morder las uñas - to bite nails
- sospender - to fail
- aprobar - to pass
- torta/cachete - spank
EDIT: Class pic after the play. ¡Qué mono!
In Spanish class today, mi profesora gave the class a bunch of fun places to go. I want to bring my family to some of these!
- Flamenco show @ Casa Patas
- La Trucha (Plaza Santa Ana) for tapas
- Gobolem
- La Taberna del Alarbadero (Plaza de Oriente)
- Casa Paulino de Quevedo
- Casa Botín
- Cava Baja
- Sal Gorda
Vocab:
- costilla - rib
- arma de doble fila - double-edged sword
- tregua - armistice
- mito - myth
- cigueñas - storks
Back in Madrid. Usually, I’m so beat from weekend trips that it feels relaxing to be back, but I was a little bit sad this time, because I miss Paris! Luckily, I got all of my homework done before I left for the weekend, but I was so tempted to go back to the airport and jetset off to Paris again! How lucky am I that I live in Europe and have the chance to do that? Geez I like it here :)
Skyped with KK and Trev today, which bot made me laugh so hard. I cannot wait to see them on the 23rd! It’s gonna be the funnest reunion ever!!!
PARIS: Day 3
Today we went to Versailles to see the palace! We had to take a train to get there, which actually did take a little while, but it felt nice to take a seat and relax for a while! When we got to Versailles, I was actually kind of surprised at how huge it was. It was so beautiful inside and there must have been at least 15 million rooms. I actually got bored while we were inside, because it was so massive.
When we were done touring the palace, we walked through the gardens to go see Marie Antoinette’s estate, but, after 45 minutes of walking, we turned around to go get lunch. The gardens were literally miles long. They used to have naval battles in the pools in the gardens. So they must’ve been massiv
Once we got back to Paris, we stopped for souvenir shopping and a last-minute crepe run before heading to the airport. I was so sad to leave Paris, because I think that it might be my new favorite European city!
PARIS: Day 2
We woke up (leisurely) on Saturday and headed straight over to Moulin Rouge. The area is very sexy and flashy, just as I expected it would be. We looked at ticket prices for shows, which start at €95! What??? I’m sure it’s worth it though. It seems like it would be amazing! We stopped for lunch at a little panini stand and then went to Notre Dame. I totally thought of the Hunchback of Notre Dame the entire time, and now I wish that Quasimodo was my best friend.
Next stop was Musée d’Orsay, which I liked a lot more then the Louvre. The art was a lot more interesting to me, because it was much more modern. I don’t really know anything about art, except for what I like and what I don’t, haha. Later, we went to the Eiffel Tower, but this time was in the afternoon. We decided to climb up to the top so that we could get some nice views of the city, and we did! Almost 700 stairs later, I was huffing and puffing, but ecstatically happy. And by the time that we got to the top, it was the perfect time - right in between dusk and nightfall. And get this: as we were up in the Tower, it started sparkling! YAY! It was so romantic and beautiful. Looking out over the city from up there made it so easy to see why Paris is the “City of Love.”
We actually stopped by Notre Dame twice today, because we went back at night, when it was lit up, too. This is where we dressed up… I couldn’t contain myself. Sorry I’m not sorry. We headed to Latin Quarter again, but tonight we stopped for some yummy pasta and then crème brûlée and French wine. OH IT WAS DELICIOUS! Somehow we made our way back to the hostel to settle down. Exhausted, yet again. But even happier than the night before!
PARIS: Day 1 - Happy Birthday to ME!
When we first landed in Paris, we had to take a 1.5 hr bus ride to the city. Bummer. Once we got off the bus, Meg, Kel, and I realized that we didn’t look up the directions or address to our hostel. Oops. So, fine - we’ll just start touring! We walked down the Champs-Élysées until we found the Arc de Triomphe. Everything was beautiful, but no duh! We stopped at a yummy Italian place for lunch and all three of us got our very own personal pizzas. They were so good. Mmm. The pizza is so different here, but so yummy. It reminds me of all of the good pizza I had when I went to Italy. Since there was WiFi there, we checked in with the ‘rents and told them that we were safe. My mommy and daddy worry if they don’t hear from me (even though I’m TWENTY now).
After lunch, we hit up the Louvre. Naturally, we had to see Mona and a couple other big ones. The museum goes on for miles and miles, so it was really impossible to see lots, but we did pretty well! When we were walking along the Seine River, we ran into the Lock Bridge! It was soooo cool! I just read the names of couples on all of the locks over and over again. There were thousands of them and you could see the Eiffel Tower in the background, which was all lit up at night. Awww!
We went to the Latin Quarter for dinner, and then we actually walked all the way to the Tower to see it sparkle up close! There were a bunch of weird French dudes there, but that’s really not any different from any city that we go to. We decided to take the Metro to our hostel, which is located right near Moulin Rouge. We didn’t check in until almost 1AM, and we were beat. Luckily, we had a crowded bar right there in the lobby! Woohoo! We took some Jägerbombs and then I got a free flaming birthday shot! Meg and Kel paid for everything and more beers, too, which was such a nice treat! We stayed up past 3AM, just talking and laughing, even though we were exhausted. It was a great first day in Paris, and I’m already falling in love with this city!
Paris tomorrow! Paris tomorrow! Paris tomorrow! I cannot wait! Eek I’m so excited! I haven’t been able to focus all day long on anything because I’m so pumped! Plus, our flight isn’t until later tomorrow morning, so I don’t have to sleep at the airport again! YES!
Today in Spanish, we all had to bring in newspaper articles to share with the class. The one that I found was about a girl named Kota Koti, who is supposed to be a modern-day, real life Barbie. Here’s the article. It’s super weird. I pulled up a pic for the class to help explain, which freaked everyone out!
Vocab:
- los párpados - eyelids
- la cirugía - surgery
- las comillas - quotation marks
- prórroga - time extension
- atender - to attend to
- butifara - some sort of white sausage dish that they serve in Barcelona