French Stereotype Night at Le Tour Eiffel
Studying abroad in Paris was a phenomenal experience over all, but obviously there were lots of little events that stood out while I was there. "French Stereotype Night" was one of the first of many of our outings to the Eiffel Tower. On this particular night, we befriended a pair of Moroccans and practiced our French with them (they had initially tried to charge us to use their wine opener to open our bottles of wine), posed with berets and the French flag (see above) and had lots of wine and cheese. It was a great bonding experience for our little group of Americans!
European Public Transportation/The Munich Incident
Subways are awesome. Yes, I know New York City has an awesome subway system, too. But the awesome thing with the London and Paris transportation (not just subways, but train networks, as well) systems is that you can get within walking distance of anywhere you need to go without ever having to use a car. Okay, maybe not absolutely everywhere...but you can get pretty damn close.
Oddly enough, my first time in Europe, I had a pretty bad experience with the Munich U-Bahn (subway). When rushing to grab the train before it left with my school group, I happened to be running the fastest...and was the only one to make it onto the train before the doors closed. Since I was not running this tour and it was our first night in town, I had no idea where we were going or how to get around the city, nor did I speak a word of German (except for sheiße, which probably wouldn't have gotten me far). Ultimately, I did end up finding my group (which included my grandma...she was pretty relieved when I got back) after experiencing some more colorful areas of Munich. I definitely learned some very important things about traveling: always know your hotel's name, and always know where you're going!
My love of European public transportation is kind of ridiculous...I even made a little video of my study abroad experiences with the Paris Metro. If you're clever, you might be able to find it on YouTube somewhere.
Trunk Bay, St. John, USVI
Most. Beautiful. Beach. Ever. After returning from a few trips to Europe, I got a little bit of a big head...why would anyone vacation somewhere so close to home (I lived in Florida for a few years, so the Caribbean seemed WAY too close to be considered a vacation)? Still, my parents wanted to visit the US Virgin Islands because my mom had lived there for awhile when she was fresh out of college. So, we went...and I fell in love, quickly deflating my little travel ego I had developed. Soft, super white sand...crystal clear water that seemed even cleaner than most pools...a coral reef just a short swim away... It really is the perfect beach destination.
Magnolia Bakery, New York City
If you know me, then you probably know of my love for cupcakes. It rivals my love for European public transportation, although I have yet to make any videos about cupcakes. The vanilla-vanilla cupcake at Magnolia is still the best cupcake I have ever had in my life. I'm sincerely hoping that the recent news of Magnolia starting a franchise results in two things: 1. delicious Magnolia cupcakes close to me and 2. loyalty to the original, so amazing recipe. Seriously, guys...go eat these cupcakes. They're so good that I made Josh wake up at 6am with me on Easter Sunday (our last day in NYC) so that we could trek across town (the subway stations nearby were closed) and buy a dozen to take home.
More travel memories to come...
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