See you in Indiana!
I spent many of my summer days as a child with Coleman Shipley; making up games, exploring our mothers' gardens,playing outside, or going to pool, but always staying in Indiana. I would have never imagined that'd I'd be spending two whole weeks in Europe with Coleman, exploring places that neither one of us had been to or showing him my new home across the pond!
Express Pass Paris
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| Coleman at the Eiffel Tower |
Coleman and I had so many things to do in so little time! After picking him up from the airport (after a 5 hour flight delay) it was time for Coleman to see some of Paris and meet my new friends. With a successful french dinner in our bellies we headed out for the night in the Montmartre area of Paris. Aaron, Jordi, Harry and I showed Coleman a little spot behind the Moulin Rough, where you can watch the back of the windmill turn. We picked up some crepes and enjoyed the alternative view of the famous building. Ready to stretch his legs we climbed the many steps to Sacre Coeur for a great view of Paris at night. To end the evening we watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle one last time and shut off it's lights (and picked up a second crepe!).
Making sure that I showed Coleman all my favorite things in two days we did a lot of walking! We walked around the central part of Paris passing Sciences Po, the Louvre, Hotel de Ville, peeking in Notre Dame, and stopping to get falafals of course! To say goodbye to Paris we had a night picnic at the Eiffel Tower with some friends and good food.
Berlin>Munich>Prague>Kunta Hora
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| Beers on the River |
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| YAAM beach bar |
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| East side Gallery |
Saying goodbye to Paris wasn't too hard because we were off on a big adventure, first stop Berlin. Due to our 6 am flight Coleman and I decided to skip sleep that night. Arriving in Berlin hungry and sleepy we set off to find some good food and a place to take a nap! On day one we learned that potato pancakes are yummy and that beer in Germany is crazy cheap! With only one full day in Berlin we decided; why not walk across the center of the city? This little walk ended up lasting 6 hours but we had a lot of fun! Had a great beer on the river, walked by a lot of famous looking buildings, found a "beach bar", and concluded the trek at the East side Wall Gallery of the Berlin wall. Although our legs were tired I couldn't pass up meeting up with my friend Lauren from Sciences Po that night. We went to this funky bar called White Trash Fast Food; ordered giant beers, listened to a live "Glam Punk" show, and danced to awful music.
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| Garden #1 |
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Radlar; don't be fooled
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One 8 hour bus ride later we arrived in Munich. Unfortunately Cole and I struck bad luck here. Our last night ended up being fun though, We went two of Munich's indoor beer gardens to get out of the rain. At the last garden we made friends with two Americans from New Jersey. We ate giant pretzels and I learned that the yummy beer I ordered was so yummy because it was mixed with soda!
Lets Czech this out
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| Prague at night from mini Eiffel Tower |
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| Typical Buildings |
Before we knew it was were off to our final destination; Prague, and reunited with Aaron. This was my favorite place that we visited on the trip. I felt like I had walked into a fairy tail book! The buildings were painted in pastel colors with beautiful stone work, there were lots of bridges, and cute town squares. We spent four full days in Prague but the first and last were the most memorable. Day 1 we decided to go on the free city tour advertised by our hostel. When we approached the meeting point we noticed another tour guide off to the side with a much smaller crowd. We thought smaller group less fuss so we went with the women decked out in lime green and white eyeliner...... Within 5 minutes of the tour the three of us were exchanging looks of hesitation. Our tour guide was very upbeat and had some fun facts, but we were also having flash backs of first grade school field trips with the overly eager museum tour guide. Her words were drawn out with facial expression to followed suite, But the best part was her catch phrase; "lets goooooo". Long story short we should have ditched the knock off brand tour for the name brand hostel recommended tour. Our free tour ended with us being scolded for not giving a big enough tip. We laughed it off and had great quotes for the rest of the trip! Day 4 we caught a train to a town called Kunta Hora about an hour away from Prague. Here we visited 3 churches, one famous for its use of human bones! The bone chapel used 40,000 skeletons to create art? for the church. Pretty creepy but also cool. After visiting the last church, St. Barabra Church which sat on cliff, we took a hike down to the river. The three of us enjoyed being in a wooded area away from the city. The best part of the day was our walk back, where we discovered an old abandoned house. After an easy hop over the fence (sorry mom) we explored the property, also on a cliff, with a great view of the church.
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| Bone Chapel |
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| Aaron, Coleman& St.Barabra |
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| House& St. Barabra Church |
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| Anyone home? |
Back home in Paris
After saying "see you back in Indiana" to Coleman, I thought I was off to Venice. But sadly I missed my big girl flight to Venice I was on my way back to Paris. Sad to miss my flight but happy to be back in Paris! The weather is great here and there is plenty of sunshine. I've been exploring the still widely unknown Paris with Harry, trying to check off all my my "must see places". And in a week I'll be on my way back to the South of France to meet Harry's mom! Getting excited, but savoring my last month here in France!
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| Harry rowing me at Bois Vincennes |
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| Ninou our trusty boat |
