Thanksgiving in Europe!

For anyone who has traveled for a long period of time, you know how easy it is to get homesick - especially around the holidays. Last year, when my friends and I were in Rome, we started to get this feeling around Thanksgiving. Obviously being an American holiday, we felt that we were missing out on the great feast and being with our families. Even though we loved being Europe and were having a great time, we did miss the Turkey Day traditions. In solution of this, my friends and I decided to have our "Friendsgiving" instead. We each made a dish that was American or Thanksgiving themed as possible and brought it our dinner. There was so much food - we had a feast! We realized it doesn't matter where you are, as long as you are with people you love and enjoy their company, you can celebrate anywhere! An extra plus - the same weekend we found out there was a Hard Rock Cafe in Rome that was offering a Thanksgiving dinner -  turkey, mashed potatoes, and pie! This was a great perk to our holiday because we got to eat the Thanksgiving favorites as well. Sure enough, we were full for days! Has anyone else had their own special kind of Thanksgiving?

Paris in the Fall

Being that I studied abroad for an entire semester, I feel that the most crucial (and obvious) city I needed to visit, and I believe many will agree, is Paris. After hearing so many magical stories about the famous city and how beautiful it is, I absolutely had to book a trip! Once we got there, I already fell in love and understood why everyone gushes over this city. The first thing my friends and I did was take a bus tour of the entire city to map out what we would like to visit. That night, we saw a show at the Moulin Rouge (nothing like the movie, by the way, which my friends and I thought). The theatre was beautiful and show was fun to watch once we got over the fact of how little clothing the performers wear. The next day, we visited the Louvre. The museum was amazing! There was so much beautiful artwork and history. Seeing the Mona Lisa had to be the best though - being so close to something so famous and historical was a great feeling. Next, we visited the high end shops. Stores that I could only window shop in - never purchase. We visited Chanel, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton. The Louis Vuitton store was incredible. There were three floors and handbags EVERYWHERE - every girl's dream. The only thing that I purchased (and could afford) was a leather case on a key ring to hold your keys (yes- just a fancy keychain); and it wasn't even for me, I got it for my mom as a birthday gift. Then my friends and I went to the Lock Bridge. The tradition is for friends or couples to take a lock, write your initials on it, lock it on the bridge, and throw the key into the river. This for in hopes that the relationships will last and you will soon return to the city. Finally that night, we climbed the Eiffel Tower. The wait and climb was long, but the view was well worth it. Seeing the entire city from the top in lights was breathtaking. I highly recommend it to everyone. I really hope I get to return to Paris one day!

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

   In dedication to this Great Britain commemoration, I decided to talk about my trip to London during my time abroad. I visited the city exactly this time last year. This is definitely my favorite city in the entire world (that I have visited, at least). Everything here is perfect and I hope to live there one day. My friends and I took a tour all over the city. We saw Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, rode the London Eye, visited Westminster Abbey, and even took the cheesy pictures in the old fashioned phone booths and rode the double decker bus. A few days before Halloween, a huge group of us also visited the London Dungeon, which told us scary stories and go through haunted mazes. However, visiting Shakespeare's Globe was probably my favorite tourist attraction. They completely recreated it to look exactly how it was back then. I could picture myself watching one of his plays and what it was like to be sitting in the audience. I hope to be able to visit London again one day.