Journey to the Land of Tasmanian Devils and Leprechauns with Pirate Accents

Last Wednesday I left to go on my third trip of the semester.  I headed to the airport after my class (yes I had class, I have learned that some of you are under the impression that I never attend class).  This was my first time flying RyanAir which is a discount airline here in Europe.  I flew out of Gothenburg City Airport, which is the much, much smaller airport here in Gothenburg.  And by much smaller I mean there are two gates and only RyanAir flies out of the airport.  All of this information I did not know, so I was at the airport outrageously early.

After waiting two hours in the airport with one restaurant(I seriously think Palwaukee airport was bigger), I got on the plane.  I had a relatively pleasant flight to London, with one exception.  Because RyanAir is so cheap, and by cheap I mean I paid 10 euros to fly to London, they have to compensate in some way.  They jam pack flights and try to sell you products during the flight.  Throughout the entire two hour flight to London there were constant announcements trying to sell everything under the sun.  From RyanAir lottery tickets, to smokeless cigarettes that you can smoke on the plane, to dozens of food options, the announcements never end.  This is pretty annoying when it is 11:00 pm when all I want to do is sleep.

So we arrive in London totally fine and I start to walk to the exit.  Usually I am an exceptionally smart and prepared traveller, but for some reason I totally forgot that the UK was not a part of the Schengen Visa program.  This means I had to go through immigration and fill out a customs card.  Of course I had to go through the non-EU line which was incredibly, incredibly long.  So I grab a customs card and see one really alarming thing: exact address of where you are staying.  During this trip I was planning on staying with my friend Cierra for two nights and with my cousin Michael for the other night.  I frantically grabbed my phone and tried to call both Cierra and Michael to get their addresses.  However, in good 30 euro phone form, my phone didn't work.  I later figured out my phone would take calls, and send and receive texts.  At this point I'm panicking outside customs.  I was two seconds away from writing the London Hilton as my address, when I saw these two 20 something American girls.  I ran up to them and I was like do you have a phone that worked?  Now what they did next is completely against everything they tell 20 something American girls traveling in Europe (reference to the movie Taken), they let me borrow their phone.  So I called Michael and got his address and everything was good.  But I have no clue what I wouldn't have done without those two American girls, so thank you wherever you are :)

So I made the trek from the airport and met up with Cierra.  Cierra lives in a house in London with about a dozen other students from AU.  I got to her house around 2 am.  We talked a little.  I met some of her housemates and then went to sleep.  The next morning we woke up and I went with Cierra to the Museum of Brands for an assignment for her school.  The museum was actually pretty cool.  It had products and packaging from the 1800's to present day.  The funniest thing that I saw was some old Barbie dolls Alli and I used to have.  They were either my Aunt Karen or Aunt Chris' dolls, but these dolls in the museum had the exact same clothing and everything.  It was pretty cool.

After the museum we went shopping on Portobello Road, which had really cool old vintage and antique shops.  It was more of a market with dozens of cheap shoe and clothing stores.  Cierra went on a crazy shopping spree in true Tasmanian Devil form.  I would have joined in if not for the strict 10kg limit on luggage for RyanAir.  The purchase that I did make was an adorable bag that I got for 5 pounds.  Later Cierra and I had dinner and then went out to a pub in Piccadilly Circus.  Cierra had a major interview the next morning, so we only stayed out for a little.

The next day I slept in and when Cierra came back for her interview we hit up the gym.  After the gym, we got ready and went on our pub crawl of London.  We went to a bunch of different pubs before we met up with my cousin Michael and his girlfriend Jennie.  I said goodbye to Cierra and then went to dinner with Michael and Jennie.  By the time we all got to bed, we were going to have to be up in 3 hours to go to the airport for our flight to Dublin.

We got up super early and headed to King's Cross to catch our train to the airport.  This was the beginning of one of the funniest days ever.  On any other day the event probably wouldn't have been as funny, but we were all running on less than three hours of sleep.  We barely made our flight to Dublin because security at 5 am was ridiculous.  While we were on the plane Michael almost accidentally killed a flight attendant with a water bottle and we had to listen to the annoying RyanAir announcements.  We were so delirious Michael and I were contemplating buying a lottery ticket.

Soo delicious and it fills you up all day.  After breakfast we went on a walk through the park in Dublin.  We decided to go visit the old Kilmainham jail in Dublin.  The jail was pretty cool, but the best part was our crazily enthusiastic tour guide Rosemary and Michael plotting how to make a haunted house in the jail.

After the jail tour we headed to the Jameson factory.  Michael and Uncle Bill did a special whiskey tasting and sat at their own part of the bar.  Jennie and I got Jameson hot chocolates and Aunt Debbie got an Irish coffee.  The drinks were delicious and got us well prepared for our much needed nap.

We all went back to our hotel, took a nap and were ready to go for dinner. We met up with Brendan O'Reilly for dinner and we all went to this cute Irish pub.  I had a delicious Irish stew, which was the greatest thing ever because I had been freezing since I woke up and it warmed me down to my bones.  After dinner, we made our own little pub crawl through Dublin.  Brendan stayed with us at the first pub where one of the strangest experiences of my life occurred. After a series of pubs we went home for the night and I prepared for my early flight home.

I got up said goodbye to Michael and Jennie and then started my journey home.  I flew RyanAir again this time to Stockholm.  I then took a 7 hour bus from Stockholm to Gothenburg, which was surprisingly not bad because I just got some much needed sleep after my crazy weekend.

Update on life in Gothenburg: first snow fall today in Gothenburg.  It didn't stick, but still a bit crazy!  This weekend I am going on a student cruise from Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia.  The weekend after my best friends Khine (studying in Nice, France) and Stephanie (studying in Rome) are coming to visit me in Gothenburg.  The following weekend my cousin Michael is coming to visit me.  Busy weekends coming up, but I am excited to show everyone the now freezing land of Sweden.

Here are some pictures of the weekend:

Store in Portobello Road with hundreds of antique sewing machines

Portobello Road/Notting Hill

Barbies at the Museum of Brands

More Barbies

Cierra!

Saint Stephen's Park in Dublin

Gorgeous fountain in St. Stephen's Park

Trinity College

Where's Waldo? 

Kilmainham Jail

Jennie, Michael and Aunt Debbie at the jail

Me in a jail cell

Jameson Factory

The bar at Jameson

The ladies at Jameson

The whole gang after our amazing dinner

Bonjour, Bonjour, Oh My God!

Two days after I arrived home from Copenhagen, I was off to one of my most anticipated trips of the semester.  My best friend Khine from AU is studying in the French Riviera and myself and my other best friend Stephanie (who is studying in Rome) decided to come visit her.

So in the wee hours of Tuesday morning (all the cheapest flights are at like 6 am) I departed from my apartment, which was still a mess with clothes from the Copenhagen trip, and went to the airport to fly to Paris.  When I was booking my trip to Nice, I decided that I wanted to add a day onto the trip and go to Paris.  I truly loved Paris when I was there with my family four years ago, and wanted to go back.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so.  So I arrived in Paris at about 9am on Tuesday morning.  I spent the day doing A LOT of walking around Paris.  I saw the gardens of the Louvre, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Opera House,  the Bastille, the Sacre Coeur, the Moulin Rouge, the real Moulins, and this amazing small church in Montmartre.  I also ate a lot of delicious french food! Anyone who knows me knows about my love of bread and cheese.  Moral of the story: France is the perfect country for someone who loves bread and cheese!  I decided to take advantage of this and go to a boulangerie and buy a baguette and then go to a fromagerie and buy some cheese.  I then took both these things and sat by the Seine and watched the stupid pigeons (the birds in Europe are always entertaining and always very dumb) and the tourist boats (usually watching them is very similar to the European birds).

That night I had dinner in Montmartre with my friend Caity who is studying in Paris.  I met Caity in high school when I went on the leadership conference to Eastern Europe.  It was great to catch up and reflect on our old travels and talk about our new ones too.  Food note: another widely known fact, I go crazy for profiteroles.  I am like obsessed!  This meal was the first of my French profiterole consumptions.

The next day I awoke in the wee hours of the morning again and left my hostel (which by the way was called the Plug-Inn and was in Montmartre.  It was great and I will highly recommend it to anyone needing a hostel in Paris).  I then took the train to Nice.  The train ride was six hours and was absolutely gorgeous!  After the train arrived in Nice, I took another train to the town that Khine lives in, Juan-les-Pins.

In Juan les Pins, Khine's friend Dakshina got me from the train station because Khine was in class.  Dakshina and I walked around Antibes and Juans-les-Pins shopping and drinking small French coffees.  That evening we had dinner with all of Khine's friends and had a delicious meal of Nigerian chicken prepared.  A few of us then went and got 1 euro ice cream and sat on the beach!  One euro ice cream would be another common food of this trip.

The next day Khine had class in the morning, so I got up and went to a bakery that was a block from her house.  This place would become the highlight of mine and Steph's trip.  The bakery called Juan les Pains (silly pun because in French pain means bread).  They had the most delicious pain au chocolat and chocolate beignets (yes, I originally ordered them because Princess Tiana makes them, but man, are they delicious!).  When Khine got back from class, we went to Antibes and oogled at the yachts and coastline.  We then made our way to Nice where we walked around, had a fantastic dinner where I had my second and final profiteroles in France, and then collected Stephanie from the airport.  We had plans to go out that night, but it took us over three hours to get back from the airport.  The transportation system in the south of France is not the most reliable.

The next day we got up early, headed to Juan les Pains, got some breakfast and american sized coffee, and headed out to Cannes.  This day could really not get any better for me: delicious French pastries, a big cup of coffee, two of my best friends, and the place of the biggest FILM festival in the world.  We got to Cannes and Khine showed us the star's handprints in the ground and the building where the film festival was held.  We then saw a sign for a Cinema tour and it was only 10 euros.  So we got on our petit train and sat in the English speaking car where we were joined by several American and British retirees.

The Cinema tour was great and took us all over Cannes and gave us some great history both cinema and not.  Fantastic 10 euros spent!  We then had a sit down lunch at a adorable beach side restaurant themed around the festival.  After spending most of the day in Cannes we headed back to Juan-les-Pins and went to the beach.  All the French people who saw us on the beach thought we were insane because they think it is too cold.  However, they don't realize that the 75 degree weather with intense sunlight was very different for the girl who dropped about 20 shades of paleness in a month in Sweden.  I was loving the sun and being in shorts and a tank top.  That night we had a delicious dinner at a creperie.  We then went out to a club that was being hosted by Khine's university.  Only four words can describe the evening: Jersey Shore in France.  Very interesting people and very entertaining people watching night occurred.  Even though the night was pretty much a bust, the three of us made our own fun and had an entertaining night!

The last day I was there we decided to go to Monaco.  Monaco known for it's casino, royalty/Grace Kelly, expensive cars, Formula One track and lavish lifestyle is only surprisingly 40 minutes from where Khine lives.  So we got in our best dresses, went to Juan les Pains, and took the train to Monaco.  We spent the day walking around Monaco visiting the casino in Monte Carlo, the harbor, the Formula One race track, the Prince's Palace, and really just soaked up the extravagance that is Monaco.  We had a fantastic time in Monaco and all vowed one day to move there.  This will probably be a little difficult for me with my education and IR degrees, but I will just have to find my movie star husband!

We were exhausted after Monaco, so we went back took a nap.  We then went to Khine's favorite sandwich place for dinner had a giant baguette with meat, cheese, and french fries?.  May sound strange, but it was delicious!  We then went to the grocery store bough some wine, which was only 3 euros and went to the beach.  We sat and talked and had some wine under the stars on the beach until the wee hours of the morning when I again had an extremely early flight back to Gothenburg.  While we were sitting on the beach we got in contact with one of my fellow St. Viator swimming and water polo alums, Carolyn Ward, who goes to the same school as Khine.  Carolyn and her friend came down to the beach and we got to catch up.

I arrived home to Gothenburg at around noon on Sunday and immediately went to the traditional Spanish lunch that we have almost every Sunday.  I had a blast on my trip! The French Riviera is beyond beautiful and it was the perfect backdrop for my rendez-vous with two of my best friends!  But now I am back to my life here in Sweden, glad to be home and see my friends, not so glad to have to do laundry from two trips, go grocery shopping, and get back in the swing of things.  Also, this week there will be MANY trips to the gym after I pretty much single handedly completed the carb tour and ate my way through France.  I don't think that I would have had the will power to live and study in France.  The food is just far too delicious!

If you made it all the way through, thanks for reading this super long post! Now you will be rewarded with gorgeous pictures of Paris, the French Riviera, and me and my friends!

The Louvre

Notre Dame

Strangest stained glass in a Catholic church!
White horse of the apocalypse.

More interesting stained glass. Looks like the Beast!

Saint Jean de Montmarte. One of my favorite churches
ever and had the most interesting stained glass.

Sacre Coeur

View from the Sacre Coeur

View from Antibes

Beach in Juan-les-Pins

Yachts in Antibes

Khine and I in Antibes (our future yachts
are behind us)

Cannes where the film festival takes place

View from Cannes

View from train of Old Nice

Steph, Khine and I in front of the Monte Carlo Casino

Harbor in Monte Carlo

Formula One race track

View of Monaco from the Prince's Palace

Me, hamming it up, with a gorgeous view of Monaco

The girls with the harbor in Monaco

Old Nice from the train

Greatest bakery in the world! 

The first of many weekend trips!

Last weekend I left Sweden for the first time since I arrived a month ago.  Three of my friends and I went on a weekend trip to Malmö, Sweden and to Copenhagen, Denmark.  We left Thursday morning and after a 3 1/2 hour bus ride we arrived in Malmö.  We left our bags in train station lockers, which was a very new experience for this American.  The German and Spanish people I was with couldn't believe this was unheard of for me.  


After leaving our bags, we began to walk around Malmö.  Malmö is the third biggest city in Sweden besides Stockholm and Gothenburg.  The city center is pretty concentrated and has really gorgeous architecture.  After we saw the sights in Malmö, we had dinner in one of the main cute little restaurant squares and headed to our host's apartment for the night.  


The next day we slept in a little and were off to see the sights in Copenhagen.  We took the train in over the  bridge that connects mainland Europe to Scandinavia.  The bridge was built in the early 2000's and made the trip from Sweden to Copenhagen 30 minutes long.  After we arrived in Copenhagen we pretty much had a whirlwind day of sightseeing.  We went to the castle, the waterfront where the Little Mermaid statue normally is (however it is currently on display at the World Exhibition in Shanghai) and Christyiana (a hippy commune in the center of Copenhagen).  One of the highlights was eating the most delicious pastry I have ever had on the waterfront and watching the canal boats go by.  The other big highlight was going to the Tivoli Amusement Park.  My fantastically loyal friends waited patiently as I indulged my childish love of amusement parks.  I went on over six different rides, many of which I have seen nothing like in my life.  My personal favorite was a spinning airplane ride.  The airplane was attached to the end of a giant pole and the pole swung around and around getting faster each time.  It was fantastic! Another personal favorite was the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale ride.  The ride was set up very similarly to a storybook ride in Disneyworld.  It was filled with scenes from my favorite Hans Christian Andersen stories like Thumbelina!!!


The following day we stayed in Malmö.  We got a pretty late start and walked around the city.  However, we had one mission for the day: to eat falafel.  We had it on very good authority that the best falafel in Sweden was in Malmö.  The falafel was fantastic and was a great start to our relaxing day in Malmö.  We spent a long time in this gorgeous park just sitting around watching the weird Swedish ducks and talking.  We also made an adventure out to the Turning Torso, which is the tallest building in Sweden.


Copenhagen was a great city.  It was a lot more cosmopolitan than the other cities that I have seen so far in Northern Europe.  However, I really loved Malmö.  It had the perfect charm of a Swedish city while having a very diverse and trendy side as well.  

Moritz, Guillermo, Alicia and I in front of the Malmo city hall 

Malmo city hall

Alicia, Guillermo, and I on the train to Copenhagen

Copenhagen city hall

Me in front of the Little Mermaid (live feed from Shanghai)

Christyiana

Alicia and I with our delicious pastries

Tivoli Amusement Park!!!

My favorite ride at Tivoli

Thumbelina in the fairytale world ride

The Turning Torso in Malmo