One Last Mini Vacation

Paris was a nice way to end the school year and my study abroad trip. We lucked out and had gorgeous weather the whole time, in the mid 60s.

After our last final, Maddie and I hopped on the train and headed out to Paris for two days! We took the same trains to Paris that we did when we went to Disneyland Paris, so it was like déjà vu. Our train was delayed a little bit, so we didn’t make it to our hostel until about 11:30pm. We were dead tired and ready to go to bed as soon as we got there!

The next day was packed full of fun sightseeing adventures. First we went to the church, Sacre Couer, which was literally two blocks away from our hostel. We could even see it from our room! It was gorgeous and had a great view of the city of Paris.

Sacre Couer

A view of the city.

We headed to the metro after Maddie picked up a Nutella crepe and we were on our way to our next destination, the Eiffel Tower of course! It really was amazing to see. I’m always skeptical about if something will actually wow me the way I feel like it should, but usually they do. And the Eiffel Tower definitely did! We really wanted to take the elevator up to the top, but the lines were super long, and since we only had a little less than two days in Paris we decided against it.

I think this is my favorite picture from my entire trip in Europe.

Then we crossed the River Seine to the Trocadero district to grab lunch at a café with our friend that went to Barcelona with us, Kelsy, and her friend Krista. We had some good food and it was so nice out, so we sat outside. We only hung out with them for lunch because they had to catch a plane only a couple hours later, but it was nice to see them!

Me, Maddie, Krista, and Kelsy.

Maddie and I decided it would be a logical idea to buy a ticket for one of those “hop on, hop off” double-decker buses, that way we would be able to go to the big landmarks and sights easier and have a great mode of transportation that allowed us to still sightsee in the meantime! It was a really great deal, only 24 Euros for a two-day pass! Plus we got headphones so that we could plug them into the system to listen to the information about the sights we were seeing. Here are pictures from the places we saw and stopped at:

Place where Napoleon's ashes are buried.

Alexander the Third bridge, the prettiest bridge in Paris.

The Lourve!

TOMS :D

Notre Dame

Madeleine Church

Paris Opera House

Champs Elysses

Arc de Triumphe

After a wonderful day of sightseeing and shopping, Maddie and I decided to head back to the hostel to freshen up, and then head out to dinner and a boat tour. We decided to go to the Hard Rock Café because I had never been to one before and we really just wanted some good American food! I ordered a pulled pork sandwich and it was heavenly! After dinner we headed to the River Seine, near the Eiffel Tower, because we had bought discounted tickets for a boat tour from the bus company we were using for sightseeing. It was such a cool and different way to see Paris, plus it was at night! I actually think the Eiffel Tower is much more gorgeous at night because the way it lights up the sky.

Hard Rock Café Paris

My first time eating at the Hard Rock!

The Eiffel Tower is GORGEOUS at night!

After the tour we wanted to go to a bar and just get a drink and hang out. Maddie suggested we catch the metro out to Disneyland Paris’s Disney Village and go to either Planet Hollywood or the Hard Rock Café, which I obviously thought was a splendid idea! Unfortunately we didn’t realize it would take us almost an hour to get there. And once we did arrive, we found out that Disney Village closed only fifteen minutes later. Lame. By this time we were so tired that we just decided to head back to the hostel and crash.

The next day our first stop was the Moulin Rouge! I had to go there because it is one of my favorite movies of all time. Plus it was only about a five-minute walk from our hostel.

Our plan for the rest of the day was to head back to the bus tour. We wanted to head back to Notre Dame because there were a ton of little souvenir shops that we wanted to hit up. Then we hopped back on until we got to the Madeleine Church so that Maddie could take pictures by it. We then took the bus to the Champs Elysses to have some lunch, walk up and down the Champs and shop, and take pictures at the Arc de Triumphe. It was a great way to spend our last day.

Finally we had to head back to the hostel, grab our stuff, and head out to the train station. We were both really exhausted by the time we got home because we packed our trip full of stuff to do. There really wasn’t a ton of downtime, but that was nice. It was a great way to spend the last couple of days in Europe!

And for the last time, many more pictures on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=337868&id=672975663&l=a3ba7cd629

-Love-

My European Heaven

DISNEYLAND PARIS

The best part of my trip here, without a doubt. It has been absolutely wonderful to get to travel to all these different places that I have been too, but Disney holds a special place in my heart. And getting to travel to Disneyland Paris will surely trump all the other trips.

Maddie and I left by train on Friday afternoon and arrived in Paris around 11pm, then took the subway to our hostel about 15 minutes outside of the park. I hopped in the shower, thinking I would get to sleep in longer the next morning before a long day at the park, but I didn't sleep very well that night anyway. I WAS TOO EXCITED!!! Disneyland Paris?! How awesome!!!

The next morning Maddie and I got ready and heading downstairs to grab some breakfast before zooming out to the park! We got on the subway and couldn't be more excited. I was like a child at this point, giddy with anticipation! Once we stepped out of the subway station and saw the gates to the park I couldn't control myself...DISNEYLAND PARIS!!! My third Disney park on my quest to visit all five of them (soon to be six). I immediately started snapping away with my camera, and was literally jumping up and down with excitement.

About to enter the park!

As soon as passed through the turnstiles I wasn't able to stop smiling the rest of the day! The first thing we did was head over to wait in line for pictures with Mickey Mouse. Seeing all of the little kids so excited to see him just melts my heart every time. I hope my kids will be that excited one day!

I then bought some Minnie Mouse ears, because I usually go for the Disney Princess crowns, so I thought I would change it up this time. Plus, I can just add them to my ever growing collection of Disney park head gear :) We headed over Phantom Manor (Disneyland's Haunted Mansion) and were ready for our first ride. The exterior of the ride was so pretty, I loved it! And the ride itself was pretty similar to Haunted Mansion, just a little darker (in terms of scariness, not amount of light).

After we got off the ride we headed to one of my personal favorites, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This version was really neat because the roller coaster itself was situated in the middle of the river. So the queue line was on the main part of Frontierland, then after the cars took off from the platform they went underground to the island! It was awesome. We also discovered the roller coasters are way more intense at Disneyland Paris then at Disneyland! Which was a fun change.

Waiting patiently for the ride!

We were hungry afterwards so we headed to get some lunch, and we stopped at this mexican restaurant (finally!) and got chicken fajitas. They were just fast food quality, but it was still mexican food! And still delicious. They we headed over to Discoveryland (Disneyland's Tomorrowland) to get Fast Passes for Space Mountain! First we stopped at Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast (Disneyland's Astro Blasters) and got Fast Passes for that ride, then saw that there was only a 25 minute wait for Space Mountain! So we decided to wait in line instead of getting Fast Passes. So worth the wait. Seriously, this is the best Space Mountain I've ever been on! It shoots you up this ramp that you think you are going to be cranked up (much like California Screamin') and then the ride does corkscrews and goes up side down many times! It was seriously a blast. I absolutely loved it.

In that tube is the ramp that you get shot up!

The tickets that we bought online were discounted "Magic Tickets" that allowed us to go to both Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios for a couple doors more than the price of a one day, one park ticket. We thought this was a good purchase because who knows if we'd get to come back to Disneyland Paris ever again. So we went to explore the park. The premise seemed a lot like California Adventure, lots to see, not as much to do. But we sure enjoyed it! We saw the "Stitch Live!" show and the end of a parade. My favorite part was the brand new Toy Story Land!!! Everything was sized to make it seem like you were a little toy with the rest of the toys. It was brilliant!

Some other cool rides that were in Walt Disney Studios were Aladdin's Magic Carpets, Crush's Coaster, and Tower of Terror. Overall the park was really cool, but we wanted to see it more than ride any rides. That was sort of our premise for the whole trip there, we weren't upset that we didn't ride as many rides as we normally would, we were just loving seeing all the differences and just getting to be there.

We headed back to Disneyland Paris and walked around the different lands. We first stopped at Sleeping Beauty's Castle to take some pictures.

Then we explored Fantasyland and Adventureland. Sadly, Maddie's favorite ride (and one of my own personal favorites) was not in operation while we were there, Pirates of the Caribbean. But we passed by it just to see what they were doing and it looked like routine construction.

When we were walking through Adventureland we spotted Rafiki and ran over to get pictures with him!

He was kind of flirty, but it was fun!

We eventually headed back to Discoveryland to use our Fast Passes on Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blasts, which is always such a fun ride. It's so interactive. I love seeing what the Imagineers at Disney can create! After the ride we headed to Main Street USA and Central Plaza for the parade! The streets were PACKED with people, but we found some great spots on a little grassy hill, that way we didn't have to look over anyone's shoulder!

SO MANY PEOPLE!!

But we had the perfect spots!

We decided that we wanted to do a Character Dinner that night, so we went to "City Hall" to see if we could make reservations anywhere. Luckily the lady was very helpful and we got reservations at Cafe Mickey! The restaurant was in the Disney Village and we got to enjoy a nice meal while getting our pictures taken with Disney characters! What a treat :)

Eeyore!

Scrooge McDuck

TIGGER! My favorite character from the Hundred Acre Woods

Gideon from Pinocchio.

"It all started with a mouse." - Walt Disney

Tigger again! You can never have too much Tigger lovin.

We headed back to the park after dinner and jumped on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, which only had a 5 minute wait! Unheard of at Disneyland. This ride was SO drastically different than Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye at Disneyland. This was strictly a roller coaster, no story line or interactive car and scenery, purely a thrill ride. And it was great! It went upside down too! So much fun.

We then went back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad because we knew the line wouldn't be long, only about 20 minutes. It was our last ride on our Disneyland Paris adventure and it was so much fun! After grabbing some ice cream at the Gibson Girl we had to leave :(

The next morning we decided to head back to the Disney Village to eat breakfast at the same place we ate dinner, Cafe Mickey. It was buffet style so we got to eat as much as we wanted, and again, take pictures with characters!

My main man, Mickey Mouse!

Dale!

Chip!

Overall the trip was amazing. I had such a blast! I'm so happy I can cross it off my bucket list! But I definitely would love to go back there again if I ever get the chance!

Oh one last thing, that I think is a fun tid bit. I bought a Mickey Mouse ring at this shop in Sleeping Beauty's Castle that sells lots of jewelry and glass pieces. I wear it on the same finger that I used to wear the little plastic ring that Josh gave me. But not as a replacement ring to fill the void of Josh. But to remind myself every time I reach to play with the ring that I don't need a guy in my life to make me happy all the time. The ring reminds me of the things in my life that I love and cherish the most, Disney obviously being one of them.

As always, there are many more pictures on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=336544&id=672975663&l=896160e356

-Love-