Windsor (England)

If you go to London, a day-trip to Windsor is clearly a must.  It's a cute small town again.  There you can find the Windsor Castle, home of the Queen.  Its a pretty cool place to see, especially if you get a glance of the Queen.  Like Versailles, it's worth sticking around the village and checking it out.  Not that much to do, but it is very cozy compared to London.

London (England)

After a long train ride, we finally made it to London - where unfortunately, our hotels needed a little bit of upkeep.

The very next morning we headed out to tour the city.  The city is huge, and the metro is definitely the best way to get around (unless you're staying in the centre, where the prices are crazy).  If you plan on doing a lot of sightseeing and visiting places, the London Pass is a great idea!  Plus you can get it including the transportation.  Its a little pricy, but you make your money back really fast.  

We got to check out all the major sites again: Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, Buckingham... The city was just packed with people!  As we were there over the week of the Royal Wedding, the whole city was in the centre.... absolutely ridiculous!  One site you must check out is the St.Paul's Cathedral, where Lady Di was married.  It is probably the most beautiful church we've seen in Europe!

London was not the best weather, but it didn't rain!  It's a beautiful city, but just huge!  It has 6 times the population of Paris - so crowded!  Again, put your hiking boots on, because every tourist site there has stairs and once in the centre, it is much easier to walk everywhere or metro.  To reach the top of Saint Paul's, 530 stairs, the top of the Monument, over 311.

There are also a million plays/musicals happening in London.  If you go and walk around, you can find some for pretty cheap.  We had the opportunity to go to Wicked, which was great!

Versailles (France)

If you go to Paris, it's definitely worth it to make the trip to Versailles!  It's only a 45mins metro ride outside the city, to a small town where lies the Chateau de Versailles (or Marie Antoinette).

This property is nonsense!  It has a big chateau which was built by one of the kings and later became Marie Antoinette's property.  The gardens are HUGE - there are a million pathways, multiple sections, a hundred fountains!  Go there early, you can easily spend the whole day there! On top of that, there is a second smaller castle at the end of the property that Marie Antoinette had built as a home away from home.  Going there you quickly realize why the citizens didn't like her and killed her - it is just ridiculous the size of that place!  Put your good shoes on though, because there is tons of walking to do there!!

If you go check out the Chateau, take some time and walk a little bit in the village, it's really cute!

Just a little note to those interested - buy the tickets at the chateau!  There are plenty of places selling them, but their tickets don't give you full access to everything.

Paris (France) - Round 2

So just a little heads up to anyone following this blog: Get ready for a 12-city update! haha  I promise I'll try to keep them short!

Around mid April, I met my mom, dad, aunt Jeanne and uncle Laurier in Paris for the beginning of their Europe journey.  After getting them set in, we've started pretty quickly to visit Paris.  Again, amazing place!! Last time I didn't get the opportunity to do so many touristy things as I was there for work, but this time, trust me, I've walked Paris in long and wide.

We got to visit all the ususals: Le Louvre, Catacombes, Eiffel Tour, Arche de Triomphe, Basilique, ...  We even got to go to mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral for Easter - it was nonsense packed!  We also got to attend a Moulin Rouge representation.


We took the hop-on, hop-off bus, which gave us the opportunity to visit a lot of the city without as much walking - however, there's a ton of traffic in Paris, so the bus can be slowed down.  If you plan on being somewhere at a specific time - maybe the metro would be the best decision (it's actually pretty cheap).

People were really nice, and we had pretty great service - definitely a great place to visit!

PS- Dad took a million pics, I'm sure you'll get to see plenty this summer!

Sevilla (Andalucia - Spain)

Last Stop: Sevilla!

Very unfortunately, Sevilla didn't have as nice of weather as the other spots.  Even though it is usually beautiful and sunny, it rained until the late afternoon.  Like Granada, the streets in the centre are really narrow, one-way, and difficult to drive through.  A nightmare to park as well!  Unlike Granada, street signs are actually visible!

Braving the rain, we decided to go sightseeing: Cathedral, Gardens, Plaza de Torros, Plaza de Espana, and the centre.  Let me tell you that visiting gorgeous gardens in the rain is not the most pleasant thing.  Glad it eventually cleared up!

Sevilla is just beautiful as well!  As it was our last night on our trip, we decided to have a great last dinner, heading to a traditional Spanish wine bar where of course we had great meals, plenty of wine, and a great time!  Sadly we had to head back to our hostel at a decent hour as we had to get up at 4AM the next day to return to Valencia.

Andalucia was just stunningly beautiful!  The weather, the sightseeing, the landscape, and the friendly people were amazing.  The food in the South of Spain might just be better than the one in Valencia - great food and wine!  Of course this trip was great due to the good company!  The 3 girls and I made sure that we would have a good time, just being goofballs, and enjoying every aspect of it - even the getting lost a million times and the long hours of driving.  I would go back there anything, and with the same girls - but this time with a huge map or a GPS!

Malaga (Andalucia, Spain)

Second Stop: Malaga!

On Saturday morning, we drove down to Malaga - beach side in the South of Spain!  Unfortunately, the we didn't have a stunning day like Granada, but the weather was still nice.  Our hostel was set right by the beach, however due to the weather, we decided not to spend the day there.  Again, after going to set in our hostel, we head out in the city to sightsee.  Great, quiet city!  Again, put your hiking shoes on, the hills are all around the city and you have to hike if you want to sightsee!

It was a great relaxing day, not too many places to see, but the centre is just gorgeous!  It was great to just relax, walk around, have a couple drinks on patios.  The Malaga Film Festival was actually happening as well while we were there!  We got to walk on the red carpet, see famous Spanish actors driving by, and take pictures where the paparazzi do!

For dinner, we decided to go a little more American and eat at Cheers - pub named after the TV show.  Spend the whole night on their terrace with a few bottles of wine and burgers.  As it is located right beside the cathedral, the night view is great!

Nice weather and great relaxing day - we had a blast!  Again, we headed to bed as we had to leave early again the next morning.  Tomorrow: Sevilla!

Granada (Andalucia-Spain)

Last weekend, three of my international friends and I drove down to the Andalucia part of Spain (South) for a few days.  Andalucia is absolutely stunning!!  Great weather, amazing scenery, and very friendly people!

First Stop: Granada




On Thursday afternoon, we headed out of Valencia and drove down to Granada.  The drive was gorgeous, full of mountains, sun, and snow.  When we finally got into the city, it was pure hell.  Granada has the worst street layout: all one ways, nowhere to turn around, very narrow, many closed for construction, and Google Maps is not right.  After an hour and fifteen minutes of me going crazy and of driving in circle, we finally found our hostel - and headed out for dinner.






The next morning, we got up bright and early and headed downtown to go visit the city.  Parking in the centre is not really convenient, if you can walk, I would suggest that - or find a parking garage and leave it there all day.  We visited everything around: Palacios, Cathedral, Souk, stores, ...  The weather was great, hitting up 35degrees which made it great to sightsee.  Later that afternoon we visited the Alhambra (palace and fortress build in the 14th century with many gardens).  It's set on top of a mountain which has a great view of the city and mountains.  After a few hours in the Alhambra, we headed back to town to go see a traditional Flamenco show.  It was insane!  Instead of a restaurant/stage type, we went where the locals go - which made the experience even crazier, as Flamenco originated in the South of Spain.

Granada was gorgeous - the scenery and the architecture!  It has a strong Moroccan influence mixed with the Spanish culture.  If you go visit, I suggest good shoes and water.  It's set in the mountains which has a lot of hiking through the streets!

After an amazing day, we headed back to our hostel to sleep.  Tomorrow: Malaga!