The REST of Jay's visit!

BACK to Paris!

Barcelona ended the month-long adventure of being gone every weekend. It was INTENSE but I loved it and had so much fun/got to see so many cool things/had amazing experiences.

So Jay stayed for another week.. and we were honestly pretty lazy.. but I really just had fun seeing him!! We did do a few touristy things...

sacre coeur!!

arc de triumph!

of course.. the eiffel tower!

Also... we went to the LOUVRE. Which, to be honest, I hadn't even been to yet!!! I know, I know. Worst. Architecture. Student. Ever. But whatever. the point is I finally went! YAY! We really enjoyed it.. got to see some cool things..

sphinxes 

us in front of the Venus of Milo

note: jays macaroon bag.. YUM.

mona lisa!!!!

Thoughts on the Mona Lisa: the crowd actually wasn't that big.. granted we went on a Wednesday in Early march but still. This is the closest you can get to it, and as you can see, its covered in glass. which is a shame really because what I've really enjoyed about paintings (especially those that I've studied in Art History and the like), is that you can see the brush strokes, the blending of colors and the details that photos just cannot capture. Its also pretty tiny. I liked the painting on the opposite wall way better:

SO BIG. 

 The coolest part in my opinion was Napoleon's Apartments...

ooooo pretty!

HUGE dining room!

So all in all.. GREAT trip. I'm SO glad Jay got to come visit me!! I miss him already!

xoxo,

-A

BARCELONA and JAY comes to visit!

Like I said, these past few weeks have been pretty crazy for me. On Feb. 24, the best bf in the world came to visit me! I was SO excited. Obviously. His first day here we went to a children's circus for my French class, which was actually quite scandalous if you ask me. Ohhh, French people.

The next day we packed our bags and headed to BARCELONA! Barcelona may have to be one of my favorite places I've been (Florence is still #1 I think.. Barcelona is probably a close 2nd). Our first day, we walked around, explored the sites a little, drank some beers, the usual. We got to see the Barcelona Arc de Triumph!

sooo adorable. 

And walked to the beach...

cool building

crazy fish thing by Frank Gehry 

beach!!!!! kind of blurry because it was kind of dark...

And of course.. BEERS!

really big beers

The next day was Gaudi Day. We walked around .. checking out the sites... Jay was NOT a fan of all the walking (me either really)...

Casa Batllo ... oooooo.... ahhhhhh

Casa Milo!

And of course... the Masterpiece...

La Sagrada Familia!

Seriously cannot tell you how stunning it was on the interior. Pictures do it no justice.. but I'll still show you some because I took SO MANY.

so. pretty.

love.

The stained glass was my favorite part. It was just blocks of color, so vibrant and beautiful and it just made the space so amazing. I really hope that stained glass is going in all the windows in the unfinished part. (Sagrada Familia is still under construction. Scheduled to be done in 2016? I believe.)

stained glass

so amazing. almost magical?

We also went to the top of one of the towers.. which was pretty cool.

yayyyy

and of course.. the other facade:

pretty B.A.

The next day we checked out Park Gruell? spelling? Which gave us AMAZING views of Barcelona.

Sagrada Familia standing tall 

pretty pretty 

The actual park was pretty cool too...

woo gaudi!

covered in mosaics. awesome.

As architecture students, we also had to go to the Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe! Duh. It was pretty awesome.

nice

so Miesian

Barcelona Chairs!!!! love.

So thats all for barcelona.. but I almost forgot one of the most important parts! ICE BARCELONA.

its a bar... made of ice! with ice cups!!

xoxo,

-A

LONDON!!

Hopefully I'm going to get this thing updated tonight! I've been pretty busy, traveling like EVERY weekend and then my bf came and then my family came.. so sorry not sorry because I was having so much fun with everyone!!

Anyways. London happened Feb. 18-20 and it was a good time! The weather sucked, but it was February in London. What can I really expect, right?  I really enjoyed it except I don't think I got to see all of it, since we were there for so short a time.

So. Day 1: we had a few drinks the night before, so we were moving pretty slow! Basically we did a lot of eating. First stop:

is anyone REALLY surprised by this? 

Sad thing: it was a HUGE disappointment. The flavors were the same(ish) but the rice wasn't cooked and it just was not that good. Sigh. Miss you, Chipotle. 

Then we ate at the ORIGINAL Hard Rock Cafe! So that was cool. 

And we went to a play:

hilarious!

Day 2: We took those bus tours and did the super tourist thing. Pretty fun way to see the city but again, it was rainy and gross and cold, so the top deck was NOT that fun. Here's a few highlights:

Kensington Palace.. where Princess Diana lived

Liester Square

Westminster Abbey 

againnn

parliament

Big Ben!

did anyone else know that big ben is actually the bell in the tower? not the actual tower? I didn't.

St. Paul's Cathedral

My only complaint was that at a lot of these places, the admission was SO expensive. St. Paul's was like.. 14 pounds. After the student discount.. which usually gets us in for free places all over Europe. So we didn't actually go in a lot of places. 

Day 3 (our last day!) we went to the Tower of London...

outside

inside

Also the CROWN JEWELS were there which rocked. No pictures allowed though. Lame.

Tower Bridge

Buckingham Palace

cool gates that go with it!

So overall London was a great time, minus the weather. Shopping was pretty good too and I would maybe want to go back? Possibly in April. We'll see!

xoxo,

-A

DUBLIN!!

This is about.. a week or 2 late. Sorry about that. Anyways. I went to DUBLIN, IRELAND, February 10-12 with some awesome people. Christy came with, and we met Jennifer and Lisa from Scotland, as well as some of Jennifer's sorority sisters who also happen to be in Europe.

We got in like REALLY late Thursday night and so we just kind of hung out.

Friday morning's first stop: Guinness Factory (are any of you really that surprised?)

dang. we look good.

The factory was reallyyyy cool. We did the like.. beer connoisseur thing? It was a few extra euros but we got a student discount (thank you, La Villette!) and you only live once right?! So we got to taste 2 extra types of beer (who knew they made other kinds of Guinness??) and then got to POUR OUR PERFECT PINT!!! So cool.

me being awesome with my perfect pint!

So the factory was pretty cool too.. we walked around and went to the museum part.. some old adds for Guinness were pretty funny I thought..

exhibit a:

exhibit b:

Also, we got to drink our free pint in the gravity bar! its on the top of the factory and has panoramic views to all of Dublin. Pretty cool little bar I'd say.

I rock.

Next... we went to the old Jameson Factory! (again.. anyone really that surprised?) 

tip: Jameson + Cranberry = delicious. just saying.

So that night we went out in the Temple Bar area.. it was a pretty good time for everyone!

The next day it was actually nice out!!! We walked around and went to Trinity College..

prettyyy

and St. Patrick's Cathedral...

Then... we had to go to the airport because we left Saturday night! Short but sweet trip (with a lot of Guinness)! Loved it. 

xoxo,

-A