Picture of the Day: March 2, 2011

Brussels Day Trip!

Paris!

Paris

This past weekend I went to Paris with four of my girlfriends that are studying abroad with me. We took a charter bus there to save money. I thought the five-hour ride was going to be miserable, but I was happily surprised. I was able to sleep a little bit and the bus was clean. I had found an apartment online to rent for the weekend in Paris, but the only problem was our bus was not going to arrive until 11:30 at night and the latest we could meet the person to get the key was midnight. This led to a very stressful bus ride because we all knew that if anything went wrong we would have to try and find a hotel at the last minute and pay a lot of money. Our group had been having terrible luck traveling and this bus ride unfortunately was no different. It turned out the bus driver had no idea where he was going and he was circling around Paris and didn’t know what exit to take. Passengers were getting up from their seats and giving him directions. Meanwhile, the man who rented us the apartment sent us a text that he had accidently double booked us and that we should go to a different apartment down the street. Needless to say we were stressed out. Once we arrived, we jumped in cabs and headed to the new address. Thankfully it was in a great location and we lucked out because it was actually bigger! It was on the top floor of this beautiful apartment building and it had big gorgeous doors that opened onto the street with the most amazing designer stores on it! We got in a little after midnight so we decided to just go to a little café near our apartment and share crème brullee and a brownie with white chocolate sauce. They were delicious and we were glad the trauma was over.

The next morning we headed to the Louvre and walked around the main area for a while. After walking around for a few hours we stopped and sat outside and ate lunch right next to the water and sipped on some espressos (under heat lampsJ). We then went to the Eiffel Tower and took a million pictures. It started to rain so we went to a cute café and had some vin chaude (hot wine) while we waited for it to get dark, so we could see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. After sitting and chatting in the café for a few hours we finally saw the tower light up. We watched the light show that happens every hour from right next to it. It was breathtaking! After the show we bought delicious chocolate banana crepes and walked to the Champs d’Elysees where we saw the Arc de Triomphe and did a little shopping.

            On the way home to the apartment we decided to just stop in a grocery store and grab some baguettes, cheese, and wine for dinner. We had been looking at restaurant menus all day and they all were just a little more than we wanted to pay for food! For only 5 euros we had a great dinner and were able to relax at our nice table in the apartment. Our dinner was actually cheaper than the glass of hot wine we had earlier! The next morning we had to be checked out at 10 am and we all had bags so we couldn’t walk around very much. We went to a cute café next to our apartment, where we drank cappuccinos and had a French breakfast consisting of a croissant, a baguette with butter and jelly and an orange juice. It was delicious! We looked at all our pictures and talked about how much fun we had then headed back to the bus station!

Airport Trouble

Leaving for the Brussels airport didn't go quite as planned. On wednesday we left for the airport at around 3:00 pm to get to Dulles airport in plenty of time for my 6:00 departure. As soon as we started driving it started to rain and hail. I was getting very nervous that my flight was going to get cancelled, but we checked and it was still on schedule. After we arrived safely, and checked in my 2 bags, we looked at the flight board and my flight was delayed an hour. I met up with my roommate Delaney and we said our goodbyes and were off to the gate. At this point it was snowing extremely hard. At the gate we met 8 other students from JMU who were going on the trip with us. It was a lot of fun meeting everyone and we all introduced each other and talked about the fun things we wanted to do while abroad. An hour or two after waiting they made an announcement that the flight was cancelled. Mid-announcement a girl in my program screamed, "go to the counter"and the ten of us ran up to be first in line to rebook. We all managed to rebook on the same 6pm flight for the next night and we thought the trauma was over. We then talked to all of our parents, who were trying to drive home in the snow storm, and found out that they were stuck in hours of traffic. After calling numerous hotels we were able to finally get a extremely expensive room booked for all 10 of us. We went to get in the cab line downstairs and then saw that it was at a minimum 500 people long. At that point we had left security so we were not allowed back into the gated area. We were stranded in the ticketing section that doesn't even have chairs in it. We had to sleep on our carry-ons, on a cement floor. It was miserable and cold. I didnt even fall asleep till 4 30 am. At five am the cab line finally died down and we managed to get in a cab. We decided to all go to a girl's house who lived about ten minutes away. The cab barely made it, but when we arrived her family was so nice and got us all couches/mattresses/blankets to sleep on. We were able to get a few hours of sleep and SHOWER!! It has never felt so amazing to shower. We woke up and had a pancake breakfast and headed back for the airport. Her family saved us!! We finally made it on our flight and I was asleep before we even took off.

Packing.

It is currently 4:01 am on Tuesday morning and I can't sleep because I keep thinking of a million things  I am forgetting to pack/bring/do before I go abroad tomorrow. I leave for Antwerp, Belgium on Wednesday at 6:00 pm. I have so many thoughts going through my head and don't really know what to expect when I get there. I figured now is as good of time as any to start the blog, that I will hopefully find the time to update while in Europe. Currently my biggest struggle is trying to fit my life into 2 suitcases (that weigh less than fifty pounds). Which is why I have spent my night vacuuming all life out of my clothes, in vacuum seal bags, and pondering how many pairs of brown boots are really necessary for three months. Well thats all I have to report on now! Next time I post I will be in Belgium and hopefully I will have something a little more exciting to write about!