The Blog

I have no idea where the last five months went! I vaguely remember living all of it in Paris. In the back of my head I knew this Paris thing wasn’t going to last forever — and of course it didn’t. The last few weeks whizzed by like clockwork. I crammed for finals, drank as many €1 expressos as I could, and spent every last minute enjoying my favorite things about Paris. Just a few remarks about the french higher education system, and maybe this isn’t valid across the board, but I’ve never had it so easy! I literally put in three nights of hard work (11pm-5am) the entire semester. I’m not complaining, but I get the impression that the French put a lot of emphasis on their final projects, and don’t mind so much that you dilly-dally all semester as long as you produce something by their deadline. I certainly appreciated being able to enjoy Paris, but I can only imagine the culture shock of returning home to countless hours of homework and overbearingly long classes.

Overall my study abroad experience was unbelievable and I wish more people would take the time to do it. I’m a huge advocate of the “gap year” most Europeans take between high school and college, and it goes without saying (if you know me well) I think everyone would be a lot better off European. I could see myself moving back to Paris some day, but it’s really hard to tell because my trip was a bit tainted with wonderful people I met at school that only speak English. My next trip out I intend to know french at a conversational level, and to be earning euro (instead of the USD).

A brief recap of the last week:
(and a few photos to go along: Au revoir Paris! )

Visiting the top of the Eiffel tower (bucket-list status)
Seeing all of the Landmarks in Paris in one day by foot
Taking a nap in the gardens at Versalles
Buying a box of 200 truffle-almonds you can’t find anywhere else
Eating macaroons at LaDuree (to die for)
Combing through vintage post cards at the flea market
Enjoying only the best wines

My friend Crystal flew in to Paris to spend a week with me before we both left on a one month trip through the Mediterranean coast of Europe. Our itinerary includes: Spain (Sitges & Barcelona) -> the French Riviera -> and the Almalfi Coast. We hope to rent a car to make the trip along the coast from Nice – Naples, but that’s still up in the air. Although all of these stops sound appealing, I’m not sure we’re going to find anything more beautiful than Sitges (pronounced seaches). The minute we arrived we were on the beach. The topless, sandy, clear-blue water beaches. We spent a solid 10 hours soaking up the sun rays and enjoying the ocean breeze. More or less I spent the first 10 hours roasting my shins to a firey red tinge; and the next two days applying aloe and avoiding the sun like a plague.

Note to self: It’s possible to burn your shins, apply sunscreen appropriately.

We rented a Vespa from a small family owned rental place called “Via Vespa” and scootered ourselves up to Pacs del Penedes in hopes of doing some Spanish wine tasting. We caught a tour at the Pares Balta cava & wine vineyard. We had no idea who they were or what we were getting ourselves into, but oh-nelly was it fantastic! The grapes had just started to form on the vines and the cava was perfectly refreshing. They export to the US, so we recommend trying a sweet white wine named “MELIS” and a full-bodied red wine named “Mas Irene”. The vineyard is very unique in that they have always been 100% organic, and they operate their own bee-hives to promote fertilization of the vines. They also make a olive oil that is to die for.

We’ve met a bunch of Brits on our trip, they’ve all been extremely friendly and welcoming — so *high five* we’ve been a big hit with them and are hopefully saving face on the “stupid American” stigma. I’d typically recommend finding a place to stay through AirB&B but we haven’t been too thrilled with the place we found in Sitges. They advertised cooking lessons, partial breakfast (“bed AND breakfast”), and WiFi. We haven’t had a single breakfast provided, WiFi is only available on the 1st floor, and there are no cooking lessons. To top it all off we have no way of letting ourselves in and out of the place and their dogs bark at our window all night long! I understand that we’re staying at a restaurant, and handing out keys might not be ideal, but we’re in a city that lights up from 1AM – 6AM and siestas from 1PM – 3PM daily. It’s been extremely inconvenient to go out at night or to return mid-day. We sleep on the beach and take shits at the B&B. I guess the sheer awesomeness of Sitges really shines here, because typically where you stay plays a huge roll in whether or not you love or hate a city. We still love Sitges.

More later,
EB