London + Paris

For the long Easter weekend I went to London and Paris. I spent a day in London with my lovely cousin Sophie who came down from Oxford to spend the day with me! We walked in the park and caught up and then did some shopping. After which I dragged her to the Natural History Museum which was filled with children. We had some coffee in the Covenant Gardens and then went to a really nice restaurant called Beagle. Where we had some really great food and the best cocktail I have ever had. The next morning I had a full english breakfast with some girls from my program and then hopped on the Chunnel! It was really fun and they served a full dinner with salmon and wine. I then arrived in Paris! I stayed with my good friend Zoe and her housemates. (Big shout out to Zoe for hosting me!) I had a wonderful time and I got to have a very personal tour of Paris. The first night we went out and had delicious crepes and then saw the Eiffel Tower! It was really incredible. The next morning we ate brunch at home and then walked around Paris. I saw some of the major streets and ate macarons. We also went into a beautiful church and into a really cool artist colony. Later we hung out in a park and listened to live opera and talked. The next morning we went to a bakery that was voted to have the best baguette in Paris. It was delicious. The Louvre had an enormous line so we went to l'Orangrie which was designed by Monet. It was really beautiful and it also had a really cool exhibit of some sketches. After that we met up with Ryan (who also goes to UCSC) at Angelina's which was Coco Chanel's favorite place for hot chocolate. After that we did some shopping and walked into another really cool old church. We had ramen for dinner which was delicious. I haven't had a break from Italian food for a long time and it was so nice to have different kinds of food for the weekend. We met up with some more friends from Zoe's program and had a drink before going home. The next day Zoe and I went to 4 different bakeries for breakfast. I had a chocolate eclair, a raspberry tart, more macarons (passion fruit and praline) and the flakiest croissant I have ever eaten. After which I hopped on my last RyanAir flight (yaaaay! never again!) and came back to Florence. I had a great time exploring and I can't wait to start traveling after my program!