Paris!

CANADA TOMORROW!

However, last week I was in Paris. 3 countries, 1 week---it was a pretty good week! 

We decided to head over to Paris before we went for Christmas holidays because it is so close and cheap. We left Friday after work and headed back to Luton on Sunday afternoon. 

Friday 

We arrived in Paris about 10pm and mastered the metro instantly. We took a train and an underground to our hostel, got checked in, freshened up and then headed out on the town. Our hostel was in Bastille, where one would think that restaurants would be open all night but surprisingly not. We had a hard time finding food, so ended up at small shop where I --of course---indulged in crepes immediately. Nutella and banana--YUMM! After filling up on some food, we found a small wine bar that was open and indulged in some french wine. By the time we finished we were tired and made our way back to the hostel to get a good nights sleep knowing we would have a BUSY day ahead of us. 

Saturday

Early Rise n' Shine! The beginning of a busy day begins. We woke up early, got some Starbucks on the way and headed to the Catacombs. The Catacombs is an underground ossuary that is open to the public. In the catacombs, there are over 6 million remains of human bodies. We got there just before it opened so were one of the first groups to go in and were out and ready to move on by noon.

Following the Catacombs we took the metro back up to Notre Dame and began our walking tour of Paris. We walked by the Notre Dame, the Louvre, Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe. 

After the Arc de Triomphe, we got lunch at a super French cafe and headed back out. We ended up at the Eiffel Tower where we walked about 700 steps to the second floor and then took the elevator to the top. Exhausting but worth the cost and line up of taking the elevator all the way up.

After the tower, we headed back to the Champs Elysees to try some last minute Christmas shopping. There was a "Winter Wonderland" esk fair occuring and before we knew it, it was getting late so we headed back to the hostel to change for dinner.

Again, because we were late for dinner many restaurants were closing; however, we found one that was still open --a pretty posh place, and ate some delicious french foods and french wine. After dinner we visited some French wine bars and then headed to the hostel.

Sunday
We again woke up early, to get some breakfast and do some sight seeing near the hostel before we had to get to the airport and head back to Luton.


Overall, the weekend was fantastic and such a great idea! I realised how much my french language speaking has slipped and some prep work could have gone a long way. The weather was gorgeous- 12degrees both days and sunny. However, landing in Luton and dropping down from the clouds into grey and rainy weather was not a great way to end the weekend.

I love Paris and can't wait for my next adventure (after going home for Christmas that is)!

Staff Christmas Dinner Fails

Hi all my dear followers!

Two weeks and I am home in Canada to see my friends and family! Minus the dreaded cold temperatures, I am excited to head home :)

This week was the same as most---worked Monday-Friday. However, after work on Friday there was a staff Christmas Party. I think I had high expectations of what my first career staff Christmas would be like. We were given an option earlier in November of two restaurants and a small Italian place in Luton town center. It was convenient for the Canadians who went because none of us drive and it is in walking distance. We had a three course meal, all good food but there was only about 15 of us and most of them were upper management in the school--so it was not the atmosphere I was expecting. However, because a few people dropped out, there was some extra money so we got some wine ordered for our table--which is always good! Out of the Canadians, four of us made it out and we left shortly after desert. Apparently, there is a bigger Federation dinner that occurs in February where EVERYONE comes out and it is a grand ol' time. So I will reserve my judgement on staff parties until then!

I spent yesterday, once again in London doing some more Christmas shopping and went to this awesome burger joint off of Carnaby. It was a Hawaiian burger place....pineapple on a burger is one of my favorite things and had awesome food!

Other than that, there was not much too my week. However, I have decided to go to Paris next weekend! We leave on Friday after work and will have all day Saturday there and early morning Sunday, coming back to Luton Sunday afternoon. I am excited to travel for the weekend and finally get to Paris after three months when it is so close and affordable!  It also means that in a one weeks time period I will have traveled in three countries (UK, France and Canada) because one week after I get back to Luton I fly out to Canada!

Final stretch is here!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

In London there is an event at Hyde Park called Winter Wonderland. It is amazing. Today I took the train into London and did some Christmas/Souvenir shopping for family and friends. After walking Oxford St (a street Sarah and I got very accustomed to while we were in London at the beginning of this adventure) I decided to go to Winter Wonderland. Hyde Park is huge. When we got there, there was a huge line up to enter the park because they didnt want large crowds all entering at once. It is a free event to enter but you pay for everything inside--which is great because it can be as cheap or as expensive of a day as you want it to be. Inside Winter Wonderland there is vendor after vendor of food, drink and shops. However, these are not just normal transportable vendor stalls. They had full blown wood-made bars and stalls everywhere. In amongst these there were carnival games and fair rides as well as many fun and haunted houses. In typical winter carnival fashion I invested in some roasted candied nuts, hot cider and a candy apple! Yumm! We spent a few hours at the Winter Wonderland just walking around, looking at the different vendors and trying to win me a minion! (Failed, but did win a prize at one of the games). There was a giant ice rink--but you had to buy tickets to enter it; but watching the people skate made me feel better about my poor skating skills. It really does make a difference having ice available to you for most of the winter in Canada. There was also a giant ice castle with ice sculptors, etc inside but again you had to pay additional costs for it and after spending quite a bit of money on trying to win me a minion...again...we just walked around and observed.
There was roller coasters, thrill rides and this amazing ride that if we didnt have bags and I wasn't wearing a dress we would have totally gone into. Its a giant barrel that spins around insanely fast. You stand up against the wall of the barrel and it starts moving. The speed of the spinning keeps you in place. Then they drop the floor out from under you but you stay in the same spot so you are literally only being held in place by the movement of the barrel. It looked awesome, I may go back next weekend to try it.

Overall it was a great day and an awesome way to spend a Sunday when I feel like I haven't gone out and done much outside of Luton in the last few weeks (hence the lack of blogging).

22 days and I will be back in Canada for just under 2 weeks! Can't wait.