April 29th

April 29^th

Today I met Pierce for lunch before the two of us go see Shrek the Musical. We stopped by this Italian restaurant called Strada right near the theatre and the food was delicious. After that, we still had some time to kill so we stopped in a pub nearby to grab a few drinks. We walked about half a block to the theatre. 

Since we had balcony seats, we weren’t allowed to walk in the main entrance but rather had to go to a side door and begin what became a hike up to our seats. I kind of felt like we were second class on the Titanic. As we climbed higher, both of our noses started to bleed. Just kidding, but we actually were so high up.

The play ended up being fantastic. It was similar to the movie, but the slight differences were great. Usually when you see a musical, you don’t really enjoy the music. The songs in this play were actually pretty catchy.

When the play ended, it was around 5:30 pm and Pierce and I went our separate ways. On my way back to my apartment, the weather changed and the sun came out, so I stopped by a park and sprawled out on a bench in the sun. It was nice to finally relax for a change. In my opinion, it was a great way to conclude what I think ended up being a rather British kind of day.

Brighton (April 28th)

April 28th

Today, we had our last day trip as part of our program. We took the train about an hour outside of London to Brighton. Brighton is a beach town on the south tip of the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, the weather forecasts indicated that it was supposed to rain all day, which is the absolute worst weather for this trip. I brought my umbrella, and while it drizzled all day, I never had to use it. Of course, if I didn’t bring the umbrella it would have poured.

When we got to Brighton, we got a tour of the Royal Pavilion, which was King George III’s summer home.  It was a smaller, Chinese style palace with all of its decoration resembling what you would find on the orient. To be honest, it looked really out of place, but was still quite charming and really cool to walk through.

From there, we went to a restaurant on the coast to have some fish and chips. I ordered the salmon, which was delicious. One of the girls on my program made the mistake of ordering the sea-bass, unfortunately it did not have a laser-beams attached to its freaking heads (Austin Power’s joke in case you have no idea what I’m talking about). When she got her plate, she was surprised and disgusted to find the entire fish on her plate including the head, tails and scales. No one wanted to look at it or touch it, so I used a knife to dissect it for her and make it look edible. I put the remains on a side plate and asked the waiter to take it away, problem solved. After lunch, we walked down to the pier. We walked around and played a few games in the arcade.

Following the arcade, the group and I strolled through the Lanes, which are the famous alleyways which have a great little shopping district in Brighton. Essentially, these streets were packed, tiny and weaved through the city. It was really cool and different from the other places I’ve been in London. When the weather started to get worse, we stopped in a pub and hung out before leaving back to 

London. By the time I got on the train, I was exhausted and slept most of the way back. It was a short, but really fun trip. I would love to go back on a sunny day. At night, we stayed in and Pierce came over to watch the Bulls game and the Heat game. I was thrilled with the Bulls’ performance until about a minute left when Derrick Rose tore his ACL; such a depressing scene.

Royal Pavilion

Royal Pavilion

Downtown Brighton

The South Coast of England

Downtown Brighton

The Beach

Brighton's Pier

We've become a little too close this semester

The Lanes

April 26th

This has been one of the longest weeks in my time abroad. Work this  week was annoyingly brutal, and I'm counting down the days until I finish my internship. The good news is, I have two weeks left. On another note, I finished the first draft of my dissertation this week. It's so nice to have that weight lifted off my back so I can enjoy my last month in London. In order to break up the week a little, I saw the Avengers tonight. It was really nice that in London I could to get a little taste of America, Captain America. I loved the movie and it got me even more excited to see the new Batman and Spiderman movies coming out this summer.

Paris/Normandy

April 20th

4:00AM wake up? No problem when you sleep for a few hours, which is a common theme when traveling throughout Europe. I made sure to pack light for this trip because I had to carry my bag around until my friend Teddy got off work. I met Pierce at the train station before our 5:40am train. Coincidentally, I ran into my boss who was heading to Paris for business. Thank God I told him I was taking the day off to go to Paris and didn't just lie and call in sick. That could've been unfortunate! After getting on the train, I put on my Ipod and slept the entire 2.5 hour journey.

When we got to Paris at 9:17AM, we bought our Metro tickets and took the train to a stop near the Eiffel Tower. Luckily, Pierce had been to Paris before and actually knew his way around really well. Since we had practically all day to kill (Teddy couldn't meet us until 7PM), I wanted to see all of the sights I could. When Pierce and I first got to the Eiffel Tower, I was actually pretty unimpressed. To me, it looked like a glorified cell tower. We snapped some pictures. I wanted to go to the top, but the lines were so long it just wasn't worth doing. From the Eiffel, we snaked our way to the Arc de Triomphe. I loved the architecture of this arc, it's really cool to look through it because it frames the street view of the Champs-Elysées for miles on end.

The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe were the top two sites on my list, so after that, the last thing two things that I wanted to see was the Louvre and the Mona Lisa. Pierce and I walked down the Champs-Elysées which is like the 5th Avenue of Paris. This is the type of street that girls dream about coming back to Paris and buying all of their favorite designers. I have to say that it did not have that effect on me. One thing I did love was the architecture and beauty of the street. There were gardens on both sides of the road, and rows of trees and hedges lining the edges of the street. To me it had the glorified feel of a tremendous college campus.

At this point, it started raining and later hailing. Since we were getting hungry, we used the rainfall as a time to stop for some lunch. After throwing back some food, the rain stopped and the two of us were in a much better mood. We set off for the Louvre. When we arrived, I was in awe by the size of the museum. It is enormous, and absolutely gorgeous. We walked through the famous pyramid shaped entrance and descended to the lobby of the Louvre. My favorite part about visiting the Louvre was that I was with Pierce. He is an art history/history double major so he knew so much about the artwork and history behind so many paintings. Going to this type of museum is much better if you actually learn a little bit about what you're staring it. Also, he knew his way around the museum really well. I told him I wanted to see the Mona Lisa, and he took me on a straight shot to it.

When we got to the room with the Mona Lisa, it was jam packed full of tourists trying to take pictures. When I finally got close enough to view the Mona Lisa, it was very dissaspointing. Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful piece of art, but it's so much smaller than I had ever imagined. Either way, I'm so glad that I saw such a renowned historical masterpiece. After that, I didn't really care what we saw in the museum, so we wandered around looking at Pierce's favorite artists. When we got sick of looking at the artwork, we walked through Napoleon III's palace (which is a wing of the Louvre). This to me reminded me so much of the Palacio Real in Madrid. The details in each room were breathtaking.

After spending a few hours in the Louvre, we still had like 5 hours until reuniting with Teddy. The two of us headed towards the Notre Dame Cathedral. The Notre Dame Cathedral was extremely beautiful. It was a Gothic styled cathedral. I just can't believe the size of these cathedrals in Europe. They are massive but extremely welcoming buildings. The two of us cruised around Notre Dame. After going through it, we left and decided to visit the Hotel des Invalides to see the museum there and observe Napoleon's Tomb. On the way, the sun came out so we stopped at a cafe to drink some wine and soak in some rays. This was actually one of my favorite things we did in Paris. It was extremely relaxing and a great way to experience Paris. After drinking a few glasses, we were both feeling good and continued on our way.

The Hotel des Invalides was an enormous building that Napoleon built for his soldiers. In the back is his tomb, which is made of some kind of marble and one of, if not the biggest tomb I've ever seen. From there, we walked through the rest of the museum which had exhibits from WWI and WWII. This was actually a really interesting site because it showed the war from the French perspective. It also whetted our appetite for our Normandy trip the following day. We spent a lot of time in this museum because we were still waiting for Teddy. By the time we left, we headed near Teddy's apartment. We stopped at another cafe to wait the final half hour or so for Teddy.

He finally came and it was great to see him. Not only because he's one of my really good friends, but also because we could finally drop our backpacks off at his apartment (we had lugged them around for about 10 hours straight). When we put our stuff in his apartment, we hung out for awhile and caught up. We showered and got ready for dinner. We went to a great little French restaurant near Teddy's apartment. Since Teddy speaks fluent French, it was great to have him order for us and not get treated like tourists. The food was delicious, and I couldn't stop eating the bread! After dinner, we had to stop for some dessert. We dropped by a crepe stand that Teddy frequents and stuffed our faces before returning to the apartment. Pierce and I didn't want to go out because we had to wake up at 5AM again to catch our mini-bus to Normandy. After one day in Paris, my opinions about the city completely changed. It is definitely the most beautiful city I've ever been to. The people were surprisingly friendly and the sites were pretty special.

April 21st

Today is a day that I have looked forward to my whole life. Visiting Normandy was the number one thing I wanted to do in Europe, and after doing it, it was my favorite experience abroad. Pierce and I got picked up from our tour guide, Pierre, at a hotel near Teddy's apartment. There were 6 other people on our trip, but Pierce and I were the youngest by at least 30 years. The ride to Normandy was about 2.5 hours, but it was great to see the French countryside which was full of vibrant colors and rolling hills.

The terrain around Normandy is full of farms which are divided by trenches and hedges instead of fences. This type of layout was instrumental in the Battle of Normandy as it made infiltrating the German defenses much more difficult. Driving through was like one big history lesson that Pierce and I were knowledgeable about and interested in. Our first stop on the tour was the Pointe du Hoc. This is where the Army Rangers scaled the dangerous cliffs to overtake German defenses just hours before the invasion. Right when the beach becomes visible you can see gigantic craters that were caused by exploding bombs and shells from the allied attack. These things were about 15-20 deep and were about the size of a normal sized pool to paint a better picture. Throughout the cliffs, German bunkers and pillboxes and the remains of other defenses are scattered. Each German pillbox was surrounded by barbed wire.

Standing on the cliffs overlooking the English Channel was one of the most beautiful and special sites I have ever seen. The two of us just stood there in silence and attempted to comprehend the experience that the soldiers (who were our age) experienced just a few generations ago. From the Pointe du Hoc we drove down to the Omaha Beach. In my head I imagined that the beaches were close together. In reality, each landing site was a few miles from each other and the beaches stretched for hundreds of yards on end. I guess it makes sense for the scale and number of men that landed on the beach. Omaha was pretty amazing too. There is a memorial on the beach that the waves crash against. We made our way down and walked on the sand. Unfortunately, it was high tide so most of the beach was covered with water, unlike the day of the landing. But still, it was something amazing.

The next stop on the tour was the Normandy American Cemetery. This plot of land was truly inspirational. It is full of soldiers who died during the invasion but also throughout the rest of the war in Europe. In total there are 9,387 graves in the cemetery. Each Cross and Star of David is laid perfectly in rows. No matter which angle you walk through the cemetery, whether diagonally, horizontally or vertically, the graves are always in rows. Also, the landscaping is prestine and trimmed with the greatest precision. The cemetery overlooks Omaha Beach and the English Channel. It is so peaceful, which is ironic for how bloody the site was during the war. We spent a few hours here, and I'm glad we did. Walking through the rows of headstones, the memorial and the chapel was something I'll never forget.

When we left the cemetery, we made one last stop to the Gold Beach, which is where the British landed during the invasion. This site was pretty cool because it still had the remains from the floating docks that the allies constructed during the war to move men and materials throughout the harbor. Our tour left the beaches and headed to Caan to visit the war museum there. At this museum, we watched a documentary about the preparation and actual D-Day invasion. The screen was split down the middle. On the left side was the footage from the Allies perspective and the right side represented the German effort. This movie was so interesting and was a great way to put the day into context. The rest of the museum was pretty moving as well and walked through the rest of the war effort.

We left this museum and headed back to Paris. Our tour concluded when we were dropped at the same hotel that we started at, 12 hours later. But I am so glad that I visited Normandy while I was abroad. It was one of the most moving places I've ever been to and such a highlight in my experiences abroad!

We walked back to Teddy's and hung out with him for a little. Since we had such a long day, none of us wanted to go to a club, so we decided to go to see the light show at the Eiffel Tower and drink wine on the Seine River. Before we left, we stopped by the market and picked up some wine, baguettes, cheese, and meat. We made our way to the tower and sat on the stairs, watching the sunset as we enjoyed our little French feast. At this point, I saw how beautiful the Eiffel Tower was. It was such a romantic site and I began to get the "Paris bug". I simply loved spending time with some of my best friends at such an amazing place. The experience was one of my favorites to date. When we finished our food and the light show ended, we made our way to the Seine River. Here, we finished our wine and watched the boats cruise down the river. What a great day/night!

April 22nd

My train back to London left at about 4 in the afternoon. The three of us slept in. When we woke up, we went to brunch before visiting the Sacre Coeur. This is an extremely famous basilica on the top of a hill that overlooks the city. We stormed up the steps and toured through the basilica. The style of this building was different that most of the other religious places I have seen in Europe. After, we walked through some of the streets nearby. In Paris, there are a ton of street merchant who are trying to sell tourists stupid little memorabilia. These merchants are mostly immigrants, and probably the most annoying and invasive people I have had the displeasure of interacting with. That being said, we walked past them and enjoyed the last few hours of our trip to Paris.

Pierce and I grabbed our stuff from Teddy's, said our goodbyes, and headed back to London. I am so glad that I made this trip, because it was one of my favorites. It was so good to see Teddy, and he officially switched my opinions of Paris. One thing I learned about the trip, Paris is such a wonderful, romantic city and I would definitely go back with a fiance or wife. I also learned that I cannot pronounce a single french word no matter how hard I try. Oh well, English works for me!

Hotel des Invalides

Crystal Palace

Pierce in front of the Eiffel Tower

I was stuck lugging around my backpack all day...

Seine River

George Washington

Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe

This was the roundabout that looped around the Arc de Triomphe. There were no lines on the road, so I'm not really sure how cars didn't crash

Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe

Champs-Elysées

Abercrombie & Fitch on the Champs-Elysées. This place had a rope-line with a queue around the corner.

Champs-Elysées

Champs-Elysées

Pierce looking happy as usual

Champs-Elysées

A statue of Charles de Gaulle

The Luxor Obelisk

The Louvre

The Louvre

The Louvre

Arc in front of the Louvre

The Louvre

The Arc in front of the Louvre

The Louvre

Entrance to the Louvre

Me in front of the Louvre

Entrance to the Louvre

The Louvre's lobby

Just one of the gazillion hallways!

The Mona Lisa.

I took this picture from far away to show you how small the painting actually is.

Inside the Louvre (Napoleon III's Palace)

Inside the Louvre (Napoleon III's Palace)

Inside the Louvre (Napoleon III's Palace)

Inside the Louvre (Napoleon III's Palace)

Inside the Louvre (Napoleon III's Palace)

Inside the Louvre (Napoleon III's Palace)

Inside the Louvre (Napoleon III's Palace). Napoleon III's bed. So this is where the magic happened?

Inside the Louvre (Napoleon III's Palace)

Napoleon III's Throne. N for Narcissism?

Planking the Louvre. This is a pretty funny picture, but the only reason I did it was to mimic Zack Malkin's exact same picture in the exact same location. When I got up after posing, an Asian couple that barely spoke English came up to me saying "You very, very funny"

Seine River

Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame Cathedral

The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I refused to take a step closer to the cathedral until I got Pierce to hunch over, against his will, to take this picture.

Entrance to the Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral

Outside the Notre Dame Cathedral

Outside the Notre Dame Cathedral

Seine River

Mid-day wine. I tried olives!

Thomas Jefferson

Hotel des Invalides

Hotel des Invalides

Hotel des Invalides

Hotel des Invalides

Hotel des Invalides

Napoleon's Tomb

Napoleon's Tomb

WWI Memorial

I love seeing these in Europe

Pierce inside the Hotel des Invalides

Hotel des Invalides

Hotel des Invalides

Hotel des Invalides

Place de la Bastille

Pointe du Hoc (Normandy)

Pointe du Hoc (Normandy)

Pointe du Hoc (Normandy). These craters are where bombs/shells made contact.

Enormous craters on the Pointe du Hoc (Normandy)

 Craters on the Pointe du Hoc (Normandy)

German Bunker

Inside the German Bunker

Inside the German Bunker

Inside the German Bunker

Inside the German Bunker

Pointe du Hoc (Normandy)

Pointe du Hoc (Normandy). Imagine being an Army Ranger and scaling these cliffs to fight the Nazis

Pointe du Hoc (Normandy) Memorial

Pointe du Hoc (Normandy)

Looking down the cliff on Pointe du Hoc (Normandy)

Pointe du Hoc (Normandy)

German Bunker on the Pointe du Hoc (Normandy)

Pierce and I at the memorial on the Pointe du Hoc (Normandy)

German Bunker

This used to be a gun turret.

Beautiful view of the English Channel

Inside the German Bunker

Inside the German Bunker. The metal notches used to hold bunk beds up

Look at the size of that crater. It's like 15-20 feet deep!

Allies floating dock

Omaha Beach Memorial

Omaha Beach Memorial

Pierce on Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach Memorial

Omaha Beach with Hide Tide

Omaha Beach (the low tide exposes the beach to the boat out at sea)

Omaha Beach

View of the houses on Omaha Beach with the bluffs in the background

At the Omaha Beach Memorial

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Teddy Roosevelt Jr.'s Tomb. He won the Medal of Honor for his services, and that's why his grave has gold letters.

Normandy American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Niland Brothers (the movie Saving Private Ryan is based on them)

Niland Brothers (the movie Saving Private Ryan is based on them)

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Inside the Chapel at the Normandy American Cemetery

Inside the Chapel at the Normandy American Cemetery

Inside the Chapel at the Normandy American Cemetery

Inside the Chapel at the Normandy American Cemetery

Inside the Chapel at the Normandy American Cemetery

Inside the Chapel at the Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery (the only Father-Son combination buried here)

Normandy American Cemetery (the only Father-Son combination buried here)

Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach

Normandy American Cemetery

Omaha Beach from the Normandy American Cemetery

Omaha Beach from the Normandy American Cemetery

Pierce and I overlooking Omaha Beach

Memorial at the Normandy American Cemetery

Memorial at the Normandy American Cemetery

Memorial at the Normandy American Cemetery

Memorial at the Normandy American Cemetery

Memorial at the Normandy American Cemetery

Memorial at the Normandy American Cemetery

Pierce at the Memorial at the Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

Gold Beach (the British Landing site)

Gold Beach (the British Landing site)

Gold Beach (the British Landing site). Concrete slabs that used to hold the floating docks.

Concrete slabs that used to hold the floating docks.

Concrete slabs that used to hold the floating docks.

Caan War Museum

Caan War Museum

The Eiffel Tower at Sunset

The Eiffel Tower at Sunset

Teddy and I Crossing Baguettes

Teddy, Pierce and I at the Eiffel Tower

Eating Baguettes, Cheese, and Meat while watching the Eiffel Tower light show and drinking Wine

Zee Eiffel Tower!

Fountains in front of the Eiffel Tower

Fountains in front of the Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower light show

Eiffel Towering the Eiffel Tower (I mean we had to, right?)

Pierce and I drinking wine on the Seine River

Tell me that doesn't look French!

Sacre Coeur. Leave it to the Europeans to put all of their sweet shit at the top of enormous hills

Pierce, Teddy and I at the Sacre Coeur

Pierce, Teddy and I at the Sacre Coeur

Pierce, Teddy and I at the Sacre Coeur

Pierce, Teddy and I at the Sacre Coeur

French Market

Teddy and Pierce walking on the Aqueduct

Teddy and Pierce walking on the Aqueduct