paris
This year my (now) fiancé and I took our first vacation alone together. It was scary, amazing, nerve wracking, and fabulous all at the same time. I've traveled out of the country before with my family and we've vacationed together with others before, but never on our own, and never out of the country let alone across the Atlantic.
At first we didn't even know where we wanted to go, but we knew we wanted to go. Italy was a number one choice for a long time when we were making our decision, but something led us right over to Paris and we stuck with it. The Eiffel Tower, strolling through the parks, the museums, drinking wine at all hours of the day, and a cafe on every corner; it sounded perfect. It was perfect.
Shortly after we arrived my worst nightmare came true... my camera, my beautiful DSLR camera I had brought to document this once in a lifetime trip for us would not turn on. We tried everything we could think of to get it to work but nothing. I was now forced to document this trip using only my phone but honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love being a photographer and I love having high quality photos to remember my life by but not having to lug my big camera all over Paris was lovely. Living in the moment instead of trying to get the perfect shot was great. Plus it also forced me to really step up my game in phone photography and I love the photos I was able to capture; it really just goes to show it's not the big fancy camera that makes the photographer.
For the first two days we just wanted to get a feel for the place, learn the metro, figure out where we're going (and if we can find our way home). Our apartment was 13 blocks off of The Eiffel Tower, so we weren't really in tourist country. That was a little difficult considering we don't know any French but we did manage to find a little restaurant close to home that had an English menu. We had our first breakfast there and we both agreed that it was the best breakfast we had in Paris. Our next stop was, of course, The Eiffel Tower. We hopped on the metro and rode it all the way to the end: Chatelet. We step off and we don't see The Eiffel Tower anywhere (still trying to get the hang of things). So naturally we just start walking in the nearest direction of the biggest crowd of people, also known as: the wrong way. Both of us were somewhat smart, though, and we had downloaded offline maps, so we pulled those out and eventually found our way to the best view Paris has to offer❤️ Pictures truly don't do it justice, and trust me I took a lot, it will literally take your breath away when you see it in person. There really is a certain magic Paris has that you just can't get over.
Now that we have a feel for Paris and the first scary day is over we are feeling a little more comfortable. Onto our next stop: The Louvre. Actually before The Louvre we stopped for some food close to it and I had the best mocha you could ever imagine.
But anyway, onto The Louvre. We aren't true art lovers by any means but The Louvre fascinated us. You could literally walk around there all day and you still wouldn't cover a quarter of it, it's amazing. I couldn't imagine what walking around there would be like if we were art fanatics. If you are an art fanatic and if you're ever planning to go to Paris and you do want to visit The Louvre it's free on Sunday's :) But I would recommend getting their as early as you can, we waited in line for a good hour and a half before we even got in.
Monday we rented a Renault Twingo and drove around the French Countryside with one destination in mind: Omaha Beach. I could not recommend seeing this place anymore. It is breathtaking, to stand where they stood, stepping inside the bunkers, listening to the ocean; it's unlike anything we've ever experienced. And for a tourist destination, actually for any destination; it's dead silent, nobody speaks, you just soak it all in.
On Wednesday we also left Paris, hopped on the Eurostar, and headed over to London for a little day trip in a country that we actually knew the language :) Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to ride the London Eye, I don't know why but it was a bucket list thing, so we did it.
I won't lie, for some reason when we got to the top my hands got all sweaty and I got a little scared (in my defense the little things they put you in are clear all around), but I lived through it; and still managed to enjoy the amazing view at the top. After our ride on the eye we had to do the next touristy thing you can do in London: see Big Ben. I really didn't care for the typical tourist view, so I won't even bother posting that photo. After walking for probably about an hour we came across my favorite view of Big Ben... and it just so happened that the nicest red telephone booth in London (I'm pretty sure anyways) was right there too, so naturally I had someone take a photo of us in front of it; I mean did you even go to London if you don't take a picture in front of those?! Also, side note: it's December and London still has colored fall leaves on their trees!
Our train home from London was delayed by over an hour (which wasn't too fun considering we had to be up earrrrly the next morning for our next day trip). But we ended up sitting in the London Train Station with a local talking and drinking all the beers (or in my case mimosas) that they would serve us and I think that we had more fun sitting there talking to our London friend than we did walking around the city. Delays aren't always bad I guess :) Also, the train station was one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen.
Thursday we took a little longer train ride over to Amsterdam: our favorite of the two day trips :) Amsterdam is nothing shy of a Dr. Seuss book, the people and buildings, in the best way :)
Our first stop in Amsterdam was the Anne Frank House (if you can't already tell, we love World War II history). We got there at 10:30 and our tickets weren't until 11 soo we walked to the nearest place to grab a bite to eat. I happened to have the best bowl of tomato soup paired with a whole loaf of French bread in the entire world. Afterwards we headed back to the house for our tour. This place was incredible, it had the original bookcase, stove, newspaper clippings, footage from WWII, interviews with her friends and father, pretty much anything you've ever read about, and of course the most important thing: her original diary. Photos aren't allowed on the actual tour, so if you want to see any of that you'll have to go; and I highly recommend that you do go.
Next on the agenda: The Red Light District, because how do you go to Amsterdam and not visit it? It's pretty strange to say the least and I'll just leave it at that. If you want to know what it's like then you go there ;)
Afterwards we really just walked around, most of our trip really was just sightseeing. Taking it all in. We did hop on a Lovers Cruise and rode around the canals for a while and afterwards we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets you've ever seen on one of the bridges, but aside from that it was just a lot of walking until it was time to get on our train back to Paris.
For the rest of our trip we stayed in Paris. It was funny after being in London and Amsterdam for those two days we actually missed being in Paris. We decided to check out the park across the street from our apartment and that was nothing like we had pictured. I love Central Park, but this really put it to shame. And we would have never came across it if we hadn't stayed so far away from all of the toursity things. Oh and of course there were a couple cafes in the park, I'm actually convinced Parisian's can't walk more than a few steps without needing to at least see a cafe. It worked out in our favor though so I really can't complain :) We could have spent all day walking around the park. It's literally right in the middle of everything but it's huge!
One evening while walking along The Seine at sunset we came across the love lock bridge, if you aren't familiar with it it's filled with locks from couples, you write your names on the lock and throw the key into the river, so naturally we had to put our two locks (the first one I bought didn't have a key....) on the bridge and throw our key into the river. I'm a little cheesy so I enjoy things like that. If you enjoy long romantic walks with your favorite person in the world I would definitely suggest walking along The Seine at sunset. It's absolutely perfect❤️
I'm certain Paris doesn't actually have a bad view, but if you're interested in yet another breathtaking view of the city I highly recommend climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe at sunset and taking that in.
something else that I can't recommend enough: stop in for drinks or snacks all the time. Whenever you're in the mood for something just go get it. Paris is filled with so many places to eat and you will never get to go to all of them but why not try to go to as many as you can?! If you don't speak French it's always fun to guess at what you're ordering and even more fun to see what you get and how it tastes, plus everywhere you go makes an excellent cup of coffee, has a wide selection of some of the best wines you'll ever taste, and a large selection of drinks that you won't find back in the states. PLUS desserts, all of the desserts you could possibly want. So why not try as much of it as you can???
And finally, the last full day for us to spend in Paris came :( We had a lot more money than we thought we would left over so we did all of our favorite things: went to the park that holds The Eiffel Tower, rode the carousel in front of The Eiffel Tower, saw The Eiffel Tower at night for one last time, ate amazing food, found all the mimosas and other amazing drinks that we could, shopped until we couldn't anymore, everything we wanted to do we did. There wasn't one thing that we didn't do and I wished we would have, we covered all that we wanted to cover and I cannot wait for our next adventure. And I'm seriously debating if I should leave my big camera home when we go on trips from now on, I don't know if I could actually bring myself to do it, but we'll find out I guess :)
