Welcome to what will be my last proper blog post from Paris! Tomorrow morning, I'll be on the Eurostar hurtling under the Channel towards home and I'm really excited- Mum's put all the decorations up, done most of the food shopping and will be waiting for me, with my sister, at St.Pancras. Yay!!
I can't really remember what I did last week before I went to Strasbourg to visit Sia, so we'll just start from there. The journey there was a bit icky, as I'd come down with a cold and spent most of the journey with a tissue up my nose. Sia was on the platform to meet me though, which was cute, and after heading back to hers for a little rest, we started my sightseeing tour.
I was quite excited to see the European Parliament etc and had compulsory pictures of me taken outside of it. They were in session as well, so God only knows what important things were being decided behind me (you can check on the website)
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| ridiculous fog! |
We also went to this strange little zoo where I met some Strasbourg storks and a very curious looking duck. (there is a video of this, but it's 5 mins long..)After that, we headed into the city centre and I quickly came to the conclusion that Strasbourg is one of the loveliest cities I've ever seen, as well as being ridiculously Christmassy- there were literally decorations and lights EVERYWHERE, even on the cranes (building cranes, not the birds). Sia took me to this lovely little cafe where they do all sorts of tea and amazing cakes. I picked lemon and spice tea, but because I was so stuffed up, I couldn't taste it and it was just like hot water :( We rounded off the day with dinner at Vapiano which was excellent apart from the waiter thinking I said 'feta pizza' instead of 'the same for me please'. Is my French that bad?!
The following day we went on to Baden-Baden where we met up with Sarah. It was so cool (for lack of a better word) to get a bus in Strasbourg and just 10 or so minutes later, get off in the German town of Kehl. Baden-Baden is possibly one of the poshest German towns I've been to, but I still did some Christmas shopping, had lunch in a Chinese and dawdled around the markets where we had Gluhwein, of course. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon/evening sitting in the famous Casino. We also tried our hand at Blackjack- I think the guy thought Sia was mental for buying 3 chips- and I won a tasty 6 euros! The day trip ended with us getting the wrong bus. We didn't realise for a while, until we could only see trees out of the window. Oops. We ended up in a town called Buhl... but we got home eventually. Sia and I watched Nativity! and I've had the song 'Nazareth' in my head ever since.
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| SO FREAKING CUTE |
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| entrance to the Casino, Sia has better pictures than me so read her blog instead! |
On Saturday, we climbed the Cathedral which was really tough and went to the Museum of Modern Art and were suitably terrified by some very strange videos. I enjoyed it though, mainly because I was with someone just as skeptical as me.
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| it's like a storybook |
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| quite liked this - 'bit like Kanye West, innit' |
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| Quoi le fuck? |
I tried my first Flammekuechen or tarte flambee that night- they're basically a bit like pizzas but very thin and instead of a tomato sauce base they have sour cream and onions. DELICIOUS. We went for dinner at a very popular restaurant with Sia's friends Nikita and Kat, who were lovely. I also bumped into Niamh! She was a party of one of Sia's friends...small small world. We finished off in a cocktail bar called Wakiki where the waitress seemed to get her sums wrong and we paid less than we ought to have done. Score.
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Sia and I at Wakiki
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| flammekuechen |
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Sunday was dedicated to the Christmas markets, which were lovely and much more authentic than the ones in Paris. It felt so Christmassy! We had our last meal at a Mexican restaurant before going home, both grumbling about how early we had to get up (my train back was at 5.41 am.)
I arrived back in Paris on Monday morning feeling very Christmassy and refreshed after a long-needed break from the city. Niamh and I went to La Pagode to see a Chinese film which was very violent but quite enjoyable even though I did fall asleep for a bit but I blame that on the blankets that they give you...
Last night, we had a Christmas dinner at the residence which was really cute and everyone brought or made something from home. Naturally, I brought mince pies and there was only one left so hopefully they liked them. Mau gave me spices again but this time she'd thought of me and only put one chilli in the salsa so I didn't spend the evening coughing and going red.
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| Elinor, Mau and Ines - will miss these girls! |
So today was my last day in Paris and I spent it in a class, running around the St.Michel tourist shops for last minute gifts, sniffing various cheeses in Franprix for mum and packing the rest of my stuff. I also witnessed one last strange thing- there was a man on St.Michel bridge throwing sandwiches into the river for the birds. Yes, not slices of bread, but whole sandwiches.
Tonight, I'm off to say goodbye to Anja and Alexandra, who I've met for Starbucks nearly every week since I've been here. Sad times.
This time tomorrow I'll be in Essex again. Au revoir Paris!
