Budapest, Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Normandy - WOW!

Wow it has been a crazy 2 weeks of traveling! I'll try to keep it short & simple, as a regular e-mail would be quite long!

OK, so April 1st my group that I'm here with left for Budapest, Hungary. We were there for only 2 days, and it was pretty, but I don't think it's a favorite city of mine. Most of our touring was a walking tour around the city. We did however eat at this amazing little place that was known for it's desserts, and they were fabulous! We also went to a spa, which Budapest is famous for I guess, and that was nice and relaxing!

After Budapest was Vienna, where we also stayed for about 2 days. We went to the Treasury Museum, which was kinda boring, the Natural History Museum, and an older art museum. In the art museum we saw a piece of the wall that surrounded Babylon in 400 (I believe) B.C. during the time of King Nebuchadnezzar's reign. It was so cool, quite possibly the coolest thing I've seen on my trip yet! As our Vienna trip ended, our week of spring break began.

On Sunday I left for Paris and met up with a friend of mine who was one of my RA's the semester I spent at Berry College. It was so great to see her and spend time with her family, and she took me on a brief tour of Paris. We also had the best cup of coffee there was. And it really was, waaaay better than Starbucks haha. Monday I met up with my mom who flew in for the week! We saw Notre Dame & the Pantheon that day. Tuesday was our big day! We went to the Eiffel Tower (not all the way to the top - I was a little too freaked to go that high!), the Arc de Triomph, the Moulin Rouge, Sacre-Coeur, a cemetery where we saw the graves of Oscar Wilde, Chopin, & Jim Morrison, had some supper and went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night! On Wednesday we went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa (whose eyes really do follow you wherever you go!) but it was quite crowded and all the signs were in French, which honestly made it difficult for me to enjoy it. I learned I don't really have much of an appreciation for really old art by artists I've never heard of whose pictures are all of half naked people and all look the same. We went by the resturant Johnny Depp owns (!!) and also saw the Opera House, which as you may know is the place Phantom of the Opera, a favorite, is based on, so that was really cool! Now, if you go to Paris, there's 2 things you must try: crepes (with nutella is best!) and croissants. mmm!!

Thursday we got up super early and got a train to Amsterdam. I honestly must say I liked Amsterdam way better than Paris. The city was so quaint and the buildings were just so neat. And everyone, young and old, rides bikes! Plus all the canals just make it so beautiful! In Amsterdam we went to the Van Gogh museum which I LOVED! Although they didn't have Starry Night there, my favorite, the rest of his paintings there were just so beautiful, I think he's one of my favorite painters. We also went to the Anne Frank house, which was really cool. It's so sad to learn about all the horrific things that happened to those people and millions of others, but it was really neat to be able to be there. Friday we took a train to Harlem and went to the Corrie ten Boom museum which was also really neat, and went into a church whose organ was played by Mozart and Handel.

And on to Normandy we went! We went to the American National Cemetery there, I really loved that. It was so peaceful and beautiful, I wish we could have had more time there! And the museum they had there was very interesting. We went onto Omaha beach too, where the American's landed in the Normandy Invasion. Very cool.

Mom left really early on Sunday, so I spent the day alone since my flight to Prague wasn't until 8pm. And now here I am back at school, another week of classes ahead. I discovered a little dessert cafe here the other that has crepe like things with blueberries.. oh so fabulous!