Les derniers jours

So it has finally come down to my last few days in Paris and they have been truly amazing.

After arriving back in Paris on Thursday night, I went to a party at Vicki's apartment which was an impromptu farewell for Ross. It was a great night and then Ross woke me up at 5am to say goodbye as he was also catching the train to London to start his internship. Damn these people and their EU passports.

Then I actually got a bit of a shock, because I went back to my apartment for breakfast and there was a knock at the door... a man was there with two suitcases all ready to move in even though my contract wasn't supposed to end until Saturday! After a very strange conversation in French he agreed to leave his suitcases and give me the day to move my things. Luckily I had the other apartment to go to! And the strangest thing of all was that even if I was supposed to have been leaving that day, they weren't even going to clean the place! So I pretty much spent the day moving all my things on the metro, which wasn't too enjoyable.

Then on Saturday morning I went to meet Zoe and we went to Quai Branly, a museum of indigenous art from all over the world. It was in a very cool building quite close to the La Tour Eiffel.

When I saw this all I could think was "I got a new crown, it's got a gecko on it" (Madagascar anyone?)

We then caught the metro to Le Marais to go to the famous Rose Bakery, where we met Paris and had a delicious lunch of quiche, salad and fresh juice.

After lunch we headed over to Merci, a very chic cafe that donates all profits to charity, and also has a huge store that sells jewellery, clothes, perfume, furniture and crazy homewares.

Paris then invited us back to his new studio which is in the very posh 1st arrondissement (he is staying another semester). To get there we walked through Place Vendôme, where The Ritz is located next to a ton of luxury shops (Chanel, Cartier, Dior etc.) We bought some baguettes, cheese and wine and had a nice chilled afternoon.

For dinner I went to Zoe's place and she cooked me some authentic Italian pasta (so delicious) and we watched the Champions League final. Villa, Villa, Villa buenos dias! For dessert and celebration we went to Grom, an incredible Italian gelateria (dark chocolate sorbet and salted caramel).

Sunday was another busy day! In the morning I had coffee with my French friend Mickael and then went to Eggs&Co. with Jenna for some final deliciousness.

For dessert we couldn't help stopping at Pierre Hermé, who is famous for macarons. It is ridiculously expensive but oh so good. I had pistachio, citron and one called 'Mogador' which is a combination of chocolate and passionfruit.

It was then time to head over to the Canal St Martin in the 20th to go for drinks at Le Comptoir General, a very cool bar in a huge old building that sells coconut beer.

I was pretty tired by the afternoon, so went home and did a bit of packing before going to meet Hillary and her sister for their last dinner. Jake also made it back to Paris for one last night. I am going to miss them like crazy!!

Monday was a crazy day of admin, printing tickets, organising to have a box shipped home etc. etc. and we couldn't help posing for a photo in the 'Peniche', the entrance hall of SciencesPo where everyone sits in the morning and reads the paper whilst waiting for people/class/DSK...

It was then time to head back for a final pack, before going to Rue Mouffetard for drinks with my friends and a delicious crêpe dinner (smoked salmon, spinach, cheese and crème fraiche)! I seriously can't believe it is my last night in Paris!

Wien Partie Deux

So here is the continuation of my Vienna voyage...

On Tuesday night we went to the most famous 'Vienna Schnitzel' restaurant to farewell a friend of Ben's who is returning home to Norway. It was so good, literally the size of a plate (I shared) and it came with potato salad! I was way too excited.

After dinner we walked through the city centre to the Museum Quarter where we sat at an outside bar for a few drinks. Everyone was pretty tired though so we headed home around midnight.

The following morning we slept in and then went to an Australian pub to watch State of Origin (definitely not worth talking about). After that we decided to make the most of the beautiful weather and go swimming in the Danube. It splits into four channels in Vienna and one of them is clean enough to swim in and you can jump off the bridges into the water. Ben even managed to swim all the way across and back.

After that we headed in to Ben's uni, where they have a 'cocktail shack' that serves 750ml cocktails, and Ben used to work there so we got free mango daiquiris! After a quick shower we met some more of his friends at a small winery/restaurant on the outskirts of town and tasted some Austrian wine.

After dinner we all went to Travel Shack, a bar near the dorms and played a very difficult game, which involves taking turns trying to knock a nail into a tree stump, using the wrong end of the hammer. Every time you miss the nail head you have to have a sip of your drink. As you can imagine, doing this whilst drinking is a lot harder than it looks.

The next morning I said goodbye to Ben, who had class all day and went shopping on Mariahilfer Strasse with one of his friends, a really nice girl from Alberta, Canada. We spent forever in Forever21 which has just opened in Vienna... dangerous.

It was then time for me to head to the airport to catch a flight back to Paris. We had a beautiful view over the French countryside as we landed and it suddenly hit me that I only had a few more days left!!!
à bientôt!

Wien

So after an excellent few days showing Ben around it was time for me to check out his exchange city, Vienna! The cheapest way to get there is by flying Ryanair into Bratislava, Slovakia and then catching a one-hour bus to Vienna, so off to Bratislava we headed.

We arrived around 5:30pm on Monday to find the next bus to Vienna was only in 2 hours, so we literally lay down on the footpath, soaked up some sun and enjoyed our duty free purchase...

Eventually the bus came and shortly afterwards we arrived at the Erasmus student dorms. We got ready pretty quickly and headed to Ride Club, which is where all the University of Vienna students go on a Monday night. It was pretty crazy and we only made it home at about 3am.

The following morning we had a bit of a sleep-in before catching the U-Bahn (metro) to Stephansdom, a huge cathedral with a crazy tiled roof. We had a look inside and they had cool glass over the windows so they were like a rainbow.

I love how they have horses and carts everywhere!

Ben then took me walking past all the famous buildings, like the Hofburg Palace, Mozart's House, the Parliament and the Spanish Riding School.

In the afternoon we went and did a tour of Schönbrunn Palace, the former summer residence of the Imperial family.

After doing the tour inside the palace (you can't take photos) we walked up the giant hill at the back of the gardens to get an awesome view over Vienna. And as you can probably tell from the photos the weather was amazing, nearly 30 degrees every day I was there!

From there we wandered back through the gardens to the U-Bahn and home for a nap!

I have to go out now but will continue Vienna adventures soon!