Welcome back to the blog! I really hope you’ve enjoyed the past posts so far because I know I’ve really enjoyed sharing all my adventures with y’all this way! Buckle in for this post, as I have a feeling it’s going to be a bit of a long one. I feel as though I’ve lived lifetimes since the last activities I documented here, and I’ve got so many fun things to share!
First up is last Sunday, January 26th. Anna Rose and I tagged along with Maud and Marie, two of our friends from the Peset, for a day trip to go hiking in Montanejos. Maud and Marie are graduate students from France who are in Spain through the ERASMUS program (an exchange program for students in the EU). Because they’re here with ERASMUS they have access to a whole separate list of activities, including this day trip hike! They invited us to join on Friday, and Sunday morning we were climbing onto a big charter bus full of students from all over! During the hike we met people from Germany, France, Italy, Florida, and North Carolina, all of which were so sweet!
I nearly got car sick as the bus took the winding mountainside roads out to the base of the trail, which was a bit of a rough start. Thankfully, after some water and a moment on stable ground I was prepared to start our journey! The hike was absolutely incredible and also definitely a bit more intensive than I was anticipating. Hiking shoes would’ve certainly helped. Despite this, I powered over gravel and steep climbs and slopes in my sneakers successfully. I don’t have any pictures of the trail on the last part of the hike, but you’ll just have to take my word for it when I say I would NOT recommend doing that to anyone with weak knees or without hiking shoes.
As we got further into the hike, we began to come upon increasingly stunning views. We wound through paths along the rockier valleys, including some that really put to test my ability to look ahead and ignore the cliff next to me as I walked. Some of my favorite views were of the rocky cliffs that dropped into the river below. We also got to see El Churro, a spillway from a local reservoir which spewed a massive plume of water out into the air! The photo really does no justice to how cool it looked in person!
Our final stop was the thermal springs, officially called Fuente de los Baños! I very quickly discovered the difference between thermal springs and hot springs, but I hopped in nonetheless. Persisting through the cool waters was well worth it as I swam through the bends in the pools between the cliffs. It really was quite magical. The water was this perfectly clear teal green, and when you stood still you could spot little fish darting between the rocks. It was certainly one of my highlights of my time here so far!
That night after dinner I joined some of my friends for a game of Monopoly! Out of Sam, Hayes, James, Anna Rose, Neil, and myself I managed to land a respectable 3rd place. A congrats to Neil for his win and his formidable bargaining ability. Well played.
Monday was pretty uneventful between class during the morning and a group meeting that evening.
Tuesday after classes our group took a trip to the modern art museum in Valencia, where we got to see a mix of works by Valencian and international artists. Below are some of my favorites!
The rest of the week passed by pretty uneventfully. I presented an analysis of the poem Rima XXI by Gustavo Aldofo Becquer for my literature class, and we watched El Espiritu de la Colmena in my film class. The movie wasn’t exactly entertaining, but it made me think, which I can always appreciate.
Thursday afternoon we loaded up our bags and headed to the Valencia airport, bound for Paris! I always get a bit nervous riding in planes, but I was so excited I barely worried. It also was a super smooth flight, which helped. Like the flight, the evening was pretty uneventful. Our group caught an uber to our hostel and basically went straight to bed to be ready for the plans ahead! Before I continue, I do have to mention one of my favorite small moments of the trip. All of us were standing outside of Charles De Gaulle, and Hannah was on the phone with the Uber driver, trying to explain where we were. He could not understand her and she could barely understand him. The phone was then passed to Rylee, whose lack of southern accent helped a little bit. With her on the phone, we all started to laugh as we realized that none of us knew any French. ANY. We were reminding each other that “merci” meant thank you. It was BAD. Thankfully being in such a large city meant that this wasn’t really an issue, but definitely a lesson learned should I ever plan to return to France. Maud and Marie have promised me lessons, so there’s some hope.
The next day was off to an early start because we had the earliest appointment at the Louvre! On our way there we stopped at a little bakery and we all agreed that the chocolate croissants we ate there were one of the best things we’d ever tasted.
It should come as no surprise to most of y’all that the Louvre was one of my favorite things we did that weekend. It was just so insane to turn every corner and see another work of art that I had learned about in a history textbook. From the Mona Lisa (pictured below) to Winged Victory and Venus de Milo, I was in awe. We spent four hours there, and I could’ve spent weeks.
Inside the museum, while sitting on a bench in front of The Coronation of Napoleon, I took note of an older couple sitting beside me who were taking turns getting their picture taken in front of the piece. I heard one of them speaking in Spanish as they were trying to fit the whole painting into the background of a selfie, and so I figured I could help out! They were so delighted by me taking their picture, and so so kind. Later, I ended up chatting with a group of women about learning Spanish and living in Valencia after getting caught listening in to one of them explaining the history behind a piece we were looking at. These little moments really make me love learning Spanish, and they brightened my day!
After the Louvre we grabbed some lunch at this really cute little restaurant! Food and lattes were absolutely delicious. Our waiter was super kind, and when we told him we were from Atlanta (I know, shocking he could tell we were Americans) he immediately said that all he knew about Atlanta was that we had “Playboi Carti and hellcats”, which gave everyone a good laugh. From there, we persisted through the cold and the rain and made our way over to Notre Dame. It was stunning, even despite the gray of the day! We weren’t planning to go inside, but the line was so short that we couldn’t not. Unfortunately, besides one below-average crepe, I think that the inside of Notre Dame was the only thing that disappointed me the whole trip. The new renovations had cleaned and whitened the interior, and while still impressive, it didn’t particularly stand out from the other cathedrals I have seen. I think that the dark gothic look really would have been something to see. This being said- the exterior was just as impressive as I had imagined.
That afternoon we did a little bit of shopping, and then made our way towards the Eiffel Tower for dinner with Rylee’s friend Alexa, who was so sweet! As dinner was winding down, we realized it was almost 9’o clock, time for the Eiffel Tower to sparkle! We quickly paid the check and RAN down the street to go and see it. I think Hannah cried a little bit when we turned the corner and suddenly came face-to-face with the tower! It feels insufficient, but truly the word that comes to mind is
“cool”. It was just fascinating because the Eiffel Tower has been something that I’ve seen a million times in movies and tv shows, and there it was, just standing in front of me. I think that aspect made it feel a bit surreal. We took a bunch of photos (one of my favorites being the one of me and Anna Rose that you can see above) and some of the girls started facetiming their friends and family! My phone was about to die, but I managed to sneak in a call to my mom which was so nice! It just was a really sweet moment to end the evening on.
We were awoken at 4:30am the next morning by the fire alarm going off in our building. Thankfully, it was a false alarm and it stopped before we even had taken two steps down the hallway. We all more or less tried to go back to sleep, but alarms went off at 5:30am. On Saturday, our first stop of the day was Carette’s, a famous bakery near the Eiffel Tower!
We got their famous hot chocolate, and I got a delicious strawberry and raspberry crepe! A yummy start to the day! From there we went to a nearby look-out point where there was this amazing view of the Eiffel Tower and the sun rising next to it. We stayed there for a bit, just enjoying the view (and also taking a million photos)!
Afterwards we took a walk through this beautiful street market and grabbed some snacks on our way back to the more central part of Paris! We stopped as well at the Arc de Triomphe, where we all watched in horror as Sarah ran across traffic to the center- hand out in a stop motion to any cars that rounded the curve. For context, there’s a tunnel that brings you to beneath the Arc. Much safer option. I’d recommend it. After surviving that and taking a look around we continued our walk. We stopped along the way at Laduree, a famous bakery known for its macrons. We naturally had to get some. Once back in the central area, we realized we had some time to go to the Musee d’Orsay, which holds mainly French art from 1848 to 1914. We got in for free since we were long-term visa holders under 26, which was really nice because it made it feel a bit lower-pressure. With our limited time, we decided just to go and see the pieces we really wanted to see, which were mainly the Van Goghs and Monets! It was so crazy to see the famous Van Gogh self portrait just hanging on a wall amongst other paintings (all of which were also pretty famous).
Afterwards we walked along the Seine, grabbed some lunch, and looked at a bunch of little book and art booths that lined the river! We tried to visit Shakespeare & Co. but the line was too long, and we had plans to make it up to Monmatre by sunset. So we hopped on the metro by Notre Dame and made our way to the town on the hill! Before leaving, our program director had told us not to look back when climbing up the stairs to the basilica of Sacre-Couer. I stuck to directions and didn’t look back until I passed the final stair. The view took my breath away. I could see the entire city, just as the sunset tinged the skyline a perfect orange. We found a spot amidst the crowd on the main staircase of the basilica, and sat to watch the sunset. Behind us, a man played his guitar and sang. At one point, he played Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” and a bunch of people sang along. That, combined with the view, really just came together to make a pretty perfect moment!
We sat up there for quite a while, and then eventually descended back into Monmatre to find some dinner. We ended up at this hole-in-the-wall spot along a side street, and all got a glass of wine and the most delicious French onion soup!
After dinner, I got to see my friends Claire and Anna who are studying abroad at Oxford this semester! It was so nice to see them, if even for a little bit. They tagged along with us to ice cream, and then my group headed back to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle one last time.
The next morning, Charlie, Sarah, Rylee, and Hannah headed out early to make their flight. Anna Rose and I didn’t fly out until 2:45pm, so we took to the metro to find something to do that morning. We ended up at a small cafe across from Saint Chapelle, a chapel that my sister Katie had recommended we visit. We had tried on Friday, but the line was too long and it was also raining at the time. Luckily for Anna Rose and I though, we had enough time, and it was a cold but sunny morning!
I was so glad we got to go inside because it was stunning! The main chapel is just one smaller room, but the stained glass windows were so intricate that you could’ve spent hours just looking at them. From there, we hauled our stuff to another bakery down the street for some snacks for the train. We each got these amazing raspberry croissants and I also got a chorizo, sundried tomato, and cheese pastry of some sort which was also AMAZING. From there, we conquered the Paris metro system and successfully made it to Charles De Gaulle in time for our flight!
Until next time,
Caroline
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