Public Transportation is Hard

Week two is now done! This week consisted of class excursions to Koblenz and to Cologne and a personal excursion to Paris!

In Koblenz, we got to visit yet another beautiful city along the Reine! Koblenz was different from Bonn and Cologne because it was so quaint. We got to visit a concert hall and see all of the behind the scenes actions from two wonderful tour guides, and we visited the Ehrenbreitstein fortress. It was so cool to see all of these building that you watch in movies and read about in books come to life. The castle also provided the most incredible view of the city that I think we could have gotten!  It was another one of those times that’s Europe continues to blow my mind. On Wednesday, we ventured out into Cologne! We got to see the Dom Cathedral, the original Eau de Cologne shop, and many different sites and monuments that I never would have even payed any mind to if I had just walked through the city on my own. We had the most eccentric and funny tour guide that I have ever had. She made a long walking tour in the heat totally worth it. After the tour, we walked along the Reine to get some gelato and got to see a Game of Thrones (rip) themed Reine cruise about to depart from the docks, which was really funny. We also saw a bridge over the Reine that was filled with locks from visitors around the world. I thought only Paris had a place like this, but I guess a lot of big cities in Europe have them as well! It helps me put into perspective how so many places around all of Europe are such hubs for people from all around the world to visit and interact with each other, that no matter how different we were raised, there are small things in life that we all find to enjoy, like leaving your mark on a city by putting a lock on a bridge.

On Friday, we departed to Paris. We arrived pretty late at night, so we got to see the City of Lights alive as we travelled to our Airbnb. The next day, we woke up and made sure to have a croissant and coffee for breakfast. Then, we headed out to see the Eiffel Tower! I remember how fast my heart was beating as our uber was driving up to it and it just kept getting larger and much more real. It was surreal to see the Eiffel Tower, one of the seven wonders of the world, something I have always heard about since I was a baby, in person. We made sure to get some pictures (some of the best I’ve gotten in Europe so far) and then we went to get lunch. We ate a really nice meal at a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower, complete with wine, escargot, a gourmet entree, and a mouth-watering dessert recommended to us by our waiter. It was exactly the meal I imagined I would be having if I ever went to Paris, and it lived up to ever expectation I had. We then walked from the restaurant to the Louvre. I can’t even begin to describe how incredible the Louvre was. Literally every room we walked into made my jaw drop. We overheard a tour guide saying there were over 380,000 artworks in the Louvre and it blew my mind. Usually, I get bored in art museums and don’t really take the time to look around at everything, but the Louvre held my undivided attention from the moment I stepped in. After that, we travelled back to our Airbnb in Versailles to get ready for the rave at the Palace. We put on our cute, crazy outfits complete with glitter and made our way there. I know that I keep talking about how mind-blowing everything was, but the rave was mind-blowing as well. We were standing in the garden of one of the most important Palaces in European history and were were dancing our butts off to EDM. The showed ended with a surprise appearance from Tyler the Creator and a fireworks show. We all walked out of that rave in awe not believing what we had just experienced. The next morning, we wanted to relax after the crazy Saturday we had, so we had a nice breakfast in Versailles, walked around the town for a bit, and then headed to the train station to head back to Bonn and get ready for Norderney. Overall, Paris was incredible and exceeded every expectation I had. There’s so much rich history surrounded by one of the most diverse populations of people I had ever seen. However, if I had to give any advice to anyone traveling there, it’s that the public transportation is a nightmare to figure out and that a lot of French people are reluctant to speak English with you, so prepare for some communication barriers.

It’s bittersweet to think that the program has gone by this quickly. I’m beyond grateful for the experiences I have been able to have so far, but I don’t want to think about how my time in Europe is coming closer and closer to an end. My goal for the rest of the program is to make sure that I live in the moment with what I’m doing and to appreciate the places and the people around me as much as I can while I’m here.