Bonjour everyone!

Made it back from fall break and have a lot of pictures to share! If you missed my last post, I went to Oslo (Norway), London, and Dublin. It was a whirlwind week and so much fun, but so exhausting- when I got back, I slept from midnight to 5:30pm (whoops!). I guess sleeping in huge hostel dorms and pulling all-nighters at airports will do that to you.

I went with three of my really good friends on the program, and we shared some really incredible experiences and made memories that will be life-long.

Oslo was unsurprisingly colder and wet, but the gorgeous fall leaves everywhere made up for that. I’ve never seen such brightly colored leaves, vivid gold and orange, clinging to trees and lining the ground. I think that was my favorite part of Norway, because I’d really been missing autumn here in southern France (lately, it’s still felt a bit like summer).

It was interesting to hear Norwegian and to not know a single word! We were only there for two days, but we managed to fit a lot into our time there. We walked around the modern part of the city, explored a sculpture garden full of the weirdest statues, went to a Viking ship museum and a Holocaust memorial center, and saw the harbor and fjords all wreathed in mist.

Unfortunately, Oslo is a very expensive place to visit, which we didn’t realize until we got there. So, we ate the cheapest food we could find and decided to sleep in the airport on our last night instead of paying for another night at the hostel. We took the train at midnight, which dropped us off at a faraway station, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. We then made our slow way along the road following my friend’s vague recollection of where the airport was haha, but we made it!

Next up was London. I was immediately charmed by the cute styles of the houses, which made me think of Harry Potter, and by all of the red double decker buses zooming around. The city had a smaller feel than I thought it would, more quaint and old-fashioned than I’d expected. It was unreal to be there and to see so many iconic British things in person- telephone booths, Big Ben, guards with serious faces and huge fuzzy hats. Also, the whole driving on the other side of the road thing was really different!

We found a free city tour, and got to learn about the city’s history while visiting all of the major sites. Some pretty exciting things happened- the prime minister drove by in his motorcade, and later the QUEEN herself! We were standing in a park when our guide starting shouting and we made it over to the edge of the road just in time. She was passing by on her way back to Buckingham Palace, and I got a glimpse of her in the back of her car, wearing a cute little red hat. I feel like we got really lucky, because apparently that doesn’t happen very often.

(I apologize for the bad photo but I promise she’s in the back of that car!)

Other London memories: feeding squirrels peanuts in St. James’s Park, riding the tube (which also had a charming old-timey feel to it), going on a pub crawl and seeing the colorful city lights at night, attending a choral service in Westminster Abbey, us girls sharing a three-level hostel bunk bed, and finding an awesome British flag sweater.

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben by night

Westminster Abbey

We spent another night in the London airport before our morning flight to Dublin- let me just tell you that airport floors are cold and not the most comfortable! I would do it all over again, though.

Dublin was probably my favorite stop on our trip. I loved the atmosphere of the city (and the Irish accents!), and the countryside was breathtaking. We took a day tour out into the Wicklow Mountains National Park. All day long, I was just in perpetual awe of the beauty we were traveling through. Our little red van followed narrow threads of road through windswept and rolling landscapes, past dramatic overlooks and black peat-stained lakes, by sunlit fields of sheep and rich patches of forest. The fields were faded because it was fall, but our guide showed us a few remaining traces of heather, a purple flower that coats the countryside in warmer weather. I can’t even imagine how gorgeous it must be then.

We saw some famous spots on our tour- a bridge and pub used in the filming of P.S. I Love You, and also some fields where parts of Braveheart were filmed.

(we also saw the most intense rainbow I have ever seen… no leprechauns though)

We went to a lot of traditional Irish pubs, and had to have some Guinness, of course. If you’re ever there and want to shop, there’s an amazing and cheap store called Penney’s- I really had to struggle to zip my suitcase on the way back!

Overall, I had so much fun and loved getting to have new experiences, as well as spending tons of time with some great people.

Stay tuned!

~Julia

Location: Montpellier, France