Christmas Travels: Part I

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all having a fun holiday season. Although I didn’t get to celebrate my usual Christmas traditions, I had a blast. Over the past two weeks Andrew and I travelled to Dublin, Edinburgh, London, and Paris.

Our first stop was Dublin, Ireland. We arrived on December 18 and spent the first day walking along the famous Grafton Street and the Trinity College campus. On Saturday we walked through St. Stephen’s Green, visited the Chester Beatty Library, and went to the Irish Modern Art Museum. We got lost a couple of times, but there were plenty of friendly locals to help us find our way.

The next stop of our journey was Edinburgh, Scotland. We fought the bitter cold winds and pouring rain to see the Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, Mary King’s Close, and the Royal Mile. We also walked along Princess street and the Christmas Market with hot mulled wine to fend off the wintry weather.

On the night of December 21st we flew to London and at 3:00 AM on December 22nd I was on a bus to visit Stonehenge with my friend Emily, a Holy Cross student studying abroad at Oxford this year. Although it was very cold and very early, it was completely worth it to visit Stonehenge at sunrise on the winter solstice. We were able to touch the stones and see druids pray and sing as the sun rose.

Emily and I at Stonehenge

After Stonehenge we stopped at the Salisbury Cathedral and saw the best preserved copy of the original Magna Carta. That afternoon Emily, Andrew and I went to a local pub, ate fish&chips, and had a pint of cider before sending Emily off to the airport. (She flew back to America to spend time with her family). Over the next few days Andrew and I went to the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and a production of “A Christmas Carol” in London’s west-end theatre district.

The classic London shot
“Hello from the other side…of the pond.”

Finally, on Christmas Andrew and I arrived in Paris, France. This was another whirlwind of “touristy-ness”. We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Palace of Versailles, the Arc du Triomphe, and ate croissants on our hostel balcony. This semester I took a class on Ancient Egyptian Art, and it was amazing to see the sphinx, mummies, Egyptian jewelry, and ancient cylinder-seals after studying these very artifacts all semester. We asked around for a good French restaurant, but when we got to the place we discovered it was a southern French basque restaurant. The Basque people live in Southern France and Northern Spain. Andrew and I had a good laugh as we ate some of the same dishes we had in Spain.

A Very Parisian Selfie

I am actually typing this post at the Madrid airport. I left Paris this morning and am now waiting for my dad and brother to arrive. We will be traveling around Spain for the next few weeks. Check back in January for my post, Christmas Travels: Part II.

Best,
Ali

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2015 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Leon, Spain, Spanish, Spanish Major, Study Abroad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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