Saturday was our free full day in Paris (and sadly the last day). I started it off by going to Versailles pretty early in the morning to visit the palace of Versailles. The train ride was pretty smooth and I was kept awake by the man playing the accordion on the train for about 10 minutes. Once we finally got into the palace after waiting the huge line, I was astonished at how lavish King Louis XIV’s home was, and could only imagine the time and hard work that went into all of the little details all throughout the palace. After visiting the palace, we made our way back to Paris, where we then went to sacre cœur. The day was so nice, and the whole area and the cathedral was beautiful! We got lunch, hung out on the stairs of sacre cœur, and strolled around Montmartre. Afterwords, we made our way back to the hotel, and a group of us got dinner at a nice restaurant close by. After dinner, Myah, Erin, and I continued to walk around Paris in search of a scooter to ride around the city in. Unfortunately, every Lime bike we found was either dead or broken, so we ended up walking and getting really lost and wound up in jardin nelson-Mandela, where a ton of locals were just hanging around. We then found our way back to the river, where we walked towards Notre Dame. Once nearby, we stopped at this cafe overlooking Notre Dame, and had a glass of wine and just people watched (this made us really feel like the locals). Overall, I was upset that we had to leave, but I had an amazing trip and got to know many amazing people!
Kareem,
It was very entertaining reading your travel journal. I particularly liked just how much you wandered the cities in search of sites, food and experiences. It really seems like you were able to check off a lot of the great places to see in London and Paris. I would love to hear more in your presentation about the soccer game, getting lost in Paris, and why that woman in the picture was judging you?? It was great having you in the class this year. While are male contingent was a little smaller, all the guys made a nice contribution to our class and added much to the group this year. It seemed from experience and from reading the journal that you were not only able to explore the science and cultural wonders of those two cities, but also make some nice friendships in the process.