Jessica Sekelsky’s Travel Journal

This day was all just traveling so there isn’t much to say about it. But My flight experience was good and I was happy to finally be home and get fresh air after being in a plane all day but overall a good experience. It took me awhile to get used to the time change again after getting back to a regular schedule. I had a very good time on this trip and I am glad that I decided to go! A lot of great memories were made and will never be forgotten.

For this day a few of us got up super early to travel to Versailles. It took about an hour to get there, a thirty minute wait in a line in the cold, and then another hour to travel back…to see a palace that I knew nothing about. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about Versailles until I actually got there. I wish I had known more before going because I think that I would have appreciated it more than just seeing it as a gold building with a lot of murals. Either way I am glad I at least got to see it while in Paris. After this we went to the Sacred Heart church and it was a beautiful day to see this. It was a grand church at the top of a hill with many steps to get to it. The sun gleamed on the stairs and church beautifully and over the balconies on the stairs there was a view as far as you could see of so many buildings throughout the city. We all just sat on the stairs and soaked up the sun for awhile before even going into the church. After this we did some shopping and then went back to the hotel where I got dinner with Savannah and that is how we ended our last night abroad and it was really nice and relaxing.

Today we went to the Eiffel Tower! I am glad we did this as a group because I do not think that I would have gone up it without us doing it as a class. I enjoyed seeing all of Paris from a higher view point and we all got some amazing pictures. I did not realize how big Paris was. It also interested me that all of the buildings were basically the same height. I am so used to seeing a skyline of large skyscrapers in big cities in the US but there were only a few scattered ones in Paris. The museum of man was after this and I really liked how modern it was. I wasn’t necessarily into the content of the museum but the interactive exhibits really made me interested in things that, like I said, was not interested in. After this, which has already been a long day, we went to the Pasteur museum and I personally did not find much interest here. I think this would have been better to be a self guided tour because the place was very small but we spent over an hour in a guided tour that was hard to stay awake for. Then after this we went to another museum that I think I would have enjoyed more if it was not after a full day of activities. The technology museum had some really cool history in it and I love learning new things about our past so that was nice to have the guided tour so we could learn more about items that I would have no idea about otherwise. But like I said, I wish it was during a different time during the trip.

We first started the day at the hotel breakfast…just like every other day but nothing was going to beat those chocolate croissants. We went to the Jardin de Plantes and saw a few different museums in the time we had here. I thought it was cool that it was just a square that had all different genres of museums for people with all different interests. I went to the zoo because I am doing my paradigm shift on zoos so that was interesting to me. After this we had a free afternoon and some of us went to the Louvre. The Louvre was not my favorite place because there were a million people in there and it was underwhelming in my opinion. I would probably not go there again if I had the choice to. After this we went to explore random places like the umbrella ceiling and Lauderé for some dessert. This was one of my favorite days in Europe because we did so many things and saw so much.

Today we left very early to travel to Paris. The train station was set up just like an airport with going through customs and security which I did not expect so it took a lot longer than I thought. On the train I fell asleep for most of it so in my opinion it went by really fast! Once we got there, we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went to go see Notre Dame Cathedral. Here I had my first crepe ever at one of the stands by the church. A group of us then went to walk around the little back streets with all of the shops by our hotel. Later half of us had dinner at The Little Prince with Caroline. This dinner was very long but also very good. After this it was late so I went back to the hotel to get all of my stuff together and then fall asleep.

We first went to Westminster Abbey which was my favorite place on the itinerary. I am glad that we had a tour guide here because otherwise I would have had no idea what anything was without the mini history lesson at each place we stopped. The church was also so big that I would have taken way too long to look at everything without a tour guide. After this we went to the Royal society, which was not my favorite place. I think this was because I was just tired and very hungry. We all went to the London Eye after this and I wish that it was not raining because it made the glass hard to see out of and there was 24 of us in the pod so it got a little foggy. Later half of us went to dinner at an Italian restaurant with Caroline which took a very long time but the food was very good. I was not going to the theater so I did not mind that it took so long but some people were very late to their show because of the dinners. Instead of the theater I walked around and did some shopping and then ended up at a gourmet donut shop to end the night.

This was our free day in London and most of my day was spent traveling to and from Stonehenge. The journey went fast there and back and we also learned some history about Salisbury, the town Stonehenge is in. Seeing it was very cool besides the fact that it was beyond windy and I decided to not wear my coat that day…so right when we got there I had to buy a hoodie because I think I was actually going to die. After we got back, we went to Burroughs Market and walked around there and then went to Chinatown for dinner and this is where I got my second bubble waffle. Besides that we just walked around and did some shopping around London until dark.

The day started off with the hotel breakfast and it was very good. We then walked to the British museum and walked around there on our own for awhile. Then some of us left to go to Camden Market and the zoo. Camden Market is the first place that I saw THE bubble waffle. I fell in love. I got one with oreos, strawberries, and nutella. Then, we walked around Camden Market which was one of my favorite parts in London. After the market, some of us went to the zoo. I was excited for this because I am doing my paradigm shift on zoos and it is also on my bucket list to see a zoo in every state so it was cool to add on a zoo from a different country. For dinner we went to the Gordon Ramsey restaurant which was very good and we all got free dessert!

this is our first official day in London once getting off the plane. This was one of the longest days of the trip because right from the airport we took a subway to the hotel and then immediately went to the town of Down. In Down, we went to lunch and then toured Darwin’s house. It was hard for me to put my mind around the fact that I was in the house that Darwin lived in. I am glad that we were able to walk through the house and garden on our own accord but I do not think that we needed that much time to explore. One thing that I wish was open at the house was the sand path but it was locked and we could not see it. After this we took the blue bus tour of London and I really enjoyed this the most. I like learning about the history of places and what different buildings mean. If we did not have the tour guide, then I would not have known half of the information that I learned about London. When we got back to the hotel, Savannah and I went to dinner at a local pub called the rising sun and then got flower shaped gelato! We explored around the hotel a little bit more and then went to bed because we were both so tired.

This is the day that we left for London from the Columbus airport. I was very anxious to leave while waiting in the airport for hours. Once we got through security, I went to put all of my stuff back into my bag and put my shoes back on and I ended up leaving my laptop on the bench that I was sitting on! Luckily John picked it up and gave it back to me. I had no idea it was even gone…that would have been an awful start to the trip. The first plane to New York went by very fast; I think I slept the whole time. The next flight was six hours but the time went by so fast because I just watched movies the whole time. I also sat next to Theresa on both flights and it was nice to become closer with her because we had a lot in common and a lot to talk about!