The Wanderful Life of Jasmine : July 2013

So I admit...I've done quite a few absurd things while traveling. Things that I probably wouldn't have done if I thought a little more clearly and logically. Though, I've got to say, some of these daft things I've done have resulted in the most memorable memories...

The view on top of Mont Royal

A couple months ago, I spent my spring break in Montreal and Quebec City Canada with my sister and two other girls. While other college students were getting drunk on sunny beaches, I was covered from head to toe trekking in the snow. It was definitely an atypical spring break vacation to the say the least.

After roughly 7 hours of flight, the plane finally descended at the Montreal airport. As we peered out the windows, we were in amazed to see the grounds covered in snow as well as a bountiful amount of snowflakes gracefully falling from the sky. We were thrilled to see the beautiful snow as Oklahoma had quite a disappointing winter this year.

Entering into the Montreal airport made me feel like I was back in Belgium. I was so excited to see french on all the signs and hear people speak it all around me (even if it was with a very unfamiliar accent...). After changing our money in the airport, we headed out to find a taxi to get to our hotel. Since it was quite late when we arrived in Montreal, we didn't have much of the day left to explore after freshening up. After looking in my handy guidebook, I suggested that we stroll down rue Crescent. I had read some great reviews on this Italian restaurant and wanted to check it out. However, after 15 minutes of strolling down the street without finding it, we decided to temporarily escape from the cold and calm our hunger in a little sushi restaurant. After finishing our sushi, we decided to head out again to find another restaurant since we were still hungry. Luckily, I realized that right in front of the sushi restaurant we were just in was that Italian restaurant that we had been searching for. We scurried across the street and entered into this nice Italian restaurant called Wienstein and Gavino. I thought the food was pretty good, but then again, I think most Italian food is delicious. However, what really stood out to me about that restaurant was our server. Our friendly server was a man in his middle ages that really enjoyed talking. After finishing our meal, I was ready to leave the restaurant but our server kept talking to us and I felt bad for wanting him to stop talking so that we could leave. After finally escaping from our server's endless conversations, we headed out to grab a drink before returning to our hotel.

Our second day in Montreal was spent wandering around lost trying to locate the touristy places on the map and actually visiting some of those places that we eventually found. We strolled around downtown, Chinatown, and Old Montreal admiring the old style architecture, stuffing our faces with a variety of delicious food every 2 hours, and of course shopping.

We decided to leave Montreal and spend two days in Quebec City before returning back to Montreal on our last day in Canada. After packing up all our stuff, we headed out super early to catch our morning train to Quebec City. After about 3 hours on the train, we finally arrived at our destination.

When we got out of the train station in Quebec City, we realized that there was even MORE snow there than in Montreal. The original excitement of seeing snow had worn off and we were just tired of the overwhelming amount of snow everywhere and not to mention the cold winds. Finally, we got to our hotel in Quebec City and started freshening up again before heading out to explore. As I looked out of our hotel window, I saw a woman swimming in the outdoor pool below us. I was astounded and amazed to see someone crazy enough to be swimming outside when there was inches of snow around the pool. In disbelief, I called my sister and our two other traveling companions to come take a look at this outrageous act. We decided that it was absolutely bizarre to swim in an outdoor pool surrounded by snow...and my sister and I decided we wanted in on this craziness! Unfortunately, neither of us had brought swimsuits. However, we were determined to buy some during our day of exploring Quebec City.

Earlier at the train station, I had picked up a free little guide book for Quebec City. In the guidebook, there was a tour itinerary for the Upper Town and Lower Town. We started the guidebook tour at the Quebec National Assembly, which happened to be across the street from our hotel. After touring inside the National Assembly, we continued our guidebook tour. We passed the beautiful Fairmont Chateau Frontenac, Notre Dame de Quebec, and Pub Saint-Alexandre (which sells extremely overpriced Belgian beer), before finally ending at the Place D'Youville.

On the morning of our second day in Quebec City, my sister and I decided that we had to go swim in the outdoor pool with our new bikinis that we had previously bought the day before. We changed into our swimsuits and hesitantly slipped into the water. As we swam to the outside portion of the pool, we felt the cool breeze on our faces. It was such an amazing experience being immersed in the warm water in a freezing cold environment. The feeling was so refreshing and indescribable. As we enjoyed the warmth of the pool water and the cool breeze on our exposed skin, we debated whether we ever wanted to leave. I imagine that the newcomers of the hotel probably stared down at us in the pool and questioned our sanity like I questioned that woman's sanity the day before.

After our lovely morning swim, we headed out to explore the Lower Town of Quebec City. We started our tour at the Marche du View Port and ended at the Petit-Champlain Mural. A lot of time was spent just casually strolling around and visiting various shops on the street. At my sister's suggestion, we also took a nice but extremely short boat ride on the partially frozen river. Quebec City was fairly small and we managed to visit everything we wanted to within two days. Compared to Montreal, it definitely had a more old style European feel to it.

On our last full day in Canada, we returned to Montreal. We set out to visit everything that we didn't have a chance to visit before as well as went shopping for souvenirs. Our day was spent wandering in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, admiring the inside of the beautiful Notre-Dame Basilica, and strolling in the Jean-Talon Market 10 minutes before it closed.

My sister and our two other traveling companions felt that we had basically seen everything in Montreal and were ready to just get dinner before heading back to our hotel. However, I was eager to climb up Mont Royal to see Montreal from above. I tried to convince my traveling companions to come along, but they were tired from all the walking we had done and hiking up a big hill was not in their best interest. So...I decided to go alone because I was adamant on hiking Mont Royal before leaving. (*Note- Yes, this is indeed one of the absurd things that I've done.) So I set off by myself at dusk and started my hike up the hill. About 10 minutes in I started regretting my choice. I realized that it wasn't such a good idea hiking up a big snowy hill in my boots that had a one inch wedge, with a big purse, by myself, in the dark. Halfway up the hill, I debated whether I should just go back down or spend another 15 minutes hiking to the top. I started feeling a bit uneasy as I realized there was not very many people around me and that it was progressively getting darker. After contemplating, I decided to just hike to the top as I didn't think I could face my traveling companions if I gave up halfway through. Finally, after 30 minutes of hiking up a snowy hill, I finally made it to the top and boy was it worth it. The view was amazing!!! I was so glad I did it. However, the prospect of getting back down didn't excite me. By the time I started heading back down it was completely dark. Descending the hill proved to be a lot more difficult because the snowy hill became quite slippery and I found myself stumbling every few steps. I was nervous that I would trip and end up rolling down the hill and smashing into a tree. I also started to feel scared as I was alone and there was few to no people around at that time. After an exhausting 45 minutes of descending the snowy hill and returning to the starting place, I was relieved to find my traveling companions.

For our last night in Montreal, we met up with a friend that my sister and I had met in Paris the previous summer. The 5 of us enjoyed delicious Italian food in some restaurant on rue St. Catherine. Afterwards my sister, our Parisian friend, and I went out to dance the night away while our two other traveling companions decided to head home to pack for our flight the next morning. As my sister and I returned back to our hotel, we crashed and woke up after 3 hours of sleep to catch our flight back home.

My spring break trip in Canada was definitely memorable and I can't wait to return to eat Poutine and drink Maple flavored lattes!

Outside our hotel in Montreal

Posing with a statue next to the Quebec National Assembly

Swimming in the hotel pool at Quebec City

Freezing on the boat ride in Quebec City

Besides the Fairmont Chateau Frontenac

Stuffing our faces with delicious food

Enjoying live music and overpriced foreign beer

In front of a souvenir shop in Upper Town Q.C.

In front of Notre-Dame Basilica

Marche du Jean Talon

While Europeans dream to visit New York one day, I think most Americans dream to visit Paris one day.

The first time I visited Paris was with my 1st Belgian host family. You could imagine how ecstatic I was when I found out we were going to Paris for a few days during fall break. At about 2 months into my exchange, I still couldn't believe that I was in Europe in the first place. Everything felt so surreal.

As the time came, we packed our bags, loaded the car, and headed off to Paris! The amazing thing about Belgium is that because of its size, you can practically drive out of the country within just a couple of hours. I believe the road trip to Paris was about 3-4 hours. That's basically like driving from OKC to Dallas...

The road trip definitely did not go as smoothly as planned. My poor host mom got a bad case of car sickness and we had to abruptly pull over to the side of the highway as she hurled. An hour later, we finally got back on the road and headed to Paris. When we arrived at our hotel, which happened to be walking distance from the Arc de Triomph, my host mom informed us that she was going to stay the hotel for a while to recover.

My host father, host brother, and I went out to to stroll down the " Avenue des Champs-Elysees." As I walked down the street with my host family, I couldn't help but hum the song "Champs-Elysees" by Joe Dassin in my head. After visiting a couple of the cool shops on this avenue, my host dad suggested we visit the "Cathedrale Notre Dame." There was a ridiculously long line in front of the cathedral when we arrived, so we ended up just admiring the outside before leaving. My host mom felt better after resting and called us up to meet with her at a famous cafe called "Fauchon." She wasn't quite there yet when we arrived, so my host dad told me I could go stroll around by myself while waiting for her. I took up his offer and headed out to explore the streets of Paris. It felt so surreal wandering around Paris at dusk and visiting the market stalls that were set up all along the streets. I still couldn't believe I was actually there.
The next day, my host family took me to see all the "must see" places in Paris. We visited the Place de la Concorde, Musee du Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, Eiffle Tower, La Basilique du Sacred Coeur, and Montmartre.

I was so grateful that I had a chance to go to Paris with my amazing host family but found myself wanting to return there a second time to thoroughly explore the city.

Luckily, my sister came to visit me in Europe and we traveled to many cities together. Paris was the 2nd to last city on our European tour. We flew to Paris from Rome, and had three days in Paris before setting off to London. Amazingly, we arrived in Paris on Bastille day which is the French national holiday. At dusk, we headed out towards the Eiffle Tower and awaited for the firework show. There were hundreds of people sitting in the Champs du Mars in front of the Eiffle Tower and in the streets. As the sky grew dark, music started to play and fireworks bursted into the night sky. It was absolutely magical and the most breathtaking firework show I'd ever seen.

After the firework show ended, people poured into the streets. My sister and I wanted the amazing night to continue and soon found ourselves dancing at a hip Parisian bar/nightclub. We danced and danced the night away...and were the last ones to leave at 6am. Inevitably, we crashed as soon as we got back to our hotel and unfortunately slept most of the following morning and afternoon. That evening and the next day were spent visiting all the touristy places in Paris that I previously visited with my host family. After visiting Mona Lisa in the Louvre and wandering around the Jardin des Tuileries, my sister realized her new phone was gone. We spent the next hour or two frantically retracing steps and scouring the ground for her phone...but it was gone for good. Although she was definitely bummed out, she didn't want to waste our last day in Paris. At night, we planned to return to the Eiffle Tower to go up on it so that we could see Paris from above. However, we lost track of time and left our hotel later than planned. We ran to the Eiffle Tower, and as we breathlessly arrived there, a man informed us that the rides up had stopped for the night. Bummed out, we headed back. The next morning, we took a train to London.

Both of my trips to Paris were incredibly awesome to say the least and I'm yearning to return to this magical city. I still have yet to check off "Ascending the Eiffle Tower" on my bucket list which gives me a reason to come back. :)