After a full week traveling around the NE section of France I have returned home to Copenhagen (and 30 degree weather)! As an intro into the trip here are some of my favorite memories (If you could not tell, Paris may or may not have been my favorite part):
This was taken on one of Paris' infamous lock bridges.
If you don't know what this is you have trouble ahead. (Also does anyone else feel like Oprah is the Eiffel Tower of humans? Everyone knows who she is!)
This was taken on our last day at the Tuileries Garden near the Louvre. It was a beautiful day and the Parisians were definitely taking advantage of the weather.
Our trip began with an overnight train ride (which, contrary to popular belief, is not as glamorous as Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney make it look in White Christmas) to Strasbourg. Each train car had 6 bunks total with three beds on each side, turning our night into a fabulous nightmare of a 21 year old slumber-party! I'm just kidding about the nightmare bit, It was actually really fun. Plus people do crazy things when they don't have access to the internet for over 10 hours.
After arriving in Strasbourg we had the first of our many DIS sponsored lunches (which all happened to be 3 courses). This lunch consisted of a traditional french vegetable starter, a main meal of pork, green beans, and mashed potatoes, and tiramisu for dessert. Let me just say that I LOVE DIS LUNCHES. EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE THEM! 3 COURSE LUNCHES ALL AROUND! After lunch we took a tour of the City and learned A LOT about the history of Strasbourg as a French-German-French-German-French city.
This is Strasbourg's Cathedral which was built and has a very similar design to the Notre Dame de Paris. The reason for its lopsided facade is that the church is slowly sinking into the spongy ground!
Inside.
An Easter festival we stumbled upon. There seemed to be several throughout the whole city. However, this one had baby goats which makes it instantly the superior fair.
So cute!
At one point in our walk we saw a similar easter festival which had multiple food tents. The first and foremost tent was selling an assortment cheese. As soon our group of American students caught sight/sent of this place everyone immediately ran for the tent yelling "CHEESE!!" (I kid you not.) I'm pretty sure that in the shopkeeper's eyes we all immediately gained 100 pounds and were waddling across the street hands outstretched, because he immediately snatched the free sample plate from the counter in horror. Everyone calmed down after the sample plate was taken away, and some people even bought cheese; i'm not sure if the shopkeeper has recovered.
Historical Fact: There is a statue near the center of the city depicting a mother holding her two sons who died in the war. The statue symbolizes the terrible pain that Strasbourg endured during the second World War when Germany reclaimed the city (and it's young men as soldiers) for the Third Reich. The first son symbolizes the son who ran away to fight for France and the second son symbolizes the son who was forced to fight in Russia as a German soldier (soldiers had motivation to stay because the families of those who ran away to fight for France would be killed or imprisoned).
After a full day of history we were able to go find dinner on our own. Luckily we found a really great local restaurant! All of us ordered random things (I think I ordered Chicken something?) except for our friend Matt who decided to be adventurous and try Tripe. For those of you who don't know what that is, Tripe is cow stomach. We all tried it, and i'll just say it was interesting. Veeeeeery interesting.
More Later! Sorry for the choppiness, love to you all!
Rebecca
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