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hayley

In travel on
December 16, 2017

winter in paris: day two

We started our second day in Paris in the best way possible: at Ten Belles, my favorite coffee shop in the whole world. I actually chose our airbnb based on it’s proximity to Ten Belles. It was as wonderful as I remembered and such a great way to start another day of exploring. After some coffee and pastries and wandering around the 10th arrondissement, we made our way to Notre Dame. Alyssa and I split ways for bit and I was off to Shakespeare and Co. I was pleasantly surprised to see the bookshop had opened a cafe next door, though I didn’t get to try it. After looking at books and petting the adorable cat, I started doing my favorite thing: aimlessly wandering and taking photos. I didn’t really have a plan, I just wanted to take in as much of Paris’s beauty as possible.

Eventually, I made my way to the 4th arrondissement to retrace the steps Celine and Jesse in Before Sunset, the second film in my favorite movie series. I stumbled on a little Christmas market and bought some more macaroons. After doing some shopping, I met back up with Alyssa and we went to the Musee D’Orsay. I love the Lourve but the D’Orsay will always have a special place in my heart. They were also doing an exhibit on Degas’s ballerinas which, as a former ballerina, was a definite highlight of my whole trip. After the museum, we met up with our friend Dan from DAAP who is studying in Paris and we had an amazing dinner at Rainette, a restaurant known for it’s cute decor and French delicacies like frog legs and escargot (snails). I got the asian frog legs, which were amazing but a bit strange to eat with all the tiny bones. After hours of conversation, good drinks and good food, we said our goodbyes and made our way back to our apartment.

























// MUSEE D’ORSAY //



// RAINETTE //



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In travel on
December 14, 2017

winter in paris: day one



This past week, I visited Paris with my friend Alyssa. I’ve been to Paris in the spring, summer and fall, all of which were wonderful, so I was a bit hesitant about going in the winter because I didn’t want it to taint my perfect view of Paris. But I can honestly say, thru every season, Paris is always a good idea! It was so beautiful, abet a bit cold, but I was so busy falling in love with Paris again, I didn’t really notice, which is saying a lot for this Californian whose always cold. I took sooo many photos so I’m going to split it up into three days. My trip was only supposed to be two days but because of fun stuff like bad weather and canceled flights, I got a wonderful surprise third day as well!

Our first day in Paris, we got a late start but we eventually made it over to the Eiffel Tower. Under the Eiffel Tower was blocked off and there were fences everywhere. On top of that, there was definitely a down vibe everywhere we went. It put me a bit on edge to be honest but I later learned Johnny Hallyday, a legendary French rockstar, had died and there was a memorial concert and casket processional around Paris, the closures and lingering sadness made more sense. After a lovely meal of Beef Bourgeon (fyi for those who have followed me for a while, I eat meat now because I was found to be very iron deficient and my body doesn’t like iron pills), we went to Laduree and Pierre Herme and did a mini macaron sampling like I posted about a few years back when I was in Paris last. Pierre Herme is still my absolute favorite and I found out, after we bought them from Publicis Drugstore, the world’s fanciest drugstore, that they opened a store on the Champs Elysée! I guess next time I’m in Paris, I’ll buy them from there. After our macaroon adventure, we walked around a lot and visited an adorable Christmas market near Les Halles. The Christmas market on the Champs Elysée is not happening this year because of high terror alerts (felt real good reading that…) but the Les Halles market was cute and intimate. After the Christmas market, we got reservations for Il Etait Un Square, which is known for its 5 star rating on Trip Advisor with 1,500 ratings, which is basically unheard of and amazing burgers! The burger truly was so yummy and I would highly recommend the restaurant, even though it’s a bit out of the way. We sat and chatted until the restaurant closed and eventually found our way home to rest up for an eventful day on Sunday. Stay tuned for my next blog about day two in Paris.















// PIERRE HERME //

// LADUREE //


// LES HALLES CHRISTMAS MARKET //



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In travel on
December 4, 2017

the vatican

The highlight of my brief trip to Rome was visiting the Vatican. The Vatican is located just outside central Rome in Vatican City, which I learned is actually considered a different country! I really wanted to visit in Saint Peter’s Basilica but the line was crazy so we just admired it from the outside. We did do the Vatican museum, which we had already bought tickets for, which I highly recommend doing if you are planning on visiting. The museum was wonderful and there were so many pieces of art I’ve studied in my art history courses that were fun to see in person. The Sistine Chapel was by far the highlight of my Vatican experience. It was so beautiful and awe-inspiring but the part I liked the most was people watching. There are no photos allowed in the Chapel so a docent, who looked a little like Santa Claus, would yell as loud and as sternly as possible “no photo” to unsuspecting people taking pictures. Seeing their reactions was priceless and after every person he scared, the docent would chuckle a little then be off to find his next victim. Here’s a few sneaky photos of the Sistine Chapel I got away with, as well as some other pictures from the Vatican Museum.

// SISTINE CHAPEL //

// RAPHAEL ROOM //






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In travel on
December 3, 2017

a roman holiday

For some reason, Rome was never at the top of my list of places to visit. Sure, I thought it would be fun to see the Sistine Chapel and the Coliseum but when it came to places I dreamt of traveling, Rome never made the cut. But when my friend Ellie came to visit and we had an extra day to spend somewhere, Rome seemed like the logical choice. From the moment we arrived, I fell in love! Most of the touristy sites exceeded my expectations but the best part of the trip for me was the little side streets and places we unexpectedly stumbled on. We stayed in an Airbnb in a very cute, bohemian area with lots of coffee shops and art galleries. Our neighborhood didn’t feel like a big city at all but more like a small town, with it’s narrow streets and cafes at every turn. We spent the day exploring the different neighborhoods of Rome and seeing the sites and taking photos, which I especially enjoyed. After having my Nikon since high school, I bought a leica q the day before leaving for Rome. I felt like a appreciated the sites even more after seeing them thru such a beautiful piece of equipment. Here are some of the photos I took of our adventures in Rome. And stay tuned for a post about Vatican City tomorrow!

// wonderful breakfast at La Casetta a Monti //

// TREVI FOUNTIAN //

// COLISEUM //

// PIAZZA NAVONA //

// PANTHEON //






 

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In travel on
November 5, 2017

budapest the beautiful

Budapest is a beautiful city that I am so happy to have had the chance to explore during my time in Europe. It has such a different feel than every other city I have visited that can only be described as a fusion of east and west. Budapest feels very young and modern so it’s hard to believe that as of 1988, Hungary was still communist. One of my favorite things about Budapest was how cheap everything was. They use the Hungarian forint, which is about 250 forint to 1 dollar. Our hostel ended up being around $10 a night per person, which is a steal compared to the rest of Europe! Below I’ve highlighted some of my favorite experiences I had while I was in Budapest.







Every meal I had while in Budapest was delicious, with the highlight being a lunch we had at Halaszbastya, which is inside the famous Fisherman’s Bastion (above), which is a magical looking fortress on a hill that looks like it’s out of a fairytale. Our meal was equally magical, with a dinning room that looked like it belonged in Beauty and the Beast and wonderful dishes like lamb goulash and steak with beet risotto.

We visited the Budapest Central Market, which is a massive indoor space with a farmers market type set up on the first floor and food stalls and souvenir shops above. I bought some unique and very cheap souvenirs so for that alone, it was worth going.



Finally, no trip to Budapest is complete without a trip to the baths. There are many different baths to choose from in Budapest (124 to be exact!) but we wanted to check out the iconic Szechenyi Baths, with it’s beautiful yellow buildings and huge pools. It was such a treat and we had a great time running from pool to pool to stay warm and trying out the different kinds of baths. But if you are going to visit, make sure to bring flip flops! They’re $10 if you buy them there which is quite expensive in an otherwise very cost effective city. But Szechenyi Baths were probably the best part of my trip and an experience I will always remember.

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In travel on
October 28, 2017

zürich


After a day of driving all around the Swiss countryside, Brendan and I spontaneously decided to spend the day in Zürich. when we arrived, I couldn’t believe how pretty it was! it was so clean and pristine and almost looked like it was out of a fairytale! we were starving so I used Yelp to find a place to get food and found Sprüngli. it is a beautiful Swiss bakery and cafe that is known for their amazing pasteries. they allowed dogs so we sat down and started looking at the menu and we were shocked! a normal coffee was like $10! and a hamburger was $30! we just ended up just getting coffees and a pastry but as you can see below, the presentation was amazing! and it tasted even better than it looked!

after our restaurant experience, we walked around the city and waterfront area, which is what Zürich is known for. it was so beautiful and charming and everything I was hoping for and more! Zürich was such a lovely experience and I would love to visit again and spend even more time.

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