Paris, France!

So last week we had a five day weekend to go to Paris!!!! It was so amazing and beautiful and I want to go back! Kelcie booked an apartment for us that was about a 30 minute walk from the eiffel tower which kind of sounds like a long walk but when you're in Paris it doesn't even matter :) The apartment was SO nice. We had a kitchen, living room, master bedroom, and a sauna. Our friend Alex cooked for us two out of the four nights we were there which was a major money saver! Unfortunately for him, he and the two other girls booked the chunnel to Paris at a later time than Kelcie and I. So when they got to Paris and went to buy tickets at the metro to get to the apartment a man offered to "help" them and scammed them pretty good. a ticket that should have cost 6 euros for all three of them combined ended up costing them 70 euros.....I'm still shaking my head over that one haha but at least Kelcie and I feel smart for not falling for it!
The first night we were there we couldn't help but go see the eiffel tower all lit up, so we left our apartment at 11 to see it! by the time we were done the metro was closed so we had to walk all the way back too :/ we were soooo tired. So the next day we got up early and went to the Palace of Versaille. It is the biggest palace in the world! and after walking FIVE hours around it and the gardens I now believe it! hahaha. We were exhausted by the time we got back to our place. That night we went walking around the city again. We were walking by the Seine River and decided we wanted up back by the street but we couldn't figure out how so we decided to jump a fence.......one of our friends Amy jumped it in heels and blew out her knee.....we were so scared we were gonna have to take her to the hospital but luckily she can still walk on it but she has to have surgery when she gets back to America. The next day we went to the Eiffel Tower and WENT TO THE TOP!  I've been waiting to go to the top since I was nine years old, so it was definitely my favorite part!!! When we went back down we ate strawberry nutella crepes.....MMMMMM soooo gooooood!!! I would've had five if I could. We also saw the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame Cathedral, Musee d'Orsay (has lots of Van Gogh and Monet in it), the Louvre, Lovers Lock Bridge, and did lots of shopping! To be honest, I can't believe I went inside ANY museums....I dont care how famous they are. After all the museums my mom dragged me to when I was little, I've seen enough for a lifetime.....hahhaha love you mom! but seriously, I thought maybe I would like them now that I'm older.....I don't. Although, some of our friends saw Owen Wilson riding his bicycle past the Louvre! If any of you have seen the Haunting, you'll know that he starred in it. Part of that movie was filmed here at Harlaxton! So, of course, they shouted at him and told him that they lived where the Haunting was filmed....if I can find the picture I'll post it on here.
So yeah, it was definitely my favorite trip so far :) I would go back in a heartbeat!!! Everything about it is so pretty, and it's even better at night!!!! You go there thinking that it won't be as great as what the movies make it out to be....but it is ;) Anywho, here's some pics! my computer is acting funny and it's not letting me upload pictures on facebook so here's a few but hopefully you can just look on facebook and look at Kelcie's :)

Hall of Mirrors

the back of Palace of Versailles

does this really need a caption?

Notre Dame

Louvre

I put a lock on lover's lock bridge :)

it's full on either side!

Every ten minutes past the hour, it sparkles :)

in front of the Palace of Versailles

Louvre at night

Houses of Parliament

Today I got to go on a private tour of the Houses of Parliament in London! If you don't know where that is, then this might help you....

It's the building attached to Big Ben! We got to see the House of Lords, the House of Commons, and a lot of other rooms having to do with the Queen. It was so cool! Unfortunately they wouldnt let me take pictures except in one room :( but I found a couple on google so you can see :)

This is the visitors entrance

Westminster Hall. The only part of the building built by King Henry VII (I think) left standing after a fire

entrance to Westminster Hall

The House of Commons. They write and create laws (and other things that I don't know). All of the members are elected and they hold the most power. They party who holds the majority in the House makes up the government, which at the moment is the Conservatives.

Every wednesday at either 10 am or 12 pm (I cant remember) there is this things called "Prime Minster Question Time" where the members of Parliament can ask the Prime Minister questions. It's held in this room! I had seen it in class before so it was super cool to be there in person :)

This is the one I liked most, the House of Lords. It's super fancy! They have cushioned seats and at the front is the Queen's seat. The House of Lords is the upper legislative house in the UK's political system. It is involved in the law and policy making process. It has the power to amend and revise bills sent in from the House of Commons. I kind of think of it as the Senate and the House of Commons as Congress....although, I could be wrong haha.

It was so awesome though! I wish I could've taken pictures of every room...it was so elaborate!!! 

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Kelcie and I spent this past weekend in Belfast! (don't forget, it was my birthday too!!!!!)
It was so amazing, I always knew I would love Ireland!

Let me just start out by saying this was an interesting trip haha! We started off our journey by catching a train at 11 at night from Grantham (the town right next to mine) to London. Then we stayed in London for about five hours.....yuck. We thought we could stay in a Mcdonalds but unfortunately the one we found wasn't open so we found a little cafe right acrossed the street from the train station we needed which was nice! Knowing me though, I had to go pee during this wait! and europeans don't believe in bathrooms during the day, let alone at night! So this italian guy working at the cafe told me to go to a public restroom a couple blocks down the street....at night....by myself because kelcie had to stay with our stuff. I attempted to go but didn't get very far before coming back lol I told him it was to creepy so he asked his manager if I could use their bathroom downstairs. It's so nice being a young helpless American girl :) So at 6 in the morning we got a train to our airport.....let me add that neither kelcie or I....or any of our friends had heard of this airport before! so we were a little nervous that it didn't exist haha but luckily it did! and we got to belfast just fine! People had told us that it wasn't safe because of riots that were going on. but of course, we didn't see a single thing there. Our taxi driver said it was blown out of proportion. The reason they were unhappy is because half of the city is against being in the European Union and refuses to fly the Union Jack (flag) and the other half is Pro European Union. It was interesting to see though. So we spent the first day buying presents and souvenirs and then the next day....we went to Giants Causeway for my birthday!!!!! So cool! We also went to Dunluce Castle. We were supposed to go to a famous rope bridge called Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge but it was to windy so it was closed :( Instead, our tour guide took us to Bush Mills Distillery. They gave us free whiskey that was 12 years old and apparently "really good". I still need convincing......I took one sip just to try it and YUCK! I literally felt like I was drinking my nail polish remover. Why anyone drinks whiskey I will never know. The next day we walked around the city and saw a lot of markets that had lots of samples for us to try :) it was fun! They really like this stuff called Chutney. It's different but actually pretty tasty. Then we had to leave and go back to England which welcomed us with more snow :( I'm so sick of the snow and cold!!!! On our way home we had booked train tickets at a later time than we needed because the tickets were cheaper and we thought it would take us longer to get to Kings Cross train station. But we ended up getting there super early so Kelcie and I hopped on a train that was not only at the wrong time, but also the wrong company. Needless to say Kelcie was panicking. There are men that come through the cars of the trains to check your tickets to make sure that you're not coming on without paying. When that happened, I made Kelcie go into the bathroom and I told her I'd come knock on the door when he had gone. (If I hadn't done this, the guy would've known something was up by the sheer look of guilt and worry on kelcie's face haha) I've never met such a worrisome person in all of my life!!!! hahahahaha! But of course everything was fine and we didn't get kicked off. But when we got back to Grantham it was dark and we had forgotten that we didn't have a taxi :/ luckily an older couple that had been sitting acrossed from us on the train lived nearby and offered to give us a ride back to the manor. We were so fortunate! God definitely watched over us....there's no way we could've done this trip on our own! haha.
So, that was our trip :)
We had a blast and now we're anxiously waiting to go to Paris!!!!

Giants Causeway

Kelcie!

Bushmill's Distillery

Dunluce Castle

City Center, if you look at the top you might be able to see where a flag is supposed to be flown. Since the city is in a disagreement it doesn't fly either flag

Oxford

Today we went on an adventure to Oxford! It was a pretty town but unfortunately it was graduation and a lot of the colleges were closed because of all the ceremonies. It wasn't a very eventful day but it was still fun! I took random pictures of things that I didn't really know what they were and I also got to see the place that inspired the cafeteria of Hogwarts. Are you seeing a theme in my posts? hahaha Kelcie calls me a nerd.....but I can't help it :)

                                    Bodleian Library. Surprised there aren't any books? me too. They would only let us in the outside, the inside was closed for tours.

The courtyard of Christ Church College (the place that inspired some of Harry Potter)

here's the cafeteria. we only got to see it for like two minutes because we had to catch our bus, but it was worth it!

And that's all I have! It was mostly just a chill day walking around oxford and enjoying the fact that the sun was out. Next weekend we go to Ireland AND it's my birthday! so excited!!!