Back to where I left off... Wanted to include some thoughts from yesterday that I didn't get to add!
Like I said yesterday, we saw rowers at the pond at Versailles. This made my day!
Marie Antoinette's bedchamber!
Here's the giant lunch salad I was talking about...I picked around quite a lot of it. Lettuce here is different.
Note the foie gras I mentioned... (it did not get eaten).
My first time up the Eiffel Tower...AMAZING.
Our picture from the bottom...we really lucked out with the weather, as you can see!
At the very tippy-top!
True to French style, as we were looking down from the very top of the Tour d'Eiffel, we saw a huge rally - manifestations! We didn't ever find out what they were marching for but we heard the president's name dropped several times...
Clouds over the city!
All in all - what a spectacular birthday. I owe so much credit to Alex, who made sure all of my Paris dreams came true and I saw what I wanted to see. He put an incredible amount of time into planning the trip and did great! A big thank you to him!
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We hit the train last night at 8:40PM and were home by about 11:30. We got into Luxembourg at 10:45 but had to wait for a bus for quite awhile. It wasn't really terrible at all, but since we have 5:40AM wake-ups on Monday we might try to cut our trips a little shorter in the future so we aren't completely zombies the next day.
Remembered our tickets and Eurail for the way back...thank goodness!
Especially for our first trip, I think we had a HUGE success. I doubt that things will always go so smoothly as they did this time - especially if we're in a country where we don't know the language at all and are less comfortable.
Back in Differdange for school, the environment seems so quiet and friendly! It's quite a contrast to the atmosphere in Paris, which constantly keeps your sensations alert. I was grateful today to say the familiar "Moien," to the man who waits with us at the bus stop - something friendly and routine! Having been to Paris makes me see Luxembourg and Differdange differently - they seem more accommodating, easy to navigate, and even almost "homey" in comparison. The little sleepy farm town here is quite a difference from the amazing, hustling and bustling Paris!
For next weekend, we're starting to formulate plans to go to Belgium - maybe Brussels and Bruges. There's been talk of a possible chocolate crawl, which would be amazing! Our plans for that should develop over the next few days.
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I've been trying to run most mornings during the week here. I think most weekends are going to be out of the question for running, which is fine. It's still hard to get very far - especially because I have to go so early and it's still dark (and possibly unsafe). My favorite runs are ones when I can have Alex with me! Not only do I appreciate the company but we can also get farther, explore, and I feel better knowing that I'll have help if I get lost. Hopefully this week we find the hiking trails in Differdange - apparently there are up to 50 miles of trails right at our fingertips! It's been really quite strange to go from centering every single day around a run (usually of an hour or more!) to it being more of a small priority and less important part of my day. I'm not running significantly less, but it's just not the thing which my days or weeks revolve around. It's been an interesting transition. I still don't have my routine here, and I cling to running to try to feel some sort of normalcy but I haven't quite figured it out yet! I know I'm getting used to things though, and I think soon this place will feel as homey as Oxford or Cleveland.
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