Adventure in Paris

I’m currently back home in Sweden, enjoying my summer break with my family. Before flying home, I travelled to Paris with my sister for a short but jam-packed adventure. We both want to travel as much as we can while we’re still living in Europe because travel is relatively cheap and easy and there is so much to see and do. So two days after my last exam ended, I jumped on a coach which took me from the University to London where I met up with my sister who had just flown in from Sweden. We each had large green backpacks with all our belongings for the journey on our backs which made me feel like we were pair of turtles walking down the busy streets of London. We spent the afternoon browsing the stores on Oxford Street looking for a white dress for my sister’s graduation which was taking place the day after her return to Sweden.

In the evening we made our way back to Victoria Coach Station where we checked in (which was a new experience for me, having never previously been on a coach journey which required a check in) before settling in for a nine hour long ride to Paris. I’m not going to lie, the journey was exhausting and even though we planned the journey so that we would travel in the evening allowing us to save on a night’s worth of accommodation, I just could not find a comfortable position to fall asleep in. We arrived in Paris early the next morning and spent the early part of the day finding the hostel. We were in Paris for a total of five days which meant we were able to visit many of the well know attractions including the Louvre, Palace of Versailles, Notre Dame, the museum of Natural History, walk up the Avenue Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe and of course the infamous Eiffel Tower.

Outside the Centre Pompidou (museum of modern art)

 Queuing to enter the Louvre

 Inside the Louvre

In front of the Mona Lisa

We spent hours in the Louvre and still didn’t manage to see everything. It was surprisingly huge and there was a great variety of art to admire. One thing which was really fantastic for my sister and I, both being under 26 years of age and a part of the European Union is that we were able to get into most museums and art galleries for free which saved us a lot of money.

View from the Eiffel Tower

Outside Notre Dame Cathedral. We also walked up to the top of the tower which was surprisingly not that exhausting of a climb

Outside the Palace of Versailles

This was an incredible establishment and I often felt like I was on the set of some kind of movie. The gardens especially left an impression on me. They were absolutely picturesque I found it difficult to comprehend just how gorgeous and enormous the layout was.

In the Hall of Mirrors

View of the gardens from the Palace

The gardens are much larger than you probably would have imagined, and extend much further than this picture reveals with many grand fountains and mazes of hedges leading to unexpected and secluded areas.

My sister took hundreds of photos but I think I should probably leave it here. All in all we managed to do and see a lot, and with so much of what we did being free we actually had a lot of money left over from what we budgeted for, which is always nice (especially as a student). We returned to the UK by means of another nine hour coach journey however I was relieved to manage to get a good sleep on our way back. We spent about two days in Southampton before flying home to Sweden together to make it back the day before my sister’s graduation. I really enjoyed having my sister stay with me at my place in Southampton, which gave her a better insight into my life away from home. I also showed her around the uni campus which was fun because she had never really been to a university campus before and was really impressed with the fact that we have a large gym as well as a cinema which are so easily accessible. There is definitely a wonderful sense of freedom which comes with living on your own however I intend on enjoying my time at home for another few weeks before I return to Southampton to prepare for another new adventure – which I will tell you more about next time.

Kristin