I failed miserably at keeping a blog while I was in Europe! In fairness though, I did put in a few updates in my diary and in January 2012 I bought a "Life Book", as my friend Mary would call it, aka a Travel Journal, in which I wrote a decent amount of stories of my adventures.
But before I even begin to recount (which will probably only be in brief) the most wonderful 8 months of my life in Europe, I want to first address the To-Do List I created before coming to France. A list I actually completely forgot about at some point and only remembered it when I rediscovered my blog and read my posts.
I'm going to go over all 25 goals I had made, and tell you if I succeeded or not, and any other comments such as my reaction to how my past-self thought. Okay, here we go.
1) Walk with a baguette sticking out of my purse to eat while exploring Beauvais
SUCCESS! I most certainly did this, and more than once! Honestly, bread in France is like air, and it is something I definitely miss now that I'm back. Baguettes, croissants, sandwhich (French-style!), and pastries...I will talk more about that in another post.
2) Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower
SUCCESS! You'd think this was a given, but I almost didn't make it! 8 months in France and I didn't go up the Eiffel Tower until the DAY BEFORE I LEFT! Crazy, I know. But it was just always there, and I kept thinking, ''I have time''. I did try before, twice. First time the Summit was under construction, and the second time my friend and I got caught in a terrible downpour (after being in line for over an hour). But, I made it, even though I was in GREAT lack of energy from non-stop traveling and caught a cold. I almost didn't go at all, but I'm glad I forced myself. It was a beautiful moment and a great way to say good-bye.
3) While in rural areas, take a picture ANYTIME I see sheep!
SUCCESS! This rarely happened in France, but it happened frequently while in the UK and Ireland. And I can call upon the testimony of my friends Lowri, Jeff, Mary and Shiana, that I most certainly took any and every opportunity to take a photo of a sheep.
4) Spend enough time in the Louvre to see the entire museum (even if it means coming more than once!)
FAIL. I'm gonna go with fail, but if my stupid self back then knew what my smarter self knows now, it would take about 3 months for me to see every single work in the Louvre if I only looked at everything for 30 seconds. BUT I did go inside the Louvre. Once. And saw the Mona Lisa, so PARTIAL SUCCESS? Yes? I think so. I walked around the Louvre a good 3 times. Love that place. First time I fell in love with Paris was while crossing Le Pont Des Beaux-Art (aka the Love locks bridge) towards the Louvre.
5) Go to the Palace of Versailles (try to dress up in a dress that day)
SUCCESS! Also did this on the day before a left France! Did it the morning before I went up the Eiffel Tower. I felt miserable when I went though. It was gorgeously sunny, but ridiculously hot! And I had the cold, and exhaustion from constant traveling (which entails little sleep and loads of walking). But it was great, and I was so excited to see Marie-Antoinette's ''village'' and farm. I had wanted to see it since I read the book The Bad Queen (I mentioned this in my first post I believe) and it was really amazing to see a place that you read about.
6) Try new cheeses!
SUCCESS! This was a given. I actually kept track of most of the cheeses that I tried in France, I present to you that list: Tomme de Savoir, Saint Nectair, Saint-Floretin, Cantal, Fromage Pur Brebis, Comté, Émmental, Camembert and Gruyère.
7) Attempt to drink French wine for lunch or dinner one day
SUCCESS! Oh, I definitely drank French wine more than once! This was pre-liking wine Liz talking. I tried red wine, white wine, wine rosé, champagne, cidre, and other things I don't remember the names of.
8) If possible, use the Bike-Taxi system at least once!
FAIL. It's not as simple as hopping on and taking off, and just no. I will definitely do it one day, and if I ever live in Paris than I will definitely try to do it, but I was not ready for that.
9) Ask a British royal guard if the Queen is in (Buckingham Palace) today?
FAIL. Unfortunately, they no longer post guards outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. So, really, this should be a SUCCESS because the point is that I was in LONDON!
10) See L'Arc de Triomphe
SUCCESS! Pff...that was one of the first things I saw in Paris. The first monument I took a photo with.
11) Find and explore ancient Roman ruins in France.
MOSTLY SUCCESS! I only did this in Lyon, basically every other city didn't really have any ancient Roman ruins. I will have to go to Nice and other cities to see more...whenever I feel like seeing more ancient Roman riuns again...I was not overly excited about the ones in Lyon since I had been in Rome a few weeks before and got my fill of roman riuns to last me quite a while.
12) Go to 7 Castles or more, doesn't matter what countries they're from
I actually remembered about this goal for most of the time I was in France, though near the end I forgot about it. Now I won't count castles that I went IN, but at least got really close to (and was too poor to go in it). So here we go:
- 2 castles in Wales (*names to come later when I edit the post)
- 2 castles in Scotland (although I did see at least 1 other but from a far distance from within a tourbus) The Stirling Castle and the Edinburgh Castle.
- 1 or 2 in Ireland (*again names to come later)
- Palace of Versailles (it counts!)
- 1 in Rome, the Castello somethingorother...
I have to double check my photos and bustour pamphlets, but even if I'm short 1 castle I'm going to call this one a SUCCESS!
13) Investigate different phone box booths, asking for the Doctor
This is is just silly, but I will say SUCCESS because I did find my original Police Boxes while in London and Scotland, and even saw, briefly, one in Glasgow that looked almost EXACTLY like the Doctor Who T.A.R.D.I.S.
14) Dance on London Bridge
If I had remembered about this particular goal, at least the dancing bit, I would have danced on London Bridge, but I just walked on it instead. I'm still calling this a SUCCESS!
15) Sing Ave Maria in Notre Dame (if allowed) - make sure I practice before hand
...What the hell was I thinking? Clearly I watched Sister Act WAY too many times! But I will call this a SUCCESS because A) I did go inside Notre Dame and B) I did sing inside with the service!
17) Go to the Bell Tower of Notre Dame if possible!
FAIL. I shouldn't have gone on a Sunday, and even before I visited Notre Dame, many of my American friends had down-talked it so much that it almost didn't seem worth visiting, so my ambition to go up one of the towers was quickly forgotten. It's a nice cathedral! Though, definitely not in my top 5 favorite.
18) Chartres Cathedral. Enough said!
SUCCESS! I was SO happy that I got to go up Chartres with my two best friends Mary and Jeff. It was a day trip and it was a memorable one.
19) Find a big hill in Scotland, climb it, and yell "FREEDOM!!!" from the top
Again, I forgot about this goal, but I will say SUCCESS because I climbed up Arthur's Seat, a big hill in Edinburgh. And the point is: I went to Scotland!
20) Sit at the top level of a double decker bus!
Unfortunately I never got to ride the bus system in Englad! FAIL! I know! But I did ride the Underground a few times. Definitely need to accomplish this one day though.
21) Perfect a type of English accent and speak in it all day for one entire day while in British Isles
Again...something really dumb. I will say this though, my Welsh friend Lowri always said that my English accent was really good. Therefore: SUCCESS. I'm so glad I didn't actually follow through with this...that would have made me such a prick,
22) If I can't find a Nun in traditional clothing, find a large picture/poster of it and take a picture with it
SUCCESS! Although I'm kinda cheating since I was not in Europe yet, but when I was in Minneapolis airport on my way to Philly, there was a group of nuns and I took a picture with them :) I was pretty excited to have something off my to-do list so quickly!
23) Go to a Doctor Who museum. I haven't googled to see if there is one, but I bet there is!
FAIL! Even though I was in Cardiff, Wales, the museum was under construction while I was there. Also, while in London my friend Helena and I tried to find the WhoShop and failed miserably :P
24) If possible go to France's neighboring countries: Spain, Belgium, Brussels, Italy, etc.
You can tell how dumb my previous self was when I name ''Brussels'' in my list of countries...
MOSTLY SUCCESS! I did go to Spain (one of the greatest adventures EVER), Italy and Switzerland but that was it for directly neighboring countries. I did ALL of the UK though, and they're right across the channel. I really need to go to Belgium though, and now that my good friend Jeff will be living practically on the border with Belgium, I will have a very good reason to go when I'm back in Europe!
25) Take pictures with statues of famous historical people, even if I don't have a clue who they are.
SUCCESS! I definitely took picture with plenty statues and busts of famous people, however they were all people I recognized and knew. I believe I did Shakespeare, the man who wrote Don Quixote, George-Sand, and many writers and the like.
I was really happy to re-discover this To Do List and realize that I had, for the most part, succeeded in completing it!
I also received a week or so ago, a letter from my ELA teacher from grade 9, Ms Dudek. It was a letter I wrote to myself (when I was 14) and a list of Life Goals I had set for myself. I was able to check some things off, but I felt that a 20 year old me could write a better Life Goals list, so I updated it.
Making goals I think is a great thing to do. It's great to look back at them, and while you might not ever accomplish them all, it's a wonderful feeling knowing you accomplished some, and you get to reflect on life a bit and see how much you've been able to see and do, and it encourages you to keep making goals, and goals help feed your dreams, which you should always have and never stop reaching for.
~ Cheers
