voyager avec KN

I still can't believe that 2012 is over and I'm pretty sure it's easy for me to say that 2012 was the best year YET! For so many reasons, I can't even begin to explain.

Although this blog is officially over, you can keep up with my little life through my new personal blog (skn).

But until then... I just want to say:

Thanks Paris for the ultimate BEST four months of my entire life.

(Why was it the best four months of my life? Read my previous posts! I only have like 348023848...Haha)

It was such a great experience, and I learned so many things about the world and also about myself.

I had the opportunity to visit so many different cities and meet so many unbelievable individuals who have enriched my life in too many ways possible. If I had the opportunity to do this all over again, I would.

If you are currently deciding whether or not to study abroad, stop questioning it and just DO IT.

Trust me. You won't regret it. :)

snow on mountains & mountains on snow

2013-02-03T14:08:00.000-05:00

Arriving in Switzerland felt unreal. We arrived in Zurich with snow on the ground and mountains. It was beautiful!! We quickly headed to the train station, on route to Interlaken.

Outside Zurich's train station

Arriving in Interlaken was amazingggg. All I could see was snowy mountain tops and blue skies.

This picture was taken in a snowy blank field with untouched snow (that I quickly ruined by running through it haha). But how gorgeous are those mountains?!

Creepy Swiss Franc bills...

Our super homey hostel room :)

our first Switzerland meal : kebab box (obvi)

Studying... In Switzerland... With chocolate and tiramisu :)

Streets of Interlaken at night

Trying to chill our alcohol LOL

Signing our lives away to Skydiving!!!! But never ended up going... Due to the dumb weather conditions :(

so serene

Hooter's 50th anniversary :)

Our new friends (lol)

Balmers!

On our 2nd last day, we decided to toughen up and go skiing. We rented all our equipment the night before and headed out early in the morning. It had juuust snowed that morning (slash was still snowing a bit) so it was all fresh powdered snow! :)

unreal.

all happy and 100% okay, before our first tumble down a cliff LOL

after the wipe out. trying to find my ski poles..

...and posed and smiled.

So pretttyyyyy.

skiing down

lunch break!

After lunch, we decided to take a scenic path and ski down the entire mountain. Ambitious? YOLO. :)

It took us about 3 hours, but it was so worth it

Arrived safely at the bottom of the mountain :)

We decided to splurge on dinner (food is SO expensive in Switzerland..) and get normal meals because we had quite a rough last day haha

After going back to Balmers and resting for a bit, we ended up hanging out with a bunch of the people that lived there and went out to the Irish bar near our hostel. Probably one of the most useless things I did there LOL not only did we not drink but we left in about 30 minutes and also had the most disgustingest homemade cupcake I've ever had in my entire life. Gross.

But that ends my snowy trip to Switzerland :)
Although I left out the stories about my falls... It's okay because I'm okay :P

I can officially say that I have skied down the Swiss Alps. CHECK, that off my bucketlist! Woopwoop :)

KN does Switzerland!

2013-01-14T22:42:00.001-05:00

And to conclude my trips...

The last trip of my exchange was in Switzerland :)

What better way to test your skiing skills by skiing down the Swiss Alps!!

That has always been on my bucketlist, so I was definitely really excited for this one last hurrah.

I also specifically picked to go to Interlaken, Switzerland because I wanted to go skydiving over the Swiss Alps.. Sadly that failed :'( due to the dumb weather!!! BUT my skiing experience definitely made my trip worth it stills.

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Total spent on visiting 23 countries: $5005.89 (and I'm not lying :D)

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La Cuisine Paris Macaron Class

2013-01-07T21:07:00.001-05:00

I've always wanted to learn how to make a macaron, so what better time to learn how to make a French pastry when I'm in Paris?

I signed up for a Macaron Noël baking class in December with La Cuisine Paris. It was perfect because all the classes were in English, so I didn't have to worry about that and also there are a lot of other classes besides macarons!

Here are some pictures from our class :)

Me listening intently while mixing

Mixing in the meringue into the mixture

Piping is a lot harder than it looks..

Success :)

Added gold flakes on the tops :)

Proud of my piping hehe

Into the oven they go! For 12-15 minutes, or until they stop sticking to the sheet

EEEEEEEEE!

Look at their feet! :)

Me and my "K" macaron

Final product: Pink macarons with chocolate ganache and gold designs ;)

I'd say that overall, this baking session, was a huge success!
Besides the color not turning out correctly (it's supposed to be a deep red LOL fail), it was a very fun experience! I missed baking soo much, so this really helped me fill my void until I got back to Toronto.

I'll be practicing more when I settle back in Toronto. So if you want to be my guinea pig.. Just let me know ;)

Marrakesh Day 4: Pre-Spring Break Relaxation

2013-01-05T23:46:00.002-05:00

Waking up to beautiful weather, we decided to just hang out and relax until we had to head to the airport.
We had breakfast on the rooftop and just enjoyed the sunshine :)
It felt like we were on Spring break, and in all honesty, I'd choose this over Punta Cana or Cancun.

We headed out to the marketplace one last time, and brought back some freshly squeezed Orange juice.
A cup of Orange juice was only 4 dirhams (which is 40 cents). Amazing!! And it was probably the best cup of Orange juice I've ever had :)

And back to the hostel we went. We wanted to save our Orange juice so that we could sit on the roof and relax. It was probably the hardest thing to resist while walking back haha

cheers!

Just chillin'

And this is when we decided it would be a great idea to climb up this roof. So glad we did though, because it was so relaxing to just sit there and look out over the buildings!

Our view from the ledge

Our lunch: chicken salad

Leaving Morocco was a sad goodbye. Not only were we saying goodbye to the beautiful sunshine and summer weather, but also to one of my favorite and biggest adventures.

Goodbye Morocco!! :)

Marrakesh Day 2 & 3: Camel Trek & Sahara Desert Camping

2013-01-03T21:31:00.001-05:00

Waking up in the early morning to start this adventure was difficult but I was too excited not to be awake for it.

So the tour was basically going to be 2 days, where we would take a bus for 8 hours to the desert, ride a camel during sunset and then stay a night in a tent in the Sahara Desert. In the morning of the next day, we would ride a camel during sunrise back to the edge of the Sahara Desert, and then sit in the bus for another 8 hours to get back to the city.

The 8 hour bus ride was as horrible as it sounded. But to make it a little more bearable, we had casual stops along the side of the mountains for pictures, and the views were AMAZING.

Simply. Breathtaking.

A little store on the side of the road

My deer & I

Mountain goats

For lunch, we stopped at this restaurant that had an amazing outdoor patio (well, everything was basically outdoors). I was just loving the sun...

Moroccan mint tea

Aaaaand back to our bus ride.

Literally standing on the edge of a cliff (as per usual), in my Moroccan pants heh

My first sight of the camels. SO CUTE.

So they sit down while you board them. Once they get the signal, they would stand up. If you weren't careful, you would fall off LOL I almost fell off, but thank goodness I didn't!!!

As people starting picking camels, I got forced to go on this one camel that wasn't attached to anyone else (all the other camels were attached in a line with other camels). I felt so secluded for the first bit but then I actually enjoyed my own little private camel trek heh. But then in the end, I got attached to Viv's camel. So at least we were all together! It was pretty fun. It was basically like riding any other animal. So in the end, I didn't really need to hold the metal bars to steady myself. AND, I ended up sitting cross legged on my camel. It was the most comfortable position, I swear!

Just Sally & I

Riding into the sunset

Sahara Desert sunset

By the time we arrived to the campsite, the sky was already super dark. We landed and got off our camels. Thank goodness I had a flashlight or else we'd be SO lost!! It is literally pitch black. You couldn't see a single thing. And I think that could have been a good thing because I'm pretttttty sure that the sand area was covered with camel poop. BUT I'm not 100% sure. What you don't know can't hurt you right? Haha

After we got assigned tents for the night, we dropped off our stuff and headed to the main tent for some tea and peanuts, while they cooked dinner.

Dinner was in another separate tent, where we all had a candlelight dinner. So romantical! JAYKAY. There was this cat there that kept jumping up right next to me trying to get food :@ :@ :@ but that's besides the point. We had some soup, tangine, and oranges for dessert.

After dinner was over, we all headed back to the main tent for some music and dancing. Haha it was actually quite fun!

After sitting around for a while, we headed outside to see the stars. One word = planetarium.
It was so dark outside, with no lights whatsoever, that you could see soooo many stars, it didn't even feel real. I honestly felt like I was in a planetarium!! If it was warmer, I definitely would have just laid outside and slept while gazing at the stars. Secret confession: I absolutely love star gazing.
We headed to bed after hearing dogs/wolves/whatever howling. I honestly thought I was going to get killed haha.

- - -

GOOD MORNING AFRICA!

Waking up in the morning did not feel like real life. It was SO cold. I was bundled so thickly. I'm pretty sure I was wearing 4 shirts, a hoodie, my pea coat, 2 scarves, with leggings and my moroccan pants. AND 5 pairs of socks. I was curled into my fleece and it was still freezing outside. I swear it was -20 degrees!! It was a mission and a million to take off my layers to change. But once I forced myself to get out of bed and out of the tent, it was worth it.

Our tent for the night

After breakfast, we quickly packed and went back on our way back towards the city on our camels :)

We made a couple more pitstops along the way back to Marrakesh.

One of our pitstops was at this store that handmade carpets, and...stuff. Not really sure because I wasn't too interested in fabrics like this and what not. But it was still a nice change from our other boring pitstops!

Another pitstop was supposed to be a tour at this castle but I really didn't feel like going nor did I want to spend money on it. We ended up just wandering off while waiting and took pictures of our surroundings. Can you believe people actually live in these little villages on the mountains?!

WLU!

For lunch, I ordered couscous :)

On our way back, we stopped by this bank of snow and decided to make snowballs hehe :P
I can now say that I made a snowball in Morocco haha

By the time we arrived back to the city/our hostel, it was already really dark. We ended up hanging out in the hostel with people we met on the camel trip. What a great 2nd and 3rd day!

Hummus! Yum.

I still cannot believe that this all happened. Especially coming from a girl who HATES the outdoors.. I actually rode a camel, and survived a night out in the desert!! One of my best trips yet :)

Marrakesh Day 1: A start of a competely unique experience

2013-01-01T22:46:00.001-05:00

As my first post of 2013, I will finally start my posts about Morocco now! :P

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*temporarily going back in time to December 7th, 2012*

Leaving Paris for Africa already sounds crazy, so when we woke up at 4am to start our trip to the airport.. It sounded even crazier. And to match with the craziness, it started snowing/raining slush with super strong winds. It was so strong that it bent my umbrella... It was awks. So glad I was leaving this weather behind though!! (But on a more optimistic note, that was the first snow in Paris I experienced! Slash only snow..)

When we arrived in Marrakesh, I could already tell by my surroundings that I was in for a crazy one-of-a-kind adventure. We arranged a taxi to pick us up from the airport, and we were quickly on our way. We arrived to our hostel, only to find out how amaaaazing it was. Everything was so different, but gorgeous at the same time. SO african-like!! I loved it.

Streets of Marrakesh

Taxi dude carrying our luggage for us

Equity Point Hostels lobby

Right outside our room

Cats were EVERYWHERE in Morocco. They symbolized 'good' haha Saf, here is the pic you requested.

View from the hostel's terrace

After settling in, we quickly left and ventured into the market area. We started going shopping for things that we wanted to buy: scarves and moroccan pants for the camel trek. We stopped by a restaurant for lunch which had an amazing view over the entire marketplace.

tangine!! YUMs.

Couscous!

By the time we left, it started getting dark

Gorgeous.

The sky looks so fake!

Pretty lanterns!!

Loving the archways!

After shopping a bit more, we decided to head back to the hostel and rest up for the following day. We had to wake up super early to start off our 2 day camel trek :)

Stay tune for Day 2 and 3 of my Moroccan experience!!

My December Photo Diary

2012-12-31T15:00:00.000-05:00

I know everyone has been waiting for my Morocco posts but I've just been really caught up with everything else that has been happening. I promise I'll post them in the new year!! Promise!
But right now, with December ending tomorrow, I decided to just do my December photo diary.

+ Team Canada and Ireland's goodbye dinner
Over this semester, we (Team Canada) met a group of the sweetest girls from Ireland (Team Ireland). We had a little get-together before we all left Paris respectively. It was a sad goodbye, but hopefully we'll be able to meet up sometime in the future :)

Team Ireland and Team Canada!

+ Last day of school at ISC Paris, the Nibbles Party, and random pics of our apartment

My French classroom

Early for my last class of the semester :)

Christmas decor in my apartment lobby

Just checking our mailboxes for mail heh

ISC Paris Nibbles Party (with appetizer, macarons, and WINE) - I mean, what school would host a party and also supply free wine for their students? #onlyinParis

Team Canada and Christelle <3

+ Fave meal of the month

Salad, smoked salmon, cucumbers, and chicken

+ Team Canada Christmas dinner

Team MWB (maroon, white, and black) cooking

Great action shot

Our wine/champagne/water/tea bar

Our Steak Lettuce wraps

Ignore my face, and look at our delicious homemade food. Noms

+ Christmas nails!

+ admiring Gustave Eiffel's creation

+ Angelina's Tea Room
I went to Angelina's flagship store on Rivoli in hopes for some amazing hot chocolate, but it was disappointing. Not only did I not really like their hot chocolate, but it made me really sick. Although I did bring it onto myself (I'm lactose), I've never been so let down!!
I ordered their signature beverage, the Old-Fashioned Hot Chocolate L'African. It came in a jug with a side of whipped cream.
First off, their hot chocolate is SUPER thick. It was like drinking melted chocolate. It is so thick that even a metal spoon can stand in it haha it was too thick for my preference :P but if you like that kind of hot chocolate, you'd love it!

Before I got sick haha

+ Favorite Song of December (and I'm not ashamed)

They Don't Know About Us by One Direction

+ Skating on Champs-Élysées

My little nuggie and I

Debby & I!

Skating hand-in-hand

Being romantical in a magical setting

+ Christmas markets at La Défense

Where we found POUTINES

+ Ladurée

Thé Marie-Antoinette and Ice Cream Macarons

+ my dearest vP%n's 21st

the beautiful birthday girl

The surprise for the birthday girl!

+ Goodbye Paris

You can read about my emotional "Goodbye Paris, & Hello Toronto" post here.

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And that concludes December! In addition to all of this, I also had the opportunity to take a macaron class. I will post a separate post about that later, after my travel posts. In addition, LINDSEY LEONG came from Canada to visit me in Paris for my last week. It was great because I ended up re-doing all the touristy things with her, which was like a recap for me before I left. I'll be posting about all that as well afterwards.

With 2012 ending soon, I'll be starting my new personal blog in 2013 since my exchange is over so bookmark it ;). But until then, come back soon for my Morocco posts :) I promise, they will be my next 3 posts!!!

Thanks for reading and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody!!! XO

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Goodbye to my Paris

2012-12-30T09:23:00.003-05:00

The time has come.

I am officially done my exchange in Paris, and it was time to leave.

The past few days were the hardest days ever! There were so many 'this is our last time doing...' statements made, and it was just really depressing to be leaving such a beautiful city behind.

My last time at the Eiffel Tower (for 2012)

I couldn't believe what was happening. It felt so surreal that I wasn't flying off to some other European city for the weekend, but I was going back to Toronto.

I kept thinking that I was only leaving Paris for a week, and that I would be back after New Years. But no.. I'm not going back to Paris any time soon. D:
And to be honest, I still don't think it has hit me that I'm not going back!!

If you read my last post about packing or talked to me yesterday, you would have known that I was super stressed out about packing..
However, due to the amazing packing skills I have acquired over these four months, I actually managed to pack everything into my suitcases with extra room!!!! Amazing. I definitely pat myself on the back when I was done heh

Tell me how I was able to fit 12 pairs of shoes in that little compartment?

All my clothes for the past four months in little bags. Amazing.

SUCCESS.

But needless to say, it was an emotional goodbye. It was hard saying goodbye to my apartment, but even worse at the airport. We stood outside the gates not wanting to go inside for a good 30 minutes haha. I needed time to accept reality.

I still can't believe I fit my past four months into 3 suitcases and 1 backpack. Crazy.

BUT on the bright side, I am beyond happy to be back home with my family and friends. Although I've been having the time of my life in Europe, I've missed them all dearly.
Arriving at the airport, knowing that my family was on the other side waiting for me to come out, made me super happy. Heh and that's enough for me!

Cuties!!!!

AC881 has arrived!

Look at our confused little faces haha

Love my baby sissy

Too happy. My favorite people in the entire world.

Thank you to the 3 most important people in my life. I've missed you!!!

- - -

PS, this is my dad having tea time (he took these pictures). I guess I taught him well in Thailand :)

I think he's ready to get Instagram... Hahah

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I'll miss you, Paris. But I'll come back for you one day. :)

Packing my Paris life away

2012-12-28T06:12:00.001-05:00

Before I post about Morocco, I just want to let you all know I'm having the hardest time packing my life away right now.

Not only am I really emotional to be leaving Paris, I have my apartment inspection today at 5pm (in about 4 hours and 48 minutes) and there is absolutely NO way I am going to be able to fit everything I brought to Paris, plus everything I purchased in Europe, back into my 2 suitcases I brought from Canada.

Even Ian knows... :(

How in the world do I have so much stuff?!

I will update with some pictures of my struggles later..

But for now, HELP!!!! Jk haha but wish me luck.

Because I'll need it. All of it.

KN does Morocco!

2012-12-26T19:01:00.000-05:00

Wait what... I was in Thailand last week and now I went to Morocco? Talk about jumping from place to place!! It has honestly been a whirlwind in terms of travelling but it was so worth it. I mean, how many of you can really believe that I actually survived a night out in the desert... Crazy even typing that out haha. Morocco was definitely one of my most memorable trips YET. Here are the highlights of my trip, which included sunshine, the Sahara Desert, camel riding, and gorgeous views.

December 7 - 10, 2012

P.S. I know I'm really late on these posts, but I've been busy finishing up my school term here in Paris (yes, I do go to school here haha) and my bffl LINDSEY LEONG (happy you got mentioned?!) is visiting me for Christmas so that's why!! But don't worry, I'm still going to keep blogging into the New Year! :)
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Total spent on visiting 21 cities so far: $4328.87

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Paris Love Locks

2012-12-25T18:50:00.004-05:00

I just realized never told you guys about my experience with the Love Lock Bridge in Paris!

So since Paris is known for romance and love, there is a bridge (Pont des Arts) where lovers write their names on a padlock and then they lock it together onto this bridge. They then take the key and throw it in the Seine River, as a symbol of their forever love.

With that being said, we decided to write our names on a lock and bedazzle them. They were so adorable!! We headed out to the bridge together to put it on the bridge. Too bad our lock didn't actually have a key though but L and B's did so they did the whole throwing it in the water thing :) we're so cute!

BUT. So much for 'forever love' because when I went back to look for our lock today, it was gone. Lulz. I guess that symbolizes something? Haha jk. But no seriously.. Who took it? Give it back.

Oh and on a completely different note, Joyeux Noël everybody ♥

Bangkok Day 7: River Tour, Twinings Tea, & Goodbye Hugs

2012-12-23T19:04:00.000-05:00

As the last day of being in Thailand with my dad, we decided to take it easy and just relax. We woke up rather 'late' and just headed out towards Sathon Pier. We took a local boat around the Chao Phraya River just to do a little sightseeing without really walking around. It was a tad too local for me. It was super squishy and I got splashed by the dirty river water and I even saw people fishing and dumping fish back into the river right next to me! Awks.. Haha.

We decided to get off at this stop and walk towards Kao San Road, a famous backpacking street. And it is true! I have never seen so many backpackers clumped together ever! There were so many little stalls and food booths cramped together where they just prepared, cooked, and packaged food right infront of you. It was a weird combination of many different smells.

It was super hot that day, so I was dyingggg. So, after walking up and down the street once, we decided to just head back to CentralWorld for high tea :)

We decided to go for high tea at a new Twinings tea room that recently opened just that month. I was overwhelmed with how cute everything was, where as my dad was just like "um...can we please order something to eat and drink? K thanks" haha. Obviously he didn't get it (jk, he loved it).

We ordered Twining's Elegant Afternoon Tea Set, which included a big pot of tea (I chose Darjeeling) and a 3 tiered high tea set.

They gave us a timer, because different types of tea takes a different amount of time to steep. So kewl.

Happy birthday daddyboo :)

With our high tea, we got a free gift set as well!! It came with 2 boxes of different teas, and a tea set. SO adorable. I'm so happy I got those little trinkets as souvenirs :) now I'm going to have so many London themed things when I go home (hehehe yay).
After that, we just walked around the mall and here are some random pictures...

A super yum plate of cold glass noodles and chicken skewers

Who's a Lindt bear?

I AM!

Shoes at Aldo! It's like Thailand themed or something.

Last meal :(

And then it was time for me to go to the airport :(
It was so sad saying goodbye to my dad!! I felt like I was not going to see him again for another four months, but in reality I would be seeing him in less than a month. I got super homesick for a bit but then I realized that I'm actually really thankful that I was able to take this trip in the first place. So I said my goodbyes and headed to the airport.

In the taxi.. No goats? LOL

Being early, I had time to just hang out at Starbucks and take advantage of their awesome holiday drinks. I just had to get the Cranberry White Mocha one more time. So nums, I'm going to miss it!
When I boarded the plane, I didn't even check what movies they had because I was reading Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. It was too good to put down!! I finished reading the book in about 1.5 hours, and then slept the rest of the way to Zurich.

- - -

Landing in Zurich...one word: gorgeous. I looked out the window and it was so pretty. I think it was the first sight of snow for me this winter. I really missed it! With the snow on the ground, and with snowy mountains in the background... It was surreal!!!

With my connecting flight from Zurich to Paris cancelled, I was really frustrated because I was supposed to head to Disneyland RIGHT when I landed to Paris. So this meant that my day would have to start later because my flight will land later :(
However, with a couple of nice words and a smile at 7am, I got a free meal voucher, got to go into the Swiss lounge, got to pick my seat on the plane, and got priority boarding! Woopwoop.

On the way back to Paris, I ended up just talking with the people sitting next to me. They were all solo travellers, both from Germany! We just shared stories for the hour and then we arrived in CDG.

Hello Paris, once again :)
I definitely won't be looking forward to this goodbye...

Bangkok Day 6: Chatuchak Markets, Shopping, & Thai Iced Tea

2012-12-20T19:00:00.000-05:00

Today is Saturday!! Which meant that my dad did not have work :)
He decided to bring me to the Chatuchak markets. Crazzzzzziest crowds. If you're claustrophobic like I am, I recommend you not going! Haha, but I went for the experience. Although I felt like I was going to suffocate a number of times, it was honestly such a different experience.

I got to see how locals sell their items and they are so different than the vendors inside malls. Everything was really cheap but the quality wasn't that great, so I didn't really buy anything there.
My favorite stall there was the famous Thai iced tea. They way they make the tea involves spinning around and around while shifting the tea from cup to cup. Okay that didn't make any sense haha the video I took will probably make more sense to you (excuse the crappy quality of the video haha and sorry it's sideways! I have no idea how to flip it).

After sweating buckets and getting lost in the markets, we took a taxi back to CentralWorld to eat lunch.
I had Pad See Ew (brb while I drool), my dad had shark fin soup and rice, and we had 2 skewers as well.

We headed out to Platinum Mall, which is a huge mall with a lot of small vendors. The only thing different about this mall was that all the stores were like wholesalers. Everything was not necessarily cheaper or expensive, but the more you bought at their store, the cheaper each item would be. It was weird!! And sometimes it was hard to find enough things I wanted. So in the end, I bought this bronze spiked necklace with skulls on it (one of my favorite purchases this trip!) and scarves for my mom and sissy.
After that, my dad took me to an electronics mall. I played around with Windows 8 (of course I would.. Hehe) and bought fake iPhone earphones for $3 hahah don't judge, mine were breaking!
Since we were on a roll, we decided to go to MBK to try to shop for things for my dad :) and it was quite successful! I was able to buy him 2 dress shirts, a new laptop backpack, and also a custom made suit. Yayayy my bargaining skills are improving :)

After shopping and walking for the entire day, we headed back to a restaurant near the hotel that my dad went before with my mom. We ordered this huge bowl of noodles and seafood. Now thaaats what I'm talking about!! So yums!

I had such a great day just spending it with my dad! But it also meant that my Thailand trip would be ending tomorrow. Booooooooooooooooo (n)

- - -

Day 7 tomorrow :(

Bangkok Day 5: Jim Thompson House & Flea Markets

2012-12-19T18:55:00.000-05:00

Started my morning right with some Asian food (can't get enough of it!)

And then I went back to sleep until 3pm LOL typical me. Jetlag finally caught up to me haha I was exhausted.
When I decided it was finally time for me to stop being fat and lazy, I took the hotel shuttle out to the Skytrain. I headed down to check out the Jim Thompson House.
Jim Thompson is very famous for rediscovering Thai silk and bringing it to America. In the tour, I learned about him (he was an architect , explored his house and learned how/why he designed his house the way it was, and a lot of other random facts. Although I thought I would learn about the silk part of Jim Thompson, it was still quite interesting.

PS after the tour, it also came with a ride back to the National Stadium in a golf cart (eeeeep) and yup, you know it. I somehow managed to get the driver dude to let me drive it hahaha so I guess I can check that off my To Do List of 2012!

I went to see the National Stadium, which was nothing more than a plain old field with bleachers.. It was so boring that I didn't even take pictures of it haha. But next to the National Stadium, there was a weekly flea market!! I obviously went to check it out to see if I could practice my bargaining skills again :P

Look at how busy it is!!! And when you're actually in the crowds, it feels 1000000x more crowded. Merps.
On anther note, I'm done travelling around! Today was Friday so that meant that my dad had the weekend off so I would be able to spend more time with him :)

- - -

Day 6 tomorrow! Xo

Bangkok Day 4: Siam Ocean World, Pad Thai, & Beer Fest

2012-12-18T18:41:00.002-05:00

I started off my morning with a little swim in the paradise pool, and then had breakfast by the pool and palm trees. I'm starting to love this morning routine!! After a relaxing morning, I decided to head out to one of my most anticipated attractions.. Siam Ocean World!!! (Aquariums are my fave, if you didn't know).
So I took the hotel shuttle out to the Skytrain and then headed over to Siam Paragon for one of my most anticipated days :P

Being the largest aquarium in South Asia, I kind of expected it to be big but then again, I couldn't really expect much since the aquarium was just the basement of a mall hahaha but still. I loved it!

Despite the fact that I spent a total of 3 hours there, watching all the different shows and sitting there just watching the fishies and penguins swim... I didn't think it was boring. Call ME boring if you want, but I love what I love teehee :)
Here are some pictures of my fave penguins:

Penguin feeding!

Anddd I couldn't forget about my little Squishies :)

After staying there long enough for the workers to recognize me as the loner, I went and ate at the food hall. I had a lot of small little things, with a side of bubble tea. It's definitely the best way to eat! I'd buy something, and eat it as I walk around until I'm done and find something else that looks appetizing :) I did however also eat a plate of glass noodle padthai. SO good!!!!!

I headed out to MBK to do some damage and it was quite successful. I bought everything I wanted to get for good prices.

Also, something else I realized was that there are a lot of men walking around in suits (for work) which isn't anything to complain about. But it's quite hilarious to see men in suits drinking out of baby juice boxes... I think it's a Thailand thing? I have no idea, but it was always funny to see that.
On my way back, I walked by the Scala Theatre. It was built in 1967 and is the oldest theatre in Bangkok. It only plays 1 movie haha I didn't watch a movie in it, but I walked around inside and it looked really vintage-y (if that makes any sense).

In the evening, since my dad was working late today, I decided to go out with these people that I met earlier in the day. They brought me out to the outdoor beer fest outside of CentralWorld! It was SO cool and different!
So since it's 'winter' and 'cold' in Thailand in the months of November and December, the different beer breweries set up beer gardens and campsites. At this particular location, they had 4 sites where they would have a live band playing every night. Since it was a Thursday, it wasn't too packed which was a good thing because it was SO hot outside haha.
Here are a couple pictures of the beer gardens that I went to.

Another cool thing about these beer fests were that their beer came in a huge cylinder tube (like the picture above). In order to sit down at a table, you would have to buy a cylinder of beer! So interesting.
(I didn't take other pictures because I didn't want to act touristy with these locals hahaha...)

In addition to shopping and eating in Thailand, my next favorite thing is to go into grocery stores and look at all the different snacks they have. They have so many different flavors and things that Paris doesn't have!! Such as...

- - -

Day 5 tomorrow :)

Bangkok Day 3: Eating, Shopping, and Eating...by myself

2012-12-11T16:31:00.000-05:00

Peak: walking around the mall aimlessly and carefree
Pit: asking for a table for...one *cries*

- - -

Today is the day that commences my solo travels. I woke up in the morning with my dad already at work. They start work super early in Thailand and end really late as well! Anyway, so I went down to the pool area for breakfast. I enjoyed some awesome Asian food while lounging on the deck of the pool next to palm trees. It felt absolutely unreal. Until.. It started raining. OF COURSE. Not even surprised. So it ruined my plans for the day because I was planning on heading out to the famous parks and riding bikes (yes, by myself) but instead I took the hotel shuttle to Central Rama Plaza.

Central Rama III Plaza
My dad told me about this amazing restaurant there that had a hotpot and sushi buffet, so obviously I had to go try it out!! It was SO different! But first about the sitting situation. I walked by the restaurant first while staring inside the windows to see if it was the right place. The employees already noticed me and tried to get me to come inside and here was how the conversation went:
Them: Sawadeekah come here to eat! Do you want to eat here?
Me: Umm.. Yes sure
Them: Okay! Table for 2
Me: No... Table for 1
Them: 2?
Me: No.. 1
Them: *holds up two fingers*
Me: No.. *holds up 1 finger*
Them: Oh... Okay
And then they proceeded to sit me down at a four person table, and slowly take away the other 3 plate settings. UGH!!! Haha, so painful. Haha But enough about the embarrassing part. I forced myself to accept it and then I kinda got over it haha (not really).
So onto the food part.. Basically everyone has their own hot pot and they sit next to this conveyor belt. The food that you use for the hot pot came on the conveyor belt, like the picture below.

And on top of that, they had an all you can eat buffet part of the restaurant. It also included tempura, dumplings, and other hot Japanese food. It was GREAT. I couldn't take a picture of the buffet part, but here is a picture of the sushi that I managed to sneak. (It was pretty embarrassing pulling out my camera, especially after asking for a table of one, cries).

I ate SO much! It was great. All in all, it was an AMAZING first meal alone. Hot pot, sushi, green tea, by myself, for 2 hours. It was so good.
(Safia, sorry for the many mentions, but you would have LOVED this. I know you've been eating sushi for me for the past 3 months, but I'm definitely sure I ate some for you when I was here :D)
After eating, I was going to walk back to the hotel and head out to the Skytrain to go out, but of course, it was just teeming with rain outside. So instead, I got a taxi and headed to CentralWorld mall, this international mall in the central touristy area.

CentralWorld mall
First thoughts when I walked in: HUGE. It was 7 floors and 2 full buildings (kind of like 2 malls connected into 1). Oh and let me mention that 2 FULL floors is dedicated to just food? Amazing, I know.
My favorite thing about this mall is that it has all these international popular awesome stores in it, as opposed to Thai-ish stores. The way they organize it is awesome as well. The mall was sectioned off into countries. So there was a section with North American stores (ex. Aldo, Forever 21), London stores (ex. Ted Baker, River Island), Spain stores (ex. Zara, Mango), and France stores (Ex. Pull and Bear, Stradivarius, Bershka). With that being said, obviously I spent quite a lot of time there just walking in and out of stores, but just browsing because the prices are x2 the price normally here! I just explored around the mall, drank some bbt, and ate some food. Typical day in Bangkok :)

Loving the Christmas decor

Cupcake Love: This cute little set-up really made me want to eat a cupcake. And also since there are basically no cupcakes in Paris, I was craving them. I got a chocolate cupcake with cookies and cream frosting. NUMs.

Candy making: Next to the food court, there was a candy making booth where they make customized hard candy. They can make any pattern or image, and can even write letters/words in the center of it. The one that I loved most had a panda face on it. SO adorable, and awesome to watch!

AIS event:

Something about Bangkok is that they have different events every single day at the malls. I accidentally walked into this AIS event because I saw free cupcakes on the tables. While picking up my cupcake, I got bombarded by cameramen and ended up getting interviewed in Thai!! Like um what in the world? And while trying to get out of it, the celebrity guy came up to me and said "Hey" and shook my hand. Talk about awkward!!! Funny how I met celebrities in Thailand but.. Why can't I meet celebrities in Paris? :(

Outdoor Christmas square: CentralWorld has the tallest Christmas tree in South Asia (30 feet)

After spending my entire day at the mall, my dad got off work so I headed back to the hotel to meet up with him. We went to this Japanese restaurant near the hotel. We both had iced green tea, which was delicious. I forever want to drink green tea cold (and we got free refills :D)! I ordered some ramen and my dad ordered pork cutlet with rice. The food was really good, and we ended up just sitting there and talking for a while until we both got tired.

- - -

Day 4 tomorrow! :)

Bangkok Day 2: Dad's Birthday, Grand Palace, and Sushi

2012-12-10T12:28:00.000-05:00

Peak: Drinking bubble tea for the first time in 3 months
Pit: The weather = crazy humid and hot!

- - -

Since it was my dad's birthday, he got the day off work! :)
Our first stop: the Grand Palace
I went there the last time I was in Bangkok with my mom and sissy, but my dad has never been so we decided to check it out. Yep.. Nothing has changed since 5 years ago haha. I wasn't allowed to wear 'tight pants' aka my leggings so they made me wear this Thai skirt to cover up. It was hilarious because my skirt matched hardcore with my existing outfit - navy and gold, haayyy.

My matchy matchy outfit

On the Grand Palace grounds

Entering the Grand Palace

Paintings inside

It was so hot cause it was around 12pm-1pm, dumb on our part, so we just walked through quickly and the left for Siam. On the way out, we saw guards marching around (love seeing guards!) and ended up in the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, where they had a free exhibit called the "Exhibition Pressing, Perfuming, and Preserving: Caring for Textiles on the Inner Court."

Second stop: Siam Paragon

Walking into Siam gave me so many flashbacks of when I came here before. Nothing really changed though because I even remembered where my fave bbt stall was in the massive food court! Since it was really hot outside, we decided to just stay inside to chill and eat. We ended up staying for a total of 3 hours just eating little things here and there around the mall.

Holding my bbt in a bag? Can't get more Asian than this!

First bubble tea in 3 months...Amazing.

Starbucks knows me toooooo well. My 3 favorite holiday drinks? Thanks :)

Third stop: Health Land
After eating, we decided to head over to Health Land to get massages.
We waited for an hour to get in and when we finally sat down on the comfy chairs, I got super sleepy. At first, when they started touching my feet, it was super awkward and ticklish. I had to focus on not kicking the person in the face haha because Thai massages are always super painful!! But after a while, I got used to it and fell asleep :)

They made me change into their "little" shorts.. Which were obv huge on me haha

Fourth stop: Sushicyu
For dinner, we decided to go to this sushi place that my dad loves. It was a really authentic Japanese restaurant in the Conrad hotels. We each ordered this 'supreme' plate of sushi that had 10 pieces of special types of sushi. It was surprisingly reallyyyyy good. I don't know if it was because I was just craving sushi, or if it was just really good. But usually I detest other types of fish except salmon, but I loved them all! Maybe because all the fish was really fresh.. Although it was really expensive, I think it was totally worth it and I would definitely recommend this place!
Other people in the restaurant were ordering sushi by the piece. So they would ask the chef for 1 piece of sushi at a time, and he would make it then and there. It was like you had your own sushi chef! Pretty cool.

After eating, we headed back to the hotel because my dad was going to have a super busy day at work the next day. And I didn't complain because even though it was only 11pm, with the time difference, it was actually 5am Paris time haha so I was glad to get some sleep.

Overall, it was a very eventful first day in Thailand and I was just really happy I got to spend it with my dad for his birthday!!
Happy birthday Papa Ng :) you're the bestest!!!

- - -

Day 3 post tomorrow! Until then, xo

Bangkok Day 1: Airplanes, Reunions, and Palm Trees

2012-12-09T12:20:00.000-05:00

Peak: Seeing my dad's happy face as I sang Happy Birthday to him over a Ladurée macaron
Pit: my iTouch running out of batteries on the airplane
- - -
I'm not too sure what you think of when you think of Bangkok, Thailand, but when I think about it... I think of shopping and food - two of my ultimate favorite things in the world.

Leaving for Thailand felt soo surreal on Monday morning (November 26th). I was super nervous and excited at the same time, because I would get to see Papa Ng(!!!!!!!!) but I would be taking the RER by myself with all my luggage. I was scared I wouldn't be able to handle it but of course, as always, everything worked out.
I arrived to the airport with 2 hours to spare, so I just relaxed and read my book on my iTouch (fave thing to do at airports!)

It's really happening.. CDG --> BKK!

For the past 3 months, I've been taking budget airlines so taking a normal airline was a greattttt change. I totally forgot you get unlimited alcohol and loads of food... Being tipsy is definitely the best way to fly. Even though the flight was 10 hours, it didn't feel that long. Maybe because I'm the odd one out that loves airplanes, or because I was tipsy, but it wasn't as painful as I had imagined it to be. :) and the crazy amount of food they gave definitely helped the flight to be more bearable.

I arrived in Thailand (with the time difference) at 6:30AM, while the sun was just rising. It was suchh a pretty sight! The first thought when I got outside: it was SO HOT, even though it was so early!
I quickly got a taxi and headed to find my dad at his hotel.

Good morning Bangkok!

Arriving at the hotel felt even more surreal. I checked into my dad's hotel and started heading to the room. On the way to my tower (there are 4 towers in this hotel), their main area on the 4th floor was their Oasis. It was a gorgeous tropical looking area with a pool. SO nice. I immediately fell in love!

Definitely my little paradise location

Seeing my dad for the first time in 3 months was definitely a great feeling hehehe. It was my dad's birthday so I'm pretty sure I was the best present ever (LOL jk) but I know he was really happy to see me :)

While he got ready for the day, I unpacked and got myself situated in his apartment-styled hotel room. We skyped my mom and sister for a while. It was so weird being next to my dad as we skyped haha usually it'd be them 3 and me on 1 side. My homesickness was being cured!! :)
Then we went downstairs for breakfast and had my first taste of real Asian food. Nothing can describe how awesome I felt!

View from hotel room

First taste of Asian food at hotel's breakfast

Dad's surprise for me that he brought from Hong Kong! NUMS.

The day I arrived in Bangkok was technically my Day 2, so I'll post the rest of November 27th in the next post! Xo

KN does Thailand!

2012-12-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

I know what you're thinking.. Thailand?! WHAT?! Haha, don't worry. That was my reaction as well. When I found out that my dad would be on a business trip in Thailand for his birthday, I felt super sad that he would be alone for his birthday. So I made a little plan to go visit him in Bangkok for his birthday week :) and that was that!
I've been to Bangkok, Thailand before with my family around 5 years ago so I did not remember much. Going to Thailand this time would be an entirely different experience because now I'm older and I'm also traveling alone!! But I'll get into more of the details in my posts :)
As per usual, here are the highlights of my trip:

November 26, 2012 - December 3, 2012

I'm going to start something new (Brianne, this is all you). I'm going to write down the Peak and Pit for each day of my Thailand trip, as a little summary for each post!
For the entire trip:
Peak: Flying in an airplane by myself for the first time! -- I think I was very successful considering this was my first trip completely alone. I took the airplane there and back by myself, and traveled around the city by myself while my dad was at work. I'm super proud of myself for being able to handle everything :P I'm finally growing up! (lol jk)
Pit: Eating alone for the first time at a restaurant. -- Since I had to find my own activities to do while my dad was at work during the day, I would obviously have to eat by myself. The first time I ate by myself was SO sad. But closer to the end of my trip, I kind of got used to it and ended up liking it a little.. :$ anti-social much?! Hehe

So to be honest, all I did there was eat, shop, and eat. A lot of people asked me why I didn't do more "Thai-like" things, but if you ever go to Thailand, you will realize that shopping and eating IS the most Thai-like thing there is to do there. Everyone is either eating or in a shopping centre or a street market (or in a temple), no lies! :P

Come back tomorrow for my daily posts of my 7 days in Bangkok, Thailand! XO

- - -

Part 2 of London. London, you will be missed

2012-12-07T15:33:00.000-05:00

Day 3 ::
We woke up relatively early to see the Guard Changing Ceremony at the Buckingham Palace. We got there early enough to get spots right at the gates. The entire ceremony lasts for about 45 minutes. It starts off with bands arriving and playing, the guards coming out and getting in order, and then the ceremony will officially start and it lasts for 30 minutes. In the ceremony, the bands will play music while the guards do the change. Here are some pictures of the change. I mainly took videos but can't upload them here, so pictures will have to do!

The guard marching around, hehe

The crowds and crowds of people!

The guards

The guards and the band

The band playing! Amazing.

Guard changing!

Ceremony is over, the band is leaving

After the changing of the guards, we headed over to bake-a-boo for our high tea reservation :)

CUTEST set up

Super excited and happy for high tea :)

Tea menu

Our little snackies on the three-tiered display rack

Cheers!

Everything was okay... The decor was amazing. But the sandwiches weren't that good.. Literally just bread and butter... Not appetizing at all. The scones were good with the jam though and the tea was like normal tea. Other than that, I would recommend this place! Its so cute and hidden in a little town (hard to get to).

- - -

After high tea, we went to visit London Bridge and Tower Bridge.

View of Tower Bridge from London Bridge

As a night event, we decided that it was a must to watch a musical in London. With all the musicals we wanted to watch either sold out or super expensive, especially being a Friday. The only tickets we ended up getting were for Loserville! One (way) ticket to Loserville, please? ;)

Loserville was a mix between High School Musical and Glee (in my opinion), and with me being a fan of both.. It was great :)

Cute christmas tree we passed by

Day 4 :: the day we were leaving London. Of course on the day we leave, the weather would be gorrrgeous! Below are the pictures from L + B when they went to explore the city one last time. V and I decided to go back to Oxford street and shop some more (haha, go figure).

Other than that, that's a wrap for my London trip!!

It was a bittersweet moment as I left because it was definitely one of my favorite cities of all time, even before going on exchange. Only thing I know for certain is that I will definitely be back soon :)
Maybe next summer if I end up going on a Europe cruise?!!? Maybe... (Hint hint mom and dad hint hint hehe)

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Thanks for reading! Xo

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Touched Down in LONDON Town

2012-12-06T13:00:00.000-05:00

& here is the start to my blog goal... :P

Oh London.. Where do I even begin?! Well, first of all, I just want to say I had an amazing time in London for the four days we were there. And since there are so many pictures, I'm going to splitting up London into 2 posts (2 days per post)!

My nails for this trip hehehe

- - -

Day 1 :: We left for London on Thursday by train. Arriving at lunch time, we quickly exchanged money into Pounds and went to drop off our stuff at the hotel. We quickly left and started our day with shopping on Oxford street (mainly Primark). Due to that, we didn't really take a lot of pictures because we literally just spent the rest of the day shopping. And um.. We were in Primark (the same location) for 4 hours LOL... It was amazing. Literally so much to see, and I was super overwhelmed so I took my time walking around. This location was 3 buildings combined with 3 floors. Ah-mazing. I wish I took pictures of what I bought but trust me, it was good.

Cutest taxi ever

Oxford Street, at night

For dinner, we decided to have fish and chips. We went to a restaurant near our hotel but realized that it was double the price if we ate at the restaurant, so we just got take out and went back to our hotel room to eat and watch tv :)

Fish and Chips for dinner

- - -

Day 2 :: Waking up in the morning, we went for our free breakfast at our hotel. It wasn't that great, but I'm not going to complain because it was there that I found my love for blackcurrant jam!! SO good! I usually hate bread, but I was eager to get seconds with that jam. So nums. And on the other hand, they had mixed fruits - something that I've been craving since forever! Overall, their breakfast at that hotel was dece :)

We started our day off with getting a pass for The Original Bus Tour, which is a hop on, hop off tourist bus.

First stop: Westminster Abby

Second stop: Big Ben

And then we kind of gave up on the bus and started walking around around the city and looking/shopping.

A foggy day, with the London Eye in the background

The Tuuuuubbbbeee

A picture with the famous red telephone booths!

Double Decker buses!

These amazing tacos for lunch

In Trafalger Square

With the Canadian embassy haha

When it started getting a little later, we decided to head over to the London Eye and see that. On the way there, we stumbled upon the Christmas Markets in London. We had a little photo shoot with the night lights around River Thames. Too bad it was really foggy :(

Christmas markets

Merry-go-round at the Southbank Centre Christmas Market

Loveeee

A 4D show about the London Eye that came with our expensive ticket

View from the London Eye

On the Westminster bridge with the London Eye

After walking through the Christmas markets, we decided to head over to Piccadilly Circus. The square reallyyyy reminded me of Times Square in NYC :) just a little taste of home. It was great.

On a more important note.. We found the M&M store there. I almost stopped breathing for 5 seconds. You don't understand.. That was probably one of my peaks for the day haha I love M&Ms!!! The store itself was amazing because it was all London themed.. And you know me and my London themed things. EEP! Dies. Needless to say, I had a great time there and had a lot of free samples :P

Piccadilly Circus area and the M&M store

Me being a little happy kid

Oh and we found Chinatown too LOL it was great. I bought a VITA Lemon Tea from a little shop to satisfy my craving heheh. It was great.

After that excitement, we went to find a bar to eat dinner. We honestly just found a bar in some side street, so I don't even know the name of it. After eating, that bar became kind of dead so we went back out to another bar called, The Moon Under Water in Leicester Square. (I only remember the name because it was such a weird name haha)

The food wasn't too bad, but it wasn't that great either. The chicken wrap was a little empty and the fish and chips were soggy. But the potpie was really good!

- - -
After that, we just hung out and drank :)
& that was it for day 1 and 2 :)
Check back tomorrow for day 3 and 4 of my London trip! Xo

My November Photo Diary

2012-12-04T20:14:00.000-05:00

Why hello hello :)

...and welcome to my new theme for my blog!

I decided to change it because I've been getting feedback about how I upload way too many pictures so it doesn't load properly in the theme that I had. I changed it to a more simplistic one so it's easier to scroll :)

And, sorry I haven't blogged in a long time. I haven't even done my London posts!! Promise I'll be better! I've just been super busy traveling around with no down days to just sit and blog.

My goal starting Thursday, December 6th, is to schedule 1 post to publish each day at around 6-7pm EST, so look forward to that (Safia, this is mainly for you hehe).

For now, here is my photo diary of Paris for the month of November :)

Disclaimer: photo quality is not the best because, as you all know, I hate cameras. So my camera? My crappy blackberry. Deal with it :)

Enjoy!! XO

- - -

Starting the month off with Starbucks :

My first holiday drink of the year: Latte Noisette Caramel

Marks & Spencer date :

Mocha au Tiramisu and a generous amount of shortbread cookies

My 3 favorite goodies from London :

Ladurée :

Couldn't take my eyes off this macaron box at Printemps, so I had to get it

Christmas displays!

La Petite Veste Noir, Chanel Exhibit :

Night out @ Palais Maillot (fave club) :

They had 2 people in light-up suits (sponsored by Smirnoff) dancing around in stilts.. It was amazing.

Breakfast in Paris :

Pain au chocolate and my Americano, typs

My home cooked meal of the month :

My fave meal for Nov : Fried rice, zucchinis, mushrooms, and steak

Best travel buddy ever :

The day I felt super sick so Viv brought me my fave Starbucks drink to cheer me up

Christmas Market @ Champs-Élysées/Place de la Concorde :

View of the Arc de Triomphe

View from the middle of the road, down towards the Christmas markets

Cinderella horse carriage

Ferris wheel and Obelisk of Luxor

Spontaneous dessert night - vanilla bean, chocolate, mango, and strawberry ice cream

Mulled wine!

Random Horse festival we passed by on the streets :

Gorgeous day out exploring in Paris :

Galeries Lafayette & Printemps adventure :

LV window display - my penguins are so posh

Lights outside Printemps

Christmas tree inside GL. Amazing.

- - -

Wow, I actually ended up having a lot of photos!! I told you guys it'd be worth the wait ;)
Look forward to my posts in the upcoming week, as I start my countdown to leaving Europe and going back home!

Countdown: I'm not doing it yet.. I can't accept the fact that I'm leaving so soon *cries*

KN does London!

2012-11-21T19:22:00.000-05:00

From November 15-18, I went to London (one of my ultimate favorite cities in the whole wide world). Although we were there for 4 days, when we usually visit multiple cities in 3 days), it felt SUPER short. I had such a great time visiting London for the 2nd time. I got to re-visit and re-do some of the attractions and I had a blast doing it. One thing I absolutely adored was the language - ENGLISH. I felt like I was back at home. It was great. I'm definitely planning to go back again soon!!
Here are the highlights :)

November 15 - 18, 2012

I've been super busy and I'm still trying to catch up with my other posts so I'll post my London post soon (it's an overload with pictures, with an abundance of red blue and white..I'll just say that), along with my photo diary of November (which will include a lot more than last month, I promise!).
I am determined to get some quality Paris-exploring days in this week that I am here, because next week.. I'm going somewhere that's not even in the map below. Surprise? Until then!!! XO

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Total spent on 18 cities: $3894.53