JSandbulte

Since I arrived in Paris early in the morning, not many things were open. The first place I visited was the Notre Dame Cathedral, which opened before anything else in France. I took a short walk to the Jardin du Luxembourg, which is a beautiful park. I walked to the Parc Du Champs de Mars, which is another park with some awesome sights, the most notable being the Eiffel Tower. Of course I had to go up the Eiffel Tower while I was there. I decided to take the steps instead of the elevator since it would be a good exercise (not to mention much cheaper and would save me at least 30 minutes of waiting in line). It was 328 steps to the first floor, and I was exhausted. I walked around to take in ... read more

Since I’ve had plans the last few Saturdays, today I decided to just explore Leeds a little bit. I meandered through the city center until I found Kirkgate Market. That place was crazy! They had a huge building, and inside were a lot of stands selling all sorts of things: candy, cards, toys, clothes, watches, etc. There were little bakeries, butcher shops, and fresh fruit stands. There wasn’t much room between vendors and there were a lot of people crowding the spaces. I eventually made my way to the outdoor market, which was a little more spacious. There was so much to see, but it was all in a confusing mess. I have no idea how people shop there normally. I just bought 2 postcards and called it a day.... read more

Arrival in Leeds Part I Irony: I made sure that none of my layovers were too long so I wouldn’t have to be bored in the airport, but I ended up being 3 hours early for my first flight in Minneapolis. Luckily, I managed to amuse myself by trying out the moving walkways. Despite everyone’s claims that Obama was going to ruin our country, there were very few people leaving the country after his inauguration. On my first flight, I got the whole back section to myself, except for two flight attendants who think the very back row is the cool place to hang out. When we landed in Georgia, I saw a HUGE airplane; way bigger than the one I was on. I left our airplane, took a long walk (with more moving walkways) to ... read more