You only turn 21 once (flashback 4)

Another post-post as I have dubbed them...a backwards look of trying to retell what has happened on my adventures since my hiatus.

Perhaps it is the amount of free time with which I have found myself that calls me back...or the wanderlust, nostalgia, or a cry for help for someone to take me back to the place which felt like home.

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I made it to Paris and walked around with a lovely American lady I met in the hostel. We saw the Eiffel Tower at night...

Caroline and I palled around and her friend Christel, who lives in France, showed us Paris from the local's perspective. Absolutely gorgeous...I even got to use some of my French!

I ate my first Big Mac ever while in Paris...
I felt horrible afterwards.

On my birthday, I woke up to four men in my hostel room, so that was quite a shock...I quickly and quietly got ready in our shared bathroom and made a beeline for the exit to explore the city.

For my Grammie and Pap Pap
and one for sisterly love

Notre Dame!

Caroline and I went to the Palace of Versailles for much of the day. A sober birthday with somber travels and a beautiful day to say the least.

Joyeux anniversare pour moi!

How many millennials can say they went to Paris, alone for their 21st?

C'est ma vie et je t'aime beaucoup ;) 

Airport lunch: when beer is cheaper than water and soda

Pubs for dayz (flashback 3)

Pubs are one of the things I'll miss about Europe. Sure, America has its bars, those hole in the walls which one has claimed as their niche while they're in college, or the place down the road with the cheap beer and good music, but we don't have the same thing over here...

For one of my newfound American friends in England, we celebrated her 21st with, what else? Pubs, quality beer, cheap shots, and a group of great people. The times you look back on and think damn, this is my life right now and it's pretty freakin' awesome.

Electrified at the Fighting Cocks!

Family

Ram's Head, The Fighting Cocks, The Mill, Weatherspoons, O'Neil's....birthday girl and those accompanying all had a great time. Wimbledon adventure in the morning for burritos and the famous tennis fields!

Then it was off to Oxford shortly after!

The lodgings of our own Former President Bill Clinton...
and where he liked to smoke weed.

Oxford....the school of my dreams since I was about 10. Unfortunately, they do not offer International Business, and so this was the mental justification I gave myself as to why I did not look here as a potential college (aside from the fact I most likely wouldn't get in and holy shite, expensive, and also Mum would never have let me study for a full BA in another state, let alone another country.

In memorandum of those priests burned
to death by Bloody Mary

I saw the office window of one of the most genius literary authors and ate in the very seats graced with the presence of The Inklings, of which two of my favorite authors were members: JRR Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. I was in bookworm heaven.

Tolkien's office

Illegal picture taken of Tolkien's sketches

Pub of choice for The Inklings

Chicken Wellington...YES

Standing with my boyfriend on the steps in Christ
Church which were featured in Harry Potter

"Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home." (Flashback 2)

Harry Potter Studios...my heart was beating so fast in anticipation.

A long train ride and bus ride later....

FYI: I cried before and after the tour.

Kelsey & I learning proper wand etiquette

*cold* Butterbeer!

Had to commit to the theatrical pose

"...curious, but where to put you?"

"After all this time?"

"Always."

Wir sind in Berlin!! (Flashback 1)

Post-post happening #1....taking you back to Berlin via journal ramblings from those days...

"Wir sind in Berlin!

Crazy journey but so worth it....

Kelsey and I had a long, hectic evening. Today we can relax more and joke about it. So close to tears many times. Missed our coach [bus to Americans] to the airport, harassed by a couple guys, successfully hailed a cab, had a great cabbie, couldn't buy a ticket in time, a (shady) man sold them to us for £30 (£15 each), ran in the airport (sprinted), misguided a few times, made it to the gate (delay!!!), had to sprint to get Visas approved, sprint back, and just made our flight."

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"We went to see Checkpoint Charlie and I got my passport stamped with all the stamps from the time period! We walked to Unter den Linden and saw many shops along there.

The Brandenburg Tor was massive!

We hit up all of the big touristy/historic places:

Homosexual Memorial

Holocaust Memorial

Berlin Victory Column

Bundesrathaus where Angela Merkel works

Pictures taken with as many of these Berliner Bären as we could find...we found about 20!

Schloß Charlottenburg

 Ein anderer Berliner Bär

Humbling remembrances...

This train station sent thousands to their deaths...

TV Tower

St. Mari's Cathedral

...ending up in Potsdamm."

Other notables: Columbia concentration camp, where Hitler made many speeches. Eerie how it has become a mark with little markings...Sony arena, which was an incredible place, quite alive at night.

and the top of the Berliner Dom

as well as the Topography of Terror.

Walking around Berlin...wow. One of my favorite European cities, although each one seems to have a special little place in my heart...

Souvenir for my Fajer, who was not allowed in Berlin during
his military tours because he knew too much

Cozy hat for chilly walks...