Tautavel Cave, France

Tautavel was one of my favorite places on my Europe trip.  This was what really got me thinking about majoring in Anthropology in college (of course I changed my mind 1038945 times before settling on that).   The morning was spent on the bus and one of the girls smuggled some extra croissants from breakfast because they didn't feed us on the bus.

The day at Tautavel started with a brief lesson about mammals and bones.  After the brief lesson we headed up to the cave where archeologist were digging.   We were told what the archeologist were digging for and learned a little big about techniques used in digging.  The view from the cave was incredible and we were given ample time to take photos.

After the cave, we were given some free time to eat lunch and swim.  I don't remember this but apparently me and two other people did not like the lunch (tomatoes and mayonnaise, eewww) so we went to the bus to get some pringles and the bus driver was not happy that we woke him up.  After lunch we decided to join in with the people who were jumping in off of a rope swing across the river - got to cross that one off my bucket list.

After our break we split up into groups again and learned about the evolution of humans (which I would go on to study in college) and were taken on a short hike before getting on the bus and making the 4 hour drive to Barcelona.

(some photos are mine and some are from my friend Kara ... her camera took way better photos).

Carcassone, France

It's been quite a long time since I did any Eurotrip posts.  I figured now would be a pretty good time to start posting about the rest of the trip since was writing about travel all last month anyway.

I left off with my amazing time in Toulon, France with my homestay family.  When we left that morning we headed to Nimes, France for all of maybe an hour.  I don't have any photos and in my journal I said it was a pointless stop and I wish we could have had that time with our homestay.  So, I guess I didn't think that highly of Nimes.

Our next stop was to the aqueducts which I didn't write the name of.   Most of our time here was spent playing volleyball and relaxing for a bit before making our way to Carcassone.  We arrived in Carcassone in time for dinner then went right to our hotel where a few people went out for a bit and a few of us stayed in.  About an hour later a girl ran into our room yelling that Sting was putting on a concert up at the castle, so of course we all run up to see it!  We couldn't see anything since we didn't have tickets but we did hear it and it was pretty awesome.

The next day consisted mostly of touring the castle, which I loved!  There is a photo below of my friend Kris and it looks like she's standing in Diagon Alley!  After touring the castle, we got to choose where we went for lunch which was great and then headed to the new area of Carcassone which pretty much had nothing, so we went to McDonalds of all places, but we were all craving it!  We also ordered pizza to our hotel room when we got back because everyone wanted pizza.  Carcassone was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip because I feel like we got a lot closer as a group while we were there.  The awesome castle didn't hurt either ;)

A Eurotrip Reunion in DC

I can not believe that my People to People trip to Europe was 8 years ago!!  I also can't believe how lucky I am to have stayed in touch with 2/3 girls that I was really close with on that trip.  Britt and I live in the same county so we get together a few times a year and have done day trips together and what not.  But Meagan is from FL and is currently living in TX for grad school.

As luck would have it, she got an internship in DC this summer!  Unfortunately, we couldn't get our schedules together and were only able to go down once to see her.

Technically, actually it was twice.  I texted Brittany a while ago and said I was going to a concert in DC and that she should come down that day and we could all meet up.   Luck again, she said she was going to the same concert!!!   Meagan was able to hang out, out front of the gates with us at Nationals Stadium until the concert started.  (The concert was FL/GA Line and Jason Aldean, btw)

While we were standing there, we determined that Britt and I both had off work the next Tuesday.  We decided to do a quick trip down to DC for dinner and drinks that day once Meagan got off work.  We ended up getting to Dupont Circle around 330 and she got off at 4 - perfect timing!

We decided to eat outside at the Mad Hatter Bar and Grill where I got the best  burger ever!  And an orange crush.  We sat there for probably 2 hours talking and catching up and trying to get over the fact that we hadn't all been together in 8 freakin years!!

After dinner we weren't ready to say goodbye so we headed towards the White House and then The Mall.  We ended up sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for probably another hour doing more talking.

 The FL group was delayed getting to Rome so they missed the roman sites such as the Trevi Fountain, so Meagan made up for it! (Ok, so it's totally not the same, but still).

 

We had such a great time, it was just like we picked up right where we left off.  Saying goodbye to Meagan at the Metro Station sucked just as bad as it did saying goodbye at Dulles 8 years ago.  We definitely wont be waiting that long to get together again, hell, we may not even wait til Christmas!