Well Chuffed with my Tour Guide Abilities

If you haven't heard, I got the gold stamp of approval on tour guide-ing from my parents, who visited me this past week. Well chuffed means "pleased with", so for those of you who still haven't caught on to the whole "sharon uses too much brtish slang" thing, here's another painfully obvious example. I've also been watching a whole lot of Bridgerton, so if any of this sounds like a Lady Whistledown article, thar's probably why. I'll try to keep the British melodrama to a minimum though.

This week I had some fun adventures in London before doing a short three day trip to Paris; then coming back for a tour of Dover and the white cliffs (should be called Dover and the 30,000 steps uphill). While my parents visited me we took an exhausting climb to the top of St.Pauls cathedral (proven by the fact that a week and a half later I still remember each one of the 524 steps), took a tour of Kensington palace (fun fact of the week is that queen victoria was almost overthrown by her mother before she even took the crown), had sushi in Notting Hill, took a tour of UK parliament, filmed my dad and sister get on a monument at trafalgar square, went to the Avocado show again (my favorite food spot in london omg), waved around some British flags at a Royal Albert Hall classical performance (lol I've never felt less American in my life), slept in a British travelodge with a broken toilet (nothing like that experience), went on a tour of oxford (the biggest place for both authors AND snobby assholes who think they go to the best uni ever...scroll down for a funny interaction with one oxford student who was our tour guide), had some cocktails at a chemistry themed bar (oh my god the coolest thing ever), went to a pub dedicated to Sherlock Holmes, and a whole lot of other things I've probably forgotten about. Despite the excitement of all of these things, the best parts were probably teaching my mom how to scan an Oyster card correctly and my dad channeling his inner Brit and buying not one but two British flags. Talk about patriotism lol.

On Tuesday we went to Paris, and that was pretty fun as well, or at least the part of seeing my cousin and her boyfriend and hanging out with my family. Paris is just SO chaotic, between the tourists and pickpockets and crazineness of the city. So seeing the Eiffel tower just wasn't my favorite, especially since getting in line to go to the top of the tower was an hour and a half process. We decided to pass on that one. I take back what I said earlier, Paris's metro is a disaster. There are so many people crowded on each train and if you're planning on taking a trip to the city of lights-- just hold on to your bags friends.

Unpopular opinion: Mona (lisa) is getting a little narcassistic. I mean, you now have to stand in a winding queue just to get a minute with her or to grab a photo! But in all seriousness, the Louvre was and still is a really cool attraction and I'm glad we visited it. But there are much cooler things (no offense Mona). Like I would dhighly recommend checking out Napoleon Bonaparte's apartments if you go visit, or checking out the statue exhibits. Finally recommendation: don't eat chicken crepes from sketchy food trucks outside popular tourist destinations. I'll leave it at that.

However, we did go to Reims, France, which was 100% the best part of the visit. We took a tour of the Muum Champagne winery cellars, followed by a tasting. So I guess I am officially a champagne expert then. We had a beautiful lunch in the city, saw a stunning cathedral, and drank some medicre bubble tea. But all in all, it was a nice break from the crazyness of the city life. So paris can be summed up as a lot of people, a lot of duck for dinner, and a lot of people who REALLLYYYY hate americans. But we suck, so what's new?

That's kind of the end of this blog, since I focused more on spending time with my family and finding my sister Daniella a beret so she could look like Blair Waldorf (aka the biggest tourist there). If you're looking for a tour guide, look no further!

Au revoir to my family though, and I'm off to new adventures! This week marks the start of Easter Break, and threst are plenty of surprises to come:) The next pure dead brilliant (aka amazing) place on the list is Scotland!

Extra scene from Oxford:

Oxford student: guess what the number one school for funding in the world is?

Visitor: Harvard!

Oxford Student: well...yeah. But we don't like talking about that here.

XOXO,

Sharon