As you all know, I spent the last 4 months studying abroad in Angers, France.  I left Super Bowl Sunday and returned home June 10th.  As promised, I'm writing this blog to let you all know that my hiatus is officially over, and also to share my travels with you.  I absolutely loved the time I spent there, but I'm happy to be back home with my friends and family again.

Angers is roughly a 2 1/2 hour train ride WSW of Paris and has a direct line from Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport.  It's the 17th largest city in France, and it's not very big.  I walked everywhere in that city, and to get to school on the opposite end of town was only a 20-minute walk.  They had a huge market in the center of the city every Saturday, the bar I frequented, called Falstaff, was awesome, and the school's workload was a complete joke compared to what I'm used to at my college.  Here's me playing with some toys at the market (I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us Kid), at Falstaff (my friend Deb (only other student from Allegheny), the bartender Kat (who is American), myself, and another friend who randomly decided to hop in the picture at the last second).


I got to go on a couple excursions as well to see Saint Malo and Mont-Saint Michel (where legend has it Michael the Archangel killed Lucifer), as well as a trip to see some castles in the Loire Valley.  These next 2 pics are from Mont-Saint Michel and a gift shop across the street from the Amboise castle.


Then came spring break, and that was an awesome time.  When I found out I was going to France for sure, I said that I wanted to go to Germany and I vowed that I'd go to Rome.  When I learned that I'd be on spring break during Easter, being Roman Catholic, I made sure I was able to get to Rome that weekend.  This is on the train bridge over the Rhine in Cologne, Germany and on the train from Basel to Bern in Switzerland (on the way from Cologne to Rome)


Go to page 2 for more!