Paris with the fam

So as I mentioned in my last post, my family was visiting last week! My brother and cousin had spring break, so they decided to forgo Mexico (which it seemed like literally everyone else was doing) and come visit me, and take a trip to Paris!
First off, I should mention, I have literally three whole work weeks of vacation time here. THREE WEEKS! That's insane. When I worked for TJX for my first co-op in Framingham I had two days. Seriously. And I had to use one to move. In Europe people really value their free time, make sure to take long lunches and coffee breaks, and everywhere in Germany businesses are closed on Sundays so that people can truly just relax and spend time with friends and family. Long story short, THREE WEEKS OF VACATION TIME!!! So for my family's trip over, I took three days of vacation without even blinking.
I took the train from Düsseldorf to Paris last Saturday and met up with my family who had flown in from various parts of the US. Then, over the next few days we proceeded to do all of the Paris things.

Eiffel Tower selfie!

Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame Cathedral from the outside

Arc de Triomphe

Mona Lisa at the Lourve

The Lourve art museum

Invalides-- right near where my mom lived when she studied abroad in Paris in college!

Versailles! 

We had SO much good food (and coffee!)

After a whirlwind few days being tourists in Paris, it was time to (literally) run to the train and head back to Germany to show my family what I've been up to for the past couple months. Word for the wise about Paris public transportation at rush hour- NO. Just no. The T rush hour traffic literally doesn't even compare.

On my last day off (Wednesday of last week), we had tickets to see a Dortmund soccer game, so we took the train up to Dortmund during the day and checked out the (limited) sights there. We went to the German National Soccer Museum, which was actually super cool and had a lot of interactive exhibits. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I am a massive museum fan, and this one was pretty awesome. After that we went for some typical German late afternoon coffee and cake and then walked over to the game. 

Like I said, not a big soccer fan, but this game definitely tipped me more in the direction of becoming a fan. IT WAS SO FUN! The fans were super passionate (but not rowdy) and chanted and sang throughout the entire game, our seats were great for being relatively cheap, AND the food was wicked cheap. Like, the four of us got bratwursts, beers and pretzels (we went full German lol) FOR 35 EURO. As my brother rightfully noted, you can literally get chicken fingers, fries and a soda at Yankee stadium for the same price (personal note: there is a strong rivalry in my family- my dad and I are loyal Red Sox fans and my brother is probably the world's biggest Yankee's fan). 

The rest of the week was pretty relaxed as I went back to work, and my family checked out the area around me and we all hung out at night. It's really great having family come visit, I've learned over the semester and a half I've been away. Even this semester, as I'm really liking the city, my job and my daily routine, you can't help but miss home. Now just waiting for my next visitor to come in May... 😊