8 Reasons Why Your Hometown Is Better Than You Thought

After traveling and working all the time, you gain a new appreciation for your hometown. I grew up thinking I lived in boring old Salem, NH. Well boring old Salem is actually one of the most wonderful places on earth, to me.  Here are 8 reasons why your hometown is better than you thought:

1) You know all the alternative routes and can avoid traffic. (If you live in Salem, NH then you know how important it is during the holiday season)

2) You know the perfect coffee shops to visit for when you want to get work done or when you're hoping to run into the people from high school that never left town. (Don't lie to yourself, you wonder what happened to them, and after you deleted them on social media in college, Facebook stalking isn't as effective.)

3) You know the best place to get take out, and not be disappointed. ( Sal's Pizza and Romano's for the WIN.)

4) When your bored, or just want a hug after a long day, you can go visit family or your best friends family's house.

5) Everyone loves the same sport teams as you, and you don't have to argue why your team is better. (Go Red Sox!!)

6) Every business in town closes by 9pm. Even though when you were in high school this was the most frustrating, you secretly love it now.  After all you just want to lay in bed, watch Netflixs and not feel guilty about it.

7) Trying new restaurants is fun, but nothing beats having your mom cook dinner. (Even if it is chicken, again.)

8) YOUR bed. After hotels, tour bus bunks and Air B&B, its nice to kick back in your room, with your old stuff and just relax.

Nothing beats home.

Paris

Okay, I'm going to be honest, I didn't think I would be a fan of Paris. People had filled my head with rumors of all the crime and the grittiness of the city. So I went in with my rose colored glasses off, and I left with them on.

My first night in Paris is when I had the most amazing meal of my life. Just thinking about it makes me drool. After waiting in line for what felt like forever we took the elevator up to the first floor of the Eiffel Tower and had dinner at the 58 Tour restaurant. We had a three course meal of foie gras, mascarpone risotto, and a chocolate plate served with espresso. I wanted to lick my bowl of risotto clean. It was that good.

Then we took a cruise on the seine river. It was cool to see all the buildings and float through the city. As we drifted along the river I noticed so many people sitting down by the river. What I became jealous of is all the bottles of wine everyone had. It looked like they had robbed a winery, then I remembered they don't have open container laws.  The Eiffel Tower then started to shimmer, and I understood why Paris is called the most romantic city in the world. Who wouldn't fall in love sitting by the river with a bottle wine and catching the Eiffel Tower light up the night for a brief moment.

The next day we did another bus tour, my favorite part of tours is hearing about all the history. It truly is fascinating, well to me at least. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, L'Orangerie, Champs-Elysees,  D'orsay, Ile Saint- Louis, and Place de La Concorde. Now the one complaint I have about this is that I wasn't able to go inside the musuems. I particularly wanted to to go in the the L'Orangerie and see Monte's paintings. I love art museums. Another place I really wanted to go was the Notre Dame Cathedral. Next time for sure.

After our bus tour a small group of us journeyed out to the Palace of Versailles. I won't go into too much detail about my journey there and back, and I had a great group of travel companions, but I felt like I was in the movie, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. So after the adventure of getting there, I walked into the most beautiful building I've ever stood in. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to spend a lot of time in the building but I did get to see the Hall of Mirrors. Holy cow. Mind blown. All the detail in every inch of the room, the view out to the garden, and the smaller rooms that were off it was incredible. This is a place you must experience. If I ever make it back to France, I will definitely be going back to the Palace of Versailles.

My last day was spent walking around, with my grandmother, in the neighborhood our hotel was located. We had onion soup at a little cafe and poked around to all the little shops and boulangeries. If you ever find yourself standing in a boulangerie BUY A CROISSANT. You will not regret it. I daydream about that croissant sometimes, I kid you not. Another observation I made was, when I made an effort to speak french the Parisian people were very friendly to me, and they all spoke perfect english. I left Paris feeling the need to learn french. I was heavily relying on my three sentences knowledge I retained from high school.

That evening our tour group went to a Cabaret in the Latin district. So much fun. They served a three course meal, plus they had bottles of wine on the table. I'm a big fan of wine. I recommend going, if you're looking for a night out. I don't recommend bringing children, a few routines had some mature themes.

Since a few of us weren't ready to say good-bye to Paris, we went to check out Earnest Hemmingway's old stomping ground, Les Deux Margot's. We all sat down lined down the sidewalk, drinking more wine and enjoying our last night in Paris. An artist started to draw us and captured us in one of the happiest moments of my life.

Hopefully a return trip to Paris is in the near future.

LONDON

First stamp in the passport, Heathrow Airport, London, UK. For years I have been dreaming of visiting this beautiful city, and I finally did.

A tidbit about me is I LOVE the story of Peter Pan. So when I found out I was staying in the Queens Gate Neighborhood, right next to Kensington Park, I may have let out the girliest scream you have ever heard. Once, we got to our hotel ( my travel companion was my grandmother, this trip was a college graduation gift) I booked it to Kensington Gardens, while my grandmother took a nap.

Part of me is surprised at how fast I found it. I didn't even ask for directions.  This may sound weird but I felt like I was being drawn there. In less than five minutes I was in the garden. Now, it's a BIG park so it took me around ten minutes to find the Peter Pan statue. I can't explain the amount of joy I felt standing there looking at all the details in the statue. After, that I just walked around the garden and took it all in. Honestly, I have never felt so at peace, as I did in Kensington Gardens that day. It reminds me of the Boston Public Garden, which happens to be my favorite place in the Boston, MA.

After dinner that night, which was delicious (I don't know why London has such a bad reputation for food), I went to the London Eye with a few other people from my tour. The view was breath taking, literally. I have a slight fear of heights. If you have this fear, promise me you won't let it stop you. Trust me, the view is worth it. I had to force myself to step on and I'm so happy I did because you can see London for miles. Also, I recommend going at night. We didn't wait in line to buy our tickets and we waited around five minutes to get on the viewing cart.

Day 2, we did all bus tour. We saw London Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, ect. I'm disappointed I didn't get to go into the Abbey, as well as London Tower. After the tour I did go to high tea (I know its a stupid cliche, but I had to do it), yet again my grandmother was tired so I went alone. I found out that the Gore Hotel was right around the corner, plus its were the Rolling Stones use to hang out and did a photoshoot for their Beggars Banquet. It was also the favorite hotel to Judy Garland, they have a blend of tea named after her. So cool, right. Now, when I called they told me they couldn't seat me, but when I walked in and asked for a seating I was seated right away. Weird, huh. I enjoyed all the fixings to high tea, they probably thought I was another face stuffing American but I didn't care, because who knows when I'll be able to do this again.

The next day we did some exploring of the theatre district and got fish and chips. We ate at Rock'n' Sole, and I felt like we were sitting in the road thats how close were. I'm a seafood lover, I grew up in New England, lived on Cape Cod, I know my seafood. So, needless to say, I've had a lot of fish and chips, in my short life, and I have never had fish and chips as good as I did there. The fish was as big as my face and fried to add the perfect layer of crisp. I didn't feel sick after, which surprised me and gave it even more points. For the first time, I put vinegar on the fish (I'm usually a ketchup girl) and I started to kick my feet under the table, it was that good.

Sadly, the next day we left London early in the morning, we went to London King's Cross and took the Eurostar over to Paris.

 I felt very at home in London, probably because Boston is very similar in structure. Besides that fact, the British were very helpful guiding me around the city and I'm already anxiously awaiting a return trip.