I was in Beauvais, France for three months from February until May.  I knew it would be cold when I arrived there, but I didn’t know just how cold!  I wore my long winter jacket until the week before I left.  Along with all the other challenges– language and culture included, the weather was quite a shock.  There was a lot of snow and rain and sleet and hail, and I didn’t see the sun for like two months.  Later I found out that it was the coldest winter in mainland Europe in forty years.  When the spring finally came to Beauvais, the flowers were gorgeous!  The whole place turned green, the snow eventually melted, and the soggy ground dried up, so don’t think this place is hopeless.

Due to the extreme nature of this past winter in France, I decided to plan a trip to the warmest city in Europe, Malaga, Spain.  I got to visit Gibraltar, where my sight reached all the way to Africa.  I loved Malaga so much that I still dream about moving back there!  If France hadn’t been so cold, I wouldn’t have discovered the south of Spain.  Plus there is a regional airport in Beauvais that flies discount planes all over Europe, so travel is very easy with in Europe.  Paris is only an hour and fifteen minute train ride too, so I could take long-distance trains from the hub in Paris.  I’m glad that Beauvais was both grim and easy to travel from because I don’t know that I would have been as adventurous otherwise.

I visited Paris a lot and Normandy, on the coast of France.  I also had the chance to fly to Frankfurt, Germany to stay with an old friend.  My sister met me in Paris and we took a train to Amsterdam, then we flew to Vienna, Austria.  We took a train to Bratislava, Slovakia, and flew back to Beauvais, France.  Then we flew to Malaga, Spain, where we stayed for a week, then we flew straight to Edinburgh, Scotland, and we took a train to St. Andrews.  This just goes to show how easy it is to travel in Europe.  I would recommend RyanAir, Vueling, and CheapOAir for flights and Booking.com and hotels.com for cheap rooms.

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