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Jour 123 - Last Full Day in Lille

December 21st,  Wednesday

Last full day in Lile, last full day in Europe..

This was the reality - I was going to home tomorrow already! Because of this, Aira and I promised to explore Lille.

We visited school for the last time - we needed to get our certificates.

Here's Aira taking pictures of Building E.

After school, we went walking around the city center. We ate in Paul's for the last time :( Oh how I miss being a pig and eating macarons like it's the end of the world. We walked around the Vieux Lille, Euralille - really feeling so sad that by tomorrow my "4-month grand vacation" will soon come to an end :(

For lunch, Renan and Ryan met up with us! We ate in this fancy French restaurant in Vieux Lille (first and last time to eat in a fancy place). Aira suggested that we go here. And galing! The food was magnifique! :D

Caeasar salad for our starter!

And then we had duck for our main dish :)

This was the restaurant, just wanted to show the name :P

So after all our last minute shopping (yes, despite the rain), Aira and I headed to Tita Juliet's.

Aaaaw, the last time we helped out with the babies :(

For those who don't know Tita Juliet, she's been my mom in Lille. She's a Filipina who's been living there for a long time already. She married a French man and she's been happily living there :) Aaaaaw, us with Tita! She's really the nicest person I have met during my 4 months there <3

This is Nico, the youngest son of Tita J. He's so cute! He's always entertaining us whenever we're there.

OMG. So Renan accepted the challenge of Nico when he asked Renan for a race in Wii Fit. Renan was dying after the run :)))))

For dinner, we had Raclette. Hayyyyy, so good! This is the apparatus for cooking the raclette cheese. It may seem weird that people get full with potatoes and ham but the fact that there's potatoes involve says it all. If I were to go back to Europe, I would definitely buy a raclette machine! >:)

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Goodbyes are really so so hard, especially when you're saying goodbye to someone who has touched your life so much. That's Tita J for me. She has touched my life, and the other exchange students. Hay, of course I cried :(( it was really heartbreaking for me because I don't really know when I'll ever see her again..

xx

Jour 122 - Pest

December 20th, Friday

Our last full day in Budapest and this time we wanted to explore the Pest side. I was so excited to go to the House of Terror BUT it's was closed that day :(((( So we went instead to a food market where they were selling langos. It's the variation of the Hungarians for the French crepe!

The langos is way deadlier (I think) because the bread is deep dried! And I could feel the oil dripping! Hahaha. The first I tried this was in Berlin and I think what I got back then was better - it was very simple, it had cheese, sour cream and garlic. See the langos on top? Well, good thing Aira and I split this baby! I couldn't finish it myself! :o

A very common Hungarian dessert is strudel. I'm pretty sure a lot of us know strudel that's apple. Sammy wanted to give it a try. It wasn't so bad raw, according to her.

We passed by the Jewish community cause we were so curious how this tree really looks like in flesh. We didn't go inside anymore because it was a fee to enter!

Aira posing with my red beret!

Another church that we passed by! Haha

It was really cold that day soooo, here's Renan with his funny getup! He was actually wearing two scarves that day!

We wanted to check the romantic park of Budapest. We were waiting for the bus that goes inside the park because we just really wanted to take pictures :))

The girls and their dance moves! LOL

I love these girls so much <3 After the "tour", we all felll asleep in the bus! I think lack of sleep has finally caught up on us!

For our late late lunch, we wanted to eat here - another authentic Hungarian restaurant. It was full when we went there so we went to a cafe to warm up.

At the same street, we saw a cute cafe! One one side, there was a cooking class going on. Someone was teaching about 5 people how to make chocolate! :s So jealous when I saw this!!!!

We went to the corner where we could just chill and have our cup of hot chocolate! :D

Anyway, so after that we went back to the restaurant. And again, Aira and I split lunch. We got chicken and some chickpea soup!

Renan ordered this and it actually tasted like kaldereta :))))

That night, we just wanted to chill in the hostel. Renan was still in the mood to drink so instead of doing his own thing, he actually bought us beer! :) Then it suddenly hit me - my Eurotrip was gonna end soon! Four months really flew so fast! @_@ I didn't even notice it pass by :(

xx

Jour 121 - Buda

December 19th, Monday

We woke up feeling like a millionaire! Hungary is part of the European countries that is not doing so well in the economic perspective. And we all had a mission in our last leg -- to spend the least in this city! With the help of our receptionist (geez, I totally forgot his name), he suggested that we explore the Buda side first :)

So this lovely Monday morning brought us up to Buda Hills!

I super loved the weather that day :) It was a one-digit degree weather but because of the sun, I didn't feel the draft of the wind so much!

Jeje pose with Aira girlie <3

We had lunch in this place that's super old. I'm not quite sure how old it is but it's old :)) ...and it's truly Hungarian! Haha

Aira and I split this dish - it was the chicken paprika! Super goooooood I must say! The sauce was heavenly! :) And I think that's one of the cheapest (yet really good) meals I've had here in Europe. Oh a little trivia: one thing I found out about Hungary, they're known for their paprika! Now that I'm thinking about it again, I should have bought paprika in the market. Guuuuh! I super love that spice and I'm regretting that I didn't buy anything :(( Oh well! Til the next European adventure!

After lunch, we decided to go to the Buda Castle! It was such a lovely day, so walking up the hill wasn't a problem for us :)

When we went down, we were going towards where the "shoes" were and we saw the parliament on the pest side! :)

And of course, I just had to be in the picture :))

When we got to the side, we finally the "shoes". Apparently, these shoes are commemorated to the victims of the Nazi regime. This was such a sad sight because I could imagine the people who jumped into the river in order to escape. :(

From here, we wanted to have a coffee break!

Btw, here's the opera! People who were entering the area really looked fancy pancy! :))

We went inside the biggest bookstore in town! The receptionist told us that there's this cafe that had similar murals as the one inside the opera!

Indeed, the cafe was really pretty! And full!

"Another cup of hot chocolate please!" Yes, because of the cold weather we've been having so many cups of hot chocolate :)) This is one of the best hot chocolates I've tasted so far! YUMMMMM :>

Now for dinner, we went to a Christmas market..

...and got of course a Hungarian sausage! >:)

For dessert, we ordered three different cakes from a famous place. Uh, another let down. The best pastries will be from the French! :))

xx