The City of Light

Paris is everything you dream about.
It is that magical city where people fall in love and the Eiffel Tower stands proudly above it all.
It is the epitome of grandeur.
It is a city that I actually like.

Mom told me that I haven't posted a blog in a while. I may have rolled my eyes and said "yeah but I've posted pictures and the pictures have descriptions!" But I know what she means. I'm sitting here realizing that all the travelling I've done in the past week and a half has sort of left me in a bit of a shock. What will happen to me when my life returns to normalcy? Will it? Will I always be travelling whenever I have the funds from now on?
So I realized that I need to do a little reflecting on my travels.
Or maybe I'm just putting off studying and laundry.

So I flew with easyjet, and the workers seem to be quite a bit more pleased with their jobs than the Ryanair employees, because they were a lot less short and demanding. Maybe it has something to do with everyone not pushing to get onto the plane first so they can have a windowseat with legroom. I personally like sitting until I really have to leave but maybe that's something to do with being a slightly impatient American. In fact, I would rather sit and get an aisle seat but not have to stand in line for 45 minutes than, well, stand for 45 minutes and get a window seat. Every time I get on a plane it gets easier.

Arrived in CDG (Charles de gaulle?) and took a train into town. Didn't end up finding a place to eat but I wasn't that hungry. Decided to climb up to the second platform of the Eiffel tower and then take an elevator for 5 euros from there to the top. So I guess it's 21 stories to the first platform and then another 22 to the second...but it really didn't seem like that much, and maybe that was the endorphins talking, or pent-up energy from the plane. Either way I think it's worth walking up instead of taking the elevator. It's certaintly a lot cheaper.

I was on the Tower for one like show and decided to stick around for the next. Then I went back to the hostel.

The following morning was annoying because I missed breakfast because even though I set my alarm for 9 or 9:30 I had to wait for the three other girls to use the bathroom and shower, so it was past 10 by the time I finally got my turn. They were good to talk to and nice and everything though, it was just annoying that we all happened to get up at once.

I decided to walk from the 15th arrondissement where my hostel was to the touristy areas. This is not a good idea. Do not do this. If you are not in the 1-9th arr. please just take the metro. Not only is it not worth your time but you might have some creepy 40 year old come up to you and start talking to you, ask you a million questions and where you're going, attempt to go with you, and not be able to dodge until a crosswalk turns green and you can skit across it after he's already kept walking.

So: Don't walk in Paris alone if you're a girl. Take the metro. Lesson learned.

So I was just wandering around. I got a sandwich on my way along with the most delicious piece of chocolate cake I have had in years. I stumbled into the Garden of Luxembourg, which was very pretty with all of the flowers. Then after some point and found myself at the Louvre. The plan was to follow Rick Steve's Historic Paris tour but I thought it wouldn't take as long to walk to Notre Dame as it did.
First of all, they tell you the Louvre is huge. The biggest museum in the world.
But you don't realize how big it's going to be until you get there. This place used to be a palace, and it definitely is grand.
I also didn't know how much was in it, how many famous things it contains.
So of course I saw Mona Lisa and the Winged Guardian and Venus de Milo but my favorite room was the one with the Michelangelo statues.

 I feel like I should explain the lock picture. One the pedestrian bridge, couples will buy a lock and throw the key in the river (or just away) to prove they've been there and be all romantic. I saw it on a bridge in Innsbruck as well. I think it's a cute idea but I wonder what the locals think of it. Suppose it's better than carving on trees.

After the Louvre I decided to do what I could of Rick Steve's tour, so I went to Notre Dame and inside and that was the only place on the tour that was open, besides the Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation, which is a pretty cool little memorial to the jews who were deported from Paris. It's pretty moving really because it gives you a sense of the lack of their freedom and such. I ate in the Latin Quarter and tried snail. They're actually quite tasty. I wasn't quite sure if I was eating them right, I mostly dug them out of their shell with prongs...maybe there isn't a correct way to eat snail...? Then I walked around the island Notre Dame was on. Later I took the metro to the Arc De Triomphe, which is also HUGE.

The next day I went back to see the inside of Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie. (It was free, being a student in the UK.) I walked to the Bastille and then through the 3rd arrondissement to the Lafayette galleries (I think I made it there at least, I'm not really that interested in shopping.) I saw some street art that I recognized as either Space Invader's or people copying him. He uses tiles, which are weather resistant. I think parisians might even like his work, I didn't bother to ask. I went to the Musee d'Orsay, which was very busy. I loved Manet's paintings and saw some Van Gogh's and Renault's and it was cool but I was trying to follow Rick Steve's guide, and all the paintings were in different places so I just got tired of being there and pushing my way through the other tourists (it's not the biggest building, and, fun fact, used to be a train station). Then I walked over to the Eiffel tower in the day, which wasn't too far away. Champs de Mars was a lot more crowded during the day than at night. Then I took the metro to Sacre Couer and fought through the crowds to get uphill for a picture, then took the metro to Gare du Nord to get back to the airport. The flight back was pretty uneventful, except for this lady throwing a fit because they had to put her carry on luggage in the hold. There was a lot of turbulence as well.

On Monday I was really tired but I had a wonderful time, despite the city being a little scary. I probably wouldn't travel alone there again, but if I knew the same things would happen all over again and I hadn't been to Paris I would still go. It is definitely a city worth seeing, and there's a reason it's on most tourist's lists when they do a Europe tour. Much better than any city in England, that's for sure. :) Well that's all for Paris.

Lazy Friday

I don't feel like writing a blog today.

Too lazy.

Btw, I had one of those flowerpot chocolate muffins from my "Typical Tuesday" post on Monday and it was every bit as good as it looks. And I made chocolate chip cookies yesterday and they are the best things ever...

Floating Down the Grand Canal

So I had a brilliant idea while planning how I would get to Venice. My thoughts were like this:
"Oh Jana gets into Venice at 11!"
"Oh look! The cheapest flight gets into Venice at 10:30."
And so I booked it.

And now I have decided something.
First, I never want to fly into or out of Gatwick or Stansted again.
Second, it is not a good idea to need to be at a European airport for a 7:30 flight.
Now I don't know how public transportation even really works at home since I never use it. I've got my trusty car. My car that I miss very much even in our short time together. My car is a symbol of freedom. It can take me to steak and shake at 1:00 in the morning. It can take me to Walmart at 2:00 for the ink that just ran out of my printer or for poptarts or whatever I needed that I didn't think to get during the day.
But England does not have a 24 hour lifestyle. And I miss it! There is nothing like American convenience.

So I left Bath Spa train station around 10:30 P.M. the night before...
(I'm pretty sure this was the latest train that left Bath for London.)
and I got into Paddington station and the underground had JUST closed. Which was the route my ticket had said to take...but there was a bus to Victoria Station.
But the bus doesn't drop you out directly in front of Victoria.
So I walked around with two guys trying to find it.
Then we got there and it was closed. The gates were shut. There was no way to get in.
Well at least we had an hour before our train was supposed to leave (I think they actually leave every hour.)
So I was freaking out a little. How were we supposed to get on the train if the station was closed, which, why the %$*# was the station closed?!?! THIS WOULD NOT HAPPEN IN AMERICA EXCEPT ON CHRISTMAS AND MAYBE NOT EVEN THEN! Haha.
But yeah they let everyone in about 10 minutes before the train was supposed to get there. There were about 50 of us hanging around Victoria station waiting to get inside I think.

So I got to Gatwick with relatively few problems.
Slept until 4:30 when the machines turned on so I could print out my boarding pass. I have something to admit actually...there were already people sleeping on the bench so I slept on the floor. *face of shame* Checked my bag on. Slept in the main part of the airport. Gatwick is odd though, they don't tell you what gate your plane is departing from until like 5-10 minutes before it's supposed to board. Made me kind of nervous because that just makes it seem like nothing is organized.
The flight itself was nice. I sat next to an American couple who were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and I think they had some kids around my age. I know they had a daughter named Sarah so that was pretty interesting. And I remember they'd been to Indianapolis for a Colt's game. That's really all I remember about them though. Oh and I had a window seat!

So I got into the airport and there was like, no customs. You could just walk through. I think the guy in front of me did just walk through. Well I wanted a stamp on my passport so I made sure to show mine to the guy and then I collected my baggage and waited for Katie. It took me like an hour to find an ATM because they didn't have one on the first floor, it was on the second. Bought a Venice Pass for like 22 euros. (which we really didn't need since they never checked tickets on the waterbusses, called vaporettos.) Bought a pepsi. Katie's flight got in at 2. Jana missed her flight. Jana told us to find the waterbusses so we asked the information booth how to get to them (even though Jana had given us instructions) and we ended up taking a bus to venice so that was a bit weird...I was able to call Lorenzo, the guy that was supposed to give us the key to our apartment, with my England-bought phone so that was all good. We met Lorenzo but then he had some family thing to do so we wandered around the market stalls and some streets near San Marco's before getting to our apartment. I got some mint gelato. It was good. It wasn't rainy but it was cloudy. Oh I also bought Brian's postcard (I get him one from every city I visit) and decided to get him a cloudy one since it was an accurate representation.

It was a nice place. Katie was practically obsessed with the coffee press. She probably has a picture of it. There wasn't any wifi though.
I took all these photos from the same location on the couch in the kitchen:

Katie and I decided to go cheap for dinner since we didn't know our way around very well either. ("Jana will want to eat out the rest of the nights anyway and we might as well use the kitchen while we have one.") We just got a frozen pizza and wine and salad and I got an apple. Oh and chocolate. The salad dressing had an extremely weird taste. It took us about thirty minutes to get the wine bottle open. It was quite an ordeal.

And that was day one.

The next day we got up a little late. We had about an hour and a half to kill. Jana had told us to meet her in San Marco's square. It was raining and I bought a poncho. We decided to take a waterbus down the Grand Canal but we got on the wrong one but still ended up on the North end of Rialto Bridge. So we were around 15 minutes late for Jana and we finally found her about like, an hour later. We took her back to the apartment. We were hungry but we went to the Bell Tower in San Marco's Square and saw a wonderful panorama of Venice. My poncho ripped open from the hole from my neck I think in the wind (because I didn't think to take it off), so that was a waste of a few euros. Oh well.

  And really we saw a lot of cool stuff. We didn't go into St. Mark's Basilica but we saw the outside (which was under construction). We walked to Ponte di Accademia. I was really confused this whole time, because I thought were were looking for a cafe or some place to eat and we just kept walking and Jana kept saying we were going to the Accademia and I had no idea what she was talking about, I especially didn't know it was a bridge. Anyway so we crossed over to the other side and saw the Basilica di Santa Maria dell Salute (or just the Salute for short, which translates to "the Health"). We then finally ate after that. I got salmon penne and it was like heaven in my mouth. And then I was confused about whether you had to pay for water and I got water instead of wine or beer but I just went with it. Jana was under the impression that I didn't like beer. I'd say I'm definitely used to the taste now and like it quite a bit. :)

We took a vaporetto to Ponte di Rialto and walked over it and then we went back to our apartment and rested some. Jana fell asleep and it was very hard to wake her up for dinner but we managed it. We went back to San Marco's afterwards and discovered acqua alta, or "what those random boards everywhere were for." We didn't get caught in any flooding but our favorite route was cut off so we did have to go around out to the waterfront to get to San Marco's at night. A few people were there but it was mostly empty since the weather was crap (cold and rainy) and it was a bit late. Then we went back to our apartment to prepare for getting up at 4:30 in the morning...I was not too happy that we'd have to get up that early at the time, but now I'm glad we got the full next day in Florence.

Rialto Bridge

More pretty pictures on facebook. If you want to see good pictures of Venice I'd just look them up on google, it was rainy or at least cloudy when we were there any way, so my pictures aren't going to compare.

Also I thought I should mention the city of Venice is in the shape of a fish.

Easter Holiday

I don't have a very creative title for you right now. I apologize for that. I slept for about 4 hours last night, preparing for a presentation that I gave around 10:30 this morning. I was pretty nervous. I looked down quite a bit, my legs were crossed, I was doing crazy arm gestures and my voice was nervous and probably uneven. But it's over and it was 20% of my grade. This was for history. It was over science, basically between 1650-1700, but honestly the stuff before it was a bit more interesting. I got my paper back from that class today as well and I did well, so I don't have to write the next one if I don't want to because only one counts.

My Easter Holiday was 2 weeks. Long.
I think I will split it up into about eight sections so it may take more than a week to write about.

For this post, I don't have access to photos right now (they're in my dorm room, and I don't want to walk back down that hill and then walk back up in two hours in the rain, because it is supposed to rain later today as well), so I think I will just give a summary of what I might talk about in each post.

1. Venice
 Churches, acqua alta, canals everywhere, first gelato experience, salmon penne, the cork that wouldn't come off, and meeting up with my sisters
2. Florence
 David, Medici's, leather, The Arno, Duomo di Firenze, "individual pizzas", Ponte Vecchio, The Uffizi
3. Tuscany and Cinque Terre
 Cheesy Pictures, frustrations with lack of payphones, steps and hills, wine, towers, more gelato, some sunshine, zebra cathedral
4. Rome
 Crowds, easter, the Vatican, the Colisseum, the Forum, the metro, Mama Angela's, the cappuchins and their decorative bones
5. Salzburg
 Festung Hohensalzburg, Mozart, Sound of Music, Walking everywhere and along the river, cloudy, Mirabell
6. Innsbruck (with a section on Bologna)
 The hostel without locks, the Alps, the colorful houses, lack of information on hiking trails, alpenzoo, the alps, the alps, the alps
7. Munich
 Dachau memorial, sausage traditions, Augustiner's, Hofbrauhaus, expensive but safe, Bavaria, pretzels, BEER, Rauthus-Glockenspiel
8. Fussen
 Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein, ridiculous fog, horse-drawn carriages, UNO with a danish couple, tourists everywhere, Found american students!, stein souvenir, getting back home

I was a bit glad to get back "home" to people I knew and sleep in my own bed. I actually did miss England a bit. I wasn't quite expecting that. It's also nice that it's a bit warmer out now than when I left. Spring is coming, however slowly.