Day 8 (Lourdes to Tours):
The final day! Booo...
So for the first time all trip, I was able to sleep in (until 9, when I was awakened by the housekeeper attempting to get into the room and then succeeding in getting her key stuck in the door, rather amusing since this was the only key owned by the hotel that has access to all the rooms). The plan today was to finally head up into some mountains - while MT was off doing Catholic things with some Spanish-speaking priests, Hansky and I took a "funiculaire" (cable car) up 1000 feet to Pic du Jer, where we hiked around a bit and got some great views of Lourdes down below, as well as some of the close foothills. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and the higher Pyrenees to the south were barely visible. Booo...I guess I'll just have to come back. :)
Once back in town, we killed time for several hours while we waited for MT by eating a slow lunch, wandering the holy site area again, and getting some work done/watching some crazy YouTube videos on my computer at the hotel lobby. Around 4:15, the three of us trekked up the hill back to the train station, where finally I caught a glimpse of the wonderful Pyrenees through the clouds!
Worst news of the day: so I managed to get a long, thick string of fabric (from a rug in the hotel) stuck in the wheel of my rolling suitcase, rendering the rolling function useless and adding about twice as much friction. What. A. Pain.
The train ride home was on the awesome high-speed TGV, which still took 5 hours but was direct and rather painless. Again, I worked my magic and managed to "forget" to fill out my calendar for the Eurail Pass and when the conductor came by to check, he made no comment. So now I have TWO free days to use some other day for unlimited train travel! Woo-hoo!
And so this trip ended just like all others do...planning the next one. Where will I go next???!! Well, Lausanne, Switzerland in two weeks with MT (I booked this a while ago). What else? Well, maybe I should start thinking about this whole school thing again, as we start leg 2 of classes tomorrow at the Institute!
Hope you enjoyed the lengthy story of our 8-day mega-trip. A lovely time overall and I am so glad to have been able to see so much of France and Italy, especially by train, which is great.
So long for now!
-Andrew
Monday, July 5, 2010
Mega-Vacation Day 7 - Nice to Lourdes, France
Day 7 (Nice to Lourdes):
Well, I felt much better today – my sty has all but disappeared, my sunburn is turning to a nice sun tan, and I didn’t add to my considerably total of mosquito bites. We began travelling very early in the morning – a 4:30 wake-up call for 5:50 train from Nice to Marseille, the second largest city in France. We arrived on schedule and got some coffee/orange juice in the city near the train station, which is located on a hill with a lovely view of the city. Marseille is interesting – the French accent is nearly incomprehensible, totally different from Parisian style with considerable Arabic influence (Marseille has the largest number of Arab immigrants). Overall, good impressions of the town, and perhaps I will return another time.
Marseille to Toulouse was a bit more difficult. When we found our train, we found that we had reservations on a car that didn’t exist. Fortunately, we were not the only ones, and after an hour of asking the SNCF guys about the problem, they added 7 new cars to the train (kinda cool). We got on and got moving an hour late, but fortunately we had a significant layover in Toulouse which simply got cut down from 2 hours to only 1. It was a bit of bummer because I would have liked to explore a bit of this nice city.
Well, we didn’t leave Toulouse totally unscathed – we had an unfortunate run-in with three moronic, scantily-clad local hobos who decided to give us a hard time. Coming back from lunch, one guy asked me for money and he immediately recognized that I was not French. I lied when we asked me if I spoke English and walked past and into a nearby supermarket. Stupidly, I left Hansky alone, and one of the guys weirdly broke off the luggage tag off of my bag that Hansky was using for the trip, only to have it returned to me in the market 5 minutes by the moron-leader himself. Close call, but the score is as follows: intelligent, sarcastic travelers: 1; idiotic, uneducated, toothless locals: 0.
The trip from Toulouse to Lourdes went rather smoothly, and we arrived at our hotel after a lengthy walk up and down hilly streets around 7:30.
Lourdes is a quaint little town tucked into the foothills of the Pyrenees famous for being a Catholic pilgrimage site. Story has it that in the 1850s, the Virgin Mary appeared many times in a grotto in Lourdes to a young girl (Saint Bernadette) and told her to build a church on that spot. Well, at least I believe that’s right. In addition, the grotto is now famous because its water supposedly holds healing powers for ailments – so people come bearing gallons upon gallons of empty cartons and fill them up (if nothing else, the water here was amazingly fresh and tasty, as it came straight out of a spring). Anyway, Lourdes is ridiculously packed with Catholic tourists from all over the world, making it the 2nd most visited city in all of France (behind Paris).
As a Catholic, I found the story interesting – but to be honest, I was much more interested in the mountainous scenery. While MT and Hansky marveled at the pilgrimage sites, I gazed up at the mountains. :)
Our hotel was incredibly quaint, with an all-wooden staircase and small cottage-like room, a nice contrast to the tourist shops set up everywhere selling little water bottles and Catholic-related trinkets. We walked down to the grotto and the nice church on the side of a mountain before dinner – I explored a bit on my own as Hansky and MT prayed at the grotto. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and thus I was unable to see the true, snow-capped Pyrenees. :)
We ate Italian food for dinner and returned to the grotto for a mass in French – it was an interesting experience to see all the people praying in their respective languages (behind French, Italian was by far the most popular). Visiting the holy sites was just that…interesting. Mind-blowing and awe-inspiring? Well, maybe not for me…but that is another story.
Well, I felt much better today – my sty has all but disappeared, my sunburn is turning to a nice sun tan, and I didn’t add to my considerably total of mosquito bites. We began travelling very early in the morning – a 4:30 wake-up call for 5:50 train from Nice to Marseille, the second largest city in France. We arrived on schedule and got some coffee/orange juice in the city near the train station, which is located on a hill with a lovely view of the city. Marseille is interesting – the French accent is nearly incomprehensible, totally different from Parisian style with considerable Arabic influence (Marseille has the largest number of Arab immigrants). Overall, good impressions of the town, and perhaps I will return another time.
Marseille to Toulouse was a bit more difficult. When we found our train, we found that we had reservations on a car that didn’t exist. Fortunately, we were not the only ones, and after an hour of asking the SNCF guys about the problem, they added 7 new cars to the train (kinda cool). We got on and got moving an hour late, but fortunately we had a significant layover in Toulouse which simply got cut down from 2 hours to only 1. It was a bit of bummer because I would have liked to explore a bit of this nice city.
Well, we didn’t leave Toulouse totally unscathed – we had an unfortunate run-in with three moronic, scantily-clad local hobos who decided to give us a hard time. Coming back from lunch, one guy asked me for money and he immediately recognized that I was not French. I lied when we asked me if I spoke English and walked past and into a nearby supermarket. Stupidly, I left Hansky alone, and one of the guys weirdly broke off the luggage tag off of my bag that Hansky was using for the trip, only to have it returned to me in the market 5 minutes by the moron-leader himself. Close call, but the score is as follows: intelligent, sarcastic travelers: 1; idiotic, uneducated, toothless locals: 0.
The trip from Toulouse to Lourdes went rather smoothly, and we arrived at our hotel after a lengthy walk up and down hilly streets around 7:30.
Lourdes is a quaint little town tucked into the foothills of the Pyrenees famous for being a Catholic pilgrimage site. Story has it that in the 1850s, the Virgin Mary appeared many times in a grotto in Lourdes to a young girl (Saint Bernadette) and told her to build a church on that spot. Well, at least I believe that’s right. In addition, the grotto is now famous because its water supposedly holds healing powers for ailments – so people come bearing gallons upon gallons of empty cartons and fill them up (if nothing else, the water here was amazingly fresh and tasty, as it came straight out of a spring). Anyway, Lourdes is ridiculously packed with Catholic tourists from all over the world, making it the 2nd most visited city in all of France (behind Paris).
As a Catholic, I found the story interesting – but to be honest, I was much more interested in the mountainous scenery. While MT and Hansky marveled at the pilgrimage sites, I gazed up at the mountains. :)
Our hotel was incredibly quaint, with an all-wooden staircase and small cottage-like room, a nice contrast to the tourist shops set up everywhere selling little water bottles and Catholic-related trinkets. We walked down to the grotto and the nice church on the side of a mountain before dinner – I explored a bit on my own as Hansky and MT prayed at the grotto. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and thus I was unable to see the true, snow-capped Pyrenees. :)
We ate Italian food for dinner and returned to the grotto for a mass in French – it was an interesting experience to see all the people praying in their respective languages (behind French, Italian was by far the most popular). Visiting the holy sites was just that…interesting. Mind-blowing and awe-inspiring? Well, maybe not for me…but that is another story.
Mega-Vacation Day 6 - Nice, France
Day 6 (Nice):
Unfortunately, the day two days after a night without sleep is worst than the first. I was in a foul mood as I woke at 7pm that morning, being dragged to my least favorite destination ever – the beach. But I sucked it up, brought an umbrella to cover my already burned face, and returned to the hotel around 11:30 to take my first of two solid naps during the day. As Hansky and MT went shopping at an open-air market, I slept – a much better use of my time, and certainly necessary if I wanted to survive the rest of the trip. We met back up again for a late lunch and then spontaneously explored Nice’s Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, which from the top affords great views of the town. This place made me realize how little I understand of modern art, however. I spent several minutes staring a painting of pure blue, no difference whatsoever between the different parts of the painting, and still could not figure out how this was art. I was dumbfounded.
After nap #2 back in the hotel, we went back to Old Town for dinner (excellent & cheap crepes) and hoped to explore the chateau, located on an elevated cliff next to the seashore, but it was closed for the night. We managed to salvaged our plans by finding a bench just below the cliff and next to the water, however. The only problem? We forgot to bring a corkscrew for our leftover wine from Italy. After about a half hour of trying every trick to get the cork out, we finally found a group of Brits who had a wine opener. But it wasn’t meant to be – the wine tasted like vinegar. Gross. Yet the sunset view was lovely and a nice end to our trip to Nice.
Overall, I wasn’t that impressed with Nice. Probably because I was in a bad mood and I don’t like large cities (5th largest in France). But that being said, there are some nice components: though I have never been, I would say Nice is somewhat comparable to New Orleans. Or rather, Nice is what New Orleans was striving to be as a French city in the U.S. Both are lively with live music, warm climate, and colorful buildings. However, Nice has the extra addition of having a modern feeling – kind of like Chicago with its Art Institute and modern art scattered around the town. Nice was nice, but I was eager to find something else – perhaps Nephew haha.
Unfortunately, the day two days after a night without sleep is worst than the first. I was in a foul mood as I woke at 7pm that morning, being dragged to my least favorite destination ever – the beach. But I sucked it up, brought an umbrella to cover my already burned face, and returned to the hotel around 11:30 to take my first of two solid naps during the day. As Hansky and MT went shopping at an open-air market, I slept – a much better use of my time, and certainly necessary if I wanted to survive the rest of the trip. We met back up again for a late lunch and then spontaneously explored Nice’s Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, which from the top affords great views of the town. This place made me realize how little I understand of modern art, however. I spent several minutes staring a painting of pure blue, no difference whatsoever between the different parts of the painting, and still could not figure out how this was art. I was dumbfounded.
After nap #2 back in the hotel, we went back to Old Town for dinner (excellent & cheap crepes) and hoped to explore the chateau, located on an elevated cliff next to the seashore, but it was closed for the night. We managed to salvaged our plans by finding a bench just below the cliff and next to the water, however. The only problem? We forgot to bring a corkscrew for our leftover wine from Italy. After about a half hour of trying every trick to get the cork out, we finally found a group of Brits who had a wine opener. But it wasn’t meant to be – the wine tasted like vinegar. Gross. Yet the sunset view was lovely and a nice end to our trip to Nice.
Overall, I wasn’t that impressed with Nice. Probably because I was in a bad mood and I don’t like large cities (5th largest in France). But that being said, there are some nice components: though I have never been, I would say Nice is somewhat comparable to New Orleans. Or rather, Nice is what New Orleans was striving to be as a French city in the U.S. Both are lively with live music, warm climate, and colorful buildings. However, Nice has the extra addition of having a modern feeling – kind of like Chicago with its Art Institute and modern art scattered around the town. Nice was nice, but I was eager to find something else – perhaps Nephew haha.
Mega-Vacation Day 5 - Cap d'Ail to Nice, France; Monaco
Day 5 (Cap d’Ail – Monaco – Nice):
Yet I still got up at 5am with little problem. Maybe the beautiful sunrise and the fact I had not yet reached a deep sleep yet were the reasons. Of course, knowing my luck, my essay for the State Department application was too long, so I scrambled to shorten it. It was not my best work, but miraculously, at 5:56 local time (11:56pm in the US), I managed to submit it. What a load off my chest!
Some other good news came too: my problem with the placement test for the French course beginning in a matter of days was solved as one of the coordinators sent me an essay assignment that finally worked. I would finish it two days later – another sigh of relief.
So after my victory at 5:56, I figured it was not worthwhile to go back to sleep. Hansky (who also barely slept) and I took some photos of the sunrise and talked to the same nice lady for over an hour. Her story was incredible – kidnapped at the age of 14, she grew up in Strasbourg until recently, when someone recognized her and she was reconnected with some members of her family. Of course, she explained in French, so I could not quite connect the dots on the rest, however: she now lives in a nearby town on the French Riviera, where she owns the former villa of a fabulously rich noble. Beats me why she was staying at the hostel – perhaps because she was lonely and wanted to meet people? She also has a twin she never met, I think? The rest was more comprehensible, as she gave us the history of nearby Monaco (an independent principality never owned by France, but practically French in most respects) and happily gave us all her maps of the area. What a lovely lady.
I was getting tired again, so I woke myself up by doing some exploring along a great path along the sea, which led to a spectacular vista of a massive cliff leading down into a tremendous cove (home to what an American later that day would tell us is the best beach on the French Riviera). This place – Cap d’Ail and the hostel – was truly awe-inspiring.
After breakfast, the three of us did some more exploring and then MT and I laid out on a small island for an hour (her because she loves the sun; me because I wanted to lie down and sleep). This was when I got burned.
I was in a slightly hazy and bad mood at this point, but as we began our 1-mile walk to Monaco, I quickly felt better. The walk went from majestic cove to majestic cove, with the waves crashing up against the rocks and the mountains towering above (see pics on Facebook). Amazing.
Arrival in Monaco was abrupt. There are no markers, no border guards, nothing. But you can tell the difference – this town is pristinely maintained. The joke that the nice lady told us was this: in France, you must use the stairs everywhere; in Monaco, you have escalators. And it was totally true. This place is amazing well-kept.
But once again, I was shocked by the prices, which I expected to be astronomical but were actually very reasonable – not quite Italy cheap, but better than northern France.
So Monaco is composed of 4 neighborhoods, each with a different vibe. The first is Fontveille, where there is a large stadium and a ton of identical hotels. It is also home to a small port with a striking view of Monaco Ville and the Prince’s Palace towering above on a huge cliff. We ate lunch here and rested for a VERY long time on a nice bench (the sleepiness was getting to Hansky and I).
Second is Monaco Ville, home to the Prince’s Palace, the national cathedral, and striking views of the city. Hansky and I again waited here on a bench as MT explored the relics of the Prince’s Palace. This was also the area where the famed Princess Grace Kelly was buried after her death.
Next is La Condamine, a small area known for some gardens – not much to see.
And lastly is the high-class Monte Carlo, home to all the casinos and the nicest collection of cars I have ever seen. Ferraris, Lambourghinis, and Astin-Martins were commonplace. It was actually quiet a sight – I was pleasantly surprised and in awe by the pristine nature of all the buildings, roads, and wicked awesome automobiles.
Finally, we returned to the Monaco train station and accidentally boarded the wrong train, which passed by but did not stop at Cap d”Ail, where we had to pick up our bags. But it was really not a big deal – we quickly turned around, caught the next train, and picked up our bags from the hostel with very little time lost. Probably our biggest goof-up of the trip, which means we were pretty darn good travelers.
We then headed to Nice, west along the coast, where we arrived around 7pm and checked into our nice hotel (a pleasant surprise after the bad beds of Florence and Cap d’Ail). We explored Place Massena and the Old Town for a bit before eating at an Italian-French fusion restaurant, where we got free kirs and I had the best goat cheese salad ever. Unfortunately, I did not feel so well 0 I could barely finish my second course (a fish goo-type thing). Probably a mixture of heat, sunburn, and lack of sleep – symptoms of mild heat stroke. Fortunately, I felt better later, as I went straight to bed (still around 11pm).
Yet I still got up at 5am with little problem. Maybe the beautiful sunrise and the fact I had not yet reached a deep sleep yet were the reasons. Of course, knowing my luck, my essay for the State Department application was too long, so I scrambled to shorten it. It was not my best work, but miraculously, at 5:56 local time (11:56pm in the US), I managed to submit it. What a load off my chest!
Some other good news came too: my problem with the placement test for the French course beginning in a matter of days was solved as one of the coordinators sent me an essay assignment that finally worked. I would finish it two days later – another sigh of relief.
So after my victory at 5:56, I figured it was not worthwhile to go back to sleep. Hansky (who also barely slept) and I took some photos of the sunrise and talked to the same nice lady for over an hour. Her story was incredible – kidnapped at the age of 14, she grew up in Strasbourg until recently, when someone recognized her and she was reconnected with some members of her family. Of course, she explained in French, so I could not quite connect the dots on the rest, however: she now lives in a nearby town on the French Riviera, where she owns the former villa of a fabulously rich noble. Beats me why she was staying at the hostel – perhaps because she was lonely and wanted to meet people? She also has a twin she never met, I think? The rest was more comprehensible, as she gave us the history of nearby Monaco (an independent principality never owned by France, but practically French in most respects) and happily gave us all her maps of the area. What a lovely lady.
I was getting tired again, so I woke myself up by doing some exploring along a great path along the sea, which led to a spectacular vista of a massive cliff leading down into a tremendous cove (home to what an American later that day would tell us is the best beach on the French Riviera). This place – Cap d’Ail and the hostel – was truly awe-inspiring.
After breakfast, the three of us did some more exploring and then MT and I laid out on a small island for an hour (her because she loves the sun; me because I wanted to lie down and sleep). This was when I got burned.
I was in a slightly hazy and bad mood at this point, but as we began our 1-mile walk to Monaco, I quickly felt better. The walk went from majestic cove to majestic cove, with the waves crashing up against the rocks and the mountains towering above (see pics on Facebook). Amazing.
Arrival in Monaco was abrupt. There are no markers, no border guards, nothing. But you can tell the difference – this town is pristinely maintained. The joke that the nice lady told us was this: in France, you must use the stairs everywhere; in Monaco, you have escalators. And it was totally true. This place is amazing well-kept.
But once again, I was shocked by the prices, which I expected to be astronomical but were actually very reasonable – not quite Italy cheap, but better than northern France.
So Monaco is composed of 4 neighborhoods, each with a different vibe. The first is Fontveille, where there is a large stadium and a ton of identical hotels. It is also home to a small port with a striking view of Monaco Ville and the Prince’s Palace towering above on a huge cliff. We ate lunch here and rested for a VERY long time on a nice bench (the sleepiness was getting to Hansky and I).
Second is Monaco Ville, home to the Prince’s Palace, the national cathedral, and striking views of the city. Hansky and I again waited here on a bench as MT explored the relics of the Prince’s Palace. This was also the area where the famed Princess Grace Kelly was buried after her death.
Next is La Condamine, a small area known for some gardens – not much to see.
And lastly is the high-class Monte Carlo, home to all the casinos and the nicest collection of cars I have ever seen. Ferraris, Lambourghinis, and Astin-Martins were commonplace. It was actually quiet a sight – I was pleasantly surprised and in awe by the pristine nature of all the buildings, roads, and wicked awesome automobiles.
Finally, we returned to the Monaco train station and accidentally boarded the wrong train, which passed by but did not stop at Cap d”Ail, where we had to pick up our bags. But it was really not a big deal – we quickly turned around, caught the next train, and picked up our bags from the hostel with very little time lost. Probably our biggest goof-up of the trip, which means we were pretty darn good travelers.
We then headed to Nice, west along the coast, where we arrived around 7pm and checked into our nice hotel (a pleasant surprise after the bad beds of Florence and Cap d’Ail). We explored Place Massena and the Old Town for a bit before eating at an Italian-French fusion restaurant, where we got free kirs and I had the best goat cheese salad ever. Unfortunately, I did not feel so well 0 I could barely finish my second course (a fish goo-type thing). Probably a mixture of heat, sunburn, and lack of sleep – symptoms of mild heat stroke. Fortunately, I felt better later, as I went straight to bed (still around 11pm).
Mega-Vacation Day 4 - Florence to Cap d'Ail, France; Pisa, Italy
Day 4 (Pisa; Florence to Cap d’Ail):
Big travel day today. For the most part, train travel went very smoothly, and we took a 2 ½ hour stop in the lovely city of Pisa, home to the most recognizable tower in the world. The town is actually very nice – beautiful colors and a strong Italian style. The tower itself is swarming with tourists and actually much, much smaller than I expected. Eh, it’s okay – but glad I saw it. There is also a nice cathedral right next door and I had an incredible lunch – gnocchi (little potato-like things) with real crab and a great seafood-y sauce – better yet, it was only like 7 euros.
So by this point, I was worried because I had not yet finished my State Department internship application, which was due that day at 11:59 Eastern Time. I was hoping to find an Internet café in Pisa to finish, but no luck. Plus, it was very hot and I was a bit exhausted, so I put it off to that night, praying that our hostel in Cap d’Ail, France would have Internet.
Back to the trip: Day 4 was a day of a million train stations – Florence to Pisa; Pisa to Genoa (home of Christopher Columbus); Genoa to Ventimiglia (on the border with France); Ventimiglia to Monaco; and finally Monaco to Cap d’Ail, a lovely beach town on the Ligurian Sea.
We arrived at our hostel around 8pm, greeted by an OUTSTANDING view of the sea (check out the pics on Facebook), but also a grumpy owner. This place was originally a palace belonging to a Marquis related to the Prince of Monaco, costing about 20 million euros. Now it is owned by a few people who put up mostly young travelers for only 18 euros per night. A great deal.
Unfortunately, our experience here was marred a bit by safety concerns. Hansky and I had to sleep in a room (without air conditioning and with tons of mosquitoes) with a VERY sketchy guy from New York who did the following things: one, immediately offered to rent us his house in Antibes (a nearby beach town); two, suggested we use a locker to secure our stuff and told us to use the password 1-1-1-1; three, wanted to check his email on my computer; four, made demeaning comments about MT; and five, tried to convince us we should sneak out at night and just hop the fence to get back in. It was impossible to believe a word he was saying – he turned out to be wrong about just about everything and just came off as a criminal himself. So Hansky and I held on tight to our valuables and avoided the guy as long as we could.
Fortunately, they had WiFi. I sat outside with a panoramic view of the sun setting over the ocean and tried to finish my application. Of course, my battery was about to die, so I had to switch to a table next to a plug where a French lady was sitting. We immediately struck up a conversation, which lasted over an hour. I was not too worried about my app since I was almost finished and I could turn it in by 6am actually since that is midnight in the States. What I did not account for was the owner kicking us off to bed at 1am – uh oh. So I decided to put off the application until after waking up (around 5am), giving me an hour to finish.
Today was the day that messed me up for the rest of the trip – first of all, I realized that day that I was covered in spots – unexplainable bites that I eventually determined were bedbugs from the night before in Florence. Second, as I worked on my application outside, I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. Add to this a restless night in which I barely slept 2 hours (a mixture of heat, mosquitoes, worrying about the application, and paranoia about the security of my belongings) and a good deal of sunburn the next day as well as the development of a sty in my eye (my eye began swelling due to the heat), and I was toast.
Big travel day today. For the most part, train travel went very smoothly, and we took a 2 ½ hour stop in the lovely city of Pisa, home to the most recognizable tower in the world. The town is actually very nice – beautiful colors and a strong Italian style. The tower itself is swarming with tourists and actually much, much smaller than I expected. Eh, it’s okay – but glad I saw it. There is also a nice cathedral right next door and I had an incredible lunch – gnocchi (little potato-like things) with real crab and a great seafood-y sauce – better yet, it was only like 7 euros.
So by this point, I was worried because I had not yet finished my State Department internship application, which was due that day at 11:59 Eastern Time. I was hoping to find an Internet café in Pisa to finish, but no luck. Plus, it was very hot and I was a bit exhausted, so I put it off to that night, praying that our hostel in Cap d’Ail, France would have Internet.
Back to the trip: Day 4 was a day of a million train stations – Florence to Pisa; Pisa to Genoa (home of Christopher Columbus); Genoa to Ventimiglia (on the border with France); Ventimiglia to Monaco; and finally Monaco to Cap d’Ail, a lovely beach town on the Ligurian Sea.
We arrived at our hostel around 8pm, greeted by an OUTSTANDING view of the sea (check out the pics on Facebook), but also a grumpy owner. This place was originally a palace belonging to a Marquis related to the Prince of Monaco, costing about 20 million euros. Now it is owned by a few people who put up mostly young travelers for only 18 euros per night. A great deal.
Unfortunately, our experience here was marred a bit by safety concerns. Hansky and I had to sleep in a room (without air conditioning and with tons of mosquitoes) with a VERY sketchy guy from New York who did the following things: one, immediately offered to rent us his house in Antibes (a nearby beach town); two, suggested we use a locker to secure our stuff and told us to use the password 1-1-1-1; three, wanted to check his email on my computer; four, made demeaning comments about MT; and five, tried to convince us we should sneak out at night and just hop the fence to get back in. It was impossible to believe a word he was saying – he turned out to be wrong about just about everything and just came off as a criminal himself. So Hansky and I held on tight to our valuables and avoided the guy as long as we could.
Fortunately, they had WiFi. I sat outside with a panoramic view of the sun setting over the ocean and tried to finish my application. Of course, my battery was about to die, so I had to switch to a table next to a plug where a French lady was sitting. We immediately struck up a conversation, which lasted over an hour. I was not too worried about my app since I was almost finished and I could turn it in by 6am actually since that is midnight in the States. What I did not account for was the owner kicking us off to bed at 1am – uh oh. So I decided to put off the application until after waking up (around 5am), giving me an hour to finish.
Today was the day that messed me up for the rest of the trip – first of all, I realized that day that I was covered in spots – unexplainable bites that I eventually determined were bedbugs from the night before in Florence. Second, as I worked on my application outside, I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. Add to this a restless night in which I barely slept 2 hours (a mixture of heat, mosquitoes, worrying about the application, and paranoia about the security of my belongings) and a good deal of sunburn the next day as well as the development of a sty in my eye (my eye began swelling due to the heat), and I was toast.
Mega-Vacation Day 3 - Florence, Italy
Day 3 (Florence):
So after two days, there were two main things I noticed about Florence: first, it really is not as touristy as people say. In certain parts, like the Uffizi Gallery and Ponte Vecchio, you are more likely to hear English than Italian, but overall, I felt like Florence does a good job of maintaining its local flair: narrow streets with tons of mopeds, relative lack of food chains (except McDonald’s, which Florentines evidently love), and an Italian hospitality, or lack thereof. At least at the places we ate, waiters made little to no effort to speak English – a good thing, but only because MT and Andrew know a good deal of Italian between the two of them. The second thing are the prices: wow. I expected to pay upwards of 15 euros per meal. Instead, you could get a two-course meal + wine for around 8-9 euros. Part of this was because we avoided tourist hotspots, but even so, it was tough to find anything massively overpriced. At one supermarket, we found 2-liter water bottles for…40 cents. Ridiculous.
That being said, of the two days, our second was definitely more touristy and we did manage to see the outrageous prices of jewelry on Ponte Vecchio and at the Uffizi Gallery. We began the day at the Church of Santa Maria Novella – maybe the best kept secret in Florence, as it is home to famous sculptures/paintings by Masaccio, Giotto, Ghirlandaio, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Donatello. Plus, the frescoes behind the altar are wonderful. I give it an A.
Santa Croce, what I thought would be the best church, was a disappointment. We met up with Andrew to go here in the late morning, but we ran into what would become a recurring problem: construction. Everywhere we went, something was being restored and therefore blocked off. In this case, tons of cool things were inaccessible, like Giotto’s great frescoes by the altar and Dante Aligheri’s tomb. It really ruined the experience. That being said, Santa Croce was still a bit like the Pantheon in France – it is home to the tombs of most of Italy’s all-stars: Dante, Michelangelo, Fermi, Galileo, and Machiavelli. Not quite as impressive as France’s Pantheon (Rousseau, Voltaire, Marie Curie, Hugo, Dumas) because it was more crowded and you couldn’t get very close to the tombs, but Galileo’s tomb especially gave me an eerie feeling.
After Santa Croce, we hit up “Pino’s” (a cool Italian sandwich dude) for lunch and headed for the Uffizi Gallery, notable for its da Vinci’s, Botticelli’s, and some others – a nice museum but probably not the best I’ve seen – I still weirdly prefer the National Gallery in London due to its lack of crowds and diversity of paintings. But the Uffizi is of course still a must-see for Italian Renaissance paintings.
The Uffizi borders the Arno River, which cuts through central Florence and where we saw something I’m not sure I ever have seen: a beaver – in the middle of the city. Weird. Nearby was Ponte Vecchio, the famous covered bridge and home to astronomically-priced jewelry and watches.
We crossed to the south side of the Arno to quickly view Pitti Palace (not too exciting from the outside) and to find a place to eat dinner (recommended by Rick Steves). We wandered along the Arno for a bit after saying goodbye to Andrew, who had to return to his host family for his last dinner before leaving Florence after 6 months there. The biggest surprise was the church Santa Maria del Carmen, mostly tourist-free and awesomely decorated. Unfortunately, it was closing so we only got a quick peek. Dinner was traditional – pasta and a mean Italian waiter who was shocked that we did not want the 4-course meal. Not the best meal in Florence, but it sufficed.
The highlight of the day came in the evening, when we summated a nearby hill to Palazzo Michelangelo (home to another David replica) and Chiesa (church) San Miniato al Monte. Wow – the best view of the city hands down, especially as the sun was setting. A perfect end to a lovely trip to Florence. Two days, though packed, was the perfect amount of time here. Time to move on…
One last tidbit: I made a bit of a goof when an American on a bike stopped me and asked (in English) if I spoke English: I responded “oui” on instinct. Haha – responding to an American in Italy in French…mais ce n’est pas grave!
So after two days, there were two main things I noticed about Florence: first, it really is not as touristy as people say. In certain parts, like the Uffizi Gallery and Ponte Vecchio, you are more likely to hear English than Italian, but overall, I felt like Florence does a good job of maintaining its local flair: narrow streets with tons of mopeds, relative lack of food chains (except McDonald’s, which Florentines evidently love), and an Italian hospitality, or lack thereof. At least at the places we ate, waiters made little to no effort to speak English – a good thing, but only because MT and Andrew know a good deal of Italian between the two of them. The second thing are the prices: wow. I expected to pay upwards of 15 euros per meal. Instead, you could get a two-course meal + wine for around 8-9 euros. Part of this was because we avoided tourist hotspots, but even so, it was tough to find anything massively overpriced. At one supermarket, we found 2-liter water bottles for…40 cents. Ridiculous.
That being said, of the two days, our second was definitely more touristy and we did manage to see the outrageous prices of jewelry on Ponte Vecchio and at the Uffizi Gallery. We began the day at the Church of Santa Maria Novella – maybe the best kept secret in Florence, as it is home to famous sculptures/paintings by Masaccio, Giotto, Ghirlandaio, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Donatello. Plus, the frescoes behind the altar are wonderful. I give it an A.
Santa Croce, what I thought would be the best church, was a disappointment. We met up with Andrew to go here in the late morning, but we ran into what would become a recurring problem: construction. Everywhere we went, something was being restored and therefore blocked off. In this case, tons of cool things were inaccessible, like Giotto’s great frescoes by the altar and Dante Aligheri’s tomb. It really ruined the experience. That being said, Santa Croce was still a bit like the Pantheon in France – it is home to the tombs of most of Italy’s all-stars: Dante, Michelangelo, Fermi, Galileo, and Machiavelli. Not quite as impressive as France’s Pantheon (Rousseau, Voltaire, Marie Curie, Hugo, Dumas) because it was more crowded and you couldn’t get very close to the tombs, but Galileo’s tomb especially gave me an eerie feeling.
After Santa Croce, we hit up “Pino’s” (a cool Italian sandwich dude) for lunch and headed for the Uffizi Gallery, notable for its da Vinci’s, Botticelli’s, and some others – a nice museum but probably not the best I’ve seen – I still weirdly prefer the National Gallery in London due to its lack of crowds and diversity of paintings. But the Uffizi is of course still a must-see for Italian Renaissance paintings.
The Uffizi borders the Arno River, which cuts through central Florence and where we saw something I’m not sure I ever have seen: a beaver – in the middle of the city. Weird. Nearby was Ponte Vecchio, the famous covered bridge and home to astronomically-priced jewelry and watches.
We crossed to the south side of the Arno to quickly view Pitti Palace (not too exciting from the outside) and to find a place to eat dinner (recommended by Rick Steves). We wandered along the Arno for a bit after saying goodbye to Andrew, who had to return to his host family for his last dinner before leaving Florence after 6 months there. The biggest surprise was the church Santa Maria del Carmen, mostly tourist-free and awesomely decorated. Unfortunately, it was closing so we only got a quick peek. Dinner was traditional – pasta and a mean Italian waiter who was shocked that we did not want the 4-course meal. Not the best meal in Florence, but it sufficed.
The highlight of the day came in the evening, when we summated a nearby hill to Palazzo Michelangelo (home to another David replica) and Chiesa (church) San Miniato al Monte. Wow – the best view of the city hands down, especially as the sun was setting. A perfect end to a lovely trip to Florence. Two days, though packed, was the perfect amount of time here. Time to move on…
One last tidbit: I made a bit of a goof when an American on a bike stopped me and asked (in English) if I spoke English: I responded “oui” on instinct. Haha – responding to an American in Italy in French…mais ce n’est pas grave!
Mega-Vacation Day 2 - Florence, Italy
Day 2 (Florence):
The rest of the train ride (about 1 ½ hours) was pleasant, as the views of the Apennine Mountains were great. However, the parts of Italy we passed through were not necessarily “pretty”: I saw a good deal of slums, beat-up houses, and shacks. Italy seems rich and grand on the surface, but in actuality, it is one of the poorer EU countries.
So when we got our passports and tickets back after inspection, we came across an awesome fact: so on our 8-day, 3-country Eurail passes (allowing 8 days on unlimited travel in France, Italy, and Switzerland), the overnight train is actually supposed to count as two days. But at the time, we had only filled out the calendar for the first day. When we got it back, we expected the guy to fill in the second – but he didn’t, meaning we now have an extra day of train travel that we can use at a later date! Woo-hoo! Where should I go…
Anyway, we arrived in Florence around 8:30am. We found ourselves in a packed train station full of people speaking Italian – quite a shock. This is the first time I had been in a country where I knew very little of the language since my trip to Hungary in 2005. The feeling of not knowing enough to get around stinks – even if most people in Florence know English.
So we quickly dropped off our bags at our hostel, which unfortunately had no Internet and thus I had to wait for 3 days to use it.
The day of exploring was crazy – great but exhausting. We fortunately met up with MT’s friend Andrew, who had been studying in Florence for 6 months and has near-fluency in Italian. He was charged with showing us around, which was an enormous help. We met him back at the train station at 10:30, where we made reservations for our next leg of travel in 2 days (Florence-Monaco) and then hit the town.
So I was shocked to see that they charge one euro to use a toilet in many parts of Western Europe – including in Florence. Ridiculous.
Anyway – so we first walked to a nearby market (MT seems to love markets) and then, after debating whether the 6 euro cost was worth it, saw the Medici Chapels, home to the graves of all the famous Medicis (who ran the Florentine Kingdom for 200 years during the Renaissance). Each of the graves are elaborately decorated by statues from none other than the great Michelangelo. While photos were forbidden in this museum, I managed to sneak a few in.
Afterwards, while we waited for our lunch place (which was packed) to find a table for us, I did something stupid. I decided to wander over to the other side of the Medici Chapels – the 5th century Church of San Lorenzo – to explore a bit. Of course, I got severely lost coming back, as all the streets look the same and the busy market caused me to lose my bearings. Even better, I discovered that my French phone didn’t work in Italy…great. After 25 minutes of wandering and worrying, I finally retraced my steps to get myself back – not my finest moment.
Lunch was incredible for one purpose – I have never had better wine in my life. I had an expectation of Italian wine being inferior to French, but boy, I was wrong. It was simply a house red wine, but it was to die for – sweet, but not too much so, and incredibly smooth. And even better – it was literally only 1.80 euros for a quarter liter. That’s about 40 cents per glass – compare that with the 3.50 per glass that it is in Tours. Wow. Awesome.
So after lunch, we headed over to San Marco to catch a bus to Fiesole, a suburb up in the mountains and home to the Georgetown Villa, where about 25-30 Georgetown students study each semester (and some in the summer). The place is Italy at its finest – perfectly maintained gardens and an awesome view of all of Florence. MT is considering going there for the spring semester. Aww, it was good to be back in Georgetown, if only for an hour. Haha.
So by this time it was brutally hot and we had to walk a good distance (downhill, thankfully) to get back to the bus stop. My not-so-restful night before was finally catching up to me. Maybe it was for this reason that I thought that the famous “Duomo,” the largest church in Florence and formerly the largest dome in the world before St. Peter’s was built in the Vatican, was overrated. The outside was great – especially Giotto’s Bell Tower – but the inside was empty and barely decorated, save for the mediocre dome itself, painted by a mediocre artist. Part of the reason for the emptiness was a massive flood in 1966, which wiped out a lot of the city’s monuments, but even still, I expected more from one of the world’s most famous churches.
But there was one highlight: Rick Steves seems to make everything more interesting – hundreds of tourists own this guy’s books – including Andrew, who brought it with. His details about each monument are very good and helped provide some historical background and funny incite to all of Florence’s sights.
After Duomo came the delightfulness of Gelateria Grom’s famous gelato – I was never a gelato fan until I came to its proper home – Italy, but now I am hooked.
So it was nearing the evening and we were getting a bit worn down – but we kept amused with Donatello and others’ statues at Orsanmichele Church and Dante’s house before finally making it to the best square in Florence – Piazza della Signoria, where the impressive city hall, Palazzo Vecchio looms, as well as a large collection of Roman statues and a surprisingly-popular replica of Michelangelo’s David. For some reason, we managed to be here when the tourists weren’t. Andrew said he had never seen the place emptier – a nice gift, as we were able to take a bunch of pictures without having to wait for hundreds of others to take them first.
At this point, we said goodbye to Andrew for the night and returned to our hostel to freshen up before dinner. I had pizza, which was actually very disappointing. It wouldn’t be the first time I would try either – on the whole, the US seems to have beaten Italy at its own game.
We walked around a bit afterwards and saw the Duomo at night when it was empty before returning to the hostel for bed. Thus ends our first true day of Mega-Trip 2010.
The rest of the train ride (about 1 ½ hours) was pleasant, as the views of the Apennine Mountains were great. However, the parts of Italy we passed through were not necessarily “pretty”: I saw a good deal of slums, beat-up houses, and shacks. Italy seems rich and grand on the surface, but in actuality, it is one of the poorer EU countries.
So when we got our passports and tickets back after inspection, we came across an awesome fact: so on our 8-day, 3-country Eurail passes (allowing 8 days on unlimited travel in France, Italy, and Switzerland), the overnight train is actually supposed to count as two days. But at the time, we had only filled out the calendar for the first day. When we got it back, we expected the guy to fill in the second – but he didn’t, meaning we now have an extra day of train travel that we can use at a later date! Woo-hoo! Where should I go…
Anyway, we arrived in Florence around 8:30am. We found ourselves in a packed train station full of people speaking Italian – quite a shock. This is the first time I had been in a country where I knew very little of the language since my trip to Hungary in 2005. The feeling of not knowing enough to get around stinks – even if most people in Florence know English.
So we quickly dropped off our bags at our hostel, which unfortunately had no Internet and thus I had to wait for 3 days to use it.
The day of exploring was crazy – great but exhausting. We fortunately met up with MT’s friend Andrew, who had been studying in Florence for 6 months and has near-fluency in Italian. He was charged with showing us around, which was an enormous help. We met him back at the train station at 10:30, where we made reservations for our next leg of travel in 2 days (Florence-Monaco) and then hit the town.
So I was shocked to see that they charge one euro to use a toilet in many parts of Western Europe – including in Florence. Ridiculous.
Anyway – so we first walked to a nearby market (MT seems to love markets) and then, after debating whether the 6 euro cost was worth it, saw the Medici Chapels, home to the graves of all the famous Medicis (who ran the Florentine Kingdom for 200 years during the Renaissance). Each of the graves are elaborately decorated by statues from none other than the great Michelangelo. While photos were forbidden in this museum, I managed to sneak a few in.
Afterwards, while we waited for our lunch place (which was packed) to find a table for us, I did something stupid. I decided to wander over to the other side of the Medici Chapels – the 5th century Church of San Lorenzo – to explore a bit. Of course, I got severely lost coming back, as all the streets look the same and the busy market caused me to lose my bearings. Even better, I discovered that my French phone didn’t work in Italy…great. After 25 minutes of wandering and worrying, I finally retraced my steps to get myself back – not my finest moment.
Lunch was incredible for one purpose – I have never had better wine in my life. I had an expectation of Italian wine being inferior to French, but boy, I was wrong. It was simply a house red wine, but it was to die for – sweet, but not too much so, and incredibly smooth. And even better – it was literally only 1.80 euros for a quarter liter. That’s about 40 cents per glass – compare that with the 3.50 per glass that it is in Tours. Wow. Awesome.
So after lunch, we headed over to San Marco to catch a bus to Fiesole, a suburb up in the mountains and home to the Georgetown Villa, where about 25-30 Georgetown students study each semester (and some in the summer). The place is Italy at its finest – perfectly maintained gardens and an awesome view of all of Florence. MT is considering going there for the spring semester. Aww, it was good to be back in Georgetown, if only for an hour. Haha.
So by this time it was brutally hot and we had to walk a good distance (downhill, thankfully) to get back to the bus stop. My not-so-restful night before was finally catching up to me. Maybe it was for this reason that I thought that the famous “Duomo,” the largest church in Florence and formerly the largest dome in the world before St. Peter’s was built in the Vatican, was overrated. The outside was great – especially Giotto’s Bell Tower – but the inside was empty and barely decorated, save for the mediocre dome itself, painted by a mediocre artist. Part of the reason for the emptiness was a massive flood in 1966, which wiped out a lot of the city’s monuments, but even still, I expected more from one of the world’s most famous churches.
But there was one highlight: Rick Steves seems to make everything more interesting – hundreds of tourists own this guy’s books – including Andrew, who brought it with. His details about each monument are very good and helped provide some historical background and funny incite to all of Florence’s sights.
After Duomo came the delightfulness of Gelateria Grom’s famous gelato – I was never a gelato fan until I came to its proper home – Italy, but now I am hooked.
So it was nearing the evening and we were getting a bit worn down – but we kept amused with Donatello and others’ statues at Orsanmichele Church and Dante’s house before finally making it to the best square in Florence – Piazza della Signoria, where the impressive city hall, Palazzo Vecchio looms, as well as a large collection of Roman statues and a surprisingly-popular replica of Michelangelo’s David. For some reason, we managed to be here when the tourists weren’t. Andrew said he had never seen the place emptier – a nice gift, as we were able to take a bunch of pictures without having to wait for hundreds of others to take them first.
At this point, we said goodbye to Andrew for the night and returned to our hostel to freshen up before dinner. I had pizza, which was actually very disappointing. It wouldn’t be the first time I would try either – on the whole, the US seems to have beaten Italy at its own game.
We walked around a bit afterwards and saw the Duomo at night when it was empty before returning to the hostel for bed. Thus ends our first true day of Mega-Trip 2010.
Mega-Vacation Day 1 - Tours to Florence
Day 1 (Tours-Florence):
Hansky, MT, and I began our trip in the afternoon of June 28 with a 2.5 hour trip from Tours to Paris on the slower, but more convenient alternative to the TGV. We actually spent a brief period of time in Paris, as we had to walk from Austerlitz train station on the south side of the Seine to Bercy, north of the Seine in the economic district of East Paris – an interesting, modern section of Paris that I had never seen on my previous trip.
At Paris-Bercy, we boarded a “couchette” (overnight train with beds) headed to Florence, Italy. Unfortunately, the train ran about an hour late – but we managed to have a compartment with 3 other people who were pretty nice. MT made friends with one girl who was from Peru (both Spanish-speakers). The other two guys were Korean – making for an awesome amalgamation of languages between the 6 of us (I don’t contribute much) – French (the 3 of us + the Peruvian); Spanish (MT & the Peruvian); Filipino (Hansky); Korean (the 2 guys); Italian (MT & the Peruvian); and of course, English (yay me).
The train ride – 13 hours in total – really did not seem too long. We were awake for about 4 hours reading French books & newspapers before hitting the sack for a good 7 hours. I woke up when we passed Parma, Italy – en route to Florence.
Hansky, MT, and I began our trip in the afternoon of June 28 with a 2.5 hour trip from Tours to Paris on the slower, but more convenient alternative to the TGV. We actually spent a brief period of time in Paris, as we had to walk from Austerlitz train station on the south side of the Seine to Bercy, north of the Seine in the economic district of East Paris – an interesting, modern section of Paris that I had never seen on my previous trip.
At Paris-Bercy, we boarded a “couchette” (overnight train with beds) headed to Florence, Italy. Unfortunately, the train ran about an hour late – but we managed to have a compartment with 3 other people who were pretty nice. MT made friends with one girl who was from Peru (both Spanish-speakers). The other two guys were Korean – making for an awesome amalgamation of languages between the 6 of us (I don’t contribute much) – French (the 3 of us + the Peruvian); Spanish (MT & the Peruvian); Filipino (Hansky); Korean (the 2 guys); Italian (MT & the Peruvian); and of course, English (yay me).
The train ride – 13 hours in total – really did not seem too long. We were awake for about 4 hours reading French books & newspapers before hitting the sack for a good 7 hours. I woke up when we passed Parma, Italy – en route to Florence.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Still No Time...
So I've been either busy/too tired to blog the past two nights, so unfortunately one will have to wait for a little longer. Sorry!
Tomorrow we leave Nice for Lourdes (near the Pyrenees!) - a LONG journey that begins at 5:56am.
Tomorrow we leave Nice for Lourdes (near the Pyrenees!) - a LONG journey that begins at 5:56am.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Vacation = No Time for Blogging
Sorry to everyone who was eagerly anticipating an update on MT, Hansky, and I's crazy trip to Italy and Southern France. We had no Internet the first three days, which was rather annoying, especially because lots of my internship stuff (yeah, I had to work on vacation...boo) was due yesterday.
Right now I am sitting on the patio of our hostel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea (well, actually the Ligurian Sea) with beautiful cliffs vanishing into the green-blue water. A delightful view. We are currently in Cap d'Ail, France, very close to Monaco, which is our destination today before heading to Nice.
I promise to begin filling in the blanks on the past five days if we have Internet tonight at our hotel in Nice!
Off to see the land of the most wealthy prince in the world...and country number 7 for me (yes, little Monaco is a separate nation)!
Right now I am sitting on the patio of our hostel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea (well, actually the Ligurian Sea) with beautiful cliffs vanishing into the green-blue water. A delightful view. We are currently in Cap d'Ail, France, very close to Monaco, which is our destination today before heading to Nice.
I promise to begin filling in the blanks on the past five days if we have Internet tonight at our hotel in Nice!
Off to see the land of the most wealthy prince in the world...and country number 7 for me (yes, little Monaco is a separate nation)!
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