So it was that time - time to say goodbye. About half of the Georgetown group left this afternoon after a nice lunch we all attended (plus Guy). It was also the celebration of the end of our course - I received an A (no surprise considering the lack of difficulty of the course, though I certainly was probably only one of the few to get one in our class) and I enjoyed today just talking (mostly in French) with the profs and students in a casual setting.
Tomorrow it is off to London - I have mostly packed and am not looking forward to waking up at 6:30 tomorrow morning (for an 8am train), but I'll be travelling with Jacque all the way to London (sorta - we have seats that are not next to each other on each leg of the trip), which will be nice. Upon arrival in London, I will have to take the Tube (subway) across town to my hostel with a suitcase with a broken wheel...
I may be giving my friend Max, who lives in London, a call, and I hope to see the rest of the city that I missed last time - like Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and St. Paul's Cathedral. We'll see how it goes!
After that, I will be spending Sunday in Oxford visiting Chi and Brendan (Georgetowners doing a business program there)! And then Monday I will be meeting up with fellow Tours-program student David to stay at his uncle's house and hold a last hurrah in Europe before I depart the next morning for home!
Anyway, should be a fun weekend - hopefully nothing goes too wrong...
It will be sad to say goodbye to Europe - it truly is all its cracked out to be - the history, the culture, the food. Awesome. I'm so happy to have done this trip!! But of course, all things must end, and I am excited to go home as well - to relax, to see the family, etc.
So I may have spotty Internet service for the rest of the trip, but I will do my best to finish off this blog right!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
PASSED!!!
So all 5 of us passed the proficiency exam, which is great news!! We celebrated last night and stayed out a bit too late, so today is a bit rough haha. 2 more days of class and my mind has all but checked out. I need to start packing soon for the London extravaganza/going home!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Oh, What a Day...
So the ever-looming nightmare - the SFS proficiency exam - finally struck today with full strength - between 11:35 and 12, I was barraged with questions on an article that somehow managed to cover just about everything in French politics - retirement age, social security, the Madame Bettencourt affair, the economic crisis, the Greek crisis, international relations, and a random part about a plan to tell parents to tell their kids not to walk at night (?). Craaazzzyyy. I was asked detailed questions about such things like tax loopholes and the progressive tax system and was forced to explain something nearly impossible to explain in English - the crash of the housing bubble in the US and how it affected unemployment in France. Wow.
And the funny part is: I think I held my own. Aside from not knowing what "bouclier fiscale" meant (which translates literally to "tangled money" but means "tax ceiling") and taking a long time to wrap my head around the fact that they were seriously trying to get me to explain the specifics of the global financial crisis, I think I did pretty well. I gave a pretty stellar summary at the beginning and held my own (it was mostly my wit that pulled me together haha) during the questioning period. And seriously - if I don't pass because I didn't know what "bouclier fiscal" meant or what the IPF is (a tax on rich people), then that's just nuts.
I should hear the results tonight via email! Thus the constant computer-checking begins...
In other news, after lunch, I went on my semi-spontaneous day trip (absolutely FREE, and thus the best kind of trip) to the nearby towns of Angers and Saumur. Overall, a lovely experience, though I didn't have time (or the desire to pay 10 euros) to enter the chateaus at each of these places, so I guess I didn't truly experience the two places. But oh well - it was a nice break!
Saumur was my first stop and reminded me a lot of Amboise, except with less people and not quite as cool. It was very nice, however - I walked up a good-sized hill to the chateau overlooking the town and the Loire river - but again, didn't go in due to time and money constraints. The rest of the town was nice as well - particularly the town hall (le mairie), which had similar architecture to Chambord, the most famous chateau in the area.
Angers was the former capital of the state of Anjou, which hit its stride close to same time as Touraine - 13th, 14th century. The town itself reminded me a lot of Tours - around the same size - about an equal amount of attractions, etc. However, I think Angers (pronounced Ahn-jair) might be slightly prettier, as there were roses everywhere and less ugly grey-white buildings. There were also some tremendous gardens and parks, many of which I didn't even get to see but they look cool in photos.
In other news, I got an interview for a fall internship in DC with the Stimson Center - which i have to do Friday night at 8pm! Inconvenient time, but good news nonetheless!
So depending on the results announced tonight, I may be having a celebratory drink with the rest of the test-takers tonight in Place Plumereau!
And the funny part is: I think I held my own. Aside from not knowing what "bouclier fiscale" meant (which translates literally to "tangled money" but means "tax ceiling") and taking a long time to wrap my head around the fact that they were seriously trying to get me to explain the specifics of the global financial crisis, I think I did pretty well. I gave a pretty stellar summary at the beginning and held my own (it was mostly my wit that pulled me together haha) during the questioning period. And seriously - if I don't pass because I didn't know what "bouclier fiscal" meant or what the IPF is (a tax on rich people), then that's just nuts.
I should hear the results tonight via email! Thus the constant computer-checking begins...
In other news, after lunch, I went on my semi-spontaneous day trip (absolutely FREE, and thus the best kind of trip) to the nearby towns of Angers and Saumur. Overall, a lovely experience, though I didn't have time (or the desire to pay 10 euros) to enter the chateaus at each of these places, so I guess I didn't truly experience the two places. But oh well - it was a nice break!
Saumur was my first stop and reminded me a lot of Amboise, except with less people and not quite as cool. It was very nice, however - I walked up a good-sized hill to the chateau overlooking the town and the Loire river - but again, didn't go in due to time and money constraints. The rest of the town was nice as well - particularly the town hall (le mairie), which had similar architecture to Chambord, the most famous chateau in the area.
Angers was the former capital of the state of Anjou, which hit its stride close to same time as Touraine - 13th, 14th century. The town itself reminded me a lot of Tours - around the same size - about an equal amount of attractions, etc. However, I think Angers (pronounced Ahn-jair) might be slightly prettier, as there were roses everywhere and less ugly grey-white buildings. There were also some tremendous gardens and parks, many of which I didn't even get to see but they look cool in photos.
In other news, I got an interview for a fall internship in DC with the Stimson Center - which i have to do Friday night at 8pm! Inconvenient time, but good news nonetheless!
So depending on the results announced tonight, I may be having a celebratory drink with the rest of the test-takers tonight in Place Plumereau!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Proficiency Exam Tomorrow!!
Ahhh! It's just one day away: the light at the end of the tunnel - the test that could lift a great weight off my shoulders - the School of Foreign Service language proficiency exam in French. At 11:15 tomorrow, it will be just me, Professor Spielmann, and an article - and for 20 minutes I have to talk about the article, answering questions about French politics, society, etc. and formulating arguments in response to the article.
Well, the weird thing is...I'm not really nervous. I figure this: I have been in France for 6 weeks now and have been speaking it almost every day for most of the day and have been reading Le Monde (French newspaper) every day - so there's not really much more I can do. Plus, I am thinking maybe the test will be easier because it is monitored here by a professor who normally doesn't monitoring them and is rather relaxed and easy to understand. So on the whole, not too stressed. But only time will tell how I will do...
After the test, since I have the afternoon off and a bunch of free train tickets remaining, I have decided I will be visiting the nearby towns of Saumur and Angers. Not sure why i picked them - but they both have large chateaux and a good deal of nice churches and whatnot. Since I only have less than a week in Europe left, I might as well take advantage while I can, eh?
On that note, I am also planning the final few days of the trip, when I will be in London from July 31-August 3. I just booked a hostel near Waterloo station (unfortunately not the station I get into from Paris on the Eurostar, so a connection is necessary) and am in the works of planning a day trip up to Oxford University to visit Chi, Brendan, and compnay on August 1. Also, David was kind enough to offer a place to sleep for August 2 with his uncle in Chapham Junction, so the two of us will hopefully have a little last hurrah (pub crawl, maybe? haha) that night before my flight the next morning out of Gatwick Airport.
Well, the weird thing is...I'm not really nervous. I figure this: I have been in France for 6 weeks now and have been speaking it almost every day for most of the day and have been reading Le Monde (French newspaper) every day - so there's not really much more I can do. Plus, I am thinking maybe the test will be easier because it is monitored here by a professor who normally doesn't monitoring them and is rather relaxed and easy to understand. So on the whole, not too stressed. But only time will tell how I will do...
After the test, since I have the afternoon off and a bunch of free train tickets remaining, I have decided I will be visiting the nearby towns of Saumur and Angers. Not sure why i picked them - but they both have large chateaux and a good deal of nice churches and whatnot. Since I only have less than a week in Europe left, I might as well take advantage while I can, eh?
On that note, I am also planning the final few days of the trip, when I will be in London from July 31-August 3. I just booked a hostel near Waterloo station (unfortunately not the station I get into from Paris on the Eurostar, so a connection is necessary) and am in the works of planning a day trip up to Oxford University to visit Chi, Brendan, and compnay on August 1. Also, David was kind enough to offer a place to sleep for August 2 with his uncle in Chapham Junction, so the two of us will hopefully have a little last hurrah (pub crawl, maybe? haha) that night before my flight the next morning out of Gatwick Airport.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Geneva - Day 3
So last half-day in Geneva - we spent the morning taking a gondola to the top of a nearby mountain (in France, actually), where we got a magnificent view of Geneva and a so-so view of the Alps to the south and east - unfortunately it was too early in day, so all the mountains showed up only as silhouettes and clouds were blocking the view of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps and always a dream peak of mine to see and eventually hike. Well, both would have to wait for another time - but the trip to the top of the Telepherique (Gondola) de Saleve was nice enough - we breathed in some fresh mountain air and descended around 11:15 before taking the bus back to the hotel, where we picked up our bags. Then it was the long train ride back, during which I slept, read Le Monde, studied up a bit for the SFS Proficiency exam I have Wednesday, and chatted.
Overall, it was a nice trip - not the best by no means, but nice. I am hooked on Switzerland and feel I have only scratched the surface - yet to see snowcapped peaks and stunning valleys - unfortunately these are in the German-speaking part, and as is my rule, I hate going places without knowing at least a bit of thee language - so maybe I'll have to add German to my list of languages to learn. Rosetta Stone maybe?
So now it's back in Tours for a week - taking off for London on Saturday and flying out on August 3!
Overall, it was a nice trip - not the best by no means, but nice. I am hooked on Switzerland and feel I have only scratched the surface - yet to see snowcapped peaks and stunning valleys - unfortunately these are in the German-speaking part, and as is my rule, I hate going places without knowing at least a bit of thee language - so maybe I'll have to add German to my list of languages to learn. Rosetta Stone maybe?
So now it's back in Tours for a week - taking off for London on Saturday and flying out on August 3!
Geneva - Day 2
Ahh, a full day in Geneva. We didn't have a strict agenda, but we had some ideas in mind as to what to do. Of course, we got off to a late start as we finally were able to sleep in a bit and took our time with breakfast (Speculoos mmmhmmm). But after awhile, we made our way to the entrance to the United Nations - European hub. We crossed into the dead-zone: international territory - not sure what nation to call it? - for a tour of this great place where nations hold thousands of meetings and get surprisingly little done. We saw the new section first - with gifts from many countries - and then the old, home to the big assembly hall, security council chamber, and relics from the time of the precursor to the UN: the League of Nations.
After the UN, we stopped for lunch and eventually found our way via the complicated bus system to CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research - home of the famous particle accelerator, which seeks to recreate the Big Bang and discover "antimatter" (anyone read "Angels and Demons"? - this is the same place). Here we checked out a couple exhibits - definitely worthwhile but as someone who is not so amazed with science, it wasn't paradise for me. The others enjoyed it very much though.
At this point, we were pretty darn tired - so we headed back to the hotel and chilled, napped, and ate for a bit. Around 7pm, we walked up to Vieille Ville, the old part of the city perched atop a hill and home to John Calvin's famous cathedral, which was architecturally interesting because the facade did not at all resemble a church - but rather a museum with large columns.
Old Town truly is beautiful and full of great little fountains, parks, statues, etc. We settled on eating at a salad place, which somehow made Hansky and I sick later but was good at the time (though, like usual in Switzerland, expensive).
About 20 minutes later, after we walked down to the festival again, I really wasn't feeling very good - something wasn't settling well in my stomach - and the rest were tired, so we didn't hang out for too much longer. We walked along the lake until we got to a pathway leading out to the Jet d'Eau (which wasn't on :( ), where we got a nice view of the city. It was so peaceful here - and I took 10 minutes alone to appreciate it - at this point, I went into reflective mode - thinking about my 6 weeks in Europe thusfar, the great time I have had, and the sadness of leaving as well as the stress I know this next semester will bring in comparison to this relaxed summer. I spent the walk back to the hotel in silence - sick, tired, and reflective.
After the UN, we stopped for lunch and eventually found our way via the complicated bus system to CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research - home of the famous particle accelerator, which seeks to recreate the Big Bang and discover "antimatter" (anyone read "Angels and Demons"? - this is the same place). Here we checked out a couple exhibits - definitely worthwhile but as someone who is not so amazed with science, it wasn't paradise for me. The others enjoyed it very much though.
At this point, we were pretty darn tired - so we headed back to the hotel and chilled, napped, and ate for a bit. Around 7pm, we walked up to Vieille Ville, the old part of the city perched atop a hill and home to John Calvin's famous cathedral, which was architecturally interesting because the facade did not at all resemble a church - but rather a museum with large columns.
Old Town truly is beautiful and full of great little fountains, parks, statues, etc. We settled on eating at a salad place, which somehow made Hansky and I sick later but was good at the time (though, like usual in Switzerland, expensive).
About 20 minutes later, after we walked down to the festival again, I really wasn't feeling very good - something wasn't settling well in my stomach - and the rest were tired, so we didn't hang out for too much longer. We walked along the lake until we got to a pathway leading out to the Jet d'Eau (which wasn't on :( ), where we got a nice view of the city. It was so peaceful here - and I took 10 minutes alone to appreciate it - at this point, I went into reflective mode - thinking about my 6 weeks in Europe thusfar, the great time I have had, and the sadness of leaving as well as the stress I know this next semester will bring in comparison to this relaxed summer. I spent the walk back to the hotel in silence - sick, tired, and reflective.
Geneva - Day 1
And so ends the last weekend trip of Europe madness 2010 - we just got back from Geneva, Switzerland, where Hansky, Jacque, Lauren, and I trounced around, saw the sights, ate lots of Speculoos, crossed into international territory, learned about alternative universes, and went through way too many hypothetical questions brought to you by Lauren on the long train ride.
So the story begins on Friday with a lengthy train ride on a slow train from Tours to Lyon, through the countryside of France - towns I figured I would never see and that are so far off the beaten path they haven't heard of a tourist. But a lovely ride nonetheless, though we kept getting kicked out of our seats to pesky people with reservations haha.
From there it was a 2-hour ride through the beautiful Jura range from Lyon to Geneva, where we arrived around 10pm, crossing into Switzerland. On the train ride, we ran into a group of 4 girls we had no idea were from the same Tours program we were in until one of them recognized Jacque. Wow - small world - they were on the same ride back on Sunday too!
So anyway - we got into Geneva and found out that our hotel was of course in the red light district - full of sketchy prostitutes. Hmmm...we never felt unsafe, it was just a bit strange - the other, grittier side of Europe, if you will.
But our hotel was very nice - and a good deal, as we squeezed four people onto four twin beds pushed together - after Pamplona, this cuddle sesh was not so strange haha.
So that night we explored a bit - went down to the lake, saw the Jet d'Eau (a giant fountain) from afar, and danced for a bit to some American music at the carnival/festival in one of the gardens on the south bank. A nice time, but I guess we were tired and wanted to conserve energy for tomorrow - so we headed back, still franc-less (the Swiss currency), and hit the sack in our luxury hotel.
So the story begins on Friday with a lengthy train ride on a slow train from Tours to Lyon, through the countryside of France - towns I figured I would never see and that are so far off the beaten path they haven't heard of a tourist. But a lovely ride nonetheless, though we kept getting kicked out of our seats to pesky people with reservations haha.
From there it was a 2-hour ride through the beautiful Jura range from Lyon to Geneva, where we arrived around 10pm, crossing into Switzerland. On the train ride, we ran into a group of 4 girls we had no idea were from the same Tours program we were in until one of them recognized Jacque. Wow - small world - they were on the same ride back on Sunday too!
So anyway - we got into Geneva and found out that our hotel was of course in the red light district - full of sketchy prostitutes. Hmmm...we never felt unsafe, it was just a bit strange - the other, grittier side of Europe, if you will.
But our hotel was very nice - and a good deal, as we squeezed four people onto four twin beds pushed together - after Pamplona, this cuddle sesh was not so strange haha.
So that night we explored a bit - went down to the lake, saw the Jet d'Eau (a giant fountain) from afar, and danced for a bit to some American music at the carnival/festival in one of the gardens on the south bank. A nice time, but I guess we were tired and wanted to conserve energy for tomorrow - so we headed back, still franc-less (the Swiss currency), and hit the sack in our luxury hotel.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Back to Switzerland Today!
Well, so good thing I held on to my 10 Swiss francs I kept from last trip, as Jacque, Lauren, Hansky, and I will be heading back to Switzerland this weekend - this time to Geneva, just over the border (and a bit far from the mountains for my liking, but oh well, that's what the group decided). We plan to visit the UN, CERN (particle accelerator and scientific stuff), Old Town, and maybe the Red Cross museum. In addition we have discussed going up a ski-lift deal (télépherique) to a nearby mountain (though small), which will then afford us views of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe outside of Russia. Overall, should be a fun trip.
The amount of days let in Tours has reached the single digits - it's really getting quite sad and I don't exactly want to leave Europe quite yet.
Anyway, gotta go to class before leaving - so I'll be back on Sunday night!
The amount of days let in Tours has reached the single digits - it's really getting quite sad and I don't exactly want to leave Europe quite yet.
Anyway, gotta go to class before leaving - so I'll be back on Sunday night!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
A Bit of School, A Lot of Vacation...
So here's how it goes - go to class each day, speak French all day, then return home to plan vacations. Basically how it goes each week - this week, after much debate, I decided to return to Switzerland this weekend, this time to Geneva, with different friends - Lauren and Jacque. Yes, I was just near there - but of the options (which we Strasbourg, Lourdes, going alone somewhere else, or nothing), this was the best. And since it's covered by my Eurail Pass, why not? I'm excited to return to the land of mountains, and hopefully this time we will get a peek at Mont Blanc, the highest point in the Alps, which will make the 6-hour each way trip worthwhile. Plus, it should be a fun group! All we need is to buy some Speculoos to make it amazing...
As far as school goes, I have received my tests from last week back and got good marks on all of them - anything about 15/20 is an A and I received 16's. We have another test tomorrow over some grammar which should be fine.
A little over a week til the SFS Proficiency Exam (11:15am on Wednesday the 28th), which is a little scary but I feel pretty confident as I have been reading Le Monde almost every day and could probably do well enough to describe an article given to me and even have an opinion on it.
Speaking of opinions, I had an intense discussion with my host family yesterday about religion. I defended Muslims as my host parents railed against their "endorsement of violence" and "way of life incompatible with Christianity." Hmmmm...it was interesting to hear their view (very similar to many in the US but maybe even harsher) and I think I did a decent job of explaining myself - though they are convinced that the Quran tells Muslims to "kill the infidel," which as far as I know, is a mistranslation. Anyway - it was interesting discussion, and while I am by no means Muslim, I felt like I had to argue the other side a bit. Meanwhile, the Swiss lady living her for the week basically sat out on the conversation. At the end, my host family gave me "homework": an excerpt from a book on "historical correctness," which attempts to correct for biases created over time, particularly about religious wars like the Crusades. So now I have some more reading haha...
As far as school goes, I have received my tests from last week back and got good marks on all of them - anything about 15/20 is an A and I received 16's. We have another test tomorrow over some grammar which should be fine.
A little over a week til the SFS Proficiency Exam (11:15am on Wednesday the 28th), which is a little scary but I feel pretty confident as I have been reading Le Monde almost every day and could probably do well enough to describe an article given to me and even have an opinion on it.
Speaking of opinions, I had an intense discussion with my host family yesterday about religion. I defended Muslims as my host parents railed against their "endorsement of violence" and "way of life incompatible with Christianity." Hmmmm...it was interesting to hear their view (very similar to many in the US but maybe even harsher) and I think I did a decent job of explaining myself - though they are convinced that the Quran tells Muslims to "kill the infidel," which as far as I know, is a mistranslation. Anyway - it was interesting discussion, and while I am by no means Muslim, I felt like I had to argue the other side a bit. Meanwhile, the Swiss lady living her for the week basically sat out on the conversation. At the end, my host family gave me "homework": an excerpt from a book on "historical correctness," which attempts to correct for biases created over time, particularly about religious wars like the Crusades. So now I have some more reading haha...
Monday, July 19, 2010
Switzerland!! (Day 3)
Sunday meant we had to go home sadly, but not after we met up with Georgetown's very own Alice Antunes, who had just recently moved to Lausanne from Paris. It was lovely to see her smiling face (and cute dog) as the 4 of us walked down to Ouchy, Lausanne's port on the lake. What a bummer - unlike the day before, today was cloudless and sunny - a much better day to hike. But oh well...
So we decided to walk back up the enormous hill (something the locals evidently NEVER do) toward the train station, said goodbye to Alice, ate lunch at a pizza place (expensive as always), and then said goodbye to our lovely host Anna before MT and I went to the train station. There we caught a direct train (3 1/2 hours) to Paris, where we walked around for an hour, hoping to get some famous Berthillon ice cream on Ile de Saint Louis, but the line was outrageously long.
The two train stations we were in in Paris were jammed pack with people, likely Parisiens coming back from vacation. It was amazing how crowded it was.
And so we caught the slow train back to Tours - and returned around 8:30pm. A lovely trip overall.
I returned to find myself with a new housemate - a nice 60-year-old woman from the German part of Switzerland whose French is fortunately worse than mine. :)
So we decided to walk back up the enormous hill (something the locals evidently NEVER do) toward the train station, said goodbye to Alice, ate lunch at a pizza place (expensive as always), and then said goodbye to our lovely host Anna before MT and I went to the train station. There we caught a direct train (3 1/2 hours) to Paris, where we walked around for an hour, hoping to get some famous Berthillon ice cream on Ile de Saint Louis, but the line was outrageously long.
The two train stations we were in in Paris were jammed pack with people, likely Parisiens coming back from vacation. It was amazing how crowded it was.
And so we caught the slow train back to Tours - and returned around 8:30pm. A lovely trip overall.
I returned to find myself with a new housemate - a nice 60-year-old woman from the German part of Switzerland whose French is fortunately worse than mine. :)
Switzerland!! (Day 2 - A Day of Hiking)
So hiking solo is often a very refreshing feeling - maybe not the smartest, but a great way to relax, do what you want, reflect, etc. Anyway, that was plan for Saturday - to do a day hike somewhere in the Alps nearby. After minimal research, I settled on a hike that involved a 900-meter ascent (about 2800 feet) to a peak called Le Dent de Jaman, an intimidating piece of rock that is one of the highest in the area. This area is not truly the big Alps (like Matterhorn or Mont Blanc), which are much higher, but this was closer and therefore had to do for now.
So I left the house around 9:30 to catch a train to Montreux and then Montreux to Les Avants, a quaint little town in a valley just below Dent de Jaman. The hike started out on a road and then quickly transitioned to a steep, steep climb through the trees up to the Col de Jaman (Col = mountain pass), which is about 1600 meters high. This was by far the hardest part and I was definitely out of breath and felt out of shape after doing it.
But something about seeing a nice view gives you energy, so when I broke out of the trees at the Col, I felt ready to conquer anything. And thus I took off for Dent de Jaman, only accessible from the opposite side - so I walked about 3/4 mile to the other end, where I crossed some train tracks. I sat down for lunch with a view of the mountain...
...and then ten minutes later, without me moving an inch, the view of the mountain entirely disappeared in a massive white cloud of fog. The fog became so incredibly thick that you could only see about 20 meters in front of you. A crazy sight.
But I continued all the same, and after some crazy rock scrambling, arrived at the top of the mountain - 1875 meters high - and had the summit all to myself. The fog was still all consuming, unfortunately - until about 15 minutes later, when I finally got a peak of Lake Geneva, the surrounding mountains, and the valleys below. But again, after 5 minutes, it was gone again - my cue to head down.
After a nice rest, I decided I wasn't done - what else could I do? Descend and go somewhere else? Keep walking some other direction? After walking down to the Jaman train station (which is up 1500 meters high), I decided to walk over to another Col, this one much smaller and very close to a series of awesome jagged spires that were calling my name. The hike was short and pretty easy as I was fed and motivated, though it was starting to get a bit chilly.
Then I decided to descend the opposite direction, continuing past the Jaman station and down to Les Cases, what I believed to be a small little town and turned out to actually be nothing but a train station. The walk down was long and seemed never-ending - and it was beginning to rain and thus got very cold. To add to the troubles, my left shoe managed to break a bit - the sole was coming apart - nothing a bit of Duct tape couldn't fix, but I obviously didn't have that on hand.
After passing a ton of semi-wild sheep, then cows, then goats, and then Germans :) , I made it to the bottom - Les Cases turns out to be nothing but two houses and an empty train station. I was exhausted by this time, as I had probably walked around 7 miles and had gained and then lost over 2500 feet in elevation. So it came as a bit of a bummer to see that the next train (or at least the next one that stopped here) was not due for another hour.
And so I sat in the rain, thinking and shivering, for an hour, before boarding the train back to Montreux and from there, back to Lutry. Oh boy - what a day.
After a lovely shower and even lovelier dinner with some great wine, me, MT, and our hosts (the Christiansens) played a bit of Taboo, which quickly became way too competitive. After the guys unfortunately lost, Anna's father and I had a semi-heated discussion about Africa, in which he tried to convince me that all academicians are wrong on the subject. Hmmm, it was interesting I suppose, to say the least.
After I played a couple games of billiards, it was bed time - one more half-day here tomorrow before heading back!
So I left the house around 9:30 to catch a train to Montreux and then Montreux to Les Avants, a quaint little town in a valley just below Dent de Jaman. The hike started out on a road and then quickly transitioned to a steep, steep climb through the trees up to the Col de Jaman (Col = mountain pass), which is about 1600 meters high. This was by far the hardest part and I was definitely out of breath and felt out of shape after doing it.
But something about seeing a nice view gives you energy, so when I broke out of the trees at the Col, I felt ready to conquer anything. And thus I took off for Dent de Jaman, only accessible from the opposite side - so I walked about 3/4 mile to the other end, where I crossed some train tracks. I sat down for lunch with a view of the mountain...
...and then ten minutes later, without me moving an inch, the view of the mountain entirely disappeared in a massive white cloud of fog. The fog became so incredibly thick that you could only see about 20 meters in front of you. A crazy sight.
But I continued all the same, and after some crazy rock scrambling, arrived at the top of the mountain - 1875 meters high - and had the summit all to myself. The fog was still all consuming, unfortunately - until about 15 minutes later, when I finally got a peak of Lake Geneva, the surrounding mountains, and the valleys below. But again, after 5 minutes, it was gone again - my cue to head down.
After a nice rest, I decided I wasn't done - what else could I do? Descend and go somewhere else? Keep walking some other direction? After walking down to the Jaman train station (which is up 1500 meters high), I decided to walk over to another Col, this one much smaller and very close to a series of awesome jagged spires that were calling my name. The hike was short and pretty easy as I was fed and motivated, though it was starting to get a bit chilly.
Then I decided to descend the opposite direction, continuing past the Jaman station and down to Les Cases, what I believed to be a small little town and turned out to actually be nothing but a train station. The walk down was long and seemed never-ending - and it was beginning to rain and thus got very cold. To add to the troubles, my left shoe managed to break a bit - the sole was coming apart - nothing a bit of Duct tape couldn't fix, but I obviously didn't have that on hand.
After passing a ton of semi-wild sheep, then cows, then goats, and then Germans :) , I made it to the bottom - Les Cases turns out to be nothing but two houses and an empty train station. I was exhausted by this time, as I had probably walked around 7 miles and had gained and then lost over 2500 feet in elevation. So it came as a bit of a bummer to see that the next train (or at least the next one that stopped here) was not due for another hour.
And so I sat in the rain, thinking and shivering, for an hour, before boarding the train back to Montreux and from there, back to Lutry. Oh boy - what a day.
After a lovely shower and even lovelier dinner with some great wine, me, MT, and our hosts (the Christiansens) played a bit of Taboo, which quickly became way too competitive. After the guys unfortunately lost, Anna's father and I had a semi-heated discussion about Africa, in which he tried to convince me that all academicians are wrong on the subject. Hmmm, it was interesting I suppose, to say the least.
After I played a couple games of billiards, it was bed time - one more half-day here tomorrow before heading back!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Switzerland!! (Day 1)
Well, so it has always been a dream of mine to go to Switzerland - mostly for the majestic Alps and lovely lakes, which look so awesome in photos. So hence why I chose to go with my friend Maria Theresa to Lausanne, a town on Lake Geneva in the French-speaking portion of Switzerland, this weekend. There we would be staying with one of her friends and fellow Georgetown-er Anna Marie.
I was not disappointed. Friday afternoon (after an excruciatingly easy test at the Institut), I headed straight to the train station and took the long, 2 1/2 hour train to Paris, where I had 3 hours before my connection to Geneva. I spent this time walking around seeing the sights I hadn't seen on my previous trip to Paris - Jardin du Luxembourg, Ile de Saint-Louis, Place des Vosges, and a bit of the Le Marais neighborhood (including a nice church named Saint-Paul). It was a nice walk - I was happy to see Paris again - but I am too eager to go back. It's not my scene, I guess? Too many people, too many tourists, too stressful, too many crazy drivers, too much everything.
Boy was it different in Switzerland - after a 3 1/2 train ride, I barely made my tight connection in Geneva (just across the border) and met MT and Anna 30 minutes later in Lausanne. After grabbing a quick bite to eat (6 francs was the cheapest thing in town), we walked around a bit and saw a bit of the night scene - saw some cool bars (but didn't really go in) and finally settled at a place for a quick drink before we caught the midnight train to the nearby town of Lutry, where Anna lived.
Switzerland is calm and welcoming - a great feeling and contrary to Paris. Walking through the quiet vineyards in Lutry, we finally made it to the Christiansen residence - an incredible house with an amazing balcony view and a complete furnished "basement" which used to be a wine cave for the previous owner. What a great place - and Anna's parents were lovely and incredible hospitable as well.
After eating a bit more, we headed to bed - I was planning to hike the next day!
I was not disappointed. Friday afternoon (after an excruciatingly easy test at the Institut), I headed straight to the train station and took the long, 2 1/2 hour train to Paris, where I had 3 hours before my connection to Geneva. I spent this time walking around seeing the sights I hadn't seen on my previous trip to Paris - Jardin du Luxembourg, Ile de Saint-Louis, Place des Vosges, and a bit of the Le Marais neighborhood (including a nice church named Saint-Paul). It was a nice walk - I was happy to see Paris again - but I am too eager to go back. It's not my scene, I guess? Too many people, too many tourists, too stressful, too many crazy drivers, too much everything.
Boy was it different in Switzerland - after a 3 1/2 train ride, I barely made my tight connection in Geneva (just across the border) and met MT and Anna 30 minutes later in Lausanne. After grabbing a quick bite to eat (6 francs was the cheapest thing in town), we walked around a bit and saw a bit of the night scene - saw some cool bars (but didn't really go in) and finally settled at a place for a quick drink before we caught the midnight train to the nearby town of Lutry, where Anna lived.
Switzerland is calm and welcoming - a great feeling and contrary to Paris. Walking through the quiet vineyards in Lutry, we finally made it to the Christiansen residence - an incredible house with an amazing balcony view and a complete furnished "basement" which used to be a wine cave for the previous owner. What a great place - and Anna's parents were lovely and incredible hospitable as well.
After eating a bit more, we headed to bed - I was planning to hike the next day!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Lausanne Tomorrow!
Well today we had our first two tests of the new class - one was expected and consisted of reading an article (about the show "Friends"?) and answering some questions. Not too bad. The other was a pop quiz on oral comprehension - listening to a tough piece and trying to answer questions. Much harder. This class is not the breeze I thought it might be...
After a long day of classes, I went home and worked on getting ready for the trip tomorrow (to Lausanne, Switzerland!!) and attempting to buy tickets for the Eurostar back to London just before I leave in early August. But of course it didn't work - I got so close to booking and then, long story short, my credit card didn't work and I am blocked out of the system. I guess I have to call either Eurostar and/or Visa soon to figure out what's up. Booooo...unneeded stress.
I had a long, 1 1/2 hour discussion with my host parents tonight about many things, including my Polish heritage, my plans in life, etc. It really was great, and now that the kids are gone, it's just me and them and so I can really work on improving my speaking ability. But we are getting a new visitor (who is evidently in her 60s) who is from the German part of Switzerland and is evidently here to learn French as well. So we'll see how that goes...she gets here when I get back on Sunday night.
As for the Lausanne trip, I leave tomorrow at 12:29pm, have 3 hours in Paris to explore a bit, and then go Paris-Geneva; Geneva-Lausanne, where I hopefully will meet MT and her friend Anne Marie (who we are staying with) at the train station around 10:15pm. I plan on bringing only a backpack and no laptop, except this time I think I will actually get a bed, or at least the ground inside, to sleep on. :)
We get back Sunday night around 10pm - in the meantime, I hope to hike a bit in the area, maybe around Montreux in the outskirts of the Alps!! Can't wait! I will update again after the trip!
After a long day of classes, I went home and worked on getting ready for the trip tomorrow (to Lausanne, Switzerland!!) and attempting to buy tickets for the Eurostar back to London just before I leave in early August. But of course it didn't work - I got so close to booking and then, long story short, my credit card didn't work and I am blocked out of the system. I guess I have to call either Eurostar and/or Visa soon to figure out what's up. Booooo...unneeded stress.
I had a long, 1 1/2 hour discussion with my host parents tonight about many things, including my Polish heritage, my plans in life, etc. It really was great, and now that the kids are gone, it's just me and them and so I can really work on improving my speaking ability. But we are getting a new visitor (who is evidently in her 60s) who is from the German part of Switzerland and is evidently here to learn French as well. So we'll see how that goes...she gets here when I get back on Sunday night.
As for the Lausanne trip, I leave tomorrow at 12:29pm, have 3 hours in Paris to explore a bit, and then go Paris-Geneva; Geneva-Lausanne, where I hopefully will meet MT and her friend Anne Marie (who we are staying with) at the train station around 10:15pm. I plan on bringing only a backpack and no laptop, except this time I think I will actually get a bed, or at least the ground inside, to sleep on. :)
We get back Sunday night around 10pm - in the meantime, I hope to hike a bit in the area, maybe around Montreux in the outskirts of the Alps!! Can't wait! I will update again after the trip!
Le 14 Juillet - Bastille Day!
Bastille Day, the French version of the 4th of July, was yesterday, meaning we had class off. I had planned to rise at a reasonable hour but managed to not wake up until 11:30. Oh well - I actually was one of the first up - everyone else from Georgetown seemed to sleep in until 1pm. Wow - the Pamplona fatigue was definitely starting to hit.
Unfortunately, it rained for most of Bastille Day, but I for some reason agreed to go on a "rain walk" with Jacque, Allie, Justin, and Mara. We headed down to the Cher, the other river that goes through Tours and which I had never seen, and got only a bit drenched in the process. Eventually the rain cleared up (just as we picked up umbrellas haha) and we found a nice park on the other side of the Cher with a lake and the coolest playground you will ever see - complete with a zip line, a crazy see-saw, and the most dangerous children's structures known to man. A fun time of course. :)
Heading back, we tried to find some more Speculoos, but to no avail, so I returned home and proceeded to take yet another nap, as I was exhausted. Afterwards, I worked on important things: studying for a test for today and finishing another application for a fall internship. And of course I added some more photos from the mega-trip (still haven't been able to add the Pamplona ones yet!).
So my host family was gone all day, so I had the house to myself and had to make my own meals, which worked out fine as they left some ham, salad, cheese, and cantaloupe.
I left that night for the big fireworks show - set off from an island in the Loire just across from the guingette - which was great! Lots of good photos, I think! We then danced for quite a while and had some interesting encounters with a couple guys who were dressed as girls and were vraiment creepy. And then there was David with his scooter - wow...
So after finishing take-girls-home duty, I made it back around 1:30, when I did some more photo stuff and headed to sleep - test tomorrow!
Unfortunately, it rained for most of Bastille Day, but I for some reason agreed to go on a "rain walk" with Jacque, Allie, Justin, and Mara. We headed down to the Cher, the other river that goes through Tours and which I had never seen, and got only a bit drenched in the process. Eventually the rain cleared up (just as we picked up umbrellas haha) and we found a nice park on the other side of the Cher with a lake and the coolest playground you will ever see - complete with a zip line, a crazy see-saw, and the most dangerous children's structures known to man. A fun time of course. :)
Heading back, we tried to find some more Speculoos, but to no avail, so I returned home and proceeded to take yet another nap, as I was exhausted. Afterwards, I worked on important things: studying for a test for today and finishing another application for a fall internship. And of course I added some more photos from the mega-trip (still haven't been able to add the Pamplona ones yet!).
So my host family was gone all day, so I had the house to myself and had to make my own meals, which worked out fine as they left some ham, salad, cheese, and cantaloupe.
I left that night for the big fireworks show - set off from an island in the Loire just across from the guingette - which was great! Lots of good photos, I think! We then danced for quite a while and had some interesting encounters with a couple guys who were dressed as girls and were vraiment creepy. And then there was David with his scooter - wow...
So after finishing take-girls-home duty, I made it back around 1:30, when I did some more photo stuff and headed to sleep - test tomorrow!
Back to the Grind
So returning to classes after such an awesome trip was kind of a drag. But then again, French grammar is always a drag, right? At one point on Tuesday, I was confronted with a massive amount of sleepiness, struggling so hard to stay awake during class. After a couple cups of coffee, I was better just in time for literature class, which again was more interesting than I expected. We read an interesting story that had striking similarities to the story of Adam and Eve - a cool correlation.
Tuesday night we went out for a bit to watch the fireworks from St. Cyr (across the river from Tours) at the guingette (a bar hang-out on the banks of the Loire with music and dancing). A pretty tame night - but I met a good deal of students from Michigan State (the other main university that sent students to the Institute from the U.S.), most of which were cool but some of which were just downright annoying. On the whole, not bad, though.
So my host brothers both took off for Scotland for two weeks with the Boy Scouts, so I won't be seeing them until July 29. So that left me with the two parents, which was fine but slightly less interesting, for dinner. But they won me over with some of the best canteloupe I've ever had. Yummm.
Tuesday night we went out for a bit to watch the fireworks from St. Cyr (across the river from Tours) at the guingette (a bar hang-out on the banks of the Loire with music and dancing). A pretty tame night - but I met a good deal of students from Michigan State (the other main university that sent students to the Institute from the U.S.), most of which were cool but some of which were just downright annoying. On the whole, not bad, though.
So my host brothers both took off for Scotland for two weeks with the Boy Scouts, so I won't be seeing them until July 29. So that left me with the two parents, which was fine but slightly less interesting, for dinner. But they won me over with some of the best canteloupe I've ever had. Yummm.
España Day 4 - San Sebastien to Tours
Well, after two absolutely crazy days (which felt as long as 7), day 4, our return day, was pretty chill. We rose early around 8:30am to leave the hotel of the UT kids, who didn't wake up to see us off, which was probably for the better, as maybe they would ask questions as to why the hell they put us up in the first place. We made the long walk back to Old Town, where we ate a hearty breakfast (yogurt, fruit, Nutella, and a yummy lemon bread thing) before deciding to hike a bit up the mountain between Old Town and the Bay of Biscay, where there stands a giant statue of Jesus at the top. We had tremendous views all the way up and I very much enjoyed getting some exercise - though it was not real hiking, it held me over for now (til I go hiking this weekend in Switzerland!). At the top is an nunnery, where Lauren befriend and speak Spanish with one of the nuns, who showed her around as we contently sat down on a bench and observed the lovely view.
After heading back down, we again ate - this time a solid lunch consisting of a sandwich and a cookie. It was probably the closest thing we had to a true meal. After a bit of moseying, we walked to the train station, where we talked to a skier from Quebec for a bit before boarding a train to Hendaye, a French town just over the border.
Here we killed an hour by exploring a bit of the town and buying Basque souvenirs. Finally, we got on a train to Bordeaux, during which we chatted for quite awhile and discovered the most heavenly food ever: Speculoos - like a mix between peanut butter and nutella with cinnamon in it. Literally the best thing ever. Snaps for Justin for buying it and sharing. Wow.
So we had an hour in Bordeaux, so we wandered the town a bit, bought dinner, and proceeded to not find anything worthwhile except the sketchy part of town, so we made our way back to the train station. We boarded the TGV and found that we basically had a little nook to ourselves, complete with a great table for playing cards, which I utilized to dominate the rest at gin rummy. :)
And so there it was - by this point everyone was delirious and slaphappy, meaning anything and everything was funny. After a short navette from St. Pierre des Corps to Tours, we were back - and we dispersed, finished with one of the greatest trips of my life.
After heading back down, we again ate - this time a solid lunch consisting of a sandwich and a cookie. It was probably the closest thing we had to a true meal. After a bit of moseying, we walked to the train station, where we talked to a skier from Quebec for a bit before boarding a train to Hendaye, a French town just over the border.
Here we killed an hour by exploring a bit of the town and buying Basque souvenirs. Finally, we got on a train to Bordeaux, during which we chatted for quite awhile and discovered the most heavenly food ever: Speculoos - like a mix between peanut butter and nutella with cinnamon in it. Literally the best thing ever. Snaps for Justin for buying it and sharing. Wow.
So we had an hour in Bordeaux, so we wandered the town a bit, bought dinner, and proceeded to not find anything worthwhile except the sketchy part of town, so we made our way back to the train station. We boarded the TGV and found that we basically had a little nook to ourselves, complete with a great table for playing cards, which I utilized to dominate the rest at gin rummy. :)
And so there it was - by this point everyone was delirious and slaphappy, meaning anything and everything was funny. After a short navette from St. Pierre des Corps to Tours, we were back - and we dispersed, finished with one of the greatest trips of my life.
España Day 3 - San Sebastien
So the feeling of waking up on a cardboard box and getting up quickly and basically leaving everything behind except the clothes on your back and your wallet is quite bizarre. Yet that is exactly what we did - deserted our "home"for the night and walked through the piles of trash toward the bus station, where we finally retrieved our bags and freshened up the best we could (still no showers). Before our 11am bus to San Sebastien, we ate, bought souvenirs, and took some pictures on a giant statue of some bulls. At 11, we caught the bus (after some crafty Spanish work to figure out that our bus was actually not departing from where we thought originally) and enjoyed a lovely 1-hour ride through the mountains to San Sebastien, a Basque town on the Bay of Biscay (part of the Atlantic Ocean), noted for its nice beaches.
At this point, a couple of us were at rock bottom - very, very tired and just wanting a rest. Eventually we made our way 30 minutes from the bus station to the tourism office and then from there to the "playa" - a nice beach situated next to a port in a small bay surrounded by mountains. For a beach hater, I enjoyed it quite a bit - though I found out that I am quite a bad swimmer - I attempted to swim out to a small dock about 150 meters into the lagoon. I made it - but barely. After a good rest on the floating dock, I swam back very slowly and headed back to the beach to play a good deal of cards with the homies. A nice relaxing afternoon.
But of course at this point we still ahd no idea where we would be staying the night - sleeping in a park was acceptable in Pamplona, as everyone did so, but here, probably not a good idea - or an attractive one at that.
So we grabbed a quick dinner at an awful and terribly expensive tapas place in the main square of old town before heading out to find a bar to watch the World Cup final. We heard rumors that there was a large screen where everyone would be watching, but it turned out to be a lie. So by the time we returned to Old Town, the game had started and all the bars were packed - we watched the first half from outside a small Basque bar and then switched to an Irish pub that was sparsely crowded, but completely one-sided toward the Netherlands. Most of the Basque people I met hated the Spanish team - not surprising I suppose, but come on - can't you put aside your difference for a minute?
So the game went into overtime, but was a bit dull overall, especially considering the anti-Spanish atmosphere of the bar. But afterwards, we headed out into the streets and joined the mix of locals and tourists (mostly tourists) who cheered "Ole, Ole, Ole!," "Viva España," and the like. A good time overall - but it quickly turned into a normal night - bar-hopping - where we found a good deal of American music and American tourists. After a couple failed attempts with some Americans students who were studying there to find a place to stay, we finally ran across some peculiar students studying organic chemistry from the University of Texas. After Jacque pulled off the lie of all lies, stating that she actually knew a guy who one of the Texas guys was friends with who went to Yale (not true), and a couple more hours of following the Texas people in their stupid endeavors (losing people, taking care of a guy throwing up, and putting up with a long discussion of chemistry-related things (haha pyrite)), we convinced them to house us for the night.
And so we walked. And walked. And walked some more - for a good hour, until we finally got to their hotel/dorm and crashed on their floor - concrete and uncomfortable, but certainly better than a cold, dirty park. What a difference.
At this point, a couple of us were at rock bottom - very, very tired and just wanting a rest. Eventually we made our way 30 minutes from the bus station to the tourism office and then from there to the "playa" - a nice beach situated next to a port in a small bay surrounded by mountains. For a beach hater, I enjoyed it quite a bit - though I found out that I am quite a bad swimmer - I attempted to swim out to a small dock about 150 meters into the lagoon. I made it - but barely. After a good rest on the floating dock, I swam back very slowly and headed back to the beach to play a good deal of cards with the homies. A nice relaxing afternoon.
But of course at this point we still ahd no idea where we would be staying the night - sleeping in a park was acceptable in Pamplona, as everyone did so, but here, probably not a good idea - or an attractive one at that.
So we grabbed a quick dinner at an awful and terribly expensive tapas place in the main square of old town before heading out to find a bar to watch the World Cup final. We heard rumors that there was a large screen where everyone would be watching, but it turned out to be a lie. So by the time we returned to Old Town, the game had started and all the bars were packed - we watched the first half from outside a small Basque bar and then switched to an Irish pub that was sparsely crowded, but completely one-sided toward the Netherlands. Most of the Basque people I met hated the Spanish team - not surprising I suppose, but come on - can't you put aside your difference for a minute?
So the game went into overtime, but was a bit dull overall, especially considering the anti-Spanish atmosphere of the bar. But afterwards, we headed out into the streets and joined the mix of locals and tourists (mostly tourists) who cheered "Ole, Ole, Ole!," "Viva España," and the like. A good time overall - but it quickly turned into a normal night - bar-hopping - where we found a good deal of American music and American tourists. After a couple failed attempts with some Americans students who were studying there to find a place to stay, we finally ran across some peculiar students studying organic chemistry from the University of Texas. After Jacque pulled off the lie of all lies, stating that she actually knew a guy who one of the Texas guys was friends with who went to Yale (not true), and a couple more hours of following the Texas people in their stupid endeavors (losing people, taking care of a guy throwing up, and putting up with a long discussion of chemistry-related things (haha pyrite)), we convinced them to house us for the night.
And so we walked. And walked. And walked some more - for a good hour, until we finally got to their hotel/dorm and crashed on their floor - concrete and uncomfortable, but certainly better than a cold, dirty park. What a difference.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
España Day 2, Part 2 - Viva, Viva Pamplona!
So after a crazy morning, the rest of the day was much more chill. Around 10, we met up with Lauren, Jacque, and Justin and shortly after, we ran into David's friend Charlie, who was there with a big group of Georgetown students who were studying in Barcelona for the summer, much like our program in Tours.
Armed with bottles of cheap Sangria, we headed over to meet the rest of Charlie's crowd, who were all passed out in the sun next to the stadium. This was the low point of the day - it was hot, I was extremely tired, Charlie was REALLY loud, and I just wanted to nap.
But we plowed through it. And after an hour and a half or so here (during which I chatted with a cool dude named Aaron who was from UC-Davis and was on a 6-month world excursion on less than 5 dollars a day), we moved to another, shadier park. We all fell right asleep, taking a good 1 1/2 hour nap.
We woke up to Charlie being loud as always and talking about how he forgot where he was. We eventually decided to get some lunch, which we did at a supermarket. At this point, I was mad at myself for successfully forgetting next to ALL of my Spanish - 10 years of studying it wasted. Yikes. The bright side was that I did understand quite a bit when it was spoken, but could barely speak it. Yet we got by just fine.
After picking up ham, baguettes, carrots, etc. for lunch, we headed back to the park to find our group size doubled. We merged with some French dudes and a Dutch guy, all of which were very cool and we were happy to speak French again. One of the French guys managed to get a huge gash in his leg while wrestling with Aaron, causing him to get 11 stitches. Ouch. When you do stupid stuff, you get hurt.
At this point, we learned the greatest cheer: "Pulpa Paul" - the Spanish name of the German octopus who had successfully called all of Germany's games in the World Cup up to this point and picked Spain to beat the Netherlands during the final. A stupid superstition, but entertaining - especially as we led the cheer the next day after Spain won.
We chilled here for a good 5 hours or so - and we weren't the only ones. The park was packed with people from all over the world - I estimate about 300-500,000 people were in Pamplona on this day.
Finally, around 10:30pm, we headed out for the night. We quickly lost Charlie's group on accident but managed to have a great time nonetheless. First, we found a funny Santana cover band, where we danced to "Corazon Espinado" and I managed to get some of my Spanish-speaking ability back. Then, all of a sudden, we heard a massive crack - fireworks! We sprinted through the streets for a view - and what a show it was - one of the best I've ever seen.
A bit worn out, we headed back to the main plaza - Plaza del Castillo - where we rested for a bit and waited for the performers who were going to play at the big stage in a little bit.
So we struggled to find a spot to sit down that wasn't absolutely gross, however. The whole city smelled like a mix of urine, sweat, sangria, and bad eggs - nasty. But eventually we found something and waited 30 minutes for the band to start.
Oh what great fun the band was - two old guys singing with two back-up dancers and some guys on guitars and a piano. The music was great - very Spanish and truly a lot of fun to dance to. When we started doing the Macarena, I got suspicious. Once we did it twice, I knew - these were the ACTUAL creators of the Macarena!! Haha - Los del Río, owners of the biggest one hit wonder that ever existed. Hilarious, yet great. And they managed to get the tune "Viva, Viva Pamplona" stuck in my head for the rest of the trip.
Eventually, after 2 hours of dancing, they finished - and we were exhausted. After watching another random band for a bit, we decided to find a place to stay. We decided not to go back to get our bags and we simply would sleep in what we were wearing. So we headed back to the same park from the afternoon and found a nice spot away from the craziness and loud music.
Boy were we creative - David found some cardboard boxes, which we laid on, and a random jacket and a wet, white sheet. What a sight it was - five college kids cuddling under a jacket and a wet sheet on some cardboard. The closest I've ever felt to homeless. And sleep we did - I was out within 5 minutes. It was about 3:30am by this time. What a long day. But wicked awesome.
Armed with bottles of cheap Sangria, we headed over to meet the rest of Charlie's crowd, who were all passed out in the sun next to the stadium. This was the low point of the day - it was hot, I was extremely tired, Charlie was REALLY loud, and I just wanted to nap.
But we plowed through it. And after an hour and a half or so here (during which I chatted with a cool dude named Aaron who was from UC-Davis and was on a 6-month world excursion on less than 5 dollars a day), we moved to another, shadier park. We all fell right asleep, taking a good 1 1/2 hour nap.
We woke up to Charlie being loud as always and talking about how he forgot where he was. We eventually decided to get some lunch, which we did at a supermarket. At this point, I was mad at myself for successfully forgetting next to ALL of my Spanish - 10 years of studying it wasted. Yikes. The bright side was that I did understand quite a bit when it was spoken, but could barely speak it. Yet we got by just fine.
After picking up ham, baguettes, carrots, etc. for lunch, we headed back to the park to find our group size doubled. We merged with some French dudes and a Dutch guy, all of which were very cool and we were happy to speak French again. One of the French guys managed to get a huge gash in his leg while wrestling with Aaron, causing him to get 11 stitches. Ouch. When you do stupid stuff, you get hurt.
At this point, we learned the greatest cheer: "Pulpa Paul" - the Spanish name of the German octopus who had successfully called all of Germany's games in the World Cup up to this point and picked Spain to beat the Netherlands during the final. A stupid superstition, but entertaining - especially as we led the cheer the next day after Spain won.
We chilled here for a good 5 hours or so - and we weren't the only ones. The park was packed with people from all over the world - I estimate about 300-500,000 people were in Pamplona on this day.
Finally, around 10:30pm, we headed out for the night. We quickly lost Charlie's group on accident but managed to have a great time nonetheless. First, we found a funny Santana cover band, where we danced to "Corazon Espinado" and I managed to get some of my Spanish-speaking ability back. Then, all of a sudden, we heard a massive crack - fireworks! We sprinted through the streets for a view - and what a show it was - one of the best I've ever seen.
A bit worn out, we headed back to the main plaza - Plaza del Castillo - where we rested for a bit and waited for the performers who were going to play at the big stage in a little bit.
So we struggled to find a spot to sit down that wasn't absolutely gross, however. The whole city smelled like a mix of urine, sweat, sangria, and bad eggs - nasty. But eventually we found something and waited 30 minutes for the band to start.
Oh what great fun the band was - two old guys singing with two back-up dancers and some guys on guitars and a piano. The music was great - very Spanish and truly a lot of fun to dance to. When we started doing the Macarena, I got suspicious. Once we did it twice, I knew - these were the ACTUAL creators of the Macarena!! Haha - Los del Río, owners of the biggest one hit wonder that ever existed. Hilarious, yet great. And they managed to get the tune "Viva, Viva Pamplona" stuck in my head for the rest of the trip.
Eventually, after 2 hours of dancing, they finished - and we were exhausted. After watching another random band for a bit, we decided to find a place to stay. We decided not to go back to get our bags and we simply would sleep in what we were wearing. So we headed back to the same park from the afternoon and found a nice spot away from the craziness and loud music.
Boy were we creative - David found some cardboard boxes, which we laid on, and a random jacket and a wet, white sheet. What a sight it was - five college kids cuddling under a jacket and a wet sheet on some cardboard. The closest I've ever felt to homeless. And sleep we did - I was out within 5 minutes. It was about 3:30am by this time. What a long day. But wicked awesome.
España Day 2, Part 1 - Running with the Bulls!!
What. A. Day. 5am to 3am non-stop, with only an hour-long nap. But an incredible day nonetheless.
So Justin was kind enough to not wake me up for my 4am lookout shift and we all woke up at 5am to head down to the action - for the running of the bulls. We gathered our belongings and tiredly headed in the right direction. Boy - what a sight. EVERYONE was still out, most of which had been partying all night, and the place was a landfill - trash everywhere, up to your knees in some places. Wow.
So we quickly found a parking garage with a bathroom, where we changed clothes, freshened up a bit, and proceeded to get kicked out by a couple guys who thought we were there to find a friend's car and were upset and we weren't.
We trudged through the trash and people to get to the area where the bulls (and David and I) would be running just 2 hours later. The track works like this: it is 400m, rather short, and the people who run are in two groups: one group is for the hard-core Spaniards who want to become bull-fighters and they line up at the beginning of the track and taunt the bulls. The second group starts further down the track, but still gets to run with the bulls, though it's not quite as intense. Our plan was to find this second group.
After saying goodbye to our stuff (we handed it to Lauren, Jacque, and Justin, who would be heading to the stadium to watch from the stands), David and I parked ourselves at Dead Man's Corner - an area where the bulls traditionally swing wide and hit the wall before turning and moving on. The plan was to stay on the inside corner and out of harm's way.
But of course things changed as the police proceeded to push everyone off the course in order to clean the track. Uh oh. In a split second decision, I decide to follow some other Americans, lose David in the process, and run around in a loop, eventually make my way back to the track, sneak under the fence (the police generally look the other way) and get pushed into a massive crowd waiting to be let back in. Just before 8am, everyone does a prayer to San Fermin (for which the festival was named) and hopes for the best. I stake out a spot on the inside corner of Dead Man's Corner.
Ten minutes later - the cannon sounds, which announces the release of the 6 bulls (and their steers - also big cows). I wait for a bit and then decide - hey, what the heck - I'm going to run. I begin running and about a minute later - Vroom - there goes bull #1 to my left. I hit the wall and take a breather. I'm not feeling so hot right now - sprinting on very little water and food consumption made me feel I bit sick. But I pull it together and make my way down the track and enter the stadium.
Entering the stadium, with people cheering all around you in the stands, made me understand what Gladiator must have been like. Coolest feeling EVER. There are probably about 200 other people in the ring with me at that time, and shortly, bulls #2 and #3 come zipping by - very close to where I was standing - but they ran straight through the stadium to the stables on the far end.
The rest of the bulls came within 5 minutes - doing the same thing. And so I thought it was over - time to go home.
WRONG. Then they let out each of the bulls, one by one, and they run around the ring with ferocious fury - chasing after anything that moves. The first bull caught me off guard - after a close encounter, I sprint to the wall, where most people hang out, and proceeded to watch person after person get owned by the bull, thrown up by its horns and nearly trampled afterwards. Crazy.
They released the 5 other bulls after - and magically about halfway through, I find David sprinting toward me. We were reunited - and at that point, we were both saying - "Yeah, I think I've had enough bull." So we head out of the ring, but still watch people do crazy stuff - get their pants yanked off by the bull, jump over the bull (a talent dubbed "hurdling"), and run around screaming to the wall.
What a sight. The only downside was that I did not have my camera, which I had given to Lauren, who stored it with the rest of our stuff for the day. I wouldn't get it back until the next morning. :(
So it was complete - we survived - and David and I went to buy a victory bottle of wine and waited for the others at a designated meeting spot. You could say we bonded, man to man time, haha.
So Justin was kind enough to not wake me up for my 4am lookout shift and we all woke up at 5am to head down to the action - for the running of the bulls. We gathered our belongings and tiredly headed in the right direction. Boy - what a sight. EVERYONE was still out, most of which had been partying all night, and the place was a landfill - trash everywhere, up to your knees in some places. Wow.
So we quickly found a parking garage with a bathroom, where we changed clothes, freshened up a bit, and proceeded to get kicked out by a couple guys who thought we were there to find a friend's car and were upset and we weren't.
We trudged through the trash and people to get to the area where the bulls (and David and I) would be running just 2 hours later. The track works like this: it is 400m, rather short, and the people who run are in two groups: one group is for the hard-core Spaniards who want to become bull-fighters and they line up at the beginning of the track and taunt the bulls. The second group starts further down the track, but still gets to run with the bulls, though it's not quite as intense. Our plan was to find this second group.
After saying goodbye to our stuff (we handed it to Lauren, Jacque, and Justin, who would be heading to the stadium to watch from the stands), David and I parked ourselves at Dead Man's Corner - an area where the bulls traditionally swing wide and hit the wall before turning and moving on. The plan was to stay on the inside corner and out of harm's way.
But of course things changed as the police proceeded to push everyone off the course in order to clean the track. Uh oh. In a split second decision, I decide to follow some other Americans, lose David in the process, and run around in a loop, eventually make my way back to the track, sneak under the fence (the police generally look the other way) and get pushed into a massive crowd waiting to be let back in. Just before 8am, everyone does a prayer to San Fermin (for which the festival was named) and hopes for the best. I stake out a spot on the inside corner of Dead Man's Corner.
Ten minutes later - the cannon sounds, which announces the release of the 6 bulls (and their steers - also big cows). I wait for a bit and then decide - hey, what the heck - I'm going to run. I begin running and about a minute later - Vroom - there goes bull #1 to my left. I hit the wall and take a breather. I'm not feeling so hot right now - sprinting on very little water and food consumption made me feel I bit sick. But I pull it together and make my way down the track and enter the stadium.
Entering the stadium, with people cheering all around you in the stands, made me understand what Gladiator must have been like. Coolest feeling EVER. There are probably about 200 other people in the ring with me at that time, and shortly, bulls #2 and #3 come zipping by - very close to where I was standing - but they ran straight through the stadium to the stables on the far end.
The rest of the bulls came within 5 minutes - doing the same thing. And so I thought it was over - time to go home.
WRONG. Then they let out each of the bulls, one by one, and they run around the ring with ferocious fury - chasing after anything that moves. The first bull caught me off guard - after a close encounter, I sprint to the wall, where most people hang out, and proceeded to watch person after person get owned by the bull, thrown up by its horns and nearly trampled afterwards. Crazy.
They released the 5 other bulls after - and magically about halfway through, I find David sprinting toward me. We were reunited - and at that point, we were both saying - "Yeah, I think I've had enough bull." So we head out of the ring, but still watch people do crazy stuff - get their pants yanked off by the bull, jump over the bull (a talent dubbed "hurdling"), and run around screaming to the wall.
What a sight. The only downside was that I did not have my camera, which I had given to Lauren, who stored it with the rest of our stuff for the day. I wouldn't get it back until the next morning. :(
So it was complete - we survived - and David and I went to buy a victory bottle of wine and waited for the others at a designated meeting spot. You could say we bonded, man to man time, haha.
España Day 1 - Tours to Pamplona
Carrying nothing but backpacks, with no idea of hotel reservations, we arrived at the Tours train station around 3:30pm to begin the adventure of a lifetime.
And so it began with a 6-hour train ride from Tours to Irun, Spain, just over the border, with a brief stop in Bordeaux. A rather uneventful ride - except for a few quotable jokes from Justin during the ride. We arrived in Irun around 10:30pm, showed our passports, and then proceeded to try to find a way to get from there to Pamplona that night. The bus we thought might do it left at 11:30pm but it would been awful to wait so long for a bus that may or may not stop at Pamplona on the way to Barcelona. So we considered taxis - each car would cost 100 euros and unfortunately we had too many people to fit in one. So we ventured to find some others heading that way to fill the cars - after a failed attempt with some Brits, we ran across some confused Italians who did one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. They thought that they were already in Pamplona - a mistake made because Pamplona's Basque name is Iruña - very similar to Irun. Haha - still a dumb mistake - but good for us, as they agreed to split a cab with us - we arrived in Pamplona after a lovely ride through the mountains (though it was dark) at around 11:30.
Arrival in Pamplona was eerie and weird - as you looked around, we saw everyone in the streets dressed in all white with red handkerchiefs. Woah. Cool. We immediately bought the proper clothes - for me, I already had a white shirt and white shorts, so just a red handkerchief did the trick.
From there, we were rather tired and had to save energy for the next morning - thus we walked around a bit and then found a spot on the ground in a park, where we laid out our belongings - towels, shirts, anything we could find to keep us warm. It was about 1am at this time and we planned to take shifts staying up and making sure our surroundings were safe. With a jacket on and a shirt wrapped around my legs to stay warm, I shivered my way into a restless sleep.
And so it began with a 6-hour train ride from Tours to Irun, Spain, just over the border, with a brief stop in Bordeaux. A rather uneventful ride - except for a few quotable jokes from Justin during the ride. We arrived in Irun around 10:30pm, showed our passports, and then proceeded to try to find a way to get from there to Pamplona that night. The bus we thought might do it left at 11:30pm but it would been awful to wait so long for a bus that may or may not stop at Pamplona on the way to Barcelona. So we considered taxis - each car would cost 100 euros and unfortunately we had too many people to fit in one. So we ventured to find some others heading that way to fill the cars - after a failed attempt with some Brits, we ran across some confused Italians who did one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. They thought that they were already in Pamplona - a mistake made because Pamplona's Basque name is Iruña - very similar to Irun. Haha - still a dumb mistake - but good for us, as they agreed to split a cab with us - we arrived in Pamplona after a lovely ride through the mountains (though it was dark) at around 11:30.
Arrival in Pamplona was eerie and weird - as you looked around, we saw everyone in the streets dressed in all white with red handkerchiefs. Woah. Cool. We immediately bought the proper clothes - for me, I already had a white shirt and white shorts, so just a red handkerchief did the trick.
From there, we were rather tired and had to save energy for the next morning - thus we walked around a bit and then found a spot on the ground in a park, where we laid out our belongings - towels, shirts, anything we could find to keep us warm. It was about 1am at this time and we planned to take shifts staying up and making sure our surroundings were safe. With a jacket on and a shirt wrapped around my legs to stay warm, I shivered my way into a restless sleep.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Back from a FANTASTIC Trip
Yes. I did indeed run with the bulls. Yes - I did indeed survive, but not without the biggest thrill of my life. Add that with a lovely group of travel companions, some excellent stories, some sleeping in the park, and watching the World Cup final IN SPAIN and this trip to Pamplona and San Sebastien, Spain was unbelievable.
More to come as now I must shower and sleep. :)
More to come as now I must shower and sleep. :)
Friday, July 9, 2010
PAMPLONA!
Woah...this spontaneity thing is crazy - after a bunch of us came with with the brilliant, yet ridiculous idea of going to the Running of the Bulls in Spain for this weekend, ideas became reality today, as we bought tickets to Spain this morning. We are levaing this afternoon at 3pm for Irun, Spain, just across the border from France, where we hope to catch a bus that heads from Irun to Barcelona and hope to God makes a stop in Pamplona. If that doesn't work, we will spend the night in Irun and take a train to Pamplona tomorrow morning.
Once in Pamplona, it'll be crazy: running of the bulls happens every morning and there is a huge party all day afterwards. The run happens at 8am - and there are two sections of runners: the first is the crazy people who ACTUALLY run with the bulls; the second is the crowd of people who follow and are out of harm's way - but can still say they did it. We will probably be in the second - so no worries, mom, I'll be okay.
There are 6 of us going with nothing but backpacks and the clothes on our back - hoping to find a place to sleep each night. And better yet, since Spain is playing in the World Cup final, we will be able to watch the game on Sunday night!! Crazy!
We get back Monday from the sure-to-be adventure of a lifetime. I will not have Internet access between now and then, so no blogs until later, sorry!
Viva España!!
Once in Pamplona, it'll be crazy: running of the bulls happens every morning and there is a huge party all day afterwards. The run happens at 8am - and there are two sections of runners: the first is the crazy people who ACTUALLY run with the bulls; the second is the crowd of people who follow and are out of harm's way - but can still say they did it. We will probably be in the second - so no worries, mom, I'll be okay.
There are 6 of us going with nothing but backpacks and the clothes on our back - hoping to find a place to sleep each night. And better yet, since Spain is playing in the World Cup final, we will be able to watch the game on Sunday night!! Crazy!
We get back Monday from the sure-to-be adventure of a lifetime. I will not have Internet access between now and then, so no blogs until later, sorry!
Viva España!!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Back in School...
Well we started the second course Tuesday - I was placed in level 5 of 9, supposedly the right place for someone who has taken the equivalent of around Advanced I at Georgetown. Well - it's a bit easy, but I am still learning. And while others placed into higher levels, they have said it is rather easy also - so there probably is not much difference. That being said, my professor, after reading my composition, suggested that I should go up to level 6 - a different class with a different schedule and different professors. But unfortunately, there were no spots left available in level 6...or so they say - half the time when French people say that, it turns out to not be true - the same thing is the case on trains.
So I will probably try again tomorrow and beg to move, if it doesn't work, it isn't so bad - class is still all in French, some of the people in my class are actually more advanced than I am, and it's likely around the same thing in a higher level. So it's not the end of the world.
In addition to regular courses on oral and written proficiency, we have "option" courses (which are obligatory for Georgetown students), so I am taking literature (unfortunately), French civilization, and international relations. The first two haven't been so bad and have been a nice change of pace from regular class time. I have not yet taken IR yet, as it meets on Mondays.
So I am in the process of planning a short trip for this weekend, since I have the extra Eurail days now, but not sure where to go!
So I will probably try again tomorrow and beg to move, if it doesn't work, it isn't so bad - class is still all in French, some of the people in my class are actually more advanced than I am, and it's likely around the same thing in a higher level. So it's not the end of the world.
In addition to regular courses on oral and written proficiency, we have "option" courses (which are obligatory for Georgetown students), so I am taking literature (unfortunately), French civilization, and international relations. The first two haven't been so bad and have been a nice change of pace from regular class time. I have not yet taken IR yet, as it meets on Mondays.
So I am in the process of planning a short trip for this weekend, since I have the extra Eurail days now, but not sure where to go!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Mega-Vacation Day 8 - Lourdes to Tours
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
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
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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