Well all, I'm really sorry if I haven't replied to an e-mail yet - the last fews days have been pretty hectic, but I've been thinking about everyone! I just spent a wonderful three days in Paris (got to see the Musée d'Orsay, l'Orangerie, Centre Pompidou, Musée de Rodin, le Panthéon, among other things.) It was quite a wonderful and rather relaxing time - I was by myself a decent chunk of the time, but that made it a different sort of experience. I am really glad I got the chance to go back to Paris!!! Anyhoo, I'll be sure to give some details when I see people in PERSON, and the last batch of pictures will come up when I've hit American soil.
Here are the details of my flight home:
I take the train at 6:43 am (yup, brutal.)
Flight leaves Paris at 2:40 pm (ok, there were no other trains that got me there atleast three hours in advance and were also DIRECT - very key with my mighty load of luggage)
Arrive in Chicago at 4:50 pm
Leave Chicago at 8:15pm
Arrive in Nashville at 9:40pm!!!
It will be a loooooong day, but I have lots of reading material, so I'll be fine :) Say a prayer for me when you have a minute - I love you all and can't wait to see you!!!
jeudi 5 juin 2008
jeudi 29 mai 2008
All stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
So, I am sitting in my room a week before I will be heading back to the states, gathering all my post cards, wading through the piles of papers I accumulated, and thought it was time to send another message, particularly since I just spent a weekend in Normandy - you know you'll miss these vacation break-downs :) Here it is:
NORMANDY!
We (Joselyne and I) left on Friday at around 13h30 and got into Avranches (a town about 40km away from Mont St Michel) at about 18h00, where we were welcomed by Celine's parents (who happily agreed to let us stay at their house during our visit - Celine rented my room in Joselyne's house about ten years ago and they've stayed close friends.) That night we talked, cooked, ate, talked, and slept. Very nice :)
Saturday: Woke up at 7am (to Celine's father waking us up military style - the trumpets, you know? He had to serve as alarm clock for everyone and jokingly said he would hum that tune...and he did. lol) We then headed out at around 8h30 for Ste Mère Église, which is known for the parachutists that came and landed there to liberate the city (the first city in France that was liberated during WWII) Why were we there, you ask? My Pop-pop was in the 82nd Airborne and landed in a WACO glider just west of Ste Mère Église. We visited the church, which had some beautiful stained glass windows dedicated to the 82nd/101st Airborne, and then went to the Airborne museum, where there was an actual WACO glider like the one my Pop-pop landed in, which was incredible to see in person after the stories I've heard. After the museum, we got lunch at an incredible boulangeree beside the church AND I saw a deux chevaux - I was SO excited (For those who don't know what that is, it's a really crappy old French car. It's notorious, actually. This one was in
really good shape, actually, and had music patterns on the car seats.) Then we headed out to Utah Beach, and it was really windy, so we didn't stay very long. We picnicked on a random table we found in the country side and then headed to Point Hoc (pointe hoc - is it the same in english? I'm not sure.) It was a very strategic point in the war because it was high up and incredible difficult to take - there were crators everywhere from the bombs that had destroyed the landscape during the war. It was quite impressive to see along side all the bulwarks the Germans built as protection; we went down in one and it was not very pleasant (dark and deserted). After Point Hoc we went to Omaha Beach and then the American Cemetary, which was immaculately kept and quite peacful. I thought it was perfect that it was right by the coast of Omaha Beach. After that, we made the drive back to Avranches, which took about an hour and a half, which for any American is nothing at all. For the French, it is TERRIBLE. I love how the thought of driving an hour anywhere horrifies them. It was, however, very nice that they went all the way for my sake - I could have never see all that in one day without their help!!!
Sunday: Today, we woke up a bit later, an
d Celine was quite tired, so we got a bit of a late start - 10am, but we went with Celine's father, who knows the region and Mont St Michel very well, so it was so much more enriching. We were able to take small country roads that gave a beautiful view of Mont St Michel on the way there. When we got there we went directly up so I could go to mass at 11h30. Even though I couldn't see anything, it was a monastic mass, and the chanting was beautiful. None of the others were particularly religious, and I was expecting them to explore while I was in mass, but they ended up coming along (and, consequently, got in for free). You're technically not supposed to tour the abbey after the mass, but the father collected our stickers that labeled us as mass participants (and hid them in his hat)and had us leave a little early so we wouldn't have to pay. lol I was a guest - what could I do? I did save about 5 euro, although I felt a little funny about it. Oh well. Afterwards, we toured the abbey and ate a leisurely lunch at a restaurant with a view of the ocean (it was low tide, so all we could see was beach, really). Since it was low tide, we went down and walked around the outside of the island after lunch, which was incredible. You get to see the undeveloped side of the island, although if you venture out much further into the bay you have to be very careful (i.e. have a guide) - people die there every year; not just dumb tourists, but locals, too! Afterwards, the dad drove us along the diggs that surround the bay (which were built to ensure that during the HUGE high tides there isn't massive flooding of farm land), so we got to see a lot of beautiful countryside. He even stopped by a restored mill on the way back to the house, where we stopped for about a half an hour before taking the train back to Angers at 18h43; we got home around 23h30. Whew - and I had an exam the next day!
The exam ended up going very well, as did the other two orals I had on Tuesday. I am now done with classes, with everything, and everyone is starting to slowly leave one by one. I have a lovely weekend in Paris to look forward to, some last hang outs, lots of creative packing and last minute shopping, and then I will be in the US again after an incredible semester. I am so blessed to have been able to have this experience. I just wanted to fill you all in again before I leave - I'll be sure to post one more blog entry right before I leave so you all know the specifics of my flight home, etc.
Captions: me and the WACO Glider, Joselyne and I at Omaha Beach, and Celine and I in front of Mont St Michel
NORMANDY!
We (Joselyne and I) left on Friday at around 13h30 and got into Avranches (a town about 40km away from Mont St Michel) at about 18h00, where we were welcomed by Celine's parents (who happily agreed to let us stay at their house during our visit - Celine rented my room in Joselyne's house about ten years ago and they've stayed close friends.) That night we talked, cooked, ate, talked, and slept. Very nice :)
Saturday: Woke up at 7am (to Celine's father waking us up military style - the trumpets, you know? He had to serve as alarm clock for everyone and jokingly said he would hum that tune...and he did. lol) We then headed out at around 8h30 for Ste Mère Église, which is known for the parachutists that came and landed there to liberate the city (the first city in France that was liberated during WWII) Why were we there, you ask? My Pop-pop was in the 82nd Airborne and landed in a WACO glider just west of Ste Mère Église. We visited the church, which had some beautiful stained glass windows dedicated to the 82nd/101st Airborne, and then went to the Airborne museum, where there was an actual WACO glider like the one my Pop-pop landed in, which was incredible to see in person after the stories I've heard. After the museum, we got lunch at an incredible boulangeree beside the church AND I saw a deux chevaux - I was SO excited (For those who don't know what that is, it's a really crappy old French car. It's notorious, actually. This one was in
really good shape, actually, and had music patterns on the car seats.) Then we headed out to Utah Beach, and it was really windy, so we didn't stay very long. We picnicked on a random table we found in the country side and then headed to Point Hoc (pointe hoc - is it the same in english? I'm not sure.) It was a very strategic point in the war because it was high up and incredible difficult to take - there were crators everywhere from the bombs that had destroyed the landscape during the war. It was quite impressive to see along side all the bulwarks the Germans built as protection; we went down in one and it was not very pleasant (dark and deserted). After Point Hoc we went to Omaha Beach and then the American Cemetary, which was immaculately kept and quite peacful. I thought it was perfect that it was right by the coast of Omaha Beach. After that, we made the drive back to Avranches, which took about an hour and a half, which for any American is nothing at all. For the French, it is TERRIBLE. I love how the thought of driving an hour anywhere horrifies them. It was, however, very nice that they went all the way for my sake - I could have never see all that in one day without their help!!!Sunday: Today, we woke up a bit later, an
d Celine was quite tired, so we got a bit of a late start - 10am, but we went with Celine's father, who knows the region and Mont St Michel very well, so it was so much more enriching. We were able to take small country roads that gave a beautiful view of Mont St Michel on the way there. When we got there we went directly up so I could go to mass at 11h30. Even though I couldn't see anything, it was a monastic mass, and the chanting was beautiful. None of the others were particularly religious, and I was expecting them to explore while I was in mass, but they ended up coming along (and, consequently, got in for free). You're technically not supposed to tour the abbey after the mass, but the father collected our stickers that labeled us as mass participants (and hid them in his hat)and had us leave a little early so we wouldn't have to pay. lol I was a guest - what could I do? I did save about 5 euro, although I felt a little funny about it. Oh well. Afterwards, we toured the abbey and ate a leisurely lunch at a restaurant with a view of the ocean (it was low tide, so all we could see was beach, really). Since it was low tide, we went down and walked around the outside of the island after lunch, which was incredible. You get to see the undeveloped side of the island, although if you venture out much further into the bay you have to be very careful (i.e. have a guide) - people die there every year; not just dumb tourists, but locals, too! Afterwards, the dad drove us along the diggs that surround the bay (which were built to ensure that during the HUGE high tides there isn't massive flooding of farm land), so we got to see a lot of beautiful countryside. He even stopped by a restored mill on the way back to the house, where we stopped for about a half an hour before taking the train back to Angers at 18h43; we got home around 23h30. Whew - and I had an exam the next day!The exam ended up going very well, as did the other two orals I had on Tuesday. I am now done with classes, with everything, and everyone is starting to slowly leave one by one. I have a lovely weekend in Paris to look forward to, some last hang outs, lots of creative packing and last minute shopping, and then I will be in the US again after an incredible semester. I am so blessed to have been able to have this experience. I just wanted to fill you all in again before I leave - I'll be sure to post one more blog entry right before I leave so you all know the specifics of my flight home, etc.
Captions: me and the WACO Glider, Joselyne and I at Omaha Beach, and Celine and I in front of Mont St Michel
samedi 10 mai 2008
Paris, mon amour <3
Sorry it's been a while since I last updated, but here I am with a couple more adventures to share :) I went to Paris last weekend (for the first time - strange, I know) and it was wonderful! I already worked out going one more time before I leave. lol So, here's the low down on what I did:
PARIS
Day 1: Friday, May 2nd
We (Maggi, Di, Maija, and I) left at around 9am by train and got to Paris by 10:30. After stopping by the hostel (which wasn't quite as sketchy as I was anticipating, which is always good. For a hostel it really wasn't bad), we headed up to Sacre Coeur. The basilica was quite beautiful, but I think what impressed my straight off was the number of people that were there! This is the first real visit I've made at the beginning of high tourist season, so it was a bit of a shock at first...not that there's really a low season in Paris, but still. After Sacre Coeur and the artist's market (where there are a ton of artists that either do portraits or have a display of their work up. It was quite interesting to see), we headed down to the Eiffel Tower...the long way. We started off walking along the Blvd de Clichey (where the Moulin Rouge and many similar establishments are located), then diagonaled down to les Champs Elysées up to l'Arc de Triomphe. I was very disappointed to find a McDonald's on the Champs Elysées - that should NOT be allowed. Ah well. Who am I to stop the awesome power of American entrepreneurship? lol Anyways, after l'Arc de Triomphe we headed down to Place de la Concorde (where the Louvre is located) and the crossed over to the Eiffel Tower! After taking a wee break on the lawn in front of the tower, we headed down to get in line, which was incredibly confusing. With the help of a nice French guy, we figured out where we need to be (it was quite nice actually - I asked him to make sure we were in the right line, and then they ended up changing lines, but he came back to make sure he had given me the right information/ to tell us something he figured out). Since we took the stairs instead of the elevator (yup, you heard right!) the line only took about an hour...the other could have taken more than two hours and was four times as expensive! I actually prefer taking the stairs; I think you appreciate reaching each level a bit more after having physically exerted yourself a bit. After the second level, you can buy tickets to take the elevator up to the top, but there was a huge line and it was already 6pm, so we decided to content ourself with the already incredible view we had and walked back down. We headed back towards the direction of the Louvre, rested in the garden for a bit and then found a Chinese restaurant for diner (not to expensive and close to where we were...it was pretty good, actually, even if it wasn't French cuisine). We then headed back to the hostel and rested up for Versailles tomorrow!
Day 2: Saturday, May 3rd
We hit the road decently early and with transport we got to Versailles around 10:30am. Before getting in line we grabbed sandwiches at a vendor in front of the castle. The guy selling the sandwiches has to deal with a lot of tourists, which is why he seemed quite please when I ordered and spoke with him in French - "Oh! Vous parlez francais - c'est très bien!" I bought my sandwich and tried to get all my affairs together, but there was one small problem - I didn't realize that the plastic bag for the sandwich wasn't sealed on both sides and in my clumsiness I dropped my sandwich on the ground. The whole line around me let out a sympathetic groan (I kid you not), and while it was only the beginning of the sandwich that had actually touched the dirt, the vendor gave me another sandwich anyway! So very nice for the stupid blond with the sandwich problems. After that minor incident we settled in line for a lovely two hour wait. While it was not lovely to wait, it was an incredibly organized line - everyone was calm, hardly anyone tried to cut the line (there was enough people watching to make sure they didn't), so the two hours passed very well. Versailles itself is really impressive; I can't help appreciate le Roi du Soleil and how intelligent and egotistical he must have been. The chateau was beautiful, albeit almost too ornate. The king's chambers were practically covered in gold! I kid you not. And the gardens were fantastic. After touring the chateau we headed down to Grand Trianon (quite slowly - stopping to eat some ice cream, appreciate the gardens, etc) - the king's private residence, which was remarquable less ornate while still being qutie elegant and beautiful. Petit Trianon and la Domaine de Marie Antoinette was the most interesting and the biggest contrast. The gardens were much more wild, much more natural, and I could not believe the little village she had built so she could pretend she was in the countryside with her children. It was quite pretty and the idea a bit absurd - what a play ground! We stayed at Versailles until around 7pm, when we headed back to Paris and the Latin Quarter for dinner at a restaurant that was, unfortunately, expensive and not very good. I was a bit dissapointed, but how could we have known? The ambiance was very nice and alluring. After that we walked around a bit and then headed back to the hostel to shower and sleep.
Day 3: Sunday, May 4th
Woke up day and hustled and bustled over to Notre Dame for mass at 8:30am, which was a bit surreal in some ways. Paris has been a dream of mine for so long, and here I was, in Notre Dame for mass. It was incredible, and what was even stranger is that I met someone from UD there who is also studying abroad, but in Florence. What are the odds??? After mass I explored the church a bit and then waited for a couple friends, who arranged to meet me a bit later. They looked around the cathedral while I grabbed some breakfast and a sandwich for later at a boulangerie in the Latin quarter that we discovered last night. After that, I met them back at Notre Dame and a random guy asked me (in English) if I wanted to buy some cheapo souvenir, I responded in French, and then was so distracted for some reason that I turned around to my friend and started talking to her in English. It took me a second to realize I had done it, which was incredibly strange - I don't even know what my body is doing, apparently, but we were all having language-switching problems that weekend; Maija tried to speak to us in finnish several times, this same friend spoke to me once in English after we had talked with an American we met in Versailles (and she had left - i.e. we could speak French again. She thought she was speaking French. lol) We then made a beeline for the Louvre, which was free and while I would have thought we'd be in line for AGES it literally took less than ten minutes to get inside. I was so suprised! We stayed in the Louvre for about four hours and had only really made a dent in all the things there are to see, but we saw what was most important - the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, etc. The large room of Italian Renaissance paintings was incredible. After so many years of studying all of these artists, I don't think I could really understand being there and seeing them in person. I was so taken with all the artwork that I managed to lose my friends for a good half an hour. I was about ready to give up when we finally found each other again - whew. We left the Louvre at around 4pm and did a bit of shopping before the girls bought themselves some sandwiches and we spent some time just relaxing next to la Seine. Plenty of time before our train left. After seeing the garden behind Notre Dame we headed back to the metro, and it took a bit longer than anticipated, because all of a sudden I realized we were definitely running late. Oh crap. I was so stressed that I went into the wrong direction of our line of the metro, but I went up and asked the man at the ticket station, and he let us into the right side without having to buy another ticket. As soon as we got to Montparnasse we set off running, because, of course, the metro stop was a bit away from the train station. I was huffing and puffing and dying inside, but we got to the train with three minutes to spare, and our poor tired feet were not at all amused. AND there were, of course, technical problems so the train left ten minutes later than planned. Of course. We had entered at the beginning of the train to be sure it didn't leave without us, but our designated car was a bit later - 15. After Maija bought a drink and the train started moving, we started heading to our car, and low and behold - it's a double TGV (i.e. there's another engine in the middle), so there was no where to go after car 10. What's even worse is that usually the double TGV split up after a certain time and head in different directions. Thank God the whole train was heading to Angers or we would have been a bit screwed. Thankfully there were some seats in car 10 and we got back to Angers without any serious problems.
So, I also made a day trip to Chenenceaux yesturday (a big chateau de la Loire), and it turned out to be quite an interesting day, so I thought I'd also share what happened there.
CHENONCEAUX (I haven't loaded the pictures, though - sorry! Will come later)
I had gone out the night before to a little cuban café where the offer free initiation Salsa lessons, but got back to the house at a decent hour (around midnight) so I could wake up for the train at 7:43 this morning. I think it's because I've started leaving my window open because it's a bit hot in my room otherwise (i.e. it's a bit noisy outside), but I didn't sleep well at all. It was one of those distracted sleeps where you wake up and don't really feel satisfied at all. All night long I had these worried dreams about missing the train, things going wrong the next day, etc. I have no idea why and wouldn't have thought anything more of it if, after snoozing my alarm at 6:30pm, I hadn't woken up an HOUR later - 7:30. CRAP. There was no way in God's green earth that I could make the train when it takes ATLEAST fifteen minutes to get to the station by foot. Luckily, another friend had decided last night to come with us (and he actually woke up on time!), so my friend wasn't alone. After being sufficiently angry and letting out a sufficient number of expletives, I ate breakfast, got dressed, and headed to the train station to get information on the next train to chenonceaux. Luckily, I didn't have to buy a new train ticket, and to kill the time before the train at noon, I went on a walk by la Maine (river that cuts through Angers) up to the park du lac de Maine, which I hadn't seen yet. It was quite a nice walk, and I managed to look on my morning's failure with a pleasing amount of calmness and good humor. I succeeded in getting on the next train and got to Chenonceaux at 2:30pm, where I met up with Riikka and Adrien. When then went on the tour of the cheateau, which was quite beautiful. Chenonceaux, by the way, is called le chateau des Dames because there are five women associated with the chateau's history, most importantly Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henri II, and Catherine de Médicis, his wife. It was quite interesting, actually, there were signs of the relationship between Henri and Diane all over the castle (their initials, etc), there were two gardens, Diane's being the bigger and the prettier, etc. A very interestng dynamic - Diane was very close with Catherine as well. The most interesting thing about the castle is that, as it is situated directly above the Loire river, it ended up serving as a passageway between German-occupied France and free France. How crazy is that! After touring the castle, I was able to see all the surrounding gardens and even the little village of Chenenceaux without any time crunch at all. It turned out to be a very lovely day, and we even bought a bottle of wine (for 3 euro! And it was quite goood. They stopped producing, so they were trying to get rid of their stock before it went bad) in the small wine cave of Chenenceaux and a glass while we were killing time waiting for the train. Très French, as my host mother likes to say. Hahaha. While we were waiting for the train, a mother and daughter from Ecuador were having trouble purchasing tickets from the machine at the train stop, and a French women asked us if we could help. The mother asked if we spoke English or Spanish, and since she couldn't get her card to work on the machine, I agreed to help her purchase her tickets once we got on the train. It was quite cool, actually, being an impromptu interpreter, and the ticket controller was quite nice (and grateful for the translation help). She got her tickets without problem and then we had an hour and a half before our next train (from St. Pierre des Corps to Angers - I have lost so much time at St. Pierre des Corps - four different hour long waits. We explored it and discovered there wasn't much there. lol), we made sure she found her connection ok (and the ticket controller from the train saw us all looking at the screens and came over to make sure we had found the right connection. It was over all very lovely, and I was quite proud that I was able to help (even if one time I turned to the mother and said the exact same thing the controller said...in French. Once I realized I had continued to speak French, I shook my head a bit and switched over. lol)
I can't believe my time here is wrapping up. I don't know what to feel - I am ready to see family and friends and home, but I love being here so much. Now that classes are over, I have a lot mroe free time (we have exams for the rest of the month, and since I only have four exams, I have a lot of free time. I do, however, need to study. ^_^) The weather is finally beautiful and I am just going to make the best of the time left as best I can. Savor every lovely moment.
PARIS
Day 1: Friday, May 2nd
We (Maggi, Di, Maija, and I) left at around 9am by train and got to Paris by 10:30. After stopping by the hostel (which wasn't quite as sketchy as I was anticipating, which is always good. For a hostel it really wasn't bad), we headed up to Sacre Coeur. The basilica was quite beautiful, but I think what impressed my straight off was the number of people that were there! This is the first real visit I've made at the beginning of high tourist season, so it was a bit of a shock at first...not that there's really a low season in Paris, but still. After Sacre Coeur and the artist's market (where there are a ton of artists that either do portraits or have a display of their work up. It was quite interesting to see), we headed down to the Eiffel Tower...the long way. We started off walking along the Blvd de Clichey (where the Moulin Rouge and many similar establishments are located), then diagonaled down to les Champs Elysées up to l'Arc de Triomphe. I was very disappointed to find a McDonald's on the Champs Elysées - that should NOT be allowed. Ah well. Who am I to stop the awesome power of American entrepreneurship? lol Anyways, after l'Arc de Triomphe we headed down to Place de la Concorde (where the Louvre is located) and the crossed over to the Eiffel Tower! After taking a wee break on the lawn in front of the tower, we headed down to get in line, which was incredibly confusing. With the help of a nice French guy, we figured out where we need to be (it was quite nice actually - I asked him to make sure we were in the right line, and then they ended up changing lines, but he came back to make sure he had given me the right information/ to tell us something he figured out). Since we took the stairs instead of the elevator (yup, you heard right!) the line only took about an hour...the other could have taken more than two hours and was four times as expensive! I actually prefer taking the stairs; I think you appreciate reaching each level a bit more after having physically exerted yourself a bit. After the second level, you can buy tickets to take the elevator up to the top, but there was a huge line and it was already 6pm, so we decided to content ourself with the already incredible view we had and walked back down. We headed back towards the direction of the Louvre, rested in the garden for a bit and then found a Chinese restaurant for diner (not to expensive and close to where we were...it was pretty good, actually, even if it wasn't French cuisine). We then headed back to the hostel and rested up for Versailles tomorrow!
Day 2: Saturday, May 3rd
We hit the road decently early and with transport we got to Versailles around 10:30am. Before getting in line we grabbed sandwiches at a vendor in front of the castle. The guy selling the sandwiches has to deal with a lot of tourists, which is why he seemed quite please when I ordered and spoke with him in French - "Oh! Vous parlez francais - c'est très bien!" I bought my sandwich and tried to get all my affairs together, but there was one small problem - I didn't realize that the plastic bag for the sandwich wasn't sealed on both sides and in my clumsiness I dropped my sandwich on the ground. The whole line around me let out a sympathetic groan (I kid you not), and while it was only the beginning of the sandwich that had actually touched the dirt, the vendor gave me another sandwich anyway! So very nice for the stupid blond with the sandwich problems. After that minor incident we settled in line for a lovely two hour wait. While it was not lovely to wait, it was an incredibly organized line - everyone was calm, hardly anyone tried to cut the line (there was enough people watching to make sure they didn't), so the two hours passed very well. Versailles itself is really impressive; I can't help appreciate le Roi du Soleil and how intelligent and egotistical he must have been. The chateau was beautiful, albeit almost too ornate. The king's chambers were practically covered in gold! I kid you not. And the gardens were fantastic. After touring the chateau we headed down to Grand Trianon (quite slowly - stopping to eat some ice cream, appreciate the gardens, etc) - the king's private residence, which was remarquable less ornate while still being qutie elegant and beautiful. Petit Trianon and la Domaine de Marie Antoinette was the most interesting and the biggest contrast. The gardens were much more wild, much more natural, and I could not believe the little village she had built so she could pretend she was in the countryside with her children. It was quite pretty and the idea a bit absurd - what a play ground! We stayed at Versailles until around 7pm, when we headed back to Paris and the Latin Quarter for dinner at a restaurant that was, unfortunately, expensive and not very good. I was a bit dissapointed, but how could we have known? The ambiance was very nice and alluring. After that we walked around a bit and then headed back to the hostel to shower and sleep.
Day 3: Sunday, May 4th
Woke up day and hustled and bustled over to Notre Dame for mass at 8:30am, which was a bit surreal in some ways. Paris has been a dream of mine for so long, and here I was, in Notre Dame for mass. It was incredible, and what was even stranger is that I met someone from UD there who is also studying abroad, but in Florence. What are the odds??? After mass I explored the church a bit and then waited for a couple friends, who arranged to meet me a bit later. They looked around the cathedral while I grabbed some breakfast and a sandwich for later at a boulangerie in the Latin quarter that we discovered last night. After that, I met them back at Notre Dame and a random guy asked me (in English) if I wanted to buy some cheapo souvenir, I responded in French, and then was so distracted for some reason that I turned around to my friend and started talking to her in English. It took me a second to realize I had done it, which was incredibly strange - I don't even know what my body is doing, apparently, but we were all having language-switching problems that weekend; Maija tried to speak to us in finnish several times, this same friend spoke to me once in English after we had talked with an American we met in Versailles (and she had left - i.e. we could speak French again. She thought she was speaking French. lol) We then made a beeline for the Louvre, which was free and while I would have thought we'd be in line for AGES it literally took less than ten minutes to get inside. I was so suprised! We stayed in the Louvre for about four hours and had only really made a dent in all the things there are to see, but we saw what was most important - the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, etc. The large room of Italian Renaissance paintings was incredible. After so many years of studying all of these artists, I don't think I could really understand being there and seeing them in person. I was so taken with all the artwork that I managed to lose my friends for a good half an hour. I was about ready to give up when we finally found each other again - whew. We left the Louvre at around 4pm and did a bit of shopping before the girls bought themselves some sandwiches and we spent some time just relaxing next to la Seine. Plenty of time before our train left. After seeing the garden behind Notre Dame we headed back to the metro, and it took a bit longer than anticipated, because all of a sudden I realized we were definitely running late. Oh crap. I was so stressed that I went into the wrong direction of our line of the metro, but I went up and asked the man at the ticket station, and he let us into the right side without having to buy another ticket. As soon as we got to Montparnasse we set off running, because, of course, the metro stop was a bit away from the train station. I was huffing and puffing and dying inside, but we got to the train with three minutes to spare, and our poor tired feet were not at all amused. AND there were, of course, technical problems so the train left ten minutes later than planned. Of course. We had entered at the beginning of the train to be sure it didn't leave without us, but our designated car was a bit later - 15. After Maija bought a drink and the train started moving, we started heading to our car, and low and behold - it's a double TGV (i.e. there's another engine in the middle), so there was no where to go after car 10. What's even worse is that usually the double TGV split up after a certain time and head in different directions. Thank God the whole train was heading to Angers or we would have been a bit screwed. Thankfully there were some seats in car 10 and we got back to Angers without any serious problems.
So, I also made a day trip to Chenenceaux yesturday (a big chateau de la Loire), and it turned out to be quite an interesting day, so I thought I'd also share what happened there.
CHENONCEAUX (I haven't loaded the pictures, though - sorry! Will come later)
I had gone out the night before to a little cuban café where the offer free initiation Salsa lessons, but got back to the house at a decent hour (around midnight) so I could wake up for the train at 7:43 this morning. I think it's because I've started leaving my window open because it's a bit hot in my room otherwise (i.e. it's a bit noisy outside), but I didn't sleep well at all. It was one of those distracted sleeps where you wake up and don't really feel satisfied at all. All night long I had these worried dreams about missing the train, things going wrong the next day, etc. I have no idea why and wouldn't have thought anything more of it if, after snoozing my alarm at 6:30pm, I hadn't woken up an HOUR later - 7:30. CRAP. There was no way in God's green earth that I could make the train when it takes ATLEAST fifteen minutes to get to the station by foot. Luckily, another friend had decided last night to come with us (and he actually woke up on time!), so my friend wasn't alone. After being sufficiently angry and letting out a sufficient number of expletives, I ate breakfast, got dressed, and headed to the train station to get information on the next train to chenonceaux. Luckily, I didn't have to buy a new train ticket, and to kill the time before the train at noon, I went on a walk by la Maine (river that cuts through Angers) up to the park du lac de Maine, which I hadn't seen yet. It was quite a nice walk, and I managed to look on my morning's failure with a pleasing amount of calmness and good humor. I succeeded in getting on the next train and got to Chenonceaux at 2:30pm, where I met up with Riikka and Adrien. When then went on the tour of the cheateau, which was quite beautiful. Chenonceaux, by the way, is called le chateau des Dames because there are five women associated with the chateau's history, most importantly Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henri II, and Catherine de Médicis, his wife. It was quite interesting, actually, there were signs of the relationship between Henri and Diane all over the castle (their initials, etc), there were two gardens, Diane's being the bigger and the prettier, etc. A very interestng dynamic - Diane was very close with Catherine as well. The most interesting thing about the castle is that, as it is situated directly above the Loire river, it ended up serving as a passageway between German-occupied France and free France. How crazy is that! After touring the castle, I was able to see all the surrounding gardens and even the little village of Chenenceaux without any time crunch at all. It turned out to be a very lovely day, and we even bought a bottle of wine (for 3 euro! And it was quite goood. They stopped producing, so they were trying to get rid of their stock before it went bad) in the small wine cave of Chenenceaux and a glass while we were killing time waiting for the train. Très French, as my host mother likes to say. Hahaha. While we were waiting for the train, a mother and daughter from Ecuador were having trouble purchasing tickets from the machine at the train stop, and a French women asked us if we could help. The mother asked if we spoke English or Spanish, and since she couldn't get her card to work on the machine, I agreed to help her purchase her tickets once we got on the train. It was quite cool, actually, being an impromptu interpreter, and the ticket controller was quite nice (and grateful for the translation help). She got her tickets without problem and then we had an hour and a half before our next train (from St. Pierre des Corps to Angers - I have lost so much time at St. Pierre des Corps - four different hour long waits. We explored it and discovered there wasn't much there. lol), we made sure she found her connection ok (and the ticket controller from the train saw us all looking at the screens and came over to make sure we had found the right connection. It was over all very lovely, and I was quite proud that I was able to help (even if one time I turned to the mother and said the exact same thing the controller said...in French. Once I realized I had continued to speak French, I shook my head a bit and switched over. lol)
I can't believe my time here is wrapping up. I don't know what to feel - I am ready to see family and friends and home, but I love being here so much. Now that classes are over, I have a lot mroe free time (we have exams for the rest of the month, and since I only have four exams, I have a lot of free time. I do, however, need to study. ^_^) The weather is finally beautiful and I am just going to make the best of the time left as best I can. Savor every lovely moment.
mardi 22 avril 2008
I may not be a novelist...
but you may think so after another monster post like this! lol Ok. Here's what happened on my second long week of vacationing :)
Note: when I say we, I mean me and another american exchange student, Samantha, that came with me. I'm not using the royal we yet.
LONDON
Day 1 : friday, april 11th
Nothing too big happened today, besides having to get up at 7am for a German Grammar class at 8am. I wasn't too happy about that, especially after being out a little late last night (there was a showing of Princess Mononoke at the theater with a discussion afterwards! I couldn't pass it up!). I did not, however, go back to sleep after my class but kept prepping for break. We took the train to Nantes at 2:30, arrived at around 3, took the bus to the airport and our flight was at 5:45. The flight went fine (we even arrived a bit early), but what was completely suprising was the security at the airport! I guess I should have known better - we were going into the UK, after all, and they have kept the most independance while still being a member of the EU. It was just funny after there being really no extraordinary security at all when I went from Germany to France before. Anyhoo, the airport was a bit of a ways from the airport, and by the time we queued to get pounds, to get tickets to the city, etc. it was already around 8pm. The hostel was quite nice, and once we got checked in and settled in, we finally got some dinner (nothing special - I got Subway. lol At 10pm you're not too picky.) Since it ended up being quite late, we just chilled at the hostel and went to bed at a decent hour so we could get up early and spend all day in London tomorrow!
Day 2: saturday, april 12th
So, our hostel is about two or three tube stops from the heart of London, so we hadn't actually seen London the night before. We bought a day pass to all the public transport and then took the tube to the Buckingham Palace stop. To get to Buckingham Palace we crossed through Green Park and St. James Park, and the got to see the Palace, the guards, etc. After seeing the palace we took a tour of Westminster Abbey, which was one of my favourite things we did. This place was practically oozing history and significance...I don't even know where to begin! The monarch is always crowned at Westminster, and the coronation chair is there (although the stone in the base of the chair is temporarily back in Scotland. They did steal it, afterall), and so many famous people are buried there! For starters, Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stewart (a bit ironice that their final resting places were so close together), and then there were people like Chaucer, Dickens, Darwin, Lord Byron, etc etc etc. It was just overall really awesome. We then walked down to Big Ben and Parliament, which was incredible. This is the first city I've visited that I've really seen a lot of on TV before going there, and when I saw Big Ben, the enormity of where I was/ what I was doing finally hit me. We then found a little café nearby to grab lunch. A very stressful little Italian café. I would never go back there again - the food was a bit expensive and you had no time to relax...I felt like I was having a cornea just by watching everyone bustle around. Luckily, we later found restaurants that were a lot more agreable. Ah well. After lunch we visited Trafalgar Square and Piccadily's Circus (which really was a bit of a circus...after our stressful lunch it was a bit much for me!) on the way to the British Museum, which was awesome. I wish we had had more time to visit, but it closed at 5:30! We were, however, able to see the Rosetta Stone and the entire Egypt exhibit, which was quite interesting. After the museum (and a bit of shopping ^_^) we headed down to the London Eye to catch a flight (they call them flights...I thought that was funny), which was a very nice and relaxing way to unwind. A bit expensive, but definitely worth doing once. For dinner we headed back near Piccadily's Circus into London's Chinatown for some yummy Vietnamese Food (and we tried some Vietnamese Beer, which was actually quite good!). After dinner, we wandered a bit in the surrounding area and then headed back to the hostel for the night.
Day 3: sunday, april 13th
Woke up rather early this morning so I could catch mass at Westminster Cathedral at 9:00...we just made it in time after switching underground lines a time or so to get as close as possible before having to walk. The Cathedral was incredible, but it was a bit sad to see such an amazing cathedral so empty and obviously suffering from financial burdens (There was a bit sign outside - Westminster Cathedral needs your help!) After the mass we headed directly back to Buckingham Palace to get a good place at the gate for the changing of the guard (there wasn't one yesturday)...and we waited for an hour and a half through the rain for nothing. Yup. No changing of the guard. It was interesting, however, to be surrounded by French kids on one side, some German teens on the other, and an older German couple behind us. When it was just after 11:30 and everyone was wondering what was going on, the German wife remarked to the husband that this was not, afterall, German punctuality. lol I thought that was funny. So, we left a bit disspointed but determined to still make the most of our day. We headed to Hyde Park, where we relaxed and ate some sandwiches we got from a vendor in the Park itself. Hyde Park was quite beautiful - I would love to be able to come and chill in the park whenever I want! After a leisurely lunch we headed down to the Southwark region of London and discovered the Southwark Cathedral, which is apparently another history-filled church. After exploring it for a little bit, we headed down to Shakespeare's Globe for a tour. When I say Shakespeare's Globe, I mean the recent reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe (with as much attention to historical accuracy as possible). It was quite interesting to tour and had it been a week later, we could have bought tickets for 5 pounds and seen the play as "groundlings"(i.e. standing in front of the stage). Another day, I'm afraid. After the Globe, we walked across Tower Bridge and walked around the Tower of London (old royal castle/ famous prison - Henry VIII dumped several of his wives there) - it was to late to tour, unfortunately. At this point we were definitely tired and hungry, so we headed back across the Thames to a Fish and Chips place we had seen and enjoyed it with a pint of British Ale (mine was called Timothy Lord Taylor, which I thought was cool). After dinner we visited Baker Street (known because of Sherlock Holmes) and saw Big Ben and Parliament one last time (it was gorgeous by night!) before heading to bed.
BELFAST
Day 1: monday, april 14th
Our flight was at noon, but we still ended up getting up early to take the shuttle, make it through security, etc. We got int Belfast a little later than planned (about thirty minutes), and found the hostel with the help of a professor from Queen's that we met on the plane, which was very nice. What wasn't nice, however, was having to walk back to the bus station right after we got to the hostel so we could withdraw money (they didn't take credit cards >_<), but we picked up some sandwiches on the way back and after having paid for the rooms and put down our stuff, we headed down to Queen's University to eat lunch in their grass. (It was a beautiful day outside - I left my jacket in the hostel!) After lunch we explored campus a little bit and then walked through the Botanical Gardens, which were gorgeous. There were so many people lounging around the park - I loved it! After a good bit of time in the parc and its greenhouses, I grabbed my jacket and we headed downtown to see the city center, where we saw a lot of cathedral quarter (a lot of older buildings, most of which have been converted to shopping centers, different schools, etc...along with City Hall and the Belfast wheel, the Custom House, etc) and the docks. At that point we were hungry and a bit tired of searching for places to eat without any reccomendations...low and behold - Burger King. Yup, we ate there. And before you get to dissapointed in me, I want you to know it's the FIRST time I've had fast food since I've been in Europe, and it's interesting to do it atleast once to see how it compares. It was basically exactly the same, but the burgers were smaller. We headed back to the hostel after dinner and talked with some hostelmates for a while - two guys from Canada that had both quit their jobs to go and explore Europe for a couple months, clear their heads, etc. It was a really nice chat and we ended up going to bed a bit late.
Day 2: tuesday, april 15th
We started off the day trying to buy our tickets to Dublin, but when we figured out we had to buy them the day of, we wandered around the city center until 11am, when we met up with four other girls from our hostel to go on a black taxi tour (it's cheaper with a group of three or more, and we were three groups of two - two other american girls and two canadian girls), which was incredible. If you ever go to Belfast, you have to do the tour. My only regret is I wished we would have talked about the IRA side of things a bit more (a lot of it was focused on the Ulster side of things...we saw a lot of Ulster murales) - seeing both sides evenly is a lot more interesting and enriching. This is not to say that it wasn't really interesting, because it was, and we got to see a lot of different areas linked to the conflict, as well as some general areas of interest (the docks where the built the Titanic, etc). After the tour, all six of us ate at the Crown Bar, which has a bit of a funny history: the wife was protestant and the husband was catholic, and they couldn't agree on the name of the bar. The wife wanted to name it the crown, but that was too royalistic for the husband. Naturally, the wife won out in the end, but as a final nudge, the husband had the name of the bar written on the floor at the entrance, so as you walk in and out you step on the Crown! lol I had some loverly Irish stew :) After lunch, we didn't know what else to do - we had seen a good deal of the city center already, and everything else of interest was a bit of a ways outside of Belfast (I would have LOVED to see the Giant's Causeway, but that is a day trip, and we only had a day and a half >_<), so we wandered around city center for a bit and then headed back to the Botannical Gardens to people watch, read, and relax. I was feeling abit funny (starting to get sick), so it was the perfect way to pass the afternoon. Afterwards, we headed back to the hostel for a bit, surfed the internet, and then got some sandwiches from a nearby grocery store (since we had a nice lunch and the aim of the game is to be a bit cheap when it comes to food!) We talked with some of the people from the hostel for a while - the two canadian guys and the two canadian girls, as well as another American girl we met a bit later, and I met a friend of Riikka's! Riikka had mentioned that her friend was studying abroad in Cork this semester, and I completely forgot...then she happened to be vacationing in Belfast at the same hostel as we were! Such a small world! We talked for a bit and then we and the guys headed to a bar next to the Crown (Fibber Magees) for some traditional Irish music. A very nice night.
DUBLIN
Day 1: wednesday, april 16th
Even though we woke up a bit late and got ready very slowly, we still managed to buy tickets and catch the 10am bus to Dublin at the last minute! (and it was so cheap - 15 euro!) We arrived in Dublin around 1:30 and found our hostel super easily (it is right next to the train station). I was quite impressed, actually - it was so streamlined and nice, although a bit stingier than the other. The only annoying thing was we had to wait until three to put our bags in the room or pay two euro for a deposit box. We decided to lug our bags to a nearby café and have a leisurely lunch, change my pounds to euros in a nearby bank (it seems weird to be relieved to be in Euros again...they're not much better than the pound anymore), and then we dropped our junk into our room. After that we headed straight to the Jameson's Distillery (Irish whiskey) for a tour before it closed. It was quite interesting, and I discouvered that whiskey is actually quite tasty. After the tour we set out to explore the city: we saw Christ Church Cathedral, the venue where they played Handel's Messiah for the first time, St Pat's Cathedral (which was also not Catholic, to my suprise! As I would learn the next day, the strong Anglican presence in Dublin is a reflection of the time when the Normands controlled Dublin. Under British control it was also the most controlled city, and Trinity College was established as a means to hopfully convert the Irish nobility to Protestantism), St. Pat's Garden, Dublin Castle (outside of it and the connected gardens), etc. We then headed down to Temple Bar for dinner and were quite suprised to find out how expensive Temple Bar actually is! We sucked it up, however, and had a nice dinner at a restaurant there - I had traditional Leak and Potato Soup with Irish Bailey's Cheesecake for dessert :) Mmmm. Another thing I discovered about Temple Bar - a lot of bars have a restriction of 21 years or older...and even 23 years or older, even though the legal drinking age is 18. It must be a way to crowd control/ keep young idiots out. There was one bar, Gogarty's, that Kelly and Christin reccomended and that had free Irish music, and I couldn't believe that it was just for 21 and over, so I just walked straight in. Then, Sam got carded (and she, luckily, is 21! lol) So we got into the bar fine (by accident), but the drinks were really expensive, and I felt a little funny about being there, so we stayed for about 20 minutes, listened to the music, and left. We then heard a pretty awesome street band, wandered around Temple Bar a bit more, and then found our way back to the hostel...eventually. (We got a little lost, but nothing too serious.)
Day 2: thursday, april 17th
Woke up today and discovered, oh joy, I'm losing my voice. Atleast I'm in an english speaking country! lol So, we headed over to Trinity College at around 10am to see the Book of Kells before a walking tour at 11am, and then saw there was an admission fee. Of course. Not wanting to be rushed when were spending money to go, we decided to wait to see it and simply explored the campus and the gift shop until 11. The Historical walking tour was amazing - the whole of Irish history in two hours! I really learned so much. The only downside was that it was practically winter outside and we spent much of that time outdoors, huddled together - not the best thing when I'm sick, but it was definitely worth it. After the tour, we beelined for a bagel shop and got a nice big bowl of soup and a bagel. I felt much better after that (and after repeatedly blowing my nose. Not that you wanted to know that part). After lunch we headed over to the Guinness Storehouse, and while this tour was not guided, it was so organized that it wasn't that big of a deal. I would still say I prefered the Jameson tour to the Guiness one, but it was really interesting to go one both, and I had my first pint of Guinness on the top of the storehouse in this bar with a 360 degree view of Dublin. Sweet. And the Guinness was quite yummy, although definitely not a beer I could drink everyday (quite heavy and strong). After the storehouse we went to see St. Stephen's Green, which was very beautiful, and then headed back to the hostel to recharge a bit (nap for Sam, internet for me). After about a half an hour we found this little pizza shop near the hostel that had some really good pizza, so we enjoyed a low key dinner before leaving to find the Arlington Hotel for some free Irish music and dancing and a drink. Interesting story - the Arlington Hotel restaurant is a bit like Chaffin's Barn (i.e. dinner and a show - the music and dancing), and the bouncer was being a bit of a jerk, telling everyone you had to have reservations. That make sense for dinner, but there was also a bar. Luckily, a couple of hostel mates we had met earlier in the day (a canadian couple - again! So many canadians!) showed up just as we were about to leave, told the bartender someone in the restaurant had told her you could enter and order a drink and enjoy the show without any problem. So, he gruffly asked, "How many in your group?"She had seen us standing to the side, and gestured us over, and then he asked for our IDs. I finally went up and told him I wasn't 21, he asked how old I was, looked at my ID, and asked, "How do you say your name?" I pronounced Tuzeneu, and he said "huh. like Scooby Doo. Go on in." lol So I went into the bar and finally got my pint of Irish cider (Bulmer's). mmm. Funny addition to the story - Sam got carded again at the bar, and I got my drink without any problem. Don't know how I managed that! So, we basically chilled in the bar (we had to stand up because all the tables were for dinner guests) until the show was over. It was some splendiferous Irish music and dance :)
GALWAY
Day 1: friday, april 18th
So, I slept like a log last night, minus the part where one person was snoring in such a way that I thought they might drown. It was a bit gross and scary, but I eventually fell back asleep. lol I then woke up and caught the bus to Galway at 10am (Sam stayed in Dublin until that evening and then left for Glasgow, Scotland. I would have loved to see Scotland, but I wanted to see some more of Ireland first.) I got into Glasgow at around 1:30 and found my hostel with a map and streets with no clearly marked road names. I was quite proud, although it wasn't too terribly complicated. I grabbed a sandwich from a Spar (Kelly and Christin were right - those sandwiches are great!) and ate lunch by the river side. Galway is so pretty, and I love that people still speak Irish there (Irish people call Gaelic "Irish;" when in Rome...^_^) and that Irish and English (or sometimes just Irish) are written on signs, etc. I basically spent the afternoon wandering around the city, which is beautiful but definitely smaller without much touristy things to do. It would be a fabulous place to spend an extended period of time, but with a couple days when you're all alone, you're not quite sure what to do with yourself. I saw st. Nicholas'Cathderal, a Spanish Arc from the 1500s, Lynch's Castle, which is now a bank, and went in lots of cute little shops. was feeling a bit tired, so I recharged a bit at the hostel and met a couple american girls who were very nice and friendly. After a bit, I walked allong Claddagh Quay and saw a whole bunch of swans - I was so suprised, but it was definitely beautiful. I then went to a fish and chip place in town that apparently has a pretty big reputation (John Locke ate there, so it must be important. And a Sinn Fein party member, as I would learn later.) and I met a Californian couple there that was currently working in Dublin (the set up was such that you just sat where you could find a seat, it was packed, so I sat next to this couple and their dad). After dinner, they invited me to come check out a couple bars with them and I happily agreed. We started off in one bar noted for it's old-world character/feel and then settled into another bar with some traditional music (I have to profit while I'm in Ireland! I can't get enough of Irish Music!!!) They were both so nice and funny, and I had a really nice time. I also met thre American students studying for a semester in Galway at that second bar and talked with them for a while before heading back for the night.
Day 2: saturday, april 19th
Today I went on the tour of the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher - it was incredible! The Burren is a really interesting region; originally very rocky, but fertile (it's largely made of limestone, which absorbs water), and FULL of random remains of ancient tombs, churches, protective tree circles, etc. I couldn't believe it. One day, I am going to come back to Ireland and just trapse around the Burren for a couple weeks to see all the treasures it has to offer. I decided that if I haven't gone back by the time I'm forty, I'm going to drop everything and go. I'm pretty sure I'll be back before then, though :) The cliffs were AMAZING. I wish I could have spent more time there (we only had an hour), but it was enough to see them, appreciate them, and be satisfied. It was quite funny, though; after a certain point there was a big sign that said "Private Property: do not cross beyond this point, etc etc"and then you see TONS of people past the sign. Needless to say, I went. What was nice about this part of the cliffs is that there were no annoying stone walls, so you could stand right on the edge of the cliffs, really see and appreciate them. While on the tour, I met a couple of French students and one German student who were taking an English class in Dublin and hung out with them during the tour. It was nice to talk a bit of French again (although I tried to speak English most of the time until they started to speak to me in French. They are, after all, in Ireland to practice English, and I wouldn't have liked it if someone kept me from practicing French in France!) I was so shocked, though - the French students said something like I was almost bilingual! They were being kind and hadn't heard me speak loads of French yet, but it was a major confidence booster. This semester really has paid off (but I still flub up lots - no worries!) I got back to Galway around 5pm and went to mass at the cathedral at 6pm...there was a choir from New York visiting and they sung lots of songs I new, which was a nice reminder of home. After mass, I grabbed something simple for dinner and ate at Claddagh Quay (where there are all the swans) and then headed back to the hostel and read until around 9:30, when I went out with the two American girls I had met. We went to one quite famous bar and then headed to a rather popular bar for younger Irish, which was a very different experience from last night. In the middle of our adventures, we met up with six Irish boys from Belfast from our hostel. It was so interesting and fun getting to know them, talking to them, etc. I had a blast and stayed out rather late :) It is vacation, after all!
DUBLIN - Part Two
Day 1: sunday, april 20th
I was a bit bummed - I didn't think to give my e-mail to any of the girls/guys I met last night (a couple of the boys were really interested in Nashville - it would have been cool to show them around if they every visited!), but I woke up early and was quite tired. Ah well. That's what's so interesting about backpacking - you meet so many amazing people, but in all actuality you may never see them again. A bit sad, but definitely worth it. A different way of looking at life. Anyhoo, I headed back to Dublin today (have a flight from Dublin to Nantes tomorrow morning), checked into the same hostel, and went to see the Book of Kells, which was quite interesting to see! I then did quite a bit of wandering to see what big things I still hadn't seen: Irish Independance Memorial Garden, Pro Cathedral (yes, there is a Catholic Cathedral in Dublin! Although it's modern, small, and a bit hidden. The inside was gorgeous, though, and a couple of students were singing and playing music while I was circulating through the cathedral - they were getting ready for the 6pm student mass, which would have been awesome had I not already gone yesturday), and the Four Courts (i.e. Parliament). At this point, my legs were getting really tired, and I was just tired in general after last night, so I got another slice of pizza from that yummy pizza place Sam and I had found, took a really nice shower at the hostel, wrote a little bit, and passed out at 10pm. lol
Day 2: monday, april 21st
Basically, I woke up todayat around 8am and caught the shuttle to the airport at 9. My flight was technically at 11am, but it was a bit delayed, so I got in ten minutes too late to catch the 2pm shuttle to Nantes' city center >_< I was not amused, but I had no choice but to wait an hour for the next shuttle (luckily, I bought a sandwich in Dublin before I left). I caught the four o'clock train back to Angers and got home at around 4:45. It's a bit strange - Joselyne is on vacation this week, so I'm on my own until she comes back! (And who knows when that will be exactly - she's not a planner. lol) I was glad to be alone last night, though - I had time to arrange all of my stuff, etc. So, I had a wonderful week of break. I can't believe it's already almost the end of April! This semester is passing by so quickly...and I would be done in a week if I were at UD! eep! Good luck to everyone on finals, by the way!!! And thanks for being so patient as to read up until this point on my blog - you all get major brownie points!!! :)
Captions: in a phone booth by Big Ben...pretending to call someone for the sake of a picture. lol; with Sam and the four other girls on our Black Taxi Tour - we're by the Peace Wall, on which we all got to write a short message; the Irish band at the Arlington Hotel; the Cliffs!! Don't think you needed a caption for that one.
Note: when I say we, I mean me and another american exchange student, Samantha, that came with me. I'm not using the royal we yet.
LONDON
Day 1 : friday, april 11th
Nothing too big happened today, besides having to get up at 7am for a German Grammar class at 8am. I wasn't too happy about that, especially after being out a little late last night (there was a showing of Princess Mononoke at the theater with a discussion afterwards! I couldn't pass it up!). I did not, however, go back to sleep after my class but kept prepping for break. We took the train to Nantes at 2:30, arrived at around 3, took the bus to the airport and our flight was at 5:45. The flight went fine (we even arrived a bit early), but what was completely suprising was the security at the airport! I guess I should have known better - we were going into the UK, after all, and they have kept the most independance while still being a member of the EU. It was just funny after there being really no extraordinary security at all when I went from Germany to France before. Anyhoo, the airport was a bit of a ways from the airport, and by the time we queued to get pounds, to get tickets to the city, etc. it was already around 8pm. The hostel was quite nice, and once we got checked in and settled in, we finally got some dinner (nothing special - I got Subway. lol At 10pm you're not too picky.) Since it ended up being quite late, we just chilled at the hostel and went to bed at a decent hour so we could get up early and spend all day in London tomorrow!
Day 2: saturday, april 12th
So, our hostel is about two or three tube stops from the heart of London, so we hadn't actually seen London the night before. We bought a day pass to all the public transport and then took the tube to the Buckingham Palace stop. To get to Buckingham Palace we crossed through Green Park and St. James Park, and the got to see the Palace, the guards, etc. After seeing the palace we took a tour of Westminster Abbey, which was one of my favourite things we did. This place was practically oozing history and significance...I don't even know where to begin! The monarch is always crowned at Westminster, and the coronation chair is there (although the stone in the base of the chair is temporarily back in Scotland. They did steal it, afterall), and so many famous people are buried there! For starters, Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stewart (a bit ironice that their final resting places were so close together), and then there were people like Chaucer, Dickens, Darwin, Lord Byron, etc etc etc. It was just overall really awesome. We then walked down to Big Ben and Parliament, which was incredible. This is the first city I've visited that I've really seen a lot of on TV before going there, and when I saw Big Ben, the enormity of where I was/ what I was doing finally hit me. We then found a little café nearby to grab lunch. A very stressful little Italian café. I would never go back there again - the food was a bit expensive and you had no time to relax...I felt like I was having a cornea just by watching everyone bustle around. Luckily, we later found restaurants that were a lot more agreable. Ah well. After lunch we visited Trafalgar Square and Piccadily's Circus (which really was a bit of a circus...after our stressful lunch it was a bit much for me!) on the way to the British Museum, which was awesome. I wish we had had more time to visit, but it closed at 5:30! We were, however, able to see the Rosetta Stone and the entire Egypt exhibit, which was quite interesting. After the museum (and a bit of shopping ^_^) we headed down to the London Eye to catch a flight (they call them flights...I thought that was funny), which was a very nice and relaxing way to unwind. A bit expensive, but definitely worth doing once. For dinner we headed back near Piccadily's Circus into London's Chinatown for some yummy Vietnamese Food (and we tried some Vietnamese Beer, which was actually quite good!). After dinner, we wandered a bit in the surrounding area and then headed back to the hostel for the night.
Day 3: sunday, april 13th
Woke up rather early this morning so I could catch mass at Westminster Cathedral at 9:00...we just made it in time after switching underground lines a time or so to get as close as possible before having to walk. The Cathedral was incredible, but it was a bit sad to see such an amazing cathedral so empty and obviously suffering from financial burdens (There was a bit sign outside - Westminster Cathedral needs your help!) After the mass we headed directly back to Buckingham Palace to get a good place at the gate for the changing of the guard (there wasn't one yesturday)...and we waited for an hour and a half through the rain for nothing. Yup. No changing of the guard. It was interesting, however, to be surrounded by French kids on one side, some German teens on the other, and an older German couple behind us. When it was just after 11:30 and everyone was wondering what was going on, the German wife remarked to the husband that this was not, afterall, German punctuality. lol I thought that was funny. So, we left a bit disspointed but determined to still make the most of our day. We headed to Hyde Park, where we relaxed and ate some sandwiches we got from a vendor in the Park itself. Hyde Park was quite beautiful - I would love to be able to come and chill in the park whenever I want! After a leisurely lunch we headed down to the Southwark region of London and discovered the Southwark Cathedral, which is apparently another history-filled church. After exploring it for a little bit, we headed down to Shakespeare's Globe for a tour. When I say Shakespeare's Globe, I mean the recent reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe (with as much attention to historical accuracy as possible). It was quite interesting to tour and had it been a week later, we could have bought tickets for 5 pounds and seen the play as "groundlings"(i.e. standing in front of the stage). Another day, I'm afraid. After the Globe, we walked across Tower Bridge and walked around the Tower of London (old royal castle/ famous prison - Henry VIII dumped several of his wives there) - it was to late to tour, unfortunately. At this point we were definitely tired and hungry, so we headed back across the Thames to a Fish and Chips place we had seen and enjoyed it with a pint of British Ale (mine was called Timothy Lord Taylor, which I thought was cool). After dinner we visited Baker Street (known because of Sherlock Holmes) and saw Big Ben and Parliament one last time (it was gorgeous by night!) before heading to bed.
BELFAST
Day 1: monday, april 14th
Our flight was at noon, but we still ended up getting up early to take the shuttle, make it through security, etc. We got int Belfast a little later than planned (about thirty minutes), and found the hostel with the help of a professor from Queen's that we met on the plane, which was very nice. What wasn't nice, however, was having to walk back to the bus station right after we got to the hostel so we could withdraw money (they didn't take credit cards >_<), but we picked up some sandwiches on the way back and after having paid for the rooms and put down our stuff, we headed down to Queen's University to eat lunch in their grass. (It was a beautiful day outside - I left my jacket in the hostel!) After lunch we explored campus a little bit and then walked through the Botanical Gardens, which were gorgeous. There were so many people lounging around the park - I loved it! After a good bit of time in the parc and its greenhouses, I grabbed my jacket and we headed downtown to see the city center, where we saw a lot of cathedral quarter (a lot of older buildings, most of which have been converted to shopping centers, different schools, etc...along with City Hall and the Belfast wheel, the Custom House, etc) and the docks. At that point we were hungry and a bit tired of searching for places to eat without any reccomendations...low and behold - Burger King. Yup, we ate there. And before you get to dissapointed in me, I want you to know it's the FIRST time I've had fast food since I've been in Europe, and it's interesting to do it atleast once to see how it compares. It was basically exactly the same, but the burgers were smaller. We headed back to the hostel after dinner and talked with some hostelmates for a while - two guys from Canada that had both quit their jobs to go and explore Europe for a couple months, clear their heads, etc. It was a really nice chat and we ended up going to bed a bit late.
Day 2: tuesday, april 15th
We started off the day trying to buy our tickets to Dublin, but when we figured out we had to buy them the day of, we wandered around the city center until 11am, when we met up with four other girls from our hostel to go on a black taxi tour (it's cheaper with a group of three or more, and we were three groups of two - two other american girls and two canadian girls), which was incredible. If you ever go to Belfast, you have to do the tour. My only regret is I wished we would have talked about the IRA side of things a bit more (a lot of it was focused on the Ulster side of things...we saw a lot of Ulster murales) - seeing both sides evenly is a lot more interesting and enriching. This is not to say that it wasn't really interesting, because it was, and we got to see a lot of different areas linked to the conflict, as well as some general areas of interest (the docks where the built the Titanic, etc). After the tour, all six of us ate at the Crown Bar, which has a bit of a funny history: the wife was protestant and the husband was catholic, and they couldn't agree on the name of the bar. The wife wanted to name it the crown, but that was too royalistic for the husband. Naturally, the wife won out in the end, but as a final nudge, the husband had the name of the bar written on the floor at the entrance, so as you walk in and out you step on the Crown! lol I had some loverly Irish stew :) After lunch, we didn't know what else to do - we had seen a good deal of the city center already, and everything else of interest was a bit of a ways outside of Belfast (I would have LOVED to see the Giant's Causeway, but that is a day trip, and we only had a day and a half >_<), so we wandered around city center for a bit and then headed back to the Botannical Gardens to people watch, read, and relax. I was feeling abit funny (starting to get sick), so it was the perfect way to pass the afternoon. Afterwards, we headed back to the hostel for a bit, surfed the internet, and then got some sandwiches from a nearby grocery store (since we had a nice lunch and the aim of the game is to be a bit cheap when it comes to food!) We talked with some of the people from the hostel for a while - the two canadian guys and the two canadian girls, as well as another American girl we met a bit later, and I met a friend of Riikka's! Riikka had mentioned that her friend was studying abroad in Cork this semester, and I completely forgot...then she happened to be vacationing in Belfast at the same hostel as we were! Such a small world! We talked for a bit and then we and the guys headed to a bar next to the Crown (Fibber Magees) for some traditional Irish music. A very nice night.
DUBLIN
Day 1: wednesday, april 16th
Even though we woke up a bit late and got ready very slowly, we still managed to buy tickets and catch the 10am bus to Dublin at the last minute! (and it was so cheap - 15 euro!) We arrived in Dublin around 1:30 and found our hostel super easily (it is right next to the train station). I was quite impressed, actually - it was so streamlined and nice, although a bit stingier than the other. The only annoying thing was we had to wait until three to put our bags in the room or pay two euro for a deposit box. We decided to lug our bags to a nearby café and have a leisurely lunch, change my pounds to euros in a nearby bank (it seems weird to be relieved to be in Euros again...they're not much better than the pound anymore), and then we dropped our junk into our room. After that we headed straight to the Jameson's Distillery (Irish whiskey) for a tour before it closed. It was quite interesting, and I discouvered that whiskey is actually quite tasty. After the tour we set out to explore the city: we saw Christ Church Cathedral, the venue where they played Handel's Messiah for the first time, St Pat's Cathedral (which was also not Catholic, to my suprise! As I would learn the next day, the strong Anglican presence in Dublin is a reflection of the time when the Normands controlled Dublin. Under British control it was also the most controlled city, and Trinity College was established as a means to hopfully convert the Irish nobility to Protestantism), St. Pat's Garden, Dublin Castle (outside of it and the connected gardens), etc. We then headed down to Temple Bar for dinner and were quite suprised to find out how expensive Temple Bar actually is! We sucked it up, however, and had a nice dinner at a restaurant there - I had traditional Leak and Potato Soup with Irish Bailey's Cheesecake for dessert :) Mmmm. Another thing I discovered about Temple Bar - a lot of bars have a restriction of 21 years or older...and even 23 years or older, even though the legal drinking age is 18. It must be a way to crowd control/ keep young idiots out. There was one bar, Gogarty's, that Kelly and Christin reccomended and that had free Irish music, and I couldn't believe that it was just for 21 and over, so I just walked straight in. Then, Sam got carded (and she, luckily, is 21! lol) So we got into the bar fine (by accident), but the drinks were really expensive, and I felt a little funny about being there, so we stayed for about 20 minutes, listened to the music, and left. We then heard a pretty awesome street band, wandered around Temple Bar a bit more, and then found our way back to the hostel...eventually. (We got a little lost, but nothing too serious.)
Day 2: thursday, april 17th
Woke up today and discovered, oh joy, I'm losing my voice. Atleast I'm in an english speaking country! lol So, we headed over to Trinity College at around 10am to see the Book of Kells before a walking tour at 11am, and then saw there was an admission fee. Of course. Not wanting to be rushed when were spending money to go, we decided to wait to see it and simply explored the campus and the gift shop until 11. The Historical walking tour was amazing - the whole of Irish history in two hours! I really learned so much. The only downside was that it was practically winter outside and we spent much of that time outdoors, huddled together - not the best thing when I'm sick, but it was definitely worth it. After the tour, we beelined for a bagel shop and got a nice big bowl of soup and a bagel. I felt much better after that (and after repeatedly blowing my nose. Not that you wanted to know that part). After lunch we headed over to the Guinness Storehouse, and while this tour was not guided, it was so organized that it wasn't that big of a deal. I would still say I prefered the Jameson tour to the Guiness one, but it was really interesting to go one both, and I had my first pint of Guinness on the top of the storehouse in this bar with a 360 degree view of Dublin. Sweet. And the Guinness was quite yummy, although definitely not a beer I could drink everyday (quite heavy and strong). After the storehouse we went to see St. Stephen's Green, which was very beautiful, and then headed back to the hostel to recharge a bit (nap for Sam, internet for me). After about a half an hour we found this little pizza shop near the hostel that had some really good pizza, so we enjoyed a low key dinner before leaving to find the Arlington Hotel for some free Irish music and dancing and a drink. Interesting story - the Arlington Hotel restaurant is a bit like Chaffin's Barn (i.e. dinner and a show - the music and dancing), and the bouncer was being a bit of a jerk, telling everyone you had to have reservations. That make sense for dinner, but there was also a bar. Luckily, a couple of hostel mates we had met earlier in the day (a canadian couple - again! So many canadians!) showed up just as we were about to leave, told the bartender someone in the restaurant had told her you could enter and order a drink and enjoy the show without any problem. So, he gruffly asked, "How many in your group?"She had seen us standing to the side, and gestured us over, and then he asked for our IDs. I finally went up and told him I wasn't 21, he asked how old I was, looked at my ID, and asked, "How do you say your name?" I pronounced Tuzeneu, and he said "huh. like Scooby Doo. Go on in." lol So I went into the bar and finally got my pint of Irish cider (Bulmer's). mmm. Funny addition to the story - Sam got carded again at the bar, and I got my drink without any problem. Don't know how I managed that! So, we basically chilled in the bar (we had to stand up because all the tables were for dinner guests) until the show was over. It was some splendiferous Irish music and dance :)
GALWAY
Day 1: friday, april 18th
So, I slept like a log last night, minus the part where one person was snoring in such a way that I thought they might drown. It was a bit gross and scary, but I eventually fell back asleep. lol I then woke up and caught the bus to Galway at 10am (Sam stayed in Dublin until that evening and then left for Glasgow, Scotland. I would have loved to see Scotland, but I wanted to see some more of Ireland first.) I got into Glasgow at around 1:30 and found my hostel with a map and streets with no clearly marked road names. I was quite proud, although it wasn't too terribly complicated. I grabbed a sandwich from a Spar (Kelly and Christin were right - those sandwiches are great!) and ate lunch by the river side. Galway is so pretty, and I love that people still speak Irish there (Irish people call Gaelic "Irish;" when in Rome...^_^) and that Irish and English (or sometimes just Irish) are written on signs, etc. I basically spent the afternoon wandering around the city, which is beautiful but definitely smaller without much touristy things to do. It would be a fabulous place to spend an extended period of time, but with a couple days when you're all alone, you're not quite sure what to do with yourself. I saw st. Nicholas'Cathderal, a Spanish Arc from the 1500s, Lynch's Castle, which is now a bank, and went in lots of cute little shops. was feeling a bit tired, so I recharged a bit at the hostel and met a couple american girls who were very nice and friendly. After a bit, I walked allong Claddagh Quay and saw a whole bunch of swans - I was so suprised, but it was definitely beautiful. I then went to a fish and chip place in town that apparently has a pretty big reputation (John Locke ate there, so it must be important. And a Sinn Fein party member, as I would learn later.) and I met a Californian couple there that was currently working in Dublin (the set up was such that you just sat where you could find a seat, it was packed, so I sat next to this couple and their dad). After dinner, they invited me to come check out a couple bars with them and I happily agreed. We started off in one bar noted for it's old-world character/feel and then settled into another bar with some traditional music (I have to profit while I'm in Ireland! I can't get enough of Irish Music!!!) They were both so nice and funny, and I had a really nice time. I also met thre American students studying for a semester in Galway at that second bar and talked with them for a while before heading back for the night.
Day 2: saturday, april 19th
Today I went on the tour of the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher - it was incredible! The Burren is a really interesting region; originally very rocky, but fertile (it's largely made of limestone, which absorbs water), and FULL of random remains of ancient tombs, churches, protective tree circles, etc. I couldn't believe it. One day, I am going to come back to Ireland and just trapse around the Burren for a couple weeks to see all the treasures it has to offer. I decided that if I haven't gone back by the time I'm forty, I'm going to drop everything and go. I'm pretty sure I'll be back before then, though :) The cliffs were AMAZING. I wish I could have spent more time there (we only had an hour), but it was enough to see them, appreciate them, and be satisfied. It was quite funny, though; after a certain point there was a big sign that said "Private Property: do not cross beyond this point, etc etc"and then you see TONS of people past the sign. Needless to say, I went. What was nice about this part of the cliffs is that there were no annoying stone walls, so you could stand right on the edge of the cliffs, really see and appreciate them. While on the tour, I met a couple of French students and one German student who were taking an English class in Dublin and hung out with them during the tour. It was nice to talk a bit of French again (although I tried to speak English most of the time until they started to speak to me in French. They are, after all, in Ireland to practice English, and I wouldn't have liked it if someone kept me from practicing French in France!) I was so shocked, though - the French students said something like I was almost bilingual! They were being kind and hadn't heard me speak loads of French yet, but it was a major confidence booster. This semester really has paid off (but I still flub up lots - no worries!) I got back to Galway around 5pm and went to mass at the cathedral at 6pm...there was a choir from New York visiting and they sung lots of songs I new, which was a nice reminder of home. After mass, I grabbed something simple for dinner and ate at Claddagh Quay (where there are all the swans) and then headed back to the hostel and read until around 9:30, when I went out with the two American girls I had met. We went to one quite famous bar and then headed to a rather popular bar for younger Irish, which was a very different experience from last night. In the middle of our adventures, we met up with six Irish boys from Belfast from our hostel. It was so interesting and fun getting to know them, talking to them, etc. I had a blast and stayed out rather late :) It is vacation, after all!
DUBLIN - Part Two
Day 1: sunday, april 20th
I was a bit bummed - I didn't think to give my e-mail to any of the girls/guys I met last night (a couple of the boys were really interested in Nashville - it would have been cool to show them around if they every visited!), but I woke up early and was quite tired. Ah well. That's what's so interesting about backpacking - you meet so many amazing people, but in all actuality you may never see them again. A bit sad, but definitely worth it. A different way of looking at life. Anyhoo, I headed back to Dublin today (have a flight from Dublin to Nantes tomorrow morning), checked into the same hostel, and went to see the Book of Kells, which was quite interesting to see! I then did quite a bit of wandering to see what big things I still hadn't seen: Irish Independance Memorial Garden, Pro Cathedral (yes, there is a Catholic Cathedral in Dublin! Although it's modern, small, and a bit hidden. The inside was gorgeous, though, and a couple of students were singing and playing music while I was circulating through the cathedral - they were getting ready for the 6pm student mass, which would have been awesome had I not already gone yesturday), and the Four Courts (i.e. Parliament). At this point, my legs were getting really tired, and I was just tired in general after last night, so I got another slice of pizza from that yummy pizza place Sam and I had found, took a really nice shower at the hostel, wrote a little bit, and passed out at 10pm. lol
Day 2: monday, april 21st
Basically, I woke up todayat around 8am and caught the shuttle to the airport at 9. My flight was technically at 11am, but it was a bit delayed, so I got in ten minutes too late to catch the 2pm shuttle to Nantes' city center >_< I was not amused, but I had no choice but to wait an hour for the next shuttle (luckily, I bought a sandwich in Dublin before I left). I caught the four o'clock train back to Angers and got home at around 4:45. It's a bit strange - Joselyne is on vacation this week, so I'm on my own until she comes back! (And who knows when that will be exactly - she's not a planner. lol) I was glad to be alone last night, though - I had time to arrange all of my stuff, etc. So, I had a wonderful week of break. I can't believe it's already almost the end of April! This semester is passing by so quickly...and I would be done in a week if I were at UD! eep! Good luck to everyone on finals, by the way!!! And thanks for being so patient as to read up until this point on my blog - you all get major brownie points!!! :)
Captions: in a phone booth by Big Ben...pretending to call someone for the sake of a picture. lol; with Sam and the four other girls on our Black Taxi Tour - we're by the Peace Wall, on which we all got to write a short message; the Irish band at the Arlington Hotel; the Cliffs!! Don't think you needed a caption for that one.
mercredi 9 avril 2008
Comme le temps se passe vite!
So, I'm already getting ready for another weeklong adventure, this time in England and Ireland! I can hardly believe the time has already passed so quickly! When I get back from spring break I will have essentially two more weeks of classes (and the second week I have a four day weekend! So many breaks in France, not that I'm complaining) and then three weeks where I'll have about 4 or 5 exams. Lots of time to relax, do some more low-key sightseeing (I'm going to finally visit Paris the first weekend of May! And then later on that month I'm going to Normandie with my host-mother and a friend of hers...who rented my room ten years ago ^_^) It's so funny how quickly I have adapted to my life here in Angers; I'm really very happy and confortable here. What is the weirdest part of this experience is that after this semester, it really is over. I may see some of my wonderful friends again, visit them, etc, but we will probably never be able to assemble as a large group again (with so many different coun
tries between us it's virtually impossible!) What's really nice, though, is that it forces me to think and live more fully in the present; I'm such a planner and I sometimes get so swept up in what the future holds that I let the present slip by. I have to treasure every moment, be it a weekday where I have mostly courses or a leisurely weekend spent with friends. What's going to be equally hard is leaving the linguistic immersion. It has been so awesome using French all the time, even if a bit of English now and again can be a breath of fresh air. It's just been so wonderful, and now I have to go back to the US and keep it up myself (if all my credits from this semester transfer without problem, I won't be taking any more French classes at UD). I'm a bit scared that I'll lose all that I've gained, but I simply can't let that happen, even if it's hard.Anyhoo, he
re's my itinerary for the week (April 11th to the 21st)Friday: leave from Nantes (town about 30 minutes form Angers by train) at 17h45 and get to London at 18h05
Saturday and Sunday: London!
Monday: Leave London for Belfast at noon. Get there around 13h15.
Tuesday: Belfast!
Wednesday: leave Belfast for Dublin in the morning...get to Dublin early afternoon.
Thursday: Dublin!
Friday: Samantha (another American who's coming with me) leaves for Scotland and I'm staying in Ireland. I leave for Galway (city in the west of Ireland) midmorning and get there early afternoon.
Saturday: Galway...more specifically a bus tour of the surrounding country side (with a two hour stop at the Cliffs of Moher! After Kelly and Christin had pictures of the cliffs, I knew I had to see them for myself.)
Sunday: Return to Galway from Dublin a
nd chillax.Monday: Back to Angers (I would have gone back Sunday, but it was cheaper to buy the plane ticket sunday, stay an extra night in a hostel, etc. than to pay for the Sunday plane! So I might as well miss a class or so and save some money! What a strange idea, but I don't mind too much!)
Again, I will be a bit unreachable during the week (not that anyone would call my cellphone, but don't. I'm out of country so the roaming is terrible. And my phone will be off) Unlike in Germany, however, I think I'm going to have free access to the internet at most of my hostels, so I'll try to pop in and let people know I'm alive. Or atleast make sure my mom doesn't worry too much. :)
Until after break! (When I'll be sure to post loads of photos and a small novel describing everything that happened ^_^)
Captions: l'Abbaye Fontevraud (very pretty, simplistic architecture...this is taken in the cloister); from the terrace of le Château de Montsereau; a troglodytic cave (or as I like to call it, a hobbit hole. People still live in these!); pretty picture from le jardin des plantes (we had two days of GORGEOUS weather that I basically spent entirely outside in various gardens around town...it was heavenly.); and le Château de Montgeoffrey
vendredi 28 mars 2008
Pâques + Lourdes = da Bomb!
I contemplated having Easter + Lourdes = something French, but da Bomb just seemed so much more powerful some how...haha. Ok, so I had a wonderful weekend in Lourdes (even if I went alone, it was more of a pilgrimage, so it didn't bother me at all! It some ways it was nice to have a retreat, to get away and lay some ground work again. I had been feeling a bit adrift before I left, and now I nice and grouded again.) So
, here's the break down:
Holy Thursday:
I left Angers around 13h30 and arrived around 21h15. Bleh. And I couldn't go to Holy Thursday mass, which was a major bummer, but can I really complain about anything? So, lot of train time, but no big deal! My hotel (weren't really any hostels in Lourdes, so I found a little family-owned one star hotel that was pretty reasonably priced) was super close to the train station, so I found it without any problems, checked in, and then basically relaxed so that I could wake up early and refreshed tomorrow.
Good Friday:
Woke up, ate breakfast (included with the hotel), and then headed out to, first of all, find the Tourism Office and get a map! Well, I had printed a map offline, and didn't realize that to access the road of the tourism office from a certain square you had to go up a set of stairs (the road overpassed the square), so it took me a little time to find the Tourism Office and a bit more time to find les Sanctuaires (the basillicas, the grotto, the baths, etc). Of course, I also found out later that the way I arrived at the sanctuaries was a bit round about, but no biggie. Since I had three full days at Lourdes, I decided to let Friday be a leisurely day to explore. So, I went inside the different Basilicas and chapels (they are all part of the same overall construction, but la Basilique du Rosaire is ground level, then when you climb the side slopes or the staires, there's le crypte and then above the crypte is la Basilique de la Conception Imaculée. There are also lots of side chapels). I visited the afterwards, which is basically on the right side of the sanctuaries and the basilicas (they built them around the grotto), and it was a bit of surreal experience, because you have this rock feature where a saint was visited by the Blessed Mother, and then you have these metal benches, concrete, bars for the line to circulate through the grotto, etc. Definitely an interesting juxtaposition of history and modernity. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that Our Lady was HERE. Saint Bernadette was in the same spot as I. It's mindblowing! Anyhoo, at noon I prayed the stations of the cross with a group, and it was really incredible - la chemin de la croix was situated on a hill, so you have to keep climbing to see the statues representing the different stations, and while there you get a incredible view of the Pyrenees (forgot to mention that the mountains in Lourdes are AMAZING). I did a bit more exploring after the stations and then a bit before 3pm I settled myself in the crypte to say a rosary, and when I was about to the end a large group of Germans came in and started to pray the rosary. It was awesome - nothing like the Hail Mary in German rebounding off the walls of a small chapel. After the rosary I went to confession, which was quite an interesting experience because it was basically rows of chairs in between confessionals on both sides, and there were different corridors for different languages of confession. I said my confession in English, just because of the nature of confession; it's so much easier to speak openly from your heart in your native language. My confessor was a rather interesting, midly anti-French, American priest. So yes. Afterwards I headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner at 19h00 (I decided to eat dinner at the hotel - so much easier Easter weekend. Who knows what would have been open?), and the sister (was a brother-sister business, I think) arranged it so that the three people alone at the hotel ate together. So I met a really sweet older woman and a younger guy who worked for the Post Office in Paris. After dinner, we headed together to la Basilique de Saint-Pie X (underground and enormous! Very modern architecture, too - like an upside-down boat) for the Good Friday Service and then I headed to bed.
Holy Saturday
Woke up at around 8h00 (impressive, right? It's weird - France has made me a little old lady...I go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. lol You silly inner clock, you!) and dedicated the morning to "le chemin du jubilé" (the way of the Jubilee). Basically, you go to four different spots in Lourdes associated with Saint Bernadette, pray, reflect, etc...there's also a prayer of the Jubilee. So, if you do it in the specified order (via the Pope), you start with the Parish Church where Bernadette was baptized, then head to le Cachot, an old prison where the Sourbibous lived for some time out of desparation, and then you arrive at the sanctuaries by la porte de Saint Michel, go through les arcades (basically 7 archways that all lead to the grotto), and arrive at the grotto for step number three. After I visited the grotto it was about noon, so I went wandering to find a boulangerie where I could buy a sandwich, ate lunch, and then did a bit of browsing through the MILLIONS of souvenir shops. Really. I could not tell you how many shops with Lourdes souvenirs there were. After a while you learn to discern between them, pick the better ones, but even then it's a bit overwhelming. At around 2 I headed to fourth and final step (I took a long break because it was closed between noon and 2) - the hospice (now hospital) where Bernadette received her first communion. I thought it was a rather beautiful way to order the visits; they wrote that they purposely had it end with the Eucharist, as Mary would not want it to end with her but with her Son. After having finished la Chemin du Jubilé, I did a bit more shopping and found a rosary (I lost my First Holy Communion Rosary freshman year and have been waiting to buy a new one) - it is rather simple and made of the same quality of wood as St-Bernadette's first rosary. One thing that I have learned to appreciate more concretely from this pilgrimage is how God really works through the humble and the lowly. After dinner I headed with the my acquaintances from the hotel to the Easter Vigil mass, which was awesome. I forgot to mention in describing Good Friday that these masses were International Masses, i.e. parts of the mass were read in a total of six different languages (French was, of course, the base language, but then there was Italien, Spanish, English, German, and Dutch). Also, when we went to mass, we were a bit late, so we decided to sit in different rows on the aisle seats so we could all see a bit better, and there were two asians girls in a row, and I asked them in French if the seat was taken, tried in English (don't think they heard me), and the younger girl said in broken French that there were German, so I said allemand? Oh! Ist hier noch frei? And then I sat down next to them and got to practice some German for a while before mass started! Wunderbar!
Easter Sunday!
So, I started off the day going to the Easter morning mass with another woman from the hotel (what better way to set the tone for the day, even if I did go to Easter Vigil?) After mass, I decided to look at the Baths (which I discovered were just beyond the grotto), and realized that I should have gone on Friday when there was hardly anyone there, because there were LOTS of people on Sunday, of course, and the lines for the baths were impossibly long. Ah well. Perhaps it's better not to do everything in one go - leaves something for a return trip (and I definitely want to come back!) So, I found a boulangerie that was open and had a rather simple lunch, which did, however, include a rather delectible chocolate pastry. ^_^ Did I mention that the weather was rather unpleasant and strange? Rain off and on Friday, more rain Saturday and snow in the afternoon, and then hail after Easter Sunday mass...followed by snow and rain...and a bit more rain. Ah well. Somehow it still worked out quite well, even if it was cold and rainy the entire time. The afternoon I decide to make a mini-pilgrimage to Bartrès, a village a couple kilometers outside of Lourdes where Bernadette lived for some time. If you take le Chemin de Bernadette, it is a lot longer, but it is the path that she took (approx) to make the treck from Bartrès to Lourdes and back. You go through some beautiful country side (I was a mildly worried several times that I had made a mistake...paricularly when I had to walk between the fences of two different farm properties, but I was right and got there after a 45min walk. It was also essential all uphill, so you got a really good view of the mountains and the city below! So gorgeous!!!) In the town, there is l'église de Saint Jean Baptiste, where Bernadette often came to pray, a home where she lived for some time, and the place where she watched the sheep. That was particularly interesting because it was virtually untouched, and it was a bit easier to imagine the past of the place, etc. On the way back, I missed a turn somewhere and found out that taking the main roads is a lot quicker (and a bit easier), but it was totally worth the crazy country treck! I got back in time to rest a bit before eating dinner and rushing back to the sanctuaries to buy a ticket for a concert at la Basilique du Rosaire. Sunday marked the beginning of le Festival de la Musique Sacrée, so I listened to Charpentier's Messe de la Vièrge et Te Deum. It was so incredible. I really could have listened to the orchestra and singers forever, but the concert had to end at some point. It was, however, an awesome end to my Easter Sunday in Lourdes.
Easter Monday
So, I woke up early this morning so I could make mass at the grotto at 8h30. Just by coincidence, it was an English mass, and even though it was raining the entire time, it was worth it one, because it was at the grotto and two, because it's been two months since I've attended a mass where all the responses are innate and natural. I have the hang of things now with the mass in French, have picked up a decent amount of the responses, but there's nothing like praying in your native tongue. After mass, I said my goodbyes to the sanctuaries and to Lourdes and caught the train back to Lourdes at 11h15. Got back to Angers at 18h15 and was quite ready to be done with the train...for the moment.
Well, that's about it for my Easter Adventures - I hope everyone had wonderful Easter breaks, etc. I'd love to hear about them if any one has the time to drop a e-mail my way! :)
Ok. Captions: les sanctuaires par la porte de Saint-Michel, the "crown"/dome of la Basilique du Rosaire, Notre Dame de Lourdes (statue on the pathway to la porte de Saint Michel, if your back is to the sanctuaries), the grotto, and le bergier
, here's the break down:Holy Thursday:
I left Angers around 13h30 and arrived around 21h15. Bleh. And I couldn't go to Holy Thursday mass, which was a major bummer, but can I really complain about anything? So, lot of train time, but no big deal! My hotel (weren't really any hostels in Lourdes, so I found a little family-owned one star hotel that was pretty reasonably priced) was super close to the train station, so I found it without any problems, checked in, and then basically relaxed so that I could wake up early and refreshed tomorrow.
Good Friday:
Woke up, ate breakfast (included with the hotel), and then headed out to, first of all, find the Tourism Office and get a map! Well, I had printed a map offline, and didn't realize that to access the road of the tourism office from a certain square you had to go up a set of stairs (the road overpassed the square), so it took me a little time to find the Tourism Office and a bit more time to find les Sanctuaires (the basillicas, the grotto, the baths, etc). Of course, I also found out later that the way I arrived at the sanctuaries was a bit round about, but no biggie. Since I had three full days at Lourdes, I decided to let Friday be a leisurely day to explore. So, I went inside the different Basilicas and chapels (they are all part of the same overall construction, but la Basilique du Rosaire is ground level, then when you climb the side slopes or the staires, there's le crypte and then above the crypte is la Basilique de la Conception Imaculée. There are also lots of side chapels). I visited the afterwards, which is basically on the right side of the sanctuaries and the basilicas (they built them around the grotto), and it was a bit of surreal experience, because you have this rock feature where a saint was visited by the Blessed Mother, and then you have these metal benches, concrete, bars for the line to circulate through the grotto, etc. Definitely an interesting juxtaposition of history and modernity. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that Our Lady was HERE. Saint Bernadette was in the same spot as I. It's mindblowing! Anyhoo, at noon I prayed the stations of the cross with a group, and it was really incredible - la chemin de la croix was situated on a hill, so you have to keep climbing to see the statues representing the different stations, and while there you get a incredible view of the Pyrenees (forgot to mention that the mountains in Lourdes are AMAZING). I did a bit more exploring after the stations and then a bit before 3pm I settled myself in the crypte to say a rosary, and when I was about to the end a large group of Germans came in and started to pray the rosary. It was awesome - nothing like the Hail Mary in German rebounding off the walls of a small chapel. After the rosary I went to confession, which was quite an interesting experience because it was basically rows of chairs in between confessionals on both sides, and there were different corridors for different languages of confession. I said my confession in English, just because of the nature of confession; it's so much easier to speak openly from your heart in your native language. My confessor was a rather interesting, midly anti-French, American priest. So yes. Afterwards I headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner at 19h00 (I decided to eat dinner at the hotel - so much easier Easter weekend. Who knows what would have been open?), and the sister (was a brother-sister business, I think) arranged it so that the three people alone at the hotel ate together. So I met a really sweet older woman and a younger guy who worked for the Post Office in Paris. After dinner, we headed together to la Basilique de Saint-Pie X (underground and enormous! Very modern architecture, too - like an upside-down boat) for the Good Friday Service and then I headed to bed.
Holy Saturday
Woke up at around 8h00 (impressive, right? It's weird - France has made me a little old lady...I go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. lol You silly inner clock, you!) and dedicated the morning to "le chemin du jubilé" (the way of the Jubilee). Basically, you go to four different spots in Lourdes associated with Saint Bernadette, pray, reflect, etc...there's also a prayer of the Jubilee. So, if you do it in the specified order (via the Pope), you start with the Parish Church where Bernadette was baptized, then head to le Cachot, an old prison where the Sourbibous lived for some time out of desparation, and then you arrive at the sanctuaries by la porte de Saint Michel, go through les arcades (basically 7 archways that all lead to the grotto), and arrive at the grotto for step number three. After I visited the grotto it was about noon, so I went wandering to find a boulangerie where I could buy a sandwich, ate lunch, and then did a bit of browsing through the MILLIONS of souvenir shops. Really. I could not tell you how many shops with Lourdes souvenirs there were. After a while you learn to discern between them, pick the better ones, but even then it's a bit overwhelming. At around 2 I headed to fourth and final step (I took a long break because it was closed between noon and 2) - the hospice (now hospital) where Bernadette received her first communion. I thought it was a rather beautiful way to order the visits; they wrote that they purposely had it end with the Eucharist, as Mary would not want it to end with her but with her Son. After having finished la Chemin du Jubilé, I did a bit more shopping and found a rosary (I lost my First Holy Communion Rosary freshman year and have been waiting to buy a new one) - it is rather simple and made of the same quality of wood as St-Bernadette's first rosary. One thing that I have learned to appreciate more concretely from this pilgrimage is how God really works through the humble and the lowly. After dinner I headed with the my acquaintances from the hotel to the Easter Vigil mass, which was awesome. I forgot to mention in describing Good Friday that these masses were International Masses, i.e. parts of the mass were read in a total of six different languages (French was, of course, the base language, but then there was Italien, Spanish, English, German, and Dutch). Also, when we went to mass, we were a bit late, so we decided to sit in different rows on the aisle seats so we could all see a bit better, and there were two asians girls in a row, and I asked them in French if the seat was taken, tried in English (don't think they heard me), and the younger girl said in broken French that there were German, so I said allemand? Oh! Ist hier noch frei? And then I sat down next to them and got to practice some German for a while before mass started! Wunderbar!
Easter Sunday!
So, I started off the day going to the Easter morning mass with another woman from the hotel (what better way to set the tone for the day, even if I did go to Easter Vigil?) After mass, I decided to look at the Baths (which I discovered were just beyond the grotto), and realized that I should have gone on Friday when there was hardly anyone there, because there were LOTS of people on Sunday, of course, and the lines for the baths were impossibly long. Ah well. Perhaps it's better not to do everything in one go - leaves something for a return trip (and I definitely want to come back!) So, I found a boulangerie that was open and had a rather simple lunch, which did, however, include a rather delectible chocolate pastry. ^_^ Did I mention that the weather was rather unpleasant and strange? Rain off and on Friday, more rain Saturday and snow in the afternoon, and then hail after Easter Sunday mass...followed by snow and rain...and a bit more rain. Ah well. Somehow it still worked out quite well, even if it was cold and rainy the entire time. The afternoon I decide to make a mini-pilgrimage to Bartrès, a village a couple kilometers outside of Lourdes where Bernadette lived for some time. If you take le Chemin de Bernadette, it is a lot longer, but it is the path that she took (approx) to make the treck from Bartrès to Lourdes and back. You go through some beautiful country side (I was a mildly worried several times that I had made a mistake...paricularly when I had to walk between the fences of two different farm properties, but I was right and got there after a 45min walk. It was also essential all uphill, so you got a really good view of the mountains and the city below! So gorgeous!!!) In the town, there is l'église de Saint Jean Baptiste, where Bernadette often came to pray, a home where she lived for some time, and the place where she watched the sheep. That was particularly interesting because it was virtually untouched, and it was a bit easier to imagine the past of the place, etc. On the way back, I missed a turn somewhere and found out that taking the main roads is a lot quicker (and a bit easier), but it was totally worth the crazy country treck! I got back in time to rest a bit before eating dinner and rushing back to the sanctuaries to buy a ticket for a concert at la Basilique du Rosaire. Sunday marked the beginning of le Festival de la Musique Sacrée, so I listened to Charpentier's Messe de la Vièrge et Te Deum. It was so incredible. I really could have listened to the orchestra and singers forever, but the concert had to end at some point. It was, however, an awesome end to my Easter Sunday in Lourdes.
Easter Monday
So, I woke up early this morning so I could make mass at the grotto at 8h30. Just by coincidence, it was an English mass, and even though it was raining the entire time, it was worth it one, because it was at the grotto and two, because it's been two months since I've attended a mass where all the responses are innate and natural. I have the hang of things now with the mass in French, have picked up a decent amount of the responses, but there's nothing like praying in your native tongue. After mass, I said my goodbyes to the sanctuaries and to Lourdes and caught the train back to Lourdes at 11h15. Got back to Angers at 18h15 and was quite ready to be done with the train...for the moment.
Well, that's about it for my Easter Adventures - I hope everyone had wonderful Easter breaks, etc. I'd love to hear about them if any one has the time to drop a e-mail my way! :)
Ok. Captions: les sanctuaires par la porte de Saint-Michel, the "crown"/dome of la Basilique du Rosaire, Notre Dame de Lourdes (statue on the pathway to la porte de Saint Michel, if your back is to the sanctuaries), the grotto, and le bergier
mercredi 19 mars 2008
Keepin' on Keepin' on.
So, for the first time in a while I will NOT be writing a small novel in disguise as a blog post! I just figured it was about time to check in and let everyone know how things are going. It was very strange at first going back to "normal living" in Angers after such a crazy, intense week in Germany, but very nice as well. It's so funny how even in a foreign country thousands of miles away from home I can still find habits, fall into the patterns of daily living, get swept up with life and watch it pass. That is a bit my story of late...going with the flow of classes, outings with friends, homework, etc. I got to see a couple films this weekend (Le Printemps du Cinéma, so every showing of every film in every theater cost 3 euros 50!) - Paris (interesting portrait of life in Paris...made me think of Love Actually. I know there's Paris, je t'aime, but this Paris actually connected the different stories. I definitely liked it better, and it definitely left you with things to think about when it was over) and Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (which I highly reccomend, particularly to French speakers...it's hilarious). My big news really is that I am leaving Easter Weekend to make a short pilgrimage to Lourdes - I am quite excited :) I leave tomorrow at 13h38 (and get there at 21h10 - bleh. A couple of Train switches/wait times) and I stay there until Monday (leave at 11h00 and get to Angers at 18h00). I'll be sure to keep you all in my prayers - and Happy Easter!!!
jeudi 6 mars 2008
Die Ferien in Deutschland!
Sorry it took me a while to update – I arrived home late on Sunday night to find out that the internet is out at the house. Needless to say, I’ve been in withdrawal a bit and it has been difficult to get on to respond to e-mails, post pictures, update my blog, etc. But here it is finally – my crazy adventures in Germany!
STRASBOURG
Day 1
I have to admit, I slept terribly the night before leaving because I was so nervous! I have never done anything so independent and ambiguous and I think I was started to realize it, because I couldn’t stop worrying about what might go wrong, etc. etc. Then, I got up, hurried to the UCO to print one last confirmation before leaving, and made it to the train station with plenty of time. Good. We get on the train, and 20 minutes later it stops in the middle of nowhere and we hear over the loudspeaker that there has been an accident and so there will be a delay. Two hours later, we leave again, well after the time for my connecting train from Paris to Strasbourg. Soooo, at the Montparnasse train station we got new tickets to Strasbourg (didn’t have to pay, of course) and then we took the metro to the East train station. We ate lunch in a café by the train station and walked around a bit…let’s just say my first view of Paris was not a very romantic one. But the café was nice. Lol We finally arrive in Strasbourg four hours later than planned and head off towards our hotel, which is not too far from the train station, according to the map the hotel provided. The TERRIBLE map the hotel provided. It was, indeed, very close to the train station and an easy walking distance from the center of town, but the road names were different and there was a terribly confusing road split, etc etc. Once we finally found our hotel, we dropped off our stuff and then headed by bus to the center of town (without a map – reception was closed!), where a very nice couple walked with us towards the direction of an adorable alsacien restaurant (Strasbourg is in the region Alsace). We had a traditional meal of choucroute (still figuring out exactly which part of the meal that was… Joselyne seemed to think it was the Sauerkraut, but on the menu it said Sauerkraut and choucroute, I thought. If so, then choucroute is more potatoey) and Gewurtztraminer (very nice white wine from the region). We leisurely explored the city a bit after dinner and then headed off to bed.
Day 2
Woke up moderately early and headed into town so I could go to mass at the cathedral at 11am. The Strasbourg cathedral was actually very interesting architecturally; I would almost describe it as skeletal. But the inside was gorgeous and the mass very lovely – they even read the second reading in German! We got to look at the astrological clock in the cathedral after the mass, and then we headed to the tourism office for a minute, where I heard in the span of 5 minutes French, German, and English. Needles s to say, I was in heaven. J We ate lunch at a little café where I had a HUGE, yet thin, type of pizza, and then we headed toward La Petite France, a very gorgeous nook of Strasbourg that is intersected by lots of little rivulets of the greater river, and walked around for a while. Then, we took the bus and headed to La Musee des Secrets du Chocolat. MMMMMMMM. It was a very cute and interesting museum that discussed the history of chocolate in general and then for this specific chocolate company. At the end, there was a demonstration of how you make hollow chocolate animals, which was pretty awesome to watch. After touring the museum, guests receive a small gift of chocolate, and I received another assorted bag of chocolates worth 12 euro because I found the cutest messenger bag ever and had to buy it. Very unlike me, I know, but it was a must – on the outer flap is written “Dans tous mes états” and on the inside pockets (and there are lots of pockets , which is terribly practical) are the names of all the different types of chocolate: bonbon, pepites, gateau, etc. We then returned to Strasbourg and did a bit more exploring until we found a cute bar on a boat that had a menu out front for different sorts of “tartines,” so we decided to go there for a light dinner. She handed us the drink menu, and when we asked for the menu of food, she comes back and plunks the big sign from out front into the chair next to us. A bit embarrassing, I’m afraid, but she later on did it for another couple, which lessened the humiliation. We wandered around a bit more after dinner (partially because we kept getting turned around while trying to find our way back to the hotel) and then settled down early to get a fresh start tomorrow.
Picture: McKenzie and I at le Gutenburg with our lovely dinner of Ham, Choucroute, and Sauerkraut + Gewurztraminer!
München (Munich!)
Day 1
Woke up early to see the European Union buildings in Strasbourg before leaving, took the bus, took a connector bus…and then realized we had taken the second bus in the wrong direction. Great. There not being enough time to fix our mistake and catch the train, we returned in shame to the Strasbourg train station. After our early morning flub-up, everything went quite smoothly, actually, and we arrived in München without any real problems. It was so crazy at first to hear German every where; I felt like a kid in a candy shop, a young kid without enough money to taste all the candy available but who was willing to try anything possible. French and German are two different kettles of fish; while I can understand quite a decent amount of German, I still struggle to speak at times, and I definitely have to work on my vocabulary, so I was in Germany while still in a period of linguistic study where improvements are quite noticeable. In French, I have reached more of a plateau where I learn bits and bits each day and but the progress is a lot more slow. So, we arrive at the hostel and because it is primarily for English speakers, she greats us in English but I determinedly respond in German. Finally, I ask her a more complex question later, and she responds, “Oh! Sie sprechen Deutsch!” and then begins to respond in German. Yay, triumph! We then could not figure out how to open our door, so I go down and ask one of the other workers (in German) if she could help us, and she comes up with me and shows me how it works…on the way up we carried on an amicable conversation in German and it was quite exciting and validating. YES, I CAN speak German, people! lol We then ate a late lunch at a cafe and proceeded to stroll around the city…we discovered der Viktualienmarkt (a big open-air market) and then walked to der Englisher Garten, which was incredibly beautiful and peaceful, not to mention enormous! No way we could see all of it – 900 acres, I thinki! We saw the Theatinerkirche (the basilica, I believe) and a nearby monument before decided to seek out the Hofbräuhaus (along with Oktoberfest, München is known for this large traditional beer hall).They only do things big at the Hofbräuhaus, so we split one of their traditional beers while having a meal of sauerkraut and wurst. While there, a really interesting Australian couple sat next to us and we ended up talking with them for quite a while, sharing stories, comparing cultures, etc. I also met two fellows from Köln (Cologne) and got to practice some German a bit. Overall, a very full and interesting day.
Day 2
Today, we woke up and had a fabulous breakfast at a nearby pastry shop (chocolate croissant with nutella inside! Je suis trop gourmande, je sais! The nutella was a pleasant unexpected surprise!) and then headed to Schloss Nymphenburg (Schloss = castle), the castle for the Bavarian kings of old. We easily spent the morning and a bit of the afternoon there, touring the gardens, a smaller building on the grounds of the castle, the museum inside what used to house the king’s carriages/horses, and the castle itself. We then ate lunch at a café on the grounds of the castle and then heading back to central München, where we reexplored some places we visited yesterday (namely, the market, where I bought a glass of fresh Karotten-Grapefruit Saft ; Carrott/Grapefruit juice. You can combine it however you want, but I was intriguied by this suggestion and it was quite good. We found another nice German restaurant for dinner and were in the process of returning to the hostel when we found the most politically incorrect street musician in the history of the world. He was hilarious, I have to admit, and spoke in atleast five different languages. Crazy, crazy man. While gathering around with others to watch this crazy musician, we met a couple of Germans from Saarland (small region in the south-west) and talked with them for a while. It was really quite an adventure meeting them, and we had a lot of fun – definitely a good impression of München.
Picture: Schloss Nymphenburg!
Day 1
So, we woke up early, took the train to the München air port, and arrived in plenty of time. HOWEVER, I have apparently never flown before and no nothing about standard prep for departure. Like checking in. And putting liquids in plastic bags. I just about shot myself in the face, but every one was incredibly nice – “Entschuldigung, Entschuldigung!!!” “Es ist nicht so schlimm.” – and Air Berlin is pretty much awesome. Nice stewardesses and then even provided a drink and a snack for the hour long flight and a chocolate on the way out. I was very impressed J So, we arrived in Berlin without any significant problems (besides general stupidity) and at the airport we bought this really handy “Berlin Welcome Card,” which includes a small tourist information book and a pass for all the trains in Berlin for 48 hours – perfect! So, with our handy dandy bus pass we took the bus to Alexanderplatz (the famous TV Tower is there and it is very close to Berliner Dom…a very central location overall!), where our hostel was located. Once we were all settled in, we headed back out and went to the Reichstag (German Parlament) to go into the glass dome built on top of the old building. We went around 5pm, waited in line for a good hour (we saw the lines in passing during the day and they were much worse!!!) and then got to look out on the sky line of Berlin by night, which was incredible! We then hopped on a bus to try and see the Gedächtniskirche (memorial church for the dead of WW2) and also KaDeWe (basically the equivalent of Macy´s at Time Square), but both were closed, or so we thought. The worker at the Reichtstag told me that there were closing at very soon, at 8, which was true, but we had a good hour before they closed. Somehow, when it was actually 7pm we were convinced it was 8pm. Oh well. We then wasted time trying to find a restaurant from the tour book that ended up being closed and a little sketchy looking. I was definitely a bit frustrated, tired, and hungry, and then we finally find a good restaurant. We had almost entered the building when THUMP, some potatoes fell from a window just above us and nearly knocked us out. Dead, lifeless potatoes with no apparent perpetrator to claim them. It was as if they fell from the heavens. I have to say that was the most bizarre of the entire trip...and rivaling for the spot of most bizarre moment in my life. After our near death by Kartoffeln (potatoes), we ate a lovely dinner and headed back to the hostel to get a good night’s sleep. At the hostel we met some incredibly nice Italian roommates that gave us some wonderful advice on what to visit, etc. They were really too nice; perhaps a good way to finish our interesting day. J
Day 2
This was definitely the most intensive day of the trip – lots of sight seeing! Order of events: a bit of time at the East Side Gallery (basically the Berlin Wall decorated by graffiti artists; I wish we could have stayed there longer, see more of the wall, etc.), then the Holocaust Memorial, then the Jewish Museum (incredibly powerful, particularly the new building, where was constructed consciously so that the whole building was an experience and representation of the Holocaust. Most moving of all was the work entitled “Fallen Leaves;” all along the floor were thousands of metal faces and as part of the experience the viewer is supposed to walk on the faces. I will never forget the hollow, haunting sound of clanking metal in that large chamber), then lunch in a small café – we were starved!, then Checkpoint Charlie, and then we wasted lots of time with bus systems (definitely a bit complicated in Berlin, and the maps of the bus lines weren’t incredibly helpful), but after a lot of questions we finally found our way back to the Gedächtniskirche to see the interior and to KaDeWe, where we did a little shopping and ate these sinful chocolate cakes as a way to wind-down. Then, at 8 o’clock when went to the Staatsoper for a chamber concert, which was a lovely way to engage in the culture, as well as the history, of the city. Very lovely. Afterwards it was a bit late, but we found a bar that was open and offered different things to eat, so we each bought a bowl of soup and then a flavored Berlin beer. It just so happens that I ordered Broccoli soup and a apple(?) flavored beer and McKenzie ordered Tomato soup with a Strawberry-flavored beer. I felt a bit like I was in a Dr. Seuss book J And then there was an older man there that heard us speaking French (have to keep practicing, you know!), and he was telling the server “Sind sind Französicherin! Sie können Französisch benutzen!” (They’re French! You can speak/practice French!) So, after that she spoke to us in French, even if I responded in German. Ah well – I was still practicing a foreign language!
Picture: view of Berlin from the cupola of der Berliner Dom
Bremen
Day 1 – Berlin-Bremen
So, the train to Bremen didn’t leave until 2pm, so we got up in the morning and toured the Berliner Dom, which was gorgeous. The most incredible part was that you could climb and climb and climb stairs and arrive at the cupola/ go outside at the height of the dome! It was incredible! We ate lunch at Café Einstein, which our Italian friend told us was a very famous, old café in Berlin, and then headed separate ways – McKenzie to Oldenburg (just west of Bremen) and I to Bremen. When I arrived in Bremen, I found Trevor and then we shot off running to catch a train that left in one minute. Needless to say, this was a very unpleasant task with my turtle shell of a backpack, but I managed. We arrived at Jakobs, Trevor’s university, and he showed me around, we ate dinner, and then relaxed. I watched Juno on a laptop with his friends (poor Trevor was pooped – he hadn’t slept well the night before) and then headed to bed.
Day 2 – Hamburg
So, we woke up, ate breakfast, and then headed over to Hamburg at around 11. Once we arrived, we basically walked around the city, explored, etc. Hamburg was very beautiful, but the weather was terrible – I was almost blown over by wind more than once! Despite the weather, we had a wonderful afternoon and grabbed a pizza before heading back to Bremen at around 7. It takes two hours to arrive back at Jakobs and with a half-hour delay, we were there around 9:30pm. Then we spent time with some of his friends (it was one girl’s birthday
) before heading to bed.
Day 3 – Bremen-Angers
Overslept a bit this morning, but still managed to head over to downtown Bremen in time to arrive at the cathedral for mass. Correction: in time to arrive at the cathedral for service. While I knew Northern Germany was primarily Protestant, it never occurred to me that a cathedral wouldn’t be Catholic – I’m a bit silly. So, I missed mass (there were some Catholic churches in the city but I couldn’t make poor Trevor sit through two services) on Sunday L I was not amused, especially since I was really interested in hearing the mass in German. The service we did attend was interesting, but I was completely lost because the structure was so different. There was neither a solid linguistic nor a solid structural base to root me down so I was a bit lost. Ah well. Bremen itself is a very small city but incredibly pretty with lots of quaint architecture, etc. I got to take pictures with die Bremer Stadtmusikanter (if you know Bremen, it is because of this Grimm’s fairy tale. I bought the book auf Deutsch while in Bremen) and then we ate lunch on an old pirate ship/pancake house. Verrrry yummy J I must say, however, that Michael Buble and Norah Jones didn’t really mesh very well with a pirate ambiance. Lol After lunch, we headed back to Jakobs (the weather was pretty bad again - windy, rainy - so there wasn't much impetus to stay. Plus, Trevor had a Chinese tutoring session he had to head up at 2pm) so I could arrange my things, we relaxed for a while, and the we headed to the airport where I met up with McKenzie again. This time, I was prepared, although I had a bit of trouble detangling myself from my money back (which had my passport, etc, but was under my shirt – had to remove it for the security check!). I made the security smile, so it was ok. lol Unlike some of our other adventures, everything went incredibly smoothly on the return home; God definitely had his hand in that! We flew to Paris, took a shuttle to Montparnasse train station (and was able to see la Tour Eiffel and l’Arc de Triomphe en route!), and arrived in time to buy a sandwich before the last stretch to Angers.
Pictures: The crazy Hamburg wind; Trevor and I with die Bremer Stadtmusikanter!
So ends my adventures – what a wonderful week! I definitely can say that I learned a lot a grew as a person by leaps and bounds! (Had to let go, go with the flow, etc. Definitely a challenge for me, but so rewarding in the end)
vendredi 22 février 2008
Ma belle vie angevine!
Sorry it's been a while since I last wrote - life just comes like gusts of wind, and when you are swept away, all you can do is ride it out until you find sure footing again. So, the past two weeks have passed quite quickly, and one better than the other. The major news I have right now is that I am leaving tomorrow morning for Strasbourg (eastern France), and then I'm spending the rest of the week in Germany (Munich, Berlin, and Bremen)!!! An american friend I met here (who happens to have the same initials, the same birthday - different year, and who studies at UNC! A bit creepy, right? lol) is coming with me, and I am so excited that I will have someone on my adventures! It's been pretty interesting organizing this trip all by myself (with Mckenzie, but no adults, etc.) and I have to confess I am a bit nervous, while also definitely excited! A quick prayer now and then would be greatly appreciated!!!
Last week was full of it
s particular adventures, one being the stress of planning this trip (I need to relax, I know), and the other was the Valentine's Day party I attended. It was organized by a student organization in the institutes for languages, education, communication, and something else (they are called BDUs). I thought it was going to be in a night club, which would have been an interesting experience, but in actuality it was in a large room the BDU rented. Throughout the night, I could help but feel like I had stumbled upon a high school dance (with the addition of bar), and the music never ceased to amaze :) People dance to Aretha Franklin's "Think," but as soon as a song came on with more of a beat, everyone zoomed to the bar. lol Very amusing. It would have simply been an interesting social experience had I not found out at the end of the night that someone stole 20 euros and two tickets for the university restaurant out of my wallet. (I left my purse with the students of the BDU, as everyone else did...there were security guards there, etc. I thought it should be safe. Stupid, stupid Marie-Claire. Never again). It is really impossible to trace such a simple theft (I'm lucky they didn't touch my camera, phone, or credit cards!!!!) So, it happened, as it inevitably had to - the traditional theft abroad. With luck, that will be my only theft experience!
I have also been entrenching myself in some French litterature these past two weeks, and have absolutely loved it! So nice to have my assigned texts be NOVELS. I really do love litterature, so these classes have been a real pleasure. It's been a bit hectic thise week getting everything organized, and even though I have lots of time free each day, I've felt a bit pressed. I have really come to treasure the slow time I have in the afternoon to sit outside reading one of my books (it's so mild here - 50s/60s and no winter at all!), and when I get back from vacation, I am going to be sure to take advantage of these opportunities when I can!!!
Allrighty. My itenerary for the following week (February 23 to March 2):
Saturday: leave Angers at 9:37 and arrive in Strasbourg at 14:43 (with an hour in Paris - my first view of the city! Too bad I have to bussle about.)
Sunday: Strasbourg
Monday: Leave for Munich at 9:47...arrive at 14:17.
Tuesday: Munich
Wednesday: Leave Munich at 11:55 (by plane) and arrive in Berlin at 13:05
Thursday: Berlin
Friday: leave Berlin at 14:18 and arrive in Bremen at 18:06 (I'm going to visit Trevor - yay!!!) At this point, we split up and Mckenzie goes to Oldenburg, which is fairly close to Bremen - she has a friend there.)
Saturday: Bremen!
Sunday: Flight from Bremen to Paris at 18:45 - arrive in Paris at 20:15 and take the last train to Angers to end a crazy wonderful week!
We have made a list of the sites that interest us in each city, but we want to leave it with a degree of opennes - see what we can see, do what we can do. Even if it is a very active week, I don't want it full in a stressful, unpleasant way. So we'll see! I love and miss you all - I'll be sure to write a post as soon as I get back to let you all know 1. that I'm safe and sound and 2. all that I did!!
Love, Marie-Claire
P.S. Captions: My family in Angers - Marika (Japanese student staying for February), Joselyne (my host mother), and Alexandra (the French student renting a room), the ancient hospital of Saint-Jean/ the Jean Lurcat Museum (contemporary artist...has some very interesting tapistries!), a pretty picture of Angers from la Doutre (part of the city on the other side of la Maine - the river that cuts through and eventually joins the Loire), some of my friends preparing some Sunday dinner cooking (we had a get potluck sort of dinner two sundays ago), and finally Bouchmaine, a little village just outside of Angers with a walkway beside la Maine (Joselyne and I took a Sunday stroll ^_^)
P.P.S. I will be pretty much unreachable this week - no cell phone, since I don't have a German SIM card (although I am taking it just in case, don't worry!), and no internet really (and I'm not taking my laptop - my tangent would get way too stressed out, poor dear.)
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