Alright, finally my long-awaited post about Paris! First of all, traveling there by myself went fine. I went through my usual anxiety about airports. I don't know why I'm always so afraid something will keep me from getting to my gate on time; I always get there so far in advance that I have time to eat a meal and take a nap before boarding. In any case, the flight from Barcelona to Paris is fast, about an hour and a half. I took the train into the city and managed to find the metro lines I needed AND my hotel all by myself. My friends and I went out to eat and then I went to sleep early because I had a cold and our friend Aura was going to arrive very early Friday morning and I knew we had a full day of sightseeing ahead of us.
Friday Aura and I pretty much owned Paris. We managed to hit almost all of the major sights on foot with just a map and a good sense of direction. We were able to walk from our hotel to the Arc de Triomph, from the Arc to the Eiffel Tower, from the Eiffel to Luxembourg Gardens, to La Sorbonne and from La Sorbonne to Notre Dame. There was a service going on while we were there, which was interesting. We forgot that it was a Friday of Lent so the Roman Catholic servies would be going on. By the time we finished at Notre Dame it was about 4:30pm so we went back to the hotel and took a nap before dinner. Thursday evening we took the metro to see the Moulin Rouge/the red light district/the Sacre Coeur. The walk from the Moulin Rouge to the Sacre Coeur was really interesting because the street is flocked with clubs advertising lap dances, peep shows, and cabarets. Surprisingly, though, it wasn't all that sketchy even after dark.
Saturday we took things a little easier. First we went to the Louvre, where we managed to get through everything we'd both been planning on seeing. It took us about 3 hours to see everything we were hoping to see, including the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, Madonna on the Rocks, and the small exhibition of Spanish art. We also saw the Egypt and Mesopotamia exhibits... some of ancient Rome and Greece too, I think. After the Louvre we hopped a train to Versailles, about half an hour or so from the heart of the city. Since I'd already been to Paris, few things that we'd seen up to this point took me by surprise. But Versailles definitely blew me away. There simply aren't words to describe how HUGE the palace is and how extensive the gardens/property behind it are. There are miles and miles of gardens and fountains and one huge canal. It was incredible. I just walked around imagining what it must have been like back when royalty were wandering around in their fancy clothes. After Versailles, Aura and I went back to the Sacre Coeur/Montmarte area to have a crepe and to look at the artists paiting portraits in the street, then we bought some bread and cheese and went back to the hotel, exhausted.
Sunday the three friends I was with all had flights at noon and mine wasn't until 4pm, so I took time to go to the other major art museum in Paris, Musee d'Orsay. The Orsay has a lot of sculputres and a huge collection of French Impressionism art. I saw most of the major works of Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir and Van Gogh. The Van Gogh was definitely my FAVORITE part and I didn't even know his stuff was there. My favorite painting of his is the one of his bedroom... I bought a magnet with that painting on it and it ended up being the only souvenir I brought back with me from Paris.
Since getting sick last Thursday, I'm finally feeling better today. I've gone through a bottle of cough medicine, a handful of ibuprofen and now I'm taking some medicine to help drain my sinuses and that seems to be working. I've also had countless cups of tea... Probably 4-5 a day. Thanks Gram :) By the way, I've now learned to communicate with pharmasists in Spain and France, although France was mostly gestures and not so many words haha. My roommate had the flu, so my weird cold/sinus thing is really not so bad in comparison.
We leave for Italy on Saturday morning. We fly into Milan, but we're leaving for Venice a few hours after we get there and we'll get to Venice at about midnight Saturday night. We'll spend Sunday in Venice, then Monday morning we take a train to Florence. Tuesday afternoon we take a train to Naples, but once again we're only staying a few hours. Tuesday night I'm taking an overnight train from Naples to Sicily. We're spending all day Wednesday in Sicily, then flying from Sicily to Rome late Wednesday evening. Then, to round out the trip, we're spending Thursday, Friday, and half of Saturday in Rome. We come back from Rome late Saturday afternoon.
We just found out today that our spring break actually goes through the Tuesday after Easter, so I have three free days I'm not sure what to do with. I could save the money and spend them lying on the beach here (if the weather's nice) or going to museums around Barcelona, or I could pick somewhere in Spain to spend a few days. I haven't decided yet... It'll probably be a last-minute decision. I'll keep you posted.
Paris: The Sights I
Paris: The Sights II
Paris: The Art
4.01.2009
3.26.2009
Just a reminder that I'll be in Paris from today (Thursday) through Sunday evening. My phone works there, but keep in mind it's very expensive to receive and make calls from outside Spain so use it for emergencies only, please. I'll write and post pictures Sunday or Monday sometime. Hope all's well...
Ashley
Ashley
3.23.2009
Hey everybody! Here's another quick weekly update for you...
I got a little bit more sightseeing done this last week. My friend Jenna and I went to La Sagrada Familia and went inside and took the audio-tour. If you liked the photos from the outside of the church, you'll love the photos from the inside and from the tower we were in. The audio-tour pointed out so many things I wouldn't have noticed myself. I learned that the church will seat 10,000 patrons when it's all finished and that it has a choir loft that will seat another 1200 singers. The entire interior is designed to resemble nature with pillars that look like tree trunks and turn into leafy fronds at the top. The church will be lit almost entirely by natural light, both white light from the outside and colored light through the beautiful stained glass windows. We took an elevator into one of the bell towers and saw another great view of the city as well as a great view of the facade that Gaudi himself worked on.
Saturday we went to Montserrat or "the serrated moutnain" which is about an hour away from Barcelona by train. The mountains were BEAUTIFUL and had so much history. Hundreds of years ago a statue of the Virgin Mary was found in a cave by a group of shephard children. A beautiful monastery was built on the mountain and the statue became the central figure of the basilica. People take pilgrimages from all over just to come to Montserrat and touch the statue. The monastery is also home to the world's oldest boy's choir. We were able to listen to them and it was very moving. We took some time to climb around the mountain a little bit and then we had to head back.
Saturday night we went to a concert by a famous American DJ called Girl Talk. I'd never heard his music before, but all of my friends told me I haaaddd to go so we went. The show was from 2:30-4am - crazy, right? The club was PACKED, but we managed to have a good time dancing and left right after the concert (even though the club was open until 6). By the time we walked to the metro and I got cleaned up after getting home it was 6am. At that point I'd been awake for 23 hours with only a little snooze on the train home from Montserrat under my belt. Needless to say, I spent most of Sunday in bed either sleeping or watching TV.
I leave for Paris on Thursday, so Sunday night or Monday sometime I should have a ton more photos to post. Until then, here are my photos from La Sagrada Familia and Montserrat!
La Sagrada Familia Revisited
Montserrat
I got a little bit more sightseeing done this last week. My friend Jenna and I went to La Sagrada Familia and went inside and took the audio-tour. If you liked the photos from the outside of the church, you'll love the photos from the inside and from the tower we were in. The audio-tour pointed out so many things I wouldn't have noticed myself. I learned that the church will seat 10,000 patrons when it's all finished and that it has a choir loft that will seat another 1200 singers. The entire interior is designed to resemble nature with pillars that look like tree trunks and turn into leafy fronds at the top. The church will be lit almost entirely by natural light, both white light from the outside and colored light through the beautiful stained glass windows. We took an elevator into one of the bell towers and saw another great view of the city as well as a great view of the facade that Gaudi himself worked on.
Saturday we went to Montserrat or "the serrated moutnain" which is about an hour away from Barcelona by train. The mountains were BEAUTIFUL and had so much history. Hundreds of years ago a statue of the Virgin Mary was found in a cave by a group of shephard children. A beautiful monastery was built on the mountain and the statue became the central figure of the basilica. People take pilgrimages from all over just to come to Montserrat and touch the statue. The monastery is also home to the world's oldest boy's choir. We were able to listen to them and it was very moving. We took some time to climb around the mountain a little bit and then we had to head back.
Saturday night we went to a concert by a famous American DJ called Girl Talk. I'd never heard his music before, but all of my friends told me I haaaddd to go so we went. The show was from 2:30-4am - crazy, right? The club was PACKED, but we managed to have a good time dancing and left right after the concert (even though the club was open until 6). By the time we walked to the metro and I got cleaned up after getting home it was 6am. At that point I'd been awake for 23 hours with only a little snooze on the train home from Montserrat under my belt. Needless to say, I spent most of Sunday in bed either sleeping or watching TV.
I leave for Paris on Thursday, so Sunday night or Monday sometime I should have a ton more photos to post. Until then, here are my photos from La Sagrada Familia and Montserrat!
La Sagrada Familia Revisited
Montserrat
3.16.2009
Hey everybody! There's not as much to report this week... Last week I didn't miss a single class, so that kept me busy. A few girlfriends and I found a cute little place with delicious desserts and wine for a good price and they let us hang out as long as we want after we're done eating and play cards. I think we'll be going back there quite a bit over the next couple of months. The weather has gotten considerably nicer over the last week, so I've been walking a lot more and spending more time in the streets exploring. Friday I didn't have class and I walked more or less around the entire city and up the beach. There are pictures of some of my favorite buildings and my time on the beach in the photo album I'll put at the end of this post.
Today I had my first midterm and it went pretty well. My friends and I spent the afternoon studying outside, soaking up the sun, and drinking coffee from a small cafe. Sounds great, right? Tomorrow I have another midterm and then we start new classes on Wednesday. Saturday I'm going to Montserrat with some friends and I'll probably spend Friday and Sunday either on the beach or in museums... Depends on the weather and how ambitious I'm feeling. Next weekend is our trip to Paris and we've got a hotel booked now so all we have to do is make our flights and get there to enjoy the city. We also finalized our itinerary for the trip to Italy in April. We'll be going to Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples, Sicily and Rome. Needless to say it's going to be a busy week of travel and sleeplessness, but it's totally worth it.
That's it for now!
Ashley
Viva Barcelona II
Today I had my first midterm and it went pretty well. My friends and I spent the afternoon studying outside, soaking up the sun, and drinking coffee from a small cafe. Sounds great, right? Tomorrow I have another midterm and then we start new classes on Wednesday. Saturday I'm going to Montserrat with some friends and I'll probably spend Friday and Sunday either on the beach or in museums... Depends on the weather and how ambitious I'm feeling. Next weekend is our trip to Paris and we've got a hotel booked now so all we have to do is make our flights and get there to enjoy the city. We also finalized our itinerary for the trip to Italy in April. We'll be going to Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples, Sicily and Rome. Needless to say it's going to be a busy week of travel and sleeplessness, but it's totally worth it.
That's it for now!
Ashley
Viva Barcelona II
3.09.2009
Hello all! Let's see... what is there to report? Well, last week I went to every single class but one. That's a record. Mondays are pretty rough, I often miss at least one of my six hours of class that day but even Monday I made it to all of them! Getting to and from class, doing my homework, and sleeping in between consumed the majority of my week. Over the weekend my friends and I went to a handful of new bars that top all the tourist lists to see what they were all about. One of my favorites so far is called Dow Jones. There are screens all over the bar with what looks like stock market numbers rising and falling, but instead of the prices of stocks it's the prices of specific beers or drinks so you can buy something when the stock is low and when it goes back up you buy something else. Every so often there are 'crashes' where everything is half price. It's entertaining at least! I've been meeting people from all around the world. Wednesday night we met a group of Italian students a year younger than I am who were visiting Barca for their spring break. Friday night I met a group of German and Austrian people who are here working for the year. It's been fun!
Saturday I went back up to Montjuic to see the castle and visit the Joan Miro Museum. The castle wasn't that impressive; it costs money to go inside and I've heard the museum inside of it is pretty boring... so I just walked around the outside of it and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL weather instead. The flowers are starting to bloom, so I could just walk around, take in the sun and smell spring all around me. I spent the entire day on my own, some much-needed alone time. At the Joan Miro Museum I listened to classical music and tried to put a lot of thought into his work. Much like the Dali museum, his surrealist art was a bit hard to understand but if I read the titles and stepped back to see the whole picture sometimes, just sometimes, I could get what he was going for. He also used a lot of different mediums like Dali did. After I was done at the museum I watched the magic fountain show in front of the old palace. I put photos of the show up, but they really don't capture how amazing the show was. I took videos, but the files are too big to upload :(
Sunday a friend and I went to Tibidabo, a much larger mountain to the northwest of the city. It was quite a hike uphill just to get to the tram to the top, then we had to wait for a tram on top of it... But it was totally worth it. The view of the city is unbeatable. If Montjuic is a good view, Tibidabo is an incredible view. There's a small theme park and a huge, very interesting church at the top of the mountain. We walked around the theme park and then sat in the sun eating our sack lunches for an hour or so. This weekend was really the first time we've had decent amounts of sun and heat for an entire day, it was a blessing.
We booked our flights to Amsterdam over the weekend, so right now I have Paris March 27-29, Italy April 4-12 and Amsterdam May 8-10. I'm still trying to organize trips to other places in Spain and there's a chance I might go to Geneva as well, but that's a bit of a long shot at the moment. I hope all is well back home. I'll post photos from this weekend later tonight when I've put them all up on Facebook.
Ashley
Saturday I went back up to Montjuic to see the castle and visit the Joan Miro Museum. The castle wasn't that impressive; it costs money to go inside and I've heard the museum inside of it is pretty boring... so I just walked around the outside of it and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL weather instead. The flowers are starting to bloom, so I could just walk around, take in the sun and smell spring all around me. I spent the entire day on my own, some much-needed alone time. At the Joan Miro Museum I listened to classical music and tried to put a lot of thought into his work. Much like the Dali museum, his surrealist art was a bit hard to understand but if I read the titles and stepped back to see the whole picture sometimes, just sometimes, I could get what he was going for. He also used a lot of different mediums like Dali did. After I was done at the museum I watched the magic fountain show in front of the old palace. I put photos of the show up, but they really don't capture how amazing the show was. I took videos, but the files are too big to upload :(
Sunday a friend and I went to Tibidabo, a much larger mountain to the northwest of the city. It was quite a hike uphill just to get to the tram to the top, then we had to wait for a tram on top of it... But it was totally worth it. The view of the city is unbeatable. If Montjuic is a good view, Tibidabo is an incredible view. There's a small theme park and a huge, very interesting church at the top of the mountain. We walked around the theme park and then sat in the sun eating our sack lunches for an hour or so. This weekend was really the first time we've had decent amounts of sun and heat for an entire day, it was a blessing.
We booked our flights to Amsterdam over the weekend, so right now I have Paris March 27-29, Italy April 4-12 and Amsterdam May 8-10. I'm still trying to organize trips to other places in Spain and there's a chance I might go to Geneva as well, but that's a bit of a long shot at the moment. I hope all is well back home. I'll post photos from this weekend later tonight when I've put them all up on Facebook.
Ashley
3.02.2009
Hello all! I'm back from a crazy and short weekend in Dublin, it was a great time! We didn't get to do as much sightseeing as I would have liked for two reasons: We didn't come prepared with a list of important things to see and we didn't have enough time. We were all up at 5am to catch a bus to the airport an hour away from Barcelona, then we had a two hour flight, and about a half hour of walking to get to the apartment we were staying in. Needless to say, we were exhausted when we got there and had to take a siesta. Friday night we obviously went out and enjoyed the Dublin nightlife. The Irish are party animals, no doubt about it. Saturday we went to Trinity College and walked around the City Center quite a bit just enjoying the pretty buildings. We spent about 3 hours in the Guinness Storehouse learning about how the beer was created and marketed and stuff and enjoyed a free pint on the top floor. The Guinness Storehouse has the best view of Dublin on its top floor, a great place to enjoy a pint of the freshest Guinness on the planet. We tried to get to a few other places, but they ended up being closed because we spent too much time in the Guinness Storehouse. Saturday night we went out with all of our new friends from Adriana's friend's school and had another great time. Then we had to leave Sunday morning and had another long day of travel.
As of right now I don't have any trips planned until Paris March 26-29. I might go to Granada in two weeks... but that's up in the air right now. School is going well, we have midterms in two weeks. I'm already feeling how fast this semester is going, time is flying by! On a side note, I could use some snail-mail in my life if anyone feels like writing to me... Mail really brightens my day :)
Dublin Photos
Ashley
As of right now I don't have any trips planned until Paris March 26-29. I might go to Granada in two weeks... but that's up in the air right now. School is going well, we have midterms in two weeks. I'm already feeling how fast this semester is going, time is flying by! On a side note, I could use some snail-mail in my life if anyone feels like writing to me... Mail really brightens my day :)
Dublin Photos
Ashley
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