August 17-21, 2011

Versailles, Provence, Florence and Pisa!
During the rest of the first week with my parents, I visited Versailles, Provence, Florence and Pisa. Versailles was very impressive! I could not believe how big the place was, especially the gardens. It seemed like we had to walk a mile to get one third of the way through the gardens to get to the queens retreat home. The inside was impressive too, however it was hard to see what each room was meant for since most of the furniture was no longer in the rooms, and the castle was soooo crowded.. you could barely move from room to room!

In Provence, we stayed in Avignon which was a really cute walled town. Although we did not spend a ton of time actually looking around Avignon, I found it to be a very pleasant town, with very nice people who were happy to help you with your problems! The one day we were in Provence, we decided to rent a car to get to the sites we planned to see. This turned out to be a big fiasco! First, my dad went to get the rental car, and he could not figure out for the life of him how to get back to the hotel to get my mom and me. Finally, after two hours of us waiting, he made his way through the windy streets and found us! Having the car that day was frustrating, but very fun at the same time. It allowed us to get to different places easily, however we couldn’t really read the French signs, so it was a challenge at the same time. That day we visited the Pont-du-Gard, an old Roman Coliseum in Arles (the town Vincent Van Gogh used to live in), and we went to Les Beux rock top castle. The Pont-du-Gard was enjoyable to see because it is one of those sites you see in history books when you are young, and finally make it to when you are older. It was a huge structure, and had a very beautiful landscape. Many people were swimming in the river below the aqueduct, making me wish I had my suit to join them! The coliseum in Arles was a little disappointing. They had modernized it to make it friendlier to the public these days, so that it can be safely used for entertainment now. In my opinion, this kind of ruined the feel of the place, making it less special. Les Beux Rocktop castle was very fun to see! It was this old fort/ castle built on top of a mountain many many years ago. Most of it was in ruins; however the town below was still being used for tourists and the hilltop castle provided great views of the French countryside. After visiting these three sites, we stopped for dinner on our way back to Avignon in a small town. This turned out to be a very good dinner, however the lack of English still frustrated me. I guess I need to get over that! When we got back, we realized we needed to get gas before we turned in our car to the rental the next morning. My dad was getting very frustrated with the lack of gas stations. And to make it worse, when we got to the gas stations, we could not use our credit card because it did not have some special chip in it- we needed to find a station we could pay for in cash. We finally asked a French couple for help, however the language barrier once again became a problem. Fortunately, this couple was very friendly, and I was able to use what little French I know to figure out what gas station we would be able to pay cash at. In the end, after much frustration, we ended up filling the gas the next morning before hopping on the train to Florence.

Florence was amazing! I was expecting it to be a big city, but it ended up being a pretty small town. I loved the festive atmosphere of the place, all of the vendors, and the historic feel to the town. Our hotel, la Residencia Giotto was by far our best accommodations yet. It was located right next to Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence, giving us great views from our window and from the balcony which we ate breakfast at. The workers there were also very friendly, giving us good advice on what to do and see, and catering to our every need. We went to the Uffizi gallery, which houses a lot of older, religious works- many of which I studied in art history class. It was really neat to see these paintings in real life! We walked around and shopped a lot- and although I didn’t buy anything, I know I will be back with my class so I might have to pick something up then!

During my final day with my parents before heading to Genoa, we stopped by Pisa and Monterosso. I have heard Pisa was a tourist trap, and it was, however I really liked it! It was interesting to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, since I have heard so much about it my whole life, and it (along with the buildings around it) was beautiful! On the way from Pisa to Genoa, we stopped in Monterosso, which is one of the Cinque Terre towns. We thought there would be a place to store our luggage here, but there was not, so I waited with the luggage while my parents looked around, since I thought I would be coming back at some time during the next 4 months.

Finally I am headed for Genoa!!
(sorry for the long post, I just had to get it all out)

August 15, 2011

PARIS

The first day in Paris (the same day of our flight) was good, however I was sooo tired! At this point we were well past 24 hours of being awake and were headed toward a full day of activities. I felt a little awkward at first, not knowing any French and not sure who to talk to. We started at the L’Orangerie(sp?) museum which houses Monet’s Waterlillies. It was really neat to see, but very crowded! Then we headed for the Louvre. My mom decided to get a wheelchair to go around in because her ankle hurt; this ended up being both awful and great at the same time. It was hard to move around in a wheelchair, however when we got to where the Mona Lisa is (where there were hoards of people surrounding it) we were able to go infront of the security ropes to get a better view(thanks to the wheelchair) where we didn’t have anyone to look over. Little did they know that my mom has no trouble standing. Haha. I didn’t make it very long at the Louvre, I felt like a zombie from lack of sleep. My mom, dad and I decided to go back to the hotel to take a nap before going out again that night. Later that night we saw the Arc d’Triumph and climbed to the top for a great view of the city.

Paris Day 2- We found the best way to get around Paris as a tourist is by bike. They have little Velib stations all over the city where you go and rent bikes. You can get a bike from any station and put it away at any station so it was a fun way to get around- we got to see the sights and have cheap transportation(the first 30 minutes are free each time). The only problem with the bike system is that sometimes you cannot find a bike station near your destination or it might be full, and being a foreigner, we were not exactly sure how their traffic customs worked, so this made for some dangerous bike trips! (I am pretty sure my mom almost died 5 times!) We went to Musee D’Orsay in the morning which turns out to be one of my favorite museums! It is in an old train station that had been converted into a museum and it houses many famous impressionist works. It was neat to see many of the paintings/works that I had studied in my art history class! After visiting the Musee d’Orsay, we headed over to Notre Dame. I have to say, Notre Dame was not as impressive as I thought it would be. It was big and had a lot of detail, however I thought it would be bigger, and be more inviting of a building. The Sacre Coure church that is in the same area as Notre Dame was almost more impressive to me on the inside of the building. It has floor to ceiling stained glass walls, giving it a more light and impressive feel than Notre Dame. However, the exterior of the building was nothing special. After lunch we headed up to Montemarte, which is the highest point in Paris. The Saint-Chapelle chapel sits on top of the hill and from here you can look out over paris, giving you a really neat view. The chapel here was more impressive than I thought it would be. It is a huge white building on the outside, and the inside is very open and am inviting place. After looking around the chapel, we went to the montemarte market which is full of local artists selling their works. My mom and I each picked out a watercolor painting that we liked- a scene of the Senne River, and a painting of Notre dame. That night for dinner, we went to a little brasserie near our hotel that was recommended by our hotel receptionist. It turned out to be the most entertaining and the best meal yet. We witnessed some Jypsy people steal a man’s tab off of his table before the waiter had a chance to pick it up. The next thing you know, a bunch of waitors and what seemed to be the manager or owner of the restaurant went running after this man. They caught him and called the police, and in the meantime they and a full-fledged argument in the middle of the street and almost started a fight. After that exciting dinner, we hopped on the velib bikes again and went back to the Eifel tower to spend some more time there. At ten o’clock that night, the tower lit up and had flashing lights all over it. This was pretty cool to see, and apparently they do this every night.

August 14, 2011

The Flight

The plane ride to Paris was definitely the longest plane ride I have ever been on. On the first flight from Cincinnati to Charlotte, I sat next to a girl who was going to be a freshman at USC. However I quickly found out that this was the only difference we really had. Upon talking a little, we discovered that we both went to Anderson High School, and we had a lot of the same teachers! It was interesting to hear her perspective on Anderson four years after I graduated, but apparently not much has changed! She also is a lifeguard in the summer… did I mention that her name is Sarah as well? Turns out it is a small world! The next flight was interesting because we were flying through the night. We watched the sun set right over the Atlantic Ocean and it rose just as we got to Paris. The night was very short for us! Upon arriving at the Paris airport, I quickly found out that there would not be much English in my life anymore! At first, I didn’t understand why I didn’t understand people. The Paris airport was pretty interesting; the main part of the airport was an upright cylinder and you went through tubes that housed a slanted ramp (escalatoresque- without steps) which crossed the cylinder to the other side to get to the baggage claim. Finally we are in Europe! Exploring Paris later today!