Lucca

Day Trip: Lucca October 25th, 2011

This was the first day trip we took in which it was rainy and gloomy. We began our trip at this old villa, Villa Reale de Marlia... but it wasn’t the villa we were looking at this time... it was the gardens around the villa which are some of the most famous in Italy. The gardens were full of secret passageways and long, impressive corridors of trees. More impressive than anything though was how beautiful it was. It wasn’t grand, but had a more romantic feel. Unfortunately it was raining, so it was not as enjoyable as it could have been, but it was beautiful none the less. After visiting the garden, we went into Lucca for lunch where I once again got some delicious Italian(or maybe European? Not sure which) hot chocolate! After lunch we visited the two main churches in the town, took a look at some of their more prominent piazzas, and we climbed one tower of many to get an aerial view of the town and the surrounding mountains. At the top of the tower, I caught myself taking this view for granted. I am getting used to visiting these small towns on our day trips and they begin to blend together, however each one has its own unique charm. On the way home (we were 2 hours south of Genoa), we ran into a bit of rain, but that was the least of our problems. Apparently it had been pouring in the La Spezia region (about an hour south of Genoa), and the road we needed to take had flooded. We stopped to find an alternate route back to the villa which ended up taking us 4 extra hours. We got back to the villa at 11pm that night instead of 7pm when we were supposed to arrive! The next day we saw news articles of the storm and it was worse than we realized. The little Cinque Terre towns were terribly flooded in the storm and the detour we took to get home closed 20 minutes after we took it due to more flooding. Good thing we went when we did otherwise we would have had to go to Florence.

villa from the garden

the town of Lucca from a tower

Barcelona!

Barcelona: October 21st-24th, 2011

Barcelona was as great as I expected it to be. When we got to the city (around 4pm), we took the subway from the airport straight to the Clemson dorms we would be staying in (since the other Clemson program is in Barcelona). I was lucky to be traveling with three other people who were friends with some of the Clemson students in that program, so we got a free place to stay for three nights. After we settled in, we went to the Boqueria, which is a big market selling many different goods- a lot of fish (some of it alive still), cheeses, drinks, candy, etc. This market was full of character and very crowded, making it a fun atmosphere. Afterwards, we went towards the beach, which was very pretty (if only it was warmer out), and we saw some more modern buildings. To finish our quick tour of Barcelona that night we went to a late dinner in one of the many piazzas in the city.

the beach in Barcelona

The next day we woke up and one of the girls made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast. This was a real treat… You don’t realize how much you like peanut butter until you don’t have it for months. For some reason they don’t sell it in Italy! The first thing we visited was the Hospital de Sant Pau which is a famous hospital complex done by architect Lluis Domenech I Montane. Most of the complex was under construction and renovation, so it was kind of hard to see the whole structure together, but it was very impressive none the less. The church in the complex was especially impressive (for a hospital church that is). The inside was full of blue tile and windows so it seemed to glow blue! Next item on our list- the Sagrada Familia! After grabbing a quick lunch at a nearby café, we walked down the street (maybe five blocks) to the Sagrada Familia(by Gaudi). Upon approaching it, I was amazed at how massive it is. A lot of buildings you study, you imagine to be huge and when you visit them they let you down, so I went into this thinking that people had hyped it up to be something grander than it was, but it ended up being pretty amazing. The whole building is based off of shapes from nature, so all of the columns and window openings and every other detail (there were quite a few) are derived from something in nature. The inside of the church is designed to be like a forest, with the many structural columns acting as tree trunks and the ceiling being the canopy of trees. Once I knew this fact, the building really made a lot more sense to me. I have to say, this is probably the most impressive building I have seen… ever...and it is not even close to being completed! It is hard to fathom what it will be like when it is complete, which I doubt I will be alive to see the day. After the Sagrada Familia, we went to see some more of Gaudi’s works, the Casa Batillo and the Casa Mila. We decided not to go into both buildings because they were a little pricy, so we split up, three people went into the Casa Batillo, and three went to the Casa Mila. The Casa Batillo is smaller but more detailed inside, and the Casa Mila is famous for its roof. I decided to go into the Casa Mila. We bargained our way down to a student price even though we don’t have the international student cards, and made our way up in the apartment complex. The roof of this building was really cool. It was like giant waves with stairs going up and down the waves, along with huge circular holes that serve as courtyards for the building. After exploring the roof, we went through the attic (which was a really neat, and large area) and went down to visit one of the floors of the building. When we got back to the entrance, I realized that we had barely touched a lot of the building so I asked one of the workers if people still live in those apartments and to my surprise they do! I thought aloud that it must be really expensive to live in Gaudi building, and the lady said actually it was quite cheap for them now a days, since they had been living in the building since it was built. Apparently, no one would be able to buy their apartment if they sold it. After seeing all these Gaudi buildings, we walked back to the dorm area and went a local bar to watch the Clemson Football game which they always play for the Clemson students! Afterwards we grabbed a quick bite to eat and went back to the dorm to rest. Later that night, and I mean much much later (1:30am) we went to a discothèque (which apparently you have to do when you are in Barcelona) and we ended up staying there until about 5:30am. It was quite a late night, but it was fun!

the hospital

inside Sagrada Familia

on top of Gaudi's Casa Mila

Casa Mila from the outside

The next morning, we woke up around 10(not a lot of sleep this night) in order to get a few more sights in. A few of us went to a local church which was built more than 1000 years ago. It had a different feel than most churches I have seen. It was less ornate, but grand just the same. For lunch, we were craving Mexican food, so everyone went to a Mexican restaurant! It is amazing how much you miss variety in your food choices when you are stuck in one country. Barcelona is quite a large city, so it was nice to have this variety of food! After lunch, we strolled around the streets and La Rambla (which is a busy shopping street in Barcelona full of vendors and street performers) before making our way to Montjuic. Montjuic is where the Olympic complex was back for the 1992 Olympics. We also saw the Barcelona Pavilion by Mies Van der Rohe (a famous architect). I had never heard of this building (or studied it) so I had no Idea what I was going to see. It’s funny though, because two days after we got back from Barcelona, the building was brought up in one of the history classes I am taking in Genoa! Now I know! For dinner that night, we got Vietnamese food (once again mixing it up)!
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to catch our plane back to Genoa. I have to say, overall Barcelona is probably my favorite city I have visited thus far!

Barceona Pavilion

sunset on Montjuic

Pavia and Vigevano

Pavia and Vigevan: October 18th, 2011

Our day trip last week was to Pavia and Vigevano, two small towns south of Milan. We visited a really neat monastery in Pavia where we were given a tour by a monk. We saw the church there along with the little apartments the monks used to live in. We then went into the little town of Pavia which was really quaint town. I am really starting to like the charm of the smaller towns in Italy that we visit. We toured the town and stopped for lunch here. I packed a lunch, but I decided to get some hot chocolate because it was cold out that day. This was my first experience having hot chocolate in Europe and I loved it. The hot chocolate here is like drinking pudding. It reminds me of the consistency of pudding when you are cooking it on a stove before it hardens. It was delicious! After lunch, we visited a medieval castle in the area before going to Vigevano to visit another castle. Our stop in Vigevano was short, and we were back to the villa by 7:30 that night!

Greece, Athens and the Islands

Athens: October 11th, 2011
The flight from Istanbul to Athens was very nice and awful at the same time. It was nice in the sense that they treated us well and gave us a meal(which was completely unexpected), but I thought I was going to die when the plane landed. It was a very overcast and stormy day in Athens, and I am pretty sure our plane was not parallel to the runway when we landed. It then proceded to swerve down the runway. My first impression of Athens did not change throughout my stay... it was dark and dreary the whole time. When we got to the hotel, we asked the manager what time the Acropolis opened, and he told us the bad news..the Acropolis was closed due to a strike starting the next day. We were devastated, and went to bed very upset that night. When we woke up we were not really sure what we were going to do since we planned on going to the Acropolis all day. When we walked downstairs our hotel manager was so excited to tell us that the strike on the Acropolis started the following day and was still open. So we went to the Acropolis! It was a very cold day in Athens, but it was still really nice to see Acropolis and to check it off our list. Down the mountain you could hear protesters at the main square for about an hour. I still don't understand the purpose of their strike(s). While most of the city was uninviting, the area around the Acropolis and the other ruins was nice, so we mainly stuck around there. After seeing the Acropolis and the ancient Agora, we had lunch(and got free chocolate walnut cake-very good), and then we headed for the temple of Zeus. The ruins of this temple were very impressive, and you could see how big the temple would have been if it was all still standing and it was mammoth... much much larger than the Parthenon. The next morning, I was very glad to wake up early and get out of Athens... it was good to see, but I will be happy to never go there again.

view of islands from plane

at the Parthenon

Parthenon

at the temple of Zeus

Greek Islands

Mykonos: October 12-13th, 2011
Our hostel in Mykonos was great. They picked us up from the port and told us exactly how to get around the town. The hostel was a little further away from the town so we could not walk, however it was very nice and full of character. We mainly just walked around the town and explored(it was a maze through the little streets). The town was not very crowded as the tourist season is over, but there were still cruise ships coming in to town, and the town would fill up and empty with each cruise ship. Mykonos was very relaxing and low key, however I really like a place more when there are more sights to see and things to do.

windmills on Mykonos

Naxos: October 13th-14th, 2011

Naxos is the biggest of the islands but we mainly stayed in the main town. I wish we could have rented a car to explore the island because apparently it is huge, but we didn't have enough time to really plan on doing anything like that, so we just explored the town a little, and went to the beach(the weather we very nice, but the water was cold!)We watched the sunset at the temple of Demeter which is situated on a point on the island overlooking the water. That night for dinner we found a Mexican restaurant.. they don't have these in Italy and we were missing home so we decided that would be a good choice.. and it was. The next day we woke up and explored some more and did some sketches before heading back to the port. I liked Naxos, however it was really dead at this point. There were no cruise ships to fill the town, and the tourist season was mostly over, so it was not an extremely lively town. If I ever go back there, I will make sure to stay for at least two days to give myself time to explore the rest of the island. The ferries between the islands are very interesting.. they are like little hovercraft looking tings, and the seats are assigned inside like an airplane. These are the high speed ferries so you are not allowed on the outer deck, but they were still kind of fun to ride.

Naxos sunset

Santorini: October 14th-15th, 2011
Santorini was breathtaking. I wish I could have been there longer(we were only there a day). There is so much I wanted to do but couldn't due to a lack of time. Santorini is situated around a volcano, and that was one of many things I wanted to do. Once again, our hostel picked us up from the port. I have to say, I will never complain about a taxi drivers driving ever again. This man who picked us up was flying up the cliff and up a zig-zag road.. I am pretty sure he accelerated through the turns. Once we got to the hostel(thank goodness), we quickly put our stuff in our room so we could make it to see the sunset from the town of Oia which is famous for its views. We got on the bus and once again we were speeding around turns with a cliff and the ocean on one side. Once we got to Oia we sprinted to the end to see the sunset. We missed most of it but we were able to catch the last bit. We had dinner in Oia and explored the town there some more. If I had millions, I would have stayed in one of the cliffside hotels overlooking the ocean. The next day we headed to Kamari beach which is black lava rock beach. We didn't bring our suits but it was neat to walk on a black sand beach.. it was different than anything I had seen before. After the beach we had lunch in Fira(the main town and the town we stayed in) and looked around the town. Then we headed to the port for one last time for our ferry back to Athens. The island hopping tour was a quick one... looking back I wish I would have gone to just one island and done more, but it was good to get a taste of three different islands. Santorini was definately my favorite and I was sad to leave. We had a long ferry ride back to Athens(8 hours) which I was not really excited to see again. The next morning we left for the airport to head back to Genoa. I had a lot of fun on this trip, however I was ready to go back!

on the black beach in Santorini

Santorini on cliffside (taken from ferry)

Istanbul

October 8th-10th, 2011: Istanbul, Turkey

The night we arrived in Istanbul, my initial impression of the city was not what I expected. For starters, I thought the city would be flat, and it was very hilly.I also thought it would be less developed and more historical, but it was a pretty modern city! The man who picked us up to drive us to our hotel must have been driving 100 mph on the way back, so I was pretty happy to arrive once we did. Our room in the hotel was on the very top floor, and three of its walls were windows.. and the shape of it made us feel like we were on a boat. We quickly fell asleep that night after our arrival(at 3am) after a long day of traveling. The next morning I woke up to singing. I was so confused, I thought it was in my dream at first, but then I realized that it was coming from outside. It eventually got louder and louder and different singing voices(in Turkish) were coming from all different directions. I found out once I woke up that it was the Muslim call to prayer at sunrise. There are loud speakers on every mosque that project the call to prayer throughout the city five times day. It was really interesting to hear, and this was the first of many things which intrigued me about this culture. That morning we woke up to a bustling city, full of street vendors and tourists. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel and went straight to the Hagia Sophia. I was really looking forward to seeing this building because I had studied it it my art history classes. The Hagia Sophia is known for its massive dome and was the largest cathedral in the world for over 1000 years. It was built three different times, destroyed twice before it was built for the third time in 537. It didnt become a mosque until 1453. It was really cool to see the inside of the mosque.. it was definatley worn down, but for how old it is I was very impressed with the size and the decor.

inside the Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia exterior

After the Hagia Sophia, we went to the Blue Mosque, which is next door to the Hagia Sophia. For me, the Blue Mosque was more impressive from the outside, but I liked the interior of the Hagia Sophia better. The blue mosque was the royal mosque, so it is completely covered(inside) with blue tiles which was very pretty. This mosque is also still in use as a mosque, so it was interesting to see people praying and going about their rituals every day. After visiting the interior, we went outside to sketch the exterior for our sketch class. While we were sketching, a few people started coming up to us to look at our sketches. Then more and more people started coming up to us, at times there were groups of probably twenty people(turks) around us looking at our sketches. Apparently we were more interesting than the mosque itself. Some people were even taking pictures of us and with us. It was very humerious. On our way out of the Blue Mosque, a large group of serious looking men in business suits were walking up the steps to the mosque as we were walking down. I was really confused at first, but then realize they were body guards around some lady. After passing them, we saw their big carravan of cars, which we noticed had Brazillian flags on them. We told our professor this later at dinner(he is Brazilian), and he didnt know who it was, but figured out the next morning that it was the Brazilian president.

Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque exterior

After a long afternoon at these two famous mosques, we headed to the Grand Bazaar. The name fits it well.. it was grand and it was bizare. Just up the road from the mosques, this bazaar had around 4000 shops selling many different goods from scarves, bags, spices, jewelry, ceramics, food.. pretty much anything, but espically Turkish goods. It was fun to bargain at different shops, and it was odd because the people who worked there seemed fluent in every language. They originally started speaking English to us, but when one of us muttered an Italian word, they instantly switched to Italian. Our Brazilian professor said they could even tell he was from Brazil. I have to say though, they were not very good at guessing I was American, a lot of them thought I was Australian or Canadian. I ended up doing a good job of bargaining.. I bought a few scarves, bowls, and some jewlrey, for myself and as gifts. My group jokes that I have a mini bazaar with me now. After a great first day in Istanbul, we went to dinner and headed home.

Grand Bazaar

The next day, we visited the Sultanahmut Palace adjacent to the Hagia Sophia. Unfortunaly it was raining, so it was hard to appreciate the palace like I would have wanted to, but it had great views of the Bospherous straight between Europe and Asia(yes I saw Asia, but we didnt make it there). They also had many jewel rooms, one of which housed the biggest diamond I had ever seen; an 87 carat diamond which as history goes was found in the garbage by a pesant, who sold it to a jeweler for three spoons, which was later taken by the sultan when he heard of it. After the palace we got lunch at a kebab stand(2 lera=amazing) and decided to get out of the rain and visit the cisterns underground. The cisterns were really cool to see, but I kept wondering to myself why they would build such an impressive structure underground where it is dark. I later found out that water is very sacred to this culture so they build a monumental place for it. On the way out, I stopped to take a picture and my umbrella slipped from my control and fell into the water.. oops! We got a good laugh out of this one. I was hoping the rain would have stopped when we exited the cisterns, but if anything it was heavier. Luckily I had my rain jacket on, so I decided I didn't need to buy another umbrella. After the cisterns, we toughed out the rain and headed to the Egyptian Spice market, which kind of seemed like a smaller, less intense version of the Grand Bazaar. From there we headed to the "New" Mosque which was finished in 1665(new right?). We were very tired, wet and cold at this point so we headed back to the hotel to rest for a few minutes before going to dinner. At dinner that night when our bill came, we noticed that the price was too much. When we told our waitor this, he was sure that he didnt make a mistake, so Henrique(our professor) took out his Iphone calculator and showed the man twice that he charged us ten more lera than he should have. The waitor then went to get his "Turksih" calculator to do the math himself. Sure enough, his calculator told him he made a mistake too. We thought it was funny that he thought the IPhone would lie.

cisterns
Bospherous Straight: left side of bridge is Europe, right is Asia

Then next morning, we only had a few hours to spare before we had to head to the airport, so we decided to walk accross a bridge to get a good view of the city. Unfortunaly it was still raining so this was not as pleasant as it might sound(we didnt prepare for the rain very well). After walking accross the bridge, we went to one more mosque, which was very serene and green compared to the other mosques. The inside however was nothing special(in the mosque world).. they say that once you see one mosque you have seen them all and by this point, I was starting to feel that way. On our walk back to the hotel, we spent our last few lera and grabbed lunch. I have to say, I really like Istanbul. Even though it rained for a day and a half of the two and a half days we were there, I had a great time and was very impressed. I loved the turkish delight(gummy type candy), and I love the lera to dollar conversion rate(1 dollar=1.8 lera). I only wish I had gone to the Turkish baths. These were highly recomened to me by many people but we never found the time to go. I guess this gives me a reason to come back to Istanbul! Later that afternoon, we boarded the plane for Athens!

Carrara Marble Day Trip

Thursday October 6th, 2011- Carrara, Italy

Today we went on a day trip to Carrara, Italy where they are famous for their white marble. We had a bus today which was a reallllly nice change of pace from the trains and walking everywhere. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Carrara on the bus, and the bus took us to all of our stops of the day. We started off going to a museum which showed the history of the marble quarry and how they get the marble out and down the mountain. They had all different kinds of marble to look at, but mostly white marble which is the marble of this specific marble. Then we went into historical Carrara to have lunch and to visit the main church in the town. This town seemed like a small version of Genoa, except for the fact that everything was made from marble... even the ground. I guess you can afford that much marble when the mountain behind your city is packed full of it. After lunch we went up into the mountains where the quarries are. I had no idea that there were these massive mountains so close to Genoa. We went on a tour into the quarry which was in the middle of the mountain.. apparently 600 meters in the mountain on either side and 400meters down from the peak. It was cold in there, but it was cool to see how they cut the marble out and to be in a quarry that is still in use(there were workers there at the same time). Our guide said that all of the mountains in the mountain range(alps) were made of marble... this region having white marble. After the tour, we headed back to the bus where the bus driver was very disgruntled about the marble dust all over us.

After the quarry tour we quickly stopped at a marble studio where artists make marble statues for places all over Europe.. they had versions of David lying on the floor among many other statues. Apparently the "sculptor" of the statue does not actually do the work or witness all of the work. He is more or a less a boss, checking up on the work of the apprentices. We only stopped here for about 20 minutes before hopping on the bus and heading back to Genoa.

Only one test tomorrow morning before I head to Istanbul and Greece for the next week!

We took the road less traveled by and it made all the difference...

Saturday, October 1st, 2011: Cinque Terre

On Saturday four of us decided to take a break from work and head down to the Cinque Terre for the day. On the train there, I had one more use on my Eurail Pass I got from with my parents in August... so I wrote the date on the pass, September 31st(right?). Turns out there is no September 31st. Who knew. So the guy was trying to tell me that September 31st was yesterday.. with our communication barrier I was fighting with him saying no, this is today. Apparently we were both wrong. I think he finally realized what happened, so he only charged me 10 euros as opposed to 50. Regardless, I wasn't very happy at this point.

When we got to the first town, my mood didn't really improve at first(Riomaggiore). The town was PACKED with tourists. We took a few snapshots of the town the unbelievably clear blue water, and moved on to the next town(Manarola). The hike between these two towns was by far the easiest. It was paved the whole way and maybe took 20 minutes reach the end. Once we got there, we learned that the trail to the next town was closed due to a landslide. You were able to walk up the trail a little ways so we did that to get the good view of the town. Along this short path, there were a group of Americans jumping off the cliff and swimming in the water below... It looked like soo much fun! If only I brought my suit with me. Maybe in Greece next week? When we went back to Manarola(the second town) we were faced with the dilema.. .take the train to the next town, or hike around the landslide on a trail that goes through the orchards and up the cliff. Marissa, one of the girls I was with, said "well we did come here to walk"... apparently we didn't know how much walking though!

blue water in Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore

Manarola

When we went back to Manarola(the second town) we were faced with the dilema.. .take the train to the next town, or hike around the landslide on a trail that goes through the vineyards and up the cliff. Marissa, one of the girls I was with, said "well we did come here to walk"... but we didn't know how much walking! We started climbing the stairs/hill, and don't get me wrong... the view kept getting better and better, however, we kept waiting for the peak of the hill to come around the next corner.. and it never came(well it did eventually). Once we got to the top, after countless grape vineyards, stairs, and narrow paths along the cliff, the view was AMAZiNG! You can't even begin to describe it to someone and pictures just don't do it justice. We stood at the top to enjoy the view for a few minutes before continuing our journey to Corniglia(the third town). Along this same path we ran into a couple, and I noticed the man was wearing a Cincinnati Reds hat, and after asking them, found out they were from Cincinnati. What are the chances that in the middle of a hike in Italy I would run into someone from Cincinnati? We finally made it to the town of Corniglia, up on a cliff, where we stopped for a late lunch(around 3pm).

at the top of our hike between Manarola and Corniglia(the detour path)

Corniglia in the distance

Our hike to Vernazza was not nearly as tough as the last hike. We reached Vernazza around 5:30, and realized that we probably were not going to make our 6:15 train back to Genoa that we originally wanted to take, but we still wanted to make the 7:15 if we could, so we didn't spend much time in Vernazza before heading on. We quickly looked around(which was a very beautiful town), and found the next trail to Monterossa(the fifth and final town of the Cinque Terre).

Vernazza

Vernazza

Once again, the second hike(our little detour through the vineyards) we took made this path seem like a piece of cake, even though it is supposed to be the hardest of the four trails. It was 7:15 before we knew it and the sun was setting. We had missed our train again, so we decided to take our time getting back, and get the 8:15 train. We stopped for some gelato and a diet coke, which was much needed at this point, before going to the train station in Monterosso to get our tickets. We were all so tired that everything was funny at this point, so we had an entertaining ride back to Genoa. Once we got back to the Villa, where everyone else had been working all day, they didn't understand/appreciate our good moods, so being exhausted we all got a much needed shower and went straight to bed. All in all, it was a pretty good day.

looking back at Vernazza

sunset in Monterossa

Milan

Tuesday this week we took a day trip to Milan. After taking the train through Milan a few times, I did not have very high expectations for the city. However, since it is the "fashion capital of the world" I thought that it might surprise me. While there were nice parts to the city, I have to say most of the city seemed kind of dingy, and not really worth seeing. We started our day trip with a 720 train to Milan. This train meant a long day for us.. since we would not be getting back until 9 that night.

Once in Milan, we went directly two two churches. The first was the Santa Maria delle Grazie, from the outside, this church seemed kind of small and insignificant. The history of the place and the inside as well as the backside of the church were much more impressive. A museum right beside the church housed the Last Supper by da Vinci. We didn't see the painting because it takes more than 4 months to get reservations with a group of our size to see it... but I saw the building that it is in!

The next church we went to was the Basilica di Saint'Ambrogio. This church was very nice a well.. but compared to all of the churches we have seen, I was not overly impressed with it. There were monks singing in the inside(somewhere) of the church which was cool to hear, but other than that, this was just another church.

Finally we went to the Cathedral of Milan. I was excited to see this church because Guiditta was telling us that it took 500 years to complete it. I was thinking to myself, "how on earth could it take 500 years to build one building?" Once I saw this thing, I understood why. The details on/in/around this building were ridiculous(in a good way). There were so many tiny details covering every inch of the building! The only problem with taking 500 years to build a building is that only one of the many architects and commissioners lived to see the building complete. Guiditta told us that they were still building parts of the church while they were renovating other parts due to wear and tear. We got to go in the church and to the top of the church as well. At the top, we were able to see the sculptural details up close and we were able to see a great view of Milan. Everything about the inside of the church was impressive as well... even the floors!

I left Milan with a little of a changed attitude of the place. While most of the city seemed a little dull, the Milan Duomo was really cool and by far the highlight of the city! Also, being the fashion capital, there were some very interesting fashions which were cool to see(in some cases more entertaining(strange) than cool).