After our return from Spring Break, Anna left to go back to the states for 5 days and Cara and I took the week to relax. We were fortunate that the weather was perfect for picnicking in the park and lying in the sun. As I live close to the Eiffel Tower, Cara and I spent several days laying out on Champs de Mars (the grass in front of the tower) with the rest of the youth of Paris. It's a fun and lively environment and I got a little color in my face!
Cara and I found little things to do in Paris to occupy our time for the rest of spring break. We visited the National Gallery of Contemporary Art which had some strange pieces (to be expected) and one really large installation of an artist I don't know. We also visited the Arc de Triomphe and saw the grave of the unknown soldier. We went out to a great vegetarian meal at a cute little place in Montmartre called le Soleil Gourmand. Before we chose this place though, we happened upon another vegetarian restaurant in the same area that was about the size of my studio here. Inside were about 5 tables and you could see into the kitchen where the chef/ waitress was the sole person working in the restaurant. The vibe was very odd as the restaurant was almost completely silent (despite every table being filled) and we opted for a more conventional dining experience.
As a last hurrah with our Abroadco group, we took a dinner cruise down the Seine. It was fun to see everyone again and a nice way to say goodbye.
One night later in the week, I was invited to a party by a Japanese woman in my french class. I had never really had a conversation with her up until that point and had no idea who was going to be at the party but seeing as I had nothing else to do that night and the opportunity to speak french is always welcomed, I decided to go. I dragged Anna along for emotion support. There were about 30 people there from China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Their french was hard to understand but they were friendly, and once they started drinking, they got REALLY friendly. What I liked most about the experience was the opportunity to hear all the reasons why people were in Paris. So many peoples' lives have taken such different trajectories than my own, it challenges my ideas about what a life "should" involve. Being in Paris has not only opened my eyes up to the lives of people native to this city but also to the lives of people from all over the world.
Anna and I, in the attempt to discover all the interesting things in Paris before we leave, went on an adventure last weekend in search of the Viaduct des Arts. It turned out to be a raised pathway above the streets of Paris that had been landscaped. It was a cool little world floating above the busy streets with rose bushes and benches at every turn. At the end of the long road, we discovered a little park in which we picnicked and sunbathed (this is a recurring theme in my last days here). We wandered over to Pere Lachaise which is a large cemetery which houses the remains of many famous people including Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust and Jim Morrison. It was a beautifully landscaped cemetery with hundreds of years of history.
This past wednesday, my first guest since Prakash and my family arrived. Tommy is the longtime love of my best friend and after his semester of study in Berlin, he made a trip to visit me. He was a fun and easy guest, content to wander the streets of Paris with no agenda. The day he arrived was his birthday and Paris greeted him with a grand thunderstorm and unrelenting rain. He was a good sport though and the rain didn't stop us from seeing the important things. The best part about having him here is I got to see the stuff that I probably wont visit before I leave.
With two weeks left of my time here, I am getting impatient to come home. I am also shocked that my time here is almost over, it feels like I just arrived. I just have to soak up every day that I have left as there is not much else I can do.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Spring Break 08
For our two week spring vacation from French classes, Anna, Cara and I planned a 9 day tour of 3 European cities. Our two priorities were Amsterdam and Prague but to get to Prague on a budget, we had to add in a third city which ended up being Dublin. So needless to say, we bounced all around. It was a great trip, we met interesting people and as always, there was never a dull moment.
Our trip began with a train ride from Paris to Amsterdam. Before we even got on the train, Anna and I hit a road block. We weren't able to pick up our tickets at the ticket machines because they couldn't read our American credit cards and we never wrote down our confirmation numbers so the ticket sellers couldn't pull up our reservation. We ran around the station like chickens with our heads cut off for about 10 minutes until we realized that we could call our loved ones and they could retrieve our confirmation numbers for us. We were able to get the information we needed and pick up our tickets just in time to hop on the train. Cara and I rode with the bourgeoisie in first class, and Anna purchasing the last second class ticket, rode with the peasants. Once the train left the station though, Anna snuck into our car so we could celebrate Cara's 21st birthday. Anna and I made Cara coffee cake and we had quite a feast.
Once we arrived in Amsterdam, we realized that we hadn't written down where our hostel was located, how to get there or it's phone number. Because of our lack of planning, we had to wait in the tourist office for an hour to speak to a representative who could tell us where to go.
Once we had the correct directions, we made it to the hostel in no time. The staff was very friendly and we were placed in an 8 person room with a socially awkward German and three 19 year old Canadians. We dropped off our stuff and met up with one of Anna's college friends and her traveling mates. We visited the Van Gogh Museum which was surprisingly small, and I discovered that I don't like Van Gogh very much. After taking in a bit of culture we went to our first coffee shop called the Rockery.
Amsterdam is known for its Chinese food (we never found out why this was) so we decided to treat ourselves to this for our first night. I must say the spicy tofu hit the spot.
Our second day in Amsterdam, I wandered around the city with Anna and Katelyn all day. We decided that Amsterdam would be our vacation city so we didn't do a lot here other than relax in the park and walk up and down the canals. It was lovely.
Our last day in Amsterdam we rented bikes and rode around the city all day. Biking is as popular here as in Davis, there are definitely more bikes than people.
We found the red light district but weren't there for very long because it was too sad and for dinner we discovered and out of the way vegetarian place that was fantastic.
The next morning we left early for Dublin. We were a little more prepared for the Dublin hostel and didn't have to waste any time in silly tourism offices. We checked into our hostel which happened to be housing a large group of French 10 year olds, the vibe was a little different than that of the Flying Pig which had a bar in the basement. We spent the day in Dublin wandering around orienting ourselves and seeing the main sights. We saw Stephen's Green, a beautiful little park in the heart of Dublin. It was a beautiful and warm day so we relaxed on the grass for a bit and watched the antics of the Irish youth.
Anna was dying for Quizno's so she made us go there for lunch and we ate our quasi American food (the menu and ingredients was nothing like it is in the states) by the river. We saw Trinity College which was nice and historic and a beautiful campus which reminded us very much of colleges at home. Then we wandered down Grafton street (the popular shopping street of Dublin), and went to Temple bar to experience the pub culture of Dublin. We ended up picked a great place called Quay's which had live Irish music and a local population. It was great people watching and a lively time. For dinner we went to the best fish and chips in Dublin (as we were told) and ate it on the steps of Christ Church. Thank goodness we decided to share the meal because it was literally a whole fried fish and I think at least a pound of fries.
We flew to Prague early the next morning. (The reason we were in Dublin for only a night was because it was much cheaper for us to fly round trip from Dublin to Prague and then from Dublin home to Paris than to fly directly from Prague to Paris). We found our hostel easily. It was on the edge of town but fancier than any hostel we had yet experienced. We shared a room with an eclectic group of guys, an American who had been living in Israel for a year and who was now traveling, a Brazilian tech guy who took a month off from work to travel through Europe and a German who was extending his business trip. I will come back to these personalities. After we dropped our stuff, we took off to sight see and discover the refuge of Americans in Prague, Bohemia Bagel. This restaurant is very similar to Noah's Bagels and it was the best taste of home to date since I have been in Europe. It served great bagel sandwiches, vegetarian chili that was actually spicy (something that is hard to find in Europe) and full American breakfasts like French toast, make-your-own omelettes and drip coffee. We were in heaven. After filling ourselves to the brim, we took off to see the Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, Charles Bridge and whatever else Prague had to offer us.
I thought Wenceslas Square was reminiscent of the Champs Elysee, it felt too commercial and not "authentic" enough. Old town square was awe inspiring, no matter what direction you turned, there was another beautiful building reaching up to the sky. Charles Bridge was definitely deserving of it's fame. After a full day of wandering, we went back to the hostel and invited all our roommates to dinner at a Mexican place (don't ask me why we decided on this food choice but they did a pretty good job for being on the other side of the world from Mexico, sombreros and all). Dinner was an interesting cultural experience as we had people from all over. The Brazilian and the German clashed frequently but I think overall everyone had a good time. The guys were looking for friends so I think they appreciated an opportunity to go to dinner as a group.
The next day we went to Bohemia Bagel again (it was just so good and we had to try the other things on the menu) and then ventured to the other side of the river to check out Prague Castle. The castle was sort of interesting, part of it was closed but we saw the nun's convent, a torture chamber, some medieval attire and armor, a blacksmith's demonstration and the castle's cathedral. We also had a great view of the whole city from the top of the hill. We made the mistake of climbing the spire of the cathedral, which was thousands (it seemed) of steps up a tiny spiral staircase that people were trying to simultaneously go up and down. It would be generous to say that the view was worth the difficult climb and claustrophobia suffered.
After the castle we visited St. Nicholas' church which is a baroque cathedral close to the castle. This was one of my favorite churches I have been into in Europe. It was so elaborately decorated yet not so big that I was overwhelmed. I was just inspired with awe at this beautiful monument to god.
On our way down the hill we happened upon a beautiful little garden with a strange dripstone wall that was adjacent to the senate building, so we stopped to take a few photos.
After this we visited the Lennon wall which was a graffitied monument to peace.
We wandered across Charles' Bridge again and stopped for a pastry on the street that tasted a bit like a cinnamon roll. We also hit up a lot of souvenir shops while in Prague. I don't know whether the souvenirs were actually better than in Paris or they were more novel but I found some great stuff. What was most amusing was the rampant theme of cats on mugs and t-shirts and jewelry etc. We never did discover why cats and Prague went hand in hand. For dinner we went to an out of this world vegetarian restaurant called Radoust recommended by several several friends. It was a cool loungy atmosphere and great food. After dinner we met up with one of Anna's high school friends at a popular wine bar that was a maze of 15 rooms with masses of lively young people. Definitely a different evening scene than that of Paris.
Our last day in Prague it rained all morning. This put a bit of a damper on our desire to explore but we pushed through. We went to the jewish quarter but couldn't afford to pay to visit all the synagogues so we skipped this event and went to a big flea market on the outskirts of the city. All we found here were stand after stand of knock off clothing and purses. For dinner we went to the vegetarian restaurant again with Anna's friend (I know we were not very creative with our restaurant choices while in Prague but we were satisfied). Afterwards, her friend brought us to a huge beer hall where we were given poor service and I ordered a water which was 3x the cost of a liter of beer.
We left the next morning to go back to Dublin where we checked into the most unfortunate hostel of the century. To start, we were in a 20 person room, there were no lockers for our luggage, the hostel did not provide a top sheet or a blanket unless we wanted to PAY for them, the bathrooms were dirty and moldy, the showers were clogged, one of our roommates was a 50 year old man who smoked in the room, walked around in his boxers and acted like he was on drugs AND to top it all off, a girl brought a guy back to the room in the middle of the night and they what we all hoped they wouldn't. That aside, our time outside of the hostel was well spent. On Saturday we biked around Phoenix Park which is the largest gated park in Europe. Afterwards, per recommendation by the bike rental lady, we got the best Irish coffees I have ever (real cream and all) had at a cool little pub by the park. We wandered by the Jameson Distillery (didn't go in as none of us are big whiskey drinkers) and for dinner we went to Temple Bar for dinner. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Apparently Temple Bar on a Saturday night is like the Brit's Las Vegas. At every turn there was another group of drunk women in bachelorette party costumes or a group of drunk men following girls in dresses that were too short and heels that were too high. It did make for good people watching though.
In the morning we went to a seaside town called Howth. Upon arrival we found a cool little farmer's market where we bought a mini feast. Cara and I bought the most delicious blueberry scones in the world, we got real cheddar cheese and sourdough bread! We walked along the sand, found sand dollars and splashed in the water. It was a perfect day to be at the water.
We wandered around the town a little more and then headed back into Dublin, boy were we ready to be back in Paris, 3 cities in 9 days is a lot. Of course the adventure wasn't over. We got the the airport and checked through to our gate with 2 hours to spare. Our flight was delayed but we didn't have enough money to buy food so we just wandered from store to store gazing and the things we couldn't have. We finally made it on the plane and landed in Beauvais. Beauvais is an hour outside Paris so we had to take a bus from there into the city. By the time we actually got into the city the metro had closed but we couldn't afford a taxi so we were forced to figure out how to get home using the night bus system. After some wandering of the streets of Paris at 1am, we found the lines that would take us home. I walked in the door at 2am. Being away re-affirmed how much I love Paris :)
Our trip began with a train ride from Paris to Amsterdam. Before we even got on the train, Anna and I hit a road block. We weren't able to pick up our tickets at the ticket machines because they couldn't read our American credit cards and we never wrote down our confirmation numbers so the ticket sellers couldn't pull up our reservation. We ran around the station like chickens with our heads cut off for about 10 minutes until we realized that we could call our loved ones and they could retrieve our confirmation numbers for us. We were able to get the information we needed and pick up our tickets just in time to hop on the train. Cara and I rode with the bourgeoisie in first class, and Anna purchasing the last second class ticket, rode with the peasants. Once the train left the station though, Anna snuck into our car so we could celebrate Cara's 21st birthday. Anna and I made Cara coffee cake and we had quite a feast.
Once we arrived in Amsterdam, we realized that we hadn't written down where our hostel was located, how to get there or it's phone number. Because of our lack of planning, we had to wait in the tourist office for an hour to speak to a representative who could tell us where to go.
Once we had the correct directions, we made it to the hostel in no time. The staff was very friendly and we were placed in an 8 person room with a socially awkward German and three 19 year old Canadians. We dropped off our stuff and met up with one of Anna's college friends and her traveling mates. We visited the Van Gogh Museum which was surprisingly small, and I discovered that I don't like Van Gogh very much. After taking in a bit of culture we went to our first coffee shop called the Rockery.
Amsterdam is known for its Chinese food (we never found out why this was) so we decided to treat ourselves to this for our first night. I must say the spicy tofu hit the spot.
Our second day in Amsterdam, I wandered around the city with Anna and Katelyn all day. We decided that Amsterdam would be our vacation city so we didn't do a lot here other than relax in the park and walk up and down the canals. It was lovely.
Our last day in Amsterdam we rented bikes and rode around the city all day. Biking is as popular here as in Davis, there are definitely more bikes than people.
We found the red light district but weren't there for very long because it was too sad and for dinner we discovered and out of the way vegetarian place that was fantastic. The next morning we left early for Dublin. We were a little more prepared for the Dublin hostel and didn't have to waste any time in silly tourism offices. We checked into our hostel which happened to be housing a large group of French 10 year olds, the vibe was a little different than that of the Flying Pig which had a bar in the basement. We spent the day in Dublin wandering around orienting ourselves and seeing the main sights. We saw Stephen's Green, a beautiful little park in the heart of Dublin. It was a beautiful and warm day so we relaxed on the grass for a bit and watched the antics of the Irish youth.
Anna was dying for Quizno's so she made us go there for lunch and we ate our quasi American food (the menu and ingredients was nothing like it is in the states) by the river. We saw Trinity College which was nice and historic and a beautiful campus which reminded us very much of colleges at home. Then we wandered down Grafton street (the popular shopping street of Dublin), and went to Temple bar to experience the pub culture of Dublin. We ended up picked a great place called Quay's which had live Irish music and a local population. It was great people watching and a lively time. For dinner we went to the best fish and chips in Dublin (as we were told) and ate it on the steps of Christ Church. Thank goodness we decided to share the meal because it was literally a whole fried fish and I think at least a pound of fries.
We flew to Prague early the next morning. (The reason we were in Dublin for only a night was because it was much cheaper for us to fly round trip from Dublin to Prague and then from Dublin home to Paris than to fly directly from Prague to Paris). We found our hostel easily. It was on the edge of town but fancier than any hostel we had yet experienced. We shared a room with an eclectic group of guys, an American who had been living in Israel for a year and who was now traveling, a Brazilian tech guy who took a month off from work to travel through Europe and a German who was extending his business trip. I will come back to these personalities. After we dropped our stuff, we took off to sight see and discover the refuge of Americans in Prague, Bohemia Bagel. This restaurant is very similar to Noah's Bagels and it was the best taste of home to date since I have been in Europe. It served great bagel sandwiches, vegetarian chili that was actually spicy (something that is hard to find in Europe) and full American breakfasts like French toast, make-your-own omelettes and drip coffee. We were in heaven. After filling ourselves to the brim, we took off to see the Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, Charles Bridge and whatever else Prague had to offer us.
I thought Wenceslas Square was reminiscent of the Champs Elysee, it felt too commercial and not "authentic" enough. Old town square was awe inspiring, no matter what direction you turned, there was another beautiful building reaching up to the sky. Charles Bridge was definitely deserving of it's fame. After a full day of wandering, we went back to the hostel and invited all our roommates to dinner at a Mexican place (don't ask me why we decided on this food choice but they did a pretty good job for being on the other side of the world from Mexico, sombreros and all). Dinner was an interesting cultural experience as we had people from all over. The Brazilian and the German clashed frequently but I think overall everyone had a good time. The guys were looking for friends so I think they appreciated an opportunity to go to dinner as a group.
The next day we went to Bohemia Bagel again (it was just so good and we had to try the other things on the menu) and then ventured to the other side of the river to check out Prague Castle. The castle was sort of interesting, part of it was closed but we saw the nun's convent, a torture chamber, some medieval attire and armor, a blacksmith's demonstration and the castle's cathedral. We also had a great view of the whole city from the top of the hill. We made the mistake of climbing the spire of the cathedral, which was thousands (it seemed) of steps up a tiny spiral staircase that people were trying to simultaneously go up and down. It would be generous to say that the view was worth the difficult climb and claustrophobia suffered.
After the castle we visited St. Nicholas' church which is a baroque cathedral close to the castle. This was one of my favorite churches I have been into in Europe. It was so elaborately decorated yet not so big that I was overwhelmed. I was just inspired with awe at this beautiful monument to god.
On our way down the hill we happened upon a beautiful little garden with a strange dripstone wall that was adjacent to the senate building, so we stopped to take a few photos.
After this we visited the Lennon wall which was a graffitied monument to peace.
We wandered across Charles' Bridge again and stopped for a pastry on the street that tasted a bit like a cinnamon roll. We also hit up a lot of souvenir shops while in Prague. I don't know whether the souvenirs were actually better than in Paris or they were more novel but I found some great stuff. What was most amusing was the rampant theme of cats on mugs and t-shirts and jewelry etc. We never did discover why cats and Prague went hand in hand. For dinner we went to an out of this world vegetarian restaurant called Radoust recommended by several several friends. It was a cool loungy atmosphere and great food. After dinner we met up with one of Anna's high school friends at a popular wine bar that was a maze of 15 rooms with masses of lively young people. Definitely a different evening scene than that of Paris.
Our last day in Prague it rained all morning. This put a bit of a damper on our desire to explore but we pushed through. We went to the jewish quarter but couldn't afford to pay to visit all the synagogues so we skipped this event and went to a big flea market on the outskirts of the city. All we found here were stand after stand of knock off clothing and purses. For dinner we went to the vegetarian restaurant again with Anna's friend (I know we were not very creative with our restaurant choices while in Prague but we were satisfied). Afterwards, her friend brought us to a huge beer hall where we were given poor service and I ordered a water which was 3x the cost of a liter of beer.
We left the next morning to go back to Dublin where we checked into the most unfortunate hostel of the century. To start, we were in a 20 person room, there were no lockers for our luggage, the hostel did not provide a top sheet or a blanket unless we wanted to PAY for them, the bathrooms were dirty and moldy, the showers were clogged, one of our roommates was a 50 year old man who smoked in the room, walked around in his boxers and acted like he was on drugs AND to top it all off, a girl brought a guy back to the room in the middle of the night and they what we all hoped they wouldn't. That aside, our time outside of the hostel was well spent. On Saturday we biked around Phoenix Park which is the largest gated park in Europe. Afterwards, per recommendation by the bike rental lady, we got the best Irish coffees I have ever (real cream and all) had at a cool little pub by the park. We wandered by the Jameson Distillery (didn't go in as none of us are big whiskey drinkers) and for dinner we went to Temple Bar for dinner. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Apparently Temple Bar on a Saturday night is like the Brit's Las Vegas. At every turn there was another group of drunk women in bachelorette party costumes or a group of drunk men following girls in dresses that were too short and heels that were too high. It did make for good people watching though.
In the morning we went to a seaside town called Howth. Upon arrival we found a cool little farmer's market where we bought a mini feast. Cara and I bought the most delicious blueberry scones in the world, we got real cheddar cheese and sourdough bread! We walked along the sand, found sand dollars and splashed in the water. It was a perfect day to be at the water.
We wandered around the town a little more and then headed back into Dublin, boy were we ready to be back in Paris, 3 cities in 9 days is a lot. Of course the adventure wasn't over. We got the the airport and checked through to our gate with 2 hours to spare. Our flight was delayed but we didn't have enough money to buy food so we just wandered from store to store gazing and the things we couldn't have. We finally made it on the plane and landed in Beauvais. Beauvais is an hour outside Paris so we had to take a bus from there into the city. By the time we actually got into the city the metro had closed but we couldn't afford a taxi so we were forced to figure out how to get home using the night bus system. After some wandering of the streets of Paris at 1am, we found the lines that would take us home. I walked in the door at 2am. Being away re-affirmed how much I love Paris :)
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