So I flew out of Paris to Dublin. Flying with Ryanair so I had fun rearranging my bags so that my checked bag was 15kg and my carryon was 8. Strange rules. I mean, as far as weight on a plane surely it doesn't matter that much how it's distributed?
Arrived in Dublin uneventfully and was met by Frances! My friends Frances and Laura moved to Dublin in January to work and travel around Europe. Isn't it confusing that there are two Lauras I am visiting? I don't know how to simplify this for you other than the fact that one is in France and the other is in Ireland. If you need further clarification let me know (other than those of you reading in NZ because you know both Lauras so if you're confused then that's not my fault.)
Right, so Frances met me at the airport and we realised that it was my birthday last year when we last saw eachother and hence most of our conversation was punctuated by "I can't believe I'm/you're here!" and lots of hugs. We headed back to they're house for dinner and conversation before heading into town, ostensibly to go 'out' but instead we got crepes (very Irish) and sat in a cafe talking until Laura was done work and we headed back home for more conversation.
They both worked Sunday and I had to do washing so I hung around the house reading and watching TV while my washing took forever to be done. Then I discovered a) it hadn't spun properly so it was all sopping and b) something black had run so now all my stuff is a little grey. No real dramas here because nothing vitally non-grey was in there but it was still an unpleasant surprise so I threw a wee hissy-fit and made a big mess getting it into the dryer which I didn't clean up before I stormed out of the house in Frances' trousers because I couldn't stand it. Within about 20 minutes I realised that it really wasn't that big a deal and that I hadn't taken the time to see what the damage really was but it was a bit late to turn the bus around so I carried on and spent some time in town before meeting Laura, doing some groceries, buying some gloves (it's cold) and heading home. Damage wasn't horrific. Cream pants are now greyish but evenly enough that it seems on purpose and one pair of pink underwear must be a particularly absorbant material because now they are chocolate coloured! They probably did me a favour and save much of the rest of my clothes from being effected.
That night we just sat around chatting again, lots of fun, and I talked to my Irish cousin Bridget (2nd cousin? Removed? Twice?) who I am going to visit later this week! Very excited, and she sounded so excited to have me visiting that I don't feel at all bad about imposing. She said (in a broad accent) "Oh yeah, you don't come to visit your relative in Ireland and not get put up."
Monday was Laura's day off so we wandered around Dublin. Went to the museum, which was closed because it was Monday, went to Trinity College but didn't see the Book of Kell because it cost a silly amount, went to St Stephen's Green, pretty and open and free! Frances started early so finished at 2.30 and we met her for lunch and then brownie (yum) before doing some shopping at Penneys - this ridiculously cheap clothing (and other stuff) store with some nice stuff. Frances wanted Christmas decorations but didn't like what they had on offer.
Home to watch America's Next Top Model (oh yes we did) before an early night because we were all exhausted! We keep staying up late talking so we needed a proper night's sleep. Today the girls are working again so I'm going to head to the museum and probably along the river because it's nice and sunny. Not warm in the slightest but sunny at least so photos will look nice.
Tomorrow I head down near Limerick where Mike (the volunteer) lives and I'll visit for a couple days. I'll try to update from there but otherwise it could be a week till I can send stuff again. We'll see :)
And as requested by certain family members here is the flickr site again: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31050258@N04/
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Saturday, 22 November 2008
Ooh la la
Well it's been a busy few days. While in Lyon I made I list with Laura of the absolute must-sees in Paris and then the hope-to-sees and then the if-there's-times so I had a prioritised list to work through and the good news is I'm done it! Well I ,issed a couple from the last section, but they were always designated misssable anyway and I did add a few things too so it balances.
Thursday was Notre Dame in the morning. It really is so beautiful. I had intended to climb the towers but I got there early and they weren't open yet, my stair climbing plans didn't stand up under the idea of having to return especially. I walked all around the cathedral and took a bunch of photos and imagined Quasimodo clambouring all over it. I know he wasn't real, but it was such a good book that I want it to be real.
Then I wander around the Ile St. Louis which is very pretty and tiny, really lovely, and the Ile de Cité which is bigger but also pretty. Then the latin quarter (also with more pictures of Notre Dame) where I found Shakespeare and Company. People always either look for it and can't find it or just stumble across it so I was category two. Latin Quarter was beautiful but so touristy and crowded it was a bit off-putting.
I walked to Musee d'Orsay next, got a crepe on the way and felt very French (except I made a total mess and I think real French people are tidier.) Musee d'Orsay was great, it's in an old train station so it's quite different to most museums, I mean, really, those ones in old palaces are so passé. I spent a couple hours there, saw lots of Manet and Monet among others and had a great time. It was nice to feel like you could actually cope with the exhibitions, the Louvre made me feel so incompetent. Half of one floor was closed and the lovely lady I asked said depending on staff they might open it after 6pm (it was 2.30) so I decided to come back.
Musee Rodin was a hope-to-see and isn't far from the d'Orsay so I headed that way with a detour past Hotel Invalides where Napoleon is buried but didn't bother going to see his tomb. Rodin was great, lots of works on display that I wasn't familiar with but which were really amazing. One piece called Playing Nymphs was marble carved on both sides so thin that you could see light through it, really beautiful. I spent about an hour and a half wandering the gardens, the museum and the temporary exhibition about Freud and Rodin who never met but had several mutual friends and both collected ancient objects from Greece and Rome.
I still had over an hour to kill so I decided to check out the Pantheon and the Luxembourg Gardens. Checked my map and plotted my route only to find it blocked by one of Paris' infamous student protests! It was pretty impressive. Riot police, fences being pushed back and forth, tear gas canisters being waved threateningly. I don't even know what it was about but it was pretty cool. So I found a new route, saw the gardens but didn't go in; ditto for the pantheon. Had the best crepe I've had in Paris. No really, next time you're in Paris (as you will be I'm sure) head to the pantheon and then walk away from it until you get to the intersection and on your right is a green crepe shop, it's not expensive and it's awesome.
So back to the Musee d'Orsay, via Notra Dame for a night pic, and the rooms had been opened so I got to enjoy the naturalists, symbolists and the Art Nouveau. Delightful. But a really long day, I left the hostel before 9 and didn't back until about 8.30, I was exhausted. So I went to bed at about 10.
Yesterday I headed to Versailles on the nastiest day I've had yet, frezing cold, windy, with icy rain, it was so not the day for exploring gardens! I went anyway and enjoyed the palace a lot. You get a "free" audiguide (read: we've raised our prices to include the audioguide) so I enjoyed having a British accent tell me about the court of Louis the umpteenth. Unfortunately someone thought it would be a great idea to display the contemporary "art" of someone called Jeff Koons in each room so you were walking through the bedroom of Marie-Antoinette and got to see an inflatable lobster hanging from the ceiling. Not my cup of tea but someone somewhere is making a lot of money out of this. Still fun to see all the rooms and portraits. I did manage about ten minutes in the garden before scampering to the train station and the heat.
Afternoon was spent in the Centre Pompidou where I ignored all the floors except 1905-1960 where all the stuff I like is. I'm sure I could have seen some really great contemporary art if I'd had the energy but I was still feeling ultra-cynical after the Koons/Versailles experience. I loved the modern art display. Lots of Magritte and Man Ray, and a lot of people who I'm going to have to look up because their works were so interesting.
Got to the hostel earlier than usual, around 6, because I had to pack for today's flight to Dublin, which is now in 5 hours! This morning I walked to Galerie La Fayette which is Paris' answer to Harrods, and it's amazing. Big shiny and expensive, what more could you want from Paris? Then to Le Marais which is a really lovely pretty part of the city. As pretty as the Latin Quarter I think and not so touristy. I visited Victor Hugo's house (free, hurrah) and had a wee moment of hero-worship. He's so cool.
Then I came to update all of you and next I'll check out a couple vintage stores in the area before heading off to catch my bus to get to my plane. Paris is the first city I've left where I really wish I had more time, I long to stay here another... lifetime? I just have to keep assuring myself that I'll be back!
Thursday was Notre Dame in the morning. It really is so beautiful. I had intended to climb the towers but I got there early and they weren't open yet, my stair climbing plans didn't stand up under the idea of having to return especially. I walked all around the cathedral and took a bunch of photos and imagined Quasimodo clambouring all over it. I know he wasn't real, but it was such a good book that I want it to be real.
Then I wander around the Ile St. Louis which is very pretty and tiny, really lovely, and the Ile de Cité which is bigger but also pretty. Then the latin quarter (also with more pictures of Notre Dame) where I found Shakespeare and Company. People always either look for it and can't find it or just stumble across it so I was category two. Latin Quarter was beautiful but so touristy and crowded it was a bit off-putting.
I walked to Musee d'Orsay next, got a crepe on the way and felt very French (except I made a total mess and I think real French people are tidier.) Musee d'Orsay was great, it's in an old train station so it's quite different to most museums, I mean, really, those ones in old palaces are so passé. I spent a couple hours there, saw lots of Manet and Monet among others and had a great time. It was nice to feel like you could actually cope with the exhibitions, the Louvre made me feel so incompetent. Half of one floor was closed and the lovely lady I asked said depending on staff they might open it after 6pm (it was 2.30) so I decided to come back.
Musee Rodin was a hope-to-see and isn't far from the d'Orsay so I headed that way with a detour past Hotel Invalides where Napoleon is buried but didn't bother going to see his tomb. Rodin was great, lots of works on display that I wasn't familiar with but which were really amazing. One piece called Playing Nymphs was marble carved on both sides so thin that you could see light through it, really beautiful. I spent about an hour and a half wandering the gardens, the museum and the temporary exhibition about Freud and Rodin who never met but had several mutual friends and both collected ancient objects from Greece and Rome.
I still had over an hour to kill so I decided to check out the Pantheon and the Luxembourg Gardens. Checked my map and plotted my route only to find it blocked by one of Paris' infamous student protests! It was pretty impressive. Riot police, fences being pushed back and forth, tear gas canisters being waved threateningly. I don't even know what it was about but it was pretty cool. So I found a new route, saw the gardens but didn't go in; ditto for the pantheon. Had the best crepe I've had in Paris. No really, next time you're in Paris (as you will be I'm sure) head to the pantheon and then walk away from it until you get to the intersection and on your right is a green crepe shop, it's not expensive and it's awesome.
So back to the Musee d'Orsay, via Notra Dame for a night pic, and the rooms had been opened so I got to enjoy the naturalists, symbolists and the Art Nouveau. Delightful. But a really long day, I left the hostel before 9 and didn't back until about 8.30, I was exhausted. So I went to bed at about 10.
Yesterday I headed to Versailles on the nastiest day I've had yet, frezing cold, windy, with icy rain, it was so not the day for exploring gardens! I went anyway and enjoyed the palace a lot. You get a "free" audiguide (read: we've raised our prices to include the audioguide) so I enjoyed having a British accent tell me about the court of Louis the umpteenth. Unfortunately someone thought it would be a great idea to display the contemporary "art" of someone called Jeff Koons in each room so you were walking through the bedroom of Marie-Antoinette and got to see an inflatable lobster hanging from the ceiling. Not my cup of tea but someone somewhere is making a lot of money out of this. Still fun to see all the rooms and portraits. I did manage about ten minutes in the garden before scampering to the train station and the heat.
Afternoon was spent in the Centre Pompidou where I ignored all the floors except 1905-1960 where all the stuff I like is. I'm sure I could have seen some really great contemporary art if I'd had the energy but I was still feeling ultra-cynical after the Koons/Versailles experience. I loved the modern art display. Lots of Magritte and Man Ray, and a lot of people who I'm going to have to look up because their works were so interesting.
Got to the hostel earlier than usual, around 6, because I had to pack for today's flight to Dublin, which is now in 5 hours! This morning I walked to Galerie La Fayette which is Paris' answer to Harrods, and it's amazing. Big shiny and expensive, what more could you want from Paris? Then to Le Marais which is a really lovely pretty part of the city. As pretty as the Latin Quarter I think and not so touristy. I visited Victor Hugo's house (free, hurrah) and had a wee moment of hero-worship. He's so cool.
Then I came to update all of you and next I'll check out a couple vintage stores in the area before heading off to catch my bus to get to my plane. Paris is the first city I've left where I really wish I had more time, I long to stay here another... lifetime? I just have to keep assuring myself that I'll be back!
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Paris When It Sizzles
I'm in Paris! Not that I'm excited or anything...
So Sunday night in Barcelona Laura and I went out for dinner to a rather flash restaurant and had rather spectacular meals. I had cannelloni to start, best I've ever had, and Laura had roast vegetables. Then for our main we got paella - yum. Dessert was toffee tart (me) and an apple creme brulee with catalonya cream (her) and both were delicious. We had some sangria and lots of chat, it was a really great night. Nice way to end our trip and almost our visit.
So Monday we were headed back to Lyon, not so early it was painful but not late enough to do anything interesting in the morning so we just packed and ate breakfast before catching the bus to the airport. Excitingly I have developed a cold so the flight was fun; as was returning to the cold weather here in France. We got back to Lyon with enough time to run some errands and then I took an unexpectedly long nap! We didn't sleep much so added to my illness I guess I needed to catch up on rest. Dinner was simple and Sondra, Laura's friend we had dinner with, came over too. I wasn't really the best company, I spent most of the night packing!
My train left for Paris (well, a stop near Paris which was €20 cheaper than Paris itself and only a short cheap train ride away) at 9.30 and Laura lovingly accompanied me to the station and saw me off. She looked very French sitting alone on the bench in the station looking at the train pulling away; it seemed like a movie where I should have leapt off the train to declare my love. I went to Paris instead.
Got to my hostel okay, no dramas. Room wasn't ready yet so I just dumped my stuff and went to see Monmatre and Sacre-Coeur. The Cathedral is beautiful and Montmartre is very interesting, different than I expected! It is very picturesque but it's also full of tourists, immigrants and stalls of cheap stuff, really lively and fun. I wanted to get stuff done that afternoon because I only have four days here and there is so much to see that I can't waste time so I walked down to the Cemetery and spent almost two hours wandering around paying my respects to Wilde, Delacroix, David, Gericault, Ingres and Edith Piaf. I couldn't find Sarah Bernhardt or Modogliani and I forgot about Jim Morrison because I'm not that big a Doors fan anyway so I was more excited about Gericault than Morrison.
Around 5 I headed back to the hostel, picked up some groceries on the way. I made myself pasta for dinner and spent a lovely evening in the social area being social! There are a couple of Aussies staying who have already made a bunch of friends in the city (after only two days) so we had a couple of music students, three Spanish tourists and a Danish guy who comes to Paris for a week every year. Also an American from Hawaii whose parents are hippies (her name is Amazing Grace, her brother is Orion Skywalker) and a British woman on her way to London from Albania. A multi-cultural night with lots of great travel stories.
Today I went to the Louvre and blew my mind. I got there before 10 and didn't leave until after 4, with only about 20 min break for lunch in the middle. And I still missed stuff! But I saw so many amazing things. One of the electives I took at Uni was an Art History paper on art around the time of the French revolution so I had studied a lot of painters and paintings from about 1780 until 1860 and had such a fantastic time seeing the pure scale and colours which photos can never reproduce. These paintings are huge! The Death of Sardanapalus and The Raft of the Medusa (Delacroix and Gericault respectively) are two of my favourites and they are so big they wouldn't fiit on the wall of my room. I can't describes everything I saw, you'd be here for 6 hours! Yes, I saw the Mona Lisa, though why anyone was staring at her when Ingres' Grande Odalisque is in the next room I don't know.
After that I decided to hit the Arc de Triomph before dark and the Eiffel tower to see it all lit up so I walked along the Camps-Elysee, bought a crepe, and watched the crazy Parisian traffic. Arc was cool, Eiffel tower was pretty in a kind of weird way. It's lit up blue so it's a bit strange looking. I'm trying to decide whether I have to see it in the daytime or if I can tick it off my list. I guess it will depend mostly on time.
So that's it for the last few days, tomorrow I'll hit Notre-Dame and the Musee d'Orsay, all going to plan. Paris is beautiful, all the quotes are true!
So Sunday night in Barcelona Laura and I went out for dinner to a rather flash restaurant and had rather spectacular meals. I had cannelloni to start, best I've ever had, and Laura had roast vegetables. Then for our main we got paella - yum. Dessert was toffee tart (me) and an apple creme brulee with catalonya cream (her) and both were delicious. We had some sangria and lots of chat, it was a really great night. Nice way to end our trip and almost our visit.
So Monday we were headed back to Lyon, not so early it was painful but not late enough to do anything interesting in the morning so we just packed and ate breakfast before catching the bus to the airport. Excitingly I have developed a cold so the flight was fun; as was returning to the cold weather here in France. We got back to Lyon with enough time to run some errands and then I took an unexpectedly long nap! We didn't sleep much so added to my illness I guess I needed to catch up on rest. Dinner was simple and Sondra, Laura's friend we had dinner with, came over too. I wasn't really the best company, I spent most of the night packing!
My train left for Paris (well, a stop near Paris which was €20 cheaper than Paris itself and only a short cheap train ride away) at 9.30 and Laura lovingly accompanied me to the station and saw me off. She looked very French sitting alone on the bench in the station looking at the train pulling away; it seemed like a movie where I should have leapt off the train to declare my love. I went to Paris instead.
Got to my hostel okay, no dramas. Room wasn't ready yet so I just dumped my stuff and went to see Monmatre and Sacre-Coeur. The Cathedral is beautiful and Montmartre is very interesting, different than I expected! It is very picturesque but it's also full of tourists, immigrants and stalls of cheap stuff, really lively and fun. I wanted to get stuff done that afternoon because I only have four days here and there is so much to see that I can't waste time so I walked down to the Cemetery and spent almost two hours wandering around paying my respects to Wilde, Delacroix, David, Gericault, Ingres and Edith Piaf. I couldn't find Sarah Bernhardt or Modogliani and I forgot about Jim Morrison because I'm not that big a Doors fan anyway so I was more excited about Gericault than Morrison.
Around 5 I headed back to the hostel, picked up some groceries on the way. I made myself pasta for dinner and spent a lovely evening in the social area being social! There are a couple of Aussies staying who have already made a bunch of friends in the city (after only two days) so we had a couple of music students, three Spanish tourists and a Danish guy who comes to Paris for a week every year. Also an American from Hawaii whose parents are hippies (her name is Amazing Grace, her brother is Orion Skywalker) and a British woman on her way to London from Albania. A multi-cultural night with lots of great travel stories.
Today I went to the Louvre and blew my mind. I got there before 10 and didn't leave until after 4, with only about 20 min break for lunch in the middle. And I still missed stuff! But I saw so many amazing things. One of the electives I took at Uni was an Art History paper on art around the time of the French revolution so I had studied a lot of painters and paintings from about 1780 until 1860 and had such a fantastic time seeing the pure scale and colours which photos can never reproduce. These paintings are huge! The Death of Sardanapalus and The Raft of the Medusa (Delacroix and Gericault respectively) are two of my favourites and they are so big they wouldn't fiit on the wall of my room. I can't describes everything I saw, you'd be here for 6 hours! Yes, I saw the Mona Lisa, though why anyone was staring at her when Ingres' Grande Odalisque is in the next room I don't know.
After that I decided to hit the Arc de Triomph before dark and the Eiffel tower to see it all lit up so I walked along the Camps-Elysee, bought a crepe, and watched the crazy Parisian traffic. Arc was cool, Eiffel tower was pretty in a kind of weird way. It's lit up blue so it's a bit strange looking. I'm trying to decide whether I have to see it in the daytime or if I can tick it off my list. I guess it will depend mostly on time.
So that's it for the last few days, tomorrow I'll hit Notre-Dame and the Musee d'Orsay, all going to plan. Paris is beautiful, all the quotes are true!
Saturday, 15 November 2008
Hola!
Hello from Barcelona! It´s a beautiful city and we´ve loved our time here, lots of great things to see. We´ll try to add some photos from Lyon but it´ll depend on the computer and how organised we are.
Let´s see... Wednesday I updated and that afternoon Laura had a meeting for her new part time job that she starts next week so I went to the art gallery without her. It was very nice, lots of lovely impressionist pieces and a very impressive sculpture collection. I was about an hour or so there and then I went and got a coffee and pastry (of course, what else would you do in France?) Although the coee here is surprisingly bad, especially after Italy which had great coffee! Then I headed home with a few wee supplies because I was cooking! It was fun, the first proper meal I´d made since before I left NZ. I made casserole with mushrooms, chicken, potato and zucchini. Rather tasty if I do say so myself.
Thursday we had decided to go around a couple of the vintage shops which Laura had seen in her wanderings but it turned out they were all closed in the morning so we walked for a while before heading back to try and use up four zucchini for lunch (we went a bit courgette-mad at the market.) We managed three so I think that was a good effort. Then back out to find the vintage stores and somewhere nice for dinner since we decided to treat ourselves. The first vintage store was a let down, very overpriced. The second however was a treasure trove of cute dresses, none of which fit me right, and a beautiful jacket/cardigan which fit perfectly. I´ve been making do with my sweater, very stained from Africa and not the prettiest even if it is practical. So now I have a practical and pretty wee jacket - from a little boutique in France! Just to make you all jealous.
That night we wandered for a whil to find a dinner place, had a drink in a really nice little pub and then headed to a favourite of Paul´s (friend who used to live in Lyon.) I had a lovely ravioli and a local main called Quenelle, a sort of dumpling with lobster sauce. Very yum. Then cheese and dessert. We were out with Laura´s friend Sondra, who very kindly spoke French for me even though she obviously wasn´t very comfortable with it, I do feel so bad sometimes. She was very sweet and it was a lovely evening.
Friday we flew to Barcelona! This required being up at 6.45 to get a bus at 7.20 to get to the airport by 8.30 for our 9.45 flight... arrived very tired but determined to make the most of our time here! We ditched our stuff and headed out to see the cathedral, the gothic quarter and the Picasso Museum. We saw the outside of the cathedral, which was covered in scaffolding, but didn´t go in. From what we saw on a postcard later it is a very impressive cathedral! We hit a corner of the Gothic Quarter and found the museum. The Picasso exhibition was amazing. It was chronological so you could really see the development from being an immensely talented child to being an unbelievably creative adult. After that we just wandered for a long while and found ourselves at the beach! We sat for a while and just enjoyed the view and the people around us before wandering along the waterfront down to the giant Colombus monument and back to the hostel. Another walk later that evening, free dinner at the hostel and lots of chats with other travellers before we went out for a wee drink. We met a nice french guy, Jean-Marie, who is here for the weekend too and has no spanish and not great English so he and Laura had a nice chat in French. He had been recommended this lovely little bar, attached to the wax museum of all places! It was sort of forest themed so it had a great ambience, we shared a bottle of wine and Jean-Marie practised his English for my advantage.
Yesterday morning we got up around 8 but pottered around with internet and breakfast for a bit before heading off at about 10. We had read about a flea market which was not too far away so we wandered that way and found one of the best markets I´ve ever been to! We spent about two hours there wandering and browsing and spending money. It was a bad couple days for me, I lost my sunglasses and broke my watch so they were priorities for me to replace, success on both counts for only €10 total - love markets. We had designated today Gaudi Day so we left to find the Sagrada Familia. Gaudi designed this big amazing cathedral which is still being built and probably won´t be done for at least 20 years. It was absolutely amazing, one of the best things I´ve seen on this trip I think. So complex and beautiful, a stunning building. I don´t know how to describe it, google it and times the impressiveness by about a million.
After that we found a few more Gaudi buildings including his old home, Casa Batllo but missed one of the big ones, La Pedrera. We headed back to the hostel for a nap because Saturday was dancing night!! We rested up and had planned to go out for dinner but tortellini and rice with veges were on the menu at the hostel for free so we decided to save some money and eat in. Met up with Jean-Marie again and decided to walk out to the west and see the ¨Magic Fountains¨which we´d been told about. Took a totally roundabout route before we finally got there, but it was fun and so worth it. The fountains only run at night and they light up pretty colours. Then we walked back to El Raval for a drink, or a couple of drinks actually. We had mojitos which were really great and then some wine and nachoes. Chatted for a long time and invited Jean-Marie dancing with us, he had to change etc. so we went back to the hostel and on the way got discount tickets for the club which is right next-door. That solved the question of where to go, although teh cover charge was still pretty high. We got there around 1 and at first we couldn´t find the room which wasn´t hip-hop so we danced for a bit to some really horrific music before finding the other room which played everything from Elvis to U2 so we had fun and Laura made fun of my utter lack of musical knowledge. At around 3 I couldn´t handle the cigarette smoke anymore (Spain still lets people smoke anywhere so it gets a bit painful) and we went home to bed! It was a really great night.
This morning we were still up at 9, although moving a bit slower than usual. There was a funny little market outside our hostel which we checked out before going to explore the western area which we looked at yesterday in the dark. Found the park, a bunch of museums and a great gallery with heaps of free exhibitions, we saw one of Mucha and one of religious art on loan from the Uffizi. Very cool, spent a long time in the shop but didn´t buy too much. Then we wanted to see the Gaudi we missed and on the way found a wedding expo, which would have been cool but it cost too much to get in so we flagged (gee Catie, what an awesome story.) La Pedrera was beautiful and we saw a postcard for the Palau de Musica which looked pretty and was in the part of the Gothic area which we missed Friday so that was next. Very impressive stained glass windows and Gaudi mosaics, and the rest of the Gothic bit was very cool too.
So tonight we´re going out for tapas and paella, necessary I think, and then probably early to bed because all the coffee in the world is not going to keep us awake for long. I think we´re getting old.
Let´s see... Wednesday I updated and that afternoon Laura had a meeting for her new part time job that she starts next week so I went to the art gallery without her. It was very nice, lots of lovely impressionist pieces and a very impressive sculpture collection. I was about an hour or so there and then I went and got a coffee and pastry (of course, what else would you do in France?) Although the coee here is surprisingly bad, especially after Italy which had great coffee! Then I headed home with a few wee supplies because I was cooking! It was fun, the first proper meal I´d made since before I left NZ. I made casserole with mushrooms, chicken, potato and zucchini. Rather tasty if I do say so myself.
Thursday we had decided to go around a couple of the vintage shops which Laura had seen in her wanderings but it turned out they were all closed in the morning so we walked for a while before heading back to try and use up four zucchini for lunch (we went a bit courgette-mad at the market.) We managed three so I think that was a good effort. Then back out to find the vintage stores and somewhere nice for dinner since we decided to treat ourselves. The first vintage store was a let down, very overpriced. The second however was a treasure trove of cute dresses, none of which fit me right, and a beautiful jacket/cardigan which fit perfectly. I´ve been making do with my sweater, very stained from Africa and not the prettiest even if it is practical. So now I have a practical and pretty wee jacket - from a little boutique in France! Just to make you all jealous.
That night we wandered for a whil to find a dinner place, had a drink in a really nice little pub and then headed to a favourite of Paul´s (friend who used to live in Lyon.) I had a lovely ravioli and a local main called Quenelle, a sort of dumpling with lobster sauce. Very yum. Then cheese and dessert. We were out with Laura´s friend Sondra, who very kindly spoke French for me even though she obviously wasn´t very comfortable with it, I do feel so bad sometimes. She was very sweet and it was a lovely evening.
Friday we flew to Barcelona! This required being up at 6.45 to get a bus at 7.20 to get to the airport by 8.30 for our 9.45 flight... arrived very tired but determined to make the most of our time here! We ditched our stuff and headed out to see the cathedral, the gothic quarter and the Picasso Museum. We saw the outside of the cathedral, which was covered in scaffolding, but didn´t go in. From what we saw on a postcard later it is a very impressive cathedral! We hit a corner of the Gothic Quarter and found the museum. The Picasso exhibition was amazing. It was chronological so you could really see the development from being an immensely talented child to being an unbelievably creative adult. After that we just wandered for a long while and found ourselves at the beach! We sat for a while and just enjoyed the view and the people around us before wandering along the waterfront down to the giant Colombus monument and back to the hostel. Another walk later that evening, free dinner at the hostel and lots of chats with other travellers before we went out for a wee drink. We met a nice french guy, Jean-Marie, who is here for the weekend too and has no spanish and not great English so he and Laura had a nice chat in French. He had been recommended this lovely little bar, attached to the wax museum of all places! It was sort of forest themed so it had a great ambience, we shared a bottle of wine and Jean-Marie practised his English for my advantage.
Yesterday morning we got up around 8 but pottered around with internet and breakfast for a bit before heading off at about 10. We had read about a flea market which was not too far away so we wandered that way and found one of the best markets I´ve ever been to! We spent about two hours there wandering and browsing and spending money. It was a bad couple days for me, I lost my sunglasses and broke my watch so they were priorities for me to replace, success on both counts for only €10 total - love markets. We had designated today Gaudi Day so we left to find the Sagrada Familia. Gaudi designed this big amazing cathedral which is still being built and probably won´t be done for at least 20 years. It was absolutely amazing, one of the best things I´ve seen on this trip I think. So complex and beautiful, a stunning building. I don´t know how to describe it, google it and times the impressiveness by about a million.
After that we found a few more Gaudi buildings including his old home, Casa Batllo but missed one of the big ones, La Pedrera. We headed back to the hostel for a nap because Saturday was dancing night!! We rested up and had planned to go out for dinner but tortellini and rice with veges were on the menu at the hostel for free so we decided to save some money and eat in. Met up with Jean-Marie again and decided to walk out to the west and see the ¨Magic Fountains¨which we´d been told about. Took a totally roundabout route before we finally got there, but it was fun and so worth it. The fountains only run at night and they light up pretty colours. Then we walked back to El Raval for a drink, or a couple of drinks actually. We had mojitos which were really great and then some wine and nachoes. Chatted for a long time and invited Jean-Marie dancing with us, he had to change etc. so we went back to the hostel and on the way got discount tickets for the club which is right next-door. That solved the question of where to go, although teh cover charge was still pretty high. We got there around 1 and at first we couldn´t find the room which wasn´t hip-hop so we danced for a bit to some really horrific music before finding the other room which played everything from Elvis to U2 so we had fun and Laura made fun of my utter lack of musical knowledge. At around 3 I couldn´t handle the cigarette smoke anymore (Spain still lets people smoke anywhere so it gets a bit painful) and we went home to bed! It was a really great night.
This morning we were still up at 9, although moving a bit slower than usual. There was a funny little market outside our hostel which we checked out before going to explore the western area which we looked at yesterday in the dark. Found the park, a bunch of museums and a great gallery with heaps of free exhibitions, we saw one of Mucha and one of religious art on loan from the Uffizi. Very cool, spent a long time in the shop but didn´t buy too much. Then we wanted to see the Gaudi we missed and on the way found a wedding expo, which would have been cool but it cost too much to get in so we flagged (gee Catie, what an awesome story.) La Pedrera was beautiful and we saw a postcard for the Palau de Musica which looked pretty and was in the part of the Gothic area which we missed Friday so that was next. Very impressive stained glass windows and Gaudi mosaics, and the rest of the Gothic bit was very cool too.
So tonight we´re going out for tapas and paella, necessary I think, and then probably early to bed because all the coffee in the world is not going to keep us awake for long. I think we´re getting old.
Monday, 10 November 2008
Laura! Oh and Lyon too...
So I am in Lyon staying at my friend Laura's apartment on the banks of the Soane river and have had a lovely few days of sight-seeing and relaxing.
I had many wee adventures getting here and finding Laura. I left Verona at 9.50pm and got to Milan at midnight then got to hang out until 6.40 for a train to Paris, me getting off at Chambery. Milan has a waiting room which is handy but the benches are old wooden ones, like church pews, so I passed rather an uncomfortable night. Then it turned out that there is a limit to how many eurail tickets they'll sell for a French train and I had missed out so I had to pay full price (not too expensive, but unexpected costs are annoying.) Got to Chambery to discover that the train my eurail guide told me to take didn't exist so I caught the next suitable train and was half an hour late meeting Laura who was well panicked that she had missed me and I had handily forgotten which exit we were meant to meet at so I stood in the complete wrong place (knowing it was wrong but figuring that if I stood still for a while she might come to me) and voila, she appeared. I was waiing under the "meeting point" sign so the first thing she said, after a hug, was "But it's not our meeting point!" But it all worked out in the end so we should probably stop worrying about could-have-beens.
Lyon is lovely, a very pretty city with lots of cafes and patisseries so I'm quite at home. No gelatoso I've gone cold turkey there, but tarte praline is a pretty good substitute. Friday we went for lunch to a bagel place and then did some groceries and walked around the town. I was pretty exhausted, sleeping on a church pew for four hours isn't my body's idea of rest, so we hung out at home eating cheese, bread and salad and then watching Obama speeches - he's so impressive! I thought we should have had popcorn. Laura's flatmate Louis was in London until Sunday night so we got the space to ourselves for a bit. Louis studied in NZ for a year so we already know each other which is handy. Laura has to find a new flat at the end of the year because Louis is moving so she's been emailing and calling people to find something not-to-expensive and not-too-inconvenient. Of course those two features rarely go together!
Saturday we got up early and we climbed Fourvière and saw a big cathedral, then down the hill to look at a couple smaller churches but they weren't open until the qfternoon so we headed back to the apartment and ate baguette for lunch, it was super! In the afternoon we went for another walk, back to the churches which hadn't been open, one of which had five guys break-dancing outside, so that was fun to watch.We looked at the pretty churches and then went for a walk out the other direction where Laura introduced me to the delicious tarte praline. Dinner was nice, Laura invited Joanna, an American girl studying in Lyon, to dinner and she brought an apple pie for dessert. We went out for drinks nearby and had intended to go dancing but I still hadn't fully recovered from my train ordeal and was almost falling asleep at the table! It was a little embarrassing, especially since we were sharing our table with three English guys who we'd just met. I'm sure they have a great impression of New Zealanders now!
Sunday we were meeting some of Laura's friends to see an art exhibition at 11 so we went to the market early and had fun buying fruit and vege and cheese. We may have gone a tad overboard on the capsicum and courgettes but I'm sure we can just eat a lot of salad. The exhibition was of modern art from 1945-1949 so there was lots of Pollack and Rothko and then lots of European artists who we hadn't heard of so now I have a list of people to look up in my edu-Catie project! Sunday afternoon we hung out at the apartment mostly because that evening we were attending the ballet! Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet was being performed at the Opera House and Laura got two of the last three tickets available. It was really good, especially Juliet. The costumes and design were futuristic, the stage looked like something from Stargate, and they had cut out a lot because they wanted to shorten it, it was less than two hours and Tybalt was still alive at teh end so if you're familiar with the story you can imagine that Laura and I had a sort of "Huh?" moment at that! But the production was beautiful and we both teared up when Juliet was trying to wake up Romeo, always a good sign. It was fun gettin dressed up and going out and we had wine and cake afterwards since it wasn't very late.
Monday was a bit of a lazy chore day. We woke up late, talked to NZ for two hours then went to do our laundry then groceries. It was just a get-stuff-done kinda day. We had to go on a mission to find a camera cord because I cleverly left mine in Florence! We went to three different plqces before the guy in the last place told us we'd have to order one in for €30 and it would take 30 days so why not just buy a card reader? So that's how we solved my problem in the end, now I have a multi-card reader which does the same job. Tuesday was Armistice which is a public holiday so it seemed like lots of places closed for Monday too, wanted an extended weekend. Laura made a pretty fabulous lasagne for dinner (I pretty much bullied her into it because Joanna had talked about how good it had been.) I spent the whole evening transfering photos to CD because I only had space on my camera for 3 more photos!
Monday night was also ny interview for the journalism course which I want to do next year. I rang using Skype and then discovered that my earpiece was broken so I ended up calling ten minutes late, but he was very nice about that. I guess you cacn't expect calling long-distance to go without incident! I had practised a lot of answers and thought a lot about what he would ask but the interview went really well and after 11 minutes when he asked if I had applied to any other programmes I said "No, if I don't get into this course I'll have to consider my other options" and he said "I don't think you'll need to worry about that." So there was smiling and arm-pumping and trying to sound like a grown-up on the phone. I should receive an official letter at the end of November but since I'll be in Ireland I'll have to rely on my family to be privacy invaders so we can have official arm-pumping and smiling and cheering.
Tuesday we went for a walk, public holiday etc everything was closed, but we picked a bad day because it was raining off and on all day. We headed up a hill and found a market and a carnival of all things! Got quiche for lunch, hid in a cafe from the rain, ran when it stopped for a minute and found nuttella crepes, very exciting. So we headed down the hill with our yummy hazelnutty treat and decided to see a film since it was such a rotten day. We had to find one which doesn't dub stuff so we ended up in a wee arty place and saw The Visitor which is about a depressed widower and illegal immigrants in New York, very good, we liked it.
Dinner was at Joanna's with her friend Michelle so it was a nice English speaking evening. All Laura's French friends speak excellent English but I feel bad making them speak my language when obviously they could all converse quite comfortably in French if I weren't there.
That's it for today, talk to you again from Barcelona! Oh and forgive typoes, French keyboards are crazy!
I had many wee adventures getting here and finding Laura. I left Verona at 9.50pm and got to Milan at midnight then got to hang out until 6.40 for a train to Paris, me getting off at Chambery. Milan has a waiting room which is handy but the benches are old wooden ones, like church pews, so I passed rather an uncomfortable night. Then it turned out that there is a limit to how many eurail tickets they'll sell for a French train and I had missed out so I had to pay full price (not too expensive, but unexpected costs are annoying.) Got to Chambery to discover that the train my eurail guide told me to take didn't exist so I caught the next suitable train and was half an hour late meeting Laura who was well panicked that she had missed me and I had handily forgotten which exit we were meant to meet at so I stood in the complete wrong place (knowing it was wrong but figuring that if I stood still for a while she might come to me) and voila, she appeared. I was waiing under the "meeting point" sign so the first thing she said, after a hug, was "But it's not our meeting point!" But it all worked out in the end so we should probably stop worrying about could-have-beens.
Lyon is lovely, a very pretty city with lots of cafes and patisseries so I'm quite at home. No gelatoso I've gone cold turkey there, but tarte praline is a pretty good substitute. Friday we went for lunch to a bagel place and then did some groceries and walked around the town. I was pretty exhausted, sleeping on a church pew for four hours isn't my body's idea of rest, so we hung out at home eating cheese, bread and salad and then watching Obama speeches - he's so impressive! I thought we should have had popcorn. Laura's flatmate Louis was in London until Sunday night so we got the space to ourselves for a bit. Louis studied in NZ for a year so we already know each other which is handy. Laura has to find a new flat at the end of the year because Louis is moving so she's been emailing and calling people to find something not-to-expensive and not-too-inconvenient. Of course those two features rarely go together!
Saturday we got up early and we climbed Fourvière and saw a big cathedral, then down the hill to look at a couple smaller churches but they weren't open until the qfternoon so we headed back to the apartment and ate baguette for lunch, it was super! In the afternoon we went for another walk, back to the churches which hadn't been open, one of which had five guys break-dancing outside, so that was fun to watch.We looked at the pretty churches and then went for a walk out the other direction where Laura introduced me to the delicious tarte praline. Dinner was nice, Laura invited Joanna, an American girl studying in Lyon, to dinner and she brought an apple pie for dessert. We went out for drinks nearby and had intended to go dancing but I still hadn't fully recovered from my train ordeal and was almost falling asleep at the table! It was a little embarrassing, especially since we were sharing our table with three English guys who we'd just met. I'm sure they have a great impression of New Zealanders now!
Sunday we were meeting some of Laura's friends to see an art exhibition at 11 so we went to the market early and had fun buying fruit and vege and cheese. We may have gone a tad overboard on the capsicum and courgettes but I'm sure we can just eat a lot of salad. The exhibition was of modern art from 1945-1949 so there was lots of Pollack and Rothko and then lots of European artists who we hadn't heard of so now I have a list of people to look up in my edu-Catie project! Sunday afternoon we hung out at the apartment mostly because that evening we were attending the ballet! Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet was being performed at the Opera House and Laura got two of the last three tickets available. It was really good, especially Juliet. The costumes and design were futuristic, the stage looked like something from Stargate, and they had cut out a lot because they wanted to shorten it, it was less than two hours and Tybalt was still alive at teh end so if you're familiar with the story you can imagine that Laura and I had a sort of "Huh?" moment at that! But the production was beautiful and we both teared up when Juliet was trying to wake up Romeo, always a good sign. It was fun gettin dressed up and going out and we had wine and cake afterwards since it wasn't very late.
Monday was a bit of a lazy chore day. We woke up late, talked to NZ for two hours then went to do our laundry then groceries. It was just a get-stuff-done kinda day. We had to go on a mission to find a camera cord because I cleverly left mine in Florence! We went to three different plqces before the guy in the last place told us we'd have to order one in for €30 and it would take 30 days so why not just buy a card reader? So that's how we solved my problem in the end, now I have a multi-card reader which does the same job. Tuesday was Armistice which is a public holiday so it seemed like lots of places closed for Monday too, wanted an extended weekend. Laura made a pretty fabulous lasagne for dinner (I pretty much bullied her into it because Joanna had talked about how good it had been.) I spent the whole evening transfering photos to CD because I only had space on my camera for 3 more photos!
Monday night was also ny interview for the journalism course which I want to do next year. I rang using Skype and then discovered that my earpiece was broken so I ended up calling ten minutes late, but he was very nice about that. I guess you cacn't expect calling long-distance to go without incident! I had practised a lot of answers and thought a lot about what he would ask but the interview went really well and after 11 minutes when he asked if I had applied to any other programmes I said "No, if I don't get into this course I'll have to consider my other options" and he said "I don't think you'll need to worry about that." So there was smiling and arm-pumping and trying to sound like a grown-up on the phone. I should receive an official letter at the end of November but since I'll be in Ireland I'll have to rely on my family to be privacy invaders so we can have official arm-pumping and smiling and cheering.
Tuesday we went for a walk, public holiday etc everything was closed, but we picked a bad day because it was raining off and on all day. We headed up a hill and found a market and a carnival of all things! Got quiche for lunch, hid in a cafe from the rain, ran when it stopped for a minute and found nuttella crepes, very exciting. So we headed down the hill with our yummy hazelnutty treat and decided to see a film since it was such a rotten day. We had to find one which doesn't dub stuff so we ended up in a wee arty place and saw The Visitor which is about a depressed widower and illegal immigrants in New York, very good, we liked it.
Dinner was at Joanna's with her friend Michelle so it was a nice English speaking evening. All Laura's French friends speak excellent English but I feel bad making them speak my language when obviously they could all converse quite comfortably in French if I weren't there.
That's it for today, talk to you again from Barcelona! Oh and forgive typoes, French keyboards are crazy!
Friday, 7 November 2008
Venice and Verona
Okay so my hostel had free wifi but no laptops that we could use so hence no update until now, when I found a place in Verona with internet for €1 per hour! That's really cheap, I was stoked.
Okay so it was Sunday afternoon and I was about to find myself some dinner when I left you. So I wandered in circles until I found a place with the right look for what I wanted, and adorable little trattoria with yellow table clothes and a big wooden door. It was quiet, but that's because I was eating at 7 and no one eats until 8 here. I asked for a recommendation from the waitress and she suggested the lasagne bolognese so that's what I ordered. I thought it might be like the spaghetti bolognese and was hesitent to go with something standard but I had asked for her advice... with great results! Bologna style lasagne is so yummy! All kinda cheesy and spicy. It was great :) Then gelato and back to the hostel... It was a good day :)
Monday I headed out to Ferrara for the day and it was lovely, but Siena was much prettier. Ferrara has pretty old bits, but there are lots of modern things slung in between so it's not as cool. I did enjoy myself, saw the outside of lots of cool stuff but it was Monday so all the museums were closed. Not a big news day really.
Tuesday I caught the 9am train to Venice, easily found my great hostel. Venice is super expensive but as soon as I'd paid I got to forget about that and just enjoy it. The place is really enw and the guys worked together at a hostel in Florence before opening their own hostel, and they have a puppy who is gorgeous! It was pretty social too, we all sat around last night drinking wine and talking, and the Americans celebrated having a new president! So I dumped my luggage in the room and went out for a walk in the pouring rain. Visited San Marco and the Rialto and then walked along the water for a while before getting totally completely ridiculously lost. I enjoyed it for the first hour, being lost in a city is my favourite part sometimes, but it was so wet that I was soaked and my sneakers are still wet through, completely horrific and then I got cold and just wanted to get home. It was cute though, I asked for directions to San Marco because from San Marco there are signs to the train station and I was staying right beside the train station and a nice man gave me some directions and then said "And you will find a big street with a red cafe. Then you ask for new directions." Which is so true in Venice! Oh my goodness, I couldn't believe the number of dead ends and circles! So I found my way hostel-side around four and just stayed in the rest of the night, cooked some pasta, chatted with some other people. Lovely night actually, when the rain let up a bit we went and got gelato!
Yesterday it was sunny entirely thanks to the power of my mind - I was determined that it would be nice weather because I wanted just one picture of me on a canal with a blue sky! And voila, I got my way. So I decided to head for the Galleria and the Peggy Guggenheim and I thought I'd walk because nothing in Venice is that big, it's just twisty... really twisty. After I hit the exact same dead end from three different directions I decided to take teh water bus, but that is €6.50 for one hour which is a rip off so I sort of snuck on and didn't pay and then spent the next half hour sweating because although our hostel guy said they never ever check two girls in our hostel got €50 fines the night before! But I made it without incident, the Galleria was lovely but the Guggenheim was AMAZING. Can you imagine having a private collection cool enough to become a museum? Yeah, fantastic. I now have a list of artists to look up and educate myself. I met two American women there, one of whom lives in Venice and the other was her visiting friend, so I went around with them there and then out for coffee afterwards, it was lovely. Headed slowly back to the hostel and managed to catch sunset on the Rialto, very cool! So it was a really nice meandering kind of day.
I really loved Venice, it was so beautiful at every turn and there was so much to see which wasn0t even a "sight" it was just pretty. I took so many pictures in Italy that I'm going to have to buy a DVD and figure out how to put all my photos on it because I'm out of space on my memory stick and on my flash drive. Really great.
Today I headed for Verona with two girls from my hostel, Alanna and Katie. We got here around noon and Katie was super organised so she played tour guide and showed us all the best sights. Yes I touched Juliet's right breast and carefully avoided her left! A few people on the Japanese tour didn't seem to really get the tradition so we watched lots of them get there picture taken hugging her or just hanging off her arm. Also saw a castle, a couple palazzos, an arena and a few churches before a lovely lunch at a cafe on the piazza de Erbe. Bought myself a little brooch in the shape of a mask because the masks are so beautiful but I can't get one home! It was a really nice day to have people to walk and talk with, and to hand the reigns over! Alone I have to make all the decisions but instead I played duckling and just followed Katie everywhere. Fun! And good weather again. Oh and did I mention it was a THREE gelato day? New record that one... Verona is lovely, I think it is better competition that Ferrara against Siena, it's all wide winding streets and big colourful buildings. Ooh and I stood under this whale rib which hangs from an arch in the city (google it, there should be pics and stories) and had my picture taken. Supposedly it's going to fall when a perfectly just person walks under it and so far despite a lot of tourists and a few pope it's still there! Better story than the Mouth of Truth in Rome which is meant to bite liars - I stuck my hand in and nothing there either but there are probably more liars than just people so I don't know why there aren't more tourists with missing fingers. Of course what is the whale rib falls and hits the just person? Isn't that counter-productive?
So tonight I train to Milan, wait six hours in the train station overnight and then head to Lyon to meet Laura! So excited!
I think that's all my news really... Doesn't seem that long. Oh well, I'll give you guys a break :)
Okay so it was Sunday afternoon and I was about to find myself some dinner when I left you. So I wandered in circles until I found a place with the right look for what I wanted, and adorable little trattoria with yellow table clothes and a big wooden door. It was quiet, but that's because I was eating at 7 and no one eats until 8 here. I asked for a recommendation from the waitress and she suggested the lasagne bolognese so that's what I ordered. I thought it might be like the spaghetti bolognese and was hesitent to go with something standard but I had asked for her advice... with great results! Bologna style lasagne is so yummy! All kinda cheesy and spicy. It was great :) Then gelato and back to the hostel... It was a good day :)
Monday I headed out to Ferrara for the day and it was lovely, but Siena was much prettier. Ferrara has pretty old bits, but there are lots of modern things slung in between so it's not as cool. I did enjoy myself, saw the outside of lots of cool stuff but it was Monday so all the museums were closed. Not a big news day really.
Tuesday I caught the 9am train to Venice, easily found my great hostel. Venice is super expensive but as soon as I'd paid I got to forget about that and just enjoy it. The place is really enw and the guys worked together at a hostel in Florence before opening their own hostel, and they have a puppy who is gorgeous! It was pretty social too, we all sat around last night drinking wine and talking, and the Americans celebrated having a new president! So I dumped my luggage in the room and went out for a walk in the pouring rain. Visited San Marco and the Rialto and then walked along the water for a while before getting totally completely ridiculously lost. I enjoyed it for the first hour, being lost in a city is my favourite part sometimes, but it was so wet that I was soaked and my sneakers are still wet through, completely horrific and then I got cold and just wanted to get home. It was cute though, I asked for directions to San Marco because from San Marco there are signs to the train station and I was staying right beside the train station and a nice man gave me some directions and then said "And you will find a big street with a red cafe. Then you ask for new directions." Which is so true in Venice! Oh my goodness, I couldn't believe the number of dead ends and circles! So I found my way hostel-side around four and just stayed in the rest of the night, cooked some pasta, chatted with some other people. Lovely night actually, when the rain let up a bit we went and got gelato!
Yesterday it was sunny entirely thanks to the power of my mind - I was determined that it would be nice weather because I wanted just one picture of me on a canal with a blue sky! And voila, I got my way. So I decided to head for the Galleria and the Peggy Guggenheim and I thought I'd walk because nothing in Venice is that big, it's just twisty... really twisty. After I hit the exact same dead end from three different directions I decided to take teh water bus, but that is €6.50 for one hour which is a rip off so I sort of snuck on and didn't pay and then spent the next half hour sweating because although our hostel guy said they never ever check two girls in our hostel got €50 fines the night before! But I made it without incident, the Galleria was lovely but the Guggenheim was AMAZING. Can you imagine having a private collection cool enough to become a museum? Yeah, fantastic. I now have a list of artists to look up and educate myself. I met two American women there, one of whom lives in Venice and the other was her visiting friend, so I went around with them there and then out for coffee afterwards, it was lovely. Headed slowly back to the hostel and managed to catch sunset on the Rialto, very cool! So it was a really nice meandering kind of day.
I really loved Venice, it was so beautiful at every turn and there was so much to see which wasn0t even a "sight" it was just pretty. I took so many pictures in Italy that I'm going to have to buy a DVD and figure out how to put all my photos on it because I'm out of space on my memory stick and on my flash drive. Really great.
Today I headed for Verona with two girls from my hostel, Alanna and Katie. We got here around noon and Katie was super organised so she played tour guide and showed us all the best sights. Yes I touched Juliet's right breast and carefully avoided her left! A few people on the Japanese tour didn't seem to really get the tradition so we watched lots of them get there picture taken hugging her or just hanging off her arm. Also saw a castle, a couple palazzos, an arena and a few churches before a lovely lunch at a cafe on the piazza de Erbe. Bought myself a little brooch in the shape of a mask because the masks are so beautiful but I can't get one home! It was a really nice day to have people to walk and talk with, and to hand the reigns over! Alone I have to make all the decisions but instead I played duckling and just followed Katie everywhere. Fun! And good weather again. Oh and did I mention it was a THREE gelato day? New record that one... Verona is lovely, I think it is better competition that Ferrara against Siena, it's all wide winding streets and big colourful buildings. Ooh and I stood under this whale rib which hangs from an arch in the city (google it, there should be pics and stories) and had my picture taken. Supposedly it's going to fall when a perfectly just person walks under it and so far despite a lot of tourists and a few pope it's still there! Better story than the Mouth of Truth in Rome which is meant to bite liars - I stuck my hand in and nothing there either but there are probably more liars than just people so I don't know why there aren't more tourists with missing fingers. Of course what is the whale rib falls and hits the just person? Isn't that counter-productive?
So tonight I train to Milan, wait six hours in the train station overnight and then head to Lyon to meet Laura! So excited!
I think that's all my news really... Doesn't seem that long. Oh well, I'll give you guys a break :)
Monday, 3 November 2008
Bologna and beyond
Ok so where was I? In an internet cafe in Florence on Wednesday night, yes? Huh, I just reread my last post to catch up (I forget what I've told you and where to start) and it ends with the rather mysterious single word paragraph of "Shoes." Not so unusual really considering my general obession but I'm sure a point or curiosity.
Basically I had the most amazing shoe experience ever and couldn't even formulate the words to describe it. I have known for a little while that I needed to buy a pair of shoes because while my trusty Converse Chuck Taylors are still comfy and stylish and loved I am attending the ballet on Sunday the 9th of November and my options included Chucks, jandals or hiking boots. Très chic (I don't know if that's the right accent for the e, there are too many options on this keyboard.) So I needed shoes and had been vaguely staring in the window of shops to find something I actually liked and could afford and which would be semi-practical to travel with (stilettos = fun but not functional.)
So remember the rain? Torrential and horrendous and I hid in a cafe? Well when it let up and I asked where Piazza Independenza was it turned out I was just aroudn the corner from home. Heading along Via Nazionale, the street my street comes off, I suddenly noticed a little shop I had never spotted before with bright blue paint and overcrowded windows. I walked through the open door and discovered to my right an old Italian man making shoes. As I entered the store I was surrounded on all sides by shoes of literally every description, even hanging from the ceiling. There were jester's pointy shoes and big bright clown shoes, classic black brogues beside almost as classic huge black goth boots. The proprietor came out to say "Ciao" and was the most amazing man I've ever seen with a huge white beard dressed in an outfit which was white (well, underneath) and covered in colourful paint splatters, pants, shirt and boots all matching and made by he and his partner, of course. So I browsed this amazing little store and saw, sitting on the shelf between a jagged cut gladiator sandal and a big soled black boot, one modest little black shoe. 1930s/40s style with little laces and a small heel, I think I met my soulmate - we recognised eachother. Ok, so I exaggerate, but it was a special moment. And then it fit perfectly (in a shop like this you can't exactly ask for an 8 1/2) so then the fun of the hunt for the second shoe began! Literally every shoe is on display so we had to hunt for it, but when found it was never doubted that they would go home with me! So I had to go get a lot of cash (no visa for these aged hippies) but I am now the owner of handmade Italian leather shoes. I had some eek moments about the money until Mum reminded me that I worked damn hard for that money and ought to enjoy spending it on something so utterly me. So now I just glance often at my feet and sigh happily. So there lies the long and exciting story of "Shoes."
Thursday morning I packed and checked out around 10 to catch a train to Bologna. Got to Bologna a bit after 12, asked a guy with a lanyard where to get my bus, he put me on a bus and told the driver to drop me at the right stop. So I waited at the stop, got the right bus and got to my hostel, the Centro Turisto Camping-Hotel. It sounded a bit inconvenient but was really cheap, and it turned out to be great, bus is pretty straightforward so I'm happy. I didn't bother going back into town that afternoon, I did the hundred little jobs which add up - like laundry. Ha, you should have seen the outfit I ended up wearing to do my laundry! A skirt I got in Africa with the tank top from my swimsuit, the only clean woolen jersey I had and my raincoat! Awesome. But soon laundry was done and I could look vaguely sensible again. The hostel retaurant does cheap pizza which is really good so that was my tasty dinner.
Friday I headed into Bologna early to explore. I decided Friday would be Church Day so I hit about 8 out of the million and a half that Bologna had to offer. Saw the tomb of Saint Domenicus, very snazzy. I've become a bit flippant about churches but the Basilica of St Petronius was really amazing, so amazing that I went to church there this morning. It's very open and airy and light, with terracotta coloured pillars and edges which make it seem more welcoming than the plain marble or concrete ones. I liked it. I also went in to the Palazzo D'Accursio which houses the Municipal Art Collection in a wing of the old palace so it was cool art (with signs in English, bonus) in pretty rooms, well worth the free ticket. Also in the palace is the Morandi Museum, full of artwork by an artist from Bologna but it was quite reptitive stuff and sadly not very impressive after the majesty of the other gallery. Oh and the stairs to the first floor of the palace are really shallow and wide because they were designed to allow a horse and carriage up them! Those crazy noble families. I got a bit tired in the afternoon and was trying to decide what to do as I wandered the main piazza and I ended up in the library where I spent a delightful hour reading The Guardian and New Yorker. So now I'm all caught up on how McCain is election scum (something like 80% of his advertising budget is spent on negative ads about Obama) and why it's a myth that genius exhibits young (Picasso may have peaked at 25 but Cezanne was awesomest in his 50s) so I felt smarter when I left. Dinner was again pizza, but a different kind so it's ok, there is variety in my diet.
Yesterday I went to Ravenna, famous for it's mosaics but my motivation was pure Dante, he's buried there. The mosaics were certainly also impressive, I even bought a few wee giftcards with pictures of birds from the souvenir shop. I enjoyed walking around Ravenna although it isn't the prettiest city I've been in in Italy, in a way that made it seem more 'real'... I mean, not every Italian can live in Siena, right? Dante's tomb is majestic and I made a nice American lady take my photo in front of it, which I would show you but I forgot my camera cord. Next time. I caught a different bus to the hostel because it required no waiting but I missed the stop and had to walk twenty minutes back, following the bus stops, thank goodness it wasn't raining!
So today was Museum Day and I decided to go to church because I went a lot in Tanzania and found it really nice, being part of a community, and I find mass in another language very soothing. It's not as scary to be warned of brimfire if you can't understand a word of it! And the Basilica, as I said, it beautiful so I spent a lot of time staring at the ceiling. Then the museums! Bologna rocks because almost all the museums are free! I went to the Museum of Archaeology, mummies, vases and old statues; the Medieval Museum, illuminated books, armour and statues of Popes and Saints; the University Museum, old maps, model ships and wax anatomy models. I missed the Modern Art Gallery because I couldn't find it easily (the signs stopped before I could get near it) and the National Picture Gallery because it cost €10 - ha! I sat in a cafe reading and drinking coffee for about an hour, delight, before deigning to come and update all of you!
Tomorrow I'm going to explore Ferrara, which is the picturesque medieval city in this region, so I can compare it to Siena. Then Tuesday it's the early train to Venice and my exploration of the sinking city can begin! I think my hostel there has free internet so you can expect an update in a few days, probably a good deal shorter than this one unless I fall in love with a handbag, coat or man!
Basically I had the most amazing shoe experience ever and couldn't even formulate the words to describe it. I have known for a little while that I needed to buy a pair of shoes because while my trusty Converse Chuck Taylors are still comfy and stylish and loved I am attending the ballet on Sunday the 9th of November and my options included Chucks, jandals or hiking boots. Très chic (I don't know if that's the right accent for the e, there are too many options on this keyboard.) So I needed shoes and had been vaguely staring in the window of shops to find something I actually liked and could afford and which would be semi-practical to travel with (stilettos = fun but not functional.)
So remember the rain? Torrential and horrendous and I hid in a cafe? Well when it let up and I asked where Piazza Independenza was it turned out I was just aroudn the corner from home. Heading along Via Nazionale, the street my street comes off, I suddenly noticed a little shop I had never spotted before with bright blue paint and overcrowded windows. I walked through the open door and discovered to my right an old Italian man making shoes. As I entered the store I was surrounded on all sides by shoes of literally every description, even hanging from the ceiling. There were jester's pointy shoes and big bright clown shoes, classic black brogues beside almost as classic huge black goth boots. The proprietor came out to say "Ciao" and was the most amazing man I've ever seen with a huge white beard dressed in an outfit which was white (well, underneath) and covered in colourful paint splatters, pants, shirt and boots all matching and made by he and his partner, of course. So I browsed this amazing little store and saw, sitting on the shelf between a jagged cut gladiator sandal and a big soled black boot, one modest little black shoe. 1930s/40s style with little laces and a small heel, I think I met my soulmate - we recognised eachother. Ok, so I exaggerate, but it was a special moment. And then it fit perfectly (in a shop like this you can't exactly ask for an 8 1/2) so then the fun of the hunt for the second shoe began! Literally every shoe is on display so we had to hunt for it, but when found it was never doubted that they would go home with me! So I had to go get a lot of cash (no visa for these aged hippies) but I am now the owner of handmade Italian leather shoes. I had some eek moments about the money until Mum reminded me that I worked damn hard for that money and ought to enjoy spending it on something so utterly me. So now I just glance often at my feet and sigh happily. So there lies the long and exciting story of "Shoes."
Thursday morning I packed and checked out around 10 to catch a train to Bologna. Got to Bologna a bit after 12, asked a guy with a lanyard where to get my bus, he put me on a bus and told the driver to drop me at the right stop. So I waited at the stop, got the right bus and got to my hostel, the Centro Turisto Camping-Hotel. It sounded a bit inconvenient but was really cheap, and it turned out to be great, bus is pretty straightforward so I'm happy. I didn't bother going back into town that afternoon, I did the hundred little jobs which add up - like laundry. Ha, you should have seen the outfit I ended up wearing to do my laundry! A skirt I got in Africa with the tank top from my swimsuit, the only clean woolen jersey I had and my raincoat! Awesome. But soon laundry was done and I could look vaguely sensible again. The hostel retaurant does cheap pizza which is really good so that was my tasty dinner.
Friday I headed into Bologna early to explore. I decided Friday would be Church Day so I hit about 8 out of the million and a half that Bologna had to offer. Saw the tomb of Saint Domenicus, very snazzy. I've become a bit flippant about churches but the Basilica of St Petronius was really amazing, so amazing that I went to church there this morning. It's very open and airy and light, with terracotta coloured pillars and edges which make it seem more welcoming than the plain marble or concrete ones. I liked it. I also went in to the Palazzo D'Accursio which houses the Municipal Art Collection in a wing of the old palace so it was cool art (with signs in English, bonus) in pretty rooms, well worth the free ticket. Also in the palace is the Morandi Museum, full of artwork by an artist from Bologna but it was quite reptitive stuff and sadly not very impressive after the majesty of the other gallery. Oh and the stairs to the first floor of the palace are really shallow and wide because they were designed to allow a horse and carriage up them! Those crazy noble families. I got a bit tired in the afternoon and was trying to decide what to do as I wandered the main piazza and I ended up in the library where I spent a delightful hour reading The Guardian and New Yorker. So now I'm all caught up on how McCain is election scum (something like 80% of his advertising budget is spent on negative ads about Obama) and why it's a myth that genius exhibits young (Picasso may have peaked at 25 but Cezanne was awesomest in his 50s) so I felt smarter when I left. Dinner was again pizza, but a different kind so it's ok, there is variety in my diet.
Yesterday I went to Ravenna, famous for it's mosaics but my motivation was pure Dante, he's buried there. The mosaics were certainly also impressive, I even bought a few wee giftcards with pictures of birds from the souvenir shop. I enjoyed walking around Ravenna although it isn't the prettiest city I've been in in Italy, in a way that made it seem more 'real'... I mean, not every Italian can live in Siena, right? Dante's tomb is majestic and I made a nice American lady take my photo in front of it, which I would show you but I forgot my camera cord. Next time. I caught a different bus to the hostel because it required no waiting but I missed the stop and had to walk twenty minutes back, following the bus stops, thank goodness it wasn't raining!
So today was Museum Day and I decided to go to church because I went a lot in Tanzania and found it really nice, being part of a community, and I find mass in another language very soothing. It's not as scary to be warned of brimfire if you can't understand a word of it! And the Basilica, as I said, it beautiful so I spent a lot of time staring at the ceiling. Then the museums! Bologna rocks because almost all the museums are free! I went to the Museum of Archaeology, mummies, vases and old statues; the Medieval Museum, illuminated books, armour and statues of Popes and Saints; the University Museum, old maps, model ships and wax anatomy models. I missed the Modern Art Gallery because I couldn't find it easily (the signs stopped before I could get near it) and the National Picture Gallery because it cost €10 - ha! I sat in a cafe reading and drinking coffee for about an hour, delight, before deigning to come and update all of you!
Tomorrow I'm going to explore Ferrara, which is the picturesque medieval city in this region, so I can compare it to Siena. Then Tuesday it's the early train to Venice and my exploration of the sinking city can begin! I think my hostel there has free internet so you can expect an update in a few days, probably a good deal shorter than this one unless I fall in love with a handbag, coat or man!
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