15 March 2008
09 March 2008
being unable to communicate is not a fun experience
6 march:
so our weekend in paris began in the most delightful way: leaving the abbey at 2am on thursday morning. it was actually well planned in that we would be able to fall directly asleep on the coach and nap until we got to paris. however, being on a coach with 50+ other people isn't exactly silent, so i didn't sleep enough at all. we stopped at several WWI sites on the way to paris, which was hard to manage because everyone was exhausted. we were supposed to get to our hotel, the grand hotel du havre on rue d'amsterdam, at 3:30. however, the coach got lost and we didn't get there til closer to 5...not cool. i was rooming with lisa, which was awesome, so we moved all our stuff in and just bummed out for a bit. french cartoons are hilarious, especially pokemon and inspector gadget! we went walking around the area looking for dinner, and ended up at this amazing place, Pizza Firenze, where i got a delicious margherita pizza. after that we sort of wandered around, learned that most shops and supermarkets close at 9pm, and got a beer from the local bar before turning in.
7 march:
we woke up in the morning and ate breakfast at the hotel before getting on the coach tour of paris. i saw a whole lot of sights including the obelisk, the musee d'orsay, the eiffel tower, and so many more that i can't even think of to name! the coach dropped us off at notre dame, which was great. we had a lot of fun wandering around the side streets in that area and exploring some of the shops and whatnot. i got a cheese crepe for lunch, and while it was delicious, it really wasn't what i was craving and i didn't end up getting more while in paris. we walked along the seine toward the district of st. michel's, where we looked at the pantheon, the sorbonne, and then escaped to the jardin du luxembourg. the gardens were absolutely beautiful despite the fact that it was winter, and there were kids racing toy boats in the fountain, and ponies, and so many other cool things despite the beauty of the flowers themselves. we walked back up the seine toward the louvre, since it was free for under-26s after 6pm. we saw the mona lisa (somewhat disappointing) but jason and i had a great time in the egypt exhibit. we took the metro back to the hotel's area, and got sandwiches for dinner.
8 march:
the longest day of our trip, i did so much! we started off the day by walking to montmartre, which is also known as the red light district. it was full of the seedy sort of stores and bars and whatnot, but also several classier establishments. we stopped at a street vendors to buy scarves (mine is a blue-green silk with embroidered flowers) and i also bought a pin in the shape of france for my bag. then we walked up the neverending stairs to Sacre Coeur. i felt very awkward walking around this church during services, and they said it was perpetual worship, but i still worried that we were being disruptive. anthony got yelled at for taking a picture, because no photography is allowed in the church. we walked through the artists corner, where a lot of artists were at work painting, sketching, making silhouettes, etc. if they weren't so expensive, i would have had one done, but they were ridiculously out of my budget :( we bought paninis off the street for lunch, mine was supposed to be chicken and ended up only cheese but it was still good. the weather was beautiful so i bought an ice cream cone and ate that as we walked around. we went to the dali exhibition which was incredible. he's definitely in my top 5 favorite artists. on the way back through montmartre to the hotel in the afternoon we stopped for a bit at the musee l'erotisme which was...interesting, to say the least. we rested for a bit at the hotel because everyone was tired, then we met up and looked for dinner. however, we were interrupted because there was a demonstration by a large group of Palestinians about the shooting in Israel this weekend. i'm talking full, armed police escort blocking off the streets to all cars. we were a bit freaked out so we continued moving. we found this cute little italian restaurant, where sara and i split an amazing four cheese penne dish. afterwards, we walked to the arc de triomphe to see it all lit up at night, which was incredible. then we took the metro up to montmartre again to see the moulin rouge. i wish we'd been able to see a show, but again, they were like 100 euro a seat or something equally ridiculous. then we got back and anthony and i watched cartoons until i fell asleep.
overall, i think i like london a lot more than paris.
so our weekend in paris began in the most delightful way: leaving the abbey at 2am on thursday morning. it was actually well planned in that we would be able to fall directly asleep on the coach and nap until we got to paris. however, being on a coach with 50+ other people isn't exactly silent, so i didn't sleep enough at all. we stopped at several WWI sites on the way to paris, which was hard to manage because everyone was exhausted. we were supposed to get to our hotel, the grand hotel du havre on rue d'amsterdam, at 3:30. however, the coach got lost and we didn't get there til closer to 5...not cool. i was rooming with lisa, which was awesome, so we moved all our stuff in and just bummed out for a bit. french cartoons are hilarious, especially pokemon and inspector gadget! we went walking around the area looking for dinner, and ended up at this amazing place, Pizza Firenze, where i got a delicious margherita pizza. after that we sort of wandered around, learned that most shops and supermarkets close at 9pm, and got a beer from the local bar before turning in.
7 march:
we woke up in the morning and ate breakfast at the hotel before getting on the coach tour of paris. i saw a whole lot of sights including the obelisk, the musee d'orsay, the eiffel tower, and so many more that i can't even think of to name! the coach dropped us off at notre dame, which was great. we had a lot of fun wandering around the side streets in that area and exploring some of the shops and whatnot. i got a cheese crepe for lunch, and while it was delicious, it really wasn't what i was craving and i didn't end up getting more while in paris. we walked along the seine toward the district of st. michel's, where we looked at the pantheon, the sorbonne, and then escaped to the jardin du luxembourg. the gardens were absolutely beautiful despite the fact that it was winter, and there were kids racing toy boats in the fountain, and ponies, and so many other cool things despite the beauty of the flowers themselves. we walked back up the seine toward the louvre, since it was free for under-26s after 6pm. we saw the mona lisa (somewhat disappointing) but jason and i had a great time in the egypt exhibit. we took the metro back to the hotel's area, and got sandwiches for dinner.
8 march:
the longest day of our trip, i did so much! we started off the day by walking to montmartre, which is also known as the red light district. it was full of the seedy sort of stores and bars and whatnot, but also several classier establishments. we stopped at a street vendors to buy scarves (mine is a blue-green silk with embroidered flowers) and i also bought a pin in the shape of france for my bag. then we walked up the neverending stairs to Sacre Coeur. i felt very awkward walking around this church during services, and they said it was perpetual worship, but i still worried that we were being disruptive. anthony got yelled at for taking a picture, because no photography is allowed in the church. we walked through the artists corner, where a lot of artists were at work painting, sketching, making silhouettes, etc. if they weren't so expensive, i would have had one done, but they were ridiculously out of my budget :( we bought paninis off the street for lunch, mine was supposed to be chicken and ended up only cheese but it was still good. the weather was beautiful so i bought an ice cream cone and ate that as we walked around. we went to the dali exhibition which was incredible. he's definitely in my top 5 favorite artists. on the way back through montmartre to the hotel in the afternoon we stopped for a bit at the musee l'erotisme which was...interesting, to say the least. we rested for a bit at the hotel because everyone was tired, then we met up and looked for dinner. however, we were interrupted because there was a demonstration by a large group of Palestinians about the shooting in Israel this weekend. i'm talking full, armed police escort blocking off the streets to all cars. we were a bit freaked out so we continued moving. we found this cute little italian restaurant, where sara and i split an amazing four cheese penne dish. afterwards, we walked to the arc de triomphe to see it all lit up at night, which was incredible. then we took the metro up to montmartre again to see the moulin rouge. i wish we'd been able to see a show, but again, they were like 100 euro a seat or something equally ridiculous. then we got back and anthony and i watched cartoons until i fell asleep.
overall, i think i like london a lot more than paris.
02 March 2008
CONTACT!...london, BCFC game, and warwick castle
this was the most intense weekend ever, which was not a good thing considering how much work i have to do right now. week 7 essays are right around the corner and i need to be done all those before MEG GETS HERE!!! between that and regular work for tutorials i'm slowly going insane. but this weekend's trips were pretty fab for the most part.
friday was a trip to the national portrait gallery in london with the art class. again, it was a long day of listening to the teacher drone for about 4 hours with a little bit of free time to explore. however the rain made us not want to be outside and instead we got tea and browsed around this cute little bookstore for a bit. it was a nice small trip which meant i had the entire seat to myself on the way back and i took a nap :)
saturday was the birmingham FC football match that everyone had to go on for inter. it was so much fun!!! despite the fact that we knew absolutely nothing at all about either team, everyone at least wore the colors in support (blue and white for BCFC). at least 20 of us bought jerseys from banbury, and some of the boys painted their chests to represent. originally the bus was going to let us off in the visitor lot because they hadn't planned on us dressing up (apparently we're the first ones ever to do so!) which would have been a bad idea and ended up with all of us dying. i ended up in a front row seat, A36, and i was basically eye level at the field the entire time. we took so many pictures because the entire thing was so amazing! i wish i could go back to another game....
today we went to warwick castle. the entire place was so incredibly beautiful i ended up taking over a hundred pictures! i ended up walking around with sara and jason and it was really nice to be in a small group. we went up on all the walls and were able to look out over the surrounding town and forest. there was a large peacock garden with a few dozen peacocks, male and female both. we even got to see the males try to entice the females into mating. we also got tickets to go on the ghost tour. it was only about 10 minutes which was kind of pathetic, but they definitely managed to scare us a few times. we were originally supposed to leave at 5, but as a group decided we didn't need that long and could leave at 4. i was upset because i had planned in time to walk around the grounds of the castle outside the walls, but we got a call at around 3:40 that everyone was at the bus and wanted to leave. so we ended up leaving without getting that chance :(
friday was a trip to the national portrait gallery in london with the art class. again, it was a long day of listening to the teacher drone for about 4 hours with a little bit of free time to explore. however the rain made us not want to be outside and instead we got tea and browsed around this cute little bookstore for a bit. it was a nice small trip which meant i had the entire seat to myself on the way back and i took a nap :)
saturday was the birmingham FC football match that everyone had to go on for inter. it was so much fun!!! despite the fact that we knew absolutely nothing at all about either team, everyone at least wore the colors in support (blue and white for BCFC). at least 20 of us bought jerseys from banbury, and some of the boys painted their chests to represent. originally the bus was going to let us off in the visitor lot because they hadn't planned on us dressing up (apparently we're the first ones ever to do so!) which would have been a bad idea and ended up with all of us dying. i ended up in a front row seat, A36, and i was basically eye level at the field the entire time. we took so many pictures because the entire thing was so amazing! i wish i could go back to another game....
today we went to warwick castle. the entire place was so incredibly beautiful i ended up taking over a hundred pictures! i ended up walking around with sara and jason and it was really nice to be in a small group. we went up on all the walls and were able to look out over the surrounding town and forest. there was a large peacock garden with a few dozen peacocks, male and female both. we even got to see the males try to entice the females into mating. we also got tickets to go on the ghost tour. it was only about 10 minutes which was kind of pathetic, but they definitely managed to scare us a few times. we were originally supposed to leave at 5, but as a group decided we didn't need that long and could leave at 4. i was upset because i had planned in time to walk around the grounds of the castle outside the walls, but we got a call at around 3:40 that everyone was at the bus and wanted to leave. so we ended up leaving without getting that chance :(
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