4/26/2010

April 26th
5:10 pm (Rome)

wow it certainly appears as though I have dropped off the face of the earth- I never was very good at this whole daily thing and apologies to my readers for appearing to have died or some other terrible occurrence. I'm going to quick backtrack and read where I left off so as to try and pick up again on my tales of adventure.

...good gracious I left off in the 5th of march well let's get back tracking. So we were in Paris then- wow Paris seems so long ago-

anywho on the 6th we went to Notre Dame with the drawing class. To most of our class this was a poor poor choice. We were told to go and draw some perspective sketches. The only problem was that Bernie (our teacher) never really got a chance to teach us how to draw perspective and Notre Dame is a very intimidating building to be looking at to draw perspective. So we all scattered about and planted ourselves some where and started drawing. I spent quite sometime drawing a statue in a corner with stained glass



and tourists kept looking over my shoulders and taking pictures and such- it was quite strange.



Rachel found me later and we went out with Kyle for a lunch break.


(we were being silly at lunch)

When we got back I wandered behind Notre Dame,


(Malta Tent!)



helped Greg shade trees



and then Listened to a street piano player while I drew a bit of a bridge.


(this bridge to be exact)

I then worked my way back into Notre Dame and finished my first drawing



and did a sketch of the stained glass reflecting on the floor.





On the 7th we went to the Louvre, which was awesome and Bernie lead us around talking about Art- if I am remembering correctly it was here that we got yelled at for giving group tours not within the bounds of paying someone from the museum to do it but whateves- Saw loads of cool stuff and Nate had his pocket knife confiscated- poor Nate having habits and forgetting things lol. They gave him a claims ticket and a frown but he got it back so alls well that ends well. We went back to the Louvre on the 8th and sat around and drew statues-



I was sitting with Matt who nearly screamed at a woman for touching the art- he was muttering up a storm though



(side note: peeps that touch art absolutely make me cringe- It's way cool to touch the stone work of a building- you are touching history and that's awesome- but things hinging on the walls or behind velvet cords - not ok) Anywho- drew a statue at the Louvre



and then wandered Paris a bit, hung out at the Fiap a lot though- it really was a very nice place to hang out- even if the internet only worked in half hour shifts. Oh and in Paris we started having rehearsals for Rachel's one act - “Kissing Scene” I think it's coming along rather nicely.

Then on the 9th we went to the Rodin Museum- which was awesome btw Saw the Thinker- one of the main ones at least, Rodin made a kagillion of them- lol.



Had a fun time trying to find the front door where we were supposed to meet our class and apparently so did Kyle who came panting into the museum about 10 minutes into class saying “so this is the front entrance”- I thought he had just been on the other side of the building but it turns out that he had accidentally gone to the D'Orsay Museum instead of the Rodin- poor Kyle mistaking the buildings. It became a running joke on the trip though, mostly about Kyle being late or just on time for things.

Kyle and I have both watched a lot of Monty Python's Flying Circus and it was in Paris that we were discussing the Ministry of Silly Walks and through out the trip we have been-well walking funny behind peoples backs and giggling at their ignorance to our jokes. It's been great fun.

4/3/2010

April 3rd

you can't drink on the bus-*drinking water on the bus while the driver is gone* what happens if you spill on the bus...it dries....lol


(said on a Geology Day trip...destination Roncal Spain...where we climbed our first mountain!)

4/1/2010

April 1st
8:44am

Train station in San Sebastian- Platforms in order 1 2 3 4 6 statement- This is Spain, there is no 5 or vise versa There is no 5, this is Spain

3/12/2010

3/12/2010
10:32 am

“stop being cute and get out of my bed!”...best eavesdropped quote ever...lol- all of that aside apologies for being so behind in my writing. I'm going to use my half hour of internet time and then try to recap a bit kk brb.

11:12am Ok then, so the last thing I really talked about was trying to get to Paris ok then-

Well Greg, Nate and I made it safe to our Hostel. Figured out the metro to do so but it was super close to the station so it worked out well. Got a little nervous after walking for awhile because we thought we should have passed it by then, but no worries. The hostel (Vintage Hostel to be specific) was awesome. There was breakfast and our own bathroom with a tub shower and hot water X) on the 3rd we went on a walking exploration to the Moulin Rouge and Notre Dame...was way fun.





On the 4th we metro'd our way over to the Fiap Hostel which we determined has 'prime location' as it is across the street from :a Hospital, a Police Station, and a Mental Institution- oh and down a few blocks is a Prison...woooo....*sars* So we were the first ones to come and chill in the lobby and group by group we got to hear every-ones travel horror stories.


(weary travelers in the lobby)

Main factor never try to get out of Geneva it's nigh impossible with out spending loads of money. We did have one group call in saying they were kinda trapped in Switzerland and would be arriving late that night- this was all a little stressful. This was also Ally's travel group and she was my assigned roommate for the stay (btw Fiap has 2 person awesome rooms) but they eventually came in and all was well with the world.


(apparently I'm a super creep sometimes...this is Ally having fallen asleep reading in our awesome room)

Also dinner here has been awesome- hot food, lots of variety- awesomes.

So on the 5th we had our walking tour of Paris which was delayed by half and hour as the tour company had forgotten about us and only sent one guide for two groups-


(waiting for the tour guide at San Michael)


(although it worked out ok in the end...we got our adorably cute and quirky tour guide after a short wait)


(she told up all about the space invaders all around Europe...I remembered the one I saw in London and was extra disappointed hadn't gotten a picture...luckily I got this one by the Seine)

(did all the site seeing things)


(Eiffle tower from a distance)


(the Arc de Triomphe)


(a sweet picture of the flag)

Side Note- off to eat lunch and go to class I'll finish up later-

3/5/2010

Realized while writing in my journal I had skipped a page when i made this entry so it's a little behind the times...lol

------------------------------------------------


3/5/2010
3:35pm

To Not be eaten by Lions



(saw this written on a lock on this Bridge in Paris...it was note worthy enough)


(Picture Acquired courtesy of Nate...this is why I kept him around, to keep track of the important things for me while we traveled...lol)

3/8/2010

3/8/2010
10:15am (Paris)

I am in the LOUVRE!!!! eeeeeee!!








Notes- Fashion Design 1800-1940 the Pepin Press – Prix Magasin
V&A Nineteenth Century Fashion Detail Lucy Johnston

(I actualy got this book for my birthday when I got back...it's super cool)




Fashion since 1900- The Complete Source Book 1250 color illustrations John Peacock- Thames & Hudson

3/2/2010

March 2, 2012 (I'm guessing I meant to write 2010 lol)

1:10pm (Switzerland)



Sitting in the Train Station o.O mrrr ok so here is what went down today

-got of a train to Milan at 5:40am went from Milan to Geneva. When we purchased these train reservations we were told that it was not possible to reserve the Geneva to Paris train in Verona so we decided to wing it. This was the first scary section. Second was this: Nate, Greg and I are sharing a room- Greg already had his tickets to Geneva to wing it to Paris when he decided to stay with us instead of Rachel. We tried to get on the same train as him but could not. Fun Fact: Greg's train is later in the day then ours now. So we arrive in Geneva at 12:18 and Greg will be arriving at 16:18. We figured we'd wait here for Greg and get three train reservations to Paris instead of abandoning poor Greg. So we told him yesterday that we'd meet him at his platform in Geneva- which is #6 and currently where I am sitting. Any who we arrive in Geneva find the ticket office and a departure schedule and find a train going out at 17:17 – perfect we think. Talk to the ticket office and they don't have 3 Eurail seats left on that train- we try the 19 something or other as well as the 20 something train- all full...The man behind the counter was quite pleasant with us and looked up if we could get there via Lyon or another station- no luck. The only trains with space were leaving at 13 something so Nate and I could get to Paris but this would severely screw over Greg- who as I am remembering now, meant to jot down the hostel information/map but did not- making me the sole carrier of all the info. So eventually hearing the phrase 'you can't get to Paris today' and over terrified looks we eventually work it out that yes we can get onto the 17:17 train we just need to pay for a ticket instead of a Eurail reservation... This is getting priced out in front of of us and it's about 124 Swiss Francs per ticket. For some crazed reason Nate looks over at me and says “I got this”- I am still in bewilderment at this emergency money business- meaning I don't have to reimburse Nate. I think we discussed me footing for lunch sometime which I think sounds like a horrible trade on Nate's side, but being the poor person I am I'll accept this lol.


(a 2 Swiss Franc coin)

2/28/2010

2/28/2010
8:33 am

ok so on the 25th we did a tour of the Roman theatre ruins- way cool and then I went to the top of the Torre dei Lamberti. We walked up all 300 and some stairs and scurried down them all so we wouldn't go deaf when the bells went off at 4:30 lol






and I dragged Nate to the Cassa di Giulietta (the House of Juliet) – tee hee many young Japanese girls took our pic on the balcony- it was high-larious.


(view from the balcony)


Oh and the reason for all this running about sight seeing is due to us having a 3 day Verona card which lets us into a few select sights for free and a couple of sights for discount and the roman theatre was day 1- day 2 we toured the Coliseum (Arena) and one of the costumed guards made fun of my fast walking- I swing my arms lol.


(the Arena)

Then we spent a bit of time trying to figure out how to get to Milan which involved going to

[ 10:35 am Side Note- everyone was complaining about the 10 eurro charge for seat reservations- some people decided to wing it and not get reservations because the group that was staying in Venice for Free travel never got ticketed- I just watched the ticket taker charge them for a ticket => pry more then 10 Eurro too... and hell a day trip to Venice for 10 Eurro- awesome :D]

...involved going to the internet cafe then the train station (too busy) then back to the cafe (full) so we decided to just do it a different day and went on an adventure traveling down river to explore the boundary walls of the original Roman city. Which was way fun besides me getting kinda trapped in a youth sports park lol. We almost jumped a fence but decided that barbed wire and traffic wasn't worth saving on the walking distance but the walk was beautiful- way fun. And had a pleasant little chat along the way. Found some snails on the wall which seemed befitting seeing as at both the Roman Theatre and the Arena tours I was doodling snails- also found some shells near the walls in the Roman Theatre- way cool.


(snail I found)


(snail in the Roman Theatre)


(snail at the Arena...drawn with my foot)

Oh...don't know if I've mentioned this before but I'm falling back into my old habits of watching the ground while I walk- been picking up scarp metal blush only keeping the cool pieces and have been stringing up jewelry. Need to find some pretty string or stringer thread though- twine will only last me so long and it's a little rough on the neck...mar


(the Jewelry I made :D )

hello again

So I recently rediscovered what shelf I had thrown my journal from Europe on. I also have found myself with an abundance of free time and have been spending most of it reading books like a mad woman. I have decided to take some of my free time to continue typing up my journal from where I left off.

I'll post one journal entry at a time so as not to have the humongous entries I had before when I was posting as much as possible when I could get an internet connection.

thank you to anyone who has been waiting patiently for me to continue...I know it's been over a year now...



--------------------

2/24/2010
7:55 am (Verona)

ok It's been awhile so I'll recap after breakfast story. So I'm sitting in gorgeous Verona- love this city btw- in the dinning hall drinking coffee out of a bowl-tee hee- but I am sitting in front of a fire place so – win XD. Need to write my last anytime visit for class at 9 but it's a page, wont take long and this is nice. Big stone house- practically no electricity- crackling fires- beautiful courtyard, big open green spaces- it's so nice here mmmm roll with plum jam dipped in coffee- yum X) homework time brb

8:15 am -homework done -lol- I always like that you can tell when I was writing at breakfast-there's always jam all over those pages (not the jam spots below)

Ok so (*jam*) Backtracking 20th- went to the film festival a final time and saw “Golden Slumber” with (*jam*) <--jam mmm... Nate-movie= amazing, so good and was totally picked out et random by yours truly because “Summer Wars” was sold out but amazingness ensued- Nate did laundry and I went exploring out by Potstamer Platz looking for the vintage jewelry store I had a tiny map of and stumbled across a bunch of cool stuffs-cool art work and I got some postcards and a t-shirt -very awesome and this cool bead shop call “The Tudor” very cool and I stumbled across a marionette theatre- shame it was closed though- le sigh.




(my awesome t-shirt)


(The Marionette Theatre)


(the Jewelry store)

Then booked it back for dinner- afterwords was abandoned by other peeps going to a Blue Man Group concert and I tried to find the Dali Museum alone and in the dark- was super creepy seeing as there were like no street lights and I was super lost- so came back, packed up and went to sleep at like 10, where as everyone who went to the concert went to bed after 12 and seeing as it was necessary to leave the hostel at 5:30 am XP.

Side Note: in INTS class discussing Sachsen hausen -it's still unnerving → Greg got quite a befitting picture of me there though- our tour guide was discussing the meals and the whole time I was just starving for almost the whole walk so I was picking off pieces of my roll so it's a pic of me holding a scrap of bread while squinting into the sun with a scarf tied across my head as a head band- as Greg described I looked like a gypsy- the camp was absolutely terrifying though and I think I will get that hunting feeling every time we talk about it. There was just a feeling emanating from the whole camp that is extremely hard for me to explain- Just this creepy feeling of horror that sinks into your bones.

(Was sad to discover that Greg can no longer find this picture)

12:05 pm mmm nicked bread and jam from breakfast delicious- I would be happy if I could have jam and pastry bread for lunch the rest of this trip- yum yum

5:40 pm ok so back to story...wait where was I hmmm... right- leaving at 5:30am- So Nate and I-being the cool people that we are decided that – yeah we could easily walk to the train station- we did before and we don't really want to pay for transportation. So we wake up earlier and are the first ones out of the hostel after a few blocks the clasp on Nate's bag snaps off- so I lend him my carabiner so he doesn't kill his arms carrying everything by hand instead of slung over a shoulder- we get about half way to the train station and the other clasp breaks- I pull out a hunk of cord for my “clothes line” and we tie up his bag- luckily this lasts the rest of the trek through the snow and ice- ick XP =>

so we make it to the train station figure out where our platform is and that we're in the AB section of the train (there are sections A-F) so we're chillin' around about oh- 20-30 mins before our train's suppose to leave (6:52) just chillin' eating stale bread and knock off brand snickers bars-called peanuts which were 95 eurro cents for 5 awesome deal and delicious- and it get's to be like 6:45 ish or so and we start worrying about the 10 or so other people that had the same train as us- seeing as we had- at this point seen no one else from our group. Then it was 6:50 trains here no one else- we eventually find out they were all on the other end of the platform and had to book it to our end lol – go us => we did get a bunch of “oh you finally made it” comments even though we were the first ones there – tee hee.

Train ride was pleasant we sat across from each other at a table with two German women next to us in the window seat. Most of the ride was spent sleeping and finishing “Angels and Demons” which is now being passed around as reading material so either Rob or Libby has it right now- not quite sure. We transferred at München (Munich) and got some cart side pizza in the lay over time. Train ride was Nate, Greg, Rob and I along with an Italian woman and son in a little walled in seating box- figuring out where to put everyone's luggage was quite the adventure. Felt bad for the Italians having to deal with us for so long. Train went through the lower Alps and it was absolutely gorgeous. I think Rob said he took like 200 pictures in the train crazy awesomes. Nate and I decided we'd let Rob and Greg do all the picture taking and steal from facebook later- lol.


(beautiful pic of the Apls I stole from Rob's facebook...:D)


(trying to sleep on the train)

Got to Verona and again decided to walk to our hotel => thought we were lost for awhile but turns out we were going the right way all along- most of the streets didn't have any names so it was quite confusing => stayed in a Best Western same as Ken and Rachel- it was amazing. Tiny bathroom though which was a bit more of a problem for Nate then me- lol silly tall people. 1st night was spent wandering the streets a little- including backtracking to find my sweatshirt that I had dropped and relaxing in front of the TV watching CNN, Jordan's Crossing in Italian and the Olympics in German.


(our tiny hotel room)


(and the tiny TV we watched)

Next day ate breakfast with Ken and Rachel and wandered the streets with them. Found the hostel, found out they had scheduled us to arrive a day later then we were coming in- lol- sorted all that out. Ate an amazing “business lunch” that consisted- for me at least as there were choices- of macaroni and beef- a side of potatoes and pork with rosemary and lemon, all for 11 eurro- and the table had a karaf of red wine- which wasn't half bad.


(my wine glass and the sparkling water glass)

That night Nate picked up a bottle of cheep red wine, Rachel a bottle of sparkling white (which was delicious) and we had a chil little evening watching bad 70's dubbed TV while sipping out of the glasses from the bathroom- I do believe I had more water then wine overall but I had heard from experienced people that wine will not make you feel so good in the morning- which was true for everyone else lol ;D. we then marched the long and uphill road to the hostel and hung out in the amazingly beautiful courtyard until everyone else showed up.