The end of October spells vacation for most of France. Toussaint, or All Saint's Day, is a holiday in France when people pay respect to their deceased loved ones. Mums are a typical grave flower, so there seem to be an abundance of them in the flower shops this time of year. As a result of this connotation between mums and death, it is a bad idea to give a French person mums as a gift unless, well, you wish them unwell.
Thursday, I skipped my Economics and Politics of Europe and France class to catch my train to Turino Italy. We arrived about 5 hours later, and barely caught our connecting train to Pisa. We arrived in Pisa at about 2am. We had about two hours to kill, so we decided to walk across town to see the tower of Pisa. 20 minutes later, there it was looming in front of me. It really does lean...a lot. No wonder they've been worrying so much about it falling down. I mean, insurance on that building must be killing them :) At 4 am we got our short train to Florence and with Ryan's excellent sense of direction (as opposed to mine) we were able to find our hostel and pass out. Florence is absolutely beautiful, not to mention the food in Italy absolutely kicks France's derriere. My first meal was ravioli with sausage and mushrooms, a slice of stuffed beef (not sure what its called but it was good), tomato and motzerella salad, and raspberry cheesecake, and OF COURSE a glass of Italian wine. My friend Ryan had to just about roll me out of that restaurant. We visited the Duomo which has, you guessed it, a Dome from which you can get a good view of
Florence. In the afternoon, we went to go see the statue of David which was completely mind blowing. The photos of Michaelangelo's work do not do it justice. The statue must stand a good 12 feet tall, the fear in David's face extremely heart wrenching. For dinner, we returned to the same restaurant and I got pizza with olives, artichokes, ham, and mushrooms. It was, of course, delicious. We found a bar and I got a drink. The funniest beer I've found so far is SuperHarp, which is about 9% alcohol as opposed to the normal 5-6%. I mean, two or three of these bad boys and you'd be singing for the whole bar (well maybe not quite). The next day, we saw some of the Pitti Palace which was owned by the Medici Family and the Vecchio Bridge which is the oldest bridge in Florence. It was once home to all the butchers and blacksmiths who used the river below as a convenient trash can. The Medici family kicked them out soon enough in place of jewelers who could pay more rent. Its nice to know that things never change. I did not
look forward to my 10 hour train ride Sunday, but I somehow made it back to Paris. Monday, I met up with Mom and Mary. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Versailles as well as my school. Unfortunately, it rained a few days this week, so we had to skip some things like climbing Notre Dame's towers. We had several wonderful meals including one with a warm goat cheese and bacon salad that I'm still dreaming about. Wednesday, Mom and I went to Bruges which is a smallish town in Belgium. That was probably my favorite thing I saw all week. Bruges is known as the Venice of Northern Europe because of its beautiful canals. I swear, that whole city is a post card waiting to happen. Of course, I bought as much chocolate and had as much Belgian beer as I could. As some of you know, I love beer, so Mom had to practically pull me away from the shelf
after shelf of wonderful Belgian beer. For lunch, I got to eat delicious mussels in white wine which is a specialty in Bruges. In the afternoon, we took a boat ride which allowed for many good photo opts. We took the four hour bus back to Paris, lamenting about the beautiful canals and wonderful food. Halloween was of course one hell of a night. I dressed up as a cat, with cat ears and a black and silver mask. I drank wayyyyyy too much, but had a good time with everyone. I have fond memories of glow sticks and blue ring pops. Saturday was mostly devoted to me vowing to never drink again and counting the bathroom tiles. Sunday, Mom and Mary headed back to Maryland, and I went to the CineAqua (an aquarium/movie museum) with Aaron and we were grossly disappointed. Aaron loves jellyfish, and although our guide promised "jellyfishes" we found none. Boo. We wouldn't have felt so bad had the museum been bigger, but after 15 euro and no jellyfish, we were angry to say the least. This evening, my host mom ditched me for dinner so here I am at Mcdonalds, using their wifi. Of all the things I saw this week, Belgium was by far my favorite. Beer, chocolate, mussels, and a beautiful city--what more could a girl ask for?
Thursday, I skipped my Economics and Politics of Europe and France class to catch my train to Turino Italy. We arrived about 5 hours later, and barely caught our connecting train to Pisa. We arrived in Pisa at about 2am. We had about two hours to kill, so we decided to walk across town to see the tower of Pisa. 20 minutes later, there it was looming in front of me. It really does lean...a lot. No wonder they've been worrying so much about it falling down. I mean, insurance on that building must be killing them :) At 4 am we got our short train to Florence and with Ryan's excellent sense of direction (as opposed to mine) we were able to find our hostel and pass out. Florence is absolutely beautiful, not to mention the food in Italy absolutely kicks France's derriere. My first meal was ravioli with sausage and mushrooms, a slice of stuffed beef (not sure what its called but it was good), tomato and motzerella salad, and raspberry cheesecake, and OF COURSE a glass of Italian wine. My friend Ryan had to just about roll me out of that restaurant. We visited the Duomo which has, you guessed it, a Dome from which you can get a good view of 
Florence. In the afternoon, we went to go see the statue of David which was completely mind blowing. The photos of Michaelangelo's work do not do it justice. The statue must stand a good 12 feet tall, the fear in David's face extremely heart wrenching. For dinner, we returned to the same restaurant and I got pizza with olives, artichokes, ham, and mushrooms. It was, of course, delicious. We found a bar and I got a drink. The funniest beer I've found so far is SuperHarp, which is about 9% alcohol as opposed to the normal 5-6%. I mean, two or three of these bad boys and you'd be singing for the whole bar (well maybe not quite). The next day, we saw some of the Pitti Palace which was owned by the Medici Family and the Vecchio Bridge which is the oldest bridge in Florence. It was once home to all the butchers and blacksmiths who used the river below as a convenient trash can. The Medici family kicked them out soon enough in place of jewelers who could pay more rent. Its nice to know that things never change. I did not
look forward to my 10 hour train ride Sunday, but I somehow made it back to Paris. Monday, I met up with Mom and Mary. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Versailles as well as my school. Unfortunately, it rained a few days this week, so we had to skip some things like climbing Notre Dame's towers. We had several wonderful meals including one with a warm goat cheese and bacon salad that I'm still dreaming about. Wednesday, Mom and I went to Bruges which is a smallish town in Belgium. That was probably my favorite thing I saw all week. Bruges is known as the Venice of Northern Europe because of its beautiful canals. I swear, that whole city is a post card waiting to happen. Of course, I bought as much chocolate and had as much Belgian beer as I could. As some of you know, I love beer, so Mom had to practically pull me away from the shelf
after shelf of wonderful Belgian beer. For lunch, I got to eat delicious mussels in white wine which is a specialty in Bruges. In the afternoon, we took a boat ride which allowed for many good photo opts. We took the four hour bus back to Paris, lamenting about the beautiful canals and wonderful food. Halloween was of course one hell of a night. I dressed up as a cat, with cat ears and a black and silver mask. I drank wayyyyyy too much, but had a good time with everyone. I have fond memories of glow sticks and blue ring pops. Saturday was mostly devoted to me vowing to never drink again and counting the bathroom tiles. Sunday, Mom and Mary headed back to Maryland, and I went to the CineAqua (an aquarium/movie museum) with Aaron and we were grossly disappointed. Aaron loves jellyfish, and although our guide promised "jellyfishes" we found none. Boo. We wouldn't have felt so bad had the museum been bigger, but after 15 euro and no jellyfish, we were angry to say the least. This evening, my host mom ditched me for dinner so here I am at Mcdonalds, using their wifi. Of all the things I saw this week, Belgium was by far my favorite. Beer, chocolate, mussels, and a beautiful city--what more could a girl ask for?
1 comment:
Hi, I happened to read your posts and found it spontaneous and very creative.
Paris is one of the cities I which to vist so much, but I am so broke most of the times, that I get going nowhere...
I really liked the Itinerary for Paris, the post on bathrooms and travel to Italy. I find it very intersting to read about the food and cuisine you mention.
Which camera do you use; the images of Paris and others are impressive.
-Vinod Jose
Bangalore, India
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