exploring the Austrian countryside and first day of Budapest



Inside the Melk Monastery cathedrale

The next day we had an adventure to the countryside of Austria after a fun couple days in Vienna. We started off with an hour drive to the Melk Monastery. It was pretty huge Benedictan monastery which included a giant library, artifacts, famous paintings and musical manuscripts, and a beautiful chapel. We had a tour guide that really helped us understand the monastery, that was created in 1089. It was one of the most famous monasteries in the world and somehow escaped being destroyed through the World Wars and during Emporer Joseph's reign in the late 18th century. My favorite part was the view and the library (reminded me of Beauty and the Beast.)

After the tour, we took lots of pictures of the beautiful view and then ate at a delicious restaurant where I had Chicken Cordon Bleu (not Austrian haha) beer and apple strudel then we were on our way to the medieval town of Durnstein.

Melk Monastery

It was even further into the countryside near the Danuabe river, and we passed some awesome houses with vineyards built into the cliffs.  That is one of the traditions in that area of the Austria.
 In Durnstein we walked around the town and up the cliffs to the Durnstein Castle. It was used as a prison and actually held King Richard the Lionhearted (of the Robin Hood Story) in the 11th century. We had some of the best ice cream sundae I have had.... vanilla ice cream with apricots, apricot schnapz and fresh raspberries. It was amazing and a great way to compensate for a long walk up the cliffs. I bought some souvenirs including some Austrian schnapps, postcards and a bizarre chocolate bar with mustard and ketchup, apparently it is supposed to be delicious though!

Me at Durnstein Castle.. overlooking the Danuabe

Town of Krems

We then went to the small town of Krems were we able to explore some of the shops, Churches, and parks. It was so beautiful and it was nice to see a nicer/quieter side of Austria. Krems was a little more modern than Durnstein but there was a medieval church that had statues of Stations of the Cross outside. We went to one of the most famous bio-dynamic farms after some exploration, who is run by our Professor's wife's sister. (look up bio dynamic, its a really interesting concept.)

biodynamic farm

It is basically organic growing on steroids haha. It is all about the energy of the sun, the cow whose manure is used to grow the grapes etc etc. We took a tour of the vineyard and then had a great night of wine tasting and eating some authentic Austrian food. We tried Blood Sausage, Pork with Sauerkraut, carrot salad, Weinerschnitzel, sweet jam spread among many others and drank lots of wine... I even bought a bottle :) That night we took it pretty easy but we still went to our favorite bar of 1516 and their awesome drink specials, although we knew the next day we got to sleep on the bus for a while.

We woke up nice and early to make our way to Budapest. We had to make a pitstop at another bio dynamic farm on the Austria/Hungarian border because someone got sick. But after some issues we finally made our way to Budapest and got there about 7 p.m. We walked around by the river and got a delicious Hungarian meal, of beef and veggie goulash, dumplings with chicken, tomatoes sauce, bacon and garlic. It was really good and we followed it up with a Hungarian beer. The pedestrian street where we walked was lined with shops, bars, restaurants and of course a McDonald's. I decided to stay in for the night as it was Zach's birthday, we skyped instead :)

Maymester Adventures.... exploring Vienna!

I arrived in Austria late at night so I decided to just take a taxi into the city to my hostel.  I stayed at Wombats which is a chain of hostels but it’s really nice, cheap and was filled with people so it was nice.
 It even included a bar but I had some homework to do so I just hung out in the lounge.  I don’t know any German so it was pretty interesting to try and communicate and read all the signs. I tried to ask someone if they spoke English, in German and I was laughed at haha. The next day I was able to figure out the metro and made it to the hotel that I was staying at with my group for school. The metro or U-bana uses the honesty system where you don’t need to scan your ticket in which I wasn’t used to since they are so hardcore in Paris. It was in a really nice area and was even next to the Opera in the shopping district.

Vienna is a relatively new city in terms of buildings because most of it is destroyed during WWII. Our hotel is really nice compared to all the hostels I have been to and luckily everyone spoke English. I am roommates with Mary, a girl from USC and who went to ABS with me last semester. We even have a bathtub which is amazing compared to my little shower stall in Paris. After I got back to the hotel I went to meet with everyone in our Maymester. We have about 25 people from USC, mostly IB majors, an IB advisor and a retired professor from USC that now lives in Vienna with his Austrian wife. They are going to be our tour guides for most of the trip and the language barrier shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We had discussed our itinerary for the next couple days and introduced ourselves to the group. In addition to a paper we have a group presentation about a selected topic pertaining to Central and Eastern Europe. 

After meeting for about 2 hours we went on a City walking tour held by Gertrude, the wife of our professor Dr. Ricks. She was able to give us an awesome tour and give some in-depth history about some of the sights in Vienna. It was a little rainy outside but it wasn’t too cold and luckily it was the only rainy day of our trip so it wasn’t too bad.  Some of the sights that we saw included Saint Stephen’s Cathedral which is an amazing Cathedrale built in the 1100s. It has this awesome mosaic roof that was beautiful. Some of the other sights that we saw included the Hofsburg palace Complex which once was the winter palace of the famous Hapsburg family. It included the Vienna Boys Choir, the Augustin church, the Spanish Riding School with the famous Lipizazzaner horses, and the Imperial Apartments. The horses were pure white and beautiful, and the complex was very ornately decorated with courtyards and gardens.

We took a break to go to this upscale grocery store that had some of the strangest/gourmet items, some of my favorites were the really bizarre chocolates. They even had a ketchup and banana chocolate? Oh well. We saw some other sights such as St.Rupert's Church, the oldest in Vienna, Mozarts house, and a cool astrological clock. After our walking tour around Vienna we went to Bretzels, which is a very authentic Viennese restaurant in a wine cellar. I had a pork dish with sauerkraut, a cream sauce and dumplings, and a local beer combination called Radler. Its beer with lemonade, which sounds weird but it is actually really delicious. After dinner I met up with some of the people from our group and we decided to go out for the night. We first went to this bar called 1516 then an Irish Pub called Flannigan’s. It was a fun night and we actually met some US Marines that were stationed at the US Embassy. They were so happy to see some Americans that we hung out with them for some of the night

Crown of the Hapsburg Family (Holy Roman Empire)

The next morning we got to sleep in a little bit before we had some group presentations at our Professors house. I didn’t have to meet my group until 12 to work on our project so I decided to walk around and explore for a while and I decided to go to the Imperial Treasury. It discussed the Hapsburgs, the ruling family of 700 years for the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and all of treasures that they accumulated throughout their rule. There were some amazing treasures including intricate crowns, crosses, robes and also some religious relics. Meeting with my group afterwards, we got lunch at a food stand near our hotel where I ate a huge slice of pizza with artichokes, mushrooms and tomatoes. It was really delicious and I definitely frequented that stand during my time in Vienna. On the way to our professor’s house, he showed us the Belvedere Palace, one of the Prince's houses. It was similar to Versailles with the architecture and flower gardens.

Belvedere Palace

After exploring we went to his house to start our presentations. Our presentation was “Should Austrian Banks have invested so heavily in Eastern Europe.” I learned a lot from our presentation and also from the other groups as well. We were at our professor’s appt for a couple hours going then we went outside of the city limits to a restaurant/vineyard called Heuringen. It was a buffet style with traditional food such a spinach strudel, vegetables, wienerschnitzel

OPEC

The next day we had an early morning as we had a very busy day. We had breakfast and then we had a meeting at OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.  The headquarters is in Vienna so it was a great experience. We got the see the official conference room, hear from the Press Relations woman and also get some cool free stuff.  I learned a lot about OPEC as an organization, the members, and also about the Oil industry in General. After OPEC we ate a restaurant near OPEC where I ate a delicious veal dish with gravy, special mushrooms only found in Austria,and of course dumplings. I also had a beer called Sterq with my meal.  After lunch we took the U-bana to the Shoenbrunn Palace. It is the biggest Hapsburg palace located about 15 minutes outside the city center.

We got to walk around the beautiful gardens and see the famous Neptune fountain, zoo and labyrinth maze. After the gardens we had a meeting with the CEO of the palace who discussed some of the business strategies in making a profit in managing a tourist attraction. It was interesting but the best part was being able to tour the castle and see all the rooms/hear the stories. It was really awesome to see the furniture, original paintings and artifacts from the times of the Habsburgs. For dinner we got to explore Vienna on our own so I ate dinner with some people at a delicious Italian restaurant on the main walking street... I have to say the Italian food in Europe is much better than it is in America. That night we spent a lot of time walking out with our "group" walking around trying to find a place to go out.

We finally spent some time at this tiny bar where we were pretty much the only people, so they played whatever we requested including Toni Braxton, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, etc. It was a really fun night with lots of dancing and living up our youth hahaha. On the way phone me and my friend Kaitlyn stopped at a McDonalds where we tried some of their AMAZING waffle fries, literally the best I have ever had :)

 I was pretty sad when I woke up the next morning because I knew it was my last day in Vienna, although I was excited for a fun adventure.We started out taking the train to one of the United Nations headquarters even though there are 3 others: NY, Geneva and Kenya. 

We had to go through lots of security and then we had a a tour guide from Slovenia give us a tour of some of the UN Departments and explained in detail what they were. It was really interesting, especially since Vienna is the home of the International Atomic Energy Association to see what was going on after the aftermath of the Earthquake in Japan. After the tour we heard a presentation about world trafficking by this French woman who worked for the UN. It was very interesting and gave me a lot of inside about the hidden world of trafficking although at times it was very hard to watch. After the presentation we had a quick lunch break and I ate at Smokey's which was a delicious burger place, except with a twist.

 I got a burger with garlic aioli sauce and sweet potato fries, and of course a huge beer. Austrians drink beer pretty much for lunch and dinner every day so its not unusual. It was probably the best burger I had while in Europe. We then met to go to one of the biggest banks in Austrian named Raiffeisen Bank and we were able to have a meeting in a beautiful business room with floor to ceiling windows on one side... it was great to be able to see the view of Vienna. The meeting was very interesting, discussing the bank's strategy, investing in Eastern Europe, goals for the future and he answered many of our questions. It was cool and we got some snacks too so that definitely helped. On the way back to the hotel we walked through this beautiful park with sculptures, really cool play areas for kids, and the first drinking fountains I have seen in Europe. Yay! I ate 2 slices of Delicious peperoni and corn pizza... don't knock it unless you try it!!! I took a short nap and got ready for the Opera.

The Vienna Opera house is very famous obviously because the influential music that was composed in Austria by names such as Bach, Mozart, Liszt, etc. We got all dressed up and walked around the Opera house for a while until it started, and we took our seats that were pretty high up. The Opera was Manon, and it was in French which meant it was a little bit easier to understand, but luckily there were English subtitles to help. At intermission we got a glass of champagne and toasted to a great time in Vienna. After the Opera, I got ready for a fun night out. We ended up going to Salin's again and had a pretty crazy night. We basically were the DJs and were able to control all of the music. We danced to some of our favorite songs of our childhood and some recent ones as well. It was definitely one of the best nights I have had in Europe and lets just say I have some pictures to show for it. The next day we were off to the countryside of Austria, but I will cover that in my next entry :)

Last couple weeks in Paris

The last couple weeks in Paris really felt like a blur. I had a couple finals and projects to turn in but mostly I just enjoyed my time hanging out with friends and exploring Paris. I haven’t been keeping up with my blog too much so I don’t know specific days but I can remember a lot of the stuff that I did!

One night (Tuesday I think) I went to the famous bar La Perle where the famous designer got in a huge fight and ended up getting kicked out. It is probably the nicest/classiest bar I have been to in Paris and I went with my friends Valentina, David, Olivier and some of their French friends. It was a good night getting to mingle and hang out with some Parisians, many of which are abroad for the semester in America.  Wednesday I had to turn in my international relations logs which was not fun at all…. 10 articles about different topics along with some of the topics we studied this semester. After I turned in the logs I went to eat at a Chinese restaurant with my friend Brittany near school which was delicious.

Mosque near Jardin des Plantes

 Thursday I had a cookout at my friend Jean-Noel’s place and I arrived to find that I was not only the only girl, but the only American. It was entertaining to hear them go off in French about different things and me trying to focus on what they were saying and how to respond. We ate grilled vegetables, steak and fries which were delicious. After much peer pressure I talked to them in French which of course they said I was “really good at speaking…” I’m sure they were joking. After the cookout I attempted to go to the Jardin des Plantes again but somehow got lost and ended up in front of a mosque which is the first I had seen in Paris. After walking around a little more I somehow ended up on movie set in the Latin Quarter which were filming in one of the neighborhoods. Oops! 

Friday I didn’t have class so I was able to take a nap and then I went to the Eiffel Tower to eat and drink on Champ de Mars. It is pretty amazing some of the people that you end up meeting especially mingling with some wine. We had a pretty fun group going, including some ABS students as well as non-students. That night we wanted to do something but were pretty tired after hanging out in the sun all day so we just decided to go to one of my friends house to drink some wine and beer, and then follow it up with a delicious ham and cheese crepe. I am definitely going to miss the 24 hour crepe stands when I come home to the states. 

Dali Museum

Saturday I went to the Dali Museum in Montmarte. It was only a couple paintings from the king of surrealism but there was amazing drawings, photographs, and sculptures that explained many of his philosophies and works. Some of the stuff was very bizarre, but really made you think. I spent about an hour walking around the exhibit including some very famous works. I did some exploring and eating a delicious lunch in a cafe near the artist's circle,which is always entertaining as there is always street dancers, singers, artists and everything in between. There was this really cute woman who sand Edith Piaf songs so of course I was a fan. After lunch, I went back to my apartment to study for my finals the next week. I went to Jardin des Plantes and walked around, just looking at the rose gardens, botanical gardens and some cool fountains. Later that evening I hung out with some of my friends and we were going to go to a club. However we got really tired so we just decided to go to the Seine near Notre Dame and just relax with a couple bottles of wine by the riverside. It was really fun as we just talked and hung out for a couple hours. It was pretty crowded since it is a pretty popular French hangout.
Sunday night my friend Jean-Noel took myself and Valentina to "his favorite fondue spot. and I believed him since he lives in Paris. It was this small place of off Rue Moufftard with about 10 tables, but I can genuinely say it was the best fondue I had ever had.

Sainte Chappell

We split 2 4 cheese fondues and a meat fondue. I have never had the 4 cheese but it was awesome! It was a fun night of drinking wine, playing games when we we dropped some bread, and enjoying a good night. I can't remember all the 4 cheeses, but one was goat, emmental (Swiss), camembert, and I think brebis (goat cheese) but I'm not sure. Some of my favorite restaurants in Paris have been some that you need to search for, that is one of my recommendations for anyone who is traveling!

Monday I had a final in the morning and then had to take a really long nap because I was exhausted from the weekend. I had a long list of stuff that I still wanted to see in Paris so I decided to go to Il-de-la-Cite and see Sainte Chappell. It’s one of the most beautiful chapels in the world known for the stained glass. I had just kept pushing it off because whenever I tried to go the line was really long as between Notre Dame and Sainte Chappell

Tuesday night I spent a couple hours after class on the canal after having not one by 2 finals 2 hours apart. My finals weren’t very hard luckily because I didn’t focus too much on school haha. Drinking wine and hanging out in cafes, parks and by the Seine/Canal is one of the greatest things about Paris, just enjoying your free time and life! After some wine drinking I took a short nap and then met my friend Evi for dinner at Chez Paul, one of the best French restaurants I have been to in Paris in the Bastille. That night there was a huge music festival in the area around the Bastille so dinner was a strategic move J I had the steak au poivre aka the best pepper steak I have ever had and we split a bottle of wine. After we had an amazing dinner we walked to our friend Teresa’s apartment to get ready for the festival.

the bastille

We drank some more wine and champagne and were joined by a couple other people before we walked to the Bastille. It was packed and the gendarmerie (police) was in full riot gear preparing for the worst. It was a little intimidating but at least they were there for the safety of everyone. The Bastille was shut down, and the normal busiest round-about other than the Champs Elysee was closed to cars. We brought a couple bottles of wine and met up with some other students from ABS. I didn’t know any of the bands that were playing, but one was playing Michael Jackson remixes so we were pretty pumped. It was a really fun time just hanging out with thousands of people drinking wine and hanging out. I unfortunately had 2 finals the next day but I had to enjoy my last couple days in Paris.

drinking wine out of baby bottles!

After my finals I was exhausted, but after taking a nap we had a fun night ahead of us. We wanted to go to Queen so we went out to a delicious dinner at les Refuges de Fondue which has turned out to be one of my favorite restaurants in Paris because of the food, atmosphere and of course the baby bottles. We were there for about 2 ½ hours drinking baby bottles full of wine, delicious fondue and meeting some really cool people that were from all over the world. We went back to her place to hang out and pregame for a bit before we finally got to Queen. It was fun since it is a gay club but it was full of ladies for their ladies night and included some lifeguard strippers…. To each their own I guess.The club life in Paris is unlike anything I have ever experienced any where else. It was really fun to hang out and dance and there were lots of people from ABS there as well that we saw.

the pantheon

Thursday was my last full day in Paris so I wanted to make sure to do lots of exploring/hanging out with friends. I woke up relatively early with my guide and I decided to go to the Latin Quarter. I walked around the Sorbonne and the area around it. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and there are some really pretty parks and cute restaurants around there. After exploring the Sorbonne I went to the Pantheon because I had never been there before and it was right down the block. It was originally built as church to honor Saint Genieve, the Patron saint of France. However it was changed to a place that honors distinguished French citizens. It was very beautiful on the inside, with murals and statues honoring some of the major events in French civilization. The best part was underground in the crypt, where the remains of some of the most famous French were buried, including Voltaire, Émile Zola, Marie Curie,  and Louis Braille. There was a lot of information about all the people and I learned a lot about French civilization and some of the most important people in it.

After the visit I went back to my apartment to eat some dinner, and then I was off to enjoy my last night in Paris. I met some friends at the Trocadero gardens for a while, and then the  Eiffel Tower and we were there until early in the morning drinking wine, dancing, and just reflecting on some of the great times that I have had this semester. It was sad having to say my goodbyes to people knowing that I may not ever see them again..There as about 8 of us so it was a good group, and I had a great night (maybe a little too much fun :) ) I finally got back to my apartment very late, slept for a couple hours, and then I started packed.... shouldn't have procrastinated so much! Luckily my friend Khaloud stopped by to help me with some of the packing, and then helped me catch a taxi to the airport to catch my flight to Vienna.
I just wanted to thank everyone that I have met this semester... I have met some incredible people, had some lifechanging experiences (both good and bad) and learned a lot about myself and other cultures as well. It really has been a great semester :)

Museum hopping and a visit to Champagne

Saint Eustache

Sunday after I returned from my weekend in Tours was Easter Sunday. I slept in pretty late since I was tired from all of the sightseeing... so I missed the English Easter Mass that I was going to go to. I got ready and decided to go get brunch with one of my friend's Khaloud from ABS. We ate at this restaurant called Chez Justine and it was a huge brunch: bagel with smoked salmon, chicken ceaser salad, bacon, hash brown, eggs benedict, piece of french toast, mimosa and a fruit smoothie for 19e. For all of you that know Paris, this is a bargain. After brunch we walked around and talked for an hour and then I went to Sainte Eustache for Easter mass. It is one of the oldest and most famous churches in Paris, built in the 13th century.



Rose Garden in Jardin des Plantes

However it is most famous for its pipe organ that has over 8,000 pipes and I was lucky enough to watch a concert before mass. I can't understand how they could use 4 keyboards and petals but it was pretty awesome. Mass was in French which wasn't too bad since I could understand most of it. It was a cool experience to have Easter mass in this amazing church where so many famous people have been, and it was beautiful. After mass I took some picture and walked around until I went back home to get some homework done. I didn't have French class the next day since it was a bank holiday so I decided to have a "middle school" sleepover party with my friend Khaloud were we just hung out, watched videos and talked til late. It was fun and in the morning I attempted to make pancakes with not too much success... with no spatula and not the right pan but it was still fun!

That week I did some sightseeing of some places on my list of must-dos before I leave Paris. One of them is I went to Jardin des Plantes. It is a huge botanical garden which includes a labyrinth, zoo, 2  greenhouses and multiple gardens, horticulture institutions.

Centre Pompidou

I found a really pretty rose garden with sculptures and such and sat there doing some homework. I'm not a huge plant person but it was pretty full with people examining and looking at all of the different plants. It was beautiful to walk around the 5th afterwards and see sights such as the Arab Institute and some cool churches whose names evades me.

I also went to Centre Pompidou on Tuesday, the largest modern art museum in Europe. It was pretty awesome even though modern art isn't really my cup of tea. They had modern art ranging from the 1900s to present, including furniture, paintings, sculptures and some rooms/things that I don't even know what they are. It was really well done with artists ranging from Picasso, Dali, Andy Warhol, Kandinsky and many more that I know have a great appreciation for. They had some art that was multi-senses, there was music that went along with the art. I would definitely recommend it if you are in Paris. There was also a room that was in ex-president Georges Pompidou, who helped to develop the museum, that is pretty trippy. After the museum I went to dinner with one of my friends at this amazing new restaurant that I have never been to. One of the things I love about Paris is the food... I feel like most of the time you can get something amazing to eat anywhere.



Artwork from Centre Pompidou





I wanted to do some more museum hopping on Wednesday because many of the museums are open later. I had class and then tried to go to Musee d'Orsay.... Unfortunately it was raining so everyone had the same idea so I just decided to go to Musee Quai Branly, a museum that highlights civilizations and cultures that aren't usually in popular art museums. They highlighted cultures from Oceania, Asia, Africa and the America's. Many of the displays that they had there were from the 12-19th century but they even had some modern artifacts from cultures. It was really neat to see some of these cultures that aren't normally explained and many I have never heard of before.

 

Totem Poles from Musee
du Quai Branly

Some of the most interesting things were the Oceania cultures with many of their ideologies and artifacts such as masks, idols, money and religious ceremonies.   I learned alot about non-tradition cultures and it was just nice to walk around and get out from under the rain. That night I went out to eat at a local Mexican place with my roomate Adrianna which was pretty decent, but nothing amazing. The French don't do Mexican very well but at least they had some good margaritas :)



Thursday was Cinco de Mayo but during the day I went to Musee d'Orsay. It was pretty amazing, highlighting artwork inbetween the 1800's and 1900's known as impressionism. It is in an old 1900's train station and was currently under some renovations but luckily most everything was still open. I had an audioguide so I got the full scoop on some of the major highlights. Many people actually like Musee d'Orsay better than the Louvre just based on manageability and concentration of time periods. They had some classic impressionism and then some rebels that made the art world mad. Some of the highlights including a huge collection of Degas and his ballet dancers, Renoir, Money, Van Gogh and many many others.



Musee d'Orsay



Not only including paintings but also sculptures, I was able to walk through the museum in about 3 hours. I was very impressed to see some of the classic impressionist but also find some new favorites. That night we had a mini Cincode Mayo party at our apartment where we made some sangria and entertained about 8 people.



 It was a lot of fun, especially drinking the sangria with fruit and tortillas that one of our friends made. We were going to go out but we were pretty tired so we just decided to stay in. It was really fun to be able to hang out with my friends and celebrate.

On Friday I had to wake up kind of early to make another day trip to Reims, which is the Champagne capital of France. It was only about a 45 minute train and so I arrived at about 12 pm. The city of Reims is pretty small so I was able to explore the city in a couple hours. I got to see a Roman underground "mall" from obviously the time of the Romans. It was really cool, it was a large passageway which supposedly held a market that was used pretty regularly. On the outside wias an ancient amphitheatre, which they were setting up for a photography exhibition. Its just really bizarre to see something that is thousands of years old in the middle of this normal French town. I got a glass of wine while trying to figure out where to go, then explored the city and I saw the Hotel de Ville (city hall), a church that hosted Joan of Arc a couple times and had a museum dedicated to her, and some beautiful gardens.

Inside

I then went to the cathedral which is one of the major sights of the city. The cathedrale of Reims is one of the most famous cathedrales in the world as it was where the 35 of the French kings were coronated. Clovis and his Frankish army were also baptised there as he is accredited for bringing Christianity to France. It was so beautiful and I was there about 6 days before its 800 year birthday. It was amazing being there since it was Good Friday and I watched the Stations of the Cross, in French of course. It gave me goosebumps since it is such a beautiful/holy place. Some of the stained glass was incredible as well. There were a couple shrines with one housing the supposed cloth that Mary wore when she birthed Jesus.There was a plaque that showed the apparent place of Clovis' baptism as well as some original artifacts of some of the kings were coronated.  I also visited the Saint Remi Basilica about a mile walk away. Saint Remi is the patron saint of Reims and the person who baptised Clovis. It housing his body and some artifacts of his life. Outside the Abbey, which was active until the 18th century. It was really beautiful, but hard to compare anything to Chartres or the main cathedral of Reims. There was a huge organ however that was one of the biggest I had ever seen, and the stained glass was pretty amazing.

Tasting some Champagne

After some more exploring I went to the Taittinger house of Champagne to take a Champagne tour in the caves and of course try some of the delicious bubbly. First we had a video explaining the making of Champagne and the story of Taittinger, one of the most famous Champagne houses in the world. The champagne is made in these chalk caves under the store/museum that was an Abby. It was awesome to explore the caves, and see the remnants of a mini chapel in the caves. I learned a lot about the delicate process and was impressed with all the work that goes into making a single bottle. For example if is forbidden to use machinery to harvest the grapes so to this day they still handpick the grapes. After exploring the caves and learning all about the bubbly drink we got a glass before leaving, which was delicious :) Before leaving I went a had a slice of pizza at the Mars Gate, an Roman Arch from the 3rd century that is near the train station and is surrounded by a beautiful garden. The train ride back was pretty quick so it was a really cool day trip to see the countryside of the France, try some authentic French Champagne and see one of the most important cathedrals in France/Europe.



Reims Cathedrale



now for a couple calms weeks in Paris...

After Kelly left I was conpletely exhausted after having the craziest 4 weeks in a row that I can remember! Since I'm about 2 weeks behind in my blog posts, I'm going to try to do some quick catching up since I'm leaving in 13 days for my Maymester.

I spent the beginning of the week doing lots of homework. I had a reseach paper due in my Intercultural Studies class and other assignments in my other classes, since I didn't have very much time do to homework with friends and family visiting! Tuesday night I went to have a drink with my roomate to celebrate her gettting an internship in the US. We went to a bar/restaurant near our place because they had 2 euro glasses of wine. It was nice to relax and we had a discussion about Charlie Sheen with a French couple that was sitting next to us... I guess its big news over here too.

Friday night was my friend Brittany's birthday so we had to celebrate her 21st. We went to Planet Sushi for dinner, which was a really neat Japanese fushion type restaurant where the sushi travels on a conveyer belt so you can as much or as little as you want. Since I'm not the biggest sushi fan I got some delicious salmon and chicken skewers with rice and miso soup. It was fun to be able to see some friends that I hadn't hung out with in a while.

The food wasn't very expensive either which was a plus of course. After some sushi we went back to Brittany's house to pregame and then we went out to the Bastille area on Rue de Lappe. There is a ton of bars, almost reselmbing a mini college town. There was some drama between friends but it turned out to be fun night with a couple different groups of friends.It is funny to see all the different groups of people, but especially to see all of the Americans near Bastille. When I was in the bars, I kept hearing English which you can't help to eavesdrop. Saturday I did some walking around my area for a while, seeing the Parc de Belleville which is just a couple of blocks away and I did another visit to Pere Lachaise, the cemetary thats about a 5 minute walk away since it was such a nice day outside.

After doing some exploring, I went to hang out at my friend Valentina's house with some of her friends that I just met. She lives in such a nice part of Paris, right on the Place de la Concorde so getting off the metro being in some of the most beautiful areas of Paris is pretty cool. We hung out there for a while, looking at youtube videos and music and such, and then I went to my friends Matts for a "French" party. Everyone was supposed to dress French and have a good time.I wore a sleeveless blouse tucked into a long flowly skirt, heels and red lipstick with a barrette in my hair. It was really fun to see everyone in there costumes ranging from Moulin Rouge dancers to Tour de France bicyclists. Drinking lots of wine and eating lots of cheese as the French do, it was great. I met some really cool people so overall it was fun.

Sunday I was a bum for most of the day. I went to the Pharmacy with Adrianna to try and get her some medicine for her being sick. In France, pharmacists can give recommendations on what medicines to take when you are sick and can do pretty much everything except write perscriptions. After helping her out I went to Buttes Charmonte, which is this really amazing park/lake/really hilly area in Paris. Napoleon 3 built it to be a "sightseeing area" in Paris for the poor Parisians so they could feel like they were in other parts of Frace. I went with Valentina and we drank some wine and ate some cheese on the rolling hills. I can't believe I have never been there before though! There was so many people hanging out and even some were "laying out" Parisian style. We walked around for a while since the park was so big, There is a temple on top of this huge mountain thing surrounded by a lake with bridges all around... There even was a 20 meter waterfall. It was really neat especially since it is in Paris to see all of this open green space. After walking around the park we went to get some mussels at Leon de Bruxelles on Champs Elysee which was so delicious yumm!

On Monday I didn’t have class in the morning so I spent the night at Valentina’s place near Place de la Concorde. We ate lunch at this cute little Italian place near her house and then I decided to do a little sightseeing. I really wanted to go to Musee Rodin and I got all the way there before I realized it was closed. However as it is near Les Invalides there is a lot to see so I spent some time looking at some really beautiful parks and churches until I had class until 4:30. After class I hung out at my apartment catching up on some of the television shows I had missed in the US.

Tuesday I had class in the morning and then I spent a couple hours at the Canal St.Martin near school, eating lunch, drinking wine and hanging out with friends. It was really warm outside and I think I even got a little bit of a tan. It is a really popular Parisian activity to do some hanging out by the Canal/River so it was a lot of fun.

Hector Guimard's work

Wednesday I had a walk for my French civilization class. We met in the 16^th arrondisement which is about a 40 minute metro from my apartment instead of the usual 7 so I wasn’t happy we were that far away. 

Our teacher went over the architecture through the decades through the 20^th and 21th century and showed us examples from the buildings. There were some really cool things and examples from Hector Guimard who designed the famous metro signs.  The 16^th is famous for being a really nice area of Paris so it was exciting to do some people watching there. After walking around for a while, we went into this architecture museum/house of Le Corbusier who is a very famous Swiss architect that started the Art Deco movement in France. We had to wear these medical booties over our shoes so we wouldn’t get it dirty and it was a pretty weird place. Almost no furniture and some random paintings were the only things remaining except for the strange/interesting architecture. Apparently he designed many other buildings around the world and especially in Paris.

the thinker

After that part of the walk we went to the Palais of Tokyo which houses some awesome modern art. We saw the largest mural in France which shows the evolution of technology since the middle ages.  We also saw the Trocadero gardens and the area around the Eiffel Tower. 

After doing the walk I went to Musee Rodin to see the sculptures and the gardens… It is in an old house with some of the most beautiful gardens in Paris, some people don’t even go to the museum! I was able to see The Kiss, The Thinker and Gates of Hell as well as some other pieces by him and his ex-lover Claudel. After the museum I walked around in the gardens, which apparently Hugh Jackman was visiting the same day! I wish I could have seen him but no luck. There was also some paintings by Van Gogh and Monet for him since apparently they were friends .

inside chartres cathedrale

That night was my friend Chadi’s birthday so we celebrated by going bowling on Rue Moufftard which is a street full of bars that resembles USC’s Five Points. After some bowling we went to a couple bars and I went home pretty early after having a long day

Friday I decided to take a day trip to Tours, Chartres and the Loire Valley. It was amazing trip and it was great to be able to discover different parts of France. I took the train to Chartres which is a city about 45 minutes away from Paris. It has one of the most beautiful and famous gothic cathedrals in Europe. I had a delicious lunch literally 10 feet away at a small restaurant while I people watched tourists, locals, and the homeless begging out in front. Inside, I realized it was Good Friday and I was actually able to see them act out the Stations of the Cross.

Chartres

Even though it was French I understood most of what was going on, and it was a really amazing service to see somewhere that’s about 800 years old. In the cathedral, they have a chapel featuring a relic of the cloth that supposedly Mary wore when she gave birth to Jesus. It was a gift given to the Cathedral of Chartres during the 800’s. After walking around the Cathedral I decided to do some exploring of the city. It was very small but I found myself sitting and hanging out next to the Eure River…. very different from the hustle and bustle of Paris. I saw this really neat Museum of Stained Glass. Since one of the things Chartres Cathedral is known for is its glass there were some cool explanations/displays of the stained glass. It had an old town feel as there were ruins of medieval fortifications in the city. After finishing up exploring the city, I took a bus through France to the city of Tours, one of the biggest cities in the Loire Valley.  It was a 3 hour bus ride because we stopped in the train station in pretty much every tiny town on the way. Fortunately I slept most of the way and I finally found myself in Tours at about 9 at night. I went to the hotel and dropped my stuff off and decided to just take the night to relax and watch some TV because I had a busy day planned for the next day.

Cathedrale of Tours

I woke up at about 7 am because I wanted to explore the city of Tours before I took my van trip to some different chateaux in the Loire Valley. I arrived to the beautiful City Hall surrounded by gardens! I wasn’t really sure where to go so I just looked at a map and picked some of the areas that looked pretty cool. I bought a day pass on the bus so I could bus around everywhere along with doing some walking. I first walked through some really cool gardens with some statues of some famous people from Tours… Tours is referred to as the Garden of France and they really aren’t kidding, my allergies were horrible the entire time I was there! I went to see the Theatre, the Musee of Beau Arts and the Cathedral of Tours. It was really beautiful, as most cathedrals in Paris are but it was really great to walk around for a while. After walking around and taking a lot of pictures, I walked to the Chateaux of Tours and reached the Loire River.

There was this really pretty French resistance statue, talking about the French Freedom forces that existed while they were occupied by Germany.  I did some more walking and saw this huge market similar to the ones I have seen in Paris, selling fish, fruits and vegetables and some cool vintage clothing. I had lunch at a small pizzeria and then made my way to the Tourism Centre where I met up with the bus tour to take us to 2 different Chateaux in the Loire Valley. It was a small van of an American family, a Japanese couple and myself and luckily our tour guide spoke English. There are more than 1,000 Chateaux in the Loire Valley alone so outside of being able to visit 2 I saw about 4 more passing through the little villages.

Chenonceau

Our guide told us information about detailed information of Tours, the history of the Loire Valley and about all the chateaux that we were able to pass/tour. We went to Chenonceau first which started as a “house” for one of the King Henri VI’s favorite mistresses Diane of Poiters. Lots of drama happened since then of course and at one point it was a military hospital during WWII. But it is really an amazing piece of architecture as most of the chateux takes palce over the Cher River, with archs so boats can go under.The land included a farm, 2 large gardens and a really cool labrynth with a temple/tower thing in the middle. It really was amazing considering it is now owned by a wealthy cocoa farmer family, which I can’t even imagine how much it costs.

Chambord

The furniture and such still mostly remained from the time before the French Revolution which is pretty neat.  After exploring all the chateux and the surrounding gardens we went to the chateuax of Chambord which was about an hour drive away. We passed through tiny villages and beautiful landscapes of vinyards and canola oil fields (looks like yellow flowers) Chambord was owned by generations of kings and was eventually passed down as the hunting lodge of the emporers and now presidents.

The land surrounding the castle is the size of Paris and its 20 arrondisements, which is amazing. If Mr. Sarkozy wanted he could shut it down to go hunting on the land with him and his friends, but he doesn’t seem like the hunter type J The castle has a couple awesome double helix staircases which means 2 people can go down the stairs at the same time and not even see each other! The terrace was my favorite part because you can see the land, which involves acres and acres of lakes and forests, and also includes a small village.

I saw the chapel, the bedrooms and also some interesting hunting memoriabilia… not that I am a hunting fan but oh well. There were also some artifacts from different kings, queens and counts which was cool to see and read about.  After doing some more exploring we had to go back to Tours, so we got to see the city of Bloise on the way with an amazing medieval fortress and cathedrale. I had about 2 hours left in Tours so I ate a relatively quick dinner at this wine cave, since I really wanted to try wine from the Tourraine region. It was probably the best wine I have had in France and it was only 5.50 for a glass so it was a win-win for all.  I was able towalk around the city to see somethings I hadn’t seen yet, and then I took the train back to Paris. Overall,I was really happy that I was able to see more of France than just Paris since it is such a beautiful country with much to offer!