First Impressions & Random Thoughts from Paris

~A list of impressions I made sure to write down~

·         The top 3 stereotypes I thought of as French were all disproved very quickly

1.       French people are rude – MYTH. I didn’t encounter a single rude French person. In fact I found them to be the nicest, most helpful people I have meet so far in Europe. I’ve got stories if you need proof!

2.       French people smoke all the time – I didn’t see it…

3.       Everyone walks a poodle –I didn’t see a single poodle in France = major disappointment.

·         The Eiffel Tower is the wrong color – shouldn’t it be gray, not brown?

·         Thank you Dad for sharing your impeccable homing pigeon skills and thank you Mom for teaching me how to read a map on our western trip- it came in handy!

·         I had been told the Mona Lisa is always a disappointment so I went in with very low expectations and I didn’t think it was disappointing at all. The opposite in fact. I thought it was very interesting to see in person, the painting was bigger than I expected, and the detail was amazing. She is definitely smiling; it’s just in the awkward smirking stage.

·         Hostels – not bad at all! I loved it

·         Brie cheese and wine in Paris – maybe we just got unlucky? Disgusting.  Bread=AHHHMAZING

·         Paris truly earns its nickname: The City of Lights. It absolutely glows at night, not to mention the brilliance of the sparkling Eiffel Tower.

·         Crepes = best invention ever. I got the basic sugar crepe but on our last day I spiced it up when we were in the Jewish Quarter and I got a banana and sugar crepe. Yummm

·         The Latin Quarter – The history behind the name is interesting. The university students, many from other countries, used Latin as their common language here up until 1900. It is a colorful, funky neighborhood on the Left Bank that houses on of my favorite places in Paris – Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore, where resident writers can sleep on one of the couches on the second floor if they get too tired to go home and interrupt the flow of words from their wavering pen. So cool. I could happily spend hours in this little crooked-floor, brightly painted bookstore. I bought Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. It seemed appropriate…

·         What I need to do next time: Night cruise down the Seine River, see a poodle, return to Shakespeare and Co. 

Please feel free to skip the next blog. It's huge and a more day by day account of my trip. Pictures are in the following post. Enjoy. 

I love and miss you all ~ At

Paris day by day: the novel

This is not for the light of heart. I called it the novel for a reason...

Prologue: Thank you to everyone who gave me hints, tips, and suggestions for my trip, especially Walter and Dee.

Day 1: Friday

We arrived into the city center by 10am and got to our hostel at 11. We dropped off our bags and set off. Our hostel, Caulaincourt Square, was in the neighborhood of Montmartre. La Butte Montmartre is the highest hill in Paris, atop of which sits the Sacre Coeur, a cathedral and the highest point in Paris. We were welcomed to the city with a 360 degree panoramic. My first impression: Wow, Paris is big!

We ate lunch at a chic little café in the neighborhood where the waiter was so nice and looked up the menu for us in English. Good thing too or else I was about to order a heaping plate of calves liver. No thank you! After lunch we grabbed a quick nap, needed after over 24hr of straight travel, and headed off to the most famous sight in Paris: the Eiffel Tower!

Strolling from the ends of the tower’s garden in early dusk we took in the impressive tower. My first impression was that it was the wrong color – I thought it would be a dark gray like the material it is made from. Wrong! It’s brown. Who knew?

We went up to the second floor and enjoyed the view past sunset and until the tower began to sparkle for the first time at 7pm. You feel like you can see the ends of the world from up there. Paris seems never-ending. One thing I must say is that it deserves its nickname the city of lights. After taking the elevator down we got to see an impromptu break dance session and then headed for our first crepes, right outside the Eiffel Tower and next to the Seine River. Here we watched the tower sparkle, reflecting of the Seine into a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors on the waves or this very choppy river. We strolled along the Right Bank to the metro (which we completely conquered without a problem) and headed back to the hostel, enjoying the accordion players that hop on and off the trains after any given station. Sadly the subway performers usually smell terrible, but the songs are fun and upbeat!

Day 2: Saturday

Up’n’at’em nice and early.  We headed to Versailles first thing in the morning after the best continental breakfast ever at the hostel. If I have one word to describe Versailles it would have to be GRANDEUR. Everything, and I mean everything, if not made from beautiful, rare marble is coated in gold. The famous Hall of Mirrors was impressive and seems like it would have been a great place to thrown a rocking party but my favorite part was the Pink Palace our in the gardens. It is a smaller version of the big place that was very airy and decorated with my favorite colors: yellow, green, and antique blue. It was precious, and being so modest myself, I would only need a small palace, not the big one. That would just be greedy. Marie Antoinette’s play village was precious as well. A little village with thatched roofs and a lake, I just want to play here with the youthful queen.

After seeing Versailles I can’t really blame the French people for revolting. This place had to cost a fortune! The gardens are beautiful and while not in full bloom now, they are still impressive. There is a huge man-made lake in the middle called the Grand Canal which used to house a full sized war ship in the days of all the Louis XIV-XVI. I couldn’t help noticing it would be the perfect place to waterski… Not sure how the French government would feel about it, but I’m game to try if anyone else is!

Back in the city we visited the Musee du Orsey which houses many famous paintings from Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh among others. It was amazing and I preferred it to the Louvre which we went to on Sunday. Afterwards we grabbed a lunch of Quiche and continued on our day.  Quiche = delicious!

Saturday also consisted of strolling across the Bridge of Locks (Pont du Arts), where lovers write their initials on padlocks and lock them to the sides of the bridge.  Afterwards we tried to see the Mona Lisa but the cute old man at the ticket counter told us she was sleeping (aka we were too late on Saturday).

After taking the necessary silly pictures in front of the Louvre’s glass pyramid we strolled towards the Rouge de Paris Ferris wheel through the Jardins des Tuileries. Past the Ferris wheel, light up for the night, we started at the beginning of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and window shopped our way down. I bought a headband at a store where I would have happily had every article of clothing in my closet. We grabbed a snack (crepe, duh!) and people watched as we continued towards the Arc du Triumphe. After visiting the Arc and taking in the light up Avenue des Champs-Élysées, we headed back home. We grabbed a baguette, brie cheese, fresh fruit, and wine to have a very French dinner. Sadly The wine, which came recommended by the nice man at the wine shop was gross in my opinion, but I enjoyed the rest of the dinner and of course it was all for the experience. “How French!” is more what we were aiming for than a 4 star dinner. 

Day 3: Sunday

We walked out of our hostel and ran into the quaintest little street market where vendors sold junk, furniture, and knick-knacks on tarps. I found a box of old postcards, some dating back to the 20’s. I bought 5 for a euro (not 1 for 2 euro like the sign said, the man was so sweet). I got 3 very old ones that have writing on them which I need my lovely big sis to translate for me, and 2 without writing, one of which is now on its way to a very beloved grandmother.

Sunday was a huge day. We hit the Louvre first. We saw the Mona Lisa, which I had expected to be disappointed at but I was the opposite actually. It was bigger than I expected and really neat to see in person. We also saw the Venus de Milo then headed off to Notre Dame. On our way we strolled across Pont Neuf, the “new bridge” that is now the oldest bridge in Paris. On the Ile de la Cite we found another street market; this time it was for selling birds, small pets, and flowers. What a fun surprise!

We took the mandatory pictures outside Notre Dame and then strolled through the church (mass was going on concurrently). I was surprised there weren’t more gargoyles! Off to the connecting smaller Ile Sainte Louis we got the best sorbet in the world. I got blood orange sorbet. Delicious.

Next we stopped in at Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore. PARADISE. I could easily have spent hours upon hours here. It’s a quaint little store right across the river from Notre Dame. It’s colorful and has books stacked on every surface possible with little wooden ladders that you use to get books from the top shelves. I would love to spend a whole day here… if only I had time to search out the best bookstores in the world. That would be the dream life.

Shakespeare and Co is tucked neatly into the Latin Quarter, the little Left Bank neighborhood where university students spoke Latin as their common language up until about 1900.  We grabbed lunch in the Latin Quarter (French onion soup, peppercorn steak, pom frites, and sorbet) and then headed off down to Luxemburg gardens. Through Luxemburg and down father away from the river we walked to the Catacombs. Now those were something to see. A giant ossuary was built in old limestone quarries in 1786 when Paris was constructing its sewer system. The city’s cemeteries were all emptied of their residents and the bones were put into the catacombs, up until 1860. Creepy and amazing, it is an interesting part of Parisian history to behold, you wander through thinking, wonder to whom that skull belonged to, and which of the millions of femurs belong with which skull.

From the catacombs we headed up towards the Bastille and saw the opera house then wandered into the Marais Neighborhood and into its small Jewish quarter where we enjoyed the colorful surrounding, the smell of falafels, and feasted on our daily crepe. At a small Jewish bakery we bought some challah to take home for dinner.

We finished our days sightseeing in the red light district so that we could see the famous Moulin Rouge. That was a very different side of Paris than we had seen thus far… bright neon signs unashamedly advertised what they sold inside. About 5 minutes here was enough for us and we headed home past the city’s most famous cemetery. Back at the hostel we feasted on our nightly bread and then I headed out for the airport at 10:30 pm. It was a perfect trip. We saw and did so much (as you can see if you actually stuck with me through all that!) 

I tried to just skim the surface here, if there is anything you want hear about in more detail, you know me, I love to talk so I will happily give you all the details in an email. 

 I love and miss you all  ~At

Paris Photos

Crepes with sugar and I am in Heaven. If you prefer chocolate, try the nutella and banana, I hear they are sinful.

Versailles

Arc du Trimphue

Pont de Arts - Lover's lock bridge.  The locks all have the initials of lovers.

Rich, Barb, & Attie   - I was so happy to find this one!

Our very french (but not very tasty...) dinner

The grand Ballroom in my favorite Pink Palace on the grounds of Versailles

Notre Dame - there aren't really very many gargoyles and I definitely didn't see a hunchback ringing the bells.

The Catacombs

The Parisian Red Light District

View from the Eiffel Tower

Marie Antoinette's play village, where she let them eat cake  
-sorry, I come complete with lame history joke-

The breakfast room at the hostel - best breakfast ever! 2 croissants? oui, merci!

Bird from the street market on the way to Notre Dame

Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore

^ My favorite picture from Paris

Shakespeare and Co. I WILL be back!

12 hours...

 In exactly 12 hours I plan to be sitting in a little french cafe eating cheese and bread and sipping a glass of wine... au revoir mes amis! Je t'aime tous    ~At

The pics I promised!

The wild flowers in the Carmona Necropolis

Paradise glanced on a Carmona rooftop

These are the oak trees with the tops cut off so that they grow fat, not tall. It makes it easier to harvest their acorns to feed the pigs but also causes water to rot the insides so that they have hallow insides and the tree is only alive near the bark and the branches.

Our guide, Mariano. He was amazing and knew everything about the forest and how to use all the different plants. I feel like I could live of the land after our trip I can now identify: spanish wild spinach, 3 types of edible mushroom, 2 edible berries, and know how to crack into a acorn.

This is what the majority of the hike looked like. The low stone wall on the left is the old roman wall from the 1st century AD. You had to be very careful about footing the whole way. You know me though, I tripped and stumbled my way through it without sustaining any permanent bodily harm.

Sheep! That was a fun and unexpected surprise. They followed us along on the other side of the low stone wall until the end of their pasture.

who doesn't love a good porch. This is the best one I have ever seen. I WILL own this house one day... 

1900 year old roman statue. Grandma, the second two really is longer!

The lesser patio at La Casa de Pilatos (Pontius Pilate) in Sevilla

Artsy Fartsy  -  but I loved it.

I love the colors here! They are so vibrant and they make to most beautiful pictures. This is just a upper corner of a entry way into La Casa de Pilatos. There are vines hanging over the edge from the rooftop and the walls are painted a faded rust color with a yellow and white roof inside. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures. I have started to stray away from photographing the cathedrals and churches in every town because they all look pretty much the same. There will be a ton of new pics and probably a couple blog posts within the next week after my trip to Paris (T minus 36 hours!). I leave at 6pm my time on Thursday (noon in the US) and a 6 hour bus ride to Madrid and from there we fly to Paris early the next morning. Wish me luck. None of the people I am going with know any french but I know how to say the words for bread, crepe, cheese, and wine so I feel like we at least won't go hungry!

Last but not least... a shout out to Matt - Internships are lame, come travel with me instead! I'm going to Madrid the last weekend in March and am going to find the tree you carved my name into. Will you come if I carve your name into a tree in some other city? That way you can justify coming here? Yes? Perfect consider it done!

Is this blog too hard to read with the current color scheme? I can change it if it is. It definitely isn't easy to read so please let me know by comment, email, facebook, smokescreen, Morse code, etc. if you would prefer a different background and type color. It won't hurt my feelings, I promise.

I love and miss you all  <3 At

Care package + hiking!

I got a care package!! My wonderful big sis sent me the most awesome care package ever filled with exactly what I have been craving: skittles, GOOD peanut butter (choosy moms and dads –and sisters!- choose JIF), lemonade packets, sweet tarts, and cereal! Yummy! I am so excited. It is hard to exercise any sort of self-control.

As for this past weekend, it was one of my favorites so far. I went to a small town 30 minutes outside of Sevilla on Friday called Carmona. It is “famous” for being a roman necropolis. The main attraction is a set of ancient burial tombs, the biggest or which is the size of a full basketball court (the girl buried here was apparently pretty special and her family was mega-rich). This place was first discovered by British archeologists in the 1800’s and the coolest thing for me was the old photos or their expeditions and digs.

Saturday Ana had the entire family over for lunch. Wow, that was a lot of Spanish conversation. It turned out unexpectedly well and her family was a joy to meet. Saturday evening I had “American Day” with my two close friends which consisted of a little shopping, complete meal from McDonalds, and finished with a movie in English. We saw The King’s Speech and I highly recommend it to anyone. I thought it was wonderful.

Sunday was one of my very favorite days yet. We had the opportunity to go on a hike in Huelva, the western neighboring providence. It was about 6 miles of hiking in a nature preserve there. I was right up front (because if you know me well you know that I hate walking behind slow people, it drives me insane!) and could see everything there was to see. The guide was extremely knowledgeable about all the plants and the history of the area and he would stop to show me different herbs that grew there and explain their medical relevance. I think it was my favorite excursion I have had yet. Exercise + outdoors + natural beauty = one happy Attie.

In the nature preserve there is a specific type of oak tree that the people have cut off the top part of the tree so that new branches will grow outwards instead of up. When this happens, water collects on the top and rots out the middle of the tree so that these trees are only alive on the outside and many have hallow cave-like insides. The acorns are used to feed the pigs in Spain. We walked along ancient roman roads bordered with low rock walls dating from the first century A.D.  Now that’s old! They were beautiful though, moss covered and enchanted looking. They reminded me of the rock walls that I pictured when reading my parent’s favorite book Trinity, the walls that divided the Irish countryside into a series of oblong squares and lopsided rectangles. I drank from the creek that had crystal clear water that the people of a little town of 400 still use as their main source of hydration. All in all it was a great experience and I hope to go hiking again soon.

That’s all for now. I am off to Paris. I leave for Madrid Thursday evening (6 hour bus trip – lame!) and fly out of Madrid early Friday morning. My internet is currently broken so as soon as it is functioning properly again I will put up the pics!

I love and miss you all  <3  -At

It's been too long...

So much has happened! Too name a few… I started my regular session of classes, traveled to the quaint town of Cordoba, ate soup cooked with pig’s ear, and found what I now consider the best burger in Sevilla.

Starting from the beginning: classes. I love them. Mt first class of the week is my favorite so far. It’s called Spanish for the Health Professional. The teacher is an animated man who is always making sure we actually understand what he is saying. Unlike the majority of the time where I can get away with smiling, nodding, and the occasional “bueno,” he actually makes sure you are following along. Likewise 2 of my other professors and extremely nice and I feel I will enjoy their classes as well. My last class of the week is Contemporary Spanish-American novels. I’m fairly positive the professor is a genius. He speaks rapid-fire Spanish much like my senora and I can’t understand everything he says, but the 70% I do understand is going to be more than I will learn in all my other classes combined. He reminds me of my father’s best friend, Walter. The smartest guy I know, and he looks like him too! It’s the best!

Our trip to Cordoba was fantastic. It’s a town famous for its mosque which is now a cathedral (since the rude kicking Muslims and Jews out of Spain). But everyone still refers to the building as la mezquita (mosque). People of the town still say they are going to mass in the mosque. The architecture inside is something to marvel at. The mix of Arabic, roman, renaissance, and baroque influences are juxtaposed into a mindboggling display of architectural creation. You walk into the mezquita to escape the extremely loud bells that chime from the original minaret every 30minutes. And the first thing that hits you is the columns - 859 of them to be exact. Roman-style marble pillars rise out of the beautiful tile floor to connect with cream and crimson (Go Hoosiers!!)  double-decker arches that traverse the entire width of the mezquita.  It’s a huge open space below the decorated ceiling but as with all buildings built for Muslim purposes it’s filled with a very dusky luminescence. You get to walk through the mezquita towards the back where the Qur’an was kept. Look up and you get to see the most amazing ceiling I have ever encountered. Millions of pieces of colored glass were painstaking put into place to create a beautiful floral are star-filled ceiling.

 Interesting fact: they sure didn’t think much of women then. Where did we get to sit? Nowhere near the Qur’an that’s for sure. If there was room all the way at the back, yes we could sit there. If there wasn’t room or the men just didn’t feel like having us there, well, the patio outside is where you could find us. How rude! Honestly, I am so thankful that I live in a time of equality and I want to give thanks for all the strong women who have come before me who fought for that equality. I am lucky enough to be part of a family filled with strong women, great-grandmothers, grandmothers, my mother, aunts, and the rest. I love you all.  Sorry to get sidetracked   : )    Overall Cordoba was a great day trip. We had a couple hours for lunch and my friends and I found a hidden gem in the windy back streets of Cordoba. With full les of dried pig hanging from the ceiling and every inch of the walls covered in pictures of famous bull fighters, this bar had the most Spanish spirit I have seen anywhere. It was clearly a local favorite and it was fun to find it. 

Apart from school and travels I have been able to enjoy and explore Sevilla a little more. I went for tapas after class one day with some friends and we stumbled upon the best burger in Sevilla. I have to go back very soon. You can’t go wrong with burger, cheese, and caramelized onion. Pair it with a tinto de verano (red vine and lemon soda) and you have the ultimate early evening snack. I’ve met some new friends too. One girl moved here on a whim and has been here for 7 months. Later this week she is taking me for pizza – besides skittles, pizza (without ham… which is one everything here) is the biggest craving I have had yet.

This coming Friday I am off on another day trip sponsored by our program to a small town called Carmona. It’s about 30km from here. Sunday I am going on a 7 mile hike. Our program is really amazing about setting up trips for us. I am thoroughly impressed with our program thus far and highly recommend it to anyone who knows someone wanting to study in Spain. 

I’m sorry this is so long; I won’t leave so much time in between next time. There is just too much to tell and not enough time to tell it all! 

Love and miss you all - At

My artsy picture I am most proud of. These are the old baths inside the royal palace here in Sevilla.

The view as you cross the original bridge into Cordoba. This is the same river that runs through Sevilla.

After lunch, getting ready to explore the mezquita!

The cream and Crimson arches! Who knew the people of Cordoba love IU as much as I do!  There are 859 of these columns throughout the mezquita

The beautiful glass mosaic ceiling above the old Qur'an room. A picture really cannot do it justice.

It's amazing the difference between the dark original mezquita part and then your literally turn a corner and find this HUGE open light cathedral. How different can you get?!?

As our guide informed us, this is the "must-get photo" of Cordoba. This is the street rightfully named the street of flowers with a view of the bell tower / minaret of the mezquita. How pretty!