Monday, September 6, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
At long last...
I've been pretty lazy about keeping up with this blog. But, never mind that, I'll fill everyone in on the past few weeks!
We began our trip on August 10th.
Day 1-2ish: We flew from St. Louis to D.C. and then from there to Copenhagen. The flight to Copenhagen was awesome! Every seat had its own, personal screen on which we could queue up any number of different movies and shows (as well as watch the plane fly with externally mounted cameras). What's more, we were served three meals -- all of which were decent -- and were served free wine (!) and bottled water in classy plastic cups emblazoned with Scandinavian Airlines' logo. After a crazy-long flight, we arrived in Copenhagen.
Once we got to Copenhagen, we met another DIS girl who was also traveling around a few days early. She told us that she was meeting her "Danish buddy" at the airport, and that we could tag along (we had no idea how to get to DIS). After a ridiculous, and sometimes arduous journey (cobblestones and suitcases don't go well together), we were free of our baggage and ready to start our trip! Too bad our flight to Paris wasn't for another 6 hours... We spent most of our day in Copenhagen in the DIS lounge, too jetlagged to do anything but play UNO. Nothing of note from our flight to Paris, aside from the general crappiness of the airline (Norwegian [they're cheap]).
We arrived in Paris at around 10pm, or so. We had a pretty good idea of how to get to our rental apartment, but no idea how to use the public transportation (getting from the airport to the city is an art). After an annoying hour of wandering around the airport bus stations, we finally made it to the trendy little neighborhood that we would call home for the next few days.
The walk into the apartment was a little scary -- a dark courtyard, an endless spiral staircase, etc. -- but we made it, safe and sound.
The apartment must have been decorated by a cat lady. Everything was pink, kitschy, and ugly. The bedspread looked vaguely Indian, albeit with bedazzled rhinestones, but the wall decor was distinctly Americana (Elvis?). Also, the apartment was the size of a broom closet. No matter, we were happy to be in Paris and ready to sleep (4 airports in less than 24 hours...really? ugh).
Day 2: After some much needed sleep, we decided to head out and see the city, but not before stopping at the corner bakery to pick up some croissants (pronounced, qwa sance, apparently). I'm pretty sure we walked the entire length of the city. We walked past the Hotel De'Ville on our way to Notre Dame, where we spent the better part of an hour, wandering around, mouths agape. After that, we walked down whatever streets looked interesting, and wound up finding another amazing gothic cathedral, although it had significantly less cachet. After that, we wandered around the neighborhood, searching for the gothic masterpiece, Sainte Chapelle. We would eventually go on to find it, but not before stopping by the Pompidou Center (a world-class modern museum, renowned for its inside-out facade) and breaking for lunch (and knock-off Ray Ban shopping).
After lunch we found the elusive Sainte Chapelle. Admission was rather steep, as the ticket guy refused our student discount, but we figured it was a must-see, so we forked over the 5 bucks (okay, not that expensive). Once inside, we were horrified to find that the main part of the cathedral was under renovation, and completely sectioned off! We were definitely ripped-off, but it was nonetheless an amazing place to visit. I've never seen so much stained glass; I was truly in awe.
Minds sufficiently blown, we wandered back out into the thick of Paris (but not before visiting the buildings attached to the chapel: a regal government building, and a palace turned prison turned museum called the Conciergerie). With our sights set on L’Arc de Triomphe, we headed north. Along our way, we walked past the Louvre, and walked through the Tuileries (royal gardens). The weather was amazing, so we sat in the gardens and enjoyed a terrible bottle of wine, which was made much more bearable by the joy of just being in Paris. After conquering the bottle of wine, we marched on towards a tiny arch on the horizon. We walked for days -- we walked the full length of the Champs-Elyseés. We arrived at L'Arc de Triomphe just as the sun was setting. We quickly bought our tickets, and headed to the top.
I don't think I'll ever forget the view from atop L'arc de Triomphe. Watching the sun set over Paris was incredible.
Day 2: After a late morning in Paris (with lunch along the canal), we decided to head to architectural Mecca -- the Villa Savoye. The trip to quite a while, and we wound up in a super sketchy town called Poissy. It's hard to describe what was so sketchy about Poissy -- it wasn't super run-down, but there was something just "off" about it. The locals seemed to be staring at us, there was a "school" with bars covering its broken windows, surrounded a 15ft stone wall complete with barbed wire and a guard tower, and all the houses had very large privacy fences. It was creepy. We walked for at least a mile, but eventually we made it to the Villa Savoye.
It was almost unreal, arriving at the holiest modern building on the planet, and simply walking in to have a look around. After three years of learning about the building, I certainly thought I knew what to expect, but the building surprised me. What first caught my attention was its painted walls. In none of the pictures can one see that some of the walls are painted in strange colors like forest green, or salmon/pink. Also, there were several rooms that I never knew existed. Lastly, the building seemed to be in need of a little work -- there was mildew in the kitchen sink, among other things. In spite of this, it was a joy to see.
After heading back to Paris, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived pretty late in the evening, but the place was still packed with people. The tower was really cool, and a lot more massive than I ever imagined. A few minutes after we arrived, the twinkling lights on the the tower were lit up, and for a moment everyone, including the toy helicopter and crappy rose hustlers, stood and looked up in awe. Unfortunately, the crowd around us was far too distracting for us to really enjoy the place, and we were getting pretty tired, so we decided to head back home.
One more thing about our "home." I'm glad we stayed there. The apartment turned out to be in an awesome district that was pretty close to everything, and it felt pretty cool to come home to our own place, and pretend to be Parisians.
Day 3: After a morning in the city, we caught an afternoon train to Basel, Switzerland... (I'm going to pause here, as this post is getting too huge, and I should probably rest my fingers)
(side note: i may move this blog to another hosting site. the picture function on this site sucksss)
We began our trip on August 10th.
Day 1-2ish: We flew from St. Louis to D.C. and then from there to Copenhagen. The flight to Copenhagen was awesome! Every seat had its own, personal screen on which we could queue up any number of different movies and shows (as well as watch the plane fly with externally mounted cameras). What's more, we were served three meals -- all of which were decent -- and were served free wine (!) and bottled water in classy plastic cups emblazoned with Scandinavian Airlines' logo. After a crazy-long flight, we arrived in Copenhagen.
Once we got to Copenhagen, we met another DIS girl who was also traveling around a few days early. She told us that she was meeting her "Danish buddy" at the airport, and that we could tag along (we had no idea how to get to DIS). After a ridiculous, and sometimes arduous journey (cobblestones and suitcases don't go well together), we were free of our baggage and ready to start our trip! Too bad our flight to Paris wasn't for another 6 hours... We spent most of our day in Copenhagen in the DIS lounge, too jetlagged to do anything but play UNO. Nothing of note from our flight to Paris, aside from the general crappiness of the airline (Norwegian [they're cheap]).
We arrived in Paris at around 10pm, or so. We had a pretty good idea of how to get to our rental apartment, but no idea how to use the public transportation (getting from the airport to the city is an art). After an annoying hour of wandering around the airport bus stations, we finally made it to the trendy little neighborhood that we would call home for the next few days.
The walk into the apartment was a little scary -- a dark courtyard, an endless spiral staircase, etc. -- but we made it, safe and sound.
The apartment must have been decorated by a cat lady. Everything was pink, kitschy, and ugly. The bedspread looked vaguely Indian, albeit with bedazzled rhinestones, but the wall decor was distinctly Americana (Elvis?). Also, the apartment was the size of a broom closet. No matter, we were happy to be in Paris and ready to sleep (4 airports in less than 24 hours...really? ugh).
Day 2: After some much needed sleep, we decided to head out and see the city, but not before stopping at the corner bakery to pick up some croissants (pronounced, qwa sance, apparently). I'm pretty sure we walked the entire length of the city. We walked past the Hotel De'Ville on our way to Notre Dame, where we spent the better part of an hour, wandering around, mouths agape. After that, we walked down whatever streets looked interesting, and wound up finding another amazing gothic cathedral, although it had significantly less cachet. After that, we wandered around the neighborhood, searching for the gothic masterpiece, Sainte Chapelle. We would eventually go on to find it, but not before stopping by the Pompidou Center (a world-class modern museum, renowned for its inside-out facade) and breaking for lunch (and knock-off Ray Ban shopping).
After lunch we found the elusive Sainte Chapelle. Admission was rather steep, as the ticket guy refused our student discount, but we figured it was a must-see, so we forked over the 5 bucks (okay, not that expensive). Once inside, we were horrified to find that the main part of the cathedral was under renovation, and completely sectioned off! We were definitely ripped-off, but it was nonetheless an amazing place to visit. I've never seen so much stained glass; I was truly in awe.
Minds sufficiently blown, we wandered back out into the thick of Paris (but not before visiting the buildings attached to the chapel: a regal government building, and a palace turned prison turned museum called the Conciergerie). With our sights set on L’Arc de Triomphe, we headed north. Along our way, we walked past the Louvre, and walked through the Tuileries (royal gardens). The weather was amazing, so we sat in the gardens and enjoyed a terrible bottle of wine, which was made much more bearable by the joy of just being in Paris. After conquering the bottle of wine, we marched on towards a tiny arch on the horizon. We walked for days -- we walked the full length of the Champs-Elyseés. We arrived at L'Arc de Triomphe just as the sun was setting. We quickly bought our tickets, and headed to the top.
I don't think I'll ever forget the view from atop L'arc de Triomphe. Watching the sun set over Paris was incredible.
Day 2: After a late morning in Paris (with lunch along the canal), we decided to head to architectural Mecca -- the Villa Savoye. The trip to quite a while, and we wound up in a super sketchy town called Poissy. It's hard to describe what was so sketchy about Poissy -- it wasn't super run-down, but there was something just "off" about it. The locals seemed to be staring at us, there was a "school" with bars covering its broken windows, surrounded a 15ft stone wall complete with barbed wire and a guard tower, and all the houses had very large privacy fences. It was creepy. We walked for at least a mile, but eventually we made it to the Villa Savoye.
It was almost unreal, arriving at the holiest modern building on the planet, and simply walking in to have a look around. After three years of learning about the building, I certainly thought I knew what to expect, but the building surprised me. What first caught my attention was its painted walls. In none of the pictures can one see that some of the walls are painted in strange colors like forest green, or salmon/pink. Also, there were several rooms that I never knew existed. Lastly, the building seemed to be in need of a little work -- there was mildew in the kitchen sink, among other things. In spite of this, it was a joy to see.
After heading back to Paris, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived pretty late in the evening, but the place was still packed with people. The tower was really cool, and a lot more massive than I ever imagined. A few minutes after we arrived, the twinkling lights on the the tower were lit up, and for a moment everyone, including the toy helicopter and crappy rose hustlers, stood and looked up in awe. Unfortunately, the crowd around us was far too distracting for us to really enjoy the place, and we were getting pretty tired, so we decided to head back home.
One more thing about our "home." I'm glad we stayed there. The apartment turned out to be in an awesome district that was pretty close to everything, and it felt pretty cool to come home to our own place, and pretend to be Parisians.
Day 3: After a morning in the city, we caught an afternoon train to Basel, Switzerland... (I'm going to pause here, as this post is getting too huge, and I should probably rest my fingers)
(side note: i may move this blog to another hosting site. the picture function on this site sucksss)
Monday, August 16, 2010
The nearest Chipotle is 4000 miles away...
16 August 2010
At long last, I've found the time to set this thing up! I'm sitting in a youth hostel in Basel, Switzerland, impatiently waiting for the slowest washing machine ever made (with a 1 hour wash cycle the Swiss really do live up to their reputation for cleanliness...).
Since I neglected to keep a journal doing the first leg of the trip, I'll recap what I've done so far...
At long last, I've found the time to set this thing up! I'm sitting in a youth hostel in Basel, Switzerland, impatiently waiting for the slowest washing machine ever made (with a 1 hour wash cycle the Swiss really do live up to their reputation for cleanliness...).
Since I neglected to keep a journal doing the first leg of the trip, I'll recap what I've done so far...
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