Continued....

If you can't tell by my sporadic blog postings, my last few weeks in Paris have been absolutely nuts. Spring Break Continued:

Provence: After a well needed day of R&R in Paris (which of course consisted of frantic museum hopping, who knew all the best exhibitions happened in les printemps?) my parents came to visit and whisked me away to Provence. We stayed in Arles, a cute little town that happened to have a very celebrated bullfight in an Ancient Roman Amphitheater (oh France). We went to all my favorite places, Marseilles, Cassis, Avignon, and it was fun showing them around and eating amazing, amazing food.

My then left and went to Prague (without me since I apparently have to have class once in a while) and came back and I took them through a day of little-known Paris. We went to Le Petit Palais where I gave them a little tour of the history of Parisian Art. We then went to my school, lunched, had some fun sharing Macaroons, and then Musée Mormottan, where we saw beautiful impressionist art (and one of my favorites Berthes Morrisot), and there was an exposition (is it exposition or exhibition? I forget...) of Raoul and Jean Duffy that was very well done and very intriguing. They then met my hostmom, for which I translated back and forth for about an hour, and ate at a lovely Couscous place, Chez Omar, my friend had recommended to me. We ended our night on Le Pont des Arts where my parents put a love-lock and we had a lovely time taking pictures and watching the Eiffel tower sparkle. Another Magical day in Paris.

After Spring Break, everyone in my program has been rather frantically stifling our anxieties about leaving by seeing everything possible in Paris. I always knew that this time would fly by, but I had no idea that I'd be so attached to so many things that I can't possibly be ready to leave yet! What's worse is that Paris in the winter and the spring look SO different that I feel like I want to re-see everything I've already seen (The Castles, the Gardens, the Exhibitions, the Monuments) In this last week of classes, I think our professors are empathizing and we're going on so many excursions my head is still spinning. I've been spending my alone time going to all my favorite places in Paris and saying goodbye. Here are some of the things I've been doing:

Rodin Museum: So far, the Rodin was the most difficult to say goodbye to, and I ended up staying there for 6 hours. The garden is in full bloom and the roses are as big as my head! The sun has been shining every day and I try to wear my springiest outfits and prance through the gardens and just bask in my last days of being a Parisian.

Montmatre: This really is the best place to see the entire city...hands down.

Invalides: I had never been inside and I was astonished. I just happened to be passing by Invalides (because when you live in Paris, you're often just in the neighborhood of some insanely important monument) and when I die, I'd like to have a tomb like Napoleons. It was very ominous and reminded me slightly of the scene in Jeanne d'Arc when God first speaks to her, dark open space with the light shinning down on the Tomb through the stained glass windows. Wonderful.

The Opera: Thursday I saw Tosca by Puccini at the Opera Bastille. It was absolutely mind blowing. Everyone should go rent the Opera and watch it. Plot Summary: During the height of the Napoleonic wars, Mario is hiding his friend from the chief of Police. The Chief of Police captures Mario and tortures him to find where his friend is hiding. Meanwhile, the Chief becomes enamored with Mario's girlfriend, Tosca, who also happens to know where the friend is hiding. Tosca reveals the whereabouts of the friend and the chief of police takes Mario to be executed. Tosca agrees to sleep with the chief, and the chief orders a feigned execution. Tosca then stabs the chief and runs to tell Mario the execution will be fake and they can live together forever. Turns out the chief was a jerk and called for a real execution, which when Tosca finds Mario dead, upsets her to the point where she throws herself off the top of a building. The End. It was beautiful.

Giverny: I hadn't been yet and it was pretty much my version of a pilgrimage to the holy land. We walked from the train station to the garden, had a little picnic on a bench in Monet's garden, took dozens of pictures of the beautiful flowers, the bridges, the lily pads. Breathtaking, I was speechless.

Countless Picnics and Parties: We all seem to be in denial that we must eventually leave Paris and one way to ignore our soon-approaching departure is to avoid studying for finals and picnic all day! Of course, us NYU kids have a difficult time separating fun and school, and we always end up having some type of spontaneous review session. It's so great that we're all getting together, just having fun and enjoying Paris' presence.

Tonight my host mom is making me a very special last-dinner-together meal with artichokes (she knows me so well) and creme brulée (obviously not together, that just sounds unpleasant). Au revoir mes amis!

PS: I'd just like to wish a very happy mothers day to my Mom and my Grandma! I love you!

I've been negligent...

I apologize for my rather long break away from my blog. These last few weeks have been absolutely crazy, where do I begin? Ah yes, spring break.

This was the most incredible, inspiring, breathtaking spring break any one in the world could ask for. Once again, I am the luckiest girl in the world. Let me take you through the days:

Athens: After a very long day of traveling, we arrive in beautiful beautiful Athens. Our hotel has a view of the Acropolis, and we sat on the roof and watched the sunset over the Parthenon and kept screaming "OH MY GOSH ATHENS!!!!" The next day we traveled around town. We managed to visit the acropolis and the many stadiums and temples, scale a fence, save a turtle hiding in a cave, visit the Parthenon, take grace lessons from Caryatids, picnic on a fallen roman column, visit the Acropolis Museum and soak up all the ancient magic, and eat the most delicious Mousaka, Stuffed Vine Leaves, and Spinach Pie in the world.

Santorini: 3 hours of sleep and seven hours on a ferry later, we arrive in Paradise, also known as Oia, Santorini. Here we managed to make friends with a pack of dogs, rent a car and share a few seemingly near-death experiences on the cliffs of Santorini (ok... not quite near-death, we were being a little dramatic), climb a mountain that connects Oia to Fira, visit Red Beach and have it entirely to ourselves*, visit the artifact museum (guess who saw samples of Linear A!) and make an incredibly long-lasting relationship with our hotel owners Panos and Stavros. If anyone ever goes to Santorini, please look up "Oia Sunset" hotel, I have never felt more welcome and taken care of in my entire study abroad travel experience, and hugging Panos good-bye may or may not have brought a tear to all of our eyes. Santorini was pure magic.
*History Lesson!!: Santorini is an island in Greece known for its white houses with blue roofs. It is shaped like a doughnut with a, now inactive, volcano in the middle, meaning the entire island is almost completely covered with lava remains. Red beach is a great example of this where the red is rock that cooled and the beach sand is entirely black.

Syros: DETOUR! In Santorini, Panos called the ferry to check the time and we realized that our ferry to Mykonos was CANCELLED (bum bum bahhh). Panos being the wonderful man that he is, we nicknamed him Poseidon at this point, called various ferries and inns and scheduled us a lovely detour to the island Syros as a pitstop for a night before proceeding to Mykonos. Syros is a much lesser known island in Greece that is not at all touristic (meaning barely any English). We stayed in "new city" Plakia, and the next morning climbed about 10000 stairs to new city and found the most breathtaking view. The combination of the sun and the wind and the old widow kissing us all and saying "I Love Americans!" filled our hearts, we were actually a little disappointed to leave. (Not to mention the couple we stayed with were the sweetest people I've ever met, even if our entire conversations were a mixture of miming and "Efarstopoli!")

Mykonos: After finally arriving in Mykonos, we were welcomed by cooler-than expected weather and an abandoned city. We figured Mykonos was going to be our beach and party destination, and although we tried our hardest to pretend like it wasn't freezing, we didn't do too much of either. It rained the morning we left as we were eating breakfast, but it stopped and everything turned green and the sun was shining on the ocean (which was walking distance to our apartments) and it was a perfect goodbye. Mykonos, we forgive you.

Fake Athens/Varkiza: My friend Leah did an amazing job finding us the perfect R&R spot for our last night in Greece. We found a little shake that had the most incredible Gyros for 2 Euros and a lovely veggie stand where we piled up on snacks before retiring to our incredibly large, decorated, and colorful bachelor(ette) pad.

Istanbul: Istanbul was a very interesting experience. It wasn't quite as magical as Greece was, but the things we saw were just so incredible. We went to the Topkaki palace, checked out "new city", at the most delicious Bhaklavah I could even imagine, drank gallons of turkish tea, visited the Aya Sofya (so incredible. I can see why it's a seven wonder of the world), and the Blue Mosque which was so lavish and impressive we just stood there with our mouths hanging open trying to take in all the colors and the mosaics. The most yummus hummus I could ask for, and we managed to become pros at haggling at both the spice and the jewelry bazaars (gifts for everyone!).

More to continue later...

Des Photos: Marseilles

The Port in Beautiful Cassis

The Beach in Cassis

The Main Port in Marseilles

Notre Dame de la Garde, Marseilles

Ireland?

We saw people hiking these rocks, it's now on my to-do list

Cathédrale de la Major from the Ocean

Beautiful view of the city from the top of the mountain of Notre Dame de la Garde

Cathedral de la Major, close up

Of course, my most favorite.

Yay Marseilles!

Imagine to yourself the best, most beautiful aspects of Greece, Spain, Ireland, and Italy. Now translate all of that into French and you have Marseilles. I didn't know anything about the city, except that it is the second largest city in France and the Capital of Provence, but now I know that it is the most incredible place in the entire world. It might have been my favorite place I've been thus far.

We started our trip with an exploration of Marseilles and the main port. You can just imagine all the great post-impressionist artists running to Marseilles to paint the beautiful mountains, boats, sky, water, everything. We went to a couple cathedrals, which remind me a lot of the Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba, Spain. We took a "petit train" tour of the cliffs up a mountain, as well as an incredible boat tour to see the scenery from the Ocean. We ate tons of seafood: Mussles, Bouillabaisse, Monkfish, etc. and plenty of olives. We ended our much too short trip in Cassis, a little beach city which seems to be where all the coolest Marseillese go to relax and get some sun. I myself got a little sun tan (my nose got a sun burn) and now I cannot wait to go to Greece and continue my tour of paradise.

In the meantime, some more Paris commentary, of course. Two incredible places I have seen in Paris in the Spring is the Garden in the Petit Palais, and the Musée Rodin. Paris loves cherry blossoms, and the Petit Palais is full of murals and mosaics and "foliage" as my Dad would say and is just a beautiful place. (Built for the Universal Exposition 1900, now a museum of Parisian Fine Arts). Now, the Musée Rodin is now my favorite, FAVORITE museum in Paris. Almost entirely filled with sculptures, I could just spend hours walking around the Museum. My favorites are Hell's Gates and The Kiss and I just want to spend all day in the gardens continuing my suntan, reading my homework, and just being surrounded by the fabulousness that is Paris. I guess the fabulousness will just have to be put on hold as I take my Grecian/Turkish adventure next weekend!!

I realize my post on Marseilles is much too short to do it justice. Luckily, I think my photos will more than explain how incredible the city is. Mom and Dad, we should put Marseilles down on our Provence agenda n'est-ce pas?

Des Photos: Berlin

Some of the girls and I on both sides of where the Berlin Wall used to be.

Checkpoint Charlie. This is where someone would have to go to officially cross from East to West Berlin. The Left is a Soviet Soldier facing the West, and the Right is an American Soldier facing the East.

The Temple of Zeus at the Pergamon Museum. SO incredible.

My Friend and I in the square where the infamous Book Burning occured. The Theater to the left, the University in the background.

Communist Murial and Berlin Wall Memorial at the German Ministry of Finance

More Wall

Holocaust Memorial

The Brandenburg Gate at Pariser Platz

I am a Jelly Donut

I apologize it's been a while since I've last posted. I've been pretty occupied lately with school, amazing Parisian weather, and my recent encounter with the stomach flu, but I am no recuperating and writing a long-overdue post.

First thing first, BERLIN! I've never been to Germany before, I knew nothing about Germany, or the sights in Berlin, and did not speak a single ounce (or gram... metric system) of German, but this just made our adventure so much more exciting.

Here are some of the sights we saw: Parisplatz, The Reichstag, Hitler's Bunker (which is now turned into a parking lot), Many sides of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, The Theater House/University/Area where the infamous book-burning took place, The Holocaust Memorial, and Museum Island. My friend Leah commented about how deserted and lonely the city seemed, we stayed in East Berlin, and I have to agree. Just walking around the city, you can see the way it went through so many drastic changes in government systems in just the last 100 years. I think one of the best things about the city is the fact that they don't hide it at all, they fully embrace their history which I find entirely commendable. The French, as well as America, seem to try so hard to hide their lower points in history, so Berlin was quite a different setting.

The Food. Of course. I'd just like everyone to know that really the only reason I studied abroad was to eat. But another nice change from french culture was the transition from sweets and bread to meat, cabbage, and potatoes. Brautwurst, currywurst, pig knuckle, sauerkraut, yum yum and yum... I'd be concerned about my arteries had we not walked so much.

Another hidden little fact: Berlin's Museums are incredible. We visited the Pergamon and Neues Museums. The Pergamon hosts an incredible amount of ancient Greek Architecture including several mythological friezes and the temple of Zeus! I'm starting to wonder what will be left for me to see in Athens after everything I've seen in London and Berlin. The Neues has an incredible collection of ancient Egyptian statues, including the bust of Queen Nefertiti which was absolutely amazing to see.

After Berlin I came back to the best weather I could ever hope for in Paris. Since last Wednesday it has been sunny, cloudless skies in the mid-sixties, and I've been walking absolutely everywhere. I spent so much time outside I think I even got a little tan. I walked along the bank of the Seine, I've walked from the Eiffel tower to the Arc de Triomphe, I've walked through gardens and down Canals and have eaten so many picnics that I may attribute my recent stomach flu to an excessive diet of baguettes and goat cheese. Tomorrow is supposed to be the start of an ongoing, very rainy week (which I will be narrowly missing by traveling to Marseilles this Friday). It's probably a good thing, I need to take it easy and get all my work done before I embark on my Grecian/Turkish Adventure!!!

Pictures, of course, are soon to come.

Des Photos: Avignon

Pont de Gard

Van Gough's Garden

Saint Remy de Provence


Olive Trees


Roman Ruins


Pope's Palace in Avignon


Avignon from the Seine