Paris Day 2: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versailles, Louvre

Paris Day 2, Friday February 22
        Claire and I woke up early for a really busy day. I liked breakfast because it was more than just toast and fruit like in Spain! We had hot chocolate, orange juice, baguette, and croissant thing with chocolate inside it.

Breakfast, yum! They also had sugar cubes named Saint Louis sugar!

         We headed off to the Eiffel Tower, and got there before they started selling tickets. Since it was cold, windy, and snowing a little bit, I guess they only had the lifts open, so you couldn't walk up to the top. But we paid for the lift to take us to the 2nd level and to the top, and it was so worth it! It was super cold and windy, but I got some good pictures.

In front of the Eiffel Tower

Palais de Chaillot and Gardens of Trocadero from 2nd level of Eiffel Tower

River Seine from top of Eiffel Tower

           After the Eiffel Tower, we went to Notre Dame, which was absolutely gorgeous! This year they were celebrating 850 years, so they had some special things going on with that, like old church bells in the middle of the aisle. There was a fairly long line to get in, but it went pretty fast, and it is free for everyone to go in.The inside was beautiful too, and had pretty stain-glass windows. It was really big too!

Notre Dame

Rose Window of Notre Dame

Flying buttresses, commonly found in Gothic churches

              We then walked around Notre Dame and looked at some of the souvenir shops they had. We both decided to get knitted berets because it was so cold outside! We ate lunch at a stand outside of a restaurant and I had a mozzarella and chicken panini and then a strawberry crepe for dessert! It was so good! 
              We then found a metro/train station and went to visit the Palace of Versailles, which was also really pretty. Very ornate and gilded with gold. In my history class, we learned that Versailles was a symbol of wealth for France, to show all the other countries how rich and powerful it was. The construction of Versailles started in the mid 1600s, and continued to be built until the early 1700s. During the French Revolution (late 1700s to early 1800s and Napoleon's rule), most people living in the city of Versailles left, as it was partially destroyed, and the palace was stripped of furniture and decoration. In the 1830s it was then turned into a museum. 

Exterior of Palace of Versailles...Gilded with gold!

Famous Hall of Mirrors...there were so many people! 

Gardens, taken from inside the Palace

      After we got back to Paris, we went to the Louvre. The Louvre was really big too...you could have stayed in there for hours! But since we were on a schedule, we just got to see the highlights, which I had written out ahead of time! We saw the Hammurabi Code, Assyrian winged bull, Venus de Milo, Nike of Samothrace, a lot of Ancient Egyptian Art, Seated Scribe, Wedding Feast at Cana, and of course the Mona Lisa!

The Louvre Pyramid. Although I think there are actually 3 and are supposed to be like the Pyramids of Giza

Mini Arc de Triomphe! It is actually called Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.

My art history teacher said I needed to take a picture with Nike of Samothrace (also called Winged Victory of Samothrace), a 2nd century BC Greek marble sculpture hororing the goddess Nike. (I'm wearing my beret in this picture!)

And there she is! The Mona Lisa...its like they don't want you to actually see it though, there is this wooden rail and she is covered with glass. I wish I could have seen it closer!

     After an exciting trip to the Louvre, and stopping by the giftshop to get a postcard of Mona, we went to the indoor mall they have outside of the Louvre, that also connects to the metro. We decided to just eat at McDonald's and have Filet-o-Fish because we had forgotten earlier that it was a Friday in Lent and we weren't supposed to eat meat! To tell you the truth the entire trip I didn't know what day it was, so....   After that we went back towards our hostel and stopped by a souvenir shop where I got a mini Eiffel Tower, because you always need one of those right? We collected our luggage from the hostel/hotel and headed off to the train/bus station to go to London! That adventure I will save for next time. 


Things I learned in Paris:

• It is really cold, and windy, and snowy. Again, wear layers! 
• Crepes are really good...kind of bummed I can't eat Nutella, because crepes with Nutella were everywhere! 
• It just isn't right to leave Paris without something having the Eiffel Tower on it
• If you plan things out ahead of time you can fit a lot into a day
• I was really excited to go to the Louvre to see things I have learned about in art history class
• I could never live in Paris, but it was fun to visit for 2 days...it would probably be more enjoyable in warmer weather!

Au revoir! 

Paris Day 1: Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysees, Eiffel Tower at Night

Paris Day 1, Thursday February 21
         For Winter Break, I spent 2 days in Paris, and 2 days in London with my roommate Claire. We tried to fit as much sight-seeing and activities into 4 days as possible! At times it was stressful, but also a lot of fun. The weather was cold both in Paris and London, and we saw some snow in both places. 
         Thursday we left really early from our apartment to go the airport. Once we got to Paris, we took a bus to the city, because the airport was far away. It took us over an hour to get to Paris because of the traffic...who knew there would be traffic in the middle of the day! We tried to find a metro stop, which took a while, and figured out how to buy tickets for the metro and how to get to our metro stop. It was pretty similar to the Madrid metro, but it was a lot dirtier, and smaller. It felt like you were in a dungeon or something. The first metro we got on was packed, and it was difficult to maneuver my suitcase onto it. We eventually got to our stop, found our hotel/hostel, and checked in. Our senora made us sandwiches to take with us, so we ate those and had a free lunch!

       The first thing we went to was the Arc de Triomphe, and it was free with our Spanish visa to go up in. After climbing a lot of steps, we reached the top and the view was great. You could see the Champs-Elysees going in both directions and the Eiffel Tower. Well worth it! Triumphal arches, like this one, orginated during ancient Rome and were used to celebrate military victories, or build in conquered areas. A lot of the arches in France were built by Napoleon to celebrate his war victories. 

Arc de Triomph

Champs-Elysees from Arc de Triomphe

Eiffel Tower from Arc de Triomphe

 

 

           We then walked down the Champs-Elysees, and saw all the expensive and fancy shops. All the brands I wish I could buy, but don't have enough money for! There were also some entertaining street performers, that weren't trying to scare you like in Madrid. A lot of them were singing songs from the US or playing instruments. We started walking towards to the Louvre, and saw some really cool buildings. I tried to see what they were for or what they were called, but I think they were either museums or venues for concerts or whatnot.

Cool building

          When we finally made it to the Louvre, we found out it was closing in like 30 minutes, so we decided to come back the next day....So we went to the Musee d'Orsay instead. Musee d'Orsay has mostly French art from the 1800's and 1900's and is known for its collection of impressionist paintings from artists like Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, and Renoir. I couldn't take any pictures, but all the paintings were beautiful! I love Monet's works, and I find it so intriguing how impressionists can use all sorts of colors and different brush strokes to make a masterpiece. Here is my favorite piece, and the other is one I found funny (images from Musee d'Orsay online index of works). 

Champs de tulipes en Hollande by Claude Monet. This one is absolutely beautiful. I tried to find a print or postcard of it in the museum shop, but they didn't have any.

Les dindons by Claude Monet...yes he painted turkeys

      By the time we left the Musee d'Orsay, it was around 7 or 8. We tried to find something to eat, but a lot of the restuarants were closed or too expensive to eat at. We stopped at this bakery which also had sandwiches (there are a lot of these in Paris), and I got a sandwich, which was really good, ham, cheese, lettuce on a baguette. We then walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night. We found the signs were not really helpful, so we just walked towards it. And there it was! How pretty! I almost think it is prettier at night. When we were walking back to the metro, it was sparkling! It took us a while to find the metro, and we took it back to our hostel/hotel.

Eiffel Tower at night

We turned around when we were walking to the metro and it was sparkling with lights!

 Things I learned in Paris:

• Parisians don't use their metro as efficient as people in Madrid. You are not supposed to crowd by the door!
• The Paris metro is quite dirty and feels like a dungeon
• Paris is cold...bring layers
• Eating at a bakery/cafe is cheaper than eating at an actual restaurant
• A lot of people in Paris spoke some English...I was just never sure how to start talking to them. 
• When I realized I didn't even know how to say numbers or common words or phrases in French I realized I know more Spanish than I thought
• A lot of French words look like Spanish words but are pronounced in a totally different 

Au revoir! 

Yet Another Weekend in Madrid

Weekend of February 15-17
       Sorry I haven't been updating my blog, I had mid-terms this week, ewww. I think they call all their tests mid-terms here, because for some of my classes I have more than one mid-term, which doesn't make any sense. But I had my Global Change and Art History mid-term, and I think they went ok.
    Last weekend was another weekend spent in Madrid. On Friday we went to Aranjuez, a little town about 45 minutes outside of Madrid. It was a cute little town, and also another palace, the Royal Palace of Aranjuez. It was a nice sunny day, and we enjoyed touring the palace, and the large gardens they had. I don't think we even saw half of them! The town is between two rivers, and they pass by the palace. The palace itself was somewhere between the Royal Palace of Madrid and El Escorial in decoration...so not too decorated, but not almost bare like El Escorial! It was really pretty, and had lots of chandeliers, paintings, and tapestries. It was smaller than the palace in Madrid, but still pretty cool! On of the best parts was at the end, where they had the wedding dresses of the current queen, her daughters, and her daughter-in-law. They were absolutely gorgeous, even though they were fairly simple, with really long trains! They also had their coronation outfits. We ate lunch in Aranjuez, walked around a little bit, and then went back on the train, or Renfe, to Madrid.

Outside of Royal Palace of Aranjuez

Fountain in the garden of the palace

Another fountain, with flowers!

      On Saturday, we went walking around Sol, got some lunch at Aguacate, similar to Chipotle's but not really, and then went to the costume museum, or Museo de Traje, so really it was a clothes museum. We were lucky, because we got there after 2:30 on a Saturday, and it was free! It had all sorts of clothes from different eras and time periods, and showed the evolution of clothes. My favorite was probably the 1920s and flapper type dresses, they were really sparkly! They also had traditional Spanish clothes. At the end we walked through this giant indoor dome, that was supposed to be a kind of cat walk, and had modern clothes lining it...and runway music. It was really interesting, and fascinating to see how short small people (especially Spanish people) were only 100 or 200 years ago, and to see the different trends in clothes. 
       On Sunday we went to El Rastro and looked around some. It was crowded as always, and we found a street that everyone was just laying out there stuff, some of which looked like things you want to get rid of. Usually people have tents set out, and have a license to sell things. Spain must have a problem with counterfeit goods and pirating, because fake purses, fake name brand clothes, and cheap CDs and DVDs are everywhere. Sometimes I wonder how the people get the stuff they are selling and if it is legal! I really like the handcrafted or handmade stuff better, because it is most likely made in Spain, and is new. Unlike the random things that you see in piles or hanging from tents everywhere. We ate lunch at McDonald's (I need something American every once in a while), and then walked around some more. I found a souvenir shop that I encountered before, and I got this cute guy! I hope you don't think I'm weird, I just couldn't get over the cuteness. We went into H&M and some other stores, and made our way to mass.

A Spanish bull that is not scary looking! And really colorful.

This weekend we are going to Paris and London. So excited! I might be a little delayed again on my blog post!

Things I have learned in Spain:

•  It is hard to find books for class when all the libraries and bookstores have books in Spanish, and SLU-Madrid has a really tiny library
• It feels so great to get a package from home! With chocolate, yay!
• Pancakes here are not the same as American pancakes, they are more like crepes. But they are still pretty good!
• They have some weird fruit here that I have never seen before...like something that was yellow and oddly shaped, and apparently like an apple but more acidic
• Buying strawberries for 1 euro is awesome!

 Adios!

Another Weekend in Madrid

        This weekend I stayed in Madrid and explored more of the city. Thursday night I went to a discoteca (dance/night club) that was for Spanish and Latin dancing, such as tango, flamenco, salsa, and meringue. SLU-Madrid offers some dance classes (Flamenco, Latin Dance and Rhythm), and the teacher offered to take her students to this discoteca place, and she said to bring friends. So, everyone from SLU Madrid that wasn't traveling showed up! (ok, so probably not, but it was a large group of students) It was a lot of fun! Some of the people that were in the class taught me (and others who weren't in the class) some basic moves, and then we danced! I didn't dance too much, it was more fun watching people dance! I was impressed how much they have learned in the dance classes. And watching the Spanish people dance was a lot of fun too, you could tell some of them had been dancing for a long time. At one point, this "boy band" of 5 Spanish men came up on stage and led us in dance to "Gangham Style". It was kind of weird, but really fun to dance to a song that everyone knows!
             On Saturday, we went shopping in an area called Goya. It was nice because it wasn't as crowded as Sol, and it had a mixture of well known shops and privately owned shops. For lunch we stopped at this place called Rodilla, a sandwich shop that started in Madrid in 1939 and claims to be "World Famous". I think it is a chain of stores, but it was so good! I got a hot ham and cheese sandwich (so basically it was grilled cheese), fries and a large Fanta all for a reasonable price, around 5 euros.
           On Sunday we met some friends at Sol to go to Aguacate, which was kind of like a Chipotle's, probably the nearest thing you will find to it in Madrid! The menu was in English, and the and lady that was making our orders spoke English, so that was nice...although it was the easiest menu to figure out. I got a salad with rice, lettuce, chicken, cheese, peppers and some pico de gallo, which was only tomatoes. I also got a drink and some tortilla chips...it tasted so good! It was quite bizarre, because for dinner that night our senora made us rice with onions, peppers, and chicken. So I basically had the same thing twice. After we ate, we walked around a little bit and found a football (soccer) store. And they were having a sale! I decided to get an official Adidas Real Madrid jersey, and it was only 45 euros! So, I decided to get it, because I was afraid if I waited they wouldn't have it any more. The jersey I got is an away jersey, so it is navy blue with some neon yellow/green on it. I can't wait to wear it! After that, Claire and I ventured off to find the Temple of Debod, an Egyptian temple in Madrid. I had to go visit it for my art history class...who knew Madrid has an ancient Egyptian temple? We found Parque de Oeste, and there it was! The temple was built in 200 BC, but it was moved in the 1960s due to the Aswan Dam that was flooding many ancient temples. Spain helped to save some of these temples, and in return Egypt gave them this temple! We stood in line and walked inside the temple, which was very small. There were small rooms dedicated to different kinds of offerings, and an altar room for the priests. You could see stone carvings on the walls with hieroglyphs. There was an upstairs area that had some artifacts and information about the history of the temple, and how it got to Madrid. 

Temple of Debod at sunset.

     Today, (Sunday) I just did homework. It was our senora's daughter-in-law's birthday, so the family was over celebrating. Our senora told us to come get some "dulces", and I was excited to get cake, only to find out it was some sort of pastry thing instead. They don't have normal cake like we have in the U.S. Claire and I then went to mass at SLU-Madrid. Tonight for dinner we had some kind of bean soup, with leftovers - meatball type things, breaded chicken paste (she said it was chicken and meat but it was like she pureed it), and the rice/pepper/chicken mixture.

Things I have learned in Spain:

• Weird people on the metro: a group of guys drinking, with plastic drink glasses, a bag of ice, some sort of alcohol, fanta and coke.
• Spain doesn't have Mardi Gras, they have Carnival, which I think some other countries celebrate too. People dress up in Halloween costumes and party
• I already knew this, but you aren't supposed to cook broccoli until it is yellowy brown, eww! I love eating broccoli, but not when its overcooked. I like it green and crisp
• Mondays and Wednesdays are great because some friends and I go to SuperSol and get a really good lunch - bread, cheese, ham or salami, chips, and sometimes "cookies" (Oreos or these chocolate covered shortbread things). Claire and I usually split it so it is under 3 euros! 
• Madrid has a really cool ancient Egyptian temple...its like you are actually in Egypt! Or its like you are Indiana Jones and some creepy thing is going to pop out at you

Adios!
 

Palacio Real de Madrid y El Rastro

      This weekend was full of exploring Madrid! On Friday Claire and I went to Principe Pio, which is basically a mall. We didn't know what to expect at first...we knew it was shopping but we didn't know it was basically connected to the Metro stop there! Claire and I were both able to find jackets, for the warmer weather. I got a navy jacket, kind of what is in style here, but with less zippers, buttons and fur. If you are interested, this is what all the girls wear (http://www.hm.com/us/product/04161?article=04161-A), army green long jackets with a lot of zippers, sometimes studs, and fur. And they pair it with skinny jeans, a big chunky scarf, and short boots. And carry a big leather purse. No joke....if you come to Madrid right now, you will see a lot of teen/college aged girls wearing this! I was on the metro the other day and there were 3 girls standing in front of me dressed like that. So, my jacket is kind of like what I explained, but navy and a little classier...because I wanted to be different. Claire got a navy trench coat, always classy! We had a successful day shopping.

       Saturday we went to Palacio Real de Madrid. Yet another place where we couldn't take pictures inside! But I did get some pictures of the outside (see below). The palace was constructed by 1755, and then the royals moved in. It is the residence for the Spanish Royal Family, but now is only used for state ceremonies and dinners. Claire and I shared an audio tour, and it gave us some interesting information. For example, we saw the room where Spain signed the documents to join the European Union. And the dining room can hold up to 140 people. The inside of the palace was extravagantly decorated and was absolutely gorgeous...you need to see it! There were frescoes covering all of the ceilings, a lot of gold and bronze gilding, silk tapestries, and paintings by Spanish painter Velazquez. And a lot of rooms had fancy clocks...they had a thing for clocks. We were listening to the audio tour, and it telling us about this grand clock, and that it was really old. Well, the clockface was about the size of a plate that you would use to put a tea cup on, and the rest of it was huge! It was interesting because there were some rooms that used to rooms or bedroom for King Charles III, but they didn't have it set up as a bedroom anymore. He had a room that the silk tapestries over the wall had his initials, as well as all of the chairs.The Throne Room was supposed to be the most grand room of them all. It had frescoes, crystal chandeliers, gilded stucco on the wall/ceiling, lion statues of stone, and tapestries. We walked through rooms that had old coins and medals, china and porcelain, and crystal dinnerware. We also saw the chapel, which was pretty big for a chapel, and very pretty. 
      After that we walked through the smoking room and billiard room. After that, we went to find the Royal Pharmacy. We followed the signs, and they were pointing to a closed door. We kind of stood there and a guard came up and we kind of pointed at it, and he was like si! So we went in. The audio tour told us this was where they kept all the poisons...and medicine for the king and his family. There were glass and ceramic jars all aligned on the walls, and some of them still had things in them! It was very interesting. Then we found the Royal Armory, which was really cool. They had knights in armor on statue horses (who also had some armor on), and all kinds of helmets, and swords. They even had armor for kings when they were kids, it was so small! If you ever visit Madrid, Palacio Real is a must! 

Statue of Philip IV (Felipe in Spanish)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almudena Cathedral across from the Palacio Real. The only good picture I could get because there were cranes in the way!

Palacio Real de Madrid

 

          On Sunday, we went to El Rastro, which is an outdoor market. It was crazy! Vendors had tents or stands set up in the streets, and the pathways were crowded with people trying to buy things. People were selling a variety of things, like Madrid souvenirs, leather goods, used clothes, antiques, and much more! I think you could find pretty much everything there...including underwear, weird. You definitely need to look out for your purses/wallets though, it is a popular place for pick-pockets. We heard a story from someone that they saw a guy trying to get into a lady's backpack, and another guy came up and punched him or something. And then the guy had to explain what happened, because the lady had no clue! We looked around a lot, looking for stuff we may buy. We saw some cute leather purses that were handmade, so maybe we will go back and buy one. Claire and I both bought a Spanish fan...they are everywhere, but these seemed pretty cheap. They aren't the really fancy ones, but they are really pretty! Mine is pink and has purple and blue flowers on it. So, it was a successful trip to El Rastro, and now we know what to expect! 

Things I have learned in Spain:

• I can finally watch Downton Abbey! I kept looking online, but I couldn't find it anywhere, so I ended up buying it on Amazon, but it is so worth it!
• It still amazes me how thin everyone is here...because they eat late at night, sleep in, stay up late, don't drink a lot of water,season everything with salt, and eat a lot of bread. I thought those were things that were unhealthy and made you gain weight!
• With the healthcare in Spain, people don't have to pay for doctors visits, going to the hospital or things like CAT scans or MRI's, and pay very little for medication. Our senora told us their taxes are high, so that pays for the healthcare
• Gypsies in Spain are not like the gypsies on the TLC show My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding...that is what I wanted to tell an American girl who was talking about it on the Metro. She was like, yeah they are really good at paving roads. Claire and I just looked at each other and were like wow
• I saw a little girl with a Hannah Montana backpack the other day
• Fake Uggs are in style. The only people I have seen wearing real Uggs are from SLU
• Brazilians speak Portuguese because way back in 1494 Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which was a line that defined what country owned what new colony. Spain got North and South America, and Portugal got east of that line, which just happened to pass through Brazil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas  

¡Adios!