Dear friends,
Tomorrow is the beginning of my LAST WEEK teaching in Nevers - I can't believe it! How have 7 months gone by already? The weather is finally gorgeous here (I've actually been getting quite tan), and we're all realizing that we're about to go our separate ways. I'm panicking about packing, as I only have 2 large suitcase and a backpack to get all my stuff home. I did a half-hearted trial run this morning, and I think it's going to take some major ingenuity to get everything in there.
I'm still planning to go to Iceland next week, and I'm hoping that part will all go according to plan!! Let's all hope that the long-name-volcano doesn't erupt anymore (at least, not until after May 8) - how ridiculous would it be to get stuck in Iceland?!?
While I'm looking forward to being back in the US, I am going to be sad to leave all the great people I've met here. (I'm also accepting the fact that I'll probably never live in another apartment as cool as the one I lived in here!) It's been a good 7 months, though, so I can't complain!
I hope you are all well!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Espana!
Hola amigos y amigas!
I'm safely back in Nevers after my 8 wonderful days in Spain - luckily I flew in the day before all the airports closed because of the volcanic ash, so thank goodness I didn't get stranded! I'm supposed to spend 3 days in Reykjavik (on my way back to the US) in a few weeks, so I hope the volcano is in check by then... I'm looking forward to it and want to be able to go!
My trip went really well, even though the weather wasn't always what I'd hoped for. I started in Barcelona, where I arrived last Wednesday afternoon to a cool, grey, rainy day. I spent 3 days in Barcelona, and I really liked it. It's very pedestrian-friendly, so that always wins cities points in my book. It has a lot to see, and I spent tons of time just wandering around, seeing the sights, including lots of amazing Gaudi architecture. I visited the Sagrada Familia (which I walked to from the city center - it's FAR out there!), Casa Mila, and the Park Guell, and I have to say I'm a big Gaudi fan. Park Guell is a gorgeous park on the edge of the city - it was originally designed as an upscale housing development, but luckily for us, that fell through and it became a public park instead! One of the city's main thoroughfares, La Rambla, cuts right down from one of the main squares to the waterfront, and it has lots of street performers, stalls selling things (like flowers and pets!), and TONS of people. It's very lively, and great for people-watching. Barcelona also has a gorgeous cathedral in the old city center, and lots of great museums. Picasso spent several years of his youth in Barcelona, so the Picasso museum had a wonderful collection showing the progression of his work from "normal" to what we now recognize as "Picasso" - very interesting! It's a big city, though, and I did lots of walking - my feet felt like they were going to fall off by the end of each day...
After Barcelona I headed to Valencia, a gorgeous city about 3 hours by train down the coast. It was definitely one of my favorite parts of my trip; it was just such a pleasant place to be! It's not too big, and there's an amazing park that runs through a dry riverbed in the middle of town, which makes it perfect for strolling in the sun and sitting at cafés. I took a walking tour one day, and the city also has a really interesting history... Apparently the city got swapped between the Moors and the Christians several time, and one of the basilicas in town claims to have the authentic holy grail. Likely story, right?? Valencia is famous for its oranges, and I also learned on the walking tour that the orange trees all around the city are treated with something to make the oranges taste awful, to prevent people from picking and eating them all! It was also in Valencia that I discovered my favorite Spanish chain restaurant, which would become a daily staple for the rest of the trip. It's a chain of tapas restaurants, but the food was SO cheap; I never ordered any item that cost more than €1.20, and I would get completely full for under €5 or €6!! (And a beer only cost €0.60. Yes, you read that correctly - SIXTY CENTS.) Why is France SO much more expensive than every other continental European country?? My hostel was also amazing in Valencia - it was in a great location and was just great in every way. Normally you get really rough, crappy sheets and blankets in hostels, but this place had actual DUVETS and duvet covers, AND the beds were already made for you when you checked in!
I headed to Madrid after Valencia via a first-class train - I bought my tickets online beforehand, and the special web price for first-class was one euro less than the normal second-class price, so obviously I went for first class! It was AWESOME. It was almost like being on a plane; I got served breakfast, then sat and read my book while drinking coffee and watching Spain go by. I highly recommend the experience. Madrid was also wonderful, although it didn't feel big at all for being such an important city... I visited the Royal Palace, which was huge and ornate, and even had a peacock on the property! Unfortunately you're not allowed to take pictures inside, but it was a very impressive palace. The church next door to the palace was also amazing, with really gorgeous frescoes. It was pretty different from most grey stone churches I usually visit, and so pretty! I went to Madrid's main park one afternoon to enjoy the weather, and it was very nice to just wander. I spent my last day in Spain going to some of Madrid's best museums - it was a bit kamikaze, as I went to the Prado Museum, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, and the Reina Sofia Museum all in the same day! (I spent 6.5 hours in museums that day...) They all have amazing collections - I got to see Picasso's "Guernica" - but it was A LOT of museum-ing to do in just one day.
I went for a day trip to Toledo on my second to last day in Spain. I wish I could say I loved it, but I'd be lying to you. The cathedral there WAS amazing, but other than that I just wasn't feeling it. It also didn't help that things close for "lunch" from 2 to 4 each afternoon in Spain, so I really didn't have many options as to things to do, and it was too cold and rainy to just wander around town for 2 hours...
Anyways, we're all having a hard time believing that our time in Nevers is really almost over. I only have 8 days of work left before I'm done, and I don't even want to start thinking about how I'm going to be able to pack up 7.5 months' worth of stuff into 2 suitcases! I hope you all are well, and I look forward to seeing everyone in just a few short weeks!!
I'm safely back in Nevers after my 8 wonderful days in Spain - luckily I flew in the day before all the airports closed because of the volcanic ash, so thank goodness I didn't get stranded! I'm supposed to spend 3 days in Reykjavik (on my way back to the US) in a few weeks, so I hope the volcano is in check by then... I'm looking forward to it and want to be able to go!
My trip went really well, even though the weather wasn't always what I'd hoped for. I started in Barcelona, where I arrived last Wednesday afternoon to a cool, grey, rainy day. I spent 3 days in Barcelona, and I really liked it. It's very pedestrian-friendly, so that always wins cities points in my book. It has a lot to see, and I spent tons of time just wandering around, seeing the sights, including lots of amazing Gaudi architecture. I visited the Sagrada Familia (which I walked to from the city center - it's FAR out there!), Casa Mila, and the Park Guell, and I have to say I'm a big Gaudi fan. Park Guell is a gorgeous park on the edge of the city - it was originally designed as an upscale housing development, but luckily for us, that fell through and it became a public park instead! One of the city's main thoroughfares, La Rambla, cuts right down from one of the main squares to the waterfront, and it has lots of street performers, stalls selling things (like flowers and pets!), and TONS of people. It's very lively, and great for people-watching. Barcelona also has a gorgeous cathedral in the old city center, and lots of great museums. Picasso spent several years of his youth in Barcelona, so the Picasso museum had a wonderful collection showing the progression of his work from "normal" to what we now recognize as "Picasso" - very interesting! It's a big city, though, and I did lots of walking - my feet felt like they were going to fall off by the end of each day...
After Barcelona I headed to Valencia, a gorgeous city about 3 hours by train down the coast. It was definitely one of my favorite parts of my trip; it was just such a pleasant place to be! It's not too big, and there's an amazing park that runs through a dry riverbed in the middle of town, which makes it perfect for strolling in the sun and sitting at cafés. I took a walking tour one day, and the city also has a really interesting history... Apparently the city got swapped between the Moors and the Christians several time, and one of the basilicas in town claims to have the authentic holy grail. Likely story, right?? Valencia is famous for its oranges, and I also learned on the walking tour that the orange trees all around the city are treated with something to make the oranges taste awful, to prevent people from picking and eating them all! It was also in Valencia that I discovered my favorite Spanish chain restaurant, which would become a daily staple for the rest of the trip. It's a chain of tapas restaurants, but the food was SO cheap; I never ordered any item that cost more than €1.20, and I would get completely full for under €5 or €6!! (And a beer only cost €0.60. Yes, you read that correctly - SIXTY CENTS.) Why is France SO much more expensive than every other continental European country?? My hostel was also amazing in Valencia - it was in a great location and was just great in every way. Normally you get really rough, crappy sheets and blankets in hostels, but this place had actual DUVETS and duvet covers, AND the beds were already made for you when you checked in!
I headed to Madrid after Valencia via a first-class train - I bought my tickets online beforehand, and the special web price for first-class was one euro less than the normal second-class price, so obviously I went for first class! It was AWESOME. It was almost like being on a plane; I got served breakfast, then sat and read my book while drinking coffee and watching Spain go by. I highly recommend the experience. Madrid was also wonderful, although it didn't feel big at all for being such an important city... I visited the Royal Palace, which was huge and ornate, and even had a peacock on the property! Unfortunately you're not allowed to take pictures inside, but it was a very impressive palace. The church next door to the palace was also amazing, with really gorgeous frescoes. It was pretty different from most grey stone churches I usually visit, and so pretty! I went to Madrid's main park one afternoon to enjoy the weather, and it was very nice to just wander. I spent my last day in Spain going to some of Madrid's best museums - it was a bit kamikaze, as I went to the Prado Museum, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, and the Reina Sofia Museum all in the same day! (I spent 6.5 hours in museums that day...) They all have amazing collections - I got to see Picasso's "Guernica" - but it was A LOT of museum-ing to do in just one day.
I went for a day trip to Toledo on my second to last day in Spain. I wish I could say I loved it, but I'd be lying to you. The cathedral there WAS amazing, but other than that I just wasn't feeling it. It also didn't help that things close for "lunch" from 2 to 4 each afternoon in Spain, so I really didn't have many options as to things to do, and it was too cold and rainy to just wander around town for 2 hours...
Anyways, we're all having a hard time believing that our time in Nevers is really almost over. I only have 8 days of work left before I'm done, and I don't even want to start thinking about how I'm going to be able to pack up 7.5 months' worth of stuff into 2 suitcases! I hope you all are well, and I look forward to seeing everyone in just a few short weeks!!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Already April?!?
Bonjour mes amis,
I'm sorry it's been a while since I last posted, but I hope you have all been well since then! I haven't been anywhere since Paris in mid-March (one reason for the lack of timely posts!), but I'm getting really excited about my upcoming trip to Spain - I'm leaving on Wednesday! There was a big grève (strike) 2 weeks ago, so a lot of us had classes canceled, and one of my friends had her school completely closed because all of the teachers were striking. There have been quite a few strikes since I got to France - this is partly because the French just go on strike a lot (it's a pretty integral part of their political system), but it's also because Sarkozy has passed some educational reforms that are doing away with quite a few teaching jobs. For every 2 teachers that retire, only 1 will be hired to replace them. This doesn't seem like a huge deal to me, as there are many teachers who don't even teach close to a full day of classes, but obviously the schools and teachers are very upset about it. Anyways, we had this big strike 2 weeks ago - I read the next day in the news that 30% of French primary school teachers were en grève that day! - so we all had the afternoon free and ended up going for a coffee at Café l'Agricole, our favorite café in Nevers' town center. As we were finishing up our drinks, a big group of strikers marched into the Place Carnot, where the café is. They had big banners representing their unions, a megaphone, road flares, and they were all shouting anti-Sarkozy, anti-reform slogans... Unfortunately we couldn't really understand them, but it was very exciting (and soooo French) to watch! Of course, the minute they finished this march (which probably started at the Préfecture, one of the Education Nationale's main administrative buildings in Nevers), several small groups broke off from the strike and sat down at the café for a drink! We sat and watched them for about 15-20 minutes; what an experience!
You may be aware of how much free time I have here, and my fellow assistants have the same issue. We've all gotten really good at making simple things take much longer than necessary, but we also now have time for all those ridiculous projects one thinks of but never has time to execute. This means that I can now add "Board Game Designer" to my résumé - a couple Wednesdays ago, a few of us had the brilliant idea to make a board game version of our time in Nevers. So many hilarious and slightly absurd things have happened to us here; it really is perfect material for a board game. It's made on the back of an old pizza box (so it has a huge grease/tomato stain on the bottom), but it's actually a really great game! We played it last week, and it works pretty well. Everyone has a game piece and starts at the Gare SNCF de Nevers (Nevers' train station). After rolling the dice, you can land on "good things," "bad things," "locations," "Il Faut Que," or "travel." If you land on a "good thing," it means you've successfully done something necessary to live in Nevers, and you can gain "dignity" or "frequent-flyer s'miles) cards, or you can move ahead spaces. For example, one of the "good things" is: "You successfully opened a bank account! Gain 1 dignity." (Let me remind you again that opening/closing accounts of any type in Frances is VERY complicated and involves tons of paperwork.) If you land on a "bad thing," it means something unfortunate has happened to you, and you either lose a turn or have to give up "dignity" points. For example, if you land on: "Step in merde (dog poop)," you have to give up 1 dignity point. If "You chose SFR as your internet provider," you lose a turn. As the square says, "You'll probably be on the phone for a while." If you land on a "location," it's just a place in Nevers where we've spent a lot of time, and you just pass that turn "having a drink at Café Ag" or "strolling along La Loire." If you land on an "Il Faut Que" card, you have to do what the card says to gain your choice of dignity or frequent-flyer s'miles cards. For example, one "Il Faut Que" card reads: "Put together a full meal for under €5." Another reads: "Put together a spontaneous lesson plan." There are also "travel" squares, where if you land on them you have to give up a certain number of frequent-flyer s'miles cards to get there, depending on how far the destination is from Nevers. For example, if you travel to Orléans, you have to give up 2 frequent-flyer s'miles. I can't really capture the greatness of this game in a blog post, but hopefully you can all see how wonderful this board game is...
Other than making awesome board games, I've also been teaching some, and my classes have been going really well. I had a really great one this past week - I was working on telling time in English with a class of CE2s (they're about 8/9), and they were all really paying attention, participating, and GETTING IT! It was super exciting, and I finally felt useful!
I hope everyone had a good Easter yesterday; I made brunch with 2 friends at one of the other girls' house here in Nevers. It was wonderful - we had biscuits (made by a real Southerner!), scrambled eggs, fruit salad, Easter chocolate, and mimosas! We also hard-boiled and dyed eggs, but all French eggs have brown shells rather than white ones, so the eggs turned out slightly funny colors, but it worked for the most part!
I'm already on vacation AGAIN - it started on Friday afternoon. As I said at the beginning of this post, I'm headed to Spain for 8 days during this break, and I'm leaving on Wednesday. I'm starting with 3 days in Barcelona, then I'll spend 2 days in Valencia, then 3 days in Madrid (one of those days will be a day trip to Toledo). The weather's been pretty grey and VERY rainy here in Nevers, so I'm looking forward to some sunshine! I've wanted to go to Spain for a long time, and I'm really excited for the trip. It's also going to be my first solo trip (other than a few little day trips), so I'm also excited about experiencing that - I'm sure it'll be an adventure, no matter what!
I can't believe it's already April - I only have 2 weeks of work once I return from vacation, then my contract is over and I'll be headed to Reykjavik, then back to the States for the first time in 7.5 MONTHS! Can't wait to see you all!
I'm sorry it's been a while since I last posted, but I hope you have all been well since then! I haven't been anywhere since Paris in mid-March (one reason for the lack of timely posts!), but I'm getting really excited about my upcoming trip to Spain - I'm leaving on Wednesday! There was a big grève (strike) 2 weeks ago, so a lot of us had classes canceled, and one of my friends had her school completely closed because all of the teachers were striking. There have been quite a few strikes since I got to France - this is partly because the French just go on strike a lot (it's a pretty integral part of their political system), but it's also because Sarkozy has passed some educational reforms that are doing away with quite a few teaching jobs. For every 2 teachers that retire, only 1 will be hired to replace them. This doesn't seem like a huge deal to me, as there are many teachers who don't even teach close to a full day of classes, but obviously the schools and teachers are very upset about it. Anyways, we had this big strike 2 weeks ago - I read the next day in the news that 30% of French primary school teachers were en grève that day! - so we all had the afternoon free and ended up going for a coffee at Café l'Agricole, our favorite café in Nevers' town center. As we were finishing up our drinks, a big group of strikers marched into the Place Carnot, where the café is. They had big banners representing their unions, a megaphone, road flares, and they were all shouting anti-Sarkozy, anti-reform slogans... Unfortunately we couldn't really understand them, but it was very exciting (and soooo French) to watch! Of course, the minute they finished this march (which probably started at the Préfecture, one of the Education Nationale's main administrative buildings in Nevers), several small groups broke off from the strike and sat down at the café for a drink! We sat and watched them for about 15-20 minutes; what an experience!
You may be aware of how much free time I have here, and my fellow assistants have the same issue. We've all gotten really good at making simple things take much longer than necessary, but we also now have time for all those ridiculous projects one thinks of but never has time to execute. This means that I can now add "Board Game Designer" to my résumé - a couple Wednesdays ago, a few of us had the brilliant idea to make a board game version of our time in Nevers. So many hilarious and slightly absurd things have happened to us here; it really is perfect material for a board game. It's made on the back of an old pizza box (so it has a huge grease/tomato stain on the bottom), but it's actually a really great game! We played it last week, and it works pretty well. Everyone has a game piece and starts at the Gare SNCF de Nevers (Nevers' train station). After rolling the dice, you can land on "good things," "bad things," "locations," "Il Faut Que," or "travel." If you land on a "good thing," it means you've successfully done something necessary to live in Nevers, and you can gain "dignity" or "frequent-flyer s'miles) cards, or you can move ahead spaces. For example, one of the "good things" is: "You successfully opened a bank account! Gain 1 dignity." (Let me remind you again that opening/closing accounts of any type in Frances is VERY complicated and involves tons of paperwork.) If you land on a "bad thing," it means something unfortunate has happened to you, and you either lose a turn or have to give up "dignity" points. For example, if you land on: "Step in merde (dog poop)," you have to give up 1 dignity point. If "You chose SFR as your internet provider," you lose a turn. As the square says, "You'll probably be on the phone for a while." If you land on a "location," it's just a place in Nevers where we've spent a lot of time, and you just pass that turn "having a drink at Café Ag" or "strolling along La Loire." If you land on an "Il Faut Que" card, you have to do what the card says to gain your choice of dignity or frequent-flyer s'miles cards. For example, one "Il Faut Que" card reads: "Put together a full meal for under €5." Another reads: "Put together a spontaneous lesson plan." There are also "travel" squares, where if you land on them you have to give up a certain number of frequent-flyer s'miles cards to get there, depending on how far the destination is from Nevers. For example, if you travel to Orléans, you have to give up 2 frequent-flyer s'miles. I can't really capture the greatness of this game in a blog post, but hopefully you can all see how wonderful this board game is...
Other than making awesome board games, I've also been teaching some, and my classes have been going really well. I had a really great one this past week - I was working on telling time in English with a class of CE2s (they're about 8/9), and they were all really paying attention, participating, and GETTING IT! It was super exciting, and I finally felt useful!
I hope everyone had a good Easter yesterday; I made brunch with 2 friends at one of the other girls' house here in Nevers. It was wonderful - we had biscuits (made by a real Southerner!), scrambled eggs, fruit salad, Easter chocolate, and mimosas! We also hard-boiled and dyed eggs, but all French eggs have brown shells rather than white ones, so the eggs turned out slightly funny colors, but it worked for the most part!
I'm already on vacation AGAIN - it started on Friday afternoon. As I said at the beginning of this post, I'm headed to Spain for 8 days during this break, and I'm leaving on Wednesday. I'm starting with 3 days in Barcelona, then I'll spend 2 days in Valencia, then 3 days in Madrid (one of those days will be a day trip to Toledo). The weather's been pretty grey and VERY rainy here in Nevers, so I'm looking forward to some sunshine! I've wanted to go to Spain for a long time, and I'm really excited for the trip. It's also going to be my first solo trip (other than a few little day trips), so I'm also excited about experiencing that - I'm sure it'll be an adventure, no matter what!
I can't believe it's already April - I only have 2 weeks of work once I return from vacation, then my contract is over and I'll be headed to Reykjavik, then back to the States for the first time in 7.5 MONTHS! Can't wait to see you all!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Paris, Springtime!
Bonjour mes amis,
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I hope you're all doing well! As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Paris for the day a couple of Wednesdays ago. It was really nice to get out of Nevers for a little while, it was a GORGEOUS clear day (but still very windy and quite cold) in Paris, and I got to see some parts of Paris I haven't really explored before. I left a snowy Nevers at 6:58AM and enjoyed watching the sun rise during the easy 2-hour trip to Paris. I had planned to start my day at the Musée Picasso in Paris, but when I got there at 9:30, its listed opening time according to the website and my guidebook, I found a sign saying it's closed for renovations from August 24, 2009 until 2012!! THREE YEARS. Fortunately I've been in France for long enough now that this didn't surprise me too terribly much, but I was still a little disappointed that I couldn't visit it. I wandered around the 3ème arrondissement for a while, and visited the lovely Hotel de Soubise, a mansion in the center of Paris that is now home to the Musée de l'Histoire de France and the National Archives. It also seemed to be under restoration, and most of the exhibits had been removed, but it still had a pretty interior, and it was good to get in out of the wind for a few minutes.
One of my very favorite movies is the French film Amélie, and there are a couple scenes in the movie that take place around the Canal Saint Martin, a canal that runs through Paris. Because it's kind of up in the northern part of the city and there aren't many touristy sights or museums in that area, I'd never been up there before, and so I walked up to the canal and walked along it for a few minutes - so now I've officially seen it! I'm sure it's much prettier in summer, when all the trees are green and leafy, but it was still a nice little walk. As this was a day in Paris dedicated to some of the things I've never done, my next stop was the Opéra Garnier, a gorgeous opera house in the 8ème arrondissement of Paris. While I had previously seen it from the outside, I'd never been inside before - it has a beautiful interior; lots of red velvet and ornate ceiling decorations, etc. (Random trivia: The Phantom of the Opera is about the Opéra Garnier)
Eglise de la Madeleine is another one of those Parisian landmarks that I've seen many times, but only from the outside, so I headed there after the Opéra (after a quick browse through the Galéries Lafayette, a HUUUGE department store). It's really nice on the inside, kind of dark and lots of sculpture to see. I tried to walk past the Palais de l'Elysée, the French presidential residence, but there was a ton of security around it and I couldn't actually see the building. I don't know if there was something special going on that day or if they just always have that much security, but at least I walked around some of the perimeter...
I crossed the Seine at my favorite bridge, the Pont Alexandre III, and went into Eglise du Dome des Invalides, the church in which Napoleon has his tomb. It's big and has a huge gilded dome on top, and the area between the church and the Latin Quarter is very nice for strolling. Because I'd now been walking for many hours without stopping and because we don't have a Starbucks in Nevers, I had to take advantage of the many Starbucks around me, so I took an hour-long coffee break on the Rue Saint Michel, people-watching and enjoying my normal, American-sized cup of coffee. I also stopped in a Shakespeare and Co., a wonderful English-language bookstore just across from Notre Dame and treated myself to 2 new books - such a treat! I spent the rest of my afternoon slowly wandering through the Ile Saint Louis, back towards the train station, then ended up getting back to Nevers around 8. I was exhausted, but it was a great day quand meme!
It's really started feeling like spring here in the past week, and the daffodils along the Loire have bloomed, which makes for a much more pleasant walk to school. I even got slightly sunburned reading on my patio on Friday afternoon! (Although, as most of you probably know, that's not saying a lot - I burn very easily.)
That's really all the news I have for now, I hope you are all well.
A bientot!
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I hope you're all doing well! As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Paris for the day a couple of Wednesdays ago. It was really nice to get out of Nevers for a little while, it was a GORGEOUS clear day (but still very windy and quite cold) in Paris, and I got to see some parts of Paris I haven't really explored before. I left a snowy Nevers at 6:58AM and enjoyed watching the sun rise during the easy 2-hour trip to Paris. I had planned to start my day at the Musée Picasso in Paris, but when I got there at 9:30, its listed opening time according to the website and my guidebook, I found a sign saying it's closed for renovations from August 24, 2009 until 2012!! THREE YEARS. Fortunately I've been in France for long enough now that this didn't surprise me too terribly much, but I was still a little disappointed that I couldn't visit it. I wandered around the 3ème arrondissement for a while, and visited the lovely Hotel de Soubise, a mansion in the center of Paris that is now home to the Musée de l'Histoire de France and the National Archives. It also seemed to be under restoration, and most of the exhibits had been removed, but it still had a pretty interior, and it was good to get in out of the wind for a few minutes.
One of my very favorite movies is the French film Amélie, and there are a couple scenes in the movie that take place around the Canal Saint Martin, a canal that runs through Paris. Because it's kind of up in the northern part of the city and there aren't many touristy sights or museums in that area, I'd never been up there before, and so I walked up to the canal and walked along it for a few minutes - so now I've officially seen it! I'm sure it's much prettier in summer, when all the trees are green and leafy, but it was still a nice little walk. As this was a day in Paris dedicated to some of the things I've never done, my next stop was the Opéra Garnier, a gorgeous opera house in the 8ème arrondissement of Paris. While I had previously seen it from the outside, I'd never been inside before - it has a beautiful interior; lots of red velvet and ornate ceiling decorations, etc. (Random trivia: The Phantom of the Opera is about the Opéra Garnier)
Eglise de la Madeleine is another one of those Parisian landmarks that I've seen many times, but only from the outside, so I headed there after the Opéra (after a quick browse through the Galéries Lafayette, a HUUUGE department store). It's really nice on the inside, kind of dark and lots of sculpture to see. I tried to walk past the Palais de l'Elysée, the French presidential residence, but there was a ton of security around it and I couldn't actually see the building. I don't know if there was something special going on that day or if they just always have that much security, but at least I walked around some of the perimeter...
I crossed the Seine at my favorite bridge, the Pont Alexandre III, and went into Eglise du Dome des Invalides, the church in which Napoleon has his tomb. It's big and has a huge gilded dome on top, and the area between the church and the Latin Quarter is very nice for strolling. Because I'd now been walking for many hours without stopping and because we don't have a Starbucks in Nevers, I had to take advantage of the many Starbucks around me, so I took an hour-long coffee break on the Rue Saint Michel, people-watching and enjoying my normal, American-sized cup of coffee. I also stopped in a Shakespeare and Co., a wonderful English-language bookstore just across from Notre Dame and treated myself to 2 new books - such a treat! I spent the rest of my afternoon slowly wandering through the Ile Saint Louis, back towards the train station, then ended up getting back to Nevers around 8. I was exhausted, but it was a great day quand meme!
It's really started feeling like spring here in the past week, and the daffodils along the Loire have bloomed, which makes for a much more pleasant walk to school. I even got slightly sunburned reading on my patio on Friday afternoon! (Although, as most of you probably know, that's not saying a lot - I burn very easily.)
That's really all the news I have for now, I hope you are all well.
A bientot!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Happy March
Bonjour mes amis,
Nothing too terribly exciting has happened since my last post, but since it's been a while I figured I should at least post a quick update! We've had lots of visitors to Nevers in the past couple weeks, so I've been busy running back and forth between friends' apartments to meet them. Last Sunday we had an indoor picnic at Mari's (it basically just involved us eating sandwiches in a circle on the floor) because it was too cold and windy to do it outside - I recommend it! While it's not the most comfortable thing in the world, you get the picnic experience without the bugs and grass stains...
Classes have been going well, and I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of how to be a teacher/how to run a classroom. Of course, this knowledge WOULD come to me when I have a month and a half of my contract left. I'm also still tutoring Guillaume, the 17-year old son of a teacher at one of my schools, and he's made definite progress since we started meeting in October, which is exciting.
On Friday night a couple friends and I celebrated Cinco de Marzo. Because we won't still be in Nevers for Cinco de Mayo, we figured it would be better to celebrate 2 months early than not to celebrate at all! It was very pleasant - we made salsa, quesadillas, and some delicious guacamole - and margaritas, of course! As usual, everything was completely improvised and bootlegged, but it turns out that quesadillas are still good when made with emmental cheese and that French store-brand tortilla chips aren't too bad.
The weather here is trying to decide if it wants to be spring or not... We had a few gorgeous days last week, but it's been around freezing again for the past couple days. It even snowed a tiny bit on Sunday! I'm going to Paris for the day tomorrow, and it's supposed to be sunny (although still very cold), so fingers crossed the forecast holds!
Nothing too terribly exciting has happened since my last post, but since it's been a while I figured I should at least post a quick update! We've had lots of visitors to Nevers in the past couple weeks, so I've been busy running back and forth between friends' apartments to meet them. Last Sunday we had an indoor picnic at Mari's (it basically just involved us eating sandwiches in a circle on the floor) because it was too cold and windy to do it outside - I recommend it! While it's not the most comfortable thing in the world, you get the picnic experience without the bugs and grass stains...
Classes have been going well, and I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of how to be a teacher/how to run a classroom. Of course, this knowledge WOULD come to me when I have a month and a half of my contract left. I'm also still tutoring Guillaume, the 17-year old son of a teacher at one of my schools, and he's made definite progress since we started meeting in October, which is exciting.
On Friday night a couple friends and I celebrated Cinco de Marzo. Because we won't still be in Nevers for Cinco de Mayo, we figured it would be better to celebrate 2 months early than not to celebrate at all! It was very pleasant - we made salsa, quesadillas, and some delicious guacamole - and margaritas, of course! As usual, everything was completely improvised and bootlegged, but it turns out that quesadillas are still good when made with emmental cheese and that French store-brand tortilla chips aren't too bad.
The weather here is trying to decide if it wants to be spring or not... We had a few gorgeous days last week, but it's been around freezing again for the past couple days. It even snowed a tiny bit on Sunday! I'm going to Paris for the day tomorrow, and it's supposed to be sunny (although still very cold), so fingers crossed the forecast holds!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Best Wednesday Ever :)
Bonjour mes amis!
I normally wouldn't blog this soon after such a long post on Sunday, but today was approximately the best Wednesday (weekend, according to my students) ever. It was a lovely blustery spring day (well, it was lovely except for the intermittent torrential downpours) - such a nice change from the freezing cold we've been used to! Almost all of the assistants are free on Wednesday afternoons (if not all day), so we decided yesterday that we'd all get together today and make cupcakes from scratch. We ended up drinking champagne and making cupcakes all afternoon, and it was delightful! We made 3 large batches, so we ended up with vanilla, chocolate, and carrot cake (we grated the carrots ourselves!) cupcakes - although we didn't have an actual cupcake pan, so they were mostly amorphous blobs... They tasted good, though!
We decided we needed some real food after all the sugar (we HAD to taste the batter and icing to make sure they were OK... and not poisoned!), so we also ended up cooking dinner all together. There was an incident with the pepper grinder, however, and our pasta had half a pepper shaker's worth of whole peppercorns in it.. We spent about 10 minutes over the stove picking them out of the sauce (they really burned the fingertips), but we all still had quite a collection on the edge of our plates when we were done!
I hope you all had equally lovely Wednesdays - keep loving life!
I normally wouldn't blog this soon after such a long post on Sunday, but today was approximately the best Wednesday (weekend, according to my students) ever. It was a lovely blustery spring day (well, it was lovely except for the intermittent torrential downpours) - such a nice change from the freezing cold we've been used to! Almost all of the assistants are free on Wednesday afternoons (if not all day), so we decided yesterday that we'd all get together today and make cupcakes from scratch. We ended up drinking champagne and making cupcakes all afternoon, and it was delightful! We made 3 large batches, so we ended up with vanilla, chocolate, and carrot cake (we grated the carrots ourselves!) cupcakes - although we didn't have an actual cupcake pan, so they were mostly amorphous blobs... They tasted good, though!
We decided we needed some real food after all the sugar (we HAD to taste the batter and icing to make sure they were OK... and not poisoned!), so we also ended up cooking dinner all together. There was an incident with the pepper grinder, however, and our pasta had half a pepper shaker's worth of whole peppercorns in it.. We spent about 10 minutes over the stove picking them out of the sauce (they really burned the fingertips), but we all still had quite a collection on the edge of our plates when we were done!
I hope you all had equally lovely Wednesdays - keep loving life!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Adventures in Italy, Austria, and Germany (Warning: long post!)
Dear friends,
Hello once again from Nevers! I got back last night from an amazing 2-week trip around Italy, Austria, and a little bit of Germany. I went with my friend (and fellow assistant) Lizzi, and we had a great time and were both sad to be back in Nevers last night! We started our trip on Friday night, February 5. We left Nevers for Dijon at 5:23, so I practically skipped home from my last class and anxiously waited for Lizzi to come over so we could leave for the station – I had to force myself to vacuum and clean my room to keep myself from just bouncing around the apartment! We got to Dijon around 7 and went to grab some dinner before our night train to Rome was scheduled to leave at 9:37. We got to the station around 9 to see that our train had a 20 minute delay. That wasn’t too bad, but then it grew to 25 minutes, then 40, then an hour and 45 minutes, then THREE HOURS! We didn’t end up getting on the train until almost 1 AM, which was frustrating, but there was nothing we could do about it… The night train was a really weird experience – we had our own little compartment with bunk beds, a tiny wardrobe, a sink, and a mirror. Luckily I was exhausted, because I don’t think I would have been able to sleep otherwise! It’s a very odd sensation to be horizontal on a train in the dark when you’re trying to sleep – we were going through tunnels, which causes your ears to pop, and sometimes the train turns and your feet are above your head! We ended up being on the train for about 13 hours, so we were more than ready to get off when we finally arrived in Rome around 2:30 (of course, we were SUPPOSED to arrive around 10:15!).
As soon as we got off the train, we went to the National Museum of Rome, which had an impressive collection of Roman statues and busts, as well as a wonderful collection of coins from ancient Rome to modern times. Next stop was the Capuccin Crypt, which was SO cool. It’s the bones of more than 4,000 monks, artistically arranged into scenes and decorations, like chandeliers! Sadly, you aren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but I bought a cool postcard.
We hit a slight snag when we finally got to our hostel to check in. The main building was being renovated for the summer, so the woman who worked there walked us about 10 minutes away to another building that I suppose is owned by the hostel. We’d reserved an all-female room, and there was someone’s stuff in the room – stuff that clearly didn’t belong to a girl, and it really wasn’t what we’d reserved, so we had to go out and find another hotel, because neither of us really wanted to/felt comfortable staying there. We ended up finding a pretty nice hotel that wasn’t too expensive when split 2 ways, and it included a delicious breakfast buffet – of course, we got very good and smuggling food out for lunch!
We went for a walk around Rome our first night there – it’s absolutely beautiful! We saw the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain – Rome has lovely fountains, which look pretty both in the day and night.
We had gorgeous sunny weather for our second and third days in Rome, so on Sunday we went to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill (where all the emperors used to build their palaces, it’s actually where the word ‘palace’ comes from). They were both amazing, and it was incredible to be around things that are just so OLD! Our next stop was the Pantheon, which we had a bit of trouble finding… Rome doesn’t have the greatest signage for its tourist attractions, so I’m pretty sure we walked all the way around the Pantheon before we actually found it! The first two kings of Italy are buried there, and so is the artist Raphael. We had an afternoon reservation at the Borghese Gallery, so we meandered up to the north of the city, stopping at the Trevi Fountain (again) for a gelato break. The Borghese Gallery is a great private collection of art – lots and lots of beautiful Bernini sculptures – in a beautiful former cardinal’s mansion in a park to the north of the city.
We were surprised to find that Santa Maria Maggiore, the church just up the street from our hotel, had banners up advertising that the relic of Sainte Bernadette would be there on February 9 and 10 – Sainte Bernadette “lives” (well, her body reposes) in Nevers! Lizzi is doing her year abroad project on Bernie (as we call her), and was quite perturbed that this dead saint is following her around Europe…
On Monday morning we had reservations for the Vatican Museum, which was HUGE (it has 4 miles of displays!). We were both exhausted (from Lizzi’s 21st birthday festivities the night before), so we didn’t spend too much time inside, but we DID get to see the Sistine Chapel! I have to say, it wasn’t at all what I was expecting – the “man touching God” part of the ceiling is only one small part of the ceiling, which is covered in lots of smaller frescoes. It was a wonderful museum, though, although we had some trouble figuring out how to actually exit the building, which would also prove to be a recurring theme of the trip. After the Vatican Museum we headed down the street to Saint Peter’s Basilica, the biggest church in the world (incidentally, it’s in the smallest sovereign state in the world, the Vatican City!). The basilica was HUGE (clearly) and gorgeous inside – it also has Michelangelo’s Pietà, which is absolutely beautiful. (It’s Mary holding Jesus’ body.) Saint Peter’s Square is also enormous, although it didn’t seem as big as it always looks on TV… We didn’t see the Pope, unfortunately, although we had been hoping to run into him. I also visited the Victor Emmanuel Monument that afternoon, a monument to Italy’s first king. It’s epically large, and really pretty, and offers a really good view of Rome from the top! We visited St. Peter in Chains church that night before dinner – Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to build it as his tomb, so it has a wonderful Michelangelo statue of Moses. It also holds the chains that held St. Peter (apparently)!
Tuesday morning we headed to Florence, where we started by wandering around the city for a few hours. We climbed the Duomo, which, at 463 stairs, is the highest church dome/tower I’ve ever climbed! The church is made of white, pink, and green marble, so it was an interesting change from all the grey stone cathedrals you see in France. The top of the dome gave a wonderful view of Florence and the beautiful surrounding Tuscan countryside, so it was definitely worth the deep burn! We spent a while zig-zagging across the Ponte Vecchio, the covered bridge in Florence that has tons and tons of jewelry shops with sparkly window displays. We visited the Uffizi Gallery and the Galleria dell’ Accademia on Tuesday, and I got to see – with my own eyes – several works of art that I’d only ever seen in textbooks! We saw Botticelli’s Primavera and The Birth of Venus and Michelangelo’s David. I think the David is my favorite work of art I’ve ever seen – you turn a corner in the gallery, and BAM, there it is! It’s much bigger than I expected it to be, and it really took my breath away. After all of our culturedness, we walked out to an overlook/park that’s a little ways out of the city – it’s up on a hill, so it had a really good view of the city.
On Wednesday morning we headed to Venice, which is about 2 hours by train from Florence. I absolutely loved Venice; it’s kind of magical in that it doesn’t quite feel real. It was during Carnevale that we were there, so it was really cool to see lots of people walking around in full costume and masks. We took lots of vaporetto (bus-boats) rides and spent hours just wandering through the back streets and canals, getting lost then finding ourselves again. The Basilica of San Marco, on the Piazza San Marco, is stupendous, and lovely both inside and out. We visited the Palazzo Ducale, which is where the Doge (like a duke, but he didn’t really have much actual power, from what we could figure out during the visit) lived. It was beautiful inside, and it also gave us admission to another museum across the Piazza where they had an awesome collection of sketches of Venice.
We headed to Vienna on Saturday morning, and spent most of the day (7 hours) in transit. We had to cross through the Italian Alps, so we had amazing views from the bus and train – there were lots of skiers on our train! We spent our first night in Vienna at my flatmate’s friend’s apartment – she goes to school in Vienna, and her apartment is amazing! We went out to a club with Sarah (my flatmate), Hannes (her boyfriend), and Katrin (her friend, with whom we were staying), and it ended up being a good time, although Lizzi and I were super tired and were not excited about it at the beginning! It was VERY cold (well below freezing) while we were in Vienna, so we spent most of Sunday in museums to escape the snow and ice. We spent a good few hours in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which had an incredible (and very well-organized) collection of paintings by the European masters, as well as an interesting temporary exhibition on Vermeer’s The Art of Painting. We spent the afternoon in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, where the Hapsburg ruling family lived. We got to go through part of the palace’s collection of dishes and tableware, and they had rooms and rooms of incredible place settings and cutlery. The actual living quarters of the palace were amazing, and we got to learn lots about Franz Josef and his wife Elizabeth, known as “Sisi,” who sounds like she was an actual toolbag. She spent TWO hours a day brushing her hair! Sunday night we went to the Haus der Musik, which was an awesome interactive music museum – we got to ‘compose’ our own Viennese waltz, and we also got to conduct the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra – I felt like a kid, and it was so much fun!
On Monday we went to the Schonbrunn Palace, which was the summer residence of the Hapbsburgs (who normally lived at the Hofburg) - it was a palace on par with Versailles, and it was a very worthwhile visit. Our ticket also covered the palace gardens, which I think were lost on us because they were all covered in snow. The cathedral in Vienna is also beautiful, all Gothic and pretty, so after visiting that we did a bit of wandering around before dinner. Food in Austria is amazing, and it was much cheaper than in France! Lizzi and I each got a huge plate of food (far more than we could ever eat) and 2 big beers for only €12 each!
After Vienna, we headed to Salzburg, which is definitely one of my favorite places we visited. We were basically staying in a B&B, although our room was in this hilarious Austrian woman’s basement. Her name was Brigitte, and she was really making us laugh. She was probably in her late 60s, and she brought our breakfast to our room both mornings – where our bed was this wicker contraption that we compared to Moses’ basket… We were a little afraid of waking up in the river! She also forgot to explain how to use the COIN-OPERATED SHOWER, so we were just standing there trying to figure out how to get the water hot when, luckily, an American woman who was in the room across the hall came out and told us we had to use the tokens that were on our table. Needless to say, it was rather hilarious, especially because we thought that we only had one token for each day and did a shower relay, sprinting down the hall in our towels to maximize the hot water usage! We did a lot of wandering in Salzburg, although we also visited Mozart’s apartment (although not his birthplace, because apparently there isn’t as much to actually see in his birthplace) and the Hohensalzburg Fortress, a huge medieval fortress up on the hill overlooking the city. It’s a very cute town, and they filmed The Sound of Music there, so we got to see lots of those sights as well.
Our last stop was Munich, where we arrived on Thursday morning. I really liked the city – it’s elegant, and it feels like a city without being overwhelmingly big. The Rathaus (the town hall) is beautiful, and it has lots of pretty churches to visit. We did a trip out to Dachau on Friday morning to visit the concentration camp. It was freezing and snowy, but incredibly worthwhile. We ended up spending about 4 hours there – the museum is really well-done, and of course we spent a lot of time just walking through the camp. If any of you is ever in Munich, you definitely should make the trip out to Dachau, it only takes about 30 minutes on the S-bahn.
We traveled all day yesterday – left Munich at 9:23 AM and arrived in Nevers at 8:30 PM, and now I’m trying to prepare myself for the realization that I actually have to go back to work tomorrow!
Hello once again from Nevers! I got back last night from an amazing 2-week trip around Italy, Austria, and a little bit of Germany. I went with my friend (and fellow assistant) Lizzi, and we had a great time and were both sad to be back in Nevers last night! We started our trip on Friday night, February 5. We left Nevers for Dijon at 5:23, so I practically skipped home from my last class and anxiously waited for Lizzi to come over so we could leave for the station – I had to force myself to vacuum and clean my room to keep myself from just bouncing around the apartment! We got to Dijon around 7 and went to grab some dinner before our night train to Rome was scheduled to leave at 9:37. We got to the station around 9 to see that our train had a 20 minute delay. That wasn’t too bad, but then it grew to 25 minutes, then 40, then an hour and 45 minutes, then THREE HOURS! We didn’t end up getting on the train until almost 1 AM, which was frustrating, but there was nothing we could do about it… The night train was a really weird experience – we had our own little compartment with bunk beds, a tiny wardrobe, a sink, and a mirror. Luckily I was exhausted, because I don’t think I would have been able to sleep otherwise! It’s a very odd sensation to be horizontal on a train in the dark when you’re trying to sleep – we were going through tunnels, which causes your ears to pop, and sometimes the train turns and your feet are above your head! We ended up being on the train for about 13 hours, so we were more than ready to get off when we finally arrived in Rome around 2:30 (of course, we were SUPPOSED to arrive around 10:15!).
As soon as we got off the train, we went to the National Museum of Rome, which had an impressive collection of Roman statues and busts, as well as a wonderful collection of coins from ancient Rome to modern times. Next stop was the Capuccin Crypt, which was SO cool. It’s the bones of more than 4,000 monks, artistically arranged into scenes and decorations, like chandeliers! Sadly, you aren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but I bought a cool postcard.
We hit a slight snag when we finally got to our hostel to check in. The main building was being renovated for the summer, so the woman who worked there walked us about 10 minutes away to another building that I suppose is owned by the hostel. We’d reserved an all-female room, and there was someone’s stuff in the room – stuff that clearly didn’t belong to a girl, and it really wasn’t what we’d reserved, so we had to go out and find another hotel, because neither of us really wanted to/felt comfortable staying there. We ended up finding a pretty nice hotel that wasn’t too expensive when split 2 ways, and it included a delicious breakfast buffet – of course, we got very good and smuggling food out for lunch!
We went for a walk around Rome our first night there – it’s absolutely beautiful! We saw the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain – Rome has lovely fountains, which look pretty both in the day and night.
We had gorgeous sunny weather for our second and third days in Rome, so on Sunday we went to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill (where all the emperors used to build their palaces, it’s actually where the word ‘palace’ comes from). They were both amazing, and it was incredible to be around things that are just so OLD! Our next stop was the Pantheon, which we had a bit of trouble finding… Rome doesn’t have the greatest signage for its tourist attractions, so I’m pretty sure we walked all the way around the Pantheon before we actually found it! The first two kings of Italy are buried there, and so is the artist Raphael. We had an afternoon reservation at the Borghese Gallery, so we meandered up to the north of the city, stopping at the Trevi Fountain (again) for a gelato break. The Borghese Gallery is a great private collection of art – lots and lots of beautiful Bernini sculptures – in a beautiful former cardinal’s mansion in a park to the north of the city.
We were surprised to find that Santa Maria Maggiore, the church just up the street from our hotel, had banners up advertising that the relic of Sainte Bernadette would be there on February 9 and 10 – Sainte Bernadette “lives” (well, her body reposes) in Nevers! Lizzi is doing her year abroad project on Bernie (as we call her), and was quite perturbed that this dead saint is following her around Europe…
On Monday morning we had reservations for the Vatican Museum, which was HUGE (it has 4 miles of displays!). We were both exhausted (from Lizzi’s 21st birthday festivities the night before), so we didn’t spend too much time inside, but we DID get to see the Sistine Chapel! I have to say, it wasn’t at all what I was expecting – the “man touching God” part of the ceiling is only one small part of the ceiling, which is covered in lots of smaller frescoes. It was a wonderful museum, though, although we had some trouble figuring out how to actually exit the building, which would also prove to be a recurring theme of the trip. After the Vatican Museum we headed down the street to Saint Peter’s Basilica, the biggest church in the world (incidentally, it’s in the smallest sovereign state in the world, the Vatican City!). The basilica was HUGE (clearly) and gorgeous inside – it also has Michelangelo’s Pietà, which is absolutely beautiful. (It’s Mary holding Jesus’ body.) Saint Peter’s Square is also enormous, although it didn’t seem as big as it always looks on TV… We didn’t see the Pope, unfortunately, although we had been hoping to run into him. I also visited the Victor Emmanuel Monument that afternoon, a monument to Italy’s first king. It’s epically large, and really pretty, and offers a really good view of Rome from the top! We visited St. Peter in Chains church that night before dinner – Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to build it as his tomb, so it has a wonderful Michelangelo statue of Moses. It also holds the chains that held St. Peter (apparently)!
Tuesday morning we headed to Florence, where we started by wandering around the city for a few hours. We climbed the Duomo, which, at 463 stairs, is the highest church dome/tower I’ve ever climbed! The church is made of white, pink, and green marble, so it was an interesting change from all the grey stone cathedrals you see in France. The top of the dome gave a wonderful view of Florence and the beautiful surrounding Tuscan countryside, so it was definitely worth the deep burn! We spent a while zig-zagging across the Ponte Vecchio, the covered bridge in Florence that has tons and tons of jewelry shops with sparkly window displays. We visited the Uffizi Gallery and the Galleria dell’ Accademia on Tuesday, and I got to see – with my own eyes – several works of art that I’d only ever seen in textbooks! We saw Botticelli’s Primavera and The Birth of Venus and Michelangelo’s David. I think the David is my favorite work of art I’ve ever seen – you turn a corner in the gallery, and BAM, there it is! It’s much bigger than I expected it to be, and it really took my breath away. After all of our culturedness, we walked out to an overlook/park that’s a little ways out of the city – it’s up on a hill, so it had a really good view of the city.
On Wednesday morning we headed to Venice, which is about 2 hours by train from Florence. I absolutely loved Venice; it’s kind of magical in that it doesn’t quite feel real. It was during Carnevale that we were there, so it was really cool to see lots of people walking around in full costume and masks. We took lots of vaporetto (bus-boats) rides and spent hours just wandering through the back streets and canals, getting lost then finding ourselves again. The Basilica of San Marco, on the Piazza San Marco, is stupendous, and lovely both inside and out. We visited the Palazzo Ducale, which is where the Doge (like a duke, but he didn’t really have much actual power, from what we could figure out during the visit) lived. It was beautiful inside, and it also gave us admission to another museum across the Piazza where they had an awesome collection of sketches of Venice.
We headed to Vienna on Saturday morning, and spent most of the day (7 hours) in transit. We had to cross through the Italian Alps, so we had amazing views from the bus and train – there were lots of skiers on our train! We spent our first night in Vienna at my flatmate’s friend’s apartment – she goes to school in Vienna, and her apartment is amazing! We went out to a club with Sarah (my flatmate), Hannes (her boyfriend), and Katrin (her friend, with whom we were staying), and it ended up being a good time, although Lizzi and I were super tired and were not excited about it at the beginning! It was VERY cold (well below freezing) while we were in Vienna, so we spent most of Sunday in museums to escape the snow and ice. We spent a good few hours in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which had an incredible (and very well-organized) collection of paintings by the European masters, as well as an interesting temporary exhibition on Vermeer’s The Art of Painting. We spent the afternoon in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, where the Hapsburg ruling family lived. We got to go through part of the palace’s collection of dishes and tableware, and they had rooms and rooms of incredible place settings and cutlery. The actual living quarters of the palace were amazing, and we got to learn lots about Franz Josef and his wife Elizabeth, known as “Sisi,” who sounds like she was an actual toolbag. She spent TWO hours a day brushing her hair! Sunday night we went to the Haus der Musik, which was an awesome interactive music museum – we got to ‘compose’ our own Viennese waltz, and we also got to conduct the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra – I felt like a kid, and it was so much fun!
On Monday we went to the Schonbrunn Palace, which was the summer residence of the Hapbsburgs (who normally lived at the Hofburg) - it was a palace on par with Versailles, and it was a very worthwhile visit. Our ticket also covered the palace gardens, which I think were lost on us because they were all covered in snow. The cathedral in Vienna is also beautiful, all Gothic and pretty, so after visiting that we did a bit of wandering around before dinner. Food in Austria is amazing, and it was much cheaper than in France! Lizzi and I each got a huge plate of food (far more than we could ever eat) and 2 big beers for only €12 each!
After Vienna, we headed to Salzburg, which is definitely one of my favorite places we visited. We were basically staying in a B&B, although our room was in this hilarious Austrian woman’s basement. Her name was Brigitte, and she was really making us laugh. She was probably in her late 60s, and she brought our breakfast to our room both mornings – where our bed was this wicker contraption that we compared to Moses’ basket… We were a little afraid of waking up in the river! She also forgot to explain how to use the COIN-OPERATED SHOWER, so we were just standing there trying to figure out how to get the water hot when, luckily, an American woman who was in the room across the hall came out and told us we had to use the tokens that were on our table. Needless to say, it was rather hilarious, especially because we thought that we only had one token for each day and did a shower relay, sprinting down the hall in our towels to maximize the hot water usage! We did a lot of wandering in Salzburg, although we also visited Mozart’s apartment (although not his birthplace, because apparently there isn’t as much to actually see in his birthplace) and the Hohensalzburg Fortress, a huge medieval fortress up on the hill overlooking the city. It’s a very cute town, and they filmed The Sound of Music there, so we got to see lots of those sights as well.
Our last stop was Munich, where we arrived on Thursday morning. I really liked the city – it’s elegant, and it feels like a city without being overwhelmingly big. The Rathaus (the town hall) is beautiful, and it has lots of pretty churches to visit. We did a trip out to Dachau on Friday morning to visit the concentration camp. It was freezing and snowy, but incredibly worthwhile. We ended up spending about 4 hours there – the museum is really well-done, and of course we spent a lot of time just walking through the camp. If any of you is ever in Munich, you definitely should make the trip out to Dachau, it only takes about 30 minutes on the S-bahn.
We traveled all day yesterday – left Munich at 9:23 AM and arrived in Nevers at 8:30 PM, and now I’m trying to prepare myself for the realization that I actually have to go back to work tomorrow!
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