France: 29? days til US countdown
SO.. yes. I am back in the charming and surprisingly comforting town of Pontlevoy, France. Things to update you on...
- took midterms about a month ago; did terrible at them and will hopefully soon be getting my grades back for them. Midterm week was absolute hell.
- spent a week of studies in Paris with all of my professors and fellow Abbey Students. It was okay; spent the days on excursions around the cities with my teachers as tour guides reviewing the history, culture, blah blahs of Paris. The evenings were free to us to rome around as we wish. Got to do many of the usual "tourist" sites. WAYYYY too many english-speaking people there for comfort. I've almost gotten to the point where I do not consider myself a tourist, as I am a temporary resident of this country; I get really annoyed at obnoxious, loud, and disrespectful Americans and Canadians at the highlight spots. They.. just.. get in the way.
- Left on Friday evening to the Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris w/ Kim, Leah, and Cassie to fly to London for 3 nights/4 days. London was fun, while pretty cold. It was packed with, once again.. many tourists. Although, I must admit listening to the British natives' accents was just as enticing as people make it out to be. I must say I was rather impressed and sastified w/ the boys there. :) Got to see Big Ben, look at Parliament- it was closed to tours, look at Buckingham Palace- once again closed, and the Tower Bridge, etc. It was a great experience.
- Flew back to Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris to catch an overnight train to Venice, Italy. Only.. we didn't exactly catch our train to Venice. We arrived at the wrong trainstation and thus, missed our train. We rescheduled our train reservations for the next train leaving Paris to Venice the next morning. We decided it would be smart to save the $ and just sleep in the train station vs. finding a hotel room for the night. Only... wait,.. at 1:30 in the morning the train stations closes, we are kicked out into the city of Paris with nowhere to sleep. All of the hotels have no vacancies = we are screwed. SOO.. we sleep outside the trainstation.... with.. the homeless people... REGARDLESS...
we leave for Venice the next day.. spend about 14 hours total on trains and finally get to Venice at about 8. We find our hotel fine and are located on Lido- a small, residential area outside the actual island of Venice. It was peaceful. Venice is absolutely beautiful and while we didn't see many "sites".. we shopped. alot. And that was relaxing and nice.
- Took a train from Venice to Rome about 2 days later. We arrive in Rome. We have a not-so-nice hotel WAY out in the middle of nowhere. Spent more money on taxis to get to the nearest metros then we did actually in the city itself... just ridiculous i tell you. The whole city is extremely dirty and overpopulated. I got a tattoo. It hurt. But.. that's okay. I like it a lot and Kim held my hand. Spent Easter morning at Vatican City and sat in the 8th row from the front on the right hand side. We could practically sneeze on the alter if we so had wished- which,..btw.. we did not. But it was extraordinary to have been in the Pope's presence during his last days. We had our big poster which read "USA hearts the Pope" and recieved much recognition and got mobbed by the papporozi (sp?) with pictures and video cameras everytime we held it up.
We went to Pompei one day and that was alright. The city is so much larger than I could have possibly imagined and it really hit home to see the preserved moldings of people's bodies in the position of such fear when the volcanic ashes covered them. Interesting place.. I def. recommend it.
- Left Rome after 5 days. . . Got on.. yes.. another train to Florence. (only 4 hours there). Florence was much like Venice, only our hotel was smack dab in the middle of all the major sites. Which, was very nice. Kim went back early at this point so it was only Cas, me and, and Leah. We had fun though, and Cassie got her ears pierced for the first time.. :) YAY cas!.
- Left Florence after 2 days and got on another overnight train back to Paris, and then on to Tours, and to Montrichard. We were on a train for another 15 hours. The couchettes, a sleeper car, were horrible. Six beds in one tiny, tiny room. Three beds bunked on each side so that each person gets two feet of space from the bottom of the bed to the bed above them. And being in cars w/ creepy Italian old people and men- not cool. Oh well... AND.. back to the Abbey. Thank God
I had a ton of fun however, but I am so exhausted from traveling and SO glad to be back. Cas and Leah and I are planning a trip for this weekend for Barcelona, Spain. I'm really excited about that because they have really nice beaches. And oh do I plan on being parked at one of em for quite some time this weekend.
The weather here has gotten absolutely gorgeous for the past two days I've been back and I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO glad that it isn't cold anymore. I hate winter. And I'm moving to Minnesota,... WHAT IS THIS???? lol...
peace-
ash
- took midterms about a month ago; did terrible at them and will hopefully soon be getting my grades back for them. Midterm week was absolute hell.
- spent a week of studies in Paris with all of my professors and fellow Abbey Students. It was okay; spent the days on excursions around the cities with my teachers as tour guides reviewing the history, culture, blah blahs of Paris. The evenings were free to us to rome around as we wish. Got to do many of the usual "tourist" sites. WAYYYY too many english-speaking people there for comfort. I've almost gotten to the point where I do not consider myself a tourist, as I am a temporary resident of this country; I get really annoyed at obnoxious, loud, and disrespectful Americans and Canadians at the highlight spots. They.. just.. get in the way.
- Left on Friday evening to the Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris w/ Kim, Leah, and Cassie to fly to London for 3 nights/4 days. London was fun, while pretty cold. It was packed with, once again.. many tourists. Although, I must admit listening to the British natives' accents was just as enticing as people make it out to be. I must say I was rather impressed and sastified w/ the boys there. :) Got to see Big Ben, look at Parliament- it was closed to tours, look at Buckingham Palace- once again closed, and the Tower Bridge, etc. It was a great experience.
- Flew back to Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris to catch an overnight train to Venice, Italy. Only.. we didn't exactly catch our train to Venice. We arrived at the wrong trainstation and thus, missed our train. We rescheduled our train reservations for the next train leaving Paris to Venice the next morning. We decided it would be smart to save the $ and just sleep in the train station vs. finding a hotel room for the night. Only... wait,.. at 1:30 in the morning the train stations closes, we are kicked out into the city of Paris with nowhere to sleep. All of the hotels have no vacancies = we are screwed. SOO.. we sleep outside the trainstation.... with.. the homeless people... REGARDLESS...
we leave for Venice the next day.. spend about 14 hours total on trains and finally get to Venice at about 8. We find our hotel fine and are located on Lido- a small, residential area outside the actual island of Venice. It was peaceful. Venice is absolutely beautiful and while we didn't see many "sites".. we shopped. alot. And that was relaxing and nice.
- Took a train from Venice to Rome about 2 days later. We arrive in Rome. We have a not-so-nice hotel WAY out in the middle of nowhere. Spent more money on taxis to get to the nearest metros then we did actually in the city itself... just ridiculous i tell you. The whole city is extremely dirty and overpopulated. I got a tattoo. It hurt. But.. that's okay. I like it a lot and Kim held my hand. Spent Easter morning at Vatican City and sat in the 8th row from the front on the right hand side. We could practically sneeze on the alter if we so had wished- which,..btw.. we did not. But it was extraordinary to have been in the Pope's presence during his last days. We had our big poster which read "USA hearts the Pope" and recieved much recognition and got mobbed by the papporozi (sp?) with pictures and video cameras everytime we held it up.
We went to Pompei one day and that was alright. The city is so much larger than I could have possibly imagined and it really hit home to see the preserved moldings of people's bodies in the position of such fear when the volcanic ashes covered them. Interesting place.. I def. recommend it.
- Left Rome after 5 days. . . Got on.. yes.. another train to Florence. (only 4 hours there). Florence was much like Venice, only our hotel was smack dab in the middle of all the major sites. Which, was very nice. Kim went back early at this point so it was only Cas, me and, and Leah. We had fun though, and Cassie got her ears pierced for the first time.. :) YAY cas!.
- Left Florence after 2 days and got on another overnight train back to Paris, and then on to Tours, and to Montrichard. We were on a train for another 15 hours. The couchettes, a sleeper car, were horrible. Six beds in one tiny, tiny room. Three beds bunked on each side so that each person gets two feet of space from the bottom of the bed to the bed above them. And being in cars w/ creepy Italian old people and men- not cool. Oh well... AND.. back to the Abbey. Thank God
I had a ton of fun however, but I am so exhausted from traveling and SO glad to be back. Cas and Leah and I are planning a trip for this weekend for Barcelona, Spain. I'm really excited about that because they have really nice beaches. And oh do I plan on being parked at one of em for quite some time this weekend.
The weather here has gotten absolutely gorgeous for the past two days I've been back and I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO glad that it isn't cold anymore. I hate winter. And I'm moving to Minnesota,... WHAT IS THIS???? lol...
peace-
ash