EUROPE!
"Let go, jump in, oh well whatcha waiting for, it's alright cause there's beauty in the breakdown"
Ok i could probably right twenty million pages on this trip!
_Lets start with Paris, where the plane landed in Charles De Gaulle aeroport! Imediately we were in a different country and i noticed the small differences. It was these small differences that really threw me... like for instance the size of cars (tiny especially the Smart car you can see here... http://www.thesmart.co.uk/index.html ) The cool long license plates and the bill boards, all of which noticed right away as we left the aeroport... Then we drove into Paris! OMG is it beautiful. You cant even imagine the history and beauty you see EVERYWHERE! Compared to our entirely to young country, the history was unbelievabe and unavoidable. All of the builings were the same type of style, with gray stone walls and the rooftops with the top floor windows sticking out of them. The Torre Eiffel is HUGE! And at night it sparkles every hour like a million stars! The Arc the Triumph is absolutely gigantic at least 10 stores high, bigger than any other building along the Champs-Elyeese. It was so awesome to see everything i learned about Paris in school last year in person. It was almost like i knew where everything was and WHAT everything was already. The Louvre was amazing. I probably only saw about 10% of it but what i saw was amazing. I was really impressed with Mona Lisa cause everyone said she was really small and disappointing, so i wasnt expecting much, but in person she is amazing. The technique Da Vinci used with the layers and layers of almost clear oil paint made her look so 3D and her skin looked so amazingly real. The Coronation of Napolean (both copies, one in the louve, one in Versailles painted exactly alike save for one detail) was at least 20 ft tall! The size of all of these paintings just blew me away! We had a really awesome bus tour around Paris with this cool british guide who was hilarious. We learned everything from the complete history of paris and all its kings to the fact that the people that clean up the city wear green outfits that were actually designed by a famous designer in Paris. I was in shock the entire time in paris because i couldnt believe that i was actually SEEING EVERYTHING that i learned about! Since there is no way i would be able to type everyhting about Paris... I just want to add that alcohol is legal in europe so me and acouple friends went for dinner our last night on the Champs-Elyesse and got acouple drinks and shopped! Oh yeah and out hotel rooms looked like space capsoles and the toilettes are in separate rooms that the sinks and showers. At least it was easy to find the hotel cause it was the most hideous building in Paris!
_Nimes! Nimes is a smaller town in the southern part of france that we stayed two nights in. We took a three hour train ride to Avignon from Paris (there is a story here but its to long and stressful to type, ask me about it). We saw the Papal Palace in Avignon and i bought an extremely french style dress at a little shop there. The scene change from Paris the Avignon was insane. It was hot, dusty, old, and calm. I loved it. In fact Avignon, Nimes, and Arles where all this similar atmosphere. We saw two arenas from the Roman Empire in Nimes and Arles, i think the 3rd and 5th largest ones in Europe. They looked like mini Colosseums and they were where they held concerts and things in those cites. In fact Peter Gabreil had had a concert in the Nimes one earlier in July! The one in Nime was literally across a small park from our hotel! The was a skate park right out from of our hotel too. Nimes was really peaceful at night when we walked around.
_Nice. Our last two nights in France were in Nice. We drove first to the Principality of Monaco which was really ritzy and vacationy, a lot less history (probably my least favorite stop on the trip). Then we went to Nice which was really cool. Historical Nice was orignally a place where many northern Europeans would vacation or go in hopes of curing consumption on the clean air of the Meditteraen, mostly Britains and Parisains. Because it was briefly a part of Italy and had a spainish influence as well, the buildings were mostly in the color range from beige to yellow to orange to red with green shutters. I swam in the Mediterranean! the french riviera! The first salt water i had ever been in! And man was it salty!
Our hotel here was very cool! we had alittle balcony! I should probably mention to the i had been rooming with Caitlyn all the way until we got to italy and she is really cool! We imediately got a long and had tons of fun making fun of the Friar (ask me about her!) and all the dorky Cali kids that came with us who we originally thought were special-ed...
_Florence was absolutely gorgeous. When we crossed the border from France to Italy it was imediatley noticeable! The country side is beautiful! We drove past what looked like snow covered mountain tops but were actually huge marble quarrys! The same marble Michealangelo used to carve David out of the Tuscany mountains. BTW i saw David and he was amazing! You cant even imagine! Before arriving in Florence we had lunch at a vineyard where the grew and made their own olive oil and wine grapes, it was the best Italien food ever! In fact the food in both counties was probably my favorite part of the entire trip! All of Florence was amazing ans so full of art! And street performers! All across france and italy were tons and tons of people trying to sell you things on the streets and gypsys begging for money, it was crazy!
_Rome!
I have to go now cause i have a doctors appointment so i will write again when i get back about Rome and other stuff!
-Rachel
Ok i could probably right twenty million pages on this trip!
_Lets start with Paris, where the plane landed in Charles De Gaulle aeroport! Imediately we were in a different country and i noticed the small differences. It was these small differences that really threw me... like for instance the size of cars (tiny especially the Smart car you can see here... http://www.thesmart.co.uk/index.html ) The cool long license plates and the bill boards, all of which noticed right away as we left the aeroport... Then we drove into Paris! OMG is it beautiful. You cant even imagine the history and beauty you see EVERYWHERE! Compared to our entirely to young country, the history was unbelievabe and unavoidable. All of the builings were the same type of style, with gray stone walls and the rooftops with the top floor windows sticking out of them. The Torre Eiffel is HUGE! And at night it sparkles every hour like a million stars! The Arc the Triumph is absolutely gigantic at least 10 stores high, bigger than any other building along the Champs-Elyeese. It was so awesome to see everything i learned about Paris in school last year in person. It was almost like i knew where everything was and WHAT everything was already. The Louvre was amazing. I probably only saw about 10% of it but what i saw was amazing. I was really impressed with Mona Lisa cause everyone said she was really small and disappointing, so i wasnt expecting much, but in person she is amazing. The technique Da Vinci used with the layers and layers of almost clear oil paint made her look so 3D and her skin looked so amazingly real. The Coronation of Napolean (both copies, one in the louve, one in Versailles painted exactly alike save for one detail) was at least 20 ft tall! The size of all of these paintings just blew me away! We had a really awesome bus tour around Paris with this cool british guide who was hilarious. We learned everything from the complete history of paris and all its kings to the fact that the people that clean up the city wear green outfits that were actually designed by a famous designer in Paris. I was in shock the entire time in paris because i couldnt believe that i was actually SEEING EVERYTHING that i learned about! Since there is no way i would be able to type everyhting about Paris... I just want to add that alcohol is legal in europe so me and acouple friends went for dinner our last night on the Champs-Elyesse and got acouple drinks and shopped! Oh yeah and out hotel rooms looked like space capsoles and the toilettes are in separate rooms that the sinks and showers. At least it was easy to find the hotel cause it was the most hideous building in Paris!
_Nimes! Nimes is a smaller town in the southern part of france that we stayed two nights in. We took a three hour train ride to Avignon from Paris (there is a story here but its to long and stressful to type, ask me about it). We saw the Papal Palace in Avignon and i bought an extremely french style dress at a little shop there. The scene change from Paris the Avignon was insane. It was hot, dusty, old, and calm. I loved it. In fact Avignon, Nimes, and Arles where all this similar atmosphere. We saw two arenas from the Roman Empire in Nimes and Arles, i think the 3rd and 5th largest ones in Europe. They looked like mini Colosseums and they were where they held concerts and things in those cites. In fact Peter Gabreil had had a concert in the Nimes one earlier in July! The one in Nime was literally across a small park from our hotel! The was a skate park right out from of our hotel too. Nimes was really peaceful at night when we walked around.
_Nice. Our last two nights in France were in Nice. We drove first to the Principality of Monaco which was really ritzy and vacationy, a lot less history (probably my least favorite stop on the trip). Then we went to Nice which was really cool. Historical Nice was orignally a place where many northern Europeans would vacation or go in hopes of curing consumption on the clean air of the Meditteraen, mostly Britains and Parisains. Because it was briefly a part of Italy and had a spainish influence as well, the buildings were mostly in the color range from beige to yellow to orange to red with green shutters. I swam in the Mediterranean! the french riviera! The first salt water i had ever been in! And man was it salty!
Our hotel here was very cool! we had alittle balcony! I should probably mention to the i had been rooming with Caitlyn all the way until we got to italy and she is really cool! We imediately got a long and had tons of fun making fun of the Friar (ask me about her!) and all the dorky Cali kids that came with us who we originally thought were special-ed...
_Florence was absolutely gorgeous. When we crossed the border from France to Italy it was imediatley noticeable! The country side is beautiful! We drove past what looked like snow covered mountain tops but were actually huge marble quarrys! The same marble Michealangelo used to carve David out of the Tuscany mountains. BTW i saw David and he was amazing! You cant even imagine! Before arriving in Florence we had lunch at a vineyard where the grew and made their own olive oil and wine grapes, it was the best Italien food ever! In fact the food in both counties was probably my favorite part of the entire trip! All of Florence was amazing ans so full of art! And street performers! All across france and italy were tons and tons of people trying to sell you things on the streets and gypsys begging for money, it was crazy!
_Rome!
I have to go now cause i have a doctors appointment so i will write again when i get back about Rome and other stuff!
-Rachel