Spring Break Part 1: Barthelona, Ethpaña

I skipped class for the first time on Thursday, April 9th to make it to the airport for my 2:30pm flight to Barcelona. I met my friends, Devin and Nikki, at Charles de Gaulle Airport, ate a macaron (becoming a theme here), and got really excited about 6 days in the sun and on the beach. Leaving Charles de Gaulle, we flew over Paris, so I got to see the Eiffel Tower from the sky, as well as Ile-de-la-Cité (where Notre Dame is), Ile-St-Louis (the other island in the Seine), L'Arc de la Defénse and Les Invalides.

The view of Paris from the sky

The view of Barcelona from the sky

We arrived to a sunny, warm Barcelona, where none of us could speak the language. We asked in super broken Spanish "donde esta el treno?" to get to the train that would take us into the city and to our hostel. Once we found the train, we realized we didn't know how to read the metro map or read the Spanish/Catalan to buy the tickets. Luckily, some Americans living in Amsterdam helped us out as much as they could, and we got on the train with them (young newlyweds--she was transferred to Amsterdam right after they got married less than a year ago). Somehow, we had gotten on a train that went directly to our hostel (I asked "questo treno va a Clot [our metro stop]?" to which I got "si" and lots of other things, and then I said "No hablo espanol?" in question form :). The first thing we saw when we exited the metro station was a churreria- a churro stand. So yes, the first thing we did was buy and eat fresh Spanish churros. They were totally worth the 1.20 euros I paid for them that time and the two other times we went back.

We stopped to eat churros at the churreria right outside of our metro station with all of our luggage

Spanish churros are ten times better than Taco Bell/amusement park churros. They crank dough out of a machine and fry them right there. A traditional way to eat them is to dunk them in thick hot chocolate, but we never found the chocolate.

For the first three nights we stayed at a hostel called Urbany, which was about a half hour walk/a few metro stops away from the center of town, but it was such a nice hostel that it ended up being totally worth it. The outside was very modern looking, the rooms were all furnished with new Ikea furniture, and every room had it's own nice bathroom. The beds were really comfortable, and each one had its own reading light and plug set up. We also each had individual electronically-locked lockers. Urbany had access to a gym and a lap pool, it had an adequate free breakfast, and it offered really cheap beer, sangria and wine every night from 8pm to 1am (like 1 euro for 25l of beer). We stayed in a 6-bed room. The first two nights we were there, the other two people were two girls from somewhere like Indiana or something. We didn't interact with them that much because one had thrown up in the bathroom and passed out in the fetal position on her bed before we got home the first night (the nice bathroom was thereafter ruined for us), and the other one hadn't taken care of her friend and had stayed out late partying. Luckily, she didn't throw up. Then they got up really early to go sightseeing (poor hungover throw up girl). The last night we were there, two French guys had their stuff in our room (I know they were French because I looked at their luggage tags), but they didn't come home until 7am, and then only one of them actually stayed in our room. So all in all, we were pretty much alone, which was fine by us. And Urbany did have a maid service, so the throw up was pretty much, though not all the way, cleaned up the next day. Our last night at Urbany they had a "paella party," where they gave you free paella if you bought a drink. So we bought our dollar drinks and got a free mixture of rice and seafood that was fresh out of the oven and that was delicious! It was even more tasty because it was 1 euro :). Even though Urbany was a little out of the way, there was one landmark that was very close, and we could see it from our window: the Torre Agbar, a skyscraper covered in LEDs that very much resembled a bullet, or other more phallic things. We never really figured out its significance, but it was fun to look at and make fun of.

The Torre Agbar

Our first evening we went for a walk from our hostel to Passeig de Gracia, which, along with La Rambla (pronounced Las Ramblas), is a main thoroughfare with a lot of upscale shopping and some Gaudi architecture. The Gaudi architecture made me think of mermaids, but in fact the Casa Battló (shown below) was apparently inspired by the human skeleton. I guess I need to warn everyone here that we did not do any historical or tourist research before going to Barcelona--we simply arrived and did almost everything impromtu.

Gaudi's Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gracia (aka the Mermaid Place)

On our way to Passeig de Gracia, we saw what we think was a bullfighting ring (it advertised a bullfight from a few days before), but that confused us since we had been told that there is no bullfighting in Barcelona. We also caught our first glimpse of the Sagrada Famila, Gaudi's famous church that is still being constructed after over 100 years. We had some sangria and then found ourselves a tapas place for dinner.

The next day, Good Friday, we realized that we had been fooled by the sunny weather from the day before. The rain started coming down, and it wouldn't let up until Sunday night. We decided to try to find a Mexican food restaurant that had been recommended to us. We botched that attempt and ended up at a little hole in the wall tapas place that wasn't awesome, but it wasn't too bad. We tried our first Spanish tortillas with potato there. Spanish tortillas are not made of corn or flour but with egg, and whatever else you order in it. It's basically like an omelet, but more like an egg pancake. It was really good! At this meal, we thought we'd go with a tortilla for each, plus four tapas. Waaaaay to much food, considering we ate the bread before (which wasn't free). We learned our lesson, and we were thereafter very conscious of ordering less than thought we should have.

My Spanish tortilla with potato, along with our other tapas (of which there were too many): olives, some kind of bean thing, meatballs in some orange sauce, and calamari

It turned out we were fairly close to La Rambla, so we headed that way and started walking down the famous crowded street. We saw all kinds of street performers. Let me tell you, these Barcelonian street performers go all out. We saw a woman dressed as a fruit stand, we saw gold centaurs that neighed, and angels with huge wings. I am pretty sure one of the silver angels we saw was a kid, so it left me wondering about child labor, but he didn't seem too put out. I appreciate all the effort that these people put into it, but at the same time street performers like that scare me a little bit. We saw a brass band dressed in maroon start up, so we followed them to a church, where they went in and the gates were promptly closed after them. I thought they were to attract people to a Good Friday service, so I was a little confused that people weren't invited into the church, but whatever. We wandered through a lot of little streets on the Gotchic Quarter side of La Rambla, and we even saw a dama wearing one of those big comb things with lace over it in her hair! There were also a lot of different stands on La Rambla selling things-- flowers, jewelry, tourist trinkets. The flowers were a little interesting...

I've never thought of cotton as a decorative plant, but then I've never seen blue roses, so what do I know?

We walked all the way down La Rambla to the statue on top of a huge pillar of our good friend Chris (topher Colombus, but we called him Chris the whole time), who was pointing the way to the New World. We took turns taking pictures pointing with surprise at the New World, as well as on the huge bronze lions that surrounded his column. We walked to the end of the pier, where there was some mall, and we watched the pier we had just been on split so that a sailboat could pass through. Back over by Chris there was a daily antique fair, where I bought some stuff that certain people will get to see in less than a month.

That evening we took the metro over the the Parc de Montjuic (the Park of the Jewish Mountain) to see the Font Màgica (Magic Fountain) that we had been told about. This was probably my favorite thing in all of Barcelona. Every Friday and Saturday nights at 7, 7:30, 8, and 8:30 (more often after April 31st I think), the fountain has shows. Music is played while the water changes shape ("water acrobatics"). After dark, the fountain lights up and changes colors and shape as the music plays. I was just in awe of it the whole time. We basically sat and watched all of the shows. The daytime music was beautiful and fun-- the Theme from Tara from Gone With the Wind, Tchaikovsky's Waltz from Sleeping Beauty, William Tell Overture, the theme from ET, the theme from Star Wars, etc. The music chosen for the after-dark light show was pretty lame--lots of bad 80s movie themes. I didn't really understand it, because it would have been really good with the ones I've already mentioned or with Disney music like my friend said she got to hear when she was there.

The Magic Fountain of Montjuic (infront of the Palau Nacional that houses the National Art Museum of Catalonia)

The after-dark light show

More of the fountain

More of the fountain (and me!)

Friday night, we found some place to eat near the fountain and headed back to the hostel to take a nap before going out. Spaniards are the weirdest-- their nights start at 2am at the earliest. Clubs don't even open until at least 1am and they don't get full until around 3. We napped from about midnight until 1:30am, forced ourselves to get back up (we didn't really feel like going out at this point, but this was really the only night we had the opportunity to "go out Spanish-style"), got ready, and started walking over to Razzmatazz, a club that was relatively close to our hostel and that was supposed to have four different clubs in it. After a little while, we started seeing a lot of women by themselves on the street in short shorts and skirts, looking like they were simply waiting. It wasn't long before we figured out they were hookers and hailed a cab (which passed us often), to take us to the club, which wasn't very far at all. We were very weirded out by all of the hookers we saw, because we weren't staying in a particularly bad area, and there was a fair amount of traffic activity in the area but nobody looked twice at these hookers. We later learned that prostitution is perfectly legal in Spain, but that pimping is not. Good for the prostitutes, but we didn't want to get too close to it. Razzmatazz was a 15euro cover charge. I don't go to a lot of clubs, but I have never paid that much to get in to those I've been to, and I hope to never pay that much again. The cover charge did include, however, a copa, which is a mixed drink with the liquor of your choice and the mixer of your choice. That still didn't really make it worth it to me, but I guess the whole clubbing-Spanish-style thing was worth it. There were in fact four clubs in one, although I couldn't really tell you the difference between them, because they were all basically playing some kind of techno or other. We all felt a little out of place because everyone at the club was dressed like they were straight out of the 80s, and we were dressed like, well, Americans. It was fun dancing with Nikki and Devin, but we didn't want to pay to check our coats and we are definitely not on the Spanish sleep cycle, so we gave up around 3:30am, just when the place was starting to fill up. While we failed to really go out Spanish-style, we can still say we gave it a shot.

When we woke up on Saturday, it was a little chilly, but the sun was out. We ate breakfast, put on our bathing suits, bought some churros, and took the metro out to the beach, where the sky was gray. We stopped at a cabana called Princesa 23 (it was the cabana version of a restaurant that our friend loves), where we had nachos, paella, and margaritas. It was so good to have nachos! And the paella (our first time) was delicious--it's a rice and seafood mixture that's just awesome. As soon as our food came, it started to rain, and there was no cover above us. Luckily, we were sitting next to two Americans (from Silicon Valley, and one goes to SMU), who were in the same boat as us, swimsuits and everything, so we laughed our way through the rainfall. We decided it just wasn't the day for the beach and started walking again. The weather wavered between sunny and rainy all day, so we got some nice pictures of us at the harbor.

That night was the paella party at our hostel. We ate that and then went to the 10pm Easter Vigil Mass at Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's Roman Catholic church that has been under construction since 1882 and will continue to be until at least 2026. The church is huge, but most of it was blocked off for construction, so we had mass in a little sectioned off area. The mass was really nice, with around seven scripture readings about the creation of Earth, Abraham, Moses, and others. We were each given candles, and they didn't have anymore English programs (wrong vocabulary, I know, but I forgot the word), so I took a French one. I was surprised at how well I was able to follow the Spanish scripture readings in the French program. Then, since Easter is, for the Catholic Church, a time for family to come together, people from different places went up and read a specific scripture in their native language. The priest pointed out all the different people from different places multiple times, so it was cool that he realized how international the mass was. But I'd say about 98% of the mass was in Spanish.

So normally if I go to mass with a friend, I'll just go up to the front during communion and, not wanting to break any rules, I'll just cross my arms and the priest will bless me. This has worked for me every time I've ever tried it. Not this time. I waited in line like everyone else, and then when my turn came, I crossed my arms. The priest took a wafer and dipped it in the (white) wine and then slowly started bringing it to my (closed) mouth. I realized that there was no stopping this guy-- 1) I didn't know enough Spanish to tell him to stop, 2) I'm scared of Catholic rules in the first place so I probably wouldn't have said anything even if it was all in English, and 3) I really didn't have time to think or do anything. So I opened my mouth and ate the transubstantiated, real body and blood of Christ. I went back to my seat completely weirded out. Nikki and Devin, both Catholic, died laughing when I told them what had just happened. Nikki explained to me that she and her friends used to make fun of the old people in her church who would stubbornly cross their arms and make the priest feed the communion to them. Basically, only super traditional old Catholics still take communion that way in her church. We came to the conclusion that the priest would wake up the next day on Easter morning, smack himself in the head, and say "I gave that heathen, Ellie Nash, communion! Forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned!" Who knows if he'll ever get into Catholic heaven. Communion or no communion, the mass was beautiful, and it was a really unique (and free, although that's not why we did it) way to see one of the most touristy sites in Barcelona. After the service, we were given some kind of Easter bread that was flat and had cinnamon and sugar all over it-yum! That evening will definitely stand out in my memory of Barcelona.

Sagrada Familia at night before the Easter Vigil Mass

On Easter Sunday we checked out of Urbany hostel and checked into our new hostel, Sea Point Hostel, which was right on la Playa de la Barceloneta (Barceloneta Beach). It was shabbier that Urbany. You had to rent your top sheet and blanket, there was no heating or ac (not a big deal at this time of year), and you had to buy a lock for the locker, but it did have free wireless, and the shower was bigger than Urbany's (although not as new). Most importantly, it was located on the beach.

We rented bikes for the day and started out towards Sagrada Familia. We bought a student pass for 11euros at Sagrada Familia that allowed us entry into the church as well as the Gaudi House and Museum in Parc Güell. Sagrada Familia is going to be awesome when it's finished, but right now there is so much under construction that it's hard to appreciate its entirety. The basement, which is where we really wanted to go based on a recommendation to see this weight system, was recently closed off, so we didn't get to see that. Also, coming from museum-packed Paris, we weren't really in the mood to listen to the audio guide or read up about the significance of every little detail (apparently there is a lot of significance). I'll do Sagrada Familia the right way the next time I go to Barcelona. Anyway, I felt like I really got a lot out of the Easter Vigil Mass, so I wasn't too disappointed. Don't get me wrong, Sagrada Familia is incredible, but we liked the mass better than the daytime visit.

The other facade of Sagrada Familia, during the day

The ceiling of Sagrada Familia (sorry this one is turned, I'll get back to it soon)

A miniature replica of the weight system in the basement that we didn't get to see

After Sagrada Familia, we continued our bike adventure to Parc Güell, designed and lived in by Gaudi. Turns out this park is on top of a hill, so it wasn't the best bike ride of our lives, but we did get to see a lot of the city we wouldn't have seen otherwise (wasn't too impressive). I guess we didn't see very much of the park, but that's because the skies opened up on us as soon as we got there. We tried to wait the rain out by grabbing some lunch at a not-so-great tapas place around the corner. The only reason this place was any good was because they had Louisiana Hot Sauce--the first spicy sauce from home I've had in three months! At the park, we saw the famous things, which included the Doric columns under the central terrace, the mosaic serpentine benches on the central terrace, the colonnaded footpath with slanting columns, the mosaic dragon fountain, and Gaudi's house (which was not designed by him). My favorite thing was probably the mosaic serpentine benches.

The colonnaded footpath with slanting columns (America's Next Top Model had a finale runway show here, btw)

The view of the colonnaded footpath from outside the tunnel

Me on the mosaic serpentine benches, with the entrance gate (the thing that looks like a gingerbread house) and the Mediterranean behind me.

After the park, we biked with one destination in mind: the sea. We didn't take out any maps, we didn't plan at all, we just headed for the water because the rain was really coming down. Before the rain started that day, I had suggested biking down La Rambla amongst all the people, just to see it from a different viewpoint. At the outset of our return to the hostel, we all agreed that this wasn't a great idea, since it was out of the way. But by the time we got to the point where we had to choose, Nikki and Devin surprised me and asked if we could bike down La Rambla. That was an adventure in itself- weaving through people and cars while trying to take in the beautiful trees and the toursity shops, all in the rain. All in all, I think we biked about 8 miles that day-- two flat, two uphill, and four in the pouring rain. We had a really good time that day, and we were very proud of ourselves.

That night, we met up with a friend of Devin's who is studying in Barcelona for dinner. We tried to go to this one cerveseria (brewery)/tapas restaurant, but it was going to take two hours. So we found another tapas place (called Tapa Tapa) and ate more tapas for dinner on Passeig de Gracia. Although the menu was all in Catalan and he couldn't read it, it was good to have a translator there to talk to the waiters and such. I don't remember what I got, but I remember it was good :)

We woke up the next day to sunshine. Since our hostel was on the beach, we threw on our suits, ate breakfast, and went out to enjoy our last day in Barcelona in the most relaxing way possible on a beautiful beach.

La Playa de la Barceloneta at 9:30am

Little did we know that there were about seven little asian women (not sure from where) who would bother us all day long with their constant "Massa-hey?! Massagie?! Fi euro!" It was like they thought massagie was the English way to say massage--bizarre. But seriously we heard this about every minute, all day long; the same women passing us over and over and over. I don't know why they thought we'd suddenly change our minds. The gross thing was, between massaging someone's feet and massaging someone's head, they never washed their hands. We started off nicely saying "No, thank you," but seven hours later we were coming up with all kinds of ways to say no, knowing that they understood none of it. We were also bombarded with offers of beer, water, tattoos, bracelets, sarongs, everything. This was the only bad part about Barceloneta beach. The only thing I gave money to all day was a group of African drummers who got together near us, and it seemed like they were doing it more for their own pleasure than for anything else. The guy that asked us for money asked for anything we had. I said I had 10 cents (because that was really all I had), and he said that was good enough and he sincerely thanked me, so I was content with this donation.

The Asian massagie women beginning their day next to us

I ended the day with sunburned shins and insteps, because I had been really careful about putting French sunblock on everything but my shins and feet (they don't usually burn). It was a wonderful (if a little annoying thanks to all of the offers) day.

That night we met up with Devin's friend again to go to the original tapas place we had tried to go the night before. Instead of going at the busy hour of 9:30pm, we went at 7pm, and there was already a 45 minute wait! While waiting, I ordered a four-cheese-on-a-toasted-piece-of-bread tapa at the bar, and while it was only a bite, it was fantastic. It was a mix of French and Spanish cheese for around 1.10euros. I asked the hostess for a drink menu (in Spanish), and she immediately took a liking to me. She hounded the bar tenders for me, and complimented me on my not-so-great Spanish. I think the fact that I had tried in Spanish gave me some real credit, and I think we might have been moved up in the line because of that. Excellent.

This place was by far the best tapas restaurant we we went to. I got a tapa that had something like cod grits (it was mashed up cod or something, but it tasted exactly like grits) with an orange sauce. It sounded a lot better than that on the menu, but I can't remember what it was. It was really good. The other plate I had was simply pan fried peppers with a little high quality salt. I was excited about the possibility of eating hot peppers, but I was pleasantly surprised to taste just really good, flavorful peppers. My friends, who are from New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, were a little freaked out at the thought of eating straight peppers, but they really liked them after they tried them. Devin's friend from Barcelona ordered us a plate of this bread that it rubbed with tomatoes and olive oil that sounds really simple but it's delicious. To drink I got Damm Lemon beer, which I think is the Spanish beer, Estrella Damm, with lemonade in it. I got one before dinner and all of us girls really liked it, so we all got them for dinner. For dessert, I had crema catalana, which, as far as I can tell, is crème brûlée, but I'm sure there's some difference.

My Damm Lemon, some tomato-olive oil bread, my pepper tapa, and my cod-grits with cheese and sauce tapa

After that, Devin's friend took us to this cafe called El Bosc de les Fades (The Forest of the Fairies) behind the Museu de Cera (wax museum) on La Rambla. You literally had to walk through the gates of the wax museum and through a front faux-bar filled with wax figures like John Wayne and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler to get to the actual cafe. The cafe was like an intimate fantasy version of the Rain Forest Cafe. It was really cool and relaxed. I had a glass of cava (Spanish sparkling wine) there that was good. As we were flying out of Barcelona around 3:30 the next day, we went back to the hostel and called it a night.

The next morning, I got up around 7:30am to eat breakfast and make it to la Boqueria (the famous food market on La Rambla that had been closed all weekend and Monday for Easter) and to La Manual Alpargatera, the originator of espadrilles. La Boqueria was really cool, even if I was there before a lot of things opened up. There were all kinds of stands that included candy stands, meat stands, fruit stands, dried fruit stands, fruit juice stands, nut stands, olive stands, wine bars, milk stands, and egg stands. That's right, egg stands.

They only sold eggs. So strange.

Fruit juice stand, where I bought something like Strawberry and Pineapple

I never really knew what espadrilles were, but now I know what the originals are. They are canvas and rope-soled shoes that are incredible comfortable, and really cheap. I got my lilac-colored espadrilles for 8euros. Mine also have a little more to the sole (plastic or rubber or something). The shoes are no longer made at that workshop, but they are still made in Barcelona.

A wall full of espadrilles

I walked back to the hostel, where Devin and Nikki were eating breakfast. We headed to the airport via metro. One final word about the metro: a wonderful, clean system, but it doesn't have the most clear directions to the airport train, and it was not made for people with baggage (or handicapps, for that matter).

I left Barcelona with every intention of returning as soon as I can. The next time I go, I hope to do some research ahead of time. But this time, I got what I wanted out of my trip--relaxation, entertainment, pretty things, and experiencing a new culture. Oh, and I really want to learn Spanish now.

Hasta luego,
Ellie

Next Blog

The Spring Break blog will be posted Sunday. Sorry to disappoint, but I am going to Mont St. Michel and St. Malo!

A dimanche,
Ellie

Slowly Catching You Up to Speed

Wow it has been a long time since I last wrote- and a lot has happened since then! The biggest news: I am, as of April 7th, 21!

So real quick, since it's fresh in my mind: I spent this evening at the Opéra Garnier watching Onéguine (Onegin), the ballet. I'm sure you know all about Onegin, but I had no clue what it was. Onegin is a ballet that is based on a famous Russian novel by Alexander Pushkin. It's about young love and rejection and societal expectations and such. I know I just made it sound really lame but believe me, the ballet was incredible. The music was by Tchaikovsky, although it actually is not the music he wrote for his opera Onegin. Honestly, I was expecting some weird modern ballet thing, which suited me fine because I just wanted to be inside the Opéra Garnier. I was extremely pleased to realize that I was getting to see a classical ballet performed by an incredible ballet company to beautiful classical music in one of the most gorgeous opera houses in the world. I loved the idea that I was in the very room where the Phantom fell in love with Christine Daaé. I sat right across the room from the infamous Box 5! Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this evening, and I really wish my family could have gotten to go to a ballet at the Opéra Garnier.

The interior of the Opera Garnier (chandelier, empty Box 5 up on the left, beautiful modern ceiling)

Curtain calls for the Paris Opera Ballet with the orchestra below after a great performance

Just kind of an artsy-fartsy picture

Our Box 9

Ok so I have a lot to cover. I guess I left off right before my birthday. Nikki's parents arrived in Paris on March 28th. Nikki and I have traveled everywhere together and we have gotten to be good friends. So for my birthday and to be able to meet all of Nikki's friends, her parents invited all of us over to their apartment (with an awesome view of the Eiffel Tower) for hors d'oeuvres, drinks and cake on the Wednesday before my birthday.

About half the group at Nikki's parents' apartment for a little celebration (Me, Devin, Sarah, Cathy, Erik)

It was really perfect- it was a beautiful day and almost all of my Paris friends were there. Having stuff like that helped me forget the fact that I didn't get to spend my 21st birthday in Texas with the people I love. The next day, my friend Erik and I wandered through the 14th arrondissement, where we walked through the Cimetière du Montparnasse (Montparnasse Cemetary) and saw the Dreyfus tomb and had apéritifs (Kir), to the 7th arrondissement, ending up at Le Bon Marché (The Good Market), the first department store in the world. Actually, we went to Le Bon Marché to go to the adjoining épicerie (grocery store) which has food from all over the world (as well as other goodies- see below!). I came out with ranch dressing, sharp cheddar cheese, and a macaron (I've fallen in love with macarons, which are not our coconutty macaroons).

Montparnasse Cemetary is surprisingly beautiful- they really honor their dead here

The Dreyfus Family tombstone- as in Alfred Dreyfus, as in the infamous Dreyfus Affair


Now tell me the épicerie du Bon Marché isn't awesome!

On Friday the 3rd, I met up with one of my best friends and roommates from TCU, Andrea, who is studying in Florence and who came to visit me and her other friend in Paris. Andrea wanted to see Paris from a more local perspective (because I'm sooo local), so we spent all day Friday just wandering around Paris- we shopped and ate lunch at Galleries Lafayette, got macarons at Printemps (Springtime; like Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché, but patronized more by locals), saw Notre Dame, and met up with her friend for a nice afternoon on the Champ de Mars under the Eiffel Tower. It was really great to see her and just have a relaxing day while still experiencing Paris.

On Saturday, I went with Nikki and her parents on a bike trip to Monet's home at Giverny where he painted Les Nymphéas (the Water Lilies). We took the TGV to Vernon, where we picked up our bikes as well as a picnic lunch at this huge outdoor market in the middle of town on Place de la République.

Rabbits being sold at the market in Vernon. Not sure if they were being sold as pets or as food...

We biked over the Seine and ate our picnic on a bank next to Le vieux-moulin (the old windmill), a house that was built in the 16th century on a medieval bridge that dates from the 12th century. All you can see of that bridge now are the pillars that once held it up.

Le vieux-moulin, with no moulin

Then we biked from there down a little road past the American Art Museum and l'Hôtel Baudy to Monet's home. The American Art Museum (now called Le Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny) and the Baudy Hotel have an interesting background- apparently some American painters discovered Giverny and really liked it. Then they discovered that Monet was already there and they liked it even more, and they started painting like him. The Baudy Hotel started out as a tiny tiny little cafe, but all the American painters started hanging out there and needed places to stay (because there was, and still is, no where to stay in Giverny), so it expanded some and became a hotel. We stopped by for drinks after visiting the house- they have a pleasant courtyard thing across the little road that overlooks the countryside around there. The countryside is actually what got Monet interested in Giverny, because he could see it from the train.

Turns out the little road we biked down was Rue Claude Monet!

Our tour guide said there are some famous Monet paintings of this hill (help me out here guys!)

Monet's gardens were incredible, and that was at the very beginning of spring. I really want to go back after everything is in full bloom. He planted them all himself and put in a river that runs through the whole thing. His neighbors got mad at him for bringing in Japanese (and other foreign) plants because they thought they would ruin the native plants. Fortunately, he got to keep his plants. However, his gardens were destroyed in World War II. Luckily he had tons of designs of exact species and sizes of beds and how the river worked and all that so the gardens were created exactly how they were before. Half of his gardens are the Japanese gardens with the lily pads and footbridge and river. The other half are more traditional and symmetrical. In both, everything was arranged by color. Even though it was pretty cloudy, I loved the gardens, and I know that my grandmother would have really loved them.

Monet's Japanese Gardens- look familiar?

Monet's symmetrical gardens (there might be a better name for them than that)

Monet's house was interesting because everything was arranged by color in it as well. Each room had it's own color scheme- pale blue, yellow, purple, etc. It reminded me of the spinning teacups at Disneyland. Also, he loved Japanese prints, so they were everywhere. There are no original Monet paintings in his house, because when his grandson died the government of France picked them up in armored vehicles and transported them to Paris. This country really loves its art. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside the house. Guess you're gonna have to go for yourself!

For my birthday, most of my friends came up to the 17th arrondissement where I live to have aperitifs and eat Italian food at this place called Fuxia. It was pretty low key, but basically exactly what I wanted. I had delicious pasta puttanesca, wine, panna cotta and limoncello. Perfetto! Taylor and I discovered Fuxia when he and my family were here. It is right down the street from the apartment my family rented, and every time we walked by it was packed and smelled incredible. So we went there for dinner one of his last nights and had great food and great service for a good price. I think my friends really liked having something other than French food for a change (not that French food is bad, but we Americans are used to every kind of cuisine in the world. Eating baguettes and camambert all day every day is not as easy as it sounds). I also loved the fact that I got to walk home after dinner. I live so far away from everyone else that I usually have to spend the night with a friend if I want to be able to take my time anywhere. Not your typical American 21st birthday, but I'm not really in your typical American place!

Well that's all for the moment. I'll write about my spring break in Barcelona and Florence tomorrow!

Bonsoir,
Ellie

So much has happened!

Sorry I haven't written in so long. I've been distracted by visits from the family and Taylor, as well as midterms.

Mom, Dad, Becky, and her boyfriend, Jake, arrived on Friday March 6th and were here until March 19th. A family friend, Cathie Smith, who's studying at St. Louis University in Madrid, joined us on March 7th and stayed until the 14th. My boyfriend, Taylor, arrived on the 13th and stayed until the 23rd. What a good two weeks (aside from not getting to see Annie:( )! They did the usual touristy things- Arc de Triomph, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Notre Dame, Versailles, a Seine boat cruise (at sunset), etc., which my family had done before but Jake, Cathie, and Taylor had not. They also did some really cool extra things like the Paris Catacombs (all except for my Dad, who decided to skip that due to the fact that Rick Steves warned that it's not too comfortable for those over 6'2"), Cité des Sciences (a really cool science museum), Sacré Coeur, Les Invalides (the army museum and site of Napoleon's tomb), and Le Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

While he was here, Jake fell in love with Danettes, which are little pudding-like cups made by Danon that come in a variety of flavors, my favorite being dark chocolate. Jake and Becky tried out the brownie and creme brulee flavors as well. We also tried some store-bought dark chocolate icecream, which was absolutely delicious. It was really fluffy, like mousse, and it had little chunks of gooey dark chocolate in it. Yum! Also, Jean-Pierre and Fanou gave my parents some of their favorite wines- Merseult white wine and a Cote du Rhone. I had originally asked Jean-Pierre to recommend to me what his favorite wines were so I could buy them for my mom as a late birthday present. Instead, he bought them for me, which was really really nice, but it put me out of a birthday present idea (anyone who knows my mom knows how hard she is to shop for!). I ended up buying an assortment of cheeses to go with the wines, which we tried the first night that my family stayed in the 17th arrondissement. I loved all of the cheeses (because I eat really strong cheeses with the Schumachers every dinner), and I know my parents and Taylor liked them with the wine, but Becky and Jake kinda wimped out. For all their talk about loving brie and good cheese, they just couldn't measure up.

We tried out restaurants, our favorite being La Varangue, which is near the Eiffel Tower and is run by Phillipe, an eccentric Parisian man who likes to be involved in everything going on in his tiny restaurant. The food there was pretty authentic French, even though Becky, Jake and Taylor got Italian plates. My host family also invited my family over for dinner one night, which was really fun but incredibly exhausting for me, the translator. The Nashes and Taylor can say "merci" and the Schumachers can say "Are you fine?", but both families love to talk, so I got to do a lot of work. But I think it went really well. My family brought a really beautiful photo book of Austin and bread pudding, while the Fanou made an Alsatian beef and potato stew and a pecan and apple tarte and Jean-Pierre provided everyone with good champagne and wine. Taylor looked over at me after awhile and realized that I was the only one with food still on my plate, because I was so busy translating. At one point, I even turned to my dad and said something to him completely in French! Needless to say, I slept well that night, and all of my dreams were in French.

My family brought me some necessities- Girl Scout Thin Mints and Peanut Butter Patties and some meds. Taylor brought me some Ghiradelli caramel chocolates and Sour Patch Kids. I'm trying to eat all of these things slowly to make them last as long as possible. I didn't even realize that I haven't seen caramel-filled chocolate here, but now that I have eaten (most of) the chocolates from Taylor, I'm going to have to find some more if possible. Also, while Taylor was here, we found Bonbons. Every year the Westwood High School French Club would sell these little packages of chewy sugary balls that I have never had any where else. Taylor and I both loved these Bonbons, so he was really excited to see some in a vending machine (but oddly enough, only in the RER vending machines). We had to go to several places to actually find them, and the first ones we found would not come out of the vending machine. At long last, we got some, and they were totally worth it. Has anyone heard of these things?

The second week that my family was here (which was also the week that Taylor was here) was absolutely gorgeous weather. The trees were beginning to bud and I actually went two days with a sweater instead of a coat (which was only a good idea until about 4:30, but I was so excited to not have to lug my coat around that I just suffered through it). After my parents and Becky and Jake left, Taylor and I spent a fair amount of time walking around outside. We walked through the Luxembourg Gardens, which were full of Parisians taking advantage of the warm day and at Versailles we walked over to Louis XIV's Pièce d'Eau des Suisses (Piece of Water of the Swiss People- basically a big man-made lake) and just sat for awhile taking in the scenery.

Taylor at Louis XIV's man-made lake at Versailles

Also at Versailles, Taylor and I made a huge mistake. As one of our favorite snacks to eat in Texas is chips and hot sauce or queso, we decided to give Versailles' "El Rancho Tex-Mex" a try. We got the worst queso, chips and pina colada in the world. The queso was worse than Taco Bell's Nacos Bell Grande queso, and the chips were like the worst pre-seasoned store bought chips you could buy.

Nastiest queso in the world

I'm not a huge fan of pina coladas in general, but there was some confusion between Taylor and I and I ended up ordering one. Most digusting thing ever. It tasted rotten. We tried to eat and drink as much of the stuff as we could stand, simply because we had to pay for it. But we left a lot of it there. Moral of the story: the French can't do Tex-Mex. Now, one of the waiters at Chez Nous in Austin did recommend a place called Taco Loco that's pretty close to me, so I'll give it a shot. But I don't have very high expectations.

Midterms actually went pretty well. I didn't study as much as I thought I was going to (whoops), but I got pretty good grades on them, so that's good. I mostly studied on the metro on the way to and from school, so I didn't take much time away from being with my family and Taylor.

Needless to say, I had a wonderful time with my family, Cathie and Taylor. It was really hard to see them go, but it was really nice to show them my life here. They came right in the middle of my semester here, so it was really the perfect time to see them.

Since they've all been gone (Taylor was the last to leave and he left about a week ago) I've been trying to stay as busy as possible. Monday and Tuesday I went to my two hour Funk Jazz Hip Hop class, which actually takes up about three hours of time including transportation. Monday evening I went to my friend Cathy's homestay for a little birthday celebration for our friend Erik that was thrown by her host mother. I got to eat chocolate cake-a rarity. Wednesday evening I went with my friend's school group to a one man show called Je me souviens (I remember), in which the actor/writer talks about his life by starting every phrase with "Je me souviens". It's based on a series by Georges Perec which was based on an autobiography by Joe Brainard. It was good, but there were definitely some parts that the French people in the audience found funny that none of the Americans laughed at. It's always interesting to see the differences between French and American humor. We're just funnier, in my opinion :) It turned out that there was a restaurant downstairs, so my friends Sarah, Devin and I stayed for dinner. I had an avocado and shrimp salad that was really good. Afterward we got crepes from a street vendor- always delicious. Thursday I spent the day applying for a scholarship, so I had no time to miss my family and Taylor.

Friday I went to the Châteaux de Fontainebleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte with IES. There were some extra spots on this excursion, so my friend Nikki and I didn't have to pay to go on it. These palaces were incredible. Fontainebleau has 800 years of history and housed a whole bunch of French kings as well as Napoleon and Napoleon III. Napoleon I bade his troops farewell there before being exiled to Elba (which turned out to be a failure). It was big and really incredible. Vaux-le-Vicomte was smaller but overall more impressive. Unlike Fontainebleau, which is now in the middle of a village, Vaux-le-Vicomte is more hidden in the country. Tony Parker and Eva Longoria got married there two years ago, and I understand why. It is absolutely beautiful. It was built by Nicolas Fouquet, the financial supervisor to Louis XIV. Fouquet employed the architect Le Vau, the landscape architect Le Nôtre, and the painter-decorator Le Brun to design the place. These three did such a good job, and Fouquet's parties there became so well-known for their lavishness, that Louix XIV had Fouquet arrested for being too lavish. Louix XIV subsequently took most of the furnishings of Vaux-le-Vicomte (including all of the orange trees) and got the three designers to work on Versailles. Talk about jealousy.

Friday night I went to my friend Cathy's homestay again for a soirée de talent thrown by her host mother, Agnès. Agnès' house is like a hotel- there are always people staying there and eating there. Her first son, Vincent, is dating Agnès' first exchange student, Andrea, who lived there two years ago and who now studies clarinet at the Ecole Normale de Musique, which is actually a few blocks away from me. Vincent's cousin, Timothé, who is from the Alps and paints the outsides of huge financial buildings, lives there, as well as Cathy, who's sister studied in Paris with Andrea. Complicated. But there are always people going in and out of that house, and Friday night was no exception. Agnès just makes a point to get to know all kinds of interesting and talented people. There were several good piano performances, as well as clarinet, drums, guitar and voice. The final singer and guitarist were really incredible-like they should be professionals. We ate lots of good french food and drank lots of good french wine. It was such a cultural evening!

I spent the night with Nikki, whose parents arrived from New Hampshire Saturday. Saturday during the day, Cathy and I went to the Galeries Lafayette to take advantage of their sales going on right now. I bought a really pretty turquoise scarf and a white linen shirt. I just love the inside of the Galeries, but they were jam-packed. It was also raining that day and I had my bag full of over-night things, so I was weighed down. But I still managed to enjoy myself. Cathy and I went all the way up to the top floor to the terrace, which faces the top of the Paris Opera House. I felt like I could practically see the Phantom of the Opera staring back at me from behind a huge horse statue up on the roof of the Opera House. Creepy!

Last night I met up again with Cathy and Andrea, and we went out to a bar in Châtelet called the Hideout, where we met Erik, Timothé, and another friend, Matt, from IES. They played good music but the place was pretty packed and the bathrooms were disgusting (typical for a bar, I know, but this was particularly gross, with the urinals just thrown out there next to the sink. I prefer not to watch guys zip up, thank you). Because I listened to my friends' advice, I missed the metro and ended up having to navigate the Noctilien night bus. Thankfully, Châtelet is a popular area and almost every Noctilien goes by there, and there were Noctilien authorities on hand to advise people where to go. The authorities, dressed in neon vests, were really nice, complimented me on my French, and correctly advised me where to go (which is more than I can say for some of the people in neon-vests at Charles de Gaulle, who almost caused Taylor to miss his flight with their bad directions!). I had to wait with a lot of other people for a bus to finally come, but once it did, it didn't take long to get to my stop. I am going to try to not miss the metro anymore, because it's faster and takes me closer to my homestay, but at least I know how the Noctilien works now.

Today I slept- a lot. It was great! I tried out a new pasta recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/rotini-with-salsa-di-limone-recipe/index.html), read a lot of New York Times, watched some Office, and read some French newspapers. I think I managed to get past the homesickness period pretty well by forcing myself to go out and enjoy Paris. Hopefully I'll continue to get out just as much as I did this week. I'll let you know!

Here are links to my photo albums (unedited) from the last few weeks:

March 8, 2009

March 20, 2009

March 24, 2009

(Semi) Normal Life in Paris

I feel like I don't have that much to write about because I haven't been traveling. But I guess I am in Paris, which is exciting in itself! Let's see where my thoughts about the past week take us...

In addition to the first Funk Jazz Hip Hop class I took last Tuesday, I tried an African dance class on Saturday afternoon and a Tzigane (gypsy) dance class on Monday evening. The African dance class was really great and really exhausting. When I arrived, the instructor told me I should let my hair down, because it would make me get more into the whole swinging the head thing. I don't know if she realized how long my hair is, but it was all over the place during the class. It was pretty funny, at least to me. There were two African drummers and an African xylophone-thing player, and the instructor (who is white, but possibly has spent some time in Africa?) got really into the music, letting out random sing-song yells. Ha I don't really know how to describe it all, but the fact that she was so comfortable with getting into the dancing and rythms and music made it easier for me to get into it as well. There were people of all ages there- a little girl and a older boy, as well as a couple of older men and women. It was really fun, but the problem with enrolling in it is that it is not offered at the best times for me. I want classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons, but this is only offered midday or on Saturday (which could interfere with traveling). The Tzigane class was for all levels, and I found it a little too slow-paced for me. The instructor (also white, but has definitely spent time in Romania) also got really into the music and dancing, singing along and just all around a good dancer. Tzigane is offered at good hours for my schedule, but I realized half way through the class that I could hear and see the hip hop class going on across the courtyard and I really just wished I was there. I took that as a sign and returned to hip hip on Tuesday evening, and I felt like it was really the class for me. I was less intimidated the second time I went, and so I was able to retain the combinations better and get more into the movements. I talked to the teacher (who is American) afterward, and she told me that it will be 320 euros for three months of unlimited hip hop classes. I'm hoping IES will go for it. I think they will since I'm pretty sure that's less expensive than having me in an academic class. We'll see, but I'm pretty excited about it at the moment.

On Monday in my 10:45am class on the European Union (which I have decided is my favorite academic class) I had to give a ten minute presentation in which I compared two articles on Barack Obama- one from the New York Times and one from Le Monde (most widely-read French analytical paper). I chose to talk about Obama's announcement to withdraw troops from Iraq and to deploy more troops in Afghanistan. I won't get too specific, but basically France is a lot more concerned with Afghanistan than are the United States, because France has no troops in Iraq and it has been against the War in Iraq from the beginning, but France does have troops in Afghanistan. Also, the French article focused a lot more on the shift from a military approach to diplomacy than did the American one. At the end of my presentation, I ended with a simple enough question: "What are the consequences of the affairs of Barack Obama in France?" No one answered (this is a class that should have a lot of discussion but not many people like to participate, which bugs me so much). Our teacher has a habit of calling us "Jeunes Gens," which translates to "Young people." He says this to us when he asks us a question and we stare back at him blankly. "Jeunes Gens" might be followed by "Where are you this morning? Are you asleep?" or something like that. So when I found myself in this awkward position, where the entire class just stared back at me like I hadn't even asked a question, I decided to give the phrase a try.

Me: "Quelles sont les consequences des affaires de Barack Obama en France?"
Class: Silence
Me: I rephrased it some other way, hoping someone might respond.
Class: Silence
Me: "Jeunes gens?"
Class and Professor: Laughter!

But still not response from my peers. Instead, the professor answered for himself. After awhile a few people put their two cents in, but I just don't get why people can't just say something! I don't know if it's because they hate to seem like a goody goody or they're shy or they aren't confident with their French or what. It's just annoying. Today we had a better discussion, though, so it might get better.

Friday night I was around to eat dinner with my host family. Fanou made an endive-and-goat cheese tartin (pie type of thing). It was good, but probably not one of my absolute favorites. I find endives to be very bitter, so I think I prefer them in smaller quantities. But still pretty good. For dessert, Fanou gave us dark chocolate Danettes (Danon makes dark chocolate pudding over here!) that she had bought for one of her grandsons, who only ate one. Yum!

Sidenote: this grandson, Pierre, is the oldest grandchild of Fanou and Pierre, and I think he's around 8 or 9. As soon as he walked in the door that morning and saw me, he gave me a big "Bonjour!" and came right over to me and started showing me his magazine with some shark vs. dolphin thing. We talked about the vacation he was on and when our birthdays were. He is probably the most friendly person I've met in France! I love welcoming experiences like that.

After dinner on Friday, I asked Jean-Pierre when the France vs. Pays de Gaul (Wales) rugby match was supposed to begin, mostly out of curiosity. He responded that it started at 9pm and that if I wanted to watch it, we could all sit in the living room and watch it. He normally watches sports games in his office, but that night we all sat around and watched the rugby game together. Jean-Pierre told us all kinds of little tidbits about rugby, none of which I can really recall right now. Wales, up to this point, was known as the best team in the Tournoi de Six Nations (Six Nations Tournament, which compromises France, Wales, England, Ireland, Scotland, and Italy), and was heavily favored to win that night's game. It almost came down to the wire, with Wales trailing by only five points and almost scoring another try (five points, plus the goal at two points, would have put Wales over the top). But France won, 21-16! It was really exciting, and I decided that I could really get to be a rugby fan if I was here long enough.

This weekend I spent a lot of time with my friends, two of whom had friends in for the weekend. Nikki's friend, Chris, studied in the IES Business program here a year ago, so he knows all these cool places to go. He took us to this sangria cave that used to be a bomb shelter back in the day. It was small and intimate and not very loud, so I want to go back soon. He also took Nikki to a cafe called Angelina, on Rue de Rivoli right next to the Jardin des Tuileries, which is supposed to have some of the best chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) in Paris (they're proud of it, too, at 6.90 euros for a pitcher that has about two cups in it).

Sunday was the first day of the month, which means free admission to Paris Museums. I went with Nikki, Chris, my friend Sarah and her twin sister, Dana (who is studying in London), to the Orangerie. There, we saw some incredible Monets, Renoirs, Matisses, Cezannes, Derains, Picassos and more. Then Nikki, Chris, and I walked over to the other side of the Tuileries to the Louvre. Finally! I can't believe I've been here over the month and I hadn't been there yet. We saw the Mona Lisa (of course) and the Winged Victory, as well as lots of the Renaissance paintings near the Mona Lisa, and lots of Egyptian and Greek art. We did a lot of wandering. Good day in total.

Nikki's friend, Chris, is still here, so Nicté and I met him at Angelina today and tried the hot chocolate, which was pretty good. I don't want to hype it up too much, because I have a tendancy to set high expectations that are subsequently not met. You will have to come to Paris and try the hot chocolate at Angelina yourself. After that, Nikki, Chris, Sarah and I went to see Milk, which came out in France today. Sean Penn deserves every accolade he has received for that movie. I didn't blubber like I did when I saw Benjamin Button, but I was equally, if not more, impressed with this movie. I did a report on Harvey Milk, the Twinkie Defense, the White Night Riots, and gay rights in the tenth grade, so I was happy to see a story that I know a lot about brought to life.

Monday night for dinner we had l'escalope de veau (breaded veal) as our main dish, with all the usual sides. Pretty good! Tonight for dinner we had saumon (salmon) wrapped in cooking paper with mustard and some spices on top. Fanou made it in the microwave. As a college student, I am definitely going to have to get that recipe!

My parents, Becky, and her boyfriend, Jake, are arriving in Paris at 9:40am on Friday. I am so excited! I can't wait to show them the touristy things we didn't get to see last time, like Sacre-Coeur, the Orangerie, the Marais, the Marchés aux Puces, etc, as well as the non-touristy side of Paris that I have been getting to know. My boyfriend, Taylor, arrives next Friday, and Annie arrives the day after that. What an exciting few weeks I have ahead of me!

C'est tout pour l'instant (that's all for now),
Ellie

Ich bin nach München gefahren!

I forgot to mention in my last blog that last Monday night we had this delicious lentil, sausage and onion soup mixture. Last night we had this delicious veal and mushroom soup mixture. I'm afraid to call things soup now, because I called last night's dinner soup, and Fanou kind of got on my case, but I can't remember the word she used. Anyway, both of these liquidy messes (whatever they're called) were really good!

So my friend Nikki and I left from IES around 5:45pm on Thursday night to go to Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). We went to Denfert-Rochereau, which is right by IES and is a metro/train (RER) station, to board the RER B to CDG. We had read and heard that the RER would cost 8.40 euros each way, but when we got to the station, we couldn't figure out how to buy any tickets. There were no signs and the office was closed. So we decided to give our Navigos (unlimited swipe cards that work in zones 1 and 2 of Paris) a shot. They worked! We were kind of freaking out that some transportation police would find out we hadn't paid and fine us a whole bunch of money, so we called our friend, Sarah, who had gone to CDG the weekend before. She said that since we had gotten through the gate, there shouldn't be any problem because there were no other check points to get through except the one at CDG leaving the RER. We figured if someone realized we hadn't paid and wanted to fine us, we would pretend we didn't speak French and try to pull off the whole stupid tourist thing. But it wasn't a problem! (note: I do know that the fine for being on the metro without a ticket is 40 euros, and my dad said it's like 500 euros for the RER)

We were so happy to be going to CDG instead of Beauvais. It was soooo much easier to get to, so much cleaner, so much more helpful, etc. Plus, we left early in the evening to be there for our 9:30 flight, so we could relax. It was weird, though, because our passports were never really looked at. In fact, we didn't get a stamp in either France or Germany. Maybe it's because they're both on the same continent, unlike Ireland which is an island. We made our way to the Lufthansa terminal and hung out until boarding time. Aaah CDG is really nice- they had moving floors everywhere (one that was bouncy haha!) and they had a charging station for electronics, so I could charge my phone before I left. We were both really excited about the Crunchy M&Ms (which seem to have disappeared from the US) we saw in a store in the terminal, so we both bought some. For some reason, they're not as good as I remember. Maybe that's why they're not really available anymore... or maybe it's just that European Crunchy M&Ms are not as good. Nikki came back from the store to our seats and told me I had to look at the magazine rack in there. I looked, and there was a pair of breasts staring back at me! They weren't fake, and the girl wasn't even in a sexy pose- she was just naked. Bizarre.

Lufthansa is a really nice airline. I wouldn't mind flying on Lufthansa for the rest of my life at this point! The seats were leather and there was a lot of leg space and storage space, and they served drinks- that's normal but we were excited for such luxuries after Ryanair last weekend. The abnormal thing was they served us all a little free sandwich that was actually really good. On that flight, I got the ham sandwich that was just some German bread and ham, and although I'm normally not a big fan of dry sandwiches, it was great. They also gave us Twix bars. Yum! When I asked what the drink options were, the flight attendant responded, "Whatever you like." Yes! Service!

I sat next to a man named Rolf, who works for Cadence, so he travels between Munich and Paris a fair amount. He gave me the rundown on Münchener things to do: eat Brezeln (pretzels), but only before noon; eat Weißwurst (white sausage, the ß is pronounced "ss") and eat it with the traditional sweet mustard, Weisswurstsenf, say fertig (or something like that) when saying goodbye. I learned in German class last semester to say Gruß Gott! (god's greetings) when saying hello, and Rolf said that Fertig! means something along the same lines. Since Bavaria is the most conservative and religious (Catholic) region in Germany, it's the only region where these kinds of phrases are acceptable to use. When I asked him what were some German things he loves but can't find in other places, he said the bread. I was surprised because I feel like I'm living in the land of good bread, but Bavarian bread is dark and a little bitter or something, and really soft.

We got to the Munich airport a little on the late side, since our plane had had some technical difficulties before we left. Nikki's friend, John, was there to meet us and take us back to his place, where we stayed on the floor. He's studying German at the Goethe Institute in Munich for two months and then going to some little German town until August (for the whole German semester). It was really nice to have him around since he acted as our interpreter the whole time, and he had already bought our three day metro pass and our rail tickets to Schloss Neuschwanstein. He also had bought a lot of German snacks for us to try when we got to his place- Haribo gummy bears, Riesen-covered marshmellows, Haselnuss-Schnitte (chocolate and hazelnut wafers), stuff like that.

The next morning we went and got breakfast at a little Munich bakery he knew about. The bakery/restaurant was decorated for Rosenmontag (lit: Running Monday, meaning Collop Monday before Ash Wednesday) and Fasching (Mardi Gras). The waitresses were dressed up- one as a clown and one as a police woman. Thinking about it now, though, the place might just look that way all the time, since our dining room was clown themed...

The bakery/restaurant in Munich (see the clown?)

I had the famous Weißwurst and a pretzel and a Weißbier (wheat beer), so I satisfied that touristy thing I had to do right away. The beer for breakfast was strange, but it all came as the Münchener Frühstücke (typical Munich breakfast plate), so I had it. I have to say it all went together well. The pretzel, as are apparently all traditional Bavarian pretzel, as pretty hard, but really good.

Then we spent the morning wandering around in Munich while it snowed, much to my feet's dismay. I was wearing leather boots that did nothing to keep the water out, so I was pretty cold. But I loved seeing the town. We walked to the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, where the Scholl siblings, who were founders of die Weiße Rose (White Rose) anti-Nazi group, were caught by a janitor throwing anti-Nazi propaganda off of a balcony. They were beheaded a few days later and are now huge German heros. It was eery to be where they were and to imagine what the whole scene was like. Apparently there's a movie about the event, called the White Rose (I think).

Scholl Sibling Place

White Rose Pamphlets in the stones outside of the University

Scholl sibling memorial inside the University

After the Ludwig Maximilians University, we went over to the Englischer Garten (English Gardens), so called apparently because they are in the informal style of 18th century English gardens. It's basically a huge public park- one of the biggest in the world.

The Monopteros in the Englischer Garten

Nikki and I at the Monopteros, infront of the skyline of Munich

After the Englischer Garten, we went over to the BMW Wert (BMW World) and the Olympic Center. It wasn't too exciting- no one at BMW paid us any attention since we were obviously not there to buy cars. Everything except for the pool at the Olympic Complex was closed, which was fine. We basically wandered around, saw the buildings and fields, and saw the Autobahn.

What the Olympic Complex looks like in the summer

What we saw in the middle of winter

Das Autobahn

Then John took us to his favorite Turkish Doner Kabob place in the center of Munich. They actually left to go get cheese for us, which was good because the cheese (a little like feta) really made the kabob. He had to go to class then, so Nikki and I spent awhile wandering around the center of town. There were a lot of decorations up for Fasching, such as pinata-type things on lamp posts. We saw some of the most ornate churches I've ever seen. We gasped when we turned the corner and saw the Neues Rathaus (the new city hall), which was incredible, and which has the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, that displays life-size figures that reenact stories a few times a day.

A big clown hanging from the gates to old Munich for FaschingA church in the center of Munich

Das Neues Rathaus in Marienplatz. The green area in the front of the tower is the Rathaus-Glockenspiel.

That night we went to a typical Munchener restaurant and had more sausage. I thought one helping of Weisswurst was enough, so I got some darker, grilled sausages and sauerkraut- aaah I am making myself hungry! Then we met up with John's friends at Hoffbräuhaus- the famous beer hall that has a German band and lots of German food (at good prices), German beer, and tourists. However, it wasn't particularly touristy. That's how all of Munich seemed to me- it retained its German-ness really well, and there weren't that many tourists when we were there (probably because of the freezing temperatures).

"Thirst is worse than homesickness"

My Hoffbräuhaus Kaiserscharrn- something to do with a Kaiser- so yummy!

The German band at Hoffbräuhaus

The next day we got up early to take a train two hours south to Schloss Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland. It was beautiful, and I feel like it was worth the trip. We got out of the city, got to see the Alps, and got to see a really cool castle. The Alps in Germany are strange because they shoot up out of nowhere. The lands is really flat and then all of a sudden- WHOOSH- there are the Alps. We ate lunch at a little hotel/restaurant in Füssen, where the trainstation is, and apparently where Steve McQueen did a lot of his motorcycle stunts for the Great Escape and where there was a Dachau Concentration Subcamp.

No one was really in there except a group of German men dressed in black coat tails and top hats with big red sashes that had buttons all over them. We didn't really know what that was about, so we just sat down. Our food came out on slices of tree trunk- pretty cool! It wasn't any better than the food in Munich, though. A little while after our lunch came out, we heard a marching band outside. Nikki and I got up to look outside to see what was going on. All the men in top hats had gone out and there was a marching band of 20 or so men in uniforms and gold helmets marching right up to our restaurant. We snapped a picture and went back in to eat, not thinking anything of it. Five minutes later, the band started a new song and entered the little restaurant! The marched around while playing some German songs, sat down, exchanged some group yells with the men in top hats, drank a beer with the men in top hats, stood up and played another song while they marched out. They all looked like characters- some came over and chatted with us. There was also a really pretty girl dressed in a red dress with her hair done up with sparkles. This whole thing was for Fasching, and she was the Fasching Princess. How cool is that?

The Fasching gathering at the little restaurant we ate at in Füssen

Neuschwanstein is at the base of the Alps, but we did have to take a shuttle from the trainstation in Füssen to the closest town to it, Schwangau. Then we were supposed to be able to take a shuttle from Schwangau further up the mountain, but since the roads were too dangerous for buses, we took a horsedrawn carriage for 9 euros round trip. Believe me, it was worth it. The mountain was steep and wet and it would have taken us around an hour and a half total.

Our horse-drawn carriage that sat 12 (including the driver) at the top of the mountain

We had about an eight minute climb after that the rest of the way up, which we prolonged by taking lots of pictures of the mountains around the castle, which were breath-taking. We had bought our tickets for the English tour of the castle down in Schwangau, so we just waited around for awhile, and looked at the bridge that is across a little valley from which one can apparently see the best view of Neuschwanstein. We kind of considered going over there, until we realized that the big gate that said something along the lines of "Don't enter- dangerous, falling rocks and snow" was blocking the entrance to the path to the bridge. We saw a lot of people go around the gate though. The phonecalls home about being crushed by rocks and snow or slipping off the side of a cliff didn't seem worth it.

The bridge with the spectacular view of Neuschwanstein to which I would like to hike in the summer, without the avalanches

Schloss Neuschwantstein

The tour was cool, if on the shorter side of what I expected. That's because King Ludwig II, the king who had Neuschwanstein built as his vacation castle in the late 1800s, died before it was finished. It took seventeen years to get as far as they did, and he died with only a third of the rooms finished. We saw the chapel, his bedroom (with his incredible bed that took 17 woodworkers something like 4 years to make, with replicas of all the gothic cathedrals in Bavaria all over the top of it), the living room, the dining hall, and some others. It was really really ornate, with swans as the dominant motif. I can only imagine what he had planned for the rest of it. Although it was short, I'd say the whole effort was worth it. I would definitely do it again.

When we got back, we went to an Augustiner brewhouse (there are at least two), where I ate one of my few non-sausage meals. I had traditional roast pork with a gravy and a gelatinous mashed potato ball. The dish was so good- the meat just melted in your mouth and was so flavorful. We were there right after a huge rugby match that Munich lost. We saw lots of red and white (the Munich colors, I'm assuming) and heard some singing, and I even saw a guy with a Munich team tattoo on his forehead (hoping it was fake).

The giant "Das Boot" (actually der Stiefel) for 500 euros that I saw on the way out of the restaurant

A little later that night, we went to this club called 8 Seasons, which had some popular techno guys playing. It was fun, but it wasn't as interesting as the rest of my time in Munich. I mean, a club is a club anywhere to me. But I had a good time.

Ich bin Googler (saw it on the way to the club)

The next morning, we got up and went to the Hauptbonhof (the main train station) to catch our train to the airport. You wouldn't believe the selection of good food even at the train station! I got some, you guessed it, sausage as well as an Apfelstreudel (apple streudel) and some other donut-like thing for the journey home.

We got to the airport and went through security really easily. We sat around for awhile watching the bicathlon (cross-country skiing and shooting) that was all over every tv there. The Germans are so outdoorsy! Then we heard the announcement that our plane was delayed for some reason, and that they'd give us an update in 10-15 minutes. Five minutes later, we had an update saying that the plane wasn't going to be used anymore, and they'd let us know the new departure time in another 10-15 minutes. Five minutes later we were told when it was, and soon after that we were boarding the plane. After we passed through the ticket gate, we were loaded onto buses that took us out to where the new plane was, where we got on. It turned out to be a really small plane, so Nikki and my bags didn't fit. We decided to check them, a little dismayed because of the extra time it would take in Paris. We didn't have to worry at all, since they had them right outside of the plane for us when we landed. I was extremely impressed with the effictiveness of Lufthansa- they always made announcements before they said they would and they avoided a domino effect of late planes by busing us to the location of the new plane. It wasn't exciting or anything, I was just very impressed.

Yesterday I took my first dance class in Paris at the Centre de Danse du Marais. It was a two hour-long Funk Jazz Hip Hop class that was really challenging for two reasons: 1) I'm out of dancing shape and 2) it was at a pretty advanced level. I was definitely not the worst in the class, though, so that's encouraging. The teacher was this young black woman with bright red braids sticking out every which way and she was an awesome dancer. She would show a combination like it was nothing and then two of the best male dancers in the class would immediately join in and do the combination perfectly. She spoke for the most part in French, but her American accent was perfect, so I wonder if she was brought up bilingual. There was some sort of assistant guy there who kept an eye on me and two other new girls, and gave us hints and words of encouragement. I'm going to be trying out more classes over the next few weeks so I'll let you know how they go. I never realized how cool Marais is- I saw a funky tea place and a cuban restaurant on the way home, as well as a gay bar and lots of little jewelry and purse shops. I can't wait to go there with my friends!

Today in Paris was absolutely beautiful- upper 40s and sunny. I took the metro from school to the Anvers exit in Montmartre to go look at a hostel there. The hostel turned out to be a bust, but rather than head home Tonight for dinner, we had this pasta with carrots and onions in it that was pretty good. We had the usual cheese and salad, but we also had an apple compote with lemons and vanilla in it that I thought was worth relaying to you all.

Well, that's all for now! I'm happy to be in Paris for awhile now- I'm a little travelled out and I am looking forward to getting to know Paris better. And I really really can't wait to see my family in a week and a half and Taylor a week after that!

"Bye and see you soon" in the subway station

Fertig,
Ellie