For some people on our trip their goal was to spend every possible moment in Marseille on the beach. My objective? To go SCUBA diving in the Mediterranean. I had been communicating with a local dive shop to come diving with them and thankfully they also had a special offer for non-certified people to dive with them as well. The lucky and brave candidate was Liz- her boyfriend is a very good diver and she was interested in seeing what it was like and to explore Marseille a bit more. An added bonus was that they had a very reasonable price for a guided boat dive, only 30 Euros and 47 with equipment—not bad at all.
It was an interesting struggle communicating with the dive shop to book our spots. The response I got to “Est-ce que vous parlez anglais?” was “Attendez. Je trouverai quel qu’un.” Well this someone had very limited English, so I decided to stick with the French. It was a nice test. After repeating what she said several times to make sure I understood her, we were set. Then we just had to get there. We had a bit of an adventure getting to the dive shop: Le Centre de Loisirs in Les Goudes, Marseille -- we took 2 metro lines and 3 buses to get there!
We arrived very early, so our logical decision? Let’s hit the beach! Once again it was a nice beach. There was some trash floating in the water by the cove, but a few men were raking it out of the water, and throwing it away. Good for them.
We met up with the dive crew to get started. The crew spoke little English, so it was fun to go between translating and explaining dive stuff for Liz. We had 3 different pre-dive chats to explain what was going on. Twice in franglais- more French than English, then the last one in English - one of the staff divers spoke very good English, and was eager to teach us in English how to dive. He was later apologetic and surprised to learn I was an “Advanced Diver” and that I didn’t need the educational talk, but it was nice. We also met a few French people from Avignon who spoke decent English. Fun times on the boat with them. Reminded me of why I love divers so much- their easy to get along with and they’re a lot of fun.
The dive itself was fun. My guide was very nice- Jean Pierre. He showed me around the site, pointed out some shells and interesting fish behavior. I was fortunate enough in my trip abroad to Bermuda to be taught by a cephalopod expert (octopus, squid, cuttlefish) who taught us how to spot octopus, and I did!
After the dive we were on the boat headed back when they stopped the boat. The cause? A MOLA MOLA FISH! The guy I was talking to didn’t know the English name for it, only the scientific name. So what is it? The Ocean Sunfish. A prehistoric fish that has an interesting evolutionary history. And it’s technically considered plankton – it can’t swim against a current. So cool to actually see one.
Gros Bisous à Mola mola ;)
Lisa
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Restful Rouen and Marseille
Thursday was a day filled of recuperating from Paris and getting ready for our next big trip: Marseilles! To allow a decent amount of time for the trip, Tony and Caroline prepared double classes on Thursday to give us Friday off – Thanks!! Greek class consisted of talking in circles about the quality of life and science vs. philosophy. French class was about different verb tenses and listening comprehension for train station messages…. Always difficult to understand it. After class, Caroline convinced some of us to head into town for the last Terrace de Jeudi, the summer concerts that they have in Rouen. It was a nice concert, but we still headed back early to try to get some sleep before our early morning departure.
Friday morning we met up early to start our multi-stop journey ahead of us: La Gare de Rouen to Paris at Gare St. Lazare, then a metro ride to Gare de Lyon to take us to our final destination: Marseille! We arrived in sunny Marseille around 1:30, got to the hotel around 2:00 and we were on the beach by 3 pm. PARFAIT!
At the beach we definitely had a stroke of culture shock: I’ve never seen so many topless women in my entire life! Apparently they have the choice to be covered or not—many of the older women decided to go half naked. Lovely.
Around 6 we decided to head back to get ready for a nice dinner. It was wonderfully shocking to stay to the beach so late- in Newport the latest you could stay at the beach would be around 4 or 5 if you’re lucky. In Marseille? People were still arriving around 6 pm with plenty of time to spare. Pretty nice - quite jealous of the extended daylight.
Friday morning we met up early to start our multi-stop journey ahead of us: La Gare de Rouen to Paris at Gare St. Lazare, then a metro ride to Gare de Lyon to take us to our final destination: Marseille! We arrived in sunny Marseille around 1:30, got to the hotel around 2:00 and we were on the beach by 3 pm. PARFAIT!
At the beach we definitely had a stroke of culture shock: I’ve never seen so many topless women in my entire life! Apparently they have the choice to be covered or not—many of the older women decided to go half naked. Lovely.
Around 6 we decided to head back to get ready for a nice dinner. It was wonderfully shocking to stay to the beach so late- in Newport the latest you could stay at the beach would be around 4 or 5 if you’re lucky. In Marseille? People were still arriving around 6 pm with plenty of time to spare. Pretty nice - quite jealous of the extended daylight.
Visiting the Inevitable: Death
Wednesday was a day filled of death? We started at the Catacombs, which was a real eye opener about life. The catacombs started out as a quarry for limestone, and then as the cemeteries in Paris filled up, they ran out of room for the bodies. So a logical response? Let’s take the bodies out and stack the bones in the quarry! 6 million people were removed from their first resting spot and were taken apart and stacked in the catacombs. Along the way they had anecdotal sayings about life and death. The overall affect: you can do all these different things during your lifetime, but in the end you’re going to be a bunch of bones. Yep, I guess I better leave a good legend or story behind to live on?
Which leads me to the Pantheon. It’s an old cathedral in the Latin Quarter and it holds the remains of many famous people that have made contributions to the world, or honored France. Most notably (to me at least) were Marie and Pierre Curie, Voltaire, Louis Braille, Jean Rousseau and Victor Hugo. One of the coolest things about the Pantheon is that it still has many empty crypts leaving space for people to be honored and entombed here in the future. It’s history in progress.
After the Pantheon, Becky, Daren and I had planned to go eat our lunches in the Tuileries Garden, but along the way to the metro stop, found a cute little English pub with a good menu and really good prices, so of course we stopped to grab a bite. I got some garlicky chicken and the others went for traditional fish and chips, complete with mushy peas (and no cole slaw… reality check that fish and chips are not only from New England and that they originated in England). Quite delicious. Later that afternoon we met up with the group at Gare St. Lazare to return home… ehhh to Rouen. After weeks of traveling and spending each night in a different place, it’s very nice and homey to have a familiar place to return to. Gotta love this town.
Encore une fois,
Bisous!
Which leads me to the Pantheon. It’s an old cathedral in the Latin Quarter and it holds the remains of many famous people that have made contributions to the world, or honored France. Most notably (to me at least) were Marie and Pierre Curie, Voltaire, Louis Braille, Jean Rousseau and Victor Hugo. One of the coolest things about the Pantheon is that it still has many empty crypts leaving space for people to be honored and entombed here in the future. It’s history in progress.
After the Pantheon, Becky, Daren and I had planned to go eat our lunches in the Tuileries Garden, but along the way to the metro stop, found a cute little English pub with a good menu and really good prices, so of course we stopped to grab a bite. I got some garlicky chicken and the others went for traditional fish and chips, complete with mushy peas (and no cole slaw… reality check that fish and chips are not only from New England and that they originated in England). Quite delicious. Later that afternoon we met up with the group at Gare St. Lazare to return home… ehhh to Rouen. After weeks of traveling and spending each night in a different place, it’s very nice and homey to have a familiar place to return to. Gotta love this town.
Encore une fois,
Bisous!
Prisons to Aquariums
Tuesday we had only 1 official stop to make: Musée D’Orsay. D’orsay used to be a train station, but was converted into an impressionist and modern art museum. It was my favorite art museum on the last trip, but now that title goes to L’Orangerie.
After D’Orsay, Becky, Laura, Meghan, Caroline and I headed over to L’Île de la Cité to visit some of the lesser visited sights: La Conciergie (palace turned prison and a last stop for many people before they are guillotined during the French Revolution, one of whom was Marie Antoinette, and a possible relative of mine? There’s a list of all 2658 people who were executed, someone with my grandfather’s name was listed….). It was interesting to learn that at this time in history, even prisons had different levels of living before being beheaded. The poor were cramped in tiny rooms with no furniture; the rich could purchase a single room with a cot and a desk to continue working.
After visiting la Conciergerie (and taken advantage of their free bathroom) we went to visit La Sainte Chapelle. We tried to visit it 3 years ago but the line was insanely long. Today it wasn’t too bad, only 45 minutes wait. And it was definitely worth the wait. Basically the entire chapel is stained glass windows from floor to ceiling depicting 10 different stories from the bible. Beautiful.
The rest of the afternoon took a different twist: AQUARIUM TIME! I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the group I was with (minus Caroline) wanted to go check out the aquarium, so we did. As the Fishes Curator at New England Aquarium told me, aquariums in France are generally small, but very well done. And this one was no exception. They had a very nice variety of fresh and saltwater (including an African Lungfish!! ) . After the aquarium we went back to the hostel, changed into our “fancy clothes” for the trip to meet to have a nice dinner with the class, treated to icecream, and went to Les Halles for the evening.
Bon soirée!
Lisa
After D’Orsay, Becky, Laura, Meghan, Caroline and I headed over to L’Île de la Cité to visit some of the lesser visited sights: La Conciergie (palace turned prison and a last stop for many people before they are guillotined during the French Revolution, one of whom was Marie Antoinette, and a possible relative of mine? There’s a list of all 2658 people who were executed, someone with my grandfather’s name was listed….). It was interesting to learn that at this time in history, even prisons had different levels of living before being beheaded. The poor were cramped in tiny rooms with no furniture; the rich could purchase a single room with a cot and a desk to continue working.
After visiting la Conciergerie (and taken advantage of their free bathroom) we went to visit La Sainte Chapelle. We tried to visit it 3 years ago but the line was insanely long. Today it wasn’t too bad, only 45 minutes wait. And it was definitely worth the wait. Basically the entire chapel is stained glass windows from floor to ceiling depicting 10 different stories from the bible. Beautiful.
The rest of the afternoon took a different twist: AQUARIUM TIME! I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the group I was with (minus Caroline) wanted to go check out the aquarium, so we did. As the Fishes Curator at New England Aquarium told me, aquariums in France are generally small, but very well done. And this one was no exception. They had a very nice variety of fresh and saltwater (including an African Lungfish!! ) . After the aquarium we went back to the hostel, changed into our “fancy clothes” for the trip to meet to have a nice dinner with the class, treated to icecream, and went to Les Halles for the evening.
Bon soirée!
Lisa
Notre Dame and Some Art
Monday we met at the Notre Dame cathedral and had a lecture on some French history, the Notre Dame cathedral and L’Île de la Cité in particular. (We should have a French history course as part of the French language program at RWU by the way). After we waited in line to visit the cathedral (it surprisingly went by very quickly) and we were lucky enough to see part of the midday-mass (we didn’t stay to watch it, though). Afterwards we went to L’Île de la Cité to get some lunch and some of the famous ice cream. Unfortunately the ice-cream shop was closed, but we had a very nice lunch with the class. After running around with Tony and Caroline to find a metro shop with mobilisse tickets for the class we went to L’Orangerie next to la Place de la Concorde (the guillotine used to be here during the French Revolution, now it’s a beautiful square with statues for each of the major cities (Rouen included) and a crazy roundabout.
L’orangerie was amazing! They have a lot of different impressionist works, but it’s most popular for the Water Lily paintings by Monet. It was beautiful and very well done. There were 3 rooms dedicated to the Water Lilies, each with 3 paintings. The paintings were huge! They were approximately 4-5 feet tall and ranging from 20 – 40 feet long. The paintings were hung on white walls with benches in the middle of the room so you can sit and admire them… which we did. It was an incredible experience.
Afterwards we went to the Tuileries Garden to eat our dinner (sandwiches smuggled from the hostel, cheers for that!) and had some fun with the fishes and birds around the fountain. After eating we went to check out the modern art museum, Centre Pomidou. Generally I’m not fond of modern art, but I liked the floor we went to. A lot of the paintings had bright colors and crazy patterns, or would take a well known monument, such as la Tour Eiffel, and distort it to make it their own. It was a cool museum. Plus, the really nice view of the city made it an even better visit.
At dusk we went to L’arc de triomphe to climb up and see L’étoile at night. We were able to catch the 10 pm night show at the Eiffel Tour, when the Tower lights up and glitters. It was very nice, worth the crazy spiral of stairs to reach the top.
Bisous,
Lisa
L’orangerie was amazing! They have a lot of different impressionist works, but it’s most popular for the Water Lily paintings by Monet. It was beautiful and very well done. There were 3 rooms dedicated to the Water Lilies, each with 3 paintings. The paintings were huge! They were approximately 4-5 feet tall and ranging from 20 – 40 feet long. The paintings were hung on white walls with benches in the middle of the room so you can sit and admire them… which we did. It was an incredible experience.
Afterwards we went to the Tuileries Garden to eat our dinner (sandwiches smuggled from the hostel, cheers for that!) and had some fun with the fishes and birds around the fountain. After eating we went to check out the modern art museum, Centre Pomidou. Generally I’m not fond of modern art, but I liked the floor we went to. A lot of the paintings had bright colors and crazy patterns, or would take a well known monument, such as la Tour Eiffel, and distort it to make it their own. It was a cool museum. Plus, the really nice view of the city made it an even better visit.
At dusk we went to L’arc de triomphe to climb up and see L’étoile at night. We were able to catch the 10 pm night show at the Eiffel Tour, when the Tower lights up and glitters. It was very nice, worth the crazy spiral of stairs to reach the top.
Bisous,
Lisa
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Oh My God! That bird just caught that fish!
Monday we went to the Notre Dame cathedral.After we waited in line to visit the cathedral (it surprisingly went by very quickly) and we were lucky enough to see part of the midday-mass (we didn’t stay to watch it, though). Afterwards we went to L’Île de la Cité to get some lunch and some of the famous ice cream. Unfortunately the ice-cream shop was closed, but we had a very nice lunch with everyone. After running around with Tony and Caroline to find a metro shop with mobilisse tickets for the class we went to L’Orangerie next to la Place de la Concorde (the guillotine used to be here during the French Revolution. Now it’s a beautiful square with statues for each of the major cities (Rouen included) and a crazy roundabout. L’orangerie was amazing! They have a lot of different impressionist works, but it’s most popular for the Water Lily paintings by Monet. It was beautiful and very well done. There were 3 rooms dedicated to the Water Lilies, each with 3 paintings. The paintings were huge! They were approximately 4-5 feet tall and ranging from 20 – 40 feet long. The paintings were hung on white walls with benches in the middle of the room so you can sit and admire them… which we did. It was an incredible experience.
Afterwards we went to the Tuileries Garden to eat our dinner (sandwiches smuggled from the hostel... cheers for that!) and had some fun with the fishes and birds around the fountain, where we would give the fish a piece of bread, they would eat it, then the birds would scoop them up! It was sorta funny! After eating we went to check out the modern art museum, Centre Pomidou. Generally I’m not fond of modern art, but I liked the floor we went to. A lot of the paintings had bright colors and crazy patterns, or would take a well known monument, such as la Tour Eiffel, and distort it to make it their own. It was a cool museum. Plus, the really nice view of the city made it an even better visit.
At dusk we went to L’arc de triomphe to climb up and see L’étoile at night. We were able to catch the 10 pm night show at the Eiffel Tour, when the Tower lights up and glitters. It was very nice, worth the crazy spiral of stairs to reach the top.
Lisa
Afterwards we went to the Tuileries Garden to eat our dinner (sandwiches smuggled from the hostel... cheers for that!) and had some fun with the fishes and birds around the fountain, where we would give the fish a piece of bread, they would eat it, then the birds would scoop them up! It was sorta funny! After eating we went to check out the modern art museum, Centre Pomidou. Generally I’m not fond of modern art, but I liked the floor we went to. A lot of the paintings had bright colors and crazy patterns, or would take a well known monument, such as la Tour Eiffel, and distort it to make it their own. It was a cool museum. Plus, the really nice view of the city made it an even better visit.
At dusk we went to L’arc de triomphe to climb up and see L’étoile at night. We were able to catch the 10 pm night show at the Eiffel Tour, when the Tower lights up and glitters. It was very nice, worth the crazy spiral of stairs to reach the top.
Lisa
Un week-end à Paris
Samedi
Samedi matin, tout le monde est allé au Paris. Nous avons rencontré avec Caroline et elle nous avons emmené à l’auberge de jeunesse où nous restons. Après, nous avons visité le Musée du Louvre pour visiter les pièces fameuses comme Le venus de Milo, la Joconde (Mona Lisa), les 3 frères, la bête-noir de Medusa, plusieurs autre que j’oublie maintenant, et ma pièce préfère, Winged Victory. J’aime le Louvre, mais il y avait beaucoup de monde, trop de monde pour apprécier les œuvres-des-arts.
Après le musée, j’ai emmené tout le monde à la Tour Eiffel pour voir les lumières et la tour à nuit. C’était amusant- nous avons apporté des bouteilles de vin et du chocolat et nous avions une bonne soirée.
Dimanche
Jour 2 du Louvre. C’était plus sympa aujourd’hui. Nous avons vu beaucoup de choses comme les sculptures Grecques, « The Seated Scribe » et les pièces plus vieilles que les choses que nous connassons, 4500-3000 B.C. !! Trop vieux pour la compréhension ;)
Après le Louvre, tous les étudiants sont allés au Champs-Elysées pour regarder la Tour de France! Il y a toujours plusieurs heures jusqu'à l’arriva des cyclistes. (Nous sommes arrivés à 13:45 et les cyclistes sont arrivés à 16:45!) Donc, pendant cette fois, Emerald, Becky et moi, nous avons parle une femme canadienne et un homme Parisien. Eventuellement les cyclistes sont arrives et nous sommes allées à la place St. Michel pour le diner. C’était délicieux et sympa. ;) Après manger nous sommes rentrées à la Tour Eiffel ensuite nous sommes retournés à l’auberge.
Bisous !
Lisa
p.s. I'll translate this soon.... basically the Louvre was crazy, we went to the Eiffel Tower at night, and watched the Tour de France come in :)
Samedi matin, tout le monde est allé au Paris. Nous avons rencontré avec Caroline et elle nous avons emmené à l’auberge de jeunesse où nous restons. Après, nous avons visité le Musée du Louvre pour visiter les pièces fameuses comme Le venus de Milo, la Joconde (Mona Lisa), les 3 frères, la bête-noir de Medusa, plusieurs autre que j’oublie maintenant, et ma pièce préfère, Winged Victory. J’aime le Louvre, mais il y avait beaucoup de monde, trop de monde pour apprécier les œuvres-des-arts.
Après le musée, j’ai emmené tout le monde à la Tour Eiffel pour voir les lumières et la tour à nuit. C’était amusant- nous avons apporté des bouteilles de vin et du chocolat et nous avions une bonne soirée.
Dimanche
Jour 2 du Louvre. C’était plus sympa aujourd’hui. Nous avons vu beaucoup de choses comme les sculptures Grecques, « The Seated Scribe » et les pièces plus vieilles que les choses que nous connassons, 4500-3000 B.C. !! Trop vieux pour la compréhension ;)
Après le Louvre, tous les étudiants sont allés au Champs-Elysées pour regarder la Tour de France! Il y a toujours plusieurs heures jusqu'à l’arriva des cyclistes. (Nous sommes arrivés à 13:45 et les cyclistes sont arrivés à 16:45!) Donc, pendant cette fois, Emerald, Becky et moi, nous avons parle une femme canadienne et un homme Parisien. Eventuellement les cyclistes sont arrives et nous sommes allées à la place St. Michel pour le diner. C’était délicieux et sympa. ;) Après manger nous sommes rentrées à la Tour Eiffel ensuite nous sommes retournés à l’auberge.
Bisous !
Lisa
p.s. I'll translate this soon.... basically the Louvre was crazy, we went to the Eiffel Tower at night, and watched the Tour de France come in :)
Impressionist Rouen
Wednesday was a nice quiet day in Rouen, gladly welcome after a busy weekend in Belgium, Etretat and Giverny (Monet's house), which was breathtaking, by the way. We had class (including a quiz on ancient Greek pronunciations (AHHHH!)) then spent the day in Rouen buying our train tickets to Marseille (it's amazing how much patience the trip planning people have), booking our hotel and planning our trip. After dinner we decided to check out the nightime art-light show here. 2 years ago they displayed a series of Monet's paintings with crazy renditions (complete with a flying witch) on the La Notre Dame Cathedrale de Rouen. This year they're showing a variety of impressionist works on the Musee des Beaux Arts. It was a really nice show. They had some very nice transitions, music, and twists on the paintings that gave it a new life.
It's days like these that I realize how much I love this city. :)
Le Musee des Beaux-Arts
Thursday we went to the Musee des Beaux Arts in Rouen, where they're having a special exposition for Impressionist works from Normandie. The most impressive part was the 12 or so paintings of the Cathedrale de Rouen by Monet. Monet painted approximately 30 pictures of the Cathedrale at different times during the day with different lighting. The mayor wasn't very interested in the paintings when Monet painted them, so they were scattered all over the world (1 of them was from the MFA in Boston, btw). It was really nice to see a dozen together again. Our walking tour guide said that they've been working on this Expo for 10 years-- you can definitely see and appreciate their hard work. It was a beautiful collection.
After the museum I stayed in town to shop and grab lunch. (I LOVE the summer sales!) At 18:00, Becky, George and I met up with Caroline and Tony to meet some other international students for some cheese and wine. It was a nice evening. We got to practice our French with a French student from Rouen named Charlotte and learn about the education program here in France. It was nice- hopefully we'll hang out again sometime.
After this, Becky and I went with Caroline, Yannick and Vicky (Katie's old teacher and his girlfriend) to meet up with some of Caroline's friends to watch the Thursday night terrace concert. During the summertime in Rouen they have concerts on Thursday nights in different locations all over Rouen. Tonight was a jazz theme. Unfortunately, in true Norman style, it started to pour! (Il pleut comme le vauche pis <- new expression from Yannick meaning it's raining cats and dogs, except it literally means it's raining like a cow peeing). We got out of the rain and headed to Big Ben Pub where we met up with other students and had a nice evening out.
Gotta love the rain here ;)
Bisous,
Lisa
It's days like these that I realize how much I love this city. :)
Le Musee des Beaux-Arts
Thursday we went to the Musee des Beaux Arts in Rouen, where they're having a special exposition for Impressionist works from Normandie. The most impressive part was the 12 or so paintings of the Cathedrale de Rouen by Monet. Monet painted approximately 30 pictures of the Cathedrale at different times during the day with different lighting. The mayor wasn't very interested in the paintings when Monet painted them, so they were scattered all over the world (1 of them was from the MFA in Boston, btw). It was really nice to see a dozen together again. Our walking tour guide said that they've been working on this Expo for 10 years-- you can definitely see and appreciate their hard work. It was a beautiful collection.
After the museum I stayed in town to shop and grab lunch. (I LOVE the summer sales!) At 18:00, Becky, George and I met up with Caroline and Tony to meet some other international students for some cheese and wine. It was a nice evening. We got to practice our French with a French student from Rouen named Charlotte and learn about the education program here in France. It was nice- hopefully we'll hang out again sometime.
After this, Becky and I went with Caroline, Yannick and Vicky (Katie's old teacher and his girlfriend) to meet up with some of Caroline's friends to watch the Thursday night terrace concert. During the summertime in Rouen they have concerts on Thursday nights in different locations all over Rouen. Tonight was a jazz theme. Unfortunately, in true Norman style, it started to pour! (Il pleut comme le vauche pis <- new expression from Yannick meaning it's raining cats and dogs, except it literally means it's raining like a cow peeing). We got out of the rain and headed to Big Ben Pub where we met up with other students and had a nice evening out.
Gotta love the rain here ;)
Bisous,
Lisa
Monday, July 19, 2010
Belgium and Étretat
This past weekend 7 other students and I went to Brussels, Belgium. We had a good time going around the city and visiting some of their most famous monuments, the Mannekis Pis (fountain of a peeing boy by Grand Place, not sure why it's so famous) and the Atomium. The Atomium was built for the 1958 World Expo, the first world expo after WW2. It's over 800 meters tall and is constructed to look like an atom (9 balls connected by tubes, making it look like an atom. However, any good scientist would know that deserve the nobel prize for this one: the central molecule has 8 others connected to it... an impossibility in the world of chemistry.... ok, science dorkiness ends here, promise!)
Overall we had a nice trip. We were saddened to learn that the "Belgium waffles" that we're used to are really a dessert food, not breakfast. This led to 2 mornings of searching for breakfast waffles that didn't exist... whoops! The dessert waffles... amazing, definitely worth the exploring.
Étretat
This is my second time on this Rouen, France trips. One of the great improvements of this trip to the last one is the day trips. The one we went on today was incredible! We went to Étretat, a beach in Haute-Normandy north of Le Havre. It's famous for it's cliffs and the natural arches in the cliffs and bright blue water. Instead of sand, like Dieppe, this was a pebble beach. It hurt walking on the beach, but it was definitely worth it. Liz and I ran into the crisp water (definitely MUCH colder than the GOT, but still nice) and I swam around for most of the afternoon. Daren, Emerald, Kyrie and I all swam over the cliffs to check out a cave and continued swimming out to the big arch. Unfortunately the current was a bit strong so we were unable to swim all the way over to the "private beach" that we found, but we had a long, fun swim nonetheless, and got to explore a tunnel and more of the cliffs from a view most people don't venture out to see. Good times all around. Everyday should be an Étretat day ;)
In the morning we have class (yay Protagoras!) <-hint of sarcasm there... and then we're heading off to Giverny, la maison de Claude Monet! :) <-real excitement there
Bonne nuit!
<3 Lisa
Overall we had a nice trip. We were saddened to learn that the "Belgium waffles" that we're used to are really a dessert food, not breakfast. This led to 2 mornings of searching for breakfast waffles that didn't exist... whoops! The dessert waffles... amazing, definitely worth the exploring.
Étretat
This is my second time on this Rouen, France trips. One of the great improvements of this trip to the last one is the day trips. The one we went on today was incredible! We went to Étretat, a beach in Haute-Normandy north of Le Havre. It's famous for it's cliffs and the natural arches in the cliffs and bright blue water. Instead of sand, like Dieppe, this was a pebble beach. It hurt walking on the beach, but it was definitely worth it. Liz and I ran into the crisp water (definitely MUCH colder than the GOT, but still nice) and I swam around for most of the afternoon. Daren, Emerald, Kyrie and I all swam over the cliffs to check out a cave and continued swimming out to the big arch. Unfortunately the current was a bit strong so we were unable to swim all the way over to the "private beach" that we found, but we had a long, fun swim nonetheless, and got to explore a tunnel and more of the cliffs from a view most people don't venture out to see. Good times all around. Everyday should be an Étretat day ;)
In the morning we have class (yay Protagoras!) <-hint of sarcasm there... and then we're heading off to Giverny, la maison de Claude Monet! :) <-real excitement there
Bonne nuit!
<3 Lisa
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Don't let the devil pull you down! Quicksand!!
D-Day Beaches and le Mont Saint Michel
Monday we went to the World War II memorial museum in Caen, Normandy and then went to the American Cemetery where all of the American soldiers who died in Normandy, mainly from the D-day invasion. It was enlightening to watch the video in the museum showing the invasion and the progress the Allies made, then to go to the Cemetery. It’s hard to believe all of the horror that happened in this beautiful country, only 60 years ago, and how times have changed. It made me thankful to be living now in a time of (semi) peace, where I’m not terrified of my country’s enemies taking over and destroying everything I’ve ever known, and hurting my family and friends, and how unfortunate it was that 5,000 young men had to fight and risk their lives so that we could all live freely.
Our next stop was Mont St. Michel. This was my 3rd time visiting le Mont Saint Michel, but it’s just as beautiful and awe-inspiring as the first time. There was a spring tide and was still covering the parking lot, so we parked down the street a little bit, and we walked down. As we were walking, we realized that the tide was receding, so we called Tony and Caroline, and hitched a ride back with them, and splashed around a bit in the water. After our tour of Mont St. Michel (same tour guide as last time, btw), we raced back to the vans and headed to the other side of Mont saint michel’s bank (it’s essentially on an island, well it was back in the day at least), and met our guide to walk across through the tides to Mont St Michel. It was sooo nice! The guide pointed out a skate egg sac (mermaid’s purse), a cuttlefish bone, a bryozoans colony (I was quite impressed by this because of one of our trips in Bermuda and the time we spent searching for them), and some sponges. It was really cool to walk through the silt and get stuck in the quick sand! Mont Saint Michel was amazing, perfect trip
Joyeux fête de bastille!!
Yesterday was Bastille Day—French Independence Day. A group of us went into Paris to check it out. Upon arriving in Gare Saint Lazare in Paris, a thunderstorm hit. I guess it was due—it was the first time it rained since I’ve been here…. 3 weeks. After the rain subsided, we walked around Notre Dame, did some touristy shopping and headed toward la Place de la Concorde and walked down the Champs Elysees. The Champs Elysees was insane! Soo many people everyone! I was a bit surprised though. I was sort of expecting to see a bunch of red, white and blue (French colors too, not just American) everyone and a lot of celebrations, but it seemed like the rain washed away some of the cheer. Despite this, it was a beautiful afternoon. We caught the train back to Rouen at a perfect time. As we were waiting in line for a taxi, we could hear the fireworks going off. We raced down to the waterfront and got to see some really beautiful fireworks, and more people than I’ve ever seen in Rouen, combined ;) .
It's time for bed! Big day ahead tomorrow! Class and a trip to Bruxelles in Belgium for the weekend.
Bisous!
<3 Lisa
Monday we went to the World War II memorial museum in Caen, Normandy and then went to the American Cemetery where all of the American soldiers who died in Normandy, mainly from the D-day invasion. It was enlightening to watch the video in the museum showing the invasion and the progress the Allies made, then to go to the Cemetery. It’s hard to believe all of the horror that happened in this beautiful country, only 60 years ago, and how times have changed. It made me thankful to be living now in a time of (semi) peace, where I’m not terrified of my country’s enemies taking over and destroying everything I’ve ever known, and hurting my family and friends, and how unfortunate it was that 5,000 young men had to fight and risk their lives so that we could all live freely.
Our next stop was Mont St. Michel. This was my 3rd time visiting le Mont Saint Michel, but it’s just as beautiful and awe-inspiring as the first time. There was a spring tide and was still covering the parking lot, so we parked down the street a little bit, and we walked down. As we were walking, we realized that the tide was receding, so we called Tony and Caroline, and hitched a ride back with them, and splashed around a bit in the water. After our tour of Mont St. Michel (same tour guide as last time, btw), we raced back to the vans and headed to the other side of Mont saint michel’s bank (it’s essentially on an island, well it was back in the day at least), and met our guide to walk across through the tides to Mont St Michel. It was sooo nice! The guide pointed out a skate egg sac (mermaid’s purse), a cuttlefish bone, a bryozoans colony (I was quite impressed by this because of one of our trips in Bermuda and the time we spent searching for them), and some sponges. It was really cool to walk through the silt and get stuck in the quick sand! Mont Saint Michel was amazing, perfect trip
Joyeux fête de bastille!!
Yesterday was Bastille Day—French Independence Day. A group of us went into Paris to check it out. Upon arriving in Gare Saint Lazare in Paris, a thunderstorm hit. I guess it was due—it was the first time it rained since I’ve been here…. 3 weeks. After the rain subsided, we walked around Notre Dame, did some touristy shopping and headed toward la Place de la Concorde and walked down the Champs Elysees. The Champs Elysees was insane! Soo many people everyone! I was a bit surprised though. I was sort of expecting to see a bunch of red, white and blue (French colors too, not just American) everyone and a lot of celebrations, but it seemed like the rain washed away some of the cheer. Despite this, it was a beautiful afternoon. We caught the train back to Rouen at a perfect time. As we were waiting in line for a taxi, we could hear the fireworks going off. We raced down to the waterfront and got to see some really beautiful fireworks, and more people than I’ve ever seen in Rouen, combined ;) .
It's time for bed! Big day ahead tomorrow! Class and a trip to Bruxelles in Belgium for the weekend.
Bisous!
<3 Lisa
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The lone "intrepid" traveler
Bon soir tout le monde!! Sorry we haven’t written in a while…. Life has been very busy! So from this point on, this is Lisa. I’m currently in Rouen, capital of Haut Normandy where Monet painted and where Jeanne d’Arc was tried and burned at the stake. I met up with my professors and classmates this past Wednesday. Since then it feels like we’ve been going non-stop! We spent some time in Rouen taking a guided walking tour and exploring—it’s a wonderful city. You should definitely check it out if you ever have the opportunity. It’s incredible how much history and charm one city can hold (generally true for all of the towns and cities I’ve visited so far).
This is the summer holiday for many Frenchmen, so my desires to catch a last minute train to somewhere exotic were crushed, but we learned of the most amazing deal Haut-Normandy has to offer: the weekend regional pass. We jumped on a train and headed to Dieppe, a town on the coast, to explore more of Normandy and to go to the beach! Unfortunately it was insanely overcast at the beach (which is made of pebbles, not sand), so after dipping my feet in (other side of the Atlantic!) we went to tour the château-musée here, which was full of maritime history, ivory statues and carvings and impressioniste paintings. Even though we couldnt travel as far as we wantted, Dieppe was the perfect little day trip!
Today was really nice—started with a French, catholic mass at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen (a bit of culture shock there to an American, Lutheran girl), but it was definitely worth the confusion to attend mass in a medieval cathedral! Afterwards, we went to the outdoor market—soo many fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and other things! It's a nice tradition. Everyone has been so kind and helpful, and perhaps even amused by us! It's been great :)
In the morning we’re headed to the D-day beaches and memorial, then south to Mont Saint Michel where we’ll walk to the island!! That being said, bonne nuit tout le monde!
Bisous !
Lisa
Ps. The epic post will be a collaboration from the 3 of us…. Get ready for it!
This is the summer holiday for many Frenchmen, so my desires to catch a last minute train to somewhere exotic were crushed, but we learned of the most amazing deal Haut-Normandy has to offer: the weekend regional pass. We jumped on a train and headed to Dieppe, a town on the coast, to explore more of Normandy and to go to the beach! Unfortunately it was insanely overcast at the beach (which is made of pebbles, not sand), so after dipping my feet in (other side of the Atlantic!) we went to tour the château-musée here, which was full of maritime history, ivory statues and carvings and impressioniste paintings. Even though we couldnt travel as far as we wantted, Dieppe was the perfect little day trip!
Today was really nice—started with a French, catholic mass at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen (a bit of culture shock there to an American, Lutheran girl), but it was definitely worth the confusion to attend mass in a medieval cathedral! Afterwards, we went to the outdoor market—soo many fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and other things! It's a nice tradition. Everyone has been so kind and helpful, and perhaps even amused by us! It's been great :)
In the morning we’re headed to the D-day beaches and memorial, then south to Mont Saint Michel where we’ll walk to the island!! That being said, bonne nuit tout le monde!
Bisous !
Lisa
Ps. The epic post will be a collaboration from the 3 of us…. Get ready for it!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Can you ever just be whelmed? I think you can in europe
Happy fourth sorry we haven't updated in a bit French hotels don't have all te wifi that they promise but stolen wifi from the applestore outside the louvre works! We are safe and sound and having a blast don't worry we will have am epic post to update you soon.
Monday, June 28, 2010
1900s gothic to medieval castles
Bon soir!
We've arrived safe and sound in Carcassonne France. London was lovely as were our hosts! E and M had pet chickens and we got to feed them sweet corn from our hands! Our first day in town was incredibly fun and we walked and saw most of north London from Holborn to Westminster and buckingham palace to covent garden. A was a lovely guide with plentiful trivia about the city. We had a traditional fish and chips and watched the heartbreaking USA v Ghana futbol match.
Instead of waiting in line from wee hours of the morning to grab a ticket to the tennis match E and A joined us for a lovely walk down the souh bank and the Tate modern. We proceeded with a Mary poppins tour and sang songs outsid St Paul's cathedral. At which point we realized that the Germany England game was half over and we did a mad dash across town to Wimbledon, in record time, to see the saddest 20 minutes. It was amusing to see how empty the streets were during he match and how they filled up after. We joined A's flatmates and friends for a brief interlude in the park before heading back to the southbank to se the Globe and the tower bridge on our walk back we got to see the bridge and tower light up and the bridge open up to let a beautiful sailboat under. A beautiful London sight are pianos that have signs "play me I'm yours" and we met a nice canadian/English boy who was playing quite well and we taught him a basic waltz step in return for music. All of this with the beautiful tower bridge in one direction and a sunset in the other. It was a moderately early evening so that we could get to our flight in the morning which happened with great success and a couple funny incidents. My glasses set of the metal detector LS computer had to be swabbed and Lo's perfume tested.
After arriving in Carcassonne at the hotel we took some time to settle in and then went out to La Cite, the medieval part of town. The ramparts have been around since the 13th century. And there was a Bob Dylan concert scheduled for later this evening. He castle was quite beautiful and the Dylan fans interesting. Tomorrow we hit the road and begin our tour through the countryside.
We've arrived safe and sound in Carcassonne France. London was lovely as were our hosts! E and M had pet chickens and we got to feed them sweet corn from our hands! Our first day in town was incredibly fun and we walked and saw most of north London from Holborn to Westminster and buckingham palace to covent garden. A was a lovely guide with plentiful trivia about the city. We had a traditional fish and chips and watched the heartbreaking USA v Ghana futbol match.
Instead of waiting in line from wee hours of the morning to grab a ticket to the tennis match E and A joined us for a lovely walk down the souh bank and the Tate modern. We proceeded with a Mary poppins tour and sang songs outsid St Paul's cathedral. At which point we realized that the Germany England game was half over and we did a mad dash across town to Wimbledon, in record time, to see the saddest 20 minutes. It was amusing to see how empty the streets were during he match and how they filled up after. We joined A's flatmates and friends for a brief interlude in the park before heading back to the southbank to se the Globe and the tower bridge on our walk back we got to see the bridge and tower light up and the bridge open up to let a beautiful sailboat under. A beautiful London sight are pianos that have signs "play me I'm yours" and we met a nice canadian/English boy who was playing quite well and we taught him a basic waltz step in return for music. All of this with the beautiful tower bridge in one direction and a sunset in the other. It was a moderately early evening so that we could get to our flight in the morning which happened with great success and a couple funny incidents. My glasses set of the metal detector LS computer had to be swabbed and Lo's perfume tested.
After arriving in Carcassonne at the hotel we took some time to settle in and then went out to La Cite, the medieval part of town. The ramparts have been around since the 13th century. And there was a Bob Dylan concert scheduled for later this evening. He castle was quite beautiful and the Dylan fans interesting. Tomorrow we hit the road and begin our tour through the countryside.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Once upon a lamp post .... Midsommar!
And we are off!
Lisa and Lauren have explored so much already! We arrived in Stockholm on Wednesday afternoon and then explored the beautiful capital of Sweden. We watched some old men fishing while eating some delicious gelato, visited the royal burial cathedral then headed off to Gothenburg to visit with Sandra! We had a mishap with 24:00 time and had to rebook our train tickets and we got to sit in the pet cabin with some very well behaved dogs! Sandra and her friend met us at the train station then we traveled to her beautiful little apartment in Gothenburg! we were so tired, but wanted to stay up and chat! PLUS it was sort of light out?!? It definitely didn't feel like midnight!
We explored Gothenburg to the extreme! We hiked up to the old fort and was able to see the entire city! So pretty! I (Lisa) realized that there were charming little carvings on the lamp posts with cherubs, viking ships, suns, moons and stars, and a lion,the symbol of Gothenburg. We later went to the airport to pick up Emilee to begin our grand trip together!
So much love and fun! Today was midsummer festival and we had a picnic and danced around the midsommarstång. Much laughter and love and songs about being a frog without a tail or ears.
Our beautiful hostess was BEAUTIFUl and lovely and the sun was up and bright at 5am who decided that?
We're heading off soon to go to England to meet up with Emily and some other friends! Next stop... LONDON! :)
LOVE
the three flamingoes
Lisa and Lauren have explored so much already! We arrived in Stockholm on Wednesday afternoon and then explored the beautiful capital of Sweden. We watched some old men fishing while eating some delicious gelato, visited the royal burial cathedral then headed off to Gothenburg to visit with Sandra! We had a mishap with 24:00 time and had to rebook our train tickets and we got to sit in the pet cabin with some very well behaved dogs! Sandra and her friend met us at the train station then we traveled to her beautiful little apartment in Gothenburg! we were so tired, but wanted to stay up and chat! PLUS it was sort of light out?!? It definitely didn't feel like midnight!
We explored Gothenburg to the extreme! We hiked up to the old fort and was able to see the entire city! So pretty! I (Lisa) realized that there were charming little carvings on the lamp posts with cherubs, viking ships, suns, moons and stars, and a lion,the symbol of Gothenburg. We later went to the airport to pick up Emilee to begin our grand trip together!
So much love and fun! Today was midsummer festival and we had a picnic and danced around the midsommarstång. Much laughter and love and songs about being a frog without a tail or ears.
Our beautiful hostess was BEAUTIFUl and lovely and the sun was up and bright at 5am who decided that?
We're heading off soon to go to England to meet up with Emily and some other friends! Next stop... LONDON! :)
LOVE
the three flamingoes
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Hotel Sandra!
We have reached Sweden! all of us safe and sound. Em had a moment of silliness and thought her flight was an hour earlier and thought she missed her flight. However there are definitely some incredibly nice people. thank you British man named simon for your help with the ticket machine and to the lovely couple who shared a cab with me to the airport!
We all grilled and it was delicious. Also jeans are a beautiful thing, as are clothes that smell like home!
The chicas are together again!
"what you have to pay to pee?" oh silly stockholm.
We're off to rest and sleep so that we can have a fun day in the city (summer festival!) and then fly to London! Also it never gets fully dark here... we didn't realize that it was after midnight still looked like 7pm whoops.
"Americans where?!"
We all grilled and it was delicious. Also jeans are a beautiful thing, as are clothes that smell like home!
The chicas are together again!
"what you have to pay to pee?" oh silly stockholm.
We're off to rest and sleep so that we can have a fun day in the city (summer festival!) and then fly to London! Also it never gets fully dark here... we didn't realize that it was after midnight still looked like 7pm whoops.
"Americans where?!"
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Il
Walked to The top of il duomo and to piazza di michaelangelo today. I've enjoyed the pace of taking in the scenery that is Florence but I am incredibly happy to see SB and the twins tomorrow. Today was definitely a day of vistas and hopefully I'll be Abe to get into the ufizzi in the morning! Tomorrow is a florentine holiday and it was very obvious by the number of ppl out and about this evening. I met another woman who walked the camino, I never believed it would be this much of a community but after discovering hat we had both walked she was much more comfortable to speak italish. Also based on the fashion and music I'm pretty sure that I've traveled back to the eighties acid wash and duran duran all the way. Safe travels and see you in Sweden!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Firenze with weefee
Ciao! Florence is amazingly beautiful the difference between textbooks and the emotional happiness is the experience. I haven't been able to get over the beauty of the duomo. There was a ballet interpretation of don quixoto in the piazza signorina. Tomorrow the uffizi and possibly the academia. seeing the difference in artistic interpretation and proportions after so many medeival churches and the few catedrales is mind boggling and awe inspiring. Day and a half left and the beauty is unreal.
Friday, June 18, 2010
The great adventure!
Buenas!
We´ve ended the camino but K and I are still traveling around. We went to Burgos and saw the Catedral! the tomb of El Cid, while looking down not so interesting, but if you look up the ceiling looks almost like glowing white lace and is gorgeous. K and I were stoked that we decided to go inside the Catedral it was just amazingly beatiful and seemed more airy and bright than the one in Santiago. Then we packed up and went to the sunny (ahem) rainy San sebastian. We made our own fun and some friends in the Hostel because the first day was torrential downpours and I finally caved and bought a sweater. The rain let up fortunately the next day and we walked to the top of a hill with a giant jesus on top there was also a small museo. After the drizzle actually stopped! we drew pictures in the sand and actually stuck our hands in the water, a bit too chilly to swim though there was an older gentleman partaking in what was probably his daily cold swim.
We´re currently in Barcelona safe and sound and checked in. The city is beautiful and I cannot believe i´m here! we´re taking a rest because we got in quite early, we saw some revelers, and then walked a large majority of the city. We saw the Beach! and will definitely be returning and going for a swim we also walked to the Sagrada Familia. We didn´t go inside but it is already one of my favorites. It is quite interesting and amazing to see the construction of a catedral after seeing completed ones. It is just so different and beautiful. K and I agree that we think the colorful tops of the spires are our favorite part.
Buen Viaje! and I´ll try to post pictures later.
We´ve ended the camino but K and I are still traveling around. We went to Burgos and saw the Catedral! the tomb of El Cid, while looking down not so interesting, but if you look up the ceiling looks almost like glowing white lace and is gorgeous. K and I were stoked that we decided to go inside the Catedral it was just amazingly beatiful and seemed more airy and bright than the one in Santiago. Then we packed up and went to the sunny (ahem) rainy San sebastian. We made our own fun and some friends in the Hostel because the first day was torrential downpours and I finally caved and bought a sweater. The rain let up fortunately the next day and we walked to the top of a hill with a giant jesus on top there was also a small museo. After the drizzle actually stopped! we drew pictures in the sand and actually stuck our hands in the water, a bit too chilly to swim though there was an older gentleman partaking in what was probably his daily cold swim.
We´re currently in Barcelona safe and sound and checked in. The city is beautiful and I cannot believe i´m here! we´re taking a rest because we got in quite early, we saw some revelers, and then walked a large majority of the city. We saw the Beach! and will definitely be returning and going for a swim we also walked to the Sagrada Familia. We didn´t go inside but it is already one of my favorites. It is quite interesting and amazing to see the construction of a catedral after seeing completed ones. It is just so different and beautiful. K and I agree that we think the colorful tops of the spires are our favorite part.
Buen Viaje! and I´ll try to post pictures later.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Who would have thought that the rain that falls mostly on the plains would pour all day in the mountain region of galicia today? well it did... but we all arrived safely!
As per request here are a couple of pictures from the hike up and sort of from the hike down from O´cebreiro. The day was incredibly warm even though we left at the beautiful hour of about 530 am but we all managed to walk up into cloud. It is very diorienting to not see your shadow while walking, I felt like I was going in circles all day.
one of the views!
The ascent into the cloud was kind of strange and creepy! Sorry the photos take such a long time to upload.
Talk to you again soon! There have been a crazy amount of cows we even saw one in the process of giving birth!
one last picture on the way down
As per request here are a couple of pictures from the hike up and sort of from the hike down from O´cebreiro. The day was incredibly warm even though we left at the beautiful hour of about 530 am but we all managed to walk up into cloud. It is very diorienting to not see your shadow while walking, I felt like I was going in circles all day.
one of the views!
The ascent into the cloud was kind of strange and creepy! Sorry the photos take such a long time to upload.
Talk to you again soon! There have been a crazy amount of cows we even saw one in the process of giving birth!
one last picture on the way down
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Ponferrada! y los Templarios
¨Let´s play Castle¨
"I call knight!¨
"oo Lets!
You know you´re in good company when this is the discussion following the mention of the castle in Ponferrada and the following a dance party on the Roman Wall. Still no casualties and more jovial spirits, but the general soreness is still around! We stayed up until 1130 because we only had a two hour walk today and slept in (we all woke up at 7 and decided that is was weird starting so late)! We´ve been starting a little earlier because it has been incredibly warm.
The walk to molinesca was brutal but beautiful, there were orchids and heather and mountains and even some cows and sheep. Almost everyone has roses in their yards and there was so much heather on some of the mountains that they looked purple. The beginning of the walk about the first 2 hours were in a cloud and it was very erie and surreal. Each Hostel has been nicer than the last and each night we all sleep a little more soundly. Currently cherries are in season and in each small town we´ve been feasting on locally grown cherries (que delicioso y perfecta!)
Today Castle was played and songs sung. Lucy and some others are composing a ballad about the deeds of Kevin the knight templar (much to his delight)and we plan on a great unveiling.
Hola! buen camino!
-cows don´t go moo they go mmnnmmmmnnnuuuueeeeeaaauuuuuuxx-eeehh
Safe travels and see you again soon!
"I call knight!¨
"oo Lets!
You know you´re in good company when this is the discussion following the mention of the castle in Ponferrada and the following a dance party on the Roman Wall. Still no casualties and more jovial spirits, but the general soreness is still around! We stayed up until 1130 because we only had a two hour walk today and slept in (we all woke up at 7 and decided that is was weird starting so late)! We´ve been starting a little earlier because it has been incredibly warm.
The walk to molinesca was brutal but beautiful, there were orchids and heather and mountains and even some cows and sheep. Almost everyone has roses in their yards and there was so much heather on some of the mountains that they looked purple. The beginning of the walk about the first 2 hours were in a cloud and it was very erie and surreal. Each Hostel has been nicer than the last and each night we all sleep a little more soundly. Currently cherries are in season and in each small town we´ve been feasting on locally grown cherries (que delicioso y perfecta!)
Today Castle was played and songs sung. Lucy and some others are composing a ballad about the deeds of Kevin the knight templar (much to his delight)and we plan on a great unveiling.
Hola! buen camino!
-cows don´t go moo they go mmnnmmmmnnnuuuueeeeeaaauuuuuuxx-eeehh
Safe travels and see you again soon!
Monday, May 31, 2010
San Martin a Astorga
Second day walking and so far no casualties though a couple ppls blister and a general group fatigue. The countryside is beautiful! and generally the people are more than nice, they opened up the grocery store for us in san martin I guess we asked the right person! Later a farmer let colleen katie j and I walk around his gorgeous farm though we didn´t go too far. Internet time is crazy and there is a line oh well have a great day and happy birthday Memere!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Estamos Aqui!
Landed in Madrid after a minor hour or so delay before leaving! We're here and checked in! Off to see the city and find a sim card. Mum dad and fam/friend estamos slavo y sano!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Hola!
Quick overview to let you know what we'll be about!
We've created the blog to document our escapades and journey through Europe. Em will start off in Spain on the Camino de Santiago (Check out that blog) continue through to Burgos, San Sebastian and Barcelona. Later catch a plane to Firenze and then meet up with L and L in Sweden! The three will then take a quick look at london and finally France where Lisa will stay to finish up her courses!
See you later in internet cafes and stolen wifi!
Quick overview to let you know what we'll be about!
We've created the blog to document our escapades and journey through Europe. Em will start off in Spain on the Camino de Santiago (Check out that blog) continue through to Burgos, San Sebastian and Barcelona. Later catch a plane to Firenze and then meet up with L and L in Sweden! The three will then take a quick look at london and finally France where Lisa will stay to finish up her courses!
See you later in internet cafes and stolen wifi!
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