Roma

Made it safely to Rome on Friday and met up with Allison and Sam. Unfortunately, the travel gods have it in for my sister and she is having an epicly difficult time getting here to join us.  With luck, she will finally get here this evening and then we will be off to Florence together!

Saw the pope on Sunday.  Got blessed.  NBD

Have been eating gelato every day. obv.

Roma

Made it safely to Rome on Friday and met up with Allison and Sam. Unfortunately, the travel gods have it in for my sister and she is having an epicly difficult time getting here to join us.  With luck, she will finally get here this evening and then we will be off to Florence together!

Saw the pope on Sunday.  Got blessed.  NBD

Have been eating gelato every day. obv.

Loose ends

I've been meaning to write for a while, but like always it has just gotten away from me.

For starters, my parents were here just a couple weeks back.  They spent a week and a half with me and we traveled all around Provence and had a blast together.  It was really nice for me to share this place with people who know and love me.  We did a lot of sight-seeing, and really had the most wonderful time together.  Of course they did happen to arrive right in the middle of the biggest travel crisis ever to affect France.  Airport closings due to volcanic ash cloud + French train strike (mais oui) = good fun.  But, apart from a slight delay in getting to Avignon it didn't really affect us. We saw and did so much that it's hard to recount it all,  but I think the most fun we had was just sitting in the sun eating ice cream or watching old men play pétanque in the parks.

Due to my phenomenal navigating skills we got successfully lost or at least well off the beaten path on several occasions.  But, on one occasion that path took us through lavender country.  It was beautiful even though the plants weren't in bloom.
Saying goodbye was hard.  I have lots of friends here in Aix, but they don't know me in the same way, and it was so comforting and easy to have people here that just wanted to spend time with me and experience a little piece of my life.  They came at a good time, though.  The weather was the best it has been before or since.

 Mom and Dad in front of the Pont du Gard

So now I am in the throes of despair.  I leave Aix tomorrow.  This city has been my home for 4 months, potentially the best consecutive 4 months of my life.  I have become adapted to a completely new way of life which includes daily fresh-food markets, patisseries on every corner, and cafés with large outdoor terraces.  I'm not sure how easy it will be to leave it all behind.  I am also looking forward to going home, but I'm traveling for 2 weeks first and during that time I will be missing both my home in the US and my home in France.  Luckily, my sister will be here to help keep me stable...or something.  Mostly I'm worried that I will return to my normal life and it will be like nothing happened, as though these four months of my life just didn't exist.

I will try to update during my travels, but if I don't I will at least write one more entry when I return to the states

Spring Break: Part 3

This is ridiculous.  Spring Break has been over for 2 weeks and I am still writing about it.

Norway was great.  I spent just over 3 days there with my college roommate who is studying in Lillehammer.  It was really nice to have some down time in my travels to just relax.  The weather was gorgeous, easily the warmest and sunniest place I visited during my break - go figure.  We spent two of the afternoons just sitting in the sun.  Awesome.  Also, since she is there with a Luther program,  I was allowed to participate in their weekly family dinner.  Beef stew.  It was good.  It's always nice to go to a place and stay in a familial environment.  Plus, I got to do laundry which was definitely a plus.

One thing I decided was that I really don't like traveling in places where I do not no the language at all.  The day I left Norway to go to Belgium, I had to take a train to Oslo and then catch a bus to the airport.  In my travel schedule I had 45 minutes free in between these connections and had intended to do some souvenir shopping before searching out my bus.
However, after I got on the train in Lillehammer, it did not depart on time.  There was an announcement, but it was in Norwegian and no one else in the car spoke English.  The announcement was repeated a couple times.  Or perhaps more information was revealed.  But, either way I had no idea what was going on, and it was 25 minutes before the train decided to move.  I was only slightly panicky at this point.  I would still have 20 minutes in which to maybe buy a Norwegian hat or flag or shot glass and then book it to the bus.  But, then we were delayed on the tracks 3 times, totally 10 minutes.  Thus I arrived in the Oslo with 10 minutes to find the bus station and find my bus.  So, yet again I found myself running through an unfamiliar place to find an unknown location and found the bus that I absolutely could not miss exactly at the designated time of departure.  Once on the bus I managed the rest of my travels that day without a problem.  Made it to my hostel in Brussels and walked around a little to orient myself. I by chance shared a room with a girl who is studying in Pau with a high school friend of mine.  So wierd.

Didn't see any trolls in Norway, but I also didn't cross any bridges, so I don't really know what I was expecting.

Brussels is the kind of city where you either need to spend a day or a month.  I only had 2 days, so after one day in Brussels I decided spur of the moment to go to Bruges.  My favorite thing in Brussels was the Mannekin Pis, which is a fountain of a peeing toddler.  It's kind of a big deal.  It has a very rich history and several hundred specialized costumes.  He was much smaller than I was expecting, but still pretty neat to see.  Also, there were no less than Bruges was beautiful.

Bruges was really nice.  A small medieval city that is touristy, but not offensively so.  I of course got a picture of the belfry, which played a prominent role in the film, In Bruges.  Also, there is a Michelangelo statue of the Madonna with Child.  I accidentally stumbled into the church where it is on display, so that was neat.  I mostly just walked around and took in the beautiful day in a beautiful city.  Honestly, the best thing about Belgium is the food.  I'm pretty sure I could live on fries, waffles, and chocolate.  I may not live very long, but at least I would be happy.


That afternoon I went back to Brussels to catch my train to Paris.  Once in Paris I met up with Erik and we went for a drink at a Scottish pub of all places.  It is one of those rare places in France where I feel comfortable speaking English.  Afterwards we got some gelato.  Always a good decision.

The next day I had to wake up before the sun in order to meet my parents at the airport.  And that of course came with its own set of struggles.

Spring Break:Part 2

Ack!  So much has been going on that I have not had sufficient time to write.

So, anyway, spring break was pretty awesome.  I left France to go to the Netherlands.  Amsterdam was one of the most interesting cities I've ever visited.  All the people I met were very friendly and accepting.  In fact, acceptance of others' differences seems to be the national attitude.  They pretty much don't care what you do as long as you don't require that they do it too.  I went on a walking tour of the city and actually learned a lot about the city of Amsterdam and Dutch history in general.  It is such a culture-rich city, and I went to a few museums including a Van Gogh museum holding over 200 of his works and an "underground" Catholic church from the reformation.  Anne Franks house is there, too.  I didn't get to go in, but I did take a picture.

One major struggle I had in Amsterdam was orienting myself.  The city grid is laid out in a semi circle, so if you walk straight along a street you don't always end up going the direction you want to.  It also doesn't help that every street has a canal going down it and all the bridges are green, so essentially everything looks the same.  It was also very bizarre to walk down the streets and smell pot wafting out of every third doorway, and of course the red-light district was fairly scandalous.  We were warned to not take pictures of the girls who display themselves there at risk of being chased down by them and having our cameras smashed.

I couch surfed with my roommate Raquelle for the 3 nights in Amsterdam and then she went on to Prague and I went to Eindhoven to await my flight to Norway the following day.
Eindhoven was good times.  I stayed with a woman named Kim and she had some friends over for dinner.  They were very kind and spoke in English for the most part.  When every they started to speak Dutch I just kind of smiled and nodded and had no idea what was going on.  The guests were appalled that A) I was only in Eindhoven for one night and B) that I had no plans to go out.  So, they took me out for a couple drinks.  Unfortunately it was a Wednesday night, so the Salsa bar and the Karaoke bar were both closed.  I was bummed, so was Ronald.  Alas I did not get to grace them with my mad karaoke skills.  However, we did play truth or dare, which I'm pretty sure I have not done since I was 13.

But, the best part of the night was definitely riding on the back of a bicycle.  Mildly terrifying, but much faster than walking.  Plus, it was a new experience!

Pictured below are poffertjes.  They are both my new favorite food and my new favorite word to say.  Thus, I am determined to find out how to make them so I can eat them and say their name on a fairly regular basis.

Spring Break: Part 1

I am only half way through my spring break, but I think it would be best to start recounting what has happened thus far lest I forget before I get back to Aix.

Paris
On March 31 I left for Paris to meet up with some friends from Luther.  Obviously I cannot travel without something going wrong, so naturally, both of my trains were delayed and I got to Paris an hour later than planned.  Although, everyone was asleep at the hostel (at 8:00pm) so it wasn't really a big deal.  Allison, Camille, and I headed out soon after that to meet up with Erik, who is studying there.  We walked around for a couple hours and got a drink and some frites.  It was pretty chill. Literally. I had only brought a light jacket and t-shirts with me.  Not good.  Especially since my travels were going to continue further and further north.

The next day we walked from our hostel to Montmartre to the Eiffel Tower, which was somewhere around 6 miles.  Oi.  But, it was a beautiful day to be outside in the sunshine.  Camille and I had already climbed the Eiffel Tower, so Allison and Steph did that while Camille and I sat at the Parc du Champs de Mars and awaited a friend of mine who was on tour with his university band and was supposed to be performing sometime that afternoon.  The band never arrived.  So, when Steph and Allison found us, we all made our way to the metro and returned to the hostel to crash.

That night we just hung out in the hostel with some people we met there.  We shared some stories and some wine and had an overall grand time of it.

On Friday we went to Versailles.  I had visited there during my travels in high school, but my roll of film from the gardens (yes, back in the dark ages before I had a digital camera) was the only roll that did not turn out when it got developed.  So, I opted to walk around the gardens while the other girls went into the chateau.  Unfortunately the weather was terrible so I spent my 2 hours in the gardens in the cold and the wind and the rain.  Also, I (in my infinite wisdom I of course was wearing a t-shirt and a light, non-waterproof jacket because they were the warmest clothes I had packed).  Fortunately I did get get to see the fountains on, which is something I had not seen before.  However, the gardens are much prettier in late June than in early April, so I will have to go back some summer and try for the third time to get decent pictures.
(Also, totally saw a kid in a Packers jacket and got a picture with him. Win!)

Erik came over to the hostel and we all spent the night just hanging out and having a good time.

[By the by, DO NOT STAY AT JULES FERRY HOSTEL.  And spread the word.  We had some issues with a drunk employee and the management stood idly by when help was requested.]

I left early the next morning to catch a train to Caen and the next part of my travels!


Normandy
I met my friends Maddie and Will at the Caen Train station and we headed off to Bayeux and then the American cemetery at Omaha Beach.  It's hard to describe the feeling there.  It feels uniquely American, like I could have been walking around Washington D.C.   It was the first place I had felt completely comfortable and justified in speaking English.
There was a museum devoted to the D-Day operation and then we took a walking tour of the graves.  We saw the graves of the Teddy Roosevelt's sons (one died in WWI the other in WWII).  We also saw the graves of the 2 Niland brothers who died in WWII.  These are 2 of the 4 brothers that the film Saving Private Ryan was about.  Turns out the 3rd brother didn't actually die in combat, but he was MIA and presumed dead.  Sites like this are always fascinating and haunting and tragic.  I'm never really sure how I'm supposed to feel or react in situations like that.  Sorrow, pride, curiosity. We also went down to the beach and saw some half-exploded German bunkers.  I think that one of the best parts was that I went there with 2 people who also have such a high level of interest and knowledge of WWII.

After the cemetery visit we went back to Bayeux and saw the Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde, which is a tapestry depicting the triumph of William the Conqueror in battling for the British crown.  His queen, Mathilde, made the tapestry about a thousand years ago and it is still in pretty good condition. It is 70 meters long and very elaborate.  Very impressive.  The next day we also went to William the Conqueror's castle in Caen and walked around there for a while before catching our train to Amsterdam.

to be continued...

P.S.
This trip has also brought with it my first couchsurfing experiences.  Couchsurfing, I've decided, is the only way to go.  All the people I've met and stayed with have been wonderful, kind and generous.  It's a great way to meet people who know the area.  So great!

La Camargue

Two weekends ago I went to an area of Provence called La Camargue.  It is essentially one big wildlife preserve in the Rhône River delta. It is famous for its flamingos, its ponies, and its bulls.  I experienced all three.

The flamingos were kind of a surprise.  I pretty much exclusively think of Florida when pondering natural flamingo habitats.  There weren't as many as usual because some of them migrate to Africa during the winter.  Again, for some reason I never really though of Africa as Flamingo-town.

On Saturday we went horse-back riding through the marshes of Camargue.  In pricinple it should have been a really fun adventure, and in retrospect it was, but while it was going on it was kind of miserable.  It was cold and windy and cloudy.  We were riding through mud and water which made the whole experience rather wet and dirty.  My friend Brittany's horse got spooked as we were leaving the ranch and it threw her in the mud.  She got up and got on a different horse and was really none the worse for wear.  Since she is an experienced rider she declared that she was thankful it had happened to her instead of someone else because she knew  how to handle it.  My horse had difficulties staying on the trail and had a tendency to walk out into the middle of the marsh, and it took a lot of coaxing to make him return to the ranks his name was Plan-plan (sp?).  Other than that, two of the other horses decided to sit down and roll over with riders on their back; one of them did so in knee-deep water.  And, I was so terrified of dropping my camera in the water that I did not take any pictures of this particular outing.  So, you will just have to imagine my atop a white pony, freezing cold and caked in mud.

Later that afternoon we went to the cathedral in the village Saintes-Maries de la Mer.  The legend of this town is that a few close friends/followers were put into a small boat with no oars and were left to float out in the Mediterranean.  The boat came ashore at the modern site of Saintes-Maries de la Mer and it is believed that Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, Martha, and perhaps some other disciples left to settle elsewhere, butMary Salomé and Mary Jacobé (sister of the Virgin) stayed there with their servant Sarah who has come to be know as Sarah la Kali or the Black Sarah and is the patron saint of the gypsies.  There is a shrine to her in the crypt of the cathedral.

That night we had soupe de poisson (a traditional proveçale dish), some delicious chicken, some sort of divine mousse/cake item and altogether too much wine...which was followed by a few more drinks at a nice local pub and a shot of whiskey in a particularly sketchy establishment.  The music was so loud we couldn't hear anything else, it had the atmosphere of a dance club/sports bar hybrid, and all of the women looked like they hated life and all of the men had glitter on their faces.
A few of us went back to the hotel via the beach and walked on the rocks and well out into the Mediterranean on a man-made water break.  It was very peaceful, and that sea has always enchanted me.

The next day we went to a ranch where taureaux are raised.  These are the bulls that are used in French bull-fighting... which is really more like bull-counting-
coup.  The bulls are released into the ring and have threads and tassels on each horn and strung between them a rosette (a small fake flower).  There are about 10-15 men in the ring who try to snag these items in order (rosette, tassels, threads) of the face of the bull without getting gored.  It was pretty exciting, especially the acrobatics that the men did to escape the charging bull.  I pretty much spent the entire two hours being tense and super stressed, which has brought me to the conclusion that if I ever had to watch a Spanish bullfight where they are actually trying to kill the bull, I might throw up...or cry...or both, really.

On that note, for lunch we had daube camarguaise.  Daube is essentially the Provence version of boeuf bourguignon (French beef stew) and the variety made in Carmargue is made with taureau instead of regular beef.  It was amazing.  The meal also included Camargue rice, paté, chèvre, apple tarte, lots of bread, and altogether too much wine.  Although, the longer I am here, the more I am coming to accept that there really is no such thing as too much wine.  Dionysus and I are pretty much besties.



I leave for Spring Break tomorrow.  I will be going to Paris to see Luther friends and then to Normandy and Amsterdam and then to Lillehammer to see Styx (!!!) and then to Brussels and back to Paris to meet up with my parents on the 15th.   I will try to blog along the way since it will be a lot to remember by the time I get back.  Wish me luck!




In other news, my mandatory medical visit for my visa is going to be on May 12th.  Which is my last day of class, and the day before I leave France.  But, if I don't go I may be denied future French visas .
Dear French bureaucracy,
I hate you.  A lot.
The end.