france

I've been putting off the France post because I don't really have that much to say. I had a great time with my friends. I went to Paris, Strasbourg, and Nantes, and I liked all three cities. I think Paris was my favorite city of the whole spring break trip. It was just very pretty and relaxed and I felt like people actually lived there. I really liked the Louvre too. I didn't realize how colorful all of the renaissance art actually was. I did find the number of people methodically taking digital photos of every piece of art pretty funny though. It was worse at Musee D'Orsay.

Anyway, this is going to be a mostly photographic post:

A lot of my travel in France consisted in climbing to the top of things and looking at the view. First, Notre Dame, which had lots of gargoyles on it.

Another gargoyle.

There's also lots of stained glass in France. Here's a window in Sainte-Chapelle. Check out the other person in front of me taking the same exact photo.
My friend Sam had his heart set on seeing sunset from Sacre Coeur. So we we climbed up the hill to see. Only, there's a huge building east of the church, making it impossible to watch the sunset. Nice views though.

Hey, here's Strasbourg. Strasbourg was really cute. There were lots of half timber buildings and canals and German tourists. Also, Strasbourg has this specialty dish called 'Tarte Flambee' which is kind of like a thin pizza on a more crepe-like crust. It was delicious.

Strasbourg also has one amazing cathedral.

Here it is up close. Pretty cool, huh? I bet you'll be surprised to hear that we climbed to the top of this one too.

Here's Nantes. I have two good friends studying abroad here. Didn't spend much time here though, except to visit the cathedral (very pretty and light inside) and visit the very extensive Nantes city museum. We didn't even climb to the top of anything (excpet our room on the 6th floor of an elevatorless hotel). Also, Nantes is historically in Brittany, home of the crepe. Yum.

Then back to Paris. Here's a photo from the Louvre.

And here's Sacre Coeur at night. Doesn't it look like a toy? It's open from 6am to 11pm. Our hostel was nearby so I went twice, once at 10pm and once at 7am. It was much prettier at night.

So, that's the end. My mom's coming to visit on Wednesday, my last final is Thursday, and I'm leaving Edinburgh on May 14th. I start my summer job on May 21, and before then, I'm going to Sicily with my friend Neha. Crazy, huh?

venice, not the one in california

Sorry it's been taking me so long to post about spring break. I'm in the midst of final exams and spending lots of time staring at lecture slides trying to learn what I slept throught the first time. One of my professors seems to think in the most disorganized way -- trying to piece together what points he's attempting to make in the lectures is impossible.



So Venice. I didn't really want to go to Venice. I thought it would be swarming with tourists, inauthentic, and seedy. I'd already seen the canals in Amsterdam, so it wouldn't even be exciting. But I was wrong. It was one of the most interesting cities I've ever been in. Imagine building a city with every building in the same style, without a grid system and without a single road. Then, plunk it in the middle of a calm aqua lagoon and cover it in wisteria. That was Venice. While I'm not sure how successful the plan has been, since only 65,000 people actually live there, it was pretty interesting to see.



Sure there were tourists. And crowds in the touristy areas. Rude crowds that would bump into you without apology, especially on the lumbering water buses. And all the food I ate was pretty terrible. Venice's idea of vegetarian food seems to be gnocchi, gnocchi, and more gnocchi. Sometimes with Kraft macaroni and cheese sauce. Sometimes with wierd mushroom gravy. Though, being a vegetarian, I can't really complain that much. But when you got away from San Marco square, into some of the quieter canals and courtyards, it was beautiful.




My dad left Venice for home. I spent a day with a friend from Brown, Neha, whom I hadn't seen since August. And then I headed to Paris for the next leg of my trip...

Looking for Praha

I've been back in Edinburgh for a few days but it's taking me a while to unpack everything that happened on my spring break. Going to three different countries in 2 weeks was pretty overwhelming and by the time I got to Paris, Prague seemed like a distant memory. Luckily for my faithful readers, I kept my first ever travel journal on the trip, so I can at least remember something about the beginning of the trip.

First stop was Prague, where I met my dad. I landed on the Prague Airport and took a taxi into the city. It was funny, Prague's outskirts reminded me so much of Southern California. It was sunny, with wide roads, and colorful stucco buildings. I remember being startled by the fact that every building in Edinburgh is gray, bu by March it just seemed normal and Prague, with all its color, was a surprise.

My dad loved Prague. Well, actually, everyone loves Prague. I remember that at Passover last year my cousin Eliza spent a good deal of time trying to convince me to study in Prague instead of the UK. Everytime I told someone I was going to Prague over break, they would get very excited about it. So maybe I just got so much hype about the city that no matter what it was, it would be a bit of a let down.



Not to say that Prague wasn't beautiful. It's full of gorgeous colorful buildings with intricate carvings, lined on cobblestone roads. Every corner has a beautiful church or synagogue. And there are street musicians everywhere, which was maybe my favorite part. There were brass bands, violinists, guitarists, and more. We saw a man playing water glasses on the Charles Bridge one night and it was so beautiful. But also, there were soooo many tourists in Prague. The center of the city felt like Disneyland, being pushed and shoved by masses of people trying to get to Splash Mountain, or in this case, the Spanish Synagogue or something. It didn't seem like any Czechs actually lived there.



I decided to get out of town. My dad and I took a day trip to Konopiste, the residence of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand before his assasination, which set off World War I. Our train was definitely from the communist era, with graffiti and rust. But there were Czechs on it, which was a good start. The town itself was very bleak and empty. But Konopiste castle itself was fun. It turns out the Franz Ferdinand was really really wierd. He has one of the largest armory collections in Europe. And he liked the hunt. A lot. He shot 300,000 animals while he lived in Konopiste. And how do we know this? Because he kept diaries with the species, date, and location of his kill. 100,000 of these animals are mounted on his walls. There were entire hallways of antlers and fans made out of feathers. All dated and located. I wonder how he felt when he was shot himself?

So that was Prague. It was very lovely, filled with music, but also with tourists.