Travel Break and Weekend in the Netherlands details
Paris
We arrived in paris on friday afternoon (october 1st). We checked into our hotel, and then we went to the Louvre. Since emerson is disorganized, we ended up getting there late, having a 1 hour lecture and then, 25 minutes to look at the louvre on our own. 25 minutes in the louvre!! I had to run to see everything that i wanted to see. I did get to see the mona lisa, the bound and dying slaves that michelangelo did, a sculpture with cupid and psyche, and the venus de milo. Then on saturday we went to see notre dame and saint chappelle. notre dame is amazing. ive been in a few cathedrals here already, and they are all great. We only had like 15 minutes in notre dame too. saint chappelle was nice. a little too ornate for my tastes, but still cool. then we went to versailles which made saint chappelle look like a shed. (hah well not really) it was super decorated. the gardens looked really nice though. i heard they are the best part but i didnt get to see them beyond looking out of the window. That night we went to the eiffel tower. the eiffel tower is cool. not as cool as big ben but still nice. casey and i were sitting out in the open area in front of the eiffel tower, and people constantly kept coming up to us trying to sell us wine or drugs or souveniers. Saturday night was "nuit blanche." I dont know what that means literally just that its a night that they have once a month where paris stays up all night and parties. so we went to this big gathering w/ fire dancers and drums on top of this museum. Sunday i was required to go to two museums (musee d'orsay and the centre pompidou). We had two hours to roam around the musee d'orsay on our own. The centre pompidou is modern and interactive art so i really liked it. that night we went out and wandered to the sacre oceur. It looked a little like the Taj Mahal. We had to climb like 200 stairs or something to get to the top, but the view was awesome. We sat on the stairs for awhile and looked out over paris while some guy was playing drums and singing. It was a lot of fun.
Spain
Monday night we left Paris and took an overnight train to Barcelona. We didn't want to pay for a sleeper (since our reservations were already 40 euor), so we didn't sleep that well that night. Finally at about 8am, we got to Barcelona. we searched for our hostel while being tired and hungry and hot (it was in the 80s there) with all of our luggage for the week on our backs for about an hour back and forth. It was all worth it though when we got to our hostel, which was right on the beach. We decided that we need a little relax time, so we bought some wine and food, sat on the beach, and went swimming. there was no seaweed at all and no jellyfish. On wednesday we went sight seeing. barcelona has all of these pretty buildings and mosaics everywhere and palm trees. we climbed to the top of another mountain and had an awesome view of the city. we went to Park Guell which was really nice. It had many mosaics and artwork by Gaudi. My favorite was the lizard. The next day we left barcelona. we had planned on getting on a 11:00 train to madrid, but it was full, and so was the train leaving madrid to get home. so we didnt get to go to madrid. Instead we went to Zaragoza for an extra day. we didnt have a place to stay though so we had to stay up all night. We were chauferred around by some spaniards for a few hours, and then we killed time by sitting on a bench and talking to ranom people who walked by. Luckily for us the nightlife in Spain is very hopping, and we had things to keep us entertained until morning. The train station reopened at 5:30, so we went there to sleep for a little bit. We thought our hostel would have let us check in at 10 like every other hostel, but as we later found out, we couldn't go there til 12:30. To make a long story sort of short, we finally got to our "hostel" which was really a bed and breakfast in some older woman's appartment. We were so tired that we slept all day. Then the next day we left for our 23 hour train ride home. On the night train I saw one of the funniest things that I've ever seen. This very intense man was playing with neon colored paper fans. At first, he was fanning himself very quickly like he was hot, and then he started tapping the fans together (while looking out into space) then he would fan himself with one fan, close it, open the other and then fan himself with that one. Then he put both fans away and started making a fan like motion with his fingers against his face. Then he put on sunglasses and a hat and left the train. it was hilarious.
My weekend that I stayed in Holland (oct. 15-17th)
I went on a long bike ride to a thermal spa. We went in outdoor giant hot tubs. Then i went into the saunas and there were about 50 dutch people just wandering around naked. old and young. men and women. The rest of the weekend i just hung around the castle and caught up on sleep and homework.
We arrived in paris on friday afternoon (october 1st). We checked into our hotel, and then we went to the Louvre. Since emerson is disorganized, we ended up getting there late, having a 1 hour lecture and then, 25 minutes to look at the louvre on our own. 25 minutes in the louvre!! I had to run to see everything that i wanted to see. I did get to see the mona lisa, the bound and dying slaves that michelangelo did, a sculpture with cupid and psyche, and the venus de milo. Then on saturday we went to see notre dame and saint chappelle. notre dame is amazing. ive been in a few cathedrals here already, and they are all great. We only had like 15 minutes in notre dame too. saint chappelle was nice. a little too ornate for my tastes, but still cool. then we went to versailles which made saint chappelle look like a shed. (hah well not really) it was super decorated. the gardens looked really nice though. i heard they are the best part but i didnt get to see them beyond looking out of the window. That night we went to the eiffel tower. the eiffel tower is cool. not as cool as big ben but still nice. casey and i were sitting out in the open area in front of the eiffel tower, and people constantly kept coming up to us trying to sell us wine or drugs or souveniers. Saturday night was "nuit blanche." I dont know what that means literally just that its a night that they have once a month where paris stays up all night and parties. so we went to this big gathering w/ fire dancers and drums on top of this museum. Sunday i was required to go to two museums (musee d'orsay and the centre pompidou). We had two hours to roam around the musee d'orsay on our own. The centre pompidou is modern and interactive art so i really liked it. that night we went out and wandered to the sacre oceur. It looked a little like the Taj Mahal. We had to climb like 200 stairs or something to get to the top, but the view was awesome. We sat on the stairs for awhile and looked out over paris while some guy was playing drums and singing. It was a lot of fun.
Spain
Monday night we left Paris and took an overnight train to Barcelona. We didn't want to pay for a sleeper (since our reservations were already 40 euor), so we didn't sleep that well that night. Finally at about 8am, we got to Barcelona. we searched for our hostel while being tired and hungry and hot (it was in the 80s there) with all of our luggage for the week on our backs for about an hour back and forth. It was all worth it though when we got to our hostel, which was right on the beach. We decided that we need a little relax time, so we bought some wine and food, sat on the beach, and went swimming. there was no seaweed at all and no jellyfish. On wednesday we went sight seeing. barcelona has all of these pretty buildings and mosaics everywhere and palm trees. we climbed to the top of another mountain and had an awesome view of the city. we went to Park Guell which was really nice. It had many mosaics and artwork by Gaudi. My favorite was the lizard. The next day we left barcelona. we had planned on getting on a 11:00 train to madrid, but it was full, and so was the train leaving madrid to get home. so we didnt get to go to madrid. Instead we went to Zaragoza for an extra day. we didnt have a place to stay though so we had to stay up all night. We were chauferred around by some spaniards for a few hours, and then we killed time by sitting on a bench and talking to ranom people who walked by. Luckily for us the nightlife in Spain is very hopping, and we had things to keep us entertained until morning. The train station reopened at 5:30, so we went there to sleep for a little bit. We thought our hostel would have let us check in at 10 like every other hostel, but as we later found out, we couldn't go there til 12:30. To make a long story sort of short, we finally got to our "hostel" which was really a bed and breakfast in some older woman's appartment. We were so tired that we slept all day. Then the next day we left for our 23 hour train ride home. On the night train I saw one of the funniest things that I've ever seen. This very intense man was playing with neon colored paper fans. At first, he was fanning himself very quickly like he was hot, and then he started tapping the fans together (while looking out into space) then he would fan himself with one fan, close it, open the other and then fan himself with that one. Then he put both fans away and started making a fan like motion with his fingers against his face. Then he put on sunglasses and a hat and left the train. it was hilarious.
My weekend that I stayed in Holland (oct. 15-17th)
I went on a long bike ride to a thermal spa. We went in outdoor giant hot tubs. Then i went into the saunas and there were about 50 dutch people just wandering around naked. old and young. men and women. The rest of the weekend i just hung around the castle and caught up on sleep and homework.
posted by Rachel at 1:02 PM
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