"As we stumble along on life's funny journeys": Spring Break Part 2

Hi everyone! So its definitely been too long since I've written, but I've been very busy, so that means once I finally get around to updating my blog it will be full of interesting stories and experiences. For now I'll finish up writing about Spring Break, and then, hopefully soon, will fill you in on everything I've been up to in Prague since then.

My friends Collin and Mike (with whom I spent the rest of break) and I left Paris around 8am on a train to Nice. First class tickets were only 4 Euro more than second class, so we had a very luxurious experience! The train was about 5.5 hours, and I had a single seat by the window, so I could look out at the beautiful views of France.

When we got to Nice, it was gorgeous out, and we headed to our hostel. The only public transportation in Nice is one tram with a single line, and that was only installed last year! The tram was kind of funny because some of the stops were extremely close to each other, and also because the announcements for each stop were made in different voices, and some of them even had funny music and sound effects played in the background! Our hostel was really nice, with great staff, and we dropped off our stuff and went to explore the town a little bit. It was a lot more crowded than I thought it would be, since it was still kind of the off season, but it was really open and pretty, a very nice spring break location! We saw the main square of Nice:



and then wandered down to the beach, just as the sun was setting. The beach was really rocky (and we picked up some rocks to take home...dont tell!) We walked along the boardwalk for a bit and enjoyed being on the beach:



We then headed to a restaurant that served provencal food, in order to try some local cuisine. We shared an appetizer of sardines (which were really gross) and then I was brave and ordered tripe (intestines!) as my entree. It was definitely an interesting experience that I'm glad I had, but wouldn't necessarily repeat :p After dinner we walked around outside some more, and saw the square all lit up. It was really interesting because its lights were lit up people sitting on top of posts, that changed different colors:



The next day, we decided to go to Monaco. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world, and its between France and Italy. It is also the home of the most famous casino in the world, Monte Carlo. Moreover, and even more important, the bus to get there was only one Euro! We hopped on it, and after a brief stop in an old village, arrived in Monaco after about a half hour. It was indeed very small; we walked across it a few times in the course of the afternoon and evening. Here's a beautiful fountain, with Monte Carlo in the background:



We gambled in a casino across the street from Monte Carlo that didn't charge a cover to get in, but unfortunately none of us won any money. After finding somewhere relatively cheap to eat lunch, we walked up some very steep stairs to get to the castle. The royal standard was flying, so apparently the Prince of Monaco was home, but we didn't see him. We did see some very beautiful views of pretty much the whole country:



Yep, thats pretty much all of it. It was really cool and interesting to go to Monaco, and we enjoyed it very much.

However, that was pretty much the last awesome day of our trip. The next morning, as we were on our way to check out some of Nice's museums (it has the second most museums in France!), Collin got sick. We had checked out of the hostel since we had planned to take an overnight bus to Milan that night, so we went to the couches in the lounge to rest a little more. After a few hours we decided to venture out again, but that was not such a good idea, as Mike and I started feeling sick and Collin had not gotten any better. We went back to the hostel again and spent a lot of quality time on the couches:



At least it was a pretty room! Since the three of us could barely move, we had to change our travel plans and stay another night in the hostel in Nice before going to Milan. The next day after lots of sleep, we felt better, and got on a train to Milan.

We only spent about a day and a half in Milan, and it was really interesting to go to Italy. I'm glad I went, but Milan definitely wasn't my favorite city. Its known for being a fashion capital, but it just came off as really dirty and crowded to me. There were lots of Romas (Gypsies) who kept trying to sell us things, and the people seemed pushier than New Yorkers! We did see the Duomo, the third largest cathedral in the world:



We also got to have some pizza and gelato (even though I didn't really have much of an appetite from being sick) while we were there, so that was yummy! That night, and the next day, we spent some time at the castle:



It used to be an old fort, and it was complete with drawbridges and a beautiful courtyard. And also, lots of cats who hung out in the grassy moats. After some quality time laying out on the grass in the sunshine and reading (me) and napping (the boys), we headed to the airport and took our flight back to Prague.

Spring Break was fabulous and full of new experiences. I had a great time, but was also really excited to come back to Prague for my last month in the Czech Republic. More on that to come...

"I Love Paris in the Springtime": Spring Break Part 1

It's been a week since I got back from spring break, so I need to get in a blog post about it! It's weird because spring break always seemed so far away...when we got to Prague it was January, and we knew that when we got back from spring break we'd only have about 6 weeks left in Prague. Well, break has come and passed and its now April, which seems so strange to me.

I had a very excellent time! My friend Collin and I went to Paris, Nice and Milan together. We saw two of our other friends for a few days in Paris, and then our friend Mike joined us at the end of Paris and continued to the other destinations with us. Unfortunately, especially because you know how much I love photos, my camera broke in the Prague airport on the way to Paris. Fortunately, though, Collin happens to be an excellent photographer! All the following photos I show from Spring Break are his.

Paris was absolutely fantastic, and the second Collin and I stepped out of the Metro at Montmarte, the neighborhood in which we stayed, we both fell in love (neither of us had been there before). It had been raining when we landed, and my camera broke, but in a very cliche moment, none of that seemed to matter. Montmarte is such a beautiful neighborhood, despite its numerous hills, which we were required to climb every time we travelled in it (I got so much exercise on this trip!) Here's the view from the stairs above the Metro stop:



After checking into our hostel, we decided to try to walk to the Seine. Despite Collin's iphone skills and the map in my guidebook, we ended up walking in the wrong direction. Oh well, at least we got to see some French neighborhoods, and even a Gypsy market. We then took the Metro in the right direction and ended up near Notre Dame, falling in love with Paris even more. Its so beautiful and it has a certain charm about it that I'd never experienced before. Notre Dame was gorgeous, too:



We got to go inside, and it was huge, with a large open middle sanctuary, and then lots of little rooms all around the sides, with stained glass windows and artifacts and things. They even had confession rooms where you could go inside and talk with a priest. I thought it was funny because the rooms were sorted by the languages the priests inside them could speak.

We then got some lunch (baguette sandwiches and a glass of wine) at a cafe, and enjoyed that because it was so cheap, and so typically Paris! Our friends were at the Eiffel Tower, so we finished up and decided to walk to go meet them. All the way at the other end of the Seine. That hour and a half gave me blisters, but we got to see tons of things along the way! We finally got there, and of course had to take a picture of all of us in front of the Tower:



It was awesome to see it up close...it looks a little redder than I thought it would be, and I really liked the intricate designs on it. Then, we met up with our friends' friend who is working for a year as an au'pair. She took us to the Invalides, which is a beautiful garden in front of a museum dedicated to Napolean, including his tomb. Now, EU citizens between the ages of 18 and 26 can get into museums for free. We all happened to have Czech "ID's", aka our Metro passes. These are all in Czech, with our names, pictures and birthdays. Being the cheap students that we are, we decided to try to use our Metro passes to get into the Museum for free...and it worked!! That was awesome. After seeing the musem, we sat in the gardens for a bit and took in all the French people (including two boys and their dad playing rugby, who hit us with the ball), before going back to our hostels to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was an experience unto itself. We went to this amazing French restaurant, and the food was delicious. The boys had three course meals, but I stuck to one course, beef bourginon.



It was SO good. We then went out for a bit, but were really tired so soon called it a night. Collin and I had to make three transfers on the Metro to get home, thanks to Paris' odd hub and spokes system, which looks comprehensive since it has a lot of lines, but thats deceiving because none of them really connect in convenient places.

The next day we went to the Louvre, where again used our Metro passes to get in for free! They were a little more suspicious of us there, but gave us the tickets anyway. The Louvre itself is a beautiful building, not to mention all the artwork. Here's me with a woman who's pretty famous:



Here is the museum from the outside (the clouds look really ominous, but luckily it only rained on us once during our time in Paris, so we got pretty lucky):



After the Louvre, we went to the Arc D'Triomphe, and the Champs Elysees. There's the Champs with the arc in the background:



We decided to buy bagettes from a boulangerie (bakery) for dinner, and then had some wine on the Seine. It was a pretty beautiful experience, very quiet out and all of us just sitting and looking out on the water. However, we didn't realize that the Metro closed at midnight, not 2am, so we had to walk back to Montmarte. It was pretty far and pretty interesting, but we made it! And also ended up finding the Moulin Rouge on the way, so that was cool. Collin and I took a picture in front of it:



The next day, we wanted to go to Versailles, but it was closed. Instead, we went back to the Notre Dame area, walked around a bit, and had an amazing lunch of paninis and crepes on the Seine. We saw the Bastille, and then went to Sacre Couer, a church on a hill in Montmarte that has an absolutely exquisite view of Paris:



That night, we went to a place in Montmarte that serves fondue for dinner, and also wine in baby bottles. It was a tiny, crowded place, where some of us had to climb on top of chairs to get to the benches on the other side of the table. So fun!

The next day, after another failed attempt at Versailles, we had a lovely picnic of baguettes, brie, and strawberries in Luxemborg Gardens. They were so beautiful, and it was very nice to have sunny, warm weather. Mike's cousin, who runs a study abroad program in France, provided us with one of their dorm rooms for our last night, which was so generous of her, and very fortunate for us as it was practically across the street from the station where we had to catch our 7:45am train to Nice the next morning! We had a lovely French dinner courtesy of her (I had duck and creme broulee!)

Overall, Paris was absolutely fabulous, and there is no doubt in my mind that I want to go back there and spend lots of quality time wandering around the city and seeing the many things it has to offer. It even made me want to learn French! It was a terrific start to our break.

Also, my friend Roni Beth, who lived there for years, gave me lots of advice and tips about Paris, and they were really very helpful. Thanks so much Roni Beth!