Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Versailles!
(This is continued from the last post - so scroll down to read about the first part of my weekend...)
Ok, so after a great time in Germany with my friend Carly, we headed to the night train from Munich to Paris. She would get off in Bonn at 5am, while I got to sleep until I reached Paris at 930. By then I was so exhausted that I slept like a rock. The only hitches were that I lost my reservation for about 30 minutes because it slid down between the beds and then I also woke up sleep talking --- hope I didnt wake the person up on the bunk below me!! But all in all, the night train was great and I arrived very refreshed to a beautiful Paris morning. I met my friend Cate (who's studying in Rennes with me) at the station and we headed off to Versailles!
Versailles (aka most incredible day ever)
This incredible day started off with me and Cate looking for the line to print off our electronic tickets. (We had both bought our tickets online, but there was a printing problem so all we had were our confirmation numbers.) So we asked a worker passing by which line we should get in, and in her uncertainty, she took us straight to the front of the line of people who had also bought electronic tickets. The worker at the front of the line said she would just take us right away and that we could go on in. Thanks to these two super awesome employees, Cate and I skipped an hour-long wait in line!! We had only been at the Palace for 10 minutes and there we were inside of it! We were so flabbergasted!
The palace was beautiful, just like I remembered, everything was so ornate and rich-looking. But the real wonder of the palace is the backyard. The grounds strech for miles and miles and include: hedge mazes, beautiful fountains, two other smaller palaces, gazeboes, a canal to replicate venice, hundreds of statues, flowers and sculted shrubbery, and a replica of an Austrian village where Marie Antoinette would pretend to be poor. We could have been there for ten hours more and not seen all of it. The sky was a cloudless blue and it was sunny and 70 all afternoon. It was so indescribably amazing. To top it all off, every Sunday the fountains go off and look so majestic and beautiful, some fountains even have little shows that cordinate to music. It was so magical! There were so many people just picnicking, playing frisbee, and sunbathing in the endless gardens. I wonder what King Louis XIV would say if he could see all these peasants enjoying his estate! All in all it was so wonderful and the only thing that finally convinced me it was time to go home was my aching feet - that were stupidly adorned in little slippers instead of good moutain-hiking and palace-strolling tennis shoes. I could barely walk by the time we got to McDonalds for dinner and practically passed out into my bed once we got back to Rennes. It was so tiring, but I would do it again in a heartbeat!!
Ok well that was my weekend, next week I should have some more stories because we'll be visiting the Loire Valley castles this upcoming weekend with my program! Hope you like the pictures (they're way below if you scroll down) and I hope you are all doing well! Drop me a line sometime! I love to hear how y'all are doing!
Ok, til next week!
Ok, so after a great time in Germany with my friend Carly, we headed to the night train from Munich to Paris. She would get off in Bonn at 5am, while I got to sleep until I reached Paris at 930. By then I was so exhausted that I slept like a rock. The only hitches were that I lost my reservation for about 30 minutes because it slid down between the beds and then I also woke up sleep talking --- hope I didnt wake the person up on the bunk below me!! But all in all, the night train was great and I arrived very refreshed to a beautiful Paris morning. I met my friend Cate (who's studying in Rennes with me) at the station and we headed off to Versailles!
Versailles (aka most incredible day ever)
This incredible day started off with me and Cate looking for the line to print off our electronic tickets. (We had both bought our tickets online, but there was a printing problem so all we had were our confirmation numbers.) So we asked a worker passing by which line we should get in, and in her uncertainty, she took us straight to the front of the line of people who had also bought electronic tickets. The worker at the front of the line said she would just take us right away and that we could go on in. Thanks to these two super awesome employees, Cate and I skipped an hour-long wait in line!! We had only been at the Palace for 10 minutes and there we were inside of it! We were so flabbergasted!
The palace was beautiful, just like I remembered, everything was so ornate and rich-looking. But the real wonder of the palace is the backyard. The grounds strech for miles and miles and include: hedge mazes, beautiful fountains, two other smaller palaces, gazeboes, a canal to replicate venice, hundreds of statues, flowers and sculted shrubbery, and a replica of an Austrian village where Marie Antoinette would pretend to be poor. We could have been there for ten hours more and not seen all of it. The sky was a cloudless blue and it was sunny and 70 all afternoon. It was so indescribably amazing. To top it all off, every Sunday the fountains go off and look so majestic and beautiful, some fountains even have little shows that cordinate to music. It was so magical! There were so many people just picnicking, playing frisbee, and sunbathing in the endless gardens. I wonder what King Louis XIV would say if he could see all these peasants enjoying his estate! All in all it was so wonderful and the only thing that finally convinced me it was time to go home was my aching feet - that were stupidly adorned in little slippers instead of good moutain-hiking and palace-strolling tennis shoes. I could barely walk by the time we got to McDonalds for dinner and practically passed out into my bed once we got back to Rennes. It was so tiring, but I would do it again in a heartbeat!!
Ok well that was my weekend, next week I should have some more stories because we'll be visiting the Loire Valley castles this upcoming weekend with my program! Hope you like the pictures (they're way below if you scroll down) and I hope you are all doing well! Drop me a line sometime! I love to hear how y'all are doing!
Ok, til next week!
Monday, April 11, 2011
What a Weekend!
Hey everyone! So this weekend I was very busy traveling to southern Germany on Saturday to see the castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenshwangau in Fussen and then spending the day at Versailles on Sunday! It was such an incredible weekend! So here's the details...
Transportation
The craziest part of this trip by far was the trnsportation. I decided to go to Germany in one weekend despite the fact that 1) It required over 30 hours of travel. 2) I would be in Fussen for about 5 hours before turning right around and heading home. And 3) Everything was timed to the minute, so any late bus or train or metro would shorten this time in Fussen. Yet, here I am to testify that it was totally worth it!! But since travelling was the majority of my trip, let me give you the layout...
Friday = 1. Go directly from teaching to train station, 30 minutes to get to the station, and catch the train from Rennes to Paris. Got there, got on, no problems.
2. Arrive in Paris at 830PM and have two hours to take the metro to the outskirts of Paris where I have to find the bus station and take a bus overnight to Stuttgart, Germay. The metro took longer than I thought, but still no problems UNTIL I get off the metro in this shady part of town with lots of barred up motels on the outskirts of Paris and realize that my google map has no more idea than i where the bus station is. After thirty minutes of trying to figure out the map to the bus station, I look at my watch and realize I have five minutes 'til the bus leaves for the night. This is made more terrifying by the fact that I don't know where I am, I'm obviously not in the best part of town, the metro has stopped running for the night - so I cant get back into Paris if I wanted, and my whole trip is down the drain before I even start. In this panicked state, something inside me snaps and I pitch the google map and just start running aimlessly through the shady streets of Paris. I'm all out sprinting and praying when suddenly this sign appears out of nowhere for the bus station, I sprint faster and more and more signs keep leading me around the town for a good quarter of a mile and suddenly I'm in the parking garage for the bus station. I sprint like mad looking for my bus. I finally find it, 30 seconds before its departure and the driver says I have to check in downstairs. I sprint downstairs and there's long lines to check in for every bus except mine. No line for me, so I throw my confirmation at the cashier, he throws me my boarding pass and goes, "You better run" , and I just think, "What do you think I've been doing??" and I make it to the bus and take my seat one minute after it was supposed to have left. I was shaking so bad, I didnt know whether to laugh or cry. In the end I decided to fall asleep and woke up the next morning in Stuttgart.
SATURDAY = We arrived an hour late to Stuttagart, so I missed my direct train to Fussen. Just glad to have made the bus, I walk around the S-bahn station at 700am eating my oranges and soaking up the morning sun. When the S-bahn arrives, I hop on and go right to the Stuttgart train station where the desk worker tells me that the next train to Fussen will arrive only an hour later than the one I missed. Not bad. EXCEPT - I have to take 3 trains now, instead of one. Each has a ten minute layover in a very small German town. The train I'm departing from is roughly 10 minutes late. 1st train of the day - Stuttgart to Ausburg. I am three minutes late for my connecting train (Ausburg to Buchloe) but at this point I know the benefits of sprinting and praying. So I do just that and find that my connecting train is by some miracle still there and I fly onto it one minute before it departs. Same thing happens in Buchloe, sprint to my train, make it by seconds. Is God good or what???
So there I am, able to breathe at last, on my way to Fussen. I spend a fabulous day in Fussen, take the evening train to Munich, take the night train from Munich to Paris and Saturday is suddenly over.
SUNDAY Get in to Paris at 930 after a good nights sleep on the train. Take the RER to Versailles with my friend, take it back at the end of the day, and catch the TGV back to Rennes. What a weekend for traveling!
NOW THE CASTLES!!
In Bavaria, I met up with my friend who's studying in Bonn, Germany. it was so great to see her!! So first we saw Hohenschwangau, which is the yellow-ish one in the photos, unfortunately at Neuscwhanstein and Hohen. we couldn't take pictures of the inside of the castles, so the outside is all you get...but the insides were very cool. We had a great, funny tour guide for the first castle, even if it was rather short, and then we had a bit of a break before the Neusch. tour, so we had lunch at a little cafe where I had my first Bavarian sausages! They were really good! Then we hiked up to Neusch. and admired the cliffs for a bit before joining our tour. The inside of Neusch. was sooo amazing, even better than I remembered!! I'm so glad I got to see it again (I went when I was 11 with my Nana and Baba) because everything had gotten all muddled on my mind. Every window had a view of the mountains or the countryside way below and it was so magical! Just like a fairy tale! Ludwig even built his own manmade cave right in the castle! Incredible! After that, we hiked back down and I was definitely sad to leave the mountains.
Ok well I have way more to tell you but its very late here and Im exhausted, so you'll just have to wait til tomorrow to hear about Versailles and the most perfect day ever!
Enjoy the pictures while you wait!
Transportation
The craziest part of this trip by far was the trnsportation. I decided to go to Germany in one weekend despite the fact that 1) It required over 30 hours of travel. 2) I would be in Fussen for about 5 hours before turning right around and heading home. And 3) Everything was timed to the minute, so any late bus or train or metro would shorten this time in Fussen. Yet, here I am to testify that it was totally worth it!! But since travelling was the majority of my trip, let me give you the layout...
Friday = 1. Go directly from teaching to train station, 30 minutes to get to the station, and catch the train from Rennes to Paris. Got there, got on, no problems.
2. Arrive in Paris at 830PM and have two hours to take the metro to the outskirts of Paris where I have to find the bus station and take a bus overnight to Stuttgart, Germay. The metro took longer than I thought, but still no problems UNTIL I get off the metro in this shady part of town with lots of barred up motels on the outskirts of Paris and realize that my google map has no more idea than i where the bus station is. After thirty minutes of trying to figure out the map to the bus station, I look at my watch and realize I have five minutes 'til the bus leaves for the night. This is made more terrifying by the fact that I don't know where I am, I'm obviously not in the best part of town, the metro has stopped running for the night - so I cant get back into Paris if I wanted, and my whole trip is down the drain before I even start. In this panicked state, something inside me snaps and I pitch the google map and just start running aimlessly through the shady streets of Paris. I'm all out sprinting and praying when suddenly this sign appears out of nowhere for the bus station, I sprint faster and more and more signs keep leading me around the town for a good quarter of a mile and suddenly I'm in the parking garage for the bus station. I sprint like mad looking for my bus. I finally find it, 30 seconds before its departure and the driver says I have to check in downstairs. I sprint downstairs and there's long lines to check in for every bus except mine. No line for me, so I throw my confirmation at the cashier, he throws me my boarding pass and goes, "You better run" , and I just think, "What do you think I've been doing??" and I make it to the bus and take my seat one minute after it was supposed to have left. I was shaking so bad, I didnt know whether to laugh or cry. In the end I decided to fall asleep and woke up the next morning in Stuttgart.
SATURDAY = We arrived an hour late to Stuttagart, so I missed my direct train to Fussen. Just glad to have made the bus, I walk around the S-bahn station at 700am eating my oranges and soaking up the morning sun. When the S-bahn arrives, I hop on and go right to the Stuttgart train station where the desk worker tells me that the next train to Fussen will arrive only an hour later than the one I missed. Not bad. EXCEPT - I have to take 3 trains now, instead of one. Each has a ten minute layover in a very small German town. The train I'm departing from is roughly 10 minutes late. 1st train of the day - Stuttgart to Ausburg. I am three minutes late for my connecting train (Ausburg to Buchloe) but at this point I know the benefits of sprinting and praying. So I do just that and find that my connecting train is by some miracle still there and I fly onto it one minute before it departs. Same thing happens in Buchloe, sprint to my train, make it by seconds. Is God good or what???
So there I am, able to breathe at last, on my way to Fussen. I spend a fabulous day in Fussen, take the evening train to Munich, take the night train from Munich to Paris and Saturday is suddenly over.
SUNDAY Get in to Paris at 930 after a good nights sleep on the train. Take the RER to Versailles with my friend, take it back at the end of the day, and catch the TGV back to Rennes. What a weekend for traveling!
NOW THE CASTLES!!
In Bavaria, I met up with my friend who's studying in Bonn, Germany. it was so great to see her!! So first we saw Hohenschwangau, which is the yellow-ish one in the photos, unfortunately at Neuscwhanstein and Hohen. we couldn't take pictures of the inside of the castles, so the outside is all you get...but the insides were very cool. We had a great, funny tour guide for the first castle, even if it was rather short, and then we had a bit of a break before the Neusch. tour, so we had lunch at a little cafe where I had my first Bavarian sausages! They were really good! Then we hiked up to Neusch. and admired the cliffs for a bit before joining our tour. The inside of Neusch. was sooo amazing, even better than I remembered!! I'm so glad I got to see it again (I went when I was 11 with my Nana and Baba) because everything had gotten all muddled on my mind. Every window had a view of the mountains or the countryside way below and it was so magical! Just like a fairy tale! Ludwig even built his own manmade cave right in the castle! Incredible! After that, we hiked back down and I was definitely sad to leave the mountains.
Ok well I have way more to tell you but its very late here and Im exhausted, so you'll just have to wait til tomorrow to hear about Versailles and the most perfect day ever!
Enjoy the pictures while you wait!
Versailles!
The best part about Versailles is the miles of gardens and foutains! Verailles is composed of the main palace (the big one at the top of the hill), the Grand Trianon (the pinkish one), and Marie Antoinette's little replica Austrian village.
Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau!
Neuschwanstein is the big white one and Hohenschwangau is the yellow-y one. Both are in the Alps in the south of Germany! Enjoy!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Settling into Rennes
Hey everyone! First off, thanks to everyone for the wonderful birthday cards and presents and messages!! It was so great to come back from my first break and have all that waiting for me! Please let me know right away if you didnt receive a thank you card or postcard because those should have gotten to you by now and i dont want them floating in the mailroom abyss somewhere...
Secondly, this blog might not be that interesting because I think I've reached the point in my semester where things are settling down into a bit of a routine. It's really nice actually to go to school, eat lunch, head back to school, go for a nice coffee or hot chocolate after school, and then finish off the day with dinner and homework. The pace has sped up recently due to the fact that I had FOUR midterms this week! The midterms themselves,I found very difficult, but the grading in all my classes has no real rubric - its 100 percent subjective - and from the results Ive gotten back, most of my professors seem very lenient. Its interesting though, its like the test will be 50 questions, the final grade will be out of 20 and each question has no real set point value...So basically the professor looks at all your errors in the end and sort of sums up where you fall on an invisible grade spectrum in their head and gives you a score out of 20. Different, but working in my benefit for the most part...
Aside from that crazy midterm week, stuff has been rather slow here. I'll be taking a day trip to Versailles next weekend, then the weekend after that to the Loire Valley with my program to see all the castles! It was gorgeous here this past week - in the 60's every day! Most afternoons we would sit in the grass and eat baguette sanwiches for lunch. It was all very French. Now its back to raining, but still warm, so I'll take it.
After I finished my midterms I went and got a library card at the public library here and got lots of French books. I feel its really boosted my reading comprehension, and its so much fun to just lounge in the park reading a good book! Also, I have a friend here who has a 10 year old host brother who heard that I loved comics and has been nice enough to share his manga collection with me. It's so funny to learn phrases like, "Where you think you're going, Bub" and "Today's your unlucky day, Mister" in French. Who knows, maybe I'll need them?
So all and all things have been great, the weeks are flying by and parents have started visiting Rennes from the states, and other friends in Europe have programs that are ending in less than a month, and its just two easy to look at the few weekends we have left here and feel a little panicked! Theres still so much to do and see and learn!! Hopefully we'll get it all in!!
Alright well thats all I have for you! Missing you all lots and can't wait to see you again.
Lots of Love
~Ashley
Secondly, this blog might not be that interesting because I think I've reached the point in my semester where things are settling down into a bit of a routine. It's really nice actually to go to school, eat lunch, head back to school, go for a nice coffee or hot chocolate after school, and then finish off the day with dinner and homework. The pace has sped up recently due to the fact that I had FOUR midterms this week! The midterms themselves,I found very difficult, but the grading in all my classes has no real rubric - its 100 percent subjective - and from the results Ive gotten back, most of my professors seem very lenient. Its interesting though, its like the test will be 50 questions, the final grade will be out of 20 and each question has no real set point value...So basically the professor looks at all your errors in the end and sort of sums up where you fall on an invisible grade spectrum in their head and gives you a score out of 20. Different, but working in my benefit for the most part...
Aside from that crazy midterm week, stuff has been rather slow here. I'll be taking a day trip to Versailles next weekend, then the weekend after that to the Loire Valley with my program to see all the castles! It was gorgeous here this past week - in the 60's every day! Most afternoons we would sit in the grass and eat baguette sanwiches for lunch. It was all very French. Now its back to raining, but still warm, so I'll take it.
After I finished my midterms I went and got a library card at the public library here and got lots of French books. I feel its really boosted my reading comprehension, and its so much fun to just lounge in the park reading a good book! Also, I have a friend here who has a 10 year old host brother who heard that I loved comics and has been nice enough to share his manga collection with me. It's so funny to learn phrases like, "Where you think you're going, Bub" and "Today's your unlucky day, Mister" in French. Who knows, maybe I'll need them?
So all and all things have been great, the weeks are flying by and parents have started visiting Rennes from the states, and other friends in Europe have programs that are ending in less than a month, and its just two easy to look at the few weekends we have left here and feel a little panicked! Theres still so much to do and see and learn!! Hopefully we'll get it all in!!
Alright well thats all I have for you! Missing you all lots and can't wait to see you again.
Lots of Love
~Ashley
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Winter Vacation Pictures!!
New Pink Shoes from Prague
Napping on the green in front of the Louvre
Opera House in Paris
Cemetiere Pere Lachaise - I couldnt find anyone famous...
Some dancers performing the "seduction" canival dance = super cool!
Winter Vacation Pictures!!
Charles bridge in Prague
Castle in Prague
Me sitting on the Charles bridge in Prague
A newlywed couple putting their lock on a bridge in Prague
Huge famous church that I don't know the name of in Munich
Winter Vacation Pictures!!
Arc de Triomphe in Paris
Car on the wall in the Toyota store in Paris
Where I spent my birthday lounging in the Tuileries outside the Louvre
Some pretty gross Weinblatter that I ate in Vienna
Monday, March 7, 2011
First Vacation!!!
Alright, so here it is - the long-awaited talk of my travels....lets start at the beginning...
RENNES
My vacation started with four days in Rennes in which I bummed around watching "Sicko" and "Knight and Day". Sicko made me equally sad and furious, and Knight and Day was a cute, fun romp - though I still believe that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz lack chemistry and are incompatible as a movie couple. This was about as exciting as those four days got...
PARIS
I went to Paris on my birthday and had about a ten hour lay-over before my night train to Vienna. So I did what I had been planning for a month - I went to the Louvre to spend my day gazing at and analyzing msterpeices...but it was closed. Apparently, every Tuesday is "every museum in the city is closed day." I should've read the guide book more carefully. So I went to the next best thing - The Champs Disney Store. I spent two hours in this two story disney merchandise castle, picking up things I thought about buying (like this awesome Marvel Superheroes backpack) and then putting them back down. I think the employees thought I was a little touched. Then I went to McDonalds. Call me a big spender, but there's nothing wrong with living the high life on your birthday. Then I went to the train station for about 4 hours, and spent all my money on food, an Xmen comic, and the bathroom.
THE NIGHT TRAIN
Finally the train came and aboard I went! Oh man were they the smallest bed compartments I have ever seen!! I have no idea how they fit six beds in an area smaller than my closet and then expect six people to manoeuvre themselves into them and sleep. But as long as I remained laying down, it really wasn't that bad. I slept pretty well despite the rocking of the train and the worry that the two very large men in the bunks above me might crush me in the event of a sudden stop. But not a worry, I arrived safe and sound for my transfer in Munich 10 hours later. I also arrived late, which meant I misssed my connection on to Vienna and had to find the ticket counter and get a reservation on the next one out. The staff was very helpful and so was a starbucks coffee. While I was sitting there reading all the signs, I decided that the German language looks a lot like English if you smush like three words at a time together and then scramble them. I think this was the first time I had had to communicate in a country by only using hand gestures. Its hard to talk much when you only know how to say "please", "thank you", and "two" - at least I think it was two...
VIENNA
So my friends met me at the train station in Vienna and it was so great from the get-go! I dropped my luggage off at this hostel where we were staying with 16 (!) other people, then headed out to see the Hapsburg Palace and this outdoor market that went a ways. We ate dinner at this great restaurant where we all split fried potatoes, fried chicken, fried onions, and sausage wrapped in bacon. You dont find this kind of meal everyday in France!! Unfortunately, that was all I had time for in Vienna because our bus left right after our morning pancakes.
THE BUS
The thing about getting to the bus is - it took a lot longer than we thought to get to the station. In fact, we got off the metro with about 5 minutes before our bus (which is known for leaving early and is the only one of the day) was going to depart. So our friend Carter is practically sprinting ahead of us, while our friend Margaret is leisurely pulling her suitcase a good distance behind us. It was only when we came to a large set of stairs that this became an issue. Carter was almost to the top of the stairs, me and Cate were about half way up, and Margaret decided to go around the stairs to find an escalator. That's when, with five minutes to get to the bus, we realize that Margaret is completely gone behind us and Carter has disappeared ahead of us and me and Cate have no way to contact Margaret (because her phone is out of minutes) and we have four minutes and counting to find her and sprint to the bus. We handled it with an efficiency and collectedness our mothers would be proud of. We called Carter and told him to hold the bus, we split up for sixty seconds, one upstairs - one downstairs to search and reconvened without Margaret sixty seconds later at the donutshop. We ran to the bus to see if she had made it there, and alas, nothing! She was just gone! Her escalator, whichever one she had found, had taken her somewhere else completely. Now at the bus with 3/4 of our party, the bus driver was indicating that he had to go and we were all pretty resigned to the fact that we would be spending another night in Vienna. In one last effort Carter ran to the end of the street to see if he could see anything - and there was Margaret!! Sprinting down the street across from the station! We couldnt believe it! We all just collapsed into laughter for about twenty minutes once we were all seated. And the bus only left ten minutes late. What a way to leave in style!
PRAGUE
I loved Prague. It is my favorite big city that I have visited in all of Europe. The hostel was cheap, the food was delicious, the architecture was incredible, the weather was warm and sunny, the art vendors had some amazing crafts, the stores were huge and awesome, the castle was amazing. It was like being in a fairy tale. We ate pizza the first night that was sooo good, and then the second night I had this incredible pasta that was delivered on a bike and it only cost $3!! I couldn't believe it! Then in the morning we went to this incredible bagel breakfast place (which are nearly impossible to find in France) and had bagels and bottomless coffee! So fantastic! I honestly tried to change my ticket to Munich in order to spend just a few more hours there - but it was not to be! I really hope I get back there some day and highly recommend it to anyone who will be visiting Europe!!
MUNICH
So I parted ways with my friends once again and headed to Munich where I would spend 8 or so hours waiting for my next overnight train back to Paris. I got in and stored my bag in the locker at the train station that decided to take 6 of my euros and not lock in the end! I was so mad! So then I got another one to work but never got my money back. Then I went to the bathroom - which costs 80 cents - almost twice as much as anywhere else, and I put my money in, walked in and this old man walks out of the stall. And Im like - oh man - I totally paid to go into the mens bathroom. So I have to leave and go over to the women's, and pay another 80 cents! Sheesh. By this point I was getting rather weary of putting my money into machines I didnt really understand, so when I came to the metro ticket machine - which was filled with all these German/English hybrid instructions about how you can buy 1 ticket for four stops, but only in one zone, and how you can only get off at stations labeled S or U in a certain 5 stop zone, I decided to just walk. In this case, it turned out surprisingly well. I walked until I ran into this huge square with this enormous statue of a woman with a lion - I think she was called "Bavaria" or something, but I couldnt find any plaque telling me who she was! So I sat there for a while before walking some more. I ran into a five story furniture store with FREE bathrooms before moving on to the three story Toys R Us next to that. I found this lovely cathedral named St Paul and then walked back to the train station. I found it very odd that the place I had walked through was so very residential and quiet and concluded that I must have been walking away from downtown. So after lunch, I took the opposite direction and sure enough, it was like Time Square! There were people everywhere, getting off work, trying to catch the bus or metro or whatever. But I made it to the Glockenspeil (which I cant spell) and it was soooooooooooooooo very beautiful! It just took my breath away! The whole Karlsplatz area was so lively and architecturally stunning! I really all in all had a wonderful afternoon in Munich.
THE NIGHT TRAIN
On the way back, my night train was filled with a family of five. There were three younger kids and all the hubbub, though it was in German, completely reminded me of family trips at my house. There were toys falling from the top bunk, someone was hungry, someone else had to pee, someone else was getting mad the mom wasn't listening to their story. It made me miss my sisters even more than I already do!!! I was thinking, though, before bed, that if this was one of our family vacations, someone would probably throw up in the most inconvenient place possible. Sure enough, about 1am there was a silence-breaking, "I'm going to be sick!" It was the weirdest thing, cause even though the girl said it in German, it was like I knew the tone and sat bolt upright and started scrambling for this plastic bag I had with me. The mom was faster though and got the bag and the daughter out in the hallway in one swift motion, avoiding an in-the-compartment catastrophe. It was just one of those familiar night-time scrambles that are horrible at the time, but that you laugh about later, I mean we can talk for hours in my family about puking mishaps. In the end, they were all very nice and the kids liked saying "Bonjour" to me and offering me candy. I just couldn't believe how similar the family dynamic was to my own, it made me feel so comfortable and like I could even understand them.
PARIS AGAIN
This time I was headed for an all day trip to the Louvre and nothing was going to stop me!! Except a 5 and a half hour line. DRAT! Stopped again! Apparently, the first Sunday of every month, the Louvre is free for everyone. That would explain the exceptionally long line. So off I went to Musée d'Orsay, which I had never seen before. It was wonderful, but it certainly didn't take all day, so I had a little nap in the park outside the Louvre and then took the metro to the cemetary of Pere Lachaise. It was really pretty with gorgeous, grand headstones that just went for miles!! While I was walking back to the train station, I ran smack into a Carnivale parade! I took sooo many pictures, more than all the other cities combined! But there were so many different costumes and dancers and musicians! It was fabulous!! After that, I made my way back into the center of town to meet with my old friend and tutee, Seungyoo, for dinner. It was a wonderful way to end the vacation.
RENNES AGAIN
But it wasnt over. Sorry folks. I got on the last train to Rennes, but what shouldve been a nice, restful journey back home turned into a fiasco. The train in front of us hit a cow. Apparently cows are rare, 20-car-train-destroying machines, because their train was totally out of commission. So we had to wait an extra hour while they emptied that train, cleared it off the tracks, and then gave us the ok to swing through that stop and load all those stranded people onto our train. An hour doesn't seem so bad, except for that now I had missed the last bus home and I live about an hour walk away from the station. Luckily, the station provided busses for us that went all around town, dropping people off near normal bus and metro stops. So the bus dropped me off at 2:30 am about a fifteen minute walk from my house. Its a completely safe, suburban area - boasting a nursing home, a sports center and an elementary school - but it was just an awful long walk after two days of near continuous travel. But I made it home with just enough time to throw down my bags before I fell asleep.
The end.
Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts! It was so nice to hear from you and see your emails when I got back from my travels. As always, I would love to hear what you've been up to and what is new, so feel free to message me! Im very tired tonight so sorry about the typing errors. Pictures will be up by Wednesday!!
All my love -
~Ashley
RENNES
My vacation started with four days in Rennes in which I bummed around watching "Sicko" and "Knight and Day". Sicko made me equally sad and furious, and Knight and Day was a cute, fun romp - though I still believe that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz lack chemistry and are incompatible as a movie couple. This was about as exciting as those four days got...
PARIS
I went to Paris on my birthday and had about a ten hour lay-over before my night train to Vienna. So I did what I had been planning for a month - I went to the Louvre to spend my day gazing at and analyzing msterpeices...but it was closed. Apparently, every Tuesday is "every museum in the city is closed day." I should've read the guide book more carefully. So I went to the next best thing - The Champs Disney Store. I spent two hours in this two story disney merchandise castle, picking up things I thought about buying (like this awesome Marvel Superheroes backpack) and then putting them back down. I think the employees thought I was a little touched. Then I went to McDonalds. Call me a big spender, but there's nothing wrong with living the high life on your birthday. Then I went to the train station for about 4 hours, and spent all my money on food, an Xmen comic, and the bathroom.
THE NIGHT TRAIN
Finally the train came and aboard I went! Oh man were they the smallest bed compartments I have ever seen!! I have no idea how they fit six beds in an area smaller than my closet and then expect six people to manoeuvre themselves into them and sleep. But as long as I remained laying down, it really wasn't that bad. I slept pretty well despite the rocking of the train and the worry that the two very large men in the bunks above me might crush me in the event of a sudden stop. But not a worry, I arrived safe and sound for my transfer in Munich 10 hours later. I also arrived late, which meant I misssed my connection on to Vienna and had to find the ticket counter and get a reservation on the next one out. The staff was very helpful and so was a starbucks coffee. While I was sitting there reading all the signs, I decided that the German language looks a lot like English if you smush like three words at a time together and then scramble them. I think this was the first time I had had to communicate in a country by only using hand gestures. Its hard to talk much when you only know how to say "please", "thank you", and "two" - at least I think it was two...
VIENNA
So my friends met me at the train station in Vienna and it was so great from the get-go! I dropped my luggage off at this hostel where we were staying with 16 (!) other people, then headed out to see the Hapsburg Palace and this outdoor market that went a ways. We ate dinner at this great restaurant where we all split fried potatoes, fried chicken, fried onions, and sausage wrapped in bacon. You dont find this kind of meal everyday in France!! Unfortunately, that was all I had time for in Vienna because our bus left right after our morning pancakes.
THE BUS
The thing about getting to the bus is - it took a lot longer than we thought to get to the station. In fact, we got off the metro with about 5 minutes before our bus (which is known for leaving early and is the only one of the day) was going to depart. So our friend Carter is practically sprinting ahead of us, while our friend Margaret is leisurely pulling her suitcase a good distance behind us. It was only when we came to a large set of stairs that this became an issue. Carter was almost to the top of the stairs, me and Cate were about half way up, and Margaret decided to go around the stairs to find an escalator. That's when, with five minutes to get to the bus, we realize that Margaret is completely gone behind us and Carter has disappeared ahead of us and me and Cate have no way to contact Margaret (because her phone is out of minutes) and we have four minutes and counting to find her and sprint to the bus. We handled it with an efficiency and collectedness our mothers would be proud of. We called Carter and told him to hold the bus, we split up for sixty seconds, one upstairs - one downstairs to search and reconvened without Margaret sixty seconds later at the donutshop. We ran to the bus to see if she had made it there, and alas, nothing! She was just gone! Her escalator, whichever one she had found, had taken her somewhere else completely. Now at the bus with 3/4 of our party, the bus driver was indicating that he had to go and we were all pretty resigned to the fact that we would be spending another night in Vienna. In one last effort Carter ran to the end of the street to see if he could see anything - and there was Margaret!! Sprinting down the street across from the station! We couldnt believe it! We all just collapsed into laughter for about twenty minutes once we were all seated. And the bus only left ten minutes late. What a way to leave in style!
PRAGUE
I loved Prague. It is my favorite big city that I have visited in all of Europe. The hostel was cheap, the food was delicious, the architecture was incredible, the weather was warm and sunny, the art vendors had some amazing crafts, the stores were huge and awesome, the castle was amazing. It was like being in a fairy tale. We ate pizza the first night that was sooo good, and then the second night I had this incredible pasta that was delivered on a bike and it only cost $3!! I couldn't believe it! Then in the morning we went to this incredible bagel breakfast place (which are nearly impossible to find in France) and had bagels and bottomless coffee! So fantastic! I honestly tried to change my ticket to Munich in order to spend just a few more hours there - but it was not to be! I really hope I get back there some day and highly recommend it to anyone who will be visiting Europe!!
MUNICH
So I parted ways with my friends once again and headed to Munich where I would spend 8 or so hours waiting for my next overnight train back to Paris. I got in and stored my bag in the locker at the train station that decided to take 6 of my euros and not lock in the end! I was so mad! So then I got another one to work but never got my money back. Then I went to the bathroom - which costs 80 cents - almost twice as much as anywhere else, and I put my money in, walked in and this old man walks out of the stall. And Im like - oh man - I totally paid to go into the mens bathroom. So I have to leave and go over to the women's, and pay another 80 cents! Sheesh. By this point I was getting rather weary of putting my money into machines I didnt really understand, so when I came to the metro ticket machine - which was filled with all these German/English hybrid instructions about how you can buy 1 ticket for four stops, but only in one zone, and how you can only get off at stations labeled S or U in a certain 5 stop zone, I decided to just walk. In this case, it turned out surprisingly well. I walked until I ran into this huge square with this enormous statue of a woman with a lion - I think she was called "Bavaria" or something, but I couldnt find any plaque telling me who she was! So I sat there for a while before walking some more. I ran into a five story furniture store with FREE bathrooms before moving on to the three story Toys R Us next to that. I found this lovely cathedral named St Paul and then walked back to the train station. I found it very odd that the place I had walked through was so very residential and quiet and concluded that I must have been walking away from downtown. So after lunch, I took the opposite direction and sure enough, it was like Time Square! There were people everywhere, getting off work, trying to catch the bus or metro or whatever. But I made it to the Glockenspeil (which I cant spell) and it was soooooooooooooooo very beautiful! It just took my breath away! The whole Karlsplatz area was so lively and architecturally stunning! I really all in all had a wonderful afternoon in Munich.
THE NIGHT TRAIN
On the way back, my night train was filled with a family of five. There were three younger kids and all the hubbub, though it was in German, completely reminded me of family trips at my house. There were toys falling from the top bunk, someone was hungry, someone else had to pee, someone else was getting mad the mom wasn't listening to their story. It made me miss my sisters even more than I already do!!! I was thinking, though, before bed, that if this was one of our family vacations, someone would probably throw up in the most inconvenient place possible. Sure enough, about 1am there was a silence-breaking, "I'm going to be sick!" It was the weirdest thing, cause even though the girl said it in German, it was like I knew the tone and sat bolt upright and started scrambling for this plastic bag I had with me. The mom was faster though and got the bag and the daughter out in the hallway in one swift motion, avoiding an in-the-compartment catastrophe. It was just one of those familiar night-time scrambles that are horrible at the time, but that you laugh about later, I mean we can talk for hours in my family about puking mishaps. In the end, they were all very nice and the kids liked saying "Bonjour" to me and offering me candy. I just couldn't believe how similar the family dynamic was to my own, it made me feel so comfortable and like I could even understand them.
PARIS AGAIN
This time I was headed for an all day trip to the Louvre and nothing was going to stop me!! Except a 5 and a half hour line. DRAT! Stopped again! Apparently, the first Sunday of every month, the Louvre is free for everyone. That would explain the exceptionally long line. So off I went to Musée d'Orsay, which I had never seen before. It was wonderful, but it certainly didn't take all day, so I had a little nap in the park outside the Louvre and then took the metro to the cemetary of Pere Lachaise. It was really pretty with gorgeous, grand headstones that just went for miles!! While I was walking back to the train station, I ran smack into a Carnivale parade! I took sooo many pictures, more than all the other cities combined! But there were so many different costumes and dancers and musicians! It was fabulous!! After that, I made my way back into the center of town to meet with my old friend and tutee, Seungyoo, for dinner. It was a wonderful way to end the vacation.
RENNES AGAIN
But it wasnt over. Sorry folks. I got on the last train to Rennes, but what shouldve been a nice, restful journey back home turned into a fiasco. The train in front of us hit a cow. Apparently cows are rare, 20-car-train-destroying machines, because their train was totally out of commission. So we had to wait an extra hour while they emptied that train, cleared it off the tracks, and then gave us the ok to swing through that stop and load all those stranded people onto our train. An hour doesn't seem so bad, except for that now I had missed the last bus home and I live about an hour walk away from the station. Luckily, the station provided busses for us that went all around town, dropping people off near normal bus and metro stops. So the bus dropped me off at 2:30 am about a fifteen minute walk from my house. Its a completely safe, suburban area - boasting a nursing home, a sports center and an elementary school - but it was just an awful long walk after two days of near continuous travel. But I made it home with just enough time to throw down my bags before I fell asleep.
The end.
Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts! It was so nice to hear from you and see your emails when I got back from my travels. As always, I would love to hear what you've been up to and what is new, so feel free to message me! Im very tired tonight so sorry about the typing errors. Pictures will be up by Wednesday!!
All my love -
~Ashley
Sunday, February 20, 2011
More Pictures
Mont St Michel! Incredible!
Courtyard way in the air at Mont St Michel!
Top of Mt St Michel!
Garden near my house! Remember it February, but there's so many flowers in bloom!
Me, Margaret, and Cate posing with two orchestra members after the symphony!
Pictures!!
This is my metro stop where I get on and off to go to and from home each day!
This is the Opera House downtown where we saw the symphony of Bretagne play
This is St Malo again where we went for a day trip!
This is a picture of a small town we visited on our way to Mont St Michel.
This is the metro stop where I get off to go downtown each day!
Hello Again!!
Sorry its been so long folks, but there's been a whirlwind of activity going on here in Rennes - so lets get to it!!
Computer -
First of all, me and my computer got these really horrible viruses at the same time right after my last post. Mine was in the form of this crazy cough and fever mixture and the computer had this virus called "System Tool", which is this fake anti-virus that totally blocks you from accessing everything from internet to solitaire to your own antivirus on you computer. My cough went away after awhile but, unfortunately, my computer is still not functional - due to the fact that I called this computer technician to come fix it, waited a week for him to be available, and then he never showed up or answered his phone. So the next day I went out and bought a netbook (which was only a little more than I would've paid the technician), and I absolutely love it!!! It is really small and light and it can go with me pretty much everywhere. I can do everything on it - like Skype and watch movies! The only drawback is that there is no Microsoft Word and the keyboard is European - which is sooo weird!! The "A" is where the "Q" should be, the W and Z are mixed up and dont even start me on the characters - they're all over the place!!
But all and all God really provided and helped me learn lots of new French terminology along the way (I bought everything I needed at the store in French and even asked questions like - Should I get extra memory to run my programs?) I also learned a lot about computers and viruses along the way too, since I did pretty much nothing but research it for a week, so if you have any basic questions about different netbook programs and downloads and stuff, you can test my knowledge! Ok well thats enough about technology...on to the French stuff.
Smelly Stuff
As one might have heard, the French do seem to shower less than Americans, or at the very least, use much much less water, seeing as most showers are set up to use in military fashion and most toilets can flush half-way or all the way depending what button you use. But I don't know if it's the lack of showering or the weird spray-can deodorant here or the cheese, but there is this certain repetitive odor in the air that can range from mild to overwhelming that is decidedly different than the odors in America. As for the overwhelming bit, I'm going to blame this on the lack of ventilation - windows don't have screens, so they often stay shut at businesses, and I've noticed that there are no vents in any room - not even the bathroom...therefore it is my smell-theory that this is why the odor can hover in a classroom for two or three days and on the bus indefinitely. I will have to do more research before I make any more gross assumptions, but these are my up to date odor findings. (Question!! Isn't France like famous for making perfume? Isn't this contradictory?)
Upcoming Vacation -
So I received my awesome rail pass thanks to Grandma Nan and Grandpa J (thanks guys!!!) and I've made all my rail reservations for the first vacation - which is next week!!! I cant believe its here already!! I will be going with three of my friends (Margaret, Carter, and Cate)to Prague, Vienna, and Munich!! We booked hostels in all the cities for really cheap and I can't wait to see what the overnight train experience is like!! I'm sure it will be amazing!! If anyone has any suggestions what to visit, please let us know right away because we still are sort of flying by the seat of our pants! I'll be leaving for the first day of vacation on my birthday (March 1) and going to spend the day in Paris before my overnight train for Vienna that night...so hopefully it'll be a fabulous whirlwind birthday at the Louvre!! I actually get in free because I'm a student in Europe now, and I can easily spend the whole day there - I'm so excited!!
Rennes -
Every day I'm getting to love Rennes more and more! There is so much to do here, and yet its small enough that I pass an American I know on the street at least once a day. There is this AMAZING hot cocoa shop called Les Haricots Rouge that has beome almost an obsession. I went there three times this week to do homework and have some Macadamia nut hot chocolate with three layers of whipped cream on top and a huge slice of melted, gooey brownie-cake. Anyone jealous??? It's so incredible! They have every type of hot chocolate you can imagine - from strawberry to coconut to almond and praline. Its sooo amazing!
We also found a cool club in Rennes a couple weeks ago thats for dancing, called l'Espace, but as fun as it was, it was way overpriced (15 € to get in the door!!), and they turned some people away because they had the wrong shoes (? whats that about, they just lost 15€ ?) and NO ONE was there when we arrived, which was none too early by American standards. But the music was really great and they had lots of cool lights and it was fun to just "profiter de la jeunesse" as our host mothers keep reminding us! But then when we left for the night, there were at least 100 people at the door clamoring to get it...it was way late, and everyone was just arriving! These French youth sure have more party stamina than us it seems...one French girl at my school looked surprised when I asked her how she got home if she went out so late because the buses stop running at 1am. And she said "Well that's why we stay out until the buses start again" - Only the busses don't start again until 7 am!!! Thats wild!! I might be a party pooper, but I'm surely happy to catch the last bus home at night and get some sleep. So now we've been sticking to less expensive outings, like last night, we went to this café where this jazz band was playing and they were amazing!! The lead singer sung in French, German, Spanish, and English!! Then we found out afterwards that she's studying history at our university!! How cool is that?! There's always some neat group playing at the local cafés and last night there was even a poetry slam. We never get bored here, thats for sure!
I'm missing you all so much and I'm sure I left some things out, but hopefully I'll be updating this again sooner! I hope everyone is well! Please drop me a line because I love to know what you're all up to!! All my love!!
~Ashley
Computer -
First of all, me and my computer got these really horrible viruses at the same time right after my last post. Mine was in the form of this crazy cough and fever mixture and the computer had this virus called "System Tool", which is this fake anti-virus that totally blocks you from accessing everything from internet to solitaire to your own antivirus on you computer. My cough went away after awhile but, unfortunately, my computer is still not functional - due to the fact that I called this computer technician to come fix it, waited a week for him to be available, and then he never showed up or answered his phone. So the next day I went out and bought a netbook (which was only a little more than I would've paid the technician), and I absolutely love it!!! It is really small and light and it can go with me pretty much everywhere. I can do everything on it - like Skype and watch movies! The only drawback is that there is no Microsoft Word and the keyboard is European - which is sooo weird!! The "A" is where the "Q" should be, the W and Z are mixed up and dont even start me on the characters - they're all over the place!!
But all and all God really provided and helped me learn lots of new French terminology along the way (I bought everything I needed at the store in French and even asked questions like - Should I get extra memory to run my programs?) I also learned a lot about computers and viruses along the way too, since I did pretty much nothing but research it for a week, so if you have any basic questions about different netbook programs and downloads and stuff, you can test my knowledge! Ok well thats enough about technology...on to the French stuff.
Smelly Stuff
As one might have heard, the French do seem to shower less than Americans, or at the very least, use much much less water, seeing as most showers are set up to use in military fashion and most toilets can flush half-way or all the way depending what button you use. But I don't know if it's the lack of showering or the weird spray-can deodorant here or the cheese, but there is this certain repetitive odor in the air that can range from mild to overwhelming that is decidedly different than the odors in America. As for the overwhelming bit, I'm going to blame this on the lack of ventilation - windows don't have screens, so they often stay shut at businesses, and I've noticed that there are no vents in any room - not even the bathroom...therefore it is my smell-theory that this is why the odor can hover in a classroom for two or three days and on the bus indefinitely. I will have to do more research before I make any more gross assumptions, but these are my up to date odor findings. (Question!! Isn't France like famous for making perfume? Isn't this contradictory?)
Upcoming Vacation -
So I received my awesome rail pass thanks to Grandma Nan and Grandpa J (thanks guys!!!) and I've made all my rail reservations for the first vacation - which is next week!!! I cant believe its here already!! I will be going with three of my friends (Margaret, Carter, and Cate)to Prague, Vienna, and Munich!! We booked hostels in all the cities for really cheap and I can't wait to see what the overnight train experience is like!! I'm sure it will be amazing!! If anyone has any suggestions what to visit, please let us know right away because we still are sort of flying by the seat of our pants! I'll be leaving for the first day of vacation on my birthday (March 1) and going to spend the day in Paris before my overnight train for Vienna that night...so hopefully it'll be a fabulous whirlwind birthday at the Louvre!! I actually get in free because I'm a student in Europe now, and I can easily spend the whole day there - I'm so excited!!
Rennes -
Every day I'm getting to love Rennes more and more! There is so much to do here, and yet its small enough that I pass an American I know on the street at least once a day. There is this AMAZING hot cocoa shop called Les Haricots Rouge that has beome almost an obsession. I went there three times this week to do homework and have some Macadamia nut hot chocolate with three layers of whipped cream on top and a huge slice of melted, gooey brownie-cake. Anyone jealous??? It's so incredible! They have every type of hot chocolate you can imagine - from strawberry to coconut to almond and praline. Its sooo amazing!
We also found a cool club in Rennes a couple weeks ago thats for dancing, called l'Espace, but as fun as it was, it was way overpriced (15 € to get in the door!!), and they turned some people away because they had the wrong shoes (? whats that about, they just lost 15€ ?) and NO ONE was there when we arrived, which was none too early by American standards. But the music was really great and they had lots of cool lights and it was fun to just "profiter de la jeunesse" as our host mothers keep reminding us! But then when we left for the night, there were at least 100 people at the door clamoring to get it...it was way late, and everyone was just arriving! These French youth sure have more party stamina than us it seems...one French girl at my school looked surprised when I asked her how she got home if she went out so late because the buses stop running at 1am. And she said "Well that's why we stay out until the buses start again" - Only the busses don't start again until 7 am!!! Thats wild!! I might be a party pooper, but I'm surely happy to catch the last bus home at night and get some sleep. So now we've been sticking to less expensive outings, like last night, we went to this café where this jazz band was playing and they were amazing!! The lead singer sung in French, German, Spanish, and English!! Then we found out afterwards that she's studying history at our university!! How cool is that?! There's always some neat group playing at the local cafés and last night there was even a poetry slam. We never get bored here, thats for sure!
I'm missing you all so much and I'm sure I left some things out, but hopefully I'll be updating this again sooner! I hope everyone is well! Please drop me a line because I love to know what you're all up to!! All my love!!
~Ashley
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