Edinburgh (Spring Break City 2 of 4)

After Paris it was on to Edinburgh, Scotland.
I was delighted to see all the green grass and stone buildings.

Our hostel was really well situated in the city and it had a great kitchen and lounge area with a mural continuing on each of the four walls. 

We were able to see a great view of the city from the top of a hill that was located near our hostel. It provided a genuine feel of Edinburgh, especially when we started to hear a bagpiper. 

 

My inner Harry Potter nerd was quite satisfied by this part of the trip when it was revealed that J.K. Rowling spent a lot of her time writing the books at the Elephant House Cafe. She also took some inspiration for character names from a near by cemetery. 

We found the gravestones for McGonagall, Tom Riddle, and Moodie (pictured). 

The Elephant House Cafe had a wall dedicated to Rowling. 

Overall, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Edinburgh. If you're looking for a place to explore with rich history, nice people, and dashes of Harry Potter, Edinburgh is the place to go!

Paris (Spring Break City 1 of 4)

I have so many adventures to recount! Sorry I've been so behind. 

I was in Paris for about a day and a half at the start of my spring break week on late February the 25th until Monday February 27th. We made the most of our short time though as we spent about ten hours on Sunday walking to all of the main (and a few obscure) tourist attractions that Paris had to offer. 

Of course we saw the Eiffel Tower...

... a lot of the Eiffel Tower. 

But of course we were still able to enjoy the rest of the popular tourist sights. 

Because we are studying abroad in France and have the Visa's to prove it, we are technically legal residents of the European Union. This fact, combined with the magic student age group of 18-25 meant we got to do a lot of things for free. 

L'Arc de Triomphe allowed free access to the small museum and view from on top of the Arc. The panoramic view of Paris was beautiful. 

We then continued on our walking tour to see Place De La Concord, the oldest monument in Paris. The obelisk was a gift from the Egyptians and was placed in the square to indicate where certain members of the bourgeoisie - shall we say - lost their heads. We also stopped to take pictures in front of The Louvre. 

 

After that we saw a few sights around the Seine River. We visited the famous love-lock bridge, The Pont de l'Archevêché. You are supposed to visit the bridge with your lover and a lock. You fasten the lock to the bridge and then throw the key into the Seine. Very romantic, although I wondered if all those keys make an impact on the environment. just sayin. 

I took pictures of my two favorite locks that I found. 

This one is a bit harder to read. It says: 

Trey & Kindle                      Which means:

Je t'aimais                       I've loved you

Je t'aime                                I love you

Je t'aimerai                      I will love you

We visited Notre Dame and The Shakespeare Company Bookstore. The bookstore is famous because Victor Hugo and other French writers used to frequent the store for a place to read and share materials. I bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and got the Shakespeare Company stamp on the inside cover. 

After dinner we saw one final attraction, the miniature Statue of Liberty. The one in Paris is looking in the direction of her large-scale counterpart in New York. 

But we had a lot of spring break left to go. More posts to come!

Provence

Sorry for the delay between posts, the study part of studying abroad caught me with a few mid-terms and a presentation. All went well :)

This past weekend was pre-planned by my study abroad program and spent in the lovely and scenic Provence area. We were on the bus by 7:30 am to go to Arles, famous for the painting Cafe Terrace at Night by Vincent Van Gogh and for the remains of a Roman amphitheater and theater.

The Roman Amphitheater and Theater were also very interesting. Apparently, the amphitheater was designed so that different social classes would never have to mix on the way to their seats, as the entrances all lead to different expense levels of seating.

Theater and Amphitheater respectively.




We then visited a medieval castle stronghold in Les Baux de Provence. The view from the top of the 245 m high plateau was truly fantastic.

From Les Baux de Provence we traveled to the beautiful walled city of Avignon, home of the Pope's Palace. There is a Pope's Palace in Avignon because of some conflict between French royalty and Roman Pope Boniface VIII. The full story is quite interesting. I found that Wikipedia summed up our tour guide's explanation nicely, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avignon_Papacy.
The Pope's Palace was still quite a sight despite the many fires, destruction attempts, and prison usage it has endured.

Also, it is apparently possible to hold large-scale  receptions within the palace as we observed a large queue of nicely-dressed people walk into the front doors of the palace ushered in by a band and fire performer. Just in case you really need a venue for something...

After Avignon we went to visit the Pont du Guard, a Roman aqueduct built over 2000 years ago. The Aqueduct was originally 31 miles long and was still water tight up until about 900 years ago. Once again, we had beautiful weather. 

Last but not least on our excursion we had wine tasting at a vineyard in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. (Yes, another location associated with French popes. The first vines there were planed in the 13th century by some wine-loving popes). We enjoyed the finer points of two glasses of red, and one glass of white wine. 

Starting this Saturday the 25th is my Spring Break! Stories and pictures to come in early March. I'll be visiting Paris, Edinburgh, London, and Amsterdam!

 

The Italian Alps Adventure

The past weekend was one of the most spectacular and surprising couple of days that I have had yet. I was invited by my new friend, Gloria to go to her beautiful weekend-home in Limone, Italy on last Thursday evening. Five other friends and I left at 11:00 am on Friday and after a series of trains, busses, and a car ride, arrived in a beautiful little town covered in blankets of snow.

Gloria gave us a tour of the house. The outside looked just as nice as the interior.

This was the bedroom I used for Friday and Saturday night. It was definitely hard to come back to the bunk-bed in my apartment in Antibes. 

The view from the living room was quite spectacular.

Some of the group went skiing on Saturday to the advanced part of the mountain. The bunny-hill was not really an option this time, so I went on a self guided tour of the little town with another girl who also decided her skiing-skills were sub par. We still had a lot of fun exploring, and I made a snowman!

Gloria, her brother and father were great hosts to us. I had excellent meals, wine, and conversation. I feel truly grateful for their generosity and willingness to open their home to a group of six Americans. 

Snow Day

Today marked the second snow day here in the south of France. Tuesday's forecast threatened to dump a whopping two inches in usually-sunny Antibes. Well, that was enough for the public bus system to cancel all bus routes for Tuesday and Wednesday until 8 am, and then for my university to cancel all classes for both days.
Tuesday passed rainy and cold but with no snow in sight, and today was bright and sunny.
Here is the view from my apartment documenting snow day number two.

To be fair, my university is located in Sophia-Antipolise, not Antibes, and apparently they did actually manage to accumulate about an inch of snow and ice. 

Maybe living in the midwest has simply toughened me up against conditions such as these :)

Learning to Ski

This weekend passed in breathtaking Superdevoluy, France on part of the French Alps. I have never been snow skiing before but the experience was fantastic nonetheless.

 

This is a picture of the black diamond mountain I skied down on my very fist attempt.... just kidding... this was the view from our hotel room. 

This is the bunny hill that I eventually conquered only falling twice (on the final run)! 

I was lucky enough to room with a girl in my study abroad program who had been a ski instructor since she was thirteen. I really owe my whole Saturday to her kindness, patience, and aid. 

After a solid four hours on the slopes we stopped for the day to eat and rest. Some fellow bunny-hill-conquerers and I decided to get pizza for lunch because we had been reminded "to pizza" (make the skis point in front of you) to stop so much during the day. If anyone is looking for a new way to work out, I must highly recommend skiing. Not only do you get to pass the day in beautiful scenery, but you also get the benefit of exercise for your entire body. 

Your arms and shoulders will carry the heavy equipment to and from your hotel room.

Your legs, of course, control all movement while skiing. 

And your abs will certainly be used to stabilize your body when trying to get up and out of the powdery snow you just ran into. 

Atop the bunny hill. 

On Sunday I was pretty sore from the day before so some friends and I decided to just ride a ski lift to the top of a more difficult spot just to see the view. While the clouds were clear, it was plain to see how nicely nestled in the Alps we really were. 

 

There was a small restaurant at the top where we ate lunch. 

Shopping in Italy

Friday and Saturday marked great days for shopping at outdoor markets in Ventimiglia and San Remo, Italy. The quality of goods is sometimes questionable but the prospect of a good deal is always right around the corner. Personally, in Ventimiglia (pronounced Vent-ee-mee-lia) I found a bracelet that I love for only 2.5 euro.

But that trip was relatively short in comparison to the day we spent in San Remo. After perusing the market, we had plenty of time to go explore the city.

Here is a picture of a church we stumbled upon while searching for a pizzeria. 

We found a fantastic little pizzeria called Pinocchio's Pizza. If you have no other interest for Italy, I must recommend that you go solely for the experience of truly authentic pizza. 

Besides pizza, of course we needed to get gelato. 

Well shopped and fed, we were able to venture onto a small, rock peninsula. The view of the shoreline as well as the ocean were incredible. 

Not all of Saturday was spent in San Remo however. Our study abroad leader then took us to Dolceacqua, Italy for a quick tour of the historically rich little town. 

 We were able to take a tour of the fortress atop the hill. Some parts of the stronghold dated back to the 11th century. 

Views from the castle were breathtaking. I still haven't become accustomed to mountains in the skyline.