Brussels with a side of Bruges

This trip was not part of my epic spring break week but instead happened only a weekend after. It was tough to pack up again so quickly but the trip was well worth it.
We ate some great Belgian cuisine including mussels with fries and, of course, Belgian waffles.


I have never tried the combination of mussels and french fries but I must say the meal was excellent!

We visited the famous Brussels Atomium. Like the Eiffel Tower, The Atomium was also built for a World Fair. We went inside and got a great view of Brussels. 

We also saw the strangely famous Peeing Boy Statue. Its fame is apparently not proportional to its actual size. The statue is two feet tall and urinates into the fountain basin. There are many stories circulating why such a statue would be made; in some stories the boy is a hero, in others he is blissfully unaware of his surroundings, but  all of the accounts agree that at some point a small boy urinated in public. 

The next day we took a trip to Bruges, a smaller Belgian city located only a short train ride away from Brussels. This quiet little village was absolutely beautiful. We arrived too late to see Michael Angelo's Madonna or the church where a vial of Jesus' blood is stored but we enjoyed our self guided tour.

We ended our time in Belgium with more chocolate, waffles, and fries. What a great trip!

Amsterdam (Spring Break City 4 of 4)

Amsterdam is generally well known for pot being as common as coffee and for their shocking red light district. Although I found both of those claims to fame to be true and prevalent, the city was still a joy to explore.

Amsterdam is actually a series of 80 small islands, each divided by grid-like man-made canals. It is a little confusing to get around at first if you don't have a detailed map but we managed to find where we needed to go. 

We didn't visit many museums while we were there but we did spend a little bit of time at the Anne Frank House. If you ever have just a short time to spend in Amsterdam, I would highly recommend paying this museum a visit. The house where the Frank family hid from Nazi capture is still standing and, although furniture is gone, the walls and conditions have been left the same. 

Another must do-while in Amsterdam is to rent a bike. Every street, canal, and fence had bike upon bike piled up, only leaving room for intersections. I swear Amsterdam could do their census by counting the number of bikes lining the streets. 

Amsterdam was great fun but I'm glad we only spent two days there. I enjoyed sightseeing but was quite glad to return to Antibes after a long week of traveling. 

London (Spring Break City 3 of 4)

Our time in London was simply marvelous.
We arrived in the late afternoon on Wednesday the 29th of February. We had enough time to settle into our hostel and grab dinner before going to see Wicked at the Apollo-Victoria Theater. I had seen Wicked before but the London cast did a great job. It was also cool to hear the familiar songs sung in British accents.

The next day we did a three hour guided walking tour of the city. Our guide took us around to many of the famous London sights like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. 

After the guided tour, we took it upon ourselves to find Tower Bridge. We walked across, took pictures and then rode the Underground to go back home. 

The Underground happened to stop beneath Kings Cross Station before reaching the stop by our hostel. So, we investigated, and were delighted to find that Platform 9 3/4  is real! (It's technically between tracks 8 and 9 but I was thrilled nonetheless). 

The next day we had time to live out the Beatles Abbey Road cover before packing up and heading to Amsterdam. 

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.