After a brief stop in Brussels, I got to spend three awesome days in Paris seeing most of the major sights. It was somewhat of a blur, it went so fast. We did another walking tour, that guide was quite the entertainer. Marching around, making some of the history come alive a bit.
The Louvre was great, it was awesome seeing even just a small portion of the artwork they have there (most notably the Mona Lisa, obviously). It was good to see the Venus de Milo as well, along with all kinds of great pieces from Egypt, Greece, France, and all over the place.
Notre Dame was enjoyable as well. I got to go to part of a Sunday morning service there with one of my friends in my Bible study back in Bloomington which was really nice...although I don't speak any French, and the whole service was in French...but hey. It was still good nevertheless. Afterwards I transitioned from attending a service to full tourist mode and took a bunch of pictures.
I got to see so many things there, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre (the highest point in Paris), and on and on. Too much to tell. From there I moved on to Geneva.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Brussels - a simple story
A couple days ago, before Paris (I'm in Geneva, Switzerland at the moment), I and the three guys I'm traveling with were in Brussels. Our goals were simple, and they got carried out just about completely.
We wanted to eat waffles (probably with cholocate), drink Belgian beer and tour a brewery (in addition to seeing the city a bit through walking all over the place). Obviously we had other aspirations but basically that's what happened.
The waffles with melted Nutella on top were amazing! Beer was good too, and Old Town and the Grand Place were great as well--huge and impressively, intricately designed and built. They made for some great pictures.
Regardless, good pictures aside and seeing a new country as well, I wasn't extremely impressed with Brussels. But that's what I had been told to expect, so no surprises.
The odd thing was though, when we were asked later if we saw the Atomium, built for the world fair (like a ton of huge works of art and scultpure have been) in 1958, we had not idea what they were talking about. We didn't see it. Oops. But we saw what we came to see, so it was a success in the end regardless.
Then came Paris.
We wanted to eat waffles (probably with cholocate), drink Belgian beer and tour a brewery (in addition to seeing the city a bit through walking all over the place). Obviously we had other aspirations but basically that's what happened.
The waffles with melted Nutella on top were amazing! Beer was good too, and Old Town and the Grand Place were great as well--huge and impressively, intricately designed and built. They made for some great pictures.
Regardless, good pictures aside and seeing a new country as well, I wasn't extremely impressed with Brussels. But that's what I had been told to expect, so no surprises.
The odd thing was though, when we were asked later if we saw the Atomium, built for the world fair (like a ton of huge works of art and scultpure have been) in 1958, we had not idea what they were talking about. We didn't see it. Oops. But we saw what we came to see, so it was a success in the end regardless.
Then came Paris.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Shady activities
Activities that aren't so acceptable in the US, or are illegal in most places, tend to be a little more prevalent in Europe. This is nothing new. In Prague it's the Absinthe, which you can buy in numerous countries or get it in bars. It's one of those funny things though, because you can usually own it, make it, and drink it, but not sell it.
I've heard some pretty crazy stories about people freaking out after a shot or two of Absinthe. Especially after eating a space cake, which you can get in Amsterdam. They have 'cafes' everywhere, where you can buy marijuana to smoke and brownies containing more of the same. The funny thing is, if you smoke cigarettes in these cafes, you can get fined or arrested. You can't smoke cigarettes in enclosed public places, as of sometime very recently. Funny isn't it? "I got arrested in a cafe where I was buying some pot and a space cake....arrested for smoking a cigarette, that is."
And that's not even to mention the Red Light District. I took a tour of the area, getting startled numerous times by the girls tapping on their windows to get our attention. Startling, on more levels than one. Supposedly the government is looking to close the area down, believe it or not, in the next handful (maybe ten) years or so by phasing it out slowly. The Dutch are interesting people, making laws that make behavior illegal but leaving it tolerated and un-policed as long as it's not hurting people (too much) and as long as it's making money. To be fair, Prague has its crowd of prostitutes approaching you at night too, when you're alone or in a group of just guys, they just don't have a whole district with their own windows to stand in.
In terms of Amsterdam, on a lighter note amidst all the drugs and disturbing sex activities going on, I did absolutely love seeing the Van Gogh museum. I got to see 'Starry Night' and a bunch of awesome works of Van Gogh as well as Mozart and Rembrandt and a handful of others. I really enjoyed Prague, thoroughly. And although I did like the setup and general feel of Amsterdam more than I expected (outside of the sex situation), I don't see myself going back there at any point. There's simply too big of a world out there. A world that I'm exploring, bit by bit.
Next was Brussels...
I've heard some pretty crazy stories about people freaking out after a shot or two of Absinthe. Especially after eating a space cake, which you can get in Amsterdam. They have 'cafes' everywhere, where you can buy marijuana to smoke and brownies containing more of the same. The funny thing is, if you smoke cigarettes in these cafes, you can get fined or arrested. You can't smoke cigarettes in enclosed public places, as of sometime very recently. Funny isn't it? "I got arrested in a cafe where I was buying some pot and a space cake....arrested for smoking a cigarette, that is."
And that's not even to mention the Red Light District. I took a tour of the area, getting startled numerous times by the girls tapping on their windows to get our attention. Startling, on more levels than one. Supposedly the government is looking to close the area down, believe it or not, in the next handful (maybe ten) years or so by phasing it out slowly. The Dutch are interesting people, making laws that make behavior illegal but leaving it tolerated and un-policed as long as it's not hurting people (too much) and as long as it's making money. To be fair, Prague has its crowd of prostitutes approaching you at night too, when you're alone or in a group of just guys, they just don't have a whole district with their own windows to stand in.
In terms of Amsterdam, on a lighter note amidst all the drugs and disturbing sex activities going on, I did absolutely love seeing the Van Gogh museum. I got to see 'Starry Night' and a bunch of awesome works of Van Gogh as well as Mozart and Rembrandt and a handful of others. I really enjoyed Prague, thoroughly. And although I did like the setup and general feel of Amsterdam more than I expected (outside of the sex situation), I don't see myself going back there at any point. There's simply too big of a world out there. A world that I'm exploring, bit by bit.
Next was Brussels...
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Walking Tours
I'm now in the fourth city of this little six-city journey, Paris, and in three of the four cities I've been on free walking tours. I love them! In Prague, Amsterdam and Paris now I've been on one walking tour apiece.
The way they usually work if you don't know or haven't figured it out by the obvious title is this: a person from a small, loose organization of usually young, often recent or current students living in that particular city who has become knowledgeable about the area's history gives you a tour, for free. Simple enough. So they work for tips in other words. They meet in a central, touristy public place and charge no up-front fee, walking you around to the major sites and giving you a brief narrated overview of the history and various entertaining anecdotes about what may or may not have happened there, or other myths or legends surrounding the sites.
They're usually pretty historically informative, but I've been taking some of the stories with a grain of salt. Especially here in Paris, the tour guide did know his history relatively well, but he spent so much time entertaining us that a little bit of the memorability of the locations and buildings was replaced with his constant jokes and style of conveying information. Nevertheless, especially in Prague, the focus was on information and pointing out what we all wanted to see and know about the location that you would never know as you wandered the streets alone or with your fellow travelers. With the thousands of years of history in some of these places, there's just too much that has happened everywhere and no way to find out what happened and where without at least a little help (unless you're the researching type and that's what you're looking to do on your travels). I use a mix of both reading and listening, trying to get a feel for these awesome places.
Anyway that's just a little tidbit of an observation I have made as I travel from place to place, trying to take in as much as possible. Between the inundation of information, the walking with a bit of a knee problem, the constant travel between cities and the food and beer consumption, these travels have been taking a lot out of me. But I'm absolutely loving it!!
I now have just 6 more days, on which I will try and post everyday to catch up a bit on what's been going on. And I'll get a few pictures uploaded too, but it'll be difficult (at this Internet cafe and others they have the USB ports and the operating system pretty locked down). I'll get there though. Cheers!
The way they usually work if you don't know or haven't figured it out by the obvious title is this: a person from a small, loose organization of usually young, often recent or current students living in that particular city who has become knowledgeable about the area's history gives you a tour, for free. Simple enough. So they work for tips in other words. They meet in a central, touristy public place and charge no up-front fee, walking you around to the major sites and giving you a brief narrated overview of the history and various entertaining anecdotes about what may or may not have happened there, or other myths or legends surrounding the sites.
They're usually pretty historically informative, but I've been taking some of the stories with a grain of salt. Especially here in Paris, the tour guide did know his history relatively well, but he spent so much time entertaining us that a little bit of the memorability of the locations and buildings was replaced with his constant jokes and style of conveying information. Nevertheless, especially in Prague, the focus was on information and pointing out what we all wanted to see and know about the location that you would never know as you wandered the streets alone or with your fellow travelers. With the thousands of years of history in some of these places, there's just too much that has happened everywhere and no way to find out what happened and where without at least a little help (unless you're the researching type and that's what you're looking to do on your travels). I use a mix of both reading and listening, trying to get a feel for these awesome places.
Anyway that's just a little tidbit of an observation I have made as I travel from place to place, trying to take in as much as possible. Between the inundation of information, the walking with a bit of a knee problem, the constant travel between cities and the food and beer consumption, these travels have been taking a lot out of me. But I'm absolutely loving it!!
I now have just 6 more days, on which I will try and post everyday to catch up a bit on what's been going on. And I'll get a few pictures uploaded too, but it'll be difficult (at this Internet cafe and others they have the USB ports and the operating system pretty locked down). I'll get there though. Cheers!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Dobrý den Praha, what a city!
That's 'hello Prague', and it did greet us well on the start of our 6-city trip!
The four of us have wandered this city up and down as best we could in four days. We saw a TON of Old Town Square and the surrounding area of Old Town, more than any other area. Our hostel was just east of the square. There is really too much to describe, from the crazy clock tower (Prague Astronomical Clock, parts of which were built in 1410 and 1490) to the Jewish Quarter, Charles Bridge and Prague Castle. Prague Castle just so happens to be the biggest castle in the world, it looks awesome. Quite a lot of films have been shot here (and very often passed off as being cities other than Prague). I'm told the city of Prague is beginning to charge for rights to shoot films here from now on there are so many requests.
I learned an interesting word on our tour of Prague Castle, defenerate. Not too common of a word, as it's underlined in red as I type it. It means to throw something (or in this case, someone) out of a window. Oh the Hapsburgs. I guess a few people got tossed out of a three or so story window at some point, landing on a big pile of manure (so as not to kill them), as a form of public embarrassment. We felt a new word could be added to the English language for throwing someone off a balcony as well: balconstrate was suggested. I thought that was at least worth noting...
I may share a few more stories about the city in my next post, we shall see, but for now I'm getting ready to leave and move on to Amsterdam for another three days!
The four of us have wandered this city up and down as best we could in four days. We saw a TON of Old Town Square and the surrounding area of Old Town, more than any other area. Our hostel was just east of the square. There is really too much to describe, from the crazy clock tower (Prague Astronomical Clock, parts of which were built in 1410 and 1490) to the Jewish Quarter, Charles Bridge and Prague Castle. Prague Castle just so happens to be the biggest castle in the world, it looks awesome. Quite a lot of films have been shot here (and very often passed off as being cities other than Prague). I'm told the city of Prague is beginning to charge for rights to shoot films here from now on there are so many requests.
I learned an interesting word on our tour of Prague Castle, defenerate. Not too common of a word, as it's underlined in red as I type it. It means to throw something (or in this case, someone) out of a window. Oh the Hapsburgs. I guess a few people got tossed out of a three or so story window at some point, landing on a big pile of manure (so as not to kill them), as a form of public embarrassment. We felt a new word could be added to the English language for throwing someone off a balcony as well: balconstrate was suggested. I thought that was at least worth noting...
I may share a few more stories about the city in my next post, we shall see, but for now I'm getting ready to leave and move on to Amsterdam for another three days!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Resurrection of the Blog
It's time to get back moving on my travel adventures, I'll be heading to Europe today on the start of a long backpacking adventure (16 days) taking me to six cities in six different countries. I've traveled a decent bit since I last posted, Colorado (twice), Washington, Montana, and Florida (twice), but this is my first serious excursion. For now, this will just be a travel blog until I decide to venture into the territory of commenting on everyday life publicly. Whether or when that happens, we shall see.
I'll be traveling with three friends of mine from the Business School: Erik, Greg and Scott. We're traveling extremely light, just a small/midsize backpack apiece--and hostels all the way.
We'll be starting our trip by flying out of Indianapolis, connecting in Chicago and London Heathrow, finally ending up in Prague on Friday at around 7pm local time. We'll be there until early Tuesday morning when we fly to Amsterdam. After three days in Amsterdam, we're taking a quick trip to Brussels by train just for the day (Friday the 13th) on the way to Paris. We're in Paris 'til Monday night when we fly to Geneva for just a day and a half.
Finally, we're going back to the amazing city of Barcelona where I studied abroad during the summer of 2007. I couldn't be more excited to get back to Barcelona, almost as much as the other five cities that I've never even been to.
That's all for now, more updates will be coming soon!
I'll be traveling with three friends of mine from the Business School: Erik, Greg and Scott. We're traveling extremely light, just a small/midsize backpack apiece--and hostels all the way.
We'll be starting our trip by flying out of Indianapolis, connecting in Chicago and London Heathrow, finally ending up in Prague on Friday at around 7pm local time. We'll be there until early Tuesday morning when we fly to Amsterdam. After three days in Amsterdam, we're taking a quick trip to Brussels by train just for the day (Friday the 13th) on the way to Paris. We're in Paris 'til Monday night when we fly to Geneva for just a day and a half.
Finally, we're going back to the amazing city of Barcelona where I studied abroad during the summer of 2007. I couldn't be more excited to get back to Barcelona, almost as much as the other five cities that I've never even been to.
That's all for now, more updates will be coming soon!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
landmarks
I'm getting back into the swing of things with school, starting the third week of classes in a few hours with some international economics at 9:30. With a couple friends living in Spain at the moment, I've been looking back at my time there and wanted to post the map of most of my favorite spots around the city. Each of the blue placemarks on the map has a little description if you click on it. Here she is:
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And here's the map of all the places I visited this summer around Europe, minus those helpful little descriptions on the Barcelona map:
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View Larger Map
And here's the map of all the places I visited this summer around Europe, minus those helpful little descriptions on the Barcelona map:
View Larger Map
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