This weekend I went to Venice and the trip went very smoothly. We did most of the usual tourist things like going to Piazza San Marco and we took the water bus to the Island of Murano where all the glass blowers are. The first day we were there we basically walked around the whole day. The next day we went to Murano, and on our way back we discovered this big contemporary art exhibition was going on. It turns out it was the Biennale, which is a famous art event that is held in Venice. There was this complex with all these pavillions, each for a different country. There was art on display from all over the world. Then there were also mini-exhibitions with free entrance scattered around the city, like we walked past a church with all these weird baroque instruments on display.

Since Venice is on the ocean, we ate a delicious seafood dinner. I had pasta with scallops and it was probably the best thing I've eaten in Italy. There were also these weird giant cookies everywhere that were in the shape of horses and covered in wrapped candies. I think they must be holiday cookies because I asked other friends who went to Venice if they saw them, but they hadn't.

Before we left, we went to a modern art museum, which was pretty small but had some cool art (there was a Klimt painting and some Metisse sketches) As we were trying to find it, which was not easy since Venice is like one big maze, we kept seeing all these people running around through the narrow streets dodging tourists. It turns out, there was some kind of orienteering competition. All these people were running full speed while trying to figure out maps of Venice. It seemed like it must have been the most frustrating thing ever.

Overall, I had a great time. Our cheap hotel was pretty crappy, but at least relatively clean and in a pretty good location. They screwed up our reservation and had to put us in the "annex" of Albergo Antico Capon, but they were very friendly and helpful so it worked out.

Now I am preparing for my next adventure- on Friday I leave for Budapest with my European History class. It should be really fun. My friend and I are going to the Opera for 400 Hungarian Farints (6 USD). Also, we are going to a famous hotel with natural spring water hot baths that are supposed to be healing. I am excited.

Here are some pictures from Venice:
The grand canal.
Sorry it's sideways- this the obligatory picture of a gondola
The Rialto bridge
The yellow building is the annex of Albergo Hotel Antico Capon, where I stayed
An orienteering runner trying to navigate Venice.

going to venice

This weekend I'll be visiting Venice, hopefully the weather won't be too dreary and I'll get some nice pictures to post next week!

paris pictures

Here's where you can see all my many pictures from my trip to Paris. Let me know if it doesn't work.

http://brynmawr.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017305&page=1&id=10301726

http://brynmawr.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017306&id=10301726

http://brynmawr.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017303&id=10301726

Paris!

I just got back from Paris, and it was truly an amazing trip. I certainly didn't see it all, but I saw a bunch of the major sites and did a lot of aimless wandering, it was a great experience.


I stayed in a place called "Mary's Hotel" and it was actually very nice. The room was really clean and the people were really friendly and helpful. The room was of course very small:


After walking across basically the whole city to get to the hotel, I went with a friend to Notre Dame and then we got falafel sandwiches in the Latin Quarter. After that, we went to Montmartre, a neighborhood that is up on a big hill. At the top of the hill is the Sacre Coeur, a big church. It was all lit up and there was a band outside playing for visitors. It was freezing, so we went into a cafe to warm up and I got some chocolat chaud (hot chocolate :) ) I made it an early night since I had to get up so early for my plane. I took the Metro back to the hotel, it is so efficient and my hotel was right next to a stop, it worked out nicely. Here's a picture of Notre Dame:

The next day I was going to go to the Louvre, but it is closed on Tuesdays. Instead, I just walked around with my friend and saw some of the sites. We went to the Luxembourg Gardens and the Pantheon and then ate lunch (I had delicious onion soup since it was so cold). Here is a shot of a fountain in the Luxembourg gardens, it was so picturesque with the leaves changing color.My friend had to go meet another friend, so for the rest of the day I just walked around and did some sketches. I did a drawing of the Seine, which I think came out pretty well, but some of the other ones are not great. And, I did do an obligatory Eiffel Tower drawing. Later on I met another friend from school and we had dinner, it was nice to just be able to meet up in Paris! After that, I took a stroll along the Seine to see Paris by night. They don't call it the City of Light for nothing. Everything is lit up and beautiful. My short walk ended up being pretty long, I saw Notre Dame, and then the Louvre, which both looked amazing at night. Then I decided to walk down the Champs Elysee, by the time I got back to my room I was exhausted. Here is one of the pictures I took at night:

The next day I made it to the Louvre, but I was pretty tired from the day before. It is not easy to navigate the museum, it is so huge and it has the long wings so you have to walk back and forth and up and down stairs. Still, it was pretty cool to see the artwork. They have an array of flemish paintings which I enjoy, there was a nice drawing exhibition, and of course the famous stuff like the Mona Lisa and the Venus De Milo.

When we were done with that, we went to the Eiffel Tower and took the elevator to the top, it was freezing cold and very unpleasant to wait in line, but the view was lovely (although it was a little scary to ride in the elevator) Later that night, we tried to go to a real-life Parisian night club, but we didn't past muster fashion wise :( Nevertheless, it was a complete day.

On Thursday, I did a little more museum going, I saw the Picasso museum and an exhibition in the Grand Palais of Courbet (very enjoyable). We also did a bit of walking around and checking out shops. I think my favorite was climbing to the top of Notre Dame. The gargoyles are really cool, and the view was better than from the Eiffel Tower, in my opinion.

To finish off the trip, we went to see a movie because we were pretty tired and had to get up early for our flight. What better way to end a trip to Paris than to see Rush Hour 3, which takes place in Paris? We smuggled in baguette sandwiches and candy. It was surprisingly entertaining.

For a short trip, I think I accomplished a lot! I had tons of fun, it was just an amazing trip!

photo update

I am getting ready to leave for Paris early tomorrow morning, so I figured I'd make room on the camera for lots of pictures. Here are a few I took at the Marino Wine Festival a few weeks ago. It was a good time, as you can imagine, lots of cheap wine (it even flowed from the fountain) and delicious roast pork sandwiches.


This is a view from Marino, the town that the festival was in.


This is from a procession of people in Medieval costumes, I think they were celebrating a military victory that had something to do with Marino.

This is a shot of some of the townsfolk hanging out and checking out the crowd from their windows.

And finally, a shot of the fountain which later dispensed free wine to a somewhat rowdy crowd.

The festival was a lot of fun, there was lots of cheap street food (did I mention the pork sandwich?) and general merriment, as you would expect at a wine festival.

I will be back from Paris on Friday and will hopefully have tons more pictures and maybe some stories to tell too.

a brief hiatus

I haven't posted in a while, between being busy and poor internet connections, I have not really had a chance to update. I have been up to a lot the past week. Lindy came to visit on Tuesday and of course wanted to see everything in Rome. We went around to basically all the major sites. I finally got to the Vatican Museums and saw the Sistine Chapel, that was pretty amazing. We also went to the Colosseum, Capitoline Hill Museum and a bunch of other places. It was a lot of fun, I am so glad they came.

It was a little tiring though :) My legs are kind of sore. Now I have some midterms to take care of, but I leave for Paris in less than a week, I am really excited.

I also have a few pictures from this wine festival I went to last weekend, that was a good time. I will try to get those up too. Maybe Lindy will send me some pictures from her visit and I will put them up too.

back on track

So, this past week has been a bit hectic. This weekend my wallet was stolen, so I had to take care of canceling my cards that I stupidly was carrying around. I was ready to move on when I realized that I was carrying this important document in my wallet that says I can live in Italy that you are supposed to carry at all times. So I talked to some people at Temple and they told me I had to go to the police station and report it.

So after I finished printmaking, I got back at around 8:00 pm and went searching for the police station with a few friends. We had to ask so many people how to get there, and no one knew where it was. After an hour we finally found it. The place was on this weird side street, and it was a little scary looking, but the dudes were nice even though they didn't really speak english. My italian teacher wrote me up a little something to say and I just had to fill out a form.

So now I can move on!