Paris!

I am happy to say that I have now been settled in Paris for nearly 3 weeks.  I do miss the traveling a little bit, but Paris more than makes up for it.  And I know I certainly don't miss carrying my luggage.

My home for the next month and a half is FIAP, a short term housing place here in Paris mostly filled with international students and business groups.  The room is small, but my roommate and I have definitely made the most of it by hanging up the many postcards we've collected from the places we've been.

One nice thing about finally settling into one location is the fact that we now have days a bit more structured.  On Mondays and Tuesdays we have life drawing and painting classes with Kathy Burke, a local artist.  As an art history student (not studio arts, as most students on this trip are), both classes are challenging but I've really learned a lot and am definitely enjoying them.  Wednesdays and Thursdays we have two literature classes, photo and art history.  These classes are followed by lunch and then we go out as a class to see something in the city like a museum or a church or just a walking tour of a particular area.  Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays we have off to enjoy the city as we please.

I don't really know how to recap my time the past few weeks, but suffice it to say that it has been incredible.  Everything (from seeing the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower to concerts at the Louvre to Versailles to just walking around the city) has been an amazing experience.

Just because the class is finished with traveling doesn't mean that I am.  Some friends and I are planning a long weekend in Berlin this week.  I've enjoyed both of my other (short) stays in Germany so I'm rather excited to actually spend more than a few hours there.  I'll update on that of course, and hopefully with more timeliness than my usual posting.

The Seine

The Pyramid at the Louvre.  As you can see we've had cloudy fall weather.

 Some old grave stones at Montparnasse Cemetery.

In the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

Marie Antoinette's cottage on the grounds of Versailles

Champagne on top of the Eiffel Tower for a friend's birthday.

The view from the top.

The results of today's painting class.

Vienna

 Sorry it's been so long since the last post.  The wifi situation here in Paris is a little difficult.

Vienna was amazing.  Definitely one of my favorite cities, I easily could have stayed there three times as long as we did.  After the chaos of Italy, it was really nice to spend a week in such a beautiful and peaceful city.  Highlights included the Belvedere, MUMOK, Viennese coffee and the antiques market.  Here are some pictures from my stay there, as well as some from our layover in Koln, Germany on the way to Paris.

At Schönbrunn Palace wearing my new hat and sunglasses I got in Vienna.

The Palace gardens.

One of the state buildings.

 Cologne Cathedral in Koln, Germany, one of the most intricate gothic cathedrals.

 Some street "performers" outside of the cathedral.

A Detour

My adventure in Vienna has begun.  Before I talk about that I want to share a little about a side trip I went on yesterday.  Due to some oversight by the train staff on our travel from Rome we had a free day on our train ticket so a few friends and I decided last minute to take a day trip to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest.  We left early Sunday morning and four hours later we found ourselves surrounded by lederhosen and dirndl.  Now Oktoberfest in Munich is not just any Oktoberfest, but the Oktoberfest, the very first and the largest.  It really was quite an experience.  Luckily we met a local couple at the very beginning that spoke English and they were able to run us through the basics of Oktoberfest.  It is something that really cannot be described.  It's loud German music, gigantic pretzels, brightly decorated tents, huge families all dressed in their Bavarian best, and of course "der Maß Bier". 

The crowds outside.

What it's like inside one of the tents . It's even louder in person.  

The way it works is, you walk around and as soon as you see a free seat at a table you sit down.  Then the waitress brings you a beer and whatever food you want.  The beer comes in one size called a maß, as you can see it is quite huge.

 Yet another tent. They all have there own themes and decorations.  This one is called the Augustiner-Festhalle.

A common sight.

Rome!

Another week and another city!  This time Rome.  An amazing town.  Ancient ruins sit next door to modern buildings and neither one feels out of place.  Turning a corner can mean running into a Bernini sculpture and walking into a church can meaning facing a Carravaggio painting.  

We started out the week on Saturday with a walking tour around Rome to see some of the sights and artworks of the city.  Highlights included the many Baroque churches with their ornate and undeniably ostentatious gold interiors and painted ceilings and reading Paul's letter to the Romans in the Roman forum while sitting on ancient ruins.  We finished the evening off with one of the most bizarre sights yet, an 18th century church crypt that was decorated with the bones and bodies of the Capuchin monks that lived there.  On Sunday we attended high mass at St. Peter's, an absolutely amazing experience.  Monday we walked around the heart of Rome to see more churches containing yet more great art by the masters, and finished off the day with a coin tossed into the Trevi fountain ensuring, as the legend goes, my return to Rome someday.  Tuesday we spent the afternoon at the Bourghese Palace; first poetry class on the massive lawns of the estate and then art history in the palace itself.  The collection boasts some of the finest marble statues in the world.  The delicacy of the work was truly awe inspiring, it's hard to believe that it was all sculpted out of hard marble.  Wednesday we visited the Vatican to see the ancient collection and the Sistine Chapel.  The artwork was amazing but the crowds were terrible.  After navigating the maze of the Vatican, pushing your way through the crowd past Raphaels and Laöcoon and countless other pieces, you find yourself in a dense crowd attempting to push itself through into the chapel.  Once you finally make it in, you're met with even thicker crowds and guards yelling "no photo!"  Before you even have time to look at the art you're trying to avoid getting hit with one of the flags or umbrellas that tour guides throughout europe use to gather their groups or trampled by a tourist with their eyes on the ceiling and no idea what was happening on the floor.  Luckily we found a quiet(er) corner and we actually were able to appreciate the mastery of Michaelangelo's work. Today we had a free day so my roommates and I decided to have an adventure to visit the old port of Rome, Ostia Antica.  We had a great time climbing around the ruins and finding ancient mosaics and frescos.  I feel like I kind of fulfilled my childhood dream of being an archaeologist.  I just finished packing and now it's movie night with the roommates.  Tomorrow afternoon we leave for Vienna, with a short stop in Venice before we get on our overnight train.

I would have to say Rome is up there with my favorite cities I've visited so far.  As Audrey Hepburn's character in Roman Holiday replied when asked what was her favorite city she visited "Rome! By all means, Rome.  I will chereish my visit here in memory as long as I live."  Next stop: Vienna.  

Before church at St. Peter's

 The Spanish Steps

 Throwing a coin in the Trevi fountain to ensure my return

 A very sneaky picture of the Sistine chapel

Exploring the ruins

Some of the group

Florence

After this post I'll finally be caught up with my adventures so far.  Hopefully Rome has some reliable internet so I don't fall so far behind again.

When we left Venice on the train last Friday I was expecting to spend the afternoon resting and recovering from the moving day and maybe leisurely exploring the city of Florence.  It turned out, with the way the train tickets work, that we could go anywhere we wanted to for free since the tickets were activated for the day.  So of course I wanted to take advantage of that.  A group and I decided to go to Pisa for the afternoon.  Just after dragging our suitcases the long distance to our hotel we ran back to the train station and barely made it on the next train to Pisa, about 1.5 hours away.  We spent the afternoon exploring and took a train back to Florence later that night.

The funniest part is looking down the lawn and seeing everyones arms in the air.  It's so dorky but I had to do it.

Since the trip to Pisa wasn't exhausting enough, I decided to join a group that was going the Cinque Terra the next morning.  Cinque Terra is a string of towns along the coast of Italy.  It's about a 3 hour train ride from Florence and it was well worth it!  It was so nice to get out of the cities and spend some time hiking along the Mediterranean.  

The rest of the week was packed full of running around Florence, looking at art in churches and museums and squares.  There is so much here in the birthplace of the renaissance.

 The view from Piazza Michaelangelo overlooking the city:

The sunset was amazing

This afternoon was a free day so my roommates and I decided to climb to the top of the Duomo (the dome) of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. 

 463 steps up a tiny spiral staircase later and the view was gorgeous.

We leave for Rome early tomorrow morning.  I'm excited!

Update! Venice

No wifi in Venice meant no new postings or pictures from me.  Here's the update for Venice, Florence will be later. 

Venice was amazing! It truly is a city unlike any other.  of course this is nothing new; people have known that for centuries, as evidenced by the many opulent palaces that have been built along the grand canal since the city was founded.  Anybody who was anybody wanted a place there.  Of course we had no such mansion to live in.  It was 11 girls to one apartment (with one shower)!  Luckily everyone got along rather well and there was no major drama.  

Just a short account of some of our adventures: 

After we dragged our luggage up and down the bridges of the many canals from the train station to our apartment, we had a walking tour of the city.  St. Mark's Basilica, the Rialto Bridge and our first (of many!) taste of gelato.  The next day provided no rest for us.  We woke up early for our boat ride down the grand canal to St. Mark's square, then after a quick history of the architecture in the area we transferred boats to take us across the port to the Basilica di San Giorgio to see an art installation by Anish Kapoor that is a part of the Biennale.  (The Biennale is one of the world's largest international art exhibitions.  It's an enormous and completely overwhelming display of some of the most significant art at this moment.  Most of it is contained in two locations, but there are other pieces of art, like this one, peppered throughout the city.)   It was quite breathtaking to see work by such a contemporary artist interacting with a 16th century church.  After contemplating that we hopped on yet another boat to take us over to the Lido and read Shelly's Julian and Maddolo: A Conversation, a poem about Shelly's discussion with Byron that took place on the spot where we were sitting.  We finished the day off with a nighttime ride down the Grand Canal while the lights were sparkling on the water, definitely an amazing experience.  All of that in only the first two days there.  The rest of the week was spent in classes, going to church at St. Mark's, viewing art (the Biennale, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and the Academia), eating gelato, and not really trying to not get lost in a city that it's impossible to not get lost in (if that makes any sense at all). 

As for the city itself, I loved it (aside, of course, from the heat, humidity, and abundant mosquitos).  I can only imagine what it was like before all of the tourists, when the artists and writers and thinkers looked to the city for their inspiration.  It's still amazing, only now it feels a little like Disneyland, like no one lives there except for the tourists.  Still, my general impression of Venice is that it is a very cool, very old, and very inspiring city.  I was definitely a little sad to say goodbye.

Some pictures:

The view of the Grand Canal from the boat:

 Ascension by Anish Kapoor, an installation in a 16th century cathedral:

 The view across from Venice:

 The Campinale and Doge's palace from across the water:

Rialto bridge at night:

 The Piazza San Marco:

 Another view of the Grand Canale:

Our apartment's door was across from the back door of McDonalds.  Since there are no cars in Venice this is how they received their daily deliveries: