Italy was already on my bad side because of Milan

Okay, so first the almost-bad news.  Fidan messaged me about thirty minutes ago, frantic because Italy trains and busses are (probably) going on strike  Friday.  Of course, I was supposed to take a train from Venice to Rome on Friday.  And to even get to the train station, I’d have to take a bus.

Fortunately, this time I got one up on International Travel.  I immediately e-mailed both my Venice and Rome hostels, asking if they’d heard anything about this.  I told my Venice hostel that if so, I’d need to cancel Thursday night, and my Rome hostel that, if so, I’d need to book another night, Thursday night.  I found a train that goes directly from Venice to Rome at 6:38pm Thursday night, arriving at 11:03pm.  I have wifi in my hostel in Rome, so as soon as I get there, I’ll e-mail Fidan.  By then, her school will have told her what times the strike is.  If it’s going to prevent us from meeting up Friday then we’ll just have to make due with only seeing each other Saturday, by which time the strikes SHOULD be over.

 Don’t get me wrong, I’m FURIOUS about this.  Let’s recall my history with strikes, shall we?

1. I get stranded in Achen, Germany due to the trains all being screwy as an after-effect of German train strikes two days before.  I spend the night in a stranger’s aparment.
2. I get stranded in Paris, France on my way to Nice due to French National Railway strike.  I spend the night in a hostel but lose a day in Nice.
3. I . . . okay, I actually didn’t see it at all, but Germany went on strike again and I only narrowly avoided it on my way to Vienna.  I literally left the country of Germany like an hour before teh strike began.  My friends all missed a day in Berlin because of it, though.
4. Italian air traffic controllers went on strike, so my friend Emily got stranded in Italy for three days during midterms.

And now I am PUMPED full of adrenaline.  I’m so relieved I knew about this ahead of time.  I’m upset that I’m missing an evening in Venice, and it means I’m going to have to deal with an evening train and getting into Rome really really late instead of having a nice quiet evening at the hostel.   But it could –and has been before– so much worse.  I’d rather lose an evening in Venice than only have half a day to see Rome.  This would have been such an infuriating surprise in Italy.  Hopefully both my hostels will be very understanding and helpful and e-mail me back SOON so I can feel absolutely sure it’s all sorted out before I leave tomorrow night.

And now I’m excited about Italy.  Maybe my anxiety about this trip was a gut feeling that something was going to go wrong.  I just wasn’t feeling RIGHT about it.  I actually had been considering cancelling it the past two days.  Now I feel like this was God’s way of saying, “No, look, you’re going to be fine.  I’ll even let you know ahead of time what’s going to go wrong so that you can be ready for it.”  Thanks you, God!

In light of my adrenaline rush from defeating International Travel (sometime I’ll explain that castle-wide joke), here’s a game for you to play.  It’s called “Find Jessa”.  I guarantee I’m in every single one of the following pictures (taken by a professional photographer at the banquet we had for Jackie Liebergott back in September).  Some are harder to find me in than others.  Have fun!

Wrapping up Monaco 2007

It occurs to me that I didn’t finish up the Monaco trip.  We got to the train station early that morning and got on the train we had reserved the night before.  Unfortunately, the train was supposed to leave at 7:08am and didn’t even arrive until about 8:20am.  We sat on it for over thirty minutes before they had everyone change trains.  Finally, we were off.

 Got to Paris only to discover that there were NO MORE SEATS.  High speed trains only alott so many seats to passholders on each train, and with the strikes, everyone in Europe got bumped back.  So we had two options.  A.) Wait until the next free train at 10:30pm, get into Brussels around 1am, spend the night outside the train station, make it back to Venlo around 11am; two people would miss midterms.  OR B.) Pay full fare for a ticket, 78euro, and make it back in time for finals.  After some lengthy debate, we decided this was EXACTLY the emergency our parents had given us credit cards for.  After charging the tickets, it was a FRITEMERGENCY.  We went rabid until getting our grubby fingers on some “delicious frites,” and inhaled them in a manner of minutes.  One quick stop by the chocolate shop for another binge and we were on our way.

From there on out, we only had one more scare.  The last bus from Venlo to Well is supposed to be at 11:47, but there’s also supposed to be one at 11:13.  We were there and waiting, but the 11:13 bus didn’t show, and when we asked, the men we asked said the busses were done for the night.  Fortunately they were WRONG, and a little before 1am Monday morning, we stumbled into the castle and directly into bed.

Monaco was beyond beautiful.  Ineffably beautiful.  If I hadn’t already been there, I’d want to honeymoon there.  We are already planning a reunion there for in a few years.  Nice wasn’t unreal, but it was nice.  Paris was good for the unplanned evening we were there.  Maastricht is probably fun in the daytime.  The train rides themselves weren’t bad, though all the stressful traveling definitely took its toll.  Despite that, though, we all stayed in high spirits and are all still talking, which is rather miraculous.

 AND we all made it back in time for our midterms, though it’s been a crazy week with them.  And I can’t think about the fact that I leave for Vienna tomorrow night, though I know it’ll be tons of fun.  Just too much stress at once, you know?

Went for a run today since I got out of my exam early.  I haven’t had the TIME to go running since the day before we left for London.  It was glorious.  Now I just have to write my midterm paper for Honors, go to American Night at the Linden, go running tomorrow morning, shower, pack, go to class, and head out for Vienna, where I’ll meet up with Fidan!  Yay.

Next weekend I’ve wound up with nothing planned.  I think I might hop down to Luxembourg for a day, and if Kristen goes we’ll spend a day possibly in Antwerp, too.  Then that’s one more day, which I hope to spend at a monkey zoo with Bridget. 

 Now I’ve wasted enough time putting pictures online instead of writing my paper.  I think we’ll leave for the Linden 11ish, which means I have roughly two hours to try and get a start on my paper if I wish to sleep tonight.  Which I need to, since I won’t get much sleep on the trains tomorrow night; I’ve got six connection, and though one IS a sleeping car, I’ll be in a chair.

I have a few photos I’ll be adding in here that my friends took on the trip, but right now photobucket is NOT cooperating, so only one this time.  More later!

Me in the Oceanography Museum in the first submarine.  Built by an American and used during the Revolutionary War, I find that the man was an utter idiot.  What moron would submerge themself in THIS?!?

Yeah, it was as comfortable as it looks.  The hotel lobby in Maastricht.

Climbing up to the palace; I may not be loosing weight but I’m certainly toning up!

Us lovely ladies on the steps across from the Monte Carlo.  I am just impressed that we all have different hair colors, haha.

The Day to End All Days

Saturday, our one day to enjoy all Monaco had to offer.  We caught the 30minute bus into Monaco early, and had been tipped off that bus line 100 took us along the coast.  It was an amazing view, if not also a terrifying ride as the driver whipped us along winding curves, through the mountains, right next to the cliffs.

First hit up the Monte Carlo casino.  It costs 10euro to even get inside, so we just refrained, instead admiring the unbelievable collection of Lambourghinis, Mustangs, Bentleys, and Rolls Royce in front of the casino.  There were also some lovely gardens out back and a phenomenal view of the incredibly blue water, gorgeous green cliffs, and the orange roofs that climb up the mountains.

Next stop was the palace, which required us to walk along the water, through the harbor, through a carnival setting up.  We shopped and watched the changing of the guards, which was terrible.  The slouched and fidgeted and craned their necks to see what the other guards were doing.  Compared to Buckingham, it was a joke.  Stef and Amanda went into the palace while the rest of us hung around in the courtyard; I bought a fleece for myself finally.  The palace was nice from the outside, but small and overall not very impressive.

From there, headed down through the Jardins Exotique to the Cathedral, which is actually was inspired the whole trip.  Amanda has an absolute adoration for Princess Grace Kelly, who is buried in the church, and it has always been her dream to see her grace.  Every five steps it Grace Kelly monument or statue or picture, and she admired each and every one.  When we hit the Cathedral, though, the trip was all worth it for the look on her face, which I managed to capture on film:

We wandered around inside and admired the church and graves.  It was nice –late Roman, Eric said.  Less opulent than St. Paul’s, less intimidating than Westminster; reminded me a lot of Notre Dame, inside and out. 

By this point, when we got outside, we had to admit we were all FREEZING.  It was getting windier and windier, colder and colder, and we had all been under the impression it would warm, so we were underdressed.  Nonetheless, despite our frozen noses, off we trooped to the Aquarium, what was supposedly one of the world’s best.

Not.  All the hype was disappointing.  All the tanks were confined to the basement, and though seeing some new kinds of fish was cool, and though aquariums are ALWAYS fun, it wasn’t half as good as even Texas State Aquarium.  I was more interested in the Oceanography Museum upstairs, which had all kinds of fish, sharks, squid, and starfish preserved in formaldihyde (sp?) from the 19th and early 20th century.  It was disgusting; everything was all shriveled up like aliens.  But it made me feel like an old oceanographer.  And I finally got to see what whale baleen actually looks like.  The view from on top of the aquarium was what made it actually worth the 6euro admission.  Have I said yet how BLUE the water is? 

Ate lunch in a little pizza place that had good prices.  The waitress was horribly cold and rude, though.  And she also didn’t mention to us that when Bridget, Stef, and I decided to share one pizza instead of getting our own, there was a 2euro charge.  Each.  We could have gotten two pizzas for that much.  We were so furious –the waitress didn’t tell us and it didn’t say charge for splitting ANYWHERE on the menu– that we didn’t give any tip beyond the service charge.  SOOOO angry.

The day was growing old, and we had thought about trying to find the rose garden, but sudden clouds were looking ominious overhead and we had quite a bit of a walk to the beach –which is what we all really wanted to do.  So off we set, through the habor where we admired all the multi-million-dollar yachts collected from around the world, through the carnival, through the mountains, along the boardwalk, until finally finding a public area on the other side of the Monte Carlo Bay resort.  Some surfers were in the water in full body suits, but we dove right in –Stef, Bridget and me in bikinis and Amanda in shorts and a t. shirt because she forgot her bathing suit.  Eric opted out and Jessye preferred to take pictures.  The air was frigid but the water wasn’t bad at all.  Unfortunately, the tide was coming in.  So in our battle with the Med Sea, we lost horribly.  The waves knocked us all over the place and would threw us seven or eight feet upshore each time.  And the beach wasn’t sand, it was smooth pebbles, which were beautiful but impossible and painful to stand on.  So each time you couldn’t get footing to try and hold your own against the waves.  After about fiften minutes, we’d had enough and could now say we’d swum in the Mediterranean sea, so out we got and toweled off, our bodies aching and our feet near bleeding.  But it was totally worth it.

It was getting quite late and we didn’t know for sure where the bus we wanted was, but after only a bit of wandering we found it, and we got to watch the sun set over Monaco as we looked.  I’ve seen better sunsets overall, but it was still beautiful, and the fact that it was already paired with the unearthly beauty of the mountains and buildings and sea helped.

Just picked up things at the grocery store and had a powwow on the floor of our hostel room (which had a microwave) for dinner, taking turns showering.  It was a lovely, relaxing close to an AMAZING day. 

Actual travel time: 2.5 days

7:00am: Planned wake up time.

7:30am: Actual wake up time.

7:44am: Breakfast!

8:00am: Having made some friends with two Canadain boys (named Eric and Riley but referred to as “the Canadians) who are also stranded, set out together.

8:45am: Arrive at first metro station but it’s not running.  Hear line 4 is.

10:04am: Arrive at a line 4 station and hop on a train to Paris Nord.

10:30am: After waiting in line, learn trains are running again!  Get reservations for 11:55am train to Nice.  All dance and cheer in the station, then run for the metro.

10:44am: Perhaps because of strike, metro isn’t charging money. Amanda and I left behind.  Take next train: line 5 to Bastille, line 1 to Gare du Lyon.

11:34am: Arrive at Gare du Lyon.

11:55am: Schedule and Actual departe of train to Nice.

11:57am: Nap.

2:00pm: Studying for midterms, which begin Monday.

5:25pm: Actual arrival in Nice, France.  Dancing all the way to the hostel down the road.  Beautiful reception man and woman got married TODAY.  Thank them, then tell them Congratulations and to go home.

The hostel was simple but amazing for the 14euro a night it cost.  We wandered around Old Nice for a bit to find some place to eat and finally settled on a Chinese restaurant that insisted it was Thai food.  From there, we headed back to the room to get all dolled up for “Disco Butterfly,” a club Eric found online that was supposed to be free for the ladies.  Unfortunately, it no longer exists, so we wound up playing on the beach for a while and celebrating the fact that we FINALLY after TWO AND A HALF DAYS of travel made it to Nice.  Old Nice was quite nice (hahaha …), and even more fun at night, all lit up.  The moon reflected on the sea was beautiful; there were small groups of people all up and down the beach.  In a main square, boys were doing tricks on bikes.  It was a bit chilly, but overall not bad.  We finally returned to the hotel and fell into happy slumber a little after midnight.  And despite all the trauma endured so far, everyone is in good spirits and still like each other –which in and of itself is as miraculous as us actually making it to Nice despite the French railway strike.

Planned Departure/Arrival vs. Actual Departe/Not-Arrival

9:15pm: Scheduled meeting time at the sign-out desk

9:25pm: Actual meeting time at the sign-out desk

9:38pm: Wave our bus down on the side of the road

10:15pm: Amanda realizes she forgot her passport.  No time to go back.

11:04pm: Get on the train to Brussels (we thought)

11:58pm: Realize the train split, we were on the wrong train, are headed to Maastricht

12:11am: Arrive in Maastricht.  Trainstation is closing.  No more trains.

12:45am: Arrive at the hotel Stef stayed at in Maastricht; convince the receptionist to let us hang out and do homework in the lobby/sleep.

5:30am: Load up and make the 45minute walk back to the train station

7:08am: Scheduled arrival time of our train.

8:34am: Actual arrive time of our train.

9:20am: Actual departure of our train, after we were forced to change trains.

11:00isham: Arrive in Brussels, hear faint tell of the French National Rail strike but it doesn’t totally concern us because we’re taking a Thylis train, which isn’t part of the National Rail System.

12:30pm: Arrive in Paris.  No more trains running.  Are stranded.  Try everything before accepting we’re stuck. 

3:00pm: After two hours looking for a hostel/hotel with an empty room, find one and arrive.

4:00pm: Scheduled arrival time in Nice, France.  Not.

4:15pm: Allowed into the room.  Naptime!  All six of us crash.

5:30pm: Scheduled wake-up-from-naptime

7:30pm: Actual wake-up-from-naptime.  Go off in search of dinner.

We wound up eating at this cute pub, Froggy’s.  And in looking for a hotel, we wandered all around the neighborhoods around Montmarte, which was ironically enough the neighborhood I just four days ago said I wish I could have explored more.  We had fun at dinner; a big bowl of penne pasta for 5euro is a steal!  It was chilly, though, since we all brought shorts and tanks and whatnot for the warm beaches of Southern France. (Keep that in mind).  Got back to the hotel, which was actually quite amazing, especially for only 25euro a night.  Meant to do homework, but most of us just showered and went back to sleep.  By this time, we were supposed to have been in Nice for an entire evening.  The strike is scheduled to life in the morning, but rumours are circulating that it will continue.  Until then, no trains, no RER trams, no metro, no beaches.

Nous allons!

Well not yet.  In nine hours, after two classes and I pack, me and some lovely friends (Amanda, Bridget, Jessye, Stef, and Eric) will be off to Nice, France & Monaco for a wonderful getaway, which will include but not be limited to the beach, Grace Kelly’s grave, the Monte Carlo, and writing midterm papers, which are all due the day after we get back.  I’m sure great fun will be had be all involved.

So that said, we leave tonight and we’ll get back in the afternoon on Sunday IF everything goes according to plan.  Which hopefully it will.  So everyone have a wonderful weekend –I know I will!

Final thoughts on Paris

The weather while I was in Paris was lovely.  Foggy and grey in the morning and then warm during the day only to cool off at night.  Perfect for sight-seeing.  And the autumn golds and reds and oranges of all the parks were truly IMPOSSIBLY breath-taking.  I felt as though I was wandering around inside painting.

Overall on Paris, I loved it.  Timing was pefect, since I was probably alone maybe half the time and with friends half the time.  It aws just right.  I’ll definitely come back to Paris again and again; I’d still like to see the Catacombs, do some shopping, see Musee d’Orsney, and definitely spend some more time around Montparnasse and Montmartre.  I think that area and the Luxembourge Gardens were my favorite parts of all Paris.

However, despite the absolutely wonderfulness of Paris, the travel break is exhausting.  It’s a long time to be away from the routine of the castle, a long time to be in transit.  Everyone I talked to said the same thing.  And my bag ripped.  And as much as I love croissants, I’m tired of eating them.  That much butter is making me sick. 

Already I miss Paris, before I’ve even left!

A Day of Classiness

Haha, quote from my journal: “I just put on deoderant in a cemetary.  Is that sacriligeous?”

 Took my time leaving my hostel this morning, then ran into Jill and Heather randomly in a crosswalk.  So I joined them walking north to a part of Paris I hadn’t been to before.  We found Montmarte Cemetary, a beautiful, sprawling old cemetary that wraps under the road and over hills and along narrow stone walkways.  Families have monuments there, and though the place is clearly old, it’s well taken care of and there were fresh flowers on many graves.  Found a black cat!  And big scary crows, and this beautiful red ivy draped along the walls that made them look they were bleeding.

Went in search of Moulin Rouge (which I found by myself later on) and wandered up this mountain (after the Netherlands, any hill is a mountain!) through adorable, twisting neighborhoods.  Found the artsy district where all the painters sit out and then suddenly there was the Sacre-Coeur.  A market filled the streets around it, people selling artwork, souvenirs, jarred and fresh foods, huge chunks of chocolate.  It cost money to go to teh top of Sacre Coeur, so we decided not to, but the view from the front out over the entire city of Paris was still amazing.  Wandered down the grand main staircase where some guys assaulted us, insisting on making us Jamaican friendship bracelets (they’re doing it now all over Europe, or at least France and Italy).  They were so nice, though, so me and Jill let them make us bracelets and each forked over 2.50.  Maybe my two wishes he tied into it will come true.  We wandered together a bit more, but they needed to get to the train station so we parted ways.  I enjoyed their company, though; they’re walkers like me.

Found a caffe and settled down to write a bit, drink coffee, and eat . . . you guessed it, un croissant.  French coffee is stronger than American, but certainly weaker than Dutch coffee.  I think their only cmopetition is Turkish coffee. . .

I hated that often when I would speak French to people, knowing perfectly well what I was saying, they would recognize by my accent I wasn’t French and insist on speaking English to me.  But I wanted to speak French, so I’d continue speaking French.  It was just kinda weird and stupid.

Though I was ahead of schedule, went ahead and gathered my stuff from my hostel and got to the trainstation early, since I was rather worried about getting the right train and reservations and all that.  Gare du Lyon was utterly overwhelming.  After I’d finally found the ticket place, I had to explain to two women who neither one spoke English but isnisted they did, that I didn’t know whether I needed a reservation or not.  The lady I wound up speaking to in information was hideously rude.  I asked if she spoke English and she answered me in French, so I began speaking French and she snapped at me that she spoke a little English (but I think I spoke better French).  After a difficult exchange, I reserved my couchette, but then she yelled at me for not checking my ticket long enough for her satisfaction.  Ugh.

Got to the train station I actually needed (Paris-Bercy) with a bit of difficulty only for the train to get delayed; so I wound up waiting about two and a half hours in all.  Fortunately, when I finally got to my couchette, I was alone in a compartment with two very sweet Georgia Tech grad students –Matt and Sawkyan Ma, who had gone to Paris for a conference and were now headed down to Southern Italy for a bit of a holiday.  We got along famously, and I actually wound up getting a rather good night’s sleep despite the obnoxious Italian girls yelling in the hall outside our cabin until late, the passing lights glaring through the window, and the gentle but constant rocking and stopping of the train.  I love train rides.  They even gave us free bottles of water!  Now that’s classy.

I love the Louvre; do you love the Louvre?

The Louvre!  I went to the Louvre today and I loved it!  I saw the Mona Lisa, more on accident, because I really didn’t care about seeing that.  Instead, my favorite parts were the Medieval Louvre, the rest of the Italian paintings (da Vinci, Raphael, Allegri, Barocci, Serodine, Reni, Cortone, Traversi, Pannini, etc.), French sculptures (mainly Falconet), and a few French paintings.  I wrote down all my favorites.  I didn’t even know I liked French sculpture!  We planned to all meet up much later in the afternoon, so I wandered around the Louvre for almost six hours in complete awe and fascination of all this powerful artwork.  Certainly one of my favorite museums.  At one point, I sat in an old dark dungeon cell of Medieval Louvre and journaled; amazing! (Also took a picture, which became one of my flickr photos on the right).

After wandering around, still had a bit of time before we were supposed to all meet up again, so I went and napped on a bench in the Tuilleries for a bit.  Caitlin and I went shopping while Rachel and Ashley went up into the Eiffel Tower since we didn’t care much for that.  The two of us had fun; I didn’t buy anything, but she bought some sweaters as her Parisian fashion souvenir.  When we met back up, Ashley and Rachel wanted to head back, so we all split ways again.  I wandered for a bit looking for a bakery or cafe to sip coffee in, but EVERYTHING was closed, so I wound up just going back to the hostel and talking to people. 

So today . . . was shopping and the Louvre.  Perfect Parisian day!

I’m a big fan of the Eiffel Tower, personally

“Another dreary day out.  Slept wonderfully, though awoke every few hours due to snoring in the bunk above.  Got dressed in bed –sheer talent.  Make up?  Pointless.”

Did so much today and got back so late that most of my day is simply in bullet form in my own journal.  Went walking by myself in the morning and saw the Grand Palace, Petite Palace, Charles de Gaulle circle, Champs Elysees, the Eiffel Tower, the Militaire Ecole.  Then realized my battery was dying so I was hurrying back to the hostel to recharge it.  A woman found a ring and gave it to me, then asked for money for something to eat.  All I had were British pounds, and she got so mad at me she almost threw the money at me, but then a man walked over to see what was going on, so she took the money and ran.  (I didn’t really look at the ring until now I’m back at the castle; it’s an 18k gold male wedding band.  I feel bad having it; if I had realized it was real, I would have turned it into the police.) 

Met Rachel, Ashley, and Caitlin at the Eiffel Tower at noon and we went walking.  Went to Notre Dame and walked around inside; absolutely beautiful, and I liked it much better than the English ones.  It’s still overpowering and intimidating, but I guess it’s a bit simpler, which makes it feel more real to me.  It’s still ornate; don’t get me wrong.  And the stained-glass windows are amazing.  I don’t know; I just liked the feel of it better.

Visited where the Bastille was and I nerded out.  There’s nothing of the tower left, just a tall column monument.  Found the Pantheon (we couldn’t figure out what it’s for . . .), and the Jardins of the Palais de Luxembourge which are possibly one of the prettiest things EVER in autumn.  The trees were all golden and red, the grass was still green, the palace so white, the sky so blue, little sailboats in the fountain, cute kids; the WORKS.    Ran in to more Emerson kids.  Saw so many churches and shops and houses and whatnot during our long walk that it’s impossible for me to remember it all, and I did a bad job of journaling –in that I hardly did at all.

For dinner, we had thought about going up into the Eiffel Tower and trying to eat, but we thought it was closed for the night, so went lookign for something else.  After over an hour, we still hadn’t found anything, and certain members of our party were cranky.  So we parted ways and I took my time meandering back to my hostel in order to see the Eiffel Tower at night.  It’s gorgeous!  I mean, I think it could have been a better color than green, granted, but it’s such an intimidating structure.  I loved when it sparkled with white fairy lights.  I just sat and watched it for a bit, not really being able to comprehend that I’m IN PARIS.

Got back to my hostel eventually and spent some time talking to the nice Australian boys in my room.  Nice relaxing evening after literally walking around from 8:30 this morning until 7:30 at night, only stopping twice to buy a croissant to eat.  My French is improving a LOT which is pretty cool.  And so far I’m loving Paris.  I like that all the buildings are still old architecture.  I like the little shops and all the cafes. I like being in a city with so much going on. 

And how amazing it is to go out walking in the morning and suddenly there’s the Eiffel Tower’s base, the top hidden in mist against the grey sky?  AMAZING.