I Want To Leave With An Irish Accent: Day 3

The day began a bit differently today, since we accidentally slept in, since my alarm didn't get set right. Thankfully the church next door helped wake us up. So, we had to buy breakfast in our hostel (which was kinda expensive and not as delicious as we would have hoped), and from there we went back to our original starting point the day before and hopped back on the tour bus. This time we rode it until we reached St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is probably the most beautiful church, or at least in my top 5, that I have ever seen. The feeling you got just walking through it, was wonderful. I loved it so much, I could see packing up my things and relocating to Dublin, just so I could go to mass in one of the small chapels in the back every week. I recommend it seeing it if you have the chance, it's amazing.

After spending a lot of time there, we ended up checking out the grounds of the church, which were also very nice and of course included messing around on playground (which by the way, was awesome; Irish kids have normal playgrounds) before jumping back on the bus.

This time we stayed on the bus for awhile, so that we could see everything we had missed before. So we passed through quite a few things, such as Phoenix Park (and the Zoo, but we couldn't see anything but the gates...so that doesn't really count). We got off to go check out the Old Jameson Distillery. Which took a little while to find, since it drop us off right in front, and we couldn't find it so well. We did get there however, and once we did, we went in to buy tickets to tour it, as any tourist would do. Well, there was a sign that said they couldn't take credit cards. Which was not so good for two of us, including me, since I was running low on cash. So we got directions to the nearest ATM (inside a grocery store...is that strange, when it's in the back near the wine?) and took some out. About this time, I also realized I had very little in my account, meaning I had to text my parents to shift more money in from my other account, and it was of course, a holiday, so it wouldn't get done another day later. I'm so glad I'm good at planning. To cut to the case though, everything worked out fine.

We just had to take a later tour time, which meant perusing through the same gift-shop a lot (expensive, of course) and lounging about until we could go through. And it was a very cool tour, I'd say much cooler than the Guinness Storehouse (maybe not in architecture, but close), since you had a tour guide and got to not only taste Jameson, but compare it to the other popular brands of whiskey, such as Jack Daniel's and Johnnie Walker (if you volunteered and were picked). Cindy volunteered and she saved a bit in her little cups for Alice and I to test it out compared to the others too. And it was unanimous; Jameson is the best. I'm pretty sure the rest of the testers agreed too. It's kinda delicious. Did you know it can be served so many ways? That kinda blows my mind a bit, but then again, I did just start learning about alcohol now, so I could have just been ignorant. In any case, my Jameson and cranberry was awesome and I look forward to having it again.

After that we hopped back on the bus and cruised it through town a bit, seeing Parnell Square and the Spire, which is the world's tallest piece of sculpture? I forget what it stands for now, but it looks just like it sounds like it should. I didn't get any great pictures, so I hope that's enough of an explanation.

We got off around Trinity College to look for the statue of Molly Malone, since Alice was dying to see it and would not stop singing that little ditty about her whenever it was mentioned OR she thought it would be amusing to sing. We thought it was inside Trinity College so after a brief walk around and over-hearing a man giving a tour of the campus, we realized we were in the wrong place. It happened to be just across from the bus stop. Hah. It was nice to see the grounds of the college though - quite beautiful. Anyways, we took pictures with the statue and then jumped back on the bus so we could move on to the Iveagh Gardens that our waitress the day earlier recommended.

On the way we saw some of the many Dublin doors. It was very much a fun way to end our tour. To add, the gardens were worth checking out and so very awesome. But I'm partial to gardens, so I may not be the best source sometimes. In any case, at that point we went searching for a way back into the more populated part of town, since we were hungry. And since we were having bad luck in finding places to eat in the area we were in and Cindy was super excited when we saw it, we decided to have Wagamama. I have never heard of this place before in my life, but oh my it was delicious and filling! I went for chicken curry or something, since it sounded delicious. I should have been a little more experimental, but oh well. It rocked.

Yeah...I kinda started digging in before I took a picture...but I was hungry. At least now you know that that wasn't corn in the middle, but rice. Or maybe you could tell. Whatever. Moving on!

It was after dinner that we walked back towards our hostel in search of Kevin St, since Cindy wanted a picture on it (her Dad's name). Once that quest was checked off, we eventually went back to Temple Bar to get in our last few views of the Dublin nightlife and give me a chance to buy the scarf I had been eying. Hee hee. Scarves. After we checked out bridges nearby and attempted a few night pictures, before we headed back to pack up and see how much sleep we could get before our early flight in the morning.

Speaking of, we had no trouble getting up and saving some money by taking the shuttle (hooray!) to the airport, but it also meant having to listen to some girls who got on and constantly talked about how much money a bunch of guys had spent on them and how they probably couldn't afford a taxi. -insert giggles from there here- Nice girls. Other than that, getting through the airport was pretty quick and so was getting on our plan. We met up with a few other girls from our class so we were able to share a taxi back to studio, and we got there with plenty of time to spare.

And so our trip to Dublin ends. Can I please be Irish now??

Wishing I Were Irish: Day 2

We began the day grabbing the free breakfast at the hostel and then ditching our room to go find the information center, where we could get our official tickets for the Hop-On/Hop-Off Tour Bus. We found it pretty quickly, just taking in a few sights on the way, such as some fun stores and places to eat, including a MILKSHAKE PLACE! We never got any though, which was a big disappointment, because we were never in the area when they were open. Bummer.

Anyways, we went ahead and got our tickets, got on the bus, and started the tour with Dublin Castle. It was a little different than I expected, but it was fun nevertheless. I could put pictures of it in here, but I feel that would be a bit boring. I think it would be much better if I went ahead and discussed other things. However, I did love the hallway there; I wanted it to be mine. I thought it would be awesome to decorate for Christmas:

Am I right? The hallway was called State Corridor, by the way. Anyways, some of the other rooms we saw were the State Drawing Room, the Throne Room, & St. Patrick's Hall, which is where they inaugurate the president in Ireland! Pretty cool. After that, we got to see some of the older rooms underground (cool), then the Chapel Royal (gorgeous), and garden out back. Have I mentioned recently how much I love gardens? I love gardens.

Anyways, then we did a little walking around and exploring, deciding right then we were super hungry. So after Cindy asked for the millionth time for me to take her picture, this time in front of the Queen of Tarts, we took a closer look at the place (and the menu), and found ourselves walking in. Of course, there was absolutely no seating. But the waitress told us there was a larger restaurant just down the street, which we of course hit up. AFTER we checked out the clothing and jewelry market a bit. We finished checking it out after lunch. Which was absolutely delicious! I had a spinach and cheese tart with walnuts. So so so so sooooooo good! And for dessert, a chocolate pear tart with cream. Ah-mazing. Just look below:

If you ever find yourself in Dublin, Ireland you simply must go check it out. So delicious. After the said eating of stomach-hugging food and browsing through clothing and jewelry stalls, we did a little postcard shopping and checked out the Christ Church.

Only it cost money to get in, so we decided not to. We decided to see another church later. So we hopped back on the bus and stopped at the Guinness Storehouse.

That place is so very cool, in terms of its architecture. I'm not a fan of Guinness (the first time I tasted it was there at the storehouse), so I can't say the place was cool because of that feature. It was fun to see how it was made though; I feel very much educated in the makings of beer, not that it'll come up in a usual conversation or anything. Neither will getting my certificate that proves I can officially pour a pint of Guinness correctly. But I have one. And if I ever become a bartender, I'm sure it'll come in handy.

Anyways, we went through the whole place and then got to check out the Sky Lounge...or whatever it was called, but it had a 360' view of the city! Very cool! If it hadn't been so crowded, it would have been fun to walk around more fully. Oh well. At least Cindy and I were able to get a picture, showing off our certificates:

Once we finally perused the gift shop and I tried on all the hats, discovering I cannot pull off the cute-old-man's-hat no matter how hard I try, we left the place only to discover the buses had stopped for the day. Shucks. So, we got some directions and found our way back quickly to the area we knew and went searching for ideas on what to do next. Originally, we planned to do a pub crawl, particularly the musical pub crawl, which we found an ad for in our hostel, but it was almost to the time for it to start at this point. And we didn't know where the meeting point was yet, we were a bit tired/cold, and not dressed for the occasion, being only in jeans/travelling clothes. We had hoped to dress up and look nice, but we quickly stuffed that idea after spending the day in the Dublin weather (which was nicely cold, but when you're getting used to the weather in Rome, it was a little abrupt), so we went back to the room to drop some things off, and I'm honestly a little fuzzy on some of the details, but we did eventually make our way to the Temple Bar area, in search of some nice and reasonable place to eat.

Oh wait, now I remember; we went searching for Thai food! We had seen a place near the visitor center, only it turned out to cost an arm for a meal. Well, not that much probably, but more than we wanted to pay. So, we kept looking and ended up checking out Temple Bar. Which was a super awesome place! It's so busy with people, musicians (both good and bad), the lights of various establishments (many with sweet names, like the The Bad Ass Cafe. It's menu was pretty boring though, and pricey. Not so bad-ass, sadly.), and accents, the three of us soaked it all in. We spent a while searching for somewhere that was not too crowded and had food we wanted, which is how we ended up choosing The Purdy Kitchen. It has a country name, but it was actually not so rustic on the outside. On the inside it hinted at it a bit more, but it was just perfect for us. At least it was the second time around; the first time we went in there, we couldn't find a seat. We had gone past it looking for other places and finding nothing, before we came back and were lucky enough. And there was live music! So, a place that had suddenly died down, had reasonable food, and live music was perfect. We each went for something different, but Cindy's Guinness beef stew stole the show. I did not have a taste, so I can't really vote, but I'm sure it was better than my sirloin steak burger. Mistake on my part. In my defense though, who knew Guinness could actually taste good in something?

After listening to the music for little longer, we went and did a little tourist shopping on our way out, including some pictures, which is when I tried to get a picture with the random shoe I found in front of the "Helter Skelter" shop and some Irish guys tried to photo-bomb me. My camera was too dark so no pictures of me with the random shoe turned out, but we did get a funny picture of Cindy with them, since they insisted on us taking a picture with them. They seemed like funny guys...I should have asked them what the "Helter Skelter" shop sold; I didn't get to find out, since we didn't come back during the day. Maybe they sold shoes...?

The rest of the night is pretty much told. We showered and crashed.

Trippin' to Dublin: Day 1

Well, I'm going to update this while I procrastinate on working on my project for the next hour or so, while I try to drown my embarrassment of buying a box of Betty Crocker cake mix at E7.10 simply because the four of us miss cake, with a small glass of water and a chocolate tort thing I found in a pack of six for E0.85. I'm pretty thrifty (trips not included) most of the time, so maybe it's not so bad? Eh? In any case, the four of us will split the price anyways, due to our system and Alice's love of spreadsheets (Eeesh.), so it'll even out.

Anyways...we went to Dublin! Our actual, real trip dates were from Oct. 8 - Oct. 11. So, we left Friday night and came back early Monday morning, in time for our class at noon, once again. If we had known class wasn't going to be particularly useful however, we probably would have skipped it, so we could stay the extra day and a half, only having to be back by Tuesday night for my art history class, which I cannot miss. Oh well, we did what we could. And I still want to go back, so very very much. And one day, I will get back. One day.

We left for Dublin on Friday night, as some time I already can't remember, but the point is, our flight was later in the evening, around 9:30PM. We left the apartment around 5:30 or so, deciding we should save some money and walk to the train station, take the train to two different stops, then take the bus to Ciampino, which is the airport we flew out of. (NOTE: There are only 2 airports in Rome; Ciampino & Fiumicino. Ciampino is the little tiny one, Fiumicino is the larger one and also the one I was more familiar with at the time.) This method would yes, have taken more time, but it would have only cost us a euro. Kinda a steal, right? So, why not try?

And it worked just great, until we got to the end and needed to catch the bus. We had just missed it. And you can't find the bus schedule online, or the four of us are just using the wrong keywords, so we just figured we'd catch the next one. No problem. Too bad it was 8:20 around this time, and the next bus didn't come until 8:40. Great. Just great.

So we ran to the taxis, which another couple had taken just before we got there, and even though Cindy asked him when the next taxi would come or if we could get another, he spouted something none of us were able to catch while making a hand gesture that seems like a dance Angela Lansbury would have used, and left. And we were clueless, wondering what to do, how to call a taxi, and how in the world we'd get to the airport, when we didn't even know what direction it was in. There was a strange taxi phone thing nearby, which we huddled around, trying to figure out how to use for about 5 - 6 minutes, when a taxi magically came by. We were saved! Too bad we ended up spending more money; it cost us E33.00 to get to the airport, including the train/bus tickets. Darn flat-fees!!

The rest of the airport was rather annoying, since it was so tiny, the lines so long, and little food being there. I had my first sandwich from a vending machine, which was smothered in mayonnaise and in short, not something I want to have again, if I have a choice. The plane was tiny, but for it's price, we could deal. We attempted sleep, some of us being successful, and once we got in, we got through security (I blanked at the passport guy, I was so tired), got a taxi, and got to our hostel. A quick note on our taxi driver: he was awesome! We ended up singing with him and talking about music. We didn't realize how much all three of us missed classic rock music.

We checked into our hostel, which was crazy and decorated like a college dorm should be (it made me smile), and after dropping our stuff in our room, we went out to eat dinner. We were all craving a burger or something similar, as sad as that may sound, but we were willing to eat whatever was open, since it was around 12:00AM or so now. Actually, it was probably more like 1:00AM, since our plane didn't leave until later, but anyways, it was late. But we found a place that was open, only they didn't look like it, so we started walking past it after looking in a few times. Fortunately, a man came by and said, "Oh they're open! I'll get them for you!" and he went in and BAM people! So, we ordered after thanking the guy a whole lot, and had food that was so awesomely delicious, I can't decide if I was just that hungry, or if it was really that delicious. It was a regular kebab place, but it was amazing. Mmmm. We ate so fast and went through so much water, it was crazy.

After that, we went back to the room and crashed. We were exhausted.

Setting goals....

I made a goal for myself.

I went and looked up popular film magazines in Italy, coming up with quite a long list. And there are plenty of magazine/newspaper/random junk vendors all over the place, so I have decided that one day soon, I will buy one and then read through it. And then I'll get to work on my Italian! While I read about my favorite thing in the world! How can it get any better?

...if it were written by Dave Eggers.

Hee hee.

Pretty crazy excited. Now I just need the time!

The Island of Capri, Where...People Live?

I'm not particularly witty at the moment, so I'm calling up the fun "Aruba" commercials from the radio. Anyone hear those anymore? I don't know, but the guy's voice in them always makes me smile. "The island of Aruba, where happiness lives." Hee hee.

Anyways, this is what happened after we left Herculaneum, and so it follows Oct. 1 - 3.

So, I left off with us taking the train back to Sorrento. It was a nice ride, since we had seats again, and I spent most of it listening to Less Than Jake (which made me oddly miss home for a bit). I dozed a bit too, who am I kidding, and once we arrived we walked back to the square our teacher told us about, to find the way to Capri. Well, we had about 2 hours to kill before we would get on the ferry, at least according to the times I looked up online the night before we left, so Cindy and I guarded all our bags while Alice and Britt went down the winding staircase and follow the road until you hit the coast. It sounds far, but it's about a 20 minute walk or so, possibly shorter. This is the best picture I have to give you the idea:

We thought they'd be back in a little bit and then we could go get dinner and maybe do a tiny bit of shopping before we left. 

Wrong.

Britt came running back up out of breath, telling us we had to make the next ferry, which was in less than 30 minutes, possibly 20. And we had 4 bags to carry down. Geez. And we ran into people who can't walk properly along the way, thinking it's okay to take up both the path and the middle of the street. But we made it to see Alice standing with our tickets, so we situated the luggage, exchanged confusion with a local cafe while trying to order paninis, and then hung out on a bench while eating until our ferry came. 

Getting on the ferry itself was easy; we had most of it to ourselves. Which made it easy for Cindy & I to go take "I'm on a boat" pictures. And just see the view. 

Oct. 1. Day (more like night) 1 in Capri.

Once we got there, I was kinda in awe of how pretty it was from the dock. When night was just falling and all the lights were on, it was a beautiful site. I'm really sorry my camera and I don't agree on night pictures at the moment, since I wish I could have gotten a better picture. Needless to say though, we went moving along pretty quickly so we could find a taxi and get to our hotel. That took a short amount of time; taxis were all lined up just after the dock. Hooray! And the ride was rather fun, since the roads are so narrow and in some places, only one car can go at a time. It was kinda adorable, in a way; I almost wanted to buy a villa and live here. I just can't decide if I'd get bored on such a small island. Hmm....

Anyways, we got to our hotel pretty quickly and settled in for the night after a little exploring around the area. And it's probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen; there are hand-painted signs everywhere and for everything, including numbers for homes, and plenty of small paths that lead to small piazzas, which can be buzzing with people almost all times of the day. It had the charm of a small town in the country, only it was much more beautiful, with all its white buildings and tiny roads. 

Oct. 2. Day 2 in Capri.

I'm being wordy, so I'm going to try and condense more. Here goes:

We got up to have a complimentary breakfast, Italian style; pastries and drinks. Nutella is a big thing here (yum yum!), so they even had small packets of Nutella for your croissants and such. We definitely took a few for later. Mmm.

Alice thought we should go see the Grotta Azzura (the Blue Grotto) right away, since it's supposed to be beautiful and it could get packed later in the day. So we walked to the bus station (which we found the night before), bought tickets, and hopped the bus. While we were in line, I should mention that we met a couple from Peoria. We talked for a few minutes and couldn't help but think how funny that was. 

The bus dropped us off and we went walking down the winding staircase that must have been built-in to the rock, so we could reach the bottom where there was a tiny dock, and I mean tiny, so the little canoes could come up and pull people into them. We all got in relatively quickly, paid for our tickets in the canoe, via the little ticket office canoe (very fun), and then got into the line to enter. Here's a picture of the path and the entrance into the grotto, just to give you an idea:

Let me just say, I'm a bit scared of small spaces, so this was a curious thing for me, since you had to duck down to get in there. And I handled it like a pro. A bit proud of myself, since if I had missed out on this, I would have been very sad. It was just too fantastic. The grotto gets its name because of color of the water inside it, which is partly due to the way the sun hits it. It's hard to explain it entirely, so I hope you get the idea from this picture: 

Anyways, after we got out and back up the stairs, we took the bus back and continued exploring so that we could get to the Villa San Michele, which I had found brochures for in the hotel, and thought would be worth checking out. Along the way, we saw the Limoncello Capri shop, which turned out to be the most famous one on the island and also, apparently, the one that started the whole limoncello craze. At least, that's what I gathered the night before, when I was going through a small guidebook, so we all made sure to do a taste test, so we could discover if it was different or not. And honestly, it was better than the nasty limoncello I had had for my birthday. I could actually have a couple sips of that and be okay with it. The bottles there were not very pretty though, and since we had found a better place while exploring the night before, we decided we'd just go back there later. But we had authentic limoncello, the whole 'real deal' and all that. Which was a bit exciting.


We reached the Villa San Michele and had no trouble getting in. And while the rooms of the place may not be of any real interest, the scenery makes it one of the most beautiful places I have or will ever see in my life. If you have have the chance to see it, please do so on a wonderfully nice day, since it's stunning. The gardens were full of beautiful flowers and plants (even spider plants, which are my absolute favorites), along with trees to keep the shade and let in just the right amount of sunlight. Absolutely gorgeous. I wanted to spend hours, just sitting in the garden and taking it all in. I hope these pictures give a clear idea of how pretty it was:

The Egyptian sphinx in the above picture, was used to guard Axel Munthe's (the man who made the villa) secrets. It's actually pretty cool, and it gives the villa an mysterious air. 

Axel Munthe also wrote a best-selling book about building his estate and his life in it, called The Story of San Michele. Maybe you've heard of it, but I before now, I had not. After visiting the place, I really wanted to buy a copy so I could read it. However, I already bought a book and have made no time to read it, so I bought a poster that I thought would be beautiful to hang in my home one day. 

From there we went and did a little shopping and walking around, just checking out the general charm of the island. We also grabbed lunch somewhere in there, and I ordered an omelette, which I've started calling a nomelette, thanks to my friends at school, and the others got burgers. It was that kinda day. And we were having pasta for dinner, so no judging. 

After milling around the hotel to drop things off in our room, we went to go see the lighthouse on the island, which was I think in Punta Carena. It was a gorgeous spot, ridiculously picturesque in every way. Just to give you an idea:

I'm sorry they're both pictures of me, but at least they're relatively good ones. In any case, it was another beautiful place. We walked down to the rocky beach and I put my feet into the lovely water. Of course, my feet had to dry so we ended up hanging out on the side so I could try to dry them a bit. Which allowed us to take in a little more of the view. 

From there, we took the bus back to Anacapri and attempted to find the Philosopher's Park, which was what I thought would have been a really cool experience. I had to drag the others, since they couldn't see why I wanted to see another park (to them, a park is a park, end of story), so I told them I just wanted an hour or so, and then I'd be good with leaving. The reason I wanted to go so much, was because it was supposed to be divided into 3 different sections: Idealism, Realism, and Wisdom. You may say, "That sounds cool, but how can you divide a park like that? What makes realism cooler than idealism?" And I would tell you, it's because there were quotes written on stones all over the park, all by famous philosophers or thinkers. Hence the name of the park. And this is where you would hopefully agree with my thinking and want to join me, unlike the others. They did come with me though, even though we did end up having to walk a far way to get there. And once we finally did, it was sadly, a lame attempt at a park. There were more weeds than grass and it was not something you would want to walk around in, to gather inspiration. And...I can't tell you what kinda place I thought it was. I liked that the website had said it was about being something untouched by people, a 'retreat to nature' if you want, other than the signs and quoted stones. However, it had more a look of an overgrown yard. Which made me ridiculously sad no matter how much I tried to make it fun. The others put up with it, giving me 10 minutes in the park (which was just a few minutes after the sunset, which we at least were able to see very well), before we started the long trek back and went for dinner. 

Dinner was rather uneventful, but we did end up getting put on the patio near a piazza with a bunch of noisy kids, who later ended up eating at the table next to us, just inside the restaurant. It was one of their birthdays, and they were all getting sodas and pizza, which reminded me a little of parties at home. 

Oct. 3. Day 3 in Capri

Today we checked out of our hotel after having another delicious breakfast of croissants and so we had to carry our bags around the rest of the day. At least I thought we did; it turned out we found a little place to to check our bags for a bit, so we did while we took the chairlift up to see the whole island. We got a spectacular view, although it was a little cloudy. I didn't have a whole lot of pictures to take on my camera either, because I changed the settings on my camera so my photos would be of  better quality. Which gave me less than 20 pictures at this point. So, I had to fall in love with a view to take a picture. At least I have it all in my memory. :c) And Cindy took this picture for me:

After going back down, we retrieved our bags and tried to catch a bus to get back to the Marina Grande so we could take the ferry to Naples, and then take a train back to Rome. The bus thing though, ended up being a bit of an adventure. Why? Because the bus that came was crammed with people, but the bus driver kept waving us on. Cindy tried to explain to us how there were four of us, but he kept telling us there was room. So, we give him our bags, which he put right next to him, and we all got on, much to the dismay of a few women, that enjoyed moaning even though they had enough room. I somehow managed to make a muscle in my hand that I never knew existed hurt like mad because I was hanging on to one of the poles so hard. I was in an awkward position that had me feeling similar to a monkey between two trees. Not enjoyable. 

But we made it to the ferry, got lost in line and yet managed to get tickets. We then ran to our ferry so we could catch it, but still had time to spare, and found seats where I could again space out and relax. Once we got to Naples, we joined up with a few other kids from our program and all went searching for the train station. That itself took a couple of minutes, but then we were back on the train, headed to Rome. And after that, we just had to take another bus and BAM, we're back home.  

What a wonderful trip. And what a long post. Sorry guys!

What a Day for Trip to Southern Italy!

Touring the sites of Naples, Sorrento, & Herculaneum over the days of Sept. 30 & Oct. 1, for class.

Well, I think it's safe to say that I am easily distracted from writing or I just do not update as often as I would like. I've never been super great at keeping journals in the first place, seeing as I usually can only write when I feel the need. And the need is usually random thoughts I keep to myself at the fear of sounding stupid, something I don't want to forget (like dreams, ideas, etc.), or making my yearly list of favorite things. I usually even promise myself to write in my journal everyday, which still has not happened since 7th grade. Whoops. My parents are not avid journal goers, as far as I know, so as Freud would, why don't we blame it on them. Therefore, my lack of journaling is because of my parent's lack of journaling.

I hope that is enough, to pardon my journaling.

...I love you Mum & Dad! (insert sheepish smile here) :cD

So to move on, Naples.

Well, we left the apartment a bit later than we meant to, but we started walking anyways. We had to get to Termini Station, which is farther from our apartment than it seems. Especially when some paths are closed off without warning. So, we searched for a taxi, which we finally found in front of the huge white monument dedicated to Italy's first king & queen or something. We got to the station with a few minutes to spare, but we were one of the last groups to arrive and had to disperse among everyone else on the train. I attempted to sleep, since it was early and I had no idea how long this day would be, in terms of walking. I was not very successful.

We got there at I forget when, and were herded into a museum. It turned out to be the Museo Archelogico Nazionale. It had a plethora of cool sculptures. We had a few hours in there and in those hours, our teacher Francesco took us around for a brief sort of tour and then gave us another hour or so to sketch and explore on our own. My particularly liked this sculpture and came back to draw it later:

Anyways, then we had time for lunch (but not enough for me to find the place for the BEST PIZZA in the WORLD! mentioned by Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love...sigh) before getting an impromptu tour of Naples, courtesy of our teachers. It was kinda fun, it not confusing, since we weren't told where we were going. We just got moved around a bunch of places and then got handed pastries, which I believe are called sfogliatelli. It's hard to explain them, but they're basically pastries that were wrapped up a whole bunch in very thin dough and at its center tastes like red hots. They were very good and filling, but very much random.


After that, we continued walking for awhile, the most exciting thing being we had a stray dog follow our teacher, barking at him most of the time. Interesting. And then after a few extra detours, we were back at the train station, waiting to get on the next train to Sorrento! Hooray! There were a few mix-ups with which train to take, since when the first train came in the station, we all jumped on it, thinking this was it. Well. One of our teachers then came knocking at the windows and signalling us to get out, so we ran out as fast as we could. Unfortunately, a few girls did not get the message and got stuck on the wrong train. Good thing one of them had a phone though, so it was all settled pretty quickly. It just took them a little extra time.


The train ride to Sorrento was pretty uneventful other than that. I gazed out the window listening to my iPod most of the time. And I watched a couple videos too. The countryside was pretty wonderful to space to and I loved one area which after coming back on the same train, sitting on the same side, I still don't know what it was called. The buildings were a strange color that I can't entirely remember, but I do remember a woman hanging up a lot of white sheets on her balcony, which happened to be the highest point of the building, before the roof. It was a beautiful scene for me, although I'm sure it sounds pretty mediocre to you. Ach, well, hopefully you can believe me. It was wonderful.


Arriving in Sorrento allowed me to see another side of Italy for the first time; Rome is very much a city area, which makes it similar to home but still different because of the older architecture and its layout. Naples is the same way, only the people have more edge to them and there's a little more rubbish about. Sorrento however, it completely different. For one thing, there is a shortage of grass and plants in Rome, which is difficult for me, since I never realized how much I love green. I mean, knew I loved parks, but I didn't realize I would miss them so easily. So from now on, I will never take parks, or green grass for that matter, for granted. 


But moving back on topic, Sorrento is a smaller sort of town, that has much more greenery to it and much more flowers. In a word, it's beautiful. I wish we had had more time there, since it really was a great place to explore. Upon arrival, we were shown the way to the center of town, where we learned how to get to Capri (which I will go into later) and then after a little confusion, we were lead to our hotel. We got to stay at a really adorable place, that had names of flowers/plants on its doors instead of numbers, and had kiwis above the walkway to the actual entrance. Also, our room was cool; you had to go downstairs to get to our bathroom. I loved it. 


We had a few hours to explore before our delicious dinner, which is a tradition for the ISU Rome Program, at The Lemon Tree Restaurant. Our exploring was mostly shopping, which is when I picked up a few postcards and Alice got a sweet sweatshirt that I think looks more like a jacket. But we'll not get into that debate here. Moving on, we met up with the rest of the group and once everyone was there, we headed to the place. The best way for me to describe it, would be charming. It had vines all tangled in the ceiling and lots of glass, making the place very open and feel as if you were just sitting outside your house, having this amazing meal. And it was amazing, I'm not kidding. I still think the appetizers (antipasti, in Italian) were my favorite:

I can't tell you all that was on it (I know there was bruschetta!), but it was super crazy delicious. The courses were too, but this one was so much fun for me. Oh, and yes, I did eat that leaf thing in its entirety. It was mint-like.


After dinner we had the choice of either going back/exploring what was open at that time of the night, or going across the street to the discotheque with our teachers, for a flat fee of so many euros but you also got a free drink. It was a bit expensive and I was honestly pretty exhausted, so I didn't think it would ultimately be a good idea. Plus, I had a lot of wine at dinner (the table wine was very good, I did not mention that, did I?), which had made me just a tad dizzy, so sleep seemed like the best option; more alcohol, ah, no thanks, I think I filled my quota for the night. Although it was hard to turn down the offer of seeing my teachers bust-a-move, especially since one, who also happens to be the director of the program, wanted to get Francesco (he's the teacher for my section) to dance on a table. And he apparently kept saying, all confused, "What are you saying??" That may have been worth the money, but instead I got to go back and relax in my bed while talking with friends for an hour or two. Good conversations or awkward dance party? Yeah, I like my decision.


NEXT DAY!


Today we got up and had breakfast at our hotel before heading out the way we came the day before, to get back on the same train and this time, stop at Herculaneum. Good-bye beautiful Sorrento! I'll see you again before the day ends though. 


Until that happens, it's time to discuss the homework we had! So, we were supposed to be ready to present a 20 minute speech in our groups of 3 people to our sections, about a particular part of Herculaneum. Of course, my friends and I had not even thought about it or read what we needed to for this assignment, since there had not been a lot of time between other projects, packing, and now exploring, so we all took parts of the reading and went at it on the train. I learned about random things, but what I mostly remember was early plumbing. It was riveting. Anyways, since we ended up a packed train, many of us were sitting in the standing compartment, hoping not too many people would get on. Dumb thought; of course people will get on, it's a Friday morning. Which meant we eventually had to stand up and attempt to read our articles on a moving train. It doesn't sound difficult, but when you try to underline the important things with a pencil in these circumstances, it gets interesting. Eeks. 


In the end, we all got through our sections one way or another to have something to present or rattle about, so we could give a good speech and hopefully teach our classmates something. And by that time, we were in Herculaneum. 


And wow. That was, sorry to day, kinda a dump. 


People complain about trash on the streets in some areas of town, or say that Paris is dirty and smells (false, just so you know) and may have said Naples was kinda dirty (which would be correct, since they do have a few corners of filth every so often). HOWEVER, they have not been to Herculaneum, which is apparently not ready for the tourists, despite its wonderfully preserved ruins, since they do little to tidy up the place. There were trash on corners, on streets, all over the place. And I was only on one street. It was a bit weird, going from Sorrento, which was gorgeous, to this hole-in-the-wall called Herculaneum. Regardless of whether or not Vesuvius is an active volcano (which it is, I just don't remember when it will erupt), some tidying-up would be a nice idea. 


To the point of our trippin' to Herculaneum - to see the ruins after Vesuvius erupted back in the day, the same time when it destroyed Pompeii, which is about 79 AD I think. We didn't go to Pompeii, even though it would've been very cool to see it, because Herculaneum was better preserved than Pompeii. And that makes a difference, when you're a bunch of design kids. Sad. 


It was pretty cool though, I have to admit. I think it's strange to think about though, walking through it and knowing that so many years ago, people used to live their lives among these streets, up until they probably ran through the town trying to escape. It's surreal. And it's so easy to treat it as just another stop on your trip, that you can take it entirely for granted. I would recommend seeing them, or any ruins as well preserved if you ever have the chance, since it really was an experience. It's like walking in a piece of history. 


To stop being heavy, in the words of Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, you may wonder how our presentation went. Well, hmmm, it wasn't really a presentation after all; we basically just had to read about our assigned houses, straight from the one piece of paper we got, in addition to that other stack which we had read on the train. I did not see that piece of paper, since it wasn't in my divided section, so I didn't even know for awhile. It was a bit confusing, and while it was nice to read on the train, I would have appreciated not having to read it in a frenzy. Oh well. In any case, this was my favorite room in Herculaneum. It's the House of the Black Room, and it gets its name simply because it has a black room. It was most likely their dining room, I think. It was a nice layout too, which is what drew me to it. This photo shows the view looking from the entrance into the peristyle, which is another way of saying garden: 

After finishing up in Herculaneum, it was time to either go back to Rome, or do some more individual travelling. Well, my roommates and I decided we should go check out Capri, since it was just off the coast near Sorrento. And it was supposed to be beautiful. So, we ended up heading that way. Which meant hopping back on the train to get to Sorrento in order to then catch the ferry to Capri. And of course, we would have to take a taxi to get to our hotel, which happened to be on the west side of Capri and was actually called Anacapri. So, off we went, on another adventure, which I will continue soon.


Again, sorry I'm so behind. And to my parents, I hope you know I'm kidding about the beginning; I have to get a little teasing in when I have the opportunity. :c) Love to you both!!

Avoiding Homework on the Weekend...

There's a couple of things I've been meaning to put down in here for awhile, so here goes:
1- Water costs money at restaurants, because they give it to you in bottles. I wish I could just get tap water, because I can't help but think it's ridiculous I spend 2-4 euros just on water.
2- They charge you to sit at a table sometimes. I suppose in a way though, it's like giving them a tip. Only, it's a fixed rate, I assume, so it doesn't get too high. And that's not as bad, when you remember you don't actually have to tip in Italy.
3- Children are adorable. Especially when they throw paper airplanes or sing Lady Gaga to you out the window, while they're in school.
4- Not kidding about the kid singing Lady Gaga. He totally stuck his head out the window while we were walking out of our school building in the piazza, and it just so happens there's this children school just across from it. So, he sees us and sings in a little boy way, "Alejandro, Alejandro!" and smiles before darting away for a moment. Which is when all four of us start laughing until he comes back to the window and sees us again, so he shouts, "Don't call my name!" with that silly adorably grin on his face. Have to say, the was definitely one of the best things to happen to me yet. And it totally shouted out Cinema Paradiso to me, since the boy reminded me of the main little boy in that. Great movie. REALLY great. I wish I had it, but since it's Italian, I'm hoping to find it here. That and Life is Beautiful, since those are my favorites. I do like The Bicycle Thief, but I don't think I'd watch it all that often. It's too sad to watch a whole lot, and I know that sounds strange, given that Life is Beautiful takes place during WWII, but you watch The Bicycle Thief and tell me you'd watch that often. It's depressing, regardless of how wonderful a film it is. I'm getting off topic...and I'm not kidding about the paper airplane, just to put that out there.
5- It's difficult to not eat gelato all the time. It's so inexpensive sometimes...just like pizza. Especially pizza from the Pizza Man, who gets his name since he's the coolest guy near our apartment to sell the best pizza any of us have ever had in Rome, if not ever, and for a good price. And since we go normally pretty often, he kinda knows us. And he tries to get us to eat at the place, since we always get it to go. We haven't yet, but we will some day, that's a promise. In the meantime, we've redirected a bunch of our friends to him, so he gets a little more business, and they agree that's he's the best too. So, Pizza Man is our friend. Even when Crazy Uncle is around, and not Pizza Man's Son.
6- Cannolis. That's it. Just, cannolis.
7- Hulu doesn't work here. I'm bummed. I need Psych. It hurts to use the same old references that no one gets all the time. Not that they're not still funny, because asking people if they're a fan of delicious flavor never gets old. And pineapples are still the best (followed closely by mangoes, bananas, and apples).
8- I love flea markets. I'm getting good at haggling. I like it.
9- Taxi drivers here love cheesy romance songs. Weird. Weird. Weird. Picture an older man driving to something like Celine Dion and you're almost there. It's entertaining anyways.
10- It sucks not knowing how to use a gas oven. Why don't they leave instructions for those? And why can't they be more specific in emails? I don't want to keep emailing about how to use the oven three weeks into school. Do you know how pathetic that sounds? But I also don't like turning on the gas and waving a flame in random areas in the hope it lights. That sounds like a terrible idea. On many levels. One being gas ingestion. Two being fire/burning of self. Neither = good or worth risking just to make lasagna (MORE PASTA!) or stuffed shells (MORE PASTA!). So, it's back to the drawing board. Or my roommates could email him.
11- I need more delicious (note the use of delicious) wine in my life. I guess that means spending more money on wine, if you want it to actually be good.
12- Mrs. Hudson, if you're reading this, that postcard you're looking for also comes on a magnet. Just FYI.
13- Hanging out in our apartment is too much fun sometimes. I need someone to yell at me when I'm cozying up in my bed and just browsing the internet. Granted, a good part of that time is before I sleep or just before I do homework, but I feel I need to get up and go places much more often. I wonder if alarms would help, or just irritate me.

That seems to be about it for now. I'm sure I'll be putting more again in a later entry though. I think better in lists, so expect a bunch of those. Anyways, here's the final product of my latest project, once I finished it Friday night. I think the project itself was about 2 weeks, but I did this over the course of a week or so. I did pick the light myself, which is pictured here, when I went to go see it in person at a Artemide lighting showroom:

I liked it since it was so small and simple. And you could move the shell around to get different lighting. Hence the name Eclisse. Pretty cool. So here is my completed project, without all my guidelines removed:

I can't take full credit for the layout, since I got some help from one of my professors, but I am pleased with it. I don't like the shading on the large scale drawing, which is 1 cm = 1 in, but I'll live with it, since I can't fix it all that well. The others on the right are 1 cm = 1 cm (aka, 1:1 scale).

And now I should probably attempt to work on my other project. Blargh.

Day Trip to Assisi

I still need to update about Assissi...and last weekend.
Well, here's it all in a nutshell. Well, maybe not a nutshell.

We met at the fountain outside our building at 7:30AM. We didn't leave until maybe 8:30AM. I could've slept longer. We took a coach bus. I sat with Alice. I slept most of the time, according to her. I don't remember sleeping that much. She complained about her iPod being awful. I wished I had mine.

We got to Assisi and took this giant escalator up the hill. You could apparently take the hill too, which was a pretty steep slope, but why would you? Anyways, at the top there was another sweet Italian playground. Whoo! We didn't play on it right away though. I did later. Yay!

But before that, we basically had our own time to go see everything. So, we walked along with the group, until we wanted to spend a great deal of time looking at this wonderful view:

I figured a video was better to capture the beauty of what I was expecting to see while I was here. Just like the streets inside this cute place:

Kinda reminds you of a little town in France right? Or at least what you might think of, especially if you think of the town in Chocolat? Right? Right? Nevertheless, it was adorable. Exploring it was a great time. We made our way to the end to see the Basilica of St. Francis, which was supposed to be beautiful beyond our imaginations, at least according to Brenda, the painting teacher who is rather awesome. Anyways,  we continued that way. We stopped to snack though, which is where I got this delicious chocolate wafer filled with pistachio creme. It was amazing.
Then we got to the church. Oh my goodness. It was huge from the outside. I wasn't sure where to start.

But we figured it out. And it was beautiful! You couldn't take pictures inside, so I bought a couple of postcards. It was seriously gorgeous! The murals were amazing and the colors were so vibrant and the patterns and all that was just inspiring. I didn't do any sketching either, since we wanted to do as much as we could in the time we were there.

Anyways, then we went walking around to find somewhere to eat. We settled on this cute little place and I had my first run-in with truffles, in terms of mushrooms. They were delicious. Mmm.

Then we decided we should go find the highest point there, which was supposed to be some very cool castle. Well, we tried; we ended up somewhere opposite, near this random structure that we can't actually describe. We have no idea what it was. Let's put it this way; it was up this winding road and the structure had large holes in it filled with bottles and trash. And some truck came up and dropped trash at the structure while we were trying to figure out where we were. So, it was a classy place. But, we did get this great view of the place we were trying to get to:

See? You can see the castle and the winding road up, and there's supposed to be some stairs we should've gone up. Which we walked right past the first time. And by the time we found them again, Alice and I decided to go do some shopping and get gelato. But I would go back to Assisi again to explore the other churches we missed, since there were plenty to see, and then I'll do the stairs up to the castle.
And that's about all that happened for the most part, since after the shopping and gelato and more shopping, it was time to meet to get back on the bus. And before that, since I did have an extra couple of minutes, I played on the playground. Yay!

Moving on, the next day was a bit of a sleep in day. But then we went to the flea market which I personally loved. It was crowded with a bunch of people, but it was fun. And I'm definitely getting better at my haggling skills; I wanted a dragon bracelet, which I thought was very cool since the mouth was the clasp and the tail was the hook, but I didn't want it for 40E, so I talked them down to 20E. It still didn't seem worth that, since I saw it at two different vendors, so I knew it wasn't all that special. Doesn't change my mind that the guy said it was made in India. It was definitely mass-produced.

I did leave with a copy of Into the Wild, since I loved that movie, and it was 5E. Plus it was in Italian, and it appears to have English audio too. Yay! I also snagged a ravioli tin to make pretty raviolis, for 5E too. Which made me super happy! And then I got a deck of Italian playing cards for 2E, so I can play Scopa with people! Which makes me psyched! So, I want to go back sometime, but apparently my roommates aren't filling it, since the crowd, which was rather large, was too much for them. But I'll be going back, with or without them.

As for the rest of the day, it was mostly homework time. Which is rather boring, so we'll just end it here.

The Girl Who Refuses to Grow Up

I'm borrowing a bit from a particular boy I find to be the most charming thing, but I don't think he'll mind.

On Thursday, Sept. 16th at around 9:35AM or so, I turned 21. At least in terms of age. In terms of maturity, that's still up for debate, hence the reference above. Jokes aside though, I needed to do something fun to celebrate this new year attached to me, so what to do?

Well, this is how it went down.

I started the day by meeting my friend Kira on the corner of the street near my apartment, to head to the entrance to Palatine Hill (near the Colosseum) for our Art History class that morning from 9:00AM to 12:00PM. Oddly enough, her birthday was on that Saturday, which was interesting since we never noticed our birthdays were so close. But moving on, that morning we explored the Colosseum (in another famous whirlwind tour, only not of my design or choosing), Palatine Hill, & the Roman Forum. And it was all very cool to see and experience, but I was getting super antsy wishing it would end so I could rush back to my apartment and skype with my parents at 12:30PM or earlier. Sadly, I forgot it takes about 40 minutes to get to my apartment from the area of the Colosseum no matter what route you take, and when you get lost in the hill just looking for a way out, you kinda add more to that estimate. The only solace in being lost for so long, was that I got to see the some sort of sculpture of The Rape of the Sabine Women. And even though, it apparently means 'capture' not 'sexual violation' when I wikipedia it, it's still hard to be excited about finding it over the exit.

Needless to say, I was late and so I didn't get to skype all that much, but we made plans for Saturday night so all was well again. Which meant I needed to think about lunch. And so I made myself the whole package of some Buitoni ravioli, thinking it wouldn't be all that much, only to discover it really would be, and so as I ate and watched Alfie, I got super full and decided that the only proper way to recover, would be to sleep it off. So I did. And it was glorious. I basically did no homework the entire day, which was fine since I didn't really have anything due, I don't think, even though I really had meant to go in and get ahead on some things. Oh well, sometimes you just have to learn to go with it. I'm getting better at that.

I got up a few hours later to skype with Andrea and when she had to get moving, I really can't remember what I did until everyone was back in the apartment and it was time to eat.

I decided a couple days back I wanted Chinese for dinner, since I was craving it and we had seen a cute place when we got lost one night, only to discover that we were just down the street from where we lived, so it seemed like a great choice. Not to mention it looked pretty inexpensive, which made me less worried about Cindy paying too much for me when she decided she'd buy me dinner. So, I was pretty psyched to try it. And it turned out to be great, at least in terms of the food. The service however, was a little less than wonderful. For one thing, for a menu with English translations, you'd assume that the people at the restaurant would know some English. Pssht. Apparently not. Even though we can order and all that in Italian, it got difficult when we found out that rice didn't come with our meals and we all agreed that rice was a necessity to our food. And when we couldn't flag down anyone to come take our orders of rice, Cindy and I got up with a menu to ask if we could get a couple orders of rice. Well. That confused the woman so much, because she thought we wanted another table. Silly woman, we have a table. We've been here just over 20 minutes, and you've already forgotten us? The place wasn't even that busy, because if it was, I would have understood her flustered air, but with only so many people, they must be used to this by now. So after a bout of confusion, we all got our rice (Britt never got her soy sauce though) and became happy campers. Until we realized we paid more than we would have at home for our meal. Sorry guys, it really seemed much more inexpensive when we looked at the menu before!!


After dinner it was time for gelato. And it was delicious, as usual. I believe I went with caramel and chocolate. The caramel was my favorite of the two. And after gobbling that all up and watching an artist do his magic in the piazza near the gelateria, we began to head back to the apartment. On the way, I found this strange array of crates that made me smile, because they were all just sitting there randomly. So, Cindy took a picture of me, since she acted as photographer the entire night, therefore all these pictures are hers.


Right near there, is also this children's park. Most of the time when we pass it, there are people hanging around near it, so we usually just continue on our way when we see it. No one was there that night, so I decided we should play on it. And so we did. It was a lot of fun, but I have to admit, the kids in Italy definitely have it differently than they do in the states; this playground was scary! The slide wasn't so much a slide as it was more of a zig-zagged wobbly thing that I still have yet to understand how you play with, unless kids like to hold on to things for dear life for fun. And the monkey bars curved up so you had to maneuver yourself a certain way to get to the end, which was a pole with weird round things that seemed like foot holds, but didn't entirely act like them, and so and so on. The only normal things were the smaller random slide and play set that looked like what we have back home, just off to the side of the scary Italian one, and the small riding duck just next to it.


Which you can tell I enjoyed. All in all, it was a fun time for all of us, hanging out in the park, being goofs and acting entirely out of our age bracket. But I don't think I could think of a better way to celebrate being 21, than messing around on a deserted children's playground.

In any case, I figured I should have some sort of alcohol, officially being of age back home and all that now, so I decided I should have a limoncello, since one of my favorite movies, Under the Tuscan Sun, mentions it and it always sounded like it should taste delicious. I mean, lemons taste good, don't they? Citrus is awesome! So, I had high hopes I'd like it. And with that, Alice bought me my first legal drink at the cute little place just on the corner near our apartment.


HAH.

It was the nastiest thing I've had to date, although the sip of Alice's Amaro or whatever it was that one night does compete with it. They're both gross. I guess I'll stick to hard cider and wine then. At least for the moment.

And after Britt gave me a cute tin of caramels from Paris and Alice forced me to wear the 'hat' she 'made' me out of a supermarket ad, it was bed time, since we had studio at 9:00AM.

And that is how I celebrated turning 21 in Rome. Did you expect something more exciting or crazy? Well, how crazy would you be with class at 9:00AM the next day, sheesh. I am a kid at heart you know. So, like all good kids, I got to bed so I could go to school the next day, and sadly realized that again, I was a day older and closer to becoming 22.

I don't want to cross that road yet. Soooo, I won't.

Au Revoir Paris: Day 4

There's not a whole lot to report here, but a couple things.
1- I had to get up at 4:00AM so we could catch our taxi at 4:30AM to get to the airport for our 7:00AM flight.
2- I dislike getting up that early.
3- I dislike our taxi not being there, because the guy at the desk 'forgot' or it just didn't get done.
4- I dislike being at an airport that apparently doesn't officially open until 6:00AM. Have you ever experienced what it's like to be the only person sitting in an airport terminal? The coffee shops weren't even open yet. THE COFFEE SHOPS!!!
5- I dislike being given the head shake for attempting to enter security because the rope wasn't obstructing the way. Thank you, Mr. Airport Man.
6- I like sitting on airplanes. I enjoy the comfort they radiate.
7- I like that we get food on planes over here. It's something that certainly needs to be changed back home.
8- I dislike hanging out on planes when we should be able to make our merry way off the plane and into our taxi so we can get to our apartment at a decent time and accomplish a few things, like homework, before class.
9- I like taxis. I'm getting good at them.
10- I enjoyed laughing with Cindy at getting riped off, because instead of a 2 Euro coin, she got some random token for either a car place or arcade. Thanks man.
11- I dislike forgetting people were coming to see our apartment and realizing how messy my room is.
11- I'm happy I got my homework done before class, managed to unpack and straighten a bit, and still got to class on time. I consider that amazing, especially considering we were in France last than 12 hours ago.

Score for Davalyn.

And thanks Paris, for being so wonderful. I have successfully completed a life-time goal. And it's the strangest feeling.

Breathless with Gene in Paris: Day 3

I just realized I never made any references to An American in Paris, which makes me super sad right now. And all I can think about is French New Wave and Jean-Luc Godard. So I'm attempting to combine the two in my title right now, just to give a little background. Oh, and they have almost no meaning to the rest of this entry, it's just a personal thing.

So, to continue on with the point, today we got up earlier so we could check out a famous graveyard called Le Pere Lachaise that Alice wanted to see.


It has people like George Melies buried there. He's basically the father of special effects in film, as demonstrated in A Trip to the Moon (1902). Awesome stuff. Anyways, other cool people you would know that happen to be buried there are Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. Their graves were full of flowers or pictures or messages from people that love them, it was wonderful to see. I especially loved one message on Oscar Wilde's grave, that read: "My dearest Oscar, you are winning. -Amy" It made me smile and I couldn't help but think that was fitting.

The graveyard was beautiful even on that rainy day, with all the leaves changing and the slight breeze, it definitely felt like October. If I had seen a pumpkin it wouldn't have seemed out of place. I would have posted pictures of it, but I'm not so much a fan of taking pictures in graveyards, simply because that always seems weird to me. I guess it's mostly that I can't help but wonder what do to with the pictures. You can't really frame a picture of a tombstone. And you can't really scrapbook it into a scrapbook. I mean, you could, but you have to have a real reason for it, not just because "Oh, he's my favorite author." "Oh, he's like a father of film." I dunno, color me odd, but out of respect, I avoid taking pictures in graveyards. Instead, I spent a lot of time trying to decide how I feel about them. And the more I thought about it, the more I don't know if I want a tombstone. After reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the more I like the idea of having a bench dedicated to me, perhaps under a particularly beautiful tree. It just seems more practical. But I dunno. I have plenty of time to decide that.

From there we headed out to see the Louvre.


Alice and Britt had to get moving to catch their flight out of Paris that day, so we only had a short time there. As in, about maybe 2 hours. Possibly less. And that is definitely not enough time to see everything there is to see. So, it was Davalyn's Whirlwind Tour of the Louvre. I saw the major works first, such as Winged Victory (AKA Nike of Samothrace), the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, Cupid & Psyche, & the Seated Scribe. I did miss the Eugene Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People painting, which is also the cover of Coldplay's Viva la Vida album. I was bummed I missed it, even though I did cover quite a bit in only so little time. My two favorites in the museum would have to be Cupid & Psyche and the statue of Mercury. They both were rather amazing.



In relation to the Mona Lisa though, I did already know it was small, so I wasn't phased by that. But I was upset because I had always pictured it in small, rotunda sort of room. Not this huge rectangular space on a dividing wall. Surrounded by a swarming crowd of people.



Honestly, it was more off-putting than anything. I couldn't concentrate on it at all with people pushing and camera posing and all that, so it got so little of my time. I guess I'll never really understand its secret.

From there we trekked back to our room, stopping along the way to grab some food. I got a delicious crepe of nutella and bananas. I have made it a personal goal to learn how to make crepes one day, because life can no longer go on without them in my life.

Anyways, to tear myself away from the food for a bit, once Alice & Britt left for the airport, Cindy and I decided we should take a nap. Yeah, we took a nap in Paris. But it was okay, because we needed to kill some time before we headed back to see the Eiffel Tower light up and sparkle. So, we got up a few hours later, walked down the street to buy some souvenirs before dropping them back off in the room so we could head back to the Shakespearean Book Company (because I decided I wanted that book I stared at forever), check out the vendor selling paintings of Paris just across the street again, and then head in the opposite direction to go see the Eiffel Tower sparkle.

The most exciting thing that happened, during this journey of ours, was seeing the grinning cat, which I have only been wishing to see since I cut out the article about it years ago. The cat of which I mention, is from a film called The Case of the Grinning Cat. It's rare and difficult to find, since it's an arthouse film, but I have been hoping I'd come across it for a long time, and seeing this widely smiling creature on the side of a building while riding the train made me shout with joy and confuse Cindy until I was able to explain myself:


This isn't my own picture, because we did only pass it on a train travelling I have no idea how fast, but you get the idea. And if not, then all you need to know is that I was super excited.

Beyond that and almost getting lost trying to find the right train to get there, there is little to report before reaching the Eiffel Tower. Cindy and I did find the magic train while we were lost though, because even though there was almost no reason it should have worked, that train took us to the right stop, even though we got off at the first stop we could. It was confusing, but we're just glad we got there.

Anyways, we ended up missing the first show at the Eiffel Tower, so we went exploring around the area until 11:00PM, when the light show started again. I attempted to take a video with my camera, which is below, so I hope it shows up:



Anyways, then we headed back to the hotel to pack up a little more and attempt to sleep. We ended up watching a little more French television, which always proved to be fun, got stuck watching music videos. Like Lady Gaga's Telephone. We agreed; we want those ten minutes of our life back.

And with that, our last full day in Paris ends.