Ah oui, Paris!

This past week our group has explored Paris, with the guidance of our professor, the local Marianne Robins. She grew up in a suburb of the city and so it was great to have her show us the ins and outs of the city. We saw a lot of the major tourist sites, and also some not-so-touristy places that related to the semester's themes of marginality, travel, and peace & conflict throughout history. Despite the cold weather (it rained today), and the really annoying junior highers from Ireland who thought it was fun to run through the halls of the FIAP hostel at all hours of the night, screaming and slamming doors and keeping us awake, I really enjoyed Paris. In my mind I think I had pictured Paris in springtime or summer--warm and sunny and colorful, so it was different than my expectations. But Notre Dame and the Palace of Versaille still awed me. And thanks to Nyquill, I was able to get some solid sleep in the noisy hostel. Here are some photos from the week:

The Paris Mosque, some of which is modeled after the Alhambra, which we saw in Granada.

The Pantheon, a monument to the leaders of the French Revolution and Republic.

The outside of Notre Dame. The church is located on a small island in the river Seine, which runs through the city of Paris.

Inside the church, and the altar at the front.

Me and Kelsey outside Notre Dame. The architecture is super intricate and the building is huge!

Victor Hugo's grave in the Pantheon. Many other famous Frenchmen are buried in the crypt beneath the monument.

The Shoah Memorial, to the Jews who died in World War II. The Hebrew word "shoah" is used in France instead of "holocaust." Shoah refers to the destruction of the Temple, one of the greatest tragedies in Jewish history.

Marianne gave us a tour of the Right Bank, where we visited the monument at Place de la Bastille--where the castle of Bastille was stormed during the French Revolution. We also got to see the Jewish quarter, the outside of modern art museum, and other interesting buildings.

This is the outside of the Louvre, the famous art museum. The building takes up a whole gigantic block in Paris.

We didn't go into the Louvre because there wasn't time but we did get to see and go inside the famous glass pyramid in the courtyard by the museum.

We walked down the Champs-Elysees toward the Arc!

Me, Allison and Hannah by the Arc de Triomph!

 On Saturday I visited the palace and gardens of Versaille with some friends. It was incredible to see the intricate gold designs of so many rooms, most funded by King Louis XIV. My favorite room was the Hall of Mirrors, a long corridor featuring tons of mirrors and golden statues and chandeliers. The high ceiling was painted with a huge fresco, depicting the Roman golds and scenes of French military victories.

The expansive gardens were amazing too, with trees and lakes and canals and statues as far as the eye could see. I bet in the springtime they would have been so colorful with everything in bloom. Even in the rain, though, it was gorgeous.

My photos from Versaille aren't uploaded yet but I'll post them when I can.

Tonight we saw goodbye to Paris and "bonjourno" to Venice and a week in Italy! We're taking off for a night train in about three hours...that should be an adventure. I'm stoked for the Italian food though! Since I've already been to Rome, I'm also excited to revisit some of my favorite sights there. It's crazy that our semester is almost half over--after Italy we head to Istanbul to meet with the other half of the group before going to the Middle East.

Valentine's Day Weekend with the girls in Brugges!

This past weekend I went to Brugges, Belgium with five other girls for our four-day weekend. Everyone had to organize their own trips and deal with the travel details. We had the best time exploring the cute little town of Brugges, with its canals and cobblestone streets and brick buildings--not to mention the famous Belgian food: waffles, fries, chocolate and beer. It was a great weekend of relaxing, eating, and sightseeing. The only hiccup in our travels came with missing out train connection in Brussels on the way. I bet we looked hilarious--six girls with huge backpacks on, running/waddling in a single file line through the busy Brussels train station...no idea where we were supposed to go...

But we made it! Our weekend is best told in pictures, because Brugges is just too awesome to describe.

The first night out, Belgian beers!

Postcard-pretty buildings perched on the edge of Market Square, the main central plaza.

Hannah, Audrey and I in Market Square. Thank you, self-timer on my camera.

The Chocolate Line--one of many amazing chocolate shops lining the streets of Brugges. I wish I could have dumped all my clothes and filled my backpack with chocolates. Bruce Fisk would not have been very happy with me though once I reach Syria...

How cute is this. The little boats on the canal gave tours of the city, which we enjoyed on our first day. Our driver was tri-lingual, because in Brugges they speak Flemmish first, French second, and English third. Unfair.

There are a good number of huge white swans swimming through the canals.

Another shot of the canal and bridges, some of which are still original from the 14th century.

The Begijnhof is a historic monestary for women, who lived in quite and solitude.

It's a gorgeous green lawn, with tall trees and white-washed buildings lining the square.

Overlooking a canal.

We love Brugges!

In The Church of Our Lady, this is one of the only Michaelangelo statues of Madonna and Child to ever leave Italy during his lifetime.

Sarah, Kelsey, Audrey and Hannah on the boat tour.

I love the architecture of the roofs--they reminded me of gingerbread houses.

Hannah coming up the 300-plus stairs we climbed to get to the top of the Beltry (bell tower) in Market Square.

The view of the city from the top of the Beltry.

All six of us after our climb to the top.

That's what we climbed. Awesome views. You should all do it someday.

Belgian waffles! With strawberries and whip cream...they're to die for.

Me, Kelsey, Audrey, Hannah & Hannah in Market Square

Belgian fries in Market Square!

We took a tour of the only working brewery still in Brugges. Belgium produces over 400 types of beers, and we got to sample some beer brewed right there in Brugges after our tour.

The Hotel Fevery, our cute B&B with amazing breakfasts.

Last week in Montpellier! Off to Belgium!

It’s the last week here in Montpellier! I can’t believe it’s gone this fast. We have some small tests coming up in French class—our teacher Frank says they won’t be hard, but after a week in Spain I reverted back to my Spanish and now have to concentrate really hard to switch my brain back into French. It’s great to be back in a city where I know my way around and where I can sprawl all my stuff out in my room. But one of the things I loved most about Spain was traveling with our group of 20—it’s an awesome collection of people and we have fun spending time together, during tours or traveling or eating or going out. I’m excited to travel with them to Paris and Italy and the Middle East after that. One thing I learned though—travel is tiring! I was exhausted after Spain and felt so glad to have a home to come back to in Montpellier. Sadly, that won’t happen again on this semester. 

Monday was Audrey’s 21^st birthday (February 7). It doesn’t really mean much here in Europe, but we went out for a nice long lunch in Place de la Comedie and had a glass of local wine. After diner that night, a group of us headed to the Australian club but found a huge line and instead went dancing at the Manhattan, another club next door. It was a really fun night, even though we were all tired from traveling the week before.

I also made my plans for our free weekend, which is this Saturday through Tuesday. I’m going to Brugges, Belgium with Audrey, Hannah Davidson, Hannah Sievers, Kelsey Cannon and Sarah Spencer. We’re taking a train at 8:30 on Saturday through Lille and Brussels and getting into Brugges around 3:30. We made reservations at a super cute little B&B near the center of the city. I’m excited to relax a little in a small town—ride bikes to the coast, tour the brewery, eat lots of Belgian chocolate, see the main Market Square and climb the bell tower, and just relax at a café and eat a Belgian waffle with my coffee. It will be a nice and relaxing weekend, then we head back to meet the group in Paris at 5:30 on Tuesday.

The Great Mosque and Cordoba

The third and final city in Spain we visited was Cordoba. We had a free afternoon when we first arrived, and I enjoyed a walk around town with Audrey, Reyn and Amy. I had a tortilla sandwich for lunch—Spanish tortilla is a potato and egg creation, kind of like an omelette. We explored the Old City of Granada and the original Roman bridge. I even had time to go on a run through the city parks—which was wonderful after so many days of being cooped up on busses and trains. After a dinner with the group, about 17 of us headed to the supermarket nearby where we proceeded to buy some bottles of wine and dark chocolate. We went back to the hotel room and hung out for a few hours, playing cards (Hearts is our game of choice), sipping wine, eating chocolate, and feeling cultured. 

Audrey and I in La Alhambra courtyard

Amy and Audrey

Reyn and I

The next day featured probably my favorite visit of the whole week in Spain: The Great Mosque. Also known as The Cathedral or La Mezquita—it’s a massive Arab Mosque, inside of which has been built two large Catholic cathedrals. The architecture of the famous mosque is incredible—endless lines of blue and red marble pillars, with double arches on top made of brick and sandstone. The space inside the building seems to go on forever, and selective lighting from skylights give it an artsy feel. The main cathedral inside the mosque was built when the Catholics took over the area of Southern Spain from the Arabs, and destroyed most of the mosques. But they found La Mezquita too beautiful and so transformed it into a Christian space, by building a cathedral right in the middle. The Baroque-style cathedral featured intricate woodwork for the choir seating, with a huge high white and gold painted ceiling, complete with fat angle babies floating around in the pictures (typical Baroque). The alter and paintings of Jesus and the Virgin Mary were stories high, but what caught our eye was one statue of St. Peter (or James?). He was perched atop a horse, waving a sword…and trampling bodies. Our guide, a nice woman named Maria, seemed surprised when we asked her about it. “Oh…most people don’t notice that and we don’t talk about it on the tour. The saint is trampling Muslims.” What an interesting statue to have inside a cathedral…inside a mosque… All in all the Great Mosque was an overwhelming space that made me feel small. I can only image what it would have been like to see the place full of thousands of Muslims, all praying at the same time, facing Mecca. 

The tower in La Alhambra courtyard

The old Roman bridge going into the city of Cordoba

The Great Mosque

An intricate design on the column

This small room in the Mosque points towards Mecca

This is one side of the large Baroque chapel built into the Great Mosque

Intricate woodwork makes up the seats of the choir, taken from the French colonial islands

An interesting statue displayed in the chapel inside of the Great Mosque, of Muslims being trampled by a saint

After this tour, we walking around the Jewish Quarters of the city and saw one of only three synagogs left in Spain. It was also converted into a Christian space—remnants of a painted cross can be seen on the wall. And the architecture and décor are strikingly Arab in nature, like La Alhambra we saw earlier. It was a strange combination of three religions in one building. 

The remains of a cross on the wall

We then visited the Castle of Cordoba, walking through the gardens and trees and fish ponds where supposedly Christopher Columbus first met with Isabelle and Ferdinand of Spain to ask for funding for his trip to India (they denied him the first time).

The gardens of the castle

Alison, Audrey, me, Kelsey & Hannah in the gardens

 Dear Ferdinand and Isabelle, can I have money to go find a new trade route to India? Sincerely, Christopher Columbus

I then had a fun surprise after our day of touring the city. By an awesome coincidence, a group of Westmont students who were on a semester abroad program located in Sevilla, Spain were also touring Cordoba that day! They had an hour to spare after their tour and met us at our hotel—which means I got to see my good friend Bre Rodriguez. It was great to catch up with her and chat about our plans for later in May (me and her and Audrey are travelling around for two weeks by ourselves after our programs end).

That night, we decided to try out a discotech for the first time since we came to Europe. We’d been told that Spain is the party country…so out we went at 11 to try our luck. I finally know why the Spanish have siestas every day. We were at the club and no one seemed to be showing up, only a few other students from England. Finally around 2:30 people started to fill the place up a little more, but there was still no dance floor open. Some of us stuck it out and realized that the Spanish don’t come out to party until about 3:00 am. That’s when they started the music and dancing. 3 in the morning…supposedly the club is open until 6 or 7—we didn’t last near that long but it was a fun time.

Hempy, Lim, Uhland

Our next two days were one 8-hour bus ride, one 12-hour train ride, one awesome dinner in a cute old restaurant, and hours and hours of playing Hearts. Finally, Sunday night, we arrived back home in Montpellier.

Pringle Ducks and Hearts for the bus ride!