Mont Saint Michel & Saint Malo

Here are some photos from my trip to Mont Saint Michel and Saint Malo this past weekend. I will post a description of events here later. For now enjoy the photographs.

Mont Saint Michel

 

Cathedral

Cloisters

Saint Malo Boardwalk

Chateau de Saint Malo

Fog

Ramparts a.k.a the Last Photo Before My Camera Battery Died

Waves

This video is a little overdue from my trip during winter break. I hope you enjoy it!

C'est Printemps à Paris!

I am halfway through my stay in Paris now, and it's spring! Before I get to posting photographs of spring, however, I thought I would dip back into my archives first and recount some of my Parisian adventures.

The Tart Citron I Made

Legos! I wanted one, but I don't think it will fit in my suitcase : (

Centre Pompidou, enough said.

Jean-Michel Othoniel, My New Favorite Contemporary Artist

François Morellet Interactive Exhibition a.k.a Bright Lights for Big Kids

Beautiful Galleries Lafayette Ceiling

Opéra Garnier Under the Stairs

The Grand Foyer

Chagall Ceiling and the 7 Ton Chandelier

London Day 3

Sunday, March 20


On Sundays in London not much is open expect for tourist destinations and  markets. With this in mind, my friend and I both really wanted to find some antique and vintage clothing markets, so we did a little research on the Internet before leaving and heard the Camden market was the place to go for vintage. Thus, we headed up North to Camden, however when we got there it was obvious that our source was either outdated or wrong because while there were a couple vintage stores located on the main road, the entire market was cheap mass produced t-shirts and accessories. Nevertheless we made the best out of our excursion and found an American-style diner for lunch which serves breakfast all day. After eating French breakfasts for months now, I was so excited about getting pancakes, bacon, and eggs, while my friend got an omelette, toast, and potatoes. After lunch we wandered around a little bit more and then made our way back to the metro stop, which was closed to departures at that hour due to the large influx of arrivals for the market, so we had to walk 6 minutes down the road to the next stop and get on there. After this slight inconvenience, we decided to go back to the hotel, get our luggage, and go the train station early to settle in, relax, and bid London a farewell.

London Day 2

Saturday, March 19

The next day we woke up early and headed out to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Upon arrival however it became apparent that we were not early enough to get a good vantage point considering the thousands of other tourists crammed in the plaza in front of the Palace. We eventually managed to find a spot on the island in the middle of the roundabout, where we were able to see some of the parade at the beginning of the ceremony, however, we couldn’t see much of what was going on within in the gates, so we decided to leave early. Considering the amount of people there, this was easier said than done, but we managed to navigate our way through the masses towards St. James park, which was fun to see in all it’s springtime glory. After cutting across the park, we got some burgers, onion rings, and chips for lunch at a quintessential English pub.

Upon finishing our delicious lunch we then proceeded on to visit Westminster Abbey. After waiting in line for a little and getting our audio guides, we explored the abbey while listening to a bit of history interspersed with choral music. Overall, it was an amazing experience. It was cool to see all the beautiful architecture and learn about the role the abbey has played in England’s rich history. Right next to Westminster are the Houses of Parliament, which we took a lot of photos of before hopping back on the subway to go visit The British Museum. Some highlights at the British Museum included: the Rosetta Stone, Greek & Roman Statuary, Egyptian mummies, Asian antiquities, and the large atrium in the middle of the museum.
 

Outside view of the Nave of Westminster Abbey

Big Ben & The London Eye

The Houses of Parliament

The River Thames & London Eye

Atrium at the British Museum

When the museum closed, we decided to go back and take a ride on the London Eye at Sunset, however upon arrival we decided that we did not want to wait in line with all the hundreds of people in front of us. Instead we walked around a took photo before crossing back over the Thames River and taking the metro back to a stop near our hotel. Along the walk back to the hotel, we stopped in a Chinese restaurant and ordered some Peking Duck, which suprisingly I have not had since I visited Chinatown in NYC with my parents during spring break when I was in 7th grade. After dinner, we were exhausted so we returned to the hotel for an evening of lounging around the hotel room, reading, editing photos, and writing.

London Day 1

Friday, March 18

I woke up obscenely early (4:45) in the morning to catch the first metro to the train station for my train from Paris to London. Despite some confusion on where the Eurostar platform actually was and a long line for customs and border patrol, my friend and I both made it on time for the train. The ride was surprisingly good with comfortable seats. Surprisingly enough, the part of ride under the English Channel only took 20 minutes out of the 2 hour 15 minute trip, a fact that I happily embraced because the thought of being in a tube under the water was not something I was extremely fond of thinking about. Something else I found helpful was that I got to watch part of a movie the people diagonal to me had on their laptop with French subtitles, except they turned it off halfway through so now I have to watch it all over again to find out what happens.

When we finally got the St. Pancras International Train station near Kings Cross in London, we proceeded to get some British pounds out of the ATM, buy some metro passes, and make our way to our hotel near Hyde Park. Once we verified our reservation and dropped off our bags, we got some much needed traditional English breakfasts. I got toast with tomatoes, onions, and cheese, while my friend got the traditional egg, toast, bacon, sausage, beans, and hashbrowns. 

English Breakfast

After breakfast we went back to the metro, which we took to Tower Hill to visit the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. When we got out of the metro however, it was pouring rain, putting a damper on our plans, especially since I was unable to use my camera. Nevertheless we managed to use newspapers as shields against the rain to make it to a tourist shop where we purchased an umbrella and continued on to the Tower complex. After purchasing our tickets we made our way across the moat and inside the fortress, which we toured a little on our own before going back to the entrance for a guided tour with a Yeoman Warder or Beefeater. Our guide was hilarious given the topics he discussed during his presentation inside the Chapel, including medieval waste management, war, torture, and execution. Since it was raining heavily, the rest of the usually one hour tour was canceled, but we used our newly acquired historical background to explore on our own instead. First, we visited the Crown Jewels, which were amazingly beautiful. All the objects were so intricately decorated and there were interesting videos interspersed throughout the exhibition showing the objects being used in ceremonies. One scepter had the largest diamond in the world, and many of the crowns had more precious jewels embedded in them than I have seen in my entire life, however my favorite was an exess constructed out of gold and jewels and made to resemble a medieval castle. It reminded me a lot of my 7^th grade social studies project.

After the jewels we wandered through White Tower, the part of the complex first constructed by the Norman King William I, or William the Conqueror in 1078. Inside there was a lot of armory and weaponry, but the part I found most interesting were miniature models of the evolution of the Tower complex from the middle ages to the present. Finally, the last part of the tour took us to the dungeons, which oddly enough now house the gift shop. Next, we went to a café within the complex where I got espresso and a cupcake before leaving to visit Tower Bridge. 

Photo ofTower Bridge Courtesy of My Friend

 

After taking photos at the bridge, we walked across and went in search of the Leathermarket, which we had seen labeled as such on our tourist map. After walking for quite a while, we found the leather market, however we soon realized that it was no longer a market for leather goods, but rather converted office spaces. A little fatigued and increasingly frustrated with the pouring rain, we decided to make our way over to the Modern Tate, the modern art museum. Along the way we stopped to take photos of a modern art display under an overpass, and noticed a fish and chips diner, which we decided to stop in.  After my first meal of fish and chips in London, we continued on to the museum, which was amazingly cool, from the actual structure itself (although the layout was a little too post-modern for my taste at first) to the artworks and exhibitions. 

Fish & Chips

Since we had been walking all day, we soon became tired, however we managed to see everything we wanted to before walking over Millennium Bridge toward the metro at St. Paul at sunset and taking some amazing photographs. For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant, where due to a long line we decided to eat outside and enjoy the good weather. We got both got Pad Thai, which I successfully ate only using chopsticks. After dinner, we were really tired so we called it a night. 

Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral

View from Millennium Bridge

View of London Skyline including Tower Bridge

Pad Thai

Bruxelles

I visited Brussels with my study abroad program for a mandatory field study to the European Commission and the Committee on Regions this Thursday and Friday. First, we listened to speakers at the European Commission and then toured the city before dinner, passing by the main Cathedral while the bells were ringing, visiting the Grand Place at night, getting some delicious waffles (Liege not Bruxelles with bananas, chocolate and about 2 inches of whipped cream in between), and sampling some chocolates. By the time it was actually time for dinner we were all already relatively full, however we made room for the steamed vegetables, steak marinated in beer, fries, and an ice cream/chocolate moose dessert. The next day, we visited the relatively new Committee on Regions, which represents sub-state regions in order to improve the implementation of European legislation on a local level. While, I enjoyed learning about the European institutions, my favorite part of the field study by far was walking around the city at night and seeing everything lit up and also seeing the countryside out of the bus windows during the 5 hour ride from Paris and back.  

Mes Vacances - La Quatrième et Dernière Partie - Lake Como

Wednesday February 23, 2011

Day 6

Getting to Lake Como took about an hour by train from Milan. When we got to the city of Como we walked around a little and checked out the Duomo di Como before purchasing our ferryboat tickets to Bellagio. The views from this boat ride were stunning. Scattered around the lake were little villages and stately villas clinging to the rocky cliffside with snowcapped mountains in the background. When we got to the resort town of Bellagio, we stopped by a cute café and purchased some paninis—mine had brie in it! Afterwards, we wandered around the winding alleyways and stopped in a couple shops, although most were closed because it was offseason or because it was siesta. Nevertheless everywhere we went in Bellagio was gorgeous. In the afternoon, we headed back down the hill towards the port, where we revisited the café to purchase some dessert snacks while we waited for the next ferry back to Como (I got an awesome raspberry tart). After another picturesque boat ride, we visited a tourist shop in Como and then caught the train back to Milan, where we rested up, snacked a little (pear juice!) and then went to dinner (I ordered penne pasta with salmon and cream sauce and split a Grand Mariner cake for desert).