Paris Revisited

Because we left out so much on the first visit to Paris, my friend Cat and I decided to go back. It meant not going to London, but I would rather say that I actually completely saw Paris, and after this trip I feel that I can. So, we go up really really early and caught the first flight from Rome to Paris on Friday and got there by 10am. We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and headed straight for the Louvre. After a couple of hours we saw the whole thing. For the Louvre's website click here


The pyramid of the Louvre from inside the Louvre

I'm not going to post all of the pictures of what I saw (there isn't enough space). But here are some...

Winged Victory, one of my favorite statues


Cupid and Psyche, another great statue


one of Michelangelo's Slaves


The Raft of Medusa by Géricault

And of course....

the Mona Lisa


here it is with some scale, it actually isn't that small, only compared to the other giant paintings.

THEN we went to the Musée d'Orsay, which I fell in love with obviously because of its collection of impressionists.


VAN GOTETHE!


Lautrec


Monet


Monet again


Renior


Degas


eh even though I think its a boring image Whistler's Mother


the museum is inside an old train station


even though its blury I like this one


Louvre at night

The next day we wandered around Montmartre because it was close to the hotel. We stopped at Starbucks for breakfast. I can't help it I'm addicted if there is a Starbucks in a city I have to go.


This one happened to be right across the street from the Moulin Rouge

We then hopped on the Metro and went to Versailles.


Chateau


Portrait of young Marie


Again its blury but I think its cool that each room is a different color


Me in the Hall of Mirrors


we couldn't escape Rome


Marie Antoinette's bedroom, they really only let you into a few rooms out of the many that are there


it was raining on and off but when we got outside the sky looked so cool


me in front of the gardens


when we got back to the city we went to Notre Dame again


this time we went inside


back of Notre Dame at evening

Cat and I decided to do dinner on the boat tour that takes you up and down the Seine. My favorite moment was when Edith Piaf's La Vie En Rose began to play.


the Eiffel Tower light up at night, crooked because I was on a boat

HalLoWeeN in Venezia

We weren't sure how Halloween would play out in Rome since it is a unpredictable place, so we decided to go to Venice and we could make our own Halloween. It is an amazing city, a true site to be seen. We took a flight there, that was really cheap and only an hour long. After finding and getting settled in our little B&B right in the center of the city, we went wandering around.


Trick or treat in Italian, this made us really excited!


mask stores where everywhere


then we made our way to St. Marks


the bell tower


Doge's Palace


the square


gondolas


the Bridge of Sighs nicely covered in advertisements, way to go


you can look like a gondolier, too bad I didn't get a picture of one


view from Ponte Rialto at night


We went to the island of Murano (as in Murano glass) and went to a workshop to watch this glassblower. We spent much of the day walking around looking at all the little glass shops. It was all really cool, but still pretty expensive.




views of the canals


me and my roommates in Murano


me and ameeta in our masks on halloween

Fall Break: Greece

After our 2 days in Paris we went to Greece. Ameeta had family-friends in Athens who put us up for a few days. They were one of the nicest most welcoming families I have ever met. The kids gave up their bedrooms for us, which we felt bad about, but they insisted. Even though we were incredibly greatful for this is meant that we had to keep our base in Athens and just do day trips to islands. We were there for 4 days, and if you've even been to Athens you learn its a city that only needs 1 day and then you travel around Greece.
So the first day we went sightseeing around the city and by sightseeing I mean we went to the Acropolis. That is THE thing to do. Considering we live in a city filled with ruins one ruin site on our vacation was enough.

The Parthenon



We spent the rest of the day shopping around Plaka, the major touristy shopping area, where we loaded up on souvenirs.


The Greece that everyone thinks of isn't Athens it is the islands. Even though we did not go to the most popular islands (they are far from Athens and would take more than a day to do), we saw two very interesting ones; Poros and Hydra. It took us 4 hours on a ferry to get to Poros, but when we got there it was beautiful. It is like the 3rd most popular island (after Santorini and Mykonos) because of its white washed houses and blue roofs.

church




me taking pictures


boats, i love the reflection off of the clear water


the water was so blue


i love sunsets


us at sunset

The boat ride back was a nightmare, even though we learned from the ride out and upgraded our tickets so that we had actual seats, we didn't get back into Athens until midnight. Luckily the island we were going to the next day was closer. The island of Hydra (pronounced edra) is know for not having any cars. Everyone walks or uses donkeys.



the island harbour


donkey train

The problem with the islands of Greece were the cats, they were everywhere. For some reason I was totally unaware that that is one of the things Greece is know for. Now, for the most part I like cats, but these stopped being cute. Most of them were inbreed (because there is no outside population) and had so many physical deformities; blindness in one or both eyes and breathing issues (we could hear them breathing). It was really disturbing and annoying when we tried to eat outside at a restaurant.


They were everywhere! Even my friend Cat (who LOVES cats) got sick of them.

We went back to Athens and the family that we stayed with took us out to dinner at their favorite restaurant. I love Greek food! I could not get enough tzatzik, olives, and feta. I had Souvlaki and homemade moussaka. It was a great change from the constant pasta and pizza of Rome.