6 septembre 2009

I had the best weekend in London! It was very cold though – I’m talking 50 to 60 degrees, fahrenheit not celsius. It was my first time not checking any luggage – I packed everything I needed in my carry on Northface, hard to believe I know! But, I only packed summer-ish things so that came back to bite me. Lou Lou, Syra, and I saw “The Mountain Top” at Trafalgar Studios Friday night and I loved it. The entire play is in one room, room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. It was a two-man show – MLK, Jr. and a motel maid. The play was especially powerful and I’m so glad I was able to see it – it closed in London Saturday night. I realized how little I knew about MLK, Jr.’s “I’ve been to the mountaintop” address and have been doing my reading since. Saturday, I got to see Emmmmm!! Her school, flat, roommates are all so great. It was really neat to be able to see where she’ll be living and going to class everyday. Lou Lou and I walked the Heath and Hampstead before picking up oven-baked pizza, cookies, Corona and limes for dinner J Em, some of her flatmates, and I ended the night in a karaoke bar in Islington and had a really good time.

It’s hard to believe the summer is coming to an end… I’ve had such an amazing time traveling these last few weeks and wouldn’t have changed anything. Thanks Pops and Dear for letting me have this adventure – it was incredible and once in a lifetime.

3 septembre 2009

Earliest morning so far – my alarm went off at 5:15! I had to catch a 6 am train from Fribourg to Geneva in order to make my flight. The train and flight were super easy! I met a real life Tom Sawyer (his real name) on the train that I thought was to Kentish Town who kindly informed me I was headed in the complete opposite direction – oops J I got to Lou Lou’s flat around lunchtime and really enjoyed catching up with her. We went to see Pedro Almodóvar’s newest film, “Broken Embraces,” and had Wagamama in Camden town for dinner.

2 septembre 2009

I’m in Fribourg and all moved into my room! Living out of a suitcase gets a little tiresome after a while. I got here early evening of the 1^st. As soon as I got into my foyer, it started storming (first thunder and lightning I’ve experiences this trip).. weather not fitting at all for how I was feeling. I felt the complete opposite – blue skies and sunshine would have been more appropriate. It is just hard to believe that this day, this time, this moment are finally here – the moment where the thrills of summertime are almost gone, where traveling throughout Europe with one of my very best friends is almost over, and where I’m alone in this place where I’ll be until Christmas. A moment I had done my best all summer, and probably even longer, to prepare for – a moment that I don’t really think you can prepare for.. But, a moment I made it to and was happy to be in, right then and right there. This time in Fribourg is the ultimate adventure – one I’m so ready to take and one I need to take. I know it’s not always going to be a walk in the park – it’s going to be challenging, it already has been, but I’m ready. I’m going to take it day by day and try to make the most out of every moment I have here. I just still can’t believe I’m finally here!!

It worked out amazingly – Leah and I were on the same train, Munich to Fribourg, for 7 hours! She had much farther to go after the train dropped me off in Fribourg, but it was still so great and unexpected to have a little 7 hours on the same train. The little I saw of Fribourg, when it wasn’t raining, is beautiful! You can see the Alps in every direction you look. Someone in the train station told me 19,000 people live in the dowtown area and nearly 13,000 are students – very similar to Oxford! I have some time to kill before orientation and classes begin so I’m off to London for a long weekend to see Lou Lou and Emily (just arrived in London!) and I cannot wait!

1 septembre 2009

This morning was insane! Our train to Munich left at 7:05 from Milan. We set the alarm, but must have slept right through it. At 6:48, Leah woke me up: OH MY GOSH, JP, IT’S 6:48!!! We thought about it for about 30 seconds, basically still asleep, and decided we were going to try to make it. We figured ok, 17 minutes: 4 minutes to pack, 4 minutes to checkout of the hotel, 5 minutes to run to the station, and 4 minutes to figure out what platform we needed to get to and to board the train. We totally made it!! Talk about a rush of adrenaline. This was the beginning of a day where everything could have either gone disastrously wrong or amazingly perfect. Everything just happened to work out for us today J Once we got to Munich, we went straight to the DB office to work on booking Leah’s long trek to Spain for tomorrow. She was first told she was going to have to go from Munich to Paris and then down into Spain. Luckily, the head of the DB is American (from Illinois) and decided he was going to help make Leah’s trip as easy as it could be. He was such a blessing and helped SO much. Leah is now going to go through Switzerland to get to Spain, the much more direct route. We picked up our semester luggage from Ian, who so kindly let us store it in Munich the whole time we were traveling. It’s hard to believe that Leah and I will be headed to our respected cities tomorrow! It hasn’t really hit me yet, but it’s so nice to be back in Munich for a night – somewhere that is so comfortable and familiar to me.

31 août 2009

Today was our last day in Cinque Terre. I’m going to miss it a lot! We paid the older man for our room, ate at the same wonderful café for breakfast, and then headed to Vernazza. The ocean is such a beautiful backdrop to the bright colors of all the umbrellas in Vernazza. Later in the day, we took a train from Monterosso to Milan. Milan’s train station is amazing! It’s by far my favorite train station I’ve ever been to. We were just going to be in Milan for one night, so we stayed in a really nice hotel near the train station. The AC, Wifi, clean bathroom, comfortable beds with plenty of pillows, etc. were such a luxury compared to the rest of our Italian accommodations. We were living the life – give us some AC and we turn into queens. J

30 août 2009

Leah and I definitely accomplished what we wanted to in Cinque Terre – relaxing, laying out by the water, and swimming. We woke up this morning, hung out on our terrace over-looking Riomaggorie for a little while, got breakfast down the lane (the best omelet and coffee), and then got dressed in bathing suits and cover-ups for our beach day. We did a little bit of shopping here and there, ate gelato to cool down, and went one village over to Manarola for laying out and swimming. The views were breath-taking – I took a lot of pictures, to say the least. The water is like nothing I have ever seen before – it shimmers. I can’t think of any other way to describe it.. It’s hard to look at it for too long or you end up looking at it for so long and wondering what you were thinking about the entire time you just spent staring at the shimmering, glittering water. After showering and getting ready for the night, we ate at this beautiful café on the main drag of Riomaggorie. I had the BEST meal – stuffed mussels, gnocchi, and a great bottle of wine.

28 août 2009

Travel day:

Marseille – Nice – Genova – La Spezia – and finally, in the wee hours of the morning, to Cinque Terre!

This was the only time the whole trip we didn’t book somewhere to stay in advance… We took a cab from the La Spezia train station to the top of Riomaggiore, the first of the five seaside villages making up Cinque Terre. We looked down a slope of a hill, completely cobblestone, and started making our way down with our luggage. About half way down we decided we didn’t want to roll our luggage all the way down to the ocean if we were just going to have to head right back up the slope, so I sat with the luggage while Leah ventured down the main street of Riomaggiore to find us a roof to sleep under. She came back a few minutes later and told me we were meeting someone at the corner in 5 minutes haha. She had done like so many of our friends had told us to and gone into a pub to ask a waiter about somewhere to stay. Mind you it’s late into the night now – the waiter made a call and sure enough there was an elderly man waiting for us at the corner soon after. We ended up renting a room on the third floor of his family’s house – it was great! All we could do when we saw all the stairs was laugh... I’m talking 150 to 200 winding stairs leading first up to the house and then up to the room. The room had this amazing terrace though with lounge chairs, a table, and awning that we put to full use. We finally made it and got a great story out of it!

27 août 2009

We slept in again today, but woke up to a beautiful morning. Delores, Emilie’s GPS, led us to Cassis, France where we spent our afternoon on a boat tour of the Calanques, wondering around the seaside town, eating gelato, and jumping off cliffs into the chilly and very salty Mediterranean! The Calanques – natural cliffs formed by river mouths – are incredible! We rode in and out of the Calanques on a tour, surrounded by the bluest of waters. I literally had to hold Emilie’s hand crossing some parts of the cliffs, before I got the courage to jump. It’s really funny actually – I claim I’m going to go skydiving this semester and then I get spooked jumping off a measly cliff! It was so great though and I’m so glad I jumped.. The weather wasn’t on our side for long and it started to rain so we packed up and headed back to Fos to swim at Opa and Oma’s. We went to a local Vietnamese restaurant for dinner – my first time eating Vietnamese – and I LOVED it! I got Oma’s favorite, boeuf à la citronelle, and it was fantastic! We did apple-flavored shisha in a Moroccan tent on the beach after our beurre-sucre and nutella crêpes for dessert.

26 août 2009

I cannot say thank you enough for Emilie’s invitation and Opa and Oma’s kindness! Opa and Oma are two of the most hospitable and kind people I know – it’s just such a treat to be back in Fos-sur-mer! I cannot believe it was a whole year ago that I came here for the first time to stay with Emilie and her sweet grandparents, Opa and Oma. We slept in this morning and then went to lunch at dare I say the best restaurant ever: le Pili Pili! I tried moules-frites for the first time at le Pili Pili last summer when Opa told me they were amazing and they easily became my favorite meal. I LOVED them just as much today and even made Leah try a mussel.. not her favorite J The mussels are soaked in a white wine, cream, and onion sauce, served with a bowl of french fries.. SO good. In the afternoon, Emilie, Ann, Leah, and I walked around Martigues, where Emilie was born and her parents were married. We came back to Opa and Oma’s to drink le vin blanc avec le sirop de cassis, eat pizza by the pool, and watch Notting Hill! Leah and I loved picking out the places we had been and seen in the movie!

une autre partie de 25 août 2009

I can’t do this day justice unless I write about the most interesting conversation I had on the train. On the 3 hour train ride from Nice to Marseille, Leah and I couldn’t find seats next to each other, so we ended up sitting on different rows. The man diagonal from me had on a Florida State shirt, so I attempted to ask him if he was from Florida or had visited there. Turns out he spoke no English and it was a gift from his daughter that he was on his way to visit. The man next to me translated. Supposedly, the man in the Florida State shirt talked about how much he actually disliked the shirt but was wearing it because it was a gift. The translator (man sitting next to me) and I talked the entire next 3 hours to Marseille. He is half Italian/ half French – Italian father and French mother. He calls Bologna, Italy home, but his mother sent him away to boarding school in Paris because “she has little to no faith in the Italian education system.” He ended up going to l’université and l’école de droit (law school) in Paris. After practicing law in Paris for a few years, he applied for an internship with the UN. He said he was craving some type of international experience and knew he wouldn’t stop until he did it. His first internship with the UN was a 3 month stay in Lebanon, where they began teaching him Arabic. After the unpaid internship in Lebanon, he began working for the UN as a full-time employee and was stationed in Palestine as a UN representative for reconciliation on the Gaza Strip. He told me all about this experience – the times he felt they made a difference, the times he thought it was hopeless, the times his life was put into danger, the food, the UN compound he lived in, Israeli sonic bombs – anything and everything I could think to ask about. After 4 or 5 years with the UN, he wanted to settle down and so moved back to Paris, where he is an attorney working on his own, but also with the ICC. The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals for genocide and other war crimes – the human rights and international part of law I find so interesting. He told me all about the Rome Treaty, the ICC’s founding treaty, and how/ why the US is not a member of the court. Right now, he is one lawyer on a team of 6 representing a bishop charged for ordering the murder of thousands of people in Darfur. The trial is taking place in Tanzania right now – he and the other 5 lawyers fly to Tanzania for a month on September 10. I could go on and on about the things I learned in this conversation. One of the coolest things is that even though I know all these things about this man’s life – from his excitement and anxiousness for the trial in Tanzania to his siblings, nieces, and nephews – he is still a perfect stranger. I don’t even know his name and he had that profound of an effect on me. These types of conversations don’t come around everyday, at least not for me – I know I’ll remember it.

Pictures!

I can't quite figure out how to put photos up on the blog so I have put the links below to the photo albums I've created so far!

London: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022501&id=1490550154&l=d0c394af15

Munchen: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022625&id=1490550154&l=7e9b49dbed

Praha: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023056&id=1490550154&l=c2c7d54451

25 août 2009

Today was a long, long traveling day:

Rome – Genova – Ventimiglia – Nice – Marseille

We’ve changed our plans again and are so excited to be going to the south of France to see Emilie and Ann again! We’re staying with Oma and Opa, Emilie’s grandparents, in the Fos-Sur-Mer and are so glad to be in the most welcoming, friendly home and not a hostel for a few nights. I’m really enjoying the flexibility of our trip. Our travels so far are so different than what we originally planned and I love that. I’m a list person and am happy to say I haven’t made one list since I’ve been traveling. J I love just going where we want to and deciding our next destination the night before we get on the train. Leah and I have got trains under control now. We’ve got a little system – it’s totally efficient and hilarious to watch, I’m sure.

24 août 2009

Today, we visited the smallest country in the world – with 550 citizens to its name, Vatican City! We saw St. Peter’s basilica, St. Peter’s square or the much cooler sounding Piazzo di Saint Pietro, the Grottoes, and the Vatican museums. We climbed all 327 stairs to the top of the cupola (dome of St. Peter’s) and had an amazing view of the entire city. Stairs are becoming a thing, a habit, several hundred stairs a day – totally the norm. I loved being with Leah on her first visit to the Vatican. Being Catholic, she was able to explain so much – it definitely made my day there. Seeing Pope John Paul II’s grave was especially memorable. I wasn’t able to see the Sistine Chapel the last time I visited Rome so we rushed to the Chapel and Vatican Museums before they closed. Do not be fooled, once you enter the Vatican Museums, you have a good hour until you reach the Sistine Chapel. It was so worth it though – very crowded inside, but amazing. It’s hard to take it all in, standing on the ground looking up.

We decided to go to the opera at Teatro de Marcello! We picked up dinner at that same corner café from the day before on the bike ride. We got extremely lucky! The same waiter who gave us directions yesterday served us today and just happened to be friends with the guy working the ticket booth for the opera. He thought he could get us a discount – turns out we got in for free! Not to mention, his friend put us in front row, reserved seats. It just made it that much better. The performance was outstanding – a seventeen year old playing the most incredible pianoforte, most pieces by Bach.

I think it’s more than safe to say Leah and I have had gelato everyday since we’ve been in Italy. I’m more a fruit fan and she’s more of a chocolate fan. This city, the Eternal City, is beautiful – it’s definitely at the top of my list. The next time I plan a trip to Roma, I’d like it to be in April or October though J

23 août 2009

It’s a total understatement to say Rome is hot. It’s scorching. Leah and I changed locales this morning – to the Pop Inn Hostel. We rode the metro to the Colosseum with the intention of renting two bikes to explore the city on all day. Instead, we rented the coolest thing – a two-seater bike where you sit on a bench side-by-side instead of one behind the other. It was great! I know we provided some entertainment for passerbys, especially as we struggled to get up Rome’s hills. Three nuns stopped to take pictures of us as we were huffing and puffing! We rode all over Southern Rome – Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Piazza Venezia, Ponte Garibaldi, Ponte Fabricio, and my favorite building in all of Rome, the Monumento Vittorio Emanuele II!. On the bike ride, we stopped by one of Rome’s oldest theaters, Teatro de Marcello, to see about opera tickets. We asked a waiter in the corner café for directions and had no idea it would help us out so much the next day. We picked up sliced watermelon and headed back to the hostel to get out of the heat for a little while and get ready for the night. We ate at a chic restaurant decorated with Japanese latterns and twinkle lights and had a wonderful, long dinner with plenty of bruschetta, pasta, pizza, wine, and limoncello shots. We were able to see the Trevi Fountain a little later in the evening and made our wishes. Right hand over left shoulder or your wishes won’t come true.

22 août 2009

We left for Roma today and could not wait to meet up with Emilie and Ann later in the afternoon! We got off the train and saw a man holding a sign with “Leah Tucker” printed on it! A rep from our hostel picked us up at the train station and took us to the room we would be renting for the night. The room was not what we were expecting – it was a room in someone’s apartment rather than a hotel-like setting with a reception and other guests. We decided to stay one night and then to switch to another hostel tomorrow morning. We met up with Emilie and Ann at their hostel and walked all over Rome – Spanish Steps, Via dei Condotti, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Via Nazionale, Piazza della Repubblica.. We ended the night on the Palazzo Navona and had a great dinner in a café ideal for people-watching. I had gnocchi for the first time and loved it! We were so entertained by the street performers and artists – two men singing opera and a group of break-dancers. The four of us had a blast catching up – it had been since May since we’d seen each other. Rome is unbelievable once the sun goes down! The night’s colors and the lights were beautiful. I’m so excited to be here! Ciao bella!

21 août 2009

We’re staying at the Academy Hostel in Florence and love it! We’re just a block from the Duomo! The hostel has AC and wifi, no elevator but a great staff that helped us with our luggage J We had breakfast in the hostel and then set out – Duomo, Piazza di Santa Maria Novella, Piazza della Repubblica, and the Ponte Vecchio. We walked up flights and flights of stairs to the Piazzale de Michelangelo where we had a wonderful view of the entire city. It was incredible! I love that each place we’ve visited has a characteristic color. Florence is a less deep red than Prague but gorgeous nonetheless. We did our job as tourists and checked out postcards, football jerseys, and gelato. I have my very own “Carrie” (Sex and the city) necklace now – a local artist made me one that says jpt. We started making our way back to the hostel for 6:30 happy hour – sangria, bow-tie pasta salad (close to yours, Momma :-), and cantaloupe kabobs. We met a ton of other travelers at happy hour – mainly from Australia, Canada, and California. We ended up going out with them for the night and ran into a big group of girls from Elon studying in Florence for the semester! It was a fun night – Leah, our new friends, Jena and Amber (no words can do them justice), and I had a hilarious walk home including the most amazing pizza.