sights seen.

paris;

Eiffel Tower

Notre Dame

Arc de Triomphe

Champs Elysees

The Louvre

Musee D'Orsay

The Seine

La Saint Chapelle

maignaut-tauzia;

Abbaye de Flaran

Chateau Tauzia

Sunflower Fields

carcassonne;

Cathedral

haarlem;

Protestant Church

korn (cologne);

Cathedral

amsterdam;

Old Church

Red Light District

Van Gogh Museum

Rijksmuseum

edam;

Cheese Market

historic triangle;

Zuider Zee Museum

Hoorn (& old fashion train)

Enkhuizen

Medemblik

arles;

The Roman Arena

Place de la Republique

Roman Ampiheater

Historic Museum of Arles

avignon;

Palace of the Popes

Musee de Palais

Places Visited; July 2009

Amsterdam, Netherlands; 7/5-7/7, 7/20-7/31, 8/3-8/4

Paris, France; 7/8-7/10

Maignaut-Tauzia, France; 7/11-7/15

Carcassonne, France; 7/13

Arles, France; 7/16-7/19

Avignon, France; 7/17

Historic Triangle, Holland; 7/21

Edam, Netherlands; 7/22

Korn, Germany; 7/23

Bruges, Belgium; 8/1-8/2

*everything in blue is a maybe*

no clue what day it is....

I have been having such a good time in europe! Such a good time, that I dont even know what day it is. All I do know is that everyday so far, I have been so busy! We pack each day ful of things to do and see, I barely have time to go on the computer!

I finally finished one of my english books, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, and it was really good! Now i have to start Pride and Prejudice, almost twice as thick. I guess it is okay, i saved myself a lot of time, and i have tons of vacations where i have long plane rides and beach days where i need to kill time.

Since my last post, we have gone to Avignon, another town in southern france, filled with ancient roman ruins that was so cool. We went to Palace of the Popes, and the cathedral there, also to the musee de palais, a museum that holds a million versions of the same 10 basic paintings (but it was still cool to see).

The next day we came home, but we didn't expect it to take 7 hours. First, we waited for a train to take us to Marseille. We missed 2 before we got on one, then we caught a bus to the airport, then took and air plane to Eindhover, then another train to amsterdam Zuid, then walked 10 mins to the appartment. we were WIPED.

sometime between day 5 and now...

So, it really isn't my fault that I haven't posted anything in a while... I went to Maignaut, a tiny town with a population of maybe 10, consisting of 5 old couples, 1 couple who lives there year round. Since it was summer, there were a lot of people there. Unfortunately, we met everyone the last day, and one couple a few houses down from us had internet, but it didn't stretch all the way out to our house, so we figured there wasn't any. So i will sum up my whole trip until this point.

Maignaut:

This was a very cute town. we stayed in a little house that was very old and musty, but it was so small, I could run laps around it... maybe 20 and it would be a mile. There was a old, run-down church with a small cemetary, a few dumpsters, and even fewer people. Fortunately we got there during the busy season, so there were a lot of people there. The last night, happened to be bastille day. It was a nice day, very reaxing we went for a walk down through the sunflowers- sunflowers must be the main crop along with wheat here in downtown france. Every other hill is covered in them! it is absolutely beautiful. From there, we attempted to go to chateau tauzia, an old castle or stronghold from the mideval times (total guess...) but when we got there, it was roped off, with a sign that read, private propety. Then we noticed a horse standing in the door way and realized it was being used as a barn... one of the oldest remains in tauzia... and they use it as a ban... hmmm. Anyway, we also toured the abbeye de flaran, an old abbeye that was in maignaut (or the neighboring town) and spent about an hour there. Earlier that week, we went to Carcassonne, an old town, surrounded by a huge wall to protect it in the mideval times... (total guess again). But all of the inner houses had been transformed into either a shop or a resaurant and its was VERY tourist-y. We went with Patricia Zia Tastet, her fiance, and her friend and her 10 year old daughter. They didn't mind the tourism and the alleys so stuffed with people theree was hardly any movement, but we, the tourists, did. hmmm... but i may just have been in a bad mood because wherever we go -by car- i sat in one small seat in the back, surrounded by luggage, and strollers, and usually it is fine, but it was a 3-hour drive... ONE WAY, and another 3 back. So i was really feeling it by the time we got home.

Arles:

After Maignaut, we dropped my grandparents off at the airport then drove to the train station, where Dana, Kevin, Isaak, and I took a 3 hour train from Toulouse to Arles. Here, i met the first person relatively close to my age, Sebastien. He was 18, and happened to speak a little english, and he LIKED to speak it, so he had no trouble talking to us. After this ride, we walked to our hotel, and settled down. Then walked around the town and found a place to eat-very cute by the way. I got tagliatelle a la bolognese.. somethng must have been wrong, becuase that night i spent quite some time hurling into the toilet :/ the next day, i felt much better and we spent a lot of time outside. We walked from our hotel to the museum of Arles with a bunch o roman ruins and historic facts about the town. Then we walked to the Arles Ampitheater, and the Arles Arena, or the Arles Colosseum. Mind you-it was HOT and there was a lot of walking invovled. I was sweating a LOT. either my shorts are just too big, or i have lost a lot of weight.. walking (or not likeing the food.. plus i have no belt!) but today, i was wet enough to keep my pants up! Then tonight we went to dinner near the arena, and I got fish soup, tagliatelle with scallops and leeks, then a crepe au chocolat for desert. Then, we stopped for another desert, which was a waffel cone with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberrie ice cream. (earlier today, since it was so hot, i also got a tropical blue slushie, and a tiramisu icecream cone- bothe were amazingg!!) Now, i just hope i get a good nights sleep, with no throwing up :/!

day 5

Day 5

Sights Seen;

Musee Du Louvre

Journey to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower

Note Dame (Failed Attempt)

La Saint Chapelle

Dinner with Kevin Tastets

Food Eaten;

Raviolles de fois gras avec le jus de grilloties= Ravioli and goose liver in mushroom soup

Escalope de Fois Gras = Scallops with Goose Liver

Louvre: HUGE. only went to a quarter of the whole thing. I saw Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, and Nike. All of which we very interesting. I had a pocast by Rick Steves that took me on a tour, about an hour and a half long, throughout the whole museum to see 150 of the most impressive peices of art. I even skipped some of the tape, because i find most modern-esque paintings completely ridiculous, but he mentioned that it takes 28 full days to see every painting. I much preferred the Musee d'Orsay.

day 4

Today was amazing. Although we slept in later than we planned, we did so much and saw a ton. We woke up and immediately ate breakfast at the hotel, my first American breakfast consisting of eggs, pancakes, and toast. I added a twist of french breakfast tho, with a fresh baked croissant, a fresh squeezed OJ. It was thick and pulpy though, which was actually very good. (all of the OJ here is fresh squeezed. In fact, The OJ i had this morning, i saw chuncks of orange begin ground into juice as I poured it.

After breakfast, we grabbed a taxi and headed to the Musee D'Orsay. Here, we got our museum passes, and I guess that I am free, since I am under 18. We spent 2 hours here, admiring the highly impressive paintings and sculptures. We had an audio guide to tour us around the most popular paintings and skip the ones that arent worth seeing (since the museum is so large). But Nanna and I had to share hedphones, and it just was not working. So, we eventually just looked around and read the captions uder each painting.

Once we finished here, we looked for the "hop-on hop-off bus" that would be our transportation to and from the 9 most popular Paris sights. On our way to the bus stop, nanna was pick-pocketted. Nanna, and her quick eyes, caught the girl in the act, grabbed her wrist, and quite loud, said, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" and she put on her,'in case i get caught act'and said, "mommy, are you okay?" and nanna said, "yeah, I'm fine" and threw her hand down. So the girl didn't get away with anything. Luckily, she bought a new tote bag that had a zippered wallet attatched to the inside, a safe place to leep her money, along with a button to keep it relatively shut. Her previous bag stayed wide open at all times, with an open pocket on the side, where she normally kept her money... not any more! But we got on the bus, and got a 2-day pass, then grabbed a seat on the upper deck (it was a double decker bus) and sat down. They handed us headhones when we got on, and we plugged them into the side of the bus, where we heard classical music. It was nice to tune out the other cars, and just looked at paris, with the sun beating down on you. Then, we heard a lady's voice, when we realized that we were being given a tour of paris on our way to the next sight. She gave us the history of important buildings, and with all the big ones, she identified them and gave us a ton of info about them.

Eventually, we arrived at our next destination, the Arc de Triomphe, which was absolutely gorgeous. Although, nanna isn't thrilled by heights, I cannot come to paris and not go to the top of this. So, I did. I climbed every stair, all 250 of them or so. I personally thought that it was a piece of cake, coming down however, I got dizzy.

We then grabbed the bus again, and it took us down the Champs Elysees. While we drove down it, we were given history of the buildings, and the things that were occuring in future days, such as the thousands of chairs that were being set up. Without this bus, we would have no idea that there was a bastille day parade, and these seats were for spectators. But after this ride (and a few showers) I decided that I needed a sweatshirt. So we went got off at the next stop, The Eiffel Tower. We wandered around, and found a stand that sold I Love Paris things, and I got a sweatshirt and a tee shirt, both with are very cute, and fit perfectly, but after i got warm, i needed to get food. We wanted to go get food on the eiffel tower, but there was a huge line, and the food was 65$ a person. So we wandered around, and found a cute restaurant on the River Seine. We had subs and fries, with sodas, and we just felt the breeze and relaxed a little. We had a great view of the Eiffel tower in the back, and then a great veiw of the River in the front, and it was much cheaper, and it came a lot quicker.

Once we were done, we went back to the bus stop, where we decided to go to Notre Dame. This was a beautiful cathedral. It was also the most popular. There was a long, but quickly moving line, to get in, and everything about it was breathtaking. I wanted to go to the top of the towers, but i was completely lost, and had no idea where to go. Once i found it (after wandering around for 15 minutes) I got in line and a man with a sign intruded a few yards in front of me that read, This is the end of the line for today. I just barely missed it. But this line was outside, and my nanna was inside... so i had to wait in an even bigger line to get back inside to get her, because neither of us have a phone.

After Notre Dame, we walked around looking for little souvenirs, and everything seemed to be junk. I got a soccer T-Shirt that just happened to be #10, my Lacrosse number and the year I graduate, so I got it. After about a half hour of walking around and after a quick stop for ice cream, we decided to head back to the hotel. Here, we came back, and saw a sign that said "happy hour" so we stopped by the bar, and my Nanna got me a cosmopolitan, my very first "drink" here, other than wine. Then we came back up to the room, and tried to get a movie, but our TV happened to be broken, so we just ended up watching TV and I went to catch everyone up on my day... but we run out of Internet, so I am on the notepad on my computer, typing this so i don't foeget anything. And now, im g0ing to take a shower and go to bed. Hopefully my day tomorrow is just as good or better than today!

day 3

Today, we spent 4 hours on the train from Amsterdam to Paris. Paris is crazy! For one thing, its difficult to understand EVERYONE, and when I try to talk in french, I usually end up embarrassing myself. The first thing we did was try to get a taxi, which was a nightmare. Paris has places where there are signs that say TAXI and there is usualy a line of taxis waiting. However, we did not know this until we waited 10 minutes for a cab driver to point us in the right direction. Once we got to this spot, there was a 20 minute line, like a disney world ride, that had a person directing people to cabs at the front of the line. Eventually, we got to the hotel, where we could finally relax which we did. The only thing we did tonight was go out to dinner. we spent so much time trying to find a good authentic place to eat, we eventually went to a small restaurant called la cantella, an itallien pizzaria, but it was italien with a french twist. I ordered penne 4 fromage and tarte aux pommes avec un boulle de glace vanille. (apple pie with vanilla ice cream). In this restuarant, i spoke so much french. Since my hotel is in a more residential area of paris, the local restaurants have waiters & owners that speak just french, so it was up to me to order. The reason it took so long to find a good place to eat, was because we began to look for restaurants at 6:30, but french people begin to eat dinner around 8pm because here, it doesnt start to get dark until 11pm. So, verything was empty and looked closed, so half an hour later, places started to open up and we eventually found this restaurant. The reason it took so long to find a good place to eat, was because we began to look for restaurants at 6:30, but french people begin to eat dinner around 8pm because here, it doesnt start to get dark until 11pm. So, verything was empty and looked closed, so half an hour later, places started to open up and we eventually found this restaurant.