Caitlin's EuroBlog

Nice, Amsterdam, Cologne!

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:27:00 +0000

Our trip to Nice was very relaxing, which translates to not much to say. It was a lot of sleeping in, lying on the beach (didn't burn!), hanging out with our new friends at the hostel, and swimming in the ridiculously blue water.

We shall never speak of the train ordeal from Nice to Amsterdam... 250 euros and 24 hours, enough said. However, it was worth the trip. Amsterdam is beautiful! The weather was lovely, the canals were cool, and the hotel we snagged for cheap was super nice. We took it pretty easy here, visiting Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh Museum, but not doing too much else in the way of attractions. We did go to the Hard Rock Cafe... our craving for meat combined with the promise of free hot fudge sundaes made it impossible to resist.

Anne Frank's house was really cool, as well as depressing. No pictures inside, but it was barely furnished - her dad requested it be left as the Nazis left it. The videos interviewing Anne's dad and childhood friend were extremely moving. The only disappointment was that the actual diary was being restored or something, so we could only see a facsimile.

The next day we did the Van Gogh Museum, which was super cool. It had a ton of Van Gogh obviously (Almond Blossoms was on loan though, to Ottawa of all places!), but also both his influences and those influenced by him. A really cool collection. It was surrounded by a nice park as well, so we laid out there and relaxed in the sun for a bit before dinner.

From Amsterdam we took an easy train to Cologne, and it turns out the girl we met on the platform in Amsterdam and befriended on the train was in our very room in Cologne! We've been hanging out with her, which has been really nice. The first night we went to stroll around the famous Cathedral, and realized it was some kind of Museum festival, and we got into a museum nearby for free. It was a super weird modern art museum... Warhol, Picasso, Lichtenstein, etc. It was a good thing we went because the next day was a Monday. We hadn't even been thinking about days of the week, but of course everything is closed Mondays.

So we didn't do much for our one full day in Cologne. Just checked out the inside of the Cathedral (amazing!), the SUPER cool pixilated stained glass window, climbed the million steps to the top of the tower (one of the tallest churches in the world!), and went out to a biergarten for some sausages and local beer.

Next is Berlin, where I hope to finally shake the brutal cough/cold that has been demolishing me since Amsterdam.

France: Paris, Chartres

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:03:00 +0000

The chunnel arrived in Paris quickly, and our hostel was easy to find. In the Montmartre area, it was only a short walk to Sacre Couer, and we took advantage of this and walked to it on our first day. The view from the top is pretty spectacular – you realize when you’re anywhere else in Paris it seems to be the highest point. The inside of the church is spectacular. I didn’t take any pictures out of respect, but that didn’t stop other obnoxious tourists from taking photos WITH flash AND loud camera shutter noise. Oh well. We sat on the steps outside and listened to guy with a guitar play awesome covers of Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beatles, and Bruce Springsteen for a while, and then headed home.

This was the end of relaxing time in Paris, however, and the next few days were crammed with stuff: One of the four main cemeteries of Paris was a five minute walk from our hostel, and we went there to try to find Degas’ grave. Completely lost, it took a strange old man who fed the cemetery’s hundred cats to show us to the tomb. Ballerina poses mandetory.

Next was the Decorative Arts Museum, located very close to the Louvre. Normally I’d give this a miss, but they had a special ‘Histoires de Babar’ exhibit this summer. It was adorable! The best part was probably the museum attendant laughing at us when we asked “Ou est Babar?!”

That night we chowed down on escargot, pasta and wine. Doesn’t get much better than that! The next morning we visited another of Paris’s cemetary’s, Pere Lachaise. The list of graves we saw was fairly long… Jean de Brunhoff (creator of Babar!), Seurat (neo-Impressionist artist), David (history painter), Delacroix (more of the same), Oscar Wilde (…Oscar Wilde…), Edith Piaf (singer), Corot (painter), Ingres (painter), Gericault (painter), and Jim Morrison (The Doors).

As if that wasn’t enough walking, we decided it would be a great idea to go to the Eiffel Tower after. Also, walk up. It’s kindaaa tall…

After that, we continued our Art pilgrimage to the Louvre. We mostly breezed past the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa in favour of David’s Oath of the Horatii (pictured in awesome graveyard recreation above) and Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa. We ended up getting lost and going completely insane. I recommend keeping Louvre visits to under two hours if you don’t want to end up rolling around in the Tuilleries in hysterics.

On the last day, we started with Notre Dame Cathedral. We walked the spiral staircase to the top, seeing the huge bell and all the gargoyles and grotesques. It has a beautiful view as well, and the weather suddenly got very hot very fast. First sunburn of the trip, check!

Cathedral two for the day was Saint-Chapelle which is so full of stained glass, that it boggles the mind. And that’s before you remember that most of it is original from around 800 years ago.]

We then stopped to get lunch (Croque monsieur!!) before our last main stop of Paris, the Musee D’Orsay. My 19th century minor was made very happy with all of the Courbet, van Gogh, Seurat, Degas, Monet, Manet… etc. It’s a beautiful museum, but no photos allowed.

From Paris we took an hour train to spend a night in Chartres. It was a bit out of our way, and it was a disaster trying to find our hotel, but it turned out to be a great decision. The hotel ended up being 50 yards from the Cathedral (again, spectacular). The inside was being renovated and I think once the whole thing is back to its original white it will be even more breathtaking. We went back to our hotel, did laundry, and didn’t even feel like going out in the evening. We ended up going anyway and it was one of the coolest parts of the trip yet. It turns out that they have this Chartres en Lumieres thing where all the major landmarks of Chartres are lit up, most notably the Cathedral. It is accompanied by music and so well done, I don’t even know how to describe it except like Celebration of Lights in Vancouver, expect not crowded and even cooler. It's hard to capture how cool it is on camera but here goes anyway!

We headed to Nice in the south after that, and we leave from there to Amsterdam today. I don't really have time to blog about it now, and apparently I won't have wifi in Amsterdam but I'll do another catch-up when I get to Germany.

London Calling

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Tue, 08 May 2012 23:37:00 +0000

Have been too tired to blog up until now, but I finally have some time taking the train to Paris. We arrived in London safe and sound with no hitches… aside from me and my heavy pink suitcase being very jealous of Lisa’s backpack! Our hostel was decent, though we did the owners a favour by switching rooms which resulted in a rude maid kicking us out of bed after loud partying from the bar downstairs kept us awake until past 4am. Still, we eventually managed to sleep it off and see the sights of London.

Our first night in London, we went to see Train in concert. We were so tired that I didn’t think we would make it through the show, especially when the opening act was Matt Nathanson, who was excellent but his music was very slow and almost put me to sleep..zzz... But Train finally came on stage, and they definitely woke me up. Energetic and fun show for sure. Not to mention the very drunk, very hilarious mid-thirties male fans in front of us who belted out every lyric and took turns embarrassing each other with their antics.

As I try to think about the rest of the visit to the UK, it becomes painfully clear that we spent a good deal of the time shopping. But with Primark, Top Shop, and gigantic 4-storey versions of the stores from home, we can’t really be blamed, right? Don’t answer. Highlights include ridiculous jewellery from Top Shop and a little owl pillow which will never fit in my suitcase. That night we got the most delicious burgers from beside a pub. Everything is beside a pub. Or above a pub.

The following day we decided to start taking advantage of London’s free museums and visit the British Museum for our dose of artifacts. However, getting off the tube I realized that I accidentally snuck on, and the ticket-checker came over to me to deal with the problem. Luckily for me, he decided he would use the most ridiculous pick-up line I have ever heard, telling me the only thing wrong with my transit pass was that it “didn’t have my number” so how was he supposed to call me? A few eye-rolls later we escaped un-ticketed and laughed our way to the British Museum. I’ve been before, but it’s impossible to see it all. Highlights once we finally arrived were probably the Greek items – especially the pottery, as lame as that sounds. I just feel like it is some of the most impressive stuff to have survived from antiquity. I bought the obligatory souvenirs relating to Glaukon, Athena’s owl.

That night, we finally went for legit fish and chips… I decided to spring for sole, which I didn’t expect would come with the ENTIRE SKELETON STILL INSIDE THE FISH. My first bite had 6 bones in it. The chips were mercifully bone-less, however, and I managed to find a few morsels of fish from between the bones.

On the last day, we realized that we had done almost none of our sightseeing and our wallets were disturbingly light, so we decided a walking-tour of London was in order. First, we walked to the Millennium Bridge. You know, the one that gets destroyed in Harry Potter. It’s right beside the Tate Modern, which is a huge Modern Art Gallery built inside an old power station. It’s sort of creepy looking inside and out, and full of somewhat creepy modern art as well. There was a special exhibit on of Damien Hirst’s work… you know, the guy who pickled a big ol’ shark and named it “The Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”? I think he’s done some sheep too, and possibly even some non-dead stuff but I’m not entirely sure. Anyway, we had to pay to get inside that part and we figured that almost 40 Canadian dollars to see a bunch of dead stuff made by a pretentious Englishman probably wasn’t worth it. We were able to view his other most famous work, however. After waiting about 10 minutes in a line, we were allowed into a tiny, dark room, with about 10 other people to see “For the Love of God”. This is a platinum cast of a skull, which is completely covered in diamonds and then fitted with the original skull’s teeth. Apparently it is meant to combine the ultimate symbol of death with the ultimate symbol of luxury and extravagance. Sort of an insult to death, I guess. I’m not sure, but I do know that it was a lot of diamonds.

Only a few minutes away is Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. We couldn’t go in without tickets, but it was cool to see. We then walked across the Millennium Bridge, which is a footbridge, over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. A pretty impressive Cathedral, though we couldn’t really go inside as it was a Sunday. Our walk then took us along the river to Trafalgar Square, home of the National Gallery. What’s cool about the National Gallery is it’s span: Giotto to van Gogh, which is pre-Renaissance to (as far as art goes) fairly modern. Any art nerd will appreciate the stud earrings I bought in the gift shop.

Our walk wasn’t over yet, and we walked all the way to Westminster Abbey and Parliament. We hung out in the park which has a view of the London Eye and the Thames. THEN we walked to Buckingham Palace, by which time our feet were dead. Even my favourite European popsicle didn’t help (much..).

We then collapsed on a bench and decided to take the underground home and promptly passed out. In the morning, we had a big English breakfast in the hostel bar, where Lisa bravely tried blood pudding. I was tired.

Which brings us to right now, under the English Channel! A man is currently trying to explain air pressure to his darling little girls who have the cutest accents, saying that it’s all about “how squashed together the air is”. Adorable. I’ll try not to make the next blog quite so long! Cheerio for now!

Holy Toledo!

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:16:00 +0000

So this is it... The alarm is set, the plane takes off in 10 hours. Ill add some pictures to this later to make my blog nice and complete, but for now...

Since my last entry, we did a day trip to Toledo. It's a cute place and very Spanish looking. We just walked around and took it in, sitting in a lot of parks and on church steps because it was soo hot.

The train station in Madrid, Atocha, is cool in itself. It has a little jungle inside with ponds full of turtles. So adorable. There is also apparently a memorial to those killed in that 2004 bombing - it was at that train station - but I didn't see it.

The next day - my last day in Europe - I walked to the Thyssen Museum. It was really cool because it went through art from really old Icons to modern pop-art, chronologically. It also had a special exhibition on, which had all this Xray and UV analysis on this one painter's works, which was nifty in a nerdy way.

And just like that, the trip is over. I'm really excited to go home in some ways, but I'm sure I'll miss Europe as well.

Thanks to everyone for reading, thanks to my friends for staying friends the whole trip, and to family and friends who went out of their way to meet up with me in Europe.

See you all soon!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Madrid

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:19:00 +0000

So Madrid hasn't been very busy days, but we have done the odd thing.

The first Museum was the Museo del Prado, which is one of Spain's national museums and boasts some of the most famous paintings in the world, like Velasquez's Las Meninas, which has never been a favourite of mine but seems to be somewhat of a symbol of Madrid. Anyway, I did get to see some of my favourite paintings, like Goya's 3rd of May, and my all-time favourite, Durer's self portrait... or as the Spaniards call him, Alberto Durero. Illegal photo, by the way, props to Paige for her stealth.

We also did another museum, the Reina Sofia, which was all modern type art,and aside from Picasso's Guernica, was not very interesting.

Aside from that, we've had some tasty Tapas, gone to a huge flea market and gone to a pretty crazy club. Like 7 floors, and somehow they blasted the entire dancefloor periodically with dry ice? It was INCREDIBLE haha, I loved it.

So Spainful :(

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:30:00 +0000

So as stoked as I am on seeing some of the stuff in Madrid, this weather is not for me. It's making me soo sick just existing here.

Anyway, we had a pretty ridiculous flight here from London. easyJet did not live up to its name and we ended up getting a bit screwed over, baggage-wise. In the terminal, a woman was dragged away kicking and screaming (the screaming was Homer Simpson style, and continuous). Once we finally got on the plane, we were informed thatn due to a strike of air traffic controllers IN FRANCE, our flight would be a little delayed. So, we sat in the plane, on the runway for 2.5 hours. That wouldn't even have been so bad if they didn't act like we were about to take off, and telling us to keep our seats in the upright position etc.

Apparently I am being dragged away from the air conditioning and into the dreadful heat so writing about stuff I've actually DONE in Madrid will have to wait. Ta!

Last of Paris and... not Spain?!

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:50:00 +0000

So my last couple of days in Paris were the Museum days. I tackled the Musee D'orsay solo, but absolutely loved it. It was a lot of works I studied last year (Courbet, Renoir, Manet, Degas etc...) as well as some others that blew my mind, especially the Van Gogh self-portrait that they have. After that, I had a coffee with a friend from rez which was an unexpected meet-up and very nice. :)

The next day: the Louvre. We spent a good chunk of time there, and saw just about everything. Highlights for me were the Raft of the Medusa and Liberty Leading the People... Both by artists I'd just visited the graves of, and a Durer self-portrait. Lowlights, as usual, the Mona Lisa. I think this picture sums it up..

Oh, also this looks totally like Annie.

Unfortunately, we stopped to get our Spain train tickets on our way to the Moulin Rouge and discovered we are SOL. So instead of writing to you from San Sebastian or en route to Barcelona, I write from my second night in London, where in 5 hours we will be flying straight to Madrid.

London has been fun: I went with La and Paige to the Queen musical, We Will Rock You. It was great! Aside from that, we've just been shopping... good old Oxford Street.

Paris: The Empire of the Dead, and more

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:36:00 +0000

Proud of me? I'm updating already!

So day one in Paris we started at the gorgeous Notre Dame. The exterior is lovely and I would have liked to go up the tower, but since I've already been a few years back I got outvoted and we moved on to Saint Chapelle, but it closed while we were in the lineup so we moved on once again.

To shopping! my new favourite store Pylones, as well as vintage stuff in the Jewish/Gay Quarter and the Champs Elysees. Didn't buy a lot... I'm not all that ballin these days and my suitcase is limited but I did make a few purchases. I wanted to pop into Louis Vuitton but there was a lineup! It was craziness...

We eventually made our way up to the Arc de Triomphe. All the obligatory monuments, ya know...

By the time we found food to eat... which was no easy task considering we kept going down what looked like "cheap side streets" that ended up having Prada and D&G all over them... it was pretty late and soccer madness had started. On the metro there was a juge police incident with a yelling bleeding man, loads of police, paramedics and the scariest looking German Shepherd police dog I have ever seen.

Anyway, we survived and got to the Eiffel Tower.

It worked out perfectly for seeing it in the light, and being at the top for sunset. I love the Eiffel Tower :)

So then todayyy we had a slightly more macabre day: We started at the Père Lachaise Cemetery, where we saw Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison...and I dragged my friends to all the artists: Seurat, Pissaro, David (I found out that he was exiled as a revolutionary so even after death his body wasn't allowed in France so his grave only contains his heart!) and Gericault which was my favourite as his Raft of the Medusa was actually on his grave, in bronze form. Sweet.

(below is Jim Morrison and Gericault)

Next, since we apparently haven't had enough of dead people, we went to the Catacombs.

I especially like the sign over the entrance above. Anyway, they are creepy... especially when they put the skulls into the shape of a heart and or cross. It was also pretty interesting to learn about it, I was pretty ignorant to it all. After that was just more shopping. Off to check out Paris's club scene for now, so I will be back with more of Paris in the next day or so.

xx

I'm still here...

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 23:18:00 +0000

Oh no, another long catch-up blog. These are the worst...

So our last day in Nuremberg was just a quick jaunt to Albrecht Durer's house. It was cool to see but unfortunately we decided to take the audio tour. Dear god. It was narrated by some actress playing his wife, so instead of giving some kind of history or something, it was all "I was so lonely here in the house when Albrecht was away" and "this is where I kept my valuable trinkets" and "Susannah! Susannah! This is how I would call my maids." It was ridiculous. There were also about 3 women dressed up as her walking around... polygamy?

Anyway, after that we trained to Prague. When we first got there, the most insane downpour I have ever witnessed rained down on us. My clothes and shoes didn't dry for days. Even though we spent 3 nights there, I don't have a whole lot to say because we didn't really go to any attractions. We did 2 pub crawls, one of which ended at the "largest club in central Europe". So in the day, we would sleep in. The only part during the day that was awesome was the food. It was dirt cheap and super tasty. Our fave place was some weird goat-themed place. Mmm... I will miss Czech food.
Did I mention that the entire time it was unbearably hot and I felt sick? Well it was and I did, so by the time it was time to leave for Berlin I was relieved.

BERLIN. I love Berlin. I'm not entirely sure why, but I got a good vibe from it. Could see living there, I think. We had really packed days because there was a lot to see and to be honest I don't think I could tell you the order at this point but I'll give a run-through of the stuff we hit up.

Altes Nationale: One of the major museums, though most of it wasn't art I am particularly interested in. It did have the original Thinker by Rodin which was a surprise, and some nice Impressionist stuff.

We went up the TV Tower, which is Berlin's answer to the Space Needle or CN Tower. Unfortunately you can't go outside, but it's cool to get a really good view of the whole city.

I did a solo trip to the Picture Gallery in the Kulturforum (and here is where I insert my apology for total inability to spell anything German), which was cool. Durer, Boticelli... the faves.

We also visited the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which is a bombed church. It's pretty disturbing to see actually. So much of Berlin has been rebuilt that it is rare to see evidence of the bombings that wrecked most of it during the war.

Ells, La and I did a walk around to view some stuff nearish to the Kulturforum while Paige checked out a Film Museum, so we saw the Reichstag, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Brandenberg Gate.

The Gate and Reichstag are fairly impressive, while the Holocaust Memorial is a bit more puzzling. It's basically a HUGE expanse of giant concrete blocks. I don't really get the symbolism, but it certainly is big enough to catch your attention and force you to think about the Holocaust.

Also to do with the Holocaust was the trip I took with Laraina and Elliott to the Topographie des Terrors. The description of a bunch of photos with captions makes it sound incredibly boring I'm sure, but it was very interesting. It went through the Nazi rise to power, with a focus on the SS and Gestapo and went through the war and trials. I'd never seen photos like these before, they were interesting... and of course some of them more shocking and disturbing. Outside, a few blocks of the Berlin Wall is preserved as well.

That portion of the wall is entirely plain and as it was during divided Berlin, but we also visited the East Side Galleries which was a big highlight for me, though I didn't think it would be. It's basically a huge expanse of the wall that has been painted with what I suppose you would call graffiti, but it's very beautiful. A lot of it has just been restored so we went at a good time. I'm not sure why, but I found it all very emotional. The paintings were really intense..

"Dear God, help me survive this deadly love"

Finally we did the Jewish Museum, or as we called it Jew World, because it is basically Science World, only Jewish. It's really interactive and cool, but unfortunately we were super rushed so we had to run through the whole thing. There was a Holocaust Tower and Garden of Exile, two more symbolic things to encourage reflection. Also, giant garlic.

A pub crawl! I almost forgot. We did another pub crawl, although it was nowhere near as good as some of the others we have done. I'm sure Berlin's nightlife can be a lot better than what we experienced, but we didn't really have time to give it another shot (no pun intended? ;))

Gosh this entry just keeps going doesn't it? My bad, I won't let 10 days go by again.

So we went to Brugge and stayed two nights. Now, don't get me wrong. Brugge is incredibly nice. It reminded me a lot of a smaller and cleaner Florence and Prague mixed together. However there is almost nothing to do, everything closes early, and the prices are ridiculous. We engaged in what appears to be the national passtime of sitting on a bench watching birds. We also stumbled across what turned out to be a market research thing called the Sensobus, where you sampled a bunch of cake and took a survey on it. It was by far the most exciting thing in Brugge. Two nights was just a little too long, especially when you factor in the fact that we lived next to a moving bridge which sounded a hideous alarm whenever it moved (often) and a vile smelling mill/factory of some kind. In Brugge. Who would have thought.

Anyway, I'm in Paris now and vowing (possibly unrealistically) to blog every day, or at least make them better. Don't give up on me haha. I'm definitely missing Canada at this point and sending all my love! :)

DankeCIAO, Schwangau

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:38:00 +0000

Phew, a lot to update on this one.

I've been enjoying Germany a lot, and a visit with some of my relatives made it even better. But back to Munich...

It turns out our last day in Munich was a relgious holiday and so our plans to shop all day were definately ruined. But a woman at a tourist office sent us off with a flyer full of museums and we ended up at the Alte Pinakothek. It was actually a huge museum with some very big names in it.. Raphael, Bosch, Rubens and DURER. We didn't even know, but one of our faves was there... nice surprise!

That night, we went off to the clubbing district where there are tons of clubs all together. It was pretty good but not my favourite of the party cities so far.

Next was Fussen, which is the closest town to the castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. They were truly truly gorgeous and impressive. The walk was pretty harsh (up mountains) for my sprained ankle but it was worth it. We also hiked to the bridge behind the castle for a better view. Again, harsh but worth it.

From Fussen, I took a train on my own to Stuttgart to meet relatives. We spent a really nice day together in Stuttgart and Backnang. I even saw the Stuttgart version of the Space Needle or CN tower. Neat to see the surrounding area from up there, and of course seeing relatives I see so rarely if ever is

After this very pleasant afternoon, I met up with everyone else in Nuremberg. Our hostel is odd and I had a strange encounter with the Red Light District but overall, Nuremberg is a cool city. Everything is so easy to walk to! The first night I arrived too late to do anything, but today while my friends went shopping I visited Durer's grave. You know, the my 16th century crush I mentioned in Munich. Anyway, I must say it was a very nice graveyard!

Aftwards, a Chinese buffet. I know, weird but we were starving! Then, we went to this Nazi Documentation museum which SOUNDS worse than it was. It was a lot of history and propaganda which is quite interesting.

Anyway, tomorrow it's off to Durer's house and stuff, and then PRAGUE!

:)

Venice, Vienna, Munich,,,

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:07:00 +0000

This is going to be quite a bit crammed into one blog, and I'm incredibly tied... bear with meee :

So we had one last day in Venice. Nothing very exciting, just seeing the city and wandering around. It is such a pretty place but so little to do!

We then took a train to Vienna. It is such a pretty city! It definitely became my new fave. Didn't smell, was clean, pretty... the only downside is the extreme lack of nightlife and complete shutdown on Sundays, but it was quite nice. Highlights included the Belvedere Palace despite the RIDICULOUS amount of rain..

We also went to the Albertina Museum which was interesting. Lots of more modern art but I enjoyed it. It was a palace as well, so it has staterooms which were gorgeous and filled with art. I prefered it to what I remember from visiting Versailles actually.

(pictured above: not worth it.)
Anyway, the last night we were getting pictures... on a fountain... and I jumped off... anyway, my first picture taken in Munich is not particularly scenic...

It's sprained, but improving. I am falling asleep but don't want to give the impression that I have nothing to say about Munich. I adore it here. People are polite, the vibe is good, the food is tasty, and everything is cheap. I want to move here, after one day in the pouring rain with a sprained ankle. Love love love. One more day of it and off to the most postcard-perfect place in the world...

Ciao

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:52:00 +0000

The last night of Florence was beautiful. We went to the Piazza Michelangelo and watched the sunset. Such a nice view...

Uffizi in the morning which didn't allow pictures unfortunately... but seeing all the Botticelli paintings was pretty rad. Plus Titian's Venus of Urbino and Parmagianino's Madonna of the Long Neck. Oh, plus a Caravaggio exhibit which had Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holoferenes.

Then Venice! Not too much to say other than it's very pretty and surprisingly cheap. We went to the beach today, on Lido.

Next is a night-train for 11 hours to Vienna. Apparently we won't have internet there so my next blog might not be for a while.

ttfn :)

Duomo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:15:00 +0000

Another pun title. I write to you this time from Florence, or Firenze, which is more fun to say.

The city, overall, is pretty, hot, small and sort of pricey. Main activities have included eating, walking, eating, eating gelato and shopping at the street vendors. Seeing the Duomo everywhere you go is pretty cool, but the heaaaat. It killssss.

Anyway, so far we have been to the Bargello Gallery to see Donatello's David, The Accademia to see Michaelangelo's David, and the Palazzo Vecchio to see Cellini's Perseus and the Medici's Palace. I can't spell any of these Italian words, by the way. Most of the galleries don't allow pictures so I don't have a lot to blog about... but I'm eating my fruits and vegetables..."Big Cuppa Di Frutta" hahaha

Rome-ing Around

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Fri, 21 May 2010 22:56:00 +0000

Rome has been pretty packed so I didn't get around to writing until tonight, the last night in the Eternal City. Anyway because of that, this is another long blog. No obligations to read, of course :)

So day one was basically dedicated to the Vatican. The museums, the chapels, etc. Their collection of art was impressively large, but almost to the point where it looked like a lot of it was just tons of statues in storage: too cluttered. Anyway, high points for me included seeing Raphael's School of Athens and the statue of the Augustus of Prima Porta. Oh, and this dog which looked like Annie :)

From there we went to the Trevi fountain where we threw in our coins.

After that, we went to the Pantheon. Kind of cool to see where Raphael is buried right after seeing his works at the Vatican, but overall the Pantheon was a bit of a letdown, mostly because of the scaffolding over half of the outside. Oh well...

So that night we got home and decided to go to a pub crawl which had been recommended to us by some girls we met on the train. We actually ended up seeing them there too, which was a lot of fun. Small continent! It was Rambo themed, if you'll believe that. So ridiculous but so much fun. We met on the Spanish steps and from there went all over Rome. Awesome.

The next day we went to the Borghese Gallery. We had reservations as they are mandatory. It's expensive for the size of the gallery, but the content made it so worth it to go. The highlights were the statues by Bernini of course... they just looked real, it was incredible. What surprised me was the BEATIFUL ceilings. Every single room had these amazing cielings painted with gods, and lined with statues, so when you looked up it was like you were looking through the roof to heaven. I loved it... probably partially due to the nerd in me trying to figure out which god was which based on their iconography. Lame I know :) Often the ceiling would feature a legend which was also the subject taken up by the main statue in the room too, which was rad. Anyway no pictures were allowed inside so I have no photodocumentation this time, and I'm starting to sound like a really big tool so MOVING ON...

Next we went to St. Peter's, because the line to get in was way too big on Vatican day. I'm so glad we went because it was really impressive inside. SO huge and SO much art. I wish we could have gone up the dome but we were tired and it was yet another expense. None of the pictures do justice to the sweetness of the building, so I won't even try. I'm sure googling it would give better results.

Our last day in Rome was the ancient day, and by far my favourite. The Colosseum was cool, but I'd say I prefered the Via Sacre. Just something about arches I love, especially the Arch of Titus :)

We were pretty tired, so we bused home from Trajan's Forum with the Column. There was also this incredibly huge building across the street from the Forum that I had NEVER heard of but it was spectacular. I'll figure out was it was called later.

Ciao,
Mayne

(get it? so funny. not.)

Dear Lord.

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Tue, 18 May 2010 07:08:00 +0000

What a traumatic experience. At time of writing, I am in the cabin of a rocky boat sailing the...Adriatic Sea? To Italy anyway. This ride in itself is disconcerting enough, but our last night in Athens is another story.

So we had to stay in Omonia. I'm not sure what you'd get if you googled that, but it would probably be something like crime rates because the place was definitely the downtown eastside equivalent. Drug dealers everywhere, prostitutes... It seemed like complete sacrilege that the street we were staying on was named after Aristotle.

Hoping that our hostel would at least be a friendly youth hostel, we got into the creepy elevator which could only fit two people at a time and had no door so you just saw all the floors going by and could touch the wall as it zipped by you. We get to the top and see the single most creepy looking guy on the planet. I think he had a scary black wig but it could have just been bizarre hair. He kept making us follow him and every time we were sure we were going to be murdered. And the lobby. Oh my god. There was like... A creepy red chandelier... I really don't know if I can convey how disturbing it all was. The room keys were skeleton keys too. We get shown to our room which had a LOVELY view of the disgusting area below. And the toilets. Gah. Enough said.

The only other residents of this hostel seemed to be these two girls who could have been on drugs or prostitutes or both, and an entire family of polish immigrants with babies, which was pretty depressing. In the terrifying lobby, mega-creep watched some kind of horror movie which we could hear while we went to the bathroom.

Follow up this hostel with a full 2 days of travel including metros in 2 different cities, 3 trains, a bus and a 17 hour boat ride and this equals 1 discombobulated Caitlin.

I'm sure my first blog from Rome will be a happier one :)
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Myyyykonooossss

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Sun, 16 May 2010 22:46:00 +0000

After a chilly and long ferry ride, we end up at the New Port of Mykonos. We are immediately swarmed by tons of people trying to get us to go to their hostels/hotels/resorts. We ended up picking this woman named Christina’s place. It was an insanely good deal, I still can't get over it.

Night one was super fun. You haven't partied until you dance in a Scandinavian Disco Bar in Greece with a New Zealander to Bryan Adams. ;) Had sooo much fun. We even met some guys from UBC! This club was particularly awesome because all the bartenders went around dancing and blowing whistles to the music. I have no idea how to make that sound not ridiculous... I guess it was. The music was pretty North American, but a lot of the songs were remixes that paused and went MYKOONOOOOSSSSS in the middle, at which point the dance floor would go nuts.

Then the next day, we had our first real day of relaxation on the trip: slept in, gyros for lunch, then a taxi across the island to Elia beach. We rented a set of loungechairs and umbrellas. The water was lovely and falling asleep under the Greek sun was even lovlier. I'm not a beach person as I'm sure everyone knows, but even I had an amazing time. I also had the best popsicle of my life. Some kind of Greek tropical thing I bought in a place that was playing Greece-ified remixed of U2 and ABBA.
That night we went out again - of course. You really can't walk two steps without tripping over a club in Mykonos! This time we checked out some of the gay clubs and we ended up meeting some fun people from Indiana.
We spent the last day and night just relaxing, and watching Greek Idol.

Also Pelican <3

Unfortunately, it's back to Athens for a day followed by some 15 hour ferry or something.
xoxo

Athenz

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:52:00 +0000

Before you start, I'm just going to warn you that since I wrote this on a boat with nothing to do, it turned into a bit of an essay. My bad!!
Hello! I write to you from the ferry to Mykonos. We are pulling out of Athens and I can't say I'm horribly sad to see it go. While it's full of cool stuff, the city itself is, as we kind of expected, polluted and not very friendly. Anyway...

Needless to say when we got to our hostel we were exhausted and ended up having a power nap (becoming common on this trip!) before exploring. Our hostel was super nice. Friendly, spacious, with a balcony out our room! Great for drying laundry. (exciting, I know.) Did I mention cheap? After we rejuiced a bit we took a walk for some food. Literally 2 minutes from the hostel you get an amazing view of the Acropolis (where the Parthanon is), though that's not uncommon in Athens. We then went to Plaka, which is SUPER touristy... one of those places where everyone runs at you with their menus and make you insanely uncomfortable. Food was touristy, but alright. Finished with a glass of Retsina and basically went to sleep.

So day 2 was basically our only full Athens day. We did the Acropolis first, which was probably a mistake since it was INSANELY crowded and later on was not at all. Oh well. We were literally the only teenagers. There were about 4 trillion seniors in Tilley hats, and the occasional group of Greek schoolchildren. The temple of Athena Nike is completely covered in scaffolding, and the Parthanon is under quite a lot of construction as well. it's also missing all of its statues, though we did see them at the British Museum. The Erectheon, though, is really cool. Less crowds around it and it's a lot prettier and well-preserved. The view from up there is obviously pretty spectacular as well.

After the walk back down, we hit up the New Acropolis Museum. It's not the most exciting thing ever... in fact, it may be the least exciting thing ever. But it wasssss air conditioned. The 3 euro may have been worth it for that. The one cool thing about it was that it's built over the old city/ruins, and so the floors are glass in many parts so you can see it below. Once I looked down and saw a janitor. Fun.

Anyway, then we went to the Temple to Zeus and the Gate of Hadrian. Another ruin photo-op. They are pretty impressive and of course I am glad to have seen them, but to see the undersides blackened from pollution and juxtaposed with graffiti-covered buildings was a little depressing.

Finally we did the best-preserved temple in Athens... or maybe even Greece? It's pretty cool and very deserted. I believe it was called the Hephaesteon and it's by the Agora or marketplace.
That evening was pretty relaxing... power-naps and researching the ferries for the next day. We headed up to the rooftop bar, which was GORGEOUS and had a view of the Acropolis which is lit up at night. It closed less than an hour after we got there though, so we ended up sleeping relitively early for our 5am wakeup this morning.
I apologize again for the length of this entry... I promise Mykonos will be shorter as I think the plan is to basically lie on the beach.

PS!!! Funniest part. We went to see the crazy Greek Parliament. No signs of violence except some bullet holes in a window. No worries...but... Have you seen the Greek Guards? We went for changing of the guard and they do this walk in ULTRA slow-mo. It looks like it's something out of Monty Python. And they have pompoms on their shoes. I accosted them after.

Last UK entry...

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Mon, 10 May 2010 23:01:00 +0000

Hello! My last entry from London. Lots of fun, but I'm pretty excited to move on to somewhere less chilly... I did not pack a lot in the way of warm clothing. Today Elliott was visiting family, so the rest of us had a girl's day. We first went to a really nice pub called The Nag's Head and met up with a friend of mine from Totem at UBC who was also in town. Bangers and mash and pints all round.

Then we hit up the ultra touristy areas. Can't miss seeing the London Eye, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and obviously that bridge that the dementors in Harry Potter destroy. Parliament was kind of interesting because there was a lot of media around, I'm assuming due to the elections. Pictures were snapped, and then it was back to Oxford street for moooore shopping... it was girl's day, after all.

We went to Primark which is the most insane thing ever. I don't know what to even compare it to. Ikea for clothes? But even cheaper and more insane? A HUGE two floor store of very cheap clothing etc that's like Boxing Day x10. It's nuts. I spent less than 6 pounds and got 3 pairs of tights, silver bangles, gold bangles, facial cleanser... it was pretty nuts, you could easily fill bags and bags there. From there, I left Laraina and Paige to their own adventures and went to meet Elliott for WICKED. I can't say enough good stuff about it, it was such an amazing show. If you haven't heard of it, it's a musical about the witches from the Wizard of Oz, and it kind of ties in with the original story but is an entirely different plot. The actors were fantastic, I can't get over how great their voices were and the set looks like it cost an absolute fortune but it looked great.

Next, we head to Athens. We have decided to only do Mykanos as our island side trip since we found out that the ferry to Santorini is 9 hours. My phone doesn't work there, and we have no idea what our hostel will be like so I can't promise blogging from Greece, but knowing me I will be online at some point. ;)

Anyway I really appreciate everyone reading and sending me well-wishes, it's very sweet and means a lot :)

PS: Laraina is keeping a blog as well... larainalee.blogspot.com, so if you want to verify that I'm not totally making this up, or want a different perspective you should definitely read that as well.

PPS: Postcards are fun, so if you want one, send me your address and I will see what I can do :)

The National Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Mon, 10 May 2010 00:28:00 +0000

Today was the National Gallery day! Super exciting. There were so many pieces of art I've seen so many times that were so much more amazing in real life (Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne, and Holbien's The Ambassadors) and also some new paintings that I fell in love with a little (Coreggio's School of Love, and Dirck van Delen's An Architectural Fantasy). We actually managed to see every room in the building as well. Mr. Benoy would be proud :)

Kind of getting the hang of the Underground, but its certainly not as pretty as the Canada Line... And it's weirdly super hot instead of icy cold like ours. Oohh cultural differences. Tomorrow I'm meeting for lunch with a friend from UBC and then while Elliott is off visiting family, Paige, Laraina and I will be hitting up the super English landmarks: Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye. And then ohmygoddidimention Elliott and I are going to WICKED??! I'm very excited. If you don't know what it is, it's a musical about the witches from the Wizard of Oz and it's supposed to be amazing.

I think that's about it for now... Not sure when my next entry will be but the plan is to add another entry before we fly off to Athens on Tuesday. No texting or internet on phone there so I'm not entirely if I'll have any presence here that week. Don't miss me too much...

Londontown

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Sat, 08 May 2010 23:41:00 +0000

'Allo 'allo! We're here in London. The hostel is hardly luxurious but it's cheap and fairly central. Our roommates are these two Latvian girls who wear Juicy Couture sweatsuits, Ed Hardy tshirts, smoke strawberry cigarettes and go clubbing every night in matching satin pants. We rarely see them.

Today we started off touring the National Gallery. It's pretty impressive, but the appropriation of various cultural artifacts, especially the Parthenon sculptures abducted in the 1800s by Lord Elgin is a bit off-putting. I guess I can't complain though, since I get to see it all in one place. Afterwards, we had lunch in a pub and went shopping on Oxford street which was alright but pretty pricy. The crazy 4-level Urban Outfitters and the multiple H&Ms on the same block was all pretty overwhelming, but most of us managed to find a few things to buy. The style here is not that different to back home I suppose but there are more people very dressed up and everyone is in jeggings and leggings.

In the evening, Laraina, Elliott and I took a stroll to Buckingham Palace. Did not see the Queen. Quelle dommage. It was nice though. On the way home, Elliott and I drooled over the theatres with Billy Elliot and Wicked. Maybe we'll get a discount Wicked ticket for some evening? Would be nice...
Oh, and here are today's purchases. Bird necklace from UO, anchor shirt from H&M and a pretty frickin sweet Rosetta Stone water bottle.

Leaving on a jet plane!

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:46:00 +0000

I'm off to London! I'll try to get some stuff up as soon as I'm settled and whatnot. Miss you all!

Itinerary!

noreply@blogger.com (eurocate) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:14:00 +0000

1, 2, 3....

4 weeks til Europe.

Here is our very approx itinerary...

May 7 – Arrive in London
May 11 – Fly to Athens
May 13 – Boat to Mykonos
May 15 – Boat to Santorin
May 17 – Boat to Athens/Train to Patras
May 18 – Boat/Train to Rome
May 23 – Train to Florence
May 27 – Train to Venice
May 30 – Train to Vienna
June 2 – Train to Munich
June 3 – Travel to Neuschwanstein
June 4 – Train to Nuremberg
June 5 – Train to Prague
June 9 – Train to Berlin
June 12 – Train to Brussels/Travel to Bruges
June 14 – Travel to Brussels/Train to Paris
June 18 – Train to Nice
June 20 – Train to Barcelona
June 24 – Train to Madrid
July 1 – Fly to Vancouver