I think I'm going to have to start with my most recent trip and then post a few blogs rehashing the things I've done in the past month. Because ohhh, there were a lot. So! Most recent! That would be Paris.
I went to Paris on an optional trip with my school, which was worth it if only for the fact that I didn't have to take care of any of the logistics of traveling or finding lodgings. However, the journey there and back was probably one of the more hellish experiences of my young life. Overnight train both ways. And although we had sleeper cars, it was still extensively hellish. Six girls packed into one train compartment? Not fun. Not to mention my carmates were all obsessed with things getting stolen. Which, considering what's happened to me, which none of you know about because I haven't blogged about it (hint: I had things stolen), you'd think I'd be more concerned. But let me explain. We locked both locks on our doors and they were worrying that someone would open the door the crack it can open, pop down the top lock, and unscrew and unlock the bottom lock to get at our stuff, and none of us would wake up during any of this or any of the subsequent looting. And I have to say: there is only so much you can do. We locked both locks. They are locks. The car is locked. There is only so much you can do. If you can't tell, I got a little tired of the obsessing.
In any case, we left Florence Thursday night and we had a direct train to Paris, so after a hellish night of train-sleeping, we got to the station in Paris at about nine in the morning. We took a subway en masse (about thirty five people, all told) to our hotel and checked in, at which point I think everyone on the trip took a shower. I was rooming with one of the girls from our sleeper car, Racheal, who was very lovely and a wonderful roommate. After we took our showers, we had some time to kill before the first and only scheduled activity of the weekend: a guided tour of the Louvre. So we walked from our hotel, which was a good amount north of the center of the city, all the way down to the Seine, and then along the river with a brief sojourn to Notre Dame, and then to the Louvre to meet up with our group. This walk took somewhere between three and four hours. But it was a really lovely way to see the city we had just arrived in, and I'm glad we did it. We also stopped along the way at a patisserie and had extremely overpriced, incredibly delicious pastries, which I photographed in the 2.5 seconds before their annihilation.
And then, the Louvre! Our tour only encompassed one wing, the (most) famous one. We saw a lot of paintings whose titles, artists and years of creation I had memorized as part of the art history class that I hate, and I felt a little bit smug. The Louvre is just insane. It's insane how much art there is and how little you can digest it. Yes, we saw the Mona Lisa, from ten feet back, behind a glass window, and no, I do not see what all the fuss is about. But I guess that's kind of the point. I preferred da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks, which is a painting of Mary with baby Jesus and baby John the Baptist in the woods somewhere, except there's also this weird creepy angel who's looking out at the viewer and pointing to one of the babies, and she has this creepy smile. It was weird. I liked it. Also, the Madonna of the Rocks is the painting on which the Da Vinci Code starts! No, I did not try to lift it off the wall to see if it was a true story.
After our tour ended, we had the rest of the night to ourselves. Racheal and I went down to see the Venus de Milo, which I actually really loved, but by then I was also completely exhausted and miserable and just wanted to go back to the hotel, so we left shortly after and took a really long subway ride home. Unfortunately as soon as we got back to the hotel we had to leave again, to go meet Sarah and her friend at Sacre Coeur. Yes, Sarah (Oberlin roommate) was in Paris at the same time I was, by a complete stroke of luck, and it ended up being quite lovely! Sacre Coeur is the highest point in Paris other than the Eiffel Tower, and it was absolutely mobbed with people. On the stairs right outside of the church there were some dudes playing guitar, and with all the people sitting on the stairs it was almost like a concert in an amphitheater. The four of us — me, Racheal, Sarah and Sarah's friend Naana — walked around Montmartre for a while until we found an acceptable restaurant, and had a very delicious not-French dinner, which was probably all the more delicious because all I'd had to eat that day were Pringles and two bites of this weird crusty pastry thing with meat filling that smelled like spring rolls and caused the subsequent abandonment of the food item. After dinner, Racheal and I walked back to our hotel and I proceeded to pass out.
In the morning, we got up bright and early to go on an optional guided trip of Chartres and Versailles. It was kind of awful because I honestly felt like I had a fever for most of the morning, but I popped some ibuprofen and was able to function. And Sarah and Naana came too, which was exciting! Chartres is home to a massive cathedral, and we learned aaaaall about it. Even things I didn't want to know. But most of it I found interesting, like always, and the town itself was very cute and small. We ate crepes and strange bitter crepe-like things filled with not-sweet food, like ham, or eggs, or cheese. But it was delicious. And then it was off to Versailles, which was large. Huge. Gargantuan. It is hard for me to understand what possessed people to say "I think I will build the largest thing anyone has ever seen. Ever. Ever." But then I remember that these people were kings and queens who had more money than God and it makes sense. Luke, one of the TAs on the trip, gave a little talk about Versailles before we went inside and noted that at the height of its use, Versailles and maintaining the staff and building and feeding everyone involved took up 25% of the France's national budget. He found an estimate saying that if someone tried to sell Versailles today, the lowest bid would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 billion dollars. Am I getting across how completely lavish this place is? It was incredible. We went out to the gardens and took pretty pictures, and obviously saw the rooms on display, including the Hall of Mirrors, where many important things took place, and where the king of France used to walk. Thinking about stuff like that makes me crazy.
After the train ride back to Paris proper, Sarah, Naana and I went up in the Eiffel Tower and stayed there for about an hour and a half. We went all the way to the top, and my stomach definitely dropped on the elevator ride up. I don't know what I was expecting, but it is a lot bigger than I thought it would be, and riding up in the middle of some steel bars is not comforting. Sarah and I have this habit of planning things perfectly without meaning to, so we were actually at the top of the Eiffel Tower as the sun set. Paris is beautiful at night. Don't let anyone tell you different. And for a little bit every hour, the tower sparkles! Lights flash on and off and it's like a cabaret show, but a million miles in the air and for ten minutes. It's very pretty. We descended in full dark and had an indulgent dinner nearby, where we all had some escargot, which was pretty much exactly what I thought it was going to be — People had told me that the overall impression escargot leaves you with is "Wow, that was grossly chewy," and they were right. It was chewy. But I didn't think it was anything special. After that, we returned home to our respective hotels.
In the morning, I got to sleep in until ten — what luxury! — and then got up for lunch and kind of bummed around relaxing a bit in the hotel room until checkout. I met up with Sarah and Naana again at the previously planned Saint Chappelle, which was far more gorgeous than any of us expected, I think. There are two levels, and the lower one is painted in blues and golds and it's pretty and everything, but then you walk up a stone spiral staircase and come out in this room where you think for a second that the walls are simply made of stained glass. They aren't, but it's really hard to tell. It was practically floor-to-ceiling. Gorgeous. Different from Italian churches, obviously, but still gorgeous. After Saint Chappelle, we went to Notre Dame, which was a different experience than the first time I was there because a mass was going on, so the whole room echoed with decadent organ playing and everything seemed more beautiful because of it.
After Notre Dame, we grabbed a quick crepe and some free Red Bull from a Red Bull dispensing car and sat in a really nice park to eat it, and then took a very long subway ride to the Paris Catacombs, which were closed. I was really disappointed. The catacombs were what I wanted to see most. And it wasn't like it was closed because it was Sunday; they were closed for no apparent reason. It was really frustrating, and we wasted a 1.50 E subway ticket getting there. So we rode back into the main part of town and saw the Arc du Triomphe and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and then walked along the Champs-Elysees for a while. But at that point, I had to go back to the hotel to meet my group to go home, so I parted ways from them.
The ride home was equally hellish, though slightly better because I wrangled a top-bunk position, which meant slightly more air and more room to move. Even so, it was pretty miserable. And we got in to Florence at about 8 in the morning, so I just went straight to school for classes, then came home at 1 and took a shower and a nap. I've been sleeping a lot more lately, which is incredible, since I can't sleep in any more.
This week has been nice, but it's already gone and I don't understand how. This morning for a site visit we went to the Medici Chapel and saw some Michelangelo sculptures. That man is a genius. I walked around an open air market all around Piazza San Lorenzo and haggled very effectively for some fake Armani sunglasses. And after that, I went to the Accademia and saw the David, which was nice, because I got to skip the line and get in for free with my recently-recovered Museum Pass! The David is very large and very oddly-proportioned, and I know why! It is because Michelangelo originally thought he was carving a sculpture for up on the Duomo, and you have to proportion things differently if you want them to be visible from 40 feet below. And then in the middle, the people who gave him the commission were like, "Just kidding, this is for right in front of the palace," and he completed the statue with normal proportions. In all honesty, I couldn't figure out why it was the most famous statue in the world. I thought some of his other pieces were much more beautiful. But I guess if you carve a 14-foot-tall naked man and put it in front of a palace it's going to get more press coverage than a normal sized naked man in a church somewhere.
And now I am home! Writing a blog post to appease my mother. This weekend I'm going to Sicily, where I will see a lot of palazzi and learn about the mafia and work in fields that were confiscated from the mafia for all of four hours. I feel like it is very pretentious to act like the focus of the trip is that four hours of working when in actuality most of our time is spent sightseeing, but oh well. I'm going to Sicily, and that is one of the places I didn't want to leave Italy without seeing. We're flying down on Friday morning (I have to be at school at 3.45 in the morning! BLEURGH) and coming back Sunday night. By overnight train. Note to self: wrangle a top bunk again. It's all new people. No one will know you've been privileged twice.
