Walking in Paris Day 3 !

The first Sunday of the Month in Paris is free museum day! So we were off to the Louvre of course! The Louvre was once a palace of the French Kings but Louis XIV left it's massive halls and built Versailles. The palace then became abandoned and artist took up residence here. Which I think it is interesting then that now it holds art. Once the home of artist now holds art work. We had been told many times that it is impossible to see everything in the Louvre so we decided that if we saw some stuff and the Mona Lisa we would be satisfied. We saw Egyptian and Persian arts, some African art, the Mona Lisa, and Italian art. With a map it is easy to get lost in this museum. Half the time we wandered around trying to find a way out. Even though the museum is air conditioned there be times it was so full of people that it would not believe there was.

After the Louvre we grabbed some lunch, which for us again means sandwiches. We got them at this little cafe by Musee D'Orsay. We were unsure what to do with our trays they served our food on to leave them at the table or take them to the counter. We were starting to take them to the counter when the older French couple next to us says "you are used to McDonalds huh". I would like to say that this is one of the only rude comments that has been made to us on this entire trip so far. I still couldn't believe that some people's impressions of Americans is that they just eat McDonalds. If that was so I wouldn't been at that cafe and had been up the street stuffing my face with a cheeseburger. Funny enough the Italians, French, and especially English all seem to eat American fast food very happily, they are always busy.

After lunch we headed to Musee D'Orsay since I recomended this as a great "smaller" museum. When we got there seem 1,000 other people had our same idea. So we decided to go to a market my roommate Bekah had heard of and we pulled out a map to locate it. About half an hour later with the help of two security gaurds that brought us into the museum to talk the information desk lady about where to go for the market, we were on our way. The market wasn't exactly what we expected. There was a guy cooking and selling corn our of a shopping cart. People were selling really tacky things and it seemed we were in a more Brooklin neighborhood of Paris. We followed the directions of the tour guide book bekah had and we found the real treasure trove of this market. There was a section in the entire of the market almost completely dedicated to all things antique. There was so much beautiful furniture and jewlery. There was even a store dedicated to just vintage designer goods such as Chanel, Prada, LV, and more. After awhile we headed back to the metro to head home to get ready for some dinner.

Dinner this evening we arrange would be pinic style by the Eiffel Tower to watch it light up the evening sky. We picked up a cheap bottle of wine, our plastic cups from the hotel bathroom, and borrowed a sheet from hotel to sit on. We picked up some more sandwhiches at a deli across from hotel and headed to the Eiffel Tower. We found a place for the 4 of us off to the side to eat, but as it got closer to night fall the flies came out in swarms so we moved over to the main lawn.

Here we had front row seats to the show. The vendors are back out and are now selling wine and champaigne. They ask you repeadtly if you want to buy some even when you clearly have a bottle already there. Maybe they think you be more inclined if you already had something to drink haha. People near by were singing MJ songs. Pretty much where ever you go you hear his music, your bathroom is the only safe place from it. When the tower did light up there were cheers and clapping. It is nice to see something the French at frist hated when constructed now they cheer, though of course not everyone there that night was French. We sat there for awhile, watched the sparkling lights, took some pictures and headed home around 10:45. So late because total night fall doesn't take place before 9:45 at the earliest currently. I completely recomend taking a picnic dinner at the Eiffel Tower. It is an inexpesive, but good meal, and the show is top notch.

Paris Day Deux! Happy 4 th of July!

Our second day (Saturday July 4th) in Paris we had our coach tour around Paris passing some famous monuments and parts of town. This included the military museum, Napoleon's tomb, the French Academy (this is where they decide which words would go into the French dictionary. Mom and Dad remember that gold top building we took pictures of, this is it), and of course the Arch de Triumph. We were dropped off at the Eiffel Tower. When our group got to the Tower it was very crowded so our Prof. got us a group time ticket so we wouldn't have to wait at a later time. So with our break my friends and I were off in search of a great sandwich shop, that Europe seems to full of, for a little lunch.

Once we found one we started walking and eating back towards the Eiffel Tower. On one side up the hill from it there are a few museums and a big lawn. My friend's informed us there was a display famous designers work inspired from navy uniforms. Not all of us wanted to go, so some of my friends went shopping while the rest of us went to check out the exhibit. I really found it very interesting how inspired these designers such as Chanel were from the navy uniform. I was even more excited to see one of Chanel's first designs that liberated Paris women's fashion. I wrote my Paris cultural report on this exibit.

After the exhibit we took some pictures with the Eiffel Tower in the background and then hung around this big lawn listening to a rehersal for some dance performance that was going to be performed there at a later date. As we started to head back the Eiffel Tower to meet up with our group we stopped to pick up some post cards. There are lots of iffy street vedors that don't carry license and they harrasse people in popular sights such as Napoleon's Tomb and Eiffel Tower. Sometimes the police are good at chasing these guys away but not always. One even called my friend Bekah and I "ugly ladies with no boyfriends" because we refused to even look at the items he was selling.

When we got our entire group together (all 33 girls) we were able to skip a two hour line and head up in the lift (man do they pack those in, beware if you are claustrophobic). Being afraid of heights I only went to the first stop (which is about half way up). Some other friends took my camera up to the top for me. It was amazing view and I am glad I got to experience this. The city of Paris is HUGE! After awhile we all trickled down at varrying times.

That night some of us went out together at a North African restaurant. I have never tried this cuisine but this trip is all about trying new things (within reason). I ordered a chicken dish with rice, it was kinda bland. Next door was a gletto place that made their ice cream look like flowers in the cone, it was very good. This was all in the Bastille district which our hotel was located in. That night some of us decided to see how the night life was, and it was fun to pop into a few, each location looked and had a completely different feel. One was very spanish, another had black lights, and another was more fancy with a giant chandelier.

It was a great 4th of July, though I forgot to dress for the occasion. It is very neat staying in the location that the French revolution also began on our independence day. What can I say I like history.

Parle vous what? Paris day 1

We left our hotel in Milan at 6:45 am to walk to the train station. This is about a 20 minute walk but is more difficult when you have 33 girls, most with two suitcases that weight almost 50 lbs each. Once we got to the station we waited around till our 8 o'clock train was announced. Once it got in we took our luggage to some storage cars, we ended up using two of these car because of how many bags we are all traveling with. Then we had to run back along the cars since the baggage car was car 11 and we were in car 1 to get to our seats. Once on the train there was some craziness over booked seats and sitting in the wrong seats and some of the girls arguing. Kind of embarrassing. Finally we were on our way to Paris!!! Goodbye Milan!!! Note: Out of this trip Milan has been my least favorite city to visit.

Once on the train we had a quiz about Milan from one of our Professors at 1:30. Unfortunately for this train ride, we were having issues. The train kept stopping it seemed every hour or 20 mins. Then at one point reported some technical difficulty, it was hard to understand in French and Italian. We sat there for another 30 minutes or so. Instead of getting into Paris at 3:30 we got in around 5 or 6 pm. We had a study abroad FSU official meet us at the station to give us our tickets for the metro, along with one of our professors daughter and husband.

We headed down into the metro, we were told there would be some steps but also some escalators and elevators. This however was not the case. Instead we had to go up and down about 5 flights of stairs between our change of metros and at the end at our stop at Bastille. This is where my suitcase decided it had enough and to snap the handle in half. I was so exhausted at this point I almost laughed just because of how crazy the travel plan had been for the day. Every girl was struggling with their baggage and very nice strangers stopped to help some of us get them up and down stairs. Originally and in our packet of travel information there was supposed to be a van to take our luggage from Milan to Paris but because of "insufficient funds" this wasn't arranged. That night we were supposed to go to the Eiffel Tower to view it at night but out of exhuastion we pleaded with our professors to make it the next day. We all just wanted to rest from our travels. Some of my friends and I walked around Bastille area and found a sushi restaurant to have dinner in. This is a very good area for cafes and to watch street performers. We also went with one the girls to find her cousin at this church she is working with. We found it and they were doing an amazing musical presentation inside.

Milano Day 2

Day two in Milan. I know I am really behind on these postings things have been really crazy with travel and now that I am in London we have had a lot of work. I will be updating as a fast as possible on my trip from this point.

So on our second day in Milano (as the Italians say), we went to a few places dealing with textiles. The first was a big design studio for the opera La Scala house settings and costumes, called the Ansaldo Workshops. We saw how they design sets, the actual production of sets, backdrops, and models. Then they showed us the room where they store some of their most famous costumes. They were all beautifully made and fragile. They had tailors and seamstresses going making new clothing for the ballet and new opera season. While we were there that opera house was performing an opera based on Pink Floyd music. The picture of the advertisement was on a previous post. We had to walk along these metal catwalks above the work space which was not fun for people like me who are slightly afraid of heights and of falling. Milan also lacks air conditioning and when it is 90 degrees in a non air conditioning building you start melting. I don't know how they work and live in those conditions. It is like they don't sweat or something.

We literally had to run to our appointment on the other side of town. This meant catching two metros and running along streets. We went down a back passage of the "famous" galleria shopping area there. Our meeting was at the Zucci Textile Museum. Most the pictures from above are from this location, since we were not allowed to photograph the workshops from our first meeting. The Zucci Museum is a display and educational center to learn about block printing on textiles. They no longer produce their printing in this manner but instead have copied those prints digitally and now print them. They had many thousands of these blocks that were collected over time. Some are very old. We learned the process of making a single block pattern which is very complicated and takes all together three large blocks. In the pictures you can see one wall that had some blocks on display, all their walls were covered in these blocks. I especially liked the tower they made of them cutting through the ceiling to the floor above. We were able to watch a master printer use on of these block patters (see pictures above) and then we ourselves were able to print a scarf or bag. I choose a scarf because I plan on framing it and hanging it up. You can see me in the process of printing it and the final product above.

After all this running around Milan my friends and I were hungry. So we walked to a pharmacy for some friends needs and on the way there passed a pizza place. So the 7 of us went there for some dinner. When I looked at the menu I saw that pizza was 5 euro, we all agreed this had to mean one slice. NO, it wasn't ! It was the entire pizza! I had to take a picture (as shown). It was thin crust and I pretty much devoured the entire thing. That was one of the best pizzas I have ever had! At least Milan impressed me on one thing, it was its pizza.