Only nine days left till I'm back in the States! The weather's been pretty nice lately, so I've been taking advantage and picnicing all the time. I went to the canal St Martin with a friend last night, and we hung out near a group of Italians who all had guitars and were singing, and some (presumably) Americans who were setting off fireworks. I'm going to miss the cheap wine and all the awesome picnic spots when I leave!
All my friends are leaving this week to go on vacation! I'm going to have to entertain myself this weekend. Well, it's probably a good thing that no one will be around, since I still need to work on going through all my stuff and getting my suitcase weight down. Also I need to visit the catacombs, since I still haven't been. I think that the catacombs are the only tourist thing left here that I haven't done yet.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
A few more London pictures
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| Some of the hanbok on display at the Korean cultural center near Trafalgar square |
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| Close up of a gate at Buckingham Palace |
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| Statue of... Wellington, I think? |
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| Stained glass windows inside Westminster Abbey |
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| View from where I was sitting in Westminster Abbey |
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| Coutyard around back of abbey |
Thursday, June 23, 2011
London in words!
I had a busy day on Friday! Of course I was hoping that I wouldn't have all of Sunday to sightsee (and I didn't! I got a second interview), so I went ALL over London on Friday, despite the rain. I was supposed to meet my friend for breakfast, but my phone wasn't working at all so we missed each other : ( I instead got coffee and a sandwich, then commenced my journey. I went to Buckingham Palace first, since it is quite close to Victoria Station where my bus came in. Took some pictures, then went up through Green Park and Hyde Park before coming back to watch the changing of the guard. After the changing of the guard, it was up through Green Park again to try to find the hotel where my interview would be held the next day. I got a bit lost and ended up on Park Lane, had to backtrack, bought a map at the Wellington Arch, and finally managed to find the hotel. Fortunately it was actually really easy to get to once I had a map to reference. After I found the hotel, I decided to head to Abbey Road, on the tube since it had started raining again. I got a day pass, good for tube and buses, which was great since London is really big. At Abbey Road, I met a Japanese girl who took my picture, and then we got another girl to take our picture together posing in the middle of the intersection. She has all of those pictures though! Once she posts them on facebook I'll steal them and put them up here.
I thought about visiting Regent Park since I was in the area, but it was raining and I'd already been to two parks, so I skipped it. I skipped the Lord's Cricket Grounds too, although I ended up passing it on a bus. I went down to Westminster and walked through Trafalgar Square, and passed a Korean cultural center which had a free exhibition of hanbok, traditional ones and modernized ones by current Korean designers. It was a pretty cool exhibition!
After Trafalgar Square I went down to the Houses of Parliament and saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey (where Will and Kate got married, haha). I passed Downing Street without even realizing it, too. Then I took the tube up to Piccadilly Circus, and walked around that area and bought a postcard. I stopped for coffee again there, too, and a couple people were nice enough to let me use their phone so that I could call my couchsurfing host and arrange to meet him later that night. I hung out in the coffee shop for a while, resting my shoulder which was starting to ache from lugging around my bag (no lockers at the station!). When the coffee kicked in and I got a second wind, I headed up Regent Street and looked at all the shopping that I couldn't afford! There was an Apple store there that I popped into to send an email to my parents. I used a Macbook Air, which was tiny and hella expensive. It was like a thousand pounds, which would be what in American dollars? Two thousand? Close to that? Anyway.
I made it all the way to Oxford Circus, but by then the rain was really pouring down so I took shelter in a Nike store where a DJ was playing. Then I made a break for Topshop, discovered there was a little cafe there in the basement (this was the biggest Topshop I've ever seen...) so I rested my shoulder some more and waited for the rain to let up a bit in the Topshop cafe. I was there for like half an hour and the rain just got heavier, so I ended up heading for the metro again and went across town to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. The rain was still as heavy as ever, so I literally just dashed out, took pictures, and dashed back to the metro. It was a pretty cool bridge though so I'm kind of sorry I didn't get a chance to explore it further.
Then it was to the bus to go to meet my host!
Stay tuned for part II: the interview and further sightseeing on Sunday before the second interview!
I thought about visiting Regent Park since I was in the area, but it was raining and I'd already been to two parks, so I skipped it. I skipped the Lord's Cricket Grounds too, although I ended up passing it on a bus. I went down to Westminster and walked through Trafalgar Square, and passed a Korean cultural center which had a free exhibition of hanbok, traditional ones and modernized ones by current Korean designers. It was a pretty cool exhibition!
After Trafalgar Square I went down to the Houses of Parliament and saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey (where Will and Kate got married, haha). I passed Downing Street without even realizing it, too. Then I took the tube up to Piccadilly Circus, and walked around that area and bought a postcard. I stopped for coffee again there, too, and a couple people were nice enough to let me use their phone so that I could call my couchsurfing host and arrange to meet him later that night. I hung out in the coffee shop for a while, resting my shoulder which was starting to ache from lugging around my bag (no lockers at the station!). When the coffee kicked in and I got a second wind, I headed up Regent Street and looked at all the shopping that I couldn't afford! There was an Apple store there that I popped into to send an email to my parents. I used a Macbook Air, which was tiny and hella expensive. It was like a thousand pounds, which would be what in American dollars? Two thousand? Close to that? Anyway.
I made it all the way to Oxford Circus, but by then the rain was really pouring down so I took shelter in a Nike store where a DJ was playing. Then I made a break for Topshop, discovered there was a little cafe there in the basement (this was the biggest Topshop I've ever seen...) so I rested my shoulder some more and waited for the rain to let up a bit in the Topshop cafe. I was there for like half an hour and the rain just got heavier, so I ended up heading for the metro again and went across town to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. The rain was still as heavy as ever, so I literally just dashed out, took pictures, and dashed back to the metro. It was a pretty cool bridge though so I'm kind of sorry I didn't get a chance to explore it further.
Then it was to the bus to go to meet my host!
Stay tuned for part II: the interview and further sightseeing on Sunday before the second interview!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
London
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| Me on Abbey Road |
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| The Beatles coffee shop, lol |
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| Big Ben |
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| Me in front of houses of Parliament |
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| Tower Bridge |
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| Completely soaked at Tower Bridge. It rained all day on my one day of sightseeing |
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| Inside Westminster Abbey |
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Picture roundup
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| Birthday dinner at a friend's place, with macarons, salmon and goat cheese salad, and handmade sweets from Tunisia |
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| Parc des Buttes Charmont |
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| By the lake at the park |
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| I amsterdam, by a museum that I can't spell, with a bunch of other people also taking pictures |
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| Amsterdam central station |
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| On a pedalboat on the canals |
Thursday, April 21, 2011
It's summertime already!
And picnic season is definitely here! I'm going to another picnic today, at the Parc Buttes Charmont this time. I'm going to have picnic'd at every park in Paris at this rate, haha. Parc Monceau was really pretty, and I got burnt laying out in the sun with my friend. Oops! Fortunately it wasn't bad, just a touch of red on my legs and shoulders that has already faded. I'm remembering sunscreen today though! Also we will be opening our wine immediately - last time, we got so involved in talking we forgot to open the wine we had bought, and by the time we remembered it, it was HOT. I'm so happy the sun is back! The weather has actually been approaching 80 degrees lately!
I found a pair of running shoes on sale for only 20 euros, so I'm going to pick them up and start jogging. There's a Paris 10k race in June that I'm going to train with a couple of my friends for. I've never run something like that before, so wish me luck!
Amsterdam tomorrow! Our train leaves at 10.25, and we'll be in Amsterdam around 12.30 I think. It's slightly cooler in Amsterdam, but it's not supposed to be too bad. I still have to pack! We'll only be there for the weekend though, so I'm just gonna throw some stuff in a tote I think. I'm hoping my little canvas tote I picked up from the Musei Vaticani will be up for the job.
Anyway I better get going, I just realized how late it is! Already 10, and the picnic's at noon!
I found a pair of running shoes on sale for only 20 euros, so I'm going to pick them up and start jogging. There's a Paris 10k race in June that I'm going to train with a couple of my friends for. I've never run something like that before, so wish me luck!
Amsterdam tomorrow! Our train leaves at 10.25, and we'll be in Amsterdam around 12.30 I think. It's slightly cooler in Amsterdam, but it's not supposed to be too bad. I still have to pack! We'll only be there for the weekend though, so I'm just gonna throw some stuff in a tote I think. I'm hoping my little canvas tote I picked up from the Musei Vaticani will be up for the job.
Anyway I better get going, I just realized how late it is! Already 10, and the picnic's at noon!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Stuff
Not much has really been happening since my Spain trip and new year's... I've just been hanging out in Paris, going out with friends, working. The weather has finally turned nice!! We've had a solid week of amazing temperatures, it's been great. The sun has been out, and it's been in the 70s, the flowers are blooming all over the place, it's fantastic. I've been doing a lot of picnics with friends in the Tuileries and at the Sacre Couer. Now that I have my French bank card, I can use the Velib system and bike around Paris, too. I tried it out for the first time yesterday, it's kind of cool. The bikes themselves are a little hard to ride (really heavy, and the seats are super slippery) but it's cool to be able to just rent a bike to get wherever I'm going instead of taking the metro, or even just to bike around for fun.
I'm having my birthday party today at a friend's apartment in Paris after (yet another) picnic in the Tuilieries. I'm gonna have to miss part of my own picnic, though, because I ended up having to just bite the bullet and make a doctor's appointment to do something about my ear. It's been hurting for six days now, ear drops didn't have any effect, and the pain seems to be getting worse. Fortunately one of my friends who's been living here for a while gave me some advice about finding a doctor, so I managed to find one who speaks English who is 'conventionne secteur 1' which apparently means that he has to charge me the minimum price for my visit. So I'll be going there at 2pm today.
Anyway that's about all! I'll be doing some more traveling soon, I'm going to Amsterdam with a friend over Easter weekend. I'll post pictures from that trip after I'm back.
I'm having my birthday party today at a friend's apartment in Paris after (yet another) picnic in the Tuilieries. I'm gonna have to miss part of my own picnic, though, because I ended up having to just bite the bullet and make a doctor's appointment to do something about my ear. It's been hurting for six days now, ear drops didn't have any effect, and the pain seems to be getting worse. Fortunately one of my friends who's been living here for a while gave me some advice about finding a doctor, so I managed to find one who speaks English who is 'conventionne secteur 1' which apparently means that he has to charge me the minimum price for my visit. So I'll be going there at 2pm today.
Anyway that's about all! I'll be doing some more traveling soon, I'm going to Amsterdam with a friend over Easter weekend. I'll post pictures from that trip after I'm back.
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