Venice and Milan

Well I'm officially back home and lying on the couch, but my work on this blog is not finished! I have a real difficulty with keeping a legitimate journal, so other than my little list of things I've seen, this blog has officially taken the place of the way I will remember the fall semester of 2009.

In the middle of November, Elise and I embarked on a weekend trip to Italy. Both of us have been fortunate to have taken recent trips with our families to Rome, Florence, and a couple of other major Italian cities, so we decided that Venice deserved our full attention. To make things even better, our good friend, Miss Meghan Tilley, was studying in Venice and offered to host us in the spare beds in her dorm. Very generous and very very appreciated! We flew from Madrid to Milan late on Thursday night after class. After a bus to our hostel near the main train station, we grabbed a snack and then headed to bed. On Friday, we woke up early to have one of the best European breakfasts I've ever had. The best part may have been the cost (free aka included in the hostel price), but it was full of pastries, meats, breads, juices, hot drinks...quite a treat compared to the usual clementine and toast that I have been eating in Spain. From there, we took a train to Venice. I have really fallen in love with train travel--I guess it never hurts to ride through Romeo and Juliet's Verona, with the Italian Alps in the distance for the entire 2.5 hour train ride.

We met up with Meghan at the Venice train station. What a city that is! I had my own mental pictures of what it would look like, but it truly is a collection of islands way out in the middle of a big lagoon. We took a vaporetto (water bus/metro) to Meghan's dorm at the Venice International University on San Servolo island, put our stuff down then headed back to walk around St. Mark's Square and get a brief tour of Venice before the sun set. From there, we walked around a less-touristy area (very difficult to find on one of the main islands) and ate dinner. We got some great gelato at Grom's and then ate it in a piazza called Santa Margarita (where we even encountered some other Dukies!). Saturday, we went to San Marco (St. Mark's) to tour St. Mark's Basilica. It's amazing to see the water/flood damage that has occurred over the years, but it's fascinating to learn about the history that Venice has with the Middle East and Asia (much like how learned about Spain's history with Muslims from North Africa). The Basilica was gorgeous inside with a lesson in art history on the ceilings and a magnificent altar of gold and hundreds of precious jewels. Next, we went into the Doge's Palace (the Doge was a regional ruler, but lived and ruled like a king). The palace is right next to St. Marks...we saw some beautiful, giant rooms full of classic art by masters like Titian. We went downstairs into the prison/dungeon, crossing the Bridge of Sighs (a prisoner's last look at Venice) along the way. A trip up the famous tower (Camponile), a walk, a quick lunch, and more walking and shopping later (Murano glass, silk, Venetian leather and stationery), it was time for one of the highlights of my time in Venice. We went to the Accademia to see da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man (couldn't take pictures, but it's the drawing of a nude man inside of a square and a circle). It's smaller than a sheet of notebook paper, but it's one of the most famous drawings in history, so I loved seeing it.

Meghan had a few other friends coming in that evening, so we took a boat ride around the Grand Canal and under the Rialto bridge before a good Italian pasta dinner. Meghan, to our surprise, had bought chocolate, marshmallows, and some sort of cookie, so we took a candle outside and we had a little smore party to remind us all of home. It was tame, but a really fun night and I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually in Venice, Italy! The next morning, we took a train back to Milan where we saw the gargantuan Duomo, tried to see da Vinci's The Last Supper (but it was sold out until December!), and finally got to our hostel, found a good pizza place (as is tradition on my trips with Elise on the last night), then flew on back to Madrid the next morning!

Very very fun trip. Meghan was so kind to host us and show us around. It wasn't quite as exciting as Paris, but Venice was a city that I definitely wanted to see and it was a fun and memorable trip!

More Paris Pictures (post is below this one)

Paris

After another few days of class, our small group of Duke friends studying in Madrid (me, Elise, Kesh, Robert, and Liz) left on Thursday night for our flight to Paris! I have been fortunate enough to have visited Paris in 2000 with my family. For whatever reason, I had already gained an obsession with the city even at age 11 and had been hyping it up to my friends for the last several months. A few days before departure, I had gotten a bit nervous that as I had seen more European cities since my initial trip, Paris may not live up to my lofty expectations. Whew buddy, was I wrong!

I love Paris. I used to. I thought I would. And I still do.

Arriving at Charles de Gaulle late Thursday night, we found some other NYU students and even some Dukies and we all took the train together to the city. We got off at St. Michel - St. Germain (really close to Notre Dame) and walked to our hostel. The reception was closed, but our key was supposed to be at a nearby hotel, so we walked there (got my first of 7 crepes on the way), only to find that our key did not let us into our room. We tried all sorts of ways of inserting it, but we realized (at about 1:30 am) that we would not be able to get in. The owner did not answer the "emergency phone", so we started hiking around, eventually using a bartender's reference for a nearby cheap hostel for the night. Thank goodness it let us in, but the next morning we returned to the original hostel to find that that door had a problem, but we negotiated a much-discounted price for our stay. It was inconvenient, but worked out very well.

After a nice breakfast (hot chocolate, bread, nutella, cheese) at the hostel, we went to explore. We saw Notre Dame cathedral (started over 900 years ago!), the Georges Pompidou Centre (crazy, but a must see), and Shakespeare and Company (I fell in love with this English bookstore...comfy chairs, cozy store, lots of books). It was overcast, windy, and very cold, so we were glad to also find a great place for lunch. We ate at Le Rollin and I had roasted duck breast and wine. We got back to the fountain at St Michel just in time for our latest free tour (from Sandeman's...like in Munich). It was a very awkward group (some weird questions and just strange group dynamics), but we walked along the Seine River, saw Pont Neuf, the outside of the Louvre, and ended at Place de la Concorde (at the end of the Champs-Elysses). From there, we lucked out on finding that the Louvre was free for the last few hours of the day, so we hustled in, scrounged up a game plan and saw all the famous ones with time to wander a bit. We learned that if you took 30 seconds to look at each work in the Louvre (giant!), you would be there for 64 (or so) days straight! I wish I could be in Paris for that long. After that, we walked to the Eiffel Tower (very cold night), got a crepe there, hung out for a bit, then headed back for bedtime.

Saturday started with another quality breakfast in the hotel (the owner started spreading some rumors about us apparently!...that we were difficult on him...ha!). We took the train to Versailles where we lucked into another free admission (as students). We had a quality Versailles experience, walking through the vast gardens and seeing the entire palace. It is a phenomenal place. There is so much gold that it almost numbs you to the sight of it after a little while! Back in Paris, I finally had one of my life dreams come true (this one since we only got halfway up the Eiffel Tower with my family in 2000)...I got to the top of the Eiffel Tower! My feet and hands were numb up there, but the view at at Paris sunset was well worth it. From there, we headed to dinner (Elise found restaurants on a website I discovered called spottedbylocals.com...magical site), walking through the Trocadero, past the Arc de Triomphe, and down the Champs-Elysses, then through the Place Vendome (full of the Ritz Carlton, Cartier, and several designer shops and 5-star hotels). We ate at Le Tambour, a lively, cozy, warm (in temperature and in charm) restaurant right in the heart of the city. The waiting staff was a cheery group of large, older men and they helped me decide on ordering a fantastic steak covered in a cheese sauce, served with veggies and potatoes and the onion soup that I split with Elise. That with endless bread, water, and a bottle of wine for the table...in all honesty, one of the best meals I have ever had! Still, it must not have been quite enough because right before we got back to the hostel, I got another nutella crepe before bed! When in Paris...

Sunday had a tour of the inside of Notre Dame and St. Chappelle (some of the largest, most remarkable stained glass windows in the world). Then, we made it up to Montmartre (northern Paris, yes, where the Moulin Rouge is) and met up with a Dukie (who was also in New Orleans with me), Andrew Walker. He showed us around his district, including a wall that says "I love you" in every language I've ever/never heard of, Sacre-Coeur (where we also saw a guy doing soccer tricks while CLIMBING UP A LIGHTPOLE!). We saw one of Picasso's studios, places where Renoir sat or lived...very fun and Andrew was a great tour guide. We made it just in time to have a couple of hours at the Musee d'Orsay to walk around and see works by van Gogh and several other famous Impressionist painters. We had a fun dinner at a Japanese restaurant that night and a lively walk back to the hostel, passing through the Bastille area and Place des Vosges. One more crepe and it was time for bed again!

Monday, we saw Napoleon's tomb at Hotel des Invalides, another trip to Shakespeare, an attempt to register for spring classes at an internet cafe, then a fun lunch. Elise and I met up with one of her sister's good friends (Abby) who is studying law in Paris for the semester. We had a fun lunch (got another steak and some good wine!) at Le Vin qui Dances (The Wine that Dances) as the other guys had to begin their trip to the airport. Elise and I had a great opportunity to walk around the Latin Quarter of Paris (called that because of the universities that taught Latin back in the day), sit by the Seine, and yes, eat another nutella crepe (this was the best one). A couple of hours fighting through traffic in our airport shuttle (there was a train strike that day) and we made it to Charles de Gaulle. An hour flight delay, a flight, and a few metro rides later, I was back in my apartment in Madrid.

What a weekend. I absolutely love Paris and can't wait to get back someday (hopefully soon).

Thanks so much for reading this whole thing! Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think about this post or the blog in general!