Paris

Well, this is it. My last night not only in Paris, but in Europe. Tomorrow, and actually in less than twelve hours, I'll be on a plane back to the US. This will most likely be the last post of this blog, unless the journey home is so eventful that it requires a post itself.

I got into Paris late Friday night, and found my friend's flat without difficulty despite the late night. I've been sleeping on her convertible couch, but it's been completely fine. She actually even has something of a view of the Eiffel Tower; only the top, of course, because there are buildings in the way, but quite a good location.

My first actual day in Paris, my friend and I went for a picnic in the Buttes Chaumont park, which was quite nice. I actually fell asleep for about an hour, making that the fourth park and fourth city in which I have fallen asleep -- London, Hamburg, Salzburg, and now Paris. Traveling is exhausting.

Saturday night I actually spent at the opera, seeing The Valkyrie, the second part of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung cycle. It was not at the actual Paris Opera house, but the Opera Bastille, a much more modern looking building, and of course it was sold out by the time I got there for all the seats so I had to get a standing ticket, but the standing ticket was not as bad as I'd been thinking it would be. There were backrests for us to lean against, or even hop up and sit on if necessary, and there was no one behind me for me to block if I did sit, so I frequently did. It was actually surprisingly comfortable, because I could stand if I needed to stretch my legs, and sit if I needed to sit, which is more than I'd got for any other theatre. And considering this was a show lasting five hours, I very much appreciated it.

I definitely enjoyed it, even though it was in German and I couldn't see the posted subtitles, not that subtitles would have done me any good because they were probably in French anyway. I still got quite a lot of the story, and looked up the summary later, but it was really good. Of course I was expecting that from Paris, but I'm glad my hopes were not disappointed. I actually like opera. Who would have thought?

Sunday was my day for Versailles, because Versailles was the one thing I knew I wanted to do when I decided on Paris as part of my trip. The day was more overcast than sunny, but that did not deter me, nor even the slight rain of the morning (early in the morning there'd even been a thunderstorm). There was no rain once I got there, at least. The line for the tickets was ridiculous, but I dutifully queued up and got my ticket, one for the palace and one for the gardens.

I did the palace first, and spent about two hours there. That was now the fourth royal residence in Europe I've seen, from Charlottenburg in Berlin to the Residence in Munich to Schoenbrunn in Vienna, but wow, there's a reason people tried to model things on Versailles. Every room I went in had ceiling paintings, most of them were quite full of gold, and the Hall of Mirrors was gorgeous. And this not even touching the grounds.

Because I spent the rest of the day on the grounds. Fountains everywhere, and because it was a weekend they were turned on and playing music for a couple hours in the afternoon. So many different groves and statues and avenues...I got rather a lot of pictures there. Amazing. I only left when it was just about to close.

I had dinner, then went back to my friend's flat, where we watched a movie. I slept in, because I am trying to screw up my sleeping schedule a bit for tomorrow. Hopefully I will get little enough sleep tonight that I will need a nap tomorrow afternoon, on the plane. I certainly do not want to be awake the entire time I'm traveling, because the time I get back to Reno will be roughly twenty-four hours after I'm going to try to get up tomorrow. That will be a lot easier to endure if I can sleep on the plane.

My only plan for today was to take a boat ride down the Seine. What I ended up doing was just walking to the boat, which was across the Seine and down a bit from the Eiffel Tower, which is within walking distance of my friend's flat. I did get a picture of it, and I'm glad, because my camera's battery was about ready to die the entire day and I couldn't find the charger. Hopefully I will be able to find it when I finally get to unpack everything.

Anyway. I took the boat ride, then walked up to the Champs-Elysees. I took a picture of the Arc de Triomph from a distance, but I wasn't intending to get closer, because I'd decided to go to the Ile de la Cite, which is in the opposite direction. I had crepes when I got there, because I've always wanted to have crepes in France, but while it was good, the best crepes I've had were actually in Galway.

After crepes, I went to Notre Dame. Outside it a family asked me to take a picture of them, and they must have noticed my American accent when agreeing, because they asked me where I was from, and when I said Nevada, they said they were from California. And not just from California, but from Chico. Chico! Small world. I walk around Venice with a girl from Seattle and take a picture in front of Notre Dame of a family from Chico.

I went inside and got a few pictures, and after that went to the Saint Chapelle. I've seen so many churches on my trip, but I'd heard about this one's windows, and wanted to see them. I spent the last of my cash getting in, and wow. Those are definitely the most amazing stained glass windows I've ever seen, in any church or out of one. Most of the walls were windows, and apparently they tell stories from the Bible, but I do not know the Bible well enough to know the stories the windows depict.

After the Saint Chapelle, I walked along Pont Neuf, then headed to the Opera house because I'd forgotten to get a picture of it the first time I was there, and then from there I headed to Place de la Concorde, with its fountains and obelisk. There my camera died. Hopefully it took the picture of the obelisk, but I'm not sure.

I was tired by then because I'd been walking for most of the day, so I headed back for my friend's flat. On the way I bought her a bottle of champagne, which by complete accident (because I certainly don't know the difference) ended up being a rather good one. I'm glad, because she's been awesome enough to have given me a place to sleep and most of my meals for free, and I wanted to give something back. Her boyfriend even cooked a really good French meal for me tonight. She appreciated it, at least.

So, tomorrow I leave for home. I have my ticket for the metro and the bus to get me to the airport, so all I have to do is get there, check in, and make it to the plane. Then I change planes in New York, and then Dad picks me up from San Francisco. Eight hours on a plane, then six hours on a plane, then four hours in a car. It's going to be a rather long day, but it's just one day, and then I'll be home.

I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. It seems just a few weeks ago that I was getting settled in London, but now it's over. It doesn't feel like I've been four months away from America.

I learned so much on this trip, though I think I won't know how much I really learned for quite a while yet. Still, I think it's definitely time for me to go to bed on my last night in Europe.

Nice

I'm in Nice. I had to take five trains to get here from Venice and I was a bit nervous because the last time I had to change trains several times I got stuck overnight in the middle of nowhere, but this time I managed it perfectly. There was almost a snag because I was supposed to leave Milan fifteen minutes after getting there, and the train from Venice to Milan was a few minutes late. The train started moving before I found my seat, but I did make it, and all the rest.

My hostel in Nice is great. Free internet, free towels, and even free wine. Red wine, so not my favorite, but maybe in France I'll develope more of a taste for it. Heh. Maybe.

I got here at about five, so the first thing I did, after dropping off my stuff, was to go looking for a swim suit. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of clothes stores in France, but none of them had a big selection of swim suits, much less ones I liked in my size. There was a mall, but none of the stores there were any better. It was getting late and I wasn't sure how late shops were open here, so I was afraid I might have to leave my swim suit for the next day, but finally I found something most like a department store at home, with an actual swim suit section, so I finally found something. It also had a grocery section, so I got enough food to last all my meals here but one, and for less than twenty euro.

I met some people in the kitchen/lounge area while making my dinner and talked to them for awhile, and a few hours later they invited me to go to the beach with them. It was after midnight, and I'd been up since before seven that morning, but I agreed, very glad that I did find a suit that day. So now I've been swimming in the Mediterranean after midnight, when the water was cool but not as cold as the Pacific, and I very much enjoyed it. The beaches in Nice are all rocks, not sand, so I did not enjoy that part, but I still had a great time.

I'd been basically intending to spend my days in Nice at the beach, but some of the people from the midnight swim invited me to go to Monaco with them the next day, and I agreed. How many chances am I gonna get to go to the second smallest country in the world, second only to Vatican City? We took a bus there, which was only one euro and half an hour each way. First we went to the Monte Carlo Casino, but there was a ten euro entrance fee for the casino proper and none of us wanted to pay that when we weren't going to gamble a lot. There was a smaller building off to the side with only slots and video roulette. The others gambled a bit, but I sat at a table near the bar and watched tennis on TV. I might have also gambled a bit if there had been tables and blackjack, but I had no interest in slots or roulette. I also really don't want to lose what money I have left. I've gambled in Vegas, and now I've been in the casino at Monte Carlo, and that's enough for me.

After that we really just wandered around. We tried for awhile to find the aquarium, but it was proving elusive, and eventually we just decided that it was getting late enough that we wouldn't have enough time there to be worth spending the money to go in. So mostly we just walked around the harbor and looked at the fancy yachts, and the fancy cars (one of the people there was a big car buff and he kept exclaiming at how amazing these cars were, and how one or two weren't technically even available for sale yet, which I guess says something about how stinking rich the people in Monaco are), and also the amazing scenery, because wow, the French Riviera is gorgeous. I knew it would be, but still, wow.

When we got back to Nice I went to the train station to try and make a reservation for the night train today, but the ticket machines were all in French and the ticket counters were only for trains for the day. That seemed weird to me, but I figured I'd just get my reservation today. Hah. I tried to do that this morning, and the night train tonight is all full. I had to make a reservation for an earlier train that gets into Paris late tonight, but I emailed the friend in Paris I'm going to stay with and she said it's all right if I get there early.

This did mean that I had less time for the beach than I'd wanted, so I went back to the hostel and packed myself lunch, and finally went to the beach. That was nice, once I found some fairly comfortable positions on the rocks. I spent several hours there, and I think I managed to avoid getting sunburned.

My train leaves in about an hour, and then tonight I'll be in Paris, my final stop!

Austria and Italy

I feel rather perpetually behind, but I've been feeling too tired to write a long blog post catching up. Let's see how well I do today.

Salzburg is easy to finish off, because my third day I just went to the old town (across the river Salzac from the new town), wandered around a lot, then went back to the Mirabel gardens for awhile and hung out. I did very much like Salzburg. Small enough to walk around in, but gorgeous countryside, bigger cities pretty close by, and still things to do.

The next day I left for Vienna. The countryside was not quite as beautiful as Munich to Salzburg, but still quite pretty. When I got out of the train station in Vienna, I got a bit lost trying to get to my hostel. I found the right street, but ended up going the wrong way down it. I knew the hostel was supposed to be close by, so when it felt like I went too far I turned around and decided to go back the other way, and then I passed the train station...and there it was. Definitely the closest I've been to a train station, even in Munich, or here in Venice. I felt a bit silly for having gone the wrong way, but at least I did find it.

After I checked in, I went to the Sigmund Freud museum, which was the building where he lived and practiced while in Vienna. It was small but interesting. I really prefer specialized museums unique to specific places to bigger art galleries or ethnology museums that I can find in almost all the cities I've been to so far.

After the Sigmund Freud museum I took a tram around the Ring Road, which is a ring around the center of the city and shows off a lot of its attractions, like the Hofburg Palace (and everything in it, including the Spanish Riding School and the Vienna Boys' Choir), the Museums Quarter, and the Parliament. Very cool. Lots of impressive buildings. I especially liked the Parliament building, though I think it ranks after Westminster in terms of impressiveness. So far the parliaments I've seen in order of impressiveness are London, Vienna, Berlin, then Edinburgh, but I'm looking forward to seeing the Paris government buildings.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around, though it was raining and I got rather wet. Still, after Tacoma and London I'm pretty used to that, and it didn't bother me too much. My hostel gave me a map that included sights and restaurants/cafes they liked, so for dinner I decided to go to this pizza place that was advertised as cheap but good. And it was cheap but very good, but even better, the pizza was the size of a medium at home, rather than the one-person pizzas that are mostly what I've seen in Europe, so I had some to take back for lunch.

The next day I went to the cemetery, which seems to be a tourist attraction for two reasons: the famous people interred there, including the composers Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, and Beethoven, and the sheer impressiveness of the headstones. That's a word that I'm using a lot in relation to Vienna, but it really fits. Many of these graves were just so elaborate, filled with carvings and statuary...I didn't get many pictures, though. I did of the composers' graves (at least, the composers I recognized), but I didn't feel right about taking pictures of random graves, no matter how pretty and/or impressive they were.

I spent the rest of the day at Schoenbrunn Palace, which had been home to Empress Maria Theresa, and then later to Emperor Franz Josef I, and as befitting an imperial residence, it was...impressive. Hah, there's that word again. Likewise with the gardens, or even more so. Those are definitely the biggest gardens I've seen, with a lot of tree-lined lanes, fenced-off green areas, manicured flower beds, fountains, including a huge one in the middle, a mock Roman ruin, an obelisk, and a maze area, and those are just the places I went to. There's also a zoo and some other things I didn't get to, because it took me a couple hours to see the things I did. There was an adorable little train going all over the park, but I didn't take it. I did do the maze, though, which was fun, though fairly small.

This was Vienna, a significant city for music, and I did want to see something before I left. At Schoenbrunn I saw advertisements for Mozart's The Magic Flute at the marionnette theatre, so I got a ticket for that. And while it was marionnettes and not people on stage, I thought it was very well performed, and I enjoyed it very much, even though it was in German and I understood at most scattered words here and there. I still managed to get most of the story, at least. I'd been dubious about opera ever since that production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in London, which no one in my group liked, but this I really enjoyed. I think I'm going to see if I can go in Paris.

The third day I went and took pictures of some things in the center, like the Hofburg Palace and the museums and the Parliament. By the Hofburg Palace there's this statue of Mozart and in front of it is a grassy area with a flower bed in the shape of a treble clef. That was pretty cool. Also, I went to the Opera and took a tour of that. It was very cool, even if I wasn't going to be seeing a performance there. But I was glad that I saw The Magic Flute, even if at a marionnette theatre and not the Opera, because I haven't heard of the ones that were playing while I was there and I'm glad I at least knew something about the one that I saw.

My hostel offered free pasta in the guest kitchen, so I had pasta for dinner, then went to catch my night train to Venice. Twelve hours, gah. At least I was able to sleep through most of that, so it wasn't too bad.

I got to Venice at about eight-thirty in the morning, and this is seriously the most confusing, illogical city I've ever been to. I definitely got lost trying to find my hostel, but that's because the address on the hostel website, which I'd used for googlemaps, was outdated. Apparently what I'd needed to do was go across the first bridge I saw and down the street, and there it was, a good two minutes from the train station. Instead I wandered across Venice with all my luggage for forty-five minutes, until finally some helpful Venetian managed to get me to the original address, and someone there directed me to the right place.

But then I got to my hostel, which is the most adorable place ever. My room is like a little apartment, with its own tiny kitchen. It has an outer door and then a courtyard and then my room, and there's another courtyard out the window, and it's really cute. Definitely a nice place. Anyway, I dropped my stuff off and, armed with the map given to me at reception, wandered out into Venice.

Maps are the most useful things ever. Venice has a ridiculous number of long dark alleys it tries to call streets, but thankfully I have a good head for maps, so once I had one, I had no problem getting around. The guy at reception marked this loop that would take me to most of the sights in the city and then back around to the hostel, so that's what I did the first day. I didn't really go in anywhere, but I saw the Rialto, and the Piazzo San Marco and Basilica di San Marco, and quite a lot of churches. This city has the highest concentration of churches I think I've ever seen.

Day two I went to Murano, a little island just off Venice proper, because that's where the famed glassmaking is. It was an adorable place in itself, but somehow I managed to spend four hours there just looking at the glass. In some shops, the shopkeepers would just be casually shaping glass behind the counter. I've been to the Tacoma Glass Museum several times and have seen people making glass before, so I didn't spend that long watching, but Murano had so much more variety than the museum gift shop in Tacoma. Unsurprisingly, hah. But yeah. Beautiful glass.

After that I just looked around Venice some more, then went back to my hostel and talked for about an hour with a roommate from Brazil. I went for dinner after that and had a caprese salad, because that is one of my favorite salads ever and I enjoyed having on in Italy. Then I just went back to my hostel and stayed in the common room for awhile, talking to people. At around nine some people were really hungry and decided to go for pizza, and I went with them but only had a couple slices. Just spent a lot of time talking to my fellow travelers.

Today one of my roommates and I decided to catch some sights together and also find me a dress, because I've been wanting to go dress-shopping. We took the bus (basically a ferry, because of course people don't drive here, they walk or take boats) down the Grand Canal, which was very pretty, and got off at Piazzo San Marco. We decided against going in the duke's palace because it was expensive, but the Basilica was free. She couldn't go in because she was wearing shorts and sandals, but I had jeans and proper shoes so I went in. And of course I would expect this from a basilica, but it was definitely one of the prettiest and most impressive churches I've been to. The floor was all mosaic and the ceiling all gold and pictures, and though we're not supposed to take photos I did anyway.

I found a dress I liked after that, and it wasn't very expensive, so whoo! Something nice to wear in Paris, especially if I do manage to get to the opera. Now all I need is a bathing suit for Nice, because I didn't bring one, and then I think I'll be done with accumulating things, for which my luggage will thank me, I'm sure.

I have five mosquito bites right now. I will be very pleased if I manage to make it out of this mosquito-ridden area with only five.

I made seat reservations for my journey to Nice, which will be something of a hassle. The Eurail timetable I have implied that there's a train from Venice to Nice, but apparently there's not just one. I have to take five trains tomorrow, three of them for less than half an hour, so that'll be...fun. At least once I get to Nice, I'll have just the train to Paris left. And then, just the two flights home.

I have very much enjoyed going to all these different places, but traveling so much is tiring, and not being settled in one place for longer than three days at a time. I was happy in London, but though I definitely appreciate everything I've done since getting to the continent, I will be happy to go home.