My last stop, and what a wonderful trip it was!
I stayed with the family of a girl I was once a camp counselor for, Mirna, (keep up those foreign contacts, kids!!), and they live in a beautiful house outside the city, just a 30 minute train ride away. The mother is Valencian, and all of the food she served me was so fresh and delicious I thought I was going to faint. It made me very excited to get food from the Farmer´s Market in NY.
I was here from Thursday until Monday (I fly out today), and I was getting over a cold for the first few days, so I tried to take it easy on myself. I still saw plenty, and I took a ton of pictures. I even got to exericse my Spanish skillz a little bit, when Mirna´s boyfriend gave me a tour of the city center entirely in Spanish.
It´s a place I would reccomend visiting, but make sure you do some research or buy a good guidebook before you get here- my guide would have been okay for a shorter stay, but I was walking around feeling like I had no idea of the context for what I was seeing aroun me.
And here´s a little video I took yesterday, before my rockin´ sunburn showed up on my neck-
And as always, if you want to see more pictures, just click on the photo in the post.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Words I have had to teach my computer:
Altoids, Arty,
Benadryil, Binghamtonian, Birkenstock, Brutalism
Chainstore, Chib, Chillin
dinnering, drinked, dystopian
flickr, Flouncy, Fuffing,
Grungy, grunging
Hampstead, Hellz
Improv
Mahopac, Mori
Newburgh,
Paperchase,
Shearling, Skype, Skyped, Sainsburys, Sleepovers, Southbank, Southwark
Tate, Telly
Vinny
Wah
Yay!
Benadryil, Binghamtonian, Birkenstock, Brutalism
Chainstore, Chib, Chillin
dinnering, drinked, dystopian
flickr, Flouncy, Fuffing,
Grungy, grunging
Hampstead, Hellz
Improv
Mahopac, Mori
Newburgh,
Paperchase,
Shearling, Skype, Skyped, Sainsburys, Sleepovers, Southbank, Southwark
Tate, Telly
Vinny
Wah
Yay!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Sorry!
Sorry I haven't been updating much- ever since my camera broke, it has been very difficult for me to upload photos (I have a mac, but the camera is only formatted for a PC, which means that I have to use the computers in the library downstairs, which is only open certain hours, blah blah blah...).
So you get a picture of me with my notebook! Aren't you excited?! You may remember my "too many Moleskines" post a while back- well, I tore the 2008 section out of my planner, + taped the tabbed section from the "London" city notebook into it. The green book on top is another tabbed section I am creating for myself, for the summer.
A summary of recent events:
-the Lakes District (pictures are going up as soon as I can make it to the library at a time when it is open)
-"Blood Brothers", a musical
-"Dimettos", a play
-Tour of Parilament today, where I fainted
You can also follow me on my Twitter ( http://twitter.com/chlorinebeach ), but be careful! Sometimes I say rude things there. :)
PS, Mr.Karas, I am not an alcoholic, okay?! okay.
So you get a picture of me with my notebook! Aren't you excited?! You may remember my "too many Moleskines" post a while back- well, I tore the 2008 section out of my planner, + taped the tabbed section from the "London" city notebook into it. The green book on top is another tabbed section I am creating for myself, for the summer.
A summary of recent events:
-the Lakes District (pictures are going up as soon as I can make it to the library at a time when it is open)
-"Blood Brothers", a musical
-"Dimettos", a play
-Tour of Parilament today, where I fainted
You can also follow me on my Twitter ( http://twitter.com/chlorinebeach ), but be careful! Sometimes I say rude things there. :)
PS, Mr.Karas, I am not an alcoholic, okay?! okay.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
April in Paris
No, I left just before April, but any excuse to dance around the living room listening to Count Basie is a good one, don't you think?
So, Paris was basically amazing. I was only there for three days + I took 400 pictures. I've only uploaded 1/4 of them, but for now here is a list of what I did:
-Mount Martre
-The Louvre
-Notre Dame
-Sante Chapelle
-The Royal Opera
-Arcade Shopping
-Versailles
-Delicious Amazing Dinner
-Eiffel Tower
-Arms Museum
-Le Grande et le Petit Palais
So I still managed to accomplish an awful lot. When I called my dad up to tell him about it, I went through about an hour long narration on what I did, + while I won't inflict that on you, I will tell you my favorite story from my weekend:
I decided I wanted to see the inside of the Royal Opera house, because it looked very fancy from the outside + it was pouring, so that would give me something to do inside. However, when I went inside there was a sign hanging up saying that there was a performance at 2:30, so the tours would not be operating. I looked down at my watch, and it was 2:30 exactly.
So I picked up my handy dandy pocket guide to see what else was in the area that I might want to see, and the doorman came up + told me that if I bought one of the cheapest tickets (seven pounds!), I could see the show and the opera house.
So I buy my ticket, and I sort of wander around the lobby, and then an usher (in a fancy suit and bowtie, mind you) stuffs me into this fancy elevator + takes me up to the third floor, where he passes me off to another usher. She leads me around the corner and unlocks (!) the door to a booth, and asks me if I speak French. When I tell her that I don't, she takes me in, opens a second door, and leads me into pitch darkness by the hand.
Once I sat down, I realized I had no idea what kind of a show I had come in for- it was a ballet. I could only see 1/3 of the stage, so it wasn't particularly interesting, but it was a selection of classic French ballets- Le Papillion was first, and the lady was wearing the excessive glittery head-thing, and had little wings on the back of her costume. The two dancers were smiling at the audience the whole time, like "ooh, look at me, I'm the greatest thing ever." Kind of hilarious.
The opera house itself was lovely- totally opulent and bizarre. I had been in a little booth- six chairs arranged two by two, with a couch and a coat hook behind them. It was really much fancier than anything I had ever seen before.
___
The food in Paris, and the weather on the last day are what really got me, though. It seems like New York, but flatter and older. I would love to go back some day, and when I do I'll do research so I can do what I want to, rather than the main touristy things. I would also allocate a whole day to the Louvre, take a cruise down the river, and search out better restaurants.
So, Paris was basically amazing. I was only there for three days + I took 400 pictures. I've only uploaded 1/4 of them, but for now here is a list of what I did:
-Mount Martre
-The Louvre
-Notre Dame
-Sante Chapelle
-The Royal Opera
-Arcade Shopping
-Versailles
-Delicious Amazing Dinner
-Eiffel Tower
-Arms Museum
-Le Grande et le Petit Palais
So I still managed to accomplish an awful lot. When I called my dad up to tell him about it, I went through about an hour long narration on what I did, + while I won't inflict that on you, I will tell you my favorite story from my weekend:
I decided I wanted to see the inside of the Royal Opera house, because it looked very fancy from the outside + it was pouring, so that would give me something to do inside. However, when I went inside there was a sign hanging up saying that there was a performance at 2:30, so the tours would not be operating. I looked down at my watch, and it was 2:30 exactly.
So I picked up my handy dandy pocket guide to see what else was in the area that I might want to see, and the doorman came up + told me that if I bought one of the cheapest tickets (seven pounds!), I could see the show and the opera house.
So I buy my ticket, and I sort of wander around the lobby, and then an usher (in a fancy suit and bowtie, mind you) stuffs me into this fancy elevator + takes me up to the third floor, where he passes me off to another usher. She leads me around the corner and unlocks (!) the door to a booth, and asks me if I speak French. When I tell her that I don't, she takes me in, opens a second door, and leads me into pitch darkness by the hand.
Once I sat down, I realized I had no idea what kind of a show I had come in for- it was a ballet. I could only see 1/3 of the stage, so it wasn't particularly interesting, but it was a selection of classic French ballets- Le Papillion was first, and the lady was wearing the excessive glittery head-thing, and had little wings on the back of her costume. The two dancers were smiling at the audience the whole time, like "ooh, look at me, I'm the greatest thing ever." Kind of hilarious.
The opera house itself was lovely- totally opulent and bizarre. I had been in a little booth- six chairs arranged two by two, with a couch and a coat hook behind them. It was really much fancier than anything I had ever seen before.
___
The food in Paris, and the weather on the last day are what really got me, though. It seems like New York, but flatter and older. I would love to go back some day, and when I do I'll do research so I can do what I want to, rather than the main touristy things. I would also allocate a whole day to the Louvre, take a cruise down the river, and search out better restaurants.
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