RIP

It makes me sad how Liberated-Mashed-HeartShaped-Puttering-Dandelions has ceased to exist.
Maybs I'll post on it in SF :D

Move like a gypsy and find quasimodo.

After awakening from our beauty sleep in the Louvre, I wanted to stop by some of the Egyptian exhibits before moving on and out. We walked along the river, trying to be as non-touristy as possible towards the Notre Dame--only whipping out our maps when it was absolutely imperative. Parisians are interesting people... they're the proudest Europeans and the craziest, too. Twice in an hour some men walked past us making obtuse arm gestures and barking things in French. Needless to say, I kept my umbrella ready and close to me the entire day. Vintage posters, hand paintings and live music filled the streets of Paris and it led us all the way to the gorgeous Notre Dame. The arquitecture was just mindblowing, and I had to stand there in awe for a couple of minutes before we could proceed to line up to enter. I won't bore you with details of the stained glass... but it truly was magnificient. We spent a good 2 hours in there and took the tolling of the bells as our cue to start heading out. We walked on a downstairs path closer to the river for the journey back, and we were amazed to find sand. Sand? At the riverfront? Striped beach chairs and people in their swimsuits? I flung my sandals off and ran for that sand, and it felt great. I stood there with my feet immersed in the sand, feeling every grain on my skin for a good minute, and then sadly had to leave because the schedule was beckoning us.

So What If I'm a Robert Langdon Wannabe?

A 9 hour long bus ride from London to Paris is not the ideal way to travel. Trust me. But if you're going to travel by coach anywhere and make it worth it: Paris is the way to go. I woke up to the view above at 5:30 a.m. and a butt ache like I've never experienced before, but it was instantaneously numbed by the magnificence of the city. They dropped us off and let us go at it. Here is what my day was like.

Eiffel Tower: Being the financially conscious and healthy young adults that we all are, we decided to walk up the Eiffel Tower instead of taking the lift up (3 euros versus 17... um, yeah). Now let me tell you something, it's big. Not "big" like Big Ben--this thing is a beast. We trekked up 700 steps and had only gone a tad more than halfway, but my god was it worth it. The view of the Seine River flowing throughout the city, the buildings, the ornate pillars on the Alexander Bridge... everything was breathtaking. Post Eiffel Tower hike, we decided to go on a hunt for crepes, and French whatnots around the city. The people were, not particularly nice... especially if you don't speak French. Thankfully, whatever nonsensical French I picked up over years of listening to cousins and aunts got me through the day with nothing but smiles and help. I even managed to inquire the whereabouts of Beauxbatons and if anyone had seen my sister Fleur... apparently we had been parted at the train station, and since I am an incoming student, I do not know how to get there on my own...

Let's just say, I felt bad for the people actually believed me, and had a good laugh out of the ones that thought I was mentally unstable. Thanks, Dgao. You're really looking out for me.

In addition to the fun task of the country, we wandered over to the Louvre in attempts to discover some age old secret cult. The amount of artwork and history that is in there is unbelievable; I felt like I was Nicholas Cage in National Treasure when he sets his eyes on the hidden treasure. Everything was fascinating, everything was important and grand, but nothing beat the Louvre's shining star: the Mona Lisa. I journeyed over there, half expecting it to be located in a dark and ominous hallway... oh how quickly I was proven wrong. There was a MOB of people around the 16" x 20". I stealthily tried to sneak through the crevices between people and successfully captured a picture of it. Phew. Now that I got that done, there really wasn't anything left to do but nap. So we napped. Right in the middle of the Louvre. The best 10 minutes of sleep all weekend.

Bonjour, parlez vous francais?

There is a reason why people come to Paris every year. I now know why. My account of crepes, french-speaking, shady Asians and more...coming soon. :]

TASKS #17-20

AND YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE DONE!

#17: Eat at least one more cone of ice cream. BECAUSE ICE CREAM IN EUROPE IS THE BEST. And take a picture. Please!

#18: If possible, climb the Eiffel Tower. Stand against it with a friend, and scream at the top of your lungs in infamous Titanic line, "I'm the King of the World". You may change the gender of this line :)

#19: See the Moulin Rouge. Start parading around singing "Lady Marmalade"

#20: Eat pastries, and a lot of them. Then write some food erotica about how delicious it is :)

FIN. Have a great time :D

Germany: Now that's a castle

July 25, 2009. We decided to pick up the pace on Saturday, and headed out for a tour of the Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps. We dragged our feet to the Hofbahnhaus (main train station), and signed ourselves up for a tour that cost 49 euros. For some reason, spending euros felt SO much better than spending pounds, even though it really was not a big difference. We met some Brazilian students on the train there, and it was amazing how easily inferior I felt in their presence. I suddenly realized something. These kids are crazy. They learn a language at home, and off they go to that country for six months like it's nothing in order to improve their skills. Here I am complaining about my two month stay in a country that speaks the same language as me while these kids go off from home to all the ends of the earth, learning languages left and right.

We got off the train, and found ourselves in the Bavarian Alps. We made it up to the castle at the top of the Alps, and the view was breathtaking. I couldn't believe what I saw at the moment: clear sky, lakes the color of sapphires, and the dark blue mountain ranges in the back; how can you feel anything but the joy of being alive at the sight of something like that? The work of man nestled in the work of nature... it was just amazing.

After a tour of the castle, we decided to take a different path back down to the gorge. We continued to bask in the beauty of nature around us and climbed down the side of the mountains beside the streams of clear water rushing down. We journeyed down on a metal bridge wide as the size of my macbook in silence and all around, I could hear the splashing of the water; below me, all I saw was the water crashing vehemently against that big ol' rock I was clinging onto. It was definitely worth the 49 euros.

We got home around 5ish, napped and then headed out to Augustiner Bierhalle for some German grub. I ordered "Beef Olive." Sounded pretty sketch to me, but it came out to be like rolled up steak with carrots and other questionable things on the inside, served with mushrooms sauteed in a chive cream sauce and the best stankin' mashed potatoes I have ever had the pleasure of eating. OHMYGOD. 2 points for Europe.

We ended the night with some street gelato in chocolate WAFFLE (because they're better than cake) cones, strolling down lit paths of Marienplatz listening to the echoes of live street classical music.

Now, that is what I was expecting.

Germany Continued...

dang, I've been lazy. Okay, so last time, I had just arrived in Germany. We spent five days and four nights there, and we still didn't get to see all of Munich. Friday was a day of relaxation for our minds after all the brain power we used trying to find our way from the airport to the hotel. It was our first morning at the breakfast buffet-now before you get too excited, let's take a moment to think about what breakfast buffets entail: A bar of scrambled eggs, bacon, taters in some form, ham, fluffy pancakes, perfect waffles and maple syrup. We didn't have that... well let's not cry too much because the European breakfast was good, too. Unlimited amounts of salami, hams, creamy mozzarella, brie, olives, cucumber slices, tomatoes, the best toast of my life, the freshest strawberry jam ever, hard-boiled eggs (ohhh yahhh), a pot of tea, little packs of nutella (perfect for stealing) and some damn good orange juice. Not too shabby, Germany. That's one point for Europe. So after stuffing our faces full of a "lite breakfast," we headed out to town, and strolled around.