"For Paris is a Moveable Feast"

            From the time I sent in my study abroad papers to study in Rome the number one city I was most looking forward to visiting was Paris and boy it didn’t disappoint. Even in the cold and rain I was an amazing, intriguing city. The next time I visit Europe the first place I will be visiting is Paris, France. I wish I was alive to see Paris in the olden days, I cannot even imagine how beautiful it must have been.

           

            Like this weekend, we had a three-day weekend to travel. We left for Paris bright and early at 7 in the morning so we were up by 430am to head to the airport and like I’ve said before morning flights make me want to kick myself in the face. The trip got off to a rocky start. I booked a 300-euro shuttle for all of 8 of us and it never ended up showing up so we ended up having to take an hour cab ride into the city. We got settled into our apartment, which was small, but right next to a metro stop so not many complaints there. We got lunch quickly and headed to the Palace of Versailles because it was 70 degrees and sunny and the next two days were supposed to be shitty. It ended up only being a 40-minute train ride and the town was beautiful. Versailles was a lot like the town of Windsor right outside of London. We couldn’t have picked a better day to do; a lot of it is outside so you want to have good weather. The inside of the palace was really cool, but the gardens were amazing to see. In the back of the palace there are acres of gardens, rivers and lakes. (My mother would have loved it) Through all the gardens is Marie Antoinette’s private house. King Louis VIX built this for his wife as a gift after they had their first child. History tells us that she was very scandalous and had frequent male visitors so this house was perfect so her husband wouldn’t find out. We headed back to our apartment after a full day in Versailles. Everyone was exhausted from a long day so we just went back and passed out.

            

That next day everyone was up early and well rested. We first went to the Louvre. We got a couple metro stops away so we could walk around the city a little bit. Leading up to the Louvre was like the National Mall in dc. A French guy designs the national mall so that’s why they have something that looks like it too. The Arch of Triomphe and the Louvre are lined up with a bunch of stuff in between just like the Lincoln Monument and the Capital. It was really cool to see the resemblance between the two. We finally got up to the Louvre and it was really cool how it’s set up. It’s a see through triangle that you take an escalator down into the lobby and then the museum breaks off into three different exhibits. We saw the Mona Lisa, which was a big let down. Its mad small and they put it in the biggest room with like the biggest painting in the entire museum, poor planning on the Louvre curator. I don’t now what all the fuss is about, it didn’t seem like that cool of a painting to me. The Egyptian Sphinx was in one of the exhibits too and that was really cool. After a couple hours in the Louvre we walked over to the Champs Elysees. This is one of the busiest/ main areas in Paris. There are a million of expensive stores on both sides of the street. All the way at the top of the street is the Arc de Triomphe. You always see this Arc is movies. It’s a huge monument right in the middle of a roundabout. It is the biggest roundabout in France. That night we headed over to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up. The Eiffel Tower might have been one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It was ginormous. I found out that it was built for the World Fair decades ago and the French hated it, which I thought was blasphemy. We walked around that area for a bit, got dinner and called it a night; we still had a lot to see on Sunday.  

            Sadly, Sunday was our last day in Paris. Everyone picked out what they wanted to do for the last day. A couple of us went to lunch in the Latin square then headed over to the Cathedral de Notre Dame. Notre Dame was pretty cool because of the history behind it, but the best part was probably seeing Allan Houston. For those of you that don’t know, Allan Houston is a former New York Knick great. He was there taking a tour with his father and three kids. My goal for Sunday was to just walk around and get lost. Three days is not nearly enough time in the great city of Paris, I could have spent a least two weeks. It’s tough to feel like you really experienced all a place has to offer in such a short amount of time. Ended up shopping for a little bit with Devon at the Champs Elysees. It ended up being a nice relaxing day, nice to just enjoy Paris. Paris will definitely be one of the first cities I come back to in Europe.

            Next blog post will be of the next two weeks, including our adventures in Amsterdam and Assisi. Less than a month left in lovely Rome so were coming down to the wire. Hope all is well in the states and can’t wait to see all my friends and family.

How Rome Became Our Home (Spring Break Part 2)

            We arrived in Prague, Czech Republic on Wednesday night of spring break after a wonderful few days in London, England. We got in pretty late that night so we all grabbed something to eat then just relaxed for the night. It was a long day traveling and everything so we all chatted and headed to bed at a reasonable hour.

            London is a great city, but there is just so much to see that it is impossible to do in just three days. Prague is the exact opposite though, there isn’t a ton to see here so we knew after London we would want to just go out and relax a little bit. That next morning on Thursday, everyone was up pretty late so the day took a little while to get started. Prague is a gorgeous city so we just spent that day walking around and exploring what they was to see. We actually ended up bumping into a couple of our friends that were traveling to Prague as well. They were leaving that day to go to Poland, but they gave us the entire do’s and don’t’s of the city before they left. Prague is even more beautiful at night. That night we roamed around before dinner and saw the castle and Charles Bridge all lit up which was nice. The place we went for dinner that night was interesting to say the least. The people weren’t very welcoming either, but we made it through then headed out for the night. We just went to a quiet bar that night, but on our way out we happened to bump into a British wedding party that needed directions back to their hostel. They were all hammered drunk and didn’t know there right from there left so we felt obligated to give our fellow English speakers a hand. It ended up being quiet comical and the best part about it was they told us about the bar crawl they were on so we decided to check it out the next night.

            The next morning we got up and headed up the hill to the Prague Castle and Cathedral. It ended up being a beautiful mountaintop, the castle was very modern which was a first, but the Cathedral was very old. It ended up being another relaxing day of walking around. We headed to Old Town Square, which is the center of the city. The square is where a lot of the activity happens, a lot of shops and restaurants. We just kind of roamed around the city for a while until going back to the apartment to relax for a little bit before going out. The night before we met an American girl who told us about this bar crawl that she runs so decided to do that for the night. We started at this bar called the Drunkin’ Monkey. The bar was very American with beer pong and stuff like that. The next place we went to was a club and the bars got seamlessly worse after the first two so we called it quits after the third bar. We ended up seeing the same British girls from the night before, which was pretty funny. Also, in Prague everyone smokes inside bars and restaurants because it’s not illegal like in the US so a huge cloud of smoke always surrounded us. Overall it was a really fun night and everyone had a good time.

            Saturday was the last day of spring break before heading back to Rome, our new home on Sunday afternoon. We were up late from doing the bar crawl the night before, but we all hung around the city and just chilled all day. Prague was a lot of fun and a beautiful city, but there isn’t a ton to do. It was a good place to go to after London because there was so much to do there. We needed some American food that night so we went to TGI Fridays and feasted, it was incredible. The rest of the night we just chatted and packed up for our flight the next day. Everyone was excited to head back to Rome on Sunday. Going on all these trips have been wonderful and a lot of fun, but it is amazing how Rome is like our new home now. Now every time we get back from a trip, were so excited to be back in Rome. Well spring break has come to an end, but next weekend we are heading to Paris for three days, which I am so excited for so that blog will coming in a few days. 

You Sound like You're From London (Spring Break Part 1)

Oh what a night (week) late December back in 69 (beginning of march in 2012). Spring break 2012 started bright and early at 6am on Saturday, march 3^rd heading to lovely London. A little side note to start off, morning flights are the worst things in the universe. I am writing this on a plane to Paris this weekend and our flight was at 7am, which means we were up by 430am. Luckily our only morning flight during spring break was our first one to London. So for all you travellers out there unless you like being up at the ass crack of dawn, book your flights for anytime after noon. We got to our apartment in London that day at around 3:30 in the afternoon, we were located a couple of metro stops away from downtown. The landlord to the apartment was a kook; he looked like beetle juice was definitely all coked out. After we got situated, we just bopped around the city all night. A bunch of our friends from Catholic are studying abroad in London so we met up with them that night. People say that Barcelona is the best party city in Europe, but I think that London trumped Barcelona. Downtown London looked like Times Square in New York City, there was so many people everywhere. We went to a three story bar that night. On the first floor it was an Irish bar, the second had a live band and the third was a club. Everyone had a really good time; it was a great night to start off the first day of spring break.

            The next morning we went to grocery store to make breakfast before heading out for the day. We all planned to go to Windsor to see the castle for the day. It was about a 30-minute train ride to the town of Windsor. It was a really nice little town. For those of you who don’t know (i.e. my mother) Windsor Castle is the Queen’s home away from Buckingham Palace during the summer time. The castle was really cool to see, it was rainy that day but still a lot of fun. The coolest part was probably the Queen’s dollhouse. She has entire room dedicated for this giant dollhouse that was built for her. It is an exact replica of what someone of royalty’s house would look like. It was fully functioning, complete with working plumbing and electricity. Afterwards we got lunch at this really good burger place and the best part about it they had Oreo shakes which might have been the greatest thing in the world. (Brought me back to Newport Creamery) We got back pretty late that night so we just relaxed for the rest of the night because we were getting up early the next morning.

            On Monday we were up bright early to pick up our London passes. A London pass is basically an all-exclusive pass to all the sites and includes travel too, which was the best part. London was a very expensive city; a one-way metro ticket was 4.30 pounds, which is the equivalent to about 7 US dollars. That is absolutely outrageous. Our friends in London are interning at parliament so we headed there for a private tour first thing in the morning. You are only aloud tours from MP’s (Members of parliament) so they hooked us up. I think this was my favorite thing to see in London. The tour was really cool and they all really knew there shit. We got to see the Chambers of Lords, as well as the Chambers of Commons, which is the equivalent to seeing Congress. They told us a lot about what goes on and all about the new Prime Minister David Cameron. I also learned a lot about the royal family who basically serve no purpose. They are basically just celebrates, like movie stars that we would read about in US Weekly. There is a ton of drama surrounding them as well that I didn’t even realize. Like the fact that Prince Charles was cheating on Princess Diana and she did the same to him. Because of this several people believe that Prince Harry is not even Charles is son, which would not make him royalty. Also people think that Princess Diana’s death was a plan set up by the Queen because she hated her. It’s really like one big British soap opera.

            While we were at parliament we saw Big Ben too. Big Ben is attached to parliament right across from the river. It sucks though because tourists aren’t allowed to climb Big Ben, you have to be a citizen or a member of parliament so are friends in the program have been up, but there weren’t allowed to bring us. It was still really cool to see. After parliament we headed over to West Minister Abbey, which was right next-door. For those of you that don’t know this is where the royal wedding took place between Prince William and Kate Middleton so the girls ate that up. Like all the other churches they start to all look the same, but it was cool to get a tour and everything just because of all the history there. Next we went to the Winston Churchill War rooms exhibit. This was a really cool underground museum that replicated Churchill’s war rooms with members of the military. They showed exactly what the meeting rooms and living quarters looked like back in the day. They also had really cool videos about his life and major decisions he made. We walked around a little bit and headed over to Buckingham Palace for our final stop of the day. We walked through the park where you could see the palace through the trees. When we finally got up to it, it wasn’t as big as you would thing a palace to be but still cool with the guards outside and everything. The Windsor Castle is much nicer and bigger; I can see why the Queen likes to spend most of her time there. Before going out at night we got Chipotle of dinner, which was just heavenly. The longer I’ve been away the more I’ve liked it here, but you still need your American fix every now and then. That night we got together with our friends in London again and all of us went bowling. It was part of our London pass so we each had a free game. It was a lot of fun to just relax after a long day, drink a few beers and chill. I’m terrible at bowling, but my buddy Roger is amazing so maybe he can give me a few tips. After bowling we just headed to a pub for a little before calling it a night.

            Naturally Tuesday didn’t start off as early as Monday, we were all pretty sluggish from the night before. Once we got moving he headed downtown to buy tickets for a Broadway show that night. We ended up deciding on going to see Wicked. We got lunch after in Trafalgar Square at London’s version of Panera Bread. It was really cool too, in the middle of the square was a big countdown clock for the Summer Olympics that are in London this coming May. Everyone met up after to do a boat cruise around the city. We stopped off at the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. I wanted to do the London Experience, which is a scary tour in the Tower Bridge, but all the girls were too scared to do it so I was over ruled. Devon and I decided to walk around the city more and get lost a little bit before the show that night so we ended up walking for about an hour. Wicked was really cool to see that night. I haven’t seen a Broadway since I was little with my family so I enjoyed it. The story was really cool. A little background; it’s a prequel to the Wizard of Oz about the good and bad witches and how they were friends before everything that takes place with Dorothy in the classic movie. We got dinner afterwards and said goodbye to the London kids because it was off to Prague the next day.

            London was by far my favorite city so far, but we haven’t been to Paris yet which I have high hopes for. London was a very lively city, which I enjoy very much. The one thing I wish I had seen was Wimbledon. I was going to go on Tuesday, but you need to plan a tour ahead of time so I dropped the ball on that one. I decided to split spring break into two parts so my next will be posted shortly about our adventures in Prague. 

The Places We Call Home

         Okay so it turns out that I’m not very good at this whole blog thing, but I’m still going to stick with it until the end of the semester for my friends and family. (Even if not that many of them are reading it) There is always so much going on that I don’t blog that much and then when I finally sit down to do I forget all the interesting things that occurred.

            I’ll start this blog on Sunday February 12^th when we left for Tuscany that morning. It began as three-hour bus ride to Siena, and for those of you that don’t know Tuscany is a region, not a city. It’s like New England or the Mid West in the States. The most popular cities that people know in Tuscany are probably Florence and Siena. All of our class trips this semester are geared towards what we are studying in our classes. In Christology we have been studying the life of Catherine of Siena so naturally the first place we traveled to was her home. We only looked from the outside because it wasn’t open on Sunday so it wasn’t anything too exciting, just your typical Siena home. Afterwards we went to the duomo in Siena. I have been to so many duomo’s its not even funny. Basically ever city in Italy was a big church that is a duomo or a Cathedral for us Americans. We’ve seen a million churches, but all the duomo’s are pretty cool. We found this great little place to have lunch afterwards. One of the best things about Italy is that there are a million mom and pop restaurants that are amazing. You find them everywhere you go and they never disappoint.

After lunch we met up with the group again to visit a nice museum in the center of the city. For those of you have seen the last James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace the opening scene is filmed in the center of Siena. They have these horse races every summer right in the center piazza, the two times I’ve been to Siena I always think of that opening scene where Daniel Craig chases the bad guy through the crowd. So if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about, if not look it up on YouTube its pretty cool. The museum was nice, but the best part was you could go to the top of the tower to see a beautiful view of the countryside.

            We finished up Siena with a nice mass at the church where Catherine of Siena’s body was located, then drove to Arezzo where we were staying for the next two nights. Dinner that night was with the entire group in the hotel, nice little four-course meal to end the night. The next morning we got up early and headed to the center of Arezzo for the day. We went to a really old church where Dr. Dawson gave us a nice lecture about the place. Afterwards he took us to see these really cool frescos in petro del Francesca and gave us a little back-story about it. After lunch the entire group headed to this winery about an hour and a half away. I stayed behind because I got a little sick after lunch, which really sucked but everyone said it was really cool to see and a lot of fun. Also, my lovely girlfriend sent my parents a nice bottle of wine, which was very nice of her.

            The next morning we got on the bus and headed to a small little town called Pienza. It was this little quant town on top of this big hilltop that was restored by Pope Pius so they named the town after him. The hilltop was really beautiful to see in the snow.  We only stayed there a short while before getting back on the bus and traveling to our last stop, the town of Orvieto. The first thing we did in Orvieto was eat (Naturally because this what you do in Italy most of time) but the place we went to was really good. After eating and walking around the town Dr. Dawson gave us a tour of the duomo in the center of town. Both Pienza and Orvieto were really quick stops, but overall very quant cities. We headed back to Rome that night and go in at around seven pm.

            The rest of that week was really snooze and cruise. I only had one day of classes that Wednesday then Thursday- Sunday off which was sweet. We were going to take a trip for the long weekend, but all the places we wanted to go to were way too expensive so we just took the time to relax. We went out a lot that weekend and tried a lot of new restaurants and bars that were all very good. Going out here can be really expensive, but there isn’t really any way around it.

            It is now Thursday the 23^rd and were getting ready to go tonight for this girls birthday. This week has been really busy with classes because mid terms are next week so everyone is studying around here. I talked to Dr. Dawson the other day about maybe leaving a week early in April in order to make it down to Mexico for my uncles wedding. He said it was all right with him if I can clear it with all my teachers so hopefully that all works out. This weekend is also the last week we are not traveling for the rest of the time here so after mid terms I’ll try to write as much as I can, but I’m not making any promises. Next week will be mid terms then it’s off the London & Prague for spring break so I will check in in a couple of weeks.