Paris Day 3 and 4

Monday March 30

We got up, borrowed some tape from the hostel, borrowed some scissors from the Metro information desk, and voila! I am an art history student named Emily. We went to the modern art museum, the Centre Pompidou, where my new identity worked like a charm. Pretty cool stuff in here too, Picassos and Braques and more. Then we picked up some lunch (panini and a drink and dessert) and at it in the gardens/park behind Notre Dame. I hesitate to say it, but that chocolate banana tart I had may have been the best thing I ate while in Paris. After that we walked in Notre Dame. It was of course crowded, but still amazing! We discussed how neither of us really liked the animated “Hunchback of Notre Dame” movie. And I just realized I should have tried to climb up to the bell tower and shout “Sanctuary!” Heh.

Then we went to Saint-Chapelle, a (I believe) Gothic chapel with these crazy stained glass windows. They are literally like fifteen or twenty feet high, and there are fifteen of them, not counting the rose window. The pictures I have are just like, walls of stained glass.

Then we Metro’ed it to the Montmartre area, to go into the Sacre Coeur and see the view of the city from the hill. We also wandered over to take a picture of the Moulin Rouge, then headed back to the hostel area for a drink and talking at The Smile. We decided to go to dinner at Breakfast in America, wherein I had some delicious pancakes and bacon. Mmm. My diet has been sorely lacking in bacon since I came to Europe. We went back to the Rue Mouffetard and had another drink at a place called Studentbar (they put glowsticks in our drinks!), then I went back to the hostel and Heather headed home, as she was booked just for the weekend in case the place was uber-creepy or something.

Tuesday March 31

I traversed the bus alone with detailed instructions from Heather, and met her a student cafeteria for lunch where we got a freshly made personal pizza and a dessert for under 3 euros. Technically you need an ID for this place, but they weren’t checking that day, so. Yay cheap! And good. Oh and also I discovered that a bird had apparently, at some point while I was waiting for Heather, shat on my purse.

Then we headed over to the Musee d’Orsay. There was kind of a long line through security, but once again, no waiting to buy tickets. Heather left me here to go to class, which was fine. There were so many artworks I recognized in there I was astounded. Mostly from that one art history class I took. And the building was really beautiful too, as it was a converted train station that Heather tells me they at one point were planning to tear down. The weather was so beautiful that when I finished in there I decided to walk outside along the Seine and down to have a look at the Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris, but it’s called the new bridge, isn’t that hysterical). Had to do some texting with Heather when it wasn’t clear where I had ended up, but we met back up and sat for like an hour soaking up the sun along the Seine.

Eventually we walked to the Ile de St. Louis to try to get some ice cream that Heather says is the best in Paris, Berthillon. The main store was closed, but there are several vendors in the area. We ended up getting cones of raspberry sorbet and going back to the park behind Notre Dame to sit in the sun some more after we were done eating. Here, a random Spanish tourist must have though we were French, and wanted to take a picture with us. We totally didn’t get what was happening at first, and then when we finally did we were like, “uhhhh.” So that happened. Then we moved to a bench further away because it was more in the sun, even though we knew it looked like we were running away from the creeper. Whatevs.

Heather and I had crepes for dinner again at another creperie, then met up with her friend Emily in Bastille for a bit.

Paris Day 1 and 2

Saturday March 28

Got up and checked out, then back to King’s Cross/St. Pancras, where I waited around for hours as my train wasn’t until 1:30, I couldn’t check in until around noon, and I had to be out of the hostel by ten. So I finished reading “Fire Watch,” bought some flip flops for use in hostel showers, had a crepe (right before going to Paris), eventually checked in and went through security (which included a dog sniffing all bags), then waited for the train to board. Found my seat and relaxed for the just over 2 hour ride. I got to the train station in Paris and only waited about 20 minutes for Heather to arrive!

Heather wowed me with her French skills as she figured out what type of Metro pass would be the best option for me to get. Bought a five day pass (which I couldn’t use until Sunday) for unlimited travel on the Metro and buses, as Heather had some other tickets I could use in the meantime. We dropped off my laptop and iPod/headphones at her home and so she could grab a bag of clothes, then headed to the hostel. It was about two blocks from a Metro stop on Rue Mouffetard, a pretty hopping street/area. Checked in and dropped off our stuff, then wandered the streets of Paris! Saw Notre Dame at night, and went to a creperie for dinner and conversation.

Afterwards, we met up with some of Heather’s friends outside a bar they frequent (The Smile) which was literally down the street and around the corner from the hostel. I don’t think either of the two Emilys recalled the most hilarious situation of the night, wherein Emily 1 (who shall be called Emily) crepe-slapped Emily 2 (who shall be referred to as her initials, EHC) with a nutella crepe, and then ran off to get another crepe but it had to be from a different crepe stand. Wandered some more, but ended up that Heather, myself, her friend Jess and her visiting boyfriend went briefly to a place in Bastille called The Hideout. We had one drink, but we weren’t really feeling it, so we headed back to the hostel area, got some nutella crepes and ended up talking for a couple of hours in the hostel lobby area. It was three by the time we went to bed (damn daylight savings time), but it was an auspicious start to the visit!

Sunday March 29

We got up in time for the hostel breakfast (of rolls and croissants, some cereal if you wanted it, orange juice and tea) and to take showers. The showers were kind of gross, but not overly, and shower shoes make all things tolerable. Heather’s program gives them passes that claims they are art history students so they can get into museums for free, and EHC never attached her picture to hers… so we went to pick it up for a little temporary doctoring. We intended to use it that day for the Louvre, but we couldn’t find a photobooth, and we didn’t have scissors or tape, so I sucked it up and paid for the Louvre (well worth it). Saw amazingly famous works of art up close and personal!

We took a break from the Louvre to go to Angelina’s for pastries and hot chocolate – but this hot chocolate was no watered down crap. It was basically like, pure melted chocolate. And then they give you a type of whipped cream to stir in yourself. Almost went into a sugar coma. Then we sat outside in the Tuileries gardens for a bit before going back into the Louvre to check out some of the Egyptian stuff. Also very cool!

After we were finally done with that whole scene, we went to the Arc d’Triomphe. How ridiculous is it that I can just type that? Oh, the Louvre, the Tuileries, the Arc d’Triomphe. No big deal. We walked a bit on the Champs Elysees, and when it threatened rain we headed back for a break at the hostel to use their Internet, and also to buy some soap and some Surf Fizz (a candy Andrew specifically requested). We met this girl who had just arrived from Canada who was going backpacking around Europe. So we invited her to come with us to get dinner and head our to the Eiffel Tower after. So we got fondue and wine, thenwent to the Eiffel Tower and the Champs de Mars to see it all lit up and chill there. So we did that, and all of a sudden the Eiffel Tower starts sparkling! It was crazy, crazy, awesome. After that wound down, we headed back to the Metro as it was getting a bit chilly, and went to bed.

Also at some point this night, I took my photobooth pictures in order to doctor myself up an ID. Oh yeah.

London/Oxford (Day 5 and 6)

Thursday March 26

This day was kind of absurd. We were all supposed to be on the bus and on our way to Oxford by 9. Of course people are late, and we don’t even get going until around 9:30. Then there’s obviously ridiculous traffic, as London is one of the most congested cities, and I think it took us over an hour to get out of London proper. Also one of our teachers was annoying the hell out of everyone by playing at tour guide and telling us all about the things we had heard on our bus tour a few days ago, when all anybody really wanted to do was sleep.

When we finally get to Oxford and have mostly unloaded everyone’s luggage, we realize we’re at the wrong Holiday Inn (we were staying at the Express by Holiday Inn). So load back up and back on the bus for a bit. Finally make it to the right hotel (also, this whole trip took so long that we missed a guided walking tour of Oxford that I think I really would have enjoyed), and they don’t have our rooms ready? So they want us to leave our luggage in the lobby and they’ll put it in our rooms. Uhhhh, what? No. It’s somehow worked out that they give us our room keys so we can all drop our stuff off. Back on the bus to take us into central Oxford for lunch.

We make it slightly (15 minutes) late to the place we’re having lunch, the Vaults and Garden Café. It was apparently supposed to be a buffet, but since we were late they decided to take orders giving us options of like four dishes. I decided that the vegetable tart sounds most appealing. It was delicious (turned out to basically be a big slice of a quiche) and I think I may have gotten the last serving of it, as they were running out of dishes and having to redo orders. They also got us slices of cake for dessert, and promised us all a drink on DIS after our lecture.

So we got to a lecture by an Iranian born journalist, and it ended up largely being a lesson in Iranian history (which I didn’t need) and illustrative of the ignorance of select members of my group. So that happened and then we all went to a big Irish pub/restaurant wherein we ordered any drink we wanted (vodka and cranberry). Then Kathryn, Caitlin, Anna, Jenna, and I went to try to locate Christ Church (to see the Great Hall) – we found it but it was closed. Also stopped by the pub where C.S. Lewis did a lot of writing, then went back to the same Irish pub to get food as we knew it was cheap (and cheaper than anything else we had seen). Took a black cab back to the hotel and watched “Waitress” on my laptop, then went to bed.

Friday March 27

Get up and have breakfast and a “wrap-up” lecture from one of our teachers. Highly annoying. It ends up that we’re basically going to be able to have an hour or so in Oxford. They call cabs for us and pay for the cabs we take back to the hotel, we just leave our luggage in a holding room and they will load it onto the bus before we get back (I took my backpack with me though, wasn’t leaving my laptop to be flung into storage under the bus). Jenna, Lauren, and I go to Christ Church even though the Hall is closed, but the Cathedral and rest of the building was pretty cool. We also popped over briefly to the covered market, and I bought a cookie from what I had been told was the best cookie place in the world. It was pretty good, but I don’t know about best. Took a cab back to the hotel – it was amusing because there were like three cabs in a row all filled with DIS people. Hopped on the bus for the transport to Stansted Airport.

When we got to Stansted I left the group to wait for my bus back into London. Worked out well. Then I hopped on the tube to King’s Cross/St. Pancras. I found the Eurostar luggage services to make sure my bag wasn’t too big to take on the train (it wasn’t), and then walked to the hostel. Then I bought some Internet time and drained my battery completely, and went to bed.

London (Day 3 and 4)

Tuesday, March 24

Up again early for breakfast and setting out to another academic visit. Travel went much more smoothly, as none of us really waited for anyone, and met up successfully at the final destination – which was a PR firm, Edelman. The guy who spoke to us, Luke Pollard, was a pretty interesting guy; had trouble making his presentation about the company and PR very intriguing. I can’t honestly say that I learned much from the presentation, but I learned that Luke is into Twitter and thinks we should all try it, and is running to be an MP from Devon.

The visit was short and sweet and then we had the day until 4 (when we were to meet somewhere) free. Anna and I went direct to Buckingham Palace to take pictures and wait for our compatriots in the other section. We ended up waiting there a lot longer than I would have liked, as their presentation ran late as ours did. They eventually meet up with us, and we do a lot of things that mostly involved seeing the exteriors of buildings. Up close to the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey. Then we went to Leadenhall Market, where Diagon Alley was filmed for the Harry Potter films, and had lunch at a random sandwich shop. After that we walked and saw the exterior/what was visible from the entryway of Saint Paul’s, as you had to pay to see it and couldn’t even take pictures inside. We walked across the Millennium Bridge, wanting to do a tour of the Globe Theater, but it was nearly 3 by this point – tours were 40 minutes long and we needed to be at the Museum of Brands, Packaging, and Advertising by 4 (in Notting Hill Gate).

So we followed some orange lampposts to the nearest tube station, and had a ridiculous time trying to find this museum. We ran into like ten other people from our group trying to find it. We were fifteen or twenty minutes late, so we “only” had an hour in the museum. We only needed like twenty minutes. It was lame. Just cases and cases of old packaging and such. Kind of interesting, but not in the way it was laid out.

Then we head back to Covent Garden area for dinner. Somehow my friends and I and a few other people ended up totally separate and way ahead of the group, so we got to the restaurant and were seated way before the others arrived. Roasted bell peppers for an appetizer, some weird fishcake thing for the main, and a type of cheesecake for dessert? I only tried the dessert and gave it (male) Alex to finish. Also, pomegranate and berry martini.

The last scheduled thing of the night! Performance of Chicago. It was good, I enjoyed the music and everyone had great voices, but the production itself was weirdly minimalist. And not really what I was expecting. Also really tired at this point, so when it was over Kathryn and I jetted out of there to the tube as fast as we could. Sleeeeep.

Wednesday March 25

Lecture by one of our teachers at the London School of Economics (basically like any other classroom ever). We were supposed to have a guest lecturer as well, but he had been called away to cover some story in Devon. Then we had a group lunch in some hole in the wall café nearby. It down poured as we tried to find the place and we got pretty soaked, which was annoying. After lunch, my section had about an hour free before we needed to head off to the offices of The Guardian, so Anna and I spent like 45 minutes in the British Museum. I really just wanted to see the Rosetta Stone, which was cool. Checked out a couple of other rooms really quickly, then traveled to The Guardian. Also kind of a boring visit – though we did learn that 40% of their online readership is from North America, which is pretty interesting. After this we also had the evening free, so Anna and I met Kathryn, Jenna, and Alex in King’s Cross to be tools and take pictures of Platform 9 ¾.

Then Kathryn, Anna, and I went on a quest to find somewhere with Internet, as the hotel’s had been down for two days. We tried the Holborn public library but the staff was incompetent, so we ended up tracking down a souvenir shop/Internet café in the area that we had heard about. It was really cheap – one pound for half an hour, so we split that and afterward tried to find some shops around Oxford Circus. Basically all just big department stores, so we grabbed some food at another pub (The Spread Eagle), and went back to the hotel.

London (Day 1 and 2)

Sunday, March 22

So on Sunday, I got up to allow myself a lot of time, figuring I wouldn’t want to rush. I made it to the airport in plenty of time to meet the group. We checked in and went through security, and by that point we had about 45 minutes before boarding, so we just found some seats near the gate and chilled.

We eventually arrived at London-Gatwick, did all the necessary airport stuff and got on a bus to take us to our hotel. This, of course, took longer than expected due to traffic. We make it to the hotel – the Britannia International at Canary Wharf, around 6:15 or so, when we had a dinner reservation for 6:30 that was pushed back an hour. They’ve assigned us rooms, but we end up working it out that Caitlin, Anna, and I are in the same room. Drop off our stuff and head out to dinner at MemSaheb, and Indian restaurant in walking distance on the Thames. We’re all starving, and we don’t even actually start getting food until close to 8:30 or 9, as which point dishes just continually arrive at our table. Also, we probably annoyed the wait staff by continually asking for more pitchers of water – to be a trend on this trip. But dinner was good and we took a few pictures by the Thames, then we went back to the hotel to go to bed.

Monday, March 23

Get up early and meet the group after breakfast in the lobby to go to our first academic visit at The Telegraph. People are late for the meeting (also to be a trend), so we head out to the Underground around 8:10am. On our way there we find out that the line that serves our nearest station (the Jubilee Line at Canary Wharf) is down, so we have to take the overground DLR (Docklands Light Rail). We get up to the platform for that, and every single train that comes through is packed. We’re trying to travel in a group of like 20-odd people, since none of us really know where we’re going, but we do get broken up a bit. We cram on to a train and head to a station with a nearby Tube stop (but end up turning right instead of left out of the station and have to backtrack). We make it to The Telegraph a full 45 minutes late.

At The Telegraph – England’s only remaining broadsheet newspaper – we have a talk mostly about advertising, as that’s what the guy who gave the presentation is involved in. It was interesting, but not really what I was expecting and went on for way too long – two hours even though we were late. We also had a short tour of the newsroom, which is actually a pretty cool design. There’s a central table with basically spokes coming out from it, and the editors of the sections sit nearest the middle.

After that we headed off to our group lunch at a place called Medieval Banquet – it was fish and chips served family style, and it was pretty good. Then, we hopped on a coach bus for a bus tour of London. It was all right I suppose, but I think I would have rather had the time free. Our tour guide was kind of amusing. We get dropped off at the London Eye with a bit of time to spare, but we get our tickets and hop on. It moves really slowly, and doesn’t stop as you get on or off, so we had to rush a bit to get on as we had our group split in two and pretty much the maximum occupancy of two of the cabins. Cool views indeed – unfortunately it rained just before and some during while we were up in it, but it was still impressive!

Afterward we had the rest of the evening on our own. Caitlin, Anna, Kathryn, and I went to the Notting Hill Gate area and just walked around, browsed some shops, and got some cheap pub food for dinner at the Prince Albert. Also – got a Guinness, and it made me tipsy for about 20 minutes. Then we just headed to the hotel, took showers, and went to bed.

Swans on a sunny day

It was fantastically sunny here the past few days -- Tuesday to Friday was brilliant. I snapped several outdoor pictures, and finally convinced myself to stop off at the Lakes and take some pictures of the swans.

Leaving CPH soon

I meant to update earlier this week, but I've been pretty busy. Let's rewind to last Friday.


Friday: watched the results of X-Factor wherein the best singer almost got voted off, tried to go to Palermo, but they were having another private party, and ended up at Out of Juice for a bit. Went home pretty early, but made plans for dinner the next night with Anna and Caitlin.


Ended up at their kollegium and we and their friend Matt had pancakes and some frikadeller (meatballs of a sort) and strawberries (which were surprisingly ripe and cheap). Also watched "Across the Universe" -- but since we had all seen it were also kind of talked through it, but that's the way to go with movies sometimes.


On Tuesday (Saint Patrick's Day), we of course had to go out to an Irish pub. We chose The Dubliner, by virtue of it being the closest to the Metro stop we all decided to meet at. We got there around 9:45 and it was, of course, absolutely packed and probably had been all day. There was a three-legged race/pub crawl earlier in the day, wherein the competitors had to race around to several Irish pubs and drink a beer at each. I had wandered around a bit earlier during the day and saw some of the competitors and the crowds around the pubs. But, we went in and fought our way to the bar, each got a beer, and then went to find a place to try to see the live band (doing covers -- Oasis, U2, etc.), and ended up standing on benches and/or table to do so. Probably the best choice, as we were then mostly above the rest of the crowd. So we stayed there for a couple of hours and sang and danced until we were tired and sweaty and wanted to make use of the trains and regular buses, and not wait for the night bus. Got home by 12:30, took a shower, went to bed.


On Wednesday I had a field study to the Danish Resistance Museum with my Danish language class. Basics of Denmarks involvement in World War II: occupation started in April 1940, and the government cooperated with the Germans until 1943 (during cooperation they were able to still hold elections, administer most things as normal). After August 1943, there was more open resistance, and of course there was an underground resistance movement that assassinated German officers, sabotaged trains/supply lines, etc. Denmark successfully evacuated the Danish Jews (all but about 500) to Sweden in in October 1943. It was pretty interesting, they have a lot of cool artifacts, but we were only there for an hour and it was a museum better suited to individuals, as all the information was in Danish and English and I probably would have gotten more out of it if I just went around and read all the placards myself.

That's about it! Now, I have to basically pack for the first couple of legs of my trip tomorrow, and then we fly to London on Sunday afternoon!

Ballet

I went to see my first true ballet last night at the Royal Danish Theater -- "Romeo and Juliet." I signed up for it through DIS and got a discount -- and through some mix-up they bumped our seats up; we ended up being in the last row on the floor, under the first balcony/mezzanine, so it wasn't an amazing view but pretty sweet (of course, front row of mezzanine is ideal for any performance, but I think we would have been higher up originally). The balconies went pretty high up in that building too.

Right before the performance started, everyone in the crowd stands up and we're like, "...what?" But then we found out from some Danes in front of us that the queen was there. So everyone had to stand up and wait till she was seated to sit back down. And there were two intermissions, so this happened three times.

It was a long performance -- three hours with two intermission, longer than I expected. But it was entertaining. I think I appreciated the orchestra more than the actually dancing. And the sets! The sets were amazing, moving seamlessly -- I really liked how it was staged. One scene in particular, where the friar details the plan to make Juliet appear dead, etc. was done well. There was this sort of "acting troupe" within the ballet that as Juliet and the friar stood frozen in the foreground, acted out the plan. Thought is was interesting.

And they all made dancing en pointe look ridiculously easy.

Random observation

While watching the Danish version of "X Factor" with the host family last night, I saw something surprising. Now, this show is watch by like, half of Denmark's population, is a family show, and is on at eight o'clock Friday primetime on the nation's second most watch television channel.

So imagine MY surprise when a sign supporting one of the contestants was shown, reading, "MOHAMED -- YOU'RE THE FUCKING GREATEST!" and was shown no less than three times during the broadcast, and it passed by without comment from any but myself.

Apparently this sort of thing is just accepted.

Another week gone by

I can't believe we're already one week in to March. In two weeks and one day, I will be in London for the CMM study tour/first week of travel break.

Travel break for me, looks like this:

March 21-27: Program study tour in London and Oxford
March 27: extra night in London
March 28-April 2: train to Paris on the 28th, fly out to CPH the night of the 2nd
April 3: One day in CPH to recuperate
April 4-April 11: Krakow

I'll be meeting and hanging out with Heather in Paris -- she's even staying with me for the first two nights at the hostel. I posted a message on the DIS forum at the end of last week, asking if anyone wanted to go to Krakow in the third week, and someone actually responded: a full year student named MaryElise. We booked everything this afternoon. The flights were pretty cheap, but the price on the hostels was AMAZING. No more than $15 a night; for seven nights it was still under one hundred dollars for two people. I have a feeling I will love the cost of things in Poland. Then, Heather will be visiting me from April 23-27, so that'll be fun too!

What else has been going on this week? Last Saturday, I went out in the morning to a small photography exhibition called "Mirror" by Camilla Holmgren, because I need to write a 4-page exhibition review due this past Monday of an exhibition of a female artist. I also went to H&M and bought a cute shirt off the sale rack, and a necklace. Caitlin, Anna, and I went out to a bar called Palermo, where we paid for overpriced drinks. (Basically all cocktails were 75kr, almost $13.) But the place was cool, and we found out that cocktails are only 50kr on Fridays before 11, so we might go back there next week. We all decided we would rather stay in tonight. And Kathryn lives so far away that she has to crash somewhere if she wants to meet up with us in the city -- last weekend we acquainted ourselves with the night bus system. We had to take one, and then get on another heading in the opposite direction to get to my home, and we would have ended up walking like 15 minutes in high-heeled boots if the second bus driver hadn't been extremely helpful.

My first class of the day was cancelled on Monday, but I (and about 25 other people) didn't know because our teacher had posted a message on the forum but not e-mailed it to us. I got up at 7am when I could have slept till like 10 instead. Ack. On Monday night, Anna and I went to a restaurant called Peder's Oxe for their Monday night burger special -- great, decently sized burger for 35kr (compare that to the cost of a drink mentioned earlier and it would only make me angry). We ended up having to wait for awhile because they have a really inefficient serving system, but it was worth it.

Tuesday was my Danish written exam (cultural things, easy) and my Danish Politics exam (which, although I was kind of... improvising on a couple of the short essays, I still got an A on the test when we got it back today). Wednesday was our field study to the Venstre (Liberal) Party Headquarters. We just had a short talk and Q&A session with one of the higher ups, it was okay. Most interesing parts of that field study, though? The candies with wrappers emblazoned with "Venstre" and the backwards clock. The numbers and hands went around counterclockwise. It was freaky.

Today I had my Danish oral midterm, which went well. But yeah, I'm staying in tonight and likely watching "X Factor" with the host family, and then I don't know what I'm doing for the weekend yet! I think we're going to make the trip up to the Little Mermaid on Sunday at some point, and maybe we'll go out for dinner or a couple of drinks tomorrow...? We'll see!

I haven't taken many pictures lately, but one of these days (hopefully when it's sunny -- a rarity) I'm going to stop off at the lakes and take some pictures -- especially of all the swans! I don't think I've ever seen so many in my life.