Paris

I spent the first weekend of March in Paris! A few of my friends on the program came with and we had a great time overall. We took the train out of London Friday morning and got to Paris around noon. We got a bus tour of the city which was a great way to get familiar with the city. We stayed in a hotel just outside the main city and it was reasonably nice. I had the strangest roommate (she was one of the weirdos that I had to deal with on the Jane Austen book club weekend too). That night, two of my friends in my building, Liz and Vanessa, and I went walking down Champs Elysees up to the Arc de triomphe. We then made our way over to the Eiffel Tower and watched it light up. Seeing the Eiffel Tower was what made me feel as though I was really in France.

The next day, the three of us climbed the Tower. It was harder than I imagined. It was fun going all the way to the top, but it really wasn't anything special. However, I am glad I did it. I would have regretted being in Paris and not climbing the Tower.

We then walked along the Seine to the Louvre. We ate lunch at a cafe in the garden across the street where we got delicious sandwiches. I didn't think the bread would really be that good there like everyone says, but it was. We lived on sandwiches and crepes all weekend and everyone of them was delicious. I would get croque monsieurs which are basically toasted ham and cheese with about a pound of cheese melted on top. Needless to say, I was in heaven. Crepe stands were seriously every 2 feet along the streets so we had a lot of those as well. The only draw back was that the food was ridiculously expensive no matter where we went.

We didn't spend too much time in the Louvre and just went to see a few things that we wanted - The Mona Lisa (of course), Winged Victory, and Venus de Milo. For the most part, I was impressed with the Louvre. I had heard a lot of negative opinions on the museum, but I had a great time. There was just too much to see and not enough time to see it. They said that if you spent 40 seconds at each item in the museum, it would take you 4 months to see everything. I am not sure if that is completely true, but after seeing a few exhibits, I don't doubt it.

We then walked over to Notre Dame. That was my favorite site in Paris! Ever since, we have been looking for the Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame dvd here to watch. Walking inside was beautiful! We climbed up to the bell tower the next day. After visiting, I plan on reading Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame.A block from Notre Dame is Saint Chapelle, a beautiful cathedral with all the walls being stained glass windows. It was really impressive to see.We also hiked up Montmarte, a hill with Sacre Coeur Basilica on the top. I sound redundant when I say that that basilica was impressive as well, but it was! There was a service going on when we were walking through with the nun's singing. It was very beautiful.Sunday, we climbed up the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame. It rained so we were cold and wet (and exhausted from our weekend of climbing stairs - Eiffel Tower, Arc, Notre Dame, Montmarte - I got a great workout) We then spent the afternoon in Musee d'Orsay and looked at Monet, Van Gogh, and Degas paintings. That museum was my favorite.We had to go see the Moulin Rouge. It was in the scummiest of areas. The entire street it was on was filled with sex shops and strip clubs. It was pretty disgusting.For the most part, I enjoyed the weekend in Paris. However, the city was very dirty and smelly. The big tourist attractions were clean, but everywhere else (especially the metro) smelled like eggs to me. The people lived up to their French reputation as well - very rude. The workers at tourist attractions were pleasant, but again, everyone else was they stereotypical French citizen. One man walked up to us and yelled at us for speaking English. I wanted to yell back something about how they would probably be speaking German right now if it wasn't for our country, but I bit my tongue.

I am happy that I went to Paris. Overall, I had a great time, however, I would never spend more than a weekend there. I saw everything I wanted to see and more and have no desire to go back.

Invalides - Where Napoleon is buriedRoyal Opera House - The opera house that the Phantom of the Opera is based on

Jane Austen Weekend

Saturday to Sunday, my program was sponsoring an overnight trip for a Jane Austen book club they had. Earlier that week, I got an email saying that there were a few extra spots open for non-club members and since I had nothing planned this weekend, I decided to take it.

We left Saturday morning on a Coach and traveled to Wincester. There we had free time to explore the town and then got a tour of Wincester Cathedral, where Jane Austen is buried. The cathedral was beautiful and is one of the largest medieval cathedrals in Europe. Wincester used to be a very important city in England when the Norms came over around the 11th century. There are (or were) 4 castles from those kings in the town as well as some kings were crowned in the cathedral.

After that, we took a 15 minute coach ride to Chawton, just outside of Hampshire, and toured Jane Austen's house. It was very small and very plain. The highlight was seeing her original writing table that they had on display.

Then, we drove to Bath. On the way, we passed Stonehenge. It is not what I expected at all. I might take a trip down to see it in person one of these days, but if I don't make it, I at least drove by it.

We got to Bath right as all the shops and attractions were closing so I just walked around the city for a while that night, before going to sleep at the YMCA. (YMCA's are nothing like the ones at home. This was a great hostel)

Bath is an ancient Roman city and is where the Roman baths were located (hence the name). There is a mineral spring there that the Roman's believed was sacred. There are ruins of the ancient bath houses below the city which I got to go see.

Sunday morning, we went on a walking tour of Bath. Since it was a Jane Austen weekend, the tour was of course Jane Austen related. Jane lived for a while in the city as well as two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, take place in Bath. It was a good tour and I saw a lot. Afterwards, I visited the Baths.

More flowers!

We then got back onto the bus and went to Lacock Abbey. I'm not really sure what the connection was to Austen, but it was a beautiful estate. The first and second Harry Potter movies were filmed there.

The weekend was fun, but I can't say the same for the people who went on it.

Spring is almost here!

The weather on Friday was absolutely beautiful. It was warm with clear skies so we got to say hello to the sun. A few of us walked around Westminster and then spent some time touring the Churchill War Rooms, where Churchill and his cabinet spent WWII. Afterwards, we walked through Green Park to Buckingham Palace. We didn't want to stay inside on such a nice day. Spring is on its way to London! Flowers are already blooming.

That night, I went with Sharday, a flatmate, to a roller disco. It was basically a roller rink/club. I had a great time even though the rink was tiny.

Wine and Cheese Night

Thursday night, Brenden (our GR, or our RA who lives in our building) hosted a wine and cheese tasting night in his flat. He bought a few different kinds of English wine along with English cheese for us all to try. If Wisconsin cheese were to battle English cheese, I think we know who would win. They have a cheese called red leicester which is similar to cheddar which isn't half bad. All in all, the night was very fun.

Edinburgh, Scotland

This last weekend some of the Parliament interns took the train to Edinburgh to visit the Scottish Parliament. There was 9 of us and then our 2 internship coordinators, James and John. The train ride was roughly 4.5 hours with beautiful views out the windows the whole way up and we got to Edinburgh in the afternoon.

One of the best parts of the weekend was that we stayed in a hotel and a nice hotel at that. The beds were big and comfy and the showers had hot water. It was a wonderful vacation from our uncomfortable beds and bathrooms. And the televisions got 6 channels! (the ones at home only get 5) The hotel was just a block from the train station and a block from the Royal Mile, the main street in Edinburgh. From our room we could see the new Edinburgh section with Calton Hill.

A little bit about the city -

Edinburgh is a pretty small city. The Castle is on a hill and the Royal Mile extends down from it. Off of the Royal Mile, there are hundreds of little Closes, which are basically narrow alleys. The original Edinburgh was only about a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. There were walls surrounding it for protection and the city was extremely overcrowded. They had apartment buildings over 14 stories high by the 18th century. When Benjamin Franklin visited the city, he said how there were two kinds of streets in the city: the normal streets, then the streets that went up.

They built a new section for the city that was supposed to rival London and attract more socialites and wealth. However, what New Edinburgh did was relocate Edinburgh's existing wealthy from the center of the city outward. After this move, Edinburgh became extremely dirty and dangerous.

Edinburgh is surrounded by hills and the North Sea. Calton Hill is in the New Edinburgh section and is a hill of monuments. To me, it looks like a Scottish Acropolis. It had what looks like ancient ruins but in reality, they are just monuments built in recent centuries. There is even a Parthenon look-a-like monument built in the 19th century that was never finished.

The first thing we did after getting to the city was walk down the Royal Mile to the Scottish Parliament. The building is pretty modern and, in my opinion, quite ugly. It doesn't fit into the landscape at all. I believe it was built around 2000. The original Parliament building is in the center of the Royal Mile but wasn't used after Scotland joined England to form Great Britain at the beginning of the 1700s. Scotland didn't have its own Parliament until about 10 years ago when Great Britain started devolution. So now they have a form of federalism in Great Britain with the Scottish Parliament acting like our state governments.

We got a tour of the building and then met with a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP). I cannot remember his name but he was a very interesting man who had a lot to say. If anyone could perfect the art of digression, it was him. He went from answering a question about the SNP's relationship with the Irish Nationalists to European football in a matter of about 2 minutes. That night we went on a pub crawl in the New Edinburgh section and had a great time.

What I really wanted to do was climb one of the hills. I got up early Saturday morning (around 4:30am) to try to hike up the hill behind the Parliament building and see the sun rise. I made it to the trail before I chickened out. As I was standing there in the dark, looking at the black wall in front of me, I started thinking about Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights and getting lost in a moor (whatever that is). So I walked back towards the lighted city and walked along the Royal Mile for about an hour before I got scared again. Edinburgh is considered one of the most haunted cities in Europe. After walking by myself in deserted ancient city in the dark for about an hour, my imagination started to runaway with me. I pretty much ran back to the hotel after that.

That day we went to tour Edinburgh Castle. It was beautiful! We got to see the Scottish crown jewels and see them fire off a cannon. My favorite part of the castle was the prison. They held prisoners of war there beginning in the early 1700s. Even some Americans from the Revolutionary War were held there.

After the castle, four of us decided to go on a vault tour. There are vaults under the city that have been used since the 17th century. In the 1800s, they were deemed unusable and filled with rubble until the 1980s when excavations began. We took a tour of some that are 3 stories below ground. It was beyond creepy. We did go on the history tour and not the ghost tour but that didn't make a difference to me. In each room, there was just a candle and I could barely see the guide.

That night, we went on a real ghost tour with another company. They took you around the city and then into a cemetery. I was handling it well until the end when they take you into a prison yard and then into a mausoleum where a poltergeist supposedly lives. There is a great story about the place that I will post later. The guide freaked me out so much that I chickened out. I ended up sitting in the cemetery for 30 minutes waiting for the group to finish. I don't know which was a better choice. But I was with a Scottish girl who backed out as well so I at least had company. We discovered the company's secret - a guy jumps out at the group in the mausoleum. He had to wait where we were sitting so we talked with him for a little while.

Afterwards, we met up with the other people in our group at a hostel bar and had a great time singing and dancing. The next morning, a few of us walked up Calton Hill and saw the beautiful views. We then left that afternoon and made it back to London around 8pm.

I had a great time in Scotland. I love it there. I hope that someday I could take a trip back there and tour the whole country. It was so beautiful!