The hectic travel month :-D

So ever since I got back from Amsterdam I have been traveling every weekend because of the railpass that I have. I get to go where ever I want for free as long as I take the trains. :-D It pretty much rocked.

Annecy/Grenoble

This week Alex was in Paris visiting his Aunt and for the weekend he decided to go to Madrid. Since I have already been there, Christa and I decided to take a random trip
since we both had railpasses. We picked a city called Annecy, it was supposed to be de a wonderful dinner complete with ham, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and …….a raclette machine. Now raclette is a type of cheese that I have used before and I had heard rumors of the so called raclette machine. What it is is a type of oven to melt cheese in. You put a piece of raclette on a spoon type device and stick it in the raclette machine, which is heated from the top and the bottom. It melts the cheese and you can then pour it onto your potatoes, ham, mushrooms, and onions for a wonderful meal. I ate way to much because it was so delicious.


There is also a tradition in January in France that apparently happens in the states too. It is the tradition of the kings cake. A group of people buy a cake inside of which is hidden a little prize, usually porcelin or something like it. You cut the cake into pieces and then the youngest person goes under the table and dictates who gets which pieces (so as to not be unfair) Everyone then proceeds to eat the slice they have been given and the person who finds the prize inside wins! They get a crown and get to choose their king or queen. Well, Gils, Christa, and I played the game with the three of us and I won. It was pretty cool. There were actually two prizes, but the second one was in the slice that none of us got. :-P


The next day Gils took us on a hike to the top of a pretty cool mountain. On the top was the site of an old Nazi camp from WWII. Grenoble was one of the main Nazi holds during the war. To get to that part, Gils took us on the “shortcut” which required that we slip and slide UP a snow covered hill. It was intense. There was some snow on the top of that mountain too so it was pretty nice. The view was amazing as well.




After the hike Christa and I unfortunately had to catch us bus back to Aix and cut off our great time with Gils. The bus ride home took forever because there were no fast trains from Grenoble that day that we could take. However, it was well worth it, finally getting to see Grenoble and Annecy. ;-D

Switzerland
Geneva

The next weekend, another trip was in store. This time Alex did tag along, as well as my friend Krystelle. The first city we hit was Geneva. It was amazingly beautiful there. Geneva has a flower clock, the tallest fountain in the world which is called Jet d’eau (Water Jet), and some pretty cool chapels. We walked around the city exploring for the whole day. We saw shops that had swiss army knives in them and we even got to see the Guinness Book of World Records biggest swiss army knife. It was huge! Totally unusable, but it had everything imaginable. We got to go into the bell towers of the Cathedral de St. Pierre (something that we never get to do in any other countries) and the view was awesome. It was so exciting for me to finally get to go up in a tower, since I do have an obsession with bell towers. :-P We also visited Hotel de Ville, which is where the Geneva Convention was signed. That was pretty cool. It was kind of deserted, but still it was cool to get to go there. After seeing pretty much all that we wanted to see in Geneva, we found these giant chessboards. The chessboards were painted on the asphault and the pieces came up to about my knees. It was so great! We played chess for a few hours, walking on the chessboards in order to move our pieces. Then we realized that Geneva was also where Jean Jacques Rousseau grew up so we had to visit his former house. It is now a museum and Alex paid to go in while Krystelle and I stayed outside. Looking back, I should have paid the measley 5 euros as well. After that we went in search of food. We also (unfortunately) sat in Starbucks (yes Starbucks…they are taking over the world just like Mc. Donalds) for a little while, though I did have some of the best cheesecake of my life there. Finally we caught our train to Zurich, where we were going to spend the night.



Zurich

We got to Zurich and the guy that we stayed with showed us around town a little bit, even though we got there at night. He took us up to this really cool park where we had a nice view of Zurich. The next day he had work so Alex, Krystelle, and I explored on our own. Like in Geneva, we got to go up into the bell tower of the Grossmunster cathedral. It was just as great. The stairs were killer, but the view was worth it. We also got a chance to see the largest clock face in Europe, which was on the St. Peters Church, though it didn’t look THAT big to me. Then we went back to the park that we visited last night and they had the same kind of chessboards set up except this time the pieces were wooden instead of plastic. We played chess for a few hours then we met some people and hung out with them. We went to the top of this other tower, which was actually a bar, but we just took some pictures. We then went to a beer hall that was playing some sweet polka type music. We got some good food and some good liters of beer. :-D It was good fun. The next morning we woke up and took the long train ride back to Aix. On the way we had some gorgeous views. We passed by Lake Geneva and along the side were some gorgeous vineyards. I couldn’t get a very good picture because of the reflections on the glass but one turned out pretty nice. All in all, I am glad that I finally got to go to Switzerland. I picked up a Swiss Army Knife while I was there, super cheap I might add, and also some swiss chocolates. :-D Very nice.



21st Birthday!

The Thursday before my actual birthday, Saqib threw a toga party at Bulldogges (an English restaurant in Aix) Before the toga party, a little party was thrown for Kristin and I (we have the same exact birthday). It was pretty cool. My mom had sent me some birthday glasses so we all wore those and looked awesome. We joined the toga party later and Kristin and I got to dance on the bar while people sang happy birthday.


me and Kristin, the other birthday girl!


us and the glasses


dancin on the bar :-D

Paris

I finally made my way to Paris for my 21st birthday. Alex, Saqib and I took the TGV (the fast train) on Friday night and made it to Paris in time to meet up with Saqib’s friend Tandra and her friends at a really cool café. While we were sitting there, an open mic night started. I finally got to hear French Slam Poetry, something I have wanted to hear the whole time I have been here. It was pretty awesome. Then we headed over to our hostel, that was right around the corner from Sacre-Coeur. We could see the famous church from outside of our door to our room. It was amazing! We dropped off our stuff in the hostel and headed out. We figured out that we were in the same arrondissment as the Moulin Rouge so it was obligatory that we head in that direction. When we finally got there it was not what I had imagined. There was a Moulin (windmill), but I had kept picturing the movie, which I didn’t actually remember very well anyway. But it was still cool to see. We then walked around a little more. Paris is so much more alive at night than Aix. It was about 3 in the morning and everywhere was still hoppin! It was pretty sweet. The next day (the day of my birthday :-D) we woke up and the first thing we did, after free hostel breakfast of baguettes with jam, was go to the Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre. After climbing the steps to the base of the stairs, we had an amazing view of all of Paris, except the Eiffel Tower. Now you must understand that ever since I arrived in France in August, I have been waiting to see the Eiffel Tower. I was glued to the window when we arrived in Paris on the airplane for our connecting flight to Marseille, and I was glued to the window again on the way to Marseille, and yet still I hadn’t even gotten a glimpse of the famous monument. So when we got to see a panoramic view of Paris without the Eiffel Tower, I must admit that I was a little disappointed. However, that disappointment turned to awe when we went inside the Sacre Coeur. Now usually, when I visit cathedrals, which I do very often cuz there is one in almost every city I go to here, they all look the same and I get the same feeling of churchiness. However, this one was different. It made me feel peaceful, welcomed, and alive again. The stained glass windows were amazing too, which was also odd since all cathedrals have some pretty nice stained glass windows. But these had little phrases in French describing the saints and it was just really cool to see. After we walked outside the church, I realized that we could probably see the Eiffel Tower if we walked a little to the right of the place we were before. I WAS RIGHT! I got my first view of the Eiffel Tower, and it was magical. It was little because it was so far away, but I just stood there in amazement for a few minutes, realizing that I was finally realizing a dream. Realizing how lucky I was to be here and how grateful I am for life. I had waited 21 years to see it, and I finally did. It was one of the happiest moments that I have had in France. That may sound weird, “why would Jules care so much about the Eiffel Tower, she has seen so many pictures of it and after all, its just a giant piece of metal…” but for me, it was something else. It was a life goal of mine that I had finally achieved, it is a symbol of a country that I love, of a city that is amazing, and it is something that cannot even be put into words. The rest of the weekend, every time I saw the Eiffel Tower, I would just stop for a moment and stare. Alex thought I was insane. But that’s just because he had already been there. I was so bummed that even he got to go to Paris before me….But on with the day. After the Sacre Coeur, Alex and I (Saqib had gone to meet up with Tandra) made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. That as well was spectacular, because ever since my French classes in high school, we have been learning about the lay out of Paris and all the famous monuments. So finally being in Paris for me was awesome. We hung out at the Arc for awhile then decided to walk down the famous street (the Champs Elysee) all the way to the Louvre. It was a long walk, but it was necessary for my first trip to Paris. Along the way we passed the Obelisk, which had replaced the guillotine that had been used during the French Revolution to behead all sorts of famous people. Now it is full of traffic. Odd isn’t it? We finally got to the Louvre, and it was a lot smaller than I had imagined. We didn’t go inside, because there were other things that I wanted to do and apparently you need more than a day to see the Louvre anyway. Then we hopped on a tram and headed to the Eiffel Tower, to finally see it up close and personal. We stood in the semi long line to get tickets to go to the top and finally took the elevator to the top. The first elevator stops on the second floor then you have to change elevators to go to the very top. We spent some time on the second floor, where the view was pretty good, then we went to the top, where the view was awesome. I couldn’t believe I was finally on the Eiffel Tower! I took a lot of pictures and stayed up there as long as Alex could stand it. Then we took the stairs all the way down. We stopped on the first floor, where there was an ice bar and a place to snow shoe on some snow that had been brought in. Yes, there was snow on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. I am not crazy. :-P We then met up with Saqib and Tandra walked around Paris. We got some dinner at a pizza restaurant that Tandra said was good. Later that night we met up with some people and went to see the movie Sweeny Todd. It was a very good movie, and I am even more in love with Johnny Depp. O:-D That night I had a couple drinks for my birthday, but nothing too exciting. Alex and I walked from the Sacre Coeur to the Eiffel Tower, a two hour walk, and then watched the sunrise from a really cool place in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was so beautiful. On Sunday Alex and I started our day off with choosing a random metro stop and getting off and getting a café. We stayed there and got warm and hung out for a couple hours then we headed back into the center of Paris for some more adventures. Our first stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was not nearly as impressive as Sacre Coeur. I actually didn’t like it. It is so hyped up and it wasn’t even all that pretty. But I was glad that I went. However, outside of the cathedral there was a guy that was feeding birds. He would just hold up a Madeleine (a type of biscuit) in his hand and the birds would flock to him. I was thoroughly amused and, like a little child, decided that I needed to try as well. So I joined the 5 little children that were surrounding him and asked if I could do it was well. He gave me a piece of Madeleine and about 10 birds suddenly engulfed my hand. They would perch their tiny feet on my hand and nibble at the Madeleine. It felt so weird! But it was so much fun. :-D Alex made fun of me, but I loved it. After that we wanted to see the Catacombs, but unfortunately they were closed until March. :-( Instead we decided to check out what my book had called “Le musee des egouts..” Or the museum of the sewers. Despite how that sounds, it was actually really really cool. One of the coolest things that we did in Paris, and definitely better than Notre Dame. We got to go down in the sewers of Paris, learn how they work, and see some real Parisian sewage (ok that part was a little gross but it was still really cool to get to be there) My favorite part was the fact that they had a bathroom down there so it was really exciting to go to the bathroom because we were already in the sewers so it was weird to think about. Now they have down there these giant round balls of metal or steel or something. They are used to clean out the parts of the Paris sewers that are not accessible to humans. They throw them down in the sewers and they push out all the sediment and then come out of the other side. There was one of these balls on display down there and we couldn’t resist taking some pictures with it. We could be Indiana Jones or the cover of Atlas Shrugged. It was great fun. :-D After that we went back to the Eiffel Tower (I just couldn’t get enough) and took some more pictures. We then went and got some food and then headed to the train station to wait for our train. We were so burnt out from the lack of sleep and all the fun that we had had. I pretty much slept the whole way back home on the train and passed out when I got back home to Aix. It was a wonderful weekend and I will definitely be going back to Paris as soon as I can. :-D



Sweden

We decided to go to Sweden because we got free tickets with Ryan Air. Saqib, Alex, German, and I traveled together to Gotheborg. Our other two friends were on the same flight but we didn’t hang out with them. Saqib and I stayed together in one place with some really cool people and Alex and German stayed at another house with some other cool people so we split up on Friday night when we arrived. Saqib and I had some really really good fish that the guy we were staying with (Johan) made for us. That night we stayed up and talked to Johan and his wife Adriana for a long time and then we went to bed. The next day we walked around Gotheborg with Johan and Adriana and they told us a lot about the city. We walked up to the top of a hill and had a nice view of the city. Then we went into a cafe and got some giant cinnamon rolls. And when I say giant, I mean the four of us split one and were happy. We also visited a really cool museum. Saqib wanted to stay there all day, but instead we left after awhile and got some awesome Thai food. That night Adriana and Johan had a party at their house for Adriana’s birthday. A bunch of people came and we got to meet lots of awesome people! We played Nintendo Wii for awhile and had some fun. The next day we did some more walkin around and took a ferry ride as well. It was freezing cold but it was still nice. Then we went to a café and met a whole bunch of new people because a bunch of Adriana and Johan’s friends were there. There were blueberry muffins there too! First that I have had since the states. :-D Then we had to catch our bus back to the airport to go back to Aix. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to all of our newfound friends. :-/ But I’m sure we’ll all stay in touch. :-D



This weekend I finally got to stay at home and take a break. It was very nice. :-D Next weekend Alex and I leave for Morocco :-D I can't wait!