Paris Revisited: Days 3 & 4-

For day three, I went adventuring on the bus system, to see where is easily accessible from Laura's apartment. Quite a lot, as it turns out- one bus goes straight to the Eiffel Tower, then the middle of the Champs-Elysee, then winds its way up to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur! All the tourist destinations on one line. I didn't get any pictures, since I was on a bus most of the day, but I saw lots of Paris, both the major sites and the residential streets. Highly enjoyable.

That night, Laura and I met up with some of her friends from Boston who are studying in Paris right now. We had dinner near the Eiffel Tower, with a very sassy French waiter.

The next day was far more action-oriented. I started my day by busing over to the Central College office and surprising my program director. It went quite well, and I was there for about half an hour.

I continued my bus journey, up to St. Michel (just about at Notre Dame), where I hopped off the bus when I finally spotted an Orange (telephone store). I got a SIM card for my phone, so that I can be in contact with the Keepers of the Keys (Laura and her husband) for the week. From there, I decided to walk for a bit, and ended up strolling the Seine to this adorable little garden on Ile de la Cite.

Garden! I took a picture of the more garden-y part, but unfortunately it prominently features a trash bag.

I wrote for a bit in the garden, which was very satisfying and reminiscent of last spring.

Moved on to the Louvre, where I could catch up with another one of the buses that runs past Laura's place, and see where it went.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of more busing and more wandering, and then finally, about 7:30, I set up at the Champs-de-Mar to await the 8 o'clock sparkling.

It is around this point that I realized that there are really only so many ways you can take a picture of the Eiffel Tower, and I've probably done all of them, but I did my best:

The sparkling never looks that impressive in pictures, sadly.

And yet, no matter how many pictures I take of it, it still thrills me every time!

Final Europe Updates: Teaser

Just to let everyone know that a few final updates from my spring in Europe are coming! I still have Giverny, the second half of Iceland, and my friend Clarissa has finally posted all of the pictures she took from our time in Scotland, so I'll grab a few favorites from that and toss them up here as well!

Stay tuned!

Teaser:

Giverny

Iceland

Edinburgh, Entry I

We reached Edinburgh a little before midnight, and I checked into my hostel (Clarissa and I figured that 10 days of sleeping in the same room might wear on us, so I got my own hostel for 3 nights, then slept on her floor over the last weekend). A pretty cool place, right in the center of things. If I even decide to spend a month or two in Edinburgh (not out of the question, though I don't know what life circumstances would lead to such an event transpiring), it would be an excellent long-stay hostel.

Edinburgh was a much more relaxed time than running around to a new city each day. I slept in on a regular basis, and generally just walked around. 

My first day, I decided to orient myself with a bus tour. The guide had such a thick Scottish accent that I probably got just as much out of his narration as I do when I'm being guided in French! Which is to say, I followed it, but definitely missed out on many nuances. 

A proper-sized bustling hub of a city!

Aforementioned tour guide

This is where Robert Louis Stevenson lived!

Police box and a telephone booth! Love it. 

Clarissa and I met up for dinner and spent several hours catching up (apparently in 5 days of constant contact, we had barely tapped the barrel of available conversations) the first night. She kept trying to get me to order to vegetarian haggis, but I outsmarted her and got a Reeses shake instead. I was so insistent that they completely load it with Reeses that they actually served it to me with an entire monster Reeses on the side! 

Never did get to the castle, but it's on a list for future visits. It's good to leave some things unexplored, right? I need an excuse to go back! Something else I sorta meant to do but never actually did is take a Writing Tour of Edinburgh. So many notable writers spent formative and productive time in Edinburgh. Among them are Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and JK Rowling. I added myself to the list (self-aggrandizing, I know) with a day working on my writing in the main park that runs between Old Town and New Town.

An interesting part of my timing in Scotland was that it was in the two weeks leading up to the Royal Wedding. Every tabloid was all about it, and they had lots of engagement-ring knock-off jewelry in the stores. I actually considered a pair of 4-pound earrings based on The Ring, because it would be such a timely, topical souvenir, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend money on a copy that was so cheap the "sapphire" was see-through and light purple. Still, it was much good fun. I was in Greece for the wedding itself, and watched it with all of the other girls there. But more on that later...

Writing

Though I wasn't there for the Wedding, I was in the UK for another wonderfully UK-ish (British? Scottish? What on earth do you call something which refers to the entire UK?) thing: the premier of the new season ("series") of Doctor Who. Clarissa has a small viewing party that she would go to in the fall for new episodes of Merlin, and they decided to start it up again for Doctor Who. It was a fabulous time- we ordered pizza and flopped around on a couch, yelling at Dan whenever he messed with the TV, discussing various fandoms, and positing theories on the episode, while it was happening. It's been such a long time since I watched a TV show with someone. It's so much fun! 

The other main to-do of Edinburgh was our rainy climb of the craigs and Arthur's Seat, a dormant volcano. But that involves lots of pretty pictures, and my internet is quite slow right now. So it will get it's own post, then it's onto Glasgow and Greece!

Iceland update: booked the hotel, now to look into what adventuring I want to do. Add another European volcano to my list? Whale watching and glacier spotting? Geothermal hotsprings?

Sunshine Exploits

Getting out and seeing the sights has a snowball-like effect, it would seem. The more you do it... the more you do it. It doesn't hurt that it has been absolutely gorgeous out for the past two weeks.

On Saturday, I went out with a few Central Folk to the Bois de Boulogne, which is essentially a gigantic park (complete with camping ground) on the westernmost edge of Paris. It was gorgeous. We picnicked and met up with some French friends of one of the Central ladies.

We also learned French dodgeball, which really threw us for a loop because it only uses one ball. It made sense eventually, and actually involves a lot more strategy, but still. It's not dodgeball. 

Sunday, I decided to take my writing out into the sunshine (or rather, the shade). Yes, in retrospect, expecting to immediately find a seat in the shade in the Tuileries on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon during Spring Break season was perhaps a little silly on my part. Be kind, I'm still learning. 

Still, I ended up first on a bench, then in a personal chair, and finally, with a fabulous spot overlooking the flowers. All in the shade. Made some excellent progress on my writing, as well!

My view from my first spot

It's finally Springtime in Paris!

The Tuileries as viewed from above

AKA my view from my third spot

A quick wander along the Seine to reach my bus, and I retreated to the land of air conditioning and water.

Notre Dame to the left, and I still haven't figured out that building to the right. Must get on that.

Sadly, no jaunting about yesterday, as I had a full day of classes, but at the very least there will be some very good jaunting this weekend- in Scotland!