Hey, y’all (as my new southern friends say all the time)!
Sorry for the delay between posts, life has been completely crazy around here! Internet is crazy expensive in Paris, and now that we’re in Germany we’ve found a cheap internet café, but the keyboards are German which I can’t work very well…oh well. I’m typing this out on my laptop and hopefully I’ll be able to upload it soon.
So where did I leave off? The jazz concert in Paris was great, we stayed for two sets and then headed home to our hotel. The next day we had two class-related events: we went to the Opera Garnier in the morning and then the Pompidou museum in the afternoon.
The Opera Garnier was one of my favorite things on the trip so far—for those of you who don’t know, it’s where “The Phantom of the Opera” is set, although the other stuff about the building is much more interesting. It’s a completely beautiful space, and I hope that I get to see a show there someday. After we left the opera, we headed back to our hotel where there was an adorable “Fete des Enfants” (Party of the Children) festival going on outside our hotel. It was all about teaching kids about sustainability and other cool stuff like that.
The Pompidou was slightly more odd; in some cases, I just really don’t understand modern art. The “dada” period is my least favorite…as far as I can tell, it’s just people who consider a bike wheel attached to a stool to be fine art. I did really enjoy the modern painters (like Matisse and Picasso), however; after our official visit ended my friends and I wandered around discussing all the artwork together and trying to sound knowledgeable. It was great.
After the Pompidou we got a good (if not a bit overpriced) Parisian dinner with an EXTREMELY rude wait staff. Seriously, guys, I’ve clearly studied your language for years and you can just suck it up that we’re Americans. They even hit my friend Amy in the head with a plate and didn’t apologize! Sheesh.
So after our lovely dinner experience, we took the Metro to Sacre Coeur (the Sacred Heart), a church in the Montmartre district that overlooks all of Paris. We had amazing crepes (sadly, at a Haagen Daz) then walked up all of the stairs to the church. Once we got there, we walked into the cathedral where they were in the middle of Saturday night mass. We sat in the back and watched the end, which was beautiful and amazing and really moving. After it was over, we wandered around a bit more and headed back to our hotel.
Sunday was basically hours and hours of driving—we left Paris by 8:30 in the morning and got to Munich at about 9:00 at night. I mostly slept but also made lame and unsuccessful attempts at finishing my music paper on the jazz concert. Once we got to Munich, a bunch of us headed out to a “Beer Garden,” which is just basically a beautiful outdoor space with lights and nice tables where they serve beers and traditional German foods. I’m a big fan.
Today we took a day trip to Salzburg, Austria. We spent the first couple of hours on a “Sound of Music” tour—basically driving around the city in a big bus and seeing all the places that the movie was filmed. After that, we were given the option of either heading into the countryside to see the church where the wedding scene was shot or seeing Salzburg on our own (or heading back to Munich by train…lame). A bunch of my friends and I opted to see the old city by ourselves, which was AMAZING.
For one thing, the old city in Salzburg is beautiful—amazing architecture surrounded by beautiful natural landscapes. We wandered around the city for a bit and then climbed the mountain to the big fortress on the hill that had really spectacular views. The people were also some of the nicest we’ve met so far.
After we got back from Austria we just finished our papers and then headed out to downtown Munich for a beer. Not too exciting, but again the people have been so nice and welcoming here…definitely different than Paris!
Anyway, off to bed! Lots of love…
Dara
PS: Photos are taking FOREVER to upload, so just check out this link for the complete Paris photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014093&id=1326450024&l=195b8399de
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