Winter Break Adventures Part Due

Paris

We got to Paris at about 9 in the morning on New Years Eve. We knew other archies were already there, but we couldn't get ahold of them, and my friend Julie, who we were staying with, wasn't going to get in til about 6 pm. So it was just Katie and I in the morning. We started at Notre Dame, and then walked around the historical district right by it, and over to the Louvre. We considered going in...until we saw the line. Ridicously long. Our plans quickly changed and decided to just keep walking around. Eventually, we got crepes and sat down for a little while, and then went to meet up with a bunch of archies at the "catacombs". I didn't know anything about these; I didn't see them the first time I was Paris. It's an underground area that was apparently originally a mining shaft, and then was used to bury victims of an illness epidemic...so it's kind of creepy, actually--there are huge stacks of bones all around. There are also inscriptions on the walls about death, and how it's inevitable and coming for all of us, etc (They're in French, of course. Good thing a few of my friends had taken French in high school). What struck me most was that hope was missing--the concept of resurrection was completely absent. I think I prefer the Christian catacombs in Rome...

After that, we walked to the Pompidou Center and spent awhile in the bookstore, as per our norm, then ate and split to get ready for New Years Eve celebrations that night! Katie and I went to Julie's dorm/apartment (I never know what to call it), and our other friends went back to the apartment they were renting. We planned to meet back up that night before all heading over to the Eiffel Tower together...but alas, that didn't exactly come to fruition...Katie and I arrived at Julie's place, spent a little while catching up with her and my other friend AJ who was also there, and then realized that we didn't actually really have time to meet up with the other group beforehand. So the four of us navigated the crazy-packed (but free!) Metro to get down to a good Eiffel Tower viewing location. I'm pretty convinced we wouldn't have made it if Julie hadn't been there, with her in-depth knowledge of the Metro stations and ability to actually understand what the French police were saying to us in those stations...but we finally got there. The Tower was all lit up, and had a little countdown and sparkled a lot at midnight. It was cool!


You can barely see the Eiffel Tower back there, kind of looking like it's growing out of our heads...also, this picture is unusual because it actually shows Katie and I together, proving that we did, in fact, travel together. Most of our pictures leave that kind of up in the air.

The next day, we got up and went to mass at Sacre Coeur. Evan met us there, which was cool because we never actually managed to meet up with everyone the night before...it was just too crazy. But Evan, Katie and I spent the rest of the day doing more sightseeing around the city, including a 4 hour round trip journey up the Eiffel Tower...it got a bit cold waiting in line (as in, "my toes were numb" sort of cold), but I think it was worth it. Katie and Evan had never been up it, and I had never been up it at when it was dark outside...so it was good.

Paris was the only repeat-place I went on this trip. It was cool being back a second time--I definitely appreciated the French language more this time around. Even knowing just a few words made it a lot less overwhelming. In fact, something funny happened the first day we were there--I took Katie to Julie's favorite little panini stand for lunch. First of all, I was impressed with myself that I managed to find it. Then, I ordered my panini confidently in French...but my cover was blown when the guy asked me a question back in French and I, of course, had no idea what he said. I was a little too convincing, I suppose:-) Luckily, he also spoke English, so it worked out, and he even taught us a few more French words. I think he appreciated that we at least tried.

Anyway, Katie and I left early on January 2nd (Saturday) for Barcelona!

Barcelona

We got into Barcelona in the late morning and checked into the hostel. All along when we were planning the trip, this day was going to be a "chill" day--do laundry, read, sleep...hang around the hostel instead of sightseeing. We figured we'd need it after being gone for a week already. However, right before we left Rome, I discovered that there's a Marian Shrine (Our Lady of Montserrat) in the mountains near Barcelona that we decided we'd like to go to, and this afternoon seemed like the best time. So we ended up doing that instead, and in my opinion it was totally worth it.

It was about a 45 minute train ride away, and ended with a cable car ride up a huge mountain. So of course, when we got up there, the view was gorgeous! The Shrine started as a monastery, and now houses a statue of Mary that's reported to be miraculous. (There's some question about the origin of the statue, and whether the statue or the monastery came first).


The pictures, of course, don't do it justice, but you can sort of tell how awesome it was!


This is how you get up and down the mountain!

When we got back into the city, we walked around the main shopping street, ate dinner, and went back to the hostel. We really were pretty tired, so we went to bed early. On Sunday, we went to a Spanish mass, except in Barcelona, they speak Catalan Spanish, not regular Spanish. I'm pretty sure that means it's a combination of Spanish and French. Katie understands Spanish pretty well, but the Catalan style was different enough that she didn't catch most of it. And my high school Spanish failed me as well...haha. We went to a Picasso museum after that. It was cool to have an entire museum dedicated to one person's work, because you can see the progression of their abilities and style over the course of their life. And Picasso was definitely very talented. He went sort of crazy at the end of his life, and even that was evident in his painting...it was really fascinating.

The architecture-related things worth seeing in Barcelona were mostly all designed by one man--Gaudi. He has a very distinctive style. The building that's probably best known is a cathedral called "La Sagrada Familia". It's actually still under construction right now--it's been going for about 150 years, but should be finished in about 30! The style's kind of hard to describe, so here's a picture instead:



We also ended up visiting the Barcelona Olympic Stadium, which I didn't realize existed til we got there, but it was really cool. On the sidewalk near it, they had footprints of a bunch of famous athletes, including Lance Armstrong:


I was surprised to find out that my foot is bigger than his.


The stadium was open to walk in and look around (apparently the Barcelona football team used to play there, but they just recently moved to someplace new), but we couldn't get down to the field, unfortunately...

Another sweet thing about Barcelona is that alot of the attractions were on top of large hills, but to aid people in getting up to them, they had...outdoor escalators!


The picture's a little blurry, sorry...it was one of those "snap while walking" shots. Also, this made me wonder about how escalators work--do they self-generate power? Otherwise it seems like it'd be a huge waste, and very uncharacteristic of the usually conversative Europeans. Also, what happens when it rains?

After our full day of sightseeing, we ate dinner (from an Asian food take out place, ha) and headed back to the hostel.

The next day, we were still in Barcelona. We spent more time in each city in the second week that during the first...we had an evening flight out, but all morning to see more of the city. We went down to the beach, which would have been cooler if it were warmer (ha), but was still pretty awesome. We ate lunch and relaxed there for a bit, and then got cold and decided to go to Starbucks to warm up:-) It was quite delicious, and a very laid back day. After that, we headed to the airport and flew to Amsterdam!

Two more cities down, and two to go! Part 3 coming soon!