Paris

pah-rrreee!!!! It was great great great. I love it when I go to see a very touristy thing that has been very touristically hyped and right when I see it I think "ohhh...so THAT'S why people make such a big deal about it."

This happened TWICE in France. 1st - Eiffel Tower. 2nd - Garden of Versailles.
List of things done would include...

Notre Dame: An organist was playing so it was GREAT to hear music literally reverberating in that space, but it seemed like he/she was a child just banging at the keys so that was kinda weird...outside

organ pipes inside

Louvre: just the outside. And also the underside.

Jardin des Tuileries: our first exposure to vast amounts of roads lined with trees. Paris makes me want a driveway lined with trees. It is truly beautiful.
Avenue de Champs- Élysées: Hannah made a purchase at Louis Vuitton for her relatives. I thought that made our Paris experience pretty complete. This is the kiosk right outside the store. For some reason that I can't remember, I thought it was more interesting.
Arc de'Triumphe: we stopped in the middle of the street to take a picture with it. People were so mesmerized with us two asians that ALL THE TRAFFIC stopped just so we could take a picture!!!! [completely joking. =) there was a divider separating traffic that was perfect for tourists]
Obelisk: I don't really know....obviously something Egyptian! [no picture..]

Eiffel Tower: day AND night.

Versailles: I didn't go into the palace, the gardens were enough para mi! If you have a bike, you can make it through the entire garden in a day. I was on foot and had no hope of seeing all of it in half a day, but it was GREAT!!! The area next to the palace was extremely masculine and grand, but Marie-Antoinette's Petit Trianon was much more subdued. I've fallen in love with gardens.

The Orangerie

The road leading to Le Petit Trianon. [which was not petit at all.]

and. again. we had amazing weather!!! Looking at all these pictures, Paris was definitely one of my favorites.

i have 2 finals and a paper due today! this was my break. tiiime to work!
only 1 week left. CRAZY.

Stockholm

An incredibly clean and friendly city. The perks of having high taxes were completely visible.

the view from our hostel BOAT! We were only there for one night, but it was really comfortable.

Sweden.

seagull! and beautiful sky.

cherry blossoms + hannah cha

look at this mcdonald's!!

Outside the Modern Art Museum where we saw an Andy Warhol exhibiton. I enjoyed The Museum of Architecture that was right next door a lot more though. The swedish have amazing architecture: like IKEA all across the country!

other than the 2 museums, we also went on a boat-tour [we couldn't get all the way out to the archipelago] and then just to see the 'old city' we rode a public bus from its starting point, back to its starting point.

in this book Affluenza, it talks about Danes being the happiest people because of the small (relatively) gap between the rich and the poor, and I feel like this is true for the Swedish too. It felt more like a community of people than competitors trying to get to the top of the success ladder.
We were also there on the NICEST/warmest day! That was a huuuge plus.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam was....nicer than expected. No doubt about that. Sometimes the smell of weed was overpowering, but mostly it was a very practical city. Our tour guide kept stressing that the Dutch are extremely practical people. Like the way they move into their homes, for example. It's hard to see in the picture, but the houses are all tilted forward a bit, and have metal bars attached right outside the window of every floor that allow a pulley-system to get furniture to the upper stories of the house. That would be because the stairs are too narrow.

Like a parking garage for bikes!! Everybody rides a bike. Sometimes it was funny, cuz you would see a woman in stilletoes and a nice dress-suit riding a bike! I don't really understand the system though - i feel like the accident rate could get very high! They should have more of those convex mirrors at intersections so bikers [like me] aren't constnatly stressed about running into zooming cars. I think I'm the only the one that was really concerned about it though.

One of the many coffeeshops in Amsterdam. But THIS ONE was in Ocean's Eleven: the scene with Matt Damon and George Clooney where he makes the best 'lift' Clooney has ever seen. i think. As a tribute, they have Ocean's Eleven playing on loop!

hello!

hannah CHA.

Hannah and I kept thinking about how we wanted Thai food very very badly, and we got the perfect substitute: Coconut Curry Stir Fry from Wok to Walk. It was deeeeliiicious.

I had meant to go to the Van Gogh Museum, and instead landed up at the Dutch History Museum. I still don't know how that happened. hahaha, I was very confused on the first floor, and just kept thinking "isn't anyone else wondering where the Van Gogh is??" The garden was very pretty though.

Plus: hostel breakfast! [three pieces of bread, butter, jam, and 2 hard-boiled eggs], sunday morning church at a slightly more conservative group than normal - it was still amazing.
Minus: Just the Van Gogh museum mix-up. I was really looking forward to it, but after going into a different museum, I didn't have time. I did get to see some Rembrandt though.

It was the first of many many European cities.

London

mmmk. so following Hannah's lead, I've decided to go more in-depth about each location. This way, I'll remember more about my trip too!

London was in a league of its own because 1. THEY SPEAK ENGLISH 2. The architecture is just so cool 3. it's expensive!

They say silly things like "mind the gap" in the subway station, when they actually mean "stay behind the yellow line," but it's become a hugely commercialized phrase and people have shirts that say it too. I must admit, it's very catchy!

And wow, I just realized I have no visual memroies of my 2-day stay cuz I forgot to get them from Hannah's computer buut the sites seen were

Buckingham Palace - the changing of the guards

Hyde Park - twas beautiful. and cold! but huuuge.

Victoria and Modern Museum - oook.

The National Gallery - GREAT. Favorite painting is below. =) thanks to the National Gallery's website.

Trafalgar's Square - I think I was too distracted by the huge sign that said FREE for the National Gallery, [they're adjacent to each other] and all I remember now are some lions?

The Tower of London - it was closed.. but people actually live inside this place! And, I guess they close it at midnight and NOBODY is allowed in or out until the morning - they even have a doctor inside for emergencies.

Tower Bridge - absolutley beautiful! And, I waved to people on a boat tour of London that happened to be passing under the bridge. Too bad I was just a tourist - they were excited though!

Harrod's - laughably ginormous and extravagent.

Westminster Abbey - GREAT. you can make a peep and it'll echo throughout that entiiire place.

The Boulevard Montmarte at Night, Pissarro, 1897.
I reaally realized how different things can look at different times of the day. I'm sure there's a completely different approach to 'night' versus The Boulevard Montmarte at Sunrise. or Midday. or Evening. And then, it's not even just the lighting that'd be different, but also the action in the painting. What's great though, is that it's all the same boulevard.
[i like to store these kinds of realizations to apply to interpreting piano pieces at some point...=]

ALL OF IT WAS SO COOL! And now that I think back to it, very BIG. But London is not geographically big, so it must be like harry potter where everything seems big but is magically very compact. =)

amsterdam, paris, rome

i for some reason have become horrible at aligning pictures! Buut for the past 3 weeks, i've been with Hannah Cha doing a brief 'europe tour.'

London
Amsterdam
Stockholm
Paris
Rome
Venice
Florence

It was INCREDIBLE!!!!! Not only because the places were beautiful, with cleeaarr blue skies in each city, but because I really think I've learned more about myself during those 3 short weeks than the whole time i've been in Thessaloniki. so much to say! but i won't bore you guys. =) I am just so grateful.

I only have pictures from Amsterdam, Paris, and a little of Rome for now.

yellow bike-riding in Amsterdam. Hannah loved it! I was waayy too clumsy to be on this thing in the midst of cars and many other bikers. According to an Amsterdonian - "if you can't ride a bike, GO HOME!" hahahaha. Rachel, it's 10 times worse than campus.

Paris was definitely one of my favorites. Especially the garden at Versailles!!!! Just loooook. It never ends. You need a full day ON BIKE to get through the whole thing. ahhhhh i loooved it. =)

Hannah eating mushroom pizza with the Collosseum in the background!!! The restaraunt was called "Trattoria". haha!

Hannah and I with the eiffel tower.

It was BEAUTIFUL at night.

lots of h.w. to catch up on!!! and then next week = athens + crete with RACHEL LIOU AND HANNAH CHA!

you guys- i'm SO EXCITED!!!!!!