Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A glorious return

So I'm back from my 10 day whirlwind of vacances. I've got tons of beauty shots of Florence and Athens and will definitely share them with you all. At some point. I haven't the time to recap my entire vaycay but I just wanted to share something with you all.

I can't stop eating those English licorice candies. I eat them all day and then I want to vom. It's a vicious cycle but they are sooo delicious.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

I give, I give.

I can't take it! After weeks of tactful avoidance, the nagging e-mails from my mother and the words of disappointment from Elena have finally wore me down. What can I say? I'm sorry? I've been washing my hair for the past 3 weeks? What do you people want??? LIES or the truth?!?! Well, the truth is I started recounting the details of my break, got bored and walked away. I wrote a nice review of Amsterdam and you can have it. I don't want it anymore. Tragically, Paris is no longer fresh in my mind so you will all have to be contented with photographical evidence. Personally, I'm a visual learner. I would love it if someone told me I didn't have to read about their life but simply SEE it with my own EYES. So here it is, just for you, my adoring public. February 28th through March 8th in pictures AND words.

Amsterdam

Break officially began when I forced myself awake at the ungodly hour of 3:30 on a Saturday to run to the gare routière and catch a bus to the Marseille Airport for my 6:25 am flight to Eindhoven. Once there, myself and my traveling mates(some friends from my program) got on another bus which, after and hour and 45 minutes, finally dropped us off in front of Central Station in the heart of Amsterdam. A few words about the city, it is one of the most beautiful and impressive places I have been to yet. The layout and general appearance of the buildings is really cool and they all border little canals that snake about Amsterdam. For being there only 4 days, I managed to see a lot. I visited such gems as the Tropenmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Rijkmuseum. Lots of museums! I think the Van Gogh museum was my favorite because I got to see Starry Night which quite ironically was on loan from the Met. I think, however, that it was a lot more appropriate to see it in Amsterdam in a place dedicated to the works of Van Gogh. The piece was beautiful and I feel extremely lucky to have gotten to see it. In addition to gallery hopping, I took a pleasant canal ride, wandered the red light district, and visited the zoo!

And that, in a nutshell, was Amsterdam.

Paris


And there you have it.