Suddenly It Is Christmas!

Today was my first full day in Munich. It snowed last night so everything was very pretty when I woke up this morning. And very cold! Having spent so much time luxuriating in the sun on the Mediterranean, my train ride unfortunately brought me right into winter. The temperature hovered a little below freezing for most of the day. I was actually a little glad of the cold because I've been secretly (and not so secretly) resenting my heavy sweater because it takes up a lot of space in my bag. But I don't think my coat would be warm enough without some layering underneath so the sweater has proven its worth!

This morning, I decided to go to the main square in town and check out one of Munich's famed Christmas markets. When I arrived, I noticed that people were all lined up along one side of the square, facing the other side, so I joined them - I've learned quickly over the past several weeks that following the crowd may not be the best way to manage your whole life, but when you're somewhere new and don't know what's going on, it's usually the right decision. As it turns out, we were all waiting for the famed Munich glockenspiel, which only plays twice a day. I happened to be standing next to an American glockenspiel enthusiast (either that or he's just generally enthusiastic about everything). He provided expert narration for the video he was making as well as ordering his wife to just keep taking photographs lest the camera go to sleep. He narrated in the same style as every middle-aged American with a camcorder, i.e. clearly stating the date and location, commenting on the weather, and then stating obvious things about what's being taped.

Here's the glockenspiel:

[click on any picture to enlarge]

After the glockenspiel finished, I walked all around the market - both the one in the main square and another a few streets over.

Mostly the market made me want to purchase and then decorate a Christmas tree. There were so many different types of ornaments and it took a lot of restraint not to buy them all! (I deterred myself by imagining trying to clean shards of ornament out of my backpack.)

I learned how to master German fashion in two easy steps:

1. Obtain a black coat
2. Put on your black coat

You are fashionable! And could blend in perfectly with this crowd:

I also had a bratwurst for lunch. I have to admit, I'm actually struggling a little bit with the meat here. This morning at breakfast, there was a variety of cold meats available but it was all those weird salamis with stuff in them. The texture of the bratwurst was verrry subtly different than I'm used to and I didn't like it. (The mustard was EXCELLENT though). When I went to the grocery store later, their meat section was full of processed meats of all kinds and it actually turned my stomach a little bit. I have no idea why - I have historically been a fan of processed meat, in that I love hot dogs and sausage and pepperoni and salami and chorizo... but ugh, I felt nauseous through the rest of the grocery store until I got outside and got some fresh air.

Anyway. After I had seen all the Christmas tree ornaments in the world - as well as various "puppen", baked goods, candles, artwork, garlands, small glockenspiels, window hangings, and wreaths - I decided to head back towards my hostel. I stopped at the grocery for the above-mentioned trip and got some food to make dinner. I put all my clothes in the washing machine (which was exciting because you don't want to know how long it's been since my clothes were anything but hand washed) and went up to the kitchen to put my food away. I discovered a contingent of Germans and Australians making and decorating Christmas cookies and listening to Christmas songs! The Germans seem to have unparalleled enthusiasm for Christmas, and Australians are just enthusiastic about everything. This was intense decorating, complete with marzipan.

I hung out with them for a while, helping by adding sprinkles and taste testing various cookies. There were some star-shaped ones made with ground walnuts that were really good! I will have to find a similar recipe, or find out whose recipe it was. It was a cozy way to spend the end of the afternoon.

After eating dinner, I went out for a fun treat - HARRY POTTER. I found a theater which was showing it in English, so I took the S-bahn down to the theater. It was so good!! I really enjoyed it, although it makes me want to see the last one NOW.

I am back at the hostel now, getting ready for bed. I talked to reception at the hostel and added on some additional nights because so far I am liking Munich a lot. I have befriended the Australians in my room (different Australians than I was decorating cookies with), so I'm looking forward to some good times here! Sorry this entry was quite light on pictures - when I was taking pictures of the glockenspiel, the low battery light was flashing so I didn't take many today.

Escape from Milan

I am now in Munich - hooray! Hopefully the next few days will be filled with fairy tale castles, Christmas markets, delicious beer, and foods ending in -wurst.

I have a whole entry about my time in Milan, but I think we'll just leave the past in the past and from now on, only refer to the past three days as either "The Milan Fiasco" or "The Milan Debacle".  I had one really good meal there, ate a lot of clementines, and got thrown out of the church while trying to see the Last Supper. Those were the highlights. The lows were having trouble to find a place to stay my first night, somehow hurting my foot and limping around for two days, being unable to get a train ticket ANYWHERE, rain/snow/sleet, being unable to stand still outside the Duomo because as soon as you paused, you were accosted by vendors and beggars, no internet, and a cold hostel. Yes. Debacle indeed.

Anyway, new city and I have high hopes! I'm going to take a walking tour tomorrow and hopefully have time for some Christmas markets, and also I'd like to take a day trip to Nuremberg, and possibly another day trip around the Bavaria countryside to see castles. Stay tuned!

In Milan

Just a quick note to say I am in Milan, and internet is strangely inaccessable around here. I have a long entry typed up explaining why I am in Milan, since I was not really planning to come here... but I will have to post it later since I am on a random computer in an internet cafe. They allow smoking at this particular cafe... so I am not especially keen to linger. Also I cannot find the apostrophe key on this computer.

Exploring the French Riviera: Nice, Villefranche, Eze, Monaco

Yesterday evening, I walked with my roommates Nicole and Claire down to the beach (two blocks away) and then along the water for a ways. Claire, being Australian, kept claiming that the water wasn't that cold and we should go swimming, but we never followed through with that plan. (There was no one else in the water.) We climbed a lot of stairs up to the Chateau overlooking the city and watched the sun "set". Actually, the sun sank behind clouds prior to setting so we didn't get a beautiful Mediterranean sunset to watch. There were a lot of good places to sit and people watch, both down by the water and up at the Chateau.

Here were some of our views:

[click any picture to enlarge]

Oh, THERE'S my yacht:

[Note: I made "Oh, there's my yacht!" jokes all day long, so if you're thinking that you wish you'd been here, bear in mind that about once every hour, I'd say either, "Oh, there's my yacht" or "Oh, there's my villa." Once I said, "Oh, there's my car." Hanging out with me = not as much fun as the photos imply.]

After we left the Chateau, we decided to go have a drink, and we wound up at an Irish pub. We had a drink there and then wandered off in search of dinner. After evaluating the menu at several places, we finally decided on the place that offered us a free glass of rose champagne with our meal. We got delicious pizzas, which we thought were really huge but we all managed to finish them. We liked our free glasses of rose so much that we also ordered a carafe of the wine. (I know rose has a little accent mark but I am too lazy to figure out how to type that.)


We finished dinner and went back to the hostel, and eventually went to sleep (after a wonderful Skype conversation with Shelley).


Nicole and I decided yesterday that we would go up to Monaco today. Claire had already been to Monaco, and she recommended also stopping in Eze (pronounced "ehz") on the way there. We asked Luis, our wonderful hostel concierge if he would recommend any other stops, and he suggested Villefranche, another small village between Nice and Monaco. After sorting out elaborate bus schedules for a while, we set out, and Claire joined us since she had not been to Villefranche. It was a very cute city - not a whole lot to do, but a picturesque place to have a cappucino, which is exactly what we did:

Villefranche was incredibly cute - I loved all the pastel colored buildings:

After Villefranche, we all took a bus BACK to Nice. Claire had to go catch her train (boo hoo hoo) and Nicole and I grabbed lunch near the bus station and then jumped on another bus to go to Eze. Luis, our wonderful concierge, had suggested that we go to a parfum shop in Eze, so we went in here:

This was incredibly fun - my favorite part of the day. We took a short tour where we learned about different methods of producing perfumes, and then we had a little session that I'll call a "perfume scenting" but it was actually incredibly similar to a wine tasting. Nicole, myself, and another woman gathered round a counter which had many, many bottles of perfume on it, and the woman who gave us our tour would give us a brief description of a scent, then spray several of the little cardboard strips, and hand them to us to smell. There was also a little glass jar of coffee beans so we could cleanse our scent palate between perfumes. We learned all about base, middle and top notes, as well as all about different scent families. It was really fun. Obviously the whole point was to sell us perfume, and THEY WIN - I bought a small bottle of my very own French perfume.

After the parfumerie, we went to explore the "Old Town" of Eze, a wonderful medieval town high above the Mediterranean. None of my pictures do a good job of conveying that you're really high up, but believe me - it's basically on giant cliffs over the sea. 

It's a fun place to wander for an hour or so; lots of shops, restaurants, art galleries. Very rambling:

Here's a statue:

See? We're WAY above the sea:

Up really high! Really!

There were some gorgeous vantage points looking out over the sea:

Once we finished exploring the old town, our adventure for the day was about to begin. A remarkably disproportionate amount of our time today was spent consulting, analyzing, discussing, evaluating, and questioning bus schedules. To make a long story short, we needed to get from the very top of town to the very bottom of town to catch our next bus. The woman in the tourist information office told us that there was a path to follow and it would take about 45 minutes. She did not mention that we should have hiking boots, walking sticks, matches, small shelters, and a Saint Bernard with us.

Things started off promising; there were steps:

The terrain quickly became quite rugged:

It was the most difficult and beautiful walk to the bus stop I have ever taken! We spent some time discussing wilderness survival tactics, and paused every several hundred feet to comment on how gorgeous everything was:

Amazingly, RIGHT as we reached the bus station, our bus pulled up, so we hopped on and continued on our way to Monaco. Our goal was to find a good spot to watch the sun set in Monaco, but we sort of missed it. Oops. Still, we walked around the harbor area just at the beginning of dusk.

Oh there's my OTHER yacht:

This is not the main harbor but rather the one near the heliport. While we were near the heliport, a helicopter landed and a guy in a suit hopped out and strode away to a waiting car, which promptly zoomed off. His bags were attended to by random minions - he didn't even wait for them, presumably, his clothes will be unpacked, pressed, and hung in the closet by the time he needs to change. THAT'S THE LIFE.


The sky looks bright here but this is as dusk was falling and all the lights were coming on:

Exhausted from our adventurous day, we got on our final bus home - the bus from Monaco to Nice is probably the only public bus I have ever been on where half the women are carrying Louis Vuitton bags; one woman had a leather trench coat on that looked so soft, it took all my self control not to reach out and stroke it - and hopped off in time for a quick trip to the grocery store. We grabbed some quick food and cheap wine to make back at the hostel. That turned out to be an adventure in and of itself, but that's another story for another time.

Nice is (you guessed it) nice!

I left Marseille yesterday, taking an easy train ride along the coast to Nice. I didn't plan with this in mind, but it was a good decision to go from Marseille to Nice rather than the other way around because although I liked Marseille, it's a lot "grittier" than sedate, elegant Nice. I think if I had been to Nice first, I would have just thought Marseille was dirty. (I mean, it was.)

I have quite a nice hostel here - it's just a couple blocks from the sea, and easy walking distance of all of downtown. I'm sharing the room with four other girls: an American, two Australians, and one English girl.

This morning, I decided to go down to the large open-air flower market:

There was a lot more there than flowers - it took a lot of self restraint not to buy everything. There was all sorts of produce, and also mushrooms, olives, spices, cheese, meats, oils, and bakery items. And, of course, the homey crafts, like crocheted Kleenex box covers, that are apparently ubiquitous the world over.

One of the food specialties in the South of France is called socca. If you combined falafel with crepes, you would get socca - it is a thin pancake made with chickpea flour, then sliced and folded up. The Spanish guy at the front desk of my hostel said that I should get socca from Theresa, who sold it at the flower market. She wasn't hard to find as there was a long line. The production method for the socca was kind of entertaining. They were not made on the spot, but rather, a man would ride up on a motorbike/scooter with a tiny little trailer. From the back of the trailer, he would unload one large socca pan with freshly made socca. He would trade Theresa for an empty pan, get back on his bike, and leave. Theresa would set the socca pan down atop a trashcan grill, drizzle olive oil over it, and slice it up, wrapping each portion in paper and handing out the portions - 3 Euros for a portion. Once she had sliced up the fresh socca, we would all stand around and wait for the man to return with another pan. It took about half an hour to get my socca, but it was worth it - it was hot and really good!

Here is Theresa slicing socca for the assembled crowd:

I didn't feel like paying to sit at Theresa's "restaurant" (plastic chairs around folding tables) so I did the American thing and ate while I walked around the market. After I finished my socca, I wandered through the edges of Nice's "old town". This is pretty much what you would imagine when you think of old timey France - narrow, winding streets, full of restaurants, cafes, and stores. I was half wandering and half looking for La Cure Gourmande, a candy shop recommended to me by Alexa. Finally, I found it. It was a wonderland! I tried to take a picture without looking like a weirdo:

The photograph doesn't really do justice to the abundance of brightly colored, enticing candies that overflow from the shelves. The front section (lower right corner of the picture) is all sorts of delicious looking bakery goods. The left hand side of the picture is a wall of hard candies and lollipops in every imaginable flavor. The other side of the store is chocolate and caramel. I walked in, eyes as big as saucers, and could barely take in all the colors and candies around me. To top it all off, a clerk (who I think the store must have hired for his resemblance to Johnny Depp in Chocolat) suddenly appeared, opened a box of chocolates, and offered me one. IT WAS AMAZING.

Though I was pretty sure I was dreaming, I decided to get some caramels since I figured they would travel in a backpack better than the chocolates, and this way I could satisfy my sweet craving that I often get after dinner. My little bag of caramels rang up to 11.80€, but given how much money I COULD have spent in that store, I felt I was getting off easy.

I walked back to my hostel and am currently waiting on my roommates to return because we are all planning to walk up to "Le Chateau".

[Note: I just checked to see if La Cure Gourmande ships to the States, in case anyone is looking for a Christmas present for someone they either want to impress or fatten up, but it looks like they do not... anyone want to start an import business??]

Here is one more picture I took this morning, looking from the edge of the flower market out to the Mediterranean:

Relaxing in the South of France

As I mentioned in my last entry, I have moved my French base of operations to Marseille. For those of you who are Google-mapping Marseille right now, I'll save you a little trouble: it's in the South of France, further west than Nice or Saint Tropez.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful; I went grocery shopping (noted that I could buy several varieties of escargot), did some laundry, and spent the afternoon unsuccessfully searching for an international bookstore. (I had the address of one but it might not exist.) However, my search meant that I got to explore a lot around town. It's quite a lively city, with lots of open air markets.

This morning, I decided to go hiking in the Calanques between Marseille and Cassis. (A "calanque" is like a fjord, except in the Mediterranean.) It was a good communication day for me - I managed to go to the tourist office, say "Je voudrais aller a Calanques," and then understand that I had to catch bus 23. Then I FOUND bus 23, confirmed with the driver that it was the correct bus, and got off at the correct stop. This may not seem like a big deal to most people who are normal, functioning adults, but since my recent life has been full of missed buses, wrong buses, and incorrect stops, I was proud. I don't think I've been this proud of my ability to ride a bus since kindergarten.

My hike was BEAUTIFUL! It couldn't have been more different than my last seaside walk. There was a light breeze, and the temperature was right at the spot where I kept taking my jacket off and then putting it back on. Literally, the sun was shining and birds were singing.

Early on, I walked through this meadow, perfect for frolicking through:

I climbed up and up and up, and the view was totally worth it at the top of the cliffs:

My camera struggled with the blazing light reflecting off the Mediterranean - so mostly, the above picture looks like Heaven.

If you look verrrry carefully in this picture, there is a yacht in the harbor:

Someday I will live on that yacht.

I wrestled with my camera a little bit regarding the sunlight issue, and eventually produced this picture:

As I hiked back towards town, there were lots of meadows like this one:

I wish there had been goats, because that would seem fitting.

There were a lot of purple flowers - different types of flowers, but all of them purple. Here's one:

The walk from the bus stop back to my hostel was lengthy because I decided to walk along the coast. It was a really beautiful walk, and the sea was a beautiful shade of blue.

Here is my future house, overlooking the sea:

Here is a sailboat picture, since I know more than one person who likes sailboats:

I really like it here and am trying to stay for a couple extra nights but apparently this hostel is really full this weekend, so I may have to continue on my way on Saturday.

France Relocation

As I mentioned in my last entry, I was struggling a bit in Paris with how expensive things were. Basically, my whole daily budget was being taken up by shelter and noms so I was feeling stressed out every time I spent money on going out and seeing things. It wasn't particularly enjoyable, so I have abandoned Paris for now... until I make my fortune.

I arrived this evening in Marseille! I was torn between here and Nice but research proved that there would probably be more to do around here so here I am! I have only been here a few hours but already I like it a lot! My hostel here is GREAT - the only drawback is that it's in a converted mansion-partment that is a fourth floor walk-up... so lots of stairs! (I just invented the word mansion-partment to accurately describe the facilities. If I say "converted apartment" it sounds small and weird, but this place is gorgeous - think marble floors and vaulted ceilings.)

Anyway, I had a good day today - went to see the cathedral at Chartres and then took a train down here. If you read my Facebook status, you can see that my train ride took a scary turn (I thought dementors were boarding), but I arrived and found the hostel easily. I will update more tomorrow with a few pictures I took at Chartres but I just wanted to update on my location.

OH ALSO, there are supposedly some beautiful coastal walks around here so GET EXCITED for more COASTAL PICTURES... only this time it will be the Mediterranean Sea instead of the Atlantic Ocean!

Overwhelming Paris

Wow! What a day in Paris!


After my exciting night last night, I managed to rouse myself out of bed at 8:30 and went down for breakfast - bread, butter and a bowl of hot chocolate. I hadn't realized how big this hostel is but there were probably 100 people downstairs - a big school group waiting to check out, and lots of people eating.


I went for a short walk before deciding that I was feeling good and would tackle the Louvre today. What a day it was!!


Now updating Monday morning...


I got there and got in the line outside "the pyramid". At first I thought the line was for tickets but it was actually for the bag scanner. I put my backpack through, went downstairs, and got my ticket! In the pyramid is the coolest elevator ever - that column that rises up inside the spiral staircase.

[Click any picture to enlarge]

[Louvre disclaimer: I didn't try to take really good pictures of the most famous pieces of art since my little camera could not do them justice. Instead, I'll link to good pictures and information about any pieces that I mention.]


I studied my map for a while and decided to start at the top and work my way down, so I went up to the second floor and started with Dutch painters from the 15th - 17th century. I saw a few more Vermeer paintings, and every other painting in that section looked more or less like this one:

Also, Rembrandt is supposed to be this "great painter" but he seems like kind of a one trick pony... (JOKING) Still, the man loved his self portraits!

I moved into an area of French paintings and learned a lot about Corot, who I hadn't known much about. Here is a painting of his that I liked:

In many rooms, the Louvre had racks of placards about the artwork that you could pick up and read - they were like mini-lectures. They could be a little hit-or-miss, since not every room had them and I couldn't always find one in English. (They had French, Spanish, German, English, and Chinese.) Still, they were incredibly helpful since I hadn't been able to find a tour to go on. Here is what a lot of the museum looked like to me:

At this point, I was really hungry, so I left the museum, walked several blocks away, ate lunch and then returned. I briefly considered eating at the museum until I saw they were charging 15 Euros for grilled cheese.


Coming back from my lunch break, I was ready to tackle the first floor - the most famous artwork and crowded galleries. I stood for an embarassingly long time at the bottom of these stairs looking at my map and trying to orient myself - if only there were some huge and famous work of art nearby!

(That's Winged Victory at the top of the stairs.)


I admired Winged Victory up close for a few minutes, and then, following the horde, I made my way to the most crowded room in the museum and approached the lady herself:

I elbowed my way to the front of the crowd, amused at all the people around me taking camera phone pictures - because that's really going to do it justice. Also, I overheard one conversation between Americans which made me proud of my countrymen: "Here, take a picture and we'll make it look like I'm picking her nose." Excellent.


I studied the picture for a while before finally being jostled out of the way, and then found a card/placard about the painting and learned all about what I'd just seen. (In retrospect, it would have been better to read the card before but I didn't see the card rack in time.)


Here is the crowd of people gathered around the Mona Lisa. It's too bad there's nothing else in this room worth looking at.

After the Mona Lisa, I got lost but then saw signs for another famous lady:

Grateful to Venus for helping me orient myself (and for being so beautiful), I headed across the museum to the Napoleanic apartments. I felt guilty for marching quickly past a lot of great artwork but it was already nearly 4:00 and my feet were starting to really hurt. Also, there's some comedian who makes a joke about "anyone who drives slower than you is an idiot and faster is a maniac." I've decided the same is true of art galleries: anyone who moves through faster than you is unappreciative, and slower than you is pretentious.


Here are a few of the objects I liked from the Napolean apartments and the decorative arts section.


Inlaid wood:

Future living room:

Clever urn:

As if I hadn't seen enough beautiful things today, Paris decided to outdo itself as I was leaving the museum:

That's enough, Paris. We get it.


I went back to my hostel and sat around for about 45 minutes, resting my feet and trying to decide where I should get dinner. Finally, I decided to get the best falafel in Paris, and set out. My plan for the evening was to get my falafel, then walk over and see Notre Dame all lit up, and then walk to the Eiffel Tower. In my head, this would be a good meal and a lovely evening walk, and I'd be back at the hostel in two or three hours.


Four hours later, I limped up to the Eiffel Tower (my feet had had a long day).

It was bigger than I expected, and very beautiful all lit up. It was cheesy, but I liked when they made all the lights "dazzle". I sat on a bench, resting my feet, gazing up at the tower. I overheard an American couple arguing: the man wanted to go up to the top of the tower but the woman did not. "C'mon," he said, "It'll just take a minute." Of all the things in the world I would describe as "just taking a minute", ascending to the top of the Eiffel Tower would not be one of them. I don't know if he won this or not.


I purchased a snack from a nearby crepes stand and leaned against a railing, my back to the Siene, looking at the tower.  Finally, I realized I should make my way home, and crossed the Siene to start walking.
A few meters into this walk, I resolved that I would get on the Metro at the first station I saw. I walked for a while right along the Siene and then I saw a sign that said "Metro". I had to cross a bridge over the roadway. There was writing all over the railing, and I took a closer look:

I had happened upon the Pont de l'Alma, where Princess Diana was killed. A lot of the inscriptions had dates and I was amazed to see how many of these notes were recent. I read through a lot of the notes and then got on the Metro and went home, totally exhausted.

As much as I'm enjoying Paris, I will have to move on quickly. This city is SO expensive - I'm paying $45/night for my top bunk in a 12 person dorm room with no bathroom*, and this city has an impressive aversion to cheap food, so I will have to have another jam-packed day today, and then move on to another (cheaper) city in France. Someday I will become a millionaire, and then make a triumphant return to Paris!


*for those of you who are not hostel-goers, I could get a similar room for $20 in London, $25 in New York, $22 in Rome, or $20 in Vienna.