Fall Break '10: Paris: Effiel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Pére Lachaise Cemetery

Hello everyone. So continuing my post from before: after leaving the Louvre we walked around the area, getting lunch and exploring the Louvre gardens. The Obelisk and Arc de Triomphe was a good distance away, but we actually walked towards the Effiel Tower instead.

The Obelisk

Kasey took this. The Effiel Tower is in the background!

This was built as a hospital for wounded soldiers during the reign of King Louis

The Effiel Tower is so beautiful, yet seeing it was so surreal. It's such an Paris icon, and there I was right in front of it. When we got close by it was just starting to light up. And every hour, it sparkles! It was so amazing.

Sparkle!

Before going to the Effiel Tower we went for dinner at a pretty pricey restaurant. I tried steak tartare for the first time. It's literally raw meat stuffed with all sorts of onions and seasonings. It kind of freaked me out eating raw meat, but apparently only the outside of meat is unhealthy to eat. It ever occured to me, because you could totally eat a hamburger that's bloody on the insides. Also, I wanted to try something new. After dinner we walked back to the Effiel Tower. You can pay to go up to the top and see all of Paris at night. It was amazing.

On the elevator to the top

After the Effiel Tower we called it a day. The next day, Monday, was our last full day in Paris. I spent the day with my friends Anthony and Paulo. That morning Paulo and Anthony needed to buy train tickets to Amsterdam, and I also needed to find where the train station was, so we asked for directions and walked to one of the stations. There were two: Gare du Nord and Gare du l'Est.

By the way, did I mention Paris has awesome graffiti?

Space Invader! This should look familiar if you've seen the documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop

After discovering train tickets to Amsterdam would be twice as much the next day because the Monday trains were canceled, Paulo and Anthony had to resort to taking the bus. So they bought their bus tickets, and we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe! The arch is huge. Think of the Washington Square Arch, but bigger. Actually, the Washington Square Arch is based on the Arc de Triomphe. The resemblance is obvious.

Anthony, Me, and Paulo

We didn't stay there long. I would've loved to walk down the avenue Champ-Élsyéés, but the three of us really wanted to visit the cemetery Pére Lachaise, which was going to close at 5 pm. So we took the metro there. Pére Lachaise is a famous cemetery because there lots of famous people buried there, notably Oscar Wilde, the painter Eugene Delacroix, the composer Chopin, singer Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison. The cemetery is huge and probably one of the most beautiful cemeteries I've been to, as morbid as that sounds. We visited Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison

Oscar Wilde's tomb, covered in messages and quotes by fans.

It's traditional for girls to kiss his grave with lipstick on.

Edith Piaf's grave

The last grave we visited was Jim Morrison's grave. I'm a little of a Doors fan, and so this was the highlight of my day. His grave is barricaded off because so many people have defaced is and stolen headstones.

This nearby tree was covered in quotes and lyrics

Morrison's grave

Me, Anthony, and Paulo

Those were the last of the pictures I took. That night Paulo and I went back to Notre Dame so Paulo could see it. We had dinner with Anthony and Paulo's friend Jill at a restaurant. I splurged on a 16 euro three course meal and tried duck in orange sauce for the first time. So yummy! I also had crême brulé for dessert and it was yummy. The last highlight of the night was meeting with my French friend Francine. We went to an Irish pub (still very French though haha) and got drinks with her.

I was very sad to leave Paris. On the morning of the 19th Stephanie, Anna, and I took a train to Luxembourg. But if I ever were to become an ex-patriot, I'd totally move to Paris.

To see all my photos from Paris check out my Facebook =)

Fall Break '10: Paris: Notre Dame, Sacré Coeur, Louvre

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't updated sooner. I was busy with a paper and just generally tired. But, I will update as much as I can. This weekend everyone is going on a day trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland. Should be interesting...

Anyway, so on the 16th I left for Paris at 6:30 AM. We arrived at the airport around 9 AM-ish (Paris and the other cities were 1 hour ahead of Dublin) and took a bus from the airport to the city, then took the metro to our hotel. Thankfully Kasey knew where we were going. Lemme just say that Paris is beautiful and my new favorite city. It reminded me so much of New York. And the metro makes life so much easier, I don't have to walk 30 minutes just to get some where like in Dublin. And it's so much more diverse than Dublin.

 The first place we went to was Notre Dame. It's one of the well-known cathedrals in Paris, and it's where the movie The Hunchback of Nore Dame takes place. It's one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been to. I went to a Notre Dame in Montreal, I think that was a smaller version compared to this. You can pay 5 euro to go to the top where the bells are.

Notre Dame

There were beautiful stained-glass windows. Too bad my camera didn't take good interior pictures...

Luckily for me I know French pretty well. It was exciting to test my French out and I managed to do very well. I can understand and read pretty well too. That's why I would love to live in France. My French would get better! The next place we went to was jardin du Luxembourg. There was a huge palace surrounded by a beautiful garden.

Luxembourg Palace

After walking around the garden for awhile we decided to head out for dinner while looking in various book stores (le librarie in French). We reached this very touristy street filled with restaurants and souvenir shops. I bought The Little Prince postcards to mail back to my friends and family. We ate at a restaurant which we paid 10 euro for a 3 course meal. I tried French onion soup for the first time, followed by steak and fries (fries come with almost anything) and a dessert. After that we called it a day and went back to our hotel.

The next day we went to another cathedral named Sacré Coeur (Sacred Heart). In was right in Montmartre where the movie Amelié takes place. It was another beautiful church, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

Sacré Coeur

Montmartre

So, after all that our friend Paulo met up with us and we all took the metro to the Louvre! It's always been my dream to go there ever since reading the Da Vinci Code haha. The Louvre is like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. Lots of classical paintings and sculptures. And, of course, it has the Mona Lisa and other Da Vinci paintings. When we got there we had to wait on a long line in the cold and go through security before actually getting in. We only had 2 hours to walk around, which rally isn't enough to explore more than one wing in that huge museum. Normally classical art bores me, but the huge paintings and sculptures amazed me.

Entrance to the Louvre

 

 

Isn't it amazing that someone painted this???

The Mona Lisa! Isn't she tiny?

Another Da Vinci painting

Winged Victory

Venus De Milo

After our two hours Paulo and I went into the museum gift shop. I bought a little notebook with the Winged Victory on the cover as well as The Little Prince from the children's bookstore. I love The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince en français), it's one of my favorite French stories. Since my reading level isn't too advanced, I read children's books in French. Hopefully I can improve my reading comprehension as well!

I have lots more pictures and things to share. Just so I don't spam so many pictures in one post, I'll split my Paris travels in two posts :)

Back in Dublin

Me in Luxembourg City

Hello everyone! I returned from my travels early this morning. I've spent my day uploading my pictures on Facebook, unpacking, and cleaning. I have so much to write about and I took about 777 pictures. Right now I have last-minute homework to do, so this week I'll update each day about each city I visited. All my pictures are now on Facebook, so if we're friends you should check them out! I'll also post some pictures here too.

I'm glad to be back in Dublin. I miss home too.

The Beginning of a Fall Break Adventure

Hey everyone! I'm so pumped! I about 3 hours my friends and I are leaving for Paris! Our plane is at 6 AM, and so we're leaving to take a cab at 3:30 AM. I'M SO EXCITED!

 We'll be in Paris from Saturday to next Tuesday, and then the 6 of us will split. Anna, Stephanie, and I are taking a train to Luxembourg, where we'll be from Tuesday to Thursday, and then off to Amsterdam from Thursday to Sunday, and finally Brussels. I'm nervous and yet excited.

I promise when I return that I'll spam all of you with my photos!

Procrastination....

Hello everyone. This weekend I was supposed to be a good student and write a review for a play we saw in class and start my paper for Irish Cinema. However, I'm super lazy and tend to procrastinate a lot. I should at least write my review because it is due Tuesday and it's only 500 words. But I find that I do not like writing reviews because I'm not good at writing in a critical sort of way. I'm choosing to write a review on The Plough and The Stars, because that is the only play we've seen so far that I liked. We saw The Silver Tassie this week, also written by the same man who wrote The Plough and The Stars. However, The Silver Tassie was very boring and I didn't have any attachment to the characters. We had cool balcony seats though.

Last week in Irish Drama we looked at Samuel Beckett, who was an avant-garde playwright in the 50s. His plays are very contemporary and experimental. I think I'd be very interested in his work, even though I'm not much of a theater person. Last night we saw a Beckett play called An Act Without Words II. The audience, which was very small, met up at a hotel and we were taken to the site of the play, which was in an alley behind the theater. All we saw was two sleeping bags and a neat pile of clothes. A door opens with a beam of light, and a pole pokes the first sleeping bag, and it is revealed that someone is waking up inside it. The performance was only a half hour, and there were no words. It was just two men waking up, putting on the clothes, taking them off, and curling back into the sleeping bags. The actors were great. I actually like it because I felt like I wasn't watching a performance. The rest of my friends didn't really like it. They complained it was a waste of 15 euro, and that they could watch the same thing for free in the streets of New York. But I guess Beckett really isn't for everyone.

I'm really excited because my fall break is next week! We leave for Paris on Saturday!

The Music Show

Hi Everyone! Sorry I took 2 days to update about my weekend. I've been getting lots of HW for Screenwriting. My development of my feature film is coming along nicely.

Sunday I was asked by a girl in the music video class to help her shoot an event hosted by Hot Press Magazine. Hot Press is the Rolling Stone of Ireland, and they collaborate with Tisch on the Music Video Production class. They asked some students to help shoot the event. It was 2 days. They had panels with producers, interviews and workshops with musicians, booths, exhibits, live acoustic performances, and live bands playing. I went to do some sound work, but there wasn't much sound work to do so I just walked around and helped shoot bands.

I saw 4 live Irish bands. We got special VIP passes so when we were filming performances we could get in front of the barricade. My favorite band was called Fight Like Apes, which was an electro-pop band. I also saw singers Cathy Davey and Damien Dempsey, who were also pretty good. Not my style of music though.

It was a long day. We were there from 11:00 AM to 7 PM. Hot Press gave us free t-shirts.

Fight Like Apes!