europe + alexandra

8.4.09 Final Sketches.

2009-08-04T11:40:00.001-07:00

Final sketches from the cites and countries that brought inspiring architecture into my life - organized by order of visiting them.

colosseo - roma

st. peter's square fountain - roma

roma skyline

duomo - florence

eiffel tower - paris

villa savoye - paris

big ben - london

london skyline

8.4.09 Country recaps.

2009-08-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

ITALY.

Italy is…everything perfect.
bellissimo.
suave.
poised.
sophistication.
delicious.
generous.
old and new.
past and present.
inspiring.

Italy was kind, selfless, and all beauty. She shared her culture, friends, classiness, architecture, and cuisine freely, no questions asked. Italia was my dreams made in reality, influenced my design eye, and left me complete and gratified. Grazie Italia. I’ll be back to your flawless streets soon. Ciao bella until then…

FRANCE.

France is…not Italy.
It is city life.
prissy.
refined.
self-seeking.
posh.
palatial.

France was no friend of mine, but she brought modern design to me. It prompted growth in the present and required me to be open in mind, perspective, and interpretation. France was fresh and forward and sky-high. I was impacted through design, but unaltered by my surroundings. France came and went and buffered the transition of Roman ways to modern London days. Merci France for round two, but I fear we are through. Au revoir…

ENGLAND.

England is…countryside and city.
brilliant.
polished.
luscious.
scrumptious.
estates.
hedges.
rainy.
underground.

England was equal parts city and country. She brought train rides and bus rides and more train rides and bus rides. Gardens and hedges filled everyday and palaces line my memories. England brought clotted cream and dainty cupcakes and an entirely new vocabulary. From the beautiful language and contrasting environments, England was unique in its own right and she appreciated the modern taste I am so fond of. Cheers England and your nearly American manner. It’s off to my America now.

8.4.09 London.

2009-08-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

i fulfilled my dream of standing in a london phone booth.

Wow I never thought I’d be blogging my last blog of this trip. It has flown by and most memories are just a blur and seem to have happened much longer ago than 5 weeks. We ended today with a visit to the Queen – too bad she wasn’t there. Buckingham Palace was…pretty much like every other palace/house we’ve been to. I never saw the view of Buckingham palace you see in the movies, nor did I see any of those guards that I know I would have made laugh. That said, I was a bit disappointed but I can’t deny the beauty of the palace. It actually used to be a home until one of the king’s decided he wanted to turn it into a palace and extended it with over 200 rooms. It is one of the only working palaces in the world and many important events have occurred there. Fun fact: one of the rooms we visited is a music room and greeting room for guests and is the same room where Prince William and Harry were both Christened with water brought in from Judea. Also, every gift the Queen has ever been given has a home somewhere in the palace or grounds; even a full-sized palm tree has a place in the Royal Botanical gardens.

back of buckingham palace.

garden and lawn of the palace.

the light pole at buckingham with a crown on top.

The rain came again today after yesterday being a perfectly sunny day where I actually felt warmth on my skin. On our way back from the palace, it took us quite some time to find an underground station. We finally found the Victoria line but there were all these police cars and ambulances surrounding the entrance and it was closed. Come to find out, there was a person under the train. It kind of made me feel sick knowing that someone had just died right below me. We got on another line that was open and they announced over the intercom so flippantly. They said “The Victoria line is closed due to a person under the train,” and they said it over, and over just making it even more creepy. Ashlee and I decided to come back to the flat because I am shopped out, while the others went shopping. We packed and cleaned our flats, which was an unpleasant task.

It is weird to think that this trip is over and we’ll be back in the US of A. Strange to think about but I am SO excited. I have loved Europe and this experience and will never forget what I’ve learned, seen, and who I’ve gotten to know. Cheers Europe…

8.3.09 London.

2009-08-03T11:20:00.001-07:00

the hummingbird. could ya be more cute?

window display.

It was a very late night so sleeping in until noon didn’t seem too harmful. Lindsey, Kaitlyn, and Brady went with a few others from the group to an amusement park in London, but that just wasn’t me and Ashlee’s thing. We took the morning slow and packed a bit and then hit the town. We went to the Hummingbird, the world’s cutest little cupcake shop down the street. I have never tasted red velvet before but it just seemed like the classy cupcake flavor, so I got it. Best decision I’ve made. It was so good and the frosting even better. We sat outside, eating our cupcakes with silver forks watching the world of South Kensington around us.

red velvet cupcake. where have you been my whole life?

ashlee was so excited to take her first bite of adorable goodness.

beautiful.

our first bite.

and finished...

Once the cupcakes were gone, it was off to visit the infamous Harrods. We knew full well with shops such as Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci we wouldn’t be buying anything, but we had to experience it. That place is huge let me just tell you and it felt more like a museum then a shopping experience. As we were walking through Prada, a steezy man that worked there walked by us and openly scoffed in our faces. He just laughed and laughed knowing full well us underdressed Americans couldn’t afford what we were looking at. I found it quite rude but totally funny.

the infamous harrods. bigger than i ever could have imagined. it put the macy's in nyc to shame.

We found the gift shop and any store that has its own gift shop is a big deal. We made our purchases there and headed to another grocery store to see if we could find some chocolate and treats for our families. We were successful in finding what we needed except I was unable to find the wanted Harry Potter candy I’ve been searching for this whole time in London. I asked a guy that worked there if they had any HP candy and after leading me to the electronics and fiction novels aisle, he promptly told me they didn’t have any. I was slightly confused why he had led me to that aisle but after searching on our own, it was nowhere to be found, sadly. We just headed back to the flat to finish up our last few sketches and chilled for the remainder of the night.

8.2.09 London.

2009-08-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

headed to the church. who took the picture you might ask? yup. self-timed again. we have skillz.

Round two of church and I could not have been more excited about attending. We decided to go to the earlier ward, which is a family ward and it was so great to see that no matter where you are in the world the church is the same. Families were coming in late and the kids were rambunctious. There were some very interesting testimonies and one that takes the cake for sure. A man stood up who was from the Czech Republic and was apparently speaking English, yet none of us could understand him until the very end, and I am so glad I was able to witness this. He said, “I’m going through an economic crisis right now, so if you could give the Bishop food or money for me that would be great,” and he sat down. The Bishop’s face was priceless and we all got a good laugh out of that.

the feast. SO good.

heaping plate round one. i had a few more.

we are as tired and pathetic as we look. please excuse my body as it protrudes out of the picture.

After church we were burned out and took a wonderful 3 hour nap to revive us. It was time to start making dinner and again, Ashlee didn’t fail us. On today’s menu: chicken with bow tie pasta and pesto sauce, an assortment of vegetables, and cheesy potatoes. YUM! I haven’t been that full in a long time and it was soooo delicious. Thank you Ashlee for feeding us so well! The rest of the night was open to what we do every night – sketch, blog, and lounge. I know it sounds so uneventful and boring, but it is about all we feel like doing after each day and my bed is always so welcoming.

8.1.09 London.

2009-08-01T13:04:00.001-07:00

a nice little treat we saw on the way to the show. i have a problem with it being lime green, but you can't deny its beauty.

Today was another free day thank goodness and I slept in till my heart’s content. Brady went early this morning and got us tickets to the matinee of Mamma Mia. Being an avid ABBA fan, I was so excited to see the musical that is totally based off their songs. I have seen the movie and loved it and was excited to see the musical on Broadway. The other girls wanted to see Lion King so we split for the day and did our own thing.

Brady and I made it to the theatre and found our seats up in a box with two other people…aka Asians. I mention that only because of how they were acting and how many ridiculous pictures they took before the show started. I made sure I made it into every single one of their pictures and hope they appreciate my smile behind the girl’s head. Our seats were pretty good and after the Asians realized that if they scooted down we would all see much better, I was able to just lean on the balcony and I could see pretty much the whole stage. It was such a fun musical and is definitely more of a theatrical performance, much different than Billy Elliot and I enjoyed being entertained the entire time. I can’t get enough of ABBA and loved hearing all their music again. It was another great musical experience here in London.

brady had a great view from his seat and captured this classic song they did as the encore.

soccer store we went to that had 6 floors of pure sports attire. it was ridiculous to say the least.

7.31.09 London.

2009-07-31T14:41:00.000-07:00

Preface for today’s blog: today is filled with the most pictures I think I have posted thus far. The only reason or explanation for it was that somewhere in the walls of Haddon Hall, we lost our insanity from being totally burned out and Brady somehow captured our acts that we now don’t fully understand.

haddon hall

Our morning began with the routine of taking the tube, 2 hour train ride, and chartered bus to our first destination: Haddon Hall. This little gem of a place was out in the middle of the English countryside and is the sight of some scenes in the movie Princess Bride. It was built in the 12th century and in the 1700’s it was closed for 200 years, therefore it hasn’t been tainted with any of the traditional Victorian decoration. It was the first place we’ve been to that has authentic medieval style and I really liked seeing something that is totally different from all the palaces we have seen. Learning about how people lived back then with no hygiene, utensils, and having the same stew brewing in a pot for over a year made me realize how I wouldn’t have lasted one minute living in the 1300’s.

interior of haddon. medieval style.

great hall in haddon hall where plays used to be performed in.

outdoor view at haddon. that view is priceless.

gardens of haddon hall.

these can't be explained. wish i could.

As has become our tradition, we took a visit to the home’s café and had wonderful cream & tea again. (that is what they call those yummy scones and clotted cream. There is actually no tea involved at all surprisingly.)

creamed tea. worth every pound.

We got back on the bus and our driver was taking us to Chatsworth and said that Haddon Hall and Chatsworth are “neighbors.” He used that term loosely as about ten minutes and several small mountains later we could see Chatsworth in the distance. Set on 105 acres of beautiful English countryside land, the house/small castle is absolutely stunning. In Pride and Prejudice, this is the home of Mr. Darcy and let me tell you the movie doesn’t do justice how incredible this place is. We had the day to ourselves to explore the HUGE gardens and tour the house.

stairs in pride and prejudice where kiera knightley runs out of mr. darcy's home.

We started in the gardens and after getting some hot chocolate to help ease the cold wind, we found ourselves in the Rock gardens. It is exactly what it says – a place filled with huge boulders everywhere and make a natural playground. We climbed up and found a lovely place to just lay and sit for a little bit. Moving from there we found the maze and really attempted to complete our first English garden maze, but failed. It was just so incredible walking through these gardens and I found it hard to really take in all the beautiful things around me. There were perfectly cute hedges everywhere I turned and trees hundreds of years old lining every walkway.

kaitlyn helping me over the chasm in order to get to the rock gardens. "hold my hand pretty princess!"

taking a quick nap in the garden.

you can't really see what is in brady's hand but it is an orange, therefore that is where he gets banned to if he wants to eat it. i won't be having that devil fruit anywhere near me.

girls on rocks. we rock.

there is a very creepy statue man behind me if you can't tell.

leaning tree shrubs.

winding hedges. brilliant.

entrance to the maze.

After spending a few hours in the gardens, we decided we better make it into the house before we had to leave. I think this house was my favorite one we have been in so far in England. It was totally different than any place we have ever been with much more wood and masculine touches and much less gold and glitz. I just loved the feel of it and loved seeing the movie exhibits they had showing scenes from Pride and Prejudice and the Duchess, which were both filmed here. The style of the home felt totally different than everything we have seen and for that, I think I appreciated the home more.

dress worn by kiera knightley in the duchess.

original harpsichord. it was absolutely beautiful. it took much self control to not hop the ropes and go play that sucker.

gazing up at the masterfully painted ceiling.

a very comfy red leather sofa and it fits all five.

statue gallery in pride and prejudice.

All in all, it was such a wonderful day at Chatsworth and I wouldn’t mind returning there someday and exploring all those gardens again and again.

7.30.09 London.

2009-07-31T14:24:00.000-07:00

Sleeping in has never been so good like it was today and I could have slept the day away if I wanted. We had an optional day today to either go to Bath or have a free day. The five decided that being as burned out as we are that we would stay home and go to see a show tonight. After breakfast, it was off to the Billy Elliot box office to get our tickets for the show that night. They sell obstructive view seats that are on the front row and fairly cheap. It was off to the grocery store since we have pretty much been out of food for the past few days with no time or desire to make the trek to the store. I loved getting home and stocking the fridge with lots and lots of food to eat.

groceries round two

we sported our matching oxford purchases. we proudly support them.

We took the day to just chill and catch up on sketching and blogging and just needed the time to breathe. The show was at 7:30 so we started getting ready for the night and we all got on our new snazzy outfits and headed to the Tesco before to get us treats for the show. I was really excited to see Billy Elliot because I really didn’t know anything about the show and didn’t know any of the music so it was exciting to be seeing something totally new. This was Lindsey’s first Broadway show so it was a big night for her and we were all excited with her to experience Broadway in London.

getting ready to head out to see billy!

self explanatory.

a very nice tourist snapped this for us since we couldn't find something to set the camera on for our classic self-timer photo.

It was a perfect evening and no rain in sight and made the evening even better. We made it to our seats on the first and second rows. Being on the front row only obstructs a little bit of the stage and some of the dancers feet on the back of the stage, but other than that it was so cool to be up close and personal with the actors. I could see all their facial expressions and felt like I was on stage with them. Billy was THE cutest little boy I’ve ever seen! He was super talented and did such an incredible job especially for only being 14. Turns out he is from Nebraska, which is strange because everyone in the show had a thick, dirty English accent and he had it spot on. The show was way good and I am so glad I went to see it and was just a plum good evening.

7.29.09 London.

2009-07-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

the rainy window looking out to burghley house.

deer frolicking in the meadow.

I am beginning to wonder if the sun will ever shine in London for longer than a few hours. I just didn’t expect this much rain and cold in the middle of July and am most definitely not prepared with my wardrobe. Luckily today I had my new Oxford sweatshirt to keep me warm. It was another morning with a train and bus ride to the Burghley house in Stamford (not to be confused with StaNford like we have in the states.) We arrived to much rain falling BUT we were met with a wonderful surprise that turned into the highlight of the day…deer! Alright that doesn’t sound exciting but these were deer that are on the property all the time and love to be around people. It was so fun to go up and pet them and I just loved their little adorable faces and spotted bodies. I touched their antlers and how soft they were! I just couldn’t get enough of them and wanted to frolic in the lush grass with them all day.

he was so sweet! we think they're reindeer cuz it was raining and they are deer. get it? clever i know.

petting and getting to know our deer friends.

We went inside the house, which was built in the 1500’s and is a very classic Elizabethan style. We walked through rooms that were in the movies Pride and Prejudice, Young Victoria and The Davinci Code. An interesting fact that I learned while in the house was that there was a corridor added behind all of the bedrooms so that servants could get from room to room without having to walk through all the rooms. Since it was added later, it has become a secret corridor that is hidden by tapestries and paintings. Sadly, someone apparently couldn’t find the door in the 17th century and decided to cut the tapestry right where the door was so they could get out. Not the smartest thing to do to a century old tapestry if you ask me.

After our tour was over, we were starving and it was pouring rain so naturally it was time to have a classic English meal. We went to the garden café on the property and had scones with clotted cream…delectable! Sadly the rain remained with us as we left Burghley and as we headed into the town of Stamford. We had time to just wander and explore the town of Stamford that looked vaguely familiar and resembled Cambridge and Oxford but it was a cute quaint town nonetheless.

scone and clotted cream. a scone is actually just a biscuit but SO good.

we made a pit stop at Platform 9 3/4 so we could go visit our friend harry at hogwarts.

what you don't see in this picture is me actually running through the wall and onto the train to hogwarts.

We made it back home and could just relax and it was so nice. We, as in Ashlee, made a lovely dinner of fried chicken with potatoes and veggies. As we were enjoying our first real meal in a while, the fire alarm decided to roar its nasty head. It tends to go off for no reason so we weren’t worried about it and continued to eat as though it wasn’t going off. I started getting used to the sound and just talked over it for about 10 minutes. Don’t worry there was no fire and we didn’t die but I think Kaitlyn put it best when she said the fire alarm is like the boy who cried wolf. After that little episode, Brady brought his bed into our room and we had girl talk with him and fell asleep with dreams of sleeping in the next day.

7.28.09 London.

2009-07-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

our first time on a double decker. that was a moment to be documented.

The tube station is getting used to seeing us bright and early, although today we got to “sleep in” and meet at 7:50. It was another train ride and our first double decker bus experience to arrive at the Blenheim palace right near Oxford.

The palace was built in 1705 and is the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill is the cousin of one of the Duke’s of the palace. The current Duke is the 11th duke to inhabit the palace and what a lucky man he is. The place is amazing and we were able to just tour it on our own. After being mislead to go on an audio-guided Disneyland version of Blenheim, we were let out of the creepy moving figured rooms and were able to actually see the house. One of the rooms is the actual birthplace of Winston Churchill and they have the original bed bells on the side of the bed you could pull and have servants come assist you. The staterooms were similar to those of Vaux and beautiful as would be expected.

i just love the color of the palace. brady and I pondered how it came to be that color. sadly, we still don't know.

first gardens.

the lawn. i don't think it's possible to grasp how far it goes.

The house isn’t terribly large when comparing to many of the palaces we’ve seen already, but the gardens get me every time and here was no exception to these gardens. The lawn literally went on for miles and miles and was perfectly manicured. I can’t imagine keeping these grounds clean and pristine. We happened upon the secret garden and while not totally living up to its name, the garden was beautiful. It was just as you would imagine an English garden to be and more with benches, a meandering stream, and butterflies perched perfectly on blooming flowers.

it was magical really.

family photo in the garden. it was hard to stay on the tree if you can't tell.

Our day was ours to explore so after another long bus ride back, we made it to the city center of Oxford. With the weather promising for a sunny day of 70 degrees, we got rained it. Typical really but luckily it didn’t last long.

yum yum crepe.

Our first priority was to get food and fast cuz we were dwindling with no energy. A lovely crepe stand fulfilled these needs and I was ever so pleased with my chicken and cheddar crepe. Brady and I were also wanting an Oxford sweatshirt just because why not? I really wanted one with no hood because those are my favorite so I was on a mission to find it. We found a store full of Oxford paraphernalia, yet no hoodie-less sweatshirts in sight. Bummed but still wanting some Oxford gear, I ended up buying a still very cute hoodie and was pleased with the purchase. Brady was still wanting one so we headed literally 3 stores down and what should be the first thing I see when I walked in but a hoodless oxford sweatshirt…exactly what I wanted. I mustered up the guts to go back to the first store and return my newly purchased hoodie to get the one I really wanted. It was totally worth it and as I type, I sport my Oxford souvenir and love it.

we support london tourism.

It was a short trip to the city of Oxford but I think I’ll attend there one day. It’s a lovely town yet much farther away from London than I thought. The train ride home was filled with more sleeping for me. I have been trained to instantly become sleepy once I step on a train and sleep the hours away until we get home. We got home early and it was so nice to just have the day to ourselves and relax, and that is what I’ve been doing ever since we got home. Thank you flat 17 for letting me rest my feet for a while.

7.27.09 London.

2009-07-27T15:04:00.001-07:00

with our mornings so early and also so chilly, it is necessary for us to begin with a little pick me up.

6:40 AM. That is the time we met at the tube this morning. It was a rude awakening that our blissful weekend was over. It was on the tube, then train ride, then a few buses to arrive at the Wilton House.

walkway up to the wilton home.

i caught her on the run, but you can still catch a glimpse of jolly ol' josie the tour guide.

This estate has been around for quite some time and is still a family run home with the 18th Earle of Pembrook still living in the house. The current Earle is one “dishy” man as our adorable tour guide put it. To put it simply, he is a VERY handsome man and recently engaged – too bad. Our tour began with a very entertaining film of the home’s history that included a disappearing nun and drunken actors. It was a treat really for us to watch and was a perfect beginning to our tour. The Wilton house is really pretty and a well-known venue for films such as Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility to name a few. According to Josie the guide, the English “poo pooped” Kiera Knightly’s version of Pride and Prejudice, but we loved it in the states. A famous room in the Wilton House is the cube room, meaning the room makes a perfect cube – 30 x 30 x 30. It was deceiving because I was convinced one of the walls was longer than the width, but it wasn’t. There is a great display of Chippendale furniture throughout the house and just so much rich history throughout the entire place. I love thinking that someone is still living in a piece of history (and a good looking someone at that.) We were able to go out into the gardens and the land is just covered in lush green lawns and perfectly shaped trees. There is a bridge over a river that runs through the property that was built by the same man that built the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

bridge at the wilton house that mimics the architecture of the home.

I have quite enjoyed our stay in the UK and feel like we have always been treated kindly everywhere we go and today was no exception. After the tour of the house we were treated to fresh strawberry lemonade and pastries. Now that’s the way I like to tour historical buildings – with a reward afterwards.

this sign greeted us at the door of the chapel. 'ello charlie!

salisbury cathedral. stunning.

It was on another bus to get to Salisbury, a little town about an hour and a half from London. We had a tour scheduled at the chapel there in town. Can I just say that the weather here in England is bipolar? Literally one minute it was sun shining and almost hot; 30 seconds later it was pouring rain and windy; one minute after that there is not a cloud in the sky. I just can’t even begin to figure the weather out here. Anyways we made it to the Salisbury chapel, which was built 1220. It was constructed in 38 years and if you’re wondering, that was a major engineering feat for the day. The architecture is beautiful English Gothic style and has wonderful stained glass throughout. It seems that everywhere we go, we aren’t without some interesting tour guides and the man for Salisbury was no different. He made it quite clear that we were in a Christian church and to respect that it was a working cathedral and place of worship, after explaining that it “cost a hell of a lot of money” or “this has been here for a hell of a long time.” Once the organ starting piping and was louder than he could speak the words, “damn the organ” were uttered and I just had to laugh at him, especially since cursing in a British accent is just funny, not offensive. Our tour consisted of seeing the ground level of the cathedral and to be frank, I was pleased with seeing that much of the church, but no. No, we had a tour to go up into the rafters above the chapel and up into the spire, which just happens to be the tallest spire in the UK. Just so you know, heights and me do NOT mesh and I thought climbing St. Peter’s dome was enough height for me.

view from the first level we hiked to. it looks like it goes on forever and ever..

The tour begun up a harmless spiral staircase, fairly narrow but nothing I couldn’t handle seeing as I am also claustrophobic. We made it to the rafters and it really was so cool seeing how the ceiling was constructed from a top view and think that a tiny capstone is all that was keeping the ceiling from collapsing. Me being naïve, thought that this was the end of the tour and that after climbing 82 feet above the ground was high enough. This was not so. We moved to the next room that is the bell tower shaft. That was cool to be able to see the framing that was holding the structure up and how talented the engineers must have been at that time period to know how to keep a building of this size and weight standing upright. Again, I would have been pleased if this was the end but no, the guide showed us up a vertical staircase about two feet wide I swear, open to everything below. The guide had to convince me that it would be worth it once we reached the top and that he would look after me going up.

what you are looking at here is the "staircase" as some might call it that we went up to reach the top. i like to call it my near death experience.

I was only slightly hyperventilating once we reached the top and we made it to the bells just in time to hear them ring at 4 o clock. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the bells went off seeing as they were right next to my ears. There were benches to sit so I did and was so proud of myself for making it to the top. Or so I thought. Nope, we still had two more staircases to go up before reaching the very tip top of the church. Finally, we made it and we were just underneath the beginning of the 400 and some odd feet spire that was a sort of after thought once the church was built. The belief was that the higher you built into the sky, the higher to God you were. I was totally blown away that the frame of the spire was completely made out of wood beams and that wood was capable of holding up that much weight for 7.5 centuries, even through all the elements of time. It was really impressive and brilliant to see how it was constructed. There are four doors at the top that look out at each direction over the town of Salisbury and it was just as you would imagine the English countryside to be. Beautiful. We had to hurry down in order to meet the group in time to head to Stonehenge and boy was I glad to get my feet back onto the ground.

congratulations salisbury cathedral. well done.

view from the top of the tower.

Stonehenge was about 20 minutes away from Salisbury and we took taxis to get there. The drive was gorgeous with green farmlands all around and countryside as far as you could see. It honestly reminded me of parts of Utah just greener. Then, out of nowhere what should pop up in the horizon but Stonehenge itself. I don’t know what or where I was expecting it to be, but in the middle of farmland was not quite what I had in mind. Walking up to Stonehenge really was incredible and mind blowing trying to grasp who or what or why this thing was built. I like the mystery of it and felt mystified and an air of magic almost in the air. You had to be there to feel it I guess but it was there. From an architectural standpoint, the placement of the rocks is beautiful and I love how every angle gives you a new perspective into the circle of rocks and it’s a new view at every turn. The hardest thing for me to grasp was the age of the rocks – 4,000 years old! I mean really, that is just bloomin brilliant! I would love to sit down and chat with the engineers and project managers for Stonehenge and just pick their ingenious minds because what they built is astounding. I have really wanted to see Stonehenge and I’m not sure why or what intrigued me but it was a great day being able to see one of the world’s most mysterious findings.

and there it is...mysterious stonehenge.

the fab 5 at stonehenge with me looking...not so fab. lets blame the wind.

It was a taxi ride to the train station and then a pleasant train ride filled with lovely conversation and sweet treats from the treat trolley (for some reason this train had a treat trolley while as our overnight train to Paris was lacking that) and we were home 16 hours later. It was a long day, but successful day and one more day of lovely London – can’t complain about that one bit.

7.26.09 London.

2009-07-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

Finally we had a free Sunday, the first in almost a month. The day began a bit rough though. As I was primping for church, I was fixing my hair and what should I happen upon but my first gray hair!!! Astonished and quite angry, I had to document the moment and am not ok with having a gray hair at the ripe age of 20.

my first gray hair. although the hair is not easy to see, it is there in my hand. not cool.

Our first priority for the day after this traumatic experience was to attend church. Lucky for us there is a singles ward just down the street from us so we were so excited. We were early and were waiting out in the lobby before going in and weirdly, there were people from Centerville there that knew Brady. How small this world really is it freaks me out. Once we sat down, we were privileged to listen to the choir practicing and I knew immediately that I was going to love today. The meeting started and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that Elder Zabrowski from the quorum of the 70 was there and would speak later. Boy was I glad to be back at church and I had forgotten how much I love it. The choir sang two beautiful numbers and I was surprised to find out that the whole church celebrates Pioneer day, not just in Utah.

the britannia singles ward was ever so kind to us.

Sunday school was equally as good as sacrament meeting and I felt more entertained the whole day because everything was in a British accent. There were a lot of people from Utah and it was so weird to be in London and having people know where Bountiful and Logan, Utah are. Our Sunday school teacher was quite the bubbly character and said flippin a lot which made me laugh. In the end, we were rewarded with a beautiful Bounty bar. Why is the chocolate here so much better than in the states? I will never know but it is just so much better. Church was a successful outing and we’ll get to repeat it next week as well.

the fab 5 at church. we all color coordinate and we love it.

Church ended at 5:30 so dinner was needed. Ashlee is an insanely good cook and decided to make chicken parmigiana for us. We all pitched in to help and after slightly burning to a crisp the breadcrumbs with the turbo oven, we ended up with a most fabulous meal. It was the first home-cooked meal I have had in a long time and as I sit here, I am stuffed to the rafters and lovin it. What I am not loving is time. I saw the date to be July 26th. What happened to July? What happened to this trip and how did it just slip from my fingers? I will enjoy these last 10 days I have to the fullest don’t you fret.

cooking our most amazing meal.

table prior to eating.

the food. SOO good.

as you can tell from our faces, the food was enjoyed by all.

7.25.09 London.

2009-07-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

Two free days in a row and another one tomorrow…love it! London has so much to offer and I feel like we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of things to do here. It is honestly the best feeling though, knowing that we can do whatever we want at our own pleasure. We decided to hit up these markets we had heard about up near Notting Hill, called the Portobello markets, yes like the mushroom. I must tell a little tale about our adventure getting there. We found the train we needed to get on and it was simply sitting at the station waiting to depart. We saw people walking onto this particular car of the train and then walking quickly off. We wanted to have seats so since this car was empty we all walked in and sat. Well there was a serious reason why the car was empty – empty that is for one man. As we sat, there was honestly the worst smell I have ever smelt in my entire life, and one I never ever want to smell again. We could not figure out what it was until the man on the other side of the car stood up. This man was obviously homeless and past the point of smell or sense because covering his entire bottom half was crap…his own poop was covering his pants and flies were flying all around. You’d think that would be a clue to maybe lose the pants but maybe not. He got up as to leave the train but didn’t. He simply walked off, stood by the pole 3 feet away, and took a leak. I’ve never witnessed anything like it and although sad to watch, we couldn’t live with the stench and switched cars. We made it to the market and holy crap (no pun intended) these markets are huge! There were lots of food markets but there was a great amount of chic clothing. We found this adorable off the beaten path and everything was on sale. I can’t resist a good bargain and we all purchased a souvenir if you will from the establishment. Come to find out that those “unique” finds were also being sold out on the street but they are still lovely. We spent most of our day walking the markets and probably the best find of the day was a little Mexican resaurant! I have forgotten how much I love Mexican and what it tastes like. My quesadilla just hit me where it’s good. I was super pleased with the finds of the day and the food of the day. We made a quick stop at H&M just cuz we can. That makes 4 stops for this trip thus far and I find that to be impressive.

apparently he is the #1 guitar hero man. i think i'd give him a run for his money.

our mexican lunch. it was very smokey in there and our eyes burned yet it was so worth it.

my quesadilla. mmmmm.

just a royles royce. thats about the 5th one i've seen since we got here.

Next up: movie time. I tell you what the movies here are just so much better because the theatres are SO incredible! The prices are much higher as you could imagine yet I find it all worth the experience. There are floor, mezzanine and balcony seating options and the movie screen is on a stage with a curtain and all. It makes the production feel so important and as though you are at a premiere. An enjoyable evening to say the least. London – it is always a pleasure.

after the proposal. a great end to a perfect london evening.

7.24.09 London.

2009-07-25T02:17:00.000-07:00

In Utah, today is a holiday full of excitement and celebration. In London, it is the same type of day for us because it was our first free day in almost 2 weeks! We have all been so burned out and in dire need of some free time and we got it. I slept until I couldn’t sleep anymore and loved not having to be any particular place and free to do what I pleased. The day consisted of sitting in bed blogging and sketching my heart out. It was so nice to catch up and finally get some things done that I’ve been slacking on.

flat #17. home to 13 of us rockin the top floor.

living room

kitchen. not big enough for all of us if you're wondering.

kitchen view 2

door to our room. notice the glass door and the pathetic used to protect our privacy. people often mistake our room for the bathroom.

our lovely room.

me and ashlee's bed. don't worry it squeeks with the slightest movement.

Sitting in bed all day can produce some funky looking pictures and as you’ll see, we all resemble frightening homeless people. We finally got out of bed around 8 o clock or so and decided to get ready enough to go get some food. Did you know that restaurants could reject you? I didn’t. We went to two different restaurants and both times we got the same response, “There’s no room for you. Leave.” I felt like we were putting them out or something and that they really didn’t want us. We found this cute little Italian restaurant that welcomed us we got some great dinner. The most eventful moments of the day were seeing two Ferrari’s in one day and a gorgeous Bentley. These London blokes know how to make my heart pound with their cars. Although today was maybe not the most exciting day, it was well deserved and much needed in order to function next week. Tomorrow is a new day for new adventures and we’ll just have to see where it takes us.

we are a sad homeless yet productive lot.

BJF's forever. (baby jesus fingers. these limp peace signs are found on every madonna and child piece. we took them as our own sign.)

bentley. need i say more?

i snuck these pics right after the steezy man driving this walked off. we wanted to follow him and see where he was going to eat dinner and hang out with him. i hyperventilated just a bit upon seeing this.

my pesto goodness.

as if one wasn't enough for the day, we spotted 2 Ferrari's. mission accomplished.

7.23.09 London Patterns.

2009-07-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

We were given an assignment as groups to visit three different museums and find inspiration from each one and create three different patterns from our inspirations. These are the three designs I created from each of those museums in sketch form.

inspiration V&A

V&A museum pattern

inspiration tate modern

tate modern museum pattern

inspiration british museum

british museum pattern

7.23.09 London.

2009-07-23T16:24:00.001-07:00

we desperatly needed a pick me up after our early morning. we were as tired as we look i promise.

We started today with another early morning and a train to Cambridge. I had no idea what to expect to see or do at Cambridge and was surprised to hear that we would be taking what I thought was a campus tour of Cambridge University. Turns out that the university is all over the town and it is a college town in every sense of the word. It is a very quaint, adorable and reminded me of Venice a little in that there are more bikes than cars there. I had no idea how old Cambridge University was until I saw the banners that said celebrating 800 years of excellence. Can you imagine attending a school with that much history? It was a totally foreign concept to me but I loved it. I instantly liked Cambridge when I was first greeted with the Ted Baker store and many other cute shops along the streets. We met up with our tour guide Sally, the world’s most lovely woman with the perfect British accent. She had an amazing wedding ring that I photographed several times to get the full affect.

what better way to be greeted in cambridge than with ted baker.

800 years this place has been kickin. brilliant.

sally the tour guide and her not so understated ring.

stained glass and fan vaulted ceilings inside the chapel.

Cambridge is broken up into different colleges just like Utah State is and each has its own housing and sports even. We went to the King’s college chapel that was built for Henry VIII. The architecture is the last of the gothic style and is filled with stained glass windows. Going into the chapel, we were able to see the design of the glass in more detail and also see the cathedral screen that divides the religious section of the church from the secular part. It is the first of the Renaissance design and is signed by Ann Boleyn. Sally informed us that back in the day students would try to scale the chapel and it was some big feat if you make it up there without getting noticed. We walked past the senate building and apparently a few engineer students were able to get a car up on the roof in less than 6 hours. It took the university a week to get it down and Sally showed us a picture of the car on top. So funny!

king's college chapel.

We had lunch and ate at the Eagle Pub. It has quite the history for being a pub. Shakespeare did short plays in the courtyard; William Morris sat in those chairs as well as Isaac Newton and so many others. I felt unworthy to be in a place with such great minds and I am merely an interior design student from Utah. Lunch was monumental for our table, well more just for Kaitlyn and I. I am an avid fish hater and so is she. Everyone ordered fish and chips since that is a British original and Kaitlyn decided to order it as well. I wasn’t so daring BUT I did do something pretty astonishing. I tried not one, but TWO bites of everyone’s fish and just as I thought, it was disgusting. Nothing that is deep-fried should be disgusting but fish is the exception. I can now say I’ve tried fish and truly hate it. We had time to kill during our lunch so we hit up some of the shops that Cambridge has to offer.

picture perfect telephone booths.

lovely little neighborhood where every door looks just like this.

After lunch, it was off to the FitzWilliam Museum. Sally was back to make our tour more interesting with her marvelous voice. We were able to see pottery and china from Turkey and see the first appearance of people figures on china. Something we saw here that I was totally freaked out by was an actual mummy with the body still inside. It was so creepy to think that there was a decaying body just beyond the glass wrapped up in scary cloth. It was very weird and I can only imagine the stench behind that glass case. I have wanted to see some Picaso works and there were a couple in this museum so that was really exciting to see his cubism work in front of me. Sally also showed us a sketch Picaso did of a family friend that was a lovely, normal drawing and it was neat to see another side of Picaso’s work. He really was super talented, even though twisted.

art piece outside of the fitzwilliam.

As we left the museum, it had started to rain surprise surprise. Sally was so concerned because we were going punting and its not fun to do in the rain. Punting? I thought. I have no idea what that is. Well Sally led us to a river/stream that runs throughout campus and town and its pretty much a crapified gondola. We had nine of us in a little boat and a tour guide stands on the end of the boat and “punts” or pushes the boat along with a long pole, such as a gondolier would do. It was the most relaxing part of the day and the rain let up and the sun came out for our little ride. Our tour guide would point out important buildings along the way so we learned a lot as well. I think we should do all our tours while sitting on a boat because it was so much more enjoyable than walking around. Good thing I didn’t pay to go on a gondola ride in Venice because this was the same affect and totally free. I think I would really love to attend college in London and actually it isn’t as expensive as one might think. Tuition is 3000 pounds but they get ya with housing. Living expenses are from 7000 to 9000 pounds. Still, that is much cheaper than Ivy League schools in the US. If only I had the brain to get into Cambridge. It was really cool to see another sort of college town that is light years different than Logan, Utah.

punting. notice our tour guide willow punting us down the river.

other punters on the river. it was so pretty.

residence halls on campus. this same building is in the first harry potter just without the ivy.

7.22.09 London.

2009-07-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

all alone on the train at the crack of dawn.

trying to fake awake. we tried and we failed.

What a morning we had. We had to meet at 5:45 AM so we could make our appointment at the Brinton Carpet factory. Brinton carpets is the largest carpet company in the world and one of the oldest. They began in 1783 and they is a private owned family business. We took a 2-hour train ride to get there and then a one hour bus ride to the factory so traveling wise, it was a long day. They were so good to us there though and had biscuits aka cookies for us to have when we arrived. We then split up into groups and had four different areas of the factory to visit. My groups first stop was the main factory area and we were able to see how they make the carpet and all the processes that go into creating their carpets. The process is a secret so no pictures to show. Their technology is all patented and super innovative. Our tour guide was a retired sheerer who worked for the company for a long time. He had a most wonderful accent and I hope to improve my accent after listening to him talk for so long. After seeing how time consuming and complicated the process of creating the carpet is I have such a higher appreciation for the carpet I walk on everyday. Granted, Brinton carpet is very high end so it’s a bit more complicated to make so not all carpet is that intense of a process so it was cool to see how they make it.

We were ale to hear from John Baird who is a designer for Brinton and he told us about the different projects they have worked on and such. They do mostly commercial design such as hotels, casinos, and cruise ships. They actually did the Queen Mary ship, which they had carpeted previously in the 1930’s and they still had the original pattern in the archives and were able to match it exactly. The scale at which they make the carpet and the installations they do are so huge that it is hard to imagine designing for that large of a space. They have so many collections and are constantly coming out with new designs each year. That was probably my favorite part of the day was seeing their archives that date back to 1783. The designers are able to use the archives at their leisure and derive inspiration from earlier designs. It was sheer brilliance touching hand painted designs that dated back to the 1800’s with out even a second thought. They don’t regard their archives as precious just valuable resources and freely use them. That was refreshing after going to so many stuffy museums with everything behind glass. Some of the designs that were originals from the Victorian or Georgian periods were incredible and the colors were so vibrant. We learned about the pattern paisley as well and that it is actually a Persian pattern but weavers in Paisley, Scotland recreated the designs so it became called paisley after the name of the city.

They fed us a real English lunch and it was so kind of them to feed us and treat us so well. The place we ate lunch had some sofas and several carpet samples on the floor laid out like mats almost. After eating, we sat on those couches and carpets and pretty much every one of us fell asleep for a good 45 minutes. We are all pretty burned out from this weeks adventures and this early morning business just did us in I guess. It was a good power nap for the second half of our day.

Next up we went to the visit the project designers and managers and the ones in charge of scaling the designs to meet the CAD drawings. It was fascinating to watch them use this crazy software much like photoshop to create and transform the patterns onto a floor plan. It was so nice to be able to visualize what the floor will actually look like once its installed and I can see why this is so handy to have when showing clients their ideas because when you are installing carpet in places that are 180,000 square feet, you want to make sure it will look right. Brinton is a global company so they have main offices in London, India, United States and are beginning one in China. The India factory makes a lot of the large scale projects such as the Atlantis hotel in Dubai that they are working on right now, because India has the most looms. I am just intrigued by the whole process of how it actually all gets finished and set in place exactly perfect. Never again will I ignorantly walk through a hotel. I’ll have an eye on the floor at all times. It was a lovely day at Brinton and the travel back to our flats was filled with more sleeping as tomorrow is another early morning and full day.

ashlee on the train ride back. sleep is all we did whenever we could.

this is what greets us every time we come home.

sorry for the glare but you still the jist of just how beautiful this car is.

7.21.09 London

2009-07-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

Our first stop for the day was Sir John Sloane’s museum house. We broke up into two groups since the house can’t fit our entire group. The Sir John was an architect in the 1800’s and had an affinity for classical architecture such as seen in Rome. He designed his house to specifically reflect that style and actually set it up to be a museum before he even died and ordered it stay that way forever – and it has. They have only restored things and haven’t replaced a thing. Sir John had a very unique and interesting style and loved mirrors of every kind; full length, entire mirror walls and convex mirrors everywhere. Seriously there are little bubble mirrors stuck on the fireplace, over archways and placed in hallways. He loved to collect things at auctions and displayed all of his finds in very interesting ways. There is a square room covered in original paintings and each wall opens up to more walls of paintings behind. He must have been a very innovative man and the house was very cool to see. Besides the many pots and paintings he collected, the man had a frickin Egyptian sarcophagus in the basement. It was way cool to see but so weird that someone would buy that. I really enjoyed seeing a house instead of a museum because it was a change of scene for a bit.

the british museum.

It was off to the British museum while the other group went to the Sloane house. The British museum is quite large but I was pleasantly surprised to see the ceiling in the main area of the museum because it was designed by Norman Foster and so cool to see. The museum is huge and was hard to take it all in but we hit up the Africa exhibit which was really cool because it was totally different than all the Roman and Greek architecture we’ve seen this trip. I found inspiration from some of the art there for my patterns and went outside to sketch them. Why is it everywhere we go we bring rain? It has pretty much not stopped raining since we got here and today was no exception so sketching became tricky.

ceiling designed by norman foster

rosetta stone. turns out this isn't even the real thing. i was very disappointed.

thank you tennyson for the inspiring thought.

display in african exhibit

coolest shadows

We left the British Museum and headed to St. Paul’s Cathedral. If walls could talk I think I’d like to hear what these walls would have to say. Princess Diana was married here; Winston Churchill’s funeral was also here as well as Princess Di’s funeral. We were able to hike up to the dome where there is the whisper wall. Rumor has it that you can put your ear up against the wall and whisper and someone all the way on the other side can hear you. I never actually got it to work but I did hear other people doing it and it was really cool. I apologize for the lack of photos for the day but it seems that pictures aren’t allowed at some places so that is why.

st. paul's cathedral

had i known i could just come to st. paul's and be in heaven i would have visited much earlier.

After a hard day of museums, it was time to shop! We hit up H&M London style and all came away with some warmer clothes since none of us packed for this bitter London weather. Then it was off to be because tomorrow would come too soon with a meeting time of 5:45 AM. Cheerio!

london wouldn't be london without some sweet double deckers. the candy bar named after these - not so good.

7.20.09 London.

2009-07-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

V&A museum entrance

Modern design is what I live for so when I found out that today was the day for modern museums I was quite excited. Our first stop was the V&A museum and we got broken up into groups for an assignment. The project is to get inspiration for pattern ideas while going through 3 different museums and individually creating 3 patterns from those museums, the V&A being one of them. Then as a group, we will take those patterns, refine them, and present them to the whole group in a unified presentation so it seems as though only one person created the entire series of patterns. My group decided to walk around together and check out everything and if we saw something of inspiration, we’d all sketch it and see how each person came up with their own unique design. My favorite exhibit in the museum was probably the fashion section. I loved seeing fashion from way back when until the present and seeing how things have changed and then not changed so much. Fashion always seems to come full circle in some way or another. They also had a 20th century furniture section and it was so cool to see like mid-century modern designs because that is my favorite time period. Sometimes I think I should have been born in the 50’s or 60’s because I love everything that comes from that time period. Our group was successful in creating some very unique and creative patterns and I can’t wait to see how we develop them into something collective.

dress designed by givenchy, audrey hepburns favorite designer. audrey is my idol.

coolest shoes not quite finished yet.

the panton chair. could you be more sleek and sassy?

nuff said.

i just love seeing this everywhere except that i might very well be one of the 52 injuries that occur every year.

It was on to the Tate museum from there, but we made some detours along the way that were in our path such as the Tower Bridge. I still am not convinced that this is THE London Bridge from the song, but if it really is then I’ve been there and it was cool. The best was the view from the bridge because there was a straight shot look at London City Hall designed by Norman Foster. Its modern and eccentric design was created to be energy efficient while still maintaining the same square footage. I love the leaning egg look and each glass panel is custom and was laser cut. We just stopped inside to see the round shape from an interior perspective and the ceiling is incredible. It mimics the outside shape and creates an oblong circular pattern in rings of mirrors…very cool. A lovely feature found in London City Hall was a multi-faith meditation room so naturally we took time to meditate since the opportunity was there.

bradizzle and i in front of london city hall

london london london bridge falling down??

We continued our walking journey to the Tate museum and once again were asked to looked for inspiration for patterns in this museum. I just can’t get enough of modern design! Don’t’ get me wrong, I loved Italy and Paris and seeing all the old architecture and design but it is just so refreshing to finally see some straight, clean and creative lines and art. Modern design can be super eccentric and a little out there but for the most part it is all fascinating to me and definitely amusing at times. There were some videos playing at the Tate that were interesting to put it loosely. A lovely surprise I found there though was a beautiful Monet painting that I have always loved and it fit in perfectly with the other pieces there. I think my favorite exhibit was a room with a very large scale dining room table and chairs. Sadly, we weren’t able to play on the display but I decided that when I have kids, I’ll just buy them an extremely large set of furniture and they can play on that instead of a playground. It’s much more interesting and aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. There was some incredible modern canvas pieces that were so cool and gave me great inspiration for some patterns. I just can’t get enough of that modern loveliness and hope to see much more of that here in hip London.

such cool modern canvas art

monet painting in the tate

The evening was ours and seeing as we were in London and had just missed the Harry Potter premiere for the sixth movie, we decided to go see it. There was a big group of us that was planning on going so us 5 thought it would be a great idea to buy our tickets in advance so we wouldn’t have to worry about waiting in lines that were sure to be long when we got to the theatre. We gave Brady the task of buying and figuring out the tickets online and reserving them for us. We headed off to the theatre but not without our HP lovin lightning bolts on our foreheads, put on with eyeliner. Check the pictures out and you tell me which two witches have the best lightning bolts because I can tell you right now Lindsey and I take the cake. We arrived at Leicester square where the premier for the movie had been held just days before and headed into the Empire theatre. Alright I’ll make this story short, turns out there is another Leicester square not in London and about 15 minutes away that we had actually booked our tickets for. Very stressful moment finding this out and thanks to the cheery ticket girl, we not only got in with a student discount but she got us all sitting together in the most amazing seats in the theatre, even when the movie had already started 10 minutes ago. Just a word about the theatre – never in my life have I ever seen a movie theatre that big. It looked more like a giant auditorium than a cinema and the seats were SO comfy. I’m convinced this is where the premier was held and I feel like I got the whole Harry Potter experience being in London in that theatre. Oh and what an amazing movie! It really was so good and I can’t wait for the seventh one to come out.

wingardium leviosa!

yes we went on the tube like this and you best believe i got some serious double takes of what was happening on my forehead. oh and you'll notice the "correct" bolts are on me and lindsey.

seeing harry potter in london in a london theatre. priceless.

man standing outside the theater. it was just what we needed to see after our day.

We arrived back to our flats and were so tired from the day but needed to shower badly. I hurried and got in so the rest of us could shower and Kaitlyn was super eager to get in after me. She hopped in and we kinda forget she was there. I was in the room and about to plug in Ashlee’s computer charger for her when suddenly a very loud and alarming alarm went off in our room. I thought the plug had tripped some sort of alarm or something but I opened the door and it was surely the fire alarm going off in the entire building. We all grab jackets and start the long descent outside when we realized that Kaitlyn was still in the shower. Next time I saw her, she was out with hair wet and towel wrapped around her bottom half since she miraculously grabbed a shirt to put on. The poor girl was freezing but it was so funny that she happened to be in the shower at that time. The fire alarm lasted for way too long and I was so ready for bed. No one will ever know what set it off but hopefully it won’t happen again any time soon. Goodnight from South Kensington.

7.19.09 Paris-London.

2009-07-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

arriving at the tube for the first time. king's cross is on harry potter for those of you who didn't know hence why it is so cool.

What a day what a day we had today. We left Paris today, which was not too sad for me to be honest and I was so stoked to finally go to London. One thing I was super excited for was taking the Chunnel from Paris to London. Turns out its just like every other train ride we’ve been on here in Europe and the only difference was that my ears kept popping from being underwater for like 20 minutes but that was it. We arrived in London and I instantly fell head over heels for the city. I don’t know what it is about it but it just has this urban city vibe that I thrive on. It was time to head to our flats and I was excited to see where we would be living for the next 16 days. Darrin had warned us that the neighborhood we were in is SUPER nice and that we would get fined thousands of pounds if we made noise after a certain time. Let’s just say after taking the tube stop “South Kensington” I knew we were in for a nice place. Doesn’t South Kensington just sound so upscale and chic? Well it is. The buildings are perfect little row houses all in white with black doors – just like you would imagine it. We checked into our flats and after 68 stairs up to Flat 17, we made it. We pretty much hike Everest every time we come to our apartment. Our flat consists of 5 rooms and 15 people with one very small kitchen and living room and 3 bathrooms. My room is pretty sweet with the 4 of us except that the bunk bed sounds like it will shatter to pieces every time you blink pretty much. It really is nice though and its nice that we have a kitchen so we can buy groceries instead of eating out every day, which is just astronomical.

coolest nissan i've ever seen and the oldest i've seen parked outside our flats.

bentley #1. gorgeous to say the least. i have seen SO many more equally as pretty.

After checking in, it was time for a walking tour of London. Pretty sure the best part of the walking tour and London are all the BEAUTIFUL cars!!! Seriously they are everywhere from Maserati’s to Bentley’s, BMW’s, Lexus’, Range Rover’s, Lambo’s – you name a luxury car and London has it. I love being surrounded by beautiful things and beautiful cars are even better. On the tour, we hit up such things as Big Ben and saw the London Eye. We also walked past Westminster Abbey and saw a slight glimpse of Buckingham Palace. It was a long day from our travels, but I can’t wait to become a London bloke in this quite cheery city. Cheers from London!

trifolga square.

queen's guard. he seriously stands in the position all day. worst job you could have.

me and big ben.

big ben and parliment.

fab strikin poses in the cold wind.

london's eye. biggest ferris wheel i've seen as well as the most expensive.

7.18.09 Paris.

2009-07-19T09:17:00.001-07:00

fountainbleau greeting us.

Today was our last day in Paris. I can’t say I’m terribly sad to leave Paris I mean I have loved it but I can’t wait to experience London. We had the morning to ourselves and then we met up in the afternoon to take our chartered bus to Fountainbleau and Vaux. We arrived at Fountainbleau and it is a random palace set in the middle of a quaint town outside of Paris. This palace preceded Versailles and was Napoleon’s home. It is much smaller than Versailles but I think that is why I liked it because it wasn’t so ominous and overbearing. While still very ornate, It wasn’t totally over the top and had a lot more wood than I have seen in any place we’ve seen thus far. I loved all the woodwork and the wood floors. The flooring in most rooms mirrored the ceiling in the detail, which was a really neat thing to see. The room I loved was fascinated with was a dining area. The chairs were SOO small! I couldn’t believe how small and delicate they were and how little they must have been back in the 17th century in order to fit on those.

tiny chairs at the tiny table...pretty sure those were as strong as toothpicks

original fabric sofa from the 1700's

Another room that was fascinating was Napoleon’s bathroom. The tub was big enough for a small dog to fit in it, not a human. It was his private bathroom off of his office space because he spent most of his time in the office, not in his room. His office also had its own day bed behind the desk so that Napoleon could sleep when he needed and then get up and work again. It was a very beautiful palace and seeing how palaces stated to be laid out back then was interesting. First there was the guard’s room and then you enter the bedroom and move farther into the private quarters. After the tour, we ended in the interior courtyard where they had the best sorbet cart and since we’ve been awhile without gelato, we had to refresh ourselves with something in a cone.

napoleon's teeny tiny bathroom

wonderful wonderful peach sorbet. merci fountainbleau.

From there, we stopped at a full on supermarket out in the country and it was so funny how excited we were to be in a grocery store just like back in the states. The fab 5 hooked up and conquered that grocery store. We were getting food for our picnic for our next stop, Vaux. We got us some baguettes, fruit, cheese, ham, nutella, crackers, chocolate covered waffles, and the best purchase of the day… a 10 pack of Twix bars! The best part, it was our cheapest meal yet and we made quite a haul of food. We arrived at Vaux and it was threatening to rain but we were hoping that it wouldn’t. We ate our feast and for the first time in 18 days we were full! It was a wonderful meal to say the least. We arrived at Vaux at night because each night the light some ridiculous amount of candles throughout the palace and gardens and it is supposed to be an incredible experience.

the champion market. it really was a champion for us.

best purchase EVER. the twix are way better here for some reason.

our lovely feast of a dinner.

Vaux is another palace that was built before Versailles for Nicholas Fouquet. Louis XIV later wrongly accused Nicholas Fouquet and had him thrown in prison because he was jealous of Vaux and issued Versailles to be built to outdo Vaux. In my opinion, I would have just taken Vaux for myself if I were Louis because I found it much more beautiful and impressive than Versailles. It had such a different feel and felt more manageable to take in than Versailles. Walking up to the château, the windows were lit up with candles on the inside, but sadly, the rains came. We didn’t get to see the some 15,000 candles that light the place. Honestly though, it was still incredible even without the candles because it is just such an amazing place.

vaux (pronounced 'vo'. those darn french and their x's)

awkward? we say art.

at least the candles were lit on the inside.

we were so sad about the rain and no candles in the pretty garden.

the most beautiful gardens i have ever seen...and the rain.

The gardens are astounding and seeing them from the balcony was a sight to see. I must note here that Eva Longeria had her wedding here and can I say jealous? This would be the dream place to have your wedding and I would love to have mine there as well, minus the price tag. Even in the rain, we walked out in the gardens and it felt like we were transported to the English countryside. Everything was so green and lush and the rain actually gave a great ambience and misted the place and looked beautiful. We walked the length of the gardens and then walked above some archways and found us an adventure. There was a pathway in the forest to the side of Vaux so we took it to see where it would lead. We came to the end and we were at some lounge area just off the gardens. We had a good time over there just taking in the whole place and the incredible view. It was getting dark and the interior of Vaux was lit and glowing. It honestly was the perfect ending to France and it was one of those moments you just kind of wish you could stay in for a long time. Classical music and superb opera was being piped in through loud speakers and created the scene as if we were attending an event here at Vaux back in the 1800’s. What an incredible experience the only way I would have wanted the week in Paris to end.

vaux from behind.

as night set in, vaux glowed. b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l.

just hangin out at the palace and felt we needed to capture the piping music.

classic. this captures our experience quite nicely.

7.17.09 Paris.

2009-07-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

entrance to versailles. that sky shows the bleakness of the day.

Today was a day of conquering the magnificent Versailles. I didn’t really know what to expect because I had heard a lot about how large the estate is but I didn’t understand exactly how big it was. We arrived via train and walked out into the bitter cold of the day. It is so strange that in the middle of July in France I am cold. It was threatening to rain, but the wind is what created pain. It was bitterly cold and I was not prepared for that kind of weather. We sat huddled, waiting for our tour guide to show but little did we know that our longer than expected wait would be totally worth it once we met our, shall I say, eccentric tour guide. He walked up, but more flitted in fact and moved in a very jolty, spastic manner. His name is Sid and he had hair to remember; a rat tail braid going down his shirt into depths that he and his sweet wife only know. And his voice – lets not forget that voice that was so strange. It was almost Asian French and a combination that no person could imitate, so I recorded a small portion of our tour so you could enjoy his voice along with me.

even if this picture doesn't portray it, we were FREEZING

and there they are in all their glory...sid and his braided friend

listen carefully to how he says "louis the 14th" and imagine hearing that about 400 times in one day

We finally made it inside Versailles and the insanity of how huge the place was set in. Versailles was built in the 17th century and was first built by Henry the 4th as a hunting lodge because the land was perfecting for game hunting. Louis the 14th then took over and decided to make Versailles the new capital of France instead of Paris. It was a bold move and was the first city to be entirely man made. From the palace to the gardens, everything was made by man and nature was disregarded. It was part of the movement that man could overcome nature. There were 17 rooms that we visited starting with the royal chapel. How sweet would that be to wake up and have your own church you could walk to? I think it’s a nice idea and this chapel was impressive. We moved on into different salons and banquet halls that were used when greeting guests at the palace. I swear everything is gold plated or is dripping in gold in some form. The doors in one of the first rooms had the logo if you will for Louis the 14th and I loved how the L’s connected and made the symbol for his reign.

logo doors....notice those 2 L's connecting together.

room of chandeliers...hall of mirrors.

My favorite room was Marie Antoinette’s room in the palace. The chandelier in her room is the original one and is so exquisite. The fabric for the drapes, walls, and bedding are all original as well and the floral pattern is so beautiful. Each room had its own theme and color palette and always covered in gold. I was surprised at the amount of small rooms and not so many really large, open areas so that must have been the style back then or maybe that is why the gardens are so extremely large. We made our way out to the gardens and the enormity of them was hard to take in. I was also surprised to see a lot of gravel and not as much lush green as I expected. No doubt there is much greenery but I guess I expected a lot more on the ground and such. I wish the fountains had been on but the ponds and grand canal was incredible. Louis the 14th had 4 actual barges on his canal that he would use to get goods to and from Venice.

fabric in the queen's room

the original chandelier in marie antoinette's bedroom

back of versailles. there was no getting the whole palace in one picture. it is that big

the cutest topiary's i've ever seen

it just goes on and on and on...

We stopped and got the most wonderful lunch before finishing the rest of the gardens. I say the rest of the gardens loosely because we didn’t see ALL of the grounds as that would take several days I’m sure. We made our way to the Grande Trianon and to the Queen’s Hamlet aka Marie Antoinette’s countryside town. Literally there was an entire other town within the property of Versailles all just for the Queen. She had her own theatre, gardens, cottages, and lakes. You could tell you were moving farther away from Versailles because the gardens were no longer symmetrical, but were placed in a natural way. It looked as though the countryside had always looked that way when in reality, the land Versailles is on was once a swampland forest. It was cool to see the juxtaposition of the symmetrical gardens of Versailles with the natural and organic gardens of the Queen. It felt like we had left France and traveled on a weekend trip to the English countryside. There were adorable little cottages that dotted the landscape and beautiful gardens behind every building. It looked like a scene straight out of a painting with the blooming flowers and ducks in the pond. It honestly felt like we were at a Disneyland attraction where they recreate a famous place and you can go meet Mickey at the end, except that this was for real and all original buildings. I loved Versailles and even spending nearly 6 hours there, I don’t think we even brushed upon what it has to offer.

Brady and I with our chicken and mozza panini with a side of delicious crepe

the gardens at the little triadon

marie antoinette's personal theatre...quite impressive.

cottage at the queen's hamlet

the first spiral staircase or what looks like it could be

we made it to versailles! our only picture taken here

after an 8 hour day, we were in desperate need of what the french do best...pastries!

i must add here that we bought 6 bottles of this water because it was so cheap. pretty sure it is some sort of medicine filled with minerals that grit your teeth. not worth 6 euro.

7.16.09 Paris.

2009-07-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

inspiring to say the least.

every angle of this building is perfect.

i dressed up to impress villa savoye. yes i got ready, wore a dress, and did my hair up all nice so i would look good for a building. that is how much i love it.

This was the day I have been waiting for since January when our Lego project led me to fall in love with Villa Savoye even more. I had to build an abstraction of the house in CAD and ever since, I have wanted to actual go there since I have the floor plans pretty much memorized as well as the structure of the building. It took us about an hour or so to get there but from the moment we stepped on to the large property, I was in bliss. First of all, the lot is perfect. It is completely secluded with trees and house sits flatly in the middle of the property. The house itself makes such a statement and has an incredible presence. It was designed by Le Corbusier and built between 1928 and 1931 using Corbusier’s 5 points of architecture, which are the basic elements of architecture according to Corbusier. They are stilts, roof gardens, open-plan, free-floating façade, and horizontal windows. To Corbusier, Villa Savoye is the perfect house because it combines all of these elements. I’d say that I totally agree with him in every way and want to design my house with all of these elements as well. It was so peaceful looking at the villa and was another case in point how much architecture can affect your mood. I was one happy camper being there. I couldn’t quite take in the reality that I was actually standing in front of Villa Savoye. Going inside made me even more giddy and we walked through as Corbusier would have liked us to, following his mapped out plan of the house. The roof gardens were incredible and so simple. That was the best part of the whole experience was how simple and to the point everything was. There was no fuss, no unnecessary grandeur just that basics, yet those basics are the most beautiful. Sitting in a petit chair designed by Corbusier in his iconic house was more than I could take and I’m still so excited about what I got to see today. I love that modern design has been around for so much longer than people realize and that Villa Savoye is a wonderful example of that design. We were able to sketch for bit sitting out in front of the masterpiece itself and I couldn’t have been happier. I never wanted to leave that place and would love to return someday.

sweet staircase going from top to bottom.

rooftop gardens. the use of ramps is ingenious.

loving that blue color.

iconic master bath. i would lounge on that curved wall all day.

petit comfort chaise lounge

petit chair.

SO comfortable. it just molds right to your body.

this month's edition of architectural digest: at home with designers brady mathews and ali tanner in their suburban home.

we are artsy and my legs are shiny.

We made our way back into Paris and were scheduled to go to the Musee d’Orsay but instead, we took a little detour to a restaurant designed by Phillippe Starck. We were told it was a must see and I was game to go because it was an entire store filled with ghost chairs…my favorite. Even with the outrageous food prices, it was an amazing experience and to think that I just ate my dinner in a ghost chair is so cool! The whole design of the place was so cool and the food was amazing as well. The restaurant is on the top floor of a super modern building and has a cool view of Paris since almost all the walls are windows. It was well worth the visit and the drain on my wallet. It’s back to peasantry life in eating.

kong restaurant...look at all those beautiful ghost chairs. sheer beauty.

i couldn't capture how incredible the room was but you get the jist of it.

our hamburger. i think it was worth the 17 euro we paid since it was the first piece of meat i've had since leaving america pretty much.

After our awesome detour, some of us went to the Musee d’Orsay. We weren’t really sure what we would find but were pleasantly surprised to see many famous Monet, Van Gohe and Degras paintings there. I have always been a huge fan of impressionism and love the technique they use to paint. It seems so simple yet it creates such a difficult piece of art. I think my favorite part of impressionistic painting are the colors. Impressionism was a time when artists wanted to break out of the mold of what colors objects and people really were in reality and change them to what they wanted. People could be purple and the sky could be green, but it was okay because there weren’t boundaries anymore of what was reality and what was your imagination. I find each painting to be so colorful and light-hearted.

van gohe painting.

Besides the impressionistic paintings, we were able to see some original art nouveau furniture from Guimard to Velde. I love the art nouveau style and how organic the lines are. Paris is dripping in the organic lines and to me, is an iconic art nouveau city so it was really cool to see some original pieces. I was way glad we went to this museum since it isn’t very well known but I loved everything that we saw. Now my feet are throbbing from walking all day everyday but I am loving everything I see and can’t believe how fast this week has gone. I am enjoying every minute though!

art nouveau desk by velde

7.15.09 Paris.

2009-07-16T11:02:00.001-07:00

No day can be disappointing when the Pompidou museum is included in the itinerary. It has always been my dream to go there and I couldn’t wait to be surrounded by magnificent modern art. We made a quick stop first at the church Sainte Chapelle. It was our first look at how different churches are in Paris compared to Roman architecture. The emphasis is on stained glass now instead of mosaics and this church was chuck full of incredible stained glass. Going into the chapel, you are surrounded by the tallest windows I’ve seen entirely made of stained glass. Each window had its own unique pattern and message created with the glass. The glass gives the room a special glow and light to it, which was fascinating and made me almost not want to leave. When the world wars happened, the bombings would blow out the glass so they actually took the glass out of the windows and saved it from the explosions. Over 70% of the glass in that chapel is original.

one of many impressive stained glass windows in the chapel

From Sainte Chapelle, it was time for… drum roll please… the Pompidou!! Being a modern girl, this was something that I have looked forward to seeing for quite sometime. The building itself is such an icon with all its fixtures, inner workings, and even escalator on the outside of the building. I had butterflies when we walked up to it and knowing I was finally at the Pompidou. In order to get to the Museum floors, you have to take the escalator all the way up and you are greeted with amazing views of Paris. That was art on its own and the perfect way to enter the museum. Walking through all the art and exhibits was an experience in itself as well. You definitely have to have an open mind and an appreciation for modern art in order to fully enjoy the museum in my opinion. There were many things there that disturbed me and will have scarred me for life, but there were so many beautiful and inspiring pieces I was so glad I was able to see. I think my favorite part was being able to see the original Le Corbuiser petit chair, chaise lounge, and Eileen Gray’s side table. That was a major highlight of the day for sure. I just love how the Pompidou is entirely white and the art speaks for itself and vibrant colors lead you to different areas. The way finding was fun to follow was art in itself to me. I really was so sad to leave and didn’t feel like I had enough time to fully appreciate what they offered, but I’m so glad I was able to go.

i made it to the pompidou! it was everything i wanted and more

view from the top of the pompidou

just plum cool. i wouldn't expect anything less from this place.

large buttons in the entrance of the museum. no purple wall can be ugly and this one is no exception.

cool art falling from the ceiling.

black and white photography of trees. i loved it.

this is a cube made entirely of toothpicks. thought you'd appreciate this dad! :)

the original petit chair by le corbusier. who changed the colors from this to black and silver because i'm loving these colors together.

there was an incredible red wall that we had to take advantage of...and i think we did quite nicely.

It was off to the Louvre from the Pompidou and what a contrast between the two. Although the interior of the Louvre is not as ornate as I expected, the pieces there couldn’t be more different than the Pompidou. We first made it to the courtyard aka huge plaza where the I.M. Pei pyramid is located. Knowing that many of the French consider the glass pyramid as the “scar on the face of Paris” makes me so sad because I find it totally amazing. I love seeing the modern architecture blending with century old architecture. Nothing is better! I have been to Louvre but never to the inside so when I walked in and saw a map of the place, I was totally shocked. That place is HUGE! Since walking the Louvre with 30 people would be near impossible, we were able to just see what we wanted and could leave. We were on a mission to see two things: the Aphrodite statue and of course, the Mona Lisa. We navigated our way through that place poorly, but on our search for the Aphrodite, we happened upon Napoleon’s apartments. I honestly can’t think of why anyone would need to surround themselves with that much gaudy stuff and need a palace as large as the Louvre. It was cool to see the fabrics they used back in the 1700’s and see how ornate each piece of furniture was.

the louvre.

entrance into the glass pyramid

crystal desk in napoleon's apartment...they must have used the term "apartment" loosely to describe his living quarters anything less than an estate.

We made our way to Aphrodite and only got a small glimpse of it because of the many people surrounding it and no one would move. I really enjoyed the sculpture and this may sound morbid, but I liked that she didn’t have arms. I found it abstract and so much more interesting and less predictable that she was armless. To my knowledge, historians actually could never find her arms but for me, I’m glad they didn’t.

miss aphrodite herself. armless and all.

smile your mona smile!

The Mona Lisa is just right upstairs from where we were so away we went on a mission to see this painting. I had heard so many things about it from many people and how much of a let down ti was. I had heard it was so small and in a corner of the Louvre. Well it was definitely off the beaten path a bit, but it wasn’t as small as I expected so I was pleasantly surprised. I’m not sure why that particular painting of Davinci’s has become so famous but I just love how distinct Davinci’s style is of painting. All his faces have a similar structure and look to them and the Mona is probably iconic for that style. I’m glad I’ve seen it though and feel like I can check that off my list of things to see and do. All in all, it was a day of much walking, major contrasting art pieces, and iconic things to see. Au Revoir!

7.14.09 Paris

2009-07-16T10:31:00.001-07:00

Conveniently, our free day in Paris fell on Bastille Day, which is France’s independence day. We were told it would super chaotic and that we should watch our pockets and purses for pick-pocketers. Our plan for the day included renting these bikes that are all over the city and riding to the Opera house and shopping, and of course ending the evening with my favorite thing in the whole world…fireworks. Not just any fireworks but fireworks off the Eiffel Tower. To our dismay, we weren’t able to rent the bikes and fulfill my dream of riding through Paris with baguettes and wild flowers in the basket.

the bikes we so desperately wanted to ride. it would have been bliss.

A little bummed out, we headed for the less exciting metro and found our way to the Opera house. It was very cool to go in the inside because I am a huge fan of the movie and musical Phantom of the Opera so to see where that was filmed in real life was pretty amazing. However, I found it sad that my only knowledge of the Opera house was what I knew from a fictional movie. I’m still glad we went though and got to see another side of Paris while there.

back of the opera house.

staircase in opera house...prom 09!

hall of opera house...INSANE

box seats in the auditorium

Shopping was next on our list of things to do and we searched with diligence until we found what we were looking for… H&M. only the world’s greatest store that I love. Lets’ just say it was a successful shopping trip for all of us and the fab five left with bags in hand. We were pooped after all that shopping and wandering around Paris so we rested for the afternoon until we wanted to go out for the evening to watch fireworks, and I just couldn’t wait.

successful shopping trip at the greatest place on earth

k this is for my brother in law dave....he told me it was a must to eat this pastry, or at least a pastry he described that matched this pastry i found. i enjoyed it for you dave!

We decided to cross the Seine to the otherside of the Eiffel Tower to have a better view and what we thought would have been a less crowded view. Man were we sorely wrong. I have never seen that many people in my life and so that many people packed into one metro car. Little did I know what it would be like on the ride home. We made it the place and with difficulty, found a decent spot were we could see the top half of the Eiffel Tower. We were packed in and were back to back with our neighbors. The show started and I could have wept I was so happy. I LOVE fireworks more than anything and to be in Paris watching them was unreal to me. It was a totally amazing show but not like Paris worthy I thought. Come to find out later, we were seeing the back of the Eiffel Tower and on the front of it, they projected images and lights and it was all to music and this totally amazing production that we missed. I was kinda bummed but loved the fireworks even if we didn’t see that.

we made it to the fireworks among the thousand of people.

it speaks for itself really

tears, honest to goodness tears welled up in my eyes during this experience.

hello grand finale! seriously incredible

It was time to make our way home along with about 1 million other people. You think I’m exaggerating but seriously they said that’s how many people were there. It’s got nothing on Time Square. We were so lucky to have Brady there because we all linked arms and he yanked us all through the hoards of people. I have never held on to someone’s arm as I did then because I was not about to get lost from our group. Getting on the metro was a joke so we decided to just wait it out a bit and see if it died down. I have seriously never been so nervous to be somewhere because we were told that riots can break out and if you are American you are not wanted there. We decided not to speak and if someone asked if we knew English we’d just shake our heads or pretend we were from Canada, the Vancouver area to be exact. After having some too friendly people near us and no being able to find the metro, we made it to the station. Again, just thousands of people were there. People were pressed up against the glass on the metro and there was no room to breathe. Brady got us on and off the metro and kept us safe while riding it. The hens were safe and rooster got us there…that was our motto. I honestly doubted if we would ever make it back to the hotel alive and not robbed, but we did! I have never been so happy to see my bed in my life. It’s just another day in the life of Paris.

on our way home before getting lost but happy to have made it out alive

7.13.09 Paris.

2009-07-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

At 7:20 this morning there was a knock on our cabin door and who should it be but our trusty train car man with our passports! That was lucky cuz I didn’t know if I would see it or that man again so I was very happy to have it back. Trying to get all of our stuff together and get off the train was another adventure in itself and all I wanted to do was brush my teeth and face. We were a sight to see. There was a bus waiting to pick us up and take us to our hotel. The ride there was great because we were able to see a lot of the main sights just on our way to our hotel. I loved seeing all of the buildings and how different they were from Venice. They look like they are straight out of the 17 and 1800’s. it is a very big city and more spread out than Rome or Florence. Our hotel is pretty nice, I mean it’s no palace like we had in Venice but it is nice for sure. We couldn’t check in so off we went on a sketching trip to the Eiffel Tower. First stop was food because we were all starving having not eaten in quite some time. I got one of the best chicken sandwiches I have ever had and can’t wait to fall in love with French cuisine like I did with Italian food. We walked to a park nearby found a nice view of the Eiffel Tower from there to sketch. It still gets me when I am sitting in front of an incredible piece of architecture and sketching it as it is right there. When our sketches were done, Darrin had us set our sketchbooks up so they were right in front of the Eiffel Tower and it was cool to see everybody’s different interpretations of the view and their style of sketching.

the hotel arley.

first meal in paris and man was it deserved.

ze eiffel tower

pretty cool if i do say so myself

all our sketches laid out in front of the tower...mine is on the very left end.

We had the rest of the day to ourselves until our boat tour of Paris later that night. We needed to do laundry so bad so we headed to the Laundromat right by our hotel and boy was that an experience. First of all, the machines and their instructions are all in French and I can’t pick out a lick of French when reading it. At least in Italian I can tell what some words are but this was beyond me. We all sat there having a hard time knowing what to do when the man that owns the place walked in and helped us. He was a good time for sure and thought we were so funny and from California. He spoke hardly any English and laughed at our confused we were of what to do with laundry. He left and then came back and told us to come to the bar and he would take our picture. We were so confused but he was saying it like he would be doing us a favor because we are American and want our pictures in bars. We went next door and he had us stand behind the bar and took our picture. It was totally hilarious and even more random but he loved it. Finally, after like 3 hours of doing laundry we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the evening.

classic pic...who will ever know why the laundromat man wanted us to take a pic behind the bar

Darrin had set up for us to go on a boat tour of Paris at night and boy was I stoked about it! On our way there, we stopped by Notre Dame and took pictures of the exterior. It feels so much smaller when you are up close to it than looking far away but it still so grand. After our short stop there we made it to the boat tour. We got on the boat at 10:30 so the whole city was all lit up and completely beautiful. We saw so many sites and learned about the many bridges of Paris as we went under them. My favorite part of course was when we made it to the Eiffel Tower. Seeing it lit up at night is just a sight to see and one that doesn’t get old. It was quite a chilly evening, which was such a change from all the weather we’ve been having on this trip. It was a long journey back home but we made it happily.

hector guimard metro sign...SO cool!

high fashion hunchbacks thats what we are.

waiting for the boat tour. we model.

the boat tour...the seine at night.

me and eiffel...check out my nub fingers. classy.

the icon of paris. stunning.

7.12.09 Venice to Paris.

2009-07-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

we were so sad to leave the palace. you can see it in our eyes.

Sadly today was our last day in Venice and we had to leave our palace of a hotel. We didn’t have to check out until noon so you better believe we stayed there as long as we could before we had to leave our beautiful room. We had the day to ourselves since our train for Paris didn’t leave until 8 o clock that night. We decided to go to St. Mark’s to see the interior since we didn’t get to go inside yesterday when we walked past it. We made it there and got in line to go inside. We had to hike up this tiny little stairway that smelled like major BO and when we finally made it to the top we realized it was the line that you have to pay to see more of St. Marks. We were not about to pay so we hiked back down and saw the interior that you could see for free. I have seen many mosaics in all the churches we have been to on this trip thus far but never have I seen mosaics like here. They were all pure gold and so so shiny. They glittered so brightly and were so detailed and like I had never seen before. Like I mentioned before, the architecture of St. Mark’s is much different than we have seen in Italy before. I feel like we are slowly moving ahead in time as we move to each city and seeing how the architecture developed overtime. That has been my favorite part of this trip is just being able to recognize the different time periods that the buildings in each city come from. St. Mark’s is almost gothic in style which is similar to what we will be seeing in Paris so we are clipping right along the timeline of architecture.

st. mark's cathedral.

interior of st. marks...terrible quality but you can sort of grasp the beauty of the mosaics

After St. Marks we didn’t really have anything on the agenda that we wanted to do so us girls decided to walk around all the many shops Venice has to offer and see if we could find some fun stuff. A few of us bought some stuff and then we all became too tired to walk anymore so we just sat in a square in Venice and watched everyone walk by. I was so content just knowing that I was in Venice and wanted to eat up the atmosphere as much as I could before leaving my favorite country in the whole world. There was a serious need for some gelato one last time and we had to go say goodbye to the beautiful crepe man we had come to befriend. I’m telling you gelato will never disappoint and I will miss it very much as we move on to Paris. We grabbed our last Italian pizza for dinner and started our trek from our hotel to the train station. Four bridges later and lifting over 60 pounds of my luggage over all those bridges and across the entire city of Venice, we made it to the train station. I am going to have some serious biceps at the end of this adventure needless to say.

final gelato...strattechella & caramel cream. YUM

this was a must to post because..well it pretty much explains itself. red hair. red rat tail. red rat tail sideburns. priceless.

final meal in italy. i could eat this everyday in fact i did but SO good.

4 bridges and who knows how many stairs later we were so excited to be at the train station

heading to our train car...the excitement was building

We were SO excited to experience this train ride we were about to go though because we thought it was going to be like on Harry Potter and the night car they take to Hogwarts. There are 6 beds in a car and the fab 5 were all put together plus Courtney who is a theater design student. We made it to our car and were the only ones getting on our train so that kinda worried us but we got on anyways. It was a sauna on there because the air doesn’t come on until the train starts moving. We got to our car and looked in and all of us just laughed. There was no way 6 of us plus our luggage was going to fit in the sad excuse of a room they wanted us to fit in. There were six seats and then 2 bunks above and the backs of the seats folded down to make 3 bunks on each side of the car. After some cursing and much maneuvering, we got our bags situated and waited for our interesting ride we were about to take.

and this is what we found...not happy about it.

self timed distressed photo. this doesn't do justice the cramped space we were in.

By this time it had been about 4 hours since eating and knowing that we would be on this thing for 12 hours, we needed food and fast. Pulling all of our resources together, we began rationing food. Courtney had our first course: cheese and crackers. Eating slowly, we tried to savor that so we would fill more full.

course one: cheese and crackers

Course two was granola bars and fruit roll ups. I had stolen an apple from the hotel so we passed that around as well as Ashlee’s pear she had taken too. We were feeling pretty good at this point but still weren’t satisfied.

course two: granola bars and cheese crackers (not to be mistaken with cheese & crackers like course one. totally different.)

It was time for course three: dessert. Courtney had these fun chocolate pudding cups from the market in Venice and the rest of us had an assortment of candies. We stuffed our faces with the little food we had and I seriously felt homeless or something and nibbled at my mamba to make it last longer.

course three: chocolate pudding cups and assorted candy with a side of fruit roll ups

At this time we were visited by the train car head hancho man. He said he needed our passports and tickets. I get a little nervous when some stranger asks me for my passport after our experience with the Italian police. We gave our passports over to this man and he tells us in broken English that he will bring these back in the morning and to shut and lock our door to our cabin and walked away with all our information. Scary? I’d say. As we are sitting there wondering who this man is that just took our lives really was and still so hungry, some people from our group walked by and said they were on their way to…you guessed it. The train restaurant. Yup, there was food on the train this whole time and we didn’t know. We laughed pretty hard about that one. It was time for sleeping so we all took some Ambien or whatever was in Brady’s unlabeled pill bottle and watched as we all felt the effects of drugs kick in. Too bad mine never did. It was the longest night of my life sleeping in my clothes with my scarf as a blanket. I thought we’d never get to Paris by the speed of our train…To be continued.

as we fell asleep in our cramped room, we tried to hold hands to comfort one another. this was after taking sleep drugs hence why it looks a bit strange.

7.11.09 Venice.

2009-07-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

our feetsies in our hotel slippers. yes we have slippers and robes

Once again I woke up in perfect Venice so excited to see what today would bring. Darrin made an appointment for all of us to go to a glass blowing demonstration to see how the Venetians blow their incredible glass pieces. We were waiting in our little courtyard for the guy from the glass place to come pick us up and then what should appear but our very own private boat. The glass company sent it to come get us so we could take the trip to Murano to their factory in style. We were SOO excited and finally got to see Venice in something other than a water taxi. I was so excited I recorded a little video of our experience that really shows my excitement so enjoy.

us on our private boat ride. we ride in steez

our boat experience put to film

After arriving to the Mazzega glass factory, we watched one of their expert guys create a vase and a glass horse in literally minutes. It was such a cool process to see how they take hot lava or what looks like hot lava but is actually melted glass, put it on a stick and create insane yet marvelous objects. He first made a little vase that looked so delicate and then he made a horse, which is the thing to make to show you have skill apparently. He did it so so fast and then there was this mini stallion sitting there in totally beauty. Our guide man told us that there are no schools for glass blowing and that you have to born into the family of glass blowers in order to learn the trade and you start at a very young age in the factory learning from the masters. He said you can either do it or you can’t but you better hope you can. We then moved into their huge showroom and could see the hundreds of different items for sell. They have such beautiful chandeliers and I want them all. My favorite thing was a wall of glass chains that were hung as a divider of sorts next to the stairs. It was such a clever concept and took me by surprise. The sales guy was pretty funny and loved talking to us so naturally we got a picture with him. Darrin gave us the rest of the day to ourselves and the rest of the time in Venice actually which is just one more day, so we were all pretty stoked about that.

the factory we went to. i just love the shutters a lot

glass blowing man...that stuff is very hot

coolest glass horse ever and created in about 5 min.

this is the amazing chain glass wall thing that i am obsessed with

Us five decided that we really wanted to go to a beach in Venice and heard the best beaches were on an island called Lido just near where we were. We had to just take a water taxi to get there which are kind of expensive, so we may or may not have bought tickets. Some might call us stowaways but we like to refer to it here on study abroad as being thrifty. We made it to the beautiful island of Lido and wandered a bit before finding a really nice beach. The funny thing about European beaches is the lack of shame people have when it comes to their appearance. They aren’t very modest to put it gingerly so that was an experience in itself but we had THE best day. We were on the beach for almost 5 hours just laying out, walking the beach and playing in the Mediterranean. Laying out is probably my most favorite thing to do and we did a lot of that and we all got a great amount of sun from the marvelous Venetian sun. On our way back, we ran into some fellow study abroaders which is so crazy because there are a ton of beaches and tons more people so they helped us navigate our way home.

on the beach in lido

When we got of the taxi in Venice, we happened to land in the square next to St. Marks Cathedral. It is so beautiful and kind of came out of nowhere to be honest. I just wasn’t expecting this very very elegant and extravagant structure to be right on the water. The style resembles more of the Roman architecture than Florentine architecture in my opinion with its ornate columns and arched mosaics. The pointed arch is something that we haven’t really seen until now though and I find it very reminiscent of Aladdin, which I am a huge fan of so I really enjoyed the architecture of St. Marks. We didn’t spend much time there so we want to go back tomorrow on our free time before we head off to Paris. It was an incredible day of relaxation that was much needed and deserved in my opinion. I feel like every day is a once in a lifetime experience and that feeling never gets old. Oh it’s just another perfect day in Venice! I’m going to miss you Italy. You never disappoint or discourage but always bring a smile to my face and have a place in my heart. I will be back you can count on that so until next time…Arrivederci!!!

st. marks cathedral...notice the arch mosaics

7.10.09 Venice.

2009-07-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

entrance to rubelli...

incredible sofa and sitting room in rubelli

Blessed day of getting to sleep in a little bit. We didn’t have to meet until 9 so it felt wonderful getting up at 8 o clock. We headed to Rubelli textiles, a fabric company in Venice right on the grand canal. One of the designers for Rubelli came and picked us up at our hotel and boy was she suave. She was so stylin and bueatiful. We walked a good distance to their showroom which is why the people here are so skinny cuz they walk EVERYWHERE and I am a huge fan of that. The studio/showroom is in a 14th century palace that was owned by a very wealthy from Venice and the study in the palace was the CEO of Rubelli’s office until 5 years ago when they moved to a bigger building since they are such a growing company. The building is absolutely gorgeous though and the interior is decorated to the tee. The sitting room when you walk in has the most gorgeous sofa I have ever seen in my entire life. Apparently it is the same sofa that they designed and used in Ralph Lauren’s penthouse in New York…so it’s that pretty. It is a silver mohair sectional and incredible. The woman who picked us up is the one who takes care of all the textiles and archives from their museum of fabrics. The company began in the 1800’s and they still have remnants of many of the original fabrics of the first production and we were able to see the ones that were out on display. They have a collection of fabrics today that are totally dedicated to recreating those fabrics or they take inspiration from the more traditional fabrics from the beginning of their company. They even have an original corset and little child’s outfit from back in the day that was so cute and amazing looking because it was made out of the same fabric they used to upholster furniture. There was a change in the look of fabric because they began to make the patterns smaller so that they would fit on to clothing and look better. Before like I said, they had been using the same fabric for clothing as furniture but they realized that you were losing a lot of the patterns on the clothing because they were so big. So they made the patterns smaller and she showed us a few swatches of those first original textiles. We then had free rein to roam the showroom and look at all their different collections including their modern collection we have in the states called Donghia. I wish I could explain in words how so happy I was to be there and be surrounded by nothing but sheer beauty. Every fabric was so elegant and I loved the different collections. They have a collection that is inspired simply from Venice alone so the patterns represent like the rod iron works that are all over Venice and other well known patterns that are common to this area. Another collection celebrates the traditional patters that were the ones that started Rubelli and a few other collections as well. We had a hay day just wondering the amazing area of the palace where they house the fabrics and the view from their balcony was insane. They are right on the grand canal and the view is mind blowing. The ladies were so adorable who worked there and one of them, Elizabeth, was super cute. I was telling her how beautiful all the fabrics were and how much I loved being there and then she stopped me and said, “No. You know what is beautiful? This,” as she pointed to my dress pattern. She told me that when I walked in the door she got so excited and wanted to talk to me because she loved my dress so much. I knew I’d like her cuz we had the same taste. She had on beautiful Burberry glasses so we chatted up style for a bit. I got a picture with her so check that out. They had fabric samples that you could buy so you better believe I snatched up some of that since their fabric is only available in Venice. I left there completely and totally happy and never wanted to leave really. I would give anything to intern there and work with those darling women and get an the most remarkable experience of my life. Who knows, maybe I’ll do it. ☺

one of many beautiful patterns in the rubelli collection

elizabeth and I...she is a most wonderful woman and check out her sweet glasses

the 5 amigos in beautiful rubelli

As we were leaving Rubelli, we had free time before our next appointment with our next designer. Walking along, we happened upon the most wonderful little square with the cutest door I’ve ever seen. Naturally, we had to take advantage of this prime photo op so we proceeded to spend almost an hour just snapping great photos in the door. It was so much fun and one of my many fondest memories of the trip thus far. We headed back to the hotel and me and Ashlee crashed on our bed so beat from our day already. We got a phone call from Brady who lives in the annex as we lovingly call it a little ways away from our room. He told us to turn the channel on the tv, which was currently on Clueless in Italian of course, to channel 14. He said we would enjoy it very much. We turn it there to find a greasy Italian contortionist man with a creepy stash in his boxers doing strange flexible things with his body. It was seriously so disturbing but Ashlee and I were rolling on the bed laughing so hard. He finished his little routine and bowed and then all of a sudden just flung his leg out front and then back and somehow had it completely twisted around his head and walked off stage. I was seriously dying from laughter. Only in Italy could you find that man, that’s for sure.

model shot...classic. we should model or something

coolest door. coolest ladies.

we loved that door if you can't tell

We met up to go to our next designer and had to take a vaparetto aka water taxi to get there. It was quite the journey to say the least but we made it. On our way there, we were walking near the water and one girl, Josie, was walking along and wanted to just step down to feel the water. Somehow, we don’t know how, but she stepped on the step going down to the water and it was covered in moss and very slick. Next thing we know, she has gone down flat on her back and butt and her camera which was around her wrist slipped off, flew in the air, and landed in the water. It sat on the surface for a moment and before we knew it, it had sunk to a point we couldn’t see it. My first reaction was to dive in there and grab that thing before we lost it but it was too late. I wanted to cry for her. I can’t imagine having that happen especially since we aren’t even half over with the trip. She got right up and said she was totally fine and didn’t care at all cuz it happened and there was nothing we could do. Then reality hit and she was pretty sad. I shed a tear for her cuz I just thought it was so sad.

We made it to Fortuny, our 2nd textile design place and greeted by a very pretty middle aged Venetian man who works for Fortuny. They were so sweet when we walked in because they said they had something to refresh us. The refresher was little shot glasses of coke and potato chips. It was very kind of them. Their showroom was much different from Rubelli because they are a factory and less of a showroom I would say. The unique thing about Fortuny is that all of their fabrics are printed. Now he wouldn’t divulge their secret printing ways to us so I have no idea how the printing process actually works but I’m mesmerized by their fabrics. It is so weird because you look at one of the patterns from a distance and it looks like it is hand woven and has depth until you step closer and touch it and it is totally flat. It is quite strange but strangely beautiful. They use real silver and gold powders in some of their designs giving them a most wonderful sheen and glimmer. They had some beautiful patterns and are all very close to the original designs from Mr. Fortuny himself from back in the day. Most of their patterns have a lovely border that makes their designs distinct and unique and also make for a really cool look when upholstered on a sofa or chair. The price for one meter of fabric 360 euro, so VERY expensive. Every bolt of fabric is different from the other because of their secret practice so there is a sense of uniqueness and original quality to their work that makes it so sought after. After looking at the fabric, the man helping us took us back to the gardens of their store. The factory they use to make the fabric that has been there since the 1900’s when the company began is back there as well as beautiful gardens. They have a pool and lovely cabana for clients to use when they come to pick out fabrics since “it can be a long process” according to the Fortuny man. It was an amazing experience to hear how fabrics got their start for these two companies and that they are still honoring their roots today. It gives them history and a story, which is priceless in my opinion.

fabrics at fortuny...they were so exquisite.

We left there and made our way back to our hotel after getting lost just for a little bit. On our way back, Brady, Ashlee, and I stopped at this huge market to get some dinner and got fresh fruit, fresh cheese and a wheel of bread oh and some nutella. We mustn’t forget the nutelli as we call it. It is essential to every meal. It was super cheap and SO delicious! I love eating fresh anything especially from Venice when everything just tastes better. All in all it was a wonderful day in Venice as always. I cannot get enough of this place and would give anything to stay here for the rest of the trip, but since we aren’t, I am enjoying every single minute before it all passes and is over. Grazie Venice for being so magnificent! Ciao!

our meal...so cheap. so delicious.

7.9.09 Venice.

2009-07-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

last gelato at grom's. so sad to leave yet in bliss cuz of the gelato.

Today was our last day in Florence, which was sad because I really did love being in Florence but I was SO excited to finally see Venice. I have always wanted to go there and I am fascinated that an entire city could be on water. We had the morning in Florence to sketch which we did and then me, Brady, and Ashlee among many others of us decided to hit up our favorite gelato place Grom’s one last time. Sadly, they didn’t open until 10:30 so we patiently waiting in a line outside the door for them to open their goodness to us. Then we headed back to the hotel and it was off to the train station to catch our train to Venice. We had about an hour before our train left so we all circled up our luggage like circling wagons for the night. Everything was just great until 3 very scary looking Italian policemen waltzed up to us and just said “passports! Passports!!” We all freaked out and just reached in our trendy money belts and I was the first to hand him my passport. He proceeded to write down all of my information from my passport as another policeman gathered the rest of the passports of the people nearest him. The first policemen then handed the 3rd guy my passport who then proceeded to walkie talkie who knows who and read him all of my info from my passport to the other guy. Not only did he read it once, but THREE times! Apparently he really wanted to make sure that I wasn’t some bomb threatening serial killer before he let me on a train to a city inside a country I was already in. Darrin came over to try and help us and told them our train was leaving in 15 minutes, but they just brushed him aside. After asking them why the heck they needed our passports, they simply answered “this normal check. This normal procedure.” My eye that is normal to just pick out random people simply sitting innocently in a train station and scare the crap out of them! Lindsey snapped a great sly shot of us getting interrogated.

one of the scariest moments of my life. i hope to never run into italian police again.

on the train to venice with a nub nub leg. check it out.

It was off on the train finally to Venice! It was about a 3 hour train ride but totally worth it once we landed in what I think is the most beautiful and breathtaking city in the world…or at least that I’ve ever been to. Honestly I was completely speechless when we landed and blown away by how incredibly elegant and beautiful the city is. Every building has charm and its own beauty and almost every window it seems has flowers spilling out of the windowsill adding to the ambience of the city. We made it to our hotel and from the outside it just looked like a really old building. As we were waiting to check in, we were right next to the canal and we peered in only to find a jellyfish! Yes there are jellyfish in the canal. I would have never guessed that but it was pretty cool although creepy at the same time. Darrin pulled us into the courtyard outside our hotel and I must input here that being in a city that has absolutely no cars or scooters or any motorized vehicle on land makes for a very clean very quiet place. We were the only people in the street and it was so peaceful just seeing the blue water right there and the buildings totally surrounding us I never want to leave. Back to Darrin though…he pulled us aside and said he had quiet announcements. He said that this was the nicest hotel we were going to be staying in and that we needed to be respectful and quiet and all that. Honestly when he said this I wasn’t really expecting anything grand since the outside was deceiving but then we walked in. I can’t begin to describe how beautiful it is so I will document it in pictures but needless to say, this place is out of this world beautiful. There are Venetian blown glass chandeliers everywhere you turn. It was just built a year ago so it is all totally new and totally beautiful. Ashlee and I are rooming together so we headed up to our room in the super chic elevator (really its that cool). We reached our floor to find upholstered walls in amazing fabrics and the coolest furniture in our hallway. The concierge opened our door for us and we both just gasped. Our room is GORGEOUS!!! Seriously the pictures will explain itself but I feel totally pampered and pretty. Really the room makes me feel pretty its that elegant.

jellyfish who greeted us upon arriving

the 5 amigos on the brige...what a lovely photo.

just a gondola comin down the river...no big deal. i love venice!

cutest picture ever! they all hang their laundry out to dry and i find it to be art.

my dinner the first night...check out the swirl on that roll

After catching my breathe from seeing the place we’ll be staying for not enough time, we all went together to the Ponte de Rialto bridge. Getting there was fun and like Darrin said, you just have to enjoy getting lost in Venice because it is so hard to get around. Around every turn is something cool and exciting and there are so many cool shops. Again I must point out how sweet it is having no vehicles on land, just people. It is a nice concept that’s for sure. We made it to the gorgeous bridge and got a great view of Venice. We were starving at this point so me, Brady, Ashlee, Lindsey, and Kaitlyn headed off to find us a solid Venetian meal. We found a nice place that was outside in a cute little piazza. I got the Cannelloni with ricotta cheese and spinach. It was great. We still wanted something for dessert and had seen crepes advertised so we found a cute little gelato and crepe shop that also had a gorgeous man who worked there. Seriously this man is pretty and Ashlee had a goal to kiss an Italian man in Italy. We got our crepes that were filled with chocolate and strawberries and were truly divine and then decided that Ashlee needed to kiss this man. Brady went in and talked to the guy and asked him if he would kiss Ashlee and he agreed. After some pushing and shoving we got Ashlee in there and they leaned over the glass and she laid one on his cheek. It was solid contact though and we tried to get him to kiss her on the lips but turns out he has a girlfriend. Too bad but still, she kissed an Italian in Venice! That was pretty much the coolest thing ever and added to our already awesome day in Venice. We were walking down the street eating our chocolaty crepe goodness when the chocolate began to drip upon my body. It dripped on my foot and kinda looked like blood so instantly I began to limp because I thought I was hurt or something. Brady noticed and began laughing and it was all downhill from there. We backed into a little alleyway and just laughed hard core forever. I was covered in chocolate and was trying not to wet myself so I was in an awkward position so that just added to our side-splitting laughter. It was a good time for sure. All in all I am in love with Venice. I never want to leave so I think I’ll move in to my hotel. Anyone want to join me? You wouldn’t regret it I promise. Its off to bed after probably the best day of my life. Buona notte!!!

ashlee kissing her italian crepe man...he really was beautiful even if this picture doesn't say so.

my little accident with the chocolate crepe. this doesn't capture the half of what happened there.

us bellas on a venetian bridge

7.8.09 Florence.

2009-07-08T12:58:00.002-07:00

i was taken over by all the scarves and ties...it was quite overwhelming

ashlee and i shopping the crazy markets in florence

Today was a much needed free day. We decided to sleep in because we hadn’t gotten a decent nights sleep in quite some time so it felt fabulous having no alarm and knowing we could do whatever we wanted with our time. After rolling out of bed around oh, noon, we got ready and left for our day of shopping around 1:30. We are right down the street from the world’s largest market I swear. It makes Canal Street in New York look like a crap town. The market is full of knock offs, real and very fake Italian leather and every other item you could ever want to own. We did our fair share of wondering trying to find what we wanted. On the list for me was first off getting some Italian ties for the boys in my family. After passing about 700 tie carts I swear, we found the mother of all tie shops. I found a great selection and was so pleased to find them and finally be able to shop for me! I got a sweet scarf from the same tie guy who totally loved us. He wasn’t a very good bargainer and would laugh at our prices we wanted but I enjoyed doing business with him. It was time for Ashlee and I to find purses. We were getting so discouraged because we couldn’t find ones that were cheap enough but super cute. We were about to give up but I remember walking by this purse shop that I had purchased a purse at when I was in Florence before. We found and it was all over at that point. We both fell in love with perfect bags for us and walked away with the best purchases that we had worked so hard to earn. I felt I earned that tailor shoulder bag and am so in love with my purchase. Alright I’ll be honest… I’ve had a bit of buyers remorse but I know I’ll get over that and fall in love with my bag all over again.

finding our perfect bags...we were ever so happy

my amazing dinner of zucchini pizza with the zucchini flower and all

coolest door ever...model shot

we finally found a big canoli! we had been searching so we snagged that goodness up

Dinner rolled around and it was a no brainer that we would eat at the little pizzeria that has the best pizza by the slice. We passed a little market and couldn’t resist buying some fresh fruit for the day since we lack in that area of our diet some days. It is our last night in Florence and I’m super excited to finally see Venice but it is bittersweet, as I have loved Florence and my time here. Firenze will always be a charming and even romantic city to me and will return. Buona notte!

the hotel nizza...a bit sketchy but it did its job i guess

the jail cell as we lovingly called it. check out the 4 beds crammed up against the gigantic headboard. so classy.

our even classier bathroom...its even smaller than that picture can do justice

7.7.09 Florence.

2009-07-08T12:58:00.001-07:00

I woke up pretty excited knowing that I was going to see the David statue today. I have seen the David copy that is in a piazza near the museum, but never the real one and after learning about it in Art History I was totally stoked. We first went to the Uffizzi gallery and I was able to see a lot of paintings that I had learned about and wrote essays on in my art history class so it was amazing to be looking at them in person. There were many different alter pieces that are just dripping in gold and are from the 13th century. Giotti designed some of them and its interesting to compare his style with other artists of the time and how their knowledge of perspective drawings and vanishing points comes about through trial and error. We then entered a room full of huge paintings and my personal favorite, Botticelli’s Primavera. It is also my dad’s favorite painting and to sit and look at it for a good 10 minutes and studying the meaning of the painting was an incredible experience. There is something about being right there next to a masterpiece that gives me chills.

if you didn't believe me before, here is more proof that i met meryl streep

We moved on down to the Accademia and pretty much right as you walk in you are greeted with the magnificent David. Actually before you get to the David, there are displays of about 8 unfinished Michelangeo statues that are so cool to see. Since they are in a half-chiseled state, you can really start to see how he would go about chiseling away at marble. According to Michelangelo, the marble already has the statue inside of it but you just have to listen to it and find it. I kinda like that idea because it makes art come alive in a way and speak to your soul. Seeing the David in person gave me chills. It is SO big! The block of marble that Michelangelo used to create the David was a 40 ton block and he chiseled it down to a 7 ton block of marble that eventually became the David. We sat and looked in his face and to me, he looked ready to go kill Goliath and ready to do what he needed to do to save his people. Some people see victory and that he has already slayed Goliath but I disagree. I like his intensity in his face and how Michelangelo captured that moment in history. To his face, sling slung over his right shoulder, down to his flexed leg, every detail is accounted for. Our guide Tonya said they had scaffolding around the statue so that Michelangelo could reach the top of the 14 ft body. That was an experience that I will always remember and I just loved being able to finally see this infamous sculpture in person.

our very thrifty yet very delicious feast for lunch..just chillin next to the duomo

the gigantic tubs of nutella...we later found out they are 33 euro. totally worth it.

It was time for lunch so we had some free time. We decided to hit up the market and got some fresh fruit, a bagette and much needed nutella. Nutella has become a staple for me and I found some tubs that are big enough for food storage, which are needed in my opinion. We sat across from the Duomo eating lunch. I had another surreal moment realizing where I was and lucky I am to be here. We met up with the group and were able to go in the baptistery and Duomo. The baptistery has an octagonal roof covered in gold narrative mosaics that are the size of your pinky finger fingernail. Imagine that will ya? Try creating an entire ceiling and building for that matter with that small of a material. I have so much respect for the artists of the past. Moving from the baptistery, we went in the interior of the Duomo. The whole floor is inlaid stone in many inspiring patterns using the traditional red and green colors that pop next to the white marble. I love the contrast of the dark green and burnt red as a color palette and love looking at the Duomo for that reason. The contrasting colors are very pleasing on the eye in my opinion. Seeing the interior of this cathedral compared to St. Peter’s was interesting because the Duomo was built a few hundred years before St. Peter’s and the style of cathedrals back then was to build very long and narrow and very tall. The Duomo has a small chapel in the front that is almost squished up to the front with very shallow naves on the side. St. Peter’s has the cross formation that becomes standard later on in architecture. It almost feels claustrophobic in the Duomo because it is so narrow and tall but it really was stunning nonetheless.

duomo and bell tower

the ceiling of the interior of the baptistry

Leaving the Duomo, Darrin took us on a little sketching tour of Florence. We stopped at sketched a 20 minute perspective drawing of the Ponte Veccio which turned out to be an incredible experience. We all lined up on the bridge, pulled out our sketchbooks and had many people walk by and check out what we were sketching. Being very self-conscious of my sketches, I wasn’t too happy about this but I got over that once I remembered how awesome it is that I was sketching the beautiful view. The Ponte Veccio is an iconic bridge over the Arno River in Florence that is a medieval bridge. Now it has turned into a market for gold and other shops of jewlers and become a hot spot of Florence. After sketching that we sketched for five minutes the Florence skyline with the bell tower in the view. Again, so cool that I am sketching in Florence. We had a much needed water and gelato break and then broke into groups for a sketching workshop. We sketched a few different buildings surrounding this lovely park we found it was really helpful to learn how to develop my sketching technique. Being able to study the architecture as I sketch makes each building and element of that building come to life and I am able to see it with different, more open and interested eyes. That is what makes this study abroad so special is that not only are we seeing important buildings and architecture of each place, but we are seeing them with an eye for design and that makes it all worth it.

all of us at the top of florence

me and magnificent florence

We ended our sketching trip and Darrin told us to come hike up to a church that overlooks Florence since the sun was going to set soon. We all agreed not knowing what we were getting ourselves into. We began hiking the stairs and looked up to see a never-ending trail of stairs. I honestly thought I wouldn’t make it but luckily I did, and boy was it worth it after seeing the magnificent view! From there, Florence looked so much larger then I would have imagined it to be and even more beautiful. You can see for miles and miles and the amazing green hills roll on forever it seems. The Duomo rises up and towers over the skyline and is its red dome dominants the view as each smaller building dabbles the rest of the view with spots of red, cream and all shades of yellow. Florence is truly a bello city. It was time for dinner at this point so we grabbed some great authentic Italian pizza and calzone and hit up our favorite gelato place Grom’s. I’m amazed that gelato never gets old but just better and better every time I eat it!

sweet calzone...it doesn't look that good there but i promise it was delicious

grom's is always a treat...caramel and vanilla is a winner combo

7.6.09 Rome-Florence.

2009-07-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

our train ride to florence...we were really tired

Sadly, we left Roma today. I was so sad to say goodbye to the city, our hotel and pool, but I couldn’t wait to see Tuscany and go to Florence again. We took a 2 hour train ride to Florence and looking out the windows was all of Tuscany, with its rolling hills and rows and rows of sunflowers. It is the most breathtaking view I think of Italy. We finally arrived in Florence and came to our hotel – quite a down grade from our palace in Rome. I guess we are getting the real Europe experience through it all. After getting situated in our hotel it was off on a walking tour of Florence.

I have been to both Rome and Florence before but never in both cities the same day and I realized how very different the architecture of Florence is compared to Rome. Florence is much more cottage looking and less imperial if you will, than Rome. Stucco seems to be the most used material here rather than stone and elegant marbles and other expensive materials. You can definitely tell you have left the capital and entered into more of the country. I really like the look and feel of Florence though and have been surprised at how small the city is and how easy it is to navigate here. On our walking tour, I learned that Firenze’s architecture is a very mish-mashed modge podge of time periods that it was built in. There could be two buildings right next to each other one built a thousand years ago and the other during the 18th century. I like the eclectic mixture of the architecture and the diversity of the city. We were able to see the Florence skyline and the famous Ponto Veccio bridge view. The first place we stopped at was the Santa Maria del Carmine that houses a very famous chapel. It is the chapel that brings most people to Florence so they can worship there. The walls are frescos done by multiple artists depicting scenes all with St. Peter in them. He is depicted with a yellow robe so as to stand out and be easily seen. Each fresco is a narrative and could have been a political statement of the time and the painters were intertwining their political views into the painting. It was a really small chapel but the frescos are so incredible and a it was a small treasure in Florence to see. I must interject here that our tour guide is Meryll Streep and I’m not kidding. You think I’m kidding but I’m not. I will post some pictures of her because I am creepy and took pictures of her from every angle I could so as to prove my point. Just something to look forward too.

fresco of saint peter being crucified

☺

the first church on our tour in florence...love the jade green doors

our tour guide miss meryl streep herself

We continued walking through many different piazzas of Florence and caught a glimpse of the Duomo right before the sun began to set. We are going to do more of the Duomo tomorrow so I won’t post much about it now except that it is iconic in Firenze. The red and green marble stone symbolizes the colors of Florence in my opinion and I love the detail work and all the different patterns created in each section of the building. Thinking about how the stone for that building was cut out of a mountain and brought to the site to create this masterpiece of a building is just tiring to comprehend. I don’t understand how anything got made in that time period with no technology. We kept walking the city and it is just all cobblestone and brick laid streets. I love that there is like no asphalt and it is all like we are back centuries before. I think these Italians take for granted the cultured place they live in. This place makes America look like a bulldozed, manufactured project… well I guess it is. Don’t get me wrong, I love America but it is so nice to experience other cultures and see and adapt to how other people live in this miraculous world we live in.

beautiful view of florence

h & m...always a welcome site and worthy of picture taking

From our long day of traveling and walking, it was time for a good ol fashioned Italian dinner since we had been skimping on food in Rome to save money. We found this little ristorante that was pretty cheap (in euro’s, not dollars) and advertised air conditioning so we were sold. Turns out the air conditioning is a sad fan spinning above us, but that was better than the humid heat we had been in all day. Luckily, our food was INCREDIBLE! It was the best meal I’ve had. Ever. Well maybe not ever, but it was so good. Don’t worry I photographed most my food here because it is all so beautiful and delicious. It was worth every euro and was topped off by the best gelato in Florence at a place called Grom. It has become all of ours favorite little hot spot for gelato and go quite frequently. Let’s just say the Italians never let me down!

honestly and truly the best pasta i've ever had...farfalla pasta w/ spinach & bacon

gelato at groms! i believe i had strottatella (spell??), raspberry, & cream. buonissimo!

simply beautiful gelato

7.5.09 Rome.

2009-07-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

us and the pope in the background...we have been blessed!

mr. pope himself! still can't believe i saw him

st. peter's sqaure filled with people listening to the pope

eagerly awaiting for he pope to arrive...brady's head is like an oger

sweet swiss guards in their traditional garb

On our free day, our group of 5 decided we better take our once in a lifetime opportunity and go to mass at St. Peter’s Cathedral. Let me tell you it was an incredible experience that I’m glad I had, but would never wish to do it again. It was super hot in there and I had no idea what was going on since I don’t know Italian or Latin and I’m not Catholic. It was really cool to be at the seat of the Catholic church and attending mass and after mass the pope comes out of his window and blesses whoever is in St. Peter’s Square. We waited outside to see him and it was so amazing!!! We heard him speak to us and we totally got blessed, even if we couldn’t understand a word he said we are blessed.

After mass we were pretty beat and decided it was the best time to go and relax by the pool on our last day in Roma. What an incredible time that was! The pool is seriously so sweet and even better with our blue swimming caps that are required to wear in the pool. Its so European with our swimming caps and all. It was just a great day of more once in a lifetime experiences and I have loved our stay here in Rome. It has been my home for 4 beautiful days and for that… Grazie Roma. I will be back!!!

7.4.09 Rome.

2009-07-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! Too bad we didn’t celebrate it here really and I was so sad to miss fireworks. We watched them on youtube and sand America the Beautiful to celebrate that night. We conquered the Vatican today and boy was it a good time. We have had the world’s coolest tour guide for the past two days and she took us to the Vatican and she made it so interesting and fun to be there. We started off in the museum of the Vatican and saw the room with all the tapestries. They are huge wall hangings that they used to use to cover the walls of the Sistine Chapel when the Pope had visitors, but they are too fragile now to move. Wherever you see grey in the fabric, it is real silver thread and the yellow is actual gold thread. Those things must be pretty pricey. There was a cool one that depicted a scene of Christ with his hand out blessing people and if you looked in his eyes while walking past, his whole body and seemed to be moving as you moved and followed you. It was trippy to see that. We made our way down to the Sistine Chapel and we had a lot of time to just sit and take it all in. I sat in total awe of the grandeur and size of the room and realizing the brilliance that Michelangelo had in creating this masterpiece. I sat near the wall of the judgment day and I was so close I could have touched the wall. Right then I got chills thinking that many centuries ago, Michelangelo had painted that very well and probably stood right where I sat. I love that! I sat staring at the immense detail in every body and how he could contour and shade the muscles in the right way so the person was completely proportionate. The scale of the chapel is insane and to be able to scale each painting to fit perfectly is beyond me. I’d like to have a chat with some of these artists from that time and just ask them how they were able to create what they did.

best view of the dome from the entrance of vatican

sistine chapel ceiling...story of the creation

sistine chapel...judgment day wall

We finished with the tour and were allowed free time for the rest of the day. A bunch of us decided to hike the some 300 steps to the top of St. Peter’s dome. Being totally afraid of heights, I was a little nervous about this but let me tell you it was totally worth it. After hiking up the steps that are situated between the outside of the dome and the inside of the dome seen in St. Peter’s cathedral, we arrived first to the top of the dome that overlooks the cathedral. Besides being totally terrified, I could not grasp the utter hugeness of that place. I mean really, it is at least 12 stories tall and that’s not even all the way to the top of the dome. Besides the height, the entire dome and walls are all made up of teeny tiny mosaics. It is beyond me how anyone could create that but they are beautiful. We then kept climbing and came outside to find the most amazing view of all of Roma. You could see all the way out to the Mediterranean and up to Florence. Okay not that far but you get the idea. Seeing Rome from this view made me really appreciate all the architecture of the city. Everything is just so old and completely stunning.

view of st. peter's square from the top of dome

great self timer photo...you'd never know would ya?

Then it was off to the Pantheon. We decided to walk there from the Basilica, which in theory was a good idea and cheap, but in reality, really REALLY far and way confusing to get there. We finally made it and I can say now that I’ve been to the Pantheon. It wasn’t my most favorite building but it was really cool. The oculus is way bigger than your imagination can fathom and made for some sweet pics. How anyone in that time period could figure out how to support the weight of a building with that big of a whole right in the center of the most weight bearing point of the building is beyond me, and again would love to have a talk with them on how they could figure it out. It was an amazing day of Rome although I was glad to get off my feet for the night, but I must say that I love this city, and its people. Ciao!

pantheon...oldest church in rome

the oculus is 18 feet wide

an american flag we found on the 4th of july...love it!

7.3.09 Rome.

2009-07-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

sweet graffiti at our bus stop...model shot

We began the day by going to the Borghese museum. It is a villa that has rooms and rooms of famous sculptures and paintings. We weren’t allowed photographs, so no pictures of the interior. However the exterior was stunning and it’s hard for me to believe that someone could actually own that large of a house/estate. Each ceiling in every room was covered in paintings done by many different artists so each own was its own style and told a story. The walls were all absolutely remarkable frescos that, from a distance, looked as though were 3D. The ceiling was the same. Looking at it, it looked as though the statues that were painted were actual marble coming out of the ceiling, yet it was simply paint. I was amazed at the amount of detail from the smallest cherub face, to an entire narrative scene depicted on the walls. Each room housed many different sculptures, including Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne. In the gardens of the Borghese, was another small building that housed some modern paintings that were just black and white. It was so cool to see the juxtaposition of the totally modern artwork with a backdrop of architecture from the 16th or 17th century.

exterior of borghese museum

After the Borghese, we did the Colosseum: take 2. This time it wasn’t raining and we were able to go in the interior. It’s almost impossible to think that a building could still be standing from 72 AD and be in the condition that it is. To think that engineers back then knew how to construct archways and different levels on top of one another without having the whole thing come tumbling down. Those infamous arches were probably some of the first arches our world has seen and have influenced building designs for centuries. We had time to sit and sketch and even in the blazing heat, I was blown away that I was just sitting, sketching the Colosseum. I mean come on, that’s insane! I was trippin for a bit, and then I realized that this experience is one I will never forget.

interior of the colosseum

From the Colosseum, we began what I would like to call the walking tour of the entire city of Rome. Ok it really wasn’t, but my feet felt differently. Suffice it to say we walked A LOT. We went to 3 different churches that are maybe ones that aren’t so familiar. I learned that there are over 2,000 churches in Rome alone that are all “historical” if you will. The first church was the St. Clemente church. It is 3 floors and the bottom level is actually the ground level of Rome before it was burned. The bottom level has sarcophagus,’ a temple, and sacred areas where the Pope has directed mass from.. The second church was St. Mary’s church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The ceilings were totally covered in gold leafing brought from Columbus himself. It also has the Holy Doors that are only opened every 25 years for Jubilee. Bernini and his family are buried there as well right beneath the floor. It houses St. Peter’s chains also and it has an interesting statue by Michelangelo of Moses. He sculpted Moses and then decided he wanted his head turned another direction but couldn’t just simply turn a head of stone, so he re-sculpted the face on top of the old face to have it looking to the side. This created an awkward angle when looking at the statue from the front, with his eyes looking one way and his beard still dead straight. Another interesting sculpture is one of the Grim reaper – the first one ever made. It’s not too far off from the Grim Reaper we know so well from Halloween. Our final destination was to a church that was in Angel’s and Deamons. It is the church of fire in the movie because of the famous statue by Bernini called the ecstacy of St. Teressa. An interesting fact about the area of the church where this is found: to the right of the main statue are 4 more people carved out of the wall, all looking to Teressa, except one man. He is looking out at the “viewer” so to say. Who is this man you might ask? Well its Bernini himself. He put himself in the sculpture so he could “watch” the viewer react when viewing Teressa. Clever guy that Bernini is.

grim reaper statue

Finally, we made it to the Trevi Fountain and can I say HUGE? Holy Toledo it is sooo much biggern than I thought. It ain’t your typical fountain that’s for sure. There were hords of people there as to be expected and I couldn’t have felt more like a tourist, clutching my bag so as not to get pick pocketed. I decided to keep the tourist trend and took my turn throwing a coin over my shoulder into the fountain. Guess I’ll be coming back to beautiful Roma! We took advantage of the free natural water spring that gives the fountain it’s water. After a long day in the sun, it was refreshing to get wet and get the stickyness of humidity off of me. Seeing the Trevi in person blew my mind, thinking that someone sat and carved every last detail of that ginormous landmark. In fact, all day I was astounded by the knowledge of the human body these artists and sculptors had to have in order to get every last detail of the human anatomy down to the vein in each foot or the dimple in a buttock. I just kept asking myself how?? How could someone just chisel away at some marble and create a masterpiece?! Guess I’ll never know but I can appreciate what they designed and am so lucky to be able to see all these works of art in person.

trevi fountain... SO cool!

most amazing pizza i've ever had... spinach and mushrooms. yum!

gelato from our favorite corner cafe...pistachio & peach

7.2.09 Rome.

2009-07-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

colosseo!

Today we landed in Rome after quite the journey of getting there and began right away on a visit to the Colosseum. I had forgotten how incredible and huge the Colosseum is and was again astounded by its amazing architecture. Things were great – we all took our pictures in front of the Colosseum and we were just happily walking down the street in the lovely weather when out of no where, the heavens opened and poured every single drop of rain on us. Oh and as if that wasn’t enough, the hail came as well and hail the size of small rocks pelted us too. We were totally caught off guard and just huddled together near some historic wall to try and stay dry and not get hit by lighting. It was just so funny to just stand, totally drenched from head to toe, having not slept for the past 36 hours and we just laughed.

and the rain just came and came...

Finally the rain passed after about a solid hour, or at least that’s what it felt like and we headed to the Museum Capitallini. It is a building at the top of a hill hat celebrates the independence of Italy. It was a beautiful building with an open courtyard that showcased some interesting sculptures of random body parts. The upper levels housed beautiful sculptures and wonderful views of bellissimo Roma. Seeing the Rome skyline at sunset was incredible and I loved looking at all the buildings, with their rich histories and pasts and classic architecture. Everywhere you look there is another structure that was part of ancient Rome or was designed by a brilliant artist of their day. It is like nothing else really.

one of many strange body part statues...

coolest chandelier in the museo capitallini

roma skyline