Spring Break just ended, and needless to say I took full advantage of two weeks in Europe with no classes. I did and saw lots, and would’ve liked to have updated along the way, but unfortunately had to travel light and so did not have much access to a computer. Thus I give you my fortnight of travels in four handy segments:
CHARTRES
I started my vacation with a mini-trip to Chartres, which is a small town that is an hour northwest of Paris by train. Two friends and I decided to spend half a day here on
the recommendation of several people we knew who had visited and enjoyed it. Chartres is most famous for its enormous cathedral with beautiful stained glass, elaborate gardens, and labyrinth. The shade of blue in the windows is very famous – no one has ever been able to precisely replicate it! We also took time to walk around the village, which was very cute and French. We enjoyed the cottage-lined Eure River, an old church-turned-modern-art-exhibition, and the local specialty, Mentchikoffs (white chocolate-covered mini-meringues!).
LONDON
After a two-hour train ride (including twenty minutes underneath the English Channel!) I arrived in London. I spent two-and-a-half
days there, staying with my friend Jill who is studying in London for the year. I was thankful to have a ready-made tour guide to show me around Wesminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the Tate Museum. Though I did experience the traditional English rain the entire time I was there, I still really enjoyed being in London and seeing so many famous landmarks, such as the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, the Globe Theatre which is a replica of where Shakespeare’s plays were debuted, and Princess Diana’s wedding ring at Harrod’s.
Jill also did a good job fulfilling my American food cravings: we ate pizza, bagels, pretzels, sushi, muffins, and the requisite pub grub of course (fish and chips). It was nice to have so much of the food that I had been missing– though it’s probably for the best that I am back to my regime of (healthier) French food…
SWEDEN
Jill and I then flew to Gothenburg, Sweden to spend a few days with her family friends, Curt and Marianne. They were very kind in sharing their Swedish home, food, and culture with us. We ate lots of traditional Swedish food (the well-known Swedish breakfast and an anchovy-potato pie), which was all particularly delicious
because Marianne is a chef at a restaurant in Goth-enburg! We also had many polit-ical dis-cussions and learned much about the political and social system in Sweden, as Curt is an independent journalist.We explored a lot of Gothenburg itself; although it’s the second-largest city in Sweden after Stockholm, it still only has 500,000 inhabitants. Despite this relatively small size, Gothenburg has an extremely well-developed tram system that was only a few meters from Curt and Marianne’s doorstep! Thus we were free to travel into the city center whenever we wanted. There we found art museums, shopping, and lots of warm and colorful botanical gardens and greenhouses. We also checked out Gothenburg’s harbor by biking along the river and through the city’s many parks.
One of the high-lights of Sweden was the day trip we took by ferry with Curt and Mari-anne to the southern archipelago, which is a string of islands off Sweden’s coast that is very rugged and populated by small fishing towns. These were rustic and breathtakingly beautiful – a pure nature that you don’t get to experience in London or Paris!
IRELAND
After saying goodbye to Sweden and Jill, I met up with another friend, Kate, who is studying in London as well. She and I hopped on a plane to spend a few days in Cork, Ireland. We stayed at a
very nice youth hostel in central Cork, and were delighted to find out that planning our trip wasn’t necessary… there were plenty of outgoing, friendly, Irish people at every turn to tell us what we had to see and do in Cork! It turns out that we had made a very good choice in going to Cork because the seaside and the historic countryside are both easily accessible, in addition to the city itself. Thus, on the recommendation of a few gregarious strangers, Kate and I decided to take a short trainride to Cobh (pronounced Cove). Cobh is famous for three reasons : it was the port of exit for many of the immigrants who left Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries. This was particularly fascinating for me, as I have visited the Ellis Island processing center in New York, where many of the Irish immigrants entered the United States. Cobh was also the last place of embarkment for the Titanic, as well as the Lusitania, which sunk not far off the shore there. So we found a really informative museum in Cobh giving
us information about all of these events.
Back in Cork, Kate and I decided to visit the Butter Museum on a whim. We didn’t realize that butter has been an important staple in Ireland for thousands of years – in fact, the ancient Celtic people used to bury their butter in peat bogs to refrigerate it, and so one of these thousand-year-old barrels of butter has been fossilized and is on display in the museum! Pretty neat. The kind man working at the museum insisted that we go next door and visit the Bells of Shandon… so of course we did. These turn out to be church bells housed in a tower where you can go and ring the bells yourself ! This was a pretty unforgettable experience as well.
Finally, Cork is only a twenty-minute busride from Blarney. I expected Blarney to be an overpriced, touristy pile of rocks, but it turned out to be beautiful! It is a thousand-year-old castle
surrounded by flowery gardens and rolling, emerald hills. Once at the top of the castle, you not only get a breathtaking view, but also to kiss the Blarney Stone! The Stone apparently gives all those who kiss it the ‘Gift of the Gab,’ or the highly sought-after power of eloquence and flattery.
So after these wonderful travels, I am now back in Paris with only three weeks left (eek!). I have two weeks of class and one week to pack and write and hand in final papers. I’m trying to enjoy springtime in Paris and make the most of the time I have left here!
