I finally got a few pictures of me whilst traveling so you all know that i am in fact going to these places and not just pretending. ha. 
these are photos from a few different gaudi sights. I'll post more once my computer stops acting up and lets me load the rest. 
Italy somehow keeps getting better and better. life here is going very well and i’m starting to feel much more at home. While Florence is wonderful, my biggest news is that over christmas I had the opportunity to travel to Paris, Amsterdam, and Bruges.
words can’t describe the marvelous adventures i had, but i’ll do my best.
I started my trip with 4 days in Paris.
It was amazing. simply amazing. I was traveling alone so my schedule was very flexible and i could go at my own pace (walking fast from sight to sight to avoid the cold and spending hours upon hours inside the museums) i spent my days seeing the major sights and museums, it was phenomenal actually seeing so many amazing places i’ve heard and read so much about.
I started with a trip to Notre Dame Cathedral. it was so beautiful and so different from other buildings of worship that i’ve visited (like St. Peters Basilica in Rome). the Gothic architecture was so epic and cold, i find it so interesting how the architecture reflects how the religions were trying to convey feelings about God in those times and how different in is now. it was also a little embarrassing because i kept thinking about the Disney movie the Hunchback of Notre Dame and humming the songs to myself as i wandered around. less than reverent, but kind of funny nonetheless...
I visited the Arc de Triumph which is located in the largest roundabout in the city. to get to the arc you have to walk through an underground tunnel that helps you bypass all the traffic rumbling around the arch. the arch itself it was so amazing. it was HUGE! and the view from on top of the arch was amazing, you could see all of Paris, the Eiffel tower rising above the old city and the skyscrapers clustered in the newer business district. i was in such awe of how massive this arch was, there's a sense of reverence that comes with monuments like this, it was beautiful.
there was a Christmas market along the champs elysees, booths lined the street selling everything from mittens to sandwiches, jewelry to taffy. i walked through it on my way to the Musee d’Orsay. i loved this museum so much. It’s home to paintings from Degas, Manet, Monet, Touluse Latrec, Van Gogh, and so many more. the were also a wonderful exhibit about the art nouveau movement that i just loved. i stayed here till closing time, it was such a treat seeing so many paintings that i’ve learned about. i took lots of pictures, but they're forthcoming due to technical mumbo jumbo
the art extravaganza continued the next day with a 5 hour exploration of the Louvre. i was in heaven. so many amazing paintings and sculptures that i’ve studied and fallen in love with. i had so much fun here. i saw the most famous things like the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, and others like Liberty Leading the People, an entire room full of enormous Rubens paintings, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and so much more. i felt like i could have spent a week in this museum and still only seen half of the artwork there. it was grand.
later that afternoon i visited the Orangerie museum where i sat in the beauty of Monet in several of the oval rooms lined with his water lilies paintings. i loved it. there’s so much amazing art in Paris. it was a dream come true.
this was one of my favorite paintings from my whole trip... i love it.
that evening i went to the Eiffel tower with a newly made friend, another traveler named Simon. it was beautiful and illuminated in the night, it was so interesting being in this place, this epic location and experiencing a connection with humanity through being there. unfortunately it was freezing cold so staying out looking at the tower was only bearable for a little while so i headed back to the hostel for a toasty night inside.
it was snowing the next morning so i took the day easy. i found a lovely little book shop where i bought Everything Is Illuminated. I had finished my other book (Into the Wild) on my first full day of travel and was needing something to keep me occupied on the trains. I then went to the Rodin museum which was quite nice. i never realized how much movement and sensuality Rodin captured in his sculptures, they were so beautiful. I tried to go to the Pompodou modern art museum, but the workers were on strike... so it was closed. that evening i went around to see some of the sights at night and ended up talking with some of my roommates late into the night.
I took a train out to Versailles the next morning and gained a better understanding of the intense gap between the ruling class and the commoners in the epic days of Marie Antoinette . the castle was amazing, enormous and ornate, and the grounds that stretched out for miles behind the buildings were breathtaking. the fireplaces were big enough to burn 8 foot logs and the beds had canopies and ostrich feathers adorning them. there’s a great hall that’s lined with mirrors, it was so beautiful and so representative of the over indulgence of the buildings there. it was really an amazing place to get to visit.
This is the chapel for the royal family inside the palace.
the next day i spent traveling and thanking my lucky stars i’d decided to go to Amsterdam instead of London. the weather was so bad in England that all transportation to London had been postponed or cancelled, my train on the other hand was only about 20 minutes late.
Amsterdam was a really beautiful city, i spent a few days there and saw the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank house. none of these places allowed photograph, so i really don't have many pictures from Amsterdam. it was terribly cold and snowy while i was there and i was a little worn out from Paris so i took it kind of easy here.
I didn’t care much for a lot of the touristy parts of the town, but getting outside of the center and wandering the canals provided a beautiful experience. so many tall skinny buildings crowded along the canals. i love how different the architecture is everywhere i’ve been. i found a wonderful little health food store and a deliciously art nouveau cinema, and there were some good bakeries near my hostel. it was fun, but a little grittier in general than i’m used to so i wasn’t too sad to leave and head to Bruges for my last stop before i headed back to Florence.
I love Bruges.
it was wonderful. it’s a little town about an hour outside of Brussels, it’s fairly touristy, but the draw is it’s small town appeal and how much the town prides itself on it’s locally made beer and fine chocolates. there’s also a beautiful clock tower in the main square that’s simply wonderful. there are tours of the town given in carriages pulled by horses, cobblestone streets lined with chocolate shops and Christmas markets filling the squares... it was grand. i spent most of my time wandering around window shopping, a nice way to relax at the end of a trip. I took a tour of the oldest brewery in the town, it was so interesting! and i got so much chocolate it’s not even funny... it was so amazing. i’ve never tasted anything so divine in my life. i’m thinking i might have to go back there soon... I had lunch at this tiny shop run by a husband and wife. they were so nice and they served me the best falafel i’ve ever eaten. mmmmm.... so good. I also stopped in one of the churches to see Michaelangelo’s Madonna sculpture and another to see the relic of the church which is supposed to be a vile of Christ’s blood. carbon dating has since proved the impossibility of this relic, but they still display it anyway. it was interesting, kind of weird... but interesting.
i can understand the no smoking on our tour... but no ice cream or french fries? do they really have a problem with this?
these flowers watched me eat lunch
i got back to Florence on Christmas eve to find the city at almost 60 degrees... it was a welcomed change after the freezing snow covered worlds i’d been exploring. Christmas was warm and with rain showers and i watched an amazing rainbow while drinking tea with my good friend. that kind of warmth is quite unusual here and the temperatures have since dropped back down to more reasonable ‘January’ temperatures (30’s and 40’s).
My trip was a complete success and i’m back to the routine here and i’m quite enjoying it. i’m making more friends and trying to decide where to go on my next big trip...
