Yamas!

I finished out the semester in Paris very well. The weather got beautiful and Paris really changes in the spring. We spent a lot of time in parks and one day at the Bois de Bologne a foresty area on the west of Paris where we rented a row boat and rowed around the little lake. I had a great last night with all of my friends at my favorite bar, Le Merle Moqueur and the next morning Jayda and I got on Easy Jet from Paris to Athens.
Athens was awesome. We stayed in a hostel near Omania Square and took the metro to the Acropolis. At the top of a hill overlooking the city--It was gorgeous up there. I loved the Parthenon and these statues of women on the side of the ruins. It was the greatest achievement in classical Greek art. From the top of the hill we looked down onto a theatre and we climbed up Mars Hill where Paul the Apostle supposedly read the Gospel. Jayda and I bought Gyros from a street vendor and just walked around the curvy stone streets. We also had baklava then went to the ancient Olympic stadium.
We made friends while touring and met them at the Hilton bar, Galaxy that night for wine. It was the most beautiful view. On the top floor of the Hilton, overlooking the city, and eye level with the Acropolis which is brilliantly lit at night. Lovely.
Next morning we caught the ferry to Santorini, aka my new favorite place. The island used to be a volcano and when it erupted, it collapsed into the ocean so now there is the volcano island in the middle with water all around. Then Santorini surrounds that with a caldera and sloping cliffs. It is known for its white buildings with blue roofed churches. We stayed in Hostel Anna on Paraissa Beach and met the most interesting people, including Australian girls who were backpacking and working their way through Europe "indefinitely" (and I thought a month was impressive!!)
We met up with 2 friends of Jayda's, Lisa and Laura, too. My favorite day was when we rented 4 wheelers to tour the island with. It allowed us to have our own schedule and see everything! We went to the Red Beach, the lighthouse, up to Ia, one of the major towns and walked around. I fell in love with the bright blue and white churches overlooking the Mediterranean. Jayda and I climbed down to this huge rock that used to have a castle built on top of it and watched the sunset.
The rest of the trip we spent on the beach or chillin in the capital, Fira. I even got some sun after gray Paris ;)
It was also reeeal cheap there and we got to try all sorts of new great foods--sesame round bread (mix between a sesame bagel and a pretzel), yogurt and honey and frappe coffees(breakfast treats), moussaka (layered potatoes, eggplant, tomatoe dish), stuffed vine leaves, souvlakakia (super flavorful meatballs), stuffed tomatoes...mmm. Great time and seriously enchanting. We met the nicest people ever--everyone went out of their way to help us and suggest things for us to do. (our waitress told us about Ammoudi Bay where at the restaurants you literally watch the fisherman bring in fresh fish from their boats and throw it on the grill, and the man who rented us the 4 wheelers was so grateful for our business he bought us drinks at a local bar.) I think it is the most beautiful place in the world and will post pictures soon. We took two overnight ferries and two trains and ... I am in Rome now! Loooving it. More to come bisous!
(oh I learned "yasas" (hello and goodbye), "yamas" (cheers), and kefi (fun) in Greek.
Greece was kefi kefi kefi all around.

Roxy's Visite

As her graduation present, Roxy got to come stay with me for a whole week! Madame fixed up the guest room for her and it was during my spring break so I was able to spend all day hanging out with my sister!
She arrived on Sunday morning and took the RER train and metro from the airport (all by herself wootwoot) to my house. Madame made us a really great lunch--French style chicken and potatoes, endives, camembert and bread. Roxy understood a lot of Madam's French and I played translator for a lot of it. It was a looovely day so we walked through Rue Mouffetard to the Pantheon. We sat at a little café outside facing the sidewalk, had kir cassis (black currant) and people watched. Then we walked down to Notre Dame and into the Marais. At Place des Vosges there were a bunch of people picnicking and laying in the grass so we grabbed a spot and Roxy took a nap.
That night, my friend Jackie's sister got us VIP tickets to see the American, We Are Scientists. It was Nouveau Casion off rue Oberkampf. They have more of a fan base in Europe and have been touring here for months. The show was awesome and we hung around after and met some of the band members. We grabbed really yummy crepes afterwards then headed to the Fifth Bar for my friend Audrey's 21st birthday party

Monday morning I let Roxy sleep in and then we headed to Père Lachaise, the famous cemetary, for the afternoon. It was raining when we got there so we ducked into a crepe restaurant to wait it out and have our 2nd crepe of the trip. Roxy reeally enjoyed the cemetary (pleasantly pleased me) and we spent a good couple of hours just strolling. It's a lot cooler than it sounds--really big with beautiful trees and flowers. We saw the famous graves-Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Chopin...and admired the simple beauty of others. Then we caught the Metro to the tip top of the city at Porte de la Chappelle to go to the boulangerie that recently won the award "Best Baguette of Paris, 2008." The boulangerie, Le Duc de la Chappelle, was adorable and we took our baguette to Montmartre to have a picnic at Sacre Couer. Paired with some camembert and red wine, the best baguette in Paris was, I'm not gonna lie, prettty decent. We saw the sunset from the top of Montmartre hill and ate our French picnic on a bench. It was so nice and the rain stopped just in time for the sunset. Then we met my friend Eva at a bar, Le Foroum, that is right off the main drag in Montmartre. They have a chandelier made of wine bottles and a really young French crowd. We had some wine and just talked.

Tuesday we were very ambitious and woke up early. We went to la Madeleine church--beautiful inside and Roxy lit a candle. Then to the Wine Museum which was really cool--learned about the making of wine and saw the old farming equipment and stuff. We even got to try a little wine:) Then we went to l'As de Falafel in the Marais mmm. Roxy liked falafel!! big success. We even sat next to 2 Orthodox Jew young men who discussed their politics with us. After lunch, we went on a walking tour lead by yours truly. We saw the English bookstore Shakespeare and Co., Simone de Beauvoir's café--Café du Flore, Hemingway's pub--Brasserie Lipp and Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas' old apartment at 27 rue du Fleurus. We visited our 4th café of the trip on the way home. We made a big salad with sautéed eggplant and an egg over easy for dinner.

Wednesday we went to the Marie Antoinette exhibition at the Grand Palais. The building, like the Eiffel Tour, was built for the 1900 Paris Exhibition. The exhibit was really interesting. There were tons of paintings and sculptures of her and a letter she had written to her mother Maria Theresa explaining that she had to keep hiring different painters because none of the paintings looked like her. The sculptures, her ceramic tea sets and all the beautiful furniture were awesome too. I was also surprised to learn that she really liked hunting. Then we crossed the street to the Petit Palais and saw the Museum of Fine Arts there. I really liked this one life size sculpture of Adam and Eve carrying Abel after he's been murdered. Very interesting. We had cheese sandwiches on the Champs-Elysées then went to the Grand Mosque of Paris and had mint tea in the tea room. The Mosque is gorgeous--in Moroccan style architecture--all white with turquoise tiles. Then we walked through Jardin des Plantes--beautiful in bloom!! Roxy made us chicken curry for dinner that night:)

Thursday (May 1) was apparently Labor Day in France. So everything was clooosed. So we just walked around the city all day--past the Eiffel Tour, along the Seine and through the Luxembourg Gardens were we saw a photo exhibit of really interesting and disturbing photos from Le Figaro-a newspaper in Paris. We had sandwiches and wine at Neo Café in St-Germain-des-Pres then headed home. That night we met my friend Sacha and two guys, Didier and Samuel at Le Merle Moquer (rum bar by my house). We got a tray of all the flavors of rum to try and danced to French music that everyone knew the words too. Hilarious.

Friday last day:( We had fresh croissants for breakfast and took the Metro to Montmartre to the Erotic Museum. ehhem. I do not suggest it. But it was cool to see pictures from the 1920's of brothels and cabaret girls. Then we walked up to the Moulin Rouge. That afternoon we spent in Luxembourg again--sitting on a bench with a cheese sandwich just people watching and getting hit on by des drageurs, pick up artists. We had the best fondue dinner! At La Grange in the 5th arrondissement. Then caught the Metro to La Comedie Francaise for "Penthesilee," a Greek tragedy about the Amazonian queen. Oh man the actors were incredible. The show was great--even though we didn't understand a lot of the plot due to the whole French thing. It was really nice though..

Saturday morning I rode the RER to the airport because she took home a big suitcase for me. It was really sad to say goodbye but we had such a great week together and I was sooo happy to see her. It'll only be another 5 weeks before we're reunited again.

That afternoon, I met Audrey, Amy, Hayley and Sarah under the Eiffel Tour for a cheese and bread picnic. We wore berets...it was awesome.