Florence Pictures

Spring Break Pictures: Florence!

http://gallery.mac.com/ldsheridan#100104&bgcolor=black&view=grid

PARIS!

This weekend I ventured out of Prague and out to Paris where I met Rachel Lansing and Steph Meyer for a weekend excursion.  Paris is by far my favorite city that I've visited so far.  We had a picture perfect weekend and I honestly could not have asked for anything more.

I flew out Thursday night to meet the girls.  I arrived at Orly about an hour and a half before they did.  After spending some time in the airport I heard from Rachel that their flight was delayed.  No big deal.  A few minutes later more news came: they were being rerouted to Charles de Goille, the other airport in Paris.  Way to make things interesting.  I went to the information desk to explore my options.  Low and behold I had 2 choices: take a taxi to the hotel for $80 euros or take a bus to the other airport for $16 euros.  I chose the bus.  The driver told me the arrival terminal for Easy Jet and dropped me off there.  When I didn't see their flight on the screen I went to information again.  No need to worry, they arrive on the other side of the airport.  After about a 25 minute walk across the airport (it's in a circle but you can't walk straight around- instead I had to go upstairs, downstairs, across, etc) I arrived at their arrival gate.  I sat down to wait for their flight, which had been further delayed, when along comes a homeless man grunting in French.  He walked up to the garbage can, turned the bag inside out, watched the trash fall on the floor, and laughing began kicking it across the room.  When he was satisfied he found the other garbage can in the room. This time he dramatically picked pieces out of the trash throwing them over his back behind him onto the floor, the whole time talking under his breath and laughing in French.  It was quite interesting.  Soon after my adventure the girls arrived and we headed to our hotel.  We had found the hotel online and were staying near the Arc de Triomphe...supposedly.  It turned out our hotel was quite interesting to say the least.  It was more on the outskirts of the city and I would by no means call it a 3 star hotel as the website did...  The room was clean enough to spend the night and we decided to change hotels in the morning.  We sat up talking and laughing for hours before finally falling asleep.

Friday morning we woke up and went to the Best Western at the Champs Elysees right by the Arc de Triomphe.  We emerged from the subway into a gorgeous neighborhood in the heart of the downtown area.  What a difference!  We dropped our bags at the hotel and left to go to the Eiffel Tower where we planned to go on a bike tour of the city.  After some fancy dance moves to get on and off the bike, Rachel got her bearings and we were ready to go.  The tour took us around the whole city!  Our tour guide, Graham, was 22 and had just graduated from Texas.  In an effort to avoid a 9-5 suit and tie job (he was a finance major) he came abroad for one last horrah before heading off to law school.  We rode around the city stopping at key land marks to learn about their history and significance.  The tour was a great way to see the majority of the city in an efficient way while still learning about what we were seeing.  The weather worked in our favor and we enjoyed riding around in the 60 degree and sunny weather!  The tour ended around 3 near the Eiffel Tower.  At this point we decided to go up the tower.  I never could have imagined all that was about to unfold in front of my eyes.  We stepped off the elevator and onto the platform.  All 3 of our jaws dropped.  The city is magnificent.  It has a strange ambiance with a perfect balance of classic architecture paired with a new and modern approach.  The city buildings are mostly white and the city is remarkably clean.  Greenery surrounds the buildings and grassy areas and parks are common.  The flowers had bloomed adding color and life to the already jaw dropping view.  We left the Eiffel Tower and began on our way back to the hotel to shower and change before dinner.  Graham recommended a local Bistro and had called to make us reservations.  Ironically enough all three of us love escargot and the restaurant was known for this dish.  We ordered a traditional French meal and weren't disappointed.  The food melted in our mouth and the bottle of wine was a great addition.  We had a long dinner and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.  The perfect end to the perfect day: seeing the Eiffel Tower lit up at night.  Wow.  I've grown up seeing pictures, but the pictures can't possibly do it justice.  The tower grabs you by the heart and pulls you in.  It's nearly impossible not to be overcome and moved by its beauty.  As I hit the fluffy pillow in my 5 star hotel room I couldn't help but think how lucky I was.  Not only am I traveling the world, but I was in one of the most renowned cities in the world with two of my closest life friends.  Life doesn't get much better than that.

Saturday was our museum day.  First stop: the Louvre.  We went here to see the Mona Lisa.  As we walked throughout we saw some painters with set up stands replicating the famous paintings of the museum.  They worked with such precision and intrigue.  Each painter would paint a couple of strokes, step back and look, walk around, and go back to paint a few more.  I was surprised to see that the museum allowed painters to paint inside, but it was cool to watch them at work.  Some of the paintings took up huge walls, walls taller and longer than walls in many of our houses.  Despite their grandiose size and explicit detail most people admired them in passing.  What a contrast compared to the Mona Lisa, a small and protected painting, surrounded by people admiring it for long periods on end.  Steph, Rachel, and I are not huge museum people so we saw what we wanted to see, as well as what we passed on the way, and then went on our way.  After the Louvre we went to the Pompidoo, a modern art museum.  You felt the modernity of the building the second it came into sight.  The building's walls are unfinished, tubes are exposed, and elevators serve as central focal points.  Your eyes wander in excitement and it's hard to pick which direction to look first.  The art inside is as exciting as the structure of the museum itself.  The set up of the exhibits is unique to the art in the exhibit.  Light and darkness add meaning to the paintings, sculptures, etc.  The art was very different than anything else I've seen in any art museum and was cutting edge modern art that provoked interesting questions, conversations, and discussions.  At this point we decided to head to Versaille.  The city, which is a 30 minute train ride away, houses a castle and gardens and was the grounds on which the Treaty of Versaille was signed.  The trip took a couple of hours and was well worth every minute.  On the way back we climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  The circular and steep staircase of about 300 stairs made our legs burn.  The stinging sensation was quickly alleviated when we emerged at the top.  The city once again lay before us.  This time the Eiffel Tower was apparent in the skyline and shone like a treasure in the distance. We took in the view and enjoyed the sun.  On the way down we stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  It was almost dinner time and we decided to walk around a bit before heading off to dinner.  We has another traditional French meal coupled with much conversation and many laughs.

We saved Sunday to be our shopping day.  We didn't realize, at the time, that this was a mistake as many places are closed on Sundays.  The concierge told us which area to go shop in, an area which had open stores.  It ended up being the Jewish Quarter area.  One of the first things we came across was a Jewish bakery/ deli.  Like 3 kids in a candy shop we bought a challah with raisins and tore into it.  None of us have had challah since we've been abroad and we couldn't get enough of it.  We tore into it and pretty much devoured it in the middle of the street.  It tasted like a little piece of fluffy heaven.  Most of the stores in the area didn't open until 11.  We found a Judaica store with some very pretty pieces.  I bought a beautiful hamsa necklace.  We further explored the area and the stores began to open.  We laughed our way through our last couple hours together in what had easily become all of our favorite city.  

The weekend may have been my best to date.  I feel oddly attached to a city that I never anticipated liking so much.  The city, events of the weekend, and life long friends created memories that will last a lifetime.  

LONDON!

After a long and busy week of midterms and papers (yes I do go to school here and have work to do, despite the fact that I always put it off...very unlike me...)  I headed to London for the start of spring break.  

I landed safely in London and ventured into town to meet up with some Camp Chi friends.  We hit the ground running, starting with a traditional English lunch: fish and chips.  Brett took us a downtown pub and taught us the correct way to eat the dish (you put vinegar and salt on the fish).  It was pretty good, though kind of heavy, but definitely a good choice given where I was.  We left lunch and went to the British Museum.  The museum is filled with stolen goods from all over the world: Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc.  Some of the items and exhibits were interesting, but given that I'm not a huge museum person, I probably didn't appreciate it as much as some of the other sites I saw.  We left the museum and headed to Piccadilly Circus, the downtown theatre district to see if we could get tickets for a show.  Piccadilly Circus reminded me a lot of New York.  It's a very busy area with lots of theatres, bright lights, shopping, and restaurants.  Brett recommended History Boys, a studio show based on life in London.  We were able to find cheap tickets and bought them.  We had some time before the show and decided to go to Buckingham Palace.  On the walk there it started to snow.  We walked through St James Park and to the Palace, took lots of pictures, and decided to go warm up with some high tea.  The tea and finger sandwiches were refreshing and sheltered us from the cold and snow.  We left tea in time to go to the show.  The show had a small cast, simplistic set, and detailed plot which shed light on the culture of an all boys school in London.  It was very entertaining.  

Friday was a packed day.  There were many sites I wanted to see and I carefully scheduled the day to fit in as much as possible.  I saw many of the famous London sights including Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Big Ben, the houses of parliament, Toefgler Square, the National Portrait Gallery, and others.  The London Eye is larger than I could have ever imagined.  I found Big Ben to be unimpressive, though I compared it to the Astronomical Clock, to which nothing truly compares.  The front of the National Portrait Gallery houses statutes, a large fountain, and a huge open area with some park benches and many people.  It was a great place to stop and rest while enjoying some of London's finest people watching.  After a quick break I ventured over to the Camden Street Market, a popular Friday outdoor market.  The market was a unique mix of clothes, bags, pashminas, fresh fruit, fresh fish, carnival food, artsy pieces, jewelry, and pretty much anything else you can think of.  It was eclectic and exciting not to leave out cultural at the same time.  I spent a couple hours walking the market and then headed back to Brett's to shower and get ready for the night.  I joined Jen Tenzer, a former Elm Place grad, ice skater, and Camp Chier for a night on the town.  Her and I and some of her friends went to Cheers, a local bar for a couple drinks and some dancing.  It was a great night.

Saturday morning I went to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  This was probably not the best day to go, as it was packed beyond belief and hard to see what was going on beyond all the tourists and cameras.  I found my way through the nearby gardens and enjoyed the peaceful surroundings of the nature around me.  I left this part of town to head to Knotting Hill and the famous Portobella Market.  On the walk to the market you pass many movie setting houses.  I kept looking for Hugh Grant, but sadly couldn't find him.  This market was much more upscale than the Camden market and also very enjoyable.  I spent some time walking the market, saw a few more sites, and went to dinner with the Chi crew.  Brett has made reservations for us at Absolute Ice Bar for Saturday night.  From the outside the ice bar  looks like any other restaurant or bar.  When you walk in the employees drape a furry cape over you and pin thick gloves to the cape.  You then walk through sliding double doors into ice world.  The walls, bar, chairs, and tables are all made of ice.  Scattered throughout the room are ice sculptures with dancing people carved into them.  Drinks are made solely with absolute vodka and poured into glasses made of ice.  The room is much smaller than I imagined but it's more than enough to occupy you for your 50 minute stay.  We spent a good 30 minutes taking pictures and 10 minutes enjoying our drinks.  The last 10 minutes were a bit cold but we nevertheless spent it looking around and talking about how cool the bar was.  It was definitely a unique experience and something to see.  

I left Ice Bar and headed for the airport where I would attempt to sleep for 3 or 4 hours before my flight to Italy. 

I'm still alive...

The last time I posted was before my spring break extravaganza.  Wow.  I have lots to share.  I'm going to break this up into a bunch of smaller posts and try to get them all up before I leave for Paris tomorrow.

Bear with me...

my birthday and Steph's visit!

Hey!  Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  I last checked in a few days before my birthday.  I had a GREAT birthday!  Wednesday night we had a bunch of people over at our apartment for a big birthday celebration/pre game.  A lot of my guy friends were leaving Thursday morning for the weekend but all made a point to stop by and hang out for a bit even though they weren't going out.  It was very nice.  My roomies and I hit the town in celebration.  It was a very fun night.  Thursday we went to a Czech hockey game.  Hockey is a HUGE sport here.  CEA planned the trip for us and there were about 40 kids from my program at the game.  It was a quarterfinals playoff game.  We had some pivo (beer) and cheered on the czech team.  Sadly, they lost in a shootout in double overtime.  Despite the loss the game was a lot of fun.  

Thursday night I went to dinner with my roommates and then to rap night at Radost.  We danced on stage for a while, met some random people who were in Prague on spring break from other programs and cities, schmoozed with the bartender until he gave us free birthday shots etc.  It was truly a great night (and yes I remember it!)

The weekend started off great and only got better as Steph Meyer and friends came on Friday!  A couple of girls studying in Prague and I met Steph and her friends at the airport.  It was pretty much a scene out of a movie when they got off the plane and we were standing with signs yelling and screaming.  The people in the airport were probably annoyed by our Americanness but oh well....you only live once!  We took the girls to Bohemian Bagel (an American style bagel/ sandwich restaurant) for lunch, explored the city, had a few beers, and headed out to dinner.  After a very late dinner, we didn't finish eating until about 1am, we went to 5 story club.  It was quite an experience!  We hit all of the floors, dancing and exploring on each one.  I somehow convinced everyone to dance on stage and have great pictures of all of us.  Steph and two of her friends, Dara, and Effie slept over that night and we had a huge sleepover/slumber party.  Believe it or not, this was the first time Steph and I have ever really slept in the same room...another thing for us to cross off the Steph and Sheridan list!

Saturday we hit up the Prague Castle, Old Town Square, the Charles Bridge, and the Easter festival.  Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, and some other places have been taken over by the Easter Festival.  There are stands everywhere with every type of food: grilled meats, vegies, corn, crepes, waffle cakes, beer, chocolate covered fruit, skewers, fresh cooked/ roasted nuts, and the list goes on...we pretty much ate our way around for a while before settling into food coma.  Saturday night Steph and some of her friends and I met up with my roommates at one of our favorite cafes by my house for dinner.  After we went to beer factory.  Beer factory is this neat underground bar where each table has its own tap.  You tap your own beer and the machine keeps a tab.  There's also a cool contraption on the table that lets you wash your glasses.  Beer factory was playing crazy old music that you just had to sing and dance to when it came on.  In true fashion we danced/ made fun of how some of the Europeans were dancing and pretty much went nuts.  There were about 15 of us there; we all looked liked idiots and completely loved every second of it.

Sunday morning we went to Radost for brunch.  It was one of the best meals I've had since I've been here.  It was honestly sooo good.  The restaurant is also very trendy.  All the seats are couches and big loungy chairs.  It's very retro and swanky.  I split from the group for a bit to go home and write a paper and do some work.  Steph and some of her friends went to the Jewish Quarter and walked around the festival a bit more.  We all met up later in the afternoon.  Steph and her roommate in Florence, Miriam spent the night at my place. We sat up talking for hours.  Miriam is from Deerfield and went to Camp Beber.  We know all of the same people.  It's a crazy small world.  We lost track of time and didn't go to bed for hours later.  

Monday morning I took Steph and friends to breakfast at Bohemian (they wanted American food one last time before they went back to eating all Italian) before they left for the airport. 

It was honestly a great weekend.  I'm so happy Steph was able to come and hang out and help me celebrate my birthday!  (speaking of she brought the most beautiful bracelet for my birthday.  it was the nicest thing!)  It's very cool to be able to travel with friends from home and meet up in foreign countries.  We took tons of pictures and can't wait to send them to the Camp Chi alumni network.  Jamie and Brad will laugh when they see Steph and Sheridan traveling the world together, though I don't think they'll be at all surprised.

This is long so I'm going to split this into a few different posts.  Pics to come later.  

Interlaken Photos

 You can see my Interlaken pics here:

http://gallery.mac.com/ldsheridan/100081

If you can't see them email me your email address at lsheridan@wisc.edu and I can email you the album.

Interlaken

Oh Interlaken, where to even begin...

Jess, Lizzy, Nina, and I left for Interlaken Wednesday afternoon.  The trip started great.  We made it to the airport and our plane took off on time.  We even landed in Geneva 20 minutes early.  As we were going through customs we started to talk to one of the security guards.  He was asking us a whole bunch of questions and joking with us.  He asked where we were going and we said Bern.  He looked at his watch and said the last train leaves in 1 minute you better run.  The four of us looked at each other and took off across the airport.  It was literally a scene out of a movie.  We ran downstairs as the train was about to leave.  We somehow talked our way onto the train as it was leaving.  We felt very lucky until we heard the next set of news...our train arrived in Bern at 1am and the next train for Interlaken didn't leave until 6am.  We had 5 hours to kill in an outdoor train station.  

After walking around the station to find that no stores, waiting rooms, or restaurants were open, we decided to explore town.  A cab driver told us of a restaurant that was open down the street.  We shlepped our luggage down the cobblestone roads and finally found the restaurant.  It was open until 3:30.  We sat for a bite to eat and laughed about our experiences and trip.  At 3:30 we were kicked out and went back to the train station.  We curled up in a corner trying to take turns sleeping.  A drunk man approached us and asked us where we were from.  Jess replied we're from Guam and we don't talk to strangers.  He mocked us for a minute and then stumbled away.  At 5am the waiting room opened and we were able to finally have a warm place to sit for a few minutes.

We boarded the train to Interlaken at 6 and arrived about 40 minutes later.  The train ride was beautiful.  On one side you could see the mountains and on the other the countryside.  We successfully arrived in Interlaken and made our way down the street to Balmers, the hostel we were staying at.  After checking in we crashed for a couple hours.  Thursday afternoon Lizzy and I went paragliding.  It was a very cool experience.  I was attached to an instructor and a parachute.  We started at the top of the mountain and ran off the edge of it until we were flying.  You can steer the parachute and the guy and I did a bunch of tricks.  We went zig zagging across the sky and did some spin moves and swirls.  The view was to die for.  There are two lakes on either side of the city and they are connected with various rivers.  All of this is surrounded by the mountains, some which were covered with snow and others that were vacant.  I have lots of pictures from the air so you can see what I'm talking about.  We spent some time exploring the town in the afternoon before getting ready to go out.  We spent the early part of the night in our hostel.  It was quite the place to be.  Everyone was around and hanging out and I met some very cool people.  Our hostel has one of the only night clubs in town so we went out there every night.  I ran into some Wisco people and a group of guys from our trip met us in Interlaken as well.  Thursday night was more low key but I did spend a good portion of the night dancing, which is always a good time in my book.

Friday morning Molly and Jordan arrived.  We spent the morning exploring the rest of town and went on a tour of a chocolate factory in the early afternoon.   The chocolate factory is known and has won awards for having the best chocolate in the world.  I have to say it was the best chocolate I've ever tasted.  We learned how the chocolate is harvested and how the candies are made.  We were even able to make some candy and were fed the entire time.  The room was filled with chocolate statues made for different events.  There was a dog, a ferris wheel, a ski mountain and a skier, a picture in a frame (both the picture and the frame are 100% chocolate) and some others.  You can see them in my pictures!  The tour lasted about an hour.  It rained most of the day Friday so most of the outdoor activities were cancelled but we still had a great time.

Saturday morning we woke up and went skiing.  We went to rent out skis and found out the mountain was closed due to the wind.  Not good news.  After breakfast we went back and heard that half the mountain was open.  We rented our skis and went.  You have to take a train to the mountain from Interlaken. The train ride was beautiful.  It let us off mid mountain and we took the ski lift up not realizing we were going straight to the top of the mountain.  We got off and were immediately hit by the wind.  It was very strong.  We started on our way down.  The middle and bottom of the mountain were far less windy and actually very enjoyable to ski.  We skied many runs and paths.  It was beautiful and so much fun.  I didn't realize how much I've missed skiing.  It felt great to be back out there.  We had signed up for an excursion to go night sledding and for fondue dinner for Saturday night.  There were about 50 college aged kids on the excursion and we met a bunch of people.  Sledding took place on the mountain.  It was very cool and a lot of fun.  I was exhausted by the end of the day and spent Saturday night chilling with the girls.

Sunday we woke up bright and early to enjoy our last day.  We had about half a day before the trip back.  There were a few places we wanted to go back to in town so we did that.  I bought some chocolate to bring back, and even bought some for mom and dad.  (I hope it's still here when you guys get here...don't worry I hid it!)

The trip back was very smooth.  It seemed luck was not on our side this weekend.  The weather was not great and Jess and Nina tried to skydive 3 times and were shut out by the weather each time.  Despite all of this I had truly an AMAZING weekend.  The mountains are breathtaking and I'll never forget the images and view from the city and mountaintop.  I feel very lucky to have gone to Interlaken and skied the Alps.  It was an unforgettable weekend.

My roommates have started the countdown to my birthday.  I feel old.  Yikes.

Hope all is well.  More to come later...

Lisa