Gwen Studies Broads

Today was very exciting. This morning I went to Versailles and I was going to check out the chateau, but when I got there the incredibly long line (it was at least an hour long and for the entirety of it I would have had to stand in the sun-- it was quite hot out today) combined with a mildly ridiculous admission price made me decide that I didn't really want to go. Instead I walked around the gardens a bit, took some pictures, and went back into the city. Then I went to the Cluny Museum which is the Medieval Art Museum in Paris. They have the other unicorn tapestries there which were really cool. They also had this room that was filled with all these life sized statues of people with missing heads (all unintentionally missing, I presume) which was a bit creepy and reminded me of that scene in Return to Oz where they show all the headless statues.

Tomorrow is Bastille Day which should be pretty exciting. There's a free ballet at the Opera house that I'm going to try and see and I'm also going to go to the Pompidou, which I still haven't done. Then on Saturday morning at six am I leave for the airport. Hooray!

Posted by Gwen! David at 06:13 PM | Permalink

Ah, finally back in Paris! The train ride here from Amsterdam was fine, and I'm staying in the hostel where I stayed when I first got here, so no problems there. While I was in Utrecht I was staying in a twenty bed dorm, but here I'm in a four bed dorm with a private bathroom, so it's really nice. Yesterday I checked out the Jacquemart Andre Museum which was kind of disappointing. It's one of those old houses that they've turned into a museum like the Isabella Stewart Gardner, but not as well set up. Today I went to the Louvre in the morning and then sat in the Tulerie Gardens and ate a nutella crepe. The Louvre is open until nine pm so I think I'll go back later this evening.

Back when I was in Berlin I went to the German History museum and I was behind this father with his two daughters (who looked to be about nine and eleven) and he was explaining all about World War II. The younger daughter looked confused and disinterested until she saw a flag with a swatstika on it and said, "oh, you mean the guys Indiana Jones was fighting!"

Then when I was in Amsterdam I was at a gift shop and there was this family there and the daughter who was about thirteen said to her mom while holding a baseball hat with pictures of marijuana leaves on it, "I don't understand why they have so many things here with palm trees on them, I haven't seen any palm trees here at all!" The mother then carefully explained to her the various facets of marijuana.

Kids really do say the darndest things....

Posted by Gwen! David at 04:55 PM | Permalink

Aw man, so I forgot to mention the one really really cool think I saw while I was in Amsterdam. At the Foam Photography Museum they had this exhibit on early use of colour photography in America. I was walking through it, when all of a sudden I walked into a room where all the photographs were of Pie Town! I had seen those pictures in magazines before, but I had never seen them in person! I was so excited. For those of you unfamiliar with Pie Town and its various merits, Pie Town is a little tiny town in New Mexico and every Labor Day weekend they have a Pie Festival. It's one of my goals in life to go there. And to the Alamo. You can see the pictures here: http://www.foam.nl/index.php?pageId=10&tentoonId=82

The M.C. Escher museum was really cool. They had a lot of his works and they also had this virtual reality thing where you could walk through an M.C. Escher drawing, just like David Bowie does in Labyrinth. If you're ever in the Hague, you should definitely go.

I've been having a nice time in Utrecht. This past weekend was free museum weekend which was nice, so yesterday I went to three different museums. The Utrecht Centraal Museum was pretty cool. It's the big art museum here. I also went to a religious art museum and the Aboriginal Art Museum, which was kind of boring. Today all the museums are closed so I'll do some shopping I guess? This afternoon I have to take a train back to Amsterdam and then a train to Paris!

Last night was the final game in the World Cup. After Germany lost I decided to root for France (mainly because I had been there and I've never been to Italy). The game itself was kind of boring, but there was this really awesome part where this French guy headbutted this Italian guy in the chest. It was so funny! They kept replaying it over and over again.

Posted by Gwen! David at 12:13 PM | Permalink

Well, a lot of things have happened since I last updated. During my last couple of days in Berlin I made friends with these two Irish girls who were very sweet. We hung out and went for dinner and such. The night before I was leaving I went to pack up my stuff in my room. I tried opening my suitcase which had a little Samsonite lock on it, and it wouldn't open! I know I had the right combination, since I've been using the same lock my entire trip and everything, but it just wouldn't open. Luckily the main desk had a very sturdy wire cutter, so I was able to cut it off, but it was very exciting for a little while there. I brought my suitcase back up stairs and began packing and then guess what happened? I got a nosebleed of course! I got blood on my skirt and I was sad.

My train ride from Berlin to Amsterdam went fine, although Germany lost to Italy while I was on the train which made me sad. I was really rooting for Germany, but they got really far so I'm glad. I got into Amsterdam and went to my hostel which was a bit of an adventure in itself, since the train stop I was supposed to get off at didn't exist. Unfortunately the directions the hostel gave me were all wrong so I was schlepping around Amsterdam at 11:30 at night with all my luggage looking for the hostel but luckily I ran into some people who were also staying in the hostel, so they showed me where it was. I went to check in at the hostel and the woman at the desk was about half way through checking me in when she got a phone call and she proceeded to sit and talk to her friend on the phone for ten minutes while I was just standing there. She finally finished and told me my room was up the stairs and to the left. I walked all the way down the hall and it wasn't there, so I tried the hallway to the right and there it was. I didn't realize until the next morning when I woke up that there was only one very small window in the room and it was barred over. I tried to waggle the bars a bit but they wouldn't move. I went back to reception and told them that was a fire hazard and asked if I could be moved to a different room that wasn't a fire hazard. They did, which was nice. Anyway, after that I walked around Amsterdam a lot and decided I wasn't really a fan. Amsterdam is a lot like Allston except with canals and smoking pot is legal there so people don't have to hide it. There were eighty gajillion college students there and they were all dumb and loud (just like those pesky BU kids), and there were trams that almost kept running over the people on bicycles (also just like Allston). Amsterdam was also crazy expensive (apples cost ninety cents!) so I left and went to the Hague (or den Haag as the locals call it) to visit my friend Andrew who's from Boston but currently lives here. I had planned on coming out here and then going back to Amsterdam but instead I'm going to go to Utrecht (the city not the art supply store-- oh, and by the way, it's pronounced oo-trecht, not yew-trecht, as they say at the art supply store). Hostels there are half as much as is everything else. I'll stay there for two nights and then I have to go back to Amsterdam to get on a train to Paris! I'm excited to go back there. The big things I want to do are the Pompidou (which is the Modern Art museum), Versailles and the Louvre. I've got four days, so I think I'll be able to.

Did you know in the Hague there's an Escher Museum? I think I'm going to go!

Posted by Gwen! David at 03:42 PM | Permalink

Man, time goes fast in Berlin! Tonight is my last night and then tomorrow I head over to Amsterdam. Berlin has some really great museums. Today I went to the Deustch Guggenheim-- it was okay, but very small. The gift shop is bigger than the museum itself. Tomorrow I´m going to check out the Egyptian Museum, do a little bit of sight seeing and then head to the train station.

From what I can tell everything in Amsterdam is very expensive, so I´m not sure how often I´ll be able to use the internet or update. But I´m sure I´ll tell you all about it!

<3

Posted by Gwen! David at 07:32 PM | Permalink