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The Columbia, MD, Ithaca, NY and Sussex, England Chronicles
By: Benny Jive
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[<< < 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 > >>] [Archive]
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| Saturday, 3-Jun-2006 17:22 |
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Matt's sis comes to Brighton -- Dinner in town
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Since I so love stumbling across other groups of friends who have put online their "we're having so much fun, aren't we a bunch of fun guys and gals?" pictures, I thought I'd take up a bit of internet real estate by posting these pixels, which are of no practical use to anybody.
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| Friday, 19-May-2006 22:24 |
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Edinburgh
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Haggis, tatties and mash--surprisingly tasty
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Hey Elana! She likes it!
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Sunset over new Edinburgh
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Elana, her good friend Caitlin (fresh from a semester in Toulouse, France) and I took a 3-day trip to Edinburgh, in which we sampled the cool Scottish summer, tried on some crown jewels, had some laughs, downed some lies and broke some promises, ate haggis and wouldn't you know it we caught the noon train back to Brighton and caught the freshly hung moon as well.
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| Saturday, 13-May-2006 09:11 |
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London in Summer
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It seemed appropriate that we should take advantage of Jordan's kindness and his sweet Soho apartment once more, and so Elana, Matt, Sarah and I headed up to visit the Harriman a couple of weeks before he left for the United States.
Magical Things that happened:
(1) www.thesultanselephant.com (Arabian Nights invade London's Trafalgar Square!)
(2) Buddha's birthday (Asian spiritualists invade Covent Gardens!)
(3) Rain
(4) Secret Garden + Church produces free concert rehearsal
(5) Sake in Soho Square
(6) "An American Werewolf in(vades!) London"
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| Wednesday, 12-Apr-2006 09:10 |
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The Eurotrip: Paris (part 2)
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early morning, makin' Louvre
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I.M. Pei-ing how much for a museum ticket?!?
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Venus de Milo. Could not find Venus de Otis.
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The second half of my week in Paris contained a whirlwind visit to the Louvre, a night of jazz and wine with Jordan, Jess and Matt (Jess had been schooling in Paris, and Matt was visiting her--go figure), a miserable trip to Versaille, the Roden sculpture museum, the Arc du Triomph, the Musee d'Orsey, the Shakespeare and co. bookstore, the James Joyce Pub, the gravesites of Jim Morrisson and Oscar Wilde and the Gardens of Luxembourg.
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| Tuesday, 11-Apr-2006 22:25 |
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The Eurotrip: Paris (part 1)
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Arrival! The Gardens of Luxembourg
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A wild Morrocan crepe restaurant
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Cathedral du Notre Dame
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Ah, gay Paris! What better place to spend the orgiastic week-long conclusion to a month in Europe? Family, friends, adventure and good food all meet here, in the city of light, and so it was for seven exhausting days. Jordan and I, weary-eyed but willing, stepped off the train platform and into a labrynthine garden wildlife center, through which we had to navigate to get to the Latin Quarter.
There I met with my family and we all went out for a reunion lunch. I washed up in my family's real two-star hotel (no more sketchy youth hostels for me!) and Jordan checked into his sketchy youth hostel.
Every morning we got together for a day of sightseeing and good food. In these pictures, we visit Notre Dame, la ile de la cite, Paris's first Plaza, the Musee Picasso, the Eiffel Tower, Napoleon's tomb and the Invalides museums. Jordan and I were able to recooperate a little from our whilwind tour by taking my family's somewhat more subdued approach to sightseeing. This was it for the first 2 or 3 days.
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| Sunday, 9-Apr-2006 18:33 |
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The Eurotrip: Marsaille
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I didn't take many pictures of Marsaille. It rained nearly the entire time we were there, so we did not do much outside. And the museums were closed on Monday so we could not do those. Instead, we explored the ethnic communities that populate this city. Outside of London and New York, I have never been anywhere that felt so international. Different languages came at us from all sides. Bordering neighborhoods would house completely different communities. Jordan and I both bought knock-off European -shirts.
We also spent one night drinking box wine in empty plazas, but I did not take any pictures of that. Oh, and we climbed to the large church overlooking the town. There's an interesting story behind the church. I'm sure you could wiki it.
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| Friday, 7-Apr-2006 14:18 |
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The Eurotrip: Montpellier
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The center of the old town--a long "comedie" of shops and space
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I watched an intense and intensely large chess game
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A tre, tre dramatique chess player
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The train to Montpellier was, thankfully, an eventless trip. I arrived mid-day and checked into my little hotel, occupied by weird little men and women who were a little rude but always overzealously helpful. I had several hours to kill before Jordan was to meet me here, in this small city, capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon region. I wandered the streets and drank a lot of good, cheap wine. Jordan arrived very late while I watched some French television. The next day (our last full one before we headed out, to Marsaille) we were men about town, visiting museums, famous gardens, monuments and pizzerias.
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| Wednesday, 5-Apr-2006 17:16 |
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The Eurotrip: Toulouse
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View from Sebastian's cloistered apartment
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which was awesome, if a little small.
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Fruit markets line the streets of Toulouse in the morning.
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So I arrived at Toulouse after dark, and here my second set of worries began. You see, I had set up my residency here using hospitalityclub.org, which essentially pairs travellers with kindly homeowners who want to house them. It is an entirely trust-based system and I had contacted a friendly-seeming guy named Sebastian about staying in his apartment. But here I was, hours late, and what if he turned out to be an axe-murdering serial rapist? Do they have those in France? It was a fearsome walk to his door, but I counted on my Clint Eastwood-like American gumption to see me through.
Sebastian, it turned out, was more than welcoming (plus he had a kickass apartment). A scientist-musician-traveller, Sebastian took me all about Toulouse, showed me the student hangouts, cooked me an authentic French dinner, and participated in long one-sided conversations about French politics. He also ended up giving me tons of French music (the good kind). I hope that sometime I can be so kind and helpful to a foreign guest. But as he worked during the day (at ESA, the Euopean equivalent of NASA, headquartered in Toulouse) I did much of my exploring of this blossoming university town by myself.
Oh, but I also spent an evening with one of Elana's friends from Texas, Caitlin, who was studying in Toulouse at the time. She was also very helpful and friendly. We ate Thai.
In Toulouse I saw old churches (which I have yet to tire of, though let me tell you, I've seen my share), a host of museums, street markets, bars, cafes, sculpture gardens, and riverside walks.
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| Tuesday, 4-Apr-2006 17:06 |
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The Eurotrip: Road to Toulouse
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Outside the train station, crowds gather for a midday party
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French house in Pau
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Leaving Bayonne was a hugo mess of Miserables proportions. My date to travel to Toulouse coincided with the biggest CPE protest yet seen (explaining this would take to much time., so the summmary: high-unemployment suffering French youth getting dicked over by employer-friendly Prime-Minister-proposed bill (C.P.E.), prompts massive protests country-wide and various trade strikes. It has since been repealed.) This meant that the train station outside my hotel was overrun by ruffians blasting music, leafing leaflets, and generally Having a Good Time the French way, by protesting. There was also, of course, a crippling train strike today. Minimal trains were running, and virtually no staff was on hand to help people sort things out.
Because this alone would not be enough fun, the whole thing was also happening in a language I did not understand. My English questions were treated with baffled looks. Eventually I secured a bus ticket to Pau, where I was told, in broken English and amidst the howls of democracy and the blasts of nearby construction work, that I would have the best chance of finding transportation to Toulouse. Well, I won't bore you with all the machinations of my journey, suffice it to say that my informant was either mistaken or misleading. In Pau I had to take a train up to Bordeaux (a bit of a backtrack) and then on towards my destination. Eight hours, one Canadian couple treating me to croissants and coffee, two con artists, one African woman who let me borrow cash when my credit card failed, and one thunderstorm later, I was in Toulouse and it was near midnight.
Next: where the hell am I staying tonight?
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| Sunday, 2-Apr-2006 17:24 |
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The Eurotrip: Bayonne and Biarritz, France
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Goofy American Spotted Photographing Self on Idyllic Bridge
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The very Basque-like plaza on the river
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One of France's oldest cathedrals
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Bayonne is a small town in the southwest corner of France, deep within the region knows as "Pays Basque" (Basque country). Basque is an ancient culture predating the artificial lines that seperate Spain and France, and the people of this region consider themselves more Basque (or, in the local language, Euskedai (sp?)) than either French or Spanish. I spent almost 2 weeks in the Basque region (from Bilbao to Bayonne) and really got into their way of life. Friendly (even to foreigners), laid back, fiercely loyal and very much in touch with history. Bilbao especially was a hotbed of delightful locals. But it was a different kettle of fish travelling on my own in a strange land where no one understood my marginal Spanish. Bayonne was the beginning of a week alone in France. I would meet Jordan in 7 days' time in Montpellier, but for the next few albums the camera's eye will be focused intently on my pretty mug.
I bought a French phrasebook and began learning a few sentences. Because I had been working so hard on my Spanish, I suppose, my language acquisition floodgates were open, and I managed to pick up the necessary "dinner table" French after a few days.
In Bayonne I did much wandering, along the Ardour river and in the old city. The town was mostly empty of tourists (early April is too early for the summer vacationers) so I had the town mostly to myself. I caught a French film, saw the local cathedral, visited the Bonnat museum, saw a circus, watched French soaps with my friendly hotel proprietress (who spoke only a little English, but managed to convey the plot to me), got snubbed by more than one rude French waiter (this was to become a theme in my travels in France), and became caught up in France's biggest day of protests and train strikes in years. More on that later.
I also took a bus to Biarritz for a day. Biarritz, like Bayonne, survives on tourism, but it is right on the beach and so gets more surfers and rich people. There wasn't much to do, but the weather was ideal and the scenery entertainment enough for an afternoon.
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