Filed under: Europe Trip | Tags: 17 Again, enRoute, Europe, Europe Trip, flight, fun, home, life, new, Race to Witch Mountain, Scandal Makers, Sunshine Cleaning, travel
Finally back home after a pretty enjoyable 8 hour flight. The food was good, the air hosts and hostesses were pretty nice, and the enRoute personal entertainment system actually WORKED! I was even on my fourth movie when we landed (Race to Witch Mountain, after burning through 17 Again, Sunshine Cleaning, and Scandal Makers (Korean), if you must know). What more can a person ask for? : )
I had an epically awesome trip, seeing new places and things and meeting new people. Europe was a blast and I can’t wait to go back again >:3. But I’m really glad to be back home XD since I actually started to miss it a little. Time to go on with normal life again, heh.
Filed under: Europe Trip | Tags: airport, Album, birthday party, Carré Sénart, Chateau Fontainebleau, Europe, Europe Trip, fun, manga, Paris, picnic, travel
A nice relaxing last day in Paris. We walked around the gardens of Chateau Fontainebleau and then had a picnic by the small lake. It’s a beautiful chateau, but I really didn’t want to go sightseeing anymore, so I didn’t go inside, just sat and ate lunch and played some badminton XD. My Aunt B. makes a great salad : o.
In the evening we had to go to a birthday party, so we stopped at Carré Sénart, the nearest mall to buy a gift, at which point I stumbled upon a manga store called Album. I’m so jealous :< I wish we had a store that close to where I live. And very affordable prices too. Anyways, the evening has been wiled away having fun talking to people and eating food XD.
Better sleep now, gotta go to the airport early for my flight in the morning.
Filed under: Europe Trip | Tags: artists, bunny, Coco, Corot, Europe, Europe Trip, fun, Julius Caesar, Louvre, Mona Lisa, paintings, Paris, Rousseau, The Madonna and Child, travel, Valenciennes, Venus de Milo, Vernet
Because really, that’s what I need. So much walking in one day T____T and we only saw a few sections. SO MANY PAINTINGS which is what I really wanted to see, so don’t take it in a negative context.
Let’s get the perfunctory Mona Lisa comment out of the way: Meh…so many people crowding around it, so you can only see it from afar. But apparently some crazy lady threw tea or something on it a few days ago…>_>
Anyways, I liked the Venus de Milo alot. And I got to know some new artists that I would like to check out later- like Corot, Valenciennes, Vernet, and Rousseau. There was this one guy standing in front of a Vernet and doing an amazing sketch of it. So much so that people were looking at the guy’s sketch instead of the other paintings XD.
However, there are too many paintings of people >__>. And I think the museum has probably collected every single interpretation of The Madonna and Child known to man.
But yeah, an overall enjoyable experience; though I’d like to see the rest of it next time with someone who’s actually interested in the stuff, rather than my Dad who was just tagging along >_> and was pretty bored. Though some of his questions about some exhibits were hilarious- “Julius Caesar was an important emperor; why is this statue of him not wearing any clothes? D:”
Oh, as you can guess, I’m back in Paris. And my day flew by with spending my time in the Louvre museum XD.
Also, I’m in love with the cutest bunny ever. Coco’s got me picking dandelion leaves for it to eat . Whenever I walk past its cage it sorta reaches up and starts sniffing expectantly and I’m such a softie =__=.
Anyways, time to sleep. Tomorrow’s my last day in Paris, so I’m going to do my best to enjoy it : D. Night~
Filed under: Europe Trip | Tags: Black Madonna, chocolate, church, Europe, Europe Trip, fun, goodbye, Switzerland, Tamil, Tamil movie star, travel
Ok, not really- I think every country is beautiful in some aspect. But right now, I’ve been too dazzled by the alpine scenery to think about the others. We’re leaving Switzerland in a couple of hours and I wish I could have stayed longer. Maybe caught a Tamil movie star or two :3. But alas, we are on a schedule.
All we did today was go to some famous church of the Black Madonna, well known to, once again, the Tamil population, according to the person we stayed with. And this I could actually believe- the signs were in like 4 languages: English, French, Deutsch, and Tamil. : o But there was a service going on, so we couldn’t do much except go inside and light candles.
After leaving the church, we made our last, and perhaps most crucial stop before going back to the house and packing stuff up- BUYING CHOCOLATE. As if we could leave the country without stocking up on it. >__> Once we had sufficiently bought enough chocolate to tide us over for at least the next 7 years, we came back to the house and with much difficulty, fit it into our luggage. XD
Anyways, time for lunch. Seeya in Paris : D
Filed under: Europe Trip | Tags: Alps, beautiful, Castle of Gruyeres, cheese, Europe, Europe Trip, fun, Gruyeres, lake, sightseeing, Switzerland, Tamil movies, travel, view, Vijay, Villu, visiting, Zurich
We drove around Zurich this morning. It was really confusing =_= and hard to find parking. But we managed and found a space, and then we walked down to the waterfront of the lake in the middle of the city.
After that, we drove to Bern to have lunch at another one of my parents’ old friends house. The people’s daughter, N. was really, really, nice and took us sightseeing. The main place we went to see was Castle of Gruyeres, which is a preserved castle museum. It was really interesting as an indicator as how people who weren’t royalty, yet still high-born lived. Also, it was very beautiful XD. They’ve also preserved the little fortified village, except they’re shops and restaurants and hotels instead of houses. Also, Gruyeres is where they make that cheese : o which N. bought for us to sample and tastes very interesting.
We spent way too much time XD with the castle so when we got to the next house that we had to visit, it was pretty late. They also had some really friendly daughters. XD Before we left we went down to the lake which is like a 30 second walk from their house, and has a really REALLY nice view of the Alps. So. Very. Jealous. To top it off, their place is the site of a lot of Tamil movie filming and such. D: Like Villu. OMG VIJAYYYYY. : O
Our return to Zurich was very very late night, so I should really be asleep right now..Night :3
Filed under: Europe Trip | Tags: Amsterdam, Cento, crazy, deadly, Europe, Europe Trip, French, fun, German, gps, Italian, Lugano, Madurodam, Matterhorn, roads, Romansch, Swiss Miniatur, Switzerland, travel, Zurich
Yeah, Switzerland has 4 official languages- German, French, Italian, and Romansch, respectively. Amazing, isn’t it. : o
A rather uneventful yet long drive to Zurich from Cento took up most of today. We stopped in the middle, somewhere near Lugano, to see a tourist attraction recommended to us by someone.
Called Swiss Miniatur, it’s a little park full of mini versions of several famous buildings/aspects in Switzerland. It was actually about to close when we got there, but they were so flattered that we were from Canada and wanted to see the miniature park that they not only let us in on a discounted price, they also gave us a full hour after closing time. : o Similar to Madurodam in Amsterdam, which I visited a couple of years ago. It was a fairly interesting way to spend an hour and a half, and had a really nice mini-version of the Matterhorn.
After that break, we resumed the drive to Zurich, which we reached at night. CRAZY, CRAZY, DEADLY ROADS. WTF, GPS- you freaked the hell out of us all. o____o Enough said.
Good night, all!
Filed under: Europe Trip | Tags: Cento, Coliseum, Europe, Europe Trip, fun, gelato, ISIC, Italy, La Pieta, lines, Michelangelo, Old Bridge, panorama, Pantheon, pizza, Roma, Roma Del Cielo, Rome, sightseeing, Sistine Chapel, souvenirs, St.Peter's Basilica, Switzerland, travel, Trevi Fountain, Vatican Museum, Vittoriano
I want to die. It’s too hot. T__T It’s almost 40 degrees out.
Today was a CRAZY day. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it certainly cannot be seen in one. But we covered a lot.
We woke up early to go to the Vatican Museum, and when we got there at around 9, there was a HUGE line-up to get in. Like a kilometre long…okay, maybe a tiny bit shorter than that. But the wait wasn’t all that long since it moved fast and we managed to get our tickets not much later. I finally made use of my ISIC card to get a discount!
The Vatican Museum is a pretty amazing place. Very big, but somehow we managed to see it all. And in a pretty short time. Don’t believe the signs, though. They start pointing the way to the Sistine Chapel miles before you actually reach there. It’s the last part of the museum T__T. But lots of other amazing things to see; it apparently has the largest art collection in Europe or something like that. After finishing up with the Museum, we went to visit St. Peter’s Basilica, which also happened to have a long line, but once again moved fast. This too was well worth the wait. : o With its ornate and cavernous halls, the place was the most beautiful church I have ever seen. And it also housed the famed work by Michelangelo, La Pieta. It was just…wow. : o
On the way back, after we had bought some souvenirs, we saw a long line outside of a gelateria called…Old Bridge or something. And people coming out with enormous ice cream cones. Taking J’s advice on actually going to the ice cream stores with long line-ups, we bought some. Huge mistake. The stuff melted so fast in this heat, that even though ours were in cups, they had put so much that the gelato started overflowing… =__= It tasted good though, I suppose.
Next stop was the Pantheon, which was reasonably nearby, but we had some trouble finding it. Also it was reallyyy crowded in the piazza. Fairly remarkable for its architecture, but after the morning, I wasn’t all that amazed. And we couldn’t go inside, apparently there was a wedding or something going on. After this, we went to get some lunch. REAL ITALIAN PIZZA. Yummy stuff. : o Also very filling. And some awesome milkshakes from McDonald’s XD.
After lunch, we were attempting to navigate to the Coliseum, when we were stunned by this gigantic building that we passed by. We wanted to go up, and the only way to do this was to climb a huge flight of stairs. We somehow managed…=__= In that heat, I almost did die. But the view was great. And there was this nice little museum inside. And then when we got out onto the deck area of the building we found an elevator service to go to the highest floor of the building for a small fee.
The view was amazing up here! You can see the whole city : o And all the other old architecture looks great from the place. We didn’t find out what the place was called until we left…it’s called Il Vittoriano, and the elevator service is called Roma Dal Cielo (Rome from the Sky? Or something). But it was an amazing place. We all really enjoyed it. Anyways, it was already getting to be late afternoon so we hightailed it to the Coliseum and frantically found parking.
But alas it was too late. It had already closed : ( So we only saw the outside. A very awesome exterior, nevertheless, so we took lots of photos. After that, we finally found our way to the Trevi Fountain :3. So many people were there! But we managed to find some space to sit by the fountain. It was amazing, and I wish I could have spent more time there. : o When I go back some day, I’m going to go early early in the morning and sit there for as long as I like. I could have stared at that all day. We even threw coins in and made wishes…that was hilarious XD.
Finally, after saying goodbye to Rome, we left on our longggggg drive back to Cento. Rome is full of more things to see, and I hope I can come back later and see more of it. : D Time to go back to Switzerland tomorrow!
Filed under: Europe Trip | Tags: ancient history, Bocca Della Verita, Cento, Coliseum, crowded, dirty, Europe, Europe Trip, Hotel Palladium Palace, Italians, Italy, madmen, Mouth of Truth, road trip, Roma, Rome, St.Peter's Basilica, travel, Vatican City, Venice
Finally. We left Cento this morning and drove to Rome- it took about 5 hours. We took a while to find a decent hotel; the place we ended up staying at is called Palladium Palace.
We spent the evening just driving around, since most of the stuff was about to close. We also visited Vatican City, but St. Peter’s Basilica was closing, so we hung out in the square and took pictures. After that we stopped by the church that houses Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth)- that thing where you put your hand in and it doesn’t let you take your hand out if you’re lying…or something like that. But that was also closed by then, so we just stopped and looked at it for a little bit XD. When we were driving back, we saw the Coliseum at night, and it was really pretty, so we parked nearby and took lots of pictures. After that, we went back to the hotel.
May I say, Rome isn`t as awesome as they make it to be. Maybe I haven’t spent enough time there, or Venice is much more attractive to me in relativity. Yes, there is ancient history everywhere you look, and that is awesome. But it`s dirty, crowded, and the Italians drive like madmen. MADMEN. There is a very tiny bit of disappointment, but maybe I`ll have a better opinion tomorrow ^_^.
Time to sleep; tomorrow is another busy day. : D
Filed under: Europe Trip | Tags: Cento, Europe, Europe Trip, fun, Gotthard Tunnel, Italy, Leaning Tower of Pisa, mountains, Paris, Pisa, road trip, roads, Summer, Switzerland, tourists, travel, tropical, Zurich
(Note: I haven’t had any Internet access for the last few days so let’s go back in time a little bit while I transcribe my entries for the previous week… XD)
It feels like we’ve been driving forever. Yesterday evening we left Paris and ended up in Zurich in the middle of the night where we stayed over with another one of my parents’ old friend. Switzerland is beautiful; all mountains and lakes. The one place in the world that actually looks as perfect in reality as it does on postcards XD. The winding roads were really scary though, especially at night D:.
Then this morning we woke up quite early and drove to Italy. Too early =_=, but my parents’ friend woke us up and told us some scary story about Gotthard Tunnel being closed if we weren’t early enough…totally random. Anyways, we arrived at about noon in Cento, Italy; a small town in the vicinity of Ferrara/Modena/Bologna. Really, really small- there are only two brown families in this town. And they’re related, so technically, only one. We don’t know the family we’re staying with that well, but they’re really nice. It’s scorching hot in Italy. We all forgot that it would be a tropical environment. =__= I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such unbearable temperatures, and I actually love summer.
After reaching Cento, we were quite bored so we decided to go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, since it was only about 2 hours away. The roads on the way there are even crazier…spiral-like even.
After seeing it, I must say, the tower is leaning quite a lot, but it looks very well-maintained. Besides the tower, there were also a couple of other big buildings that were pretty nice; all within these stone walls. It’s like an old-style town, but the little houses are hotels and restaurants and souvenir stores.
There were a reasonable amount of tourists there, obviously all taking pictures XD. We were going to climb the tower, but they don’t let kids under 8 climb the tower (which meant two of our party couldn’t climb), and the next climb was at 10:00 pm, a time at which we hoped to be back in Cento by. So all we ended up doing was being tourists, i.e. attempting those touristy pictures with the Leaning Tower and buying souvenirs. XD
By the time we left, it was dark. Remember the winding roads? Not only are they scarier at night, they’re a hundred times more so with lack of lighting and narrowness. But we managed to make it back in one piece. >_>
More of my Italian exploration will follow tomorrow. 
Filed under: Europe Trip | Tags: Cake Mania, dinner party, Europe, Europe Trip, France, fun, gardens, Hall of Mirrors, Italy, palace, Paris, road trip, Switzerland, travel, Trianon, Versailles, wars
Bonjour, world~
Yesterday was another busy day in Paris. We went to Versailles, something I have wanted to do for so long 
. It was, to sum it all up in one word, enchanting. Every room was unique and quite beautiful; the interior decoration was meticulously planned and executed (no pun intended XD), I think. We were able to see quite a lot of the inside of the palace, like the various drawing rooms (of which there were a lot, named after Greek and Roman gods and goddesses),the King’s and Queen’s apartments, as well as the Dauphin’s and Dauphine’s, etc. My favourite room in the palace was the one I’d been wanting to see most, the Hall of Mirrors.It certainly surpassed my expectations, especially with the view to the gardens it had. : o
It was also very educational, I’ve always been interested in this sort of stuff-royal histories and such- so it was really fun for me to go to the actual place where so much happened. I was actually quite euphoric about it too. There was also an interesting exhibition about war going on that compared battles in earlier times to fairly recent wars (the World Wars and Vietnam, Iraq, etc.).
I cannot think of how much work and money it must have taken to build such a thing.And the gardens are just as amazing. The whole area was huge that we didn’t even have time to go to the Trianon estate; that was like over 1 km away by foot and the lineups for the little trains running to it were long. So after we walked around the gardens a bit, I bought a little souvenir from the unreasonably priced boutique such places are apt to have- it was one of those viewers with pictures of the palace and the gardens inside that you can switch and see- and left.We bought lunch from a random place in town (paninis and Fanta <3) and then drove back home at about 5.
I wish it wasn’t so hot though, we were burning up and the environment was really dry; to the point where i just wanted to jump into the fountain. There were a ton of people there, and the lineups to get the tickets were LONG. So we felt the heat quite a bit. XO
Later that night we had a big dinner party where many relatives and old acquaintances met up. It went well, we didn’t all leave until after midnight. I love big gatherings like these where everyone has fun so it was nice. We children amused ourselves playing badminton, Youtubing, and my fingers died playing Cake Mania.D:
I was so tired that I just fell into bed so that is why I write today morning XD or more accurately it’s noon now. We’ll be leaving on our road trip to Switzerland and Italy later today. : D
Time to go find other things to do. XD Au revoir~
