ATHENS

Sorry this is taking so long for me to update. As you may or may not know, I've been gone EVERY weekend in February and will continue to be.. and I love it.

So Ali, Christy and I flew from Paris to Athens, Greece, on Feb. 2. Our friend, Jennifer, the same one we met in Glasgow for Thanksgiving, met us there! We stayed till the 6th and believe me, we had an AMAZING time.

The first day we were there we didn't really do much; we got in at about 11 am and then took naps (we didn't sleep the night before because we didn't get back from Florence till about midnight and had a 6 am flight! yikes.) Jennifer didn't get in till about 6 pm and then we went for a deliciousssss dinner.

just the appetizer.. yumyumyum

dessert: walnut cake, baklava and greek yogurt with honey... mmm

The food was AMAZING. Throughout the whole trip we had great meals. So delicious.

The next day it was RAINING. bummer. But we did get to go around to a bunch of museums so it wasn't a complete waste for us. We went to the new Acropolis Museum, which had a bunch of sculptures and various items from the Acropolis, the coolest/my favorite being 4 out of 6 of the original Caryatids, which were being restored by a new laser technology that you could kind of watch them do it. Downside was no pictures were allowed but I got one of the entry...

snuck an illegal photo.. whoops

We also went to the Benaki Museum, which was some important guy's private collection in his house (hes no longer alive but his collection lives on!) and it contained things from around 3000 BC to present times over the history of Greece. The coolest thing I think was the jewelry (from ancient times to present) and the clothing that was featured, including a 19th century Greek wedding gown along with her ladies in waiting: 

all the mannequins were blinged out w/ jewels too .. love it

 and the Cycladic Museum which had things from pre history up to around the Greek/Roman times.

crazy looking dolls/sculpture things.. there were a lot of them and this one was HUGE. 

And of course! FOOD. We went to "The Most Traditional Family Restaraunt" where we got a "meal for 4" which included 10 of the 18 dishes they offered: 

TRY and tell me that doesn't look delicious.

The next day was not the BEST weather but it was ok. We took a bus to Cape Sounion, which was on the coast with cliffs and a temple to Poseidon. SO PRETTY but SO windy. 

B E A Utiful

love it. 

love the Mediterranean 

SO WINDY

So even though the day wasn't perfect weather, it turned out pretty cool. Also, Fun Fact, my Uncle Glenn was stationed near here :)

That night we went out for some drinks and had a good time.. Athens is pretty fun for sure.

The next day we FINALLY went to the ACROPOLIS!!!! and the weather was FINALLY amazing!!!

walking up.. parthenon in the background!!!

from the top of the amphitheater!

walking up to the entrance, the Propylaea 

Sorry not sorry, I took a million pictures up here.

Christy and I inside!

PARTHENON!! yayyyy

Erechtheion!!!!

temple of Athena Nike

The views over Athens were equally as stunning: 

over the amphitheater

Theater of Dionysis and Acropolis Museum

ruins ruins ruins

So then we walked around the city a little.. went over to the first stadium from the Modern Olympics, which was pretty cool!

woo

The design of it dates back to early Greek times but this recreation (made completely out of marble) is from 1896? I think.

We tried to go to the park that has Hadrian's Gate..

Hadrian's Gate

.. but it was closed. WHO closes a park at 3 pm on a SATURDAY? Good question. Our flight was at noon the next day so we woke up super early and made it. The weather was EVEN prettier than the day before, if that was possible, but we got to see an old temple of Zeus which was in the park.

stunning.

It was SO pretty and we were SO sad to leave. I loved Athens though it was an amazinggg time and I would love to go back, possibly going to Santorini in April? We will see :) 

One more picture of the street we had dinner on one night...

love it.

And a pano or two from the Acropolis..

love love love

lovely model, Ali

Click on the pictures to see them better!

So basically, we had a blast. 

This past weekend I went to Dublin, so that post will be coming soon!

Miss and love you all!

xoxo,

-A

FLORENCE!!

SO I decided to break this up into two posts. First up: Florence.

Last Friday night we flew into Pisa, Italy. Our flight got in late so we decided to stay there for the night, see the leaning tower, blah blah blah.

As soon as we landed, it hit. Shit. We know absolutely NO Italian. Like not even a little. Not even "Ciao". Obviously people realized this because two guys from the United States Air Force helped us. Wish we knew their names to thank them! But shoutout to the US Air Force none the less.

So we got to our hotel, which was super close to the leaning tower. Exciting! It was late and we were tired so we had some pizza....

mmmmmmmmmm

And some chianti and called it a night. The next morning we checked out the tower and church next to it.. 

church and tower.. seriously is leaning a lot!!

church and tower.. I think the sky looks awesome here!

had to do it.

and then thats all there really is to do in Pisa so we hopped on some bus? that we guessed took us to the train station (we guessed right) and went to Florence!

Florence was.. AWESOME. I loved every second of being there. One of my best friends studied there so she gave me some great tips on things to do (shoutout to BEETA). We went into all of the churches.. because well.. were architecture students and that is our duty. There were A LOT. 

Santa Maria Nouvella..

Facade by Alberti 

no pictures allowed inside though.. LAME. because it was awesome.

San Lorenzo (My personal fave)

outside doesn't look like much but inside was STUNNING. trust.

Santa Croce.. where Michalangelo's, Dante's and Machiavelli's tombs are (among others) 

And of course, IL DUOMO.

ooooo prettyyyy

With Bruneleschi's Dome.. which we climbed all 463 steps to the top of. Yikes.

sooo high!!

But the views were worth it. SO gorgeous.

looking out over Florence

So that was awesome. We also saw the REAL David (the sculpture), ate AMAZING food, met some awesome people and had just the best time. Florence is amazing and if you ever get a chance to go, I HIGHLY recommend it. 

Some more shots.. because I took over 500 pictures. Normal.

Ponte Vecchio? All those are jewelry stores!!

love italy

from the uffuzi gallery 

courtyard at Santa Croce

dome .. love the color of the sky here! (even if the photo is kinda blurry) 

Well thats about all.. As always, more photos are on facebook, and seriously. I can't even begin to describe how amazing Florence was. Words can't do it justice!

Miss and love all of you! Greece photos to come soon (hopefully tonight.. we'll see!)

xoxo,

-A

quick update!

So this past week we didn't have classes.. its the end of the French fall semester and they get the whole month of Feb. off. I guess this is technically our spring break? So we got the week off.

Anyways. We went to Pisa and Florence, Italy for the first part of the week, and Athens, Greece, for the second part of the week! Both were stunning! I'll have to put a longer post up later with more pictures but for now I have to do French homework!

Florence! (from the top of the Duomo) 

Eretchion at the Acropolis 

thats all I have for now.. Will update later!

xoxo,

-A

Nice, France: First Visit to the French Riviera!

This past Friday, January 21, a few of us were ready to GET OUT of the city. Big time. School was being.. well, school, and Paris was being... well, Paris. So we decided to go spend the night in Nice, France! We all had a lot of work to get done so we decided one night was probably for the best.

It was B-E-A-Utiful!

ooooo pretty!

I loved seeing the Mediterranean Sea (my first time.. yay!) and being on the beach.. even though it was covered in rocks... weird.

castle hill in the background

christy and I!

It was kind of cold.. so that part was lame. But it was still so pretty!!! We just kinda walked around... climbed up the hill thats in the background of those pictures... so. many. steps.

stairs we climbed up!

view from the hill.. i love this picture for some reason

more views..

andddd a sunset

We also walked around the old town, which was really pretty. It had all these fun colored buildings which reminded me so much of my mom! She loves beach houses like that..

yay :)

We also went to the Marc Chagall museum which was pretty cool (but on top of another hill..)

and explored the city some more...

random city shots

So Nice was really.. Nice! (had to do it.) I have way more pictures on facebook too if you want to check those out!

In other news.. it is exactly ONE MONTH till my bf comes to visit me! I'm so excited! And I'm also excited for the next month in general.. here is my travel schedule: 

jan 28-feb. 1: florence/pisa

feb. 2-6: athens, greece

feb 10-12: dublin

feb. 18-20: london

feb. 24/25: jay comes.. barcelona 25-27

so. excited. I realized I don't really get much done when I stay here in Paris for the weekends.. so I'm just going to travel as much as I possibly can! (Big shout out to Nance and Bruce for making this all possible .. LOVE YOU!)

Thats all for now! Miss and Love you all!

xoxo,

-A

School Assignment: Pere Lachaise Cemetery

For one of our classes, a class about French architecture and focusing on the house, one of our visits was to Pere Lachaise Cemetery. It is one of the biggest cemeteries in Paris, and many famous people are buried here, such as Jim Morrison (NOT Van Morrison, which I kept saying for days.. whoops).

This was part of our class because the tomb is considered the "forever home" of people. Pere Lachaise was really interesting. The tombs are practically stacked on top of each other and there are multiple people in some of them. One of the was opened and we looked down (creepy, I know) but it went down REALLY far. There are also a great variety of tombs, from huge chapel looking structures to concrete slabs.

graveyard

prettyy

I really like this picture!

sooo big. 

I think you can click to enlarge the picture?

So besides that.. not much else has really been going on. School started back up .. blah. Today we went shopping.. all the sales are happening now but I still think everything here is crazy expensive. Like 40 euros for a t shirt expensive. (and that's after 50% off!!) So I just bought some make up that is illegal in the US. Well, I don't know if its illegal but they just aren't allowed to sell it there. (Lancome Ombre Absolue Eyeshadows if you must know! Love them.)

We also got MACAROONS for the first time. I have NO idea why I have never tried these little delights. SO good. Also really pretty. 

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

yes, yes I did take multiple pictures of my macaroons.

I got Pistachio, Chocolate, Raspberry, Salted Caramel, Red Fruits and Lemon. They were alllll delicious but my favorite was def. the pistachio. Lemon was a close second. Christy got some other flavors which were also good, except the rose one. Oh well. Live and learn I guess!

I also booked tickets to Barcelona for when the best bf ever comes to Paris to visit me! I'm really excited about that and about all the other travel plans we have for this semester (hopefully Nice, France this weekend!!)

xoxo,

-A

Bvlgari Jewels (aka almost getting my camera smashed)

YAY we got to go to the last day of the Bvlgari Jewelry exposition at the Grand Palais! It was in the main hallway under the glass roof so that was pretty cool to see in itself.

yay!!!!

glass roof!

exhibition space

And as far as the actual jewels go.. they were stunning!!! I loved it. Some things I didn't know about Bvlgari Jewelry was that most of the gemstones (so not diamonds) are not facet-cut. They are just polished so that they look shiny, but not sparkly. Really interesting I thought! (I love gemstones. So does my dad.. ask my mom about it!)

Also.. APPARENTLY you are not supposed to take pictures where the actual jewels are. I got caught attempting to do so by a huge security guard and he demanded that I showed him my pictures. Luckily, I flipped quickly through them, so he didn't see anything. YAY for pulling the "dumb American" card!!!

illegal picture

Maybe not worth it though because the pictures I did get were super blury!! oh well. It was fun anyways.

xoxo,

-A

BACK to PARIS!

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been updating. I was home in Atlanta and also in VA for winter break.

It. Was. Awesome. I had a great time seeing all my favorite people! I got to see my wonderful boyfriend...

adorable. I know.

A lot of friends, and my amazing family! 

awesome Christmas outfits!

Pretty sad I didn't get a whole family picture. Maybe my mother will figure out how to upload them to the computer and email them to me! (doubtful.. sorry mom! love you!)

Anyways, I had a fantastic holiday. My dad even made me a turkey with stuffing for Christmas dinner since I missed Thanksgiving! Best. Dad. Ever. I hope you guys all did too! 

SO I got back to Paris last week. The 3rd of January to be exact. And I have to say, I was not all too excited to come back... I LOVED being home. But, here I am. We were under the impression we would have class on the 3rd, but we didn't. So we just got to hang out and do a bunch of fun things! (also get caught up on Paris time.. and sleep a lot..)

We went to a fantastic place called "Breakfast in America" for dinner. Don't hate. It was delicious. (and perfect for our home-sick-ness)

yummmm

We also tried to go to the Grand Palais on Sunday but the line was ridiculous. So we just walked around, the weather here has been actually really nice! I took a lot of pictures too, surprise surprise. 

hoping that tomorrow we can go to the Bvlgari exhibit! fingers crossed!

champes elysees all lit up! so prettyyy

look at that traffic.. yikes

Yes, that is a ferris wheel next to the obelisk. 

No, we did not ride it. (I wanted to..)

I was reallyyy excited about the champs still being lit up. So fun. 

Today we went to Musee d'Orsay which was really cool. Its a 19th century art museum, and we got to see paintings by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh and so many others. It was so cool, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. LAME because the interior architecture was also quite stunning.

So thats about it for now. I'll try to stay on top of updates (new years resolution?) and facebook pictures! Seriously hoping we can see the Bvlgari jewels tomorrow. 

xoxo,

-A