Christmas Markets in Strasbourg

In early December, I took a train to Strasbourg with two friends, Emily and Hannah.  Emily was / is very excited about Christmas, and Strasbourg is the (self-proclaimed) capital of Christmas!  And it has the tallest natural Christmas tree in Europe (over 30 meters tall)!

It was lots of fun wandering the streets of Strasbourg – the architecture was interesting, the people were friendly, the markets were exciting, and there was lots of mulled wine.  It’s such a popular town to visit in December that most of the hotels were booked, so we ended up spending two days there but just staying one night.  It’s part of the Alsace-Lorraine area, which has been traded back and forth between Germany and France, so there are a lot of influences from both cultures.  The medieval buildings lining the river flowing through the city made the city quite picturesque.

Strasbourg has a beautiful cathedral in the center of town (I got some nice night pictures of it) with a huge astronomical clock inside.  Emily, who studies astronomy in Paris, and I went to a presentation of the clock so we could see the figurines move (and learn some of the history).  The first clock was built in the 1350s, the second was completed in 1574 when the first stopped working, and then the current clock was finished in 1843.  (Facts from Wikipedia)  

The presentation was actually a little depressing...it kept emphasizing how we're all on a slow march towards death.  And the clock (and our time on Earth) is ticking away. There was also a creepy grim reaper who rang a bell at 12:30, and then an old man figurine came out of the clock and then the grim reaper tapped him with a bone, and then he disappeared into the clock. To die! (Of course, he comes out at 12:30 the next day though.) 

In the markets, I bought lots of exciting things that I didn’t need.  Like candy, nuts, chocolate mousse, ornaments, egg liquor, beignets.  Hmm that’s mostly food.  I took a lot of pictures though.  While I may have come back to Paris with more things than I left with, I lost a mitten!  I tried wandering back through the markets for it, but I pretty much knew it was a hopeless cause. 

We also went to a few concerts.  We saw an Italian bag pipe (perhaps it was a zampogna?) group playing in a church.  It was an older crowd (not sure how many people choose to spend their Friday nights at an Italian bag pipe concert), but the music was very pretty and unique.  The next day, there was a choral concert in the center of town where the group sang Christmas carols, and the crowd sang along.  I could sing to Alleluia, but otherwise I didn’t know the words to the songs.  There was a song called “Il est ne, le divin enfant,” and I sang “il est ne, le petit enfant” the whole time.  Then Hannah and Emily told me it was the “divin enfant” which made more sense.   Kids are very small when they’re born though. 

Anyway, even though Strasbourg may be very touristy in December, I had a lot of fun!  And it’s a beautiful town in general that I’d love to visit again.   

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26879303@N03/

London

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I know; I’m so behind.  I went to London for Thanksgiving to spend it with my aunt, uncle, and cousins.  Nasir’s niece lives in London with her family, and my aunt and uncle were going to a wedding in Scotland right after Thanksgiving, so everyone decided to meet up in London.  It was really nice to be with family!  I was feeling a bit homesick too, so it was especially good to spend time with them. 

They rented an apartment in Eaton Square, which is a central area in London.  We did lots of fun tourist things like going on the London Eye, shopping / eating at Harrod’s, drinking beer, and going to museums.  I also walked around a bit on my own to see Buckingham Palace and St. James Park.  My uncle was super jealous that I got to see the guards wearing their “bear hats” because they weren’t wearing them the day before when he took photos.

I also met up with two friends who are living in London now, Guillaume and Laura.  It had been a while since I’d seen them, but it was fun to hang out again.  Laura wanted to see the Ian Hamilton Finlay exhibition at the British Tate, so we got coffee and walked around there for a while.  There was also a band playing in the museum, and it was interesting to look at the art while listening to live music.

But another museum I went to (with Betsy, Nasir and Nicola) that I liked even more than the Tate was The Somerset House.  I loved the Tim Walker photography exhibit!  I had never seen his work before, and it’s really provocative and creative.  There were also installations of the objects he used to create his photos, and it was very cool to see them side by side.  See some examples here: http://timwalkerphotography.com/recent_work.php

And as for Thanksgiving, it was lots of fun! We went to my second cousin’s house and had drinks and dinner.  They ended up cooking Indian food…not very traditional, but it was very delicious! And being with friends and family is what’s really important anyway.  And my mom promised we’d make pumpkin pie when I’m home.  I can’t believe I’ll be back so soon! I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone! 

Here's a link to photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26879303@N03/

Fontainebleau

More castles!  I went to Fontainebleau in late November with a friend from my program.  It was good to get out of Paris, and it was very pretty because there is a huge forest, and the leaves were still changing colors.  The castle was also cool to see, though if I had to choose a castle to live in, I’d go with Versailles.

It only took about 40 minutes to get there by train, so it was a great day trip.  Make sure you validate your ticket before getting on!  No one checked on the way there (so I’ve got an extra if you need one), but on the way back we were told we should have validated.  The conductor was very nice though and didn’t charge a huge fine!

We walked to the castle area from the train station so we could go through the town, and the town was really dead…it seemed a little depressing.  There also weren’t many tourists at the castle.  Maybe I was expecting it to be more packed because of my experience at Versailles.

We had some trouble finding the entrance (it was difficult…we’re not just stupid), but eventually we did.  There was a lot to see inside, so it took a while to make our way through all the rooms.  At the end, there was a girl who stopped us and asked if we speak French, and I said yes because I thought she had a question.  Then she said asked if we could fill out a survey about the castle, so I said that we don’t speak French well enough to do a survey.  And she said she had it in five different languages and asked which one we wanted.  Trapped!  

It was a very amusing survey though…pretty poorly translated.  I wish I could remember the questions…one was “Are you aware of handicapped people?”  Yes, I am aware!  (It was followed up by questions about how handicapped accessible we thought the castle was.)  And then some options for our overall experience were a bit strange…like “enlightening” or “amazing”…some people say I’m a pretty enthusiastic person, but I probably wouldn’t select those choices for the visit.  It’s interesting how difficult it is to really master the nuances of a language.  I can understand French pretty well, but I know I’m saying / writing all sorts of awkward things where it makes sense to me to translate it like that, but a native speaker wouldn’t say it.

After seeing the castle, we walked around the gardens, which were also very pretty.  I saw a massive duck who had a very loud quack…he was at least two times the size of a regular duck and quite scary.  I didn’t get a good picture though.  We eventually found our way to the forest and went for a walk / hike, which was fun.  Good to be immersed in nature (for a limited time…I don’t like bugs)!

Sadly, I've uploaded too many photos on my blog and am over my Picasa limit.  So, I'll be posting them on Flickr from now on.  Here's the link: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26879303@N03/

Morocco!

Anna came to visit the other week! She spent the weekend in Paris, and then we went to Morocco for 6 days.  It was so cold in Paris while she was here – I had to lend her my puffy coat! We still walked around and did touristy things and took lots of pictures though. We also had lunch with her family friend and met up with Camille a couple of times.  She was a huge fan of my cheese shop, so we ate lots of bread and cheese too.

In Morocco, we went to Marrakech and Rabat. Our flight was delayed from Paris, but eventually we got to Rabat and made it to the train station to buy tickets to Marrakech.  First class was sold out (the price difference is only a few dollars), so we said we’d take second class in order to get the next train out. Then we sat at a cafe and ordered some ice cream while we waited for the train (I got a sundae! The scoops were so much bigger than in Paris!). 

We went down to the platform and were quite nervous because our train wasn’t listed, but that’s because it was a half hour late, so they were listing the previous trains that were late.  An hour later, our train arrived, and it was packed. We climbed on, and there were no seats, but two people got up and gave us their seats, which was really nice. We were not excited about the idea of standing for four hours.  Anyway, the train was pretty gross…it was sweaty and hot, lots of weird smells from the tanneries, and no announcements of the stops, so we almost got off at a pretty deserted one. (Okay, this post will take forever if I keep describing things in so much detail.)

Eventually we made it, and we stayed in a really nice riad. A riad is basiacally a house where a rich person used to live that is converted into a small hotel.  It was very cute, and the people who worked there were so helpful!

In Marrakech, we visited the Jardin Majorelle, which was owned by Yves Saint-Laurent, the Ben Youssef Medersa Koran school, the souks (shopping!), went to a hammam and took a Moroccan cooking class.  It was very rainy, so it wasn’t ideal for all the outdoor activities, but we managed okay.

Shopping in the souks was fun but a bit stressful. When we went shopping in Rabat a few days later, we realized we were really ripped off in Marrakech. Oh well…we knew it would happen. The person working at the riad told us that we should ask for 1/5 of the price that the shopkeeper asks for! Sometimes we did (and we were told to go away because we couldn’t be serious), and sometimes we just aimed for half.  The important thing is that we’re happy with our purchases.  : )

The cooking class was also lots of fun! We made a fish tajine (aren’t you all so proud I eat fish now?).  It didn’t taste much like fish because there were so many spices and tasty vegetables in it.  We also did a spice test where we put on blindfolds (or fake ray bans painted with black paint) and guessed what the spice was by smelling it.  I wasn’t very good at it.

After several days in Marrakech, we took the train back to Rabat.  We had one day there, and we were planning to go swimming at the beach, but it was overcast and rainy. We walked around the city, bought some more things, and walked to the beach to people watch for a while. We had room service one night (so nice to eat in bed) and went out the other night. People eat so late! We tried to get dinner at 6:30, but they said the restaurant wouldn't open until 7:30, so we could only drink until then (too bad…).

Anyway, the trip was lots of fun, and it was great to see Anna! And everyone else should come visit.  : )  

Paris

Anna attempting to touch the top of the pyramid. Her spatial skills are lacking.

Being a tourist.

We both thought it was a great idea to pop out from behind a bush.

What's that!? It's Anna with the Eiffel Tower, of course.

A cute chubby kid all bundled up.

Morocco

We got lost when we first tried to go to the souks. So we took pictures and pretended we knew what we were doing.

In the gardens

Cactus!

Anna is a great photographer. Ashley in between a cactus!

Ashley with a yellow pot! (I still don't know how to rotate pictures on this blog..)

Caught fixin' her hair

Green highlight camera setting

So colorful! Such a pretty background! And a pretty person!

They hung the mannequins by their necks in the souks...

Tourist dinner overlooking the square

Spice test at our cooking class

 Fish tajine! The superior looking one on the right is obviously mine.

We even had live music while cooking...

The whole group

Lots of rain while we were there...I don't think this was supposed to be full of water...

Dinner at the riad

At the Koran school

A Spanish gameshow kicked us out early so they could film. Luckily we got to be in the background of the film while they were running through the streets of the market.

Shopping!

Translation?

Nom nom nom. Poor fish.

Pretty impressive.

Room service! I was really sad on the phone when they said they didn't have any more french fries...so the guy asked the kitchen staff to cut up a potato and fry it for us. Quite tasty!