Typically on the eve of the Fourth of July (when my family piles in for pre-fourth race complaints and the town I went to high school in holds their fireworks) I am somewhere wrapped up in the American comforts of a cookout, family, friends, and the salty crust of the ocean left over on my skin. This morning I am in Delft, the Netherlands waiting for my classmates arrive. I am here, soaking in my temporary WiFi and suffocating from the humidity until I can venture out to the Delft Market.
Past Itinerary, Final
- May 14 - June 16 Cagliari, Italy
- June 16 - June 18 Brussels, Belgium
- June 18 - June 20 Paris, France
- June 20 - June 22 Munich, Germany
- June 22 - June 24 Lucerne, Switzerland
- June 24 - June 27 Geneva, Switzerland
- June 28 - July 2 Paris, France
- July 2 - August 7 Delft, the Netherlands
Paris, France
My second time in Paris consisted of a much longer stay, five days to be exact. We stayed at an airbnb very close to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, one of the highest elevations in Paris. We had a quaint studio apartment that my dear friend Stephanie was having trouble parting with because she was deeply in love.
The first day back in Paris we took very slow, with naps and homework breaks. We did however explore our neighborhood, which like the rest of Paris, everything was "soldes." For those of you who don't speak French, this does not mean "sold out" but means "on sale." This is a beautiful sign! Although I didn't end up buying anything, it was great to pretend like I could own a sandwich bag-sized purse for only €600.
The second day in Paris, we tried to go to a museum that was closed because it was Monday. Instead we wandered back to the Notre Dame area to do some revisiting of my favorites from the last time I was in Paris. On our walk there we enjoyed an orchestra playing its final set for the day in the Luxembourg Gardens. There was a lot to see but we were hungry so we moved onto for crepes at my favorite place. I decided to add the banana to my Nutella crepe for potassium. Since we have been walking almost 10 miles every day I need it! To be perfectly honest though, if you are eating Nutella, whatever you put it on is just a vessel for the Nutella. After our snack lunch we stopped by the Shakespeare and Company Bookstore and perused the nooks and crannies of books we long to read. Over the course of the past two months, I have added almost 40 books to that list, which is well past daunting. We caught our breath outside the Notre Dame and decided to take the Metro home for the evening.
The third day in Paris we visited Giverny to find Claude Monet’s house and gardens that has served as the inspiration for impressionists everywhere. You too can see why in some pictures below! The gardens seemed to fill all imaginable cracks in the town to create a vibrant display of color and life. Every little flower made up a pixel of life that finds its way into the impressionistic art. We also visited the Degas exhibit that questioned his roots in impressionism. Degas is famous for painting people and dancers, whereas his fellow impressionists focused on landscapes. Through his work, Degas tried to capture the almost scientific art of the body through dance. If he painted like this today, there would be a lot of dance moms upset at their exploitation of their youth, but now we worship him as a great artist. His work was spectacular, but in my opinion some depictions of young dancers gave off a lustful aurora that creeped me out a little. In Giverny, we rented bikes. There was some technical difficulty with one of the bikes that a nice Irish man helped us out with so we were able to make it back for our train.
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| Stephanie biking to Giverny |
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| Anyone could paint if they looked through this window! |
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| To our surprise, the gold did not melt (we were ate 38°C and needed to get to 1064°C) |
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| Stephanie's tourist posing was on point! |
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| How they make it so perfect |
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| It was so hot the water dried up |
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| Sunset |
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| Farewell moon |
I closed off Paris on the fifth day as I walked to Gare du Nord for my train to Rotterdam. If you remember from my previous posts, I did a project on Rotterdam in my last class so this is very exciting. However, Rotterdam was not my final destination. I got my first taste of train help from a jolly Dutchman who was actually born in my final destination: Delft. I will say this now and again: I will be in Delft, the Netherlands for the next month and three days. My professor for my next school session, Professor Peter Furth, met me there and showed me to my room and bike.
In Delft, I have my own room on the 15e floor, which really means the 16th floor if you count in European floors. I have my own bathroom, cook plate, fridge, desk, and no WiFi! It is sad how weak we become without modern comforts. So there are still some kinks to work out, but I haven’t let that stop me.
Yesterday was July 3rd. I met a group of students, professors, and their families from Portland (Oregon) State, Cal Poly (California Polytechnic State), and Georgia Tech. Together, our posse of about 20 biked to Kinderdijk. There was no complaining because there were children under 10 who could do it, so we had to persevere! We had to take a ferry for the very last leg, but once we arrived to Kinderdijk, we found traditional Dutch windmills. Dutch hint: kinder=child, dijk=dyke. A quick Google Maps says it is 60 km round trip, so almost 40 miles, but you always have to get a little lost so I think we added a few more to our daily total. I rounded out this evening with befriending some neighbors enough for their temporary WiFi password, family FaceTime session to the beach, and some much needed R&R.
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| Along the way |
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