Seeing the World with Rose Colored Glasses

Day 1:
Our journey started with a train ride. It’s funny how traveling, not matter what the mode you take, is all about hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. We boarded our train to enter our couchette (sleeping car). It was funny because every time we would talk about our couchette I thought about the Knight bus from Harry Potter. Sorry to disappoint but, this train did not look anything like the Knight bus. These cars were very small and had 6 bunk beds. We really lucked out because it was only part of our group in the car. We slept all night and woke up in the morning to be 30 minutes outside of Paris!!



Once we finally got our metro tickets we hopped on the metro and rode to our hotel. It was a place by the name of Fiap. It was a pretty neat place but when we got there we could not yet check in so we put our baggage is storage. A couple of friends and I then decided to go do a little exploring to see how far away we were from all of the sights. We decided to get off of the metro at one of the stops for the Louvre because there were many things there we could go see. Once we were there we found out that the Louvre was closed on Tuesday which meant that if I wanted to go see it, I had to go that day however, we still had to meet back at the hotel. So, we decided to run and get lunch and head back to he hotel to check in and let everyone else know about the Louvre just in case they were in the same situation.

When we made it back to the hotel we didn’t see anyone so we just dropped our luggage into our rooms and then ran back to the Louvre. Being there was almost too much to handle. The museum is just unbelievably breathtaking. We had only 2 and half hours to see the museum but I could have used 2 and half days. The Louvre was everything that I expected and then some. The overwhelming feeling when being in there was just awestruck. The shear size of some of the works was something that I didn’t expect. We were talking as we were walking around and we just didn’t know how an artist could visualize their works in such grandeur. After we were finished at the Louvre, we once again raced back to the hotel so that we could eat the dinner that was included in our room rate. We met up with a few more friends and then headed to one of my favorite parts of the day, the Eiffel Tower.




It seems horribly cliché to love the Eiffel Tower but until you are standing on the top, you can’t completely understand the feeling. It was just such a breathtaking view and so worth it for the cramped ride up the elevator. Once we made it to the top there were little placards up around the tower talking about some of the history of the tower. One thing that I learned was, that the Eiffel Tower was used as a place for scientific experiments. I tell you what, if that was where my experiments could happen, I might consider majoring in the science field. It was just a lot of fun being up there and getting a bird’s view of the city. Once we felt like we had sufficiently soaked up the sights of the city we started to head back down to the street level. Back down on the street level, we decided to sit down on the grass in a park right under the tower and watched the lights in the dark. It was a magical sight to see and a perfect end to our first day in Paris.



Day 2:
We awoke very early Tuesday to have as much time as possible in Paris! We ate a somewhat filling breakfast (also included in our hotel cost) and then headed out. The first item on our list was the Musee D'orsay art museum. The museum is found in the centre of Paris on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens, the museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. The building itself could be called first "work of art" in the Musee d'Orsay, which displays collections of art from the period 1848 to 1914. The museum does not allow pictures to be taken at all. While at first I was supremely disappointed, as I was walking around I didn’t even mind because it allowed me to really experience each painting that I saw. We spent about 2 hours walking around the museum looking at all of the art. It was very beautiful and worth every minute. After walking around the museum, we headed over to the majestic Notre Dame.
On our way to the Notre Dame we spotted a small music store and of course we just had to stop in. When we stopped in there was a little old man standing behind the counter and surrounding him on all four walls were wall to ceiling bookshelves of sheet music. Needless to say I could have spent a fortune on music but was able to resist and just look. Being in there was just fun though because it felt so intimate, not like the brash, florescent lighted, music stores in the states. It was no bigger than a really oversized closet. After a friend and I sufficiently scoured the music we continued heading to the Notre Dame to meet up with the rest of the group we were traveling with. When we reached the Notre Dame it was such a sight to see. The detail and grandeur of the cathedral was just indescribable. The stained glass windows were probably my favorite part. The colors that were used and the size just took my breath away. These pictures that I have posted underneath are of the same window, one from the inside and one from the outside. If you look closely at the picture from the outside, at the top where you see what looks like a railing is where I ended up after climbing 400 steps! It was a beautiful sight.




After we left the Notre Dame we started walking and headed over to the Latin Quarter to see what we could find because there are all kinds of shops and restaurants. It was a really neat sort of kitschy kind of place, and had I had more time I could have really done some serious shopping. We couldn’t spend much time in the Latin Quarter because we had to run back to the hotel and get ready to go see… Les Miserables!!

While we were at the Notre Dame we ran into one of our group members who had been staying with her friend instead of with us and she told us about a theater that was showing Les Mis. Not only were they showing it, it was in English with French subtitles and how we could get very cheap tickets, if we showed up an hour early. So, we ran back to hotel got ready ate a quick dinner and then sprinted to the Theater (well via Metro… ☺). When we got there we met up with our friend and waited to see if we were going to get tickets. Not 45 minutes later I was sitting in my 20 euro seat (which usually would have been 70+!!) completely content. I was able to snag one picture before I found out that there were not pictures allowed in the theater. Below is the contraband picture just to show you how amazing my seat was!!



The show was something like I had never seen before and more than I expected. I had never really heard much of the show so it really was a new experience. It was also really neat to see a show set in Paris… in Paris. Also, not only did I see a show set in Paris in Paris, I also understood everything that was going on because they were speaking English!! It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

After the show it was a little late but we wanted to do one more thing while in Paris soo, we went to meet the rest of our group at the Eiffel Tower to see the lights one more time. We jumped on the metro and went to the Tower. We walked around looking for our group but never found them, so we decided to sit down. Later we found out that they decided to leave about the time that we got there. It was a beautiful night to sit and once again see the lights.





The next morning we woke up ate breakfast and prepared for the train ride home. Overall it was a wonderful trip and if I had three wishes one of them would definitely be to visit Paris again to catch everything that I missed.

I hope that you enjoyed my Parisian adventures!!

Auf Wiedersehen!!

Music, music, music....

Wow, what a second week! I regret that I wasn’t able to write you anything until now but I’m sure this next couple of posts will be completely worth it! ☺

The actual week was really quite the adventure. We had our second week of classes as well as our midterm exams. I had a test in both my Form and History classes. I think they went pretty well but I am still waiting to hear back… I can’t really even believe we are already at midterms, I feel like we have just started classes! I don’t feel like any time has passed while I have been here, and yet at the same time I have done so much.

One of the great assets of Salzburg is the Mozarteum University. The history of the Mozarteum University goes back to the year 1841 and is characterised by the work and teaching of outstanding personalities such as Bernhard Paumgartner, Clemens Krauss, Paul Hindemith, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Carl Orff and Sándor Végh. People come from all over the world to study at this school. Being in the same town as this university ensures that there is a plentitude of concerts being held throughout the week. During the week I attended three different concerts. The first concert that I attended was an orchestra concert with a flute soloist. The main reason that we went was to hear the flute soloist. She ended up playing a Mozart Flute Concerto in G major. It was absolutely phenomenal. The sound of the orchestra just filled every crevice of the auditorium and blended like they were made to perform together. Hearing music played so well was just good for the soul. It was also just all to perfect to hear a Mozart flute concerto, in the birthplace of music. The performers on the stage were just absolutely wonderful to watch; they were completely absorbed in the music. I think that there is just something about watching an ensemble that is completely enthralled in the music to make it such an experience.

The second concert that we attended was a blöckflote recital. My friend and I were not entirely sure what we were getting ourselves into because it seemed to be a pretty low-key event but we were excited all the same. When we arrived we realized what we were about to witness was a recorder studio recital! Just imagine attending a university where they actually had a studio, which just played the recorder with professors who were there solely to teach recorder. When we sat down we realized that other that one other guy sitting in the back row, we were the only ones attending who were not performing. This was all cool but made the recital much more intimate. The program was very interesting because all of the pieces (with the exception of one) were played traditionally with the harpsichord. It was interesting with the one piece that was played with piano ended up being my least favorite, not that the performer wasn’t phenomenal, but it was just surprising how differently the two combinations sounded. It was such a different kind of recital than I was accustomed to hearing but it was so very good at the same time.

On Friday night a group of us ventured to Vienna to hear the renowned Vienna Philharmonic. We had done some research and found some rather cheap tickets. We weren’t really sure where they were but we decided to just go and enjoy the concert! We hit a few bumps in the road on the way but once we got there, tickets in hand, everything was worth it. We were taken to our seats and we came to a quick realization that our seats were much more, interesting, than we had thought. Our seats were actually on the stage right next to the orchestra! Sitting there felt like I was in the orchestra. It was one of the greatest feelings ever. We could see the reactions on all of the faces of the performers and the conductors’. The last piece was Shostakovich's Symphony # 10. It was truly amazing. While sitting on the stage you could feel the energy and power of the piece that they players were undoubtedly feeling; players were completely enthralled in their music. This entire experience is almost indescribable. After the concert we hopped back on a train and traveled back to Salzburg.

On Saturday and Sunday we were to use the time to make up for class hours that we were going to be missing for our extended stay in Paris. After classes and such I experienced a non-musical adventure in a foreign country… laundry. Things went fairly smoothly except for figuring out what to do about getting soap and how to insert money in the machine to make it work. The draw back to this endeavor was the cost. It cost me 7€ just to complete one load (wash and dry). And I thought that it was expensive to do laundry in the dorms. Ha!

The next phase of my journey led me to the beautiful city of Paris, France, which, I believe deems its own entry. ☺

Until then,

Auf Wiedersehen!!