Ambling Ramblings#8- Perusing Paris

Paris, I have concluded, is a melting pot of opposites, the ancient and the modern, the very wealthy and the very poor, fast and slow, the old ways and new ways. The population of paris would be at least 1/3 of African descent with a lot of other ethnic groups making up the other 2/3 along with caucasians. The place we were staying in was near 'little India' as i chose to call it, the streets were lined with sari shops and Indian restaurants. The juxtapositioning of the old world and modern world blends and works in a way that is quintessentially Parisian and wouldn't work in any other context. The ancient buildings with designer label shops in them, the opulent displays of wealth in stores with beggars sitting out the front of them....it is certainly a city with character! Although it is famous for being the 'city of lights' I think it could equally be known as the 'city of sirens' as we heard and saw numerous emergency vehicles every day we were in Paris. It could have something to do with the hazardous roads-driving seems to be a free for all with a lot of roads having no lane markings and cars queuing 3 across intersections and people pulling out in front of each other all over the place! I am very glad I was not driving in it-sitting on a bus was enough of a Parisian road experience for me! Walking across the roads was scary enough-we discovered that there comes a time when you do push the big red button, although a lot of the pedestrian crossings in Paris are on a timer and you don't have to push a button to get a green man signal, there are some where you have to push a big red button, just like the buttons you are always told not to push! 
We very quickly put our limited French to use, saying 'Merci' and 'bonjour' at every turn! We navigated the metro system, which thankfully is well signed and although all of the stations are a maze of tunnels, stairs, corridors, escalators and moving walkways, we successfully got to each of our destinations. The Louvre was our first stop, and one of my favorites, it is definitely worth it and I could have easily spent days there! The Mona Lisa was just as beautiful as I had thought it would be. We then boarded 'les cars rouges' a big red tourist bus so that we didn't have to navigate the streets ourselves! This way we saw most of the major sights and could get off and on whenever we wanted to. The Notre Dame cathedral and Arc de Triomphe were both spectacular in their own ways, we climbed up both of them and froze in the wind while looking out over a rather cloudy and smoggy city, that is somehow still pretty through the haze. I loved all the Gothic architecture everywhere, the gargoyles and swirls and sculptures -it seemed that in any space possible to put a flourish, there was something and even when there wasn't space, there was still a flourish of some kind anyway! 
By far my favorite place in Paris was not in the city; the Palace of Versailles was absolutely amazing, the palace itself is spectacular and gorgeously decorated, let alone the gardens that surround it that are impressive, even in winter! The Eiffel Tower was definitely worth facing the cold night air for and I discovered that elevators can move on an angle (something I had not experienced before). Another of my favorite places was the Musee de Orsay, an old train station that was converted into an art gallery where I was able to see some original Monet's- definitely one of my favorite artists as I love the peace and tranquility of the scenes he paints as well as the color and texture that he uses. The museum itself is very cool, being an old train station certainly gives it character. 
I must have blended in fairly well in Paris and not looked too much like a tourist as I was asked for directions or stopped and asked something in French numerous times! I was also asked by some Malaysian tourists to have a photo taken with them on the Eiffel Tower. It certainly was an adventure trying to figure things out in a foreign language, but we just smiled a lot and most people were very friendly and tried to help. 
All in all, Paris was certainly an adventure, from getting stuck in the lift at our hotel the first night (a story in of itself there!), to navigating our way through the streets, figuring out a new currency, communicating in a foreign language and getting very very cold (well below zero if you add the wind chill). Next, we begin our journey south, hopefully to somewhere warmer and with blue sky and sunshine, out of the big cities. 

Ambling Ramblings #7-More of London

I decided i needed to split my London posts in half as it was getting very long winded-this is what you get when you are an English and History major travelling some of the worlds most famous historic sites!
Our next day in London was much slower paced than our first day out on the town, but there was still no lazing about for us. We started our day with a rather long wander through Kensington Gardens, seeing the palace where Queen Victoria lived before she was crowned and other memorials to various royals from the past. Even though it is winter, the gardens were still quite lovely, and I did find a few roses and loved the trees and covered walkways that we could wend our way through! The grass was quite green and lovely and there were fountains, ponds, lakes, streams, moss covered bridges, monuments or buildings at every turn, making for wonderful photo opportunities! We then walked through Hyde Park (which is attached to Kensington Gardens) and found the famous Peter Pan statue which was smaller than I had expected it to be, but still worth finding. We then made our way back to Buckingham Palace to join the throngs waiting for the Changing of the Guard-I loved all the pomp and ceremony of the event which was well worth standing in the cold for an hour waiting! The marching band was my favorite part of it all, but i did enjoy the rest of it too! From the Palace we wandered the streets of London, spotting some well known places, before coming the the Victoria and Albert Museum-a place filled with hundreds of years of historical artifacts, from medieval paintings and religios relics to pieces from Queen Victoria's reign. Twas indeed any student of history's haven and I could easily have spent a week exploring it! I just find it so amazing to see things that people created or used or saw hundreds of years ago, that I can see now and to better understand where the world has come from and how people used to live.
Late in the afternoon, we braved the underground again to Baker Street to see the statue of the famous literary detectives Sherlock Holmes and then to go for a rather lengthy walk through another park to then catch a train back.
The next day was our final day in London (for this time at least) so we spent the morning at London Zoo before making our way to the international train station (making it only just in time! -we had cut it very fine to get there!!) to make our way to our next destination-the continent!

Ambling Ramblings #6- The London Dash

On to the next continent and into London-the great and historic metropolis. Marnie and I met up at heathrow and then we were off on our adventure. We managed to navigate the underground (which is a labyrinth of tunnels at each station) to find a train to take us to our accommodation. In London the trains run very regularly so there is very little wait time and the platforms for each line are well signed and fairly easy to navigate. On the first night we both crashed into bed as we were both tired and I was struggling with yet another time difference.
On our first day we went at a very fast pace and saw most of the iconic sights of London. First stop was St Paul's Cathedral where we sat on the steps (like the bird woman in Mary Poppins)and then walked through the amazing building. It truly made me stop and wonder in awe at the God that inspired men to create such a building in His honor and glory. The cathedral was definitely my favorite place, closely followed by our second stop, the replica of Shakespeare's Globe theatre. We managed to find our way across the Thames to the Globe where we went on a tour-it certainly made me appreciate and better understand the historical contest of his writing as well as giving me a deeper knowledge of how Shakespearean theatre works. We then walked along the Thames, taking in then sights towards the iconic Tower Bridge which we went up inside and walked along. There is so much history to be seen at every corner and the cobblestone walkways, lamp posts and buildings have been there for hundreds of years! I found it quite surreal to be walking the roads and past buildings that people I have studied, read about and written essays on walked down! From the Tower Bridge, we went to the Tower of London, where so many people were once imprisoned and beheaded. We saw the Traitor's Gate, the famous crows and the crown jewels (the highlight of which was Queen Victoria's small diamond crown that is seen in so many pictures of her). We also saw a lot of armour from kings from centuries past-all things that I had only ever seen pictures of! I loved seeing all of the historic relics in real life, now when I read or teach about them, I can say that I have been there and seen them myself and that they definitely are real!
By the time we had walked through the Tower, we were footsore and tired, so went on a ferry back down the river to Westminster where we saw Cleopatra's Needle, the London Eye and the replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship that the circumnavigated the globe in. Once at Westminster, we found the easily recognizable Big Ben attached the the Houses of Parliament as well as Westminster Abbey. This was another one of those awe inspiring places, seeing all of the tombs, plaques and headstones to great people who have shaped and influenced the world in so many ways, making it a better place for those who came before them because of their contributions to society. It was also fun to be at the place where the Royal Wedding was held last year!!
We have discovered that many things in London are fairly close together or in easy walking distance of each other, and from the Abbey, we walked to Buckingham Palace, via Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately I did not get to have tea with the Queen as I had dreamed of doing as a little girl(although she was at home while we were there), but I still enjoyed seeing the royal residence. We then walked around three sides of the palace grounds (it is a lot bigger than just what you see from the front!) towards Hyde Park and Kensington Park, which we walked through at a very brisk pace back to our hotel. By the end of this, we were both completely exhausted, sore and rather overwhelmed from absorbing all that we had seen and done! London truly is an amazing historic city from which so much of the world has been influenced.