Madrid: Day 3

So, on my last day Sarah took me to the area she was moving to called Plaza de Espana. This is near Grand Via which is probably one of their bigger and more commercial streets. We grabbed some tapas nearby and walked around enjoying the warm sunshine.

After lunch we headed to the modern art museum, Reina Sofia. With artists like Picasso and Dali.

I was excited to see Picasso's La Guernica, but of course, there were no photos were allowed. Although, here is one of the Dali pieces.

After the museum we hung out outside of it for a while which was fun. We got to people watch and Sarah and her friend Nia spotted a British celebrity from a T.V. show they had actually been telling me about earlier that day so they were pretty excited about that.

After wards we killed time until about 9 when we thought it would be socially acceptable (by Madrid standards) to have dinner. Paella!

The next day I slept in once again and eventually made my way to the airport and took off back to Paris. Excited for the next day when my sister would arrive with her husband, and their two friends. :) That's coming up next!

-Michael

Madrid: Day 2

Since the first night ended pretty late, I think it was around 3 or 4 when we finally ended up getting back to the apartment. The next day started off pretty late. Thankfully it was a Sunday and most things are shut down in Madrid on Sundays so I wasn't missing out on much anyways. Sarah took me to Parque del Retiro though so we could enjoy the nice, warm weather.

We tried getting some paddle boats but the line was a little too long. So instead we watched some street performers that covered every inch of that park.

At night we went to a free jazz show at a bar called "Populart."

Great music! We called it a night soon after that.

Check back for Day 3 and also for the rest of my spring break because Madrid is only the beginning!

Madrid: Day 1

Hello everyone! I've been on Spring Break these past two weeks so excuse the absence. I started off my break with going to Madrid on Friday April 8th (just a few hours after work actually!) to visit my friend Sarah who is studying abroad through NYU. Arrived there at about 10pm, ate something called a "toastas" which is basically like an open-faced sandwich and then called we went to bed at around 2am.

Spanish apartments are so much larger than Parisian ones, let me tell you! I was fortunate enough to even have my own room in her place. Lucky! Anyways, the next day started off with Museo del Prado.

 A huge museum that was only conquered because Sarah was my tour guide and had taken a class there the previous semester so she was able to take me around and tell me about the different pieces. After a couple hours there we headed to Plaza Mayor.

We walked around and found the "world's oldest restaurant" and some amazing gezpacho. Which was the perfect thing to have on that hot day.

 Yum!

And then Sarah took me to the royal palace of Madrid where I learned that there was royalty in Madrid... and then proceeded to take some photos...

We walked around for a while after that to just be outside and see the city and then it got pretty warm so we headed back to her place for a siesta.

The night ended with a 7-story club which we went to for one of her roommate's birthdays. Each floor was supposed to be playing a different type of music but I'm pretty sure I heard Black Eyed Peas on each one... Anyways, it was fun. Spaniards love to stay out LATE!

Stay tuned for more! If my internet allows it..

Spring has Sprung!

Hello!

Paris is BEAUTIFUL these days. Sunshine, warm weather but with a slight cool breeze. Everywhere you go is picturesque. Staying inside my apartment is tough but necessary to keep my budget in check and of course there's the whole "study" part of Study Abroad. Woof! What a bummer. Anyways, here are some photos of the city in this new ray of light. 

A bunch of us had a picnic in Parc Montsouris last Saturday when we hit 70 degrees! Definitely something worth celebrating after what was personally the longest winter of my life.

Getting burned up by the Seine is a good way to spend the day in my opinion.

And a beautiful sunset to end the day :)

Sister comes next week, and I'm headed to Madrid this weekend to start off my Spring Break! Ay ay ay!

Hasta pronto!

Musée des Arts et Métiers

 Hello all!

I've made myself a new goal for the remainder of my stay here in Paris and that is to go to at least one museum and try one new restaurant per week. This past weekend I visited Musée des Arts et Métiers for the first time. It was essentially a science and inventions museum. I was able to see some of the first versions of clocks, weight-scales, looms, airplanes, etc. Also some Space Robots! And old-school calculators. Of course my entry was free as I fell under the -26 years old category. Gotta love that. Here are some pictures from my visit, enjoy!

Model of the construction of the Statue of Liberty.

This part of the museum is actually the "St. Martin Church" connected and at the end of the visit. Probably one of the more interesting rooms of the museum, just look at these planes! Who would have thought you'd see things like that in a church?

Well, I'll be back with more soon. 2 months left, can't believe it!

-Michael

Musée des arts et métier

Fontainebleau

More nature! Well my friends and I took a pretty spontaneous trip to a small town called Fontainebleau yesterday. It's about 40 minutes outside of Paris via train. We arrived at the station and suddenly realized we had no idea where to go, so we asked around and found our way into the forest.

It wasn't hard at all to find the hiking paths, but we decided to make it a little more interesting for ourselves as you can see in the photo above. Although there was a clearly paved road, we decided to skip that and just scale a little hill. Our more adventurous short cut.

Erika, our botany expert explained a few things to us as we walked through the forest.

These last two photos are a couple of my favorite that I took with my camera that is slowly starting to lose it's life. We eventually found a lookout point that had a good view of the town and everything surrounding it.

Started feeling a little chilly so we went back to the train station and headed back to Paris. It was nice to be out of the city for a bit to breathe in some good clean air. It was also a very sunny day so I'm glad I didn't spend it inside.

Tomorrow's Monday so this week will most likely pass without exciting anything but then again, it's Paris so one never knows what to expect :)

Buttes Chaumont

Hello everyone!

Nothing too interesting has been happening with me lately unfortunately. I've started up school AND work so that occupies most of time. Especially on Thursdays when I have class from 9am-6pm. Rough! But, I did manage to go to a really nice park in Paris last week called Buttes Chaumont with my friends Megan and Kira. It was huge!|

The statue on our right is a Greek God that protects nature. After walking around the park for a couple hours, we discovered a EURO store. The equivalent of a dollar store. The lady there said I spoke French very well, how nice :)

Well I'm back in the grind but only about 4 months remain on my stay here so I have to soak up as much Paris as I can!

-Michael