Chartres, no pun intended!

Part of Christine's family visit adventure was a day trip to Chartres (pronounced: sharts).

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. What an inappropriate name for a town! But all the more reason to go, I guess! Courtney, Monica and I tagged along with Christine, her mom and aunt as we rushed to the train station to get on the 10:33 A.M. train to Chartres. Luckily, we made it on the completely overcrowded train in time; and "overcrowded" is no exaggeration. The train was so crowded, there was absolutely no sitting room and we were left to stand in the aisles for the one-hour train ride. However, that did not deter us from the exciting day to be had.

Arriving in Chartres was a surreal experience. The town is exactly how I imagined a small, picturesque French town. It was perfect, beautiful, and the weather was absurdly nice. We couldn't help but gasp at all the adorable buildings and the pristine gardens. It was an amazing sight. 
We started off our day in Chartres at the market, where we sampled pea pods and bought some fruit for a picnic. After buying some sandwiches, biscuits, and a chocolate egg, we were ready for our picnic. Courtney, our GPS queen, led us towards the park where we wanted to picnic at. This park was UNBELIEVABLE! Set perfectly on the bank of a beautiful river, we parked ourselves neatly on a bench and the nearby grass and ate away at our strawberries, oranges, sandwiches, and whatever else we could fill our stomachs with.

Courtney, having finished her lunch a little early, began to sketch Monica and I, but soon found that two bodies are much more time consuming to sketch than one. She stuck with my obscenely beautiful body and sketched me away. I was posed in a very uncomfortable position, however, and Courtney continually had to yell at me to keep still even though my shoulders were giving out from leaning on them...Her sketch turned out pretty good, I think (considering I threatened her to make me look 20 pounds lighter)!


After our picnic, we walked around the park a bit more and came across a little hen pen, where we came across some interesting birds from Japan.

Heading out of the park, we walked around the quaint streets of Chartres on our way to its infamous cathedral. This cathedral was extremely beautiful and is especially famous for its stained glass.




Sitting around outside of the cathedral to soak up some more sun with our energy levels fading, we decided to take the 4:30 P.M. train back to Paris. We killed some time walking into a chocolate shop, a wine shop, and some other stores until it was time to trek our tired bodies back to the train station. This train, luckily, was practically empty when we boarded and we all got a chance at a nice nap during the ride back.

Chartres, thank you for providing me with a great memory of the French countryside!!

When in Rome, Ride a Segway

I know this is a delayed one, but better late than never!

Rome began last Thursday as Jamie and I headed to Orly airport for our flight into Fuimicino Airport. Our flight was good, however the couple sitting next to me really needed to get a room or restrain from tearing each other's clothes off during the flight. I felt rather uncomfortable.

Once we arrived, Jamie and I courageously attempted to take the train to the station where Mozer and Danny were meeting us. However, the extremely rude woman at the ticket counter failed to inform us how to take the train and we ended up missing it and had to wait for the next one a half hour later. No worries though! We made it to the Roma Trastevere train station in one piece and met up with Mozer and Blinky. We immediately went to a small Asian restaurant to get Suppli (a favorite for the Romans), which I did not favor myself. Thursday night was a mellow one for us considering Jamie and I arrived later than expected. The next day was going to be filled with touristy activities while Mozer and the Rome crew were on a field trip...

The next morning was nothing short of beautiful. Since luck always seems to be in our favor, the one day Jamie and I needed to travel around the city was the one day in April that the transportation department went on strike. Moral of the story, there were no trams or buses running. We were left to our own feet to get us where we needed to go, but we were fine with that! We hiked across Rome to the Forum and the Colosseum for our first stop. To say that the Forum took my breath away is an understatement; it was absolutely beautiful and thrilling.



The Colosseum was just as fantastic as the Forum; probably the most exciting part was getting to cut the 2 hour long line! Jamie and I didn't spend too much time in the Colosseum considering it is the same from every angle, but we did get a few good pictures in!

From the Forum and the Colosseum, we walked all the way back towards the Vatican City. We took a pit stop along the way and got some lunch at an adorable Italian restaurant, indulging in bruschetta and margherita pizza. We finally made it to the Vatican City, and since we arrived a little early, we laid in the sun for about an hour and the went into the Sistine Chapel.

I completely underestimated the size of this thing, and jeez, it was huge. I did, however, break some rules (how unusual of me) and took some forbidden pictures :-)

After the Sistine Chapel, it was time for Jamie and I to meet up with Mozer at her apartment. We hauled our sleepy butts all the way back to her apartment and rested for awhile. Finally, it was time for dinner and a big group of us headed to an Apertivo, where you buy a drink and get to eat unlimited appetizers. Considering my pickiness, I had a successful dinner at the Apertivo and tried some cous cous and ate a lot of beans.

That night, we headed to a club and Blinky and I got our dancing on. Then, out of no where I ran into some friends from Vanderbilt who are studying abroad in Madrid...the best surprise ever! After some time at the club, we decided to head home and get ready for another filled day of seeing Rome.

We woke up that next morning filled with excitement and energy. The weather was amazing just like the day before, and we knew it was time to break out the jean shorts!! Of course we looked like tourists, but I have given up on caring what the Europeans think and I will wear whatever I want. If I wore jeans, like they all do, in that weather I would have melted into a puddle...

We walked around a bunch and saw the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.

 We headed up the Spanish Steps to the Bourghese Gardens and laid in the sun for an hour just enjoying the landscape.

 Mozer's lightbulb went on and she suggested we rent segways. It took no convincing at all, and we were immediately on the hunt for where to rent the segways. Once we found it, we wasted no time and paid our 8 euros each to rent them for a half hour (total bargain). However, none of us had ridden a segway before this experience so we were a little rusty at first. But we soon became pros and zoomed all throughout the Bourghese Gardens; it was literally the time of my life.

 After our day in the gardens, we headed back to Mozer's apartment to prepare for our big Italian dinner! We gathered up Danny and headed to a restaurant nearby. I started off with bruschetta, then had penna alla vodka, then had some chicken with peppers, and finished it off with a nice fruit salad. It was the perfect ending to the day.

And no exaggeration, that was basically the ending to the day. We headed back to the apartment and I literally passed out, eliminating all chances of us going out and partying. We slept throughout the entire night! Waking up relatively early in the morning, we walked right outside of Mozer's apartment to the 3rd largest open air market in Rome! It was awesome to walk around and see all the random things people were selling. We ate some pizza as a farewell lunch, and right after lunch it was time for Jimbo and I to head to the train station to the airport. What an amazing trip!!!