Our final days of fun and farewell!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Round the Castle
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Majorca – Vamos a la playa
The best part about our first night in Majorca was our waiter, Ivan, at the Happy House (or Hogar Feliz). He was completely full of life and had a nickname for every patron in the restaurant – mine was fish girl because I ordered water and apparently only the fish drink water.
I had heard rumors that Mallorca is the Cancun of Spain. Granted I have never been to Cancun so I can’t be the best judge, but I found it to have some very European aspects. It is true it is a very touristy island, I did not feel strange walking around in shorts and a tank top or asking questions in English. It seems Mallorca caters to England in the way that Cancun caters to Americans. Which was still an adventure for us, kinda like having England and Spain all wrapped up in one place. We were able to get Fish and Chips or a full English Breakfast just as easily as Paella.
For a great majority of the trip we just enjoyed the beach and the sand and tried not to think about all the finals and papers and presentations we had to prepare for. We also created a card game named after the town we stayed in, Magaluf, and played it multiple times each day we were there.
Our apartments were amazing. The first night we slept for 12 straight hours and then walked the less than five minute walk to the beach. We also had our own kitchen so it was easy to make meals – which we definitely took advantage of. The following nights were very similar we spent our days at the beach and ate either out of our own kitchen or at one of the beachside restaurants that lined the coast. One night we even had the privilege of seeing the full moon rise over the water.
As it turns out Mallorca was the perfect end to my European travel weekends. It was relaxing and the perfect de-stressor right before finals. I was also able to completely get over my cold before getting back to the castle, which was very helpful before a crazy last week of finals. A perfect Spanish (and English) vacation to end an amazing 90 days of Europe adventures.
I had heard rumors that Mallorca is the Cancun of Spain. Granted I have never been to Cancun so I can’t be the best judge, but I found it to have some very European aspects. It is true it is a very touristy island, I did not feel strange walking around in shorts and a tank top or asking questions in English. It seems Mallorca caters to England in the way that Cancun caters to Americans. Which was still an adventure for us, kinda like having England and Spain all wrapped up in one place. We were able to get Fish and Chips or a full English Breakfast just as easily as Paella.
For a great majority of the trip we just enjoyed the beach and the sand and tried not to think about all the finals and papers and presentations we had to prepare for. We also created a card game named after the town we stayed in, Magaluf, and played it multiple times each day we were there.
Our apartments were amazing. The first night we slept for 12 straight hours and then walked the less than five minute walk to the beach. We also had our own kitchen so it was easy to make meals – which we definitely took advantage of. The following nights were very similar we spent our days at the beach and ate either out of our own kitchen or at one of the beachside restaurants that lined the coast. One night we even had the privilege of seeing the full moon rise over the water.
As it turns out Mallorca was the perfect end to my European travel weekends. It was relaxing and the perfect de-stressor right before finals. I was also able to completely get over my cold before getting back to the castle, which was very helpful before a crazy last week of finals. A perfect Spanish (and English) vacation to end an amazing 90 days of Europe adventures.
Venice – endless water
Venice was amazing for several reasons. First of all it was beautiful – the weather was beautiful, the water was beautiful, and so were the people. It was also delicious. We bought gelato for a euro on the street and sat down for full Italian meals complete with appetizers, a pasta course, main dish, amazing wine finished off with an espresso and tiramisu for dessert.
We also had the privilege of going to Venice the same weekend that our castle director, Dulcia was in town. Dulcia is basically a celebrity to the castle dwellers. She is just one of those people you look up to automatically, so when she asked if we would like to meet up in Venice we obviously said yes. She invited us to a classical music concert she organized which was phenomenal. At the end of the concert a flutist also preformed, and as it turns out he is on of the most famous flutists in the Netherlands.
Given that Venice is made up mostly of water, we did a lot of walking. In fact I think we spend more time walking around and seeing the city than we did riding on boats.
We did take a few trips to the islands. Murano is the island that all of the artists live and work on. We got to see a demonstration of glass blowing and then walked all around to the glass shops before hoping on a boat back to Venice.
We traveled to Lido twice. Lido is a beautiful beach island not far from the main island of Venice.
Lido was also home to the best gelato we found. It was a euro per scoop and we certainly took advantage of the good price and tried many of the delicious flavors.
We also had the privilege of going to Venice the same weekend that our castle director, Dulcia was in town. Dulcia is basically a celebrity to the castle dwellers. She is just one of those people you look up to automatically, so when she asked if we would like to meet up in Venice we obviously said yes. She invited us to a classical music concert she organized which was phenomenal. At the end of the concert a flutist also preformed, and as it turns out he is on of the most famous flutists in the Netherlands.
Given that Venice is made up mostly of water, we did a lot of walking. In fact I think we spend more time walking around and seeing the city than we did riding on boats.
We did take a few trips to the islands. Murano is the island that all of the artists live and work on. We got to see a demonstration of glass blowing and then walked all around to the glass shops before hoping on a boat back to Venice.
We traveled to Lido twice. Lido is a beautiful beach island not far from the main island of Venice.
Lido was also home to the best gelato we found. It was a euro per scoop and we certainly took advantage of the good price and tried many of the delicious flavors.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Düsseldorf – Photo exhibit
You know life is good when a field trip takes you to Germany. As castle students we get to skip one class period of each class once before travel break and once after for extended travel. It just so happens that the majority of my photo class decided to take the class off all at the same time, leaving us with only three students. So our professor decided to take us on a field trip.
We traveled to a photo exhibit in Düsseldorf of the photographer Michel Comte, a fashion and magazine photographer. He worked for Vanity Fair and Vogue in addition to doing journalistic and documentary work for the Red Cross.
It was interesting to see the work of a photographer who had originally done purely fashion photography for magazines do work for the Red Cross. The Red Cross photos were shocking and showed reality clearly hiding nothing, but as our professor pointed out the photographs were actually staged in the same way that the photos for Vanity Fair and Vogue had been, the people were posed, the lighting set, and everything made into a marketing piece so people would donate to the Red Cross. I thoroughly enjoyed the gallery and loved the fact that we went as a class so that I could really see the photos for what they were and discuss them.
We traveled to a photo exhibit in Düsseldorf of the photographer Michel Comte, a fashion and magazine photographer. He worked for Vanity Fair and Vogue in addition to doing journalistic and documentary work for the Red Cross.
It was interesting to see the work of a photographer who had originally done purely fashion photography for magazines do work for the Red Cross. The Red Cross photos were shocking and showed reality clearly hiding nothing, but as our professor pointed out the photographs were actually staged in the same way that the photos for Vanity Fair and Vogue had been, the people were posed, the lighting set, and everything made into a marketing piece so people would donate to the Red Cross. I thoroughly enjoyed the gallery and loved the fact that we went as a class so that I could really see the photos for what they were and discuss them.
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