Pour L’Art et Les Vues | Paris 2017

Friday, 20 October 2017Thursday, 19 October 2017 StarrLeave a comment

Previously, on Paris 2017, we arrived fresh off a red-eye flight from New York, settled into our hotel in Le Marais, and went straight to eating before exploring our neighborhood. The real exploration, though, was about to begin…

Warning: A lot of photos incoming!

While planning the previous day, we decided that our first full day in Paris would be dedicated to the most famous and oldest art museum in the world: Le Louvre. We’d spend as much time as possible in the museum, not worry about seeing any “famous” pieces that we weren’t personally interested in (no Mona Lisa for us!), and just taking it all in, nice and steady.

That morning, we decided to walk to the Louvre and get breakfast on our way. It is a longer walk, with a grey and drizzly sky overhead. (Spoiler alert: It rained every single day that we were in Paris. Paris is beautiful in the rain but I don’t know how many places are beautiful when the sky can’t commit to really raining… Still, it was hard to be upset!) After getting a great head start on our steps, we stopped by La Couleur des Blés for coffee (thank you, time difference) and pastries. I later learned that this is a really popular shop, but there was only one man in the teeny tiny shop when we stopped by. We walked away with some croissants and a little hot coffee for Ben.

Etiquette tip: When you enter a shop, make sure to greet whoever is working with a “Bonjour!” Also, make sure to say “Merci” on your way out; saying hello and thank you are very important and it’s considered rude not to.

Ordering tip: Ordering “un café” is not the same as a regular drip coffee in the United States. It’s more like ordering an espresso, and it will come in a teeny cup. Asking for a “café alongée” will get you an Americano: espresso with hot water added.

From the boulangerie, we walked about 2 blocks to the Louvre and parked ourselves on some benches to dig into our croissants. (The only problem with them was that we didn’t have more of them!) And then it was time.

Louvre courtyard — Our view from breakfast
Not pictured: Crumbs all over my face and coat

Because we purchased the Paris Pass before our trip, we were able to wait in the shorter line for pass holders and didn’t have to wait in an additional line to purchase tickets to the museum. Time and time again, the Paris Pass proved to be a real timesaver for us, even without considering the value of the tickets that we would have otherwise purchased without it. After descending down the escalator below the famous glass pyramids….

… we arrived. Please enjoy some of my favorite photos from our visit interspersed with fun facts about the Louvre.

Nintendo Audioguide — The Louvre’s audioguide is provided on Nintendo 3DS XLs. You can also download the free museum app.

There are at least 2 versions of this sculpture of Artemis (Diana) at the Louvre.

I have so many photos of the ornate ceilings and mouldings at the Louvre. Always remember to look up. (But take breaks or your neck will cramp up.)

Me in a Nook — After walking around this enormous museum, I frequently found solace in little nooks between gallery walls

Some of the art was delightfully weird…

Nous Sommes Arrivés! | Paris 2017

Tuesday, 17 October 2017Monday, 16 October 2017 Starr4 Comments

After a rough experience going through international departures at JFK, we were in the air on our way to Paris! It was a red-eye flight, aka we flew during sleeping hours, so we were pretty surprised to get fed during the flight? We had some food, saved some teeny bottles of wine for the hotel, and fell asleep like kids on Christmas Eve. Quick shout-out to Air France for one of the best airline customer service experiences I’ve ever had, by the way, when I was at JFK and also on the way back. I’m not really sure where the stereotype of the uptight, cold Frenchperson comes from because we really didn’t experience this.

We checked into Les Jardins du Marais (in-depth review), which was a great spot for us that we found at a really awesome deal. (I had been trying to find us a good AirBnB so that I could feel really homey and eat eggs and fruit with the massive amounts of pastry and bread I wanted to indulge in. And do laundry! But the hotel deal was too good to beat.) The quick and dirty of this hotel are:

Pros:
+ You get a free smartphone in your room that you can take with you out and about, with free data and free calls to the US (and a few other countries). This was a gamechanger.
+ Excellent location in the trendy Le Marais neighborhood and near several metro lines.
Cons:
– Trendy neighborhood + cool courtyard with a patio bar = lots of noise coming in through the windows, even on a Wednesday night.
– Super paper-thin walls that we could hear everything through – hanky-panky, zippers, toilet seats being lowered, everything…

So take that as you will! I’d definitely recommend it unless you are a light sleeper and/or plan to do anything above a whisper with people next door, because they will hear your loud farts and shower singing and more.

After getting settled into our room, and freaking the freak out over the smartphone situation (check out the company that provides them, handy, for more information about these and to see which hotels are carrying them), we walked down the block to grab lunch at Le Centenaire (review), because the two of us were absolutely famished. I was feeling so excited that I got beef tartare for the second time in my life and Ben got steak frites because it’s hard to say no to it when you’re starving, I was translating the menu for him quite slowly, and he wasn’t even sure what some of the menu items I described to him where let alone whether he wanted to eat them. So beef two ways for us it was! With plenty of French fries and baguette to carb-load us for the rest of the evening.

Beef tartare + frites — Feeling French and dangerous with beef tartare (+ fries)(+ salad, which means +health!)

Steak frites — Poor Ben was so hungry that he had a hard time denying the allure of classic steak frites

After lunch, we walked around the neighborhood a bit to get situated. There is a grocery store and a pharmacy, aka drugstore, and tons of little restaurants and cafes and bars. We got ourselves settled, spent some time planning our new few days in the hotel, and called Les Temps de Cerises (review) to save ourselves a table for dinner. The restaurant was crammed full of English-speaking diners and cozy and intimate on that chilly evening.

Duck with plantain — Duck breast with fried plantain

Millefeuille — Chocolate millefeuille with berries

We walked our way to the Seine and walked along the river bank taking in the night and all the young people sitting and drinking and talking and laughing at like 10-11PM on a Wednesday night. It was so nice and got us so excited to spend a week in the City of Lights.

What are the more “adventurous” French foods that you have eaten? (Or haven’t quite dared to yet?) I tried beef tartare for the first time just a few months ago and surprisingly loved it so I was excited to try it in France. I first tried snails as a Chinese dish and I love them in garlic butter because you basically only taste garlic butter yum.

What are some gamechangers and dealbreakers for your travel accommodations? Ben and I really really loved the in-room smartphones but it was really unsettling how much we could hear the couple next door. Zippers? Toilet flushes? And we slept terribly because of the hub-bub outside. I don’t know…

I am going to work really hard to get the other Paris recaps up in a timely manner! Can you believe we’re halfway through October already?? Are you ready for Halloween?? (I’m not!)

Stockholm

Tuesday, 18 November 2014Tuesday, 18 November 2014 Starr2 Comments

We only had 5 hours in Sweden’s capital. It was August 3, 2013 (haha ohmy how late these posts are) and it was easily one of THE nicest days we were able to enjoy, weather-wise. Essentially, we only had time to:

Take our necessary ho/ho tour (on a hop-on/hop-off bus)
Walk around town
Browse the Nobel museum
Eat Swedish meatballs

However, there were so many things that we didn’t get to do in that teeny amount of time, like:

Visit the ABBA museum
Check out the famous metro station art
Go to the giant flagship IKEA at the border of the city

But enough about what we missed out on. I still had a really good time during my 5 short hours in Stockholm!

One of the reasons I was supremely sad at how short our stay was in Stockholm was the fact that the weather was absolutely perfect. It may have been the most perfect day of the entire trip, even.

Just look at how gorgeous it was! And there’s a VIKING LINE, come on.

We spent most of our time on the ho/ho bus, learning about Stockholm and taking in the sights, because our time was so limited. (Fun fact: Yo, Stockholm is a very wealthy city. There are some residents who pay 51% income tax. Officially, more of their income goes to the state than into their own pockets. And they still live like ballers.)

By the time we reached Stockholm, I really wanted to live by the water. A lot. Almost desperately.

Oh man, Stockholm was a beautiful city, it truly was. But let’s not forget those highlights! Like Swedish non-IKEA meatballs:

Verdict: Not really great, from this shop. Honestly, I prefer IKEA’s plates more but the IKEA has its own zipcode and was far away so.

I also got to visit the Nobel museum!

We weren’t able to stay long enough for a guided tour, but you know, all in all, I had a nice time in Stockholm. It was a beautiful city that I cannot afford, but I’d love to spend a little longer there next time. (And see the ABBA museum!)

Helsinki

Friday, 17 October 2014Friday, 17 October 2014 StarrLeave a comment

I left St. Petersburg feeling sad, to be quite honest. I was leaving my motherland (let me hold onto this possible lie my mother told me about my ancestry) and going to Finland, a country I really didn’t know anything about.

I am so glad I was proven wrong.

In short, I simply loved the feeling of Helsinki. I’m so fond of the city now. You know how every city has its own vibe, its own energy? Whatever that feeling was in Helsinki, I drank it up and reveled in it, despite the drizzly weather. (If it wasn’t so drizzly, we would have seen the sun rise at 4:30 AM and set at 10:30 PM. WHAT.)

Helsinki is where we started getting real with hop-on/hop-off buses, aka ho-ho buses. We got off our cruise ship and were greeted with this fun pink butterfly campaign for tourists, which I thought was SO cute.

Little pink butterflies were painted onto the asphalt. Helsinki certainly is welcoming to tourists!

Being greeted with this view of the sea helped boost my first impression of Helsinki as well. It was such a perfect day. I just remember… loving the feeling of Helsinki. The energy of the people, the personality of the city. I loved it much more than I thought I would, and I came away so pleasantly surprised by how wonderful Helsinki is. Maybe it was the result of having such loooooong daylight hours in the Scandinavian summer. The day we were in Helsinki, the sun rose at 4:30 AM and set at 10:30 PM. Imagine going outside at 10 PM and the sun hasn’t even begun to set. I remember thinking that the people were incredibly friendly but kept the thought in the back of my mind that they might be a lot grouchier in the winter, when the sun comes up around after 9 and is down before 4. But on this magnificent day, everyone smiled and was extremely friendly.

A lady making giant bubbles in the park for the beautiful little Finnish children? YEP, I love this city.

We visited the 1952 Helsinki Olympic stadium, and got to go up to the very top of the very tall tower.

The stadium tower stands at 72.71 metres (238.5 ft), which is the distance that Finnish javelin gold medalist Matti Järvinen threw in the 1932 Olympics.

Definitely can’t complain about the view…

We also spotted people waiting in line for audition for Finnish Idol? Or Finland's Got Talent? — We also spotted people waiting in line for audition for Finnish Idol? Or Finland’s Got Talent?

After a trip to the weirdly fancy and nice bathroom (can’t quite describe how it was fancy but… it was), we got to go into the stadium and it was awesome.

After proving the theory that a delayed bus only comes after a) I have walked away b) far enough that I have to run back to catch it (this theory has been proven right every time so far), we explored some of the sites that we saw on our first loop of the ho/ho bus.

Climbed allllllll these steps to enjoy a peaceful moment in Helsinki Cathedral while it sprinkled just the barest bit of rain outside.

We walked the quiet but still lively streets of Helsinki and grabbed some lunch at an open-air market. It seemed to be catering mostly to tourists but eh, I didn’t mind at all and was more than happy to be a tourist.

Grabbed myself a mad yummy lunch of little fried fish, veggies, and potatoes. MAN I still remember how this hit the spot on one of our few dreary days.

Also, I saw maybe one of my FAVORITE churches of the whole trip, and as you recall, I saw a lot lot of churches. I mean, I already saw the Helsinki Cathedral.

This, my dear friends, is Temppeliaukio Church, aka Church of the Rock. It was carved out of solid rock. It feels like you’re in a cave, except there’s daylight pouring in from all sides. The roof is copper coiled around itself thousands of times.

Easily one of the most unique churches I’ve ever seen in my life. Also, the acoustics are amazing in here because of the rock walls.

DEFINITELY visit if you are in Helsinki. While you’re there, you should also visit the Sibelius Monument, dedicated to composer Jean Sibelius.

Also, random thing, but I noticed a lot of cafes where you could eat al fresco had all the chairs facing the road? I saw this a few other times in Europe but it was definitely super apparent in Helsinki.

Here’s a few more photos from my time in Helsinki, including a lot of STRANGE Helsinki-ans in the streets I spotted.

Alexander III wasn’t only popular in Russia

So fond of Helsinki, truly. I hope I get to go back someday.

St. Petersburg day 2

Saturday, 17 May 2014 StarrLeave a comment

(People are asking me how I get to travel so much, and welcoming me back to the States, so I should clarify that these photos are all from 1 August 2013… I’m really bad at posting on time.)

Our second day in St. Petersburg was not as nice weather-wise. We had a light rain for most of the day, so we were lucky in that day 2 was a mostly indoor appreciation day.

First off, the Hermitage Museum, one of the oldest and biggest museums in the world created by Catherine I (remember her?). One of the palace buildings that was converted into the museum was formerly the Winter Palace and it looks out over Palace Square. One of my favorite things about visiting other places is thinking about the historical events that took place there, thinking about whose footprints I’m stepping in. For example, Palace Square is where Bloody Sunday and the October Revolution happened. Reading about these events in textbooks and even watching documentaries is one thing, but breathing the air there is an entirely different experience. I get overwhelmed by the feeling.

My view of Palace Square from inside the Hermitage Museum

In any case, the Hermitage is home to so much great art. I can’t even show you all the art that I have photos of, let alone all the art that they actually housed, but I’ll give you all a taste of some of my favorite pieces, some famous pieces, and pieces with interesting stories. (Included in the captions, which are maybe worth reading for once this time!) I have way way more, so let me know if you want me to share any of the other pieces I photographed. 🙂

Portrait of the actress Jeanne Samary – Renoir
She is best known not for her acting but for Renoir’s portraits.

Boy with a Whip – Renoir
(It looks like a little girl, but we were assured this is a boy, as it was custom for little boys to dress this way.)

Woman in the Garden, Saint-Adresse – Monet
We were told that this painting originally also had a man next to the woman, who commissioned this painting, but she then asked Monet to remove him. Drama.

Thatched Cottages at Cordeville – Van Gogh

Dance II – Matisse
This painting could take up an entire wall of my bedroom.

Casually run out of room for priceless art and put it on the ceiling.

Rembrandt was the most popular artist in the museum.

The building itself, of course, being a Winter Palace, was also utterly magnificent.

Just… just look at that. Casually gilded and lined with priceless art.

Chandeliers are to the indoors what fountains are to the outdoors. Gotta love the opulence a little bit.

A lot of beautiful ceiling patterns, some that mirrored the beautiful floors.

From the Hermitage, we went to the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood. The history of this church is amazing and fascinating. It was built on the site where Alexander II (who is maybe on of the most revered Russian monarchs) was assassinated. Literally, the very spot where his blood was spilled is preserved and enshrined in this church. The blood-stained cobblestones are exposed (although fenced off) and around them was constructed a glittering shrine of gleaming stones.

Today, it is no longer a place of worship, as it was used as a morgue during World War II and, well, if housing the dead isn’t a form of desecration, I’m not sure what is. After World War II, rather than holding religious services, the church was used for storing vegetables (better than corpses) and was affectionately called the Church of the Savior on Potatoes. (Cute, no?)

Elaborate shrine marking the exact spot where Alexander II was assassinated.

The very cobblestones upon which Alexander II’s blood was spilled.

My neck started aching from looking upwards at all these BEAUTIFUL ceilings.

Vents to keep services warm during cold St. Petersburg Sundays

Afterwards, we headed off to St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which is a magnificent Russian Orthodox cathedral. It cost so much money, time (40 years), and many lives to build this spectacular building.

The cathedral was filled with these meticulously created mosaics

The progression of the cathedral’s architecture

It was a good last day in St. Petersburg. I really felt like I had gotten in touch with my Russian roots. (If those are a thing…) I just really loved St. Petersburg and I would really love to go back someday.