All of my pictures

Here are all of my photo albums during my time in Europe

My travels in France

First my home away from home, the town where I lived and worked:

Remiremont

Then The City!

Paris

Versaille

Germany!

Germany

Italia

Italy

Great Britain

London

Volcano!

Did you know that there is a volcano in Iceland? Well I didn't until this weekend when it decided to erupt. As volcanic eruptions go it wasn't that bad. It was no Vesuvius. This time the ash from the volcano decided to go up and spread out all over Europe! This covered parts of Iceland in a dark cloud and while I feel for those in close proximity to the volcano I am also affected.

Surprisingly, many airplane pilots find it difficult to fly in a cloud of volcanic ash. Even with the news of massive cancellations and airports shutting down all over Europe I remained optimistic. My flight wasn't scheduled until Wednesday, and I told myself that everything would calm down by then. And when asked whether my flight was canceled I could say with some certainty that I would be leaving on time and arrive safely in the US by Thursday.

Sadly that doesn't seem to be the case. My flight was pushed a full week later and it doesn't seem very likely that I 'll get one any sooner. I'm trying to remain positive and still have hope that I might get an earlier flight but it doesn't seem very likely. If there is anyone reading this. Keep me in your prayers and here's to me getting home ASAP.

British Library

After seeing most if not all of London sights, I saved the best part of my trip for the end. The British Library was the highlight of my trip. It is the national library of th UK and one of the worlds largest libraries. It was honestly a bit too much for me. I didn't know what to do with myself! After I had calmed down and figured out what to do I decided to visit a few exhibits. Here are some of the wonderful things I got to see.

The Diamond Sutra



This is the first printed book in the world. I had known that they Chinese were the first to create printing but never learned the name. This scroll is from 868 AD! And like the first printed book in the West the Diamond Sutra is a religious text, Buddhist to be exact.

The Guttenberg



This is the most famous printed bible in the world. Named after Johann Guttenberg this is one of the surviving copies of the original bibles, printed in Mainz, Germany in 1455. Even though it was behind glass was still wonderful. I wanted to ask the security guard if I could take pictures but I decided not to push my luck. It was surprising well preserved.

There were many other treats. I saw Jane Austen's writing desk and her cute little gold glasses sitting atop the desk. As well as an original manuscript of Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte which is one of my favorite books of all time. Other works that were interesting, the original manuscript of Beowulf, a few pages from Leonardo de Vinci's Notebook and manuscripts of original Beetles song manuscripts. They are a part of British history! Also prominently displayed was Lewis Carol's original version of Alice in Wonderland. There was a pretty big Alice in Wonderland Section in the exhibition while I was there. I'm not sure if it was because of the upcoming movie or they just wanted to focus in on Alice. The Magna Carter also had it's own room. It was interesting to look at but I have to be honest it was my favorite.

Now to my favorite part, almost all of the sacred texts. I love religious texts from hand written bibles by monks, to Korans, and even texts from Taoism and Jainism. The Lindisfarne Gospels were a treasure and the Hindu texts were also breathtaking. I loved seeing all of the old scrolls and older and more fragile they were the better they looked. The older the better. The fact that people spent years carefully writing , drawing and painting these books and they are still here for us to see was amazing. The preservation section was interesting. It brought me back to my internship in archiving. I once again realized the importance of archiving preservation and all of the work that people in the library sciences and history fields do. I could have spent my whole day there. If I ever go back to London, I know one place that I will definitely visit again.

I see London!

That's right everyone. As you probably know my second trip was to to London, England. I hate to sound repetitive but again I was surprise how much I enjoyed myself. London was a little different because I traveled by myself. However, I did feel comfortable doing this because England is an English speaking country so even if I did get lost I ask for help and I did ALOT of research before going. I had an itinerary studied a map of the transportation system and made sure I knew what I was doing.

Getting to London was pretty simple. Thanks the close proximity, Paris to London is about two hours by train. Something interesting you might like to know is that English customs agents are kind of intimidating. The French couldn't care less. Coming into France and leaving France as an American just meant French customs looking at you passport and waiving you through. With the English not so much. I was just taking a train, but because I was not from the EU( European Union ) I had to fill out this form and give them all of my personal information . Right before I was allowed to board my train I had to do the usual going through security and then I had to answer 20 questions from this really young agent who I swear could not be older than I was. He rattled off questions like the obvious, is this your first time in London? who are you staying with? do you have any friends in London? and then tried to trip me up by asking me the same question twice and giving me a really intimidating stare while asking if I planned to stay in London permanently. I just wanted to see Big Ben!

After surviving the border I had a pretty agreeable trip on the Eurostar. Trains have been my main means of transportation while in Europe and I have learned how to travel comfortably. Arriving in London was exciting. I stayed across the street from the St. Pancras Station which is also connected to Kings Cross! If any one is a HArry Potter fan they will know why Kings Cross is important. I did take a picture at station 9 3/4. Ok, I have been bragging about my research skills but I have to admit I didn't know how to exactly to get to the platform. So I basically tried to find platform 9 and go from there. What I didn't know is that they put it away from the actual working platforms. Anyway I didn't have a ticket and tried to sneak onto to the platform when I was caught. When asked what I was doing I was honest and unashamed of my quest to find the platform. Luckily these guys have dealt with crazy tourists before.

"Your American aren't you?" one of them said.

Um, Yes, yes I am. I responded.

"From where?" the other guard asked.

Georgia, I squeaked.

"Ah, Georgia, Atlanta's in Georgia" said the first guard.

Yes, it is. I perked up.

"Well the platform is down there to your left" said the other guard.

"Your aren't the first person to do this" said the first guard and the other laughed and said, "Americans"

I quickly thanked them and ran to the platform where I took a picture. There were some really nice Japanese tourists who also took my picture. They were really nice girls.

*Quick little note. American as tourist have a reputation for getting into trouble and doing slightly stupid things. This can slightly work in your favor when you do something not so smart. Oh, I'm American I don't know any better. I only used it once, well in London that is. end of note*

After that I did all of the major touristy things, I saw Buckingham, Big Ben, and much more I had really good curry and ate a meat pie. If you would like to see all of my adventures follow the lovely link to my facebook pictures that should be open to the public!


Here to London!

Excuses

This is going to be my excuses post! I have updated my blog like I have promised but I haven't posted all of my trips. London is next and should be coming shortly like this week. But classes have already started and I didn't have much time from last trip to write.

By the way whoever guessed London needs to sends me an email because you guessed correctly! London will be comprised of two posts. One because it was that awesome and two because I did something special there. More special than Carnival? Yes! Well to my little nerd heart anyway. I'm sure most of you that read this blog will agree once you see.

Now ignore this and go look at all my fabulous Venice pictures! An do let me know if you cannot see them.

Carnival

Hey Everyone! Hopefully you’ve received my post cards if not then, guess where I went for February break? Venice, Italy!

I had always planned on going to Italy while I was here and wanted to visit all of the major cities and basically do everything there is to do in Italy. However, I knew that was probably not possible due to my dismal financial situation. Luckily, some kind soul heard about my passion for Italy and informed me and my roommate about a travel agency that was planning a trip for Venice. In all honesty I never even thought about Venice, but I am so glad I went.

I went during Carnival. Now I think most Americans think of this



Brazilian Carnival when someone says Carnival. While it’s basically the same celebration albeit with more clothes it’s celebrated differently.

Carnival is a Catholic celebration. It’s basically a time to let loose before Lent when you’re going to have to give up something fun. I was surprised that most countries in western Europe celebrate Carnival though they vary in size and in custom. I was very surprised to learn that Germans celebrate it. There goes me and my stereotypes. Germany is one of the last places I would think to associate carnival with , but now I know better. To get on with the story Venice’s Carnival is well known in Europe and has tens of thousands of people show up.One of the main things that the Venice Carnival is known for are its masks and masked balls. I wasn't lucky enough to be invited or attend one but I do have lots have pictures of people in great costumes.




The entire time I was in Venice I either walked or traveled by boats. The streets in Venice are so narrow and there were thousands of people in Venice during carnival. I had a great time on the boats and wandering around the city getting lost. Because I have so many great pictures I have made my facebook photo album public. So enjoy!

Here is the link

Venice Carnival Album

The wait is over!

I'm back! Now that my travels are over I will share them with you all.