Fête de la Musique

This day started out with a little bit of Islam!

I've been hearing great things about this mosque in Paris which is supposed to be pretty spectacular. I heard that it has beautiful gardens, tea rooms, and even a restaurant inside. The fact that Monica's two friends who were visiting at the time (Firdowsa and Nafisa) happen to be Muslim, gave us the opportunity to visit it finally with people who could explain what we saw.

The outside looks very clean and simple, but with touches of Arabic architecture.

But the inside is amazing! The gardens were gorgeous, with plants and fountains everywhere.





While we were there, Firdowsa told Monica and I some interesting things about the religion, too, such as why some women wear the headscarf and others don't, and about some of the rituals they have.

We couldn't go inside the mosque since they were praying at the time, but I was impressed enough with the gardens.

After visiting the mosque, we all went to Montmartre in the north to enjoy some of the Fête de la Musique!

The Fête de la Musique is basically a city-wide music festival, where all day long, there's music being played all over Paris. This can take the form of live bands playing music from their home countries (I heard Brazilian and South American music), or even just a van parked on the street with enormous speakers, blasting electro and trans to passersby. No matter what the style of music, it was all played outside and it resulted in TONS of people wandering around listening, glasses of alcohol in hand, and an overall feeling of the city coming alive!



So we decided to grab a quick bite from one of the many barbecues set up for the festival and go sit on the steps below Sacré-Cœur to enjoy the music there.

And take a cute picture or two, of course.

They were playing Arabic music by where we were sitting...

Nice belly-dancing!

Like I said, the streets were packed!

Here's some more music:

And while we were walking around, we passed the Moulin Rouge! One of these days I'm going to a show.

Out of all the music, I think my favorite was actually the bizarre-sounding electro music from the vans parked on the street close to where I live. Maybe it was the people dancing nearby- they had multi-colored mohawks and studded jewelry- it was definitely something you don't see often in Paris.

But I can appreciate any kind of music. Or at least make a decent effort.

Bisous XOXO

A wee bit of SCOTLAND!

Presentation for my opera class... done.
Presentation for my French language class... done.
Midterm paper for my International Organizations class... done and turned in.
Now it's time to talk about my trip! :D

During the week of April 13-18th, Sciences-PO had its Spring Break, or what they call the vacances de Pâques (vack KAUNS duh PACK), where Pâques = Easter. So I got a whole week off to travel, and Monica and I definitely took advantage! We planned out a whole student budget trip by finding the cheapest flights from every city in Europe and chose cities based off that. We ended up seeing 4 major cities (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Milan), and for me, 1.5 new countries I've never been to (I say 1.5 because I've never seen Ireland or Scotland, but since Scotland is technically in the UK, I figured it gets half a 'country' status)!

Our first destination was Scotland!

We flew in to Glasgow Prestwick airport on Sunday night around midnight so all we could really do was check in to our hostel and go to sleep. When we first got there we realized 2 things:

1. This year, for the whole year, they're having these festivals and events all over called "Homecoming Scotland" to recognize people with Scottish ancestry from all over the world and to welcome them back to their homeland. In fact, I remember when my mom came to visit me this past February and I took her to see Montmartre, there was a "Homecoming Scotland" festival going on then too. So I guess it's not just taking place in Scotland I guess.
2. Also, we realized that Scottish people are so NICE!!! When Monica and I got off the plane and were looking for the bus to take us into Glasgow city center, on of the ladies who works at the airport saw us and told us that it would be cheaper and easier to split a taxi with other people. Then she found us a taxi and the other people to go with us! Now I know that she was only 1 person out of every other in Scotland, and that she works there so that was probably her job, but I don't care. She was definitely really nice while she was helping us!

So then we made it to the hostel that night, and passed out.

But here we are the next day! Our hostel was pretty nice- we had our own bathroom and they had free breakfast, and we ended up splitting the room with 2 guys from Lyon, France, who we never really spoke to since we only saw them as we were going to bed or waking up the next morning. But they were nice to us when we talked to them over breakfast the next day.



And something kind of cute happened too: we all started writing notes to each other! When we got back from breakfast that first day, I found this little note on my bunk welcoming us to the room for the next few days and saying that it was nice to have roommates. Monica and I thought it was such an adorable idea, so we wrote our "roommates" a response, and it took off from there. From then on, every time we came back to the room there would always be a new note! :D



So on the first day, which was Monday, we decided to spend it exploring Glasgow, and here are some things we saw...

I wish we had rhyming speed limit signs in the US...

Church on the left, and university area.

Princes Square mall in the city center. (Glasgow has a LOT of shopping, by the way.)

Here we are in the atrium of the mall!

Monica found this pendulum in the atrium that was supposed to be a replica of the one that's in the Pantheon in Paris! (I thought that was pretty cool)

Glasgow street!

Big building in the center (I honestly forgot what this is, but I think they were hosting an art exhibit while we were there).

Here's Monica by the Glasgow Royal concert hall.

One of the busier streets.

As we were wandering around the area, we heard someone playing bagpipes on the street. How perfect is it to be hearing bagpipes in Scotland? Here's a video:

After exploring the city center, we walked towards the West end area to see the Glasgow Cathedral and the necropolis.
Here's the cathedral, which actually isn't a cathedral since it's not catholic. We went inside and found some really interesting things, like how the stained glass windows had an Adam with bright red hair and a blonde Eve. The church is still used for worship today, but they have it open for tourists.

Outside of the cathedral.

Stained glass window. If you look really closely you can see the red-head Adam in the 2nd panel to the left and Eve on the 2nd to the right. And if you look really really closely, you can see that they weren't ashamed to show their genitalia like in a lot of other cathedrals...




This was in one of the underground crypts. They buried the patron saint of Glasgow here.

Here's the necropolis which was right beside the cathedral.

Here's Monica venturing to the entrance...

And here I am standing on one of the hills inside. In case you haven't figured it out yet, necropolis is just a fancy word for cemetery. :P (You can see a spire of the cathedral in the background)





View of the necropolis and the city behind it. Oh, and I was just lounging on a nearby coffin.

Here's Monica sitting on another one.

But if you think we were being disrespectful, check these people out... they were actually having a picnic in the middle of all these graves! I know it was peaceful there, but come on people!

Grave stones lined up in rows down the hill.

Leaving the necropolis.

Remember how I said there's a lot of shopping in Glasgow? Well some of it was good, but I have to say I found some of the styles a little crazy. Take this window for instance. Would you really want to walk out of your house looking like a 'Lite Brite'?? I didn't think so...






But people here actually wear things like that! And it's not as uncommon as you would think! Just look at the picture for your example.





Monica and I were pretty shocked by the fashion sense, but we decided that maybe we were being a little judgmental, so we went into one of the stores to try something on ourselves...

Not too bad, ha ha! :D
(But I still don't like the neon colors)

After our fashion adventure, we then headed back to the hostel to get ready to go to Edinburgh (ED in bra)! Monica's friend, Lawrence, who is also an exchange student at Sciences-PO, was spending his break in Edinburgh, so he invited us to stay one night at his brother's girlfriend's apartment and promised to show us around.

But as usual, when we got back to the hostel there was another note waiting for us from our roommates along with a paper boat they made. So in return, I wrote the response and made a paper ball (I found out that one of them likes to juggle). So adorable!

Here's Monica getting ready and looking chic as always. :)

That night, we hopped on the bus to take the 1-hour trip to Edinburgh, and Lawrence met us with his friend, who is from Germany and who is currently studyng at the university there. We also met Gulli, who is the brother's girlfriend and who is also studying in Edinburgh. She's a jazz singer too, but we weren't lucky enough to hear her sing.

To celebrate everyone's little vacation, we had some whisky (it was mandatory since we were in Scotland!), and then went out to a bar.
Here's everyone at the bar! From the left: Germany (I forgot his real name, ha ha), me, Lawrence, Monica, and Gulli.





Here are the girls! Gulli was so cool by the way. She was like a big sister to Moni and me while we were there.




The next day, we had plans to explore Edinburgh! First of all, I had to try some haggis (HAG iss), which is a Scottish dish that my mom made me promise to try. Since Gulli works at a restaurant, she invited us to eat there for lunch...

Here's me and Moni at our table.

And here's the haggis! Gulli was so nice- she knew I really wanted to try it so she got the chef to make it for me even though it wasn't on the menu that day!




And here I am trying it! Honestly, I thought it was delicious. It tasted kind of like meatloaf, and it was on a bed of mashed potatoes with a brown gravy on top. I was a little nervous eating it since everyone insisted that I try it before I found out what it was, but when I did find out, I didn't think it was that weird. Haggis is basically ground up sheep organs cooked inside the sheep stomach. And if that sounds gross to you, then you should probably stop eating hot dogs!



After lunch, we went on a free tour of the city! Remember how we did that in Amsterdam? Same company.

I found out some pretty interesting things about Edinburgh on this tour, but to me the most interesting thing was that the city inspired a lot of gothic novels because of its gloomy atmosphere. Think of stories like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, and even the Harry Potter series. They say that the authors of these novels used to live in Edinburgh, or at least visit often, and they were inspired by the gloomy architecture and the strange folk lore from the city.

Side note: this one's for my boyfriend! :D

Our tour guide told us that this heart-shaped brick layout is the only place in the city where it's legal to spit, so we were told to watch out for spitters while walking by.

Here's Monica and Lawrence ahead on the tour.

Some Edinburgh scenery.

More street scenery.

Old Edinburgh architecture.

Check out that gloominess! It's kind of like a dungeon! (In my head...)

I have absolutely no idea what this is, but when we were stopped here, our tour guide told us about the old Scottish burglar-alarm and kept pointing to this (maybe I missed something he said...). He told us that they used to build multiple-level houses with stairs that had this anti-theft device where one step was significantly smaller than the rest. This prevented burglars from coming in because as they climbed the stairs in the middle of the night, they would trip on the trick step, and fall down the stairs causing a huge racket. Then, the man of the house would wake up, find the burglar, and kick the crap out of him and take him to the police. Pretty smart, I think. I've heard of trick steps like this back in the US, but I didn't know they originated in Scotland!





Here's the castle in the center of Edinburgh! It was a shame that we didn't get to see the inside, but it look amazing at the top of the hill.





Here we are taking a break in the middle of the tour! (Lawrence was there too, but he doesn't like cameras)

I found another tribute to my boyfriend! (I think 'close' = alley)

And I'm starting to think my boyfriend might be part Scottish... :P

More Edinburgh scenery!

Edinburgh scenery with the castle in the distance.

Towards the end of the tour, it started to get really really cold outside, and our guide was really boring. I think he liked to hear himself talk, because he tended to drag out a 2 minute story into epic tale length, so me, Monica, and Lawrence were getting to our breaking points, but we managed to stick it out until the final stop in the Queen's gardens.

I think I had enough at this point though...

But it wasn't my fault! I was freezing and bored and look how cold my hands were! (Ooh, now I can definitely see some inspiration for a gothic novel... maybe I could write one myself!)






So we ended up ditching the tour and running to find a pub where we could warm up and watch some British football! (that means soccer in American) :P





Here's one of the pubs we stopped in, but it was still really cold in here, so we found another pub later on. We saw the match between Manchester and Liverpool, mostly because Monica is a huge fan of Liverpool and could not miss the game. Liverpool ended up losing and subsequesntly lost their spot in this tournament that's coming up (I'm not sure what's going on with that exactly since I don't follow the leagues, but I think that's what Monica explained to me). It ended up being a really close game, but since Liverpool lost, I was left with a heartbroken friend. But don't worry, she got over it. :)







After the match, it was time to get back on the bus for Glasgow! (See, she wasn't too upset)






And for the ride back, we had some IRN BRU!!! It's apparently the most popular soft drink in Scotland and even beats out Coke and Pepsi in sales. It kind of tastes like cream soda.




Oh, and I did manage to get som Scottish accents on film! You have to listen really hard, but first, I whisper something like "here are some real Scottish accents" and then you can hear the bus driver at the head of the bus. He was swearing a lot, so sorry about that...





And here we are the next morning catching a train to Glasgow airport!

Me with my IRN BRU and breakfast!

Monica seducing me with her sandwich.

1 country down, 2 to go...

Cheers XOXO