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hello everyone. this is my second try at blogging today so lets hope this one works. i went to 2 different great art things today. i moved into the city center for the weekend with francesca and then i will find a different hostel that is within city centere but maybe not so loud. so the 2 things i made it to today include the camera obscura building on the royal mile. this was a cool thing, and one of the first of its kind when it was originally built in 1893. so a camera obscura works is a mirror is tilted at a 45 degree angle and then what it captures is reflected into 3 different lens on to a concave piece of wood. so you could see the whole city. pretty cool. and then the rest of the time was spent running through the 5 floors of fun house magic with holograms pin hole camera photos and one of those cool electrical balls when you put your hand on it and it lights up.

the other great thing i went to the scottish museum of modern art...dun dun dun and a maplethorpe retrospective. lots of great famous photos by him of patti smith, self portraits, some of plants, and of course the gay s+m scene in new york during the 80s. so that was great and then i also saw some more cindy sherman's from a more recent body of work as well as some other modern art like modrion paintings etc etc. not a lot of photography exhibitions around here. so it is daylight savings night todya in europe so we will see what the extended evening holds. so perhaps i will talk to you all in a while. ciao for now.

xoxo,
christie

different hostel day

ccTravelAbroad

well guys i was just too excited so i had to write about the 2 really fun things i did today. first i switched hostels to one in the city while francesca is here, she comes tonight woohoo! i also made it to the camera obscura museum, where there is one of the largest camera obscura/illusion places in the world. so you climb to the top of this tower, sorry no lift and they have a mirror tilted at a 45degree angle with 3 lenses below and it is then reflected onto a white concave board below. it was pretty cool. then you could go outside and see the whole city. this is one of the highest points in the city. then it was 4 floors of illusions holograms and 3D things. they also had one of those electricity balls so when you put your hand on it and touched a flourescent lightbulb it lite up pretty cool. they also had a bunch of pinhole camera photos of the city, equally as neat, seeing those always makes me want to do pinhole cameras!

later on i went to the scotland museum of modern art. and all you photography fans out there are going to be jealous because i saw a retrospective of robert maplethorpe's work. so gloria be sure to tell everyone in your classes that there is an exhibition in edinburgh of maplethorpe's work until november 5th, i almost missed it. great stuff. there were a bunch of the famous photos like the ones of patty smith, andy warhol, and the some from the flower/plant series. as well as the ones dealing with the gay S+M underground scene in New York during the 80s. so altogether great work he just made silver gelatin prints(which are what i developed in the photography lab is school). i also saw a bunch of damien hirst stuff (known for sawing open animals and displaying them in a glass case) and some more cindy sherman, this time more recent work. great stuff super exciting for me not so exciting for other people. also i got a new phone number so i will be emailing to those people who should have it namely my mother! so until later, tah darlings!

xoxo,
christie

edinbra...lassie

howdy do-well everyone i made it to scotland. so far it has been shite weather. and cold too! so here's a lowdown of what happened so far...tuesday evening in dublin was francesca's birthday so i stayed and celebrated with her we went to yamamori with paul and friends and the replacement christe, marie came as well not that i could ever be replaced! so we had dinner, paul ordered some sake, which basically tasted like turpintine, as my mother said about the glass of ouzo i had in greece! and then i started getting overly zealous about the tate modern in london, great museum by the way. i was telling pc about it and then on the other side of the table was francesca talking about something else and us both talking loudly and moving our hands a lot and paul pointing out that it is like watching a mirror when we both talk. so great dinner, afterwards patrick made an apple crumble for us, great job!

wed. my flight left at 3:25pm to edinburgh. i would have taken a more envirometally sound mode of transpartation like a bus or a train but it would be like 24hours by different modes of transportation so no thanks. so i got into town and it was pouring, actually it was pouring in dublin so it was shite weather where i was and shite weather where i was going. christie grumpy by the weather. so i caught the hostel bus to the hostel and found out it was in the middle of nowhere. you need to catch the bus to get into town so what i will be doing on saturday when francesca visits me is staying at a different hostel in city center and then finding one with a weekly rate. so that's the plan.

thursday i found the BUNAC office and made an appt. for orientation for friday. and yet again i think it is up to christie to find her own job and not let the man get her down because these people don't seem so competent. so we will see. i also went to the elephant house for lunch as well as the national gallery lots of old paintings again. as well as an exhibiton by a bunch of art students here in edinburgh entitled the new athenians. i watched a video for like an hour it was pretty interesting stuff. and some other imaginative stuff being done by the scots.

friday. i went to get my phone unlocked so that i could get a new sim card and that was a nightmare because meteor, my irish network locked my phone to only take their network card and their is no meteor in the UK so i found another one and hopefully i can set that up tonight. i am going to send emails to temp agencies tomorrow as well as go to the camera obscura museum. it is supposed to have the best view in town as well a 150 year old camera obscura contraption. oooohh...i hope no one is jealous. so that's it for now lads.
xoxo,
christie

i will try not be so crabby about the cold and rain and broken umbrella and being soaked to the bone and my shoes never drying out. but hey at least i haven't seen any junkies yet, or been asked directions anywhere. i was told by someone that i look like a tourist, and i said "that's the point!" so no Q&As for me!

Cork, Dublin, Paris, London, Dublin, Edinburgh

Well readers when last your hero left you she had just arrived back to dublin with stories galore.

so friday was cork day, i wanted to take the 2pm bus to Cork out of Dublin, it is a 4.5 hour drive so if i left too late it would be dark and i wouldn't get to see or do too much in the city. unfortunately i missed the 2pm bus so i was going to take the 2:30pm bus but i couldn't because there was no end to the line for the bus! so it was the 4pm bus for me and then because there was a blockage around Kilkenny which made the bus ride 5.25 hours long. so i found my hostel and then wondered around Cork but i didn't see much as it was dark out. but saturday was a really busy day. i started out by signing up for a film to go and see as there was a film festival in cork that weekend. I saw the Shutka Book of Records, an area in the Balkan region, and one of the poorest areas in the Europe but wealth is not determined by typical riches but by a man's ability to reinvent himself. The best quote of the film was "Don't look for Shutka on a geographical map. Shutka is a state of Mind." I later went to 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep, in which the director was there to do a QA after the film. This film was about the Pamir Kirghiz, a tribe native to the Pamir region of Central Asia, They speak a form of Turkish but the film was all about the Kirghiz nomadic way of life being in jeapordy due to other countries power struggles during the late 19th century through till now. The last film i saw was a double feature in which the first film "King for a Day" was a film by an irish director that was a dream like state in which a zealot mother locks her daughter in her room after she finds her reading the book 120 days of Sodom by Marquis De Sade. the second film was "A Curious Incident In The Life of Uri Geller". Uri Geller is known for being able to bend a spoon with his mind and he was asked to make a film about a Plaza in Venice in which some really freaky things were happening to the group. i was freaked out enough by the film that i started grabbing the arm of the person next to me. the poor thing having to deal with me. so aside from the films i also wandered around the city and made it too the blarney stone. so i don't recommend going to the castle unless you have good knees and balance. it is quite difficult to walk to the top of the castle as the stones were worn smooth in the spiral staircase, with no handrail! but it was a great 14th century castle and i did not kiss the stone. so sunday morning i got up at about 7:30am to catch the bus back to dublin and got back about 12:30 in the afternoon.

Monday: so i got a ride from patrick to the airport on monday morning to fly to france. i was trapped between two french people on the airplane, who would not give up an arm rest to me, bastards! but i fell asleep anyway, when i landed i had to take an hour bus ride into paris and then find a metro, as i had no map. so once at the hostel i unpacked some things and then out on the street i went to the Arc de Tromphe Etoile and then the Palais de Challot where i turned around to see the Eiffel Tower. The next day was louvre day when i went to get in line, i was saddened to find out that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays. so I had to settle for the Orsay museum with all french art, not bad but not exactly what i wanted. After i went to Notre Dame, Palace and Garden of Luxemborg Opera House, Palace du la Madeline, St. Augustine Caterdral another Church and the Pantheon. On my way back to my hostel i decide to go to the Sacre Coeur so i got off the metro at a station which once above ground realized i was in the ghetto so i walked really quickly to the next station and gave up hope of finding the church. in the morning i was looking at a guide book about paris and it said pretty much whatever you do don't go to this area-metro.

wednesday i took the metro then the train to the airport to London. i arrived in london about 10am as the plane was late getting into the airport. then i took a bus into town and then the underground to the hotel. but i found that the line i needed to take was closed as there was a fire. so i didn't get to the hotel until close to noon. but after that my aunt earleen my uncle charlie, myself and our tour guide Sue drove around London and then on to the Westminster Abbey. and at night the National Gallery, lots of 16th century to 19th century painting.

Thursday we did some touring around London, we went to the Tate Modern and passed by the globe theater. I was able to see Cindy Sherman photographs as well as a film by her. I also saw text art by Jenny Holzer two of my favorite artists and i purchased a guerrila girls tshirt. I also made it into the SoHo area of London where i saw lots of little shops and markets. This was also the day that my corduroy pants died and i was down to one pair of pants but i was able to find a pair in a shop in Leister square.

Friday was Oxford day. Sue, our guide, took us to the college where we wondered the streets and learned some interesting facts about the university. for instance the University of Oxford actually contains several schools within the University and these are the people that you live with but not necessarily go to classes with you, so they're not all lawyers or whatever. it was a beautiful city and we had a great day. and i also got to peek into the hall where some of harry potter was filmed ooooohh...

Saturday my family and i parted ways and i went to do some things i wanted to do and they went and got checked in for the eurostar they were taking on thursday. So while they were doing that and going to the theater to see Chicago, starring ashley simpson. so i went to the Portabella Market, where over 2000 stalls are in place for your shopping needs. Then i went to the Victoria and Albert museum where i saw some Dave Chihuly glass works (check out the UMD library rotunda and look up). Then i also went to the Natural History Museum but i couldn't find the Dodo bird. I got back on the metro and went to the Tate Britain where i saw lots of british art and then some great contemporary art as well as a huge exhibition of Turner's work the sublime landscape, brilliant. Then i went back to the hotel to organize my things for my flight back to dublin. So once in the metro i took the metro to the train station, where i took the train to the airport. On the way to the airport on the train all trains were stopped in all directions because there was a fatality on the tracks. so we were all speculating that someone committed suicide on the train tracks during rush hour. so people were getting off the train to take buses and taxis to the airport so the traffic was insane everywhere. the poor person only got attention for 40 minutes and then we were back on track to the airport. so i made the check in time by 20 minutes and i was through security and waiting for the gate to be announced for my flight so this flight was also 40 minutes late in leaving. so i was a bit worried if i was going to be able to take the last bus from dublin airport towards my house. but i was able to take the last bus at the airport at 11:25pm so i got home at around midnight. a long day finally done. so that was the shortened version of all the stuff i have done this past week. and on wednesday i will leave for edinburgh scotland! travel travel. so that's all sorry to keep you on the edge of your seat.

xoxo,
christie

Napflio

So now that i finally have the name right of where i was staying in greece i can finally tell you more about what i did and saw i have probably forgot a lot of the details so i may have to blog again after consulting my journal. so here it goes...

Friday we visited Myceane (i studied the myceanean culture in college, history of world art 1) and i saw the lions gate which they are very famous for as well as the Agemenmon death mask which was the ruler during the peak of the culture as well as pythos and dun dun dun my favorite greek vase, i forgot what style it was but it has an octupus on it, wow wow wow, it's so cool when you study something and then finally see it in real life! then we went to another ruin and saw them reconstructing some doric columns from a temple of zeus, not so great. by this time i am really sick of greek salad and tomatoes in general!

Saturday A.M. we went to the market in town bought some vegetables and local wine (aka the year on it was September 2006 and it came in a 1.5Liter water bottle!) then after that we went to the beach and with a map not to any sort of scale tried to find some art galleries. later in the afternoon we went to Tolo, basically the "sandy" beach area where there is about oh 5 feet wide! this was also the night of the rain storm in which it started raining as we were driving back from the beach and we waited in the car to prevent absolute soaking and when it did let up and we got up to walk to our apartment the streets were flooded and the water was about 2.5 inches high!

Sunday: we tried to go to a gorge, but we had bad driving instructions so we didn't make it:(sadface). but we did make it to the castle in our own town of Napflio and it was absolutely cool the foretress built in the 18th century by the venetians. lots of climing and the windows were angled so that arrows could go out but not much could come in, it was also devised so that if it was infilatrated there was a way to defend the part that hadn't been infilatrated.

Monday: I made the family Crepes and then we went somewhere i think but i can't remember to be continued...

Tuesday: My family put me on a bus from Nafplio to Athens. Well guys i can't believe it but Athens is more dirty then Dublin! i didn't think it was possible what with all the drunks but with the sand and the dogs and cats and the people on the tiny antique streets and the ugly european modern buildings not a place i would recommend spending a lot of time in, i would go to Nafplio, just gorgeous, or an island or something. so once at the bus station i took another bus to the city center, for 50 cents! and i had a combined ticket because then i had to take the metro from where the bus dropped me to Montastaraki square where my hostel was. well on both these bus rides i noticed a girl traveling by herself which after we got off the bus i took the opportunity to ask her if she was looking for her hostel and where it was, we were at different hostels but within a 7 minute walk of each other so we got on the metro and went to our prospective hostels but then we met at the Acropolis at 4pm! yeah instant companion Chiara from Milano, another italian! so she was 19 and just starting at the University this year and she loved greek culture, and alexander the great! so we had things to tell each other about the Parthanon and and the theater etc. but i was so impressed 19, only knowing a bit of greek navigating greece on buses by herself! wow. so then we had dinner together looked around the city a bit and then out for an ouzo to finish the night. this is a traditional greek alcohol in which it is clear but you put ice in it and it turns foggy. it is made from aniseed and tastes nice if you get a good one. i had a bad one on saturday, it didn't turn foggy when you add ice.

Wednesday: i got on the bus at 2:30am to get my flight out of athens at 5am i didn't do much research for flights and only paid attention to the first flight out of dublin, oops! the bus ride with no traffic takes about 45minutes to the airport! and on the way to the airport i saw that someone had gotten hit by a car on the highway, yikes not the last image i wanted in my head of athens but...so i made it to the airpot and checked in for my flight. once again i fell asleep b4 the plane even lifted off the ground but i woke up in time for my greek vegetarian meal, this one was a lot tastier then the irish one with a little spanikopita as well as a sesame seed vegetable thing and some yogurt with honey. once in prague, i had 3 hours in the airport, ugh! so i slept for about 2 and then went to find out where my flight was leaving from. once on the plane i was thinking to myself, just once on a flight i want to sit next to an attractive young guy! yeah! and bingo i did, but unfortunately he didn't speak much english at all only Czech bummer! so since they didn't have a vegetarian meal for me on this flight i just had a beer at 10am in the morning! i know terrible. and the 2 Czech guys were saying just beer! and i was like well i'm going back to dublin so i thought i would get an early start. but they didn't get the joke. but then toward the end of the flight they were a little drunk so they started trying to talk to me and teach me some Czech words they were flying to dublin in order to watch the Czech republic play Ireland in football. by the end of the flight i was excited to get off the plane and get on a bus to a familiar place. so i got home and ate some lunch at about 1:30pm then i hopped back on another bus to the Botanical Gardens, which was absolutely beautiful i learned all sorts of useles facts like the banana is not a tree but the largest herbaceous plant in the world. i have no idea what that means google it! so then i got home and went out for a tea with francesca went to our house for dinner and then out for a hot whiskey.

Thursday: i got up and went to an art exhibition about the deforistation in the US, but looking at it critically it just looked like some photos of trees to me! then i went to the book of kells! finally, and i have to say i was not so impressed, i was rather disappointed, i studied it in school so i was really excited but in the end they did a poor job of the little pre book of kells, history of the world at that time, tools used, pigments etc. it wasn't it irish which every museum i have been to has it in irish and english which is a nice feature and they took images from the book and blew them up on the walls so they were kind of pixilated once you looked at them closely. and then the book, well they have taken the book apart and have 2 books made, one with the images and one with the text, not so cool. but i did see the very first page of the book of kells, so in latin it says in the beginning there was the word of god and the word said...so on and so forth kind of cool to see the first page. not really worth the 7euro but i think it is a requirement when you are in dublin that you see it. later on in the evening i made a yummy vegetable lentil pie with goat cheese, very nice. then we also had some chocolate salami! fran made it while i was away with the special italian biscuits that you can't get here in dublin, but you can in greece so i brought some back with me for her. so good day.

Friday: Cork today, i accidentally deleted my info for my flight on monday to paris, oops so i had to call ryan air and get my flight info, thanks for nothing ryan air, they are not helpful at all and they hang up on you as quickly as they can! but i got the info and i am ready for monday and paris, with my european language book! so ciao for now i will write more about greece later.

xoxo,
christie

greece or bust!

hey babes! well i made it to greece with little to no hastle. prague from above looks like a great place to visit, so i am thinking about it. but i would at this point rather go to Oulu, Finland where the world championchips of air guitar are held. for some reason i am having trouble formulating correct english sentences! well better luck next time. so anyway there is a 2 hour time difference between greece and dublin so i was a little confused by the time i flew into athens, but my mother was there to greet me when i walked through the customs gate. and i got padded down twice while in the dublin airport and the prague airport! but i didn't need to take off my shoes so i'm not too sure what to think of that. but in greece today my first official day here thursday, it was slightly humid with a high of 86F or about 30 degrees! beautiful i'm so glad to get out of dublin for a while! and we are staying in a smaller city called Napfoli i may have spelled that wrong but hey you get the point, it's nice and even the sidewalks are made of marble! so that's what i have to report right now not too much more. so ciao ciao. i don't know how to say goodbye in greek, oh well it's all greek to me!

xoxo,
christie