European Adventure-- Traveling

Day 0: Escaping the States

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Ithaca, NY, New York JFK, London Heathrow

After spending all morning running around frantically getting my financials in order ("No, see, you can't freeze my accounts, I'm leaving for EUROPE tomorrow."), I hopped on the bus for New York City. When the bus pulled into the port authority terminal and the driver started yelling, "Everyone out," I had the interesting realization that I would have to go take a little adventure on the New York City subway system if I wanted to actually get to JFK. Luckily, I am the sort of traveler who leaves myself plenty of extra time, so even after the subway shenanigans (in which I did not get lost at all), I arrived at the airport with enough time for a quick dinner before hopping my overnight flight to London.

Imagine spending all day in a bus, then underground, and finally taking a glass elevator up and up and up until you are above NYC, being greeted by a spectacular sunset. It was a great way to end the US part of my travels.

Day 1: A Night in France

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Lyon, France

I had a good 6 hour layover in Heathrow, so I took the time to exchange some money, get some real food (and some Cadbury chocolate), and buy another book for the road (Dorian Grey, as I was nearly finished with Please Don't Come Back from the Moon). My second flight was much tinier and much shorter, and I touched down in Lyon, France before I knew it.

Countryside on the way in to France. When the mountains appeared on the horizon, I honestly thought I was flying in to the Swiss Miss hot coco can-- they were huge, perfect white peaked mountains, almost not believable.

I gabbed a bus in to the city center and found our hostel for the night. I asked the receptionist if he spoke English, and when he said no, I dove right in to my first real French conversation. He kept offering to carry my suitcase to my room, and when I kept refusing, he just said, "Fine. You'll see." Turns out the spiral staircase to our 6th floor room was more like climbing a mountain than climbing stairs.

At their widest point, each step was wide enough to fit 3/4 of the length of my shoe. I really thought I would fall and break a few bones at the least.

I met Haley on the bridge over the Rhone River (very romantic), and we walked back to the hostel, where I climbed the stairs for the 4th time that night. With an early morning coming up, we were quick getting ready for bed.

The bridge where I met Haley. Although I would love to see more of Lyon during the day, it sure was beautiful at night, all lit up.

Hockey Season Wrap Up

Just a little wrap up of the hockey season-- I know most of you aren't that interested in hockey, so here's a story in pictures:

We finally got the cinnamon sugar pretzel we'd been dying for since the beginning of the season. Why did it take us so long?? We decided we could only get it between periods if they were winning, and for some reason the concession stand was always out by then. But it was beyond delicious, and worth the wait.
I made bear mittens to match my bear hat-- they're great for pounding against the glass. The first time I wore them, we arrived insanely early, and came across Colin Greening (captain) playing soccer in the hallway, and Patrick Kennedy sitting in the stands listening to his ipod. I think they were lucky. By the way, for you bear hat skeptics, I have already made an sold one, and have orders for several more.
Hillary in her jersey (a birthday gift from me), getting ready for the game. It rained all the way there, and we spent the game soaked and cold, but still happy.

We said goodbye to 5 great players on senior night. Because name/number/position of each player would be boring, I'll add an interesting tidbit for each and let you draw the conclusions. #15: Captain and forward Colin Greening (great leader), #24: Forward Brendon Nash (always smiles), #5: defenseman Justin Krueger (danced to the German anthem), #28: Defensive forward Joe Scali (scrappy player, very Italian), and #30: Goalie Ben Scrivens (best goalie ever, loves the fans).Hillary caught a puck tossed out at the end of the period-- she made a very impressive pounce for it and beat out the competition. She then got it signed by Scrivens, the goalie.

Europe Headlines Update

So, just some quick updates (no pics yet, sorry) on my Europe Extravaganza:

Travel: The bus to NYC, flight to London, 6 hour layover in Heathrow, flight to Lyon, bus to the city center, and walk to my hostel added up to quite the travel time. To top it all off, Haley and I had to get up at 5:30 the next morning to catch a bus back to the airport and hop a plane to Spain. I was exhausted, to say the least.

Spain--

Day 1: Got there mid-morning, spent a lot of time searching for our hostel with our suitcases in tow. Once we found it, we walked bag-free around some of the shopping areas, then tried (and failed) to get in to the Palaccio Real (Royal Palace).

Day 2: Slept in a bit, then found churros con chocolate for breakfast. Spent most of the day at Museo del Prado-- a lot more exhausting than you would think. Got lunch from an alimentation (grocery store), and diner from street venders. Changed hostels to an International Youth Hostel-- much busier, and we slept in a dorm rather than a private room.

Day 3: Woke up early to head back to the Palaccio Real, which was now open. After touring around, we hopped the metro to the big flea market that happens on Sundays-- very, very crowded. Spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in the Retiro park, then went to a flamenco show at night.

Day 4: Went to the bull ring in the morning, then walked around and did some souvenir shopping before catching the metro back to the airport, a plane back to Lyon, and a bus back to Haley's place in Chambery. I was glad I wasn't the one who had to get up for class the next morning.

More on Chambery to come, stay tuned...

Bucket Hat

March 9th, 2010

My new hat! I knit this from some of my christmas yarn, which was a fabulous silk-alpaca blend. The buttons were a lucky find-- they came as extras with one of my button-down shirts, and just happened to look perfect on the hat. I finished it just in time to have a less-wooly hat for the beginning of spring and my trip to Europe.  Details of the project, and the pattern as a free download, can be found here.

Chili Fest

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Ithaca Commons, Ithaca, NY

On this beautiful, only moderately cold Saturday morning, Tahra, Hillary, Melissa, Robbie, Illika and I headed down to the commons to take part in Ithaca's annual chili cook off.  We sampled everything from the dragon's breath spicy chili, to the belgian chocolate and paprika chili, to Thai chili.  

For some reason, one of the booths had set out sour cream, shredded cheese, and chocolate chips as the chili topping options.  So, of course, we had to give it a try.  It pretty much tasted like candy in chili.

This chili was a blend of spices, pinto beans, tomatoes, and LOVE.

But of course, that's just the "chili" part.  There's also the "fest" side of things.  This included several radio station booths, a guitar hero contest, karaoke, and a mechanical bull.  In spite of the very, very public setting-- a whole crowd was milling around just to watch people make fools of themselves on the bull-- I could pass up the opportunity to check mechanical bull riding off my life goals list.  A little public embarrassment never hurt anyone, right?

The bull was surrounded by a nice, cushy inflatable arena.  The bull itself was insanely slippery, made of shiny hard plastic. It didn't have to get going very fast for most people to just slide off the side, which was probably a safety precaution.

Hillary and Tahra both participated in a contest that one of the radio stations was holding-- dance by yourself, with everyone watching, for a minute.  It's amazing how many people were unwilling to do this, even for a $10 gift certificate.

Skate Night

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Lynah Rink, Ithaca, NY

In spite of hockey's depressing loss against Yale earlier that night (which we will not speak of), the free skate following the game was a blast.  Tahra even made it out on the ice this time-- last fall's skate night, her duties as a skate team member kept her locked behind the counter.  I really enjoy the speed and maneuverability of hockey skates.  Although this was only the second time I've ever used them, they feel familiar because the shape and style is very similar to snowboard boots.

Hillary and I enjoyed a brief moment on the Cornell hockey bench, looking at old play books.

Travel Plans

Just a quick update-- I finally just bought my plane tickets to go visit my friend Haley over spring break while she's off studying abroad in Chambery, France.  Plans are under way to see other parts of Europe while I'm there, which is very exciting.  So far my only experience with Europe has been a crazy 12 hours in London, and I'm itching to try out my French on native speakers.  Here's a link to Haley's blog about her travels in France, to give you an idea of where I'm headed (but also to plug her blog-- I know she loves having more followers).