A weekend in Canterbury

Somewhere in between of Whitstable and Hernesbay

Hello,

I know I haven't updated my blog for a long time. That is because I was away, in India. I understand that many of you would like me to write about that. But the things that I have seen and experienced there during 3 weeks cannot possibly be captured by a camera or described in words and put in a blog entry.

So last weekend I went Canterbury to visit a friend, Elena, who was my coursemate once. She lives (with 3 Lithuanians and one Georgian!) in a city centre, just above the Greek taverna that she works in. On Saturday which was very nice and sunny we walked around Canterburry a bit. It is a small cozy town but it is full of people (kind of tourists). Anyway it is nice to be in a place where you can reach everything on foot. We managed to get in the famous Cathedral (symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion) for free - normallyit's 9 pound per person. We did that in the sneaky Lithuanian way, hehe - we just went in through some other entry (it is a big area with walls, gardens, etc.) where a sign "no entry" was hanging. The Brittish have this strange believe that people just blindly follow signs no matter what....

The next day we went to Whitstable, another small cozy city on the coast of the North Sea. It has lots of nice beach houses. But for me, Lithuanian, it will always feel odd when there are houses on the beach. So later we set for a journey to the nature. It was quite spontaneous - I bought a nice postcard with castle on the cliffs by the sea and then we found out that the place in the picture is close by. We took a bus to Hernes bay and from there we walked, as the castle was already seen from there. Nevertheless, it took us about 2hours to walk there. According to googlemaps, it's almost 4 miles one way. But we also had to go back :) was fine with me, as I do a lot of walking during work.

And now I am leaving for Wales in a minute.

See you!

There is a chair hanging in the air above the boat. It was used to check if somebody is a Witch. Yes, really, from those times.

Cathedral gardens

Gardens

This house has sth to do with Dickens. Canterbury is his hometown. As well as Orlando Bloom's.

Whitstable seaside. Houses are like in Nida.

Hernesbay. You can see the Castle at the end. In reality it looked much closer than in the pic :)

The castle's remains. Ah, it was actually a church, as we found out later.

The pic for my postcard was taken somewhere here, just in autumn I guess as everythings so brown.

Pleasure for eyes.

I didnt swim but I let my feet to feel the water. Not too cold.

A weekend in Italy: Florence and Bologna

Florence from up a hill

Hi

so yes I went to Italy one weekend in March. I visited my friend who is in Bologna for Erasmus. It was very lovely. I was amazed by the beauty....

We met and spent the first day in Florence. It is a beautiful city, can't deny. The churches have interesting white exterior. But everything is soooo touristic that it is not nice anymore...

We came back to Bologna the same evening and spent the next day walking around the city, relaxing in a beautiful park and looking for a supermarket that would be open on Sunday :))) in the evening we cooked some grated potatoes with mushroom sauce as a Lithuanian speciality. It was highly approved and praised :)

That was a great weekend - I did enjoy the country. The Italian ice-cream is really as good as they say. I have met one of the most freaky people ever. The nature seems to be beautiful (even though I have not really been there). And, seriously, for some reason Bologna seemed to be more appealing than Paris :) maybe because of cheerful, colourful houses or calm, cozy rhythm that was opposing the always busy London.

The first thing to catch my eye on my arrival at Bologna station - +22 in mid March.

[This weather came to London few days after that]

The Cathedral - Florence

Some other church, Florence

Florence, riverbanks and the famous bridge.

Cemetery, Florence (note the Cypresses....)

The streets of Bologna

Bologna

Bologna

In the park, Bologna

Falling asleep

The park

Funny car (I have seen quite a few of those)

Sooo many bikes, all the same style as this white one just different colours.

I have spotted some of these midgets trying to steal the signs. Sth has to be done!

Paris II. Montmartre and Père Lachaise cemetery

Sacre coeur in Montmartre

(Paris continued)

In the morning we went to have a walk Montmartre. It is a nice district with a cozy provincial-like feel.

Then I visited the famous Lachaise cemetery. Many famous people are buried there. I did not find many of them (didn't really try to), but it was a lovely walk. Beautiful place.

Later I relaxed in one park and walked around st Germain. Then I joined my host in one bar for some French songs. There was a guy playing a guitar and everybody got a booklet with lyrics and were singing along! A good pronunciation practice I would say and of course lots of fun. The bar was stuffed with the French singing their songs :)

To sum up, I had a very enjoyable weekend in Paris. Didn't really understand why everybody is so amazed by the city. It is nice, but not utterly beautiful. It has a lovely feel though, somewhat like Barcelona, but it is not that chaotic-noisy-southern as BCN, more subtle I would say.

Enjoy the pictures for now and wait for the next post about my last weekend in Italy!

Montmartre

Montmartre

Montmartre

Montmartre - the only vineyard in Paris

Montmartre, Moulin rouge

Cemetery

Cemetery, Crematorium

Crematorium
Chopin's grave
Some graves' exterior...

...and some interior

interior

Paris I. Sightseeing and visiting suburbs

The Parisian way... :)

Hello dears,

How did you start your spring? I started mine in Paris! I had an amazing weekend over there.

It started by taking an early train London-Paris. Train is so much easier and quicker than plane! No airport transfers, no security/check-in queues etc. Just two hours and you're there...

There I met a CSer, who was a very good host :)

We started from republique, went down to bastille, then Notre Dame and around.

Then I met a friend at Palais Royal, we went around the Louvre, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe and finished at the Eiffel tower. Then we had a quick look at the opera and I took a train to suburbs where I visited my relatives and the beautiful Chantilly castle.

In the evening I had to take a train back to Paris but the trains were cancelled because of construction works. Some night buses were supposed to go instead. But no one new when or how long and where will they take me, and on top of it nobody spoke English! I ended up in the middle of nowhere, at night, waiting [2hrs] for another bus which was already taking us to Paris where the metro was not going anymore.... What a mess, it was like Spain all over again. I was not ready for that :)) well at least I got back safe and sound, but it took a loooot of time :)

Ok now its picture time, the Paris story to be continued in the next post :)

Le Louvre

Contemporary Art Centre

The queue to Notre Dame is quite small, comparing to the ones for the Louvre and Eifel :)))

The Eifel area is a quite nice place to walk around :)
The Arc :)

Chantilly castle is very lovely and it has a huge park with channels behind it. All surrounded by the nature :)

Academics' house near the castle.