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.

Three Wheeled Robin Car

"What? Three wheeled car?" - might be what you are thinking... "Why? How come?" Just be patient and I will tell you a story about the Robin, that was very popular in UK in the 70's.

I first heard about Robin when I was watching Top Gear with the kids. I am not into cars at all, but that programme has some interesting stuff to share! And this one is so exciting, who could even imagine! Apparently Robin was first manufactured in 1973 and became very popular because it was categorized as a motorcycle. So the driver didn't need to get a car drivers licence and saved a lot on taxes. These were the main reasons why Robin became so popular. It was The Car in late 70s in some parts of the UK. Of course it could not go too fast and was not very stable [the top gear guy was constantly rolling over], but people still loved it! Internet sources say that blue robin appears pretty often on Mr Bean and on the whole is a frequent joke topic. I have seen it when I was in Brighton. It is narrower than a usual car, but it does look attractive!

You can smile or frown but you have to agree - that is sth interesting innovative and just ingenious!

Birmingham :)

Stratford upon Avon

Last weekend I went to Birmingham to visit my dear classmate :) We had a fun weekend!

On Saturday we went to Stratford upon Avon, a place where Shakespeare was born. The weather was so nice and the city is cozy. We visited butterfly farm which was delightful. Firstly, it was very warm in there, a true relief for the whole body. And then there was butterflies fluttering all around waving their little wings... beautiful. Not girly-glimmering-pink-butterfly-ish beautiful, but really delightfully heavenly beautiful.

Then we found a nice pub where Shakespeare was drinking and writing. We had nice lunch there and watched a bit of rugby, there was an important match and everybody around was so excited :) And I understood what is the game about :)))

In the evening we went Warwick and just walked around.

And we finished the day with a dub/ska/reggae concert, which was really nice :) it was different from the ones in Lithuania, though. Firstly, there were people of ALL AGES, and secondly, ppl were not reggae ppl. There were punks and ordinary ppl and some pink-blond kind of ladies :))

On Sunday we had a walk in Birmingham, but it was rainy and cold so we did not stay there for long...

Butterfly farm

Butterflies

Farm

Warwick castle

Shakespeare's house

Reggae concert place. Guess what time is it?

Birmingham

Brimingham

Birmingham :)