September 20 2018

The Eiffel tower

Beautiful from far away and during the night but, when you get up close to it, it can be a little bit underwhelming. I suppose I had hyped up this image of my first visit to the Eiffel Tower since I was young so my expectations were really high. 

 I can honestly see why some Parisians back in the day thought that it was the ugliest thing and wanted it taken down. Maybe if it was a different color or something it would spice it up a bit.

Anyways one of the things that my grandma requested that I should do while in Paris is to go on a boat on the Seine River in Paris. So, I did what she said and it was actually a wonderful experience. On the boat tour I learned more of Paris' history. Instead of just walking past random landmarks and thinking "oh thats cool" I was able to understand the significance of it. 

Some travelers would say if you want to save money while traveling don't go on tours just explore the area yourself. I am completely down for this but on some occasions while you are wandering streets of some city you are missing the history and some of the cultural things that you would not have known without doing a tour. 

September 19 2018

The Louvre!

What used to come to peoples minds when they thought of the Louvre was the Mona Lisa and all the other beautiful art kept inside the museum. Now all people think about is Beyonce and Jay Z's Ape Shit music video. 

If you are an Art History lover this is the place for you. Everything that you see in the textbooks is basically in this museum. Me, not being an art history lover, probably wasn't able to enjoy as much as I should. As I stated in the previous post, after a while of looking at all this ancient art things kind of start to blend together and I eventually became numb to the beautiful art surrounding me. 

Also, I can't really relate to most of the art located in these museums all that much. Not because of the obvious time difference between the ancient art and modern times. But, because out of ALL the European museums that I've been to, I can probably count on my fingers and toes the number of black people pictured in the paintings or carved in to statues or busts. It's almost has become a game amongst my friends to find a black face amongst the ancient European art. I completely understand that the black people of course weren't really apart of the everyday ancient European life but, it would have been nice to include some art from some African countries that aren't Egypt. 

Then I can also go down the rabbit hole and argue that the art from those countries should stay in those countries. But, then this post would be too long, and I would need to do more research. 

September 18, 2018

France!

My school took us on a 5 day trip of Paris and on our first day there we went to Versailles!

I have seen so much art since I have been in Europe I almost feel like I'm becoming numb to it. I am not really in awe of it like I was when I first got to Italy. 

Now, I look up at a beautifully painted ceiling or pass by a statue and just think "Cool." 

I wonder how Europeans feel being surrounded by beautiful things all the time. Do they still admire it or does it become just like any other thing?

September 8th 2018

 Visited Cinque Terre, a place that I had seen many times on Pinterest and Instagram finally became real life.

 It was beautiful, and just as I pictured it to be. 

Hopefully you enjoy these pics!

One morning at 5:30, my friends and I woke up and headed to Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sunrise. Our original plan was to catch the sunset the night before but, things just didn't work out that day. So in the morning, we walked across the Arno, trekked up a steep hill and quite a bit of steps and finally reached the Piazzale Michelangelo.

Surprisingly there were already people there early in the morning either taking pictures, enjoying their view, or just finishing their morning run. The view was breathtaking. As the sun started rising and the sky started changing colors the view became even more beautiful.