Visiting World UNESCO Sites

I came across the World UNESCO Sites list and was surprised to see I had seen a few of the sites. I still have so much more of the world to see and I know I need to go further East but it’s cool to see I have visited some of the less exotic locales:

Austria
Palace and Gardens of Schonbrunn
Historic Centre of Vienna [IG Photo]

Belize – Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System [PHOTOS]

Cuba – Old Havana and its Fortification System [PHOTOS]

Dominica – Morne Trois Pitons National Park

France – Paris, Banks of the Seine [PHOTOS]

Germany – Cologne Cathedral

Guatemala (I’ve been to all 3)
Antigua Guatemala
Tikal National Park
Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua

Hungary – Budapest [PHOTOS]

Italy
Historic Center of Florence
Verona

Mexico – Historic Centre of Oaxaca [PHOTOS]

Spain (I spent the summer of 1994 touring Spain)
Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzin, Granada
Historic Centre of Cordoba
Monastery and Site of the Escorial, Madrid
Works of Antoni Gaudi
Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias
Old Town of Avila with its Extra-Muros Churches
Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct
Historic City of Toledo
Cathedral, Alcazar and Archivo de Indias in Seville
Old City of Salamanca

UK
Tower of London
Edinburgh [IG Photo]

USA
Statue of Liberty [IG Photo]
Independence Hall
Glacier Bay [PHOTOS}
San Antonio Missions

So many more amazing places to see – look forward to adding to this list in my lifetime!

TTT: June 6th, 1996

My first full day in Paris!

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Paris

Wearily wake up and get our butts moving. Get supplies for lunch (mayo, cheese, ham, bread, juice) plus get stamps (successfully!) and take subway to Le Tour Eiffel where we plan to meet Marianne [D’s friend]. Because of a subway strike (yes, another strike), it took a bit longer.

Too cheap to pay for the privilege of walking up the stairs, we contented ourselves with walking underneath. Had a picnic lunch on the lawn (Parc de Champ de Mars) and rested an hour before making our way to Le Palais Royal and its gardens. Walked across Le Pont des Arts (where the river splits) towards L’Ecole des Beaux Arts and ended up at a cafe along St. Germain.

Note –> we found out later why the coffee was so expensive (34 Ff). We had picked Cafe Fleure, a cafe that has inspired writers [such] as Sartre. *

[To] celebrate our days in Paris,we buy a bottle of cheap champagne, meet up with Marianne again at the Georges V Metro on Le Champs-Elysee and guzzle it down under L’Arc de Triomphe!

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* Fact-checking this and I had the cafe spelled wrong, it was Cafe de Flore, and Sartre did not go there but other famous intellectuals did.

TTT: June 5th, 1996

This is my journal entry from the 5th day of our trip. We had already landed in London, taken the Chunnel Train from London to Paris, visited Sacre-Coeur and stayed a couple of days in Palis, a small village an hour and half southeast of Paris where my travel mate’s aunt, uncle & cousin lived.

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Palis to Paris

Took train from Troyes to Gare du Est, Paris. Come in the middle of a protest march. The electrical workers are demonstrating against the raising of rates tomorrow as well as the idea of privatization [see pic below].

Took Metro to Chatelet and walked to Notre Dame. Walked alongside the river towards Le Louvre. Walked through L’Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and relaxed in the shade in les Jardin des Tuileries.

Walked to the Obelisk and La Place de la Concorde and then made it to a Metro and found our way back to Le Gare du Est. Couldn’t get a hold of Olivier and began to panic – we had no place to go!

We took our luggage (because of terrorist problems, station lockers closed up!) out of consignment and lugged it back to the train station. Our plan was to call Olivier and/or Dave’s friend Marianne every 15 minutes till we found someone.

Upon a 2nd try, we did find Olivier & our moods instantly lifted. We jumped back on our subway and made our way to 28 rue de Chazelles via le Courcelles subway.

Olivier graciously took us in (after mistakenly going to the ‘2nd’ – he lives on the 3rd – our 4th) and we had dinner,where I finally met his fiancee, Lawrence.

Got cleaned up and prepared to meet David’s friend Marianne and her friends at the steps of the Bastille Opera House at 11 PM. Upon arriving, I noticed Stephan G. at the steps! [French grad student I had know in college] He was also meeting a friend but he was late so we decided to have him meet up up at a local bar, His friend, Michael, turned out to be another INTS major [my college major] from Texas A&M. We hung out at a couple of bars and just to show how people know people, here is a quick diagram…

Libby (Dallas) <-> Alison (Dallas) <-> Katell (France) <-> Marianne (Boston U) <-> Dave (I knew him from high school) <-> ME -> Stephane (A&M) AND Michael (A&M)

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Review: Merde Happens

Merde Happens by Stephen Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third in a series by Clarke featuring Paul West, a British ex-pat living in Paris. This time, Paul takes his adventures overseas to America. But don’t worry, he still continues to give his hilarious opinion on the French since his French girlfriends comes along for the adventure.

I agree with another reviewer that this may be his best of the series or at least as good as the first one, A Year in the Merde. Merde Happens was a quick read that had me chuckling to myself and looking forward to the next time I could pick it back up.

This book and the whole series is especially fun if you have every studied French, have experience with the French or have traveled France although not a requirement since Clarke is a wonderful humor writer. He really captures the conversation and somehow has mastered the ability to write in comedic timing!

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Foto Friday #2: Eiffel Tower

It had always been a dream of mine to spend Christmas in Paris and one year when I suggested it to Kenny he responded with “Why don’t we do it this year?”. So in December of 2004 we flew over and spent the holidays in that beautiful city!

It was not my first time in Paris but it still always enchants me each time I go! Despite having been on various occasions, I had always been too cheap (or poor as a student) to actually go up the Eiffel Tower so I was determined to go this time.

It was so cloudy I could hardly see anything once we got up there and it was so cold and windy we struggled to stay up there too long but despite all that, it was still a memorable experience.

The shot below is one of my favorites from that trip. It was taken with a very simple digital point & shoot camera, hand held with the flash off (no fancy DSLR here). I just love how lucky I was that the beams of light were perfectly horizontal when the picture snapped and the clouds were lit up with the tower’s lights.