Hello from Lisbon!!
I am going to do my best and keep everyone updated throughout the ten days that I am traveling that way I won't forget after I return or more important while I actually have time away from school to write!
At this very moment I am sitting in my very first hostel and everyone is taking a siesta in preparation for a very late, European-style night in Lisbon. No one goes out until around 2am here and no one wakes up until around 11....my kind of place. We got in very late last night, so not much to tell from yesterday; however today we went to a beautiful Cathedral and to the Castle St. George, which i will post pictures of soon!
We also went to the original city that existed before Lisbon, called Belham, about seven minutes out of the main city and on the coast. Today I tried the strongest coffee in the entire world, who knew? And I also had a fabulous seafood lunch for only twelve euros! Portugal is by far the most authentic European city we have visited thus far. It has all of the best influences of French, Spanish, and Italian architecture and is full of vibrant colors everywhere you look! The people are incredibly friendly also! Overall, I must say that I am very impressed and also pleasantly surprised by how much I really love Lisbon! The only complaint I have, is the people have the most annoyinggggg accent! Every "s" is pronounced "sh" instead. For instance you would here "shoup" instead of soup; it basically sounds like everyone has a lisp. VERY frustrating to me for some reason. They even pronoun the name of their city "lishboa" ugh.
Tonight we are going to a place called LUX, it is supposedly one of the top five clubs in all of Europe. There are about 10 of us from London in Lisbon so tonight will be very fun! Tomorrow afternoon, Azzurra, Claire, and I leave for Madrid, another place I cannot wait to go!
Its hailing in Egypt, there is a tsunami headed for Hawaii and the french airport is on strike while the rest of Europe is suffering from severe wind storms and heavy rainfall, so I have a feeling the majority of our flights and other forms of transportation are going to be a pain. Yesterday we were stuck in London Gatwick airport for six hours because our plane couldn't make it out of Morocco due to sandstorms. What a fabulous time to have a ten day travel break! It is incredibly windy here in Lisbon, but we haven't had to deal with rain yet, I hope the rest of the trip follows suit!
I hope all is well in Memphis and hopefully one of these days I will get to tell you all about Egypt! Until then, I hope to keep my spring break blog up-to-date! Talk to you from Madrid!
Love,
Carson
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
EGYPT photos
Hi all,
Hope to have a blog up sometime this weekend BUT i honestly cannot tell you when that might be, just stay tuned!
For now...the photos :)
the great pyramids
camel riding through the sahara
my camel's name was Valentino
Sphinx
Sphinx of Memphis, Egypt :)
the Step Pyramids in Memphis, the oldest in all of Egypt
hanging out in memphis
the Nile River
what is known as the Hanging Church
view of the city from the Muhammad Ali Mosque, not the boxer but the pharaoh, who knew?
the outside of the Mosque
inside
providing some bus-time entertainment as i tend to always do
extremely wind-blown, sandstorm was brewing, yuck
Valentino was very subborn and decided to just take a seat and hang out for a while instead of going, so she then had to be pulled for a bit (she was not pleased)
sandy photo of Azzurra, Tim, myself, Britt, and Chamone.
EGYPT was SO cool :)
Hope to have a blog up sometime this weekend BUT i honestly cannot tell you when that might be, just stay tuned!
For now...the photos :)
Sphinx
hanging out in memphis
EGYPT was SO cool :)
Friday, February 12, 2010
We'll Always Have Paris
I have so much to tell you and so little free time to do it in. I'm going to divide Paris and Cairo into two separate blogs and hopefullyyyy i will have the Cairo photos up sometime this weekend for everyone, cross your fingers.
Firstly, i do want to remind everyone that this up coming weekend I will be helping with the Prophetik fashion show on February 19th AND they are dressing me so I very much hope that I will be able to keep the clothes! The 19th is solely devoted to organic/natural design lines and kicks off the green theme of London Fashion Week this year. Also, now that Alexander McQueen has recently died, I'm sure that the entire week will be much more somber because he was a London designer and really out London on the map as far as couture clothing is concerned.
Now....PARIS.
The great love of my life. Most people think that Paris is overrated, but I love it so so much! The frivolity, the romance, the pastries, the clothes, the art; its great.
Azzurra and I trained friday morning into Paris from London, a very glamorous and effortless way to travel if I don't say so myself. We met Chelsea, who trained in from Switzerland and who had never been to Paris before. We were determined to show her all of the beauty of the city in the short 24 hour stay that we had there. On Sunday morning we would leave for Cairo and she for Athens, so we had to be back Saturday evening in time to unpack, repack, and sleep for a few minutes.
Upon our arrival, we checked into our quaint and CHEAP hotel in the Latin Quarter, the young vibrant area in Paris known for its late late night life. It was sunny and warm that day, so we bought our underground two day pass and made our way toward the Champs Elysees but took a quick detour at the Musee de L'Orangerie to see The Lily Pad series by Monet, the most beautiful art exhibit in the world as far as I am concerned. I know everyone is familiar with Monet's Waterlily paintings, but what makes the exhibit even more amazing is the way the art is presented. Monet painted each of the eight pieces to the exact specifications of the two featured rooms in the museum. The two rooms are stark white with curved walls that form an oval with one large skylight in the center of the room. In each room, four of his paintings are curved to perfectly fit the space. It is breathtaking!
There, Britt met up with us. He was with his friend from the University of Michigan who is studying in Paris for the semester. From there we wandered down the Champs Elysees looking at the beautiful L'Arc de Triomphe and arrived at my favorite place in the entire world: Laduree.
There are a few Laduree's spread throughout the world and one is here in London, BUT the original is located on the Champs Elysees and we stopped in for afternoon tea.
Laduree is the original tea room of Europe and serves every delightful pastry, tea, chocolate etc you can imagine, but what they are most famous for, aside from the beautifully frivolous pastel color palettes, are their macaroons. I DIE. Macaroons are delicate cookie like pastries with two circular cakes with a creme filling. They come in a variety of flavors and my all time favorite is Pistachio. YUM YUM YUM!
They are so dainty and cute and sugary and perfect for a sweet tooth like myself. Also, Chelsea had this amazing hot chocolate and I'm pretty sure they melted a really great chocolate bar into a tea cup and called it a day because it was so beyond incredible! My pictures will not do justice to this most amazing place!
Next, we split from Britt and his friend as the sun was setting and headed to the top of the l'Arc de Triomphe for a few sunset pictures of the city and the Eiffel Tower. We then took the tube back to our hotel to get dressed for the evening! We dressed for Paris, as you will see and then made an executive decision to veto dinner instead for a great bottle (or two) of Champagne, after all, its Paris.
Armed with our bubbly and dressed to the nines we headed to the Eiffel Tower to watch the beautiful light show and celebrate the end of midterms and the beginning of a week of travel!
Britt met up with us at the Eiffel Tower after we had been there for an hour and we were off to begin our night on St. Michel, the "funnest" street in the Latin Quarter. It was only eleven (verrryyy early for Parisians on a friday night) so we stopped in a few really cute wine bars, that had barrels for tables before we headed to dance the night away. After the wine bars, another executive decision was made that food might be a necessity after all, if we were indeed going to hang out with the Parisians all night. SO we found a cute fondue restaurant to stop and eat before heading to a local club in the Quarter were we spent the remainder of the "morning" where we lost all track of time, as one tends to do in Paris, and emerged as the sun was coming up over the Eiffel Tower. We returned to the hotel, showered, changed into much less glamorous ensembles and marched to the nearest cafe for extra-large cappuccinos with extra foam and the largest pain au chocolates they had. After a quick bite we headed to the Notre Dame and toured what I believe to be the most exquisite Cathedral I have ever been in and then walked along the Seine just as the rain decided to drizzle. Luckily, being Londoners, the umbrellas shielded our walk to the Louvre, where Chelsea stopped to write about the architectural contrast of the building and the newer more modern glass pyramid structures for her humanities class. From there, we walked to Le Souffle, only a few blocks from the Louvre and Azzurra's grandmother's favorite restaurant in all of Paris. It is off the beaten path, put I had the most amazing lunch there!
The specialty is, of course, suffles. But not just any suffle, suffles that are so big they bubble over the sides of the dishes and are so light and creamy at the same time!
I had a spinach souffle and Azzurra had the smoked salmon and avocado. Chelsea, being Chelsea, had the french onion soup. We all split and chocolate and pistachio souffle for dessert! They cut a whole in the center and poured warmed chocolate sauce into it before we devoured the entire thing.
We then said goodbye to Chelsea as she headed for her train station in the south and us to the north station. We boarded at 3 pm and full of everything frivolous, slept the entire way to London, arriving at 5 pm, just as the sun was setting....That is how Paris is done, ladies and gentleman. It is the most magical place on earth and we had the most magical 24 hours full of great food, great friends, and beautiful aesthetics! I LOVE PARIS!
A few of the walls of Monet's collection
FAVORITE!
Azzurra, Chelsea and I
hanging out in the park outside of the museum
Making our way down the Champs Elysees toward the beautiful l'Arc de Triomphe
The happiest place on earth
(photoshoot of Laduree begins now)
inside
before the food
my macaroon and tea!
Azzurra's food
during the food
after the food, literally the happiest girl in Paris
The l'Arc de Triomphe..coolest tourist sight everrr
climbing the beast.
the view from the top :)
the Champs Elysees from the Arc
looking out over Paris
ready to hit the town
Beautiful during the light show!
roomies in Paris!
at one of the cute wine bars
Britt, Chelsea and I
Zu and Chels, Notre Dame the next morning
the back of Notre Dame, which I believe is the prettiest angle.
Le Souffle!
the chocolate and pistachio souffle!
The Louvre
I LOVE PARIS :)))
Firstly, i do want to remind everyone that this up coming weekend I will be helping with the Prophetik fashion show on February 19th AND they are dressing me so I very much hope that I will be able to keep the clothes! The 19th is solely devoted to organic/natural design lines and kicks off the green theme of London Fashion Week this year. Also, now that Alexander McQueen has recently died, I'm sure that the entire week will be much more somber because he was a London designer and really out London on the map as far as couture clothing is concerned.
Now....PARIS.
The great love of my life. Most people think that Paris is overrated, but I love it so so much! The frivolity, the romance, the pastries, the clothes, the art; its great.
Azzurra and I trained friday morning into Paris from London, a very glamorous and effortless way to travel if I don't say so myself. We met Chelsea, who trained in from Switzerland and who had never been to Paris before. We were determined to show her all of the beauty of the city in the short 24 hour stay that we had there. On Sunday morning we would leave for Cairo and she for Athens, so we had to be back Saturday evening in time to unpack, repack, and sleep for a few minutes.
Upon our arrival, we checked into our quaint and CHEAP hotel in the Latin Quarter, the young vibrant area in Paris known for its late late night life. It was sunny and warm that day, so we bought our underground two day pass and made our way toward the Champs Elysees but took a quick detour at the Musee de L'Orangerie to see The Lily Pad series by Monet, the most beautiful art exhibit in the world as far as I am concerned. I know everyone is familiar with Monet's Waterlily paintings, but what makes the exhibit even more amazing is the way the art is presented. Monet painted each of the eight pieces to the exact specifications of the two featured rooms in the museum. The two rooms are stark white with curved walls that form an oval with one large skylight in the center of the room. In each room, four of his paintings are curved to perfectly fit the space. It is breathtaking!
There, Britt met up with us. He was with his friend from the University of Michigan who is studying in Paris for the semester. From there we wandered down the Champs Elysees looking at the beautiful L'Arc de Triomphe and arrived at my favorite place in the entire world: Laduree.
There are a few Laduree's spread throughout the world and one is here in London, BUT the original is located on the Champs Elysees and we stopped in for afternoon tea.
Laduree is the original tea room of Europe and serves every delightful pastry, tea, chocolate etc you can imagine, but what they are most famous for, aside from the beautifully frivolous pastel color palettes, are their macaroons. I DIE. Macaroons are delicate cookie like pastries with two circular cakes with a creme filling. They come in a variety of flavors and my all time favorite is Pistachio. YUM YUM YUM!
They are so dainty and cute and sugary and perfect for a sweet tooth like myself. Also, Chelsea had this amazing hot chocolate and I'm pretty sure they melted a really great chocolate bar into a tea cup and called it a day because it was so beyond incredible! My pictures will not do justice to this most amazing place!
Next, we split from Britt and his friend as the sun was setting and headed to the top of the l'Arc de Triomphe for a few sunset pictures of the city and the Eiffel Tower. We then took the tube back to our hotel to get dressed for the evening! We dressed for Paris, as you will see and then made an executive decision to veto dinner instead for a great bottle (or two) of Champagne, after all, its Paris.
Armed with our bubbly and dressed to the nines we headed to the Eiffel Tower to watch the beautiful light show and celebrate the end of midterms and the beginning of a week of travel!
Britt met up with us at the Eiffel Tower after we had been there for an hour and we were off to begin our night on St. Michel, the "funnest" street in the Latin Quarter. It was only eleven (verrryyy early for Parisians on a friday night) so we stopped in a few really cute wine bars, that had barrels for tables before we headed to dance the night away. After the wine bars, another executive decision was made that food might be a necessity after all, if we were indeed going to hang out with the Parisians all night. SO we found a cute fondue restaurant to stop and eat before heading to a local club in the Quarter were we spent the remainder of the "morning" where we lost all track of time, as one tends to do in Paris, and emerged as the sun was coming up over the Eiffel Tower. We returned to the hotel, showered, changed into much less glamorous ensembles and marched to the nearest cafe for extra-large cappuccinos with extra foam and the largest pain au chocolates they had. After a quick bite we headed to the Notre Dame and toured what I believe to be the most exquisite Cathedral I have ever been in and then walked along the Seine just as the rain decided to drizzle. Luckily, being Londoners, the umbrellas shielded our walk to the Louvre, where Chelsea stopped to write about the architectural contrast of the building and the newer more modern glass pyramid structures for her humanities class. From there, we walked to Le Souffle, only a few blocks from the Louvre and Azzurra's grandmother's favorite restaurant in all of Paris. It is off the beaten path, put I had the most amazing lunch there!
The specialty is, of course, suffles. But not just any suffle, suffles that are so big they bubble over the sides of the dishes and are so light and creamy at the same time!
I had a spinach souffle and Azzurra had the smoked salmon and avocado. Chelsea, being Chelsea, had the french onion soup. We all split and chocolate and pistachio souffle for dessert! They cut a whole in the center and poured warmed chocolate sauce into it before we devoured the entire thing.
We then said goodbye to Chelsea as she headed for her train station in the south and us to the north station. We boarded at 3 pm and full of everything frivolous, slept the entire way to London, arriving at 5 pm, just as the sun was setting....That is how Paris is done, ladies and gentleman. It is the most magical place on earth and we had the most magical 24 hours full of great food, great friends, and beautiful aesthetics! I LOVE PARIS!
A few of the walls of Monet's collection
FAVORITE!
(photoshoot of Laduree begins now)
Britt, Chelsea and I
I LOVE PARIS :)))
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Switzerland and other bits o' News from London
Okay, with Economic graphs of elastic supply and demand quickly falling out of my brain, I am FINALLY ready to report all of the exciting moments of my weekend....right before I leave for another fabulous weekend...what a blur. Don't worry, I have my eyes wide open as its flying by.
Last friday, my friend Miranda and I headed off to Lausanne, Switzerland to see my best friend Chelsea and her best friend Hanna, who happen to be roommates in the Pepperdine program in Switzerland. One of my other best friends, Ally, who is studying in Germany, met us in Switzerland for the weekend!
Friday, Chelsea and Hanna gave us the grand tour of Lausanne, stopping for the best hot chocolate I've ever had as we trekked up the side of a hill as it was snowing to the Lausanne Cathedral. This cathedral was used to report invaders on the other side of Lake Geneva. You know, Switzerland being neutral and such didn't really want any riffraff in the country :)
That night we had an AMAZING cheese fondue dinner! Because Switzerland is famous for my two favorite food groups: chocolate and cheese, I made sure that I did not miss a meal. Did I mention that the Swiss franc is equal to the American dollar?? REJOICE!!
The next morning, we awoke at an ungodly hour to train 45 minutes to Verbier, one of top ten skiing destinations in the world. Here, Cheslsea and Ally gave me my very first skiing lesson....on the Swiss Alps.
As we ascended the ski lift for 20 minutes (I timed it) to reach the first ski trail I knew I was in for a true disaster. And it was. For some reason, the Swiss Alps skiers believe its perfectly normal to make the very first run as soon as you get off the lift a hard/challenging course before even reaching the beginner course. The advice I had received was if all else fails, take a seat. Well, thats what I did, except everytime I sat down, I just kept on going. Did I mention that it had snowed five feet the night before? Basically everytime I fell, which was very often, the only way anyone knew was from the giant snow puff that was released into the air. Oh, did I also mention that I was given an ALL WHITE ski suit? Oh, and pink skis, not my plan AT ALL. So when I wasn't falling, I was attempting to sit and that basically meant that I enjoyed a free sled ride down the entire run.
Needless to say, I had a fabulous time "skiing" and I can say that I learned and attempted to ski the Swiss Alps...did I ever mention we were above the clouds, like 20,000-something km above sea level. WOOHOO!
After I was completely exhausted I left Chelsea and Ally to go ski their double black diamonds and I returned to my own skills, speaking french to the people and lodging with LOTS of hot chocolate.
It was an amazing weekend!! Switzerland, as you're about to see is gorgeous, freezing, but amazingly beautiful!
Oh, did I mention they speak french there? Yeah I took my ski lessons in french, that could have been a problem.
Now for other news. I leave for Paris in the morning and Chelsea will be meeting Azzurra and I. Britt is leaving tonight for Paris to meet up with a high school friend, so tomorrow we will all explore Paris. I intend to where red lipstick and fabulous, frivolous clothing and only eat my favorite Laudaree macaroons the entire weekend! A city as chic and frivilous as Paris deserves nothing less. I LOVE PARIS! Then the whole group leaves for Egypt on Sunday morning and I cannot wait for SUN! I desperately miss it!
On February 19th I will be helping out at London Fashion Week with Azzurra and Claire. There is a designer, Jeff Garner, that graduated from Pepperdine and is originally from Franklin, TN that has an entirely organically sustainable clothing line for men and women called Prophetik and the tag line is "wearable philosophy." We are going to help with the pre and post events and will be helping backstage during the show. It should be very exciting, I will keep everyone updated and hopefully have photos to share afterwards!
A bit of housekeeping: the link that I sent in the previous post, isn't a direct link. You will have to type www.findingkind.com into your url web browser and then click on watch trailer to view it. I am so so proud of Lauren and Molly and this documentary is going to incredible, not only for my sorority and Pepperdine, but hopefully for girls around the country. They intend to sell the documentary to middle schools around the country after the project is completely finished. They travelled to over 40 cities over the last year to put this film together and I could not be more excited for what the future holds for them, afterall they haven't even been out of college for an entire year yet! Also, last month Molly's boyfriend proposed to her under the Eiffel Tower and they are now engaged...gag me, so cute.
Love to everyone and I will try and post sooner rather than later after I return from Egypt!
xoxo
Carson
lake geneva, from Chelsea and Hanna's room
at the bottom of a run, after I slid all the way down, waiting for Ally and Chels to finish skiing down
Ally and Chelsea, taking a snack break
me blending in with the snow :)
the town of Lausanne
Miranda, Ally, Me, Chels outside of the Lausanne Cathedral
Me and Hanna waiting to get on the ski lift....did I mention is was -14 degrees Celsius...i had around seven thousand layers on, making me look even more like a marshmellow
A Kappa Kappa Gamma photo :)
At the veryyyy top of Verbier...so beautiful!
another beautiful view of Verbier
Now, I highly debating featuring this photo on the internet for all to see, however, as you all know I don't take myself very seriously AT ALL. So if this doesn't make everyone's thursday I don't know what will, I know my very own mother laughed FOREVER after seeing this. Chelsea just happened to capture me after I had seriously sledded down a run for around ten minutes:
I am clearly made for water sports NOT snow sports.
BYE! :)
Last friday, my friend Miranda and I headed off to Lausanne, Switzerland to see my best friend Chelsea and her best friend Hanna, who happen to be roommates in the Pepperdine program in Switzerland. One of my other best friends, Ally, who is studying in Germany, met us in Switzerland for the weekend!
Friday, Chelsea and Hanna gave us the grand tour of Lausanne, stopping for the best hot chocolate I've ever had as we trekked up the side of a hill as it was snowing to the Lausanne Cathedral. This cathedral was used to report invaders on the other side of Lake Geneva. You know, Switzerland being neutral and such didn't really want any riffraff in the country :)
That night we had an AMAZING cheese fondue dinner! Because Switzerland is famous for my two favorite food groups: chocolate and cheese, I made sure that I did not miss a meal. Did I mention that the Swiss franc is equal to the American dollar?? REJOICE!!
The next morning, we awoke at an ungodly hour to train 45 minutes to Verbier, one of top ten skiing destinations in the world. Here, Cheslsea and Ally gave me my very first skiing lesson....on the Swiss Alps.
As we ascended the ski lift for 20 minutes (I timed it) to reach the first ski trail I knew I was in for a true disaster. And it was. For some reason, the Swiss Alps skiers believe its perfectly normal to make the very first run as soon as you get off the lift a hard/challenging course before even reaching the beginner course. The advice I had received was if all else fails, take a seat. Well, thats what I did, except everytime I sat down, I just kept on going. Did I mention that it had snowed five feet the night before? Basically everytime I fell, which was very often, the only way anyone knew was from the giant snow puff that was released into the air. Oh, did I also mention that I was given an ALL WHITE ski suit? Oh, and pink skis, not my plan AT ALL. So when I wasn't falling, I was attempting to sit and that basically meant that I enjoyed a free sled ride down the entire run.
Needless to say, I had a fabulous time "skiing" and I can say that I learned and attempted to ski the Swiss Alps...did I ever mention we were above the clouds, like 20,000-something km above sea level. WOOHOO!
After I was completely exhausted I left Chelsea and Ally to go ski their double black diamonds and I returned to my own skills, speaking french to the people and lodging with LOTS of hot chocolate.
It was an amazing weekend!! Switzerland, as you're about to see is gorgeous, freezing, but amazingly beautiful!
Oh, did I mention they speak french there? Yeah I took my ski lessons in french, that could have been a problem.
Now for other news. I leave for Paris in the morning and Chelsea will be meeting Azzurra and I. Britt is leaving tonight for Paris to meet up with a high school friend, so tomorrow we will all explore Paris. I intend to where red lipstick and fabulous, frivolous clothing and only eat my favorite Laudaree macaroons the entire weekend! A city as chic and frivilous as Paris deserves nothing less. I LOVE PARIS! Then the whole group leaves for Egypt on Sunday morning and I cannot wait for SUN! I desperately miss it!
On February 19th I will be helping out at London Fashion Week with Azzurra and Claire. There is a designer, Jeff Garner, that graduated from Pepperdine and is originally from Franklin, TN that has an entirely organically sustainable clothing line for men and women called Prophetik and the tag line is "wearable philosophy." We are going to help with the pre and post events and will be helping backstage during the show. It should be very exciting, I will keep everyone updated and hopefully have photos to share afterwards!
A bit of housekeeping: the link that I sent in the previous post, isn't a direct link. You will have to type www.findingkind.com into your url web browser and then click on watch trailer to view it. I am so so proud of Lauren and Molly and this documentary is going to incredible, not only for my sorority and Pepperdine, but hopefully for girls around the country. They intend to sell the documentary to middle schools around the country after the project is completely finished. They travelled to over 40 cities over the last year to put this film together and I could not be more excited for what the future holds for them, afterall they haven't even been out of college for an entire year yet! Also, last month Molly's boyfriend proposed to her under the Eiffel Tower and they are now engaged...gag me, so cute.
Love to everyone and I will try and post sooner rather than later after I return from Egypt!
xoxo
Carson
the town of Lausanne
Now, I highly debating featuring this photo on the internet for all to see, however, as you all know I don't take myself very seriously AT ALL. So if this doesn't make everyone's thursday I don't know what will, I know my very own mother laughed FOREVER after seeing this. Chelsea just happened to capture me after I had seriously sledded down a run for around ten minutes:
I am clearly made for water sports NOT snow sports.
BYE! :)
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