Mini-Holiday | Paris #5

This will be my last post about the mini-trip I did to Paris back in July. This post doesn’t have a particular theme. It is mostly just random photographs I took while I was there. This time we decided to wander more around the city, which wasn’t that great of an idea because of the heat wave. Either way, it was a good chance to stroll down a few of the fashion high-end streets: Rue Saint-Honoré and Rue du Faubourd Saint-Honoré. I tried to take a few photographs of the fashion houses’ window displays but it was absolutely impossible. The only ones that managed to be somewhat okay are the ones below. I really wish I had more photographs because those window displays were absolutely amazing, original and gorgeous. And I can say the same about the stores’ buildings.

All of these photographs were edited using the programme ‘pixelmator’.

Mini-Holiday | Paris #4

I decided to make the Paris underground as a unique theme not only because of the photographs that I took, but also because I wanted to express a bit of my opinion on it. I’ve traveled in three different underground systems: the Portuguese one, the English one and the French one. Any doubts that I had that our system wasn’t that great, they were all confirmed when I used the other two.

I’m not going to include the English one in this discussion but it is definitely several times better than the one we have. Honestly, I don’t know why people hated so much the new coaches that the Lisbon underground had for a few months – they were so much more spacious and visually appealing. Anyway… The Paris underground is also a much better system than ours. I would say that the coaches have probably the same quality, even though they actually have more seats and somehow an appearance of more space. Some of the coaches also have a really good map of the stations – it lights the button of the station you’re in, so it’s super easy to know where you are, where and when you bees to leave.

Nevertheless, what is really good about the Paris underground system is that it is indeed FAST! Not the apparently fast as ours but the really FAST FAST. It may seem that it doesn’t matter but it actually makes a really big difference at the end of the day. Also, the time that you have to wait between trains is almost perfect (and this is something that the Paris and London underground have in common). I know we’re talking about two larger cities than Lisbon with a whole lot more inhabitants than we ever had but still the time that we have to wait for a train is ridiculous. We’re talking about a different between waiting for one or less than a minute (two minutes in the most extreme cases) and waiting for five or more minutes. The best part it’s when we’re in the middle of rush hour in Lisbon and there’s an 8-minute gap between trains. And yeah I know what the second photograph shows, but trust me, sometimes it said it would take more than 5 minutes, but in reality it was a lot less than that.

The other reason for which I created this separate theme was because of the publicity posters that I photographed in one of the stations – Bastille. And in some way this was also due to my obsession over the band ‘Bastille‘ – but that’s not the point here. The posters in the first photographs are completely random but I found them to be really visually appealing. And the remaining ones are merely referent to the ‘Minions‘ film, something for which I’m also obsessed. I think these posters were brilliant made.

All of these photographs were edited using the programme ‘pixelmator‘. You can check the remaining posts from my trip to Paris here, here and here.

Mini-Holiday | Paris #3

And in the meantime, I’ve also totally forgotten about this post (and others) that I had in my drafts folder. These are still photographs from my three-day trip to Paris back in July this year. In order to not publish all my 50+ photographs in just a single post, I’ve been publishing tiny groups of photographs at a time, creating somewhat different themes with them. You can check my other posts here and here.

So today’s theme is Paris in general. I have already present a post featuring the Parisian architecture, so I guess this is a sort of continuation, considering most of these photographs consist of buildings (historic, religious and civic ones). All of these photographs are of different parts of the city, and they were taken from the Notre-Dame Cathedral. In this way, this is exactly the view that you have from the cathedral – unfortunately too touristic these days, as pretty much everything else in the major cities of Europe.

This time we decided to stay in a rented apartment. In some cases it can be a lot cheaper than staying at hotels, and having access to a proper kitchen makes it easier for you to control what you eat and how much money you spend, if you’re on a tight budget. I don’t think the building where we stayed is in any of these pictures (especially in the last two because they’re more zoomed in), but I can tell you guys that the building is very similar to the ones you can see in the 10th photograph.

These photographs were edited using the programme ‘pixelmator’.

Mini-Holiday | Paris #2

And moving on to my second post about my mini-holiday in Paris, this year. For those of you who haven’t seen the first post (you can check it here), I’ve decided to share some of the photographs that I took in a series of posts, in order not to flood y’all with dozens of them in just one post. I’ve also decided to explore a somewhat different theme in each one of these posts. Thus, today’s theme revolves around the Parisian architecture, probably one of its main attractions.

Some of the photographs that I show you below are completely random. With the exception of the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 12th photographs – Louvre Museum, Opera House and Sainte-Chapelle/Palais de Justice, respectively -, the rest are just random buildings that I decided to photograph. I believe that the buildings in the 2nd and 14th photographs are completely representative of the Parisian civil architecture, as the bridge in the 10th photograph.

I really loved the statue in the 15th photograph. It’s different in a good way and really interesting. There are buildings in these photographs that I cannot identify because I don’t remember what they are now. The statue in the last photograph is located in what was once the Bastille prison. For me, it is a shame that there is nothing left of it because I’d love to see it, even if it were to be only ruins of the building.

Lastly, the bookstore in the 13th photograph was somewhat a suggestion from the owner of the blog “Sweet Stuff”. She talked about it a few months ago and I decided it would be a lovely surprise for my mum, since she loves books. This bookstore is quite the find in Paris because it is an English bookstore in the middle of Paris; something that I never expected to find, considering how protective the French are about their language. The bookstore is lovely and has an amazing collection of books. The only problem I found in it was the price of the books, which is nothing unusual when foreign books are imported – their prices are always higher that those practiced in the native country.

These photographs were edited using the programme ‘pixelmator’.

Mini-Holiday | Paris #1

I have already mentioned this before, about a month ago or so, but anyway… After the end of my Masters and the beginning of my internship in France, I spent a few days in Paris in what I called my mini-holidays. At the beginning of this year, I thought that my internship would only start at the end of July, which would give me plenty of time to travel between it and the end of my Masters. My intention was really to do a trip around Europe for two weeks but in the end there was simply no time to do such a trip. However, I can’t complain because I got the chance to go to Paris for a few days.

The last time – the first one actually – that I was in Paris was 11 years ago. It feels like a lifetime ago and even though not that many years passed, I’ve noticed really big differences between then and now. The city is a lot more touristic, a lot more confusing and crowed. Everything is more commercialised now which is a shame. But the rest is still the same. Parisians are still annoying – no offence though -, its architecture is still something to die for, amazing food, especially pastries.

In order not to flood one post with dozens of photos, I’ve decided to share them in a series of posts, each one with a different theme. So today’s theme is churches. I’m pretty sure that one of the first places people go to is the Notre Dame Cathedral. If we already thought that the queues were too long the first time we went there, which explains why we didn’t get in then, I believe it was even worse this time. If we think about individual people or families that go on holiday, it isn’t really a problem. The problem is actually the groups of tourists that are one of the most annoying things ever. They’re too big, too loud and too slow. They’re the main reason why the queues are so gigantic.

Either way. The first photographs are from Notre Dame. I’m sorry for the not so good quality of them, especially the ones inside because we were not  allowed to take photographs with flash, so they’re kinda rubbish. The last four photos are from the Saint-Séverin church, located in the Quartier Latin, and close to the apartment where we stayed. As additional information, both churches are from the Gothic period.

All of these photographs were edited with the programme ‘pixelmator’.

Going back to my third home country

Portugal will always be my first country because I was born and raised there and because all my family (well the closest relatives) is there. I wouldn’t exactly call it home but it definitely is my first country for sure. Then the United Kingdom comes as my second country because from all the countries I’ve been to (not that many yet, unfortunately), it is the most welcoming of them all. Something I wasn’t quite expecting the first time I visited it, but it is definitely the best thing about this country. And then in third place we have France. Although I still have tiny problems with it, it is actually the country that I know best. I’ve been there six times already and this year it will be the seventh.

The post that I published four days ago was just a tiny preview of this one. Since I started my bachelor four years ago, I have been calling my weeks in archaeological excavations as internships. It would have been more accurate if I had called it fieldwork but I thought it was a more understandable term. However, this time I can indeed call it internship because that’s what this year’s excavation is going to serve for me. As part of my Master degree, we have to do an internship of three weeks, which can be done either in a lab, at a museum or in an excavation. I have chosen the last one and that’s why I am going to France. It’s no news because I’ve been to an excavation in France before (two years ago), but it’s still different because it will be at another site with a totally different team. Let’s see how this works out in the end.

But before I get started with my internship, I am going to spend a few of days in Paris with my parents. I haven’t been to Paris since I was 11 years old and that’s exactly the time that has passed since then. Even though it was ages ago, this city is also no news to me but I’m pretty sure it has changed a lot during all these years. Before I knew when this internship was going to happen, I considered doing a tiny inter-rail trip across Germany and Austria, in order to take advantage of the fact that I was living in the Netherlands, but since the internship lasts the whole month of July and I’ve barely just finished my degree, there was really never time to do such trip. So I couldn’t be more excited to go to Paris for a few days.

Lastly, concerning that last picture. No, I’m not going in any kind of trip, even though I would totally not mind it at all. That picture actually meant that I need to get my driver’s license. Taking your diver’s licence at 18 is the most cliché thing of it all (not judging anyone though) and I really didn’t needed it back then, so I never bothered. But now, four years later (jesus, it’s been that long?) I really really need it, so it’s time to go and learn how to drive. And that’s exactly how I’m hopefully gonna spend the end of my Summer.

At the time that this post is being published, I am already in France. Yesterday were my last 24h in the Netherlands. It wasn’t the best experience, or at least the one that I was hoping for, but it will be missed for sure. As you could have guessed by this post, I will be pretty much occupied during this Summer, at least during the month of July, which is when I’ll be doing my internship. However, I prepared a bunch of post to keep the blog updated. They’re all scheduled so I won’t be leaving this blog to the wolves. I am not sure if I’ll have much time to come here during my internship, but I will try to do my best. I hope you all have a great Summer!

If I could travel… #4

Whenever and wherever I wanted to, right now I would be here: Paris

It’s been almost 10 years since I went on holiday to Paris. Not only do I want to go back there – it’s such a beautiful city and too big to see in just one week – but I’d also love to travel this year (at least before I start my master degree). However, this year I would be just thrilled with a short trip to the 16th arrondissement, where the Roland Garros it’s held at the Stade Roland Garros.

By far this is my favourite tennis tournament, so I’ve always wanted to see a match live. For now, I’ll just have to be happy to be able to see in on TV. Today it’s the perfect day to see a match live because it’s the Men’s final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. I don’t know how this is gonna turn out but I so do hope that Nadal wins. He really deserves to win his 9th title (and so break another record).

Yesterday was also a good day because it was the Women’s final between Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova. And I couldn’t be happier that Sharapova won. It was a tough match, we must admit, but in my opinion the strongest player won, despite having done a lot of unforced errors. I’ve always admired her. She’s a great player and this was a well deserved victory.

If I could travel… #3

Whenever and wherever I wanted to, right now I would be here: Roquebrune-Cap-Martin

As a huge fan of tennis, this week (starting today) would be a great time to travel to Roquebrune-Cap-Martin because of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. In spite of its name, this tennis tournament it’s not in Monaco but in a french commune (in the Alpes-Maritimes department) just outside Monaco’s northeastern border. Apart from Roland Garros, this is one of my favourite clay tournaments – together with the ones in Madrid and Rome. These are my favourite tournaments not only because clay is my favourite type of tennis court, but also because Rafael Nadal is considered to be the “King of Clay”. And as his fan there’s nothing better than see him play in these tournaments, especially in Monte-Carlo where he has established some of his most important records. Until this moment, the 2010 final is my favourite.

Because I obviously can’t go there, watching the matches’ live-steams is all I can do. However, I’m still hoping that someday I’ll manage to see him play live. Since I’m on holiday (thank goodness it’s Easter already, sort of) I’ll try to watch this tournament. But because I have a huge amount of stuff to do for uni (damn you dissertation and pretty much all the other modules I’m doing), I’ll only be able to watch Nadal’s matches. Oh well, I guess it is better than nothing, right?

If I could travel…

Whenever and wherever I wanted to, right now I would be here: Musée du Louvre

In the past years, I’ve been really curious about the Musée du Louvre but now that I’ve studied a bit about its egyptian collection I’m even more curious. The museum has not only a great collection of art form the Pre-Classical and Classical periods, but it also has some very impressive collections from the Medieval and Modern periods. Its most important piece of art may be the Mona Lisa painting but, to be honest, I wouldn’t care if I’d see of or not.

I’ve been to the museum once but unfortunately all I saw was the museum shop. If I ever go back to Paris again, I’ll try to see it, even though I’d need more than one day to see it. Apparently there are different tickets for each section of the museum, so this would be perfect for those like me that take too long to see museums. If it is like this, and if I only had a day to see it, I would just probably see the egyptian and muslim collection that they have.

Has anyone been to the Musée du Louvre?

Desabafo #3

Simon Fraser University (SFU) – Burnaby Mountain Campus

D.: are you hot?
Me: yes. It’s getting hot.
D.: but you’re Portuguese. You’re use to hot weather.
Me: I know but I really don’t like the heat.
D.: so then you should come to Canada.

This is one of the many little conversations I had with the co-ordinator at the site, when I was in France participating in an excavation project. I can’t remember exactly what I answered at that time but this should have been my answer: “if anyone pays me for university, I can change countries right now“. I sure wouldn’t mind having studied there (I’m referring to SFU where he’s a lecturer). Not only the country itself must be absolutely beautiful, but also I would love to have him as my professor. I think that he might be one of those rare cases where the professor actually knows how to be a good professor and how to pass his passion for the subject to his students. And on top of it, they’re degree programme looks amazing. The funny thing about their Archaeology department is that they have a Portuguese professor from FMUP. This would have been a good choice of a country (and university) to go to under the Erasmus Programme (if it was an European country). However, if that had been possible, the flight tickets and the living expenses in Canada would have made it economically unbearable.