Friday, March 6, 2015
CERN
On the first day, we visited two of the experiments at CERN: ATLAS and the original Syncro-Cyclotron. The presentation at the SC was among the coolest I've ever seen. They projected on the SC itself. It was amazing.
We then went into the wooden globe outside of Reception, whose inside is oddly similar to the inside of the Alain head in Mission to Mars.
We also visited plenty of other places, like this one:
On the second day, we did two totally amazing things: we went 93 meters underground to visit CMS,
And we made cloud chambers (which I will hopefully have pictures of soon).
Also, it started snow-hailing. Switzerland weather, man.
More details on CERN to come as I remember them. It was an information overload.
...with the sound of music!
For our second and final day enjoying Switzerland, we had a and early start, leaving my favorite hotel and person (Gilbert, is his name) ever. We love Gilbert. I'm going to write Gilbert a thank you letter.
For lunch, Maggie and I searched around for food and successfully found a sushi place. This place has the most delicious sushi I've ever had in my life and if I never get to go back for anything else I want to go back to that sushi place.
On the way to Geneva, we stopped in Bern, the Capitol city of Switzerland. It is apparently the second happiest place in the world to live and costs almost as much as London. The food was very, VERY expensive. Very.
The name of the town has sometime to do with bears. Bear, Bern, I mean, it's similar. The city also has a really cool clock and a a statue of someone eating children, which has been aptly nicknamed "Darby."
We then proceeded to wander around until we were able to go into the Einstein House. We learned:
1) Einstein was a player,
2) His house was very small,
3) He made his most important discoveries in Bern, and
4) He had a child before he was married that no one really knew about (sadface, poor baby Einstein).
Finally, after we finished, we all traveler to our hotel in France, which was insanely sketchy and smelled of cigarette smoke and dead things.
The hills are alive...
After hour obnoxiously long drive to Switzerland, we finally got to spend some time doing interesting things. In the morning, we spent an hour in Lucern, during which we got Swiss Army knives, chocolate, and investigated European McDonald's (which is surprisingly expensive for the not so surprisingly same "food"). Afterward, we boarded a boat to travel to the highlight of the day: Mt. Rigi.
The train up the mountain is one of the steepest in Europe, and also slightly disconcerting. It's not that I don't trust the thing, it's just that it's SO CLOSE TO THE EDGE. But regardless, it offered some really great pictures.
On top of the mountain was cold. Very cold. With lots of clouds and snow hitting you in the face and my ears hurting because of the pressure change. It was pretty, trust me, but I didn't really get a chance to enjoy it as much.
The ride down was in a gondola, featuring a few sketchy drops. We fit approximately 50 people in it. And took a selfie.
We take a lot of selfies.
But the REAL highlight of my trip was our hotel: the Alpenhof. The family that owns the hotel is the sweetest group of people I've ever met. They are incredible cooks, and we did not go hungry once. Each meal was to die for. The hotel itself is exactly what I would have expected from a ski lodge, the ice cream is amazing, and the view is even better. If you get a chance to stay there, do.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Another pun of the day (sponsored by Vishnu...again.)
The 20 Swiss franc bill has music notes on it.
Another name for a bill is a note.
The bill itself is a pun.
Change is nature.
Three things of note happened today:
2. We drove through the Swiss Alps.
1. We stopped in Beaune, France, found a Romanesco Broccoli/Cauliflower, and had ratatouille. (IT WAS SO GOOD MINE WILL NEVER LIVE UP TO IT.)
3. I took a ceiling selfie.
There is nothing like a dream to create the future.
The Les Mis quote had to happen sometime, what better than our last full day in Paris?
There were two things I wanted to do in Paris: 1) go to Montmartre, and 2) visit he catacombs. I did neither of those. However, in doing so, I discovered other things that I wanted to do. Because I do not have the words to describe how much I have fallen in love with the city of Paris, I am going to leave you with pictures and the knowledge that I will find my way back to this beautiful city, I swear it.
A Tale of Two Cities
Okay, so, -5 creativity for that title, I know but give me a break, it practically wrote itself!
This was our earliest morning to date, having to get up and out of the hotel by 5:30. It was gross and sad. But we did it. We got to take the Eurostar into Paris, which was an interesting experience. Instead of coral reefs and fish, we saw fog and tunnels. Also, the ear popping was horrendous. All in all, utterly anticlimactic.
To waste time on the train, we played cards against humanity. Maebelle beat me. MAEBELLE BEAT ME. Let that sink in. *cough* the card game for terrible people *cough*
...
When we arrived in Paris, we picked up our tour guide and spun off into the fastest tour of Paris that has ever taken place. We hit every pick stop, including this one:
The Eiffel Tower was originally not supposed to be a permanent fixture. In fact, some people were so opposed to to that they are lunch on the tower. Why? Because anywhere else in the city, he could see it, and they lost their appetite. Zing!
We were able to see many other places as well, like Concord Square (I feel the need for a Les Mis quote), Moulin Rouge, and the place where Marie Antionette lived her final days.
Finally, I'll end with pictures taken while in the roundabout around the Arc de Triomph:
A Tale of Two Cities
Okay, so, -5 creativity for that title, I know but give me a break, it practically wrote itself!
This was our earliest morning to date, having to get up and out of the hotel by 5:30. It was gross and sad. But we did it. We got to take the Eurostar into Paris, which was an interesting experience. Instead of coral reefs and fish, we saw fog and tunnels. Also, the ear popping was horrendous. All in all, utterly anticlimactic.
To waste time on the train, we played cards against humanity. Maebelle beat me. MAEBELLE BEAT ME. Let that sink in. *cough* the card game for terrible people *cough*
...
When we arrived in Paris, we picked up our tour guide and spun off into the fastest tour of Paris that has ever taken place. We hit every pick stop, including this one:
The Eiffel Tower was originally not supposed to be a permanent fixture. In fact, some people were so opposed to to that they are lunch on the tower. Why? Because anywhere else in the city, he could see it, and they lost their appetite. Zing!
We were able to see many other places as well, like Concord Square (I feel the need for a Les Mis quote), Moulin Rouge, and the place where Marie Antionette lived her final days.
Finally, I'll end with pictures taken while in the roundabout around the Arc de Triomph:
A pun of the day (sponsored by Vishnu)
"Despite pressure to clean up their act, most dirtbags live in a vacuum."
Am I back in NC? Oh, no, it's a better Bath.
London is by far my favorite place to be at any given time. In fact, I hope to live there/study abroad there. I can dream, right?
Today we actually didn't spend all that much time in London-we went to Bath and Stonehenge. If you've never been to Bath and have any sort of interest in architecture/history, go right now. It is one of the greatest places ever. It's the place where the Romans built their baths over top of thermal springs. It's the place where pride and prejudice was written. It's the place where the layout of a modern town originated. Please go. I beg you.
As someone who is incredibly obsessed with archaeology, I loved the Roman Baths. It is quite literally like wandering through history. While you stand above the Baths, you can see the minster of Bath, gazing through not one, but two incredibly amazing parts of history. In fact, here, have a picture:
Now, my favorite part of the day was going to Stonehenge. I went to Stonehenge six years ago on a People to People trip. Two years ago, when Stonehenge became a world heritage site, an agreement was made that the site would be returned to it's former glory--removing the road up to the site, moving the visitors center, and putting the road next to the site underground. The goal is that when you visit Stonehenge, you will see it as it was meant to be seen. The work they've done so far is wonderful, and Stonehenge is no longer dwarfed by buildings and busses and roads (oh my!). The changes allow visitors to have time to understand the site and it's significance as it's position as a prehistoric crematorium. With the removal of the urban development around the site, you can truly exit the world of the living and enter the world of the dead.
Well this didn't go according to plan...
I apologize for not having kept up with this as much as I should have. But! I'm going to get back up to date. So here goes.
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