Travelling Newsletter

February 2012 Volume 1 Issue 2

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Brenda Varela

PARIS

raveling in one of my favorites things, unfortunately it is the most expensive one so I do not get to travel as much as I would like to. I am a very active person, reason why I like to be outside and visit new places since I was vey young I have been traveling a lot with my family. We used to do a lot of day trips to roadraces where I would run. I have been in everysingle town in a two hour radio from my home town. It was not ultil I

vacations and actually travel because they wanted me to re-­ member and enjoy those places.

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ur forth vacation trip, and second abroad, we did was to Paris in September 2007. I remember it as a great trip, as most of the trips I have gone so far. I had heard so many things about that city and I had studied a lot of art and architecture from the Barroque, Rococo and Neoclasical periods that are lo-­ cated in Paris that I was extremily excited when we went. I could see all of the art that I studied in Art History and that made me feel very good that I knew and understood the concept, context and ideas behind that art. One interesting thing that I specially remember is that before going to Paris I had heard that the Eiffel Tower was ugly because it was simply a bunch of iron. One of

in the city anyway) was the icon of Paris, the Eiffel tower. I feel in love with it, its elegance and geometry are very sucessful. Dur-­ ing the night, they have a light show in it every hour, just in case you were not in love with it already.

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y favorite places in Paris are the Louvre Museum, altough it is very crowed, the Notredame Cathedral, the Latin Quarter, where you can get the best chocolate crepes ever, Mont Matre, where you can get a selfportrait in the street while enjoying the best views of Paris and the Place Vendom and surroundings.

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n July this past summer I visited Barcelona for the second time in my life. I went with my mom to attend Bon Jovi’s "$ # ' $ ,) $ $ " one night we decided that we should add one more night and spend the weekend in Barcelona.

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t turned out being a great idea. The weekend went by very fast and we got to visit most of the places I wanted to go. As an ar-­ chitecture major I am very interested in buildings as well as other arts. Barcelona is the city of Gaudi, most of the most well known places in Barcelona have been designed by him.

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+"#$ ) $ " $ $ ' ' $ $ $ " Guell. It was going to be a rich neighbourhood all esigned by Gaudi, but they run out of money so it is only a park with a few buildings. The design of the park is great it looks very organic and +$# ' $ $ & " $ & ") ' $ %$ "# $ $ park let me enjoy the environment a lot because of how big it is and its design. We spent all afternoon there.

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ontinuing with Gaudi, we visited Casa Batllo. I enjoyed this place a lot too and waht I always think when I see its fa-­ cade is that the balconies look like Venecian Carnival masks.

nother places we went were La Pedrera, another building " # # $ " $ $ " that is still being under construction) and the well-­kwon German Pavilion designed by Mies Van der Rohe for the 1929 exhibition.

The German Pavilion is a great lace to visit if you are looking for having a relaxing time. It’s minimalistic style, use of materials and simpleness of its design made it me feel very calmed and relaxed inside.

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evertheless, it is not only its art and architecture what make me like Barcelona. In downtown Barcelona, there are sev-­ eral shopping streets that I could spend hours going in to all of them, but its main street is called “Las Ramblas�. It is a very wide street with a lot of street vendors. Stands where they sell colorful , ' "# "$ #$# # ' $ " # # $ "# ! "$" $# $ " $ # # + $ ) ) & " $ ! " because I can be entertained for a few hours without even hav-­ ing to spend money.

ROME E I

very year my High School organizes a trip to Rome for the Junior class who takes religion, reason why everybody takes religion during junior year...

went on this trip in April 2008. It was a six day long trip and one of the days we visited Florence, but we were there for only a few hours so we did not get to see that much of the city. As always before every trip I was very excited to visit Rome and see all the art and architecture that we had previously studyed in school.

I did really like all the art, but I did not like the city overall very much. There is so much tourism that you never have the feel that you are in a city, it feels like a resort. Something very anoying are all the street vendors following the tourists to sell them fake Dior, Armani or Prada complements, among other brands. The hotels are another anoying issue. They are very small with a poor ser-­ vice and installations. After those six days I was done with Rome and ready to go home.

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f I forget about that, Rome is a city very rich in history. There is something showing history everywhere you go. It is over two thousand years old and it used to be the capital of the Roman ! " $ %# & ") ,% $ ! $

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he day we got tyo Rome we walked from our hotel to some churches and we were walking through a narrow street that suddenly opens giving you a great view of the Coloseum. No-­ ) ' # (! $ $ $ ' ' " $ + $ # % like that and it was what all of us wanted to see the most. Our reaction at that point was the same for all of us...“WOW!�

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nother one of my favorite places in Rome is the Vatican City $ $ %# % ' " ) % + " $ -­ tion of Michelangelo’s work. St. Peter’s Cathedral looks stunning both outside and inside. These two places are very crowded but worth it the wait.

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he Trevi Fountain is the place in Rome I fell in love with as it hap-­ pened with the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I visited it during the night and its beauty can only be really captured only with the experi-­ ence of being there.

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talian food is vaery good. Pizzas are very thin and light. I ate pizza everyday I was there, some of the days pasta and two if not three icecreams a day. Italian icecream is delicious and I miss it a lot since this trip. I found it very cheap to eat even it is a very touristic city and an European capital. You can get a slice ! ** +" %" # %# % " " "

NYCN

ew York City was my dream city to visit since I was a little kid. I had seen it so many times on televison and movies and with my interst in big cities and traveling it could not

2008 when I visited it for only a couple of days. In summer 2010 I got to stay there for a week. I have to say that I had the week of my life there.

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Central Park and the Natural History Museum. I went on a run every morning at Central Park. It was a lot of fun running there, it is amazing how many people are running also before going

sixty minutes long, but I was enjoying it so much that I went about eighty minutes.

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fter running I would get ready and take a bus South, usually 5th Avenue or Times Square. I did a lot of windoshopping.

his trip was not as cultural as the previous ones described, but I still went to a couple museums, The Metropolitan and the Natural History Museums. I really recommend visiting both, but the Natural History Museum the most. All the animals in display look like they are alive of how perfect they look.

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ew York is a city alive all day long, with the inimaginable to do. From the most simple to the most luxurious. I was most of the time walking around New York by my self and I never felt alone. Among the best things I did during that week were go-­ ing to the top of the Empire State Building during the night the day of my Birthday, having lunch at the Plaza and going on a helicop-­ ter trip over the city and the Statue of Liberty.