Travel

The Saint(e)s

/ addygordon / Leave a comment

Everybody knows Saint-Tropez from its enormous yachts and frequent celebrity sightings, but Sainte-Maxime was just as beautiful, if only a little less fancy. Somehow my mom and I ended up in Sainte-Maxime on the day of the festival celebrating Maxime, the town’s patron saint. Light blue and white balloons were all over the streets accompanied by a reenactment of a battle within the town complete with rounds of blanks fired by men dressed as soldiers. The fake-shooting was a bit disturbing and sounded like very loud and obnoxious construction noises; once it started, we realized it was our cue to leave Sainte-Maxime.

Saint-Maxine also has a beautiful beach and tons of cute shops, such as the incredibly visually-appealing soap store pictured above. Another convenient part of the town was the twenty-minute ferry running between the ports of the Cote D’Azur. We decided to ferry to Saint-Tropez as it was our original destination, but Sainte-Maxime was much better for parking and walking on the beach. In the five photos above, from the upper-left to the bottom-right, the images display: the Sainte-Maxime beach, balloons and a portrait of Sainte-Maxime herself, a soap and fragrance store, a Sainte-Maxime palm tree, and my mother standing by the city’s port.

The most fascinating part of Saint-Tropez was seeing so many yachts, all in one place. We witnessed a crew leading one yacht into its spot at the port, slowly guiding the massive vessel. Saint-Tropez was also full of every kind of designer store available. Walking through the streets was like strolling down Fifth Avenue or Newbury Street, except we were in a little Mediterranean French town. In the gallery of photos above, from the upper-left to the bottom-right, there is: the sign announcing entrance to the Saint-Tropez port from the ferry boat, the view of Saint-Tropez and its harbor from atop a hill, another huge yacht, a view looking up at the buildings, another photograph of a street, what I think might be a fire hydrant (?) with the sticker “J’existe,” and a third image of Saint-Tropez’s streets – this one from a little further from the town’s center.

Update/Where Am I?

/ addygordon / Leave a comment

I meant to use this website a lot more in the past few weeks, but it’s been really busy (and I only just charged my computer). Currently, I am on the sixth day of my six weeks in Madrid, Spain, where I’m taking two classes and living in a residence hall at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The picture above is the beautiful view outside my window as I am typing this. Classes started yesterday, so there’s not too much I can say yet, but one is an art history course on the art in the Prado Museum and the other is a history class on Madrid’s history as a city. Classes here meet Mondays through Thursdays for about an hour and forty minutes each. Since I’m not taking any classes to learn Spanish, just to study in Spanish, both courses are completely in the language, which is awesome. Additionally, each course is half-lecture, half-field trip based, meaning Mondays and Wednesdays we learn about specific paintings and eras of Madrid’s history, then travel to the Prado and to another museum on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My program with which I’m traveling is called International Education for Students, or IES. They organize tons of activities to supplement classes and help us explore the city and the surrounding area. Last weekend, we traveled to Segovia, and this Friday, we have a day trip to Salamanca.

Here’s a brief look at the dorm room, which is so much nicer than anything you can get in the United States purely because there’s a sink and cabinet in the room itself. I don’t know why this isn’t a thing at the University of Michigan, but getting ready for bed is much easier when you can brush your teeth in your room. The one downside is probably the lack of air conditioning. This was really just an issue for me when my window was stuck and couldn’t open beyond a tiny crack. Otherwise, the fan is perfect, and it’s cool at night (probably high sixties, low seventies). Beyond that, it’s also great to have a single. I guess people here understand that sharing a room can be too much of a strain sometimes.

The “Cats” club (which we didn’t go into).
The famous “El Oso y el Madroño” statue in the Puerta del Sol.
Metro de Sol entrance.
Some weekend highlights!

In terms of why I haven’t been writing/updating, I’ve been abroad since my semester classes finished at the end of April. I traveled on a Birthright trip to Israel from May 2 to May 12, after which I had a week in between Israel and Spain to spend time with my mom in the countryside around Nice, France. Both places were limited in Wifi capabilities (mountains and deserts). I’m very backlogged with everything I want to record for this site, but I promise to keep working and share lots of the photos I’ve taken over the past month. Especially my food photography, although it will be tough to write about without feeling jealous of my past self who was eating such great food. I’m still working on finding good places here in Madrid, not to mention I’ve mostly been eating in the dining hall, which is… interesting.

Los Gatos Internacionales

/ addygordon / Leave a comment

I need to preface this by saying I don’t like cats (at all!), but there’s something magical about their constant presence in almost all non-American cities and provincial towns. One of the first things I heard about Israel after landing in Tel Aviv was “prepare yourself for the stray cats.” Sure enough, as soon as we set foot in the Degania Bet Kibbutz, two or three cats could be seen roaming the kibbutz’s patio at any given time.

Three Cats from Israel’s Kinneret region

Jewish Quarter, Jerusalem’s Old City: This cat made out with a very holy stone wall as our guide told us about the significance of the Dome of the Rock and explained the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem.

Given the cats are strays, we weren’t really supposed to touch them…

A cursed Bedouin tent cat
I couldn’t help it if it rubbed against me, though.

In France, I traveled with my mom, who really hates cats in addition to being very, very allergic to them. The French cats were much bolder than the Israeli cats as they crept above us on medieval stone walls in vaguely threatening ways.

An honorable mention goes to this cat, Tiger, in the middle picture above. He belonged to the place in which we stayed and was very sweet, although he had sharp claws.

I’m still searching for Spanish cats during my time in Madrid. So far, no cats, although so many Madrileños have incredibly well-behaved dogs. I will keep looking and update all.