Ski Break Pt2

I am back from the 2 week ski break adventure. I went to Salen and Stockholm in Sweden, and Paris and Caracassonne in France. I took a little over 300 photos.
The first week I went to Sweden with Rose and Steve, other assistants in Blois. We stayed with Rose's dad in Stockholm, and drove up to Salen for skiing. We stayed in a hostel there, about 15 K from the mountain. I skied due to my ankle injury and the other two snowboarded. It was just as well since I'm sure I would have fallen alot more on the snowboard going down black and double diamond black slopes. There was one called 'Vaggen' which means- the wall.


Sweden was full of friendly people who all spoke english, even the gas attendants. Stockholm seemed very clean. We visited a warship museum called the 'Vasser Muset' which is a ship from the 18th century that was lifted from the depths of the harbor where it sank on its maiden voyage. Because the water in Stockholm harbor is not salt water, it was nearly perfectly preserved from water worms which tend to eat up wood.
We also went to the 'ice bar' one night. It is a bar made of ice from a specific river in Sweden which makes clear ice due to the oxygenation in the water. Other highlights in sweden were the asiatique museum with their kite exhibit, the modern muset with their collection of modern art, and the numerous 7'11s on every other corner in stockholm.

Then we took the plane back to Paris. I stayed in hostels for two night before meeting meredith. In Paris I went to Notre Dame, Pompidiou Center, Musee D'Orsay, Victor Hugo's apartments in place des vosges, Picasso Museum, Balzac's house, the Marmotan Museum (Monet collection), the Blois de Boulogne, Rue de Siam, and the Kwan Um zen center. The Marmotan was especially good since there was a special exhibit of Monet's personal collection of Japaneese block prints which included Hokusai and others.

We then took a sleep train to Carcassonne. We stayed in Carcassonne two nights. The main attraction of Carcassonne is the castle. Meredith had cassoulet one night and I had pizza. We also saw a good movie while in Carcassonne called 'la mome'. It was about Edith Piaf, a french singer. We then took the sleeper back to Blois, and prepared for school the next day.


I have less than one month left in my contract. I plan on travelling for about a month after that, and then returning home.