This is Bordeaux's Grand Theatre, pretty much the heart and center of the city. I took this picture back in January, about a week before school started.

This might possibly be the last entry of this travelogue written in Europe. The next couple of weeks before I head home will be pretty full:

May 18 - 27: Meet up with Annie for tour of Eastern Europe (Munich, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg).

May 28 - May 30/31: Visit Monsieur and Madame Prévôt-Leygonie's country home.

May 31 - June 1: Photo safari of Bordeaux; last minute preparations.

June 2, 6:15 am: Departure to go home.

June 2, noon-ish Pacific Standard Time: Back in Los Angeles.

For the sake of completion, I will post pictures/overviews of the tour and whatnot after I get back home in California. So, see you in a couple of weeks...

And to all of my friends who are graduating now-ish: CONGRATULATIONS!!! Your graduation gifts are... well, we'll see.

No Rome this time around, but I'll get there soon enough. Anyway, this picture is from Venice, obviously. Because I'm stupid, I forgot to take a picture of the bridge from which I took this shot.

I haven't yet expressed how thrilled I was when I realized I was going to go to Italy after all. Coming to Europe, my top 3 cities to visit were Paris, London, and Rome. But after a few months and realizing how hard it was to match up schedules, it looked like Italy wasn't going to happen at all. Even though I told myself that I already had so many great trips and wonderful experiences that should have been enough, I was still really disappointed that I wasn't going to have a chance to go to Italy. But a couple of weeks ago, Lacey brought up the idea and we were able to pick dates and make this happen. I was surprised by how quickly and how hard I fell in love with Italy. It's so beautiful and seeing Italian, hearing it everywhere, and trying to speak it was really an interesting experience. It was just incredible.

( Venezia )


( Firenze )

This is my favorite metro station in Paris (and possibly all of the world, not that I am all that familiar with the world's tube stations).

We have a lot of catching up to do, so I've divided this post into handy sections so you can skip:

( Two rather forgettable picnics. )


( The Great Train Station Fiasco )


( Paris, take 3: Day 1 )


( Paris, take 3: Day 2 )


( The rest of the month. )

That pretty much brings things up to date. I had my very last final on Tuesday (and thus finished my college career!) and am now enjoying the simple pleasure of living in Bordeaux.

On Friday, I will be going to Italy (Venice and Florence) until next Thursday. Afterwards, I'm considering another 2-3 day trip to Paris and also some time just to hang out in Bordeaux. On the 18th, I head over to Munich to meet up with Annie to go on our tour of eastern Europe. That ends about a week later and I will be back in Bordeaux on the 27th. Then it's a few more days of enjoying life here before I head back home on June 2. Home, can you believe it? But that's a topic for another time. Before then, I'll have tales from Italia to share.