This May, after college graduation, I'm going on an 11 night Celebrity cruise of the British Isles and Paris. I'm so excited, but with the shuffle of finishing the semester, graduation, my birthday, and figuring out my life post-college, it hasn't completely sunk in yet.
I'll be seeing Paris, the Channel Islands, Dublin, Cork, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness/Loch Ness, Liverpool, Harwich, Belfast, and London. I'm already sure I'll want to see more of London and Paris before I even leave. This will be the longest I've ever been gone and I can't wait to experience literally another world for awhile. I hope all of you get to see everything you want to see and live out your traveling dreams too. Work hard, save money, and be determined. Good luck wherever life takes you!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
A series of paintings
These are three beach scenes I was painting from a calender...and as you can see, the third one has been drawn but not yet painted. I need to finish it because these kinds of paintings in groups make cute and one of a kind decorations. You never need to spend money on pictures or art for your house if you have a camera, art tools, and a touch of creativity.
History and travel
Mount Ararat (Turkish: Ağrı, see below other: names and etymology) is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat (the highest peak in Turkey, and the entire Armenian plateau with an elevation of 5,137 m/16,854 ft) and Lesser Ararat (with an elevation of 3,896 m/12,782 ft).
The Ararat massif is about 40 km (25 mi) in diameter. The Iran-Turkey boundary skirts east of Lesser Ararat, the lower peak of the Ararat massif. It was in this area that, by the Tehran Convention of 1932, a border change was made in Turkey's favour, allowing it to occupy the eastern flank of Lesser Ararat.[5]
Mount Ararat in Judeo-Christian tradition is associated with the "Mountains of Ararat" where, according to the book of Genesis, Noah's ark came to rest.
It also plays a significant role in Armenian culture and irredentism. The mountain can be seen on the Coat of arms of Armenia.
Information from Wikipedia and photo from www.allvoices.com
Destination Tuesdays
The Musée du Louvre (French pronunciation: [myze dy luvʁ])—in English, the Louvre Museum or simply The Louvre—is one of the world's largest museums, and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, France, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). With more than 8 million visitors each year, the Louvre is the world's most visited museum.[5]
The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture.[6] In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years.[7] During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation's masterpieces.
The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The size of the collection increased under Napoleon and the museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon. After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, many works seized by his armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and gifts since the Third Republic. As of 2008, the collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings.
Information from Wikipedia and photo from www.mastersoftrivia.com
Best and worst airlines
Since flying is a necessary evil to go most places, at least you can choose a good airline. I've had good experiences with American Airlines, and Delta too for the most part (although they don't feed you as much as they should, and their website hardly ever functions). I hate United. The one experience I had with them, I sat in the very back, they ran out of the meal I wanted the row before me, one of the bathrooms didn't work, the flight attendants were rude, they took off late and we arrived to get our connecting flight so late that I literally ran about a mile through the Houston airport. I even had to go through some express lane in security (I had to do security again because I was arriving from another country), telling the employees I was going to miss my flight otherwise. Very stressful experience. Sadly I have to fly United again this May; let's hope this time it goes a lot better!
Favorite artists
My favorite artists are Salvador Dali, Georgia O'Keefe, Picasso, and of course Michelangelo for the Sistene Chapel (which sadly you are not allowed to take pictures in there, or else I'd post one). Besides being the greats and classic and creating new ways of using color and shape, their works are just beautiful. For more modern day artists, I like Christian Lassen; we have two of his paintings in my house. They're gorgeous beach scenes from Hawaii mainly, and the colors are bright and rich. Who are some of your favorite artists?
Back to art
This is an oil painting I did of Table Mountain in South Africa. On the right is the page in my book that I painted from, and on the left is the painting. The colors in the painting look a bit brighter because of my camera's flash, but I love the purples.
For destination Tuesdays
Mount Fuji (富士山 Fuji-san, IPA: [ɸɯꜜdʑisaɴ] (
listen)), located on Honshu Island, is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft).[1] An active stratovolcano[5][6] that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres (62 mi) south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day. Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is snow-capped several months a year, is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers. It is one of Japan's "Three Holy Mountains" (三霊山 Sanreizan) along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku; it is a Special Place of Scenic Beauty, a Historic Site, and has been submitted for future inscription on the World Heritage List as a Cultural (rather than Natural) Site.[7][8][9]Information from Wikipedia and photo from http://skisoliders.blogspot.com
The most uncommon continent
Antartica...how awesome would it be to go there? In a moment of big dreaming with a wish of unlimited funds, I looked up cruises that go there. There are indeed ships, mostly more industrial looking ones, that cruise there for curious tourists like me. The costs range by ship and line and duration, but I think they were around $3,000 or more. I haven't researched it in awhile, so I'm not sure how accurate that figure is. But if sometime in the future I want extreme adventure and have that money, I'm game. How many people can say they've been to Antartica? I'd love to see it's pristine beauty and wildness.
Places I wish were safe
I wouldn't feel safe traveling to so many places in the world-and that's sad. It's mainly the countries steeped in the oldest and perhaps richest history, too, like Egypt and Israel and the Middle East in general. Even areas like Southeast Asia would make me feel slightly unsafe, because of sex slave horror stories of young women being kidnapped and such. War torn places like Africa wouldn't be my ideal destination either. And considering the current threats from North Korea, countries like South Korea and Japan are off limits right now too. It's a shame safe exploration is limited.
Writer's Festival
Sorry I've been away-I will catch up now! I attended a writer's festival at my college a week and a half ago and writer Jimmy Cvetic read a poem consisting of random words and phrases from around the world and from history thrown together. It made me think of all the different languages of the world and all the history we come across in our lifetimes, whether from reading in books or traveling and experiencing it firsthand. Everything that's happened in the last century alone is a lot, not even considering the thousands of years that came before.
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