LIFE AFTER ABROAD

I'm finally back in the great USofA!
(and back to the blog!)
LONDON CALLING!

Hello Again! Sorry that I have been gone for so long! After the first few days as a full time intern at Sotheby’s I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me. As the work load increased, I started blogging about my adventures less and less. But I’m back to make up for lost time! A very very very brief recap of the month of December… I left London at the very beginning of the month to travel to Clermont Ferrand to stay with my friend Marcella McKee.

Just the train ride in France alone left my speechless about the beauty. I left the small American flag (that my Mom had embarrassingly forced me to pack in my bag on my way to London over three months ago) in Marci’s apartment to help reminder her of home.

Clermont-Ferrand's most famous public square is place de Jaude, on which stands a grand statue of Vercingetorix sitting imperiously on a horse. The inscription reads: J'ai pris les armes pour la liberté de tous (English: I took up arms for the liberty of all). This statue was sculpted by Frederic Bartholdi, who also created the Statue of Liberty. I spent a large amount of my trip in that main square, sightseeing while Marci was teaching English and meeting her friends for drink and a ferris wheel ride at night.

OUR PRETEND CHRISTMAS CARD

After that I took the train to the Netherlands to work an auction with Sotheby’s office in Amsterdam and to meet up with my friend Blakely for a small European adventure. The auction was beautiful! I was very proud of myself because I walked out of the event having sold my two favorite paintings in the sale to an American client as a phone bidder! The next few days, my friend Blakely and I ventured around the city. We walked around the gorgeous canals of downtown Amsterdam and spent our days on boat tours, at the Anne Frank Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and a brief wander into the red light district for a glass of wine. It was amazing but before we knew it we were off to Berlin!

In Berlin we met up with my friend Hamish. He’s a Scottish lad who I met on a trip in Wshitler, Canada who is currently studying in Sweden. Of course we became close friends because of our obvious wanderlust. Berlin was stunning. I think it is one of the most underrated cities. The entire experience was magical, the people were friendly, the food and drink were delicious, and the snowfall made the grand-scale architecture even more impressive. We spent our time wisely, fitting in as much as we possibly could seeing as we were walking around in -6degree weather since we couldn’t afford cabs! We visited traditional German Christmas markets, the Riechstag, the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust Memorial, Berliner Fernehturn Skyscraper, and my all time favorite- the Berliner Dom. Everything was stunning and there was so much that I was still unable to see. We had to bid adieu to Germany and move on though as France was calling me back!

MY FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE EIFFEL TOWER

After a disastrous 36 hours spent on trains shipping us from Berlin to Mannheim to Stuttgart to our final destination, we were horrified to find out that our hostel “lost out reservation.” We were lucky enough to be able to check into a cheap hotel and begin experiencing the beautiful City of Lights. Paris is the most romantic city in the world, I’m sure of it. Luckily Blakely is an avid art fan as well and she came with me on a continuous tour of the Parisian art museums; the Lourve, the Monet Museum: the Marmottan, the Palace Elysee, and so many more all the while constantly stopping to take pictures and get a tea and a treat at the amazing Paris cafes. We walked down Les Halles and looked inside the stunning shops that we wished we could afford and danced around the beautiful merchandise in the Galleries Lafayette. We of course didn’t have much money but I bought one gift for myself during these three city adventures (excuse me, MY PARENTS bought it for me haha). Blakely and I went into the oldest bookstore in Paris. We walked around stunned at the dark wood ladders leading up to heaps and heaps of beautifully bound books. I fell in love. I found a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and The Damned and I just had to buy it. It’s sitting next to me on my desk now as I write this blog post. After spending a few beautiful days in the Paris snow, once again it was time to travel, but I’ve never been more excited because this time… I was going home!

JAMES BOND'S ASTON MARTIN DB5

Here's a picture I was sent of the RM preview event!

"The car has been on show at Sotheby’s in NY and Sotheby’s Hong Kong during Asia Week, where it received considerable attention from our top clients, and has just returned to the UK. You will see it on Sotheby’s TV and on our website home page. Viewing will be with the main RM auction at Battersea Evolution in London on Tuesday October 26th from 10am to 5pm and Wednesday October 27th from 10am, with the auction starting at 4pm. There is an invitation only VIP preview on the evening of Tuesday the 26th"