France in my Pants

So I am a huge nerd and created this handy little map with my excellent skills in Microsoft Paint:

As you can see by the handy route key, after sadly saying goodbye to all of my friends in London (I miss them much already and they had better come visit me here at some point...), I took the Chunnel to meet Christian (from the IBK program too) in Paris. The whole chunnel experience was interesting but stressful since I almost missed the train due to a series of events including confused clerks at British Grocery stores and half of London's Underground Lines deciding not to work Monday morning. The whole process was like getting on an airplane, but in a train station, including seperate terminals and people checking tickets before you get on, I was overall disoriented by the whole process. The ride itself was quick and easy and I didnt realize we had even gone under the channel until I looked outside and everything was in French.

In Paris, I met Christian at our budget hotel in Montmartre, the old hangout of the Bohemians in the last turn of the century, known for the Moulin Rouge and sketch artists that will hunt you down and attack you with their rediculous requests to draw you:

"profile?"

"no"

"Portrait?"

"no, go away"

"Characature?"

"No. Please stop bothering me"

"Sketch?"

"Look! Someone else in desperate need of a rediculous Paris souvineer!"

After walking the 10 miles between every major landmark in the city: Notre Dame, Louvre, Arch de Triumph, we ended at the Eiffel Tower, to witness it's hourly ten minute "sparkle," a pretty spectacualr remnant of that giant Y2K thing everyone made a big deal about 8 years ago.

Christian and I decided that the McDonald's corporation deliberately funded these in order to subliminally encourage Parisians and tourists to frequent their locations at every hour since we both randomly had a craving for some McFastfood for the first time in a long time. Since we weren't in Rome, we didn't feel obligated to do as the Parisians did and succumbed to what in retrospect is one of the cheapest meals one could get in the city of lights. We then retreated back to the hotel to share a rediculously tiny "two person" bed.

The next morning, we conqured Versailles, as the French Revolutionists did 200 years ago and we got a fairly good impression of the wonderful Train-station-turned-art-museum, Orsay. In the evening we met up with my friend, Alicia, for dinner. She is an ND student I know from band who is studying for the year in Paris. She unfortunately had finals that week but she made it out to see us.

On Wednesday, we hit a lot including the correctly pronnounced ND cathedrial:

As well as the inside-out Pompidou modern art museum that I thought was an interesting break from all of the Madonnas I've seen in the past few months but I questioned the validity of all the work once I came across 3 blank canvasses. The thing next to it said was "an experiment in colors." The only experimentation the artist needed was to decide whether to use "snow white" or "cotton" paint color. We conquered Napolean's tomb which in my opinion was a little gawdy for the guy who used the Sphynx for target practice. Then Eiffel's Tower (up it this time), for a sunset view of the city, then finally off to the Louvre for their nighttime hours (open till 10 on wednesdays). It was really relaxing being there at night because since it was the end of the day, I didnt have that museum stress I always have that I need to be somewhere else, or at least outside where its warm and sunny. But we were exhausted from the long day and attempted to see most of the Louvre in 3 hours which resulted in "Louvre Sickness": the internal battle between body and mind, when one wants to run around and see as many masterpieces possible but has not the stamina to do so. It results in a semi-epileptic state as one sits on the increasinlgy comfy couches in the museum staring into nothingness.

At the end of the day, we had done so much I went a little "In-Seine"

I'm really sorry about that one...

Thursday, Christian and I split ways as he went north up to Bruges, and I started the land treck back home to Innsbruck. My goal for the evening was Strasbourg, a cute canal city on the French/German border. On the way I stopped in Nancy for a few hours for the sole reason that I heard they had a good Art Neuvo Museum there. The museum ended up being like 4 rooms in an old house full of cool looking furniture but it kind of wasn't worth the trouble and I was the only person in the museum and there was a highly unnecessary number of museum docents that would awkwarly stare at me the entire time. The redeeming quality of Nancy though was that there was a free zoo in the park with goats, rabbits, ducks, and, what? monkeys? Plus the place was overrun by a large number of peacocks that were no doubt scheming on taking over the world, starting with the rabbit/ginuea pig pen:

Strasbourg was a really cool town; half-timbered houses lining canals, with a skeletony gothic cathedral domineering the entire city. Its also a university town which gave it a refreshing lively feel. It was a great town to just wander around in; I rented a bike for half a day and enjoyed just riding around. Strasbourg was also interesting for me because it was the first time I had ever traveled alone. It was kind of daunting but at the same time allowed for more people to approach you and meet you. For example the random spanish lady I met in the cathedral who didnt speak a word of english or german and somehow managed to communicate with me. She apparently lived in the area and offered to buy me a cup of tea. A little skeptical, I accepted her request but it was strange since we really had limited means of communication. I think she thought I was married because of a ring on my hand. I also think she invited me to her house at one point, but I awkwarly told her I had to meet some friends soon or something. I wonder what wouldve happened if I had taken her up on her offer, she was nice but from her mismatched and dirty clothes she seemed a little strange to me.

On the way back to Innsbruck from Strasbourg, I had a layover in Stuttgart for a few hours. It was really a nice city in my opinion: perfect mix of old and new. There were some old classical buildings sprinkled among modern ones so that it didnt have the stuffy museumness of some older cities but it still had a little charm. Plus everyone was walking around and the city was abound with street performers, young kids, old couples, and lovers, all walking down the same main street.

Now I'm back in Innsbruck for a few days before heading off to Egypt on Monday.