Nice, Monaco, and Villefranche Sur Mer

Back from our trip to Southern France. I could swim in the Mediterranean Sea all day if I could, it was so beautiful. I felt like I had jumped into a postcard, somewhere you only see in pictures and can't believe is real even when you're right there breathing it in.

We rode the night train both there and back, a good option if you want to "time travel." We arrived back just in time for me to take a shower and wash out all the sea salt from my hair before French class.

The first day we spent in Nice, exploring the city and the beach. The hostel we stayed at was pretty nice, not far from the train station. After dinner at a delicious all-you-can-eat mussel restaurant called Le Festival des Moules, we bumped into another Tech grad who completely understood why I was the only girl out of a group of 9 people. :)

The next morning we headed over to Monaco by local train, which was about as cheap as a bus ticket. I can see why all the richies want to live there--the view is spectacular. We grabbed some sandwiches from a street vendor and hiked up to the fort where the prince hangs out. After that, we walked down through a maze-like park that overlooked the Sea, and then back up a massive hill towards Monte Carlo.

The casino was neat from the outside. A few of our group weren't 21 yet so we didn't go inside; instead, we took lots of pictures of all the bajillionaires' cars and looked at all the fountains.

We decided to stop in a small town between Monaco and Nice called Villefranche Sur Mer. It had a fort you could climb up to, and we spent a bit of time up there enjoying the view before heading to dinner at a quaint little place. The French people like to take their time at dinner--we were there for a few hours, but the meal was delicious and it was nice not having to rush.

On Monday, we fulfilled the first stage of The Bet. The Bet, for those I haven't told yet, is about hair. Eric hasn't let his hair grow out longer than an inch for his whole life so I bet him that he couldn't go the rest of the summer without cutting it. Naturally, he decided to dye his hair an outrageous color so as to keep himself from shaving his head--after such an investment, it would be more economical to keep his hair. We couldn't find anybody who would take us seriously about blue hair, but we did find a nice lady who turned him blonde. Whether or not he can keep it is another story, but my end of the bet is that if he manages not to cut his hair, then I have to let the guys pick my hairstyle at the end of the summer. Don't worry, no man/bald/perm/make-dad-cry haircuts allowed, but color is game. Wish me luck.

The rest of Monday was spent climbing around the park we found up at the top of the city, where there was a man-made waterfall, and down at the pebble beach swimming and soaking up some sun. There was some commotion when people saw a dorsal fin off in the distance, but sadly, it turned out to be a dead dolphin rolling around in the waves.

Later, some of us went shopping and to MacDo's while the rest went off to eat at the mussel place again before getting on the night train back to Metz. It was a very nice trip--I felt like I had been on vacation, except that I had class at 10 Tuesday morning...

Not sure where we're going next, but I'll keep you updated!

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The Hackenberg Fort and the Saint-Avold American Cemetery

Paris

Just got back from our 2-day trip to Paris. It was originally intended to be Normandy, but due to travel complications we decided to postpone that and some more of Paris for next weekend.

We got a good deal of stuff done, hitting most of the big tourist landmarks and taking tons of awesome pictures.

The first day, we saw a palace of some sort on our way to tour Notre Dame. We climbed up several claustrophobically-narrowing spiral staircases way up to the very top and looked out over the city. I thought that was a considerable height from which I could accidentally drop my camera, but that changed after visiting the Eiffel Tower.

We were a tad miffed once we got to the big structure because the line was ridiculous, we were being set upon like carrion by the vulture-like stolen-goods vendors, and because they'd temporarily closed the top for an indefinite amount of time.

After we decided to go up to the second floor anyway, I was excited to see the view. This was THE Eiffel Tower! The probably most-photograped structure in the world, and I was going to walk around inside it. After we'd seen the view for a bit, we noticed they'd actually reopened the top back up. Some of us seized our chance and jumped in line--Eric was right, he's seen this thing 12 times now--if I could, I'd want to see it 11 more times too. I now understand why people get engaged up there--it's corny, but with a view like that, you can't help but feel all romantic and optimistic about life. :P

Paris is a beautiful city. It's not as earthy as Barcelona, and it's not as organized as NYC. It's full of irregular polygon shaped blocks and circles and eternally stretching lines of perfectly groomed trees. Seeing it from the top of the tower was spectacular. Unlike from the second floor, where you had to search hard to find the big landmarks, from the top the Arch, the Louvre, the capital building and the cathedral stuck out like chess pieces on a gigantic board.

Later on, after eating at (hehe) a MacDo's, we found our hotel in a sketchy, still-developing part of town. Eh, it was cheap, yet clean and somewhat better than any hostel we've stayed at.

This morning we ate some breakfast at the hotel and set off early for the Metro to l'arc de triomphe. I didn't know what to expect until we saw it from across the giant traffic circle. When we got right up to it and saw the eternal flame, the feeling of extreme smallness and insignificance finally hit home. I knew it would happen at some point in Europe--it almost got me at the Tower, but it finally steamrolled me as we were deciphering de Gaulle's speech transcribed from one of his radio announcements from London. Even though it was during WWI, it made me think about Granddaddy and what he must've gone through. I'm really looking forward to Normandy.

We made it to La Louvre and got in for free (again, awesome student status), saw Venus, Mona, some more tourist must-sees, and Nap III's apartment. My favorite of all of them was still Venus. She's inspiring for some weird reason. :)

Of course, even though I had just beheld some of the most acclaimed art in the world, I couldn't help freaking out over how cool the floating spiral staircase was under the giant glass pyramid.

We took more tourist pictures and headed down the mall-like park towards the Obelisk, then sat around relaxing a bit before heading back to la gare and waiting for our train. I still can't believe we just got back from PARIS--it was assuredly different than what I expected, but it was a definitely worthwhile place to see. I'm looking forward to seeing a bit more of it next weekend.
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Barcelona

Last weekend was our trip to Barcelona, Spain. The rain likes to follow us around Europe, apparently, but the guys and I had a great trip.

The trip to Spain was our first on an overnight sleeper train. Crammed into each compartment were 6 tiny bunks lining the walls, each with its own wee pillow and night light. Eventually, we stopped walking around the train in search of the invisible dining car, playing cards, and eating from our large junk food stash to settle down and get some sleep.

After arriving at the station, we found our hostel (a much cleaner place than Jaeger's), and found lunch at a local restaurant, A Taula. Later, we walked over to the beach. On the way, we saw a giant statue of Colombus pointing at what I'd imagine would be America, and we admired the marina full of exquisitely expensive boats.

We had to take a moment to get over the initial shock of realizing the beach was top-optional, but we lived. I was too thrilled to touch (and jump into) the Mediterranean Sea for the first, and hopefully not last, time. The water was a beautiful clear greenish-blue, and it felt crisp and refreshing after all that walking. That's 3 major bodies of water now on my list.

We ate dinner at a restaurant right off the beach, and it wouldn't have been right if I hadn't ordered that delicious pina colada. ;)

Sunday started with a tour of the huge futbol stadium, Camp Nou. Afterwards we hopped on the Metro to check out Gulle Park, an awesome place at the pinnacle of Barcelona filled with Gaudi architecture, decent street musicians, and the best view of the entire city. We climbed to the top of a winding tower made of stone and looked across rows and miles of houses and buildings all the way down to the Sea. I haven't ever seen anything like it before, and I don't think I will again. The rest of the park was full of fun little details until we got to the giant outdoor, stone, mosaic-covered hall and balcony. It was like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

We hopped back onto the Metro and went all the way to Las Ramblas, a big long road with all kinds of shops, and then we found the Picasso Museum. It contained a broad collection of works throughout all his periods, but we have yet to see his most famous stuff. A guy in our group figures we might find some in the Louvre on our upcoming Paris trip.

We had just enough time to make it all the way across town to see a bull fight. There were tons of (what appeared to be mainly English-speaking) protesters across the street from the stadium. Apparently, they were the culprits who stained the front of it with tons of red paint bombs. After the "show" I could see where they're coming from, but I could also see the beauty in the old tradition. The crux of the matter is where one draws the torture line. What I recommend is go see one for yourself before you pick a side.

We had an early day ahead of us--we had to be up at 5 to catch the beginning of our 18-hour return journey--but I think it was totally worth it. And while most people would probably disagree with me, I think the time spent on the train was just as important as the rest of the trip. We made up some pretty good Mad-Libs towards the end that'll remain classified ideally until we're all dead and buried. ;)
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Bull fight

As a preview for my Barcelona trip recap, I'm posting a video of the bull fight we attended Sunday night. This matador was the best by far; he was as honorable as you'd expect, had ten times better form than the other couple of guys, and managed to take care of the dirty stuff as efficiently as possible. He was quite cocky, but what can you say, it's his job. ***WARNING*** Please do NOT watch if you are opposed to bull fighting. This contains what really happens in Spanish bull fighting arenas, NOT what you expect from watching your typical Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny shenanigans.

Munich, Bavaria, Day 3

Our third day began rainy as well, but as our tour guide would've said, no worries. We trekked our way on over to the Deutches Museum for a few hours before we caught our 2:30 train back to Metz.

I really enjoyed the exhibits--although I found I prefer art museums to history/science museums, it was an incredible place and I could easily have spent another day there to fully see everything. They had stuff from the Wright brothers and German zeppelins and space flight down to electron microscopes and particle accelerators.

After we'd walked back to the train station, tired and cold, we got some lunch at Burger King (ha). I got a Whopper and it was delicious.

At the last train switch before home, there was a convenience store. And in this magical place, there were German chocolates and Haribo gummy bears. And cheap gum (gum in France is ridiculously expensive, sometimes 6 euros a pack). We spent the last of the journey swapping different flavors of chocolate and feeling quite satisfied with ourselves. :)
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French students singing outside my window

This is what goes on at nighttime...

Munich, Bavaria, Day 2

Our second day began at 7:30 AM. We rolled out of our little bunk beds and ate some breakfast at the bar while we watched rugby or cricket, can't remember which, on TV. Breakfast was pretty familiar (eggs, cereal...) except for the whole non-refrigerated-milk thing they like to do in Europe.
Right at the entrance of Hbf, we met our guides for the schloss tour. The whole idea seemed kind of sketchy at first, but we had a referral from the hostel people that they were legit, and as we got to know them, we learned a great deal more than we would have if we'd tried to get there on our own. On a side note, right before we left for the tour we randomly ran into a Tech alum and his wife who were on vacation, and of course, that was a photo op. His name was Bill, and he graduated with an ME degree in '72. :)

One of our guides was a history student from Liverpool, and the other was a young-ish guy from Barcelona who rolled his own cigarettes on breaks. They were happy to give us tons of travel advice for our upcoming trip to Barcelona.

Neuschwanstein has quite an interesting history, apart from the whole Disney thing. It's a sad kind of story about Ludwig II, who was simultaneously very Catholic and very homosexual (conflict, anyone?), may or may not have been crazy due to syphilis or depression (possibly from said conflict), and who loved swans and beauty with such spirit that he would hire out full orchestras to play Wagner as he watched attractive men row giant swan contraptions across the lake in his backyard. Oh yeah, and he had a castle for a house too.

The castle was built to mirror medieval architecture on the outside while serving as an extremely elaborate house on the inside. Unfortunately, Ludwig didn't get to completely live in his dream home because the government had him arrested for his high accumulation of debt supposedly due to insanity.

He died mysteriously by drowning --his and his doctor's bodies were found, both drowned, on the property where they detained him for a thorough check on his mental health. Nobody knows if it was suicide, murder, or an accident from a failed escape-attempt because there was never an autopsy (violating the king's body was taboo). It's still a mystery, and I think there's a controversy going on about digging him up to find out.

The neighboring castle that is right beside Swan Lake is where his brother Otto lived. We didn't get to go inside it, but it was nice to see nestled on its hill with the tiny village houses sprawled out in the valley below. This one was actually built to be a defensible castle, and it has outer walls around it.

After we got back from the tour, we headed over to the Augustiner beer hall for dinner. I took Julian's advice and tried kasespatzle, delicious noodles with cheese and fried onion sprinkled over the top. Mmmmmm it was tasty.

We met some nice people back at the hostel, a guy on leave from the Coast Guard and a student between undergrad and grad school, and we had an interesting chat and then hit the sack.

Continued...

Munich, Bavaria, Day 1

As the weeks progress and we familiarize ourselves with the joys of the wide variety of public transportation available to us, we travel further and further away from Metz. This weekend was our Munich trip.

I have to say, first of all, that although the French are friendly in their own curious way, I prefer the boisterous and carefree spirit of the Germans. They seem a lot easier to get along with from the get-go, whereas it takes some cleverness and skill to make friends with, say, the French lady from whom you're trying to buy a complicated train ticket.

After a long train ride with a few stops and switches, we made it to our hostel, Jaeger's Munich. We picked this place for convenience and necessity of course, but it didn't hurt that with your stay, you are guaranteed a free shot of Jaeger. Ah, German hospitality. The place made me think of a modern IKEA explosion on top, and a medieval crypt in the basement living quarters, but I enjoyed living there for two days minus the mild fear I had of touching any bathroom surface. Luckily, I discovered that the IKEA floor's bathrooms were quite a majestic alternative.

The first day was, of course, raining but that didn't deter us from walking all over town. After an interesting lunch of pork, potatoes, and sauerkraut at a traditional Bavarian place called Lamm's, we saw the river, the cathedral, and a bunch of German architecture.
Munich has a more practical feel about it than Metz--it's clean-lined and has just enough fancy architecture sprinkled in that you can pay attention to all of it without being overwhelmed. And there are bikes EVERYWHERE. I almost got hit several times for ignorantly strolling in the center of the bike lane, but it was inspiring to see so many people out in the rain riding their bikes.

We got lost on the way to one of the two famous beer halls, and since it was getting late, we opted to forgo the experience and enjoyed some more German architecture on the way back towards the train station to eat. Back at the hostel, we snagged a brochure for a Neuschwanstein tour for the next day before hanging out upstairs and then retreating to the dungeon for bed.

Continued...
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