A Day of our Own

The very last day that we were in Europe, we got an entire day to ourselves to relax and bumble around in France. By this point in time, we were quite familiarized with the subway system, the overall layout of Paris, and in general, how to stay alive in Europe. One thing that had me irritated, though, is the reason why we had that free day. Initially, we are supposed to be going to London via a high-speed train, but because it was like 200 extra dollars per day or something, they cut it from the tour. I thought of it this way; if we were already paying five and a half grand to go on this trip… would an extra 200 really hurt that much? So regardless, instead of taking a high-speed train to London, we spent the day walking the streets of Paris enjoying ourselves. 

To start off the day, we got breakfast at the continental breakfast at our hotel. This was our last day in Europe, and throughout the entire tour we have been told to discard old clothes that we didn't intend to take home so that we can make room for souvenirs and to overall lighten up the suitcase. So, every piece of clothing we didn't feel like taking home, my roommate and I threw into the shelving units. We also left behind some extra snacks and beverages we were enjoying on the 6 hour bus ride from Germany.

After running those light errands, we made a plan to go see as much as we could. It was my roommate Nick, and three other kids that came from my high school, that ended up being my travel group for the day. There were a total of 7 of us that came from West York, but this group of four of us was really tight. We were going to rent some bikes and bike around Paris, but as mentioned in an earlier post, France didn't seem to like MasterCard from America. Defeated, we resorted to the Metro System, where you can get a ticket from one side of the town to the other for usually right around two Euros. We had grown quite fond of it, as we had been using the Metro System the entire time in Paris, as we only had our bus driver for a week before he had to return home to the Czech Republic.

A view from the bridge.

We first decided to check out some of the Art District buildings. We saw a little bit of them but didn't actually get a chance to go into any of them. One of them was having a huge Flea Market at the time, and there were plenty of things to see inside the building. We easily walked 5 miles that day, popping from one side of town to the other, taking as many pictures as possible.

And then, I was inspired. My roommate and I started whistling and singing in acapella version of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day”. I was inspired, because I was still single, still not talking to any girls, and wandering lost in the streets of Europe trying to find myself. And while singing that song, we definitely did find ourselves. We had some deep conversations about girls that we liked, issues we were facing coming ahead, and many other things. What a cathartic way to spend your time wandering the streets of Europe. Needless to say, the girl that my roommate liked back then, he's now been dating for over 5 years.

Much as we did in Italy and Switzerland before us, we went to restaurant in night that had live entertainment from the vocals in the style of their traditional folk music. Just when I thought accordions and Italian lyrics were cute, and I thought that the Swiss Alp horns were incredible, then we got to hear a French couple sing and play accordion. It was very schmaltzy and beautiful. After wandering through nearly every part of Paris and getting close up pictures of the Arc de Triumph and Eiffel Tower, we called it a day.

A perfect ending to a perfect day: a pontoon ride.

Although I really wish to have gone to London for a day, it was still quite incredible to be able to experience everything that I did in the past 10 days of my life. And, to be continued…

The City of Blinding Lights

The City of Blinding Lights

After spending quite some time enjoying all of Europe, we were going back to where we once landed to experience their culture, France. Upon arrival, we were greeted by super strong smelling toilets, not so smiling locals, and a lot of wind turbines. Although I didn't drink coffee at this point of time, and nor will I ever smoke cigarettes, those two Aromas strongly filled the air mostly everywhere in the city limits.

The Art District.

One thing that was fairly interesting to watch year was the traffic. If it were a complete stop in public, and you were riding on a moped, you go directly between the two rows of cars and not care. It was incredible. Also there driving was a lot better than it was in the south. And then the Germans I met drove with such surgical precision that it could be painful sometimes.

In France, they have a system called the rent a bike. People will rent a bike out to take it somewhere, usually work, and then they will lock it up at another Kiosk for somebody else to rent out. The entire time we were in France, my buddy and roommate Nick had a credit card that didn't want to work on him. The same followed suit for me as well. Both of us tried our MasterCards, to no avail. And so, one of the locals had to come to help us out at this kiosk. Nothing eventful really happened other than us both embarrassing ourselves and continuing onwards on foot.

Rent a Bike. Or a horse?

The most noticeable difference about Paris from the rest of the places we had been in Europe, is that smokers were literally everywhere. There was a definite layer of smog covering most of the city, and much more traffic than everywhere else we had been as well. To be honest, Paris wasn't quite what it was cracked up to be. Then again, I was never one for cute little fantasies anyhow. There were also several couples seriously making out with each other on benches, people shouting across the street to one another, and people cutting in and out of lines. But the most notable difference of all was their McDonalds. We witnessed two different things inside of that McDonald's, unisex bathroom and Portion Control. The same cost for a massive burger from McDonald's in the states about a quarter of the result, if less fries and burger than usual. In reference to the bathrooms, there were two doors for men and women's restrooms, and they both went to the same room with urinals and stalls. This freaked out some of the girls that were trying to use the bathroom, as there were guys standing and taking a leak. Of course, they promised that they weren't trying to catch a peek or anything.

Cheese!

We went to the Art District then saw some beautiful scenery, we went into the roof and saw the Mona Lisa and other eclectic artwork, we took a tour around the base of the Eiffel Tower, and we were introduced to the Metro System so that we knew how to get around in Europe. We went on a boat tour and saw the Lock Bridge, which up until the recent lock for moving act had literally thousands of locks on it. And most importantly, we gave our fourth and final performance in Luxembourg Gardens. This is where we played our bucket drumming piece once, broke our buckets, and then were asked for an encore from the audience, and needed to play with our broken sticks and buckets. Needless to say, France proved to be very interesting.

Diving Into the Black Forest

For the next stop in our travels, we would be going to the black forest of Germany (Kirchzarten), a beautiful area that reminds me much of Pennsylvania, and lies just a couple miles from Freiburg. We ran to a couple of locals in our first gas station stop that only spoke German, and at this point in time, I only knew how to say thank you and excuse me and that was about it. But, the scenery reminded me much of my home in Pennsylvania, as did the weather, and the roads. What was markedly different however, were the people of Germany.

Most Germans come off as very serious to Americans; however, they also have a bland sense of humor that is only described as adorable. On the inside, there are some of the easiest people to get along with that I've ever met. And, they are also pretty good judge of character. How I knew for sure, was the fact that a guy at a hot dog stand looked at me and said that I look like the kind of guy who likes caramelized onions on my bratwurst. How could he be more correct?

For the next hotel we stayed at, half of the tour group stayed and Lionheart hotel, and the other half, my half, stayed at a nunnery on top of a mountain with a beautiful view of some small quaint town in the meadows below. The first night we were there, my friend decided to screw with the cows, almost getting gored in the process. Not to mention the giant cow bells around their necks, this cows meant business. In the convent itself though, quiet hours where generally 9 p.m. until 7 a.m., with noble silence to be observed all weekend long. Many good games of Frisbee were played here, and I hiking just outside the convent was incredible as well.

It was a two hour drive to get to our location from the center of Switzerland, but every moment of the drive was just as incredible as the last. But at this point of the trip, we have learned to develop bladders of steel so that we could tolerate long hours of road-tripping without bathroom breaks. After all, our Czech bus driver was always on a mission, and his mission was us.

And so, we on packed our bags and got ready for the days ahead, in which we would be covering a lot of ground. Stay tuned for more!