Champagne for the day

Yesterday, I went to Reims, France to go Champagne tasting with my friend Giovi. We took a morning train and met at the metro station before heading off to the train station. We got on the metro together and waited and waited and realized that it wasn't going anywhere. There had been a problem at the next metro stop, and so they were waiting for it to clear up. So Giovi and I kept waiting. Almost 20 minutes went by and the metro still wasn't moving. I was getting restless so I was looking at my train tickets, and realized that I forgot my youth discount card. Without it, I might have had to pay full fare, which would have probably been over 50 euros! So I decided that I needed to go back to my house; luckily the metro still hadn't gone anywhere. Giovi and I ran and ran back to my apartment, because now it was getting late and we were worried about making our train.

We finally made it to my apartment, huffing and puffing, I ran upstairs and grabbed the card, then we ran and ran back to the metro station. Fortunately, the metro was moving again, but we didn't know if we would be able to make our train. We were super worried. Eventually, we got off and transfered at another metro station, running and running and huffing and puffing. Then it was only 4 stops to the train station. At the train station, we just hopped on a car as quick as we could, and we made it with 5 minutes to spare! It was quite an adventurous morning, but the mishaps didn't stop there.

When we got to Reims, we went to the Notre Dame where every king in France was crowned and where Joan of Arc convinced Charles VII to crown himself even though the king of England sort of ruled France at that time. There were a bunch of monuments of Joan of Arc, and the cathedral itself was extremely old. Clovis, the first king of the Franks was crowned there in the late 400s. So we wandered around the cathedral a bit, then went to the Palais du Tau where they had a bunch of statues from the cathedral and also some robes and crowns that the kings wore. It was actually pretty interesting, and I understood a lot of it, because I've been taking the History of France.

After that, we wandered around Reims not sure what to do. We looked in our tour guide and found a museum dedicated to the end of WWII, because apparently they signed a treaty in Reims to end WWII in Europe. We walked and walked and walked trying to find this museum, and then when we got there it was closed. So that was that, and we walked back to town for lunch. We headed to a cafe determined to have some champagne with lunch, but all the champagne cost over 15 euros for a glass. So I just had water. There was a curious thing on the menu at this cafe. Raw ground beef! I saw lots of people order it, and the person sitting next to me had the waiter put a raw egg over his raw beef. It was disgusting; it couldn't be sanitary. I wanted to throw up looking at that.

After lunch, we went on a hunt for Mumm's or Tattinger's champagne cellars. We walked, got lost, walked some more, got more lost, walked and walked, asked people where to find the cellars and never found them! Apparently they were kind of out of town, and it was too far to walk. We found a couple of cellars that we asked to take a tour of, but they said they didn't have public tours running. So our whole plan was ruined. By this time, it was late in the afternoon and we had to go home. We were so disappointed that we never actually tasted Champagne in Champagne, that we bought some mini bottles of "sparkling wine" at the grocery store and sat on a park bench and toasted. It was sad. But all in all, it was a pretty adventurous day, and we got some good pictures, too!

Tomorrow, I'm supposed to go back to Strasbourg to meet Brett for the day, but we don't know if that will work out, because there is a NATO summit there and apparently there are some dangerous protesters and rioters planned to be there. I think that the public transportation will be significantly reduced, and because we're concerned about our safety, we probably will have to cancel. It makes me sad, but I don't want to be in the middle of a riot! I'm going to the train station today to see if I can get a last minute ticket to Freiburg and bypass Strasbourg. I'll be crossing my fingers, because it's a stretch to get last minute train tickets.

Leah

More Pictures of Scotland

By yon bonny banks

Last weekend was simply wonderful. It started with a picnic on Friday afternoon in a park near my house. I got together with some friends from school and we took advantage of the beautiful, absolutely gorgeous warm weather we've been having lately. Yes, spring has sprung in Paris, it has been warm and sunny, and the leaves on the trees are just beginning to bud. Before heading to the park, I stopped at the boulangerie for a ham and cheese baguette and my very first macaroon. A macaroon is a crunchy cookie-esque thing with creaminess in the middle. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it is the best way I can explain it. They come in lots and lots of flavors, and I chose pistachio. It was delicious; sweet, crunchy, and creamy.

The next day I left for Glasgow. I flew with Ryanair, which was a very strange experience because it is a budget airline, and by making up for their low fares, they spend the whole flight trying to sell you food and other random things. Kind of strange, but the flight wasn't too long, and soon I was in Scotland!

I hopped off the plane, and had to go through a special wing of customs, because I wasn't from the E.U. I had to fill out a paper about my intentions in the U.K. and then I had to talk to the border control woman, who was actually very nice and gave me a beautiful stamp on my passport from Scotland.

After that, I hopped on a train that I hoped was headed into Glasgow. After we started rolling through the green country side, the conductor confirmed that we were headed for Glasgow, and I bought a 3.50 pound ticket and watched beautiful Scotland roll by. The countryside was gorgeous. Even though the train ride was only about 20 minutes, I saw some magnificent ocean views. It was just how I had imagined Scotland: green hills covered in sheep rolling towards the ocean.

When I got off the train, and into Glasgow, I had already fallen in love with the city. Lots of people had told me that it was an industrial city, one to miss, but I think it has lots of character. It reminds me a little of Oliver Twist. Very beautiful old sandstone buildings, but also a smoky industrial demeanor. It was very down to earth, and just the right size.

I decided at the last minute to do a mini homestay in Glasgow called couchsurfing. Couchsurfing is a website to hook up people who have houses in various cities to people that need a place to crash. I learned about it in my Rick Steve's Europe guide book, and of course I had to trust Rick's good advice. On couchsurfing, you choose who you want to stay with, and the hosts and guests are verified with references. I chose two girls in Maryhill named Sarah and Vicky. On Saturday afternoon, I caught a bus to their flat and was greeted warmly by Vicky. She was born in England, but moved to Scotland when she was only 4, so she had a very Scottish accent. She is currently in nursing school. We couldn't talk long, because she had to ride her bike to meet Sarah at a food market, because Sarah had bought too much to carry home.

Sarah and Vicky eventually returned and we had curry for dinner. Sarah is from New Zealand, but her dad is British so she got a British passport and is now working in Glasgow. She had a wonderful New Zealand accent, and was super friendly. After we ate dinner, Sarah took me out to a bar to meet some other people from couchsurfing. We got kind of lost in town, and it took us a long time to get to this bar. Sarah pointed out interesting Glasgow sights along the way (the oldest house built in the 1400s, a beautiful cathedral, George Square). When we finally made it to the bar, the couchsurfing meeting was over! So we just got a beer and talked. I taught Sarah some French, and since she knew a wee bit of German, she taught me some. She told me about how she hitchhiked all over Ireland and recommended I go there someday. She also told me the story of her love affair with a boy named Francois, that she met while camping, and how she wanted to learn some French to better understand him. At the end of our drink, I was tired and needed to go to bed because I was to get up early the next morning. Sarah was going to a party at her friend's house, so we went our separate ways, and I hopped on the bus back to the flat.

I had borrowed Vicky's keys and I guess was a bit disoriented on returning back to the flat and forgot which door was theirs. I was pretty sure I was at the right door, but the key wasn't working, so I just tried to turn the handle. It opened, and I walked inside, but everything looked different. I walked down the hall a bit to see an old man getting up from his recliner, and realized I was not in the right flat! So I told him I was sorry a million times, then found the girls' flat and slunk off to bed completely embarrassed!

The next morning, I woke early to catch a 9am bus tour of Loch Lomond, the Trossachs, and Stirling castle. There is a time difference between Paris and Glasgow, Glasgow is an hour behind, and my phone did not change according to the time difference. I didn't realize this, and so I woke up an hour too early, and couldn't figure out why the bus was an hour late to pick us up, until someone finally told me that I had the wrong time. I suppose it worked out ok, because I treated myself to an early morning tour of Glasgow and a big cup of coffee from Starbucks.

There were 11 people in our tour, 6 of which were a bunch of women celebrating mother's day. I guess mother's day in the U.K. happened to be that day. I thought it was weird that there are different mother's days across the world. Sarah later told me that mother's day in New Zealand happened in the fall.

The tour guide was jolly and had more than a wee Scottish accent. We drove from Glasgow, and he told us about how Scotland doesn't have a big population and some more interesting facts about Glasgow. Soon we were headed out of town and over the River Clyde towards Loch Lomond.

We stopped in a town called Luss where we got out and I walked along the banks. First, I had to go to the restroom, and while in the restroom, a girl was calling for help from one of the stalls. She was trapped in the stall! I ended up having to kick the door in to get her out. When she finally got out, we both were laughing, and she told me how happy she was that I freed her. I walked with her down to the lakeshore, and she took a picture of me finally standing on the bonny banks. It was gorgeous. The lake was surrounded by grassy hills that came and went with the morning mist. The water was calm and I saw kayakers and fisherman quietly sitting on the lake. I walked through the sand a bit to a dock where I saw more great views of the lake, and then wandered into a tiny shop where I bought some souvenirs.

I returned back to the bus a bit early and talked to the bus driver a bit. I told him I was studying in Paris and he asked if I had met a lot of snobby lads there. I told him I'd met a few, and soon everyone had returned and we were off again for our next destination. The next stop was another tiny town with only a general store and a bar. We stopped there so that we could take a cruise of Loch Lomond. It cost extra money so I opted out and decided I'd take advantage of the tiny town experience. I was the only one who didn't go on the cruise. I took a walk down a hiking trail and ended up at the Loch Lomond boat launch. There was a big steamboat there and with a rainbow hanging over it in the mist. It was beautiful.

It was so quiet and peaceful, and I stayed there for a while listening to the pitter patter of tiny waves coming in. Soon, I walked back to the town, bought some postcards at the general store, and had a coffee at the bar. It was the first time in Europe that coffee was actually affordable; about the same as American, and this cup even came with a free shortbread cookie. While sipping my coffee, I spent a long time writing postcards about my experience. After an hour or so, I returned to the bus, and we left for lunch. I ate at a restaurant ham with broccoli, potatoes, and a scotch meat pie. The best part was the scotch meat pie, by far, and it reminded me of eating them at home for a quick lunch. I wandered into a store near the restaurant where there were shelves and shelves of shortbread cookies. In the corner, there was a fancy whiskey section where they were conducting free tastings. Even though I don't like whiskey, I figured I was in Scotland so I should try it. I chose a bottle called Loch Lomond whiskey. It was horrific. It tasted like burnt motor oil. I drank half a sip and then secretly threw the rest out in the nearest garbage can. I then saw a wall of shot glasses that had various "clan" names on them. I found the Smith clan and took a picture. I then found a book about the Smith clan and their place in Scotland. I wanted to buy it, but it was too much money, and so I just took another picture. I then returned to the bus, and was off to my next destination: the Trossachs

The Trossachs are a group of hills near Loch Lomond that mark the beginning of the highlands. Loch Lomond and the Trossachs is the first Scottish national park. The national park is not like the parks in America. There is a lot of open land and wildlife, but unlike America, people live in the park and there are vast fields of sheep dotting the hills. This national park is also kind of strange because it has mountains, freshwater lochs, and saltwater lochs! I think that is so strange. There ares some lochs in this park that have seals and crabs living in them, but the loch itself looks the same as a freshwater loch like Loch Lomond. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see these other lochs because they were a bit out of the way. But the trossachs were still quite beautiful.

The route was very windy, because we were starting to get into the mountains a bit, and I felt ready to throw up. I think this was a combination of the disgusting whiskey I sipped and the windy ride. Meanwhile, the driver was busy telling us the story of the Trossachs and how Rob Roy used to roam this area stealing cows. He said that he would steal people's cows and then when they found him to get the cows back, he told them they would have to pay. If they did pay, he'd give back their cows, and then follow them down the road until they got tired and "took 40 winks", and he would steal the cows again. If they didn't pay him, he would slit their throat and take the cows into town to sell them. He sounded like quite a brutal Scot.

Finally we stopped, and I was able to take a breather. There was another rainbow over the hills in the distance! I think that Scotland is the land of rainbows, not Ireland or Hawaii. We only stopped for a few minutes which was just enough for me to get some fresh air and feel better. We continued down the road past more sheep and even a highland cow, and soon we had arrived in Stirling.

Stirling is a very very old town. It is the town that most people know from Braveheart. The driver told us about William Wallace and the wars against the English and all sorts of history I won't bore you with. I found it all extremely interesting, of course.

The castle was beautiful. It is set on a volcanic rock and overlooks a vast part of central Scotland. Of course, I took lots of pictures. The castle itself was like Camelot. Nothing like the castles in France. It reminded me of a chess board, with it's big rooks anchoring down the corners.

I walked around the castle a bit, taking lots of photos, then wandered into an old cemetery. It was very beautiful and I stayed there for a while watching the wind blow by and the sun move over the Scottish skyline. When I was ready to leave, I saw another little shop and walked in to find more Smith clan souvenirs. Each Smith clan object had a crest on it that said "Touch not the cat but a glove". I can't for the life of me figure out what that means.

It was getting late now, and we returned to the bus and headed back to Glasgow. I talked to an Australian on the bus about the differences between Australian gas prices and American gas prices and the differences between the "uni" in Australia and the university in America. Soon we were back again, and I was so satisfied with a wonderful whirlwind tour of Scotland. I loved how much open space and quietness there was in Scotland. Not like the bustling city with sketchy men peeing in the corner of the metro station. The air was so fresh and crisp in Scotland, I didn't want to leave. I wanted to all of a sudden become a shepherd, buy a few sheep dogs, and live on a green hillside for the rest of my life. But alas, it was time to return to reality.

In Glasgow, I went to Borders, and then to KFC (there's lots of American franchises in Glasgow!) to get a drink, then took the bus back to the flat. Sarah and Vicky were so nice and cooked me some more curry for dinner. They also whipped some cream and put it on a bowl of fruit for dessert. It was delicious, and I'm so grateful for their hospitality. We talked for a while, but I had to go to bed really early to wake up early enough to catch my flight. The next morning, I left quietly and returned back to Paris just in time for class. The city of Paris was the same loud crowded place, and it felt so foreign being back in the land of French speakers. But I adjusted back quickly, and now am fully recovered and in French mode again. Speaking of which, I have a chunk of cheese and a baguette calling my name...

Until next time,

Leah

Happy Birthday, Mom, and a much needed update...

Two weeks have gone by, and I have not updated. I'm sorry about that, but I've found myself deep in the trenches of homework and midterm exams. In fact, as I write this, I am looking at a mound of books and papers I need to study for my exams this week. I haven't had much time for anything lately, and hopefully soon, the work will settle down, and I'll be able to enjoy Paris again!

That doesn't mean I haven't been having my fair share of fun. The weekends have been crammed full of fun meeting Brett in interesting places. Two weekends ago, we met in Basel, Switzerland, a town right on the border of France and Germany. Unfortunately, everyone spoke German there, so I wasn't able to practice my French. Brett and I agreed that Basel wasn't that much different from the rest of the Rhine region, and besides for the yummy Swiss chocolate, Switzerland proved to be much too expensive. So we left for Freiburg and I decided to spend Saturday and Sunday night at Brett's apartment.

Freiburg was not as crazy as the last time I saw it. The Mardi Gras Karnival had wound down to an end and now it was a much quieter town. Brett and I visited our favorite eating places. We went to Martinsbrau brewery and had some beer, stopped at the bakery and got a pretzel, went to the grocery store and bought bratwurst...On Sunday night, we decided to go out to eat because I realized that Brett had never had a German dinner in a German restaurant! So Brett and I checked out a place walking distance from his apartment that was very quaint. There was one other party dining there and they laughed at us and barked German. We didn't really know what they were saying or what was going on. After we ordered our Schnitzel, we realized that they didn't take credit cards, so we only had enough money for one plate of Schnitzel. It ended up being ok, because the plate was pretty filling, but it was pretty silly that we were splitting one plate for dinner.

After dinner, Brett took me to Hemingway bar where Hemingway's son hung out when he was in Freiburg. Kind of a bizarre theme, but of course Brett had to check out anything connected to Hemingway. It was decorated with pictures of Hemingway and the bathrooms made bird sounds. We got a nice bowl of pretzles to go with our drinks, so I think we will return to this bar over spring break.

So another week went by and then Brett came to Paris again. We just got a hotel room in the business La Defense district and took it really slow. We walked around La Defense and decided they must have filmed Back to the Future II here, because it looks just like that town. I was waiting for the hovercrafts to sweep over our heads...or at least the DeLorean. One strange thing about La Defense is that although it is a crazy future town with big sky scrapers and no road in between, there is a great view of the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysee. It kind of looked like we were peering into the past from 2050.

On Friday night, we went to my friends' apartment for an American breakfast for dinner party. Their host family was skiing in the Alps, so they had some friends over for this get together. It was delicious!! We had bacon, potatos, eggs, and pancakes. It was hard for them to find all of the ingredients for this, since the French breakfast is usually a croissant and a cup of tea. We even had maple syrup with our pancakes, which proved to be quite a delicacy, because the bottle of Aunt Jamima cost 10e and it was on sale from 12.

Brett and I spent the rest of the weekend sleeping in, watching French game shows where everyone won an encyclopedia, and watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle over and over again from our hotel room window. Soon the weekend, ended and I had serious study time for my midterms. Now, the studying continues! Next weekend, off to Scotland!

Leah

The Most Beautiful Day in Paris

Last week was riddled with homework and endless trips to the Louvre for my art history class. We are studying classicism and neo-classicism right now, and went to see the works of David on Thursday. I also went there on my own to gather information for a paper I had to write about Nicolas Poussin. I've been there three times now, and have yet to see the Mona Lisa. I have to do that.

Thursday was really exciting, because Brett came to Paris with his study abroad program. I met him at his hotel room Thursday evening, and we tried to see Gran Torino, but I got lost (as usual) and couldn't find the movie theater, and we accidentally missed the show. Instead, we went to the Seine to walk from Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris to the Notre Dame. It was a beautiful night, and the sky was crisp and clear. We walked to the Notre Dame and ogled at the creepy gargoyles staring out into the black Parisian sky, then wandered back to the Latin Quarter where we went to a jazz club that used to be a dungeon from the middle ages. The music was good, but the place was packed and we couldn't get a seat anywhere. It was just a tiny musty cave with a ton of people from wall to wall.

After the jazz club, we ended up wandering around some more and then we had to take our public transportation back to our separate places for the night. The next day, Brett had a bunch of lectures and class stuff to go to, and I slept in and lazed around in the apartment for most of the day. I decided to buy plane tickets to Glasgow, in order to go on a big adventure to Loch Lomond for a weekend. The tickets cost me 10e round trip through RyanAir. I'm heading there at the end of the month, and will be sure to report back with lots of pictures of the bonny bonny banks.

Friday afternoon, I went to the Galeries Lafayette again to try on some really expensive perfume. I was really just killing time to meet up with Brett, and he called at about 4:30. I met him at his metro stop again, and we went to a hotel that we rented for the night. It was a really nice 4 star hotel that Brett got on Priceline.com for dirt cheap. It wasn't in the most happening area, but the room was really nice; much better than our vagabond hostel last time. The only trouble we had was that the hotel was a chain, and we accidentally tried to check in at the wrong hotel. The first hotel we went to was near the Eiffel Tower and actually really close to my apartment. When they couldn't find our reservation, I was really worried. We finally had to look up Brett's confirmation email on their computer, and found out we were at the wrong hotel altogether. So we left and trekked it to the other one, which took forever on the metro.

I feel like I spend the better half of each day on the metro, so when I get days off, I tend to stick very close to home, to avoid getting sucked into that underground abyss. I'm starting to get pretty familiar with the subway. I know that at one stop, there happens to be a lot of blind people with canes or guide dogs. I suppose there must be a school near here, because I don't think I've gone a day in Paris without seeing a blind person. I talked to my friend the other day about how wheelchair inaccessible this city is. It would be impossible for someone in a wheelchair to take the metro, which would delegate them to the bus, and I don't think that is even accessible. I never saw a person in a wheelchair in Paris, until yesterday when Brett and I saw a troupe of retirees wheeling over to the Eiffel Tower. I actually got a little excited to see my first wheelchair in Paris.

Anyway, I digressed. Brett and I made it to our hotel room, then left and tried to find dinner nearby. This was incredibly difficult, because I wasn't familiar with any of the metro stops near our hotel. I just took us to random places hoping there would be food there. First we went to the Place de la Concorde, where Marie Antoinette and other nobles had their heads chopped off in the street. No food there. Then we went to the opera, with it's golden winged angels resting on each corner. No food there, but we were tired of the metro, so we walked down a street near the opera and finally found a grocery store. There, we bought some ham and cheese sandwiches, a baguette, some laughing cow cheese, champagne, and chocolate. It was all very Parisian.

After eating our dinner on a park bench, finishing with the baguette and cheese, we went to Trocadero, a pristine viewpoint of the Eiffel Tower. We sat there drinking our champagne and eating our chocolate and watched the Eiffel Tower twinkle, as it does every hour on the hour. It was exciting waiting for the little lights to twinkle. I felt like it was the fourth of July. When they started to twinkle, everyone around us gasped and said "oooooh". It was a magical experience.

The next morning, we slept in, then we left for an open air street market to buy a picnic lunch. We went to a boulangerie(bakery), charcuterie(butcher), a fromagerie(cheese shop), and my favorite, a fish market. The fish market had a huge head of a marlin, or swordfish, I'm not sure which, in the front. After I saw that, I had to go inside. Brett and I saw lobsters on the counter still moving their legs, and tons of large dead fish spread out over ice staring up at us. I looked to the other side and saw a bucket of escargot that cost 60e/kilogram. I thought that was just a bit too pricy.

At the fromagerie, Brett and I stepped inside really quickly to "smell the feet of angels" as Rick Steves put it in his tourbook I bought. But to me, even the feet of angels still smelled like feet, so we left there quickly and headed to the grocery store to find the laughing cow cheese. We had no success for the cheese, but we did run into a crazy old French man who talked our ears off, and I had no idea what he was saying, so I just said "oui, oui, oui" and laughed along when he laughed.

After Brett and I bought all the food for our picnic, we left Rue Cler searching for a good picnic spot. Voila! Around the corner, the Eiffel Tower was in plain sight calling us to its base. So we picnicked in the Champs de Mars, under the Eiffel Tower. It was the most beautiful day I've seen in Paris. The sun was shining, and there were no clouds in the sky. It was warm enough to not wear a coat. It was the first time I saw people on the lawn of the Champs de Mars, and there were lots of people picnicking and laying in the sun. Brett and I watched a baby waddle around trying to play badminton with some adults.

Our picnic lasted a long time. We were there for at least an hour and a half. Probably two hours. We ate and ate and ate. First, ham and cheese sandwich(but Brett had chicken), and fresh tomato soup. Next, we had a baguette and the rest of our laughing cow from the night before. Afterwards, we had our fancy desserts that we bought at the boulangerie. I got a delicious raspberry tart, and Brett got a pudding filled donut called a divorce. Kind of a funny name, but still a delicious dessert.

After the picnic, we went to Montmartre to climb the Sacre Coeur, and check out the old windmills. Montmartre used to be an agricultural area, and there are still two remaining windmills that used to grind corn and wheat. The Moulin Rouge is not one of these windmills. That cabaret does have a windmill connected to it, but it isn't functional and is purely for decoration. The Moulin de la Galette was one of the windmills. That was turned into a cabaret at the turn of the century, and Renoir painted a famous work there: "Bal au Moulin de la Galette".

After wandering the crowded streets up to the Sacre Coeur, Brett and I walked through the gloomy cathedral, then lounged on the grass admiring the view from the top of the city. We took a tram back down the hill and went to a cafe to get some really expensive espressos, and so Brett could write a postcard to his sister. We stayed at the cafe for a long time playing war with my deck of cards. I was so close to defeating Brett, but then he came up from behind and took me for all I was worth. It was a sad day of war for me.

Next, it was getting dark, and we hopped on the metro to the Latin Quarter to take a walking tour from my tour guide cards. The walking tour wasn't the most exciting, because it was supposed to be a window shopping tour and all the shops were closed for the night. We cut the tour short, and headed over to St. Michel for dinner. Unfortunately, the place I had in mind for dinner jacked up their prices for some reason, and we ended up quitting that scene and having kebabs for dinner. It was cheap, but good, and we ate on the banks of the Seine again. Another exciting weekend with Brett, and soon he was off again for Germany. I said my goodbyes, and he boarded the metro back to his hotel for the night.

Today, I spent the whole day doing homework. Lots and lots of homework. What a drag, but it has to get done sometime. Tomorrow is the beginning of another busy week, and then Saturday I'm going to Basel, Switzerland for the day to meet up with Brett again and explore another little city.

Leah