Carcassonne

We crossed through the south of France to transit from Spain to Italy. Our only real stop was the medieval walled city of Carcassonne, one of the top tourist attractions in Europe. (We also spent a night in Nice, but it hardly counts since we got there late and left early on our way to Florence.)

Here's the view of the walled city, or "La Cité" as it's known locally.
What do you do outside a walled city? Chill.
La Cité was cool, but the "new" city beneath it was way more fun. We stumbled into a square where there was flamenco dancers, free wine sampling and a plethora of patios.

Spain

So, here's the first batch of pics from the beginning of our trip in Spain. There's no way that we could post a comprehensive pictorial review, so my idea is to go country by country with selected shots. Enjoy!

Here's the beautiful Madrid Airport, our first stop in Europe.
Now this is what I call a classroom! Our first presentation took place at Valle de los Caidos. Turning around, we see...
...a stunning basilica and soaring cross. The really notable part about this basilica is that...
...it's cut into the mountainside.
Madrid has some beautiful streetscapes and...
...some great streetside cafes. This was the best sausage I'd ever had (until Munich).
From Madrid we ventured out to see the walled city of Avila...
...and the ancient Roman aqueduct at Segovia. This thing was built with no mortar whatsoever nearly 2000 years ago and they were still using it up to about 50 years ago.
Next stop was Barcelona, home of one of Jac's favorite architects, Antonio Gaudi. Here's an autostitched panorama of his still unfinished Sagrada Familia...
...and here's me lounging on a tree that was appropriately growing in this organic looking arcade in his brilliant Parc Guell.

That's it for now... Next stop will be the south of France.

A first glimpse

Here's a first glimpse at some pictures from Jac. (Matt has some more on the way).

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So, since I am procrastinating responding to my post-trip overflowing inbox,
I made a game for those of you who also need something with which to procrastinate.
Here's what you do: match each above photo with its title. You will notice the photos are numbered.
The first person to comment with the right answers wins. Wins what, you might ask?
Well, if you win, you can tell us what you would like to win.


A) Munich's water substitute
B) Paris underground
C) Worn from kneeling
D) Florence's main transportation
E) Terrorizing the locals in Piazza San Marco, Venice
F) Amalfi the hill town
G) Venice needs shade
H) Nature takes over
I) Many celts lived and died here
J) The Louvre filled with light
K) The most public of art galleries
L) Monastic reflection at Mont St. Michel
M) The habits of tourists
N) beach-combing in Cornwall, England
O) St. Peter's Square, Vatican City


bon chance!

We're Back

We've been back in Canada for a little over 24 hours now. Jet lag's not too bad, but I am about to drag my sorry behind to bed. 11:30pm local time in St. Stephen feels like 3:30am in London.

My ambition for the next couple of days is to do a whole lot of nothing, followed by slacking off and vegging out. In between I might track down some pictures to throw on here. If you ask nicely ;)

"ahhh, stereotypes...." or, "the euro game"

i am rather surprised that great britian is so americanized. the brands, the people, the corporations, all very similar whereas every other country was so different.
i guess language has a lot to do with things.

anyway, since matt likes to write intellectual and pertinent posts, i suppose i will do the opposite, just to mix it up a bit.

there is a certain game our group likes to play in our times of waiting for the trains and such.
we call it the euro game. basically, through brilliant deduction and astute analysis, you must find clues to decipher whether a person is a european, or an american. (paris is an excellent place to do this, as is anywhere in germany or italy. usually its a no-brainer.
NOTE: this game does not apply to england -- its too americanized here)

here are a list stereotypes that are very often true. shall we say, some clues for the game:

CATEGORY 1 : WOMEN

1. europeans are much skinnier. this applies to all ages. children, teens, and seniors alike. you almost NEVER see an obese european, especially not in france. so, if theres a lady on the subway taking up two seats, she's likely speaking american.

2. hair. europeans rarely have the middle aged hair cut. even euro-seniors dont have the granny-fro. older women let their hair grow long and natural, and girls likely have a very stylish, often short or layered cut.
north american girls usually have the long 'california cut' long and straight with no bangs with your typical highlights.

3. flamboyance. americans just dont have it.
euro-women are very put together, a little wild, accessorized, always matching.
americans are big into t-shirts and jeans.

4. hm, how shall we say.... tastefulness (?).
european females wear clothes --pants and tops -- much looser; american girls love the super-tight look.

5. confidence. this is evident in stance, walk, and overall posture. american girls are much more self-conscious whereas european women are so confident. this one is rather subjective, but it remains a very key clue to the game.

6. presence of bras.
european women often avoid bras altogether. enough said.


CATEGORY 2: MEN

1. shoes, shoes, shoes.
euro-men never wear runners. ...unless they are very very stylish ones. and as if you couldnt guess this one, european men never wear socks in sandals.

2. fit of clothes.
european men wear pants, jeans, and shirts very tailored, fitted, even tight.
north american men do the baggy jeans, cargos, and t-shirts thing and just look sloppy in comparison.

3. the murse.
(man-purse) the murse is key to the male-euro wardrobe.
americans wear backpacks, while european men wear purses in canvas, leather, etc. (the more feminine the better) but never, never a backpack.
side note: its quite funny that most of the guys on our trip have purchased a murse along the way, some more feminine than others.

Last Stop, London!

We just rolled into London a few hours ago and they set us loose after doing a quick tour past Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. You know, the places to see if you've never been here before. Now, it's time to go to the places that you only find out about once you're here...

It's a strange thing to delve into the psychology of how your living arrangments affect the way that you live and your general disposition. Take, for instance, some observations I've noted about how continuous tenting has affected our group, myself included. We now have no problem whatsoever with sitting down anywhere, anytime as long as there isn't shit there. Even the most prissy girls have had to loosen up on their public presentation because showers are usually days apart instead of daily. You get used to having no private space, eating meals with your plate on your lap, sleeping with the constant threat of rain making life miserable and countless other inconveniences that you would never think of in "normal" life.

The thing that made all of this so obvious was when we pulled into one of our rare non-tenting sites. The Winchester Vineyard graciously hosts the SSU trip every two years and their recent renovations made it a pleasant place to stay. Their lobby area was set up like a living room, with couches, coffee tables and cafe-style round tables abounding. Right next to it was a massive kitchen which puts the ghetto double propane burner we've been cooking on for the last two months to shame. Seriously, everyone was way too happy about this, myself included.

And then the perks of marriage came in. The singles all had to sleep in a big common room, but the married couples each got their own private room! It was a thing of real beauty. They also had a lovely youth room complete with a snooker table, foosball, PS2 and just loads of space for hanging out. This last bit is something we've also been missing. What do you do when it's dark at your campground, but there's nowhere to hang out other than your tent? You go to bed early every night, that's what. Well, here we were actually able to hand out together in comfortable space and it made everyone way too happy again...

Anyhow, enough behavioural psychology. I just found that bit of life on the go interesting to note. It'll also be interesting to see how we adjust to life back at our last campground tonight.

This is it. It's our last stop on our Euro-adventure. I can't believe it's been nearly 8 weeks already. I can't believe I'll be in Canada soon. It'll be bittersweet, that's for sure. Look out London, I have three days of Euro-adventure to fill, and here I am!

Jolly Old England

Well, here we are on the last leg of the trip in Great Britain. I nearly cried when I realized that the signs I was reading were something I could actually, you know, understand. Well, that's a scosh melodramatic, but that and English keyboards make me happy.

Today is an unusually sunny British day in Bath. You can't actually go into the Roman baths as a bath-er--too high a bacteria count--but we'll be touring the museum later on. We've spend the three days prior to this making our way through Cornwall, focusing on its Celtic heritage and the legend of Arthur. We saw some seriously ancient Celtic crosses that you wouldn't necessarily expect to see outside of Ireland. And if you've never had a Cornish Pasty before, you're missing out big time.

So, under a week left. We still have London ahead of us which excites me greatly! Even though I won't be seeing most people who might be reading this all that soon, I'll be closer!

Ta ta from England!

Adieu France, Hello England

I write this in our lovely four star campground in Roscoff, France, complete with waterslides and the usual infuriating keyboards for my typing displeasure. Later today we will board the ferry for Plymouth, England where it will be greatly relieving to be able to communicate with people again and be able to type properly too!

With the last leg and last country of our trip looming ahead of us, I'm feeling about an equal mixture of delight and dread. I'm looking forward to a real bed beneath me and a real roof above me. I'm looking forward to creature comforts like toilets with seats that I don't have to pay for and sweet, sweet personal space. But I'm most assuredly not looking forward to the conclusion of this grand adventure through the major sights, sounds (and tastes!) of Europe. We've journeyed through Madrid, Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Venice, Munich, Zurich and Paris, to name the major cities. I could easily have spent the entire 8 weeks in some of the major cities and not had a shortage of new things to see and do.

But to recap our last few days, we concluded our time in Paris by going up to the Eiffel Tower as the sunset to see Paris sprawling out beneath us. It was tres beautiful. Then we met up with a bunch of classmates at ythe base of the tower for a picnic of wine, cheese and other good things that lasted all night! It was Monday, but there was no shortage of like-minded people on the Champs de Mars with us.

And then it was on to Normandy and the D-Day beaches. We saw the iconic American cemetary, and both Omaha and Juno beaches, sites of the invasion that began the liberation of Europe and cost thousands of Allied lives. It was sobering to remember this pivotal moment of a very grim moment of recent history and begged the question: could even this war be called just? We're actually going to have a discussion on the ferry later on today and I'm looking forward to wrestling with that.

But, I have all of minutes left on this here connection and I will now sign off. England, here we come!

Paris

This is our second day in Paris, the city of looooooove. Seriously. We see people making out everywhere. True story.

So, just to lead up to our Paris time, we've discovered that one of the cooler things to do - as we did in Zurich and Strasbourg - is to rent bikes and explore the city more speedily! Zurich was the best one though because its a bigger city and the bikes are actually free!

But small fries aside now, we're in Paris. What can you say about one of the icons of the world? Well, if that icon happens to be the Mona Lisa, then no. If that icon happens to be that Paris is one of the grandest, most intriguing cities in the world, then yes. Of course it won't match every last detail, but thus far - and our explorations are far from complete - it's terrific.

We went to the Louvre, the arguably world's greatest art gallery. The Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, Cupid and Psyche, blahm blah, blah. It's all there. But seriously, the place is massive. You could spend a week just there. I found some obscure paintings that I liked but, as usual, I couldn't actually find them as postcards and my so-so photos will have to suffice. Oh, and Jac took a bad picture of the Mona Lisa just because they said she couldn't. Figures. And then France beat Brazil in the World Cup quarterfinals last night and the noise was stupendous. Some of our lads were parading through downtown Paris in their France undies and became instant local celebrities.

Today, being the first Sunday of the month, is free museum day, so we hit up three of them: the Orsay, the Rodin (famous for the "thinker" statue) and the Pompadou (famous for confusing people with its modern art). I currently have a crepe sitting in my satisfied stomach and I feel that there is more Paris for us to discover. We shall go and flaneur. Ah, but the wife is clamouring to get on. Here she is:

ok, who wants me to bring them a tacky little eiffel tower keychain??? available from your nearest sidewalk vendor in "gold" or "silver"

And now, the long-awaited commentary by yours truly.
Things to learn about France:
1. you can change the keyboard to your own language (but i still wont use caps and apostrophes --- time is money in these euro-sucking cafes)
2. if you wear france boxerbriefs around the city after the game, your butt will get slapped. many times. and no, matt did not participate in this activity.
3. mcdonalds and starbucks are only for the americans. locals would never go. the cafe (coffee) and patisseries are way too yummy and more afforable here.
4. if you try and speak french, even if its bad, people will appreciate it and then switch to english for you.
5. there are novelty canadian-themed pubs here in paris that serve moosehead beer for 5 euros a bottle and have cheesy wilderness decor and play barenakedladies. (and they sure are packed and loud on canada day)
6. if youre a black person, your job is to sell gucci rip-off purses and tourist junk on the sidewalks until the cops come and shoo you away. (this is actually consistent across italy as well. tres bizzare.)

well then. i guess i should be going.
its only a couple weeks until we return and can find out what cold water tastes like again. nalgene water = 25 degrees plus.