Written Tuesday, December 9th, 2003
Hi all!
I am writing from a small, yet pricy internet cafe in Clermont Ferrand, France. I'm taking a day to chill, stay off my feet, and read before catching my plane to Stockholm, Sweden!The trip began with a long, boring layover in Minneapolis, only to find that my redeye to London was cancelled. Oh great. Chip away at my vacation, thank you so much. Luckily I was granted a spot on the same flight the following day, along with a night in the Best Western and $200 worth of northwest ticket vouchers. Vouchers with a ticket to Boston written all over it, so great ready Steve! I didn't need to be at the airport until 6 the following day. What was I to do with my time, you ask? The hotel assured me all would be well; although check out was at 10, they would take me to the mall. Yes folks, I had to spend my day at the Mall of America, the biggest mall in the USA on the biggest shopping day of the year, the day after thanksgiving. It wasn't terrible, and I honestly spent an hour or two reading in the Nordstrom ladies lounge. Yes, I was quite tired after effectively hunting down the cheapest watch in the mall. I found the cheapest one indeed, shit I had 6 hours on my hands!
I arrived in London a day late, which didn't seem like the greatest of tragedies-until you hear what happened next. I met up with Loni, another cool PLU girl who I sadly did not know while I was there. Loni was great, she is incredibly cool, and after my experience in London, I am truly grateful she was there. Meeting up with her was adventurous, to say the least. After slithering my way through the tube, dodging all the glares from the locals due to my appearance as a flaming american tourist (khaki cargo pants,black fleece, running shoes-which are very much UNLIKE european shoes, mind you-a backpack larger than life, and the essential London tube guide in hand),I found my way to Russell Square. I managed to triangulate my way through the area after many-a-rude bellmen told me contradicting directions to the hostel in the pouring rain (bare foot, in the snow, uphill bothways.....!!). Once I arrived, things were great. Loni and I walked all over the place, checked out some shops, got travel info we needed, etc. Stopped to e-mail, the usual afternoon on the town. I realized I liked London immediately; they play old school Michael Jackson, and you all know how much of a fan I am (yes, I agree he is a weirdo, but the man's a musical genius, and there's simply no arguing that!).
We returned to the hostel to meet up with friends and get ready for a Saturday night on the town. We all had a great time. We wound up at a bar somewhere, and I ran into this cool guy that I met at the airport (Nick, I'm so sorry we couldn\'t meet up in London--things got a little challenging for me, read on). The following morning was not pleasant. I realized that I wasn't feeling super, and hadn't quite slept off my jetlag. After observing my friends eating breakfast, I excused myself; I needed water and a little more rest,and my stomach was telling me that food was simply out of the question. There I was, in my dirty hostel room and like a crack of lighting-I had to get to the bathroom pronto. It is here that I have great appreciation for my foresight; I brought along a water bottle and antibacterial Wetones wipes things. Yes all, pardon the clarity here-I puked. I puked like I cannot remember puking before. All apologies to the poor girl in the bathroom doing her makeup.....you want some lip gloss now, sweety (I'm terrible, I know)? Now many of you are assuming that this incident must be directly affiliated with the amount of alcohol I consumed the previous night. And although I did not go crazy enough to warrant such, I thought so too. But after the next FOUR TIMES throughout the day, it occured to me that I must have eaten something, holy shit. Here's to Loni, my favorite souvenir of London,who still hung out with me as the contents of my stomach erupted, projectiled all over the hostel room door (I was running to the bathroom, and it's safe to say I didn't quite make it). Grossing you out?? Try expriencing it. She was still a trooper as I propelled the minimal liquid I tried to ingest all over the corner of Southhampton Row and Bloomsbury. Again, sorry to the people innocently walking by. Talk about sight-seeing in London!
The following day I felt like pretty beat up, my muscles hated me, and i was wary of trying to eat. Loni and I did the hop-on, hop-off tour of London,which was very cool, even though it was pouring rain. We saw the Tate Modern as well, I am such an art nerd. Monday morning I caught my eurostar train to Paris, travelling through the chunnell!!
The narrative brightens a bit here, guys, I promise!
I managed to switch train stations via taxi, and find my way to the train in Rennes. It's safe to say I was pretty overwhelmed at this point; um, the\'re allspeakingfrench!! AAHHHHHH! Luckily I spoke enough to get by. I remember getting on my train and finding my seat, a french couple looking at me, whispering in a snide way. Again, acknowledging my appearance as a tourist, and probably one of those damn americans at best. I ignored it, that's their own deal. I'm on vacation! Oh, that's weird. There is someone else with their same ticket. How strange. Or maybe, they have the wrong seats....no, not the french people.....oh yes they do. They have the wrong seats. How strange; the dumb touring american somehow managed to find the right seat in the correct car by translating a foreign language, and you guys couldn't understand voit 20. HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW!!!! hhahaahaaahaaahaaaa. They sheepishly glanced over at me as they exited.
Courtney met me at the train station in Rennes. I was really excited to see her, and feeling good because the cute french guy sitting across from me in the train (with whom I had exchanged a few glances) finally spoke to me at the end of the trip. Now, I have no idea what he said, but I'm sure that I don't really care, he was cute! I explained I don't speak very much french, so he spoke to me in english........rarrrrrrr! That night, Courtney and I met up with some of her friends who are in town doing the same program. We walked through her nothing-short of-picturesque-and-gorgeous-town and met them for les galettes and cidre. Yummy!! I have actually done nothing but eat my way through France, the food here is unmatched. And I'm here to say, I really need to cut myself off from the chocolat pastries in les patissieres on every corner! I took a bus out to see Mont Saint Michel in northwest france. I have to say it was almost better that I was alone, it was so breathtaking I could hardly speak. I can't wait to show everyone my pictures. Mont Saint Michel is a cathedral that was built out on the coast on a rock. I believe it was built in the 13th century, and any attempt at a written explanation would be an insult to how truly spectacular it really is. Courtney and I had a great dinner of bread, wine (of course), salad, and beacoup des fromages. Yes folks, it's like death by dairy out here; the cheese is amazing. It's all I eat. Okay, that and chocolate pastries. I spent the following day bumming around Rennes, shopping, trying to speak french. People are actually very kind and helpful, and are very nice to humor my broken attempts at communication.
That night was an absolute blast!I did laundry and had a very long conversation with the man who worked there. He was very nice and politely corrected my verb tenses. It was fun to actually be able to communicate in another language. Courtney took me to a french kick-boxing class, which was hilarious!! I had so much fun, I think they all thought I was rude because I was laughing the whole time. Picture a man in painfully small shorts screaming, "ALLEZ, ALLEZ, un-DEUX,DEUX-un, et ENCORE!!!!!!!!!" absolutely hilarious! For the evening, we went out to the bars. I came to Rennes during their big music festival, so it was great to see some live music....and a lot of crazy drunk people in the streets.
I caught the train to Paris in the morning, embracing a bit more confidence in my ability to find my way with the french culture. I bought a metro pass and dropped off my stuff in the hostel. This hostel was considerably nicer than that of London.....and I don't think anyone puked on the bedroom door........! I grabbed my map and I was out the door. I picked a stop and just walked around Paris for hours! I definitely got lost, but that was part of the fun of it. When I'd had enough, I went to the Champs-elysees, and snapped a few pics of l'arc de triomphe. That night I was put in a trip of a room. Yes folks, I had some unusual roommates. One was this weird lady who was french; she was trying to get out of the city because the pollution-and I quote-was burning her teeth. Is it really? That sounds terrible madame, but I dont think staying in this hostel is really promoting your exit......I'm sure you could find places to stqy out side the city? But who am I to judge? Then; the other guy was from Afganistan. This guy, I kid you not, was in Paris studying artillery. Yup, artillery, like BLOWING THINGS UP!!! Now, these two did not think I spoke any french, so they began to discuss the US, thinking I didn''t know what was going on. I definitely was a little chilled when I heard the intro to the topic,"etats-unis chercher Osama". Um, I want to make it clear that I myself, personally, am not trying to chercher anything. I'm here on vacation minding my own business. Seriously though, it wasn't that bad. They were both incredibly nice, but the intense description is more evocative for your reading amusement.
I was a hardcore sight-seeing superstar the following day. I went to the palace of Versailles, museum of modern art (closed for renovation,buster), Notre Dame, the Champs-elysees again, and to a french movie! It was verycool, I could understand a fair amount, and it was fantastic to get off my feet. When I was sitting on the C-E ( the ONE city bench; I think), some guy came up to talk to me, he thought I was cold or something. I tried some of his gateux, little almond maccaroons. Quite yummy. He invited me to his house pour la Noel. French
guys are humorous!
On Sunday, Belinda and I (girl in my new hostel room) and I went to bear the cold-we're tqlking frostbite cold here people-at the march� aux puces (fleamarket). I made a killing, great bargains, and I talked my way into some good deals (en francais). We went to le Lourve, which was nothing short of overwhelming. After one floor (there are 4), I had had enough. But yes, the floor did include the Mona Lisa. What was she like??? Not telling! heehee. I found the building itself quite amazing. The highlight of the visit to the louvre was seeing the cliche frenchman. Not kidding, there was a guy dressed in a black beret, loose sweater with thick black and white stripes, and a marroon scarf. The second we saw him, we both just cracked up. It was like he was straight out of a cartoon!
That night I met up with my Dad's cousin Dave, who was in town on business.We had a great time catching up; I haven't seen him in years. We went to the bar at the top of the hotel which overlooked the city. We had a spectcular view of the tour d'eiffel! Every hour, the whole thing would light up and sparkle for a few minutes. Now, we're not talking cheesy, hokey flashing christmas lights here. Think: fourth of July sparklers on every inch of the structure going off. I wish I had my camera, I could have taken video. Itwas unbelievable. Dave and I went to chez Georges for an authentic and delicious french dinner. Dave, thank you again, the dinner was wonderful (that and for steering me away from the herring!). At chez Georges, the meat of the night was sauerkraut....yeah, we didn't think that was meat either! In the morning, I went to the infamous tour d'eiffel. Although it was amazing, there were WAY too many damn people, it really dilluted the experience. I got some fantastic picutres; I went all the way to the top!! I even took a little video too.
Later, I caught my train here, to Clermont Ferrand. I stayed in this great little budget hotel last night. This cute old grandma-lady helped me to my room. She didn't speak a word of english,but thankfully I speak enough french to get by. In the morning, her son (with whom I spoke on the phone for my reservation) took me to my other hotel (they were booked so I couldnt stay), and then to the train station to figure out transportation to the airport. We went across the street and had les croissants et du cafe for breakfast. He was a very nice man; he asked me all about where I lived (they actually opened the atlas at the hotel last night!!!!), we talked about Seattle, volcanos (we're in a volcanic range here in France), my job, etc. He helped me find the direction of the internet cafe, and I accidentally stumbled upon this fantastic little fashion boutique. I grind my teeth as I admit, the credit card emerged on this one......I am cut off from shopping until that next paycheck comes through (hey Michelle, any word on my expense checks?).
I will spend about four days in Stockholm, then I train to Oslo to catch that infamous flight which includes the 14 hour overnight layover in Amsterdam. See you all when I get back! Have fun working..........heeheeheeheeeeee--Iknow I\'ll get my share as soon as I get back!
love, Hillary
Hi all!
I am writing from a small, yet pricy internet cafe in Clermont Ferrand, France. I'm taking a day to chill, stay off my feet, and read before catching my plane to Stockholm, Sweden!The trip began with a long, boring layover in Minneapolis, only to find that my redeye to London was cancelled. Oh great. Chip away at my vacation, thank you so much. Luckily I was granted a spot on the same flight the following day, along with a night in the Best Western and $200 worth of northwest ticket vouchers. Vouchers with a ticket to Boston written all over it, so great ready Steve! I didn't need to be at the airport until 6 the following day. What was I to do with my time, you ask? The hotel assured me all would be well; although check out was at 10, they would take me to the mall. Yes folks, I had to spend my day at the Mall of America, the biggest mall in the USA on the biggest shopping day of the year, the day after thanksgiving. It wasn't terrible, and I honestly spent an hour or two reading in the Nordstrom ladies lounge. Yes, I was quite tired after effectively hunting down the cheapest watch in the mall. I found the cheapest one indeed, shit I had 6 hours on my hands!
I arrived in London a day late, which didn't seem like the greatest of tragedies-until you hear what happened next. I met up with Loni, another cool PLU girl who I sadly did not know while I was there. Loni was great, she is incredibly cool, and after my experience in London, I am truly grateful she was there. Meeting up with her was adventurous, to say the least. After slithering my way through the tube, dodging all the glares from the locals due to my appearance as a flaming american tourist (khaki cargo pants,black fleece, running shoes-which are very much UNLIKE european shoes, mind you-a backpack larger than life, and the essential London tube guide in hand),I found my way to Russell Square. I managed to triangulate my way through the area after many-a-rude bellmen told me contradicting directions to the hostel in the pouring rain (bare foot, in the snow, uphill bothways.....!!). Once I arrived, things were great. Loni and I walked all over the place, checked out some shops, got travel info we needed, etc. Stopped to e-mail, the usual afternoon on the town. I realized I liked London immediately; they play old school Michael Jackson, and you all know how much of a fan I am (yes, I agree he is a weirdo, but the man's a musical genius, and there's simply no arguing that!).
We returned to the hostel to meet up with friends and get ready for a Saturday night on the town. We all had a great time. We wound up at a bar somewhere, and I ran into this cool guy that I met at the airport (Nick, I'm so sorry we couldn\'t meet up in London--things got a little challenging for me, read on). The following morning was not pleasant. I realized that I wasn't feeling super, and hadn't quite slept off my jetlag. After observing my friends eating breakfast, I excused myself; I needed water and a little more rest,and my stomach was telling me that food was simply out of the question. There I was, in my dirty hostel room and like a crack of lighting-I had to get to the bathroom pronto. It is here that I have great appreciation for my foresight; I brought along a water bottle and antibacterial Wetones wipes things. Yes all, pardon the clarity here-I puked. I puked like I cannot remember puking before. All apologies to the poor girl in the bathroom doing her makeup.....you want some lip gloss now, sweety (I'm terrible, I know)? Now many of you are assuming that this incident must be directly affiliated with the amount of alcohol I consumed the previous night. And although I did not go crazy enough to warrant such, I thought so too. But after the next FOUR TIMES throughout the day, it occured to me that I must have eaten something, holy shit. Here's to Loni, my favorite souvenir of London,who still hung out with me as the contents of my stomach erupted, projectiled all over the hostel room door (I was running to the bathroom, and it's safe to say I didn't quite make it). Grossing you out?? Try expriencing it. She was still a trooper as I propelled the minimal liquid I tried to ingest all over the corner of Southhampton Row and Bloomsbury. Again, sorry to the people innocently walking by. Talk about sight-seeing in London!
The following day I felt like pretty beat up, my muscles hated me, and i was wary of trying to eat. Loni and I did the hop-on, hop-off tour of London,which was very cool, even though it was pouring rain. We saw the Tate Modern as well, I am such an art nerd. Monday morning I caught my eurostar train to Paris, travelling through the chunnell!!
The narrative brightens a bit here, guys, I promise!
I managed to switch train stations via taxi, and find my way to the train in Rennes. It's safe to say I was pretty overwhelmed at this point; um, the\'re allspeakingfrench!! AAHHHHHH! Luckily I spoke enough to get by. I remember getting on my train and finding my seat, a french couple looking at me, whispering in a snide way. Again, acknowledging my appearance as a tourist, and probably one of those damn americans at best. I ignored it, that's their own deal. I'm on vacation! Oh, that's weird. There is someone else with their same ticket. How strange. Or maybe, they have the wrong seats....no, not the french people.....oh yes they do. They have the wrong seats. How strange; the dumb touring american somehow managed to find the right seat in the correct car by translating a foreign language, and you guys couldn't understand voit 20. HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW!!!! hhahaahaaahaaahaaaa. They sheepishly glanced over at me as they exited.
Courtney met me at the train station in Rennes. I was really excited to see her, and feeling good because the cute french guy sitting across from me in the train (with whom I had exchanged a few glances) finally spoke to me at the end of the trip. Now, I have no idea what he said, but I'm sure that I don't really care, he was cute! I explained I don't speak very much french, so he spoke to me in english........rarrrrrrr! That night, Courtney and I met up with some of her friends who are in town doing the same program. We walked through her nothing-short of-picturesque-and-gorgeous-town and met them for les galettes and cidre. Yummy!! I have actually done nothing but eat my way through France, the food here is unmatched. And I'm here to say, I really need to cut myself off from the chocolat pastries in les patissieres on every corner! I took a bus out to see Mont Saint Michel in northwest france. I have to say it was almost better that I was alone, it was so breathtaking I could hardly speak. I can't wait to show everyone my pictures. Mont Saint Michel is a cathedral that was built out on the coast on a rock. I believe it was built in the 13th century, and any attempt at a written explanation would be an insult to how truly spectacular it really is. Courtney and I had a great dinner of bread, wine (of course), salad, and beacoup des fromages. Yes folks, it's like death by dairy out here; the cheese is amazing. It's all I eat. Okay, that and chocolate pastries. I spent the following day bumming around Rennes, shopping, trying to speak french. People are actually very kind and helpful, and are very nice to humor my broken attempts at communication.
That night was an absolute blast!I did laundry and had a very long conversation with the man who worked there. He was very nice and politely corrected my verb tenses. It was fun to actually be able to communicate in another language. Courtney took me to a french kick-boxing class, which was hilarious!! I had so much fun, I think they all thought I was rude because I was laughing the whole time. Picture a man in painfully small shorts screaming, "ALLEZ, ALLEZ, un-DEUX,DEUX-un, et ENCORE!!!!!!!!!" absolutely hilarious! For the evening, we went out to the bars. I came to Rennes during their big music festival, so it was great to see some live music....and a lot of crazy drunk people in the streets.
I caught the train to Paris in the morning, embracing a bit more confidence in my ability to find my way with the french culture. I bought a metro pass and dropped off my stuff in the hostel. This hostel was considerably nicer than that of London.....and I don't think anyone puked on the bedroom door........! I grabbed my map and I was out the door. I picked a stop and just walked around Paris for hours! I definitely got lost, but that was part of the fun of it. When I'd had enough, I went to the Champs-elysees, and snapped a few pics of l'arc de triomphe. That night I was put in a trip of a room. Yes folks, I had some unusual roommates. One was this weird lady who was french; she was trying to get out of the city because the pollution-and I quote-was burning her teeth. Is it really? That sounds terrible madame, but I dont think staying in this hostel is really promoting your exit......I'm sure you could find places to stqy out side the city? But who am I to judge? Then; the other guy was from Afganistan. This guy, I kid you not, was in Paris studying artillery. Yup, artillery, like BLOWING THINGS UP!!! Now, these two did not think I spoke any french, so they began to discuss the US, thinking I didn''t know what was going on. I definitely was a little chilled when I heard the intro to the topic,"etats-unis chercher Osama". Um, I want to make it clear that I myself, personally, am not trying to chercher anything. I'm here on vacation minding my own business. Seriously though, it wasn't that bad. They were both incredibly nice, but the intense description is more evocative for your reading amusement.
I was a hardcore sight-seeing superstar the following day. I went to the palace of Versailles, museum of modern art (closed for renovation,buster), Notre Dame, the Champs-elysees again, and to a french movie! It was verycool, I could understand a fair amount, and it was fantastic to get off my feet. When I was sitting on the C-E ( the ONE city bench; I think), some guy came up to talk to me, he thought I was cold or something. I tried some of his gateux, little almond maccaroons. Quite yummy. He invited me to his house pour la Noel. French
guys are humorous!
On Sunday, Belinda and I (girl in my new hostel room) and I went to bear the cold-we're tqlking frostbite cold here people-at the march� aux puces (fleamarket). I made a killing, great bargains, and I talked my way into some good deals (en francais). We went to le Lourve, which was nothing short of overwhelming. After one floor (there are 4), I had had enough. But yes, the floor did include the Mona Lisa. What was she like??? Not telling! heehee. I found the building itself quite amazing. The highlight of the visit to the louvre was seeing the cliche frenchman. Not kidding, there was a guy dressed in a black beret, loose sweater with thick black and white stripes, and a marroon scarf. The second we saw him, we both just cracked up. It was like he was straight out of a cartoon!
That night I met up with my Dad's cousin Dave, who was in town on business.We had a great time catching up; I haven't seen him in years. We went to the bar at the top of the hotel which overlooked the city. We had a spectcular view of the tour d'eiffel! Every hour, the whole thing would light up and sparkle for a few minutes. Now, we're not talking cheesy, hokey flashing christmas lights here. Think: fourth of July sparklers on every inch of the structure going off. I wish I had my camera, I could have taken video. Itwas unbelievable. Dave and I went to chez Georges for an authentic and delicious french dinner. Dave, thank you again, the dinner was wonderful (that and for steering me away from the herring!). At chez Georges, the meat of the night was sauerkraut....yeah, we didn't think that was meat either! In the morning, I went to the infamous tour d'eiffel. Although it was amazing, there were WAY too many damn people, it really dilluted the experience. I got some fantastic picutres; I went all the way to the top!! I even took a little video too.
Later, I caught my train here, to Clermont Ferrand. I stayed in this great little budget hotel last night. This cute old grandma-lady helped me to my room. She didn't speak a word of english,but thankfully I speak enough french to get by. In the morning, her son (with whom I spoke on the phone for my reservation) took me to my other hotel (they were booked so I couldnt stay), and then to the train station to figure out transportation to the airport. We went across the street and had les croissants et du cafe for breakfast. He was a very nice man; he asked me all about where I lived (they actually opened the atlas at the hotel last night!!!!), we talked about Seattle, volcanos (we're in a volcanic range here in France), my job, etc. He helped me find the direction of the internet cafe, and I accidentally stumbled upon this fantastic little fashion boutique. I grind my teeth as I admit, the credit card emerged on this one......I am cut off from shopping until that next paycheck comes through (hey Michelle, any word on my expense checks?).
I will spend about four days in Stockholm, then I train to Oslo to catch that infamous flight which includes the 14 hour overnight layover in Amsterdam. See you all when I get back! Have fun working..........heeheeheeheeeeee--Iknow I\'ll get my share as soon as I get back!
love, Hillary
