Ramen of France

With most of the money that we college students having access too going to our educations, it leaves little room for stuff like 'high class,' especially with things like food.  As much as I would like to explore the probably mind blowing word of French cuisine, I have to go with what's just below it.  OK, a few steps below it.  Basically, if I were in United States, it would be something like ramen.  But since the only form of dry, ready-in-under-a-passing period noodles is still over 1 euro, I have to go with other things that this country has to offer me:

1.  Bread.  It's the staple in France.  I can buy a baguette from the bakery literary a hop, skip, and a slight slip down the wet sidewalk down the road from my host family's home for 60 euro centimes.  I even bought one the other day that was right out of the oven, steaming hot.  If I want something slightly sweeter, I can go to the store and buy a bag of rolls for under a euro.  Sure, I'm carbo-loaded for the rest of my life, but there's also other options including meat:

2.  Kebabs.  Me and my roommate concluded that Kebab shops are pretty much like the Taco Bell of France, as they're basically another country's food bastardized and turned into something that the natives would like.  That being said, they're pretty much better than anything that you could get on an average day at Taco bell, and with fries they usually aren't more than 5 euros.

3.  Fruits.  I heard recently that most of the little oranges- clementines- that are found in United States are grown in Spain.  Here in France, we're quite a bit closer, and there's fruits and vegetables here that I haven't even seen before.  And at the market every weekend, I can buy several pounds kilograms of them, fresh or dried, every week for under 5 euros.  So don't worry mom, I'm eating good.

Paris en Panoramique

So to finish up my suite of posts about my travels, here's a presentation of my abuse (and sometimes failed use) of the panoramic feature.

Paris, Part Three/Brussels

I'm gonna try to finish this up the trip this post because the details are starting to fade- I'm basically just trying to remember what I did at what time based off the pictures now.  So without further ado...

The dawn of the third morning, I set off to the north bank of Paris, first to find the Train Station I would be leaving from the next day.  Confirming that I would be able to keep myself from being stranded in Paris (even though it wouldn't be terrible to be stuck in such a city) I started off finally to see the most elevated part of the city: Montmartre.

Most of Paris is pretty flat.  There is only one real hill in Paris, which is absolutely massive, Montmartre, which even has the French word for 'mountain' in the name.  Atop it sits the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) Church, which has an absolutely amazing view.

 The church was pretty cool too.

Around there was a pretty big touristy section, where I bought some postcards, and, even though it was 7 euros, was the best hot dog I've ever had.

 Also, I saw a mime.

I continued (not intentionally) my tour of Churches, and took the metro over to the Ile de la Cité to go see the Notre Dame.

As the day was winding down, my new gay friend from the hostel called me up and offered to go shopping with me in the Galleries Lafayette, pretty much the most expensive designer mall in the world.  I ended up seeing one of my teachers from Montpellier there, and then me and Sylvan bought expensive-yet-tasty macaroons.

Sadly, this was the only picture I got of him.  But I have his Facebook and his phone number, so maybe I can hang out with him again before I leave France.

So I spent my last night in the hostel, then left early the next morning for Brussels.  Being way too tired from walking around for three days, I spent pretty much the whole day in the hostel there, talking with my cool ex-Soviet and German roommates.

Next morning, went exploring once again.  Brussels was a little harder to find my way around with much fewer landmarks, but I was able to find my way to a touristy area.  Saw some cool sights, ate fries.

Saw lots of shops.  Lots of Chocolate, pastries, and even some beer.

Then I wandered around a bit, got lost, found the concert place, and got my ear drums rocked and face melted by Coheed and Cambria.

Next morning, seven hour train right back to Montpellier.

Next post, just pictures.  Panoramics.  Wooo!

Paris, Part Two

Continuing from where I left off:

The Champs Elysées and the areas that are on either side of it form a really long line of tourist sights, from the Louvre at one end, all the way to the L'Arc de Triomph.  The map of Paris that I got from the hostel was pretty detailed as far as sightseeing goes, but the size of the city, and the walking distance between all of these seems a lot shorter than it actually is.

Above is a picture from the Place de la Condord, with the Arc in the background.  While it looks fairly close, the Champs Elysées is actually about several miles (or kilometers, if you prefer) long.  Yes, I walked all of it.

From the Arc, I started my walk to the Stereotypical image of Paris, the Eiffel Tower.  Once again, it was a long walk- across the River Seine even, but being a tower and all, it's really not terribly hard to find.

It is possible to go up in the tower, but every tourist and their entire family wants to do the same, and waiting in line for literally half my vacation didn't seem like fun.

After seeing all that, there wasn't anything terribly specific that I wanted to see, so I just started walking.  I saw a big gold-domed building off in the distance, so I started to walk to it, and, with little effort, I turned up at the Hotel des Invalides, a really nice piece of Architecture by Napoleon.

Pictures were taken.  More walking ensued.  Somehow, I crossed the river once again, and found myself at a really fancy looking building with a statue of Winston Churchill, the English WWII General.

Continuing on, I retraced my steps a little bit to go back to the Louvre- seeing the line to go in, I backed away, took my pictures and left- art doesn't really suit me anyways.

My last bit of walking for the day took me back to the Hostel, where I hug out with my new French friend Sylvan, and prepared for the next, the final, day...

Paris, Part One

Paris- I really forget what people call it; the city of love, the city of lights, whatever.  For me, it was the city of walking.  

I arrived in Paris after a four hour train ride, which was really relaxing.  Trains are so much better than airplanes, especially here in Europe (it's one of those things like I mentioned in my last post; people have their sh*t together here.)  Stepping off the train, I immediately bought a tourist map, because I am absolutely horrible with directions, and while a taxi is extremely easy, it is also extremely expensive, something which I learned not even my first day in France.

It was a pretty straight shot to my hostel from the Gare (Train Station), right past the monument to the Bastille; basically one of the biggest traffic circles I've ever seen.  Checking in, the lady at the front desk complimented me on my French, which was nice, even though she didn't know I was a student in France...

Being tired after lugging around a big suitcase to the hostel, I elected to stay nearby for the evening, so I ended going to the nearest thing: The Cemetery Père Lachaise.  Let me mention that this was also the 31st- Halloween.  I'd say it was pretty cool being able to wander around a cemetery during Halloween at sunset.

A not-so-secret of The Père Lachaise?  It's the final resting place of Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors (which happens to be my father's favorite band.)  Of course I had to see his tomb, where I found other Americans having the same thing in mind.

Half the graffiti is loving fans, the other half is angry French people mad that there's an American buried in their cemetery.

I returned to the hostel for the night, where I ran into my roommates for the next three days, a Canadian, a Brazilian woman who spoke little English, and Sylvan.

I actually didn't formally meet him until the next morning, where I saw him on the way back from buying bread for breakfast.  He was sitting outside a café next to the hostel, so I sat down with him.  He was French, from Bordeaux, which, like Montpellier, is in the South of France.  He was gay, which he loved to joke about in his limited (but still very correct) English.  He knew Paris pretty well, and after buying me a coffee, he told me some neat places to visit, including outside of the regular touristy places.

After thanking him, I went on my way to go explore the town.  I actually found Paris extremely easy to navigate, despite my horrible sense of direction.  I literally got of on one of the major Metro stops, and just started to walk.  There are just so many monuments around that you can follow one to another; The Opera, The Place de Vendom, the Jardin de Tuilleries, the Champs Elysées, L'Arc de Triomph...

By the People, For the People

Before I start my whole recount of my mini euro trip, I'm gonna talk a little bit about my home country, the United States, and what has been going on there.

The elections just finished, Obama got reelected, some people are rejoicing, some people are complaining.  To be honest, I don't care.  I didn't vote.  I could have, but I didn't.  I really doubt that anything that will change the course of history can happen in four or even eight years.  Personally, the only thing I see right now is Europe.

If anyone were to ask me what it is I like so far about France, about Europe, or about anything revolving around being outside of the United States, it would be this: I like how people do things here- mostly contrasting against what I've seen and experienced in the U.S.

I always used to think, 'America is a pretty good country, and everyone else who lives here must think the same because they are lucky enough to live here as well."  However, coming here has shown me something; not everything that exists there is perfect, and there are other countries that people would be just as lucky to live in.  I think, finally, I was able to put the reasoning for this into one short, sweet, phrase:

People here in France/Europe have a better idea of how to make things work for everyone, and not just better for people who are more likely to affect percentages and pocketbooks.

I'm not saying the European system is perfect, but then again nothing quite is.  Not everybody agrees on it, but few will argue that is it hurting either.   I, personally, think that is what matters.

Just my .02 €

Retourné

So I'm back in Montpellier now, with tons of stories, pictures, and memories.  Those will come all in good time, meaning when I'm not preparing for school.

It kind of feels funny being back here. my 'home' here in Europe.  I went to two cities here in Europe, neither of which I have never been to before, and I explored them from almost end to end, and now that I know them slightly better, I am back in the town I know the best here.  It's kind of Ironic- I have never been to Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., and I can count the amount of times I have been to Los Angeles on one hand- but now I'm in a city, a country, and a continent that are none of that of my birth.  But I feel like I know them better than any of those places in the United States.

Philosophizing aside, expect lots of pictures soon!