Week 7: Paris, France

Thursday night i caught a train out of Luzern to Basel, then flew into Paris Charles De Gaulle airport. After the train and metro i made it to my hostel where i was blessed to find my friends Becky and Aubrey in the Lobby! They had just gotten back so it was perfect timing. i got a sandwich and we spent time talking and catching up. I was supremely grateful for the update from home. I went to my room and went to sleep but at two in the morning someone opened the door to my private room! i was trying to figure out what was going on when the man from the front desk indicated to me that there was a problem with my key and i needed to go down stairs. after a strange French/English/hand motion conversation I gathered that when I checked in he hadn't mark that i was paid, or checked in, so he gave a key to my room to someone looking for a place to stay. i laughed and stumbled back to my room to sleep.

The next morning we took the subway to the center and walked through the Jardin des Tuileries to the Musee du Louvre. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed this beautiful stroll. The Jardin is beautiful and very expansive and open. Its strange being in such a sprawling city after being in Switzerland. There is so much open space! We saw the Farris Wheel next to the Louvre and took pictures. The Louvre is unbelievably massive! Its the size of a big city block and in the shape of a U. It used to be a palace I believe then morphed into a museum. Now it is one of the largest in the world. We saw the Mona Lisa, which is very small. Apparently Napoleon really liked it and hung it in his room until his wife was jealous and told him to take it down. At one point an employee of the museum fell in love with Miss Mona Lisa and managed to keep the painting under his bed for 3 years!
We saw other exhibits for another 2 hours then decided to head for some lunch. Becky had an article that had the best places to go for different foods so we spent an hour walking to the best baguette in Paris... and let me tell you, it was pretty amazing! Becky and I had nice baguette sandwiches and Aubrey even found a salad she could eat (she has VERY specific food needs)!

We then went back into the Jardin and prayed for a while before going to Musée de l'Orangerie . A little museum that just reopened with special rooms to display Claude Monet's 8 large panels of Nymphéas, watter lilies. This in now one of my favorite things in Paris, if not my favorite. If I ever have the chance to go back, I will sit in the two oval rooms for at least an hour. I can't really describe to you my feelings upon entering those rooms. I was stunned. When you first walk into the museum you walk up a little ramp into a small, all white circular room, then you continue through a short hallway into the first of Monet's rooms, then flow into the second. Both are oval rooms with muted skylight and painted white except for the 4 panels of Monet's impressionist masterpieces. They each have two long panels on the sides and two shorter on the ends. The rooms were built exactly as Monet instructed when he agreed to give the paintings to the state. The room is meant to create a feeling of being surrounded by an endless lake. The paintings seem to continue forever, flowing over each other and around you. Perhaps it's my love of water, but walking into that room was just... again, no words. It was so quiet. It's like the moment when, on a warm day, you first dive into cool clear water. I always dive in and do a few twists and arches underwater, basking in the peace, silence and freedom, weightlessness. Okay, I'm sure I sound crazy... talk to another swimmer, it's magical. Anyway, I wanted to cry when I entered that room. I was simply in awe.
The rest of L'Orangerie was fascinating as well, there were paintings by many famous impressionist painters including Cézanne, Derain, Laurencin, Maillol, Renoir, Modigliani, and Picasso.

We left and walked down the famous Avenue des Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. On the way Becky and I split a HUGE chocolate and banana crepe, fresh and hot! yum. When you arrive at the Arc you're actually across the street and have to go underground to get there. There is a metro stop there as well and we managed to turn the wrong way and just went in a big circle underground, coming back up exactly where we left. Take two was far more successful. Becky and I climbed up and got some great photos. This trip I did not get to see Notre-Dame which many say is the best view of Paris, so I'll make that assumption and put the Arc de Triomphe at a close 2nd. You can see La tour Eiffel rising above all the buildings which is so iconic of Paris.

Back on the metro the girls went back to the hotel to rest and I went to find Ryan at the train station Gare de l'Est. He dropped of his bags and we all 4 met back up for a yummy dinner and an 11-midnight stroll around La tour Eiffel. I had to keep pinching myself. It's a bit surreal to be walking through Champ de Mars (a large public green-space located, between la tour Eiffel to the northwest and the Ecole Militaire to the southeast. The park is named after the Campus Martius of Rome. In English Champ de Mars means "Field of Mars", from Mars the Roman god of war, from its original use for military training) looking at la tour Eiffel all light up. Plus, Saturday was Bastille day so Friday night they were already setting everything up for the big concert and there were many people... and yummy ice cream :).

Saturday we stared the day off right with croissants and SHOPPING! There's a famous flea market right next to hour hostel so we went there in the morning and everyone bought something. Ryan even got sunglasses (it only took 3 countries! Milano in Italy and Zurich in Switzerland were the first two tries)! Then we headed back to La tour Eiffel via subway. We walked about 700 stairs to the 2nd level where we stopped for a while. Becky and I split a massive bowl of... yes, Ben and Jerry's, they have conquered the Eiffel tower! Ryan enjoyed a coke, which he does pretty much everywhere, and Aubrey helped him with some of the saltiest fries in the world. We prayed for a moment looking out across Paris. The view was spectacular!

700 stairs down and we made our way with shaky legs to the boat tours where we enjoyed a one hour tour along Le Seine listing to French music and listening to commentary about the buildings and bridges and heard all about just how very "Hot" Becky was.

After the boat tour we needed to kill about 4 hours before the fireworks stared at 10:30pm, we spent them walking around an area across the bridge from the main city of Paris. It looked like they were evacuating as thousands of people poured over the bridge (in the opposite direction of us) into down town, to sit on the Champ de Mars and listen to the concert and watch the fireworks. we finally found food and after changing spots about 4 times loitered on the steps of a random building for about 2 hours playing a hilarious but unbelievably long game of Liar-Liar or BS, followed by a few magic tricks. Becky did pretty much the most amazing card trick ever!
Tragically when the fireworks finally began they were completely obscured by the trees so ourselves and the 2000 people around us all groaned, stood up, and began looking for a better place to see. we gave up an headed for the metro to beat the crowd and this part of the number 1 line actually goes over the city so we had an awesome view through the metro window for about 30 seconds. We eventually made it back to our hotel after another toasty ride on the metro, during which, like all other rides we took in the Paris metro, Aubrey informed us all of our passing of the Château Rouge station.

Sunday morning we tried to go to church but the Saint-Jacques Marriott didn't know anything about a church meeting supposedly held there, so we made due with a park bench. The four of us sang some excellent songs in harmony (which an elderly passerby commented was beautiful, we know this due to Ryan's translation), read a scripture, then Becky and Aubrey had to leave to catch their train to their next adventure spot. I have to say that our little church service was truly refreshing. I felt it was a pure way to honor God. Wherever you are, with friends, stopping to remember Jesus. Perfect, simple, all heart. My soul was encouraged.
We said good bye, which was very difficult. I had so thoroughly enjoyed being with them. The best thing about Paris was their company. My sadness was banished as I promptly tripped on the stairs back up the subway and needed both my hands and all my concentration to break my fall. Similar things have in fact happened quite a bit this trip... it seems in Europe I loose most of my coordination. Very curious.

Anyway, in my last hour in Paris Ryan and I headed to Chez Angelina, a very posh cafe on the Rue de Rivoli next to the Louvre which is know to have the best hot chocolate in the world. If not the best if was without a doubt the most decedent. I don't think there was any milk in it other than what was used to make the chocolate and they literally just took a few chocolate bars and melted them down because it was SO rich. I could only drink half of what they brought, which was a small pitcher, probably about 16 oz of hot liquid chocolate with a little bowl of whipped cream. Just 8 oz of that and I wasn't hungry for a good 6 hours! Anyway, it was yummy (sorry, i didn't get a picture, I was pictured out at the moment).

1:30pm and I took the metro to the airport while Ryan when on to see more of Paris and Becky and Aubrey had already been on their train for 1/2 hour already. A flight, 2 trains, a 45 min walk and I was back in my rented flat in Luzern.

I enjoyed my weekend in Paris!

Week 6: The ZÜRI FÄSCHT and more of Luzern

This week seemed very normal, and yet thinking about it, I realized it was very exciting... like every week thus far! The most constant thing in my life right now is the rain, in Luzern it's quite persistent. We have been lucky however that we have dry weekends. For the last few weeks it's rained Monday-Friday, Saturday has been beautiful, then Sunday it begins to drizzle again. Some days it's raining and warm but others in can get rather cold.

Wednesday was the 4th of July and my American boss had the whole team and a few others over to her home, about 15 people. On the walk over I walked across the old wooden bridge and there were 4 Czech guys playing instruments and singing. They were excellent! It is often that you're walking through some part of a city here and you hear people playing, or there's an outdoor concert. Most of the time the music is very traditional which is enjoyable.
At our little 4th of July gathering we had wine and cheese, then a very American meal of Burgers, corn on the cob, potato salad, green salad, pickles and apple pie. Then we lit sparklers she found at a local store. We stayed there all chatting for a good four hours before we all had to go home to get some rest for work. I was grateful to have something to do... not at all the same as being home with friends and family but it made it much better.

Friday night I hung out with one of my friends I met on the train and another of his friends. I got to see a bit more of new town and meet some very friendly Swiss people (the Swiss are known as being fairly reserved and difficult to get to know). Luzern is split into two parts as you can see on the map. The station (lower right corner) is located in "new town" and the other side of the bridge is considered "old town" i work right along the lake in old town. You cross the bridge and walk along the lake to the right and the first hotel is where we are. The bridge going diagonally to the left is a very old wooden bridge with wood paintings inside. If you google Luzern most of the pictures have this bridge with the little wooden towers. I've walked all over old town but have seen very little of new town. A bit more now after Friday. Where I'm living now is about a 30min. walk from work along the lake to the right.

The whole weekend was ZÜRI FÄSCHT in Zurich which is a festival that only happens every 3 years. Saturday afternoon and evening I spent there with people from church. Ryan was supposed to go to Rome this weekend but was too tired so decided to come meet up with us. One of the girls (Connie) and I met him at the station at 4, then we dropped of his backpack with the Alex (one of the men from church with whom Ryan was staying that night) and the 4 of us headed for the lake. The festival was made up of hundreds of booths on the streets in a Y shape with the lake in the V. The I portion of the booths were on Bahnhofstrasse and Stadthausquai. We walked from Alex's house near the Zürich Hauptbahnhof (main station) along Banhnhofstrasse to the lake, then along both sides of the Y. To the right was all kinds of kids stations and a big motorcycle show along with numerous other booths, to the left was tons of food, vendors, live music and rides. There were at least 4 different air shows with different kinds of planes, then other acrobats and similar attractions. We finally got to the end of the left side around 8:30pm (we had been walking around for about 4 hours) then decided to head back to the center to get food and find a nice spot to watch the fire works at 10:30. This plan was quickly abandoned as we tried to make our way back. I have never seen so many people in my entire life. We tried walking away from the little road next to the lake and walking on a larger main road. The 4 lane road was so full of people we were all pressed against each other and moving at about a foot a minute. It was absolutely insane. So we cut across and found an Italian restaurant along the edge of all the craziness. We finally got there around 9:45! We missed the fireworks. We could hear them but where burnt out from the crowd so we just sat and enjoyed our dinner. When we were done we braved the crowd again to get home. Alex had left earlier so Ryan found his way back to the station and the house and Connie and I took a packed bus to her place.
I was able to call my Dad and wish him a very happy birthday from Connie's flat and he and I talked a bit which was the best possible way to end the day!

Sunday I was able to help in the toddlers class at church. It was so funny because the kids were speaking to me in Swiss German and I felt like the child because I had no idea what they were saying! I enjoyed playing with them though.
After service was an brief "Appero" which are very popular here. It's basically drinks and light snacks. After service there were fruit juices, punch, crackers, some little marshmallows etc. We're going to have one before our work summer party which will most likely have hors d'oeuvres and alcoholic beverages. After the Appero a group of us went to New Point, a good Kebob chain in Zurich and one of the few places open late and on Sundays. If you have a moment look up "Döner kebab" on Wikipedia. It is the fast food of Europe. I've had two here but have seen many and I can tell you the best are in Berlin which is actually where it all began, brought by Turkish immigrants. Look it up, it's really interesting!

After Lunch Ryan and I caught our trains back home and the group dispersed.

In Luzern I hit the Coop at the station (the only supermarket open on Sundays) to pick up supplies for dinner then went home and cooked. My guests arrived later. A group of people from church had come to Luzern to see an IMax movie and 3 of them came to my place after. We had pasta, salad, chicken and Ice cream. A simple meal but I was SO excited to be able to cook for someone. I usually make dinner at home for my family on Sundays and I've missed doing that here. They were very grateful and said the food was good (whether that was true or not I was encouraged :) ) then I walked with them back towards the station. By the time I headed home the rain and come back and in spite of my umbrella I was pretty wet, but I enjoyed the peaceful to walk home in the rain.

So, another week has passed here in Luzern! I'm more than half way done with my trip which is difficult to believe! Just 3 more weeks of work, Barcelona, Ireland and I'm home! But next weekend... PARIS! (be ready, that will be a looong blog)

Much Love to Everyone!

Wildy

Week 5: Lake Como and Milano

WOW. What a week! or at least weekend. The week was rather normal. Dinner with Katja, who moved back to Denmark on Saturday. Lunch with a dynamic coworker from Panama. She met a Swiss guy while going to grad school in Spain, and is now married and living in Switzerland! It rained almost everyday this week, but in spite of the Rain, Luzern is BEAUTIFUL! (or maybe that's because of the rain...)

Ah, but the weekend! For me it came a day early because I didn't go to work on Friday. Instead I woke early and took a beautiful train ride through the Alps and the Italian section of Switzerland and into Italy, ending at Lake Como. Many people are not aware there is an Italian part of Switzerland. In fact, Italian is one of the 4 official languages of Switzerland. The difference between the Italian section and the rest of Switzerland is surprising. From the moment the train passed through the Alps I thought I was in Italy because the architecture had completely changed, as well as the language of the writing on the buildings etc, but I noticed all the licence plates were still Swiss.
I was also amused that although there was only one Italian stop before Lake Como, that one stop was enough to get the train right onto Italian time; we arrived at the Como station 5 min. late! Quite a change from the perfectly punctual Swiss rail system.

When I arrived in Lake Como I met my friend Ryan. Ryan is part the church in Atlanta and he helped me a great deal with my Physics when I went to checkout Georgia Tech over spring break. He has been studying in France all summer at an extension of the Tech campus. The way the trains ran he had to get into Como Thursday night and being both crazy and frugal had spent the night outside! Unwilling to spend €100 on a room, had slept under a tree. Needless to say he was a bit sleepy when we met at the station.

We started by walking around the actual little city and taking pictures. Then decided to stop for lunch. The first Italian food of the weekend did not disappoint. Pizza Margarita, always so good on that nice crispy thin Italian crust. In Italy (and I've heard here in Switzerland as well), they don't mind adding random people to your table so they sat this couple down next to us that was from New Jersey. The wife was rather outgoing. I found it refreshing to be with someone so talkative. We had to do very little work in the conversation. We sat at lunch for a while even after they left, then got Gelato, yum, and rented a paddle boat. I'm becoming quite the fan of paddle boats. They're such fun and always provide beautiful views the of city. There was a beautiful fountain that I had wanted to walk to so we just paddled over(we ended up walking again later). While we were paddling there was many small planes landing and taking off of the Lake which was amazing, and another craft that looked like a large boat but was skidding along the top of the water on runners. The lake was beautiful but the pictures are worth 1000 words so i won't say too much more.

After the paddle boats we took another walk so we could see the lake from higher up. Enjoy these photos.

Ryan really wanted to go swimming so we looked for a place to swim. There was a nice area next to the fountain with chairs, showers a bar and even a small swimming pool but it cost €3 to enter and was closing in just an hour. We decided to abandon the swimming idea but I wanted to at least stick my feet in so we looked for another place. Most of the area along the lake was rather dirty with things floating in it and some grime floating on the top but we kept walking back to an area we had taken pictures before. I tried to just dip my feet in but it was really slippery so I just sat down, then the water was so nice I slid in and started swimming. Pretty soon Ryan was in too and a few people trying to enjoy some peaceful time on the nearby benches were laughing at us tourists.
Ryan the adventure decided to dive in off the side although it was pretty shallow. Not to be outdone I chose to follow... Now I know I need a bit more practice with my diving. I totally scraped the bottom! Arms we a bit scraped and my white tank top was green and brown from the algae. I was laughing SO HARD! I was actually really excited that I did it, even that I hit the bottom. I tend to be cautious and not do crazy things. I don't want to start being stupid, but it was deep enough that I knew even if I did hit I'd be fine and I'm determined to defy my fears, so I jumped.

We then had to walk sopping wet to the train station to change. That was the most nasty bathroom I have ever been in. The toilet was literally a hole in the floor. So I changed really fast, plus we had to catch our train to Milano.

In Milano we headed straight to dinner. We found a restaurant full of locals and it was amazing! The friendly Italian sitting next to us told us what to order. I had thin pasta with mushrooms in a cream sauce and Ryan had pasta and Lobster. Both were incredible. The local said he goes there all the time and many days he just says bring me something and they just make him something delicious. Other days he tells them some ingredients he thinks he wants and they create something from that! He told us anyone can order that way. So for dessert Ryan ordered pineapple with gelato and they took half a pineapple, cut it in a really funky way, and put a large scoop of unbelievable vanilla gelato on top. ahhhh.

After dinner things began to get interesting. We walked around looking for our hostel for about 45 min. but were having trouble finding the streets so we just walked back to the train station and took a taxi. Once at the hostel i gave my name to the man at the counter and he found my reservation and then looked at Ryan for his name and he said "no that reservation was for both of us" then i joined the man at the counter in staring at him because i thought we were each making our own reservations! A serious miss communication. S o... For the 2nd night in a row Ryan was homeless. I felt terrible but Ryan had a great attitude. The man at the counter made some calls and found Ryan a place supposedly a short bus ride away. So Ryan left to find the bus. They brought me to a room with 3 beds, one open, one for me and one with an elderly woman and I'm pretty sure she actually lived there. She spoke a bit of English so we chatted then went to sleep.

When Ryan come to meet me in the morning I found out he never found the hotel and after an hour he just went to another one hotel close to the hostel were I was. Saturday was a day of walking. That's all we did. We saw the Duomo and a Castle turned Gallery. We walked to were the painted of the last supper is but to see it you have to make reservations weeks in advance so no luck there. On the walk to the Duomo we were attacked by 2 sets of vendors in the main square. The first was two African men who try to get you to look at the bracelets they have then when you walk by the put it on you. You stop to see what's on your shoulder and they come and tie it around your wrist and talk to you then ask you for money for Africa after they've already tied this on you and cut off the ends. We gave them a few Euros. Ya, I'm sure that money's going to Africa!
Then there were two other guys who came up, gr abed Ryan's hand and put corn kernels in it and held it up for the pigeons. Ryan kept saying "NO. I have no money" but they just kept on going and saying "free, free" and the pigeons came. They did the same to me. It was so gross! The pigeons are landing in your hand and on your arm and YUCK! Then after we shook the pigeon's off they started saying "One Euro, One Euro." But we weren't lying when we said he had no money, we had just gone in search of an ATM when they attacked. We immediately went to McDonalds and I washed my whole arm. Then we sat and read our Bibles before doing more exploring.

Milano, although the capital of the Fashion industry is not a very beautiful city. In fact, it's rather dirty. The Duomo is incredible and you can climb up to the top and see the whole city which we did. If you go to Italy and want to visit Milano go to shop, or just plan a few hours to walk in and see the Duomo then leave. There are much more beautiful cities but the Duomo is cool. Also, don't eat at the restaurants on that main strip. There you'll pay €8 Euros for a small not very good Margarita Pizza and if you just walk a bit farther away you can get much larger, MUCH more delicious pizza for €4 or €6. Same with the Gelato, most of that close to the Duomo is more sickly sweet then light and creamy, and flavors are more artificial.

After a long day of walking, a yummy dinner, a bit of singing and more than a few stops for Gelato, we headed back to the Hostel. In the morning I had asked if they had a bed that night for Ryan and they said yes. So we left our extra things there behind the counter and they said they would put them on our beds when they were ready. Well, when we walked in at about 11:30 our bags were still behind the counter. Turns out they had given our beds away with out realizing it. So they found us another place and paid me the difference because I had already paid €20 to stay there and was not about to pay more. So we walked the hour to the next hotel, checked in and were out cold.

Sunday we walked to church which took longer then we had expected so we got there at about 11 (instead of 10:30 when it started) and Ryan then had to leave at 11:20 so he could catch his train (the original plan was a 3:00pm train which would have gotten him back in France at 6AM Monday morning but by taking the 12:30 train he could get back at 9:30 Sunday night, and so he needed to take the early train). So Ryan was at church for 20min then had to leave. I stayed and went to lunch with a group that Included 4 Italians who were members of the church there, 2 Russians that were visiting, a British woman who's working nearby for two years teaching English, a Danish woman (one of Katja's friends in fact!) who had been living there for a year because her boyfriend is Italian (one of the 4 that came with us), me, and a girl there from San Diego who had just graduated from SDSU. Quite the group! After lunch (meat ravioli with red sauce, WOW) we got gelato... the best gelato i have ever had in my entire life. The gelato we had after dinner Saturday night night was really good but this was the best. So creamy. It was one of the Italian's favorite places. She told me I had to get the whip cream because it was the best in Milano and I was not disappointed. It was especially nice with the Dark chocolate portion of my 3 flavor Gelato cup.
Our group grew smaller and smaller as people had to leave, at the end it was just the people in the picture you see here (The Russians, 2 Italians, San Diego and me) then we all parted company and i walked an hour back to the train station.

FYI: The whole time in Milano I was getting bitten by mosquitoes. i counted when i got home and i have over 113 mosquito bites. between the bites everywhere and my scraped up arms i look like i just go back from war. It's pretty funny (minus the constant itching).

Then on the train i was sitting across from two guys who turned out to be from Luzern. Actually they were supposed to sit across from each other one next to me, but when they said in Italian that i was i the wrong seat i though they were asking me to switch so they could sit next to each other, so i just moved to the seat across.
They were really nice and spoke perfect English so the 3 of us ended up talking pretty much the whole 4 hour train ride home (the elderly gentleman next to me move when the first seat opened up:) ). i think they're both about 22. i know one guy was 22 and i think the other guy was the same age. they told me about different cool places to go and when we got back they showed me the one market that's open at 11pm and one guy (David) was on a similar bus as the one i needed to take. So we said good bye to Philip at the station and rode the the 2nd stop where David had to change buses. Then I went home and hit the sack.

What a weekend! So much fun!
I love and miss all of you! I hope my blogs aren't too long :) I think I'm improving at cutting things out. Anyway, you have my love!

-Wildy