Month: September 2011

You ever have that moment during sleep that you can’t REALLY sleep because you’re afraid of missing your alarm clock?  That’s what happened to Vero and I on the train.  The train was stopping in Munich.  We had to get off at Ulm which was two hours before Munich.  I had visions of no wake-up call coming, no alarm clock going off…and us missing our stopover.

Interestingly enough, my iPad alarm did go off and I thought to myself “Very strange…where is our wake-up call?!”.  Not impressed!  Imagine if we didn’t set the alarm as a backup!  We got ready to hop off the train in 30 minutes and then the attendant noticed us up and about and let us know that they were delayed and that’s why they never bothered waking us up.  Doh!

Well alright, we sat around, had some breakfast that they provided (which was basically some bread and more bread from what I can remember).  The time approached and we finally brought our bags to the door ready to hop off.  I figured with so many travellers anxious to get to Munchen, they would just slow the train down so we could jump off!  But that was not the case.

However, as soon as we walk down the train platform a bit, we notice two other travellers trying to get out of another car and it’s just not happening!  They are frantically trying to open the door, and I try and open it from the outside, but to no avail.  Vero and I looked in shock as the train started to roll away and there were two guys just looking at us with horror that they could not get off at their stop!  Here’s to hoping they found their way back to Ulm!

It was quite early in the morning…6ish from what I can remember and we were already a good 50 minutes later than expected.  Poor Philipp was probably wondering where we were.  I saw his familiar walk down the platform and do not remember what I cried out, but I’m sure it was a brotherly call to arms (or beers)!  It was great seeing Philipp again…we hadn’t seen him since we were in Brazil together.  Latest update on Philipp is that he obtained employment with a company back in Germany and has moved to Ulm.  Erica has also moved to Germany where she will take classes to improve her German language and then she is completing some studies in Munich (I believe…details are a little fuzzy now.)

We threw our bags into Philipp’s rental car (hurray) and toured around the streets of Ulm and caught up while fighting off some sleep.  We arrived to his new apartment and found Erica excited to see us (as well as in some clothes that she had been wearing for a few days as her luggage had UNFORTUNATELY not made it from Brazil.  Pretty shocking considering she had packed her entire belongings.) and a nice breakfast set before us.

Let me tell you something I love about Germany…they share a love of the things I love…which is basically meat and beer.  Sure enough, spread out before us was an assortment of pastries and meat.  While I had already eaten some breakfast on the train, I could not pass up this treat!  I basically gained 17 lbs. by the time I left Germany.  I’m sure of it.  I think I had to pay for a larger seat on the plane.

Philipp’s apartment was fantastic.  It was like I saw a transformation from Philipp the student I have known all my life, to Philipp the professional.  His apartment was out of this world….leather couches, flat screen TV, hard wood furniture…all from Ebay!  Philipp has opened up my eyes to the powers of Ebay.  I never knew you could find amazing furniture on Ebay!  I had a great ongoing joke with him pointing out stuff and asking if it was from Ebay (like his mustard or whatnot).  Either way, it was like I was meeting a new man.

Speaking of this new man, he unfortunately had to run off to work for an important meeting with some clients.  I had originally set myself up with a movie to watch (Philipp and I share love for the same types of films) but in the end, I decided to get some shut-eye before he got home again.

The blinds in his apartment are yet another piece of German engineering that has probably been around for 100 years, but was the first time I had ever seen something like it.  Essentially, the blinds are built into the building, and you pull a cord on the inside and it descends a set of steel shutters.  When they get to the bottom, it is complete, complete darkness.  Even in the middle of the day!  Why do they not have this in Canada?!  Incredible.  I have a video of this somewhere.  It was better than the radio-controlled clock I found in 2005!

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More to come later.

Mainly a travel day for Vero and I. We didn’t know if we wanted to tour a little more around Nimes, but we had until the early afternoon to get on a train so we decided to at least check out some of the sights.

We were pleasantly surprised at the ‘other’ side of Nimes! We had always stuck to the path that took us towards the train station. But there’s a little more life to the place if you venture West of the giant church! Here we found a lot of restaurants, a shopping mall (where I managed to snag the PJ20 soundtrack) and this amazing, amazing market that Uncle Gerry had indicated on a map but we had never bothered to seek it out thinking it was a typical farmer’s market like in Ottawa. Au contraire! This place was incredible and I even managed to buy a bag of olives to munch on for the rest of the walk.

I believe we ended up in les Jardins de la Fontaine which was a nice park with some fountains and some Roman ruins which were interesting. We also witnessed some teenagers smoking something in back of those ruins. I’m sure that happened for many years since it’s creation!

With some time on our hands, we decided to hike up the hill to the Tour Magne which was supposedly a tower overlooking the area. On the map, it seemed like it would be a day trip so we had never bothered, but we had another few hours and I didn’t think it would be too far. Sure enough, twenty minutes later, we witness the breathtaking view of Nimes in all its glory and see the Tour Magne up close. We didn’t bother paying the six Euro to go inside. It was nice enough outside.

One thought that remains with me is the crushed stone that you walk on in the park. Parks are definitely different than in Canada where it’s all about walking on the grass.

All in all, we thought Nimes was so-so during our stay until I witnessed the new side of Nimes…beautiful fountains, a lively centre-ville…so I have changed my view on the place and think it would be a fun place to live in. I hope Uncle Gerry and Aunt Shoko feel that way as well!

Once again, special thanks go out to Uncle Gerry and Aunt Shoko for allowing us to stay at their homestead. It was comforting to go to a place where we could relax after a long day’s travel.

We headed back, grabbed our bags and headed to the train station. All was good in the world. We were boarding the train, spending a few hours on it, having a good 1.5 hour layover in Paris and then hopping on a night train (sleeper train) to go to Germany. What could go wrong?

We must have great karma because something nearly did go wrong as soon as we arrived in Paris. I had been looking at the train tickets and made an offhand comment to Vero that I thought it was weird that they mentioned the Gare de Lyon on the ticket where we were arriving, but they mentioned Gare l’Est on the other ticket. I just assumed it meant that it was the East wing of the Gare de Lyon, right? Because every city only has one train station, right? (I can hear some of you screaming at me: NO!)

So with the thought of grabbing a nice relaxing meal at a restaurant and maybe a beer or two, we also thought that we should go to the ticket counter just to make sure we were on the right track (ha! Train station joke there). We really had no worries.

But then the guy tells us that there are MANY train stations in Paris and sure enough, we have to get to the East Train Station to catch our night train to Germany. OH LORD! Even though there was a sense of slight panic, we knew that we had time to get there on the metro. I must say that it was convenient that we had been accustomed to the Metro in Paris or else it would have taken a bit more time. We did spend a bit of hectic time trying to figure out what tickets to buy (since we were coming back to Paris AGAIN a few days later and wanted to know if we could buy all the tickets then) but in the end, we decided to deal with that bridge when we got to it.

Scrambling through the heated halls, we managed to get to the Gare L’Est, scarf down some food (we actually switched our food as Vero thought her pad thai was extremely salty) and I picked up an electrical adapter for the train as I think I have lost my own back in Barcelona.

I was quite excited when the time came to board the night train. First time on a sleeper train! I had visions of the Orient Express…of the romanticism of ‘From Russia with Love’ where James Bond eats in a dining car, sips on a drink, and spends the night in an awesome cabin.

It was exactly like that unfortunately. We did manage to find our cabin which is a neat piece of engineering. From the sink, to the folding down beds, to the buttons on the wall to toggle light switches, set alarms, etc. I thought it was quite neat.

My faithful companion during Eurotrip 2011…Plants vs. Zombies!

But where was the dining car? No dining car on the night train unfortunately. But lots of travelers heading to Munchen (Munich) for Oktoberfest! You can see everyone getting antsy for a few beers. I didn’t think of bringing some for the trip, so we had to wait until everyone was settled in to go down the hall to the night clerk who would sell us some excellent Becks beer (see ya later shitty French beer!). I had no bottle opener on me so she supplied me with three open beers. Here’s to hoping I don’t spill them on the way back to the room!

Our fantastic sleeper car.

An attendant comes to your room to make sure you know how it operates, asks you what you want for breakfast the next day and asks when your wake up call should be. Fantastic! No worries on this train!

The sink.

We settled in, read a bit, played some Plants vs. Zombies on the iPad, and then propped the iPad up to watch some episodes from Les Invicibles, an excellent French tv series about four guys that decide to break up with their significant others at the same time. It’s quite hilarious.

Vero having a great time on the top bunk.

Popping in my earplugs, I was ready to get a night’s sleep on the Night Train and I managed to jam the door like James Bond does so no one can get in.

Next stop…Avignon!

September 20…also the premiere of the PJ20 film across the globe!  I was taking a look for a cinema all day but no dice on the PJ20 front.  I did get to read a bunch of reviews when I got back to the apartment and the film about Pearl Jam’s twenty years together sounds fantastic!

We headed into Avignon the train.  We were pondering renting a car and driving around France but in the end we liked some of the freedom of not having to think too much about directions, parking, having a beer or two…so we decided to take the train again.  Quite convenient to take the train and we also found it was quite affordable.

Vero had already been to Avignon years before but she was interested in seeing it again (to my delight!).  It turns out that Avignon is also known as the City of Wind and they weren’t kidding.  I almost blew away a few times!

Avignon was former home to the Roman Pope so the entire town is fortified, much like Quebec City.  I was already interested in it as soon as we passed through the fortress walls.  We walked up into the town and decided to grab a bite to eat on the terrasse.  It was pretty windy and I was wondering if my wine would fly away!  I believe I had a fish dish and it was quite tasty.  My feet were pretty sore (when weren’t they?  I had a blister since Day 3 and the shoes just weren’t cutting it for the amount of miles we were putting into them!) but we trucked along.

First stop…le pont d’Avignon…songs have been sung about this fabled bridge so we HAD to go there.  We first danced under the bridge (like the original words indicate) but we then headed up to the top of the bridge and spent a few hours listening to audiotapes speaking about the history of Avignon and the bridge.  Vero is definitely different than I am when it comes to museum/historical facts…I seem to glaze over them and choose what I think looks interesting whereas she likes listening to every little thing.  No worries though, I decided to settle in and listen to every one of the audiotapes and it was quite interesting.

We eventually made our way to the end of the bridge and it was super windy, but very beautiful out on the river.  I don’t believe we danced at this point, but the place was crowded!  We then bought a bunch of souvenirs (that reminds me, I need to mail some souvenirs!) for family and friends and made our way to the next stop…the Pope’s residence!

We were quite impressed by the old residence of the Pope.  They also had audiotapes to listen to and it was interesting to hear about how the Roman Catholics had moved to Avignon while Rome was at war (I’m really glazing over historical details here because I simply can’t remember them and am too lazy to look it up on Wikipedia!) and how Avignon was a hub of commerce.

My favourite part of the castle was when we started seeing the room closer to the Pope’s room.  There was art on the walls and great sculptures around the place.

But the piece de resistance was when I discovered the way up to the roof and we got to see how it must have been to be a guard up on top!  What an incredible view.  I had to run back to get Vero as I knew the place was closing soon and I didn’t want her to miss the most spectacular view of Avignon.

After the pope’s residence we headed back to the train and luckily got back to Nimes in time for some Pizza Roma!  We first asked if they sold gift certificates and they looked at us very oddly.  I guess it’s not prevalent in Nimes/France!  We then ordered a pizza and a panzoratti and brought it back home where we enjoyed our last evening in Nimes!  It was delicious.

The lovely Vero

I must admit that it was pretty sweet to have Uncle Gerry and Aunt Shoko’s apartment.  It’s nice to come home and wake up to an apartment where there is no rush to do anything at all.  I uploaded some photos to Flickr (in fear that we would lose our memory cards) and updated the blog a bit.

Falling out of the tour train!

We then headed out to grab something from the bakery around the corner.  It was a beautiful day (when WASN’T it a beautiful day on our trip?) but unfortunately the bakery was closed on the Monday!  No good!  I also had not brought the map with me so we wandered around for a bit until we realized that it was senseless to keep wandering around simply hoping to find something to eat!  We headed back to the apartment with an empty stomach and quickly packed a day bag to head out to Montpellier and grab a bite to eat.

Vero was wondering how to smuggle this back into Canada

Using Aunt Shoko’s trusty hand drawn map we easily found our way to civilization and stopped in at a bakery where I believe I had nabbed an excellent sandwich and Vero grabbed some croissants to combine with her Nutella to form a delicious concoction (only delicious to Vero and all of Europe!).  When we arrived at the train station, we had missed the train to Montpellier by ten minutes so we had to wait 50 minutes for another train.  We munched on some food and enjoyed the beautiful, yet a little cold, morning.  We also found a train station and mailed out a batch of postcards announcing that we are engaged to be married!  We were excited by the prospect that some of our friends and family would be finding out about the big news via postcard instead of a boring old phone call!  I must admit that we contemplated sending the ones for our parents first, but it took us five days to find a post office that we figured that they would probably get there all at the same time.

Pour Benoit

Arriving in Montpellier around 1PM, we followed the map into the city center.  Montpellier is where Uncle Gerry was living before he moved to Nimes.  Not sure what his motivations for moving were…actually, I believe it may have been the fact that Aunt Shoko got into the University in Nimes now that I think of it.

This must have made a great slip and slide at the time

It was a very nice town but I didn’t see anything particularly special about it.  Was I becoming a snob after touring around Europe for a week?!  Don’t get me wrong, I think it would have been a great place to live.  As a tourist, we felt that we got to see everything we wished to see in an afternoon.

We couldn’t figure out if this was a sundial

We arrived in the city center and toured around the tourist booth for a bit and didn’t find anything interesting going on during the day.

I was quite impressed with the attention to detail!

We decided to take a little train around the town to take in the sights.  It spent a good 45 minutes going through all the side streets and pointing out tourist attractions.  I personally enjoyed doing this as it gave us a taste of the history of Montpellier as well as give us some ideas of what else to look at for the remainder of the day.

Namely a comic book store!  It was interesting to see that France likes to read their comic books in the hardcover band-dessines format (think Tintin) and not the floppy issues that North Americans are used to.  I didn’t see anything that interested me so we went on our merry way over to the Roman aquaduct and enjoyed the sites of Montpellier.

No walking with kids allowed?

With nothing much else to do we decided to take in a film!  We had saw a poster for a french film called “La Guerre des Boutons’ which I have since found out is adapted from a novel from the early 1900s.  It revolves around kids from one village in war with another village.  Seeing that the story takes place in the distant past, it was a tragedy if you ended up being caught by a rival gang and they snipped off the buttons from your shirt!  You would probably get beat by your mother for this as money was tight and they could hardly afford thread, let alone buttons!  We thought the film was quite excellent and I encourage anyone to watch it!  An interesting note is that there was a film trailer for ‘La Nouvelle Guerre des Boutons’ so we assumed that perhaps the one we saw was old and that the sequel was coming out soon enough.  It turns out that BOTH movies were coming out within a week of one another and is based on the EXACT SAME STORY!  The Government of France even helped finance both of them knowing full well they were both in development at the same time.  This is quite odd, however we  are excited to compare the both of them.

Note: The popcorn in Montpellier can either come with salt or sugar!

Salty popcorn of course!

After a nice afternoon/evening with Vero, we headed back to the train station and were hoping to get some Pizza Roma on the way home but it turns out it was closed on Monday as well!  Argh!  Luckily we found a Vietnamese restaurant that we could take out food from.  It was 10PM and we were itching to just relax at home.  With some beer in hand from the grocery store, we had a lovely meal and I stayed up for awhile catching up on news that I had missed for the past week.

All in all, Montpellier did not impress me, however I am sure it is a great place to live!

Some good Asian eats

Hopped on the train from Barcelona to Nimes, France.  Once again, we could see the temperature change drastically.  A good ten degrees change between the two destinations!  We met a couple from Trois Rivieres, Quebec who were gallivanting across Europe as we were.

Upon arriving in Nimes, we had the pleasure of hearing our names being called.  My uncle Gerry and Aunt Shoko live in Nimes but were unfortunately out of town in Spain at the time we arrived.  But they sent us a lovely fellow in the form of Clément to pick us up!  Fantastic!

What’s behind curtain number one?

Clément was a great tour guide around the city.  First off, he managed to score us some tickets to the Roman Amphitheater to watch the bullfight!  We dropped off our bags in his car and walked the streets of Nimes to this mammoth arena.  I have never seen anything like it.  From Wikipedia, this amphitheater was built 2000 years ago and is amongst the oldest standing amphitheaters in France!  Clément managed to sneak ourselves into a better section of the amphitheater and I could see why.  I didn’t feel that the place had a sold out crowd.  I was quite surprised as Vero and I had thought that it would be tough to get tickets to the bullfight.

Professor and Tour Guide Extraordinaire…Clement!

This was my first experience watching a bullfight and it was quite interesting.  While many people do not condone such actions (even Barcelona has outlawed any bullfights), I felt it was of interest to watch the fans interact with their specific cheers and chants (much like a hockey game) and the quiet of the crowd when the matador is dealing with the bull.

Imagine the amount of people who have sat in this place.

You should take a look at Wikipedia for the process of what bullfighters go through.  Essentially they have various members of the team going in to stab the bull until the final act where the head honcho himself, the matador with a cape and a sword comes in and does a little dance with the bull which impresses people.  It was impressive to see some of them be so close to the bull with a constant fear of death on them!  I’m sure if I had watched a dozen bullfights in my life, I would understand why some moves astounded the crowd while other moves were normal.  But to me, it was just nerve wracking to see the matador dance around and taunt the bull.  In the end, if the matador’s aim is true, he stabs the bull between the shoulder blades into their heart.  Now, if the matador is quite skilled/lucky, his hits the target, and all is done in a few seconds after.  The bull collapses.  However, there were a few matadors that simply missed which wasn’t good at all…there’s a sword sticking out from between its shoulder blades and getting furious!  So they have to go for the second attempt.

Clement, watch out for that Croc!

In the end, we watched a good six or seven rounds and I started to get the hang of it and understand what makes a good matador and what makes a GREAT matador.  I wasn’t really shocked by the killing of the bulls themselves, although I can see why some people are squeamish around this activity.

We saw this movie poster around Europe ALL THE TIME. I always laughed at its tagline.

Clement showed us around the ampitheater for a bit and then we went outside to the festival which had people in the streets having a great time.  I had a beer while Vero and Clement each ordered some liquor called 51 (or was it 50?  I’m sure Clement will be reading this and correct me.)  Funnily enough, Vero does NOT drink liquor nor does she appreciate the taste so she told me afterwards that she didn’t know which one was worse…this drink of the espresso!  I had a great laugh at that.

We toured around Nimes, seeing La Maison Carrée (a Roman temple), and other sights.  We decided to stop for some supper and Clement had heard of my new love for paella so we found a place that served it.  It was interesting to see that you could only order one form of paella…the shellfish kind, whereas in Barcelona (probably home of the paella) there were many variations…beef, lamb, chicken, etc.  Either way, I was discovering a new love for shellfish as long as it was in this dish and it was a tasty treat.  Vero had some sort of dish with bull in it and we joked about how it was quite fresh and must have been straight from the bullfight!

An interjection which does not necessarily stick to chronological order…a few days later Vero and I are ordering some Vietnamese food on our way back to Uncle Gerry’s apartment and she’s trying to tell us that she won’t accept our ten Euro bill.  We didn’t know what was going on until the next day when someone explained that it was a fake!  I have a feeling that we got stuck with it from the waitress at the restaurant where Clement brought us!  However, we are not entirely sure as there was an entire day before we realized we had the fake.  Anyhow, I am now the proud owner of a forgery that the Canadian tourists took with open arms!

Paella!

Clement was nice enough to drive us to the apartment, show us how the keys worked and left us with some travel tips for the upcoming days.  Always the gentlemen with a good sense of humour, we enjoyed his company and feel lucky to have met him.  Clement, if you are reading this, you are welcome at our house in Canada anytime!

We were quite tired so we didn’t spend too much time awake, however I did spy some microbrewery beer that Uncle Gerry left us (well, me!) and I dipped into it.  I cannot remember what the name of it was at the moment (this is the problem with writing a blog entry nearly three weeks later!) but it was quite tasty.  I feel bad for leaving with him what I can say was some really crappy beer in its place!  You can buy beer quite cheap in the stores…I picked up a ten pack of beer for 3Euro.

Park Guell

The next day I think it was a little cooler in the city, but it didn’t help that Vero brought us to a park which was essentially climbing up steep inclines most of the day!  No worries…a week into the trip, my legs were welcome to any challenge!  After buying a few postcards, we headed up to the Park Guell which is home to a few Gaudi architectures.  Hmm…I am now wondering if there is a correlation between the word gaudy and Gaudi.  Interesting.

Zee cave! Come into zee cave!

The park was quite beautiful and it was great to walk to the top of the park to get a marvelous view of Barcelona.  Barcelona was definitely the highlight of our trip…perhaps it was the fact that it was mid-September and beautiful, and the beach was in the distance.  Either way, we couldn’t get enough!

I believe at this point Carrie and I were freaking out about the height we are on, and the little foothold we had.

Excellent slide guitarist found on top of the hill!

On the way back down from the park, we stopped in for some much needed sustenance.  Vero and Carrie had some special of the day which consisted of a myriad assortment of foods…chicken legs, lasagna, salad…it was a motley crew.  I had a great pizza and a beer to hold me over.

Note where they sat us for lunch! Carrie said that her Dad would love this picture.

What else was there to do but to head back to the beach!  We came prepared this time around with some proper bathing suits, however it took some finagling to change in the middle of the beach!  The water was a little colder today..to the point that Vero didn’t want to chance it with her cold.  Carrie and I floated around for awhile and then surprise, surprise, Karen had found us!  I had emailed her with our schedule of the day and it was nice of her to show up with some food in hand…olives (yum!), strawberries, meat on a stick…it was what we needed!  Karen was a great time and we chatted with her about her life back in Philadelphia with her boyfriend (whose name escapes me at the moment, but I always remember that he had a wicked job…he worked with vinyl records and made them into furniture pieces…unless I’m really mixing that up.  At least that’s what I thought she said which I thought was super cool.)

Attempting to change into a bathing suit in Barcelona takes some concentration.

With an evening in Barcelona ahead of us, we headed back to the apartment with some wine, bread and cheese and had a snack before heading out to see some flamenco dancing.  This was THE thing Vero wanted to do on her Eurotrip so I was worried that we wouldn’t make it on time touring through ‘las ramblas’ which is a pedestrian street famous for LOADS of people and LOADS of people selling things.

Her arms are moving too fast for the camera! I’m sure camera aficionados would tell us how we can compensate for this…but we thought the effect captured was true to the moment.

We did end up getting to the flamenco club in time, sat down quite near the stage (the place was smaller than Zaphod’s) and grabbed a pitcher of sangria.

On fire!  Note that we ended up in a club that must have been named after Toronto!

Flamenco dancing was quite fascinating.  I really had no idea what to expect.  It may differ from place to place, but in our context we saw a group of people come out from side stage…one with a guitar, a handful of women, a few men.  Then the clapping started…they were all trying to achieve a beat together and once they found this beat, others went playing on the offbeat so each person clapping became a separate instrument.  Intense concentration was around.  The guitar started playing some amazing flamenco music…then the singing started by this one woman.  Then each person would have a chance to take center stage and dance in a tap-dance style (I can’t really figure out another way to describe it) which is quite amazing!  They were going faster than my eyes could see!

At various points in the set, they would all sit down and continue clapping but then one man would take center stage for quite awhile while one woman sang and the guitar went into overdrive.  I was entirely driven by this performance…it must take intense concentration to be in a flamenco group.  Two thumbs for flamenco dancing and I would love to see other incarnations of it.  I also appreciated this club that we went to.  It was nice to sit with 50 other people in an intimate setting.

This was clearly taken during the theme song from Friends playing.

Afterwards, the club turned into a discotheque so we decided to stay for awhile and marvel at the North American tunes they were playing.  They even played the theme from Friends which we had a good laugh at.  Seeing that after 30 minutes we were still the only people in the club and no Eurobeats had emerged, I convinced everyone to leave in search for the next big thing.  I kept thinking the next big thing would be in the form of a club which was handing out flyers saying “One City, One Club” but Carrie kept pointing out that a bunch of gangstas handed out the flyers and that we would stick out like a sore thumb in that type of club!  I kept trying to convince them throughout the night, but no dice.

At one point, we were traipsing up las ramblas and a guy wanted us to come up to his bar.  We didn’t really want to but we chatted with him about the city and where he was from and I felt that this guy was really great at conversation that I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go and have one beer at his bar.  I convinced the girls that this was THE stopover point before seeking out Eurobeats.

Those crazy Itals.

Little did I know that this would turn into THE event of Barcelona.  We walked up some stairs and the guy from the street announces “I have brought Canadians and Americans!” and the crowds erupts!  What the heck is going on?  Then out of nowhere, six guys (who I had seen earlier in the area since they were all wearing superhero t-shirts…Captain America, X-Men, Spidey, etc.) were attracted to Karen, Carrie and Vero like bees to honey.  No wait, that’s not an accurate description.  Like piranhas to meat is more like it.  They SWARMED us.  It was crazy!  Kisses were laid upon body parts, foreign languages flying around, drinks being poured down arms and licked off…what the heck was going on?!  Karen was a little overwhelmed by it all so she wanted me to guard her from these crazy guys.  Vero and Carrie were loving it so I watched from afar in case they got out of control.

Is this a common thing in Italy?

Turns out that this group were a bunch of Italian men in Barcelona for ONE night of fun.  Incredible.  Imagine going to one city for one night…of course you are going to go all out!  So of course when three beautiful ladies come in the bar, what else are you going to do?  Granted, I don’t see myself trying to kiss a girl as soon as I get into a bar, but maybe that’s how the Italians do it?  🙂

Batman must be sad after the DC 52 reboot.

After an hour, they finally went about their way and then a bunch of others guy entered the bar…but these guys were my brethren.  It was like the cloud of testosterone had left the place, and was replaced by a cloud of geeks.  I knew it was my duty as a fellow geek to upgrade their night from a night out of with the boys talking about Dungeons and Dragons and biology, to a night of beautiful foreign women chatting with them.  The ladies kindly agreed to go chat with these guys by my request and fun times were had.  One of the guys reminded me of Jeremy Taggert from Our Lady Peace…some crazy hair going on!  He was a biologist from Brussels.  I gathered that these guys didn’t know each other and they had met in the hostel, but I’m not really clear on that front.  I do remember one of the guys chugging a beer so that he could get a kiss from Carrie and Vero.  CLASSIC!

Geeks triumphant!

That beer was gone in seven seconds!

The night ended with us stumbling home and me buying a couple more beer from street vendors (that was quite, quite convenient!  One euro for a can of beer, but I could potentially get caught by the police while drinking in a crowd of people?  Hey, no problem!) and us eating some curry wurst that Carrie had brought from Germany!  I love curry wurst and it hit the spot!

Love me some curry wurst. This photo is for Paul and Sarah as I know they love curry wurst so much that they went to the museum in Berlin.

A great day in Barcelona…those crazy Italians.  Love them.

We also said goodbye to Karen as she was staying in Barcelona for another week while we were leaving the next day.  I would like to think that she had an amazing time afterwards, but let’s be honest, I don’t think you can top a weekend with a bunch of Canadians in Barcelona!

It was also an amazing, amazing time seeing Carrie after a year away from Canada!  While it would have been nice to see Frankfurt (where she lives), I think we all agreed that Barcelona was the better choice!  Next time we come, it will have to be another exotic locale!

A balmy 30 degrees awaited us the next morning as we headed out into beautiful Barcelona for a bike tour (as suggested by Mike and Melissa).

Me zipping along on my bicycle.

We met our tour guide Elizabeth who is originally from Austria. If you can choose your tour guide, choose Elizabeth! She was great. We also met Karen who was on her first Eurotrip and had chosen Barcelona for a ten day stay. She is from Philadelphia.

With our trusty bikes (and Vero with her zippy brand bike…whatever that means!) we headed out on the tour a little late as we were waiting for two others who phoned an hour into the tour wondering where the heck we were! Something tells me they did not set their watches correctly.

Zipping through the alleys!

Biking around the city is THE way to travel and I wish we would have done so in Paris. We biked around the city centre for a few hours and obtained some history on the city. For example, the city centre used to be an industrial area until the Olympics were held here and all industry was moved near the airport so that the city centre would be nice to visit.  We swayed in and out of these tall shadowed hallways of merchant’s stores and tourists.  Elizabeth was great along the way explaining things here and there.

Karen, Carrie and Vero before some excellent beer and tapas came our way.

We also got to take a breather and stop off for some tapas and a beer.  I have determined that the translation for tapas is simply…appetizers!  I didn’t particularly find anything special about them…everyone had been raving “You need to try the tapas!”.  Well, tapas can be ordered from the menu, much like appetizers can be ordered for your own table back in Canada.  So…until someone can explain what the difference is, I shall say that it was fine to stop off for a bite to eat, but I wasn’t blown away by tapas in general.

How could I forget to tell you about Carrie taking a wrong way down a ramp and if she would have continued any further she would have went down a flight of stairs with her bicycle!

After four hours of biking around the city, Elizabeth bid us farewell with some instructions on how to get to the beach.  It was such a beautiful day that it would be a waste not to enjoy it!  We asked if Karen wanted to join us as it is never as much fun going to the beach alone when you can hang out with some rowdy Canadians!  We only had one problem…Vero and I had not brought a bathing suit from the apartment.  After realizing it would take a few hours to get back home, we decided to do the only sane thing in the world…go in our underwear!  I was lucky on one hand for bringing my nice boxer-briefs, whereas Vero was embarrassed by her choice of thong underwear that day!  We pointed out that there must be SOMEONE else on the beach wearing a thong.  However, we weren’t in Brazil and I’m pretty sure Vero was the only one!  We all had a great laugh.  The water was amazing and in 30 degree weather, there wasn’t any other place we wanted to be.  I let the girls go in first so I could look after our bags.  I was laying under the umbrella we had rented when I realized that it would be foolish not to absorb some of this wonderful sun!  I was quite surprised that I didn’t emerge with a burn considering we didn’t have a lot of suntan lotion.

Me goofing around. Dad, pay close attention to the picture.

After a few hours on the beach we went searching for the Sagrada Familia, a church still under construction under architect’s Antoni Gaudi’s guidelines.  It was said to be THE thing to see in Barcelona and it did not disappoint.  There are some interesting things going through Gaudi’s head in terms of his architecture.  There was a quote I heard along the trip that stayed with me…”Gaudi never saw straight lines in nature, so why should there be any in architecture?”  The church was immense and out of this world.  I was wondering what it would be like to be amongst the congregation on a Sunday morning while the choir sang.

Amazing.

We then decided to hoof it home while seeking out a pharmacy for band-aids (a blister had formed the day before on my foot!  This would be persistent throughout my entire trip.) as well as some cold medication for Vero as she had woke up stuffed up.  We figure it was the much needed air conditioning in the apartment.  I wouldn’t sleep without it!  We parted ways with Karen for the evening, went home, had a shower, a nap, some wine, some beer…the night was neverending!  I think around midnight we sauntered down the street looking for some paella…which was unknown to me at the time, but turned out to be a fried dish of rice and seafood (typically…you could order chicken or beef I believe).  With a mug of sangria by my side and a dish of paella and some shrimp looking back at me, it was probably the best meal I had all Eurotrip!  I don’t know if it was because it was so good, or because I was so hungry but I devoured my plate as well as the leftovers of Carrie’s and Vero!  I don’t typically eat shellfish (don’t like the taste and Vero is also allergic) but tonight I couldn’t stop.  Two thumbs up for paella.

This little guy ended up losing the battle vs. me.

After a hazy night, we headed home for some much needed rest!

Happy Birthday Vero!

We awoke pretty groggy after an amazing night involving Moulin Rouge.  We slept in a few hours later than we expected, but it was of no matter…all we wanted to do was go to the Cimétaire Pere Lachaise for a bit and then hit the road.

After cleaning up the apartment and packing our stuff, we hit the road, stopping by a bakery for some sustenance and found ourselves at the cemetary.

I had gone to the cemetary before and it was one of the highlights in my trip.  I love cemetaries (morbid?) and I sure love this particular cemetary.  It is unlike anything I’ve seen before with their crypts and statues.  I think my previous trip was a little more fun as it was a dreary day with some drizzle, ambience and crows all over the place.  Today was a bright sunny day, but it didn’t stop Vero loving the place as well.

Vero doing her serious pose.

She ended up visiting the grave of Moliere who is basically the French equivalent of Shakespeare.  We also saw the graves of Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison (he lives!).  I was disappointed to see quite a bit of vandalism on Oscar Wilde’s gravesite compared to the last time.  However, maybe my memory is playing tricks on me and it was the same amount the last time around.

Part of the graffiti.

Vero excited for her two crepes from Paris!

After the cemetary, we found a creperie which was the last thing on Vero’s list for Paris.  Her eyes were bigger than her belly as she ordered TWO crepes with nutella.  She is nuts for nutella.  We are carrying a jar of it on our travels.  I can’t stand the stuff.  Ugh…chocolate spread.  On the metro ride home, she was  begging me to finish the other crepe but I would have no part in her gluttony!

Loaded with our packs, we headed to le Gare de Lyon, and waited a bit.  I love how the stations are wide open so pigeons end up walking up next to you.  Trish would hate Paris.  Or many other stations in Europe for that matter!

This was our first ride on the train and it was fantastic.  The TGV is a pretty wild ride…I think I saw it reaching speeds of over 200km/hr.  After writing some postcards, I played some Plants vs. Zombies and then had a snooze.  Then I heard an announcement that the bar car was open and I begged Vero to go so I could get some food.  🙂  While we were walking to the bar car, the train swerved from something (wind?) and I nearly stumbled right into someone’s lap.  Vero had a grand laugh.  We picked up some supper with a beer, and ate it back at our seats.

Good eats on the TGV.

I must admit that the scenery was quite lovely…France is quite nice when you get out of Paris.  However, I noticed that a lot of fields looked like they had been tilled awhile ago.  Turns out that it’s been a hot summer so a lot of the crops have been handled already.

We switched trains at the Spanish border and laughed at how on the temperature gauge it showed that the temperature was rising every ten minutes by a degree.  So we left a 20 degree Paris and ended up in 30 degree Barcelona with our jackets and jeans.  Ugh.  BOILING HOT.  This was also 10:45 at night!  I could tell that Barcelona was going to be amazing.

We hopped on the metro fairly easily and heard a myriad number of languages.  Turns out that Barcelona is one of the tourist hotspots of the world, so it’s very easy to get around because many locals know a few languages to speak to you with.

Vero and I got off our metro stop and it turns out that we came about a crowd taking pictures of an interesting building which was created by the architect Gaudi.  It looks like a dinosaur.  His stuff was quite out of the ordinary.

We found the apartment and were excited to see Carrie for the first time in a year.  We rang the buzzer.  No answer.  We rang again.  No answer.  Oh man, what was going on?

 

I am a lot happier after seeing Carrie and a six back of Spanish beer!

After an hour of trying to figure out if we had the wrong address, trying to find a wifi signal, finally getting inside the building when someone exited, Vero going to the attic apartments and yelling out “Carrie!”, there was nothing else we could do.  It just so happened that an hour after us waiting, I am waiting inside the lobby and I hear someone coming down the stairs and they stop when they reach me.  “Well, fancy meeting you here.” I hear (or something to that effect).  Sure enough, it was Carrie who was in the attic apartment all along texting Katie wondering where the heck we could be!  Guess the buzzer doesn’t work at all!  We were relieved, she was relieved, and everyone hauled into the rickety old elevator (which halted a few times due to my bag accidentally hitting the emergency stop button!), went to our swank apartment, had a few beer and hit the hay.  We were glad to be able to chat with Carrie for a few hours before the onslaught which is Barcelona hit us!

I am writing this on the TGV train sitting in the Gare de Lyon station in Paris. It will be our second leg of the trip…Barcelona! We are meeting Carrie there which will be epic.

We never realized the entrance to the Louvre was so small!

We woke up around 7am in order to get to the Louvre museum when it opened at 9 am. We through an amazing garden which leads up to the Louvre.

Unfortunately for us, we didn’t realize that the tickets we ordered online were through the equivalent to ticketmaster and our printout confirming our order was not enough! Luckily the Virgin record store down in the Louvre mall had a ticket printout but would only open at 10am.

Before.

Vero decided it was time for her to try an espresso. I have no idea why she wanted to do this. She doesn’t like coffee and I know some pretty heavy coffee drinkers that stay away from espressos! Nonetheless we found a little coffee shop in the Louvre mall, and ordered one, along with what they claimed is freshly squeezed orange juice but somehow had a lot of sugar in it.

After. Classic reaction from Vero.

I was crying with laughter after seeing vero’s face when she tasted the espresso! It was the utter look of disgust…not unlike the visage she sported trying a beer, and a caprinha in Rio. Luckily, I remember talking with Visar and Krista and Visar had mentioned that he puts some cream and sugar in his espresso so that made the experience more bearable for Vero!

Star wars fans take note! While in Virgin Records getting our tickets, they had blu-ray copies of the saga for sale before the release date. Also, it was selling for 99 euro which is definitely a rip-off considering the steal of a deal Benoit found for us at $67.

Off we went into the Louvre. Entering through a massive glass pyramid in the main courtyard (which I believe was built after a mass excavation in the 1990s), we arrive in the main lobby where we picked up a handy map which outlines the popular exhibits.

Two beauties.

Of course, we went to find the Mona Lisa which was surprisingly larger than I had thought considering I had heard it was smaller than people thought! It was enough after pushing m y w ay through hundreds of tourists hoping to get a photo.

Vero and I were intrigued by the immensity of some of the paintings in the Italian wing of the Louvre. Some paintings must have been 75 feet high! I cannot figure out how they were transported or even where they were painted originally. Where did artists find the space? In a church?

We loved the statues within the Louvre. Greek statues are like nothing I have ever seen. I cannot get over the amount of detail that was put into something year ago. We also enjoyed the Egyptian wing and seeing the sarcophagi and how mummies were made. Sure, we know this from television but to see an example in person…fantastic!

I was quite tired after three hours inside the Louvre. It was hot, and I hadn’t had much sleep the night before. Plus, my feet have been hurting quite a bit. This was leading up to me losing a lot of energy and I realize this isn’t a good thing while touring. After sitting in the garden for a bit (where we witnessed street vendors fleeing once they saw the cops coming!) we decided to return home for a quick nap before going to Moulin Rouge.

The only reason I would ever pack some dress shoes while traveling is for a funeral or to go to Moulin Rouge. But the shoes were my saving grace that night considering I found some blisters forming on my feet and my dress shoes are quite loose.

AMAZING!

Off we went to the Montmarte area of Paris where I had stayed the first time in Paris. I had remembered some sketchy patrons around the area but they are nowhere to be seen with the amount of tourists in Paris this time of year. We went to the Montmarte market which is home to cheesy souvenirs and really nice artwork which we picked up. We also went up to the Sacre Coeur church which has one of the most beautiful views of the city.

Welcome to the Moulin Rouge!

Arriving to Moulin rouge, vero was quite excited considering her love of the performing arts. Seeing that I am also a fan of this particular performing art (this goes out to all my friends from bachelor parties throughout the years!) I was excited to see what was so exciting about it, especially considering that dinner and a show for the both of us was more than $400!

Everyone was quite dressed up and upon entering the room, we asked if we could sit close to the stage. Considering I could prop my elbow up on stage, I would say we were close enough!

We had lovely company in the form of two sisters from Indianapolis; Roberta and Sue, who had been just in London and they chatted for a few hours throughout dinner with us. We couldn’t have asked for better dinner guests.

Vero had some ravioli with foie gras, duck, and some chocolate cake. I had a young rabbit pate of sorts, salmon, and some Brie cheese. I definitely was jealous of Vero’s duck and cake, but I cannot complain one bit about the salmon as it was excellent. We also had a half bottle of champagne and red wine. I am always finding it different to see Vero drink a few glasses of wine as she doesn’t drink usually.

I had left the table before the show started and when I returned, the stage had extended outwards to the pint where I couldn’t get to my seat unless I climbed under the table! The waiter came over and suggested I simply hop on stage and get to my seat that way. I quickly scuttled across and then he sa I’d to the table that if I’m on the stage I may as well stay up and perform with the rest of the cast! Har!

The show started with music, girls and guys in lavish costumes performing s dance routine. Then another song, then another song. It is quite impressive to see dancers up close. They are Quite athletic and some of the routines are quite intense; throwing people in the air, the splits, you name it, they did it.

I would say after fifteen minutes of dancing, they left the stage and a juggler came out to entertain while the dancers changed their costumes. Costume changes must have occurred 40 times in the two hours we were there.

The juggler was quite amazing and I felt bad when he ended up fumbling six things at one time. After another set of dances which had an Egyptian flavour to it, we were entertained by a gentleman who could play the drums by spitting ping pong balls out of his mouth! He would also spit them into the air, one, two, three at a time! I gagged each time he caught a ping pong ball in his mouth.

A pirate themed dance number took place then and I believe. This is when the live aquarium appeared. This was crazy. An aquarium emerged from the floor right in front us, holding a tank of water with what looked like three boa constrictors swimming in it. Then a girl is thrown into the tank and pretends to fight with them! At one point one of the fish had actually wrapped itself around her ankle to the point where she couldn’t get it off before the lights went out.

After that number, a ventriloquist came out and stole the show, especially when he got volunteers from the crowd on stage (including a guy from Toronto!)

The show ended with a traditional can can number and some futuristic number.

Two hours later, I can say that I have never seen something quite like this and it was very entertaining. For those out there always talking about the nudity…that wasn’t the show. The show is comprised of amazing dancers who just happen to be topless once in awhile.

Good Marilyn impression!

Vero and I left the Moulin Rouge experience quite satisfied and ended up home in time to wish her a happy birthday as it was midnight.

Today was a big day for us. A lot to get accomplished. Luckily, my earplugs worked like a charm…even to the point where Vero had to scramble to turn the alarm clock off because I couldn’t hear it!

We finished off some croissants and baguette before hitting the road for the Catacombs. A little personal history on the place…I had come to Paris in 2005 and was excited to see the catacombs. Unfortunately the guide book I had was a year out of date and it turned out that the catacombs were closed for the year for renovations! Vero and I were quite excited to see the catacombs today.

We met a man from Manhattan in the lineup whose name was Scott. He was quite entertaining and he said he used to be a dancer/singer and now is a tour guide in New York. I was entertained by his tales and it made for the wait to get in a lot faster.

I feel like a hobbit. Note the black line on the ceiling…this was to lead the way to the ossuary considering there were multiple paths within the catacombs for workers. Can I also point out that originally when it was opened to the public, people went down by candlelight?!

We descended 20m into the earth where the catacombs lie. The quick history of the catacombs is that they were mined for rock to be used in the development of the city buildings. But at one point in the 1770s they realized that the left bank was getting fragile and to the point of near collapse into the earth so they halted mining. Fast forward 100 years and there were debated practices of burying the dead overtop of the dead and their decomposing bodies entering into the well water which caused outbreaks of illness. Finally, it was decided that the graves needed to be moved into a safer locale…mass cemeteries were created, but what to do with the six million original inhabitants? A move to the unused catacombs was ordered and six million bodies were moved. When I say bodies, I’m assuming it was a mix of bones and bodies which were turned into bones because all there is now are bones.

Unfortunately for awesome pictures, no flash was allowed.

The catacombs were quite amazing. 2km of tunnels underneath the city of Paris where you can see how people excavated rock. Later on in the tunnels, you come upon the ossuary, the Empire of the Dead (which is stated before entering). Within there, you find bones which look like arms/legs piled upon one another and then a row of skulls once in awhile to act as a buffer I’m assuming. I heard a tour guide say that the bones go as far back as five meters and stand around 8 feet high. Vero and I spent an hour walking through these bones. It was incredible. It’s not hard to imagine that there are six million inhabitants there.

My best imitation of a skull. Wait, that’s not right. I should be respecting the dead.

I personally think that this one of the highlights of my trip, even comparing my first trip to Europe! Vero seemed to enjoy it as well.

Vero looks right at home.

After escaping the catacombs, we re-oriented ourselves and headed towards the Latin Quarter as per Uncle Gerry’s suggestion. It was an interesting area of town and we had a great sandwich, while touring les Jardins de Louxembourg. I found it interesting to see kids playing in the garden and realized that they don’t have much else to play in. This is indeed a city, where there is not much greens to visit with your children. Quite different from Ottawa.

Something being filmed. Quite neat!

The most beautiful woman to me, in front of a beautiful palace.

Notre Dame cathedral was our next stop. I never seem to get tired of churches…I marvel at their architecture. I can’t imagine buildings like these being built nowadays…if only we had the foresight to create majesty such as this. I can’t even fathom how someone at the back of the church could hear the priest back in the day…this hall must stretch to a good half kilometre and has some of the most amazing stained glass windows I have ever seen (next to my mother’s creations of course!).

Which one is the hunchback at this point?

Our feet were getting pretty sore throughout the day and we were getting tired. We both bought new hiking shoes and I find one of them is digging into the side of my heel a little too much, to the point of constant discomfort. But we both realize that this is only Day 3 of the trip and that we have to build up our endurance and callouses!

We went to the Centre Pampidou which turned out to be a National Arts Centre which was closed for the day, and then headed down towards Le Bastille which is a relic of the Bastille prison which stands in the middle of a roundabout. At this point, we realized that we weren’t all that far from our apartment (only an hour walk) so we decided to walk back and find a shop that could sell us an SDHC card reader. The funniest thing was that we eventually found one on Desmanil which was a few blocks from our place. Turns out that there 18 other computer stores right next to each other this street! I wondered why we couldn’t find any others in town!

Losing patience and energy, we bought some food and drink for the night and returned back to the apartment around 5PM. It was a long day but we got a lot accomplished and it was a lot cooler today than it was yesterday. It was MUGGY yesterday. Guh.

After a well deserved nap, we awoke around 8PM, and settled in for what we figured is a Parisien meal…a salad, a baguette, some dijon mustard, some patisserie, and some great cheese. Also, a bottle of wine was necessary! I had a good laugh when Vero attempted to open the bottle and nearly had it, but just couldn’t finish the job. Vero also surprised me with a lovely desert she snuck out to buy…an eclair and a mille feuille. We both really enjoyed the eclair and we are enjoying the night in the apartment in Paris with some wine and thoughts of what the Louvre has to offer us tomorrow. 1.5 more days in Paris and it doesn’t seem enough!

I just asked Vero what she loved about today and she said “I loved spending time with you! Plus I’m drinking wine!” HA. Also she loved the fact that if I owned a Hotel de Ville (city hall), I would call it Centre Rigidougidouuuuu.

Vero also points out that her legs are sore, but she is loving relaxing right now with a book and some french music. We’re trying to find a National radio station with only accordion music, but have failed to find any. Shouldn’t that be mandatory?

This should be the sign in front of a really boring person’s house.