Look Kids Big Ben, Parliament (London Part 3 of 3)

So Sunday morning we woke up, quickly got ready, and set out on our day of sightseeing. We hopped on one of London’s famous red double decker buses, took in some of London’s traffic and made our way out to London tower. We spent the morning there taking in the various towers, Tower Bridge and of course visited the crown jewels. Once we were finished there we wondered down the street from which we came in the direction of St. Paul’s Cathedral. We stopped for lunch along the way and then completed our walk to St. Paul’s. We took in the beauty of the Church and even caught a cleaning man taking a nap on the backside of the Cathedral. Don’t worry we didn’t disturb his nap, but we did snap a picture of course.

After St. Paul’s we then crossed the Thames via the Millennium Bridge and took in the oddities of modern art at the Tate Modern. Neither one of us being big fans of modern art but merely being curious, we were able to go through the museum fairly quickly despite its enormous size. Being completely baffled and having had our fill of modern art we decided to head back to the hostel in order to freshen up before dinner.

With Danielle being a lover of Indian food and me only just starting to experience it we decided to have Indian food for dinner since we were in London after all and they’re supposed to have some darn good Indian food. We were wondering around in an area we were told had a good nightlife scene and restaurants when we happened to come upon the movie theater where earlier in the evening they had the premiere for Batman Begins. Unfortunately we had just missed the actors all leaving. Oh well I hate Katie Holmes now anyway, but Christian Bale would have been cool to see. Anyway, after asking a cop what was going on and then proceeding to ask him where we might find some good Indian food we were heading to dinner which was conveniently just around the corner.

We arrived to the restaurant which looked nice and we were placed in the back at a two person table. We ordered our food but unfortunately for us the only other table that was being occupied in our area was finished with their meal and left. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but when the waiter has a mega crush on Danielle it becomes a big deal. Now with nothing else to do the waiter decides he is going to “join” us for dinner. He stands at the side of our table talking to Danielle for as long as he can. Danielle not being interested at all tries to keep the conversation to a minimum. However, the awkward silences apparently aren’t so awkward for him. He continues to stay only leaving for moments at a time to assist somewhere or to get us more water. Anytime he leaves he comes back with chocolates for Danielle, who had a bag full by the time we left. After our meal he offers to get Danielle a drink, who isn’t too keen on the idea in the first place. After insisting that she has a drink she finally chooses a drink and brings us each one. While we’re attempting to finish our drinks as quickly as possible he then informs Danielle that she is a “strong woman” and asks her to make a muscle and let him feel it. He then encourages her to feel his muscle. After this exchange he then offers to give her a massage right there in the restaurant at the table. At this point we begin downing our drinks as quickly as possible. Thankfully a few more people began entering the restaurant thus distracting him a bit. At last we were finally able to pay, in cash of course as we feared giving him any credit card information, and were able to flee from the crazy waiter. But despite the persistent waiter, the food was pretty darn good just as the cop said.

Since we weren’t able to go out on Saturday night after Guys and Dolls, we decided to see what London had to offer on a Sunday night. We had only just turned the corner when a bouncer called us over to his club and offered to let us in for half price. Sounded like a deal and since we were cold and not sure of where we were going to go anyway we decided to give it a try since it was cheap as well. Immediately upon entering the club the guys inside basically attacked as it seemed the club was severely lacking females, thus the reasoning behind the bouncer letting us in for half price. After prying the guys off of us we were able to make it to the bar where we could actually stand in peace and order a drink. However, as previously stated being female in that club we were a rare breed and therefore it wasn’t long that we were actually left alone. After spending around 2 hours fighting off the guys the club closed. It was still too early in our opinions so we wondered down the street some and came across a club that while no longer serving alcohol was still open and playing dance music. We entered in and danced the rest of the night, however not before we forced the DJ to play Jamilia’s Superstar for us “two corny girls”.

The next day we would be leaving at 5:43 and heading back to Paris. We got up what we thought was early enough and decided to walk to Buckingham to catch the changing of the guards. However, as usual the walk took longer than expected and we wound up running through the Buckingham Park to catch it on time. We missed a little bit in the beginning but I don’t think it mattered as to my surprise the thing lasted 30 mins! Once that was finally over we meandered over to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament. There was an enormous line outside Westminster Abbey, not to mention you had to pay a hefty fee to get in, so we opted to pass on going inside on this trip. We took our pictures and walked around and then finally started heading back in the direction of our hostel. We made our way to Sloane Street, another VERY high end shopping street, and crossed over to Harrods. We spent quiet some time in Harrods and eventually went back to our hostel to pick up our luggage. We took the metro back to the train station and since we had some extra time decided to grab some food to get rid of our remaining pounds. We found a McDonalds but unfortunately didn’t calculate how many pounds we had left before ordering. Our order came out to be a little bit more than we had and they wouldn’t accept credit cards. We were able to return the bottle of water thus reducing our order a bit and actually putting us only a few cents away from the total. So after about a 10 minute discussion on what to do, they accepted the money we had and let us go on our way. I mean we couldn’t leave London without one more unusually situation happening now could we? With our pounds gone we ran onto the train, as we were actually running late after the McDonalds fiasco, and said our goodbyes to London.

We had a great trip filled with weird situations and weird people; we ourselves acted unusual thus leading me to believe there is something a little strange about London. Perhaps on my next trip I'll return with more money and I'll be able to actually afford it, although I'm not so sure I'll be wanting to "party party".


Below is a pic of Big Ben which I especially liked. I always seem to take too many pictures of the Eiffel tower and we realized that if I lived in London, Big Ben would be my Eiffel tower as I took probably 15 pictures of Big Ben while on our three day trip.

It’s Guys and Dolls, Jerry, Not Guys and Guys! (London Part 2 of 3)

Saturday morning came too quickly for my taste and being woken up by the other girls in the room showering wasn’t a pleasant wake up for me either. But nonetheless I was happy to be there and not at either of the two guys apartments who offered to let us stay at their places for the weekend. Danielle and I waited our turn for the shower and eventually got in and got ready. We went downstairs to pay for our two remaining nights in the hostel since Raj the night before had decided for us to cancel our reservations for those two nights. After settling that, we headed out for Kensington Palace which was a fairly short walk from our hostel; this time it was in fact a short walk. We visited the palace, which was the last residence of Princess Diana, saw several of her dresses, and finally exited into the gardens where we roamed around for a while. We went and visited the Princess Diana memorial fountain and then set out to find a place to eat lunch. Of course finding a place to eat while on our trips is never an easy task. We found ourselves in a residential area and then found ourselves on the new Bond street, a VERY high end shopping street. Fortunately we managed to get to the shopping street that was a little more in our price range and found a line of pubs near by. Naturally being in London we had to eat at a pub and try the fish and chips. However I don’t eat fish so it was up to Danielle to take care of that while I enjoyed a fantastic hamburger cooked all the way through; quite a change from the ones I find in France, if I can find a hamburger.

After lunch our plan was to head to Piccadilly Circus to find out about possibly getting tickets to a show for the time that we would be there and then to head to St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern. However, on our way to Piccadilly Circus we got sucked into a giant toy store on the corner and wound up spending way too much time in there. But hey sometimes you have to embrace that inner child. So once we managed to pull ourselves away from the mounds of stuffed animals we made our way to Piccadilly Circus and found the half price ticket booth. We asked about tickets to Guys and Dolls which was the one we wanted to see the most as it is supposed to be a great show and as a bonus stars Ewan McGregor. The guy at the ticket booth informed us that we didn’t have a chance at getting tickets to that show and also let us know that there were no Sunday matinees for any shows which is what we had hoped to see. So it looked like our one chance to see a show would be that night, however, our selection would be limited. Not wanting to spend the money on a show we weren’t too keen on seeing anyway and also not quite ready to give up on Guys and Dolls, we decided to leave that booth and go to another one which we had seen. We got the same story from that guy but he did let us know that perhaps if we went to the theater we might be able to get last minute tickets for Chicago but didn’t have a chance for Guys and Dolls. So we decided to head out to the theater for Chicago but not before stopping at the Guys and Dolls theater. We found the theater and happened to notice a line formed along the side behind a sign that read “Return tickets”. We weren’t completely positive of what that meant but the line wasn’t too long so naturally we just hopped in the line and decided to figure out what it was after getting in line.

Fortunately there were two gay London guys in front of us who were nice enough to explain that the line was for the tickets that people return the day of the show. Basically you wait in line for people to return their tickets and the returned tickets are offered to the first people in line who are willing to pay whatever amount the tickets are for. So the tickets that you get offered, if they make it to your part of the line, could be in any price range. Sounded exciting to me and according to the “Doll”, as he chose to refer to himself, in front of us we had a pretty good chance of getting tickets since the line wasn’t that long. So our plan for seeing St. Paul’s was put on hold while we decided to test out the line and press our luck at getting tickets. We waited around for a while and slowly people would get bored of waiting or tickets were offered and the line got shorter and shorter. The whole process of waiting in the line became much more amusing as the time passed. We began making friends with the people in the line who were oddly enough mostly Americans. Then the real fun started once the guy in the pink tie started coming out with the ticket offers. I felt like I was in an auction and became very excited and hyper everytime he came out. What price tickets would he have, how many tickets would he have, would the people in front of us want them???? Once this started Danielle and I knew we needed to have a limit as to how much we were willing to spend. We decided on our limit and eagerly waited our turn to decide on if we would take the tickets or not. Slowly the people in front of us got ticket offers and took them. There were three more people in front of us and the man in the pink tie came back out. He bypassed the 3 people in front of us since he knew what they wanted and apparently that wasn’t what he had to offer. That meant he came straight to Danielle and I with the ticket offer. Seemingly prepared since we had set our limit, we were surprisingly taken off guard when he came to us with a ticket offer. The two of us completely panicked and suddenly couldn’t make a decision since the offer was ₤15 over our limit yet we really really wanted to see the show. We looked at each other in confusion and each tried passing the decision making responsibility off to the other. During this time everyone behind us was encouraging us to take the tickets and shouting that if we didn’t they would. We knew we didn’t want to spend that much money but at the same time, if we passed up these tickets there was a good chance we wouldn’t be offered any others. After going through several exchanges such as “I’ll do whatever you wanna do” and “I don’t care, you make the decision” we decided that it would be foolish to pass up the tickets since we had already put in an hours worth of waiting in line. Our giggles returned at this point and we managed to get a “yes we’ll take the tickets” out in between giggling. We went inside, purchased our tickets, said good bye to our line friends, and skipped away with two tickets to Guys and Dolls in our purses.

Since we had waited in line for about an hour and the show was due to start in about an hour and a half and now that we had no more money we decided it’d be best to start being cheap and just walked around the city center a bit till the show started. We got in our seats, which were pretty good seats, and were pleased to see at least 4 other people who were in line behind us sitting near by us. The show was great, not quite as good as we expected, but good nonetheless. After the show we went to the side of the theater where everyone would gather up and wait for the cast to exit. We only waited a few minutes and then Ewan came out to sign autographs. We didn’t want to wait in line so we just took pictures of him from across the street. But then we noticed the line was moving rather quickly so we jumped in line and within minutes we were face to face with Ewan and each got him to sign our hard earned tickets.

Once this was over we were broke, tired, and felt we had had enough of an adventure for the day and decided to go back to the hostel so we could get some decent sleep. We planned out our next two days before going to bed, however the events that took place the next evening were not on that list.

….to be continued

Who likes to “Party Party”? (London Part 1 of 3)

So back in April a crazy ad for the Eurostar did its job in convincing Danielle and I that we should in fact jump on a train and head to London for a weekend. We chose a random date and purchased our tickets and didn’t think much more about the trip until about the day or two before we were set to leave. I mean it’s London, they speak English there, we just recently went on a whirlwind trip to Budapest, Vienna, and Prague; London should be a breeze right? At least that’s what we thought before we crossed the English Channel and started our weekend filled with “interesting” people.

We took off work a little early on Friday and hopped on the train that would take us to London via the depths of the English Channel. For some reason ever since I found out about the Chunnel, way back in High School, I have been dying to take it. So for me this was a very exciting train ride and I couldn’t wait to go into the Chunnel. Danielle couldn’t have cared less and probably got a little annoyed/concerned about how excited I would get each time we entered a tunnel thinking this one was the Chunnel. After a while and many false alarms, we finally did enter the Chunnel. But now what to do, no scenery and too tired to read but not tired enough to sleep? Naturally that signaled picture time for Danielle and I. We some how managed to amuse ourselves for almost the entire 20 mins that we were in the tunnel by taking pics of ourselves in the reflection of the window. I think it was at this point that our giddiness started. For from this point on we seemed any and everything made us giggle.

We arrived in London around 7:30 p.m. and in trying to decide how to get to the hostel we witnessed an unexpected role reversal. This time it was Danielle who was suggesting taking the metro to the hostel while I was the one saying “why don’t we just walk it, I don’t think it’s that far.” Unfortunately we went with my idea and after an hour and a half walk and a 4 block cab ride and we were finally at the hostel. Why the 4 block cab ride one might ask. Well before leaving Danielle had been in contact with a Pepperdine Alumni, Raj, and it was arranged that we were to meet up with him upon our arrival. After calling him when we thought we were close to our hostel he came out to meet us at the closest metro stop. Timing was perfect and we met him right at the corner, unfortunately we still hadn’t reached our hostel. Since he didn’t really feel like walking and probably thought we were absolutely incompetent since we appeared to not know what we were doing, he had us get in a cab even though we were only 4 blocks away. So alas we made it to the hostel and went to check in. It was at this moment that our trip took a drastic turn and our adventure in London officially started. While checking in Raj decides, for some unknown reason, that he wants to step in and “negotiate” our hostel room. Danielle and I still aren’t really sure what exactly happened there, as we both sort of stood in shock watching him attack the desk clerk, but we some how ended up with a room reserved for one night only even though we had reservations for 3 nights (Raj of course offered to let us stay at his place which we didn’t have much interest in doing after what we just witnessed). Once this was all settled, we took our stuff up to the room and Raj waited for us downstairs so we could freshen up before he would show us some London nightlife. During this time Danielle and I quickly got ready while also expressing our complete bewilderment with what had just happened. We quickly realized we were in for quite an unusual night.

We freshened up, changed, hurried downstairs and met Raj and the three of us quickly hopped in a cab and headed off for our first destination of the night; a club called Eclipse that was in typical posh club style with no sign out front. The three of us entered the club but Raj quickly turned around and went back outside leaving Danielle and myself inside not quite sure what to do. Not being strangers to bars/clubs you would think Danielle and I would have been just fine, but for some odd reason we felt socially inept and felt as though we belonged in a Bridget Jones movie/book. This feeling would continue for the rest of the night; it’s really a shame no one was filming us, we could have been the next Bridget Jones’. Once Raj came back into the bar we met up with two of his friends, two girls. Slowly more of his friends came and after having drink after drink bought for us everyone decided to move on to a new club. However, one girl actually didn’t want to leave so her friend, the other girl, decided to stay with her and before we knew it Danielle and I were in a cab with 3 guys and being lead to the next bar, Cocoon. While in the cab Danielle was propositioned to “party party” with our unusual host Raj. It seems our new “friend” wanted to know if we did cocaine and just couldn’t except the fact that we didn’t or had never tried it; kind of unusual coming from a 34 year old Pepperdine alumnus. But he eventually moved on and we arrived at our destination where we were again lead into the bar, bought drinks, and then quickly lead out again to go to yet another destination. During this leg of our tour of London night clubs I was the fortunate one approached by Raj about my “party” habits. The rest of the night continued in this sort of fashion with clubs, drinks, and cabs and finally ended with us making it back to our hostel where we of course discussed the bizarre whirlwind of a night we just went through. Vowing that we didn’t want to see Raj for the rest of the trip we went to bed but had no idea what the rest of the trip had in store for us.

…to be continued

Brussels in a Chocolate Covered Beer Filled Nutshell

So back in May my dad and Geneva came out to Paris to visit yours truly. Since they had previously vacation for a week in Paris we decided to skip town for the weekend of May 27-29 and head out to Brussels to indulge ourselves in chocolate, waffles and in my case beer as well. I took a half day of work on Friday and we jumped on the Thalys train from Paris to Brussels, which thanks to Central Europe’s fantastic rail system is only 1 hour and 25 mins away. We arrived to our hotel, yes this time I would be staying in a nice hotel in my own room and not a hostel with 7 other people in my room, got settled and set out to see what Brussels had to offer.

We walked down to the Grande Place, which is a big square in the center of the city with some beautiful buildings surrounding it and filled with lots of nice patios to sit on and have a beer or two. We strolled through the streets browsing through the chocolate shops and admiring the architecture. We eventually made our way to Mannekin Pis, the little statue of the boy peeing. Slightly disappointing as he’s very tiny, but I guess I should expect much from a statue of a boy peeing and honestly I don’t know that I would want it to be any larger. After walking around for a while and getting a fill for the city center we went and had dinner. I of course had to get the fries and of course had to have a Belgian beer. The beer, as expected, was fantastic. After dinner we retreated to the hotel but not before trying a Belgian waffle of course. Again, fantastic. While it was a good start to Brussels unfortunately since Nick, who was supposed to come along with us, was unable to make the trip at the last minute I would be left alone come night fall. Normally no big deal, but this meant I would have no one to go out and enjoy more Belgian beer with. Not wanting to go alone and actually being too exhausted to even consider it, I decided to go ahead and call it an early night since it had been about a month since I had even a decent nights sleep.

The next day we got up and hurried out to a chocolate factory where we were told we could join a group for a tour of the factory. While the tour would be in Flemish, they told us we could join nonetheless and that they would do English for us as well. However, once we got there, the woman who appeared to be the organizer of the group that would be taking the tour did not like the idea that the factory said we could join their tour and she refused to let us trail behind her group. A rather rude woman I must add. So we left so as not to cause her too much strife and headed back to the touristy areas in town. We decided the best way to see the city would be to take the bus tour, so that’s what we did. While it was a great trip around the city and an easy way to see everything, I couldn’t help but be a little upset that my pictures weren’t coming out as nicely as they would have had I been walking around like I normally do. However, my feet were very thankful that I was not forcing them to carry me all over the city as I normally do for my trips. After the bus tour we decided to go see the comic museum since Belgium is known for their comic strips. Belgians are actually responsible for the Smurfs as I recently found out. Not a very impressive museum from my perspective but then again I’ve never been too fond of comic strips. Yet it’s still something one should probably see when in Belgium since it is such a big aspect of their culture.

The next day we weren’t set to leave till later in the afternoon, so we walked around some more enjoying the park out front of the palace, buying more chocolate, and of course having one last waffle and beer. We eventually boarded the train late afternoon and made our way back to Paris where we were welcomed with the cold and rain which was quite a contrast to the sunny and warm Brussels we had just left. But yet it still felt good to be what has now come to feel like my home.

All in all I really enjoyed Brussels as a weekend destination. I wouldn’t recommend staying in the city for longer than a day or two but it’s definitely worth a visit. I definitely want to go back to Belgium, but next time want to visit other cities such as Bruges as it seems it’s much more scenic where Brussels is a very functional city. I do have to reiterate though that the waffles, chocolate and beer were fantastic. I know the fries are supposed to be good too, I just didn’t actually have any good ones, but I can definitely vouch for the other three. So one word of advice, before going to Belgium make sure you diet a little first so as to make room for the overindulgence of beer, chocolate and waffles.

Barcelona round two

So on May 13 Lori decided to conquer her fear of flying and boarded a plane all by herself and made the flight across the Atlantic Ocean to come see me! She arrived on that Saturday and from that point on I didn’t give her a minute to rest. I took her on a walk through the city shortly after her arrival and tried to take her out that night but instead went to a long dinner and trekked across the city only to arrive at our destination club and decide we should go home and get some sleep instead of going in. Why get some sleep instead of going in you ask? Well the next morning Lori and I got up super early and crossed town to the shuttle to take us to Beauvais airport, “Paris’ low cost airport”, so we could board our plane to Barcelona. This would be my second time in Barcelona as I went out there in October to visit Sotiris, a friend from Pepperdine studying aboard there, however, it would be the first time for Lori. We got a hostel right on the beach which turned out to be a great location but the hostel was only so so. When we arrived we were pleased to find excellent weather, perfect for a day at the beach. Thankfully since we had taken such an early morning flight, 9 a.m., once we arrived and took another hour shuttle ride into the city we still had plenty of daytime left. We settled into the hostel, ate lunch then hit the beach. As mentioned before I had been to Barcelona back in October, and while I had a blast and definitely rank it among my best vacations in Europe so far, I didn’t have the chance or the weather to enjoy its beaches. So this time I was super excited to be able to soak up the sun on its beaches and escape the chilly Parisian weather.

After enjoying our time on the beach we decided to clean up and walk around the city some. We strolled Las Ramblas like typical tourists and ate a very late dinner like typical Spaniards. Being too tired to do much else we called it a night after dinner and returned to the hostel. This is where we decided the hostel was only so so. Seeing that the walls didn’t go all the way to the ceiling, leaving enormous gaps, the hostel was extremely loud. Come that morning we could hear everything happening within the hostel. Even still, due to our crazy German roommate who apparently couldn’t sleep but instead chose to walk in and out of the room brining in various people who turned on the lights the next morning, we wouldn’t have been able to sleep much even had the walls been complete.

That morning after being forced awake, we got up and went to see Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. This would be my second time seeing it, Lori’s first. But considering it’s a must see in Barcelona I couldn’t let Lori miss it. This time however, instead of going up the front spires as I did last time, we opted to go up the back spires. However, the elevator was not working as we found out after getting in line. We decided to make the trek up the spires by foot which turned out to not be too bad as it was a long line and went very slowly. We had a great view of the city and enjoyed our time but were anxious to get back to the beach since we were blessed with another fantastic day of great weather. So we hurried back, grabbed some beer, and enjoyed relaxing on the beach for as long as we could. Once the sun started going down it started getting chilly so we had to retreat back to the hostel. We got cleaned up and set out with the two British guys in our hostel room for a dinner of paella and sangria. We found a great restaurant near our hostel and had a great Spanish meal. Afterwards the four of us set out to enjoy the Spanish nightlife; unfortunately it started raining and was a Monday night so it wasn’t all that great. Nonetheless we found some nice bars along the beach and still managed to have a fun time despite getting soaked in the rain.

The next morning we were forced out of our hostel at 10 a.m. which was way too early for Lori and I considering we didn’t get home till about 5 a.m. the night before. However, determined to enjoy the last of the beach Lori and I put on out bathing suits and packed up our stuff and made it out of the hostel by 11 a.m. (upon them telling us we seriously had to get out of there) only to discover it was cold and rainy. Being extremely disappointed and exhausted we changed out of our bathing suits and took our bags to the bus station where we put them in a locker for the day as we weren’t supposed to leave Barcelona till the evening. We set out for Parc Guell on Danielle’s insistence that it was a must see. It is a Park done in Gaudi style that I had not seen on my first visit so I was willing to go and see what it was all about. While it was worth seeing the weather kind of ruined it for us as we were cold and tired and couldn’t get the great view of the city as you normally would had the weather been better. We eventually made our way back to the bus station where we picked up our bags and started the long trip back to Paris. We made it back late that evening and as usual it was back to work for me on Wednesday.

While extremely exhausting, as expected I really enjoyed my second visit to Barcelona. Still ranks high on my list of favorite cities as it can always provide a great time and a great meal of paella and sangria. While this trip ended on a down note with the weather, I was still very thankful to have received the 2 days that we had of great weather and to have had at least some time to escape the weather in Paris and actually relax on a beach for a while.

Below Lori and I are on the beach in front of our hostel...look how pretty and warm it looks!

Public "Restrooms" in France

I think everyone would agree that France is considered a civilized/modern society. They’re one of the top economies in Europe and the world ranking 6th in GDP (nationmaster.com). While their economy ranks high amongst the rest of the world, they’ve somehow managed to lag behind in a few areas leaving one to believe they may not be as civilized as they appear.

The example I’d like to take the time to point out is public urination. I know you see public urination in the U.S. but in France it is on a whole different level. It goes beyond just simple public urination too. Anyone who has visited France is very familiar with its dog poo covered streets. The French love their dogs and bring them with them everywhere and as a result let them use the restroom anywhere as well. Since living here I’ve seen dogs pee/poop on anything and never once have their owners picked it up or attempted to have their dogs go somewhere a little less public. Two times now I’ve even seen them let their dogs pee on other peoples cars. That’s right just today I saw a rather large dog lift its leg and pee on the front side of someone else’s car as the owner of the dog just stood there.

In addition to dogs peeing in the streets one can see at any time of the day a grown man peeing on the street as well. It’s not uncommon to be walking along a sidewalk and come upon a liquid trail running down the sidewalk only to follow it up to some man peeing against the wall. Nor is it uncommon to see them doing this under a spot light. I guess they like to have light while they pee on the streets. The problem here too is it’s not only homeless or drunks doing it; kids with their parents do it as well. In fact they encourage it. At Disneyland Paris a father took his son to the bushes while waiting in line for a ride and had him pee right there next to everyone waiting in line; thus only encouraging further public urination when he grows up. While I find this act alone very disturbing and disgusting I had no idea how bad it could get until last Wednesday. Danielle and I deciding to have our lunch in a small park in front of a church not far from my work were seated on the steps to the church when a mother took her son (around the age of 6) into some grass behind some bushes. Unfortunately from our angle he was not behind the bushes at all. She goes back there with her son carrying wipes. Wondering why she would have wipes I fear the worst is about to happen; then it did. She picks up her son and holds him up and he poops right there in full view of us in a very public park. At this point I can’t help but think of the dogs I’ve seen pooping on the streets in Paris and wonder how they can treat their children in the same manner.

Anyone who has been to Paris has probably noticed the public pay restrooms on almost every corner. Very often these restrooms are very clean, especially considering they’re public restrooms. I guess we now know why they’re so clean. The only people who actually care to use a restroom to do their business are the tourists. The French are still content doing theirs in public just as their dogs do, leaving me to wonder if they will ever decide to stop acting like animals and become a fully civilized society.

Going Medieval in Prague

So after actually making the trek across town to the train station for our 6 a.m. train Danielle and I hopped on the train to Prague. This time we were able to get a private room and had it all to ourselves thus allowing us to each take one side (the room is made up of 3 seats facing each other, so 6 seats total) and lie down and nap. The train ride was 4 ½ hours and again was very pretty from what I saw of it. I slept for the majority of the first part but was awake for the last hour or so. Nothing too eventful on the train, just lots of passport and ticket checks. Once we arrived, we headed to our hostel which was not far from the train station, yet was a little tricky finding. We checked in and were showed to our room. The room smelled as though someone had popped in their pants in there and Danielle and I were less than content with the quality of the room. Seeing the door open to the room across the hall we peeked in and saw that that room not only smelled better but looked better too. So we quickly grabbed our bags and went back down to the front desk to ask to be moved. Thankfully they accommodated us and let us have a room there on the first floor which was actually even better than the one we asked to be moved in. This one only had 5 beds in it as opposed to the 7 that the first room had and more importantly it didn’t stink.

On the train Danielle and I had decided we would take a walking tour of Prague since her friend who had just visited the week before recommended we do that. The tour was at 2 and since we arrived so early we had some time to kill. We walked around some on the main street and looked in a lot of the shops, then decided we should eat lunch before the tour. After walking around looking for a nice place to eat, we actually wound up at a Crêperie. Looks like we’re actually turning French. It was no surprise that it was filled with a lot of French tourists; seems the town was filled with them as well. However, I guess we haven’t turned completely French as neither one of us ordered a crêpe, instead I ordered Thai Chicken while Danielle ordered Goulash and Dumplings and we both shared garlic bread and I of course enjoyed cheap Czech beer. Quite an interesting and multicultural meal.

So finally it was 2 and time for our tour. To our surprise no one else showed up for the tour and it turned out to be a private tour for Danielle and me. The tour lasted about 4 hours and took us all over the town. Unfortunately the weather didn’t hold up as long as we would have liked and towards the end of the tour it started raining. Thankfully though it wasn’t that bad and we were able to still enjoy the tour. At the end of the tour Danielle and I walked around just a little bit and then returned to our hostel to shower and get ready to go out again. This time we had a mission for Czech food, but not just any Czech food, we wanted this fried cheese dish we had heard a lot about from Danielle’s friend. We had a list of restaurants in hand and set out. Unfortunately none of the restaurants had the fried cheese and the one we found that did, was too booked. So we wound up at an Italian restaurant. After finishing up dinner we went to a dance club where we had a great night that lasted till 4:30 in the morning dancing. Upon leaving the club we decided that even though our hostel wasn’t very far we were just too cold to walk so we decided to take a cab. Come to find out cabs don’t have meters but instead just tell you a flat rated which apparently differs by cab. Thankfully there were about 20 cabs all gathered in one area. The first cab told us 300 korunas, which we thought was a little high considering we were told it was 600 korunas to the airport which was about 30-45 mins away and we were only about 10 mins max from our hostel. So we decided to think more and during this time another cab driver walked up to us and asked where we were going and upon telling him our destination he told us that would cost 400 koruna. We quickly walked away deciding we’d go ahead and pay 300 but not 400. He then attempted to negotiate I assumed as he asked how much we were willing to pay. I said 250 and he said no so I said 300 and he said no again. Apparently he doesn’t understand the art of negotiation if he was completely unwilling to come down at least 50. So we walked away again and came upon the 3rd cab who said he would take us for 200. Better than we imagined so we hopped in and went back to the hostel.

The next day Danielle and I slept forever as we were absolutely exhausted from not only the night before but our whole trip. We finally woke up and went and had lunch at the place we had wanted to eat at the night before with the fried cheese. We had our fried cheese dish, which is really just like a giant mozzarella cheese stick served with tartar sauce instead of marinara. It was pretty good, but very filling. During our meal we got to watch as a line of army jeeps drove by the restaurant in parade style. That Sunday that we were there marked 60 years since they had been freed from the Soviets. They had apparently had a big demonstration of fighter jets and tanks in the morning but we slept through all that.

After lunch we went to see some of the sights that were pointed out to us on our tour but that we were unable to go in and visit with the tour. First stop was the Spanish synagogue done in Moorish style. That was my first experience with the Moorish style and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately they didn’t allow pics at all. After the Synagogue we headed back up Castle Hill where we had been on the tour but had been unable to enter the Church up there. We couldn’t find the stairs we had taken down from Castle hill the day before but wound up taking stairs through the Palace gardens instead. Turned out to be worthwhile as we got several great views of the city. We viewed the church and came back down the hill and walked over to what they call “little Venice”. It’s a small island created alongside of the river by a small canal. Not much going on there but it was cute. We then walked back across Charles Bridge, did a little shopping and went and had a leisurely dinner. Thankfully the weather was great for us all day. We then went back home got ready and went to bed. The next morning would be the worst of all as we had to get up at 3:45 a.m. and leave the hostel by 4:15 to catch our 6 a.m. flight into Paris. Immediately after landing I went to work thus marking the end to my trip and throwing me harshly back into reality.

After the long trip Danielle and I were happy to be home even though we did have a great time. The trip was a blast and Prague was definitely my favorite. With out a doubt I’d return to Prague. I encourage everyone to try and go before they adopt the euro in about 6 years as it’s pretty darn cheap right now. On another note, Danielle and I are always being asked where we’re from when we’re in Paris. Most people assume for some reason that we are from either Italy or Spain. We’re not really sure why but they always seem to guess those two or try to speak to us in Italian or Spanish even when we speak English to each other. So during this trip we were curious to see if the central Europeans would think the same. As it turns out they do. At one restaurant in Vienna they kept speaking to us in Italian the whole night. At a souvenir shop in Prague immediately upon entering, the man starts speaking to us in Italian, when we don’t acknowledge it he then starts in Spanish asking if that’s where we’re from. Very strange it is, but kind of fun at the same time to leave them guessing.

Below is a pic of the Charles Bridge on the Vltava River. Below that is a pic of me with the Czech fried cheese dish called Smazeny Syr in Czech.

Vienna in Under 24 Hours!

After taking in as much of Budapest as we could in 24 hours, Danielle and woke up way too early on Friday and hopped on the 6 a.m. train to Vienna. The train ride was about 3 hours and I’m sure rather pretty, unfortunately I slept most of it so I didn’t get to see the countryside except for bits and pieces when I opened my eyes for a minute.

Originally we were set to stay at the Westend Hostel despite reviews that it had bedbugs (it was the only open hostel when we booked). Thankfully, however, my friend from Euromed who is Austrian and went to School in Vienna offered to let us stay at her place. So before leaving we cancelled the hostel. Unfortunately she would be leaving Vienna on Friday to go back to her home town for a wedding, but the plan was to meet her at her office to pick up her key before she left. Unable to get a hold of her after getting off the train, Danielle and I put our luggage in a locker at the train station and set off on our express sightseeing tour of Vienna. Before leaving Paris we had checked the weather for all the cities we would be visiting and it was reported that Vienna would hold the best weather for us and that it would probably rain in the other cities while we were there. We got very lucky with Budapest and had no rain and great weather. Vienna we weren’t so lucky, it was cold, rained some (not consistently), but worst of all was extremely windy thus adding to how cold it was. This made sightseeing a little less pleasurable and as a result we don’t have many pics from Vienna. We did meet up at lunch time with my friend and got the key from her and were able to chat for about 30 mins. Then it was back to sightseeing. We weren’t quite sure what all to do in Vienna and the bus tour was too expensive or at least more than we really wanted to pay, so we really just wound up walking around the city and visiting its churches and other famous buildings. By night time we were exhausted and it took all we had just to get cleaned up and go to dinner. Hearing that Vienna didn’t have much of a nightlife anyway and being way too tired we called it quits after dinner and went back to my friends dorm room. Again probably a good decision as we had yet another train at 6 a.m. the next morning taking us to Prague.

My overall impression of Vienna was that it was a much larger city than I ever imagined and is very pretty too. Didn’t seem too much of a touristy city to me as there just wasn’t that much to see or do. It has lovely architecture and is obviously very big on culture, but not necessarily a city I’d make a plan to go back to just for a vacation. I’d love to see more of Austria though and if I’m ever in the area again I would stop in Vienna as it was a nice city. But at this point I preferred Budapest. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more had the weather not been so tough and had I not been so exhausted.

Below is a pic of Danielle and myself in front of Schönbrunn Palace. The idea behind this palace was to build one larger than Versailles. Below that is a pic of the long straight away in its gardens; not quite as flowery as Versailles, but still very beautiful (again just wish the weather had been better).

First stop: Budapest

Well my 3 country tour is over and I had a blast. I enjoyed each city and so to give them all the justice they deserve this will be a three part blog entry on my trip going in order of my trip.

So Wednesday afternoon Danielle and I hopped on a Pink and Purple Wizz Air plane and headed off for Budapest. We arrived that evening and made out way to our Hostel which was actually pretty nice as it was really just a large apartment with the rooms filled with bunk beds. Great location and very clean (Caterina Hostel if anyone is planning a visit). We walked around just a little that evening and then met up with a Pepperdine MIB alumni who has been living in Budapest for a while now and had dinner with him. He gave us some ideas of what to do in the city and so the next morning we set out to see Budapest in 24 hours. We started our day at the Spa (as we were told it’s a must do in Budapest), what better way to start a day. Don’t be deceived by the word Spa though, it’s actually a medicinal spa and was filled with old people just sitting on bubbles and being whirled around in a lazy river type thing. We enjoyed out time in the pools and then went for our massage. Seeing how no one we were talking with spoke English, just getting a time for a massage was quite a hassle. We wanted to try the mud care but weren’t sure what it was and no one could seem to understand what we were asking about. So we just settled on the massage. And much to my surprise I got stuck with a very large and hairy Hungarian man as my masseuse. But the massage was great and the whole spa experience was a really fun cultural experience. After finishing up there we headed out on the town and did all the sightseeing we could fit into the day. We stopped for lunch up on the hill and tried a typical Hungarian meal of meat filled pancakes. We were told they were filled with chicken by our waiter but it was far from chicken and I’m still worried about what it may have been, but they were quite good. After walking all over the town seeing everything we could we headed back to the Hostel, rested a bit then freshened up and headed out for dinner and drinks. We went down to this restaurant/lounge on a boat on the river and had a few drinks after dinner. After which we tried to find some nightclubs we had found on the internet but were unsuccessful as they no longer existed and that part of the city seemed dead so we just went ahead and went home. Probably for the best as we had to get up super early the next morning to catch our 6 a.m. train to Vienna.

Upon leaving my impression was very favorable of Budapest. The city was lovely, especially at night since they light up all the monuments along the river and it’s just gorgeous. Prices are pretty cheap, at least compared to Paris, since they aren’t on the Euro yet. It was also fun carrying around a 10,000 forint bill (about 40 euros) and paying hundreds for a meal. I was very impressed with how nice the city was, they had tons of cute cafes/restaurants (much cuter than the ones found in Paris) and it felt like such a clean and crisp city. The language was difficult as it was near impossible to even make a guess as to what something said but thankfully they’re very accommodating to tourists and most people spoke English and menus were all in English. Would definitely recommend visiting the city if you ever have the chance and definitely go to the spas, just be prepared for a whole new spa experience.

Below is the pic of me with my masseuse.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

After going a month without a vacation Danielle and I have gotten very antsy; it’s a sad life we live I know. So to appease our desires for a vacation, tomorrow we will be flying to Budapest. We stay there two nights then are taking a train to Vienna where we will stay Friday night. Then once we’re ready on Saturday we will hop on a train to Prague and take in all of its glory for the next two days. We fly back into Paris on Monday morning just in time to go back to work; I may actually be on time. So with all that being said, I won’t be writing for a while, but come back next week to hear how everything went. And don’t worry now that the thesis is done I’m devoting my time, that’s not spent traveling, to getting my website up.

How to Write a Thesis in One Month

Just follow the 3 Rs: Research, Regurgitate, Reference. First, spend the first week doing all your research, but don’t forget to keep track of all your sources, you’ll need it for the last step. Then spend the next two weeks regurgitating everything you just researched, but don’t hesitate to throw some of your own thoughts or opinions in there, it’s all the more better if you do. Once all this is done spend your last week making sure you’ve properly referenced everything you have written and don’t forget that Bibliography! Proofread it at least once and voila you have a thesis.

Disclaimer: May only be suitable for schools in France. This technique should only be used when you know your school is crap and probably isn’t even going to read it.

Further information: If you have less than a month to write a thesis, consult Charapal, she has the secrets on how to write a thesis in 3 days.

Well if you haven’t figured it out yet, I finished my thesis this last week. I guess we’ll find out in the coming months if my technique worked.

How about some of the Bubbly?

Those of you who know me best know I have a love of Champagne. So naturally I couldn’t leave France without making a trip to the Champagne region to enjoy it from its source. Seeing as how Danielle really does not have much time left and France and our weekends are quickly being booked up we decided this last Saturday would be the perfect day to make the trip out to the Champagne region and indulge in a day of Champagne. Since the region is only 1 ½ hours from Paris we decided to just go for the day. So we woke up earlier than either one of us would have liked on Saturday and hoped on the train and made our way to Epernay. Epernay is the capital of the region and home to Avenue de Champagne which is home to several Champagne houses. We opted to first go the Moët house and take their tour and tasting. The caves were actually quite beautiful as they were dimly lit with a soft lighting giving them a nice glow. We learned all about the process of making Champagne and then at last at the end were able to taste it. Fantastic Champagne. After finishing up there we then headed down the Avenue de Champagne and wondered into the Mercier house where we were just in time for the English tour. This tour was much more disneyized with a little train that took you through the caves and they were not nearly as beautiful as the ones at Moët. The Champagne was good, but I’d have to say Moët was better. We did however get to see the giant cask that Mercier brought his Champagne in to the World’s Fair in 1889 and took second place to the Eiffel Tower. Next since it was now noon and most of the houses would be closed for the next two hours we decided to hop on the train and make our way to Reims.

It was only a 30 min train ride and took us through some really beautiful country and the vineyards. Reims is a much larger city than Epernay and houses a lot more of the Champagne houses. First stop though was lunch. We walked around the town a bit and found the tourism office and viewed the Notre Dame there in town and then found a nice little restaurant in the center of town. It was a very active little town with a great vibe that we really enjoyed. Having attempted to make a reservation to do the Veuve Clicquot tour the night before (can only tour with a reservation) we decided to go ahead and make the trek out there to see if they had actually given us a reservation. Once we made it we talked to the front desk and found out that we had made our reservation too late and the tours were all booked. Apparently it’s necessary to make the reservations about 1-2 weeks in advance. I guess making the reservation the night before at 1 a.m. wasn’t a good idea. So we just decided to go view their boutique where we were able to purchase a tasting. So I opted to purchase a glass since I’ve never actually had Veuve before. I decided this time to go for a vintage since I’d only had the classics before. I opted for the sweet vintage and come to find out the one I chose actually isn’t even sold in the U.S. because Americans apparently aren’t keen on sweet wines. So I was very happy that I had chosen that one, not to mention it was the best tasting Champagne I think I’ve ever had. Definitely well worth the trek.

Feeling confident with our knowledge of the Champagne making process Danielle and I decided not to go on anymore tours but to just walk through the town along the river than through it’s giant park. Eventually we made our way to the train station and hoped on the next train back to Paris. Despite the 40 min delay on the train just 15 mins outside of Paris, I’d say we had a great Saturday and I’m very happy we went. If ever looking for a day trip from Paris, I’d definitely recommend making this one.

Below is a pic of Danielle and me at our first tasting at Moet. Then the next pic is of the countryside from the train and then below that is an open space in Epernay in front of the train station.

Buying Cough Drops in France, a whole new experience

So I’ve started feeling sick today, I blame it on the metro, and decided to go get some cough drops after work. Now this is nothing new for me as I’ve bought cough drops on a few occasions here, again I blame the metro. But now that I have my blog I feel as though I should share this oddity that is buying cough drops in France with everyone else so as to bring a little humor into their lives.

So in France it seems there is only one place to buy cough drops, and that is at the Pharmacy. That alone I find kind of odd, but then again this is France and they are big on their specialty shops and not on their one stop shops like we love so much in the U.S. So ok, I go to the Pharmacy to get cough drops, no big deal, except they’re behind the counter. That means I have to go up to the pharmacist and ask for cough drops and then he’ll get them for me. I can’t just go in and look at the various brands/flavors/prices to pick out which one I want, I get the ones the pharmacist grabs for me. I find this odd because quite frankly I don’t understand the logic behind it. I can buy cigarettes out of vending machines, but I have to ask a pharmacist for cough drops. I can go to any doctor and tell them to write me a prescription for whatever medicine I want, yet I have to ask a pharmacist for cough drops. Are they afraid I’m going to abuse cough drops? Even if that is their concern, why do they have no way of limiting how much I buy? I mean the pharmacies are on every corner and they don’t take any information from me when I purchase them so I could easily run to every pharmacy in my vicinity to stock up on cough drops to feed my habit. Will I ever understand why they treat cough drops this way? Considering we’re dealing with the French my guess is no, I never will understand because there probably is no reason except “that’s just the way we do it.”

Culture Clash Over A Piece Of Foil And Some Spaghetti

So this weekend I was fortunate enough to witness an international incident as some are calling it. It all started when Diane, Meredith, Danielle and I decided to go have dinner at a pizza place not far from Danielle and mine’s apartment. We’ve eaten there several times already and the owner/waiter recognizes us when we come in and has always been very friendly with us. However, things are forever changed now and this is why. Things started off as normal, the owner/waiter was very excited to see us and talk to us. We ate our meals and enjoyed them very much. However, Diane had lots of left over spaghetti. Not wanting to waste it she asks for a box to take it home. The waiter then informs her that this is just not done in France and that yes he allowed Danielle to do it once but he can’t let this happen every time because it’s just not done in France. Diane and Danielle insist on wanting to take it home and finally he brings it out wrapped up in foil. At this point he is no longer talking to us and barely looks at us. We have to get up to ask for the check and when he comes over to give it to us he barely speaks to us. He then decides to tell Danielle in French that we just can’t keep asking to take stuff home in France to which Danielle responds with “it’s my right to take it home as I paid for it.” At this the waiter says that is disputable and Danielle responds with saying “well next time we will go to another restaurant.” He says fine and that is the end of all communication with him. So now because of a piece of foil, some left over spaghetti, and stubbornness, Danielle and I can no longer go to our pizza restaurant with the excellent 4 cheese pizza.

Yes I know we should have been more “culturally sensitive” and respected the fact that in France you don’t ask to take your left overs home. But it still seems absolutely ridiculous to us that they 1) would rather throw it out then let us take home what we paid for (especially in a country so big on not wasting food) 2) lose repeating customers over something as small as that 3) be that stubborn about such a small aspect of their culture. If you ask me I think this is just a perfect example of how terrified the French are that Americans are influencing their culture as well as how darn stubborn they can be, not to mention contradictory. For a country that thrives off of tourism I say it’s time to face the facts that you are going to have to flex some and stop being so scared that American culture is going to take over your country. We don’t want to take over, we just want you to learn to be more logical ;)

Berlin: Not only fun but educational as well

Yes it has been a while since I have last written. I’ve been busy trying to start my thesis and design my website so I have a real one and of course I have to squeeze some fun and travel in there sometimes.

So since my last entry I took off for Berlin for an extended weekend with Danielle (my roommate and fellow Pepperdine student). Rogge (Pepperdine IMBA studying in Stuttgart, Germany) meet up with us in Berlin and the three of us spent our weekend soaking up all the history that the city had to offer. My only experience with Germany before this trip was from my trip to Munich back in October for Oktoberfest. I didn’t really see much of Munich but from what I could tell it was VERY clean and orderly and well met my expectations of Germany. Berlin on the other hand surprised me. I guess I should have half expected it, knowing that the city has had and continues to have many problems. However, I guess I still just figured it’s Germany and it should be like the rest of Germany. The city itself has undergone massive reconstruction and continues to to the day. The buildings are so much more modern than most European cities and it just doesn’t really have that “European” feel (at least not to me). Some parts of the city did and the more I walked around the more it did feel “European”. But aside from that, it’s dirty, lots of construction, and comes off as much poorer than other parts of Europe or Germany. This being said you probably get the impression that I didn’t really enjoy Berlin. That’s not at all the case. I really enjoyed my time in Berlin and really grew to like the city a lot.

Danielle and I took the night train leaving Paris on Friday night and arriving Saturday morning. That was 12 hours on the train, which wouldn’t have been too bad had we sprung for the beds. However, being the travelers that we are and having the mindset that if we go a little cheaper on this trip that’s money we could put towards another trip; so we opted to go with just the regular seats. We were a little concerned upon first boarding the train, but we surprisingly managed to get quite a bit of sleep on the train, although very restless sleep. But alas we made it to Berlin Saturday morning. We found the hostel, dropped our luggage off and went shopping, in their large new Mall/Sony Center, as Rogge wasn’t due to arrive until a few hours later. We had a fine hamburger for lunch in an American diner and then met Rogge at the hostel. So for some reason we started off our Berlin trip very American like. But that soon changed. After Rogge arrived, we went in search of the tourism office but never actually found it. We wound up just walking around for the rest of the day then went back to the hostel showered then went out for a real German meal and then some Berlin night life. Had a great night, but maybe too much fun as the next day we woke up quite early for our all day walking tour on the history of Berlin. We figured this would be a great way to see the city and learn the history and by all day they didn’t really mean ALL day, did they? Well apparently they did because it turned out to be a 9 hour walking tour. But I’d say well worth the 10 euros it cost. It was amazing to hear all the history behind this city, never really realized the extent of it all and seeing parts of the Berlin wall still erected gave an eerie feeling of what it must have been like to live back then with the wall. We all enjoyed ourselves and that night had a great German dinner.

The next day was beautiful but a bit of a bust as far as seeing stuff, for with the exception of one museum the others we wished to see were all closed due to it being Easter Monday (here in Europe they celebrate Easter Monday and not Good Friday like we do). Danielle and I desperate to still find an apple strudel (so far this whole weekend we had been “too late” for an apple strudel every time we tried to get one) marched all over the city in search of a place where we weren’t “too late” for the apple strudel. At last we finally found one, actually the same one we had come across on our first day there while shopping, and it was by far the best one we had ever seen. We purchased that and a pretzel, got our bags and boarded our train for the trip back to Paris. Again 12 hours on the train and this time we got to go to work when we arrived, after going back to the apartment and showering of course. All in all a great trip and it was great seeing Rogge again and getting to watch him use his German. So a big thanks to our translator!