Drei Tage in Paris

Hallo everyone, hope your easter's been as good as the one we've just had!
We spent the easter weekend in Paris, helping our friend Liz celebrate her 21st birthday. For anyone who is in two minds about visiting Paris, GO THERE! It is such a beautiful city, from massive ornate buildings and wide sweeping streets, to the five storey apartment buildings with little balconies at each window overlooking narrow winding streets, with a cafe on every corner.

The adventure started for Luke and I on Thursday night, with a sleeper train from Berlin to Paris:

The trip would have been fine, had it not been for the 3 hour delay at the Belgian border as they changed locomotives from German to Belgian (apparently there's some safety and bureaucratic rules which mean German locomotives can't operate in Belgium... so much for the friendly EU partnerships). Well the 1st Belgian locomotive didn't work, neither did the second, so we waited for three hours while the Belgians got their acts together!

We got to Paris at 12pm, sussed out the metro system and made our way to our accommodation in Montmartre to check in and freshen up...

>> the bathroom in our ho(s)tel, with carpet stapled to the side of the window, and a temperamental shower. Apparently all showers in France are terrible.

Montmartre is situated on a hill, where at the top is a nice, huge church, and a great view of Paris. The only problem is that it's really not worth wrestling with all the tourists to see it. Strangely enough, the nicest part of Montmartre was the middle of the hill, with an abundance of less expensive cafes, and some nice looking clothes shops. At the bottom of the hill is Pigalle, Paris' neighbourhood of peep shows, including, of course the Moulin Rouge. Seriously, I was totally disappointed by the Moulin Rouge...maybe it looks different at night, but during the day it looks run down and seedy, and the abundance of tourists taking photos does not help.

Nonetheless, it was there that we met Siobhan, Liz and Mendel, and from where we went to the inner city of Paris and the Louvre. The Louvre is fantastic... apparently it would take 9 weeks to fully appreciate every artwork in the place, but we only spent 3 hours there, and saw the main attractions, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. My favourite were the beautiful sculptures, and I have a new found interest and respect for Rubens (thanks Liz!).

One thing about Paris that I am absolutely in awe of is the number of incredibly large, beautiful buildings. We did heaps of walking, but never got tired, because everywhere you looked there was something amazing!

>> They don't mind the odd statue in Paris (this on the Arc de Triomphe)...

>> ...or the odd fountain (this at the end of the Champs-Elysees)...

>>...or the odd magnificently large, ornate building (in this case, Cathedrale de Notre-Dam, which was built in the 14th century and took 170 years to be built)

Apart from the sight seeing, we drank a lot of coffee and wine and beer and cocktails, and ate some great food! On Friday night we sampled the night life of Bastille... great, except that the cheapest drink in most places was 5.50 euro, and that was either a coke or a small beer! On Saturday night, I ate the best meal I've had in Europe in a nice restaurant also in Bastille with Liz, her parents, Siobs, Mendel and Luke, the highlight of which being the confit of duck (basically duck stewed in its own fat)... it fell of the bone so tenderly and was so tasty! Mmm!

>> The company was great too: L-R Liz's parents, Liz, Siobs, Me, Luke, Mendel

Saturday night was spent in Saint Germain, an area full of small cafes, pubs and clubs. We ended up drinking cocktails in a classy Jazz club, where a trio was playing laid back versions of jazz classics. We got there late (about 12am), and as our drinks arrived, the band finished and the clientelle started leaving. The next thing we knew, it was just us left, and the band and their friends/fans. The singer was a really nice French-african, and ended up talking to Liz in french, asking us where we were from, and telling us a couple of English jokes he'd picked up

>> How do white and black people start fairytales?

--->> White person: Once upon a time...

--->> Black person: You gonna believe this shit motherf****!

Luke begins Post

The man was a real smooth character, but as a non french speaker most of the conversation was lost on me.

After finishing a surpisingly sweet martini, which was 12.50 Euro (about 25 australian dollars), particularly dry and I suspect stirred, but dissapointingly without my two olives, we went out onto the street. What can one do on a saturday night in Paris? The answer: visit another bar / cafe. This one was several hundred metres away and we had to wait a few minutes "to be seated". It seems that in Paris, they make the money from charging quite a lot for a small amount of drinks from a small group of customers, than from a lot of drinks from a lot of customers. It is better I think, it makes for better conversation and the hangover is far, far more managable than it could have been. The service is great as well, and also to be paid for.

After we left, the impact of it all had hit me. We were in paris, and we had vistited about 9 different eating / coffee / drinking establishments throughout the day, as well as seen some fantastic builidngs and monuments. One of the best days, I could say, in Europe thus far.

The next day was sunday, and we started the day with the customary parisian coffee and croissant, in a nice little cafe just up the hill from our hotel. After that we got on the metro and met the others in the Luxemburg Gardeen, for Brunch and Wine. Liz's folks (god bless 'em) had bought a shirtload of cheese, spreads and wine, including a bottle of Moet and a jar of very expensive and delicious foi gras (excuse my spelling, french speakers). Moving from there, the 20 or so of us, minus the parentals of Liz, jumped on the Metro and went to the Eiffel Turm, where many photos were taken. To save bandwidth I will not post any, as they are readily available from many publicly available sources. After a long walk along the Seine, we discovered that the museum we wanted to see, the Musee d'Ossee, was closed for the day. What to do? Coffee naturally. After another walk from the cafe to the others, with a short stop near the Notre Dam for a beer, we said our goodbyes and got on the train back to good 'ol Germany.

The End.

1 month in

Ok, so it's been a while since that dodgy dodgy computer at Griebnitzsee, but we've been far too busy to post blogs =) No, not really, just too lazy. In my defence though, I didn't get the internet connected in my room until last week... long story, suffice to say, "one click more"... Luke knows what I mean.

Over the last two weeks, Luke and I have been busy with our German course. It was pretty intense, although there wasn't really much grammar or anything, rather seminars on aspects of German culture (politics, football, literature, films, etc). Some of the stuff wasn't really new, but most importantly, it was done in German, and I feel like I'm actually getting somewhere with the language.

One of our first "cultural experiences" was last Friday night, when we saw our first live German band, by the name of Wissmut, which formed in the GDR in 1985, and is the all time favourite band of Luke's *now* ex-flatmate. I can't say that the music was particularly inspiring; dark tunes, which to me sounded like Nick Cave mixed with Rammstein, but they put on a good concert for the 40 or so strong crowd. The poor turnout was unfortunate, and they did deserve better.

>> Wissmut

The next day, we were off for a German course excursion to Halle, the home of Handel (or at least, where he was born), the Halloren chocolate factory, a Beatles museum (the only one in Germany), and an excellent graveyard:

Of note was the Saturday night bonding session:

>> L-R: Luke, Martin, me, Antje, half of Delia

Next thing of note was the tour on Wednesday through the Reichstag. It was really quite interesting, because we actually went "behind the scenes" in a Sitzungswoche, where all the Bundestag polititians come to Berlin to debate policy, etc. We got to walk past the Family Minister Ursula van der Leyen, as well as all the pollies' bodyguards, and saw some important minister give an interview to the press.

>> Reichstag

>> From an inside balcony

>> Looking down on one of the inside courtyards: der Bevoelkerung means "the people", encompassing everyone who lives in Germany. It was written in the courtyard to offset the more nationalistic Dem deutschen Voelke which is inscribed on the front of the Reichstag.

Friday was the closing party for our German course, hosted by a rather flamboyant teacher, Michael, in his apartment in Berlin. Suffice to say, a lot of drinking was done. I wish I'd taken some photos of the place and party... the apartment was rather gay; photos of Prince Frederick, plates decorated with a watercolour of the Queen, and a lovely red velour sofa, with cushions with "prince" and "queen" embroidered on them =) Micha, being a singer on the side, gave an impromptue cabaret concert--think Marlene Dietrich. It was such a laugh!! A lot of fun!

And so to yesterday, where we had another "cultural first", this time being in the 51,000 strong crowd to watch Hertha BSC play Stuttgart in the Bundesliga. The game wasn't particularly exciting, but it was great to experience a real European football match, in the Stadium where the infamous 1936 Olympics were held. The atmosphere was really something!

>> Before a penalty inside the box

>> After the goal

Well, I must say, that was an incredibly long post. I hope it wasn't too boring! Does it make up for almost a month's absence?

Spaeter