Belgium

Belgium is lovely. I am really enjoying it here. Haven't had a single snooty Belgian experience yet. I was warned by many people about the snooty Belgians.

I am in contact with my friend in Leiden, and we are still working out the details, but I should be able to get to Leiden this weekend and see Skkinterclas (Santa) and some really racist black face (Santa's main elf, or slave, is black and they always have a lot of white Dutch dressed in black face as him.)

Bruges, Belgium

After leaving London this past Sunday, I took the EuroStar to Brussels. I would like to recommend to anyone traveling in and out of London to consider using means other than the EuroStar. If I had been more careful I would have taken a bus, because, while the EuroStar is fast, the bus is a lot cheaper. A LOT CHEAPER. Heck it would have been cheaper to fly, and possibly just as convenient. Since you are taking the Chunnel, a perfect location for a terrorist to do a lot of terrible damage, there is a lot of security to go through when riding the EuroStar as opposed to any other train one might take. Plus there is greater attention paid to passport control. You actually have to queue into a line, which was the first time I had seen that in quite some time. I understand that this is far more efficient than parking the train for a half hour in the middle of the English Channel while passport officials make their way through the train, but I am simply pointing this out to fellow travelers who might not be aware of how the EuroStar works. It would be terrible to pay for such an expensive ticket and miss your train because you thought you could just show up 5 minutes before the train left, like any other European rail line.

I decided, while in London, not to stay in Brussels due to the fact that I could not find reservation in a hostel online. So instead, I spent two nights in Bruges, Belgium. It is a really wonderful place, that I think would be marvelous a bit closer to Christmas. Not to say that it wasn’t fantastic while I was there, but from what I could see, the Christmas festivities were going to be really nice. Bruges is a small coastal port, filled with winding cobble stone streets, placid canals, and shops of every kind. I especially recommend one of many Chocolatiers. Belgians are known for their chocolate and beer, so why not indulge yourself a bit while you are there.

I spent most of yesterday, simply walking around, getting lost, and enjoying the sights and sounds of Bruges. Workers were setting up a Christmas Carnival in the middle of the town square, women were shopping in some of the high quality clothing stores along the tight streets, and tourists hunted for their favorite place to get “the best chocolate” in Bruges. It was wonderful. Very few tourists, even fewer cars, and just a calm relaxed atmosphere.

I loved the fact that most of the restaurants in town had large fires crackling inside, perfectly visible to passers by looking for a warm, comfortable place to rest for the evening while enjoying a fine meal and even better beer. It was just lovely.

Today I checked out of Bruges, a little tired from a night spent trying not to listen to the six Spanish boys I was sharing a room with trading off snoring responsibilities. I realized quickly, that they always snored in pairs, so when one would turn over and quiet down, another would pick up right where he left off. It went on for hours, but you learn ways to tune it out, I just wasn’t doing very well at it last night.

I am sitting on the train to Brussels now, trying to decide if I will stop and stay in Brussels, or if I while continue on to Amsterdam. I am leaning more towards staying, but I am not sure for how long. I would like to stay close to London, so that when I need to head back next week , I will be near enough not to have to work too hard to make the journey back. I guess I will just have to play the next two weeks by ear. What a drastic change from everything else I have been doing on this trip so far… LOL.

I hope all is well back in the states. Only twenty more days until I head to Asia.

P.S. I decided to stay in Brussels

London and the Lost Debit Card

Other than the debit card fiasco, which I guess was bound to happen at some point, I have been having a great time in London. So far I have done a different show every night. Billy Elliot, La Cage, We Will Rock You, and last night a show at the National Theatre called To Be Straight With You.

That show was an incredible piece of artwork, and seemed to have an amazing impact on the full house. The show didn't get a full standing ovation, but I think that is due to the fact that the bows were not choreographed/staged in such a way that would encourage the audience to stand. (Although, I was up on my feet as soon as the curtain fell. It was a wonderful display, unlike We Will Rock You, of how technology can dramatically enhance the theatre experience. At one point, an actor was lit using the massive projector while delivering a very touching monolouge and at first, being the lighting designer that I am, I questioned the reasoning for using the projector to do this. Suddenly, though, as the monologue was finishing, they did this incredible effect with the projector where they started blacking out his face and then the rest of his body, so he almost completely disappeared. At that point I knew why the choice was made by the lighting designer. I was really touched by the show, and creatively sparked by the fantastic use of design elements.

After the show, Chris, Shelley's friend who had decided to accompany me to the show and I went out for a drink at a nearby bar. Maybe that is where I lost my card, when I got out my wallet to pay for my drink, but that is a usless subject to discuss at this point. It's lost, it's cancelled, and now I just have to figure out how to get the new one to myself. It shouldn't be too hard, I will just have to make a few travel sacrafices. And this will encourage me to be much more sparing with my money, which is definitely a good thing. If only I could apply for a work visa for the UK while I am over here, then I could just stay indefinitely as long as I had a job. But I guess that would mean I miss out on the rest of my trip, which for the most part I have already paid for. Do you think I can get a refund? LOL.

I will be sad to leave London, whenever that may be. It has been so much fun here, and such a great thing for me. Luckily, as well, I haven't had too terrible a weather while I have been here. My plan, up until now, was to head to Brussels tomorrow, but once I figure out about my card, I will be able to make a more accurate and informed decision on what to do and where to go.

London, England

Sorry to be out of touch for the past couple of days, but I have just been having so much fun in London that it has been difficult to make the time to blog.

I arrived on Sunday after a train ride through the Chunnel from Paris to London. When I arrived, I had not established a firm time to meet up with Shelley so I decided to do a nice walk (about two miles) from the train station to the Regents College Campus. Once I arrived, I was turned away since it is a highly secure campus so I found an internet cafe nearby and sent Shelley an e-mail. She had already tried to contact me and set up an exact time and place to meet (Starbucks across from King's Cross station at 5pm). I headed that way and to meet up with her. Apparently, though, there are three Starbucks in the King's Cross area and, after going to two out of three of them, I figured I had missed her in the small window of opportunity we had.

With pack still resting on my shoulders, I decided to figure out a show to see and meet up with Shelley at the college after she got out of the show she was attending. I decided to see Billy Elliot and had a blast. I was lucky that the cloak room attendant let me check my luggage with her. The show was simply bliss and a perfect way to spend an evening after a long day of traveling and missed encounters. I would highly recommend anyone to see it and it put into my head how much I missed theatre.

After the show, I decided to see as much theatre as I could while in a country where I understand the language. So far I have seen Billy Elliot, La Cage a Folles, and We Will Rock You. The first two were terrific and delightful. The latter made my skin crawl. I enjoy the music of Queen and thought that I would enjoy the show but it was a terrible waste. At least most other people in the audience enjoyed it. Tomorrow I am going to see a show at the National Theatre. It should be really good and it is not a musical for a change.

I haven't done a terrible lot of touring while I have been here. Yesterday I did several hours at the Tate Modern and today I went to Harrod's to see what it was all about. I did so much of the tourist stuff on my last trip to London, I haven't felt it a necessity to return to any of those places which means I can afford more theatre. Plus, it has been great getting to see Shelley and my other friend Karyn while I have been here. They have introduced me around, so when the two of them are busy with class or work, I have been escorted around by some of their other friends. I am absolutely loving London and I wish I could just unpack my bag and stay for a while (especially now that the Pound is doing worse, making my dollars go a lot further). But, alas, there is still much of the world left for me to see.

Paris, France

I am going to type as fast as my little fingers can, on a French keyboard.

I am loving Paris, I just wish I had an extra day or so here, although I don't think my pocket book could withstand the blow. I got in LATE on Saturday and went straight to the hostel. By the time I got to the hostel, St Christopher's, I was ready for a good nights sleep and an antacid, make that two antacids.

The next morning I got up, well rested, had a bit of breakfast, and decided to start my time in Paris at the Arch de Triomphe. Not totally centrally located, but a pretty good starting place. Then I walked to the Eiffel Tower which is currently lit blue at night and has six stars on the side in honor of the fact the France is the current home to the President of the European Union. The blue lighting only lasts from July to January, so it was fun to be here and see it lit up like a Disney castle. On my way to the Eiffel Tower, I was stopped by a gentleman in a car who I assumed needed directions. My normal reply to such a questioning is to say "what" and hold my arms up in a dramatic shrug. But this guy spoke English. It turned out, after several minutes and him "offering" me some "Louis Vuitton" jackets, that he just wanted money. I regretted to inform him that I was by no means a wealthy American. He persisted to ask me for money, so after I returned to him the bag filled with the coats, I opened my wallet for him, and I kid you not, moths flew out. Finally I just walked away as he was asking me to go to an ATM.

I have to admit that panhandling in Paris has become an artful menagerie of cons. A very similar thing occurred to me at the Eiffel Tower. This time it was a young boy put a ring in my hand that he had just picked up off the ground and told me it was good luck and I should keep it. So I took it and as I walked away he asked for a couple of Euros so he could get a cafe. The kid looked about 10 years old and I am not familiar with all French customs, but I wanted to say to him, "You are too young to drink coffee." When I forcefully put the ring back in him palm and said I had no money, he proceeded to tell me to "F*** off" and spit at my feet. I have no idea, but being told by a ten year old to "F*** off" put a really big smile on my face. I guess I just thought it was funny, but I was so impressed at how creative he was at making a couple of extra bucks from a rich tourist. Unfortunately for him, I just wasn't a rich tourist, although I am an easier target because I am alone. It just taught me that NOTHING in Paris is free.

After my visit to the Eiffel Tower, I decided to go on a free (except for the tip at the end) walking tour of Paris. There is a company called "New Europe Tours" (neweuropetours.eu) that has started doing free walking tours all over the continent. I had heard good things so I thought it would be a fun way to see some sights, get some history, and meet some people. My own problem with Paris is its lack of Tourist Information offices so I also thought the tour might be a good way for me to get some more info on other things I was trying to do. The tour was great, I met some nice people, and got all the info I wanted. My main question being "Where are the catacombs?"

I REALLY wanted to do the Catacombs of Paris, so once I had the information that I needed, I headed straight to the metro stop in order to at least find out the Catacombs hours. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time Sauv, the South African kid I was hanging out with after the tour, and I got there. We noted the hours of operation, 10am to 5pm, and decided to meet back there in the morning right at 10. I spent the rest of the evening walking to the Sacre Coure, all 264 steps (yes I counted), hanging out in the artists square observing the really good and the unfortunately not so good artists doing portraits of anyone willing to sit still for 20 minutes. It reminded me of the last time I was in Paris six years ago. Then I walked to the Moulin Rouge and marveled at all of the topless and bottomless bars around the red light district of Paris.

Today when I got to the Catacombs, I was a few minutes late, and unfortunately Sauv and I had neglected to note that they were closed on Monday, so I missed the Catacombs and due to my tardiness, I missed Sauv. So instead I went to the Louvre for several hours, the Pompeidu and did a bit more walking around the city. Now I am doing a bit of planning on how to get to London tomorrow.

On a HILARIOUS note, I just (as in 2 minutes ago, as I was typing this e-mail) ran into Andrew, who I hung out with in Vienna and randomly ran into on the streets of Prague, again, in Paris. That makes two random run ins to him. That is a record for me.

Tours, France

I have successfully made it to Tours although it was a bit of an ordeal seeing as how some of the French train employees were on strike. I left for Lyon at 10am and got there in plenty of time to get on the 1:26 train that I was supposed to get on in order to make it to Tours at 4:30. I was going to have to make one other train switch just outside of Tours, but it was going to be very easy. I wasn't able to buy all of my train reservations in Geneva like I had planned so when I got to Lyon my first order of business was to find the ticket office. This is when I discovered the strike occurring.

The line in the ticket office was the longest I had seen since Barcelona, but I knew I had no other option, so I started to wait. When I finally got to the front of the line, the train I was trying to catch left in 5 minutes. I did my best to hurry along the reservation process and run to get the train but as I got to the top of the stairs on the platform the train was closing its doors and pulling out of the station. Set back number 1, achieved.

The next step was to go back into the ticket office, wait in the line again, and find another train to get me to Tours. This time the line was a little shorter, but once I was to the front of I was informed the next way from me to get to Tours was a train to Paris-a train that left in three hours at 5pm. So I started to wait. Finally the three hours had passed and I got on the train to Paris. Now, set back number 2. The train to Paris was half an hour late arriving. I did have about an hour between arrival and departure but I didn't mention yet that I was going to have to switch stations in Paris. Switching terminals at an airport is one thing, but in Paris I was going to have to use the metro (switching lines at one point) in order to get my train to Tours. Having an hour would have been great but with the late train I only had about 30 minutes. At first I couldn't find the metro because it ended up being a much larger station than I had anticipated. But I ended up making it to the other station, hopping on my train just as it closed its doors. Amazing!

I was scheduled to arrive in Tours just after 10pm and according to the directions I had to the hotel, it was a ten minute walk from the station so I would arrive at the hotel right around 10:30. Just in time for a great night's sleep. Finally, set back number 3. I made it all the way from the train station to my hotel (which in Tours is actually a hotel and not a hostel) only to discover that my hotel was closed. I rang the bell a number of times in hopes that someone might still be there but to no avail. Finally I decided to walk down the block to the hotel that appeared to still be open, although it was also a hotel that also cost 4 times my budget. Somehow my hotel had made me a reservation there and had paid for my stay there. So in the end, all of the set backs I was confronted with ended with a "free" night stay in a three star hotel with a private room with a private bath... amazing. Today I ended up taking the opportunity to simply enjoy a relaxing day and catch up on some much needed rest.

Geneva, Switzerland

Made it to Geneva yesterday, and was easily able to meet up with my friend at the train station. We had originally planned to meet at the Tourism Office at the train station, but when I arrived in Geneva I found out that there was in fact no office of Tourism in the Geneva train station. So I just made sure to be sitting in a high traffic area and strategically stuck my legs out into the walkway so people would have to walk around me. This was intended to draw attention to myself, making it easier for me to find. It is the trick of panhandlers on the side of the road and they are hard to miss. With my strategy I was an easy target for my friend, Hannah to spot.

Hannah lives with three other girls in Geneva, two girls from St Louis, and one girl from Seattle. Once I was settled in and had a shower, we all went out to a local restaurant for some amazing hamburgers. After a fantastic dinner, we all made it to a Mexican bar/restaurant in Geneva. It was so much fun to go to a Tex Mex establishment in Switzerland, something that you don’t normally get to see, and definitely something that you don’t get from Lonely Planet.

Because of the big election, Webster had set up a viewing center in the large meeting room on the first floor of the dorms so that students could watch CNN live and get immediate updates on the polls. The festivities, which included free hotdogs and beer, started at 2 am GMT +1 and ended at 8 am. It was such a neat experience to literally stay up through the night trying to watch and see what is happening half a world away. There was definitely a huge sigh of relief when the West Coast polls closed and Obama was officially projected the winner of the presidential election. We got the news around 5 am and after that I was so tired I had to go to bed so I wasn’t able to hear the remarks from the two candidates until today. I read all of the facebook status changes that my friends posted through the evening. Most of the reactions I read on facebook were positive and hopeful, but a lot of people that I went to high school with surprised me with their disgustingly negative remarks on the outcome. Things like “I still believe God has a plan for us, and if it takes 4 years in hell for Americans to wake up, that is what we must suffer through.” WOW…. I nearly deleted this person as my friend because of the incredibly hateful words this person wrote. But then I had to stop myself and say, ‘If McCain had won, a lot of my liberal friends would have written similarly dreadful things.’ Just because someone’s opinions or beliefs are different then mine doesn’t make that person wrong. McCain was a strong candidate and a worthy opponent in the candidacy. I personally did not have that many problems with McCain himself, he has done many things for this country, and I look at what he did as a prisoner of war, and think of the position he would take in the economic crisis, leaving no one behind. But that is all politics.

I really am not the best person to discuss politics, though. I am a world away and am a real Maverick when it comes to a lot of my political and social views, and I will never be able to solve the economic crisis. I have come to accept the economic freefall of America as inevitability, and so I am not terribly afraid of it. Talk about a change. Obama has promised change in the U.S. and there is no change greater than people lining up on streets with soup bowls hoping that the food will last long enough for them to get some. That would be a huge change in society, but is that the change you want? Be specific, be open, and be respectful. Until we all master those things, the changes in America’s future are not going to be good ones. Well I have been allowed yet another rant.

I have been receiving messages from a lot of the people I have met along the way congratulating me on the Obama win which I think is a little weird, but I accept it in the way it was meant. Tomorrow I am heading to Tours, France, a bit of a divergence from my plan of heading to Lyon, but I couldn’t find a cheap place to stay in Lyon. The beauty of this trip is that plans change everyday and I have accepted that. Peace and Good Luck.


More Pictures from the Trip
candles in the duomo in Florence Florence at night A lucky statue of a boar in Florence, you were supposed to touch his snout
The Bern Bear Bern skyline with the alps in the distance