Paris: The City of Lights

I never thought I'd say it, but the French got something right: Paris. Just kidding, the French have probably gotten more than just Paris right (bread... soup... ok that's the exhaustive list), but I was truly moved by what an immaculate city Paris is.


After we arrived on Friday, we checked in to our hotel (a block away from Moulin Rouge) and decided to blitzkrieg the museums. (Blitzkrieg - an offensive operational level military doctrine which involves an initial bombardment followed by the employment of motorized mobile forces attacking with speed and surprise to prevent an enemy from implementing a coherent defense. -Wikipedia. Perfect description of our approach) First, we spent a couple hours in Musée d'Orsay, a museum specializing in impressionist art. This was a pretty cool museum, architecturally, as it was converted from the former railway station, Gare d'Orsay. (On a tangent, I think the US should build more big train stations like Europe does, because they always seem to convert well into new things, like museums. We should model all of our train stations like the Train station in Antwerp, Belgium. Quite beautiful.) It is still easy to see how the building would have been a train station, with the large central corridor and the ornate clock. As far as the art inside the museum goes, I actually did enjoy some of it. However, I soon found it more interesting to look at a piece and give it my own title, rather than take it as the artist intended. I may make a gallery for all of these specific art pieces and my own personal captions. However, I must share my initial thoughts about one. Here you will see a statue, which I'm sure is quite famous in some way or another, but the only thing I could think about it when I was looking at it was," Man, that guy is completely naked and is waayyy too excited about it." There were areas of the museum that I did enjoy for their artistic merit however. I found out that I really do enjoy Van Gogh's work and I took numerous pictures of his pieces. He really mastered implementing movement into his work. I learned that that is something I enjoy in art: movement and rhythm.

After Musée d'Orsay, we refueled and launched the second offensive: The Louvre. The best part was, we arrived at the perfect time, because students happen to get in to the Louvre for free on Friday nights... So Brian didn't have to pay to get in... SCORE. Anyway, by the time we got to the Louvre, I was quite honestly, museumed out. I know, I picked a bad time to get sick of museums, but I couldn't help it. When we got in, all I really wanted to see was the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and the stuff that was mentioned in the da Vinci Code. Needless to say, I saw them, was relatively unimpressed, and was ready to leave within 30 minutes. Since everyone has seen those two works, I'm going to share some other pieces that I found interesting for one reason or another. Here is a painting that I took a picture of because I thought it looked like Waikiki beach in Hawaii. And here is quite possibly the most creepy looking guy I've ever seen. If that painting doesn't give you nightmares, you officially have ice water running through your veins. Aside from the art, I did find the lowest level of the Louvre pretty interesting. They still have the original foundation, complete with caverns and fun places to play around in. Again, the most interesting thing I found at the Louvre was the location itself. Especially at night, the area is quite a sight to see.

The next day, we finally got away from the museums and ventured to see some of the famous sights of Paris. Early in the day we spent some time wandering down the famous (or infamous...?) Champs-Élysées. I thought it was rather ridiculous that just because a store was on that street, they could hike up prices well beyond the normal price. For instance, the going rate for a Carmel Machiatto at Starbucks was over 5 euros. Absolutely ridiculous. Anyway, it was a pretty impressive street. We saw a watch with a 85,700 euro price tag. A little outside my price range. I'd say the most interesting thing about the street was that it lead straight to the Arc de Triomphe. We had already spent a good amount of time there (looking for our lost companion, Dan...) so we were familiar with the Arc, but it was an impressive sight every time we saw it.

After walking up the most famous street in the world, we decided to visit some churches. This was definitely one of my favorite parts about Europe, because if we're really being honest, we just don't make churches like they used to in Europe. I must have walked through a total of 20-30 churches while over the pond, and each one was unique and fascinating in a different way. The church we visited was Notre Dame. Initially, I was deeply disappointed to find that the gypsy's were no where near as good looking as Ezmeralda from the Disney movie. But other than that, it was an awesome place to visit. They did a great job of creating a somber and reflective atmosphere by minimizing light and relying on the stain glass and candles to do the lighting. I was a little irritated that I couldn't take pictures in there, and was even more irritated that lighting a candle cost something like 3 euros. Yet being in one of the most famous churches definitely made up for these downfalls. I think the most impressive view I got of the church was at night on our Bateaux Mouche tour (more on this later). Following Notre Dame was Sacré-Cœur Basilica. This church is a huge white structure located on a hill above Paris. From the church you can really see the whole city. Needless to say we had a great view from the top. We made it to Sacré-Cœur at a great time as we got to see vespers. We really had no idea what was being sung by these nuns, we could only realize when it was time to sit and stand by watching everyone else. But it was a really cool service to be apart of. There was a really interesting painting on the ceiling, depicting a diagram of the trinity. It was one of the few times I've ever seen an artist try to depict God himself. I'm pretty sure the artist didn't do The Big Man justice, but it was an interesting art piece none the less. Conveniently located close to Sacré-Cœur was an excellent restaurant where even I, a young American lad facing an unfavorable exchange rate and a tight budget, could eat a delicious 3-course meal. And my what a meal it was. Onion soup (normally we'd call it French onion soup, but as we were in France this adjective would have been redundant...), Lamb, and apple pie for desert. It was fantastic.


Alas, my favorite part of Paris is at hand: the Bateaux Mouche ride. If you have never taken a boat tour of Paris at night, you are most certainly missing out. Nothing showcases the City of Lights more than a cool summer night on a riverboat. I think we got on the boat right around 9pm, which was the perfect time. As we were getting on the boat, the sun was setting, so we were able to get some great views of the sunset behind the city. From the boat, the buildings were all illuminated and you could see everything reflected in the River Seine. We actually went by a great deal of the city on this tour, as a lot of the major things in the city are along the river, including Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and some other important government buildings. Unfortunately, a lot of my pictures came out a little blurry, as the boat was constantly moving... but it made for a great experience.
Sunday was our final day in the big city. We spent nearly the whole morning/ afternoon scaling the beast, aka- making our way up the Eiffel Tower. Let me begin by saying that I was wholly unimpressed by the Eiffel Tower during the day. However, at night it's like a whole new structure. The lights are fantastic. I actually could probably fill a while album with pictures I took of the Eiffel Tower (Note: The very first picture in this entry is not actually mine, it was taken by Neil Tailor. However, it was incredible and I felt the need to put it on this blog for the world to see.) It really is quite a piece of work. Forgive me for not going into more detail about the following pictures, but you get the idea: I went to the top... all the way to the top. The first picture proves it. The rest of the pictures are views of the city from the top.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, pretty much concludes my visit to Paris. Needless to say, I got on the bus and crashed after the Parisian Blitzkrieg. If being in Paris taught me one thing, it was that Paris is far too big to see in 3 days. My recommendation for future visits is block out a week. I feel like I did so much while I was there, but as is usually the case, there is so much I wish I would have been able to do. But... Such is life. But I'm looking on the bright side... having unfulfilled dreams of Paris just gives me an excuse to go back again later. Bonsoir!

Madrid: Viva España!

When I first began looking in to studying abroad, my heart was set on going to Spain. I'll be the first to admit that I suffered through every Spanish class I've ever taken. Quite frankly, my hatred for Spanish was rivaled only by my hatred for Chemistry. However, I've taken Spanish classes since I was in the 7th grade and felt as though if I were going to spend a significant amount of time in a foreign country, I ought to make use of the time I spent studying this subject. Additionally, I was fascinated by every aspect of Spanish culture and thought the country sounded beautiful. I was dismayed to find that Clemson didn't have any summer programs in Spain and I didn't want to go with an outside program. So I chose to come to Brussels as a second choice. I can now say that that was a fantastic decision on my part, as I've loved every minute of this trip thus far. However, when the opportunity to travel to Spain presented itself, I took the idea and ran with it.

I can now officially say that I have a new favorite European city. (I will preface that statement by saying that I have not even breeched the surface of all the cities in Europe) My trip to Madrid this weekend was absolutely awesome. I was only there from Friday around lunch time until Saturday night (technically into the wee hours of Sunday), but the whole time I felt like there was just so much to do and see in the city.

I'll start at the very beginning: How did I actually make it from Brussels to Madrid? After all, I'm on a pretty strict budget while here and cannot spend extravagant sums of money on traveling all over the place. However, we found an incredible flight deal through an Irish Airline called Ryan Air. The tickets were essentially free, we only had to pay processing fees, etc. With a deal like that, traveling across Europe rivaled the price of a train ticket in Belgium. So all of a sudden, visiting a completely new part of Europe (the Southern Peninsula) became a viable option... one that I jumped on immediately. We flew out of Charleroi, an airport just south of Brussels. This was no huge deal, as we just took a bus from one of the main train stations to Charleroi with no trouble at all. From there everything was essentially the same as an American flight, with check-in and security. That is... until we got on the aircraft. It was very different... Very commercial. It had advertisements everywhere for flights through Ryan Air and even advertised a buy one get one free deal on liquor (everything from vodka to tequila). There were also more seats than usual (I think). It was a 737 with three seats on each side of the isle. Maybe it just seemed like there were more people because the inside of the plane was filled with advertisements. Immediately after take-off, we came to the conclusion that the pilot must have been a WWI fighter jet pilot. The idea of subtle movements meant nothing to this guy. I've never felt the G-Force so strongly. Every time the aircraft made a turn, I either saw the ground or the sun... we're talking 70 degrees of rotation. The descent felt like I was on the Drop Zone. It really could have been Carowinds' newest thrill ride, except it was much more dangerous. I've never been happier to be on the ground... both because I was in Spain and because I was alive. Our return flight left at 6:30am and we had to check in at 4:30... thus, about 15 Clemson students camped out all night in Madrid International Airport. It was quite the experience. It actually worked out in my favor, as by the time I got onto the plane, I was so tired that I was able to sleep for the entire 2 and half hours. The sleep definitely was preferable to being in constant fear for my life. However, I was not comforted when the pilot came over the PA system and said "Ladies and Gentlemen, I regret to inform you that it's currently too dangerous to land at Charleroi... so... yeah we're going to circle around for about half hour and hope it gets better. Worst case scenario... we'll have to land in Leige." You never.. I mean NEVER... want to hear your pilot talking about worst case scenarios, especially when you're on a low budget airline and you really don't know the pilot's qualifications. Luckily, it all worked out and we ended up landing in Leige. They got us a shuttle back to the Charleroi airport and all was well. However, instead of getting back to our hotel at 10:30, we got back around 1. I then inadvertently slept from 1pm until 7:30 pm and my internal clock was increidbly messed up. That's all on the travel portion... now... to the story of Spain...

Spain was my first experience staying in a hostel. I must say... that is a great set-up. We stayed right in the center of the city... I'm talking great location. I've included a picture of the view from our window. But for 17 Euro's a night, we got a room with extremely comfortable beds (perhaps anything is really comfortable when you're that tired), and a FREE BREAKFAST in the morning. The breakfast was great too. Lots of bread and cakes and stuff. I confess, I did grab a couple for the journey home. The people there were also very nice and helpful. They would offered to keep our stuff in the hostel, even after we had checked out so that we didn't have to carry it all over Madrid. All in all, I'm a huge fan of the hostel system. If you can get over the "Mujeres de la noche" who were constantly outside the place, it's really a great set-up. This picture was taken from our room. I was impressed.

So what is so great about Spain, you ask? First of all, they have a recognized siesta time from around noon to 2pm. (Score 1 for Spain: Brian loves naps. What could be better than a culture that recognizes the beauty and necessity of naps?) Another great aspect of Madrid was the food. Across the board, prices were much better than any other city we've visited. When we got in on Friday, we grabbed a light lunch at a cafe (PS - a small coke was still like 2 Euro). And then... we found the tapas bars. Tapas were one of the selling points on Spain for me. What are tapas you ask? SNACKS. Since the Spanish eat very late dinners, they have a period from about 5-7pm where it is customary for you to enjoy tapas, or snacks, with your drinks form bars. (Score 2 for Madrid: Brian also loves snacks. You gotta love a culture that has snack time as a key element.) The set-up for most tapas bars is the following: you go in, buy a drink, and buy tapas to go with your drink. However, we found the most amazing establishment known to man. Appropriately, the most amazing establishment known to man is called "El Tigre," or the Tiger in Spanish. This tapas bar gave you a sizable plate of tapas for FREE. And they were absolutely delicious. They would give you all sorts of Spanish meats, like a cured ham or a pepperoni-like thing, with some olive oil on a piece of baguette, or different types of chesses with the same set-up. They also had a fried dough-ballish thing, filled with ham and cheese and who knows what else. However, what took the cake for me were these potato things. They were basically a basic roasted potato, but they had some sort of heavenly sauce over them. I have no idea what it was, but it was fantastic. It is really no wonder that this place was constantly packed ( I mean there were serious fire codes being violated here...) with locals on an almost constant basis. Needless to say, I got REALLY into these tapas and ended up eating tapas as a meal on multiple occasions. It was really a great deal, as I ate a full meal for about 1.80 or 3.60 (the price of one drink or two) and was extremely satisfied. I was so pumped that my favorite place in Madrid was called "The Tiger." I also have a new life aspiration to open a franchise in Clemson. It will be perfect. Look for it on College Ave. around 2028. Hopefully this will not interfere with my run at the American Presidency in 2032.

We also were incredibly lucky to go to a Bull fight while there. A group of us went to the arena to see about getting a ticket and were dismayed to find they were completely sold out. We talked to a few scalpers who were selling their 5 euro tickets four 40 Euro. That type of spending was just out of the question. Then, Abby, Caroline and I were randomly approached by a very nice Spanish gentleman. Unfortunately, he didn't speak a lick of English, and it took us a while to get over the language barrier. At first, I thought he wanted to take Abby and Caroline off into the Bull fight with him... which seemed very sketchy. But after about 30 seconds, he and I communicated very well together. It turned out he had 6 tickets and needed three people to go with him and his wife and another lady. He was actually very accommodating and was giving us the tickets at their list price. We ended up buying his tickets for 10 Euro's each. ( They were 9 Euro tickets, but we just gave him 10 each for being so nice and helpful.) He then took us in the arena with him and helped us find where we were. As we sat down he asked me who spoke the most Spanish of the three of us, and I told him I spoke more than Abby or Caroline but wasn't near fluent. He was really helpful the whole time and explained everything to me, including the significance of the event for Spaniards and how bull fighting is really an art for them. I was very impressed with my ability to communicate with him in Spanish. We really had no trouble communicating our thoughts to one another. He was incredibly warm and helpful to us. It was awesome to see how excited he got when the bull fighter (torrero) performed well or put himself in a dangerous situation. He was able to give me a true evaluation of every torrero and his performance in the event. He was very blunt in saying that one guy didn't do so well, but that the third torrero was one of the best. The bull fight itself was very interesting. If you can get over the whole killing of innocent animals and gore of the situation, it really was one of the best ways to experience the culture of Spain. As our delightful host informed me, bull fighting was the equivalent of American football. The arena was completely packed out with 30,000 people and everyone seemed to know what was going on. I'm going to spare the details of the actual bull fight, as the process is quite graphic, but if you'd like to know the whole story just let me know. I remember the details vividly. I have a pretty weak stomach, but I actually got into it and felt like a Spaniard while there. (Except I wasn't smoking a fat cigar... that was a crucial element for the men.) Interestingly, at the end of the bull fight, the best torrero walked around the arena and the spectators would throw random belongings to him. (hats were common, we saw a few jackets) Some people threw flowers, and one person threw asparagus... wasn't really sure about that. But it seemed really cool. I got the impression from the event that there was a great deal of sincere respect for the torreros and that respect and gratitude was reciprocated back to the audience.

Maybe it was because this was the first time I really got to experience a culture with a native while speaking their language, but I really felt like this was the most I've ever really embraced a culture that was completely different than my own. Even though I absolutely hated my Spanish classes, I really loved Spain and would be thrilled to get the opportunity to go back and work there some day. The people are amazing and the culture is really warm and friendly. Might there possibly be a summer internship at the US Embassy in Madrid in Brian's future? I'm going to seriously look into that. I don't say this often, but Madrid introduced me to a culture I really felt like I could enjoy for an extended period of time. Viva España!

Bruges and Cologne

For such a small country, Belgium has a great number of interesting cities to see. My most recent inter-Belgian day-trip was to Bruges (Brugge) in the North West region of Belgium. Belgium has three official languages: French, Dutch, and German (in a very small corner of the country close to Germany). Brussels is pretty much the dividing point between the northern, Dutch-speaking region (Flanders) and the southern, French-speaking region (Walloon). Brussels is located in the Dutch-speaking region, but French spoken by most people here. Luckily, almost all residents also speak English in Brussels. Bruges and Ghent are both located in the Flanders region and do not speak much English, making communications with the locals quite difficult. However, as I’ve documented previously they’re fantastic cities to visit.

Bruges is often called Belgium’s “Venice of the North,” because of the extensive canal system within the city. This was a totally new experience for me, as I’ve never been to a city with canals like these before. I must say, I was impressed. Engineering buildings and bridges in a city with so much water is mind boggling. The group took a boat tour, which was probably the most effective way to see the city and its sights.

A common theme for every European city I’ve visited thus far has been spectacular cathedrals and churches. The trend was continued in Bruges (and then thoroughly trumped in Cologne…). This picture is of the Church of our Lady. This church boasts the second highest brickwork tower in the world and is the tallest structure in the city. It is also home to one of the few works of Michelangelo outside of Italy. The Madonna and Child seen here is a huge tourist attraction in the church. I think the fact that it was created by Michelangelo is more impressive than the actual sculpture. I guess I have a very limited appreciation for art.

Pictured here is St. John’s Hospital. Dating back to 1188, it is one of the oldest hospitals in all of Europe. I was shocked to learn that it was actually in use until 1978. (How a building that was built in the 12^th century can still be competitive in 1978 is beyond me) Like most institutions of this nature, it was supported by nuns and monks for the majority of its life. However, the purpose of this hospital was a little different than what one would expect. It was primarily for travelers and pilgrims, and would only house the sick if their ailments were not serious or contagious. After 1978, the hospital became home to a museum. The picture here was taken from the canal on our tour boat.

Bruges is also famous for their hand sown lace works. I wasn’t incredibly thrilled or excited about these, but I did get to witness a woman knitting them, and it was quite intense. We saw a few Christening gowns and garments that the girls on the trip were quite impressed with. Personally, I preferred to admire the chocolate and architecture.

On Saturday, we ventured out of Belgium to the German city of Cologne. We traveled by train, which seems to be the most efficient means of European travel in this area. With the European Union’s efforts to eliminate borders within the EU, we were able to easily travel from Belgium to Germany with no customs checks or stops. Quite convenient. It was also very interesting cool to take a 2 hour train ride and be in another country with a different language and different culture. Brian is easily amused.

Immediately when we got out of the train station, the first thing we saw (after Starbucks of course… a sight for sore eyes) was this enormous cathedral. It was by far the most impressive I’ve seen since coming to Europe. Unfortunately, I didn’t take the picture taken at sunrise. I just included that for a decent picture. I was not able to get the whole building in one camera frame. I did however include this other picture with people on the steps so you can see how massive this church is.

So what do Americans do when we see really high structures? Go to the top of course. This was quite an undertaking. From the ground level, it was 509 stairs to the top of the cathedral. I can tell you honestly, that was a lot of stairs. It didn’t help that these were not normal staircases, but rather tightly wound, spiral staircases with people moving both up and down the tower. Why were there people coming down you ask? Everyone knows you just take the stairs up and the elevator down right? Wrong. No elevator. So after walking up 509 stairs, you must then walk down 509 stairs. Needless to say, when we got out of the Cathedral, my legs were a little shaky. I’d like to think that under different circumstances (shall we say some athletic shoes and a decent American meal in my stomach?) I would not have experienced this fatigue. Although the trip to the top was quite the climb, the views we got of the city were unparalleled.

In the afternoon, we visited a museum about the Nazi Party’s rise to power in Germany. The museum was converted from one of the buildings used by the Nazi’s to house prisoners. The first hour was quite interesting, as we got to see prison cells where the Nazi’s held pretty much anyone that was not a Nazi. It was really interesting/ disturbing to see the messages the prisoners wrote on the walls of their incredibly undersized prison cells. The rest of the museum was also interesting, but my attention span didn’t allow me to make it through the whole thing. After 3 hours, I was convinced that this museum held every piece of information there was to have about the Nazi party and decided my time in Cologne would be better spent seeing the city. All in all, Cologne ended up being fantastic for a day, but I’m not sure I would have wanted to spend more than a day there. On the other hand, Bruges was awesome, and I'd like to to attempt another day trip there to see the city in more depth.