Go Back a Page

¿Dónde está Parker?

Page 3

May 1, 2007, 12:15 PM Romance Daylight Time (EDT + 6)

Paris - Munich - Bavaria - Czech border, April 9 - 13

Today is Spanish Labor Day, so we don't have class. I looked forward to spending the morning relaxing on the beach, but of course, it was cloudy all morning. It's getting better now, though. We'll see.

The second part of our trip took us to Germany. It was easier travel getting there, as we needed only one flight between Paris and Munich. We were excited to not have to sleep in any airports. I enjoyed the train ride from the airport in Munich to the city, as it took us through the countryside and reminded me of Indiana. In Munich, Dave and I met up with two of our other friends, Scott and Sara, who had been in Copenhagen and Sweden while we were in Paris.

Dave and I had been a little confused as to the location of our hostel, so we stopped in another hotel and asked for help. The receptionist was nice enough to actually go to Google Maps and look it up for us. It was a pleasant start to our time there.

Once we did reach our hostel, we went out and explored the city a bit. It's a pretty nice place. It felt very safe, clean, and had more grass and trees than I'm used to seeing in European cities. I could write pages upon pages about Germany, but I'll cut it down to save myself (and you) time. We had a lot of fun there, as Munich might just be the beer capital of the world. It's the site of Octoberfest (Oktoberfest?), and contains about 5 or 6 different beer gardens. There aren't a whole lot of historical sites like in Paris, but the city is beautiful in a different way.

After plenty of beer (normal serving size in Munich: 1 liter) and great food, we left Munich on Wednesday afternoon, the 11th, to head to a small town in southern Germany (Bavaria), where we met up with Dave's friend Andy, who had been studying there for several months. He and a friend, Fernanda, stayed with us for most of our time in Bavaria. We stayed in the house of one of Andy's former host families that was nice enough to house 5 Americans (including Andy) for two nights. We watched "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," strolled around the countryside, and had a cookout with Andy's current host family. We also caught a bit of "The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross." I felt a surge of pride as the "WIPB Muncie, IN" flashed on the screen. We had a really fun time. Again, not many "sights," but probably one of the most fun parts of our trip.

On Friday, the 13th, we took trains from the countryside to Munich to Prague. In Germany, we had to take a train to the border of the Czech Republic, or as we called it, Czechosrepublica, get off, and walk across to another train. It was a unique experience, and I got a couple funny (or cheesy) photos out of it.

Munich
  I love the cars in Germany In our hostel, behind the reception desk.
So 24 hours/day, you can do Jagerbombs.
  Hofbraühaus  
Inside story Other inside story  
  Inside story again
  These next three are where they hold Oktoberfest
  Scott and the Canadian guy Awesome beer garden (Chinesegarten?)
 

Other Germany, Czech border
  Fernanda, Andy, Me, Sara, Scott, Dave
Dave's in Germany, I'm in CR   Those rocks mark the border

April 28, 2007 - 5:00 PM Romance Daylight Time (EDT + 6)

Alicante - Barcelona - Paris, April 4 - 9

Dave and I started our Spring Break trip by flying from Alicante to Barcelona. Our flight to Paris left early the next morning, so we decided to just sleep in the airport. (Sounds easy enough, right?) Well, I didn't die, so that's good. After lots of trains and buses around northeastern Spain (our flight to France left from Girona, which is about an hour bus ride away from Barcelona), we made it to Beauvais (of A Tale of Two Cities fame), which is about an hour bus ride away from Paris. So about 20 hours after we got on the bus to the airport in Alicante, we arrived in Paris.

Our first hotel was nice enough, but we opted against the 7-euro "Petit Dejeuner." The first evening, we walked past the Louvre on the way to the Eiffel Tower. We were fortunate to see the glittering light show that happens for a few minutes every hour at night. We walked up the stairs to the second level, and took the elevator (the only option) up to the top. It was pretty cool, a lot like the Space Needle or CN Tower, except in Paris.

The next morning, we visited the Louvre. It was pretty incredible to see, and really had too many paintings for just one visit. Your mind gets a little overloaded if you try to look at everything and make it through a lot of the museum. We did get to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, among others. That night, we went to the Latin Quarter, a "studenty" (as described by a French student we met) area, for a beer and cheap dinner. We survived a lot of our Paris trip on peanut-butter and banana sandwiches, as most restaurants (other than Turkish ones) were in the 20-30 Euro ($30-$45) range.

Saturday, we moved to our second place, more of a hostel than the other. It wasn't quite as centrally-located, but we met some nice guys from Scotland, and it had convenient access to some reasonable restaurants, Internet access, etc. After we dropped off our stuff, we visited the Catacombs. I won't detail the history, as you can find it on Wikipedia probably. There were thousands of bones, and it was quite a unique experience. I have some pictures from inside; contact me if you want to see them. That night, we had a "French" dinner of frozen food, including crepes and quiche and some wine from Bordeaux. That night, we explored the Pigalle area, where the Moulin Rouge and many, many other similar establishments are located. We didn't actually patronize any of the businesses, even though they had tempting names like "Sexodrome."

Sunday morning, Easter Sunday, I woke up early and went to the Sacred Heart Basilica (I forget how it's spelled in French) on Montmarte for Mass. I understood absolutely none of the words, but kinda knew what was going on. There were thousands of people there, and the mass was led by about 4 priests and a bishop. I didn't take any photos, mainly out of principle, as I was getting annoyed by all of the tourists walking past me taking photos while I was trying to pay attention to the mass. I do have pictures of the outside, though. That afternoon, we walked around the Notre Dame cathedral, which struck me as being very clean and light-colored. Dave said when he was in Paris ten years ago, the church was surrounded by scaffolding, so maybe that's what they were doing. We attended an organ concert there. Can't really describe it much, but it was no Dave Matthews Band. We left early.

Monday morning, we left early to head to the airport.

Paris: Sorry, not many captions
Audioslave album cover?   Me waiting in line for the Catacombs
  Royal with Cheese, and some Bordeaux

Go to Next Page