i'm back

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to post anything, mostly due to my travels and visits with friends. Let’s start where I left off, about two weeks ago. Two Thursdays ago, I went with the ISA program to visit the chateau of Versailles. I’ve been looking forward to this excursion during the whole time that I’ve been in Paris, since I’m very much interested (historically speaking) in the years leading up to the French Revolution of 1789. Unfortunately, the weather was horrible, rainy and cold, especially for visiting a chateau with acres and acres of garden. The chateau itself was very interesting, although I couldn’t help but wonder how accurate the placement and number of the furniture was, as I’ve learned that much of the original furniture was taken from the palace during/after the Revolution. Nevertheless, we had for the first time an audio tour (headphones…in English) that had a different numbered code for each part of the tour. I’m fascinated by the lives of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, and was therefore mostly interested by the facts about those particular rulers, but there were many others who had lived there as well.

Two of my favorite facts are as follows:

1) Benjamin Franklin came to Versailles to discuss with Louis XVI (in Louis’ bedroom, presumably while he sat in the bed, which makes me wonder what B. Franklin thought about that) the relationship between France and the newly independent United States in I think the early 1780’s.

2) On October 9th, 1789, Marie Antoinette and her children escaped through a secret door in her bedroom wall that is fairly disguised by the ornate painted details on the wall. It was really thrilling for me to be in that exact room in which such a pivotal event occurred.

A good thing about going to Versailles that day was that it was a holiday in France, so we were able to see the fountain show that is only done on holidays and weekends. The “show” consists of 2 hours during which the fountains are turned on and baroque music is played over the loudspeaker system. The greatest thing about it is the reason why the fountains are usually off: they still use the original pipe system of Louis XIV (the Louis who built the chateau!).

The next day, I left for Vienna at around 5 pm. My flight wasn’t until 8:20 pm but I was going to a different airport than usual (Orly) and I wanted to give myself plenty of time. I ended up getting there before check-in even began, oops. I learned something about the airports in Paris: they don’t have restaurants or food stands at all after the security check point. I was planning on eating dinner during the time I had before my flight, but decided to wait until after clearing security. I was annoyed to find that there was nothing, not even a working vending machine to get a bottle of water. So, I bought a cup of soup on the flight, which ended up being the European version of Cup-‘O-Noodles. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it had been properly prepared, but the stewardess simply added hot water to it and I was left with hard noodles and the spices all floating on top. Luckily, the flight was eventless and I got my luggage very quickly upon landing in Vienna. Beth was waiting for me at the arrivals and we got onto the bus that would take us into the city. The system is a lot better in Vienna for going between the city and the airport, the bus was very nice and a few euros cheaper than in Paris. At her dorm, Beth had a Radler waiting for me, which is a mix between beer and lemonade, quite good, especially since I don’t really like beer that much. We talked for a while and then went to bed. I was immediately jealous that she has internet access in her dorm room. The next day, we awoke and did a tour of the city, which is beautiful and teeming with grass and gardens and pretty architecture. It’s much more low-key than Paris, to use an analogy, I’d say Paris is to New York as Vienna is to Boston (not that I’ve ever been to Boston, but I’d imagine that it’s like that). Beth treated me to a traditional Austrian meal for lunch, which included schnitzel, goulash and dumpling, salad, and wine. It was delicious. We did some more walking around, got “eis,” which is basically gelato (I’d like to point out that I got 2 huge scoops that I couldn’t even finish for 2 euro, while in Paris it would have been 5).

Later that day, we went to Beth’s gym and took 2 exercise classes, as I was interested in what they’d be like (in German) and I’ve been craving intense physical activity lately. The first class was kickboxing and the second was a full body toning/step class. They were both taught by a bulky Austrian man with shaved legs and short shorts. It didn’t really matter that he was saying all the moves in German because you just have to follow along with the movements. It felt great to “be in touch with my body again,” as I like to say, as I have been away from the gym for about 3.5 months now and I hate the feeling of losing muscle and not sweating. I look forward to returning to Bally Total Fitness the moment I get back to Towson, although it’s going to be difficult at first to reinstate my 40 minute cardio routines. Going to these classes, however, has inspired me to take group classes at Bally, which I’ve never tried before.

The next day, we traveled about an hour outside of Vienna, to a small town called Durnstein. It’s along the Danube and surrounded by rolling hills, and atop one of these hills were ruins that we eventually climbed up to. We toured a baroque-style cathedral, very different than the gothic style that is prevalent in France; I think I prefer the baroque, it’s kind of hard to explain the differences, maybe even the use of wood instead of the all-stone gothic style? After lunch, we climbed the huge hill (with extremely treacherous terrain) up to the ruins, all in flip-flops, not exactly the appropriate footwear for the situation at hand. We finally made it up to the top to find a great view and the ruins of a fortress with a prison cell. While in Durnstein, I purchased a mini violin (I forgot to add that Austria is obsessed with Mozart) that I stupidly thought was an actual violin that I could play, only to find after purchasing it that it has pre-recorded songs that you can play by touching the bow to the violin, though you can control the length of each note. It’s kind of hard to explain. I have some great pictures that I will post of our journey at the end of this post. That afternoon, we returned to Vienna and got 2 euro standing-room tickets to see the ballet Swan Lake at the opera house. We only stayed for the first half because we had a pretty awful view of the stage from all the way on top/side, but it the music and what I saw of the dancing were beautiful. It made me miss ballet dancing.

On Tuesday, we had an afternoon flight to Amsterdam. We checked into our hostel, which ended up to be full of kids our age, and had free breakfast! We wandered around town and were amused by the millions of bikes that dominate the roads in the city. I didn’t realize that a) the city is based on many canals and b) Holland is the same thing as the Netherlands (why would there be two names for the same place?). I restrained the urge to buy wooden shoes, as they were expensive and would be heavy to take back with me. Beth bought a pair of slippers that are in the shape of the traditional Dutch shoe which are hilarious. We tried Dutch pancakes, which are a bit thinner than those in the US, but thicker than French crepes. I got mine with banana and Beth had apple. The banana on mine was mashed into the consistency of baby food, but it was ok. I think I prefer crepes. We saw the Anne Frank house and Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, neither of which did we actually go inside of due to lack of time/money.

We left the next day for Paris. I showed Beth the main sights and we had a great dinner at one of my favorite French restaurants where you can get an entrée (appetizer), plat (main course) and dessert for 9 euro. Anna and I took her to our fav ice cream place, Berthillon. We also did our traditional drinking-wine-under-the-Eiffel-Tower thing where we “had a ball.” Beth’s flight was Friday morning, and Jon got into Paris on Saturday morning. I tried to show him around as much as I could, but the weather was not at all conducive to sight-seeing, it was rainy and cold from Saturday to Tuesday.

This weekend, Anna and I have planned a journey to Strasbourg, which is in the Alsace region (home of flammekeuche and quiche Lorriane!), right next to the German border. We got great prices on train tickets and a hotel room, it should be a great time.