Ah, Paris

I think I might love France. Admittedly, I have just arrived in Paris and given that I am basically waiting for people to be rude to me, I am not expecting the mood to hold. Nonetheless, French people have been nice so far, so maybe it's all just a horrible cultural stereotype.

Want to know what isn't a cultural stereotype? French people going on strike. I suppose it isn't really a complete holiday until you have been in someway inconvenienced by striking French railway types, but I had vainly hoped to avoid it. Queue train strike the day I wanted to get from Nice to Lyon. Somehow I managed to get a seat on one of the few trains that were running that day but it involved queuing. Extensive queuing.

Nice was great. Beautiful weather. Having a picnic on a beach wall with Lauren, who I met in Munich, then La Spezia and the Cinque Terra, her friend Jen and two random American guys who had come all the way to Europe to see Radiohead. Twice. One was a lawyer who supported Hillary Clinton. I think I had to pick my jaw up off the ground. A young MAN who supported HC? It defied belief.

I liked Lyon, though I wasn't precisely sure what I was supposed to be looking at while I was there. So I kind've wandered aimlessly. It's a beautiful city. The weather was good. I was staying in a one star hotel with no windows to my room, which was excellent as it enabled me to sleep in. Not so excellent the way there was nothing to open to let the smoke stench out.

Now I am going ot report something that will make my mother despair of me. Cue Wednesday morning when I wanted to leave my one star hotel room. I couldn't find my keys. The door was locked. I tried unlocking it, and at that point I realised that I had left the keys in the lock ALL NIGHT. And it's not like I was in some secluded room. My room was right at the top of the first flight of stairs, which meant that EVERYONE in the hotel had to pass by my door to get back to their rooms. Worse, someone had turned it and locked it so I couldn't get the door open. I sliced my hand open playing (screaming at and aggressively turning) with the lock and banging on the door loudly. No one came to help. After about 20 minutes of this I managed to jiggle the lock just so and it came undone.

What made it worse was that I left the lock in the door that night as well, but only for about an hour before I realised that I may actually have premature altzeimers. Be assured, I am not normally this daft. Mainly because most hostels don't give me keys.

So far in Paris I like the canals and the way they give you a small baguette when you buy salad. I also think it is weird that you can get beer with a McDonalds meal. I think French people are beautiful. It's raining on and off.

Anyway, this hostel runs on a swipe card system and is truly the poshest hostel I have ever seen. There are little curtains that close on each bunk and you have your own reading light and power plugs within your little enclosed area. It is perched on a canal near where Amelie was filmed. Paris is such a cliche. As soon as I finsih this I am going to buy pastry.

And I am supposed to do what then?

So, you know how I said it has stopped raining? That was my overly optimistic side coming out. Queue thunder and lightning within milliseconds of each other last night. And

So I am in Cinque Terra, where you go to hike, with bad weather, a 'broken' foot (any med students want to do an over the internet diagnosis? It's been painful for week now), the easy walking trails shut, no ferry and I left my rail pass at the hostel. I am spending a lot of time on the internet at the moment.

However! I think we have had a break through - there may be one path we can do and the sun may be peeking out. There are more tourists in these towns than people who actually live here. It would drive me nuts.

BUT - it's still beautiful and I am still enjoying myself, even though I am not particulalry inclined to love French hostel owners at the moment. Don't get me started. Grrrr....

Should be heading to Nice tomorrow where I hope the weather will improve. I am beginning to feel jinxed!

Rome! By all means, Rome.

I almost didn't go to Rome. Every second person you meet says it's dirty, Italians are rude, it's expensive (granted) and some people have even told me that they wouldn't go back there if you paid them.

All due respect, they are wrong. It's beautiful. I loved it. I love how you can't walk 100m without falling over a piece of history or a store selling overpriced pizza by the slice. I love how things light up during the evenign and you can just wander around and feel like you're part of the city. I love that it was warm.

I didn't go to the Papl audience on Wednesday, using it as an excuse to get into the Vatican Museums wihtout having to queue. As an agnostic, I don't feel that it's really right to exploit something that is meaningful to someone's religion as a tourist event. Looking at art and architecture is one thing, actively participating in something that is not part of your faith is another. This was not clearly understood by the American tour guide trying to get me to go on his tour and go to the blessing. NOT BEING CATHOLIC IS A COMPLETE JUSTIFICATION FOR NOT GOING. Additionally, if you wanted me to list reasons why I am particualrly not a fan of this Pope...anyway. The museums were nice. The Sistine Chapel was smaller than I thought it would, as was the picture of the creation.

I loved the Colesseum. It looksed like an Asterix comic! Also smaller than I thought it would be.

Trevi Fountain was nice but it would be incredibly hard to imitiate La Dolce Vita without getting arrested or having 1000 other tourists in your photo.

I almost got killed by a Vespa only twice. I think that is pretty good. I am not entirely sure WHY they bother to paint zebra crossings in Rome. I think it's just to indicate to Vespas where they need to dodge tourists. Getting across the road is more weight in numbers to stop cars moving.

Currently in La Spezia and it has FINALLY stopped raining!

Catch Up

*Waring: This post uses the word 'breasts' quite frequently. If you can't deal with that, I am sure my next post will be anatomy free and deal only with statues and churches*

So, I haven't blogged for a while. Here's a summary.

Place I would Most Like to Move To
Berlin. They had a store where you could buy vintage clothes by the kilo and there was a happy hour every Tuesday where things were half price.

I also thought the memorial for the book burning was kick arse. The 170 tracks of Audio at the Jewish Museum was a bit much. But you can't have everything I suppose.

Best Moments
Meeting my German family which was intense.

Sunrise, town square, Krakow. After an amazing night out with some crazy Polish people.

Prettiest Place
Bled. Even though it kept raining and I decided to do a 6km walk around the lake with a bright pink umbrella and shoes that were in no way waterproof. But really, Slovenia looks like every fairytale you ever read.

Funniest Moment
My 88 year old great uncle from Bavaria telling me that I should buy a dirndle. He was trying to tell me why, but I don't speak German and he doesn't speak english. So there was quite a lot of gesturing. It turned out that he thought I should get a dirndle because I have big enough boobs to fill the front part. Thanks for that Uncle Reinhold!

German Words I Can Say
Hot, cold, big small, palace, castle, rock, swan, strawberry, asparagus, beer, wine, chilren, thankyou, how are you, water, cancer, goodnight, good morning, sausage

Mainly because they sound like the English words.

Biggest Cultural Stereotype Proved True
Italian men love women. They really, really love women. So much so that today a man followed me all the way home trying to get me to go to dinner with him. I did think for a while he was trying to mug me. Then I realised I was wearing a white shirt and it had been pissing down with rain. They're just boobs!! It is not necessary to walk several blocks in the rain for further observation!

Also, I went to a party in Bavaria with my family where they served steins of beer and women wore Dirndles without irony. That made my week.


Best Food
Currywurst

Other Random Things
I think 'The Birth of Venus' is lovely in real life. I have always liked it but it is a different colour in person. It seems lighter and brighter! Queuing for 2 hours to see it was not that fun though.

David was magnificant.

Beer gardens in Munich are ace. Ugly, naked German men are not.