the difference between Americans and Europeans

I've finally realized why most Europeans are less fat than Americans. They are going up 25 sets of subway stairs a day.(har) They are WALKING  up 4 or 5 flights of stairs to their apartments in old buildings with no elevators. They don't drive cars and do a lot of walking.

They are dodging foxes, rats and running away from sewer smells. They are standing waiting for buses that are either early or late, never on time. They are squeezing through crowds on the streets or in subway trains. They are sweating because there is no air conditioning in buildings or in their own homes. 

They are hanging wash because there are no dryers in the majority of homes. They are running to grocery stores daily because there are no big supermarkets in Europe. 

They linger over food and meals in restaurants instead of the gulp and run in America. There's a reason we call it fast food people. They spend evenings out of their homes, in parks, taking leisurely walks,  instead of sitting in front of a television set. 

Work and money are not the be all and end all of their lives. They are not what they do for a living. Spending time with family and friends tops everything else. There is a balance in life  but the balance seems to mostly swing toward relaxation and happiness.

  Just one persons observations.

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November 04, 2022 at 06:45PM

American apathy vs French activism during times of turmoil

France is my kind of place. The French have been a rebellious people throughout their history. If you look at their history, it has been one rebellion, protest, riot after the other continuing to this day.  

In 1229 there was a 2 year strike by students at the University of Paris. What's interesting about this is it started during a festival in which students got drunk at a tavern, there was a fight over a bill and the students were beaten up  and thrown out. They came back the next day and beat up the owner and destroyed the tavern. Students were not subject to penalties under regular law because the university was controlled by the church. This incident angered the towns population which led to authorities arresting may students and some were killed in the process. The strike started after that. 

Through the centuries here there have been riots, strikes, violent civil unrest, guerilla warfare. A lot of it was about taxes, food shortages, cost of bread. In 1789  the monarchy was overthrown in the 1st French Revolution. What followed were power struggles to get control of the government leading to the dictatorship of Napoleon. A couple revolutions later and a republic was established.

In May a period of civil unrest occurred with large demonstrations against capitalism, consumerism and American Imperialism (!). There was severe repression leading to a general strike by unions involving 11 million workers. Violence by the police and the government only spurred the movement leading to riots in the streets. There was fear that the government would be topppled and de Galle left the country for a short period.  An agreement was reached with unions for wage increases. The parliament was dissolved and new elections were held.

Very recently, there was a demonstration of thousands of Parisians on October 15, a couple weeks before we got here, about  cost of living increases. There have been strikes on oil rigs and in nuclear plants. Some strikes were settled. The cost of living is only going to go up no doubt leading to more demonstrations. Meanwhile U.S. citizens sit around, apathetic about the same situation, with little inclination to do anything about it. 

  

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November 04, 2022 at 01:08PM

Observations on my 4th day in France

Tourists act crazy in Paris, particularly instagrammers and tik tok types. They literally take their life in their hand to get a photo or video. 

They stand in the middle of the street, cars streaming around them, striking poses. Today at the Arc de Triomphe they were literally going out in the intersection and then having someone film them walking forward. It's scary but funnier than shit to watch.

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The Paris Metro is similar to the London Underground in one way: Stairs. When you transfer trains it is down hallways and up and down stairs. The difference: the metro here is remarkably clean and bright. The prices are SO MUCH. cheaper than London.

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Paris is similar to Vienna in that there are rows and rows of apartment buildings one after another for blocks and blocks that seem to go on forever. They are all the same height-about 5 stories. They all have ornate Juliet balconies. Some are architecturally unique. The difference: In Vienna almost every building had statues on top of them. 

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Paris is probably one of the coolest looking cities at night. All the restaurants are lit up at night in the neighborhoods and looking down the street is really cool. It feels like the city comes alive in the neighborhoods at night.

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French is such a beautiful sounding language. It's soothing to the ear. We have heard English with a  British accent, Scottishaccent, a Welsh accent, an Irish accent. We have heard German, Catalan, Spanish. Nothing is like French. 

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Something I  appreciate about French trains, metros, planes: They make announcements in English. Maybe that's the self centered American in me but it's nice. France seems a friendlier and easier place for tourists overall.

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Paris doesn't smell like a sewer. That's all I'll say about that.

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November 01, 2022 at 11:27PM

Smoking in the boys room in Paris

We are staying in a "boutique hotel" in Paris . Here is the definition of a boutique hotel:  

  a small stylish hotel, typically one situated in a fashionable location

This hotel has 142 rooms and I guess that is small by hotel standards. Is it stylish? Ok, it's stylish. Is it in a fashionable district? I wouldn't call it fashionable. It has lots of restaurants with a few sex shops thrown in. You and your friend Pierre can be eating a burger and fries at a table outside and across the street people are doing who knows what in "luxeux salons " at the L'ODYSSEX.  Kinda bizarre, but I'm just a naive little old lady from the midwest.(!) I guess that's just how they do things in this den of debauchery they call Paris. Har. 

So the hotel itself has a theme: art. There were 3 artists chosen to design 3 floors each. The floor we are on has a bit of  a dark theme. The halls are black with ghost looking animal figures in white. Our room has the same theme. It sounds more bizarre than it is. It's really kind of cool. The lobby has interesting artwork. They have art classes, cooking classes and different things here. 

The room itself is designed different than a gal from Minneee-soda is used to. First of all, the bathroom is a six by six coffin like box with a door (appropriate since we are close to the Paris catacombs). It is separate from the rest of the bathroom around the corner. The shower is in a corner and there is a short hallway in front of it. In the very short hall there is a sink. There is no door on this part of the bathroom. Very little privacy.  Weird design.

By the way, last night some naughty hotel guest either above or below us were smoking in there coffin like bathroom and we smelled it in ours, if you're wondering about the smoking in the boys room reference.

One interesting thing here, the people at the desk emphasized that there is not only a bar, but a speakeasy too. This place is just too damn hip.

I'm making this hotel and neighborhood sound weird, but it isn't at all. It's all kind of fun and different. That's what life's all about.

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October 31, 2022 at 06:06PM

Never tie your shoes in Paris

Oh what an interesting city Paris has been on the first day.

So even though we're tired this morning we decided to go see NUMER UNO, THE BIG ENCHILADA, THE STAR OF  THE SHOW !!!- Ladies and gentlemen - you seen it in pictures, on TV- THE EIFFEL TOWER!!!! (applause

So it's a two mile walk- a mere pittance in our long list of walks we have taken over the months. On the way, I stop at a small bakery for another French institution SI VOUS VOULEZ!  - the Parisian CROISSANT!!  Yes people, I got a croissant and a cappuccino and it only cost 3.50 euros!

I have found the Mecca and it's a bakery  on a non-descript corner a few blocks from the hotel. This place had all kinds of eye catching delights that could put back the weight I've lost on this trip in a couple days. The cappuccino and croissant were of course perfect. 

Getting back to the EIFFEL TOWER..we start on our journey. go about a block, turn and there it is in the distance- THE EFFEL TOWER!! Have to admit, all kidding aside, it's an impressive sight. It's almost like it's not real. That's not really the THE EIFFEL TOWER, but it is....and we really are in Paris.

So off we go, finally arriving and it is of course, teeming with people. So we join in the crowd, moving down the street and immediately are met by blanket after blanket of GITTERING miniature EIFFEL TOWERs for sale. Oh they have smaller, non-glittering ones for sale too, for those who are more boring and cheap. For the cheapest tourist, every blanket has a small corner of EIFFEL TOWER keychains, 5 for one euro. 

BTW, who is selling all of these EIFFEL TOWER trinkets? It's the same group as Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia - Africans. 

As you move along, the blankets start selling berets, some vinyl hat wit a chain in front, PARIS ball caps, PARIS shirts, totes, backpacks, umbrellas. EVERYTHING PARIS for todays modern tourist. 

We cross the street to the bridge over the Seine and on the bridge are purveyors of that ancient hustle - the shell game. Fascinating to watch. This was not for a dollar or five dollars, this was for 50 or a hundred dollars. 

It was obvious that the few people around the guy were part of the hustle. They won some but lost once in a while to make it look realistic. The thing is most of the time the ball was never under any of the cups but in the guys hand. I wonder how much money they make in a day?

Moving on, you could take your picture with a with a bouquet of red balloon hearts for a price of course. Meanwhile people were out in the middle of the street between lanes of traffic taking pictures of  with the EIFFEL TOWER in the background for instagram.

So here's the thing- I bought a beret (and PARIS ball cap for tomorrow), PARIS tote bag and backpack, PARIS umbrella, PARIS t shirt. I attached the glittering EIFFEL TOWER to the top of the beret (not an easy feat) and had my picture taken in the middle of the street with the bouquet of red heart balloons with the EIFFEL TOWER in the background. That was after I dropped  $500 on a couple of shell games. 

That folks was my first day in Paree.

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October 30, 2022 at 06:35PM

One thing social media got right

Google maps is a gift from the Gods. We never would have been able to navigate our way through these months of travel without it. 

When we get off trains or planes, it tells us exactly where to go to get to our next bus, tram or train to take us to the next place to rest our weary bods. We were never gonna be people who took a taxi from the airport. Too much money. 

So today we took a 45 minute train from Chuck De Gaulle airport to the neighborhood we're staying in and walked .7 mile to the hotel on a bag drag. 

We each are traveling with a suitcase and a backpack and even though I have left things behind, they never get lighter. I would only take a suitcase next time, forget the backpack. Or maybe just a rolling back pack. It's hard to know how much to pack for a months long trip. I role everything up to fit it in the suitcase. I put toiletries, jewelry, chargers cords, in zip lock bags. I have a cellphone and a tablet. Could have left tablet home. I packed too many clothes and have left at least 5 items of clothing behind. 

We don't buy souvenirs really. Mike bough a Arsenal soccer shirt and an Ireland shirt. I bought an Ireland shirt. That's it. My pictures will be the souvenirs.

Some things we haven't done is pay to get in many places. I have gone to a couple of free art museums, many free cathedrals. Paid to get into Gaudi Park in Barcelona. I just can't see spending a lot of money on tourist stuff. Paying to get into a church seems wrong. Cant do it. You could spend so much money on all of that and people do. Free stuff is more interesting anyway.

We could have took a train from Barcelona to Paris but it would have been a six hour ride with 3 train changes. Ah at this point, no. We took Easyjet and it cost about 50 dollars a piece. 

At first I was kind of leary of the low cost airlines like Easyjet, Ryanair, Transavia but after having used them, they are fine. A cheap, easy, reliable (for us anyway), to get around Europe.

Google maps and public transport get us around cities. And also our feet.  we walk to and from if it's less than a mile. 

We don't do much on the day of arrival. Just too tired. Between getting to train or airport, riding 2-4 hours, getting to next spot once we get there, ready for rest. 

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October 29, 2022 at 08:38PM

It's time to go home

This trip ends December 1st. We originally planned to it for a year spending a month in 12 countries. That didn't work out because it was just too expensive. When we end this we will have spent 26 weeks traveling.

Why are we ending it? Yes money is definitely a factor.  We could probably have squeaked by with money. The biggest reason is that we are tired. Just plain tired. 

This is not an easy way to travel, going from place to place all the time. Constantly changing where you are staying wears on you. Riding trains wears on you. You really start to long for the comforts of home. Your own bed.Your own stuff. Familiarity. 

This has been a juggling act of trying to figure out where to stay, how to get there. As I have talked about,  staying in airbnbs is a crapshoot. Mediocre most of the time. We've had a couple real bad experiences with them. You never know what you are going to get. Europe is old and with old buildings come problems. 

I don't know the process of becoming an airbnb host. Im sure that there are criteria you have to meet. I doubt anybody comes to inspect your place. I think once you are approved there is very little monitoring of their places. We have stayed in 11 airbnbs during this trip and there were only two that I would even think of staying in again. 

The hotels have been better. We have stayed in 6 and they have all been OK. Wow, we have stayed in 20 places by the time this is done!

Taking trains has been, shall we say interesting? On our first train ride in London, they didn't post the platform until ten minutes before the train left. When they did, there was a mass stampede as people ran for the train. We have sometimes been on 3 trains in one trip., having to run to the next platform to make the train. One time, they suddenly announced the train wasn't going any farther, we would have to get on a new train. Platforms have been changed at the last minute and there is a mad rush by everything to get there. Seating can be confusing, sometimes it's chaos.

I have to say, despite all that, the scenery on the train trips have been a highlight.

Every time we arrive at a new place we have to figure out how to get to our new home. Bus, train, tram? Where's the stop? How much is it? How do we pay for it? Where do we get off? In Europe, all this is in a different language. How are we going to get around the city? How much will that cost? 

When we get to the stop, how far to the place? We have walked a mile sometimes up steep hills to reach where we are going to stay each dragging a backpack and suitcase. 

Where is the nearest grocery store? Are there restaurants around? Is the area safe? 

In between all this, we have seen speculation sights, beautiful scenery which made it all worth it. Would I do it again? Of course. But alas, we are tired. I say this with a lot of sadness: It's time to go home. 

BTW, we will be spending last month in Paris and Lisbon.

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October 27, 2022 at 10:31PM