Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Reims et Loan
So April has finally arrived in France, and what more could anyone want to do in April than go tromping around the French countryside a bit since the weather is lovely and the flowers are blooming? Paris is becoming lovelier and lovelier by the day as well, but last weekend I set off to the French countryside to a little town called Reims, in the Champagne region (where real champagne comes from!) I left Saturday morning and spent the day outside in Reims… checking out the Cathedral and seeing everything there was to see. I also went on a champagne tour, and saw the caves where they make Taittanger Champagne, which was very interesting… and they gave me a glass at the end which was cool… and probably the most expensive drink I will every drink! The sun was lovely and it was a great day… then on Sunday I spent time exploring the countryside a bit more in Loan… it as a bit cooler, but still a good day! Here are some of the pics I took, since it was just a very easy going and leisurely paced trip. Enjoy the pics of the countryside, and you will see why I wanted to go check it out!
Berlin: Monday
I was excited Monday morning to head out into the city… but also sort of dreading what was inevitably going to end the day… another 13 hour train ride back to Paris which would arrive in Paris at 9:30 Tuesday morning… and I would then go from Gare de l’Est straight to work at L’institut du monde arabe. It was not going to be my first choice of ways and places to sleep before work on Tuesday, but that was rather far away and the excitement for the day far out weighed the slight dread I was feeling about the end of our time in Berlin.
The sky was very grey and as we took our breakfast on the road, it started to rain… however I had with me this time the umbrella that I brought to Europe with me from home in the first place. (who knew I had enough brains to actually bring an umbrella since generally we Moberg’s regard them as being superfluous to life…) but needless to say this means that the POS umbrella did not come with us to Berlin. In fact the last picture you saw of the POS umbrella you might remember was when Alana was in Paris and Matt was displaying its shit-tastic-ness in a photo… that was the last time that the POS umbrella made an appearance in public, it is currently living out its retirement in Matt’s room next to his refrigerator because I cant stand to throw it away just yet.
But after that little aside about the ongoing (and rather ended saga of the POS umbrella) it was raining as we walked through the park that morning, making our way from out hostel to the Bauhaus museum so that I could fulfil one of my life goals which was to make a pilgrimage there to complete my experience of Mac’s first year seminar which was about modernist architecture… which was perpetuated and purported by the Bauhaus, along with other modern ideas and art and objects and chairs. Lots of chairs. The only reason that I really minded the rain on Monday was because we were dragging our bags along with us all day so as to avoid losing time and trekking all the way back across the city to pick up our bags before we had to leave for the train. I and my coat are waterproof, and my backpack is only kind of water-proof… thus I was not thrilled by the rainy day. But the park we walked through was still lovely, and it is so nice because the promise of spring is everywhere as the trees begin to turn green, and flowers are popping up everywhere left and right! I am spent several days trying to come up with the French equivalent of the saying “April Showers bring May flowers” but I just haven’t been able to do it yet… so if you Francophones out there have any suggestions… it would be much appreciated.
We found the Bauhaus museum without much trouble at all, and it was very distinctive from the moment we saw it. The building itself was designed by Walter Gropius himself who was an integral part of founding the Bauhaus after World War I.
We dropped our stuff in the lockers which all of the museums provide for free (a deposit of one euro but you get it back!) and grabbed our audio guide things. Sadly you can’t take pics in the museum at all, which made me kinda sad, but that is ok. I was thrilled to realize that I knew a lot of what the audio guide was teaching me, and I remember almost everything from my class, and I rattled off the five main concepts to be incorporated into modernist architecture to Matt like I just finished the class yesterday. Can you believe that Matt’s dad is an architect, and they live in Illinois, and he has never been to see the Farnsworth house designed by Mies van der Rohe in Illinois? Gasp! I know, you are floored. We will be going up there next semester you can bet on it. But we thoroughly enjoyed the museum, seeing all the art and pottery and metal work and architecture and all the chairs… the Bauhaus guys really liked to design chairs. And before we left I made my first purchase yet from a museum gift shop! I bought buttons for myself and my beloved Alana… because even though she couldn’t come on the pilgrimage to the museum with me, she was there in spirit I know.
But during our visit I was really struck for the first time during that day (but not the last since our next stop was the Jewish History Museum) by how very deeply the Nazi party and their fascist regime of hate injured Germany at this time. Almost all of the minds who made the Bauhaus a brilliant reality during the 1920’s were forced to leave Germany by the end of the 1930’s. Their modernist ideas were not welcome under the Nazi regime, and they either had to stop producing cutting edge everything and go back to the 18th century, or go to the place where their ideas and cutting edge minds were very welcome… the United States. Germany’s “Brain Drain” as we called it in my high school European history class was very real, as they forced out anyone who was not in keeping with their ideas…and the human resources they lost are really unimaginable. And while it doesn’t do one much good to look at history and ask the question “what if things had be different” I can’t help but wonder how Germany and Berlin would be different, if the greatest minds of the time had not taken their mental resources elsewhere.
But we left the museum there and headed across the city a little bit to go and see another (controversial) building that we studied in my Modernist architecture class—the Jewish History Museum which was designed by Daniel Libeskind Jewish American architect to commemorate all of Jewish history.
The museum itself starts in the fourth century CE and goes up to the present day (sort of, but I am getting there). So first I will talk about the architecture and what I think of the building… then what I think of what is inside the museum. The architecture of the building is definitely striking. I could only take pictures of the side of the building, but check out the wikipedia article if you want to see what it looks like from above which is probably one of the most interesting aspects of it. It is in a zigzag shape, the entire building.
Then when you go inside the shape is easy to make out when you are in the basement of the building which is divided up into three axes called the Continuity axis (I think) and then one for the exodus (out of Israel I assume it is sort of ambiguous) and then one for the Holocaust, which ends in the chamber of memory… a stark room with no heat and a hole in the ceiling which lets light in… here is my pic of it, but it doesn’t look like much because it was so dark. I think in general the building captures the spirit of the museum, of the story it is trying to tell, and that is always up for interpretation. 
But I am not so sure that I am overly fond of the narrative the museum presents in terms of Jewish History.
I said this same thing freshman year when we learned about the museum and its goals in Mac’s class, but I tried to reserve total judgement until I had gone to see the museum for myself… and now I still think the same thing. I am not sure that the museum focuses on the aspects of Jewish history in the way that it should. Disclaimer here, I am not Jewish, nor am I a scholar of Jewish history, so I am not particularly qualified or justified in having this opinion. This is simply my opinion, and I would like someone to tell me otherwise so that I can change it. I just think that the museum has the attitude of “look what the world has done to us, it hates us, over and over again…” which is true, they Jews have not had an easy time of it in Europe. But it seems to me that they could have spun their larger narrative in a way that would say, “look the world has not been kind to us, but we as a people and a culture have persevered, and we are here triumphant to tell the tale toady;” Like I said I don’t get to really have an opinion on the issue, it just seems that overall this would be a more positive way for them to spin their history, and still be able to talk about the centuries of persecution they have been subject too… and overcome.
Although based on current Israeli politics, perhaps this is not actually how they feel about their history, and they do not seem to have learned from the persecution they have faced as they actively persecute the Palestinians… but this blog is not a political one… In fact the final thing that I found very interesting about the museum was that there is no display about Israel… they don’t even mention it. I feel like they could be trying to avoid the politics of it… but is no statement the same as making a statement in favour of Israeli politics? I don’t know. I just thought it was really interesting that they didn’t mention the state of Israel at all. The other thing about the museum was that for the second time during that day I was made aware again of how deeply the brain drain of the 1930’s injured Germany. Thousands of Jews and non Jews alike fled in the years preceding the Second World War, minds like Einstein and others who changed the world… but they had to do it from British or American soil. It just blows my mind.
On our way to the train station we came upon an outside exhibit and stopped to look at it briefly.
It turns out they are finally working on building a museum where the headquarters of the SS used to be… which has been neglected for so long because it happens to be located right on the border where the wall used to be, and it was sort of lost in the shuffle and the tension that surrounded the wall for so many years. In this place there is also the only part of the wall that still remains… and it was pretty torn up, but it was there just the same, which I thought was very interesting to see
.
Then we headed to have dinner at a place that was almost like Casa Grande… but not quite before we got back on the train to head to Paris. Only the train ride back we had beds to sleep in rather than just seats… which made life much more comfortable, and it made Tuesday at work much more pleasant as well! Over all Berlin was wonderful, and going there helped me to ask as many questions as it answered… and I would love to go back to explore even more.
The sky was very grey and as we took our breakfast on the road, it started to rain… however I had with me this time the umbrella that I brought to Europe with me from home in the first place. (who knew I had enough brains to actually bring an umbrella since generally we Moberg’s regard them as being superfluous to life…) but needless to say this means that the POS umbrella did not come with us to Berlin. In fact the last picture you saw of the POS umbrella you might remember was when Alana was in Paris and Matt was displaying its shit-tastic-ness in a photo… that was the last time that the POS umbrella made an appearance in public, it is currently living out its retirement in Matt’s room next to his refrigerator because I cant stand to throw it away just yet.
But after that little aside about the ongoing (and rather ended saga of the POS umbrella) it was raining as we walked through the park that morning, making our way from out hostel to the Bauhaus museum so that I could fulfil one of my life goals which was to make a pilgrimage there to complete my experience of Mac’s first year seminar which was about modernist architecture… which was perpetuated and purported by the Bauhaus, along with other modern ideas and art and objects and chairs. Lots of chairs. The only reason that I really minded the rain on Monday was because we were dragging our bags along with us all day so as to avoid losing time and trekking all the way back across the city to pick up our bags before we had to leave for the train. I and my coat are waterproof, and my backpack is only kind of water-proof… thus I was not thrilled by the rainy day. But the park we walked through was still lovely, and it is so nice because the promise of spring is everywhere as the trees begin to turn green, and flowers are popping up everywhere left and right! I am spent several days trying to come up with the French equivalent of the saying “April Showers bring May flowers” but I just haven’t been able to do it yet… so if you Francophones out there have any suggestions… it would be much appreciated.
We found the Bauhaus museum without much trouble at all, and it was very distinctive from the moment we saw it. The building itself was designed by Walter Gropius himself who was an integral part of founding the Bauhaus after World War I.
We dropped our stuff in the lockers which all of the museums provide for free (a deposit of one euro but you get it back!) and grabbed our audio guide things. Sadly you can’t take pics in the museum at all, which made me kinda sad, but that is ok. I was thrilled to realize that I knew a lot of what the audio guide was teaching me, and I remember almost everything from my class, and I rattled off the five main concepts to be incorporated into modernist architecture to Matt like I just finished the class yesterday. Can you believe that Matt’s dad is an architect, and they live in Illinois, and he has never been to see the Farnsworth house designed by Mies van der Rohe in Illinois? Gasp! I know, you are floored. We will be going up there next semester you can bet on it. But we thoroughly enjoyed the museum, seeing all the art and pottery and metal work and architecture and all the chairs… the Bauhaus guys really liked to design chairs. And before we left I made my first purchase yet from a museum gift shop! I bought buttons for myself and my beloved Alana… because even though she couldn’t come on the pilgrimage to the museum with me, she was there in spirit I know.
But during our visit I was really struck for the first time during that day (but not the last since our next stop was the Jewish History Museum) by how very deeply the Nazi party and their fascist regime of hate injured Germany at this time. Almost all of the minds who made the Bauhaus a brilliant reality during the 1920’s were forced to leave Germany by the end of the 1930’s. Their modernist ideas were not welcome under the Nazi regime, and they either had to stop producing cutting edge everything and go back to the 18th century, or go to the place where their ideas and cutting edge minds were very welcome… the United States. Germany’s “Brain Drain” as we called it in my high school European history class was very real, as they forced out anyone who was not in keeping with their ideas…and the human resources they lost are really unimaginable. And while it doesn’t do one much good to look at history and ask the question “what if things had be different” I can’t help but wonder how Germany and Berlin would be different, if the greatest minds of the time had not taken their mental resources elsewhere.
But we left the museum there and headed across the city a little bit to go and see another (controversial) building that we studied in my Modernist architecture class—the Jewish History Museum which was designed by Daniel Libeskind Jewish American architect to commemorate all of Jewish history.
The museum itself starts in the fourth century CE and goes up to the present day (sort of, but I am getting there). So first I will talk about the architecture and what I think of the building… then what I think of what is inside the museum. The architecture of the building is definitely striking. I could only take pictures of the side of the building, but check out the wikipedia article if you want to see what it looks like from above which is probably one of the most interesting aspects of it. It is in a zigzag shape, the entire building.
Then when you go inside the shape is easy to make out when you are in the basement of the building which is divided up into three axes called the Continuity axis (I think) and then one for the exodus (out of Israel I assume it is sort of ambiguous) and then one for the Holocaust, which ends in the chamber of memory… a stark room with no heat and a hole in the ceiling which lets light in… here is my pic of it, but it doesn’t look like much because it was so dark. I think in general the building captures the spirit of the museum, of the story it is trying to tell, and that is always up for interpretation. 
But I am not so sure that I am overly fond of the narrative the museum presents in terms of Jewish History.I said this same thing freshman year when we learned about the museum and its goals in Mac’s class, but I tried to reserve total judgement until I had gone to see the museum for myself… and now I still think the same thing. I am not sure that the museum focuses on the aspects of Jewish history in the way that it should. Disclaimer here, I am not Jewish, nor am I a scholar of Jewish history, so I am not particularly qualified or justified in having this opinion. This is simply my opinion, and I would like someone to tell me otherwise so that I can change it. I just think that the museum has the attitude of “look what the world has done to us, it hates us, over and over again…” which is true, they Jews have not had an easy time of it in Europe. But it seems to me that they could have spun their larger narrative in a way that would say, “look the world has not been kind to us, but we as a people and a culture have persevered, and we are here triumphant to tell the tale toady;” Like I said I don’t get to really have an opinion on the issue, it just seems that overall this would be a more positive way for them to spin their history, and still be able to talk about the centuries of persecution they have been subject too… and overcome.
Although based on current Israeli politics, perhaps this is not actually how they feel about their history, and they do not seem to have learned from the persecution they have faced as they actively persecute the Palestinians… but this blog is not a political one… In fact the final thing that I found very interesting about the museum was that there is no display about Israel… they don’t even mention it. I feel like they could be trying to avoid the politics of it… but is no statement the same as making a statement in favour of Israeli politics? I don’t know. I just thought it was really interesting that they didn’t mention the state of Israel at all. The other thing about the museum was that for the second time during that day I was made aware again of how deeply the brain drain of the 1930’s injured Germany. Thousands of Jews and non Jews alike fled in the years preceding the Second World War, minds like Einstein and others who changed the world… but they had to do it from British or American soil. It just blows my mind.
On our way to the train station we came upon an outside exhibit and stopped to look at it briefly.
It turns out they are finally working on building a museum where the headquarters of the SS used to be… which has been neglected for so long because it happens to be located right on the border where the wall used to be, and it was sort of lost in the shuffle and the tension that surrounded the wall for so many years. In this place there is also the only part of the wall that still remains… and it was pretty torn up, but it was there just the same, which I thought was very interesting to see
.Then we headed to have dinner at a place that was almost like Casa Grande… but not quite before we got back on the train to head to Paris. Only the train ride back we had beds to sleep in rather than just seats… which made life much more comfortable, and it made Tuesday at work much more pleasant as well! Over all Berlin was wonderful, and going there helped me to ask as many questions as it answered… and I would love to go back to explore even more.
Berlin: Sunday
So we woke up to the chiming of Easter Church bells on Sunday Morning, calling us out into the sunshine of Berlin… to explore the city even more, and to go to the places that Dr. Bruggeman had written us so much about. However, we had a very important stop to make before we continued our adventures on Museum Isle… a place that the slightly homesick for America in us just couldn’t pass up. Dunkin Donuts. They have Dunkin’ Donuts all over the place in Berlin… as well as Starbucks and other American type places, but really the only one that was of interest to us was Dunkin’ Donuts. Matt has many fond memories of the place from when he used to go with his Grandpa for breakfast as a small child (we all have places like that you know… my Grandpa always used to take Mirandy and I to Walmart with him)and so clearly a stop at Dunkin’ Donuts was on the agenda for the morning. Yes we did eat three donuts each in one sitting (you can see all six in the picture of Matt here where he looks like he is going to explode with happiness)
but could really only stomach down about half the coffee… not good coffee like in the states. I think they just don’t understand drip coffee on this continent. That is ok with me because I have become extremely fond of my little shots of espresso with sugar in them that I drink almost every morning… and maybe Europeans should just stick to that. The people at Matt’s internship call American style coffee “sock water” and it is no wonder because if they think that all American style coffee tastes like the coffee we had at Dunkin’ Donuts then it did taste like sock water. Not good coffee, but you can’t mess up donuts! It was lovely!
After breakfast we still had a lot of time before we had our appt at the New Museum, so we set off to explore parts of the city that had been recommended to us both by Dr. Burggeman and by Mac. We wandered over to an artsy part of down town called Tacheles on Oranienburger Strasse in the ruin of an old department store, where there were all kinds of artsy things to see.
Near there we went and saw the New Synagogue which was really lovely, but there was a line to go inside so we just took some pictures and imagined what it must have looked like after Kristalnacht where in it was completely destroyed. We then walked down the street even more to find some courtyards that were lovely, with tiled walls and all kinds of little gardens and things called Hackesche Höfe. It was really very lovely, and it makes it very hard to even imagine how the city must have felt when it looked the way it did in my grandpa’s pictures. 
We had to take another coffee break and get some espresso since our nasty sock water just didn’t cut it for our caffeine fix for the morning… and the sun shone really nicely so we just wanted to keep walking and discovering new courtyards and little shops forever!
Fully sugared up from the donuts and caffeinated from the espresso stop, we set off to explore Museum Island a little bit more before our reservation at the Neus museum. (the new museum, which used to be the old museum…) at 1:30. This museum was actually very interesting because it was the last museum to reopen after WWII, and it did so very recently. When it reopened, it officially marked the end of the period of destruction after the war, and finally, all five museums on the Island were open again to the public since their existence had been interrupted starting in 1933. We always think about how Europe was destroyed during both of the World Wars, but Germany had it very hard near the end of the Second World War…and then the division of the country and everything,it really is no wonder it has taken them close to sixty years to fully recover from the devastation of the war. And many of the objects that were once in their collections were destroyed, either by bombings or by exposure to the elements for many months after the bombings before the country could even begin to get itself back together. I can imagine that there is much mixed sentiment about whether or not the country could really be upset after the war because they fought long and hard for a very large force of evil… but I still hate to think of Allied bombs dropping on Berlin and destroying archaeological findings that once documented a species of prehistoric humans… so much knowledge was lost, and irreplaceable things as well. It makes me rather sick to think that war destroys so much… and that it continues to go on in the 21st century. The same think happened in Iraq in 2003, when the US forces neglected to protect the one of the most prominent museums in Baghdad, and the museum was bombed and looted, and some many priceless things were lost to the known world of knowledge probably forever. It makes me feel like crying and vomiting just to think about it… are we ever going to get our priorities straight? I just don’t know.
On really nice thing about museums in Berlin, is that included in the price of your ticket (or in our cases our three day passes) is an audio tour in your own language which allows you to learn and understand much more about what you are seeing. The guides also tell you about the history of the buildings and how they were rebuilt after the war, and what happened to a lot of things that were lost… it was really fascinating. One of the coolest things we saw in the New Museum was a bust of Neffretiti which is more than 3000 years old and in near perfect condition. It is a wonder that anything like this survives to this day, considering time wears on things in general, but we are also really good at destroying ourselves… but it was really very cool to see.
After this museum, we set out to find some lunch, even though it was like four o’clock. We had some brats on the side of the street near a little market, as you can see in this picture… I had currywurst which is a strange combination of flavours involving hotdog, ketchup and curry powder… random but delicious!
We then set out to do some neighbourhood exploring on Easter Sunday… and first we headed down to the Berlin equivalent of the Champs de Lycee called Kurfurstendamm and walked and walked, but most of the shops were closed either because it was easter, or because it was Sunday, it was hard to say. But we weren’t really all that interested in shopping; just walking and looking so it was perfect. Then we jumped on the metro and headed up to the Alexanderplatz where we discovered a lovely little Easterfest thing going on… we walked around in it, but made our way just beyond it on the tram into the old east neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg near the Kollwitzplatz, where we found a side walk café which offered us blankets so that we could sit outside and enjoy the evening without freezing! It was lovely, and here is a pic of the night sky and the café!
But as the sun set our stomachs were certainly growling again after all of the walking we had done. We were so hungry, that anything and everything sounded good… and the only solution to that kind of hungry is clearly to find some cheap Indian food! Yum yum! Why does Paris not have cheap Indian food? They have Indian food, don’t get me wrong, but why is it not cheap? Why God Why? Anyway, we filled our bellies for sure on curry and naan (thanks for the recommendation Mac!) and discussed the days events, and plans for the following day.
If I were going to live in Berlin (which would be difficult since I don’t speak a word of German beyond bitta and danke and nine) I would want to live in this little neighbourhood because it had so many yummy looking restaurants and nice apartment buildings and little shops that I am sure I could have spent hours looking in, if it hadn’t been close to 11:30pm and everything was closed… and my eyes kept wanting to close too, and we made the trek back across the quiet city to our hostel, with many of the sites and sounds and smells of the day swirling around in our heads with high hopes for tomorrow to explore the Bauhaus Museum and the Jewish History Museum… and after walking all day around the city, I slept very well that night.
but could really only stomach down about half the coffee… not good coffee like in the states. I think they just don’t understand drip coffee on this continent. That is ok with me because I have become extremely fond of my little shots of espresso with sugar in them that I drink almost every morning… and maybe Europeans should just stick to that. The people at Matt’s internship call American style coffee “sock water” and it is no wonder because if they think that all American style coffee tastes like the coffee we had at Dunkin’ Donuts then it did taste like sock water. Not good coffee, but you can’t mess up donuts! It was lovely!After breakfast we still had a lot of time before we had our appt at the New Museum, so we set off to explore parts of the city that had been recommended to us both by Dr. Burggeman and by Mac. We wandered over to an artsy part of down town called Tacheles on Oranienburger Strasse in the ruin of an old department store, where there were all kinds of artsy things to see.
Near there we went and saw the New Synagogue which was really lovely, but there was a line to go inside so we just took some pictures and imagined what it must have looked like after Kristalnacht where in it was completely destroyed. We then walked down the street even more to find some courtyards that were lovely, with tiled walls and all kinds of little gardens and things called Hackesche Höfe. It was really very lovely, and it makes it very hard to even imagine how the city must have felt when it looked the way it did in my grandpa’s pictures. 
We had to take another coffee break and get some espresso since our nasty sock water just didn’t cut it for our caffeine fix for the morning… and the sun shone really nicely so we just wanted to keep walking and discovering new courtyards and little shops forever!
Fully sugared up from the donuts and caffeinated from the espresso stop, we set off to explore Museum Island a little bit more before our reservation at the Neus museum. (the new museum, which used to be the old museum…) at 1:30. This museum was actually very interesting because it was the last museum to reopen after WWII, and it did so very recently. When it reopened, it officially marked the end of the period of destruction after the war, and finally, all five museums on the Island were open again to the public since their existence had been interrupted starting in 1933. We always think about how Europe was destroyed during both of the World Wars, but Germany had it very hard near the end of the Second World War…and then the division of the country and everything,it really is no wonder it has taken them close to sixty years to fully recover from the devastation of the war. And many of the objects that were once in their collections were destroyed, either by bombings or by exposure to the elements for many months after the bombings before the country could even begin to get itself back together. I can imagine that there is much mixed sentiment about whether or not the country could really be upset after the war because they fought long and hard for a very large force of evil… but I still hate to think of Allied bombs dropping on Berlin and destroying archaeological findings that once documented a species of prehistoric humans… so much knowledge was lost, and irreplaceable things as well. It makes me rather sick to think that war destroys so much… and that it continues to go on in the 21st century. The same think happened in Iraq in 2003, when the US forces neglected to protect the one of the most prominent museums in Baghdad, and the museum was bombed and looted, and some many priceless things were lost to the known world of knowledge probably forever. It makes me feel like crying and vomiting just to think about it… are we ever going to get our priorities straight? I just don’t know.
On really nice thing about museums in Berlin, is that included in the price of your ticket (or in our cases our three day passes) is an audio tour in your own language which allows you to learn and understand much more about what you are seeing. The guides also tell you about the history of the buildings and how they were rebuilt after the war, and what happened to a lot of things that were lost… it was really fascinating. One of the coolest things we saw in the New Museum was a bust of Neffretiti which is more than 3000 years old and in near perfect condition. It is a wonder that anything like this survives to this day, considering time wears on things in general, but we are also really good at destroying ourselves… but it was really very cool to see.
After this museum, we set out to find some lunch, even though it was like four o’clock. We had some brats on the side of the street near a little market, as you can see in this picture… I had currywurst which is a strange combination of flavours involving hotdog, ketchup and curry powder… random but delicious!
We then set out to do some neighbourhood exploring on Easter Sunday… and first we headed down to the Berlin equivalent of the Champs de Lycee called Kurfurstendamm and walked and walked, but most of the shops were closed either because it was easter, or because it was Sunday, it was hard to say. But we weren’t really all that interested in shopping; just walking and looking so it was perfect. Then we jumped on the metro and headed up to the Alexanderplatz where we discovered a lovely little Easterfest thing going on… we walked around in it, but made our way just beyond it on the tram into the old east neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg near the Kollwitzplatz, where we found a side walk café which offered us blankets so that we could sit outside and enjoy the evening without freezing! It was lovely, and here is a pic of the night sky and the café! But as the sun set our stomachs were certainly growling again after all of the walking we had done. We were so hungry, that anything and everything sounded good… and the only solution to that kind of hungry is clearly to find some cheap Indian food! Yum yum! Why does Paris not have cheap Indian food? They have Indian food, don’t get me wrong, but why is it not cheap? Why God Why? Anyway, we filled our bellies for sure on curry and naan (thanks for the recommendation Mac!) and discussed the days events, and plans for the following day.
If I were going to live in Berlin (which would be difficult since I don’t speak a word of German beyond bitta and danke and nine) I would want to live in this little neighbourhood because it had so many yummy looking restaurants and nice apartment buildings and little shops that I am sure I could have spent hours looking in, if it hadn’t been close to 11:30pm and everything was closed… and my eyes kept wanting to close too, and we made the trek back across the quiet city to our hostel, with many of the sites and sounds and smells of the day swirling around in our heads with high hopes for tomorrow to explore the Bauhaus Museum and the Jewish History Museum… and after walking all day around the city, I slept very well that night.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Berlin: Saturday
The pics might not line up perfectly but you can figure everything out I am sure…
So easter in Europe is a big holiday. I find it very ironic the France, the country which prides itself on “laicite”- that is secularism and separation of church and state, has completely shuts down for one of the days which is traditionally one of the most religiously based holidays, well, ever. Easter, the day that celebrates one of the most debated aspects of Christianity, that the celebration of would confirm or throw out your belief of the miracle of the resurrection, is a huge holiday… but they are completely secular… don’t get me started on that.
But on the plus side, I did not have to work the Monday after Easter, so Matt and I decided to take advantage of the long weekend, and make the 13 hour trek by overnight train to Berlin for three days, to see everything we could possibly see between Saturday morning and Monday night. We then planned on getting back on the overnight train and heading back to Paris to go to work on Tuesday morning. We just wanted to make the most of the weekend, and spend as much time in Berlin as possible, and this plan allowed us to do just that.
So when work was over on Friday, we went over to the train station and had a nice dinner before we left so we wouldn’t be hungry on the way, then boarded the train at about 8:00pm for Berlin.
Thirteen hours spent on any mode of transportation is a long time to spend, but if I have to pick one form, I think I would pick a train for long trips. You can move around the easiest, and you have the most room in the bathroom. The train we rode to Berlin was another Harry Potter train… we sat in a compartment that had eight seats that really should have been going to Hogwarts, but the thing was we only had seats (the cheapest way of course) and it made for a strange night of sleep, but there is nothing in the world a little Melatonin can’t help you sleep through, at least in my opinion, and we arrived in Berlin, a little sleepy eyed, but not feeling horrible at around 9am, ready for a day of adventures! We trekked over to our hostel, which was actually a huge youth hostel. I haven’t stayed at a ton of hostels in my life, but this one was pretty big, but clean and pretty quiet. So we dropped off our bags since our room wasn’t ready, picked up a couple maps and went to find some coffee (much needed) and a little breakfast and to let our adventures begin.
There were several things we knew that we wanted to do for sure, and those included the visiting the Holocaust memorial which Matt wrote a research paper about for our post World War II
Honour Scholar seminar second semester freshman year, and we wanted to see the Jewish history museum which was designed by the Jewish architect Daniel Liebskind that I studied in my Modernist architecture seminar first semester freshman year. Side note: This is why being a HoScho is awesome… you study so many different things! I could go and see things I learned about in my Evolution and Human Nature seminar in Italy, and go see the memorials we learned about in my Germany seminar and the architects and buildings I learned about in another seminar. I love being a hoscho… don’t ask me next year at this time when I am finishing my thesis…
But we also had in our possession an email from the wonderful Professor Julia Bruggeman in our hands, which was really better than any guide book we could have ever even dreamed of buying! She told us about cool buildings and great restaurants and entire neighbourhoods not to miss! It was really great. We were worried a little that a lot of things would be closed for Easter, as they were in France, but because Germany does not have quite the catholic history that France has everything was open. A lot of the stores were closed on Sunday, but I think that is normal… and understandably nothing having to do with Jewish history ect. was closed on Easter either, so we did not have a problem with that!
We had a coffee and some yummy pastries and headed out to find the Museum Island which is home to five large museums which have all kinds of things from all different ages and places in them.
We started with the Perggamonn museum which is home to the Pergamon alter and the Ishtar gate, and a really old wall from Babylon… lots of really cool historical things. But in my opinion, just as cool as the stuff in the museums,
are the museums themselves, who were almost all badly damaged during World War II and a lot of the artifacts that are still housed in them suffered during wars, and have had to be restored because they were damaged by rain and bombs and fires. I find all of that to be very interesting personally.
The museum was cool, and then we headed out to find some other sights of the city… the Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial and we wanted to see if there was anything left of the Berlin Wall that we could see. This was the first time I have ever been to Berlin, and all I know of it are from the pictures my grandfather took when he was there to help execute the Marshall plan in the late 1940’s. (He turned 18 in May of 1945 so he was just a little too young to have fought in the war in Europe, but he did serve two years in Germany.)
My grandpa’s pictures are absolutely amazing, and they show a Berlin that has not only been ravaged by war, and is almost completely rubble, but they also show a divided city, with signs pointing you in different directions to different sectors. I really like those pictures… but needless to say the Berlin I visited looked nothing like the pictures my Grandpa took of Germany immediately post World War II. I saw the Brandenburg Gate, and stood close to where he must have stood, and looked into a city that is now different from any other European city, more modern feeling and very open and green and clean.
It is also amazing to think, that when I was born in 1989 the city was divided into to, and I could not have gone to see half the city I saw, which is very strange to imagine.
But the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous spring Saturday, and we walked over to the Reichstag and took a bit of a rest on the green grass in front of it, people watching and enjoying the sun (also trying to imagine the fact that Hitler burned
the building down in the 1930’s to show who was in charge, in case anyone was un sure. We then went over to the Holocaust memorial, which is something Matt has been waiting to do since freshman year, and it really was a very interesting experience. I am not an expert on it like he is, and if you want to read more about it I would suggest looking it up on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe) but it is definitely a very interesting experience to have, and I am still not sure how I feel about it. At the time we were there it seemed a lot more like it could have been a park of some sort, rather than a memorial to one of the most tragic events in the modern world.
But at the same time, it is hard to see at first how large and deep it goes, and how quickly you could lose your way… as it seems Europe and Germany did during this time period in History… it is all very hard to say, but it was a very worthwhile visit for sure. The question of memory and how we memorialize things is a very big one, and as I mentioned before I took an entire class on how Germany today remembers and deals with the memory of World War II.
There are no easy answers and everyone has a different opinion… very interesting and if you want to discuss it with me in person I would be more than happy to! Skype me or ill talk to you this summer!
But to lighten the mood a bit we walked over to Potsdammer Platz where we found the gelato that Dr. Bruggeman recommended to us… so yummy! But we were once again faced with the dilemma of being in a country where the language is so very foreign… I don’t know a word of German, just like I don’t know a word of Italian… and it always is a challenge to just speak English and hope that the person you want to communicate with will speak it back… since that is about all you can do. But at this point, our not very good night of sleep on the train was catching up with us, and we made our way back to the hostel for a bit of a nap break…
Then we headed out to find dinner near our hostel. We were in a very quiet part of the city, and we were trying to find a place that served German food and German beer for dinner, since when in Berlin… but all we could find was a random Irish pub type place that served German food and beer, so that is where we settled on eating, and we had a good dinner of Weinershintel (ok I can’t spell that) and beer and apple strudel. It was very good, but our eyes were drooping, and so we headed back to the hostel to have a good nights sleep. I will write about Sunday and Monday in the next posts so get ready for that!
So easter in Europe is a big holiday. I find it very ironic the France, the country which prides itself on “laicite”- that is secularism and separation of church and state, has completely shuts down for one of the days which is traditionally one of the most religiously based holidays, well, ever. Easter, the day that celebrates one of the most debated aspects of Christianity, that the celebration of would confirm or throw out your belief of the miracle of the resurrection, is a huge holiday… but they are completely secular… don’t get me started on that.
But on the plus side, I did not have to work the Monday after Easter, so Matt and I decided to take advantage of the long weekend, and make the 13 hour trek by overnight train to Berlin for three days, to see everything we could possibly see between Saturday morning and Monday night. We then planned on getting back on the overnight train and heading back to Paris to go to work on Tuesday morning. We just wanted to make the most of the weekend, and spend as much time in Berlin as possible, and this plan allowed us to do just that.
So when work was over on Friday, we went over to the train station and had a nice dinner before we left so we wouldn’t be hungry on the way, then boarded the train at about 8:00pm for Berlin.
Thirteen hours spent on any mode of transportation is a long time to spend, but if I have to pick one form, I think I would pick a train for long trips. You can move around the easiest, and you have the most room in the bathroom. The train we rode to Berlin was another Harry Potter train… we sat in a compartment that had eight seats that really should have been going to Hogwarts, but the thing was we only had seats (the cheapest way of course) and it made for a strange night of sleep, but there is nothing in the world a little Melatonin can’t help you sleep through, at least in my opinion, and we arrived in Berlin, a little sleepy eyed, but not feeling horrible at around 9am, ready for a day of adventures! We trekked over to our hostel, which was actually a huge youth hostel. I haven’t stayed at a ton of hostels in my life, but this one was pretty big, but clean and pretty quiet. So we dropped off our bags since our room wasn’t ready, picked up a couple maps and went to find some coffee (much needed) and a little breakfast and to let our adventures begin.There were several things we knew that we wanted to do for sure, and those included the visiting the Holocaust memorial which Matt wrote a research paper about for our post World War II
Honour Scholar seminar second semester freshman year, and we wanted to see the Jewish history museum which was designed by the Jewish architect Daniel Liebskind that I studied in my Modernist architecture seminar first semester freshman year. Side note: This is why being a HoScho is awesome… you study so many different things! I could go and see things I learned about in my Evolution and Human Nature seminar in Italy, and go see the memorials we learned about in my Germany seminar and the architects and buildings I learned about in another seminar. I love being a hoscho… don’t ask me next year at this time when I am finishing my thesis…But we also had in our possession an email from the wonderful Professor Julia Bruggeman in our hands, which was really better than any guide book we could have ever even dreamed of buying! She told us about cool buildings and great restaurants and entire neighbourhoods not to miss! It was really great. We were worried a little that a lot of things would be closed for Easter, as they were in France, but because Germany does not have quite the catholic history that France has everything was open. A lot of the stores were closed on Sunday, but I think that is normal… and understandably nothing having to do with Jewish history ect. was closed on Easter either, so we did not have a problem with that!
We had a coffee and some yummy pastries and headed out to find the Museum Island which is home to five large museums which have all kinds of things from all different ages and places in them.
We started with the Perggamonn museum which is home to the Pergamon alter and the Ishtar gate, and a really old wall from Babylon… lots of really cool historical things. But in my opinion, just as cool as the stuff in the museums,are the museums themselves, who were almost all badly damaged during World War II and a lot of the artifacts that are still housed in them suffered during wars, and have had to be restored because they were damaged by rain and bombs and fires. I find all of that to be very interesting personally.
The museum was cool, and then we headed out to find some other sights of the city… the Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial and we wanted to see if there was anything left of the Berlin Wall that we could see. This was the first time I have ever been to Berlin, and all I know of it are from the pictures my grandfather took when he was there to help execute the Marshall plan in the late 1940’s. (He turned 18 in May of 1945 so he was just a little too young to have fought in the war in Europe, but he did serve two years in Germany.)
My grandpa’s pictures are absolutely amazing, and they show a Berlin that has not only been ravaged by war, and is almost completely rubble, but they also show a divided city, with signs pointing you in different directions to different sectors. I really like those pictures… but needless to say the Berlin I visited looked nothing like the pictures my Grandpa took of Germany immediately post World War II. I saw the Brandenburg Gate, and stood close to where he must have stood, and looked into a city that is now different from any other European city, more modern feeling and very open and green and clean.
It is also amazing to think, that when I was born in 1989 the city was divided into to, and I could not have gone to see half the city I saw, which is very strange to imagine. But the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous spring Saturday, and we walked over to the Reichstag and took a bit of a rest on the green grass in front of it, people watching and enjoying the sun (also trying to imagine the fact that Hitler burned
the building down in the 1930’s to show who was in charge, in case anyone was un sure. We then went over to the Holocaust memorial, which is something Matt has been waiting to do since freshman year, and it really was a very interesting experience. I am not an expert on it like he is, and if you want to read more about it I would suggest looking it up on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe) but it is definitely a very interesting experience to have, and I am still not sure how I feel about it. At the time we were there it seemed a lot more like it could have been a park of some sort, rather than a memorial to one of the most tragic events in the modern world.
But at the same time, it is hard to see at first how large and deep it goes, and how quickly you could lose your way… as it seems Europe and Germany did during this time period in History… it is all very hard to say, but it was a very worthwhile visit for sure. The question of memory and how we memorialize things is a very big one, and as I mentioned before I took an entire class on how Germany today remembers and deals with the memory of World War II.
There are no easy answers and everyone has a different opinion… very interesting and if you want to discuss it with me in person I would be more than happy to! Skype me or ill talk to you this summer!But to lighten the mood a bit we walked over to Potsdammer Platz where we found the gelato that Dr. Bruggeman recommended to us… so yummy! But we were once again faced with the dilemma of being in a country where the language is so very foreign… I don’t know a word of German, just like I don’t know a word of Italian… and it always is a challenge to just speak English and hope that the person you want to communicate with will speak it back… since that is about all you can do. But at this point, our not very good night of sleep on the train was catching up with us, and we made our way back to the hostel for a bit of a nap break…
Then we headed out to find dinner near our hostel. We were in a very quiet part of the city, and we were trying to find a place that served German food and German beer for dinner, since when in Berlin… but all we could find was a random Irish pub type place that served German food and beer, so that is where we settled on eating, and we had a good dinner of Weinershintel (ok I can’t spell that) and beer and apple strudel. It was very good, but our eyes were drooping, and so we headed back to the hostel to have a good nights sleep. I will write about Sunday and Monday in the next posts so get ready for that!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Food
Soooooo I will blog about Berlin and get all those pics and stuff up tomorrow, but first I want to again show the a world a lovely meal that I got really ambitious and cooked last Thursday... we had fish and grilled peppers and batsami rice and to top it off... chocolate moose I made from SCRATCH! That is right... be impressed. Only one word of advice i have to all of the world out there... DONT EVER try to whip egg whites to a froth without an electric egg beater. That is all... and here are the pics.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Alana does Paris Part II
So Sunday morning after our adventures at the Rocky Horror Picture Show came much sooner than we would have liked… mostly because Daylight Savings time started here, two weeks later than it did in the states. Losing an hour in the Spring is kind of like losing five euro, its not the end of the world, but you would really really like to have it back… but Paris waits for no one, so we groggily got out of bed and made our plans for the day, Père Lachaise the cemetery that is the final resting place of a lot of famous people, then lunch, then the Louvre, then we were going to try to make it up to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, before we were supposed to have dinner with the Mac MacKenzie. He was passing through the city on his way back to Josselin after two weeks spent doing research in Germany for the book that he is writing that is sure to be a best seller in the world of Otto Dix fans! That was our plan for the day.
Once again the sky was grey and really very threatening as Alana and I bought our delicious morning patisseries, and headed down to the Metro, just in case umbrellas in hand. We jumped on line 1 up to nation and then line 2 to the cemetery, where we met up with Matt, broke down and bought a map of the cemetery (which actually turned out to be an excellent and very worthwhile purchase.)
On our list of people to see were the likes of: Chopin, Jim Morrison, Ingres, Molière, La Fountain, Edith Piaf, some mime Matt wanted to see, Gertrude Stein and her lover Alice, Oscar Wilde, and Max Ernst (for Mac.) There were a few others on our list as well, but we made a plan and tried to navigate the cemetery as best we could. We saw lots of interesting and really old graves, and some newer ones, and it seems that this old and infamous cemetery is home to several black cats,
which can give one the willies, if you are not careful. We went around finding each person, and paying a little bit of homage to these people, whether they were rock stars, French authors from the 17th century, patrons of Picasso’s, or flaming homosexuals, we sort of felt like we were going to say ‘hi’ to these people, to pay some respects, and feel a little more connected to some of these famous names that we have heard our parents talk about, or our professors rave about, or have read for research papers, or just feel some sort of strange connection to (mimes?) for some inexplicable reason. It was a lot of trekking around, and by about half-way through our visit, we had to put up our umbrellas, (including the POS umbrella, which is REALLY REALLY wearing thin) so by the time we were ready to bid the cold wet, and kind of eerie cemetery good bye, no one was sad to be going.
So we bid farewell to our departed comrades, and made our way over to the Louvre, since that was the next stop on our list. However, it was a bit past lunch time, so we were all super hungry, and what better food could there be in the world than a hotdog, in a baguette with melty cheese on top and ketchup?
Clearly the answer is that there is no better food in the world, and when in Paris it is completely necessary that you eat one of these random delectables, at least once during your visit. So we decided that this was as good a time as any for Alana to fulfil this Parisian duty, so we had some yummy hotdogs for lunch just outside the Louvre.
The rain had subsided, but it was still far from being a lovely clear Paris day, and we headed into the massive expanse of the Louvre to take refuge from the yucky day. Honestly, one could spend weeks, probably even months in the Louvre, and not see everything there is to see, and appreciate it for what it is, and what it is worth, and we were only going to be able to spend about three hours there… which was kind of sad, but when you are only in Paris for four days (like Alana) that is all you get!
So in making decisions about what we wanted to see, we prioritized all of Alana’s interests. She is an art history major, and she is trying to decide currently if she is going to focus in Classics (she is in Rome for the semester) or Medieval art (she is a student of Anne Harris who can make a biologist fall in love with the middle ages). I guess now she is considering maybe doing something that involves studying Medieval appropriations of Classical art? But anyway, we wanted to see all of the classics and a lot of stuff from the middle ages, so we had our work cut out for us! We also wanted to see all of the ‘not to be missed stuff’ like the Mona Lisa etc, and of course we had to pay a visit to Ingres Odalisque. 
We really tromped all over the museum (I thought I might die at some points, but clearly I survived…) And Alana shared with us her dream of becoming a running tour guide of the Louvre, that way should could combine her two great loves in life: Running and Art. Actually, running in the Louvre is prohibited, but look for that to change in the future when Alana gets her running tour of the place installed after we graduated from DPU. Seriously, get ready. 
The Louvre closed at six, so we made a quick stop at the Mona Lisa (smallish, and swarmed constantly by crowds of tourists taking illegal pics with their flashes on!) And we made sure to see the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory. But at about 5:55 we left the museum by way of the inverted pyramid (where Dan Brown assures us that Mary Magdalene is buried), and headed back out into the street.
So at six o’clock, on the Sunday after Daylight savings started, after having trekked all around Père Lachaise and the Louvre, we were pooped. There was no way that we could have had the stamina to make it up to Montmartre at that point, and plus we were scheduled to meet up with Mac at 8pm right outside the Centre Pompidou for dinner, and we thought that to get all the way up there and back in 2 hours might have been pushing it anyway. So instead we decided to kick back, have a snack and some coffee, and people watch for a while, and eagerly await Mac to come out of Centre Pompidou and have dinner with us.
We walked around then for a while, trying to find a restaurant to suggest to Mac (Although I know Anne really loves Dame Tartine where everything is served on toast) and watching the ever entertaining things that go on in front of Centre Pompidou. Finally we saw him strolling over to meet us, and we jumped up to exchange hugs, and excited smiles since it can be very funny to see a familiar face, in a place where they don’t usually belong. But we then went to have dinner at a little restaurant that served French food and Moroccan food, so there was something for everyone. We easily passed almost three hours discussing Mac’s research (and new found hobby of bird watching?) and European politics, and the politics of what is going on back home at DePauw. We talked about everything would could possibly talk about I think, even though I know that that is impossible! But by around 11 our eyes were drooping, and I had to wake up early for work the next morning, so we all walked down to the metro together and bid Mac farewell until the fall, and a safe trip back to Josselin, and hugs and kisses for all the kids! Then, dragging our absolutely exhausted feet down into the metro, and made our way back to Sainte-Mandé.
Monday morning, Alana once again climbed aboard the 86 bus with me to come have some coffee (which I really like, but she is more inclined toward her Italian cappuccino) and I went to work for the morning, and she set off to see the inside of Notre Dame, and walked down to la chapelle, but once again you will have to look at her blog to get the full story on her adventures for the day. Then she came back up to the IMA and Matt met us for lunch. Alana wanted to go to a place which is called BIA- Breakfast in America, where you can get American style pancakes and bacon and burgers and stuff for pretty cheap. We all miss home a little bit, and so we did not feel guilty about indulging ourselves in a little American culture (and some bacon!) It was very yummy, and then I went back to work and Alana went down to try to go to Musée d’Orsay which is home to all of the impressionist paintings. But sadly it was closed on Mondays so Alana just had to do some shopping instead. When she came and met me at work at the end of the day, we went up to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur, and Alana wanted to walk down and see the infamous Moulin Rouge… which was kind of disappointing. But we stopped in Matt’s room for Alana to say good bye, and we went back to my apartment for the night. We stopped and bought Marie some good luck flowers because her big test was on Tuesday, and then we went back home. As a going away celebration, we made our very own dessert crepes and covered them in yummy things like sugar and strawberries and all kinds of lovely things! Then Alana and I snuggled up in bed for her last night in Paris… and we won’t be seeing each other again until we spend a day together at Cedar Point in July.
So as I said good bye to Alana on Tuesday morning, I was very sad to see her go, since she very much enriched my “France Life” for the weekend, and we will have to survive talking to each other on skype for a while… but I am so glad she got to come visit, and one day we will have to come back so that she can go see all the things she didn’t get a chance to see! Love love love you Alana!
Next weekend I will be in Berlin, and the next weekend I will be in Reims in the Champagne region, so look for some more posts about that in the near future!
Bisous!
Once again the sky was grey and really very threatening as Alana and I bought our delicious morning patisseries, and headed down to the Metro, just in case umbrellas in hand. We jumped on line 1 up to nation and then line 2 to the cemetery, where we met up with Matt, broke down and bought a map of the cemetery (which actually turned out to be an excellent and very worthwhile purchase.)
On our list of people to see were the likes of: Chopin, Jim Morrison, Ingres, Molière, La Fountain, Edith Piaf, some mime Matt wanted to see, Gertrude Stein and her lover Alice, Oscar Wilde, and Max Ernst (for Mac.) There were a few others on our list as well, but we made a plan and tried to navigate the cemetery as best we could. We saw lots of interesting and really old graves, and some newer ones, and it seems that this old and infamous cemetery is home to several black cats,
which can give one the willies, if you are not careful. We went around finding each person, and paying a little bit of homage to these people, whether they were rock stars, French authors from the 17th century, patrons of Picasso’s, or flaming homosexuals, we sort of felt like we were going to say ‘hi’ to these people, to pay some respects, and feel a little more connected to some of these famous names that we have heard our parents talk about, or our professors rave about, or have read for research papers, or just feel some sort of strange connection to (mimes?) for some inexplicable reason. It was a lot of trekking around, and by about half-way through our visit, we had to put up our umbrellas, (including the POS umbrella, which is REALLY REALLY wearing thin) so by the time we were ready to bid the cold wet, and kind of eerie cemetery good bye, no one was sad to be going.So we bid farewell to our departed comrades, and made our way over to the Louvre, since that was the next stop on our list. However, it was a bit past lunch time, so we were all super hungry, and what better food could there be in the world than a hotdog, in a baguette with melty cheese on top and ketchup?
Clearly the answer is that there is no better food in the world, and when in Paris it is completely necessary that you eat one of these random delectables, at least once during your visit. So we decided that this was as good a time as any for Alana to fulfil this Parisian duty, so we had some yummy hotdogs for lunch just outside the Louvre. The rain had subsided, but it was still far from being a lovely clear Paris day, and we headed into the massive expanse of the Louvre to take refuge from the yucky day. Honestly, one could spend weeks, probably even months in the Louvre, and not see everything there is to see, and appreciate it for what it is, and what it is worth, and we were only going to be able to spend about three hours there… which was kind of sad, but when you are only in Paris for four days (like Alana) that is all you get!
So in making decisions about what we wanted to see, we prioritized all of Alana’s interests. She is an art history major, and she is trying to decide currently if she is going to focus in Classics (she is in Rome for the semester) or Medieval art (she is a student of Anne Harris who can make a biologist fall in love with the middle ages). I guess now she is considering maybe doing something that involves studying Medieval appropriations of Classical art? But anyway, we wanted to see all of the classics and a lot of stuff from the middle ages, so we had our work cut out for us! We also wanted to see all of the ‘not to be missed stuff’ like the Mona Lisa etc, and of course we had to pay a visit to Ingres Odalisque. 
We really tromped all over the museum (I thought I might die at some points, but clearly I survived…) And Alana shared with us her dream of becoming a running tour guide of the Louvre, that way should could combine her two great loves in life: Running and Art. Actually, running in the Louvre is prohibited, but look for that to change in the future when Alana gets her running tour of the place installed after we graduated from DPU. Seriously, get ready. 
The Louvre closed at six, so we made a quick stop at the Mona Lisa (smallish, and swarmed constantly by crowds of tourists taking illegal pics with their flashes on!) And we made sure to see the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory. But at about 5:55 we left the museum by way of the inverted pyramid (where Dan Brown assures us that Mary Magdalene is buried), and headed back out into the street. So at six o’clock, on the Sunday after Daylight savings started, after having trekked all around Père Lachaise and the Louvre, we were pooped. There was no way that we could have had the stamina to make it up to Montmartre at that point, and plus we were scheduled to meet up with Mac at 8pm right outside the Centre Pompidou for dinner, and we thought that to get all the way up there and back in 2 hours might have been pushing it anyway. So instead we decided to kick back, have a snack and some coffee, and people watch for a while, and eagerly await Mac to come out of Centre Pompidou and have dinner with us.
We walked around then for a while, trying to find a restaurant to suggest to Mac (Although I know Anne really loves Dame Tartine where everything is served on toast) and watching the ever entertaining things that go on in front of Centre Pompidou. Finally we saw him strolling over to meet us, and we jumped up to exchange hugs, and excited smiles since it can be very funny to see a familiar face, in a place where they don’t usually belong. But we then went to have dinner at a little restaurant that served French food and Moroccan food, so there was something for everyone. We easily passed almost three hours discussing Mac’s research (and new found hobby of bird watching?) and European politics, and the politics of what is going on back home at DePauw. We talked about everything would could possibly talk about I think, even though I know that that is impossible! But by around 11 our eyes were drooping, and I had to wake up early for work the next morning, so we all walked down to the metro together and bid Mac farewell until the fall, and a safe trip back to Josselin, and hugs and kisses for all the kids! Then, dragging our absolutely exhausted feet down into the metro, and made our way back to Sainte-Mandé.Monday morning, Alana once again climbed aboard the 86 bus with me to come have some coffee (which I really like, but she is more inclined toward her Italian cappuccino) and I went to work for the morning, and she set off to see the inside of Notre Dame, and walked down to la chapelle, but once again you will have to look at her blog to get the full story on her adventures for the day. Then she came back up to the IMA and Matt met us for lunch. Alana wanted to go to a place which is called BIA- Breakfast in America, where you can get American style pancakes and bacon and burgers and stuff for pretty cheap. We all miss home a little bit, and so we did not feel guilty about indulging ourselves in a little American culture (and some bacon!) It was very yummy, and then I went back to work and Alana went down to try to go to Musée d’Orsay which is home to all of the impressionist paintings. But sadly it was closed on Mondays so Alana just had to do some shopping instead. When she came and met me at work at the end of the day, we went up to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur, and Alana wanted to walk down and see the infamous Moulin Rouge… which was kind of disappointing. But we stopped in Matt’s room for Alana to say good bye, and we went back to my apartment for the night. We stopped and bought Marie some good luck flowers because her big test was on Tuesday, and then we went back home. As a going away celebration, we made our very own dessert crepes and covered them in yummy things like sugar and strawberries and all kinds of lovely things! Then Alana and I snuggled up in bed for her last night in Paris… and we won’t be seeing each other again until we spend a day together at Cedar Point in July.
So as I said good bye to Alana on Tuesday morning, I was very sad to see her go, since she very much enriched my “France Life” for the weekend, and we will have to survive talking to each other on skype for a while… but I am so glad she got to come visit, and one day we will have to come back so that she can go see all the things she didn’t get a chance to see! Love love love you Alana!
Next weekend I will be in Berlin, and the next weekend I will be in Reims in the Champagne region, so look for some more posts about that in the near future!
Bisous!
Alana does Paris Part I
So the eagerly awaited day had finally arrived! Alana was going to get into Paris last Thursday at around 7pm, and I was dying to see her! Thursday dragged on rather long… Although I had lunch with Tati at a Japanese restaurant which was really nice and fun and yummy! Tati is a great person, who is just generally excited to be alive, and I really like spending time with her. She makes everyone around her feel welcome which I really like about a person, particularly her. She is also always looking to have a good time and a good laugh about anything, and so am I! She has been witness to the Moberg disease many times here in Paris, and continues to hang out with me which I think is a good sign!
But finally it was a little after 6 when I left work, and I headed over to Chatelet to collect her from the RER which se was taking to the city from the airport. Just a point to anyone who ever is going to come to Paris… Don’t EVER choose to meet anyone at Chatelet. It is enormous, practically a city under the city, where five metro lines and four RER lines come together in the center of the city… so meeting someone there is like trying to find a needle in a haystack… but don’t worry, Matt and I split up to cover more ground and found Alana… and puppy kisses where exchanged galore! And we headed up out of the Metro so that Alana could breathe her first breath of Parisian air!
One thing that all of us miss about the US… Mexican food. When you spend nine months out of the year in Greencastle, Indiana where one of the three sit down restaurants is Casa Grande, you come to love and almost be addicted to Mexican food. And anyone who knows me knows that I have been having Chipotle withdrawal from the minute I left the states… so we headed out to find La Perla, which is a Mexican restaurant we found with relatively inexpensive food, and really expensive margaritas to make up for it.
We took a little tour on the way down to the restaurant, down Rue de Rivoli, until we came to the restaurant. Tati met us as well for dinner which was really fun… and the entire experience was rather funny because when we ordered our dinners the waiter kept asking us if we knew what the things on the menu were. “Pico de Gallo, do you know what that is?” YES we know what that is! We are Americans… we live in the states where we have plenty of real live Mexicans and plenty of Mexican food! It was very funny… considering Mexicans and Mexican culture is rather foreign to the French, but practically second nature to us. Dinner was delicious, but at that point, Alana and I headed back to my apartment, happy, tired, and ready plan out the adventures for the weekend!
So Friday morning we headed over the Institute du Monde Arabe… Where Alana joined me for my morning ritual of coffee at the café across the street and equipped with my Paris Practique map and my Navigo pass Alana set out to see the Palace of Versailles, and I set off to work for the day. You will have to read her blog to see what she saw and what she thought of her day spent tromping around the grounds of Versailles… but Friday was a good day for me since I got paid! And I got five free tickets for people who are coming to visit me to be able to go and see the exhibit here at the institute which I think is cool. Then Madame Findakly and I planned for her impending absence.
She is going on vacation for two weeks, so I will be here in the office holding down the fort by myself for a while. I am a little nervous about it, but here it is Tuesday and nothing terrible has gone wrong yet… so far so good. But as 5:30 rolled around I was ready to burst out the door and go collect Alana so my weekend could begin!
We headed up the street to meet Matt for a cocktail (so grown up!) and then we headed out to buy some bread and cheese and saucisson sec for dinner. We ate our little French dinner in Matt’s room (up all six flights of stairs) and then we headed out to go and find a show that we had heard about and was recommend by a friend. It was called a cabaret, and was taking place at a place called le Lapin Agile. Courtney, another friend from IFE had her boyfriend in for the weekend, so we met up with them in Montmartre and went to see this very interesting show. What it turned out to be was a collection of random singers singing French songs, drinking and other songs as well, for 5 hours. Each singer had a different set of songs and a different personality. They also served us some wine with cherries in it which was really yummy! We stayed and sang along as best we could, until around midnight when we were all dying of sleepiness and Alana thought her legs might fall off from her long day of trekking, so we headed back to Sainte-Mandé to collapse in our bed.
Saturday morning the sky loomed heavy with clouds and it threatened to rain as we left Sainte-Mandé for our first stop of the day: Le tour Eiffel. I have been in Paris for almost three months, and while I have had many sightings and admired it from a distance, I have not yet climbed the tower during this séjour in Paris.
So Paris, which was trying so hard for Alana’s sake, let the blue sky show for just a little bit… and we took some fun and lovely pics from the bottom of the tower (as you see here) before we started our 702 stair trek up to the second level. It is way cheaper, and way faster to climb the stairs, and since we are all young and cheap, we took the stairs. It was a little bit of a trek, but the view was worth it, as well as the gift shop (even though we didn’t buy anything.)
At that point, you have to take the elevator all the way to the top… and it costs an additional 7 euro, and since I have been up there before, and Matt didn’t care and Alana has a slight fear of heights, we decided to descend and go find some lunch at a yummy yummy Breton crepe restaurant that is one of my favourite places in Paris (don’t worry mom, I will take you guys there too!)
At this point we also met up with my friend Kira from high school who is studying in Madrid for the semester and was in Paris for the weekend. She joined us for our yummy yummy lunch and then the four of us all headed out to find the Musée de Moyen Age (medieval museum) for Alana to see the tapestry of the woman and the unicorn. This was a very interesting museum for all of us, since we are all sort of art history nerds, and any one who has ever even met Anne Harris falls in love with the Middle Ages. And look, I even found an Ethiopian!
So after the museum, we bid Kira farewell, and Matt and Alana and I set out on a bit of a walk to head up to place de la concorde and then up the Champs Elysees to see the Arc de Triomphe. No visit would be complete without a stop for some ice cream along the way… and it was really a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, with two of my favourite people in the world, eating yummy things and exploring and enjoying the amazing city that I have come to call my home in the past few weeks.
We have dreamed of when we would be together, both in Rome and in Paris, and Alana and I loved every minute of her visit.
We then set out to find out cheap dinner at our favourite kebab place, where I have befriended the guys who work there, and Alana got to experience the glory of the pita grec which I have come to love, and eat every Tuesday after class. So after a delicious dinner, we set out once again to complete our plans for the evening: We went to go see the French rendition of a showing of the infamous Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was… interesting to say the least. Anyone who has gone and seen one in the US knows how overtly sexual and kind of crazy it is… but then add in a strange mix between French and English with jokes and innuendo flying in both directions at all times, plus just some random stuff too… then getting soaked in water (expect nothing less! And I am still picking rice out of my shoes and off my scarf) and you might be able to begin to be able to think about what it was like… It really can’t be contained in this little blog post, but trust me… it was weird and wonderful. Then when it was over, Alana and I got trapped in the group who were the last ones out and they tried to tell us that we had to clean up all the rice… a job I would not wish on anyone!
But they asked us if we were all French and I shouted non! But then they shouted back at me (in French) that I must be lying just trying to get out of cleaning up… and I had a moment where all that was running through my head was “how do I prove to them I am not French?” and the worlds most obvious answer finally came to me… Speak in English. So I started speaking in English, and then they believed me… but gave me the ultimate compliment and told me I spoke French very well! I was so excited! But they were kidding the whole time about having to clean up the rice, so after a simple tax of two kisses to each of the actors (transvestites?) We left happy, and only a little weirded out. So that was the end of our Saturday. Alana and I made the trek back to Sainte-Mandé then, and literally fell into bed after out really long, fun, and eventful day.
Now you will have to read about Sunday and Monday in the next post…
But finally it was a little after 6 when I left work, and I headed over to Chatelet to collect her from the RER which se was taking to the city from the airport. Just a point to anyone who ever is going to come to Paris… Don’t EVER choose to meet anyone at Chatelet. It is enormous, practically a city under the city, where five metro lines and four RER lines come together in the center of the city… so meeting someone there is like trying to find a needle in a haystack… but don’t worry, Matt and I split up to cover more ground and found Alana… and puppy kisses where exchanged galore! And we headed up out of the Metro so that Alana could breathe her first breath of Parisian air!
One thing that all of us miss about the US… Mexican food. When you spend nine months out of the year in Greencastle, Indiana where one of the three sit down restaurants is Casa Grande, you come to love and almost be addicted to Mexican food. And anyone who knows me knows that I have been having Chipotle withdrawal from the minute I left the states… so we headed out to find La Perla, which is a Mexican restaurant we found with relatively inexpensive food, and really expensive margaritas to make up for it.
We took a little tour on the way down to the restaurant, down Rue de Rivoli, until we came to the restaurant. Tati met us as well for dinner which was really fun… and the entire experience was rather funny because when we ordered our dinners the waiter kept asking us if we knew what the things on the menu were. “Pico de Gallo, do you know what that is?” YES we know what that is! We are Americans… we live in the states where we have plenty of real live Mexicans and plenty of Mexican food! It was very funny… considering Mexicans and Mexican culture is rather foreign to the French, but practically second nature to us. Dinner was delicious, but at that point, Alana and I headed back to my apartment, happy, tired, and ready plan out the adventures for the weekend!So Friday morning we headed over the Institute du Monde Arabe… Where Alana joined me for my morning ritual of coffee at the café across the street and equipped with my Paris Practique map and my Navigo pass Alana set out to see the Palace of Versailles, and I set off to work for the day. You will have to read her blog to see what she saw and what she thought of her day spent tromping around the grounds of Versailles… but Friday was a good day for me since I got paid! And I got five free tickets for people who are coming to visit me to be able to go and see the exhibit here at the institute which I think is cool. Then Madame Findakly and I planned for her impending absence.
She is going on vacation for two weeks, so I will be here in the office holding down the fort by myself for a while. I am a little nervous about it, but here it is Tuesday and nothing terrible has gone wrong yet… so far so good. But as 5:30 rolled around I was ready to burst out the door and go collect Alana so my weekend could begin!We headed up the street to meet Matt for a cocktail (so grown up!) and then we headed out to buy some bread and cheese and saucisson sec for dinner. We ate our little French dinner in Matt’s room (up all six flights of stairs) and then we headed out to go and find a show that we had heard about and was recommend by a friend. It was called a cabaret, and was taking place at a place called le Lapin Agile. Courtney, another friend from IFE had her boyfriend in for the weekend, so we met up with them in Montmartre and went to see this very interesting show. What it turned out to be was a collection of random singers singing French songs, drinking and other songs as well, for 5 hours. Each singer had a different set of songs and a different personality. They also served us some wine with cherries in it which was really yummy! We stayed and sang along as best we could, until around midnight when we were all dying of sleepiness and Alana thought her legs might fall off from her long day of trekking, so we headed back to Sainte-Mandé to collapse in our bed.
Saturday morning the sky loomed heavy with clouds and it threatened to rain as we left Sainte-Mandé for our first stop of the day: Le tour Eiffel. I have been in Paris for almost three months, and while I have had many sightings and admired it from a distance, I have not yet climbed the tower during this séjour in Paris.
So Paris, which was trying so hard for Alana’s sake, let the blue sky show for just a little bit… and we took some fun and lovely pics from the bottom of the tower (as you see here) before we started our 702 stair trek up to the second level. It is way cheaper, and way faster to climb the stairs, and since we are all young and cheap, we took the stairs. It was a little bit of a trek, but the view was worth it, as well as the gift shop (even though we didn’t buy anything.) 
At that point, you have to take the elevator all the way to the top… and it costs an additional 7 euro, and since I have been up there before, and Matt didn’t care and Alana has a slight fear of heights, we decided to descend and go find some lunch at a yummy yummy Breton crepe restaurant that is one of my favourite places in Paris (don’t worry mom, I will take you guys there too!) At this point we also met up with my friend Kira from high school who is studying in Madrid for the semester and was in Paris for the weekend. She joined us for our yummy yummy lunch and then the four of us all headed out to find the Musée de Moyen Age (medieval museum) for Alana to see the tapestry of the woman and the unicorn. This was a very interesting museum for all of us, since we are all sort of art history nerds, and any one who has ever even met Anne Harris falls in love with the Middle Ages. And look, I even found an Ethiopian!
So after the museum, we bid Kira farewell, and Matt and Alana and I set out on a bit of a walk to head up to place de la concorde and then up the Champs Elysees to see the Arc de Triomphe. No visit would be complete without a stop for some ice cream along the way… and it was really a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, with two of my favourite people in the world, eating yummy things and exploring and enjoying the amazing city that I have come to call my home in the past few weeks. 
We have dreamed of when we would be together, both in Rome and in Paris, and Alana and I loved every minute of her visit.We then set out to find out cheap dinner at our favourite kebab place, where I have befriended the guys who work there, and Alana got to experience the glory of the pita grec which I have come to love, and eat every Tuesday after class. So after a delicious dinner, we set out once again to complete our plans for the evening: We went to go see the French rendition of a showing of the infamous Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was… interesting to say the least. Anyone who has gone and seen one in the US knows how overtly sexual and kind of crazy it is… but then add in a strange mix between French and English with jokes and innuendo flying in both directions at all times, plus just some random stuff too… then getting soaked in water (expect nothing less! And I am still picking rice out of my shoes and off my scarf) and you might be able to begin to be able to think about what it was like… It really can’t be contained in this little blog post, but trust me… it was weird and wonderful. Then when it was over, Alana and I got trapped in the group who were the last ones out and they tried to tell us that we had to clean up all the rice… a job I would not wish on anyone!
But they asked us if we were all French and I shouted non! But then they shouted back at me (in French) that I must be lying just trying to get out of cleaning up… and I had a moment where all that was running through my head was “how do I prove to them I am not French?” and the worlds most obvious answer finally came to me… Speak in English. So I started speaking in English, and then they believed me… but gave me the ultimate compliment and told me I spoke French very well! I was so excited! But they were kidding the whole time about having to clean up the rice, so after a simple tax of two kisses to each of the actors (transvestites?) We left happy, and only a little weirded out. So that was the end of our Saturday. Alana and I made the trek back to Sainte-Mandé then, and literally fell into bed after out really long, fun, and eventful day.Now you will have to read about Sunday and Monday in the next post…
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