As you may have noticed, I gave up on the blog after 2 weeks of traveling, it took too much time away from the experience. Instead I relied a bit more heavily on Facebook updates to keep everyone informed as I traveled which worked much better (and I think it’s much easier for those close to me who wanted to follow my travels to do it through Facebook).
After our tour of Liege, we picked up Sarah, some groceries and headed home to prepare for a big dinner with a bunch of other couch surfer friends of Christoph’s at his place. Sarah and I helped Christoph prepare an onion cake, which (I think) is a German dish which looks similar to a pizza (it’s not a cake). It has lots of onions and cheese. I mostly did dishes. I tried cutting onions, but my sensitive eyes couldn’t take the heat (or tear-gas in this case).
After the preparations, the guests began arriving, about 10 in all.
I had a great time watching their interactions initially. The couchsurfing community here is very tight knit and they all seemed to get along quite well. We had a lot of nationalities in the house, I think 7 different ones in all – from British to Israeli. We also had a great age and education distribution – it was very diverse, which I didn’t expect of Liege.
I talked with Sonia, Daniel, and Liz at length (they were the ones sitting around me) during dinner. Sonia is a French Belgian who has done quite a bit of traveling in the U.S., much more than me. We talked about traveling, Liege, and the couchsurfing community here – she was also very helpful in translating some French conversations that were happening at the table.
Daniel is an Israeli who moved to Liege 2 weeks ago, working with security at the airport. We talked about our impressions of Liege and how wonderful the couchsurfing community here is. When he was given a choice of where to go abroad for his job he had the option of London, Bangkok, or Liege. He chose Liege because Bangkok was too hot and he had already been to London. He seems happy with his decision.
Finally, Liz and I talked for some time. She isn’t a couchsurfer, she used to be Christoph’s neighbor. Liz is a post-doctoral researcher, studying art from the medieval era, focusing on the representation of women. She was very interesting to talk to, she also seems to have traveled quite a bit and will be heading to Rome soon (she had also been to the States, we talked a bit about how we in the states ask “How are you?” without expecting an answer).
During dinner I also had side conversations with others, everyone had interesting stories to share. They also had some great food to share. I already talked about Christophs dish. There was also a dish which looked similar to scalloped potatoes but had ground lamb which was spiced to deliciousness heaven layered with spinach and potatoes. There was also chicken which was seasoned with a red sauce (I really don’t know how to describe it), chocolate mousse, and hash-brownlike potato bites. I was incredibly full by the end.
At times I would sit back and try to grasp how I came to be at that table… a short email to someone I didn’t know 2 weeks ago! Couchsurfing, yet again, beat any expectations I could’ve had for it.
After dinner, we played a game (“Dixit”) together. Everyone got six cards with different, weird drawings on them. One person would pick a card and put it face down and say a word like “Pedophile” (one of Christoph’s words). Everyone else would pick a card that best represented the word from their deck. These cards are then shuffled and laid face up. A vote takes place (can’t vote for yourself) on which card best matches the word. You get points for each person who picks your card or if you picked the card that the person who said the word chose. It was a fun game, quick to get in to and created many comic situations.
It was about 3am when the game ended and people headed home, then we went straight to sleep – next day is the beer festival!
On the outside, Liege looks uninteresting (compared to the other places I’m visiting). However, it turned out Christoph knew quite a bit about the city, it was like having a personal guide! So, in the end, I was impressed with the city, especially its past. It also seems like they are really working on renovating historic places and building fancy modern buildings (their train station is very impressive).
There were a few places around Liege which showed the problems it had in the past — struggling with money to renovate buildings, then having to shut them down for long periods of time where they slowly decayed.
This was contrasted with their beautiful train station and the new modern buildings opening inside the city. During our exploration we also visited a pet shop, which is always sad for me because I want to take all the puppies home with me:
Then we climbed up a street of stairs. There were people living in houses half way up the stairs, so every day they either have to climb up or down half way to get to wherever they’re going (there are no connecting streets to the middle).
Anyways, if you’re traveling around Belgium, I’d recommend Liege, especially for couch surfing (as I’ll write more about later, they have a wonderful couchsurfing community here).
My host, Christoph, picked me up from the train station in Liege. He was surprisingly tall, and very friendly. Christoph is a gay German/Swiss graphic designer who has lived in Liege for 6 years – that’s about all I knew of him before meeting him.
We went to his house where he prepared and AMAZING spaghetti (in case you’re reading this, Christoph :) ) His friend Sarah came over for dinner. Sarah is a 19-year-old from Northern England with an awesome accent. Her and Christoph are very cute together – constantly teasing each other. Christoph has quite a sense of sarcasm and Sarah handles him very well.
Sarah left after dinner and Christoph and I stayed in the kitchen talking about politics, computers, traveling, and more. We were up until 3:30 am. I’ve learned some very interesting things about Belgian politics, he’s well informed. Belgium has a French speaking part along with a Flemish, Dutch part – they want to separate. To complicate the matters, Brussels, the capital of Belgium (and Europe) happens to be at the center of the divide. And that’s just the basics.
I’m waiting at the Luxembourg train stations. I took my journal out to jot down some thoughts – until Mars Volt started playing on my iPhone…
Today I head to Luxembourg for a day trip before going to Liege. Luxembourg is about 2 hours from both Paris and Liege (Paris-Liege direct is about 2.5 hours, so I only lost 1.5 hours extra in travel). Last night I said my farewell to Boris, who I wish I had more of a chance to talk (after the mishap during Bastille day), but am glad to have met him (and Irene) regardless.
For those that don’t know Luxembourg, it’s situated between Belgium, France and Germany. I went to the city which is also called Luxembourg (which is designated a World Heritage Site, same as the Olympic National Rainforest and Burges, I believe).
Luxembourg is a smallish town; I’ve been able to walk around about a quarter of the city in 2 hours. There is a church which plays a different tune with its bells every hour; you can hear it from most of the city.
The best part of this city is its geographic location. It’s in the middle of a bunch of cliffs. A small canyon-like divide separates the two major parts of the city. At the bottom lies a huge park with a very wide variety of trees, with birds chirping everywhere.
I went to an old underground lair/castle thing that the military had built in the late 1800s. It had shoulder-width spiral stairs and very narrow walk ways. It was kind of like an underground labyrinth to me, I got quite lost.
Now I’m at the big park dividing the city, thinking about taking a nap. I’ll be leaving for Liege in Belgium in a few hours. An older lady (late 50s?) just rode by on her bike and rang her bell at me to say hello :).
Today I visited Versailles, a city an hour away from Paris. It’s a place fit for a king. The main point of my visit (and of Versailles) is the Palace that Louis XIV built. Coincidentally, today is the day after Bastille day when the absolute monarchy (which presided in Versailles) was overthrown yesterday in 1789!
The first thing I did was to explore the inside of the château which was kind of like a museum. Everything was incredibly extravagant. The amount of man hours it took not just to build the structure but also to create the decorations, painting, and everything inside was probably (I think definitely) much more than that put into building the entire internet framework around the world. Every room was different and rich with fanciness one would expect from a royal palace. I’ll let the pictured do the talking for this.
The outside of the Palace was many times larger and just as varied. There was a man-made lake where row boats were. There were gigantic gardens, a lot of wooded corridors, an “Orengerie” where oranges was grown, and more. It took me a few hours to walk through all the areas. I also took a little nap in a quiet part of the park. At one point a little girl came up to me and asked me a question in French (she even called me “monsieur”, which was incredibly cute), I said I don’t speak French and she said “ok” and walked away. I wonder what she asked!!!
For lunch I had an egg/shrimp sandwich and a raspberry tart. The sandwich tasted surprisingly normal (I thought egg and shrimp may be a weird combo, but it wasn’t). I then headed home and prepared for Belgium! Oh, and on the way home I stopped by Paris to grab a crepe (nutella and banana). Delicious! Nutella and Banana were made for each other!
I just came back from the best firework show of my life. There was enough firepower in the show to level a small city. The police were very clever in organizing the event. First they cordoned off the entire area around the Eiffel tower and stopped letting people through 2 hours before the show. This was nice because the place was crowded, while not containing the entire city population. Luckily I was inside the area when I found out. Unfortunately, Boris was not, so we were never able to meet at our meeting location.
They then closed off the area between the tower and where the fireworks were launched an hour before the show. Again, I was lucky enough to be in the area when this happened (because I didn’t know it would). In the end, even though I didn’t get to meet with Boris, I had a front seat viewing of the most spectacular spectacle that I’ve ever spectated.
Oh, but the fun didn’t stop there. I knew what was up. Nearly every Parisian and certainly every tourist were within a mile of the Eiffel tower. So the situation was as follows:
1) I’m in the middle of a whole lot of people.
2) The last train to Boris’ leaves at midnight.
3) The show ends at 11:30
4) All stations in the immediate vicinity of the tower are closed.
When I was young, my dad and I used to go to Lincoln Park, a beach in Seattle. The beach was lined with washed up logs for about a mile. My dad and I used to run along the logs, trying to maintain balance so we didn’t fall off while moving from one log to another.
As soon as the finale hit, I tossed my camera in my bag, clipped on my harness so the bag fit tightly around my body, and took off. I weaved through the crowds, trying to maintain a fast pace without stopping – once you stop it’s hard to get going again with thousands of people around you. I headed to the metro station that was 2 stations in the opposite direction of where I was going – I figured I would have a better chance of getting on board. Even though I went through the crowds at an impressive, I still barely made it to the station in time. The train was PACKED! Luckily, I as first in line to get on, so I dived in there like I was running away from the devil and made it in. Going down 2 stations was a good idea, we were packed like sardines in there and couldn’t fit anyone else in for a while. The train, at least the car I was in, had a great atmosphere even though it was host and we were all squished. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying but they seemed happy and making jokes.
I got off at my transfer station with a sizable group. They all took off running, so I did the same (herd dynamics). It turned out they were transferring to the same station as I and we all just barely made it. I’m glad I made it out of Paris before everyone dispersed in the streets, it would have been hell in that case. I even made it home before Boris! Tomorrow: Versailles.
I woke up around 8 so that I could meet my next host, Boris, early to go to Paris together to hang out during Bastille Day. I said farewell to Frederique, my amazing first host and headed downtown to briefly see the parade in the morning.
It was very, very crowded and looked like it was going to be a pretty standard military parade so I didn’t bother with working through the crowd with my big backpack to see it. Instead, I went straight to Gif-sur-Yvette, where Boris lives. During the 40 minute train ride the weather went from overcast to rain. Also during the train ride we were entertained in our car by a guitar player who hoped on board and started playing his guitar/singing for about 10 minutes, it was very nice – he sang Spanish and English songs. By the time I was at Gif-sur-Yvette it was raining pretty steadily but was pleasantly warm, so I didn’t mind.
Gif-sur-Yvette is completely different than Gennevillers. Gennevillers seemed like a small town which got connected to a big city and started expanding rapidly (there was a lot of construction going on when I was there). Gif, on the other hand, looks just like a small town in the country. Very quaint and quiet, just as I would have imagined a small Parisien town to look like. As I haphazardly oscillated between the walking route to Boris’ and side streets I had a lot of help from the locals, who were glad to point the way.
I arrived at Boris’ and met his flat mate, who is also his coworker. They are bot working on the PhDs in photo voltaics (converting light to electricity) and work in the same lab. They seem like good friends, often teasing each other or having cute little arguments. As with Frederique, they were very friendly and welcoming and there was no awkwardness when I arrived. We had lunch together with what I think may have been something like cob salad (which they prepared) and a brie-like cheese along with a moldy bleu cheese.
Afterwards, Boris and I talked about our interests in science and traveling – it turned out we both had those in common, so we got along well. Irene, his flatmate, was also very interesting to talk to – oh! It also turns out that she was at the SAME Shakespeare show as I in London!!! What are the chances! Anyways, both seemed like good, intelligent people – I look forward to spending a bit more time with them tomorrow.
While we were talking, the rain really picked up. It was like the raid gods were telling me that they were still watching me. Our initial plan was to go to Paris together, however the rain discouraged Irene altogether and Boris decided to meet me in Paris at night instead. I didn’t mind the rain (plus I was better prepared for it with my clothes) so I went ahead. Of course as soon as I walked to the train station the sun broke through! It has been sunny since.
I went to get my ticket to Luxembourg first, taking advantage of the lack of a line due to Bastille Day. I then walked to the Eiffel tower. As I walked by I heard something very familiar… The Gorillaz! They were blasting their previous album (not the newest but the one before) throughout the speakers laid alongside the park in front of the tower. They played the entire album! This was yet another one of those things where I had to wonder who thought of it and managed to convince who that they should do it, but I liked it a lot! Good job, Paris. Now I’m sitting at the park awaiting Boris to watch the fireworks.
Morning in Paris, Musee d’Orsay, Musee Rodin, and Fancy french dinner.
