27 March, 2008

win et frommage canard et creme brulee

What is this language? I'm in Paris, and completely confused by French. It is incomprehensible to me, and less people here are willing to speak English. I'm sorry that I speak no French, all I have managed is "merci". It's a little bit uncomfortable...one man actually said, in English, "I know English, but I will not speak it to you." Thank you, sir. That and the metro is difficult because tickets never work and signs are vague. It was a stressful day.

BUT other than weird people, Paris is beautiful. I went to the big cemetery, hunted down Oscar Wilde amongst other admirable people, and looked into very old sepulchres that are basically frozen in time. The cremation part was interesting but also really freaked me out, because you could see the big smoke towers where they do it in a church. Then we went to the Pompidou, one of the coolest looking museums I have ever seen. It was built partially inside out, so all the elevators, escalators, and stairs are on the outside. And modern art is usually entertaining. I actually liked a lot of it though.

Then we went to a crazy fondue restaurant in Monmartre, which is all about loud drunk people and tiny spaces. It was amazing. They bring you wine in baby bottles, refill it for free all night, and keep giving you tons and tons of fondue for a reasonable fixed price. Then you can get pushed around by the old French man who owns the place because there's no room and he's not in the best mood since everyone is yelling and jumping on the tables.

Today we got up late and went to Chantilly, a day trip from Paris with a beautiful chateau, gardens, and a horse show. I illegally petted the horses because I loved them. Tomorrow is hopefully Notre Dame, the Louvre when it's free for students, and the Eiffle Tower at night. We'll see.

I also just did Stockholm for 5 days and loved it. Cold, but beautiful. I didn't really know anything about Sweden but now I want to go even further north, and perhaps stay in the ice hotel. The best part was the boat tour of the inner archipelago, the islands between Sweden and Finland. We only got to go a little ways out, because you need a longer trip where you would stay overnight to see the outer ones. But snow-covered islands covered with pine trees and nice Scandinavian houses, and ocassionally palaces were incredibly beautiful.

I'm running out of time!

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