Journal lingqi's Journal: December 27th, 2003 2
December 27th, 2003 (3:42pm, Tokyo Standard Time)
It is a cold European morning at a quarter to 8. Technically, of course, I have no idea if it's a cold morning or a hot morning, as I am still riding the night train that is taking me from Paris to Madrid, which will arrive in about an hour and half. What I CAN speak for is the terrible cold that permeates the compartments. It's interesting actually - the train between Berlin and Paris was awfully hot, yet this one cold: is this some conspiracy to make sure travellers won't get a good night's sleep unless they choke up the money for first class?
Not that I would have had any money to choke up if I wanted to; for a second class ticket, this train is already 63 euros, compared to 19 the first time around (the reserved ticket from Hamburg to Berlin was a mere 2.60 euros). This is WITH a rail-pass! Considering that a airline ticket from the same two points sometimes can cost around 30 euros, I was hoping that this train REALLY had something to offer.
I do have to grant that the beds are much more cozy than the berlin->paris counterparts, but it has amazingly little luggage space. one of the compartments I walked past four girls had all their luggage piled in the middle of the room, which left no place for legs and they all had to sit croocked, making way for this iceberg of luggages that was invading all the living space. Our compartment was better but not by much, while we shoved everything into a nook or crannie, it leaves absolutely no place where I can organize my backpack, which is always a lengthy and time consuming thing.
The last thing I wanted to say about Germany is that from the meal I have ate, the food is very salty. It was some otherwise very good soup / wild boar (I really question the wildness, but I digress), but I had to purchase a bottle of Evian in order to dilute the soup to a drinkable level. The Evian came in a glass bottle and was quite expensive; as in France it seem to be packaged similarly, I find it questionable if the US plastic packaged cheap water with the same brand is actually product of france, or some "from concentrate" version thereof. Back to the salt, though - is that possibly the reason so much beer is consumed in Germany? Unless presented with evidence otherwise, I would have to consider it a viable theory.
fast forward a day.
I was only in Paris for a whole 10 hours, definitely way off in the three standard deviation tip of the staying length of a major tourist center, if we exclude all the airline layovers. During this time I went through Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower (did I spell this right?) and a slew of other things I did not quite catch the names of. I also got my money cheated at the train station to the tune of 25 dollars. I guess, though, it was indeed I gave him the money - and do prefer this to, say, a violent mugging, but it did not give me a first impression of Paris.
People mostly spoke english well enough, however.
Everywhere around Paris one can notice intricate details on just about everything. bridge decores, window sills, and most other places are all full of sculpted this or that, all of which must have costed a lot of time and money cumulated through the ages. This idea of decorating every concievable surface is no better visible at Notre Dame. The place is actually a tad smaller on the outside than I have imagined, while the inside a lot larger than I thought. The most impressive, though, is nontheless the fact that every surface had sulptures of angels or gargoyles or saints or intricate patterns. There was also a whole lot of stained glass, all of which only appeared colourful from the inside.
There was a sermon (concert?) going on while I passed through, and hence it was not actually the pure solemn silence I had hoped for - but giving a sermon in the most famous cathedral in the world must give the attendees some feeling of awe that would be contradicted by the torrent of tourists that flew behind them, snapping pictures and making loud walking sounds. I am sure it would turn out to be an ironic feeling, but as I am one of the tourists, I can only conjecture.
After that I went to the... gate thing (sorry I can't remember the name), which was under repair, and I walked to the Eiffel tower on foot. The Eiffel tower is actually not as tall as Tokyo Tower, I think - but you would not feel that is so just by looking at it. The presentation is everything: you walk 30 meters and are suddenly greeted by this huge plain with nothing tall in sight except this gigantuan tower that stood in the middle of it all, dark and imposing and full of complitated metal bracings like you see in old bridges and such. Below the tower hordes of people sold keychairns and silly souvenirs that I did not get - my backpack is heavy enough as it is.
The last thing about Paris is that there are more foreigners, at least Asian looking foreigners, than anywhere I have seen in Europe so far. I have heard frequently vietnamese, and then chinese and japanese came at about the same frequency. The guide book did say that Paris received more immigrants than any other european city, and the evidence is apparent.
Arc de Triomphe is the 'gate thing', I think (Score:2)
Props to the French, though, they know how to show off the Eiffel Tower - I remember the Millenium celebrations in Paris, when they had streamers firing off right the way up to the top of the tower. Quite a sight, up the
Re:Arc de Triomphe is the 'gate thing', I think (Score:1)