Les Vacances du Printemps partie 1: Venise

So it's been awhile since my last blog post, since then things in Strasbourg have been pretty normal, to the point where I feel like I'm getting a bit complacent sometimes. School is sometimes hard to focus on, that's for sure. But the weather has been getting better, with spring temperatures fairly frequent now, so that's been good. I've also met some French kids at the university who are coming to BC next year as exchange students, so that's been cool.

But, most importantly, I just returned from an 11 day spring break trip, with my good friend Devon and later my good friend Dave, also known as Emil. I started the trip by going to Venice to see Dev for a few days, then he and I traveled to Normandy for two nights, then Paris for one night, and then met up with Dave in Amsterdam, of all places, to finish out the vacation with a four-night, three day experience. It was all really, really fun, a great vacation, which was good, since now I've nearly no money left. Oh well, it was worth it.

So I figured I'd make this post the part 1, so to speak, when I describe my great trip to Venice.

Venice is one of those places that is so out of this world that I always wanted to go there one day, but never figured I'd really have the chance. Of course, this turned out to be untrue, the part about me not having a chance, anyway. Dev is studyin abroad there with some other BC kids, so I figured I'd go and visit him. My journed started April 1 with a 10:50 train out of Strasbourg to Basel, where I would take a train from Basel to Milan, then from Milan to Venice. Turned out to be the start of a lot of time spent on various trains.

Here come some pics, look out

Train station in Milan. Thought it looked pretty cool, it was really cold in there tho.

These next three pictures were taken on the train to Venice from Milan. I was amazed that the camera was able to get such good pictures from a moving train, even more amazed by the beautiful alps in the background and the fertile farmland in the foreground.

So I took the train to Venizia Mestre, the stop my ticket indicated. I didn't realize there were two train stations in Venice. I wondered if Dev was supposed to meet me at the other one, one stop down the line. He was. And I had forgotten to give him my phone number, and I didn't have his. Thinking quickly, I jumped into a cab and took a ride over a huge bridge to Venice proper, with all the canals and such. Got to the train station, finally met up with Dev with a huge sigh of relief. We got on a vaporetto, the public transportation in venice - literally boats that act as a kind of metro I guess, with stops and everything. It was already gettin surreal.

We went to a restaurant, where I met a bunch of Dev's Italian acquaintances, who were all great, as well as one of their professors, a Japanese man from Osaka. He was great, really funny. He taught business at the University, I guess, and was also into going out and drinking with his students.

We then went out for drinks, enjoyed some "spritz" the Venice signature drink, which tastes a bit like a shirley temple, but more sour, and with alcohol, of course. It was good. Not a masculine drink, but whatever. Do as the Italians do, I guess. We had a few, met up with Joe Weber, another BC kid who's actually Dev's roommate, and met some cool British kids at a bar. We made it back at almost a run to catch the last vaporetto going to "the island," which I'll explain in a bit.

Looking out at an island off of Venice proper from the vaporetto

A closer up view of the area of Venice near the plaza san Marco (or something like that), where the Doge's palace is. Apparently they were shooting a movie with Angelina Jolie and some actor in the city at the time. Sweet.

This is Dev and Joe's friend, Xander, on the way back to the island. I thought it would be a great picture to take, so I took it with Dev and Joe's urgings. He was funny, he loves his alcohol as they say. No relation to XXX aka Vin Diesel, or so he claims. I'm still spellin his name with an X though. He's from Duke. Which is cool, I guess.

The next morning I walked outside Dev's room and took this picture. Yeah, they have a balcony. and they live on an island, which is really more of a resort than anything else. Large rooms, with a cleaning staff, a communal kitchen, green space (which is non-existant in Venice) a computer room, and get this, their own b-ball and tennis courts. Unreal lifestyle if you ask me. I won't get into the specifics, but I can safely say some BC abroad programs are given more attention/planning, meaning some kids' set ups are amazing while others are barely mediocre. No use beatin a dead horse, my pa used to say.

This is part of the Doge's Palace, which is in a sweet town square, all of it is super old, I guess Venice was founded well before the 11th century, maybe even around 500 A.D. or something. The only downside: this part of town was crammed with tourists. SO many.

View looking on the Grand Canal of Venice

First in a series of canal-style shots. Venice is so unreal, there are no cars, the only transportation is vaporettos, water taxis, and gondolas. And other boats.

A church we stumbled upon near sunset. Dev had never seen it before. Neither had I.

Back to the Island, at sunset on my first full day...

Sweet sunset shot. One of my favorites. See the mountains way in the background? Awesome.

The next day, me and Dev went wandering, all the way to the soccer stadium. On the way, we came upon a nice neighborhood that was obviously much newer, judging by the width of the streets. It was pretty peaceful, it was a beautiful day, and there weren't hordes of tourists.

Sweet sort of boat/raft I found

A little before the two preceding pictures were taken, we walked through a park, which turned into one of the strangest places I have ever seen. We walked a large completely deserted area, which was full of different buildings with the names of different countries. Any country you could think of (almost) was represented by I would say at least 15-20 buildings. Uruguay, the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, China, Japan, Greece, etc. All the buildings were boarded up and empty inside, and the whole place looked kinda derelict - trash on the ground and stuff. There were almost no people around, it was cool but a bit eery. Me and Dev amused ourselves by imagining that we were suddenly in a world similar to "Lost," a deserted island of some sort. Not too creative, but it was pretty fun.

Here's Canada's building. Not the best looking structure, probably the ugliest honestly. But definitely had the coolest mysterious spray painted message next to it. It was spookily appropriate.

France! You may be asking, why I didn't take a picture of the U.S. building. I didn't feel like it, it looked a lot like the White House, and everyone's seen that.

We ended up in this little square. This tower reminded me of Isengard (Even though it's really more appropriate in Minas Tirith).

The first leg of the trip went great. Great weather, good italian food, lots of people watching, and being in one of the most surreal cities in the world is not a bad combination. To top it all off, on Saturday night me and Dev decided not to do anything too intense because we had an early flight the next morning. Joe's parents had been visiting all week, and they had left the day before. Joe left Saturday for his spring break, during which he was going to Spain I believe. Why is this relevant/important? Joe and his family had gone to the Venice Opera House the night before, and due to an initial scheduling error, they had booked tickets for Saturday night as well, though they obviously wouldn't be there any longer. So basically me and Dev scored four free tickets to the Venice Opera House, the most famous in the city and undoubtedly one of the most famous in Italy. We took two tickets, and gave the other two to a girl we met on Dev's island who claimed (falsely, as it turns out) that she would come and that she would give the fourth ticket to a friend of hers. She never showed up, such a slap in the face to generosity and the generosity of Joe's parents in particular.

At any rate, me and Dev went and saw Mozart's requiem performed at the Opera that night. I had never seen an orchestra like that before. Suffice to say it was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had, probably because of all the pageantry of the place itself and because of the amazing performance by the orchestra. Also, though, because I'm not really usually into the opera or stuff like that. I actually enjoyed it a lot, so that was great. So, let me say thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Weber for giving us those tickets! It was so great.

The next morning, me and Dev were off to Paris, where we were catching a train to the west coast of France - Normandy, to be specific. But that and plenty more will wait until subsequent posts...

À tout à l'heure!

La Belgique: Bruges et Bruxelles.

This past weekend we took an excursion with our program coordinator to Belgium. We stayed in Bruges for two nights, and spent a few hours in Brussels on Sunday before catching the five hour train back to Strasbourg. It was an amazing trip. The weather cleared up nicely all weekend, which was great because we were expecting cold, wet, cloudy conditions. It was still pretty cold, but the sun was shining and everything was beautiful.

Bruges, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the most fully preserved medieval city in Europe. It has amazing buildings and a network of small canals, and gained its wealth as a trading center during the Middle Ages. It has the oldest stock exchange in the world, established in 1271, as well as the French Fry Museum, the Chocolate Museum, and the Diamond Museum. As we found out as well, it has great night life. And an incredible selection of good beer. Hundreds of different kinds, the Belgians really take great pride in their beer. And not to mention the waffles (gaufres in French). So here come some pictures

One of the buildings in the square at the center of Bruges, a two minute walk from our hotel.

Buildings forming another side of the square. The "terraced" style roofs are signature Flemish style. In Belgium, they speak three official languages - French, German, and Flemish. The country is linguistically divided, the north being more Flemish, the south being more French. It's actually a big political issue right now. The question of national identities and such.

Saturday morning around 10:30 most of us took a bike tour of the city. Our guide was very nice and had a good sense of humor. All the bikes were named after Simpsons characters, if that gives you an idea. She was really knowledgeable, and took us on probably the most scenic city route I've ever seen. The city is filled with cobblestone streets, bridges, and canals. This is one of many canal shots I took. It was pretty cold, but the sun made everything worthwhile.

Ducks. Two peas in a pod.

This looks kind of like a mill, right? Built in 2000, it is a replica of the medieval cranes that were used to offload goods from ships coming into Bruges. The city is only about 10 km from the North Sea, after all. So how did this contraption work? They stuck four to five children in each wheel and had them run like hampsters, which raised the goods by means of a pulley system. Also, the building behind it to the right was where Napoleon housed his Portuguese prisoners of war while he made them widen the canal close by. Oh Napoleon.

Windmills! Nearby there were a group of people practicing a type of fencing, except they were using two-handed swords. It was pretty cool.

One of the wider waterways. Lots of boats.

This body of water is called the "Lake of Love" or something close to that. Back during one of the Great Wars (our guide wasn't sure if it was WWI or II) a poor man was in love with a rich woman. The girl's parents weren't too happy about it, as you can imagine. So, when the man was recruited and went to war, within a short time the parents gave their daughter the false news that her love had been killed in combat. Consumed with grief, she came here and threw herself in, drowning herself. When the man came back from the war, he heard what she had done, so he came here and drowned himself as well. It's unknown if the story is true or legend, but its still a good one nonetheless.

Another canal shot, I tried to take some real sunny ones. This one you can see the different architectural influences - the white, rectangular-looking building on the far left is French style, the three buildings to its right are Flemish style, the next one is Gothic...being a major medieval center of commerce, it makes sense that Bruges has all these different cultural elements in its heritage.

A sweet building, except for the crane. The top merchants in the city who controlled the shipping, etc. used to go up to the top of the tower to see the ships come in - "Look, here comes more of my money sailin on in."

The world's oldest stock exchange, founded in 1271 by a rich German family, if I remember correctly. So historic. Pardon the expression, but Wall Street ain't got shit on Bruges. You can take that one all the way to the bank.

Another great building along a canal. See the window more or less in the center, below the tower? Notice that it juts out over the canal? Many buildings in Bruges have similar windows. According to our tour guide, this was because they used to throw all their refuse, human and otherwise, into the canals. And used to drink more or less the same water. And people wonder why the life expectancy in the Middle Ages was so low.

Clogs of many colors, of many countries I should say. Personally I don't know why there is an American flag up there. It's the ugliest clog up there. That's talking strictly colors and patterns, of course. No political undertones. The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of Samuel Griffin, its creator.

A little BC moment. This little outcropping was right along one of the canals. No one likes to be behind bars. Except maybe Kelly? (far left). As my expression suggests, I'm taking it all in stride.

A cool area of the city, where there are a few really old churches, an old hospital, and an abbey of nuns all in close proximity. The abbey was founded during the middle ages by a woman whose name I can't recall. She was a champion of the poor, especially single women living on the fringes of society. Single women can still rent rooms there today. Only two rules: no nighttime visitors, and no children. Our guide said kids were too noisy for the place.

If you click on this picture, you should be able to make out the words "DiamantMuseum" to the left of the flag. I didn't go in, but I saw in the window a huge Swarovski crystal diamond "replica" that would have weighed 20,000 karats if it was a real diamond. The girls on the trip went nuts for this stuff. Diamonds and chocolate, what else could a girl want? Kidding of course. But seriously.

Look b, how did Mittens get all the way to Bruges without anyone knowing? I hope she's only playing with catnip and not some poor mouse.

A yes, beer. A veritable wall of beer, with every kind of Beligan beer represented. At the end was a nice pub where Peter and I enjoyed big pints of beer from Steerbrugge Abbey (spelling?) founded by Saint Arnoldus, the patron saint of brewers. Which is also in Bruges. The trip gave me a whole new appreciation for beer. Not what passes for beer in the US, but real, crafted beer.

In the same complex, in the basement - a beer cellar. This was only one wall of two or three rooms. Filled with beer. It was an experience as close to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as I'll probably ever have. No bro intended.

The belltower in the center square of Bruges. We wanted to climb to the top, but it wasn't worth the asking price. Really fine to look at on its own.

A parting shot of Bruges

After a great Saturday night out, filled with a great dinner and plenty of club/pub hopping, it was off to Brussels on Sunday.

A marketplace. Lots of cool stuff for sale, but I had pretty much run out of my spending money at this point. Got accosted quite a bit by homeless people in this area. Or gypsies, I'm not sure which, people kept calling them gypsies though. Not long after this we saw a big homeless guy, reeking of piss and very drunk, hassling these two gypsy women. He chased them around the square for a while, then they ran away. They were sort of laughing as they got away, but I think things would have been different if he had caught them. He then came over to our group and yelled in my ear. It was disconcerting, to say the least. Above all, though, it was sad.

Not far from the market, we came upon a large, ridiculously ornate square. As you may imagine, there were many tourists like us. I took this turning to my left. I seriously suggest clicking on really all of these pictures, but this one and the one below in particular.

And took this turning to my right. These buildings were owned by the major guilds - tanners, brewers, businesses like that. Trade businesses you could call them. The coolest square I've ever been in hands down.

In the same square, we saw this building. Our guide, Susan (program coordinator)'s daughter who lives in Brussels, informed us that Karl Marx stayed there when he wrote the Communist Manifesto. If you think about it, that means the birth of communism was technically in Belgium. Victor Hugo also stayed here when he was exiled from France in the 1830s (or maybe 1840s?) for supporting insurrections against the government. Really cool.

Tintin, Snowy (Milou) and Captain Haddock (le Capitaine Haddock) painted on the side of a building. Hergé, the creator of the Tintin series, was Belgian. The Belgians love their comics as well as their beer and chocolate.

A statue of a young child taking a piss. Pisser is the verb in French. The statue itself is very famous, I think it has to do with some big fire in Brussels, but I'm not sure. I was lagging behind as I habitually do on walks and I missed Susan's daughter's explanation. I did catch that it's not the original, even though its still really old. The original was stolen centuries ago, and the thief accidentally broke it. His punishment? Life sentence of hard labor.

One of the last things we did were visit Les Galeries, the "19th century equivalent of shopping malls." A lot cooler than any malls I've seen, that's for sure.

View down a sweet market street. It reminded me of some of the streets I saw in Paris.

Finally, a photo of the Belgian king and queen. The Belgians also love their monarchy. They look pretty cool to me. Thankfully, it's not a picture of King Leopold. That might be awkward. Malcolm, maybe this guy went to Gonzaga?

And that was Belgium in a weekend. A really awesome trip, an amazing country, which has only been officially a country since 1830, in case you wanted to know.

Here's some other funny/weird things that happened.
In Bruges on Saturday night, everyone had a great time. A great time. My friend Camilo and I had a pretty late night, which ended unexpectedly at this club ("Cathedraak") where we had been enjoying ourselves immensely. This guy comes up to us, grabs us by the collars, yells "YOU, GET OUT!!!" and pulls/shoves us/knocks us together all the way to the door before pushing us outside. He wasn't even a bouncer or anything, just some really pissed off guy. And we weren't doing anything different from what everyone else there was doing. God knows why we were the targets of such unprovoked aggression. Luckily he was finished with us, because we then watched him go off on some poor other guy outside - knocked him down and kicked him twice in the stomach/chest area. That was the first time anything like that has ever happened to me.

I also lost my Ipod somehow in the course of the trip. It was a tough loss, but oh well it can and eventually will be replaced. To quote Tyler Durden, "The things you own, end up owning you." The worst part was the return train trip - 5 hours without music-zoning out capabilities. Poor Camilo somehow lost his passport and his blackberry.

Also, when we were getting ready to leave Brussels in the train station, we saw another confrontation between homeless/down on their luck people. This guy with a beer can was yelling right up in the face of apparently a woman (so Peter tells me, but it was hard to tell from where we were standing), and pushing her around and generally bearing down on her. That she was female probably explains why no blows were thrown, which is definitely what we were all expecting to happen. It was one of those weird moments where you know something bad is going on, but you and everyone else lingers and watches for a while to see how the spectacle will conclude. Once again, just really sad overall.

A great trip to a great country with a great group of people. And the waffles and french fries and chocolate were delicious.