French Finale

My final train ride in France went without error. After leaving Alpe d’Huez at 7:30am, I arrived in Paris at around 1pm.

I was again CouchSurfing, but as it was a Friday my hosts had to work so we had arranged to meet at the Hoche metro station at 6:30. This gave me five and a half hours to kill and after wandering lost around the complex Gare du Lyon for about half an hour, I finally found the luggage check which turned out to be incredibly expensive. Welcome to Paris.

I checked my bags, checked the tourist information centre, then checked my new map. After ripping the map in half by mistake, I grabbed another which showed the routes which the tour busses take. I figured that I’d leave the main sites ’till the next day and so set off to find the French National Library. This, I gathered, is supposed to be a modern architectural centrepiece, and it was very cool. Four seperate buildings in L shapes donned the corners of the structure (in the middle was great public space and a large cluster of treess), the passage between them underground.

French National Library

After the library, I ventured back over the river via a bridge which I guess was specifically added when the library was built. On the otherside, opposite the library, was some kind of sports centre – a crazy geometric building covered in grass, skylights, and bright blue metal framing.

Sports Centre

This also appeared to be a popular youth hangout as it was crawling with teenagers who I thought should have been in school. I passed these kids and began to walk back towards the train station. I was walking along thhe river, under a bridge, when I spotted a very nice homeless set-up complete with tents, tables, chars, appliances (I’m not sure how they got power for them) and even a christmas tree!

Homeless setup

When I got back to the station I still had a lot of time until I had to head west on the metro so I began to walk towards Bastille, a very large and famous round-about.

Bastille

Now I had to make the decision. What to see. I decided on making a brief appearance at Notre Dame but trying not see too much of it. And after walking down a street which I thought was the right one for a while, getting lost, and then getting reorientated, I spotted the small island on which the cathedral was located.

Notre Dame

I then crossed on to the island, but kinda tried not to see too much of Notre Dame itself – I wanted to keep it until I had more time – so just passed by and went on my way. About an hour later I was back at the train station and ready to take the metro to Hoche.

This was crazy, it was rush hour and here I was trying to take the busiest metro in the world with two bags full of junk! I even had to change lines. But it was OK, I made it to Hoche faster than I thought (with enough time to take a little walk around) and soon met my CouchSurfing hosts, Clair and Francis (who was actually from a French owned island off the south-east coast of Madagascar called Reunion). We walked back to their place, had dinner, talked about all sorts of things and had a pretty good evening. Both Clair and Francis were amazingly hospitable and were offering me things left, right, and centre. It turned out that I was the first person that they had hosted!

From this point of my time in Paris, I must be honest, I was a bit lazy! I think I was just tired from all the partying I did in the alps. But I made sure I saw all the big sites. the next morning I got my self out of bed and headed back to Notre Dame to get a proper look. And after all the cathedrals that I had seen in this trip, I have to say I was a little disappointed. This one gets talked up by everyone, but in some ways it dosen’t even compare to many of the others I’ve seen, especially the Italian ones. Here is a picture of it anway:

Notre Dame

From here I headed towards the famous gallery, the Louvre. Again I was lazy, I decided not to go inside. Partly because of time (two days to see the whole thing!) and partly because of money. It’s becoming rather skint and I can’t afford 9 Euros to go to an art gallery, as much as I would have liked to. The buildings and the glass pyramid were especially impressive though! I hadn’t realised that it was so big.

The Louvre

From the Louvre I headed through the massive gardens which extend in front of it. At the other end of them was a small christmas fair with a pretty large ferris wheel. It was here that I caught my first glimpse of the famous Eiffel Tower, and it was then that I though “yeah, I’m really in Paris”.

It was beginning to get dark so I decided to head back. I was supposed to text Clair when I returned to the apartment block so that she could let me in. I was late and my phone had decided to run out of money and not let me top up the credit. So I headed to the apartment and snuck inside with another resident. I got up to level 7 and realised that it was the wrong building! So back down I went and over to the other building. There was no one to let me in so I just skulked around the entrance until a group of people opened it, not thinking twice about who I could be or what I was doing there. I then headed up to the right level 7 and Francis let me in. That night we were going to go out but in the end decided against it as Francis was sick, Clair was getting sick, none of their friends could make it and I was tired.

The following day Clair and Francis had said they would take me out to Versailles so around lunchtime (after a good sleep in) we got in the car and drove out there. The main attraction in Versailles is the palace which has been home to many a French king and queen.

Palace at Versailles

Inside the palace’s grounds and also inside the palace itself were a number of sculptural works from American artist Jeff Koons. The first one which I saw made for a pretty cool photo with the palace refelected in it.

Royal Reflection

The inside of the palace was pretty cool, but to be honest, for the price that you pay it was definitely not as good as the palace in Brussels which was free. There were many dark rooms with large numbers of paintings of past residents, historical beds and furniture, and a terrible audio guide which really didn’t tell you anything you couldn’t read on the signs. The highlight of this palace was the gardens which I hear are very popular and much more beautiful in the summer.

Gardens at Versailles

That evening was another quiet one. Apart from a trip to a street which houses a huge amount of electronics stores to get some things for Clair, we spent most of the night trying to get the French television system to allow us to watch a French film with English subtitles. This  did not end up working, so we began to watch 300 but soon all of us were pretty sleepy and we ended up turning it off and headed off to bed.

The next day was a Monday and Francis and Clair had to go off to work. It was time again for me to see some sights, so mid-morning I set off to make sure I didn’t miss the sights that Paris is known for. My first stop was the Arch de Triomphe, set in the middle of a huge round-about and extremely expensive to visit the inside of. I took a few photos  and then started to make my way towards the Eiffel Tower.

Arch de Triomphe

The Eiffel Tower is big. It was even bigger than I thought it was and it was very cool to finally see it in all it’s glory.

Eiffel Tower

I then headed down towards it. The metal framework is amazing and it made for some pretty cool silhouette photos.

Eiffel silhouette

After a little bit of decision making (time was running short), I decided to ascend the tower. The line took about 25 mintues which was a pretty good amount of time considering people queue for hours in the summer. I chose on of the legs which only offers the stairs and just under 400 stairs later I had made it to the first level. Over 200 stair more I was at the second level. The view was pretty cool from here although the day was rather overcast. This low cloud prevented me from spending further money and taking the lift all the way to the top (which was in fact in the clouds).

View from the Eiffel Tower

By the time I got back down it had started to rain so I got on the metro and began to head back to Hoche. That evening was an interesting dinner. I had told Francis that I had neve eated escargot before, so in no time he had whipped up an appertiser and I was eating some sort of pesto roasted snails – not bad at all really but I found it a bit hard to stomach them, something most probably psychological. After this we had hotdogs with salad and “French” dijon mustard which actaully almost killed me. I put way too much on thinking it was like American mustard and it felt like I was drinking vodka infused with chili peppers – I was crying and sniffing annd Francis thought it was funny!

The next morning I was off again. An early train to the airport and a flight for just over an hour saw me land in London. It was Christmas time!

Scandinavia Initiation: Copenhagen

After a 15 hour overnight train ride, I made it from Amsterdam to Copenhagen. I was sleeping in a little cabin on a very wobbly train. The cabin looked a little like this:

Sleeping Train

On the train I met Bob. Well, I really met him at the information desk at Amsterdam Station. I was there trying to find out which platform my train was going from as I didn’t really believe what I had been told earlier by someone else. He was doing the same thing, except he was clad in leather. Bob was also a Canadian art-director. We got onto the train, talked about all manner of things, but by far the most interesting was the fact that he was travelling around with an 8mm video camera and another oldschool 120 film camera. We’ll come back to Bob.

The other interesting character I met on the train, his name is unknown to me. He arrived in my cabin around midnight during our stop at Cologne and was the first person on this trip who has accurately guessed that I’m from New Zealand and not Australia. We got talking after having to deal with an unruley and obtrusive suitcase belonging to a travelling Jamacian who just sat there in his Timberlands eating piles of junkfood for the entire journey. The talk was definitely interesting, he was a Baroque harpsicord player who travelled once a month from Copenhagen to Cologne for lessons. We talked for around 2 hours, and I think the most intersting thing he told me was how the train system works. The night trains which travel through Germany all stop at Hanover at around 2am. At hanover, depending where the passengers are going (and they are separated by carraiges), the trains start this crazy system of swapping carriages before heading to their final destination. This is why I was initally confused. The sign for my train said Copenhagen, Cologne, Prague, Warsaw and a couple more!

After 15 hours in the wobbely train, we arrived at Copenhagen central in the rain. Although we were in different hostels, Bob and I decided to meet at the station the following day for a wander around. So we parted ways, him walking into town and me taking another train out to the damned airport! Why did I choose the Airport Hostel Copenhagen? Because it was cheap. After a 25 minute walk to the hostel from the airport, a cold shower, and a 25 minute walk back, I had returned to the train going back into the city.

(I can see this becoming far, far, too long. I might have to speed things up a bit!)

I hit the town. I saw the world’s largest carousel.

World's Largest Carousel

Then I witnessed some Mexican buskers, one of which was playing the panpipes while holding their DVD and CDs and constantly glancing over to me (and I suppose everyone else):

Mexican Buskers

Next I walked into the shopping street where I proceeded to lose a small-yet-annoying amount of money to a street gambler. Those of you who know me know that I am not one for the gambling. Don’t ask me why I did it. I only went in for a wee look at what all the fuss was about, then next thing I knew I had my wallet open and a group of Danish men crowding around it, counting how much money I had, and then I had nothing left. That was one lesson learnt the hard way.

I left that scene swiftly and went for a wander around the city. I saw important buildings, pedestrian roads, crazy churches, canals and interesting modern architecture. And statues, oh the statues. Of all the cities I have been in, Copenhagen would be the city of statues. They are absolutely everywhere. I spent a few hours wandering around, but after a restless nights sleep, I became pretty tired pretty fast, but this was ok as I was about to return to my hostel – and a huge party! Just what I needed.

The party went on, the music was terrible, and the bass reverberated throughout the entire house. I finally managed to go to sleep around 3am. This was not all an annoyance ‘though. I met some cool people from Germany, Sweden, Syria, Poland and many more places. But sleeping was a must, the next day was to be a big adventure.

I met up with Bob at the central train station at 12 o’clock and off we set for an extensive wander around the city. Our first stop was the (once) freetown of Christiania. Christiania is an old military base which was taken up by squatters in the late ’70s. For years it was occupied by free-spirits, hippies, yoga afficinados and people of similar ilk. Rules had been set, hash-trade was legal but there was no tolerace of gun, hard drugs or stolen property. This all ended in 2004 when the government raided the freetown, forcing the hash-trade to go underground and change the life in Christiania forever. It is said that within a few years that the community many not even exist, with plans for developments such as a golf course to be undertaken.

Entrance To Christiania

Turkish food was scoffed on the way back into town, and we decided to visit some of the more historical sites of the city. Half of our walk was us looking at the same things that both of us had seen the previous day. We walked down towards the river and found a street full of different coloured buildings:

Colourful!

Further walking saw us finding the statue of the Little Mermaid. We both knew about this statue but neither of us had originally thought we would see it – this happened by mistake as we were headed towards the Freidericksburg Fort, a star shaped inland island complete with bridges, cannons, buildings which was originally self-sustaining. Oh and the first proper windmill which I had seen!

The Little Mermaid

Freidericksburg Fort Windmill

We had been walking for hours and had covered most of the inner city, so after the fort there was only one placce left to visit for the day, the Royal Gardens.  As we were walking there, we spotted one of the coolest bike stores I’ve ever seen. This place made its own bikes, including the frames, and let the buy choose all the options, colours, etc. How grand!

Bike-tastic!

Then it was on to the Royal Gardens, public gardens which are locked at night and house a large number of crazy sculptures. And afterward, for me, almost an hour more walking + a train ride to get back to the hostel.  Luckily for me that night there was no party. Most of the hostel had cleared out and there was only 5 of us left – two german girls, another NZer and I, and a girl from Malta – who just chilled out and watched some well deserved films.

St. Bob and the Dragon

The following day, Ricky, the other NZer, had left. The girl from Malta was moving into an apartment with a Chinese boy, and the German girls  and I decided to have one last look around town before we all left the hostel. They were intent of buy presents for their entire extended family + friends, even though their holiday was only 4 days. So, after much, much, shopping, we decided to check out the Round Tower. I had some documentation but I’ve now lost it so could not tell you what the use of this tower was, but now if you like, you can ascend the never-ending circular ramp all the way to the top and involve yourself in a spectacular view of the city.

View from Round Tower

There was one last stop before we departed for the afternoon, that was the Almond Man. I had seen these around, and they smelt so good that I had to have some – pronto! I’m not exactly sure what these are, but they are Almonds that are coated in some kind of caramelized, crunchy and sweet coating. They tasted amazing, expsecially the hot ones, but after a while you actaully felt very ill. All three of us decided that we weren’t feeling too good after this, unfortunate cconsidering the magnitude of the taste!

Almond Man

“Goodbye,” I said to the German girls, and headed back to the airport to pick up my bags, where I then headed right back on to the train, bound for town. I had slept two nights in the hostel, but I was here for four – the next two were my third CouchSurfing experience. Mee and Mathias were both Business School students (Mathias also produces synth music for advertising, TV and film) who lived together in a pretty massive three bedroom apartment in Freidericksberg. For two more nights I stayed with them. The only full day I was at their place, I actaully only left the house to get something to eat, the rest of the time I spent planning the next stage of my trip and trying to begin to organise how I was getting to the north of Norway.

The following day at 11:32am I was off on another train, leaving overcast Copenhagen for sunny Gothenburg!

Oxford!

I haven’t posted in a few days due to having spent the last few nights in Oxford – yup, the university city.

The main reason I travelled to Oxford was to catch up with a friend of mine (and Mattinum), Isaac. He goes to university in Manchester, but luckily for me he was back at his parent’s place for summer holiday. It also turned out that he was good friends with the manager of the hostel which I stayed at (Central Backpackers) which was good as this allowed him to come into the hostel for drinks and things. It was good to catch up with Isaac and hopefully I will go and visit him again in Manchester at the end of the year.

But enough about that, here are a few highlights from Oxford. Firstly, the buildings. These are (for the most part) even older and more interesting than the buildings found in London. I think that may have something to do with the great fire of London in 1666 though, as many of Oxford’s buildings are from well before that.

The Oxford Library

This building was epic. Built in the 1300s, the Oxford Library (according to Isaac) has the largest collection of books in the world, all stored underground. Apparantly they had some deal with a large number of publishers who would give them a copy of every book they published. I’m unsure if this is still going now but i’m told it was in occurance for a large number of years.

The Oxford Castle

The Castle is a newly opened attraction in Oxford as it only ceased to be a prison in 1996. It’s creation first started in 1071, making it one of the oldest buildings in the city. It was very cool to see, but unfortunatly due to it’s former prison status, I don’t think it works overly well as a castle tourist attraction. And the fact that it is in the middle of town makes it rather hard to take a decent photo of it.

But the buildings which are most commonly talked about in Oxford are the colleges. This was truely amazing. I had originally thought that there was one Oxford university and that was how it has always been. This was proven to be untrue. There are historically around 40 different colleges in Oxford, now all brought together to form the prestegious university you all know. Every college building was more impressive than the next, with architectural feats such as this:

A university square

The above image is just one of the 40 colleges seen in the city. They all now appear to house different faculties of the university from history to physics. But what I thought was the grandest of all the colleges was Christ Church. This place was amazing, just like something from a book or a film, which seems appropriate as Harry Potter was filmed there and Alice in Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass were both written there.

Christ Church

Entrance to Christ Church

Isaac also took me to a pub called the Turf Tavern, which is supposed to be one of the oldest pubs in Oxford. The roof was so low that it was less than 6″ away from from the top of my head at the beams. Isaac could not stand in it properly without having to bend sideways! We got some pints of Sadlers Worcester Sorcerer Ale and sat down. Here are some fun facts I read on the wall: in the 16th centuary, the owner died in the pub. In the 17th centuary, swordfighting was a common sport loved by patrons of the pub. And in the 18th centuary, cockfighting!

The following day, I got to experience something even more exciting (even thrilling if you lose your balance). This was known as punting. It’s the British version of the Italian gondola, and you propel yourself down a calm river by pushing the riverbed with a long aluminium pole. At first I was all over the place and almost fell into the river (which was pretty haggard, baby poo-eqsue colour), but soon i got the hang of it. The worst part about it is when you slide the pole up out of the water, it all drips down your arms and you end up kinda wet, but apart from that it’s pretty good fun!

Punting!

There was also two ways which it can be done. In essence, they don’t physically differ at all, it all depends on which end of the punt you stand on. In the picture above, I’m standing on the platform which is considered to be Oxford style. You can also stand at the other end, which is not as solid. This is known to be Cambridge style. Apparantly they have Oxford-Cambridge races and such which I can only imagine would be pretty amusing to watch.

So yes, Oxford was a pretty interesting little city. Unfortunately I forgot to go up the lookout tower, but  I’m sure I can do that in many other places along my travels.

My next port of call is Southend-On-Sea in Essex, then off up to Warwickshire for the RetroRides 08 Festival which should be very cool.