Europe Trip: Day 8, May 28th

As soon as I made it downtown I headed straight for St. Peter's, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it only cost 1 Euro to get access to the top. 300 stairs later I reached the top and had a good view of the city center.



I grabbed something to eat and then took the U-bahn to Olympic Park. As soon as you exit the subway and get above ground you see a strange, modern-looking building -- that is the BMW museum. My student card got me in at half price (6 euros instead of 12). My favorite thing in the museum was the WWII military-issue motorcycles complete with a sidecar, which is exactly like Indiana Jones! I could see Harrison Ford and Sean Connery riding around in it.



My host had mentioned this 'exhibit' that is only in Munich for a few months, it is all about Tutankamen and the archeologist who uncovered the tomb. So after exiting the BMW museum I started following the signs to the Event Center. The walk took me all through Olympia Park, past the buildings created specifically for the Munich games. The walk was quite far, so I took a break next to a river that runs through the park. Eventually I reached the exhibit and it was quite fascinating, although about as far from 'Munich' as you can get.

I made my way back to my host's place, going one bus stop too far. As I walked back up the street I ran into Robert at the correct stop, which was surprising since we weren't supposed to meet for another hour.

That night I just took it easy and we ordered pizza from an Italian restaurant. The pizzas over here have a very thin crust, similar to Guido's in Boise.

The plan for the next day was to visit Dachau, which promised to be a much more serious day than my vacation had provided so far...

Europe Trip: Day 7, May 27th

Sorry in advance for the long post, but what can I say it was a long day...

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At around 6am I noticed that our train had turned into a regional train, picking people up at neighboring cities. Unfortunately that meant that two more people came into the cabin, so I had to wake up.

A little after 7am the train arrived at Muenchen Hbf (Munich central station). I picked up some bakery goods at the train station, but they were only mediocre -- it would have been better to have picked up a few extra croissants and stuff in Paris, that bakery was much, much better. So take the advice from me and don't hesitate to pick up some stuff from a decent bakery if you stop in Paris. I wish I had done it earlier and more often! Admittedly the bread I ate for a couple days straight wasn't that great, but it was basic and the point was its cheapness not its goodness.

Anyway, I made my way to my new host's place using first the U-bahn (underground/metro) and then taking a bus. That got me to his street, and I only had to walk a few blocks to get there. He buzzed me in and we talked for a couple hours about various things, namely some ideas on what I could do for the day.

My Munich host's name is Robert. His place reflected his culture, as it was much more organized than my Parisian host's place, as well as more modern looking -- both of which are things I associate with Germans. The flat was also a bit bigger than the ones I stayed at in Paris, probably because it is a little further out and Munich is a smaller city.

After talking for a couple hours, finally he couldn't put it off any later and had to head to work. I unpacked a bit, getting my daypack out and getting ready for the day. I got out of his place by about noon.

I reached downtown (Marienplatz) without too much trouble, and immediately looked for the spot that I had agreed to meet my host at 7pm, so that I wouldn't have any problems finding it when I needed to be there later. True to his word, it was as easy of a place to find as I could ask for.

At first I wanted to find St. Peter's church, because I had heard if you climb to the top you get a great view of Munich. But the church that I thought was St. Peter's said it was closed for cleaning, now that I think back it might have been the wrong church (more on that later).

So I wandered a bit and found this cute little marketplace where they sell all sorts of fruits and different things, Robert had mentioned it as a good place to check out. After circling it once, I stopped at a place called "Fleisch und Wurst" and got a Brautwurst for 2 Euros, I also got a 0.5L beer at the beer garden.

With my hunger satiated, I just picked a direction and started walking. My end goal was to find the English gardens, but I thought I would just get a feel for the city and go to some of the places that tourists never go. It was a more business area, with office buildings and that sort of stuff. It was immediately noticeable that the streets were much larger and an attempt at making parking easier had been done, unlike Paris where there are very small streets and parking is a nightmare. Not to be cliche, but the Germans probably were being more organized and efficient with their planning.

An interesting thing that I have talked with my CouchSurfing hosts about, is how people treat crosswalks. In Paris, the red 'do not walk' sign is entirely ignored. If the street is clear, you can walk. From what my hosts tell me the cops don't hand out tickets, and even if they did it is for like a couple euros. In Munich (and the rest of Germany) people take them a lot more seriously, and it is frowned upon to cross when the crosswalk. The cops definitely will give you a ticket. Nonetheless, I find it a bit irritating now to wait at the crosswalk when I know I could easily make it.

Enough of a tangent, though, from the business area I found my way to some landmarks -- a giant obelisk, a museum that looks like a Roman building, and a park. Outside the museum there were some high school age kids playing sports, the first of which was badminton (the one with the fly and the rackets). The second game was almost like volleyball, in fact they use the same type of ball, but instead of using your hands you use everything else. The rules seemed to be it can touch the ground once, and after that you have to keep it in the air and hit it over the net. The rules for how you can hit the ball are the same as soccer, so feet, knees, chest, head, everything except hands and arms.

I worked my way to the English gardens, but I ended up way at the bottom and had to walk all the way up (1.5km or so) to make it to the Chinese Tower. I had a drink there and took a rest from all my walking. Then I made my way out of the park/garden and found the nearest U-bahn, which I took back to Marienplatz. I was an hour early, though, so I decided to go on a quest to find St. Peter's and climb to the top. About 35 minutes and 5 churches later, I realized I had no idea where St. Peter's was and I also had no idea where I was at that time.

Lost again, such is the way of the lone traveler, I tried to find where I was on the map that my host had given me to use, but had no luck at all. Finally I stumbled upon a U-bahn and S-bahn station, Karlsplatz. I mistakenly thought that I needed to take the U-bahn, which was all I had been using, so I rushed down 3+ sets of escalators and tried to make sense of the signs saying where the U-bahn was headed. I gave up on that and asked an older woman, with my mixture of English and a poor excuse for German, if the train was headed to Marienplatz. She told me that I was on the U-bahn and I had to take the S-bahn, showing me on the map. I thanked her with a quick, Danke! and was up two escalators in no time, reaching the S-bahn just in time to jump on the train with less than 10 minutes to spare.

I reached Marienplatz with around 5 minutes left until I was supposed to meet Robert, and reached the fountain with 2-3 minutes left -- but at least I wasn't late!

After telling him a bit about what I had done that day, he easily pointed to St. Peter's (useful for the next day), and then showed me around a bit. We went to a German restaurant and I had currywurst and fries. A big game between Manchester United and Barcelona was going on, but we couldn't get a seat that faced the TV, so we just got to hear the reactions of the throng of football (soccer) fans. I checked the score before we headed out, and Barcelona was up 2-0.

We then headed back to his place, and I was exhausted from the long day of walking everywhere. So after talking for a while, I got to bed by around midnight. Another long day in Europe was over.

Europe Trip: Day 6, May 26th

I decided to sleep in, since it was raining outside. When I woke up I got ready, did some planning for my next stop, Munich, and did my laundry. After the laundry was done, I packed my backpack, miraculously fitting it all back in. I called Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Harold, and then Mom, Dad, and Emily.

So I pretty much just lazed around and wasted time until I left at about 5pm. I went on the tram, having some difficulty using their weird machine to buy the ticket, it involved a wheel and some help from Jesus. I connected at Port d'Orleans and took the metro, during rush hour, to the first stop before Gard de l'Est. I found a bakery and bought a few different goodies including a croissant, which was much better than I expected. I was wondering why Thomas had thought I needed to pick one up. So now I'm sorry that I hadn't ate more of them. Why eat normal bread when I could have been eating those for pretty cheap? Ah well, c'est la vie (or however you spell it :P).

Then to kill some more time, I went and got a drink at a cafe, burning another hour. Now it is about half an hour until my train departs. I'm waiting to see what platform it will arrive at.

Next stop, Munich.

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I went to the bathroom after writing the above stuff at the train station, and interestingly enough you had to pay to go to the bathroom! 0.50 Euros in order to go to the bathroom. The only time I had to do that in my entire time in Paris.

Then I made my way back up to the train platform and saw which tracks my train was on, and I went and sat down -- no problems at all, what a relief. After about 10 minutes a girl came in, and then 10-15 minutes later the train left the station.

I couldn't believe that only two of us were in the cabin, since there were seats for six (three on each side). I found out that she was a French-German who had missed her flight to Germany, and so was forced to buy a ticket for the night train to Munich. She had been working in a modern art gallery place, but was getting ready now to move on to something new. What that meant exactly, I don't think she knew.

After a while I started reading some Isaac Asimov, since I had brought a book of his short stories with me. Then at around 10pm or so I decided to try to get some sleep. But even laying down on my side (on all 3 seats) it wasn't that comfortable, maybe if you had a pillow it would be okay. So my sleep was quite rocky, waking up just about every hour. I don't think I'll be taking another night train any time soon -- not exactly my thing.

Europe Trip: Day 5, May 25th

With my new map and plans from the night before, I was ready to head out from my new base and see the Catacombs. So I took the tram and then the metro and reached my destination in no time. The first thing I noticed was that there was little to no directions or markings for where the Catacombs were. I wandered around the area for a good 15 minutes before hearing some English and asking an American woman who was with her daughter where it was. They pointed me in the right direction and I found it; I also found out that it is closed on Mondays. Sacre bleu! :P

The only other thing I had planned for the day was a walk that my host, Thomas, had suggested. So I headed back to the metro and went over to the Belleville neighborhood. Right outside the metro station was a giant cemetery that includes some of the more famous residents of Paris. The two that I was able to find was Georges Cuvier (a famous naturalist/geologist) and Felix Faure, which a main street near my first CouchSurfing host was named.

After that I wandered around the neighborhood, which was a bit more rough around the edges. More graffiti and a more ethnic neighborhood, including the food. I had forgotten to eat anything for breakfast, so I was starving by the time I exited the cemetery. I walked for about 15 minutes before I found a Turkish restaurant, so I got a chicken sandwich and a couple Fantas--gotta respect foreigners for sticking with a good brand.

I made my way to two different parks and tried to doze off a bit at one of them, with minor success. Relaxing and trying not to overheat, it was in the 80's with high humidity; sweltering in the metro. After crossing over the canals, I stopped at a small park/playground and sat at a bench to kill some time. While I was sitting there I met an Australian girl who was also traveling alone, so we talked for about an hour. I particularly enjoyed her story of shooting down a Texan when he wanted to make out with her at the Eiffel Tower. At about 6:30pm she said she better head back to her hostel, and it was about time for me to leave in order to meet up with my CS host. Sometimes it is just nice to talk to a fellow native speaker of English and share in the absurdities and culture shock.

Thomas had designated a place for us to meet after he got done with work, which was a nice fountain called 'St. Michel' which is right across from Notre Dame. I got there about half an hour early, but I got to enjoy the performance of about a dozen college students playing instruments (drums, trombone, trumpets, etc) and singing. At about 7:25pm the cops came over and broke it up, I'm still not sure why, probably just cops being pricks. At 7:30pm Thomas met up with me and we headed over to get a drink and try and ride out the heat. We ate at a South American restaurant, ordering some fish.

Thomas was nice enough to pay for everything, saying no whenever I tried to pay for anything. We ended the night with a trip to the top of Montpernasse tower, which is I believe the highest building in Paris. It has a beautiful panoramic view of all of Paris. We were there at night and stayed long enough to see the light show that goes on for the first 5 minutes of each hour. When we were heading back to his place it started pouring rain, bright lightning, and crashing thunder. We ended up making a dash for the metro only getting partly soaked. The walk home from the metro was mostly dry, but after we got inside we heard it start pouring again.

Tomorrow is my last day in Paris, I head off for Munich at around 7:45pm. Once again it is getting close to 2am, so I better head to bed.

Europe Trip: Day 4, May 24th

In the morning I worked on stuff like sending out couch requests and planning for the rest of the day, so I didn't get out the door until around noon. The plan was to go to the Louvre and then head over to Notre Dame or one of the bridges there called Pont Neuf.

So I took the metro over and the Palais Royal station is directly connected to the Louvre, so you don't even have to go outside at all. I bought my ticket in one of the shops, and headed in. I took my time and didn't leave until around 4pm.

After leaving the Louvre I transferred to the right metro, but when I came back up to ground level I got turned around and ended up heading away from Notre Dame. So I worked my way to the bridge, Pont Neuf -- partly by accident -- and took a break with a view of the Seine river. Just to prove that my sense of direction is a failure, I crossed on the wrong side of the island, so I had to walk back over the bridge over to the other side in order to get to the station.

On the way back to Igor's place, I texted him saying I was on my way back. He told me that he was on his way to pick up Bruno from the airport, meeting him halfway. So I went and got a drink down the street at the only cafe/bar that was open on a Sunday. Okay, actually I got two drinks. Then I headed back to Igor's and he made dinner, which we ate around 9pm. That left me enough time to finish the very last part of my packing and head over to my new hosts place at about 10pm.

My new hosts name is Thomas, and he has two Master's degrees in Engineering and in Public Administration. We went and had a drink and he helped show me where to go tomorrow and gave me a little mapbook that shows all the streets in Paris, since my map only shows the major streets. Should be helpful in case I get lost again, I just have to know which district I am in and the name of a couple streets.

I have all of tomorrow, and then some of Tuesday until I leave on the train for an overnight ride to Munich. I have a host set up for all 4 nights, so I should be good to go. Now I am looking ahead to Vienna, and hopefully soon to Verona/Venice (and I have to look at the train to Verona/Venice as well).

Pictures

I uploaded a bunch of my pictures from the trip so far, which you can see on my Picasa page:

http://picasaweb.google.com/peterolsoy

There were a couple pictures from the Amsterdam airport, and then about 100 pictures from my stuff in Paris that I've done, including some from today (the Louvre).

Europe Trip: Day 3, May 23rd

Despite how much I wanted to sleep in, I once again woke up far too early. This time around 7-8am instead of 6-7am the day before. I sent out some CS requests for Munich, and ended up taking my shower before Igor got up. I then started to plan my route that I wanted to take during the day, using the metro map as a guide. I was finishes up the planning around 10-10:30am, which is when I knocked on Igor's door to see if he wanted to come with me or if I should just go alone. He was already getting up and told me that he had some things that he had to do and we could meet later on that evening. Before I left he gave me some hints on which connections would be best to take using the metro. I wrote that down in my notepad and set off around 11am.

The day started out looking a little cloudy, but pretty sunny, so I decided to finally start wearing one of my shorts since I had been quite hot the day before when it was really sunny and warm. Well, as Igor is fond of saying, the weather in Paris can change within minutes. By the time I got to my first stop, the Arc de Triomphe, it had completely clouded over and began lightly raining. Luckily it never rained that hard, but still it wasn't the nicest of days.

The metro station I got off at exited right across from the Arc, so I could see it, but when I saw it I also noticed about half of the 12 or so streets that branch out from the Arc. So I was wondering how the hell I could cross with that much traffic. After wandering around a bit aimlessly, I realized that there was another underground entrance! It turns out they have a couple ways of going underground and reaching the Arc. So I went under and got in line to buy my ticket, and then came above ground underneath the Arc.

After walking around a bit admiring some of the reliefs on the side, I started the climb up the spiral staircase to the top--the first of many to come that day. I reached the top without having to take a break, which is definitely a good thing. And there were a couple inner chambers with different statues or more modern exhibit-like areas. Finally after a few more stairs you come out and can walk around the entire top with an unobstructed view of Paris. From what I am told the view is much the same from the top of any of the large buildings, whether it be the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, etc. It was quite nice, and I spent a good half an hour or so up there. I even had some German tourists take my picture.

I crossed under the street again, coming out right in front of the metro. Funny enough there was a mime right there and I snapped a picture of him before it started raining again and I sought shelter in the metro station. I then took it, with one connection, to Sacre Couer in the Montemartre neighborhood. Sacre Couer is a Catholic basillica that was designed in a very Byzantine-esque way, which was interesting to see. After walking up a couple streets I got a good view of it. There were the usual people trying to sell you useless crap, but here they were much more aggressive than at any of the other tourist places. Two different people actually grabbed me while they were trying to get my attention to sell their stuff. I just kept saying no/non and didn't make eye contact. It was weird because most of the other people like that at say the Eiffel Tower will move on as soon as you say 'non' and hardly bother you at all.

After walking about inside the basillica I followed the signs to the Dome and Tomb, which cost 5 euros. What awaited me was yet more stairs. And once you got to what you thought was the top, there were more stairs along a walkway. At the top there was a great view and you could walk all the way around the dome, seeing a similar vantage point as on the Arc de Triomph. On the way down it was especially slick, since parts were outside and the rain on stone steps is not a good combination. Inevitably, I was the one idiot who fell on my ass. Luckily I only scraped my elbows minorly and hit my thumb a bit, which now has that thing where some blood is under the nail. I hope that heals okay. It doesn't seem to be as bad as some I have had in the past.

I walked around the Montemartre neighborhood, which has a different feel than other places in Paris. The stores were more open, and close to the street. It is hard to explain. Being the bigshot I am, I thought I would take a bit of a shortcut to get to the metro station, and of course I ended up on the wrong street who the hell knows where. Eventually I realized that and turned around, and on the way back at about 3pm I decided I was pretty hungry and stopped at a Turkish place. It was the first bit of meaty gloriousness that I had had since arriving in Paris.

Igor had given me an extra phone he had with 10 or so free minutes a month in order to call him, so we could meet up somewhere. When I called him at 3:30 or so, outside the Turkish place, he said that he still had some stuff he was doing and that I should call him again in an hour and tell him where to meet me. I said okay.

I finally found the metro station, and decided to skip going to Notre Dame, after all the last thing I needed was more stairs to get to the top of those towers. So I went to my last planned stop of the day, the Latin Quarter. It was only a couple more metro stop anyway.

The first thing I came upon was this big garden/park, so I thought why not and headed in. From what I saw it had all sorts of things from exhibits on geology and evolution to a zoo. It was huge. I didn't have time, though, so I just walked around the park area a bit and then headed out. The signs said that the Pantheon was up a ways, so I started walking. Of course I got lost again and decided to walk towards where I thought it was (they suck with their signs and seem very erratic at where they place them). But even going where I thought it was I couldn't find it, so I asked a couple of guys who were playing soccer with their kids where I was, and then where the Pantheon was. Turns out it was up the same street I had been heading up, I just hadn't gone far enough. So I guess that was another lesson to just follow your instincts and things should usually turn out alright, the problem comes when you question it.

I had called Igor again from outside the garden and he said he was on his way, but it would take him half an hour or so to reach the Latin Quarter. So when I reached the Pantheon I messaged him saying that was where I was. As I walked around it, and this thing is huge, I saw a crowd of people outside a church and there were some bells going off even though it wasn't the turn of the hour. Then I saw a bride and groom come out, so I had just happened to come across a wedding! I watched for a little while, but then decided it would be best to make my way back to the metro where Igor would be coming out of.

It wasn't easy, but after some use of a map and my gut, I ended up on the right street. And right when I found the metro, Igor had just came out and was headed away from me. So I ran and caught up with him. He had thought I was still at the Pantheon. If I hadn't caught him there, it would have been a huge pain with us at different places looking for each other.

We walked around a bit more, and I finally had to tell him that I needed to find a place where I could buy a bottle of water. So he found a grocery store and I bought one, man did that taste good. Then I had him take a break at some monument, so my poor feet got a little rest.

At 7:30pm we met up with a friend of his, a New Yorker that is living and working in Paris. First we had a drink, then went to a vegetarian restaurant that Igor had made reservations at. I ordered a stuffed sweet pepper dish that had rice, mushrooms, and some other stuff inside. It was pretty good.

Then we wandered around a bit, until saying good-bye to Andrew (Igor's friend) around 10:30-11pm. On the way back home we stopped off at the Eiffel Tower so I could see it all lit up. I don't think the pictures will turn out that well, but it was cool. We made it home around midnight, and on the metro back I was starting to nod off--I felt like dad watching TV. So I went to bed right around midnight, and this time I was able to sleep in until around 8:30am.

Europe Trip: Day 2, May 22nd

I slept 8 hours and woke with the rising sun, or at least not long after sunrise at about 6am. I tried to go back to sleep for about half an hour, but no luck. So I got up and checked my e-mail. Mom responded to my response within 10 minutes, so I gave her a call and talked to Dad and Emily as well. Jeff didn't pick up, so I'll have to try again in a bit.

Then I went back to searching for more couches while I wait for Igor to get up. I thought it best to wait until after he took a shower and got ready, especially since his room is right across from the bathroom.

The plan for today is to go back to some of the sightseeing places, this time with a camera. I want to walk to the Eiffel Tower and check out the areas around there. Then I will head over to either the Notre Dame area, or Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triumph. I also want to check out a bakery that isn't far from Igor's place -- between here and the Eiffel Tower -- and see how the bread is and how much it costs.

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Well, not long after I typed what is above my internet stopped working and my stomach dropped like a stone. The success of my trip relies heavily on my being able to plan a bit ahead and get a CouchSurfing host. After my unsuccessful attempts to fix it, I decided to just head out and get out of Igor's hair for a bit.

So I walked to the nearby metro station and got a map with all the metro lines. Then I retraced much of the route that Igor had taken me on the day before. I walked to the Eiffel Tower, underneath it, and past it, this time getting some pictures. Thinking I could wing it, I tried to continue walking around on the other side of the river, but ran into some really confusing streets with 4 or 5 of them meeting at the same intersection and me not knowing which direction to go. So I back tracked a bit.

My next goal was to reach Invalides, which is where they have a military museum and where Napoleon's tomb is. I could see the gold dome from my vantage point, and I could tell on my map kind of where I needed to be. So I just started walking along the river in that direction. I got a little lost, but eventually saw some signs pointing towards 'Invalides' or 'Hotel de Invalides' which are the same thing. I followed them as best I could and soon found the place. I went and got a ticket for it and went through the entire military museum which covered everything from fairly early Greco-Roman stuff to modern WWII stuff, plus a couple of rooms that showed Japanese and Oriental armor and weapons during various time periods.

Napoleon's tomb was fairly interesting as well, and I sort of browsed around the area. When I got bored and realized that I hadn't put on any sunscreen on a really nice, sunny, warm day I got a little worried. So I started walking in a direction I thought the metro might be and I asked a couple of cops that were guarding some back entrance to Invalides. They pointed me in the right direction, but after a couple streets and a turn or two I felt like I might have gone the wrong way, but then I saw a sign pointing towards a metro station and I walked that direction. My confidence began to wan when there were no more signs, but I persisted and soon I saw it on the left. Right across from the metro there was a demonstration going on against Sri Lanka for the recent war against Tamil rebels.

Anyway, I went down into the metro and conveniently it was on the right line to take me back to Igor's, and I made it a little bit before he finishes his work. That gave me some more time to mess around with my laptop and try to fix it. First I installed updated drivers, and then I started looking for some possible things I could check. One of the first things I came upon was turning your wireless card off and on, which I had thought I had already checked. But they said something on the website about a switch that is commonly found on the front of laptops, while I had been looking on the keyboard and in settings. It turns out that that was it, so after I turned that again it fixed the problem.

I was quite happy, and went and took Igor out to get a drink, although he only had tea (still was about the same as a beer at 3 Euros). We wandered around the place for a bit longer before finally heading back to his place, stopping at the grocery store. Igor then cooked a big meal with cous cous, mashed potatoes, a salad, and something fancy that I can't remember what it was called (but had a lot of protein, he said). It was quite good, and afterward he had the TV on a channel with the X Files (in French) which was rather amusing. I didn't get to bed that night until around 2am (this was Friday, so he didn't have to work the next morning).

Europe Trip: Day 1

The airplane arrived in Amsterdam a full half an hour early. I attempted to use some kiosk thing to check myself in, but I couldn't get it to work. So I just started walking towards my Gate. I had to go through security again, which was a little annoying since the guy sitting next to me said I wouldn't have to go through the TSA stuff again. It went fine, though, and I ended up at my gate by 8am.

Since I am waiting around doing nothing, I decided to check if I could get internet here. Turns out there is internet, but just like at SeaTac you have to pay in order to use it...and 3 Euros for 15 minutes doesn't seem worth it. Maybe if I get really bored. Instead I decided to get in the habit or writing down the stuff that happened to me and saving it in a folder on my laptop, starting with 'Day 0' as May 20th, and today as 'Day 1' which is May 21st. I'll probably use this as my blog that I post online.

Now I'm going to go and see if I can find a place to check in. I might have to wait a while until the people who man the gate come, but it looks different from what I have done before in SeaTac and the Boise airport. Hopefully it goes smoothly.

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I guess I didn't have to check in, it was done from my previous flight. So I just waited in line and boarded like everyone else, still only having the paper I had printed off on Tuesday. Anyway, that flight went smoothly and quickly, and I arrived in Paris around 1:30pm local time (subtract 8 hours for Mountain Time, 9 hours for Pacific).

Since I had managed to bring only a single carry-on, I was immediately on my way, having already gone through Customs in the Netherlands (stamped for a Schengen Visa). I worked my way through the airport, following Igor's instructions. I had a bit of trouble buying my ticket from the airport to Paris, but that ended up being the machine. Only after going through that hassle did I see the line that Igor had actually been talking about. So I went and waited in that line and got a Paris Visite pass, which lets me go on any public transportation in Paris (metro, subway, train, bus, etc).

When I tried to get through to the RER B line from CDG airport to Paris, something got messed up and it didn't let me through. So the security guy eventually just told me to sneak in with somebody, which I did -- with only minor discomfort by the closing doors. Then I took that all the way to the Cite Universite stop, and made my way to the Tram line. I got off at the Desnouettes stop, and started going in the wrong direction. When I couldn't find any street signs I asked a woman who was walking by and she helped me out (and had a map to show me exactly where to go). After that it was a piece of cake and I met my first CouchSurfing host, Igor, who lives on the 10th floor of an apartment building in the 15th district of Paris.

After buzzing me in, he told me that he was finishing up some work and that if I wanted we could go around Paris after he was done; I agreed. So while he was finishing up I got the internet working and sent out an e-mail to Mom, Dad, and Jeff (apparently forgetting to send it to Emily...my bad :P).

The original plan was to go to the grocery store and bring that stuff back, and then go look at some sightseeing places. But it is a holiday here in Paris and the grocery stores were closed. So we went straight to the Eiffel Tower. The only problem is that I hadn't brought the camera since I thought we would be heading back! So he took me all around, going on metros and tram lines left and right. First walking underneath and past the Eiffel Tower, then to the Champs Elysees for a brief glimpse of the Arc de Triomph. Then over to Saint Michel to grab a vegan dinner and eat right outside Notre Dame. Giving me a look at pretty much everything on my list...now I have to go more in depth, and probably mostly by myself.

After hours of trekking around Paris, I think I am finally down for the count. On the tram back to Igor's place I was nodding off worse than Dad :) Night, night at 9:45pm in Paris (12:45pm in Seattle).

Europe Trip: Day 0

After Mom and Dad dropped me off at the airport I went through security without any trouble and headed over to my gate. After checking in, I sat around for a while before going to the bathroom and deciding to grab something to eat at Burger King. Soon after that they started to let us board.

The person sitting next to me was a middle aged man, maybe in his late forties to early fifties. He lives in Kingston, is married, and has at least a couple kids. He was headed to Bahrain for work/business, another 7 hour or so flight.

On the flight I first tried to doze off a bit, but didn't have a lot of luck. Then I saw that watching movies was free, so I got some headphones from the stewardess. I watched "Taken" with Liam Neeson, then "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with Keanu Reeves. Meanwhile they had given out our dinner and a snack, which I wasn't quite hungry for either since each meal was so close together. I tried to spread it out a bit by holding onto it. After dozing for an hour or so I decided to watch another movie, this time "Slumdog Millionaire" which was quite good.

Itinerary

Here is my approximate itinerary. The first few stops are 100% sure, as is the final place...since I have to fly home from there. But everything in Italy and Greece is a bit up in the air depending on how stuff goes.


Fly to Paris (CDG) on May 20th (leave at 12:55pm from Seattle)
Arrive on May 21st at 1:30pm (5:30am in Nampa)

Paris, France
May 21st - May 26th

Overnight train on May 26th

Munich, Germany
May 27th - May 30th

Train to Vienna on May 31st

Vienna, Austria
May 31st - June 3rd

Train to Verona on June 4th

Verona, Italy
June 4th - June 7th
[Venice for 1 or 2 of these days???]

Train to Florence on June 8th

Florence, Italy
June 8th - June 12th

Train to Rome on June 13th

Rome, Italy
June 13th - June 19th

Train to Naples on June 20th

Naples, Italy
June 20th - June 22nd
[See Pompeii one of these days???]

Train to Bari on June 23rd

Bari, Italy
June 23rd

Overnight ferry to Patras on June 24th

Patras, Greece
June 25th

Train/Bus to Athens on June 26th

Athens, Greece
June 26th - July 1st
[Visit an island for one or so of those days???]

Bus/Train to Thessaloniki on July 2nd

Thessaloniki, Greece
July 2nd - July 6th

Train to Istanbul on July 7th

Istanbul, Turkey
July 7th - July 13th

Fly out of Istanbul (Attaturk) on July 14th (5:55am)
Arrive in Seattle at 11:50am

First!

I feel like I am a decade behind, waiting to create a Blog until now. Like an old person, too stubborn to try something new, even when it long ceased to be new. Ah well, now that I have found a use for it I might jump on the bandwagon and start to use this long after my trip is over.

When I was creating the title, I didn't want it to be something lame and generic like "Peter's Eurotrip" or "Travel blog", so I went to the trusty old standby--names of Nine Inch Nails songs. There were a few different ones that seemed quite fitting, the finalists included: Another Version of the Truth, In This Twilight, Just Like You Imagined, Lights in the Sky, The Becoming, The Line Begins to Blur, and Underneath It All. Besides being extremely cool in the 300 trailer, it wasn't too dramatic or lame. It'll do for now.

The main use of this blog is going to be to keep the family and friends updated on my travels, as well as serve as a reminder for me of all the good times (and possibly, the bad). I'm not sure if there is a way to subscribe to this, or if I am going to have to e-mail out to everyone after each post. Conveniently, this website (Blogsite/Blogger.com) is linked to Google! I wonder if there is anything left that they haven't bought. Picasa (also owned by Google) is going to be where I post my pictures, and I will link to them here. Or if I can figure out how to get it to work, I'll embed some images on here to make the blog look prettier.