Nice Day 2

Well, we're back to our old ways. We took a nap yesterday after the Chagall museum (wonderful cat experience included!) and woke up for dinner right before midnight. Lucky for us, there is an inexpensive Italian restaurant across the street from our hotel that is open late, so we were able to order a pizza and a cheese plate for Jack. They had a large t.v. in the restaurant and we watched the French version of "Cheaters" for a while, but that ended once the older staff came out of the back and saw what the young staff was up to. They switched the t.v. off and put on a mixed cd of artists such as Boys II Men which was entertaining, Celine Dion which was funny, and Dr. Dre which just made me homesick.

It was overcast today so when we woke up at noon we packed some lunch, went to the beach and played with rocks. The beach was filled with teenagers making out and old men sun bathing- needless to say, the people watching was pretty good. The best was probably watching a girl try to maneuver through the rocks in heels, which was only funny until I realized she did this better than I was able to in flat boots. I tested the water- it was cold- with what was surprisingly NOT the palest foot on the beach and we walked along the rocks for as long as we could. The beach is coated in a fine white dust so by the end of the walk my boots looked like relics from an old western movie, and I must say, I am happy with the results.

We saw some weird street performers on our walk home through Old Town Nice: two Native American musical trios competing for viewers on opposite corners of the street, an "acrobat" who looked JUST like a Finnish Brad Pitt and of course, more crazy street dancers. Our favorite dancer was a guy who was more than likely very stoned, dancing to music I would describe as "spaceship-acid-trance." [Video included in this blog] He was really getting into his moves on a bench where five or six kids were having a conversation and it should be noted that not once did they stop their conversation to acknowledge his presence. That may have been more impressive than the dancing. It seems random, public dancing and an open love of Orangina is equally strong in Nice as it is in Paris.

We're checking out tomorrow, taking a train to Monaco to go to the Jacques-Cousteau aquarium and to visit the site of Grace Kelly's death, and then hopping on a night train to Torino, Italy where we'll be staying with Sacha and Galo for about a week. Here's hoping we will actually make our connecting train this time and will not have to repeat our experience of sleeping in the Marseille train "station" (it consisted of a roof and two walls- technically outdoors in my book) amongst gypsies and a homeless or two.

A quick thought regarding mannequins.

While in Spain mannequins were often no where to be found (their bodies/heads replaced by magazine cut-outs stuffed into outfits), in France they lack heads but have decorative nipples.

Nice

Everyone can stop worrying now. I have confirmed that scrunchies are still popular in the south of France.

Real Paris

So I guess I should mention that we did not in fact go to Disneyland Paris. But we had you guys going, right? We had a great time and it was filled mostly with things we cannot do at home.

We had a pretty steady diet of at least three baguettes a day. Cynthia seemed to get sick of this towards the third day, but I still have my eye out for bakeries as we walk down the road. It's nice having the price of baguettes fixed by the government. There was also a cheese shop about half a block from the apartment.

We saw the Eiffel Tower at a pretty excellent time of evening, got there when it was light out and walked around as night fell and saw the tower light up and do its little light show. The view, however, was much better from Sacre Coeur which was about a seven minute walk from our apartment. It was there that we were treated to our first French mime sighting. We also did Notre Dame and Ile St. Louis (don't worry, we got gelato).

On a side note: I am not sure what it is about the French that makes them want to dance around in crowded public areas with their headphones on. But we saw an old man doing this below the Eiffel Tower and then a young guy (who did a considerable more number of flips and had his shirt off) in front of the Louvre.

As for museums: We did not see all of the Louvre, we stuck mostly to the Italian paintings, which took a good three hours as it was. The D'Orsay had some interesting exhibits, one on early photography focusing on Italian peasants, and one on shadow theater at Le Chat Noir full of set pieces other zinc cut outs from many of the plays. The Pompadou had a Kandinski exhibit while we were there, not to mention a pretty good street show in front of the museum (Cynthia missed it because she was getting post cards). I have to say what I found more interesting than most of the museums were the buildings themselves.

We are now in Nice, after a pretty awful night in a train station. Our flight was delayed and so we missed the last train to Nice where our hotel is. We couldn't get a room in the hotels nearby because of the soccer match (sorry, football match) so we tried to sleep on the benches of the station. But we eventually made it here. We are going to go check out the Chagall museum in a bit.

Disneyland Paris

We were both getting a bit homesick and so we decided it was a good idea to make the trip to Disneyland Paris. I know what you all are thinking and the answer is yes, they have crepe stands instead of churro stands. It was great seeing all the usual things with slight French twists; several of the characters that walk around had big French mustaches and wore berets. You could also buy berets that had mouse ears on them, Cynthia got them but I thought that was going a bit too far. Well, I must sign off, we are off to have dinner at McDonalds.

Paris

Need I say more?

Love,
Cyn

Bye Bye Barcelona

Barcelona is now behind us and that is both good and bad.

The food in Spain was excellent for the most part, the exception being one place that was recommended by an old man at our Barcelona Hostel. Culinary highlights of Spain included a tapas bar called "Casa de Abuella" in Madrid where we had excellent garlic prawns, bread and shots of spicy wine for under 8 euros- a bit strange but open at 11:30pm so, me gusta :). The waiters at Grandma's house were surly which, as I later found out, is to be expected of Spanish waiters as they are usually old and underpaid. The other notable restaurant in Madrid was "Casa Mingo Sidar." It's a 100+ year old cider house near the Royal Palace, with young and old waiters (more friendly than at Grandma's House), and following in the Spanish style of meat + bread + alcohol= meal, we were served an ENTIRE roasted chicken, two pieces of bread and shots of incredibly good cider. We tried to order a bottle but that was lost in translation and instead were served numerous shots. There was a sign inside the restaurant that said "No Cantar" and after Jack pointed that out, I realized that was why the waiters would not stop whistling... they found a loophole!

Our roommate hotel in barcelona was very, very nice. Clean, organized and quiet. We were pretty close to the port and La Rambla so we were able to walk everywhere except the last day when we took the metro up to Guell Park. The street performers were gimmicky on La Rmabla, which is not to say I wasn't mesmerized by them- I was, but the real jewels were in the metro and in Guell Park. One guy in particular was playing a steel drum type of instrument that was unlike anything I've ever heard- a bit spooky but beautiful as well. Guell park was the perfect setting for this guy as we both had a similar impression of Gaudi architecture. It was raining on and off but still beautiful and definitely worth the intense hike/never ending stair climbing. Oh, and there was a nice, semi-feral kitty (who was very fond of Jack) that greeted us at the top of the stairs so that made for a well rounded, excellent experience.

Other highlights included the Picasso museum, the chocolate museum (tickets were a bar of chocolate) and this great vegan restaurant we found called Juice Jones. The chef is from India and makes both Catalunyan and Indian food as well as a variety of fresh juices, hence the name, well the juice part anyway. I don't know who this Jones guy is. We shared the "thali" plate of the day which was served raw and cold, with a small glass of wine (not spicy this time). Most importantly, it was the first non-meat meal of our Spain endeavor, so we were very glad to put our scurvy worries to rest.

Barcelona was so upbeat, it definitely felt like more of an active city than Madrid, which Jack and I decided felt like plaza after plaza (pronounced "platha after platha"), where cars and pedestrians amazingly navigate the streets as a single entity almost. One thing is for sure, the prostitutes are a lot more subtle in Barcelona. I was fascinated by the prostitutes in Madrid who looked like men and hung out in the entry ways of sex shops and other businesses along main streets like Calle Mayor, because they were almost threatening in their sollicitous stares and THEY LOOKED LIKE MEN! But I was intrgued by the prostitutes in Barcelona who advertise discreetly by sticking a manequinne's leg out of the window. So much to ponder!

We ended our stay in Spain with a lost hotel reservation and decided to embrace adventure and spend the night in the airport. We were not as prepared as some other travellers who laid out sleeping bags and were snoring at some point, but we snuck in a few hours of sleep and do not wish to repeat the experience :) We've made it to Paris safely and LOVE our apartment. So far, we've been taking advantage of the goverment regulated price of plain baguettes (about 80 cents) and made a huge, much needed pasta dinner. We've more or less relaxed today, catching up on lost sleep and icing my ankle I sprained in Barcelona right before we left. We'll update with a shorter post soon. :)
Love,
Cynthia