Final stop: Stockholm

Stockholm! A huge huge huge city with lots of big islands ontop of that. Stockholm was nice, stil cold, but very sunny and the bay areas were all very pretty, there just was not a whole lot of cultural history to see apart from the Nordic Museum which showed how people of Sweden and Scandinavia lived throughout the centuries which I did not go to. They did have their own Tivoli Gardens, the sign even called it that although it's proper name is Grona Land, that opens in a week. On Djurgarden there were lots of walking paths and museums, Skansen, which is like a zoo and botanical garden all in one, and the Old Town was on its own little island (Gamla Stan) with little souvenir shops, lots of ice cream stands (remember though, it's like 0 degrees celsius), and the Royal palace and Rikdagshuset, which I think was thte parliament building but not too sure. In any case none of the brochures had walking tours to do so I didn't end up learning very much about what I was seeing, and even though I enjoyed the city it didn't really offer that many exciting options for travelers I thought. I did go to the Icebar, which I know find out is in every major city includign Paris so it's not that special, but that was a cool concept, you put on moon suits these grey things to stay warm and can only be inside for 45 minutes. I did learn, though, that the famous IceHotels are up in Sweden's northern parts, and they melt around the end of April and flow into the rivers and they are rebuilt each year. You can also see the Northern Lights from the north of sweden, not, however, from Stockholm. Anyways, there weren't as many green areas as in some of the other major European cities (on the main island), they had one nice park right on the end of the water Kungstradgarden, with some fountains and again mroe ice cream shops, but the rest of the downtown area was again huge glass hotels and conference centers, and lots and lots of shopping malls. The Swedes know how to shop, in Paris we don't have such malls even! So basically I walked around a lot and tried to stay warm. The guy at the coffee shop was interestingly enough from Seattle and he moved there after he married a Swedish girl on study abroad. So not a whole lot else to comment on in Sweden-yes there were a lot of blonds, no, I didn't particularly notice any amazing cleaniless that's absent in other cities, and I tried to find Swedish pancakes around but I think you had to go to a nice restaurant to find them, in any case they weren't sold as specialties everywhere, althoguh oddly enough there were little hotdog stands EVERYWHERE and they wre called French Hot Dogs, which is odd because the french themselves never eat hot dogs. So after a few days exploring Stockholm I boarded a flight way too early on Sunday morning and made it back to Paris, and I am really glad to be back! 

Warming up to Oslo.

Destination: Oslo, Norway and the fjords.

Next stop on the journey through Scandinavia was Oslo. I passed through Goethenburg/Göteburg, Sweden on the way and was pleasantly surprised to se a bustling metropolis there, with an excellent shopping mall right next to the train station, and a kroner that went much further than the danish one. Sadly, this was not the case in Oslo. I arrived in Oslo late at night so I got some quality sleep and then started off a fresh new day in the frigid cold of Norway. Norway, so I learned, is a fairly new nation. It got its independence in 1905 from Sweden, before that it was under the rule of Denmark although it had a form of governmental administration of its own, for a major part of the 1600 and1700s only 3% of the land was cultivated so it was actually impossible for the territory to exist on its own footing without funding and supplies coming from an outside source, hence its subjugation over the years. I really was not impressed at all by Oslo, it did not have any cool architecture or sculptures, it was on a sea/body of water but again the landscaping or use of the intersection between water and earth was not very aestheticall pleasing, nor were there giant ships even that might be cool just to see the shipping industry in progress. compared to other European cities it differed in that it seemed much more of a skyscarper city, comparable to cities in the United States. There were lots of big conference centers, 20 to 30 stories, with glass windows like you'd see in Chicago even, just not arranged in a grid layout and by far not as imposing or numerous. Even their old fortress, Akerhus, typically European and built into the cliff, did not stand up to any other fortresses I've seen around. From there I walked along the pier, saw the Nobel Peace center and the city hall (which was a square brick building with an ugly metal design attached to one side like a lapel pin), down to Aker Byrgge which is a big shopping area on the pier, then up to Oslo university and Slottet the Royal Palace and the park around the palace-again unfurnished  or really planned out in any way. Along the way in one of the squares I saw a bunch of people protesting against Sri Lankan war crimes which was interesting, it seemed to be an Indian population and they were by all means peaceful- unlike in France where every protest is accompanied by police here there was no authority surveillance. I continued the walk through a residential area to Vigeland sculpture park, which was probably the bset part of Oslo. It's not really a sculpture park because the main portions of the park are just grass and trees, but the middle walkway had a bridge of sculpture figures and a fountain with large sculptures in the center and then a big tower designed by the same artist (Vigeland), and his work was great. Most of it was just human figures, lifesize, made out of either bronze or marble (I think), unclothed, and in varying positions of life. The first figures on the bridge were babies and they grew to children and became old men and women by the end, but the positions that Vigeland sculpted were very real and personable, expressing key human emotions and natural beauty. So that was good. I also went over to the other side of the bay where there's a lot of museums in this hilly and wooded part of Oslo, there's the Kon-Tiki museum (kon-tiki was the boat used in the 1950s by an explorer from Norway who tried to prove that the Polynesian islands may have been settled by people coming from the east, specifically Peru, rather than from Euro-Asian peoples as the main theory says. He used only technology they would have had back in the day and successfully landed in the Polynesian islands, but most anthropologists still consider his theory to be fluff and highly unprobable. There was also the Fram museum, displaying Norways strongest viking hsip that has sailed farthest North and South in the world, and the Norwegian maritime museum, again centered around Norwegian naval feats. While all of this was interesting, it was really not my favorite types of things to learn about. I would have liked to go to the Edward Munch art museum (he painted the scream) but unfortunately I did not make it there. The next day I did the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour that the country so heavily advertises to see the real beauty of the fjords. A long, long 24 day but very worthwhile! We took a train to Myrdal and then another line, the steepest tracks in Europe, through the fjords down to Flam, where we boarded a riverboat fjord cruise and went through the fjords to Gudvungen, then took a bus to Voss and then a train to Bergen, a city in the west of Norway, and took an overnite train back to Oslo. The fjords were definitely amazing, very pristine, clear air, there were thinwaterfalls trickling down everywhere and we stopped at one that was a 500 foot freefall and the sound of the water hitting the rocks was deafening as it was the only sound around, apart from the squawking of gulls that followed our cruise. On the way to the fjords we went through snow white outs and a lot of people on the trains were going skiing. Along the fjords there were places where you could not even see the sky, except directly above you,  but it felt like you were in the middle of a giant container trapped on all sides by water, air, and the steep steep cliffs. Then on some flatter parts of the fjords there were tiny villages with maybe seven or eight houses, the tour tape always pointed out the churches that were built in the 1200s and 1300s, and one of the towns had no direct road access and had its own school until the 1970s, completely self sufficient. Bergen, the final town we went to, was also very very pretty a lot like little resort towns anywhere, cobblestone streets and little shops on a winding path and a giant green park with lots of runners in the middle, quaint but at the same time a moderately sized village, I would have liked to spend more time there but was unable to. So that was basically Norway-excellent nature, not so excellent cities. On to Sweden!

Copenhagen, Denmark. The Oldest Monarchy.

My first real trip away from Paris this semester! 

Classes on Fridays and real research homework makes it difficult to travel this semester, plus everything's more expensive going out of Paris, but for spring break I'm off to Scandinavia! And since these posts take me forever and a day to write I will try to be quick about it. I start with Copenhagen, Denmark, the world's oldest monarchy (Kingship from 904 still exists today). Honestly, I was not a huge fan of Copenhagen, except for two parts: Nyhavn and Tivoli. But in chronological order, I got there early one day, found my hostel, and started by leaving the city to take the train to Helsingor up north and see Elsinore castle, the setting of Hamlet! Built in the 1500s its a classic example of Renaissance architecture. Having seen vaux le vicomte the day before I was not very very impressed, but I will say that the setting is superb-it sits right on the coast with waves splashing up to the breakers, fishermen trying their luck and a great view across to Sweden with all of the boats and ferries churning up the water in front. In the casemates of the castle is a statue of this guy whose name escapes me, but legend has it that he will rise up and defend Denmark should her sovereignty ever be threatened. The castle has lots of land around it- amoat and then these grassy banks that put it in the hole so its shielded by these manmade hills-like most fortresses I suppose, but nowadays they even have a picnic area and there's lots of families that come to sit on the rocks and watch the waves go by or show their kids around. From there I passed up Copenhagen and went southeast to Mälmo, Sweden, just 35 minutes from Copenhagen by train and over a giant bridge. They advertise Malmo as a must see when visiting Copenhagen but I really didn't see anything amazing there- they have a fairly ugle red castle/fortress in a not well laid out park, a city center with cafés in the likes of parisian cafés, and this new industrial area that's supposedly known for its architecture but it seemed like a lot of construciton to me. Anyways, then back to Copenhagen. Walking tour of this "chic hip" area that did not live up to its name. Next day: walking tour of the sites of Copenhagen: saw city hall, Stroget the  main shopping street, the courthouse, the old medieval city limits and the "museum district", the royal library, amalienborg palace the palace of the queen and the changing of the guards (which took forever and involved a lot of standing around), Kongens Nytorv square with the theatre and lots of mansions around it, the royal playhouse built right on the pier, this old fortress/park in the north with the Little Mermaid statue (whose sister is in Warsaw and who I saw there!) , the King's Garden with the King's palace, the Round Tower-oldest astronomical center in Europe dating from the 1600s, the university district and Latin Quarter. Around the train station there's this big movie theater that's bright pink and stands out a lot it's very retro-ey cool, art deco but at the same time it looks like it could be in Florida, and there are 7-11's everywhere!! They've taken over Scandinavia it seems. But there were also a lot of swans and ducks in all the lakes that were just floating around, and a fair amount of bikers, and it was beautiful and sunny all the time. Prices in Scandinavia in general are outrageous, everything's super expensive, and I can't really tell you what Danish food is because I didn't see any places that advertised selling danish food that weren't fivestar suit and tie sitdown restaurants, which is not on my itinerary. A lot of the museums are free and I visited the National Museum which was nice, it had an interesting exhibit on Egyptian amulets and Danish history from 1660 in which I learned that Denmark's king used to be elected by its parliament but after the wars with Sweden in which Denmark lost Scania (the lower portion of Sweden) and lost Norway as a territory, the government voted to reform and make the king hereditary and give him all the power and he wrote up the new constitution-talk about a step in the wrong direction? But it worked for them I guess. I also visited Christiania Free Town, this hippie commune with graffiti everywhere, weed, Tibetan prayer flags hung everywhere, and general chaos. It just looked like a rundown area/shantytown a lot of it, with unfinished huts and sheet metal for roofs, overgrowth, generally not well laid out property, stray animals running around. When you left the main entrance the sign said "Now entering the EU".  But my favorite parts of Copenhagen and why I would return were: 1. Nyhavn, this main canal with lots of old wooden boats stationed there and their masteres cleaning them up and just shooting the breeze with each other, and these colorful rowhouses with little bars and outdoor eateries (expensive, but fresh seafood and candles and little colorful lights to enchant the visitors) which generally made it a nice, upbeat atmosphere, and 2. TIVOLI! Tivoli is this really old amusement park and gardens that opened in 1843 I want to say, the entrance was built in 1890 and it inspired Walt Disney and it's the third most visited amusement park in Europe (I guess thats not saying much, but anyways) and it just opened April 8th so by luck I got to go and it was amazing! First off, most everyone there was native Danish, so it was cool to see the little kids run about and the elderly women being pushed in wheelchairs, I could imagine them reminiscing over the rides they went on there when they were kids. It's right in the center of the city and jam packed with things to do-and it's not commercialized like Disney but it reminds me of old time classic amusement parks-it had a pirate boat restaurant and Chinatown and Egyptian hieroglyphic trash cans and this Arabic/Middle Eastern land and then the gardens and a lake right in the middle of it all with boats and fish and ducks and flowers everywhere, this giant white palace like the Taj Mahal in the center and a Chinese theater stage and all of the games were really unique and colorful and super cute, it was really just one of a kind and lovely. I think the rides were generally aimed towards a younger crowd than the likes of those who frequent our six flags for example, but still I'd go at any age just to marvel at everything there and sit in the gardens with ice cream (oh yeah, everyone here likes ice cream a lot). So that was Copenhagen. One more thing, everyone says Scandinavia is really clean, I guess its supposed to be related to it being a modern day socialist based country and having the state take care of everything. My view: yes, its clean, but not so clean that its miles above other countries. First off it was not nearly as crowded as a city like Paris or Chicago say, second off there were "dirty" parts just like anywhere else, basically, I wouldn't say one of its feature characteristics is cleanliness. Next stop: Norway. 

What Happened to Paris?

Yes, yes, we're all asking what I've been up to for the past....4 months I guess it has been. Well, short answer, I've been having a real settled life in Paris. As I mentioned earlier that these posts are for me, I can assure  myself that I've not forgotten the exciting events that have passed, I do indeed have another journal-esque creation that I keep apart from this blog, in private, but we may as well say a few words about life in Paris. Unlike Aix, life is not as wild and crazy and sleepless as the south of France proved to be. In Paris I go to school at Sciences Po, one of the top liberal arts universities of France (although the term liberal arts doesn't exist here), which means I actually have real work to do that takes up time and takes up ridiculous amounts of patience in the awful library trying to find resources and not get suspensions on my card for returning books late....but I'll save the complaining for another time. Suffice it to say that I will never take a real library for granted again. But so, Paris has classes, a lot of homework, long rides on the metro, and I live with a family, a woman and her 15 year old daughter in the 15th and we eat dinner together every evening. On top of this I busy myself with learning german on saturday mornings at Cité Universitaire, going to the Club Med gym around the corner everyday, going to yoga class in french, and exploring Paris! It's an awesome city once you get used to life here and get to know your way around- I end up spending a lot of time in the 6th and 7th arrondissements where my school is, and the 15th where I live. What gets me are the little, quirky things: the 50 centime used books that you can rifle through in front of Gibert Jeune or the other giant booksellers across from the Cluny medieval museum or the St Michel fountain, the little hut in Jardins du Luxembourg that sells the most colorful candy you've ever seen, bottles of cider, and cups of hot coffee, the band of ten native americans playing their wooden flutes and drums in the metro and singing at the top of their lungs, looking more like they're in concert than really asking for money, the millions of Jean ValJean's that get on the metro car and rationally, calmly tell their story of living on 37 euros a month and needing just a few centimes for bread until their cases get through social security, pulling at the heartstrings and adding how they know we're all good people with hearts who would help a friend in need. I can tell you the exact time the metro starts and stops everyday of the week- miss the metro once when you're way far from your house and you won't miss it again, and I can tell you where to transfer from the red to the yellow line and that the 14 is my least favorite line because it's so far underground that all of the stops have this fishy, sulfury smell that everyone turns their head from left to right to see if it's just them who has noticed. You can go to a different café or brasserie everyday for months and never hit them all, and they all have different specialties- from the places that give you the cream and the coffee or chocolate base in two separate cups and let you mix them together in your personally desired proportions to the places with diablo menthe (lemonade and mint syrup) to the places with the best chocolate cake ever invented. The little café right across from school, for example, is reasonably priced and reminds me of a 1950s american soda shop, the glasses they give you are just like you order milkshakes in back home, with the long spoon included. Apart from this there's the millions of bakeries with pastries and bread that seriously beat anything you've ever had-hands down, LaDurée's macarons in all of the colors of the rainbow, and the little crepe stands right as you come off the metro that fill the air with smells of nutella and lemon and sugary delight. And after living there for a month, I went from exploring all of the known monuments to the lesser known museums to the little spots that are in the back of the guidebooks, the parks and the cemeteries and the winding streets behind Montmartre and Montparnasse. We've been to concerts and dance parties and eclectic bars and soccer matchs at Stade de France and old black and white films in the little hole in the wall theaters of the Latin Quater and had fondue parties and bought skinny jeans in the vintage shops and flea markets and had espressos where Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises and picnics in front of the Medici fountain in Jardins du Luxeumbourg under the sunshine. Sometimes you arrive at the metro only to find a sign that the stations in the area are on strike but no worries, it will be over in a few hours and it will still make front page headlines-strike showed breakthroughs, how about another one same time next week? Students and the Sorbonne created a new sorbonne 14 (there are 13 of them really) and held classes in the metro to protest rising costs of school, professors gave lectures in one of the main squares so everyone could learn, Sorbonne students literally took over my school and hung banners from the second floor and threatened school property-it's as close to 1968 as this generation will arguably ever come. I've tried the French school of philosophy and attended a philosopher's night at the café that all the greats sat around at, and for only 5 euros I got to hear that "erotic imperatives' are still a hot topic for minds above the age of 25, in France just as well as in America. I've rode the metro far and long enough to know that even at 5:50 am, only twenty minutes after service starts, every French woman who hops on will still be fully make-uped, dark thick eyeliner and all, sporting three inch heels, black tights, a chunky sweater over at least two other black, white , or grey underlayers, and have the hair "done" in that messy chic way that boggles the minds- is it from the wind or is it set in place like that? And that rule from middle school- don't stare at the french guys because three seconds eye-to-eye and he'll think you're down for a night in his bed, has no truth to it even if you wish it did, and you would wish it if you saw the crazy amount of well put together and well dressed men walking around the streets of Paris. Speaking of which, PDA is even worse in the city of love than it was in the south of France. Hmm, what else? It's hard to sum up such a long period of time. That's pretty much it-I have a "tandem" partner and we meet up for coffee every Friday to speak in French/English and share stories of our respective lives, I have a list of day trips from Paris that I've started to tackle- first up was Vaux-le-Vicomte castle, masterpiece of Le vau, Le Brun, and Le Nôtre, and it was gorgeous, next on the list is Chartres where the veil that Mary swaddled baby Jesus in is held and glorified to this day (its still on the the most visited pilgrammage cities), the metro is still the best place to know "what's going on" with all the advertisements that change nearly everyday, I'll never ever be sick of crepes, I'm currently obsessed with Sucre-Citron, we went to a bar that served us drinks in baby bottles which was so weird that it was cool, we still get to rock out to 70s American tunes in the grocery stores and see the newest art collections for free on special days, learn from experts in their fields-journalists, ministers of state, members of the Assemblée Nationale, and say s'il vous plaît and merci hundreds of times of day. There's always exploring to do in Paris, and it's always a good time.