europe

Edit: I FINALLY uploaded pictures to my Flickr account. A lot of pictures. Some dating back almost a year ago. With those online now, I went back and updated a couple of entries, including this one, with some graphics.

Back from Europe! Well, actually Sqm and I got back Sunday evening. Our  flight from Munich was supposed to arrive at O’Hare at 3 in the afternoon, but there was a five and a half hour delay due to a missing airplane part (we got in around 9:30 PM). Did I mention I really don’t like United Airlines?

In any event, Europe itself was lovely! Expensive, but lovely and a lot of fun. I met (slash nearly missed) Sqm in Munich at the central subway station (Hauptbahnhof), we found a place to live, and then he proceeded to give me a three hour walking tour of old town, which is gorgeous and filled with grand old churches and plenty of tasty looking/smelling food. We had Munich’s famous white sausage, made from veal, and pretty much chilled out for a day and a half before hopping over to Paris.

Ah, Paris. For the most part, I love Paris. I love the historical landmarks mixed with modern structures. I love the two or three bakeries along every block. I love the fact that there is always something to do or something to see. I don’t love that it’s very, very pricey to visit.

But in any event, we stayed in Paris for a few days. The first evening we were in Paris, fresh from Munich, we ended up sitting in the courtyard outside the Notre Dame until about 10 PM. It was really, really awesome. We got to see the church without the massive crush and queues of tourists, and we got a free show out of the deal. A lot of street performers came out just around dusk and started setting up various spectacles. The main group that we watched used a lot of fire (twirled on huge staffs, bolases, and hula hoops – Sqm especially enjoyed the hula hooping mostly because of the cute little gypsy girl doing the hula-ing). There were also several clowns and a tightrope walker and musicians. All in all, pretty spectacular.

The next day, we mostly walked around the Latin Quarter and went down to see the Bastille (which, in case you didn’t know [because we didn't], is not a building, but a monument of sorts). We were also looking for a new place to live because the first hotel we were in had to kick us out after two nights. Other than that, we had a little mini-picnic outside of the Notre Dame again and people-watched for a bit.

Then came the Louvre. I love the Louvre. There really isn’t anything I can say about it except that it is absolutely massive. Usually,  people can only process a museum for about 3-4 hours before just becoming mentally and physically exhausted. Most of the time tthough, that isn’t a problem. But it’s impossible to make it through the entirety of the Louvre in 3-4 hours. We skipped the popular tourist  exhibits (we had both seen them before), such as the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, and focused on the large oil masterworks, Greek/Roman/Etruscan/Egyptian statuary and antiquities, and early Iranian/Mesoptamian artifacts. I specifically wanted to see the Code of Hammurabi again because I just think that it’s really cool – I mean, it’s one of the first written codices of law used to govern a population, effectively a written set of rules that even a king couldn’t change. Afterwards, exhausted, we went back to the hotel and collapsed for the evening.

The next day was probably one of the best days ever. We just decided to chillax, so we foraged around and got a couple of baguettes, some sliced meats, cheese, and eclairs. Then we took the metro over to the Jardin du Luxembourg, which is a huge public park. We grabbed a couple of chairs and then just hung out all afternoon, chatting, reading, and listening to music. It was lovely.

Unfortunately, the loveliness couldn’t last. The next day was the Day of Disappointment Cake. Everyday that we strolled down the street we lived on, we would pass this cute little bakery with some of the most delicious looking cakes and pastries I had ever seen. So we decided to go in and get a little piece of cake (4 euros) each. And because it was such a pleasant little place, we opted to sit at the cafe and eat, ordering a couple coffees to go with the cake. Little did we know, but you are charged a “sitting down” fee if you decide to eat in. And our coffees were apparently ABSURDLY priced. Ultimately, we ended up paying around 20 euros total for two small pieces of cake and two smaller than small coffees. This was a fail of epic proportions – a ridiculous amount of money for not very much at all. The Disappointment Cake put a damper on the rest of our day. After we saw the amazing Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (we only saw the Halls of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy), we spent the rest of the afternoon cranky and listless.

However, the day was saved by Michele, a friend of DP. She invited us over to her beautiful home (a terrace with an apricot tree! a view of the Eiffel Tower!) for dinner, which was an absolutely spectacular French spread. We started with some nice, salty olives, cheese twists, and salami, served alongside a bit of champagne and sparkling water. Dinner was a grand affair, starting with a foie gras stuffed pate (so absurdly rich and delicious) and bread, continuing on to duck a l’orange and noodles (served with a smoky red wine), followed by a cheese course and a simple salad, and finally concluding with some little individual chocolate cakes. Afterwards, Michele and her daughter Pauline took us on a night tour of some of the sights of Paris, like the light show on the Eiffel Tower, before dropping us off back at our hotel.

We flew back to Munich the next day and spent the afternoon eating cherries (only 2 euros for half a kilo!) and ice cream and hanging out. More museums followed over the next couple of days. One entire day was devoted to the Deutsches Museum, which is basically the Louvre of science and technology – it’s eight stories (including ground and underground floor) of displays about everything science, including pharmaceuticals, chemistry, physics, energy, transport, and lots of things I’m forgetting right now. We barely made it through one and a half floors during four hours. Definitely planning to go back at some point to see the rest of it…

For our last full 24 hours in Europe, we walked through the Alte Pinakothek, a great art museum devoted to classic masters of art. They had one of the first paintings by da Vinci, the Madonna of the Carnation, painted when he was something like 21 or 22 (according to the audio tour) and already showing one of his characteristic techniques, sfumato. Additionally, the museum had a great number of Rubens‘ paintings (check out the Lion Hunt, for which they also had oil sketches, and the Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus – sorry for the crappy quality image links), which are spectacular. And that’s not to mention the Boticelli, the multiple works by Anthony van Dyck, and the pieces by Albrecht Durer. An amazing, amazing place to be.

The rest of the afternoon was mostly devoted to souvenier shopping. We had a great traditional Bavarian meal at the Augustiner beer house. Sausage is delicious (that’s what she said)! Then came three scoops of ice cream (including a scoop of ice cream flavored by Ferrero Rocher) and attempts to pack and sleep.

Europe ended with the aforementioned United delay, which sucked a bit, but really, it wasn’t that terrible in the airport.

Whew. Long, long saga. I’ll update about more current life soon-ish, but I thought I’d at least throw up the European adventure.