europe = stairs

---

Anna and I have been joking for most of the trip about this.

Dear Blog,
there are a lot of stairs in Europe.
Love, Nicky.

However - this is true. People in Paris don't believe in escalators or elevators - and most europeans apparently don't believe in air conditioning; but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Monday - Managed to drag myself out of bed early to beat the other 7 people in my room to the shower. There was no way I was heading to a meeting about my future smelling like "eau de packer". A quick breakfast and a 40 minute train ride later I was in Mainz. It's a beautiful city further along the Rhine from Frankfurt - passed some incredible Roman ruins on my way into the main train station, wished I had time to stop, but alas I was already lost. For a small city, it is next to impossible to figure out what's going on. After wandering around for 15 minutes thanks to some map that's years out of date I managed to get help from a kind gentleman who stuck me on a bus and told me to sit there until, "you see the University sign, I think." Umm, what? What happened to the German efficiency I've been reveling in up until now? Does it not exist in such a place as Mainz? Turns out he was right, I managed to make it to campus - beautiful, beautiful campus. Which, unfortunately, has no maps posted and none of the buildings are labeled either, neat. I walked down what looked like the main street stopping in at major buildings and wandering until I found someone and asking them the name of the building. No one could direct me to where I was going until I found a literal clone of the man who stuck me on the bus in the first place, might as well have been the same man - who kindly walked me to the building I was looking for and dropped me off in the cafeteria. After running up and down a series of stairs only to come face to face with locked door after locked door and detour sign after detour sign, I managed to make it to my meeting only 15 minutes late. I walked in the door apologizing in all three languages - which turns out to be the best move I made all day. The new recruiter for the program is nervous about her English and feels far more confident in French, we wound up carrying out the hour and a bit long meeting in French with a little bit of random German thrown in here and there. It went better than I could have possibly imagined. She and I wound up getting way off topic and she encouraged me to send my application in to her early for review before the deadline. Sitting on that campus after the meeting drinking juice and letting it all sink in was the essence of perfection. That's where I want to be in the fall of 2009 - and I am going to bust my butt to get there.
On cloud nine I wandered around Mainz for a while, snapping pictures until the battery in my camera died and ate all the pictures. Lesson learned - while the new toy is pretty, it has tendencies like to old toy to eat pictures when it gets angry. Will not let it get angry again. I came back to Frankfurt in record time, took a different train and it was a good idea - and had a brilliant nap. Spent the evening doing "sing-along" with a pack of Irish folk and the acoustic guitar in the hostel lobby. It was a great ending to an incredible day.

Tuesday - Packed up, said goodbye to the hoard of kids from Hong Kong who had taken over the room and were hanging laundry off every imaginable surface and headed off to the train station. The ride to Paris was nice - I adore direct trains where I don't have to rush off to make a connection. In Germany they assume that 5 minutes is AMPLE time to make your connecting train, it isn't... This wasn't a problem as I sat in my seat for the whole ride, across the aisle from a lovely couple from (whispered) North Dakota. They were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary with a repeat of their honeymoon, only this time they weren't telling anyone they were (whispered) American. I was ready to nod off to sleep when we stopped at our last German town and picked up a train full of Jr. High aged kids on a band trip to Paris. Neat. After an hour of putting up with their nonsense I finally stood up and asked where their teacher was (in German). Silence. They all just stared at me open-mouthed - they'd assumed that no one else in the car spoke German and had been behaving like brats because they felt invincible. After one girl finally pointed the way I stormed down the car and hid around the corner for a bit before coming back through the group with a smile on my face - it kept them guessing for a good hour. Landing in Paris was surreal, I couldn't believe I was here. The hostel is a short jaunt from a main train line and on the shore of a canal. The only downside? I'm on the 3rd floor (4th at home) and the elevator ist kaputt. I watched the first Euro game, ate some food and promptly tumbled into bed. Traveling takes a lot out of me, more than I think it should - but ah well.

Wednesday - Decided that the best way to tackle my first day in Paris was one sight at a time. I made a list of four (knowing it was ridiculously ambitious) and left for the Louvre assuming I would make it there and no where else. Wow, wrong... Rode the train to the Louvre - made a game plan as to what I wanted to see (mostly sculptures and was in awe of a surprise Jan Fabre exhibit) and set off. Four hours later I'd seen more than I wanted to (including the crowd waiting to see the Mona Lisa - HILARIOUS! I have a picture...) and was still ready and willing for more. Well, okay then... Took to the train to the Bastille - it really is nothing, got back on and continued a few stops down to the mid-point of les Champs Elysées and walked down to the Castles, continued across the bridge to l'Hôtel des Invalides; realized they had a new WWI and WWII exhibit - made my way inside. Three hours later I was standing in the Church staring at Napoleon's tomb and thinking food might be a good idea. Wandered back up another street only to realize the Eiffel Tower was far closed than I first anticipated - well, sure. Headed in that direction, took a dinner break along the way and watched the first half of the Portugal-Czech Republic game. Wandered down to the Eiffel Tower and sat there a while, I was in awe of actually being there. One of the best parts of the Eiffel Tower? The illegal vendors. There are these guys either planted strategically around with their "wares" on towels that have strings on them or they're wandering around with big loops of Eiffel Tower trinkets. A few are always on look-out; when the cops come by or a siren goes off, someone whistles and these guys are GONE! Like disappear into thin air gone. There are armed soldiers patrolling the grounds, and when they got bored they started mimicking the whistling of the look-out - it started a few spats between "vendors" and "look-outs", but it was fabulous entertainment for anyone who was paying attention. I wandered over to the Palais des Nations Unies and then realized I could see l'Arc de Triomphe from where I stood; wandered on over there. By this point it was 10pm and I'd been out and about for 11 hours already, the reality of how sore I was began to set in. This is also a culmination of the fact that there are no escalators or elevators ANYWHERE. The Louvre was the only place I was at all day that was wheelchair accessible, it was stairs galore for this kid. I'm going to have thighs of steel by the time I get back to Canada. I'm still shocked by the fact that I managed to see all the major sights I wanted to cover in Paris today. I'm headed to Montmatre tomorrow and hopefully some theatre or the opera in the evening, we'll have to wait and see what happens. In the mean time I am enjoying a quiet glass of wine at the hostel after watching the Swiss screw the pooch. I might finish this and call it a night - exhaustion is starting to sink in and I'm sure I feel this in the morning.

P.S. I've had the two strangest things stolen from me in the last 24 hours - well, three. My toothbrush, my toothpaste and the USB connector cable from my camera to the computer. They were on my bunk (beneath the blankets with other toiletries) when I went to the bathroom, came back and those were the three things that were gone. I would have taken something more useful like the deodorant or the face wipes, but sure - whatever floats your boat. There may not be picture updates for a while... *sigh*

---

Comments

[Lana]

WTF with the stealing??? Dear Blog, Europe STEALS. Love Lana and Nicky. I'm glad you enjoyed those Eiffel Tower vendors.. they are funny. somehow shaking little mini towers is an effective tool to get people to buy things. When I get home I will read more of your blog.. this is the first one i've read! I just skipped right to Paris! I'm a cheater!