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Published: November 15th 2010
Well! This time I am not going to apologize for taking time to write. It's only been two weeks, and I have been very busy! But - I have stuff to talk about for sure. Two trips in two weeks, and work work work.
Work - starting with the boring
The Review Conference ended when I wrote my last post. When it ended, I was stuck in more meetings for a few days - Permanent Council, budget presentations, etc. Finally I got time to write up the reports that I needed to do and get them out of the way. Long boring days to say the least. With the budget presentations, each program in the organization presented their budget proposal for 2011 and explained why they (always!) needed an increase. Time consuming and tiring to hear the same speech over and over again.
Alas! The week went by slowly - my evenings were more or less uneventful as Eliza was in Dubai seeing her brother, and I needed to get things back in order. Bought internet keys, did some homework, begun looking for jobs for when my internship is complete, groceries, etc. On Friday I had a meeting in the morning, then left for Paris! But the continuation of the weekend will happen below.
Once back, my every-afternoon meetings begun. I have 'informal meetings' where roughly half the nations send a representative to discuss the budget and work out what we approve and what we want cut from the budget. Like I said, they are every afternoon - right into January. So this is my new regular thing. Hence why some of you are getting phone calls (in Canada) at 7am - anytime later than that and I am in a meeting. So, sorry.
I actually find these meetings a lot of fun, and I was told that I would have to actually represent Canada and speak because my boss cannot attend all the meetings and we are a very vocal country when it comes to budget issues. The only afternoon I had off was thursday because wednesday we were efficient enough to complete Thursday's budget issues as well. But! I had an all-day-long meeting on Thursday to attend anyhow - so it had zero impact on me - whoopi!
speaking of Whoopi (Montreal Canadiens mascot) - I miss hockey. When I get back home, I'll be so happy to put my hockey skates back on. I can still picture them brand new and beautiful. All I get in the form of hockey is news from Sandy and Stefan. And I tend to disagree with everything they think about hockey - so its sad I cant have an opinion on the team right now - and to see our 'new' goalie doing his thing.
anyways,
L'amour en Paris!
So, I hopped aboard a plane for Paris in the afternoon - direct flight. Eliza had already left - at 7am. So she was hanging out in our hostel (I was getting regular texts from her). Once I arrived, it was not too difficult to find my way to the hostel, but it was dark. I dropped off my stuff in the room, and Eliza introduced me to our dormmates. They were mostly all Aussies, and fairly cool (but loud) people. Eliza and I then went, and got some dinner. It was nothing exceptional and I was a bit disappointed to be honest. But - on our way to dinner we got a baguette and THAT was amazing.
The next morning we got up early (no choice since the dormmates were already running around) and left for some sightseeing and whatnot. Our first stop was at 'La Ferme' for breakfast. Very unique salads and sandwiches, but we didn't have anything super extraordinary since we are broke. Afterwards, we went around almost everywhere that day, but never went in anywhere. We walked around the Louvre area and down through the Tuliperies gardens (stopping for some hotwine). We walked until we hit the Napolean statue which depicts (in comic format) how they raised the statue. From there, we continued walking straight - all the way down Les Champs D'Elysse until the Arc de Triumphe. We were exhausted!
Hopped on a metro and made our way to this bistro which apparently has the best hot chocolate in the city. Wow. Was it ever good! It was just like drinking cream - but chocolate flavoured. It was amazing! I had a french onion soup with it, but was disappointed with the soup. Both items were 9 EUROs each!!!! We then headed to our real dinner destination which was a "bouillion" aka... soup kitchen. This specific one has been around since 1889 and was famous. It serves very traditional food, cheaply and to as many people as possible. When we got there, there was no lineup and we just sat down (when we left the lineup was maybe 100 people long and going around the block). They give you seats based on where seats exist. So we were at a 4Top (4 seat table), but since there were only the two of us, we were seating with two other people - who happened to be from Denmark. We got along great and had conversation the entire dinner.
Dinner began with duck pate for myself, spread over bread with dijon mustard. While eliza decided to be boring (then shocked) as she ordered shrimp and had to then take the heads off and unshell the entire thing. Delicious. We had a bottle of red wine come (obviously French) which was also extremely good and cheap. Unfortunately at this exact minute I don't remember what Eliza ate - I was too busy with my own food. One of the Danish guys and I decided to experiment with the "most disgusting thing" on the menu. The waiter was looking at us with a "as if you will eat it" look, as we ordered "Pig's stomach with pommes frites". Haha... some of you are probably already twitching in your seats. It came in the form of a big fat, misformed sausage. But once you cut into the 'sausage', it was far from anything you'd seen before. It was simply pieces of a pig's stomach stuffed inside (I guess) intestines. Nothing ground up. It was chewy and (apparently - my nose was blocked) smelt awful. I thought it went particularly nice with the dijon mustard I still had on the table, and ate everything on the plate. It was truly delicious (I will make it in Canada for whoever wants to try it). The Danish guy ate 1/3 of his 'sausage' and decided that was enough for him. Dessert was something random the Waiter thought I would like, which I did - but I have no idea what was in it or what it was called. The end of the night more or less.
Next day we took it easy and went around enjoying stuff, Eliza bought some clothes. It was more a time to relax from thinking, have a coffee, and walk around slowly. It was very relaxing and nice. We also checked out the Eiffel Tour that evening. We went to a club that was cheaper on Sundays (hence why we went on a Sunday), and had a good night that night. Unfortunately, we were told the metro ran all night and what they meant by that was it stopped at 2:30 and started again at 6. Some people are just dumb. So we taxied home (only like 10EUros across the entire city) and went to bed.
Got woken up the next morning again (like every morning!) and checked out of our hostel, ate some (free hostel) breakfast and headed out for some final sightseeing. Once again - we more or less relaxed the full day. We knew we didn't have much time before we had to find our way to the airport. Later we caught a plane.
I'm sure I'm missing a lot of information - which Eliza can comment on and I will publish her comment or update. And answer questions. I know the posting doesn't sound too exciting - but that's because I was not too fond of the city. I don't think I will return for at least a decade - it was far too dirty, smelly and not too appealing to any of my senses. That being said - PRAGUE was awesome!
Maybe my Favorite city in europe: Prague!
I was beginning to think that no city could beat Vienna. Every city I went to I liked more or less (with Paris as an exception), but none compared to vienna and it's beauty, food culture and cleanliness. That was until I went to visit Krystina, David, and Teresa in Prague. Krystina and Teresa (sisters) were our (my and Eliza) hosts - and damn good hosts. We only arrived (really unfortunately) on Saturday afternoon but once we arrived at the house, there was 'the most traditional Czech food" being prepared for us. Everyone was giving a helping hand to make - what turned out to be - a delicious roast duck, oh-so-good dumplings and to-die-for cabbage. Mixed, obviously, with St-Martin's wine (2days old, St Martins is on Nov 11).
After dinner, we went on a tour of the city, seeing the Golden Penguins, the lock bridge, the fairy tale water guy with red boots, giant babies with no faces (modern art), Charles IV bridge and the beautiful buildings on either side. We went to the Lennon Wall (the only legal wall to 'graffitti' on - all messages about peace and lennon) and wrote our names and messages with all the others who have visited. We made a wish on the Saint who had been thrown over the bridge, etc etc. Finally we hopped aboard a tram that brought us to our night's club.
First - I never knew a place could be so cheap. A beer in a Czech Repulic club went for 28Kc - one Euro - $1.40 Canadian. A beer in a similar club in Canada would be roughly $8-9. Absolutely awesome. This club was opened by two guys who had worked in a scrap yard and had used all these things as decorations. So over all the tables, dancefloors were rotating motors and engines showing the insides of the machinery. Very good. On the walls were motherboards from computers which were lighted in dark green colours, behind the DJ was a crazy lightshow from other machine parts all flashing red and blue lights. It's no wonder in Eastern Europe that the music was all techno. But what a fun night, and what a cool place to see.
The next morning we ate some eggs and bacon - which I haven't had since I think July. And we went off to tour the city during the day light. The best weather that I have had in europe was here. Bright blue skies, super warm, no clouds... absolutely wonderful! We walked around and saw the Prague castle, and their changing of the guard. We saw a giant church in the same area which was absolutely covered in wonderful stained glass windows, highlighted by the fact that the sun was pouring in through the windows. We grabbed a not-so-good bite at a cheap hotel restaurant, hit up a St-Martin's market next door (got a 'cheese variety pack' and these odd sugar roll thing') and just made it in time to catch the last train back to Vienna.
Now
Now, I'm back in Vienna - there are no trips planned for a little while. I was supposed to go somewhere in two weeks - I said somewhere warm like Sicily, southern France or maybe southern Greece. But because of plane ticket costs, I don't think that will happen. Which sucks since that is what I wanted for my birthday (10 Days away!), and I can take a lot of days off since my bosses are in Astana for a summit from Nov 26 - Dec 5, and we will lack work to do.
Also, I had a trip planned for Ireland in my last week here (I've ALWAYS wanted to see Ireland) and the tickets for that seem extremely expensive too... so I seem to be encountering some issues. But, I do get an email this morning asking if I would like to go to the Alps while our bosses are in Astana and do a little bit of skiing. I think the answer will be yes! It may be the complete opposite of a 'warm destination'... but who cares when you are skiing in the Alps with friends??
Hope you enjoyed this long posting. I will update you further when more interesting things arise!
Your european friend!
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Luc 'Conan' Zawislak
non-member comment
Whats next big guy? Are you planning to stay in Europe and look for a job? Or do you want to come back to Canada for work? What are the chances of you being able to get a job with the UN after this Internship?