Le poil dans la main ( French expression)

Ryan said...

Bonjour mes aimes! Today was okay. We sort of walked around Old Nice today and absorbed whatever ambience was in whatever place...it was very "nice" (hee hee.) We also climbed a random mountain, which happened to be the site of the ruins of the original castle that was built at nice... kind of cool. I couldn't tell the difference between the touristy terraces or the ruins since they look the exact same. Beautiful views though!!! Nice is fantastic from 200 feet up. Well... Sarah and I decided that Nice is not so bad after all. The Night-life is very lively and vibrant. Street performers, artists, and shopping galore. I am still looking for the perfect opportunity to buy the perfect souvenir. (sp?) I bought all my Paris stuff on the last day so I think I will do the same with Kenna here to validate all my choices.

I am very excited to see Kenna... It will make what is happening more of a reality I think. And what do you know... Kenna is going to be at the train station in about 30 minutes...so I will see you guys later.*

*maybe...no one posted last time......sniff :(



Sarah said...

I liked what we did today. Although, today made me dread paying for my film development. I've taken a bunch of pictures. Last night was cool. Our hotel is right over the center where it's "happening"... and the Mediterranean is very beautiful at night. That's all I have to say.

Twitching cat, stoned beach, chocolate waffles...

Sarah said...

Okay, wow we haven't posted in a long time! Sorry we were roaming the streets of Paris. We seem to end up walking from sight to sight without stopping or taking the subway. The day after our last post we walked from Notre Dame, to the Louvre, down the Champs Elisés, past the Arc de Triomphe, to the Eiffel Tower and ended at École Militaire. Whew!

(It has taken us about an hour to write this because the keys are really different!!! This is what it would look like on an English keyboard...)
9It hqs tqken us qbout qn hour to zrite this becquse the keys qre reqlly different&&& This is zhqt it zould look like on qn English keyboqrd:::0

LOL!!!!

Well, at Cleopatra's Needle; we got to be extras in a Russian movie! Now... having studied theatre, we decided that since the acting was very very poor, the women didn't have very attractive faces and their bodies were quite voluptuous..............we think it was an adult film... oh joy...
Anyway, the sights were good and people were cool. So now, there are a lot of stories that could be told but what then would I have to talk about for many weeks in the future??
So, we traveled to Nice today. Nice is nice....(pun intended). The city seems very quaint...kinda. It's just like a hot dirty Paris but with even MORE shopping! They're fixing up some of the historic spots of the city, which I'm sure WILL look good in the future. Our hotel is okay. The owner lady, Martine, makes it 200% cooler!! (she's a Star Wars fan...we think she learned English by reading Star Wars books.) This hotel does not beat the one we had in Paris!! But it is still good. It is just SOOOOOOOOO hot here in Nice!!!! Like TX hot with no AC anywhere. Ok, bye!

Ryan said...

I love Paris!!! It is exactly like they say it is. Old ladies walking poodles... lovers everywhere ... and sidewalk cafés that line the streets. They are everywhere. I love it! If only I could speak French... ugh... Two years of high school French did me no service... I called a lady on the street "sir" and I asked "Where is it that the Metro is?"... really bad... but I do think I did ok... Some people even thought I was French.... mission--- "local"--- complete!

I think that I could survive in Paris...yeah... I would probably age alot faster though, because speaking in French requires a great deal of thinking.

The train ride to Nice was pleasant b/c the French countryside is trés belle. Nice is nice. Like Sarah said: It is just like Paris... only hotter, dirtier, and more crowded.

Here is a story, we got to Nice, and said to ourselves..."Wouldn't it be nice if we could go sit on the beach"... sounds nice, right? Well, the beach in NIce is not as nice as a Nice beach would be... We walked down a could-be beautiful street under construction an reached the so called beach...It was a rock beach... So we hobbled along the beach for about one hour. It was not all that bad because their were enough characters and topless bathers to keep us on our toes. Poor Sarah... she bought sandals for € 5. Serves her right... they broke after about 20 minutes. Ha ha! Her feet were burning and covered in little peices of rock. Whatever... ha!

Good times. Au revoir!

Narrowing hallways and stray dogs...

Sarah said...

It is too expensive at this inet cafe so I'm not going to post.....here's Ryan.

Ryan said...

It is very expensive here...in Paris!!!!!
Right next the Pompideau Centre (sp?) Our hotel is very cheap though...and very nice. I love Par. It is everything that they say and more...overs everywhere....interesting old characters walking their toy dogs down the street really awesome. I want to be fluent in French soooo bad...! aw. I am tired. good night all!

Gold monkies, cirque statues, stomping string quartet, and scruffy London tour guide from NYC...

Sarah said... So yesterday... We started out wanting to go to the Tate Modern Museum but kinda had a misunderstanding. We got off the tube walked to the Tate Museum and realized that we forgot they share the same name. So we decided to walk down the Thames towards the Modern. On the way we passes every tourisy highlight of London it seemed. We got lots of good pictures as well as foot pains! Later we came back and decided to add up how many miles we probably walked. We figured around 5. Ryan was worried that we had hit too many of the highlights all in the one day. We decided that it was an "overview" and next month we'll know exactly what we want to do each day. So we came back and ate dinner...we took pictures of our meal because it was such a "creation"...oatmeal, grapenuts, and fruit "soup"....Yum! Our roommates showed up later that night...while Ryan was taking a shower. So that was wierd... [Just to note. The shower is a self-standing shower in the corner of our room. So like, you could hold a conversation to the one showering as you lay in your bed.] So they came in... It is a family of three from Quebec. They speak mostly French which is really fun. (Good for practice since tommarow we'll be in Paris). The daughter is a teachers assistant in Wales and her family came to visit for a month and they are now vacationing in London. Ok I'll let Ryan talk now... Ryan said... Okey-dokey... So the Thames thing was fun... Sorta... When you are in a famous place or any place for that matter you have a sense of that place.. the London "sence" did not kick in. It was just another city with pretty buildings. It was actually very tiring. I think I felt this negativity because of the media, family, friends, travel books, and the other culprits that told me that Europe was out to get me. I am actually afraid of other people. I have a feeling that they are going to kill me. . . or at least take advantage of me any chace they get. That night I felt a little relief after meeting our charming roommates. The le Blanc family. They are so cool. They have been everywhere. Very nice. This little exposure to other people made me trust other people more. So the next day I was very much at ease in the city of London. Today we visited Covent Garden. (As the druck Scottish rocker told us to...) Covent Garden is the independent performing arts and theatre district of London. It is typical that I feel at home here. Covent is a great little narrow road neighborhood with a large piazza, market place, garen, and church in the center.....here street performers and other "baskers," as they call them perform to the extreme. There were statue people, a man in a monkey/astronaut suit making chimp noises, and another man just standing with a basket making noises...haha. The best group of baskers I saw was a string quartet that stomped and winked and walked around this sidewalk cafe. Very, very entertaining. I love thius area of London. Even the architecture of this place was interesting. I loved the narrow streets and sidewalk delis and cafes. Poor Sarah had a headache though..but we spent time taking pictures in the garden and that made her feel better. Hooray for grass!!! She took some great photos as well. We also met this guy from New York who had been living in London for several years....he still had his New York accent, but used British figures of speach so it was hard to pay attention. He talked forever...we basically got an entire historical summary of the Catholic/Protestant conflict in England. It soon strated to rain so we went into the church. And listen to this....perfect timing, because inside the church was s concert....we finish off the day by listening to "Winter" of the Four Seasons being played by a local music group. perfect....(it was actually a rehearsal but so what....(I think it is interesting that even the homeless people look more culturally enlightened than us... like even run down places like dirty subways and tenements look "cultural." funny...) Well, right now outside the internet cafe are loud drunk people because some "football" (soccer) team won a game. It is amazing how long they have been celebrating....an hour. ha... Ok I am getting tired of typing and if you have made it this far...congratulations.... Good job. Talk to you tommorrow.

Scottish, tree-hugging, drunk rocker...

Ryan said...

Well, we are here....LONDON!
We both slept on the plane, but I am afraid I may be suffering from the almighty jet lag. I have tried to be more energetic whilst here, but I am a boring traveller. The plane was cool, because you get to see all the diverse array of people that would be flying from Charlotte to London. During the flight there was this angry middle aged guy that wanted an aisle seat......loser. He should have purchased one. I tried to sleep but the pasta I had on the plane made my mouth dry and b/c of the rude guy was so burdensome to the flight attendents that I didn't want to bother them any more... So I tried and failed to sleep with dry mouth. But later I got a glass and fell asleep. hooray. Ok blablabla...we arrived in London and took the Gatwick express to Victoria station in central London. This is great... We met our first "local" today. It was great. At first he just sat there drinking his beer and smiling at us as if he was in love with us or something... But then he wold say stuff like "Look at all this green, it is just lovely, you know what I am saying...the colors...so rich" ...."It is like I'm on an acid trip, right?" Well, he kept talking about all the places he had been....yet he says he can't remember where it is he had been. He talked to some Canadian women across the aisle...but they seemed very annoyed by him...I think my American attitude and half case of jet-lag caused me to be the same way... He gave a toast to just about everyone and sang some British alternative stuff. He really acted as if I was his pal...b/c he kept saying stuff like "you know what I'm talking about...." and giving me high fives and handshakes and stuff... Imagine half and hour of this...haha...ugh. Personally, I was sort of paranoid, because media and family and books, and magazines told me that Europe is a predator that feeds on bufuddled American tourists...I need to relax if I am going to have fun... I think Sarah is tired too because both of us were strangely silent most of the trip. It smells funny here too. But I will get used to this strange land away from familiar stuff down soon... YAY! I better get used to it before I go to Prague that is for sure...(no one speaks English there). I think we are going to check out the "Tims" (Thames) later today...we gotta get this blog crap out of the way first...


Sarah said...

Well, once we got off that plane we turned on the all important Travis CD to create British ambience. As the train was leaving the music began... Aww! It's great to be here. So, we got to Victoria Station and stepped outside before going into the Tube...just to see...a street. Woohoo! Ryan said, "well I haven't seen a double decker yet"... Whatever. So, we took 30 more minutes of train rides to arrive at our hostle in Zone 2. Basically, that means we are in the "suburbs" around Central/Touristy London. I personally like it because we get to see "the real life" of Londoners. We checked out our room and the rest of the hostel and we're about to head out again. (Ryan is sitting next to me still complaining about his dirty pants...I told him they need to look like they are worn). Ok...Bye.

Post!

4 days...

Yesterday I spent a ton of money on filters for my camera. A couple of weeks ago I added up how much I was going to spend on film/developing and I think it came out to around $150. That's sick. I really need to invest in a good digital. Yet, my camera is too good to just "leave".
I should have really good pics though! I wish I could post pictures up while we are there. Most public computers only allow access to the inet though. Ryan had a good idea to build a website when we get back! Then we can load up ALL our pics! We'll/He'll probably do that...

Countdown...

9 days! OMG! ;)