European Whirl - Day 15

April 24^th

Paris … Camping Du Tremblay

Glad to leave for London. It was not that I didn’t enjoy the trip, I enjoyed it very much, but I was tired, longed for a static life now ^.^ We leaved Paris at 8. The traffic was very bad that morning. But we still managed to be at Calais before the 1:45 ferry departed.

On the way, Kristy handed out the questioner. I checked ‘very satisfied’ for almost all criteria for Craig and Kristy. But for the meal and campsite, the middle boxed were enough. The meals were so so, the campsites were always too far from the city center. Well, it’s a cheaper tour, what more could we expected? But it’s good for me. Now I know what was campsite … in case someday someone asked me to deign one ^.^

Then Kristy talked about the tipping. I could accept it, but I didn’t like they way she said it. She said we had to give 2 Euro per person per day, which means another 60 Euro for both of them, while in the Contiki brochure it was 2 Euro per passenger, and it was written, “It’s not a compulsory. It’s up to you.” So I didn’t give the amount she asked, although they did do a very good job. I had not enough Euro left anyway.

I saw quite unique telephone booths, unique for me, along the highway. It seemed that they used solar cell. I don’t know how they worked though; they all looked cute in orange with a little antenna on top. I saw many solar cell used for lights on the highway at Holland, Austria and German before, but not for telephone booth.

We arrived at London Royal Hotel at around 5 instead of 4 as planned, due to the traffic jam. Kristy and Craig busy showing people how to go here or there around London. People was hugging and promising to call each other. It’s quite sad to say “good bye” to my almost 14 nights roommate, but I was quite get used to it though, saying “good bye” to friends. Everybody has its own story to write, doesn’t it?

Kristy and Craig on their blue uniform – the best couple

Ji Su, Gillian, me and Fren – thanks girls!

Yuki has one too. The friend she met at Vienna waited for her at the Royal Hotel! I saw the guy sitting on the bench outside a bar in the hotel, waiting for our bus, didn’t know for how long. And as soon as our bus stopped, he stood up trying to look for Yuki shadow. So her romance was to be continue … not by me! ^.*

Vihn Lee, Lee Lee, Yuki and her new friend ^.^

European Whirl - Day 14

April 23^rd

Paris … Camping Du Tremblay

Woke up dizzily, but this might be the only chance for me to be in Paris. Craig dropped us at the Louver. “Forget about entering the museum from the pyramid glass, the queue will take all of your day!” Kristy said. So we entered the area from the parking lots. We arrived at the upside down pyramid glass, but I had only enough time to took a shot before move again, because Kristy wanted to walk us along the river Seine to Notre Dame. Only 8 people walked with her while the rest decided to explore them selves. I thought Kristy would say something along the way, but she didn’t. She only took us at the main entrance of Notre Dame, said something about how to buy a one-day museum pass, and let us went by our selves.

Notre Dame was not as huge as I thought, maybe because I saw St. Peter cathedral before. But it was a good comparison. It looked so gloomy and dull. I remembered my architecture history teacher said something about the Gothic style tried to make people afraid of hell … it worked quite well. Gillian said she felt depressed inside. So either too glamour or too dull, she wouldn’t be able to concentrated on her praying. There’s 2 huge rose windows at both wings, not at the main axis that heading to the altar though. What I like the most are these windows, the flying buttresses and the small creature that accompany Quasimodo (Hunchback of Notre Dame), the drainage. Speaking about Quasimodo, there’re lots of shops using his name nearby the cathedral, Quasimodo coffee shops, Quasimodo Crepes … just like there’re Sherlock Holmes Coffee shops along Baker Street in London.

While we walked to Notre Dame, I noticed an information arrow that pointed the opposite direction, which said George Pampidou Canter. I almost forget it was here! But from Notre Dame, it’s closer to Arabian Institute than to Pampidou, so I decided to walk to the institute, and took the subway to Pampidou. Gillian was agree with me, so we walked there, meanwhile I told her why I was dying to go to the institute … because of its window blinds. It took the concept from Arabian motif for the main façade. That’s not great at all … but the fact that the blinds can move, be opened and closed, change shapes and create different reflection and shadow on the floor. I wonder how much money do they spend for this one … well, oil country … don’t think that they have problem for that. They even don’t need nay ticket entrance, which gave me the chance to go to the top floor to enjoy Noter Dame and Pampidou Center that were on the opposite bank of the Seine River, far away.

A monotone facade

The mechanism of the blinds from inside

From roof floor looking at Notre Dame

Satisfied with the institute, we went to the subway nearby. The lady behind the ticket boot was so nice to tell us that the 8 Euro ticket was for tourist (one day ticket plus a museum ticket), while what we needed was only the transportation ticket, which was 5 Euro. It’s a very small ticket with a big mantle; and I realize that in the cities I’d been, only London provides lots of subway’s map that you can take and throw and take again anytime you want!

Pampidou Center … another dream came true! It’s not difficult to find due to the bright red and blue that it used. We were there, finally, but we didn’t have time to join the queue to enter the center if we still wanted to explore another spots. So I only explore the entrance floor, which has Philip Stark’s souvenir shops and bookshop. There’s also a small exhibition about architecture that didn’t look at all like a building. The article was written in France unfortunately. And one thing quote interesting me was that many people was reading those articles … that meant they were France, which also meant that they were aware about their architecture development. It could be said, the whole citizens were architects … then might we, the academically architects, be out of jobs? ^.^ There’s a shallow pond outside, which after I got into the other building and saw the architecture model, underneath it was rooms for recording and practicing musical instruments … WOW!

Me and the Pampidou

The ticket booth

Gillian in the pool behind Pampidou

After ate some chocolate crepes and took a rest, we took subway back to Louver. We entered the whole area from the shopping center. Gillian did some whopping for her friends, while I did some photos. I was amazed by how the prism caught the sunlight and turned it either to shadows or to rainbows. The reflection against the wall looked so various because of that, especially because of the plain material that I.M. Pei, the architect, had chose … he is a genius ^.^ It’s pity that we didn’t have enough time to enter from the main entrance, the big pyramid, because the queue was very too long, and I felt tired again.

After giving our feet two breaks, we went along Rue Rivoli, a shopping center cheaper than Champ Elysees. Gillian did the shopping wile I sat down watching people shopping, almost fell asleep. It’s not because the shopping center was boring, just my feet screaming again. Thanks Gillian that I could sit down listening to my feet.

To the La Defence … at 3:30! We supposed to meet the bus at 4:30 at Place de La Concorde, 11 stations away from where we were, if we wanted to go back to the campsite and dressed up for the last dinner. But since none of us join this excursion that cost 32 Euro, Gillian didn’t want to be at La Defence for 15 minutes pictures and rushing back to meet the bus. So we took our time there. Gillian sat down at one of the huge steps, I was taking pictures. La Defence is an expansion of Paris to the West, a very big area with new high-rise buildings soared into the sky. You can find any shape you want here, curved, ball, blocks, cubism … not enough for a day! The Arche Grande is so big that it was said the Notre Dame could fit into the void in the center where the capsule elevator and the clouds were hang … quite possible.

Famished … new vocabulary learned form Gillian because of this trip ^.^ We saw a Mac Donald’s plastic bags in the trash bin nearby the tube station … without second thought we decided to solve our famished problem. It’s impossible for poor traveler like us to have a lunch at the restaurant in Grande Arche. I brought the good new to Gillian that I saw that big yellow M from the platform of Grande Arche. It was nearby the big ball cinema. So we walked straight there. I couldn’t order another happy meal, because they toys they offered were ugly *.* But they offered lots of dessert, not just flurry or cone, but muffin, brownies … anything you can imagine. But Mac Donald is still Mac Donald; We went there only because we were desperate. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t taste good, it’s our fault that we don’t have the culture to eat kind of junk food ^.^ But we were very glad about its existence. We could sit down at any sits we want, because in Paris, they charge more if you sat in the place where you could be seen by public. In other way, the cheapest seats are the one near the WC ^.^ We sat there almost for an hour, seeing people coming and going outside the window, happy to see real Parisian … well, I couldn’t tell, It’s true that they didn’t wear the tourist name tag, cameras that hanging in your breast, like the way we did ^.^ But Gillian said that they looked like the real Parisian. And this place was not tourist resort. It’s more office district than shopping area. I saw families walking with plastic bags that looked like from a big supermarket, so I told Gillian whether she wanted to buy some not-for-tourist food there. I myself need to eat some fruits for I had a serious problem with my skin because of this trip … my body didn’t have any second to adapt at any places since I was forced to move here and there very quickly. So we tracked down where the people with plastic bags come from, underneath the cinema. It’s quite a big shopping center, with lots of lunch choices … if only we knew ^.^

A 0,5 m thick wall with cross pattern

Gillian against the white curve

Big globe cinema

After a little shopping, I pursued Gillian not to take the same subway station, but the next one, “We are in between now, and we can see more!” Poor her … she shouldn’t listen to me, because it was not closed to us at all. My feet!! But we did see funny things. Gillian saw her prince frog, a 150 cm green frog statue opened its big mouth with little frog inside that spit out a fountain; pity that it had no water at the time we arrived. She kissed it, I took the pictures, and the frog stood still ^.^

Finally we found the nest station, Esplanade. 5 stops away, there’s Arc de Triomph. But we didn’t go any closer that 20 m from the monument. Our feet protested to do that. So we took a seat opposite the block, took pictures and sat for the next hour, telling stories and enjoying the sunset and the people. I told Gillian to notice me anytime she felt like moving again, because I still have one more spot to explore.

Then we walked back to the subway station, this time was the same one. We took 2 different lines, 16 stops before we arrived at the Eastern part of Paris where Bernard Tsumi played his red toys, Parc de La Vilette. 55 hectares park, only 20 minutes left … ahi … I was not sure at first where it was, but it was very easy to spot … there’s a red structure just at the entrance of the park. I was so excited that even my feet not protesting me for running closer. It’s too huge, and already closed by the time we arrived, which was 8 already. Lucky that it was still bright, and I wore a red T-shirt ^.^

We rushed back to the subway station because we had to be at Moulin Rouge to meet the coach by 9:30. We arrived at Moulin Rouge 20 minutes earlier. Standing in that area was really not a comfortable feeling … too many men. It was not like Red District, but still pictures all around us made us feel like naked. This Moulin Rouge was not as grandeur as the one on the film. And it was not the original one either - rebuilt; I remembered I read an article that said it caught in fire once, forge the exact story about it. But it still had the symbol, the Holland windmill … “Aren’t we in Paris now?” Gillian was asking.

We walked back and forth tried to see any sign of the Contiki bus. If we missed the bus, than we had to spend 40 Euro back to the campsite, while we were ahead the schedule! And we saw the bus coming! We running to welcome Craig, so glad to be able to sit on the coach again ^.^ We waited for the rest of the group who went to dinner at another meeting point. 6 girls didn’t went back with the coach because they wanted to see the cabaret can-can show. Craig drove us through the ‘dangerous Zone’, Arch de Triomph, for the last time. He made it! Everybody was clapping hands. He turned around the next corner, turned again and another turned, and we were back to the dangerous Zone?! Craig loves to play ^.^ He got another applause. Kristy said that that night his parents flight back to Australia. His parents met us, Craig actually, while we were in Vienna and had a crazy dinner with the team. Kristy called them, we all shouted, “have a nice trip” and on with our own trip.

On the way back to the campsite, we saw another Contiki bus in front of us. Kristy ordered us to give a flash at them. We did, didn’t really get a response. 10 minutes later, there’s another Contiki bus. Gees … how many group were in Paris now? Craig speed up and we were ahead and gave them a flash. But in a traffic light, they manage to cut in. Craig was not a person who easy to be defeated, he managed to takeover again. So 2 buses were on a row. Then we entered a small road with the width only fit for one bus. We were in front of the other bus, with 3 small cars in between. Red lights. We wait. Green light, Craig still didn’t move, until the light turned into yellow before Craig drove away. He was naughty, wasn’t he? But that was not enough. As soon as we arrived at the gate of our campsite, Kristy ordered all of us off the coach; girls hands in hands to made a barrier, and boys, only 10 of them, on the front line, pulled off their pants and showed their butt towards the others coming buses. Even Craig did it! Pity that we couldn’t take any pictures for the sake of ‘privacy’ ^.^ But they were still on their underwear … luckily! ^.^

What a night to end a trip … !!

The story of the time

European Whirl - Day 13:

April 22^nd

Lauterbrunnen … Camping SCCV Jungfrau

Took a good last look at that grandeur mountain, we were heading to Paris!

Being in plain again … lots of yellow flowers among the green grass, very different feeling compare to the mountainous Switzerland. I saw lost of plank along the highway, include the famous hat shape – Chapel Ronchamp by Le Corbusier. But while I tried to catch a glimpse, I saw nothing but green grass with yellow flower … pity. Parisian did a good design in any gates that we stop to pay the highway fee.

It’s a very long journey. We arrived at Paris at the afternoon. Our campsite was situated outside the city … as usual. We took a rest and had dinner, our last dinner for the whole trip. It was Chicken drumsticks with buffet salad, and apple strudel as dessert.

After filling our stomach, we went on the coach again for our evening tour. Kristy said that we wouldn’t get off the bus, only driving through Paris. There’re lots of modern buildings along the way; the library that took concept from 4 opened books (I think it was by Dominique Perraut), the Arabian Institute by Jean Nouvel … I was so excited that I almost screamed every time I saw something familiar from architecture magazines, that came alive now. I didn’t realize that those buildings are in Paris actually … another nice surprise of not doing homework ^.^

Kristy told us a little bit about Paris; about a restaurant called Maximus, which is very expensive, the place for those people who don’t want to be seen, and its neighbor Minimus, by the same chef but lots cheaper. And about Marie Antoinette, how she loved parties and always ordered her servants to re-arrange the flower in the garden to have the same color tone as her dress, how she ordered special wine cup as big as her breasts (the glass we have now), about her husband, Louis XIV, had more than 50 mistresses. There’s an opera house that Parisian are very proud about for it is the most beautiful opera house in Europe, the place that inspired the story of The Phantom of The Opera … lots of stories.

Kristy said something about a window in a building that had a special light on it … actually what she wanted us to see was the opposite direction …the Eiffel Tower. It was built for an exhibition and supposed to be torn down after that. But the Parisian loves t so much that it stays now. On the WW II, Hitler ordered his general to bomb it, but this general sabotage his order, kept on postponing until the alleys came. The Eiffel tower earned half of the building’s cost just within 6 months after the opening … seeing the super long queue, I wonder how much money do they earn form it tower now. Once there’s a guy who made a pair of wing and tried to fly from the tower, but died before he landed because of heart attack. Many suicide cases happened here, that’s why now the official put wire all over it. It was repainted every 7 years, and took a year to finish, with what so-called the Eiffel green … funny, I saw brown, no green?

Kristy suddenly said that they decided to change the plan, to let us have the chance to go on the very top floor of the tower. She wouldn’t bother to ask who wanted to go up and who didn’t, “If you don’t want to, you are crazy.” We were all clapping hands and jump off the coach directly. Kristy bought us group ticket so that we didn’t have to queue for the lift to the second floor … she was a nice woman ^.^ But we still had to queue for taking another lift to the top floor. It took around half an hour to be able to stand at the top of Eiffel Tower. While Gillian and I were queuing, there’s a German guy who chatting with us with English, saying he doesn’t want to learn any France because they don’t want to learn any German, nor English … fare enough ^.^

It’s quite cold on the top. I didn’t bring my coat with me … Kristy said we only stay on the bus. But the cold breeze was nothing compare to the view we got. Pity that my hand didn’t want to stay steady under the cold breeze. Queuing for going up, queuing for coming down as well. We were 15 minutes late for the coach; lucky that they were still waiting for us. So, we could cross Eiffel for tomorrow. That’s good. From the book about traveling Paris I brought from Chelsea Library before I depart with this tour, I knew that there’re Grande Arche de La Defence and Park de La Villete are both in Paris, one in West part and one in East part. Now it was just a matter of time and my feet ability to decided whether I could went there to see how grand they were or not.

Palais de Chaillot

Seine River

Parc du Champ de Mars

We driving through Champ Elysees, where the Louis Vuition is. Kristy said that they only allow customer to buy 2 items. Some tourist will stand outside the store and try to find someone to help them buy more, with some tips of course. “So if you want to earn some token, you can stand there and wait for someone asking for your favor,” Kristy said. Champ Elysees also is known as diamond and ruby, I supposed because at nighttime, the car lights in one side are all white, while the other side are all red.

“Now we are heading to dangerous zone,” Kristy announced us. It’s the circle of Arch de Triomph. There’re so many car accident in this area, every 7 minutes in peak hours. Craig was a professional driver though. We had no problem at all driving through this dangerous zone. We arrived safely in the campsite, at around half past eleven … quite a long night I had, but I was happy ^.^

European Whirl - Day 12

April 21^st

Lauterbrunnen … Camping SCCV Jungfrau

I thought I wouldn’t take many pictures for this day, no architectures. But I was wrong; nature is as beauty as architecture. I took another 100 pictures here ^.^ But it’s good, I could take a rest.

I was in the cookie group for this campsite. The deal for this trip is, everybody has to take part either as cookie (help the meal distribution) or dishie (help washing the dishes) and back packing for the guys. We got a candy as a gift. The first dinner we, the cookie didn’t get the candy. But as soon as I saw Lee Lee got one, I told Gillian, and both of us heading to the kitchen asking for a trial. Gillian was a very good defender … she used her French accent English for the bon-bon (means candy in French). You had to see how the guy gave us a shock looks while she said, “I was so jealous …”, and we quite became more welcomed ever since ^.^

The weather was not as good as the day before. Gillian and I decided not to take the 120 SFR ride to mount Jungfrau (1 Pounds = 2 SFR). There’re some other optional; a 25 minutes helicopter rides for 200 SFR, or a 38 trains journey to the next village plus Trummelbach waterfalls, or 9 SFR only for the Trummelbach waterfalls on foot. We decided to take the 9 SFR one, walked around 45 minutes to reach there. But it’s a good walk since it’s heading to the opposite direction, not to the village that we already walked it the night before after the dinner. On the way, we saw 2 guys parked their car beside the narrow street and watching the cliff in front of them. Gillian asked what they were watching … the little red dot up in the mountain, where people jumping off with parachute. Ah … that’s why I saw some people were folding parachute in the campsite last night. My eyes aren’t as good as hers although mine are doubled, I only saw while the person had already jumped off the cliff. There’s a crazy person that jumped farther away before let the parachute open … the black dot dropped so fast! … Not me!

After we arrived and handed out our tickets, we entered a lift that went inside the mountain … never knew that we could ride a lift in the mountain. But later on I found out that they have any kind of transportation for such a mountainous area; cable cars, train, even trains that take the shape of stairs-steps and go 45 degree! Forgive me for my innocent, but for me it’s a very new thing and cool! ^.^ It’s breath taking to realize how small human and its invention are compare to the grandeur mountain.

They claim the Trummbelbach has 10 waterfalls. Actually it comes from one waterfall that was split on the way down, through weird but beautiful shape of cliff inside the mountain. The water comes from melted glacier on top of the mountain. It’s very cold and wet. We were provided by human made stairs, handrails and lamps … very easy to walk. But Gillian had problem with her knees. Poor her that had to walk in pain … I was very lucky that this time my knees didn’t protest although I walked a lot all those days.

The waterfalls themselves were amazing, especially after being lightening by green lights. The sound of the water was so loud but not as annoying as the music Craig played on the bus (he loves either rock an droll or techno music). It seemed emphasizing how grand nature was. We spent more than an hour there, cold and wet but amazed.

This was the only day for us to be able to make our own schedule, to go back to our campsite anytime we want, for a nap. It began to rain anyway. While we wait for the shop in our campsite to open, an old guy said that it wouldn’t be open until 2. They have 2 hours lunchtime, while we hadn’t had our lunch. The guy came from New Castle and this was his third time staying in Jungfrau campsite. He said he felt in love with Jungfrau. He said his just came back from ski trip 2 with his wife months ago. His son got marriage in Austria, with the ski uniform as their wedding gown, taking pictures under a big snowstorm. His wife and him didn’t attend it though. They held another party while his son went back to England. His daughter just marriage in LA; again he only saw their wedding picture; this time was in a very conventional white wedding gown. His last boy was in Japan now, for maybe 4 months to learn Japanese. The world sounded so small, while at the same time the mountain looked so huge.

It’s already 3 o’clock while I awaken; 2 hours nap. Not bad! I decided to walk to the town by myself, since Gillian was still sleeping, might be because of too hungry. But I need an Internet to write an e-mail to my college who all of sudden send an e-mail a day before, said that he’d arrive at London at April 24, the last day of my trip. The rain stopped falling. Good for taking pictures … but I didn’t bring my camera with me … Silly! I walked to the internet coffee; 5 minutes for 1 SFR *.* It actually was a youth hostel. They put flags outside their window case; surprisingly, I saw Taiwan’s flag among them, but no Indonesia’s. Money talk ^.^

The train station was my next stop. There I saw the train that climbed 45 degree. In each train has a big iron shelf at the very back that later I found out, it’s for ski utensils. Only few shops open due to the Easter Monday. But I decided to keep their 10 SFR as my souvenir from Switzerland, since it has the pictures of Le Corbusier and his works printed on it, although he was a French (according to the Paris traveling book).

The dinner was very nice; a hot melted cheese with a little bit of wine taste was kept boiling, we stabbed bread with a long thin fork and dip it into the jam … if I could call it jam. Main course is chicken paprika with baked potato and salad, and for dessert we got strawberry ice cream, enough to force me to take another night walk before going to bed, and be ready for another long ride on the bus.

European Whirl - Day 11

April 20^th

Florence … Camping Internazionale Firenze Srl

It’s a nice campsite actually, 2 bedrooms in suit cabin with sofa in the living room – but for 5 persons. So I decided to take the sofa instead of jumping to the upper level bed, which turned out to be a lucky things to do since there’s only one heater, which was in the living room.

It’s Easter Sunday, we found 5 egg chocolates in our seat ^.^ We were heading to Switzerland for today, through lake Como, across Swiss Alps, while hearing Kristy introducing us to Swiss with its wonderful self-protected system. Any roads and tunnels that connected Swiss to the rest of the world were ready to be blown off to shut so none will be able to use it to enter the country, storages were being camouflage grass, rail that runs right into the wall of a cliff (I had to squeeze my eyes to be able to see the closed door), and every family has to make sure that they have spare food enough for the whole year … just in case someone want to attack.

Our first encounter with Switzerland was the rest station; cost me a fortune for just a simple bun and soup. While we went back to the coach, Kristy said, “I heard you all complained about the price here. All I can say is, Welcome to Switzerland!”

The first, and only city, for us to be in Swiss was Luzern.First we wet to the Lion Monument, a monument that was built for respecting the Swiss soldiers that were killed by the French while trying to protect King Louis XIV, who told them not to touch his people although they came to kill him. The expression of the Lion really looks so sad, hugging armors with Swiss symbol (I think so). Nearby there’s a mirror for visitors to take pictures without necessary asking anyone’s help. Beside the monument is a small theme park, but we only went there for the Lion and moved on. There’re quite lots of modern buildings around the corner, that made a good contrast for this old guy with his old dogs to be around with his old car ^.^ And it’s quite relaxing to see modern buildings again after being in Italy for 5 days. There’re more classical buildings than modern actually, but the whole atmosphere that were so calm and clean, not packed with tourist, really made me relax.

Then we drove to the city center for those who want to buy the famous Swiss army knife or Swatch or Rolex. Only three shops opened that day due to the Easter, for us. I went there too, for the toilet ^.^ After that Gillian and I enjoy our time strolling along the river, watching people enjoying their time under the sun, to the center station that I saw on the way we entered the city center. Luzern is a very beautiful tidy city. A river with wooden bridges running through the city; ends up into a lake nearby the modern train station, where the Modern Art Museum is, with mountain as the background. I like the way they design the museum. A huge canopy hanging without any column supporting it, words printed on the window glass and they dare to use bright color. And we were very lucky that we got a very nice day with blue sky that made any pictures I took looks so amazing.

We left at 5 pm, to Jungfrau campsite. It was the most beautiful campsite we ever had. Contiki has its own 3 storeys wooden house and kitchen there. Thwy welcomed us by Lindt chocolate as soon as we went down from the bus, and another bunny chocolate in our bed. I chose number 30, which was in the corner with windows looking towards the mountain. There’s a manmade waterfalls nearby that was light up at night by 5 big spotlights.

And for our first dinner in Swiss … American hamburger and French fries!