May 2013 – Restless Spirit Syndrome

Parting Thoughts

It’s 3:53 a.m. in Paris, France. At 5 a.m. a taxi will be coming to take me to the airport to begin the first leg of a journey that will land me at 4:35p.m. (10:35 p.m. in Europe) in Newark International Airport.

This is a time of struggle… Today I struggled to find all of the gifts I wanted to bring home to loved ones, this evening I struggled to cram 9 months worth of clothes, souvenirs, and gifts into a very limited luggage space, and right now I am struggling to comprehend that in less than 24 hours I will be in my own bed, I will have embraced my family, nearly smothered my dogs, and I will no longer be in Paris, France.

Between you and me, Internet World, I’m not sure how I feel about this. Parting is such bittersweet sorrow (or something to that effect), but being gone for nearly 3/4s of a year has been no small task. I’m struggling to figure out if I’m devastated to be leaving or if I’m elated to be coming home. In the interest of avoiding frantic mood swings, I’ve just been in denial.

Today, however, I made a point to visit my partner-in-crime, Dana, and say good bye to her home-stay; a group of some of the most amazing people that I have ever met (I’ll have to get into them later). When I communicated how upset I was to be leaving Paris and wonderful people such as them, Yves, the father said,

Don’t be upset to leave, because leaving means that you get to experience the joy of returning when you come back.

It was such a profound statement, and Yves shortly followed it with some sage advice to live in the moment. So, that’s what I’m going to try to do; live in the moment, appreciate each second as it passes and revel in as much of this wonderful experience as I still have left. Right now, in this moment, my life demands that I break into the collection of pastries that I stowed away for this morning.

Le Blog

When I started this blog, my plan was to have it updated and complete by the time I returned home. Clearly that is not going to happen, but I still feel compelled to expound upon all of my adventures, so I will be maintaining Restless Spirit Syndrome until at least that goal is accomplished.

À bientôt!

Around the World in 240+ Days – Part 2

For the next part of my journey, I ventured into Reims, France. Actually, more like crawled…

My finals in Granada and then a week of hard traveling had given me a nasty cold that I couldn’t seem to shake. I know, I know, I’m weak, but I made the executive decision to curl up in Reims for a few days to lick my wounds and stymie the hemorrhaging of my bank account. Why Reims? Well, I found an affordable hotel there and I wanted to be close to Paris, which would soon be my next destination. Other than that, it was just luck. Turns out it was good luck.

Reims (curiously pronounced “RrrANCE”… or something to that effect) is an ancient city in the north of France, about an hour by train from Paris. Besides being in the heart of Champagne country, Reims’ Cathedral was the historical site of all of France’s coronations, most notably among these being the coronation of Charles VII (the one that Joan of Arc was supposedly responsible for).

The Cheap Traveler's Laundry System — The Cheap Traveler’s Laundry System

After a little bit of R&R in Reims, I traveled to Paris on December 30th to meet my friend, Nikki Foskey. Nikki is a friend from home, and she came to visit me for the last week of my vacation.

Nikki in Paris... yes, Starbucks was our first stop — Nikki in Paris… yes, Starbucks was our first stop

We did just a little bit of touring in Paris, then celebrated New Years in front of the Sacré Coeur (which was actually a bitterly cold and slightly miserable experience), before heading off to Brussels, Belgium on the first day of 2013.

The Eiffel Tower against a Parisian winter sky

We arrived into Brussels cold, hungry, tired, and with no idea what to expect. After checking into our hostel, we wandered around what turned out to be an incredibly beautiful and extremely quirky city. I’m still not sure whether Brussels is always lit up, or if we just stumbled across some post-holdiay light displays, but in any case the city positively glowed… especially the Town Hall, which we stumbled across one night lighting up in all different hues to classical music. Breath-taking.

The main center in Brussels, Grand Place, by day

As far as eccentricity goes, Brussels really took the cake with their little darling, Manneken Pis. Now, dear little Manneken Pis is actually only a small statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain, but the city of Brussels is obsessed with him (or maybe that’s just the tourist influence…). In any case, he is EVERYWHERE and we quickly made a game of spotting all of the Mannekens big and small throughout the city.

An example of some of the Mannkens that we saw all over the city.

Jeanneken Pis - Manneken Pis's lesser-known sister... anatomically accurate and all. — Jeanneken Pis – Manneken Pis’s lesser-known sister… anatomically accurate and all.

I don’t think that I’ve ever had a traveling experience that wasn’t food-centric, so of course we dined on all things Belgian waffle, Belgian beer, Belgian chocolate, and Belgian french fries. We also took a side trip to a few museums, on of which was a chocolate museum (of course) and another featuring an exhibit of Manneken Pis in all different international costumes.

The chocolate museum... complete with a free sample at the end! — The chocolate museum… complete with a free sample at the end!

Manequins of Manneken in costumes from around the globe.

*Ok, so admittedly, I did not take enough pictures of food or Brussels. It was very cold and I was being a wuss, I apologize.

After Brussels, Nik and I went on to conquer Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is amazing, and don’t let anyone tell you differently. And no, I don’t mean for the typical reasons. The whole city is beautiful, full of some spectacular architecture and beautiful canals that become illuminated at night. Yes, we went to the Amsterdam Sex Museum, stumbled into the Red Light District, and visited a coffee shop or two, but we also got to visit the Heineken museum and see Anne Frank’s attic hideout. We tried to go to the Van Gogh museum, but only made it for the last 5 odd minutes, unfortunately. We were only in Amsterdam for about 2 days, but it was a wonderful trip and I highly recommend this city to anyone who can make it there, because the concentration and variety of culture was astounding for just one city.

... ok, so I got a little camera in here, but the museum was very well done and I loved it. — … ok, so I got a little camera crazy in here, but the museum was very well done and I loved it.

The only proper was to finish a Heineken tour

This is the iconic 'Amsterdam' sign... which is so big it was impossible to capture all of it in one shot. — This is the iconic ‘Amsterdam’ sign… which is so big it was impossible to capture all of it in one shot.

Around the World in 240+ Days – Part 1

So I did a few quick calculations and figured out that during these past two semesters I’ve visited 10 countries (2 of which I lived in), tried to communicate in countless languages (of the 3 that I know [English, French, and Spanish], I’ve found that a fourth, body language, has been the most useful) and consumed an obscene amount of calories in some of the best eats (and drinks!) that Europe and Africa have to offer. Oh yeah, and sometimes I studied.

I did the bulk of my traveling during my first semester (see former posts here, here, and here), but also spent the entirety of my winter break on the move. I had 17 days – from Dec 21st – Jan 7th – and a hell of a time. This is part 1 of those adventures.

'Grocery Shopping' or, 'How to be a Human Pack Mule' — ‘Grocery Shopping’ or, ‘How to be a Human Pack Mule’

The first leg of my trip was with my friend, Mariah, and her brother, Dylan. We left Granada by night train on December 20th, 2012 and arrived in Barcelona the next morning.

Restless Wisdom: Always pay more for things like reclining seats on a night train. Seriously. Frugality is one thing, but don’t be a cheap idiot.

We only had a 24hour layover in Barcelona, so we made the most of it. Highlights from the trip include meeting a fellow traveler from South Africa and touring around with him all day, seeing all of the architecture by Gaudi (and hypothesizing as to whether or not he was on hallucinogens), visiting the beach, and some amazing vegetarian paella.

The large open-air market, St Josep, La Boqueria

We then continued North, into France. The intention was to get to Geneva, Switzerland by sundown and we just barely made it.

Restless Wisdom: Euroroail passes are not always the golden ticket that you may have been hoping them to be. Most major lines (as in, International) require you to pay a supplement and book your seats ahead, but in person. Further, seats do sell out and *gasp* major rail lines sometimes get cancelled. Be flexible.

Happily, our longest layover for that trip was in the lovely little town of Nîmes, France. We really only stayed long enough to snap a few pictures and buy some more hummus, then continued on.

A matador statue in front of the ancient Arena of Nîmes.

We did make it to Geneva, where we stayed for one night. Since we were continuing on in Switzerland, we all withdrew large amounts of Swiss Francs. Now, I’d gotten used to multi-colored currency, but Swiss money is the closet I’ve ever seen to real-life monopoly money. However, once I figured out the exchange rate, and then how much basic necessities cost, I was anything but amused. Switzerland is EXPENSIVE. But it is also beautiful.

A Swiss Swan... the 'wild life'. — A Swiss Swan… the ‘wild life’.

(Ok, so I didn’t take that many good pictures in Geneva…)

Our next stop was Zermatt, Switzerland. Now, the first time I had ever heard of Zermatt was the day I found out that we were going there. To give you some background that I might have benefitted from, Zermatt is a tiny little ski village in the top of the Swiss Matterhorn Mountains. It is in the district of Visp, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and can only be accessed by a complex network of trains and trams. When we got into Zermatt (all of those trains and trams later), it was at night and it was breath-taking. To begin with, all of the architecture is strictly Swiss countryside (think Heidi, the children’s book), and no exhaust-emitting vehicles are permitted (to preserve the view of the surrounding Matterhorns, of course), so everyone schlepps around the snow/sludge covered roads in horse-drawn carriages or on skis. It is a breath-takingly beautiful city which, in my opinion, is actually the Who-village from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. This place was the ultimate Christmas town, which was convenient since we arrived the day before Christmas and stayed through the holiday.