It was a FINE CRUISE.

Ahoy hoy!

It's been long enough that I'm not sure exactly what to say or write about. I'm currently stationed in Stockholm, where I'll stay until the 21st before flying back to Paris, and then home to Seattle on the 23rd. The last....week? has been a whirlwind, and time continues to move forward in an odd fashion that is somehow both very fast and very slow.

The trainride from Grenoble to Paris was no trouble, and getting back to Olin's was a little bit like coming home, knowing how to take the metro and get into the building and all. After Leo and I hung out for a bit, I headed off to bed to get a good night sleep before my very, very, very long bus ride. I got to the bus station with an hour to spare, as directed, and got myself a coffee and a pain au chocolat for breakfast, as well as a (as I would later discover) very unappetizing sandwich. The next 23 hours passed in a haze, spent on an overheated (23C!) bus. The woman next to me through all of France and Belgium was really nice. German born, living in Paris for 20 years. She exited at Cologne.

Somewhere in Germany I was joined by a way-too-forward new friend who didn't speak any English but tried his best to be charming in French. He was a talker. Which gets to be a little awkward when you don't speak the same language. We tried for a while, had his (actually cute) friend translate a tiny bit since he actually knew some English, and for the most part I ignored him til we parted at Hamburg a few hours later. You can tell from the picture how....comfortable....I look.

In reality, the busride was probably one of the most mutli-cultural, multi-national experiences I've ever had. I talked (directly or through translation) to people from:

France, Germany, Brussels, America, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Sweden, Mongolia, Korea, England, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana.

Pretty cool.

Eventually we arrived in Copenhagen, and once I determined that I had no clue how to get to his station by bus, I called Cookie. We decided to meet at the station since we'd have to catch the train to the airport from there anyway. I bought an English-language magazine and a coffee, and an hour or two later Cookie arrived and we were off on our adventure.

After a bit of a walk, we met Shelley at Slussen station, continuing our walk down the waterfront to the Viking Lines docks to meet Per, Shelley's Swedish friend. I can't tell you how much of a comfort it is that Swedes are A. Really, really nice and B. Almost all English-speakers. The four of us (Shelley, Per, Cookie, and me) shared a cabin on the Mariella, a big cruisliner (otherwise known as a glorified ferry with gambling and booze) for two nights round trip to Helsinki. It was a ton of fun! I was glad to have Cookie's familiar face on-board, and Shelley and Per both proved to be great company. The cruise was weird, kind of like a giant floating frat-house. But we kept mostly to our quarters and had a lot of fun people-watching when we left.

So that brings me to now, just about. After arriving in Stockholm and getting to an internet cafe on the 15th, I found a last-minute couch in Brussels, but soon after realized I couldn't get myself there without paying an arm and a leg. A bit of stress and some deliberation later, I came up with a Ryanair flight for 100 USD from Stockholm to Paris on the 21st and the decision to skip my flight to Copenhagen with Cookie. I'm currently crashing with Shelley at the home of the family she babysits for (where she lives), about 30 minutes out of the city by commuter train. We're having a blast. The kids are adorable and the two of us seem to have quite a lot in common. Went to Yoga yesterday and did Bikram for the first time (hot yoga). Quite an experience, even moreso given that the class was taught in Swedish. I came away proud that the instructor rarely had to correct me in English, and I managed to keep up, despite being BY FAR the largest person in the class. Or building. Or maybe that they've ever seen? Swedes are tiny.

Anyway, off I go! Shelley and I are gonna watch Grey's Anatomy at 9.

Love you all.

<3 A

Brevity Part 2

Hi All! Just a brief check in from, of of all places, a 7-11. Safely in Helsinki! Back to Stockholm tomorrow, then to Copenhagen. Will provide a real update shortly.

<3 A

The Waiting Game

It's a good thing that a day is not the sum of its parts. Yesterday was mostly good. I think it can be summed up by a matter of equasion.

Snowboarding = Good
Snowboarding + Fresh Powder = Excellent
Snowboarding + Fresh Powder - Visibility = Less Good
Zero visibility + Flat Runs + Super deep pockets of powder = Frustration.

I spent a lot of the day swimming, and on many occasions couldn't tell if I was going downhill or not. I'm generally a pretty confident rider, but even the blues were treacherous. At one point I started off on a blue run and within seconds the hill took a steep dive where it had looked flat from the top, sending me straight into a thigh-deep mess. So I climbed back up the snow bank, and found a slightly better route down. After spending the first half of the day this way I opted for lunch and coffee. By 13h I was toast, and made my way to the bus stop to wait, knowing that the bus came at least at 17h, and probably before a few times.

I bundled.

And waited.

There is a certain fear that comes in waiting. None of the info booths in the lodge were open that day. I wasn't sure if I needed a ticket to get on the bus or if I could buy it onboard, and none of the mountain lodge employees could seem to direct me to anyone with more info. I wasn't even altogether sure that the bus back to Grenoble would come to the stop, except that I had heard another passenger ask the driver in the morning a question ending in "Ici" and the driver said "Oui." So there I waited, hoping that the bus would turn the corner at any moment, afraid to walk away in case that was when the bus came and perhaps it was the only one.

At a pretty cold 16:30, the cute french boy who was on the arrival bus came to the bus shelter and my inner dialogue finally hushed with some proof that I was in the right place, or at least with the comfort of company. Turned out he even spoke some English!

The bus did come at 17h and I boarded somehow without allerting the driver to the fact that I didn't have a ticket. It could have been Karma or luck, but behind his chair was a sign that said what seemed like the French equivalent to "Fine for not having a ticket, 45€. Fine for faking a ticket 120€....etc...." As soon as we got off for the transfer to the Grenoble bus, I ran inside and bought the ticket just in case, and to ease my worry.

Once I arrived safely back to the bus station in Grenoble the walk to Sylvain's was easy. He made pork chops and potatoes for dinner, and we watched some Southpark.


Plans

I'm packed, and just about ready to depart from Grenoble. Things are a'changin quickly. After talking with Cookie it looked like he would be in Copenhagen until the 16th, so I booked a bus ticket from Paris to Copenhagen to arrive the afternoon of the 13th. After that it was just up to me to determine what to do and where to go after the 16th. That is, until realizing this morning that I had misread the email, and Cookie was going to be gone until the afternoon of the 15th. D'oh!

A flurry of planning and logistical work ensued. Gchat with Cookie and a few phone calls later, a plan had hatched! One for which Cookie and I now have all the necessary tickets, thank heavens. The plan is like so.

• Depart Grenoble for Paris by train (in 2 hours), crash at Olin's, stash snowboard
• Board bus to Copenhagen at 7:30 tomorrow. Arrive KBH 5:20 on the 13th
• Find Cookie's.
• Cookie and I fly to Stockholm, 10:45 on the 13th.
• Board cruise. Cruise overnight from Stockholm to Helsinki
  
• Helsinki for the day
• Cruise back to Stockholm Monday, then to KBH
• Stay at Cookie's, party the 15th
• Both depart KBH on the 16th. Cookie flies home to Seattle, I go to....somewhere.
  

Le sigh. Travel is a little expensive and tiring, but I'm still very firmly in the black and haven't yet had to spend any money on lodgings. Plus THE CRUISE IS FREE. ^_^ Thanks, Cookie, for the hookup. As sick of logistics as I am now, I should probably search for a couch for the time between KBH and Paris, the 16th through the 21st, probably either in Berlin, Brussels, or Amsterdam--I'm aiming for my return flight.

I've been thinking a lot about what I want. Not just what's easy, or what's doable, but about what I really desire. And after a lot of thinking, what I actually want is to come home. Because, try as I might to be a nomad, Seattle is Home. Adventure is grand, sights are wonderful, and travel is rewarding, but without my family and friends to share it with, it's not much of a life.

I'm really glad I came. And I think it was necessary to leave under the assumption that I wouldn't be returning right away. But one of the most rewarding things about this trip has been the perspective its given me on home, and the realization that my life doesn't have to be quite so crazy to be full of valuable or exciting experiences. I've spent a lot of time with myself, and a lot of time pondering the meaning of my own contentment. And if I'm right, contentment might just be mine when I get back.

So, I think the decision is made. =) For now, Flapjack and I are going to go catch the train back to Paris.

<3 Love you all
- A

Greetings from Grenoble

I really love trains. Airplanes I enjoy, busses and cars are still pretty good, but theres a sense of purpose, freedom, and direction I experience on a train that I'm not sure I experience any other place. So the trainride from Paris to Grenoble went by in a flash, and by the time I looked up again I had the Alps to greet me.

And Sylvain, as well. In contrast from my arrival in Paris, I reached Grenoble to find my host exactly where I expected him, waiting beneath the arrivals/departures readerboard in the train station. I was greeted warmly with a peck on each cheek, and we walked about 10 minutes to get to Sylvain's apartment. His friend Gaspard joined us, and we walked to the store to pick up some things for dinner. I'll have to ask him to remind me again the name of the dish we ate for dinner. It was fantastic! A gem of the Alps, qnd a hearty winter meal. It consists of boiled potatoes which become the base of the dish, a cheese (mild, its name I also can't remember and probably couldn't spell if I tried), and an assortment of cured and thinly sliced meats. Theres an apparatus a little like a fondue pot with a heating element and 4 tiny pans on which you place a thick slice of the cheese. After the cheese gets really bubbly you take out the tiny pan and put the cheese on top of the little potatoes and meat with a little wooden spatula: Leave it to the French to create an appliance specifically for melting cheese... Sylvain said this one used to belong to his grandfather, and this was the first day of the year they had eaten this dish. Yum.

After dinner Sylvain's other friends started to show up for beers. I kept up with Sylvain and Gaspard translating for a little bit, but after a while I didn't have much of a hope for understanding, and opted instead to sleep in preparation for snowboarding the next morning. Slyvain was kind enough to offer me his bed for the night so that he could stay up a little later with his buddies.


We got up a little before 7 the next morning and got geared up for the mountain. We walked to Sylvain's car and picked up Gaspard not much later, and then were off up the hill to Les 7 Alpes, one of the ski stations near Grenoble. They call the city the Gateway to the Alps--it's actually situated just at the junction of three different mountain ranges. The drive was pleasant, and actually quite different from the long, gradiated highways of the passes at home. Here the road to the hill is steep and winding, and passes through tiny little towns and farms as it ascends to the station.

The snow was great! I'm really glad to have brought my own gear, and was very pleased to find that my new board rides like a dream. My only issue was that my binding screws kept loosening throughout the day, and I couldn't find the right size screwdriver to tighten them properly. I can't be sure if it was the loose binding or something else to which I can attribute my fall, but a bit after lunch I managed to take what I can only imagine was quite a spill doing nothing in particular on a very easy run. I say I can only guess because...well, because I can't actually remember what happened. Heh.

That hasn't happened before. All I know is that, at some point, I opened my eyes to find myself on my stomach, with my head on the uphill slope. It took me a few tries to push myself to my hands and knees, which was troublesome, and things seemed a little fuzzy. After just a second I got up and rode down to meet with Sylvain and Gaspard. On the way down I felt a strange kind of confusion, and started running through a list of questions to myself about where I was, how I got there, why I was there, and how I intended to get home. The answers came pretty quickly, but I couldn't shake a foggy sense of...not knowing something. So I got the keys from Sylvain, got my book from the car, and sat down at the cafe to read while they finished out the day. I remember opening to my bookmark and picking up where I left off, and thinking to myself "Oh good, so I still remember how to read." Yikes.

Throughout the day I started to feel more and more normal, and yesterday felt totally right in the brain, though my body definitely protested. My neck is sore, and I have a bit of a headache. I'm still can't remember how or why I fell, and it seems really really odd that I could fall in such a way as to hurt my right hip, the back/left/top part of my head, and land face down facing up the hill, parallell with the run. Anyway, today I feel much better, with just a slight headache and soreness in my neck. I'll be hitting the slopes again tomorrow (I hope not literally) via Ski Bus from Grenoble, this time with a screwdriver of my own to eliminate that variable.




Right now I'm working on travel plans.

Cookie is in Copenhagen, and if he'll still be there like the last time we checked in, I'll likely be catching a train back to Paris, maybe drop my snowboard at Olin's, and continue on to Copenhagen by bus, arriving on the 13th. There'll be a party on the 15th and Cookie leaves on the 16th. After that I'll likely bus or train it to Amsterdam, Berlin, or Brussels. Not sure yet. I'm aiming to reach Paris again on the 21st.

I've been thinking (and feeling) a lot since I got here. The time since I arrived feels like a small eternity, and I feel a fresh perpective on where I am. The sights and experiences are wonderful, and seem to include a renewed passion for what I have at home. But for now, I think, I'll go for a walk and find a café somewhere to rest with my journal and some coffee. More on the touchy feely stuff later =P

I will leave you, dear readers, with one piece of advice:
Never smoke enough to keep up with the French >.<

<3 A

Brevity

I`m afraid this entry will be a bit brief, given the difficulty of typing quickly on a French keyboard, which makes things look really weird if I`m not paying attention. (In other words:)

Iù, qfrqid this entry aill be q bit brief; given the difficulty of typing auickly on q French keyboqrd; zhich ,qkes things look reqlly zeird if Iù, not pqying qttention:

Ahem. I`ll make a real post soon, probably this evening (your afternoon), but I wanted to make sure everyone knew I`ve arrived safely in Grenoble and have stayed 2 nights with my host, Sylvain, without issue. Sylvain, his friends, and girlfriend have been great hosts, and a couple of them even speak English! I`ll be here until Saturday. Still working on what happens after that...

Details soon.
<3 A

Goodbye Seattle, Hello World

Hello all! Welcome to Le Blog. Even considering the luxury of having a computer and internet access at Olin's flat, it appears I haven't spent any good quality time with a computer since my arrival, so I figure I should start from the beginning. So Hello, and welcome to my adventure.

Day 1.
The flight was a breeze. After a quick (read: rushed) breakfast with Phil and Alaina, Galen dropped me at SeaTac where I had no trouble with security and made good time to my gate. The flight was nearly deserted, in fact, which left ample room for me to spread out over 2 seats. And what's better, no one to step on to get to the restroom!

I arrived to Paris, Charles du Gaulle on schedule and made my way to baggage claim. The terminal system there is quite strange, it consists of a series of buses that connect from the landing areas to the terminal areas and baggage claim. After listening to a group of American tourists bitching loudly about the inconvenience of the airport layout, we deboarded and I found my backpack on the carousel. With the assistance of a kind (albeit hard to understand) fellow named Sam from somewhere in West Africa, I found my way to the area where oversized luggage was deposited and grabbed my snowboard. Only one problem. Kindof a big one.

After getting to the arrivals area, I couldn't find Olin anywhere. I didn't venture far in the fear that he might be there looking for me, but I did what I could to scout the general area. Could he be somewhere else? I don't have a phone to call. Was my flight early? What do I do if he's not here? Am I late? Did he go back home? Here you follow my line of thinking...

Here is also where I realize that I made a wee oversight in say, not writing down Olin's address or phone anywhere. D'oh.


God bless the internet. I quickly found my way to the info desk where they pointed me to the ever-present internet kiosk, and I logged on to facebook to retrieve the address, also sending a quick email to Olin just in case. The only issue, of course, was that the kiosk froze as soon as it started to load the page I needed. After 3 rounds to the desk, a special code for 15 minutes free use (since the first machine ate my money) and 5 different kiosks on 2 floors and in 2 terminals, I finally got through and had recieved a kind email from Olin with his profuse apologies for not having been there, and specific directions on how to get into his building once I arrived at his address, 81 boulevard Davout.


Generally when travelling I avoid cabs and cars in favor of mass transit, but in this case having already spent 2 hours in the airport and with no command of French, no map, and no clue where I was tring to end up, I opted for a Taxi instead.

When I arrived, around noon, I was greeted by Mick and Leo, Olin's roomates. Both great guys, Mick is from Australia and Leo is from Mexico. After Olin returned from the launromat we took a walk around the neighborhood and eventually went to lunch with Mick, settling on Kebabs down the street. The rest of the day I napped, read, and generally settled and unpacked while the 4 of us hung out at home. Something about having a place to set your stuff feels great.

Day 2.
On Sunday I woke to a fine French breakfast with Mick and Olin of a baguette from the little boulangerie across the street with brie and jam. We set off for some sightseeing on our way to Salon des Vins, a convention/tasting for independent winemakers in France. On our way we passed Champ de Elysees and the Arch du Triump, and I made my first acquaintance with the wonderful Parisian Metro system. We walked down the street, and I surprised the hell out of some Japanese tourists by speaking my Japanese to them when they asked if we would take their picture. We passed the Christmas Market as well, which I made a point to stroll through again on my own.

Salon des Vines was AMAZING. Wine is unbelievably cheap here, and we paid 3 euro to enter this massive tasting with our student IDs. Unbelievable. It was the size of a convention center (it actually was a convention center, come to think....), and in 3 hours time we may have tasted 1% of the wines they had to offer. We came away with three bottles, including 1 of the best champagne I've ever had for 15 euro. Partway through we settled for a picnic on the floor with a Foie Gras sandwich, and old nostalgic French ladies told us "Bon Appetit" and shot us sideways smiles.













Day 3.
Monday. Olin left for work early (long before I woke up) to head into Versaille for his university job and it was my first day to do some solo sight-seeing. At the recommendation of the roomies, I thought I'd check out Chatalet les Halles, Notre Dame, and the Latin Quarter.

Chatalet was incredible. It's a mall right on the center of the busiest metro lines in the center of the city where people can stop on their way to almost anywhere. It has it's own Metro station, in fact, which is the easiest way to find the mostly-underground mall. It took me about 2 hours to do a walk-around and some browsing. The French mall, I must say, is far superior to its American counterpart, and it was with no small amount of willpower that I left without making any extravigant purchases.

After I found the surface I started walking in a mostlly random direction, hoping that my direction sence would kick in once I found a major avenue or the river. Thankfully my intuition was correct, and after not much time I crossed the river and found Notre Dame. From there the day continued to go smoothly, and I wandered the Latin Quarter for a bit before finding the Clucy station and heading back the flat.

Day 4.
Yesterday was another pleasant solo day. I attempted the Louvre, which was closed for some odd reason, and instead walked around the square to absorb the architecture and scenery for a while before making my way accross the river to the Musee d'Orsay. It was great, and kept me occupied for quite a while. The first exhibition I stumbled on was on Pastels, and I thought fondly of Hene at home. Their exhibits and collection were both impressive, including originals of some of the very famous pieces by Monet and Van Gogh. After the museum I took a long-ish walk back down to Chatelet Metro and spent some time with my journal at a cafe there before boarding the train home.

Olin had just beat me there, but we sat down to a home-cooked dinner and a cheap bottle of wine before deciding on a movie. Went back out into the big, cold world to see Quantum of Solace (new bond flick) in version originale. French theaters are great! The seats are like big, cushy benches and the armrests even fold up and down in between sets of two seats.

And more...
Today I think I'll try to make it to the Eiffel Tower, and maybe to meet Olin while he babysits and meet Fanny and Julien. Tomorrow is off to Sacre Couer, and Friday is up in the air. Saturday I'll likely be departing to meet Sylvain in Grenoble, I'm just waiting to hear back now.

The flat and company here in Paris are great, albeit a little bit cold not using the heater to save on electricity, and I'm looking forward to the rest of my time here. That being said, it will be great to move on, and I can't wait to see some snow.

<3 A