Thursday, June 22: Jack and I awoke early after a late night of clubbing, and with that final hangover our time in Spain would come to an end. Realizing that I was leaving the country without meeting my Spanish fluency goals, I gave the concierge a quick “Adieu” and wink as we headed to the metro.
Sadly, our visit to Paris began with some travel missteps. We had bought tickets out of the wrong airport in Barcelona, and to an airport in France quite far from central Paris – but these hiccups paled in comparison to what happened on arrival. The delicious, brown, liquidy peanut-butter from Madrid, in an attempt to sabotage my trip, had exploded in my pack. Luckily, I smelled it quickly and so refrained from spreading it further, but much damage had been done.
Just one victim of many.
After cleaning that up for eight trillion hours, I was able to explore Paris with Jack and came up with these highlights and reflections:
Paris was cool. But several factors combined to make us like the city less than the other places we stopped – so I feel I must go back. Our travel day getting there truly was hectic and tense; our Airbnb was about Jack’s body-length in its largest dimension, and hot (we overlapped with a big heat wave); and from the beginning, many people we encountered scorned our English. One women at a sandwich shop clearly understood us but kept asking questions in French, despite our obvious confusion.
A beauty.
However, we went to the Eiffel Tower every day we were there, and I never got sick of looking at it. At night it was even more beautiful, I thought. How had I never heard that it put on its own sparkling light show? It was so simple compared to something like Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia – built in two years, not two hundred – yet so grand and beautiful, and so iconic that it was almost unbelievable to see it in person. We learned it’s the most visited monument in the world – crazy, then, that the city seriously considered demolishing it (one sign said it was saved by the practicality of its radio tower functionalities).
Wha’ a view from up there.
We ate loads of quiches, and we saw endless cup-and-ball scammers, most of whom were right by the ET. The scam was very evident; each game had four or five people who would never leave and were terrible at guessing, obviously in on it. I was saddened, as I’d always thought the jig was that while they make it seem easy, it’s actually quite hard to guess right (because they’re so tricksy). But I hadn’t known that they actually just won’t let you win – if someone picked the right cup, the ball-mover would insist they put more money down (or make some other excuse) and another person would step in and make a bigger bet so the round reset.
The feet of some co-conspirators.
On the metro, Jack and I met a nice old couple who spoke English; we asked how they felt about the Eiffel Tower (as we’d been wondering the local perspective). They said French people did not like it at first – “what’s the point?” – but now it is, of course, a symbol of the city. What would Paris be without it? they asked us. Nothing, I said. Absolutely nothing.
There was a deal for a river cruise on the Seine and tickets to the Louvre, so we floated past all the beautiful, historic buildings and waited impatitently for Mona, my one true love. The river guide flexed her trilingual-ness (she did Spanish and English translations).
We also saw this cool skate park, which was not historic, I think.
We walked down the Champs-Élysées, saw some Lamborghinis, stopped at the Arc de Triomphe, and eventually made it to the Louvre. I really couldn’t enjoy the rest of the museum knowing Mona was there, so we meandered only a bit before heading to The Room. She sits near the middle, on her own island-wall, while some other dozen or so poor measely paintings line the outer walls.
I tried not to expect too much, but, truly, the Mona Lisa captivated me. It was even stronger than the feeling at the Eiffel tower…awe, or something. When Jack and I got to the front of the line, I looked in her eyes for as long as I felt was socially acceptable, and it really seemed that she was toying with me, was switching her expression from poised to bemused, and I couldn’t hold one or the other for too long. Maybe it was in my head, as I’d heard that was what happened…but still, it happened. It was cool.
It’s like she’s winking with both eyes open (is that what people say, or did I just make that up? I think people say that).
We went shopping to save some money, and Jack cheffed up a mean dinner. We really didn’t eat out too much (besides the quiches), but when we did it wasn’t even French, for some reason – we had pizzas, and then empanadas. On the metro we narrowly decided against buying the child passes, which were cheaper – and thank goodness, as we got stopped at multiple exits for a ticket-check. My favorite moment was a man saying, “Excuzz em moi,” to me, which for some reason I didn’t think anyone actually said or used in any practical, real way…but now I know they do (I’m not sure what he wanted, as he didn’t speak English).
Chef Jack – low key, he was wearing a big hat when he made this…
Paris was a wonderful city in many ways: beautiful, clean, sunny, endless cafes, great public transport, museums, cathedrals, and cool buildings to see…but I think I was a little too worn-down to probably enjoy it. I had a moment in our small Airbnb (cleaning up the peanut butter) of longing for home and the States, but then I thought of Bilbo, and how he’s always missing the Shire, but in the end goes home only to long for more adventure.
London
London was at the end of my Europe travels, after a wonderful recharge in Germany (to be posted). There were many highlights:
I got to see a ton of college friends, and one day we simply killed sitting in a nice square drinking tea, going to the British History museum, and eating in Chinatown. The city was lovely in the summer.
I don’t know if this is the main skyline (alright I looked it up, I think it is)… but I liked it.
We went to the British Museum, which was cool – essentially the British empire in museum form. I saw the Rosetta Stone (among other exciting things) which was fascinating to read about. Unfortunately I couldn’t read the actual stone – not how it works, apparently. Ultimately we didn’t spend too much time there, as a general weariness of walking and museums had set on to us by day 30(ish!) of our travels.
Writing is pretty OP.
We agreed there was a sense that each city presented us with a checklist of items we felt obligated to do. This was a reasonable phenomenon – how could one go to Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower? But all these museums and looking at historical sites certainly took a toll. In London I think we simply stopped caring as much, and we ended up foregoing many of the iconic places: Big Ben, the London Eye, etc. (but still saw plenty). Being out was still better than staying in our hostel, which was a nightmare – one shower drain so clogged with hair that it became a bath, and one with a crusty yellow floor.
In London our time was thus spent more “hanging out” – drinking at pubs, watching the US U24 national ultimate frisbee team (go Franky), and gambling (sometimes). Eventually we moved to an Airbnb with some other friends, and I said goodbye to Jack, my long-time travel buddy. He had a safe return flight home to Austin, and made it with all his stuff…except for his wallet, which was stolen on the tube to the airport. RIP Jack’s wallet. Luckily he had his passport and Apple cash.
Example “hanging out” in this square. Some really cool street performances.
Before it all ended, though, I got one last major highlight of the whole Europe trip: Wimbledon. It was, simply put, really-really cool. And cheap! The grounds pass gives you access to all but the three major courts, which means you can still see great players in the initial rounds. My favorites were Lorenzo Musetti and Leylah Fernandez; Leylah especially had a great match against Caroline Garcia; she almost pulled off a major upset.
Crazy how close we got…essentially courtside (for ~$40 bucks) to see the 15th best player in the world, Musetti (at some point, I know). Not a legend, but good player; maybe like a Kawhi Leonard. Pretty cool.
I wasn’t too impressed with the strawberries and cream, but it was hard to compete with the tennis. Those balls were flyin fast. It was really incredible – I remember thinking after, ‘that might’ve been the most fun live sporting event I’ve ever seen.’ We waited in line for about 2-3 hours in the morning, but it was totally worth it.
All of a sudden it was time to go home. I was mostly excited, to be honest. It was certainly sad, but mostly because all these friends I had gotten to travel with had just graduated and were moving to new places where I wouldn’t see them in the Fall (I was the odd one out, not having graduated but traveling Europe anyway). But I had realized a lot of things on the trip. I love traveling, but – as hinted at – I didn’t like the mass-travel, sightseeing, museum-walking back-to-back trips. Some combination of that and the fact that every few days was a long travel day (and new place to sleep) took a toll on the excitement of Europe. Going somewhere new is great – a privileged experience, and one that has led to many of my favorite life memories…but something about doing it over and over got old (and I was only gone six weeks or so). Sort of like watching the pilot to a different TV show every night – sometimes you want to just keep watching the same one.
It’s almost like if each leg of the trip had been a few months instead of a few days, it would have been more enjoyable. I missed having a routine, a sense of progress. And I definitely missed some things about the states: easy access to drinking water, for example. However, these were all great revelations that I perhaps needed this trip to elucidate for me. I learned a lot about what I want to get our of traveling. All in all, it was really special – I saw many amazing things, most of which I’m sure I’ll remember for the rest of my life. It really motivated me to learn a second language (to a proficient degree); I met so many people, and most spoke English as an additional language – they weren’t special in that; I just felt behind in my monolingual-ness.
I reflected again that my favorite parts of the trip had been meeting new people, which the hostels had helped with. The world is so big, too, I realized (a cliché, but made more real to me). Yet people seemed mostly the same everywhere I went (also a cliché, but really). Most people were good and nice and want similar things, and seemed to be dealing with similar stuff. So it was a hopeful trip, in many ways, like for my worldview. Anyway – stay tuned for my highlights in Germany, where I met my blonde cousins.