Christmas vacation summary

First stop: Paris

My Christmas vacation began at 4:15 am on the 19th as I woke up to do some last-minute packing and cleaning before rushing off on a train to meet Mark in Paris. I had to change trains in Bourges and I was worried that one or both of my trains might be late but fortunately I arrived on time and found my way from the Gare d'Austerlitz to our arranged meeting point at the Gare de Lyon quite easily.

Unfortunately, Mark's flight was delayed and the Air France bus to the Gare was slower than anticipated, so I wound up waiting in the cold train station for several hours. I did, however, get to witness the emergency precautions taken at the discovery of an unattended piece of luggage: All of a sudden there were more gendarmes with guns than usual milling around and before I knew it, they had blocked off a significant portion of the train station, forcing people to figure out alternate routes to the platforms and of course, to stop and gawk. At one point, several people, apparently oblivious to the crowd, the barriers, and the guns decided to walk through the forbidden area. This was the best part of the morning: The gendarmes blew their whistles and yelled at them to get out. Obviously, this story ends inconsequentially, except for the destruction of the suspicious package, but nevertheless it kept me entertained for a good hour or so.

Once Mark arrived, we hopped on the metro to our hostel, which turned out to be the the same one where I stayed two years ago. After settling in, we started our day at the Notre Dame, just a few minutes away. This was Mark's first cathedral visit, and a very impressive one to begin with. Although I had previously visited the Notre Dame de Paris as well as innumerable European cathedrals, I definitely appreciated it a lot more this time around knowing more about French cathedrals in general and this one in particular.

Obviously a main signt-seeing goal of ours in Paris was the Eiffel Tower. Although the metro is a really convenient mode of transportation, sometimes it takes the fun out of really seeing a city, so we walked, passing by the Louvre on the way. When we got to the Tower, the lines to ascend weren't too long, but the day was foggy so we decided just to take the stairs to the first level, which still offers a great view. Before I had ever seen the Eiffel Tower, I had thought that photos of it were sort of clichéed; however, after visiting and attempting my own photos, I realize that it can be very difficult to get a shot with good perspective and I appreciate the ones I do see, which are obviously not my own.

We wandered some more through the city and the streets of the Latin Quarter before setting on a cheap Greek restaurant for dinner and then, since we were both lacking in sleep, an early bedtime.

The next day, following the free hostel breakfast, we wandered some more around the Latin Quarter, stumbling on an SNCF (the national railway company) office. Originally, I'd planned on metro-ing over to a train station to buy our tickets to Amsterdam, but this was obviously more convenient. The tickets, however, were shockingly expensive: 94 euros each for second class! I have a suspicion that I could have found airline tickets for a better price, with less travel time.

After the massacre of our wallets, we took the metro up to the Abbesses station in Montmarte. We took a roundabout way to the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur where we alternately admired the church and the view of Paris from the church. I insisted on finding the Moulin Rouge, and though neither of us knew the way nor that it was that far from the Sacre Coeur, we managed to find it, along with the Pigalle district. Unfortunately, one can only admire the Moulin Rouge from the outside without paying about 100 euros for a show, and there was a semi truck parked outside, so there are no photos.

We took the metro back to centre-ville to pop up conveniently in front of the Arc de Triomphe for a walk down the Champs-Elysées back toward our hotel. I had read that the Louvre offered discount admission after 3 pm, so we went Greek again (but a different restaurant) for a leisurely lunch before discovering that the Louvre closes on Tuesdays - oops. The Musée d'Orsay served as a decent replacement, and although I don't really appreciate any art but the really modern stuff, I was interested enough.

Amsterdam

Our train left Paris at the obscenely early hour (which seems to be a theme in my travels...)of 7 am arriving in Amsterdam just over four hours later. The train was comfortable enough, but I was surprised by how many people answered cell phone calls during the trip. Sometimes people were polite enough not to answer, but instead of silencing the ring, they allowed it to continue beeping until voicemail picked up.

Regardless, we arrived in Amsterdam without incident and found a cheap hostel just outside the infamous Red Light District. Mark took a short nap while I took a walk to get my bearings. I easily found several canals (not a difficult task), the flower market, and some excellent falafel. After Mark woke up, we walked some more around the canal district before going to the Heineken Experience, the Amsterdam attraction rated the most highly by my friends who have been to the city. Unfortunately, it was 5:03 and the last admission was at 5:00 so we were turned away. By this time it was dark already (in retrospect, it was the winter solstice, my least favorite day of the year) so after a short walk through the Red Light District we went back to the hostel for hot chocolate and a snack.

The next day we went into ambitious tourist mode, hitting the Old Church, the Waag, and some other church before finally finding the Anne Frank House, which I highly recommend.

I had enjoyed the Wednesday's falafel so much that I insisted on eating it again on Thursday, but after that we were off to the Heineken Experience, which lived up to its reviews. I found it really humorous at times because the displays seemed overly serious: A photo of the founder's mother, the actual booth from the World's Fair in Paris where Heineken won the gold medal, and a staircase made out of green bottle glass. There were also some interesting uses of technology, including a room where you can run a music/lights show and the opportunity to send a photo or video email from the museum. The best part was a virtual roller coaster type ride from the perspective of being bottled. Of course, there was free beer, but I really dislike Heineken so I enjoyed the orange soda. I know it sounds really frivolous and silly, but if you go to Amsterdam, you shouldn't miss the Heineken experience.

Christmas in Belfast

We flew to Belfast on Friday to stay with the talented, beautiful, and always fun (not to mention vegetarian)Sandra and her wonderful housemates. I think that this part of the vacation can be told using only photos, and not just for the reason than I am getting tired of writing:



Last stop: Budapest
I flew to Budapest Monday after getting only two hours of sleep the night before. I have to confess that is entirely my own fault: Had I realized my cell phone was still on continental time and set the alarm properly, I could have gotten a full three hours of sleep. Two flights with a long layover in London and a late arrival in Budapest made Monday an entirely forgettable day.

On my first real day in Budapest I walked straight to Old Buda and the Castle Hill District, with a pause at the Chain Bridge. If I hadn't already overloaded my readers with photos from Belfast, I would narrate this part purely visually as well, but this time around I'll try to use words. My first destination in Old Buda was Fisherman's Bastion, with great views of the city and the river, not to mention the exotic-looking (to someone used to Western European architecture) St. Matthias Church. St. Matthias only gets better upon entering, and it was every bit as striking as I remembered it from two years ago.

When I came out of the church it was started snowing. I made my way over to the castle, now used to house several museums. I chose the Hungarian National Gallery, the free one. I skipped past all the exhibitions of art prior to 1945 and found that the museum had a decent collection of modern art by Hungarian artists I never knew existed.

I spent some more time wandering around the Castle Hill area in the snow before walking back toward my hostel by way of the Christmas market and Vaci utca, a street known for its shopping.

My second day in Budapest began with a visit to the Grand Market Hall, where I found whole dead pigs slit from neck to tail, absinthe, and Christmas presents for my family, which will remain a secret until they safely arrive in the USA.

After dropping off my packages at my hostel (where they kindly let me stow my baggage even though I wasn't staying there that night) I visited St. Stephen's Basilica -- where I saw the real mummified right hand of St. Stephen himself --and took a long walk out to Heroes' Square. I had planned to also visit either the Parliament,the synagogue or the Mueseum of Applied Arts, but both closed early, so I settled for seeing the outside of the synagogue.

My flight from Budapest to Paris left early the next morning and I decided that it wasn't worth spending money to stay at the hostel that evening only to sleep for a few hours and stress about getting a taxi at 4 am, so I made the decision to spend the night at the airport, which wasn't as bad as it sounds. I had also decided to take public transportation (the metro and then a bus) to the airport, and I felt really proud of myself for succeeding. Some passengers had been kind enough to leave their magazines behind instead of throwing them away and I discovered that my iPod has solitaire on it, plus I had packed plenty of snacks to keep me occupied. I was a little concerned because their was a family of six who were also spending the night at the airport -- with two kids under ten years old. If they can afford plane tickets, they could clearly afford a taxi in the morning, and, although I was the only one to suffer from my decision to "sleep" there, it seemed a little irresponsible to make the kids stay there overnight.

Anyway, I slept for most of the flight and caught the RER (commuter train) into Paris and the metro to the Gare d'Austerlitz. From there I hopped on a train back to Montlucon where I was surprised by a layer of snow over the city.