Normandy

The next place I visited was Normandy. Normandy is the sight of a lot of WWII history. Simply put, it is where British and American troops invaded France to get rid of the Germans. It is a collection of smaller French towns each with their own unique beauty and things to offer.

We visited four towns in Normandy- Pont Saint Michel, Caen, Hornfleur and Deauville. These were not our choices but were the places chosen by the Erasmus people who organised the trip.

Once again we found ourselves on a bus where it was party central. This time it was 7am on a Saturday and once again I found myself not wanting to par-take in the partying. However, this was not an option as everyone found it very exciting that I was from South Africa and Tafadzwa (the other UCT student) was from Zimbabwe. This involved a lot of shouting of “Waka Waka” and “Mandela”. Sooooooo Awesome!

We arrived a few hours later at Pont Saint Michel, which is a huge church/abby on top of a mountain surrounded by water. It is beautiful, but as churches go, I have seen better. It is pretty cool that it is on a mountain and is an island and like a whole little town exists in it with restaurants etc.

We then moved onto Caen which is the sight of another famous WWII battle. It has a huge wall in the middle of it which kept the bad guys out. My history of WWII is pretty lacking, as you can tell. It is a nice town, but we arrived in the evening so did not see much of it. We did see the canal it has through the middle, which is pretty cool and it has a good Quick Burger, where we got some food. And maybe one of the worst clubs I have ever been too- but this could have been because he was playing music popular in the 50s as the main attraction for the evening.

The next day we went to Hornfleur and Deauville. These are beautiful seaside towns, surrounded by the English Channel and apparently where Parisians take their summer holidays. I have never been to the Hamptons but it sounds a lot like the Hampton in France. They are small with old houses and lovely beaches. Not much to do with WWII here, but did have lots of seagulls, ducks and really good food!




Sadly we did not get to go to the D-day beaches, which is were I wanted to go. Erasmus is a bit dumb- don’t go on trips organised by them! But besides that, it was really nice to get out of Paris and see some more of France. It is very different to Paris- much more relaxed, the people don’t smoke as much, they actually eat food and are really nice to you.

I am definitely glad I went and I hope I get to see a bit more of France before I leave. There is definitely more to France than just Paris!

Munich and Oktoberfest!

The next place I visited after Barcelona was Munich for Oktoberfest for the first weekend in October.

We left Paris at 11pm on Thursday evening on a bus full of people ready to drink excessive amount of beer for three days. My plan was to not drink any beer being offered on the bus because…well…I need to sleep. However, this was not the plan of many others, and it quite literally turned into a ‘party bus’.


We arrived in Munich at 10am the next day and it was sunny and lovely and we were all exhausted, needing a shower and a nap. Of course we could not check in until 3pm so we had to postpone those needs for a couple of hours. We decided to use the time to roam around Munich and explore the city. This started with some traditional Bavarian food and drink. After the nourishment, we walked around and saw some amazing things. It is an incredibly beautiful city; one I would not hesitate to not only visit again but could easily live in. It is not too big, has an amazing transport system, is clean, organised and yet full of history. Contrary to what I had been told, the people were incredibly nice to us and very helpful.


The next day was Oktoberfest day. We arrived at 7:30am because we decided we wanted to get into the Hakker Tent, which is a very popular tent in Germany. How it works is that you do not pay anything to get in; it is totally open to the public, but you have to be seated at a table to get served a beer and you cannot easily reserve a table. Hence the getting there at 7:30am. We did get a table which was excellent and we drank a lot. Now, when someone explained Oktoberfest to me, I was like-um, you sit around and drink beer all day, well that’s lame. But no, it is so much more than that. It is 2000 people all dressed up in traditional Bavarian costumes, standing on tables and singing songs in German, drinking litres of beer and eating some of the best chicken and pretzels I have ever had! There are literally no words to describe this event and I really think that everyone should go at least once in their lives! Some make it a habit, like the man we met who was at his 22nd Oktoberfest. There are people from all over the world, but actually there are also a lot of Germans there.




Once you leave the tent, it is pretty hard to get back inside. But outside the tents there are rides and food and souvenirs etc. I guess it is like a music festival but the tents are for drinking beer and not for music.

We left around 7pm and fell into a deep beer-induced sleep! The next day, some decided to visit Oktoberfest again but we instead went to the English Garden which was amazing. A huge park in the middle of a city, with a pond and ducks et alles! It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon.



We then spent another 12 hours on the bus, which again turned into a party bus. Some people just have a lot more stamina than I do. We arrived back in Paris at 6am, and luckily for me, my Monday classes had been cancelled!

I cannot say I saw the whole of Munich but I saw enough to know that it is beautiful and an amazing city! Definitely worth a 12 hour bus ride!

Barcelona!

I have not been very good and keeping things up to date here at all, but have some time now and will blog about the past few months.

I have been in Paris for nearly 4 months and have 2 months to go. It has gone incredibly fast and has been full of fun and not so fun things.

I have been very lucky to travel so much so far. For a weekend in September I went to Barcelona. It was lovely. It is a beautiful city. One that is not full of history or lovely old building like Paris or Rome but it has an amazing beach (where the sand is imported from Morocco???) and has amazing party life. The clubs get going at 1am. If you arrive before 11pm, chances are they will not be open. They are incredibly trendy and incredibly pretentious- perhaps someone like Camps Bay places. They have half-naked women dancing on poles (and no they are not strip clubs) and are pretty cheap (or perhaps it is because everywhere seems cheap compared to Paris). We stayed in a great hostel which organised nights out and movie nights and alles- i fully recommend it for anyone going to Barcelone (http://www.santjordihostels.com/).



The reason we decided to go to Barcelone that weekend was because there was the La Merce festival going on, which included parades by very huge doll-like things fireworks, light-shows and random dancing and singing acts. There were lots of people everywhere and lots of interesting things to see.




The weather was not perfect all the time- we had a day of rain but we had two days of sunshine, where one was spent lying on the man-made beach. The sangria is amazing! Even if you do not like red wine, you will like it! The food is great. I am sure it is better if you like seafood, which i do not, so i stuck to tapas. It is cheap! Super cheap! And the shopping is amazing too. Zara is so cheap- like Mr Price there! Well maybe not that cheap but cheaper than in Paris!





It reminded me of home because it is a chilled city with a beach and people just want to relax and have a good time. It is not a huge city, which is nice- much easier to get around and see things. Although, i am definitely not claiming to have seen everything there is to see in Barcelona!



It was a nice change from the fast-pace of Paris and i would love to see the rest of Spain! I would definitely recommend Barcelona for anyone who wants to relax on a beach with men who bring you mojitos and party until dawn...literally!

a cheesy motivation!

This morning i woke up and thought "you should know what you want and what you deserve".

Now sure why but i just did and thought i would share but i cannot put it on facebook otherwise people will destroy my cheesiness! SO now I have blogged :-)

Many people settle for things and people not good enough and put up with stuff they shouldn't, and i am an excellent example of that! But you should draw the line and take a stand otherwise you will become a doormat and setting yourself up for a sub-par life.

Anyway, I must go now!
Have a good day!

p.s. Leave for SA in two months! I am too excited to come home!

Funny things about Paris

I have been meaning to write this post for about a hundred years now but just have not. And i have many many that i should write and will get to i promise. As of friday, I am work free for a bit and will try do blog posts from this term in Paris then.

But...while i procrastinate some time away from reading about sustainable development and the environment, I will write about some funny things I have noticed about Paris so far.

1) Bedrooms NEVER have a roof light. They only ever have side-lamps. Not even lights attached to the wall, but side-lamps you have to put in. It is tres bizaar. Perhaps it is to aid the ambiance for the bedroom.....

2) Bathrooms are often for men and women; it is rare to have single-sex bathrooms. Perhaps this is to promote the bedroom action....

3) Often lights in bathrooms are timed- they go on when you open the door and off after a specific time period. So if you are chilling in the loo, it will go dark after a while. This one i think is to preserve electricity, but could be for the other thing too...

4) You cannot get filter coffee in a normal size coffee cup; you can get "cafe" aka. espresso in a tiny cup, "cafe lait", cafe latter but still in a 250ml cup MAX, "cappuccino" but in a small cup and only 'weaklings' drink this after 10am! At Sciences Po, you get coffee out of a vending machine for 50c, so i usually buy about ten a day which makes up like one normal cup of coffee! It is VERY ANNOYING!

5) Homeless people always have dogs and suitcases. It is like they are just moving from spot to spot with their louise vutton rolly bag and beautifully groomed dog...

6) Everything has eggs on it! Even pizza! Not little egg bits but somma a fried egg blomp on the pizza. If you do not like eggs, like i do not, this becomes a bit of an issue!

Those are indeed the main things i can think of right now.

Besides the obvious, every one smokes, no one eats, no one exercises...it is a miracle they are alive past 30! And there are no real problems like crime. Apparently "up north" is dangerous at night but i think that means there are homeless people there and not real crime. The only real issue people have is the environment which is why there are five bins for everything everywhere and the light thing.

Life up in the first world is pretty easy as far as life goes.
Mais, c'est tres bizaar!

procrastination in paris

I will do anything to not have to do work right now. I have changed my desktop background, changed by gmail theme, changed my facebook profile picture, changed my twitter theme...and now here I am writing a blog post.

I have many things to do. I need to write a cover letter to send for job applications, I need to re-read my reading for tomorrow, i need to find the reading i need to do for tuesday, I need to finalise an essay topic for tuesday. Of course, I must also do some laundry, make a grocery list, paint my nails, stare at the roof, reflect on life, plan my weekends etc etc etc...

Such is life and such is procrastination...seems that no matter where you go in the world, when it comes to writing an essay, one will always find something better to do which of course must be done that very second...

Paris

So, i have been in Paris for about six weeks now and i thought it was time for a blog post about it all.

I have moved into a new flat which is mine until the end of the year. It is in the 14th arrondissement which is great for me. I take a ten minute walk to the metro, a ten minute metro ride and i am at my university- so very convient. There are lots of shops, movie theatre and starbucks within walking distance, and the flat is nice too. I am sharing it with a woman now, who will be leaving for London next weekend and her brother is moving in. Apparently he is quiet and keeps long hours and goes home most weekends, so I think it will work out. It is only four months so it is chilled with me!

I have started orientation at Science Po and this runs all this week and then my class start the next week. I am taking four classes and a french language class. I am taking a class on Africa, one on the MIddle East, one of Sustainable Development and one on humanitarian intervention. I am very excited for them! I hope the lecturers are amazing! The university so far looks great. It is sponsored by Apple, so everything Mac; it has giant TV screens in all the classrooms and lecture theaters so that the visually impaired, like myself, can always see. It is very french and in the heart of Paris. It is not a big campus but more a couple of buildings on a few streets and a giant library in between. I am excited to see it in full action!

The people are from all over the world. I seem to be befriending a lot of Americans and Canadians more than anyone else, but that is not to say there are not other people around here. There are people from Australia, South Africa, all over Europe, not many from Africa, but i think at least seven or something. It is really nice to meet all these people!

Otherwise, Paris is not as exotic as everyone thinks and i tend to forget it is Paris until the Eiffel Tower is right infront of me. It is beautiful with erratic weather and dirty metros and bagettes everywhere. The fashion is too much and i look like a hobo most of the time. The coffee is average, the cheese is good and the wine is cheap!

I think that is all i can think of for now about Paris; please come visit me soon all of you :-)