Europe 2002

I went to Europe in 2002, from the 13th to the 27th of July. Here's what I wrote about it as a summary.

The trip started off with a strange thing: a plane trip where I was able to sleep. We left at 10pm, so it worked out well... so the jet lag going that way was minimal. Very strange. American's food was awful, and their seats were large.

The main thing I remember about the trip is that I went with too many old people, and specifically old women. I have nothing against them in principle, mind you; but there's only so much cackling and worrying about small ceramic figurines one can take. Some of the people were okay, some were not. That I was stuck on a bus with them for two weeks was not great. But wandering was okay...

The highlights of the trip:

Throughout the trip, what I remember are the random meals with my family and a few people that they were okay with on the trip. These were generally excruciating, but better than arguing with Dad about wandering large cities alone. Mom was indecisive, everyone was horribly concerned about eating outside and proper atmosphere, and everything was horribly expensive. Dad and Jane worried about the wine a lot, too. *sigh* I skipped a few meals rather than deal with it; it took a lot of will to not complain. Admittedly, the food was generally tasty...

First stop: Amsterdam. Well, Haarlem, anyway. We didn't do anything of real importance the first day, as I recall; all that happened was dinner at the hotel. I met everyone then, and decided that they were all old - not evil, but old. I showed off anyway, and that wasn't that bad; they didn't know how to deal with me.

The second day we wandered Amsterdam; I went with Dad, mostly to keep him out of trouble. I was supposed to go with Mom and Jane (an old friend of Mom's, and my friend Emily's mother) too, but that fell apart when they very rapidly grew indecisive and I didn't want to deal with it. So we wandered, and I found many music shops and cats and stuff like that. We eventually found the Red Light District, too, which was interesting in concept if not execution.

Day 4: we left Amsterdam, and went to Arnhem. On the way, we stopped by a museum whose name I forget (dammit!) where I saw the previously mentioned sign and flirted with the security guard. This was one of the major highlights of the trip.

Day 5: we get to Klon. I wander around with Dad again, and we discover that there are no independent music stores in Germany anymore (I had this confirmed today by one of my grad students). It's a neat city, though.

Day 8: we arrive in Zurich. Zurich is neat, but horribly, horribly expensive. I wander around, and find a good used music store once. Amusingly, they don't take credit cards, but did take *all* of Euros, Dollars, and Swiss Francs. All of Switzerland turned out to be like this. The one other thing I really noted about Zurich over the next couple of days is that it's horribly expensive. Most meals were ~$20 for the trip; in Zurich it was $35. For adequate food.

Day 11: we take the bullet train from Zurich to Paris. Dad almost strangled everyone in our train car along the way, because they started drinking wine to get drunk, being rowdy, and generally being stupid Americans as they spilled all over the bus. Once there, we had a tour of the city in which I was the only one still awake, and discovered that Notre Dame has been recently cleaned (it's a different color now!). That night we had dinner at a sidewalk place and one of our party accidently ordered veal kidney. It wasn't edible, IMO, but I guess it was cooked as well as could be expected.

Day 12: we go to Versailles. I like Versailles.

Day 13: I wander Paris. I went to the Louvre, then walk for ~12 miles. This was supremely satisfying, though I forgot to eat lunch. Note that this time I did *not* have to wander with Dad, which was part of what made it so satisfying; it's good to wander on your own (and Dad couldn't have made it as far). That evening, we go to see Lido, a topless cabaret on Avenue des Champs-Elysees (the road that the Arc du Triumph is on; I spelled that wrong). The show was excruciatingly bad, which was not made up for by the presence of breasts. They sang in English, the set pieces were about topics such as Las Vegas and Broadway, and the only good parts were the D6 monster, some birds, and some gold strong-men.

Day 14: before we get back on the plane to go home, we stopped by the Paris Flea Market. I decided quickly that it was worse than Vegas, and tried to flee, but Dad needed me to stay with him. He enjoyed it, kinda. I later tried to explain how I hate any place with people actually playing 3-card monte, and he kinda got it... The flight back was horribly long, but the food was edible. I didn't sleep. I'm still jet-lagged as a result.

Total review: I finished 12 books, including the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, I walked a whole lot, and I only checked mail once. It was very relaxing, really. But I'm going on the student tour next time, because that will let me actually see young people. I need that.