This week I'll go in chronological order again. The weekend before last I took my first practice GRE test. I think I did all right for going in blind, and I need to try to take another one sometime this week. To celebrate its completion, I went into Paris and had another meal at Breakfast in America with a few friends. We then contemplated what to do, and finally decided to start heading to Montparnasse to see about watching a film. On the way there we stopped off at Place de la Concorde to see the Christmas lights on the Champs Elysées. I had totally forgotten that someone told me that there was a Ferris Wheel set up there for Christmas, and we decided to ride on it. There was a beautiful view down the Champs Elysées, of the Eiffel Tower, of Notre Dame, and Sacré Coeur. It was also a very smooth ride - I couldn't even tell half of the time while it was moving.
Last Thursday nearly all of the stagiaires on our floor went to Strasbourg. We had a few casualties along the way - one girl made the mature decision to stay behind since she would not have enough money for anything else if she went, and two other decided to leave early. One of the people who left earlier decided to change his ticket since he had made plans for Saturday night, and the other girl, Mandira, decided to leave early for completely different reasons. I actually rode on the train with Mandira and Anna on the way to Strasbourg. When the man who checks the tickets got on the train, I noticed him and pointed out how he was the idyllic version of a train conductor - an older gentleman with round glasses, the 'train conductor' hat, white hair, and a mustache. When he got to where we were sitting, he took all of our tickets. He barely glanced at Anna's ticket or mine, but with Mandira he really looked at it. We were all traveling on a 'young traveler's discount card (carte 12-25),' and Mandira just turned 26. Her card was valid until March, but it is only supposed to be for travelers under 25 years of age. He was asking her for proof of identity, but all she had were her ID cards from schools. He eventually took her to a more private area where he threatened to make her pay 150€ or he would handcuff her and take her to jail as soon as the train stopped. She paid the money, and he took her travel discount card. That just goes to show you that you can never judge a book by its cover. Once we arrived in Strasbourg, Mandira had to change her ticket to a regular fare, and the cheapest way to do that would be to leave earlier on Saturday. Luckily, the man helping her at the train station was very nice and actually gave her recommendations of things to do while in Strasbourg.
We went to Strasbourg for the Christmas market, which takes place the entire month of December. Leaving the train station offered us the first glances of what was to come - booths set up like mini-houses with everything from food to presents for sale. We wandered around there for a few minutes, and then headed off for our hotel. It took about 20 minutes to walk there, and it was pretty evident that we were in for a cold trip. I'd say it hovered around freezing the entire time we were there, and at night probably got down into the 20s or teens. We thawed out once we arrived at the hotel, and then we set off to find the first market.
The largest market was a 10-minute walk from the hotel and we went straight for the mulled wine. I tried the white wine first, but it just wasn't very satisfying. The taste was too strong, and I couldn't really make out what it was. While walking around I found a few things I wanted to go back and buy later, and a few food items to try later. Then, the rest of our little group showed up, so we headed back to the hotel to meet them and get everyone settled. We then headed back out for more fun, including finding somewhere to eat dinner. We wandered around a bit, and then decided to try to find the big cathedral (all of the restaurants that were recommended to Mandira were around there). We thought we had found it, but then we saw an even larger cathedral and realized we had been mistaken. There was another market set up around the cathedral, and all of the restaurants in the immediate vicinity were rather pricey. After a bit of searching we settled on a decent seafood restaurant. And I had spatzle! Yum...
After the restaurant, we started walking back in the general direction of the hotel. While walking, some random guy on the street asked us, "Where are you from?" We all eyed eachother, avoided him, and kept walking. He said, "O-kay..." and then some of our crew re-thought their decision to ignore him. Our group went back, introduced ourselves, then moved on. Then, two of us decided to invite him along, and we went to 'Jimmy's Pub.' If you know me, this was the moment of the trip when I was most uncomfortable. But I did play a round of darts, and I think I played it decently. I definitely don't know how to aim well, but I'm good at getting the darts on the board.
The next morning we got up bright and early and just searched around some more of the markets. We also went into the large cathedral. There was talk of going up one of the spires, but when we initially went it was closed for 15 minutes, and when we went on Saturday the lines were super long. After the cathedral, we walked over to a patisserie chain, Brioche Durée, and then walked into another market by the huge Christmas tree, le Grand Sâpin. Once there, I realized I had forgotten my umbrella at the patisserie. When I returned, the people at the table obviously didn't speak French. I should have switched over to English at least, but I think they were German. Luckily the people at the table behind them had already snagged my umbrella, and they were nice enough to return it. I honestly wouldn't have thought to ask them, and I was very grateful. We then walked over to the main market where I bought some gingerbread cookies with icing on them. Definitely not bad! We then just did some more market shopping. Luckily I decided to purchase the bulk of my items on Friday since Saturday was absolute madness. We also stopped at a little patisserie for some coffee, and while there I saw one of the liveliest sellers of le vin chaud there. He had a long beard and actually looked like Santa Claus.
While walking around, Sarah, Anna, and I saw a large horse-drawn buggy with Santa in it. He got out and starting telling us all how we had to take a ride with him, and we just said no. He insisted, and then we asked if it was free, then he let us move on.After returning to the hotel to drop off purchases and thaw out, we headed off to La Petite France, a section of Strasbourg. It is full of colorful buildings, and I was a bit confused on why it was called 'little France' since it was definitely more of a 'little Germany' architecture-wise. But it was beautiful, and after walking around for quite a while we settled on a restaurant called 'Le Thomasien.' I had one of the regional dishes called 'tarte flambée' for dinner with onion soup. The tarte is very similar to a thin crust pizza with ham, cream, onions, and cheese. Delicious.
After the restaurant, we decided to try out one of the historical sites in Strasbourg - the covered bridge, Barrage Vauban. During the day it is a tourist destination with a terrace on the roof to see a beautiful view of the city, and old sculptures stored on the first level. Walking towards it, there were lights on inside, and once we got there, the door was open. However, there were no lights on immediately within the doorway. For some reason we still decided to go in, which is possibly the worst decision I think I have ever made. Walking arm and arm, someone decided to start running and screaming as soon as we got in. My purse got stuck on the door handle, and the force broke the strap, causing my purse to fall to the ground. I got out of the arm lock and went back for my purse. As I was inspecting the damage, Becca stayed about 10 feet in front of me, and everyone else continued running down the corridor for the fun of it. Becca was telling me to come on, and then her voice got panicked and she shouted "Whitney, run!" Right after she said that, I heard a male voice that from what I remember yelled a menacing "Hey!" and then I definitely grabbed my bag and ran as well. Now, I'm thinking, according to Horror Movies 101, you should never run into a confined space when you are scared, you should always go back out into the open (but if I had done that I would have been alone). Becca saw the man coming down the stairs I ran with the others to the other end of the bridge, and upon arriving there we found that the other door was locked. So, the first door should NOT have been open in the first place. After Becca and I explained what happened at the other end of the bridge, we all went back to the door together. It was rather creepy since there are statues all along the sides inside of the bridge. Ben actually jumped due to a pigeon :-). When we returned to the first door, we found that it was closed. When I was messing with my purse, the door was definitely open and not even hovering to close. The only solution is that the man closed the door, whether to freak us out or he was running away from us I do not know. We all had our mini-flashlights out, walking through in a huddle reminiscent of Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion visiting the Wizard of Oz. No one was coming down the stairs, and as soon as we got out we walked as quickly as possible. While walking away, we were a little paranoid about whether the guy would be following us, and went back to a populated area. Mandira says that she thinks she saw a mattress propped up against a wall, so my theory is that the guys was homeless or doing drugs... Once safe, insanity ensued, and we all went into shock, giggling to death. But I have definitely learned my lesson. After the bridge incident, I did not have a purse that could easily be carried around anymore. So, Becca gave me my 'Secret Santa' gift that we were supposed to exchange today, Monday, and it turned out to be a purse! It was a real life saver. Anna had a small bag I could have borrowed as well, but it was nice to use something that was mine. Following the gift we all went back to Sarah and Mandira's hotel and had a cup of tea to calm down.
Saturday. We started out in the morning by going by the European Parliament. All of the buildings are very modern. We also stopped at a little café there, again to warm up.
We then headed back to the cathedral to try to go up, but this time there was a huge line. Plus, the markets were so busy! There was hardly room to stand, let alone walk. I didn't see anything happen, but there were emergency workers wandering the market the entire time, which I thought was a wonderful security precaution.
Since we decided against the cathedral, our little group split up for a while. Anna, Becca, and I went on a boat tour around Strasbourg. It was a beautiful trip and very informational. It is amazing just how much the city has changed in the last 100 years. For example, there was a very industrialized area with a shopping mall and everything that used to be the sight of a huge synagogue in Strasbourg. It was destroyed during World War II. That is just one of many examples of how things have changed the city, and most of it was during WWII. After the boat trip, Mandira and Ben headed back to Paris and the rest of us grabbed lunch. We then walked back down around La Petite France to see it in the daylight (the sun was actually out!), and it was quite a sight. We just wandered around and walked through a few other markets and into random stores. We then headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and head off for the train station. Luckily there were no problems on the way back, other than the cab driver had no clue where he was going and didn't want to own up to it.
Sunday I relaxed a bit. This morning Anna and I went to the Préfecture to further the process of obtaining the carte de séjour. It's so long and tedious... but that's a discussion for another day.
This evening we did our Secret Santa exchange with Anna's tree Ferdinand IV.
That's my up-to-date update!
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