Berlin

I've been in Berlin for over a week and a half. I'm starting to see a definite trend in that I tend to stay in one place for long periods of time. Who wants to move around every three days? That's fine for a ten-week trip - but not a ten-month one (or however long it turns out to be). Also, Berlin makes it easy to want to stay for an extended period of time.

I'm staying in the Kreuzeberg area, in an excellent little hostel (only 12 beds) about five U-Bahn (i.e. subway) stops from central Berlin. It's cool, in a grungey-kind of way. Lots of graffitti everywhere, but without the "hood" type of feeling you'd get if you witnessed similar sorts of graffitti in North America. Kreuzeberg is in what was West Berlin, but was an area that drew a lot of  artists and counterculture types in those days - and still does somewhat today.

I went on a couple of excellent walking tours during my first week: the first was overall "main sites" tour, while the second one focused on points of interest for us World War II history nerds. I split my visit to the German History Museum into two different days: the amount of content in that thing was unreal. I also visited the DDR museum, which shows what life was like in East Berlin. Some of the clothing styles were hilarious - they were always a little behind the west, thus explaining their embracing of polyester in the early 1980s (!). As well, saw an interesting - if mentally and emotionally exhausting - exhibit on the Gestapo and SS at the Topography of Terror - the former site of both their headquarters.

I really like the people here - they are very friendly. Most speak English, and aren't hesitant to speak it. Of course, I've made it a personal policy to always start a conversation with my standard "Sprechen sie Englisch?" (Do you speak English?), and ninety percent of the time they do. The other ten percent works out as well - I muddle through, usually by pointing or with sign language. (My other go-to German phrase is "Ich spreche kein Deutsch" - I don't speak German).

The past two days were spent touring around on a bike. There are loads of bicycle rental places here, and a huge urban biking culture. My first week here was mostly rainy and cool, but the last two days were gorgeous. My bicycle rental for the two days was free, due to the fact that I was asked to appear in a video which will appear on the bicycle rental place's website some time in the future. It only took an hour on a Sunday afternoon and was fun. It was basically myself and Nina, a girl who works at the hostel, pretending to go in and rent some bikes. No speaking. I'm interested to see how it turns out - I'll post the link when it becomes available.

A Weekend in Provence

Popped down to Provence - southern France - for the weekend (a little outside Aix-en-Provence, to be more specific) with my friend Michel and his six-year old son. I know that one does not normally use the term "popping down" when describing a distance of 700-some kilometres, but when taking the TGV (high-speed train), it IS actually appropriate. We left on Friday evening, arriving in Aix at around 10pm after only a three-hour train journey.

We spent the weekend with friends of Michel's: Étienne and Stéphanie - wonderful people who were very forgiving of my struggling, though improving, french. They have two kids: a five year-old boy and a three year-old girl. We all went to the beach Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately we couldn't go into the water due to an unusually (at least, I think it's unusual) large amount of jellyfish. The kids didn't seem to mind, as the jellyfish kept them occupied - they sifted dozens of them out of the water (and then buried them in sand, of course). And I added the word for jellyfish to my French vocabulary: "les méduses". Regardless, it was great to be at the beach - it was a gorgeous day in the high-twenties/low-thirties.

Sunday, Michel, myself and the two little guys went to a different beach in the town of Cassis, a little east of Marseille. No jellyfish at that beach that day. The weather was amazing again and the water was an excellent temperature for swimming and snorkeling. We followed that up with a drive up to a cliff which overlooked the town and the beach - a vista which I have to say is the best of my trip, so far. We had lunch in the old port of the town of La Ciotat a little further down the coast. And then back to Paris in the evening. An excellent weekend, and a reminder of how much more awesome-ness there is to France than just Paris.

The beach at Cassis

Overlooking Cassis

Paris

Again, I've been deficient in the blogging department. Basically, I arrived in Paris a week and a half ago, staying with my brother-in-law's brother, Michel, just outside Paris, in the suburb of Montreuil. Unfortunately, I got sick with a pretty bad stomach ailment the day after I arrived, and was sick for the next five days. I just ended up staying in, and eating very little. I started to feel better the beginning of this week, and am finally back to eating normally again and have regained my strength.

This past Monday, I applied for my travel visa for India. I didn't apply for it while back in Canada due to the fact that, though a tourist visa has six-month duration, the clock starts to tick right on the day it is issued - so I knew I would be applying for it while overseas. To apply for it however, you have to hand in your passport - therefore making it impossible for me to leave France until I get it back. It takes 7-10 business days to process, so I should get it back middle of next week. Until then, I'm afraid I'm "stuck" in Paris. Poor me. To top it all off, I'm heading to the south of France this weekend with Michel and his six-year old son, staying with their friends.

Aside from that, I've just been spending my week walking around Paris, hanging in some cafes, browsing in bookshops - and speaking terrible french (I'm hopeful it will improve). Haven't really done much of any museum or sightseeing stuff. I've been here a few times before, and don't have a huge desire to do so. I might check out a couple of things next week. Summer holidays have just ended here, and maybe the tourist crowds will have lessened somewhat.