EuroTrip '09
I’ll preface this by saying that this is pretty much just a smattering of thoughts and recollections and will probably be poorly worded and disjointed. Nevertheless, here’s a recap of our trip. James will have a much more detailed account of what we did, since he kept a running journal, but this will have to suffice for me. Please note the pictures of (almost) everything will be forthcoming....
Edit: okay this was a lot longer than I thought it would be. The short: the trip was awesome. The long: read on....
The trip really snuck up on me. My buddy from elementary and high school, Zohair, was set to be married in London on July 12th. I wasn’t originally planning on going, having just been on a couple of trips at the end of last year (Jamaica and HK) and knew that travelling to just about anywhere in the summer would mean the peak of the tourism season. But about a month prior, our mutual friend, James, loosely priced out the trip, spanning London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. Looking at the flight, hostel prices, food costs, etc., it actually turned out to be fairly reasonable. There’d been a bit of a lull at work, I was getting restless, and some other crap happened, so I basically said screw it, let’s go.
There were basically two parts of the trip; the wedding and everything else. First, the wedding.
It was the first Muslim wedding I’d ever attended. And actually in hindsight, it’s the first non-protestant wedding I’d ever attended period. I really didn’t know what to expect and was honestly a little apprehensive about it all. After all, James and I were basically the only non-brown guys that would be there. But hey, I’ve known this guy for 16 years now (!) and I even share a birthday with him, so seeing him get hitched within his set of beliefs and customs was the least I could do.
The ceremony was, in a word, different. I’d been to a mosque once or twice before, so it was somewhat familiar. I had forgotten, though, that it was customary (and required) for the men and women to be in different rooms for the duration. Entering the main room, James and I decided it’d probably be best to stay outta the way for the most part and observe, so we stuck to the back part of the room and sat down. Zohair’s brother-in-law-to-be emceed the ceremony, introducing various speakers who either read or recited what I took to be scripture, or sang songs in what I presumed to be Arabic. The main speaker or ‘lecturer’ delivered the equivalent of the exhortation. Then… things got a bit more interesting. Like I said, the men and women were separated, including the bride and groom. Instead, they each had a priest speak on their behalves. We learned that the exchange of vows, or the equivalent of that, had to be spoken in Arabic and very accurately so, so it’s usually the case that priests speak on behalf of each party. Any mistakes in the punctuation would void the legitimacy of the union. Anyway, it all sorta happened quickly, and before we knew it, they were married… except they hadn’t even seen each other yet. Huh. They proceeded with a receiving line where the groom and his family greeted all of the guests, followed by lunch. Sometime after all this, when many of the guests had already left, Zohair finally got to see his bride and wife. A reception followed at a local chalet where they cut the cake and had a few speeches, including one from both me and James. Like I said, it was all very different, but I’m glad I went and got to see and be a part of an old friend’s special day.
Now... everything else.
The other places I’ve been to have all had their charms – something about them that made them unique. NYC, the manic energy and electricity of the people and city itself. Jamaica, the laid back, “ya mon chill out”, feel. The cities in Europe, at least for me, was all about the rich and deep history of it all. Everywhere we went, I couldn’t help but feel the almost overwhelming sense of what had gone on there. There were far too many occasions where I stopped and thought to myself, “holy crap this thing is x hundred years old”, or, “where would we be now if this place had fallen?”, or, “my God, right here, this is where ___ was”. Nowhere else in the world is like it.
London – 5 days, July 10-15
Our stay here was basically split into two parts – the first being in Whyteleaf while staying with Zohair’s family for the wedding, and the second at a hostel in central London. We arrived around midday on the 10th and checked in. We were waiting for a few things to go down for the wedding, so we took some time to do some quick exploring around the small town before heading into central London to make the most of the rest of the day. We hit up Trafalgar, the National Gallery, basically spent time walking around doing some exploring before settling down for our first meal – for me, bangers & mash and of course, a pint of Guinness. It’s true. It’s soooo much better over there. Smoother, creamier, colder, better. Just better.
Over the next couple of days it was basically more of the same. Lots of walking around and site-seeing. Briefly: Piccadilly Circus, parliament & Big Ben, the Royal Horse Palace, a glimpse of 10 Downing Street, Westminster Abbey, the Central Library (had the oldest complete NT and the Magna Karta), the British Museum (Rosetta Stone, various pieces of the Parthenon), St. Paul’s Cathedral, Churchill’s Cabinet War Room, the London Eye, the only Tim Horton’s in London (close to the Canadian Embassy... haha), the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Globe Theater (reproduction, obviously), Tate Modern, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and a few others.
Two highlights. First, Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms where some people lived for 5 years (!!) during the war and where many/most of the military decisions were made for the British Army during WWII. Such a small and confined space and was probably constantly filled with tobacco smoke. Stunning and in many ways kinda eerie. Second, St. Paul’s Cathedral. Hoooollllly crap this thing is MASSIVE. 4th largest church in the world and man, I don’t see how things can get much bigger (although, hopefully I’ll get to go to the Vatican soon enough...). The most opulent building I’ve ever seen. It left my absolutely awe-struck at both the engineering (yeah, I’m a geek like that) and the decoration of it all.
That’s pretty much it. One sidebar story I have to tell though. While we were in Whyteleaf, a couple of Zohair’s cousins from London, James and I went to a very local pub. Now picture this: 3 brown guys, a Macedonian and a Chinese guy walk into a small-town British tavern on a Saturday night filled with locals. As one of Zohair’s cousin’s said (he’ll go unnamed), “we look like a [flipping] Benetton ad!”. We got LOTS of stares and a few whistles. Nothing really happened, but in hindsight, it probably wasn’t the brightest thing we did this trip.
Paris – 3 days, July 15-18
We took the Eurostar train over to Paris in the afternoon of the 15th, but it got delayed due to some track-side fires or something (hey at least it wasn’t ‘signal problems’ like the ttc). We had planned to go up to the Eiffel Tower that night, but when we got there it was pretty late and the third level was closed off. Grabbed a few shots, but we called it a somewhat early night.
The next day was kind of a nightmare. For whatever reason, we decided to do almost everything on that day... the same day it was ~35 degrees with the humidity. Anyway, highlights, “briefly”: Notre Dame, the nearby WWII memorial, various old churches (have pics, but the names elude me), the Latin quarter, the church that apparently has the crown of thorns (also has the entire bible depicted in stained glass – VERY COOL), the Louvre, various galleries, arches, spires, etc. (I’m terrible with names, okay?), the Grand Palais, Champs d’Elysees, l’Arc de Triomphe, duck confit (omgg), Napoleon’s tomb, Versailles, the National Assembly and others.
Two highlights. First, the palace and gardens in Versailles. Holy. Crap. The palace itself was frigging crazy. Totally blinged and pimped out every which way. Gold, marble, paintings, you name it. But that’s not even what was truly amazing about the place. The gardens surrounding the palace… my goodness. Acres upon acres upon acres of manicured lawns, flowerbeds, bushes, trees, statues, etc. Louis XIV had Roman ruins made for the place. Crazy. Seriously. Second, the Eiffel Tower. When we got there, we were dead tired after the heat and walking of the day. We had to wait a long, long time to get tickets and then another wait to get to the top level. While on the second level, we could see two storm systems on the horizon headed our way. It was all open so we were hoping to get up to the top, or at least under some shelter before they hit. And boy did they ever. We managed to get to the enclosed third floor right at the top as the storms hit and things got a bit wild. The tower swayed a lot, and the rain was coming in in sheets. Some people were screaming, kids were crying, but it was definitely the best time on the trip.
Brussels – 1 day, July 18-19
Hopped on a train to Brussels about midday on the 18th and got there reasonably quickly. I was a bit surprised when I got there. The air was noticeably fresher than both London and Paris and the city had a really cool modern-yet-classic kind of feel to it. It was definitely still small in terms of size and scale and had lots of classic architecture, but still had some very open streets with the most modern public transit services (same trams as we’re gonna get). Unique little shops here and there, including “La Boutique TinTin”, a town square that was buzzing with people and other cool little niches.
Highlights: Cool little farmer’s market type area, “Galeries Royales St Hubert” (one of the oldest indoor malls or something), lots of chocolate shops, the town square, St. Michael’s church, the restaurant strip, lots of beer (haha), the “is it raining?” statue, the peeing statue, mussels, the Royal Palace, q-zar!, and waffles.
Amsterdam – 2 days, July 19-21
The last stop on the trip. The city was a lot nicer and cleaner that I thought it would be. We got in kinda late on the 19th and after having checked in, we just grabbed a bite with some local brews before calling it a night. The one full day we had was packed full of walking and site-seeing, as usual. The canals that run through the city really give it a serene feeling, along with having very little traffic, since bikes, trams and walking are the most predominant forms of transportation. And no, the red light district, at least during the day, really isn’t that seedy. Although, I can’t attest to what it’s like at night. Overall, I’d say Amsterdam was in many ways much nicer than both London and Paris. But I preferred Brussels a bit more.
Highlights: Central station with the weather vane “clock”, everything being in Dutch even though everyone spoke English, pedestrian mall that led to, a small garden neighbourhood that used to (and still does) house single women and/or widows (I think)., the flower shops along the canal, “homo sapiens non urinat in ventum” (gogo gr.10 latin), the two very cool museums, street break dancers (some with no cardboard!) and last, but definitely not least, the Anne Frank Museum.
So 2000 words later, that’s my “summary”. Again, pictures will be up whenever I can get through them all.
posted by N @ 10:44 p.m.
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