Published Friday August 2nd, 2002

Whoever said the french where mean or unpolite was very wrong. Ive suspected that this was ust some american folk tale/gossip bullshit but id never been in france long enought to confirm my suspicions. I finally, however have been able to visit the french for longer then the period of under 12 hours and am now fully loaded to beat down my friend mike who claims and believes the french are mean and rude , unpolite people. I believe his claims are purely based on his quite long ago experience which was now probably blurred in his head, as all memories tend to do, crossing the english channel from England into france where he might have encountered some cranky french dude, or the service in an over run resturant was not what they were sued to and maybe his mom or dad or someone in his groupd said something and the waiter was offended and in turn made some obscure remark. This is to say, that i pity mike for judging and entire country/culture on one experience or one event, or something his parents have told him or his heard elsewhere. (This is not to say that i dont do this; i openly admit that i do quite a lot of American/Usa bashing/beat downs... but its so easy to do =)
Well then, besides mike or anyone else whos been to france, If you think the french are rude, unplite people go "*%& yourself because you dont have a clue what youre talking about. (Indeed, these have been direct attacks at various people mainly out of boredom. No offence intended... well maybe a little bit.)
lol, well then.. As you may have figured by that little prelogue, i quite enjoyed my trip to Paris. off the bat, the Eiffel Tower impressed me the most... as it was prety huge... and no photo can recreate what its like standing right next to it. (although i tried) Hrm... where to start...
The french country side from the switzerland border to paris is flat (once you get far enought from switzerland)... Lots of fields over smooth, rolling hills of wheat or some other baiche/yellowish crop... somewhat like californias central valley or the hills on the way to solvang in california. Many fields of flowering sun flowers and many smalll little villages. (i wonder why i never describe switzerlands landscape in this detail.. ill have to do that sometime.)
The train ride; via TGV bullet train, is an interesting and memorable experience. Once inside france and far away enought from switzerland, where the lower meditaranean/alp type mountains end, once youve reached small rolling hills, where from the train you can see cumulous clouds _FAR_ off in the distance, many, many miles away and the train tracks are mainly straight, the TGV begins the dart straight to paris. And when i say dart, i _DO_ mean _DART_. ON a may, look at the distance from switzerland to paris. Its a nice little distance.. covered within an hour or so. most of the 4 and a half hour trip from Bern to Paris is spent in or near switzerland. as the TGV accelerates, once the tracks are straight and level enought to permit it too, you can feel a real shove as it increases speed. When you feel a sharp shove once going fast, you know there is a slight curve in the track.
At normal fast train speeds you can see the polls which suspend the electrical cables over the traks which power the trains for a half a second or so out the window, or a bridge as you go underneath it, in the TGV things are just a quick flash of blured colours, even the clouds pass by quickly as the TGV speeds through underneath them.
As you pass the switzerland-france border the costums people promptly board the train and check to validate your papers... The chairs in first class where we sat were automatical reclining... and.. bored as we were.. we all started racing each other to see who could reach fully reclined possition first... It was really interesting heading back to switzerland beacuse.. you imediately knew switzerland was near as the country side changed to look more like what you may see in colorado or montana or wyiomming type country side... The french landscape is also sprinkled with small villages and random castles and other Burgs, just like most other countries in the area, including switzerlands.
Well then.. while in paris... there is so much shit i could talk about... Ill rattle off the places my family and i visited... in order of visitation.... the Louvre (biggass museum, very insaneish) arc de triomph (spelling?...) (this is the arc you see in many pictures of hitler and his army pulling into france, its very impressive).. uhm.. Oh, Versailes... where ...many things happened.. namely.. the treaty of versie was signed (in the hall of mirrors... i have pictures).. many french kings lived there, i think napoleon chilled there too... one of them anyways, the main one.. lol hrm.. what else happened there.. im missing something but.. okay.. lol... hrm..... the estate is.. friggn huge and very imprssive shit... The Eiffel tower (this.. was very overwhelming/impressive standing underneath this immense metal construct.. i was impressed by this the most of all the insane shit i saw.)... hrm.. oh, and Notre Dame... thats.. prety interesting gotthic architecture type chatolic church... all this took 3 days to accomplish... lol
While we where there... the people where nice.. the waiters, random people... all very nice and kind and helpfull... the people out and about the city didnt care much about us and didnt bother us either... Over all... i loved paris... Especially the Metro (subaway) system... that was cool.. insanely accessible network of tunnels and shit.. i loved being down there.. i loved the feeling of being under ground and just chilling... the hermit like feeling was great.. lol.. y am i not a hermit? lol.. Hrm.. we had a nice little hotel room thing in an old (just as old as most other buildings in paris type old) house in the heart of paris and.. everything was eassily accessible.. Notre Dame was just a little bit down the street, and around a corner... the food, logically as it wasnt american food... was great and delicious... any food is almost certainly better before it is Americanized. Americanize - To take something good, yummy, and edible and change it to something bad, yucky, and not edible.... hahaha... *ahem*.. yes, indeed.... Hrm.. while i was there.. it was often weird to think about all the historic events behind all the things i saw... to think that once upon a time hitler and his army just went underneath arc de triomph where i stood, and saw much the same of what i saw... And then staring at notre dame... and wondering where the hell that annoying hunchback was. (so i could pop him one in the head.) Or, being at versailes... standing in the hall of mirrors where the treaty which ended world war 1 was signed and kings and queens used to hang out and exist, where who knows what else went on... To ride the subways under paris which where once a little more then 50 years ago (tunnels/cattacombs) used to house the french resistance underneath paris against hitler during ww2... it.. wow... all in all.. can you tell i liked paris?... indeed i did... its not possible to describe everything i saw and did and felt... the best thing to do is go there yourself... Its a very nice city... very historic.. and there is shitloads to see... The louvre.... while its in my mind... was also interesting... You enter into this piramid and when you descend into the ground... you find yourself in this friggn huge arena with 1902381093 of people, all going about the museum and.. its insane... i mean.. really.. INSANE!!!... The eiffel tower... they say a picture is worth 1000 words.. well.. 1000 words isnt enought to describe standing right under the damned thing and staring up at this completely pointless metal structure... its.. amazing, really... ... lol.. wow.. look at my babbling away... i could go on and on for ever..-.. oh! drivers in paris... funny shit... there was like... no order to traffic... i mean.. every law in the book was broken just right in front of the police, and they didnt give a shit... my family and i found ourselvs staring at traffic from the top of arc de triomph and just rolling on the floor laughing at the chaos.. i mean.. chaos... 4 or... maybe 5 or .. no real defenition of how many lanes there are around the arc de triomph (as, the arc de triomph acts as a circle where traffic from many many streets comes togheter and is entered into this cirlce from where u drive around to the street you want to head up to leave)..anyways.. small cars dart from lane to lane to get to their street and.. there is no blinking or waiting or.. whatnot. .its all out complete chaos and its funny as hell to watch.. lol i would hate to drive there.. actually.. i would love to drive there.. complete chaos and no one gives a shit.. lol.. sounds like fun! lol yes!!
Hrm.. i need to move on.. lol... sometime im gona have to do a pictorial type post thing leading through all this shit i saw once i upload all the images... lol... hrm... well then....
ON august 1st was switzerlands independance day (since sometime between 1200-1270).. and we went up to my aunt/uncles house (dads sister, this time.. Rita).. there with their children (my cousins) we barbequed lunch and chatted and had a good time all day long... at night another family came from Ritas husbands side and we let off fireworks and whatnot into the air.. As, fireworks are not illegal in switzerland (its to damn wet for any fire to ablaze.).. Everyone launches shit into the air.. many people ontop of hills and lower alps light up bigass bon fires which u can see from far away.. its.. really many times more fun and exciting then the lame little firework displays you get in california... its more fun when u get to do it yourself... and see your neighbors 50 dollar rocket kaboom in the air.. its national launch your money into the air and see it make prety colours and hear it go book day... lol its great.. There is usualy so much shit in the air from all the fireworks and fires that the discharge builds up in the lower athmosphere and you get these great static electricity displays in the sky... its like lightning but, without the bolts... its just flashes of light in the sky.. and the whole thing adds great effect to the whole evening and the whole event/experience.. its... really something cool to attend at... once you launch your money in the air (that is.. u buy fireworks and then launch the fireworks into the air.. .not your money directly.. lol, that would be even stupider)... mother nature, pissed off form all the exhaust and or discharge in the atmosphere gives you a nice light show along with the rest of the shit you set off.. its .... its wonderful.. lol.... other people.. usualy teens let off shit all through the night untill they fall asleep or run out... so every once in a while you hear a nice big BOOOM... lol, its fun stuff....
Hrm.. today i got up at noon and ate lunch with my siblings and my dad with my grandparents (dads parents).... my mom was at her parents organizing some party thing (my moms parents; my grandparents on moms side are going to be wedd for 50 years and so now my mom and some other relatives are throwing a party thing whatnot)... my dad and i and my sisters claim no affiliation with the whole thing, just to attend like the other relatives.. lol... Its a good thing really cuz, its brings all the relatives to one spot so they can all see you, instead of you having to go visit them all, or so claims my mom. lol..
Anyways.. so, after lunch my family and i (minus my mom) went to some place near Interlaken.. or.. Brienz to some museum thing of houses... basically a life size display of various types of houses from all over switzerland... it was prety interesting, just got a bit tireing going into and out of all of these houses.. lol... ..Hrm.. tomorrow, if the weather holds.. we're going on to an Alp... otherwise we may go into some cave below an alp.. haha... hermit style! lol... hrm.. well then.. i should be heading off to bed... ill get those images uploaded... lol.. i have around 300 images from paris.. hahaha... aint that great? i think that deserves its own album.. on 2 accounts.. as.. paris isnt switzerland and... it has 300 images from one location/ trip.. haha... hrm.. well then.... till soon!