Salut tous,
It was an excursion weekend CIEF style with a Euro-tastic 1/20 prof student ratio. Destination: Strasbourg. (5 hours by bus) but luckily we made some pit stops on the way there in Colmar and another town whose name is a 14 letter bastardization of lots of Germanic and Romance languages.
Saturday: highlights began early and often. Up at 5 for the bus at 6. Before I got on the bus, I made some friends who were stumbling home from the night prior. Nice boys. Probably won’t be best friends forever.
It was an excursion weekend CIEF style with a Euro-tastic 1/20 prof student ratio. Destination: Strasbourg. (5 hours by bus) but luckily we made some pit stops on the way there in Colmar and another town whose name is a 14 letter bastardization of lots of Germanic and Romance languages.
Saturday: highlights began early and often. Up at 5 for the bus at 6. Before I got on the bus, I made some friends who were stumbling home from the night prior. Nice boys. Probably won’t be best friends forever.
11:00am. First pit stop in a small town called Colmar. It’s was Bartholdi’s hangout at some point so there are odes to the Statue of liberty rivaling only those within a 15 mile radius of the real thing. The museum held some pretty amusing rejects. There were a couple of sighs of relief from the resident Americans (“whoa, thank goodness that didn’t make the cut”).That was followed by a brief trip to Little Venice. First consumption of pretzels went down and there was a brief crisis in deciding between eating crepes and fresh apples. Further investigation led to crepes with apple sauce inside. Crisis averted.
Also stumbled across an ode to the Confederacy – that would be our former confederacy. Not really sure who is the key demographic for their banner’s reading “American by birth. Southern by the Grace of God”…
Having purged us of a fraction of our ADHD, Sebastiano (prof chaperone. Singular.) gathered us back onto the bus.
1:30pm. Arrived in Riquewihr. The poor souls got cursed with the title of “most charming village in France.” Thus, the size of the village was equaled only by the size of the parking lot for tourist buses. As cynical as I am about tourism, wine country is real pretty.
We were there for an hour or so and had time to circle the place about 4385 times. Although, what I found most amusing, was the parking lot. Seriously. “Massive” doesn’t really express the size of these buses. After a raucous and chaotic corralling – we were off again.
We were there for an hour or so and had time to circle the place about 4385 times. Although, what I found most amusing, was the parking lot. Seriously. “Massive” doesn’t really express the size of these buses. After a raucous and chaotic corralling – we were off again.
5:00pm. Strasbourg. Arrived at the hotel which was shockingly American and spatious, not to mention trustworthy. Windows the open? Kassie, I’m scared.
We had time to breath and then we set off so that Sebastiano could at least lead us into the center of town. HOLY TOURISM! Kassie and I had agreed to check our touristic insecurities (read: traveling in groups of 20 students, 6 nationalities, and 40 cameras) but it was hard.
As soon as Sebastiano was done giving us a brief rundown of something to which we were partially listening, we fled. But oh. My. Goodness. MOST AMAZING CATHERDRAL I HAVE EVER SEEN!!
I rarely stop and backtrack to collect my jaw off the ground. But Wow. Wow, man.
After recollecting the use of crucial body functions, we briefly tried to capture it in photos. That was silly. In my opinion, at least the outside, put Notre Dame de Paris to shame. Although, as stain glass goes, Paris still takes the cake (the baguette?).
We had time to breath and then we set off so that Sebastiano could at least lead us into the center of town. HOLY TOURISM! Kassie and I had agreed to check our touristic insecurities (read: traveling in groups of 20 students, 6 nationalities, and 40 cameras) but it was hard.
As soon as Sebastiano was done giving us a brief rundown of something to which we were partially listening, we fled. But oh. My. Goodness. MOST AMAZING CATHERDRAL I HAVE EVER SEEN!!
I rarely stop and backtrack to collect my jaw off the ground. But Wow. Wow, man.
After recollecting the use of crucial body functions, we briefly tried to capture it in photos. That was silly. In my opinion, at least the outside, put Notre Dame de Paris to shame. Although, as stain glass goes, Paris still takes the cake (the baguette?).
As all other attractions fell horribly short after that, we parked it by the biggest keg known to mankind, in order to decide the following actions. Arguably poor idea since this random guy came up to us. I’m all about hanging with the locals but “awkward” is universal. Buddy, there is no way you are on your way to meet your friends at the bar. We just know these things. Although he tended to sing whenever there was an awkward silence, a practice that I generally support.
Although I believe as he approached we were howling from laughter so I would have wanted in on that too. It was sleep deprived hilarity – something about if we didn’t have anything to do thank goodness we could go back to the 24 hour bar at the hotel to get this epic looking chocolate mousse. Only to remember that the time went back that day so there were 25 hours that day. Dude. Worst luck ever.
At amazing regional food, although flat bread by any other name is really still flat bread. But delightful all the same. Went for a drink. Stumbled (in fatigue) back to the hotel and promptly passed out.
Sunday.
Can’t really give a time mark on this since there was a little confusion. Having new Europhones, we weren’t sure if they were going to change. Also, I didn’t know if my $5 watch had it in it so I turned it back before I went to bed. Between my phone not changing and my watch changing (I owe it an apology), we stepped out into a very dark, quiet hall at a (surprise! not) 8:30. We were a little suspicious when we got down to the dining room and the average age was definitely not us. A pretty solid indication that it’s early. Curses.
Many cups of coffee later, we were again herded back to the bus trying to make it to a boat ride down the river through Strasbourg. We were later. Shocking. And got the next one.
One perk was the common language communication between me and this completely technologically illiterate German woman as I tried to help her with her headphones for the commentary on the ride. Although after a while it became clear that there was not enough language in this world to make that woman understand changing the stations.
An hour later, and lots of gory details about hurling people, minus necessary body parts, off big things, we were given free reign of Strasbourg until we were to head off in a few hours. Lots of walking, a few enormous, and unprecedentedly large sausage product ensued.
Can’t really give a time mark on this since there was a little confusion. Having new Europhones, we weren’t sure if they were going to change. Also, I didn’t know if my $5 watch had it in it so I turned it back before I went to bed. Between my phone not changing and my watch changing (I owe it an apology), we stepped out into a very dark, quiet hall at a (surprise! not) 8:30. We were a little suspicious when we got down to the dining room and the average age was definitely not us. A pretty solid indication that it’s early. Curses.
Many cups of coffee later, we were again herded back to the bus trying to make it to a boat ride down the river through Strasbourg. We were later. Shocking. And got the next one.
One perk was the common language communication between me and this completely technologically illiterate German woman as I tried to help her with her headphones for the commentary on the ride. Although after a while it became clear that there was not enough language in this world to make that woman understand changing the stations.
An hour later, and lots of gory details about hurling people, minus necessary body parts, off big things, we were given free reign of Strasbourg until we were to head off in a few hours. Lots of walking, a few enormous, and unprecedentedly large sausage product ensued.
Although, all in all, with "singing forbidden in public" I feel like it's just not the place for me.
Have to keep looking.
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