We All Deserve A Vacation

*Long post alert! I’ve only been here a little over a month, and I just finished my first big vacation, the Toussaint vacation (All Saint’s Day). Of course, one of the highlights was staying awake until 7am on Wednesday, November 5, 2008, watching Barack Obama’s acceptance speech LIVE from Chicago (thank you CNN and your Internet streaming).

I went to Strasbourg for a day. It was really crappy weather, with lots of rain and grey skies, which wasn’t great for taking pictures, but Strasbourg was really cute. It’s in the Alsace region (history lesson alert!) and is very close to the France-Germany border. So throughout history, the Alsace and Lorraine regions have been heavily contested between the two countries. They have been German, then French, then back to German and finally became (and stayed) French after the defeat of Germany in World War I. Needless to say, there is a ton of German influence, and you hear many people speaking German around the city. There is an enormous cathedral in the center, but because of the poor lighting due to the weather and the fact that no church is ever well-lit, very few of my pictures inside turned out well.

At the end of vacation, Cheryl and I went to Paris for a few days. Ahhh, what else can I say about this city that I haven’t already? I almost forgot how much I really love it. For me, it’s the perfect city. You have centuries upon centuries of history and culture colliding with modern technology. Look at the streets. There are narrow, crooked, cobblestone streets, meant to hold horses and carriages; today, they hold buses and scooters and cars. It’s just an incredible place. I definitely have not traveled much of this world, but, for me, Paris is hard to top. I wrote a poem about it once (later post) and I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever written.

Without saying, the food in Paris is incredible. I won’t list everything I ate, but I would just like to say that Maoz frites with mayonnaise are still delicious, and I could eat gelato everyday for the rest of my life and be content. Also, if you know me well, you know that I am not a breakfast person. But French breakfast is worth it.

I forced Cheryl to see all of the places I lived and studied when I was there in July 2007, like Parc Montsouris, the Sorbonne and the Cité Universitaire. It made me miss all of my friends from the study abroad though. Of course, we hit a few of the touristy sights that everyone thinks of when they think of Paris: Notre Dame, Montmartre (my favorite neighborhood), the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysées and the Eiffel Tower. I still love the Eiffel Tower. I can’t even explain why. There’s just something about it that I love, no matter how many times I see it, I can’t stop staring. Or taking pictures. Its best viewed at night, when completely illuminated. Every hour, for about five minutes, it sparkles. I wish everyone could see this. Its probably my favorite thing to see in Paris. Currently, the Eiffel Tower is lit with blue lights and yellow stars (to resemble the flag of the European Union), to celebrate France’s current presidency of the EU.

The best thing we did was climb the Arc de Triomphe at night. It’s the second time I’ve done this, and it’s still breathtaking. Paris is completely illuminated and standing there, staring out over this brilliant city, it’s hard to imagine anything better. There were definitely moments of “Oh my God, everyone in the States is going to work/school tomorrow and we are doing this.” And I’m not saying this to rub it in or make you feel jealous. It was more of an “I cannot believe how amazingly lucky I am right now” feeling than a “hahaha, have fun at work suckers!” feeling. I mean, I am really, really humbled to be able to live this adventure I’ve been living.

I think Cole Porter described it best in his song “I Love Paris.” I love Paris in the springtime/I love Paris in the fall/I love Paris in the winter, when it drizzles/I love Paris in the summer, when it sizzles/I love Paris every moment/Every moment of the year. If there is a greater city out there, I haven’t found it yet. And I’m not sure that I ever will.