PARIS!

Well, we're back from Paris and I'm writing this just in time to leave for Milan.  We've got to be at the bus station at 5:00 tomorrow morning and we'll be in Italy at 12:15.  Tyler has a friend there who will be showing us around, so I fully expect that we will get the authentic Italian experience.

But enough about Italy...that hasn't happened yet.  Paris!  We stayed with a couple of really neat people who were not originally from Paris but had been living there for at least 3 years.  The first of the Parisians that we met, Sylvain, is a cartographer living in Paris temporarily and the second, Ahmed, works with computers.

A beautiful Swedish sunset...the last we would see before embarking on our journey to France.

The early morning trek to the bus station.

Everybody on the plane.

AN EIFFEL TOWER!! Now's probably a good time to introduce the Paris crew. Starting at me and going right you'll see George (from Greece), Megan (from USA), Ariel (also USA), Tyler (USA), and Laimis (Lithuania).

Look at this dessert tray. Now look at the lower right of the placemat. I was embarrassed.

A spy photo. See the guy in the background (behind Ariel's luscious ploom of hair)? He was playing accordion on one of the first trains we rode on the way to meet Sylvain. Literally minutes into our Paris experience we were delighted by a truly Parisian treat.

Sitting in a café getting our bearings and having a beer with Sylvain.

Ahmed and his friends made us a Tunisian meal. I only took a picture of the first course since I was overwhelmend by the deliciousness of the meal and forgot to take a picture of the second. The first course was hard-boiled eggs with tuna and something very close to green chile. The second course was pasta with a red sauce and shrimp.

Soaking in the our first sunrise in Paris through the window of Ahmed's apartment.

Me and Megan hit the town while the others spent the day at Disney Land, Paris. That is indeed Notre Dame in the background.

Megan fed the birds before we left Notre Dame.

We found our way into a school somewhere near the library. We wanted to pull a prank and write "USA > France" but I had a bad case of the dumb and we unintentionally proclaimed that France was the greater of the two nations. It may have been a lucky blunder, however, since the instructor for the next class and one of the students came in before we left. Had we written what we intended, we may well have found ourselves in the middle of an international incident.

The next day. The crew was still not complete...George had a test to take. We visited the Arc de Triumph first.

On top of the Arc. We were able to trick our way to the top since European students are free. We showed them our student IDs from Sweden and mentioned nothing about actually being Americans.

The crew (still minus George) at La Grande Arche de la Défense.

We found a colorful tunnel to walk through near La Grande Arche de la Défense. It reminded me of the tunnel in Chicago, but it was much smaller and worse. Still looked pretty good, though.

There were several emergency stations set up at the Musée d'Orsay. While I was walking past one, I got a call on the regular phone about a situation in the van Gogh area. I took action.

Reunited at Notre Dame. Sylvain and George met up with us before we set off to take in more Paris.

Packed into the train on our way to bigger and better things. Sylvain (a chin and cheek) and Tyler (the back of his hat) are barely visible on the right side of the frame.

Eating pancakes at a really nice little shop that Sylvain knew. It was quite authentic and delicious.

The gate at Versailles. Although it was free for EU students, we were unable to trick our way in. The outside of the gate was all we were allowed to look at.

Holy crap. It's the actual Mona Lisa. Let's take pictures with it.

We all finally got close to that tower.

Sylvain made us dinner. It was actually a Swiss meal wherein you melt some cheese using the contraption in the middle of the table and pour it over ham and potatoes.

What better way to start the day than some pastries from the bakery downstairs?

We took an illicit trip to the catacombs for a catacomb party. This is the best picture that I could find to capture the mood. It was cool inside, but quite stuffy. The room in this picture was quite large, but the rest of the catacombs consist mostly of narrow (and sometimes quite short) passage ways which stretch on for miles.

Here is the entrance to the part of the catacombs that we visited. It was a very small hole which you had to squeeze through and come out on the side of a spiral starecase which went down for quite a ways (we estimated 70 feet or so). Unfortunately, I left my hat down there, so you won't be seeing any more pictures of that turquoise topper.

The catacomb crew shortly after hopping the fence into legal territory. We didn't sleep that night as we were subject to public transport which doesn't start running until 5:00.

Sippin' a brew at the station while waiting for the first train out of Paris on Valentine's day.

One final roll call before boarding the bus to the plane which would take us back to Sweden.

After staying awake all night for the catacombs party, everyone was understandably exhausted for the plane ride home.

Back at the Västerås bus station. That's my new hat, a gift from Sylvain...you'll certainly be seeing more of it. It was very nice to find ourselves back in Sweden. A gentle fog had settled over the city.

In as few words as possible, the Paris trip was certainly an exercise in sleep-deprivation. The first night we slept for 5 hours and less every night after until the all-niter for the catacombs. We got plenty done, though, and I'm sure no one would argue that we wasted a single second during our time there.

Paris had a much harsher character to it and the sense of community and social awareness that I feel in Sweden was absent. We'll miss the cheap food, from the 4-krown baguettes to the discount tubs of Nutella, but it's nice to be able to call Sweden home.

Stay tuned for more tales of travel through Europe. Next week: Milan.

Livin' in and Leaving Sweden

One of the first things that we did in Sweden was plan some trips to leave it. The first trip that we planned has yet to happen and the destination is Paris. Surprisingly, we have not gone to Paris yet, but we already managed to leave Sweden.

I fully expected Paris to be the first trip, but we went to Tallinn, Estonia first instead. I had no idea that anyone even went to Estonia without being kidnapped first, but it turns out it is a pretty popular (and good) weekend cruise destination. Props to the Finns for the tip-off on that one. Anyhow, it was loads of fun, and something that I would recommend to anyone who has the opportunity.

Below are some pictures of the week before the Estonian trip and, of course, pictures from the most unexpected cruise in history.

As promised...Disco bowling!

Blacklights make anyone look cool.

Such a nice bowling alley. Look at that lounge! Typical Sweden...they really can't help but make everything very nice.

Notice the bowling seats in this one...

Out front of the bowling alley.

Bowling really takes it out of you! Let's get some coffee after...

First day of class: Sustainable Energy Systems.

We made pancakes. Let's eat them.

A bar/club decided to serve free tacos, probably assuming that they could recoup the cost with drink profits. The tacos were actually nachos...it turns out that nachos are called tacos in Sweden.

Originally, the plan was to go ice skating. Fortunately, the skate rental place was closed, so we found some plastic crates and went ice crating instead.

Ice crating really takes it out of you! Let's get some coffee after...

A failed attempt at a snow angel.

Who wants to go to Estonia?

I think that this illustration of a pregnant woman drinking is comical.

The first McDonald's consumed in Sweden. We received our stipend from the university and went to celebrate. An interesting aside: we developed a system of determining value of things in Swedish krowns based on the 10 krown burger from McDonalds. For instance: a movie costs 110 krowns, so we would consider, "is a movie really worth 11 burgers?" It was nice to actually experience the value.

Across the street from the bus station, the first leg of our journey to Tallinn, Estonia. This is actually a full roll-call...can you spot Tyler? It might help to click to enlarge.

Getting our bearings in Stockholm. It was a 5km walk through the city from the bus station to the boat.

Trouncing through Stockholm on your way to a boat really takes it out of you!  Let's go get coffee...during? An interesting aside: We met an Australian at that coffee shop. When he learned that Tyler and I are from the United States, and Taija (left girl) and Johanna (right girl) are from Finland, he suggested a movie titled "From Tampere to Albuquerque." The Finns are not actually from Tampere, but we made no mention of Albuquerque or even New Mexico. A pretty epic guess.

We made it to the shipyard!

A better look at that boat.

Foolin' about at the on-board disco.

A mirrored-staircase roll-call.

Icy seas.

Watching as we leave land behind.

Party in our cabin!

A quaint little Estonian...Esprit??

Me and an eastern-orthodox church.

Roll-call on a brick wall. The sprinkling of medieval flair gave Tallinn a unique feel, especially with the über-modern shopping malls and infrastructure only a kilometer or so away.

Lunch.

One of those modern shopping malls.

Booze is cheap in Estonia.

No one was pleased that we had to get off of the boat. Tallinn was a blast but alas, all good things must come to an end.

We're off to Paris tomorrow morning. There should be plenty of good pictures once we return...