The days before I left for my 'Whirlwind Tour of Western Europe,' I had quite a few papers to write which I put off to the last minute because of my terrible work ethic. Anyway, bottom line, I handed in the last assignment just hours before my bus left for the airport. But there it is: I have nothing to worry about school-wise until September (except for two tests in May). It feels weird. Three days on, I still have dreams about assignments due and deadlines and papers. C'est bizarre.
Like many of the other cities I've visited (and yet to write about), I visited Strasbourg purely on whim. I suppose my biggest reason was to see the 'marriage' of French and German cultures. I later learned that that's as wrong as saying Sikhism is like a blend of Hinduism and Islam (which they teach in American public schools). So I booked Ryanair to the Karlsruhe-Baden airport just across the border in Germany. There were no cheap flights to Strasbourg. I was also curious as to why they called the airport Baden-Baden (in their strong German accents) but didn't actually ask anyone. After an hour long bus ride, which was actually more expensive than the plane ticket, from the airport, I got to my host's place on Wednesday night. Vincent and his flatmate, François, are very nice and generous. Though they're very busy, they definitely try to help as many couchsurfers as possible. There was even another surfer here while I was here! And undoubtedly, the coolest thing about their flat is their some 60' flat screen TV. They connected a PC to it, so I'm currently typing on a really huge screen. Sometimes, I need to turn my head to read an entire webpage.
Strasbourg as a city is very nice. It's small, quaint and manageable - I suppose like most other European cities. There are a number of canals, tributaries and rivers that create a city of multiple islands. The centerpiece of the city, the Cathedrale; Notre Dame de Strasbourg, is vraiment magnifique! And I think the top platform of the city is actually the highest point in the city. After walking up some 200 steps on narrow spiral staircases, the view was really worth it. The Alsatian rooftops, the colourful buildings; and the German mountains out yonder were très jolis! After the Cathedrale, I walked to Germany. The bridge that crosses the Rhine River was this kind of weird curved and straight structure held up by suspension wires of sorts - not really sure how to describe it. Anyway, it felt awesome to finally sit on the Rhine - a river we studied about in European history countless times. And now, though I stopped over in Germany twice once when I was nine and once this past week, I can really say I've been to Germany because I've walked to it. Anyway, I headed back, tired after so much walking. And I should have been too, considering the three weeks before, I was simply on my bum writing or trying to write papers. On my way back, I passed a bakery with a weird looking cake in the window. I went in and asked what it was. Apparently it's Kougelhopf, a speciality of Alsace. So, I tried one and bought another for my hosts. But sans doubt, the highlight of that first day in Strasbourg was walking up at 2pm and moseying down over to a petit café and enjoying a crepe double fromage sur la terrace. It was really nice to kinda just sit there and observe the street life and the calm French culture. There were so many people on the street - it seemed as if no one was working!
The next day, Friday, I got up real early and rented a bike for a few hours. Because I already walked around Strasbourg so much, I decided to take the bike out to the country and see what the Alsatian paysage is like. I biked through a number of villages whose names I simply cannot pronounce. These include but are not limited to: Weyersheim, Gambsheim, La Wantzenau, and Hoerdt. I got to see a lot of typical Alsatian houses and some very large farms. Each village had a small main street and a very prominent mayor's office, a Mairie. And I didn't expect it, but just as in Spain and Italy, everything shuts down in the towns between the hours of twelve and two. All the while I was bicycling, I was drawing quite a few stares - not that I'm unused to that. But I couldn't decide, this time, if it was because I was, perhaps, the only brown (or even coloured) person in the area or because of my bright orange kurtha. What do you think?
After getting back to the city, I walked around to find a reasonably priced creperie. That's one goal I have for France: to eat crepes everyday. While I didn't find a creperie closeby to the bike shop, I did end up at a cafe. There, I ate a tarte flambée (sans bacon). I guess it's a kind of a flat very thin crusted dough with cream and onions (and other toppings if you so choose). Yay! I tried something else new. Then, I made another resolution: to try a new food/dish everyday. So far, it's been working out. Today, after my hosts' encouragement, I got the courage to buy munster cheese, which, apparently smells like feet (and it did when I first opened it!). I went to a cheese boutique, Le Cloche à Fromage, to get the Alsatian speciality. And with it, I bought a baguette as well! I felt so French! When I got home, Vincent cut the baguette like a true Frenchman and we had the cheese together. Be ye warned, munster should not be eaten alone - only the really French can handle it. After Vincent left for work (evening shift as a waiter) and François left for a family gathering, I melted the cheese on the baguette and it was simply marvelous!
Anyway, I highly recommend you visit Strasbourg and the Alsace area - there are a number of things I didn't mentioned like La Grande Horloge Astrologique, a clock bigger than my dorm room with moving people and an actual staircase, or the Alsatian museum that had two rooms for Jewish exhibits before even World War I. Staying with Vincent and François made the experience all the better - I really got to practice my French seeing as François was not particularly good at English.
Tomorrow morning, I'm taking a train to Paris to have lunch with a family friend and then heading down to Toulouse.
à bientot!
