Eurotrip III

Here we continue from France ...
Toulouse: A modest city with a nice old town that offered a great variety of pubs, bars and restaurants. Young people where enjoying the summer having a meal or drinking with friends all around. The Capitole was located in a huge plaza full of dinning tables and packed with tourists.

Most of the streets in the old town would communicate other places of the city with this important monument. Although there is a beautiful river, I felt like here they didn’t take advantage of it and compared with its neighbor San Sebastian or Montpellier, those had an inspiring architecture. As usual in France the food was very expensive. I tried a “duck liver” pincho as a starter and got a “Punta de Anca” with a gorgeous pepper sauce and enjoyed the meal much more than what my wallet did.

I’m quite happy to notice what a great job I have done and how my mind is in constant awareness of everything. Here I stayed the night without paying anything. As soon as I arrive in a city I look at the map and my mind starts building a very practical route through the most important monuments trying to walk the less possible covering as much as I can, all this based on the experience gained in each city. While walking I remember the streets I have already tried and kind of remember where it takes me. I realise now that I feel tired and I am trying to enjoy this last days the most as I know its gonna be a long time for me to be traveling again. I was a bit sad as I tried to call a very special person in the UK but the talk didn’t go as expected not knowing the reason why.

Bordeaux: The entrance to the city once outside the train station gave me a wrong impression of the city. It looked dirty and full of small shops with no glamour at all. I couldn’t find any signs of how to get to the city center so I drifted painfully for an hour. I knew I was entering the real city when passing under a beautiful arch with a big bell. The architecture changed dramatically and I appreciated the elegant French way again. Prominent buildings with the most luxurious details on the façades. I must say that even though the city is beautiful, it is not well preserved. I noticed the great job done by the mayor of Montpellier for example. The churches were full of dust and the city full of meaningless tacky markets with no special selling theme, just odd and ends. The walk path along the river wasn’t really about the river; it was the monumental front of the city

 What made the walk worthy, truly impressive. For the meal of the day I chose an egg and seafood entrance along with filet miñon and chips, it came with a delicious pepper sauce. The train to Paris was very expensive and I felt ripped off as I was obliged to pay extra fees having paid a global InterRail that was supposed to work everywhere in Europe, but because Paris was only accessible by high speed trains I couldn’t plan my way in using ordinary regional trains.

Paris: I got to this touristic capital quite stressed because I wanted to spend 2 nights there but couldn’t find any hostel online the week before as everything was booked up. Then I started my journey by looking for cheap accommodation for a long walk. I ask one funny English guy with a homeless look if he knew about any cheap hostel around and luckily he addressed me to where I would spend the next two nights for the price of one! That night I was able to book only one night for what I remained worried for the next day. In the hostel bar I met 5 Argentinian girls along with a nice Dutch guy and we shared “Mate”, which is a sort of tea. It remained me of the Swedish fika. I discovered the night image of the Eiffel Tower and went for a walk to enjoy the night with the girls.

Paris is huge and the sightseeing was extensive as there was plenty to admire. The city was beautiful and monumental and we got to most of the city attractions. The Argentinian girl I met the night before accompanied me this time. We laugh a lot about our similarities and differences and learnt from her the appreciation they have for Colombians due to football. I compared the city with London and realised that even tough they are very different, they share in common that they bith are cosmopolitan cities full of tourists and have crappy rainy weather. After the entire walk I felt pretty tired, but my desire to enjoy and experience the night was still up! So again I went and ask the oracle for salsa at Paris and discovered “la pachanga” bar at a place that looked quite like Leister Square in London. The salsa bar was similar to “Salsa bar” the one I frequented in the English capital. It was a great night.

The night before I realised that in the hostel, after 10 pm the guy at the bar was the one in charge of the hostel and this person wasn’t very aware of who was entering to the rooms. So with the Dutch guy we worked out that coming back from salsa I’d have a beer with him at the pub and would go straight to the room to sleep on the floor without having to pay and dogging the receptionist attention, and I did. When sneaking in to the hostel I met a couple of good looking Dutch girls that were planning to travel to Bruxelles like me next day so I asked if I could join and they agreed, so the next destination was set!

Paris was magical; I enjoyed walking everywhere and specially through the Elysian Fields. I ate many creppes, all of different flavours but still delicious. In overall I’m absolutely pleased with so many good experiences I have had in my European trip and I am happy that its end is approaching. I have discovered that traveling alone is not a bad experience. I remember I feared doing so before as I though it could be tough and boring, but it is actually the best way to know new people as you are forced to do so by definition. The morning leaving the hostel, I got so impressed by the panorama and quality of the view in the hostel. It was full of beautiful girls all around; I couldn’t believe my eyes, great experience!

Bruxelles: The journey to Belgium was quite nice, the Dutch girls I traveled with made me laugh so much with this acute sense of humor, and with funny tails explained the difference between them and people from Belgium in such a colorful witty way, and they stated as well some differences with other countries as well. Being there I went for the hostel quest where I met two nice Swiss guys with whom I would have a beer later and enjoyed a chilled talk that night. The Belgium beer tasted better in the central plaza. The view was something else, incredible. As usual I had a wrong impression of Bruxelles and being here made me realise how elegant and well maintained the city is. It was also apparent to me that the cultural standard was very high here, and learnt from the Swiss plenty about this, they were studying geography and were really keen on explaining all the economic background around this European crisis lived nowadays. I enjoyed the cartoons painted on walls all around the old city; the city holds a great cartoonist author of the well-known “Tin Tin” or “Les Aventures de Tin tin et Milou”. I also experienced a great state of peace when visiting the Cathedrals in Bruxelles, they were unique in style and the “vitrales” filtered a beautiful color illuminating the place in a magical way.

The contrast between modern and antique architecture was marvelous and well balanced this will round off my knowledge of European architecture. It was time to eat so we chose a great deal of soup and traditional sausages along with some meaty filled tomatoes.

Köln: No sooner had I put foot down the train that got petrified by the presence of the monstrosity of a Cathedral there, it was huge and it was located just aside the station. The first I did was to go for shelter as it was raining, yeap I was in Germany again. While walking I discovered that the city was a bargain and decided to have some good food that night. I asked for the traditional dish of the city and they came with this big pork leg with fried chips and salad, for drinking I had the beer of the house. As usual in my trip the food was just amazing, but I ended packed so I had to walk the meal down.

The next day I enjoyed the shopping walk and realised that there’s no much to see around besides the Cathedral, just shops and restaurants. I finally decided to become a regular tourist and bought some trousers and shoes, and felt good about it as it was good value for money.

I’m now on my way back to Sweden and can’t stop thinking how much I have learnt from myself, I know myself better and tested my limits and got exposed to such harsh situations and ended victorious. I feel shattered though and would appreciate a good time sleeping and stop worrying about future destinations. It has been a long long adventure and I’m glad that it is coming to an end.

Malmö: From Köln to Malmö there’s a great distance but I had to make it as it was my last interRail day. So there I was almost a whole day locked up in a train anxious to register with my camera all seen through the window. I was surpriced to have forseen the weather again, it was only a matter of crossing out the borders and entering Denmark to see again clear skies. As done before, there was a Ferry connecting the two countries and enjoyed the view so much. The landscape in Denmark is unique, the bridges and the sea make it spectacular added this two-hour sunset with magical gradient of infinate orange colors in the horizon, after this you wont want to leave the place. After Denmark Malmö was fairly close and as usual I spent the night walking the city and enjoying the Swedish sunrise. I wanted to check the curved big building that is always advertised on Swedish TV, apparently it is an Icon for them, but found that it wasn’t so spectacular as thought. The city was cute, and the feeling of the old town was very similar than the experienced in San Sebastian, although I felt like walking in Uppsala. The walk along the sea gave me good inspiration to get ready to continue with the rutine that awaits once back in University. One could see the Öresund from there, it is a huge bridge connectingnDenmark and Sweden and it’s quite posh for its preaty long and it’s split in half part a bridge and half part undersea. After that at 5:17 am I took the high speed train x2000 of SJ up to Stockholm.

The landscape was beautiful, in Lund it was clear skies but Foggy and a brilliant circular pictured sun, covered in a pinky orange tone just there welcoming me from all my traveling. I must admit that I don't know the origins of the happiness felt when entering sweden. I don't think that it can just be the fact that my journey is over. On the contrary having experienced so many countries make me realise that I share a lot with the culture of this country and I love the way things are here. I found myself several times in my journey explaining to random people the good about the jauntelogan or the queueing system or how humble and friendly the swedes are. I share my passion for fika, and how it is not just about Coffey and desert. Sweden is a committed society that strives for the benefit of all its inhabitants. Not taking advantage of nature to satisfy its needs on the contrary they push themselves to recycle and introduce every year more alternative sources of clean energy. Finally there it was far in the horizon the shape of the church and to its side the castle of Uppsala. I felt so content of being here, I can explain when this happened but there is a powerful bond with this city and me now, and I can't wait to start with my studies and activities again! 

vacation is out!