wishful thinking
(written... sometime last week, i suppose)
so, computer. it's been a long time since i've talked at you. i would say it's because i've been out and about, doing and seeing all paris has to offer. but that would be a lie; it's mostly been because my work is too time-consuming and my stories are too uninteresting. but now, two pages into my 43 for this afternoon (erm, not to mention a few chapters from some book that i'm not even going to touch), i've gotten the urge to ramble a bit. and mia's around, sure, but she knows all my stories already.
where to begin? it seems i last wrote about... berlin? man, i've visited three more countries since then; i'm sorry for being so delinquent!
but before i get ahead of myself, cannes. i'm sure you've heard of it from the film festival. cannes is a lovely resort town in the south of france, though we didn't go in the peak season, thankfully. mia and i declared the weekend our "honeymoon" trip, and what a honeymoon it was! our hotel was a-fuckin-dorable, overlooking a quaint courtyard and complete with a cat. it was also within walking distance of the train station, which was a special bonus since we couldn't figure out how to work the buses.
throughout the weekend, we wandered and browsed and shopped in narrow streets (which thankfully weren't too crowded). we waded in the mediterranean, ate lots of seafood (i had mussels everyday, no lie), and accidentally wandered up to a monastery-turned-museum. we also found an open-air market within spitting distance of our hotel, full of the most tasty-looking fruit i have ever seen, bread and pastries, vegetables, meats, cheeses, flowers... everything that causes joy, really. and from what we could both tell, many people in the market were locals. imagine, for a second, what it must be like to wake up everyday, breathe in fresh mediterranean air, then go to the market everyday for your produce. cannes is not a place i would ever live—i don't particularly like resort towns—but holy shit, do the cannes-ians know how to live! and, for yet another bonus, we didn't have papers to write! it felt like a real vacation. aaaah, give me a moment to bask in the memory.
...
ok, i've gotten ahold of myself. so, amsterdam. the first part of the trip was negatively affected by the papers we had to write... but don't worry, we took plenty of study breaks. the center of the city is tiny; wherever you want to go is probably a 5- to 15-minute wander from where you are, though your journey might be delayed because you stop by every neon-blazing coffee shop you see.
i can't fully judge amsterdam as a city, since i wasn't there long and didn't ride any public transit, but i must mention two things i was bothered by. for one, bike and car and pedestrian paths are all clearly marked, and often in ways that felt restrictive and counterintuitive to me. i rather disliked the whole "walk on the big white path!" deal; i'm much more of a jaywalker. and two, there was a coldness that couldn't be explained by the weather. it was german-esque in that everyone was minding their own business and not messing in yours, but it was isolating because there was no community, no sense that people cared about each other and their city.
granted, everyone was out on the streets, partying and having a great time! (and our hostel room, located on the fourth floor of a building that was one block west of capital-t The red light district, definitely gave us a great view of people partying at any hour of the night or day). but the great time that everyone was having was definitely their own; everyone was in their own head, at their own party, with their own friends. it was frustrating to finally be in a city with plenty of english-speakers and not have any spontaneous human interaction. (it's not that nobody talked to us, but when they did they usually began with a list of languages to see which one we'd perk up at the mention of, then proposition us for sex. uh.). so yes, full of tourists and lacking community, but banging nevertheless. so banging, in fact, that i'll be going back this friday!
barcelona and thanksgiving and dublin are forthcoming. but before i leave, music!
let me preface this by saying that the latest version of itunes looks like hell, but i'm not too upset. and why, you ask? because i used ipod rip with jean baptiste's sweet music connection the other day, and i now have lots of new (to me!) music.
right now, wilco is rocking my face off (yes, jessemr, i know you gave me some wilco over the summer. but it's somehow better coming from a frenchman). i really want to hear rainer maria's "rise," though, but i suppose that can wait a few more weeks.
and in conclusion, every morning i walk through a door that says "douches."
so, computer. it's been a long time since i've talked at you. i would say it's because i've been out and about, doing and seeing all paris has to offer. but that would be a lie; it's mostly been because my work is too time-consuming and my stories are too uninteresting. but now, two pages into my 43 for this afternoon (erm, not to mention a few chapters from some book that i'm not even going to touch), i've gotten the urge to ramble a bit. and mia's around, sure, but she knows all my stories already.
where to begin? it seems i last wrote about... berlin? man, i've visited three more countries since then; i'm sorry for being so delinquent!
but before i get ahead of myself, cannes. i'm sure you've heard of it from the film festival. cannes is a lovely resort town in the south of france, though we didn't go in the peak season, thankfully. mia and i declared the weekend our "honeymoon" trip, and what a honeymoon it was! our hotel was a-fuckin-dorable, overlooking a quaint courtyard and complete with a cat. it was also within walking distance of the train station, which was a special bonus since we couldn't figure out how to work the buses.
throughout the weekend, we wandered and browsed and shopped in narrow streets (which thankfully weren't too crowded). we waded in the mediterranean, ate lots of seafood (i had mussels everyday, no lie), and accidentally wandered up to a monastery-turned-museum. we also found an open-air market within spitting distance of our hotel, full of the most tasty-looking fruit i have ever seen, bread and pastries, vegetables, meats, cheeses, flowers... everything that causes joy, really. and from what we could both tell, many people in the market were locals. imagine, for a second, what it must be like to wake up everyday, breathe in fresh mediterranean air, then go to the market everyday for your produce. cannes is not a place i would ever live—i don't particularly like resort towns—but holy shit, do the cannes-ians know how to live! and, for yet another bonus, we didn't have papers to write! it felt like a real vacation. aaaah, give me a moment to bask in the memory.
...
ok, i've gotten ahold of myself. so, amsterdam. the first part of the trip was negatively affected by the papers we had to write... but don't worry, we took plenty of study breaks. the center of the city is tiny; wherever you want to go is probably a 5- to 15-minute wander from where you are, though your journey might be delayed because you stop by every neon-blazing coffee shop you see.
i can't fully judge amsterdam as a city, since i wasn't there long and didn't ride any public transit, but i must mention two things i was bothered by. for one, bike and car and pedestrian paths are all clearly marked, and often in ways that felt restrictive and counterintuitive to me. i rather disliked the whole "walk on the big white path!" deal; i'm much more of a jaywalker. and two, there was a coldness that couldn't be explained by the weather. it was german-esque in that everyone was minding their own business and not messing in yours, but it was isolating because there was no community, no sense that people cared about each other and their city.
granted, everyone was out on the streets, partying and having a great time! (and our hostel room, located on the fourth floor of a building that was one block west of capital-t The red light district, definitely gave us a great view of people partying at any hour of the night or day). but the great time that everyone was having was definitely their own; everyone was in their own head, at their own party, with their own friends. it was frustrating to finally be in a city with plenty of english-speakers and not have any spontaneous human interaction. (it's not that nobody talked to us, but when they did they usually began with a list of languages to see which one we'd perk up at the mention of, then proposition us for sex. uh.). so yes, full of tourists and lacking community, but banging nevertheless. so banging, in fact, that i'll be going back this friday!
barcelona and thanksgiving and dublin are forthcoming. but before i leave, music!
let me preface this by saying that the latest version of itunes looks like hell, but i'm not too upset. and why, you ask? because i used ipod rip with jean baptiste's sweet music connection the other day, and i now have lots of new (to me!) music.
right now, wilco is rocking my face off (yes, jessemr, i know you gave me some wilco over the summer. but it's somehow better coming from a frenchman). i really want to hear rainer maria's "rise," though, but i suppose that can wait a few more weeks.
and in conclusion, every morning i walk through a door that says "douches."
posted by lauren at 4:36 PM
1 Comments:
Wow...we had totally different takes on Amsterdam. Maybe because when I talked to people I didn't preposition them for sex, and they weren't interested in prepositioning me, and they were all refreshingly delighted by the change?
I wish you could have come with me to my bar...I was slightly in love with the bartender who worked there, but then she went off duty for three nights and I may never see her again. Copenhagen not worth the trip, at least not in winter.
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