TravelStream™ news feed for member jmdevine on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jmdevine en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:37:47 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1151836920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1151836920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1151836920/tpod.html Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:37:47 -0400 France 2006-2007

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Prague, Czech Republic

Prague - July 1st-2nd If Munich reminded me of Epcot's international areas (which it did a bit), Prague resembled them even more, but mostly because of the unbelievable profusion of tourists and tourism-related business. I couldn't pick out more than a handful or two of authentic Czech experiences that the typical tourist would have in this city. BUT...what a beautiful city it is, and what a great time you can have there!Our Prague experience didn't start out so great, though. After our crack-of-dawn flight from Munich, we were tired, in need of currency exchange (the Czech Republic doesn't use the Euro; rather, its currency is the Crown, one of which equals about $.04-$.05), and didn't have a clue where our pension (small, simple hotel) was located. Thankfully, the Prague airport caters somewhat well to tourists, and we quickly found an ATM and the best route to our small, simple hotel. Prague has a decent public transportation system; the only fault I found was that it wasn't so tourist-friendly, in that it could have been cleaner and had more foreign-language information (yes, this is coming from the same person who just complained that the city was too touristy). For Kč20 each, we took the airport bus to the end of the line, which put us directly on the subway, and with one transfer, we were at our destination. This is where the problems begin.The transit map we received at the airport showed a tourist information office just next to where we got off the subway. After walking around for an hour, all I had found was a small tourist "information" business - a for-profit place that tries to get you on certain tours; not the city's office. Finally we found some map kiosks on the sidewalk and were able to find the location of our pension's street (on the map, anyway). From there, it took us another long while to actually find this street on the ground, and then to locate the building itself. Since we arrived so early, the desk staff was not sure whether the room was ready, so she told us to come back soon. We marched, or rather dragged ourselves, off and popped into a small internet café. Lo and behold, our room was ready when we got back to the hotel a half-hour later, and we checked in, dumped our bags, and hit the sidewalks. Wow, Prague has a great urban form and some beautiful architecture! With no plan in mind except to see the city, we roamed around for several hours before heading back toward our hotel for lunch at a nearby pizzeria. On our way around town, we saw an outside wedding that at first seemed to match our perceptions of what would be "typically Czech". Upon noticing that the happy couple had procured a Hummer H2 for their big day, we assumed that they were just a couple of jerks, and hoped they weren't American (we'd like our country to be better represented, maybe with folks being chauffeured by a hybrid or even a bicycle taxi).The pizza was very good, and the beer, I think a Krusoviče, was phenomenal (especially for the equivalent of about eighty cents). The only interesting part of our lunch experience was the care and precision with which first one person, and then several more, chalked the nearby strip club's daily sign. It took them (the number of people rose and fell) about twenty minutes to draw in two small flags and write that their establishment would be televising the England-Portugal quarter-final match. During this time, a rather large group of what appeared to be Japanese tourists stopped and admired the handiwork, many requesting pictures with the artists. After lunch, we decided to go check out the famous Charles Bridge over the Vltava River. If you've never seen a picture of this bridge, I'd be extremely surprised, but it's amazing. There are 30 statues from the eighteenth century along the bridge, all of which are impressive in their design and craftsmanship, and only two or three of which have been recently cleaned. Fortunately, the grimy ones look much better than the others, and add a more authentic feel to the bridge. The thing about Karlův Most is that there are so many people on it that not only can you barely cross it; you can't help but wonder if the bridge was engineered for this kind of load. Throwing aside thoughts of falling into the foreboding waters below, you walk across and are awed by the city's personality. We crossed from our hotel's Nové Mĕsto ("New" Town - actually founded in 1348) neighborhood into the Mála Strana, or Little Quarter. Looking across the river, you notice the powerful Prague Castle and the Basilica of St. George, and upon crossing the bridge, see that nearly everyone headed in your direction also seek these two sights. Instead of spending most of our time and money at the castle, we decided to walk through the free public parts, watch plenty of tourists mess with the royal guards (one of whom noticeably raised his eyebrows and made other gestures when people did things that amused him), and move on. Lonely Planet pointed us in the right direction, and we visited the indescribably, magnificently, awesomely beautiful St. Nicholas Church. I've seen a lot of churches, especially living in Europe, and I can really get tired of the old routine of high ceilings, ornate pulpits, huge organs, and such, but this place puts all of that aside. The arches leading up the ceiling, and the fresco itself, are meant to give the impression not only of being out-of-doors, but of watching heaven. The pastel colors of the granite walls, arches, columns, and details range from mint green to pink, and the angles and curves of the structures themselves are astounding. Then there are the milky-white marble statues, the golden cherubs and trim of the columns, and warm oranges, reds, and yellows that accent the arches. This church is worth checking out, especially for Kč30 each.By the time we had examined the church sufficiently, we were exhausted from the combination of virtually no sleep the previous night and a full day of sightseeing, so we decided to go take a nap and then get dinner. Sleeping more than we intended, the sun was just starting to set when we found one of the restaurants that happycow.com users had recommended, Clear Head. The atmosphere was great - the ceiling was set up like you were eating under the stars, the lights were low, and the table surfaces were illuminated from below. Our food was very good as well. We shared sautéed vegetables and a quesadilla, and each drank a special mix of apple and carrot juices with ginger. We missed out on the advertised discounts for being a holy person or enlightened one.Now it was time to go find a bar and watch Brazil advance to the semi-finals by handing the French side their heads. After a close game full of blunders by both teams, and several more extraordinary, cheap beers, France ended up the winner, and was set to meet up with Portugal in a few days. The streets were packed with blue shirts and plenty of "Allez les Bleus" again, and the city was in a very lively mood. We felt that perhaps our naps had been enough to fortify us against exhaustion for long enough to find a club (which is not such a difficult task in Prague), and moved toward our hotel and further on to the center of activity. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Having hit the pavement for just a half-hour, maybe slightly more, we decided to tromp back to our hotel and sleep off our lack of motivation. The next morning, Sunday, was beautiful: cool enough not to be too warm, warm enough not to be too cool, so what to do but walk around? First on our list was the Astronomical Clock ("astronomical" in the planetary sense; it was not a particularly gigantic clock). Since we missed the hourly "show" that the clock puts on, we were a bit in the dark about what it actually does and how it actually works. As far as we can tell, it's a pretty neat clock nonetheless. Next up was the Jewish quarter, characterized by some more great architecture, really walkable streets with what seemed to be lots of cool shops (although most are closed Sundays), and a few synagogues. There was a rather large group of Spaniards touristing away outside of the Spanish Synagogue, where there stands an interesting statue that has something (though I can't remember what) to do with Kafka, a Prague native.Walking back toward the Charles Bridge, we got some great views of the Palace and some other things across the river. Much to our surprise and delight, there was an international parade, small in size and limited to the nearby public square, we thought. Nope, wrong again. This parade seemed to be endless, and we kept walking on against its flow, and saw countries from all over Eastern and Central Europe plus some other (mostly English-speaking) areas represented. Garb included everything from traditional looking dresses to really funny short shorts and tight shirts on some schoolchildren, walking to typical parade marches from several bands. Back across the Charles, we took a great picture of one of the statues that looks like "The Buddy Jesus" from Dogma (a great movie to rent if you haven't seen it) and moved on to Kampa Park, which was written up in the Lonely Planet. Actually situated on an island, Kampa is a nice break from the city, i.e., the swarms of tourists, and has some interesting sculptures along its paths and trails. Lunchtime again, and this time we tried to eat at one of the vegetarian restaurants from our list, but it was closed, so we returned to our old buddies next to the strip club for some pizza. Having already checked out of Pension Tara, we grabbed our bags from the tiny reception area, which by that time was literally full of luggage, and asked the best way to get to the main train station. The woman replied, "which one?" to which we answered, "huh?" Apparently, Prague has two main stations, and while I was looking for our train ticket in my bag, I mentioned that while I couldn't remember the name, I did retain that it started with H. This was not helpful since both stations start with H, but our ticket thankfully noted the correct station and off we walked to the metro. After a brief transfer onto a train that was packed with parade people still dressed traditionally, we arrived at the station with enough time to grab a beer, a pin for Meredith, and a patch for me, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that we had indeed visited the Czech Republic (never mind our passport stamps).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1160752860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1160752860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1160752860/tpod.html Wed, 30 May 2007 11:22:05 -0400 France 2006-2007

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Barcelona, Spain

This entry is probably going to be full of errors and omissions, as I'm writing it after returning home to Athens on May 30, 2007 - seven months past our time in Barcelona. Went to Barcelona for a conference of Meredith's that was taking place in Mallorca, an island in the Mediterranean Sea east of the Spanish mainland. We drove from Aussurucq to Barcelona, which took somewhere between five an seven hours, and found our little hotel ("pension" - kind of like an older version of a hostel but typically with private rooms). This place was a bit of a disappointment, especially since the beds (two different-sized single beds set up next to each other) took up basically the entire room. Barcelona is absolutely beautiful. The architecture and layout of the city are both typical of the Spanish towns we've visited, in that the buildings are very often four to six stories high, featuring all sorts of ornate detail work and being laid-out to create fantastic pedestrian spaces. Street trees are important, as is public art. The city is fairly easy to see on a bicycle, though it isn't perfect: traffic can be heavy and fast (this is Spain), and one-way streets and other peculiarities make navigation a chore in places. The subway system seemed pretty good, as did the bus network. I'm not sure whether there was a light-rail/tram system. The city's beaches are very accessible to the heart of town, and they seem to be well used. I have heard that the water quality of the Mediterranean, especially along the mainland coasts, is not so great, but that didn't seem to stop lots of folks from swimming. No real waves to speak of, from what I can remember. Similar to the Basque Country, (Pais Vasco in Spanish), Barcelona is situated in Catalunya, another of Spain's historically and culturally separate regions that (I think) would also like its independence. In the middle of the 20th century, the Spanish dictator Franco imposed severe restrictions on the expression of anything having to do with these unique and interesting cultures, and there were many atrocities committed in the name of nationalism. Part of our bike tour around the city focused on these problems of the city's history, and it was extremely interesting to hear about the changes that happened with both the rise and fall of Franco. Other highlights of the tour included Barcelona's own "triumphant arc" and a stop at Gaudi's famous cathedral, which is projected to be completed sometime in the 73rd century as far as I can tell. What a bizarre building. I recall vaguely that years after work was started, the architect's plans were either stolen or lost in a fire, and they hired a new person to recommence work after lots of idle time. This to me was a mistake: the building now resembles a Star Wars scene. Other activities that Meredith and I had fun doing were going to the Roman ruins of the old city and visiting the contemporary art museum, which is a great building, but I can't remember the quality of their collection. Sorry for the loss of recall. The thing about Barcelona that stuck out to me the most was that it was incredibly packed with tourists, even in October, and hot. I couldn't imagine the combination of much increased heat and numbers of visitors that one might find in July! While I wouldn't hesitate to go back to Barcelona, I think I would pick carefully what time of year that might happen - probably December or March would be great. No Ronaldinho sightings.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1169906580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1169906580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1169906580/tpod.html Sun, 04 Feb 2007 15:50:55 -0500 France 2006-2007

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Montpellier, France

Not long before she had to leave, I decided to accompany Meredith to Montpellier for two nights, where she was attending a conference on conservation programs. We drove the hour-and-a-half to Pau, Meredith sat in on her required seminar at the University, and then hopped on a train, arriving in Montpellier early in the evening. Since it was dark out and just about dinner time, we decided to put off the majority of the photo-taking for another time, but couldn't resist snapping a few shots of the lit-up Place de la Comedie and its magnificent theater building. After a quick drink at a weak excuse for a beer bar, we ended up at a Chinese/Thai restaurant with some good food and a lying waiter, who insisted the dessert was more expensive than I recalled from the menu, which I used to confirm my memory on the way out the door. Two euros robbed, just like that! The food was good, so we can't complain too much, though a small dog kept pestering us and barked at me when I put my hand out to let it come up to me. Went back to the hotel, which was very nice and located within throwing distance of the completely over-extended, under-funded train station, and went to bed. While Meredith spent the entire day at the conference, I decided to enjoy the beautiful but freezing weather to walk as much of town as I could. Started out with a cheap, filling breakfast of a croissant, some hot cocoa, yogurt, and juice at the Café du Théatre, just trying to get a handle on what to aim for all day from our travel book. [Just as a note: I would never, ever recommend Lonely Planet if you're looking for a guide book. Ours have consistently been wrong about locations, prices, and lots of other things; Let's Go seems more accurate.] After dropping off the bulky book in our room, I spent a little time looking for, and passing two or three times, the free Musee du Vieux Montpellier (museum of the old city). Its four or five rooms, located on the upper storey, are worth checking out, but the building that houses it is really what impressed me the most. Stone-arched, open-air hallways on the entry level give way to a large courtyard and some smaller ones (one of which is part of a pretty high-brow restaurant). Exhibits in the museum ranged from a restored example of a mid-teen-century sitting room to some great maps and plans of the city from various eras. The direction could use these to make some very interesting development and expansion displays, but right now they're sort of thrown on whatever wall best fits them. My next destination was the plaza/promenade between the Arc de Triomphe (1692, according to LP) and the 18th century water tower and its expansive aqueduct, all combining for a really fantastic example of monumental (and functional) open-space. The Arc is not as large or impressive as Paris', but both the water tower and the aqueduct that feeds it are as beautiful as they are practical - they were constructed to provide water to every fountain in the city's many plazas. The visible part of the tower itself is basically a monument in itself, so I assume that the water is actually stored underneath. The streets in this area are very formal and manicured, and are home to many institutional uses such as a courthouse and various university buildings. A very large crucifixion statue stands in an island in the street, and bicycles, buses, pedestrians, and cars all have their separate spaces, though pedestrians and scooters clog the bike lanes pretty ruthlessly. Walking along the perimeter of the plant garden, which was built for students at the medical school (supposedly Europe's first - 12th c.) to study botany, is very nice, and as you go downhill toward the bulk of the university, you notice more and more cheap restaurants, convenience stores, and other businesses that cater to students. For lunch, I stopped by a vegetarian restaurant called Tripti Kulai, a mixed-bag of different cuisines, staffed by very reserved, sari-wearing women (who are probably French, but not very "French" with their conspicuous absence of jeans tucked into boots and cigarettes waving everywhere - in fact, I'm not sure smoking was even allowed there). [Another note: I think as of today, smoking is prohibited inside in public areas in all of France, but we'll see if that actually happens.] The food was good - I got a Golden Bowl (an Athens/Grit tradition)-style mix of rice, tofu, grains, and veggies with just the right amount of soy sauce and a bit of dried fruit for kicks. Hoping to find out about transportation options to the Pont du Gard, a Roman-era (Roman-built, even) aqueduct outside the city, I hit the tourist office. Not much luck there, since people didn't really seem to know very much. Being right next to the huge shopping mall that LP mentioned, intrigued, I made my way east to "Le Polygone", which really is very large, especially for center-city Europe. I think there were four levels, maybe five, plus some smaller peripheral plazas as well. Lots of people, and I'm pretty sure I counted four different "Paul" café-patisseries on the various levels. The real reason for stopping by this mall was that it was on my way to the much larger - gigantic - planned development just next-door. "Antigone" is basically a quarter or neighborhood of its own, with several clusters of very large mainly-residential buildings with ground-floor retail or office space, its own natatorium, and some governmental headquarters. According to LP, it was designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill. My take on it is that for new development, it's really nice (especially the architecture in some places), and almost blends in to Montpellier's feel, BUT it's way too clean and uniform, like you would expect from a large project designed by a solitary person. Still, it does a good job of concentrating people close to the city center, and is served very well by Montpellier's excellent transit system. Good segue: deciding I'd already walked my tail off, I decided to hop on the tram from the outer reaches of Antigone back to the Place de la Comedie. Tickets are cheap, service is frequent, the ride is fast, and the entire system is brand new, so the cars are clean and fresh. It seems to be really popular with seniors, and you'll find a pretty diverse cross-section of the city riding at any given time. Getting off the tram, I found a protest against GMO food (genetically-modified organisms, or OGM "en francais"), which was kind of funny - not the message, but the fact that half the people were dressed up as different farm animals such as cows, roosters, chickens, sheep, and a very shiny pink pig. Moving on...decided to go find the Crypt Museum, which also deals with Montpellier's history, but this time in a more physical sense, tied mostly to the specific relationship of the city and its former Notre Dame des Tables cathedral. So, I took the logical steps: found it on the map, took a course toward it, arrived at the location, and looked around. And looked around, and looked around. Then I realized that the strange glass three-walled enclosure I had inadvertently walked into (not bumped into, actually entered and had to turn around due to the fact that I was surrounded on three sides) the night before now had no floor, but instead, steps down into the sub-surface. To explain, there's a moving cover, basically a plate, that is closed at night and open during operating hours, to provide access to the museum, which as a crypt is appropriately located underground. It's a very cool place, complete with some absolutely fantastic and innovative displays, but I'm not sure I'd bill it as a crypt since there was not only no semblance of, but really no reference to dead people, tombs, or the like, at all. Nevertheless, my euro and change were well spent, and I learned a little bit too. I decided it was about time to go meet Meredith back at the hotel, and sought out a crepe with Nutella for a pre-dinner snack on the way. We stopped by an English bookstore she had seen earlier in the day, had some hot cider, and browsed the collection for a while before finding the Italian restaurant/pizzeria we saw the night before. It wasn't bad, but I was a little disappointed all-around, with both the pizza and the pasta. Anyway, seeing as it was cold and we hadn't really slept well, we decided to call it a night and go back to base. The next morning, I scarfed down the basically frozen remains of the pizza, which had been preserving on the balcony all night, and walked down to the train station to see if they had better information on how best to get to the Pont do Gard. They didn't. Instead, I decided I'd buy the transit day-pass (again, cheap at just over three euros) and wander around. On the map, I noticed what seemed to be a big new development at the very last stop eastward on the blue line (Line 1 of two), and thought that might be interesting. Inasmuch as it reminded me of yet another SoCal shopping center or Disney restaurant cluster, I guess it was interesting, but nothing so spectacular. I got off the tram halfway back to town at a stop just next to the river, where there is a great park with cycling paths leading all the way back to the city center and the other way to the beaches (at least, the directional signs pointed to those destinations). Pretty typically for Europe, the river is entirely channelized, but it's a nice place even so, complete with a large pedestrian/bicycle-only bridge over the river. This area is one of several where the two tramlines intersect, so I opted this time for Line 2, and rode to its northern terminus at what I can only say was nowhere. My best guess is that the large building nearby was a school of some sort, but the rest of the landscape was basically a parking lot. The interesting thing about this ride was that though the rails were obviously already laid, virtually everything else was still under construction. Most of the line went through less developed areas, and so there was plenty of space to pair it with two-way bike paths for much of this leg. This is a good way to encourage development to occur where you want it. Meredith and I had said previously that if we were in the area we'd both stop by the hotel to meet up for lunch, and lo and behold, we were both there. Turns out she completely ditched the conference for lack of substantial content she hadn't already seen, and after having some falafel for lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon on the streets and back in the English bookstore, boarded the train, and were completely exhausted by the time we got home around midnight, though very impressed with this really awesome city. I'd certainly put it near the top of my list for France, but it's more of an attraction to want to live there than to be a tourist again for lack of tons of things to do. The only caveat is that the city's art museum has been closed for a couple years due to renovations, and will reopen I think on February 4th (just three days from now). So maybe I'll go back if the opportunity arises. The only thing is, the French train system is so damn expensive that this is probably not very likely. But get me some better French skills and the right to have a job here, and I wouldn't mind living in Montpellier for a couple years...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1169260140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1169260140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1169260140/tpod.html Mon, 29 Jan 2007 08:06:10 -0500 France 2006-2007

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Aussurucq, France

I realized that despite the overwhelming amount of entries about the places we've traveled, I haven't written much about where we live. Aussurucq is a very isolated village of about 260 people deep in the southwest corner of France. It is a very Basque town, with most people having learned Basque before French. This can make for some difficulties in understanding spoken French since the accent is very strong and we usually learn the "standard" accent of a language in school. It probably compares to someone learning American English and then visiting the UK - for me, even words that I know well can be very difficult to distinguish in conversation. Despite the occasional language barrier, I really enjoy living here now that we've settled in and my French skills are at least good enough to fumble around. The people, Basques especially, are extremely friendly, welcoming, accepting, and knowledgeable of lots of other cultures. We have made friends with a few families throughout Aussurucq, one of which has really gone out of their way to make us feel at home here. On Mondays, I go to what I can only call "gym class" in another village with these folks, whose two boys usually come along and stay with their aunt while the rest of us are working out and playing basketball. Fridays, I practice with the soccer team in Mauleon, a larger town down the road about fifteen minutes. I'm not to the point of playing yet, nor will I probably ever be, but the kids (mostly 19-22, but some are my own age) are good company. Most seem to really like showing off their English - sometimes impressive, usually not, but always a nice gesture - and one even knew that I was from Albany when I told him that I grew up in New York's capital city...definitely surprising. The scenery around here is very pretty. Out our back door is the beginning of the foothills of the Pyrenees, just behind the field that our friend Beñat - Basque for Bernard - uses to let his cows graze. Since a good many of the people living here raise sheep or cows (or both, and/or horses), it's a very modified landscape. Even many hillsides are grazed to the point of bareness, and very few forested areas remain, but like I said, it is still quite pretty to look at. One interesting fact about agriculture here is that not many people own contiguous land, and hence must walk their cattle, sheep, or horses down the roads to get from place to place. This necessitates not only some heads-up driving to avoid obliterating a herd as the roads are very twisty and curvy, but also a good amount of precaution when walking anywhere with shoes that you'd prefer to keep clean. Another noteworthy detail is that the people who do this for a living are typically very attached to their animals to the point of sometimes becoming emotional and sentimental when one is sick or needs to be brought to the slaughterhouse, or when they remember an old favorite (Beñat has a picture of one on his fridge, for example). It really seems like most of these "paysans" (country-people, but really, people who make a living off agriculture) love their jobs, and though they are mostly men, some of women would like to quit their town jobs and join their husbands with the animals. I can't write about Aussurucq without bringing up our landlady. At first, I joked about her being crazy because of her incessant need to be doing something, fast, at all times. She speaks French to me faster than I am capable of speaking English, even though she knows it is difficult for me to understand. She has a small dog that she makes use a litter box instead of the great outdoors. She has a riding lawnmower for not much more grass that we have at our house in Athens, which I easily cut with my corded electric mower, and she prunes shrubs, pulls weeds, and then burns the remains in the front yard, no worries about the large charred/singed area it leaves behind, let alone our immense discomfort of breathing in smoke for almost twenty-four hours. Come to find out, she really does have some problems and has spent a decent amount decent amount of time hospitalized in the recent past. Meredith and I have a regular jogging route, though we don't often do it together because of different running styles. Almost half of it winds through the dump, but ironically, this is a very good thing in that the landfill is largely empty of waste and is mostly grazing or fern-growing land for the paysans. It's about 3.6 miles with far too many hills, including a treacherous one to finish off the route, and my goal is to break thirty minutes - I was at about 30:45 before we went away for the holidays, and I'm now almost a minute slower. I'd complain if I ran often enough to be surprised by my inability to progress, but since I only do this once, maybe twice a week (plus gym class and soccer practice), I can't really say that I'm in training mode. My days are generally spent reading (I read the French version of the fifth Harry Potter book, whose 670 pages took a little while), at the computer looking for jobs back in Athens (will go back once I find the right gig), playing guitar, taking a run/walk/hike, or drooling over new places to travel from here. I finally read my first-semester planning history book that's been collecting dust since 2001, and I'm hoping to start mapping out some of the trails around here using the GPS receiver Mere's father got me for Christmas. Meredith is usually interviewing someone (at their farm or on the phone), entering data from her interviews, reading, or running/doing yoga. Although I miss Athens from time to time, this place is really growing on me, and I feel like I'm getting to know what living here is all about.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1169985000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1169985000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jmdevine/france_2005-06/1169985000/tpod.html Mon, 29 Jan 2007 07:24:55 -0500 France 2006-2007

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Arette, France

Meredith and I went skiing yesterday at La Pierre, in the French Pyrenees. It was my first time on snow skis since I was about 14 years old, though I had snowboarded a few times several years ago. The place is beautiful, with views of and from the Pyrenees that will make you stop every couple minutes just to look around. Since I haven't skied for so long, I'm not sure if this is unique to France/Europe, or if it's across-the-board at the slopes, but the lift tickets were pretty strange. You put them in your pocket and head through a turnstile, which has a sensor that lets you pass when it reads your valid ticket. It took me several runs to realize that you weren't supposed to try to get it to read by contorting your body to bring the pass as near to the sensor as possible; it just happens, and it worked much better after that. Still, it seems strange to have such high-tech equipment for an activity that really hasn't changed much over the years. The skiing itself was very good. Packed powder nearly everywhere, though several trails were closed due to lack of snow; some had bare patches, and there was a very little bit of ice - nothing to compare to the slopes I grew up skiing in NY and New England, which seemed to have more ice than snow. The only real bad point was that some of the bare patches were very rocky, but that wasn't such a concern since we were using rental skis. Speaking of which, they were those new curved skis, which I hear are supposed to help in one way or another - I saw them more as an impediment to turning compared to the old-school straight style, but that could just be because of how long it had been since my last runs. I fared better than I would have guessed after such an absence. The first couple runs were tentative but controlled, and the only time I was in over my head was when we had to go through a crazy re-route (to avoid a grassy slope) that looked and felt more like a mountain bike trail with its width and penchant for making us turn more than going straight. Meredith did a great job; I was impressed with her skill and fearlessness! On the whole, it was great to get out there after so many years, and my knees didn't hurt nearly as much as I was expecting. Not something to do every week, but I'll be back more frequently than every decade and a half, I think.
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Taos, New Mexico, United States

Taos
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Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Vegas
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Whitefish, Montana, United States

Glacier
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Calgary
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Missoula, Montana, United States

Missoula
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