(ed. note: I wrote this few days ago but I have not been able to get blogger to work for the last couple days. I had a crappy internet connection in Milan.)
From Paris, I headed to a friendly face and a great city. I headed to Frankfurt, Germany to stay with Tomas Herzberger. You might remember him from such places as the Digital Storytelling program in fall semester. Tomas showed me around his truly wonderful city.
I must say going in I was picturing Germany, especially Frankfurt, as very grey and bland. Really solid, functional architecture and just a very plain city. What I found was a relatively new city with an interesting mix of both exciting, progressive architecture and old city feel. Frankfurt is obviously much newer than most European cities. Most of it was destroyed during the war.
Anyway, Tomas was a fabulous tour guide. As soon as I met up with him at Frankfurt Main train station, we went out to the Frankfurt football field for the public viewing of the Germany-Italy world cup match. About 35,000 fans showed up to watch the match on big screen TV's in the center of the empty field. It was very interesting to me, an American football fan, to see just how big this is. Ohio State football has a pretty big following, but this is a whole country getting together to cheer on one team. It was great until the 118th minute when Italy scored the first of two goals in overtime to win and advance to the final. That was very disappointing.
Through out the next couple of days we did a number of very interesting things and I got to see alot of the Frankfurt area. First we walked all through downtown Frankfurt. We did everything from going up to the top of a modern skyscraper to looking at roman ruins within the city. The next day we when for a driving tour outside the city. We went through the hill country north of the city. This area was beautiful and reminded me a little bit of Shanedoah National Forest, except the hills weren't quite high enough. Coming out of the hill country we drove along the Rhine, which is the German wine country. Again just an amazing area. I really enjoyed. My last day in Frankfurt, we again went downtown. Tomas took me for a short tour of HR, Frankfurt's public television and radio facility. It was much nicer than any TV station I have seen in America, but I guess I have not seen too many stations that produced a lot of local content. Either way, it was a huge 20 building campus. My stay in Frankfurt ended with a nice homecooked meal. Tomas is more than just a tour guide. He is also a hell of a chef.
We went to breakfast in the morning and then I jumped the train to Milan, Italy, where I currently am. I will be here until tomorrow and then I head to Siena, Italy, where I will be staying for 6 nights.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Friday, July 07, 2006
Long week...
So needless to say it has been a long week. I have been having troubles finding time to do everything and as you can see the blog got relegated a back seat, but I have been keeping a very extensive journal.
Anyway the last time I posted here I was in Amsterdam. Now I am two stops away from there. After a couple nights in Amsterdam, I caught the train and headed southwest to Paris. I stayed in the Montmartre section, about two miles northeast of city centre. It is also home to the famous Sacre Coeur church. Sacre Coeur is on the top of a large hill and provides one of the most breathtaking views of Paris. Every night hundreds of tourists and locals head to Sacre Coeur to sit on the hill, watch the sunset and drink wine. It was an amazing area to stay in.
While in Paris I was able to go out and see alot of the sights, but also meet a number of very interesting people. The art in Paris is great. In the four days I was there I was able to go to both the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou (modern art). The Louvre, as you can guess, was mindboggling. I am not a huge fan of the Mona Lisa and I had never gotten what all the fuss was about, but to see, from 6 feet, the most famous painting in the world is an experience I will not forget. Le Centre Pompidou on the other hand had a lot of art I was very excited to see, including Picasso, Braque, Dali, etc. But they also had another huge section of video art and other new media kind of art. It was very, very cool. Although I must say Warhol ruined video art for me. I also did all the other tourist kind of things. I went to the the Arch de Triomphe and the Tour Eiffel. It was all very nice. But most of all I liked sitting around the cafe's reading my book, Kerouac's Lonely Traveler, and people watching.
The people I met were amaying. Most of them ended up being Americans living in Paris, but either way they gave me a view of Paris I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. For example, it was pointed out to me that the French are not really rude as much as just proper. The have systems. You should start every conversation with Bonjour Madame...then start talking. Too many people break that system and just start talking. This throws people off and they tend to be rude after that. I don't know. I still think they were a little rude. I also got the oppurtunity to be driven through the 12 point circle that goes around th Arch de Triomphe. That was incredible.
Anyway, this is dragging on to long. Paris was good to me. I then left Paris and headed down to Frankfurt, Germany to hang out with my friend Tomas and watch some World Cup football. I will try to post about my experiences in Germany tomorrow or Sunday.
Also I am leaving tomorrow to head to Milan, Italy. While in Milan I plan on seeing The Last Supper and watching Italy in the World Cup final. I am hoping they win. I think the party in the streets of Milan would make some great pictures.
Anyway the last time I posted here I was in Amsterdam. Now I am two stops away from there. After a couple nights in Amsterdam, I caught the train and headed southwest to Paris. I stayed in the Montmartre section, about two miles northeast of city centre. It is also home to the famous Sacre Coeur church. Sacre Coeur is on the top of a large hill and provides one of the most breathtaking views of Paris. Every night hundreds of tourists and locals head to Sacre Coeur to sit on the hill, watch the sunset and drink wine. It was an amazing area to stay in.
While in Paris I was able to go out and see alot of the sights, but also meet a number of very interesting people. The art in Paris is great. In the four days I was there I was able to go to both the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou (modern art). The Louvre, as you can guess, was mindboggling. I am not a huge fan of the Mona Lisa and I had never gotten what all the fuss was about, but to see, from 6 feet, the most famous painting in the world is an experience I will not forget. Le Centre Pompidou on the other hand had a lot of art I was very excited to see, including Picasso, Braque, Dali, etc. But they also had another huge section of video art and other new media kind of art. It was very, very cool. Although I must say Warhol ruined video art for me. I also did all the other tourist kind of things. I went to the the Arch de Triomphe and the Tour Eiffel. It was all very nice. But most of all I liked sitting around the cafe's reading my book, Kerouac's Lonely Traveler, and people watching.
The people I met were amaying. Most of them ended up being Americans living in Paris, but either way they gave me a view of Paris I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. For example, it was pointed out to me that the French are not really rude as much as just proper. The have systems. You should start every conversation with Bonjour Madame...then start talking. Too many people break that system and just start talking. This throws people off and they tend to be rude after that. I don't know. I still think they were a little rude. I also got the oppurtunity to be driven through the 12 point circle that goes around th Arch de Triomphe. That was incredible.
Anyway, this is dragging on to long. Paris was good to me. I then left Paris and headed down to Frankfurt, Germany to hang out with my friend Tomas and watch some World Cup football. I will try to post about my experiences in Germany tomorrow or Sunday.
Also I am leaving tomorrow to head to Milan, Italy. While in Milan I plan on seeing The Last Supper and watching Italy in the World Cup final. I am hoping they win. I think the party in the streets of Milan would make some great pictures.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)