Days Quatre-Vingt-Quatre, Quatre-Vingt-Cinq et Quatre-Vingt-Six

So it was off like a herd of turtles I went to leave Strasbourg. After going tram-tram-bus to get to Kehl I did end up making my train (although not in as much spare time as I thought I would) to Cologne. It was a straight through ride, nice and peaceful.

I arrived in Cologne and found the tourist information bureau to start and got myself a map. After some directions from both an employee at the bureau and a random passer-by on the street, I did indeed find it.



Now I’d like to tell you that I did a lot of sightseeing in Cologne. That would be an utter lie. I mean to, I really did. However I was there for one purpose: a game show.



Back in May I wrote away to Wer Wird Millionar in hopes of getting tickets. Normally there would be a two year wait for tickets however after a few back and forth phone calls and emails I got a ticket! So finally the day had arrived. I got to the studio early, at 5 pm for a 5.45 ticket pickup. Interestingly, this is the first time I’ve ever had to pay for a ticket – 24 Euros (that’s about 40 bucks), not that it really mattered. It turned out to be a longer wait than expected, although they gave everyone a chip for a free drink. I kept mine… it was worth sacrificing a 2 Euro glass of sprite.

Around 7 pm we were lead into the studio. Everyone was assigned seating – and I lucked out once again. Second row, on the aisle, closest to the host and contestant’s entrance. SCORE! Plus it was within viewing of the “fastest finger” seats. The German version, unlike the US daily version, still has this feature. They use touch screens, no slapping of buttons.

The warm up comedian came out and was very entertaining. The lady sitting next to me said she was the biggest fan of Gunther Jauch, and just her mannerisms made me laugh. The comedian asked me why I was laughing and I responded with “I don’t speak German very much!”. To which he switched to English, and I explained that I was a Canadian who used to watch the show on cable in France. Which caused the audience to applaud, they were very impressed!

Shortly thereafter Gunther Jauch came out to much applause. He is a very respected celebrity in German and is great at presenting the show when I’ve been able to see it online. I was pointed out again by the comedian, and Gunther was amazed that I was in the audience to see the show. This would play well, as you’ll come to see.

The show started around 8 pm . The first episode started with a Fastest Finger question, as there was no carryover question. I had forgotten how long it took to record an hour long program (an hour, fact) as when I saw syndie Millionaire in NYC it went really quickly. Due to the camera shot, I was visible EVERY SINGLE TIME when a question got asked. Lucky placement I guess!

One of the coolest things that the German version started a few years back ago was the “Ask someone in the audience” lifeline, for lack of a better term. The contestant can have this lifeline, but they give up their second safe point (16 000 Euros), and must declare at the start if they wish to play this option. Everyone did during my tapings. If you think you know the answer to the question when the contestant uses this lifeline, you stand up, and if you are picked, you chat with them one on one. If you are right and the contestant locks in your answer, you win 500 Euros! Sadly I only knew about four questions the entire night (with the language barrier and all, you know) so I didn’t end up standing up.

After the horns went to announce the end of the first show, I was talked to again… they asked me if Canada was good at soccer. Well, I explained, it’s not that people don’t play, it’s just that we’re not that great! We also had a funny exchange to do with one of the questions whereby I revealed that the English version of the German word “pottashe” is indeed “potash” which indeed lead to mass hilarity in the audience.

The second show went quite well as well. I was asked off the cuff during the show if I would recommend Alaska as a tourist destination… I don’t think it’ll make the edit though! No massively big winners, but I will make my German television debut on Monday, December 14th and then will appear in exactly the same outfit, having apparently slept in the studio on Monday December 21st. If anyone knows someone who can tape these for me, I would greatly appreciate it! Leave a comment at the bottom if it’s possible, thanks!

At the end of the show I was asked if we had a Canadian version of Millionaire – I responded that we only had two episodes broadcast back in 2000… once the comedian and Gunther realized that I meant two shows and not two seasons, they once again laughed hysterically!
It was my time to seize my opportunity. Gunther took pictures with all of that evening’s contestants, and then talked to the audience and encouraged them to try and get on the show. The comedian mentioned that I was looking to get a picture with him… and he said yes!

I’m not sure why it’s so blurry but seeing as I was the only person that was allowed to take the picture, I wasn’t about to complain! I got back to town around 11.45 pm, grabbed some dinner and got to bed.
The next morning, Day Quatre-Vingt-Cinq, was a groggy one. Got to the train station in plenty of time to find the Rail Europe office to make my final purchase of train reservations (including, thankfully, the Irun to Madrid trip on the next to last day) and take one sole tourist picture of Cologne:

This gorgeous castle was part of the décor around the train station. I look forward to seeing more of the city when I return in the future at some point!

My next stop was Hamburg. Julius, one of my former drama students, lived in the area and had invited me to come and visit if I so desired. It was very relaxing to get off the train and see someone with a Canadian backpack… it was Julius! We headed off to his house in the Rissen suburb, easily accessible by S-Bahn from the Hauptbanhof (main train station). Except for the switcheroo of seating at Blankenese (if you were sitting forwards, now you’re backwards!) the ride was nice and calm.

It was great to make the acquaintance of his parents again, as they were very supportive with any questions I had in regards to Julius when I was teaching him. Julius and I then met up with Joanna, his girlfriend, and we headed to the Christmas market at Altona.
Christmas markets are very much a tradition in Europe. Strasbourg has the oldest one, at 400+ years, and Hamburg’s area has many as well. The Christmas market is where you can buy locally made merchant’s wares, but it is also wonderful to go and sample the lovely food and drink. We started with currywurst (bratwurst with homemade ketchup and curry powder), moved on to gluhwine (GLOO-vine; warm seasonal wine), progressed to gelato, and then finally some creation which I’ve forgotten the name of although in essence it was little balls of dough, fried up like a donut, then covered with powdered sugar, which of course ended up all over you. Exciting though!

Day Quatre-Vingt-Six was my first “on my own” in Hamburg. After Julius and his mom had given suggestions on where to go, I ran with them. I started at the harbourfront visiting the tourist information booth, where, as usual, were full of information. One thing I had been recommended was to do a harbourfront boat ride. With your day pass, it is included! They run every 15 minutes and take about 30 minutes end to end, so I did a round trip.

The harbourfront is very beautiful, and I quite enjoyed my view. Next stop was Altona, for a return to the Christmas market, including some more currywurst! My new fave food on the run. I wrapped up the day in Jungferstein, which has the most Christmas markets per capita. I’m quite confident of that fact. So it was time to get some souvenirs!

Yes, there is a store in Hamburg dedicated just to Lego!

And the Simpsons are everpresent at Saturn, an electronics store.

Back at casa Koll we had a lovely dinner and then I took an early night.

Cheers,
Vick.

Days Quatre-Vingt-et-un, Quatre-Vingt-Deux et Quatre-Vingt-Trois

So it was after a very intriguing discussion that I was permitted to take a shower on the morning of Day Quatre-Vingt-et-Un. I say permitted as I had to haggle to get a token for the hall shower. Seriously, Mr. Owner, you have young kids, it’s Friday morning, they need to get to school – if I need to take a shower at 8.30 am it will NOT HURT YOUR BOTTOM LINE.

Nevermind though… because by 12.45 pm I had arrived in Strasbourg! For those of you who don’t know, I took a year right after I was done at MTA to go on their exchange program, and spent October 2001 through June 2002 in Strasbourg. It is a gorgeous city, and I was excited to rediscover it.

I had scored a real nice hotel room on special right in the heart of the downtown. Literally in Place Kleber, it took me longer to get to the bottom floor of the hotel than it did to the tram line! First thing I notice is that there’s a fifth tram line right to where I used to live, in the northeast corner of the city. I started out exploring the centre of town, and then decided to head up to the Robertsau using the new tram line. Everything was still there… the post office, the doner kebab, the residence…

… just as bland looking as ever! But a lot of good memories, that’s for sure. I took it easy for the rest of the night just chilling and walking around the downtown again, before heading off for some nap time.

It was an early start to day Quatre-Vingt-Deux as I had booked a tour at the Kronenbourg brewery. While I’m not a big beer drinker, I didn’t do the tour the last time so I made sure to book into it this time.

Part one of the Kronenbourg experience, after you realize that they actually don’t brew it in house (it’s 30 km south in Obernai) is that you get to go to Beer School. I kid you not, it’s time for L’École de la Bière. I really wasn’t aware of all of the steps that lead to making beer, but it was very informative.

Part two is where you get to see the old brass drum system. It is really quite fascinating to find out that one of these massive drums can hold at least 3,000 litres of whatever you’re brewing. Cool!

Part three and we are lead to the caves to find out more about the process whereby the beer ferments into something drinkable. These barrels…

… used to store the liquids with their capacity in litres marked on the front. We are then taken to see a collage of advertising that Kronenbourg has used through the years. I enjoyed the “What would life be if the Brits had invaded” advertising clips.

Finally, part four, which for most people is the highlight. It’s time for degustation – sampling.

I decided to stick to a light beer, Grindenberg (sp?) as although it was 5 pm somewhere, Mark Elton, it was only 11 am local time and I hadn’t had a big breakfast. I then picked up a few souvenirs, including some coasters. I really wanted to get some glasses, but carrying them with me for 3 more weeks wasn’t an option, and after spending 16 Euros to send something home earlier in the week, I wasn’t going to give much more business to La Poste.

I then took advantage of the fact that it wasn’t too deep into the afternoon to do a quick swing by the Robertsau to visit the market... using the new "E" tram line!!!

I loved going to the market every Saturday morning when I lived there; it was so peaceful going to pick up your eggs, cheese, bread etc for later in the week at individual merchants, who were very happy to sell it to me. This time around it was much later in the market’s opening time, and as such, I only ended up buying a small raspberry tart, which led me to buying a doner kebab at the same place on the corner as I did eight years ago. I took the whole lot and walked down to L’Orangerie, a gorgeous park across from the European Human Rights Commission (Strasbourg, BTW, also hosts the European Parliament once a month).

After hopping back to the hotel to freshen up, it was off to the south end of town to visit with Odile Raffner, my former professor at the institute where I used to study, along with her husband, Claude. It was so great to see Odile again – we have been corresponding for years at Christmas time. We spent a couple of hours catching up, talking about everything (including the Canadian way of live, which fascinated Claude) and drinking Alsatian wine (while sweeter than I remember, was still enjoyable). And of course we took an updated picture.

After a quick supper I was off again. I had really wanted to see the local hockey team play a game however they weren’t playing this particular weekend; thus it was off to the basketball game at the Rhenus complex. Strasbourg was in League one action against Toulon. The game wasn’t too packed so I was able to pick up a cheap ticket at 7 Euros – which actually lead me to an excellent seat – front row, just behind one of the baskets.

It was painfully obvious early on that Strasbourg wasn’t going to be victorious – they got creamed by 35 points, worst defeat in seven years – however I find it interesting to see what the “sideshow” attractions were. During time outs, they would alternate between four dancing ladies (who didn’t leave much to the imagination during their can-can routine) and Karim, a breakdancer. I found the latter much more fascinating; the amount of talent it takes to do that fascinates me. In between quarters they had a race between two children who had to put on oversize shows and a jersey and then run to score a basket.

Day Quatre-Vingt-Deux I decided to have a bit of a lie in and then overdid breakfast (hey, for 8 Euros, you would too) before heading outside. Now while I tend to usually find things to do during this vacation, this time, it found me. It turns out that this day was the celebration of the 65^th anniversary of Strasbourg being liberated during the war. So it was with grand splendor that they put on a ceremony, which just happened to be right outside my hotel. Literally.

Later on that day they also lined up all of the military vehicles (or replicas – not really sure) along a side street branching off of Place Kléber which was pretty darn cool as well.

It was also the 20th anniversary of the tram beginning!

I decided, that after having tarte flambée (read: flammekuche – erm, sorry, “Alsatian pizza variation”) on Friday night the other dish I needed was Quiche Lorraine. Yes, I know that I was in Alsace, but Lorraine is next door and I figured les Strasbourgeoises would do just fine. Which they did, as I enjoyed Quiche Lorraine, some more Kronenbourg (this tends to be the cheap beverage in France, and it’s good to boot) and a wonderful cinnamon-sugar crepe with a scoop of ice cream that was just the right temperature to cut with a fork and knife! All this, with good company in the case of two Aussies now living in Karshule and a great view of the cathedral for 12 Euros. Yes, it was just perfect.

After doing some more walking around it was time to meet up with Nicole, who used to be the cleaning lady on my floor in the residence. She, like Odile is retired and as well it was nice to catch up!

Later on in the day, before it was too late, I went hunting for somewhere to eat that wasn’t a sandwich. Sadly, that lead me to Rotting Ronnie’s. But much more exciting was the department store all lit up!

I grabbed a chicken sandwich before heading over to one of four downtown cinemas – all within 5 minutes walk of each other – to see Le Petit Nicolas. I used to watch films all the time in Strasbourg (and it turns out, eight years later, the student price is still 4 Euros) and this one had been recommended. And it did well to live up to expectations – Nicolas is a young boy (about nine) who suddenly suspects that his mother is pregnant and is convinced that he will be kicked out of the house. It was a great film to just sit in front of and laugh, and there’s a wonderful cameo near the start of the film in regards to another popular French film that came out a few years ago… I was happy that I got the reference.

The European Parliament was having its monthly session starting on day Quatre-Vingt-Trois and as a result, I had to vacate my hotel room. I ended up switching to a chain motel up in the north-west corner of town… next to Auchan! Auchan is your run of the mill hypermarket… with everything you could imagine in one place. For the most part at least.

Back downtown I stopped off at the Gare Central to pick up a couple of magazines for the upcoming train rides, and saw this sign:

It turns out that they’re working on extending the Strasbourg tram over to Kehl! Very progressive thinking, Strasbourg.

Finally it was time to make my one last friend connection. While I failed earlier to reach my former juggling teacher (turns out he wasn’t in that day, natch), it was time to meet up with my old Chiffres et Lettres club. Sadly there were only three members left from when I used to be there, but it was great to catch up with them and I was happy to share the news about my upcoming cameo on the tv programme.

And then we got down to work – 2 sets of 20 rounds! It was hard to shift my mind back into playing the game in English after a monstrous amount of time playing it in English. However, I didn’t do too bad, scoring 116 and 112 in the two sets, including a time near the end of the game whereby myself and the newest player to the game were the only ones to find the top scoring word.

It was my intention to go see the EU parliament session but alas C and L got out later than I expected so I headed back up north to go get some final things at Auchan. And stop at Flunch. Flunch is basically your run of the mill all you can veggie eat place – so I took advantage of that and gorged on mashed potatoes. Yes, now we’ve descended into describing eating habits, it would appear.

In any case, this would bring my time in Strasbourg almost to an end… but I will be back again someday!

Cheers,

Vick.

Days Septante-neuf et Quatre-Vingt

Since this is mostly a game show entry, I wish to remind you that the Monday November 16^th episode of Countdown is in the post below (“Countdown intermission”)

I do hope you enjoy and feel free to comment away!

Day Septante Neuf was indeed day three in Paris, and I profited with another good rest, and headed out “on the town” at around 10 am. I did some walking around in the morning but the main crux of the day was that I was going to be attending a taping of the France 3 game show Questions Pour Un Champion.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen Questions. I saw it when I was in France the last time, with a bunch of friends:

Questions is a trivia game, with three distinct rounds.

The first round is Neuf Points Gagnants – “Nine to win” – where initially each question is worth one point, and the first to nine advances to round two, at which points questions become two points each, qualify a second player, finally they raise to three, and qualify the third player and the fourth is eliminated.

Round two is Quatre à la suite – “Four in a row” – each player, in order of their qualification from round one, picks one of four available topics (or, for later qualifiers, what’s left) and answers as many questions as they can in 40 seconds with the hopes of getting four in a row. Best two scores move on to Round three which is called Face à Face – “Head to Head”, where players are read increasingly easier clues to discover the answer to a “who am I” or “what am I” riddle. Winner can either take an amount of money and quit the show, or try to come back and win five games in a row, thus winning a jackpot that usually hovers around 20,000 Euros.

Now that we’ve gotten the mechanics out of the way, a bit about the taping. I arrived at 1 pm for a 1.30 pm taping, and at 1.30 pm, 57 seniors rolled in. I was, by far, the youngest person in the audience by quite a mile. Not to say that they weren’t friendly; once they heard I was from Canada they were more than happy to chat with me about my home and native land.

They taped three episodes that afternoon. As you can see we were in the festive season…

… One minute we were celebrating the holidays and then next…

… HAPPY NEW YEAR! In TV land it was already 2010. I’ve got a new year’s date with host Julien Lepers; this will actually creep out most of the people in the archival picture above.

Speaking of Julien, he was nice enough to pose for a picture with me during a taping stopdown (which they seem to take a lot of, mostly on whims). He also signed a copy of the picture you see way above.

One of the more interesting things I found about this taping is that it’s the first show EVER that I’ve been able to take pictures DURING the taping. As long as we didn’t put a flash on, not a problem. Which looks something like this:

And apparently some celebrities like to play the game too… ladies and gentlemen, Jimmy Fallon everyone!

Ok, not so much, but our champion Jerome was on quite a roll that day. A couple more pictures… first off, les mains sur le buzzer…

Then, doing my best Julien impression (this is mostly a gag for a certain UK based game show website):

All in all, a good day at the studio, even if the warm up guy sucked up to Julien just a bit too much. Not to say he was bad, it just got tired, quickly.

The taping let out around 7 pm so I made tracks to the Arc de Triomphe to climb it. Not so on this evening; due to the France-Ireland football (read: soccer) match, everything was closed early. I decided to come back the next evening, and after picking up a computer game at Fnac, I grabbed a crepe next door to the Moulin Rouge where already those supporting Algeria (in another football match, I was told) had taken to rioting (ie. Smashing bottles all over). As such I chilled back at the hotel (which, while affordable, is pretty much low key as you can get).

Day Quatre-Vingt was to be my last full day in Paris. As a result there was a checklist of some things I needed to get done. Walk through Montmartre, check. Buy postcards, check. Buy train tickets, check. One of the less “checkable” things that I did, because I didn’t want to rush through it was to sit and have a chocolat at the café made famous in Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, le Café des 2 Moulins. I’ve never had a hot chocolate that wasn’t pretty much delivered to me done up… but this one had the chocolate sauce poured into the cup, and then you added your own milk. It was wonderfully good. I sat down and wrote a couple more postcards and snapped a couple of pictures.

This is the pig lamp (albeit blurry) from Amélie’s bedside table. Or at least a replica.

In the back of the café there is a big poster from the movie to remind you… if you hadn’t been bombarded by the fact that Amélie is their big marketing track – you can even become a fan of the café on a certain social networking site.

One of the things that I like about Montmartre is that although it is touristy, it’s not nearly as touristy as many other places in Paris. As a result I really love just walking around the area. I decided to do one more hike up the stairs in front of the Basilique Sacré-Coeur, and as you can see, the weather very much was on my side.

After jetting off some more emails and trying feverishly to get some more things done correspondence wise, I started to make my way off to Saint-Denis, a northern Parisien suburb. Everything pretty much is accessible by either Metro or bus in Paris, so off I went. After a few switches, I arrived at Garibaldi station, and about a half hour later, I found myself sitting in the audience of Des Chiffres et Des Lettres.

Now, let’s get one thing straight. I can hear a couple of you going… “wait, you went to Paris and you spent two of four days at tv tapings?”. Well here’s the thing. I’ve been lucky enough to have been to Paris twice before and in those two times I went hell bent for leather and went to everything touristy imaginable. Part of this trip was going to be taking it easy, and those of you who read this blog don’t have to work too hard to figure out that I’ve already been to tapings in Montreal and New York, so yes, I went and saw another game show!

Des Chiffres et Des Lettres (DCEDL from here on in) has to be the easiest show to get into. Physically, I mean that. I went to studio three, opened the door, hung up my coat, and took a seat. That was pretty much it. I got chatting with a mother daughter pair from Paris about why I was there to see the show, and then I did a survey around the audience and saw that yes, once again, I had lowered the average age of the audience. I don’t get why you hip kids aren’t going out to see these awesome shows? Ah yes, I mean you with your Secret Story and your À la recherche d’un Nouvelle Star.

In my scan of the audience I notice someone I recognize, and I start, for the lack of anything else, freaking out. (That’s for you, Mister Al).

Chatting with an audience member is Patrice Laffont. Nowadays, Patrice among other things is the original presenter and now producer for DCEDL and is presenter for La Liste Gagnante (known elsewhere as Who Dares Wins or The Money List). However, I know him mostly from presenting Pyramide in the 1990’s on France 2 and the granddaddy of all French game shows, Fort Boyard.

One of the audience wranglers obviously sees that I’m freaking out and says “Patrice, il y a quelqu’un ici du Toronto qui veut te rencontrer”. I go up to Patrice, explain I’m a big fan (especially of FB) and ask if I can have a picture, and he says yes!!!!

I am over the moon at this point, and there’s other audience members looking at me pretty strangely, but I really don’t care. I have just met Patrice Laffont. Next stop, Guy Mongrain. The audience wrangler then goes off and gets me a signed postcard! I actually had my new Fort Boyard book with me… but I just didn’t act fast enough! No complaints though.

About 15 minutes later, the team of Arielle, Bertrand and Laurent enter. Laurent is the main presenter, Arielle deals mostly with the letters/words and Bertrand (who was hired immediately after winning twelve games back in 1975) takes on the numbers/calculations. Unlike Countdown, DCEDL went computerized about five years ago. Players now actually use touch screens to enter their answers and all numbers and letters are “dealt” out by a central computer. No picking of an inverted-T for the numbers, for example.

And guess what? After celebrating a Happy New Year with Julien yesterday, I get to do it again at DCEDL. Before each episode, the hosts also record a “coming up” bumper, which for the first show managed to be the ONLY pick-up they had to do the whole time. Very professional!

The show is pretty much shot as broadcast. Their format is Numbers-Letters-Letters x2, 2 head to head “duels” and then another six rounds as stated earlier in this phrase. During one of the last letters games one of the highest scoring words had a Canadian origin. As they had been informed a Canuck was in the audience, they asked me off the cuff if I ever used the word… to which I responded not really! Pretty sure that won’t even make the edit.

After the first show it was time for the European game show tradition of munchies. They do treat their audiences well.

Before the second (of three shows) started, I asked Benedicte, my initial contact for audience tickets at the show if I could go and get a picture with the on air team. She said of course, and took it for me.

I explained to Laurent, Arielle and Bertrand how I watch the show on TV5 Canada back home and that I use it with my French students (no lie!) to practice vocabulary and that I was recently on the British version. We chatted a bit about that too.

All of a sudden I hear “vas lui chercher un micro, on va lui interviewer”. I immediately process what’s going to happen. They sit me down in the audience (everyone moves around between shows… look! New people!) in the front row and tell me not to yell into the microphone when they interview.

I was, in a bass-ackwards way, going to be on Des Chiffres et Des Lettres. The show that I have watched for I don’t know how many years, and played for so many more, wants to chat with me ON AIR.

Here.

We.

Go.

I actually am a bit nervous at this point. I’ve appeared on air so many times, but never in French! Don’t screw it up. Don’t screw it up. Don’t screw it up…

“Et aujourd’hui nous avons un Canadien ici dans le studio, il viens de Toronto, voici Ryan”.

And then everything seems to flow just fine. I am aware the camera is on me but don’t look directly into it. They first ask what I do, and I explain that I am a French and drama teacher, and they say that they have not met many Anglophone FSL teachers. Arielle asks me to explain what I do with my class, and I respond that I play the game before starting every class. She and the others are flattered and say that it’s the first time they’ve heard of someone playing it for the sole purpose of teaching students French as a Second Language. We then segue into my appearance on Countdown, and I managed to get in a quick hello to my Strasbourg Chiffres et Lettres club that I used to be part of. They also complimented me on my French, saying it was excellent for a non-native speaker. I like to think that I do have a good grasp of the language, although hearing it from natives is a nice bit of an ego-boost – ha!

It all seemed so quick, but yours truly will make his French television début on January 1^st, 2010 on France 3. While TV5 Canada does broadcast it, it might be behind by a bit, but I will contact them to find out the date that it will air on my home side of the pond. Not sure about TV5 Monde in Europe for my UK friends, mind you. After it airs, I’ll be sure to post a clip online.

The second show came and went. I was having fun enjoying everything that had already happened but also the fact that I was actually doing well playing along. I noted this while chatting with Arielle after the second show, and she was extremely supportive and really was pushing the fact that I should keep practicing and said I would be an excellent candidate for the show.

I think I shall.

I then discovered something… in France, the show runs six days a week; back home it’s only M-F airings. Show three featured a new player (they play best 2 out of 3 on DCEDL) and a good game once again.

On the way out I of course thanked everyone profusely on the production team that I was fortunate enough to meet and got Arielle and Bertrand to sign my new computer game which I had almost returned! I think it will get good use once I get home.

I ended up riding for the most part pack into the centre of Paris with two people that I had chatted with at the show. It was nice to ride with someone I knew when we were all packed liked sardines!

It was time however to do my favourite “touristy” thing in Paris – climb the Arc de Triomphe. Things started bizarrely as two older teenagers (ie. 16 or 17) asked me if I would escort them to the top of the Arc – turns out you can’t climb it yourself if you’re under 18. No problem, it’s only about 200 stairs up to the top.

Once I got there, I just took it all in. It is absolutely GORGEOUS to view the night, lit up like a Christmas tree. I have a hard time describing how powerful I find that it is.

After about 10 minutes of walking around, a female, probably university age, asks me if I will take a picture for her and her mother. Again, not a problem, I know how hard it is to get some to take it for you for the most part.

We get talking… and it turns out she goes to Cleveland State University. There is someone who reads this blog (if not two people!) that have affiliations that I know of at CSU – one is a graduate, the other one is currently there studying. So I hit it off with Angela and her mother, leading to a lot of chatting and silly pictures such as this:

Which her mom took excessive amounts of! After awhile of joking, we said our goodbyes.

Not ten minutes later I see them again in the souvenir shop and we decide to go get a quick dinner on the Champs Elysees, and they have some questions about travelling around Europe which I am happy to sit down and answer. Four weeks riding trains, planes and automobiles (literally) and I’m a pretty good resource. As a thank you they pay for my dinner! What a nice treat… this is the part of the trip that I enjoy the most, meeting people and just having fun. I leave them my business card and then head back to the hotel. It’s time to pack up and move onto my favourite place in France… Strasbourg! My old stomping grounds, it’s time to get to know you again.

Cheers,

Vick.

Countdown intermission

Working on getting the blog updated dear readers... just a bit of internet connections here and there.

In the meantime, feel free to enjoy THE SHOW OF THE YEAR. This is the Monday, November 16th episode of Channel 4's Countdown. You may be surprised and recognize someone.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Enjoy! Hopefully an update with more exciting news in a few days.

Cheers,
Vick

Days Septante Six, Septante Sept et Septante Huit

Day Septante Six will not really go down in the history books as the best day I have had thus far. I finally rolled out of bed around 10.30, showered, forced down some breakfast and headed off to grab the train to Bruges.

Bruges had come highly recommended to me by Jeanette. And it was very beautiful.






However.

It was not really my day. I did some walking around Bruges, picked up a couple of souvenirs, saw some of the gorgeous architecture. But then, all of a sudden, I was in the POURING RAIN. And I do mean pouring. I was soaked bone to bone, and I threw in the towel.

I figure, in writing this, that throwing in the towel for the first time in 76 days does not make me imperfect! I headed back to Jeanette’s and we started preparing for dinner.

Around 8 pm we started dinner with her boyfriend Pierre and diplomatic friend Diana. It was all nice chatting and everything but I only found some energy around 10 pm when we started playing a rousing game of Hearts. Diana, bless her, was gracious in becoming the “third runner up” in the game of Hearts. We reassured her that if the winner, or the other two runner ups, could not fulfill their duties as Hearts champion, she would assume the post. I don’t think that will be happening however.

The alarm went off at 6.40 am on day Septante Sept. I got up, packed, showered, breakfasted (?) and after Jeanette called me a taxi, we had a nice hug and then I headed off. The taxi driver thought I was insane trying to get to the Gare du Midi in Brussels during the rush hour; not being 100% fully aware and healthy, I tended to think the 20 Euro fare was a steal.
Train, Brussels to Paris Nord (on Thalys), uneventful, GOOD. I got to the station and for the first time in two days, felt like I actually wanted to eat on my own volition. A pain au chocolat never tasted so good.

After dropping my bags off at my hotel around noon, I was told that I could check back into my room at 3 pm. I decided to go exploring. My hotel in Paris in in Montmartre, the 18th arrondissement (Paris is divided into twenty of these, which start in the middle and go out and around like a shell), is also the same place where they filmed that delightful movie Le Fabuleux Destin D’Amelie Poulain which I first saw when living in France in 2001 and pretty much is my high water mark for movie watching. So I was happy of course to see once again Le Tabac des Deux Moulins (just up the road from the Moulin Rouge) as well as the Cathedrale Sacre Coeur.
I was feeling slightly better around dinner time so I decided to venture out a bit… if nothing else to get in some fresh air. I picked up a Panini and then headed over one metro stop and watched a play called La Salle des Profs. It was actually quite entertaining, and it was my first experience of theatre in Paris. I got back to my room around 9.30 pm and then just chilled for awhile, before hitting the hay.

Day Septante Huit was again a sleep-in day… I have been able to get to 8.30 am most days in the last little while which I am most enjoying. Where I am staying is a low key hotel – I have a room, but there are hall toilets and hall showers. So just after nine I jumped in the shower and then got some breakfast, before heading out for the day.

For the first time in about five days, I felt great, so I was going to take advantage of the situation! My first stop was the Eiffel Tower. It was a bit windy out and a bit rainy, and since I have previously climbed the stairs, I decided to pay the few extra euros and take the elevator all the way to the top. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that cold at the top.


It does tend to get a bit busy, but actually it wasn’t that bad, considering it’s the middle of November. I grabbed a few shots, including the harsh reality of how far away from home I actually am…

… before heading back down. You have to take the elevator between the 2nd and third floors, however, between the ground and floor two you can do what you please. I decided to take the stairs back down just for something different.

On the way down before the first floor I met a nice couple from Edmonton and we swapped stories for a bit.

At the bottom there is a post office where you can mail off postcards and have them stamped as proof you were up the Eiffel Tower! Which I took full advantage of!

The next stop was the Champs D’Ellysees. This is the major mucho expensive shopping street in Paris, with the Arc de Triomphe as one of its anchors. I decided to save the Arc climb for one of my evenings here in Paris, but did a bit of window shopping and actually bought a book at the Virgin Megastore (it’s about Fort Boyard – surprised?) before heading off to my fave Montmartre internet café (1,50 Euro for one hour – what a steal!) to check up on some messages.

I was kind of tuckered out at this point so I just decided to head back to my room to have some downtime. Yes, I am having fun on this trip but I needed some time to remove myself from it so that I would still have enthusiasm for the entire rest of the run.

Which, after some downtime, I do!
Cheers,
Vick.

Days Septante Trois, Septante Quatre and Septante Cinq

One of the initial problems I had with the hotel I had in Stuttgart was that the curtains, they did nothing to block out the light. As a result, it was a night full of tossing and turning, sadly.

Breakfast was a little better than the sleep, thankfully. I pretty much passed over the meat and cheese that was composing the majority of the food choices and went for some toast with jam along with a hardboiled egg. Plus the best internet connection was in the breakfast room so I shot off some more emails at the same time.

I had, at this point, been nursing a bit of a cough and a cold, which I chalked up to my GO GO GO attitude towards the majority of the trip. I stopped into European grocery chain and legend from my Strasbourg days – Lidl – to get some orange juice and then ended up communicating in Spanish (?) at Shlecker to get cough syrup. Because, y’know, I can’t really read the German labels.

I decided it was time to go out for a walk, and after about an hour later I ended up at the tourist information booth to get information for the tram, and as well where to find a Deutsch Bank (no fees, thanks Scotiabank!). The Deutsch Bank was difficult to find until I turned the map upside down to coordinate where I was walking to. Then it was much easier.

The shopping in Stuttgart – well, downtown at least – is one large street, pedestrianized, which several little offshoots. I managed to find a couple of places that I wanted to go in and would have bought more than I did but the concept of using a VISA or Mastercard in most places seemed lost on these massive retailers (sarcasm mine). Apd apparently they're real big fans of Canadians.

I trudged back to the hotel as I figured I needed an afternoon nap.

And then I saw it.

There were handles on the side of the walls next to the windows. I look to the top of windows.

Blinds.

Sometimes, I’m really a dolt.

In fact, once I closed the blinds, it was pitch dark. As in you had no idea what time it was. Total sensory deprivation.

After that fine discovery, I spent the afternoon catching up on some emails, skyping (hey, it’s free, you can hardly blame me) and then popped down next door to Subway to get some dinner. Again, Spanish became the language of communication.

Finally, 6 pm arrived, it was off to see Wicked: Die Hexen Von Oz! I should preface that I went to the show, and yes it was German language, but I’ve seen the English language stage show twice and furthermore have listened to the CD hundreds of times, so I know what’s going on. The people at the tourist bureau will give you specified directions on how to get somewhere on the tram, thus after two trams I was at the complex.

And I say complex because it housed two massive theatres, shops, a casino, a hotel, etc. I first got into what I thought was the theatre and asked what was going on… a charity performance of We Will Rock You.

Hold on, I thought, that’s not what I signed up for! I was politely pointed to the theatre across the road to where Wicked was playing.

Upon entry to the theatre I went over and quickly grabbed a souvenir cd. I was really quite curious to have a copy of the foreign language show I was about to see.

The show itself was wonderful. I got goosebumps from the start – ended up being house left, on the aisle, row 14. No complaints. It was really interesting to listen to the lyrics and seeing the challenge of trying to fit German words into the original English lyrics but it came off quite nicely. I also thought this was much more difficult to perform due to the rigidness of the language as well – the lady who played Elphaba had a most difficult task.

After the show I took a minute to go and talk to the musical director/conductor. He spoke English and was nice enough to explain the difficulties of the score. I hopped a tram (and then a second) back to the hotel and got a much, MUCH nicer sleep.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I woke up at 8.30 am on Day Septante-Quatre. 8.30! For those of who know me personally, you know that’s a massive sleep in. Plus… 9 hours of sleep! I can’t remember the last time I did that well.

Breakfast, check. Pack my bags, check. Try to mail something awkward, not done, mostly because they didn’t have the right packaging at the DeutschPoste I went to. Oh well, I can mail it in France next week. Confirm reservation at DeutschBahn, check.

Food. It was 11.30 am and I figured I should pick up some lunch. After getting some pastries at the discount baker, a banana at the Chiquita fruit stand…

… and even a couple of postcards for souvenirs, I caved in and bought a cheeseburger at Burger King. Sometimes, dear readers, there are needs. I hadn’t had one in three weeks and didn’t think that made me too bad of a person.
The train, at least the first leg, was uneventful. So after a 30 minute stop over in Cologne, I was back on the next train. It turns out that while I had been lead to believe that I could travel into a country that wasn’t on my pass as long as I started in a country where I did.

Not so, the DB employee stated to me. He was just doing his job, although it was a kick in the teeth that I had to pay 23 Euros for the extra fare, and then move to second class! Hmm. Slightly frustrating.

Furthermore, I had been told by my friend Jeanette to get off at Brussels Centraal. And it turns out that this train was only going to Brussels Nord and Brussels Midi. So I got off at Brussels Nord, which turned out into an adventure unto itself, including a slightly bizarre two block walk with all of my luggage to make a connection.

I did, however, arrive at Jeanette’s place of work around 5 pm, a little harrowed from the journey, but happy that I was there. I hadn’t seen Jeanette since university, so that’s going on 8 years! We then walked to her house (as I didn’t really feel like chancing the metro again on this day). She’s got a really sweet pad, and after settling in we went to buy wine (it IS Europe, people), get some groceries and then head back to her place to make dinner.

Jeanette whipped up an AWESOME salad dressing, and along with my help and the assistance of one Dr. Oetker (he’s a personal friend of a lot of you, I imagine) dinner was ready. It was great to just sit and catch up with each other after all these years.

We then got ready to go out. One of Jeanette’s friends was celebrating her birthday, so we went out for beverages. While we were getting prepared, I threw on TF1 and watched a bit of Le Plus Grand Quiz de France. It’s sort of like American Idol meets Trivial Pursuit(the board game, NOT "America Plays"). Get 10 questions in a row right, you get to advance to the semi-finals to compete head to head.

Oh, and did I mention that they give you all of the questions and answers beforehand? All fifteen thousand of them. Apparently the British version was over 200,000…

We had a nice night out that was only marred by some shoddy service. It was a cool spot though, and it was neat meeting Jeanette’s circle of friends who probably are the most internationally diverse I’ve seen since leaving university.

Seeing as that we got home pretty late, sleep wasn’t the first thing I had on day Septante-Cinq . However I did get some good rest and around 11 am Jeanette and I headed out with her playing tour guide and me playing tourist.

One of the nice things that happens when you have someone local on your side is that they can show you all the nooks and crannies. Jeanette did an excellent job, showing me sights such as Grand Sablon, Petit Sablon, le Parc Central among others. We went into her favourite church as well as seeing a make shift Chinese tea room as part of a Euro-China partnership.

Jeanette had mentioned a chip stand named Frites-Flagey that was known to served very good fries – the Belgian way. I then got a bit more than I bargained for.
It turns out that the owner of the Frites-Flagey was a bit on edge. Someone wondered if their fries were done yet, and that just sent him into a tailspin. Ever seen that episode of Seinfeld where if the soup guy doesn’t like you, you don’t get any soup? That was EXACTLY THIS. I kid you not. After this first initial altercation, he yelled that if anyone else had a problem, that they should just leave.

Jeanette managed to order our fries, and while we were waiting, someone started a conversation with “My kind sir” which set of FF guy again… with the best quote so far… I’m in charge, you’re not, get out! (slightly paraphrased, but you get the idea). It was truly an exercise in seeing true Belgian customer service.

I’m told the Better Business Bureau doesn’t really exist in Belgium… and I can tell why!

We got back to Jeanette’s just in time for me to grab my dive gear and hop a metro/tram to the end of line 4 to get to Nemo 33!

Nemo 33, as most of you probably don’t know, is the world’s deepest diving pool. I say diving because yes, although you could swim in it, that’s not really why it exists. Through a back and forth email I was able to book a divemaster for a one hour session. I could have just shown up, however as I’ve seen on many a dive vacation (ok, two), it’s very much hit and miss what kind of diver quality you get. So for an extra fee, I rented one. As it turned out, someone else wanted one as well, so we split on the cost, which made it just that much more enjoyable!

I got to Nemo shortly after 4 for a 5 pm session, which actually turned out to be nice, as I could just watch the world go by. There are windows where those in the restaurant can see the divers, and vice versa. It’s pretty neat, especially for those who don’t dive (AND WHY NOT???) as they can sit on the dry side and watch their friends and family.
At 4.45 pm I was let into the changing area. As it turned out there was only me, two other divers and a dive master in this slot… and apart from the classes that were being run in the first 10 feet of depth, we had the run of the pool! Talk about lucky.
Just before 5 pm you get let into the pool. We met Didier, our divemaster (for hire) for this session. Instantly I felt comfortable as we started joking around… I could tell he enjoyed what he does! The first eight to ten minutes are reserved for “apnee” (free diving)… just so you can get used to the initial surroundings. Which is a good thing, because the temperature of the water is a bit shocking.

A shockingly high 90 degrees Farenheit.

Yep, you read that right. Plus it’s spa water… no chlorine. And you can’t take your own gear in, save for masks, computers (a necessity at the depth) and cameras. No wetsuits allowed – unless you shell out to rent one. Having rented my fair share of wetsuits in my time and knowing where they’ve probably been… I took a pass.

After the freediving session it was time to kit up. Now, although you pay for the use of the equipment and the pool, you still have to put it together. Not a problem for yours truly. Once Didier and I, along with Jean-Louis and the other gentleman (whose name sadly I’ve forgotten and is illegible on my dive log) were ready to go, we headed down.

It does take some getting used to… the warm pool water that is. I had been nursing on and off a bit of a sniffle for a few days so I was extremely concerned that I wouldn’t be able to go deep… thankfully not a problem! We started by going down to about 15 feet to start, then headed down a secondary well to 30 feet. In between the wells there are two grottos where you can go in, take a breather (HA!) and talk. It’s really weird though, because you get in, you start talking and because you’re 30 feet below the surface, you sound like a chipmunk. I’ve got a sound file that I’ll eventually get around to posting.

It was then time to head down the big well.

I had seen videos on youtube detailing this experience, but it was so wonderful to freefall – in a matter of speaking – down to the bottom of this very deep well, which bottoms out at 33 metres, or as my computer told me, 111 feet.
We got to spend about 7 or 8 minutes at the bottom. It was absolutely a blast, as I just started snapping pictures of my computer (to prove that I went to this depth!) and it was fun to realize that it truly was as warm as it was in the pool. Didier took a minute to take a picture of me at depth – I photoshopped it a bit but you get the idea!

Near the end of our time at the 111 foot mark, my computer started blinking. While you are taught to dive your tables – and you always should – your computer is a nice little tool to have underwater as well. I don’ think I’ve ever gotten down to only 2 minutes to go before decompression stops would set in (and trust me, you don’t want that) so it was time for all of us to head up.
We stopped and sat at 60 feet to off gas some of our collective nitrogen and I got a quick shot with Jean-Louis.

After the stop at 60 feet we moved up to 30 feet and visited the other grotto just to have a quick chat. I started singing and all Didier said was “Canadians!”

Finally it was time to surface. All in all a phenomenal experience! I do hope to go back at one point, and I know if I lived near it that I would probably spend a good chunk of my paycheque there now and then.
After drying off and changing, Jean-Louis, the mystery gentleman and I signed each other’s logs and said our goodbyes. The only thing that Nemo 33 is missing are souvenirs! I did manage to grab a couple of the placemats from the restaurant.
I got back to Jeanette’s around 7.30 pm and once she arrived back from the gym, we got some dinner and then I hit the hay. Such a busy day… but it continues to be such a fun vacation!
Cheers,
Vick.