London

Ciao Tutti,
I wrote this while I was on the plane back from London. It was not a bad flight - only 1 hour and 55 minutes. It definitely beats the 20 hour bus ride that my fellow travelers on Bus2Alps had back to Rome from Paris!

I arrived in London late on Saturday night and took a taxi to my hostel. The taxi was so cool - a very old looking black car that was not old at all. The ride to my hostel lasted less than five minutes.

My hostel was an old courthouse that was converted into a hostel. It was a very cool concept. I did not, but you could have paid extra for a room inside an old jail cell. The Internet cafe was in an old courtroom that still had all the traditional courtroom furniture. You could literally access the Internet from the judge's stand! Another courtroom was converted into a movie theater. It was really cool!

Computer Lab

I love that quote

My Bed

My Hostel

 On Sunday morning, I woke up early and walked back to Kings Cross Station where the inner nerd in me came out! I found Platform 9 3/4 and took my picture with a cart going through the wall. For those of you who aren't complete dorks like me, Platform 9 3/4 is the entranceway that all the kids take to get onto the Hogwarts Express in all the Harry Potter books.

 

Afterwards, I started to walk back to my hostel when I saw something that made me feel like i was back home in New York - a Starbucks next to a Pret A Manger next to a McDonalds across the street from a KFC and a Subway Sandwich Shop. I went into Pret to grab a breakfast sandwich before heading back to my hostel to meet my Dad's cousin, David.

I love Capitalism

Prior to this Sunday morning I had never met David or his wife, Joan. When I decided to come to London my Dad asked them to give me the grand tour of London, the city they've lived in or around for pretty much their whole lives.

I met up with David first and we walked down to the Covent Gardens - a shopping area that used to be an fruit and vegetable market. It was in the middle of London's theater district, so it was quite a busy place. We then walked down to a Starbucks for a cup of coffee and to wait for Joan to meet up with us.

 When Joan met up with us we headed for a hop-on, hop-off tour bus they arranged for me. Since my time in London was so limited, they felt that was the best way to see London. We saw Big Ben, the House of Parliament, the London Eye, the London Tower, the London Tower Bridge, London Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, Baker Street, Hyde Park, and many other places that I can't remember.

St. Paul's Cathedral

London Tower Bridge

One of the towers on London Tower Bridge

London Tower

Big Ben

The London Eye

A pretty cool picture of Big Ben and the London Eye

There are so many beautiful parks in London

After our bus tour, we took a boat cruise from the London Tower to Big Ben. I took the cliche picture in front of Big Ben and another inside of a Telephone Booth.

David and I in front of the London Eye

David and I in front of Big Ben

Joan and I and a London Phone Booth

 
On our way back to my hostel to get my bags we stopped in an English pub to chst for a bit over a beer, or in my case a soda. After grabbing my bags, David and Joan took me to their house in the suburbs for the night. We went out to another English pub to grab a bite to eat and I tried steak and ale pie. It was really good!


After dinner we went back to Joan and David's house for a cup of tea and some cake. We took a look at some pictures from our family reunion a few years ago which was pretty cool. Then, we all went to bed and I "crashed out" or quickly fell asleep. This morning, David took me for a quick tour of his town - Epsom. It is the home of the world famous Epsom Salts and the well known Epsom Derby. David showed me where the Derby takes place and also took me to a lookout that had extraordinary views of London. The town itself was gorgeous and it had a small downtown area with everything you need.

The Derby Grounds

When we got back to the house, Joan cooked us a full English breakfast with coffee, eggs, mushrooms, pasta, bacon, sausages, and toast. It was great! After breakfast, we drove around the English countryside. We saw a castle, but couldn't go in it because they were filming a movie called "Jack and the Giant Killer." The castle was owned by King Henry VIII - the king that had six wives, beheaded a few of them, and broke England away from the Catholic church because the Pope refused to grant him any additional divorces.  Then, we drove part of the route of the Olympic cycling race next summer. It looks tough! We also drove up Box Hill which is part of the race course and it had awesome views of the English countryside.

View from Box Hill

View from Box Hill

After this, we went to one more English pub to chat before going to Gatwick Airport.  When I arrived at Gatwick, Easyjet's computers had crashed and they had to check everyone in by hand! It was chaos, but the computers were back up after about a half hour. Then, I said bye to David and Joan and sprinted to my gate.

I absolutely loved London. After seeing Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris it was very clear why we get along so well with the British. The British are more similar to the US than to any other country in Europe. We have the same ideals and very similar tastes. I felt like I was back home. I would not say I was homesick, but a trip to a city that spoke English and was familiar to me was definitely welcomed! I definitely need to come back to London. There is so much to do and I barely scratched the surface! Next summer? I think yes.

My hosts, Joan and David, were great. It was so nice to meet family members I had never met before and they were so nice and welcoming. They made my visit to London even more enjoyable than I could have imagined!

I'm back to Rome now where I have three days of classes before heading to Venice this weekend with my school! Not too bad, is it?

I'll update soon. I need to upload pictures once I get back to my apartment and have a decent Internet connection for the first time in 12 days.

Thanks for reading!

Mike

Reflections

Ciao Tutti,

I am currently crossing another thing off of my very long bucket list of things to do while studying abroad in Europe – ride the train through the Chunnel between Paris and London.  I parted ways with my fellow study abroad students about an hour ago and headed to Paris Nord train station.  I got there really early, as I always try to do, but was waiting in the wrong place.  I completely forgot that the United Kingdom is not 100% part of the European Union, thus I needed to report to the international travel booth for passport check.  Eurostar was great, though.  They popped me in a wheelchair and flew me through France Border Control, UK Border Control, Security, down the elevator, past a few train cars, up the ramp, and to my seat in less than 20 minutes.  I am seated in my own car – seats for people with disabilities are in first class and I suppose people do not want to pay for a first class seat for a two hour train ride.  I’m not complaining!

Now that I’m on the train, though, I have some time to reflect on the past week of traveling around Europe in an intense fashion.  It should be no surprise to you when I say that this was the best spring break of my life.  Please let me put it into numbers for you (excluding London):

• Four different cities (Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris)
• Four of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been (Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris)
• Seven different countries (Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, and England)
• 40 hours on a bus (maybe that is not something to brag about)
• 2852 kilometers on a bus
• Four different hostels (Czech Inn, St. Christopher’s Berlin, St. Christopher’s Amsterdam, St. Christopher’s Paris)
• 24 new friends
• Six languages spoken (English, Italian, Czech, German, Dutch, and French)
• A countless number of stories to tell over the course of my life

I don’t think anyone could say that was a bad spring break.  I can now say that I witnessed the sun rise over the plains of Eastern Europe, saw the astronomical clock show in Prague, visited the wall that divided and then reunited the world in Berlin, sailed in the canals of Amsterdam, had a baguette and wine while watching the Eiffel Tower light up in Paris, rode the Chunnel from Paris to London, and it’s not over!

The tour company I traveled with exceeded my expectations immensely.  Bus2Alps put together a great travel itinerary to maximize our time in each city which enabled us to see all the important sights.  In each city they arranged for a walking tour which covered the most important sights of the city.  Our tour leader, Stephanie Savage, was phenomenal.  She was very knowledgeable and went above and beyond to help us out or point us in the right direction.  She knew each city very and was able to answer any question we had.  I have already booked my next trip with Bus2Alps (to Croatia) and would not hesitate to recommend Bus2Alps to anybody!

It was quite interesting going from Amsterdam to Paris.  In Amsterdam, everyone happily spoke English to us and random people came up to us to ask us if we needed help in finding something whenever we looked like we were lost.  Random people would wave to you and say hello as you passed them on the street.  I knew the Parisians would be different and went into Paris with this in mind.  I had the pre-conceived notion that French people were rude and hated Americans.  For the first 24 hours or so that notion was starting to break, but once we left our tour to do our own thing I started to see the “true Parisian.”  Whenever I asked anyone for directions in English, I got the evil eye.  I was shoved and my crutches were kicked out from under me on numerous occasions.  I somehow managed not to fall, though!  I know that New Yorkers do not have a stellar reputation either, but I personally think Parisians are worse.  

I believe that I grew on this trip as a person - I had my first major “I’m not in America anymore” moment.  I am actually surprised it took this long and that it did not happen in Italy.  In America, and I guess even Italy, I have never been told what I can’t do.  I have never had limits placed on me.  I have always been allowed to do anything that able bodied people are allowed to do if I am up to it.  This is why I was surprised when I was denied access to the top floor of the Eiffel Tower.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the staff of the Eiffel Tower told me that I could not do stairs if the elevator broke that goes between the top and middle part of the tower.  For the average person with a disability this is completely reasonable, but it is normally approached by the customer service agent asking the person with a disability if they are able to descend stairs in the event of an emergency.  If the person says no, then it should be explained to them that the policy is that everyone who goes to the top of the Eiffel Tower must be able to navigate stairs.  If the person says yes, they should be allowed to climb the Eiffel Tower.  After being denied access, I told the staff member that I could navigate the 1,000 stairs down the Eiffel Tower if needed.  She then said that all people with mobility disabilities are not allowed up to the top.  When I asked her if I could sign a waiver, she claimed she didn’t understand.  Then, I asked her to speak with a manager and, again, she claimed she did not understand.  At that point, I realized it was not worth arguing over and walked away.  As soon as I walked away, the staff member closed her window shade as if she was trying to deter me from coming back to argue.   It was very frustrating.  

I also will never get upset in America when someone starts speaking a language other than English.  I used to get annoyed when people would not speak English, but now that the tables have been turned and I know how it feels I will definitely try to be more tolerant.  I will not let the above experiences deter from my time in Paris, but instead I will take away the good things.  Other than the absolute beauty of Paris, I will take away a greater appreciation for the freedom I have in America and a greater toleration for people who do not speak English.  After all, I think one of the most important things one can do in life is taking the bad and turning it into the good.  

This trip also confirmed my decision to return to Europe next summer to do a traditional “backpacking across Europe” trip.  A city like Prague was not even on the list of places I wanted to visit and I loved it.  How many places like that are jewels waiting for me to discover.  I feel like a more knowledgeable and cultured person already – imagine what a full summer can do.  I can’t wait to find out!

By the way, this was posted from London!

Ciao,

Michael

Paris

Ciao Tutti,

Today is the last day of my spring break tour with Bus2Alps.  We've been in Paris for two days now and it is an absolutely beautiful city.  I came to Paris with low expectations as I expected it to be overrated like most cities in Western Europe, all big cities like New York City, but was pleasantly surprised.  Our hostel is on the outskirts of the city, but is only a short subway ride into the heart of all the action.

We arrived in Paris on Thursday at around 4:00 PM and immediately checked into our hostel - Saint Christopher's Inn.  Our room was huge and each bed had a curtain on it so you can close it at night and people can turn the light on without waking you.  It was a really cool concept and came in handy both nights.  Also, each bed had two power outlets near it - a huge plus.  It also had a nice bar downstairs with pretty good food.

On Thursday night, our group leader, Savage, took us to see the Eiffel Tower light up.  We arrived as the light show was going on and only saw the show from a distance, but it was absolutely beautiful.  We all decided afterwards to walk towards to Eiffel Tower and watch the next light show from up close.  We stopped at a supermarket and bought some wine and baguettes for the show and parked ourselves about 50 meters from the base of the tower.  That was a great "Welcome to Paris" gift.

The view as we arrived

On Friday morning we had a pre-arranged walking tour of Paris.  It was a phenomenal tour that lasted four hours.  We saw almost everything in Paris.  We started with the Cathedral of Notre Dame which was beautiful.  I had a flashback to my childhood and remembered the movie, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and we learned that that story was written in 1902 to save the church from being torn down or modernized - it worked!  Then, we went into the courtyard of The Louvre and saw the famous "invisible" pyramid.  After this, we stopped for lunch.  I went and got a baguette with ham and cheese and a cheese pastry.  It was great!  Afterwards, we went to a very pretty garden called the Tuileries Garden and walked down to the Arc de Triomphe and saw the Eiffel Tower from a distance.

Cathedral of Notre Dame

Arc de Triomphe

After our tour, I walked to the Eiffel Tower to try and get to the top.  The employees would only let me to the second level, not the top, because they decided for me that I cannot do stairs in case of an emergency.  When I told them I could, they told me that it was their policy.  This was a bit of a bummer, but the view from the second level was still pretty good.

Then, I went to the Louvre and saw the Inverted Pyramid, Mona Lisa and other works of art.  The Mona Lisa was very small, as expected, but it was still pretty cool to be able to see it.  I was in the Louvre for about 3 hours.

Then, I went and saw the Moulin Rouge come alive as darkness began to take over the city.  It was so cool to see it - next time I am here I want to go to a show there.

That night, I met up with a few people from my tour group to watch the Eiffel Tower light up one final time.  It was still an amazing sight.

Today, we went to the Palace of Versailles.  It was huge!  I was a bit disappointed, though, as I was expecting a gorgeous, pristine palace.  Instead, I walked out of there thinking that the palaces in Rome are nicer.  The garden looked amazing, but I did not have enough time to go into that.

Hall of Mirrors

Well, I'm off to the train station now to catch my train to London.

Ciao,
Michael