From Berlin to Paris

I am way behind on my trip posts, so let me try to catch up quickly then possibly fill in some more details later on.

It's Saturday 26 Dec, and I have flown from Berlin to Paris. Much to my surprise, Berlin turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment, while Paris (at least initially) seems to be far more exciting and enjoyable for me. The five days I spent in Berlin were, to put it succinctly, uneventful and sterile, something that was just the opposite of what I had anticipated. I chose to spend the first days of my vacation, Christmas in particular, in what I had heard was a high energy city. While I really cannot find any specific fault with Berlin, it was very flat, sterile, sparse, almost a bedroom community, similar in many respects to Munich: Nothing to dislike, but not a place that seemed to bring about any excitement. To be fair, I arrived late on Sunday night, and the first two days were cold and snowy, so the weather certainly put much of the damper on things in and of itself. I spent the first day doing the hop-on/hop-off tour bus and was able to see the major sites: Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Checkpoint Charley, etc. After that, since it was literally too cold and snowy to walk about, I spent Monday and Tuesday in the sauna (Therma am Europa) across the street from the Crowne Plaza City Center. The spa, again, was a disappointment: Small and dingy, nothing at all like the grandiose Therme Erding I visited 16 months ago. I did get to see the Christmas markets, but again, nothing really jumped out at me as being a highlight.

Also, for one of the few times in my travelling career, jet lag caught up with me, and I spent virtually all of Wednesday in bed. This is odd in that normally jet lag is a non-event for me; I think it goes hand-in hand with the ho-hum feeling I had towards the city.

Paris, so far, has been a far more pleasant surprise than I remembered or expected. I was last here several years ago at the start of the Gulf War, and while the city itself had an appeal, the attitude of the Parisians soured me quickly. Perhaps I have grown more accustomed to foreign travel in those ensuing years, but while the simple rudeness is still apparent, I am able to brush it off and enjoy all the other things the city has to offer: It is lively, even though still cold outside and even though it is Boxing Day. The streets are very crowded, the shops old and helter-skelter, far from the sterile, spacious atmosphere of Berlin. Also, Paris definitely has the cosmopolitan, world mixing bowl feel of say London, Rome, Hamburg or Koln; panhandlers abound, street merchants try to sell cigarettes and perfume to you as you walk past, and chestnuts were roasting from many "merchants" pushing them about in shopping carts. One very vivid difference is that in the five full days I spent in Berlin, I only saw two Blacks, with everybody else begin Caucasian; yes, lots of Russians, but still a very fair-skinned city. Paris, of course, has every race and ethnic group imaginable.

In short, and in hindsight, I probably should have reversed Berlin and Paris, spending Christmas in France rather than in Germany.

As for the people, as I noted before, the Parisians do seem to live up to the stereotype of being rude; Berliners (and Germans in general) are far from kind, but more brisk and professional than openly rude. Granted, this may partly be due to my own behavior, in that my German is actually fairly good (at least after a few days of refreshing), while my French consists of half a dozen words. (And that assumes you count "si vous plais" as three words; if you consider it a single entity, then my French vocabulary is down to four words.)

One thing that has been problematic during this trip is Internet access, in both Germany and France. Many wireless vendors offer services, at ridiculous prices such as $15 for two hours, and as bad as the price may sound, what is even worse is that the service is terrible: Slow if it works at all, often requiring you attempt to access a page three of four times before it finally renders. I do, of course, live by the web, so having to struggle to access something that I normally take for granted is unnerving.

Also, to add to the Internet woe story, I was hacked in Berlin: Presumably somebody intercepted my cell signal while I was checking email, and thus every contact in my address book received an email from "me" sending them to a pharmaceutical drug site. On the bright side, it did result in a few replies from many people I had not heard from in years, so it was a very welcome chance to say "Happy Holidays" when I responded with the apology for spamming them!

The one itinerary item high on my list for Paris is the Louvre, as I missed it the last time I was here. (I had planned to visit it on my last day, only to find out it is closed on Tuesdays!) More than likely I will do that tomorrow, with Monday and Tuesday being free and up in the air.

The hotel in Paris ("Hotel Du Square D'Anvers) is not so nice and modern as the Crowne Plaza in Berlin, but the location is fantastic, within easy walking distance of the Gare du Nord. It's older but clean, though many of the enhancements have been made by a person whose carpentry skills are below mine: I measure once and cut twice, though this person seems not to own a tape measure and eyeballs the cut, with noticeable gaps in the woodwork an acceptable end result. Also, the hotel doesn't seem to believe in turning on lights---I'm glad I tucked away a small penlight, as I literally would not be able to walk up the stairs without it! As simple and odd as it may sound, the Parisian hotel has a reasonable public sitting area, something that was lacking in Berlin, so I can sit in public as I type my thoughts rather than being squirreled away in my room.