i missed you all, but i have a feeling no one missed me :"( i'm disappointed my postcards didn't get home before me, it would have been faster if i hand delivered them, wouldn't it? BOO!
so how was europe?
it was nice. i saw some beautiful places, like the old cities of Salzberg in Austria, Heidelberg in Germany, Brussels in Belgium, the countryside of France, and the mountains of Austria and Switzerland (pictures to follow.) but with my renowned pokium high-expectations, i'm not satisfied. while i've never yearned to visit europe, i did harbour ideals of what i wanted to do at certain attractions and what i hoped to see. and when time constraints, delays, weather, the presence of too many tourists, the rigidity of the tour structure and paranoia about safety thwarts the realization of those dreams, i'm more unhappy than if i had never gotten a glimpse of europe at all. i can't accept imperfection.
some notes:
* . why do people want to see and do things just because they're famous? for instance, we were told: "there are three treasures in the louvre, venus, winged victory, and mona lisa. if you visited the louvre and did not see these three treasures, you haven't seen anything." Says who? there are SO many other beautiful artworks you can see and come away inspired. or in Switzerland, or Florence, why must the focus be on the consumption of watches and leather when you can roam the streets? i don't care to go up the Eiffel tower. am i going to go home and boast "i've gone up the eiffel tower, i'm better than you?" i don't get it. i know this is harsh, but it seems so ignorant when people are attracted by what they're told is good rather than seeking out something to appreciate on their own.
* . it sucks that most tourist attractions have many so limitations. for example, if you go to windsor castle, you're only allowed to walk along a set path, following the carpet and between the lines, so you only see the room and furniture at a distance. and michelangelo's sculpture "pieta/lamentation" is behind a glass window far inside a room by itself. you can't get close to the window cause it's crowded with tourists and even if you did, you only have a front view of the sculpture. it's a bit stupid to me that you come so far to see something in real life, and it turns out that you can see it more clearly in a photo.
* . i feel guilty that we waste so much food. all the restaurants we went to, they piled so much food on the table cause the it's prescribed in tour package, and since it was so hot in europe we have no appetite so the food was barely touched. locals must think we're filthy rich.
* . our tour guide made a lot of crude and racist/discriminating comments. he was a great guide in terms of organizational skills and travel-knowledge, but his values disturbed me. while we were doing a bus tour of Paris he spotted a homosexual couple at a cafe and pointed it out as if it was one of the attractions. "waaah, look to your right, there's a gay couple making out. see, see? gays are very common in France." if you're amused at something like that why can't you keep it to yourself? or "if you get a black customs officers (at the airport) they're mean and always inspect your purchases." my parents (and i *think* many others of their generation on the trip) didn't notice anything wrong with his comments and when i pointed it out to them, they said "oh it's just his way." their passive acceptance seems wrong to me, too.
* . we were told to beware of pickpockets... in France we saw one, a boy of 11 or 12 years old, he tried to steal a man's wallet and the man pulled his earring in self-defense. it hurt so much the he cried and the man "escaped." our guide said that the boy looked like an eastern-european refugee, and that it was very common for children to be trained to be theives because they're smaller and less noticeable. as tourists we (rightly) consider pickpockets enemies and threats and we strategy against them, where do we hide our money, what would we do if they "attacked" us. of course i wouldn't want my money taken but ... for that boy, after having his earring ripped he'll probably be beaten by the people who commanded him to steal, since he was unsuccessful. it's so sad.
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and now, time for pictures :) scroll down.
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where are the pictures with people? they're only available by special request :Þ
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