A Brief Interlude of Traveling, then Paris

-- pictures from Paris --

Upon leaving Bruges, I took the train to Bruxelles-Zuid/Midi or whatever that train station wants to call itself today, and then took the Eurostar through the Chunnel to London. That was quite the hassel, and unfortunately, it was after dark and I couldn't see anything. The following day I picked up my mother, we saw a bit of London, and then the day after headed to Paris.

Paris had its ups and downs. I had become used to staying in hostels -- where you can get recommendations for cheap food, meet people, etc. The hotel we stayed at was nice, but impersonal, and the staff were kinda useless. Regardless, Paris was beautiful (and frigidly cold).

We went to the Louvre, and I have to admit, I had a difficult time with it. I had been spoiled by the quiet, relaxed atmosphere in, say, the National Gallery in London. The Louvre was filled with frantic tourists, flashing their cameras, trying to tick the Mona Lisa box in their mental masterpiece checklist. The cameras... no one was stopping people from using their flash. It was... appalling.

For me, the highlights of the Louvre were da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks, Géricault's Raft of the Medusa, and the building itself (which is overpowering in its scale).

Other best moments: the Eiffel Tower lit up EU-style and sparkling, going up to its second level on Christmas day (the top was closed), the Christmas market on the Champs-Elysees, the view from Sacre-Coeur, and the artists at Montmatre

Finally, there was our excursion a bit out of town, to Versailles. It was a pilgrimage of sorts for my art history interests, and it didn't disappoint. Salon after salon of elaborate ceiling paintings, leading up to the drama of the Hall of Mirrors. I wish it had been a less busy time of year - I wouldn't have minded lingering in there for some time. It was one of those surreal times when you finally encounter that which you have discussed and discussed and written papers about and so forth... excellent.

Though cold, I enjoyed Paris, and I even spoke a bit of French here and there (just enough to get into trouble, no more)

Bruges

-- pictures from Bruges --

The next stop along the way... Belgium. Bruges manages to be a gorgeous quiet small town, despite being the number one place for tourists in the country (helps that we were there in the middle of December).

Highlights include... the chocolate museum, climbing the Belfry, cheap soup at the oldest pub in town, Belgian waffles, Belgian chocolate, fancy raspberry beer, the Flemish masters art gallery, how most shopkeepers spoke Flemish, English, and French, and (of course) wandering around.

I remember walking around, on my own, across this rather picturesque bridge. This French couple approached me and the girl asked me to take their picture (she asked in French, and I actually understood her). I nodded, took the picture, she said "merci," and without thinking, I replied "no problem." Totally caught her off guard... I got a strange look for that. Good times.

Bruges is one of the most quaint places I've been, especially with Christmas decorations up. Highly recommended.

And no, I didn't go there because of the film. I swear, I got asked that a dozen times (there's a recent film called In Bruges that is supposed to be good, but I haven't seen it)

Amsterdam

-- pictures from Amsterdam --

I realized that the main things we did, I don't have pictures of. We went to the Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh museum, and both were fantastic. I could have probably just sat in a corner of the Van Gogh museum for hours and just absorbed the greatness of it all... just being surrounded by such wonders.

København

-- photos from Copenhagen --

I finally got some reliable internet access in Florence...

Highlights in Denmark included a friendly hostel, getting into Tivoli for free, getting into the Glyptotek for free (and seeing their fantastic collection of statues), and the Danish changing of the guard

Prepping for break

It rather snuck up on me... but Friday I leave for my month of winter break adventuring. I have so many things to do in the next 24 hours, yuck. I'm not going to detail out all the dates, but here's the list of places I'll be over break:

Copenhagen
Amsterdam
Bruges
Paris
Nottingham
London
Milan
Venice
Florence
Pisa

The first three cities are with a friend, the next three (over Christmas and New Year's) are with my mom, and the Italian cities are on my own, although friends will be in Venice at the same time as me

I'll have internet access now and then, but for the most part I'll be off who knows where. I'll probably post some updates when I need a break from running around.

So yeah... otherwise, I'll be back in the US on January 18th, and back at WM on January 20th. Crazy.

The other, slightly less important parts of my time in London

-- pictures --

I was in London from the third to the sixth... a busy couple days. I got there in the early afternoon Wednesday, and had to waste a few hours before Eddie Izzard time. I walked through Leicester Square... happened across the UK premiere of the film Twilight. I climbed up a bit to see what was going on, and saw from afar the two lead actors and the author of the books. I'm not a huge fan, but it was kinda neat for a distraction. I then had some delicious sushi... the first I've had in months. Yum. The rest of my evening was all concerned with Eddie Izzard, as I wrote before

Thursday I planned on attempting to get Hamlet tickets -- with David Tennant as Hamlet, and Patrick Stewart as Claudius. Like my Love's Labours Lost tickets in Stratford, these have been sold out for months and months. I showed up early at the theatre, and waited for the box office to open (hoping for the best). One of the girls in front of me in the queue happened to work for the editor of the RSC Complete Works, so she had some neat inside stories (like how apparently Patrick Stewart isn't the kindest of people). I did manage to get a ticket... but in the altitude-sickness-inducing grand circle. I could see the whole stage, and the performance was excellent, but I wish I could have been closer. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have another chance... a slight letdown. Before the play, I spent the rest of the day wandering around the British museum and Soho

Friday I was kinda all over the place. I went to the Globe theatre (not super exciting), walked around the Eye (there were street performers and a Christmas market), and went to both Tate museums. The Tate Britain had some sort of late-night weirdness going on, with odd performances and stuff. I was feeling a bit lazy, so I went to the movies and saw Burn After Reading, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After that was part two of the Eddie Izzard experience... then to bed.

Saturday, I killed a bit of time in the National Gallery, and headed back to Nottingham.

Lots of famous people in a couple days. I was actually just a couple feet from Patrick Stewart after Hamlet, and could have gotten his autograph/picture if I had been paying attention. Plus, since then, I have realized that I got extremely lucky -- a couple days ago, David Tennant injured his back (he's got to have some surgery now, the poor guy) and won't be back in the theatre until at least after Christmas. During Hamlet, he jumps all over the stage... there's no way he could continue with back problems. The role of Hamlet has been taken over by Edward Bennett, who normally plays Laertes. It looks like I was lucky to see David Tennant as Hamlet at all... hopefully he'll be feeling better before the run finishes in early January.

Eddie Izzard

So, in short, I met Eddie Izzard in London.

Less briefly... I found out a few weeks ago that a) he was doing standup, b) he was doing it in London, and c) there were still tickets available for December 3rd. Over the past few years, I've said multiple times: if the opportunity ever arose to see him perform standup live, I would take it, regardless of cost and inconvenience and whatever else. And so I did.

His latest routine, Stripped, was pretty excellent. I'm of the opinion that his more recent works, Circle and Sexie, were weaker than the earlier ones... but this was fantastic. I'll admit, it started off a little slow, and I was worried, but the second half picked up considerably. Of course, since he's pretty much my hero, I would have been content with him reading the phone book for two hours.

People who have seen his routines know about the broad range of subjects he manages to cover... I'll just list a few highlights: giant squid diaries, Noah's ark, the development of human language, scrabble, dyslexia, the stone age, GPS, farm animals, Hamlet, the ten commandments, the burning bush, intelligent design, Sarah Palin, creme brulee, James Mason (very briefly), badgers, wikipedia... and so on

After the show, I thought I'd make an attempt at finding the stage door. I had to make two loops around the block, because it wasn't labeled, but the second time I found about ten people who were waiting outside a nondescript door. If you don't know what I'm talking about -- sometimes in theatre, the performers will come out the stage door after a performance and sign autographs and whatnot

We all bantered and had a good time for a solid half hour, hoping that Eddie Izzard would make an appearance. At last, he did -- and he was super friendly. He signed autographs and took pictures for everyone who wanted one, while ignoring this one obnoxiously drunk guy who kept interfering. I got the picture, and I got my program signed, so I was rather thrilled

That was Wednesday night. Friday night, I was slowly making my way back in the direction of the hostel, and passed by the theatre. I realized it was just about the time when he had made his appearance outside before, so I wandering around to see. There were fewer people, about half a dozen, standing around. I reassured them that he had come out Wednesday, and that it just took awhile. Just after that, the door opened, and there he was again. I watched people getting their autographs and stuff, standing back. I made the comment that I'd seen him on the US election coverage (he was in the US at the time, and did a short BBC interview that I saw purely by chance). We talked about that for a minute or so, he expressed his optimism for the future, he offered me a handshake, and then said goodnight and headed off

Whew. So I saw him perform, got a picture and autograph, had a conversation, and shook the man's hand. All of this is after having resigning myself to the thought, a year or two ago, that he was probably never going to do standup again. I was so very glad to be wrong

I'll write about the rest of my London adventures later, and my other celebrity encounters... because there's more... But at the moment, it's dinner time