Europe round up
It’s weird being back. Just when I was getting used to sunsets at 9:00PM, just when I got a hang of bus routes and subway maps, just when I started believing that that was my life from now and forever and ever, I wake up in my own bed as if the past 23 days didn’t happen.
Aack there is so much to tell…like having nothing but grapes, olives, the sky, and the far away feeling of your body blurring into each other as you zip downhill on a bike, or the sick feeling of envy and hopelessness you get seeing the Philippines after a trip abroad, or even just the strangeness of rabbit meat, truffle honey, and fizzy water. But I am opposed to long LJ entries, so here’s a random account, Debsoc style.
Useless firsthand matter I collected during the trip:
1. Young French dads are domesticated and sexy because the government made them that way. They sit in public parks with ruffled hair and YSL eyeglasses helping their kids feed the ducks while the moms are nowhere to be seen (probably getting the poodle shampooed). According to this French girl we talked to, men are being more hands-on with kids now, especially after a law was recently passed that allowed men, and not just women anymore, to take “maternity” leaves. Child-rearing as a share responsibility institutionalized by the state, yo.
2. On the effectivity of transportation strikes: they don’t work. Oh but they are a bargaining chip, you say. An effective way of gaining awareness and blahdyblahdyblah, you argue.
You don’t understand: they don’t work. Like, at some point, you’ll only end up with dead train workers when they make angry (and possibly armed) commuters cancel holiday trips and line up in the mess of a ticket hall getting refunds for hours and hours on end. As a tourist, I was a miffed but still entertained by the train strikers’ chants at the station in Florence, but I swear, the locals in line with me for refunds were next-level annoyed and murderous.
3. Trivia time! Nutella, the chocohazelnut spread, was invented in Italy in the 1940s when World War II made chocolate scarce. Hazelnuts were added in as extenders, and voila, heaven on earth. And because Italy turns out to be hazelnut country, I had Nutella every morning for 17 days as it was served alongside butter and jam in Avignon (which is in France but still kinda near Italy), Venice, Florence and Rome.
Side story: When I was a kid, my sandwiches, pancakes, bananas and sometimes bare teaspoons were smothered with Nutella and my classmates were like, oh wow what is this crazy thing that isn’t peanut butter? Save for Anna who introduced it to me, I was alone in my Nutella fandom.
So it was with an orphan-like happiness did I witness the Europeans serving me tiny Nutella cups with my croissant, asking me if I wanted it on my crepes, and pointing me towards Nutella-ribboned gelato. There was a tub of Nutella bigger than my head in a pizzeteria of all places.
---
That’s it, pancit. Although I know I’ll be spouting anecdotes about this trip for the next decade or so and you’ll be sick of me. Meanwhile, pictures on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24842&l=bb5b3&id=672034610
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24845&l=f8680&id=672034610
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24847&l=ba73f&id=672034610
Aack there is so much to tell…like having nothing but grapes, olives, the sky, and the far away feeling of your body blurring into each other as you zip downhill on a bike, or the sick feeling of envy and hopelessness you get seeing the Philippines after a trip abroad, or even just the strangeness of rabbit meat, truffle honey, and fizzy water. But I am opposed to long LJ entries, so here’s a random account, Debsoc style.
Useless firsthand matter I collected during the trip:
1. Young French dads are domesticated and sexy because the government made them that way. They sit in public parks with ruffled hair and YSL eyeglasses helping their kids feed the ducks while the moms are nowhere to be seen (probably getting the poodle shampooed). According to this French girl we talked to, men are being more hands-on with kids now, especially after a law was recently passed that allowed men, and not just women anymore, to take “maternity” leaves. Child-rearing as a share responsibility institutionalized by the state, yo.
2. On the effectivity of transportation strikes: they don’t work. Oh but they are a bargaining chip, you say. An effective way of gaining awareness and blahdyblahdyblah, you argue.
You don’t understand: they don’t work. Like, at some point, you’ll only end up with dead train workers when they make angry (and possibly armed) commuters cancel holiday trips and line up in the mess of a ticket hall getting refunds for hours and hours on end. As a tourist, I was a miffed but still entertained by the train strikers’ chants at the station in Florence, but I swear, the locals in line with me for refunds were next-level annoyed and murderous.
3. Trivia time! Nutella, the chocohazelnut spread, was invented in Italy in the 1940s when World War II made chocolate scarce. Hazelnuts were added in as extenders, and voila, heaven on earth. And because Italy turns out to be hazelnut country, I had Nutella every morning for 17 days as it was served alongside butter and jam in Avignon (which is in France but still kinda near Italy), Venice, Florence and Rome.
Side story: When I was a kid, my sandwiches, pancakes, bananas and sometimes bare teaspoons were smothered with Nutella and my classmates were like, oh wow what is this crazy thing that isn’t peanut butter? Save for Anna who introduced it to me, I was alone in my Nutella fandom.
So it was with an orphan-like happiness did I witness the Europeans serving me tiny Nutella cups with my croissant, asking me if I wanted it on my crepes, and pointing me towards Nutella-ribboned gelato. There was a tub of Nutella bigger than my head in a pizzeteria of all places.
---
That’s it, pancit. Although I know I’ll be spouting anecdotes about this trip for the next decade or so and you’ll be sick of me. Meanwhile, pictures on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24842&l=bb5b3&id=672034610
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24845&l=f8680&id=672034610
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24847&l=ba73f&id=672034610