Paris ~ The catacombs

We had a short time to walk around Paris and Eric had always wanted to see the catacombs, so here you go. The catacombs are passages below the streets of Paris, where bodies from graveyards were brought because of the health risks they created in their old neighborhoods. So you walk along about a kilometer of bones and skulls stacked various ways and can read about some of the folks you'll encounter. Tres interresant.

Paris, avec gasse

It's all fun and games until they gas you in the metro.

Bound from the Latin Quarter to see fam in the suburbs of Paris, we board the last car at the far end of the metro station platform and wait for it to start. There's yelling outside the window across from me, and two men tackle another and throw him hard to the ground. One of the tacklers faces the train, puts up his hands and yells "Police!" At that moment, the car is filled with some sort of cloud and my eyes, face, and lungs feel like they are on fire. We are being gassed. I don't know if it's pepper spray from outside or some other gas, but all I do know is that I'm in an enclosed space, burning up, and choking. I'm afraid to breathe, take one last gulp of air (repeat performance from when my condo burned down), open the car door and hike it across the platform. I need to breathe again, so I do, pulling in more gas. Some of the people are still in the train, some on the platform, many with the same red, tearing eyes. Many are running out but some are standing still, watching the police action. I guess the gas was stronger down where we were, but need to get to air. I'm somewhat alarmed but not freaking out. Mostly I'm kind of fascinated, wondering if this is it, will I be finished in a subway gassing? Kind of fascinated by the whole thing really and also feeling the animal in me escaping for air. Eric catches up to me and says he thinks it was probably pepper spray and we hike it the rest of the way up the stairs and into fresh air. We sit down on the stairwell and just breathe. I kind of wish I had turned around on that platform and taken a picture of the police action, or at least turned the camera on myself and gotten one of my lava floe eyes. (Actually my French relatives later told me the police shot wasn't such a good idea in France.) Anyway, there you are.

Two days later we were headed home. Police action around abandoned luggage in Charles de Gaulle delayed our first flight and another police action in Frankfurt almost delayed the second. Strange energy in the air that weekend, bien sur.

Prague ~ Around Prague

The Municipal House is one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau in Europe. One of the rooms was entirely done by Mucha.

Tristan's favorite thing about Prague was her shoe.

Prague ~ Me and Kafka, We're This Close

Early cover for Metamorphosis

Old Town Square, through which the family cook used to drag young Franz to school.

Hallway in the Kafka Museum

Now this is what I'm talkin' about. Technical writing to pay the bills. This job was "Preventative Measures Against Accidents Caused by Mechanical Brushes," for the Insurance Institute (1909). Kafka lamented that the 6-9 hour days doing this was soul sucking, in part because he had no energy left for other pursuits. Note that he didn't mention working nights and weekends. More fodder for my manifesto.

These guys get paid to pee in front of the Kafka Museum. Actually, they're moving sculptures, and they are peeing words that I've forgotten but I'm sure Kafka would have loved. There's a great YouTube of the scene here, if you don't mind a bawdy bit of exposition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29-IbY85cZk

Prague ~ The Cubism Museum

If only I had a larger backpack (and a U-Haul) ~

Prague ~ Drinkies VIII

We celebrated Drinkies VIII on October 18 at Pivovarsky Dum and a few other establishments in Prague. We kind of scared some places, being such a big group, I think. 15 peeps and one very happy baby. We proved to be pretty tame, especially compared to some groups I guess. Some pubs actually have signs on the door that mandate no large groups of drunk Brits. We tried to be good.

Czech beer in the making

Eric sez Drinkies next year will be in Alaska, maybe for Solstice.

Prague ~ We arrive

Prague Castle and Charles Bridge

Traveling in Prague is like walking through an enchanting, poignant poem, with its people and history reflected in its architectural styles, including Gothic, Baroque, Rococo, Art Nouveau, Cubist, Functionalist, and post-modern. Smiles seem reserved for personal rather than professional encounters, and it takes a little more for the vibrancy of the place to shine through, but it does.

Outside the opera house where Mozart's Don Giovanni first played

And there it is

So ended our amazing year abroad. I'm sure I'll eek out thoughts big and small about it out in future posts. Mostly I feel grateful that we were able to do this, to be touched by so many lives, ideas, sounds, sights, smells, and tastes. We're so much deeper into ourselves and forever changed. Grateful for our families and for the close times we've gotten to have since we've been home.

And here are some of my favorite sights in the whole world.

I guess there's just one more word to add to all this ~ AGAIN!!!!!!

Spain

Can Cullaretes, serving up Crema Catalan since the 1700's

Barcelona, what can I say? Architecture by Gaudi, some of the most delectable food in the world, art by Picasso, Goya, and company, jamon, tapas, music, did I mention the food? take me back now.

Ladies and Gentlemen, La Sagrada Familia by Gaudi

We gathered lunch at la Boqueria, then headed to Montserrat to enjoy the hillside and the monastery

More Gaudi

Tapas at Xampanet, yum

Italia

We passed through Rome on our way from Greece to Spain. We visited the ruins and fountains, and had some fab meals.

Time Travel

I can't believe it's been four months since my last post. Shortly after that, the universe combined for us to return from Barcelona a few weeks early. Eric's dad's cancer, which he had staved off for over a decade, had come back bigtime, and we really, really wanted to be there with him and Eric's mom. After such an amazing year, coming home a few weeks early was no big deal. So we did that, spending a few weeks in the gorgeous Gold Country fall with them. After that, a former co-worker invited me to come to his company for a short writing contract, so I went right into work, moving in, and the holidays, also returning every couple weekends to be with Eric's folks. Eric's dad passed in January.

So here we are, four months later, with much more to share about the trip. Between cameras disappearing and reappearing and the break since our trip, the rest of this blog will not have the immediacy of the ones written on the road, nor the chronological continuancy I would have liked, but such is life. Think Kurt Vonnegut. Think hiding/showing columns in an Excel spreadsheet. Think quantum leaps.

Greece

Greece was a brief stop in Athens and then some lovely island hopping, with stops in Paros, Mykonos, Syros, and Santorini. Lots of hiking, eating, stomping ruins on Delos, and some hellish seasickness on the ferry from Santorini back to Athens for me. Eric, as ever, was a jolly sailor. Aaaaarrrr.

The meal above was a happy find when we kept climbing this hill one hot morning, famished, thinking we were out of luck for brekkies, and voila. Oh, and it came with some view.

On Santorini, we hiked from Fira to Oia (at the tip). Then, of course, we had lunch.



Ouzo in the making at Brettos in Athens.