A Must See Film Before You Arrive In Paris!

Click cc in the bottom right corner of the video for subtitles. Amelie is an amazing modern French film that will make your trip through the Chunnel even more enjoyable and give you a sense of French sensibilities and humor. Being a film student it is my personal belief that films are one of the best ways to learn about another culture. Granted those films should be produced by filmmakers native to that country, and one should be weary of the genre of the film before taking its plot too seriously. Amelie, however, is critically acclaimed and the perfect movie to get you ready for a trip to Paris. Enjoy!

The Chunnel

If you can afford it a great way to get from London to Paris is by using the Chunnel. The Chunnel is a British nickname for the Channel Tunnel that Eurostar bullet trains ride through. While the cheapest youth ticket is a whopping $155 (yes dollars, not Euros) to say that you have traveled through the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world is pretty neat. At the tunnels lowest point it is actually 250 feet deep.

An article on CNN.com brings up a very interesting point: "as you zoom along at speeds up to 185 miles per hour, consider how long it took to link Britain and France. Since the days of Napoleon there had been talk about a tunnel under the English Channel, but it wasn't until 1986 that the two countries finally reached an agreement to build it together. Once the digging started, crews crept forward 100 feet a day until June 1991, when French and English workers broke through and shook hands midway across the Channel. Voila! Cheers! The tunnel was complete."

Considering the cheap cost of airfare on some European airlines the Eurostar fare for the Chunnel is pretty steep, but this is definitely one train ride to splurge on. If it makes you feel any better the European bullet train is far more fuel efficient and causes less pollution than flying!

An Important Current Event To Know Before Visiting France

Before visiting Paris it is important to have an understanding of their Roma situation. I have mentioned Roma in a previous post but in case you've forgotten Roma are essentially gypsies. Roma have faced a lot of persecution in Europe over the years but things have reached a boiling point in France. A recent article in The Huffington Post focuses on comments made by a Romanian Gypsy leader that compares French President Sarkozy to Nazis. These comments are in response to Sarkozy's decision to expel hundreds of Roma from France. About 1,000 Gypsies have been sent back to Romania and Bulgaria as a result of France's crime fighting measures. The French president "has linked Roma to crime, calling the camps in which some of them live, sources of trafficking, exploitation of children and prostitution." Because EU governments are allowed to send citizens of other EU countries (Romania is also an EU country) home if their citizens can't find work or support themselves in other countries, and because 1.5 million Gypsies already live in Romania making it the largest population of Gypsies in Europe-- the logical decision on Sarkozy's part was to send the Gypsies in his country back to Romania.


The problem is the expulsions are being criticized by many in Europe, and not just Roma. Sarkozy has the Catholic church, the United Nations, and even members of his own political party on his case. Keep this in mind while traveling in France because it could come up in conversations-- you want to be sure and look like an intelligent American not a narrow minded one.

Here's the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/08/romanian-gypsy-leader-com_n_708764.html

Paris Anyone?

My favorite city in Europe is hands down: Paris. As cliche as that may be, there is just something special about this city. I visited Paris twice before studying abroad. Once at the age of 11, and again at the age of 15, but visiting again as a college student was a completely different experience. Paris has a spirit all its own that can captivate any traveler even if you are visiting when it's 25 degrees and snowing outside.

As a little introduction to Paris I want to share this video with you. It's a video from La Blogtheque a French music blog that features articles on popular Indie musicians and more importantly these things called Take Away Shows. In a Take Away Show a featured band performs a song anywhere in the city of Paris-- and I want to show you Phoenix's performance of 1901. While Phoenix has become pretty Americanized they still perform at least two songs in French at each concert and are still amazing performers. So enjoy this song and video and get ready for a bit of helpful information to plan your Parisian visit.

Sit and Marvel

I realize that I may not have hit every topic I promised to hit on for London as mentioned in my first post, however my goal is mainly to give you a sprinkling of helpful information for each city. I will touch on each topic I promised but over a number of cities. I feel like I've been stuck in London for too long, which is probably a product of my parent's style of traveling. When I traveled with them in middle school and high school we would take two week vacations and hit as many countries or states as possible with very little down time. We saw plenty of museums, important historical sites, and various locations of cultural importance but we only had brief moments where we were able to just sit at a cafe and people watch. If there's one thing I learned while studying abroad it's that the best moments were the moments where I just people watched at a cafe, visited a pub for mulled wine when it was snowing outside, or sat in parks and just looked out at a city. My advice for your trip across Europe: take time to just sit and marvel.



--the view from a paddle boat on the Vltava river in Prague.

The Infamous Banksy

While doing some searching on the internet I came across a recent article on the infamous British graffiti tagger Banksy. His real identity still remains a mystery but his tagging has proven to be quite controversial. The messages he tries to send are usually social commentaries and often are attacks against the British government, London city officials, and the police. Banksy has become quite a prolific tagger and even has a documentary about his life coming out soon. His most recent piece of work:


appeared on the side of a private house in "Bevois Valley, an area of Southampton known for its lively nightlife and binge-drinking culture." The piece of art was painted over after only a week.

If you plan on visiting London definitely keep an eye out for his work.

His a list of his work and their locations in London:
http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/banksy/banksy.htm

Here is the article where I found my information:
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/848233-banksys-no-future-mural-in-southampton-gets-white-washed


While The British Museum and the National Gallery are examples of classical and more conventional arts and relics it would be a great idea to juxtapose them against Banksy's work to really get a sense of how much art has changed over the years, and how socital issues have been one of the driving forces of this change.

My Favorite Museums In London

The British Museum:
Established in 1973 The British Museum now houses over 13 million artifacts and houses the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of Egyptian antiquities outside the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. My favorite department houses artifacts from Egypt and the Sudan. The most notable object being the Rosetta Stone. Other departments of interest are the department of Greek and Roman antiquities and the department of the Middle East. Something important you should keep in mind as you tour the British Museum is that it has come into a bit of controversy over the years. There is a great deal of debate over whether the museum should be allowed to posses prized antiquities from other countries. The Elgin Marbles, Benin Bronzes and the Rosetta Stone are among the most disputed objects in its collections. Many organizations have been demanding that these items be returned to their respective countries of Greece, Nigeria and Egypt respectively.

National Gallery:
Founded in 1824 the National Gallery houses over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. What's great about this museum is that it not only features British artists but artists from all over Western Europe. It is equally fascinating to see the change in painting styles from each century and the variations between different countries. The museum is located in Trafalgar Square- the most famous square in the United Kingdom. If you're lucky enough to be there on VE Day, Christmas, or New Years you can watch concerts, fireworks, and other ceremonies.

While these two sites aren't quite as generic for a trip to London as the Tower of London, they are both free of charge which is perfect for a student on a budget.

Hostelworld!!

Hostelworld.com is an absolute god-send for students traveling on a budget around Europe. At hostelworld.com you can search over 24,000 hostels in 180 countries, so they definitely have you covered. What's best about hostelworld is that once you begin searching for hostels in a specific city you can organize hostels by price and ratings. But the ratings aren't just one overall percentage per hostel; the ratings include sub categories of ratings: character, security, location, staff, fun, and cleanliness. All of which are very important to making your hostel stay a pleasant one. The site also features reviews from people, usually students, who have actually stayed at these hostels. The reviews really help because the descriptions are usually written by the staff and make the hostels seem way better than they actually are, but the reviews sift through all of their lies and tell you exactly what you need to know about each hostel. So unless you have friends with a couch you can crash on in each city you plan on visiting I’d start making reservations as soon as possible. Hostels fill up fast during holidays and vacations. You may have your reservations about hostels, I used to (I used to think I would end up in a very horror film like situation if I ever stayed at one) but if you stay at a good hostel you will be pleasantly surprised by their helpful staff, clean, safe accommodations, and the acquaintances you’ll make with other student travelers.

The Pound

So you're finally in London. You've crossed the Atlantic, gotten through customs, and you navigated the Tube. Suddenly you realize something: London is ridiculously expensive. Unfortunately the British pound is doing better than the US dollar and this is one of the reasons London will probably be one of the most expensive stops on your trip. This website http://www.forecasts.org/pound.htm lists the British pound/US dollar exchange rate forecast for the next six months, and it does show the difference between the pound and the dollar declining. If you're on a budget I would advise limiting the number of days you spend in London to no more than two or three. If you are a student then you probably are on a budget which means you probably won't be staying at a five-star hotel. This brings us to our next topic: hostels. In my next post I will talk about hostelworld.com an amazing website for finding affordable, safe, and clean hostels all over the world.