On my way to Abu Dhabi, I had a layover in Paris. I took a taxi from the airport to my hotel. I was up on the sixth floor in this absolutely tiny, but very well laid out room with this very Parisian little wrought iron balcony overlooking a neighborhood of apartments. I cleaned up and caught the metro. I had found this great deal (yeah for the off season!) on a guide for a walking tour and I met him at the St. Eustache Cathedral (I didn't take this picture). I recommend Paris a Peid if you get a chance, they were great. We walked around that side of the Seine, talking about the history and the architecture. What's amazing to me is that Paris has had to overcome many of the issues that we think of as modern city planning issues hundreds of years ago. Landfills, zoning and real estate scarcity, for example. We crossed onto the Ile de la Cite and Ile St. Louis. Of course we saw the Louvre (just the outside), and Notre Dame (inside and out). After the tour I walked on the surface streets back to my hotel. Paris is alive with pedestrians, and the later it got, the more people were on the street.
I went to bed early, but because of my jet lag, I got up about 1 am. I wondered down stairs and chatted with the night clerk. Since I was ready for breakfast, the clerk suggested that I hurry across the street to the fruit stand that was closing. The fruit stands close at 2 in the morning! I got a little wine, some fruit, and a chocolate bar. Then I sat out on my little balcony and had a leisurely breakfast while the Paris sky misted on me.
Later that morning I went to the airport. While waiting for my flight I had the frothiest cafe au lait of my life at the illy by my gate. I took a short flight to Geneva. I thought it'd be nice to see the Alps for the first time, but it was too dark. In Geneva, I looked for lunch. But I think that the Swiss must eat high fashion and watches, because that's all they seem to sell at the airport. It all worked out, however, because my flight to Abu Dhabi was with Etihad. The amenities were endless. Although I flew coach, they kept coming by offering fresh coffee, fruit juice, or wine. The food was excellent and interesting. There was a computer in the seat in front of each of us which allowed us to watch movies of our choice, play games, listen to music, play with the flight status maps, or best of all check out the view from a downward and forward looking cameras outside the plane. I was watching Across the Universe and the funeral scene made me cry, but at that moment, the stewardess came by and offered me Hagen das. I couldn't say no.
I'm in Abu Dhabi, now. We don't have connectivity at the apartments we are living in, so apologies if my emails are slow in coming back to you all. I have to work them in during the breaks in class. I'll write more later about life in the UAE. I haven't had much of a chance to experience it yet because all of my energy so far has been devoted to class and recovering from jet lag. I didn't know it could be so miserable. If anyone has suggestions for getting over it, please pass them along!
