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European Trip
(2008-01-03 14:33:00)
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杂谈 |
Friends asked me how was my European trip,
here is simple summary of my trip.
I didnot imagine the weather was so cold,
though I already got information from some german friends, said
it's very cold there, still I didnot pay much attention to it, as
my heart was only full with excitement and
didnot give any thoughts to other
things. I am snake, like warm weather, act and
think better in summer time, so I changed my plan, stopped
travelling to other place, like Roma,Floerance, Amsterdan,
Berlin... so the rest of trip I stayed in my swiss friend's house.
Swiss is the real paradise in this world to me.
First of all, I didnot buy the europass in
Shanghai, I didnot google it and thought for grant that I could buy
when I got there. But after I got there and went to buy, the price
is higher, in Shanghai, I pay 350 euro for 8 days for second class,
but in Europe, there is only one choice, first class, and the price
is 536 euro for 8 days and 5 countries, but I still needed to pay
for the reservation fees, which also costs a lot, especially the
one from Paris to Bruxelles, it costs about 32 euro for single
trip. Just this reservation fee is almost equal to
the flight fee, as I met 2 school girls they only spent 30 euro for
flying from Brxelles to Berlin. and for 2 times I had to take the
second class as the first class was full. All in all, it's very
expensive travelling in Europe by train, but what is cheap in
Europe? Maybe only tap water,not like China, which
you can drink directly, so most of the time, I drunk tap
water.
Food is very expensive too, for a decent meal,
drinks, appetitzer, main dish, costs more than 30 euro. Fortunately
I dont eat much, and dont eat much meat.Usually the hotel always
offer breakfast which is included in the room rate, so I
always ate as much as I can, so I skipped the
lunch, just ate dinner. Sometimes I just ate bread, or bought some
ready food from supermaket, and most of the time, I was lucky, my
friends took me to dinner, and they paied it, hehe, because I never
carry my purse, woman has some priviliges. The only problem is the
westners always have late dinner around 7 to 8pm, but I always got
hungry around 5 to 6pm.
The sightseeings do not cost much, as mostly
you go to see the local cathedral which is free of
charge, besides the cathedral, there are some museums, they charge
a little bit, not expensive, but if you are not
into you can skip it. The cities are usually not big, except Paris
which you have to take subway, you can always walk around, as I
did, I walked all the time, and walking is the best way to discover
a city, you can see more things than taking taxi or subway. The
subway is old-fashioned, and you have to open the door by yourself,
it's not automatic. I always saw the buses were almost empty, very
few passengers or even no passenger which always made me wonder how
they make money. I only tried the bus one time in Swiss, before we
got on, there was no passenger on, my friend bought the tickets for
me from a machine at the bus stop station. I also
tried the taxi a few times, but the gap between the seats are too
tight, not comfortable.
About hotel, I tried to stay in youth hotel for
2 nights, unfortunately I didnot know there is membership and I
should have bought the menbership card in
Shanghai, but if you stay no more than 2 nights, then it's ok you
dont need to feel sorry. The room is quite warm, the problem is the
shower, you have to put all the shampoo, shower gel, soap... on the
floor, and about every 30 seconds or 1 minute you have to push the
botton of the shower, otherwise it stops watering. If you plan to
stay in youth hotel all the time during your trip, better bring
your own towel, hair dryer, slippers and plastic cup. They offer
self-service breakfast, but it's suck. I stayed in a 3-star hotel
in Paris, the name of the hotel is Best Westner hotel at left bank,
the room is very tiny, the smallest room and bathroom I have ever
seen in my life, but not cheap at all, the elevator is just big
enough for 2 people, I guess the french like to enjoy romance all
the time.
There are somethings I cannot
understand, one is that the
security staff at famous scenic sights always let
you open your bag and they just glance at it,
never check thoroughly, how can they find any gun or explosive
things? what's the point of this? Second, how the
shops make money when they close before 7pm and on weekend, even
during the business hour, I saw very few
customers, and I was afraid of going in if no customer there. and
how the people find the time to shop? Third, why
they have so much stuff in the kitchen, all kinds of knives, all
sorts of cooking appliance, different forks and
knives for differents foods. I guess they spend a lot of time on
cooking, on washing, on making table, how they find time on
reading, study, working, researching....? We
chinese people likes eating a lot, and creats
all types of cuisine, but we only have chopsticks
and one big knife of cutting all kinds of food. But the industry
revolutionary didnot happen in China.
I always thought only chinese people dont
follow the traffic rules, but I was so happy to see the french
across the streets when the traffic light was red, so next time, if
my foreign tourists complain that chinese dont follow up the
traffic rule, I will give them good example,
chinese are not alone.
I am very glad to back Shanghai, I feel life,
energy here, you can see, streets are crowded of people, buses are
packed by people, shops and restaurants are full of people, people,
people, noisy, noisy, which remind you are still alive and you live
on the planet, but in Europe, especially in the country side, you
feel you are aged, no ambitious, you almost dont see people, but
you see the cars, cars, cars, quiet, quiet, which always make me
wonder how old I am, 60? 80?
The best thing is everything is cheap in China,
and you can always buy the copy of the name-brand products, Cucci,
LV, Chanel..., whatever you can find here, what a paradise for
cheap people like me.
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