Eiffel Tower

The most iconic momentum in Paris would be the Eiffel Tower. It is arguably the most recognizable building in the world. At night the tower glows in an orange outline. Every hour, a light show begins and hundreds of bright white bulb randomly flashes outlining the structure of the tower. Whenever this happens, the hordes of tourists all pause with a synchronized gasp of "ahhhhh", then a rapid fire of flash photography explodes from the crowd as people try to capture the moment. It is truly unique sight.



The first time I saw the Eiffel was from the Trocadero metro stop, across the Seine. The funny thing about seeing the Eiffel from the direction is that there are fairly large steps going down right when the Eiffel appears. Furthermore the light post above that area was burned out. So, when people first gaze up to see the Eiffel and continue walking forward, numerous times people forget to look down and are surprised by the step. Most stumble forward and some even fall. It is very entertaining to watch.



I went to the top of the Eiffel with a friend that just happened to be visiting Paris and her co-worker. It was a long line and a lift takes us to the first level. Throughout the journey up the towers numerous signs warned us of pickpockets. The second level of the Tower is open meaning there are no windows hindering pictures from being taken. Another line forms going up to the top. My wallet and I made it safely up to the top, where there is an enclosed area with windows forming a 360 degree view of the cityscape below and a stairs that went to an outer section. The outer section is incredibly windy which made taking photos extremely difficult. A beam of blue light is emitted from the top of the tower and spins around like a lighthouse.

Good morning, Paris

I was able to find a coach fare from London, England to Paris, France for 19£ (roughly 38USD). The bus departed, driving on the left side of the road, was loaded on a train, the train went under the English Channel, drove off the train, switched to driving on the right side of the road and finally made it to the main bus stop of Gallieni, eastern Paris. My ipod blasts the tune of “NY State of Mind” as I exit the bus. Paris, so far, is not what I had expected in my mind. It is much larger and seems too much like a normal urban city I am use to seeing in the US.

Upon unloading another passenger asked if I could help him carry some of his luggage in exchange for some cash. It turns out he had 6 pieces of luggage two of which had pretty much fallen apart. The suit case with two wheels had one of the wheels broken and a duffel bag with non-working zippers. Being the last person I decide to help him out. Between me and him we each had 4 items to carry. The suitcase was dragged along the sidewalk, a stump where the wheel was left behind a line of plastic markings. The guy was skinny and we took breaks frequently. Luckily his apartment was near the station.

After helping the fellow passenger with his items we headed up to this apartment where rested for some tea. He told me that he was working in London and had come back to Paris for some dental procedures as it was cheaper here. Since I had lost all sense of direction, he escorted me to the train stations and instead of money, we agreed on a metro ticket instead.

The subway in Paris is called the Metro. The subway in London is called the Underground/Tube. The first thing I notice is that London’s network of stops was a lot simpler than Paris’. There are many more lines and more frequent stops in Paris. A quick look at a tube/metro map shows their vast differences. The second thing I noticed was how much dirtier Paris’ metro is compared to London’s tube. The smells, sights, and traction beneath my feet all seem to indicate how much filthier it is here.



My friend and ex-coworker Giang has an apartment in Paris. It is near the Opera metro stop.

About a block over I finally find the entrance. The buildings are more elegant than those in the suburbs. It is more of what I had thought Paris would look like. The buildings are much shorter. The interior is much like previous apartment building I visited. A small elevator is in the middle with enough room for maybe 4 people, shoulder to shoulder, and a spiraling staircase wrapped around it. The French count the first floor as the zero level. So the apartment is actually the 5th level up. Here is a view from the kitchen area.


Since Giang was still at work I decided to go explore the surrounding area. There are many interesting things to look at. For example around every other corner there is a Velib station. This is a network bike stations where Parisians that participate in the program can rent a bike. There are numerous stations throughout Paris making this means of public transportation extremely convenient. While walking, I also notice that I need to watch out where I step even on the sidewalk.


There is dog poop everywhere. After finally getting use to cars driving on the left side of the road in Ireland and the United Kingdom, I once again feel like a fish out of water as I change my street crossing pattern once more. Parisians walk much slower than Londoner. I felt frustrated as I ran into slower walkers in front of me, much like riding a sport bike through Midwest traffic.

Another thing I noticed was how closely people parked their cars. At first I was quite impressed, but after seeing several cars that were literally bumper to bumper I knew that it was not as much skill as it was the fact that drivers actually ram into other car's bumpers in order to park. I was told that the police here even give tickets if your parking brake is up because people are expected to slightly bump your car to fit into a parking space. That fact alone means I cannot permanently live here.


After I return, I come to find that Giang has yet to eat dinner as well. We both catch a metro ride to the Vietnamese area of Paris and to grab some pho. We find an acceptable dining area and sit to order. The first waitress shows up and starts to speak French. I quickly gaze over at Giang expecting him to have some kind of French response only to find out that he doesn’t speak a word of French either. Luckily I find out that the waitress speaks Chinese. I order in Chinese and she quickly disappears. Minutes later we get the attention of another waitress as we attempt to order tap water. I order in Chinese and she gives me a blank stare. I quickly counter with some English which results in the same outcome. Finally Giang throws out some Vietnamese and she nods with a smile. After our food is finished we ask for the bill. A third waitress brings the bill, we both save “merci” remembering that we at least knew some words and she responds with “no problem”. What an interesting dining experience.

Sights of London

Here are some other pictures I took while exploring London.







The London Eye

London Museums

London is full of museums and the best part is that most of them are free. I was able to visit the National Galleria, and the Tate Modern in one day and the British Museum the following day. Visiting museums one after another can easily lead to an overdose. Spreading these museum excursions in between other activities definitely helped to alleviate this overdose of museums.

The National Galleria is full of paintings categorized and organized by era. It is located at Trafalgar Square. It sits overlooking the square's two massive fountains in the direction of Ben Big. The museum is funded by donations and extra donations for the audio tour. Going up the stairs leads to the entrance of four categories of paintings organized by era. The entrances to the exhibits are arranged in chronological order from left to right. Cameras are not allowed in any of the facilities so I only have outside pictures. The most interesting piece of artwork was "The Ambassadors" which shows a distorted skull on the bottom which takes shape when viewed from the right side almost adjacent to the painting. There is much debate over the symbolism of why the artist chose to put a skull on the bottom on the painting. Rather than bore you with the details of that, I will suggest my interpretation: The artist decided to paint that skull in order to flaunt his mad skill and make the painting much more interesting than the original subjects that he was commissioned to paint.



Between visiting the National Galleria and going to the Tate Modern, we venture through Green Park for a brief intermission, towards the direction of Buckingham Palace. On the journey over we run into some Queen's Guards out performing in the courtyard.




Green Park has a walking trial that runs around a pond. In the middle is Duck Island. As we walk past the pond there are several groups of ducks and swans. At the end of the lake Buckingham Palace begins to emerge in the distance.



The Tate Modern is located on the south side of the Thames River between the Blackfriar's Bridge and the Millennium Bridge. I decided to take the tube to the Southwark station. After emerging from the underground, our views are drawn to the bright orange light poles that mark the direction to the Tate Modern. About a ten minute walk winding through narrow streets busy with construction, the Tate Modern appears. It was built from an old power station. The entrance is what is called the turbine hall which is overlooked by all 7 floors of artwork.

One of the main attractions of the Tate Modern is Claude Monet. They have Monet's Water-Lilies painted after 1916. The Tate Modern also has many up and coming artists. The only floor that was not included as a free exhibit was Duchamp. He gets his fame from taking a urinal, flipping it upside down, signing his name on it and calling it art. Same logic applied, I make art every morning I go into the restroom. Needless to say I was not disappointed that I did not get to see his "artwork". With the day coming to an end around 5:45pm, I decide to save the British Museum for the next day.

The British Museum is located near our first hostel, The Generator. It surrounded by the four tube stops, Goodge Street, Russell Square, Tottenham Court Rd, and Holborn. Having just visited Camden Town, which is directly north of that area, I decided to take a walk from Euston Station south via Gower Street. I pass through the London University College on my way to the Museum. A rush of bike traffic hurries through the side streets between classes. There are hordes of students out walking around. I finally reach the Museum on the left after side-stepping past flocks of ipod wearing students.

Another left and I am facing the entrance of the British Museum. It is definitely a tourist hotspot as several groups of people claim the limited real estate in front of the entrance to pose for pictures. The museum itself is huge. Two rolls of ionic columns form the foundation to a triangular roof. Inside the top triangle are several statues with gold plated details. The concrete is weathered and the darked aged details are more striking against the light gray.

The doorway opens up to a spacious atrium where a network of triangular glass panels form the roof. The first thing you'll notice is how white the entire area is. It further enhanced by the large windowed roof which lets in ample amounts of light. Large white tiles make up the floor and walls. Directly in front are two sets of steps that curve oppositely around the middle structure leading to various exhibits.

The British Museum is huge in comparison to the other I have visited. Besides being bigger and better, there are no photography restrictions. A 4gig card was not enough to capture all the interesting items that this institute had to offer. Housing over 13 million items, the British Museum is one of the largest exhibits in the world. It contains objects from all continents and is themed on human culture and history. It is easy to get lost amongst the many exhibits and still not see the same thing twice. I spent most of my time in the Egyptian and Asian exhibits. And below are some of my favorites.

A Crocodile Suite was displayed behind glass and the lighting made it difficult to get a picture. This item was featured in the Egyptian area. This armor, although non-functional as protection, was worn by the Egyptian military in third to fourth century AD. The Egyptians have strong belief in the power of the Nile Crocodile and the Crocodile god, Sobek. This armor was believed to give the wearer the strength and power of the Crocodile and acted more as a mental stimulus striking fear to their enemies.

Nesuke are miniature sculptures from 17th century Japan. These tiny, roughly the size of a lime or small orange, figurines were once used as part of traditional Japanese attire. A Netsuke acted as a button to hold various containers or pouches, as in those days the robes had no pockets. They are now a rarity as that clothing trend came to an end. It is truly amazing the amount of detail the artists are able to put into these small items. The material used ranges from common woods to rare animal tusks.

London, By Foot

We decided to take a free walking tour. Free? What's the catch? It seems that most major historic cities have these free walking tours. The tour guides are hired by the Sandmans company that does many of the free walking tours throughout Europe, the most famous one being Berlin. They are not paid hourly or a salary, but are rather compensated by tips from the people on the tour. Other advantages of working on tips is that it is a workaround for people that are not suppose to have employment within the country as well as not having to report wages for taxes.

The tour started around 9am and we all gathered near a sun dial monument. This sculpture was commissioned by the transportation system of London. Along the outer edge of the sundial a depiction of London history is crafted in bronze. A motif of the Thames River and rats run throughout the entire historical representation. It seems that these two items both play important parts of London's history.


The tour guide takes us along the busy streets of the city. We travel along the Thames River to view all the famous bridges starting at Tower Bridge, to London Bridge, to Southwark Bridge, Millennium Bridge, and finally stopping at Blackfair's Bridge. London Bridge is actually not that impressive. Most people mistake London Bridge for Tower Bridge which is depicted below. In fact the original London Bridge was purchased and moved to United States. It was rebuilt brick by brick before the buyer said "Where's the rest of it?" and realized that he had mistaken London Bridge as Tower Bridge. One of the originals of the London Bridge is now located in the great state of Arizona.

Tower Bridge


Blackfair's Bridge

Millennium Bridge
There is a funny story about Millennium Bridge. London commissioned x million pounds for this bridge to be built for the celebration of the Millennium. Well, it didn't get finished in time and furthermore when it was finished it had a defect. The bridge swayed so much that people got sick walking across it. So another x million pounds was spent to stabilize it. It is interesting the many parallelisms one can draw between this saga and the field of software engineering.

The tour continued to the heart of the city. We stopped by Temple Church. This is the establishment of one of the most ancient society of lawyers. It was mentioned in the DaVinci Code and actually does indeed exist. After crossing a parking lot full of exotic cars we come to the church.

The exterior is nothing impressive but the view from the inside is spectacular. There are stained glass windows all around and small statues lining the edges on the walls, each with a unique face and expression. Our guide tells us that Lawyers here are not only required to pass the bar but also sit through 12 formal dinners.

We walk pass a Griffin statue situated in the middle of a street. These statues face outwards and mark the borders to the City of London, which is separate from area of Greater London. The City of London has a population of roughly 7 thousand compared to Greater London's 7 million. The size of the City of London is roughly one square mile and her borders have stayed consistent since the Middle Ages, thus earning her the name of Square Mile.

We exit the city of London, walking past another outward facing Griffin. This street is full of dress clothes stores. I look into a window and see a typical sold long sleeve dress shirt is 75€ (~$115) with a "on sale" sign next to do it. Across the street is the Royal Court of Justice. The tour comes to an end. We are now in a new unfamiliar part of town and wander around aimlessly.

Envy

I am still diligently working on the London and Paris posts. So in the mean time, here's a funny image.

Woke up in London

In the wee hours of the morning, 7:30am, everything is closed; the hostel booking standing, the internet cafes, the public library, tourist information booths, etc. The only place we found open were morning coffee shops where we grabbed a bite to eat. I sit outside in the cold. It is windy on and off and the sun has been behind clouds since I got in. People are rushing to work and getting coffee's to-go. A small sized cup of coffee is 3£, roughly $6. I quickly notice that the walking pace here is a tad bit quicker than the Dublin.

After lounging in the cold, I explore the surrounding area, unable to find a hostel. As the hours pass we are finally able to use the internet in the train station. It seems that most places are booked, but we are able to find a hostel for 20£ a night, The Generator. Contrary to the advice given to us by our friend from London, we decided to go ahead and book the hostel anyways.

The Generator is a party hostel, at any time there are roughly 800 guests staying there, or so the bathroom signs tell us. Because of the number of people, everything is crowded. The decorations of the hostel consist of an old interior with bright reflective stainless steel floors and multicolored neon lights across the ceiling. On the actual residence floor it is a much different story. One look down the hall way and it almost seems like an old prison. There is a bar/club on the bottom floor, so it is loud. At night, security patrols around the front door telling people to not make so much noise. This seems pretty futile to me, considering the club has enough bass to be heard from any floor on the building in that same corner. Needless to say we switched hostels.

The next agenda on our list was food. London is famous for its diversity and it is also known for good Indian food. Luckily next to the Generator was a vast array of restaurants of various ethnicity. We stopped by the first reasonably priced location and ordered some curry.

I pictured London as being taller, however after arriving I see that it is more spread out than tall. I am told that there is a limit on how high buildings are around here. Gene and I visit the Foundling Museum which had a concert for a classical guitarist. The show was inspiringly good and gave me a craving to play my guitar, which I sold just before my departure on this trip. That night I began to research which guitar(s) I wanted to get for when I return. Thus far I think I want an American Stratocaster (cream) and also a Yamaha acoustic guitar. The next day we found a 1£/hour internet cafe, very reasonable considering our hostel wanted 5£/hour and booked our next lodge.


Palmer's Lodge runs about 16£ a night, but it has free internet and breakfast included. It is located just north of the Swiss Cottage tube stop which is in the northwest area of London. The location is not ideal; however I was tired of moving all my stuff around. I decided that internet, free breakfast, better rooms, and cleaner bathrooms were enough to warrant being further away from the city. With an Oyster card it was a much easier decision.

An Oyster Card is used for much of London's public transit systems. The card deploys a pay as you go system where you can top off the card using coins, cash or smart-chip equipped (non-US) credit cards. The card contains a contactless smartcard which is used to swipe when you enter a tube stop or get on a bus. For tube stops you swipe once more when you get off the tube where the cheapest fare is then calculated. The fare prices range depending on distance and whether the travel time was during peak hours, however it caps off every day. To give you an idea City of London to Swiss cottage is about 2£, while a typical fare within London is 1.40£.

Back to Inverness, Onward to London

I ascend a spiraling staircase of our hostel in Inverness, triumphant from our recent campaign up Ben Nevis. We have again arrived at Inverness, via bus ride. Here at Highlander Hostel we came back to recharge our batteries and prepare for the journey to London. We take it easy for the day and enjoy another group home cooked meal; this time it was tacos. We all ended up staying in that night playing poker. Using puzzle pieces and connect-four chips and drinking Stella from wine glasses we start a series of games. I ended up going out on an ace high flush to a four of a kind.



The next morning we leave mid afternoon for an overnight bus ride to London. It is one of the uncomfortable situations I have been in. No only are the seats uncomfortable but the bus ride in general is jaring. The seat recline about 1 degree, just enough for them to add a lever specifically for this 1 degree of decline, which does nothing for one's comfort level. With the bus ride we also got a little kids that like to use the back of my seat as a punch device, a mom that has no control over that kid and a dad that is passed out snoring loudly. In addition there are two more kids in the back of the bus yelling and giggling the entire trip. We get to London at 7:30am, I've had roughly 2hours of sleep in 5 and 10 minute intervals. I am exhausted.

Wei: 1, Ben Nevis: 0

Standing in the first corner hailing from Wichita, KS USA with no previous mountaineering experience what so ever, a limited arsenal of budget winter gear adapted to mountaineering, and standing at 1.75meters (5ft 9in) is the challenger Wei Hu. In the second corner hailing from Lochaber, Scotland standing 1,344meters (4,000 feet) the undisputed tallest mountain of the United Kingdom, Ben Nevis. This clash between David and Goliath is probably not that uncommon as Ben Nevis attracts over 1,000 people annually. But before I reveal the outcome of this battle, I must first disclose the nature of this adventure and how it came to be.



The spark of this idea ignited in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. While shopping for Gene's boots in various adventure stores, we were told of a land rich with outdoor adventures. Naturally we were intrigued by such an idea and with no real deadline to get to London we further researched this initiative. Gene and I had to gather additional gear if we were to survive the summit attempt. Lacking in long underwear and gloves, I set out on a quest to buy those essential items that would allow the realization of such a summit. After checking with several outdoor stores, clothing stores and any stores in general that we thought might have long underwear, we discovered that items we were looking for were well out of season, it is spring here in the highlands of Scotland. The only sizes I could find were XL and XXL. I decided to wait and hope that Fort Williams would have our much needed supplies.

Following Loch Ness and Loch Lochy southeast of Inverness brings along the small town of Fort William. About an hour's hike southwest of Fort William is the smaller town of Glen Nevis. It is there where we set our scene. We booked a hostel that claims to be at the base of the trail leading to Ben Nevis, perfect. In Fort William, Gene and I were finally able to come across affordable gloves and long underwear that were not two sizes too big. With our new found budget gear, we came to a conclusion that we would camp at the lake, a little under half way up to the summit. The next day we would tackle the summit.

On April 20, 2008 9:30am, we head into town with the minimum of camping supplies and photography gear. At the Morrison's, local grocery store, we buy £18.36 ($36.72) which gets us two day's supply of mackerel, cheese, bread, raisins, and snack bars. From the town of Fort William, 40 meters above sea level, we hike towards Ben Nevis, 1,344 meters above sea level. It is about an hour hike from Fort William to the foot of Ben Nevis, with fresh legs it's cake.




The base of the trail starts near a farm where goats scatter across the landscape. We are greeted with "blaaaahs" as walk by the grazing animals. The ground is rocky but the rocks are similar in size and create a nearly level walking surface. The trail gradually climbs up the side of the mountain via switchbacks, zig zags. The farther up in elevation we climb the rougher the terrain. The trail, outlined by rocks, differ more and more in size as we ascend. Large boulders and smaller rocks slow our ascent. The sound of trickling water appears around every bend and small waterfalls breakup the trail. Selecting our footing carefully we scale side of Ben Nevis and run into several other hikers that are on their way down. Amongst them was a local with his dog. Apparently the townies that hike Ben Nevis all know each other and we easily stood out. Two more trips and it would his dog's 200th climb to the summit. If his dog was about to hit number 200 it was clear that he knew the mountain like the back of his hand. He greeted us and questioned our intent with concern. You don't have a cell phone? No real compass except for your GPS? no crampons? He shared several good tips and even gave us a small maps of the summit. We took pictures and continued up.


We reach the lake around late afternoon. At roughly 600 meters (2,000 feet) above sea level we setup base camp and retired for the day. Nate and I setup our sleeping bags and bivy sacks while Gene setup his new tent that he got from his hiking shoe purchase. We watched as the last of climbers descended the mountain and tired from our climb we fell asleep pretty quickly.

The temperatures dropped below freezing and I awoke to a sound of a distant goat "blaaaaahh". I quickly unzipped my bivy sack which happened to face west. It was around 8pm, the sun was just setting and entire valley slowly darkened. At the edge of the mountain as the half oval sun made its departure two shadows appeared. As the sunset became less intense I could make out a better outline of the two silhouettes. It looked like a pair of deer, but I am unsure. They moved towards our camp putting the lake between them and us. The skies darkened even more to where I had no interest. I re-zipped my bivy to conserve heat and attempted to go back to sleep.

The winds seem to pick up at night. It almost seemed like someone was shaking my bivy sack. The gusts came and went suddenly and abruptly. There would be long instances of peace and quiet between strong gusts. I fell alseep for a while and then awoke again as a strong wind shook and whipped the fabric of the bivy sack across my face. Again, I un-zipped the bivy and peered out. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness and the sky was crystal clear. The stars had come out, but I noticed they were fading. To the east a strong orange glow was emerging from the side of the mountain. I watched as the light became more and more intense to where it eventually drowned out the sparkle of the stars. It was the moon, a full moon in fact. I was so bright that it seemed like a light bulb in the sky.

April 21, 2008 we awoke with the sun and packed up camp around 9:30. Carrying only food and storing more of our other equipment in Gene's tent we departed to tackle the larger half of the summit. The paths are even steeper and more uneven. Snow begins to replace the ground we walk on. When we started our journey there were several hikers that had already reached our altitude. They passed us with great velocity with their snow ready shoes. The snow trails are much harder to navigate. The snow itself is hard and additional strength is needed to dig in for proper footing. At this point I am walking on the edges of my boots. In order to achieve proper and safe footing you much angle your step into the mountain, much like how a snowboard or ski cuts into the mountain.

The snow gets harder and harder the further up we ascend. At the snow line where the rock steps stop and the snow trails begin, I start to see people turning around. The hikers who passed us with great haste are now turning around claiming that the snow is too much. The view from here is amazing, our tent at base camp is now a tiny dot while squinting. We continue our trek upwards. At this point the wind starts to pickup. Strong gusts warrant a 45 degree lean into the wind just to maintain safe footing. We dig deep and continue onward taking breaks and shelter amongst the few rocks that inhabit this altitude. The mountain slopes inward and upward at this point to where we can no longer see our base camp.


At the top and wind is blowing my hood so loudly that I can barely hear Nate who is about an arm's length away. A whiteout occurs to where the ground and sky blend together in sheet of whiteness. Following the trail of footprints in the snow we finally make it to the summit where after a series of cliffs, sits an emergency shelter. The joy of making it to summit was quickly ends as the weather gets worse and we decide that its better if we depart from the peak. The visibility at this point is about 10feet. Small birds fly around in this weather which absolutely amazed me. They were getting tossed around at the mercy of the winds; Nevertheless they seemed content on staying. After taking several pictures we walk by the cliffs yet again. At this point a group of four ice climbers are just now reaching the summit. With crampon's and an ice axle in each hand, they tell us that the climb was pretty quick at 4hrs 35mins. That duration on a ice seem insane to me.

We had conquered the tallest peak in all of the United Kingdom, now the tough part is getting down. The once tough to climb snow is no problem on the descend. We take short cuts from the switchbacks by sliding down on the snow. The weather warms with each step I take and the layers of clothing starts to come off. There are many grooves in snow where people had already slid down. We make it back to the base hostel around 5pm and pack up all of our gear that we left at the hostel. Once again fully loaded with our equipment we trek back to Fort William. That hour walk was killer on the knees, but we managed to make it to town Fort William and find a room around 6pm. After a much deserving shower, we decided to treat ourselves for our conquering of Ben Nevis to a steak dinner around the corner. Tonight I will get the best sleep I've had in a long time.