It behooves me to start this post with the unfortunate news that I do not have much of an idea of what I did today or what I wanted to say in this post. I may just be tired from a long day of travel, as I continuously thought of things to write until I sat down at my computer, at which point my ideas evaporated. I know that I got up rather late and unhurriedly left the hostel at which I was staying; I know that I arranged my train travel for the next several days and read a book for awhile; and I remember meeting my periodontalist's friend at the Gottenheim train station and having my sutures and brackets removed. I will have to try to piece the rest of the day together from the scattered snapshots that have stayed with me.
I did not see much on the train ride from Strasbourg to Nancy, which may explain my current condition: I spent most of the train ride dozing off. My first impression of Nancy, when I got off of the train, was of its citizens: every second Frenchman looked like a potential murderer or thief. I expect that Frenchmen comport themselves (and dress) differently from Germans and are, as such, merely unfamiliar to me: perhaps the faces that I saw as hardened and suspicious conveyed a Frenchman's ordinary expression. My invitation to the city was exceedingly warm. Since I could not figure out which way to go to get to my hotel based on my map, I started walking half at random and asked someone where a central plaza was. While that person pointed me in the right direction, I ended up asking another person some ten minutes later which way to go. The second person did not know for sure, but, having taken some time to try to figure it out, she asked a further couple if they could help me. Together, the three of them directed me toward my hotel, while another couple helped me to find it in the end.
I have made three main observations regarding Nancy so far. First off, my rather slow (on the scale of countries), thorough style of travelling is fully justified: I am too old, in terms of Eurrail passes, to rush from capital to capital, and that kind of travel hardly lets one engage with a country anyhow. I say this because my train ticket from Nancy to Salzburg cost an embarrassing (but not totally surprising - it is quite a distance, and to do it in a day requires the use of the more expensive, intercity trains) amount of money, which was enough to convince me that one does better to stick to one country at a time than to jump from place to place when travelling. As long as my next few years of graduate school go as planned, I will have plenty of time for travelling and will not regret having spent so much time in each individual country rather than trying to see as many countries as possible at once.
My second major point of the day is that walking into a grocery store again gives one an oddly-liberating feeling; one forgets, when travelling, that one can buy food cheaply. I bought enough food today for two breakfasts and three lunches, all for less than ten Euros. I really do not have much to add to this except that the renewed realization of one's ability to get large amounts of healthy food for small amounts of money induces a sort of minor euphoria in one. You should try eating out for several days in a row and then visiting a grocery store just to experience this - or, if you are rather more niggardly, like me, then you can take my word for it. Buying food at grocery stores is great.
My only other real point is that Nancy is a city of immense cultural wealth - every second building here is a theater, museum, park, place of higher education, church, former palace, or government institution. I am going to explore Nancy's city center tomorrow morning and see Metz in the afternoon, which will be easier than I expected, as Nancy's historic center is not so large; it has, rather, a high concentration of cultural heritage in a fairly small space. I may treat my trip to Luxembourg as my chance to relax a little more, as I will have to get up early on Monday to catch the first of several trains and will want to get up early the day after that to see the ice caves south of Salzburg. I remember having wanted to say that my planning my trips out so thoroughly in advance of setting out on them can lead to inflexibility, as, if I had not had plans from Monday onwards, I could easily have continued travelling through France and left the rest of my trip off for another year. Alas, that may not have proven any more economical than what I have done, as booking hostels at the last minute might have been sufficiently more expensive than booking them in advance as to nullify the gains made by eschewing long-distance travel by train. I suppose that one key to travelling is to choose a certain style - rigorously-planned, off the cusp, or something in between - but always remain open to some degree of change.
In short, I am sorry to have written such a brief and uninteresting letter today, as my readership has recently reached new highs, and I would like to award readers with increasingly-interesting posts. My next few days should be full of new impressions, and, since I have my first decent Internet connection in days, I will be able to write to my heart's content. I think that my once again having a decent Internet connection may be what made me write so laconically - I put this post off, surfing the Internet for awhile first, and now want to go to bed, as it is almost midnight. I am sure to become more coherent over the next few days.
Food in France is way too expensive, by the way, which will drive me to eat fewer sweets for the next few days. Ice cream and pastries just are not worth the money here! I may not end up eating much French food at all over the next few days, as I am afraid of its cost, but I will try, when I visit France in earnest, to choose certain days on which to stint money and certain days on which to open my purse strings a little and try the local cuisine. I sure am tired! I wish that I had the energy to write more!
I did not see much on the train ride from Strasbourg to Nancy, which may explain my current condition: I spent most of the train ride dozing off. My first impression of Nancy, when I got off of the train, was of its citizens: every second Frenchman looked like a potential murderer or thief. I expect that Frenchmen comport themselves (and dress) differently from Germans and are, as such, merely unfamiliar to me: perhaps the faces that I saw as hardened and suspicious conveyed a Frenchman's ordinary expression. My invitation to the city was exceedingly warm. Since I could not figure out which way to go to get to my hotel based on my map, I started walking half at random and asked someone where a central plaza was. While that person pointed me in the right direction, I ended up asking another person some ten minutes later which way to go. The second person did not know for sure, but, having taken some time to try to figure it out, she asked a further couple if they could help me. Together, the three of them directed me toward my hotel, while another couple helped me to find it in the end.
I have made three main observations regarding Nancy so far. First off, my rather slow (on the scale of countries), thorough style of travelling is fully justified: I am too old, in terms of Eurrail passes, to rush from capital to capital, and that kind of travel hardly lets one engage with a country anyhow. I say this because my train ticket from Nancy to Salzburg cost an embarrassing (but not totally surprising - it is quite a distance, and to do it in a day requires the use of the more expensive, intercity trains) amount of money, which was enough to convince me that one does better to stick to one country at a time than to jump from place to place when travelling. As long as my next few years of graduate school go as planned, I will have plenty of time for travelling and will not regret having spent so much time in each individual country rather than trying to see as many countries as possible at once.
My second major point of the day is that walking into a grocery store again gives one an oddly-liberating feeling; one forgets, when travelling, that one can buy food cheaply. I bought enough food today for two breakfasts and three lunches, all for less than ten Euros. I really do not have much to add to this except that the renewed realization of one's ability to get large amounts of healthy food for small amounts of money induces a sort of minor euphoria in one. You should try eating out for several days in a row and then visiting a grocery store just to experience this - or, if you are rather more niggardly, like me, then you can take my word for it. Buying food at grocery stores is great.
My only other real point is that Nancy is a city of immense cultural wealth - every second building here is a theater, museum, park, place of higher education, church, former palace, or government institution. I am going to explore Nancy's city center tomorrow morning and see Metz in the afternoon, which will be easier than I expected, as Nancy's historic center is not so large; it has, rather, a high concentration of cultural heritage in a fairly small space. I may treat my trip to Luxembourg as my chance to relax a little more, as I will have to get up early on Monday to catch the first of several trains and will want to get up early the day after that to see the ice caves south of Salzburg. I remember having wanted to say that my planning my trips out so thoroughly in advance of setting out on them can lead to inflexibility, as, if I had not had plans from Monday onwards, I could easily have continued travelling through France and left the rest of my trip off for another year. Alas, that may not have proven any more economical than what I have done, as booking hostels at the last minute might have been sufficiently more expensive than booking them in advance as to nullify the gains made by eschewing long-distance travel by train. I suppose that one key to travelling is to choose a certain style - rigorously-planned, off the cusp, or something in between - but always remain open to some degree of change.
In short, I am sorry to have written such a brief and uninteresting letter today, as my readership has recently reached new highs, and I would like to award readers with increasingly-interesting posts. My next few days should be full of new impressions, and, since I have my first decent Internet connection in days, I will be able to write to my heart's content. I think that my once again having a decent Internet connection may be what made me write so laconically - I put this post off, surfing the Internet for awhile first, and now want to go to bed, as it is almost midnight. I am sure to become more coherent over the next few days.
Food in France is way too expensive, by the way, which will drive me to eat fewer sweets for the next few days. Ice cream and pastries just are not worth the money here! I may not end up eating much French food at all over the next few days, as I am afraid of its cost, but I will try, when I visit France in earnest, to choose certain days on which to stint money and certain days on which to open my purse strings a little and try the local cuisine. I sure am tired! I wish that I had the energy to write more!
This is what my mouth now looks like.
Nancy has much wider boulevards than many German cities.
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