Memories of Paris

Welcome to the first of hopefully a long-running recurring feature here at Getting Glenergized, called "Memories of..." where I talk a bit about a place I have travelled to in a reflective/informative way. I realize that there is no better city to start this off with than the epicentre of culture and decadence, Paris.

People who have travelled to Paris seem to be in two distinct camps, the lovers and the haters. I myself am in the former. I was immediately charmed by the city's very distinct culture and role as a traveller's Mecca.

Paris has a reputation for being dirty, both in its city streets and in the behaviour of its citizens. From the stink of the river to the lewd comments you may get walking through Mont Martre, so much of Paris is in your face. As such, I think that it gives off a bad first impression for a lot of people used to the sterile blandness of North America. However, if you deal with these things as they come and try to focus on some positives I think that you will love the city.

Well what's there to love you ask? Well the history, culture, and sights are dead give aways. Clearly you will not find an Eiffel Tower, a Louvre, a Notre-Dame or an Arc de Triomphe anywhere else now will you? But other than those "big four" which are clearly just a given, there are a lot of other wonderful sights to see in Paris such as...

La Defense: This is essentially the "Sky Scrapper" district of Paris located outside of the downtown core. While that doesn't sound all that exciting, it is a haven for odd bits of modern architecture, including a giant "Window to the World" which was intentionally lined up just a little bit off of the Arc de Triomphe, some iron statues of people with no arms or heads, and oddest of all a giant thumb (obviously pictured to your right). Now I just happened to go on a Sunday and the place was completely empty (from what I'm told a sharp contrast to the week days) and I have to say it couldn't have been any better. There I was walking alone through giant sky scrappers and odd bits of modern architecture. The sounds of the trains going by and birds chirping where all that filled the air. I felt like the last man on earth, walking alone through a concrete jungle searching for survival after some future catastrophe. It really was a surreal feeling. So if any of you are going to Paris, I highly recommend you head out this way on a lazy Sunday, you won't regret it.

Père-Lachaise Cemetery: Now normally I hate cemeteries, they really creep me out, but this one was different. It was full of exceptionally old, and incredibly elaborate grave stones lined up as a small miniature city for the dead. The uneven cobble stones and gorgeous view of the sunset from the top of the hill really make you feel like you stepped out of a busy modern metropolis and into a more relaxing time. As if that wasn't enough, there are many graves of (im)famous people strewn about to go and pay particular attention to.

There are two graves that really got my attention, the first is the most famous one, Jim Morrison's grave. I was told by some friends that when they went there were all sorts of old hippies smoking joints all around the grave, paying tribute to Mr. Mojo Risin'. Unfortunately, when I went there was no such thing...ahh well, better luck next time I guess.

The next one was for one of my most favourite authors, Mr. Oscar Wilde, whose grave is pictured to the left. If you look closely at the grave there are a number of spots all over it, those are all lip stick marks, by people who have kissed his grave. Strewn between all of the flowers and notes to Oscar there is a small plaque at the bottom that says something to the effect of "Do not deface Oscar Wilde's grave, it is considered historical property". It also mentions that the grave was restored in the 1990s at some point. I was simply blown away by this. The fact that they have to tell people not to deface it says that it must be defaced on a regular basis, and if it was restored in the 90s, how bad was it before then? It really was interesting to see the way that people paid their respect to a great author.

If you're out and about in Paris I'd also highly recommend the Sacre Coeur, a gorgeous white church which will blow your mind. The modern art Gallery Centre Georges Pompidou is a really odd place, even if you don't want to go in, walk by and see the fountains and the unique collection of people outside. Also, the Catacombs are a really chilling place, walking deep underground through short, narrow walk ways lined with bones is certainly something that I don't do every day.

Paris is also a wonderful place to people watch. I spent a solid 45 minutes sitting outside Notre Dame Cathedral just watching everyone walk by. I was amazed at all of the different types of people that I saw, from busy executives, to swooning honeymooners, to students on trips, to backpackers, to anything in between. Paris is absolutely full of a wonderful assortment of individuals.

So for any of you interested in seeing the best and worst of Europe, I can think of no better place to start or end your journey than the glorious city of Paris. I know I enjoyed it and I'm sure any of you would too.

Until next time,

G

Appendix: Some Links

Blue Planet Hostel: The place I stayed, it's pretty expensive, but prime location, and free breakfast.

Hostel World: Should be your first check for discount places to stay

RyanAir: For anyone travelling Europe, be sure to check out the insanely cheap flights, their "Paris" airport is pretty far away from town but there is a bus that will shuttle you in.

Zoom and Air Transat: Good low price flights from/to Canada.

Lonely Planet: Well duh...

Remembering the Victims

On this day 62 years ago, Auschwitz Concentration Camp was liberated by forces from the Soviet Union. People all over Europe commemorate today as Holocaust Memorial Day (called by a different name in some other countries).

Now everyone knows enough about the Holocaust, millions of Jews, Poles, homosexuals, disabled, Roma, communists, blacks, and many more all systematically eliminated with cold, hard, twentieth century efficiency. It is an event that just about everyone has some sort of knowledge about and it really has been ingrained into our collective conscience.

Last February, I had the opportunity to go to Amsterdam. Needless to say it was an amazing trip (yeah make whatever comment you may about that sentence). But one of the highlights of it all was going to see Anne Frank's House. As I'm sure you all know, the Frank family and several of their friends, hid in an upstairs apartment for an extended period of time before they were finally found by the Nazis and sent off to various concentration camps. Anne was sent to Bergen-Belsen where she died of typhoid.

Now the apartment is very small and it is of course, a major tourist destination. As a result you have to filter through in a long, plodding line. I can't help but feel that much of the mystique was lost as a result. However, I still found it very emotional. Me being so crowded and confined for even a short period made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. I can not imagine how it must have felt to have been crowded and confined in that small place for such an extended period of time.

Due to the high volume of people I didn't take many pictures while in there. It also somehow felt wrong to do so, I wanted to just look at the pictures she posted on the wall of her bedroom and touch the walls to feel their sadness. I was looking for some pictures of the rooms to post here, but I found this video tour on YouTube...



After you go through the entire house there is a small, but interesting exhibit. They show a series of video clips on contemporary political issues. After the short clip they ask a simple yes or no question and then they display the results of both the room and of all the data they have collected. They present some interesting questions such as, "Should the government be allowed to monitor what people read?", "Should Neo-Nazis be allowed to protest in from of Synagogues on the Sabbath?", "Should the government be allowed to shut down newspapers? (especially in the given example the Spanish government shut down the only Basque language newspaper for terrorist links)", and of course "Should Holocaust deniers be allowed to publish their work on the internet?". Very tough questions that were all aimed at keeping people aware of any potential for a government to remove rights from its citizens, the starting point of any tyranny.

Needless to say, I highly recommend the experience. It is further proof that there is more to Amsterdam than just the hash and the hookers. However there are a few interesting questions that I don't feel were explored enough in here or in the Amsterdam Historisch Museum (a museum dedicated to the history of Amsterdam). They never really explored the notion of Dutch collaboration in the holocaust. A stunning 73% of Dutch Jews were executed during the occupied years. This is the highest out of all Western European nations. It really did not take a large amount of SS officers to force this. The Dutch were very willing participants.

They had no choice you say? Well, over in Denmark, the Danes outright rejected the Final Solution. The government by and large refused to cooperate with the Nazis and were able to save the lives of thousands of Jews. Similar actions were taken by the governments of Bulgaria and Finland. I really don't have any explanations as to why some countries refused and why some so eagerly participated. I just found it most definitely interesting (and not surprising) that such an issue was never really discussed.

I realize that I could go on about this topic forever, so I had best stop here. You really can cut and paste most of my comments from a few weeks ago for Martin Luther King Day, and paste them for this subject. They really are the same issue at hand, social justice. We have come a long, long way in the past 6 or so decades on this issue but still have a long way to go. We are not that far out of the jungle, hate crimes still happen right here in our own back yard. Not to mention the covert forms of discrimination taking place all around us.

But until we get that perfect world, I'm going to have to keep dreaming, and keep remembering. Because if we forget the millions who died along the way then their lives become meaningless, and then we are back where we started.

Until next time,

G

Yet Another Special Day

O my love is like a red, red rose

That's newly sprung in June;

My love like the melody

That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonny lass,

So deep in love am I;

And I will love thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun;

I will love thee still, my dear,

While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only love!

And fare thee weel, awhile!

And I will come again, my love

Though it were ten thousand mile.

**********************************************

That little bit of culture was because today is a very special day. That's right, it's Burns Day!!!! The day to celebrate the Scottish National Poet, Robert Burns (as a quick aside: note the use of the word National, that is what Burns is officially know as. Further putting pros into this whole Quebec as a Nation thing, which you can find my opinions of here).

Like most days in Scotland, today is typically filled with excessive drinking and haggis. When I was living there last year, I gathered with many of my Canadian friends (and an Australian for good measure) and we read some of his poems and ate some haggis. Yeah they sell vegan haggis at grocery stores over there. I couldn't make this up. It was hilarious trying to read all of the poems which are of course written in Scots, and presented quite the challenge for those of us who are accently-impaired.

I have taken this opportunity to look at a collection of a number of his poems, and I am amazed at how amazing they are. Sure this man was unfaithful and incredibly lecherous, but I'll be damned if he wasn't smooth. The above listed "Oh, My Love is a Red, Red Rose" is one of his most famous works, but there are so many others!!! For the romantics out there may I also recommend you check out "Ae Fond Kiss, and Then We Sever". And of course if you have some time to kill then check out the epic "Tam O'Shanter. Wikipdeia has an awesome collection of several of his poems, which are well worth checking out.

Last year I went on a bit of a Burns tour, going to a lot of the man's hotspots and places of inspiration. Here I have a couple to share. I hope that you enjoy them!!!

These first two are the Alloway Kirk that gets mentioned in Tam O'Shanter. In the poem it is haunted and full of witches. It still looks kind of creepy to me now.




Here we have the Brig O' Doon, also mentioned in the above poem.



Here we have one of many Burns Monuments , this is right where the Brig is.
This is in Dumfries, the town I was living in. This is Burns's mausoleum. Apparently he was buried in a regular grave but they later dug him up and put him in this big mausoleum instead. It really is a cool graveyard with giant head stones that are taller than I am. It was only a short walk down from my old apartment too.



Anyway, I hope that you all have a Happy Burns Day, eat some (hopefully vegan) haggis and have a wee dram. Or at least go read some really great poetry!!!

Until next time,

G

Lest We Forget

Last week I wrote about Guy Fawkes Day, but now 6 days later there is another day that should never be forgot. The far more popular Remembrance Day.

I hope that you are all wearing your poppies and showing respect to those who died in the name of our country. While I do not necessarily agree with the current conflict in Afghanistan, I still include the current soldiers in my thoughts.

Last Spring I was fortunate enough to go to Juno Beach in France. For those of you unaware, this is were the Canadian soldiers landed On June 6, 1944, in the invasion that began the end of the war in Europe.

A mere stones throw from the beach is the Juno Beach Centre, a museum of sorts talking about Canada and World War II. It outlines Canada in the build up to the War, then about how Canada was during those years, then finishes with information on Canada today. It includes a variety of first hand accounts of people's experiences, including a section where you can hear letters from soldiers read a loud.

As you enter the museum you are escorted into a small room that has televisions lining the wall. The room is made to be the exact size and dimensions of one of the boats that the soldiers landed on the beach with. The televisions began to play a battle scene as you feel that you are really there. It was hard to look all 360 degrees that were required for me to absorb all of the information. I hope that I only have to imagine what it would be like to have those bullets be real instead of virtual.

While I have a very good memory, it is not good enough to give a detailed play-by-play from eight months ago. Also, this is really something that should be experienced.

But there is one thing about that experience that really stuck out to me. Near the end of the exhibit there was a television on display above a small hallway. The screen had a scrolling display of the names of every Canadian who died during the war. Nothing fancy, just a simple white font on a black screen moving up at a reasonable speed for people to read it. When I arrived, they were just finishing showing those whose last name began with A. I have heard stories of my great-uncle, Raymond Dolan, who was shot down over North Africa, and I thought it would be good to try and take a picture of his name on the screen to show some members of my family.

I wandered around the rest of the museum and occasionally checked the progress of the screen to try and estimate how long I had to wait until it made it's way to the D's. I wandered around the museum for a good 20-30 minutes and I thought that I may have missed my time. How wrong I was. After all that time, the screen was at 'Be'.

This really him me. I took a second to figure out how long it took to go through a portion that small of the alphabet and I figured that it would take at least 12 hours to go through the names of all of the Canadian soldiers who died in the war. As a history major, I have read the facts and figures many times. This, however, put it into real terms for me, each of those people had a name, a heart broken mother, and possibly some descendants like me coming to that very place and realizing the same thing that I was.

At this point, I realized that my bus was leaving shortly so I needed to head on out without seeing the name of my great-uncle. Since I didn't have several hours to kill.

All in all, Juno Beach was a fantastic experience and if any of you happen to be in France I really recommend it. I stayed in the small town of Bayeux (a cool place in its own right!!!) and it makes a great place to go and relax a bit after some frantic times in Paris.

Here are some of my pictures from Juno Beach, hoep you enjoy, and more importantly, get a chance to show me some of your own!!!

Look just like any other beach doesn't it?

One of the many abandoned bunkers that have been left as a grim reminder.

Not sure if you can read that sign, but it says "Here On the 6th June, 1944 Europe was Liberated by the Heroism of the Allied Forces" . Just to the right of the pillar you can see people playing in the ocean. Fitting isn't it?

Until next time,

G

A Day that Should Never be Forgot...

Remember, remember, the 5th of November
Gunpowder Treason and plot ;
I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
'Twas his intent.
To blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below.
Poor old England to overthrow.
By God's providence he was catch'd,
With a dark lantern and burning match
Holloa boys, Holloa boys, let the bells ring
Holloa boys, Holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip Hoorah !
Hip hip Hoorah !
A penny loaf to feed ol'Pope,
A farthing cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down,
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar,'
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head,
Then we'll say: ol'Pope is dead.

-- British Nursery Rhyme

Hello everyone, glad that you lasted past that long introduction, and welcome to today's blog entry-apalooza. Tomorrow, November 5, is one of my other favourite holidays of the year, Guy Fawkes Night!!!!!!

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about (i.e. have yet to see V for Vendetta), allow me to explain. On November 5, 1605, a man by the name of Guy Fawkes (And his conspirators) were captured in an attempt to kill King James I and both branches of the British Parliament, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. They attempted this by hiding large amounts of gun powder in the cellar of the House of Parliament and planned on detonating it while the King made a joint address to both Houses.

Guy was of course found, convicted and killed. Since then, every 5th of November, has been an annual celebration in Britain. They celebrate the day by having massive bonfires, igniting fireworks and burning effigies of Mr. Fawkes. You can wiki the man HERE and the night HERE.

In the years that followed, the English public became increasingly anti-Catholic, worrying that it was all a huge plot by the Pope to eliminate Anglicanism (thus those last several lines of the poem, which do not tend to be repeated in recent years). The people of England entered a huge state of fear, dreading another strike by an invisible enemy. Sound familiar?

As many of you know, I spent last year living in Scotland, so I was in Britain last 5th of November for the festivities. This happened to be the weekend that myself, and four of my fellow Canadians rented a car to go and take a road trip up to Inverness.

As we are driving on this Saturday night we see a series of bonfires with crowds of people gathered around them. We look around and think that this is a pretty cool thing and admire their resilience for staying outside on a cold Highlands night. As the night drags on, the sky lights up with fireworks. Every July 1 I see fireworks, but nothing like this. It seemed as if every town, hamlet, and farmer's field purchased enough gunpowder to declare war on a small oil Emirate. There was even a point when we were driving past a small town (who for the life of me I can't even remember the name of) and we saw three separate fireworks displays competing to illuminate the sky. It was unbelievable.

After a while we decided that we should stop and enjoy the bonfire, fireworks, and culture. So we pull over in the small town of Baxter, and this is what we see:

This pictures does not even begin to do it justice. Now I was a good hundred feet away from this bonfire and it looked like that. I was warm facing this fire the size of a house. Of course, there was more than just this gigantic fire, as there were fireworks going off as men, women, and children gave their collective ooo's and ahhhh's. Of course, in typical Scottish fashion, there was a beer tent full of inebriated locals.

After the fireworks died down we got back into our rented car and continued driving towards Inverness. I decided to call my grandmother (who left England after WWII) to wish her a happy Guy Fawkes Day.

I assume many of you have seen the aforementioned V for Vendetta. If not, I sincerely hope that you do, it is simply brilliant. In that movie, the main character V is a Guy Fawkes inspired anarchist. We spend the movie not even seeing his face, but rather a mask of Guy himself. He leads a revolution against a future government that is almost Orwellian in its approach, by serving as a symbol for hope and change...oh and by using a ton of explosives and sweet martial arts moves that Hugo Weaving must have learned from his time as Agent Smith.

Four-hundred years ago Guy was a villain, accused of the vilest crime of treason, and the even more vile crime of Catholicism. Yet, now a character based on Fawkes is treated as a hero for his commitment to individual freedoms, and sticking it to the man. What a difference a few centuries make!!!

So I can't help but wonder just a little bit. If Guy Fawkes can go from villain to hero, even to the point of ranking #30 on the 2002 list of all time greatest Britons, what can happen to the villains of today? Is it so far out of question to imagine a day when Osama bin Laden is given the same amount of respect? Fawkes was considered a vile terrorist at the time, seeking to disrupt social order for his own purposes. Sounds a lot like what people say about bin Laden now doesn't it?

Just an interesting thought to ponder...

Hope you all celebrate Guy Fawkes Night somehow!!! If you can't have fireworks, please find some way to stick it to the man. Do it for ol' Guy.

Until next time,

G