The Longest Blog Ever from Amsterdam and Paris

Bonjour! Ok, there are so many pictures on this blog, whew. Right now I'm finishing my second day in Paris by listening to Elvis Presley and writing this blog to you fine people...whoever is reading this. Wow, pretty much anybody can read this...huh. Anyway, time to backtrack a bit and finish the blog on Amsterdam.

Back in January I auditioned for a sketch comedy troupe called Boom Chicago that performs in Amsterdam. I didn't get it (obviously), but i figured I'd see what all the fuss was about. The show was pretty good - high energy, and pretty "blue" actually. Not sure if I would want to peform that way seven nights a week though - mainly because you can still smoke in there - but not after June! Smoke 'em while you can, you Dutch. So anyway, Seth Meyers, currently on SNL, is an alumnus, and since it was alumni night, he was there and performed.




After the show, he remembered that wanted a picture from earlier, so he kinda approached me and was like "How about that picture now?" So cool.





Paris!!!! I arrived at my host's house, and within 5 minutes I had thrown down my bags and was riding a bike past Notre Dame on the way to a huge picnic on the banks of the Seine River. It was someone's going away party, and so at least 100 people showed up with all kinds of food and just partied right there as the sun went down. I met loads of people that were all fascinated with my 'Americanness'.



You know what's crazy about Europe? The little differences. Royale with Cheese!





People in Paris are so in love. Here's a couple lounging in the park.




Here's me looking like a dork in front of Notre Dame. It's really big.




This bookstore is famous. Ernest Hemingway used to shop at the original before it was rebuilt. Jack Kerouac actually shopped at this new version. See those windows above? To this day, struggling writers can still stay for free in the apartments above, as long as they write two hours a day. The view ain't bad either - only Notre Dame just across the Seine.




Some people relaxing and picnicing in a park along the Seine. This is a Sunday afternoon. Notice the guy smoking in the very center looking at me while I take this picture.





Come on Paris, a little insensitive, don't you think?





At the top of the Eiffel Tower! There were "Beware of Pickpockets" signs everywhere. Not as windy as I thought it would be (a la Empire State Building). Plenty of lovers kissing and taking self-portriats though. I have offered to take many of these types of pics for couples on this trip. I know how a picture looks with an arm in half the picture.




Hello, tourists! Sometimes these pictures turn out to be my favourite.





An interesting angle I thought. I met another traveler on this level from Nevada - from UC Davis! Just random who you meet sometimes.





Already showed this pic, but I thought it deserved a second look. Amazing. I think I'm gonna frame this when i get home.




Ok, so today I took a very early train to the beaches of Normandy. This is one of the things I have been looking forward to the whole trip. I dont quite know how to explain it, why I am so fascinated with WWII. I wasnt there, nobody I know died there, but I just felt the need to go pay my respects to the 1000's of young Amercian and other Allied men who came across the world and died on these shores. This sculpture is outside the WWII memorial at Utah beach.





Inside the museum, the exhibit is set up like so: as the story of WWI draws to an end and we see the circumstances following that lead to WWII, we descend deeper and deeper undergroud. The walls get darker and rougher as you go down, symbolizing the world's political, economic, and military decent into hell. Meanwhile, the big white globe in the center symbolizes the world, watching all this helplessly.





Out at the Utah beach, here's a German gun that was damaged from an American mortar fired from sea. Pretty good shot, huh?




It's pretty cramped in there. But really fortified. All of the bunkers are still over 90 percent intact.




A close up view of what the Allied forces faced on June 6, 1944.





A completely intact German gun touret. I only 2-3 years, the Germans fortified over 3,000 miles of coast, usually stealling materials from the counrties they occupied. I sure hope they got all the ammunition out of there....





Next was the American cemetary. All the crosses face West, to America. This classic lined formation usually seen in military cemetaries is meant to look like they are all marching together.





These crosses were solid. And very cold to the touch, in fact. If a soldier was found and they couldn't identify him, this is the special engraving he received: (click to enlarge)




This is Omaha Beach, the main front of attack for American soldiers. The opening scene from 'Saving Private Ryan'? Yeah, that's about this beach. On D-Day, the also called it 'Bloody Omaha', because so many soliders were shot here that it turned the water red. Many sunk boats, obstacles, and I think even drowned soliders are still out there.




This was the main cliff occupied by the Germans on D-Day. Notice all the craters - those are from Allied air stikes that dropped bombs on the Germans, trying to take out their guns, weeks and days before D-Day. Our guide told us that enough force was dropped on these cliffs to total nearly half of the descruction power of the H-Bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In fact, they are predicting that this whole cliff will eventually and crumble onto Omaha Beach below it.




Here's a couple of videos! I'm pretty tired now, so that's it for me. Tomorrow after another day in Paris, I take my first night train..... to Madrid.