This traveling alone is a new experience for me, you have more time to think and digest what you have seen, you have the freedom to make your own decisions.on the other hand you have to be more alert and be responsible of yourself. In the Moomin world there is one character, who needs this solitude, Snusmumriken wanders alone, but joins the Moomin family every summer. Just like Snusmumriken I recognize my Finnish character, getting a bit confused when unknown people smile to me in the underground or restaurants, this kind of quick and light politeness. A normal Finn then usually starts looking out of the window even though it is a dark underground wall there. Maybe we learn.
But what have I done yesterday- Below are some unfortunately only IPad pics of the great cathedral in Chartres, an hour’s journey from Paris. It dates back to the 4th century, and the current church was built around 1230. Plenty of wealth was to be seen. Stained glass windows, statues and paintings, but at the same time in the posters there was strong message of being on the side of poor people and refugees. Hope it is real life, too. In a couple of days I will also see the cathedral of Burgos. I decided this time not to hurry to see Paris sights, and just had a dinner in a local bistro, close to the hostel, enjoyed looking at the life of local people. A man came into the bistro to show his small kitten and let the customers and bar tenders caress it. Not so hygienic, but sweet. But, soon heading to the Gare Montparnasse and jumping into Biarritz train. Luckily I could check the station yesterday and make my reservations as it was huge.
Yeah.. Tru dat about Finns. When I was in Rewe Markt (a local supertte) in Augsburg there was this one employee pushing a roll cart of some content, which is all normal and fine in a superette, but when the guy smiles and greets me with “Hallo.” as he goes by his humble business I go totally Finn-mode and don’t know what to do lol
Like when I at home it’s normal the supette worker greet me and I greet them as I local but when I’m 2,500km from home it is surprising.
I’ll share with you a story of when I was in Paris. We were with some other leftie activists in some otherwise undescript lieu except for the fact that it was the Jewish quarters with star of David and yiddish script and what have you.. I had run out of the rouge so I was looking for an establishment to purchase another. Then Ville gestures me from this one vegetable stall and calls out “Juho, there’s wine here.” Ok.. Having run out of the first bottle a long time ago I was going to be a nice goyim and buy their wine so I go inside the vegetable stall, nod to the salesclerk and start looking at their modest selection of 6-7 varieties of reds. Knowing in computer it is not wise to buy the cheapest (shit drivers) nor the biggest/fastest model (extra markup for the shiny-bling factor) I go for the 2nd cheapest 5,80€ Kosher (totally unintentional) wine but attempt communication by raising the bottle and asking “C’est bon vin?”. The clerk does not much respond as I did not speak French at the time and thus left the indefinite article “un” making my attempt of communication effectively “pas francais”. I go to the cashier, hand mi euros to him and he gives me the change and being polite guy I say “Merci.” to which he responds “Ole hyvä.” This made a permanent memory coz my brain evaluated it as “Weird and unexpected, so store in long-term memory.”
This is all very interesting because for me I come from a country where strangers greet each other with a smile and say, “Hi” (even when just walking down the street). When I was in Europe I felt very alone because no one would make eye contact with me, speak with me or smile.
Your pictures of the stained class are wonderful!
Yes LeeAnn there we have a lot to learn. I also remember how sad my daughter felt when we came back from Canada and she was mobbed for the North American way always raptors smile and say hi. This is something we have to talk more later.