Europe: Summer 2007
Accident prone and impulsive,
quick tempered and bitchy,
Faced with language barriers & French snobbishness,
Alternating between laughter and unnerving frustration,
Cursing and swearing while dragging my luggage
Across France, Italy and Switzerland.
Still, I had lots of fun!
Traveling alone is fun and exciting.
Humor is essential while composure is impossible.
Unpredictability is exciting (hm..well, at least retrospectively).
It is fun to meet different people from all walks of life.
Fun to taste tantalizing desserts and wine.
Fun to breach the language barrier gesturing.
It is also fun to make funny mistakes and
laugh about them with total strangers.
Had lots of fun laughing at myself, the people and the cultures.
Europe is breathtakingly beautiful.
A haven for lounging in parks,
enjoying beautiful moments amid hilltops,
picnicking by rivers and watching lovely sunsets.
However, a place is only as nice as its people.
My general impression:
French people are bloody rude and lazy. Or maybe, it is just because alot of them are racist. I see perfectly nice people being polite and friendly, rushing around planting loud kisses on each other before they turned around and become perfectly mean creatures the instance they see an asian. In fact, it just not just asians. I think they are generally mean to visitors. I hear lots of similar complaints from people I meet on the trip. People from States, Prague, UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and many more.
Of course, I did meet nice french people too. People who went out of their way to help. I am talking about general impression here. And coming from Singapore, where we are used to expecting things to function efficiently, where we are spoilt by relatively prompt services (otherwise, we will be making complaints*wryly*). It is hard for me to accept their service attitude. Especially when I cannot determine if they are being rude by having extended 15 minutes conversation before turning grudgingly to acknowledge my presence with a standoffish tilt of their head. I did learn that if I try to catch their attention before they are good and ready, the conversation would be extended for another 5 minutes just to put me in my place. Things get better and people get friendlier as I move down south. Away from Paris. It seems that the further I move from Paris, the friendlier the people gets.
Italians are warm and helpful. Despite the language barrier, they went out of their way to help. When they could not help me with direction, they went out of their way to ask people until they could help. A kind soul decided it was too far for me to be lugging my luggage all the way to my hotel in Milan and insisted on getting me to take the bus. He also insisted on paying for my fare and refused to accept payment from me. A bewildered lady in a bakery patiently watched me gestured and finally brought out a dictionary so that we could understand each other. Pointing word by word, we have our 5 minutes conversation & she was perfectly patient with me. Another woman walked 5 doors down the street to affirm that my hotel is there before waving me on. A question to the bus drivers mean delaying the rest of the passengers while the drivers helpfully took their time to answer my question. This had me fidgeting uncomfortably, wondering how the rest of the passengers feel about being delayed. But, they seem pretty cool with it. It is good that the people are so helpful as I find Italian streets to be really confusing. The only exception was people who worked at the railway stations, they are maddeningly unhelpful. By the way, italian men are really good looking with a great sense of humor. Drool…
Swiss people are elegant, efficient, polite and helpful. I can totally understand how they can their reputation for excellent service. Switzerland feels wonderfully relaxed after the confusing nagivations in Italy. There were hardly any need to ask for directions as the service staff will provide clear, concise directions before I ask. I really love the place and people. It is almost perfect.
