NATO is over but the lingering protesters still wanna party

I just did my laundry in the petite France laundrymat...it's the one I blogged about in our 2nd blog entry. Since we were there that one time, they have replaced all of the machines that were sat on by very heavy animals and overall, it's not bad. Our laundry man, Alain, who washes, dries and folds our laundry for no extra charge in his laundrymat, is renovating his house and because I needed to get some groceries, the other laundry place had to do.

While I waited for the clothes to dry, two obvious NATO protesters came in and asked me about the machines. They were obviously protesters because, not only did they have the obligatory dreadlocks, guitars and accordian, but they also had their big protest signs folded up and tied to their guitar cases. After explaining the machines, they set up their machines and filled it with mud-filled, extremely smelly clothes. One of them was laughing and showed me his once-white sock caked in mud and soot. I asked him if he went to the protest where the fire was and they both laughed and said they were part of the group that set the fire in the building near the Ibis hotel (which also was set on fire). They said they were in the G20 but it wasn't as fun as the police were too calm. The other guy said that when the police are calm, the protest is too, which makes for a very boring day. They both agreed that this protest, though much smaller than they thought it would be, was way cooler than the G20. Then I asked how they got the money to go from one protest to the other, since they had southern french accents (both were from near Marseille and were impressed that an etrangere could tell). They said that they save up for these protests. They figure out, with their protester groups, which summits would be best to protest, based on cause and location. Location is key since the London - Strasbourg - Marseille trip is cheap. And they sleep in the parks during their trip, so it's actually not as expensive as one would think. Anyway, they decided that since they didn't know Alsace very well at all, they were going to stay for at least 2 weeks and party.

To make this encounter even better, they needed soap for their laundry. So they gave me 4 euros for 2 machines worth (which was awesome since that was half of what we paid). So I made a little cash on the side. And the rip off wasn't intentional...they just gave it to me and when I said that was too much, they waved me away.

We got back from Luxembourg in the late afternoon on the last day of the NATO summit, so we missed the action and basic lockdown of the city. Caroline, a friend who has been in Strasbourg since first year university, and I decided that since we were ditched by Axel and her boyfriend Mario for Stephen Harper (I'll let Ax blog about that), we would grab some ice cream in the main square. It was hot and sunny and really was the start of spring. And we wanted to test Caroline's orange zone pass. We walked by a hotel that housed the cops and our path crossed a sniper who was going home. We knew he was because he had a HUGE black case that was narrow and was shaped like a gun. I said, "I wonder if that's a guitar" to Caro as a joke...and the guy turned to me and just shook his head. The ice cream store was PACKED but once we got our ice cream, we went and sat at Place Kleber. The barricades were gone since Kleber is technically in the orange zone, but the cop vans lined the streets (I will add pictures when I find my cell phone) and the robo cops still lingered. We parted and I sauntered home. I overheard some tourists who looked like they were from the NATO summit (only because they were wearing their passes and speaking english) remark at how all of the stores are closed and wondered how they made any money. I don't think they realize how the two day photo op shut this city down and that NATO was the reason that the stores weren't open, since the orange zone workers wouldn't be able to get through the checkpoints!

Axel met our prime minister during the afternoon. He'll fill you in soon.