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.

Sublet for the summer!

Hi guys,

We are looking for people to sublet our place. We have one guy who wants it for all of June but July until end of August, it's free! It's 720 euros a month which includes everything (internet with free international phone calls), electricity etc. It's fully furnished so all you really need to bring are your clothes! It's got a full kitchen (with a full fridge! very rare in france). I'll post pics but if you know anyone who needs it in July and Aug, let us know!!!

NATO cancels petanque

The 60th anniversary of NATO is being celebrated in Strasbourg on Apr 3-4. The big news is that Obama is coming and bringing 850 of his closest friends with him for the fete.

It affects us too. We cannot get access to the city centre because we live 10 metres too far. Not even a little exaggeration. Had we lived across the 10 m bridge, we could've had access to downtown, and thus the best baguette place I know (which also, I recently discovered, makes kick ass almond croissants), the grocery store (and yes, there are others but this one is the cheapest and most convenient), and the source for all things gluten-free (this one will easily be remedied before the doors officially close). The only way to get access is if you live in the city centre. So there are people at Axel's school whose girlfriends do not live in the city and thus have had to cancel their visits.

And here's how it affects the rest of the city. This email is from Axel's school.
---
NATO summit: Things to know:



4000 journalists, 40000 inhabitants with badges, 50000 barriers, 30000 anti-NATO demonstrators…



Only the inhabitants and those who get a badge can have access to the orange zone. The green points are the entries of this zone. Police controls at every entries.



The sewers will be temporarily closed, the garbage cans removed, the advertising hoardings in the bus stations under high control or closed.



1000 firemen with 300 vehicles.



More chlorine in the water (only in some specific areas), to avoid hostile actions…



Many institutions will be closed (see the list in the attached document):



-Schools

-Swimming pools

-Stadium

-Gymnasium

-Tennis court

-Petanque areas

-Other



Road abnormalities



Airport will be closed on Saturday afternoon



Train station: No train from Strasbourg to Kehl on Saturday from 0:00 to 10:15 am (replaced by buses)



No boats



Border controls on the Kehl Bridge from 20 March to 5 April.

In anticipation of Obama's Strasbourg visit...

...we must be caught up on all things real 'merican. This post is dedicated to Chris, our friend who found jesus on an almond.

Finally can't get some air

Yesterday and before yesterday were our last exams for ISU!  Whoohoo!...let's hope I passed.  Anyway this called for some celebration, went out with some good vegetarian with some good friends.  Poel de Carrot is the place to go if you need some vege food with some Vancouver grooves.  

Then the next morning I was able to give my poor bike some much needed attention, and go for a good four hour ride.  Started by riding down to just about Selestat, then took this ferry over to Germany and rode through a bunch of weird sounding towns along the way.  Also, as usual rode through a festival...pretty much every Saturday that I ride one of the towns has got some major festival, and they all think I'm part of the procession..so yeah I was doing some waving. Anyway here a few picks from the ride..sorry didn't get any from the festival..

QUIZ:

 which Ferry is in BC and Rhine river?  

Some Weird bikes

Barbeque time on the Rhine river...check out the 

Solar panels.  Pretty cool.

Skiing in Adelboden, Switzerland

Sorry for the e-silence. Axel has been busy and I am dealing with a tempermental computer.

Last weekend, Valentine's Day weekend, Axel and I and 9 other people from ISU and associates, took off to Adelboden, Switzerland. This is about 3 hours from Strasbourg and in the Swiss-German part. We left at 6h30 am in hopes to get on the slopes by 10 am. What we didn't factor in, however, was the extreme disorganization of renting, the ski lifts, and the drive in a snow storm with summer tires. There were 3 cars in the convoy, two rentals with summer tires and 1 company car with rear-wheel drive. So what seemed like an easy slope to the parking lot ended up being a half-hour of trying again and again to get up the hill (we didn't make it and ended up parking about 100 m away from the parking lot). The rental place on the first day was relatively organized but were obviously not ready for more than 3 customers at a time, so as soon as we came in, chaos ensued. And then we realized we could save 5 euros if we waited until noon, so we did. What is interesting about the ski lifts is that they really don't expect you to hang out. Thus, there was nowhere to just sit and have your lunch while you waited to get on a chair at a cheaper rate.

Here we are going up the gondola! These are videos for my friend Paggy, who had a bad mishap and broke her ankle. She has been at home for over a month now and Ax and I make her a video every day.


We all went up the chair until we got to the top, and that's when we realized that we had 1 person in our group who couldn't get down a hill in skis. So a quick 5 minute ski to the "real" chair lift (where the top peak was) took over 30 minutes with people stopping to wait for people who were waiting for our friend who ended up taking off her skis and taking the chair back to the rental shop to find lessons. The other reason for the delay was that a second person in our group had skied only a couple of times in a very flat part of Beijing, so he wasn't surviving very well. So by the time we got to the bottom of the second chair, we were 9.

Here are some pictures going up chair 2.







And here is the top of chair 2.



So already we realized how ridiculous it was to try and stay together, so we figured our real first run will be our last one together before we separate to our skill levels. Then we went down the first part of the run. This was a really steep part of the run but magnificent. And then...we lost another.



Erin made a bad turn and ended up in a pile with her skis still attached. This meant that she probably twisted her knee. Thankfully there was a ski hut which made raclette just down the hill, so Axel and Doug helped her get down.

James and Annemarie waiting with me at the bottom while Axel and Doug help Erin down the hill.



Real raclette!!!



And then the ski patrol came with the sled and took her away after inspecting her knee.






We're still not sure if it's torn or completely severed, but it's most likely her ACL or MCL (which is what I tore last ski season). Here is a video of her getting ready to be hauled down the hill.





And then, there were 3. James, Axel and I decided to make our way to a different part of the mountain...maybe to run away from the karma. We figured that Erin was our sacrifice to the ski gods in making the rest of the day fun. Here is our video for Paggy up the gondola after we lost Erin.





We ended up getting to a great part of the mountain where the runs were long and windy and there were hardly any people. Here's a not-so-interesting video of me going down a hill. I wish we took more of these but our hands were really cold and we just wanted to ski!!



We stayed overnight at a town near by called Frutigen.


The hotel was great...warm and clean and reasonably priced. And the view was spectacular. What was probably our smartest move on the trip was to take a bus back to Adelboden from Frutigen, rather than deal with our summer tires on the cars, even though there was no snow storm. We didn't know this but the rest of the hotel guests took their cars and were stuck in traffic to get to Adelboden for 2 hours! But what we gained by taking the bus, we lost by renting our equipment. The stereotype for the Swiss being super organized has been lost forever. While there weren't that many people getting rentals in the beginning, the lack of organization caused such chaos that by the time we got our equipment, it was noon! We could have driven back to Strasbourg and back to Switzerland instead of thinking that we would save time staying. Anyway, after much frustration, we all made it back on the slopes. Our first casualty from the day before had looked into lessons but no lessons were given on Sundays...so she rented a sled!!! This ended up being very good for me because I ended up with the most painful boots I've ever used so decided to make my way back to town to change them up, which meant skiing down with Doha, the sledder extraordinaire.






Here are some videos of her. Hilarious.





Some pictures in Adelboden. Axel will put up other pictures of the trip he'll get from the others once exams are over. Right now, he's in uber-stress mode.

JMJ arrive to help us eat our way through Alsace

Jean-Marie and Joanne, Axel's dad and stepmom, arrived from Montreal last Friday for 3 days of culinary heaven. Needing to go to Switzerland and then Lyon and the south, and then Paris, it was a natural pitstop for them to spend a few days hanging out with us and resetting their jetlagged selves. I was impressed at their ability to not only be mildy awake but downright enthusiastic this entire weekend.

Some highlights include lunch in Freiburg, going to a source of the Danube (don't ask what the name of the town was...all I remember is it started with a D and ended in something german...JM, help me out...edit update: it is the city of Donaueschingen),






traditional Alsatian dinner in cold cute Colmar (note the meaty dish that Joanne got, choucroute regular and choucroute aux poissons and of course the only vegetarian meal in Alsace, tarte flambe),









(in case you didn't know, Colmar is where Bartholdi is from...the dude who designed the Statue of Liberty. So they have a mini one too, except it doesn't have as much fan fare as the big one in NYC. It's in a roundabout next to the McDonald's on your way into the city centre).


and their last day in Strasbourg during free museum Sunday.





It was on this trip to Germany when I realized how completely different German was from french. Which means Axel's 3 months in Koln for his internship will be extra fun with this funny language thrown into the mix. Jean-Marie studied german and did an exchange there soon after WWII. This made the trip less challenging when we looked at signs and way more entertaining as we listened to Jean-Marie recite all the funny words. And then he tried to convince us that german can sound really pretty by playing this sweet romantic german song on his phone. Needless to say, I'm still not convinced.