The Question of Cycling... and Paris

This is Brooke and I on the boat cruise in Paris. She wanted me to post it because she thinks it's cute. I agree.

I made my first homeward journey on my bike today. Took me about two hours. Only a couple of major wrong turns. I'm in a serious debate as to whether this bike thing is a good idea.

Pro: Daily exercise. Plenty of it.
Con: It's a long-ass ride

Pro: I get a chance to know London better on a street level
Con: The streets between Central London and the East Side are fucking filthy, and not exactly scenic

Pro: It will save me money on Tube fare in the long run
Con: Not until October, and then I'm limited in my travel options. With my Tube pass, I can go anywhere at any time. With the bike, I have to pay each time I use the Tube, and I can't take the bike with me. I'm tied to it.

Pro: Fresh air
Con: London air is not fresh. Many cyclists wear gas masks when they ride. I know why now. Buses make the nasty smoke.

Pro: I'm not a target for suicide bombers.
Con: I'm about a hundred billion times more likely to die from a bad driver than I am from a nutjob with access to fertilizer.

Pro: I love cycling.
Con: Not in the rain, I won't.

You can see my dilemma. I think I'll give it another week or so. Once I have my route hammered out better, it will pick up my travel time considerably. Right now the big thing is the fact that I can't just hop a Tube any time I want. All-day passes are around £5, more if I travel at peak times. With a Travelcard, I can use the Tube and the bus as much as I like, any time. That's really nice.

Even if I sell the bike back in a week or two, I've saved money. I don't know, what you do think?


Since I'm going to the Fringe this weekend, I guess I should post about Paris first. So here we go.



The train arrived in Paris around noon Continental time. Our hostel wasn't ready for us yet, so we dropped off our luggage and took a walking tour. Our guide for the weekend was Javiar, who works for the French BUNAC equivalent. We saw a bunch of sites, including Notre Dame. I have been in a number of monumental cathedrals now, but Notre Dame deserves its reputation. Gothic and huge, it was very dimly lit on the inside. Lots of stained glass, lots of statues, and gigantic vaulted ceilings. We had about half an hour there, and I spent the last 15 minutes or so sitting in the middle of the pews and feeling humble. I can understand how a peasant 700 years ago living in a house made if straw and mud would have believed absolutely in the divine power of his rulers in a place like that. It was a great place for contemplation and meditation. Enormous amounts of energy stored in the walls. I'd love to be there when it is packed with worshippers and resonating with belief.

After the walking tour we took a boat ride up and down the Siene, seeing significant sites. The pamphlet we had was translated into English by a moron. I really wanted to take a red marker to it, or possibly charge them a small fee to make it suck less. The tour was nice. I didn't know the Eiffel Tower was painted brown. They repaint it once every 5 years, and it takes almost 60 tons of paint.

We returned to the hostel and checked into our rooms. Mine was four flights of normal stairs, then a spiral staircase. Not as bad as the girls across the hall, who then had a ladder into a loft. There was a lift, but I doubt it ever worked. I roomed with Paul and Jon, who is the happiest person in the world. He will get excited about anything and everything. Fantastic to have long discussions and debates with. I'm sorry he's leaving soon, and I didn't get to hang with him much. One of the other guys in the room was Scott, who is a theatre tech in London. He's working on a number of shows now, and is going to get me into the big Lighting expo next month for free. W00t! We hit it off as Theatre people tend to, and he was the one I (and Brooke) spent most of the time with. He's in London longer than I am, so we're gonna hang out more. Great contact.

Brooke, Scott, anther girl who's name escapes me, and I went out to a little Parisian cafe. I had frog's legs. I never bothered to imagine what frog's legs would taste like, but if I had, I would have been right. A cross between chicken and fish. Quite tasty, actually. A lot of work for not much meat, though. I had it figured out by the end.

It's late, so I'm going to finish this tomorrow.