30/7 Leave

This was the dismiss day of our fieldtrip, I got up at 9:00a.m. I saw many people left and I waited until 11:00 a.m. and then continue my Europe trip with my friend. Today I went to Arles, which is a place in southern France. I am very happy in this trip and have a group of very good classmates. I will miss them all.

29/7 Visiting Orsay Museum and watching Tour de France in live

This was the last day of our fieldtrip. In the morning, we went to the Orsay Museum. In this museum, I could see many paintings of the famous painters, like Picasso, Gauguin, Van Gogh. We could see the many of their works. I think the museum was promoting the work of Picasso now, because the poster of the museum was using the work of Picasso. The painting here was a little bit different from that in the Museum du Louvre, but I could not tell what was the different in details, I just think that the paintings in Orsay Museum was more colorful. There was also some sculpture on the ground floor, but I don’t know the meaning or character of the sculpture, but they were all very beautiful. Also, there was a model of the Paris, it was very close to really.

Then, we went to have lunch and then Bamboo, Michael, hang, Jeff and I went to the place near Place de la Concorde to see the Tour de France. We arrived there from about 3:00p.m., there was plenty of people on both street waiting for the participants. Before the participants arrived, there was many well-decorated car pass through. After waiting for two hours, the participants finally came. Then, all the audience was very hyper, they cheered on the participants very loudly. I was also very excited, because this was my first time to see this competition in live. After that, we went back to dorm.

At night, some of us had dinner with Dr. Cristaudo. Then, we went to the Tour Eiffel with Dr. Cristaudo. The Tour Eiffel with white light on it, then it looks like making from diamond. Under this view, it was so romantic. I think the Prais at night is more beautiful than in daytime.

28/7 Visiting Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triomphe, Avenue des Champs Elysees, Place de la Concorde and Notre Dame

Today I got up late, so I did not have my breakfast. This morning we went to the Eiffel. Tower. May be we arrived so early, there were not so many people as we expected. We waited for about 30 minutes, and then we could get on the tram to the level two of the tower. Then, we should take the lift to the highest level of the tower. When I got off the lift and look outside, it was really very high, made me a little bit frightened. When I look at the whole view of Paris, the buildings were well ordered, and this showed that Paris has good urban planning. Some friends and I gave up to take lift back to the ground, we choose walking down. By doing so, I could feel the high of the tower and the structure of it was amazing, it seems that I was on something impossible to make.

Then, we went to see the Arch de Triomphe, but I just saw it from a distance. I just took some photos, because I think I would come here at night. I walked on the Avenue des Champs Elysees, and had our lunch. The feeling of eating here was very good, I am in this populous street, but I could have my lunch leisurely.
Then, we went to the Place de la Concorde and the parks nearby. The place that had great meaning in the French Revolution. However, it seems that all vestige of French revolution disappeared; the only things left was these garden and square.

Then, we walked to the Pompidou Centre, the appearance of it was very special. The escalates was located outside the building. Inside it, there were exhibitions of the modern arts. However, I found that the modern art was quite difficult to understand, I could not get the meaning the works. After that, we went to the Montmartre and had our farewell dinner. I ordered a beef cooked with red wine, this is a French style dish, the taste of it was good.

After the dinner, we went up the hill to visit the Notre Dame, there were lots of people at the place in front of the church, there seemed has a mini concert. At here, we could see the whole view of Paris in another angle, it was beautiful and I had taken some photos. Benson and Dr. Cristaudo was standing in front of the church and they seems having conversation, but suddenly Benson found that his bag was lost. We are shocked and he walked around to find his bag, but failed. At this time, some police was nearby, our classmates who know French asked the police for help, but still useless. Therefore, Benson and some of our classmates went to police station.

Then, Karin, Beatrice, Michael and I went to the Arch de Triomphe again. The Arch de Triomphe under light was so beautiful, the feeling was very different from the daytime. We tried went to the place under it, but the road was blocked. Therefore, we went back to the dorm.

27/7 Visiting Museum du Louvre, Military Museum and Moulin Rouge

Today got up in the morning, and then I went to the canteen to have my breakfast. We could have two bread and one cup of drink, I think this was the simplest breakfast in our trip, in the previous city we could have ham and eggs. Then, we went to the Museum du Louvre, one of the greatest museums in Europe. In the Square before the museum, we could see three glass pyramid, they were the entrance of the museum, this design was very great, seems combined the modern and the classic. Also, it created a feeling of uncertain that attracted you to get inside and explore. First, I went to see the gallery. The paintings were very beautiful, but I don’t know much are the background and also the significant of the paintings. The paintings that I was more familiar were the ‘Mona Lisa Smile’, and also a picture that had a woman who represented the French Revolution. Fortunately, Karin, Beatrice and Eva had studied Fine Art, so they could tell me some background and the meaning of the paintings. Then, I went to saw the bedroom of Napoleon III and also the crown and also the paintings about the French kings. Finally, I went to see the exhibition about Egypt, I think the things inside was very similar to the Pegamon museum. Finally, I went to see the La Victoire de Samothrace, though it was broken, we could still see that it was a great sculpture. Then, I went out to our gathering place, but I went to the wrong place, so I was late for fifteen minutes, I was quite embarrass.

Then, we went to have lunch, and then we went to La Cathedrale Notre Dame, which was located on the island inside Paris. It was white in color in its outer layer. The first impression was that it was beautiful, but was not so big. Because there were too many people queuing, therefore, we give up to enter in it and just took some photos before it.

Then, we went to the Military Museum. This museum had collected the weapons from the medieval to modern. We could see suits of armory of Europe, China and Japan and also the weapon they used. A question suddenly came across my mind, why this museum has collections from Japan. I think that it may be during the Meiji modernization, Japanese reformed their army in French style, and then French could get these things from Japan. The exhibitions of this museum were divided in to different period, so it was quite easy for us to see the development and change of the weapon throughout the history. Then, we went to see the mausoleum of Napoleon. The mausoleum was quite big, there was a round hole and the coffin was put at the middle of this hole. A great person in French history, nearly conquer the whole Europe, but after his death, the place he had was just this mausoleum.

Entrance

At night, we went to the Moulin Rouge where was a very famous place in France. There were many dance halls in this street, and many celebrities came here for entertainment. There was a windmill, which was a landmark of the region. Now, there were still many dancing hall there, but seemed no prosperous as the past. We had went into a dance hall, and then we went back to dorm.

26/7 Traveling from Brussels to Paris and first night in Paris

Today we gathered at 11:00 a.m. and took the bus to Paris, which was the last destination of our trip. After taking the courses in Prague, I know that Belgium, Germany and France had joined the Schengen system. Therefore, there was no customs on the barrier among Belgium, Germany and France, so I don’t know where is the barrier among these countries, we could only know which countries we are by looking at the street marker.

In the afternoon, we stop at a filling and we had our lunch at the restaurant nearby. Because we were inside the France now, the staffs don’t know English, so I faced some difficulties in ordering food. Fortunately, Christy, my classmate, knew French. Therefore, I could order the food with her help. I had ordered steak and fries, but the taste was just acceptable.

Then, we kept on out travel; our next stop was Versailles Palace. When we arrived there, it was 4:00 p.m. and we needed to gather again at 6:00 p.m. We got only 2 hours to visit, Dr. Cristaudo recommended us to visit the garden of the Versailles, because it was very special. However, some of us really wanted to go inside the Palace, so we bought the tickets and got inside. Because the short of time, we walk very fast and not look in the things in details. But the ‘mirror corridor’ inside it was really amazing, when you walk on this corridor, you can feel how luxury was the life style of the nobles in the past. After visiting the Palace, we still got some time left, so we went to the garden. The garden was very big, the lake was very special, it looks like several ‘+’ shape joining together. The trees on the two sides of the river were looks in identical, how could the people do those? When we tried to walk to the lake, the staff blocked us and told us to leave, because the garden was going to close. Therefore, we leave and went back to the bus. When I got on the car, I saw a black man and stand in front of the other door of our bus. At first, I think this black man was a theft and he tried to steal our things. Later, I discovered that he was just a hawker, not theft. Originally, I had not planned to buy things from him, but when I heard that he use Cantonese to say the price of the product, then I bought some key hooker from him. When our bus left, I could see many black man-selling souvenirs in the parking place. My friend had told me that there were many black people in France, because France had many colonies in Africa.

After leaving the luggage in our room, Karin, Beatrice, Eva, Jeff, Benson, Michael and I planned to go to Tour Eiffel. We went to a restaurant to have our dinner first. Then, we went to the metro station and tried to take the metro to the Tour Eiffel. After buying the ticket, Michael opened his bag and said that his digital camera was not here. Then, he said that he seemed left it in the restaurant, so he went back to the restaurant to find it, but he couldn’t find it at last. Then, we went to the police office with him. However, we did not know where was the police office. Then, on the way, we ask about ten people and finally we could arrive the police office. I was surprised that nearly all the people we asked knowing how to speak English, because I also heard from my friends that French people do not speak English even they know it. In the police station, we told the police that Michael’s camera was stolen, but the police seemed thinking it was natural. So, I think there was many similar things happened in Paris. Then, they asked Michael to fill in a form, which have many question about this event. After filling the form, the police asked Michael to sign the name and then all the procedure was finished. Then, we went back to the dorm. Before seeing the beautiful side of Paris, we first see the dark side of it!

25/7 Visiting European Union Commission and Council of European Union

Today we visited European Union Council and European Commission. In the morning, we visited the European Union Council first. Before we could enter the building, we should first pass the security check. Then, we were taken to a meeting room of the European Union Council. The room was very big and there were also some rooms for the translators, who would help to translate the speech of the speaker in different sentence. It was because there was not a common language among the representative. Therefore, with the help of the translator, the meeting could be run efficiently. After we were sitting down, the representative of European Council, who had studied in The University of Hong Kong, gave us a speech. He told us about the structure of the European Council and the relationship between European Union and China.

Then, we left the European Council and went to the European Union Information Center. There were many booklets and CD-R which describing the function, duty and the goal of the European Union, all of them were free of charge. Facing such plenty of information, I was very difficult for me to choose among them, seems many of them are useful, but I could not take too much, because there is not enough space in my luggage. After lunch, we went to another information center of European Union. After going to the information centers, my bag was getting very heavy. Then, we visited the European Commission. After getting in the building, we were taking to a room and a staff gave us a talk about some basic information of the European Union, for example, how and why the European Union formed.

Then, we dismissed and have some free time. Then, I walk around the center square and saw the Manneken pis, and also ate the Waffle. Then, we went to the supermarket, we saw some cup noodle in it, but we wanted to walk around the other supermarket first and then, came back to buy it. Then, we saw a park and then sat on the bench. At 6:45p.m., Benson suggested going back to the supermarket to buy the cup noodles, but Jeff said we could stay here for longer time. At 7:00p.m., we went back to the supermarket, but it was closed. We were very disappointing. In Hong Kong, the supermarket always opened to 11:00p.m., but the supermarket in Europe was closed at 7:00p.m. We used the Hong Kong situation applied in the Europe, therefore, we could not buy the cup noodles. At night, we went to a restaurant to have our dinner. I had ordered mussels, which was a very famous dish of Brussels. It was very delicious. After the dinner, we went to the Grand Place to see the light show from the Tower Hall, this was the second time I saw the light show, but I still enjoyed it very much.

24/7 Traveling to Brussels and dinner near the Grand Place

We got up at 6:45a.m. in this morning, because we should take the bus to Brussels, this was a very long way. Traveling from Prague to Brussels took quite a long time. In this long distance, I feel a little bit uncomfortable. In the car, I had a little bit headaches and my stomach was not so comfortable. Therefore, I had taken some medicine and in larger part of the journey, I was falling asleep. At about 8:00p.m., we arrived the hostel on Brussels and I also felt better. Then, we planned to go to the place near the Grand Place to have our dinner, but finally only Karin, Benson, Bamboo, Jeff, Henry, Michael and I went to the Grand Place. First, we went to a Japanese restaurant, the waitress could speak Cantonese, this was a surprise. Then went to a square, it was very beautiful and also the city hall had a light show. The show was very good. I had a feeling that the Grand Place was different from other places in Brussels. I feel that it was more classical, seems there was long history behind the buildings around it.