Right, I promised ‘country’ posts to accompany my tour of Europe. I’m not going to do a diary style thing dealing with what I did day to day — I still have a vague idea of writing all my travel notes up and making some sort of travelogue one day. But this is not that, these posts are more my quick-and-dirty reflections on the countries I’ve been to.

And so: Paris, “The City of Lights”. To be honest I’m wasn’t really here to do the tourist thing, it was more of a stop off to visit friends, and there should be plenty more tourism coming up.

I knocked off a few main sites anyway, the picture to the left is one of the rare ones with me in it to prove that I was really there. We didn’t go up the Eiffel Tower, instead we climbing the Arc De Triomphe so we could see the Paris skyline with the tower in it. You can get a pretty good idea of the layout of the city from the top, if you’ve not had a heart attack from the stairs. Sadly my pictures from the top aren’t that great, so you get one from across the road instead.

I also got a chance to go round Notre Dame which is probably more impressive from the outside, it’s not that the inside isn’t impressive but one gothic cathedral is much like another and when you’re part of a shuffling line of tourists it kinda loses something.

We didn’t eat particularly French stuff, in fact the best meal I had was in an excellent Sushi place, but I did make a point of getting a plate of snails. Just getting them out the shells is a bit of a challenge, even with the special tongs they give you. Once you get them out they’re kinda small, they have a texture not unlike a mussel and a taste I can only describe as earthy. Not bad, but not something I think I’d seek out again.

The problem with Paris is that it’s huge with a shedload of things to see and do, even if I hadn’t been spending a significant part of my trip knocking back Jagermeister I’d still not have seen a fraction of it. Paris is expensive too, a few more days could have easily broken my budget. Fortunately it’s only a short hop away so I can always go back and see more of it.

My advice for Paris is to plan ahead, now that’s true of anywhere but having a proper plan and a knowledge of where the attractions are relative to each other is going to help you get the best out of the place. As with anywhere the cheaper places are off the beaten track, but the sheer size of the place makes finding them difficult.

Would I go back? Yes, in fact I’ll almost certainly be back this year. There’s so much else I could do and it’s so easy to get to that there’s really no excuse for not returning.

But still, Eiffel Tower, Norte Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Snails? I think that means Paris counts as done, more pictures in the Flickr set.

I meant to write this much earlier but apparently a week of traveling, too much booze and too little sleep isn’t good for you — I’ve felt pretty rough for the last few days.

I’m back from my travels and I will get round to posts for individual places (promise) so this is just a collection of thoughts.

Glance up and you’ll see one of the first of set of all new header images for 2008. It was pretty disturbing going through my photos to find images to use — there’s a handful of photos with me in them and I look progressively more haggard as you the week goes on. Scary stuff.

Anyroads, some advice after the jump.
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It’s been a few weeks since I declared my 2008 Resolution , so it’s probably time to revisit it.

First, I wanted to address a couple of questions people have asked.

Isn’t this whole idea a bit shallow?
Oh yes, it’s incredibly shallow. But then aren’t most holidays unless you’re trekking for charity or building mud huts in the Congo? At least doing this will force me to travel to places I would never have visited, and probably travel via methods and routes I would normally have ignored. Is it any better or worse than returning to the same sun-drenched beach for two weeks every year?

It’s still a fair comment, so I’m going to try and not just go to places to tick the box, but we’ll see how possible that is.

Isn’t all going to be a bit rushed?
Aye, some countries are going to get shortchanged. But I’m going to make an effort to spend a decent chunk of time in each country, or at least the ones I’ve not been to before. I don’t want to do a ’stand on the border, foot over, tick the box, move on’ thing, but on the other hand if I do want to get to all the countries then some places will get more time than others.

And I don’t think it’s a bad idea to visit places quickly to get a feel for them, I’d rather spend a day in three different cities and want to return to them all than spend three days somewhere I’m bored of after two hours. Plus I know that given more time I just get too laid back, but under a deadline I’ll make the effort to get out and see things. I’ll have time to relax when I’m travelling between places.

Can’t I just visit less places?
Of course, but it wouldn’t have the same ring, would it?

Plus I’d just pick ‘easy places’, by aiming for a set of countries that’s defined by something else I’m forced to stretch a bit.

So with all that said, how’s the progress looking? I’m going to resist scoring off the UK, because of my comments above about not just ‘ticking the box’, so the list looks like:

With 125 non-working days left I still need to visit 20 countries (27 to do then in all ‘08.)
Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Countries I’ve visited pre-2008 are in grey, countries visited in 2008 are scored out.

Eeek, that’s not looking good. I’d better do something to improve matters.

I’ve had a good few days, first my bathroom is almost finished, hopefully I’ll be able to post the full saga shortly.

Also my collection of shiny things has grown:

It’s the PlayStation 3 that’s new, the iPod just crept into the photo because it was jealous. I’ve only played with it briefly but it’s a pretty damn good machine, it’s insanely easy to set up and it’s now happily talking to the Internet and streaming stuff from my server via the magic of TVersity. It’s the 60Gb model (off eBay) so it plays old PS2 games although I have to get a converter if I want to grab my old data off the old memory cards.

That’s not all, over the weekend I won a raffle, netting me both a hamper of Mexican goodies and tasting menu for two at Le Trois Garcons. Spot on.

Finally I played a nice friendly game of poker at the weekend. I won. I won even when I was trying to lose.

It’s been a good weekend.

I missed the first one, yesterday was the two year anniversary of this site. Woo-hoo !

This post is the 185th post on the site, almost one post every four days, which is sounds so unlikely that I had to check the figures three times to be sure.

Today is the one year anniversary of the the first phone call I made to get my bathroom sorted and refitted. It’s still not finished, but it’s a damn site further on than it was a week ago so I’m mostly happy. I expect there will be at least one more bathroom post when it’s all finished.

So, the start of the new year found me waking up on the couch. And not even my couch.

As a start to the new year it’s not the best, but no worse than I might have expected.

It’s after that that it’s gone downhill, today my hangover receded to reveal a particularly nasty cold. Which would have been OK but I’d foolishly opted to go into work today which was not the most pleasant experience.

I struggled through the day and even managed to do a bit of tiding when I got home tonight.

Sadly that was a step too far, while washing the dishes I noticed a particularly foul aroma. This was interesting as I’d not been able to smell anything else all day so I knew it was pretty bad. It was then I heard my least favourite noise, dripping water. Turns out the waste pipe from the sink had broken where the outlet from the washing machine joins it, drenching the cupboard under the sink in foul smelling water. And I can still smell it despite my blocked nose.

So, starting the year with another plumbing fiasco. Fantastic.

Time for a beer.

On the bright side, the kitchen should all be getting replaced shortly so I only need to patch up the plumbing for a few weeks. Even I can manage that.

Last year I was accused of being a bit sentimental. So this year it’s short and sweet.

I hope everyone’s had a great 2007 and I wish you all have a fantastic 2008, lang may yer lum reek.

I liked last years resolution but it was a bit wishy-washy. So, what for this year?

I could do something sensible like resolve to save some money, get fitter or lose some weight. But everyone does that, and most of them end up abandoning it after January, just like I would.

I’ve resolved to do something that’s not too easy, but is at least plausible and fun. Since I’ve already decided not to do a several week holiday this year I might as well give me a target to get me out of the flat, and the country.

So, here goes:

By the 31st of December 2008, I resolve to have visited each of the 27 member states of the European Union.

I’ve had this idea in the back of my head for a few months, and it was originally ‘visit each capital city for a day.’ The version above allows more wiggle room (notably allowing me to count the seven countries I’ve already visited if I need to, even if Greece is a stretch since it was over fifteen years ago.)

Still, it’s going to be interesting if I really commit myself to doing it. And, barring any disasters, I plan to give it my best.

At least it makes the progress post easier, here’s the first one:

With 134 non-working days left I still need to visit 20 countries (27 to do then in all ‘08.)
Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Countries I’ve visited pre-2008 are in grey, countries visited in 2008 are scored out.

One final progress for the year …

People Visited: 22 (4) [Last: 20/4]
Places Visited: lots… (4) [Last: 11/3]
Countries Visited: 10 (5) [Last: 6/2]

So, what do I think? Well I made up for my lack of travel in the last few months of the year. I don’t think I’ll do another ‘big bang’ trip anytime soon, little and often next year. Still it was excellent.

The important part of the resolution was to visit people, to get in touch more. I can honestly say that I’ve made the effort to see more people this year than I might otherwise have. And I’ve managed to get in contact, even if only electronically, with almost everyone that I really wanted to, and that certainly was encouraged by this resolution.

Check back tomorrow morning for my 2008 resolution …

See the Original post for the details and the rules.

Well another Christmas almost over, I’m here with a glass of wine and the dogs holding fort while my parents ferry relatives back to their abodes.

There are worse places to be …

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Christmas wherever you are.