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Travel Journal Photos
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Paris
mugging hi from Barcelona Arrived by overnight train from Paris. Paris was an interesting experience. A year ago, I passed through itīs airport and nothing more. This time, I had a few days to experience the full energy of the city. Within my first hour in the city, I was confronted at knifepoint by two black men while I rode the escalator out of the Metro. In the awkward exchange, I yelled HELP at the top of my lungs. I am quite happy to have lost neither blood nor anything valuable... (or anything at all) considering the expanse of camera equipment I was carrying in my front back pack and recently having stopped at the ATM to get French francs. The knife was one of those orange ones where you extend and break off the tips. The robbers really werenīt that violent and perhaps werenīt used to being resisted. (not that Iīm used to getting mugged myself). It would have been more amusing if I had my copy of Letīs Go Europe in my hand and used it in defense as a blunt weapon. See a friends previous
adventures with theft in Paris... A couple minute later, I met the parents of a close friend from Los Angeles. With them, I did some shopping and sight-seeing. Later in the afternoon, we split up so they could buy for family and I could stroll about. I wandered into the red light district. I took a couple pictures of sex toys on display. As I progressed, the concentration of hookers was getting denser. A parked motorcycle on the street caught my eye as a photo subject. After I started focusing on it, I was confronted. At first, I thought it was the owner. Apparently, he thought I was taking pictures of HIS hookers and demanded my film. Two guys and three hookers surrounded me. The first guy grabbed my camera strap. I yelled POLICE! repeatedly until they let me go. They released me with the warning, Ļno pictures here.Ļ When I looked around, I had stopped all foot traffic in a 150 foot radius. In Paris, I found a museum possibly the largest and most fascinating Monet collection in the world--brought together by his late son. Surprisingly, Letīs Go Europe barely gives it a mention in their guide. At my hotel, I met a couple girls from Tennessee. Learning I was from Michigan, they said they had relatives there. When I questioned where, they responded MILWAUKEE. I should have asked if it were their final answer. In Berlin, I have a job offer for a company that writes software for Palm PCs. However, I am holding out to see if I get an offer from a PR & new media company that sounds more exciting... I interview with them in a week. Many Germans like Berlin because it has a lot of culture and very low cost of living--due in part to overbuilding after reunification. Lastly, I found out that my German mobile phone isnīt set up to work outside Germany. At least my e-mail still works.
Mariah, my NYC photo editor, responds to the above e-mail Bienvenue a Paris, mon petit intrepid amie, Incroyable!! Quel hubris! J'espere tu vas bien. Dans une otre temps, peut etre tu attempte crier "FEU!!!" . "Assitance!!!!" est un peut trop longue. Ah bien, maintenant tu vas au allemagne..... Willcommen a Deutchland!!!! Du, du haste nich!! Ich bin gut, fir danke, und du? Nich fuguessen der schweinhaxe der Dusseldorf. Girls from Tennessee with family in Milwaukee, Michigan, eh? Is that their "favorite uncle", perhaps? Oh, and the orange break-off knife is called a "Box Cutter", and is so prevalent in NYC schools that there is now a law making it illegal to sell one to a minor, or for a minor to carry one. The razor blade in it continually breaks off to give you a nice fresh sharp razor edge. Cheap and you can always claim that you are a clerk in a shipping dept. My computer was down for a couple of days, things to be expected as we keep adding to the co. and the workload. Drives me insane to be unreachable by phone, cell phone or computer for even a second. Keep me posted, and how about those red light girls? That's good material. Yes, sometimes the loud ugly American tourist is not something they are used to. As I said above, "FIRE!" can be a great response, everyone anywhere will be concerned for their safety, so it gets the attention you need. Learn how to say it in the language of the country you are headed for, and throw in enough other words to make sure they realize you are American. They DO expect Americans to be louder and feistier than others and every country is hard on criminals who pose a threat to the money they get from the tourist business. Have you ever noticed that although we know that the Chinatown gangs and the Tongs (just pick a city, any city) they belong to , no matter how deadly they are, are almost never seen in the papers? They make far too much in tourism and will not allow any crimes against tourists. Period. Any gangs that make too much noise in their fights against each other, if they make the papers and make white people think that Chinatown is unsafe for them to visit, are severely punished. About 15 or 16 years ago, here in NYC, one night two gangs met in a restaurant to talk about working together as allies. Their biggest enemy gang entered the place and shot it up. When they left there were five boys dead, including a 14-year-old who was using the payphone. Big Noise. Front Page News. Three days later, the offending gangs' leader was found at the front desk of his father's Tong "Association" building. Dad was a very powerful man, but even he could not and would not save his son from the rules, and from all six of the bullets that were unloaded, point blank, into the back of his head. You can probably see now that I love to write copy for the pix my Guys and Dolls send me. I hope the rest of your trip is more fun, nice tip on the Monet by the way. That in itself could be a whole story. |
