After travelling for over a week now I have yet again found interesting differences in Europe.  Above all, the mindframe of Europe being relaxed is true and it has been proven in various places!

Everything Closes at 7:30PM (sometimes 9:00PM if we are lucky)

In Nice, Milan, and Venice so far every retail store closes at 7:30PM.  It seems kind of ridiculous because what the heck are tourists supopsed to do?  When we were in Milan, we went shopping until the shops closed and then slowly realized that restaurants were going to close too!  By the time we finished dinner which was around 8:45PM, they were already shutting all the doors and sweeping the floors ready for close.  Now in Venice, the same story seems to repeat itself… in fact even the bars are not open, can you believe it?  Maybe it is because you can drink on the street and be merry without being constrained in the indoors!

They really love H&M and Zara

This may be a crazy assumption but (atleast in Milan) they love these two stores!  It is nothing like how it is in Toronto even though H&M is in every mall and Zara appears in high-end stores, they are much larger, have a much better selection, and within one street on Milan there were three H&M stores selling different merchandise and three Zaras, one for women, men and kids.  Nonetheless, it is pretty amazing because were are girls and we love shopping!  On the note of shopping, we stumbled upon an interesting store that was similar to Hollister.  It was quite the battle between whether to shop or not yet but we could not resist!  Lets just say we did some damage.

Random Update

Venice is beautiful!  The streets are narrow and the water (the Grand Canal) is simply breathtaking.  It hasnt been difficult so far to navigate but we are off to Piazza San Marco today and the other tourist things!

Ciao!

In our adventures around Paris and France in general, I’ve discovered a number of different and unusual things that you won’t find anywhere in Toronto!  I wish I could post pictures and refer to them (but we forgot the cord and the computers restrict us from uploading, atleast in our current hostel!)

Direction Arrows

The direction signs here are really odd, when it points down it means to keep walking.  Luckily on the flight here from Toronto to Paris, the flight attendant told us to keep on walking!  I don’t understand the logic behind the arrows… a really pecuilar thing I must say!  It’s funny to watch tourists though because they are confused about the signs too, sometimes some of them just standing there thinking that the bus will pick them up from where the arrow points down! haha

“No Holding Hands” Sign

There are signs that don’t make sense and the funniest one is what is referred to as the “No Holding Hands Sign”.  Picture this, a square shaped sign that is blue with a male stick figure (like the washroom sign ones) holding the hand of the young female child with a red line diagonally across it.  What do you think the sign means? (It doesnt actually mean no holding hands, so please leave your guesses.  If you get it right and you haven’t been to France you get a prize from Europe!)

The Metro

The subway seating here is structured different from the TTC.  First of all, the seats face front and back compared to how the seats are lined up facing the inside of the cart. Secondly the seats fold up and you can pull them down to sit on them when there arent a lot of people.  Another interesting difference is the fact that you either have to push a button or pull a handle upwards to open the door; both when you want to get into or out of the Metro.  There have been several times when I struggled to open the door, and I would be that annoying person holding up the jungle behind me! Im such a tourist.

The Big Plastics are 1,5L

I noticed today that all the plastic bottled drinks are either  50cL (which looks like your average sized water bottles) or 1,5L, not our big sized bottles that are 2L.  I wonder why that is… nonetheless its still an unusual thing.  On the topic of drinks, I love the different Fanta flavours that they have and other interesting one called Orangina that tastes like The Khurram which is orange juice mixed with Sprite! ha ha. And of course the wine is amazing too! In fact Belle and I downed a bottle of sweet white Bordeaux wine yesterday at our hostel.

On a side note, the beaches in Nice France are extravagant!  Sorry it has taken a long time to blog and Im even slower with this french keyboard!  Anyways I will keep you updated with Italy when we get there on Sunday evening!