Luxembourg, Brussels, and Paris
Well it has been a long time since I have written anything on this blog, but I do have a good reason for this. I have been on a week long trip through Western Europe, visiting all the lovely institutions of the European Union. And trust me when I say, there are oh so many institutions. The only thing that Europeans love more than techno, their respective alcohols, and glow-sticks is institutions. Their governmental structure is hard enough with the Council, the Commission, the Parliament, the Council of Ministers, and the European Court of Justice, on top of every nation’s individual government structures. Yeah… it is alot. But then you add in NATO, SHAPE, the UN, and the European Security and Defense Policy structure, and just make it oh so great for everyone involved.
This trip was pretty awesome, since it was basically a massive European road trip. Only with limited excitement, repeated lectures, and an extremely cramped bus. But really, besides that it was awesome. We started out in Luxembourg, and began very strongly with a tour of the American Forces Cemetery in Luxembourg. It is a beautiful tribute to those who fought for freedom in World War II, and a touching memorial of the price that occasionally must be paid to maintain our way of life. This is the biggest cemetery of American forces on foreign ground, and truly a fantastic experience. After this we went to Luxembourg city, a tiny little city with way more money then it knows what to do with. Luxembourg is known mostly for its shady money deals, and very little else. Plus it houses the ECJ which we visited. I believe our stop in Luxembourg was a waste of time. I am glad I visited Luxembourg but besides that I could have cared less. After that we went to Brussels.
Brussels is an awesome city, with both a big and small city feel. There are some amazing architectural monuments there along with most of the institutions in the European Union. Thus, it is called the capital of Europe. While there I had some incredible meals, consisting of (not at the same time) oysters, mussels, escargot, rabbit, and, of course, waffles. Delicious. We visited every major EU institution there and received additional talks by a representative of the German Marshall Fund and the NATO speech writer. Very interesting, but extremely long. I also almost got into a fight with some drunk Belgians, I’m pretty sure we would have been fine, seeing as I was with an MMA fighter, but it broke up by police presence before anything really got started. It was a very cool experience, as those things often are.
After Brussels, we visited SHAPE outside of Brussels, which was extremely interesting especially since we received a speech from a representative of the ESDP that was very anti-US involvement. After that we moved on to the City of Love. That first night was spent wandering the Champs de Elysee, seeing the Arc de Triumph and going all the way to the top of the Eiffel tower. I had done everything before, except the latter, but not at night, and that made it a completely different experience. The next day we went to the French Foreign Ministry and the ISS (the think tank for security policy in Europe). Also interesting, but truth be told I was extremely happy to leave. We then had the whole rest of the time to ourselves. Which I filled with Notre Dame and the Louvre that night. And then the Mussee de les Invalides/Tomb of Napoleon, Rodin museum, Luxembourg Gardens, Parthenon, and Sacre Cour the next day. That day was really fun since I had not been to most of those places, and it was cool to see something new. At night, IES provided us all with a fancy meal with 3 courses and wine. I got Foie Gras, Duck, and Flaming Alaskan. All absolutely phenomenal. Makes me want to have lots of money so I can eat like that every day. Finally we made our 7 hour bus trip back to Freiburg, and I arrived exhausted, tired of people, and ready to sleep. Fortunately I had class the next day at 9 and an application due. Well, everything is done for now, and this week is going really fast.