After three months (and a half), I have had a pretty good idea of what Europe is like. And now, being in Bangalore, India, I decided to write down the basic idea.
Europe is quite diverse, I realized, probably more so than any continent I've seen. There's so much different between each country part of it that it really did feel like each one was a seperate world.
Portugal: The impression that I got of Portugal was a mixture of countries and cultures I've seen before. Of course it felt Spanish or what I think Brazil is like, but also strangely Australian. The beaches were sort of what I remember Australian beaches to be like; big dunes, beautiful shores and oceans, cafes, thick, tall dune grass and boardwalks with rough, hewn log handrails. Except in Portugal, there are towering cliffs, and sand that whips across the dunes and HURTS like heck. Anyway, the language was pretty easy to get the basics (Thank you, sorry, hello, could I please have an orange juice), because it's basically Spanish (which I'm not great at, but still) with a few letter swaps, like naranja means orange in Spanish, and in Portugese it's laranja. The people are really nice, and I in general like it. Its cities are really old and cultured and their roads are made of intriguing cobblestone patterns. I noticed they had a few popular ones, like semicircles overlapping, squares, crazy zigzag designs, etc., that were made of white and black square stones. The traffic was a little harder than US, but it's easy street compared to Naples and Bangalore. The food is good, too. If you want American food, there is about a 30-45% chance they'll get the thing you wanted. Bottom line, really good.
France: We actually were only in Paris, so that's all about it I know (later we went to the Pyrenees but I'll get to that another time) The language is a bit more complex, but Mama knows it fluently (almost) so it was all good. Delicious bakeries! I loved the croissants and the apple turnovers. Also, there were large baguettes! Delicious. There were these weird kinds that were completely pitch black, but they tasted exactly the same, actually better. Apparently at the end of our stay Papa and Angus and our cousins, Will, Guy (identical twins) and Amy went to a fair while the rest of us went home. APPARENTLY, there was a VERY COOL THING where you got in giant life-sized plastic hamster balls and got dropped in a pool, where you floated and rammed into each other. I didn't come because THEY SAID they were going to an absolutely TERRIFIYING WATER SLIDE where it throws you off a waterfall, and I said "My idea of fun is not being thrown off a waterfall while strapped to a plastic log boat." So they went, and I stayed home and wrote my story. That I'm writing. Right now*. Anyway, I hoped I got to do it too someday, and I did later in Vienna Yay! Anyway, there were a lot of motorcycles in France, and pigeons. The place we stayed in was fun, I got my own room, that was strange. But at least I had a window! Double doored windows, that opened immediately onto barred windows, which I couldn't open. Still. Windows. BOTTOM LINE: I liked France because of baguettes and inflatable plastic hamster balls. (The other stuff was great, too, but those were the highlighted highlights.)
The UK: I liked the UK because it spoke English! I didn't use to appreciate that but now I do! Also, there were rolling green hills, lots of knolls and forests, and cloudy gray skies everywhere! Technically speaking, we went to the UK first, because our flight from Oakland went to London and then from London to Lisbon in Portugal. Anyway, I like the rolling grey skies and cold weather because cold weather doesn't bother me, for some reason. Also I like wind. The motorcycles had tarp roofs that looked like they kept out the rain. Our house in London that our friend lent us was on a block with two feral cats that they shared responsibility for. The one that was kind of our house's pet was a black and white furry one called Oreo. He slunk around in our backyard and slipped through the gate every so often, but he consumed the kibble at the speed of lightning. The other cat was short-furred and completely ink black, with green eyes and a missing front leg. It was kind of sad, but he was fast. I forgot what his name was.
We also went to Oxford, which I REALLY LIKED. We went glamping (basically camping, except in big white canvas tents already built up with actual beds and chairs and WiFi and plugs) and our friends Finn and Blaine were there too. There was a creek in the glamping site, which we jumped across and explored the wild grassy fields yonder. We also saw cows on a trail path that refused to move. When we tried to get through them, they looked at us irately like, What you gonna do? Eventually we edged around them, getting our boots covered with mud and maybe something that wasn't mud but looked like it. We also saw that the road at the edge of the cow pasture was painted with stripes, and we wondered what it was for, and then I thought it was a cow grate, you know, the ones hooves can't go through. But then I guess the farmers realized that the cows had memorized what the grates looked like, so they just painted them on. And since cows don't have great eyesight (Sorry, cows!), they saw the lines and thought, Hey, those are cow grates! Better avoid it. So they live their lives in sad ignorance of the fact they can walk out any old time they want to. Anyway, I saw Oxford University, and I thought it was really cool! There was a whole bookstore FULL OF TOLKIEN BOOKS. A WHOLE BOOKSHELF! Me and Finn read ALL OF THEM for about an hour. What books specifically, you say? Well, I'm glad you asked.
(Prepare for a onslaught of Tolkien! - Parents)
There was the Hobbit, three different covers and a graphic novel. Of course, there was the Fellowship of the Rings, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, plus a three-in-one (I have that one, except it's brown with Tolkien's symbol on it, and these ones were black with the Eye of Sauron surrounded by golden writing that was stating what the Ring had on it. OK, those were the most known ones. NEXT! The Silmarillion, which basically tells of the creation of Arda (the world Middle-Earth is in, because Middle-Earth is just one continent). Then there's THIRTEEN books describing in great detail everything that happened; the Trees, the Lamps, Melkor, Glaurung, the Grey Elves, Numenor, Gondor, Arnor, Rohirrim, Yavanna, Shelob, Morgoth's Ring, Sauron's Ring, Galadriel, Valar, Maiar, Illuvatar, Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast, Ungoliant, Balrogs, Orcs, Uruk-Hai, Olog-Hai, etc. etc. etc.
ANYWAY that stuff was good fun. The rest of the time in GB we were in London, in a house that had a fun Xbox and guinea pigs! I liked that place. BOTTOM LINE: I really, really like Great Britain.
THAT'S PART ONE. I will write PART TWO, which is about Italy, Siciliy, Austria, Greece and Germany.