Luxembourg: The city of banking!

Well there I was in Luxembourg. I've noticed as I get further and further away from the UK, the less and less people speak English. I guess this shouldn't come as such a surprise, but it does make getting around a bit more frustrating. I found myself at the bus stop, and one driver shot me an awful look when I tried to ask him if he spoke English, but in French. If you speak English straight up, they don't like you for being a foreigner, and if you -do- give it a go, they like you even less for buthchering their fine vocabulary. It's a no win, but c'est la vie. See what I did there? Ohhh yes.

Anyway, as the title says, Luxembourgs claim to fame is that they're one of the world centers for banking. Riveting stuff to be sure, but at the same time they have a lot of very nice scenery about the place. The whole place has been captured and recaptured about 20 times throughout history, so there are many relics of the place as a fortress. There is a lot of the original wall left, and I took a stroll along it, the day after I got there, snapping pictures here and there. It was quite nice, but it is also a city of hills. Amsterdam was dead flat, as was Antwerp and most of Belgium. Brussels had sort of one big hill, but Luxembourg has the city on top of a massive hill (where the fortress was/is), but also a lot of stuff in the valleys between the mountains. My hostel was included in this. As I trudged down one of these massive hills, I couldn't bear the thought of having to all my stuff back up it as some stage. Thankfully, the hostel offered a shuttle service back to the station for 2 Euro. Sold! My guidebook described the place as having "rolling hills". I can just see this authors description of Everest: "A challenging climb with a chilly summit. You may want to pack a jacket."

The hostel was quite nice, and very new. The place was finished about two years ago I think, and it was quite busy. The first night I got there I was fairly late, about 9:30PM, and I managed to convince the cafeteria to make me a pizza. I then shared this with a bunch of poms from Manchester and a Korean girl whom were all good company for the night, but left early the next morning. I had to move rooms myself (I stayed there two nights), after I got back from wandering, and found a very friendly French guy in there, by the name of what sounds like "Yoog". I'm sure its spelt differently. Anyway, he was poring over his laptop, programming a version of Tetris in Java. We chatted about programming for a while and grabbed some dinner in the cafeteria, along with another French guy. They were both actually living at the hostel, with internships in Luxembourg. Both of them were waiting for their respective flats to become available in France, from where they will commute to Luxembourg. They were both good company, and we discussed many things French, one such thing being that they use Belgians in their jokes the same way we would use the Irish. We all agreed that blonde women could be used in the same context. One interesting facet of the evening was that Yoog didn't like wine. I made the comment that he must have been excommunicated from his country for this; a Frenchman that doesn't drink wine? Sacre Bleu!

The next morning they both left quite early for their respective jobs, and there was one guy in our room who decided that because he had to get up at 7AM, so did the rest of the room. Throwing bags around, and causing zippers to make so much noise it was unbearable, I cursed him silently until he finally left the room, and its occupants, in peace. What a knob, tho I wouldn't say it to his face. He was a lot bigger than me.

About 10AM I had eaten breakfast, packed my things and was in the shuttle to the station, driven by a person of whose sex I was unsure. The painted nails spoke female, but the gruff voice and masculine face suggested otherwise. Either way, this driver was very cordial, if a bit aggressive in driving, however it seems Luxembourg traffic is quite brutal.

I then made my way to Trier. I was supposed to be meeting Ian in Paris today, but he has been delayed by a few days due to accomodation issues. Apparently he couldn't book any, though I had no such difficulty. I shall be preceeding him to Paris tomorrow, and ensuring that we all get the same room in the hostel. Until then I plan to explore Triet a bit. This place holds a special significance to me, as on a tour of Germany and France with my parents a good 12 or so years ago I recall stopping in a place called "Trier" and seeing my first Roman Amphitheatre. This made quite an impression on me, as it was quite a grand site, and at the time I was heavily into Asterix comics, and as such I had an understanding for what this place actually was. I am very excited to revisit the spot and see if I can recapture some of the childhood wonder. The only other thing I remember from that trip was a cruise along the Rhine river, which my brain has fused an association with boredom to. Whenever someone talks about boredom, I visualise the Rhine river.

Pics are up!