Cheap Restaurants I love in Paris

Continuing on from the theme of places to recommend friends I'm going to do one on food, these are more varied in their location, but I still recommend every one is worth a visit.

While not all of them are classic French Bistros it's Paris and there is one of these on every corner; I'm sure you will have no problem finding them. This however is a list of my favourite places to bring friends when they visit. Good places at good prices, and not all French.

Also worth a special mention are all the people who first brought me to these places. You are far too numerous and awesome to list. Sophie, Katie, Emma, Tom, my Dad and..... Hmm I guess not that numerous actually. Maybe just your awesomeness is too awesome to list. But hey, you have good taste and like eating out.

Cheap Bars and Clubs in Paris

So recently a few friends of mine have been passing through Paris, and as I am now hibernating in Zurich I have decided to provide a few helpful tips for people who want to go there on the cheap.

Since I don't feel like writing a long email every time some ones looking for tips I would far prefer to just send them a link and be done with it. No offence, just this allows me to build and improve the list rather than trying to remember in each email (as well as shameless self promotion of my blog of course).

These tips are based on my experience of Paris and as I'm sure you will notice there is an underlying preference for the Chatlet area as well as an anglophone trend. Why you ask, well apart from central location, good atmosphere and cheap beers, I used work in the area and still know people working at the majority of these bars. Hi folks if you're reading.

This is my no nonsense guide:

The "craic" an Irish response to the weather

thanks to Monica for the pics

"What's the craic" is my favourite way of greeting people, but this usually recieves a few raised eyebrows from those forigners unfamiliar with the traditional Irish phrase.

After coming home to Ireland for the holidays I have come to the conclusion that the reason Irish people are all slightly insane and drink so much is because it is the only way that we can deal with the weather.

Seriously this is not the first time I have discussed the Irish weather, and a friend recently informed me about how a guide book to Ireland outlines the Irish mentality. The book describes the Irish as having 3 parts to their brain, one part deals with Logic, the second part deals with Emotion and finally the third part deals purely with this uniquely Irish element called the Craic.

Johhny forigner will often not be familiar with the craic as it is a only previlant in the Irish culture and usually reaches its climax during drinking sessions. Personal examples include "who can steal the best thing from a bar", "dancing to the river dance", "smashing glasses for no reason" and "swimming in the rain". Essentially it is doing things with no emotional or logical reason other than the result might be worth a few laughs.

Schmutzli - the Swiss Bad Santa

Every country has its traditions and rituals and one of the more quirky and oddly satisfying of the Swiss Christmas season is Schmutzli.

2 Schmutzli are seen here on either side of SamiChlaus

Just like Venom to Spiderman, Dr. Moriarty to Sherlock Holmes and Magneto to Dr. Xavier, Schmutzli is a more sinister counter point to the good that Santa represents.

The answer to how this tradition came about is once again representative of another classic battle between Christianity and paganism. Originally it was a pagan ritual called Perchten which involved good spirits driving out the bad old spirits. With Samichlaus taking the Christian "good" role Schmutzli some how managed to evolve into the dark figure.

Samichlaus is not Santa Claus however and the celebration of "St Nicolas Day"is on the 6th of December, while both Christmas and St Nicolas Day both have the same origins they take on different forms, with the latter having much more in common with its original tradition of paganism than its commercialised American brother.

What is personally appealing about this tradition is the fact that it actually give children something to fear at Christmas. No longer is the classic taunt "Santas' watching" applicable, the phrase "Schmutzli is watching" has far more fear behind it, and only rightly so, the black faced nemesis is associated with stealing children, carries a broom of sticks with which to hit misbehaving children and is even called  Père Fouettard or Father 'Whip' in the French speaking part of Switzerland.
Local teenagers have even been known to dress up as groups of Schmutzli's and go around implementing their own style of vigilante Christmas justice on younger children.

All Christmas songs now have a new tune

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Schmutzli is coming to town

He’s got a stick, And he'll whip you twice;
It doesn't matter if you're naughty or nice
Schmutzli is coming to town

He'll steal when you’re sleeping, He'll whip you when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good, So run for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out! You better not cry
Better not pout, I’m telling you why
Schmutzli is coming to town

Sounds like excellent incentive for good behaviour from children to me and hey its a lot less scary than the German equivalent "Krampus" who looks like the very incarnation of Satan himself.

My Giant Black Bike

So after a long absence from the home of Guinness, rain and left hand driving I have once again set foot on the emerald isle that is Ireland. I’m sure that anybody who has been away from home for a significant amount of time will appreciate the comforts of arriving into a country where you can perfectly speak the language, know which bus to take, have somewhere to stay and have a large group of people who are delighted to see you.

Swimming in the Limmat

Okay so while this article doesn't have anything to do with bicycles or Paris, its an article I recently submitted for a website called zurichexpats.com, the article has been published and kind of summarises the extent of my knowledge of Zurich so far. Still though it's quite cool to have an article published on another (hopefully more frequented) website than my own, even if its unpaid.

Here is the article:

One months holidays and counting

So following what has can technically be described as over a months absence from my previous job, I am happy to announce that it does not end here. So far I have spent 2 weeks in Cadiz in the south of eeeSpain with 400 architects, one week in Munich in Bavaria in Germany with over 5000 jugglers, and now its been just over one week in Zurich with 1 boyfriend.

What's in store next? Easy answer Ireland.

Keeping in mind that this will be covered in future posts lets go through some of the highlights of my previous month.

Cycling in Liechtenstein

So following what can only be described as an epic set of holidays to Cadiz in Spain and then Munich, I had the fortune to be taken to yet another offbeat location that shortly after my arrival into Zurich. After less than 24hours in Zurich I was whisked away to Liechtenstein. 

its not often a country map can indicate the location of individual houses

Cadiz - Getting away from it all

After spending the last few months exclusively in Paris I must admit that this particular trip to eeeeSpain has been somewhat of a count down in my life.
If I return to paris this will mark  roughly one year spent in the city that I love, but wait what do I love? the people? the place? the culture? yes. But to what ends? What have I achieved in this year? I've had fun, made many great new friends and left an ever widening gap on my CV  while procrastinating about starting a career.

How ever even Parisians will admitt their love for getting away from it all. For how long though? Well this blogger might be about to decamp to Switzerland. Whether this is a permanent decision depends on the job front.

However in the mean time I have certainly been enjoying my trip to Spain, after getting one of the worst sunburns of my life on the first day I have not returned to the beach since and have been sheltering in the shade and undertaking my workshop.
For those if you who do not know this is not strictly a holiday but a working holiday. Working in the sense that I only pay 300€ for two weeks of accommodation and breakfast lunch and dinner. But I am part of a team of 3 people who tutor a workshop called "Umbrella" this workshop releases a daily newspaper on the events of EASA Spain (european architectural students assembly). So as well as partying and sunbathing I am responsibe for a group of 8 people and have to deal with things like submission deadlines, layouts and faulty photocopiers.

For those of you interested in reading any of the results of this "holiday" all the newspaper issues are uploaded daily onto the issuu.com website.