A question of balance

What I am finding most difficult about Europe, and I forget if I have blogged about it yet (I have written in my journal about it, so it's hard to recall...) is the homelessness/ beggars. They are everywhere, and my heart breaks every time I pass one. Some are very aggressive (don't like them), but most are so, so grateful for every piece of shrapnel you can spare, and I feel awful to be so lavishly wasting money on travel. I keep telling myself that it's not my job to fix this, and that I can't help all of them; but then again, it never seems to be anyone's job, so how will it ever be fixed? And so, whether it makes me a sucker or not, I continue to give my small change to Bosnian women in headscarves, and men with the most forlorn and ashamed faces as they beg for change for food. It is so sad.

Yesterday was a holiday in France; but the European Parliament in Strasbourg (where I am right now) had an 'open door' day, so I went down to check it out. Was oping it might make me feel like everything would work out in the world, democratic union and all that. The impressions I got where thus: the European Parliament is meant to be a big round table of nations, signified by the big round building; I think it might actually be a bastion of red tape and never ending beuracracy, signified by the endless 'circuit' one had to follow, impossible to break or escape from, and feeling more and more like a hopeless Ikea route with every step; and it is highly politicised, which I learned from the metres of propoganda tables handing out freebies for their party. So I took free stationary, bought an Alsace sausage at the random canival without, and felt a little dejected.

Happily I ran into a Mexican guy who works at the hostel while waiting for the boat back to town; he convinced me and a New Zealand girl I'd run into to come to the hostel bar after dinner. We danced to Reggatonn (sp?), a Puerto Rican band, with a group of Ecuadorian school girls ( who knew how to shake their hips WAY too well for 15 year olds!) and it was heaps of fun.

Strasbourg is very pretty, but quiet. Especially on a public holiday. It is very German too, in its architecture and traditional dress and definitely the food. I got served an enormous plate of pork (not the holiday destination for the more Jewish of us!) and so much saurkraut. They need to learn about BALANCE; A mountain of saurkraut with a crown of pork is NOT balanced. If I never see cabbage again, it will be too soon. Not a good way to feel with Germany still to come...

I could have not liked Strasbourg: my train was delayed; the station was a chaos of renovation; I couldn't find trams, buses, my hostel in general; I got rained on, and then discovered my room had been rained in and the flor was a big puddle. But you just have to laugh. I got a new room, all to myself, I know now that the hostel is not far from town, and I made friends with the staff through my disasters. It's all part of travelling.

I LOVED Lyon though. Except for the few niggly things, like climbing a very lage hill with large bag, it was fantastic. A bold statement, but I think I liked it more than Paris. Not too big, great food and nightlife areas, beautiful old areas of town (around which I did a walking tour), and really interesting newer areas. I loved exploring the new(ish) area called Etas Unis, site of the Tony Garnier Urban Museum. Tony Garnier was a socialist architect in early 1900's who was an early proponent of town planning; he had ideas of planning an industrial city, with seperate working and living areas, and a big focus on acessibility for all to culture, recreation and education. He designed a number of projects in Lyon, but the museum focussed mosly on his work in Etas Unis, where he was asked to design worker's housing; essentially community housing. He had notions of green space, pools, statues, lots of light, great schools; all this for people overlooked by society.

The project started well, but budget constraints saw many ideas bein thrown out, such as restricting building height (for maximum light), new schools, libraries, pools. But his ideals are still held dear by the inhabitants, who requested that the museum be made; a series of 25 murals on the blind walls of apartment buildings celebrating Garnier's work and ideas, plus the notion of ideal cities. It was brilliant (as were the hundred or so other urals t be found around Lyon). There was also an apartment set up to show how life would have been when these apartments were first built, furnished by heirloom donations of the local community. One woman had given a tea set which had been her wedding gift, someone else an antique copy of Les Miserables. It really demonsrated how, although not all of Garnier's plans were adopted, his ideal of community pride and connection was created and fostered; a sense of belonging and balance was achieved here, after all.