Strainu onLine

Versiunea română aici.

Transport

Map

There are 3 ways to get around:

• a car – which we choose; we rented a car from Sixt and left for the „Autoroute du Nord”; the highway is expensive and not as good as you’d expect in France (still better than the ones in Romania, of course) and pretty much „average” in Belgium and Holland.
• a bus – Eurolines has routes between all this cities; the trip takes forever – count 7 hours between Paris and Amsterdam.
• Thalys – the high speed train that liks Paris, Bruxelles, Koln and Amsterdam + regional trains from there.

We had some problems with the GPS in Utrecht, due to the road works in progress which were changing the look of the city. The rest of the road was smooth. You should consider about 4 euros/h or 30euros/day for parking in Holland.

[rating:3.5/5]

Accommodation

The initial idea was to spend 1 night in Liege, 2 nights in Amsterdam and one in Bruges. Due to the lack of time, we gave up on the nights in Liege and Bruges. In Liege we found a Premiere Classe hotel downtown and in Bruges a small hostel, both at about 20 euros/person/night.

Amsterdam was a whole different story. The hostels were both expensive and fully booked 2 weeks ahead. As a back-up solution, we decided to stay in Utrecht, about 35 km from Amsterdam. We chose the Strowis Hostel, which delivered all the promises from the site. We particularely liked the back yard and the hosts. 🙂

[rating:4/5]

The cities

Luxembourg is a mix between a tourist and a business city. It tries to do both roles as good as possible and in my opinion it works. However, not everybody agreed – some of my friends found it too „official”.

Amsterdam is of course known for its canals, bikes and drugs. I personally found it to be a dirty city (the only one in western Europe who could be compared with Bucharest) and hard to live in if you have any kind of prejudices – and how many of us can honestly say they have none? On the other hand, I just loved the museums; perhaps was it because I am attracted to Flemish painters because of their choice of colors or because of the nice contrast between the old artworks and the modern layout.

Utrecht was much more „quiet” than Amsterdam. Despite the same active night life, the city seemed to always me asleep. I’m sorry we only had a few hours to explore it.

Bruges is the medieval city by excellence. Between the old churches and houses you walk on small stone-paved, car-free (at least in the city center) streets. The downside is that once you see one of those, the rest are pretty much alike.

[rating:2/5]

Alternatives

Choose 1 city from Holland, 1 medieval city and a very small country (like Lichtenstein, Andorra, San Marino or Vatican) and you’re all set. Pretty cool, huh? 😀

[rating:overall]

Links

• Strowis
• Sixt Rentacar

După ce prin aprilie îi lăudam că au răspuns promt emailurilor mele legate de un phishing, uite că Banca Transilvania (de fapt BT Asset Management) au comis-o acum destul de grav. Dacă până acum newsletter-ul lor zilnic despre cum merg fondurile de investiţii era către „Undisclosed-recipients”, azi au „scăpat” câteva sute de adrese în câmpul „TO”.

O adevărată binecuvântare pentru spammeri, având în vedere că adresele respective sunt acum asociate cu un domeniu de interes. Dar mai rău decât atât, au dat informaţiile astea şi altor clienţi. Mie unul nu-mi spuneau mare lucru numele alea, dar poate unii din oamenii de acolo nu voiau să fie asociaţi cu BT Asset Management.

Le-am scris oamenilor care se ocupă de newsletterul ăsta o scrisoare furioasă şi sunt curios dacă şi ce o să-mi răspundă. Şi aş mai vrea să ştiu cât o să tragă după neatenţia de azi (dacă o să fie clienţi care o să plece, etc.). Din păcate nu cred că o să aflăm vreodată asta. 😛

Dacă ați avut vreodată vreun geam spart la mașină, ați pus probabil un plastic lipit cu scotch până ați ajuns la service. Dacă rămâne prea mult timp lipit, scotch-ul va lăsa urme de lipici pe vopsea. Ca să scăpați de ele, puteți încerca cu:

• Pronto albastru (sau oricare fel care poate fi folosit pe metal) – asta a mers la mine; atenție însă, va trebui să frecați bine, deoarece în prima fază o să se întindă peste tot lipiciul ăla.
• Benzină sau motorină – s-ar putea să lase însă ceva urme.

Nu o să meargă cu:

• apă – caldă sau rece, cu detergent sau fără, nu a avut niciun efect
• acetonă – aceeași drăcie, și dacă vopseaua este mai proastă, s-ar putea să rămâneți fără ea

Versiunea română aici.

Transport
Map

The road from Paris to Rouen and further to Le Havre is on highway. Unfortunately, we went on a holiday so the road was packed. To get to Etretat and Fecamp, two resorts on the Atlantic coast, you need to get off the highway and onto secondary roads. In the resorts there were insufficient parking places compared with the number of cars.

If you want to get to the Atlantic by train, you can get to Le Havre by Corail trains. There are some TGVs to Rennes and Brest, in Bretagne.

[rating:4/5]

Food

Like anywhere in France, you can find good food and excellent wine just about anywhere. However, unlike other cities, the prices were quite high. As we were on a budget, we settled for supermarket food. 😛

[rating:3/5]

Sightseeing

Rouen, once the capital of Normandy, is a city famous mostly for it’s cathedral. The area around it is full of interesting old houses. What we couldn’t quite understand is why there was a 60s glass-and-concrete building doing just in front of the cathedral?

The city also has some interesting museums and other churches, but we skipped them due to the lack of time.

The small roads between Rouen and the seaside are worth the detour by themselves. Old stone houses and windmills are common in the region.

In Fecamp, there isn’t much to do besides sunbathing. Unfortunately, the beach is made of stones, so you should bring a mattress instead of a towel.

Etretat has, besides the rocky beach, some old WW2 defenses now eaten by the ocean when the tide is high. When the water is low, you can visit them and even go through a passage in the rocky cliffs to some „hidden” beaches. You can (if you’re in good shape) then climb up the cliff for a spectacular view of the coast.

Casinos are an important attraction in both cities, although the look a bit „rusty” and can’t be compared to the palaces of the Cote d’Azur.

[rating:4.5/5]

Alternatives

The Mediteranean Sea is quite far from Paris compared to the ocean, but it remains nevertheless an important alternative.

[rating:overall]

Links

No links here, sorry.

Ăsta e un post pe care îl planific de ceva timp. M-am hotărât să-l scriu acum, că tot îşi prezintă şi Adi impresiile. Am mai fost plecat prin ţări străine, şi după cum am mai zis, momentan îmi pierd vremea pe lângă Paris. Am avut deci ocazia să văd cum e la „ei” şi ca turist, şi ca imigrant (sau aproape).

Ca să fie clar de la început:

• da, sunt subiectiv (înclinat spre patriotism) dar nu destul încât să mă orbească complet.
• am vorbit şi cu alţi oameni, unii care vor să plece, alţii care vor să rămână sau să se întoarcă în ţară, aşa că mi-am făcut o imagine (incompletă) despre ce idei umblă prin capul colegilor mei.
• refuz să compar mere cu pere. N-are sens să compar Bucureştiul cu un oraş oarecare de provincie sau un bilet „no exchange, no refund” cu unul pe care poţi să-l schimbi.

Adi zice în articolul lui că „suntem cu 50 de ani în urmă”. Sunt şi nu sunt de acord – mai exact cred că vest-europenii nu au fost niciodată acolo unde suntem noi acum 🙂 Ei au avansat în mod natural, n-au avut creşteri de salarii de 25% pe an şi căderi ale monedei naţionale de 50% într-o zi (cel puţin după război). Dar dacă e să ne luăm după lucrurile palpabile – mari investiţii în infrastructură, sănătate, speranţă de viaţă – suntem cam unde erau ei prin 1970: acum 40 de ani! Ştiu ce gândiţi şi sunt de acord: ce mi-e 40, ce mi-e 50. 😀 Ce mi-e clar e că nu trebuie să urmăm neapărat acelaşi drum pe care l-au parcurs ei de atunci. Putem găsi unul mai bun. 🙂

Nu pot să fiu de acord cu afirmaţiile de genul „acolo totul merge cum trebuie”. Mai sunt şi oameni care parchează aiurea, mai sunt şi gropi, şi mâncare stricată prin supermarketuri, beţivi, nesimţiţi, birocraţie, etc.

Într-o vineri acum 2 săptămâni i-a chemat cineva pe cei de la EDF (Electrica lor) lângă căminul meu. Au venit băieţii cu nişte aparate, au măsurat ceva, au tras un cerc cu spray-ul pe asfalt şi au plecat. A doua zi (sâmbătă) seara, în locul cercului era o mare groapă, cu diferitele straturi care formau baza şoselei scoase frumos (şi separat) pe margine. Mi-am zis „vezi măh, aşa se face… bravo lor.” Doar că am vorbit prea repede – de atunci n-am mai văzut niciun muncitor pe acolo. Groapa e tot aşa şi habar n-am dacă au terminat reparaţia. Diferenţa e că la noi asta e normalitatea, la ei e excepţia.

Cât despre diferenţele de preţuri, depinde de ce cumperi. Dacă la chirii aproape i-am ajuns (minim 400 € pentru o garsonieră cu bucătărie şi baie în Bucureşti, 600 € în Paris – de obicei doar cu duş), la preţul de vânzare suntem încă departe. Vi se pare că ne apropiem cu 2000 €/mp în Crângaşi? În Paris media e de 6000, minimul pe la 5000 – şi creşte. Nici suburbiile comparabile (nu intrăm in Seine Saint-Denis, un fel de Ferentari) nu scad cu mai mult de 500 €/mp preţurile. Mâncarea nu e mult mai scumpă la „ei”, dar transportul public e de 2 ori mai scump. Toate preţurile sunt verificabile, google it.

Şi atunci, ce să fac eu, ca viitor proaspăt absolvent cu sub 1 an experienţă? Studii în străinătate, job în străinătate sau job în România?

Studii (după diplomă – master sau doctorat adică) nu prea merită să faci dacă nu vrei să faci o carieră academică sau dacă nu te dau banii afară din casă – majoritatea burselor sunt de 7-800 de euro pe lună, ceea ce acoperă strict casa, masa şi transportul, iar suplimentul la salariu e mai mic decât sporul de vechime pe care îl acumulezi în timpul ăsta. So no fun for foreign students. 🙂

Mai rămân joburile. În România, un IT-ist poate să câştige cam 1000-1500 de euro, în funcţie de ce face. În Franţa, nefiind absolvent al unei Grande Ecole (universităţi de elită), un salariu realist e de 2000-2500€.
În Olanda şi Germania e cam la fel din ce spune lumea. Avem deci o diferenţă de vreo 1000€ pe lună. Mult, s-ar spune… Între diferenţele de chirie, mâncare, transport, tot rămâi cu vreo 3-500 în plus la sfârşit.

Dar care-i treaba dacă ai un apartament în România? Dispare chiria şi ajungi să plăteşti cam acelaşi lucru, +/-100€.

Doar că partea financiară nu e totul în viaţă, trebuie să-ţi mai şi placă cum trăieşti. Unii zic că în România e sclavie, că se fac multe ore suplimentare, etc. Ore suplimentare se fac peste tot însă, câte eşti dispus să faci depinde numai de tine. Alţii colegi zic că sunt alte posibilităţi de distracţie în Paris – concerte, parcuri de distracţie, etc. Sau dimpotrivă, că acasă pot să ceară mâncare de la părinţi, că au deja un job stabil, că sunt mai multe oportunităţi în România, etc. Am mai auzit şi argumente care ţin de religie sau relaţii sociale.

Ce e sigur, e că fiecare om trebuie să socotească pentru el, şi cu creierul şi cu inima. Eu mă întorc. Voi?

UPDATE: Mi s-a atras atenţia că am uitat de America. America e un caz special. Acolo şi salariile şi preţurile par să fie mai mici (în acest moment). Despre partea aia a „lacului” nu am foarte multe informaţii, pentru că nu mă pasionează DELOC să plec pe partea cealaltă a planetei, aşa că nu m-am interesat. Ştiu doar că în SUA e greu de obţinut permisul de muncă. Poate Canada…dacă rezişti la frig, distanţă şi o societate foarte diferită de cea europeană.

Transport

Map

To visit the Loire Valley, you’re better off to stay in one of the big cities, Tours and Blois.

The road from Paris to Tours is quite good. The downside there are many route changes and the itinerary has some toll portions. It will probably take you about 2 hours to get there. Blois is on this route, about 1h30 from Paris.

We have chosen to stay in Tours and get there by TGV. The trip takes little over an hour from Paris Montparnasse and 59 minutes from Massy. Unfortunately there are only a few trains that go in the Tours main station. Most of them stop in a small station on the outskirts of the city, and from there you have to take a regional train. Besides, the trains are a little old. It’s not particularly pleasant to hear the outer shell strongly vibrate at 300km/h.

To get to Blois, and even to Tours if you would like to save some money, you can take some classic trains from Paris Austerlitz. The trip takes about 2h to Blois and 30 more minutes to Tours.

To get around the valley the best is to have a car. If you don’t, you have to get around with local trains (TER) or with local buses. The trains are fast and quite expensive, while the buses are slow, cheap and few and far apart. Be careful, in the weekends the transport sucks (there are fewer trains and no buses).

[rating:3/5]

Accommodation

The Loire Valley has accommodations for all the budgets, from campings and the cheapest hostels to 5***** palaces and even reconverted castles. Tours is in the center of the region so it will probably be your first choice, but Blois has its own charm and nothing compares with the experience you will have if you decide to spend some days in one of the villages in the region.

[rating:4/5]

The castles

I grouped the castles by their region. You should be able to visit all the castles in a group during a single day, without running to much.

Chenonceau and Amboise

Chenonceau and Amboise are placed more or less on the route between Tours and Blois. The first castle I visited, Chenonceau remained my favourite. It was built in the 16th century and it is called „Le chateau des Dames” (The Ladies’ Castle) because it was owned by the wife (Catherine de Medicis) and the mistress (Diane de Poitiers) of the French king Henri II. The castle spreads over the Cher River, so the view is guaranteed from the ball room, which is over 60m long. The domain and the gardens are pretty impressive, although not comparable with the ones at Versailles.

Amboise is different. It was built from an old fortress and the successive kings added new buildings or destroyed old ones, so the current castle is formed from 2 very different wings. This castle gave me a very pleasant surprise, as it was the only one which had a brochure in Romanian. Unfortunately, neither the castle nor the domain were impressive.

Entry fees were 10 euros in full, 7,50 euros for students at each castle.

[rating:4,5/5]

Blois, Chambord et Cheverny

The Blois castle is the most intriguing of them all. It’s made from 3 different wings, of which the most beautiful is unfinished. It has an impressive side on the road and an interesting collection of weapons.

Chambord is arguably the most famous castle of them all. It’s a huge royal palace surrounded by an endless park. The village of Chambord is practically a touristic attraction in itself, being pretty much unchanged from the 17th century. This castle houses the famous double helix staircase, by which 2 people could see each other but never meet.

Tickets for students are 5 euros at Blois and 7,5 at Chambord.

[rating:4.5/5]

Chinon et Langeais

Chinon is more of a fortress than a castle. It’s made of three distinct parts separated by ditches. It’s currently undergoing a huge restauration which will see the main tower rebuilt from scratch. This decision is unfortunate, in my opinion, as it takes most of the charm of the castle. Chinon also has a museum dedicated to Jeanne d’Arc.

Langeais is a small castle not to far from Chinon. It’s the castles where Charles II and Anne de Bretagne married, making Bretagne a part of France. The most interesting thing here is the drawbridge, which is lowered each morning.

[rating:3.5/5]

Luynes et Tours

Luynes is a private residence and can only be visited with a guide. Its charm is given by the small histories told by the guide and the many family pictures. It’s placed in a suburb of Tours and you can get there by bus.

The Tours castle is the city’s art museum. I personally found it totally uninteresting.

[rating:2/5]

Alternatives

Well, there isn’t really an alternative to the many castles in the Loire Valley. Perhaps the English countryside? If you know an area with such a high concentration of castles, please let me know.

[rating:overall]

Links

• www.chateau-amboise.com
• www.chenonceau.com
• www.chambord.org
• www.fortresse-chinon.fr
• www.chateau-de-langeais.com

I’m currently at Wordcamp Paris, in a wonderful little club called La Cantine. I’ll try to kkep you posted with what’s happening here, just in case at some point in the future there will be something like this in Bucharest.

10:50 I finnaly arrived at La Cantine. It’s pretty well hidden in a small passageway. The organizers had everything ready, from the stickers and badges to the coffee. 🙂

11:10 People are still coming in.. I don’t think we’ll get under way just yet…

11:45 Here we go. It seems this meeting has been in the making for about 2 years. The idea of a barcamp is apparently that everybody talks about what they want, as long as they don’t interrupt the others. 🙂

12:00 Everybody is expressing their expectations from this meeting. It appears that soon the presentations will be chosen and grouped, then there will be a break. The conferences will begin at 14:00 hours.

12:10 The presentations are over, how there is a little organizing going on…

12:25 It’s almost time for a pause 😀 So, unless something changes, I’ll be coverig the following:

• 14h – Plug-in 101
• 15h – Open ID
• 16h – if i’ll still be around, WP & Video or WP & mobile (hard to choose :P)

14:07 The presentation about plug-ins is jut about to start…

14:15 There are 2 main categories of participants: the developers which want to have a technical discussion and the users that want to learn the plug-ins basics. We will begin by telling the latter what a plug-in is, than hopefully finish on a more technical note.

14:30 Until now, there were just discussions about different plug-ins. We’re finally getting to the more techincal stuff. One of the guys here pointed out the difference between the ratings and the performance – a very well rated plug-in could work perfectly for small sites but crash on professional sites.

14:45 Different tips and tricks on how to test the plug-ins…

15:00 This session is now over. Vivement OpenID.

15:15 Wow… the French representative of the OpenID consortium is here. Impressive.

15:17 OpenID = Identity provider (like Yahoo or any WordPress site) + an OpenId Compatible Site. The identity isfragmented.

15:25 Plug-ins used for commenting with openID: wp-openID and wp-yadis. To be my own openID provider: php myID.

15:35 The big identity providers tend to push for openID in order to get personal informations on their user. Or at least so say some of the participants…

15:45 Different openID demos..

That’s about it with Wordcamp for me… See you at the next meeting 🙂

Transport
Map

There are three ways to get from Paris to London:

• the plane – there are three companies operating flights between the two cities: Air France, British Airways and Easyjet. The price difference between „normal” and „low-cost” airlines is minimal. This is the method we chose as it is simple and cheaper than the train if you book at the last minute. The flight takes an hour, but you must be at the airport at least an hour before the takeoff. If you have more time, it might be cheaper to go by train to Tours and take a Ryanair flight from there.
• the train – the Eurostar, that is. The trip takes about 2 and a half hours, you get to see more than from the plane, but it’s incredibly expensive if you don’t book a long time ahead.
• the ferry – there are several companies with ferry services from Dover to Calais, with prices starting at 13 euros per passenger. You could argue that this is the cheapest way to go to London, but it’s also the longest, as you have to come with commuting times from the ferry terminal to the railway stations.

As an interesting observation, it must be said that a flight from Bucharest to London (which takes almost 4 hours) is just 25% more expensive than a flight from Paris to London (1h).
[rating:3/5]

Accommodation
London is a huge city, with thousands of hotels and hostels. Nevertheless, if you don’t book in time you might have trouble finding cheap hotels. We stayed at Charlie’s Bed and Breakfast, an interesting little hotel in northern London recommended by our predecessors at Supelec. It was a very comfortable room with old-fashioned bed covers and high colorful windows. It was all very clean and you could find lots of tourist information near the reception. The only problem was the bathroom, because the window wasn’t closing.

[rating:4/5]

Museums
Public museums are free in London, and they’re a lot of them. Near the world famous Harrods shop you have an Art Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.

Due to the lack of time we only visited the Science Museum – 6 floors of scientific models, games and exhibitions. You could learn anything from the debris found on the bottom of Tamisa to how the Moon lander looked like. Pretty impressive.

The British Museum was another point of interest we couldn’t miss. I personally wanted to compare it to the Louvre, but I found there is no comparison possible. The Louvre tends to put art from the same period together, while the British gathers art by the geographic area it was created in. I wandered about the whole day in the museum but still missed some rooms and overlooked others. If you have the time, go in at least 2 days at the British Museum.

[rating:4/5]

Sightseeing

There is a lot to see in London. You can start with a walk along the Thames river, then get on the London Eye to have a aerial view of the British capital and to decide what you want to see. Due to the lack of time, we limited ourselves to Big Ben, the Buckingham Palace (with the guard change, of course) and some commercial avenues.

[rating:3/5]

Alternatives
Most Western European capitals can be easily reached from Paris: Berlin, Madrid, Luxembourg, Bruxelles, Amsterdam… you only have the problem of choice.

[rating:overall]

Links

• http://londoneye.co.uk/
• http://www.britishmuseum.org/

Got the logos from b3co.com.

The Good

Banca Transilvania. I received a phishing email which was supposed to be sent by them. I reported the email to their IT department. Based on my previous experiences with Romanian banks, I wasn’t expecting an answer. However, I received not 1, but 2 answers, both in the same day: one from the IT manager and one from the Risk Management Department. GG.

The Bad

The French Embassy in Bucharest. Last year they gave over 100 scholarships for Romanian students (or so they say). This year, only 40 scholarships were offered. I was one of the lucky ones, but it still sucks.

L.E.: As I expected, the information on the embassy website was an exageration. The real number of scholarships is 35 (source: one of the students which study in France with that scholarship).

The Dirty

Yeah, the dirty, not the ugly. And the winners are… the French (again 🙂 ). They have the life standard to have hot water any time even in the country side and they’re NOT USING IT. I have discussed with other foreigners and they have the same opinion: the French are not washing themselves as much as they should.