Thursday, August 05, 2004
The weather is here. I wish you were beautiful.
1. If you get the title reference, you get 1000 bonus points for spending lots of quality time with my dad in the early '90's. If you knew it without having spent QT with my dad, you get 750 points for being that cool without him. If you are my dad, you get 5000 points for educating me in the ways of Mr. Jimmy Buffet (Boofay).
2. My apologies for leaving you all hanging for so long. There was too much to do in Paris and it was too hard to get on the internet in French.
3. I'm going to write this as though I'm still....I'm just going to copy it straight out of "Ciao Bella!"
8-2-04
Incidentally, why am I sitting in the most beautiful park I've ever seen looking at the Eiffel Tower???? Uhhh...surreal.
Alright, so apparently I committed the cardinal sin of European overnight rail travel. On my Eurail pass, I wrote the date of departure when I was supposed to write the date of arrival. It all turned out ok, though. The ticket guy just had to tell the powers that be that I was confused. And that was about it. He put the beds down around 10 and I was asleep until 7:30. Good rest. We got to Paris around 9 and I set off to find my hostel--"Yound and Happy." Indeed. By the time I found it, though, it was already lock-out hours, so I couldn't get into my room until after 4. So I set out. Oh, by the way, on the train I talked to a couple from Peru who miraculously understood everything I said in Spanish...and moreover, I understood 95% of everything THEY said in Spanish. I might have actually learned something in Malaga!!
So back to Paris. I'm walking, walking, and I stumble across the Pantheon. €4.50 for students, tour starting in 15 minutes. Victor Hugo AND Alexandre Dumas buried there. Why not? Very cool. Hung out with Vic and Alex for a bit and saw pendulaic proof that the earth does indeed rotate on its axis. I'd been doubting so that was good. Went hunting for food, which I found in a fast food joint called "Quick." My French is absolutely disgraceful, but I managed to receive what I was going for so...sign language is good.
So I swung by Notre Dame on my way to the Louvre. Notre Dame rocks. I'd totally live there if I were a hunchback.
Got to the Louvre. It was €6 for students. Then I noticed a little note down at the bottom saying that after 6 p.m. on Mondays, it was free for people under the age of 26. It is Monday. I am under the age of 26 indeed. It was about 3:30 so I went back to the hostel, took a glorious, wonderful shower, changed out of the shirt and undies I'd been wearing for the last 2 days straight, wolfed down 2 PB sandwiches (I finished all the &J in Spain), and then I went back to the Louvre. It was pretty decent. I saw the Mona Lisa and all that jazz. She was great of course, but I think it's just not my favorite kind of art. I mean it was great, don't get me wrong, but I'm going to the Musee d'Orsay tomorrow and I'm much more excited about that.
The Eiffel Tower...at night...is AMAZING!!! Sidenote: Paris if 5849 km from NY.
And P.S. I saw a militant Parisian version of John Troy outside the E.T.
So every hour on the hour, the Eiffel Tower sparkles. 1000's of strobe lights going off at random. It's enough to give a girl a siezure. I didn't realize that that was how it went, and when I first saw it close up, it was definitely sparkling. It looks really cheesy, but at least you know how long you've been climbing stairs. Approximately 700 stairs. That combined with my FREE trip to the Louvre makes for about 800 today. Plus all the walking I've done because of the weird trains--I've gotten a pretty decent workout. And I'm ready to die now. Tomorrow, just a museum or 2.
After the E.T., I had a slightly ridiculous train adventure, which made it take me an hour and a half to get back to the hostel, but I made it...safe and sound. All is well and right with the world...at least my world. Anywho.....
2. My apologies for leaving you all hanging for so long. There was too much to do in Paris and it was too hard to get on the internet in French.
3. I'm going to write this as though I'm still....I'm just going to copy it straight out of "Ciao Bella!"
8-2-04
Incidentally, why am I sitting in the most beautiful park I've ever seen looking at the Eiffel Tower???? Uhhh...surreal.
Alright, so apparently I committed the cardinal sin of European overnight rail travel. On my Eurail pass, I wrote the date of departure when I was supposed to write the date of arrival. It all turned out ok, though. The ticket guy just had to tell the powers that be that I was confused. And that was about it. He put the beds down around 10 and I was asleep until 7:30. Good rest. We got to Paris around 9 and I set off to find my hostel--"Yound and Happy." Indeed. By the time I found it, though, it was already lock-out hours, so I couldn't get into my room until after 4. So I set out. Oh, by the way, on the train I talked to a couple from Peru who miraculously understood everything I said in Spanish...and moreover, I understood 95% of everything THEY said in Spanish. I might have actually learned something in Malaga!!
So back to Paris. I'm walking, walking, and I stumble across the Pantheon. €4.50 for students, tour starting in 15 minutes. Victor Hugo AND Alexandre Dumas buried there. Why not? Very cool. Hung out with Vic and Alex for a bit and saw pendulaic proof that the earth does indeed rotate on its axis. I'd been doubting so that was good. Went hunting for food, which I found in a fast food joint called "Quick." My French is absolutely disgraceful, but I managed to receive what I was going for so...sign language is good.
So I swung by Notre Dame on my way to the Louvre. Notre Dame rocks. I'd totally live there if I were a hunchback.
Got to the Louvre. It was €6 for students. Then I noticed a little note down at the bottom saying that after 6 p.m. on Mondays, it was free for people under the age of 26. It is Monday. I am under the age of 26 indeed. It was about 3:30 so I went back to the hostel, took a glorious, wonderful shower, changed out of the shirt and undies I'd been wearing for the last 2 days straight, wolfed down 2 PB sandwiches (I finished all the &J in Spain), and then I went back to the Louvre. It was pretty decent. I saw the Mona Lisa and all that jazz. She was great of course, but I think it's just not my favorite kind of art. I mean it was great, don't get me wrong, but I'm going to the Musee d'Orsay tomorrow and I'm much more excited about that.
The Eiffel Tower...at night...is AMAZING!!! Sidenote: Paris if 5849 km from NY.
And P.S. I saw a militant Parisian version of John Troy outside the E.T.
So every hour on the hour, the Eiffel Tower sparkles. 1000's of strobe lights going off at random. It's enough to give a girl a siezure. I didn't realize that that was how it went, and when I first saw it close up, it was definitely sparkling. It looks really cheesy, but at least you know how long you've been climbing stairs. Approximately 700 stairs. That combined with my FREE trip to the Louvre makes for about 800 today. Plus all the walking I've done because of the weird trains--I've gotten a pretty decent workout. And I'm ready to die now. Tomorrow, just a museum or 2.
After the E.T., I had a slightly ridiculous train adventure, which made it take me an hour and a half to get back to the hostel, but I made it...safe and sound. All is well and right with the world...at least my world. Anywho.....
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