Day 15
Our plane left at 11:20, so no need to wake up super super early, but we still left the hostel at 8, flying takes up so much time. Paris was overcast when we landed, bummer. Kristin was super excited for Paris and had her Rick Steve's guide ready to go. Fortunately, our hostel was a Rick Steve's recommended hostel, so he had a map for us. We still had a teeny tiny bit of difficulty finding it, and there was a protest going on when we got off the metro, non-issues. We met a really nice Canadian girl in our room, she lived at home and worked 2 jobs to save up money for a 3 month solo tour through Europe. I don't think I could live out of a suitcase alone for 3 months, slef planned travelling is pretty tiring, it's easy to get burnt-out, especially when the weather's bad. After talking to her for a while, we headed to the Notre Dame, we had time to kill before the Louvre would be free. It's really beautiful, I love stained glass windows and most of the churches I've been to so far can't hold a candle to the windows of the Notre Dame, they're all stained glass and there are 3 rosette windows, so gorgeous. When we were done admiring the Notre Dame, we wandered through tourist shops. I thought about buying a disposable camera, since my battery had died after the last picture I took in Athens, boo, but they were way too expensive. Eventually we made our way to the Louvre, free after 6 on Fridays, heck yes. Normally, I love museums and could spend all day in them, but I was just exhausted. For some reason the Louvre made both Kristin and I really tired. I saw most of the highlights - Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the cover of Viva La Vida (woo Coldplay) and OF COURSE the Mona Lisa. Maybe it's because I'd heard so many times how disappointing it is, but I really liked the Mona Lisa in person. I'm sure not having grandiose expectations helped. I also sought out the Code of Hamurabi, aka the basis of a lot of our modern laws, proof of civilization existing over 2000 years ago, I think that's pretty cool. After that we were ready to be done with the Louvre, on to the Arc du Triomphe. We did not anticipate the long walk ahead of us, note to self - large monuments are further away than they appear. When we got there, we still had to climb to the top. It was an exhausting and windy climb, but worth it. There's an AMAZING view of the Eiffel Tower and since it was night it was lit up. Plus, every hour on the hour there's a light show and the tower looks like it's glittering. The Eiffel Tower really is incredible. After our long walk down the Champs Elysees (which was lovely at least) and our long climb up and down the Arc, we took the metro home. By this point it was 11 or 11:30 and we still hadn't had dinner. Fortunately, our hostel was on a street essentially dedicated to restaurants and other shops that sell food. It was still lively when we got there. We found some delicious (though pre-made) crepes loaded with savory fillings. Mine had ham, potatoes, sauteed onions, lettuce and tomato insdie, so good. We had dessert too, ice cream in the shape of a rose, pretty cool. Honestly, before we left Athens I wasn't all that excited to see Paris, but by the end of this day Paris had won me over.
Day 16
Uh-oh, rain, ugh. Not changing our plans, which consisted of wandering around different areas of Paris, you know, the perfect thing to do on a rainy day...or not. We started with the Bastille, which is just an obelisk monument these days, a pretty cool monument though. Then we made our way to la Marais and Les Vosges. Les Vosges is a lovely square with a park in the middle, surrounded by red and tan brick buildings. I have this odd obsession with Victor Hugo since I've been in Europe, and I knew his house was around somewhere. We searched and searched and the weather got worse and I'm sure Kristin was ready to kick me in the shins for all my vain perseverence. I finally gave up and we had lunch before heading to Montmarte to find the Moulin Rouge. Unfortunately, the Moulin de la Gallette and NOT the Moulin Rouge was marked on my map, fortunately, after a point in the right direction from some other lost tourists searching for something else, we found it. It wasn't lit up but it was still cool to see. After taking a picture it was time to head out to Versailles, an indoor activity. Getting there wasn't too hard, we realized we had to change platforms at one point at exactly the right moment, and we avoided the rain on the way. I was expecting Versailles to really knock my socks off, it was great, but my socks stayed on. I guess by your 5th palace nothing is overly grandiose anymore. I meant what I said though, it was great and the audioguide was one of the better ones I've used. When we got back into the city we decided to try a Rick Steve's recommended restaurant. Combining the map in his book with my city map we managed to find the place we wanted and had a fantastic photo op right in front of the Eiffel Tower on the Champs des Mars on the way. One of my goals was to have escargot in Paris and yes, I did. I kinda wanted it to be in the shell and have to fork it out but it wasn't, it was delicious nonetheless. I want to be Andrew Zimmern, travelling around the world eating the weirdest things I can find, I'll try anything once, I figure if other people are eating it, it can't be all that bad. After dinner it was time to scale the Eiffel Tower. More stairs, up to the 2nd platform 400 ft up. Just thinking about how we were on the Eiffel Tower in Paris in France was exhilerating. We were expecting the city of lights to be brighter though and it was rather cloudy, but still incredible. We took the escalator down and then waited around for the top of the next hour to take some pictures. Not wanting to spend money on the metro we began the walk back to the hostel. However, after confusing the Hotel des Invalids for the Pantheon we took a wrong turn and ended up on the metro anyways. It was time to try a sweet crepe after savory crepes the night before. This time the crepes were fresh. I had nutella and banana, mmmm. We hoped for better weather the next day.
Day 17
This was it, the last day of spring break. We started it with mass at Notre Dame, in French of course, but there's something about attending mass in a 700 year old church. After mass we walked to Musee D'Orsay, home to many impressionist paintings, among other things. The same thing happened as in the Louvre, we just got really really tired really quickly. I enjoyed the impressionist paintings though. Next we began another quest to find Victor Hugo's house. Again, Kristin wanted to kick me in the shins and rightly so after all our walking. At least the weather had cleared up by this point, it had actually turned into a beautiful day, of course on our last day. Eventually Kristin had to leave to catch her flight, we still hadn't found Victor Hugo's house, even though I had the address this time. We said goodbye and I continued to look, I found it right away after she left. It was free to visit, so obviously I did. There was on room where all the wall and even the ceiling were upholstered in the same busy floral fabric, most of the walls were upholstered in a rich fabric. I like the fabric for wall paper idea, it looks a whole lot better than actual wall paper. Unfortunately, all the information in the house was exclusively in French, so I couldn't read a thing. Still cool to see his house, I want to read the Hunchback of Notre Dame now. Even though he uses way too much off-topic detail, the heart of the story is amazing, that is, for Les Miserables. I'd guess Hunchback is similar. It had turned into such a nice day, I didn't want to go back to Brussels, but I knew I didn't want to head back too late. So I took a leisurely walk back to the hostel and listened to both versions of "April in Paris" on my ipod, seemed appropriate. I checked bus times at the hostel and it looked like one would be leaving at 7:30. I asked the receptionist where to go and he gave me directions, then I picked up a snack and caught the metro to the bus station. Since it's me we're talking about, I had difficulties finding the eurolines station obviously, but I figured it out. I was nervous about getting on the bus, I wasn't even 100% sure there would be a bus in the first place, but it all worked out. The bus was a lot fuller than I was expecting and I had a seatmate. Eventually we started talking and had a long conversation all the way to Brussels. Her name was Sophie and she lives in Berlin. I was on the same route I'd taken to Berlin before, except I was getting off at Brussels instead of getting on. I had no idea that bus had come all the way from Paris. We talked about language a lot. Being in Europe has given me a huge appreciation of being able to speak more than one language because everybody here can. I feel like such a jerk when I go into a store and they can speak my language for me but I can't speak their language in their own country. I actually want to learn Spanish again now, I think I'll work on the cooking thing first. About a quarter after 11, I was back in Brussels, my travels had come to an end.
All in all, I'd say it was a very successful trip. I had a great time and there weren't any major difficulties, everything went pretty smoothly. I didn't suffer major sunburn and I think I even got a little tan, tan for me anyways. There were times I felt burnt out and just wanted to be in my room on the computer, but those times were infrequent. This was the longest amount of time I've lived out of a suitcase. I have a renewed sense of adventure and I feel more independent. The world really isn't such a big scary place. I feel like my life is still a big open book, I have no idea what I'll do after I graduate, but the possibilities seem multiplied now and the ambiguity is exciting. I miss all of you and I wish you were here with me. It's hard to believe the semester isn't over yet but at the same time it's flown by. I have 3.5 weeks left and a lot of school work and more travelling still to do. I'll keep you posted. See you soon.
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