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puszysty at 08:37pm on 07/03/2006
puszysty at 08:37pm on 07/03/2006day 2: went for a very short stroll in the morning before leaving the hostel, so I could get a couple pictures. Around 9 we headed over to the European Court of Justice. There we met with a couple British guys who worked as secretaries for the judges. They told us about the court, what it does, and some recent cases. The first guy was pretty good looking and had a really sexy accent.
Hopped on a bus around noon and headed to Paris. It was a pretty long bus ride, like 6 hours or something like that. Checked into the hotel there- it was a really nice hotel, and we only had to sleep 2 to a room. That evening a small group of us went to a grocery store to get some things for a picnic. We walked up to Sacre Couer (our hotel was pretty close) and picnicked on the steps in front of the cathedral. Sacre Couer is on top of the only hill in Paris, so you can get a really good view of the city from there. You could see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. Every hour the Eiffel starts to twinkle with these flashing lights they have on it. It's really cool looking.
We still had some time in the evening til a bedtime was appropriate, so we hopped the metro and went to see the Eiffel up close. Took some pictures there and just stood around in awe. After that, it was getting rather cold out so we headed back for a decent night's rest before our free weekend in Paris.
day 3, Saturday, Paris: Woke up, ate breakfast. Got a map of the city from the front desk of the hotel and planned out my route. You'll think I'm crazy, but I did the city alone. I just didn't want to run off other people's schedules and be dragged to places I didn't want to go. I'm glad I did, it was so wonderful just to do whatever I felt like. I started off that morning walking to the Louvre. Passed the Opera House on the way. The Opera House in Paris is the setting for the Phantom of the Opera. I didn't get to see the inside, but the outside was still pretty cool. Made it to the Louvre around 9. There was hardly any crowd when I got there, so I didn't have to wait in line at all to get in. I started out on the first story seeing the ancient Egyptian and Greek statues and artifacts. Venus De Milo was on this floor, it was the first major thing I saw. I didn't see all of this floor, because I wanted to see some of the more famous things are higher floors. I next went to the third floor to look at the Dutch and German paintings. I was hoping to find something I recognized, but sadly I didn't. Not that it wasn't good. So then I went down to the second floor to see the really famous stuff. Winged Victory (Nike) was on this floor, as was the Raft of Medusa, which is hanging right next to Victory Leading the People. Raft of Medusa is a frickin huge painting. After going down that hall of French paintings, I went to the Spanish section to see some Goya paintings. No Third of May, but they had some portraits by him. Walked down the hall of Italian painting, where a number of Da Vinci's hung. Finally, I saved her for last, the Mona Lisa. Let me tell you, it looks exactly like it does in pictures. And is not very big, about the size of a small poster. I couldn't take a picture of it, which is a shame.
Believe it or not, I only spent 2 and a half hours in the Louvre. I skipped one floor, according to my map its mainly Italian and French sculpture. I saw some of it through glass on my way in. Nothing too famous in that section. I certainly didn't see everything, but I had a map of the especially famous works in it, so I picked the ones I knew and saw those.
So, 11:30-ish, I walked the rather short walk to the Notre Dame Cathedral. I wasn't there too long, it was rather crowded there. I walked around the inside, which didn't take too long, it's not incredibly huge. Bought some souvenirs in a nearby shop, and went to find lunch. I ended up at some cafe with rather overpriced crepes (if you ask me), but rather good hot chocolate. Only an 8 euro meal, but the crepe was small and wasn't too filling and wasn't particularly great. On my walk towards the fountain at St. Michael's a found a crepe stand, where crepes were only 3 euro with bananas (as opposed to 4 with jelly), and about twice the size. Seriously, this crepe unfolded was bigger than a large pizza. They had to fold it in quarters just to hold. I got the crepe with bananas a little bit of sugar since I was still hungry, and it was fantastic. Walked down the Seine from St Michael, taking in the sights along the way. It's such a gorgeous walk. Made it to the Eiffel Tower after some time and decided to go up all the way to the top. The line was pretty long there, so I just hopped in the one that seemed shortest. I didn't realized til I was halfway through it that this was the line to walk up to the second story. By this time I just figured that a little walking wouldn't kill me. It was about 400 stairs to the second tier. Along the way on the stairwell were placats with interesting tidbits about the history of the tower. That was a nice perk. From the second story, you have to ride an elevator to get to the summit. I had to get a second ticket for the elevator, and waited in line again to get up there. The view from the top though is great, you can see pretty much everything. Gives you a good view of how huge Paris really is. I was up there for a little bit, then began my long trip down. I was at the Eiffel Tower for at least 2 hours, maybe 3 (though an hour or more of that was spent standing in line).
Before I had made it to the tower (this is me memory backtracking) I had noticed a company that gave boat tours of the Seine right near the tower. I thought that's be pretty cool, boats tours are usually pretty fun. I went to look at the price, and seeing that it was only around 10 euro, that I would go for it. Even better- I have an international student id card that got me in for half price. Talk about a sweet deal. I bought a ticket for an evening cruise so I could see everything lit up at night. I'd seen most of it in the day anyway, since I'd walked a large strech of the river.
So anywho, after the Eiffel, I went over to see the Arc D'Triomphe. The walk over there was rather unexciting. The Arc is basically France's testimony on how awesome their military is. It has the name of all the battles France has won carved on it. It's pretty large, and you can see from above that it is at the convergence of about 8 streets. The passage to the arc is underground, you'd be crazy to cross the circle that surrounds it. We had to drive around it on our bus, and let me tell you, it's an accident waiting to happen. You can go up to the top of this as well, but I decided not too. I had some time to kill before evening and my boat tour, so I walked down the Chance de Leesay (or however you spell it), which is basically a road with a lot of stores I could never afford. I went in the Virgin Megastore, where there were these 2 dudes signing autographs. Apparently they made some movie or something where they dress in drag and do stupid things (not jackass stupid, but like oops silly me stupid). They were signing autographs in drag too. It was rather odd to see.
Did dinner on that street. Crepes. mmm. One of those huge kind that they sell everywhere on roadside stands, only this time I got one with chicken and cheese in it. I was so stuffed after eating that. Crepes with jelly, fruit, and nutella are called sweet crepes, and those with meat, cheese, or eggs are called salty crepes. :) The stand was part of a cafe that had some very good looking raspberry torte, so I bought a slice to have a few hours later. After that, I headed back towards the Eiffel and the boat station. Boarded the boat at 7. The boat tour explained some things about the stuff that I had seen earlier and took about an hour. It was really cool just to ride on it and see all of Paris' main structures along the riverbanks.
I still had my dessert left, so I decided once I got off to go sit on a bench under the Eiffel and eat it. It was darn good torte, and despite being windy, it was nice to sit under the Eiffel and soak it all in again. It was dark and cold, so I decided to head back to my hotel. It was a fairly long walk, but not too bad. Got back I think around 9:45 that night. My feet were a bit sore, so it was nice to chill out.
More later
Hopped on a bus around noon and headed to Paris. It was a pretty long bus ride, like 6 hours or something like that. Checked into the hotel there- it was a really nice hotel, and we only had to sleep 2 to a room. That evening a small group of us went to a grocery store to get some things for a picnic. We walked up to Sacre Couer (our hotel was pretty close) and picnicked on the steps in front of the cathedral. Sacre Couer is on top of the only hill in Paris, so you can get a really good view of the city from there. You could see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. Every hour the Eiffel starts to twinkle with these flashing lights they have on it. It's really cool looking.
We still had some time in the evening til a bedtime was appropriate, so we hopped the metro and went to see the Eiffel up close. Took some pictures there and just stood around in awe. After that, it was getting rather cold out so we headed back for a decent night's rest before our free weekend in Paris.
day 3, Saturday, Paris: Woke up, ate breakfast. Got a map of the city from the front desk of the hotel and planned out my route. You'll think I'm crazy, but I did the city alone. I just didn't want to run off other people's schedules and be dragged to places I didn't want to go. I'm glad I did, it was so wonderful just to do whatever I felt like. I started off that morning walking to the Louvre. Passed the Opera House on the way. The Opera House in Paris is the setting for the Phantom of the Opera. I didn't get to see the inside, but the outside was still pretty cool. Made it to the Louvre around 9. There was hardly any crowd when I got there, so I didn't have to wait in line at all to get in. I started out on the first story seeing the ancient Egyptian and Greek statues and artifacts. Venus De Milo was on this floor, it was the first major thing I saw. I didn't see all of this floor, because I wanted to see some of the more famous things are higher floors. I next went to the third floor to look at the Dutch and German paintings. I was hoping to find something I recognized, but sadly I didn't. Not that it wasn't good. So then I went down to the second floor to see the really famous stuff. Winged Victory (Nike) was on this floor, as was the Raft of Medusa, which is hanging right next to Victory Leading the People. Raft of Medusa is a frickin huge painting. After going down that hall of French paintings, I went to the Spanish section to see some Goya paintings. No Third of May, but they had some portraits by him. Walked down the hall of Italian painting, where a number of Da Vinci's hung. Finally, I saved her for last, the Mona Lisa. Let me tell you, it looks exactly like it does in pictures. And is not very big, about the size of a small poster. I couldn't take a picture of it, which is a shame.
Believe it or not, I only spent 2 and a half hours in the Louvre. I skipped one floor, according to my map its mainly Italian and French sculpture. I saw some of it through glass on my way in. Nothing too famous in that section. I certainly didn't see everything, but I had a map of the especially famous works in it, so I picked the ones I knew and saw those.
So, 11:30-ish, I walked the rather short walk to the Notre Dame Cathedral. I wasn't there too long, it was rather crowded there. I walked around the inside, which didn't take too long, it's not incredibly huge. Bought some souvenirs in a nearby shop, and went to find lunch. I ended up at some cafe with rather overpriced crepes (if you ask me), but rather good hot chocolate. Only an 8 euro meal, but the crepe was small and wasn't too filling and wasn't particularly great. On my walk towards the fountain at St. Michael's a found a crepe stand, where crepes were only 3 euro with bananas (as opposed to 4 with jelly), and about twice the size. Seriously, this crepe unfolded was bigger than a large pizza. They had to fold it in quarters just to hold. I got the crepe with bananas a little bit of sugar since I was still hungry, and it was fantastic. Walked down the Seine from St Michael, taking in the sights along the way. It's such a gorgeous walk. Made it to the Eiffel Tower after some time and decided to go up all the way to the top. The line was pretty long there, so I just hopped in the one that seemed shortest. I didn't realized til I was halfway through it that this was the line to walk up to the second story. By this time I just figured that a little walking wouldn't kill me. It was about 400 stairs to the second tier. Along the way on the stairwell were placats with interesting tidbits about the history of the tower. That was a nice perk. From the second story, you have to ride an elevator to get to the summit. I had to get a second ticket for the elevator, and waited in line again to get up there. The view from the top though is great, you can see pretty much everything. Gives you a good view of how huge Paris really is. I was up there for a little bit, then began my long trip down. I was at the Eiffel Tower for at least 2 hours, maybe 3 (though an hour or more of that was spent standing in line).
Before I had made it to the tower (this is me memory backtracking) I had noticed a company that gave boat tours of the Seine right near the tower. I thought that's be pretty cool, boats tours are usually pretty fun. I went to look at the price, and seeing that it was only around 10 euro, that I would go for it. Even better- I have an international student id card that got me in for half price. Talk about a sweet deal. I bought a ticket for an evening cruise so I could see everything lit up at night. I'd seen most of it in the day anyway, since I'd walked a large strech of the river.
So anywho, after the Eiffel, I went over to see the Arc D'Triomphe. The walk over there was rather unexciting. The Arc is basically France's testimony on how awesome their military is. It has the name of all the battles France has won carved on it. It's pretty large, and you can see from above that it is at the convergence of about 8 streets. The passage to the arc is underground, you'd be crazy to cross the circle that surrounds it. We had to drive around it on our bus, and let me tell you, it's an accident waiting to happen. You can go up to the top of this as well, but I decided not too. I had some time to kill before evening and my boat tour, so I walked down the Chance de Leesay (or however you spell it), which is basically a road with a lot of stores I could never afford. I went in the Virgin Megastore, where there were these 2 dudes signing autographs. Apparently they made some movie or something where they dress in drag and do stupid things (not jackass stupid, but like oops silly me stupid). They were signing autographs in drag too. It was rather odd to see.
Did dinner on that street. Crepes. mmm. One of those huge kind that they sell everywhere on roadside stands, only this time I got one with chicken and cheese in it. I was so stuffed after eating that. Crepes with jelly, fruit, and nutella are called sweet crepes, and those with meat, cheese, or eggs are called salty crepes. :) The stand was part of a cafe that had some very good looking raspberry torte, so I bought a slice to have a few hours later. After that, I headed back towards the Eiffel and the boat station. Boarded the boat at 7. The boat tour explained some things about the stuff that I had seen earlier and took about an hour. It was really cool just to ride on it and see all of Paris' main structures along the riverbanks.
I still had my dessert left, so I decided once I got off to go sit on a bench under the Eiffel and eat it. It was darn good torte, and despite being windy, it was nice to sit under the Eiffel and soak it all in again. It was dark and cold, so I decided to head back to my hotel. It was a fairly long walk, but not too bad. Got back I think around 9:45 that night. My feet were a bit sore, so it was nice to chill out.
More later
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