Reporting from Paris here' sitting in an internet cafe about a block from my hotel.
The trip so far has been interesting though, the flight was absolute hell. 7 hours on a plane with crappy movies and they didn't even FEED us!!!! We got to Paris, got off the subway with our mass amounts of baggage and promptly got lost. In downtown Paris. FOR 4 FUCKING HOURS!!!! Seriously, our leader sucks ass at directions and we spent 4 hours hiking around with all our baggae looking for the hotel, only to find out that the hotel was overbooked and they had to set us up at another hotel. A half hours walk away. I had to drag a 20 kilo bag up and down the hills of Paris, and some of the streets still have cobblestones for christs sake, not good for balance.The rooms here are crap too. I'm sharing a triple room, which means they shoved a cot into a double room and charged us an extra 70 Euro's. The bqthroom at one point in time was a closet and the whole STREET can see into our room when we're changing and stuff. Sorry, lack of sleep has made Mere kinda cranky.
Grrr, typing this sucks ass cause the keyboard is all switched around so I have to keep looking for my damn keys.
Today on the other hand kicked ass!!!!! We got up REALLY early and walked over to the louvre, damn do I love that place. We got to see the Venus de Milo, the Raft Of Madusa, The Martyr, and one of my favourite paintings, which I didn't know was AT the louvre, The Tutelage of Achilles, it's SOOOO beautiful in real life!!! You may notice I didn't include the Mona Lisa in this list of kick ass paintings, and that is because I actually hate that painting. Really, I think it's really damn ugly, I never liked it and think that there are far better examples of both the Renaisaance art style and Leanardo Da Vinci's work. The building itself is also really beautiful. It's built over the foundations of the old palace and the architecture must have taken decades to complete, you could see the arc de triumph from the louvre as well as the eifel tower in the distance.
From the louvre we got on a boat tour on the Siene river and went to the eifle tower for lunch. IN the eifle tower, the food was absolutely INCREDIBLE!! They had courses, first was fresh oysters (really good ones too), the second course was incredible samon in a butter and spinich sauce and the third was this great custard and pie. The tower is absolutely beautifle, I bought myself a barret, I know I look like such a touristy geek in it but I love it!! It was really funny though, cause when your at the bottom of the tower you get swarmed by people trying to sell you souvineers, this is kinda illegal. So a cop came strolling past and the whole flock of them leaped the fence so he couldn't charge them with anything, do you have any idea how funny it is watching 20 goys hop a fence carrying loads of little eifel towers and postcards?
After the eifel tower we hit the Notrè Dame cathedral, so incredibly beautiful, my leader was really mad cause I kept stopping to just stand and take in the architecture and the beautiful stained glass work. I really liked the sculpture work in there as well. There was one at the front of the Patron of the cathedral, Our Lady, Mary, and she just looked so human and so sad. I bought an absolutely BEAUTIFUL rosary from it too, clear stones shot with purple and a silver cross.
We went to the Chames De Lisse after and looked at the arc de triumph. Did you know they hold a ceremony and parade of veterans along the Chames De Lisse every day at 6 to honour the tomb of the unkown soilder? Now that's what I'd call patriotism!!! And we have trouble organising a parade a month if that in Canada, let alone one every day. They were all in full uniform too and marching in tandem with a band as well.
Now we are finished for the day and I want nothing more than to shower and have a cup of hot tea. This, of course, is impossible as they do not have anything but baths here and I hat earl grey tea and they've never even HEARD of orange pekoe tea. I feel so ill though, I, being the dumbass that I am, forgot my medication at home. ALL of it. I get migranes every day without saud meds and am currently living off of Advil, which is't even helping much it's just making me feel like I'm doing something about this. See ya all when I next get acess to a working computer, Ja all!!!
Meru at 4:04 PM