Backpacking around the globe and back again (Part 2)
The pigeons were swarming the happy tourists as they gawked upwards at the mass that is Notre Dame. Little kids were throwing them croissant and chips as they progressed forwards menacingly. One dove towards my head and I ducked left and right just narrowly avoiding death by bird, I would later discover that this would be a common trend in my trip. We sat down on the edge of a statue platform, we weren't quite ready to move on, yet we knew there was only so long we could sit in one spot. We moved to the Archeological Crypt which contains remains of buildings dating back as far as pre-Roman times. We tried to be interested, I'm sure to some people it was a great museum-type-thing, but to us, it was just a lot of rocks and it smelt bad. We walked around there for a bit, taking advantage of our free admission then escaped pretending we had enjoyed ourselves.
We headed back to the hotel to rest our feet a little bit, then decided to see if the Opera was still open, it wasn't, but on our way up from the metro the woman ahead of me let the door slam in my face, as I was turning to Lija to say how rude the woman had been the door swung back the other way and went right over my big toe ripping off the nail. At first it was alright, it didn't hurt it just stung and it wasn't bleeding, I took a couple of steps and it started to bleed a little bit, then a couple more steps and the blood was oozing out into my sandal filling it up quickly. There weren't any washrooms so I could clean it off, and the first aid "kit" that I brought was back in the hotel... so I wrapped a kleenex around my toe and tied it on with a plastic bag handle, and I was ready to go. It still didn't hurt, only stung, and the kleenex, while tacky was working fine. [Eventually I fixed it up at the hotel with Polysporin and guaze]
I was getting hungry by that point, the only food I had eaten since landing in Paris was that crepe, so we wandered around the Latin Quarter looking for the best deal and ended up in this dodgy looking restaurant that had excellent food! Although it's debatable whether or not that chicken was actually chicken or if it was those pigeons that had pissed me off earlier. We had a 3 course meal, and French wine and when we came outside expected it to be night time. Apparently the sun doesn't set until 10:00 in Paris, so we were able to explore a lot more before calling it an early night.
Bright eyed we woke up the next morning, happy to still be alive after a night in our sketchy hotel room and were greeted (by going downstairs) with a complimentary breakfast -croissant, baguette and orange juice -served to us by a rude French woman. Lija had never been to Paris before, to me it was old news, but as every tourist must do at least once (in my case twice) we lined up for the Eiffel Tower. I remembered from last time how windy and cold it was up there, so I was prepared this time. The scenery hadn't changed since the last time I was up there, but it was nice to see Lija gape at the new. We got our picture taken, another tourist must, and checked out the gift shop before getting bored and heading back down. As we were walking under the tower I noticed these ropes dangling in front of me, the little voice inside my head said, "SWING ON IT!"... the voice of reason said, "Don't be an idiot! Look up." Hanging from the tower were these little firemen, they were climbing up and down practicing... COOL! I like firemen ;).
Following the loop that are tourist sites our next stop was the Arc de Triomphe. It was just after VE Day so they still had all of the flowers laid out. It made me think about all those that were being honored. Not just those who died at war but also those who came back, scarred by what they had seen, their lives were never the same again and neither were the lies of their families. I'm glad that "my generation" hasn't had a war, some may argue with me because of Iraq but as a youth in Canada, it hasn't become part of my life. I don't know anyone at war, I don't even know someone who knows someone at war, not a Canadian. Anyways, we decided not to go to the top of the Arch, a panoramic bird's eye view from the Eiffel Tower was enough. As we were walking back through the tunnel to the "right" side of the street (the arch is in the middle of a round about) some woman came up to us pointing to the ticket booth asking if we knew how to speak English. We assumed that she needed help in getting her ticket... wrong. As I pointed to the ticket booth as well she grabbed my finger and started tying strings around it, twisting them up. She then takes it off and ties it on my wrist before I can even pull my hand back. "Now you buy," she tells me... "No thank you." I respond. "Yes!" Clearly I wasn't getting through to this woman! "No, thank you." I reply once more. "Why not?!" Geez! "Well," I say, "I have no money." And just as fast as she tied it on she cut it off and gave us a nasty look. Serves her right.
Next we headed to the Louvre, finally. The trick to the Louvre is to go in through the underground and buy your tickets from one of the machines, then there is no line up... so we were cruising among some of arts greatest within minutes. We made a bee-line for the Mona Lisa, Lija isn't really into art so she didn't care to be there, but I wanted to see some of what I had learnt about up close. The size and magnitude of the works were enough to make me speechless... yes, ME SPEECHLESS!
We did see the Mona Lisa, and I will be honest, it wasn't that great. It's small and I didn't think her eyes followed me across the room. I was happy seeing the postcard that Mike sent me last year instead. I think Lija was a bit disappointed as well, I mean, this was the whole reason we had come here and the painting on the other side of the wall was just as if not more remarkable. We ended up spending a couple of hours in the museum, just looking around and checking things out. They say that you could spend a week in there, but I think your feet would get too sore :)
By this point Lija and I were dying, of hunger and foot pain. So we went and grabbed some crepes (with ice cream and nuts... not very lunchy) and sat for a while. While we were at our outside table this car was trying to park in a spot too small for them, so they hit the car in front and behind them until they moved enough that he could squeeze in, then he just left! I laughed, Lija was appalled. It was great. Energized and rested we headed to the Opera to look around then made it to Sacre Coure... only to find that it was at the top of a very big hill... we took pictures from below. We did go half way up the hill by the funicular to the "square on the hill" this adorable part of Paris that is old and secluded so it's quiet and peaceful. Up there we visited the Salvador Dali exhibit, spending more time in the gift shop than the museum. Reluctantly we went down to the bottom of the hill for dinner, everything up top was so expensive, we couldn't afford anything substantial. By the time dinner was done it was already dark so we went to see the Eiffel Tower lit up, then got scared of the creepy men and ran back (by metro) to the hotel for the night. In the morning we would get on our bus destined for Amsterdam, our journey would officially begin on Busabout.
Pictures up to now
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