Complete Thoughts/Peace

7/3/2012 20:24

Okay, I'm back in my sink hole of a hostel that has a lock, bright colors, a roof, and not much else going for it. I'm writing on a word document, and later I'll use a flash drive to move this and whatever photos I decide to give you over to their computers so that I can upload this for you. Or maybe I'll just go to McDonald's in the morning. . . We'll see.

Anyways, I think I had just finished talking about the war museum. I'd check to make sure, but I don't have internet. So let's just assume that's where I left off. More on-and-off with the bus. Which means get off, walk around for an hour or two, get on, ride ten minutes, repeat. I went to the Arch du (de? di? ??) Triumph again, because I wanted to walk through it triumphantly. But then I learned that you could go UP it. So I did. Climbed some stairs. Quite a lot of stairs. But it was super cool. It's right in the middle of the city, int he center of a round-about that has twelve main streets feeding into it. The only round about in France where the cars entering the circle have the right away. Insurance companies don't even deal with it. Any accidents that happen in that circle, they split 50/50. It's impossible to figure out whose fault it was.

When I got on the bus again, I met some guys that seemed cool. Then I learned that HIS housemate is dating MY housemate by in Berkeley. Well, I actually don't know if they're still dating. So that's potentially awkward. Woops. Whatever. Dated? Anyways, super small wold. I rode to on-off bus with them to the Eiffle Tower. They decided to go up it, but I wanted to wait to go up with Fran. So we parted. But I'm continuously amazed with how small the world is. Cal is everywhere. Go Bears.

Then I went exploring, and I was potentially going to meet up with the guys again that night but our only way to communicate was via internet, which you well know, I only have at McDonald's. So I was going to go home and grab my comptuer and go to Mickey D's. BUT, on my way home, I took the wrong metro and ended up at Notre Dame. Not a bad mistake. So I got out to see if it was still opened. It wasn't, BUT there WAS a concert going on that night! So I got in line and WATCHED A CONCERT IN NOTRE DAME! Feelin' pretty cool. Not gunna lie.

The concert was great. 4 singers, 4 musicians. Oh my gosh. I've never heard anything like it before. It was. . . I have no idea how to describe it. You know (uhh, sorry, only some of you will know this refernce, I realize) in the Bible where there's that scene when that one guy goes to heaven and there are the angels all around singing? I always thought that was kinda weird, and I couldn't picture what their voices might sound like. I can now! I think it was especially cool because I didn't know what they were saying. So it was just pretty noises that I knew meant something. Really, really pretty noises. I can't describe it. Super cool. I considered taking a video, but then I didn't because I knew it wouldn't be nearly as good as the real thing. So just imagine it. Really pretty.

AND while I was there, I met my new friend E-Han. I'm making up the spelling of her name. Her English name is Angela, but she prefers her Tiwanese name E-Han. She's AWESOME. We ended up going to dinner after and she had avocado for the first time, and I had french onion soup (which they just call onion soup here), and we talked about boys and other girl things and it was great. So good to have a girl night! Then I walked her home and took the metro back and went to sleep.

Which brings us to. . .

TODAY:

Today, I went to the lines. Crap, sorry, fingers slipped. I mean the crowds. Dang it, did it again. What I meant to say is that I went to the money hole. Wow, why do I keep doing that? Clearly I mean the tourist trap. Ugghh, so frustrating. Let me go slowly now: V-E-R-S-A-I-L-L-E-S. Versailles. I went to Versailles.

There we go.

It was pretty. Big. Gold. Grand. Fancy.

I wouldn't recommend it.

I was a little disappointed. Not going to lie. The reason why I went was because of the room of mirrors.

(Now it's 7/5/2012 at 12:22. I am in the train station waiting for my train to Brussles. I'm really excited, because I think that between my train rides and waiting for my train rides, I should be able to catch up on my Paris blog. Especially since I don't have internet. And I don't have the stress/privilege of having a million other things to do. I really have three options of what I can do: 1) read, 2) journal, 3) blog. Well, blog in a word document. I read the whole time standing in line for my reservation/ticket, and that was a long line. I journaled a lot at Versailles, which I'll talk about in a sec, and so I get to BLOG! Yay! Love blogging. Anyways. . .)

Yes, the room of mirrors. A disappointment. I should have google image-d it so I'd know what to expect, because let me describe what I was expecting: a room of mirrors. Like a fun house. Mirrors from floor to cieleing, and a maze that you have to walk through. But it'd be classy. No warped mirrors or anything. But lots and lots of mirrors. NOPE. It's a hall. One side has windows, the other side has old mirrors, and the top has some fancy chandeliers. Big deal.

BUT it did have a big piece of art in it. There's a whole bunch of modern art on display all throughout Versailles, which is a little odd if you ask me. The art in the hall of mirrors was a giant pair of heels made out of shiny pots and lids. It was titled "women" and ment to imply the purpose of a woman is to look attractive and cook food. I mean, it's a valid point. Women are very good at both those things. Good job women! Lookin' pretty in the kitchen like you're supposed to!

Oh my gosh, kidding. It was made to explore the contrast between women's roles. One as being domestic (thus the pots and lids) and the other of being a working woman of power (thus the power pumps). It was actually titled "Marlyn" after Marlyn Monroe. So, that was interesting.

There was some other interesting art in the house too. I got to see Lady Gaga's helicopter and this weird hair spike wood thing, that actually isn't modern art but I have no idea what the heck it is.

And, oh! There was the story of Captain Hook told through a series of pictures, which I thought was cool. It was the story of how he turned into Captain Hook, pre-Peter Pan. I know that everyone things that his arm got eaten by a crocodile,  but that's just a myth. This is the real story:

Captain Hook was originally named Billy. He lived with his parents in a very nice home, enjoyed fancy clothing and big hair, and dreamed of being on the sea. He even had pictures of ships up in his bedroom.

But one day, little Billy's parents' house was robbed. Billy didn't know what to do, so he just stood there saying, "Look at what's going on! This isn't right. This isn't right at all."

But Billy was a diplomat. So he said, "Hey, let's play for it." So they played for it the way you play for anything: with goakey races. Goakey races are races where a monkey rides on the back of a goat. You bet on your favorite pair, and spoils go to the victor. What the robbers didn't know, however, is that Billy had been giving his favorite goakey pair special goakey food to make them the best goakey racers. Obviously, they won. How could they not?

notice hand bottom right

So Billy won, but when the robbers found out about his wiley ways, they were furious. Even though they were, you know, robbers, and it was orginally, you know, Billy's stuff, they were still super pissed. They got into a scruffle, to say the least. , Barthalamus, one of the robbers, waved his sword wildly in effort to prove his masculinity. In the process, he cut off Billy's hand, but the rest of Billy got away.

Billy fled on horseback. A large horse, named Diablo-The-Magnificent, which is really only a shadow of the great Diablo that now walks (or trots) this earth. (Shout out to Big-D!! What what!!). It may look like Billy is holding something in his right hand, but don't be fooled. Billy doesn't have a right hand. Diablo is a unicorn.

Because Diablo was a unicorn, he, of course, knew the way to Never Never Land, where he adopted the name Captain Hook, played often with Peter Pan, and got to fulfill his long time dream of being a man of the sea.

The End!

Wait, what? Those weren't pictures of Captain  Hook? What do you mean they were Louis XIV? Gosh, there should be a sign or something. Huh. . .Sorry about that.

But the gardens there were lovely. I had to que up again for those, but it was worth it. I walked around a bit. Not as much as I would of had I not been exhausted from all the lining up and such earlier, but what I saw was quite lovely. And then I left. I don't plan on going back to Versailles again. If I do go back, I'll only go to the gardens, and I'll go with a friend so we can rent a boat.

After that, I was super beat. Like I would have slept in the gardens had they remembered to put benches in. (Seriously, no benches. What the heck, landscapers?). So I left, and I was headed to the trainstation but I saw a pharmacy (normal drug store) down the road, so I went there becasue I needed to. I was really tired and my feet hurt, so on the way back - I got my hair cut! Seems logical, right? So that was quite fun, and it gave me another gust of energy. As I left and walked back to the train station, I was singing the song you sing when you just got your hair cut (in case you're not familiar with it, it goes like this: "Got my hair cut. Got my hair cut." etc.). 

And my new energy expired by about the time I got to the train.

So I rode the train home. And then. . .

crap. I forgot. See! This is why I blog. Otherwise, I lose it all.

I forget most of what happened the rest of the day, so it must not have been that important. Museums, probably. That night, I ended up with a hodgepodge group of people from my hostel. 2 San Diego kids, 2 Finland girls, 1 Denmark intellectual. We went and sat on the lawn in front of the Eiffle Tower. It was lovely. Then I went home and slept.

NEXT DAY:

(wow, sorry, this is quite long, isn't it?)

The next day, I tried to go to the catacombs again, but the line was two hours and I was all lined out from Versailles, so I was like "heck no" and went to the acquarium for free, where I wasn't eaten by a shark. So that, you know, good.

Then I met up with FRAN! My friend from Cal who is also traveling through Europe for the summer. She, her friend Jeanne, and I all had a picnic lunch in front of the Eiffle Tower, which was something I really, really wanted to do. Then Fran and I climbed it (what what!). Something like 1,453,532 stairs or something. To be exact. Then we went to a museum, which was really, really cool with Fran because she KNOWS STUFF! It added so much depth to paintings that before I'd just be like, "hmm, that's pretty." or "Oh, that's nice." I learned so much in one afternoon. I might even want to take an art history course. It was. . . awesome. I really, really enjoyed it. It was an enriching experience, and a blast too,because Fran is just wonderful.

THEN we met up with Jeanne again, and we all went out for burgers & fries to celebrate America. Then we went to the Eiffle Tower, took some failed jumping pictures (one that kinda worked, but looks a little scandalus, but it's NOT because I'm wearing shorts), then went down to the lawn to watch it get dark, see the lights turn on, and then watch the light show. I mean, it's no fireworks, but what are you going to do? Just kidding. It was lovely.  Then it started raining, as if to say, "Okay, I'm all done. Party's over." It was a perfect ending.

Then this morning I packed up and left.

Paris is a lovely city. There are things in it that are very pretty. But I don't know if/when I'll be back. I would say I enjoyed my time there, but I wouldn't say I loved the city. This probably had a lot of influencing factors: my hostel was crap, I can't speak the language, etc.  But I still don't think it's the place for me.

It's funny how that is. Some places just fit, and others don't. Kind of like clothes. It can be a lovely dress, and can honestly say, "yes, that's a very pretty dress," but that doens't mean I want to buy it. If it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you or with the dress, it's just not a match. I think that's me and Paris. I was definitely ready to go when I left this mornng.

Wow, I'm tired. I wasn't expecting to be this tired.

Okay, I think that's everything. You know everything I know. Now I'm going to Brussles, which is in Belgium which is where they have chocolate and waffles. So that's good. Long train ride. Too long for such a short distance, but I have to transfer because I got my ticket so late. Whatever. Such is life. I'm traveling through Europe. Complaints just sound stupid in comparison to how great this is.

Blah, I was going to write about so much other stuff. Including, but not limited to:

- The do's and don't's of taking a picture for someone else

- The do's and don't's of hostel etiquete

- How do you really spell don't's because there seems to be a lot of apostraphes?

- The do's and dont's of being a non-obnoxious-oblivious-dumb traveler

But now I don't want to bore you with those things. Maybe I'll bore you with them later. But for now, I'm tired. Let me know if there are any in particular you'd like me to bore you with. Or anything else you want me to talk about, really.

Also, sorry I've been so bad at email. I'll hopefully be better in the future. Maybe. Hopefully. Especially when I finally have internet. I hope it's raining when I get to Brussles (actually I hope it starts raining right AFTER I get to Brussles and am safely and warmly inside my hostel), because then I'll have an excellent reason to not do anything. And that sounds just about perfect.

Love you all.

(Now it's 19:51 and I'm at my hostel in Brussles. I really like Brussles. It's funny how you can tell immediately. Also, I should remember to be careful what I wish for. It DID start raining. And it DID start raining after I was safely and warmly inside my hostel. But it was after I had been inside my hostel, and then went OUT again to get food. Then it started raining. I walked home in the rain. In Toms. I thought we had learned this lesson, but apparently not. I think tomorrow, I will go shoe shopping. Yay. And for now, I am safe and warm in my hostel, and very much at peace.)

(Also, does the bad quality of the pictures bother you? It makes it much easier for me, but let me know. Maybe I can do a middle ground thing).

(This was really long. Sorry!!!)