Paris the second time around

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  Paris, Île-de-France, France
Thursday, September 25, 2008

Mood: hmmm

Hello all! Do excuse this blog if it is a little less exciting than some of the others, as I have already been to Paris and didn't do very much this time around. I am also trialing a new writing style, as I am having a very hard time being able to keep my entries updated as I go, mostly because I am out having fun rather than sitting in front of a computer, but also im struggling with the price of internet and cannot afford to spend 2 hours on each entry. I want to try and get as much of the info in as I can, as this is a diary for myself - so I don't forget everything that I have done. But I apologise if I cannot go into as much detail as I have previously, im really trying!!!!!

Plus I think after 4 months of these blogs im starting to get a little sick of them... my brain is fried and I feel like a naughty kid who hasn't done their homework! I am having an absolutely amazing time, I really wish to god that I didn't need to sleep as there are definitely not enough hours in the day! But meanwhile... please sit back and enjoy another thrilling chapter of my travels.

Saturday I farewelled my dear Schmid family, we had a sad send-off at the train station and I emotionally and dramatically waved them goodbye from the window seat of my highspeed train - bound for the dear old Paris. Could I ever have really gotten enough of that place??? Switzerland was by far one of the most gorgeous regions on this planet. Though it seemed that I chose the fastest method of exiting it...

lock system through canals

at 250 - 300km per hour! The train ride was pretty cool though to be honest, it didn't actually feel like we were going that fast. But it certainly got us there quicker than the previous bus trip did!

So I was back in Paris. Originally I had planned to try and head to Munich after Switzerland as I wanted to check out Oktoberfest, but that place is so crazy that accommodation books out months and months in advance, plus I don't actually like beer, so I had to scrap that idea. I was then going to meet up with the Busabout bus in Stuttgart (Germany) but there was no accommodation available, so instead I decided that I loved Paris so much that I would have a couple of extra day there before heading up north. And its been great as it has given me some much needed recovery time, I have got to catch up on my sleep, and chilled out. I have been here for 5 nights (including tonight) now and its been so good to just potter around and do whatever it is that I feel like. One afternoon I wandered along the canal beside the hostel, and watched the tourist ferries manuver themselves through the locks, as the water levels between the 2 canals are completely different. The ferries enter the first lock, the gate is shut behind them, the gate in front is opened slightly to let the water slowly lower, and when it is level the gate fully opens and the ferry putters into the next lock - process continuing. The lock system near my hostel is only 2 levels, but I stood there for quite awhile as it takes at least 5 to 10 minutes for the water levels to drop to the right level.

canal near my hostel

I also wandered back one day to the Sacre Coeur, watched all the tourists hike the monster staircase up the side of the hill, checked out the view over Paris, and munched on a crepe. It was nice wandering the streets alone, my mind was going a million miles a minute. Paris seems to have gotten some weird grippy hold over me, my senses were massively intensified, and I was madly trying to absorb everything in - the people, the streets, the shops, the sights, smells, sounds. I couldn't ever stop thinking. Its so strange. I really love Paris. Its dirty, stinky, loud, crazy. The area around my hostel is bizarre, its very multicultural, though at about 4pm it turns predominantly Jewish - with the streets full of adorable little schoolboys in their hats and little suits, and the fathers with their huge sideburns and briefcases returning home after a hard days work. Then walk 10 minutes, and you could practically be in the middle east, another 10 minutes and you feel like your in the ghetto in NYC! Its friggin cool. Don't exactly know how I fit in but.

And all the kids here in Paris use those full on old school leather satchel backpacks that they used to wear in the 1950's! they are absolutely huge and thick and have big bronze buckles and look like they weigh a tonne. Its just too cute...!

One interesting thing I did visit was the Catacombes, a series of underground quarries utilised in the 1780's as an area to store millions of human bones, after disease and overcrowding forced the government to exhume a complete cemetery in the city.

inside the catacombes

I didn't really know what to expect, and it wasn't eerie or scary or sad, just a little strange! The bones were stacked up to about shoulder height, and they had designed them as to be quite aesthetically interesting, placing sculls in rows throughout the chambers etc. They also use very weak lighting, just to make it look even more creepy. You wander about 1.4km of tunnels (not all filled with bones luckily enough) situated 25m below ground (underneath the subway, sewerage etc). In fact, in all there is about 300km of tunnels running underneath Paris, most of it inaccessible but a little freaky when you think of who or what could be living down there. The sickest thing was that they check your bags on the way out to see if you took a little souvenir with you - what kind of creep takes human bones! Yuk.

I met a guy from Perth down there and we had a coffee afterwards, and it was at this point that I had a major "I wish I wasn't Australian" cringe moment as this guy had the most warped opinions. First off, he believed that once Parisians knew we were aussies and not Americans or Brits that they would treat us nicer. This meant putting on his best occa Australian accent and belting out a loud "G'DAY MATE" to the very French waiter who came over to serve us, followed by no attempt whatsoever to pronounce any of his order in anything other than English. The unimpressed look on the equally unimpressed waiters face was pure gold for me, though the guy didn't seem to pick any of that up at all.

sculptures in the catacombes

I of course had already learnt that you ALWAYS try to speak to them politely in French, no matter how bad it might be. They really do appreciate it. Using merci and smiling goes a long long way here. The French equally hate everyone. There is no distinguishing. Secondly, this guy seemed to think that being well travelled meant having visited a couple of cities in a region. He believed that he had "done" America, after visiting only LA, Seattle and Miami. He hadn't even been to NY! Apparently Europe was ticked off the list after only London, Dublin and Paris. Seriously. I made the biggest excuse to run as fast as I could in the opposite direction to wherever he was going. And I spent the whole day paranoid that I was going to run into him again. You definitely do meet some interesting and possibly entertaining people while travelling.

I also finally received back my brand new full passport! Woo hoo I can officially get home!!!

Yesterday I managed to spend some time eating baguettes and tuna under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, though it wasn't as nice as when I had been there with Liz. And the weather definitely wasn't putting on a show, it was absolutely freezing and ready to rain on me! I spent the evening in the hostel bar drinking a pint of Strongbow (cider) and chatting to a fellow aussie Evelyn, and an American called Mike, about the economic crisis and how the French don't seem to like anyone. It was pretty deep.

Today, as my final day in Paris, I ventured out into the most wonderous and large Museum of Louvre, and spent 6 wonderous hours exploring the wings, admiring the artwork, and soaking up the atmosphere. My morning was quite lovely, the areas that I was in didn't have many people, and so I got to have a little peace and quiet. But my curiosity got the better of me, and by lunchtime I was battling the hordes of people to witness the one Mona Lisa. Within 2 minutes I was battling the hordes to get back out. The amount of people there to see that one bloody painting was intense! Yes it was tiny, yes it was strange, and no, I was not impressed in the slightest. I drowned my sorrows in a well overpriced disgusting club sandwich in the café inside, and then ventured as far away as possible from that area, in search of something that I would actually be impressed by. The rest of the parts of the Louvre that I did see I was mightly impressed by. I think I could have spent a whole week in there and not seen everything that I wanted to see. Some of the artwork just takes your breath away, the size, depth, detail - its crazy. I loved it in there. But by the end my head was absolutely killing me!!! Not to mention the fact that my mp3 player ran out of batteries and I was left to listen to peoples voices instead!

Tomorrow I head off to yet another country... the weird and wonderful Bruge in Belgium. Famous for its copious amounts of beer, its fries and woo hooo WAFFLES!!!!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

sculptures in the catacombes	spooky tunnels	human bones	scull
stacks of bones in the catacombes	egyptian display in the Louvre	bronze sculptures	sculptures
sculptures	inside the Louvre	Napoleons apartment	Napoleons apartment
Napoleon himself	dining hall	Mona Lisa (uuuugh)	Louvre
huge painting	artwork	famous inverted pyramid

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