Since it's Friday afternoon and most of you people want a distraction from work, let's see if I can come up with some semblance of a blog post. I might be tough because I've drank a few beers already (8:30pm right now), including one that was 8.4% alcohol. But away we go...
Before my trip, I bought a Eurail pass which gave me "15 travel days over a two-month period." As you can see, this worked our perfectly. It couldn't have been any better as my 15th and final journey took me to Porto where I flew to Paris:
I did 4 days in September, 6 days in October, and 5 days in November. That makes perfect sense since the only full month I had here was October. Well done, Ross! Speaking of flying to Paris, I actually got warned by the woman checking me in at the Porto airport that I was "running out of time" on my stay in Europe. Really? I've been here 60 days out of the 90 I'm allowed. Don't you think that's a bit too soon? I guess she was just trying to be nice, but I was too tired for nice. I snapped back that I'd "be gone in one week so don't worry about me." Also, this is the 2nd time I flew on RyanAir. Good budget airline, but they are so obnoxious. They try to sell you EVERYTHING on their flights. Literally they go from trying to sell lottery tickets, to duty-free booze, to cheap cartons of cigarettes. Also, when we land, they put on some triumphant music and everyone claps. I'm supposed to be excited that we landed safely? Like this doesn't happen for you guys that often? Sketchy...
Now as you'd expect, when I got to Paris on Tuesday night I had some definite priorities. Like everyone, I wanted to do the must-see Paris things right away on Wednesday morning. So here was my first stop:
Crepes bitches!!! (Not as good as grandma/grandpa used to make us, but ya know...next best thing) So as I was getting ready for Paris, I was looking at hostels and noticed even the best ones online had really craptacular reviews. Seriously, only 1 of them had solid reviews across the board. Of course that 1 hostel was booked my first two nights here, so I had to stay elsewhere. I have never been more afraid in my life. Not so much afraid from a safety standpoint, more like a health/toxic standpoint. I was afraid to use the bathroom, afraid to make lunch/dinner in their "kitchen," afraid to use their computers. It was disgusting. Also, on my first night, the nice Brazilian family in my room had stolen my hostel-issued blanket before I got to my room. There are no pictures of this atrocity as I don't want to scare anyone too badly.
Did a free walking tour on Wednesday morning with the same company that does them all over Europe. Pretty solid, not as good as Prague's. Probably because our tour guide looked exactly like a leprechaun. Same size and all. Either way good intro to an extremely large city.
On Thursday I could only fit in two things because in Paris there is always a line. I went to my new favorite museum. No, not the Louvre. The Museum d'Orsay. I'm hearing more & more that the Louvre is overrated and will be a disappointment. I will probably judge for myself, but it's been bumped down the priority list. I will probably only do the Louvre if time permits on Monday afternoon. The Museum d'Orsay was gigantic and had an amazing collection. I also found my new favorite artist, Alfred Sisley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sisley
Based on my relative inexperience with art, this is almost like me saying I have a favorite WNBA player. Oh well.
I was ready to bitch & moan about how the signs at certain museums (like this one) say no photographs so I oblige and leave my camera in my bag at the baggage check, and then I see hundreds of people snapping pictures of every piece of art. But then I realized the sign is only indicating no flash photography. Pictures without flash are OK. Damnit! (but no pictures of this museum thanks to that)
The other thing I was able to fit in on Thursday was the Eiffel Tower. I'm beyond torn on this. It really should be ugly. You put this structure anywhere else in the world and you don't have a billion tourists going crazy over it, and the natives would be PISSED at its existence.
On the flip side, you really can't appreciate it until you're here. It's gigantic. You walk away from it and 15 minutes later it's still like you're standing under it. It's that big. See for yourselves:
Did you know the Eiffel Tower is painted 3 different colors so that it looks all the same from far away? Me neither, until 2 days ago. So last night I finally moved into a good hostel. By "good" I mean, "a hostel that didn't constantly have feces on its bathroom walls or ridiculous stains on all its beds." Anyway, within minutes of me sitting down in the common room a girl sat at my table and the bartender brought her dinner. I'd like to let Michael know that exactly 13 sentences were exchanged between us before either one of us said where we were from (he challenged me to go as long as I can without saying where I'm from, since that's the first question everyone asks everyone while traveling). I'd love to report good progress with this girl except she was the single most obnoxious person I've ever met. Within minutes of meeting her, we were talking about college and she was saying things like, "Yeah I guess maybe I'm just a little smarter than everyone, but how could you possibly spend college partying & not taking your classes seriously?" ....ummmm...we would not mesh well hunny (don't know her name still). I decided to tell her how after my first year in college my Dad got my grades and in our driveway at home he looked at me and said, "Well, Ross, better start looking at other colleges if this is what you're gonna do for the next 3 years." So yeah, not a match made in heaven to say the least. It's ok. She stood up eventually & I realized she was not for me. For the record, she went on & on about how great she was at everything (including singing) for about 45 minutes. Then she stopped and said, "Wow, just realized you've been listening to me talk for a while." I faked like I got a phone call on Skype (can that even happen?) and I walked away.
Oh you were about to ask, "What did you do today, Ross?"
Well I'm glad you asked... here's what I did today, in pictures...including a couple pictures that only Ben will care about.
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