So, we woke up early on Wednesday morning, ate breakfast, and started driving north to the Grand Canyon. We stopped for gas, where we saw our first prairie dogs. They were cute, but it didn’t take us long to realize that prairie dogs are the (destructive) squirrels of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is about an hour and a half north of Flagstaff, but after only driving for a half hour, we could already see it in the distance. We considered driving on up to the North Rim, but the drive was several hours longer, so we decided on the South Rim instead. After driving through a lot of flatland and a lot of Navajo farms and roadside stands, we started climbing the mountains into the park. We were surprised by how heavily forested it was.

Our first stop inside the park was the very first viewing area (called Desert View), and here, we got our first real look at the canyon. My grandfather told me the first time he saw it, he cried. I can see why. There is no way to describe it. Pictures and words can’t express the massive scale or the myriad of colors. It is the most spectacular thing I have ever seen, and it’s something everyone should experience at least once in their lives.

After recovering from the initial shock and taking plenty of pictures, we drove another 30 miles or so to Grand Canyon Village, where we were able to access the Rim Trail. This trail leads from the Grand Canyon Village to Hermit’s Rest, a distance of several miles. We ate some surprisingly cheap hot dogs in the village before walking a couple of miles along the trail, stopping intermittently to take pictures and just admire the view. At certain points, we could see down onto the Bright Angel Trail, which leads all the way to the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon. This trail is famous for the donkey tours, which we were tempted to do, but resisted in the interest of conserving money. If I ever return to the canyon, I’ll definitely be prepared to go down the Bright Angel trail, either on donkey or on foot.

Exhausted from the long, hilly walk, we took the shuttle bus back to Grand Canyon village, where we had a beer in the Bright Angel Lodge. We drove back to Flagstaff and ate a quick, delicious Mexican dinner at a little hole in the wall. We got up early the next morning, where I discovered the camera was missing. I searched for at least an hour before I decided it had been left either at the Grand Canyon or the restaurant from the previous night. Disheartened, we ate breakfast and left for LA. On the road, I called everywhere I could think of in search of the camera, but to no avail. We were both heartbroken at the thought of losing all our Grand Canyon pictures, so we didn’t really do anything fun on the road to LA.

When we arrived in LA, we quickly got our keys and a tour of the building. We immediately started unloading the car so we could return the UHAUL the next day. Despite its age, the building has been very nicely refurbished and we were immediately pleased with our new loft. Over the weekend, we got some furniture from IKEA and started unpacking boxes. The best news is, in the process of unpacking, we found the camera buried at the bottom of a backpack.

As far as the apartment is concerned, we still have a few blanks to fill in, but it’s coming together nicely. The city itself is more crowded than I imagined. The sprawl goes on forever, which makes it really nice to be downtown and in walking distance to great restaurants, movie theaters, shops, and plenty of other ways to spend money. Our location in historic LA seems to be undergoing a sort of renaissance, with a lot of old buildings being purchased and fixed up. I’ll be spending a lot of time exploring and looking for things to show friends and family when they visit.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed the road trip. Thanks for reading!

In New Mexico, I saw the desert for the first time. The landscape was beautiful, but also surreal at times. It was almost like being on another planet. At points, we could see snow-covered peaks that, judging by our atlas, had to be the Rockies far off in the distance. We saw some wildlife, including a herd of antelope and a couple of wild horses. We decided to stop in Albuquerque for lunch and (accidentally) found our way into the city’s historic district. It was a cute part of town that reminded me of a southwestern version of historic Savannah (the pretty part, not the ghetto part). We ate at a Mexican restaurant, which was deliciously spicy. I had a New Mexican Enchilada, which was a ground beef enchilada in a blue corn tortilla with red chile and a fried egg on top. We didn’t see much of the rest of the city, but were surprised by how big it was.

After lunch, we didn’t stop again until Arizona, where we discovered a creepy tourist shop called Stewart’s. The shop featured petrified wood, minerals, and fossils. There were mechanical sculptures of dinosaurs and other animals all around the outside of the building, which had to have been handcrafted. It also had a pen full of live ostriches, which visitors can feed and buy. The store itself was a manufactured building with uneven floors. Everything in it was dusty and the items for sale were just scattered around. It smelled and looked like an attic. The guy inside the shop (presumably Stewart) tried to sell us both an ostrich and an ostrich egg. He also tried to sell us everything else in the store, following us around and explaining what each item was. The way he spoke was especially creepy, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. Finally, we bought an onyx glass dinosaur and a small stone carving, worried about what might happen if we left without buying anything. Nevertheless, the two items will be nice decoration for the new apartment.

We wanted to visit the Petrified Forest National Park, but were deterred by the $10 entrance fee. We continued on to Flagstaff, checked into our hotel, and ventured into the historic district for a light dinner. The historic district was very hip and lively, likely owing to the presence of Northern Arizona University. I wish we had a bit more time to look around, but the Grand Canyon awaits. Tomorrow, we will be spending the day up there before leaving for LA on Thursday morning.

The rest of Oklahoma proved uneventful. We crossed the Texas state line and visited a scenic overlook/rest area with some of the best signs EVER. The view was also nice. As we continued on, the terrain got flatter and flatter. Visibility was great…you could see forever. There wasn’t much to see, however; just a lot of cows and run down farms.

Eventually, we got to what we (and the GPS) thought was the exit for the hotel in Amarillo. After driving several miles down a road that literally seemed to lead nowhere, we decided the GPS had it wrong. Mapquest revealed our exit was actually 5 miles further west. Frustrated with the GPS and hungry, we were happy to finally find the hotel. We checked in quickly and asked for a restaurant guide from the front desk. Unfortunately, there was no good Tex Mex nearby (how does that even happen in Amarillo?), so we settled on sushi. It was delicious. Afterward, we went to the indoor pool, which also had an attached hot tub.

Tomorrow, we leave for Flagstaff, AZ. This will be the longest stretch of the trip and will take us through the rest of the Texas panhandle, New Mexico, and of course, Arizona. We’ll be spending two nights in Flagstaff so we can have a day to visit the Grand Canyon. Exciting!

After about 2 discs of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, we passed through Memphis and I saw the Mississippi River for the first time in my life. I was so impressed by it, I wanted to find a place to pull off and have a look. This turned out to be more difficult than originally anticipated. We got off on an exit that led to a dirt road. The dirt road led us through flooded fields and creepy trailer parks. Though we couldn’t safely get close to the river, we did get some excellent views of the Memphis skyline. We stopped once to take a picture, then realized we would probably get stuck in the mud if we stopped again. I took the rest of the pictures from the car window. We rumbled through mud puddles and over fallen branches, but, miraculously, the car and trailer were undamaged (albeit a little dirty). In all, it took a good 30 minutes to find our way back to the interstate. We headed back towards Memphis and discovered a small park where we got a perfect view of the mighty river. Had we been in a hurry, this would have been a frustrating experience. However, we were in no rush, so this ended up being an amusing adventure to break up the trip.

We crossed over the Arkansas border and were shocked to  see just how bad the previous night’s storm had been. We saw many houses and fields almost entirely under water. Occasionally, we would see someone trying to rescue their belongings from a small home or trailer. In spite of the flooding, however, we found Arkansas to be very pretty, and even stopped at an overlook to stretch our legs and throw the baseball around for a bit.

Finally, we arrived in Van Buren, Arkansas and checked into our newly built Holiday Inn Express. It has an indoor pool, which we will swim in as soon as I finish writing this entry. I was quite impressed with how nice the hotel was until I discovered a sign that read ‘Employee’s Only’. Really, Holiday Inn?

We went to Chili’s for dinner, where we learned that in Van Buren, restaurants must be private clubs with memberships in order to serve alcohol. This Chili’s managed to get a private club license and the waitress gave us a free ‘membership’, allowing us to have some beers.

I carefully planned the trip, reserving rooms at Holiday Inn Expresses at 8-hour intervals along our route, but of course, nothing goes according to plan. It turns out photos are our biggest problem. We had hardly pulled out of the apartment’s parking lot when we realized we had packed the camera’s battery charger into some unknown box. Not wanting to dig through our boxes, we instead stopped at Radio Shack and picked up a new charger. After all, what fun is a road trip blog without pictures? Unfortunately, due to the wacky internet at this particular Holiday Inn Express, I won’t be able to upload the first set of photos tonight. Hopefully, pictures will be added to this post tomorrow!

The first leg of our trip was largely uneventful. We passed through Columbia, Augusta, Atlanta, and Birmingham before arriving at our first hotel in Jasper, AL. In Augusta, we had a short pit stop at a McDonald’s, where a man was very upset about the cashier refusing to accept an expired coupon. As I was walking in the door, he shoved past me and screamed ‘I HOPE THIS PLACE BURNS DOWN!’ A rather extreme reaction to missing out on a 50 cent discount, I feel.

Apart from coupon guy’s outburst, the most surprising part of the trip was the hills. From Columbia to Jasper, we were in hill country. I frankly had always imagined the Atlanta area and Alabama as being quite flat. The prettiest places we passed through were in the general vicinity of Augusta and Talladega. In both places, wide lazy rivers flowed through rolling hills covered in beautiful forests. It was like being in a landscape painting and it reminded me of West Virginia, except with much smaller peaks.

Birmingham wasn’t terribly attractive, though I think we passed through a really bad part of it. We were happy to arrive in Jasper, where we discovered such charming establishments as Fred’s, Bill’s, Lee’s, and Pat’s. It seems that if you want to be a business owner in Jasper, the name of your business must include your first name. (That is, of course, unless you own Brangus Steakhouse.)

After checking into the hotel, we had a beer and a shower and decided on the safe route of eating at Ruby Tuesday’s. This is the only chain restaurant allowed in Jasper because it’s named after someone. Tomorrow, we will start the next leg of the trip, which will take us to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Pictures will (hopefully) be uploaded when we get there.

EDIT (5-2-10): Images are here! Yay!

Following lunch, all we had left to do was venture down to see the windmills, and, of course, Moulin Rouge. The Moulin Rouge, as you might imagine, is overly touristy and not at all what it is supposed to be. Unfortunately, we forgot that this area also included an eroticism museum, so we didn’t get to go there. From what other people told me about it, I’m really sad that I missed it. At any rate, we all got on the metro at Moulin Rouge, and Miles and I split off from the group to go check out an ‘art deco Mosque’ listed in Miles’ guidebook.

We found the Mosque and went inside for a reasonable 2 euro fee. It was quite beautiful, with intricate tile work and a peaceful courtyard, although I couldn’t tell you what was Art Deco about it. It all just looked like Islamic art to me. We saw some people praying, which was interesting. Sadly, we couldn’t take any photos inside, and the postcards were kind of crappy. After leaving the Mosque, we stopped in an Islamic bookstore across the street, hoping they would have better postcards. They didn’t, and it was kind of awkward being English-speaking college students in a store full of the Islamic faithful. Not that they were rude or anything…it was just weird.

We left the Mosque and headed back to the hotel, where we got our bags, and after a short wait, took the public bus to the TGV station. At the station, there was more waiting. Jamie, John, and I got some sandwiches from one of the stands inside the station. Finally, we were able to get on the train. The ride home was long and a lot bumpier than the ride to Paris. I think maybe the wind was knocking us around a bit, but I can’t be sure. When we arrived in Avignon, it was colder than it was in Paris and windy.

The bus ride back to Lacoste was quiet and uneventful. I think Miles and I spent most of the time talking about anime. In Lacoste, I slowly dragged my bag up the hill. After only about 16 hours of sleep total in Paris, I was exhausted. I collapsed into bed and slept so hard that I missed my alarm and class the next morning.

]]> http://jabberwookie.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/paris-day-5/feed/ 0 jabberwookie montmartre2 montmartre1 sacrecouer3 sacrecouer1 sacrecouer2 moulinrouge mosque http://jabberwookie.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/paris-day-4/ http://jabberwookie.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/paris-day-4/#comments Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:14:57 +0000 jabberwookie http://jabberwookie.wordpress.com/?p=199 ]]> Okay, sorry for the delay. Good news: Finals are over and I have officially finished with my last college class ever. Unless I go to grad school or something, but that doesn’t seem likely. It’s a weird feeling, and it will only get weirder I’m sure.

But enough of that for now. Back to Paris. Saturday morning, we were allowed to sleep in a bit (until 10:30) before taking the long metro ride out to La Defense. La Defense is Paris’ ultra modern business district. As we learned from a lengthy lecture by Christine Wacta (the architecture professor), modern architects were allowed to construct buildings here with virtually no limitations, so there are structures like the Grande Arche, which is actually a massive rectangle with a hole in the middle. The area also featured two monumental sculptures, one by Picasso and one by Miro. I spent quite a lot of time with the Miro sculpture…after a hearty breakfast of McDonald’s chicken nuggets that is. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed La Defense. I especially liked the feeling of standing in this incredibly modern space and looking down the Champs Elysees toward the Arc de Triomphe. In all, this La Defense is probably the most successful and enjoyable example of modern architecture I have ever experienced in real life.

After about 2 hours at La Defense, we got on the RER (a regional railway connected with the metro system) and took a 35 minute ride out to the suburb of Poissy. This was a charming suburb that I would have liked to have had a bit more time to explore. To my untrained eye, there was quite a bit of Swiss-inspired architecture, along with a cute little main street, and an impressive Gothic cathedral. Our destination in Poissy, however, was Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye. This is probably Corbu’s most famous work, and I was actually somewhat excited to see it. It did not disappoint- the building was extremely surreal, both inside and out. The way people move through it is supposed to remniscent of the automobile, and the entire house has what the architects call a “machine aesthetic”. I don’t know much about all that, but personally, the entire experience was a lot like being in a Rene Magritte painting, with a bizarre juxtaposition of the machine and nature.  Strangely, Villa Savoye gives the inhabitant the feeling of observing nature without really experiencing it. It has large windows all the way around it, and it is raised on stilts (pilotis) so that it’s a lot like being on a viewing platform at a zoo.

After visiting Villa Savoye, we were free to leave. Jamie, Miles, Jamie White, James, Jared, and I took the RER back into Paris. Miles and James got off at the Arc de Triomphe stop, while the rest of us continued back on to the hotel. I split off from the group to grab a couple of souvenirs and do some browsing in Shakespeare and Company, the famous bookstore on the Seine. The store was crowded, but I managed to pick up a few things, eager to support one of the biggest international proponents of free press. I went back to the hotel, where I was supposed to meet up with Miles to go to dinner. Dalton and company wanted to try to do the boat dinner again, but in the interest of saving money, I decided I wanted to find an Ethiopian restaurant recommended by Miles’ guidebook. Miles, Jamie, and I hung out in the Gay Quad’s room for awhile, watching German MTV. John Wolfe, McArthur, Brooke, and Ben decided they would come along with us to try to find the Ethiopian restaurant. Jamie, meanwhile, went along with the others on the dinner cruise.

It took us awhile to find the Ethiopian restaurant, even though it was only 2 blocks from the hotel. When we finaly did find it, we discovered they were crowded, and sadly, there was no space for us. Somewhat disappointed, we explored the area, and found there were dozens of restaurants to choose from. We ended up in a moderately priced Italian restaurant where the waiter would only speak to us in French. We all did very well with our ordering in spite of the language barrier, and in all, it was a very enjoyable dinner. After dinner, Brooke, John, and I went to meet up with some of John’s friends at the Universite. We arrived at the college, where we met John’s friends Lexi and Alex, along with a few of their friends at the lounge in the American dorm. There, we drank, conversed, and played a game of Mafia. Mafia is a bit like a poor man’s Murder Mystery, and it’s a lot of fun, especially when mixed with alcohol.

After 2 rounds of Mafia, most everyone who wasn’t from the Universite needed to leave in order to catch the metro before the stations closed. Lexi and Alex agreed to come with us to the Rue Mouffetard to hit a few bars since it was close to our hotel. Rue Mouffetard was a lot fun- there were plenty of reasonably-priced bars and also plenty of public drinking. We ended up spending most of the night in one bar that offered 3 Euro shots. We had really disjointed and confusing conversations with some of the French patrons and watched music videos on the strangely-placed TV. Finally, Lexi and Alex decided to head home, which was our cue to leave as well, despite John’s protests. Unfortunately, in our inebriated state, we had some difficulty finding the hotel, and, to Brooke’s dismay, probably wandered the streets of Paris for a good hour before finding our way back. In spite of that little adventure, though, it was definitely a fun way to spend our last night in Paris.

The non-architecture Le Corbusier students were given all of Friday free, so I took a few minutes to determine what I wanted to do with my day. I ate lunch with Jamie, Brooke, and the ‘Gay Quad’ (Coleman, Ben, McArthur, and John). After lunch, they decided they wanted to go to Sainte-Chapelle and the aquarium. I wanted to see the Catacombs and Pere Lachaise, so I elected to venture off on my own. We agreed to meet up at the Louvre at 5pm so we could see the things that we missed on our first visit.

I parted ways with Jamie, Brooke, and the Quad at the Saint-Michel station and took the Metro to Denfert-Rochereau. By this point, I had completely mastered the Paris Metro, which is a lot easier than people make it out to be. Maybe it’s because I got used to using the T in Boston, but I don’t know…it’s really not all that complicated. Anyway, I walked around Place Denfert-Rochereau for a bit, admired the giant lion statue, and finally got in line for the Catacombs. They only let about 20 people in at a time, so I had to wait for a little while, but it wasn’t bad. I found myself in line with a French family with British father, an Australian couple, a group of young to middle-aged Americans, and a couple of  French people. I did my best to inconspicuously try to follow the conversations of the French people to pass the time.

When they allowed us inside, the first stop was a small museum-type area. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the information plaques were in English as well as French, which is actually more uncommon than you would think. I was amused to hear the British father (perhaps a stepfather?) teaching his French family to read the English plaques. Anyway, I learned from the museum area that the Catacombs were actually old quarries. In the 18th century, the cemeteries in Paris were so full of bodies that the people living near them were getting diseases, mainly bubonic plague and tuberculosis. After all the regulations imposed on the cemeteries were ignored, the city came up with a new solution. They would move bodies from the worst of the cemeteries into the old quarries under Denfert-Rochereau. When all was said and done, over 6 million bodies were moved underground. The part with the bodies, also known as an ossuary, actually only occupies a small part of the massive system of underground tunnels, quarries, and caverns underneath the city of Paris.

After the museum area, I descended a very narrow, long spiral staircase that took me 100 meters or so underground and into the quarries. For me, the quarry area that hadn’t been turned into an ossuary was the most claustrophobic part of the visit. It was quite dark, with very low ceilings and cramped walls. Eerily, there was a black line drawn on the ceiling that went all the way down. I later learned that the quarry workers drew this line so they wouldn’t get lost in the maze beneath Paris. When the passage finally opened up, there were little carved castles in the cavern, which some quarry workers built in honor of friends who had died in a nearby collapse. Beyond these strange little monuments, there was a deep underground well.

After the well, the passages started to show more structural features, such as arches. Finally, I reached the entrance to the ossuary, over which was carved “Arretez. C’est ici l’Empire de la Mort” which means “Stop. This is the Empire of the Dead”. By this point, I had hung back pretty far from the group in order to take photos and experience this strange place in solitude. When I entered the ossuary, I was immediately surrounded by neatly organized stacks of skulls and what appeared to be femurs. The stacks continued throughout the ossuary, sometimes including other bones, sometimes stacked to form shapes. One that particularly stands out in my mind was a wall where the skulls were stacked to form a heart.

Apart from the organization of the bones, the thing that struck me most about the experience was reading the carvings in the walls that had been left by the churches that had moved their cemeteries into this ‘Empire of the Dead’. They were phrases that were religious of course, but they were words of comfort for the dead that seemed almost apologetic, as though these people felt guilty for moving the bodies into this anonymous mass grave. Occassionally, there would be a stone sarcophagous, which I assumed was for clergymen or important people who had been buried in the cemeteries…people whose bodies the churches would not throw in with the millions of nameless people by whom I was surrounded. I learned during my visit that the appearance of organization was somewhat deceptive. The bones that were visible were actually stacked in this way to form walls that hid behind them piles of bodies that were simply thrown into the former quarry. At one point, I just had to stop and look around, trying to absorb the enormity of what I was seeing. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

After huffing and puffing my way back out of the Catacombs up yet another steep, narrow spiral staircase, I realized that the exit was somewhere completely different than the entrance and I had no idea where I was. Fun. Using skills learned from my Grandad along with some instinct, I headed north, and pretty soon, the area started to look familiar again. Just to be sure, I asked for directions to the nearest Metro in a pharmacy, and sure enough, I was just three blocks from the Denfert-Rochereau station. I was happy to see that I had almost three hours to explore my next destination, Pere Lachaise. Little did I know, it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

I took the Metro to the Pere Lachaise stop and decided to stop in a cafe for a beer and a crepe. After my little snack, with about 2 hours until I was to meet everyone at the Louvre, I crossed the street to Pere Lachaise, the largest cemetery inside Paris’ city limits, and the final resting place of famous figures such as Jim Morrison. There were people selling maps outside the cemetery, which I thought  was a scam until I went inside and realized just how big the cemetery really is. According to Wikipedia, it’s 118.6 acres, and the tombs are packed in there like sardines. There are over 300,000 bodies buried in the cemetery.

I had in mind 3 people I wanted to visit: Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Frederic Chopin. I quickly realized that A) I would need to buy a map to do this and B) It was going to take all the time I had just to find these three tombs. So, I purchased my map and made my way up to Oscar Wilde’s grave, which was all the way in the back. Along the way, I stopped by Eugene Delacroix’s (the artist I mentioned in my previous post) grave. Visually, this tomb was very interesting. It was all black with gold lettering, which seemed appropriate considering how dark his paintings tended to be. There were two fresh yellow roses lain over one corner of the tomb, which stood out brightly against the black stone.

Next, I finally made it to Oscar Wilde’s tomb. Just as legend says, it is covered in lipstick kisses, and visitors had left many flowers and other various gifts for the late author. I spent quite awhile with Oscar (probably longer than I should have), and it actually helped a lot with the occassional periods of the blues I’ve had since coming here. After lingering as long as I dared, I moved on to Edith Piaf. It was quite a lovely tomb, with a lot of flowers and prayers left for the chanteuse. I spent a few minutes here, but moved on quickly because a large crowd of people was coming toward it.

Realizing I was running out of time, I hurried down to Frederic Chopin’s tomb, which was mobbed by Asian tourists. It was also right alongside the path, making it inconvenient to stop there for long. This tomb, however, was as beautiful as you might expect, and covered in fresh flowers. After taking a few photos, it was time to go and I hurried back to the Metro stop.

My mastery of the Metro allowed me to make it to the Louvre with about 5 minutes to spare, but everyone else was already there. It was then that Jamie told me we were supposed to meet Dalton at the hotel at 6:30 to go to a cruise dinner on the Seine. At 50 Euros a head, I was a little skeptical, especially considering the medieval dinner from Wednesday night. Nevertheless, this was the expensive dinner I had planned for and was excited to go to, so we only had about an hour to spend in the Louvre. We used the time to return to French and Northern European paintings, which we liked much better than the Italian ones. Here, we saw masters such as Rubens, Renoir, and Wacteau. I wished we could have spent more time with them, but we had to hurry back to the hotel and get ready for our dinner.

Jamie and I met up with Dalton, Anna, Emily, Claire, Corey, and Alex in the lobby. From there, we took the Metro to a stop near the Eiffel Tower and walked down to the river where the boat was supposed to be docked. We searched up and down the river, but were unable to find the boat until we saw it pull in on the other bank. We rushed across a bridge and to the boat, only to discover we weren’t likely to get in without a reservation. Anna, with her excellent French and people skills, did her best schmoozing with the captain, but the best we could do was two tables of four. Since part of the group was unwilling to do this, we gave up and decided to eat elsewhere, but not before making reservations for the next night.

Anna, Corey, and Alex decided to go up the Eiffel Tower and get dinner in the area, while the rest of us elected to eat in the vicinity of the hotel and hit some of the nearby clubs. We took the Metro back and looked around for awhile before finally deciding on a relatively inexpensive Italian restaurant. Each of us had a glass of champagne at the restaurant, and we spent awhile there eating our dinners drinking cheap (but good) wine. Finally, we left and headed for Cafe Georges (Cocktails and Dreams), which had caught our eye the night before because all of the servers wore gold masks. We drank a lot at Cafe Georges, partially motivated by the fact that drinks came with sparklers and shots were lit on fire. We also had a lot of fun dancing, and Dalton and I in particular had a good time imitating the strange European dancing. They even played some Lady Gaga, to our delight. After awhile, though, it seemed like they were only going to play reggaetone (electronic reggae, very popular in France), so we finally left. From there we stopped briefly in a Latino club, then went to a bar near Notre Dame. We wanted to play more, but it seemed everything was closing, so we ended up back at the hotel. It was a very fun night, especially compared with the previous night, and I went to bed happy, in spite of the fact that once again, I was in for a night of less than 4 hours of sleep.

After the Egytptian exhibit, we went quickly through the ancient Mesopotamian exhibit, which featured a lot of HUGE statues among other things. I wished I could have spent a bit more time in this part, but our schedule had us in a rush. From Mesopotamia, we found our way to the apartments of Napoleon III. These truly defy description…the incredible opulence and gaudiness of it was almost overwhelming. I particularly enjoyed the large dining room, which featured a table that sat at least 20 people, several crystal chandeliers, lush drapery, and…huge dark paintings of animals violently tearing each other apart. How…appetizing?

We went from the apartments past Nike of Samothrace (which was exciting to see in real life), to Italian Renaissance paintings, hoping to see the work of the great masters/Ninja Turtles. Instead, what we got was mostly relgious paintings that characterized the early Renaissance, with only a few Raphaels and one Leonardo (the Mona Lisa, of course). It was a little disappointing, but we did happen upon the works of one of my all-time favorites, a French painter named Eugene Delacroix. His most famous work was The Raft of the Medusa, and seeing it in person along with his other works was worth the museum trip alone. We then passed through the Greek antiquities on the way back to the entrance, where we were going to meet Claire for lunch. It was mostly ancient sculpture, which I very much enjoyed and again wished I could have had more time to view.

After lunch, we had a little bit of extra time before we were supposed to meet up with the sequential students for our trip to the Catacombs, so we passed through Italian Renaissance sculpture, and were once again disappointed. Obviously, none of this is to say that the sculpture and paintings weren’t good. It’s just that we were hoping to see one thing and got quite another. If I had it to do again, I would have gone to the French sculptures and paintings instead. Anyway, we finally met up with the sequential department at 3pm. The architecture students were long gone on a trip to several Le Corbusier buildings. I got out of those trips by convincing Daves that the Catacombs were more relevant to my major and that I personally had much more interest in them. He agreed to letting me go, on the condition that I would meet up with the group at the Cite d’Architecture at 6:30pm. After making sure we had everyone, we took the Metro to Place Denfert Rochereau, where the Catacombs museum is located. After some confusion in trying to find it, we did in fact reach the museum. And it was closed. Why didn’t they call ahead and find this out beforehand? Your guess is as good as mine. At any rate, we were allowed to go do our own thing after that.

Jamie and I decided to take the Metro to Notre Dame and use our museum passes (neat little passes that let you into certain museums for free for two days) on the archaeological site underneath the cathedral. Unfortunately, this museum was a smaller lame version of the underground Roman ruins in Barcelona. We then went into the cathedral with the intention of going up into the towers, but by the time we found out how to do that, it was too late. With only a little bit of time before we had to be at the Cite d’Architecture, we went back to the hotel for a few minutes, then got on the Metro for the long ride out to our destination.

The Cite d’Architecture is a sort of interesting museum full of architectural features and models. We cruised through the museum pretty quickly, though, because it was right next to the Eiffel Tower and we wanted to see the light show they do every night at 7pm. The light show mostly involves flashing lights making the tower look sparkly and pretty. I have to admit, the Eiffel Tower looks a lot cooler in person than I expected it would. We rushed outside with Emily and Anna to see the light show, and after it was over, we decided to get some sushi at a restaurant near the hotel. James, Anna, Emily, Melissa, Jamie, Leigh, Isaac and I took the Metro back and, after a brief stop at the hotel, we went to the best sushi restaurant ever. It was super cheap and delicious (especially considering the price) and the waiters kept giving us free soup and tea and rice. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we walked through a part of the Latin Quarter that is full of ethnic restaurants, bars, clubs, and tourist shops. It was very cool and we saw some places that we definitely wanted to revisit.

We decided to go to a place Emily recommended for ice cream, and along the way, we happened upon a break-dancing exhibition. We (along with a huge crowd) watched the whole thing. So much fun. Finally, we reached the ice cream shop and it was as good as promised by Emily. I got a double with a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of raspberry sorbet. They went together surprisingly well. After dessert, we were all tired and ready to go back to the hotel. That is, until we ran into Claire and a huge group of  people who were heading toward a karaoke bar. We were all down for this…at first, that is. After we couldn’t find the first bar, we had the option of going to another one or going to a non-karaoke bar that Miles discovered in his guidebook. We opted to find the other karaoke place, which turned out to be REALLY FAR AWAY. During this walk my knee started hurting. After the first hour of walking, I was on the verge of tears because it hurt so bad and I couldn’t find a Metro, which was going to close in less than an hour, meaning I would have to walk at least an hour back.

Luckily for me, we did find a metro, and several other students and I took it back to the hotel. When I finally willed myself from the Metro station to the hotel and up the stairs, I was actually in tears. I turned on the shower, sat down in it and let the warm water hit my knee until the pain faded a bit. After my shower, I got into bed and lay there for about an hour before Miles and Jamie got back.  By the time I finally went to sleep, I was once again left with only about 4 hours before the next morning’s wakeup call.