I spent the last two days seeing the sights of Paris. Yesterday was pouring rain (perhaps it's not just England?) and I ended up with two pairs of soaking wet socks, jeans that were wet all the way up to my knees nearly, and saturated shoes. (Thankfully most of my stuff dried overnight, and I wasn't too uncomfortable today.) I chickened out on the second storey of the Eiffel Tower (too high for my liking), though I did walk down the stairs, which was scary enough in itself. I also visited the Arc De Triomphe (or however you spell it), Sacre Coeur, and I walked down to the Moulin Rouge again in the evening to take a photo (though I left again very quickly). Today I visited the Musee Du Louvre for a couple of hours (the Egyptian collections were fascinating but I was pretty bored with the paintings), Place de la Concorde to see the obelisk, Notre Dame (though I didn't go inside because there was a really really really long queue), waited in a queue for 20 minutes outside the Catacombes before being told just as I got to the front that it was now closed, and lastly visited the Pantheon and saw Foucault's Pendulum.
The best thing about Paris has to be the food - yesterday I went to the most awesome place for lunch and had a huge baguette sandwich, pepsi, a tartlette for dessert, and hot chocolate, all for €8.70. And it was all delicious. (I actually went back to the shop on my way home today and bought another tartlette for dessert tonight :) ) Today I had an omelette and frites, which I assumed were chips, but were actually some sort of cubist version of chips. While lunching, I discovered why there are New Zealand flags everywhere and not Australian ones - the start of the New Zealand vs Romania World Cup game came on the TV, the bar staff turned the volume up really high and the whole pub went deathly silent to watch the haka, and they all cheered at the end. So it's really just cause they have a funny dance (not that they're any good or anything).
Today I managed to find an English language bookshop too, which was good - I don't really like going out at night on my own, so most nights I've been reading for a couple of hours, and 13 days into my trip I have already gone through 6 books (and I've spent a lot of time playing my DS and planning what I'm doing as well). I even tried to slow myself down with Tolkien - to no avail. If only books weren't so heavy and expensive, life would be a lot easier.
I decided to leave Paris a day earlier than planned - I've done pretty much everything I wanted to do, and I'm really sick of hanging around on my own and going into restaurants on my own (can't you tell from the overly long posts). After actually reading the guide book, it's a pity I didn't leave any time for Belgium - Bruges sounds cool. I am starting to think that I may have overcatered time-wise for a lot of places and would probably have been able to fit it in. These booked flights and booked hostels are actually turning into a pain in the arse. Still.
Tomorrow I am off to Amsterdam :)
Vicki, Mariah here on mums log in,
ReplyDeleteyou sound lie you are having tonnes of fun, but i think you should have gone higher on the eiffel tower. Anyways food sounds great have a ball take tonnes of photos, we miss you
luv
Riah xoxo
Yeah, when I'm travelling alone I tend to just go out for dinner, then go back to the hostel to read and write in my journal too. It's a bit intimidating in a strange city when you don't know anyone.
ReplyDeletebtw. they had Pokemon Gold on the Singapore Airlines inflight entertainment system! Got my Toterile to lvl 13 on the flight :)
A suggestion for when you get bored of a city but you're booked in to stay there, you could do some nearby day trips - when I was in Paris, I went to Versailles and Chartres too, easy day trip by train.