Oh, so, I went to London a couple of weeks ago, and then Paris and Nice. Whew, London. You are a dirty, smelly city. London smells like a careful mixture of beer, B.O., and cheap laundry detergent. The best thing about London, though, is the way everybody stands to the right on escalators, so that those who are in a hurry (read: me, always) can sprint through on the left. VERY EFFICIENT, LONDON. WELL DONE. Now let's hose ya down, stinky.
I spent a lot of money going to shows, too much, probably, but I saw Wicked and Rent and Avenue Q and Spamalot. I literally saw a show every night, except for Sunday night, because that is the night of rest. So I went out drinkin' with my Art professor and the resident life staff. Naturally.
Have I mentioned that the resident life dudes are hot? Because they are hot. They also both have girlfriends, which I am convinced was a prerequisite to their getting hired. If either of them ever break up with their significant others, I am sure that they will be immediately fired for liability reasons.
I also spent a lot of money on food, because I found a great fresh sandwich shop called Pret A Manger and proceeded to eat there at least once every day. It wasn't that expensive for London, but it sure was expensive for my wimpy little American dollar, as is everything in Europe.
I'm trying to get this posted so I'll just sum up London by saying, we did a lot of walking, saw a lot of stuff, and it didn't rain until the last day, which unfortunately was the day I climbed to the tip-top of St. Paul's Cathedral. My pictures up there are...muggy.
After London our independent travel break began, and Ashley, Caitlin and I went to France. We first paid one zillion dollars to cross the Chunnel, which was a confusing ride. Our conversation for that entire trip basically went like this:
"Are we underwater yet?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. Look, a house."
"Okay I think this tunnel is the Chunn- whoop, nope, we're in another neighborhood."
"It should be coming up soon. Oh, here's our stop."
So, who knows where the Chunnel really is. Not between England and France, I don't think! Though my map would like to tell me otherwise.
We got to Lille and activated our Eurail passes and made it to Paris fairly late. We ran around in circles until we finally, finally found our hostel. Let me sum up our Paris experiences with this fun list:
Fun Things To Do In Paris
1. Arrive late at night in the pouring rain. Make sure not to have an umbrella handy, and that you have a backpack that smells like a dead 'possum when it gets wet.
2. Stay at a hostel so far out of Paris that it is not even on your no-longer-so-handy map. If possible, have with you an internet printout containing vague directions (e.g. "It's next to the McDonalds"), with important street names misspelled.
3. Get lost on the Metro. Do this often.
4. Wait for an RER train that may or may not come in the freezing cold whilst eating terrible pizza because God help you if you have one more baguette.
5. Eat cheese with every meal.
6. Plan to go up on the Eiffel Tower after it is closed.
7. Know absolutely no French. If the opportunity arises, accidentally speak in Spanish.
8. Have bread with every meal. Get those intestines feeling like they're full of glue!
Oh, and actual fun thing to do in Paris? Check your bank account and remember how awesome it sometimes is to be Alaskan, as you gaze lustfully at that $1600 figure.
We did finally make it to the Eiffel Tower, which was a lot of standing in line. Oh, speaking of lines? The French are huge line-cutters. It was so prevalent that Ashley looked it up after we got back and discovered that we're not the only ones who have noticed. They've got a bad rap. Whole families were cutting us in line. Usually people will just point ahead of them as they pass you and mumble something in French. I think what they are saying is "Heh. Heh heh."
We went to the Louvre also, and unfortunately I was suffering from museum fatigue and didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I was rocking the French painting section by myself and was having a grand old time until I tried to enter the 18th and 19th century wings. Turns out, hey! It's closed today. So, no Impressionism for me. Sniff.
This put me in a sour mood but I made my way over to the Italian painting. This is what everyone was doing, however, because obviously this was where the Mona Lisa is located. If I may say, the Louvre really needs to calm down about the Mona Lisa. There were cheap computer-printed flyers up everywhere saying This Way! To the Mona Lisa! What is this, a junior high pool party? I'm sure I'll make my way.
And make my way I did. And it was anticlimactic, because it is behind bulletproof glass that glares horribly and a wooden railing, so you can't get close. Also, everyone was taking pictures with flash, which really grilled my cheese. Louvre security may as well have been asleep. People were touching statues and licking paintings and punching ancient artifacts. Oh well. See ya later Louvre, if you have any art still left in tact.
The next morning we went straight to the train station to make our way to Nice. Long story short, we got confused about which station we were leaving from, my RER card failed and I ended up getting my backpack cartoonishly stuck in the automated doors, aaaand we ultimately missed our train. As in, made it to the platform in time to see the doors close and halfheartedly run alongside it as it pulled away. So we got our tickets changed to the next train and basically didn't speak to each other for two hours.
We made it to Nice and paid in cash in our sketchy, smelly hostel. The porter guy was incredibly creepy. He looked like Enrico Colantoni. Our room smelled like a mixture of roach spray and baby poop, and got worse when we flushed the toilet or turned on the water.
We spent the next day just walking around and lying on the beach, trying not to think about what an awful day we were going to have trying to get home. I got a subtle tan and saw some topless ladies, so all in all it was a productive day. We did have a stressful time getting home, but made it back barely in time for the last bus back to Kasteel, which was our ultimate goal. I crawled into bed and slept for forever, except that wait, no, I didn't, because I had class the next morning. I may sound negative, but rest assured that I had a great time and made lots of memories, which I'm sure I'll fondly recall just as soon as my back muscles untangle themselves and my digestive system becomes regular.
No comments:
Post a Comment