Lost in Paris...

First let me just put it out there that this whole blog is coming from my iPhone so sometimes wierd, misspelled words will pop up. Please be sure to blame the small touch screen keyboard for any misspellings, odd words, grammatical errors, and odd/exaggerated stories. :) Thank you for your patience!! On to Paris (make sure you are reading it with a French pronunciation because that's how I'm typing it)...

My train pulled into the station at 9am after a 14 hour ride. I was tired but full of adrenaline because I was in FREAKIN' PARIS! At least that's what the sign was telling me. Honestly I had no idea where I was. At the last train station, where I wandered around because I had 4+ hours to burn before my train got there, I discovered there was a tourist information booth. This was perfect because I didn't have a guidebook for Paris and all the guidebooks I found in Spain where in Spanish. A Spanish description of Paris...not helping thanks. As I went in circles around this tiny train station I discovered that there wad no tourism booth, so rather than wait in line at the train info station I decided to wing it. How hard could the Paris metro be? It was crazy hard!!

I now know that the Paris metro is made up of two separate systems that have over 20 individual lines...I must have stood in staring at my pocket metro schedule for over 15 minutes trying to read al the station names (they're in French...crap!!) and find the line and station my hotel reservation told me to take. I quickly grew bored and frustrated, and knew I couldn't check in until some time after noon or maybe later, so I followed the pictures to the famous sights and hoped I was headed in the right direction, with my backpack which probably weighs 40+ pounds. Amazingly I popped out at the station less than 100 feet from the Musse D'Orsay. Most of the credit goes to the pictures at the metro but I didn't care. I was pumped!

I got into line and got my Rick Steves (he's my homey!!) audio guide podcast ready. I was prepared this time...no more boring museums experiences for me!! Yes! And I'll knock out my first museum within the first few hours of getting into town. I am amazing! And then the security guard said I couldn't get in with my big old bag and they wouldn't check it at the cloakroom. For real?!? Crap! I had the nerve to go to one of the nice hotels nearby and ask if I could check my bag for the day. She gave me a puzzled look: "Are you a guest here?" "No." "Um, this is a private hotel we only check bags for hotel guests." "Ok, cool. Do you have rooms available? How much is it...(I look to the left and see a sign that says something about 300€)...or do you know if there are any youth hostels nearby?" "No you'll have to go to the tourist information booth." "Ok. Where's that?" "At the train station."

I'm just saying...she missed out on a golden business opportunity. She could have charged me 5€ to hold my bag for the day, which I would have happily paid, and she keeps the cash under the table. I don't see the problem. :) Obviously she didn't get it, so I headed out to walk around the city. Paris has signs every where telling you what sites are nearby and which direction to head. I found a sign for the Lovre (ya know the museum from the Da Vinci Code?) so I walked the 1/2 mile hoping they would let me check my bag because I was sweating any shoulders were starting to hurt, and I still had 4+ hours until check in. I made it without collapsing and the wonderful security guard assured me that they would accept my bag. Freedom!!! I checked that sucker then went to look around.

Under the Pyramid, the ceiling is glass so you can see it from the museum lobby, there is a lot of commotion and a hallway that connects to a small mall. I was searching for a bathroom and found a public toilet. A public toilet you have to pay 1€ to use. With designer themes in each stall. And a multi-colored toilet paper art piece. Back to the museum...
It was very cool. The audio guide really helpede appreciate what I was seeing. I saw the Venus di Milo, Mona Lisa, Louis XV's crown jewels (not to be confused with his family jewels), sculptures by Michelangelo, and so much more. I still had time on my hands, and a bag safely tucked away for free so I walked the 1/2 mile back over to the Orsay. Pre-Impressionism, Impressionism & Post-Impressionism (all the -isms) allowed me to see masterpieces by Renoir, Monet, Manet, Van Gough, Degas and countless others. Again, the audio guide rocked but I would have recognized and appreciated some of these without its help (which says a lot about how famous these paintings are!). After that I headed back to the Louvre to retrieve my bag and back to the Orsay because I didn't know wehre any other metro station was (I now know that there are metro stops about every 500m throughout Paris aka I could have found one much closer). All together i'm guessing I walked 2 miles just going between these two museums.

When I was on break at one museumi pulled out my map, surrounded by other tourists equally lost (oh yeah! I bought a Paris guide in English at the Louvre bookstore. Life saver!) and who wouldn't judge or give me pitied me for flipping out my map. So I figured out how which trains I needed to take to get to my stop. I had some confusion when switching from one system to the next (you have to pay for a new ticket when switching lines) and wanted to sock the people in the info booths in their necks! But, I found my way and made it to my lovely hotel. I have a room to myself and a shower/toilet in the room. Living big, I know!!! I took my first shower standing up since the first day of my trip (if you hve questions about that see the entry "I have to admit") and had gone for a final walk through Madrid with my backpack, an 14 hour train ride, and 5 hours of walking around killing time since my last shower. By far the best shower ever!! Then I grabbed the towel, started to dry off, and was met with an awful mildew smell that was now all over my body. Grrr! Back in the shower. Not nearly as satisfying this time, and very thankful I brought a small towel of my own.

I took a nap then headed out for a night view Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. I was mad at the metro system so I walked the whole way there, which took about an hour (I was really mad!). The Arc was cool. Beautiful and large, but the most entertaining part was to watch the merging traffic around the Arc. Major merging happens here! I stopped at a cafe and had a great meal, something with a salad and pastries filled with a creamy shrip sauce. Oh my gosh yum...my favorite meal so far! Then I headed to the Eiffel Tower. It was 11pm so I got to watch the Tower do it's light show, blinking lightbulbs all over, that happens at the start of every hour at night, on the walk over. I went up to the second level, the 3rd level was closed and I was completely ok with that (slight fear of heights), and made it back down in time to watch the midnight flashes from the base of the Tower! I was still mad at the metro so I trucked the one hour back to the hotel where I crashed out after checking in with the fam. Yay skype!



Let me take a second to take some blame here. I showed up in Paris with no grasp of the French language, no guidebook, and no plan. I AM that arrogant foreigner who just shows up in your country and says show me all your greatest treasures but please make sure you use my language. Thanks! My bad, France, my bad.