Paris

Well this sucks. There’s no WiFi. The good news is that this is the worst thing that has happened to me on my travels so far. But, still. I just landed in Milan. I’m sitting on a train heading for the central station. I have so much to be happy about, like that there’s still charge in my laptop so I can type, and the lady at the ticket booth spoke enough english to tell me which train to hop on. But that being said this is the first airport that didn’t have WiFi nor an information desk. I almost asked the armed guards for directions. At least they would have been entertained.

So, lets see. I remember I wanted to write a little when I was in Paris, but honestly I didn’t have time. I spent of all of time trying to be out and seeing what it had to offer. It was pretty. The only thing that kept coming back was that some people really smelled. Like normally-dressed people. I’ve gotten so occustomed to only bums smelling bad, I forgot they don’t always shower in the rest of the world. There were days when I took showers twice a day. Well, my train isn’t departing for another 20 minuts or so and it’s going to take like an hour, so I have time.

On Wednesday night when I landed in Paris I walk. I walked a lot. I went from the station East past Louvre where I left the train to the apartment, climbed 5 flights of stairs up. Then set out to find the Eiffel Tower, which I could see from the train, but lost it the closer I got. Building angles and all that. I found it eventually and went up. Then I walked to the Triumph Arc and then walked home, back to Louvre. I was trying to find somewhere to eat, but everything seemed too slow, or everything had ham in it. Now I don’t eat meat and I really don’t appreciate when nothing on the menu is vegetarian. I hate it even more when all the salads have arugala. I hate arugala. I hate it more than some meats. And it was everywhere. French food sucks! I ended up going to a restaurant and getting an $18 salad that had arugala and was gauzed in mayonnaise. Now don’t get me wrong. Nothing wrong with dressing. I just don’t like it. The waitress didn’t speak enough English to understand me when I asked for tea, much less that I had specific tastes. Gah. Oh well. At least I had some food in me. And the tea only cost $8.50 (sarcasm).

Thursday I went to the Louvre. I was a little woried that I would miss something cool. But honestly, I went through the whole thing except for Roman artifacts 0-500 in like 3h30. I learned to use “h” as a delimiter between hours and minutes. I like it. It’s descriptive and easier to type than “:”. In the museum I didn’t find anything super spectacular. But I did love being in Napoleon’s chambers. Damn that dude loved luxury. I saw some kids kicking the ball around outside in the vast Louvre Gardens. I would rather be playing with them. But I didn’t have time for that. I headed back home to get ready for work. I did pick up a sandwich on the way buck inside a rustic baguette with cheese and tomatoes. It was bland and hard to chew. French food sucks. At work I worked surprisingly well. I was concentrated. It was quiet. Nobody spoke to me. Damn Frenchies speak English but would rather stay silent than use it. That was disappointing. There I kept snacking in the kichen. They had pre-packaged falafel sandwiches. I had a bunch. That and nuts. The sandwiches were pretty bad. Poorly made, soggy, and unfilling. And I had an allergic reaction to the nuts. French. Food. Sucks.

The next day I went to the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was pretty. It’s located on an island in the middle of the river next to an expensive neighbourhood. It’s kind of like being in mini San Francisco, but much prettier. I liked it there. I liked it there very much. I got inside at a good time. I’ve just been avoiding any lines whatsoever, and here I got lucky because I made it in immediately to the Cathedral. It was everything I thought it would be. A good, dark place with pretty gothic things inside and out. I absolutely adored the gargoyles and the the gothic windows and statues everywhere. So awesome. I took a bunch of pictures there. And thsoe who know me know that I don’t take tours or fill my head with useless facts. Well, there, I stopped and read the whole history of the building. I even paid money to go see their treasury. Cool stuff. I almost felt spiritual. I went into the prayer section and prayed a little. Just for shits and giggles. No religious experience for me. :( Oh well. I guess I’ll continue to be an atheist without doubting my beliefs.

My train started moving! :)

I had a lot more time to do things but I didn’t feel like walking anymore so I got a boat tour. It took an hour and we went from Notre Dame, to Louvre to Eiffel Tower and back. The tour guide sucks. I couldn’t understand his accent. And he maybe shared 20 facts about everything altogether. It was disappointing. It was cheap, but oh well. One other thing to note was that nobody spoke freaking English. I couldn’t spark conversations with strangers. It was just a bother to talk to anyone at all. At first all the French sort-of sounded like Russian so I was hopeful, but ultimately I just gave up. The was true on the boat. I came up to some people in hopes of joining their conversations, but then I realized they were talking in French and I turned away. Yeah, I didn’t like it there very much. Not by myself. Either way, after the boat tour I bought a water from a dude on the corner and went home to get ready for work. Then I realized it was tap water filled into a bottle he probably found on the street. Oh FML. I took a sip and threw the rest away. Then right before I got home, by the Louvre, this girl came up to me asking for donations for the dead. Sounds like a scam, but she knew how to work a sucker like myself. So I gave her $10 (Euros… $ is the currency symbol on the keyboard). She pointed to a sign on her paper that said $20 minimum. HA. I got angry and walked away. Someone with the same sign came up to me today, but I didn’t even bother acknoledging them. :( Bad experience.

That’s about it for France. Today I walked through Louvre gardens again. Went on the Ferris wheel. Had an expensive lunch. Actually it wasn’t that expensive. I had a big salad with potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. It was delicious. I had a sandwich with Norwegian Salmon. Yes, I got 2 entres (or courses, how they call them here). It came with an arugala salad. And I had a shot of Vodka. All together it came out to $33. I even tipped. I’m not sure if it’s okay in France, but I did anyway. Then I walked to the Eiffel Tower again because that’s where the direct bus to the airport was. And now I’m in Milan. Hoping to post more later.