Land of the Lost

Hello lords and ladies. It is beautiful and sunburn-worthy out there, and I am sitting in my room staring at this screen. I hope you appreciate the sacrifices I make for you. Actually that was a lie just then, its 11pm. I did get sunburnt in Paris, but it’s okay, because I’m from southern California, so I’m immune to UV Rays. That is also a lie, but it keeps me from thinking about how any one of my freckles could kill me some day. Anyway, the point of this blog post is Paris.

Well I got there on time and found my hostel really easily, strangely enough. It was after that that the problems began. I went off in search of Sacre Coeur. In typical Hannah style, I ignored the fact that this hugerific church was actually visible from the street adjacent, and set off in the complete opposite direction. After walking in a circle or two, I finally got up the courage to ask someone for help. That mostly consisted of me standing in front of a woman and sort of shrugging and looking generally helpless. “Where are you trying to go?” She asked me. She spoke English. Of course she did. She was from Texas. Luckily, she knew where Sacre Coeur was (I think I was the only one in the city who didn’t) and she even walked me most of the way there. Seriously the thing is massive, and it basically overlooks the whole city. Well, such is life. When you are me.

I mean its pretty easy to miss...

After this fiasco I did not even try to find Moulin Rouge. Instead I went to the Musee d’Orsay, easy to find because the metro drops you off almost within sight of the building. I was exhausted after spending all night in the Dublin airport, and possibly not in the best mood for appreciating art. Would I be a terrible person if I mostly wanted to see the Van Goghs, and that mostly for reasons of a Doctor Who nature? They are beautiful and striking works of art...but also the Doctor. I think if I had been less delirious it would have been much more meaningful. As it was, I went through the museum mentally storing works of art so that I could appreciate them when everything was less woozy. However because of said wooziness my retention was much reduced.

*Insert nap time here* Next quest of the day was to find the Jewish Quarter and go to Le Palais De Thes for my dad, and the falafel place for Inbar (and myself). Refer to the title of this blog post if you have any doubts as to how this turned out. I had failed to look up directions to the tea shop, and I couldn’t find the street that the falafel place was supposedly on. “So much for that,” I thought, munching my baguette avec jambon et gruyere. “My life is still pretty awesome,” was my next thought.

I would totally live there if I was a peasant

Day two of Paris was set-aside for my visit to Versailles! I arrived at the magnificent palace, and magnificently used my expired student visa to get in for free! The palace itself was amazing and gaudy and completely what I had expected, but in the best of ways. The gardens were fantastic and expansive. Did you hear that bell? That’s right, its time for Hannah to get lost again! (Your clue was the word ‘expansive’) I made my way all the way to the other side of the estate to Marie Antoinette’s “Hamlet” which, by the way, is about the same type of Hamlet as Kenneth Branaugh, in that they are both somewhat unnecessarily and inexplicably grandiose. The queen had this Hamlet built so that she could play peasant without having to actually come into contact with commoners. Basically imagine thatched roof mansions everywhere, complete with a lake strewn with lily pads, a play farm, and a fantasy lighthouse. So now comes the part I was telling you about, the part when I get lost. I tried to get back to the actual chateau of Versailles and somehow ended up on some sort of actual farm. Luckily I ran away before anyone could attempt to ascertain what the heck I was doing there. I went all the way back to the Hamlet and creepily followed some other people back to the chateau. But hey, I got out, and before long I was eating a nutella and banana crepe in the city center.  Sidenote: I had Doctor Who/Madame Du Pompadour related fun at Versailles as well.

To wind up the day, I went and rested my aching feet with an hour on a bench in the Tuileries Garden, just sitting and reading in the shade. Man it is good to be alive and me right now.  Before I went to sleep that night I made a list of all of the things I had yet to do in Paris.

Last crusades, anyone?

The next morning I woke up bright and early with my list and got to the Catacombs before it opened, because they only let in 200 people per day. I was somewhere around 150, and I was there 15 minutes before opening. It was a very interesting experience. Down in the semi-darkness, surrounded by bones and skulls, you expect and even want to feel a morbid spookiness. Personally, due to the noise of the other tourists around me, all I could feel was an interest in the construction and artistic design. The way the bones are arranged, it is nearly impossible to think of them as having once been humans. That being said, it was completely awesome and I felt like Indiana Jones.

Next I went to the Musee du Moyen Age, or the medieval museum, which was built around the ruins of Paris’s only Roman ruins, an ancient Bath. Being a huge medieval history nerd, I really enjoyed this museum.

After that, following my list I popped into Notre Dame, the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore, gave myself a little breather lying on the grass in front of the Eiffel Tower, saw the Arc de Triumphe and walked down the Champs de Elysees. When I got back to my hostel I took a rest, and then some friends and I (I met some really awesome people at this hostel) went to the Eiffel Tower at 11 to see the light show. It was spectacular, and it felt really nice to be surrounded by friendly English speaking faces. The wine didn’t hurt.

So that is a logistic summary of my time in Paris. Mentally I was even more all over the place. This being the first city I’ve seen on my own in my European tour, it really made an impact on me. At first  I felt like I could not enjoy myself as much all alone, but by the second day I was loving the ability to set my own schedule, and reveling in my independence. By the third day I had made friends in my hostel and was no longer alone. I expect the rest of the trip will be variations on those three themes.  Mostly I just feel extremely lucky, and I believe I will continue to feel that way until my money runs out.