more from my travel journal

Monday, January 3, 2011

This morning was really nice since the two other guys in our room left early, so we had the space to ourselves to sleep and get ready to go out.  

We left our things at the hostel after taking advantage of the coffee maker they had percolating in the hallway.  On our way to the metro, I got a banana for breakfast.

We got off at the Vatican, and waited in line for about 2 hours to get into the Museum of the Vatican, where the Sistine Chapel is.  The wait was more than worth it.  The chapel seemed unreal.  I feel like I could have looked at it forever and still not get my head around it.  I was surprised at how small the section of God and Adam touching fingers was, since that's the part that's always replicated.  I pictured the two of them taking up the whole ceiling.  Instead, it seemed like the entire Bible was up there--Jesus' baptism, Moses and the ten commandments, the flood, etc. etc. etc.  All the characters seemed so three-dimensional--they just popped right out of that ceiling.  It was incredible to look at.  

The only thing that tore us away from the chapel was intense hunger.  We popped into almost the first restaurant we saw and got lasagna and tortellini.  Afterward we walked around for a bit, checked out a couple stores (didn't buy anything: I feel like my major expenses on this trip are food, lodging, and postcards).  We went back to the fountain of Triton and got more gelato; this time I got melon and some kind of nutty chocolate.  Seems like ice cream here is so much cheaper and so much better than in the U.S.

Then we stopped at a grocery store and got some fruit, and some bread to go with a can of tuna we've been carrying around with us since Germany.  Back to the hostel, picked up our luggage, then to the train station.

We're currently on a night train to Paris.  At first I was really excited since  I thought we would have a cabin (not sure if that's the right word) to ourselves, with "couchettes" so we could have a really good night's sleep, but it looks as if we'll be in here with 5 or 6 other people, two of which will get the couchettes.  If we understood the ticket collector correctly, the lucky couchette people will be getting on in Florence.


Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011

The rest of our night train ride went well.  Sleeping on a train was fun.  I felt like a stowaway or something.  Everyone did get a couchette--the seats folded down and created enough for everyone.  I woke up this morning and had to pee really bad--everytime the train shook, I felt like I was being shaken like a salt shaker and my bladder was going to explode, so I got up, peed, then just stayed in the corridors and watched the scenery go by and got hit on by a man twice my age until Jason showed up and said, "want some breakfast?"  We ate in the dining car: croissant, OJ, and AMAZING coffee.

The metro system in Paris is pretty hard to follow.  I got an all-day pass for about 6 euro.  There's just a ton of different lines snaking all over the place without rhyme or reason.  So it took us a bit to get going with the metro, but once we got to our stop, we found our hostel pretty easily.  We dropped off our luggage and went to a Vietnamese place for pho.

Now, you may be thinking, "but you're in FRANCE, why would you buy Vietnamese food for lunch?"  I'll tell you why: pho is the best thing ever when you're really cold and really hungry, because it's hot, tasty, and filling, always.  Also, we still got quite the cultural experience since I get the feeling that this area is to Paris what Mile End is to London.  Still very much a part of the city, but a real part, not a touristy part.  When we stepped into the restaurant, we stepped into a sea of buzzing French conversation.  And this place was packed.  For good reason, too.  Good pho.

We tried to go into the Louvre, but for some reason it's closed on Tuesdays.  We went to the catacombs instead.  I thought we weren't going to be able to do that, either, since latest admission is 4:00, and we got there with a big line and not much time to spare.  We barely got in.

Once inside, we went through a long dark creepy tunnel.  Then all of a sudden, the tunnel was lined with billions of bones.  Billions!  It was all very orderly and in a nice pattern.  This went on for an astounding distance, bones and bones and bones.  After a while, I just wanted out of there.  The ceiling dripped, and there were too many bones.  I've never seen anything like it.  I think the information said there was a plague and the cemetaries became overcrowded.  Thus the catacombs.  Before anyone could leave, they had to check bags, just in case someone decided to take a bone as a souveneir. 

Then we walked the Champs-Elysees, from the Obelisque to the Arc de Triomphe.  I was a bit disappointed--for some reason, I'd pictured this street as smallish, narrow, maybe cobblestoned, lined with unique Parisian shops.  Instead, it was basically Oxford street all over again, only less so.

We went to Notre Dame cathedral, which was beautiful.  Reminded me of my dad having me watch the original, black and white version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Went to a grocery store and got some snacks and fruit and Nutella, checked in to our hostel, now I'm going to call it a night.