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highs
walked down the stairs near the sacre coeur where amelie was filmed
saw the european countryside i'd always thought of in luxembourg
got to go up to the 3rd floor of the eiffel tower - which is rarely open apparently
lows
got sunburnt in vianden and now have a t-shirt mark across my shoulders
booked wrong date on train ticket to nice so had to stay in paris for an extra night
rained again when i got back to paris - i swear its just when im there
people i've met
more dormmates - abe from colorado, inessa from toronto, sabrina from california, monica an au pair from austria whose is currently working in luxembourg, a girl from korea, an american lady from boston (neither of who's names I can remember)
Sorry for being a bit incognito but Internet access is so expensive over here and I knew that I was heading for a hostel with free internet access so I was hanging out for that instead. It's been a while since my last entry so settle in for a long one.
So on the last day of my museum pass I headed to the Centre Pompediu (might have spelt that wrong), which is filled with contemporary art and isn't exactly my taste. Come on, I mean there was actually a big canvas painted navy blue and they call that art? The best part was actually the group of black kids who had gathered outside the museum that were having a kind of dance-off. They were in a circle and were cheering each other on as the took it in turns to go into the middle and do their thing. It was really cool.
After I looked around the museum I sat down in the square outside for a bit and a street performer came along and did some fire juggling and unicycling, which another nice bit of entertainment while I ate my apple that I paid $1.60 AUD for!!! There are actually heaps of buskers in Paris but the weird part (well for me anyway) is that they ride the metro and hold you captive while the play and then expect you to give them money when they finish. I just ignore them and they give up pretty soon.
I also went to the Musee D'Orsay on my last museum pass day, and got to see some Van Gogh and Monet painting in the flesh. I also saw the one of the lady sitting on the chair sideways. I don't remember who painted it, but I know i've seen it before? After that I was just about well and truly museum'd out, but I visited one last one - the Picasso Museum.
He has to be my favourite painter/sculpter, even though I hadn't seen much of his work before then, but there's something about the quirkyness of his interpretation of things that I really like. Geez will you listen to me, all those museums have really gone to my head!
The other great thing about the Picasso Museum is that it's located in one of the very few parts of Paris that I truly love. Before then I wasn't too impressed by Paris, and it took me until I got back to Paris and went back to that area to really enjoy being there. I think the secret to Paris is to find out which area you feel you belong in, and for me that's walking along the Rue de Rivoli in the 5th section eating a chocolate croissant (of course).
I met a guy in my dorm called Abe, who was from America but was born in Mexico, and had had his passport, credit cards, etc, stolen when he was sitting under the Eiffel Tower. He'd come to Europe to board with a German family over the summer and brush up on his already fluent German, but that all had to be cancelled once his stuff was stolen cause he couldn't leave France until he got a new passport, and that wasn't going to happen before he was supposed to be in Germany, so someone else got to go instead. The poor thing, I felt so sorry for him, here I was moaning about being over Paris and he'd been stuck there for going on 12 days waiting for a new passport from the Mexican Consulate and stressing about getting another entry visa into the USA or not. Not to mention that all his plans for the summer were ruined and he was just going to go back to working at Walmart instead.
Anyway I still had a couple of things to see and do, so after a big sleep in (which I hadn't done for a long time) I headed up to the Sacre Coeur to have a look around and check out the awesome view of the city from the top of the hill. And then on the last day I was in Paris I finally made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The weather was crap (naturally) so I couldn't see much from the 3rd floor but i'd already been up enough towers to know what the city looked like, and it was more about being there than about what I could see.
I left Paris and caught a train to Luxembourg on Tuesday 22 May, and wouldn't you know it the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day in Paris??? The train ride was about 3 hours long and it was about 33 degrees in Luxembourg the whole time I was there, which really surprised me cause I thought it would be cold up there. That will teach me for complaining about the rain in Paris, you should always be careful what you wish for cause you just might get it!
I stayed at the Luxembourg YHA which was a lovely change from having a dorm room with no door on the shower, however the shower was one of those water saver ones that turn off after a while, so you have to keep pressing the button and turn it back on, right about the time that you have soap in your eyes as well. Again, be careful what you wish for...
I was there for 2 days, so I headed into the old town on the first day to wander around and joined a 2 hour walking tour that was run by the local tourist office. The tour was really great actually, and I learnt tons about the country and city that I wouldn't have known otherwise, which wasn't hard seeings as I had no idea about Luxembourg before I went there. There aren't really any big sights or monuments to see there, so I probably wouldn't recommend that people go there over the millions of other places to see in Europe, but I was amazed at the history and the influence that such a small place has. So if someone was driving through Europe I think that stopping there for a night and doing something like the walking tour would be a good little detour for them.
On the second day I caught a train and a bus up to Vianden, which is a little town on the German border and there's castle there has been fully restored over the past 15 years or so. Again, not sure that it's worth going there just to see that but it's a really pretty little town and worth stopping for a look around if you're driving through that part of the world.
After that it was back to the big city on Friday 25 May for a night before catching the long train down to Nice, and I booked my ticket at the station before I trekked off to find the hostel that I was staying in that night. I found the hostel fine and dumped my stuff in my room, then I pulled out my train ticket to check what carriage I was in only to discover that the ticket was for Sunday 27 May and not Saturday like I wanted. So I trudged back to the station and was told that in the space of 2 hours since i'd booked my ticket the trains for the following day were all booked out, so I had no choice but to stay in Paris for yet another night.
I headed back to the hostel just as the heavens opened (surprise, surprise) and watched a dvd at the hostel while I ate the dinner I'd bought at the local supermarket. I was actually trying to avoid going to bed cause the hostel felt really creepy and at that time I was the only one in the dorm room. It was perfectly clean but it was really dark and dingy, and I felt like I was in a mental hospital or something. I went to bed finally and was too scared to go up the hall to the showers, so I just slept in my clothes and had a shower in the morning instead. Another girl came into the room later on so I felt better about sleeping there with someone else in the room with me.
The next morning I packed up my stuff and checked out cause there was no way I was staying there for another night, and so I trekked my stuff up to another hostel that I knew of in the 5th section (my favourite area) and checked in there for my last night. It stretched beyond my budget a bit, hence why I didn't stay there in the first place, but it was totally worth it and if I ever go back to Paris i'll stay there again for sure.
I got up bright and early this morning (well by my standards anyway) and headed off to the train station to catch my 5.5 hour train to Nice. The trip didn't really feel that long and once you hit the coast you cruise along by the water for and hour or so, so the view was lovely.
This hostel seems pretty cruisy and all of the people who work here are foreigners who came and didn't leave, so I hope i'm going to like staying here over the next 5 days/6 nights, but i'm pretty sure I won't stay any longer. I'm in a big 13 bed dorm which i'm not so sure about, but there is free internet access, so you win some and you lose some.
I'm looking forward to heading down to the beach for a swim and a sunbake, and i'm planning on heading out to Cannes and Monaco on a couple of day trips. No doubt you'll be hearing all about them before long while I have the chance to get on the web for free.
Until next time...
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Clarky
non-member comment
Be good ... or good at it.
Could have been worse mate ... an extra night in Luxembourg, for example! Enjoying the reads, just not getting notified of your updates, so keep me posted.