Day 1 - Paris

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Wow. What a first day. I landed already sleep deprived at about 9:30 am and have been going all day. I guess every country has its intricacies, and I had difficulty just buying a ticket from the airport to Paris. Basically, the automatic machines only take coin Euros or smart cards... and the coin changer was out of order... so I went and bought some candy (to get change), and they wouldn't. So, I ended up waiting in line for awhile to buy a ticket.

At any rate, after about two hours from the time I landed, I got to Paris. The first thing I did was reserve my ticket for tonight from here to Vienna on a sleeper car. After that I worked on figuring out the Metro subway system and went to the Louvre.

Okay, the Louvre, in short, was awesome. Not because of the Mona Lisa or the statue of Aphrodite with her arms missing (not to mention what looks like a chipped nipple), but because of some of the most amazing paintings, scupltures, ceiling paintings (not sure what they are called), and the beauty and gargantuan size of the museum itself. Because of the tight schedule, I only spent two hours there. But I could easily spend three or four days soaking it all up (and, indeed, I want to one day when I have more time... and I'll also get the headphone tour since everything is in French). I don't really know how to explain the size, except that it seemed at least twice (maybe three times) as big as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

After that I walked around quite a bit, making my way towards the Eiffel Tower. During this, I stopped at a few shops and bought baguette sandwiches (at least, I think that is what they were) and a dessert (a layered moist cake with chocolate called an "Opera").

The Eiffel Tower seemed bigger in person... and a lot more intricate. I didn't go up in it, but I probably will try to make it before I go to Bahrain.

Next up was the Arc de Triomphe. It is the big arch surrounded by a huge roundabout. The detail of the designs and the sculptures were interesting to look at, and it made for some interesting photos.

Besides a lot more walking and subway riding, I also stopped by a McDonald's to use the restroom... very odd for two reasons: 1. It had a "McCafè" that copies the pastry shops around here (and it looked pretty good, too); 2. The restroom was very close to the check-out counter and the door was wide open while the urinals were just on the other side... so you can kind of lean back and see outside the restroom.

Now it is on to Vienna. The train will leave here at about 10:45 pm and arrive in Vienna at 1:45 pm... quite awhile. And then tomorrow night I'm plannning on taking a train to Belgrade to stay there for a week.

Note: In addition to the photos here, I will post the rest (about 50 more) soon. The Internet Cafè computer will not load the Yahoo! upload tool, so I have to wait on posting those.

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Photos

Found it!
Weaving through the streets, I had lost track of where I was in relation to the Eiffel Tower.

Duckie and Paddington
Hanging out with the birds.

Eiffel Tower
Yes, I am in one photo :)

Arc de Triomphe -2
View from underneath it.

Arc de Triomphe -3
Side view.

Comments

[Rebecca]

cute, Henry, real cute, that duckie....is that yours???

[Robert]

nice
man that is awesome, I hope to see more pics