Now to finish my story while sweating it out in my incredibly hot room which shouldn't be so hot considering it is only about 68 degrees outside. Ah the joys of top floor rooms with no air conditioning.
I was the first to wake up the next morning so I got in the shower. It was actually bigger than the ones we have at Palace Court but it had a weird feature. You pushed in the knob to get the water but after a few seconds it popped back out and the water stopped. Thus you had to restart your water countless times during the shower which made it quite annoying and seem very inefficient. I have to say when I stepped out it was much like showering in China where you didn't actually feel cleaner but just kind of hoped you were.
After the other girls plus Adrian showered in our shower, we set off. Another strange feature of this hostel is you can't take your key with you when you leave but must leave it at reception to retrieve when you return. I suppose this makes sense if you are staying with strangers and don't want to have to wait for them to get back in your room but since we were all together I didn't think it really had a point. We left our keys and went for breakfast. It was omelettes all around and Molly got laughed at for requesting ketchup. Not really in a malicious way but laughed at all the same. Then we made for the Eiffel Tower.
I hate beneath the Eiffel Tower. I really do. It completely destroys any kind of romance Eiffel may have had at one point but really doesn't now. First of all there are about a bazillion people all waiting in horrendously long lines for the various elevators. It didn't help that when we were there only two of them were working. Then there are the armies of gypsies going around asking "Speak English?" and if you are gullible enough to say yes they hand you an index card with some sob story written on it in English and they won't go away until you give them money. Thanks to Jamie Goedde's Facebook note on just this subject I knew not to mistake them for lost tourists needing directions and to just ignore them. Still they were extremely annoying. Lastly, there are the armies of black/middle eastern men (this is not racism it is true) jingling illegal Eiffel Tower trinkets and asking you to buy them. Then a police officer will come up and they will run away halfheartedly but the police officer never even tries to catch them. All of this combined makes underneath the Eiffel Tower a less than exciting experience.
The monster lines made us decide to take the stairs since that line was significantly shorter than the ones for the elevators. So I ended up climbing 700 stairs up and 700 down and here is the scary thing: it wasn't hard. I know, I know, me, Caty Natt, who was constantly being yelled at in gym class for not doing anything had no problems climbing 700 stairs. I blame climbing up six flights of stairs every day to my room plus the manual labor I do at work plus all the walking I do to various sights around London. This was when I fully realized just how good for me London has been the past 3 weeks. I have to say it felt kind of cool.
The views from the Eiffel Tower were of course beautiful and I could pick out most of the other major landmarks such as Notre Dame and Sacre Couer. You had to pay extra to go up to the third platform and the line was heinous so I along with Molly, Lindsay, and Jin decided that the 1st and 2nd were good enough for us and we would go wait for Phil and Adrian at the bottom. We sat on some steps next to one of the four pillars and people watched. Really this meant watching naive tourists get swindled out of money by the gypsies and harassed by the illegal Eiffel Tower trinket sellers. It was kind of amusing to watch the trinket sellers run away from the police but eventually that too wore out. We were also cursed by a gypsy when we ignored her "Speak English?" which made us somewhat uncomfortable especially in the wake of Drag Me to Hell . We then decided to head to the Champs de Mars, the field right in front of the Eiffel Tower, to wait for Phil and Adrian and take pictures. Sadly, I didn't get the stereotypical picture I wanted with a guy twirling me around while the camera is slightly tilted and black and white but then again it has to be raining too and it was a beautiful day out. So no obnoxious L'Amour Paris or whatever poster picture for me.
We were then supposed to check out the catacombes, which was my pick on the itinerary. Well, after having an enormous chicken lunch, we got to the catacombes entrance and there was a long line. No problem we thought, it was 3:30 and it didn't close until 5. However, the line doesn't move. Literally in 20 minutes we moved maybe 3 feet. Then this guy who works at the catacombes comes up and says they stop letting people in at 4 and we won't make it through the line in time. Great. I was pissed. Not at anyone but just at the world for denying me what I had most wanted to do in Paris. So we had to move on to the Pantheon and not get to see tunnels of dead people's bones. The world is cruel.
The Pantheon was pretty as most churches are, though the Pantheon is no longer a church but a national monument or something. The most interesting part was the large number of notables that have tombs in the crypt. Rousseau, Voltaire, Zola, Dumas, Hugo, Curie, Braille, all buried there. Rousseau and Voltaire had the grandest tombs even the architect of the Pantheon didn't get as ornate a tomb as them. Somehow I missed the commemoration plaque to Antoine de Saint Exupery, writer of Le Petit Prince , which kind of made me angry once I found out it was there.
When we left the Pantheon it was still early so we headed for Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. There were probably hundreds of people on the Butte Montmartre basking in the sunshine in front of Sacre Coeur. After climbing the various stairs to reach the top of the hill and Sacre Coeur itself, we came upon two street performers. They were basically French Budapi Brothers except they didn't juggle but messed around with cups on strings and a crystal ball. Hard to explain really. They captivated most of the crowd being somewhat good-looking but I was fairly unimpressed.
We went inside Sacre Coeur which was beautiful like all churches, especially Catholic ones, are. This one was notable though because we came in during what I presume was a service and nuns were singing our entire visit. No hills were alive however. There was also a huge painting on a dome above the altar of Jesus that was made up of a large amount of gold paint. It was pretty incredible. Though I admit this visit also made me sad because I saw all of this beauty and work dedicated to Christianity but there are so many other religions with equal beauty and work and yet some or all of them have to be wrong. That made me sad thinking about which ones were wrong and if any of them were right. Really deep philosophical stuff. Perfect to prepare me for our next stop at the Pigalle red light district.
Pigalle was ostensibly for the Moulin Rouge but then we came acress Sexodrome. Seriously, that was what the store was called. It was a massive three story building with mannequins performing sex acts in the window displays. We all laughed and took pictures but then Jin decided to go in. So Phil, Adrian, and I followed suit while Lindsay and Molly went to find the Moulin Rouge. Sexodrome was a disappointment. It seemed to be like any other adult shop you could find in America except much more expensive. The boys and I indulged our inner immaturity for a little while, pointing and laughing at the various toys and DVDs for sale, and then went to find Lindsay and Molly. We found the Moulin Rouge and then went to eat a few blocks away. I decided to get a banana split for dinner since I really hadn't had any ice cream in a good while and thoroughly enjoyed it. This was one of the best meals we'd had with everyone enjoying their pasta, French bread, and wine.
At last, we were ready to head back to the hostel. We stopped for a few more drinks at a local sidewalk cafe where I enjoyed some delicious hard cider from a very pretty green jug. Then we, of course, got crepes again. The crepe seller loved that we were American and kept going on and on about Obama and how awesome he was. We all played along with his enthusiasm until we got our crepes and then we took off fairly quickly. Another full day of touring meant we were all asleep within an hour, though our neighbors were even louder and more obnoxious than the ones the night before.
In the morning we simply woke up, went to the train station, got breakfast, and left. CGT was still there making noise to see us off and I once again fell asleep against the headrest and really can't tell you anything about taking the Eurostar except you will in all likelihood pass out for the entire journey. My overall impression of Paris is that it is highly overrated and overhyped but then again most places are. Of course I was only there for a weekend nor did I have my significant other with me so maybe that is the key to finding the true beauty and romance of Paris. I was really glad to be back in London in fact we all were. We all talked about how we felt like we were truly coming home after being on vacation when really London is our vacation too. It is just different when you live, work, and study somewhere rather than just sightseeing. I do feel very comfortable and at home in London and should I ever get the opportunity I would live here in an instant.
Here I have caught you all up with my weekend. Yesterday after returning and today are probably going to be spent playing catch up with work I haven't done and making the most of time to myself since Lacey won't return with her group from Paris until late tonight. Maybe I will do something worth talking about on Tuesday but for now it is just chill time.
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