Even the vending machines in Belgium give you beer. My kind of place!With the train rides made, we can at last set out to the big city, the numbero uno destination for all travelers throughout the world. Paris. I hope it lives up to the high standards it has (possibly pretentiously) set for itself. Should be an interesting final hurrah.
Well, it would be if we had the foresight to actually write down the directions to our already reserved place of stay. Whoops. Such is life. As a result of this we were forced to wander around aimlessly (In the rain no less, but at least it has been our only rainy day throughout the entire trip) until giving into stopping into another hotel to see if we could purchase an hour or so of wireless. Normally we would have tried to find a McDonald's (they all have wifi usually) or some sort of internet cafe, but the neighborhood was completely barren of these outposts of modern times. At this point we were pretty hungry too, so we took a quick stop at a local bakery and had some true french croissants and chocolate filled ones (not exactly filled, just a tiny bit inside which makes them more of a lunch object than a sugar filled nightmare).
The place we managed to stop in was pretty much the most lavish hotel I have ever seen in my life. It was flocking with elderly and middle aged Americans who were more than happy to part with about seven hundred and fifty euro a night (the big suits were 5k :-O ). Geesh, I don't know how anyone could empathize with that kind of decadence. As there weren't a whole lot of other hotels in the area, we decided to stick here and harass the already busy clerks at their desks.
The pleasant and kind young lady at the desk quickly turned into a sour wench when she discovered we were indeed not staying at this establishment. She tried to look up the location for us, but had no luck. I couldn't understand this at ALL. So many times we have had people search for us, and they have a great deal of difficulty finding anything. We were able to finally get an hour of wireless for 7E (yikes). We were willing to pay it so we didn't spend our only day in the big city wandering around like fools.
At last, we managed to find our hotel ( a mere several blocks away ) and were able to check in and get our room so we could drop off all our baggage.. in 20 minutes. We stopped at a local bakery and had a sandwich and some (french word here). Now we could do things!
And so.. we strode down the Champs el 'eses. The first section of this well known famous road of france was smothered with lavish parks in which the french could salute themselves at how lavish it was. The second area, was basically a gigantic strip mall. Many big names (Mcdonalds, Disney, Adidas) had claimed their own little portion of this highly expensive road to say "look at me!".
At last, we had finally reached the end of this long and busy (12 lanes of busy) stretch to the focal point at the end, the Arc De Triumph. The thing to remember here, is it really isn't the only "Arc De Triumph". Every single battle/war that the French felt was a great victory resulted in the construction of one of these, but this one, just happens to be the biggest and arguably the best. So the parisians have dubbed this monument as THE Arc De Triumph. Anyways, we took a quick look around at it.
Really? They actually won something? :O!
These French guys were trying to play golf, using the tomb of the unknown soldier as the first hole. This old guy was not pleased at all. It's funny how you can tell exactly what someone is saying when they're just THAT angry, regardless of the language.
Don't forget the underside, it's ornate too!Afterwards we went back down to the river (name?) and checked out one of the most overrated structures in history, the Eiffel Tower. I deemed it worthy to glance at from the other side of the river, but that was as far as I decreed we should go.
pshhh it's not that big..Our next destination was the big cathedral, the Notre Dam. Well, it is big, but don't let the name mislead you into thinking it is the biggest. It's more of the most famous because of its history (being "gothic" aka "barbaric" and almost destroyed) and the fact that it's the most well rounded (think of 4/5 on all categories, as other cathedrals might have a 5/5 in one, but a 2/5 in another). The lines were long, but they moved quickly. Along the way we were asked "do you speak english" (always say "non" "nyet" "nein" as they just want to strike you up for money) and if we wanted an umbrella for 5E (it was still raining, but just a very very slight drizzle). Ahh the tourist trap hazards. At any rate, we found our way inside, checked around it and then left.
Here's the back of it, i think this shot looks much better than: the low lighted interior "no flashes!" <-- Our country mates took them anyway, of course and the front, coated with a writhing mass of people. Now, I like history, and Museums are pretty fun, but we were running low on time. I really did want to see what was proclaimed "the biggest and best museum in the world" so we went at a brisk pace to the Louvre. Only having about an hour, we set out to look at the various areas with gusto. I was surprised at how much empty space there was, but I suppose it made sense since the building used to be a gigantic palace for the king. It was kind of irritating, as you had to walk all over the place to see something that you would think could have been easily fit into something much smaller. I was also baffled at the fact that a lot of the pieces had no descriptions at all, so everyone was forced to get one of those exceptionally irritating (and expensive) ear devices just to learn the history of an object. At any rate, I got to see a lot of cool art and such in the few hours I was there. 
I hold the art of the world in the palm of my hand!
I even got a picture of a hot babe, she's not very photogenic though
I can has mummification.. nom nom nomWe set out for my last european meal, to a local (and recommended by our hotel clerk) crepe eatery. What's crepe? Why a "pancake" with anything you well please inside. They're pretty good.
Crepes makes me strong! "The Popeye"
Desert Crepes make me large... mmmmAs I had a day full of traveling on the morrow starting at a very early time, we said our farewells to the big city and let our minds wander into that mental state which allows rest.
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