Capítulo Veintiseis (Continued)

I wonder if there's a word limit on these blogs...probably not.

Okay, so where were we? Ah, Paris.

We get to our hostel, which had a lockout until 4; we got there around 12:30. We checked in, put our bags in storage, and then decided to start exploring the city, kind of just to get a feel for it. And guess who was the smart cookie and left her camera in her backpack? Yeah, that's me. So my camera was absent for the initially exploration of the city, which wouldn't be too big of a deal since we knew we'd be coming back to all these sites later, but still! Go me!

We walked around the Arc de Triumph and then got a fast, easy lunch at McDonald's...actually, we had McDonald's almost every day on this trip! Quite sad really, but we didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on food, and additionally, we didn't speak French/Italian, so we didn't know what was what. Hey, I'm not going to complain given that I do like McDonald's, but I think it's safe to say that I will be okay with not eating it for a while...

We went to the city's most iconic structure after lunch: the Eiffel Tower. We checked the prices for going up and (well Robby) took pictures for a little bit. Following the map, the popular Louvre and infamous Notre Dame (I think you know that I recently just re-watched that movie and was pretty excited to see this cathedral) was just down the street, not entirely close, but walking distance. We looked around the Louvre for a little bit before we met up with Robby's friend, Erin. She had a job in France and agreed to show us around a little bit while we were there. After meeting up with her, we walked to and looked around in Notre Dame for a little bit. The cathedral is definitely more impressive from the outside -- the architecture and the bell towers are extremely impressive, with the multiple statues and the giant, round stained-glass window in the dead center! The interior design really isn't too spectacular, though -- Canterbury's Cathedral definitely had it beat in that regard.

We grabbed some food after that (paninis and crepes), then metro'ed back to our hostal for the evening -- both of us were still tired, and neither one of us minded sleeping a little bit since we wanted to get up early and catch the Louvre early the next morning. We were in a dormitory with four people, but only had one roommate that night. It was an...interesting experience, because the guy was from Brazil and only spoke Portuguese (which, make no mistake, is very different from Spanish). We had some small communication issues (none which were drastic), but overall we got along alright.

Okay, so here's something to know about France (from what we were told from Erin and what we observed): they are always on strike in that country. The employees are never happy with their working conditions, so many places, especially touristic ares, are closed or do not have certain services. Now keep this in mind as we go through the next day or so.

We woke up early the next morning, got some breakfast, then metro'ed over to the Louvre...which was conveniently closed. It's closed on Tuesdays, which was not explicitly said to us at all. This was a little disappointing, because we knew we probably wouldn't get to see as much as we'd like of it -- there is absolutely no way anyone could go through the entire place in a single day. Three days are needed probably. Anyway, we just walked back down to Notre Dame, hoping to get some pictures of the inside and go up the bell tower. We had great luck there, too, as the cathedral was on strike (couldn't go up the bell towers) and there was a service going on inside (we were still allowed to go in but we didn't take pictures as to not be rude and interrupt). So we just took pictures from the outside, then walked our way back to the Eiffel Tower. On our way back, we encountered some scammers. A friend of Robby had warned him about the women who would pretend to drop a ring on the ground and attempt to give it to you, then force you to pay for it (this really didn't make much sense to me, but it apparently works...). We were never approached by these ladies, but we witnessed two attempts of it, one which was almost successful. It was good to have some forewarning of that. There are other scammers that we would encounter later, that thankfully Erin had warned us about.

At the Eiffel Tower, to save money, we decided to just climb the stairs for the first two floors. It was pretty tough, but thankfully, all of our walking/hill climbing had sort of prepared us for such an obstacle. We climbed all 657 stairs and enjoyed the view. Then we took an elevator the rest of the way up (the line was ridiculously long and it was cold, so it wasn't the most pleasant of all waits). The view once we got to the top was most definitely worth it! It was almost like being on the top of the Sears Tower (I refuse to call it Willis) and overlooking the whole city of Chicago. It was chilly, but it was a fantastic visual.

We got some McDonald's for lunch (again), re-explored the Arc de Triumph so I could get some pictures, then headed back to our hostal. We actually ended up going up the Basilica du Sacre Coeur, which was conveniently right up the hill of our hostal. At the foot of the hill of the basilica is where we encountered the other scammers: guys that would pull you aside, tie a bracelet to your wrist, then claim they can't get it off and force you to pay. Erin had given us warning about these creepy guys, and we did our best to avoid them. We got approached, but were able to evade their scam. We explored the interior part, which was like a classy church that's one step down from a cathedral. We went up to the dome, too, and got yet another gorgeous view of the city. We got to see the lights begin to turn on in the city, including those of the Eiffel Tower.

We went back down to our hostal and took a nap (I think we napped every day in Paris, if you include the fact that we went to bed early on Monday). We woke up, got some dinner (paninis) and then headed to the Arc de Triumph to see if we could go up that as well and get a good view. Well, guess who was on strike?

We left a little bit disappointed, but went to go catch the light show at the Eiffel Tower. Lots of tour groups had come to watch it. The area in general had a great view of it, but we got there early enough to get a good spot. The show was quite spectacular, though it lasted a bit longer than was expected (roughly 13 minutes, where we heard it would only be about five). The light show alone is probably where half of my pictures from Paris came from.

It was fairly late. We headed back to the hostal and turned in for the night. We woke up early again to once again try to catch the Louvre. AND GUESS WHO WAS ON STRIKE?! Thankfully, though, they let everyone in for free, though the strike still continued. Of course, the first thing we had to see was the Mona Lisa. That thing is so much smaller than I imagined! I knew it was only a portrait, but I still expected it to be bigger! Oh well, that didn't at all make it disappointing. I'm not going to go step by step through which exhibits we visited (we even got separated a few times), but some other cool things we saw were the Milo de Venus (the statue of Venus/Amphrodite with her arms missing) and the Mesopotamian ruins. Another funny thing that happened: the strike ended as we were in our first exhibit! So, once we got out to go to a different section, we had to go get a ticket...for us, it was free, since we were 'European Students' (mwah ha ha ha)! I have to admit, as much as I would have loved to have taken another day to see more of the Louvre, it was a bit overwhelming in the amount of content that it had. I mean, even looking at its enormous size from the outside doesn't tell you how much stuff is in here -- two or three stories, plus stretching all around? Yeesh!

We met up with Erin again after we 'finished' with the Louvre for the day. We got a small, panini lunch again, and then Erin took us to this really classy place that had really good hot chocolate (or so she hyped it up to be). That hot chocolate was definitely fantastic no doubt; it was like I was drinking pure, melted chocolate, almost like the chocolate you get with churros y chocolate. Really good stuff, though!

And here we have our third and final attempt at getting up that bell tower at Notre Dame. They weren't on strike and were letting people up! But guess who decided to inexplicably close the tower early just as we got there...I am never going to forgive that church for failing us twice!

We went back to our hostal, took a brief nap, then met up with Erin and her friends to go to the Christmas Market in the city! It was a cute street filled with stands of food, small gifts, toys, and so on. Really cool to see actually. I ended up getting a small gift for someone there, too! Afterwards, we took the metro back to the area with our hostal, but took a nice, jolly walk up the street just to get a picture of the Moulin Rouge. People had told us that this street was really sketchy, but we never felt unsafe -- there were tourists like us just there to get a picture, and there were police. We did however, feel a little bit...dirty. Seriously, almost every shop (with the occasional Donor Kebab or other food place) was a sex shop. I've never seen so many sex shop in one place...kind of creepy actually. Maybe that's why they called it a sketchy area.

Went to bed, got up early to catch the metro to catch the bus to the airport. We had a fairly early flight to Rome. I have to say, Paris, for being such a beautiful city, really has kind of a crappy airport. That's not to say it doesn't run well, but it looked like it was in a bunch of storage garage...could have just been our terminal, though.

Quick reflections on Paris: despite all the strikes and a few strange scammers, I absolutely loved this city. It was gorgeous, easy to navigate, never had a problem with the people there, the sidewalks and streets were really wide and provided a lot of space, it was clean, the metro ran well enough (not as good as Madrid, though, and what's with the doors opening before it comes to a complete stop?) and overall the city just had a great feel to it. It was a very, very comfortable city that I feel that I could bear to live in. It's one of the places I definitely want to come back to if I ever get to come back to Europe.

We got into Rome early afternoon. Got into our hostel right away, relaxed for a little bit, then headed out to the city. We grabbed McDonald's (AGAIN) on the way, then used the metro to get to the coliseum. This was top on my To See list, and it didn't disappoint. I'm surprised the structure is in as good of shape as it is for being so old, though it's obvious it's been damaged over the years (by earthquakes or whatever). On the inside, you could see the hypogeum (underground place for animals and people that would enter the arena) and the remains of old stairs and seating arrangements. I mean, it obviously wasn't as majestic or elegant as castle ruins, given it had a completely different purpose (probably considered cruel and unusual punishment) and different architecture, but really, it's an extremely impressive feat, especially given the time it was built. Shows you why the Romans were so damn influential on European culture. Still, is it sad that I was thinking about how many laps people would run around this thing? It was a lot like a track, only a wee bit smaller (roughly 85 by 48).

We caught The Arch of Constantine right outside the Coliseum, and then wanted to hit the forum and catch some old ruins of the ancient city, but we didn't make it out of the coliseum in time. We were kind of unsure what to do at that point, since we wanted to save The Vatican/St. Peter's Basilica for the following day (both take a long time). But as luck would have it, we ran into a couple classmates from Carlos III while walking around! Really, thinking that we'd run into people we knew when there's all of Europe to explore! The good thing was that they'd been in Rome for a few days and knew some good places to explore.

We accompanied them to the one place they hadn't yet hit: the popular Spanish Steps. Apparently, the Pope had been there recently and had done a ceremony. Neat little fact. On the top of the steps was a church, which was kind of like the Sacre Coeur, only smaller. Then, the two we had met were off to a different part of Italy, but gave us some recommendations, which was perfect. We followed our map and first went to the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, which was pretty neat. Of course, this came at the cost of trying to avoid some really nasty drivers/traffic. Seriously, European drivers are awful as it is, but it was noticeably worse here I think because it seemed like there were not appropriately placed signs or stoplights. Like my host had warned me ahead of time: Rome's transportation all around is a mess.

We went to the Trevi Fountain, which was another pretty popular place. There were quite a few small pizza places around there, and also, GELATO! Robby got really excited when he saw a Gelato/Nutella combo, and immediately went for it. Honestly I don't know how I resisted...but as for the fountain itself, it was amazing! The statues with the water pouring down below the one of Jupiter (dead center) was really great to see in its full size. The night lighting also added to its beauty. Of course, there had to be more scammers here, too -- people would walk around asking if people wanted them to take pictures of them with their less than impressive cameras, and then charge them for it; if you had a camera, they'd offer to take a picture with your camera, then take a picture with theirs and force you to pay. I'm really glad I'm learning to defend myself against things like this.

We turned into the hostel early that night, too -- once again dreaded plane ride saps your energy, and we wanted to get up early to get to the Vatican. This would be our final night in a hostel (hurray) as we would be heading to Perugia the next day to stay with Chenna again!

And then the next morning, in the bar while eating breakfast, we came across two more people who were from nuestra universidad. We couldn't believe it. Twice in Rome? Apparently this was a good weekend to come to Italy! And what good timing that they were going to the Vatican that day! We stuck together as a group of four and went to the Vatican together. While I'm sure you could spend more than a day in here, too, this place had nothing on The Louvre as it didn't have anywhere as much, and that may have been a good thing. The most important thing we saw there was the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's great creation with the well-know Creation Of Adam fresco. It reminded me a lot of the things I'd seen in los palacios en Espana, but completely different art style, making it a unique feeling. The whole thing was breath taking, really. Painting on the walls, the ceiling, everywhere! Any art major could probably sit in there for hours just observing and studying it. Quite an in-depth piece of work. The other important part of the Vatican was the collection of Rafael, which was amazing in a similar sense, just not as big.

Then we went to St. Peter's Basilica, which was almost as good as any cathedral. It was yet another one of those things that cannot be justified by a picture in terms of size -- the interior was just so tall, and standing under the dome made you feel really small. We actually got a chance to go up the dome and onto the roof to get a good site of the city. But good lord, those stairs were absolutely malicious! They were literally at an angle, in addition to being steep and in a narrow passage! It was quite a workout to get up the hundreds of stairs, but worth it overall.

We were ready to stuff our faces with food at this point, so we took our friends back to the Trevi Fountain (which they hadn't seen yet) and grabbed some pizza. And yes, the pizza in Italy is definitely different and even more scrumptious than it is in the US. Maybe not as fat, but the different toppings and sauces (sometimes) they put on it is delicious. Oh yeah, we got gelato after that, too...talk about fattening.

After spending a little bit of time at the fountain, we went to the Pantheon, which is free (the best kind of tourist attraction). The Pantheon was really only one room, but it was really cool from both the outside (with its tall pillars holding the structure up) and the in (pretty statues and the grave of Rafael, and a huge hole in the ceiling!). This was definitely one of Rome's highlights.

We walked back to the hostel and just sat back and played cards for a while until Robby and I had to catch our train to Perugia. The other two were pretty beat, too, as it had been a long day and they hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. It was definitely nice running into all those people while there -- the more the merrier!

Long train ride to Perugia, but we finally made it. Chenna was there waiting for us. She took us to get some pizza, then we headed back to her place. She had a final the next day (on a Saturday?) so we didn't want to disturb her too much. That was okay, though, because we were beat and pretty much fell asleep the instant we laid down.

Next day, we slept in (first time in weeks!), got ready and went to Florence after Chenna's final. We took the mini-metro (seriously the cutest form of transportation ever) to the station, but we got there a wee bit late. That was okay, though, because we grabbed lunch (McDonald's...) before we left then. Florence had a couple of museums to offer and a couple of good restaurants. There was a peaceful (yet rather large) anti-fascist protest going on, so we did our best to avoid that. There were cops everywhere, even upon our initial arrival, so we knew something was going on. Luckily it wasn't anything bad.

But really...these museums were a joke, and were it not for a few very important, well-known pieces, these places would have nothing to offer. First museum we went to was literally like a hole in the wall. There were a few sculptures and a kind of neat little music exhibit, but the real attraction there was the statue of David. And I mean, going to that museum was worth it for that alone, but you'd think given that it's a museum there would be, you know, more. David, though, probably the coolest statue I've seen ever. First of all, it's so much bigger than I'd imagined. I'd seen pictures of this thing and thought, "Oh, it's maybe twice my size at best." No. It was four times my size. Absolutely gigantic! But what a sophisticated work it was! So smooth and kept in great shape, and the detail of the human body was accurate and according to scale, which is nice to see. The next museum was better in the sense that it actually looked like a museum. It had quite a few sculptures and paintings, but the real eye catchers were The Birth of Venus and a rare piece by Leonardo da Vinci.

We went to get dinner at a place recommended by Chenna's roommates. It was an American Bar, so we were excited to get a first taste of the American food that was only weeks away (and now, only days). Chenna and I got milkshakes for the first time in a while, and they tasted like frosting. No joke. It was so heavenly! God, can you tell I miss American food? I really enjoy my host's cooking and Spanish food isn't bad, but I need my American.

We went back to Perugia at that point, and decided that we were going to go out into the little city. It was Chenna's last weekend in Italy, so it was good that she went out. She took us to a small bar that had really good music, and was surprisingly busy (it's usually not that crowded apparently). It was a good time, though. It wouldn't be fair to compare it to a discoteca in Madrid. For it's size, it was a real nice place to party at. Robby and I turned in after that (tired and had an early train to catch into Pisa) and let Chenna enjoy the night with her friends for the final weekend. We watched the first episode of Glee on her computer (actually pretty entertaining -- good music) and then crashed.

Next and final morning of Eurotrip, we got up, Chenna took us back to the train station, and we said our goodbyes until next semester. We took the train to Pisa, which as you probably know, has the world famous leaning tower. Many had told us that that was pretty much all it had, and to be fair, that's probably true, but I'm really glad I got to see it. It's not as tall as I imagined, but I mean, seeing this big tower sitting at an angle, with your own eyes, really dazzling. We did climb up it, too, and it was awkward to climb, I must say. Obviously, the tilt may have had something to do with that...but yeah, it almost felt like I was losing my balance at some points, but then I just had to remind myself that it's just the tilt...it really wasn't sitting at that much of an angle. The top was pretty neat, too, once again nice view of the city.

We took lots of pictures of it, then entered the cathedral sitting next to it. It looked better from the outside, especially from the top of the leaning tower where you can completely see its cross-shaped layout. Inside's not too particularly inspiring, but hey, I've seen a lot of cathedrals by now. Couldn't have hurt to see another, right? we weren't allowed into the Baptistry part of it, unfortunately.

The rest of the time was us jumping from modes of transportation to other modes of transportation. Another long train ride from Pisa to Rome (God, after this trip and Madrid, I am so done with trains, too), then grabbed a taxi to the airport. Again, we wanted to save money by just crashing in the airport and waiting for our early flight. This was the worst airport sleeping experience I've had. First, we got moved from one place to another (the departure area with check-in and security and all the gates was closing until 4), and this place was utterly freezing. There were no chairs or booths to crash in, so we were stuck with the floor, and the floor was also cold. Heck it may have been even warmer outside, if it hadn't been raining. Seriously, it was an awful experience that I will hopefully not have to repeat.

But we survived, and made it back to Madrid, where we could sleep and relax.

Quick thoughts on Italy: I really liked the stuff I saw, and I am so glad that I got to see the coliseum (which I've been dying to see for years) but honestly, it was just expensive. I spent so little in Paris, another reason why I loved it, but for what I didn't spend in Paris I certainly spent here. I think transportation had a lot to do with that, but even mere entrances to a lot of these places were just overpriced (I'm sure they have to do that in order to produce the funds they need to maintain these historical places, but still, it was a lot). Rome itself was kind of a messy city, too, in the sense of organization and traffic, as well as just overall cleanliness. Example: the metro looked ghetto as hell, covered with graffiti and the general area not cleaned too well.

This entire trip really makes me want to learn another language, though! I feel as though I could pick up Italian fairly easily since it's pretty similar to Spanish. I'm not sure what other language I'd want to learn, though. French would be pretty cool, but useless at the same time. I think the other most useful language learn if you're a United States citizen (other than Spanish) is probably Mandarin Chinese, and I'm kind of hesitant to learn that just because...well, it's tough as nails. All the different symbols, having to take extra precaution of the sounds you make (you have to do that with a lot of languages, but not to the extent of Asian languages), and it's not comparable to anything I've ever learned. Still, it would be a fun challenge, and like I said, this trip has definitely inspired me to one day try!

Oh geez, speaking of languages, I was really messed up this entire trip. In France, I was speaking Spanish or English most of the time (I usually tried speaking Spanish to other people before English...only to find that that was an epic fail), and then once I got to Italy, I was using random French frases I had learned. My speech pattern is probably permanently scarred from my whole study abroad journey.

Well, this post is dreadfully long. The next post is going to be my last to wrap this whole thing up. It's going to be hard to write, because I feel there are truly no words that can describe this whole experience appropriately.

Hasta pronto!

~ LSquared