Paris 2

Well I'm still working on uploading more videos that I have taken.  I'm quite proud of my videos.  I know the one I just posted is a little old, but I just realized I could post videos in here, lol.  I figured out how to post them, lol.  They should be up soon enough.

Okay, now that that's happening it's time to get back to business!!  So Friday was a day of traveling and then it was time for Saturday!!!  Saturday Hollie wanted to go to Synagogue and in case you didn't know, there's like no Synagogues in Spain.  So she found one in Paris and wanted to go because she hadn't been at all since she'd been here.  She offered to go and come back for me but I said that would be silly and I would accompany her. It's not like I'm not accustomed to being inside different churches and attending different services.  I always find it a bit interesting.  So we went to Synagogue at around 10:30.  That was an interesting experience, let me tell you.  First we had to get our bags checked, which made me concerned and saddened that they have probably been harassed to the point where they fear for their safety.  Then on top of this being a religion I don't really know much about, it was all in French. haha I was looking at a book that was backwards, in not one, but two languages I didn't understand (french and hebrew). Needless to say I was lost the entire time, and we even thought we had stumbled into a Bar/Batmitzvah (I have no idea which is which) because there was a young boy doing like half the stuff.  We couldn't figure out who the rabbi was and who was in charge.  It was slightly entertaining and comical for me, but very interesting.  I enjoyed it and seeing another side of religion, especially since Judaism is so close to Christianity, I mean it was was Jesus was...  Anyways, it was interesting and we got out at around noon.

It was perfect timing for us to go to....THE LOUVRE MUSEUM.  Yup, that's the one.  The one from "The Da Vinci Code" (which I just bought in Spanish) and the one that has a bunch of famous pieces in it, like the Mona Lisa, and the Headless Wings and a Michaelangelo piece.  Yup.  So we headed over there and grabbed a bite to eat first.  We weren't really feeling the whole 'pay an arm and a leg' for lunch thing so we walked around the corner and there was a nice super market that had a nice little area for us to eat.  We got some frozen pizza, crackers, cookies and a drink.  They had a microwave for us to use so we ate our lovely 6 euro lunch and people watched.  Then it was off to the Louvre!

 Did you knoooow that the Louvre is three buildings put together.  It also used to be a Palace, which explains  its enormity.  And the cool Pyramid that they have in the center was their way of connecting all three buildings.  You used to have to buy a ticket for one building, then leave and go to another to see everything. They wanted to make a way so people could travel within without leaving, so they had some Chinese guy invent this cool Pyramid.  It was supposed to be see through and self-supporting but something about a billion tons of glass just didn't want to be self-supporting.  Oh well, it's a really sight to see.

So that's meee!! There were awesome blocks, which you can see in the background that you could use to put your finger on top of the pyramid.  You could try to do it on top of the big one, but you had to go to the other side and that was too much work.  Plus it was a lot harder to do.  So we settled for this image, which I still thinks is pretty cool.  Then on the right is a picture of just part of the Louvre.  It's massive, and I only got a part of it in the picture.  But I think you pretty much get the picture.

Off to inside we went!! Also, did you know that pretty much everything I did in Paris was.....FREE.  Yup, as a student, and with a student visa, I get a butt load of things for free.  All the museums I went into were free.  And many other things.  The Louvre, which usually costs like 10 euro was 100% free, and that was awesome.  So me and Hollie were able to stroll on in and get out free tickets.  We then made a game plan.  The Louvre is so big you'd literally have to spend months inside in order to see everything.  So we decided to hit up the things we wanted to see the most.  We were originally going to head for I think some Egyptian art and then see the famous stuff later, but we walked in the wrong direction and ended up going towards the main attraction.  We walked around and saw a bunch of cool things and then ended up running into The Winged Victory of Somothrace.  That's the wings without the head, that's really famous.  It was huuuge!! And really pretty actually.  So that's me and that's for reference, so you have an idea of how big that thing is!  Then we headed in the direction of that masses.  While it was nice to know that we were headed somewhere it was hard to walk through people, and it was really loud because most people were there to see one thing, and one thing only...Mona Lisa.

So that brings me to my next paragraph.  The Mona Lisa is pretty cool.  I have to admit it kind of sucks seeing her from about 12 feet away and through about a foot of bullet proof glass, stupid person that ruined it for everyone.  The painting is very small and it's kind of hard to see her because there is literally a mosh pit of people around her trying to take a picture of it.  So people def don't tell you about the mass of people around the painting, but it's very cool to see.  I didn't stay very long people there were so many people and I was honestly fearing for my purses safety (perfect spot for pick-pocketers).  But just to prove to you that I saw it..here you go.  P.S If you click on the pictures they are enlarged and you can see them better, haha idk if any of you know that.

So after I went through the most pit to see the Mona Lisa we meandered around the museum.  I loved looking at all the renaissance art, but I decided that I could forego looking at all of it because I figure I'll see my fill in Italy in about a month.  But I really liked the religious pieces and many other pieces that were there.  I really started getting into the art, mostly because I know a little bit about them.  I wandered into Egyptain stuff with Hollie and saw some pretty cool Egyptian statues, some Sphinx's , and other things.  Then after wandering around we wanted to split.  I really wanted to look at more Roman and Greek sculpture because I learned so much about it in Art and Politics.  There was also a Michelangelo piece that I wanted to see.  On my way I saw Venus de Milo and Psyche and Cupid.  I really honsetly didn't even know what the name of Psyche and Cupid  was when I saw it.  I really just saw some people standing around it and realized it was really pretty.  I didn't spend too much time on it because I was on a time crunch, but I spent just enough to admire it and realize how pretty it was.  I ended up buy a postcard with a picture of it because I thought it was gorgeous.  Then I saw  Michelangelo piece called Captive (The Dying Slave).  Not gonna lie...it was alright.  Mostly it was Michelangelo so it was pretty cool to see it.  But I also didn't have much time to stare at it so I couldn't appreciate it funny.  There were some other things I would have liked to see, but we had already spent more than 2 hours there and we really want to go to the the D'Orsay Museum to see some Impressionism.  

So we finally left the Louvre at around 4, after buying out post cards and little such things.  Because it was a pretty crappy day outside we decided to continue on with our museum kick and go to Musee D'Orsay.  This is the other really famous museum in Paris that has a ton of impressionism.  For those of you who can't remember what that is...that's Van Goh, Monet, Manet, and other famous people.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but that's okay, it was almost better that way.  I totally was able to appreciate these pieces because I was able to just look at them, rather than fight people taking pictures.  So I saw some Van Goh and a tooon of Monet.  They had a huge collection of his stuff and I really liked a lot of them.  I got a magnet with my favorite one of it because I thought it was really pretty.  The place was really big too.  The only picture I have is of the inside as a whole.  There was a balcony where you could see almost the whole museum and it was really big and cool!

We stayed at the museum until it close and they kicked us out, which was at about 5:30-6.  Then we decided that we didn't quite want to head back, so we'd head towards the Eiffel Tower.  It was getting dark so we decided that by the time we get to it night would be falling and we'd be able to see it all lit up.  I heard rumors that it lights up and is really pretty at night, but I wasn't expecting what I saw.  Basically I took about a million pictures of the Eiffel Tower, so I'm sorry for the bombardment on FB.  But it was soo pretty and I couldn't help to take more photos.  We got there and there was a group of friends doing the typical touristy thing...opening a bottle of wine in front of the Eiffel Tower and enjoying the view.  It was pretty funny.  Hollie and I took our obligatory pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower and even fooled around with out cameras and took some artsy ones.

Then we wandered around and looked at the food vendors around and under it.  At first we thought eating on the Eiffel Tower was cheap because the electronic menu was misleading.  But then we realized it was lunch that was cheap, NOT dinner.  So we scratched that idea and decided to grab some Crepes and look at the tower.  So we went across the street to the carousel and got some food from the vendor.  Then we sat down and waited for the light show to start...yup, you heard me...light show.  Even thought the Eiffel Tower is gorgeous all lit up every hour from 7-2 they light the tower up and it sparkles for a full 5 minutes.  I love it, the people that live around it probably hate it, but I love it!  Sooo we sat down at the carousel and waiting for it to start sparkling.  It's soooo pretty!!  I took a video because I thought it was so cool.  Here it is!!  I know it's not long, but it's just long enough to get the idea.  I also know that it's sideways, sorry...

My first crepe!

But that's pretty much what my entire day was.  After that we got really tired and wanted to go to sleep.  We had decided to go into Versialle the next day so we wanted to rest.  We also treated this time more like vacation, where we just took our time getting from place to place and enjoying what time we had in Paris.  Basically the whole time I was there I was just like "I'm in Paris, I'm studying abroad and traveled to Paris, this real, omg"  Basically that was me.  I really couldn't get over the fact that I was there and doing and experiencing these things.  It just really hit home while I was there, for some strange reason.  I wasn't even home sick, just so incredibly grateful for being there and being able to experience those things.  We walked back to the metro after getting hit on my some painfully obvious and obnoxious men, and my hair being pulled by an obnoxious French teenager, and then some more  rude men hitting on us.  Not that we wanted to go out, but if we had, that definitely killed the mood.  I definitely understood why some people said the French are extremely rude.  Near the touristy places they just want to murder you and ruthlessly make fun of you.  Needless to say I watched my volume more after that night.  We also saw a weird guy shout at the police officer to look at him pretending to shoot a duck with his cane....it was strange.  I can honestly say I saw many many strange things there.  Also, you would think that near the Eiffel Tower they would place a metro station that's easy to find...not so easy.  We got a bit lost, not very, but enough to be frustrated and confused.  We found it and headed back to our hostel on a metro filled with people, ugh, I hate full metros, they're so stinky and uncomfortable.

We made it back, feasted on our bread, nutella, fruit and crackers and headed in at around 11.  I wasn't very tired and had a hard time falling asleep, but that's mostly because it was really hot in the room.  I was also pumped to go to Versaille the next day.  YAY :) Hope you enjoyed this post.  One more left!!