Part 51b: The Epic Blog of Paris (cont..)

Tuesday:
On Tuesday we woke up pretty early with the intentions of avoiding any long queues at Versailles. So much for that. After getting up, having another French breaky and training our way to Versailles (with some difficulties, but our brilliant problem solving got us there pretty easily!) we arrived and stared at the masses of people standing in a line. I mean, I have never seen a line this long in my life. Ever. It was epic. We thought, well we have no other reason to be here, but to go into the castle... so we joined the line only to realise that this was the line for people who already had tickets... We then looked over to see another EPIC line that you needed to join to buy tickets... It was crazy. I mean there were SO many people I couldn't believe it. We decided instead of lining up, to go get lunch and check out the gardens.

The gardens were pretty awesome. They were so pretty and perfect and everything was laid out and trimmed so precisely it blew me away. We decided to get our lunch out (Croissants and Nutella Lion sandwiches) and we sat on the steps in the gardens and munched away, only to be disappointed because that sandwich that I made that morning had gone digusting and not crunchy. I was so sad. It ruined my day :P

Eventually, we decided 'right we're here, lets go check it out.. i guess...' Well, not quite like that. Louisa was really keen to go in and I was slightly intregued so we left to line up. After 2 hours of I spy and standing around in queues, we finally made it in to the castle. It was a verrrrrry pretty castle in the inside and so intricately detailed and such, I was very much impressed. Each room was a different colour or had an amazing amount of paintings and stunning sculpture like things. Wow. Its amazing that people actually lived there. Who the hell would need it?! I mean I am in awe of the architects... BAH! Okay, Versailles is so worth it, if you dont mind great masses of people walking around everywhere. Hehe. Still, very very pretty. Very amazing and I am glad I did it.

When we left the Chateau we went over to a local cafe... okay, so it was starbucks but still, it was cheaper than the Cafe next door... then we trained back into Paris city Centre. We bummed around for a while and then though we should make our way over to the Moulin Rouge, which we were kinda keen to check out because we hadnt done it already. We caught the Metro in and then we made our way to the Moulin rouge which was ... well... yea whatever. Red with a windmill on the top. Cool whatever. Oh there was an Oz Bar there which we were going to go back to on Wednesday (but we didnt end up doing...story for later) Anyway the Moulin Rouge probably looked better at night anyway but yea... Oh the area there was pretty lol. Every shop was a sex shop. All of them.

Anyway we then got a bit exhausted and caught the most packed metro train down and back to our place after buying stuff for dinner (cheese, salami and bread - toasted cheese sandwhiches? Yes please!) We got back, had toasted cheese sandwhiches and watched a French kids film which was good to watch, but Alex arrived halfway through and just laughed at us for being stupid. Then Louisa had a shower and Alex took me out for a beer at a bar just downstairs. We chatted for a while about this and that and is was a great 'get-to-know-you' session for about and hour until we both decided to go back and hit the hay. Louisa was awake so I stayed up talking to her for a bit before we just collapsed into sleep.

Wendesday:
Woo! Wednesday we got up early again and lined up for another long period of time, this time to go into the Louvre. We stood in a fast moving line, once again I was in awe of the amazing Pyramids. Eventually we were inside the building and once again was in awe. Then we had to once again line up for tickets and then finally the Louvre tour started.

We saw all the things you should see there and more but my god it was so big. BIG. and I would have been impressed being the buildings without the paintings because the archetecture was just... mindbogglingly detailed and amazing and great and wow! I just was in awe. We did see some famous things too. We saw the Venus de Milo where a random in the crowd started yelling at us for taking a photo. I mean, you're allowed to take photos and everyone was but she was yelling at us and saying that we were 'ruining history' we were all wtf? and then argued for a bit before cracking it and leaving to go find the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa kinda was... a massive let down. Its little, behind glass, with a velvet rope two meters away and a huge crowd. Whatever. I took a photo just because we were there and then got bored of it and left. The rest of the louvre was really great though. Seriously, some amazing stuff in there, but I loved the sculptures the best. The are sooo cool :)

After we left the Louvre Museum we stayed in the building and went to a shopping centre, grabbed some lunch then made our way up to the Grand Arch or 'la defense' which is just huge. Its a big square building that is hollow its, tricky to explain, but you can see it in my photos I guess, so check it out. That area was really ultra modern and it was cool looking down the road and seeing the Arch de Triumph in the background which was just so pretty and old...Anyway we were really exhausted by this point so after, we went back to our appartment where we just died and chillaxed. We were so bloody exhausted. SO exhausted. After about an hour of sitting around at home and then Alex coming back and saying hello whilst he grabbed stuff then left again shortly followed by us and we went to Maccas for coffee and internet to work out what we needed to do next. We were going to do the catacombs but they closed in an hour so it wasnt worth it as we were still a fair while away from it, like 25 minutes so like we would run out of time. Instead, we decided to look for a squish penny Machine which you can google to learn about as I totes ceebs typing it.

We made our way to Montparasse which was a while away. It is a reaaaally tall building but its really ugly but the area was nice. We toured around looking for the squished penny but we couldnt find it so we ended up touring the area before training to the Paris opera house. The opera house was so pretty and gold and detailed, like every bloody thing in Paris. Paris is just sooo friggen cool. We left the Opera house when it started to rain and we found an awesome spire thing, but as we made our way towards it we got lost and ended up at what I can only guess was the Madeline or something.. I dont know. Anyway, then we made it to the metro in order to go find the closest Australian bar which was at the Chatlet stop and by the time we got out the rain had subsided so life was good.

The Australian bar was easily found but digusting it smelled SO bad and was so not cool. It sold Fosters and that was it so repulsed, we went in search of somewhere else to have dinner. We walked around for a while looking in various bars and restaurants before finding the perfect, cheap italianish restaurant. I had Lesagne and we sat on the terrace people-watching and chatting away about god-knows what. Then we had an amazing dessert which was like... shots of panacotta and other things like tiramisu and chocolate mousse and it was all just delicious. Dinner was great.

We left later and walked in search for the Centre Pompidou, which I was hanging out to see because it was sooo damn ugly. It lived up to its name it was hideous but I just love it. We went in side to check it out and found a great shop where you can buy the coolest funky modern thing the whole thing reminded me of Auntie Jan and I was so tempted to buy everything for her- haha. Shes so creative, did you know, Ellen?

Anyway we eventually left as it was getting dark, time to start a night tour of Paris. I wanted to see everything again at night in the lights. We grabbed a coffee on the Champs Elysees and then made our way from the Arch de Triumph all the way over to Eiffel Tower which instantly became the highlight of the trip. Every hour it starts to sparkle and its beautiful. We were inspired as we made our way to it. From the tour, we walked all the way - a very long walk - to the Louvre to check out the Obelisque and the Pyramids by night, which were not as impressive as the eiffel tower, but pretty all the same by night. By this stage my shoes were killing me so I took them off. I have walked around the Pyramids with no shoes on :D haha. At about 12.10 we went off to get back home and arrived about 12.40 and then stayed up for a bit before collapsing into a deep sleep.

Okay, there'll be a part c, which I will do tomorrow. I am sooo over this and its not the time to be typing about it. I will be rushing and grumpy, like I was towards the end of that. More to come I guess :D