Day 66, 3/27/2010

Day 53, 3/14/2010


This is our third day in Paris. We started this day out with a museum. This was a museum dedicated completely to one artist, a sculptor named Rodin. This was an awesome museum. This guy was amazing and some of his art was very moving. He used strong emotion in a lot of his art and he made you feel what he was trying to portray in his sculptures. Most of them were either marble or bronze. He was the most famous for 'The Thinker.' This is a detail sculpture from his 'Gates of Hell' sculpture. I think that Sean would have really liked this sculpture. There was one in particular that I fell in love with while I was there. It was called Daphane. It was the story of a girl and her sisters punished to forever carry water to fill a vase that will never be full. It was the moment that she discovered it was a hopeless task. It was an amazing sculpture. Even better than 'The Kiss' that he is so known for. She is bowed over with the vase of water spilling out next to her and she is grieving over the torment that she is being put through. It was an awesome museum. We went to another one right after that it was also another museum. This one had sculptures from the 19th century and painting from many of the most famous masters. I loved every min of it till the end when my feet worse than any other day. I don't know why my feet decided to hurt like that but they did, incredibly bad. I wasn't able to walk so fast so I had to go slow again and again Trisha and Catie finished before me just to gripe at me near the end because I was walking too slowly for them. They ended up waiting for me at a restaurant while I finished the museum and went to the shop. Well we started the museum with the sculpture area on the bottom floor then worked our way through the paintings. I got to see some Caravaggio and Monet!!! and Manet and OMG I got to see so many things that I've never seen before. I got more and more excited as I walked through the place. I loved getting to see the greatest artists works it was just amazing. I don't even know how I was able to leave. I wanted to just keep looking. Especially at the Monet. He is still and will always be one of my favorites. I also got to see the famous self portrait of Van Gogh that they didn't have at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. I just wanted to look at all of it over again but like I said before when I was up on the second floor about to finish the last part of the museum Trisha and Catie called wanting me to hurry up and meet them in the restaurant outside. So I finished the last part of the museum and then I grabbed a book in the shop that I wanted and met them over at the restaurant. They had already finished eating so I felt a little bad but I was tired of not having time to see what I wanted to see. So I took my time getting out of there. So I got a sandwich at the restaurant and then we left to the next place on our list. This building was the Pompidou Center, also known as the 'Inside Out' building. I've also seen it spelled with an 'e' instead of an 'i.' This was an awesome piece of architecture as well. It was fun to look at because it really did seem to be inside out. We didn't plan on going in but they had a feminist gallery that Trisha wanted to see so we went in. I milled about the galleries. I wasn't too impressed with most of it because it was modern art and I'm not really that into modern art. I just find it a little to weird most of the time. I did however like the boxes that one woman did and they also had a wall where they feminized a lot of male artists names it made me laugh. Like, Annie Warhol instead of Andy Warhol and La Corbusier instead of Le Corbusier. It was rather funny. They had some just overly weird stuff as well that I didn't much care for like a video of cutting the head off a rooster then a naked girl holding it by its legs with the head cut off till it stopped flapping. I didn't much care for that. There were other things as well that I plane didn't understand. I did like the Guerrilla Girls thing it had a lot of true statistics on it and the art work was called 'Do I have to be nude to get into an art museum.' That one I think was a really interesting one but not so much art as informative. It was like a Graphic Advertisement from a magazine blown up to mega size. We only looked at that exhibit because I think we reached our energy level for the day. We went outside to admire the building because they turned on the lights and it was even more interesting where they chose to light up and where they chose to keep dark. As we were deciding where to eat we were stopped by a character artist that wanted to draw Trisha. She is a sucker for Characaters. The artist stopped Trisha and got her to sit for a drawing. Catie and I were like fine whatever. So we waited and when he was done she bought it and we walked over to the restaurant that would be cheap. However, Catie and Trisha were on a mission to find pizza. Why they wanted pizza in Paris I don't have any clue. This place didn't have it. Catie remember that there were cheap places near Notre Dame which was right near this place so we headed in that direction. By now the sun was completely down. It was ok because we were going to get to see Notre Dame by night, which I was excited about. Again however we weren't able to just sit an admire it. Catie and Trisha wanted food. So we walked around to the different restaurants and looked at the menus till we found a place that seemed reasonable enough. I just ordered Brochette because I wasn't hungry enough to want a full pizza. Plus the pizza was cheapish. The Brochette was cheaper. So we ate dinner right there in front of Notre Dame. Trisha ordered a glass of wine in honor of her grandmother because this was where her grandmother would have loved to be. She moved to Paris for a while. So we finished our meal and enjoyed ourselves. We caught all the trains we needed to get back to our hostel and I got on my computer again down stairs before I went to bed. This time Trisha and Catie joined for a little while. The next day wouldn't go as good as this one did. We had some bad tempers and I left one of my packages at a museum.


Day 54, 3/15/2010

Disclaimer: This may be one of the worst entries because of how excited I was about the day. I don't even want to go back and read it again because I think It might be very bad.

This day first off started fairly poor. It took me longer than usual to get down stairs and to meet up with Trisha and Catie because I just didn't want to be on my feet. I knew that they were going to hurt and It was getting to where I couldn't even enjoy the day. But this day was also the day that we were going to the Louvre. This was the day that I was most excited about. We were going to get to see things that I have always, ALWAYS wanted to see. Like the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and The Winged Victory. These are sculptures and paintings that I've always admired and are incredibly famous. Personally the Winged Victory was the one that I was most excited about seeing but I couldn't go to Paris and the Louvre without seeing the Mona Lisa it was worth the crowd and the bitching from Trisha about the crowd. She just doesn't handle people well. So we started the day with Catie leaving to do things on her own which I was ok with I was tired of doing things by myself I wanted to be able to talk to somebody about what I was looking at and what I found interesting or funny. So Trisha stuck with me most of the day. We went to the ancient stuff first starting with the Greek and Roman sculptures. Catie didn't leave us till after the Winged Victory which was at the end of the Greek and Roman sculpture section. So we continued through the gigantic area of Greek and Roman sculptures. Before we completely left the area we found the Winged Victory. This was a very impressive sculpture. I loved it. Another happy moment. We spent the most time here because this was one of the pieces that got me excited about history and art. This was one of the things that most impressed me as a student in high school. After that Catie went her own way so Trisha and I were on our own, in our own version of a kids toy box. We decided to meet up with Catie later so off we went. We were probably giddier than her as well. I think she was tired of Trisha and that is why she wanted to be on her own. Trisha doesn't exactly make things pleasant for people who aren't used to her negativity. I didn't care I was in the Louvre, I was so happy I almost didn't notice my feet hurting through out the day. In the ancient part we made a pit stop through one of the painting halls to see the Mona Lisa. That was my third happy moments of the day. I was more excited to see it that Trisha mostly because she thinks that there are more exciting paintings to see. I agree but still it was the Mona Lisa! I took a self portrait to prove that I was there. That I saw her. Then we moved on through the one hall of paintings back to the ancient stuff. Trisha was on a mission to find the Lamasu and I don't blame her they are one of the most impressive sculptures from ancient times. So we continued through the day going through the sections that we wanted surprisingly we covered most of the museum. We only excluded parts of the paintings and the entire area of decorative arts because we wouldn't have the time. After the Greek and Roman stuff we headed into the Egyptian section. This was when I coined the phrase "Witness the Kleptomania of a Rich Nation." This was also a very incredible section. Not as impressive as the Greek section but still very nice. I especially loved seeing the mummified cats. It made me happy to know that the Egyptians liked cats as much as I do. We went through that as slowly as Trisha would allow. But like I said it really wasn't all that impressive. I was excited to get to see some Papyrus scrolls, however. I was also amazed that we got to see a piece of the Ishtar Gate that also made me very excited and happy. Right after we saw that piece of the Ishtar Gate did we find the room we were looking for. It was amazing. The Lamasu are gigantic. I never pictured them to be that big. I simply had no idea how amazing they would be or in how good of shape they would be in. We spent the most time in this room. It was completely worth it. It gave us time to study the art of them and look closely at the details. You could go right up next to in and look two inches from the relief. I was in awe yet again at seeing these pieces of art work. I took so many pictures I kinda wish I had just stopped for a min and admired the art. It was even better to have just learned about these and then getting to see them in person. I only wish that we could have seen where they were originally. But unfortunately those places are in war and it would impossible to see them. Also while we were in this room Trisha decided to draw them because it was just something that she could do quickly and we had the time. Not really but we were going to make the time. Right after that there were a few other things that we studied in class that we got to see like the Code of Hammurabi and the Stele of Naram-sin. It was just so awesome to see all of this in one day. Then we went into another room of sculpture these were all based on Greek and Roman sculptures but they were 19th century copies. I still like this room. At about this time we needed to meet up with Catie like we were suppose to. So we headed back to the main area underneath the glass pyramid. We got there and sat down waiting for her for a while. We walked around first and didn't find her so we decided to get a drink and then eat some bread that we brought with us. We didn't have time to stop and get lunch we had more to see. Catie didn't find us either we just got a text saying hey meet her in the same place at 4. I guess she had more she wanted to see as well. At this point we decided to head up to the painting area and around there because there were several paintings that we wanted to see plus there were things there that we could find that we didn't even know the Louvre had. That was how the last three hours at the Louvre went. I was kinda sad because we didn't have the time to get back to the sculpture room mostly because of how many rooms there were with paintings in them also because we had to rush back through a bunch of different areas that we had already been through because there was one specific painting that Trisha wanted to see before we left it was called "The Wreck of the Medusa." It was near the Mona Lisa. We could have saved so much time if we had know it was there in the first place. Right after that we left. We headed over to the main area and met up with Catie. I wanted to go into the book store and they kinda did too. I found the book I wanted to get and took a quick look around up stairs. Then we headed outside to figure out where we needed to go. This was about the time that the pain in my feet caught up to me. I was in so much pain I couldn't hardly stand it. I ignored it though because I knew that there was another place that Catie wanted to see and it was far enough to be inconvenient to me. I sat in front of the palace that is now the Louvre while waiting for Catie and Trisha to find where we needed to go. I also took pictures of the glass Pyramids in the middle and Arch out to the front of the building while waiting for them. Finally they knew where they wanted to go and we were off. When we got to the stop for the museum they didn't know where it was. So, we ended up walking all over the place. Through a park and around this giant stadium that I think was a Soccer stadium. I was trying very hard not to take the map from them and just go. I was also trying very hard not to just break down and stop and cry. I was hurting. I kept up as much as I could because of my feet. It was a film museum I was interested but when we got there I was in so much pain I didn't want to walk around. I took my shoes off and sat in the lobby waiting for them. I sat there just waiting for my feet to stop hurting, praying that they would take long enough so my feet would recover enough for the ride back home. I fell asleep waiting which was alright with me I was exhausted. After a little while a lady came over and very nicely told me to please put my shoes back on. I was ok with it because it wasn't changing my foot status to not do it. I put my shoes back on and went back to sleep. This was one when things went a little more down hill. Trisha and Catie showed up and we left. As we were leaving Trisha was getting hungry and basically said that she would die if we didn't eat right then. Catie didn't have a lot of money and personally I think she was a little disappointed with the museum as well as annoyed with Trisha already that she snapped. I had no idea what was going on so I kept quite. I was in too much pain and too tired to care anyway. I let them have their minor row. After that Trisha was pissed and Catie was pissed and my head was only on my feet. We were on our way back to the hostel on the second train when I realized that I didn't have my book from the Louvre with me. I was rather upset at this moment too because all I wanted to do was go back. I didn't even care at that moment whether I ate anything or not. So I promptly got off the train and headed back toward the film museum because the only place I could remember maybe leaving it was either in the train stations on our way from or the museum itself. I just prayed the entire way back that if it was at a station no one had touched it and if it was at the museum it was still open. So I stopped at every station we stopped at got out and looked around. Then promptly got back on the train to get back to the museum. I'm glad that I have a good memory for places if I've already been there. I just retraced our steps from the train station as we left. I was able to find the museum easily enough. I got there and Thank God it was still open. I went inside and asked about the book at the first desk. They told me to go to the ticket desk. When I got there I could already see it on the table behind them. I waited in line and when it was my turn I told them want I was missing. They gave it to me and I left. I got a few feet out the door and decided that I should go to the restroom before I left so I turned around and went back in, did my business and left again. This time going back to the train station. On the way there I browsed through some of the menus that were outside the restaurants because clearly Trisha and Catie were going to eat without me. I didn't expect them to wait and I knew that they were going to go to that Chinese place like we've done for most ever night that we didn't eat in a place that I mentioned. So I stopped at this place along the street. I found it to be really nice. I sat down and the water brought me a drink I wish I hadn't ordered because it turned out to be 4 Euros. I asked him what was good to eat and he asked me what I liked or if I liked Salmon. I ordered that with pasta and it was SOOOOO good. I loved it. I almost wish I could back to Paris just to have that food again. I just loved it. I love Salmon so it made it even better. I ate my dinner and read my book while I sat there. Again, hoping that I could give my feet enough rest that they wouldn't kill me for the rest of the week. We still had a long way to go. I finished my dinner and payed then headed out and went the rest of the way home. I got there and grabbed my computer again. This time I met a girl that I talked to several nights before. She was kind of snobbish in a way because she knew she was good at her art but she was still nice to talk to. Trisha embarassed me a bit with talking too much. I wanted to tell her to shut up but you know that doesn't always happen. Then after messing with my comp for a while I went to bed again hoping that the next day my feet wouldn't hurt as bad as they did that day.