England Day 3

“Huh… there’s actually sunlight at 5am in London…”

And that is how the morning started. Finally feeling a little accustomed to my surroundings, yet still combating Jet Lag, I got up and hopped in the shower (which I got working in under a minute this time) and was ready to head downstairs at 5:30.

We met in the lobby and then hurried into the tube to Kings Cross as quickly as possible in order to get to Paris and the Musée De Louvre.

A couple hours on the train (we had an awesome compartment to ourselves… except for that one guy, but he didn’t stay long.) and finally we had arrived in Paris, France.

We walked down to the Louvre, me brainstorming my missions for the day and of course keeping a weary eye out for Gypsies who were actually showing all the sign’s that Rik had warned me about. Kent and I had decided we would have to find barrettes and then I told Heidi that I wanted a chocolate croissant, and then thought about getting a Crepe when Jim mentioned it, and of course, I needed to buy a shot glass for Sheley and 1ft Tall Eiffel tower for mom.

Mission Start.

We got to the Louvre and boy was it breathtaking. The Pyramid was probably my favorite… no second favorite part to see. It was as epic as seeing Stone Henge! I gave my presentation which I realized halfway in that I had a lot more information to tell everyone than I thought, which ended up being awesome! I then headed in and the first big piece we went to see was the Venus De Milo, which was pretty dang awesome!

But as we ventured to see some other sculptures, I heard the call from the most breathtaking apparatus I had ever seen. I broke away from the group and headed up the marble staircase to get a closer look and low and behold, there at the top… wait for it…

Wait for it…

THE WINGED NIKE!

It was absolutely amazing; pictures did not do it justice. First of all it was HUGE! A lot bigger than I had imagined. The craftsmanship was amazing and looked so real! I stood there and I dubbed it my all time favorite sculpture. I reckon she would have nodded at me had she had a head, but that’s all just semantics.

I then turned and ran to catch back up with the group, but found way to many things that caught my eye instantly, so I decided, hey, I’ll just find the group when I find the group, no big deal. I’m a big boy.

I explored a bit more on my own and actually ended up finding them again, after I had come across Hermes, the god of… speed or something. Messenger?

We then went back to the Winged Nike and I was able to spend another 10 minutes with her, drew a bit of a sketch and took more pictures. Then it was time… for the Mona Lisa.

Now people had been telling me all kinds of things like, “Oh it so small!” “There are just too many people in front of it.” “It’s really small…” So I’m thinking… ya know… that its small and stuff.

No, it’s a normal sized painting; it’s just right across from the biggest freaking painting in all of the Louvre. It wasn’t breathtaking or anything, but it was really interesting to see. After that I walked around with Rik and Rachel and we just explored a bit, tried to take in a bunch but after the main things, there really wasn’t anything too epic to see, not that everything we did see wasn’t great or anything, just wasn’t the Winged Nike.

We went down to the gift about an hour later, and what a let down that was. They didn’t have anything interesting in there. We then had lunch at a café and then re-surfaced back with the group. Our next destination was the Musée d’ Orsay. But first… CREPES! It was amazing! Crepe with Nuttella and Banana’s! So good! And then I spotted it…

5 minutes later, I was sporting a brand new Black Barrette! Another 5 minutes later and Sheley’s shot glass was tucked safely into my backpack.

This Museum was rather spectacular if you ask me. It had a lot of good paintings and sculptures and even photography. But getting in for some reason ended up being a huge pain for Jim and Kent who had to retrieve our tickets. It wasn’t until about an hour after that we finally made it in and we weren’t allowed to take in our bags and we could not take photos. This gallery was only for show, not for tell. They were very strict, but it ended up being alright. There was one rather obscene painting that was in a back room which… well, lets see, you know how there are those curtained off back room area’s in video stores? Well… this museum didn’t really have curtains, but definitely had that back room for a reason.

I was talking to Marissa later about the Gallery and she said that her and Emily were completely geeking out over how many paintings and sculptures they recognized as being some of the pieces that inspired them to be painters themselves. I can’t say that I particularly appreciated it as much as they did, but I did enjoy it quite a bit.

We then left and Shawn and I were separated from the group, but we knew where our meet up destination was; the Eiffel Tower! So we followed the river for about 2 miles as the tower grew closer and closer, took some awesome pictures on the way, and finally made it to the tower, and took TONS of pictures of it. Didn’t go up because it didn’t seem all that practical, but we did enjoy watching people get chased by the Police through the square right after I bought the 1 foot tall Eiffel tower statue off of one of them.

While I was taking pictures and waiting, I decided it would be a good time to call Sheley, and that it was. Her voice was definitely the soothing stimuli I needed to take the edge of the paranoia I was feeling by being surrounded by Gypsies.

About 40 minutes there and it was time to head back home. We took the subway back to the train station and that was disgusting! The subway was packed like no other and everyone was just sardined into the darned thing for at least 10 stops.

When we finally got to the train station, I realized I needed to get rid of my Euros because they were of no use to me in London. I spotted something similar to a chocolate croissant and MAN was that amazing! Finally boarded the train and started our ride home.

When we finally got back to the hotel, it was 11:15p and I was exhausted, but as I was saying good night to Sheley, I decided it would be a great idea to show London how much I appreciated it over Paris, and what better way to show London Pride then to head down to the pub across the street and have a pint of London Pride. I convinced Rik to go down with me and we conversed about the day, finished our drink and went back upstairs, to the shower, and to the bed. And with that, I am going to sleep and will post this up tomorrow before we head out to the BRITTISH MUSEUM!

Cheers!

To Be Continued…