Mike's Blog

So don’t get me wrong, the Eiffel Tower is pretty dang cool, but c’mon…. how cool is it actually? Me and my new Canadian roommate had planned to take a boat tour on the Seine yesterday (Wednesday), but when we got there through the metro, we realized that the Eiffel Tower wasn’t that far away. It ended up being a bit of a hike, but we got there around 10-11… it was a bit of a lazy morning eating croissants at the hostel and such, my sick is under control and just have congestion at this point 🙂

Seeing the Eiffel Tower looming above honestly didn’t impress me terribly much. I mean the thing is beautiful and everything, but I guess when you’re so familiar with a landmark (and you’ve seen the mini one in Vegas), it kind of underwhelms you to actually go there. Still it was neat to see, and we decided to go up… figured it only cost 12 Euro and how often are you here, right? Well, in the end it took 2-3 hours or so to get up to the top. After waiting in line and cramming into elevators, the top didn’t seem all that amazing. All that time for about 5 minutes of, wow look at the view. So yeah, it’s nice to have done it, but at the same time, I could have done so much more with the amount of time it took.

On the way down, we did meet some crazy rich dudes from America… it was three dudes of different generations, an old dude, his son, and the son’s son. These dudes were in Europe picking up a brand new BMW in Munich and touring around in it for 5 weeks. They had no hotel reservations and were just dropping in at places. They alleged that doing things that way wasn’t that bad, and they were able to find plenty of rooms with reasonable prices at 500 Euro a night. Ummmm, that is like $670 for one single night. Good night! They were pretty cost conscious though, one hotel in Venice tried to charge them 2500 Euro for a night and they refused. Nice move guys.

They were really nice though, weren’t all stuck up about their money and they had a more conversational tone than a bragging one when they were talking about their situation. Although I did learn that they had another BMW they had to ship home because they didn’t want to have to cart two of them around, and a Porsche as well. Coooool. It was interesting to meet some folks on an entirely different plane of existence and yet have a totally normal exchange with them. They were very curious and interested to hear about hostel life and the youngest one seemed to get pretty excited about the social aspect. I didn’t get the impression that he was sheltered or anything, but I’m sure that would be unlike anything he’s ever done. Yeah, nice to meet some level-headed rich dudes from Arizona!

After wandering around looking for a place to get lunch, we found a little cafe that had custom made sandwiches… I ended up with a ham tomato and mushroom sandwich on a baguette… been a while since I had no greens in a sandwich but it worked! Also had some chocolate mousse for dessert. Now, something amazing about the dessert cuisine in Europe is that everything is much less sweet than in the states, but somehow still tastes amazing! So then, I’m worried that I might return back to America and find all of the stuff to be crazy sugary and nasty. Hopefully this doesn’t happen!

Next was the Louvre, which I must say is a very cool building. Even the interior architecture there is well done. Contrary to what you may think, I found the inside kind of underwhelming… I had an experience similar to the National Gallery where most if not all of the art inside was of religious or thematic significance and just sort of blurs together. I sort of wish I could have an appreciation for that kind of art, but I guess it’s not so bad being able to burn through there in a few hours and getting my fill. I saw everyone crowding around the Mona Lisa, which is actually quite a small painting. Honestly, seeing it in person, I wondered if DaVinci actually thought it would become a world famous piece… it’s so simplistic and, bluntly, normal. Again, I guess the art is over my head… that and I’m starting to get my fill of museums.

Had dinner at an interesting restaurant called Hippopotamus, which the French awesomely pronounce ee poh poh tah moose… try saying that without enthusiasm! Good luck! The place kind of had the feel of a Damens or O’Charleys back home, but decorated as if a little kids birthday party was there. You can imagine how confusing this was, to be in a seemingly nice restaurant with balloons and confetti tablecloths. I had the best tilapia I’ve ever had, which tasted like it was freshly caught but I don’t think there’s any place nearby it could have been. Go french food! The Canadian and my new Australian roommate were my company, and to be honest, it could have been more interesting…

After dinner. I left my roomies to go to The Highlander, a bar that has open mic every Wednesday, which was flat out awesome. I’m always amazed going to open mic nights, and this one was especially good. Everyone that played was really talented. It’s nuts how much talent you’ll find at an open mic… it’s free and there’s so much variety. The atmosphere is so nice too, so welcoming. I ended up playing after Tricia, which was such a tough act to follow… I really enjoyed it though, forgot how much I like playing at those things! I broke a string on the house guitar, Tricia let me play hers so it was no biggy. I guess people enjoyed my musics, so that was nice as well!

By the time we left, the metro had stopped running… Tricia’s friend knew all about some buses that run all through the night, so they got me all set up with the right night bus to get me back to my hostel. It was just a short walk and I don’t think I disturbed my roomies too much more than the drunken idiots that were stumbling to their beds… one dude tried to make an international call from the hostel phone in the hall with no success. I ended up going to sleep at 4… woke up for breakfast and then back to bed… today I plan to go on a walking tour through the Montmartre area in Paris, which covers some of the places they filmed Amelie… should be awesome!

Maybe I should Nino Quincampoix some pictures at the metro photobooths!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.