(no subject)
Another day, another post being typed up while I have no internet connection! This time in Paris, because I haven't yet given in to purchasing wifi from where I'm staying. Yeah, yeah - I know I'm somewhat addicted, but that doesn't mean I should have to pay for it. Other than... you know... the internet connection that I pay for at home, of course. (edited later to say - ask and you shall receive. No paying needed to take place, I just needed the login details)... is a different type of net access, though, so appeared as though I had to pay from what I'd seen).
Anyway, so let's go back a couple of days. Venice! I was there. Um... what was I going to say about that?... I didn't sleep well the second night there. The hostel I stayed at was nice enough (and they DID have free wifi!) but... well, there was a lot of noise that night, a lot of the guests had been drinking and stuff. I could smell something that I thought was unpleasant, though don't remember what it was now. I was also very paranoid that I might miss my train - it left Venice at 7:15 that morning... if I didn't catch that particular train, I had no chance of getting my flight back to London.
Suffice to say that I did make the train. Got back to Rimini, then wandered around a bit. I decided to get myself to the airport so that I didn't stress about it. I must have misunderstood the guy who told me which bus to catch, though, because while I did get on the right bus, I got on the one going in the wrong direction. So I wasted about an hour. Oh well! At least I still got to the airport ahead of time.
Got on the plane and back to London easily. The guy at customs didn't seem to want to let me in because I didn't have evidence that I was leaving the country the next day (I hadn't picked up my Eurostar tickets yet because I didn't want to lose them in Italy... sigh). But he let me in. I found my hostel and then went and found some dinner.
Today I got up pretty early - I had a plan for something I wanted to do this morning. After I was up and about, I discovered that the shop I wanted to go to didn't open until 11, though, by which time I had to be checked in etc for my train trip. So no go. Instead, I had a long and leisurely breakfast. Yay!
On the train, I typed up a list of the things that I was wanting to do in Paris. Some were things I really wanted to do, some less so... but I also tried to sort them into things that were somewhat close together. And popped opening days and hours on to it as well. Just as I was finishing up, we arrived in to Paris.
I then proceeded to get lost 3-4 times on my way to my hotel. And then the dude was mean about my non-existent French :p But I got checked in and dumped my bag in the room, and went out! I had, of course, figured out the best course of action for the afternoon on the train!
First I went to St Germain des Pres, which is apparently the oldest Church in Paris (according to my guide book, anyway), although only a few stones remain from the original Benedictine Abbey and Basilica. Rene Descartes tomb is there.
I then walked down the street to see if Musee National Eugene-Delacroix was still open. Unfortunately, I missed it... it'd closed about 5 minutes before I got there, with last admissions 30 minutes before that. If only I hadn't got lost so many times on the way to the hotel!
Following that, I walked towards the River Seine... then across a bridge. I could see a building that I thought was cool - turned out to be the back of the Lourve. Hehe. Though that wasn't where I was headed just yet. No, I was headed towards St Germain l'Auxerrois Church, which is just across the road. It was pretty cool - and due to close proximity to the Lourve, apparently saw a lot of Royal patronage through the years.
After that, I crossed the road and made my way in to the Lourve, at which point my camera's battery decided to run out of power. Because today is Friday, they were open until 22:00. I arrived at about 18:00, meaning I had 4 hours. 4 hours is... too little time to see everything. Much too little time to see everything. But at the same time, probably a little too much to spend at the one time - by the time I was leaving, my brain was a bit... frazzled. And my feet HATE me. But I only had that 4 hours, so I saw what I could in the time given. I did see the Mona Lisa, Raeyn :p It was actually bigger than I thought it would be - probably because I've heard so many people saying how much smaller it was than they expected, so I overcompensated in my own mind. Unlike most of the people there, though, it was not my focal point. I actually felt quite bad at times, being the only person in some of the huge rooms full of awesome stuff. But hey.
I saw lots of gorgeous paintings, quite a few that I've seen prints of, or in the media of some description. Lots of sculpture, and furniture and artifacts. I love that I identified some of the Egyptian and Greek stuff from a room or two away ;) It was good to see them in person finally. Oh, and funny... one of the portraits I saw was of one of the lords of Rimini that I only know about because I've recently been there. It's kind of nice when things work out that way - you know, coincidentally linking the two places :) It is the portrait that has its image on his Wikipedia page - I do think I'd seen it before, but still.
I don't think I really did justice to what I did see, but hey.
Tomorrow I have a heap of plans. I don't know whether I'll get to them all, but hopefully I will... I've factored in decent amounts of time to see things in. I've got basic plans for tomorrow, Sunday and Monday... and there are, of course, other things I'd love to do that I simply don't have time for. Maybe they'll get slotted in somewhere... or maybe more things will end up on the "I don't have time" list. *shrug* We'll see :)
~~
Tis lunchtime, and I'm eating a baguette and drinking a hot chocolate. Yum.
So far this morning... I slept in for longer than I intended, but I did really need to catch up on some sleep. So I ended up arriving at Sacre Coeur later than I had intended, not that it made a difference. It was actually better this way, because if I'd been any earlier, I wouldn't have been able to get any decent photos of the outside of the Church. Really beautiful Church, it is. I didn't climb the dome - for starters, I was there too early... but even if I hadn't been, I doubt I would have gone up. My knees have decided to hurt for no reason, so I'm trying to not walk up and down stairs more than necessary to give them a bit of a break.
After that, I caught the Metro down to Arenes de Lutece - which is one of few remaining marks of the Roman town called Lutetia. Apparently gladiators used to fight there... heh. While it was cool, it wasn't a lot to see, so I ended up leaving there earlier than I'd thought I might. From there, I walked down the road to Jardin des Plantes, which is the botanical gardens. Pretty, and lots of statues and things to look at. (Side note - Lana, you need not worry that my fingers will freeze off when I come to Bergen, coz they already did that this morning :p)
Next door is the main Mosque in Paris - called La Mosquee de Paris. I didn't go in, but I did have a look as I went by.
Still ahead of schedule, so the next thing that I had planned wasn't open yet. As such, I added in one of the galleries that I'd hoped to see, but didn't think I'd have time to - Musee Jacquemart-Andre. Lots of Rembrandt, Botticelli, etc. And they have an exhibition on at the moment focussing on Rubens, Poussin and the painters of the 17th century - specifically with reference to Baroque Flemish painting and the Classical French school. Yes, I did just copy the majority of that from the guidebook :p The Museum is based on a collection of paintings amassed by the owners of the house way back when. Quite a few of the rooms are also set up as they were (?) when the couple lived there. Quite cool, and somehow I enjoyed that part more than I did the Napoleon III rooms in the Lourve.
And now I've eaten lunch, and theoretically the next place on the list should be open now... so off I go. More later :)
Anyway, so let's go back a couple of days. Venice! I was there. Um... what was I going to say about that?... I didn't sleep well the second night there. The hostel I stayed at was nice enough (and they DID have free wifi!) but... well, there was a lot of noise that night, a lot of the guests had been drinking and stuff. I could smell something that I thought was unpleasant, though don't remember what it was now. I was also very paranoid that I might miss my train - it left Venice at 7:15 that morning... if I didn't catch that particular train, I had no chance of getting my flight back to London.
Suffice to say that I did make the train. Got back to Rimini, then wandered around a bit. I decided to get myself to the airport so that I didn't stress about it. I must have misunderstood the guy who told me which bus to catch, though, because while I did get on the right bus, I got on the one going in the wrong direction. So I wasted about an hour. Oh well! At least I still got to the airport ahead of time.
Got on the plane and back to London easily. The guy at customs didn't seem to want to let me in because I didn't have evidence that I was leaving the country the next day (I hadn't picked up my Eurostar tickets yet because I didn't want to lose them in Italy... sigh). But he let me in. I found my hostel and then went and found some dinner.
Today I got up pretty early - I had a plan for something I wanted to do this morning. After I was up and about, I discovered that the shop I wanted to go to didn't open until 11, though, by which time I had to be checked in etc for my train trip. So no go. Instead, I had a long and leisurely breakfast. Yay!
On the train, I typed up a list of the things that I was wanting to do in Paris. Some were things I really wanted to do, some less so... but I also tried to sort them into things that were somewhat close together. And popped opening days and hours on to it as well. Just as I was finishing up, we arrived in to Paris.
I then proceeded to get lost 3-4 times on my way to my hotel. And then the dude was mean about my non-existent French :p But I got checked in and dumped my bag in the room, and went out! I had, of course, figured out the best course of action for the afternoon on the train!
First I went to St Germain des Pres, which is apparently the oldest Church in Paris (according to my guide book, anyway), although only a few stones remain from the original Benedictine Abbey and Basilica. Rene Descartes tomb is there.
I then walked down the street to see if Musee National Eugene-Delacroix was still open. Unfortunately, I missed it... it'd closed about 5 minutes before I got there, with last admissions 30 minutes before that. If only I hadn't got lost so many times on the way to the hotel!
Following that, I walked towards the River Seine... then across a bridge. I could see a building that I thought was cool - turned out to be the back of the Lourve. Hehe. Though that wasn't where I was headed just yet. No, I was headed towards St Germain l'Auxerrois Church, which is just across the road. It was pretty cool - and due to close proximity to the Lourve, apparently saw a lot of Royal patronage through the years.
After that, I crossed the road and made my way in to the Lourve, at which point my camera's battery decided to run out of power. Because today is Friday, they were open until 22:00. I arrived at about 18:00, meaning I had 4 hours. 4 hours is... too little time to see everything. Much too little time to see everything. But at the same time, probably a little too much to spend at the one time - by the time I was leaving, my brain was a bit... frazzled. And my feet HATE me. But I only had that 4 hours, so I saw what I could in the time given. I did see the Mona Lisa, Raeyn :p It was actually bigger than I thought it would be - probably because I've heard so many people saying how much smaller it was than they expected, so I overcompensated in my own mind. Unlike most of the people there, though, it was not my focal point. I actually felt quite bad at times, being the only person in some of the huge rooms full of awesome stuff. But hey.
I saw lots of gorgeous paintings, quite a few that I've seen prints of, or in the media of some description. Lots of sculpture, and furniture and artifacts. I love that I identified some of the Egyptian and Greek stuff from a room or two away ;) It was good to see them in person finally. Oh, and funny... one of the portraits I saw was of one of the lords of Rimini that I only know about because I've recently been there. It's kind of nice when things work out that way - you know, coincidentally linking the two places :) It is the portrait that has its image on his Wikipedia page - I do think I'd seen it before, but still.
I don't think I really did justice to what I did see, but hey.
Tomorrow I have a heap of plans. I don't know whether I'll get to them all, but hopefully I will... I've factored in decent amounts of time to see things in. I've got basic plans for tomorrow, Sunday and Monday... and there are, of course, other things I'd love to do that I simply don't have time for. Maybe they'll get slotted in somewhere... or maybe more things will end up on the "I don't have time" list. *shrug* We'll see :)
~~
Tis lunchtime, and I'm eating a baguette and drinking a hot chocolate. Yum.
So far this morning... I slept in for longer than I intended, but I did really need to catch up on some sleep. So I ended up arriving at Sacre Coeur later than I had intended, not that it made a difference. It was actually better this way, because if I'd been any earlier, I wouldn't have been able to get any decent photos of the outside of the Church. Really beautiful Church, it is. I didn't climb the dome - for starters, I was there too early... but even if I hadn't been, I doubt I would have gone up. My knees have decided to hurt for no reason, so I'm trying to not walk up and down stairs more than necessary to give them a bit of a break.
After that, I caught the Metro down to Arenes de Lutece - which is one of few remaining marks of the Roman town called Lutetia. Apparently gladiators used to fight there... heh. While it was cool, it wasn't a lot to see, so I ended up leaving there earlier than I'd thought I might. From there, I walked down the road to Jardin des Plantes, which is the botanical gardens. Pretty, and lots of statues and things to look at. (Side note - Lana, you need not worry that my fingers will freeze off when I come to Bergen, coz they already did that this morning :p)
Next door is the main Mosque in Paris - called La Mosquee de Paris. I didn't go in, but I did have a look as I went by.
Still ahead of schedule, so the next thing that I had planned wasn't open yet. As such, I added in one of the galleries that I'd hoped to see, but didn't think I'd have time to - Musee Jacquemart-Andre. Lots of Rembrandt, Botticelli, etc. And they have an exhibition on at the moment focussing on Rubens, Poussin and the painters of the 17th century - specifically with reference to Baroque Flemish painting and the Classical French school. Yes, I did just copy the majority of that from the guidebook :p The Museum is based on a collection of paintings amassed by the owners of the house way back when. Quite a few of the rooms are also set up as they were (?) when the couple lived there. Quite cool, and somehow I enjoyed that part more than I did the Napoleon III rooms in the Lourve.
And now I've eaten lunch, and theoretically the next place on the list should be open now... so off I go. More later :)