Napoleon Tried To Conquer Paris, I Succeeded

Day ? (lost track already)

Woke up. Ate the continental breakfast at the hotel, break with nutella and applesauce. The group got together and we subwayed to meet up with a tour guide. Arnoud (pronounced R-No) the guy was 15 minutes late our instructors were not happy but the guy was born in California and moved here with his french wife so he was telling stories and made it so we could relate to it like when he was talking about a king who was great are partying but was kinda nutty he compared him to Charlie Sheen. Some sweet stories we were told about this place that used to be cursed, a guy was burned on the spot but was innocent and when he was burning he said to the king and priest "you both will die in a year" sure enough both dropped dead, one was eaten by rats after falling off his horse and the other was natural but it scared the people of the city. Another was the "Charlie Sheen" king had a huge party and everyone was drinking and the king had pictures drawn of all his guests after they were super drunk and when the king woke up he decided he wanted to make a bridge and get all the portraits sculpted onto the bridge so theres a bridge with over 300 unique faces on it, it was pretty cool. Also learned that you can tell how people died when they are on horses in their statue, if a leg is up it was unnatural causes, if all 4 are on the ground it was natural death, if front feet were up off the ground he died heroically in battle. After the tour we were let loose. Walked past a famous opera house, ya know, the whole phantom of the opera, opera house. Then Alyda Hulstrand and I took off to conquer Paris. We got on a train that took us to The Palace of Versailles, except the train didnt drop us off right at the palace so we had to figure out where to go, we took off and saw a huge house and were bummed thinking that was it, then Alyda turns and basically looses her jaw, I look down the street and see a palace thats multiple blocks wide, we get up to it and go to the left to see the garden another jawdropper, its 3 blocks long 2 blocks wide and at the end theres a pond the size of a small lake. So we walk down the steps and explore a little then we see theres hedges taller than us so we get lost a little in a maze and find more garden, obviously not fruits and veggies garden im talking shrubs and trees and in general anything green. Walking through the huge hedges theres little statues and fountains scattered then we get to the back of the palace were theres an open are and its huge i had to take a video of it, Alyda and I were ganna call it a day there until she turns and we look down only to see atleast a miles worth of path that leads to a large fountain followed by a large lake with boats in it followed by more garden, literally breathtaking we walked down to the first fountain after stopping for a ham and cheese sandwich and a crepe. We decided theres not enough time in a day to see the whole garden so we went back to the train station and shipped ourselves back to Paris.

Once there our next stop was the Eiffel Tower. After jumping a few subways we thought we were walking to the tower until we saw Sara Jensen and she told us to head the other way, so we did. Looking us the Eiffel Tower was enormous! At the base theres food stands, souvenir stands, tickets to the top and the post office. We stood in line to get tickets for maybe 5 minutes then took the stairs instead of the elevator to the 2nd floor to save some cash.
9 steps to the ticket booth at the base
328 steps to the first level
340 steps to the second level
18 steps to the lift platform on the second level
15 steps to the upper observation platform.
We were tired when we got to the 2nd level, but we found the ticket station to get a ticket for the elevator to the top and then I may or may not have budged our way to the front of the elevator line saving us 45 minutes, smiley. We waited in line for the elevator maybe 10 minutes and took it to the top, once there it was S.I.C.K! It's something you need to experience for yourself because words dont do it justice. You can see for who knows how many miles and it looks like a painting, the city seems to reach out forever and you can see everything from the top, The Arc de Triomphe, the obelisk that marks where Marie Antoinette was killed, the Louvre. After 20 minutes up there just looking we waited in line another 10 minutes to take the elevator down then it was off to the Louvre.

We subwayed a few more times and made it to the subway station where we stopped briefly to watch these 2 men try to play the game with 3 cups 1 ball, well the men were betting 50 euro and getting it wrong and Alyda and I whisper to eachother the middle one as they lose their money and the guy running it asks if we speak english, we say yes and he replies free, so i flip the middle one and we were indeed right, it felt sweet to see these guys lose as i play free and win. Then we walked away and straight to the Louvre. Walk through the glass pyramid, sweet, then straight to the #1 thing there, the Mona Lisa. Shes a babe in real life, seriously seeing it was astonishing. We even had a moment, I looked at her, she looked at me. And she's definitely a she, and definitely smiling. After the Mona Lisa (not plural) we went to see the statue of Mary Magdalene which turned out to be pretty interesting too. Then we realized there's a pharaoh exhibit so we speed walked to it, saw mummies and huge statues of pharaohs like Ramses aswell as some sweet hyroglifics. In 2 hours we saw 3 floors of one section of the Louvre, theres still 4 floors of 3 sections we didnt see, and like i said we were sprinting not really stopping to look at every painting this place could keep someone busy for weeks. We met up with Michelle Full and were off to Notre Dame.

Of course hopped a few subways and arrived on the street that ended with Notre Dame, we were there to souvenir shop because it was the cheapest place in town, got a few souvenirs for you lucky few, then got a crepe with ham, cheese, and mushrooms and it was made right in front of us. It was the best thing I've eaten in Europe this far. We sat in front of Notre Dame which was light up by lights now because it was dark as we ate our crepes. YUMMY! After pigging out we started to walk down the street and stopped to watch these two guys that were break dancing and doing little skits while dancing it was hilarious. Continued walking and stopping at little souvenir shops and then we took some random turns and found narrow streets packed with people, bars, restaurants, delis, bakeries, and we stopped for some desserts, couldn't tell ya what I had because I honestly dont know, but it tasted delicious! The three of us finally decided enough was enough and headed back to the hotel, hopping subways and more walking. After 13 hours of walking and taking the trains and subways we were finally back. I hopped on the book of face, uploaded the pictures went to a few of the others rooms and talked then returned to my room to basically pass out of pure exhaustion.

Day after ?

Woke up. Today was a kind of a day off so ill make it brief. Had the same continental breakfast. Subwayed to the train station. Played cards with Jenacious. Took the train back to Antwerp, while cranking out another 2.5 episodes of Sons of Anarchy. Got to the residence. Napped. Got lost in Antwerp for an hour by myself and without a map. Bought a hat. Went to get groceries with Alyda and Michelle. Had a meeting with the group thats going to London tomorrow. Blogged. Now sleep is in order since we're leaving the residence at 6:20am. The Bison are currently up 14-3 Go Bison! And tomorrow if I don't have internet at the hotel Go Broncos!