Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Typed up last night...

So much for my shower and nap...
Apparently the greater part of the Louvre closes at 6,
so I headed there as soon as I checked in and dropped my bag off
at my hotel. It was awesome. A lot of things have not lived up to
my expectations, or been different than I imagined they would be.
The Louvre totally surpassed them. So cool. Sadly you are not
allowed to take pictures in the Italian painters wing, so no
pictures of the Mona Lisa ;) Or any other Da Vinci, Botticelli,
or basically good rennaisance paintings. You're allowed to take
pictures of most other stuff though, and most of the statues are
in the open (Apparently they did not learn from the incident with
that Michelangelo Pieta in Vatican City?)
But it does make photography easier. The lighting is a bit weird in there though.
Anyways, I took tons of pictures of the paintings and statues, and it was really
great. I do find it slightly amusing that the security to get into the Louvre
was stricter than the security to get into the country.
After all the walking I did in the Louvre I was pretty tired though
and it was getting dark, so I went back to my hotel. Plus I needed thr sleep since
I was going to Versaille the next morning. So I got up and headed out
there, and got to stand in a 2 hour line for tickets, half the place was closed,
nearly including the gardens, since the fountains were off, the
statues were mostly covered, and they were replanting so there was tons of construction going on.
So, skip that if you go to France in the winter. I had to catch the bus back to London
that day, so I didn't really have a lot of time to do anything else (had lunch at this really good place
though) I had a bit of confusion on the whole station thing, but I made it, and got back to London.
I went to drop off my stuff at my hostel, and then decided that as cool as the national gallery would be,
it couldn't be as cool as the louvre so it would be better to hold off to some time
when I didn't have that as a recent comparison. Ditto the British Museum, although I probably would
have caved on that one if it wheren't so far away from everything els I wanted to do. I went window shopping instead.
Topshop was really cool, and I keep reading about it everywhere, I also went to this place called
Whittards and bought tea as my souveneir (they do coffee too, but Europe coffee is scarily strong)
Then I went back to the hostel for a couple of hours of nap time since I didn't want to fall asleep
during spamalot, and I was still messed up by the drammamine I took for the ferry crossing (I didn't take it the first time
and that was a bad idea). I went to pick up my ticket, and then I went to the pizza hut across the street for dinner
(Not a lot of time, and England is not really known for cooking anyway, although I am quite fond of Nigella Lawson)
Spamalot was AMAZING. I think that the American version has to be at least a little different though.
I want to see that one just for David Hyde Pierce, but Time Curry was really good, so it was cool.
And the theater itself was really awesome, all these crazy cherubs all over in the decorating. Also you can buy spam sandwiches
in the lobby, which I considered, as all the preservatives would probably make it last longer than the
shirt I got will, but you can't import meat products, and there
might still be some in there somewhere. Plus all the other
vegetarians would look at me funny. Anyway, That was fun (more fun than Versaille)
No spoilers though. So I went back to the hostel after that, and got up and went back to Cork today. I've got class tomorrow, and then
Thursday I'm off to Italy. I can't do my Edinburgh trip though, as the girl I was going to go with are going
on a weekend I have school stuff. Which is probably a good thing, since
my trip to England ended up costing about double what I thought it would anyway. (stupid exchange rate)
Ah well, if you want more details about my trips, ask when I get home, since
I am leaving out tons of details, due to forgetting, time constraint, and
trying to keep this PG for Delaney (shout out) Also I am occasionally leaving
out pictures, for various reasons, such as, too blurry, or I don't like how I look in them, or no time to post them all , and then i forget
so if you think you can handle the overload, ask and I'll burn you a DVD of them.


Today I've got class and packing and stuff, so I'm going to wait to post all my pictures till next week when I'll have time to organise them all. Although don't expect any till next Friday at the earliest, as I already need to catch up sleep and laundry. On the bright side Italy is supposed to be all warm and sunny, so at least I have a chance of escaping the rain.

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