European Adventure Continued!

My last blog post got cut short because, well, I got distracted. By something, I can't remember what to be honest. But I think I left off at Paris.

Anyway, so Paris was basically a whirlwind of museum trips, sightseeing, and long nights out. My favorite museum, by far was the Musee du Quai Branly. First off, the design of the museum was breathtaking. The exhibit is dimly lit with only the works of art being lit up brilliantly. Perfect setting for my hangover that day. The art was EXQUISITE. And I never use the word "exquisite." It was also radically cool. It's a museum of "first" arts (code word for primitive but they didn't want to offend) but is a vast array of more traditional art to modern pieces such as amazing sculptures and prints and textiles. Everything was colorful and shiny and...ethnic? I guess that's kind of offensive too. But it was definitely fascinating and they had art from pretty much every continent and tribal group. Almost everything I saw I wanted to put in my apartment as decoration.

We also went to the musee d'orsay where we also had "lunch". I put that in quotations because, after waiting in a long line and finally making it to the museum's restaurant STARVING, we were told it was only "tea time". How quaint. Except for that meant we were restricted only to cheese platters and small salads. I just wanted to wolf down a burger. We hit this road block a couple of times durng our stay. I guess they restrict lunch between the hours of 11-2 (although aren't the French supposed to have super long lunches? hmph.) The musee d'orsay was cool, not the kind of art I'm necessarily thrilled by but of course such art as Van Gogh's was interesting to see in person. My favorite was actually the neo-impressionists. The paintings were extremely colorful and dazzling, made by painting tiny little dots of color to form an image. I wouldn't call my taste "refined" by any definition of the word. I like flashy. Unashamed.

We also saw some of the natural history museums around the jardin des plantes such as the paleontology museum and the evolution museum. Lots of animals, taxonomy, and skeletons. And brains in jars. In addition to these museums we went to the Eiffel Tower (I didn't get a picture last time I came to Paris for three weeks one summer with my brother and mother) and Notre Dame. We didn't go inside Notre Dame because both of us had before.

Our nights out were especially fun. One night we went to rue de lapp which was arecommndation from cousin Sebastian. It was a little cobblestone street lined with bars. The first abr we went into was expansive and we sat by ourselves at a table near the window. Laura ordered a beer and I had a vodka soda but two older men started hitting on us when they heard us speaking in English so we dipped. We only had to walk next door to discover a tiny little bar that was booming with American music. We were enticed. It ended up being a good time and we met a couple of people from Spain. We got to dance and chit chat, all that we had really been looking for in the first place. Surprisingly, everyone we met at this bar, called Charlotte Bar, was not French. Spanish, Algerian, Dutch, yes. French, no.

Another niht we went to the Quarter de Latin for Spanish-French food with the Italian we met on New Year's Eve and a friend of his. The food was delicious, although covered in greasy meat and gravy and potato. Not really a part of my diet. Lots of wine drinking and talking too loudly on this night.

I think that sums up our experience in Paris pretty well. If I think of anything else I'll add it in, maybe with the help of Laura.

We came back to England on a Thursday and stayed in that night in order to rest up for our Frday night in London.

London was...interesting. We started off by seeing some of the sights in the evening. You know, the fancy castles and towers and the like. We had dinner at a Japanese place near the Tower of London in which I at light and healthy (go me!). I had a broth-based soup with seafood and chicken and vegetables in a paper bowl, which I had never seen before at a Japanese restaurant. After this we went to Camden, a popular destination for young partiers such as ourselves. First we went to a bar that was a recommendation from Laura's friend from Oxford. It was two-floored and had a sort of pub feel to it, playing rock music (even 70s rock a la Edward Caldwell...when was the last time you heard The Eagles in a bar?) We stood at the bar for a while, gathering our courage to approach people. Finaly, Laura decided to settle down next to a chubby Indian boy who would drunkenly intercept all of my conversations with other men the rest of the night screaming "you don't want to talk to guys like that! she's with me!" Nothing else has to be said about that. It was unappreciated. Also talked to a guy who insisted on talking about my "accent" (which really gets old after awhile...OK I get it. You have an accent. I have an accent. We're from different countries. BUT I CAN STILL UNDERSTAND YOUR LANGUAGE SO LET'S DISCUSS SOMETHING MORE INTERESTING). But he was OK. His friend, on the other hand, really just wanted to scream at me about American politics. I thought this was universally rude to do at bars, or at social gatherings in general, but I guess not in the good ol' UK. (I'm generalizing off of one drunk asshole, I know). One of his most memorable lines of he night was "YOU ONLY LIKE OBAMA BECAUSE HE KILLED OSAMA!" I had to just shut my mouth then or risk a pub brawl.

After this, I told Laura I wanted to go. The people in that bar were only getting on my nerves. So we walked outside and right in our face was a club. Which seemed to be heating up so we decided to go inside. Th rest is history. Let's just say: I was rejected by two men, Laura hit on a gay guy, no one could understand our accents against the loud music, and we eventually gave up and danced like drunken sailors. And left like drunken sailors. And boarded the bus like drunkard sailors. And by the time we got back to Oxford, I was rather sober. Laura, however, couldn't remember what our address was and insisted to the cab driver that we were going to Oxford University. Which is basically the entire town. :)