Today consists of laundry and packing, then running to a few stores for the things I've invariably forgotton (I already can't find my travel towel, and douglas adams would be loathe to see me on the road without a towel). After that it's twiddling my thumbs and reading through books to see what it is exactly I want to do for my 7 days. There are the obvious attractions, but the only slightly less obvious destiantions that people have been able to suggest to me are:

• The Museum d'Orsay - that won't be spelled at all correct, but it's supposed to be fantastic.
• Rodin's museam - I want to see this just so I can finally see Caryatid Fallen Under How Stone in person. See "stranger in a strange land" for why.
• A strip show - and this is because, I quote, "French boobies are really nice".

Then I'm home, have a few days to recover from jet lag and I'm back to work again. I don't know what it is, but this 100 days has flown by so much quicker than I remember the previous two. Odd spacing of activities I suppose.

Send me an email (duffman still works) or leave a comment if you want a postcard. I can't remember anyone's address so that's the only way you'll get one. And don't worry, paris shouldn't afford me as many opportunities to send cards with a dozen shots of statue genetalia on them as rome did... well probably not :)

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking, if you look out the right side of the aircraft you'll see mount raineer.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain again, unfortunately we've had a hydrolic failure and need to turn around and head back to seattle, we should be on the ground within a half hour.

Ladies and gentlemen, the "maintanance crew" (see image at right) are onboard now to diagnose the problem, it should be minor and we should be back under way in 10-15 minutes.

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears the repairs will take a few hours, we've begun arranging hotel rooms for those of you who will miss your connecting flights...

My luggage, however, will be enjoying the auto capitals attractions tonight since they were unable to remove it from the plane.

However, checking the current status on my flight scheduled to leave (again) at 12:35 today for detroit it's already delayed 15 minutes. I've got an hour and a half window for my arrival in detroit and transfer to my outbound flight, it's just shrunk by 1/6th.

Apparently this trip is meant to be an adventure, a "getting there is half the fun" lesson or something. Ah well, it least it makes for different weblog fodder :)

off to, well some place, I don't really know, but it'll be good.

And yes, I am on very little sleep.

I arrived a little after 1:00 and wasn't able to check into my room for a few hours so went to sit down in the cafe area and just rest a bit. There I met Chrissy, Leslie and Aubrie - three college girls from kansas here on vacation - sarah - same from LSU - and William from minesota. Rather than sit and be tired I went with them for lunch, ended up getting home at around midnight after seeing a chuch who's name I cannot pronounce let alone spell and notre dame by night. I had my first Crepe and a whole lot of fun. It was a good prep for some of the marathon days to follow.

Friday I got up early (relatively) and went with the kansas girls and got to attend a small private mass at notre dame - I don't have any idea what they said but it was an incredible service. The cathedral is spectacular with morning sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows. After that I headed off with chrissy to see the "inside out building". I can't remember its name either, but it's the building with all of the heating and cooling systems running on the outside of the building. I saw a few more galleries and walked the full distance to the Arc de Triumph. A nice long lunch nd finding of harry potter in british form and we headed back to dinner. The remainder of the people I'd met as well as an italian named Adriano were making pasta for dinner and we all sat around talking and drinking wine for a few hours. At about 9:00 sarah and chrissy and I went off to try and find the Eiffel tower (harder than it sounds when you can't tell where you are) and managed it after a half hour or so. Conquering my distaste of heights (sarah couldn't) we went to the top of the tower and shot about a roll and a half of film of the paris skyline by night. It was gorgeous, though the wind could easily pick you up and hurl you off the top if there weren't fences all about. A nice walk home and more talking until about 2:00 am.

Saturday I got to sleep in a bit (11:00), then it was off to the nepolianic war meuseum. Made a date of it with chrissy and it was a blast though I wish I'd been able to read more of the signs. A nice 2 hour crappy chinese meal and we went back to the hostel to meet all mentioned above as well as David from tacoma (not sure what he's studying) and Paul from Dublin - man is he a kick. We putted around for a bit then headed off for sushi (nice paresian fare, no?) enjoyed some raw tuna and sake then wandered the streets looking for tobaco, whisky and Crepes - prefereably from the same location. We eventually settled on a reasonable looking bar with good enough whisky for the irishman and set about wasting time until around 1:00 when they darkened the bar. A rapid run home (the hostel locks at 2:00) with a quick stop for more crepes and whisky from a store and we head home to loudly debate politics and religion until around four in the moring. My god given birkenbuel charm works wonders and I finally go to sleep at around 5:30 am.

And that leaves me here. I slept through my alarm for about 2 hours so missed the first thing I wanted to do today so figure I may as well type something up real quick. This is really just a brief summary and I can't begin to describe how much fun this has been - even if I'm constantly on too little sleep. Most of the people saving sarah and david leave sometime tomorrow, so I'll be seeing the Louvre and Mueuseum D'Orsay then (everyone eles has already seen it).

Well it's nearly noon now, best find some breakfast before I head out.

Speaking of which. Rum in paris is not "normal" rum. If you ask for rum you'll get "Rum Labat" which seems to translate roughly to "paint thinner". you have to specifically ask for becardi. Figuring that was the odd quirk for this particular pub we set about trying to prove whether rabits where rodents are not (we settled tentativly on not) and learn some good Gaelic words (I remember the word for water and goodbye, but that's about it). About an hour into the evening the bartender starts roping off an area with toilet paper, we figure it's for a private party. Instead they stage a murder there for some student film or art project, we get to be props, it was fun.

So near misses, Sarah and I set off with a new arrival this afternoon for the Rodin museum (having finally located it) only to find it closed for the day and heavily under construction regardless. The gate keeper was nice enough to let me sneak in to grab a shot of the "gates of hell" which has a small rendition of the Caryatid statue in one of the upper corners. I thanked them and we headed off to find the wax museum (too expensive for what it was), the moulin rouge (plenty of pictures, but no shows) and another visit to Sacre Coeur (the afore mentioned church I couldn't spell nor pronouce). I got plenty of shots on the way up the hill but found out I'd left my extra film at home once we got to the top. No matter, I'll just squish it in with everything else tomorrow (it's going to be a busy day).

Finally, the dumb luck. I'd been looking for a particular cel phone available largely only in europe. Having stopped in several stores I finally found one that said that no one in france carried any of those phones at all. Undaunted I tried on more shop and they had it. The shop was, of course, located snugly between the Sex-O-Rama and the all leather facemask shop (it was by the Moulin rouge).

So now it's home to drop off crap, pick up film, figure out dinner and see what to do tomorrow. Sarah leaves at around 7:00 then I come back and pack, it seems paradoxically like I've been here forever and yet the time has gone too quickly. Just a price of travel I suppose.

Sest Le Vie

Today was filled with quite a few metro rides. I went back to the Rodin museum with sarah and randy this morning - thankfully it was open despite the construction. The small Caryatid I'd seen in the corner of the massive bronze "gates of hell" was nothing compared to the real thing. The caryatid with her stone and her sister with an urn flank the back steps of the small mansion that comprises the gallery. A large collection of bronze renditions are placed about the garden and you can roam around viewing from all angles and - most importantly - touching the statues. I'd only five works by name (daniad, caryatid, the kiss, the thinker and cathedral) so seeing all of the new sculptures was quite something. The buiguasies (that isn't spelled coorectly) was particularly interesting, I shot at least a role and a half at the museum. The only disappointing thing was that The Hand of God couldn't really be photographed well and that the Daniad was behind glass so couldn't be touched. Other than that it was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen.

Sadly - that meant that the Museum d'orsay was kind of a let down. The statues were alright I suppose, the impressionist art were all classics as should be expected but largely I'd seen them all already. I suppose had I not just come from the largest collection of sculpture by my favored artist I would have enjoyed it more, but since I had, well, I didn't.

We also saw the Paris Mosque - brilliant tile work though really falling into disrepair - ate at an outdoor cafe now that the weather has perked up a bit and saw the site of the bastiele. Oh yes, and I returned the phone. The store apparently took me for an idiotic tourist or someone with no spine. On no less than three occasions they tried to shift me away to another store, or changed their story. After inisting that I could just switch it for any other phone of a different model I got to prove how loud and forthright americans can be when we don't want to be screwed with - they handed me cash about a minute and a half after that. It was actually quite satisfying :)

And now, since I have nothing left to do but pack, a small list of things I've learned while on this trip - due largely to many late night, post pub coversations.

• If you want sprinkles on your icecream in ireland you have to call them "hundreds and thousands", in the south you call them jimmies. But don't ask for jimmies in texas or your icecream will be covered in condoms - or as the irish apparently call them "french letters".
• All men cry at the movie Rudy. Some men cry during Willie Wonka and the Chocolate factory (though this usually involves whisky or pot).
• Every city needs a metro system - seriously. One that doesn't smell like pee in half of the stairwells would be prefereable however.
• When you sleep with your head on a pile of clothes because your hostel has no pillow (and you brought none) you wake up with really strange lines all over your face. Expect funny looks in the morning.
• Nothing tastes as good as the crepe you've been looking for for 3 hours.
• Mc Donald's is a disease. While I can appreciate the opportunity for some good old fashioned junk food every now and then, McD's more frequently spaced than in the densest of american cities is just not right.
• ...and as always, staying in hostels is the only way to go. Nothing forges friendships better and faster than shared hardships, showers and whisky - not necessarily in that order.

mmm (cake).

The flight back was uneventful if not, um, un-annoying. I was seated near a woman who had apparently hurt her hand in some kind of wine tasting catastrophy and was retelling the story to anyone with ears. I think I heard it about 15 times. I'd feel bad about being calous, but one of the women traveling with her just kept rolling her eyes every time she started up so I imagine this wasn't the first time she'd told the story. Earphones drowned out most of the rest of the flight(s) though.

Pictures should be developed shortly and I'll post them, this should make for a good end to this travel segment. Quickly though, a few things I forgot to write about that I don't want to forget.

• The catacombs were interesting, though really there are only so many ways you can arrange skulls and femurs in interesting patterns before it all just starts to look like a brownish morbid blur. Icy droplets of water falling down the back of your neck do not help the ambiance.
• My french accent apparently improved in the 6 days I was there, one of the clerks at the hostel actually congratulated me on it. So now I guess I can speak all of the 20 or so words and phrases I know that much better :)
• pineapple crepes could potentially be good if you used bits of pineapple instead of two large rings. and if the pineapple was ripe. Yeah, I didn't get the good kind. Still I was glad for the late night diversion.
• If you have AT&T Wireless for your cel phone company, when you call them to set up service for international roaming, say "please add the service", not just "yes, I need that" - otherwise they'll do nothing and leave you wondering why your phone doesn't work.
• I love the feeling of not missing TV. Sure, I don't get to hear the latest on why MTV can apparently never do another superbowl halftime show, but it's a price I'm willing to pay.

https://www.arr-the-kraken.com/travel/paris04/

Not my best work graphical layout wise, but not too bad for a quick job.