Saturday 2nd March: Paris, delirious wandering

[ 97 photos taken this day: https://picasaweb.google.com/110144623598348247797/20110402?authkey=Gv1sRgCNX5z77wyfSY_wE#     ]

We got to a Paris coach station (Gallieni I think) before the sun had come up. I hadn't worked out how I'd get to my hostel. I just knew the rough location of it. I spent some time analysing the metro map (train network). I came up with a reasonable route. The girl I sat next to on the bus speaks a little bit of French. She was nice enough to ask the ticket selling man for 10 tickets for me. She had just ordered the same thing. It was only 12 euro. Pretty good.

We rode on the metro together. She had nothing to do for a few hours and I wonder if she wanted me to suggest we wander around looking at stuff, since she acted a bit taken aback when I said I was getting off at the next stop and "goodbye". But I was in not a good state of awake-ness, so I wouldn't have been able to do this, as the rest of my day will probably demonstrate.

I got off the train one station too early. I got a bit confused by which street I was on. I eventually found the hostel. Check-in only starts at 4pm! That's really late I think. But they said I could eat the free breakfast. Hooray.

After eating that I wandered up a hill to a big church thing. It is just a few hundred metres away, which is why I chose it. When going up the hill, an African man approached me with a lot of friendliness. He said it's African day today and made me one of those wrist band things and told me his familiarity with Australian football (soccer) players. Afterward he said "now give a donation". I was really tired. So I thought it was ridiculous and that this guy was not so nice afterall. But I decided I'd just give him one euro to make him go away. To that, he said "no no, give me some paper money. I'll give you change". That was not sensible at all. I told him no and he insisted that I have to give him a note. I contradicted myself and said that I don't have any notes, and he said that he'd just take my one euro then... If I was less tired then I should have offered him nothing straight away. I found it really unpleasant that this man manipulated the impression of being a nice person in order to attempt to extort money from people. This made me feel a bit sad.

It later turned out that there are quite a few people like this in Paris. This is something I'll have to watch out for.

Nice view of Paris from the top.

First view of the crazy police men. These people walk around holding machine guns. There seem to be a few different types of police people.

I walked down toward the river to have a look at the Louvre. On the way I had a crisis when I realised that I had no idea where a public toilet was. I asked some people and they directed me toward Starbucks. Their advice was good. On the way to the Louvre I passed lots of amazing buildings and streets.

Saying that the first president of the parliament of Paris was a mathemician?

Chemtrails.

I saw a plaster cast of this thing in the Victoria and Albert museum.

The obelisk and arch de triumph.

The gardens in front of the Louvre are massive and really cool. The day was great as well.

I came to this pond. They had deckchairs all around the outside. I took one and had a long sit in it. Really nice being out in the sun. But I kind of wanted a shower... In this pond, a French guy dropped a sailing boat in. It had no motor. It just drifted with the wind. The boat sailed around for a while then came to the side he was waiting at after judging the wind.

I joined this tour group. But they were walking at a normal pace and so I couldn't keep up. I was really tired. They left me behind :(

I'm really tired here! After this I sat down next to the ponds around this glass pyramid thing. Some french people asked if I could shift a bit so they could all fit on even though there was plenty of room next to me. I put my head in my hands and had a few micronaps. So tired. But it was still only 12pm or so. Can't check into hostel yet. I had to keep going somewhere.

I went into the ticket buying area of the Louvre, but then found out that the first Sunday of every month is free for everyone. Since tomorrow is the first sunday of the month, I decided to come back then. Plus, if I paid for a ticket now, then I probably wouldn't be awake enought to enjoy it. I headed toward the river and walked along there for a while. Then I walked all the way to the Eiffel tower. Probably way too far given how tired I was.

The river front is really nice.

I got to the tower and had a look around it. For some reason I was contemplating climbing it. But the line looked to be about 30 minutes long. Instead I laid down in a park underneath some trees on some comfortable grass. I really just wanted to sleep. So I put my bag under my head and went for it. This picture is the view as I was lying down. I'm literally just lying down taking this picture. Amazing. I was scared that if I slept then I wouldn't wake up until it was dark. So I had a dream where this happened. I think I woke up and yelled something out. I'm not sure though. I was surrounded by families, so if I did that then it would have been strange.

At some time before I got to the Eiffel tower I found a restaurant. It said on the outside that they make spaghetti bolognaise. Sweet! I had this. It was good.

After sleeping under the tower again: When I woke up it was 4pm. Hooray! I caught a train back. Unfortunately the train back from here seems to be a little strange. I had to walk a long way. But I got back eventually. I set my bed up really nice, then had a shower. I came out of the shower and my bed looked so nice that I just had to get in and sleep. I slept for about 15 hours that night.