We were so tired of standing on our feet after a couple hours at the Louvre that we decided to go on an ice cream run. We went to this ice cream place that was supposed to have the best ice cream in Paris, and it didn't disappoint! The caramel ice cream was amazingly good! It also felt good to sit and rest for a bit. We went to an art museum called the Orangerie next, which had huge Monet murals on the walls. The nice thing about this museum is that they have benches where you're supposed to just sit and stare at the paintings, which we did, gladly. I would have been a bad pioneer I think. My feet were just throbbing! We had one last museum to hit up after the Orangerie, which was Napolean's Tomb. I told myself that it might be pretty cool to see, so that at least gave me some motivation. Napolean's Tomb is part of a bigger building that used to be both a hospital and an armory, which kind of cracks me up. We walked into the smaller building with Napolean's tomb and saw his monument right away to our right. The name "Joseph Napolean" was inscribed on the side, and we were standing there thinking aloud how we never knew his name was Joseph, when we realized that that wasn't his tomb... His real tomb was in the middle of the huge room down on a lower floor. We had heard that there were actually 8 different coffins surrounding Napolean, but I don't know if that's true. The monument to Napolean was bigger than I thought, but honestly, I was so tired by that point that I just wanted to go sit down and eat! Like I said, I would have been a terrible pioneer :)
We went and ate dinner at the first restaurant we saw that was close to Napolean's tomb. It was a cafe on the street corner, and it was the most French place we ate while we were there. I ordered quiche, but my friend Lauren got duck, so I tried some of it and it wasn't bad! At this point in the day, we still had about two hours til we had to meet up at the train station. We decided to go to Pere Lachaise, a cemetery where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Rossini, and Chopin are buried. There was glass all around Oscar Wilde's tombstone, because people kept coming and writing on it. People had written all over the glass still though--they were mostly quotes from things he had written. There was a nasty old tube of pink lipstick laying on the ground, so I used it to write my name and Amanda's on the glass. Amanda is an English major too, so she was just as excited as me to be at his gravesite. We realized after how funny it was that we had written our names together on a known homosexual's grave. Haha! :) Around then a van came driving by and the lady inside said that the cemetery was closing soon, so we needed to exit (sortie) immediately. We still hadn't found Chopin's grave yet though, so we ran in and out of the graves trying to find it while running away from the white van lady patrolling the cemetery. It was pretty great! We found Chopin's grave and left the cemetery before it closed, so no worries. We were then running a little short on time though, so we booked it back to the metro.
By the time we got back to the train station, my feet were so sore and blistered that I was basically waddling. Cobblestones are not the greatest surface to walk on. All I wanted to do was to sit down, but when we got there, our profe stopped us and said that someone had lost their ticket, so we all had to give him our tickets. He said they all needed to be accounted for, then he'd pass them back out. Our tickets were in our backpacks in our locker, so we had to go get those out, then give our tickets up. Please Note: Before we left for Paris we were given our tickets to and from Paris, so we also still had our tickets from London. Well, lucky me, I got the ticket FROM London TO Paris that someone accidentally turned in to our profe. Everyone else got through while I waited on the other side, because I had the wrong ticket. My professor said he'd figure it out, so I just waited on my sore feet and watched the time tick away. I started getting nervous and thought the train was going to leave without me! Then, with 13 minutes left to go til the train left, my professor came back with the right ticket. Phwew! Well, the fun doesn't stop there. Once we arrived back in London, I couldn't find my Oyster card. My oyster card is what lets me ride the tube in London, so without it, I couldn't get back to the center. I was so frustrated! I came close to just buying a new card, but my friends told me to just buy a one time pass and then look for my card later. So, that's what I did. Thankfully I did find my card the next morning, so that was good. It was just so frustrating piled on top of everything else, piled on top of my sore feet! Literally!
Last thing... Amanda, Kayley and I were starving, so we stopped at burger king to eat something. This British guy probably in his early thirties came and sat with us, named Tim. We just started talking and then he asked us if we were going to go out for drinks that night. We all looked at each other like, "Who's going to be the one to talk about the church?" We told him that we were Mormons and we didn't drink. He told us he'd heard of the church before and had actually gone to a meeting once before! He said it hadn't been the right thing for him at the time, but maybe now he'd check it out again. We just said, "Yeah, yeah you should!" That was my first real missionary type encounter in London! It was awesome! I hope I get more opportunities like that :)
We went and ate dinner at the first restaurant we saw that was close to Napolean's tomb. It was a cafe on the street corner, and it was the most French place we ate while we were there. I ordered quiche, but my friend Lauren got duck, so I tried some of it and it wasn't bad! At this point in the day, we still had about two hours til we had to meet up at the train station. We decided to go to Pere Lachaise, a cemetery where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Rossini, and Chopin are buried. There was glass all around Oscar Wilde's tombstone, because people kept coming and writing on it. People had written all over the glass still though--they were mostly quotes from things he had written. There was a nasty old tube of pink lipstick laying on the ground, so I used it to write my name and Amanda's on the glass. Amanda is an English major too, so she was just as excited as me to be at his gravesite. We realized after how funny it was that we had written our names together on a known homosexual's grave. Haha! :) Around then a van came driving by and the lady inside said that the cemetery was closing soon, so we needed to exit (sortie) immediately. We still hadn't found Chopin's grave yet though, so we ran in and out of the graves trying to find it while running away from the white van lady patrolling the cemetery. It was pretty great! We found Chopin's grave and left the cemetery before it closed, so no worries. We were then running a little short on time though, so we booked it back to the metro.
By the time we got back to the train station, my feet were so sore and blistered that I was basically waddling. Cobblestones are not the greatest surface to walk on. All I wanted to do was to sit down, but when we got there, our profe stopped us and said that someone had lost their ticket, so we all had to give him our tickets. He said they all needed to be accounted for, then he'd pass them back out. Our tickets were in our backpacks in our locker, so we had to go get those out, then give our tickets up. Please Note: Before we left for Paris we were given our tickets to and from Paris, so we also still had our tickets from London. Well, lucky me, I got the ticket FROM London TO Paris that someone accidentally turned in to our profe. Everyone else got through while I waited on the other side, because I had the wrong ticket. My professor said he'd figure it out, so I just waited on my sore feet and watched the time tick away. I started getting nervous and thought the train was going to leave without me! Then, with 13 minutes left to go til the train left, my professor came back with the right ticket. Phwew! Well, the fun doesn't stop there. Once we arrived back in London, I couldn't find my Oyster card. My oyster card is what lets me ride the tube in London, so without it, I couldn't get back to the center. I was so frustrated! I came close to just buying a new card, but my friends told me to just buy a one time pass and then look for my card later. So, that's what I did. Thankfully I did find my card the next morning, so that was good. It was just so frustrating piled on top of everything else, piled on top of my sore feet! Literally!
Last thing... Amanda, Kayley and I were starving, so we stopped at burger king to eat something. This British guy probably in his early thirties came and sat with us, named Tim. We just started talking and then he asked us if we were going to go out for drinks that night. We all looked at each other like, "Who's going to be the one to talk about the church?" We told him that we were Mormons and we didn't drink. He told us he'd heard of the church before and had actually gone to a meeting once before! He said it hadn't been the right thing for him at the time, but maybe now he'd check it out again. We just said, "Yeah, yeah you should!" That was my first real missionary type encounter in London! It was awesome! I hope I get more opportunities like that :)
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