Euro tour day 25

Euro tour day 25

This time I actually got up early so I could have breakfast and then go off and do some chores before I fly away for the rest of the day. How I got my alarm to work was to hang my passport neck holder through the top bunk railing and place my phone in one of the pouches along with my glasses. I hoped this would work and it did especially when I am going to be leaving early for Singapore the next day.

I had been asked to do something for one of my facebook friends who I had met through my uni studies and the request was for me to take photos of the street I am staying in as the family members may have been who had something to do with naming the street as in being named after them. I was happy to do this as it would take no time at all and i was going to post something home as well. During this time my batteries decided now was the time that they needed to be replaced and I had spares in my hostel as I had bought a big pack in Nuremberg, I ended up posting at least 2 kilos home and with a breakdown in communication on both sides, it was a little expensive, but at least it will get home.

The first place I headed towards on my trip out into the wide world of Paris was to find the catacombs even though they were closed. I actually had trouble finding it even though the location I later found was across the road from where I walked out of the station. I had also found an Australian bar and the bus’s that go to Orly airport. You really do take your life in your hands at times as traffic does not always stop at redlights and on several occasions I felt like I was going to get hit. I am catching the train as they are not held up by traffic. After looking at a closed building that was the entrance to the catacombs and closed on Mondays, I thought I should then head towards Montepassey Cemetery. I got out of the station and looked at the map. I knew where to go and I started walking and started wondering at the same time where the cemetery was and how I could have lost a whole patch of ground that would have been noticeable. Looking across the road I found what I was looking for. I had been looking the wrong way. The cemetery was a really nice walk and I started thinking that i would be known sometime for visiting a cemetery and finding the strange headstones. There was only one person I wanted to find and i did not have a map. I asked one person who spoke perfect English and he told me where to go and I tried the shack that was behind us. The guard was glad to give me one. I found the man who sculpted the Statue of Liberty. I found several others of interest including 4 soldiers who were guillotined. 

After the cemetery I went to find the perfume shops I had looked up before heading out for the day. I had two circled on a map I carried with me. I had two maps one I used exclusively for the metro as I wanted to know where to go. I do not go the same way every time. The station I was to get off at was called Opera and this became a problem. I walked out what i thought was an exit and walked quite far ending up at another part of the station where I could catch the train to Disney land. Not a place I was interested in unless I had another person with me. I was able to go through the barriers as I could not go back the way I had come. I ended up exiting the labyrinth of the metro and popped out to a full on sensory overload in the middle of an island with traffic around me. There was some lovely buildings around that were actually theatres of some sort. I found the street that I was supposed to find after navigating around the crossings. I was looking down one street about to cross when I looked the other way and found the perfume shop directly in front of me across the road. I crossed to the shop and had a wander around inside. The shop was actually busy. I was getting confused over the prices and the size of the bottles and ended up buying a small bottle although this would do as a present.

Afterwards I decided to have a wander and by this time I was getting hungry and was wondering where I could have lunch. I seen a British shop across the road and was going to take a photo when something caught my eye. On the ground was a goldish ring and an elderly lady picked it up and was trying to offer me it for money. I knew this was a Gypsy scam and I just walked away really quickly hoping she would not follow me. I did find an American restaurant that I bought lunch from and it was a pepper steak with chips. A small steak, but a steak is a steak and it fills that hole that needs filling. After my late lunch I walked down the rows of expensive shops and through the Vendrome while looking at designer shops. There was a building last year that I had passed that I wanted to look inside and that was the Madeliene church which was huge on the outside and impressive on the inside, dresses were not allowed amongst several other things and at the time I did not know it was a church at all. I thought I would be nice and put some money in the poor box on my way out.

After the church I took a long wander around where the palaces were as they are now museums. The time was starting to get late and my wanderings took me to all sorts of places including back streets where I found the police patrolled and had several streets blocked off. There was a top of the line restaurant that had a red carpet and a line up just for people to enter. I did not want to walk anywhere near the Eiffel tower and walked to the place where Napoleon is actually buried. The only problem with my plan was that it was then late and I could only get half hour of touring the French armoury of their collection and could not visit the tomb.. By this time I was getting tired of walking and found the metro where I caught the train back to where I was staying as I had some packing to do before I left the next day for Singapore.