Pizza and Prada

Buongiorno from Milan! Now what the hell am I doing in Italy, you might ask.  Well, I was looking into taking a bus back up to Barcelona, when I realised through my genius that I could get a flight from Granada to Milan for the same price as a bus from Granada to Barcelona. What a crazy world!

Anyway, backtracking to where I last left off.  That night (5 days ago) after I wrote was the most music-filled night probably of life!  After the internet cafe, we went for a dinner and show of amazingly expert Flamenco! It was totally exhilerating to see these Flamenco professionals weave intricate beats of guitar, clapping, and loud tap-style dancing with a Spanish flourish.  After the show (regretably) finished, we went to Paul´s friends´house to see what they were up to.  It so happened that they were going to a jazz club for the weekly Sunday night jazz show. We went along and saw a few different jazz bands, an amazing Brazilian-style percussion group, and a hilarious Spanish reggae group (hearing someone speak Spanish with a Jamaican accent is beyond funny).

I´m honestly having trouble distinguishing Monday through Wednesday from each other, so I´ll just bunch them in one mega-day. So, on mega-day I awoke generally early, although maybe late, got up and had a breakfast outside the cave, looking out at the mountains.  Did yoga, or not, in the morning, then went on with my day.  All three days I cooked yummy and healthy meals with the amazing fresh Spanish fruit and vegetables.  Most notably, I was eating at least one mango a day because they´re so fresh and huge and delicious in Spain.  I also ate the fruit from the cacti that grow around the cave, which was mild but tasty, not to mention free!  I climbed neighbouring mountains and got to see a lot more incredible views.  I saw another jazz concert, this one a quartet of skilled and really humourous musicians who clearly lived and breathed for music.  I explored the more city-like part of Granada, which was nice, but not really impressive because it was a lot like the other Spanish cities I´d been to.  I definitely prefer the old Morroccan city.  I also spent an amazing afternoon touring around the ancient Arabbic castles of the Alhambra.  It´s a beautiful place with several impressive buildings, giant gardens that had flowers and orange trees in bloom even in November, and a rich and interesting history.  My favourite thing about the place is that, when it was first built, Jews, Muslims, and Christians all lived happily and peacefully together there.

My last night in the cave was spent the same way as my first, with Paul and I sharing wine, stories, and a cave-cooked meal.  My final day in Granada I walked around the Morroccan part of the city for the final time before coming back to the cave for lunch, saying my goodbyes to Paul, and lugging my pack down the mountain to take a shuttle to the airport.  My plane ride was a decent flight, and I landed in the airport outside Milan in the late evening.  I then took a shuttle to the train station, and a metro into the city, where I was met by my new host Maria, a girl from Ecuador studying fashion in Milan for a year.  We didn´t have too much time to talk before bed because I arrived late, but we chatted for a bit and she helped my plan out what I´d do today.

Today I woke up early and left with Maria.  As she went to school, I walked to the Duomo, the most famous church in Milan.  It´s huge and beautiful, with a ridiculously detailed gothic outside, and a more reserved inside containing tall stained glass windows, statues, and a really neat floor with flower patterns made of different kinds of marble and rock.  I would have enjoyed myself more if it was FREEZING outside! It´s not that cold, but all day it´s been doing that stupid slush-snow-rain combination that spells out early death for me.  My boots soaked through in a matter of minutes and I spent just over 8 hours with cold, wet feet before Maria was done school and I could change into dry socks.  Not one to be defeated by weather, I managed to have a day filled with equal parts cowering inside and sight-seeing.  I went around the insanely famous fashion district and openly gawked at all the gorgeous clothing that I will never afford.  It was impressive! I also went to an Italian Villa that was once lived in by Napolean and is now a museum of itself as well as an art gallery.  There was a lot of amazing paintings and sculptures, and I was really jazzed to see a wall of Toulouse-Lautrec paintings.  The coolest thing, though, was a contemporary art exhibit by Tino Sehgal taking place, that used live actors as its medium, and had them singing, getting in people´s faces, dancing, or doing weird contorted movements throughout the villa.  It was really wierd, disquieting, and brilliant.  I ate my first real Italian pizza and foccaccia (both delicious).  I loaded up with maps and planners at the tourist office so I can properly use and abuse this city in the next few days while I´m here.  And tonight? Who knows!

Granada, de nada

¡Hola mi amigos! ¿Esta bien? Look at me I´m Spanish! And thus concludes two of the ten or so phrases I know in Spanish. Oh well, it´s a start.
¨So Kendall, tell us, where oh where are you staying in Granada?¨
Funny you should ask! I took the 5 hour bus ride to Granada on Thursday, and after some getting lost near the bus station I met up with my new host Paul (by far the coolest host yet!) and he walked me up to his cave. Oh yes, his cave. I am staying in one of the old, established, and insanely cool caves that are scattered in the mountains beside Granada. It´s a gypsy cave and is pretty much the best thing I´ve ever seen in my life. On the mountain there are the gypsy caves, the hippie caves, the punk rock caves, and the squatter caves. From Paul´s cave we have a view of the entire city and the mountains surrounding it. So happy.
The night I arrived we just hung out in the cave, cooked dinner, drank wine, got to know each other. Then we did a bit of night-time mountain adventuring and walked around the mountain. The next morning we sat on Paul´s yoga mat and looked at the landscape, while eating for breakfast the biggest mango I´ve ever seen in my life. I´m crazy obsessed with the mangos here and their giant deliciousness! After that we walked down to the local market, I met lots of Paul´s friends (people here are friendly beyond belief). The market has the most amazing selction of fresh fruits and vegetables, and I have been eating like a very healthy vegetarian king since I arrived. After returning to the cave for lunch we walked up to this giant old morroccan wall and climbed up to it to sit and watch the sunset over Granada. It was mind-blowingly beautiful, and made it easy to understand why sunsets are treated like a daily national holiday in this part os Spain. On our way back to the cave we heard accordian music and tracked it to the source: a group of hippies having a random jam-session outside their cave. In Granada all you need to do to join strangers in their activites is walk over to them, so we were made welcome and sat around listening to flamenco guitar and accordian for a while. That night we drank a bunch of wine and then met up with Paul´s friends to go out for my first time to the famous Granada Tapas bars. The bars are crazy cheap and every drink you order comes with a little appetizer. Yay!
Yesterday we went walking through one of the neighbouring mountains to this little mountain-side tea shop, where this cool old hippie man makes amazing loose leaf tea for cheap. I am so spellbound with this place it´s ridiculous! After that we went walking around the city part of Granada for a bit and went to another tapas bar and a bar where Paul´s friend works, before retiring to the cave for late dinner and an early night. Today we started the day drinking green tea and doing yoga in view of all the mountains around us. It was glorious and left em with a deep sense of bodily contentment and spiritual satisfaction. Then we went and climbed this 1000 metre-or-so mountain (rough work, that!) and were awarded with yet another delicious view. The landscape changes so much depending on which mountain you´re on, it´s a real treat. After a hearty dinner we walked down to the city and I´m now at an internet cafe trying to recap all the glorious adventures I´ve had so far. Paul´s agreed to let me stay for a full week here instead of my original 3 day plan, but I want to stay forever, because I´ve found hippie heaven!

Back on Track

Hola! I've completely rocked Madrid since last writing and I have much news. When I last wrote I had just emerged from my hole of sick/death/flu. To celebrate my return to the land of the living, Richard and I went and saw a documentary film about climate change and Exxon mogul's role in it. The film was being screened for free at the Zaragoza historic centre as a part of the Zaragoza film festival (that I was apparently there for and missed, damn you flu!). The film was amazing and powerful and made me really, really angry as such films are wont to do. So quick side note, can everyone please stop using Esso (owned by Exxon) gas? They're definitely the most evil of the oil corporations, and they're the only one that refuses to even glimpse at alternative fuels or drilling practises. Disgusting.
Anyway, the next day I took a leisurely mid-afternoon bus from Zaragoza to Madrid. The bus ride was amazing! We delved through the hills, up and down along all the gorgeous Spanish scenery. I finally saw my first Spanish red rocks. The scenery was delightfully schizophrenic, going from palm trees to evergreens, from rocky expanse of red and yellow to lush green grass and tree-covered slopes. I arrived in Madrid and was met at the bus station by my Madrid couchsurfing host, Evan. I came back to his place and met his lovely roommates, both very nice. That night we all went out to a bar where they have live music. Three diferent people with guitars got up one at a time and played. It was really great, because I've been jonesing for live music lately, and it was a cozy little bar with a good atmosphere. That night Evan and I started what has become a routine of staying up until ridiculous-oclock in the morning having long talks about whatever.
This brings us to two days ago, my first official full day in Madrid. I spent the morning (well, afternoon by the time I woke up) walking around the neighbourhood where I'm staying. Then Evan took me to his flameco guitar class so I could get a real taste of Spanish culture. It was amazing! There were four guys who were all expert at Flamenco and for the first hour it was them jamming together, then the second hour they brought in a singer/clapper and a dancer. Everyone performed beautifully, and I loved sitting to the side and getting this private Flamenco show. The music is enchanting and the dance is really exciting to watch. Afterwards I met up with my friend Javier (who I met in Ireland) and we spent hours walking around downtown Madrid. Javier's lived here his whole life, so he gave me a really in-depth tour of the city's core. We also went out for some traditional Spanish food, although there's a limited selection for me because most of it contains meat. Then it was back to the apartment for more talking all night.
Yesterday I met Javier in the afternoon to walk around a bit. When he had to jet for class I continued walking and explored the fashion district and the gaybourhood of Madrid. Afterwards I went and spent some time in the Museo del Prado art museum, where they have free entry after 6pm, woo! I came back to the flat for quick dinner, then bounced back downtown to meet up with Ozan, my would-be couchsurfing host who couldn't host me because his family is visiting, but wanted to hang out anyway. He took me to this amazing little cave-like bar where on Tuesday nights they have a wailing blues band. We had some nice half-shouted conversation while the band rocked the tiny bar. It was the perfect follow-up to my reading Kerouac, and I swayed and clapped along for hours. The band was absolutely bumping, and because it was such a small bar it was completely packed and the energy was throbbing. Glorious! I caught the last metro back to the flat, then more night-talking.
Today I walked around dowtown a bit more (there's so much to see downtown Madrid, it's crazy!) and then spent hours inside the Reine Sophia modern art museum. The museum holds a huge art collection, including tons of Picasso's paitings, sculptures, and sketches. I got to realise a big dream of mine and see Picasso's Guernica in real life. Seeing that amazing, huge, powerful painting was absolutely mind-blowing. I stood motionless in front of it for what must have been at least 20 minutes with tears welling in my eyes. Unlike the Mona Lisa, that's one piece of art that is definitely not over-hyped. After I recovered from my death-by-art I sought out this cool coffee shop where they sell used books i English, and I stocked up for my long bus ride tomorrow. Tonight I'll probably just hang with the crew in the flat and then tomorrow I take a bus to Granada in the south of Spain, ole!

Hullabaflu

Well, anyone who´s ever read a travel book or seen a travel movie knows that thre will, against all high-flying odds, be at some point an idescribably low point. A point so low it will have the adventurer huddled over in the fetal position wishing for his or her Mommy. Alas, I hit that low. In the last two days two major changes happened: one, not wanting to over-burden Isaac and wanting to stay in Zaragoza a few more days before figuring out where the hell I´m going, I switched couchsurfing locations. My new host is an indescribably nice Mexican fellow who has only a fleeting grasp on the English and French languages, forcing us to communicate through a hilarious combination of English, French, and various gestures. Second, I came down with a mind-numbing, soul-crushing case of the flu. This is the first time I´ve left the apartment in over a day, and the first time I put on something other than pyjamas in two days. Egads!
For his part, Richard (my host) has been incredibly good to me, peppering me with liquids, fresh fruits, and other niceties. Also, lucky for me I had a nice new book to read, which staved off the insanity and cabin fever I would have otherwise had. The last few days have been a blurr of high fever, various liquids, reading my book, and much sleep. Amidst it all I´ve been trying, in broken English, to relate to Richard that I´m usually fun. Today I finally felt alive enough to seek out an internet cafe and contact my peeps. I emerged from the apartment thinking, "oh, right, Spain" and feeling generally out of sorts. I believe that I am now on the mend, though, and hope to proceed with rocking this country to the best of my ability.

Spain, olé!

Walk through a half/closed but very fancy mini-mall with two restaurants, clothing shops, and a store completely dedicated to things that glow. Take the first exit you see, past men wheeling large boxes to somewhere, and you find yourself in an incredibly small alley, filled with book shops, antique stores, and sex shops, that is dense with cigar smoke. It's one pm and all the stores are closing their doors for the next three hours to honour the traditional siesta and the streets are near empty. Welcome to Spain.
I took a train from Toulouse to a small town on the outline on France. It was an afternoon train that pulled in at dusk and everything reminded me of a movie where everyone dies quickly, only somehow safe. The train station was away from any real "town" although houses sat around it like stubble on a chin and everything was cradled by huge French mountains. The place was almost deserted and my eight minute wait wound up being an hour and a half for my next train. All was well though and I rolled into Barcelona not even being sure where the heck I was because the train turns into another subway when you arrive in the city and I had to guess at which stop to get off at to get to the real subway. By the time I actually found my way to the hostel it was about 10pm and I was tired, embarrassed by my lack of Spanish, and looking for a party. I inserted myself into the liveliest looking group of kids, made quick friends, and was introduced to a game where you roll dice, call out a number, a person, and a dare, and if you get that number that person is bound to the dare. I bounced out to get something to drink (a litre and a half of sangria for less than two euros, thank you very much) and came back to join the revelry.
The hostel gang and I got good and rowdy and then took off to find a club. The metro in Barcelona is open all night on Saturday, what a great city! Instead of a club we went to an outdoor and free psycho-trance party. I was introduced to a different kind of sangria made with white wine and pineapple juice, and good times were had by all.
The next morning I forced myself to get up in time for the free hostel breakfast and then quickly got ready and jammed at least a few days worth of sightseeing into a few hours. I had a lot of things to see and a 6pm bus to catch. I saw Barcelona's most famous building, Sagrada Familla, a huge and looming gothic building hundreds of years old and still unfinished and under contruction. I saw the olympic stadium, city hall, the famous fountain, the biggest museum, the famous palatial parks, and then went ot a random section of the downtown and walked around. Barcelona is brimming with street performers and musicians. I saw some of the most amazing and chaotic live music and many living statues. I was drunk off music and beauty and fast-tracking across the city. I took the metro back to my hostel and walked over to the mediterrenean sea and the palm-tree laden beach. I then had a quick dinner in the hostel and rushed over to the bus station to take my bus to Zaragoza. I arrived in Zaragoza around 10pm, met my couchsurfing host, a nice computer programmer named Isaac, got to know him a bit, and then passed the hell out. Today I woke up early so Isaac could show me where the grocery store and his work was on his way to work. Zaragoza is a fair sized city but small enough to walk in and with loads of personality. I lost the grocery store, bought a baguette, came back to Isaac's flat to (finally) do laundry, and while it washed I got hard and heavy into "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. I played jazz records and read a good third of the book. I then put down the book and got into some NIA-style improv dance around the flat to the tune of wailing jazz. I went back to Isaac's work to go for late lunch with him and his work buddies and got him to show me on the map where the grocery store is. I found the grocery store, bought groceries, came back to the flat, a bit more reading, then wandering around the "old city" for awhile before meeting Isaac again to go to the theatre.
We saw a dutch show called "Angel" a one-man and one-puppet experimental theatre piece involving puppetry, monologues, and modern dance. It was fantastic, even if I didn't understand the parts where he was talking in spanish. I would get so excited whenever he said a word I understood during his monologues that I would almost lead out of my seat. After that Isaac, myself, and a fellow Canadian now living in Zaragoza named Yohanna, all went out for drinks. This morning I got up, fed my now rampant addiction to "On the Road", then went walking in a part of the city I haven't been to yet. I saw an ancient Roman gateway, the University, and Zaragoza's biggest park, simply called Parque Grande. I absolutely loved the park for its diverse trees, cool graffiti, and amazing fountains. I read in the park under a tree before doing some wanderings around the city. I came back to the flat and cooked up a small tempest (food's cheap here so I've been eating like a king) and then Isaac, Yohanna, and I watched a delightful little documentary on Frank Gehry. Whew! That was a lot of updating.

Quelque-fois tu gagnes et quelque-fois Toulouse!

This will be a quick one, because I'm using a French keyboard and they're incredibly hard to write with... I can't possibly explain how much joy it brings me to come up with puns for the titles of my blog pages. I definitely blame my father's influence for that! So as you may have guessed, I'm now in Toulouse, France. Toulouse isn't super touristy, but I have no idea why because it's an absolutely gorgeous city with loads of canals, trees, and gardens. After being in Paris, Toulouse seems incredibly green and quaint; I really love it!
I arrived two days ago on the train, having very little idea as to what my host couple looked like because I only had a small photo to go off of. The couple is Marion and Thom, and they're very quirky, hip, and of the quintessential French nature. Marion met me at the train station and took me back to their flat, where I met Thom. They cooked a nice dinner for me and we spent the rest of the night chilling out and getting to know each other.
The next morning Marion went to school early and when I got up Thom gave me a map of the city and showed me some points of interest as well as telling me how to get around. I took the métro to just east of the centre-ville and began walking around. There weren't any sights I specifically wanted to see, I just wanted to get a feel for the city more than anything; and let me tell you, I felt this city up! I walked along the pont-neuf, which is the oldest bridge in Toulouse and goes over the huge river in the middle of the city. From there I found a few gorgeous little canals and spent at least an hour just following the canals and falling in love with the beauty of it all. I then found a petit café where I sat drinking café and eating a croissant. It was my second croissant of the day because between Marion's flat and the métro station I pass FOUR bakeries. Man is this place ever going to make me fat! After that I just walked all around the city and saw plenty of sites. Toulouse is a mix between quaint domestiles, large old buildings, lots of trees and greenery, and large roads. Unfortunately it kept raining on and off all day, occasionally in a huge storm, so I had to hide out from the rain a few times. So much for the gorgeous south-of-France weather- it's been raining since I got here! I bought some food for my stay here and eventually made my way back for another night of cooking and hanging out.
Then today I experienced much the same kind of day, only with less rain. I found the gorgeous city gardens and walked around them for quite awhile. I also went to another supermarché and got train-snacks for tomorrow, because on my train ride over here I was starving and had nothing to eat. (note, train seat cushions do NOT taste good, nor are they nutritious). I'm now spending another quaint evening inside. My visit so far has been incredibly lovely, and I've really enjoyed the hospitality of Marion and Thom. Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to take a train from Toulouse, France, to Barcelona, Spain, and then a whole new adventure begins!

The Lyon's roar

Salut de Lyon, France! Allow me to catch you, my devoted readers, up on what's been going on. I left off on my way out to Montramarte. What a day! I walked around for at least 6 hours with Guy. We found the flea market we were looking for, but it didn't have vintage clothes (which was what we wanted) so we got directions from a shop-keep to an area that has some vintage stores. It was only a few metro stations away so we decided to walk to it. We found the area, or something close to it pretty easily. We saw tons of cool stores in this incredibly busy and vibrant markety area. I think it was more like the ghetto of Paris, but still classy because it's Paris. We decided it would be a good plan to get lost so we just started making random turns and walking down whatever street looked interesting. We turned a random corner and found.... Sacre Coeur! The gorgeous and famous church on a huge hill in Montramarte. Quel coincidence! We ascended the million or so steps an were greeted with a spectacular view of most of Paris at dusk. It was breathtaking, and not just because we'd climbed a bunch of stairs! I was beginning to feel pretty Paris-beauty-drunk when we started walking downhill and trying to find a restaurant. We walked onto this road where there was an open-air restaurant filled with trendy Parisian couples eating dinner and being serenaded by an old man playing "La Vie En Rose" on an accordian. Absolute magic!
After that we decided due to the ocst of restaurants to go home and make food. Everyone met up at the apartment for dinner and drinking and then we managed to actually get Markus to come out with us for a night. We grabbed a few bottles of wine and took the metro back to Montramarte to drink in front of the Moulin Rouge. It was awesome! I've now drank wine in front of some of Paris' biggest tourist attractions! Go me!
For our last day in the gorgeous Parisian flat, I got up and spent awhile just walking all around our neighbouring area. I really wanted to soak up as much of our area as I could. It was magical and I saw so many adorable streets and building and markets and cafes and all that French goodness. I then spent awhile chilling in the apartment before heading to the cemetary with Guy and Markus where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried and being 8 minutes to late to get in!!! ARGH! That night we all hung out in the apartment drinking wine and beer (although I didn't drink the beer) until very late. Guy and I were real champs, though, and we stayed up until 4am, and then when Guy went to bed I was still up until almost 5am- I just didn't want my last night in the apartment to end.
The next morning we got up at 9-ish and cleaned for a few hours before we had to check out at 11am. We then lugged our bags to the hostel we'd stayed at before to see if we could scam the use of their luggage room until our trains left. That was a no-go as their was an incredibly mean woman working the counter. We lugged our luggage to the other end of the city in a vain attempt to find Jim Morrison's grave. Apparently in Paris "graveyard" means "maze from which there is no escape" because we walked around for ever and had to leave before seeing Jim's grave because I had a train to catch. I did see Oscar Wilde's grave, though, and as is the custom I donned my red lipstick and lay a big smooch on it. Sad about missing Jim's grave, but what can you do?
The boys saw me off at the train station and I took a train to Lyon, France. Since travelling a lot of my travel buddies have been telling me about couchsurfing.com where you basically do a half-exchange with people and stay at their house for a few days while they show you around the city and such. I decided to give it a go since I'm poor and it's a fantastic way to really experience the culture. I'm currently staying with a fantastic couple in Lyon named Sofia and Mikael. They came and got me at the train station and before taking me to their charming flat we ascended this hill to a look-out station with the most spectacular view of Lyon at night. They fed me amazing dinner and then let me use their internet (which I'm also doing right now) to check emails and such.
Today Mikael was at work and Sofia walked around Lyon with me and showed me the major sights. I saw a beautiful church and the same look-out but with a day-time view. My favourite thing today was this huge Roman collasseum built into a hill. It's amazing! After walking around all day we came back here for more delicious homemade French food (I'm getting spoiled) and then spent the evening in the flat. I've also been (finally) uploading all my photos and wishing I didn't have so many!
Tomorrow I'm taking the train to Toulouse in the South of France, and I'm very excited!

Art-attack!

So much art, so little time.  Two days ago after what has now become a 2 or 3 hour morning routine of waking up, putting on music, eating baguettes, drinking coffee, doing yoga, sketching or journaling, and sitting around talking in our gorgeous flat, I went with the boys to Notre Dame.  Words cannot describe the pure architectural decadence that is that church!  Every inch of the outside of the building has a statue or carving or gorgeous stained glass covering it.  I saw it several times from the outside on our walks around the latin quarter (the trendy artsy student area of Paris), but this was my first time going inside the church.  First off, let's just say that any description I can come up with for the beauty of this church is going to probably be the equivalent of a black and white photocopy of it at best.  As soon as you enter the door you're completely surrounded by archways upon archways, all at least 3 stories high and beautifully carved.  There quiet French choir music playing all around you and huge groupings of flickering candles about every 20 feet or so.  Oh yeah, and there's about a million tourists taking photos, but what can you do?  There are hundreds of statues and paintings and enormous stained glass windows, the most famous of which is the giant and beautiful rose window that you can see from the bridge over the seine.  By the way the seine is also beautiful, especially at night, but it is sadly hideously polluted.  We walked around the building in awe for at least an hour.   Afterwards we decided that we had enough time and a hankering for more art, so we took the metro to the Montramarte district (the district in the north of the city with the Moulin Rouge and all the belle epoche stuff) and went to the Salvador Dali exhibition.  It was kind of tricky finding the right street, but I immensely enjoyed the walk (despite the rain) because it took us up cute little cobblestone roads and through courtyards to the top of a large hill where we got a rockin' view of the city.  The actual exhibition was amazing and contained sketches, prints, sculptures, videos, quotes, and really cool holographic images (they're doing a special limited time holographic Dali show right now).  It was amazing and we spent quite a lot of time wandering around the exhibition.  Afterwards we came back to our flat for our average night of drinking wine, cooking, listening to music, watching films, talking about art, and sketching or journaling.

Then yesterday, after an exceptionally long morning of our usual goodness, Matt and Markus went and explored the Jewish quarter, and Guy and I went to the Louvre.  The Louvre is free for cats under 26 on Friday nights, so we were keen to take advantage of that.  The Louvre is another marvel that I've walked around many times but was going in for the first time. The Louvre is somewhere I've always wanted to go and finally got to see.  It certainly did not disappoint!  The artwork was amazing, and the museum itself is a work of art.  I saw the classics, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Sphinx, etc.  I was most blown away by the dripping decadence of the Naopolean III apartments.  I was rendered speechless by their beauty.  The Louvre is perfectly laid out so that every area reflects in it's structure and design the art that it contains.  After spending hours stumbling around the Louvre I felt literally drunk off art.  I had trouble walking and talking and thinking because I was in a complete sensory overload.  Everyone stop what you're doing right now and come to Paris! You must go to the Louvre! You must!  That night because it was Halloween we got all decked-out and tried to find a good club.  Unfortunately there are pretty much no clubs in our area and the one that we found was at capacity by the time we got there.  It sucks that we couldn't go clubbing on Halloween, but it was a good adventure either way.  Now I'm off to find a flea market then explore Montramarte!