I can't believe it's already been 10 days since I left Edmonton. It seems like I just got here yesterday. I'm currently in Milan, Italy right now and we have been everywhere in last 10 days. First 4 days were in Paris, then went to Brussels and Brugge, Belgium the couple days, and Zurich and Interlaken, Switzerland the last couple days and now here I am, a start of our Italy trip, Milan. Then we are off to Venice tomorrow afternoon, then Florence, Pisa, and Rome, then back to Paris, then home!
The second half of Paris was really good. I got to go to Invalides on the third day, and Musee du Louvre on the last day in Paris. Both took forever to look around. They were huge for a museum! Invalides was amazing. It was supposed to be like an artillery, weaponry, and war museum. There was a lot of cool stuff there, from really old school, as in from 14-15th centuries to about 20th centuries. I was really impressed. What really amazed me was the Napoleon's tomb. When I saw it on the brochure, I thought it was going to be pretty lame, but it wasn't. It was outstanding. I don't know how to describe it. The wall and the ceilings of the chapel was absolutely amazing. On one side of the building, they had a huge yellow stained glass so everything was gold inside! It was beautiful. I could not believe what I was seeing. I'll post some pictures of it later but it's not as good as the actual chapel.
Musee du Louvre was up next. Apparently, it's one of the most famous art museum in the world. Didn't know that until I actually got there. I'm not really into arts but I got to say, I really did enjoy it. Honestly, I didn't really care for the paintings but I really wanted to see the Mona Lisa. Of course I did, it's one of the most famous art work in the history of art. It was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be. There were so many people around there just like I expected. Other than that I really enjoyed the sculptures and the ceilings. They had some interesting looking sculptures there but it looked really cool. I wonder how they did that. Some ceilings had painting on them and it was unbelievable. Again, I always wondered how people did that, because it didn't look fake to me. The building structure kind of made it look a lot better. These are some stuff you don't see every day, and for 10 euros, it was definitely worth it.
Belgium was up next. Oh man, what a start to that morning. I slept in and I missed the train to the Gard du Nord so I had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. It could've been 10 because they only came every 10 minutes but the first one was absolutely full so we missed that one and had to take the next one. So when we got to Gard du Nord, we had to book it down to the Thalys station to catch our next train. We thought we were going to be late but we made it JUST in time. Running hardcore in 8 in the morning with our backpacks and luggages. What a way to start the morning. Brugge wasn't the biggest town but it was gorgeous. You know when you watch an old European movie and you see those really old school towns? Yup it was exactly like that. Colourful buildings, narrow streets, sidewalk with bricks and all that. It was amazing. We went to this one really old church and we went on top of the clock tower thing. It cost us quite a lot and we had to go up to one of those spiral stairs and that was something. It was really steep and it was really tight there so it wasn't so easy to climb those stairs. Especially after running a lot in that morning, it sure wasn't fun, but was totally worth it.
Unfortunately, we were only there for one day, not even. We came back to Brussels to stay the night. Everything was going good until then. I almost got my backpack stolen. Well, pickpocket, actually. As I was getting off the train, this fucker came up behind me, then the next thing I know, his hands were IN my backpack. As soon as I turned around, he started to talk to someone else. What the fuck. I honestly didn't think they were being serious when they said there's a lot of pickpockets but right then, I was the victim. Luckily, I didn't get anything stolen though, but since then, I've been way too cautious about it. I've been looking behind me every 2 seconds, watching everyone around me and etc. That kind of made me think of not only Brussels, but Europe a little differently. Other than that, Brussels was pretty decent too. It was kind of ghetto though, the whole country was. I'd visit Brugge again, but I don't know about Brussels.
Zurich, and Interlaken were up next. Those two towns were the nicest place I've been to so far in this trip. We didn't really stay in Zurich for long, we just kind of stopped there for the night. Interlaken was amazing. It really reminded me of Banff and Jasper. It was just like the Rocky Mountains. The only difference was it was in Europe, and there were houses and even towns in the middle of the mountains. Not like under the mountains, but like up in the mountains! It was very unique. I felt like I was just staring at one giant picture. It was unbelievable. Want to hear something even better? They have railways going up the mountains! The trains actually go to the top of the mountain and these mountains are about 11,333 ft above the sea level. It was an unbelievable experience. When we were up in the mountains, it was snowing! Snowing in August? You don't hear that very often. It was -5C up there. Unfortunately, we didn't really get to see what's really up there because like I mentioned, it was snowing and it was really foggy. Oh well, I just wanted to go up there by train for the first time instead of actually hiking up there so it was all good. If you'd like to know where this is, for your information, it's called Jungfraujoch. It's the top of the Europe. If you ever have a chance, go there. You won't regret it.
We left Interlaken today and came here in Milan. Oh. My. God. This is the sketchiest town I've ever been to in my life. Duomo church was nice. It was one big fancy church, but other than that, it scared the shit out of me. I'm aware that Italy has a lot of thieves and pickpockets and all that garbage so that really worried me because obviously I didn't want to get my shit stolen, especially my wallet. That wasn't the only thing I was scared of. I'm not trying to be racist or anything, but there was so many black people and brown people, and they did not look very nice at all. I was so scared. At least I didn't get anything stolen today so that's good. We are stuck here in Milan until tomorrow afternoon then we are off to Venice. It's going to be a long day tomorrow and I really hope that Venice and Florence is at least a little bit better than this! I'm here on a vacation, I'm not here to get scared lol.
I just realized I've been drinking every day since we got here. On the first night, we went to this Korean restaurant that my dad always goes to in Paris, and he bought us a couple bottle of this rice liquor. It was really good I had the whole bottle myself while my mom and dad shared one. That same night, I had a French beer. It was called 1664. A really good beer actually. I enjoyed it. The next day, we went back to the same restaurant for dinner and had a different kind of drink. It was kind of a hard liquor and I had about 3 shots of it. On the third day, we went to this Japanese restaurant and had a Japanese beer there. Asahi was what it was called I think. It tasted a lot like 1664. Amazing. Didn't drink anything on the 4th day because I went to bed at around 6 and didn't wake up till about 9. On last Friday, the 5th day, I had more of 1664 and some other French beer. I can't remember the name of it, but it was pretty decent. Belgium is pretty famous for beer. I never knew that, but when I found out, I had to try some so my dad bought this beer, it was called Leffe. It was delicious. One thing I love about Europe is that you are allowed to drink out on public places. Well, at least I think. I've seen people drinking Heineken's in the trains, and we drank on the street and nobody told us anything so I'd assume that you are allowed to haha. We had more Leffe that night, had a Swiss beer the next night, 1664 again last night, and tonight, we had this British beer. It was a 10% al. beer and all the beer cans here are big so I got a little drunk off of that one beer. Beers here tastes really good actually. I really like it. It's nothing like American beers. I don't know if I'd be able to drink any of those now when I go back home. I haven't really tried wine though. I have to try it soon.
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