I have to admit that before I came to Paris I was expecting
to really dislike the city. Americans love to talk about how rude Parisians are
to tourists, and I wasn’t much of an art person. I’ve now been back three times
and every single time I’ve left liking the city even more. Between the Louvre,
the Arc de Triomphe, the Palace of Versailles, etc. the French have built up a
lot of absurdly large monuments and buildings. Combining the sheer scope of
these places with a touch for flourishes and intricacy gives Paris a feel of
being majestic and grand, larger than life in a way that energizes rather than
intimidates. My favorite moments from this time in Paris were finally seeing
Versailles (we could’ve spent days walking around the gardens), reigniting my
love for Parisian street food, and spending a few hours under the Eiffel Tower
on a buzzing Saturday night with what felt like half of Paris. I also have to
give a shoutout to accidentally meeting an up-and-coming movie star (google
Johnny Weston) on the steps of Sacre Coure. I might have to add one of his
movies to my list (currently sitting at four, as mentioned by Zeke in an
earlier post).
Portugal was a completely different experience, somewhere I
had never been before. My taste for large squares was definitely humored, with
the best square being Praca do Comercio. We also got to watch the USA-Portugal
WC game in this square with a few thousand of our closest Portuguese friends.
Perhaps it was best for us that the game ended in a disappointing last minute
draw, though our cover of being “Canadian” was probably blown after Tirrill and
I hummed the national anthem and was definitely blown after some barely muffled
shouts after each American goal.
The Portuguese also had quite a few castles, which were much
larger and better maintained than those we found in Scotland. The only
complaint I can give is that getting to the castle in Sintra involved more than
an hour of walking on winding roads up a mountain. But the sweat was totally
worth it for the mock medieval brawls we always inevitably descend into
whenever we come within five square miles of a castle.
Our last day in Lisbon made me wish we had more time there.
It was the first place where we didn’t get to see a significant number of the
landmarks on my hit list. This was partially due to limited time there and
partially to us staying out at bars until 4 AM last night (which may have been
partially due to meeting some cute French girls). After a little sleep and a
lot of yawns, we made our way out to the area with Belem Tower, the Discoveries
Monument, and Jeronimos Monastery this morning, which was one of my favorites
of the whole trip. The area was really cool, with a lot of modern architecture
on one end and the historic monuments on another. In between, there were ports
and steps leading down into the ocean. It was a pretty area that we had to hit a
little too quickly and would’ve loved to spend more time in.
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