Invalid characterset or character set not supported I'm baaaack....





I'm baaaack....
March 18, 2006

Mwahaha! Haha ! Ha!...Yeah, as if anyone cares.

Okay, so my trip to Paris is finally over. Nothing like taking a week off and spending some time in a new place. I thought I'd have tons of free time to read and play a few DS games, but I was running on a pretty tight schedule up until two days ago. For simplicity's sake, here's a breakdown of what I did each day:

Thursday: Left San Franscisco International Airport, had a layover at JFK in New York, then arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

Friday: Spent a few hours lost in Charles de Gaulle Airport because no one could give us understandable directions to the train we needed to take. One of the folks in my group eventually lost his temper, started running up and down the terminals screaming "TRAIN?!" over and over. We eventually got a taxi out to the hotel, which happened to be about 25 minutes out of the city and about a mile away from Disneyworld. At that point, I was too tired to realize the crappiness of the location and collasped on the bed.

Saturday: Took the subway out to the Eiffel Tower. Almost got lost in the train system because the signs weren't exactly user-friendly. Waited almost an hour in the freezing cold and rain to reach the top section of the tower. Visited the Hilton, had dinner next door.

Sunday: Visited Versailles, including the Hall of Mirrors, the Hall of Battles, the garden, and a massive McDonalds down the street. I doubt Louis XIV ever dreamed that his house would have a major fast food chain so close to his awesome abode.

Monday: Tried going to the d'Orsay Museum, only to find it was closed. Met up with some cute exchange students and checked out the Arc de Triomphe. Walked all the way down the military museum, then back to the Eiffel Tower.

Tuesday: Visited d'Orsay Museum. Impressionist works and other stuff galore. Sweet talked my way into the Cezanne exhibition gallery even though I didn't have the necessary ticket.

Wednesday: The Louvre. God, that place is ****ing huge. If you want to stop and see everything it has to offer, you'll need more than a day to do it. I managed to see the Mona Lisa, the Vermeer, and tons of other stuff.

Thursday: Slept in on accident. Hung out at the hotel, and played three old arcade games in the game room. I might review them sometime soon.

Friday: Left the hotel at 8 AM Paris time, arrived home at 8 PM San Francisco time. You do the math.

All in all, it was a pretty good vacation. I didn't get to see everything I wanted to. Hell, I've still got 1/3 of the Louvre that I need to see. It took me only a day to figure out the subway system, but it was no worse than what New York has to offer. Unfortunately, some of the other folks I was with aren't exactly the brightest folks around, so they constantly got lost on the trains, got into arguments and misunderstandings with the locals, and came just short of screaming "I'M AN AMERICAN TOURIST ON VACATION LOL". God, that was embarassing. At least I got to meet plenty of interesting people, sample foods from several cultures (the area around Notre Dame is a haven for people looking for damned good European food), and got to visit some of the most famous sites around the world. Can't go wrong with that.

However, I've got to play some catch-up gaming now that I'm back in the States. For some inexplicable reason, my DS charger didn't work with the American-European electrical converter I brought with me, thus depriving me an entire week of handheld goodness. I also have a few PS2 games that I meant to review before leaving, but were left undone by my own laziness. Here are a few games waiting in the wings:

Jump Superstars
Trauma Center
Electroplankton
Chaos Field
Rumble Roses
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Given my horribly abysmal performance in the last round of the KOR tourney, I think I'll skip this one in favor of some much-needed rest. Bleh. I hate jetlag.

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janus janus - March 18, 2006 (11:41 PM)
I wouldn't say you were abysmal. You beat Zigfried!
Genj Genj - March 19, 2006 (12:52 PM)
I'm still trying to pick something to review for this round.
asherdeus asherdeus - March 21, 2006 (05:42 PM)
I didn't really fall into Trauma Center. I needed a little more help getting used to the game than it provided for me. Plus it was kind of stupid anyway.

Glad Paris was interesting Justin, and glad to have you back in the best country on earth.
Genj Genj - March 21, 2006 (06:50 PM)
disco's in England?!

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