The Matt Faus Blog

Upon walking into the courtyard of this place, I could do nothing be stand in gaping awe of what I was seeing. I learned firsthand how truly indescribable the magnitude and grandeur of this building is. The walls and parapets were draped in ornately detailed designs and patterns, all carved into the stone which held the building together. The sheer square footage represented by what was surrounding us was overwhelming, and we had only begun to learn about what was held inside. In the middle of the courtyard was the entrance – a gigantic glass pyramid with two smaller pyramids on either side. Passing through the gateway and descending into the belly of the crystal pyramid gave the rightful feeling of entering into an internationally renowned museum, nay, guardian, of artworks of all kinds.

After picking up tickets and an English (they had 13 other languages) version of the map, we headed towards the only painting that either of us had ever really heard much about, The Mona Lisa. It took us an hour to get there. Leaving the lobby and entering into the first hallway is the beginning of an incredible barrage of beauty and wonder. With every step and every glance there are new things to gaze and marvel at, each one more interesting than the last. Paintings of all kinds, sculptures from every era and region of human existence, jewelry from the tribes in Africa to the English Monarchy, Egyptian scepters, French weapons of war, sculptures of Grecian gods, and we’ve only been walking around for an hour!

Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was interesting, but you really have to stand there and look at it for a while to notice anything peculiar. There were quite a few people congregated there, obviously to see one of the more famous works in the museum. A few even tried to take pictures, despite the signs outside the doors prohibiting such behavior in 14 languages. Regardless, it was funny to hear the Frenchmen yell at them.

Continuing on, we could only make it through a little over 1/3 of the museum before our feet, and even more so, our minds were simply exhausted from the objects and images we had put through their processing regions. By the time we were leaving, I recognized the sensation I was experiencing. The only other time I had experienced such an overwhelming of the mind was after my Calculus II final, freshman year at UTD. I simply could not comprehend things around on a deeper level that simply “chair”, “street”, or “bridge”, much like after leaving the Calculus exam, I looked at my watch and had difficulty determining what time it was – the beauty section, or the numbers region in the case of the Calculus exam, had simply been stretched beyond its ability. I couldn’t even recognize Ashley in a crowd of strangers.

After a very long day and a good meal next to the river, we headed back.

Oh yeah, I was kidding about not being able to recognize Ashley. Also, I know my pictures page is broken and I’ve been trying to fix it, but I’m pretty busy with work right now and I don’t really have time to mess with it. Hopefully I can get it figured out the next time I play with it, but if not I might start putting pictures on another site.

Upon stepping foot into a chilly and dreary Paris morning after spending a large portion of the past 24 hours travelling, I was a little less than impressed with my surroundings. “Oh well”, I said, “I just need some coffee, but first, a bathroom.” So, we made our way out of the train and into the station where the only bathroom in site had a sign outside signifying that you must pay for each use, depending on what kind of business needs to get done. So, I paid my .5E and obtained relief. They were nice bathrooms, but it was a little weird because the cleaning lady was directly behind me just going about her business. Also, the urinals were in plain sight of the entrance to the antechamber. Over some much needed coffee and grub, we figured out the paths we needed to take through the Metro to the accommodations and we were on our way.

The Metro system in Paris is outstanding, but after the amount of travelling we had done and the overwhelming sensation of not understanding anything that anyone around you is saying, we had a bit of a difficulty with our first few rides on the Metro. Hesitations here, wrong turns there, and a few other events turned what should have been a quick trip into a 3 hour ordeal. Luckily an English woman with a baby strapped to her chest and several bags of groceries stopped and helped us out.

After freshening up a bit, we were ready to hit the city by 2pm. The first stop was the Pantheon. I still don’t fully understand what this thing is, but one of the information pamphlets stated that it was a “secular cathedral” used to honor great scientists and philosophers. Whatever it was, it was absolutely gorgeous within the walls. With several statues and grand murals, the hall was truly reminiscent of Great Men of the World.

The thing I found most interesting about the Pantheon was the pendulum that it housed. This pendulum was suspended from the very top of the dome all the way to the floor. With this much suspension, it takes very little energy to maintain movement, as the earth moves beneath it with each cycle. As the Earth rotates, the pendulum’s swing will change angles, thereby providing a means to mark time. For the past 100 years (or more, I’m not sure), this pendulum has swung in the center of this great hall, much like the beating heart of the iron-clad leaders the hall commemorates.

After spending several minutes in awe of the pendulum, we headed down into the Crypts. The crypts were really quite plain and uninteresting to view, but the fact that they housed the remains of the great philosophers Rousseau and Voltaire was pretty cool.

Emerging from the Crypts into a sunny and cheerful afternoon was just what we needed for the strength to carry us through the streets past the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Concierge, and Hotel de Ville as we made the trek to the Louvre Museum. On the way there, we saw several artists selling paintings along the river, along with souvenirs and post cards. I bought a few things for some friends back home, and Ashley did the same, but we hurried a little as we wanted to have plenty of time at the Louvre and then come back to these sites the next day.

Upon arriving at the Louvre Museum, my perception of beauty began to radically transform…

Well, the Paris adventure begins with a train ride, actually two train rides that equal 15 hours worth of transportation. You see, Valencia is not terribly well connected with other countries throughout Europe. If you’re planning to travel anywhere outside of Spain, then you’re going to have to go to either Barcelona or Madrid. So, I headed to Barcelona on Thursday afternoon in order to make in there in time to catch the overnight train to Paris.

The train was really pretty comfortable, compared to a plane or a bus, but it wasn’t exactly easy to sleep. About one hour into the train ride there was quite a commotion in our car. There were five French-speaking Arabs that had stowed away in the bathrooms from Barcelona in an attempt to attain a free ride back to Paris. Upon the discovery of their plans the train conductor stopped the train and was forcing the illegitimate passengers off. However, these men would not go without a fight. I didn’t understand a word of what they were saying, but I was able to ask another passenger later and he explained things to me. Anyway, the police finally came and forcibly removed the men and we were on our way. At least we weren’t on some other car where we couldn’t see the reason that we were stopped for half an hour.

Otherwise, the train ride was rather uneventful. I met some other American travelers in the cafeteria car and we talked for a little bit, but that’s about all.

I’m headed to Paris Thursday afternoon with Ashley, and I am really starting to get excited. I’ll take the train to Barcelona (since you can’t go anywhere directly from Valencia), and then take the overnight train to Paris (12 hours!). We plan to look around the city, see the Lourve, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, the Eiffel Tower (in daylight and nightlight, according to Ashley), and whatever else we can lay our hands on.

So, in order to get everything done for work before leaving I pulled an all-nighter tonight, and for that I would like to thank my new favorite beverage. This thing is awesome! It has 48% more caffeine than Red Bull, and the taste is great. Say hello, Burn.

Last night I went to a “Pub Quiz” with several of my classmates at a Pub called the Sherlock Holmes deep in the heart of downtown. It cost 1 Euro to enter the contest if you’re a student, and then if you get enough of the trivia questions correct, you can win prizes. It was pretty fun to be on a team and hang out with everyone, but I really suck at trivia. I think it’s an engineering thing - too much mental optimization to remember all these little factoids. Anyway, our team won the first round but got second place overall since we had seven people on our team, each of which was a deduction of one point on our total score. I got a nifty little backpack out of the deal, so it was definitely worth the Euro!

When we left around midnight, Stephanie (who was out for her last night before leaving Valencia) and I were really ready to keep going. We had a little bit of a time convincing everyone else to roam around downtown for a little longer, but they finally gave in. We had a grand time stopping by club after club and meeting all kinds of different people. There was one place called Club Blau where we met a group of about 15 people from Texas A&M, here for a summer Spanish program, kind of like me. Small world, eh?

I never have been much of a fan of downtown nightlife in Dallas, but I really like what I experienced last night. The streets and buildings down there are so crammed tightly together that it’s almost like the entire downtown area is one big club, with all kinds of people roaming the streets. It also feels safe since everything is well lit and you don’t have to walk past “dark corners”. Also, there’s no cover charge to get in anywhere, you just stop in wherever you please. Overall, it just seems much more casual and relaxed instead of some kind of social spectacle, which is the feeling I get in Dallas sometimes - people wanting to be seen in beautiful clothes and in beautiful places to make themselves feel good. Anyway, it’s a lot of fun!