Day 2: I can't think of anything funny because its 2 a.m. and je fatigue...

Hello, all-Melissa here!

So I promised Tor I wouldn't edit her entry for grammar/style/spelling/etc...and for the most part, I was fine. Now hopefully none of you will correct what I write.

This morning we woke up around 8 a.m. and had breakfast at the hotel (which is adorable-we are in the 20th arrondisement, which seems really far away, but is only a 20-minute Metro ride from the center of the city. So after breakfast we hit up the museums, because the weather was chilly, overcast and occasionally drizzling. First we went to Notre Dame, which is cool, despite having no hunchbacks (at least none I saw...). We then went to the Musee d'Orsay, which had some of the most amazing paintings I've ever seen. The one thing that bothered me, though, was that there were so many people taking pictures of paintings. How redundant? You can Google image any of those paintings, yet people were wasting the precious time they had to see them in person behind their lenses. Plus they were blocking my view and I had to walk around them a lot.

Next we went to the Musee de l'Orangerie. Or tried to. We decided we were hungry instead, and food took precedence. We attempted to go to Cafe Angelina, as recommended by my soon-to-be-Korea roommate Erin, but the prices were too steep for us, and we opted for lunch elsewhere, as it turns out, on a street called Rue de St. Honore? I think that was the name at least. Tor got a goose liver sandwich (I'm grossed out, too, don't worry) and I got a cream of vegetable soup, bringing back memories of my trip to Ireland a few years ago.

After lunch we went to the Catacombs, which are, to say the least, extremely haunting. We got lost a few times trying to find them (I suppose that's what happens when your destination is several hundred feet underground), but managed to get to the entrance just a minute before they stopped admitting people. There's an ossuary down there, full of bones and skulls and haunting phrases about death written in Latin. Creeeeeeepy. On our way up, we were told that six million people's bones were there. SIX MILLION. Absurd. Then, as we left, we had to go through a security check, to make sure we hadn't stolen any skulls or bones. Next to the security guy sat several bones and a skull. My guess is that people stole them and were caught. Ughhhhh...the idea of touching one of those gives me the creeps.

So after the ossuary and catacombs, we stopped for overpriced banana ice cream (recommended by Tori's friend Daniele). Then the Louvre! Turns out its free for people under age 26 on Friday evenings, which is good, because we sure got what we paid for. We found the Venus de Milo pretty easily, and I wasted no time in telling Tor that an actress from Salute Your Shorts was named Venus de Milo. After that, we began a long, arduous search for the Mona Lisa. When we finally found that whore, we were wholly disappointed. She was tiny and hidden behind glass and we could hardly see her. Such a disappointment. Then we tried finding Hammurabi's Code, which was on display, but of course, not where the museum map indicated. So we left, hungry and dejected, back to our neighborhood in the 20th arrondisement.

We stopped by a local grocery store and picked up brie and wine, then hit up the boulangerie for a baguette, all of which we enjoyed while watching Flavor of Love Girls' Charm School. Classy, no? After "dinner" we went to a nearby neighborhood and just sat outside enjoying some beverages. Very nice, very laid back.

Tomorrow, we're going to a well-known open-air market, then seeing the Sacre Coeur and a few other things. Sunday we leave for Brussels!

Now, I'd love to stay and type more, but Tori is flirting with the guy who works at the front desk, and I must join in. Miss you all!!