Versailles and Halloween.

Thought I'd make a new post since that one was getting pretty long.. Sorry I type/talk a lot!

Sunday we went to Versailles and did a tour of the gardens that King Louis 14th created in order to have the most "glorious chateau in France".  It was absolutely breath-taking.  and HUGE!  It was something like 22,000 acres so naturally we didn't see it all but we did walk around forever and see the water fountain show that had its own soundtrack specifically composed for the fountains, and all of the original statues and perfectly manicured lawns. The thought put into the gardens and the symbolism behind everything was amazing.. For example there was hardly any grass in the gardens because grass grows wild and King Louis wanted to prove that he could control everything, even nature, because he was the Sun God and he basically thought that he ruled the world, even the way grass grew from the ground.  Another thing that was amazing was the water pumps for all of the fountains didn't run all the time, so when King Louis was taking a stroll through the gardens he'd tell his servants which garden he wanted to see next, and they'd do a certain whistle to let the next servant know they had to sprint to go turn on that water before he got there.. then when he was moving on they'd shut that off and turn it on again quickly at the next one before he showed up.. So it looked to him/his guests that the water was running at all times.  Everything was so impressive.

That night we went to Montmarte for our third and final tour.. This was the Moulin Rouge area and we had another awesome tour guide, Billy, who was Scottish and made a million drinking references haha.  After this tour we met up with CJ again and got some delicious crepes and had a drink with him in a little French bar. 


How was everyone's Halloween?? Mine was great!  I was a pint of Guinness, so I had a black dress and used cotton balls to make foam go around the top and then I drew/cut out/taped a harp and the word GUINNESS across it. 

Oh man I actually just learned about five minutes ago there was a boy in Galway who was in a sheep costume and his costume was set on fire in a nightclub here and he is now in critical condition with burns over 80% of his body.  Such a sad sad accident, so if you're reading this, say a prayer for him.  The article said he was a really motivated medical student here at NUIG.  My thoughts will be with him.. hopefully he recovers fully.