It was of course, very crowded. He had expected that. The Louvre Museum was the most famous museum in the world, and it's rarely ever quiet there. He just landed that afternoon in Paris, had lunch at the airport, dropped his suitcase at the hotel, showered, and went straight to the museum.
All his friends who had been there told him he should visit Eiffel first, but he wanted to see that famous, much talked about Monalisa first.
He just finally become a General Practitioner after years of studying hard at Yonsei and doing his residency. There's time before he had to start his studies for Neurosurgery. Two days ago, he was informed that he had one month off, because the new doctor that was supposed to replace his residency finished his internship a month early.
He had never taken more than three days off since he started med school. Without much thinking, he went to his parents' house to have one dinner with them and stayed at their place for a night (something he usually could do once or twice a year,) before booking a ticket to Paris and jumping on a plane.
And there he was, standing in the crowded Louvre, staring at Monalisa by Leonardo Da Vinci. It's quite amazing to see it with your own eyes. He had to maneuver a lot, seeing "Excuse me, I'm sorry," in English to see it closer.
It really was remarkable. Da Vinci painted her so perfectly until it's as if he could see real skin, with tissues underneath it. It was regal and eerie.
Then he had to test what he read before, that wherever you stood at the room that exhibited it, it seemed like the eyes of Monalisa were staring directly at you.
He walked to the far right of the crowded room, and was hit in the guts when he saw, for himself, that it was true. It's as if Monalisa was alive, sitting by a window, staring at his direction exactly. Still curious, he slipped with much difficulty between all the people who were talking in different languages, with their phones high above their heads, taking pictures after pictures, all through the way until he reached the far left of the room.