Bonjour

Hello friends!

Hillary and I are now in Paris, and man has it been a wild ride.


We took the Chunnel underneath the English Channel last night and got here around 11:30pm. We then waited in line for a cab for about 30 minutes, and finally got into our hostel at 12:30am. Our hostel, La Montclair, is incredible. We are on the 5th floor, with a private room and bathroom, and we each have our own balconies that we can stand outside on and see beautiful Paris. We can even see Sacred Heart Church from our balconies. We finally showered, and passed out around 2am, and decided to let ourselves catch up on some sleep.

We woke up today around noon, and got ready. We came downstairs and got on the internet for a bit, and met a couple friends in the lobby, so we ended up getting lunch together at Cafe d'Albert. Cal, is a 28 yr. old from New York who took a year off his job at Wall Street to travel, and Eric is a 20 yr. old from Sweden who is backpacking through Europe, both very nice guys. We shared a nice lunch and got into typical conversations about religion and faith, you know, the usual....After that we all got on the Metro together, but eventually parted ways since both boys were leaving for other countries today.

So Hill and I were left by ourselves on the Paris Metro, which, is NOTHING like the London underground. It is dirty, really dirty, smells like piss, graffiti everywhere, and not to mention, everything is in French. When we finally made it to our train station (Gare de Lyon) that is where the fun began. So Hillary and I bought EuRail passes a few months ago, which allow us to travel ANYWHERE in France and Switzerland for just a small price. So the one night we don't have a hostel in France, we decided we would take that day and night to check out Switzerland, and then come back here. Well, a few months ago we didn't realize what a pain in the ass that would be, but today it definitely dawned on us.

It took us 3 hours in the train station to figure out where to book tickets to Switzerland for tomorrow. NO ONE speaks English, so it involved a lot of pointing and nodding. After so long, Hill and I started devising schemes to exchange our plane tickets to Ireland for tomorrow, and just leave and not tell anyone that we didn't use our passes...but alas, we finally found the ticket office, where luckily, the teller spoke English.

Our original plan was to go to Luzern, Switzerland for the music festival and the great view of the Alps, but all the trains were full. So we decided on Zurich. The only bad thing is, we leave tomorrow morning at 7:58am, and have to be at the station an hour early. That means we have to wake up at 5:30 (which is 3 hours from now) take the God forsaken Metro back to the station, and hop on a train. We go from Paris and switch trains in Bern, then onto Zurich. All in all, it's about 6 hours. We will return to Paris Monday night at 10pm, when we plan on hitting up the Eiffel Tower and possibly the Moulin Rouge.

But anyways, after the train station we took a cab to the Lourve, which is beautiful. However, we got there too late to actually see the art, so we went shopping and to Starbucks in the mall underneath. We then walked down Rue Rivoli, which we decided must be one of the shopping centrals in Paris, so that's what we did. We ran into a music festival called, Solidays, where there were a good 10 stages set up throughout the streets with all different kinds of music, it was great. We sat and watched a group of odd teenagers for a while, before setting out to find something for dinner.

On our way, we ran into a band who was playing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, so we decided to stay and see what else they had. They played all American covers, and there was a huge crowd circled around them. This old, French bum was in the middle of everyone dancing and it was hysterical, and really fun. Once we got ready to go, some drunk French guy grabbed me and started dancing...let's just say, French men do not know the meaning of the word, "no" and they get very excited when dancing...Thank God for Hillary prying him off of me, or who knows where I'd be right now!

After that fiasco, we started looking for some grub again. We finally found a posh little place called Pizza Grill, where we sat down for dinner at 11pm. It was very good, and right outside there was, well, basically a club outside that resembled Mardi Gras activities. People climbing on cars, drinking from bottles of vodka, dancing...pretty much. I take it public intoxication is not a crime here...

Dinner was good, but we didn't leave until around 12:30am, and then we had to find a Metro station. We did, and it was crowded as hell with all the clubbers. After about an hour of changing Metro lines, we finally made it back to our hostel, and here I sit, updating you fine people before I leave for Switzerland.

Hill and I have been working on our French and we can say the following:

Hello
Goodbye
Good evening
Thank You
I'm sorry
Excuse me
I would like...
The check please...
I would like a glass of wine
Cheers (which I can now say in 4 languages)


(I also learned how to say, I love you, and kiss in Arabic when in London, but that's another story)


From what I've seen of Paris, it is a really beautiful city. However, it feels much older than London, and is much, much dirtier, and hotter. I have never felt so dirty in my life! I have also never felt so ignorant and foreign either. I miss London desperately, and not just because I know the language and the customs, I just miss it. I must return there within the next year, Hill and I were thinking Christmas break when tickets are cheap, anyone in?

Well I have to go climb the 6 flights of spiral staircases to my room, shower, get a nap in, and then leave for Switzerland. I will write you all again when I return to Paris on Monday.


Peace and Love