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Published: June 23rd 2006
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The Eiffel Tower - duh Unfortunately for the French, our World Cup luck took a bit of a slide. After a lazy Sunday at Christina and Nicola´s, including a trip to the market for the girls, a great outdoor brunch, some ice cream cones, and an awesome seabass dinner cooked by Christina, we went out to watch the second half of the match against South Korea, but could only manage a tie for them. Part of it may have been the French crowd, which was the tamest of the four countries we´ve witnessed so far. The decibel level only rose after Korea tied it up late, and victory no longer seemed probable.
The next morning, we headed out to the Brazil embassy. Christina told us the night before of her inability to cross the Brazil border from Argentina (her - "You know you need a visa, right"; us - "Huh"), and we were scheduled to leave for Rio in a week. Even the most recent Lonely Planet doesn´t tell you to get the Brazil visa in advance. However, because of the deteriorating relationship between the U.S. and Latin America, and because the U.S. has imposed ridiculously draconian visa rules since 9/11, the Brazil government has
Magic Gone
We watch France tie South Korea in Paris decided to teach U.S. citizens a lesson. We got to the embassy fully expecting to have to pay for rush service, only to be told that it would take 10 days no matter what. Since we can´t travel without our passports, and had no intention of staying in Paris that long, our plans quickly changed. Argentina will get us for an extra week, and we´ll be rooting against Brazil from now on.
After spending a fun couple of hours on the phone with American Airlines changing our flights, we walked around Paris running errands, finding out that businesses in Paris close incredibly early - after 7 o´clock you can´t find so much as a bookstore open. We eventually headed for a drink at
Harry´s Bar , a serious cocktail joint where they invented the Bloody Mary. The bartenders were true artisans, and we sat at the bar and picked up a few tips.
The next day, we headed for a bit of culture at the
Musee Rodin . While the museum itself had some organizational problems, the garden surrounding was the true draw, awash in flowers, hedges and sculptures, including "The Thinker". We strolled past the Hotel des Invalides, now the resting
Halfway up
Chris and Justin at the end of the stairs up the Eiffel Tower place of Napolean, and decided to climb the Eiffel Tower. While the stairs only let you about halfway up, and we didn´t feel like waiting in the crazy-long elevator line, the view of the city was magnificent. A bit tired, we headed back to watch some World Cup with Nicola and Christina.
As you can probably tell from the blogs, one of our favorite things to do is walk around cities. Paris is one of the greatest towns for this, as every block features a striking building or two, from the obvious famous ones to the overlooked. Wednesday, we headed out for a stroll across Chris´ favorite Paris park, Le Jardin du Luxembourg, followed by a stop at
Les Deux Margots , a 90-some-year-old cafe where Hemingway and Picasso hung out. After a stroll up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Troimphe, we headed back to the apartment, stopping for a brief look inside the Notre Dame Cathedral (Chris - thumbs up; Justin - a bit boxy).
June 21, the longest day of the year, marked the six month point of the trip, and since we left Chicago on the winter solstice, also gave us a good sense of the
The Streets of Paris
The Paris Opera at dusk heft of the time we´ve been away. Every year on the summer solstice Paris throws a huge music festival,
the Fete de la Musique , basically opening the city up to bands, which play on every corner. People grab a beer and wander from street to street checking out everything from opera to speed metal. After a little dinner party catered by Christina (including Brian, a New Trier grad soon moving back to Evanston), we headed out into the dark and stormy night. While not all the music was great, some of it wasn´t bad either, and the city was truly electric. After wandering through the rain (we´d be lying if we said we could remember the exact, or even approximate, route), we grabbed a final drink at a cafe featured in "Munich" before staggering home around 3.
The next day was a bit of a late start, given that somehow neither of us were feeling tip-top(although at least we didn´t miss work like Brian). After scraping ourselves out of bed, we went for a final look at Gay Paree. Chris went to the Musee Picasso, which she gives a mixed review (great building, subpar collection), while Justin went to watch the U.S. /
Christine Squared
Chrissa and Christina near the end of the night of music Ghana match at a Canadian bar called The Beaver. Eventually, all the missed many opportunities. It´s hard to justify why this wasn´t a good thing, though, since it constituted the biggest sporting triumph in Ghana´s history, while in the U.S. no one really cared either way.
After one last crepe and baguette, we headed to the train station, where we shared an overnight compartment with some recent Ohio State grads who were still getting used to the hassles of travel (wimps). We got into Barcelona today in time to catch Spain´s final first round match.
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