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Published: August 4th 2005
Finals finished up on Friday. It was two two-hour exams... nothing incredibly stressful. I was very happy to get the tests out of the way so that I could shift my complete attention to our european tour.
After exams, I spend much of Friday afternoon simply getting things in order (packing, cleaning, trip planning, details, details, details, etc.). That night our group spent one last night together at the Molly Darvy's restaurant before we headed over to the Trinity Rooms club. Just drinking and dancing.
It was funny... over the course of this trip we've made good friends with our bus driver, Paul (a former British soldier). He became especially close with Lisa from our group and he's actually bought a plane ticket and is heading over to the states (Nebraska and Kansas) in early September. So... we'll likely host him for a couple of days when he makes a stop in Lawrence (which he plans on doing). The guy has an accent thick enough to cut wood... it should be fun.
On Saturday, Dan and I caught our flight to Paris... and everything went off without a hitch. We grabbed a metro train to the Woodstock Hostel
just north of central Paris. The hostel was full of young people, but not overcrowded... almost everyone spoke English and the place was very American friendly. There were a bunch of Americans, quite a few British kids, quite a few Australians, some Italians, some Canadians, and a couple kids from Israel -- an interesting crowd.
Saturday night, Dan and I walked to the Arc de Triomphe through a very affluent, touristly part of town (expensive car dealerships, high-euro restaurants, etc.). Other than that... we didn't have much energy so we called it an early night. There's something about being in an airport that drains the life out of you.
Sunday was a great first day. Our first stop was at the Eiffel tower. We paid three euros to climb the 687 stairs to the second platform. We could have paid an additional 3.80 to get the very top, but the line of people was amazingly long... so we decided against it. Afterward we grabbed a sandwich and coke at one of the nearby snack stands. Funny observation: the French call french fries "fritas" (go figure).
Our last big stop of the day was at the Invalides where
The Woodstock Hostel
this is the front lounge areawe saw among other things Napoleon's tomb, a good WWII exhibit from the French/European perspective, and more 15th and 16th century armor and weapons then I could ever care to see.
Thoughts at this point: (1) my feet are killing me, (2) french people aren't rude... at least not yet (3) French people DO think it's funny when I try to speak French... "parlez-vous anglais?"
That night we were shocked to meet a girl in our hostel from KU (Megan from Littleton, Colorado). Even in Paris a fellow Jayhawk isn't too far away. We spent the night playing Uno (a great people meeting tool btw) and drinking german beers in our hostel bar with Megan and her relatives/friends from Colorado, plus one guy from New York.
Dan and I did the museum thing on Monday -- the Louvre and the Picasso museum. I actually preferred the Picasso. Maybe that's because we spent four hours at the Louvre and only 45 minutes at the Picasso. Again... feet... killing me. Later that night Dan and I strolled about 15 minutes north of our hostel to Sacre Coeur and Montmarte, which we really enjoyed. The neighborhood is just a tad
bit shady, as it sits near the Paris "red light district."
That night Dan and I met four girls from England playing Uno (of course) in our hostel bar. We mentioned something about our plans for Tuesday (Notre Dame, Catacombs, Versailles) and that turned into an invitation. So we met up with them on Tuesday and had a really good day wandering around Paris with some additional company.
So what do four British girls think of when they hear "United States"?
Answer: Bagels and "go jerry!" (as in Springer)
There you have it.
In short, Paris was great. It was equally as beautiful as Barcelona and I wish I could have stayed longer.
Hope things are going well in the U.S.
Later,
nh
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