Paris! Part I

I am finally in Paris! In the interest of catching up on my posts, I'm going to combine the past 2 days.

Yesterday I left London at around noon:30. I took the Eurostar, which was hella expensive (note: next time, book before getting to the train station). The Eurostar goes through the Chunnel, which was...awesome? I mean, it's cool to think that you're travelling underneath all that water, but it's not like you see it. Or anything, for that matter. Also, they don't announce that you're going through the Chunnel, so you just sit there after going through, like, five other tunnels from St Pancras Station, and then all of a sudden, BAM! you're in La France.

The French countryside we travelled through was beautiful! And the best part was that we passed by about a hundred wind turbines! Yay!! I was pretty excited.

After I arrived in Paris, I found my hostel almost without problem (I did miss my stop on the Metro and had to get off and go back one stop, but it was my first time on it and I didn't know any better!) So I checked in and hung out in my sunny room for a while, doing laundry and figuring out what to do for the next few days.

Eventually I decided to head out and do some exploring, so I found a bakery, bought a baguette, and wandered around until I found Sacre Coeur. There is a huge staircase in front of the cathedral with a slope alongside it that overlook the entire city, so I sat on the slope and ate my baguette. A French man sat down next to me and started up a conversation, which was nice if not a wee bit creepy. Things to note: French men will think you're interested in them even if you pay the slightest bit of attention.

After I got back to my hostel I met a guy who had just graduated from law school in California. We chatted for a while, and then we met up with these two guys from Chile. They kicked our asses in foosball (they call it "taka-taka"), but we had a great time.

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The next morning I enjoyed my free hostel breakfast, which included croissants (with peach jam - mmmm), and juice/tea/coffee/etc. I checked out and went to find my other hostel, which was surprisingly easy to find thanks to Google maps on my iPod. After checking in, I hopped on the metro and headed downtown to do some sightseeing.

I started with les Jardins du Luxembourg, which were beautiful! Apparently you're not supposed to walk on the grass except for in one designated spot, a rule I promptly broke when I took some close-up photos of flowers and one of the statues. At least I'll have some pretty photos to show!

On my way to Notre Dame I stopped and got a crepe with Nutella. And it was delicious.

Notre Dame was really spectacular. I'm obviously not the church-y type, but I took a zillion pictures of the architecture and the stained glass windows. My favorite part was the souvenir coin stations at the end....yeah. There was one in Sacre Coeur as well. Good times.

I wandered around the back of the cathedral grounds and found the Holocaust memorial across the street. It was closed, but I've heard that it's worth seeing. Now that I know where it is, I might go out of my way to come back.

After leaving Notre Dame, I walked along the Seine all the way to the Eiffel Tower. It was quite a walk (about 3 miles, not including the side trips I took across a few bridges), but I saw a lot of Paris I probably wouldn't have bothered to look for. Example: the AirFrance main building, the Obelisk, etc.

The Eiffel Tower was so much more amazing in person than in any photos I've seen. I found this little park that had hardly any tourists, and I just sat on a bench and looked up at it for probably about 20 minutes. I eventually made my way to the more touristy parts, where I again took a ton of photos. There was a couple that was trying (and failing quite miserably) to take their picture in front of the tower; I offered to help them in French, and they gladly accepted. They spoke in English to each other, and I found out that they were from San Francisco. They were super nice, and they took my picture in front of the tower. Yay!

The rest of my day wasn't terribly exciting.... I met a nice girl from Toronto at my hostel and talked to her for a while while I ate my dinner of the rest of last night's baguette and some Camembert cheese I bought at the market. It was SO CHEAP! Also, wine is ridiculously cheap - if you find the cheap red wine from France, it's almost always cheaper than soda, juice, water, or just about any other beverage. Anyway, on our way up to the rooms we ran into a girl from Barcelona who is taking a French course here; she was really nice as well. All in all, a very packed yet excellent day.