Day 48, 49 & 50
Been a busy couple of days in Pari, so busy that I haven't had a chance to write. Don't have much time now either but there is too much to remember so I'll just put down some highlights.
The first morning in Paris was not a spectacular one. Waking up feeling terrible and after a walk to the bathroom realizing I had Conjunctivitis, was not what I had imagined for my time in Pari. A discussion with a very creepy Italian man who kept eyeing my things, made me feel even more uneasy, but luckily for me he was on his way out.
Things turned around once I spoke to the boys downstairs at breakfast. Aidan had medication for me, we were all moving into the same room and I was able to have my first croissant. It was fantastic!
We headed out for a free walking tour around the city which took us to all the cool places. The Louvre, The obelisk, Champs Élysées and all the rest in between. Only downside of the tour was our guide herself. She was very sarcastic about everything she did making anything that us tourists were excited about, say, the Eiffel tower, seem really unimpressive.
When our tour finished off our guide offered us the opportunity to try snails and frogs. We jumped at the idea as this had always been on my checklist for France. She took us for a 15 minute walk, in the dodgiest direction to a small little cafe. Needless to say we were worried. However when the food came out our fears melted away and we all dived in.
My favourite of the two were surprisingly the snails as they tasted like just like the sauce they were in. The frogs weren't as fantastic as they actually looked like the back 2 legs of a frog and the taste was really weird.
That night we headed out to do what Aussies do best and hit the bars in a pub crawl. We met stacks of people from all over the world, some of which were so friendly they offered to buy several rounds of drinks. We also met some Argentinean girls who taught us quite a bit of Spanish.... well just a couple words that will come in handy. The night ended in a nightclub before a walk home, which quickly turned into a run after we realized we were being followed by some interesting fellows in the street.
Day 3 in Paris had two main highlights the first of which was one of the tourist biggies, a tour through the Louvre. Whilst Aid, Zac and Gav had a ball, the less cultured of us found it to drag on a bit after 4 hours there. Whilst we saw some amazing things, I personally wouldn't rush back there. And yes we stood in the massive crowd by the Mona Lisa, but I found it to be much bigger than the tiny painting everyone seems to describe.
Highlight 2 came that night when we went up the second highest building in Paris, Montparnesse Tower. After a train incident that was initially described to us as a suspicious Baguette on the train, we were told to evacuate as it was actually a suspicious bag. It was very weird though as everyone seemed to be very chilled about it.
Finally we got there after having to walk the rest of the way, running into a bit of a crowd at the entrance. However going into the fastest lift in Europe has its benefits, one of which is the short wait. Soon enough we were up there and looking at the most amazing views in all of Paris. Watching the Eiffel tower as the sun sets 200m up into the sky was quite a moment. Expectations were high for the supposed light show the tower was meant to offer, however there was much disappointment when the Eiffel tower just twinkled it's lights for about 10 minutes.
As I am running out of time here we are moving quickly onto today, which seemed to be filled with adventures which only got better as the day drove on.
A trip to the Paris Catacombs (google what they are) which I was really excited for, ended in disappointment as once we had done the 40 minute train journey we discovered that they were closed on Mondays. Back into the city we went, to the Notre Dame, which was HUGE. As always in Paris, of course there was a massive line, which to our surprise went much quicker than expected. Despite not seeing the Hunchback myself the place was pretty cool and absolutely packed... I could just imagine being there during a service.
From there upon Zacs cousins advice we made our way to a place simply labelled 'Pompedou'. We had no idea what was there or what it was, but Zac was told it was cool and so off we went. After a bit of a search we found this massive building that appeared to be under construction. We delved in further finding many obscure artworks all around us and upon entering the building found out it was the Paris Modern Art Museum (well one of them). Whilst I was completely over museums this place actually looked somewhat cool.
Only problem was that we had an hour before we had to meet Aidan at the Eiffel. So we gave it a miss for another day and headed towards the tower swinging past the Arc de Triumph on the way.
On the way there we found out that Arryn seems to get on well with the strangest of people in town. Not once, but twice on the way to meet Aidan Arryn had some weird interaction with the weirdos of Paris. Our first encounter involved one homeless man, approaching us, looking at Arryn and hugging him in a very sexual way.
None of us knew what to do and simply stood there, in shock watching this happen. Not 10 minutes later, another man approached us, growled at Arryn and stared him in the eyes. Who would have know that our own Wazzy the fly was so enticing to the local population.
Upon reaching the tower we sat and waited for Aidan to arrive. An hour later we hadn't moved. This is not to say that the hour was not entertaining.
In Paris, at almost every tourist destination are groups of people selling souviniers from their bags. Apparently this is illegal. As such everytime police are around, the people either bolt once they see them coming or don't see them coming and have a chase with the police. This is very amusing for everyone else.
For the entire hour we watched as man after man were chased by police and the outcome of each. One guy was caught so off guard he simply had to
ditch his stuff and run. As he ran away, people from everywhere sprinted to grab whatever free stuff they could. Oh what savages we all are.
Eventually Aidan arrived and we could head off, once again to another of Zacs cousins suggestions. We were told to go to a shop called Collete having no idea what it was or what it sold. It was Amazing! It's hard to put into words what kind of things this place sold, the best I could do is to say it sold Awesome. From clothing to iPods to Glasses and even Smurf Merchandise this place had it all. We spent a good hour there just looking and appreciating (wayyyy to expensive to buy anything of course) all that they had on offer.
The final highlight, well at least of this blog, was our climb of the Eiffel Tour tonight. Whilst the other boys headed out to a Jazz club, Az and I took up the challenge of all 730 steps (and then a lift) to the top of the building. Being us and finding walking up and down very boring of course we raced all the way up and back down. The view on top was pretty cool, however as you are on the tower, you cannot see the tower itself.
I am now on the train home at 1am, finishing this blog, amped to get some sleep. Tomorrow my dream comes true and I'm off to Disneyland for the day.
To all you guys out there who are commenting on this page, please keep it up, really appreciating the love. And to the girl who needs something to do whilst she's babysitting, I hope this distracted you for long enough
Thats all for now. Xxx