Bastille Day in Paris! The celebration starts off with a military parade down the Champs Elysées so once we were up, Zhewen and I headed over there after grabbing some delicious pastries from a nearby bakery. We exited the metro and were immediately in the midst of a gigantic crowd of people lining the avenue. Thousands upon thousands of spectators watched and cheered as military officers passed by on foot, horseback or in every army vehicle imaginable. Some peo...

Today I had to move to a new hostel, so I packed up my things and said goodbye to all the new friends that I had made. I wanted to go on the city walking tour and Tyler, a guy from Canada, wanted to join so we planned to meet later at the starting point near Notre-Dame. I caught the metro to my new home, the Peace and Love Hostel, and dropped off my bag in the luggage room since the rooms were being cleaned. The trip ended up taking much longer than I expected so...

The day started off with heavy rains so I spent the morning at the hostel chatting with fellow travelers, waiting for it to die down. I met an Aussie named Haydn and a Chinese girl named Zhujun and when the skies eventually cleared, they joined Raphael and I on a day trip to Versailles. Rounding the corner from the train station and seeing the massive palace in the distance was an incredible sight. We decided on skipping the actual palace and instead spend the da...

Another day, another city. Today I left the cute little cities of Belgium for the bright lights of Paris. To avoid paying the expensive reservation for the high-speed train, I took the regional trains which ended up taking three times longer. At the train station, I met a guy from California and we worked together to figure out the confusing metro station and find our way to our hostels. Mine was on the outskirts of Paris, so I had to ride one of the metro lines ...