We actually walked for eleven hours straight today. I'm not even exaggerating. We had a quick five minute stop for food but the rest of the time we've been walking around checking out the sites! There is a LOT to see in Paris. There are so many beautiful, old buildings everywhere.

Some of the sites we saw today:

- Palais Royal - Musee du Louvre

- Jardin de L'Oratoire

- Tuileries Garden

- Champs Elysee

- Arc du Triomphe

- Champs de Mars

- Tour Eiffel

And there were heaps more - but they're the big famous ones that people always hear about!

We found that a lot of it looked better at night time, ESPECIALLY the Eiffel Tour and Louvre Museum. The Eiffel Tower is absolutely stunning at night - we saw it with its usual golden glow but also when they put the sparkly lights on! I loved it!

We also walked over the Pont des Arts which is another bridge (but A LOT bigger) that is covered in padlocks! It's such a lovely idea. There are some guys who sell padlocks on the bridge so it's easy to grab one and join in on the fun!

We didn't do much in the Louvre Museum. We decided that if we're going to go inside it fully and walk around the galleries then we would save it for tomorrow since it's forecasted to rain! But what we saw was cool. It definitely wasn't as big as I had pictured, but nice to look at nonetheless! The buildings surrounding the pyramid are absolutely beautiful. We have seen some really amazing architecture since we've been travelling around! Something interesting that I noticed was that they have signs warning you about pickpockets… That's something I'll talk a bit more about later on…

Champs Elysee was cool! Especially because I have heard so much about it in French classes!!! There were heaps of shops and the street was REALLY, REALLY wide. At the end of the street you come to the Arc du Triomphe. This thing is HUGE. Much bigger than I expected. And the roundabout around it is mental - there's like four lanes but they're not painted on. So you get a lot of beeping and angry drivers. But to get to the Arc you have to go underground so that's a lot better. I could imagine it being ridiculously dangerous otherwise :/

Champs de Mars was average. I guess it's because it is now the end of the tourist season, so it all just looked hideous and trampled on! I can imagine at the start of spring it would look a lot nicer! We found it was better seeing the Eiffel Tower from behind. There is a huge building - I forget what it's called but if you walk up the top of the stairs you get a really gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars behind it and then even further behind is a good view of Paris!

Matthew has been picking up on a bit of French which is very impressive! He can ask "Do you speak English", and has been picking up on some words and translating some sentences he sees written around. Just thought I'd mention that because that's pretty cool of him!

Something bad we have noticed in Paris is that there are a lot of dodgy people. Sooo, obviously there are heaps of pickpocketers because they have to sign post it outside the Louvre! That's never a good look. We saw a guy looking really stressed and his wife was trying to ring his phone as obviously he had been pickpocketed. I'd be gutted if that happened to me since I use my phone as a camera so I have heaps of great photos!

Also when we were walking around about 3 miles from the Eiffel Tower we were approached by two women who asked if we spoke English. We said yes and they asked us to sign a petition, which was written in French! Found that quite strange as why would you ask for English speakers when the petition is in French. They then start pointing to a handicap sign on the page saying it's for handicapped people, and then they show the other people who have signed it and how much they have donated - emphasising the fact they are from like Canada, US, U.K., etc. Matt and I were like lol, no. We're sick of people trying to scam us! It gets more amusing though. Later on we sat underneath the Eiffel Tower and watched a group of about 30 of them (not even exaggerating) all split up asking around all the tourists for donations to support handicapped people. Matt and I were like 99% sure they were dodgy so it was quite uncomfortable. Then we saw a cop cycle up to them, rip up their petitions and leave. They didn't make a big fuss, so it was REALLY obvious they were conning the tourists. This annoyed me a great deal - how scummy do you have to be to con tourists who are giving money out of the good of their heart to handicapped people? It's absolutely disgusting. These people are actually scum! Later on one came back and asked us to donate. Matt and I said no multiple times and the girl stuck her middle finger up and said "**** you". It just summed them up really! A few minutes later another one came and spoke to a girl next to us who was about our age. The poor girl was about to donate some money but Matt told her not to because we had just seen the police rip their stuff up because their fake. The gypsy woman told us we were stupid and that we were lying but of course the tourist realised she was being conned. Very soon after Matt and I left because we didn't want to get in to a dangerous situation! But I just wanted to share this story with you all because I'm pretty disgusted that such scummy people live on this earth. We saw other guys who looked the same ethnicity -maybe they were their husbands - and whilst they put a bit of pressure on tourists, they are trying to sell goods like mini Eiffel tower souvenirs, and so on. So respect to them for at least being upfront about making a living.

So I think one of the strangest things about Paris is how unsafe we feel here. We definitely are a lot scared here than any of the American cities we went to. I think a lot of it is largely due to how much research I have done in to organised crime in Europe. Paris is a hub for some frickin dangerous and terrifying stuff.

I will finish today on a funny story! So after a bottle of water I REALLY needed the toilet. I went to use one in the Champs de Mars near the Eiffel Tower but, despite having to wait in a line for ten minutes to use it, the toilet was so revolting I decided I would wait! About half an hour later we came across a public toilet out on the main street. I decided I would try and use that one, but it had a huge sliding "automatic" door that wouldn't shut! Every time it did, it would open again! I kept like dragging it closed but it wouldn't and after about five attempts I gave up because there were a bunch of French guys outside it laughing at how much of a tool I was being. One of them went to use it after me, but I'm pretty sure the door opened whilst he was using it… But anyway, about an hour and a half later we finally found another one and I decided to try and use it. It started off bad since the guy in front of me accidentally locked it before he went in, so had to wait for a few minutes for it to open itself. I should have known then it would be a demon toilet. When I went to use it, of course the door wouldn't work again. It kept opening and closing etc. When it did finally shut, and I presumed it had locked, I was just about to do my business when suddenly the toilet folded away in to the wall (WTH?!), the lights disappeared and an alarm went off! After that I decided to give up. For some reason I wasn't destined to use a toilet today.

Tomorrow is our last day in France before catching a bus to Belgium! It's less than two weeks now before we arrive in Poland which is FRICKINNN exciting! We absolutely cannot wait to unpack our stuff and settle down again. I love travelling, but it's pretty exhausting! I also can't wait to meet heaps of amazing people and go crazy! Our orientation week schedule was just emailed to us yesterday so we have heaps to look forward to. We also have been told about the weekend trips our school does to different areas around Poland! Aaaaaaaaaahh!

Love you all. I have heard it's been pretty stormy in New Zealand and heaps of people have lost power, so I hope you are keeping safe and warm!