Paris, part 1

Katie and I dragged ourselves out of bed Tuesday morning to hop on the 5:30 shuttle bus that ran to the airport. Thankfully it only took about 15 minutes to check our bags and through security, and we landed in Paris around 9:00 am. I was finally able to get some money out of the ATM (thank goodness!). A saxophone and clarinet duo entertained us on the metro while we rode to our hostel. I instantly knew I was going to love Paris. Because we couldn't check in until 2, we hung out in the internet cafe and looked up basic French phrases. We had heard that the French are very proud people and they get easily offended if you try to speak English to them. Practicing our best accents with "où sont les toilettes," "parlez-vous anglais," and "merci beaucoup," we jotted down the necessities to cover our bases. After we checked in, we grabbed food at a Japanese place recommended by the receptionist. I completely destroyed my Yakisoba trying to use chopsticks, but it was warm and delicious and I loved it (**note to self: don't try to ask random Japanese people where the Louvre is. You'll butcher the French language and completely embarrass yourself in the process).

The weather had been dreadful all day, but we wanted to make the most out of our time in Paris and decided to brave the elements. Unfortunately, I had worn holes in the bottoms of both of my shoes and they filled up with freezing water very quickly. There was no way I could spend the rest of the trip in soggy socks, so we set out on an adventure to find cheap shoes. I asked the tourism office where I could get some, and the lady recommended I check out the Galleries LaFayette down the street. Upon arrival I realized it was basically a super expensive and super huge Macy's (aka, the cheapest pair of designer sandals started at €150). Katie and I made a quick exit and discovered an H&M next door, where I picked up two cheap new pairs for €17 total. Heading back to the hostel, we picked up some random food to munch on for the next three days (with a final selection of lunch meat, chocolate, Coke, bread, and waffles). When we found out that the hostel didn't have a refrigerator or kitchen for guests to use, we made the best of it and downed an entire pack of ham sammiches. After a game of Tuesday night trivia with two Aussies and a Canadian, we passed out from exhaustion.

A free walking tour at 10:00 am set us up for a great day in the city. The tour guide Naomi was from Edinburgh, which really made me want to go back to Scotland. She took us all over the city, visiting some of the most famous sights in Paris including Notre Dame, the love lock bridge, the Louvre, Champs-Elysées, and the Eiffel Tower from afar. The tour ended with a delicious lunch of roast lamb and potatoes. We met two Canadian girls, Mary and Amira, who were staying at our hostel, and spent the rest of the day re-visiting some of the monuments we had just passed by. It had been raining off an on all day again, but it was worth it because we were in PARIS, baby! We first walked up to La Tour Eiffel, where we were bombarded with dozens of guys trying to sell us little Eiffel Tower keychains on the streets. Then we hit up the Arc du Triomphe and made our way down the giant Champs-Elysées avenue ("one of the most famous streets and most expensive strips of real estate in the world" according to Wikipedia), and finally arrived at the Louvre at the end of the avenue.

I was pleasantly surprised by the cheap €10 entry fee to the Musée du Louvre. The Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world, and with good reason: it houses thousands and thousands of priceless artwork (fun fact of the day: if you were to look at each artwork in the Louvre for only 7 seconds, you would be there for over 80 years). Even though we had a map of the museum, we found it extremely difficult to navigate. Whoever built it must have liked a challenge getting around. Nonetheless, it was really awesome getting so see all sorts of artwork that I had studied in previous art history classes. Seeing the Mona Lisa was a bit underwhelming, as there were tons of people elbowing their way to the front of the crowd to take a picture of her. I've never understood why that particular da Vinci is so popular, but at least I can say I've seen it now. After a good 3 hours navigating the Louvre, we were all past the point of exhaustion, picking up pizza on the way home before heading to bed.

- A lot of French people speak English too, thankfully.
- I still can't tell any difference between Canadian and American accents.
- Public transportation is the bomb.