I arrived a little after 1:00 and wasn't able to check into my room for a few hours so went to sit down in the cafe area and just rest a bit. There I met Chrissy, Leslie and Aubrie - three college girls from kansas here on vacation - sarah - same from LSU - and William from minesota. Rather than sit and be tired I went with them for lunch, ended up getting home at around midnight after seeing a chuch who's name I cannot pronounce let alone spell and notre dame by night. I had my first Crepe and a whole lot of fun. It was a good prep for some of the marathon days to follow.
Friday I got up early (relatively) and went with the kansas girls and got to attend a small private mass at notre dame - I don't have any idea what they said but it was an incredible service. The cathedral is spectacular with morning sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows. After that I headed off with chrissy to see the "inside out building". I can't remember its name either, but it's the building with all of the heating and cooling systems running on the outside of the building. I saw a few more galleries and walked the full distance to the Arc de Triumph. A nice long lunch nd finding of harry potter in british form and we headed back to dinner. The remainder of the people I'd met as well as an italian named Adriano were making pasta for dinner and we all sat around talking and drinking wine for a few hours. At about 9:00 sarah and chrissy and I went off to try and find the Eiffel tower (harder than it sounds when you can't tell where you are) and managed it after a half hour or so. Conquering my distaste of heights (sarah couldn't) we went to the top of the tower and shot about a roll and a half of film of the paris skyline by night. It was gorgeous, though the wind could easily pick you up and hurl you off the top if there weren't fences all about. A nice walk home and more talking until about 2:00 am.
Saturday I got to sleep in a bit (11:00), then it was off to the nepolianic war meuseum. Made a date of it with chrissy and it was a blast though I wish I'd been able to read more of the signs. A nice 2 hour crappy chinese meal and we went back to the hostel to meet all mentioned above as well as David from tacoma (not sure what he's studying) and Paul from Dublin - man is he a kick. We putted around for a bit then headed off for sushi (nice paresian fare, no?) enjoyed some raw tuna and sake then wandered the streets looking for tobaco, whisky and Crepes - prefereably from the same location. We eventually settled on a reasonable looking bar with good enough whisky for the irishman and set about wasting time until around 1:00 when they darkened the bar. A rapid run home (the hostel locks at 2:00) with a quick stop for more crepes and whisky from a store and we head home to loudly debate politics and religion until around four in the moring. My god given birkenbuel charm works wonders and I finally go to sleep at around 5:30 am.
And that leaves me here. I slept through my alarm for about 2 hours so missed the first thing I wanted to do today so figure I may as well type something up real quick. This is really just a brief summary and I can't begin to describe how much fun this has been - even if I'm constantly on too little sleep. Most of the people saving sarah and david leave sometime tomorrow, so I'll be seeing the Louvre and Mueuseum D'Orsay then (everyone eles has already seen it).
Well it's nearly noon now, best find some breakfast before I head out.
"god given birkenbuel charm" What more can I say? Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself ;)