Day 7- 1/15

Woke up at 4:45 this morning to get ready to leave by 6:00 to go to the train station. The train ride was seemingly very short, much shorter than the one I had from Paris to Poitiers last week. I guess that’s because I was with other people and since the train was going to and not from Paris, I think it took and different way since it was going to a different train station anyway. It was dark the whole way so we couldn’t see any of the countryside. When we got to the train station we had trouble buying tickets for the metro because the trains wouldn’t take our cards.
We eventually get to our hostel, which isn’t very far from a metro stop. It’s actually very nice, new, and contemporary. The room has 10 beds and a sink. There’s 6 of us and then there’s a girl from Vancouver, WA and another girl from I think some where in south America. There’s no one in the other 2 beds. The girl from WA told us that they usually don’t book rooms full until summer. It was only about 9:30 and we couldn’t check in until 2, so we had their free breakfast and left our stuff in the luggage room.

We went to the Louvre and on our way there, there was evidently a man who was sitting next to Lauren who had his penis sticking out of his pants. She was so freaked out the whole way until he got off. Don’t blame her, but I didn’t even notice. That was freaky. You see a lot of weird things in Paris I guess. The Louvre was amazing as usual.
Didn’t look too much around in it. That would take like a solid week to see everything. So we saw the staples, like the Mona Lisa of course, which nowadays they let people take pictures of, with the flash too. They weren’t letting people do that the last time I was there. Went to Notre Dame, which is always cool.
They still had some of their Christmas stuff out. People were allowed to go up into the bell towers, but it cost like 10 euros or something, and they only let 20 people up every 10 minutes and there was a line, so we decided not too. I was kinda bummed since they had it closed for construction the last time I was there. Maybe I’ll see that with Luke when/if he comes. We walked around some more and went across the bridge to I believe the right bank to a British bookstore called Shakespeare and Company. On the way over the bridge we saw a homeless woman with 2 sleeping puppies cuddled to her chest. It broke my heart. You see a lot of that in Paris. And there’s not much you can do. After the bookstore we basically walked in one giant circle looking for food. We eventually ended up at a falafel place. One thing I’ve noticed in France is that in food preparation they don’t like to wear gloves, nor do they wash their hands after handling money before handling food again. I hate it and I know my dad would have a cow but that’s another thing you just gotta ignore. From there we went back to the hostel and I went downstairs to do more internet stuff. It wasn’t long before I was approached by another greasy immigrant French guy. Thankfully it was almost 6, when I told him I had to go back upstairs to get ready because we were going to happy hour at the bar in the hostel and then out. When we were drinking beers, the greasy guy was in the room and I could feel him staring at me. It sucked. Then the parents called my French cell phone and mom was all pissed because I hadn’t gotten ahold of them in a while. What she didn’t realize was that I’ve been EXTREMELY busy, my internet access is limited, and every time I’ve been online, that’s when I’ve been alone and in the hang out place of greasy guys who I have to deal with when they approach me instead of doing important things like sending emails. We left and went back to the Notre Dame area. Went to a quiet bar (but then again it was only about 8pm) and had a mixed drink half price. I almost got a white Russian because it reminds me of Luke, but that sounded a little too heavy for me at the time so I got a Mimosa instead. Walked around some more. The guys who stand outside their shops and try to get you to buy their stuff or eat at their café are so incredibly annoying. And you have to ignore them as well, which is kinda hard for me cuz I guess I’m too nice and want to acknowledge them in some way even if it is to say that no I don’t want to buy your stuff, or no I don’t want to eat there. We ended up at a pretty cool pub that had live music and I got a small beer and a sandwich. It took forever for us to pay. We thought the waiter was annoyed with us because we were American. We took the metro back to the hostel and at one stop the train had to stall because in the next car over from ours a big fight broke out. We had no idea over what. As we were walking back to the hostel I got the crap scared out of me because I walked past a guy who leaned over and said “vous êtes charmante” (you are charming) and I thought he was leaning over to steal my purse. When we got to the room the other two girls were asleep and we made a lot of noise. Tomorrow I’m waking up in time for breakfast and a shower.

MANY MANY more pictures here