Second day, DEC 17th - Oui, Paris!

So I overslept this morning and meant to post this last night - my apologies.

Last time we left off, I was waiting for a bus to whisk me away to a new and enchanting place - Paris, the land of love, bagets and stuffy French emperor-kings.

However, just getting their was a little tougher than I expected, when the bus ride that was supposed to take ten hours ended up taking closer to twelve - we left at eight and arrived around 7ish the next morning.

I met a girl named Cecile while waiting in the line to the bus and we got along well so we sat next to eachother on the bus. She was actually from France, a little city north of Paris, and was coming home after having studied at a University in Upper England. She hadn't seen her parents in 3 months and really wanted to see them and her younger brother, who is eighteen and is studying sports (I think as a reporter, actually) and/or business in downtown Paris.

She told me a lot about Paris in very good English - she pretty much said everything right and understood everything, but sometimes I had to slow down just a little bit - and it really was a "quite" interesting night as I got to learn a lot about France from her and about Europe as a whole (she loved to say the word "quite" before almost any adjective :) ).

We were forced to land the bus on a ferry at one point, so we went out of the bus and onto the ferry and it was really interesting because the ferry was full of people from everywhere, mostly British. These british were very drunk, very raunchy and very enthusiastic about life lol. I almost thought they were American college kids, until I heard their accents.

Once we landed, about two-and-a-half hours later the bus came to where Cecile was leaving, so I had to say goodbye to her, but I saved her name on my mom's IPOD so that I could look her up on facebook. After having stayed up the whole time in the bus, my total time awake since I had last slept (before I left on Thursday) was 36 hours (the time shift took away five would-be hours). I literally crashed in that bus seat around 3:00 a.m.

Of course, the one time I fall asleep is when something was stolen from me - the IPOD, which my Mom had specifically told me not to lose on my journeys.

Sorry Mom!

Despite having lost the IPOD, I was more worried that I wouldn't have Cecile's name anymore, which meant I'd probably never hear again from my only friend in Europe. Luckily though, she had remembered my surname (I told her to prounce "Fouriezos" the Greek way "Four-i-e-zos" so that she would remember how to spell it - later she said that she only remembered it because it was not-"American" sounding).

Once I arrived in Paris, I was distraught. I had already lost the IPOD and I was in a place where I honestly didn't understand anything.

However, I took a deep breather and found the one place that felt like close to home -McDonalds.

One of the servers there told me that she knew a little English and informed me that they had free WiFi, which I used to calm myself down. I looked up directions and where I needed to go.

The best deal was the Paris subway pass, which for 21 Euros allowed me to pretty much travel anywhere I want in Paris for three full days - a real bargain, considering that transportation in London seemed to be much more expensive.

Anyway, there was a very long period of time in which I just walked around Paris, trying to find a hostel. Since I didn't have the IPOD and I had forgotten to get a pen/pencil, I had no way to write down my directions so I would look them up in my laptop at a Starbucks then promptly forget stuff and lose my way again - I did this from about 8:00 am to 2:00 pm and I was pretty much fed up with things. The city itself was beautiful though. It seems like Paris is just a bunch of hotel-like buildings, but now shops take over the first floor and it looks from the outside as if the rooms above these shops aren't even used - 20 floors of unused space, it would seem.

I finally found a hostel and checked in, but the only room they had available was a single room, which of course cost much more than a dormitory-style room would. I paid $50 for what amounted to a closet with a bed, table and shower (no toilet - there was a public one down the hall). I didn't care though and paid the price - I was not walking around with that pack for a second longer.

As soon as I got in the room I crashed, falling asleep in the bed immediately. I slept for 3-4 hours and got out of the hostel around 8 pm ready to explore.

First thing was the Eiffel Tower. I knew that I was going to see it tomorrow anyway, but I wanted to see it at night, even just from the outside. It was gorgeous. The subway system, which is totally awesome and way better than anything in the States, got me there in a short fifteen minutes, though I was on the other side of the Seine.

When I got out, I could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance and as I walked towards it, I realized for the first time exactly how big the Eiffel Tower is. I always knew it was tall, but I had never realized how impressive it was in total size too. Now I realized why it had become a fixture in the modern and ancient-worlds.

I didn't take the elevator up, since I knew that I would be doing that tomorrow in the daylight (and there's a twelve euro cost). However, I did get a good chance to see it.

From there, I decided I want to go through the cultural side of Paris, and took another bus to an area that I had seen earlier was filled with cafes and restaurants.

After I had walked around a while, I decided that I wanted to have a meal in an authentic French restaurant - of course, I found a French pub that advertised "Karaoke" and I was sold.

I went inside, where someone was singing a French song in a low, baritone voice. There were tv's everywhere, showing the lyrics to the song so that the patrons could sing-a-long. A young, obviously drunk French girl was soulfully sticking her hands out as she sang along with the baritone voice: "A-vou-la-looove" (at least, that's how it sounded to me, from my memory almost a day later - okay fine, I have no idea what she said).

About half an hour later, I realized that I wasn't getting served and said "Pardon" to a waiter, who went to get another waiter. The other waiter came in another twenty minutes, but of course, the kitchen was closed already and I, the dumb American tourist, hadn't realized that lol.

DUH!

I should have known better, but I'm still glad I did it because it was really fun to listen to the karaoke.

At this point, it was already 12:30 (time flies when you are having fun!) so I made my way out, got some McDonalds because it was the only place serving food that late, and got a bus back to my hostel.

I'm sorry for the lack of pictures, but I'm kind of late for a date with Paris, where I'll be exploring the "Arc de Triumph" (which I already saw earlier, but I never got to climb), the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower (this time going up it) and other museums/sights.

Until then, here's the French I've accumulated so far:

Bonjour! Deja vu! Merci, See vu play (I know its not spelled that way, that's how I remember it though - thanks Ryan Nolan!)

And until I see you guys again,

"Au revoir"