Paris

So I'm a big fan of Paris and I wish we could stay here longer. The Eiffel Tower (and especially at night) is one of the most awesome things. I had come just expecting a tower, like what I've seen so many times in pictures and on tv, but it was of course a completely different experience in person.

Real quick a little back-track about getting to Paris. We took an overnight train from Barcelona. It was horrible! Never take a Spanish hotel train if you can avoid it. First, the stuff that they couldn't help: old drunk really smelly guy from Chico. Really annoying... really really obnoxiously smelly. Second: The things they could help: Not allowing one ticket to work for 2 people. One of the guys in my cabin had his 5 year old son with him.... these are smalllll cabins. Learn how to have functioning climate control in the cabin. The temperature would alternate from stifling hot to frigid cold, though the majority of the time it was unbearably hot, no circulation whatsoever. And let me explain to you how this worked. I'll call it the cycle of stink. First it would get ridiculously hot, causing old smelly man to sweat and stink even more. Since there was not circulation whatsoever, I couldn't really smell it as much. Next, the air would kick on. This was amazing in that it gave us some cool air, but horrible in that the air was thick with stench. Ahhhhh.... not good at all. I got so little sleep.

But was it worth it? I think so. Like I said before, Paris is awesome. Yesterday we checked out the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph, and walked the Champs E'lysee (apologies on the spelling). After dark, we returned to the Eiffel Tower. So so so so freaking awesome. It was like the 4th of July or New Years and they didn't even need the fireworks. I can only imagine what it's like when they do have them (the fireworks).

Today we went to Olsay Museum and saw a lot of cool impressionist paintings, all the stuff that you've seen before in books and prints of on everyone's walls. It was really cool. After that, we went to the Louvre. We of course saw the Mona Lisa and Venus De Milo among other awesome pieces of art. I've found that I really like the sculptures as well. The Louvre was huge! It stinks that we only had one day to do all the museums, but I think we did a pretty good job on hitting the two biggies with the time we had. Tonight we went out to a nice dinner in Paris. My sister treated me as my graduation gift. It was quite good, but made more fun just because of the experience. I had foie (sp?) gras as a starter, lamb for dinner, and a merangue for dessert. We had a nice bottle of wine and it was all way too romantic for a brother and sister, but it's ok, we had fun having no idea what was going on when they would bring things to us. It was a great way to end (almost) a month of travel in Europe.

Tomorrow we are going to Versailles to check out the palace there. After that, we'll be taking the Chunnel train again back to London, staying a night there, then flying back home! I've been in so many countries in the last month that I often am walking down the street and have to remind myself where I am. It's awesome :P

Ciao!