pear ee

paris was the last stop on our trip. by the time we arrived there we were completely exhausted and smelly pretty bad. (did i mention we only brought a carry on for this trip? i had all the stuff i needed for the week in one small shoulder bag i bought from salvation army. considering my nickname as a child was 'the bag lady', this is a quite a feat.) our hostel was near the moulin rouge in montmartre. i'll give you the highlights below, but i have to say i was not overally impressed with paris. maybe because it's SOOOO romanitcized and what i was expected was a little too amelie, but it was seriously so different. very dirty and trashy- lots of people trying to sell you things. very busy and crowded and toursity. the buildings were beautiful of course. but it sucks to be standing in awe of the eiffel tower only to be swooped down upon by ten men trying to sell you glow in the dark eiffel tower keychains. and that was really everywhere we went. and we went a lot of places. we walked all over that town, seeking out the cute, non-touristy area that we were sure existed. the one that people fall in love with- we wanted to fall in love with paris like everyone else. all we needed was a reason to- just one tiny thing. but nothing. i obviously enjoyed my time there but i don't know if it's somewhere i'll visit again. maybe if i become a millionare and i can stay in ritzy hotels and buy diamonds and eat fancy french food. but until then, i can find much cheaper places to be harassed.

on a more positive note- here are the highlights:
1. saw the eiffel tower at night! and they do this crazy light thing were a million little lights twinkle all over it. very cool to see.
2. ate crepes! and lots of bread! (like, whole entire loaves of bread.) and hot chocolate!
3. notre dame & the sacre coeur! beautiful beautiful churches.
4. got macaroons at laduree! my favorites were the madagascar dark chocolate, the violet black currant, and vanilla bean.
5. drank bloody mary's at hemingway's old haunt where they were invented. set us back a pretty penny but they were absolutely delicious and the place was very old school classy. ( think red velvet-y seats and low lights)
6. walked all over the friggin' place. we thought our feet would fall off with the amount of walking we did. i guess it balances out the carbs though, right?
7. went inside the louvre, got scared of the crowds, exited the louvre before paying admission.
8. went to le puces (the fleas!) and looked at all the beautiful old furniture. so many treasures! i bought some old keychains and little books full of pictures- one of Versailles, one of eastern european costumes, and another one of cacti. so strange.
9. ate at the cafe amelie was shot at! got really good goat cheese on toast with a big ol' salad.
10. ate a the goofy restuarant ever- they gave you a toaster at your table and the whole place was duck themed? again, so strange.
11. met some nice australians and a guy from portland in our hostel. the one aussie dressed up as santa for halloween and we went out with them to some other hostel bar. turns out the bartender there was from california and his sister graduated from temple. this translated into free drinks all night and much reminiscing about TU.
12. climbed the eiffel tower by myself the next morning. christine had an early flight and my train didn't leave until the afternoon so i woke up early and took the stairs to the middle platform. 700 stairs up and the same 700 stairs down. quite a work out but beautiful views. the weather was absolutely perfect and i got there before it was too crowded. excellent experience. the one downfall to going alone though is you have to ask strangers to take your picture which is always awkward. i took a few of myself too which just makes me feel like i'm in seventh grade again.
13. met another nice australian at lunch. i happened to be sitting next to him and he heard me speak english so we started talking. he's traveling all over the place with no real plan- he just woke up that morning in paris and decided to go to amsterdam so he was just waiting for his train. he's also in the tv business so we chatted about tv shows for a really long time. it's so nice to meet friendly strangers. i feel like i'm always so hestitant to talk to people i meet on the street (for good reason i suppose) but it's nice to know that you can still make those connections today and that there are still good people out there.

i eventually met up with keiran at the train station and we rode the train back to london. coming back to london after having been away for a week really made it seem like home. i loved the familiarity. it still hasn't worn off either- i'm feeling so in love with london this week. plus we decided this is 'live it up in london' month'. our time here is FLYING by so we're going to try to make the most of it. should be fun.