Paris, the city of sun and delicious food

At last, sunlight! It had been so long, but finally we escaped from the rain that had been following us through Europe. It only rained once during our time here in Paris, and it was while we were underground so we didn't mind. Except for in some areas where it seemed to be leaking.

We were really hungry and tired and indecisive when we first got in. Fortunately we found a little shop with really delicious sandwiches and pastries. After we were properly nourished we were able to make plans. We decided to start out big and headed off to the catacombs. Awesome! We went down about a million stairs and walked a ways through tunnels under Paris, eventually reaching the tunnels full of bones. It was pretty amazing and intense. The evening was spent back in Montemartre, where our hotel was. We had a delicious salad for dinner.

The second day we did the Louvre, because it needed to happen. It was quite easy to get there and there was hardly a line. There were, of course, tons of other people there, but it didn't feel too crowded for the most part just because it was so big and open. It was really cool to get to see such impressive and beautiful art. I was especially excited to come across the Raft of the Medusa, a painting I studied in an RC class. After standing and walking for so long we were a little tired, so we chilled out at the courtyard fountain. We wandered off from there and saw the Arc de Triumph, also cool. That night we went to another classic, the Eiffel Tower. I must say, it was quite impressive. It was both visually larger and physically smaller than I had expected, if that makes any sense. We heard that going up to the third (top) floor wasn't worth it due to crowd and expense, and that it was better to just go to the second floor and go to Sacre Cour for the full city view. The second floor was amazing! We went at night, and we could see Paris stretched out before us, expansive and bright.

The third day Alex and Constantina had a date planned so I went off on my own. I just kind of wandered about, ending up at the Notre Dame. I'm really really glad I went. It was just awe-inspiring. It was so huge and ornate and beautiful. I took a lot of pictures, and asked some other tourists to take pictures with me in them (for you, Mom). We had planned to meet up at the Gare de Lyon train station to get our train to Germany worked out. While walking there I saw a whole bunch of police vehicles go by and wondered why. Not long after that I got a call from Constantina's mom in Sweden, telling me that Alex and Constantina had been delayed due to some sort of threat on their subway line. It sounded like they were fine, and I was fine, so everything was fine. I just meandered my way over to the station and sat outside in the sun until they got there.

Working out train stuff was a lot easier than I'd thought it would be, other than one significant problem-Alex no longer has his Eurail Pass. Ack! Fortunately he didn't need it for the book, but unfortunately he was unable to find it. It was really stressful, and we had to go find the police station to file a report (which was difficult due to the police being unhelpful), but he'll get his money back at least. On our way back we stopped by Sacre Cour, which did give a wonderful view of the city! Worth all the stairs we had to climb to get up there.

Also, we met up with Molly McGuire for coffee! Alex and I also went with her and some of her friends to a party on a boat. It was entertaining, though getting back was kind of a pain. We ended up taking a cab because it was tons faster.

Today we're heading off to Freiburg. We're going to stay with Andrew Nicholson there, before heading off to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

I have now uploaded all of my Sweden, Denmark, England, and Ireland photos, as well as some of my French photos! Some of them are flipped wrong and most don't have comments, but I'll work through them bit by bit.