Paris

All I have to say is I love Paris!!! If I could afford to live there I would learn french and move there in a heartbeat! People have always told me that the french are very rude...which they can be a little arrogant at times but mainly I think they are just sick of getting asked stupid questions by tourists. Which I saw a lot of! I think I heard more languages in Paris then I will in the rest of my life. There is just this feeling that is infectious...and its not swine flu. Everyone is walking around laughing with the biggest smiles on their faces. And for me it was because everything was even more amazing in person than in any picture I have seen. Ok enough I Heart Paris.
Got in pretty late the first night I was there so basically just found my hostel and crashed. The next morning I headed to Le Louvre. I think I could have even stayed another day there. Besides the Mona Lisa(which is tiny BTW) and the Venus de Milo which were amazing to see in person the whole building itself is art. It is almost as if they carved the whole building out of one piece of stone. And many of the ceilings had these incredible murals with gold lining...really cool. The Apartments of Napoleon XVIII was another one of my favorites there, completely over the top!! Love it! After that I grabbed lunch and sat in the park just outside of the Louvre and walked down the Champs Elysse. Went to an Andy Warhol exibit at the Palace, he had such an interesting outlook on life and it really shows through in all of his artwork. If you can ever go to one I really recommend it. After the Warhol exibit I went to the Arc of Triumph, it is at the center circle of town and all 12 of the major streets intersect there. It is really chaotic! There is a unknown soldier who is buried under the arc so every day at 6:30 they light a candle for him and any other soldiers who have given their life for their country. They have a huge live band playing and probably 30 vetrans holding flags from different countries. I cant believe they have such a big production everyday but I am glad they do and I was able to experience it.
Day two in Paris, I started out at Notre Dame cathedral. It is absolutely beautiful inside. I just happended to be there on the anniversary of my papas death so I signed the book and lit a candle for him as well as my grandma who has been battling cancer. Ended up being kind of an emotional hour actually but was really glad I got to do it. After Notre Dame I was off to the Catacombs, which were super creepy but I like creepy stuff so I thought it was pretty neat. There was an old cemetery in Paris that had become diseased so they had to exume all the bodies and move them somewhere. They buried them all in an old quarry but did so in a very artistic way. Each bone was placed for a purpose and the whole thing is incredibley organized. It does go for about 1.8km underground so I have to say that was a bit much to be underground with all of those bodies for that long. After that I went to Luxemberg park which is huge!!! The parks here are incredible and have so much going on in them. I then went to meet some friends from the hostel for a walking tour of Montematre, which is basically the most famous area in Paris. Probably the best walking tour I have been on in Europe! After that we ran back to our hostel to change quickly and left for a pub crawl. Our hostel locks the doors from 2am to 6am so if you are not home by two you are out of luck. The bars are open here until 5:30 so obviously the logically choice is to just stay out until the hostel opens again:) Was an absolute blast!!! The next day I went to Eiffel Tower which was of course a great experience did a bit of shopping and then sat in the park for sometime and just did some people watching. I know I did something else that day as well but I cannot for the life of me remember. This is why I need to do this right after.
Next day I left the hostel and headed for London. To take the eurostar from Paris to London(the fast train which goes through the chunnel) which cost 150euro I decided to get creative and take two trains to Calais, a ferry from Calais to Dover, the coach from Dover to London and then a bus from downtown London to my hostel. 13 hours from door to door!!! But totally worth saving almost 110euro!