Paris '08

Monday morning we load up in the car with our bags and head to the train station, say our good byes and jump on the train to London to meet Ben (who left with Zoe on Sunday arvo). Corbs and I arrived in London to use the free wireless in McDonalds to catch up on things. I end up on the phone to Mastercard and the Commonwealth bank to find out why my cards aren’t working. So now I have my parents posting me 3 cards to Vancouver!

We meet Ben at the train station and jump on the train to Paris!

On the train Ben & I watched most of Summer Heights High (they had power on that train!). After a pretty fast train ride we find our way to our accommodation in Paris only to discover its just outside of the red light district… down the road from the Moulin Rouge! Paris… crawling in sex shops and strip joints :/

We legged it around for ages before deciding to eat at the cheapest place possible… a Buffalo Grill for 9.50 eruo.

Tuesday
After hardly sleeping because of all the noise outside (it sounded like gang warfare, people were getting beaten up and sirens etc) Ben started knocking on our door at 8:30am until I let him in.

[us eating crossiants]

We surfaced and grabbed some croissants. We went straight to the Eurail office to reserve our seats… we waited for hours and ended up paying 59 euros (after already spending over $200 on our Eurail pass) for the first leg (Paris to Interlarken) only to find out that we can’t book our German legs until we arrive in Germany.

So after being terribly annoyed, we sucked it up and made our way to the Eiffel Tower (and looked at everything on the way). We ended up waiting in line next to two Australian journalism students (from QUT… gosh Paris is crawling with Aussie tourists). We spent the rest of the day with the girls from QUT (the boys were let down after discovereing that one was married and the other engaged… it was good for me because I could have a good conversation with them without stepping in their way :D). The Eiffel Tower was very nice, and very worthwhile, after walking so far to get there (at least 6km) and viewing the city from the top I can now tell you that Paris is a MASSIVE city, very crowded and widespread… all the buildings actually look the same.

After getting dinner (baguette, cold baked beans, cold meat, warm beer) we decided to head across to the Moulin Rouge.

We walked past the hundreds of sex stores, sex shows and strip joints etc to get there and wait in line. We didn’t know that we needed to make a reservation so the guy made us wait at the end of the line until he found out if there were any availabilities. We ended up being let in with two Australian girls (more Aussie tourists) from Melbourne. All of us were pretty stoked because we thought they’d let us in for free,,,until the bill came in for 89euro each… ouch! Nevertheless it was a fantastic night! The performances were very impressive – I wish I spoke French! Obviously there was too much partial nudity but you quickly see past that. There was some Cirques-esk stuff that was very impressive, this very talented man that played the drums by throwing ping pong balls from his mouth (that description hardly does him justice). Anyway, the long and short of it was that it was expensive, but well worthwhile – one of those things that you just have to “have done”.

Wednesday
After a few hours sleep, then laying around in bed for a while we surfaced to our usual breakfast of croissants as we trekked it to the Notre Dame and Louvre. They were very fascinating… that’s about all I can say – you have to see it for yourself, just be prepared to have sore feet and spend hours there.

After getting home we tried, yet again, to find the Paris night life. After having our 750ml Heineken’s and trekking it for a while, we found a Hostel with only a handful of people, but they were having a quiet one and were already pretty clicky and tipsy. So we ended up just heading home after a while.

Thursday
Ben left before Corbs and I woke up so we ended up “shopping in Paris” – as you do! We were feeling pretty poor, so that made it hard, but nonetheless we managed to buy some nice stuff. But the real thing was the browsing… wow! If I had heaps of money I’d exclusively buy suits from Paris! OMG!! Wow! Classy, pimped out suits everywhere! And heaps of cool streetwear and the best fitted shirts you’ll ever come across!

Friday
I’ve had my last French croissants, baguette and expressos… now sitting on a train to Interlarken (Switzerland) writing my blog entry to post when I get internet access and my battery is almost flat. I’m working on getting more photos up on facebook soon too… once I’ve got a good internet connection.

Au revior!