Blog for July 17th

July 17
The reason I'm not posting this the actual night of of the day is because the day didn't end til around 4:30am this morning. But you'll learn about that soon enough. As for now, a recap of yesterday.

We woke up at around 7:10am and went to eat a breakfast of cornflakes and French bread. There was also a very tasty drink that was almost like orange juice, but wasn't. It was like orange juice, and the sweetest tasting fruit ever met and had a baby. It's great. In-fact, I'm enjoying a cup now as I type. But this blog is about yesterday, so let's move on.

After breakfast we headed down to the bus and everyone, all 50 of us, loaded in. We headed around Paris with our French based tour guide. She took us to many of the major monuments in Paris, including l'arc de triumph, which I believe is my favorite monument. But my absolute favorite will have to be the Eiffel tower, in fact, the tower and I had a bit of a bonding experience, but I'll discuss that more later. As for the tour, it ended at around 11h30 and the Versailles tour group broke off from the rest and we headed off to the lovely city of Versailles and the palace.

When we arrived, we were all issued a "whisper". These things were a brilliant idea. What would happen was, the tour group would get a receiver necklace and the guide got a transmitter necklace. She would talk into a mic, and we would hear her in our right ear...even if it meant sometimes that wasn't the most opportune thing at the time to be hearing.

One thing I don't like about this trip is that I totally fit the stereotype for American tourist and there's nothing I can do to help that. Even with my knowledge of the French language, I'll never get to use it if I am constantly with a heard of homo sapiens that are all wearing the same backpack. Let's just say we get scoffed at a lot. Anyway, moving on.

After Versailles and some adventures around that area to try to find something good to eat, we headed back to a pizzeria for dinner. Even though Italy isn't until tomorrow, we get lasagna here...in France. But I won't complain because that was the best lasagna I have ever had. Ever.

Then, the entire group except for two people and myself went to a Paris by night tour. Now there are a few reasons I didn't go on that little excursion, and they follow. One, it cost 35 euros to go on the tour, and those things aren't cheap at all. Two, I'm not much of a sightseeer, it gets boring really quickly...especially from the seat of a bus. And finally, the last reason is because I really wanted to go to the Eiffel tower, and that wasn't going to happen if the three of us stuck with the group. So we ventured off alone into the unknown land of Paris.

We first got on the metropolitan rail lines to go to a station called Bir-Hakeim, which was 11 stops from our current position, but it was fun none the less. We headed off the train and walked over to the tower. The amount of people willing to sell you things surrounding the monument astounded me. There must have been at least 100 sales men that were around under there, and I think they each approached us twice. After waiting in the queue for about 2 and a half hours, we finally made it onto the elevator to go to the tower. Take in mind, we got there at 7:30, and didn't get back to the hotel until the next morning at 1:20am. Anyway, so we made it up to the first level...then took some pictures...and waited in another line. A line that took forever, but was definitely faster than the first one. Then we finally made it on the elevator and "got European" with the other locals and tourists that boarded the lift with us. Getting European means not having any personal space and being able to squeeze yourself into places and positions you never thought possible. But once we finally made it off the tower...which was an amazing experience, by the way....we headed back to the RER station that would take us back to the hotel. Unfortunately...no one reminded us that the RER closes at midnight...and we got off the tower at 12:25am. So we kept walking...looking for another station...but we passed a cafe and I was hungry. So I partook in the great food that was offered, and talked about the situation with the other two in the group.

We ended up going to a Metropolitan station, which runs until 2am and after much debating on which line we were supposed to board, we finally made it on one that would take us to a taxi station. Some folks in the subway recommended this instead of trying to find a bus that would take us back. After we made it back to the hotel, the adventure had only just begun.

My two roommates were waiting in the room when I got back. Not sleeping and not wanting to do so. So having the same attitude, I helped us decide what to do.

We watched some YouTube, got to walk around the hotel a bit, talked to other people in our group, and then did like the funniest thing ever. Which is too hot for blogspot! Well, not really, but you'll have to see the video, which should be on YouTube within the month.

I'm on the subway now, but I think I have to wait til we get to Italy to post this...which will be on Monday, but they might not have wifi. Hopefully they do.

Peace
Matt Wofford

PS they didn't