Paris Adventures

Today we are leaving Paris. Time flies, and I can't believe we're already headed out to Switzerland! We bumped into some train problems today, but managed to work it all out. I think part of the fun in backpacking is when we get to be flexible and work through problems together. It makes the trip more memorable and the experience gets more and more built on overcoming challenges.

Anyways, needless to say -- we're on our way to Bern now and will be there for the next two days before heading out to Zermatt. Let me just say one thing, moving cities is a lot harder than you think. It takes a lot of energy and vigilance when travelling. I almost pickpocketed today, but luckily 1) I didnt' have anything important in my wallet and 2) I caught the theif and yelled at her and she promptly gave it back to me.

For other future travellers, remember this: always book your train reservations ahead of time. It will save you some lining up time and hassle.

Back to our Paris experience. To summarize, we went to the Arc de Triomphe, The Eiffel Tower, a whole slew of random monuments (gardens, parks, fountains, towers, churches), the Louvre and a lot of local walking, metroing and train-ing. You cannot imagine how sore our feet are from walking. We are usually out 12-14 hours touring the city. We get back to our hostels usually past midnight taking one of the last trains back to where we stayed.

Needless to say, we stayed out cause the city is just very very beautiful. The streets are filled with beautiful architecture, well cleaned walkways, nice big square trimmed trees, tons of open space, fresh scents of bread and food. I think one of the few cool things we did was attend an outdoor FIFA soccer match showing of Portugal vs Spain. Right infront of the Eiffel Tower was a mega-tv showing the game with the whole city coming out to cheer and yell. The floor would rumble from ppl stomping their foot. The cheers and sighs were very very loud. The costumes and flag waving made the whole atmosphere alive.

Actually, I think I'd describe this city as lively. It's really really full of life. People are just up and about. Somehow, between using my broken french and Jamie's fluent Canadian french we got around just fine.

I'm the type of person that loves the experience and feeling one gets from visitng and place. And both the Eiffel tower, and the Arc de Triomphe had a sense of granduer in them. It had a "wow' factor which makes you drop your jaw and say, this is truly unique!

We walked around a lot, ate appropriately (because everything is so EXPENSIVE) and visited all the things we wanted to see. The Engineers inside an art museum (the Louvre) was not an exciting event. We just had a lot of fun making up random stories to match what we saw in paintings. I though David vs Goliath was a battle between Peter Pan and some random foe. Clearly I was mistaken.

Anyways, I'll let the pictures talk for themselves in the next post. I'll try to update in more detail, but the pictures will have to do for now. I think the rest of the group will also post something to the blog with their own thoughts.

Thanks for reading. :)
Mike