A (Dumb) American in Paris

We got in to Paris on Saurday afternoon after leaving London on a very good note. London was great and I was begining to feel somewhat comfortable with all the traveling.

We go to our hostel in Paris after a little frustration with the automatic Metro ticket dispensers. We checked into our rooms and then decided to grab a snack. Between the two of use, we can say "hello", "goodbye", "please", "thank you", and "do you speak English" in French. With this limited knowledge of French, we set out to a nearby cafe.

We sat down in the cafe and a waiter walked over to us and began speaking french. We tried our best to point and guesture for two glasses of red qine, but the waiter gave up trying to understand us and walked away. We were very out of our element and thought about leaving. Right around that time, the bartender came over and asked in broken English what we wanted. We told him two glasses of red wine. He brought two glasses of white wine. Close enough. We drank the wine and went back to the hostel for a snack. Daniel and Ryan: 0 France: 1

Then we decided to head into the city to see the Eiffel Tower. We jumped on the metro and went all the way down to it. On a side note, the metro in Paris is amazing. We got an all day, unlimited pass for 3 euro and 20 cents. The trains were on time and the longest we waited fro one was about three minutes.

We got down to the Eiffel Tower and it was awe inspiring. I have heard one of the only things in life that doesn't dissapoint when you see it in person is the Grand Canyon (I absolutely agree with this). I will submitt o add the Eiffel Tower to this list. We got a bottle of wine, some sandwiches and sat in the park with thousands of other Parisians and watched the sun set behind the tower. I think I took about 100 pictures of it during the sunset and then as it was lit up at night. I could have sat there all night.

Even though I don't know much of the language, I really like the feel of Paris. I have a feeling this will not be the last time I am here.

We went out and did the tourist thing today. We climbed to the top of the Eiffel tower to see the view (well climbed halfway to avoid a 2 hour wait and then took the elevator to the top. Paris is an amazing city from the air as well). We also saw the Louvre, the Arc de Triumph, and Notre Dame.

Sadly, our time is coming to a close and we are off tomorrow to Amsterdam.