and to the tiger in the zoo..

I went to the train station in Amsterdam and it had the nicest people working it than any of the others I think. My opinion might be jaded by the fact that I walked out with a first class ticket to paris!! woooo hoooo! I am going to do first class more often. what do they say.. once you go first class you never go back..?? well, for reasons relating to my wallet I will have to go back to lowly second class.. but DAMN was first class something sweet.
Then I had to get off of the train.. ha! then France kicked me in the butt, well not really.. it just hid all of it's metro ticket booths from me. I wandered around the metro station for probably 10 minutes not being able to find a kiosk thing.. I even asked the information desk. Until a nice (and pretty dang cute) french man came to my rescue. Ok, so he didn't really COME to my rescue.. I kinda well um, asked him where to get one.. he wandered around with me for a few minutes until he realized that there wasn't a ticket machine and that I wasn't a stupid american. He apologized for the station being so stupid.. then gave me one of his tickets. sweet!
so then I got to my hostel.. at stop République. I got there around 5 (I think) so I just wandered a bit. I walked to the Pompidou Center to kind of gauge how long it would take me to get around the city.

Pompidou Center Foutains.

Then once it got dark I headed back to my hostel to re group. When I was downstairs using the computer I made friends with two guys that were down there. They were from Michigan.. (my two roommates were from michigan too) so I started talking to them, and started to make plans, then my two roommates wandered in.. I introduced them all (look at me being ring leader) but the girls said they already had plans.. well, we told them that they could probably find us with some bottles of wine at the bottom of the hostel (in the kitchen) if they wanted to hang out for a bit before they went out. Long story short, I got myself a bottle of wine they guys brought a bottle and some beers.. and then my roommates wandered down (they ditched their other plans) and an Australian girl we picked up in the lobby. We sat down in the kitchen and had a blast! The stories of what went on in the kitchen are obviously more funny if you were there, but I am guessing that they would be better told in person... so you'll have to wait. But it was a lot of fun.. eventually though, we left the kitchen and went wandering for a bar or club. We found one that had some pool tables (pool and darts.. stink at both, but new favorites for sure!) There are some better group shots.. but not on my camera. (hopefully i'll get them soon)

Somehow, the next morning I managed to wake up and hit the streets by 10. And man o man I had a busy day. In order of appearance..
(well, i walked past the pomidou again)
then
The Louvre!

Hey lisa!

venus de milo

winged goddess of victory aka nike of samothrace

Liberty Leading the People - Eugène Delacroix, 1830

The Wedding Feast at Cana

then when i came out of the louvre.. i saw it for the first time. gasp! (waaay far away)

Then it got bigger..

and bigger...

TaDA!!

yeaaah!

place de la madeleine

on the other side it looked like a normal baguette... have you ever seen so many poppy seeds?!!?! for the rest of the day i was worried they were in my teeth

arc de triomphe

Notre Dame Cathedral... surprise surprise, made it in time for mass in this one too!! waaaay cool.

place de la bastille

Then I walked allll the way back to my hostel. I sat around for a little.. resting my barking dogs.. then I met a new person in our room. I don't remember his name (which makes me very sad.. i didn't even get a picture of him :( ) but anyways, he was from Japan. I was able to hold the first part of the conversation with him in japanese.. then the tables turned and he had to look like the fool with his broken english (i can only imagine what an idiot i sounded like) but one thing led to another... and we were on a mission at 9-or-so pm to get to the eiffel tower. It was quite a sight.. he was well over 6ft.. i'm well, short. He didn't speak english (very well), I don't speak Japanese.. and neither of us speak french. haha.. still makes me laugh when i think about it.. our few hours we spent together was a mix of broken japanglish relying HEAVILY on our non verbal skills. hand gestures and miming galore! but we made it!!

Paris was fun! the weather was amazing.. I got around all day in just a cardigan and scarf! it was such a nice change of pace from living in my sleeping bag of a coat for the past week and a half.. my last half day i was there it was a bit drizzly.. but heck i'm living in london, a little grey skies won't get me down. I put on my skinny jeans and flats and mobbed it with the best of them... until I had to get to the airport... and sulk my way back to london. ;)

<3