Gay Paris

So from Berlin we took the night train into Paris. Not a big deal? It was definitely more of an adventure than we had imagined! We were in this little room that had 6 seats, like 3 facing 3 with about a foot in between. We were ok because it was only us two and this little boring Indian guy but things changed when we met Mr. Mongolia. He was actually humongous and came into our little car huffing and puffing, with a ton of luggage, when he finally got settled (half on Mary Elizabeth) he offered around some beers, so he was ok. The Indian man kept trying to make conversation with him but there was a definite languate barrier so he kept asking us for french words and we were very into watching 'Hair" at that point. So once we picked up two more girls things were much less comfortable, but Mr. Mongolia knew what was up so he just threw his coat over his face and started snoring (and moaning) away.


So we got into Paris about 9 in the morning and found out hotel, which was near Montmartre. So we couldn't check in until 3 so we set off to see some sights. So the metro was really great for getting around and we really took it a lot that first day. We went to see Cimetiere Pere Lachaise, which is an enormous graveyard where people like Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison are burried. Then we stopped off at "Les Halles" for some shopping and sight seeing. Katie had this girl come up to her with a clipboard to make a donation for some sort of hard of hearing foundation. Then like two more girls swooped down on Mary Elizabeth and they were just pointing to the sheet and acting like they were deaf. So anyway we didn't give them anything then we noticed that they were everywhere! they were even talking to each other (if you can imagine). So Mary Elizabeth tried to trick them by yelling that she'd give them money, but they didn't fall for it, little jerks... so then we took the subway looking for Notre Dame. We ended up walking along the Seine river just checking out some shops and stuff. It was like Paris from a movie. perfect. So we went back to check into the hotel and prepare a little balloon surprise for Mhairi's birthday because she was arriving that night from Scotland.


The next day we set out on a walking tour. Our tour guide Colin, or we call him Col, was pretty entertaining and even did some re enactments during the tour. impressive stuff. So we basically saw all the touristly highlights; Notre Dame, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomph, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower and much more. The tour was much better than just going on our own because we learned a lot of interesting tidbits. After the tour we headed over to The Moose, the canadian bar and we had some pricey poutine and moosehead. It was kind of a dive but alright because they had like strong man competitions on the tv! So that night we went on a pubcrawl that the walking tour people put on. So we started off in the Latin Quarter, which is mainly students. So we got to go to an Irish pub, salsa club (which had some sketchy guys in it, if you can imagine) and then we all took the metro to this actually fancy club and we got ushered right to the basement! haha but that was the best part of the night because we really bonded on the metro with all our new Australian friends so we just danced the night away. And we certainly learned some fancy french dance moves too!


The next morning, well afternoon we went up to Monmartre to see Sacre Coeur and Moulin Rouge. It was such a busy area! There were guys in the street doing that whole 'which cup is it under gag' and the streets were like creperie, sex shop, creperie, sex shop! So going up to Sacre Coeur we were like swarmed once again by as they called themselves 'artists of sacre coeur' and they wanted to see us some string...well katie got caught up and they ended up making a bracelet for her for the low low price of 5 euros. what a steal. We went back to the louvre but the line was extra long so he got a crepe and headed back to the hotel. In the evening we headed into the eiffel tower to check it out at night! It was pretty amazing! There were really aggressive people trying to get us to buy little eiffel tower keychains and even those glasses with the mustache attached (tempting...) So we waited in line to take the lift up the tower. It was raining and freezing but still so exciting! We got an awesome view of the city of lights and we even got to watch the light show while we were on the tower! The highlight of the night was yet to come! Taking the metro home katie met a new man! She really got to know him...


On the 31st we had to move hotels and Katie headed back to Montbeliard. Our hotel room was so cute, even though we didn't have a bathroom or shower! but we were out on a balcony and one of those doors where you can opeh just the top! So Mhairi and I spent most of the day in the Louvre. There were so many people! We caught ourselves just people watching, it was crazy! The people in line to take a picture of th mona lisa was out of control! So we also went to check out the inside of Notre Dame. The line was actually crazy so we casually walked almost to the front and got in line with some Asian tourists who were really into picture taking. We were lucky because a man and woman butted right after us and they got booed! So we headed back to our little room to get ready for new years! We need to get a travel corkscrew! We ended up with wine that was packaged like juice boxes, you can imagine how delicious that was and we still had some german champagne. So we went back to the Latin Quarter to the Irish pub and then we were either going to go to the eiffel tower or back to Montmartre. So we made some friends (australian of course) in the pub and we all headed down to Champs Elysees where we had a view of the Eiffel Tower at midnight. It was such a hilarious night! One of our french friends even took us to his kebab shop and they guy behind the counter gave us free pop! We met a lot of crazy people, one in particular is a guy that followed us off the subway (that should have been the first hint eh?) but he is in love with mhairi! After Champs Elysees we went back to the pub and he couldn't get in with his badditude so he waited outside for Mhairi calling her constantly. So when it was finally time to leave Mhairi had to disguise herself in my coat and luckily for her i also had a pink beret! so we walked around town for a bit looking for a falafel then a cab and when neither could be found we got some 6 euro tea and water! then we realized that the metro was starting up again so we raced back to the hotel got our bags and ran to the train station and made it for our 7:11am train back to Montbeliard. Then we promptly fell asleep. And then we woke up to 48 missed calls from Mhairi's #1 fan! So Paris was a huge success!