Paris!

Katie and Marianne here:

So today has been a lazy day, but it's probably because we are just SO worn out from our excursion to..ehm.. Paris!

The trip started out a little on the boring side. We left Tuesday morning, and then spent the next 8+ hours on a train. It actually took us longer to get to Paris (or almost as long) as it did for us to get to Switzerland! But of course, it was all worth it in the end. So once we arrived, it was time for us to find our hostel (or "budget hotel"). We decided to purchase a handy dandy map book of Paris, funny thing was, Katie found the page we needed before we bought it, so she had a nice little time trying to explain to the French speaking teller why she couldn't take her finger out of the book to pay for it.

Lucky for us our hostel ended up being only a 10 minute walk from the train station! (now thats not a coincedence!) The street looked a little sketchy at first, but we realized that's just how it is in Paris. Oh, and one other thing we noticed, Paris stinks! Literally, it actually smells really bad. Sort of like human shit. (pardon my french, haha!) Anyways, we found our Hotel Liberty, then walked awhile more, did a bit of grocery shopping for supper, and headed back to the Hotel. At this point we were still so scared of being alone in a huge city in a foreign country where we couldn't speak the language that we decided to hide away in our hotel room for the night.

The room was surprisingly alright, aside from a semi-funky smell (oh and a little bit of hair under the sheets). But other than that it was nice! (Not even being sarcastic, it really wasn't that bad) Our bathroom was itty bitty, but it was (for the most part) clean and stocked. The bed wasn't too uncomfortable and we felt very safe the whole time in there. It definitely could have been worse.

Wednesday was our exploring day, and our only full day in Paris. We woke up in the morning and headed downstairs for our FREE breakfast of bread, hot chocolate, and orange juice. Then soon after we ventured out into the big city to find, yes, the shopping mall! (It was actually funny because the night before we had asked our friendly hotel man if we were within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower, and he said "No, no, I would not reccommend going on foot." So we asked, " Well how long would it take about?" "Oh around an hour.." Me and Marianne had to give a little chuckle, when you live in the country an hours walk seems like a breeze!) So we took our map, with our route highlighted, courtesy of our friendly hotel man, and we found the mall, shopped, and walked back to the hotel to drop of our purchases. After a short break, we decided to go back out and search out the Eiffel.

Along the way we came across the Louvre Museum (where the Mona Lisa is in) but instead of appreciating the art, standing and ooing and awing for hours, we decided to touch it! (Outside that is) So we opened our camera bags and posed with the naked women of the gardens, while other tourists watched in disgust at our immaturity (okay, not really, they knew they wanted to too) After we got sick of naked women, we moved on to scouting out the hotties in the area, and taking creeper photos.

Marianne- Ok, you stand there and I'll pretend I'm taking a picture of you!!
*Katie moves into position and they get the shot*
Marianne and Katie- Yesssss.....

Next was the Eiffel. We could see it in the distance, so we figured all we had to do was walk in that direction. Our plan worked, and within an hour, there it was! Unfortunately, neither of us are very patient people, and the lines to even WALK just to the second floor were a good 37 miles long. We didn't feel like waiting, so instead, we took pictures.

Our plan had been to go on a night bike tour of the city with this company called Fat Tire Bike Tours, and we had nothing to do, so we decided to go check out their headquarters. We were not pleased with what we discovered. The company is American owned, and run, and sadly, you can tell! They were very rude, wouldn't even greet us when we got there, and the guy who did talk to us was... strange. "Excuse me, Manitoba girls," with a sick little tone of voice, yuck. He wasn't even cute. So we decided to scrap that and buy cookies and pringles. We picniced in front of the Eiffel Tower on the Champs de Mars.

Then we decided we needed a new plan! So we scouted out our options, and decided instead, on a night BUS tour. In the meantime (we had like 4 hours to kill before it started) we decided to chase around the gypsies and take more pictures. We actually got approached by a gypsy and Marianne almost fell for it, but Katie came to her rescue and saved her from the evil gypsy. (After that the same gypsy approached us like 3 more times.. she must be on drugs) We even got some sweet pictures of them!

Eventually the bus tour rolled around and we froze (it was an open top bus) as we watched the major attractions of Paris by night. We even got to see the Moulin Rouge! And yes, as we watched the windmill spin, we sang the song.. "How wonderful life is now that you're in the world.." Then came the scariest part of our Paris trip!! The bus tour was over and it was around 11:30, and time to get off the bus. Before we got off, Katie thought we should ask the bus man where we could find a taxi...

Katie- Where can we get a taxi from here?
Man- Where do you need to go?
Katie- Rue de Nancy...
Man- (confused look)
*Katie whips out the map and shows him*
Man- I can take you there..
*Marianne and Katie are thinking, sweet! The bus must go by there!*
Man-...I have a car..
Katie- (confused look)
Marianne- LET'S GO!!!!!
Katie- Where can we get a taxi?
Man- You mean you would rather pay a taxi then get a ride with me?
Marianne- LET'S GO!!!!!!
*Marianne and Katie book it off the bus and down the street*

So we eventually found a taxi (Marianne almost shit her pants because of her taxi phobia) and we got a ride back to our hotel for under 10 euros. It was a pretty sweet day to say the least. The next day we slept, ate our free breakfast again, got more groceries, and bummed around the train station for like 3 hours waiting for our train. By the time we got back to Engelberg we were pretty tired (past midnight) and cold from the rainy walk home. But everything was worth it, now we can say, we have been to Paris!

Bon nuit!