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The flight felt like forever but i landed in Parieeeee full of nerves and excitement. I couldn't wait to explore this place. Found my way up what felt like a million stairs lugging my bag, to Caulincourt hostel in Lamark. It was such a beautiful area and because i was so early i couldn't check into my room for hours - time to explore! The streets were windy and lined with the cutest buildings and cobblestone streets, every window had bright coloured shutters, curly iron rails and flowers everywhere, some places were covered in vines too, it was beautiful.
There were shops of every kind - cheese shops, bread shops, so many cute coffee shops and heaps more, it was funny how certain things had there completely own stores. Everybody smoked cigarettes too, the air was filled with smoke from every café, coffee shop, father, mother, dog walker and tourist. It was so excepted that you could be sitting there eating a big fancy meal and on one side would be dogs and the other side smokers... I found a cute little café next to the hostel and drank in some French wine and a olive baguette while staring in awe of how beautiful this place was.
When i could finally check into my room i met Mel who was from Canada i think, we chatted and then headed out to explore. The city is huge and packed full of history, we went to the Louvre and a few castles and museums, there were so many i cant remember what they were all called :) Then we decided to check out the Eifel tower. After a massive walk it slowly came into view just as the sun started to set, we found a spot in the park next to about 5000 other people, bartered with the Africans for 2 bottles of champagne - and still got ripped off - they constantly walk around offering everyone alcohol, smokes, key rings and other stuff ... The Eifel tower was so massive and intricate, it was full of pulleys, nuts, bolts, stairs, lifts and everything was just metal, it's not the nicest looking thing during the day - apparently the French people hated it for a long time, they thought it was ugly and wanted to knock it down - now it's one of the most travelled to things in the whole world...
Paris doesn't get dark until after 10 at night, we sat in the park waiting for the light show to begin, which happens every night. These 3 French guys invited themselves to come and join us but they were nice enough and we had a good laugh over our few bottles of champas... Then the lights came on and the Eifel tower lit up like a Christmas tree, it sparkled with thousands of flashing lights and honestly took my breath away, it was amazing!
Once the lights stopped and our champagne was all out we said goodbye to our new friends and headed home.... The next morning we woke up to 2 new girlys in our room, a Chinese girl and Linda from Sydney. We all headed out together to see the infamous Catacombs, the line went for over a kilometre so we planned our strategy and sneaked in right at the front of the line, no way we were gonna wait over 5 hours! The first part was pretty cool winding our way down through these little dirt tunnels, down down down deeper and deeper under the city, there were carvings of little castles in the rocks and inscriptions in the walls, then we got to the skulls!... There were thousands, probably millions of bones and it seemed to never end, these tunnels were a burial place for people who died in the war or something, it went on and on for over an hour, by the end i felt so sick, i was pretty much running through it so i could get to the end, once i saw the spiral stairs that led back up to the city it was the biggest relief ever! Linda did the same while the other 2 girls were completely fascinated by it all and took their time, the girls wanted to go to the cemetery next to see all the massive tombstones so me an Linda happily said goodbye and headed back to do something a bit lighter!
We ran through the pelting rain and finally found a station, headed back to the hostel, dried off and set up on our little balcony with some of my duty free vodka and happy music :) Later on we headed out to find some bars, we walked through the streets around the famous Moulin Rouge, every bar or club had something to do with sex! This whole area was packed full of brothels, strip clubs, peep shows and anything else you could think of, and right in the middle was the famous Moulin rouge (it didn't look anything like the movie) which i would have LOVED to go into if i'd had a spare $400 or so euro's! We found a cool bar (which wasn't a strip club) and soaked in the last bit of sunshine before it disappeared behind the Parisian city... That's when the town lit up and lights were flashing, music playing and people filled the streets. We met 2 guys and 2 girls from Paris who were so funny, we had an awesome night with them and partied back at their loft around the corner after the bar shut. The police knocked on the door stopping all our fun, the neighbours had complained the music was too loud so we said our goodbyes and me an Linda ventured home, such a fun night!
The other 2 girls left the next day so me an Linda went out together to see the sights, i took her to the louvre and all the places i'd been to the other day because she hadn't seen it yet, we took a boat tour and explored the city from the water. Every bridge in Paris has a story it was so interesting - one bridge was build completely from the stone from the prison when it was destroyed - there were so many stories and history :)
I convinced her to come to the Eifel tower to see the lights, even though the rain was setting in... We pinched black plastic off a delivery guys pallet and wrapped ourselves up - got some very weird looks though i think we must of looked homeless all huddled up in plastic together hahahaha the rain got so heavy that by the time we made it to the Eifel tower it was basically deserted - nothing like the other night! Instead of sitting in the park we sat right under the tower, on our lump of plastic, drinking champas out of plastic cups - it was alot of fun!
I left the next morning and was ready for another adventure!!.... AMSTERDAM!
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