Another lovely week in London. Monday night we were all restless, but had nothing to do. Melissa, Jill and I decided to go explore Chelsea little more, so went on a walk around the neighbourhood. It was gorgeous out and it was so fun to see all these stunning million pound homes. We decided we should try and do this every Monday. This is also when we discovered we are twenty year olds going on sixty.

Tuesday we had our new traditionary Tuesday Night Pub. We tried to go to this new one down the street, but it ended up being more of a restaurant so we went back to O'Niells. The pub was pretty packed because it was a good night for football. Man United played Lyon (Manchester won 1-0) and Arsenal played AC Milan. Arsenal beat Milan (2-0) for the first time ever at Milan's home stadium. People were going nuts. We stayed for a little while longer to just hang out and relax. We came home and decided we need some good old fashioned American TV.Greg, Jill and I blew up the air mattress (our couch replacement), cuddled up and watched some Entourage before calling it a night.

Wednesday was class - nothing exciting at all happened. Thursday was another play.After work I met Melissa, Jordan and Claire at a pub right next door to the theatre, Brewmasters. We went to see History Boys. The seats ended up being really bad for the first half. We were in the top balcony, so it was hard to get into the play. It was a slow night, so at intermission we headed down to the stalls and grabbed a seat in back. It was much better this way and although it was not what I expected, I really like the play.

Afterwards, Jill's parents were in town so they met us outside the theatre. It was nice to see them, but we didn't chat long because I had to run home and pack for Paris.

Claire and I decided to be money-savers and take a bus to Paris (yes, it is possible - I will explain later). It takes a lot longer to get there this way so we caught the earliest bus out.We were early to the bus station and waited right by the doors, so when it was time to go out and catch the bus we could be first in line, and get the very front seats with the big window and beautiful view. We were third in line for the bus, so we totally thought we would get the seats. However, the two ladies in front decided they were going to be brats and each take one full seat to themselves. They spoke French and didn't look very nice so we opted not to pick any fights and took the second row.

There was one brave (later to find out, actually crazy) French man who decided this would not do. He took one of the seats in front. An hour in when the one French lady got up to go the bathroom he moved her stuff next to her friend and took the full seat to himself. The lady and him fought about it in French for awhile before they had a 3 minute death stare contest (the guy didn't blink once!) - clue #1 he was nuts. He got his way.Then later he started eating a lime - clue #2. Finally, later on a new guy walked up to the French man in front and asked if he could sit there.T he French man snapped, No!S o, the guy responded that no one was sitting there and the French said, I said No! - clue #3. Yup, we had some interesting characters travelling with us.

In order to cross the channel, the bus drove into something similar to a cargo train. The train then went through the Chunnel. If we wanted to we could have gotten of the bus at this point but there was nowhere to go, so I slept. We got into Paris at 6:15pm (about 2 hours later than our tickets said we would - lame).

We took the metro to what we thought was the closest stop to our hotel. Apparently it was the wrong one, but we found our street and walked towards the hotel. We were in Paris's version on the red light district because along the way we passed many 'private clubs' and no joke - at least 15 prostitutes. They were just standing in doorway after doorway. By the time we made it to our hotel the area wasn't as bad. It was actually a great location right near Hotel de Ville and Notre Dame.

Our room was the tiniest little thing (there's a pic of it in my album).It had a double bed for us to share, a bed, sink and bidet.The bathroom was down the hall and a half of floor up and the shower was down the hall (but it cost 2.5 euros to use). It was nice and cozy though and had a cute little balcony where we could watch for crazies.

The first night we got all dressed up because we planned on going to a nice dinner and out. We over-estimated our time, so we stopped for a quick dinner and walked along the Seine River from Notre Dame to the Eiffel. Along the way I believe I was part of an attempted mug (one of many) but I am too smart for the gypsies and muggers. We were on a bridge with not many people around a man asked me for the time. His friend was about 15 feet away from him waiting for me to open my bag so they could grab it and run. Not thinking I almost opened it, but ended just making up the time and quickly walked away.

Jennifer Bauer and her friend Peter came to London to visit Cotter (he is in our program and lives in a flat on the first floor of my house). They went to Paris this weekend too, so we planned to meet under the Eiffel tower. Claire and I got there awhile before them, so we waited there and got hassled. First we had about all the little sales people with their crappy Eiffel souvenirs try and pawn their goods off on us. At first we'd be like, No Thank You.But eventually I was fed up. We would have the same person come up to us 4 times. So they got mad at me because I would turn to them and say, "I am not going to but one. Leave me alone."

Then Claire and I got harassed by all the French boys.We planned on going out, out that night so we were dressed up in dresses and heels. Apparently we were way overdressed for the Eiffel because guys kept yelling at us and coming up and trying to talk to us. Most of them spoke very little English so we would just say 'non' and walk away. Eventually Bauer and that gang came. We walked around until we came onto a 24 hour café. We enjoyed some delicious French wine and called it a night.

We woke up the next morning and planned out our day over some delicious crepes and cappuccinos. First on the list was the catacombes. According to the tourist map when we walked off the metro stop they should have been right there. Of course, we couldn't find them anywhere. We kept trying to get directions. About 30 min later we found them, and they were literally right next to the metro stop. It was in this building I would have never guessed. We got so excited and we walked around them just to find a tiny sign on the entrance, 'Closed for repairs. 'All that work for nothing.

We walked from there down to Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Gardens). It was a really nice morning and everyone was outside enjoying the weather. Within 100 yards we saw people - Playing ping-pong, basketball, rollerblading, running, doing tai-chi and kids on pony rides. We walked from their over to the Pantheon, but didn't go in. Next, we tried to make it over to another garden, but we couldn't find it so we wandered some back alleys before going to the Eiffel Tower.

We went up the Eiffel to the top this time. If you pay to go to the very top you wait in line to buy your tickets for 45 minutes. Then you take the elevator the second level where you wait another 45 minutes to go up to the top floor. The view was obviously stunning, but very windy. We took some pictures before heading down and continuing on our tour.

We walked from the Eiffel along the other side of the Seine to the Louvre. We got there with one hour before it closed. The Louvre has over 30,000 pieces of art work, so needless to say we saw a sliver of it. We did manage to see Mona Lisa of course.

Next on our list was Notre Dame. As we went inside mass had just begun .It was really strange because there is a beautiful mass going on which is basically roped off so tourists don't wander through it.But while it is going on everyone is taking pictures of all the windows and whispering among each other.Granted, I was guilty of this as well, but when am I going back to Notre Dame? After this we went walked by the Hotel de Ville and to our hotel.

Throughout the day we must have really stuck out as tourists (we tried to dress as Persian as possible but apparently we didn't do this very well) because so many people tried to mug us! I mean no one attacked me or anything, but they tried to do their little tricks on us. Two or three times we would walk by two shady looking people. There would be two Euros on the ground that they would tell me I dropped. What they want you to do is bend down and pick it up. When you do they will cut your purse open, cut the straps off your purse, grab your bag, try to pick-pocket you or something along those lines.

We wanted to go see Scared Heart that night and get dinner in that area .Thanks to Claire's instincts it was fairly easy to find. We got off at the metro stop and followed any street which went upwards.After climbing 1,868,941,328 steps we reached it. We sat on the stairs and tried to take pictures of the view.My camera has bad night vision so if I moved at all the picture blurred so it was impossible to capture the view. We went into the church which was open until 11pm or 12. I like it better than Notre Dame (personally). It had signs telling you no pictures, to be quiet and you had to be dressed respectfully to go in. It was so much more peaceful.

After walking around the church we went to a nearby square to grab dinner.All the restaurants had their menus outside so we were looking at all of them.Why we were doing this a French man came up to me and told me he wanted to sketch my picture (there were like 8 of them out there). I told him, no thank you. He responded, "Whatever, I don't give a crap. I don't give a s*** about you."Apparently French people do not like me very much. We picked a cute little French restaurant with live music .We had a delicious meal finished off with the best crepes I have ever had in my life!

After dinner we stopped in a gift shop to get a bottle of wine.The guy had a bottle opener behind the counter, so he opened it for us. Then we went back to Scared Heart and joined all the lovebirds on the steps to drink and enjoy the view. It got really cold out, so we decided to go find somewhere to go for the night. Bauer was in the area where Moulin Rouge was and we wanted to see it anyways, so we took the metro to it.It was right there when we walked out of the station so took some pictures and decided to head back to our area of the city before the metro closed. I hear it can be impossible to find a taxi at night.

According to my book the only good places by us are gay bars. We wanted to go to one called Raidd Bar, but apparently it is very hard to get in if you are a girl on a Saturday night (unless you have a lot of guys with you). We ended up going to a small one across the street, Café Larre. It had fun drinks which they put glow sticks in and all the boys were so pretty, but they didn't even notice we walked in.

Throughout all our travelling that day we had a metro pass, but it wasn't working more than half the time. This is when we discovered, nobody pays for the metro. Literally the people hold the automatic door open for you, and you hop the bar and go through. If no one is around you can usually jump the bar and squeeze through the metal door. And if nothing else you wait 'til someone goes through the automatic exit and then you run through. Literally no one cares. I saw people do it in front of the workers and no one said anything.

The next day we had to be at the bus stop at 2pm, but we wanted to go see Versailles. The man at the front desk told us the easiest way to get there. He also warned us that the queue for tickets would be long and to buy them at the train station before we left. No one was at the information desk so we hoped the gate and went to the train platform. According to my travel book and the man at the front desk the train comes every 15 minutes and it only takes 30 minutes to get there. We had to wait for 30 minutes for a train.Then we got on it and 30 minutes, not there. 45 minutes, still not there. Finally, an hour later we arrive in Versailles and there is no palace in sight.

A lady who could tell we were confused came up to us and told us the train makes a big loop and we took it the wrong way. We found out the palace was a 15 minute walk, and we had 40-ish minutes before we had to head back.Despite my cruddy mood Claire convinced me to go. We walked through the rain there.

The palace was so amazing. We wanted to go in, but the line to even buy tickets looked like it took 45 minutes. So we bore through the rain/ice/wind storm and went to the gardens (luckily those were free). We walked around and took lots of pictures. You really cannot tell how pretty is in the pictures because the weather was so bad. We warmed up at an outdoor café while enjoying some coffee before running back to the train.

We were worried about running late, so we got off at our metro stop, ran to the hotel, got our bags, ran back to the metro and went to the bus stop. We made it with a little time to spare. The bus was half empty so we each got a full seat to ourselves. I passed out for most of the first half. We went towards the Chunnel where I thought we would hop on a train again. Nope, this time was a ferry!

I was apprehensive about it at first, but it was actually awesome .We were able to get out of the bus and go walk around the ferry. It had a huge cafeteria where we ate dinner, a duty free shop where we re-did our makeup like the little scavengers we are, an arcade where I played a motorcycle game and a lounge we relaxed in. Much nicer than the cargo bus.

When I got back we had a mini reunion with Flats 3 and 4. Bauer got back about the same time as us, so she came up and said hi. Jordan and Greg have some friends in from home so we briefly met them. Good times. Jill, Greg and I squeezed onto the air mattress for some more Entourage and then passed out.

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