Paris and Madness

We started off our beginning of the Paris part of our trip with a LOAD of confusion. We arrived in the train station surrounded by people and I somehow got tricked into pulling some guys luggage into the station. The first thing on out list was to call the woman (Maria) so that she could meet us and let us into the apartment. All I can say is never try and use a pay phone in Paris unless you have a special card. we could not find a phone that would accept coins for the longest time and then when we did it ate the money (4 euros) so we went to the information desk and bought a long distance phone card. We went back to the phone and inserted the card to find out that it was not a readable card. you had to dial a long involved number and a secret password to make it work. we tried twice to call the lady and she hung up on us twice. I called the guy who was actually renting us the apartment and he told us to take a cab to the location and she would be there... GREAT.

We made our way out of the station and saw a long line of cabs in front. going to the nearest one was not good enough. he pointed to the guy behind him who pointed to the guy behind him who pointed to the guy behind him after about 6 cabs we were beginning to loose our patients. FINALLY we got into a cab and made it to the apartment.

 The lady "Maria" was there (phew) however she was talking to the president of the united states or the pope or some such shit because it was clearly WAY more important then helping us into the apartment. she walked us up to the place and let us in pointing vaguely to the kitchen and bathroom dropping the keys and only getting off the phone long enough to ask for the rest of the payment that we owed. AKA Superbitch

That night was spent just calming down and relaxing so that we both didn't have a nervous break down.

Day two was MUCH better :D

We woke up a little late and showered to get ready for our day which consisted of the hop on hop off tour bus that would take us around the city.












We made our way to the Eiffel tower on the bus and saw lots of the beautiful city that is Paris. through high quality (insert sarcasm here) headphones we learned a little about the history and interesting facts about the different areas and land marks. definitely a good way to get your bearings on the city and learn a little while you are doing it.



We bought our tickets and began the big accent up the staircase that leads up to the top of the tower. You have the option of taking an elevator which has a 3 hour line up and costs 30 euros or you can pay 4.50 euros and walk it right away. we made it up the first floor in 5 minutes.



we made it up the second set of stairs in about the same time...



Once we caught our breath we went for the third and final set of stairs but.... THEY DON'T LET YOU! you have to take the elevator from there something to do with "safety" what a pile of crap. anyway we payed the 10 euros and headed for a lineup... more lineups.







After the beautiful view and some cool pictures and stuff we made our way down to the ground and went to get a snack and some water at the base of the tower. we were greeted by about 30 Somalians selling knock off Eiffel tower souvenirs and roses. Jasmine was handed a rose by some guy and he immediately asked me for 4 euros. I guess he didn't realize who he was dealing with because I gave him the rose and basically told him where to stick it. I was instantly reminded of what Niveen and Mark told us about the guys at the pyramids.

Here are some picture from throughout the day....

Yes that is the "Great Canadian Pub" we went to it. and they actually have Canadian beer too... well Moosehead and Canadian. complete with Habs and Sens Gear and Tim Horton's Coffee...Empty Cans.

Around the top floor of the Eiffel tower is flags from around the world to remind you EXACTLY how far away from home you are. (Ottawa 5682 km)

The day turned out to be wonderful and although our first impression of France was a little dim it has brightened up ten fold and we are having a great time. The weather could not be more amazing 20 degrees and sunny every day with a little breeze to keep it cool. Sorry Ontario. he he



On a side note I apologize for the lack of blog posts the past couple of days. We've been having long and busy days and by the time we get home and eat all I wanna do is sleep. I mean common if i wanted to spend all my time on the Internet I could have stayed in Ottawa where we have decent bandwidth on the wifi connection. I'm going to catch up tomorrow so you can see what we did the past two days :)

hope all is well