So sleepy...

Pictures at the top and in the reverse order I uploaded them, because this keyboard and computer suck. More on that in the post....

From left to right: Mel, Dave, Alex, Me. Maybe the camera was drunk too?

My friend the hungry gargoyle

My friend the bored gargoyle

Part of the Ossuary in the Paris Catacombs.

The Eiffel Tower at night.

Me and the Arc de Triomphe. I think that expression means my feet were already hating me.

Me and the Eiffel Tower. I'm not sure what that expression means.

Napleon's Tomb!

Me out front of the Louvre.

Also, German keyboards are even wierder than the ones back in the UK... the Y and Z switched places, they've got extra keys for ö, ä, and ü, and a lot of the punctuation is shifted around, which means I probably won't be able to type nearly as much as I'd hoped.

Anyways, I survived Paris. My first day there I got in about 16:00, and spent the rest of the evening getting settled in and drinking with some of the folks from the room, mostly Aussies and Canadians. Next morning I got up for a free walking tour of the city that went by/through most of the major sites without actually going into any of them. There were quite a few that I really didn't care about, but we ended up seeing Notre Dame, the Louvre, Champs-Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe, a few of the old palaces, and the Opera Garnier, which I believe is where Phantom of the Opera was originally set. We finished up near Les Invalides, home to the French Veteran's Hospital, Military Museum, and Napoleon's Tomb, which is the only reason I paid (€9) to go in. The tomb was fairly impressive, but I decided to wander the museum for awhile to get my money's worth. From there I walked over to the Eiffel Tower to get some pictures, but didn't feel like waiting in line to go up. After that I went up to the Arc de Triomphe for some closer shots... I was actually going to cross over and get right under it, but they wanted €9 for that as well, so I decided to pass. I suppose I could have tried running over, but that would have been like Frogger on crack: it's a 10-lane roundabout, and the only place in Paris where your car insurance doesn't apply. I had another metro ticket on me, but I decided to be cheap and walk back to the hostel. Unfortunately I can be very stubborn, because it wasn't long before I was regretting that decision. It ended up taking me almost two hours to walk back, which meant that I spent about nine hours on my feet that day. On the bright side, Paris, unlike all the cities I visited in the UK, actually figured out how street signs work, and put them on almost every corner; the walk back was easy at least, if not quick.

When I got back I chugged some water, then got a fruit smoothie (for vitamins), a baguette (for cheap/good filler) and a good strong beer (to try numbing my feet) for dinner. I had just finished when a couple of the Canadian guys from the room and a Coloradan from another room decided that we needed to drink, so we went on a beer run (or three) and spent the rest of the night down in the common room with the Canadian and English girls from the room, and some random Aussies we met down there. I finally gave up a bit after 3:00, but found out the next day that the rest of the group kept going until 5:30... crazy people.

Next morning we got up a bit late, for obvious reasons. My original plan was to walk down to Notre Dame to thoroughly explore that before going to stand in line for the Eiffel Tower, but mz feet disagreed with me. Dave & Asher (the Canadian guys) were going to the Catacombs, so I joined them for that instead. It was fairly cool--especially the ossuary where all the old bones are stacked up in the wall--but not a fun place to be with a cold: it was fairly stuffy, and there were places that the ceiling was dripping and leaving puddles on the floor. After that and lunch we split up; they went to visit the Jewish Quarter, and I went to Notre Dame. The church itself is free to enter, so it's well worth your time if you ever find yourself in Paris. The stained glass and architecture are both very impressive, and of course you've got the gargoyles all along the outside. The line wasn't too long so I paid €8 to climb 400+ steps up the west end towers (although it's free for EU citizens under 26). The views from the top are great, and you can get a close up on a lot of the gargoyles as well.

That took long enough that I decided to skip the Eiffel Tower... I can always go up that some other time. I still need to actually see the Louvre and Moulin Rouge, so maybe I'll tack a couple days there onto some future trip. I was originally planning on going to bed early but got talked into playing a drinking game with Dave and the Canadian girls (Mel & Alex) from the room. Good times were had, probably because I didn't play past midnight. This morning I had to get up at about 5:30 to catch my train to Munich, where I am now. I'll be going to bed early tonight and getting up for the free walking tour here tomorrow, then meeting Dave to get some beer in me. Oktöberfest FTW!

Pictures! Just a few stuck down at the bottom, since this compy doesn't have Picasa either. Stupid computers. Stupid keyboards. It's a wonder they can get anything done over here.

PS: By "bottom" I obviously mean "top," but I'm leaving that sentence there to show that I tried.