France

Ooo La La Paris! My first stop on the European tour proves to be all I never thought it would be: the people are very friendly (as long as you tried to speak french); the food is delicious(as long as you go to the right place); and the sights are breathtaking(the mona lisa is o.k. too). I somehow make my way from the airport to a very posh flat of a family friend four blocks from the Louvre, almost right on the River Sienne. I ask directions - in French - get a baguette and water - in French - and speak to the bellman of the apartment - in broken French. This is all from a half an hour lesson my fluent frenchy mom gives me on the way to the airport in the States. Why she never taught me french the other 26 years of my life, I will never know. I guess you never really learn something until you need it!

Notre Dame was just down the street from my flat!

I go sightseeing the first two days and then meet up with some really cool people through couchsurfing.com. Cyrille is a great guy - cool professional photographer and he takes me out to the great bars and serves me some fine traditional french food in his apartment.

Stephanie is a German taking French lessons in Paris and we meet up with her two Italian girlfriends and a Persian guy - English seems to be the language of choice but I think only because there is an American in the room! And then I realize I need to be fluent in two other languages - within the next five years. The Persian dude assumes I am an ethnocentric American, but I quickly turn his stereotypes around and we talk for two hours about the politics of racism in Iran and the U.S..

I also go on a walking tour of Paris but get lost after the sun sets at the Louvre. I am ok, but I feel bad for the tour group who I had quite the affinity for! I made some good friends, but too bad I got disconnected from them. I guess that's the good thing about traveling alone... you can never get lost from yourself!! haha (or can you? oooooo).

This is right before I get lost from the walking tour

Then here comes David!! My good friend and bandmate from elementary\middle\high school is supposed to meet me somehow in Paris and wouldn't you know it - I spy him on the street around my flat, and pounce on him from the back. Good thing he didn't kick my ass because he is much better at martial arts than I ever will be. He lets out a "HHHHHEEEEEEEYYYYYYY!!!" all of Paris can hear, and our time together for two weeks throughout Europe and North Africa begins.

We only have a day and a night in Paris before we train to Amsterdam, so we try and make the best of it. Notre Dame, River Sienne, St. Marc, The Louvre and Mona Lisa, Champ de Ulysses, Arc de Triumph, Tour de Eiffel, Pompidou, baguettes and stamps, we open ourselves and absorb the city. We meet up with another couchsurfer Nanou. We go french grocery shopping, make pesto, drink wine, dance in Greek restaurants, get lost in metro stops, wander the streets, sing french karaoke, I don't think any of us slept until we got on our train at six in the morning to the Netherlands. What a Parisian experience... now on to Amsterdam.