March 15, 2000

I don't where where I am going to start and where I am going to finish writing about the past two days. I'll see what I can do. We woke up yesterday with a lot of things on the agenda. I had in mind to be sightseeing by 11. Well, we all got up and took showers. Surprisingly enough, the water was not terribly bad. We tried to get the hostel breakfast but we barely missed it. So the first thing we had to do when we went out was get some breakfast. We went and had crepes. Our waiter was a total cute pie. It was a fun breakfast. From there we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral. It is really gorgeous in the inside and I got to see the rose window and the La Pieta statue. We did not get a chance to go up to the towers though. We ran into Beth from school which was random. Then we found this little street that had a whole bunch of souvenir shops and we kept going from one to the other buying stuff. We lot a whole lot of time doing that. Finally we began walking toward the Museum Dorsay. The walk was a whole lot longer than what it looked like on the map and we kept thinking we passed it up. We found it and decided to split up and meet in an hour so I was walking around looking at some stuff that did not interest me that much. It took me forever to realize that there was another level with all the Impressionist stuff. I had to walk through it quickly but that is ok because I did see a lot of Money, Van Gogh, Renoir and Degas stuff including the Danceur. I went to meet the group and Joanna and Patty were there and we realized that we were still all on Greek time. So we sat around massaging each other waiting for them to come. Everyone was hungry so we decided to go towards the Eiffel tower and then to sit and find a place to eat. Well, when we got there we started taking pictures and walking around and basically did a lot of nothing. Then we sat down at this cute little place with the rudest staff. They spoke no English and could careless. And the food was not to great either. Only Joanna got this really good pizza that was more like a mushroom, onion, cheese pie. Then we took a big step and decided to finally go up the Eiffel tower. We stood in line forever on the first floor to get up tot he top and it was very very cold. I was making a scary face and laughing without smiling and Patty was getting the biggest kick out of it. When we made it to the top it was gorgeous. There was a glass level and an open level. It was so windy though you could not really stand out there. We started heading down and me, Joanna and Minnie wanted to take the stairs part of the way. It was not bad at all and at one point it even started sparkling on us. But then it started to rain so I was kind of upset because I though it would ruin our plans. The stairs were closed on some levels so we had to take the elevator down. We got in and it took like what seemed forever for it to start moving. By the time we got down Patty and Helen were soacked. Our plan had been to walk tot the arch but they wanted to dry off so we wen to eat our authentic French food! I will say from now that it was by far the best meal I have had in a while and the first meal I (have let myself) enjoy. For appetizer Minnie and Helen got a salad, Joanna and Patty got Onion Soup and I got duck pate. I thought it was so delicious except for one bite that had something wierd in it. The soup was good too. For entrees me and Minnie had smoked salmon in a butter sauce with some spinach and two little boiled potatoes. It was about as tasty as it could be. Patty got lamb chops and potatoes and Helen got chicken and potatoes. I did not try either of them. Then Joanna got a pepper steak that was to die for. Just unbelievable. For dessert Helen wanted to be healthy and ordered fresh fruit. They brought her a bowl of whole fruit and a knife. Then Joanna and Minnie had creme brulee. I got a pear cake in raspberry scause. The pear cake was really good but the sauce was kind of overwhelming. Patty got a chocolate cake in an English creme sauce with whip cream. She did not like it too much so I did a good job of eating it for her. By far one of the bet things I have eaten especially for a chocolate cake. I was so happy with the whole experience. And it was good because we all got different stuff so we got to try a bit of everything. By that time we were so tired that no one wanted to walk to the arch. We took the train to it, got out, took some pictures, and then left. We came home and crashed. It was hilarious when we were trying to get to it. We could not find a person or a machine to buy tickets for the train. We did not think it would be closed so we jumped the bars. The train came normally so we got a free ride and did not get arrested. it was overall a very fun day. The only problem was that there were so many of us that you keep on doing the little things people want to do and you lose time. I guess it does not batter because that way at least people are doing the things they want but at the same time you don't see a lot of things. Just to close for tonight I will mention some details I forgot last night. They have a brand of ice cream that has the same symbols and the same ice cream names as Algida except they call it Miko. The cabs here are not one specific color. I could keep writing now but I should sleep. I guess i should have something to do on the plane tomorrow.